I reincarnated in game

15 Missing

Matthew ran blindly through the night, trying to escape the maddening pain which wracked his body.  At some point, he must have fallen and passed out.                       

As Kenneth opened his eyes, the mid-day sun was shining brightly, making his vision blurry.  He got up and found that he was tangled in some brush; he had to work at the bit to extricate himself.  He recalled the horrendous pain that had driven him mad.  That pain had subsided, but now he began to panic as he found himself in totally unfamiliar territory; he was lost!

“Where am I?  Pa?  PA!!” He yelled looking around the area.

A few men came from a building just off the beaten path, drawn to Kenneth’s calls.  These men circled Kenneth; the leader of the bunch walked forward and quickly sized up the mage in front of him.  “Hey Pal, what’s wrong?  What’s with the yelling?”  The others were circling Kenneth like a shiver of sharks around prey.

“I am looking for my pa.  Can you help me find him,” replied Kenneth.

“Sure,” replied the leader, “We would be happy to help you.  We are good at finding things, aren’t we boys.”  The other members of the group chuckled along with the leader.  “So … what’s your name?”

“My name is Kenneth.  What’s yours?”

“My name is Dan,” the leader replied, as he placed a friendly arm around Kenneth’s shoulders.  “So who is your father, and what does he do?”

“My father’s name is Matthew.  We build magic machinery and sell it all over the Third Level,” boasted Kenneth.

“Oh, that’s great,” replied Dan.  He motioned for one of his companions to take Kenneth back to the building which was partially hidden in the woods.  “My friend here will take you to our place.  Maybe you can help us fix our machine since we are going to help you look for your Pa.”

“Sure.  I would be happy to help,” Kenneth replied, as he went off with the fellow who the leader had called over.

As soon as Kenneth was out of earshot, Dan gathered the other fellows into a huddle.  “If those guys were making magic machinery to sell, they probably have a lot of money.  This guy seems simple enough; we can convince him we are going to help him find his father, but we’ll hold him here and demand a huge ransom for him!  It shouldn’t be too hard to find this Matthew; he’ll be out looking for his missing son.”

They settled Kenneth into a room at the back of the building; the room had a door which could be secured if it became necessary.

Over the next few days, Dan and his gang kept Kenneth busy working on an old steam wagon which had been laying around a long time, in total disrepair.  The frame for the engine had corroded and broken apart.  The crystals which powered the wagon lay on the ground.  Kenneth used the skills he had learned while building the machines with his father to reconstruct the frame.  He gathered all the crystals, determined where they needed to be placed, then fixed them to the frame using his ice magic.  He saw that the frame for the rest of the wagon was in danger of falling apart, so he fixed all the weakened points.  While he was finishing up the repair, Kenneth noticed that his muscles were stiffening upon him, making it harder for him to move about.  He also noticed numbness in his extremities.  He feared it might be another effect of the curse.

At the end of the third day, Kenneth approached Dan asking, “Have you found my father yet?  I really need to see him because I am starting not to feel so good; he is the only one who can help me.”

Dan replied, “Not yet, but we are really close.  By the way, can you help us out over here?”  He walked over to three wooden chests which were secured by huge brass locks.  “I have misplaced our keys … would you be able to use your ice magic to freeze the locks and take them off?”

“OK,” said Kenneth.  He walked over to the closest chest and held the lock in his hand.  He concentrated for a moment.  Ice crystals formed and spread over the entire lock; Kenneth yanked down; the lock shattered.  He moved to the second and third locks, repeating the process. 

“Great!  Thanks!” Dan said.  Kenneth smiled back at him, happy to have been able to help his new friends.

Kenneth had started feeling worse.  He went back to his little room to lie down.  He was there, resting when he heard a commotion coming from down the hall; it sounded like there were several people in the front room … maybe they had found his father!  He struggled to get up; his joints and muscles were very stiff.  He managed one step; he felt a leaden feeling creeping up his legs.  He looked down.  The feeling continued to creep up into his torso, then into his arms; just as it was enveloping his head, Kenneth cried out, “Nooooooooo!”  He was completely immobilized; he had turned into stone.  In spite of his rigid state, Kenneth’s other senses were still active; he could see, hear and think, but he could neither move or speak.        

Judi and Hugh managed to climb through an open window at the rear of the building.  Once inside, they could hear three or four men talking somewhere in the front of the building.  Hugh unsheathed his short sword; Judi notched an arrow into her bow.  Soundlessly, they crept down the hall towards the sound, keeping close to the wall.  The voices were coming from the room directly in front of them. 

Judi motioned Hugh to go to the near side of the door; she moved quickly to the other side.  She could see three men eating at the table; one was napping in a chair just inside the door where they were standing.  She held up four fingers.  She pointed to herself then held up three fingers, pointing to the left side of the room; she pointed at Hugh, then to the inside wall of the door on his side.       

With a nod of her head, they burst into the room, surprising Dan and his three companions.  Hugh stepped inside and slashed his sword across the neck of the man who had been in the chair.  From the far side of the table, Dan stood up and shouted, “What the hell?”  The others at the table started to rise.  Judi shot two arrows in quick succession at the men whose backs were towards her.  The first arrow pierced the skull of the man closest to her; the other arrow passed through the second man’s neck, severed his spinal cord and protruded out of his mouth.  Dan bent down to retrieve his crossbow which was leaning against the table leg.  Before he could raise it, Judi shot an arrow through his heart.  They moved in closer; Judi confirmed these four belonged to the same gang of bandits as those they had encountered on the road hours earlier; each bore the same tattoo on their forearm.

After the four men had been dispensed with, Judi and Hugh searched through the rest of the building to see if there were any more bandits.  There did not appear to be any other gang members present but, during their reconnaissance, they found piles of looted goods in several rooms.  “This must be stuff that the gang has stolen from the people in the next village,” Judi said. 

“Yea, I think you are right.  We should return the loot to them,” Hugh replied.  “I think I saw something that we might be able to use to transport all this stuff in an outbuilding as we circled around the back.”  They went outside and saw that the object was an old steam wagon.  Hugh climbed up onto the wagon and was able to start the engine.  He engaged the gears and moved it around to the front of the building.   

Together, he and Judi systematically transferred the loot onto the wagon.  As they got to the last room, they opened the door to see if there was anything else to move.  “Oh look.  There is a very life-like stone statue of a dwarf,” Said Judi.  “Come give me a hand to get it onto the wagon.”

When everything had been cleared out of the house, Hugh and Judi headed to the nearby village.