Prolog:

It was a time long ago, in a world since lost from the records of our own, where magic and mythical creatures where not things of imagination, but a part of every day life where today's impossibilities were bent and broken like mere twigs. It was in this time and place when the greatest adventure of our time and theirs took place. It began, as many things often do, with a few unsuspecting and unlikely companions, beginning namely with Xephos and Honeydew. Honeydew, a tall dwarf of Dwergholme, with his friend and companion Xephos, a strange man whom had been chanced upon by Honeydew after he had fallen from the sky into the City of Dwergholm, his memories of what occurred beforehand lost during the fall, arrived on the shore of an undiscovered continent in a sea of ice after traveling for months across the deserts outside Dwergholm towards a fabled land that wasn't held in the grip of heat. After they'd traveled for months, across mountain, plains and frozen sea, they came to a shore covered in tall pines and that in turn were covered in thick white snow. It was here in the island's snowy hills that the two friends decided to build a house inside a large cave that they found near the beach, naming it the "Yogcave","Yog" being the dwarven word for strong. After spending many months renovating and living in the cave, they delved into the deepest regions of the earth and struck obsidian.

Through the process of carving out great beams of the glassy-rock and erecting them in an another nearby cave they created a huge black rectangular frame, and after setting alight to the bottom of the frame, a doorway of purple light opened to the Nether, a hellish nightmare region where magma ran like water.

But before they could enter the Portal, as they returned to their Yogcave to gather supplies to set forth into the Nether, they were ambushed by a gaunt figure, undefinable from a distance save his white skin and dark robes. This figure shot down at them with a rain of arrows through the unfinished ceiling of a tower that Xephos and Honeydew were building over a gaping hole in the Yogcave roof. After many harrowing attacks and finding unexplainable structures built around their house's area, they received a note from the assailant, as well as a bomb that blew out the back entrance to the Yogcave. But from the note they could gather his name: Israphel.

They waited until their attacker returned, and rushed after Israphel as he retreated. They soon lost him, but he had led them on to a strange road out in the middle of the tundra.

Since Israphel was lost, they saw no alternative than to follow the road, heading out towards the north. The road eventually led them to the edge of the tundra and ran through the shade of two stands of trees planted either side of the road, when the trees ended, they found themselves at the gate to a small town, an old man was standing outside.

His name was Old Peculier, and the town named Terrorvale. Peculier led them into his inn and served them a tankard of fermented milk. Xephos and Honeydew, still reeling from the fact that there had been a town so close to the Yogcave, when they had long held the belief that they were the only ones on the island, the two asked if there was any tasks that people needed assistance with around the town, where Old Peculier advised that they should go and see the blacksmith.

Peculier led them to the smithy, where to their surprise, a young woman with hair like spun gold was hammering out a blade on the anvil. Peculier introduced them to her, but not without a great deal of red coming to his cheeks, her name being Daisy Dukes. Honeydew immediately began to shamelessly flirt with her, and Xephos had to speak up in order to get back to the objective. Daisy told them that she needed some diamonds from the local mine, but she would not go in herself, due to it being infested with giant spiders. Peculier led them to the mine with Daisy in tow, where Xephos and Honeydew descended down into the depths, fighting off spiders in the torchlight, until they reached a cavern where the wall was covered in blue diamonds. Using a borrowed pickaxe, Honeydew pried fifteen choice diamonds the size of a fist out of the wall.

The two returned to the surface, and, after promptly dispatching a spider that had followed them out and terrified Daisy, gave her the diamonds. Daisy returned to her forge to make the armor, and Peculier led them to a small chapel named "Saint Creepers", where they were introduced to Reverend John.

John told them that his house on a hill at the fringes of Terrorvale had been recently overrun by the undead, and he needed to have his bible retrieved. He asked Honeydew and Xephos to do this for him, a quest which they accepted. Peculier led them to a sad little house on a hill, where they entered and discovered a hole in the floorboards, they lowered themselves through the hole and found themselves in a huge cave system. After fighting off a swarm of undead, and not finding the bible, they returned to the surface, where Old Peculier mumbled that the Reverend had not been the same since his son Israphel was killed.

Shocked by this revelation, Xephos, Honeydew and Peculier went to find Reverend John, who was in the Churches crypt, standing over a sepulcher. When Xephos told him that they did no find the bible, John flew into a fit of rage attacking Xephos yelling that he was promised that he would not see them again. John was swiftly killed by Honeydew, but once they looked up they saw that the grave that John was standing over had a name carved into the base, that name was Israphel.

Honeydew convinced Xephos to lead Peculier outside whilst he burnt the wooden coffin as in hope that it would combat Israphel. Peculier voiced his concerns that he had not seen Daisy around for hours, but his mind turned to other matters when he smelt smoke coming from the crypt. Xephos followed Peculier down the stairs to where Honeydew was standing next to Israphel's burning coffin (and another that he'd accidentally burnt). Before Peculier could say anything, the bottom of the brunt coffin fell away revealing an open hatch beneath.

After returning to the surface to briefly look for Daisy in her forge, where she was absent, but had left behind a pair of armored greaves and a chestplate, which Xephos and Honeydew split between themselves, Xephos taking the chestplate, the three lowered themselves into the hole which soon proved to be a tunnel. They started along the dark corridor when sudden they heard Daisy screaming somewhere down the tunnel. They raced along it until the found themselves on a terrace at the top of an enormous cavern, and in the center, surrounded by a moat of lava was a stone fortress with the white figure of Israphel standing atop a parapet, firing arrows at them.

The three raced down a narrow stairway carved from the stone wall until they reached the floor. They ran across the stony ground until they reached the gate of the castle, where the portcullis was drawn up and and enormous apparently sewn together zombie attacked them with a stone headed axe. After kiting it around for precious minutes, Peculier, using his old sword, fought it back and kicked it into the moat, where it seethed and burst in the liquid fire.

They then entered the castle, where they searched for the roof access, when they found their way up, they were assaulted by another of Israphel's minions, a creeper, a creature that could exploded at will, but walked on two legs and had arms. The creature exploded once, but with a far larger explosion than any creepers, fortunately, the heroes were not hurt, and searched the rest of the roof for Israphel. Xephos eventually found a wide, yawning tunnel mouth where the castle joined to the back of the cavern.

After looting the castle for equipment like arrows and torches, they set off down the tunnel that eventually narrowed down so that they could only move in single file. After hours of running along the tunnel, Peculier admitted that he was going to propose to Daisy, making Honeydew feel very awkward. After a few more hours of running along the winding tunnel, Peculier collapsed, forcing them to rest.

At last, Peculier had recovered, and with a dozen fresh torches, they continued along the constant up and down of the tunnel, until they reached the light of day again, but not where they expected.

The tunnel led around to the back entrance of the Cave of Terror where Honeydew and Xephos had built the Nether Portal. It only took them a second to figure out that Israphel had led Daisy through, but when they attempted to follow after him, they ended up running right through the portal. Israphel had sealed the portal, and not a moment later, Xephos and Honeydew collapsed onto the floor, when they awoke, they found that the two of them had been spirited away to a tiny desert island, with only one tree and no sight of land.

During the months that followed, the two managed to scratch out an existence underground, with a tree farm above them they'd made from off-cuts of the first tree, and a large mine that they had dug out beneath them. In said mine, Xephos and Honeydew encountered something that was quite amiss but never the less useful. Far beneath the surface of the island, near the layer of impenetrable bedrock was a chamber sealed by two iron doors labeled: "The Curator's Lost Treasure."

Xephos and Honeydew were at odds to what this was doing here and who the curator was, but it created both a sense of hope, due to the fact that this meant that they were not the first people to be on the island, and also a sense of dread, due to the fact that they were unsure wether the Curator had gotten off alive, or had become one of the dead that haunt the night. The chest contained many exotic rocks, dynamite, pumpkins that had been somehow preserved for eons, armor, a Golden Apple, and a green record along with much other miscellaneous objects.

Upon arriving back on the surface of the island, the heroes were greeted by an unexpected surprise. On the shore of the Survival Island, a small airship had docked on the beach, and climbing out of the hull of the ship was none other than Old Peculier, accompanied by a big man in blue aviators clothing, whom Peculier called Skylord Lysander.

Peculier said that an airship that Honeydew and Xephos had seen months ago had reported them at a place called Mistral City to Lysander, whom Peculier was staying with while trying to figure out where the two had gone. Peculier then told of how he'd convinced Lysander to fly to area that the other airship had described in his own one, which they had not packed enough fuel for, so they would be needing coal in order to get them off the island. Luckily, Honeydew had a stash of coal in their "house", but it was not quite enough, so Xephos had to make a run down into the mine and obtain some more.

When they returned and presented the coal to Lysander, he led them aboard the airship to refuel it, and told Xephos and Honeydew to bring only what they needed the most, and throw the rest over board for ballast. They proceeded to throw over the majority of the treasure that they had obtained, save only the most vital things, which they stored in the airship, called the Celaeno's lockbox.

After a few long minutes the airships primitive engine powered up and the airship lifted into the sky, taking it's passengers onwards to exact their revenge and stop the Shadow from spreading.

The Celaeno cut through the early morning mist like an assassins blade, propelled through the thick air by the two pectoral sails at the port and starboard of the ship, and held aloft in the sky by a huge envelope, a balloon suspended from the crisscrossed rigging of the airship. Honeydew, a Dwarf, but as tall as a human, and twice as so by heart, stood at the prow of the lithe sky ship, staring into the distance, searching for any sign of land with his dark, kind eyes. on the small deck behind him was his best friend and loyal companion, the mysterious Xephos, clothed in a fine armored chest-plate and black trousers. They say that he fell from the skies many a year ago, and was chanced upon by the Dwarf, Honeydew. The two have been inseparable since. At the rear of the ship was the main cabin, and inside sat the weak Old Peculier, an old man whom the heroes had chanced upon in their journeys. He had fallen ill a third of the way through the journey on the Celaeno, and now hung like a decrepit skeleton in the glamourous chamber. At the wheel of the graceful ship stood Skylord Lysander, tall, dressed in blue with gilded sky goggles clamped upon his weathered features.

Honeydew thoughtfully scratched his long ginger beard, running down along his bare chest, as he gazed into the fog. He squinted into the distance. The fog appeared to be getting darker, and could he taste... smoke?

Suddenly the Celaeno gave a lurch. The gas filled envelope above the sky ship bounced to and fro as the ship shuddered again.

"What was that?" said the weak, hoarse voice of Old Peculiar inside the cabin.

"Smoke!" responded the rich voice of Lysander. "It's slogging the mechanics of the ship!"

Suddenly the Celaeno went into a steep, and barely controllable dive.

"We're going down! Hold on to something!" yelled Xephos, as he clutched the ship's railings.

Lysander wrestled with the ships wheel, struggling to gain control. The Celaeno slowly came out of its dive. Honeydew was screaming in his deep, dwarven voice:

"Oooooh! Notch above! Pull out Skylord!"

Suddenly, they emerged beneath the layer of black smog, and the travelers saw before them a snowy landscape. Snow lay like powder upon the rugged landscape and the defiant trees, Xephos stared at it as he realised where they were. They were but a mile from their home; the Yogcave.

As the Celaeno hurtled onward at a "controlled" dive, now beginning to angle upwards, the white landscape screamed past.

"Honeydew!" shouted Xephos up to the Dwarf on the prow, who was nervously grasping the ship's balustrade. "Look where we are!"

The Dwarf peered over the rim of the ship, and realisation dawned on his features.

"We're not but a stones throw away from the Yogcave!" replied Honeydew. He looked ahead of the ship and pointed below. "Look, friend!" he gasped "It's Pig Island!"

Far below the ship, there was a tiny clump of land, floating in midair just off a small hill, it was the tiny, airborne, Island of the Pigs, suspended in midair. The companions had discovered it months ago when they set out from the Yogcave to find food, and slaughtered the majority of it's inhabitants. However, by some apparently magical means, the Island seemed to always be full of pigs, now however it was not.

"Xephos, where have the pigs gone?" asked Honeydew as the island quickly disappeared from view.

Xephos peered over the other side as the ship gave another lurch and started diving again.

"No Pigs?" said Xephos as he slowly started towards Lysander and the wheel. "This doesn't bode well. Lysander! Do you need aid?"

The Skylord, who had been struggling with the controls, nodded his, now red, sweaty face. He was too exaughisted to speak.

Honeydew maintained his iron-like grip upon the iron balustrade as his friend slowly made his way across the ever-rocking deck of the ship, narrowly avoiding cargo that was rolling across it. Just as Xephos got to the stairway that went up the cabin and led to the struggling Skylord, the cabin door swung open.

Old Peculiar was bracing himself in the doorway on wobbly knees, his travel-stained leather jerkin flapping in the wind.

"What's happening!" croaked Peculier, his heavily stubbled chin shaking.

"We are falling, Peculier!" yelled Xephos "Get back inside!"

Peculiar got to his hands and knees and began to crawl over books and other trinkets strewn across the ground, and back to the small bed.

Xephos continued to climb the steep stairs, to help Lysander control the ship. After what seemed to be an age, he reached the top, and began to steadily crawl across the pivoting deck towards the Skylord, who remarkably was still holding onto the wheel, and even more incredibly, was still standing.

Xephos eventually made it to the Celaeno's wheel, and as the ship continued to rock, he carefully got to his feet, and stood beside Lysander to assist him with the wheel.

Suddenly, Honeydew cried out: "It's The Pyramid!"

Xephos looked ahead of him through squinted eyes, and saw a stoney triangle in the distance on an island in a sea of ice. He knew that the Yogcave was in between the Pig Island and The Pyramid.

He took the chance of looking over his shoulder to catch a glance of his old home, sitting snug beneath an ancient mountain. Unfortunately, as he did so, the ship's primitive engine gave it's mightiest buck yet, and Xephos being distracted, and Lysander being so tired, they were thrown to the side. Xephos stopped at the railing, but Lysander tumbled over the edge. At the very last moment, Xephos reached out and grabbed Lysander's boot.

As Xephos hauled him back onto the Celaeno, the ship's wheel spun out towards the icy ocean to the left. The Celaeno violently tilted towards the sea, and below the deck in the cabin Peculiar screamed as it did so.

Suddenly there was another splutter. The ship tilted to the other side, and it was all the companions could do to stop themselves from careening over the edge of the ship.

Honeydew looked over the balustrade and noticed that the rigorous turning had drastically changed their trajectory, they were now turning towards the Pyramid from the sea, and were diving in a direct fall towards the Pyramid's golden cap.

"Hold on to something!" He yelled as the Celaeno crashed into the Pyramid's tip.

The entire ship juddered, but did not stop.

The ship "hopped" off the Pyramid, and hurtled towards the ground in front of the mountain range that the Yogcave lay beneath.

In the last moments before the ship crashed, Lysander yelled: "JUMP!"

Suddenly the Celaeno smashed into the ground in a symphony of splinters, as the cargo, and crew cascaded in every direction.

Xephos landed with an almighty thump on his back, his breath left his body and as the blackness began to descend upon him he thought back to the moment he glanced over his shoulder, he could have sworn that he'd seen the smoke more thickly condensed around the Yogcave...

The Shadow of Israphel

Created by The Yogscast

Re-Written by O.J. van der Beek

Act One:

The Sickening

Chapter One: Crash and Burn

It is an odd thing to be brought back from the brink of death. It is said that everyone experiences it differently, for Xephos it felt as though he had tumbled into a dark abyss, when suddenly a rope around his waist snapped taut, and pulled him towards the blinding light at the top of the pit. How the light hurt! Xephos wanted to sever the connection, and tumble into the comfort of the dark.

Xephos's eyes snapped open. He was lying on a bed of snow in a fit of shivering, a large plank of the Celaeno's deck lay across his waist. he sat bolt upright and gazed at the scene that lay before him. It was a cataclysm of wood, ice, and fire. The sky ship envelope lay deflated on the icy ground, the popped carcass of a mighty balloon. Splinters of wood were strewn everywhere, most of which was alight with crimson flames, tongues of fire licking at the sky. The fire had even spread to the trees on the frozen hillside, not much was left of said trees, they were just smoldering trunks, alight at the top like candles.

Before Xephos tried to get off the freezing floor, he would first have to pry the heavy lumber off his legs. He pushed with his legs and pulled with his bleeding arms, but the stubborn piece of wood was frozen to the ground like it was nailed there. Suddenly in the icy silence Xephos heard a wounded groan. It sounded of the deep, gruff voice of his dearest friend.

"Honeydew?" Xephos inquired. There was another groan, this time louder, it seemed to be coming from an enormous bundle, lying a limp silhouette in the late afternoon sun.

Late afternoon?

Xephos looked about himself, searching for a way to free himself from his prison. For if he didn't, night would fall and all manifestation of unholy creatures would descend upon them from the shadows.

Xephos's hand clenched upon a long piece of metal; a piece of railing from the Celaeno.

He pulled the pole next to his chest and grabbed a near-by faggot of wood.

He placed the faggot half a foot away from the piece of wood pinning him down, and hoisted the railing around and shoved it under the large piece of lumber in front of the faggot. He then pulled down on the railing, it became a lever off the lump of wood, freeing his aching legs.

He quickly pulled his legs out and released the lever. It slammed down on the snowy ground and sent splinters of ice flying like tiny frozen arrows.

Xephos tried to run over to his limp friend, but his legs wouldn't hold up. They crumpled beneath him as if they were made of parchment. So he began to crawl towards the Dwarf, the feeling slowly returning to his legs.

When he reached his friend, he pulled himself up onto his knees and rolled Honeydew, who was lying face down, onto his back. His mouth was blue in the corners, and his bare chest red and raw with cold, his orange beard frozen stiff

Xephos scratched his own scruffy, brown goatee as he thought of what he could possibly do.

He began to quickly stack up a pile of the drier wood to start a fire, but he hadn't a match. Then did he remember of Honeydew's coveted Flint and Steel.

His father had given him the tools when Honeydew left his home-city, Dwergholm. The crescent shaped piece of metal, ornate dwarven dragon-like motifs were chiseled into the cast bryne-steel, a near impregnable alloy of diamond and iron.

Xephos reached towards the two pouches on the opposite hips of his belt. He kept the flint in one, and his cherished steel in the other. As Xephos started to unbutton the steel's pouch, Honeydew's eyes snapped open.

His deep, black eyes stared wildly at Xephos, there was no recognition in those eyes.

The dwarf sprang to his feet, and scrambled on hands and knees five seven yards away from where he lay only seconds before. He turned, sat on his haunches, planted one of his gloved hands into the snowy ground, a fist of black leather, and the other into the pouch that his beloved steel lay inside.

Xephos stared at his friend, and rose to his shaky feet, trying to find his companion in the animal that crouched before him.

The dwarf hacked and coughed a few times, Xephos raised his hands, expecting his friend to charge.

Suddenly Honeydew spoke:

"Who am I?"

Xephos stared back, dumbstruck, Had the crash robbed his friend of his memory?

"Who are you?"

"I-" stammered Xephos "It's me, Xephos."

The dwarf tilted his head to one side, like a dog staring inquisitively at his master.

"Where am I?"

"The Yogcave. Do you remember the Yogcave?" persisted Xephos.

The Dwarf once again tilted his head to the side.

"The Yogcave! It is but a mile from here!" said Xephos, his hand shaking as he pointed towards a hill, over which the Yogcave would be clearly visible.

Not a drop of emotion befell his chiseled features.

Xephos fell to his knees in frustration.

Suddenly Honeydew's face exploded into a massive smile, his gold tooth glinted in the late afternoon sunlight.

"No need to cry, friend!" he shouted cheekily, quickly getting to his feet. "After all we've still got to find Lysander and Peculier!"

Xephos stared openmouthed at his friend, and got to his feet angrily.

"Idiot!" Xephos spat. "I thought that you had lost it! You and your childish tricks!"

Honeydew held his hands to his chest, in mock offense.

"I thought that you would be happy!" he sniffed. "And this is no time for arguing" His voice had now changed to a serious tone, he adjusted his horned, iron, helmet. Turned and yelled: "Peculier! Peculier!"

Xephos joined in, also calling out "Lysander!" a couple of times.

"Notch above!" cried Honeydew "Peculier was in the cabin!"

"Well," said Xephos "Where is that?"

They cast about, looking amongst the wasteland of timber, for any sign that would identify the cabin.

A low groan floated through the cold air.

"Peculier!" they both shouted, running past burning piles of wood towards the voice, it was coming from an enormous pile of timber next to the collapsed envelope.

The pile was huge, at least six feet tall and eight feet wide, how Peculier could possibly be alive was anyone's guess. The groan came again.

"We're coming for you, Peculier!" yelled Xephos, who was beginning to pull the pile apart.

Honeydew stood back, thumbing the rune on a string around his neck, would he finally have to use it's tremendous power?

Old Peculier groaned somewhere close under the pile.

He supposed not.

Honeydew began to rip up the wood next to his friend, searching for their companion. After a couple of minutes of digging they became aware of an extra pair of hands helping them.

They looked up and saw Skylord Lysander tearing up the wood alongside them.

"Lysander?" cried Xephos.

"Where did you spring from?" asked the Dwarf.

"Why the tone of surprise?" said Lysander grimly. He went on to explain that he had awoken under the envelope, and when he heard them digging for Peculier, followed their voices.

Just as he finished, they dug up a sort of cave as it were, under the mountain of splinters.

It was really just a large wall propped up against a large boulder, somehow supporting the gargantuan mound of the rest of the ship.

Inside the dark cave they could hear something groaning.

"Peculier?" called Lysander.

The silhouette of Old Peculier moved in the shadows.

"Lysander?" he called back, squinting his eyes out of the inky black. "Heroes!" he yelled as he noticed Xephos and Honeydew.[He rarely ever called them anything else]

"Come to us, old friend!" said Lysander.

"I can't!" Peculier groaned again "my leg is wedged under the wall! I think it's broken!"

Honeydew swore loudly.

"How badly is it stuck?" asked Lysander. If the full weight of the wall that was supporting the pile of debris was pinning down his leg, it would have to amputated.

"Not too badly!" he yelled back. "Some debris is slightly propping up the wall! If it wasn't there, my leg would be completely crushed!"

"I'm coming in to help you, Peculier!" said Honeydew as he ducked dow and crawled on hands and knees towards his trapped friend.

When the dwarf got to Peculier, he pressed his muscular back to the ceiling, and pushed.

The whole pile creaked, but the wall hardly moved. Peculier yelped.

"Stop, Dwarf! You'll cause the pile to collapse!"

Honeydew fell on his chest, exaughisted.

"Blast!" said Lysander. "What do propose that we do, Xephos?" he turned to his side, but Xephos wasn't there. Lysander cast about, and saw Xephos running towards him, he was holding a metal pole, and a small lump of wood.

"What are you doing?" the Skylord yelled.

"Who?" said Honeydew, as he crawled back through the small opening.

"You're friend."

Xephos came up to them and started to crawl through the opening.

"What are you playing at, friend?" rumbled Honeydew.

Finally Xephos said: "When I awoke, I was also pinned down, but I used these," he turned in the hole and brandished the pole and log,"to lever myself free!"

"And you intend to do the same for Peculier?" inquired Lysander.

"Yes." replied Xephos.

"But that could cause this wooden tomb to become unstable!" said Honeydew.

"What! What was that about a tomb?" chattered Old Peculier.

"Nothing, old man!" yelled the dwarf. "Go back to you're...whatever."

Xephos disappeared inside the hole, seconds later, the whole thing began to judder.

Xephos began screaming; "Go Peculier! Go!"

Honeydew reached inside the hole and grabbed Old Peculier, as he started to haul him up. But with his his keen dwarven eyes, he saw his friend struggling to hold up the weight of the wooden cairn.

"Xephos!" he shouted "Let it go!"

"No!" said Peculier. "The whole thing is unstable! He is the only thing keeping it from collapsing!"

Honeydew hauled Peculier out into the open, his balding head gleaming in the dusk sunlight. He and Lysander, then stuck their arms into the pit, open and gaping like a mouth, about to swallow their friend.

Xephos was just out of grasp, the metal bar was beginning to bend, if he was going to try to escape, now was the time.

Suddenly Xephos relinquished his hold on the bar, leapt towards Honeydew and Lysander, who in turn, grabbed him and flung him out into the air, he sailed through the peachy sunlight for six feet, and landed with a thud on the snowy ground.

He pulled himself up and turned to face companions, he saw that the entire mound had collapsed, had he been beneath it, it would have been his grave.

Lysander was gingerly, feeling Peculier's leg, who was moaning in pain.

Honeydew was walking towards the envelope, studying the ground.

Xephos ran over to Lysander and the struggling Peculier.

Lysander looked up. "His leg is most definitely broken, I'll have to make you a splint, Peculier."

"Anything that I can do?" asked Xephos.

"Stay here while I gather what I need for a splint."

Lysander stood up and ran over to a tangle of rigging next to the envelope.

"Thank you for helping me in there, hero." said Peculier. "I'd have been a goner, had you not been there."

Xephos nodded. He was distracted, before the crash had knocked him out he had been thinking of something, something important...

"You seem troubled, my friend, what is wrong?" croaked Peculier.

Behind Peculier, Lysander drew his gilded, silver cutlass with a sharp ring. He then began to saw at the rigging's thick rope with his sharp sword.

Honeydew was walking about, staring at the ground, as if following a breadcrumb trail, Lysander kept glancing nervously at him, as if afraid that he knew something.

Xephos turned back to Peculier.

"Yes, you're right. There is something that's bothering me, but the fact is that I can't remember what-"

Suddenly, Lysander tromped along to them, he was carrying two stout sticks, and three lengths of rope.

"You might want to go see what your friend is going." he mumbled to Xephos as he placed the sticks on either side of Peculier's leg and began to bind them to his leg with the rope.

Xephos got up and walked towards friend who was sitting on a box, rubbing his brow ridge,twenty yards away.

"What troubles you, friend?" Xephos asked.

Honeydew looked up at his friend. "I don't trust Lysander." he said.

Xephos stopped.

"What?" he yelled. He then glanced nervously over his shoulder quickly. "What?" he said more quietly. "How can you? The man sailed his airship, which is now in ruins, over uncharted waters, using only directions from another ship, to the Survival Island, and saved us! Why do you not trust him?"

Hardly a day ago, the two heroes were rescued from a tiny island in the middle of the ocean by the Skylord and Old Peculier. They had merely awoken on it's shores, and suspected that they had been transported there by some dark power, probably of The Dark One's doing.

"Because," intoned Honeydew "He said that he woke up under the envelope, which he did, but a while before he came to us. I followed his foot prints, and they show that he walked around the area of the crash site."

"And?" retorted Xephos.

"Then it gets interesting," said Honeydew. "His footprints met with the footprints of a Creeper's!"

Xephos was lost for words. This was interesting. Creepers were green, insect-like creatures that excreted green goo from the top half of their body. Underneath said goo, the Creeper vaguely resembles a human with no arms, and four crab-ish legs. The slime drooped around their faces, giving them a horrifying expression of screaming in pain. They also had a nasty habit of running towards people and exploding.

"Well," said Xephos. "he was probably examining the Creeper's footprints, in this light, it is hard to make anything out."

"Yes, well-" waffled the Dwarf.

"Nothing of it!" stated Xephos.

"But, but..."

"But, nothing!" yelled Xephos. "You have a tendency to misinterpret things, and-"

"Heroes!"

They both looked up and saw Old Peculier hobbling towards them, a splint on his leg, and Lysander running behind him, trying to get him to rest.

"Gather your equipment, and meet me at the Portal, when you are ready!"

"Portal? What Por-" started Honeydew, but turned to look behind him.

Half way up the small mountainside across the iced bay, in an enormous cave, a gaping wound in the mountains face that the two had nick-named The Cave of Terror, was a huge, black rectangular frame, much like a picture frame. And within this midnight gateway, issued a vibrant purple light, swirling in a never-ending spiral. How could he have forgotten about the Nether Portal?

He and Xephos had built it when they were living in the Yogcave, which wasn't far from this spot. But before they could go through the Portal, to gather precious minerals from the hellish Nether, they unwittingly unleashed an ancient evil upon the world. The morning that they were going to venture into the Portal they were attacked by a mysterious person with white skin, red eyes, and black robes.

Little did they know that they had just released the dark spirit, Israphel, the Dark one, the most evil entity of all the Nether, onto the world.

They encountered him many more times, once he even wired a dynamite booby-trap to the rear entrance of the Yogcave, which nearly killed Honeydew, and destroyed some of their home.

But the last time they had seen Israphel, or as Honeydew tended to call him; That Pale-faced Git, they had followed him as he fled, and led them along a strange road, this road led them to the hamlet of Terrorvale, where they met Old Peculier by the gateway, who invited them to his inn; the Skeletal Arms.

At the time, Xephos and Honeydew did not know of anyone living near them, in fact they assumed that they were the first to come to this area, but this tiny village was home to Reverend John, Old Peculier, who was enamored with the local blacksmith, Daisy Dukes, who asked if the two heroes could go and mine a cache of diamonds in the local mine, and she would make them some armor. They were also told of an enigmatic character known as Bob, who was missing for many weeks before their visit to the town.

It was in Terrorvale that the heroes uncovered a vital piece of the Dark Lord's past.

The Reverend sent the two of them with Peculier in tow on a bogus quest to recover his beloved bible from his house, which was overrun by the undead. When they went inside and began to fight off the zombies, Old Peculier commented: "Poor man, his son Israphel was out hunting when the creepers got him."

When the couldn't find the bible, the heroes returned to find John in his church's crypt staring down at coffin. Suddenly, he went mad and attacked Honeydew, yelling: "My Lord promised that I would not see you again. Taste my holy blade!"

Xephos ran him through with his sword crafted from solid diamond, and saw that the coffin that John was staring at bore a plaque inscribed with: ISRAPHEL.

Xephos led Peculier outside to distract him whilst Honeydew burnt Israphel's grave, but Peculier returned to the crypt before the fire was out, and then they noticed the grave's empty bottom.

It opened into a tunnel that wound beneath the ground and to Israphel's stronghold.

Israphel had kidnapped Daisy, and held her captive in his castle situated in a large cavern beneath Terrorvale. After returning to the surface to get better equipped, and finding the armor that Daisy had made for them, splitting the armor between them, and the three heroes; Xephos, Honeydew, and Peculier, attempted to rescue her. And after fighting their way through the fortress, they followed Israphel and Daisy down a long, winding escape tunnel that Israphel had dug. But when they reached the end of the tunnel, they found that their Portal lay before them, Israphel had dug right under a frozen sea, and behind the Portal, then gone through, with Daisy. The two didn't tell Peculier that they had been the ones who had made the Portal, as he was showing an obvious resentment to those who had created it, although he didn't know who did.

Shortly after arriving outside the tunnel, Xephos and Honeydew collapsed, and awoke on the Survival Island.

"The old man is desperate to save his love." panted Skylord Lysander beside Xephos and Honeydew. "The only reason that he did not go through the Portal without you is because he knew that he needed reinforcements, for he would be slain instantly, and you were the only one's who would follow him into the Nether."

"Then let us go to his aid!" yelled Honeydew as he dashed off towards Peculier, who was climbing very slowly up the cobblestone stairway that Honeydew and Xephos had built for easier access to the portal on the other side of the small, frozen bay. The dwarf had shown in Terrorvale that he was attracted to the blacksmith, although he did not know of Peculier feeling the same way.

"Hurry along then, Skylord!" said Xephos as he followed his friend towards the stairway.

Xephos ran alongside his companion, whose orange beard had long since thawed-out, and was billowing over his shoulder like fire erupting from his mouth.

The two ran to the foot of the stone stairway, and started towards their friend who was nearing the top of the stair. He turned towards them and yelled down at them: "Heroes! Gather your equipment and follow me through the Portal when you are ready!"

The heroes look blankly back down the stairs and saw that the Celanao's lock-box was sitting open at the foot of the stair, they had ran right past it.

They descended the stone steps and into the presence of Lysander, who had just ran to the foot of the stair.

Xephos fell to his knees and began to rifle through the gear, drawing out his majestic longbow and it's case, his quiver of rudimentary arrows, and his elegant, leather bound scimitar. He stood and drew his sword, its straight, one sided metallic-blue blade aglow with azure light as it caught the last rays of sunset.

Honeydew withdrew his small ornate crossbow, crafted from chestnut, with a falcon's head open mouthed and hollowed out at the front of the crossbow shaft, made so when the bolt flew from the bow, it would fly out of the mouth. Next the dwarf pulled out a small pouch of crossbow bolts, then he pulled out a small, broad bladed sword with an enormous diamond in the hilt, and along the blade it wore dwarven runes reading: Cleaver of Foes.

Honeydew tied the pouch containing the bolts to his belt, fastened his swords scabbard to his back, and hooked his crossbow next to the pouch on his belt. When he turned around he saw that Xephos had shouldered his bow, in it's case and quiver, and held his sword in hand.

"We may be in need of these.." said Lysander, who was reaching into chest, and pulled out a bandoleer fitted with ten sticks of explosive dynamite.

The pyromaniac dwarf's eyes lit up.

"I'll look after those!" he yelled snatching the belt of explosives from the Skylord, and fumbled to fasten it over his shoulder.

Lysander, now looking rather annoyed with the dwarf knelt down next to a pile of smoldering wood and reached back into the large chest, now producing two small steel buckets, not much larger than an ale tankard. One was clothed in ornate motifs depicting swirling fluids, the other was no more than a roughly banged out metal shell. Both were caped with wood to stop the contents from spilling.

"What do those contain, Skylord?" asked Xephos, as his dwarven friend hesitantly staggered up to stairs.

"Milk and water," he replied. "however this bucket," he held aloft the ornate one. "is special because-"

"If you two are done gossiping!" yelled Honeydew, who was nearing the top of the stairs. "Don't you think that we should be moving on?"

"Yes!" croaked Peculier from atop the stairway.

Xephos turned and ran up the stairs, whilst Lysander continued to briefly rifle through the chest.

Half the way up the stair, Xephos turned down to Lysander, and called: "Lysander! Hurry along!"

Lysander stowed the buckets, and some more gear into a satchel that he had found in the chest, and stood to ascend the stairway, but he seemed to not notice that the pile of embers he was kneeling next to had set his white leggings alight.

"Your on fire, Skylord!" yelled Xephos.

Lysander looked around him, and noticing that his leg was alight, he proceeded to yell, but managed to pat it out.

"Are you all right, Lysander?" asked Peculier.

"I'm fine!" he responded, then began to climb the stairs. "But let us tarry no longer! We must save Daisy!" He ran past Xephos, who then followed after him.

They then reached the top of the stairs, and all four of them turned and stared at the Portal.

They stood at the mouth of The Cave of Terror, it's roof open before them, like a grotesque mouth. The sickly, purple light inside the black obsidian frame pulsated like a heart beat, and strange moss appeared to have been leaking out from the Nether through the Portal, clawing like strangling green fingers across the stone floor. The Portal was emitting a gravely sighing noise, and a distant heartbeat

The sun had all but vanished, and the mountains enormous overhang turned the area of which the Portal stood into a vast cave.

Suddenly, Peculier drew his battered sword, held it in both hands, stood out in front of the other three, in a heroic pose, and whispered: "For Daisy!"

He then turned and ran clumsily into the Portal, hampered by his splint, the purple light rippling behind him as he disappeared.

Honeydew pulled his sword from his back-scabbard, yelled: "I'm comin' for you, you bastard, Israphel!" Then he ran into the Portal.

Lysander in turn drew his sword, turned to Xephos, nodded, and got swallowed up by the light, as he yelled; "For victory!".

Xephos merely sighed, held his sword aloft, and ran into the Portal.

Xephos wasn't sure what he was expecting to happen, perhaps a sense of vertigo and the feeling of being pulled through a very small pipe. But he certainly did not expect to emerge on the other side of the Portal as if they had walked around the other side and the swirling light hadn't even existed.

Peculier was casting about the back of the cave, as if the Nether may be hiding in some small corner of the room. But the Portal had not worked, they were still in the normal world by some trickery of Israphel. Oddly the floor of the cave was covered in coarse sand, which was crunching under Peculier's feet as he tromped about awkwardly on his splinted leg. Lysander was just looking bewildered, and Honeydew was poking around the corner of the Portal, just to make sure that they hadn't gone anywhere.

No one said anything for a while, but the silence was broken when Honeydew walked round from the other side of the Portal.

"Balls." he said loudly.

Old Peculier threw his sword to the floor.

"Curse him! He has sealed the way!" yelled Peculier, but seemed only now to become aware of the sand, staring at it in almost fear. "This sand... could it be?"

"Yeah," said Xephos. " there is a lot of sand about-"

"No!" wailed Peculier. "The Portal must be destroyed!"

Lysander turned to him. "What ,Peculier, what is it?"

"It must be destroyed!" yelled Peculier, adamant that this sand had somehow made the Portal a hazard.

"Well," asked Lysander, "What about Daisy?"

"Yeah! How can we follow Israphel without the Portal?" huffed Honeydew.

"There are other Portals in this world," Peculier responded. "We must find them."

Xephos was crouched on the ground, picking up handfuls of sand and watching it run through his fingers. "This sand..." he mumbled.

"These are ill times, I fear that the world is in peril." sighed Peculier.

The sun had completely disappeared, and the moon was casting ominous shadows across the snowy landscape.

"Destroy it with haste heroes," said Skylord Lysander, as he pulled a small, stout pickaxe crafted from what appeared to be solid, ice-blue diamond from his satchel, and tossed it to Honeydew. "lest it corrupts this land more!"

"Worry not old man." said Honeydew to Peculier, slurring his words ever so slightly. "I shall destroy the Portal."

"It pains me, but Daisy must wait." Peculier seemed to struggle to get the words out.

Honeydew mumbled as he sidled up to one of the Portal's columns and began to hack at the beams: "First he wanted to go through it, now we have to destroy it, I wish he'd make up his bloody mind!"

After a minute or two of battering the Portal, Honeydew finally severed a gap in the side of the Portal. Slowly the light faded back from the gap, eventually receding all the way to the frame, and the Portal, with it's rasping voice, disappeared, leaving the mutilated obsidian corpse standing empty within the cave.

"There we go!" beamed Honeydew, who seemed to have taken a shine to the pickaxe, and slid it into his belt.

Suddenly, Peculier clutched his chest. He hunched over, broken leg wobbling, gasping for air. Xephos, Honeydew, and Lysander all ran to their friend's side.

Phrases such as; "Oh no!", "Hang in there!", and even a "Don't go into the light!" were being thrown about, Peculier slowly regained his stature, he was moaning, "So...tired...But I can not rest!"

"Peculier you are sick!" yelled Lysander. "We must get you to Mistral City!"

"Daisy..." Peculier moaned.

"We can continue the search there!" assured the Skylord.

Honeydew and Xephos looked at each other in confusion, then at Lysander.

"Mistral City?" queried Honeydew. Lysander had mentioned that place on board the airship.

"Yes, thank you old friend. Let us hurry!" croaked Peculier to Lysander.

Xephos ran his fingers through his ruddy hair, "Where is this city?"

Lysander didn't look up from Peculier. "It's a long way away, at least a day. You should gather any supplies that you my have."

Xephos grimly nodded and leapt through the Portal's shell and started back down the steep stairway. He was constantly looking about, he did not want any Skeletons, Zombies, Creepers, or giant Spiders sneaking up on him as he rifled through the chest again.

"Oi, Lysander!" exclaimed Honeydew. The Skylord shot the Dwarf a sharp glance for his rudeness. "What?" Lysander snapped.

"Weren't you saying one of those buckets was full of milk?" asked Honeydew.

Lysander looked puzzled. "Yes?"

"So," Honeydew said, gesturing to Peculier. "I think that the man could use some milk!"

Lysander obeyed and unbuckled his satchel, producing the plain bucket. He ripped off the wooden cap and discarded it amongst much of the paraphernalia in his bag.

"We have the milk!" chortled Honeydew.

Lysander offered it to Peculier, who hastily thanked Lysander, and slurped it noisily down. When he removed the bucket from his lips, some of the milk had condensed on his heavy stubble, making it seem a comical white.

Suddenly, Xephos leapt through the Portal, chest-plate gleaming in the moonlight, carrying two bulging leather satchels, and breathing heavily.

"There are dozens of monsters out there." he huffed, deftly tossing one of the bags to his Dwarven companion, who opened it to find a bundle of torches, an iron pickaxe, some bread, and a few pebbles of precious glowstone, an extremely hard to obtain mineral that glows to a remarkable degree. "We must move soon." he noticed Peculier. "Here, friend." he tossed him a small, wax paper wrapped parcel. Peculier made a sorry attempt to catch the package, tottering on his bad leg, and it thudded onto the sandy floor.

Honeydew stooped picked up the parcel, unwrapped it, revealing a cold, cooked pork chop. He then handed it to Peculier, saying: "You have a little something," he pointed to his own ginger stubbled face. "Right there."

Peculier snatched the paper from Honeydew and wiped down his mouth. "I must gather my strength." he groaned and tossed the paper on the ground, and bit into the pork chop. "Thank you heroes." he said around a mouthful of pork. "That has helped me some."

Xephos was kneeling in the Portal frame, his bow in hand, with an arrow knocked into it. Honeydew strolled over to the left side of the cave looking for a gap in the wall...

"Isn't your house near here?" asked Peculier, as he finished his pork chop.

"How did you know about that?" said Honeydew, continuing to scan the wall.

"I heard you two," he sat on the ground and nodded at Xephos. "talking about your home back on board the Celeano. Before it...well."

"It's alright friend." said Lysander, who had since been seated on a boulder but was now walking towards Xephos. "I am honored that if the Celeano should fall, it would do so saving these heroes."

Xephos often wondered why he and Honeydew were referred to as "heroes". They had never done anything particularly heroic, no more so than Old Peculier, who all in all had shown more courage than the two of them together. No, Peculier was the real hero.

"To answer your question, Peculier, yes. Our home, the Yogcave is near here. In fact an entrance to it is near the rear of the cavern."

"Oh look." said Honeydew in an obviously blatant lying tone, "A mysterious hole that i've never seen before." he stood bolt upright facing his companions, pointing into a man-sized cleft.

"Perhaps that," spat Peculier. "is your "Yogcave"?"

Xephos didn't respond, he left his post inside the Portal frame, placed the arrow back in his quiver, shouldered his bow and started across the cave towards his friend, with Lysander in tow. As he reached the mouth of the cave he could see a small amount of light was issuing from it. He had to duck a little in order to get inside, but when he did he found himself in a small cave with one small torch that was now no more than a stub, and a small chest. This was the place that he and Honeydew had put aside as a small base of operations, should they ever need to use the Portal, they would not need to walk back to the Yogcave.

Honeydew came after him, and whispered: "Oh, I'd forgot that we had this place."

Xephos knelt and open the chest.

It was full of utterly trivial devices, such as a small gold knife, a cow hide, a bag of some redstone dust, a type of powder that was encrusted with some kind of magical energy that could be used to power all manifestation of devices.

Xephos stood and turned and saw Peculier and Lysander had followed them into the cave, making it quite cramped.

"Is this your house? It's quite small..." mused Lysander, as he looked about.

Honeydew looked at him sternly.

"You cheeky-" he started, only to be cut off by Xephos.

"No, no. This is, err," he stalled trying to weave up a convincing lie, that would stop Lysander and Peculier from connecting the dots, and finding that it was them who created the Portal, Peculier was already suspicious when Honeydew "found" this cave, and Lysander was looking skeptically at them with one eyebrow raised.

"this is obviously an outpost of Israphel's! Yes. And, err, it would be used when he, uh, comes back from the Nether!"

The lie came out quite well, both Lysander and Peculier seemed to buy it, nodding and murmuring, then Lysander asked again: "So where is your home?"

"Perhaps you "landed" on it, Lysander?" croaked Peculier.

"You just wait and see!" said Xephos, suddenly very keen to get home. He gestured to the exit of the cave. Peculier, dragging his bad leg, and Lysander shuffled out of the claustrophobic room. Once they had left, Honeydew planted a meaty hand on Xephos's shoulder, who looked up at his friend who appeared to have been holding his breath throughout the recent ordeal, he just said: "Well done." and sidled past Xephos, who got to his feet and followed his friends out the exit.

"Our home is the glorious YOGCAVE!" chortled Honeydew, once they were back outside in the shadow of "Israphel's" Portal.

"Access via this tunnel here!" Honeydew ran to the other side of the cave, to where the he and Xephos had dug a tunnel from their home to the Portal. Unfortunately due to the sand that had sifted through the Portal, only the tip of the tunnel could be seen under a dune of sand, banked up against the wall, as if by someone had walled it up...

Honeydew began to dig furiously at it with his hands at the wall of sand, sending the stuff everywhere. It was now properly into the night, and the darkness had seeped in long ago, they hadn't risked lighting any torches, for monsters tended to be attracted to them, however it would be safer to have light. Xephos reached down into his bag and produced a single torch, then he reached deep into one of his pockets, this time fishing out a sad looking flint and steel that was falling into disrepair. He planted the stem of the torch into the sand, away from where Honeydew's sand would douse the flame. He struck his flint and steel together, causing a spark to course through the air, missing it's mark on the torch. It took Xephos three more goes until the torch ignited, he blew gently on it, until it had a strong flame.

Xephos pulled the torch from the ground and turned to see Honeydew had dug a roughly knee-high hole in the sand barrier and was sitting aloft it, puffing, whist the others stood impatiently beside him. Damn, thought Xephos, he thought that it would take the dwarf longer to dig out the hole, the tunnel was lined with torches, so all his effort was for nothing.

"Ah!" breathed Honeydew "Praise Notch you've lit that torch, friend! The ones in the tunnel are all out!"

"What?" said Xephos. The torch in "Israphel's" outpost had been alight, and that had been placed before the ones in the tunnel. "Are you sure?"

"Yes!" Honeydew exclaimed. "Look!" he shifted his buttocks and pointed down the dark passageway, it was pitch black, save the faint glow at the end of the tunnel. So the Yogcave lights hadn't faded, that was a plus.

"Heroes, let us delay no longer, the hole is dug, let us go to your home." Lysander stood and gestured to the tunnel as he spoke.

"Yes." said Xephos "I'll go first." even as he said it, he shimmied feet first into the abyss.

Xephos held his torch aloft, and called the others in.

Honeydew came first, followed by Peculier, groaning if his leg was touched by anything, and then Lysander.

"Follow me!" yelled Honeydew in a sing-song kind of voice, drawing one of his own torches, and lighting it off Xephos's. "I'll lead the way!" and ran down the tunnel towards his home, with Lysander, and Xephos in pursuit, and Peculier doing his best, the wooden split clonking on the stone floor. Xephos overtook his dwarven friend, and as they were nearing the end of the tunnel they began to slow down. Something wasn't right. There should have been water at the end of the tunnel, they had made the tunnel behind a waterfall, to make it more discreet. The water was gone. There was fire at the end of the tunnel.

Suddenly they both began to sprint towards the end of the tunnel, leaving Lysander and Old Peculier in the dark.

Suddenly they emerged at the end of the tunnel and gazed upon what used to be their home.

Their home had been a cave that they had put flooring, and walls up in, they had made it quite homely. But now, where the back entrance of their home was, an enormous crater now sat.

Fire was everywhere, it was a wasteland of flame and rock, the mountain that their home had sat beneath was half blown up, now a scar lay across the landscape, a gash right through the mountainside. Thick, black smoke rose from the ruins of their home, soaring into the night sky.

Both of their torches clattered to the ground.

Honeydew fell to his knees and screamed at the bombarded ceiling, while Xephos stood and said nothing. Suddenly Old Peculier and Lysander emerged from the tunnel, to see their friend kneeling on a precipice over a huge crater. Old Peculier was looking about in confusion at his companions, and said awkwardly: "Well this doesn't look very homely."

"No," growled Honeydew, he got to his feet and turned to Peculier, his eyes wild and teeth set. "this looks like a few tonnes of TNT, has blown a big hole!" he then began to weep.

Peculier shrank back into the tunnel mouth in shame.

Xephos hadn't moved, he had remembered what he had forgotten after the crash, he had seen the smoke in the sky coming from the Yogcave, but that didn't matter now, he was just staring at where his house had been. Where was their Yogcave? Why wasn't it here? But if there was one thing he was sure of, it was who had done this, now he did know that; Israphel. That name burned brighter than the ruins of his home, his hatred for this fiend had now increased tenfold since he emerged from the tunnel. He looked to his right, and saw a glimmer of hope. It appeared that Israphel hadn't destroyed everything, Xephos could see some floor boards at the rim of the crater.

"Look, friend! All hope is not lost!" he knelt next to Honeydew and pointed up to the wooden boards, many feet above them.

"We've been on such a long journey," Honeydew sobbed. "through so many places, and, I just wanted to go home!"

"Do not lose heart friend!" said Lysander. "Let us see what lies above!" Lysander began climbing the rugged wall of the crater. Honeydew looked up, seeing the floorboards leapt to his feet and scrambled up the rock face, quickly passing Lysander.

"I'll come behind you, Peculier." said Xephos, even though he was itching to see what lay above. Peculier started slowly and awkwardly up the wall, hindered once again by his broken leg, with Xephos following him offering moral support, and sometimes having to offer him his hand, of head as a foot hold, which was very painful considering the fact one of Peculier's legs was clamped in jagged wood.

As they reached halfway the crater grew to a vertical climb, and saw Honeydew and Lysander slip over the rim and onto the floor boards, and peer over the edge, waiting for them to come close enough to offer them a hand up.

After a long and unsteady climb they reached near enough the rim Lysander and Honeydew hauled Peculier over onto the hard floor, Xephos followed after, but as he placed his foot on it, some of the shingle came loose, and Xephos began to plummet back down the cliff. He would have been dashed to pieces on the rocks, but suddenly Honeydew's arm shot out like an arrow and grasped his wrist.

"Ooooh! Careful now!" shouted Honeydew, he grimaced at his friend and hauled him up onto the remains of their flooring. The floor was riddled with boulders and on fire, but for the most part was being doused, for the explosion had carved away half of the mountain, and caused a fresh-water spring to run down into their home, quelling the flames.

The front half of their house was largely intact, the front entrance had the side walls knocked out from it's sides, and the wooden door had been knocked off it's hinges. Their furnace, workbench and chests, all on the left of where they stood were all there, and the entrance to their mine shaft, an exposed cave mouth next to their work-benches and chests, was relatively untouched. However the ceiling was non-existent, completely blasted away in places, so was the tower that Xephos had been working on, that used to be sprouting from a hole in their rock ceiling. The only proof that there had been a tower there was a stairway cleaved from the rock leading nowhere.

Xephos grimaced. He had spent so long on those stairs. As he strolled towards them through water spilling over the floor from the spring above, and stopped short of an enormous hole, about five arm spans wide, going so deep that he couldn't see the bottom.

The sound of monsters was echoing all around the Yogcave ruins, but the fire seemed to be keeping them at bay.

"Right, I've got a question to ask, it's very important." growled Honeydew, and turned aggressively to the Skylord. "Lysander, did you crash into our Yogcave!"

"No!" yelped Lysander, backing towards the wall. Xephos took a hesitant step towards them, incase things got physical. "It's the smoke from this place! It slogged the Celaeno, and caused her to crash."

Honeydew stepped back from Lysander. Peculier coughed heavily.

"Ooohhhhhh..." said Honeydew. "Erm... Sorry."

"We should leave." said Lysander, and walked over to Peculier, who began to whisper quietly to him.

"Our home..." sighed the Dwarf. Xephos thumped him heartily on his back.

"Focus on the task at hand, friend."

At that moment, Peculier stumped his way towards Honeydew, holding a pair of fetching armor-boots that appeared to be crafted from plate diamond. He presented them to Honeydew.

"Dwarf, I found these boots on my travels! Don't ask where or how, but they are too heavy for me."

"Booties!" Honeydew exclaimed, eagerly receiving the boots, and sitting on the floor to fit them.

Old Peculier, who suddenly seemed to be overcome with dizziness, staggered towards the wall, and sat with his back against it, Lysander standing beside him.

Honeydew stood up, with his new footwear secured on his feet, and said to Peculier; "Thanks a lot, friend!"

He looked at his feet, giggled, did a bit of a dance, and looked up and saw Xephos smirking at him.

"I mean; yeah thanks, that really makes up for my home being destroyed!" spat Honeydew, but not loud enough for Peculier to hear.

"It's alright friend, I like your boots!" laughed Xephos.

Honeydew grunted, and walked over to the hole deep hole that Xephos had been examined. He craned his neck, and spat down the pit.

"So, let me get this straight." said Honeydew. "Someone," they all knew he meant Israphel. "blew up our house." This led Xephos, Honeydew, and Peculier to believe Israphel had enlisted the help of the Creeper Boss, a tall, more human-like creeper that could detonate very large explosions several times before he died, even then it appeared that he could be revived, as they had encountered him at Israphel's castle, along with Zombie Boss, a sewn together monstrosity. " And the smoke from the wreckage caused the air ship to crash." elementary. "So it wasn't me set fire to the ship!"

"What!" asked the others in almost perfect synchronization.

"Well, both you and Peculier know about my...habits." said Honeydew to Xephos. He was talking about when he burnt Israphel's coffin, it was true, the dwarf had pyromaniac tendencies, and both Peculier and Xephos were ashamed to admit they had their suspicions of him.

After Honeydew stopped laughing, Xephos walked over to the huge chest that he and Honeydew had stored their equipment in during their time in the Yogcave. He threw open the lid, and pulled out a large bundle of torches, and a large, curved hunting knife from amongst the pile of gear, stowing both of which in his satchel.

"We should leave at dawn," said Lysander. "So the road is safe."

Staying the night in their old, ruined home? Thought Honeydew as he watched a giant spider traverse the crater below them, making sure it didn't come towards them, but it wandered into the distance, it's glowing red eyes eventually disappearing as it faded away.

Peculier staggered to his feet, bad leg wobbling, and holding his chest.

"I cannot stay here." he coughed.

Lysander, Honeydew and Xephos rushed over to Peculier, holding him up.

"The smoke," Peculier let out a hacking cough, sending phlegm onto the wooden floor.

"You're right," replied Lysander. "Gather your supplies and we will head out immediately!"

"How far do we need to go?" asked Xephos, but Lysander was already leading a weary Peculier down the to the other side of the wooden floor of their island in a sea of fire and rubble to where the front door once stood, and ran through the entrance ruins and the into the night.

"Well," sighed Honeydew, taking one last look at the remains of his home. "onward to Mistral City!"

The two heroes ran after their friends into the chaos of black snow.