Wish upon the Stars chapter 477

After recovering a bit, Callie jumped us through the shadows back to  the fortress. Because she could find shadows for hopping to, she was  able to keep us out of sight easily enough, and when we finally got  back, let us bypass any remaining siege forces.

"Oh hey!"  Said Bethy as we reappeared. "You guys are back! Did one of you get the  flag?" She glanced over us like she could sense our souls, focusing  really hard on our faces. After a minute of staring and squinting she  pouted. "I can't tell. You guys are so sneaky."

I burst  out laughing. "I don't think you not being able to tell if our souls are  stronger is a sign of sneakiness. I think you just don't have the  ability to do that."

She shook her head. "I don't think  that's it. Daddy always says I can do anything I set my mind to. I think  you guys are just sneaky." I opened my mouth to retort, but realized  that she actually DID sometimes do crazy shit that she shouldn't be able  to do. Still, I was pretty sure she just couldn't do this. Souls were  pretty esoteric, and sensing someone else's probably wasn't possible at  her level.

Realizing I was getting sucked into her crazy  mental rhythm, I shook it off, focusing back on what we'd learned.  "Anyway, we're here because Callie DID get the flag, and she got a clue  for the next one. It's not going to be in the fortress." I gestured off  the wall, into the surrounding trees to where we could see mountains and  streams and various other wilderness style nonsense.

I'd  ceased to be impressed by the temple's ability to create random stuff  after the sky island trial. At the moment, it was more inconvenient than  amazing. Still, Bethy seemed excited. "Oh! We could go look for it  early right? Form a forest investigation team." Putting on a serious  look, she summoned her cats and struck a pose. "Bethany Lark, forest  detective! Taking a bite out of injustice!" She bared her fangs at us,  and I had to stifle a chuckle at her antics.

"Is  there...like, justice in the forest?" Questioned Callie hesitantly. "I  mean, it's mostly animals and plants, I feel like justice as a concept  is sort of outside the meta."

"Well, I mean, survival of  the fittest." I shrugged. "That seems like forest justice. But you can't  really bite survival of the fittest, if anything you'd just be  disproving your entire conceptual model. Unless this is supposed to be  an irony thing. That might work."

Bethy groaned. "You're  overthinking this. I'm not making a philosophical statement. I just want  to have some fun with my cats and be awesome. Obviously the forest  doesn't have detectives." She stomped her foot in annoyance. "I wish  Tracey and Ada were here. They would have played along."

I  put both hands up in surrender. "Sorry. We didn't mean to be buzzkills.  We'd love to have your help investigating the forest Bethy."

She  pouted. "I guess. I don't know if I even feel like it anymore. You guys  are no fun." She sulked for a few seconds and then her face lit up. "Ok  I'm over it! Let's go look for the flag. Should we ask one of the  others to come with us. That Adrian guy maybe. I don't like that other  guy. Bloody Billy I think his name was. He gives me a bad vibe."

"What  about the big blonde guy who was guarding Chelsea?" I asked, looking  around. "Callen? I haven't seen him around anywhere, and I doubt he got  bounced this early. Do you think he's in our fortress?" A lot of people  had ended up on the other team. I was wondering exactly how strong  Adrian was, to offset so many powerful fighters, or was it even balanced  at all. Maybe it was just random.

"Should we wait to  actually start looking?" Asked Callie. "Because if the flag isn't out  there yet we might waste our time and overshoot. If we pass it and end  up deep in the woods or something when the next flag rush happens we'll  be screwed. Also, when IS the next flag rush? The rules weren't clear  about time frame. The first one hit pretty early, but who knows how long  it'll take until the next."

I considered her point. "I  think looking around is a good plan. At the very least we might get a  better feel for the area. Sure, we might pass the flag and end up far  away, but we could just easily stay here and find out it popped up on  the other side of the forest. The more information we can gather the  easier the search will be."

Eye of Revelation was also an  option, but if the flag was underground it would make things harder.  Eye of Revelation wasn't optimized for that kind of thing, that was why I had  my mining divination skill, even if I'd turned it into something else.  It would help get us a direction though, at the very least.

Callie  mulled over my points. "Ok, that's fair. Let's head out and look  around. We can take note of any areas the flag might be hard to find.  Not to mention the flag might already be placed and just not...active? I  don't know what term I'd use there."

I hadn't considered  that. Maybe she was right, the flag had already been placed in the bell  towers before the first rush after all. Bethy was bouncing with  excitement. "Let's GO!" She leapt up onto the battlement. "I'll send the  kitties out to scout ahead. "Poptarts, Donuts, GO FORTH!" She pointed  imperiously out into the forest.

The shadow cats  materialized and then dove out into the woods. I chuckled at her  enthusiasm and hopped up on the battlement myself before stepping off.  Callie followed me after and I caught her in a princess carry  effortlessly, though I groaned and stumbled around like she was heavy  just to mess with her. She rolled her eyes, appearing not to take the  bait, but I tripped over a shadow after putting her down before I even  got three feet.

She blinked innocently at my glare, but I  caught a hint of a smirk when I turned around. Rolling my eyes, I headed  off into the jungle, paying extra attention to my Danger Sense, and  triggering Eye of Revelation on enemies just in case one tried to sneak up on  us.

Bethy and Callie both  vanished from behind me, Bethy into a swarm of bats and Callie into the  shadows, leading me to follow the trail blazed by the cats carefully,  trying to be as Stealthy as possible without an actual Stealth skill. My  Moonlit Night wasn't optimized for searches like this, but even if I  couldn't use Stealth abilities directly, careful foot placement and  deliberate movement made surprisingly little sound.

In  the distance I could see small red dots. With my soul's improvement  came an enhanced range with Eye of Revelation, and human beings were large  enough for me to pick up at this point. It made avoiding enemies much  easier. "Shane." Whispered Bathy's voice from somewhere nearby.  "Poptarts found a cave to the left." Apparently her bats could talk.

Turning  left, I silently made my forward until I came to a small brook between a  pair of large hills. The brook was shallow, babbling lightly. At the  bottom I could see wet rocks and tightly packed mud leading to a small  cave set back into a larger hill that rose behind the two others.  Stepping into the brook, I strode through the ankle deep waters, my  boots well made enough to keep my feet dry as I approached the cave.

Upon  entry, I found Poptarts (probably, who could tell those things apart)  crouching in the shadows, waiting for us, and when I arrived Callie  emerged next to him. We headed down further into the tunnel to get a bit  deeper. Donuts appeared and Bethy manifested in a surge of bats. I used Eye of Revelation, checking to see if the flag was here. It wasn't nearby,  but off in the distance I saw a tiny speck of red.

"It's  not here, but it IS underground." I said as I knelt to get a better  vantage point. "I don't think we can access it from here, but I have a  direction for us." I pointed off to the northwest.

Keeping  Eye of Revelation active, we retreated from the cave, climbing one of the  hills as we headed in the direction where I had seen the flag. I lost  sight of it once we got back to ground level, but I kept the skill  active just in case, so we'd have a heads up when we got close.

I  was so focused on tracking, I neglected to search for enemies, but my  Danger Sense was more than up to the task of alerting me to their  presence. As it triggered, I stepped off the air with Ripple Running,  shouting a warning to the others as a volley of arrows hit the dirt  where I'd been standing.

"Nice  reflexes." Called a familiar voice as a tall blonde man with pointed  ears emerged from behind a tree. Simon grinned at me. "Sorry about this,  Shane. We're on different teams now."

My  Danger Sense went off again, and I hurled myself sideways as a colossal  spiked mace smashed into the earth where I'd just been. The mace had  somehow grown to about column size, and as I watched it shrunk down  enough to reveal a chain on the end, which was used to pull it back.

Vinnie  caught it easily, giving it some more slack as he lazily spun the mace  beside him. From behind him emerged Kellix. I frowned at the masked man.  "Did Abel not kill you?" I tried to remember and realized we'd left him  smashed but alive in the third trial. "Don't suppose you're so grateful  to be alive that you're willing to let us leave once as a sign of  gratitude?"

He  drew his rapier with a sneer. "Maybe the ladies. I hesitate to stain my  blade with the blood of such lovely creatures." He offered them what I  assume he thought was a charming smile. "Would either of you like to  change companions? You could travel with us, I assure we'd keep you  safe."

"Gross."  Sneered Callie. "And no, I don't want to help you murder my boyfriend  so you can 'protect me'." She looked at Bethy. "How about you, Beth. Any  interesting in switching teams?"

Bethy  giggled. "No, but maybe we could keep him. He's funny." Kellix beamed,  until she continued. "He's so weak, but he thinks he can protect us." I  realized with a start that we were alone with them. Three on three. I  didn't see the cats anywhere. A quick Eye of Revelation revealed their barely  corporeal forms slinking through the shadows of some nearby trees.

"I'm  standing right here." Said Kellix indignantly. "And gorgeous or not,  I'm not going to let you talk down to me. I'll take care of you both  now, and hopefully you'll get over it after we leave. It's a trial after  all. Don't take it to heAAARGGH."

His  little monologue was cut off as one of the cats fell from a tree  manifesting as it hit him, while the other emerged from his shadow to  sink its teeth into the back of one of his knees. I winced as I watched  him viciously torn apart, and Bethy just clicked her tongue. "Probably  for the best." She said lightly. "I could never date a man who doesn't  get along with my cats."

Vinnie  and Simon had both freaked out and retreated as their third team member  was butchered, and they watched us warily. Before we could encircle  them though, another familiar voice rang through the clearing. "Looks  like you boys could use a hand." A form stepped from the shadow od a nearby tree  clarifying itself into Abel, who gave us all a cheerful wave. "Mind if I  cut in and make this three on three again?" I swallowed hard.  This...might be a problem.