The next morning, Harv still wasn't back. Liam wondered what could be keeping the poor man, but after breakfast, they knew they had to continue on their way. They went around back and saddled the horses. They led their mounts out front, and as they were about to head out, Harv returned along with Jrasta.

"You found him!" Ezra declared.

"Of course I found him! I just had to find the group of guards, subdue them and get away while they were figuring out how to react. They aren't the brightest group of people in the world."

With that, Harv turned to Jrasta, pushed him off the horse and screamed, "Get away from me!"

Jrasta hit the ground hard and got up laughing. He said, "You're such a kidder, Harv!" as he reached up and pulled what looked like Harv's wallet from the man's back pocket.

Liam decided he no longer cared what was going on between Harv and Jrasta. He simply handed the reins of Jrasta's horse over to him, and the older man climbed up. "Well," said Jrasta, "we won't get back to Kings-Home standing here. Let's ride!"

They waved goodbye to Harv as they continued on their journey. While they rode, Jrasta explained a little bit about what had happened to him. He started by sharing how disturbed he was that they were so willing to go on without him. He didn't feel anyone should ever abandon a friend and simply try to save themselves. He then shared that the guards had captured him and forced him to listen to their boring stories while they rode back. At that point, Jrasta went on for a while sharing boring stories about being told boring stories. He told them the guards were nearly to Harv's house when his friend showed up, overpowered all twelve guards, cut the rope holding Jrasta and brought him back.

Liam struggled to picture Harv overpowering twelve guards single-handedly. Harv didn't seem like a fighter. However, since not much in Arestana made sense, that was the least of his worries. Regardless of what had happened, it was good to have Jrasta back.

The journey leading back to Kings-Home led them first through Booger Bully territory. It was just as gross as Liam remembered. Large globs of snot hung from branches and bushes. It was disgusting. They led their horses around the slimy patches and managed to avoid most of them.

Once again, they tried to move through that section of the path as quietly as they could. Liam didn't know where the actual Booger Bully village was, but he hoped it was a long ways away. He didn't like the thought of having to fight them again. It wasn't that he was afraid of them. He was actually quite confident he could hold his own against them now with all the training and experience he had, and he knew together they could defeat the Booger Bullies a second time without difficulty. It was that he found the whole "snot thing" quite gross. He had had enough gag-worthy experiences on his quest.

For a while, everything was fine until they heard some noise up ahead. Just a short distance away, the path curved sharply to the left and it sounded like a crowd was coming toward them from around the corner. Jrasta motioned them off the path and into the forest. They managed to get behind some trees in just the nick of time as a large group of noses appeared, followed by their owners. When they had passed by Liam and the others, they heard more Booger Bullies coming and stayed where they were, waiting for the danger to pass. After that group had moved on, a few more appeared, then more.

It went on like that for a while, and eventually, they realized they could be waiting a long time as the group of noses with people attached passed by. It appeared as though it was their afternoon walk along the path. Jrasta motioned for all of them to quietly make their way deeper into the forest. He explained it would be best to travel through the woods for a little ways in the hopes of getting by the walking snot-makers.

After quietly moving through the trees, they managed to get to a point where they could no longer see the road. They stopped briefly for something to eat, hoping that they were a safe distance from the path, then started moving along parallel with the path again. It was much slower to move through the forest than on the path as they needed to move quietly in the forest and navigate around trees and various obstacles.

As they snuck through the woods, they came across a small hill standing in their way. Jrasta suggested they go around to the right to help keep them away from the path and the Booger Bullies. As they made their way around the hill, the ground dropped off, leaving only a small ledge just barely large enough for the horses to walk along. Liam took the lead and started inching his way around. The rest of the team had encouraged Liam to take the lead as they felt it was best if he risked his life first so they could see if it was safe for the rest of the group.

When they were just about the entire way around the hill, with only a step or two to go, Liam's foot landed on a rather large and surprisingly slippery glob of snot. The first thing he realized was that he was about to fall. The second thing he realized was that it would hurt a lot.

Fortunately for him, he was wrong... about the second thing. It didn't actually hurt much. There was so much snot that his fall was cushioned and he simply slid down the entire way. There was really very little pain.

Sadly, he was absolutely correct about the first thing. He did fall, and he fell fast. He fell so fast, in fact, that he could not see or make sense of anything as he slid and spun on his way down. He couldn't even hear his friends gasping out in terror for Liam and relief for themselves that Liam had fallen and not them.

When he finally stopped sliding, he had to take a moment to get his bearings. He looked around and up, hoping to see his friends, but could not actually see the hill he had been climbing around. In fact, there was no hill for quite a distance. As he looked at the line of snot behind him, the truth dawned on him. He had slid much, much farther than he would have expected. He could see the hill, and he could just barely make out his friends off in the distance.

Liam stood up and tried to wipe the snot off his clothing. As he finished getting the bulk of it off, he was hit from behind by a flying chunk of booger. His feet left the ground, and the force of the snot slammed him into a tree, sticking him to the trunk. He struggled to get free or even to get to his sword, but to no avail.

He looked up to see eight Booger Bullies emerge from behind the trees. They came upon him and removed his sword from its sheath as well as his knife. Within moments, he was not only pulled down from the tree but also securely tied up in what looked like a somewhat more stringy form of snot.

His heart was pounding hard as he realized what was about to come. They were going to force him to eat the Snot Root and turn him into a Booger Bully. He struggled, but with no success.

I hope you are enjoying Arestana: The Key Quest. Keep reading to find out what happens next! If you want to get a hold of this entire story, you can pick it up from Amazon, Chapters, Foyles or just about everywhere else!

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