The White Apple Campaign 10 - A Hand in the Dark

There was a bang in the night. Jr. threw. Glass broke and people shouted. What did I even throw at? She thought as the world slowly came into focus around her.

“There was something at the window!” Vasher shouted.

I was dreaming and I think the captain shot at me. Jr. thought, the room bustling around her.

“How did you know?” Lenny was shaking Jr.’s shoulders.

“Know what?” Jr. asked blearily.

“You hit the thing that was in our window from a dead sleep!” Lenny explained excitedly. “I heard the glass break and saw what looked like the giant spider fall. How did you know it was there? Did you make that bang?”

“I was dreaming.” Jr. replied. “I didn’t make that bang, I thought I dreamed it. Maybe the bang kicked in some reflex?”

“Come over here quick!” Vasher said from the window.

He had removed the rest of the glass from the frame with the butt of his spear and was hanging half out the window to look at the street below, Johnathan holding his waist to keep him from falling. Lenny walked over with Jr. and gave her a boost so she could see down. Something small with many limps was writhing in the street.

“I thought you said it was a giant spider.” Jr. said to Lenny, unamused on the outside, but thrilled to see her knife in the thing as proof of her reflexes.

“It was! Right Johnathan?” Lenny asked.

“I believe so, seemed very similar to the one that has been following us.” Johnathan replied.

Vasher nodded and said, “It changed when the knife hit it. Looks like a hand down there now.”

He was right. The thing below had too few limbs to be a spider, but if it was a hand it was a gnarly one.

“Hold on.” Vasher said and held his hand out like he had done for the forest egg.

White tendrils lined the outside of his fingers and an identical shape swirled into view outside the inn. He used his complicated finger movements to lower the misty grabbers to snatch up the hand in spindly silvery appendages. He raised it up to the window.

It is gnarly, Jr. thought when the hand came into view. It looked like a hand of one of the liches they had fought but much, much older.

“Don’t bring that thing inside.” Lenny said.

“Why not?” Jr. asked. “It’s just a hand.”

“We can play it safe if she wants.” Vasher replied. “Jr. you run down there, and I’ll lower it down to you. Go ready to be gone for a long time. I don’t think any of us are sleeping anymore tonight.”

Jr. nodded and gathered all of her shuriken from her pillow along with her basic packs of supplies. Then, she was off.

Even in the dark Jr. could tell the house was empty. No Todd and Linda. Empty houses echoed a certain way. Not just the sounds were louder, but her presence bounced around empty rooms and felt no one hiding or sleeping. She didn’t really know how to describe it, she just knew when places were hollow. In only a few dashing moments, she was out in the street below the window.

The hand hovered a story above her still bound by Vasher’s misty trick.

“I’m going to lower it down!” Vasher hissed down at her.

Slowly, the writhing hand lowered to be within her grasp. It hung there, turning slowly until she could get a good grab on the handle of her knife. After all this caution, she was not about to touch the thing and get Lenny all fussed.

“I got it!” Jr. yelled back up to Vasher.

His head disappeared from the window and Jr. was left alone in the alleyway with her horrid prize. It squirmed but did not bleed.

“So, can you talk.” Jr. asked and snorted to herself.

The hand jerked around wildly, nearly shaking loose from Jr.’s grip.

“Wait, you understood that?” Jr. asked.

The hand froze. Almost as if it was thinking. The it stuck up its pointer finger.

“Is that supposed to mean yes.” Jr. asked, hearing her companions begin to round into the alleyway.

The hand flexed the upheld finger assertively.

“Why is it pointing at you?” Lenny asked, clinking up to Jr. fully fight ready.

“It says that this means yes.” Jr. replied.

“What means yes?” Lenny asked, lost.

“The finger. It held it up when I asked a question.”

“Oh, that makes sense, I use that system all the time. Two fingers mean no.” Lenny paused. “Wait, it can hear us?!” she spurted out.

“Apparently.” Jr. said., ghoulish hand sticking up a finger as if to agree with Lenny.

“It must be like how Johnathan helped us talk to the other liches before.” Lenny said.

“I think this is different.” Johnathan replied, eyeing the hand suspiciously. “This hand is still aware. The others were just memory banks so to speak.”

“Are you the lich from the shore, with the sharks?” Lenny asked the hand.

It raised a single finger.

“Can you see us?” Lenny asked again.

The finger remained raised.

Jr. shuddered. They had been being watched this whole time. It made her want to do the spying for a change.

“Where did the townsfolk go?” Jr asked the hand.

It curled its finger to point down the alleyway to where it ended in thick woods.

“All we seem to do lately is take directions from strangers.” Vasher said nearby but started walking towards the woods.

As Jr. followed, she began to make out the low sound of chanting raising from somewhere deep beyond the darkness of the alleyway. She shivered, and that scared her more than the chanting.

“We should go check on food supplies.” Jr. said.

“What?” Vasher asked, thumping his spear on the ground. “Where did this come from all of a sudden?”

“Well you all have been griping about food ever since we got here and now we are about to blindly follow something into the woods? We should stock up before we run off on some new farce.”

“She has a point.” Lenny replied. Then she turned on her heel and made her way back to Todd and Linda’s.”

Jr. was happy to see her friend agree and ran ahead of Lenny straight into the house, eager to rifle through the storerooms first. It took no time to pop the thin wooden doors open, so she was already opening the first crate by the time the others joined her.

It was full of white grapes.

“Lenny?” Jr. called over her shoulder.

“Hm?” Came Lenny’s voice in the dark.

“Its all white.”  Jr. pointed out. “Vasher, can you light your spear?”

Light bathed the small room, making the milky grapes opalesce.

A crash came from Lenny’s direction. Then a curse. She had broken open a crate of salted white bacon.

“Hold one a minute.” Lenny said, then pulled a bunch of purple grapes from her bag. “I’ve been saving bits of food this whole time. These are still purple! Why would they just stash all this white stuff.”

“Maybe we really are getting the special food.” Johnathan said over his notebook.

“We’ll see about that!” Lenny said and touched the bunch of grapes to the intricate knots on her right boot. The color drained form the fruit, leaving it an opal white like the others in the crate.

Worried noises came from various people around Jr. then Lenny simply started unloading handfuls of food from her bag. Bacon, mini sandwiches, fruit, even a deftly packed wad of mashed potatoes.

“Well it was worth a shot.” Jr. said, then she walked out from the room without so much a second look at the food she had suggested they bring.

“Where are you off to now?” Vasher asked as she passed.

“I’d rather not get stuck in a fight without Hemswick. If we can’t have food, let’s get the extra arms.”

“Makes sense to me!” Vasher replied and extinguished his spear.

So the food I ate at Constance’s was bullshit. Jr. thought as her stomach twisted. Why did I even do that? I swore I wouldn’t have anything they offered me. But it was so good… Jr.’s thoughts twisted with her insides until she made it out of the dark inn and into the empty midnight street.

“The Timothy Lich boy is gone. He must have regenerated tonight.” Lenny said when she and the others joined Jr. on the street.

“All the more reason to keep moving.” Jr. said. “Hand! Can you help us find Hemswick?”

The hand wavered its fingers slowly in a vague gesture. Jr. felt frustrated at this. At night, all the buildings around them looked the same. There was no telling where Hemswick had gone off to. Impatient, she started off toward the forest edge they had found behind the rows of buildings. The others followed.

Something huffed in the night. Jr. froze, prompting the others to halt as well.

The tree line was barely visible in the pale moon light, and there was no sign of what could have made the sound. Jr. took a step closer. A glimmer of light on the leaves caught her eye and there it was. A white stag at the edge of the wood. Quiet gasps came from behind Jr. and the slow sound of weapons being drawn. The stag kicked up its front legs lightly and brought them down on a twig, snapping it with a clean crack.

Why the hell are we thinking about leaving again with no food? Jr. thought standing in the middle of the street. A white stag huffed at the edge of the forest and slowly turned to go back into the wood.

“Why are we about leave again with no food? And why are you all drawing your weapons?” Jr. asked as she turned to face her companions.

Each had their hands ready as if they were going to fight, but why were they suspicious in the first place? Why were they out in the street? Jr. wanted to find Hemswick, because they were going somewhere, but why were they leaving? Why not just show the hand to Jacobin?

“That is a good point.” Vasher said, brow furrowed. “We don’t know where to find Hemswick at all. We should be ready to be gone for a while. But, pardon me, why are we looking for him again?”

“The hand, right?” Lenny asked, pointing at the lich hand on Jr.’s knife.

Following her gaze, Jr. only then noticed the thing was twitching its fingers wildly.

“Do you know why we are all just standing out here in the middle of the night?” Jr. asked.

It thrust a single finger into the air as forcefully as she had ever seen it.

“I remember what that means!” Lenny chimed in.

“What happened then?” Jr. asked the hand.

It pointed back to Todd and Linda’s inn.

Jr. followed the pointing finger ahead of everyone as it led them back into the dark house and towards the storeroom.

Why didn’t I think to check the food stores? Jr. thought, frustrated.

When she walked inside, she couldn’t see at thing. Then, a small light came from Vasher’s spear and a faint sense of dejavous washed over her with the light. White food filled the crates that some one had already smashed open. Oddly, totally normal food lay strewn across the floor, in contrast to the neatly packed strange white bacon.

“Hey,” Lenny said, “That looks like the food I was saving for later.” She checked in her special bag at her waist. “It IS the food I had in here. But why would I dump it out?” Lenny continued to ponder.

Something was starting to scratch at the edges of Jr.’s mind. Something she knew.

Lenny bent over and touched a plum from the ground to her boot laces. It’s dark color bled away in the spear light and Jr. remembered everything in a rush. The strange deer, the first time she had been in the food store. She gasped.

“Well someone just made us waste a lot of time and magic.” Vasher said, disenchanted now as well.

“Let’s not waste any more time!” Jr. said on her way out the door, sliding between Johnathan’s legs as he gaped at what looked like white leather in the storeroom corner.

Jr.’s friend’s footsteps thundered behind her on her way back out into the street, but there, in the open doorway, stood Jacobin. He regarded everyone placidly, but Jr. could sense his annoyance.

“Why are you all in such a hurry in the middle of the night?” his voice was soft and questioning. “Is there something wrong with your accommodations?”

“Where is everyone Jacobin?” Lenny spat.

“My apologies. Tonight was a very special ceremony night. Todd and Linda will return shortly to tend to your every need.” As he spoke, he looked from person to person, like a politician trying to make eye contact with every handshake.

Vasher stepped to the front of the group. The older gnome was taller than Jr. but he barely came up to Jacobins waist. All the same, when he raised his now grey stubbled chin to face Jacobin, he seemed as intimidating as an ox.

“You’ve been lying to us Jacobin.” Vasher said firmly.

“I have no idea what you mean. Have your hosts been…”

Vasher cut him off, “The food is all enchanted. You spent a bloody day parading us around, showing off illusions, and lying about ‘exotic shipments’. We are done. We are leaving. We can’t be saviors of people we cannot trust.”

“Ah.” Jacobin said, looking to the side. “I assure you the food is still quite safe.”

“Then why lie to us and paint it pretty colors?” Vasher shot back, taking a threatening step forward. Jr. had only ever seen him like this when he confronted the handsome lich man. This time, it made her nervous.

“Well, you see, in the past people have been… unsettled by the bounty of this grove. We have grown accustomed to making it more, palatable, to newcomers. As a courtesy you see.” Jacobin replied with an even tone, but Jr. could tell he was hiding something.

“Then get this single thing in your head right now.” Vasher said with another step forward. He was now inches from Jacobin. “You lie to us again, we are through. This is your last chance to earn the saviors you so dearly need.”

With that, he turned on his heal, and strode back into the dark green inn.

“Before you go.” Jacobin said slyly. “I have a requirement of my own.”

Vasher froze next to Jr. but did not turn around.

“That,” Jacobin’s voice oozed with contempt and he pointed at the lich hand still stuck to Jr.’s dagger. “Is an abomination. You must give it to me to destroy.”

“It’s done nothing but help us so far.” Lenny said, indignant.

“That evil thing shares nothing but lies and death. Give it to me or I will take it by force.” Jacobin thrust out his pale green hand.

Lenny looked to Jr. questioningly, Vasher walked away, and Johnathan was clutching his book to his chest tightly. He was the thing that bewitch us outside, I know it. Jr. thought. She gave the hand to Lenny. Lenny nodded and handed the hand to Jacobin.

“Thank you.” Was all he said, and the hand went up in a gout of green flame.

As everyone turned to go back inside, he spoke again. “I will return in the morning with supplies for our quest. Sleep well and have nice dreams.” Then he to was gone into the night.

Jr. felt worse than she had after eating the food earlier. Something was dreadfully wrong here. She wanted to escape, but the threats were just to great. She reserved herself to biding time and keeping as safe as she could. Slowly, she and the others made her way to the stairs leading to the sleeping quarters. Vasher was waiting for them, sitting on the bottom step, his hands together in front of his face in serious consideration.

“You gave him the hand then?” He asked, rubbing his face and looking up.

“Yeah.” Lenny said, and sat next to him on the stairs, taking her auburn hair out of its tight bun.

“I suppose we are all in agreement that this is fucked?” Vasher asked.

“Yes!” Lenny and Jr. said together.

Johnathan nodded, but began writing in his notes again.

“I don’t think we are in the position to do much about it yet.” Vasher went on.

“Agreed.” Jr. said, happy to hear he wasn’t about to stage an instant mutiny.

“I think we should follow this Jacobin until we have more information about what is going on here. I’m starting to have some ideas, but we need to be sure before we risk our position.” Vasher concluded.

“I just hate being stuck between waring factions!” Lenny huffed. “I can tell we are being manipulated by both sides and I hate it.” She punched the wooden wall with a dull thud.

“Honestly, we don’t know much about the other side yet aside that they are trying to kill us. The folks have some kind of deep shipping network, lie to us about what they are feeding us, and have a pact with some unknowable entity.” Vasher pointed out.

“Liches are by nature evil.” Johnathan posited, still scribbling.

“True, but do you remember the first thing the big lich said to us when our boat wrecked?” Vasher asked. No one replied. “I’m sorry were his fist words to us.”

“What does that have to do with it?” Jr asked, getting tired of all the games.

“I’m not ready to say yet. Maybe I’ll have more after a day on the road with Jacobin. For now, lets just play nice until we actually hear something real.” Vasher replied.

Everyone nodded.

Jr. knew she wasn’t going to sleep tonight, but she was done with this all the same. With everyone in agreement, she squeezed between Vasher and Lenny and made her way back upstairs. As she settled into bed, she heard Todd and Linda open and shut the front door, back from their revelry apparently. As the others settled into the bunks around her, Jr. felt a growing bitterness to the whole affair. She had been an urchin before. She was used to being kicked around and out of control. But this was supposed to be different. This was supposed to be a vacation. Fantasies of disappearing into the woods all alone filled her mind and brought surprising comfort. Who were these people to her anyway? Fellow hostages? Lenny and she had a past, but they usually worked separately until now. Jr. imagined a lifeboat full of supplies, every color but white, and the idea of being alone on the open sea carried her off to sleep.