Chapter 18: Mountain Pass it is!
After having traveled for a few weeks with the horse carriage, it stopped abruptly as it encountered an obstacle it could not traverse.
When Lance and the Count got out, they could see the road ahead covered by water for as far as their eyes allowed them.
While Lance was trying to think of a way around the water, the Count had paid the driver of the horse carriage, which simply vanished in thin air.
“What do we do now, Count?” Lance asked as he kicked the water with his foot.
“Walk…” The Count said, while studying the area around them with his sharp eyes.
“Over what, the path is covered in water!?” Lance said while pointing towards the water.
“Indeed.” The Count said with a sarcastic voice.
“What are you trying to say?” Having sensed a bit of sarcasm in his voice, Lance asked the Count to elaborate.
“I was trying to tell you that near here, there is a mountain pass that leads to the city. But it seems you are fond of swimming, so…” The Count said while moving towards the water.
“Mountain pass it is!” Accepting his defeat, Lance dragged the Count towards the mountain pass, that the Count suggested.
Following the Counts lead, Lance went up the mountain pass, and noticed that it was rather unused. While still not far from where they started walking, Lance turned to look to notice that the horse carriage disappeared.
“Hey Count!”
“Yes?”
“What happened to the horse carriage?”
“Lance, you were never a curious boy, were you?” The Count said with a devilish smile.
“Huh?” Unable to understand what the Count said, Lance stared at him confused.
“If you had checked the front of the wagon, you would have noticed that there was nobody there.” The Count could hardly contain his laughter as he saw Lance get more and more confused.
“What? Then who was driving it?” Lance asked, still unable to two and two together.
“Ah, well that was a haunted wagon making its daily haunting route. They “kindly” offered to take us on.” The Count said, having an almost malefic glint in his eyes as he mentioned the word “kindly”.
“Ugh, when you say “kindly” it seems so wrong.” Lance said, while feeling a cold chill on his body.
“Now let’s move on, Sphagnales awaits!” The Count said as he quickly moved forward, jumping from stone to stone on the ever increasing hard terrain.
“Wa…Wait for me!” Lance said as he struggled to keep up.
I had to stop here, as the story is going to get a little bit interesting and I wanted to keep the intensity of the next chapter as fresh as possible. Apologies for anybody reading this.
