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Fireheart449

Fireheart449

Posts: 1,028 Mithril Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile
Chapter 9 Take the Cake

Calming my sudden rush of anger at Luxon with a smile, Bluestar nudges us to sit down. Dawn sits, but she’s fidgeting as if she’s considering rushing upstairs to see Redseed. I would gladly do it, but my respect for Bluestar and Fireheart keep me in my seat.

“Uh…” Fireheart appears at the doorway with a wry expression. “Are these guys your friends?” She walks into the room, and Tigerstar, Ava, Enddragon and Armadylspark flood after her.

Tigerstar sprints over to hug my head. “Hey, don’t hug my head off,” I laugh. When she lets go, I realize the room has gone awkwardly silent. I read the genuine relief in her eyes and feel a new flood of guilt drown me.

Bluestar, who’s sitting beside me, considers Tigerstar with a puzzled look. “Who might you be?”

Plopping into the seat next to her beau, Fireheart crosses her arms. “Doesn’t matter who she is. You guys can make introductions on the journey to the Temple of Saradomin.”

With a grin, Enddragon nods. “Let’s go!”

Dawn stands. “Yeah, let’s go.” An awkward silence ensues as she leaves. Our party floods out again, Ava hiding her face behind her hair. I want to tell her that she’s safe here, but she’s gone before I can open my mouth.

Now I’m left with a very stern Bluestar and an intimidating Fireheart. She crosses her arms. “If you mess with my sister’s feelings…”

I’m not messing with her feelings! She’s messing with mine! I stand and protest, “I know how I feel. But does she?”

“Just stop ogling other girls.” So saying, Fireheart makes a dramatic exit, pausing for a moment to glance back crossly at Bluestar. He gives her a smile and gives her a tiny wave, telling her to go on without him.

Then, Bluestar sits across from me. “Freak, what’s going on between you and Dawn?”

“I know I’m annoying—”

“Who told you that?” Bluestar returns.

15-Nov-2010 03:15:42

Fireheart449

Fireheart449

Posts: 1,028 Mithril Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile
Well…no one. Speechless, I watch Bluestar nod in satisfaction and stand. “Give her time,” he tells me. Time? Is that all I need to do? Love always seemed to me like those things you order from magazines: in order to make it work, you have to take the time to assemble it. And I’m terrible at assembling things. Just like I’d probably be terrible at seduction…As if he’s reading the p3rverted musing of my mind, Bluestar adds, “If Fire comes after you for making Dawn feel uncomfortable, well… I can’t help you.”

Ack. Right. Just give Dawn time. “Do you have any idea how much time?” I ask.

“I would be willing to wait a thousand years for the girl I loved,” Bluestar replies, his face mushy and soft with love.

“Wouldn’t you both be dead after a thousand years?” I point out.

With a sigh, Bluestar shakes his head, but his blue eyes are sparkling. “Hyperbole, Freak.”

Man, those dang hyperboles just keep on tripping me up. “So what’s a thousand years in non-figurative numbers?”

“As long as necessary.”

That sounds like a while. I droop in my seat and then look up in alarm as Bluestar starts to walk away. “Wait, you and Fire aren’t going to come with us?”

Before he can answer, King Roald sticks his head into the dining hall with a bemused expression. I tense, ready for another gun-wielding NPC. Instead, the king walks up to me and holds out a cake.

I jump out of my seat and pull out my rune scimitar. I’m prepared for guns now. King Roald shoots Bluestar an annoyed glance. “Is this the wounded savior of Runescape Fireheart was talking about?”

“Ah, yes. Freak, take the cake from His Majesty and heal that wound of yours,” Bluestar urges me, an irritated light in his eyes.

15-Nov-2010 03:16:34

Fireheart449

Fireheart449

Posts: 1,028 Mithril Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile
Reassured, I do take the cake and take an enormous bite out of it. Ah, sugary sweetness. Then, I feel numbness grip my throat. Wait…that’s not what cake is supposed to do. After the cake slides down my esophagus against my will, a hallowing pain carves my stomach. My limbs lock. As the world wobbles around me, I crumple into fetal position and futilely try to ignore the chill spreading through my body.

“Sorry, Freak,” Bluestar says, looming over me. His handsome face has split into an evil smirk that makes him look exactly like Luxon. Except this is Bluestar! Beside him, King Roald gives Bluestar a pleading, eager look. With a cold, bone-cutting laugh, Bluestar hands him a round, brown, crumbly biscuit. Wait…not a biscuit…a cookie!

“Good boy,” I hear Bluestar say to the king of Misthalin. Like he’s a dog! What is going on??? I have to wonder in my delirium. The floor shakes like an earthquake under my head as someone enters.

“Ugh, the slow poison. Really?” It’s Fireheart’s voice, but I can’t admit to myself that it is her. It can’t be…

“It was cheaper! I don’t want to waste any money on him.” Bluestar nudges me with a toe. “Pathetic, isn’t he?”

Fate hates me, is my last thought before the world goes black.

~~~

With my body full of pins and needles, I wake up with my head in someone’s lap. Dawn’s face, dark with concern, hovers maybe a foot above mine. The anguish aching in my muscles makes tears come to my eyes and blurs her lovely face. When I blink the tears away and lift my head a bit to look around, I see I’m in Lumbridge again. Good ole Freak’s Bane, the fountain, is still merrily spouting water. The usual number of noobs and weirdos are mingling around us.

15-Nov-2010 03:17:45

Fireheart449

Fireheart449

Posts: 1,028 Mithril Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile
I shriek as more faces appear above me. I hear Dawn scold them for scaring me, “them” being Ava, Tigerstar, Enddragon and Armadylspark. “What happened?” Dawn asks, moving away and placing my head gently on the grass of the Lumbridge Castle lawn. With a sigh, I turn my heavy eyes to the cloud-filled sky.

“Bluestar…poisoned me. Fireheart…knew about it…” I force the words out of my mouth with my insides wriggling in agony, as if I were being poisoned again. My head hurts. My heart hurts. And my spleen too…

Armadylspark crosses his arms. “When we went back to find you…Bluestar and Fireheart were gone. So were you.”

“We tried to find them in Varrock,” Tigerstar adds, “but we couldn’t.” She’s standing at distance from me, her eyes full of hurt. “Someone had left a note with a number 2 on the table.”

“Death number 2,” Dawn says. “We figured you would be in Lumbridge.” She raises an eyebrow. “You’re saying Bluestar and Fireheart conspired to kill you?”

“They’re imposters,” Ava interrupts in a tone that tells me they’ve discussed this before. I’ve never seen her look so certain before. “When we looked for that guy Redseed that you said was tortured by C.A.N., he wasn’t upstairs, recuperating in bed.”

What? I feel the ache in my chest ease a little. If the Fireheart and Bluestar I saw today were imposters, I can deal with my death…even while I feel like every piece of me is about to crumble into trillions of tiny, Freak dust motes.

I’m trembling even as Enddragon and Armadyl haul me onto my feet. “Hey, to cheer you up a bit, we can tell you the story of what happened to us after you died the first time. It’s a funny story,” Enddragon says with a laugh.

I take a wobbly step forward as they release me. “Sure,” I quaver, like an old man.

“Tell him how I kicked Reaver’s butt,” Armadyl says with pride.

“You mean the way you made him into an ice sculpture?” Enddragon laughs.

15-Nov-2010 03:18:56

Fireheart449

Fireheart449

Posts: 1,028 Mithril Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile
As our dragon-masked companion explains, Enddragon goes through the motions. “You came stumbling back to us, bleeding like crazy! Then you died and disappeared.”

My eyes are treated to the pleasant vision of Enddragon running in slow motion, flailing his arms and then falling over rigidly, as if he’s quite dead. Did I really look like that?

“We set off to Lumbridge to find you,” Armadylspark continues, and Enddragon hops to his feet, looking determined. “Turns out after finishing you, Reaver had begun to stalk us, hoping to pick us off by surprise.”

Enddragon, with a menacing look on his face, starts sketching towards Dawn, Ava and Tigerstar from behind. He stops when Dawn turns around and lifts her poking finger. “Eh…sorry,” he says to them before glancing in Armadyl’s direction.

“Anyway,” Armadyl takes up the tale again with zeal, “I was the first one to sense him. So, since I didn't feel like wasting time to engage him in the time-consuming thrust-parry duel-type battle (after all, we had to find you, Freak), I chose to cast water wave, drenching our unsuspecting mercenary stalker with a flood of water.

“Then I cast a nice ice blitz to stop Reaver in his tracks. Oh, he was such an angry looking ice sculpture. So I gave him a tap with my sword pommel, and he shattered into thousands of millions of pieces.” Armadyl unsheathes his rune longsword from out of nowhere and shows us the uniquely silver pommel.

“Wait…all of that is hard to re-enact,” Enddragon complains with a frown. “I don’t have enough props.”

With an indulgent smile, Dawn sighs, "That was epic, yes, but we have to get to the Temple of Saradomin fast.”

As we start off towards Varrock, I sink into the murky tub of my thoughts. For a funny story, it doesn’t seem very funny to me. It makes my gut clench to think of Reaver coming back, a Reaver who’s a thousand times angrier than before. Before, he seemed ready to kill me for the money, but now…he’ll want compensation for his death.

15-Nov-2010 03:20:01 - Last edited on 19-Nov-2010 17:28:41 by Fireheart449

Fireheart449

Fireheart449

Posts: 1,028 Mithril Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile
Oh, and if Bluestar and Fireheart were imposters, then what’s happened to the real Bluestar and Fireheart? Has C.A.N. already captured them? Is their capture my fault? No, it's Luxon's...but he wants revenge on me, so indirectly, this is all my fault!

Maybe I just need to go die in a hole. As I look around for a hole to die in, a warm hand grasps my wrist. Despite the scars on her face, Ava can still pull off a concerned look. “You’re lagging behind, Freak. Maybe Armadylspark or Enddragon will carry you.”

Ugh, I’m such a disgrace that I can’t even walk on my own? I shake my head, feeling dizzy. Ah, crumb-buckets, dying is definitely not good for one’s health. Her hands burn on mine. Is she feverish? No, it’s just that I’m so cold… “Maybe you guys should complete this mission without me. Let C.A.N. finish me off for good. Then maybe Luxon will be happy, and he’ll restore Runescape to what it was.”

Her brown eyes widen in dismay. “Dawn told me about Luxon. By the sound of him, he won’t settle for just your death,” Ava murmurs, helping me sit on the grass. The others, oblivious to our stopping, keep on walking. “He wants to control all of Runescape, and you can’t let him win. You’re the only one who can stop him.”

“Why me? Why can’t you save your damn selves?” I snap, sprinting to the bank of the River Lum. I’m standing in the gloomy woods beside the broken stone house that goblins have invaded: the perfect, depressing place to wait for a final and permanent death.

“Remember, you still have to slay Elvarg,” Ava points out, following me. “You have another mission. Are you willing to give that up? To give up your dreams?”

“I never wanted to slay that dragon anyway,” I reply, curling up for a long, peaceful nap on the river bank.

“No!" Ava shrieks. “Don’t go to sleep! You might not come back.”

15-Nov-2010 03:21:20

Fireheart449

Fireheart449

Posts: 1,028 Mithril Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile
“Yes, I will. It’s called a nap,” I lie and close my eyes. A permanent nap. The sloshing of the river soothes my ears. A mother duck quacks and her ducklings cheep in distress as someone shoots their mother. The violence and death here tortures my pacifist soul. What if I don’t want to slay Elvarg? Why can't she live? Because if she’s not stopped, innocent people will die, my practical voice whispers back. Same goes for Luxon.

This is not the time to dwell on how awful I feel! It doesn’t matter! What’s wrong with me? I sit up so fast that my ear fluids protest that they’re dizzy. Ava is sitting not too far from me, crying. I crawl over to her, and she squeaks in surprise and then slaps me. Ow. “You startled me,” she says.

“I figured,” I mutter, rubbing my cheek. I meet her earnest gaze for a moment and ask the dreaded question. “Do you have any…romantic feelings for me?”

Ava gapes, blinking rapidly. Then, she keels over and her shoulders begin to shake, and I stand and futilely look for help. What if she’s having a seizure or something? I shouldn’t shock people with questions like that! Why am I such a dunce?

Then a burst of musical laughter surprises me. Ava covers her mouth and stifles her giggles as I stare down at her. “Freak!” She squints at me. “You really are a p3rvert. Do you think that every girl traveling with you is in love with you?”

“No!” I protest indignantly. Maybe…

Ava bounces to her feet and tilts her head, considering me. “I guess I do love you like a brother. You’re the nicest person I’ve ever met…even though you’re not the brightest…”

Like a brother. I like that. Wait…not the brightest? Perhaps reading the dismay on my face, Ava says hastily, “Let’s go before we lose sight of the others!” She starts to walk away as I contemplate the dead tree in front of me.

15-Nov-2010 03:22:37

Fireheart449

Fireheart449

Posts: 1,028 Mithril Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile
Not the brightest...I think I’ve come pretty far since my noob days. Really!? Hauling myself to my feet, I hobble after Ava, trying to look stern. Then I hear Ava scream somewhere near the chicken pen on the way to Varrock. I half-sprint, half-limp there, with my scimitar in hand. When I see Kenshin, his chef hat lopsided on his head and his face covered in frosting, apologizing profusely to a bright red Ava, I lower the weapon. My hand’s shaking like crazy anyway. I would have been useless in a real battle.

Kenshin notices me. “Want cake?” He offers the smushed cake to me as he tries his best to lick at the frosting on his cheek. Cake….NOOOOOOO! Nauseated, I step away. Stupid classical conditioning.

Ava, still blushing, hides behind me. “I didn't mean to push the cake into his face, but he came out of nowhere,” she mutters.

“Very true,” Kenshin says forgivingly, giving me an uncertain look as I shake my head. “I already gave some to Hamlet as comfort food. Monty’s making more cake in the Cooking Guild as we speak.”

“You mean Helen?” I correct. Ava holds out her hands for the cake and Kenshin graciously hands her the skewed cake.

“Thank you,” Ava says as she takes a bite. “It’s really good.” Her face lights up with delight, and I feel happiness flood me. After all she’s been through, I’m glad she’s able to enjoy cake. I certainly won’t be able to…

When Kenshin has managed to get most of the cake off his face, he explains, “Hamlet’s in his normal body again. He’s not in the best mood since he spent 3k turning back…but you can find him in the Blue Moon Inn.”

Oh no. "Drinking again?" Then I have to go stop Hamlet.

With a mournful look, Kenshin shakes his head. “Plotting revenge against Cheesecracker. The guy dumped him after a few hours of…uh…fun. When did Cheesy get so sleazy?” He giggles. “I rhymed.”

“Congratulations,” I reply.

Giving me a sad puppy face, Kenshin says, “You’re as mean as Monty.”

15-Nov-2010 03:24:13 - Last edited on 15-Nov-2010 04:37:45 by Fireheart449

Fireheart449

Fireheart449

Posts: 1,028 Mithril Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile
“See you later!” I call and drag away Ava, who has thankfully polished off the last of the cake. Near the sheep pen, we catch up with Dawn, Enddragon, Armadylspark and Tigerstar, who refuses to look at me. Weird…

“We have to talk to Hamlet first," I tell Dawn, and much to my surprise, she nods and searches my face. Enddragon and Armadylspark are watching me too. What? Do I have cake on my face? I wipe at my face, and Dawn loops her arm with mine.

“I’m okay now," I say even though I rather like the attention.

“I’m sorry,” Dawn says, her gaze on the path ahead of us. She gives Enddragon, Armadylspark and Ava a brief glare for their eavesdropping, and the three of them drop back to walking at Tigerstar’s reluctant pace.

“For what?”

“I should have stayed with you even in the company of the two people I trust most.”

“Yes, I am helpless."

"A little less helpless than before,” Dawn amends. “But not much less.”

“Then I’ll stick close by you,” I decide.

Dawn gives me a side-glower. “Not too close.”

We hear giggles behind us, but when we look, the lot of them are straight-faced. To spite them a little, I give Dawn’s cheek a quick peck. I rush ahead, trying my best to avoid a possible death-by-poking.

Out of breath, I reach the gray walls of Varrock. My party walks past me, not acknowledging my existence. But even from here, I can see the faint blush on Dawn's cheeks as she steps into Varrock. Crossing my arms behind my head with a grin, I bound after them.

~End of Chapter 9~

15-Nov-2010 03:25:54 - Last edited on 15-Nov-2010 03:32:23 by Fireheart449

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