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"Mice? Lice?" Tarjun mockingly suggests, with an all too familiar grin.
His good humour doesn't seem to last long, however, when Jewel explains what her plans for the day are. "Stay inside and do more reading?" he moans. "But dad said this rain will last the whole day!" An ever more terrifying thought goes through his mind. "What if it lasts for more than one day?"
While all stand at the window a low rumbling sound, followed by a slight tremble in the ground catches the attention. Looking outside you see a cloud forming and growing like a mushroom into the sky from the midst of the woods.
"No." Will replies with a worried look. He jumps up from his seat and joins the kids at the window staring in disbelief at what is happening.
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"Should we run?" Tarjun is looking more uneasy by the minute. He remembers a story about a little girl losing her house to a tornado, and he does not want the same thing to happen to him.
"Maybe it's just the wind," he tries to reason. "Or a, a thing with our eyes- like seeing a cloud that looks like a rabbit!"
Jewel stares at the cloud trying to guess at what could cause such a thing.
"That doesn't look like normal wind. Something is causing it! And we're the Guardians of Erastil! We don't run...."
"Clara. Can you get Caspar? And Tarjun, do you have the magic club here in the house? I can get the other scepter. We should try to find out what that is. But I think we should have the tools from Erastil to do it!"
She turns to her father, "Dad. We know that we're still kids, so we'll be careful. But we need to know what that is and what's causing it before it runs all over the area destroying everything."
"No way. You're staying here!" Will objects.
"I see here is no fun to be had. I'm out." Clara tells and leaves.
Of course she goes to fetch Caspar and then leaves without telling anyone. Because, don't ask questions you don't like the answers to. She takes a path that isn't between the houses and the cloud in the woods.
Once she reaches the treeline, she hides behind the trees waiting to see if the others come too.
Jewel looks back out at the huge cloud.
"Dad. Look at that cloud. If that forms into a tornado, here won't be safe, and the entire town would be destroyed. All of the fields and all of the animals wiped out. We are Erastil's accepted Guardians, and I'm even a Cleric in training. I can cast his divine magic because he has accepted me. We can't ignore that. I think we have to at least go out there and try to see what is causing it. If we find that it is too dangerous, we run back here and try to organize everyone in shelter. Or if it's too dangerous for even that, we warn everyone and try to evacuate and save as much as possible."
"This is important, and you know Erastil doesn't want us hiding when there's work to be done."
"Then we should all go into the storage room in the basement. Will suggests. "What are you going to do against that anyway?
Frustrated Jewel looks out again and gathers her thoughts and feelings. "But there's not enough room in the basement for everyone and all of the animals. And that won't help the damage to the fields. As to what we can do against that cloud? I don't know. That's why we need to go check it out, to see if we can determine what caused it and how dangerous it is."
"Dad. You heard Clara. She's the hothead of our group, and she's gone. Tarjun and I need to go out and be sure she doesn't rush into trouble. We'll keep our distance from that, just moving really careful to try and see the source. And if it is something that we can work on, with Erastil's help, then we'll do that."
"You trust Erastil don't you? He wouldn't allow anything more dangerous than what we can handle to come here. Or he'd send help if something powerful did come. We'll just follow his guidance and check this out. And we'll come right back to let you know what we find."
Will takes a sharp breath to object to that, but Jewel put a moral sword on his chest. You see the 'no you won't' stuck in his throat and out comes a "But be careful, and you come back immediately once you've seen what it is!"
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Tarjun goes and fetch his club, looking more dejected than he has never been. Before Jewel can walk out of the house, he grabs her arm:
"Jewie, let's try and find Clara to bring her back home," he says in an unusually somber tone. "Dad's right, there's nothing we can do 'bout that thing. And Clara's running right towards it. Let's just- we need to take her somewhere safe. Safer The basement's not a bad idea.."
Jewel goes to gather up the Scepter with healing power, very much hoping it isn't needed. She grabs her little bow and arrows, also hoping there is nothing to shoot at.
She waits until they are out of the house before replying to Tarjun. "I agree. We need to catch Clara to keep her from getting into trouble. But seriously, look at that cloud again. It isn't a storm cloud. It looks like something blasted a bunch of dirt into the air, something from underground!?! I think we'll probably just need to get close enough to see the ground under that cloud and then we'll have at least some idea of what it is...."
Heading first by the Johnson's house, then toward the 'cloud' she calls for Clara.
The nice gentle rain will eventually bring the cloud down, but as it is merely enough to ruin the prospects of harvesting it will take a while.
Moving away from the Johnson house and towards the treeline, you see Clara waving from behind a tree.
Jewel leads Tarjun to the treeline to join Clara.
"I didn't say it in front of Dad, but look close at that cloud. It isn't rain. It's like a giant dust cloud. And it looks like something is driving it up into the sky!"
"Let's head over there, but slow when we get close. We really only want to find out what's there. If it's very dangerous I think we should just look, and then go back and tell our folks."
Clara takes the "slow when we get close" as a run to get there. And off she goes.
Suddenly you notice something strange and jump into the bushes. Sitting there you see a woman with dark violet skin, white hair riding a hige spider. But on closer inspection you find that below the waist the spider body with eight legs belongs to the woman.
When Clara takes off at a run Jewel stays with Tarjun. "Clara. Tarjun can't run like that!"
Seeing the Spider/Lady Jewel is immediately worried. Lots of spiders were poisonous, and even if it just hurt their stings were to be avoided. She tries to hide, but also looks around to see if there are more.
Clara topples over while gawking at the thing, breaking a few branches of bush.
The woman raises a brow while looking at the bush. Saying a word and waving her hand she disappears.
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A little embarrassed after having (apparently) mistaken the mysterious cloud for a tornado, Tarjun hurries along, protesting all the while:
"But how do you know it's just dust? Maybe it's a tornado. Maybe it's a hurricane. Maybe it's an underground volcano. Maybe..." The list goes on and on until the siblings stumble upon Clara, at which point he reluctantly shuts up.
All of his morosity vanishes, however, when he spots the spider lady. The sight strikes him quite dumb with astonishment until the creature disappears.
"The Hells were that?" he whispers. He grabs hold of his club, just in case.
Clara shushes Tarjun. Staring at the paint where the thing disappeared she listens carefully. Only after a minute of no signs does she answer. "Spiderwoman!" the awe in her expression and voice.
Feeling terror filling her far beyond anything she'd ever felt Jewel grabs Clara and Tarjun and backs away. "Drider! Do you remember the stories of dark elves? They had others.... The dark elves, I think they worshiped a spider goddess. And sometimes the dark elf would be combined with a giant spider, like that! She used magic to disappear! She's still here...."
"That eruption! They're opening a tunnel to their lands below the ground. They might be sending a war party here to raid our homes! We've got to stop.... We've got to warn.... We've...."
"I won't go home before I've seen what it's about. Wanna tell everyone to leave our home because you've seen Spiderwoman? It's not like our village could fight an army." Clara objects.
She then gets up and moves further towards the cloud.
As you finally arrive at the place it looks spectacular. The cloud has thinned and the dust has mostly settled on the plants in the area, turning everything beige. And in the missle of it is a large cave in about 100 feet in diameter. The bottom of it can't be seen from the distance.
On the way down along the sides of the hole you see several openings to tunnels at different heights that were formerly hidden deep underground.
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"Yeah, uh. Breathnacht didn't warn us about such a thing." Tarjun's usual confidence seems to have evaporated as he stares down the hole. He tugs on Clara's sleeve: "Come on, Clara, don't be daft. Those things are real, proper dangerous if they can dig up a tunnel like that, and turn invisible. We need to warn mom and dad."
Jewel stares at the hole, and glances all around with obvious worry on her face. "Yeah. Uh.... That looks almost like a city.... I mean, right Tarjun. Lets back off. This isn't ours. And Dad said not to get in to trouble. We need to go back home. Let's just leave this to the people that dug it up!"
Clara looks into the sky and turns around. "What giant do you think dug that hole? Where is the giant shovel?" Clara finds those explanations lacking.
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"I don't think anyone dug it up, Clara," Tarjun does his best not to roll his eyes. "Rather, the spider people dug a tunnel to the surface. Come on, let's go home."
He then turns around and starts walking back to his parents' farm as best as his stiff leg lets him. In his haste to go back to the safety of his home, he forgets to keep an eye out for any mysteriously reappearing, spider-mounted lady.
"It's only a boring hole anyway." Clara shrugs.
Despite her words she kicks in a stone and watches as it disappears into the depths.
Jewel starts along with Tarjun, but then notices Clara isn't with them. "Clara! Come on! What are you going to do if a swarm of spiders comes rushing out of that hole to eat you!?!"
Worried, Jewel does scan the area around them.
Clara leaves the hole and follows Jewel and Tarjun. The hole is going nowhere and its a sure bet they'll come back.
"I taste bad. They won't eat me."
She leaves it to Jewel to explain to Will what they found.
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As soon as he walks through his front door, Tarjun starts calling his parents to tell them about what he saw:
"Mom! Dad! We found the big dust cloud, and it turns out it's actually comin' from a hole in the ground- like, a large, large hole, well, not from it exactly, but like there's a big cloud because someone dug a big tunnel, and this someone is actually a spider lady -lady torso, spider legs-, and Jewel says it's dark elves." He barely takes a pause for breath. "What do we do?"
Jewel waits to let Tarjun tell his part, then adds, "I remember from the stories. What we saw was a Drider. She spotted us and cast a spell to disappear. I didn't want to risk encountering any dark elves so we came back to warn everyone. Shouldn't we warn everyone? Aren't dark elves mean and warrior-types? Except for the magic casters!?!"
"It did look like a huge hole in the ground! And like all that dirt got blasted out, making the big cloud!"
"I don't know what to make of that."
"Was the hole created on purpose? Were there more of those dark elves? Any other creatures coming out of the hole?" Will inquires.
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"We don't know. We've only seen one. Haven't seen other creatures," Tarjun enumerates, almost mechanically. His own nervosity transpires in his unusually flat tone. "We don't even know if they come from the hole, but Jewie says they live underground. So that's like really likely."
"The Spiderwoman was awesome!" Clara clarifies.
Jewel listens to her Dad, worried that he has questions that they can't answer. Then she gasps at Clara's comment. "Awesome! I don't KNOW about dark elves other than from stories. But aren't they EVIL? And that Drider.... She was a dark elf that was also a spider, maybe poisonous! And she cast a spell of invisibility! We can't cast that spell!"
"Ah, the hole was about a hundred feet across, and too deep to see the bottom. All of the dirt had been blasted up into the sky and was falling back, covering the area. On purpose? I.... can't imagine how it was done, or why. We saw some tunnels on the sides of the hole, but no, I didn't see any more driders or dark elves. Maybe they could cast invisibility too?"
"Tarjun? Dark elves live in dark places. That would have to be underground or the sunlight would hurt them. Wouldn't it?"
Realization comes to her face and she snaps her attention to her dad again. "You think the hole was an accident? Or maybe done by something other than the drider and her people? But what could do something like that? A hole that big would take.... I can't even imagine what!?! but that could mean that the drider and her people could be hurt or in danger? She didn't look hurt!"
As Jewel suggests a new theory Clara chuckles, trying to keep it in, but then bursts out with laughter.
When she finally is able to catch her breath again she tells "Obviously dark elves have no guardian kids they can send to investigate what happened. So they send Spiderwoman!"
"And now she is back, reporting about the dangerous Guardians of Erastil hiding in the bushes!" she can't hold it anymore and continues to laugh tears.
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Tarjun states at the two girls in utter disbelief. While he's typically not to one to succumb to pessimism, he seriously can't think of a single reason why they'd find a spider-person invasion thrilling.
"You guys are weird," he states. "We don't know what these dark elves want. What if they're gonna attack us, and they turn invisible, and we can't even fight back because we can't see them? I mean, they must have dug that hole for a reason, right ? Why do they wanna get out of the ground next to our village all of a sudden? We never saw 'em before! "
Clara sticks her tongue out and blows a raspberry. "Who'd be stupid enough to create such a hole just because of our great village. You think it's a dark elf army training for newbies?"
Jewel fights hard to not be irritated with Clara when she jokes about the danger, practically throwing an insult at er for the Guardians of Erastil comment. She is barely able to keep her face deadpan. But with Tarjun's comments all that evaporates.
"Dug the hole for a reason.... That's a good point. That hole wasn't dug, at least not by human or dark elf hands. That hole is huge, and all of the dirt was launched into the air. Something supernatural did it. I don't think the dark elves had any intention to come to the surface here." She glances at her friends, then her Father. "I think we need to find that Drider. Maybe she can speak our common language... They might need help. Their people might have been hurt."
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So we're gonna try and have a chat with dark elves- fantastic. Tarjun bites down on his tongue, and doesn't voice this uncharitable thought. As little inclined as he is to start up a conversation with these creatures, he can't really think of a better alternative.
"I guess we better know what they're here for," he reluctantly agrees.
"You're falling back into your habit to help everyone." Will reminds Jewel. "Are you sure there is no non-supernatural cause for the hole? And we need to make sure we don't mix cause and effect here."
"I have no experience with supernatural holes. But natural ones that aren't dug out usually happen, because of some hollow space. Like a mine or some water that washes it out underground. If that isn't stable anymore and caves in, you get a hole at the surface"
Jewel listens, and has to accept the words of wisdom. "You're right. I want to help, even if it isn't needed. But that description doesn't work. The area didn't collapse into a wash-out or something like that. The dirt was thrown up.... Way up into the air, so we could even see it from here."
"You are right and maybe the dark elves don't need any help from us. And trying to talk with them may very well be dangerous. But that Drider may have some information on what happened and how. Who else could we ask? I don't have any magic that would let me directly ask Erastil for an answer...."