Knife belly rings

Oh, very long post. Sorry.
Hello, everyone! I know it’s been a while. Being completely honest with you, I am not okay… well, I’m feeling better now. I’ve been feeling horrible, hella anxious, and, yeah, depressed. I don’t even know how to start this post or how to explain what has happened. Maybe it’s really nothing, but it took a toll on my mental health.
Thank you for all your comments and messages. For real, thank you for your concern. It wasn’t my intention to worry you all, but yeah, I wasn’t having a great time. I’m still fighting against my own demons, but it’s all better now. So, thank you, really. I appreciate it so much. I wish we all could go out for a coffee in real life or something.
I’ll let you know what has happened.
A lot of things happened around Mother’s Day, and it brought up old feelings and bad impulses against myself that I had left long in the past. There was a day when I simply didn’t want to exist anymore, to say it kindly. I know my hormones are not being helpful, and the only feeling I can trust right now is my love for hubby and baby and our upcoming little girls. I honestly don’t know what I would do without them. They are my entire world and universe. They simply save me. And I need to be strong for these babies, they are not doing so well. Maybe that’s also part of what made me feel so down like this.
I was already feeling down a few days before Mother’s Day and didn’t feel like celebrating. I know my mom had betrayed me and done unforgivable things up to that point, but I couldn’t help but feel sad because… well, I no longer have a mom. I asked the aunties and grauntie not to acknowledge the day for me, and they understood. Grauntie did call me early in the morning, and it made me sob hard, we talked for about an hour, so go figure. Hubby and I got her a big gift to show our appreciation and gratitude because he says she has also stood as a mother figure for him during these chaotic months. Oh, yea, grauntie is a great woman, and she laughed so much about her nickname, btw, she loves it. Baby calls her that now, well “grantie.” Aunties started saying happy mother’s day the next day lol.
Anyway, hubby didn’t let the day pass for me. He brought me breakfast in bed, he cooked all day, and since we decided to stay home, he brought healthy junk food (approved by my doctors, he made sure about that) for us to stay in bed, or on the couch, watching movies, Bluey, and a marathon of my shitty show that he doesn’t like (but he enjoys in secret lol). He gave me some presents and flowers that baby picked herself. I don’t know when this man took the time to also help baby make a craft for me without me noticing. It was very cute. We decided to stay home, turn the lights off, and stay upstairs pretending we weren’t really there. We both couldn’t help but be concerned and a bit anxious about ILs showing up. We stayed locked upstairs just resting, snuggling, and cuddling.
I will try to summarize what happened when they showed up.
Baby was taking a nap in her room, and we were into our own stuff when they interrupted. We tried to ignore them, but MIL kept insisting, saying she knew we were home. She kept ringing the bell and then knocking on the door. They claimed they were visiting us because we couldn’t attend her reunion. It was only MIL and SIL (not beast SIL), and they were carrying bowls with food. Later I noticed it was only food they know I am allergic to or that I don’t like. After some minutes, we decided to just get rid of them. Hubby changed and went downstairs to warn them he was calling the police (he did that for proof that he asked them to leave, knowing they were not going to go away). MIL was very calm and kept saying shit, but hubby didn’t engage in her conversation. Important information: she asked a lot about me and baby, about our safety. I stayed upstairs, and peeking through the window, I noticed their car was parked on the other side of the street, out of the range of our door cam. Fucking creepy BIL was inside, I guess waiting for them.
I picked up my phone to take a picture of him and I had some unread texts from good SIL warning us ILs were coming and saying things like “be careful,” blah blah. She also said good BIL was heading over here so he could help take them out of our place, I guess. I gotta give points in favor of BIL because he stood up for hubby and even called their mother a liar.
So, we called the police on them, but they also called the police on us, on hubby. Fucking idiots. Fucking MIL. They called the police on hubby saying they believed there was a case of domestic violence happening in our house. They said we didn’t open the door and they were scared because they suspected I’ve been in danger and they hadn’t heard my voice or baby inside. To this point, we are not sure who made the call, but I believe it was creeypy BIL. Hubby had to open the door to talk to the officers, I also had to go out because they wanted to speak to me. Mind you, I was so stressed and just wanted to help hubby with the bullshit that I didn’t realize I was only wearing a top and leggings because, mind you again, I was comfy in my house before they decided to arrive. So, yea, they saw my belly and they officially know that I am pregnant. I, somehow, feel so violated by them knowing. Ugh, fucking idiot creepy BIL’s face and smirk and his eyes all over me still give me the chills. Good BIL had arrived at this point too, so he also saw me but his reaction was the most normal of all. I guess he just got sad. I know he wanted to get close to me but he didn’t dare. Good, I guess.
A female officer separated me from the drama and asked me a bunch of questions in private. I brought her inside the house because baby was still sleeping upstairs. She kept glaring around, like looking for something suspicious, I suppose. The other officer talked with hubby and with a neighbor and he very soon concluded the accusations were all bullshit. They just asked to check on baby because MIL kept insisting. We had to explain that baby was actually her grandkid because she kept asking about her daughter, I just wanted to punch her in the face. I went to pick baby up, she was still asleep, and the cop I was talking with was nice enough to keep both of us inside the house. Baby ended up waking up and crying with all the trouble from outside, anyway. MIL heard her crying and she lost her calm, started to raise her voice. I couldn’t control myself and I poked my head out and told MIL that of course, baby was crying and it was all her fault, and I called her a bitch 🙄 This led to a verbal fight, just imagine everyone involved… and the cops. SIL was crying. I stayed inside but close enough to the door because I was worried about hubby. I overheard him asking if it was done and if he could go inside with us. They were leaving, officers were making them go away but MIL couldn’t just leave without causing more distress and told hubby she wished I bleed out and die while giving birth and that she hopes my baby is not his (because they changed the game, now I am the cheater). I instinctively opened the door to stop hubby from reacting but he was just there standing and staring at her. Ok, background: I had preeclampsia when baby was born, then after being sent home I got very ill and had to be rushed to the hospital because I got an infection. Hubby and everyone got super worried when I had to go back to the hospital. It was bad. Hubby thought the worst and he obviously talked with MIL about it, back at the time so yeah, she knew where to hurt him. Hubby said to good BIL something like “yes, this is the family you keep choosing.” He was like in shock. Hubby and I just went back inside and we hugged. Good BIL tried to talk to us but we ignored him, I know he was upset. He recently sent me a text I haven’t answered back. I have seen hubby sad and vulnerable, but the only time I’ve seen him actually cry was when his father passed away. This time he cried too and couldn’t let us go an inch away from him. I held back my tears. We were very jumpy and uncomfortable so we took some blankets and went to sleep in the other house. There’s no furniture, no lights, and no water yet in my dad’s house but it was better to know we were nowhere to be found. It was like camping for baby, she even asked for vampire stories that we invented for her right there. Then, hubby and I just hugged and cried our eyes out to sleep. I was simply angry and sad and upset that they took away our peace. I cried because this bitch keeps hurting my family, because they are making us run away from our own house, from wverything we have built and for what!? I am thankful we have my dad’s house to escape but it brings me bad memories and I also got a bit triggered that night, I guess. We talked a lot that night and we came to the same conclusion: the only thing that matters is that we have each other and we will never let them win.
No, it wasn’t enough for a RO. Police didn’t want to try for charges because all they saw was a family drama, which it was if you see it as an isolated incident. No, they didn’t go against the beats RO. We told and showed and give everythign to our lawyer.
Then my mom happened. I had a few voicemails from her, and I was weak, so I listened to them. This happened the next day. I waited for hubby so I wouldn’t have to listen to them alone. This was the biggest mistake of my life. We planned to have a nice dinner at home to save Mother’s Day and as an excuse to have a date but I ruined it all. I don’t know why I listened to all of them. She started all calm, victimizing herself but calm. She said happy Mother's Day to me, started to talk about baby, about me, and about my brother. She said she is very sad to be a mother without her kids. She said it would be easier if we were dead (yes, she said that), she would cope better with that truth. It escalated with each voicemail, to the point where she blamed me for what happened with her POS boyfriend and me. I had never heard her say something like this to me while growing up. Never. She claims she’s now all lonely because of me. She said she should have aborted me when she had the chance, as my dad suggested. This… I made me go numb. She accused me of seducing this man and that’s why he fell for me. Only thing I can think is that this POS has been manipulating her, idk but it hurt like hell. She told me that I should have stopped him. She blamed me too because, after that incident, she had lost all opportunities to recover her relationship with my dad. She then basically said our dad never really loved me and my brother, and that’s why he left and never came back. I started to spiral and, well, I barely remember my dad since they divorced. He came back when everything exploded, but before that… I don’t really have memories. I don’t know, she made me question a lot of things. Her tone was calm and sweet, which made it worse. She didn’t use the words or phrasing I am using right now either, her discourse made sense, this is basically what she meant. Of course, she also called me a bad mom too, and I couldn’t help but think about all the things good SIL said about baby and how I didn’t notice it. I started to blame myself for the condition of my baby twins. I am not a bad mom, I know that, but it got me right there. I thought about baby being bullied by her cousins, about MIL throwing up the food I packed for her right in front of her, about our little baby eating food from the floor and trembling because she was frightened. I can’t take out of my mind the image of baby trembling. And I cried as I hadn’t cried in a while. And then I started to remember a lot of other things about my life. I questioned myself again if my mom ever really loved us because growing up, it felt like she did, and I was so grateful I had my mom with me because she was by my side all the time after the POS happened. She was there when I started to struggle in my teens, when I wanted to die, when I started to hurt myself. My dad was there too, and I have beautiful memories with him, he stood for us, I became really close to him, he helped us a lot during that time, but there are a lot of blank spaces where he’s not around. He got another girlfriend, and that time he stayed close to us in the same city but he stopped visiting. Until we went to college, he got together with his current wife, and flew away. He was there if we ever needed money, he paid for our education, but I never reached out to him asking for any other type of help. We barely talked, I tell you he didn’t even knew hubby or baby. To be fair, he was comming over for our wedding but we had to cancel it because of covid. I kept spiraling about it. I got tangled in my mom’s words. I remembered the POS boyfriends I had and how I let them mistreat me, do whatever they wanted to do with me. I let that happen, but I now realize my mom was comfortable with it. I got over that and stopped letting it happen because of the aunties and therapy. Not my proudest moment, but I broke my phone after listening to all her audios.
My train of thought ended up the same: I am so, so thankful I met hubby, and the only thing that matters is that we have each other. Hubby and baby and the twins are the only things that kept me alive these days. They are my world. Still, I was/am? dealing with urges to hurt myself. It’s alright when I am with the baby, it’s alright when I am with hubby, but night time and the moment I open my eyes in the morning… it has been tough. My mom put me in a very bad place. I let her put me in a very bad place again, but it will be the last time. She won’t take the good from me. No way. Hubby says she’s trying to isolate me and he might be right but she won’t get it.
Hubby says I should talk with my dad. I’ve been very distant with him lately, and I know he can feel it. I want to talk with him too about this, but I don’t even know what to say. I miss the aunties, I’ve been distant with them too. Last weekend, hubby and I went out to eat with one of them (the auntie that wrote the text when I told them I’m pregnant) and her husband. It was nice, we had fun. I’m telling them it is two girls this week. I didn’t want to tell them before because I am really scared about my babies. They are a bit smaller than they should be, and even if they are just supposed to be small babies, it worries me, it is not good for twins. Also, they suspect baby B has a heart condition :( I told this to the auntie, she’s the only one of the group that knows about all the difficulties of my pregnancy, and it helps a lot that she knows. I can’t help to be worried, but I can be positive and happy and excited for them. I have to be positive and happy and excited for them. I know the love aunties will give them even in my womb is much needed now. And hubby and I are doing and will do whatever it takes to keep them safe.
So, I said fuckyoumom and changed my mood, Hubby was worried because we really don’t have ANYTHING for the twins, and we are also in the process of moving. He had tried to convinced me to start looking for stuff to clear my mind but I wasn’t in the mood. Well, we finally started to look for cribs now (very difficult task tbh) and we bought their first onesies :) I’m letting the aunties shop for them too now (they’ve been insisting a lot lol) and it is very funny when they start sending pictures of plushies or toys or clothes (I love them because they keep thinking about the big sister). They are still trying to win points to be the godmothers lmao. I called grauntie last week and apologized for not being so communicative lately, and she started to come over again during the mornings, she’s been helping me with house shores and with my feelings. This has also helped hubby a lot because he was worried I was home alone. I cried so much with grauntie about my mom, and she showed me some of her Facebook posts. I just wish she would stop posting baby’s pictures. Grauntie also encouraged me to talk to my dad. And we went out to look for baby stuff together. She also knows about my pregnancy problems, but she’s confident we all will be alright.
The most important thing of all: we told baby she’s going to be a big sister :) She believed my belly was growing because I ate a watermelon seed lol If you want to know her reaction, I’ll make another post about it because I don’t want to mix it with all the shit above.
We ended up having a late Mother’s Day (also a pretext to be close to each other) the next Sunday after the actual day. It was nice and it cheered me up. It was a surprise from hubby.
My car is all fixed now and bills were sent to the beast family but they haven’t paid. We have the RO but the idea of them still scares me a bit from time to time. We’ve been calm these days at home but we have been going to visit the other house from time to time to get used to it. We’ve been planning where to place our furniture and how to decorate just to clear our minds. Hubby said maybe we will be able to start moving in a week and a half or two complete weeks. Yup, we’re moving even if we only have our bed there. I have mixed feelings about it but I know it’s for the best.
What his family and my mom don’t realize is that their bullshit only makes hubby and me stronger as a couple. He relies on me and I rely on him, we don’t fall. We always come to the same conclusion that we are simply meant to be together and for our kids. I can feel how our love and respect to each other grows stronger. And I am holding tight to this. As I said before, the only feeling I can really trust right now is my love for my little (and growing) family. The love they give me is something I have never doubt, not even in my darkest moments. I still have urges from time to time, I feel anxious and sometimes I can’t sleep as right now but all this love keeps me sane within my not so sane moments. I’m alright, I’m getting better (also yes, I’m going to therapy and having more sessions than usual).
I know I always say this but I can’t be thankful enough for hubby… You know? Hubby always says that I saved him, but I believe it is the opposite.
We’re going to be alright. I have always known that.
And I’m back hehe

A grampa like to tickle her grandaughter... brom beyond
https://www.reddit.com/Paranormal/comments/1d2w3vc/can_my_daughter_see_ghosts/
Can my daughter see ghosts?May 28th 2024, 22:09, by Dearm000n
Disclosure: this is a 100% true story about my daughter, years ago. But it’s always left me wondering
One night I was getting dinner ready for my family. I was in the kitchen cooking while my daughter played Keepy uppy with a balloon in the dining room. She was laughing and giggling like I had never heard her before. I watched from the kitchen and just smiled as I continued cook dinner. All of a sudden I hear squeeling from my daughter, pure and UTTER joy coming from her. The only time I ever heard her this excited was if she was being chased or tickled. I look up at her but again, she’s playing by herself with a balloon.
I thought nothing of it after this, clearly she’s just playing with a balloon. I continued to brown my meat and add my onion and as I’m grabbing my can opener for my tomato sauce I heard a loud blood curdling scream. I dropped my can opener and sliced my finger slightly on the edge of the can. I jerked my head up at her scream which to my surprise, was followed by a fully belly laughter from my daughter. Now, she isn’t doing anything wrong she’s just playing BUT this is when I started to notice she isn’t playing alone. I called out to her. “Bella, can you please lower your voice, your scream scared me and I accidentally cut my finger on the can when startled.” “Yes mama.” She replied. I stood there just watching her for a second. I watch her play all the time but this particular time was just… different.
As I stood there, she continued on as normally as possible. I thought, hmm… maybe it’s just me being weird. I went back into the kitchen to continue cooking dinner. I walk over to my boiling water to start putting my pasta inside when I hear yet another ear ringing scream from my daughter. At this point it was a little annoyed I won’t lie because she’s not normally so rambunctious. I whipped my head around and before I could get any words out I saw my daughter. Ballon gone. Curled up on the floor completely out of breath from laughter. Face red, veins popping from her neck, utter and total tickle lock up. If you are ticklish then you know what I mean. She finally gasped for breath and shouted “Stop it Paw Paw it tickles!!”
My face went cold, my body went as still as stone, my eyes got massive and I choked on my next words. She didn’t even see me looking at her, she had no idea anything going on around her except for whatever she was seeing infront of her. The thing is…my dad has been dead for 14 years and she has never met him. She is aware he dead.. She has been out to his gravesite with me several times but she’s 5. She doesn’t fully understand what it is or why he’s there. I have never told her details, I have never told her anything about him or what happened to him. She sees pictures and she knows he’s my dad but that’s it.
I turned my burner off, dinner be damned right now, and I walked over to my daughter. She shot up to her feet and went to go after her balloon again but I grabbed her hand and pulled her to me. I just stared at her with tears in my eyes. I said, “who are you talking to in here?” And she smiled and pointed to my wall. It’s empty there isn’t even a photo there so I look, turn back to her and say, “I don’t see anyone, but it sounds like someone was making you laugh, yeah?” My daughter old looked me right in my eyes and said “it’s paw paw, he was tickling me and playing keepy uppy with my balloon!” (pause: she doesn’t call him pawpaw bc she doesn’t know him and she doesn’t have a paw paw. My husbands dad is alive but they don’t speak so my sweet baby doesn’t have a grandpa at all. so idk who told her to say that if not…him.)
I pulled her into my lap and started to talk with her because clearly she is seeing something I can not. So I asked her, “what does he look like!?” And my daughter’s answer haunts me to this day and I can’t stop thinking about her reply. She said “He has a big cut on his head and he said his head hurts from being under the dirt.” My jaw hit the floor and I went from curious to horrified. I have NEVER and would never tell my young child the details of my dad’s death BUT, he was ejected from his truck in a roll over accident and bashed his head on the concrete. He stayed in a medically induced coma for a week before being declared brain dead. We burried him in my family cemetery. He DID have a big gash on his head and now he’s under the dirt. How my daughter would be able to tell me any of that is beyond anything I know. I have no answer for it other than my dad came to play with my baby.
After that she started seeing him even more. One afternoon I was folding laundry and I heard her talking to someone in my bedroom. When I hollered for her to come to me, she did. I asked her who she was talking to and she said “it’s paw paw but he’s crying” and I asked “he’s crying!?” And she took my hand and brought me to my bed room and pointed at the bed. As if I was supposed to see him, but I didn’t. I said “why is he crying?” She turned right around with confidence and said “paw paw why are you sad?” A moment of silence passed and I just kind of looked around… somewhat skeptical. Then, she looked up at me and said “he said they’re happy tears bc he loves you and me.” Took my breath away, I love him too.
Any other things have happened since then but this first time experience has always left me wondering… Im wondering, can my daughter see ghosts… and is my dad stuck?? Has he been stuck for 14 years??
submitted by Dearm000n [link] [comments]

Seemingly out of the blue my fiancé (dating for 4.5 years) dumped me on a voice note lasting 2 minutes saying we cannot be together. No explanation was given, and he said he does not want to talk about it. My fiancé lives 2 hours away. I’m absolutely devastated and didn’t see this coming. He said on the note he did it this way because he just chicken and can’t face me. I am devastated and it’s been a week and I haven’t responded. I feel like I the way he ended things is the biggest disrespect ever and it truly shatters my heart to pieces. No explanation or anything. I have the wedding dress tailored to me.
A background of behaviour leading up: A month ago he kept talking about the wedding how he wanted to get married this summer and what kind of venue and all. Then I discovered that last year he took a trip out of town for business reasons and he never told me. (Lied by omission I guess) when I confronted him about this he shut down and proceeded to ghost me and give me silent treatment. Then he came back after I messed him and apologized, bought me flowers, told me he was sorry and that he loved me. Days before the dump: we went for dinner in my city had a good time but I brought up I wanted him to not ghost me like that again because it was super hard for me (I lost a bunch of weight, couldn’t eat). Anyways we didn’t really get into it. The next day he leaves to his city and he is telling me he wishes I was there and he will buy me a ticket to come. Then the day after: under 2 minute voice note that he loves me, he can’t face me, we can’t be together and he doesn’t want to talk.
I am still in shock and I don’t even know how to reach out. I could text? Feels so insane to me to text someone so important about something that was so so significant in my life. I am absolutely devastated. I think if I called he wouldn’t pick up to be honest. I want to talk, I want to return my ring too but I’m so scared of reaching out and having this person twists new knifes into my heart. I will not beg him to reconsider but I still feel so insanely hurt by the way he ended things after so much, looking at venues, buying a dress. This is truly a nightmare for me, I’m so broken. Please advice.

ELDEN RING SPOILERS AHEAD
In the beginning all life was one big consciousness (The One Great), overlooked by God (The Greater Will) . But the greater will made a mistake, and it was all split into many different types of creatures. The greater will then sent the Elden Ring to govern these new creatures.
The strongest among them were the dragons, who worshiped a consciousness born of an aspect of nature (an outer god). The strongest dragon eventually conquered the elden ring and became elden lord. However, the god of the dragons disappeared, and so the elden lord locked himself in a place beyond time, were he could wait for it's return forever. Doing this, however, cost him the Elden Ring, and the title of Elden lord.
This led to a power struggle and an inevitable war with only one winner: Hoarah Loux, who became elden lord. But, an individual was chosen to become a god against their will, this being Marika. Marika agreed to marry Hoarah Loax, but only on the condition that he became less war graving. He did this by putting his battle lust into his pet lion, Serosh and adopting the name Godfrey.
Marika did not like the idea of death, so she took it out of the very Elden Ring, and had her most faithful servent Maliketh to steel the very rune of death from the Gloem eyed queen (I can't get into who that is because this is already gonna be long enough) But death was no more.
Godfrey and Marika had three children, Godwn, Mogwyn, and Morgott. These are the first demigods. Godwyn was first born and the golden child, set to inherit the throne. He would have two sons, Goedfry and Godrick who would graft limbs to there bodies in an attempt to gain power. However, Morgott and Mogwyn were born Omens. The Omens are remnants of the One Great, with features of all different kinds of animals (scales, horns, tails, feathers, ect) and unusual strength. They are seen as curses and were killed as babies, but because those two were born of royalty, they were instead locked in the sewers. They both eventually escaped with the help of an outer god, the formless mother (god of blood) who thought it was unfair. She set they're blood ablaze, giving them the power to make anyone bleed. Mogwyn praised the formless mother for letting them go and became the lord of blood, but Morgott hated the formless mother for setting his blood ablaze and embraced all things holy.
Eventually, a comet fell upon the land with a special type of stone: glintstone. Glintstone is magical. A couple of people started studying it and they made a magic wizarding school. They became powerful enough to challenge Godfrey and Marika's rule, and so a war began.
The war ended with a notable warrior, Radigon, marrying Renalla, queen of the magic peeps. They had three children. These are the second Demigods. Ranni the witch, first born and set to inherit the throne (mommies favorite). Starscourge Rahdan, giant guy who learned gravity magic so he could ride his regular sized horse but then also used it to hold back the stars from moving just cause he's the goat. And Practor Rykard, who got himself eaten by a god devouring serpent and fused with it from the inside or something idk.
But wait, why are they demigods? Was Radagon actually just Marika in a boys body the whole time? yup
Anyway, Marika sent Godfrey and his armies far away, because the land was peaceful. Radagon left Renalla as soon as he heard this and married Marika (who is actually himself) and they had two children, twins. These are the third and finale demigods, and by far the most powerful. So powerful in fact that the Greater Will nerfed them. Malenia was cursed with scarlet rot, (basically she her body rotted from the inside out) and Miqualla, who was cursed with eternal youth. Malenia promised to always protected her brother, because he could not protect himself.
Ranni, Malenia and Miqulla were chosen to become the next gods after Queen Marika's rule ended. However, Ranni did not like that idea. However, she couldn't just end herself to avoid this fate because the rune of death was sealed away. So, she stole a small piece of the rune of death and killed herself and had Godwyn the Golden assassinated at the same time. This is called the night of the black knifes (because they used black knifes) However, because they were killed at the same time, only Ranni's body was destroyed while only Godwyns mind was destroyed.
Learning of the death of her favorite son, Marika shattered the Elden Ring in a fit of rage. Demigods all claimed shards of the Ring and gained immense power. This led to a war beyond comparison, leaving the ground shattered and no victor. The war was so horrible it led to the abandonment of the Greater Will.
That's when Marika called back the armies of Godfrey, who would try and kill demigods to and claim the shattered pieces of the Elden Ring, so they could mend it and become Elden lord.
🤣🤣🤣

i'm working on a novel and would like to know if anyone could tell me any improvements i could make to the first chapter and prologue
Prologue
The day had started the same way it had for the past two years. The only difference was that I was going home. The hallway was crowded with people walking to and from their classes. Everyone was crowded next to each other so the halls were making the area feel claustrophobic. All the people talking mixed with the summer heat made me feel like I was locked in a sauna. I walked with Preston to the last class we would ever have together and as usual he was smiling. I never got why he always smiled even in situations where people should be sad he still smiled. He knew what today meant for me and he tried to keep light of the situation. I kept my head down away from what was ahead of me. My mind was too clouded about returning to see my family to notice anything in front of me. I walked into another student. It felt like I had walked into a wall. I knew immediately I had walked into tree. I stumble onto the ground and the commotion around me slows down to make room for us. He turned his bulky body around and apologized profusely without saying a word even though I had walked into him. He helped me off of the ground before hurrying down the hall.
“Alexandria, are you doing okay?” Preston said he had tilted his body downward so I had to look down to look him in his eyes. The way he was standing made him look like an idiot but he didn't seem to care. The way he acted made me laugh, which caused his smile to widen.
“I'm doing fine, just got lost in my head.”
“Thinking about how you’ll leave soon,” he said
“Was it that obvious?” He was the only person I told about me being an exchange student. I came to spend high school in Newkinawa and he was the only person I ever hung out with.
“I see what you mean,” he said “Newkinawa is a beautiful place with beautiful people to live in it…myself included”
“You wish,” I say with a smile we continue walking through the hallway “I'm just not excited to go back yet”
After I say that his smile grows wider “So you will miss me after all”
“I wouldn't say that much” I responded whilst smiling.
We had made it to our last class only to see it closed with a sign labeled “Uma incident” Uma was a student known for messing with the chemistry lab and destroying school property in the process. I've never actually met her but Preston says “She's a little weird but still nice”
“Guess class is canceled for today,” Preston remarked with a smile “Wanna go out to the court till the bell rings.”
“Sure let's go” I respond
The place we ate every day was outside. It used to be a tennis court before I moved in. Now they put trees and flowers all over the place. Preston really liked the blue color of the flowers but it just never clicked for me. I look over at Preston and he's staring up at the sky. There are a number of clouds in almost enough to block the sun but it still pokes its rays through and lands on Preston's face. The clouds swim in front of the sun till they block out the sun's light. Preston faces towards me.
“I'm gonna miss you Alexandria” he says
“You know you can just call me Alex,” I replied. I start to smile again. “I'll miss you too!" He smiles toward me again as we get up to leave as the clouds start to clump together and rain slowly falls. As we're walking back to the school there's a loud tearing sound followed by screams as the ground shakes.
The ground tears itself apart as the dirt and stone erupt from the ground. The sky blackens and a pale blue light escapes the earth. Then creatures erupt from the ground in a violent ejection from the earth creating a white pillar diffusing as they reach higher in the air. Some are clawing their way out of the cracks like maggots out of a corpse. People are swept into the updraft screaming for their lives.
The creatures descend like a tidal wave and tear apart any people caught in their path. They storm out of the crack in hundreds as more cracks in the earth form. Me and Preston started running away as people were screaming behind us. A girl running next to us has her legs slashed by a creature. The monster begins to tear open her chest as she chokes on her own blood. The monster shovels her lungs and innards into its decrepit mouth. Me and Preston keep running until we're met at the entrance of the school and we catch the attention of a monster as it begins to savagely rush toward us. The monster resembles ghosts my father told me about. But this one looks monstrously horrific. It floats in the air and opens its mouth so wide it nearly replaces its entire torso; its jaws hold savage teeth each the same old gray color of its body. Its eyes glow a rotten yellow color through the dark. It stretches out its arms showing its giant hands and claws like fingers. It swipes at us leaving a giant claw mark on the door behind us but Preston ducks my body down to avoid the attack. We run around it as the monster swaps its focus to another bystander. Screaming past us. Me and Preston run into the parking lot as people scream around us. We hide next to a car.
“What the hell is happening!?” I yell to Preston. More of the creatures fly over us and swoop down to people like vultures on roadkill devouring the fleeing people.
Preston starts to breathe heavily ”we need to get out of here and someplace safer”. As we were talking one of the monster phases through the car we were hiding next to forcing us to run into the street.
“Lets go to your house till things cool down” i say to Preston through panted breaths
“Wait couldn't we head to your house instead” Preston says.
“Why would that matter your house is closer anyways” i respond
“But-” Preston is interrupted by two creatures swooping above us to grab another person. The two monsters begin to pull the person apart while he writhes in pain before having his flesh be torn in half and having his organs be devoured.
“Come on lets go!!” I say as I grab his hand and run even faster.
By the time we reach Preston's house any living person is gone. On the street are just corpses laying torn and mutilated on the roads and sidewalk. The air in the neighborhood feels cold despite the season being summer. When I walk down the street I can still hear the occasional horrific wail the monsters give off. We move closer to Preston's house and I can see him sweating. He looked more worried than before when the creatures were chasing us and he kept darting his eyes away from his home.
“Preston, are you feeling okay?” he doesn't respond to my question and keeps darting his eyes. He walks slowly behind me and as I reach for the door handle and when I touch it it feels nearly freezing. I wrap my hoodie around my hand and slowly open the door. The house is quiet so me and Preston creep further into his house. The inside is cold and damp as if we were locked in a freezer. The further we move into the house the louder a subtle chewing sound is heard.
“It sounds like rats are eating a dead cow over there” I whisper. Preston continues to stay silent behind me. We slowly walk closer towards the kitchen and the sound gets louder and louder and louder until we reach the room.
We're met with a rancid smell of vomit and blood. My blood starts to run cold and every instinct in my body is telling me to run. I can feel Preston breathing get heavier as we get closer. We turn the corner and see Preston's mom lying on the ground dead with one of the creatures hunched over slurping her intestines. The sight causes me to vomit alerting the monster to our presence. The creature turns around and its mouth turns into a mortifying grin as it flies into Preston's moms body. The corpse begins to rise and spur splashing blood over the kitchen. When the corpse stops spasming it picks itself up from the ground and with glazed over eyes it holds its intestines in its hand and gives us the same grin it did when it was outside her body. The possessed corpse lunges at me and starts to chase me around the kitchen. The body is running into the walls and cabinets spraying its blood and other loose organs around the area as I'm avoiding its assault. The corpse leans over and ejects one of its loose intestines towards me, wrapping me in it. It pulls me towards it so fast I'm flung towards the ground. The corpse limbers over to me and raises its free hand aiming for my head. The creature's deranged smile causes the corpse’s cheeks to tear apart. It places both of its bloodied and demented hands on my face and starts to press my skull into the ground. I struggle to breathe. The room starts to get dark and blood escapes my head.
Until Preston jumps on top of his mothers corpse with a kitchen knife and repeatedly stabs it in the head. The possessed body tries to shake him off but he keeps stabbing, blood gets in on his face and tears start to escape his eyes. The creature violently ejects from the corpse's mouth causing her head to nearly explode and Preston stops stabbing the body. The body falls over in a splash of blood and organs. The monster leaves phasing through the roof leaving Preston crying over his mother's body. As the blood mixes with the tears he collapses to his knees crying. I walk over and hug him as the air around us turns bitter and the chill of death leaves the room and us with it.
Chapter 1 Eclipse
It's been 2 months since the apocalypse started. We've kept ourselves alive by looting grocery stores and houses, we hide from the creatures as we have no way to fight back against them. Preston came up with the idea to call them glanter’s. He’s looking better since we left his family home but I can tell something is wrong with him that he's not telling me. Everytime I ask him about it he tells me it's no big deal. I asked him earlier today and he just told me
“don't worry about it, I'm over it” without even looking at me. Now we're walking through the street and I'm walking behind Preston, I can barely see his head past the giant bag we're both carrying on our backs we use to carry supplies. I look up at the sky and it's still pitch black except for the moon giving us any amount of light. Preston turns around to face me.
“Let's check out that house, it might have some cool stuff in it” he points to a white house to our right. The house is a two story building with steps leading to the front door. There's a generator poking out from the backyard. The driveway is empty save for a couple of dried blood stains and tire marks. It's similar to the other houses in the neighborhood except for a couple broken windows.
“Sure why not” We head over to the house and I see something shining on the side of the house in the corner of my eye. I turn my head to look at it closer but it quickly disappears before I can see it clearly.
“Probably squirrel or something” I mumble to myself. Preston walks up the stairs to the house and I walk up the steps behind him as a breeze blows past my face. Preston tries to turn the door knob but the door is locked. I start to pull out a lockpick I grabbed at the store earlier. I motion towards Preston to move out of the way as I kneel down to pick the lock. It takes me a couple of minutes to unlock the door so I walk inside the house and Preston follows behind me while closing and locking the door. The doorway of the house leads to a dark room so I take a flashlight out of my bag to illuminate the area. Were put into the living room and bookshelves are on the walls and a large TV sat in front of a large black couch with smaller chairs surrounding it. Dust is covering every surface of the room and spiderwebs litter the corners of the walls. The area smells like moth balls and there's a lack of blood anywhere nearby.
“Guess the owners got out before the Glanter’s got in, '' I say to Preston. When he doesn't respond I turn around and he's already looking further into the house. When I find him he's managed to find a flight of stairs that lead to a lower portion of the house.
“I'll check on him later,” I think to myself as I headed towards the kitchen to see if we could restock on food. I walk past a bedroom and remark on how childish it looked. The walls were painted with blue and green stripes and a bunk bed sat on the right wall. There's a chest at the foot of the bed so I walk over and lift the top off of it. The box is layered with children's toys, a multitude of dolls, bears, and figures all jut out of the box. I notice a small robot toy and inspect it in my hands.
The cold metal makes my hand shiver and the sharp body shape makes the robot bigger than my hand. There's red lining around the robot's buttons surrounded by the cold gray of the robot's “skin”. It reminds me of a toy my little brother had. My heart feels heavy as I worry about what happened to my family. If they're alive, dead, or worse…possessed. The thoughts send a chill down my spine but I push them aside for now. I put the toy in my bag and exit the bedroom.
I can see the kitchen is down the hallway so I walk down the hall and enter. The kitchen is pretty clean except for a couple of dishes in the sink and the dust. There's a table seated for 3 people in the center of the room. I start opening the cabinets in search for any food or water. There's boxes of cereal leftover on top of shelves and a mix of chip bags and cookies in neat boxes stationed in the cabinets.
“Score,” I say to myself as I begin to put the snacks into my bag. When the cabinets are empty I look inside the fridge. The inside of the fridge ran out of power so most of the food inside is rotted. There are a couple of bottles of water in the front so I shove those in my bag. There's also a bag of oranges that still seem to be healthy in the back. I grab them and toss them on the table. There's rotten sandwich meat hidden in the drawer of the fridge.it smells like a dumpster outside of a butcher shop. I wrinkle my nose at the smell. I look around the kitchen for any bread with no luck.
I continue to look through the fridge until I hear Preston scream from another room. Immediately I bolt out of the kitchen leaving my bag behind and run towards the lower part of the house. I run down the stairs and nearly trip on the steps. The stairs lead to a big room. There are posters to tv shows and movies I don't recognize. The walls are painted black and there's a bear skin rug on the floor. I notice Preston standing next to a really big TV hyperventilating. I walk over to him and ask him.
“Are you ok? What happened?”
He talks through deep breaths “I… saw a… spider.”
“What?!” I respond in confusion.
“It was really big and I had jumped at my face”
“Sure it was.” I say while laughing “Let's go upstairs there's some food in the fridge we can eat”
“Wait, I think you should check this out.” He says while pointing towards one of the walls. I grab Preston's flashlight off the floor and face it towards the wall. Hanging halfway off the wall is a large map labeled Newkiwana scavenger hunt of 76.
“I think we should take it,” Preston says “You can read a map right?”
“A little but I'm not the best at it,” I say to him “can you read a map?”
“it shouldn’t be too hard it’s mainly pictures any way I'm sure I can figure it out”
I walk over to the wall where the map is hung there are trophies covering tables and shelved in their own personal cases one of them reads “1st place 100-meter swimming competition for 1986 Zack Hemmingway” and another one reads “2nd place 100-meter swimming competition for 1989 Zack Hemmingway”
“Guess this guy really liked swimming,” Preston remarks while staring at a wall of newspaper clippings. All of them are about the same person in swimming competitions. All labeled different things like “a new record for Zack “the dolphin” Hemmingway”,
‘Zach Hemmingway our star plans for the future” all the newspapers are about this kind he has paler skin and a bulky enough build to swim pretty well. Most of the pictures have him coming out of the water in a pool, his long black hair soaked and sitting at his shoulders. Another one has him sitting at a desk over a pile of books and his hair in a knot , “vicious wipeout ends the Dolphins career”, and “ex-swim champ Zack Hemmingway found in a drunken stupor outside strip club.
“Everyone has their own hobbies I guess,” I say as I take the map off of the wall and fold it up. “Sucks what happened to Zack though” I walked over to Preston’s bag and put the rolled map in one of the pockets. I walk back up the stairs and Preston grabs his bag and follows behind me.
We make our way towards the kitchen and Preston starts looking through the fridge for anything to eat. I grab an orange from the table and throw it at his head. The fruit bounces off his head and rolls on the floor. He turns around and grabs the fruit from the floor
“Why did you throw an orange at me?”
“It's the only food we have unless you plan on eating spoiled a sandwich“ He starts to peel it while walking towards the table. We both take a seat and start to eat the oranges from the bag. He plants his feet on top of the table and bites into the fully peeled orange. I grab a water bottle from a bag and start to drink from it as Preston says.
“I saw a dvd player in that man cave downstairs we could watch a movie if it still has power”
“Sure it could be fun.” Me and Preston spend the rest of our time eating until the bag of oranges is emptied and we head back downstairs. Preston grabs the DVD player from under the table and blows the dust off the top of it; he plugs it into the wall as I plop myself onto the couch. He plugs the DVD player into the TV and sits on the recliner next to me. He presses a few buttons on the remote and the TV lights up. I squint my eyes at how bright it is. It's the most amount of light I've seen that didn't come from a flashlight. I notice there's a box filled with DVDs. I pull the box over towards me. I ruffle through the box and see movies like Silence of the Lambs, Terminator 2, and Home alone.
“Dude some of these came out just before the world turned inside out” I say to him.
“Really? Let's play one.” He responds. I toss him Terminator 2 and he puts it into the DVD player.
We spend the next couple hours watching movies and laughing together. It's some of our only moments of peace we’ve had since the end of the world and to me it's the most fun I've had yet. We're putting in the next DVD when there's a loud crash outside and the TV shuts off. Preston goes behind it to see if it's still plugged in.
“I think the generator outside is busted” i say
“It seems that way” Preston replies while backing away from the tv” i'm gonna go check it out”
“Don't worry I got it” I say as I hop out of my chair. Preston waves goodbye as I head up the stairs. I make my way back through the hallway leading to the living room and front door. I reach the door and start to turn the knob. I open the door wide as a car speeds down the street. I step out of the door to see what had happened when I hear the screech of a glanter. It cuts through the sky like an unholy opera singer. A group of them fly by and chase the car as I rush back inside the house. I slam the door shut and look through the window as I see a couple of smaller glanters grab and shake the car violently looking for the driver. They tear at it, ripping off doors and breaking the windows. The driver screams as the seats cover with blood and he's ripped out of the car as multiple smaller glanters tear and bite off parts of his body like piranha's until his body is completely devoured. I run back to the man cave to warn Preston about what had happened. I spot him laying in his chair spinning a DVD disc on his finger.
“It's not safe outside right now”
“Why not?
“There's glanter's outside, they just ate a dude in his car”
“Did they see you come inside?”
“I don't think so , they flew off before I went inside.”
“well we're not dead so I'm gonna say they didn't see you. But let's stay here for a couple more hours just to be safe”
“Sounds good i'm gonna go find the master bedroom.” I start to walk back up the stairs to the house
“ Hold on why do you get the master bedroom” Preston says while walking after me.
“Because I'm gonna find it first” I say as I start to run to find the bedroom. He chases after me in pursuit of the bedroom. Me and Preston run around the house looking for the master bedroom. We look through room after room finding closets, the garage, a bathroom and a door leading to a balcony in the back of the house. I manage to run into the bedroom and yell out to Preston.``Found it!!”
He comes walking into the room breathing heavily from the running. We both check out the room. The walls are painted a cream yellow and the bed takes up most of the room's center. The bed has burgundy sheets poking out from its bottom and a quilt with multi-colored floral designs lay sprawled out on top of it. There's a wardrobe built into the wall and a black leather couch sits comfortably on the left wall.
“Dibs on the bed” I say as I jump on top of it. I stretch out on top of the quilt and search for a comfortable part to sleep in.
“Where am I supposed to sleep then?” Preston complains
“You can sleep on the couch it looks soft enough” I respond while pointing towards the couch “I saw some spare blankets in one of the closets”
“Alright i’ll be right back” he mumbles to himself “why do i always get the couch”
“ I'll be right here if you need me,” i call after him. I sit up on the bed and start to look around the room more. I notice the entrance to the wardrobe is cracked open slightly. I hop out of the bed and grab a flashlight from my bag as I walk into the wardrobe. I turn on my flashlight and stare in awe at how many clothes are in there. The room is only half as big as the bedroom but it's still bigger than any closet I've ever had. The wardrobe is full of shirts, dresses, pants, and shoes for men and women. I immediately start to look through the shoes to see if any fit my size. I throw a pair of black high heels behind me as Preston finds me in the wardrobe. He looks around before asking me.
“What are you doing?”
“Finding a new pair of clothes to wear cause I've been wearing the same pair of jeans for waaaaay too long”
“Fair enough. Is there any guy stuff in there?”
“Yeah right there” I hook my thumb behind me to point to the other end of the closet.
“I'm sure they won't mind if we take a couple of things…they're probably dead by now anyways,” Preston says with a slight grin on his face. The way he said made me spin my head to look at him but he was already on the opposite end of the wardrobe looking at suits.
I shake away the thought and continue looking for any pair of sneakers in my size. 40 minutes pass before I walk out of the wardrobe holding a new pair of jeans and a black guns-N-roses t-shirt. I toss the clothes on top of the bed and check to see if the shower in the bathroom still works. I turn the dial and wait for a moment. The shower head chokes a little before water comes pouring out. I reach my hand under the showerhead to feel the water. The water is cold, it causes my hand to shiver when I take it out. I shake the water off and say to myself.
“Good enough” as I start to take off my old clothes and get in the shower. The cold water bounces off my skin, it sends shivers down my spine but I still get the old dirt from the last few months off of me. I step out and see a couple of dry towels hanging off of the door. I grab one and dry my body off and grab another to wrap around my head and dry my hair. I step out of the bathroom and Preston is still inside the wardrobe. I put on my new clothes while his back is turned and walk over towards him when I'm finished.
“Still haven't found anything,” I ask him
He turns around “Nothing yet, the only thing interesting was this coat.” He holds a leather coat up to me. The coat is made of black leather and has a skull covered with blue flames on the back. There's a black shirt inside the coat with a skeleton hand making a thumbs-up embroidered on the front.
“ That's pretty cool, it's better than what you're wearing right now at least” he's outfitted in a blue hoodie with holes on the chest and tears at the sleeves. He also has a shirt with a faded picture of a blue flower printed on it.
“I guess you're right” he gets up from the floor and exits the wardrobe. He lays the clothes on the couch along next to the blanket and pillow he brought into the room.
“The shower works so you can get yourself clean In there,” I say to him
“You know, a shower sounds really good right now.” He gets up from the floor and grabs a pair of pajama pants that were laying next to him. He leaves the wardrobe and enters the bathroom, closing the door behind him. After a moment the water turns on and I hop on the bed to get ready to sleep. I squirm myself into the quilt and rest my head against one of the pillows. I shut my eyes and fall asleep listening to the passive sound of the shower like rain on a car.
I'm in a void. It feels like I'm standing in a puddle of water that reaches to my knees. I wade my way forward looking around for anything in the darkness. In the distance I can see 3 figures l. I moved closer to them and their silhouettes get clearer. I realize they are my dad and brothers. I start to run towards them kicking up water behind me until something grabs my leg. It pulls down violently forcing me under the water without a breath of air. I kick at the thing grabbing me until something grabs my other leg. I look down and see two glanter's each with a monstrous smile on their faces. They stare back at me and one of them tugs my leg harder than before and tears it off of my body. The water around me turns red as the glanter laugh's. The other smiles wider as it starts to fling me around the water forcing any air left in my lungs to be forced out as I scream in pain. The glanter throws me away and I can see my family slowly fade into the distance as I'm flown away.
I struggle to swim back to where I was, one of my legs is missing and the other is broken. The glanter's find me again and I try to get to the surface to escape them. I'm flapping my arms in any attempt to escape as one of the glanter's flies in front of me and grabs my arm. I look at the monster with tears in my eyes as it bites my arm and tears my body away from it. It flings my body away and with my remaining arm I clutch the wound as the water floods into my body leaving me in the void I started in. I look around and the glanter's seem to have left. I turn behind me and see my family again, this time I'm closer than before.
I grit my teeth and drag my body towards them slowly as I leave a trail of blood and tears behind me. I finally reach my family and grab one of my father's shoes. I stare up and he looks at me. His stare causes me to feel cold as a grotesque smile grows on his face. I stare in shock as my brothers each have the same look as my father.
I shoot up from my sleep panting heavily in a cold sweat.
“It was just a dream..just a dream…just a dream” I look at my hands as tears fall into them. I look around the room and see Preston sleeping peacefully on the couch. The room feels frozen in place as a chill runs down my spine. I get out of the bed and walk out of the bedroom. I make my way through the dark hallway and find the entrance to the balcony I saw earlier. I creak open the screen door and head outside. The Balcony is pretty large, about the size of the kitchen in the house. There are some chairs knocked over next to a table and I pick one up to sit on it. I look out into the expanse of the neighborhood, houses lined up next to each other, dozens broken apart by roads, and dead bodies scattered across the roads.
I look up in the sky and sit back in the chair. The sky looks empty except for the moon giving this world its only source of light. Without the moon, we’d be left in darkness. It hangs in the sky alone, no stars, no clouds, nothing but itself, and the void of the sky. I think back about the dream I had. My dad and my brother's all dead and possessed and then they kill me. I start to tear up thinking about it. I try to wipe away the tears but it’s no use. I'm too scared for my family. I don't know where they are if they're alive if they're worried about me I don't know anything! I start to quietly cry into my hands. I don't know how long I'm sitting there until I feel a hand on my shoulder. I turn my head to face it and I see Preston. He was smiling and looking at me. I turn away to wipe my tears and he walks next to me.
“I heard you sneaking out of the bedroom so I followed you to see where you were going.” he says “but that's not my question.” he pauses and looks at me “my question is what’s got you feeling so down?” he leans over the railing of the balcony
“It's nothing, I just came out here to clear my head.” I say as more tears escape from my eyes in big slow drops that ride down the sides of my face.
“if you don't feel like telling me you don't have to but i'll be here if you ever change your mind”. He looks up at the moon before turning to face me and his smile widens “I'll always be here with you…trust me I'm not going anywhere”
I stare up at him and wipe away my tears as a smile grows on my face to match his. I get up and stare over the balcony with him. “So where are we heading next?” I say to him, Preston pulls the map we got from the man cave downstairs out from his pocket.
“After I got out of the shower I decided to take a look at the map for anything interesting we could see.”
“Ok did you find anything?” i ask
“I did,” he points at a spot on the right of the map. “We should head to the museum”
“I didn't want to go to a museum before the apocalypse why would i want to go now?'' I ask him.
“Well the best part of museums is the cool stuff right”
“Yeah what about it”
“The only problem is that you could only look at the fossils and armor but you could never take them.”
“So you want to rob a museum?” Prestons eyes light up at the question
“Exactly they might have a really cool sword I could use, or I could sharpen a dinosaur tooth and use that as a weapon, there might be a cursed shield that can summon the dead to fight for you. This opportunity is too good to pass up. We need to go!”
“That does seem pretty cool but wouldn't carrying that stuff weigh us down. What if a glanter is chasing us and we can't run fast enough because of the stuff we took from the museum.”
“We’ll only take things that are light. Even then I could just block the glanter with my newly acquired 2000 year old shield.”
“Fair enough we can go in a couple hours” I yawn and stretch out my arms. “Cause I'm feeling way too tired to walk all the way over there right now.”
“Alright i'm heading back to my couch and THEN we’ll head out to the museum” he leaves the balcony and heads back to the master bedroom leaving me alone on the balcony.
“Thanks Preston I'm not leaving either” I say into the sky. I turn around and walk back inside the house, closing the balcony door behind me. I walk back into the bedroom and Preston is hunched over and holding a flashlight looking at the map. He’s drawing lines through roads and marking X’s in different areas.
“What are the X’s for?” i ask him
“They’re places that glanter’s usually stay around. I'm marking them off so we remember not to go through them, or at least be more cautious.”
“Cool. Did you find where we are right now?” He points to an area where the lines all converge out of.
“Right around here is where the neighborhood ends. So if we follow this path we can make it to the museum in one piece” I pat him on the back and take the map from his hands.
“Get some sleep Preston, we have a full day tomorrow” he grins to himself before laying down on the couch. I put the map back into my bag and hop on the bed to get to sleep. I cover my body in the quilt and roll over facing away from Preston as he falls asleep. I nestle myself into the bed and slowly fall asleep to get ready for the next day.
I'm awoken by Preston shaking the bed I'm sleeping on. My eyes open and the room is foggy, I wipe away the sleep from my eyes and focus my attention towards Preston. He's practically jumping out of his skin with excitement, he's already fully dressed for the trip and shaking the bed with a wide smile on his face.
“Ok ok i'm up the air feels heavy as a groggy feeling fills my body. I wipe my eyes and the room starts to clear up. I turn to face Preston. He's still shaking my bed to wake me up, he’s already fully dressed and nearly jumping out of his skin in excitement.
“Ok ok, i'm up you can stop shaking the bed” i say
“Then get up we’ve got a long walk ahead of us” he says as he stops shaking the mattress. He grabs the map from my bag and points to one of the red lines.
“We're gonna follow this way to the museum. We’ll move past the hotel around the ice skating rink and around the park. We’ll mainly stick to walking through the streets, we might have to go rooftop hopping to avoid any glanter’s if we see them but i'm sure we won’t reach that point.” he explains
“Wait, wait, wait, why are avoiding the skating rink and the park” i ask
“ everytime we go near the park there's weird noises and light coming out of it”
“And why can't we go to the ice skating rink?”
“I didn't think it would be important”
“It couldn't hurt to check it out at least”
“Fine we could make a detour”
“Ok and how do you plan on getting on top of roofs?”
“I'm sure we'll figure it out when we get to it”
“Ok man as long as you’re sure '' I yawn and step out of the bed. Preston starts to put the map in his bag. I walk into the bathroom with my clothes and change out of my pajamas. Minutes later I walk out and see Preston sitting on the couch twiddling his thumbs.
“Finally you're out” he smiles at me before handing me my bag and slinging it over his shoulder. We took a last look inside the kitchen to see if we missed anything. Afterwards we leave for the outside. The cold air bites at my face but Preston walks down the stairs, his face buried in the map. I jog to catch up to him as we both head into the street.
“Hey Preston, could I see the map?”
“Sure” he hands over the map and continues walking. I look at the map and the numerous lines drawn on roads. I look at the corner of the map and notice a small map key with numerous symbols for different areas like a library, school, hospital, and more. There's even a way to tell how far away each location is. The text reads “1 inch=5 miles” I quickly count how far we are from the museum.
“Dude this museum is like 100 miles away.”
“Yep it'll be a long walk, it'll take us a while to get there”
“Did you plan on us walking there the whole time?”
“We might find bikes or something.” he pauses “well i did think we would walk the whole way”
“This is gonna take us weeks to get there!”
“Did you have anything else planned?”
“Well…i guess not but we should still try to find some bikes or something”
“Ok if we see any way to travel faster we’ll take it”
“Alright cool” I hand him the map back and he folds it back up and puts it in his bag. We walk further until we leave the gated neighborhood we started in. Preston takes the map back out and looks at it before he turns right and continues walking. I follow him staring forward at the expanse of the road. The outside of the neighborhood is surrounded by roads all leading to different parts of Newkinawa. We walk past a sign that reads “Coretown 20 miles ahead” I nudge Preston towards the sign and he checks the map again.
“Yep, the museum’s in Coretown. Would you believe the residents were pretty proud of it. Should be a fun place to explore” he says
“Yeah but it’ll take us a million years to get there.” i complain
“Lighten up, I'm sure it will be worth it”. We continue walking down the road slowly making our way to Coretown.

I'm always seeing people praise chimps for their strength, saying they're 3x as strong as the average man. Lets say a 250lbs heavyweight ufc fighter with a hunting knife is put in a ring with the average chimp (150lbs), who do you guys think would win?

some thoughts about the new Shadow of the Erd tree story trailer...
== in the story trailer at 0:40, everyone is saying that this is mostly the foundation of the Erd tree because of the piled up bodies in that scene and we know that the Erd tree roots contains of dead bodies,, to which i don't disagree. but could this also be like a gateway to the lands between? the way the sky is dark and gloomy on both sides and there is this twilight beyond this opening in the middle,, as if it is a different world, a different land in "between" the shadow lands around it.
== also in the story trailer between 0:53 and 1:12, the way the wicker men are moving and wreaking havoc looks so similar to the rumbling from Attack on Titan, could this scene be inspired by it? or maybe the whole design of the wicker men is not only inspired by.. wicker men, but also other ideas, one of them is the colossal titans from Attack on titan?
== again, in the story trailer at 2:13, this scene is showing st. Trina (mostly her) drowning. which is very similar to the scene from the ending of the movie "angel's egg", for those who don't know it or those who do, if you go check the movie at 59:25, in that scene the main character, the girl is drowning and turning into a woman. these two scenes are maybe not identical, but i think that the drowning scene of st. Trina shown in the trailer was inspired by the drowning scene of the girl in Angel's egg.
== hot take/theory,, Miquella influenced queen Marika to break the elden ring, either directly by bewitching her, or indirectly by being the real mastermind behind the night of the black knifes, that caused her to break it as a result. which leads me to believe that Miquella is actually the mastermind behind all the events that took place in elden ring, that everything that happened was according to his plan. from the stealing of the rune of death from Maliketh, the night of the black knives and the breaking of the elden ring then the shattering wars, even being kidnapped by Mohg. bringing back the tarnished to the lands between, helping and guiding them indirectly through Melina and other means in their journey to become elden lord or else. all to rid the world of the greater will and the influence of the outer gods and cure the afflictions caused by them, and to bring back death to the world. either because he is secretly ambitious to ascend to godhood, or only because he sees no other way he can really help the low and the meek and those without grace. and this theory can work in both cases, whether Miquella is really kind and wants good for the land between even if he would sacrifice himself, or he is actually evil and only cares about his own best interest no matter who or what he will sacrifice to serve his goals. maybe thats why, he is the most fearsome Empyrean of all.
== am i the only one who thinks that Messmer is a lord of the Frenzied flame? i know that i 'm 99.99% wrong about this, but hear me out..
-- first, i know that it is widely believed that Messmer at some point has partaken in dragon Communion because of how his right eye looks and his attire in general, or that he is into blasphemy and stuff like Rykard because o the snakes he is carrying, but even if that is the case, who said that you can't do both, why can't you partake in dragon communion then later on be influenced by the frenzied flame? who said that snakes are only related to blasphemy and nothing else? especially, that Messmer's snakes look nothing at all like the god devouring snake. why can't they be related to the frenzied flame?
-- second, the way the "snake flames" in the story trailer at 1:08 are moving is very similar to some of the frenzied flame incantations, specifically "unendurable frenzy" and "the flame of frenzy". now i know that they don't look or move exactly the same, but considering that we use the frenzied flame incantations on enemies that are usually on the same ground level like us and significantly close to us, unlike Messmer who is standing on a cliff and using these flames on the far below battle field, so the flames have more time an distance to dance around like snakes. and who knows, we are getting new weapons and incantations in the dlc, so these snake like flames can be a new frenzied flame incantation.
-- third, the frenzied flame sigil has three main heads, a short one on the left that is split into three , the biggest one of them is leaning to the right, a long one in the middle leaning to the left and another short one on the right that is split into two smaller heads, the left one is leaning left and the right one is leaning right. now if we look at the flame symbol on Messmer's sigil, it also contains of three main heads, a short one on the left that is leaning to the right, a long one in the middle leaning to the left and another short one on the right that is split into two smaller heads, the left one is leaning left and the right one is leaning right. considering the different art styles that are used to draw the frenzied flame sigil and flame symbol on Messmer's sigil that makes them look different, they are actually very similar to each other, if not the same.
-- forth, Melina.. now this one is based on the sole assumption that the woman who is sitting in the battlefield and holding a spear in the story trailer at 1:13 is indeed Melina. so, one of the things that always poked my interest about Melina was her relation to the frenzied flame. i have always wondered.. out of all the outer gods, why is it the frenzied flame in particular that Melina seemed to be afraid of and hate so much? to me it always felt more than just "it's pure chaos and it will make the lands lifeless", she didn't just know what the frenzied flame can do, but to her, it was much more personal than that, she have seen it before, she was affected by it, she lost everything and everyone she held dear to it. and there,, she sat on the battlefield amidst the chaos and destruction, defeated, holding the spear that was left to her by her mother, the gloom eyed queen. watching the frenzied flame, Messmer's flame burning everything around her, then she herself was burned by it. then somehow and for some reason, she was spared or brought back to life, and she was branded with a tattoo of the three fingers over her right eye, to add insult to injury, to summarize this last point.. the woman in the battlefield for sure hates Messmer and his flame, assuming that this woman is Melina, and we know already how much Melina hates the frenzied flame, then it is not much of a stretch to conclude that messmer's flame is the frenzied flame.
anyways, these were some thoughts that i had since the story trailer came out. as i said they are mostly incorrect, but thank you all the same if you are here and you read the whole thing.

Number One: My Brother
There were plenty of times when I was growing up that my older brother would try to scare me. When I was really young, he was somewhat successful with it. But of course, when someone tries scaring you over and over again, you normally get used to it. Then it doesn’t scare you very much.
As we all got older, things changed quite a bit. He wasn’t getting the reactions from me that he previously had been, so he wasn’t scaring me as much. It was kind of a good feeling, you know, feeling that you have defeated your older brother when he was just trying to torment you. But also, I soon began forgetting that he was ever doing things like that to me.
When he was 17, he stopped hanging out at home very often. We assumed he was just out with his friends all the time. But he really had grown distant from everyone else in the family. He would rarely show up for meals. If he did, he would take his food and eat it away from everyone else.
My parents didn’t really think much of the change in my brother’s behavior. They insisted that teenagers all go through things like that. So I took them at their word and didn’t assume that they had anything to worry about.
I was home once after school and I was the only one there. My parents both worked a lot of hours and this was pretty common. My brother wasn’t home either so it was only me there. So, I set about trying to decide what I was going to have for dinner.
I remember this day for many reasons, but the first being that it was very windy outside. So I was hearing a lot of noises from outside. Also, the house was pretty old so it was making a lot of creaking noises.
What bugged me the most though was how sometimes our screen door in the kitchen would become unlatched on those windy days. When that happened, the win would cause the door to bang open and bang closed. And unless you went and put the hook lock onto it, it would keep doing this.
So, I went and made sure that the screen door was secured after hearing it bang several times in the wind. And then I went and I tried to finish making myself something to eat. Once I was done, I went into the living room and I tried to watch some television while I ate.
It wasn’t long until I heard what sounded like the door had gotten loose again. Since I used the hook lock, I wasn’t sure what it could have been. But if the door got torn of its hinges, it would have made things a lot worse. So I got up and went back in the kitchen, annoyed, to go and secure the door once again.
However, the door wasn’t open. My older brother was at the back door. And he was banging on the screen door for some reason. He was complaining about the door being locked and told me that I had to open it for him.
I asked him why he didn’t just come in through the front door like everyone did. The question seemed to just make him angry, however. He began pounding on the door harder and telling me to just open the damn door.
I went over to open the door, but the look on his face got me to stop. I wasn’t sure what it was, but there was just something in his eyes that I didn’t recognize. I am not sure how else to put it, but it didn’t seem like I was looking at my brother. There was some vacant, other person behind those eyes.
My pause made my brother pound on the door harder and I could tell that he was really pissed off. I thought he was trying to scare me for only a second because I wasn’t sure what to think about what was going on. He began then pulling the screen out of the screen door in order to get to the lock I couldn’t imagine he would ever be stupid enough to deliberately destroy part of the house; my parents would have killed him.
He started yelling at me, threatening all sorts of things to do to me once he got into the house. I was about to run off, but I didn’t because part of me still thought he was just trying to scare me, albeit that part was really small.
When he got through the door, though, he didn’t stop anything. He went right over to a knife block and that was when I turned and ran. I went quickly up to my stairs and into my bedroom, locking the door behind me.
We lived in an old house with some good, solid doors. There was no way my brother was going to break through them. However, he did pound on the door and yell and scream at me for a while, demanding that I open the door. However, a while later, he gave up and everything went quiet.
I didn’t come out of my room until my parents got home. They had found my brother, sitting in the bathtub upstairs, shivering; the kitchen knife beside him. He claimed to not really know what was going on and my parents were confused. I relayed the whole story to them and he seemed to sincerely have no memory of what happened.
So, it seemed my brother had a psychotic break down or a fugue state or something like that. I believe the last one is what the doctor said. But to this day, he denies that he ever faked what happened as a practical joke. He had admitted to every joke beforehand so I have no reason not to believe him. I have no idea what would have happened if I hadn’t gotten to my room.

Number Two: Bullies
I moved around a whole lot when I was growing up. I have lived in the city, in the country and the suburbs. I moved so much that I really didn’t get to know a lot of kids my age very well while I was growing up. And after having this be the case for a long period of time, I stopped trying to make friends when I reached a certain age. It didn’t seem worth it if my family would just pack up and move a few months after I had made a friend.
There was a period of time where we moved out to this house out in the country. It was a poorer area, I guess, where the only houses you came across were mobile homes. I never tried to make any friends with the kids who might have lived there, though. I also didn’t really make friends at school.
I don’t know what it was about this area, but for some reason it was the only time in my life where I was bullied. I think it might have been because I kept to myself and did well in school, instead of playing football during recess. But whatever it was, the bullies were real jackasses and caused me a lot of Hell for the year when we were there. Weekends and school vacations were my favorite times because it was the only times I could get away from the bullies at school and the teachers never did anything to make the bullying stop either.
This happened during a weekend in the fall. I remember because I was out wearing a jacket and taking a walk. I tried to go out for walks whenever I could on days home, because it felt good to get out of the house for a while. So, I was heading down a gravel road, just strolling along and lost in my own thoughts.
It was after a while, I heard some sounds coming off ahead of me and to the side of the road. I was curious to see what was going on, so I walked up to the area and noticed that there was a fenced off field in that area. It sounded like there were some people off doing something and I began to wonder why. However, I wasn’t curious enough to try and find out.
It was pretty suddenly though that someone approached me on the side of the road. I was surprised to have seen it, because I hadn’t noticed anyone else out there. Plus, I was really afraid to see it was a kid name John, who was one of the bullies who bugged me at school.
John made some comments at me but none of them were mean. In fact, he had heard the noises out in the field too and was wondering what they were. John asked me if I was curious and wanted to go see what was going on.
I wasn’t sure how to feel. I mean, part of me thought that this bully might have been warming up to me. But another part of me definitely didn’t want to go with him walking in a field.
In the end, I decided to go with him because I was mostly afraid that he might beat me up if I didn’t go with him.
After walking for a while, we finally noticed a few other guys up in front of us. It didn’t take long for me to recognize them also for school. I was a bit scared when I noticed that they were guys who normally hung out with John and tormented me. That probably meant that he had known they were out there all along and was meeting up with them.
I wanted to turn around and go back to the road, but I couldn’t force myself to do it. Besides, if those four kids wanted to catch me, they easily could and beat the crap out of me. I didn’t want that so I just decided to try to not seem scared. Perhaps they would respect me that way and let me take part in what they were doing.
But as we got closer to them, I realized that they had rifles and were shooting at things. At first I assumed they were pellet guns, but they were actually rifles. And I found myself even more wanted to get away as quickly as I could.
John asked me if I wanted to fire one of the rifles. I definitely did not and told him that was okay. I didn’t want to take any of their fun away from them. So, I would just watch them if that was all right.
“Oh I have a better idea,” John laughed with his friends. “How about we use you for the target? Now that would be really fun.”
Of course those words scared the hell out of me. These were bullies that I knew were not scared to get physical with someone. It wouldn’t surprise me if they were willing to shoot me either.
There were only two rifles amongst the four boys and they both pointed them at me. I tried to tell myself that they wouldn’t be stupid enough to try and shoot me. If they did, they would get into a lot of trouble. But I had no idea whether that was true or not.
“Well that’s not what I thought would be fun,” John told his friends. “I mean we could just shoot at anything you know. We could shoot at trees, bushes, rocks. But what would be really fun would be a moving target.”
All the boys laughed and I just got even more scared. Now, I didn’t want to run because that would give the boys what they wanted. But I didn’t want to stand there either. I am probably pretty lucky that I didn’t wet myself at some point.”
“Well run,” John urged me. “It would be a lot harder to shoot you if you’re running that if you’re just standing there like a dumbass.”
I still didn’t move. I was too terrified to do anything.
“Run!” John yelled and he sort of lunged at me.
That was enough to scare me enough to get me running. So, I took off and began running. I began telling myself again that they were just trying to scare me. But no sooner did I think that then I heard a gunshot.
I was so startled by the gunshot that I tripped and fell on the ground. I hadn’t been hit by anything, but that didn’t mean that they hadn’t been trying to hit me. So, I got back and began running again. It wasn’t too long before I heard another gunshot. It was followed by another and another and each time, I kept expecting the gunshot to hit me. I couldn’t even be relieved when they didn’t hit me because I was too terrified.
I made it to the fence and I jumped back over it. Getting on the gravel road, I kept running and I didn’t stop running until I got home. I was out of breath and in pain, but I hadn’t been shot and I was glad about that.
Here is the part that might get you though. I didn’t tell anyone about what happened right away. I was too scared about what the bullies might do to me if I got them in trouble. So I kept it to myself and didn’t tell anyone until years after we moved away from there.
I really don’t know how much trouble they would have gotten into anyway. They would have just denied it and I have found the parents of bullies rarely discipline their children for bullying.

Number Three: The Tunnel
I can’t say that I was bullied much when I was growing up. Rather than being unpopular, I was just the sort of kid that everyone ignored. If people talked about me or had any strange impressions of me, I definitely never knew about it. I spent a lot of time by myself.
However, I wasn’t one of those people who liked spending a lot of time by themselves. I would often try to insert myself into a conversation or to join up on a ball game if extra players were needed. I wanted to get along with people and to have those interactions, but it was normally always a bust. I just had a problem making friends. But that didn’t keep me from trying to.
So one day I was walking home from school. I had a pretty long walk as I lived out of town but still close enough that the district did not provide a bus for me. I didn’t mind the walk, though, as I had been doing it all of my life and it gave me time to think.
When I was walking by a field, I noticed a bunch of kids from high school that I knew walking off in the field. So, my curiosity got the better of me and I decided I would follow them to see what they were doing. This might seem strange to you and it certainly does to me now, but recall that this was something that I did very often.
The kids all had a pretty big start on me so it would take me a while to catch up with them. However, when I did eventually catch with them, they were hanging out and smoking pot. They noticed me and actually invited me over. They didn’t seem worried that I would narc on them or anything and even offered me to smoke with them. I had never done that before but I wanted them to like me so I did. Of course as many first time pot smokers out there will tell you, the first time can be the roughest. Much to the amusement of the other guys, I was coughing my lungs out for quite a while afterward.
After hanging out for a little while-and I hadn’t done much talking really, just listening- one of the guys told us that he had an idea. There was an old tunnel under an old road that had been closed down for years and they thought it would be cool to check it out.
I was all for it and I walked with the guys for a while until we came to this tunnel. It wasn’t long and I am sure you have seen this sort of things before. I could definitely see to the other side of it. Still, it had a sort of creepy vibe to it. You couldn’t see the dirt road that ran over the tunnel anymore because it had completely grown over. Plus there were tons of trees and bushes grown up over everything.
One of the boys noticed something. It looked like, on the far end, that there was a human body laying in the tunnel. After he pointed it out, I noticed it too. However, I didn’t get a bit curious about it like the other guys did. It freaked me out and I wanted to just get away from it, but there was no way that I could tell them that.
The guys then began daring me to go and check it out. This scared me, of course, because I really didn’t want to do it. But I also wanted them to like me so after they prodded me for a little while, I decided to go ahead and do it.
The tunnel seemed kind of dank, but it wasn’t wet or anything. It was just unpleasant walking in it, especially knowing that I might be approaching a dead body. I walked as slowly as I could, trying to draw this out as long as possible. Seems silly in retrospect, I know. Most people would want to get it over with as quickly as possible.
As I got closer to the figure in the tunnel, I could see him a lot better. It didn’t look like he was breathing either. This scared me but I also kept thinking about how cool the guys would think I was if I had approached a dead body. So I kept creeping closer.
Right when I had gotten next to the body, I heard this loud clanging, echoing noise ring out across the tunnel. I turned behind to look and see what it was but my attention was drawn back to the body when it tried to grab me.
I stumbled backwards and fell over. I watched the body get up to my horror. I could hear the guys laughing but I wasn’t concentrated on that. I was concentrated on the scary figure in front of me that was suddenly yelling at me and coming toward me.
I got up and began running out of the tunnel. I couldn’t even tell you what the figure was yelling at me as I ran out. I just knew that he sounded very angry and I was terrified.
The guys were running back to the area that they had originally been in and I followed them. I checked behind me at one point and did not see the figure from tunnel following me. However, the guys were all laughing their asses off.
They explained to me that the guy in the tunnel was a homeless guy who had been living in that tunnel for who knows how long. He always hates it when people come along and go into the tunnel. So, that clanging sound I heard was one of the guys throwing a rock into the wall of the tunnel to wake the guy up and scare the hell out of me.
The guys were all laughing but I didn’t find it very funny. However, I began to laugh too because I wanted them to like me. So they seemed to accept me and I was invited to keep smoking with them and hanging out.
So, I had finally made some friends, some who I continued to know until long after high school was over. And all it took was for them to scare me so bad I nearly shit my pants.

first
Luna VI query: Set the source to the translation logs of Princess Amara Auralyn.
No problem!
Luna VI query: Narrate Amara's plan to flee from the war.
***
The moment Amara's nose caught the scent of that little puff of smoke ascending from Nathan's damaged equipment, she suspected something terrible had happened. Her lack of understanding of the nature of this particular piece of human tech was unimportant. Just from knowing the fact that this was one of the few items Nathan had rushingly retrieved was more than enough for her to infer its importance.
His extremely negative reaction to its destruction also hadn't escaped her notice.
Amid the ragged bursts of breath and droplets of sweat running down his face, he stared at the smoking piece of equipment on the ground as he cursed. Then he stood up in a huff, pulling his hair as if trying to remove it from his scalp.
With the object source of their distress in between herself and Nathan, she asked a question that she already knew the answer to. "Was that the device you would use to request help?"
Nathan was breathing too fast to speak properly. "What else could. It be."
His confirmation was the last straw for her to close her eyes, allowing all the emotions she'd been suppressing to be manifested, like a multi-colored river flowing among her black spots.
When she opened her eyes again, she and Nathan were already locking gazes, him bending his head forward as he used his knees to support his upper body, while she stood upright with her head at the same vertical level as his.
Amara felt a shared sense of anger at the situation between them, but she was also afraid that Nathan’s anger was more targeted at her than at the situation.
It took some courage for her to speak first.
"Do you have other means for contacting your people?" She knew it was unlikely he had that, but it was still a question worth asking.
"The radio transmitter was being jammed. I didn't think of bringing it with me." He was recovering his breath fast. "What about you? There is that earpiece, and yesterday you had that AR visor on all day."
"The communicator in my ear is short-ranged. As for the AR visor..." She struggled to tell the truth, but she still did it. "I hid it inside a hole in a tree and forgot it."
"A hole? In a tree? Are you kidding me?"
The truth was that Amara hid it before entering Nathan's tent on the previous night. She had certain expectations and didn't want to be interrupted by the notifications.
But of course, she would never admit that.
"See any pockets?" She extended both hands and put her tail beside them, showing she had nowhere to store the items.
"Oh… sorry. Sometimes I forget our differences."
Nathan believed her so easily that she felt a little bad for him, but not bad enough to waste their precious time with unnecessary talking. "Even should I go alone, I fear I cannot retrieve our devices. I would just get killed or captured for nothing. We cannot stay here either because soon they will follow your trail; we need a plan."
She was certain the only reason the enemies hadn't followed them yet was because they had underestimated Nathan's ability to run.
"I wouldn't let you go back there even if you wanted to, Amara. But at least you are thinking now." He touched his chin, his eyes wandering around. "And yeah, we need a plan."
Unknowingly to Nathan, his words had caused Amara to drift away. And it was not because of him saying he wouldn't allow her to return, but because of his mention of the fact that she wasn't thinking before.
And this had affected her deeply because she utterly agreed with him.
By noticing how differently Ryo and Elysira had handled the same situation before they had fleed, Amara had reflected about how poorly she had reacted to the war. She was guilty of thinking about this more than just a little while Nathan was putting in all the effort to take her away from danger.
She traced back her mistake to a single moment—when Nathan had told her his list of reasons why they couldn't be together. This was when she had allowed her heart to be poisoned with rejection, which by morning had spiraled out of control by the dreadful reportings she had received, and finally, it had culminated in her emotional response to the crisis.
Which curiously Nathan had later fixed by his total commitment to staying together.
Amara found all of that pathetic.
This time she set her priorities straight as she suppressed her detrimental feelings in favor of reason. "We could trek parallel to the mountain and find a cave to hide until the elders send help."
"How long would that take?" He asked.
His questions triggered a long chain of assumptions in her mind. She first considered the political situation after the disruptive assassinations in the capital, and then the logistics of the deployment of reinforcements.
But Amara discarded the whole plan when she tried to envision how long it would take for her allies to find them in the darkness of the forest, realizing how flawed her suggestion was.
Displaying red, she said, "Help will be here today, yet the war on the ground will turn into a slow spot-and-kill conflict. My thoughts must still be clouded. To hide in the mountains is a death sentence; the rebels would have a better idea where to search for us than my allies would."
Nathan touched his face and shook his head at her admission. Without fully understanding what he was doing, she watched him approach a young tree and stare at its bark as his right arm tensed.
Before she could ask a single question, he punched the rough bark, dislodging some wood from the brittle surface and making it fall.
He said, "I'm such an idiot. Now our only option is to keep running and I didn't even bring the water."
She was taken aback by his reaction.
It was true among her species that the males could be more aggressive under stressful situations. But to go as far as hunting themselves against a tree? This was something she hadn't seen before nor she could understand.
What would she do now?
Of all her priorities, communicating with him was very high on her list. This went much beyond certain feelings she had, being directly linked to their survival. Remembering how Ryo and Elysira had handled the same situation before they had fled, she couldn't help but feel like she and Nathan were still failing at this.
Following more instinct than reason, Amara decided to approach him as the red on her skin gradually gave way to purple at every step she took.
When he was within tails reach of her, she spoke.
"I cannot read your thoughts much less can I see your feelings, but I presume that similar to me you can also sense that we failed today, am I wrong?" Nathan pursed his lips and didn't reply, leaving her at a loss for a moment. Yet she didn't give up and wrapped her tail around his wrist, raising his scraped knuckles for him to see. "Why have you done this?"
"I..." He averted his eyes from the wound, relaxing his arm. "This ain't me I swear Amara. It's just-"
"The drones are coming." She was forced to shut him up with her tail to confirm what she heard in the background while he was speaking. After adjusting the angle of her ears she added, "At least three."
Seeing Nathan's face contort from one weird expression after the other, she could only feel regret and anger that she was forced to interrupt him. But as long as they were alive they could always talk more later.
"Great!" He took a deep breath and lowered his back for her to climb. "Let's see how far I can go without water."
"No." She could hear the drones advancing slowly, likely searching for places where they might have hidden, underestimating how far Nathan had taken her. "I do not doubt you can run more, but there is no point in running unless we can lose them. Can you do what Ryo did and destroy them?"
He didn't look at her as he replied, "I could try, but I don't have whatever aim improving add-on the military gave him, much less the years of training."
"Can I borrow your loud gun then?" Amara had a seed of a plan in her mind, a risky and reckless plan but still better than doing nothing or engaging in more random running.
"What? Do you have any idea how hard is to shoot those things down?" Nathan took her request so badly that he lifted his body again to explain more. "Your species may have precise movements and all, but this revolver needs more than just aiming, there's the recoil, reloading, and I bet it hurt your ears; besides I doubt you can do better than me without having taken a single shot with one of our guns your whole life."
Nathan was not wrong.
No matter how hard it felt to admit it to herself, the truth was that she was not a frontline fighter. She could bring order. She could weed out traitors. She could give directions. But taking a gun and firing at the enemies? Even a gun crafted by her species was something she lacked experience using.
Still, the way that he expressed his doubt without even hearing what she had in mind made her quite angry. It was nothing close to the feeling of rejection from the night, but it was still enough to encourage her to double down on her idea.
"I do not intend to shoot the drones from far away like you humans do." Amara pointed at the canopy of the young tree beside them and waited for him to look up before she added, "I want to ambush them from a close distance."
His eyes widened, but Nathan still wasn't convinced. "That's dangerous Amara. What if you miss it? You'll just let them know where we are for nothing. And even if you don't miss the shots can’t they just send more drones?"
"You speak reason, but my goal extends beyond destroying them. I know how brother and my species think and I want to mislead them." Amara did her best to let him know her intention. "You will have to be my bait too, and we will need to run as fast as we can towards the valleys once I destroy them. I would explain everything if there was time, but right now you will have to trust me."
"You want to go to the valleys..." He spoke in a low voice as he scratched his head.
Seeing that he didn't straight up reject her idea this time, Amara went on for the last push, showing a forced hint of yellow to try and sound confident. "No sane individual would go to the valleys without equipment and a large group, my brother and his army will never consider searching for us in there."
She regretted her wording as soon as she was done speaking, afraid she might have scared Nathan who was taking his time to reply.
But before she could say anything more, Nathan started loading his gun and when he was done he used his thumb to lower a little lever. "You have to pull this thing down each time before pulling the trigger, but I guess you saw me doing it enough times already." He then undid his action before offering the gun to her as he held it by the muzzle. "Don't forget to hold it with all your might or the recoil will hurt you."
She considered saying some words to let him know how much his trust meant to her, but the drones were approaching and there were more important things to say. Her tail simply coiled around the gun, and she took it as the weight of the task ahead caused the object to feel heavier than it was.
She considered if she should ask for more ammunition, but concluded she wouldn't have time to reload, which she knew was bad despite making things significantly easier.
"Go there and make it convincing that you are absolutely exhausted, can you?" Using her tail, Amara pointed at a bright spot on the ground, where a beam of blue light was making its way from the canopies to the ground. "This is important Nathan. The operators must believe you reached your limit, they must report to my brother that you cannot run much longer."
"This won't be too hard." His lips curled into a hint of a smile. "But are you sure they don't use AI instead of operators to guide the drones?"
"Only you humans are crazy enough to disregard the only law the alliance enforces." She started climbing the tree with each of her clawed hands poking holes into the bark from a different side, but when she was already above Nathan, she looked below. "I am counting on you. We made too many mistakes today, one more and it might not be forgiven."
"I'll do what you asked, okay? Just hit the drones and don't fall from the tree." He said before running towards the spot she had instructed him.
With each of them agreeing on their role, Amara kept climbing the tree, finding little difficulty in her initial task. This was so easy that almost all of her attention was focused on tracking the spinning blades of the drones, which were constantly approaching at a speed that suggested they were doing a minute inspection of the ground.
It was only when she was already high above that she noticed the first problem.
If she wanted the advantage of shooting the drones from the same plane they were approaching, Amara would either have to give up a hand for the aim, or she would have to compromise her camouflage by wrapping her legs around the tree to help her tail to hold her body.
Neither of the options was ideal, but doing nothing was even worse, which led her to choose to sacrifice some of her ability to aim in favor of a tighter grip, ensuring that her legs kept hidden behind the trunk as she pressed each of her clawed fingers of her left hand against the rough bark for a secure hold.
Feeling a burning anxiety like she never felt before, she transferred the gun from her tail to her right hand and surrounded the tree with her now free tail to improve her grip even more.
She then turned her head and took a final glance at Nathan and confirmed he was stooping down and breathing loudly, exactly on the spot she had asked him to go.
Now everything was ready.
Amara hid the gun in between her belly and the tree as her whole body mimicked the brownish color of the bark, even her tail and hair transitioning from their typical blue to a copy of the textured color surrounding her.
Her eyes closed and only a mental representation of her surroundings remained, being especially accurate this time as if her her body knew there was no room for mistakes.
As the seconds passed, her heart rate slowed down and her awareness peaked. Of all her body, only her long ears slightly moved as the positions of the three drones became less foggy in her mind the closer they got to her.
The fact that one of them suddenly stopped moving right in front of the tree was something she expected, that being the exact moment its sensors had found Nathan on the ground.
Instead of attacking, Amara waited.
And almost envisioning the exact conversation the operators were having behind their visors, she gauged the time they took to communicate among themselves by observing how long the other two drones had taken to start moving closer to the one that had spotted Nathan first.
This wasn't a lot of time, which put into perspective how fast she would have to act in order to prevent the other two drones from repositioning after the first one was destroyed.
Her heart was beating slowly and her mind was focused; the chances of the targets getting closer were no different than that of them getting more distant.
Somewhere inside she could feel it—now was the perfect moment for her attack.
Amara's eyes snapped open and her heart rate multiplied by nearly threefold, preparing her for intense exertion. The muscles of her left arm propelled her body sideways, taking her head away from the protection of the tree trunk. That happened at the same time that her clawed finger pulled down the little lever, just like Nathan had taught her.
Her eyes locked first on the most distant target, which was not further away from her than twelve meters, and her right arm moved accordingly, raising the gun as her clawed finger slipped into the trigger.
She knew how painful to her ears the noise would be, yet she still forced her eyes to stay open as she pulled the trigger.
Except, she flinched at the last moment and ended up missing the target because of it.
Now her ears were ringing and the number of targets was the same, fueling her fury for the next shots she fired in a quick sequence.
It took three more attempts to destroy the furthest target, turning her fury into apprehension.
And apprehension quickly transitioned into despair when, after destroying the middle target with two shots, she pulled the trigger aiming at the closed drone, only to hear an empty click.
The drone rotated towards her and she also felt Nathan's gaze in the distance, screaming something that she was too numb to understand.
Would she be the reason for their demise?
Just the thought of how happy her brother would be for seeing her so helpless was more than enough of a reason for her to not accept that.
So at the lack of bullets, she spitefully threw the gun at the spinning blades.
And when the outcome of her desperate action did little more than cause the drone to lose control for a few moments, she still refused to give up and pounced on it as if she were a trained huntress.
If Bhaela could jump from a tree and dig her claws into the veins of an Oczoil from high above and survive to tell the tale, why couldn't she do the same with a little drone?
Her confidence only lasted until no part of her body was touching the tree and her limbs contacted the blades, causing a sharp pain, which she promptly forgot as flesh and machine plummeted together.
Amara tried to use her tail and arms to cushion the fall, but unlike Bhaela graceful performance, all she achieved was her belly smashing the drone against the ground before her arms and head split the kinetic energy from the fall.
Her vision went black after that, but Amara knew she wasn't dead because that annoying ringing sound in her ears persisted, reminding her of her failure.
Time became confused in her state of disorientation, and she had no idea how long had passed when she felt her eyes being opened. As she watched the world around her through a red filter, Amara got to see Nathan's mouth moving, but she was unable to grasp a single word he said.
In a rushed manner, he took off his jacket and pulled out a knife, which he then used to slice a piece of fabric.
He said something again, and she felt his hand pressing against her forehead, the severed portion of his jacket he held being large enough to cover even her eyes below.
Amara felt like sleeping this time, the darkness feeling more welcoming than scary.
But before she could fall asleep, she noticed her body being lifted from the ground. And unlike the last time, she was being held from below as Nathan's hand kept her head locked against his body.
The last memory she retained before her consciousness faded was of hearing the rhythmic sound of his breathing and his loud steps below, feeling as if she might have wrapped her tail around his arm. Yet, she remained unsure whether she had truly done so or if it was just a product of her imagination.
***
This was an account based on Amara's plan to flee from the war. The previous narrative is based on the events of the morning of the twentieth day of the exploratory mission of Irisa. According to your current settings, no queries will be suggested.
next->patreon wiki

The Letter With the Silver Seal
Hooves drummed on the hard-packed dirt of the road.
The rider’s cloak streamed back in the wind of his running, and dust rose in his wake.
After months of searching, riding town to town, dawn to dusk, Finn finally had a lead on the wayward elf. The letter rested in his satchel, slung diagonally from shoulder to waist under his travel cloak. It was wrapped in oilcloth and sealed with silver wax bearing the intricate sigil of House Fyndrael. The letter was urgent, make haste, Lord Brynwell had said. And Finn had rode like a madman ever since.
People flashed past in both directions, the occasional ox-drawn cart or a courier on horseback kicking up dust in their haste. Some cursed his breakneck speed, turning to shake fists. Finn just grinned and spurred his horse faster. The road curved ahead through a thicket of trees and wound off into the countryside like a dusty ribbon dotted intermittently with the dark shapes of carts, wagons, and riders.
In the distance, the faint, cloudy silhouette of Suncrest Hold beckoned him. Almost there. A few more hours, he would put the letter in the elf’s hand and be on his way. A smile split his dusty face, and he leaned low over Dett’s neck, urging the horse on, eager to be quit of this mission and on his way back to Kaelos and all the comforts the sprawling mountain city had to offer. Wine and dancing, dicing and women, taverns and inns and brothels enough to drown a man in pleasures, that’s what waited in Kaelos. But first, he had to deliver the letter.
“Alright, Dett, show us your heart,” Finn put his face against the horse’s neck and the wind snagged his hood away, streaming his long honey-kissed hair out behind. “A few more miles, and you can rest. All the oats and water you can stomach.”
Trees flashed past. Dogs barked sharp challenges, then fell away. Dett thought this was a race, strained to go faster, legs and neck stretched out, mane and tail whipping in the wind. A group of caravaners cursed him as he thundered past. Finn laughed, called back his apologies and raced on, laying about with his reins.
Hours passed, the road transitioned from hard-packed dirt to the dark gray of flagstones and traffic deepened. Suncrest Hold rose before him in all its gray glory; slate-roofed towers and spires reached for the sky behind the silver-gray teeth of battlements. People, carts, farmers with wagons, merchants, and caravans crowded the road. Finn slowed Dett to a trot, skillfully weaving through the crowd with the desperate urgency only a man months gone from home could muster. He was ready to see this mission done.
He passed under an arched portcullis and came abreast of the guard house on the other side.
Soldiers in steel ring mail worn under red tabards slashed with black and embroidered with the royal coat of arms waved him through when they saw the silver glint of a courier’s badge pinned on his leather tunic.
“Make way,” they growled at the crowd, shouldering into the people and shoving them aside so Finn could pass. “Make way for a courier. Move it, you country kelps!”
People grumbled and cast dark looks Finn’s way, but they moved. None wanted to be the one who delayed a royal courier.
A figure in polished platemail worn under her tabard, and the transverse crested helm of an officer, stepped out of the guard house. Finn brought Dett to a halt.
The officer approached.
“May the sun favor your roads,” she greeted. Finn noticed the four golden knots of a captain embroidered on her tabard’s left breast. “May I offer the courier an escort?”
Finn’s mind went blank. This lady wasn’t just pretty for a guardswoman; she was unbelievably striking by any standard across the land. Breathtaking. He wanted to get off his horse and propose marriage on the spot. Heat began to rise in his cheeks, and he covered it by bowing in his saddle and giving his cloak a little flourish. A thick layer of dust broke free and danced around him.
“Gracious of you, my lady,” he said, cuffing his brow. “I am looking for an elf named Aberiel. I was told I could find him here in Suncrest Hold. Heard of him?”
“Captain Aurelume,” she said, looking off down the main road at all the buildings and structures crowding up to the walks. “Not My Lady. I'm not noble blood. Aberiel, you say?”
Finn gave a nod and patted Dett’s neck to calm the restless horse.
“Can you describe this man?”
Finn dug into his saddle and drew out a piece of parchment enchanted with the elf’s likeness. He handed it to the captain. She studied the portrait.
One of the other guards came up and peered over her shoulder, his face crisscrossed with old scars inside his open-faced helmet. “Damn, looks like the one what got back-knifed over dice a few nights gone. Remember? Almost died and the Count was all in a fury. Had us knocking down doors and cracking heads for three nights til we got the ones what did it. Darkhand gang, it was.”
Captain Aurelume studied the picture, her lips pursed. Her eyes were cerulean jewels dancing with sparks of sunlight.
She drummed a gauntleted finger on her sword hilt, and the sun glinted off her pauldrons. “Yes,” she said after several moments. “I remember him. Young and reckless, fair hand with the ladies, I’m told.” She glanced at her guard. “Which I suspect is the true reason for the knife in the back. Men have killed for far less.”
The guard shrugged, and his ringmail made soft clinking sounds. “Only said what I was told, Captain. Dice, they said it was.”
The captain returned her attention to Finn.
She returned the picture. “Try the Medi toward the center of the city. Beside the Basilica.” She nodded at the guard beside her. “Harker will show you the way. Good luck.” She turned and disappeared back into the guardhouse.
Harker came up beside Finn. “Alright then,” he grumbled, obviously irritated with having to play babysitter. “This way.”
Finn followed him down long streets that turned and twisted through the city. Every few seconds, he would holler for the crowd to give way to a courier. After a time, they came to a sprawling structure of soaring turrets, tiled roofs, tall arches, and windows filled with ornate traceries and colorful glass. A central dome gleamed silver in the sun.
“The Medi,” he said, and without so much as a by your leave, turned sharply on his heel and waded back into the crowd.
Finn eased Dett over to a tie post on the side of the road and swung out of the saddle, his legs filled with a deep ache from months on the road. He took a moment to stretch and stamp his feet before climbing the marble steps to the fluted columns flanking a set of tall doors rounded at the top and standing open to the public.
Inside, it was dark and subdued; carpet in blue and silver with fancy tassels flowed down the corridors. Tapestries hung the walls and the air smelled of herbs and incense. After getting directions from one of the healers, he stood at the entrance to a private room.
The door stood open, and a gentle breeze whispered through tall, arched windows. The room was small, modestly appointed with bookshelves on the walls and a small brazier across from a four-post bed on which lounged a figure wrapped around the midsection with clean bandages.
Finn knocked on the door frame and stepped inside. The elf on the bed stirred from his reading and set the book aside, fastening his eyes on the visitor. “Who are you?”
Finn approached the bed and gave a slight bow. “Finnton, my lord,” he said, digging into his satchel. “You are Aberiel of House Fyndrael?”
The elf’s eyes hardened with suspicion. His hand slipped under the sheet covering him to the waist. “Who sent you? What is this?”
“I was dispatched from Kaelos five months ago, my lord,” Finn produced the letter. The elf’s eyes locked on the silver seal, and the coiled readiness in his posture melted away. “That is my house seal. Give it to me.” The elf snatched the letter from Finn’s hand, gave the seal a cursory inspection, and broke it off with his thumbnail. His eyes moved over the words. He stopped at one point, drew in a deep, ragged breath, and glanced at the ceiling before continuing.
A single tear broke free from one of Aberiel Fyndrael’s lavender eyes.
The hand holding the letter slowly sank into his lap. Another tear streaked his cheek. Redness gathered in his eyes, across his face. “They have found her,” he said. His voice was a quavering whisper. “She…” he broke off with a sob. “She…I can’t believe it…she…”
Whatever the elf was going to say, Finn would never know. The words were drowned in anguished cries.
Finn turned to go, but thought he caught a glimpse of a smile breaking through the elf’s tears. Was Aberiel smiling? Finn couldn’t tell and it would be rude to stay. Whether tears of sorrow or joy, he would never know. Nor did he care.
“Good day, my lord.”
He left the elf lordling to his letter and his tears and silently wished him all the best. It was time to see to Dett and lodging for the night. A hot bath to wash away the dust of the road and a hearty meal to fill his belly, that was what he required. Then sleep. Dawn came early this time of year and he wanted to be on the road with the first rays of sunlight.
He stepped out of the Medi and took Dett’s reins in his hand. Music drifted to his ear from a lively tavern down the street. The sounds of raucous laughter and a dozen conversations sang in the air.
A grin crept onto his face.
A bath, a meal and maybe just one game of dice before he found his bed. He turned toward the tavern.
A man had needs.

[<< First] [< Previous] [Next >] [Patreon] [Discord]
Synopsis:
Juliette Contzen is a lazy, good-for-nothing princess. Overshadowed by her siblings, she's left with little to do but nap, read … and occasionally cut the falling raindrops with her sword. Spotted one day by an astonished adventurer, he insists on grading Juliette's swordsmanship, then promptly has a mental breakdown at the result.
Soon after, Juliette is given the news that her kingdom is on the brink of bankruptcy. At threat of being married off, the lazy princess vows to do whatever it takes to maintain her current lifestyle, and taking matters into her own hands, escapes in the middle of the night in order to restore her kingdom's finances.
Tags: Comedy, Adventure, Action, Fantasy, Copious Ohohohohos.
Chapter 245: A Clockwork Wish
The quiet streets of Hartzwiese stood in contrast to the lights of the many inns, bars and taverns.
Despite its modest size, the town boasted as many drinking establishments as there were adventurers somehow drunk enough to be booted from the guild hall. And yet for all the bright lanterns singing from the windows, they paled in comparison to the moonlight as it graced the steps before me. A white carpet ushering me towards a tavern Apple was now using as a stables, and where I could enjoy a complementary room, courtesy of the fact I now owned it.
But before I could put my day’s labours behind me, there was still an important task I had to do.
The most important.
Rewarding my loyal handmaiden, who throughout these arduous days had remained firm and true as much as the sword by my side.
Indeed, no ill deed went unpunished, and no good service went unrewarded.
Why … she even knew the same.
Stopping before a large fountain in the centre of the town square, Coppelia held her palm out towards me as she eyed the faintly glittering surface.
“Gimme change,” she said brightly.
“Change?”
“I want to toss a coin into the fountain~”
My mouth opened wide.
“E-Excuse me! I know very well you possess coins of your own! Furthermore, I’ll not give you money from our hard earned hazelnut croissant fund merely to quite literally toss it away!”
“It’s not throwing it away. It’s making a wish.”
“A wish?”
“Mmh~ drop a coin into a fountain. Get a wish. An absolute bargain. Haven’t you tried it before?”
“Coppelia, I’ve no need to drop coins into fountains. I ring a bell. That’s how my wishes come true.”
“Well, do you have the bell with you?”
I paused.
“... No.”
“There you go, then! Until you get your bell back, you’ll need to toss away coins for your wishes.”
She beamed with childish expectation, palm still outstretched, fully expecting me to humour her request.
Well, sadly for Coppelia, I was not so easily moved!
Our personal finances went into maintaining a minimal standard of living! And that meant every coin we had to spare went into purchasing premium apples and cinnamon rolls! It would be unconscionable of me to allow it to be spent so frivolously!
“Staaaaaaaaaaaare~”
I rolled my eyes.
“... Fine, one copper crown,” I said, rummaging through my bottomless pouch. “Really now, this is hardly a djinn you’re bribing. I’m surprised you wish to add to the fountain and not merely scoop up what’s there.”
“Hey! I have standards! … I don’t like copper, it’s less shiny than silver and gold and gets in the way when I rummage through my ill-gotten gains.”
I offered Coppelia a sigh along with the small coin.
She accepted it with a giggle. As she turned to the fountain, the stars twinkled from her eyes more than the surface of the clear water.
Plop.
It vanished into the depths.
A small proof of our hardship, now given to the fountain to judge and a magpie to steal come the morning.
“And what wish do you hope to acquire through a less shiny copper crown?”
Coppelia merely smiled.
No word left her lips as her turquoise eyes gazed at the fountain’s disturbed surface. She herself was motionless but for the soft wind tugging at the ends of her fluffy golden hair.
And then–she twirled on the spot.
Arms spinning around, she raised them out and stopped like a melodramatic ballerina.
“World domination! I shall subjugate all squishy life under my cute, clockwork heel!”
“Please pick a different wish,” I replied, waving her declaration away as I would a plain chouquette. “World domination has already been chosen by half the world’s rulers. There’s not enough wishes in any fountain to accommodate them all.”
“... Got it! I’ll take an apple strudel!”
“You can wish for something that isn’t already in our possession.”
“In that case, I’ll take an apple strudel from every bakery in the world!”
I nodded. Better. Especially as I was far more dependable than any wishing fountain.
Indeed, as soon as I returned to the Royal Villa, I’d order a squire to go fetch an apple strudel from every bakery in the world as part of some inane quest!
“But what about you?” she asked, never knowing the suffering and hardship her casual request had just caused somebody not me. “Don’t you have any wishes for the totally legitimate wishing fountain?”
I held a hand to my chest, scoffing with a princess’s dignity.
“Ohohoho … for the fountain? No. I’ve no need for a fountain to make my wishes come true, for I have my own strength of purpose. And that is enough to grant all I desire. The prosperity of my kingdom. The health of my family. And the loyalty of my subjects.”
Coppelia leaned towards me, her smile appraising my own.
“Reeaaaally?”
I reacted with the indignation such scepticism deserved … and also a quick glance around me as I eyed for witnesses.
“... W-Well, if I could maybe have one thing, it would be an opportunity to finish reading my current novels. I have been stuck on the same pages for far too long.”
“That really annoys you, huh?”
“I-It’s terrible, Coppelia! At this rate, I’ll need to re-read some of them … and frankly, it’s enough of a strike against my fragile heart to do so once! There is only so much research a princess can take!”
My loyal handmaiden giggled. She wouldn’t if she knew the dangers that overexposure to the world of bestselling adventure romances could cause. I’d seen noblewomen collapsing at court more often with a copy of Scandals Of The Incorrigible Viscount in hand than any knife to the back.
A moment later–
Plop.
A second copper crown was casually tossed into the fountain.
“Done~” said Coppelia with a satisfied clap. “I’ve made your wish for you!”
My mouth widened as I stared between the fresh ripples and her mischievous smile.
“E-Excuse me! Didn’t you say you had no copper crowns?”
“I only said I didn’t like them. I never said I didn’t have just the one lying around. Isn’t that great? Now it means we both get our wishes! Apple strudels and scandalous books galore!”
“C-Coppelia! That is an entirely unnecessary waste of a copper crown … and more besides, I could have wished for a dragon’s hoard!”
“I mean, you could. But if you thought people were a problem before, wait until they know you’re even richer than a normal princess. You’d have burglars breaking into your vault even while you’re still busy swimming around in the pile of gold.”
“Please. That happens regardless of whether or not a dragon’s hoard is involved. And if it ever became a true issue, well … I’d simply solve it by hiring a dragon.”
“You’d hire a dragon to guard a dragon’s hoard?”
“Why not? There’s clearly no better proven warden.”
“Yep, that’s true. They’d even guard it against you. How would you get the treasure back?”
“I wouldn’t. It’d simply exist to slowly erase the population of burglars from my kingdom. That would be its true value.”
Coppelia looked up in thought.
“Huh. That sounds suspiciously like something which could work.”
I smiled with quiet pride. But not too quiet. I had my pride, after all.
“Ohohoh … naturally, I’m not only a princess. I’m a genius … but since I’m mostly a princess, this also means ensuring my retainers are rewarded for their service, and bribed concerning any slovenly faces I may have made.”
“Now that’s the level of subtlety I like. Negative numbers.”
“Well, negative numbers is also how I value most fae trinkets. But perhaps you can find worth in it.”
Coppelia clapped her hands together and beamed.
“Ooooh~! I smell souvenirs! Did you steal toiletries on the way out of the Fae Realm?”
“I did not steal toiletries! … although if I’d seen any, I possibly may have!”
“So you stole something else? Like cutlery?”
“Coppelia! I do not steal things whenever I visit a different plane of existence!”
“Why not? Everyone else does.”
“I am not ‘everyone’. Even when abducted, I’m still required to display the regal bearing of my station, representing always my kingdom and my family … and there was no cutlery, either.”
“Wow. You must have had an awful time.”
I gave a grim nod.
No toiletries. No cutlery. Not even a branded napkin.
The next time I was indiscriminately abducted to the Fae Realm, I’d ensure I would wander lost until a stack of towels accidentally fell into my arms.
“It was dire. But while I didn’t return empty handed, it was with nothing drawn from a dragon’s hoard or edible like a mound of apple strudels. Regardless, here is a gift acquired from the Spring Queen to add to your collection of trinkets and doodads I have no wish to know about.”
Thus, I reached into my bottomless bag, sweated as I fished for a slender object, and then retrieved a small ring of jade.
Unlike the crystal ring gifted to me by the Winter Queen and now embellished by her sister, the jade ring was adorned only with a pattern of crystalline vines upon the band, lacking any jewel set upon it.
Even so, Coppelia’s eyes lit up like a twin pair of moons.
She pointed at herself.
“Wait, is that for me?”
“Indeed, it is. You may have it.”
“Eh … ehhh?! It actually looks expensive, though! I was expecting something like a postcard!”
I raised a brow.
“If you’d prefer a postcard, I’m sure I could ask for one instead.”
Coppelia appeared speechless. Something so impossible not even a fountain could grant it.
Blinking in disbelief, she reached out and accepted the ring. Without putting it on, she held it against the moonlight, studying its finish.
“Ooooh~ it’s so shiny! … Will I blow up if I wear it?”
“No.” I paused. “At least, I don’t think so.”
Coppelia stopped as the ring met her finger.
“There’s no need to fear,” I added as I took a step away. “It’s a ring gifted by the Spring Queen, and so is imbued also by her magic.”
“I’m not hearing anything which says I won’t blow up.”
“You won’t blow up. Probably. After all, this thing is still little more than a child’s trinket. It contains a single favoured plaything from her court of dreams. The very swing she sat upon during our meeting.”
“The swing?”
“The swing. I believe it functions similarly to the bed. Why not try summoning it in the same manner?”
Deciding she’d paid enough tribute to caution, Coppelia popped the ring on.
She studied herself to ensure she hadn’t melted, before raising her hand in curiosity.
“Sooooo … do I just need to say [Summon Swing] and–woooaahh!!”
Poof.
The moment the words left her lips, she was lifted from the ground as a swing of crystalline leaves and vines appeared where she stood, seating her automatically in the process. Against the dour backdrop of Hartzwiese’s decidedly human streets, it shone with as much vividness as the Spring Queen’s mirror-like wings.
Coppelia blinked, her eyes wide as she wrapped her hands around the ropes of crystallised vines.
And then–
She began to swing.
With only the rustling of her clothes and the fluttering of her hair to disturb the quiet scenery, she proceeded to test the Spring Queen’s plaything, wasting little time before she began to swing like a pendulum, backwards and forwards at greater speeds.
She did not say a word, nor voice any thoughts, and although she wore a smile upon her face, it was no different to one she regularly affixed upon herself.
A moment of doubt struck me.
“N-Naturally, it’s rather unorthodox as a gift. It is no great heirloom or weapon, and rather impractical so far as useful function is concerned. But I imagine the ring itself is worth some value. If you do not want it, I’m certain some curio collector would pay for its novelty value. Regardless, please consider it as a bonus.”
Suddenly, Coppelia leapt off the swing in mid-flight. She skipped a few steps owing to the momentum, yet still pirouetted effortlessly on one foot as she twisted around to face me.
Her widening smile was the only warning I received.
“–Hiieeee?!”
Because the next moment …
I experienced the sensation of being hoisted off my feet.
Oh no.
“Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!”
Wrapping her arms around my waist, she easily lifted me up.
A feeling I’d experienced once before. And one I had not forgotten. Terror mixed with only the tiniest drop of excitement met me as I was promptly swung like an errant pillow.
“C-Coooppeeeliaaaa!! M-My priiiinnceess imaaggee!!”
With a girlish smile, Coppelia paid no heed to my meek and delicate cry as she twirled on the spot.
Around and around, my hair billowed behind me as all the town became a blur which helped to hide the many holes and cracks in the walls and windows, until somehow, the other side of my hair became known to the opposite side of my face.
“Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee~”
Just as I felt the world beginning to take on entirely new colours, she came to a stop.
She placed me down, continuing to smile as I waved away her supporting hands. I stumbled as I chased equilibrium, all the while blowing the many strands of my dark hair away from my mouth. My fingers instinctively went into emergency combing mode.
“I-It seems … uughh … you enjoy … the gift … uuuh … I’m … I’m pleased …”
Coppelia stepped back, arms behind her back as she gave another twirl, this time mercifully without me attached. Like a maiden in a meadow, she lightly skipped around her new magically summoned fae swing, examining its fine spring motifs and crystalline details, before finally turning to me once again.
I leaned away, not least because there were now several versions of her before me.
“Thankies~” she said brightly. “I like this a lot!”
I held my tummy, making sure nothing terrible was about to happen before I replied.
“You’re … uugh … you’re welcome …”
She gave a giggle of amusement at my expense, then seated herself on her new swing once again.
For my part, I rather desperately eyed the direction of my kingdom’s latest acquisition. A tavern which possessed very helpful walls. Even if I had no intention on using the beds within them.
After all–
It wasn’t only Coppelia who had reason to smile tonight.
Indeed … I also had a new and improved bed to enjoy!
Now that my minor detour to this corner of my countryside was complete, my only remaining task was to thoroughly and objectively test the Spring Queen’s magic for myself.
Yes … it was time to indulge my face in the Winter Queen’s pillow once again! To hug a silken duvet now gifted with the scent of an eternal meadow! A moment to thoroughly reward myself as I purposefully shoved any and all dangerous thoughts of tomorrow to the wayside!
And nothing, I knew, could disturb me from my slumber!
That ominous feeling I’d forgotten something important?
Why … I barely even felt it!
[<< First] [< Previous] [Next >] [Patreon] [Discord]

Hi All. Our cat Tux shook his AirTag collar and is missing. He is not fixed or chipped. His back left paw has a black patch on his foot. He also is very light on hair right above his eyes. White belly.
We live off Hall right by Primo Espresso / Hall St Pizza.
Any info please let us know. Our family is very concerned and heartbroken by his absence.
Ring neighbors link below: https://neighbors.ring.com/n/Z1a46jNs2Z

Timestamp https://imgur.com/a/fOuqbI7
How are you all doing this fine Tuesday afternoon? I've got a few knives that sit too much so hopefully they'll be on their way to new homes! *Shipping within the states only.
First up, bladeshow 2022 sterile M390 Ultratech. 2nd owner, carried, Factory edge used on 3 boxes, that's where the streaks on the blade come from. Two spots with finish wear shown in pics, fires hard. Box included. $200 shipped G&S. https://imgur.com/a/RgjMFhD
Bradley Kimura CF purchased at PVK when they were still in Vegas. 1st owner, never carried or dropped but has marks from latch engaging.could use a strop. Is by no means dull. 154cm made in USA. Box included. $115 shipped G&S. https://imgur.com/a/Xgp4j8g
Microtech Ultratech 204P T/E Apocalyptic standard. 1st owner. Carried as a boot knife in kydex but never cut with(luckily). Factory sharp Edge, finish wear on show side from carry. Box included $220 shipped G&S. https://imgur.com/a/dgOS2Vt
Linos kydex /ulticlip for contoured Ultratech.1st owner. Rubber grommets show age with cracks, holds solid even so. $20 shipped separate, or $10 add on with an Ultratech. https://imgur.com/a/aQpPuTj
2014 Leatherman Wave Black Oxide. 1st owner. Used from time to time as it lived in my backpack. Overall great condition since i always used the Surge on my hip instead. Finish shows wear, no broken bits or tips. Will include black black pocket clip and lanyard ring. $80 shipped G&S. https://imgur.com/a/8CbrZJk
Leatherman Rebar Black Oxide. 2nd owner. Used and shows it but works as expected. Has been sharpened, can probably use one as well. No broken bits or tips either. $65 shipped G&S. https://imgur.com/a/eiHaSU7
Benchmade Bugout 20CV. 2nd owner to my knowledge. Has been carried and sharpened, tip slightly rounded when I got it. I put Flytanium Crossfade scales, come with the greenish scales that I received it with. Centering is good to my eye, didn't bust out the micrometer. $185 shipped G&S https://imgur.com/a/6XaljSd
Cold Steel Drop Forged Survivalist. 1st owner. Big piece of 52100 steel in a hefty fixed blade. Unused as I had 2 at one point. Included is a Patriot Leather company "the Gaspee" sheath handmade and took 8-9 weeks to receive. I honestly like it more than the knife. Factory secure ex sheath included to dull the knife. Box as well. $165 shipped G&S. https://imgur.com/a/5fNgRLN
Leatherman Wave+ Black Oxide 2022. 1st owner. It was sitting as a spare, so it is unused and minty. Will include a nylon Leatherman sheath. $90 shipped G&S. https://imgur.com/a/mgnRUkC
YOLO what you like or pm with questions. Know your local laws as I'm not responsible if you can't carry a auto where you live but choose to. PayPal G&S. Thank you for looking.

Hey there! 🤗
Forgive me for being long-winded, but bear with me if you would be willing....
I'm not really sure where to start... I've been doing a lot of digging into various types of neurodiversity over the past year or two, trying to find people who experience life in a similar way as I do. A couple things I have always experienced are very deep connections to music and to words. I have always excelled in the creative arts and language arts/literacy.
That being said, I am 100% sure I have spatial sequence synesthesia. For me, the year is a big flat two-dimensional circle/ring around me, with rectangular shapes on it for months. Days are giant cubes, cleairidescent type of thing, no color, with rounded corners, not sharp ones, that we are inside of, and we move from box to box each day, and the boxes are in rows of seven in the center of the ring that is the year. Also, the flat two dimensional ring, I can kind of shift to being vertical up in front of me like I'm looking at it from a third person view like holding up a sheet of paper, then can shift it back down to being around me. And time is a line, kind of like a string, with different points on it, and we follow it moving from point to point.
So, knowing that synesthesia has been shown to be a genetic/inheritable trait, and synesthetes are commonly in artistic or creative fields, either professionally or as hobbyists, I am under the impression that my biological mothers side of the family possesses the trait. More of us than I could count are either artistically or musically or in other ways creatively inclined, some of us for fun because we're good at it and enjoy it, and others as a career that they are passionate about and good in. Plus other potentially linked versions of neurodivergency running that family as well. Then also knowing I have time-space or spatial sequence synesthesia, I know that I'm automatically at least 50% more likely to have more variants of it. Which is where it gets fun and confusing for me, because words and music/auditory stimuli of some kinds both have what I believe are synesthetic concurrents, yes plural as in more than one, especially for music. Here is the simplest breakdown of what I experience:
Words, letters, and music all have gender and texture.
Words also sometimes have movements that go with them, especially when sung.
Some random sounds have texture, physical sensations in my body, spatial location, and sometimes movement.
Now for music... Music has shape/form, spatial location, (usually beautiful) movement, physical sensations in my body in specific places for specific types of sounds within music (pulsing, static, pulling on limbs, pressure, fuzzy feelings over my brain under my skull, impact), texture, gender, and every once in awhile, very rarely, I'll get a specific mental image that goes with a song (since the first time I heard it, the song "Fall for Me" by Sleep Token has been very clearly a very calm and peaceful frozen, windy, icy wasteland with spiky icicles coming out of the ground as the terrain, a light icy blue terrain with a darker blue sky and snow drifting around...same scene every time.) I also get very very strong urges to move with or follow the movement of the music. Almost like it's pulling me physically sometimes. The same song moves the same way every time I hear it. My musical taste is insanely eclectic because of all of this, because I base whether or not I like a song on how it moves and feels. If I don't like the texture, or can't follow the movement, I probably don't like the song.
My mom said that I've danced my entire life, ever since I was little. And while I don't experience colors now, I do remember when I was a kid that letters, days of the week, months, and seasons used to all have colors. It feels like they still do, but it's like I can't remember what they were, or see them clearly enough to make them out. Like they're still there but just out of sight, like it's in your peripheral vision or something and you can't tell exactly where it's at and for some reason you can't be sure of what color it is, but you can tell that there's color there. I'm not really sure how to describe that.
I feel like emotions/feelings/vibes of some sort/idk what to call them are tied into all of this as well somehow or another in almost every situation. And is emotion-tactile a thing? Certain emotions have very strong physical sensations for me. Not just like heart racing out of fear or butterflies in your stomach out of joy kind of thing. Much more specific and consistent every time I feel the feelings. Examples: betrayal feels like a telephone pole sticking through my core, nothing else, specifically a telephone pole. Loss feels like twisting a sponge that's attached to the inside of my sternum, nostalgia feels hazy and foggy and muted, being excited feels like a mixture between a fountain of water and flowers springing up from my belly/ribs, secure love feels like a hug around my entire body, and fear feels like loud pins and needles and static throughout my entire body. Oh, and anger feels like a balloon that's about to explode like it's a grenade, and sometimes it blows up and feels like it expands out of me like the blast from a nuke when I meltdown and dissociate (because I'm also autistic and have PTSD.)
PLEASE can anyone tell me if this is relatable? Is this all synesthesia? If so, are there ways to make it stronger? Closing my eyes helpes me "see" the music more clearly, and volume affects it too, as does my emotional state.
I'm dying for answers... I feel so weird knowing that people don't see time or experience music or feel words like this. Am I crazy?

I ordered belly ring jewelry from urban body jewelry back in December it was a stainless steel 14g (1/4”) 3mm x 5mm balls belly ring. i emailed them as it’s been sold out ever since and they said they cannot restock it. i have looked everywhere can someone please tell me where to look for one that is identical. i have 2 belly rings, hence why i need 2.

Chapter 9
Location: On the Road to the Citadel. Outside Tulla Hold
POV: Orfantal
Tulla Hold is built in a cliffside and is massive. Haral tells Orfantal that Lady Hish is not here, so they don't have to go inside, which is good, because Orfantal's horse would not make the climb. Instead they camp. Orfantal does not share the captain's view of his horse. Orfantal thinks his horse is strong and will take him all the way to Kharkanas. Gripp notices the gate to the hold opening. Orfantal creates another fantasy where he gets kidnapped by bandits, but through cleverness becomes the bandit king until he is betrayed. Breaking him out of his reverie, Gripp tells him there is a highborn in a carriage coming out of the hold. About the same age as Orfantal. When they arrive they bring food and supplies as is the Tulla tradition. The young noble is Sukul Ankhadu, sister of Sharenas. Orfantal asks if she is a hostage like him. Haral tells him lesser families only exchange hostages with their equals. Tulla is of the Greater Families in court. Orfantal thanks Sukul for the food and supplies and she responds that he definitely didn't learn his manners from his grandmother who showed no honor to Urusander's Legion. Orfantal apologizes for his grandmother and Sukul who is touched by his words, says, "Should the need arise in your life for an ally, you may call upon Sukul Ankhadu." She beckons him to join her at a campfire. Orfantal imagines they will be great friends, but vaguely in the future awaits their betrayer.
Orfantal is dismayed that Gripp and the others left the two nobles to their own fire. While in their company he had begun to think there was no difference between them in regards to class. He was one of them. But now the division was obvious and he was reminded of the rules of behavior that made no sense and kept people apart. Sukul asks Orfantal to tell her about himself, saying that she knows about his grandmother and thought their line dried out. She says he must have come from far away. Orfantal knows the story he is supposed to tell when people ask him, but as Sukul is to be his companion he tells her the truth. He says Sandalath is his mother and his father died in the wars saving many famous highborn. Sukul says that Orfantal surely has a different story he's supposed to tell. Orfantal says yes, but that it doesn't make sense. Sukul asks if they are truly friends now. Orfantal nods. Sukul then gives him advice on what to do when he gets to the Citadel. She says he may be lonely as all the adults have very busy lives. He is surprised by this, thinking they would all welcome him warmly as they did his mother. Sukul tells him to seek out Lady Hish Tulla. Sukul will give him a message to give to the lady. Orfantal agrees and asks why she is a guest in Tulla Hold.
She says her sister has taken a wayward path and her mother did not want her to follow. Her mother was friends with Lady Hish from the battlefield and asked her for a favor. Lady Hish had also been on a wayward path, but has since pulled back. Sukul then tells Orfantal, "blood is not the only loyalty in the world. Two spirits, matched of vision, can reach across any divide. Remember that, Orfantal, for on this night such a friendship has begun, between us." She says that Hish Tulla is trying to forge bonds between nobles and officers in Urusander's Legion in order to prevent a civil war.. But that many officers like her sister have no interest in peace. Orfantal says he wishes that Sukul was his sister, Sukul says friends are better and more reliable. She also tells him to make the story he is supposed to tell, the truth in his mind. She makes him promise that he will tell no one else what he has told her. Sukul tells him, "You can create whatever truth you choose. We live long, Orfantal – much longer than the Jheleck, or the Dog- Runners. Live long enough and you will find yourself in the company of other liars, other inventors, and all that they make of their youth shines so bright as to blind the eye. Listen to their tales, and know them for the liars they are – no different from you. No different from any of us." A small voice in his head says that he does not like liars. Lying meant betraying loyalty.
Location: Citadel
POV: Rise Herat
Rise Herat and Legyl Behust, a small girl, are out on a merlon. Rise is telling her not to fall off. She is excited to be this close to the edge. He tells her to look out of the city, but to ignore the industrial section. She wants to see the forest he keeps talking about, but it has receded to a dark line on the horizon. He goes on to compare Kharkanas with a body with it's areas of industry. She doesn't understand him and says, "Cedorpul's a better teacher than you. He makes sense. You don’t." She leaves to play in her room. She is the lone hostage in the Citadel. Cedorpul had ambushed him and made him give her a lesson during his morning ritual. Before he could say no, Cedorpul was gone. Rise Herat is the court historian and attempted to give Legyl a history lesson, but her questions and comments confused him, so he gave up. He knows he's a terrible historian. He prefers sweeping color over obsessive detail and feeling over intense analysis.
He sees the shadow of Mother Dark's indrawn breath. The priestesses believe that she feeds on the light. He laments what must be if Mother Dark becomes absolute. The loss of light. He thinks of Kadaspala. The priestesses say that all who would dwell in the coming darkness would be able to see in it. He knew that would come from sorcery and so would not be free. Cedorpul joins him at the tower. Round face and round body huffing. Someone else comes with him. Cedorpul asks where Legyl is and Rise tells him in her room. He says that Rise has abdicated his responsibilities. Rise responds, just like you did this morning. Endest Silann pushes past Cedorpul to look out over the city. Rise asks what he sees. Endest says it is more what he feels and he feels unburdened. The weight on his shoulders will return when he goes below.
Cedorpul tells Rise that Warlock Resh brings a guest to see Mother Dark. He says that she is from the Vitr. Rise faces Cedorpul surprised by his statement and the man's lack of eyebrows or other facial hair. Cedorpul says they should reach the edge of the forest soon. They wanted to see if they could witness it from the tower. Endest jokes about the proper decorum. Cedorpul doesn't like his irreverence. Endest reminds Cedorpul in which state he found him this morning. Under 3 priestess candidates. He tells Rise that Cedorpul tells them that their prowess in bed must be tested prior to becoming priestesses. He also swears them to secrecy. Cedorpul is mad at Endest for outing him and also tells Rise that Endest doesn't mind taking his cast-offs every night.
POV: Sister Emral Lanear
Sister Emral Lanear is one of two High Priestesses in the court of Mother Dark. She thinks about the illusions they all must keep up. The lesser priestesses around her are gossiping about the visitor. Sister Syntara, the other High Priestess, calls to Sister Emral and tells her it is time. She does not like the young powerful woman. She thinks there is no need for two High Priestesses. The temple they occupied was built as a tribute to the long forgotten god of the Dorssan Ryl. The Yan and Yedan cults were of that time, but she dismissed those as they invented rules of suffering confusing that with faith. Syntara is annoyed that Emral continues to look in her mirror. She has topics to discuss with the other High Priestess. She tells Emral that they must be ready to take advantage of any opportunity. Emral has resisted her at every turn. Syntara says it's not her fault that Emral is old and she's sure Mother Dark only elevated her because she pities her.
Hunn Raal is in the city and Emral had denied his petition for an audience with Mother Dark. Syntara says that was a mistake and tells her about T'riss. Emral says she hasn't denied his petition, only delayed. She wonders aloud at the reasoning for Hunn Raal going to Syntara filling her ear. She surmises that he wishes to use this Azathanai from the Vitr to get a command from Mother Dark to mobilize Urusander's legion and reinstate it's veterans. Emral asks how the highborns will react to a full strength Legion in light of the proposed marriage between Urusander and Mother Dark. Syntara responds that Draconus's response to said marriage is the only thing people are worried about. Emral asks if he will indeed be sacrificed. Even if he is, that would be a short term mollification if Urusander's legion is full strength and holding their swords over the heads of the highborn. She asks Syntara if she would dance for them. This comment hits Syntara as there are rumors of her being a sex worker dancing in alleys in her youth. Emral says that hating Draconus is only a sign of jealousy and that he is granted no power from being Mother Dark's lover.
Location: Outside Kharkanas
POV: Caplo Dreem
The party escorting T'riss to Kharkanas is coming upon the edge of the forest. Previously they had stayed at the Yan monastery. Caplo thinks about how unfortunately he had made Faror Hend his enemy and how he would now have to assault her reputation. He thinks about when he brought T'riss to meet with Mother Sheccanto. Mother Sheccanto asks T'riss is she will be a guest here and T'riss responds how dry it is and it is not befitting a mother. Sheccanto says if she will not be a guest she can go on her way without delay. T'riss says that Mother Sheccanto's faith is empty, but that she likely knows that. She goes on to tell her that there was once a river spirit/god near here. Once they had dug the well and put in a fountain, they had made the god a prisoner. Prisoners die.
Sheccanto observes that T'riss lacks the tact of most Azathanai. T'riss tells her that tact is really just amused condescension. She tells Sheccanto that she is dying and her cult is dying. Sheccanto says of course she's dying and tells Caplo to get her out, but then T'riss accepts and says she will be a guest. She tells them that she thinks Mother Dark has made a grave error in judgment. Then she says she will now go bathe in the fountain. Sheccanto tells Caplo to stay and berates him for letting the bandits kill their children. The cult needs children to stay alive. Caplo was shocked by Mother Sheccanto's admission that of course she was dying. She had been alive for 2,000 years. Amid this reverie, she says, I'm not dead yet staring directly at Caplo. Caplo says he thinks the Vitr damaged T'riss. Mother Sheccanto responds, "Mad she may be, but her power remains, and it is unmitigated by the restraint of reason." She tells him he will be her escort to Mother Dark and to keep his skills at hand. He is an assassin and wonders if it's possible to kill an Azathanai. He also questions whether or not Mother Dark can protect herself. He thinks she surely can. Sheccanto says Mother Dark only trusts one man and he is an outsider who has gone to the Azathanai lands. Her old suspicions are awakened by this.
She goes on to say that while they cannot pierce the veil of mother dark, her spies tell her that Anomander may be able to, so that proves that others might as well. Caplo wonders aloud if he should just kill her here. But she is known to be here, so that would invite the wrath of the wardens. Caplo is doubtful of his ability to kill T'riss in the chamber of night as he has seen Anomander fight and knows he is fast enough to stop Caplo. Mother Sheccanto is fine with the odds and Caplo knowing his low chance of success understands that he may be a sacrifice. Mother Sheccanto tells him to only strike if T'riss intends harm to Mother Dark. They need Mother Dark's gratitude. Caplo's death is worth that gratitude in Sheccanto's eyes. She gives him other tasks to do while in Kharkanas. Caplo joins Resh at the fountain where T'riss swims naked. They philosophize for a long time, then T'riss gets out and asks Caplo, "Your Mother advised against my murder, then? It is well. You would not like my blood on your hands, lieutenant." Caplo denies, but then says they will defend our own. T'riss questions what constitutes 'their own' and that he relies on that ambiguity to justify his killing. She goes on to say, "I believe you are a killer, and that you are both given reasons for the necessity, and assemble in private more of your own, bolstering such justifications as needed." Warlock Resh gagging asks T'riss to restrain her power. T'riss responds that it isn't her. Caplo asks who's power if not hers. T'riss responds, "Your river god was dead. It is dead no longer." Warlock Resh says the god is enraged.
T'riss remained in her room for the next two days as the settlement is plunged into chaos. Mother Sheccanto has lost all control of her body and is confined to her bed. Resh had sent a rider to the Yedan monastery telling Father Skelenal. The thirteen eldest sisters among them had died. In the great well of the ancient god, the water boiled. As T'riss is readying to leave, Resh says he will wait for Father Skelenal to arrive. T'riss says no and that Resh is not needed here. Mother Sheccanto will recover and speak in private with Skelenal. T'riss orders Resh to accompany her. Resh accepts her command, but asks why. T'riss says he needs to witness what will happen. Caplo asks if she is a threat to Mother Dark. T'riss says if she is, there is nothing anyone can do about it, but she says no she is no threat. She says she brings change and how Mother Dark responds is up to her.
While on the way Resh tells Caplo that something is building and that the forest people are free and when they kill the last tree, the last free people of the realm will cease to be. After long discussion of this, T'riss breaks in and says their rituals are meaningless. Once subservience becomes rote, it ceases to be subservient. In any case that is not the relationship the river god wants. It wants comprehension on it's existence. T'riss goes on. You offer your life to the river god, but that's not what the river god wants and it has no idea what to do with your longing, helpless soul. If the god could make you understand something it would be, "the only thing worthy of worship is humility itself." Caplo starts to respond with derision, but Resh gestures him to be silent. Caplo thinks that though he was going to argue, he sees the truth in their predictable behaviors. Resh then exasperatedly asks, "what does our god want of us?" T'riss responds, "he wants you to be free." Caplo is rocked by this revelation. Warlock Resh is brought to tears. "In tears, water runs free."
Location: Citadel
POV: High Priestess Emral Lanear
Emral and Syntara are on their way to see Mother Dark and the way gets progressively darker as they get closer. Emral thinks that there is no beauty in the citadel and the old temple looks a skull with ants trying to escape. The Tiste are the ants. As they get closer Mother Darks presence weighs on them and they must slow down and their breath becomes more shallow. Most of the priestesses and those close to the goddess have developed some ability to see in the dark. Emral is shocked to feel a rain drop fall on her head. The water freezes as it rolls down her face. There was never any rain in the citadel. Alarmed she announces that something is happening. The rain starts to fall harder and the lesser priestesses are panicking. Emral tells them they are dismissed and that the High Priestesses need to speak with Mother Dark. Syntara is mad because Emral doesn't command the procession.
Anomander and his brothers arrive and tell the High Priestesses that the Azathanai is through the gate and that the river is flooding and water streams the streets. He asks for Emral's thoughts. Emral says the Shake. Syntara is looking around confused. Anomander tells Emral that it's unlikely that this is the doing of the Shake. They've never attempted to reclaim the old temple. Emral posits that perhaps they would be allies then. Anomander says they are unreliable, "One thing the worship of a dead god assures, and that is unmitigated freedom for the priesthood" They are off balance now. Emral says if the Shake are nimble they can turn this to their advantage. Anomander says Mother Sheccanto is very ill. Silchas responds that they must look to Warlock Resh then. Emral thinks this shows that Silchas too is very sharp. She tells the brothers that T'riss's escort is Resh and Caplo Dreem. Anomander says that they must think on why Caplo is here. They sniff out that Caplo is there to kill the Azathanai if necessary. Anomander says that he doesn't share Sheccanto's panic. Emral asks if the brothers can stop him. They aren't sure. Caplo is the fastest with a blade that either has seen. Syntara frustratingly says Anomander should then stand between Caplo and T'riss and that they are wasting a lot of time as the group approaches.
Syntara says they must warn Mother Dark. Anomander assures her that Mother Dark already knows and doesn't need anything from them. He goes on, "Sister Syntara, we hens have much to decide here, yet you persist in pecking the ground." Syntara asserts that she is a High Priestess. Anomander verbally eviscerates her, "Your elevation was intended to ease the burden of administration from Sister Emral. Little did Mother Dark realize your venal ambition, and if you think high tits and a damp nest are the surest paths to power, might I refer you to Gallan’s poem, “Trophies of Youth”? Anomander says he will address the Caplo situation. Emral is shocked by Anomander's revelation. She was not aware that Syntara's elevation was to help her. Emral feels a great fondness for all three of the brothers. They remind her of their father whom she loved.
Anomander says they will wait for the Shake party to come to them. Andarist points out that having so many here is a sign of weakness and says he will leave. Silchas says he will join him as his talents are made redundant by Anomander remaining. Silchas suggests that they go find Captain Kellaras who has recently returned to the citadel and enquire about Hust Henarald's answer to Anomander's request. Emral once again contemplates Anomander's competence and attributes it to the same qualities in his father. In the same thought she also hopes that none them have their mother's flaws.
Syntara asks if they will just stand there. Anomander responds that she's not needed and should go seek shelter in Mother Dark's presence. Syntara agrees, but says she won't sink to their level of rudeness. She says she seems to be the only one to understand the position of High Priestess. Anomander responds, "Would that be on your knees, Syntara?" Syntara, enraged, leaves. Emral cautions Anomander that while she is awful, she is not powerless. Anomander agrees that he was unwise, but thinks Syntara's rage will fall on Emral and for that he is sorry.
Location: Streets of Kharkanas
POV: Caplo Dreem
As they move through the streets of Kharkanas they encounter it's citizens in panic. Caplo, Resh, and T'riss stop their mounts in front of the rising water. T'riss says she will walk from here. Resh asks if all of the bridges and stone banks must be destroyed in order for the river to be free. T'riss responds that, "Mother Dark is awakened to its presence. She asserts her domain." The flood is subsiding and T'riss comments on Mother Dark's impressive power. T'riss continues on in the water. Caplo and Resh remain mounted and follow. Caplo looks and sees steam. Mother Dark's power is growing. T'riss wonders why if there is highborn and lowborn why there is no royalty among the Tiste. Caplo says their was, but the queen died on the battlefield trying to find her husband's body. The queen's body was never recovered. She was Mother Dark's half-sister. T'riss asks why she couldn't have just assumed the mantle of Queen. Caplo says it was possible, but that she was deemed unsuitable. Resh says that she was not political. She was idealistic and romantic. T'riss says she thinks the empty throne suits the tiste highborn. Resh says that the throne is now the throne of night and Mother Dark does indeed sit upon it. T'riss asks if she will be sitting on it when they have their audience. Caplo says he has no idea. It's in darkness after all. T'riss guesses that while the queen had no direct descendants that she did have other relations. She correctly guesses that these are Mother Sheccanto and Father Skelenal. She says that they could claim the throne. Resh stops Caplo and asks him why she knows this and why she's bringing it up. He doesn't know, but assures Resh that the age of Kings and Queens is over. For love the queen cast the realm into chaos. The lesson was not lost on the Tiste.
Location: Kharkanas Old Tower
POV: Rise Herat
Rise, Cedorpul and Endest Silann watch as T'riss and her escort walk down the street. Rise wonders if warlock Resh will lay claim to the Old Temple they are watching from as it was an ancient temple to the river god. They watch as Resh and Caplo dismount and continue on with T'riss leaving the other Shake behind. Rise wonders about the nature of Mother Dark's godhood. How it is difficult to worship negation and that if T'riss is in opposition it may help define how they worship their goddess. He also correctly guesses that T'riss is the one in danger at this meeting. Rise challenges Cedorpul's faith and Cedorpul takes Endest and leaves asking Rise to check on the child.
Location: CItadel
POV: High Priestess Emral Lanear
Emral and Anomander await T'riss and her escort. Syntara has gone in to commune with Mother Dark. Emral knows how frustrating that can be as she offers no clear answers. She says that Mother Dark is idealistic and romantic and that probably suits an object of faith and worship. As T'riss approaches a bloom of light does as well. Ice had sheathed the walls and it now cracked. T'riss displays great power. Emral wonders why the Azathanai are not worshipped as gods. Caplo and Resh follow close behind and look uncertain and exhausted. T'riss stops in front of Anomander and says, "Night will claim your skin. Before your eyes, darkness will be revealed. But I will make visible the defiance within you, as a gift." Anomander responds that he asks for no gifts and has no defiance. To Emral T'riss says, "Your sorrow, High Priestess, is lonely, and you are driven to share your truths. I advise against it. Give voice to your secrets and you will be rejected by those for whom you care the most." Anomander tells her if she seeks answers, she may be disappointed. T'riss says, "The Tiste view the Vitr as an enemy, It is no such thing. It exists for itself. It is a sea of possibilities, of potential. It holds life in the manner that blood holds life." Anomander asks if it created her, she says no. He says it is expanding towards Kurald Galain. T'riss responds, "The sea does not dream of you." T'riss says she will see Mother Dark now and moves past Emral. Caplo and Resh make to follow, but Anomander snaps out a hand and pins Caplo to the wall. Emral sees the gleam of a knife in Caplo's hand. Resh shakes his head and it abruptly vanishes. T'riss does not react to this and continues forward. Anomander tells Caplo that no blood is to spilled within the chamber. Caplo says the command is unnecessary. Anomander then addresses Resh and tells him to tell Sheccanto that if she ever sends her Assassin into audience with Mother Dark again, they will spike his head on the wall of the citadel. Resh agrees to relay the message.
From the doorway, T'riss's light vanishes and Syntara stumbles out skin changed to white. When Emral goes to assist her, Syntara declines and calls her a hag. She says she chose her gift and rushes out of the corridor. Resh groans and says, "She's gone." Anomander asks if she was banished. Resh asks if Mother Dark gives him nothing. He says she might, but he doesn't ask. Resh says time twisted in the chamber. It could have been days and that T'riss brought some of the Vitr with her. They didn't know. Anomander asks if it was weapon. Resh says, no it was a gift.
Anomander commands the Shake to stay and takes Emral into the chamber. Emral notices that the darkness is less oppressive to her and that she can now make out details of the chamber. Mother Dark is on the Throne of Night . She is now black-skinned. Anomander asks if Mother Dark is harmed. She responds that she is not. Anomander asks if she sent her away. Mother Dark instead addresses Emral saying she is now the only High Priestess and that Syntara chose to create a schism. It cannot be undone. Anomander asks about the ancient river god being resurrected. Mother Dark responds, "There is peace between us. You see too many enemies, First Son. We are not threatened from without; only from within." Anomander asks what T'riss has done here and how she has changed the darkness. Mother Dark again doesn't respond. She addresses Emral and says that the temple is now sanctified. Emral thinks sanctified by the Vitr? She wonders how Syntara was changed as she thought her faith unassailable. Mother Dark says T'riss was able to see deep into a mortal soul, but doesn't understand tact. She gifted Syntara with something that put her beyond Mother Dark. Mother Dark says that they both now have the ability to see in darkness and everyone who comes before her will receive the blessing. Emral looks to Anomander and sees his black skin, but is shocked at his silver hair. Mother Dark says she is troubled by this and that one day she will tell him of his mother. Anomander says he has no interest and that, "Love cannot survive the absence of memories, and for that woman we have none."
Anomander asks if she will meet with the Shake. Mother Dark says not yet. Anomander shouts, "then name your enemy!". Mother Dark says she has none. She asks him to win the peace for her. Anomander continues to ask about threats and to say that he is a soldier and cannot win peace without war. He asks how Syntara poses a threat. He says the Shake will not take her. Mother Dark says her gift will draw people to her and that they cannot stop it. The schism must be made so it can be healed. Anomander asks, what about Draconus. Mother Dark stills and tells him to leave. Anomander says without him he cannot accomplish his task. She tells him to leave again.
Location: Kharkanas
POV: Hunn Raal
Syntara has come into Hunn Raal's tent. He is shocked by her skin change and asks if Mother Dark had blessed her with new sorcery. Syntara responds that she has been cast out and that T'riss had said she could see in her soul and saw terrible things. She then touched her and did this. She demands sanctuary and says she needs the protection of the legion. He says it's now complicated. She says it wasn't yesterday when he groveled about everything being in place. He says she isn't a High Priestess anymore, so things are different. She asks if he is too drunk to fuck. He says probably. She asks if Urusander will take her.
She asks contemptuously if Hunn Raal will now wage war on the Azathanai. She says that T'riss disappeared as if she open a door in the air itself and Mother Dark recoiled from this power. Hunn Raal sees that Syntara is the same as him and tells her to take this information to Urusander. He tells her exactly what to say. He says she has light within her. She says she will now be a High Priestess of light. She says Liossan and asks who their enemies are. Hunn Raal responds that their enemies are anyone that seeks to hurt Mother Dark. He asks who could challenge this. She responds what about Draconus. He says Draconus uses Mother Dark, so is a threat along with The Deniers, and the brothers and sisters of the Monasteries. Syntara says they will plunge Kurald Galain into Civil War. Hunn Raal says they will prevent one. He says after they purge the realm it will be the end of war and Light will balance out the Dark. She says she wants Emral dead. He says no. Syntara dubs Urusander Father Light. She says she must leave immediately. She tells him his troops must wait now, the Highborn are no longer their enemies. He says he fears it may already be too late. She tells him to make sure it isn't.
Location: On the road to the Citadel
POV: Orfantal
The caravan comes upon some well equipped riders that are definitely not bandits. Haral moves the wagons to the side to allow them to pass. Orfantal notices the equipment of Urusander's legion. He asks Gripp if they are hunting bandits. He begins to say they are Legion. Gripp pinches him and tells him to shut up. Orfantal notices that Gripp is pale. Orfantal twists around to look at the soldiers and Gripp tells him to turn back around and ride on. Orfantal asks what's wrong. Gripp looks for a sign from Haral and sees it when he frowns. Gripp tells Orfantal to listen to him and that the soldiers are coming back. Orfantal asks why and Gripp says because the soldiers shouldn't be here. At least three of them were from disbanded units. He tells him to ride ahead and once he has a straight path to gallop. He says no more questions and don't look back. He slaps the nag's rump and she takes off. Orfantal hears swords being pulled as he runs away. He hears screaming. He presses the horse on and she gallops, but eventually slows.
He hears another horse galloping behind him and fears a knife in the back. The horse rushes past and he sees that it's Haral's but with no rider. It is soaked in blood and gore. He looks back, but is around a corner. He sees two riders emerge and they take off after him. His horse is laboring. Orfantal looks around for a place to hide. He pulls off onto a different path and hears the riders getting closer. He sees their swords are out. He kicks the horse forward and she sinks through the clay into mud. She pushes through. They are half way to the other side when she sinks to her belly and stops. Orfantal now crying sees that the two riders do not dare to follow into the mud. He dismounts and rolls away. The nag had now sunk to her shoulders. He knows she will die and knows that he betrayed her. He's not supposed to be the betrayer. He is able to stay on the crust because he is very light. He makes it across this bog and looks back to see the two riders leaving. He also sees two columns of black smoke and knows that all of his companions are dead. He knew they weren't bandits because they would not fire the wagons. He looks back at his horse. He goes back to her. He puts his arms around her neck and holds tight. The nag puts her cheek against his head and Orfantal weeps. The horse takes her last breath. He is now numb. He knows that the real world doesn't care about his fantasies. That anyone can be a betrayer and that he can trust no one, not even himself.

Hi all! So my party recently finished my pirate treasure hunt campaign that we had been playing for the past year and a half, and I'd like to share it with folks in case anyone wants to run something similar. It's pretty hodgepodge, honestly, as I took from different sources, but it sends the players all around the coast!
It starts out with the Tides of Retribution story. I was watching the Realmsmith Wildemount campaign and took stuff from there as a jumping off point, as I had never DMed a campaign by myself before. The party accompanied Three Earrings back to Darktow to sell the Rod of Retribution. I happened to have a Palladin in my party, so I had Three Earrings get in touch with a contact from the Library of the Cobalt Soul to acquire the rod. This way, the party knew it was going to be in good hands and safe from evil doers.
I had the party set out with Alyson Paij to investigate some strangeness on Twinward Isle. As in the Realmsmith campaign, they were accompanied by a female Drow Elf named Jana as an envoy of the Plank King. I followed their Twinward Isle adventure fairly closely, but branched away from the Realmsmith campaign after that. On the way back to the ship, the party had earned Jana's trust and respect, and she revealed a secret to them. I had her frequently glancing at a piece of paper throughout, and she eventually reveals it to the party.
Not long ago, she had acquired this strange page of verse and believed it to be a clue to uncovering the legendary treasure hoard of Mad Jack Hawkins. Mad Jack and his crew of the Umbre Djinn disappeared some 40 years ago and no one had found his legendary treasure hoard. Jana is fairly sure that one of the items among the treasure hoard is a Luxon Beacon, which she wants to retrieve and take back to her people. She only told the party that she believes the treasure contains an important relic for her people and that if the party helps her find the treasure, they can take everything else for themselves.
The page of verse reads as follows:
"Near cliffs and jungle you will find What treasures I have left behind. A bone, a key, a ring, a hook Will show where lies the things I took
Snakes of flesh and snakes of stone Will lead you to the serpent's bones And when ye have won the fight The bone will give you crucial sight
Eyes that sing and hand that sees Is where to find the treasure's key The key fits only in the lock Underneath the mighty rock
The ring on my beloved's hand Will tell you where you need to stand The hook is for the very brave As I will take it to my grave"
On the way back to Darktow, their ship came into a storm and caused some damage, leading them to make a stop in Brokenbank. This is where I started to incorporate content from Ghosts of Saltmarsh. I set up for the party to do the Salvage Operation quest here while repairs were made to the ship.
Upon returning to Darktow with the mysterious tortle Ynil they freed from the Twinward Isle dungeon, Ynil decided she didn't want to be there and turned into an albatross and flew away. From there, the party is sent by the Plank King to try to find her again. She flew away due east, so they headed in the direction of Urukayxl, once again accompanied by Jana.
I built Jana like a PC, partly because I wanted a 5th character that could be played if a friend of ours wanted to play with us when he was in town, and partly because I wanted a Swiss Army knife of a character that the players could use as they see fit and fill any gaps that the party happened to have. I gave her 3 levels of Arcane Trickster Rogue and 2 levels in Warlock. I eventually picked up Mask of Many Faces and gave her a Celestial Patron (a unicorn!) so she'd have access to some Cleric spells. She ended up with a ridiculous amount of spells at her disposal, some which the party actually used, lol.
The verse about snakes of flesh and snakes of stone refers to Urukayxl and the Yaun-ti who live there. There is also a sacred temple to Zehir in which Uk'otoa is sealed. Ynil headed there in order to free Uk-otoa herself. It's also the place the party needs to go to retrieve the "bone". Urukayxl itself I made with lots of potential encounters. Swarms of stirges, assassin vines, kamadan, giant crocodile, Yaun-ti Pureblood, and lizard folk. With the lizard folk, they encounter a lizard folk village where they only speak Dragonborn, but they do it with a very heavily accented dialect. I happened to have 2 Dragonborn in my party, so they were able to communicate and ally themselves with the lizard folk against the Yuan-ti.
The temple to Zehir, I designed as a large spiral shaped like a cobra with the head in the very center. I can describe the dungeon in more detail in my next post as this one's getting a bit lengthy.

Chapter 1
Scene 1
Sunlight streamed through the windows of my modern apartment as I meticulously folded clothes and packed my bags, the anticipation of an upcoming trip tingling in the air. The day seemed ordinary enough until the doorbell shattered the tranquility.

Startled, I hurried to answer it, only to find Elena bursting into the house with her usual exuberance. She was a whirlwind of energy, her long chestnut hair tied back in a messy ponytail, her bright blue eyes sparkling with excitement. Her olive skin glowed with vitality, and her infectious smile lit up the room.

"Peter, what took you so long to answer?" she exclaimed, her voice carrying a mix of impatience and amusement as she took in the array of luggage before me.

I shrugged, avoiding her gaze. "Just packing for a trip."

Elena scoffed, her voice laced with sarcasm. "Immigrating, are we?" She scanned the room before turning her attention back to me. "Seriously, though, what's with all the luggage?"

I chuckled at her bluntness. "You know me, always overpacking."

She rolled her eyes, reaching for her phone and cranking up the volume on her favorite song. The heavy riff of "Passenger" by Deftones filled the room, adding a pulsating rhythm to our conversation.

Taking a seat at the cluttered kitchen table, Elena flashed me a mischievous grin. "I came to hang out with my friend. Is that a crime?"

I raised an eyebrow, eyeing her suspiciously.

Elena's laughter filled the room, unapologetic. "Okay, you caught me. I need your help." Despite my curiosity, apprehension flickered, yet her sparkling eyes drew me in. "Come on, Peter," she urged. "I promise it'll be worth your while."

"What do you need me for?" I asked, unable to resist her infectious enthusiasm.

Elena's brows furrowed, and she leaned in closer, her voice dropping to a whisper. "I was hired by a family in Silverlake to find their missing daughter, Emily. She disappeared without a trace, and I've been investigating this case for weeks. But I have zero leads."

I frowned. "And you think I can help?"

Elena nodded eagerly. "You're one of the best investigative journalists I know, Peter. Your skills are exactly what we need to crack this case wide open."

"I promised my mom I'd spend a vacation with her. I leave in 2 days. I'm sorry, I cannot help you," I said firmly, my resolve wavering in the face of Elena's determination.

"In 2 DAYS AND YOU'RE PACKING FROM NOW?!" Elena exclaimed incredulously.

"Well, I've got to be well prepared," I defended with a shrug, trying to downplay the urgency of the situation.

"This will be over in less than 2 days. All I need from you is to help me identify her last known location when she disappeared and any digital data you could find linked to her disappearance. Do that for me, and you can continue with your plan," Elena bargained, her eyes pleading with urgency.

I hesitated, torn between my obligations to my family and the pressing need to help Elena solve this mystery.

"Well, you could get that from CCTV cameras and her social media, what do you need me for?" I asked, raising my voice slightly to be heard over the blaring chorus of "Passenger."

The heavy guitars and pounding drums filled the room, drowning out Elena's next words as she searched my face for a response. "Well, don't you think I tried that?" she retorted, frustration evident in her voice. "I couldn't get access to CCTV footage, and her social media revealed nothing. I need a deeper search into the digital landscape, and you're the one I trust the most with this."

"One thing is never enough for you, though. You have a way of always pulling me with you, and I really need this. My mother needs me right now. I haven't seen her since the funeral, and I cannot let her down," I said, my voice cracking with emotion.

Elena's expression softened, her eyes reflecting understanding. She reached out and placed a comforting hand on my shoulder. "I get it, Peter. Family comes first. But think about it, helping me could bring closure to another family who's desperate for answers."

Her words struck a chord within me, igniting a sense of duty and purpose that I couldn't ignore.

Taking a deep breath, I nodded slowly.

I grabbed a notebook and a pen, my determination solidifying as I focused on the task at hand. "I'll do it for the girl's family."

A flicker of relief crossed Elena's face, her shoulders sagging slightly as she realized I was onboard. "Thank you, Peter," she said, her voice tinged with gratitude.

"The town of Silverlake, where Emily had disappeared, was 140 miles away. It was a daunting distance, but one that felt insignificant in the face of the urgency of the situation. Little did I know, Emily wasn't the only one missing. There was a series of disappearances in Silverlake that had gone unnoticed until now."

With a shared glance, Elena and I made an unspoken agreement. We would go to Silverlake, together, to start investigating immediately.

Scene 2
As Elena and I approached the reception desk, the polished tiles of the lobby floor echoed softly beneath our steps, carrying an air of anticipation. The lobby itself exuded a quiet elegance, bathed in the soft glow of the afternoon sunlight streaming through the expansive windows. A gentle hum of activity filled the space, punctuated by the occasional rustle of papers.

The receptionist, a woman with an air of indifference, glanced up from her notebook as we approached. Her eyes, cool and assessing, swept over us before settling on Elena with a hint of curiosity. "How can I help you, dear?" she asked, her voice monotone yet tinged with a subtle edge of detachment.

Elena, undeterred by the receptionist's demeanor, greeted her with a warm smile that illuminated her features. "We're in need of a room for my friend here," she said, gesturing towards me with a nod of her head. "He'll be staying with us."

The receptionist's expression remained unchanged as she reached for another key, her movements precise and methodical. Retrieving the key, she handed it to me with a detached air. "Room 204, second floor, fourth room on the right," she repeated mechanically, her attention already drifting back to her notebook as if our presence was of little consequence.

As I accepted the key, my gaze was drawn to a striking symbol adorning the wall beside the reception desk – the Eye of Horus. Etched in gold against a backdrop of deep blue, its intricate design seemed to watch over the lobby with an enigmatic presence, casting a subtle aura of mystery over the space.

"it's all over the place in here they believe it protects them from evil" Elena shrugged, noticing my gaze lingering on the Eye of Horus.

I nodded thoughtfully, intrigued by the symbolism woven into the fabric of the hotel. "Interesting," I murmured.

With the key in hand, I turned to follow Elena as she led the way towards the staircase, the soft echo of our footsteps mingling with the hushed whispers of the hotel's guests. As we ascended the stairs.

As Elena entered the room, she immediately shed her coat and rushed to the counter, grabbing her phone. Without pause, the familiar strains of Metallica's "Master of Puppets" filled the room, blasting at an ear-splitting volume.

I couldn't help but roll my eyes at Elena's predictable ritual.

"Okay, Mr. P, we have no time to waste," Elena declared over the blaring music, oblivious to my annoyance. "Grab your notebook and let's start with the case."

"Emily's disappearance was the initial focus of my investigation," Elena began, her eyes reflecting the seriousness of the matter. "According to her family, Emily was extremely close to her mother. Her life seemed to be on track, with a successful career in marketing and a new boyfriend. However, her parents didn't approve of her relationship with Matthew, citing him as a point of contention."

She paused, her gaze drifting as if searching for the right words to convey the complexity of the situation. "The police initially dismissed Emily's disappearance as a case of a young woman running away, especially since Matthew was also missing."

Elena's voice wavered slightly, betraying the weight of the uncertainty surrounding Emily's fate. "For a while, I entertained the possibility that Emily had indeed chosen to leave her life behind. But then, three days ago, another woman disappeared under similar circumstances."
"And where is Matthew?" I interjected, my mind grappling with the complexities of the case. "His friends and family filed a missing persons report on him as well. He disappeared one day before Emily. But there's no reason to think of him as a suspect, is there?"

Elena's expression darkened, mirroring the shadow of uncertainty that clouded my thoughts. "That's the perplexing part," she replied, her voice tinged with frustration. "All three people disappeared without a trace. One moment they were there, and the next... poof, disappeared as if they've been captured by ghosts."

Her words sent a chill down my spine, and I couldn't shake off the sense of foreboding that gripped me. It was as if we were peering into the abyss of the unknown, where answers remained elusive and danger lurked in the shadows.

As my mind raced, struggling to contain the torrent of thoughts swirling within, I sought desperately for patterns amidst the chaos. With furrowed brow, I turned to Elena, my voice trembling with urgency.

"Is there any connection between the third woman who disappeared and Emily or Matthew?" I inquired, grasping at straws in the hopes of unraveling the enigma before us.

Elena shook her head solemnly, her eyes reflecting the gravity of the situation. "No," she replied, her voice tinged with frustration. "The third woman is a 50-year-old, last seen exiting her workplace at the quaint bistro, La Petite Cuisine, and heading home."

The revelation sent a shiver down my spine, the realization sinking in that the disappearances were not isolated incidents but part of a larger, more sinister web of mystery. As I pondered the implications, a sense of unease settled over me, the unknown looming ominously on the horizon like a gathering storm.

"Listen, P," Elena's urgency resonated in her voice as she spoke, her words cutting through the tension in the room like a knife. "I acquired CCTV footage of Emily's last sighting, and that's what I need you for."

Without a moment's hesitation, she raced to retrieve her laptop, returning with it clutched tightly in her grasp. With a sense of urgency, she opened the device, revealing the footage of Emily walking down a seemingly ordinary square, her demeanor betraying no hint of the impending turmoil.

But then, like a sudden storm on a clear day, a police patrol car flashed across the screen, casting a shadow of doubt over the otherwise mundane scene. "That means the police have more information on Emily's last movements," I realized, a knot forming in the pit of my stomach.

In a voice tinged with frustration, Elena explained her futile attempts to obtain a statement from the police, leaving us stranded in a sea of uncertainty. It was a crucial piece of the puzzle that remained tantalizingly out of reach, teasing us with its elusiveness.

Turning to me with pleading eyes, Elena's hand reached out to grasp my arm, her wide eyes locking with mine in an unspoken plea. "I need you to secure an interview with the chief of police or any detective working the case," she implored, her voice soft but desperate. "You could still go on your awaited vacation with your mum afterward."

Her touch sparked a fire within me, "alright el I'll think of a plan but I need some rest first, maybe we could meet at the lobby after 2 hours?"

"Thank you, Peter, for real," Elena's gratitude washed over me, momentarily easing the weight of the task ahead. "Also, two hours sharp, don't be late, ey?"

I offered her a reassuring smile, my resolve firm. "I am always on time," I assured her, though a flicker of uncertainty danced behind my eyes.

"Yeah, right," Elena retorted sarcastically, her skepticism evident as she exited the room, leaving me alone with my thoughts.

As the door clicked shut behind her, a sense of apprehension settled over me like a heavy shroud. Contemplation mingled with reservation, and a hint of fear gnawed at the edges of my mind.
Scene 3
As Elena departed, I surveyed the room. It bore the marks of neglect, with faded wallpaper peeling at the edges and worn furniture showing signs of age. The bed, positioned against one wall, appeared tired and weathered, its mattress sagging in the middle and the sheets bearing wrinkles. Above the bed, an out-of-place symbol caught my attention once again - the Eye of Horus, its intricate design etched into a wooden plaque and mounted on the wall.

Feeling the weight of exhaustion settle upon me, I sank onto the bed, craving a moment of respite. Before I could even settle in, the insistent ring of my phone shattered the silence. With a resigned sigh, I reached for the device, noting the caller ID - it was my mother, FaceTiming me.

I answered her call, greeted by the warm glow of her smile radiating through the screen. Our exchange of greetings was laced with the gentle familiarity of mother and son.

"Hello, dear," she chimed, "So, you finally found some time to visit your old mum, did you? How kind of you."

I swallowed the lump in my throat, accustomed to the underlying reproach that often accompanied her affectionate words. "Yes, Mom," I replied, trying to mask the unease in my voice with forced cheerfulness. "I'm looking forward to spending some time with you."

Her smile widened. "Well, I'll believe it when I see it," she quipped, her words laden with a veiled challenge. "Don't keep me waiting too long now. You know how precious my time is."

"Are you calling me just to do that?" I interjected, a hint of frustration creeping into my voice.

Her brow furrowed in confusion. "Do what, dear?" she inquired innocently.

I hesitated, the words catching in my throat as I grappled with the swirling emotions inside me. "Never mind, Mom," I murmured, a wave of guilt washing over me for even entertaining the notion of confronting her.

But before I could retract my statement, her expression softened, and her voice took on a tone of vulnerability that caught me off guard. "Listen, Peter, I'm sorry," she began, her words tinged with a hint of sadness. "I just miss you. You don't call enough, and it feels like there's nothing for us to talk about. I just..."

Her voice trailed off, leaving the weight of her unspoken words hanging heavy in the air between us. In that moment, I felt a pang of sympathy for the woman on the other end of the line, grappling with her own insecurities and yearning for connection in the only way she knew how.

"I understand," I replied softly, feeling a surge of empathy. "I've been too caught up in my work, but that's why I decided to take this vacation. I've missed you too, Mom, and I really am looking forward to spending more time with you."

A genuine smile spread across my mother's face, her eyes lighting up with warmth and relief. "Oh, Peter, that's wonderful to hear!" she exclaimed, her voice filled with genuine happiness. "I've missed you more than you know, dear. It's been too long since we've had a chance to catch up properly."

Before we could delve further into our conversation, my mother couldn't resist injecting a bit of her trademark humor. "Well, now that you're finally taking a break from work, maybe you'll have some time to find yourself a nice, not-at-all-crazy wife," she teased, a mischievous twinkle dancing in her eye.

Her playful jab elicited a hearty chuckle from me, knowing full well it was all in good fun. "We'll see, Mom," I replied with a laugh, shaking my head affectionately. "But for now, I think I'll focus on spending time with my favorite woman - you."

With a heartwarming laugh, my mother waved goodbye, her parting words carrying a hint of playful insistence. "Don't forget to keep your eyes open, Peter! You never know when Mrs. Right might come along," she quipped before ending the call, leaving me smiling at her enduring humor and unwavering love.

As she hung up, the old bed's worn embrace felt oddly inviting. I sank into its tired folds, finding unexpected comfort in its familiarity, and drifted into a well-deserved sleep.

scene 4

The sound of my alarm rang, and I half-opened my eyes, seeing only in black and white. I hit snooze and repeated the process five times until I finally woke up. I hoped Elena wouldn’t get mad at me for being late. The bed squeaked as I got up, and I hastily washed my face. As I turned on the water tap, I noticed water droplets leaking from the sides.

"Jeez, this place needs serious renovations," I muttered to myself.

I walked to the lobby, only to meet Elena.

"Hi, El," I said, bracing myself for Elena to scold me for my lateness.

"Hello, Peter," she replied in a low voice. She seemed to be staring at a void behind me, her face expressionless and still. I took a step closer to her.

"El, you okay? What's wrong?"

"Nothing, all is good. Uhm, weren't you supposed to leave for a trip to see your mom?"

"Well, yeah, in two days. I'll help you with this thi—" I began, confusion visible on my face, but Elena interrupted me. Her voice was firm, yet she avoided making eye contact.

"No, Peter, it's fine. I've thought about it, and I don't need your help anymore. You can go."

"I am not your toy, Elena. You can't just make me travel with you and then ask me to leave before I even get the chance to do anything," I snapped, my anger blinding me to the obvious. There was something Elena was hiding, and I needed to be calm to understand what was going on.

I tried to salvage the situation by apologizing and reassuring her that I was by her side, but it was too late. Elena's eyes welled up with tears. "I'm sorry, but please, Peter, leave. Go on your trip," she said, storming out of the lobby.

As she left, I noticed a necklace with the Eye of Horus dangling around her neck. Why does Elena wear this, and why is this place filled with an ancient Egyptian symbol? I froze, unsure of what to do. As I ran after Elena, desperation gnawed at my insides. She wasn't in front of the lobby anymore. I hopped into my car and started scouring the streets, telling myself she couldn't have gone too far.

I drove down every street, checked every alley, but Elena was nowhere to be found. Panic rose within me, and my breath quickened as I frantically tried to contact her, only to find her phone out of service.

Finally, I parked in front of an old bar. It was midnight by now, and the place was bustling with people. As I entered, I was greeted by a middle-aged man with a full beard. "Hey, newcomer, welcome to the Allure Bar," he slurred, his breath heavy with alcohol. He introduced himself as Michael Convivial, the owner of the bar, and offered me a shot on the house since it was my first time there.

"I didn't come here for the drinks," I said, the song 'What Am I to You' playing softly in the background. I showed him a photo of Elena, and he instantly recognized her, laughing as he muttered something I couldn't quite catch.

"That crazy girl who still hopes," he said, his speech slurred. He mentioned that he last saw her two days ago.

As I stepped out of the bar and headed towards my car, a ping from my phone startled me. It was a message from an unknown ID, accompanied by a chilling photo. In it, Elena lay unconscious, her Eye of Horus necklace smashed beside her. The caption sent shivers down my spine: "Listen to Elena, outsider. Get out of Silverlake and don't get involved in a fight you've got nothing to do with."

Dread washed over me as I stared at the image, my mind racing with questions.

As my fingers moved almost of their own accord, typing out a message, my mind raced with a mixture of fear and determination.

"I don't know who you are, but I will soon, and I will make you pay," I wrote, my fingers trembling slightly as I pressed send. "You've made it personal by kidnapping Elena, and I won't let you hurt her even more, you hear me?!"

Tears welled up in my eyes as I stared at the screen. I never knew I cared for Elena this deeply until this moment. The thought of her in danger filled me with a sense of fierce protectiveness, driving me to do whatever it takes to bring her back safely.

chapters 1&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
Link to AO3
Gentry’s sweet cravings were getting out of hand.
The last time she had a proper dessert was almost a week ago, and if she had something to say about it, no amount of saccharine text exchanges with pretty boys was going to replace a good old sugar rush. A couple of days ago Sereen treated her to the sweetest snack she could get with her status and that piece of dried fruit was nowhere near enough to satisfy G’s sweet tooth.
So many vending machines and eateries, but not a single good bakery? Hell, even a crappy one would do at this point! She had to hunt down some glucose tonight.
After Sereen’s initial tour around the city, she went off leaving G to explore the city on her own. It was getting easier and easier. With the auglasses on, finding her way around proved pretty intuitive, not in the least thanks to the distinct chessboard-like layout of Ashtapada. Each district had a letter-number label. By remembering one’s “square code”, one could find their way back on foot or by cab in no time wherever they found themselves.
Gentry spent hours exploring the wide walking streets and little nooks that offered yet another glimpse into Ashtapadan reality. She once stumbled upon a bookshop with nothing on the shelves but blank-page tomes. The shopkeeper asked her what she was looking for and after finding out the she was a Newcomer, explained that it was a book-on-demand type of place. She would place an order for a story and he would write it for her in a matter of days.
What confused her most was the snow-white buildings of the city. Despite being made with rough porous concrete, they were drowning in lush greenery that sometimes looked like it nearly chocked the structure. Each had the same distinct feature, though, that made them all look unfinished: however tall or short was the building, the top floor always looked under construction. Though there always were the omnipresent hounds on each of the working site, there were never any cranes or scaffolding visible. The obliging auglasses offered G the answer: everything from the smallest houses to the few high rises was essentially self-producing! From what little she understood reading about this advancement, the carbon in the atmosphere was captured by special aerial filters and dissolved in some water. It later went through the pipes in the buildings’ skeleton-like armature and got sprayed on. As the water evaporated, the carbon solidified into neat coral-like blocks that formed the walls and other structures.
Well, that explained why the fumes she saw on the outskirts smoked backwards!
It was getting dark and the orderly streets came alive once G engaged her glasses that revealed the digital underside of Ashtapada again. Every business had a modest sign in the physical world that didn’t stand out on the angular facades. But there also was a hidden bright animated augmented-reality one that could compete with Broadway neon in brightness.
Signs like these weren’t just decorating the facades: the 3D ones flashing on the ground filled almost the whole field of view, too. They looked amazingly enticing in the evening dusk. Information stalls with digital assistants, huge arrows pointing at meeting points, temporary signs inviting strangers to join a club gathering — Gentry was going to gawk at every single one tonight. She came up to some of them, waving hands in the air to try and touch the flickering lights, not caring what she looked like from the outside. Ashtapadans seemed a very relaxed bunch, not putting their noses in others’ business, which felt liberating. Noting how other people in the streets interacted with 3D service bots, G came up to one of them, too.
“Hello, Gentry, how can I help you tonight?” it chirped. The hologram looked like a cute animated girl with an elaborate pink hairdo. “You can ask me a question directly or say “What can you do” to access the list of commands.”
“Hi!” G said. “Do you have a name?”
“You can call me Yukio,” it responded with a little curtsy. “I can answer any questions, show you around or chat about anything!”
Any question? It must know where the desserts were sold! On second thought, wasn’t there something more important than that? Something that brought G here in the first place.
“I’m looking for a person named Exxy Mah,” she said to the patiently smiling girl. “Is there a citizen or a newcomer with this name?”
“There is!” Yukio answered, gleefully jumping in the air. “Exxy Mah is a famous Ashtapadan, she is an advocate for healthy living. You might have seen her on posters and screens around the city.”
The woman in the picture the assistant conjured up floating in thin air showed an elderly woman. She was looking very fit for her age but it clearly wasn’t the Exxy Gentry knew.
“Hmm... That’s not her...” G said. “There has to be another.”
The girl suddenly looked on the verge of tears. “I’m sorry! It’s the only one in Ashtapada! No other Citizens or Newcomers are registered by this name!”
Did her friend change her name then?
“A friend of mine should’ve arrived here last year under the same name. Can you check where she is now?”
Yukio’s helpful attitude fell apart in an instant. Her posture became stiff like a 3D model she was and a voice void of any emotion informed, “Personal data on people of Ashtapada, including their whereabouts is protected by the privacy laws of the city. Please rephrase your search.”
A blink later, the same cute Yukio was standing in front of G again.
“Can I help with anything else?” she smiled.
Was there a way to ask this dummy in a way that would give her at least a hint about her friend?
“Ok, Yukio,” G attempted. “When did the famous Exxy Mah you mentioned arrive at Ashtapada?”
The girl flickered into a wooden statue again, “Personal data on people...”
“Ok, ok, I got it,” G waved. “Bring back the friendly assistant, you creep me out.”
“Can I help with anything else?” the model went again.
G sighed.
“Is there a place a newcomer can get something sweet, a chocolate or a cake perhaps?”
Yukio gasped indignantly, “Ashtapada has a very strict policy on stimulants! You can’t legally buy any tobacco, alcohol, products with added sugar and other such substances!”
“Such substances!” G hollered, forgetting for a second that she was talking to a lifeless simulation. “Sugar is completely harmless! It’s good for your brains you know! Can I at least ask a Сitizen to get me a snack?”
The girl crossed her arms in defiance.
“You can’t buy any dessert in Ashtapada, whatever your status, the law is for everyone. No refined sugar!”
G thought for a moment, rewinding their conversation in her memory.
“Did you say I can’t buy sugar legally?”— Gentry perked up — “Is there a black market of sweets I can go to?”
“A black market of sweets!”
Yukio stared. It was clearly the first time she had had to deal with this particular word combination. It took her a second or two to process the request.
“There’s no black market of sweets in Ashtapada,” she stated, confidently, at last.
“Ok, pinkhead,” G said, rolling her eyes. “I guess it took all candy floss in Ashtapada to make that hair.”
Annoyed at the assistant, she stomped through the bright neon figure in front of her and into the pedestrian street now full of people.
If there was a place with some glucose in this stuck-up place, she was going to sniff it out.
***
The hunt wasn’t of much success. After watching a street performance by a group of dancers, listening to an impromptu debate and taking part in a couple of opinion polls, Gentry finally felt that it had been a little too much. Even with the auglasses disengaged, he noise, the people and the boisterous crowds in the streets seemed to pour light and sound directly into her brain in an endless stream. It gave her a headache.
Calling up a map from her wristcomm with an already practised motion, she marked a place nearby that looked much quieter and had a swarm of vending machines, too.
Screw the sugar, she just needed some water now.
The place was indeed quite secluded. The narrow street started on the edge of the bustling zone she just left but didn’t seem to cut into the living district. It wasn’t used by many people, but, to G’s surprise, it seemed to be used by hounds, scurrying back and forth with parcels, trash bags and other loads of lesser identifiability.
Perhaps this little alley was shared by humans and these tireless little helpers over the course of the day? The hounds would make use of it in the night but workers would walk it to leave the residential area when the sun was up? That would explain the line of vending machines along both sides, with their tempting lights that invited to at least take a look.
Sadly, their insides weren’t as tempting as the signs promised.
G walked past the rows of healthy corn-based snacks, rows of dried fruit packets, lines of non-edible stuff like auglasses upgrades and finally ended up in front of a drinks machine. It immediately identified her by scanning the device on her wrist and merrily chimed a hello. G frowned. The few options that were available to a newcomer with an embarrassingly low status like hers immediately got illuminated, hiding more enticing bottles and cans in relative darkness.
No need to rub it in, you soulless beast!
But... there was a can that looked a little sweeter than others. Perhaps it was because of its sickly-pink colour, or a pattern vaguely reminding of chewing gum printed along its rims together with the fact that it was unavailable to pheasants like her, but something told Gentry that it probably was it. A sweet drink she was after.
Or, at least, sweetish.
Against better judgment, she tapped the touchglass to order it.
Nothing. The little screen insisted that she must choose what was available.
She scanned her comm again.
Nothing.
She engaged the little flashlight in her glasses and looked at the can more carefully.
Was it... a little askew?
It definitely was.
Its lower rim was half-hanging in the air, the release mechanism lazily holding it in place.
A good shove...
A good shove would probably drop the can down.
Wouldn’t it?
G looked around and immediately felt a pang of guilt.
She hadn’t done anything, officer!
Yet.
No people, just a couple of smaller hounds rhythmically clip-clopping along the dim alley.
Should she?
The can looked at her from behind the glass like a captive princess, waiting to be rescued from the agonizing imprisonment. Someone to grab its slender body, deflower it with a skilled motion and drain its sweet nectar in a couple of gulps.
Hang in there, my sweet prize, your saviour is coming!
Another hopefully inconspicuous glance around confirmed there were still no people in the alley.
Gentry stepped to the side and leaned on the machine, estimating its weight.
Not too bad.
She leaned in heavier, feet pushing into the ground, legs and back straining against the cool metal.
A little more, and...
One of the little hounds stopped and looked G over, like a dog that saw a little furry animal that could be torn apart.
What, little buddy? Just taking a break. Is it against the law to lean on vending machines?
Gentry urged the walking robot to move along with a little shove of her foot and immediately felt a little bad when it obediently left without making much fuss.
Why the guilt? It wasn’t like she kicked the little guy!
Still, Gentry felt emboldened by the little victory against the mindless machine.
Surely, the frigid castle that held her sugary princess shouldn’t be of much trouble either.
With a renewed wind in her sails, she stepped back a couple of meters and slammed her whole body into the automate that answered with a promising clanking. Another good push and the visual assessment confirmed that the pink princess was nearly saved. Gentry smashed into the box one last time and the can that she longed for finally jangled down and into the pick-up box.
Gentry’s exhilaration lasted only for a second, however. Before she could retrieve the can she lusted after, something much bigger than a modest dog-sized carrier hound filled her field of vision. A larger four-legged robot that also had something fastened on its back and belly. It stood motionless, its front camera glinting in the uneven light like a bird of prey’s, watching G as she stood up after the impact, unsure what to do.
Was it a police hound or something? Unlikely. There were no marks on it that would identify it as such. What was its problem then?
It’s alright, mate, be on your way now.
G slowly moved her hand towards the pick-up box and almost grabbed the cool can when the hound gently shoved her hand aside with its boxy head.
What’s your problem, pal?
Gentry considered if it was worth it being accused of theft so soon after arriving at Ashtapada. Was it really that bad though? She could always claim it just dropped there by itself.
She pushed the hound’s stump of a head back, covering its camera with her palm, reaching for the can again. This time, as if blinded by her hand, the hound didn’t do anything to stop it.
Ah, easy. These machines were too dumb.
Gentry stepped back, completely sure that the matter was settled, and popped the can open. Its sweet scent filled her nostrils with a seductive promise. But the hound had other plans. Once his camera was uncovered, it seemed to focus on the offending drink again and made to awkwardly sway its head to kick it out of G’s hands.
Excuse me? What about the Laws of Robotics, mate? Rings a bell?
It wasn’t hard to dodge the clumsy assault, but the sheer size of the robot made G uneasy. If it seriously wanted to harm her, it could just stomp on her foot and shatter the bones there like fragile glass.
Better get out of here then.
Finally making a sip of the promising nectar, Gentry moved back towards the light opening of the alley, flanking the beast at a respectful distance before scrunching her face in disgust.
Shit! The drink wasn’t sweet in the slightest! It was all a lie! Vile flavourings! She was cheated! Her lovely princess lured her with a siren’s song and stabbed her right in the heart!
Disillusioned, G gripped the can tighter as if in retaliation and picked up the pace.
The hound wasn’t having it though. Surprisingly agile on its metal hooves, it appeared in front of Gentry, blocking her way out. The robots usually looked more like docile cows or donkeys, especially when they were loaded with cargo, but this one, now... looked like a real hound. Its posture suddenly squat, the camera glinting once again, it definitely wasn’t going to let the transgressor go that easily.
Shit, shit! Had it seen her face? Had it scanned her comm? Was she going to prison now?
Panic rose in Gentry’s brain like a suffocating wave.
Run? Return the can back? It wasn’t even good enough to be worth the trouble!
Tentatively, without turning her back on the beast, G made a couple of steps back to escape in the other direction but the robot matched her stride, his dark presence looming in the narrow pathway.
Something like this had happened before. A similar quiet spot in her city. A similar evening that started off great but ended in a disaster. The same impending danger, the same feeling of helplessness, a similar... weapon in her hand?
Right. The brawler that attacked her and Pete at The Clockface was human and was taken down by some boiling hot water, and this hound also had eyes. Only one in fact. And if the can is sturdy enough...
Brace yourself now, my princess, it’s time for sacrifices.
With a well-aimed swing, Gentry launched the can into the thin glass of the hound’s camera eye, turning to run for her life at the same time. A crashing sound proved that she succeeded but there was no time to check what the robot would do next. As usual, the time seemed to stretch into a sickening slime and her legs didn’t feel real, but G knew that outside her reeling head everything was moving properly so she had no time to lose.
Run away, mix into the crowd, save your hide.
Feel worthless later.