Part 1
Out of the keg and into the forest
Foam from the ale dripped out of the rim of the beer mug into the dwarf’s beard. His helmet was on the edge of head as he leaded back and let the beer slide into his mouth. His fellow bare chested dwarves watched on and cheered as the last of the ale was swallowed. With that, the ginger headed dwarf leaded back up. His helmet popped back up on his head more securely but was still on a lean. He whipped his mouth and raised the glass in the air and with that, the partying dwarves cheered. The cheering was soon silenced as an angry, frustrated voice echoed from the hall where the main door to Stoneholm was.
“God damn! Where is he?” The ginger bearded dwarf picked up his ears as soon as he heard that all too familiar voice. Soon after, the owner of the voice angrily walked into the large party hall full of dwarves and beer, his gaze shot straight at the ginger dwarf.
“Honeydew!” he shouted “God damn it I told you to go to Icaria not party at Stoneholm!” The accused dwarf took a step forward and straightened up his helmet. “Ahhhh….hey Xephos, ahhhh……nice if you to join us,” he said nervously with clammy hands. “Get over there now,” said the spaceman. The dwarf just stood there to scared to move a muscle. “Honeydew!,” the red coated man said impatiently.
Honeydew turned to look at his fellow dwarves, then back at the waiting man. Xephos turned and started walking away toward the doors of Stoneholm and Honeydew followed. He really didn’t have a choice; he knew he should’ve been there.
The large doors closed behind Honeydew as he walked out of Stoneholm. Xephos, his very close friend, was walking down the stairway to get to the bottom of the mountain. Honeydew quickly hopped down the steps to catch up to him and make up for taking a tiki tour on his way to Icaria. He was about two steps behind him before he was brave enough to talk.
“Xephos I…”
“I don’t want to hear it Honeydew”, the dwarf was taken aback for his voice had a sharp tone to it. “But Xephos I..”, at that moment the chocolate colored haired man turned and looked up to face the dwarf with his right foot on the next step up. “Don’t you dare but Xephos I me!” Xephos said sternly. “I have been waiting in Icaria for you for a week! And so has everyone else. You have let us all down my friend and just saying sorry isn’t gonna cut it.” With that, Xephos turned back around and continued down the stone steps, his silk soft hair bouncing at each step and coat flapping in the breeze. Only then did the dwarf resize what a mistake he had made.
The duo walked in silence until dusk and Xephos spoke up. “We’ll make a camp and fire here, Icaria will have to wait. Besides it’s getting dark and there’s more stuff out and about at night than usual.” He stopped in a small clearing in the woods and started gathering up some sticks and firewood. All Honeydew could think was how that period of walking was the longest him and his pal had gone without saying a word. The thought kind of scared him but he soon put it to the back of his mind and started helping Xephos.
With the fire burning bright and hot, and the clearing securer, Xephos took off his dirty ripped coat. “Awww,” he sighed in innocence.
“Nothing I can do about it now,” he thought. Xephos laid his battered coat on the cool ground and sat on it in front of the fire. Honeydew sat down too and took his helmet off and put it beside him. Xephos was jabbing the fire with a pok’en stick when he notice what Honeydew had done. He gazed at his friend, a smile starting to form on his fire lit face. “Never thought I would see the day,” Xephos said with a chuckle, he made eye contact with his helmetless friend then looked back to the fire. Honeydew cracked a smile, “I only take it off for certain things.”
“Oh, don’t worry I know…friend.” said Xephos, looking back up to Honeydew then down again to the glowing orange fire that was keeping them safe.
It went silent again for a minute or so. The fire’s crackle echoed through the loomly woods, orange and yellow coloured flames reflected light danced on the boy’s face and clothes. Honeydew didn’t like the silence one bit and decided to end it.
“You know how Stoneholm threw me out, well, they let me back in!” He said with a cheery voice at the end. “You don’t say,” Xephos replied sarcastically, giving the dwarf a dumb look. “It’s kind of funny,” Honeydew chirped on, “on the day they threw me out, I met you! And we were so happy and now, on the day they let me back in we’re, not happy.” He looked down gloomy for a second, then suddenly the sound of broken branches made Honeydew jump in surprise and pick up his ears.
“What was that?” he asked slightly stun,
“What was what?” Xephos questioned impatiently.
“That noise, it sounded like someone stepping on a twig or something,”
“I didn’t hear a thing, stop being paranoid.”
“Hmm…” Honeydew got to his feet and turned to face the eerie forest he had his back to while sitting. “Dude it’s probably some animal, sit down.” Honeydew ignored his friend and starred into the darkness. He squinted his into the dark trying to get his eyes to adjust to the darkness he was looking at. He soon found a pair was pale gray, dead, crystal eyes slowly come into view and starred right back at him. He recognized those eyes almost imminently, those eyes could only belong to one creature that he knew of, one of which he had encountered before. “*gasp*!” Honeydew’s heart skipped a beat and he took a step back. “Honeydew?” Xephos raised an eyebrow as he questioned him, “What are you looking at?” He didn’t need an answer from his friend; he just saw the answer right in front of his eyes. Honeydew backed up around the fire until he was next to his friend, as he did, he revealed what he was looking at. Honeydew started shaking in fear and whimpered a bit as the creature exposed himself in the fires flaming light. Xephos on the other hand just sat there, completely frozen in shock. His jaw dropped and he’s eyes went wide and wild, he just starred at the rugged monster before him. He let out a quite little whimper,
“Zombie Boss?!”
