The Cursekeeper

Going In Blind

"This is all so god damn insane," Arthur thought bitterly as the cave elevator descended down.  "This place is huge.  And people are in it.  And my fucking wives are somewhere in here with these god damn maniacs.  How much worse can this bullshit get?!"

Arthur took a deep breath and closed his eyes.  He had to keep it cool.  He knew this whole entire thing, especially in the last five years, had been absolutely ridiculous.  It had its good moments, of course, but a lot of bad things happened too.  And this, by far, was the worst thing Arthur could think of that had happened to Lilly.

But he wasn't going to give up.  How could he possibly give up on Lilly?  He made vows and he was going to stick by them.  Arthur had come too far to give up. 

He felt O'Callaghan's arm wrap around him, taking him from his thoughts as she snuggled up against him.  "You seem troubled, my husband," she said.

Arthur nodded as he put an arm around her.  "I am, but...I didn't wanna say nothin'."

"Why?"

Arthur looked at her with a frown.  "I don't wanna seem like I'm complainin'."

O'Callaghan raised a brow.  "Arthur...we're in Hell on a quest to..." she eyed Fuschia before whispering softly in Arthur's ear, "...save the people that we're supposed to save.  I don't need to point out how unfair this all has been to us.  You have grievances.  Tell me."

Arthur glanced at Fuschia.  "Let's talk about it later, I don't want people eavesdroppin'."

"Agreed."

The elevator came to a stop on the ground floor with a loud creaking of metal and a jolty movement.  "Here we are!" Fuschia said happily.

Everybody walked out, all dressed in modern white snow gear and Fuschia pulled out something from her pocket as the others looked at themselves.  "Uh...what kind of clothes are these?" Sir Jack asked.

"They help protect you from the cold," Fuschia replied, pulling a little item from what looked like a key.  "Now, y'all good on your manuals?"  The group nodded.  "Okay.  If you got any questions, just ask the book and it'll lead you to the right page."

As Fuschia put the item down in the ground, Arthur looked around at everybody.  O'Callaghan chose to stick with the elf look, Lugh went with the look of a green and black drell, Sir Jack chose something called a ronso, which was a tall, blue furred lion man, and Arthur chose to be human, just with different physical looks.  His hair was now medium length, wavy and dark brown and his eyes were gray.  He was still handsome as ever, however, even though he was unrecognizable.  Fuschia pressed a button on her key and a weird looking black and pink traveling machine with skis on the bottom.

"Alright, I gotta get goin'," she said, looking at everyone with a smirk.  "Y'all look badass, though.  Thanks so much for playin' the game."

"You're welcome, and...thanks for the help," Arthur said.  "What's that?" Arthur asked as he pointed at the machine.

"A snowmobile," Fuschia replied before getting on it.  "Have fun!" she said, starting the engine and driving off.

Arthur and the others watched her drive away and he shook his head.  "We better get goin'," he said.

Holly neighed and stomped her hooves, reeling back a little by O'Callaghan.  "What's wrong, Holly?"

They all heard a snapping of twigs and pulled their weapons out.  "Careful, might be a monster," Arthur explained.

Some tree branches moved around as a big, red wolf head appeared through the brush, the wolf sniffing the ground.  Arthur blinked in shock as the wolf came forward, one with no eyes, wires hanging out of its ears and chords drooping from its throat.  A fiery red line appeared between her chest and Arthur's and he immediately felt like he was going to break down, but he held himself together.