Mercy and the Wither

Mercy was positively giddy. She could barely contain her excitement. The ghost-shaped flames at the top of her head and at her tail danced in anticipation. The candle noodle had long waited for this day, since she was a wick-wyrm learning to read. She had lived in the light and in safety for long enough and now she had the chance to experience in person what she had always just read about in books. Mercy was going to Raydes. She would be able to see the Wither for herself.

She was not officially an Adventurer's Guild member, but for this mission they need everyone they can get to help. At least, that was what Mercy would tell them when they realized she was not supposed to be there. She had managed to sneak aboard the Glorietta Arcana by acting like she knew where she was supposed to be going. No one questioned her presence at the explorers’ mission briefing. So far, so good.

After what felt like eons to Mercy, the airship began its descent. Mercy looked over the railing on the main deck and saw the mysterious island that was their destination. Raydes was so dark that it looked like it was only a silhouette, one that grew as they got closer to it.

Once the Glorietta Arcana had landed, shouts were heard all over the airship. This prompted the mages, explorers and other personnel to organize themselves into their groups and go to their assigned locations. Mercy followed a group heading to the gangplank that was being set up to disembark passengers. She wanted to be one of the first to set paw on Raydes.

“Pardon me!” Mercy shouted as she muscled past other candle noodles and avoided tripping over lumendra. She was almost to the gangplank.

All of a sudden, her path was blocked by another candle noodle.

“Hey, don’t forget your lantern, miss!” the noodle said, gesturing to a pile of light-producing supplies. “Or would you prefer a torch?”

“Of course… I’ll take a lantern”, Mercy replied, picking up one and carrying it in her mouth. Wouldn’t her natural light enough?

Finally, she and the explorers were allowed to disembark. The walk on the gangplank down to the island seemed to take forever to Mercy. Slowly and steadily the group headed towards the darkness. Suddenly, the group stopped moving forward. Gasps of surprise could be heard from the very front. Impatient, Mercy once again pushed herself through the crowd to see what was happening.

Mercy could now see what Raydes was really like. The air was filled with a thick fog the color of spilled ink. One could barely see through it enough to make out the shapes of dead trees and jagged rocks beyond it all. A tortuvina at the front of the pack was waving their torch while moving forward. As they did this, the clouds of fog acted like a living thing, hissing as if in pain before fleeing from the light of the torch. A path was being carved out through the clouds and the previously hidden ground could now be seen.

What caused the holdup seemed to be some younger Faians just standing there in awe of what was happening. Mercy was surprised too. How could fog make a sound? The Wither sure was mysterious…

“Yes! That’s what we want to see! Remember how much the Wither hates light!” yelled a voice from someone who was obviously more experienced. “Get into your groups and forge ahead!”

Once on the island, Mercy tagged along with one group that was going deeper into the island.  While the party walked with their lanterns through dead plants, Mercy gradually slowed down her walking speed. When she became the Faian at the end of the group, and when she was certain no one had noticed her straggling, she turned around and began going in the other direction. Mercy began carving her own pathway through a grove of dead trees. She found the darkness surrounding her patch of light beautiful and she admired the shadows cast by the light of her flames. She did not notice the fog reforming behind her.

She had been walking for a while when, out of the corner of her eye, something moved. It moved slowly, creeping its way towards Mercy. Mercy stopped in her tracks, unsure if her mind was playing tricks on her. The shadows stopped moving, but the tendril of darkness continued on its way getting closer to her. Mercy realized what was happening.

It was a wither creature! Mercy wished she had brought a notebook, a sketchpad or something to record what she was witnessing. The wither creature was far enough away that it was no danger to her.

Until it shot at her like an arrow.

Mercy screamed, dropping her lantern, and instinctively smacked the wither creature with her tail. Unlike the fog it seemed to be solid, her hard hit causing it to fly back a few feet. The creature was like a blob, but it was constantly forming and reforming its shape. It was the same color as the fog.

Mercy picked up her lantern to discover the light had now gone out. She threw it at the wither creature but missed hitting it. The wither creature got close to Mercy again. This time she butted her head at it, using her head flames to make the creature back off. The three ghost-shaped flames glowed, dancing angrily and aggressively. Next she switched to waving the flames of her tail at it.

Mercy desperately tried to come up with a plan. The wither creature did not let up, despite her keeping it at a distance by using her natural light. She couldn’t keep at it forever, though, as she would tire out eventually. The darkness around her seemed to be closing in on her, threatening to swallow her whole. All Mercy could come up with was to run away as fast as she could.

She waved her tail at the wither creature one more time before taking off through the darkness. Mercy could not see very far ahead in front of her and had to dodge trees while running. Eventually she had to stop running, so she slowed her pace but dared not stop completely. She was panting and looking all around her to make sure the wither creature did not follow. It did not, but Mercy realized something.

She was lost. She had no way of knowing what direction she was heading, how to get back to the airship or how to even find another group of explorers.

Thus, Mercy did what she knew she could do. She took her time, applying the light of her flames to the clouds surrounding her. She listened to the hissing noise as they disappeared, and moved forward in a straight line. Mercy hoped she would eventually get out of here safely.