I decided to be optimistic. After all, at least I was alive, and outside in the fresh air as opposed to being inside a musty old dungeon. Feeling a bit more contented, I got up and walked over to Fooruman. He was still fast asleep in his canoe, and still wearing his purple hat and dress. I extended my arms and cast Heal on him. Don't ask me why I did this, it just seemed like the right thing to do.
"We're heading North!" Uberbob declared. "Follow me to... ADVENTURE!"
I rolled me eyes and nudged Fooruman with the butt of my spear. "Rise and shine, archmage."
He stretched his arms overhead and gave a great yawn. "Mommy?" he said. "I'd like a plate of French toast for breakfast, mommy. The French, despite questionably foreign policy, are excellent toastsmiths."
I slowly backed away, then began following the others through the break in the trees. Fooruman seemed to come around, finally, and rowed his canoe after us.
We walked for hours through the woods, until we came to a gateway in a gigantic wall to the North. The wall stretched on for miles in either direction, cutting through the forest like a knife through toast. And speaking of toast, I could really have used a jeffle right about then. Beside the gateway was a large sign. The letters on it could hardly be made out from all of the weather damage, but it seemed to say "you are now leaving Northern Canada."
"It looks electronic," L33tz4n said, pointing to the gate. Sure enough, the mechanism that seemed to open the gate was connected to a crudely-wired power source. It ran on battery power, but closer inspection revealed that there was no battery set inside. On top of the machine was a long rod, which seemed to be connected to the same electrical transformer as the battery would have been. Following the large bundle of electrical wires, I found that the power conducter that hooked the power source to the gate was gone. There was one connector for the power source, and another for the door, but a large gap between them approximately five feet long. It looked very unsafe, too, like the person who built it most likely received several electrocutions in the process.
"Does anyone have a battery?" Uberbob asked. We all shook our heads. "Okay, what about a power conductor approximately five feet long?"
"You know we don't," Shuriken said angrily.
The rabbit peered back in the direction we had just come from. "None of you happened to notice a hardware store on the way up here, did you?"
I didn't know if he was joking or not. I forced a little laugh just in case. The others all stared at me.
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