Welcome to Part Two guys and Gals!761Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTEUbUgYtl7
This is actually about where I was when I first began looking into posting Heroes of Rune on the web. It's kind of a surprise that we've gotten this far, to be honest. Not that I didn't think we'd make it, I'm just surprised that we're here.761Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9oWovoOjBH
Anyways, from my side of things, Part two is coming along great! It's about ten or so chapters ahead, and currently 30,000 words long, give or take. This admittedly makes parts one and two a bit lopsided, but I when I called them parts one and two, I had no idea part two would be as long as it is. So now, they more of symbolize jumps in time for the story; as seen by the title, Two Months Later.761Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ330r0Bw3vK
At this point I think I'm rambling, so I'll just shut up now and leave you guys to it! Enjoy!761Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡIQT71ZcMkS
The cave was situated in the tallest mountain in the range, halfway up its steep boulder covered surface. Despite facing into the setting sun, light seemed to bend away from its entrance. A thin treacherous path snaked up its face each step more dangerous than the last. The only way to get to the trail was by a miniscule winding road leading in between two mountains. It was not a place many went.761Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8VaniPrGia
This made it all the more surprising when a long drawn out roar echoed from its depths, startling a pair of birds. The birds weren’t the only thing startled by the roar as four players bolted out of the inky black cave and scrambled down the slope. They were an odd group, but then again, odd was a very accurate way of describing many character models in Rune.
They had not escaped a moment too soon. Thick brown noxious goo burst from the hole and slid down the slope in a sick disgusting landslide. The mage noticed it first, calling out to the rest of the group who jumped off the path and began skirting down the mountain even faster. They just barely got out of the way of the goo before it overtook them in the race to the bottom. It picked up speed until it hit the road at the bottom. Splashing sludge against the other mountain, it slowly spread out, taking the mountain road.
Skittering to a stop, they finally reached the bottom, their characters letting out pre-voiced pants as their stamina slowly recharged. They stared at wonder as the goo slowly drained out of the cavern with seemingly no end.
“That, was easily the most disturbing boss battle I have ever seen in Rune,” Croe said; clutching a deflated arm that was slowly spewing straw out of a massive tear.
“Somehow, it was worse than even the Great Mighty Poo,” Alex said.
“It brought back horrible memories of last year’s English teacher,” Miles said in misery, his character shifting in a white ceramic set of armor he had borrowed to protect against the sludge.
“You had the spawn of Umbridge and Jabba the Hutt for a teacher?” Alex asked incredulously.
“It was a very bad year,” Miles confirmed.
“Tell me we at least got what we came for,” Croe pleaded, looking back at the cavern. “Because I doubt we’re getting back in there any time soon.”
Miles said nothing, but reached into his inventory and pulled out a massive glittering green emerald. Inside, a small fire burned cheerfully, defying all laws of nature.
“What say we drop this thing off and call it a day?” Alex asked.
“I second the motion,” Miles said as he gingerly wiped a bit of sludge that had clung to the breastplate. It clung to his gauntlets and began smoking, forcing Miles to give it a shake to dislodge it. “I can’t wait to get this stinkin’ armor off and get back to my normal speed.”
“What normal speed?” Croe asked, ribbing him.
“Hey!” Miles yelled indignantly. “Considering you only have one arm, I wouldn’t be making any funny business.”
“Well, considering I only need one arm to use my totally awesome scythe, I think I’m pretty well off,” Croe shot back.
“You mean the scythe that hasn’t consistently worked since we blew up the Hacker’s castle?” Miles asked.
The two eyed each other, then burst out laughing. Alex and Janus joined in after a moment’s hesitation.
It had been a busy session but fairly enjoyable session- One that Alex had grown to enjoy and expect in the past two months since the battle of the castle, as it had been named on the forums. Alex wouldn’t say it made them heroes, but it certainly made the names of Croe, Miles, Janus, and Ginganinja well known in the game. Hackers hated them, Coder’s were wary of them, and most who would consider attacking four players out on their own usually thought twice or regrouped to even the odds. Not that it worked for them, or anything.
@0@0@
Miles went into town first, being the least likely to be attacked by a random Coder should he encounter one. When he was certain that the coast was clear, he PM’ed the group and they all snuck to the side of the Spicy Mushroom. Miles knocked twice on the aging wood and a tiny peephole slid open, a black beady eye staring through it. A portion of the dirt next to them shivered and dropped, revealing a secret passage. Climbing through it, the four found themselves in the back room of the Spicy Mushroom. The door on the far side popped open and SpicyMooshroom strode in.
“How’s it goin’ guys!?” he asked in his usual loud voice. “You get the gem?”
To answer his question, Miles pulled it out and offered it to Spicy, who quickly pulled out a velvet cloth from his apron pocket and reverently took it from Miles’ hand.
“Thank you gentlemen. This will fetch a good price on the auction floor. Miles, if you’ll put that set of armor on the empty stand to your right; I’ll go and fetch your payment.”
“Does Qilin know that you are doing business with us?” Miles asked as he undid the straps to the armor.
Spicy let out a booming laugh as he unlocked the safe in the back of the room. “Miles, Qilin knows enough about my business to know not want to know about my business. I intend to keep it that way.”
“Hey, Spicy, Not to change the subject, but do you have any straw that I can use?” Croe asked, still spewing straw out of his arm and onto the floor.
“Sure! I’ve got a bag in the far left corner, next to the Greek fire and the dwarven axes. I’ve got a shipment of wizardry staves and it’s taking up space, so do me a favor and take it with you.”
Croe pulled out a needle and thread and set to stitching the gash closed. Once the task was complete, he pulled his glove off and began stuffing straw down the sleeve. By this point, Spicy had returned with four hefty bags of coins and Miles had taken off the armor and was giving it a wipe.
“Well, it was a pleasure doing business with you four,” Spicy said as he handed one bag to each of them. “If anything else comes up, I'll let you know immediately.”
As they went to exit through the tunnel, Croe paused for a moment. “Spicy,” he said. “I was wondering, have you heard anything about-”
“Sorry kid, I haven't,” Spicy said sadly, immediately knowing what Croe was asking. “I've checked with all of my contacts- they've heard about it, but have never seen it come up on auction. If that scythe you keep talking about is really that powerful, somehow I doubt that your guy would throw it away on the market.”
Croe sighed. “Well, thanks anyways. If you hear anything,”
“Oh, I'll tell you,” Spicy assured him. “That scythe is too hot of a commodity for my little establishment. If word got out that I had it, players and thieves alike would be drawn to my establishment like pigeons to bread crumbs.” Spicy frowned. “Speaking of which, you willing to deal with that sort of publicity?”
Croe gave him as best of a smile that a scarecrow could give. “Even pigeons can be scared by trampling feet.
Spicy chuckled at that. “Best of luck on your search kid.”
@0@0@
“So, I don't know about the rest of you, but it's getting pretty late my time,” Miles said once they had gotten a few kilometers down the road.
“Same here,” Alex said. “It’s almost two and I've got a Calculus test tomorrow.”
“Cheers,” Miles said as he logged off, his character disappearing into a thousand different pixels.
“I'm probably going to stay on a bit longer.” Croe said, yawning. “I heard they're auctioning off a telekinetic spellstone in about 30 minutes.”
Janus took out his pile of coins and tossed it to Croe. “Have fun with that. I'll try to get on after work tomorrow.” he too vanished into pixels.
Alex bade farewell and logged off as well. He removed his headgear and pinned the microphone next to the headphones. He then tugged off the gloves and stuffed them into the headgear. With his equipment safely stored away, he stumbled into bed and passed out- face first on his pillow.
It seemed but a few moments later that his door was ripped open and his light rudely turned on.
“Whuzzgoinon?” Alex mumbled, still half asleep and barely functioning.
“What do you think is going on?” Jessica answered irritably. “We need to get ready for school.”
“Five more minutes,” Alex moaned; turning over and covering his face with his pillow.
“You’ve asked that three times already,” Jessica said, yanking the pillow away. “If you didn't stay up all night playing that stupid game of yours, then maybe you'd be able to get up at a decent time.”
“C'mon Jessica, I've got like an hour to get ready. I can sleep in just a little more,” Alex pleaded, mostly awake now, but continuing on so as not to give his sister the satisfaction of winning.
She stood there for a second then threw the pillow at him. “Fine. You asked for it,” she said with a menacing tone. She stormed down the hallway and into the bathroom. Grateful she was gone, Alex fluffed his pillow back into a more comfortable shape, and lay back down. His reprieve was brief however, as Jessica came back barely two minutes later. She uncapped something, then began spraying it into his fan. Alex gagged as the smell hit him- it was several of his sister's air fresheners she kept underneath the bathroom sink being sprayed at once; the smells intermingling to create a vile concoction.
“Agh! No! Below the belt! Help!” Alex screamed as he struggled to untangle himself from the bedsheets. He rolled out of bed and into a pile of dirty laundry, magazines, and school homework. Stumbling, he scrambled past Jessica and into the hallway, desperate to escape the repulsive smell.
“You might as well go down and eat- I’ve got first dibs on the bathroom today!” Jessica called at him.
Alex paused on the top of the stairs. “You will regret this someday!” he shouted dramatically, a finger raised In the air in emphasis, before racing down the stairs to the kitchen, where Dunham was pouring himself a cup of coffee and reading the newspaper. He looked up as Alex came in. “It would seem you have had an eventful morning,” he said dryly.
“Tell me about it,” Alex said, grabbing an empty mug for himself. “It's not even eight and my sinuses are already clogged with the smell of eau de merde. What is this place, the school restroom?”
“While I am happy to hear you practicing your Latin,” Dunham said, plucking the cup from Alex's hand before he could pour himself a cup of coffee, “I do not believe all of those are words that you learned in school, nor ones that your teachers would approve of.”
“How would you know?” Alex asked. “It's not like you know Latin, is it?”
“Vous seriez surpris jeune maître Samson. J'ai étudié la Rome antique à l'université.” (You would be surprised young master Samson. I studied ancient Rome in college.)
Alex gave him a strange look. “I have no idea what half of that was,” he said.
Dunham smiled. “Then perhaps you should practice the material actually given in class.”
Ignoring the remark, Alex grabbed a box of cheerios from the pantry and sat down to eat. About ten minutes later, Jessica came down the stairs, running a comb through her damp hair.
“You ready for the calculus test?” Jessica asked Alex as she snatched the cheerios box from her twin and began pouring herself a bowl as well.
“About as much as I can be,” Alex mumbled through a full mouth.
“Swallow,” Dunham commanded eyeing the teen’s bulging cheeks.
Alex took a massive gulp and continued. “I probably need to go over area and volume a bit more, but I can look over them during study hall.”
“Are you sure that’s a good idea?” Dunham asked. “Putting something like that off seems like a bad idea.”
“No, but it’s better than not studying at all.”
They ate in silence for a while before Jessica spoke up. “So what are you doing today, Dunham?”
“Our lawyer is coming over this afternoon to discuss some sensitive subjects in person,” Dunham said. “It's nothing important; just a few inconsistencies I asked him to clear up,” he added hastily as he noticed the concerned looks on their faces.
“Well, if anything does come up, let us know,” Jessica said. “We have a right to know as well.”
Dunham opened his mouth as if to say something, then stopped. After several moments he said “you’re right. You both are sixteen. In a couple years, you’ll be adults. I don’t see why you shouldn’t know these things.”
Jessica thanked him then got Dunham to help her with her hair. While he was distracted, Alex snuck to the coffee machine and poured himself a cup.
@0@0@
Despite the cup of coffee he managed to down on the way to school, Alex still felt the effects of his late night gaming session. He almost passed out during the calculus test and did pass out when his art history teacher turned the lights and began lecturing on the Byzantines. Thankfully, he woke up before she turned on the lights and noticed him.
Finally, his last period- Health- rolled around. He liked Health, not because of the material but because of the teacher. Mrs. Lukas was possibly the nicest and funniest teacher he had ever had. She actively tried to keep her students entertained and excited about a course that apart from one single section was not very entertaining.
Plus, the one time they had computers in the class, several people set up a LAN game of Halo CE, and instead of shutting them down, Mrs. Lukas joined them. Any teacher that did that was a winner in Alex’s books.
It was extremely unusual to see her looking unhappy. Which was exactly what she looked like as Alex walked into her room.
“Now those of you who have been completely oblivious to the goings on of my class,” Mrs. Lukas said as the late bell rang, “We are working our way through the mental health chapter in our textbooks. The school has therefor decided that we need a, ‘guest speaker’,” she said as if it were a curse, “to explain this to you.”
The class murmured uneasily. Something that the school did and Mrs. Lukas disagreed with was usually bad news. Alex shifted into a more comfortable position and pulled out his water bottle to take a sip. It was going to be a long period.
“It is therefore my ‘pleasure’ to welcome Mr. Harold to speak to you,” she finished.
Alex choked on his water, earning him a pound on the back from the guy behind him. It couldn’t be. It simply couldn’t.
He wheeled around in his seat in time to see Pedostache waddle through the door.
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