Moon Chasers: Into the storm [Finished]

Chapter Sixteen: Midnight bath

The fall seemed infinite, Jory's hair were spread upward and his necklace had found it's way out of his shirt and had smacked itself in his teeth resulting in the halfling grimacing and falling in the water his mouth open. Before he could even resurface he had more than a cup of lake water and had a coughing fit. To cough underwater is not a good idea so he rushed to the surface.
The water was pretty cold, Jory's body was quickly numb so he kept on moving. He had a lily pad on his head and he was also pretty sure that a frog was sitting on it. Qa had already swam to the edge of the pool and was trying to get back on land, at Jory's side was a swamp monster looking elf. Eleon's hair were spread every where around him.

No one knew for sure if they had been discovered but by adding two and two they could guess that they had been quite loud and that the other had surely seen Eleon. But no one came. At least no one came before a long time and not very looking forward to it the three adventurers did their best to leave the pool unoticed. But it just turns out that here, the rocks are pretty slimy and when you try to hold onto them to lift yourself out they become extremely slippery and you fall back into the water. And they definitely were having a hard time, especially Jory.

Eventually Qa got out of the water and got on solid ground, drenched, covered in mud and out of breath, the man was also pissed but he didn't let it show. He lended a hand to his friends and soon the three of them were out but also in need of a good shower. None of them wanted to keep their mud and algae clothes so they decided to get back in the water but this time in a smaller pool with less depth and a clean way out.

When they were finally clean they got ready to leave, perhaps they could find what they were looking for before the Drow found them? But no, there they were, right in front of them holding two short sword and pointing them at the adventurers.

"May I ask why you were spying on me?"

"Well why did you attack us?" Replied Eleon with a disagreeable voice

"Alright, walk."

"What?!"

"I said walk." She led them back up to her camp while holding them to the tip of her swords. Once they arrived she swiftly took Qa's sword and Eleon's bow, she searched Jory and found his own sword, she looked at it for a moment before discarding it on a table nearby.

"So who are you?" ask Eleon trying his luck at getting something out of the warrior

 "I'll do you one better Vashkra, what are you doing here?"

"What are you doing here"

"I reckon that  it is none of your business"

"Well it really depends on how you look at it really, because..." started Eleon

"Will you shut it? Before I take the matter in my own hands and cut your tongue"

"We could try to find a middle ground here! You attack us and we chase you, we try to attack us and you lead us to a spiders nest..."

"I didn't do it on purpose!?"

"Well great, you killed a spider that was threatening us but Qa lost an eye and then we follow you and spy on you while you take our weapons and threaten us. We could say that we are quite even!" Finished Jory after being cut by the dark elf, now that they were close to her he could see that her skin was actually purple and not black

"The problem here is that no one else was supposed to be on that island, you shouldn't even know were it is!"

" We have our ways of getting where we want"

"So what are you? Thieves, grave robbers, Ruins rats?"

"No!" Cried Eleon "We are on a holy quest!" The two other adventurers sighed, how can he just bust it like that?

"Well, that's not something I was expecting, what kind of holy object are you pursuing then?" She was clearly making fun of them

"You people who worship the Betrayer and Liar cannot possibly understand, plus you delve in caverns and tunnels, out worries a beyond you" Now it was Eleon's who was making fun of her

Qa couldn't see how they were going to get out of this predicament, especially if Eleon kept on spurting out nonsense and stupid insult. The soldier tried to make an escape plan but his exasperation was so strong he just slapped Eleon on the back of his head before turning to the woman.

"Ignore my friend here, he doesn't know what he is talking about, I'm sure you are honorable, soldier, so we could try to see things through diplomatically" she looked at the swordsman up and down before stopping on the look of his armor. As if she remembered something important she turned around and grabbed the man's blade and turned back around like a tornado.

"You are a Shabouk !" She almost spat the word at him, Qa winced at the insult Jory and Eleon had no idea of what it meant but guessed by the way she said it and their friend reaction they guessed that it must be some kind of slur, a very bad one.

"That's a bit harsh and sudden, but I am indeed from Suhmar though I was far from being born when the Hunt ended. I do not wish to repeat the past."

"I won't trust one of your kind!"

"Great, so that's how the world end, because of misplaced pride" Jory glared at Eleon "And because of anger from a time long gone directed at an innocent unluckily born in the wrong territory. We are but people, not grand soldiers from the wars of old."

"You can speak, I have no grief with your people, in fact they helped many of us throughout history"

"Then please allow me to advocate for my companions, they can be a bit narrow minded or clumsy with there words, we are on a quest that cannot allow us to stop and everyone is a bit stressed out about it"

"What quest? What kind of quest could you be on during these troubled times?"

"The only kind worth risking our life for, as your people used to say "It's when the night grow dark"..."

"That you can find the brightest star" she completed the sentence her voice becoming a whisper "How can you know this one"

"Because we are looking for it, it's what we are doing"

"You mean that your mismatched group is looking for the same thing as I?"

"We are looking for the Moon and that's why we are here"

"Then perhaps we could work together, just until we find the Heart of all, the Moon, then we'll part ways"

"I agree"