Chapter 13: Poisonous Plains

After we said good bye to Octavis's family, we used Eora's Gem to warp closer to Pora. It wasn't very far as the town was directly south of Fora, which we were already close to. Pora was surrounded by clean plains and water and everyone loved to be there. But when we got close to the town, there was a horrible smell going through the air.

"I thought we were going to Pora," Chris said. "Not back to Jora!" We covered our noses, like we did a few chapters ago, including Stan, who now had a cleared nose.

"So this is what that town smelled like?" Stan said using his hand to cover his face. We knocked on Pora's door and he let us in. Unlike Jora's house, it smelled much nicer in here.

"Yeah, me and Jora never really got along," Pora said. "How is he doing, though?"

"Last we saw him, we left him with a broom and a clean house," Helen said. Pora laughed.

"What's going on with the smell here, Pora?" Sobie asked.

"Someone built a sewer system over the river and it's been poisoning it," Pora answered.

"What's with all the poison lately?" Matt said.

"How long has that sewer been there?" Andrew asked.

"Um... June 8th," he answered.

"That's when we started this journey," I said. "Did everything happen that day?"

"Do you at least have your Gem, Pora?" Jennifer asked.

"...No. No, I don't."

"It's in the sewer, huh?" Stan asked. Pora nodded.

"A large squid took it and headed in,"

"I've said this before and I'll say it again: You Guardians do a terrible job of guarding." Stan said.

"Well, nothing like this has happened in almost a thousand years, so we were all caught off guard!"

"We'll... go see what we can do. Send word out to the rest of the Guardians to keep a better grip on their Gems, alright?" Andrew said.

"Uh-huh," Pora nodded. "Good luck!"

We headed back out into the poison filled air and went toward the sewer. Walking there, we saw that the water looked like a green-ish purple instead of their usual clear blue. We saw the sewer sitting on the river and it was pouring waste into it and shooting pollution into the air. Walking in, we saw there were plenty of doors. Opening a few of them, we found a number of valves. Thinking they would work against the sewer's system, we turned a few of them. Hearing some slight hissing sounds, we decided to continue. While fighting some poisonous creatures, we turned every valve we could in the sewer. Whenever one of us gets poisoned, Andrew pulls out an Antidote Vial. The sewer plant wasn't very big and we were able to get to the bottom floor easily... just to get attacked by the giant squid. Using its tentacles, it took hold of me, Jennifer, Chris, and Sobie. Unlike a regular squid, this one only had four tentacles. The tentacles completely nullified the use of our arms, so we were all helpless. Everyone else tried to get close, but kept getting swept back by the tentacles. Helen used her whip to hold one in place, but the tentacle brought her up as well. As Helen screamed, Matt rushed in, running as fast as he could and swinging his sword at the tentacles. He chopped the one holding Chris and caught him as he fell, only to be knocked back by the one carrying me. A few seconds later, we saw the arm regenerating as if from black ink then it got its orange color back once it fully formed. It used it newly formed arm to grab Helen, who was still swinging from her whip.

"It's a Gem's creation!" Andrew yelled. "Take care of its arms." Stan and Kyra shot out magic blasts which burned off the arm with Jennifer and froze the arm with me in it. Andrew ran up and sliced the frozen arm making me fall back to the ground. Lacey turned into a large, green rope and started tying the remaining arms together. As the other two arms grew back, Jennifer shot an arrow at the arm carrying Helen, but the arm carrying Sobie moved into its path and the arrow hit her! We all stood there in worry as we saw Sobie lay limp, and then we saw Sobie's hair change from pink to red and steam was coming from her. The squid yelled in pain as it dropped Sobie to the floor. Sobie landed with a thud and Stan ran up to her, but before he could pick her up, she stood up on her own and she was engulfed in fire! With tremendous speed, she rushed the squid and flew through it, completely obliterating it. The squid's black goo and Lacey's green goo flew everywhere, but only Lacey's came back together. At the back of the room, Sobie stood there with her flames diminishing, but her hair stayed a red color. She turned around, looking at her hands wondering what just happened, and then she started falling. Stan ran to her and caught her just before she landed.

"I think I like you even more now," Stan said to her. Sobie just smiled as she drifted off.

"That was... quite impressive," Kyra said, rubbing the black goop off her dress. Andrew went to where the squid once stood and picked up the Gem that had been left behind.

"We still have one more thing to do," he said. We all nodded as we walked down to the lower level with Stan carrying Sobie on his back. Going through more doors, we continued turning more valves while fighting the remaining creatures. When the last valve had turned, the sewer started rumbling.

"This place is going to explode!" Andrew said. "Let's get out of here!" He held up Pora's Gem and we were all warped back to town. We turned to look at the sewer in the distance and saw the place blow up, spewing metal chunks everywhere. We all ducked behind the town's houses as we were being hailed upon by large, metal rocks and spears. When we heard no more clanking, we stepped out to see all the houses broken and with pieces of metal embedded in them.

"Well, at least you got rid of the sewer," Pora said, stepping out of his house. He pointed at Sobie. "What happen to her?"

"She got hit with an arrow, burst into flames, obliterated a squid, then fainted," Stan said seriously. Pora just looked at him for a second then looked around town.

"You mind using the Gem to fix all this?"

"But he were told to just use the Gems to warp," I said.

"You used the Gem to fix Gora earlier, did you not?"

"Um, right," I said. Andrew held up the Gem and, almost instantly, the town returned to normal. The metal vanished, the windows returned, and walls repaired. Afterward we brought Sobie to the inn and sat her down on the bed. We looked for the arrow wound, but...

"Strange, there's no blood at all!" Stan said.

"Where did it hit her?" Kyra asked.

"I think it went into her head," Jennifer said, somewhat embarrassed about almost killing a teammate. Stan checked the back of her head.

"There's no skin back here, either. Not a bit," Stan said.

"Does she have a pulse?" Andrew asked. Stan put his hand on her heart.

"Um... no pulse, but she is breathing still," Stan grabbed the top of her shirt.

"Hey, what do you think you're doing?!" Helen exclaimed.

"Confirming something," Stan said and he ripped off Sobie's shirt. "Yep, just what I though."

"She's... nothing but bones," I said. Sobie's ribcage was revealed and there were no organs at all in her.

"I've spent a great deal of time with them in my world," Stan said. "I know a zombie when I see one."

"How long have you known?" Chris asked.

"Since we first met her," Stan answered. "Exitilus brought her back from the dead and this magic absorbing thing she did earlier must've been one of his spells. I can't tell what, but something did happen back then that your ancestor couldn't prevent, Stephan. Sobie died way too early."

"Well, whatever magic Exitilus used on her, we can use to our advantage," Lacey said. Sobie started to groan and we decided to let her rest, but Stan stayed behind to watch after her. Stan looked at the ripped shirt Sobie used to wear.

"I'll... go buy you some new clothes. I still have those 50 Sers Stephan gave me awhile ago." Stan covered up Sobie in the bedding in case someone walks in and freaks out that there's a zombie in the Inn.

Stan returned and found Sobie awake and covering herself in the bedding. They both just sighed at each other.

"So, you know, huh?" Sobie asked.

"Yeah," Stan answered. "We all do. I knew from the beginning and I can understand not wanting to say anything at first. Who's wants to be friends with a zombie, right?" Sobie just looked away with a grunt. "But considering what we've been through together and that everyone knows at this point, I don't think anyone would mind. I think it'd be kind of cool to have a zombie girlf—friend." Sobie turned back to him and dropped the sheets, revealing her bones. "Here, try these on." Stan threw Sobie the new clothes. "They're more color-coordinated than your other ones." Sobie laughed a bit and, before getting up, she said,

"Could you... turn around?"

"Hm? Oh, yeah. I'll leave you alone for now," Stan closed the door and remained in the hall. A couple of minutes later, he heard her say he could come back in. Stan opened the door and saw Sobie in her new outfit: A blue and white shirt, blue gauntlets, white pants and blue boots.

"This is... very blue," Sobie said.

"Well, you said you had blue hair before, so, unless you absorb some Water Magic soon or Kyra's Ice Magic, I thought this could compensate for that. I also got you a blue helmet, see?" Stan picked up the helmet.

"I think that would make it too much blue," Sobie walked over to Stan. "Besides, you don't like my new hair color? It matches yours." She gave Stan a hug. "Unless you'd rather I wear no clothes like you?"

"Why do you guys continue to bring that up?" Stan said. Sobie laughed and Stan hugged her back. They went out to show off Sobie's new outfit to the rest of us. Stan decided to put the other set of her miss-matched clothes in a satchel he bought with Sobie's new clothes.

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