What Is Done

Chapter 26 - Depressing Sights

There was more flat land between us and our destination beyond Kitto's home. Beyond the Dornwich Foothills, the Forest of Colrath and Cherrytown, there was Kaylik and the Triple Peaks. Essaerae suggested we go around Kaylik as Sellion and I were speaking of what to do if we ran into more enemies. I kept the map in my hands. Maehara blindly followed Oakley, who stayed a minimal number of feet in front.

I glared at Sellion from over the edge of the map. "It would be nice if you tried not to murder everybody and everything we come across." 

"It's my job to protect you."

I rolled my eyes. I knew this. "Perhaps you should try diplomacy."

Sellion was disinterested in my suggestions. "I'd rather use this jar of dragon spit to cast an alchemist's fireball at the enemy." Sellion held up the air-tight jar of saliva and stared at it with a...specific twinkle in his eyes—as if he were a child gazing upon their favorite thing.

Essaerae interjected from behind us, "I thought it was dragon snot."

"Nope," Sellion shook his head, "Colrath lied." I flinched at the word "lied". I have always hated liars.

Essaerae's nose scrunched. "I don't know what would've been worse, being covered in dragon spit or dragon snot." She cringed at the thought.

"Eh, both sound pretty bad. Best not to weigh the options," I retorted, glued to the map.

Essaerae became quiet then gave a retort of her own. "Instead of using it to create a spell, you could just chuck the jar at them. Considering how long it took you to get it off, it'll provide a great distraction!" She joked to lighten the mood.

Sellion hugged the jar of Colrath's mouth juice. "And let all this precious, potent magic saliva go to waste?!" he yelled at her, purposefully overdramatic.

"You said it yourself, it's disgusting!"

"When it's not touching my skin, I don't mind," Sellion cooed, petting the jar as if it was something filled with life. A part of him probably had pondered the question that if we ever saw Colrath again, could he convince the dragon to give him more? He was likely stressed that it would all go to waste before our journey is over.

I pointed ahead of us, "Is that Kaylik?" My finger directed their eyes to a town of run down buildings, in the middle of the fields they'd been traversing for a while. "Because by my calculations, we shouldn't be there yet." I studied the map of the continent of Icast closely. If it was really Kaylik, it should've been shrouded in a dense forest. A large lake to the east and to the west, three mountain peaks lined side by side. This town only seemed to have some hills.

"It's definitely not," Essaerae acknowledged the landscape. She hadn't been there in a century, and land can change in that time but she knew this wasn't Kaylik.

"Is it labeled?" Sellion looked over my shoulder to read the map. The town was not labeled.

As we inched closer to it, Sellion suggested something. "Maybe we can give it a name based on its theme."

"Is the theme dreary and depressing?" Essaerae asked, sarcastically with a hint of worry. The village didn't impress her one bit. The town had been victim to decay. It had been worse than the dwarven town of Dirkk. Dirkk had felt like it'd been recently abandoned, this was clearly abandoned long ago.

We wandered through town, with the horses. I stayed perched on my steed. Essaerae stayed by my side, her hand on her sword for anything that may try to jump scare us. Sellion led Oakley by the reins through the ripped up cobblestone streets in front of us.