Chapter Text
After about five minutes ody grabbed jades arm and urged her to hop on jacks back, and then grabbed kari and hopped onto the other horse and pulled kari up, "I'm not going to ask until we get away from here, and once we do you can come with us or not.” ody grabbed the reins as he felt Kari's hands wrap around his waist.
He didn’t like physical touch from people he didn’t know well enough, but put up with the contact while on the horse.
While running off they passed the building and jade looked at the ruccage and something coughs her eyes, jade spots bright purple eyes staring straight at them “uuuuhhm…what did you do ody?? Loir is still alive….and watching us..”
“Just ignore it jade… well be fine” ody looked back a slight prickle spreading across his neck, the piercing purple eyes making him nervous, hes grip on the reins tightening as he looked back forward.
Jade, ody, and kari rode back down the hill and back to the crossway they were at yesterday, scratches and marks still littering the ground. They went up the other cross way heading deeper into the mountain.
“So you guys going to tell me whats going on?” kari rested his chin on odys shoulder earning a low growl back from the man sitting in front of him, "I will toss you off this horse. Get your chin off me.” Kari laughed and put his hands up in a surrendering manner.
“It's a long story, but to keep it short I'm not from here, i dont know where im from, so we're getting ingredients to get my memories back, Edith is helping me regain them.” Kari's face went through multiple emotional stages of confusion, shock, and wonder. “Thats fascinating, what's the first needed ingredient?”
“Rosemary gold. We have to get at least five petals and the roots of the plant.” ody answered Kari's question, kicking the reigns to speed up. “Oof, I've heard of those, my friend had to get some for a spell and ended up losing his hand, not a very pleasant sene to walk on.” kari grimaced, remembering walking into his friend's room and seeing a wrapped stump where the hand should’ve been but wasn’t.
As they went up the hill, Jade had the map in her hands and followed the path, ody and Kari following from the rear. kari had hopped off an hour before and was flying along with them, and as they reached the top kari froze in place. “Holy shit…What happened here???” Kari looked around. all of the rubble and destruction surrounding the place, it was as if a tornado had swept through and caused misery and sorrow.
Ody and jade hopped off the horses and ody tied their reigns to a tree “the map says this is where the plant should be…but i don't know, how would it survive all of THIS” jade waved a hand to the destruction.
Ody scuffed the ground with his heel, kicking some dust and debris up. Kari moved around picking up some dust and letting it fall through his hands, the dirt moving like time, quick and fast away from him.
Jade walked around, seeing how so many plants were dead in a mile radius yet something caught her eyes, she realized There was a cave up in the mountains. She looked back to what she hoped could be friends, and with some hope in her voice she hollers back to them.
“Look!! Over there!!!” Jade's arm flew up, pointing towards a hole in the mountain a faint glow emitting from inside.
“What do yall think is in there??” She turned her head back staring to ody and Kari for an answer, the two older boys looking to each other, neither having an answer, ody grabbed the edge of his cape near him and treaded forward kari following the rear, a few feet away something flashed brightly.
Walking into the cave ody got a jarring feeling down his spine, as if someone had stabbed him making ody paralyzed. As kari and jade wandered deeper into the cave ody staggered back from them, “guys… we should turn back, something doesn't seem right here. I have a bad feeling.” jade turned around giving kari a side glance “what do you mean?? Like someone or something could be in here?” just as jade said that the entrance closed shut, everything going dark around them. There only being two sources of light, one being something glowing faintly further down the cave, and the other being ody oddly enough.
Kari turned and flew towards the closed entrance hitting the wall over and over with his side. “DUDE first you guys got attacked by a zheng, then two, whatever those shits were at the inn!!! And now whatever the heck is happening here!!” kari turned and pointed to jade and then ody. “Yall have some MAJOR bad luck” he huffed and plopped on the ground.
“...go deeper in the cave?? Since that's all we CAN do??” ody suggested, turning to the faint red low down the cave. As kari caught up to them ody summoned light in his hands, and out of nowhere two pairs of horns formed on his head, and a long tail with a sharp end, slowly ody’s appearance changed.
Ody had patterns making its way all around him, and when it ended it would stop with a sharp point like a knife and split in a new way, it had a bright sea green glow to it; making him be like a human glow stick. His skin changed to a dark blue, almost black his, horns and tail matching the color exactly.
Kari's breath hitched, a faint pink dusting his face, he averted his eyes from ody. “Dude, what is this.” jade waved her hand in odys direction his tail flicking to the sid of him “my other form…did i not tell you ooor???” ody dragged his last word on arching a brow to jade as she shrugged.
Ody huffed and the glow in his hand grew brighter, the three now walking further down the cave “guess I didn’t. Well some elves have these alter appearances that when performing a spell will sometimes appear, or some elves feel more comfortable in the altar so that's what you may see most of the time.” As the three walked further down a ray ran past them, and jade definitely did not jump when it ran straight past her feet, causing ody and Kari to laugh.
After they got their composure the three delved deeper into the cave while Ody continued to explain how not all elves have this ability, but some do have horns, or tails etc. etc. but can hide them if they want to.
Suddenly they reached an end. Jade's eyes landed on something tangled with flowers and plants. As they walked closer ody recognized it to be a sword, similar to the one Jade has on her body, yet it was tinted with red and black.
“Welp. We’re gonna starve to death now.” Kari basically just fell face first on the hard ground, his wings slowing the fall for it to not hurt as much “how fun!!” He exclaimed; his voice dripping with sarcasm.
ody realized they were at a dead end and that Kari was correct that if they didn’t find a way to escape they’d starve since they left their supplies with the horses outside.