Twilight to Destiny- Quest of Legacies

Chapter 25

"AAAAAAHHHHH!" Tobi screamed, jumping to her feet and hiding behind Artemis fearfully. A spider-crab looking creature with pointy legs and tufts of hair crawled and perched on a nearby rock. Orange stripes intersected on its abdomen with black ticks. It appeared to have no eyes and relied on smell and touch; the body was about the size of a hand. "WHAT THE HELL IS THAT?!?!"

"DAMMIT TOBI!" Vale yelled in anger, quickly standing up. "YOU MADE ME DROP MY DELICIOUS ICE CREAM FOR THAT PIECE OF SHIT?!"

"It's creepy! What even is that?!"

Artemis, however, seemed frozen and stunned in his place. He said nothing but soon snapped out of his paralyzation. He tightened the grip on his sheath and calmly stepped on his feet. The creature's antennae smoothly flicked a green acid that splashed onto the ground. It burned through and hot bubbles fizzed out of the small hole that was created right in front of them. It suddenly froze and stood up on two legs. Its belly was that of a rolly pollys with what seemed of millions upon millions of tiny legs squirming out. Patience whimpered and shadowed behind Tobi.

Smelly smoke and gas fumed out annoyingly out of the antennae.

"AAAAAAAHHHH!" Tobi hollered, hopping back again. "KILL IT! KILL IT! KILL IT-"

"Relax, you worthless human," Hassa grunted, rolling his eyes. "We will kill it. In fact, I'm kind of hungry, so leave it to me."

"Y-you're g-g-gonna eat th-that thing?" Vale stammered, his voice high and fearful as he watched Hassa make his way over to the slab of rock.

Hassa scampered casually over to the unknown insect and squinted. He raised his paw in the air and nagged a sharp stone lying by. With a hard slam he crushed the bug without any delay. Purple liquid oozed out horribly and seeped through the cracks of the ground. Its legs crumpled limply and torso battered and smashed in defeat.

Silence.

"... Hm," Vale finally said. "Moving on." Artemis and Tobi blinked with a blank stare.

***

"I think I ran out of water," Vale murmured, pouring the last drop onto the ground which was covered by a large carpet of brown, small leaves.

Tobi snorted. "Impossible. There should be a full amount of water in each of our bottles. I made the spell last for thirty days at most." She snatched the bottle from his hand. "Let me see." She arched an eyebrow and took out hers. Her water was halfway full, instead of permanently filled to the top like it should have been. "Weird..." she muttered. She glanced at Artemis's water, which has been a quarter empty. "I wonder how... I guess for now we have to rely on fresh river water."

"Maybe the magical powder was... expired?" Vale guessed. Tobi narrowed her eyes at him.

Artemis sighed. "Gross." He grabbed a cup and scooped water into it. Dirty, chunky water with particles of several plants swirled around inside the cup and sank to the bottom. "Hey Tobi?"

"Hm?"

"Do you have a water filter?"

"Uh... nope." Artemis turned to Vale.

"What about you, Vale?" he asked hopefully.

"Um, why would I pack a water filter?" he arched an eyebrow. "What kind of person do you think I am? Responsible?"

"Wait, so you're telling me..."

Tobi stopped in her tracks and looked up with a disgusted expression. "Eww! Vale!"