Devil's Eye

After the altercation, Melissa left Sarah and the children, to go look for an inn to pass the night, as it would've been unsafe for Alice and Peter to go through Portals, given their condition.

They were under the influence of a spell that would make them unconscious, for 12 hours and it couldn't be undone, because it was cast using dragon blood and the cursed relic, so they were going to have to wait for the spell to wear off.

Melissa asked the people around for directions to a nearby inn, but due to the Dragon festival, most of the inns were at maximum capacity, so she had to go deeper into the town. As she got further in, she entered a part of the town where the music and the sounds of drums from the festival couldn't reach.

It was dimly lit, with oil lamps stationed at strategic points along the street. The dark corners gave her an eerie feeling as she walked down the street. She had the feeling that something would suddenly jump out from the darkness on either side of the road and pounce on her, but it was just her needless anxiety talking.

She never thought the sound of people laughing and the noise of bottles crashing against the ground, would give her instant relief as she finally approached an inn, with a sign that read "DRAGONS BELLY". When she got in, she was met with instant silence and stares from prying eyes belonging to men who drank, like they knew they were going to die the next day.

As she approached the counter, she saw an elderly woman with scruffy hair wearing an eye patch, with a scar on the side of her face, "what's up with these dragon people and scars," she thought to herself letting out a subtle smirk, it was all her face could let out as she tried hard to push down the force of laughter that was fighting desperately to get out.

It was insensitive of her, but the sight was rather amusing than it was scary. When she got to the counter she noticed something hard to miss, the lady was missing an arm and suddenly the laughter that she held down within her died, she immediately felt bad for finding the woman amusing in the first place.

"How may I help you child?" the woman asked wearing a big smile on her face which made Melissa feel all the more guilty.

"I'll be needing two rooms please for 2 nights," Melissa said.

"Very well then, but it'll cost 4 gold coins dear," the woman said still wearing a big smile.

"That won't be a problem," Melissa said, then she took the key and left to the room. The woman didn't seem concerned that one person was booking two rooms, maybe because she had paid for it, but it wasn't that. The people of the town had a habit of minding their own business and not interfering, unless it concerned them directly.

It all made sense to Melissa, who connected the incident with Aspaz at the festival with what she experienced with the men at the inn and the old woman. Naturally, the men at the inn would whisper and call her names, or tease her if it had been another town, as she oftentimes experienced during her travels. After she finished inspecting the rooms thoroughly, she placed a sealing spell on them so that no one could go in and she left.

Sarah sat with Alice and Peter who were still unconscious, waiting for Melissa's return. It was already late and she began to feel sleepy as she battled it out with her eyes. She noticed a figure approaching her, but couldn't make out clearly what it was, as she was losing the battle to her eyes.

"Child, Child," a tiny voice called out to her. She was still dozing off when she felt a sharp pain like the sting of an ant on her foot.

"Ouch! that hurt," Sarah said as she tried searching for the insect that bit her.

"I see you're awake Sarah," the voice said this time it sounded firm.

"Mr. Greyhorn!" Sarah exclaimed, as she got up excitedly and threw her arms around the old man's feeble shoulders.

"Easy Sarah, easy. My body isn't what it used to be," the man said as he eased Sarah's arms off his shoulders.

"What are you doing here?" Sarah asked smiling.

"I came for the festival with my daughter and grandson," He replied.

"Thank God you found me. I've been looking all over for you," Sarah said excitedly as she narrated her ordeal with Aspaz.

"Dangerous town Balderburg, I moved out three years ago and moved in with my daughter here in Dragon's nest(the name of the town). The trouble just got too much for my body to take," he said as they sat and continued in conversation.

Melissa arrived, with the stench of tiredness emanating from all around her.

"Sit Mel, sit," Sarah said cleaning the Dusty bench beside her.

"I found an inn but it's far inside the town, I would've loved to leave right away but I'm too tired to walk," Melissa said.

"Drink this," the old man said, stretching a small bottle with green contents over to Melissa

"I guess you're Greyhorn," Melissa asked taking the bottle from his hands. "This is an energy elixir right?" Melissa asked.

"Yes, it is," Mr. Greyhorn said. Melissa opened the bottle and gulped down the contents, after which she became energized. After a while, Mr. Greyhorn left to join his daughter and grandson, while Melissa and Sarah loaded the children onto a wooden cart and left for the inn.

After they got to the inn, Sarah tucked the children in and sat on the chair to catch her breath, as they had to endure a long walk to get to the inn.

"Did you get anything from your old friend?" Melissa asked, making final touches to the room's locks.

"Yes I did, he gave me information," Sarah said, "he used something he called the devil's eye, it's an ancient shield-like relic, with an eye on it that turned people into dark creatures if they looked at the eye" she explained.

"Well, that's mental. An eye on a shield? how does that open a Portal to the Human world?" Melissa asked.

"We stick it in the ground and cast a portal-opening spell against the eye, it reflects the spell and creates the Portal to the human world, but we're going to have to do it with our eyes closed," Sarah said.

"The more you talk the crazier this sounds," Melissa said. "how do we get it then?".

"He hid it in the forest near the mountain inside a tree. We're going to have to cut the tree from the middle to get it. A clean strike should do it," Sarah said. Melissa still couldn't believe how crazy what they were going to do was but she was an adventurer so she saw lots of crazy things.

The following morning, the spell wore off and Alice and Peter woke up. Their bodies ached but a quick healing spell was enough to fix it.

Sarah explained the details given by Mr. Greyhorn and the plan to retrieve the relic to them. They used their last day at the inn to rest and recover after which they left the following morning.

When they got to the entrance of the forest, they were immediately met with opposition. A group of six adventurers had come looking for the same relic with the information they tortured out of Mr. Greyhorn. They only wanted the relic to show off at their guild or sell it for gold.

The leader of the group was a tall muscular demon wielding a large sword, he couldn't do magic but was a very skilled swordsman, that could even shield himself against magic attacks with his sword.

He came forward to attack the four of them, but as he stepped forward, he stepped on a magic mine that was perfectly disguised by Sarah and no matter how gifted he was with his sword, if he took his foot off the mine he would explode along with the mine.

Alice looked on in awe as she watched her mother trash the proud group. The rest of the group tried a combo spell on Sarah, but she used a reflection spell, casting their spell back at them and knocking them unconscious.

The blast from the spell knocked their leader's foot off the mine, and as Sarah said, the mine exploded along with their leader. Sarah was far too experienced and talented to feel intimidated by a bunch of novice adventurers. Sarah and her company, ran into the forest as quickly as they could until they found the tree marked with an eye.

It was large and had long branches with Vines strapped all over the ground.

"How do we get a clean cut across this tree, I mean look at the size of this thing," Peter said.

"There's a sword buried at the foot of the tree," Sarah said. Melissa used a spell that dug the sword out, she took the sword and slashed the tree clean in half. As soon as the tree got cut, dark creatures came out of the darkness and began to surround them. The creatures prepared to attack in coordination, just then Melissa acted with grit, closed her eyes, and used her hand to locate the shield.

"I've got it, let's go!" Melissa screamed.

The creatures darted towards them, but before they could get close enough to strike, a black smoke appeared from behind Peter and sucked all of them in.

They appeared In Melissa's cottage breathing heavily, as Melissa set down the shield. After a moment of silence, they retired to their rooms.