Don't Jump!
The Never Ending Quest - Episode 51975
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"Did you hear that?" Fred said. He halted his horse eruptedly, who was
relieved to finally rest. For hours, they'd been riding hard through the
open lands, following the trails Tarsa left for them. The trails
eventually led them atop a path that went straight through the Hollowback
forest, which was nearby a river bearing the same name.
Sharon halted her horse as well. "I don't hear anything but the river and forest. Anyways, that's hardly our concern right now." she said irritably. "You can't be too sure. Any passing persons may offer us a clue to the whereabouts of Tarsa.""It not as though we need them. Her tracks stand out like white in black." She was right. It had rained earlier the night Tarsa had been attacked, and the ground was still freshly imprinted with large horse tracks. "These tracks look very recent," Fred noticed after examining the tracks a bit closer. "Her horse must finally be growing tired." He turned to Sharon. "Have no fear Sister. You'll have your Priestess back in no time." It brought him a sense of accomplishment when he saw Sharon's face begin to look cheerful-a mode that she had been lacking the whole journey. Fred swore that hidden within her grouchy rigid covering, there was a beautiful lively girl underneath."But she must be deeply burid." Fred observed as Sister Sharon dabbed her face with a rag genially. As he stared at her, he also noticed something about her horse; it was exhausted as much as his. <"But before we continue, let's give our horses a quick break. We don't want them slumping behind as well." Fred said.Sharon was about to retort, but she then realized he was right. They'd been riding vigorously for hours and their horses appeared to be troubled on catching their breaths. "Alright, we'll give them a drink of water and a very quick break" she said sternly. As she dismounted her horse, Fred shouted up into the sky: "Skye, we're stopping for a break."Skye flew down and landed on Fred's shoulder with a crooked smile. "Mind if I go look for something to eat at this time." "Shoot, but don't stay out too long." Fred said. And with that, Skye was off into the woods.Fred and Sharon then dismounted their horses and led them by the reign into the forest where they quickly found the Hollowback River. Although the water was rough, the horses eagerly dipped their snouts into it and began taking a long drink. While Sharon complained about how filthy her good robes had become, Fred lazily stared off into the forest. The soft scent of the forest brought back fond memories of life before he was a geohound. He would travel with friends and they'd do whatever they wanted. Now, here he was, stuck being an errand boy for a living. He just wanted to find this hyperactive girl and get back to the bar. The beers he drank earlier had worn off during the third hour of their riding. The same happen for his hang over an hour later. It was thanks to Sharon that he hadn't gone off track. "Fred!" squawked a familiar voice. Fred glanced up to see Skye, soaring smoothly out of the forest. Skye flew above Fred and dropped something glimmering in front of him.Fred picked it up and stared at it, perplexed. "A golden X…The symbol for this Sister's and Priestess's religion, but it's covered in-" He couldn't find himself to say the last words. Covering the symbol from Top to bottom was crimson blood…still wet in his hand. "Sister Sharon" Fred said grimly. "You'd better come over here."Fred showed Sharon what Skye had found and her face went ghostly pale. "She can't…she must…she'd better…oh, all of this is your fault!" She shrieked, marching towards Fred, forcing him to walk backwards. "If you had just watched her like you were supposed to, none of this would have ever happen! You have endangered us all! You…"In the midst of the insults she threw at Fred managed to motion for Skye to help him, but he seemed to have disappeared into the forest again. Fred cursed, but it was drowned by the buxom woman's hollering. It wasn't long before he came back-to-back with a large oak tree. He was trapped. "…are barbarous drunken bum! You…" But before she could let out another word, a bird's cry rang throughout the whole forest. Sharon ceased her talking and both she and Fred stared in the direction of the noise."That was Skye." Fred said, his face also going pale. Before the Sister could say a word, Fred dashed into the forest and leapt across the rushing river. "Your turn!" Fred yelled back to Sister Sharon. However, she just eyed the river and trembled. Fred cursed and dashed into the forest after Skye's voice. "Skye!" Fred called out as he walked paced through the forest for a few minutes. There was a good distance between each of the trees, which made it easy to navigate around. "Skye, speak to me!" Fred called out desperately. Suddenly, he heard a rustle from nearby. "Skye?" Fred asked hopefully, but was disappointed when he only saw a medium-sized man dressed in brown traveling clothes, rolled out on the ground on the ground. Suddenly, he noticed the man's jacket was drenched in fresh blood. Fred rushed to the injured man's side."Sir, sir? Are you alright?" Fred said shaking wounded man lightly. He had a large brown mustache and bushy brown eye lids on his flat face. Fred put his head up to the man's heart. Still beating. The man's head slowly began to stir."Sir" Fred said gently. "Are you alright?" The injured man's eyes began flicking. When they were fully open, they stared at Fred, then at their surroundings, then at the wound. Suddenly, one of the injured man's hand lunged towards the wound. He began gasping and wheezing. His face gave expressions of pain and suffering. Fred panicked. "Sir, please, what's wrong."The man's emerald eyes glistened at Fred. "This is the end for me…after my seven years of traveling, it's finally been ending by the Lady of the Wilderness." "Lady of the wilderness" Fred repeated, suspiciously. "When you say lady of the wilderness, do you mean a real woman, or is this something like "Mother Nature"?""Aye, I don't think she was a woman. Didn't act like a human being, she didn't. She's a devil in disguise, I swear by my life…not that it means much now." He leaned his head back as if he was allowing death to enter him. "So it was a real woman? Sir? Please sir, I need your help. I am looking for a young Priestess. She's wearing a white robe and has long dark hair. Did a girl like that attack you? Sir!" But the man's eyes were closing again. Gently, his final words rose from his lips."If you ever meet my Wife, Marion, please, tell her that I'm…sorrrry." He dragged out his last word and went rigid. Fred stared at the man, both perplexed and horrified for almost a minute. He put his head up to the man's chest and realized what was going on. Fred cracked his knuckles, and firmly slapped the man across the face."Oww!" The "dead" man spat as he jolted up angrily. "Can't a man die in peace?" He sat upright in the moist dirt. Fred spoke calmly. "Sir, you're overreacting. This is nothing more than a flesh wound. I'll be happy to mend it up for you, but first I need your help. You spoke of woman in the forest."Aye, I spoke only of a devil." "Sure, "the devil", where did she go?"The man said nothing. Instead, he raised his arm and point in the direction behind Fred. Fred turned around and his eyes widened. Surely enough in the distance, parked next to the edge of the Hollowback Waterfall, was a naked woman, who appeared to be harassing a Vulgar."Tarsa! Skye!" Fred called out, but the crashing of the river drowned his voice. He pulled himself off the ground, and sprinted towards them, ignoring the injured man's cries ("Wait! What about my wounds?"). In almost no time, Fred was but a few yards away from the girl and the bird "Tarsa!" Fred yelled out again, trying to speak over the river. Tarsa jumped in surprise, causing her to let go of the bird. Skye hopped over to Fred, screeching madly."Fred, she's broken my wings! She's broken my wings!" Skye sobbed. Gone was the sly friend he knew and replaced he was with a broken down canary. However, Fred had more to worry about at the moment. Fred hadn't thought about what he was going to say to her; He thought that Sister Sharon would be by his side when he encountered the priestess, so he simply said the first thing that came to mind."Tarsa, please, come with me!" "She stared at him. Then, she stood up and put her hands on her hips. "No" she screamed. Although she retained her hyper activeness, her voice was more strict and firm. "I'm tired of the boring crap this church does. Without them, I can do whatever I want." She than began to smile and said cheerful "C'mon, join me!""No thank you!" Fred yelled. "Tarsa, look at what you're doing. When you first met Skye, you immediately stroked him. Now, you've broken his wing!" "It's the churches fault!" She screamed, jumping up and down. "They never let me do anything bad. Being bad is so much more fun. I wanna be bad! Bad, bad, bad, bad, bad!"But the good side has lots of cake and ice cream" Fred yelled back desperately. Tarsa paused for moment, but then stuck her tongue out and Fred.Fred cursed. It was down to last resorts. He unsheathed his sword and held it out in front of him. "You leave me no choices. Come with me now, or I will be forced to hurt you." That was half a lie. If it came to having to tackle her down, he would do just that, but he'd never risk waving a sword at a priestess.Tarsa looked left and right for an exit. She then looked back, and turned around so that she was facing the ledge. Fred nearly dropped his sword in shock. "Tarsa, don't! You'll never survive." Fred begged.Tarsa looked back and Fred, then the ledge again, as if deciding which was a better option to take. "What the hell am I supposed to do?" Fred thought. All he could think of was yelling. "Tarsa! Don’t jump! Don't jump! For the love of Granas, please don't jump!"
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