Scene 3

Time: 10 minutes later

The trio came to a halt as they neared the river again, albeit further along it than they had been earlier when ambushed by the giant squirrels.

Cleo turned to Matt, "I thought you said you could get us back? I think we're still lost."

Matt threw his hands up quickly, palms out, his eyebrow arched as a grin spread across his face, "I still can, this is just on the way. I need to climb that tree to get my bearings right," he said gesturing to a tall oak like tree with lots of easy to climb branches that stretched well above the surrounding trees. "Why don't you two check for useful plants around here while I check our direction back?" Matt asked as he started climbing.

Josh looked at his friend already climbing out of sight into the branches above, and then over to Cleo, "Well, I guess we're on grub patrol."

Cleo looked puzzled, "What's that?"

"Just means looking for nuts and berries and other edibles nearby."

"Oh, okay. Are we far enough away we can stop and goof off?" Cleo asked, her tone a little concerned.

"All else fails we run and try to circle back to Matt if we have to." Josh said as he looked around cautiously.

In less than a minute Cleo called out, "Hey Josh, check this out."

He looked around for her, not seeing her in the direction he'd heard her calling his name from, "Where are you?"

"Just walk this way past those trees, you'll see me." Cleo called back, "I need help lifting this."

Josh jogged that direction, curious what she needed help lifting. He stopped in his tracks as he rounded the trees between them, revealing the river bank again, but this time it was filled with large crystals growing all around in different colors.

Cleo stood in front of a cluster of glowing blue crystals growing to nearly her own height. She looked over as he stopped, "I think it's too wide to fit into the backpack opening as it is. I need to break it into chunks maybe?"

"Umm, that's pretty cool. You sure it won't explode if we break it?" Josh asked as he stared at the crystals glowing around this area of the river bank.

"My Ari memories give me this instinct that they are safe to harvest, useful for Alchemy if my Analyze skill is to be believed," Cleo replied.

"Alchemy you say, I'm in. I like the sound of potions. Sure this won't be like drinking glass chips suspended in water though?" Josh questioned his friend.

"This witch says it will be fine," Cleo quirkily replied.

"You're drinking it first then, none of that but did you die joke for me," Josh said as he picked up a large rock from the river bank and walked back to the cluster Cleo stood before. "Watch out," as he rose the rock in his hand and threw it at the base of the cluster with all his strength.

The rock bounced off the cluster, doing minimal damage to it. Josh shrugged as he looked at it. Cleo shucked her backpack and pulled out the steel hatchet, "I was thinking the back side of this is a better idea."

"Yeah, sounds good, you want to give it a try? I think you're stronger than me now." Josh said matter of fact.

"Wait, really?" Cleo asked him.

"I mean, check your stats, what's your Strength Stat at right now?" Josh asked.

"Uh, hold on, Status. Um, it's an eight," Cleo told him.

"Yeah, I've got a five in strength currently, and that's after adding a point to it from a Path reward for the Newbie Path." Josh explained, "Totally unfair given our size difference, but I don't make the rules. You're like a tiny female Bruce Lee in muscle density or something though."

"Wow, I knew I felt a little different but I thought it was just panic from the last day since everything went to shit." Cleo said. She lifted the hatchet, holding it to use the back side like a hammer, reared her arm back and cracked into the base of a large spire of crystal and it cracked at the impact point cleanly with a loud snapping sound. She grinned and chose a new target, then began cracking new crystals. Josh began taking the liberated crystal shafts and sliding them into the backpacks extradimensional storage space while she worked.

Matt took another long look around the area, drawing the features in his mind as clearly as he can before starting his way down from the tree.

Matt heard and saw them on his way down the tree and joined them within about 10 minutes. He stepped around the trees between the one he'd climbed and the crystal grove on the river bank, "I'm assuming we are going to want to collect these for a bit?"

"Hey! Your back from the sky, How was it in the clouds?" Josh asked like a wise-ass.

"You can get us back to the treehouse then?" Cleo asked.

"Yeah, we just head that direction," Matt replied pointing away from the river and to the right a few degrees. "The mountains are that way, and the plains too, when we get to the plains we can follow the tree-line again back to the treehouse by the safe room."

"Cool, then yeah, we can grab a little more and head back, we can always come back for more. We know it's by the river." Cleo said.

"We can always leave trail markers to make it easier to find our way back too." Josh chimed in helpfully.

"We definitely should do that." Matt said.

And with that Matt pitched in helping break and collect the crystals.

Time: 30 minutes later

The trio had finished collecting crystals for now and headed off towards the tree-line when they encountered large earthen mounds hidden amongst the trees. The mounds had strange stacked stones arranged around them. Josh spoke up, "Um guys, I'm seeing a notification, one of my traits lets me detect leylines and energy vortexes. This place glows brighter than those crystals did."

"Is there something to collect here? Looks like a burial site maybe?" Matt put forward as he looked around the area.

Cleo shrugged, "I don't see anything, but maybe if people are buried here we shouldn't be here?"

"Maybe, maybe not. We're here either way, but really don't need anything. I'm assuming we don't need a marker here." Josh asked.

"I'll feel better adding one for orientation purposes though, gimme a minute," Matt said.

"Cool, I'll poke around while you do," Josh said, stepping away as he followed around one of the mounds nearby.

Cleo watched the two walk off and said, "I'll just take a look where we're going." She walked to the far side of the mounds, thinking to herself, 'Spooky graveyard for who knows what, I want nothing to do with it.'

Donnie watched the humans separate, and decided to follow the one with food in her backpack. With a quick hop he activated a skill and appeared on top of her backpack. She screamed, "Ahh! Damnit Donnie, you scared the crap out of me!"

Donnie wiggled his nose at her, thinking to Matt, 'Cleo got scared when I jumped on her backpack to ask for snacks.'

Josh and Matt came running up about that moment, Matt looked at Donnie, "Don't scare people just because you're never done searching for snacks."

'What am I supposed to do? You don't listen when I say I'm HUNGRY!' Donnie retorted.

"Everything's Okay?" Josh asked as he looked at Cleo and Matt.

"Yeah, Donnie just scared me by jumping on the backpack." Cleo answered.

"Cool, then come with me Cleo, I'm not tall enough but I can lift you up to grab something if you're okay with it." Josh said to her with a grin.

"What?" She asked, entirely confused but following Josh, with Matt following too. They went around a mound and found Josh pointing at the top of one of the stacks of stones towards a green rock that was kinda rounded. It was about 8 feet off the ground as he stood beside it, clearly being beyond any of their reach.

Josh said, "I want that green rock. I think it's going to be useful."

"Okay, lift me up," Cleo said after shucking the backpack and walking over towards him. She felt his shoulder press against her legs as he lifted and she shot up to be face to face with the top of the rock tower. Her hands reached out to the green rock that was about a foot wide and mostly round but a little flat on the bottom side. As her skin touched it, her senses flared with pain, her hands locked their grip on the stone, and the stone and her went flying away from the tower as Josh was dropped to the ground.

Matt exclaimed as he tried to cover his eyes from the flash of strangely colored lightning that hit the tower when Cleo touched the rock at the top. "What the, OH SHIT!" He cried as Cleo slammed into him and knocked him to the ground.

The three groaned from their places on the dirt, each dazed and injured at least a little. Cleo however had taken that stone dropping onto her arm as she hit the ground, breaking it along the forearm in 3 places. As she rolled over and sat up, her right arm hung limply at a sickening angle. Josh looked over at her and threw up.

Cleo looked down and feinted before the scream could leave her lips.

Matt sat up dazed as he looked around and took it all in. He hopped to his feet quickly and found a stick nearby he'd been planning to use as another trail marker, instead repurposing it with some cloth from his overshirt torn into strips to make a primitive arm brace and bind her arm while she was unconscious. Matt said, "Josh, are you okay," as he finally looked over towards him to see his friend laying flat on his back, his chest not moving. "Shit!" he said, scrambling over to Josh's side, placing a hand over his mouth to try to feel air flowing in or out, his other dropping to Josh's neck to feel for a pulse. Neither hand gave him any kind of reassuring sense, causing him to immediately move his hands to Josh's chest and begin rythmic compressions to attempt to force his lungs or heart to start working again. "Shit, am I even doing this right? This is what it looks like on TV right?"

Donnie replied, 'I'll have to take your word for it. I've not actually seen TV before, just your impression of it from memories.'

Matt snarked back, "Seriously not the time for that right now Donnie. Read the tone of the room buddy."

Perspective: Cleo 

She stretched and rolled over in her bed, stealing the covers from her boyfriend as she grinned to herself hoping he'd wake up and pull her into a cuddle to get the covers back. She felt the warmth of that thought and the blanket roll she was in and drifted back to sleep a little.

An image of a crusty green stone erupting in lightning as her hands wrapped around it filled her mind as she drifted back to sleep. Her eyes flung open as she screamed from the pain, and felt it fade away almost instantly as she looked around her room. Her boyfriend wasn't in the bed though. She was sure he had been there a moment ago. "Maybe he went to the bathroom?" She thought, hopping out of bed and moving towards the hallway to check.

The house was eerily quiet she noticed as she reached the hallway. The bathroom light was on. No other lights in the house. She stepped to the bathroom door and opened it to show an empty bathroom.

The bathroom sink began to run, filling up and flowing over. The lights flickered revealing a strange symbol on the mirror.

The water began to run faster, spilling out of the bathroom and into the hallway as well, beginning to pool up past her ankles as the water sprayed faster and faster from the sink. She panicked. The water level reached a nearby wall outlet and she felt the electricity surging through her body, all her muscles clenching as hard as they can all at once. The pain filled her consciousness, she closed her eyes as the symbol and the pain filled her mind.

Perspective: Josh 

"What?" Josh thought to himself, seeing nothing else in this space but the notification that appeared and then disappeared.

Josh worried a little at that notification. "Wait, how was I supposed to set that? And what do you mean I died? If I'm dead how am I thinking and talking?"

Nothing happened. Josh grew more concerned. He tried a deep breath, and realized he wasn't breathing. He couldn't feel his body.

"Whoa, you can talk to me? Why is that one a different color?" Josh rambled quickly in reply.

"The actual fuck, are you kidding me? How do I even process all of what you just said? What am I supposed to do now that I know that."

"Wait, no! Answer my questions!" He screamed in his mind as everything went fuzzy and a ringing loud noise filled his mind. He felt pain in his chest, hitting him over and over again.

Matt's frantic voice called to Josh as he kept trying to provide CPR to his fallen friend when all of a sudden Josh's body rolled away from Matt's hands as Josh said, "Holy shit that hurts, cut it out!"

"Holy Hell man am I glad to hear you talking!" Matt said excitedly, then glancing back over to Cleo who seemed to be struggling in her sleep now. His brow creased and he shifted back over to her side.

"I'm glad to be talking, guess I died. Gotta figure out how to set a Respawn Location I think. Fuck my body hurts. What exactly happened man?" Josh rambled as he rolled around on the ground.

Matt continued to check Cleo's heartrate and breathing and temperature as best as he could while replying, "I mean, your heart and breathing did stop a moment after that lightning strike hit the stone and you two. Cleo got her arm broken when she got thrown and is still unconscious. I made her a splint before I noticed you weren't breathing. Glad you didn't get brain damage or anything, I hope. Cleo is not gonna be happy when she wakes up with that arm like it was. I'm hoping she doesn't have internal bleeding but I don't know. Did you say Respawn Location?"

"Shit, really?" Josh said, rolling to his side and pushing himself up to his feet to step towards Cleo's unconscious form. "Shit dude, that arm does not look right. Good job on the splint though." He sat down next to her and pulled out his bag of weed and papers to roll a fat joint. As he licked it, he felt something like a static shock tickle his tongue, he nearly spilled it but curled his fingers and rolled on instinct, twisting it into a perfectly smokable joint. It was a little wet with spit, but still lit as he gently applied his last lighter to the end of it. He looked at his tiny friend crumpled on the ground, whimpering in pain as she slept and said, "Hey little homie, got a joint here if you want to join the circle." He took a hit after that and blew the smoke in her direction.

A grin crossed her face as her eyes cracked open, "Oh my god yes, my arm hurts so freaking bad!"

Josh and Matt both breathed a sigh of relief as she reached out and took the joint from Josh with her good arm.

She took a big hit, then pulled the joint away and looked at it like it bit her, "That was weird," she said and then coughed and took another hit the passed it to Matt.

He took it and handed it directly back to Josh as he said, "No I think I'm good for right now. I still need to guide us back to the treehouse. I think we've had enough adventure for today."

Josh frowned, "You're not wrong. I'm sorry I got you hurt Cleo, I just saw a lot of magic coming off this place and thought we might find something useful to power us up."

Cleo reached for the joint again as she said, "Don't worry about it. I got this nice wooden stick tied to my arm and we got a lightning rock."

Josh looked even paler at that comment as he looked at Matt, whose expression seemed equally as morose. Josh continued, "Clearly not a good trade. Finish that joint and we'll get heading back to camp."

"I don't know, maybe it will be. We don't know yet. I saw a new magic symbol while I was dreaming. Well, having a nightmare. But still. I think there's more to it. I don't know what yet though." Cleo said between tokes off the joint. She stood up and pointed at the errant large crusty looking green stone as she said, "Are you going to put that thing in my backpack? I think I'm ready to go, if you'll carry the backpack back."

Matt and Josh both responded at once, "Sure." And with that they packed it away and made their way onwards towards their treehouse campsite.

Location: Treehouse
Time: 3pm Dungeon time 

Cleo held a glowing hand over her broken and splinted forearm as she channeled healing energy into it for the tenth time in the last hour.

She smiled as the last of the bruising in her forearm faded away while the skill's effects ended. She reached her arm up from her lap and it immediately bent at each of the break sites and she grimaced in pain as she laid it back into the splint harness. She focused through the pain and activated her Healing Palm skill again. She looked over at Donnie munching on some scraps of the quick lunch they had eaten when they got back. "Will you ask Matt to come up here?" She asked the rabbit like she were talking to a normal person. The rabbit wiggled it's nose and took another bite of the end of a big bird legbone. Crunch

Cleo gagged a little at the sound, "Eww! How do you eat that?"

The rabbit continued to crunch, turning to face it's tail at her. A minute later Matt came through the door to their treehouse, "Donnie don't be rude. What's up Cleo?"

"It seems that my healing skill doesn't knit bones together. Can you tie my splint tight for me?" She asked him in a defeated tone.

"Aww, That sucks homie. But Yeah, I got you. Here," Matt said as he knelt next to her and retied the splint around her broken arm, "Let me know if it's too tight."

"No that's perfect," Cleo said looking him in the eyes, as hers held back a tear from the pain. "What is Josh doing?"

Matt finished tying the splints lacing off into a bow-tie and shook his head, "I'm not sure, he's in the safe room at the moment with the green rock. Maybe you should go in there to rest until sunset to help speed up healing of the breaks in the bone?"

"Probably a good idea honestly. Carry me down?" She asked him.

"Sure, lets go see what he's up to," Matt said and lifted Cleo up onto his shoulders, her good arm wrapped around his neck and holding her body to his back like a vice. Matt struggled a little with how strong she was, it was painful but the rope ladder they had leading down from the treehouse was only about twenty feet down to the ground, so it didn't take too long. They got to the ground and walked the fifty feet towards the safe room door and entered it.

Inside they found Josh polishing a large rounded piece of copper propped on the side of the fountain on the far wall. Cleo spoke up, "Where did you find that?"

Josh turned his head and smiled at her, "It's what was inside that green crusty substance on the rock. Its a copper ore nodule. With a bit of engraving faintly on the surface. I can't make out most of it, but this," he turned it to show the flattened bottom of it, where a symbol was etched largely across the bottom.

Cleo's eyes went wide, "No way."

"What?" Josh said confused at her reaction as Matt's face grew concerned.

"I saw that symbol while I was having a nightmare after I got knocked out earlier." Cleo told them. Then she explained the whole dream after the started asking questions about it.

"That's wild, doesn't tell us much about it except it's maybe dangerous," Matt said as Cleo finished recounting her dream.

"Nor does it further elucidate the weird respawning void lobby I was in or that Sede of Leng message I got while I was dead." Josh added.

"Wait what?" Cleo asked in a truly surprised tone.

"Yeah, Matt said my heart and breathing stopped after the lightning strike, I saw a black blank space, got a notification or two about respawning location not being set and respawn timer which counted down. But in between I got a weird other color notification, called a system message. That thing spoke to me directly, responded to me. But said a lot. Like a bunch of weird stuff that didn't make sense fully. Probably not a big deal. I hope." Josh explained as he set the copper nodule on the ground and pulled out a joint. "I don't think we can really make use of that today. But we have a bunch of other things we gathered. I am planning to work out some more before the sun sets. And tend to our garden. Can't believe those seeds already shot up while we were gone today. This magic is pretty cool."

Cleo smiled as she took the joint from him and lit it with a small fire cantrip, took a deep toke, and said as she exhaled, "Magic is pretty cool. Doesn't heal bones that are broken though. At least not my Healing Palm Skill."

"That's too bad, but you can still speed up plant growth. I want to plant those fruit seeds before sunset tonight, with your help if you're up for some more plant magic lessons." Josh asked Cleo.

Matt chimed in, "I could use more magic lessons. I'm still struggling with it."

Cleo laughed, "I can do that," she took another toke of the joint and passed it to Matt as she said, "Take a hit and lets carry that engraved copper back to the treehouse anyways. I want to look at it later. I'm heading to check the garden for now."

Matt nodded as he took a drag from the joint and passed it over to Josh before picking up the heavy copper nodule. "I'll go ahead and stash it up top, then meet you outside for some sparring practice and more wood gathering?" He said, the last he was looking at Josh as he spoke.

Josh nodded yes, "Sounds good, meet you over there in a minute." And with that he followed the other two outside, and headed to the garden with Cleo.

Cleo watched Josh walk off towards where Matt was waiting at the edge of the treeline, near their little sparring circle they had set up the day before.