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"That's probably the best we can hope for." Veronica thought sorrowfully. She then spoke aloud in a cheerful tone.
"Thank you so much."
"My pleasure, now run along, I'll probably have to-" the mayor had been turning towards his desk as he spoke but stopped halfway. He was staring at the safe to the right of the room, it was where he kept the brass key. It was apparently the only key of its kind and certainly the only kind to be able to unlock the entrance to Edgeville dungeon. It was locked within a rather mediocre safe, requiring a four digit code to unlock. The mayor alone knew the code.
Or at least, until now.
"What's wrong sir?" inquired Veronica. The man remained silent and approached the safe uncertaintly. As he reached it, he tapped the door slightly.
It swung wide open without any effort, revealing that it hadn't been shut since it was last opened. But that wasn't what was making the mayor turn pale.
"The brass key, it's gone!"

29-Nov-2008 08:53:29 - Last edited on 24-Apr-2009 13:58:21 by Infinity A8

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~Chapter VI~
"Hey Robert, light a fire will ya? I can't see anything." Georgia demanded as the three of them hit the floor. Robert complied reluctantly and reached into his jacket pocket. From it, he produced a set of runes: fire, mind and air.
"Do you have a torch or something?" he asked. Georgia fumbled through her pockets and produced a candle, which she then proceeded to hand to Robert. As he finished the spell and the candle was alight, Georgia snatched it back from him.
"Just wondering, but why do you have a candle with you?" queried Robert.
"Oh, just in case." was her curt response.
"Robert! I'm scared!" cried Edward, clinging to the older boy's leg.
"I know, we shouldn't be down here," he said, glaring at Georgia. "Georgia, we should go back up. It's not safe here."
Georgia's reply was a predictable poke of the tongue. She then began to make her way through the north of the cavern. Presently, they were in the narrow corridor at the entrance of the dungeon, the rickety ladder behind them and the now closed trapdoor above. Directly in front of them was a small room where a group of large vermin wandered.
"Wow! Look at how big the spiders and rats are!" Georgia exclaimed excitedly, rushing forward to gander a look.
"Robert, those aren't dangerous are they?" asked Edward fearfully.
Robert shook his head and informed Edward that most animals were just as afraid of humans as they were of them. The two of them crept along after Georgia who was continuing onwards at a steady pace, inspecting all the creatures she encountered from a reasonable distance.
Edward, who usually complained on excursions like this was silent as a lamb. Robert did his best to comfort the child, reminding him that they'd be alright and that they'd find Jaden and leave.
Unfortunately, Georgia wasn't going to let Robert keep any of his promises.
"Hey Robert! Let's go past the gate!"

29-Nov-2008 08:53:31 - Last edited on 24-Apr-2009 13:55:58 by Infinity A8

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"Gate? What gate?" he asked, straining to see in the dimness of the sub-terrain. Georgia pointed to a rusted iron gate, towering somewhere to their right.
"Why do you want to go through there?"
"Because it's a gate! They're made to be gone through!"
'Or to keep things out.' Robert thought ominously.
Georgia strode towards the structure and as she held the only light source Robert and Edward followed dubiously. As they neared the gate, something made its way towards them. It rattled and moaned, its mournful cry trembling the walls themselves.
"A SKELETON!" Edward screamed upon sighting the dreadful creature. He turned tail and began to run but was grabbed immediately by Robert.
"Hush, it can't see us and I'm positive it won't hurt us." he declared.
"I-it c-can't see u-us?" he was trembling violently, deathly afraid of the somewhat weak creature. Robert explained that because the dungeon was eternally dark, the beasts inhabiting it had most likely discarded their sense of sight in favour of improving their other senses.
Sure enough, though groaning hungrily, it passed by Georgia and walked into a wall, its frail bones shattering to bits on contact. With necro-magics fueling its life, it almost instantaneously reanimated itself.
"Wow, cool!" Georgia yelled. "It repaired itself! I wish I could do that!"
She then approached the large gate, and gave it a kick. The gateway shook violently and clattered audibly. It was evidently ancient and very fragile.
"We could bust this open easily. Imagine all the cool things that are past here!" Georgia delivered another kick, this one more relentless than the previous, followed by another and another.
"Wait! Georgia, we should go back, now!" Robert edged towards her, speaking softly but firmly. "You've seen plenty down here, you've had the opportunity you may never have again. Please do us a favour and let us leave."
Georgia ceased her violent attack on the gate to address him.

29-Nov-2008 08:53:38 - Last edited on 24-Apr-2009 13:57:02 by Infinity A8

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"Alright fine," she sighed, appearing downhearted but submissive. Then her sneer returned and she raised her leg.
"AFTER I've seen what's behind the gate."
And with that she gave one last sharp kick, smashing the gate wide open with a discernible crash. Without word or hesitance, she bolted through the gate, leaving Robert and Edward no choice but to follow their light source.
"Georgia slow down!" cried Edward as they followed the overly eager girl. She obeyed and gave the other two time to catch up before she rocketed away again. She wasn't taking any particular route, just rushing through the cavern and stopping briefly to admire the sights and sounds every once in a while. Eventually, she stopped where she was, Robert and Edward lagging behind.
"Georgia can we go now?" fussed Robert as he near collided with the now motionless Georgia. She was looking around fervently, as though looking for something.
"Er, Georgia?"
"What?"
"Can we go now?"
Georgia let out an exaggerated but sincere sigh. She was bored and dissatisfied.
"I guess. All that's down here are a few big skeletons, spiders and some weird dirty lookin' guys over there," she pointed to a group of earth warriors, standing past a spiked pit several paces north of their position. "I mean, a rope swing over spikes sounds great and skeletons are always fun to look at, but it's nothing new. I don't even know why this place was locked up anyway..."
She sighed again and beckoned the two grateful boys to follow her. The three travelled west, avoiding the blind spiders and skeletons in their path when suddenly, something growled menacingly.
All three children froze, temporarily, to listen to the intimidating and drawn out cry. It sounded similar to a wolf howling, but much lower pitched and rougher, more a roar than a howl.
The sound seemed to come from further west, the three just about to turn south towards the exit.
"What-what was that?" Robert exasperated.

29-Nov-2008 08:55:13 - Last edited on 24-Apr-2009 13:58:46 by Infinity A8

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Georgia peered through the darkness, her candle only illuminating the area so much. As her eyes were sharper than Edward and Robert's, she saw it first.
When she gasped fearfully, Robert knew they had to leave.
Very few things in this world were capable of frightening Georgia. Anything that could was dangerous. This was severely dangerous.
Lumbering out of the darkness, initially visible only to Georgia and her keen sight but now available for them all to behold with absolute terror, was a black demon.
"That's, that's a-" Georgia trembled slightly with her speech and body alone, showing no other visible signs of fear. Even staring down a monster such as this she still displayed little to no fright. The ever calm Robert was also able to keep his wits about him and remain silently afraid.
Edward shrieked as loud as his lungs were able, competing with the demon's previous uproar. The smell and sounds of nearby prey enticed the demon into howling anew, this cry fiercer and more savage than the former.
Then it approached, its slothful plod shifting to a hunger-driven rush.
Edward went to scream again, but Robert clamped his hand over his mouth and rather violently shoved him back to Georgia. She grabbed him by the hand and not giving a hoot about what Robert was planning, sprinted with all she could muster to the south, almost dragging the petrified Edward along.
The demon was fast in spite of its immense size and was upon Robert almost instantly.
In combat, Robert was nowhere close to experienced. With a weapon, he was utterly hopeless, to say the least. His talents lay in his astute intelligence, agility and ability to cast simple to moderate magic spells. In a clash of swords or a contest of archery, Robert would stand no chance.
Regardless of his incoordination and lack of upper body strength, he was easily the best combatant out of all Edgeville'* children, given he had the right amount of rune stones on hand.

29-Nov-2008 08:55:15 - Last edited on 24-Apr-2009 14:04:40 by Infinity A8

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And Robert always had runes with him.
He divided them up between the four pockets in his jacket and trousers. Elemental, offensive, offensive/hindering and non-combat type runes were distributed among the four, elemental and offensive lining his left and right jacket pockets and the the other two in his trousers. At most, the pockets could fit one hundred runes each.
Robert's hands disappeared and reappeared into his pockets and from them produced a number of water, earth and nature runes.
"Snare!" he cried, the runes floating before his outstretched palm as he did. Upon completion of the magical command, the runes burst and the monstrous demon before him was immobilized by an unseen force. It struggled to move its legs, growling hatefully with each twist and turn.
Robert didn't want to hang around an enraged demon, especially since the spell only lasted ten seconds, so he bolted after Edward and Georgia who were a fair way ahead, given how fast Georgia could run.
After putting a good ten seconds of distance between himself and the demon, he spied the two ahead of him, having rather considerately waited for him at the now wrecked gate.
At least, that's what it looked like until Georgia yelled. "Which way do we go?!"
"Right! Go right!" Robert called as he heard a thunderous crash behind him and flicked his head to see. The demon was on the move and doing it quickly. In its fury it had torn down a sizable portion of the dungeon wall, the debris scattering into the nearby pond, creating a massive and widespread splash.
The splash startled the three and in the confusion to follow, Robert tripped, his momentum thankfully keeping him mobile. But as he recovered his balance and footing, the demon had caught up and lashed out wrathfully.
"MOVE!" barked Robert as he blindly shoved the two out of the way. His hands dove for his pockets & he prepared another spell.
His actions were in vain, however, for the demon managed to rake its claws in a vertical direction.

29-Nov-2008 08:55:23 - Last edited on 07-Mar-2009 12:15:14 by Infinity A8

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There was the sound of splattering blood, followed by a pain stricken cry of power.
"Snare!" Robert cast the spell again, sealing the demon's movements and allowing him to amble on to the east, the only direction currently available and where Georgia and Edward now stood, numb with shock.
"I'm fine," he declared, shambling along with them like the skeletons nearby. "We have to find the exit!"
"No duh! But how, this is the wrong way isn't it?!" Georgia screeched as they dashed down a series of corridors, zombies wandering around harmlessly.
Robert didn't respond, preoccupied with thinking a way out of his situation. With the demon pursuing them relentlessly and not very far behind, he was having trouble concentrating. The demon smashed its way through any walls or structures it met and trampled anything unfortunate enough to be in its way.
"How the hell did it manage to stay behind that gate all these years?" Robert thought bewilderedly. The three of them almost ran into another gate, this one smaller and weaker looking than the one before. With the three of them kicking the gate with all their might, it fell promptly but still gave the frenzied demon more time to catch up.
It squeezed through the narrow opening with little effort, the children now only a few metres ahead. They reached a crossroad, with two pathways: one north and one south.
"Which way Robert, which way?!" shrieked the panic stricken Edward. Of course, having never visited the dungeon before, Robert had about as much idea of where to go as Edward did.
"South! Go South!"
They turned sharply and continued their mad sprint to safety. As they ran, a light seemed to shine somewhere ahead of them, implying that there was safety ahead.
"Have we made it?" Edward yelled hopefully. Ahead of them was a gargantuan room, lit by torches attached to the walls and inhabited by a tribe of giants. Giants were generally dim creatures, but these ones seemed to be capable of creating and sustaining fire.

29-Nov-2008 08:55:25 - Last edited on 24-Apr-2009 14:01:09 by Infinity A8

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In the centre of the room, dropping down from the ceiling was a ladder, attached to a sealed trapdoor.
"We made it! We ma-"
The black demon roared from directly behind them and slashed wildly with it's claws at the children. They instinctively dove to the ground and were up again in a flash. Robert turned to face the beast.
"Get up the ladder! I'll stall it!" he adamantly proclaimed. The other two didn't need to be told twice and ascended hastily.
As the demon recovered from it's vicious attack, Robert cast another snare spell, rooting the monster to the spot. He went to climb the ladder after his companions when Georgia uttered a cry.
"We need a key to open it!"
"Damn!" Robert cursed and scanned the area for a key of sorts. In a dark room a little east of the demon, Robert spied something dull and out of place lying by a sleeping rat. Robert assumed that it had to be the key.
"Earth bolt!" he cast the spell at the demon's face, sending a super powered blob of rocks and dirt hurtling upwards. His mark hit and the monster recoiled slightly, giving Robert time to dive under the great beast and retrieve the item. He laughed with delight as he stowed the key into his pocket and launched another snare spell. The demon thrashed wildly, but failed to strike the agile boy as he rushed up the ladder to rejoin his friends.
He passed the key up to Georgia, who stuck the key into the trapdoor and twisted. A satisfying click was heard and the trapdoor opened effortlessly. Georgia and Edward wasted no time in getting up and Robert followed soon after. Before he'd even managed to lift his legs off the ladder and into safety, he heard an all too familiar roar.
Glancing downwards, he noticed that the demon was attempting to scale the ladder and finish it's job. But as he pulled himself up, Robert calmly took three runes from his pockets and faced his palm towards the ladder.
"Fire bolt."
Flames burst from his fingertips, destroying the ladder.
They'd escaped. Alive.

29-Nov-2008 08:55:33 - Last edited on 24-Apr-2009 14:07:40 by Infinity A8

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~Chapter VII~
The mayor rather hastily forced the three children out of his office and back onto the streets. He was saying something about how, for the town's sake, he'd need to hire search parties to locate the key's thief, inadvertently saying that Jaden was of less importance than a key.
Veronica almost cried when the door slammed shut behind them.
"No way he'll be able to search for Jaden and the key..." she sobbed, trotting over to the river's edge & sitting before it.
"It's alright." Natalie said as she joined her.
"No it's not. Now we'll never find Jaden."
Tristan stood a little off to the side of the two, staring off into the distance and cogitating their circumstance. Veronica stared down into the water, trout and salmon gliding through the water without care and wished that she could live like them. They had no fears, no monsters that pained them, no friends who ran off and didn't return.
"There's still a chance." Tristan muttered, his deep thinking complete.
"We're not doing it Tristan." Veronica growled, predicting his intended actions.
"We've no other option! We found his hat at the border, he can't have gotten far; we can find him!"
Veronica buried her face in her knees and wrapped her arms around her legs. She wanted to ignore Tristan's suggestions. At that moment, she just wanted to ignore everything.
It was a good thing she didn't though, otherwise she wouldn't have heard Natalie jumping to her feet and racing north. Veronica looked up in surprise and noticed that Tristan was also rushing in a northerly direction. She didn't need to be Robert to understand what was happening.
Walking leisurely towards them on the other side of the ditch and minus his cap was Jaden, unharmed and with the same bored expression as always. At first sight, Veronica wasn't sure if it was really him she saw. She sighed somewhat and replanted her face in between her legs.
When Tristan started yelling for Veronica to come over, she decided she may as well look.

29-Nov-2008 08:55:34 - Last edited on 24-Apr-2009 14:03:18 by Infinity A8

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But even when the two of them were directly facing each other over the ditch, she still didn't believe it.
When Jaden leapt over the ditch and rapped her over the head she finally came to her senses.
"Wha-Jaden? Hey! That wasn't nice!" she spluttered in response to his strike. Then her face changed from annoyance to anger.
"You idiot! Why did you do that?!" she began to beat against his chest with her fists, which seemed comical to any onlookers because Veronica rarely hit anyone and did it rather frivolously.
"Why did I do wha-Hey, that's my hat." were the first words he said, snatching his hat back from Natalie afterwords.
"But the blood! You were gone for a day, what happened?!" Tristan exclaimed, just as bewildered as Veronica.
Jaden pointed to his knee, which was unveiled to be scraped and red.
"Uh, well..." Jaden shrugged, looking a little embarrassed. "I tripped when I first jumped over the ditch and thought I'd wipe it on my hat, 'cause it was red like my blood."
"Why was your hat in the ditch then?"
"Oh, I heard the guard coming along so I had to bolt. Needless to say I dropped the hat when I did."
There was a collective sigh. Jaden was right and well, though he would most likely receive an astringent punishment from his parents later. With the explanations seemingly finished, Veronica grabbed Jaden by the arm and began leading him away from The Wilderness.
"What are you doing?" he asked, allowing Veronica to drag him along.
"Going home of course! I need to tell the mayor and your parents that you're alright."
Jaden resisted. Veronica continued trying to tug him away.
"I need to show you something first."
Veronica stopped pulling.
"You mean you found something?!" exclaimed Tristan excitedly.
"I did." he retorted. "We need to go into The Wilderness to see it. It's not far, I promise."
He was directing his last line at Veronica, knowing that she would argue against going past the border with all she had.

29-Nov-2008 08:55:41 - Last edited on 01-Mar-2009 08:59:32 by Infinity A8

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