Requiem Run

Chapter 13

"Rhys, how the hell did you get here?!" I said as Katie and I helped her to her feet. Rhys was a little bit wobbly, but she managed to stay on her feet with some help from us.

"Good to see you too," said Rhys, "I snuck to the portal when no one was looking. I wanted to come with you guys, for backup."

"You didn't tell us you've had fighting experience?" I said.

"I haven't," said Rhys, "But everything's a learning process, right?"

Katie facepalmed. I couldn't think of anything to say. Felice ended up beating me to it.

"Why would you come here, into the middle of a soon-to-be battlefield, without any fighting experience?!" said Felice, "Are you out of your mind?! What were you thinking?! You don't even have a sword!"

"I was thinking I didn't want you guys alone!" said Rhys, "So I'm gonna join you!"

"Well, we don't have much of a choice now, since that portal closed," I said, "Welcome to the party, Rhys."

"Alright, now we just need a cool party name!" said Katie as we all started making our way through the woods, "Anyone have any ideas? Since we're supposed to be maidens, maybe it should have something to do with that?"

"If I come up with something, I'll let you know," said Rhys, "So, where are we off to right now?"

"Krozon's Swamp," I said, noticing that the dirt beneath our feet was slowly turning into mud, then getting wetter and wetter as we went along, "We better hope this stuff only goes up to our knees."

"We're not gonna get that lucky and you damn well know it." said Katie. I sighed at her pessimism, but she was probably right anyway.

The woods were thick with brush, bushes, and tree branches, not to mention the damp muddy water that was slowly moving up our legs. I was just thankful that my boots were good enough that they were keeping the water out, but the grim looks Rhys was giving indicated that her boots weren't of the same quality of ours.

"Where do you think this first temple is?" Katie asked, "How long until you think we'll find it?"

"The question of where the hell the temple is is a good one," I said, "Rhys, do you have any ideas?"

"Uh, not really." said Rhys, rubbing the back of her head and giving us a half-cocked grin, "I kinda did all of this on a whim, so..."

"Oh, by the DIVINE'S NAME!" Felice suddenly said, making me flinch a little, "You didn't even bring any supplies?!"

"Well, I'm not entirely unprepared," said Rhys as she started fishing through the pockets of the pants she was wearing, "I managed to grab some things before I started following you guys to the portal. Here they are."

Rhys pulled out some small glass bottles and showed them off to us. Some of them were different shades, but all of them were either red or green.

"Are we supposed to know what those are?" Katie asked, "If I know my video games, the red ones are health?"

"Actually, right on the coin," said Rhys, "The red potion is called Fettle's Nectar, which can be rubbed on wounds to close them quickly, or you can drink it to heal internal injuries as well."

"Healing potions, nice." I said, taking two of the five Rhys had, while Katie took two. After that, Rhys showed us the green ones.

"These are Spellcaster's Elixir," said Rhys, "It enhances magic-making. How good are you two when it comes to your magic?"

"There is no magic where we come from," said Katie, "So none at all."

"Wait, really?!" said Rhys, going wide-eyed at the two of us, "How could you survive without any magic in your world?"