Greed's Quest

[Entering forest around the mountain.]

"My name's Rubic." He replies absentmindedly. He was busy trying figure out what had just happened. "I needed to kill the crows...so a torch appeared. I needed to put out a fire...so water appeared. But how?!" He thought in his head. "It must have been that fruit..." He deduced. After all, he certainly hadn't had such a power before eating it. He snapped out of his thoughts, having barely noticed they were headed toward the mountain, he had been so distracted. He looked at Jen. "Have you noticed anything strange since eating that apple?" He asks her straightforwardly. He avoids looking directly at her out of politeness. Only now that they were out of danger, for the moment, did he realize how attractive she was. He blushs slightly and avoids looking her in the eye. He heard the cry of a cicada and cringed. "I've never liked the sound of those damn bugs." He says to himself. The wounds on his body had scabbed over, leaving the uncomfortable feeling on dry blood on his skin. Neither of them had cleaned their wounds and he hoped they weren't infected.

"Oh so that's what happened." Jen growls with a touch of sarcasm obviously still burnt about getting caught up in the inferno he caused, not to mention the chilly splash of water. "Rubic really? blaming super natural abilities on apples?" Jen says jokingly trying to break the ice however the sudden realization occurred to her. "Now that you mention it, quite a few things have happened after I ate the apple." her voice retreated down her throat as she grows very timid, realizing she has been quite rude to the man who just saved her life.
  Jen smiles at his comment about the bugs, couldn't help but to agree the sound digging deep into her mind causing her ears to ring, however it was a sign that they were entering the tree line, they were now out of vision of Greed. "This is going to sound weird but I couldn't stop thinking abut it, did you die too?" her voice was worried, the thought of her being crazy was far worse that the idea that she actually passed away. They continued walking for some time, however it would soon be dark and it almost looked as if they made absolutely no progress at all towards the mountain in the distance, the trees spiral together over head creating a blanket of shadows all of which seemed to be coming closer as a small paranoia sets in, not seeing any critters wildlife, or even signs of water in the area only a mass of trees and their destination looming ominously in the distance.

Rubic questioned his own reasoning about the apple for a moment before he realized the girl was joking. He stared at the mountain in the distence, wondering just how tall it was. The forest being absent of animals bothered him. He felt like something was stalking them. The cries of cicadas broke the silence at random intervals and was somehow more unsettling than complete silence. He snapped out of his thoughts to answer her question. "I thought I died at least. Either this is a very elaborate dream of mine and I'm in a coma right now, or this is a different world entirely." He answers. It was certainly possible that all of this was a dream. He had suddenly been face to face with a huge abomination and seemed to have just aquired super powers after all. It could just as easily be reality though and Rubic was idiotic enough to just write everything off as a dream without a second thought. The screech of another Cicada broke his train of thought. It actually caused him to flinch. "Fucking bugs." He says in an irritated tone.

Jen sighed loudly, the comment about him dreaming didn't reassure her in anyway that she wasn't just losing her mind which only made her mildly frustrated. They continued walking for quite some time before Jen realized how exhausted her body really was, after the minor burns, splashes and assault by birds the last thing she wanted to do was walk for hours on end with no purpose. Jen's mind buzzed aimlessly while she looked around observing the trees and flowers not able to recognize any edible foods merely because she never had to forage in her life. "So we really are not going to make it to the top of that mountain naked and without water, that thing is massive and I imagine its very cold at the top." Jen states dryly obviously not enjoying Rubic's silent company. "Life is all around us, so we have to be somewhere near water or it has to rain every once in a while." Jen merely says out loud to no one in particular.

an hour has passed before Jen started breaking down, nervousness was sinking in, the thought of dying again for some reason made her feel very queasy and she suddenly realized why, the lack of wild life in the area was really making her on edge, the only movement was the lightly swaying of trees in the wind that were a constant reminder that her body was still slightly damp, her legs and arms tingly with numbness. "To be honestly." Jen stops walking and forces Rubic to stop with her by grabbing his arm. "I have never been out of the city, I never went to a camp, I have no idea what we should be doing can you help me please?" her voice turned to a beg, tears suddenly welling up in her eyes as all of her emotions crash down on her, she could only think of herself as useless as she stops them, and in that moment everything went silent as if paused in time Jen tossing all of her trust into a complete stranger.

Rubic looked around at the various plants with mild uncertainty. He was used to having to gather to survive, but he had grown up in a city, albeit the ruins of one. Being stuck in a jungle enviornment was completely foreign to him. "I agree, we won't possiblely get to the top of the mountain without clothes and supplies." Rubic responds.
Rubic stops when Jen grabs his hand. His expression was a mixture of annoyence and pity. "Look, our first priority should be to find some sort of food or shelter. That being said, I have no idea about any of the plants in this forest and there don't seem to be-" Rubic suddenly realized something that he should have realized sooner. The plants in the forest were all quite healthy. All the flowers were blooming as well. But there had to be something fertilizing the flowers and there definitely had to be other animals in the forest for it to be so lush. Which left a possiblity. What if something had scared off all the animals. Part of Rubic wanted to immediately blame that on the monster they had encountered when the two of them had first woken up but that couldn't possiblely be the case as far as they had traveled so far. "We might be in trouble..." Rubic says in a shaky tone.

As if on queue a sound could be heard behind them, it was the sound a slither across the trees and through the bushes. Hssssss... the sound rattled their brains much too loud to be a normal reptile. "Oh my.." Jen gasped as the massive snake appeared into view. it had to be wider than them, its massive head could open its mouth their entire length, only speaking volumes of the length that seemed to be endless. HSSS.. the sound rumbled the grassy floor below them, its mouth opened revealing two long and slender fangs. It approached slowly, staring at Jen who froze in fear, even Greed didn't scare her as much as the serpent before them did.

The snake at this point was about forty feet away as it coils, wrapping a few times to give it good striking distance and it waits, its unblinking eyes stare with hunger however not making any dumb decisions, its green scales glistened in the sun light and it was very easy to see why they did not notice it before blending into the grass and bushes easily, however it was definitely not invisible now, its shadow was even more threatening than Jen was at this moment.

"Damn it..." Rubic hisses. Neither of them were in any shape to fight a giant snake and he still wasn't sure how the new power he had even worked. As if triggered by that thought and without even realizing it, a broadsword was in his hand. The hilt was made of finely crafted wood and the blade looked extremely sharp. "Well I guess this works..." He says aloud. He had handled swords before, he prefered small knives as they were much faster but he could make due. He makes a sidewise glance at Jen, not moving his focus from the snake. "I don't suppose you've figured out what power that apple gave you?" He asks.

Rubic's voice snapped Jen out of her horror induced trance. A quick motion allowed Jen to lean down and pick up a stick not suitable for combat, hardly suitable enough to hold her own body weight but she held it anyways for safety. The sword appearing drew a hiss from the massive serpent as it slid slightly to the left before lunging not at Rubic but the easy and defenseless target Jen. The movement was lightning fast giving Jen no time to react however the stick morphed, it coiled around her hand and expanded into a large wooden shield, the impact took Jen off of her feet, fangs implanted deeply through the shield dangerously close to Jen's face however it pulled away, shield stuck in its fangs as it shakes frustratedly trying to detach the block of wood that after being dragged so far away from Jen it reverted back to its normal stick form falling rather uselessly to the floor. A slight pause came from the snake, probably due to confusion however it was quickly back in its aggressive stance Jen goes to pick up another stick however her arm she was holding the other one refused to move, pain shot through her as it fell limp, it took all her power to not cry in pain as she picked up a stick with her left hand, not bothering picking up anything large merely letting her main hand dangle painfully. The snake without warning dashes at Rubic however its caution made him slightly slower but still frighteningly fast for such a massive monster.

Rubic is surprised that the stick had turned into a shield. Though his sence of amazement was a rather dulled by the fact that a sword had just appeared in his hand like magic not even a minute earlier. He watched the snake bite the shield but didn't want to attack and risk hitting Jen somehow. He prepared himself when the snake starting coming for him.

Rubic steeled himself for the attack. When the snake got close, he sidestepped and swung the sword, inteading to decapitate the snake but he wasn't used to the weight of the sword so it mearly scrapped the snake's skin. The blow knocked the snake back a few feet but Rubic was also thrown off balance and nearly fell. As if mocking him, the cry of another cicada rang through the air. "Those bugs are really pissing me off." He thinks. After regaining his balance, he stands with the sword in front of him, waiting for the snake to attack again.

Green scales clip off of his body as it recoils backwards to its original position hissing threateningly sliding to the side never taking its huge eyes off of the humans. Jen was no longer afraid, her adrenaline was flooding her system completely dulling the pain of a possibly broken arm, the snake lunged again at Rubic yielding a very similar result as the sword once again clips scales. It returned and stared at the group, its thought muddled trying to find the proper course of action against the creatures. Thunk. The creature hissed loudly tossing and turning looking for something else in the area, while it was moving around it broke the arrow implanted deeply in the soft spot Rubic made with his sword The snake lashes out with its tail venomously trying to draw off the intruders as it backs slowly away Thunk, arrow number two implants in the other soft spot made causing a swift retreat from the very irritated snake. Jen was breathing heavily as a man stepped into view, his body cloaked with animal skins, mostly wolves, a bow and arrow in his hand. his black hair and blue eyes aimed the bow directly at Jen. "Don't move or I will kill you." his voice was deep and icy cold. "Who are you?" He asked.

Jen dropped her stick and held her one hand palm facing him to show she did not mean harm My name is Jen" her voice shaky and nervous, not planning to meet another person in the jungle. The archer looked at Rubic in a similar fashion, bow still pulled tightly. "Were you awakened by that monster too?" Jen couldn't help but to ask, awaken was the first word she remembered drawing her into this hell. That seemed to break the archers concentration, a smile crawled itself onto his face and he loosened the bow slightly. "Greed awoken me and fourteen other people, I am the only one that survived getting away from her." a chuckled escaped his lips thinking about those poor fools he left, however his guard was never left down.

Rubic looks at the man suspiciously. He let his arm drop but didn't let go of the sword. He was too used to dealing with people who would backstab you without a second thought. Even if the man had just saved their lives. Probably in responce to his caution, the sword changed into a metal shield. "My name's Rubic?" He asks, unable to completely remove the hint of mistrust in his voice. He relaxed slightly when he heard that the man had also been awoken by the same monster as them. "So that creature is called Greed?" He asks to confirm. "And also, who are you?" He asks.

"At least that's what she called herself when she was talking to me." The archer replied casually pointing the bow to the floor to symbolize the peace between them. He seemed friendly enough, his cold exterior was replaced with some kind of feeling however it was hard to tell in his expression, a mixture of annoyance and pity probably due to Rubic's tone. "My name is Zayne, at least it was before I came here, the people here call me Arrow, we did away with our old names for we are not the same people we were." Zayne replied sadly missing his life before however he waved them over to him now completely friendly. "Lets go back to my camp and I'll get you some clothing, you two must be freezing by now." he chuckled warmly and it was hard not to trust him, a natural born leader easily rallies them forward and notices Jen's arm "Does it hurt?" Arrow asks comfortingly. Acknowledging it made Jen wince, the pain suddenly became a problem now that her adrenaline stopped filling her veins. "Yeah but I'll be fine." she replied coolly, however the pain was rather dominant in her voice.

Above the trees a cloud of smoke could be seen announcing everyone to the existence of the camp. The ground became moist with moss as they approach a river and before them were many wooden shacks. Stumps of trees that were cut around the camp borders litter the area to open space and it seemed everyone was getting along normally, friendly banter was being exchanged from fishing females and some were seen using their abilities one even building an entire hut with subtle motions of his hands not touching the wood at all.

 "Healer, I found these two survivors of the mighty one, make sure they are taken care of and get them some clothes." Arrow calls to a female who was hunched over a man in what looked like he was in a seizure however his veins were purple and bulging with his mouth foaming. "Very well Arrow, this man's fate is sealed, caught by a spider." The thought of a single spider bite doing that to a man made her shudder as Healer approached them. Her touch was gentle and sweet to Jen caressing her broken arm and suddenly a flash of light from her palms and the arm was completely healed, not a trace of the wound remained, however it caused Jen to shrivel backwards in pain.

"I accelerate the healing process, do you have any wounds?" Healer asks Rubic offhandedly not noticing anything besides the scratches on his flesh, after their exchange she motions them to her hut, the top was decorated with trinkets to separate her hut from the rest. "Chief said it was okay to feed you as long as you don't cause trouble." Healer says to them, oddly she didn't leave their side the entire time, this time she would be leaving them in the hut after taking care of wounds not to come back till she gathered food and clothing for their poor souls.

Rubic took in the scenery. The camp reminded him of the camps in RPG games. Having TVs and video games were considered an enormous luxury after the war but he'd been able to procure them from time to time. Finding electricity to power them was another problem entirely.

Rubic suddenly realized that the torch he had "summoned", that wasn't quite the word, brought into existence was more like, had singed his fingers slightly. He had obviously been to distracted to notice but as soon as he did, bending his fingers started to hurt. He let the woman treat his wounds without protest and lets her leave. "So how do you suppose we're gonna make it to the top of that mountain?" He asks Jen bluntly.

(Relocating to Haven)

(Re enter of Jen and Rubic after about three months time.)

"Alright! Let's go!" Rubic exclaims as he stretches. "That wait was long but at last we're gonna be on our way." He says excitedly. The two months hadn't been entirely a waste of time, he had learned a lot about the world in that time, but he was glad to finally be leaving for the mountain.

He had practiced with his ability in that time and had learned more about how it functioned, though it didn't seem to always give him to object he prefered, it did give him useful things. If he concentrated, it was now possible for him summon two objects at a time as well. He had also trained his swordsmanship and a few other survival skills so he that wasn't completely helpless in a fight. Arrow had tried to teach him a bit of archery but Rubic didn't seem to have much talent for it. The best he could manage was to hit a few mid range targets. He much prefered using a gun. His favorite thing by far though was to create traps for creatures. He had actually saved a few people from attacks around the perimeter of the camp with them. A surge of excitement and relief ran through him every time one of his traps worked.

Rubic looked back toward Jen who had made an amazing recovery from her fight two months ago. He had learned what had happened. That some crazy guy named Johnny had tried to kill her. "Shall we go?" He asks her with a smile.

Jen smiled back warmly "Yeah I think its about time," she could only enjoy Rubic's company after the hell she endured while recovering, unlike him she did not learn very much about the survival aspect but she had many hours to think about her ability which she realized the more she thought about it, the less it actually happened. "To be honest I don't feel prepared at all, but I was getting the impression it was time to leave." For whatever reason even Chief was pushing them forward out of the camp, but it was not like they were not prepared.

The walk was rather uneventful to the begin of the incline however glancing up the mountain seemed to extend on forever, disappearing into the clouds. A sense of nervousness and excitement appeared as butterflies in her stomach as she stared up the mountain and assessed their Goliath task at hand. "Well I guess we should be looking for some shelter, there is no way we are making it to the top in one night." Jen states the obvious as she walked forward, it was a gradual incline at first  but soon they were being called by the cliff face a fresh reminder that this would take much longer than anticipated.  

"Let me lead, if I fall I want you to catch me." Jen leans over and says to Rubic jokingly, knowing if she were to fall and Rubic even try to stop the hold gravity on her they would most likely both plummet to their death, Jen was truly leading due to the nature of her ability, some times it did nothing, other times it carved straight through stone making stairs. allowing easy access up the ninety degree angles.

"Ready or not, we can't just stay in here forever." Rubic replies to Jen. "I hope they stay safe though." He says as they leave.

Rubic agreed that they wouldn't make it to the top in one night. The mountain was simply too large even if they did have magical abilities. He glaced up with anticipation. This wasn't going to be a simple frolic in a field of flowers.

Around a few hours after they duo started their climb, Rubic thought he saw something scurry by his field of view very quickly. It didn't seem to be anything so he ignored it. He saw it again a few minutes later. Rubic had a bad feeling now. He looked at where the blur had gone and put a hand on Jen's shoulder to get her to stop walking. "I think something's here..." He tells her. As if on queue, something jumps down from a ledge and tries to bite Rubic but he swats it out of the air before it reaches him. It appeared to be a small, crimson colored spider. But that wasn't the only one, quickly following it, dozens upon dozens of similar spiders swooped down upon them. Pack Spiders. They'd been warned about these things. Nasty creatures that swarmed their pray in enormous numbers.

Jen turned her head briefly to Rubic to see what he was talking about, however she was going to call him crazy as the spiders poured over the ledge. Jen's arms were immediately covered before she even realized what was happening, her eyes opened wide in horror as she tried to swat them away losing her grip on the wall falling backwards. A scream burning her lungs as she flails trying desperately to toss the mass of spiders off her body. The earth under her rises and stretches out catching her like a baseball to a catchers mitt however the spiders were now all over her body beginning to release venom into particularly the arms, the screams echoed off the mountain as she claws at her skin trying to remove the spiders. She managed to kill nearly all of them escaping her encounter with hundreds of bites on her arms, her body convulsing violently from poison.

Laura's body was on fire, but she was still stable, she knew what was happening. Immediately she reached into her bag pulling out the knife that Arrow had given them, She bit her tongue hard to keep her from screaming as she grinds at the soft exposed flesh on her arms trying to remove some of the massive intake of poison before it reached her organs. Unfortunately all Rubic would see was her fall and the pool of blood underneath her being swarmed himself by the tiny devils.

Rubic felt something immediately appear in his hand. He had gotten used to the sensation, or lack thereof, of summoning items so it no longer caught him by surprise as much. He looked to find himself holding what looked like a two hemispheres with a lightning bolt symbol on it. It was a grenade. Without pausing, Rubic pushed the two halves together which was obviously the primer and threw it on the ground in front of him. The grenade itself crushed a dozen spiders. An electrical discharge sparked from the sphere in a wide arc and stunned the spiders. The pulse was too weak to effect humans significantly but it easily overloaded the spiders' nervous systems and killed most of them outright. Rubic ran to the side of the cliff and looked over to see Jen laying in the pool of blood. "Fuck..." he curses.

The earth around her seemed to absorb her raising up to cover her wounds and stop the bleeding, but it only locked her in place, she laid there twitching painfully as the rocks rose to where she once was letting her go allowing the blood from her arms to pour once more, Jen was in a state of shock, her eyes were dilating and she could feel her skin crawl, the spiders were all gone but they felt like they were under her skin. Laura opened her mouth to let in more and more breath eventually going into hyperventilation from mixture of the poison in her system in the fear of the tiny insects, however she was dropped right over the ledge laying on the top of the cliff face they were just moments before the attack, she cringed tossing to her side as she called out Rubic's name, her voice filled with anguish, "He-help.." She muttered weakly trying to hold the blood from pouring out of her arms, the realization that bandaid's and medical supplies did not exist made the cutting of her arms to get the poison out a double edged sword as her vision blurs unable to focus, the soft ground beneath her felt like it was whirling.

Rubic started cursing. "Fuck fuck fuck. Of all things to appear, fucking spiders!" He growls while trying to figure out how to help Jen. No matter what he thought, he didn't know how to get to her or what he would do when he did. They had just started and already everything was going wrong. Rubic crushed a dead spider under his foot in frustration.

Jen let out another sigh of agony as her body was rushed to the top harshly landing on the ground however it absorbed it all like a pillow, her voice called out to the skies, brimming with pain. "I-I-I'm fine, just ge-g-get up here." Her shaking voice was most likely caused by her bodies convulsions but Rubic couldn't see that it was mainly due to her fear, her body was entering a state of shock as it deals with the toxins coursing through her system. Jen's body was trembling but for a moment it was safe, it was up to Rubic to get up to her and calm her before her heart made any unnecessarily movements. Up on the ledge a skeleton of what looked like some kind of ram creature, obviously the most recent prey of the spiders and what caused them to be so near.

Jen's voice calmed down Rubic slightly. Assuring him that she wasnt' dead yet. Rubic started to think more clearly and began climbing down the ledge to where Jen was. "It's alright, I'm coming down!" He says as he begins the decent. He saw the blood still pouring out of her wounds and knew he had to get to her quickly or she'd bleed out. He made it down within a few minutes, a lot more careless than he should have been and almost falling to his own death at one point. He kneeled next to Jen and tried to see how bad the damage was. He wasn't exactly a doctor but he had a little knowledge about basic first aid.