Arthur smacked his hands on his face, jogging back and forth. He kept glancing at the blood and turning away in horror. "We just let the chosen one die!"
Samara saw one of the claws on the timid grass and booted it away. "Let us calm down." She tried to compose herself, Oh, gods I've just committed manslaughter on the reincarnation of the chosen one. "Lurisa, by any chance can you–"
Lurisa didn't even look at her, "No, I can't resurrect the dead. Nobody can."
"Maybe she'll reincarnate again?" Bill grinned hopefully.
"It only happens every thousand years," Samara said.
"So, we play the waiting game," Arthur joined his two hands in thought.
Bill nodded and sat down, "How do we wait that long without getting bored?"
Lurisa wanted to scream, how were they this stupid? No, this wasn't stupid this was another level of buffoonery. "How would we wait for another reincarnation?"
Arthur sighed, "We'd obviously freeze ourselves for a thousand years. I didn't mean actually sit down Lurisa, you're being silly."
Me? Silly? I'm going to set him on fire.
Samara's guilt drenched her, I always mess everything up, even when I'm being selfish. In that moment she could have just broken down and cried but a speck of resilience refused to let her. She clasped Lurisa's shoulder, "Guys. Before we even continue to talk, we should bury the poor girl."
Lurisa inhaled, she imagined herself as a blade of air. She pointed her two fingers toward the ground and swiped her fingers down, then left, then up and finally right. Pointing her fingers slowly to the sky, a mass of dirt floated from the depths. It hovered and plopped a metre or so away from the new perfectly cut grave.
Stunned at the sight, Arthur was impressed by Lurisa, with such a frail body, how could she have such strength within her magic?
Bill picked up Elara and gently let her down with Arthur holding onto the bottom of the corpse. Lurisa covered the opening. They stood in silence unsure of how to feel. Sorrow? No, they hardly knew her. Sadness? Obviously but not quite a true sadness. Awkwardness? Yes, that felt more right, their hearts didn't understand how to react. Of course, they were worried about the mission to defeat the Wither, yet they didn't know how to mourn her. The only thing that gave them comfort was that her life wasn't truly over, not for another thousand years anyway.
"What do we do?" Arthur asked Samara.
"What?"
"You're the sage of wisdom, aren't you? What should we do?"
Wisdom. What a joke, she thought, "There's nothing we can do. They say only one who has been reincarnated can defeat the Wither."
Bill pouted, "So, we failed to save the world in eight hours?"
Arthur turned, "If we round it up, it's actually nine to be fair to us."
Samara sarcastically responded, "To be fair to us."
Lurisa picked up her hiking stick and started moving in the dark with her little flame bulb hovering over her shoulder.
"What are you doing?" Arthur asked.
"I'm going to keep going," Lurisa laughed, "When has going backwards ever helped?"
Something potent was in those words. Something that spoke to Samara. Instantly, she picked up her bag for travels given by the wizard Kelemith and followed Lurisa. Arthur and Bill made eye contact. Both shrugged and nodded and started to follow.
The dark clouds started to brighten up. Brighten up was a strong word, rather they became slightly less dark as the grey sky began to loom over. The world was still quite beautiful in its own unique way. It was as if the world was stuck in limbo of autumn and winter. Grass was a yellowish, a sickly green at brightest, leaves on trees were crispy and ranged from yellow to brown and red. Even when nature was dying it showed its beauty defiantly. The Wither was like a plague, blighted the land and corrupting the world. It starts small but like a cancer, it evolves and evolves until it's unrecognisable. Killing off plants and crops leads to animals dying and wildlife being endangered, humans can't eat meat, or grain or fruit and vegetables. They can't feed these animals to transport themselves to good. And soon the people will become savage animals themselves. Lurisa, in her heart conjured up hope that maybe she could do something. Maybe she could stop the wither. Who's to say she wasn't reincarnated and simply forgot? All Lurisa knew was that Elara began to head north-east. So, why not keep going, she thought Up ahead was another town, Mareon. It was meant to be rather sophisticated. Apparently they had the greatest school in all of Albosa, Lurisa never went there as they didn't exactly believe in mages. As in they actually didn't believe mages exist and called them magicians. They were rather strange people, as many mages would show off their art, whether it was wielding an element, or lifting objects without hands, or even detecting thoughts, the people of Mareon would call it coincidence and move on.
The town was wide open, cobblestone roads, sturdy buildings, many that were a business on the ground floor and then apartments on the upper floors. People flocked around, hoarding goods onto wagons and chatting local gossip. Samara stopped and felt her third eye of wisdom sprout. She nodded toward a small grotty shack that was half torn down. It was a complete eye sore on the entire town. The shop had a cheap oil painted on the above the door frame, 'Bits'n'Bobs.' Samara pressed the door and a chiming bell alerted the shopkeeper. He leapt out of his chair in fright. He watched with sleepy eyes. His wrinkled face looked as if it was shrinking to become a skeleton. He wore a hat that drew shade over his eyes. Dust scattered along his hat and even some of the shop, actually, pretty much the whole shop. How was this place even running?
"Hi there. I was just wondering do you have a map in stock?" Samara asked. Lurisa nearly smacked herself, how did no one think of a map?
His eyes narrowed, "Ah, so you see a bit of dust and assume we don't have maps. Well, I have loads! Tonnes. Too bloody many!" He threw a map on the counter. Samara picked it up and it was…god awful. The sketch was done with different colours for starters, the names of areas were misspelt and even the shape was generally wrong.
"You don't have an official map, no?"
"Official? I drew that myself. So, yes, it's official."
Arthur pressed his index finger against the dirty paper, "But this is wrong. I know people from Treft. It's not directly west of the Albosa palace."
"So, you spend your whole life in a place and act like you know where it's located? Child, Albosa wants you to believe it's south-west. It's directly west! I know. Bob always knows."
"Always?" Arthur asked
"Never have I been proven wrong," Bob said.
Samara laughed, "You just listen to gossip all day and believe in stupid old conspiracy theories."
Bob laughed from the gut, it sounded like a gasping desert wind, "Just like that time Albosa soldiers threatened me from telling people there's an underground civilisation of goose people."
Arthur's lips faded to one side, he was obviously unwell. Or maybe just plain mad. Either way, he felt bad. He dropped hain on the counter to pay for the map, even though he had never actually said he charged for it.
"I don't need your damn money," Bob said insulted.
"We're paying for the map?"
His eyes grew larger, "You see a bit of dust and assume I'm begging for money. I'm a great businessman! And an even better people person! His hand flung under the counter. Bill stood ahead of the girls afraid of a weapon being drawn. Arthur backed up, even in his armour against an old bony man. But no weapon was revealed. Just more money. He picked up a group of hains and threw them at Bill's belly. "I don't need it! Buy some food with it or whatever I don't care, That one would probably only get half full with it all anyway," he sneered Bill's appearance. Although Bill didn't care, words about his weight never bothered him. Back in his home, it was considered quite attractive to be on the heavier side. Well, that's what his mother and father told him. Come to think of it, they were on the heavier side too. Like mice looking for scraps, Samara picked up all the small green square hains on the ground and they left, somewhat outraged by his lack of customer service. Lurisa considered leaving a bad review, but it was quite clear he owned the store.
Bob sat back down and relaxed his two arms behind his neck while leaning back satisfied, "You did it again Bob. An unforgettable customer experience. They'll never forget about Bits'n'Bobs again."