Necromancer For Hire- Arc 3

Arc 3, Chapter 14

The Quest

"To answer your question from a couple days ago, Matthew, I am rather sure I was visited by the Überdragon of time." Umbra growled, hands on his hips.

Matthew's light brown hair fell across his dumbstruck face and slack jaw. "Ok, I believe you now." His voice was slightly hoarse, eyes still locked on the spot where Time had made his portal.

Aunora looked around, frowning. "We're stuck here in this bubble." she commented, foot kicking the distinct line where time began to be paused. Her shoe collided with some sort of invisible wall, keeping her from reaching their colorless surroundings.

She's right, Umbra thought, sighing. That lunatic paused time and then left us here! What are we even supposed to do?

Groaning, Umbra sat down beside Esper. The nature spirit was rapidly growing small flowers around his arm, the buds contained on a twisting vine. Esper wordlessly offered Umbra a purple orchid, the man accepting the gift and plucking the flower under the collar of his shirt.

"What do we do?" Matthew asked, joining Umbra and Esper on the asphalt.

"Wait for Time to bring Victor back, I assume. There's not much else." Umbra muttered, adjusting his tie.

"That's friggin' boring!" Aunora exclaimed, throwing her hands in the air. "I wanna punch those stupid suspenders right off that Time guy! He can't just take Pipsqueak like that!"

Umbra glared. "Please punch the god of time, Aunora. I would really like to see his reaction."

"Aunora, please do not listen to Mr. Umbra's words. Assaulting a god isn't a wise idea." Aunora snorted at Esper's advice, but the spirit paid no notice. He was busy creating a tiny bouquet of flowers from all the colors of the rainbow. It perplexed Umbra that a blind person would have such a keen and meticulous sense of color organization, but he found Esper's creations to be quite beautiful.

What does Time want with me? He mentioned the day we visited the mall that he would see me later, but for what reason? Umbra felt frustration welling up inside him, making his teeth grit.

No matter what, he still stole my child! I have to fulfill my job as a familiar and protect Victor, but it is rather hard to do when an immortal being kidnaps him! The wrong move could get me killed. I have to be very careful with this situation. Hopefully Time will keep his eccentric and innocent demeanor and simply just hand my dear Victor back to me and Matthew. If he doesn't... Umbra let his eyes wander to the ground, feeling his heart flutter. I don't even want to consider that possibility.

As Umbra was lost in his thoughts, Time suddenly made his return. The portal ripped through the air, displaying small slivers of a swirling, almost cosmos-like landscape. Time and Victor walked back into their dimension, Victor immediately running to Umbra and Matthew. 

"Dear!" Umbra cried, kissing Victor on his cheek and forehead. Matthew also embraced his child, hugging him tightly.

Umbra noticed that Victor clutched a small cookie in his hand, and several bites were taken out of it.

"Victor, sweetie, where did you get that?" Umbra asked, referencing the food item.

Victor glanced down at his treat. "I told Mr. Time that I thought my blood sugar felt low, so he summoned a cookie to make me feel better."

Umbra and Matthew exchanges looks of concern, but Umbra decided to let that part slide by him. At least that meant Victor wasn't going to faint anytime soon.

Matthew stroked Victor's cheek, frowning. "Vic, are you okay, baby? Did he hurt you or anything?"

"No, no!" Victor said frantically. He grabbed Umbra's sleeve, giving Time a questioning glance.

Time, who was standing from afar, nodded at Victor and smiled, seemingly urging him on.

"I gotta tell you something, Dad. It's important."

Umbra's jaw fell further and further slack as Victor told his tale to the rest of the team. He explained that Time needed their help to retrieve a large fragment of his magic- names Clockwork- and that time itself was falling apart! Under any other circumstances, Umbra would have called the story a complete fake, but after everything he had experienced in the last couple days, it seemed that anything was possible. 

"So..." Aunora mumbled after Victor was finished. "Do we help this guy?"

"This could be very dangerous," Matthew said, locking his fingers together. "Whatever force decided to steal something from an Überdragon obviously means business, and I don't want to get entwined in that, personally. There's no telling what we could be messing with."

Esper nodded in agreement. "Mr. Matthew is correct. This may be over our heads."

"I'm not sure if we really have a choice in the matter, honestly." Umbra hissed quietly, glancing suspiciously at Time. "Time revealed all this top-secret information expecting us to concur with his demands. If we refuse, he could kill all of us, and possibly even make it so that we were never born. I'm not sure about the rest of you, but I'm not so keen on infuriating a god." He grimaced. "Plus, I want to make sure this guy doesn't get his hands on my dead body. There's no telling what he would do with it."

"Maybe he'll pay us good." Aunora groaned, crossing her arms.

Umbra looked at his team. "So we're agreed, correct? We will assist Time in his mission?"

Matthew, Esper, Aunora, and Victor groaned in agreement.

Standing up, Umbra wiped the concrete dust off his palms. He approached Time, who had been cheerfully awaiting their decision.

"Time, Silver Moon will help you find Clockwork." Umbra announced, arms behind his back.

Aunora came to his side, poking Time harshly on the chest. "But you better give us alotta cash, understand?"

Time grinned, holding up his hands. "Gotcha, gotcha. Let's get to work, shall we?"

Author's Note- Its time (hahaha) for this question again: who is your favorite character, and why?