Ending Paradise

The Journey Home

Kris congratulated me and showed us to the treasure room.

"You all win, everything in here is fair game but you can only take from the chest with your name on it, yes I'm talking to you Nalo," Kris gave him a harsh glare and his hand rose in defense.

I laughed as Kris pulled me aside. She tapped my forehead twice.

"There. A spell to keep those whispers and nightmares at bay,"

"You know about the whispers and the nightmares?" I inquired in a low voice trying a keep a small profile from the others.

"I'm the leading pixie of this temple, I have to be aware of every little thing here," She winks with a small finger over her lips.

Then she looked back as if searching for something.

"The real treasure of twelve is in that basket. Make sure it is shared equally between the twelve of you,"

"Is this our final goodbye?" I asked with a smile I could barely muster.

"I suppose so. I've got pixie business to attend to," Kris says before waving a small goodbye before misting away like ash in the wind.

"Bye Kris," I waved to her. Dispute her not physically being here anymore.

Kendra wrapped a strong arm around me.

"You and Kris got pretty close,"

"I guess. Kris is sentient but more alive than have the people at our school," I joked and Kendra cackled.

Then I stopped and held up a silent finger to Kendra who only looked at me confused.

Carefully I eyed Nalo before heading over to the basket. I showed her the treasure and I broke off Nalo's piece of the treasure and place it inside a corked vase.

I pulled the vase out of its chest and showed it to Kendra. I caught onto Nalo's back which was definitely in earshot of us.

"Oh wow, this must be the treasure of twelve. The dungeon priceless artifact," I stated a little too loudly to be considered natural. 

Kendra grinned ear to ear, "Be careful with it. Should we show the others?"

"No, let's leave it here and come back for it, once everyone is gone," We both nod in agreement before we close the lid of the chest and take the basket along to our chest.

I place the treasure in Vex's fraying tote and tossed the rest of the treasure I could manage into my chest. Then I had Vex store it in one of his tail pockets.

On one hand, I feel bad to have him carry so much stuff especially since he is still supposed to be on rest but on the other hand, he gets a little too rambunctious without something to do.

Lilac approached me to start interrogating me about the nightmare beast. I checked back to the treasure chest to see Nalo causally standing by it as if he had never seen a chest in his life.

I was careful not to react and turned back to Lilac's offloading every question about the beast to me.

Although I was vague when it came to the dreams I did explain a little about how I felt.

"So nothing was super obscure like zombies eating someone alive,"

"Not really, everything was relatively familiar but it's all based on someone's nightmares. So my experience is not the same as everyone else's," I explained as I helped her fill her bags with goodies.

"I felt more sadness and shame than anything,"

"Really? What about the violin how did it make you feel?"