her's the next one. we meet a mysterious traveler in the forest. who could it be? enjoy.


Chapter 19

Tiponi and Medwin stood in suspense as heavy footsteps on the forest floor approached them. Twigs cracked under the stranger, and the sound was getting louder by every step!

“Tiponi, it’s coming this way!” exclaimed Medwin.

Before they could do anything about it, the intruder was in sight. It was a medium-size man with tanned skin and short brown hair, who wore a baggy dark green shirt, and sturdy brown trousers. His dæmon appeared to be settled as a Spinarak. Tiponi and her dæmon had become cautious during their travels, and were not quite ready to trust this seemingly shady character in the forest.

However, the shady character in question didn’t seem to have any problems with the strangers in front of him. He walked right up to the girl Quester, his Spinarak trailing eerily behind.

Tiponi and Medwin just stood there, frozen. This was it. They had been caught. Someone from Hot Springs must have been tracking them down, and had unfortunately succeeded. Her father would never know that his only daughter had been murdered on the way to Swarm by an angry resident of Hot Springs.

He had finally closed in on them. Now that he was closer, Tiponi could see that his clothes were dirty and worn as if from a long hike in the woods. Also, he had a large pack secured to his back, filled with everything a hiker in the woods would need to survive. Or to hunt down an innocent Quester in the woods and dump her dead body where no one would ever find her.

Her menacing thoughts were interrupted when the Killer spoke. His voice was sleek and strong, like, well, a Spinarak’s web.

“Hey there, Miss. Are you by chance a wandering Quester making your way to Swarm?”

“The mighty Mineral Mountains, he did come after me to kill me! ” thought Tiponi, to her horror. At this thought, she did the only thing she could; she screamed.

Though Tiponi didn’t scream too much during her lifetime, she had a great wail. She had one of those ear-piercing, bloody-murder screams. This caused all those present to cover their ears tightly and many forest critters to scurry away, as well as some birds to fly off. When her scream finally ended, Medwin and the stranger removed their hands from their ears, and his dæmon shook his head as if to clear the sound from his memory.

The Hiker-Murderer stared at Tiponi. His bright green eyes were a shade or two darker then the Spinarak that stood beside him.

“What’s the matter? You are a Quester, aren’t you?” he said, then stuck has hand out and continued to speak, “M’ name is-”

Tiponi didn’t hear what his name was, because she wasn’t standing in front of him anymore. She was running.

“Miss? Miss, all I wanted to know was if you wanted to battle me!”

Tiponi stopped short. Her sudden halt caused her to skid a little on the blanket of twigs, leaves and rocks that covered the ground beneath the lush, green canopy of trees.

While Tiponi stood still in puzzlement, the man caught up with her. She suddenly felt an odd jolt, causing her to fall over. The jolt felt like a sharp tug from inside her chest, like there was a leash inside her that pulled her forward, accompanied by a feeling of sadness and loneliness. However, she knew this feeling. The painful tug and unhappy emotion could only mean one thing; Medwin had not stopped as she had.

“MEDWIN!” Tiponi yelled. Though she knew what the felling was, it still hurt a lot. She could remember as a child, trying what all children in Mineral Mountains did; testing how far she could be away from her dæmon before they couldn’t bear it any longer. They figured out that their connection allowed them to be about 30 of Mr. Vared’s arm lengths away from each other. So Medwin was 30 arm lengths ahead, trying to run away.

“Miss. We’re both Questers, right? I just want to know if you want to battle.”

A battle? A real Quester battle that wasn’t with her father or a Gym Leader? Tiponi got excited.

By this time, Medwin had come back, fearing the Tiponi was hurt.

“Medwin, he wants a Quester battle.” She almost laughed as she said this. The girl stood up and brushed herself off. After flapping her long skirt and petticoat a little to get the lose pebbles and twigs off, she looked at her dæmon to see what he thought of the idea. Though both were still a bit embarrassed of the previous series of events, they were also excited about this chance.

“I know exactly where we can battle. There’s a clearing just a bit further up where I battle wandering Questers,” suggested the man, trying to help convince them.

“Alright, lets go!” said Medwin, eager to get in the field.

The man seemed happy to have his invitation accepted, and then led them through the forest to where the make shift arena awaited.

On the way there, he told them how he didn’t get too much competition, especially lately. He said that Swarm was very isolated, and it seemed that the outside world had just stopped Questing. He told how everyone in Swarm, as big as it was, knew each other, and had battled each other before.

Tiponi couldn’t imagine a place so fascinating, where everyone practiced this sport, and you could walk down the street without fear, proud that you were a Quester. If only she had grown up there. Why hadn’t her Papa moved there to live? Probably because he wanted a farm. But he chose a farm over a city of Questers who were in the Dæmon League, like herself?

While Tiponi had been thinking about this, they arrived at the arena the man had talked of. It was a rough patch of land with a few scraggly stumps sticking up from the ground where trees used to stand before this make-shift field was made by cutting down a standard Quester-battle-sized patch of treeless land. There were a few trees still standing in the field.

“The trees can be used in battle, or you can fight around them.” The man shrugged. His Spinarak dæmon had already walked to her position. Medwin soon followed her lead and walked over to his spot.

“All ready?” asked her opponent. Tiponi and Medwin nodded, almost in unison. “OK. Let’s begin! Anata, start with plan F-2!” She nodded briefly, then took off, racing for the trees.

Oh, no. They were so prepared for battling that they had numbered strategies. And it seemed they knew them very well. Tiponi and her dæmon would have to make the best of it. “Medwin, Ember before it gets to the trees!”

Medwin tried his best, but the green spider was faster and more agile than it looked. As Medwin’s first fireball neared her, she jumped nimbly over it. By then she was near enough to the trees that she landed on the nearest one, and began to climb it. The tree trunk was between Medwin and her, so it took a moment for him to run around to a position where he could attack. By then she had disappeared into the green foliage.

“Good job! Now, you know what to do,” the man called encouragingly. Medwin, trying not to look nervous, scanned the treetop for his foe. He hadn’t yet found her when a mass of pale sticky threads shot out and dropped on him. He tried to open his mouth and fire an Ember at the spot where the String Shot had emerged, but the stuff stuck his mouth closed. He attempted to scrape it off with his claws, but before long found them stuck, too. It wasn’t until he’d managed to burn some off with his tail flame that he finally freed his mouth. Throughout his struggles, a hail of poison-bearing stingers rained down at him from the tree.

He started to turn to renew his attack, but more of the sticky threads were flying his way. This time he was able to jump aside and avoid most of it, but his foot was stuck to the ground. He attacked anyway, spitting a fireball at the tree. When it was not far from the tree, a ball of the string flew out and crashed into the ball. Both collapsed in a flare of smoke and ashes, and fresh threads shot out of the tree to glue Medwin’s mouth shut again.

“Burn it off your mouth with your tail, then free your foot with an Ember,” Tiponi suggested. Medwin tried his best to free his mouth and foot in the method she proposed, but the renewed rain of Poison Stings and the poison that was seeping into his bloodstream was wearing him down. Tiponi rubbed her arms, feeling the multitude of pinpricks and weary nausea herself. It was less uncomfortable than some other attacks she’d felt, but it wasn’t exactly pleasant. She didn’t have time to contemplate the feeling any more, because just then the poison sapped away the last of Medwin’s energy. Both she and her dæmon stumbled and toppled over, unconscious before they hit the ground.