Scouring Majula

by Matthew Satterlee

  Scouring Majula

  Ellen's Friends, Volume 3

  M. T. Satterlee

  Published by EF Universe Games LLC, 2018.

  Table of Contents

  Title Page

  Series Overview

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Future Releases

  Series Overview

  Ellen's Friends is a multipart story that spans both books and video games.

  Part 1 – Forlorn Dimension (eBook)

  Part 2 – Ellen's Castle (eBook)

  Part 3 – Scouring Majula (eBook)

  Part 4 – Former Fortress Brigade (eBook)

  Part 5 – Challenging the Dream (eBook)

  Part 6 – Majula Frontier (PC game)

  For more information, visit the home page:

  https://www.EFUniverseGames.com/

  If you'd like information about new and upcoming releases, consider signing up for the mailing list:

  Mailing List

  Book cover created by Dan Von Oss

  https://www.covermint.design/

  This is a work of fiction. Similarities to real people, places, or events are entirely coincidental.

  SCOURING MAJULA

  First edition. July 11, 2018.

  Copyright © 2018 EF Universe Games LLC.

  Written by M. T. Satterlee

  Chapter 1

  Ellen kept her head down and her eyes on the campfire. The old ruins she sat inside of had no roof and the thin plume of smoke could be seen for miles, but this dimension-Majula, or so she'd been told was its name-had been surprisingly pleasant so far, almost unnervingly so.

  Alice, the girl who'd been created in her image by a mysterious stone at the bottom of the Brazen Dimension, sat on the opposite side of the fire. Ellen still had trouble facing her. It'd only been a week since their last fight, the one where she'd bashed her head with a shield, choked her until she blacked out, and kicked her so hard she probably still had bruises. A miserable battle, to say the least, but it was over now and they'd both agreed to be friends.

  Whether or not Alice actually wanted to be her friend was something she still couldn't determine. Alice hadn't yet tried to run away despite having more than enough opportunities, but she'd also yet to treat any member of their group with any sort of warmth. Ellen felt her coldness especially bad. But at the same time, Alice could not hate her that much if she continued to wear the same clothes as her, a red, long-sleeved tunic and black trousers, or kept her hair, which was bright and blonde, the same way as her. She had blunt and messy bangs covering her forehead and two small sections of hair hanging down on each side of her face. The rest hung freely behind her, reaching just passed her shoulders.

  "Isn't it our birthday soon?" Alice asked with a voice Ellen knew well; it was her own.

  "Yeah," Ellen said. "We'll be seventeen, I think."

  "What about your friends?" Alice asked. "You didn't have a very good opinion of them while you were in the Brazen Dimension. Do you still plan to search for them?"

  "I'm going to look for them," Ellen agreed. "I wasn't... thinking clearly back then. I still consider them to be my friends." She was talking about Ludendi, Barry and Trevor; the friends she'd met back in the Monad Fortress. She hadn't seen them for almost three months now. It might've even been longer. She'd spent a good portion of her time since then wandering around a dimension without days or nights, and another portion without a body.

  Her friends were together, or so she'd been told by someone she had met inside the decaying old castle she'd visited after leaving the Brazen Dimension, and they were searching for her, just like they had promised they would before they were separated. Knowing she had friends willing to scour the world just to meet her again filled her with an overwhelming sense of warmth that not even Alice's bitter cold demeanor could penetrate.

  What did dampen her spirits was thinking about all the time she'd wasted chasing rumors and even more frivolous endeavors, but that was all behind her, and from now on there was only one direction she planned to move: forward.

  Ellen felt her tunic pocket, the one that had once held her pouch full of coins. It was empty now. Her coins were probably scattered around that old castle, if it still existed. The last time she'd seen that place, what remained of it was being torn apart by monsters.

  Alice felt her own tunic pocket. Her eyes opened wide with shock.

  Did she have coins of her own, or was she holding onto something to remind her of her friend? Ellen wondered.

  "We'll look for your friend first," she said, "then we'll search for mine." A warm thought crossed her mind. "We might run into our guardian while we're searching. I'm sure he's still alive."

  "He's your guardian, not mine," Alice said glumly. "The closest thing I have to a family is that stone you touched in the Brazen Dimension." She paused. "And besides, the last time you thought about your guardian, you were obsessing over how much you hated him for sending you off by yourself."

  Ellen scowled at her. She didn't hate her guardian. There might've been a few times where she had harbored ill thoughts towards him, but that was only because the full weight of her past and her surroundings were weighing her down, dragging her into a dark, miserable pit.

  She relaxed. Alice probably still thought their group was only interested in her for her shield and her knife, which had the power to hide her from monsters. It was a very potent knife, but not quite as potent as her own knife, which could drain the life from anything it stabbed. Eventually she would realize everyone considered her their friend, assuming she didn't run away first.

  "I don't hate him," Ellen said.

  The sky soon turned dark; the regular kind of dark, not the dark that heralded the death of the dimension. So far she had yet to see a single dark patch anywhere in the sky, but one was bound to appear sooner or later, she was certain of that. The world was changing, and for the worse. Growing up, the death of a dimension was not a topic she had ever heard discussed, probably because such a thing was unheard of, but nowadays death was everywhere.

  "We're back," Brendon called out, his voice as dry and gruff as ever. He ducked under the broken doorframe near the front of the ruins and strode towards the fire, his green armor clicking with each step he took and his long gray beard swaying back and forth. "We didn't see anything out there. No food, no water, no people." He set his great axe aside then sat down beside the fire. "What about you two? You better not have been fighting."

  "Nothing happened," Ellen insisted. Worse than all the cuts and bruises she'd received during her fight with Alice was the scolding Brendon had given her when she told him they'd gotten into a fight. Lindsey, or L.L. as she liked to be called now, had been even more furious. At the peak of her rage, she'd threatened to drag Ellen back to the castle and punt her off the side of the bell tower.

  Brendon eyed her, seemingly not believing her, until she averted her eyes. Then he looked to Alice, who did the same.

  L.L. entered the ruins, set her two crimson swords aside and sat down beside Brendon. She wore a blue uniform and had a cowl covering her face. "It's no Forlorn Dimension, but if we ever finish finding all of these peop
le we're searching for, this might be a decent place to settle down."

  "That's a big if," Brendon grumbled.

  Ellen felt bad for him. He had friends he wanted to meet again, and so did L.L., but both of them had been too busy trying to stop her from self-destructing to start their search. On top of that, Brendon was by far the oldest member of their group. The amount of traveling they'd been doing had to be straining him, and even if she managed to find her friends right away, he probably wouldn't have much time to relax before he-

  She quivered. Those were unpleasant thoughts she didn't care to have.

  Brendon chuckled. "I know what you're thinking," he said, "but considering how you've been acting recently, you'll end up buried long before any of us. We would've buried you already if you hadn't blown yourself up."

  That was another unpleasant thought Ellen didn't care to have. She'd died once, and her body had been blown apart. She'd even found her old skull laying inside the cathedral where it had all happened. The body she occupied now was a brand new one, given to her by a strange stone which had also held onto her disembodied self after she'd died. How exactly she had lived without a body was not something she liked to dwell on, nor did she care to think about where she'd be right now if that stone hadn't saved her.

  Sycamore strolled towards the fire, his face twisted with disgust, his long, white coat flapping behind him, and his face and hair looking scruffy and unkempt. "Are we really talking about that again?" He sighed. "I use my magic to keep the monsters away, not so zombie girls can blow themselves up. I'd really like to pretend that whole thing never happened." He passed by the fire and grabbed a sleeping bag from the corner of the ruins. "I'm going to sleep. I'm sure we have a lot more aimless wandering to do tomorrow."

  He laid down and was soon snoring.

  Ellen felt bad for him as well. He'd become much braver since their first meeting, but it was very obvious he did not like roaming the world as they were now.

  Something powerful grabbed her from behind. She tried jerking free, but it was latched on too tight.

  "Did I surprise you?" Tear asked. She released Ellen. "We were only gone for a few hours, but it feels like I haven't seen you for days." Despite their rugged surroundings, she still insisted on wearing the elegant dress clothes she'd found back in the castle. She wore a light purple vest on top of a dress shirt, a skirt, stockings, and gray shoes. Buttoned to her vest was a big red bow. Her hair was long and gray and hung down to the middle of her back.

  Ellen relaxed. Tear had been clinging to her ever since they had first met. This was nothing new. Tear was younger than her, and as far as she knew, she'd never had many friends, if any. "It's alright," she said.

  "The three of you should go to sleep," L.L. said. She spoke as if she was giving an order, not a suggestion. "We have a lot of territory to cover tomorrow. Brendon and I will keep watch, not that there's anything out there."

  "Watch what you say," Brendon warned. "The monsters might take that as a challenge."

  Ellen grabbed a sleeping bag, laid it down beside the fire and crawled inside.

  Before she could settle in, Tear was inside the sleeping bag as well, laying next to her and clinging tight to her side.

  Why Tear insisted on sleeping so close to her she didn't understand, but Brendon hadn't been able to smuggle enough sleeping bags out of the castle for everyone, so there wasn't much she could do. At least Tear was warm.

  "Goodnight, Ellen," Tear said, then she closed her eyes.

  "Goodnight," Ellen said, but she kept her eyes open a moment longer, watching Alice as she slunk away to a corner of the ruins that the light from the fire couldn't reach.

  The next morning, Ellen crawled out of her sleeping then ate breakfast alongside Brendon and L.L., who were seated around the burned-out campfire. The sky was already bright and blue and the day warm.

  She ate three small pieces of monster meat before Brendon cut her off. "We're getting low on food," he warned. "A lack of monsters isn't always a good thing," he added, chuckling.

  "I'm sure they'll find us," L.L. said. "They always do. That's only the thing in this world you can count on."

  At least they had water. Ellen drank a full flask then handed the empty thing back to Brendon, who stored it away in his backpack full of supplies.

  Brendon slipped away for a moment while everyone was eating. When he returned, his armor was gone, and he was wearing regular clothing.

  "So you're really leaving the armor behind?" L.L. asked.

  "There's a hidden compartment beneath the rubble over there, and chest inside," Brendon said. "It should be safe. Something tells me we're going to be on our feet for a while, and I don't need that stuff weighing me down. I'll come back for it once... we're finished."

  "You don't sound too confident about that," Sycamore said, smiling. "We made it out of that castle without suffering too badly. Finding a few missing people should be easy in comparison. Unless there's something you think we're missing?"

  "It's just a feeling I have," Brendon said. "Maybe I haven't gotten fully used to living outside the Monad Fortress, but the world has been feeling strange lately."

  "It's always been strange," L.L. said. "It's just that the strange parts are usually hidden away. It's only recently that we've been diving headfirst into them."

  She shot Ellen a bitter look.

  After everyone had eaten, Brendon, looking exhausted, stood up and said: "We have a long list of people we need to track down. Let's get started."

  Chapter 2

  Ellen left the old ruins and made her way to the pristine road outside. It was a massive, ancient construction made of clean gray stones. Despite having followed it for several days now, the end was nowhere in sight. Where it had come from or where it led she didn't have the faintest idea, but if there was anyone else roaming this dimension, there was a fair chance she'd either run into them on the road or spot their campsites while exploring its expanse. That's what she hoped.

  Trees with bright pink leaves surrounded the pristine road on both sides, stretching far off into the distance.

  While she waited for the others to catch up, she made sure her knife was secure in its sheath, which was attached to a belt wrapped around her waist and resting against her back, then strapped her wooden buckler to her back. She still wasn't keen on using a shield she'd taken from a monster, but it had helped her before and she had no doubt it would help her again in the future.

  Tear soon joined her, her wooden bow in hand, then came Alice, her golden sword and shield strapped to her back and gleaming in the daylight.

  "Let's go," Alice said, sounding unenthused. She marched forward.

  Ellen followed, but kept her distance. Alice's sword had killed her once before, and while she trusted Alice would not use it against her, having it nearby still made her uneasy.

  "We'll watch the rear again," Brendon called out from behind.

  After traveling down the pristine road for what felt like hours, Ellen said: "This road is just like the Monad Fortress's wall. I doubt anyone knows who built it, or when."

  "The Monad Fortress," Tear said, pondering. "That's where you met your old friends, isn't it?"

  "Yeah," Ellen said glumly. "It was the nicest place in the world, until a monster destroyed it."

  "Where did you meet your friend, Alice?"

  Alice glanced back at her. "I met him in your castle. He spent a lot of time looking for you. I'm surprised you never met him."

  Tear looked surprised. "I thought I was the only one living in that castle. I didn't know there was someone else there."

  "He was the king," Alice said. "He actually gave the whole castle to me after-" She glanced briefly at Ellen, then faced forward. "Forget it."

  After he killed you. That's probably what she had wanted to say. Ellen's hand went to her heart. She felt compelled to shield it. A sharp pain shot through her right wrist.

  "What was he like?" Tear asked. "If he was a king, I'm sure he was s
mart, and strong, and probably handsome too."

  Alice made a peculiar sound Ellen didn't recognize at first, but after a moment she realized it was a giggle. It was the first time in a week she'd heard her express any sort of joy.

  "He was all of those things and more," Alice said. "That's why I have to find him."

  "We will find him!" Tear said eagerly. "And we'll find Ellen's friends too! No dumb monsters are going to stop us!"

  At least one person in their group was excited about the future. Ellen couldn't help but smile.

  The road bent right, twisting around a field of broken bricks and debris that might've once been a group of buildings. Nature had grown over the rubble, but the remnants of a freshly burned out campfire lingered near the center.

  Alice bolted towards it. "Stay back," she ordered. "I'll check it myself."

  "She's been really excitable ever since we found her name written in the dirt," Tear said quietly.

  They'd found a note written in the dirt beside the pristine road a few days ago, Ellen remembered. Whoever had left it did not sign it, but he did include Alice's name and a brief message saying he was looking for her, which had led Alice to believe her friend was close by.

  Alice returned after a moment, a sad look on her face. "I didn't find anything," she mumbled, then she continued her march down the pristine road.

  "Do you want me to check?" Tear offered. "I know you can't, um, well..." She paused. "Maybe there was something written, but you missed it."

  "There was nothing there," Alice snapped. "Nobody left anything!"

  "It would only take me a second-"

  Tear might be trying to help, but Alice was not going to react well if Tear kept forcing herself on her. "I'm sure we'll find something up ahead," Ellen interrupted, hoping to calm them both down.

  It seemed to work. Tear still looked concerned, but she didn't argue, and Alice continued to keep to herself, as she usually did.

  The road ahead was lined with more piles of rubble, none of which contained anything of interest, not even an old campfire. Brendon and L.L and Sycamore stopped to investigate a few of them, Ellen noticed, but they didn't seem to find anything worth mentioning.