The Stardust Gate

[Lord of the Dance]

I couldn't follow Drurziek to his house and still get my stuff together. "How about we meet back around here in half an hour or so, like Teo said? I've got some things I need to collect first."
I caught up to Drurziek. "M'name's Yoshee, by the way," I said, holding out my hand. Might as well introduce myself before I headed in the other direction to my house.

[Leoshi]

Leo began to follow Drurziek, but also felt inclined to speak aloud. "And I am Leoshi, pleasure to make your acquaintance, sir." He looked back, in the opposite way they were walking.

"I second that suggestion, by the way." Leo said to Yoshee. "I'll need to gather a few things from my boat first, in the state I am in, I don't quite think I am too travel-worthy."

[Enrique]

Drurziek could only smile as the other four party members were willing to let him tag along. A few of the other members, Yoshee and Leoshi, had to go elsewhere for their supplies. "Alright, meet us back the restaurant at two-thirty," the native blue Yoshi called back to those who didn't follow him to his hut. Yoshiken and Teo decided to go to Drurziek's house with him.

While he was walking to his hut, he started thinking of the items that he would bring along with him. Let's see... I'm going to need that tent... The freeze-dried food in the pantry will be great... And I might want to bring that...other...thing as well...

[Yoshiken]

Yoshiken followed Drurziek back to his hut. After some amount of silence, Yoshiken decided to speak, "so Drurziek, forgive me if I am being too bold, but I was wondering if you could explain to me what you know about this gate. Why is it there, and what exactly is its purpose?. You know more about this matter than anyone else in our group, so I thought it would be a good idea to get the facts from you."

[Enrique]

As Drurziek was still walking down the street, Yoshiken had asked some questions about Drurziek's knowledge of the gate. "Well, to be honest, I don't know why the gate is there or what purpose it serves, since no one would tell us, but I do know that every person who said that they where going up to that gate never came back, and no one knows why.

In the four years that I served in the Forest Rangers, which was about a half a decade ago, they just told us to get near the gate and report anything that we saw. We'd only hike up there in between meteor showers. However, we couldn't see anything during those times. We wouldn't go up there during the meteor showers because of the dangers that those big chunk of rocks caused. Someone actually died from being crushed by a meteor when they went up during the showers.

However, it does stay in the same place year after year, so it's easy to find. However, it's on the other side of the big hill on the northeastern side of the island, and pretty near the top."

After Drurziek's small speech, he could start noticing his hut in his sight. At this moment, he started to walk just a tiny bit faster, anxious to collect his mental list of supplies.

[Lord of the Dance]

Two-thirty? Hm. That gave me plenty of time to repack. I guessed I wouldn't be spending much time in this town or my "house" after all, since I had only planned to stay for about a week. I couldn't wait to hear about the local legend, though. How would that fit in with my home's tales? There had to be some truth in it in order for the whole story to exist.
I reached my house while I was thinking about this. I mechanically packed my bags for the umpteenth time, knowing subconsciously where everything went by now. I picked up my backpack- it had a toothbrush, mirror, magnifying glass, a few empty jars in it, a couple packages of dried fruit, a few other loose objects and my racquet was strapped to the side.
After I was finished with this small task, I stood up and sighed. I had actually liked this place, but I knew I couldn't live here. It just didn't seem... right. I ached for my home, but I wasn't expected back for several months.
I glanced around the room to make sure I hadn't missed anything, and shut off the lights. I headed back to the little restaurant and checked the clock inside. Was it really only two-fifteen? I must've walked faster than I thought.

[Leoshi]

Leo nodded and separated from the group, quickly running back to the location of his ship. By the time he returned to his boat, he had lost a decent amount of minutes.

Racing inside, he made his way into his bedroom, and pulling common items like bedsheets,spare glasses, and toothbrushes, then rushing in to grab a few packed food and water supplies. He went on to grab a second backpack, as well as anything else he could manage to grab from his room.

"I hope I have enough supplies." he though, almost not realizing that his pack was filled to it's very capacity.

With that, Leo began to proceed out of the door. "Hm... I don't know how long it will be before I get back to my boat. I hope it stays safe here at this beach." He locked the doors, taking the key and using all of his force to stuff it into his pack.

Reaching down to the compass that hung from his neck, he pushed a button, causing the compass dial to rotate, revealing a clock face on the other side. "Oh wow, I better hurry!"

[Yoshiken]

Yoshiken continued to walk with Drurziek as the group closed in on his hut. Yoshiken pondered on what Drurziek stated earler. " hmmm, so this gate has been more of a threat than I had first thought. Not even the local population has been successful in studying the gate thoroughly. I just hope that we have the abilities necessary to pursue this mission safely. "

[Teo]

This is his house? He lives not too far from me, Teo thought as he saw Druziek starting towards it. "Hey uh, I'm just going to get my supplies in the mean time. I'll see you guys later," Teo said, venturing past Druziek's house and wandering towards a relatively small house down the block. The house itself was small and wide, made of bricks, and unpainted with a tile roof. Teo went in, the house was only about three meters long really, despite having a much longer width. Teo swerved through the front door, closed it, opened the door to the back yard right in front of him, passed through and closed that too. In the back yard, was possibly the largest garden on the island.

In the fenced in garden grew such a large amount of vegetables, it almost created a picture. A very colorful picture full of fruit, although there weren't any beans or corn (corn took too much care and Teo didn't like beans), there was plenty of pumpkins. A lot of the garden, in fact, was pumpkins. There were other plants, but pumpkins were the most common, followed by yams. "Hope they won't get too tired of pumpkins and yams."

So Teo, over the next hour, went to fetch a backpack, spacious enough to maybe fit two or three very fat pumpkins, and layed it by the garden door. Teo took up a spade, manually extracted yams and carried them inside where he put them to boil in a pot. The oven, however, was not something Teo wanted to bother with. He had an old brick oven which required lighting a fire to heat what was on top. Teo bent down to the wood, and seemed to whisper to it, when a flame popped up on it. Teo filled his pot with running water (yes, he DID have that) and set it on the surface above the fire to boil the yams. He proceeded to go out, cultivate two pumpkins, scoop the seeds and meat of it them, and boiled the meat of them in another large pot. It was boiled too, and once the yams were done, Teo mashed them up and made a type of mashed yam dish. Same with the pumpkins, and he put all the mash in the two large pots, sealed them with special lids, and put them in his bag along with a pack of paper plates and napkins (but no forks, eheheheh) and set off. Teo would only be bringing food, and it would only be yams and pumpkin, but it would definetaly last them.

Finally, Teo set out the fire and left for the restaurant, arriving earlier than expected, at 2:25 where he had expected to even be late.

[Enrique]

Drurziek saw Teo walk past him and Yoshiken to another building down the block. Dismissing Teo, Drurziek opened the door to his hut and quickly walked inside. "You're welcome to come in and take the food that you want. I'll handle the tent. I also have an extra sleeping bag if you want one," he offered Yoshiken.

Drurziek's house was rather small but still efficient in housing the blue Yoshi; it only had five rooms - a living room, kitchen, washroom, bedroom, and den - but it was enough for Drurziek. He collected a backpack, tent equipment, and a sleeping bag from the den and some freeze-dried food items and bottled water from the kitchen. Lastly, he entered his bedroom and shut the door behind him.

For the two minutes he was in there, he retrieved a long leather sleeve from his closet. Inside the sleeve was a sword; he didn't specific grab it for battle with what he may find, but rather for emergencies. He hid the sleeve long a corner of the backpack; a small bit still emerged from the pack; however, he sleeping bag, which he would carry on top of the pack, would be sufficient enough to encase the final visible part of the sword and its sleeve. The backpack ended up carrying the tent, eight freeze-dried meals, and fourteen water bottles - Drurziek reckoned that the latter two were way more than enough - with the sleeping bag riding on top, and the sword somewhat hidden within the fixture.

[Yoshiken]

Yoshiken accepted the invite to come into Drurziek's home. It reminded him of his house back in his hometown, but just a bit smaller.

Yoshiken looked at the supplies that were contained in Drurziek's hut. "I don't want to be too much of a bother, so I will only take what I absolutely need in terms of food. An extra sleeping bag would be great, since I wasn't able to purchase one earlier." Yoshiken grabbed some portable food and the sleeping bag, which he carried himself, since Drurziek was kind enough to offer him one.

Yoshiken turned towards Drurziek, "well, it seems that we have everything we need for the journey. We should head back to the group before they leave without us."

[Enrique]

After Yoshiken had collected the items that he would need, Drurziek gave the red Dragon-Yoshi a quick nod and started heading toward the door. "Well, I guess we better get moving." The blue Yoshi glanced at his watch. "We still have about... twenty minutes or so. Plenty of time to get back to the restaurant." Quickly tossing the backpack on his back, Drurziek made his way out the door and down the road toward the restaurant. It would be a small hike, especially with about forty-plus pounds of material on his back, but Drurziek didn't need quite as much time as was spared to report back to the restaurant.

[Lord of the Dance]

So we were all here again... Good. Right on time, too. This was going better than I expected. Better than it had in a long time.
"So, which way's the gate again?" I questioned. "North, right? Up in those mountains somewhere?" It was still difficult to believe I was actually going to be adventuring with old buddies again. I was getting a little scatterbrained in my excitement. I hadn't had another soul to travel with in a while.

[Yoshiken]

Yoshiken and Drurziek had just arrived back at the restaurant, where they once again met up with the group. Yoshee asked a question in which she answered herself. It was concerning the destination of the gate, and the terrain it was surrounded by.

"Well, what are we doing sitting around here? Lets hurry up and dive into the depths of this case." Yoshiken glanced towards Drurziek, "well Drurziek, you are really the only one qualified to lead the way here, so begin whenever you feel ready."

Yoshiken put his hand on his sheathe, finally ready to start the actual quest.

[Enrique]

When Drurziek arrived at the restaurant, a few questions quickly surfaced, particularly from Yoshee concerning the direction in which they were traveling. "The hill where this gate is located is on the northeastern side of the island. However, the gate itself is on the other side of the hill once we get there and near the top," Drurziek reminded. "It will take... at least..." A sigh is released from the blue Yoshi. "...one and a half to two days. Given everything goes right."

Drurziek gazed into the northeastern sky; Man... this mission better work... There's no reason it shouldn't... he told himself in his mind. With a quick nod, he commanded, "Let's go," and started marching down the street directing north away from the restaurant.

[Lord of the Dance]

So we were setting off already? ...I liked this Drurziek. He didn't waste time hanging around.
I quickly fell in line behing him, accidentally scuffing the back of his shoes every now and then. It had been a while since I let someone else set the pace, and I normally took longer strides. Another thing I have to re-learn, I noted.
Every time I even nudged him, I muttered a quick "sorry" and held my head down. Maybe I should stay back farther...

[Yoshiken]

Yoshiken set off walking, on the right of the rest of the group, deep in thought, trying to still connect this whole mission together. He eventually put it in the back of his mind, and concentrated on socializing with his new team. He walked closer to all of the individuals and began light conversations with each of them.

After a while of walking and talking, the sky started to become darker, showing that the night was steadily approaching.

[Leoshi]

Leoshi finally caught up with the others in the group. He arrived a few minutes late at the restaurant and saw they had already begun. It took him a bit of time to catch up, but he managed to arrive with the others silently.

He took a breath as he arrived and walked with them, knowing full well what was ahead: unknown territories and mystery. He hadn't been around the others when they were told the direction of they pathway. Leoshi quickly checked his compass and noted they were currently voyaging northeast.

"To the other side of the island?" he thought. "Well, it is faster then sailing around to the other side, I suppose."

It was becoming darker by the minute, as it would seem. The calming breeze began to become cooler as the sun got closer and closer to the horizon. It was not cool enough to become cold, but still less cool then the normal climate. The entire surroundings of the passageway felt serene and silent, making things all the more relaxing along the travel. It would eventually become much more dangerous, knowing his luck, but for now, the environment said otherwise.

He peered up into the sky as he continued to walk without speaking, observing his surroundings all the while.

[Enrique]

Looking behind, Drurziek took a quick head count of the team, noticing that Leoshi had pulled up a little late and that Teo was still catching his breath at the restaurant. Had it been anyone else, Drurziek would have yelled at them to hurry up; however, this was Teo; Drurziek didn't have much favor for this individual; and it wouldn't by any stretch of the imagination worry Drurziek the slightest if he got lost in the woods, or, rather, fell behind the group a little bit; thus, Drurziek ignored him.

Throughout the walk, Yoshee kept walking into Drurziek's feet, causing him to trip every few minutes or so; every time she accidentally walked on the blue Yoshi's shoes, she'd give a faint apology. Some of these Drurziek could hear; some were so tiny which he couldn't hear. In all occasions, however, he shrugged the scufflings off, looking back at the green Yoshi with her head down.

Marching on toward the hill, the village road, paved with smoothened rocks, transitioned into a dirt road which, in about twenty yards from the "boundary of the village," as they called it, gave a slight inclination as it came into a left-hand turn. The road continued in a series of windy twists and turns until it reached another road on the northwest side of the hill. That road went to another village, on the left-hand turn, and up the hill some more, on the right-hand turn. To a foreigner of the island, it would seem obvious: take a few series of roads heading to the top of the hill and to the other side of the hill. However, this set of roads was deceiving; these roads were designed to trick its travelers into thinking that they were going to the gate when, in actuality, just lead to the ocean. The path to the gate went through an unmarked series of trails and general direction following through the forest.

Coming across the first fork in the road in the forest, Drurziek called the team to tell them the route for the day. "At this intersection, we are going to take a right. Then, after about a half mile on this road, we will go into a small trail that will lead to some open area. When we get there, we'll set up camp for the night." He gave the crew a few minutes to take a breath, as he failed to mention that the trail that leads to the open area is very steep.

[Teo]

"Meh, as long as it gets us there nice and fast," Teo said, from the back of the pack. He was constantly peering between everyone. He admired the Red yoshi's wings a few times. They were a bit battle scarred, but strong. Teo's gaze shifted several times to Leoshi, usually quiet, in deep thought. He doesn't talk as much as the others. I remember him being the quieter one... I wonder what he's thinking about? Teo looked at everyone in the group, but above all, at Druziek. Who is this man? How does he know it all? I've flown over this area countless times, and yet he knows the area better than me.

Teo studied Druziek the most, avoiding his gaze whenever he turned around, looking just past. Finally, it was time to rest, but Teo was not tired. His pack was entirely made up of food, spice, and a thin blanket, the food weighing a ton, but Teo was ready to keep going... wherever the destination may be, as a follower.

Wherever he's taking us, even into an ambush, I can take it. Teo's mood turned negative, replacing the feel of adventure with that of distrust and lust. I've only received one near-fatal blow, and no one knows that little soft spot... if Druziek is setting a trap, he's going to need more than an anti-magic spell. As if I use magic...

After a while of thought, Teo realized his dark mood, and tried to stay optimistic. Don't be ridiculous... Druziek can't hurt you, so if he really is trying to help, good. If he isn't, no problem. I've got nothing to worry about.

Catching his breath, he examined the travelers again, settling on Yoshee. Ah Yoshee, she's been in a crazy amount of adventures. I had to use force to get through, I don't know how she did it. Teo chuckled, silently. Bah, if she trusts him, I don't see what's the harm.