Chapter 4
The entire group of Ren's followers stood in a circle around the altar. Martyn held a giant axe in his hands.Â
âI believe one of you has been cursed by a witch,â Ren said.Â
âKill the witch! Kill the witch!â several people shouted. Others stayed completely silent.Â
âIf you tell me who the witch is, Iâll let you go and stop this curse,â Ren continued after the shouting had stopped. âDonât tell me who it is, and Iâll still end this curse, but in a different manner.âÂ
Bdubs took a step forwards. âYou may now speak,â he said, not breaking eye contact with me.Â
âRen, oh noble king, we donât know where this curse came from. We only know that if we have been cursed, it must have been so from the very first day the sun found this world and warmed it with its love,â Grian said. âPearl and I have been together since we arrived here and ran into this version of myself before the first moon chased the sun away to let her children play,â he continued.Â
Ren raised his hand. âIf what you say is true, then Pearl is the witch who cursed you when you werenât looking! Hand, axe!â Martyn took a step forward and presented the axe to Ren.Â
âMy King,â he said as Ren took the axe from Martynâs hands.Â
âI shall free you from this curse, as I would do for everyone I meet along this bloodied and cursed path. For if I can lift at least one curse before I die, I know I walked my path the way the moon intended it.â
He took a couple of steps towards Pearl, axe held high, when the clouds blocked out the moon and a loud rumbling was heard. âBdubs blew up, Etho blew up, BigB blew up, Tango blew up, Jimmy died.âÂ
âHow did five people perish?â Ren turned around, letting the axe fall on the altar. âWhat is this trick? Why does the moon tell us you died while youâre standing in front of me unharmed?â With the king distracted I sought a way to escape but could find none. Ren stood tilted to the right, so left was our only safe way to go, but Scott and Jimmy stood there watching us. Signaling us?
âHere, go. Run,â they whispered. âHit us and run.â
So we did. We got up and ran towards the left, knocking Jimmy and Scott out of the way in the process. By the time Ren noticed what happened we were already protected by the dense forest.
We exited the forest by the break of dawn. âThose deaths we saw, do you think that wasââ I asked, out of breath.Â
âYes, I assume so,â Grian responded, âThe Boogey has been cured.â
âSo all those people lost their lives so one person could keep his?â Pearl asked.Â
After catching his breath for a few second Grian responded: âYes, I assume so.â
Green hills rolled out in front of us. Clouds filled the sky again. âBigB was slain by a spider.â The clouds rolled back and a beautiful sun was shining.Â
âHow could BigB die from a spider?â Pearl asked.Â
âNo idea,â I replied.Â
We wandered the plains for a bit before deciding to mine when the night began setting in again. While digging, we opened up a large cave. Massive spiders hung from the ceiling and in the corners, and a few explosives were stacked up. Slowly, we walked over to them. As long as the giant spiders didnât see us, all would be well. And if they did see us⊠Well, it wasnât worth thinking about that.Â
A few rocks started shaking and formed words. âEtho fell from a high place.â We didnât pay it any attention. Our eyes were on the explosives and spiders above us. BigB dying to them made sense now.Â
When we reached the explosives we all looked at each other. There were too many to carry them all. Each of us took a couple of little sticks, and I grabbed a small pouch before we stalked back out. The rest of the night we stayed on the opposite side of that cave, digging down some more, and even finding some raw iron to smelt back in the village.Â
It was day when we emerged from the cave. The sun reflected on little dewdrops spread throughout the field.Â
âWe need to find that village again,â Grian said. His two necklace beads seemed to shine in the light.Â
âHello travelers. Mind if we were to share a fire?â a voice called out behind us.















