Chapter 437: A Problem Appears
Laz got up early, but had trouble convincing himself that he was no longer dreaming.
The camp area was just a hidden alcove next to a farmer’s field. There was no telling how much land the farmer had or when the next time he would be out this way, but since the field itself was nothing but tall grass, the general consensus was that this field wasn’t being used this year and they would be pretty safe to stay here for a while.
Or so Laz had gathered from the previous night. He had been paying attention to what other groups were saying, even while he was drinking with Dave and the girls.
But now something was different.
The open area right next to the field, hidden from the road by a line of trees seemed quite a bit different than the night before, but Laz had no idea why he felt this way. Spreading out his sense in every direction, Laz knew that things were still the same as yesterday but there was something Laz couldn’t figure out.
’Where the hell is the road?’ Laz asked himself, stretching his senses past the tree line.
’It’s gone?’ Laz said, seeing that the pavement was no longer there. Instead, there was another field there with the line of trees being the boundary between the two of them.
’What else is missing?’ Laz said, looking around.
’It seems like everyone who was here last night is still here,’ Laz said, looking over at the lone tent Dave had to himself along with the one being shared by Ruth and Shelby.
’Wait... Dave...’ Laz said in his head before turning and looking over across the field. Sure enough, the tractor from yesterday was gone. Even the hole it had made in the grass looked like it had never been there.
"Well this is getting weird," Laz said, trying to collect his thoughts. He wanted to get in the van and drive out to where the road was, but his thoughts were interrupted by Jill awakening.
"What’s getting weird?" Jill asked, rubbing the sleep from her face with a bottle of water to help her wake up.
"Do you sense anything?" Laz asked, for no particular reason.
"Uh... anything like?" Jill shot back, confused.
"Anything. Do you feel anything’s different from yesterday?"
Seeing the serious look on Laz’s face, Jill sat down and closed her eyes, seeing what she could see. There was no way she could sense something as far away as the road, but it was worth a try Laz guessed.
"It feels like the energy here is a lot different now. Like before, If I wanted to draw energy in from around me, than the feeling I got was like trying to drink from a sponge. But now its like, I’m floating in the energy and it’s strong, like drown me kind of strong." Jill said, her eyes wide. She might have been young and inexperienced with this kind of thing, but even she knew this wasn’t something that should have happened.
David ended up coming over with Ruth and Shelby a few minutes later while Laz was scanning around the area.
"What’s up bud? You look like your worried and deep in thought at the same time. Hell man, if that’s your version of a hangover, I would suggest not drinking every again," Dave said in a friendly manner.
Laz ignored this and kept searching.
Ruth and Shelby, seeing Jill standing there with a worried look on her face, quickly made their way over.
"What’s your brother doing?" Shelby asked when she come in close to Jill.
"He’s looking and thinking. If we want to get out of this alive, you’d better let him do that," Jill advised before going back into the tent to get her wooden stake Laz had given her. She came back out and sat down, waiting.
The women looked at each other and then back at Laz before sitting down.
"Honey. Can you go get some breakfast ready?" Ruth called to her ’husband’ Dave.
"Sure." Dave went back to their own area to do whatever he was going to do for their breakfast.
"Hey! What the hell? Why won’t the car turn over?"
"Fucking piece of shit."
"Of course there’s gas in it."
Suddenly the silence was filled with different voices, most of them being upset about their cars in some way, shape or form.
"There," Laz finally said and took off walking.
Seeing this, Jill quickly followed along before Ruth and Shelby did the same.
They came upon a strange, wooden door with weird lettering on it. While the letters looked something like the English alphabet, that was only because they included lines and circles.
Seeing the door standing there, Laz set his palm on it and closed his eyes.
Jill stayed silent behind him, like a smaller shadow.
Ruth and Shelby started looked at the door as well.
"How is this thing standing?" Shelby asked, hitting the door once as though trying to knock it over before letting out a sharp gasp of pain.
"Fucking thing is like metal or something..." Shelby said. Ruth felt like laughing but held back.
"It is metal. And that’s kind of the problem cause right now there is no way to open it," Laz commented, opening his eyes.
"Why would we want to open it?’" Ruth asked, confused.
"Well... that would be because we have already somehow gone through it," Laz replied, leaving everyone even more confused.
More and more people came over either wanting to know what Laz’s group was doing or having seen the door and wondering what was going on. One of the last groups to show up was the one containing red, his blonde friend and the two girls with them.
Laz didn’t pay them any mind but instead spread his sense out again.
’There has got to be something, some reason we have already been dragged through this gate. And more than that, why the hell didn’t I see a gate yesterday?’ Laz thought to himself.
The answer came with a shout a short time later.
Dozens of human sized lifeforms appeared, their green outfits and pale white skin shimmered in the sunlight of the morning as they pointed weapons make of wood towards everyone who had gathered at the door. Bows and spears, along with wooden swords with a vicious glint on their edges that made one unable to see them as harmless weapons.
For their credit, the awakened who were standing around didn’t run away right away, despite seeing this party with five times the number of people pointing weapons at them.
At first, no one said anything until one of the pale skinned visitors with blonde hair and pointed ears shouted while brandishing his weapon.
As it wasn’t surprising, no one could understand what he was saying, although Laz felt a tickle in his brain, like something opening up, but not quite there yet.
Seeing his cries being ignored, the blonde haired man yelled out again, this time more aggressively.
But once again, he was met with silence.
It was then that he said something to those standing behind him. About ten of his comrades suddenly knocked arrows into their bows and drew them back, aiming them at the crowd.
While people might have been confused before, this act was a clear and present threat; one that couldn’t be mistaken.
As for the result, some of the weaker willed members ended up starting to walk away, like they wanted to somehow retreat back to the safety of their vehicles.
As for the stronger willed awakened, they gripped their fists tight and took a stance, clearly showing a will to fight back.
Jill was one of these as well as Dave. The difference was Dave stood in front of Ruth and Shelby as thought telling them he would protect them with his body. As for the girls, the stood there looking on, both nervous and unsure. Either way, seeing Dave act as a meat shield gave them some measure of relief.
Unlike all the other’s though, Laz’s reaction was the strangest and calmest out of the bunch. He walked the few steps to Jill and silently wrote a rune using his black flame, one that quickly flew towards her and disappeared into her body as soon as it made contact. Because he was behind her, she didn’t even see it happen.
She did see him walk past her and calm start walking towards the group of gathered warriors, his hands empty as his arms just hung at his side.
Seeing this, the group of hunter’s tensed as the ones with the bows aimed downwards, leveling their sights on Laz with his non-threatening walk.
’A hundred of them huh? Bigger than a hunting party so they didn’t just come upon us for no reason, right? Maybe I can get some answers if I can figure out their language? Of course this is assuming I don’t have to fight them. Well, that’s why I need to appear as non threatening as I can,’ Laz thought to himself as he strode forward.
As both groups watched on, Laz came face to face with the pale skinned, blonde warrior who seemed to be leading the party. It was only being face to face with him that Laz could tell a few things he didn’t notice before. First off, the man was at least seven feet tall, standing almost a head and half taller than Laz.
The next thing he noticed was that the man’s eyes looked like they were a deep shade of yellow and had a slight glow in them.
The final thing Laz noticed was that the man smelled like an evergreen tree.
"Hello. I’m not sure if you can understand me but my name is Laz," Laz said as slow and clear as he could, reaching out his hand.
Seeing this gesture, the pale man hesitated for a moment before reaching his own slightly thin hand forward as well.
Just then, the twang of ten strings losing their tension sounded as ten, three foot arrows shot towards Laz with a speed that whistled as it split the air.
Laz’s eyes shown golden as his hair went white.
"Heh!"
