The Pale King's Return (Novel version)

~Chapter 1 Page 2~

Pale sat on the bench in the ripped up tent, out of breath. After a few minutes of rest, he began  to harvest some of the fabric from the tent, and sewed it together. He soon had a skirt and a cloak, which he put on immediately.

   "Much better" Pale remarked as he stood up. He picked up an old map from the floor and looked over it. "If this map is still semi accurate....", he trailed off in thought, "I might head off to Ogrim's place... if it's still there....... or if he's still there..." He attempted to put on the hood he had made, as he had seen others do. an audible ripping sound was heard as his crown shaped head pierced through the weak cloth. He decided that he would ditch the hood idea. 

After he got all the cloth detached from his horns, Pale then got up and made his way out of the tent area. Oro and the others had already left by then, so he walked through the now paint filled area, and started his walk, following the map as he went. However, he was so focused on the map, that as he was trudging through the dust collected on the ground, his tail patting the ground with each step before bouncing back up slightly, his talon caught on a small rock. This caused him to trip and fall down, deep into a hole. He tried to fly, but realised that his cloak were covering his wings in a way that made it impossible to open them even slightly.

   "This whole foresight thing doesn't seem to be working so wellllllll" He said as he continued to fall further and further. Eventually he came to a stop. splat. face first into poo. He lifted his head, and already almost in tears said "I am this close to crawling in the fetal position, and crying."

  "DOMA DOMA DOMA!!!" a voice bellowed as Pale sat up. Suddenly, he was swung up by a large bug, who excitedly said "MY KING! You're back!! I knew you would come back!!". "Ogrim???" Pale responded. Ogrim paused. "I should probably get you cleaned up", he said, as he looked at Pale from horn to tale. "Please do" Pale responded. his face was full of what was on the floor... and what seemed to not cover Ogrim at all. In fact, for someone who lived in such a place as this, Ogrim was rather clean.

After walking to a nearby stream of water, Pale washed his face, legs, and tail, before coming to the conclusion that nothing would wash out of the fabric. He said so to Ogrim, who mentioned how Tuk might have some fabric. "Let's go!" He said cheerfully as he picked up the small bug like a sack of potatoes, and slung him over his shoulder and began to walk off.

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Hornet had been looking around since Hollow left, and found familiar tracks. two front talons and one back talon. There was also a small print behind each step, that looked as if something was being semi dragged. The prints were very tiny too. Ghost had three front talons and one back talon, and aways held their tail up off the ground. They were also taller than Hollow, so that ruled them out of it entirely. However... there was someone who fit the description of the prints almost perfectly...

  "These prints... they stop here..." Hornet remarked as she came to the hole Pale fell down just moments before. She somehow missed the prints showing that the small bug had tripped, scrambled to stay upright, and ended up falling anyway. "Either he jumped down there..." Hornet said, looking into the hole. She then looked up. "Or he flew." She picked the latter. With a fling of the needle, she grappled her way up, and back to the city.

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  "Stop cheating, and take those cards out of your shell." Ghost said, as Hollow dug their hand into their eye to fish out the cards they tried to hide.

  "Oh, hey. Wanna play a game of Uno?" Ghost asked as Hornet walked over. "Who's winning?" Hornet inquired. "I dunno... I gave up, and Hollow cheated the whole time... don't blame em tho, cuz I did teach them how to...." Ghost gave a brief pause before continuing, "Also, we lost the chairs at some point..."

   "That's besides the point!" Hornet suddenly snapped. "You've distracted me. I found Wyrm prints." This statement caught Ghost's interest as they stood up and walked over.

   "However.... if it's him, I need to take the proper precautions...", she said before digging in her cloak. Ghost seemed to swell in size as they turned into a thick cloud of void. "ABSOLUTELY NOT" They roared, many voices echoing amongst the main one, as Hornet presented the vessel's shell. "Why not?" she asked. Ghost returned to their preferred form, and in a slightly sheepish tone replied; "It's stuffy in theeeeeerrrrrrrrrrre..." "It is?" Hornet responded with slight shock in her voice.

Hornet put the shell away and turned. "Fine. I'll leave you alone for now. I've got to go back on patrol." "For now??" Ghost echoed in confusion as Hornet flung herself away with her needle, ignoring the question. Ghost then turned and asked, "A game of chess?" to an also fairly confused Hollow.