The Neutrals

Chapter 4: Help

Chaslura explained in more detail what the website had already told me. Aluris looked like she could start crying any second.

"So...how did you escape?" I asked, my voice quiet.

Aluris spoke, her voice trembling, "I made a deal. A stupid deal that I shouldn't have made in the first place."

"Do you mind me asking what the deal was?" I prodded, careful not to cause her to cry.

Aluris took a deep breath to calm herself, then she explained, "I made a deal with Enthro...He agreed to let me and Chaslura come here, but if we tried to do anything he would consider treasonous then..." she couldn't seem to bring herself to finish.

"So...you made a deal with a psycho that you could come here and if I survive you'll be free to stay, but if I die then you have to go back and he'll pretty much kick it up 10,000 notches, and he considered literally everything treasonous?"

Aluris nodded. Chaslura looked at the ground.

"So, you wanted an escape. I get that. Why come here, though?"

Chaslura looked back up and started, "What he didn't know is that we needed to see you, Dakota. Based on that scar on the palm of your hand, I'm guessing that you already know about-"

"Yeah, Dakota already knows." Alex glared at the two while I wondered what had made Alex so mad all of a sudden.

Chaslura glanced at Alex, "Oh, you must be the mortal who's supposed to protect my kid, right? Odd, it looked like they had saved your hide a second ago."

"At least I bothered to try and help them and keep them out of trouble instead of standing by and watching. Oh, wait, you didn't even manage to do that! You let Aluris do everything, as always!" Alex raised their voice, almost to the point of yelling.

"Well, I-"

"Would you two stop talking over me as if I wasn't here!?" I said, almost yelling.

The room went quiet, and my voice seemed to echo off of the walls. Aluris looked a bit shocked, then he started scanning the room. She ran her hands along the wall and seemed to scoop up something. Whatever it was, it squeaked the words, "Leaving everything to Aluris and forcing everyone else to help your kid!" It seemed to be a mix of all of our voices, twisting the words into something they weren't.

"Enthro's Ears. They're a thing he made that listens to what everyone in the room says, and uses those words to twist into something he can use against you," she said as she squeezed the thing in her fist. It went quiet and hopped out of her hand.

It looked like someone glued a fairy ear to spider legs and it had come to life, and now it scuttled into my hand. I tried not to grimace.

"Go ahead and send it your message to Enthros. We'll need a way of telling him that the True Neutral is alive, after all." Aluris said, she even seemed a bit smug.

Many more of the tiny ears ran out screeching "The True Neutral is alive!" over and over again, then the flew up into the sky, still yelling their message.

I looked at the small ear in my hand, as it already seemed to be waiting for the message. It must have been alerted by Aluris talking. "And I don't plan on dying anytime soon."

After the ear heard me talk, it silently flew up to join the others. Must be that if the little ears are sending a direct message rather than spying, they have the decency to stay quiet.

Aluris sat back down and looked at me, "We need your help, as we've already said. Why we need your help, though, is a bit more complicated."

"All right, so what do you want me to do? I doubt it will be simple..." My thought trailed off.

"You're right about that, it won't be simple. What we need you to do is get something for us, because we can't get it ourselves." Chaslura continued.

"I'm guessing reason one is Enthros. What's the other?" I inquired, curious to know all the details.

"We can't set foot on the grounds, it has a spell that keeps anything but whoever lives there off...aside from mortals," Aluris explained. It seemed the two goddesses were switching off every sentence. Weird.

"Alright, what do you need me to get? It'll be hard to get something if I don't know what it is."

"To put it simply, it's a stuffed toy. What's inside the toy is what is important. We'll tell you what it is once you get it back safely."

"Ok..?" I was a little confused.

"Where is the stuffed toy?" Alex asked, eager. We had both been talking about wanting an adventure for some time.

"Well, the grounds are in Hell, Michigan."

"Wow, first mission and I'm already going to Hell." Alex laughed a bit at my joke.

While Aluris looked amused, Chaslura fought a sigh as she continued, "Go to the store that sells the ice cream sundaes you make yourself, ask for the manager, tell them that you'd like to know if there's any place you can get cool stuffed toys. Emphasize the cool, I recommend packing a jacket."

"That is really specific," I noted, while Alex wrote down what to do.

"Also," Riley and Jacklynn said in unison, "Just how do you think our kids are going to get to Hell, Michigan? We're in Laramie, Wyoming for crying out loud!"

"...How about a highway?" Alex asked, biting back a laugh.

Chaslura smiled a bit at that one, while my parents remained unamused.

"We're serious. Getting there is one thing, and another is the fact of it being really dangerous. If gods can't go there then it's for a reason, and I highly doubt the place doesn't have some sort of guard! In fact, what is guarding your little toy?" Jacklynn turned to face Chaslura and Aluris, her face had a mix of concern, fear, and a little bit of anger.

"Jacklynn, I understand that you're concerned and scared, but I know Dakota can do this. If we didn't think that they would both be ok, then we wouldn't consider mentioning it. We aren't sending them without protection, either." Aluris met Jacklynn's gaze and held it, they seemed to be having a whole other conversation by looking at each other.

After we accepted that driving would probably be the best way to get to Michigan, we started packing for the road trip and got all the arrangements over with, like calling the school and checking with Alex's parents for the Ok, and then we had to get planning for the trip.

Our first pit stop was going to be Cheyenne, Wyoming, for food, gas, and a place to stay the night. After that, we won't be stopping till we get to Kearney, Nebraska, which will take almost 5 hours. Then, we'll be going to Des Moines, Iowa, which should take 4 hours and 36 minutes, if we take the right route. Our next scheduled stop is Gary, Indiana, which will take another 5 hour and 30 minutes. Then, we finally get to Hell, Michigan after a closing time of 3 hours and 30 minutes.

If everything goes according to plan.

Nothing ever goes according to plan.