A Message

---Indigo---

Skidding to a stop, I saw Ashley, Jason, and Lucian standing nervously next to a Katherine who looked like she just ran a marathon. Her face was flushed, her hair tumbled down her shoulders untamed, and she looked somewhat unsettled.

"Oh my god Kath! Where did you go?!" Aaron exclaimed. "We were so worried about you!"

"Yeah, Katherine, you shouldn't run off like that. What if something happened to you?" I chided her gently.

"Sorry guys, but I got information." Katherine said apologetically. She held out a folded piece of parchment, the top jagged and ripped. "Read it."

I took the paper from her and smoothed out the folds, reading out loud so everyone can hear. "Lord Victor awaits you at Devil's Peak." I flipped the paper over. Nothing. I looked back up at everyone else.

"That's it? A message just to tell us Lord Victor is has moved from the Northern Mountains to Devil's Peak?"

"It appears so," Katherine said, leaning against the supporting pole of a nearby vendor. "Anyone have water? I'm so thirsty from running." Ashley pulled out a water canteen and handed it to Katherine, who chugged its entire contents down within seconds. "Oh jeez, I really need to exercise more if we're going to keep doing this."

"Okay Katherine, tell us what happened from the beginning," I said, thinking. We needed all the facts.

"Let's go somewhere quieter so no one will disturb us," Rachel suggested before Katherine could speak. "See where those people are sitting on the grass enjoying the night? Let's go there."

We began moving through the crowd again, and Katherine started her story. "So after the tournament, while Aaron and Indigo were still being bombarded by paparazzi and fans, I extracted myself from the crowd. I couldn't find the rest of you guys, so I decided to sit somewhere quiet and just, you know, take a break. I bought a cup of cider, found a haystack up on a hill, and finally got to relax a little. I'm assuming you guys traced me all the way up there?"

Aaron held up the hair ribbon in response. Katherine smiled and took it back, tying up her messy hair. "Thanks. I knew you would find the spot. Anyway, it was really nice up there, with a beautiful view, and I was just sitting there, enjoying myself, when an arrow whizzed out of nowhere and nearly impaled my hand to the wall." She still seemed miffed when she said this. By now, we had reached the grassy area where other people lounged around, chattering and laughing. We settled down in a circle as Katherine continued her story. "It startled me, and I dropped my cup in response. I saw a dark figure peeking from a clump of tall grasses, so I dropped my hair ribbon as a sign for anyone who tried to find me and took off after the guy. He bolted as soon as he saw me go after him, and boy, he was fast. I chased him all the way around the festival, but he just weaved through the crowd like there was no one in his way."

"Did you get a clear look at his face?" Lucian asked, pulling up clumps of grass absentmindedly. Katherine shook her head.

"No, but he had brown hair, really clompy boots—I remember thinking that he might be a farmer but he looked sort of young for that—and he was wearing a white shirt. Oh, and I flicked a clump of mud at him with my sword and it splattered his clean white shirt. That's how I was able to identify him in the crowd." Katherine looked pleased with herself. "Then just as I lost sight of him I bumped into Ashley, and that's how we ended up here."

"Blonde, white shirt, farmer's boots…" I mused thoughtfully. Rachel looked up sharply. "Do you remember the guy who told us where Katherine was?"

"Oh yeah!" Aaron exclaimed. "He was pretty nice."

"No, I meant what he looked like," Rachel clarified.

"Um, he had brown hair, wearing a white shirt that was dirty…Hey, is that the same guy?" Aaron turned to me. I thought about it.

"The guy who told us where you were matched your description," I told Katherine. "His white shirt was splattered with mud or dirt. You said you threw mud at the guy?"

"Yeah. He tried to run and I just stabbed a clump of mud from the floor and flicked it at him. Slowed him down a little, bought me some time," Katherine answered.

"Okay. Let's assume they're the same person. Why would he deliver this message? Is he working for Lord Victor?" I raised the questions.

"Maybe it's a trap," Jason suggested. "Lord Victor wants to get us to Devil's Peak and then capture and kill us there."

"Likely. We still have to go, though, don't we? If Lord Victor moved his stronghold there, he's probably planning something or even starting his take-over-the-world scheme. We need to stop him," Ashley pointed out.

"But it's a trap. The note clearly said that Lord Victor is waiting for us to show up. He's planning something nasty for us, I just know it," Lucian argued.

"We can't just leave him there either," Rachel said. "He's not in the Northern Mountains anymore. What's the point of going up north if Lord Victor's not even there?"

"What if the whole thing's a trap and Lord Victor isn't even there? For all we know, maybe he just has his subordinates there to capture us." Katherine said suddenly.

"Where is Devil's Peak?" I asked. "Does anyone have a map?"

Rachel rummaged in her sack and pulled out a map of Crystallea. "Let's see…we're here, at Goldhedge. Here's Strongfair. And here is Devil's Peak, a giant mountain that's nearly impossible to scale." She pointed at an area east of Strongfair. Aaron peered at the map.

"We'll have to go through Dead Man's Chasm and the Desederium Forest to get there," he stated. "Wasn't our plan to avoid those places?"

"Yes, but in order to get to Devil's Peak we have to go through there," Rachel said. "Unless you want to go through the Boglands and hack your way through all those scary dense forests?"

"That was my idea," Lucian pouted. "but you guys vetoed it."

"It wasn't realistic," Ashley said exasperatedly. "Rachel's was much better, even though we have to go through the places were trying to avoid again."

"Well, are we going to accept this invitation and try and defeat Lord Victor at Devil's Peak? Or are we going to ignore this and keep going north to the Northern Mountains?" I asked. "We should make this decision together."

Everyone looked at each other. "We have to take this risk," Katherine said finally. "I think Lord Victor will be there. We should probably nab him as fast as we can."

"I agree. All in favor of going to Devil's Peak, raise your hand." I looked around. Unanimous agreement.

"Alright then. Trap or no trap, we're coming for you, Lord Victor."