"Fuck! Just break you fucking boulder." A man desperately screamed as he hit a massive stone again and again alongside tens of other people.


    The whole group, which was now trapped in a mountain path grouped in front of it, they pushed, they punched, they hit with magical attacks; they slashed with their swords, desperately trying to move it or break it.


    There was only a single person who didn''t follow the rest. Bran simply sat on the small stone near the group and watched them, taking in a sip of his drink every few seconds. "Maybe try it from a different angle!" He yelled at them with a sarcastic tone before breaking into a laugh.


    Tariq shot him a glance, but he quickly returned his eyes to the stone with a scoff. But one person wasn''t so easy on him. Draya pulled out a sword out of the boulder and trudged to him, slamming both of her blades into the ground before crossing her arms.


    Bran looked up at her, imagining her angry face beneath the cloth, probably looking down at him and trying to intimidate him. He had to give her probs. She was a scary lady. He would imagine that basically every soldier under her would be shitting his pants just about now. That wide armor and her colossal frame shed a frightening shadow down on him.


    "You planning to help, or are you just going to be a waste of resources?" The threat here was quite obvious to Bran, but also quite hilarious.


    He whistled, meeting her towering frame with sarcastic fright. "Uh oh, I''m in trouble, ha?" He gave himself another laugh before getting up and meeting her gaze. Putting his hand on her shoulder, "Calm down, would you? You won''t break that any time soon. Whether I help you or not. How about we actually do what we came here to do and let the people we left on the other side deal with this?" He finally gave an appropriate answer to their concerns.


    "That isn''t an option. We have very limited resources, especially considering our numbers. We just can''t afford to wait that long," Draya explained.


    "Dear lord, how spoiled are you guys? We brought enough food for the comfortable five days that we initially planned. We just need to be a bit more conservative. Ten or fifteen days should be no issue. And, if it comes down to it, I''m certain we can find the beasts that haven''t run away and hunt them down." He glanced at her, trying to see her face through the cloth, imagining it being disgusted at the thought of eating those stinky creatures.


    "He is right," the male voice intervened into their argument. "We need to finish our job. That should be the priority. I''m certain we can find a way out of here after that. Maybe there is a cave that we passed that has an entrance somewhere here and outside of the path, or maybe the other group can go down to the village and check if there is a rope long enough to get us out." Tariq explained his side, coming up with a few solutions to their problems. "They live near the mountains, after all. I''m certain they must be having something that can help."


    "Are you certain this is the right choice captain, this…"


    "Yes, I''m sure." He confirmed before she could finish her thought. "Are you against it because you think it''s a poor plan, or is it the same reason you were against going into the mountain or accepting this assignment in the first place?"


    Draya was quiet, her eyes falling to the floor. Bran glanced at her and then back at the captain of the group just as he walked away. He unconsciously started to stroke his beard as he stared at him.


    "Draya, why were you so against this?" He lightly leaned toward her.


    "It''s just… I get this feeling in my stomach…" Draya stuttered, barely getting the words out.


    "Hmm…" He stroked his beard one last time, his hand remaining beneath it, "Fire the explosion into the air to call the group." He patted her back before walking off himself.


    A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.


    She looked at him with raised brows and a tilted head, "What?" She glanced at her hands and then up at the sky. "Yeah, I suppose that could work."


    The fiery pillar flew into the sky just as Tariq finished explaining the plan to the troops. The spell exploded once it reached the sky, painting it red for just a moment.


    "Oh, it seems they are in trouble." Said the blond girl with a scar while holding a palm above her eyes.


    Others looked up with her, watching the fireworks.


    "Is this how your people signal that?" Questioned one soldier.


    "Eh, we use what we can. This certainly isn''t the first time we saw something like this." Aveline answered, "That girl sure has some firepower, though."


    With the help of his spear, Garrett got up from the log he was sitting on. "We should go check what it is then." He stated, stretching his arms.


    "They probably got stuck," said Tristan.


    "What?" Eira''s eyes went wide. "How do you know that?" She inquired.


    "Didn''t you hear the rocks falling? They probably trapped the group." Tristan responded matter-of-factly.


    She looked like she would wiggle her tail if she had one after she heard it. "Wow, so smart."


    The soldiers, Garret, and Aveline looked at them with squinted eyes. That was a pretty reasonable assumption all of them have made. Seeing her be so impressed by it was pretty weird though regardless of that, it made the soldiers incredibly jealous of Tristan. "Why didn''t I say it out loud first?" Most of them thought, but eventually, they consoled themselves by coming to the conclusion that Eira knew that too and she simply wanted to compliment the man.


    However, Garret and Aveline were both aware she wasn''t the brightest apple under the tree. Their disdain rather came from the scene being all lovey-dovey.


    "Okay, let''s go," commanded Garret before turning away and walking toward the entrance, followed by Aveline. A second later, soldiers slowly focused on the actual task and followed them as well.


    While that was going on, a pair of completely black eyes drifted open, still heavy with sleep. Under them, the wide short nose took in a big breath as the boy to whom it belonged stretched out. As the boy pushed himself up, a little ''num, num'' sound escaped his lips while he traced his hand over his belly. "''Yawn,'' I should probably get back to work." He stated as he walked up to the pile of body parts.


    Or, at least… where body parts should''ve been.


    The boy looked at the empty place for a few seconds and then rubbed his eyes before they went wide. "Where are Wunny, Wrinkles, Winnie, Worky, Wooples, Wish, Waffles, Wookie, Walnut, Wally, and Whiskers?" He glanced around, then turned around, then looked up. "Hmm, seems that my spell worked. It just took some time, and the beast left."


    "The beast left!" He screamed grabbing his head, "No, no, no, no, no,…"


    "What will I do now? That was my last chance." He yelled at the wall.


    The cave fell into silence. Only the whistling of the wind as it hit the cave walls, entered the boy''s ears, he began to think. He crunched down next to the now-extinguished campfire and stared at it. He took in a deep breath, smelling the scorched logs, and dipped his fingers into ash.


    He then began to draw on the ground. It wasn''t very visible, but enough so to make it apart from the stone beneath it. He first drew a square, writing ''three nahr'' above and to the side. After that he drew a portion of the mountain on the upper portion and drew two small lines next to each other near the upper right corner and a few small stickmen just beneath it and a little left to them he drew a half circle and ''x'' within it. He then drew a river, starting a bit down from the upper right corner, and went down, exiting just right from a bottom left after making a near ninety-degree turn. After that, he drew what seemed to be some type of farmland, left to the river, at the very bottom left of the map. The only thing left to draw were the woods beneath and left of the river and the small opening in the forest where a few more farmland were.


    Stroking his chin, he observed his map and stated, "He shouldn''t have gone further than this; the reanimated creatures rarely stray from their creator, even if disobedient. Idris''s failures proved that." He chuckled a little, remembering his little brother trying to reanimate their pet after it died. It jumped at him and scratched his face. He cried for hours after that. He even ended up with a scar going down the middle of his forehead. Zahak searched for it later and once he found it rather than taking it, he followed it, trying to figure out this exact thing. It wasn''t the only time it happened either, so he was pretty certain when it came to his conclusion. "But will the beast behave the same way, especially since it''s a completely recreated creature from Wunny, Wrinkles, Winnie, Worky, Wooples, Wish, Waffles, Wookie, Walnut, Wally, and Whiskers?"


    "Currently, that''s my only option. I can assume he didn''t climb the mountain and as a dead creature, which I should give a name to, thinking for himself he should go where life is, so the farmlands are probably out." He looked at the few drawn stickmen before he sighed, "no, I shouldn''t go there. So, my best bet is the forest." He got up, placing his hand on his hips, "Let''s go!"


    He hopped out of the cave with excitement… "Warp. Warp sounds pretty good."