The Flower Valley

III

As the weeks passed by, V's patience became smaller and smaller, until the day she decided it was enough. She would have to go check if everyone was telling the truth about not knowing where He was. Her plan was simple, break into the suspect's houses and look around to see if there was any sign of God Cow.

She went for Marie's house first. Outside the house, a pack of dogs were tied up to a fence, they were all staring at her, they must've smelled the chicken eggs she was carrying. The door was unlocked, but a sign on it warned her about something being inside the house. She carefully opened the door, and she could hear a squishy sound coming from inside...
She felt something bump against her boots and looked down, she smiled as she saw the tiny slime that was bouncing against her foot, like it was trying to attack her. "Well aren't you a cute little guy" V said, bending down to pet the slime, the floor was shiny and a bit sticky because of him. She went around the house looking for clues about God Cow, there was nothing on the first floor. She climbed the ladder up to Marie's room, the room was oddly clean, appart from the bookshelf. It looked like a hurricane passed through it, books were piled up next to it, but one book caught her attention, it looked like a journal. She picked it up and opened it, most pages were ripped off, the dates didn't seem to match up and the edges of the pages were a little bit burnt..

January 5th.
I plan to do It tomorrow, he doesn't deserve this much attention. I do. They say he's a miracle, but i know that's false! There can only be one, only me.

January 6th.
I don't understand, why are they all mad at me? Who would want to worship a king that looks like that, huh? Obviously they need to choose me now, everything will be fine, it'll be just me again, they'll realize who can truly lead them, they just need time! Once mother lets me out of this place, everything will be okay, they'll all love me like before.

February 1st.
Fools! All of them! They'll pay for what they did, how dare they? They can't do that, it's my home, my kingdom! I've never been here before, it's cold...
i miss them.

V closed the book and grinned, even though this wasn't about her God, that type of information could be useful. Satisfied, she gave one last pet to the slime and left Marie's house.

Next, she went to Noa's house, she could hear faint whitenoise coming from the tree. She went to open the door, but it was already slightly opened, as she pushed it open, the scent of freshly baked cookies hit her. Odd, she thought, as Noa had been gone for a few days. On the table was the plate of cookies, with ironically, a glass of milk. V sat down at the table, and saw a letter next to the plate with her name on it. Surprised, she tore the letter open and started reading:

Dear Lavender, I hope you enjoyed the cookies! I decided to let you in to some information. Even though i consider myself neutral, I have accepted Marie's invitation to be appart of the Infernox clan. That doesn't mean i can't help you with some.. things, does it? I'll cut right to it, I know where God Cow is and who took him, but I will not disclose of it in this letter. You never know who could be watching. Let's meet up soon,

Noa.

PS: The shovel I borrowed from you is in my chest, you can take it.

Lavender set down the letter and got up, taking a few cookies with her. She looked around the room for the chest, it was next to a desk overflowing with paper. As she walked up to it, she noticed the chest had been left open, and only the shovel and a piece of paper was in it. She picked up both, assuming they were both for her. The piece of paper was folded neatly, but she decided she would read it later. As she went to leave, she said goodbye to Cereal, the Mage's dog.

She took the long route back home and passed next to the portal. Hmm.. she knew that some parts of the underworld were leaking from the portal, but Marie said it was all under control and wouldn't affect anything. Maybe it was only her imagination, but it seemed like the things that were seeping out of the portal were slowly growing bigger. She sat down in the grass and stared at one of the weeping vines that was coming out of the portal. She was thinking about her day and the clues she could've found when she remembered the paper she found in Noa's chest. She reached for her pocket and took out the paper, de folding it with care. Her eyes grew wide as she read the contents of the paper, a large smile creeped up on her face, Noa definitely misplaced that paper... She looked up from the paper, satisfied by what she had just found. V went to put the paper back safely in her pocket, but something was holding back her hand. The weeping vine had grown while she was reading the paper and had wrapped around her wrist.

Her doubts were confirmed, it was definitely leaking.