And so, from this spot we went our separate ways. I felt that I would need to investigate the mountaintop a bit more to find the orb. The blurgflyer queen seemed to me to be related to my Orb of Wisdom. I bid my friends good-bye and good luck, and teleported myself abruptly across to another mountaintop … or as close as I could get. My teleportation power was wearing thin, so I would have to hoof it up the last four miles.
But why walk it? I chanted and summoned an elum. I quickly mounted, and bucked his sides. He set off in the direction I had faced him.
After an uneventful hour (other than elum turning aside for honey a few times, which I remedied by calling down bees), I reached the summit.
It looked like something out of a nightmare. A dead flat, grassy-covered plain, which was broken only by five bent, jagged, lightning-scorched trees greeted my eyes. The sky overhead was pitch black, other than damp, dark gray clouds swirling menacingly over the center. It was odd, because the darkness broke off abruptly about ten feet out from the edge of the summit. This place felt as if it would be very important for the five of us someday. I sent the elum back down the mountain to feast on his honey while I started exploring.
Just over the far edge, I heard a bit of debris crumbling off. I crouched down for a closer look, and saw a small opening. Without a thought, I slipped down onto the ledge, and dropped down.
I could never believe what I saw. But I knew it had to be true.
I saw a sea of flowing, pulsing whiteness over the other side. It was surrounded by high rock walls holding it in. As I watched, the liquid looked more and more transparent. I saw, slowly, and eerily, faces of mudokons fowing through it! It was a river of souls!
"Gross!" was all I could say. At the sound of my voice, the souls instantly flew up out of the crater and flew about in a horrendous storm. They swarmed around me and clouded my vision. I heard screams and moans and cries.
"Ronan Sotch Termor!" came an ominous voice. I knew I was in for it; no one used my full name. Ever. "You seek the Orb of Wisdom, do you not?"
I could only shudder in the cold and damp of the souls surrounding me. I finally choked out: "Yes. I have reason to believe it is somewhere near this crater. Can you find a way to help me?"
The voice seemed amused, and about now I knew it was the collcective voice of all these souls. They must've been shamans in their life. "Perhaps I can, but then again ... perhaps I can't. It depends on what you can provide for me."
The souls thinned out a little bit so as to give me breathing room. I answered. "What is it you demand, Shamans of Years Past?"
Their appreciation of me increased with my formal questioning. But the thing they required of me was not any easier to accept afterward.
"We demand the blood of all your comrades to fall into this crater when it is filled with our souls. Do this, and the way to your orb will be opened."
I faltered here; how could I shed the blood of my fellows? "You expect me to kill my own friends just to obtain my orb?"
The voice laughed. "Yes. We want your closest companions to stand here and fall dying into this pit."
I was thunderstruck. "I cannot simply murder my friends! That's preposterous! I refuse!"
The voice got very mad at me. "We know that you are in need of the orb. And we also know that if you get it you will use it to achieve the power of The Odd. We cannot let a simple fool like you achieve a status it took us a lifetime to even begin to understand! It will not happen!"
The souls sped up and tightened around me. I found myself short on breath and fading ... what to do?
But then I got an idea!
"FINE!" I cried. "I'll do it! Allow me ten minutes to go and find them."
The souls disperesed and returned to their crater. "Fine. You have exactly ten minutes. Go, and be fast."
I promptly turned and marched back to the summit with the nightmarish trees. I stood in the immidiate center and chanted. Wind swirled around me, and it spread out into the trees, bringing them up and shaking them. Lightning crashed down onto my body, and I felt the same tugging as I did before fighting the Oddragon, but it was more profound. I felt my chest being pulled out and open, and feathers instantly sprouted all across the back of my head and down my shoulders. My skin turned pearly white and my arms and legs stretched longer, my muscles slightly bulging. My face slightly elongated, and I knew it was complete. The first part of my transformation was completed (ooc: like Saros' wings so many days ago) while a storm raged around me.
Meanwhile, the trees split and melted. I had made them into shells of my companions: Blarg, Geeble, Saros, and Lammy. The last tree smouldered and burned, as feathers scattered around around. I chanted again to regrow the trees (I never liked seeing dead trees sitting around), and led my living duplicates back down to the crater.
"Shamans of Years Past!" I called summoning them up. Like before, they spiraled up out of the crater and whirled about.
"You bring your friends, ready for sacrifice?" the voice said, surprised. "You were able to caonjur up your friends so soon?"
"Yes, Wise Ones. I will now sacrifice them to you." And so I lined them up along the craters edge, and drew my trusty slingshot from weeks ago in the capitol. (ooc: check back, it's there) I summoned a ball of lightning as ammunition and fired it off. I had tweaked it so that it split into four equal parts after being launched, and they did.
NOW! I raised my right paw up toward the mass of souls, and the lightning turned sharply upward and into the mass. One soul was struck, and the energy quickly spread throughout the whole group. I instantly knew I was going to be in for a world of pain, and so I gritted my teeth and held my breath.
I felt a sharp pain all over, and then ... blackness.
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