Lemons
Archmage MC
AlternateMan
Eviledd1984
ctrlsaltdel
op2024
Ariamis
Double
Lord Zee
Goldeagle1221Amelia’s worldly adventures, part 1
A beastly meeting
The light at the end of the tunnel. After a much longer crawl Amelia finally saw it. On her hands and knees she squeezed through the rooted tunnel until she finally managed to squeeze herself through some part-hidden, part-forgotten, part-uncared for hole that she guessed was made by a badger or some other burrowing creature.
She emerged into a small crevasse that hosted the abandoned den, as well as a dozen or so meters of poorly vegetated dirt stick between two cliff faces on either side, and, strangely, at each end, some kind of wall. The furthest of these walls did seem to have some kind of gate, but it was closed, trapping her in here.
“Why did you lead me into… this place?” Amelia asked out loud, seemingly to nobody. As right now only she could see her Godmother. The fairy only gave an undignified ‘hmpf’. She wouldn’t be much help right now, Amelia realized. So she started looking up the cliffsides. Maybe she could crawl up them?
As she was contemplating this strange set up someone had clearly made for a purpose, what the walls were meant to keep in stirred as a trio of hulking bull sized shapes stirred in the shadows of the cliff face where they had been avoiding the beating heat of the tropical midday sun.
One had a round body sporting 10 legs, all from different animals, out of the top of which a formless black neck ending in featureless head hosting only a triple segmented mouth. The next was a big cat with three quadruple eyed raven’s heads and a dozen bladed tendrils instead of a tail. The last was a green shelled beetle with clawed reptilian limbs and shredded eagle wings that flicked out from under their thorax protection when it stretched after rising.
The mix and match creatures were horrible, but they did share one thing in common, and that was a faintly glowing rune on their foreheads, one of a ring with a smaller ring with a dot in the center at its base, that looked a bit like a simplified depiction of Galbar’s waterways, and rings of other much more jagged runes surrounding their necks.
Having unfurled themselves, the outer beasts, for surely that must be what they were, began to stalk towards her with hunger in their eyes and saliva on their jaws.
Amelia froze where she stood. The three monsters started to stalk - each in their unique way - towards the mortal. “Amelia, my little bulb.” The Godmother said, veiling her worry. “You should move.” Amelia didn’t move. “Dear?” Her Godmother asked again. “Move.” Amelia did not move. “Move you foolish child!” The Godmother rammed Amelia, just in time as the cat-like beast lunged for her.
The elf - knocked out of whatever paralysing fear held her - fell to the ground. On her forearms she crawled away. “Roll left!” Her Godmother yelled. She did. Three bladed tails stabbed the ground where she was a moment ago. Above her was now a massive mass of black. An unnatural amount of legs moved around her. A clawed, lizard-like arm grasped at her. She crawled away, through the leg of a cow and a tall bird. Grasping claws grabbed her and lifted her for a second, before sending her to the wall.
Amelia fell badly on her left shoulder. The pang of pain felt familiar. For a second she was in that forest again. With the spindly legged beast that killed her parents. The memory and the pain conjured tears.
“Kill it!” Her Godmother yelled. “Kill them!”
She couldn’t. Killing was wrong. It was one of the worst things one could do. A shadow moved over her. She tried to roll away but two strong, cat-like legs pinned her down by the shoulders. It snarled at her with its three eyes. It’s tails moving over from above to go in for the kill.
“Please, oh Allianthé please don’t let me-” She stopped. The desperate prayer was too familiar. Last she said it, her entire family died. This couldn’t be what she had to do.
The beast drew blood as it slashed her arm. Amelia screamed out in pain. That was enough. The cat growled at her. She punched it hard. Pain jolted through her right hand as her skin split. The beast recoiled but quickly turned back, ready to bite her to death. It wasn’t fast enough.
Amelia had already finished waving her wand. The piece of yew, so unimaginatively crafted, was covered with iridescent veins. “Kill.” She whispered at the cat-beast, which stopped moving for a moment. Then it turned around. The two other beasts were behind it, ready to kill their prey if the cat-beast wouldn’t. Not that they would be given much of a chance. It lunged at the many-legged beast. It was a devastating ambush as it started tearing and cutting away.
It gave a shrieking scream that sounded far too close to a mortal’s cry for comfort as it tried to scramble back, but the cat-like beast just kept slashing and clawing, hacking at limbs. It fully served at least two before the now less multi legged thing fought back, arcing its neck down and biting into one of its attacker’s three heads, cruising it in a single bite. It was only one, however, and so the battle continued, blood spilling everywhere.
Unfortunately, the command to kill was very different to one like, say, protect me, and so the beetle creature was free to, once it was over its confusion, turn its attention back to Amelia instead. As it stalked closer however, there came a shout from one of the walls of “Would you things keep it down” as the white furry face of an opossum topped with a black pointy hat popped over the top.
Said shout was followed by one of “By the Wheel!”when the figure noticed Amelia, followed by a shout of “Over here, quickly!” directed specifically at her he vanished as quickly as he appeared, after which the gate in the wall started to swing open.
Once the gate was open enough to squeeze his goblin sized body though the fullbood opossum-kin slipped through the gap, pausing only to grab and pull his wide brimmed pointy hat from where it had gotten stuck, before hurting forwards. The rest of his garb was similarly witchy, a black coat/robe of some sort, one that sported many pockets. Out of one of these he pulled a small wooden slab on which a number of runes softly glowed, ones that matched the ones on the beast’s neck. He hurried forwards, and once close enough pressed a finger to one of these.
In response, some of the runes on the beetle monster glowed bright, causing it to hiss and stumble in its chase, tumbling to the ground where it began writhing in pain. He hurried past her and it, and pointed the slab at the pair who were rearing each other apart, causing them, too, to collapse in pain as well.
“Oh dear oh dear oh dear, what have you done to each other?” he asked the heavily damaged pair, clearly upset by their injuries, before turning on Amelia and demanding to know “You! Who are you? How did you get in here? Didn’t you see the warning signs?” before gesturing up at the tops of the cliff face where a number of signposts who’s text could not be seen due to it pointing outwards, before pointing at the pair of wounded beasts and demanding to know “and what did you do to them?”
“I-I…” Amelia stood frozen on the ground. All color drained from her face as the carnage finally stopped. Had she ordered one of these things to fight? To kill!? The realization set in. Did she carry responsibility? “I didn’t know…I never saw- In the Veil, I never saw the signs.” She muttered as she tried to take a step back from the halted fighting. “It’s not my fault.” She kept muttering as she took another step back. “I just- I just made it think something.” She made it think that it should kill the other beast. Oh goddess, she had glamoured it into killing.
Then her eyes turned towards the angry opossum-beastman. She could stay frozen and helpless or she could stop being a victim of outer beasts and circumstances. Slowly, with shaky and uncertain hands she raised her ‘wand’ at the opossum man. “I-I’m very sorry for what happened. I really am but… but I’m not going to die myself over this. My life will not end here.” She spoke of death and life with the finality unmistakingly from Arbor. Where it was known as a fact that death was unavoidable end.
“Wow wow wow there missy, there’s no need for that. No one is going to die themselves or anyone else over this, long as you don’t do… whatever you can do with that stick” the pintsized possum-man replied, pointing the rune inscribed controller back at her in a somewhat unconvincing attempt at thereating her back with it “So put it down, and let’s go talk this through over a little something to eat? I have some dried wheel fruit and jerky somewhere in my office for when I get snacky. We could work out a deal, keep this between us, not escalate this to the authorities, that kind of thing? If you really can do magic with just that twig, well now, that would be something else, and I would oh so love to learn all about it”
Amelia lowered her wand as a small smile crept over her lips. “I really am sorry.” She said, sounding a lot more apologetic and a lot less fearful for her life. A few moments later she was looking at the strange wheelfruit, finding no immediate or obvious way to start eating it. The jerky she didn’t touch.
“Sir.” Amelia said as she fidgeted with the wheelfruit. “Where am I actually?”
“Wheels turn. You really aren't from around here are you? How far much of the world did you skip over to have never-” he shook his head, pausing his query and instead answered the unspoken question first as they stepped through the gate, holding up his own little wheelfruit and saying “like this” before squeezing the center between two fingers, causing the disk shaped fruit to spit along the center. Then he simply lifted the top of the hard fruit off, exposing a half circle of dried fruit flesh.
He then put a finger on this flesh and gave it a spin, causing the edible part of the fruit to rotate around the core of the plant. “Nibble your way round the outside as many turns as you like, and then simply pop the other half on like so” he said as he demonstrated, neatly re-packaging his snack before her eyes.
As he had been giving this demonstration, they’ed headed along a little rising road, past a few building side on the other side of the wall, leaving the gate in the hands of a goblin fellow who was mostly just waiting for a box with a strange bug in it to reel the gate back shut. Once they reached the top of the crevasse, little research post and penned beasts behind them, signs warning of them on their right, they could look forwards and see where they were.
To the west, off in the distance, was the unmistakable signifier of the direction of her home, the great tree towering above all. Home itself however was not visible, for the walls of the edge of the crater that was the land of origin blocked that view. Slicing through those walls to the north was a great river, one greater than all others except its equally vast twin on the other side of the world.
That gave her something of an indicator as to where she was, but as to what this place was called, and what gave it its name, well, that sat on the banks of the river. Houses and buildings by the score straddled both sides, and an island in the center, while a great bridge crossed it and linked all three semi separate settlements together.
Hence the name
“Welcome, my dear, to Tricity!” the possum exclaimed, clearly quite proud of the place, despite the side of it they were on having seen better days. Reconstruction work to the half of the city devastated by the outer beast invasion was still ongoing. Part of this might be due to the rather large array of new buildings that had sprung up around what seemed to be a permanently raging stormcloud sat only a little bit to their east. Indeed, this little compounded was almost certainly part of whatever that new settlement within a settlement was.
A little hint as to what it was for came when the possum realized he’d failed to introduce himself, and proceed to tip his hat to her and do just that, saying “Oh, and I am witch Higglesworth, a pleasure to meet you”
The elven girl was wide-eyed staring out from the crater’s edge. Her mouth was agape. She had seen many things when she traveled with her parents but this, this was something else. A city that could rival Arbor. Perhaps do more than rival Arbor. If not for the twin great Trees, Arbor would most certainly be eclipsed. “It’s so big.” She said, “So mixed!” She added, while pointing at the myriad of species she saw working the fields and the water. “There’s so many beastmen here!” Her eyes darted over the great city. Parts of it were clearly older and perhaps grander, but she adored all sides.
“Oh, it’s very nice to meet you, Mr. Higglesworth.” She said then to the opposom-man beside her, while keeping the thought that ‘Witch’ was a very strange first name to herself. “I am Amelia from Arbor.” She quickly returned the greetings. After which she took a few more moments to marvel at the great split city before her. But her mind was already going to other thoughts. “Say… Mr. Higglesworth. Those outer beasts, how did you manage to control them? I mean I know you used runes. We got some in Arbor too but none of the rune mages there know how to use them to control outer beasts.”
“Ah well that-” the witch dithered for a moment on where to explain, before deciding “ah well, it's only fair if we are going to trade” and then launching into an explanation with the dictation of someone giving a lecture.
“So, for one, while they do look it, those are not quite outer beasts, even though they are derived from them. You see in the dark days when they first appeared, our fair city was assailed by a great horde of them. Yet by the power of gods, heroes and mortals, we endured, and were left afterwards with a rather large pile of rotting flesh. So we gathered it all up, and piled it all into a pool of R’kava, one that is now causing that mighty storm cloud over there” he explained, pointing over at it.
“This caused it to grow and grow, giving us a wonderfully large supply of the stuff, which is very handy for rune craft as it turns out. But it also turned it into something called, according to the old Octari, a spawning pool, which is a pool of R’kava that can change creatures into other ones, or even spit out whole new ones. Well, having fed the pool so many outer beasts, along with actual beasts and the dead, we ended up with, well, those” he turned away from the city to look down at the ‘not quite outer beasts’ who a small team of witches and soldiers where currently corralling/medication depending on their current state, before giving them a name.
“Chimeras, we call them, and though they do look like the outer beasts, or demons, there is one key internal difference: They have souls and not stolen ones either. Born as they are from a natural process of this world, they are part of the cycle of reincarnation, rather than strange soulless things that must have come from somewhere beyond it” he revealed, though not how he knew, before actually answering her question which was “well, how you control any beast really, a suitable combination of carrot and stick. These are somewhat early days however, hence the unfortunate incident when you arrived in their pen”
“The stick itself is a curse rune, one of pain, which came from a runestone that formed in the corpse of the greater outer beasts who attempted to assail the land of origin and was felled by the efforts of three gods, and then gifted to us by Asheel, forever may she turn, along with another from which we learned more of the basics” he concluded “all of which has caused quite the magical revolution around these parts. It almost makes up for the collapse of our tin mines.”
The elven girl hung on every word that Higglesworth spoke. It was a fascinating tale to hear. One of ingenuity but also necessity. With her mind she tried to remember the rune. Not that she wanted to hurt anyone with it, but to direct an absolute form of pain at something seemed very powerful. If she could bring some of that knowledge back to Arbor, Irrithae - when she returned - would be very proud of her! Even better, perhaps she could come to an accord to share some information back and forth. After all, Arbor had its own trump cards. As if to conform, she felt a mental nod of confidence coming from her hidden fairy godmother.
But then she was hit by a profound sense of sadness as she realized what the pool of R’kava was. A mass grave of both people and outer beast. “We - I mean Arbor - never really came to your aid, huh?” She said almost absent mindedly. Why did she feel a slight pang of guilt over that? What could they do? Killing was forbidden. It was a curse offered only to the Deathguard. Still, something should've been done.
“Mr. Higglesworth, does Tricity think that the outer beasts will be back? I mean like before, like a great invading wave?”
The man seemed a little confused by her first question, clearly having not expected such aid at all, before sighing sadly in response to her second and admitting that “Yes. Or something else, even worse. What has happened once will happen again, so turns the wheel after all”
“That said, we now know dangers lurk out there, and though this new age may be one of terrors, it also the age of magic” he said, seeming to be quoting someone as he did so “so next time, next time we will be prepared to stand against the darkness with all the myriad of powers our world has to offer. With magic and machinery, we will endure!”
“So says the soul speaker anyway” he added, confirming that the words were not his own, before adding his own perspective which was “as for me, while survival is nice and all, frankly I just find all the recent discoveries about the supernatural to be quite fascinating. Your own very much included”
“It is fascinating.” Amelia returned genuinely. “I’ve only learned a little bit myself. Most of what I could do was with Arcana and well, I’m warned that it’ll make me go bad.” Only now was that reality really sinking in. That some day she might become some horrific monster. A few others had made the same sacrifice as well. Her eyes turned towards the big pool of R’Kava. It looked ugly and it spawned monsters but back at home, the ever coruscating Wellspring did that as well. It just took a while. With that Amelia started to see some similarities between the two civilizations.
“You’ve been nice to me Mr. Higglesworth.” Amelia said as she turned back to her new oppossom friend. “And I know you like magic, so I’ll let you in on some more.” She pulled out her wand again. “There are creatures living in this world called ‘fairies’. They can do all sorts of cool things! Like lying away the darkness.” She slowed down a little again. “That’s also how I did what I did.” She said, her words laced with a deep sense of guilt. Not just for her oppossom friend. Clearly he was taking care of those creatures. She also felt sin towards the creatures. One died at her hand. “It’s called glamour, and you can learn it too!” Her excitement returned quickly though. “All you need to do is find a fairy and let them teach you how to make a wand! They’re tricky though. And-” She stopped, as if listening to words that the witch could hear. She nodded in understanding at nothing, nodded again, and then even said: “Okay.” Then she turned back to the opposom. “My godmother says she’s not the right fairy for you but I’m sure that you’ll find someone!”
“I also have a question for you, Mr. Higglesworth.” Her tone got a bit more serious now. As serious as the young elf could present her self at least. “But first I have to tell you a few things. I lost my parents not too long ago. But then someone took me in. Her name’s Irrithae. She’s Allianthé’s Prophetess. She’s away now on some important business deep below the earth but she’ll be back. And when she is, she’s probably going to rule Arbor. So if it was possible, I’d like to go speak to your ‘soul speaker’. Maybe we can agree that if Tricity ever faces the dangers from those big beasts, Arbor can come to help?”
“Well spin me round and call me a rolly polly, that’s a lot to take in” he admitted, “a new kind of magic, and people we’ve never heard of? I suppose not a lot of them must not have died yet. Lucky them”
“As for the soul speaker, well, he’s not exactly our leader. Maybe our spiritual leader? One of them anyway, and he does have quite the influential seat on the council, so if you want an audience with them, he’s not a bad way to get it” the witch told her, before thinking for a moment and then realizing “wait, hmmm, isn’t he visiting this side of the city today?” before tilting his hat a bit to block out the sun some more as he peered down at the city, before spotting a blue and orange banner fluttering above one of the buildings.
“Yes right there” he confirmed, pointing it out and calling the distance “just a shot trip by buggy”
He, naturally, offered to give her a ride there, and so, bouncing down a gravel road on the back of a bug powered go kart, began Amelia’s adventures in Tricity.
