A Trio of Anomalies - The Kingdom of Fantasy

CHAPTER 8 - THE COUPLE AND THE LANTERN

 "Where am I?" asked Steve aloud. He did not know how he got from being petrified in the Fortress of Fear to ending up laying in the soft patch of moss, surrounded by a massive lot of trees. "How am I alive? What happened?"

"Stuff happened," Erwin laid down beside him, still confused by the sudden turn of events, "I did some magic. We went on big bird. Big bird betrayed us, and here we are." He decided against telling Steve that Nicholas got tortured while he was still a stone statue, as Nicholas could tell him that once he felt comfortable enough to talk about it.

"So glad you're ok," Nicholas was sitting under a tree, gazing at his surroundings tranquilly. "This place feels a lot nicer than that hell-hole of a Fortress of Fear."

"Ahem, Sir Nicholas, there's one little problem with this forest," Scribblehopper murmured sadly, "You see, it's sort of full of werewo-"

"Today's not a full moon," Steve tried stretching himself, "Right?"

"Uhh ... yeah," Erwin sat up, got out his phone and checked his calendar, "Then again, time's all weird here. The clock on my phone stopped working ever since we got through that golden door."

The lock screen showed the time, 9 : 15 pm, 25 June.

He yawned, "I can't even tell how long we've been in this kingdom. The moon-looking thing in the sky hasn't moved at all!"

"Who knows! We might have gone a whole day without sleep! I don't know! I can't tell the time!" Erwin fell back onto the bed of moss, looking defeated, "I'm just tired. I had to fight Cackle just now, and I only want to go home."

 The trio sat, or laid down without saying much, enjoying the silence of the forest for a few minutes. The moon shone down upon them, and the mossy patch felt rather cooling and peaceful.

"Woah!" Nicholas gasped at a sound coming from behind the tree he was resting against. He spun around, straining his eyes for the slightest of movement.

"Spider?" asked Steve.

"No," Nicholas shook his head, "spiders don't make loud sounds like that." He froze as he heard slow footsteps, getting louder and closer to them. He bent down and picked up a stone, although was skeptical that such a small pebble would do much damage to whatever was creeping behind that tree. Erwin reached into his jacket and pulled out his wand, while Steve held a dead branch and set the end of it alight.

"Ah!!" shouted Nicholas as a lantern was shoved in his face. He shielded his eyes from the sudden bright light.

"Aye! What are you doing in here screaming like that? You scared about a silly light or something?"

The trio stepped back to take a better look at the source of the rough but friendly voice. He was nearly twice as massive as them, with a bow and quiver on his back as well as a dagger attached to his belt. His long grey hair was tangled in knots and all over the place, and his beard was shaggy and dotted with dried blood. His skin was greyish and covered in wrinkles, bruises and scars, signifying his ripe old age. He wore a simple leather tunic that reached to his knees over a white shirt stained with dirt and more blood, and multiple bronze necklaces hung around his neck. Around his waist he wore a long leather belt, with buckles made of ivory. His shoes were also made of bronze and leather, and they were so old and worn that they were falling apart as he walked.