Game On

Chapter Twenty-Nine: Monstrous Lineage

Sitting up, Sean shakily uttered out. "I was sitting on her... Mark, can we please leave?" Mark ignored him, drawing a rune in the air to open his inventory. Getting to his feet, Sean glanced around the graveyard that was starting to mist over and breathlessly whined out. "Mark...? I'm getting a bad feeling..." Mark thrusted a shovel out to him, telling him coolly. "You're letting this place get into your head. Take this and help me dig." Accepting the shovel, Sean's voice broke when he squeaked out. "Dig?! Why on earth would we do that?!" Stabbing his own shovel into the soft dirt, Mark informed in seriously. "We don't know if she was buried. We only have his word on that. Which I don't trust. And if she was, maybe she got out and they don't know it. They could have buried an imposter. Either way, we got to dig her up." Groaning to himself, Sean grumbled out. "Why do I let you talk me into this shite..." Smirking, Mark replied as he started to dig. "Because I'm sexy and I'm right."

Rolling his eyes, Sean reluctantly began to dig with him. It was more of a struggle for Sean since his stamina bar kept draining rapidly from the exertion. Clearly, the light elf race wasn't designed for hard labor. Pausing after every other shoveling of dirt, Sean let his stamina replenish while looking around. Mark easily shoveled away with little resistance. He was practically digging the grave up by himself without a need to take a break. Sean was slightly jealous of him, until he heard a rustling sound in the distance. His pointed elven ear twitching as he turned to look. The mist in the distance swirled like something had moved through it, causing Sean to whisper cautiously. "Mark? Something is here. I can hear it..." Mark stopped to listen. Only hearing the low breath of the wind through the gravestones. Shrugging, Mark told him coolly. "I don't hear anything. Come on. We're almost done." Every muscle in Sean tensed up as he watched what looked like a large bird peek around a distant gravestone.

The strange bird was no bigger than a young child with only patches of slick black feathers. He only caught a glimpse of its large grey human like eye and powerful black beak, before the head swayed behind the gravestone. Leaving only its sickly skeletal hand with long black talon nails that lightly scratched the stone as it moved out of sight. Swallowing, Sean reached back to try and grab Mark while his eyes scanned the mist for the creature. He had only just touched Mark's arm, when Mark's shovel thudded against wood. Jumping, Sean whirled around and burst out in a broken voice. "Mark, I wanna go! Right now! It's not safe! I saw it!" Mark touched Sean's cheek, watching him tremble before pulling him to his side and telling him fearlessly. "Alright. Just let me take a quick look." Setting down his shovel, Mark kneeled to dust off the top of the wooden coffin. Which the moment he did, Sean saw the creature a shorter distance away. Perched atop a large gravestone, where it cocked its head and parted it long beck to let thick liquid drool down to the grass.

Sean reached for his bow, slowly getting ready to take aim at the creature. When Mark suddenly told Sean with unease. "Sean... This isn't right. The coffin is way too small for an adult and... there is a hole in the lid." Keeping his eyes on the creature, Sean reached out to grab Mark's head and turned it to look at the creature. The second he saw it, Mark fell back onto his ass, blurting out. "What the fuck is that?!" The creature let out a soft hiss, then leapt off the gravestone with its spindly bird legs. Its body vanishing into the mist without a sound. Sean finally risked looking down at the coffin, before exhaling out a bit shakily. "He said the hag had a child, right? Died to the plague?" Mark withdrew his blade, correcting distantly. "Twin boys. But he said she was buried in the only unmarked grave... This one is unmarked." Sean carefully eased the lid open to the coffin, then bit his lower lip hard. The upper part of the coffin had what appeared to be a nest bed. While the lower was draped with a blanket.

Reaching in, Sean lifted what appeared to be a small old broken dog collar with the name 'Grimald' painted on it. Within the nest, Sean stared at a small broken metal cuff that read 'Richter.' Setting the dog collar back down, Sean informed Mark softly. "Mark... These kids didn't die of plague. They were deformed by it and... buried alive." A twig snapped, causing Mark to face the noise while replying nervously. "Why would she bury her kids live? That doesn't make sense." Extending out his hand to clean the gravestone a bit more, Sean told Mark coolly. "Mark. This grave isn't unmarked. It has a raven and a small dog carved into the stone. No mother would do this... it had to be the same person who buried HER alive." Mark lowered his blade, turning slowly as he said a bit disgustedly. "Her husband." Closing the coffin, Sean asked aloud. "But who was her husband?" When Mark didn't answer, Sean glanced at him, noticing how still he was.