Maidens of the Kaleidoscope
~Beyond the Border~ => Rumia's Party Games => Mystia's Stored Games => Topic started by: DracoOmega on December 14, 2013, 10:00:45 PM
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>You are Nazrin, a newly inducted member of the Seeker's Guild, and you are dying. And while you may be on the trail of a solution to your problem, a difficult trek through the wilderness and a perilous destination still stand between you and your bittercress blooms.
>Your career got off to an interesting and busy start last week, between stolen cats, missing cattle, and sword-wielding fairies, but things took a much darker turn when an encounter with a wild spider youkai left you infected with a mysterious and deadly illness. Thanks to Minoriko's creative thinking and the power of an ancient sword found buried in the spider's lair, the Blight has been kept at bay. For now. But you were told you had no more than a couple weeks to live unless a cure could be found, and one of them has already passed.
>Your search for this cure has been a long and frustrating road. You could find little useful information about your affliction or its treatment in Braston, so you sought passage to Val Razua in the hope that its Grand Academy might house the information you desperately require. While the journey was marred by a bloody and near-disastrous struggle with tengu pirates that resulted in the Blue Maiden's defeat and the capture of a curious relic it had been transporting in secret, you still arrived in Val Razua more or less on schedule and in one piece.
>Fortunately, some of your hopes were realized when you discovered a passage, buried in the rare books collection of the Voile Magisterial Library, describing a medicinal mixture which can cure 'the ragged blackening of the veins'. Unfortunately, after consulting with a knowledgeable but somewhat incoherent professor of herbalism, you have learned that bittercress blossoms, a critical ingredient of this mixture, occur only once every seven years and are not due for another three. While you hoped that the blessed soil Minoriko gave you might hold the key to obtaining these rare blooms, but the seeds which you grew within it still have not flowered. Thus, you left the city in pursuit of a more dangerous option.
>You have come to Isir's Cross in search of a mysterious garden rumored to be located in the wilderness to its west, and which contains innumerable different plants perpetually in bloom. Thanks to the help of Sekibanki, the fort's disturbingly decapitation-resilient captain, you now have a better idea where this garden is located and how to get there, as well as additional supplies to the journey. Unfortunately, the picture being painted of its owner, Yuuka, has only become more unsettling. Still, you see no choice but to find and appeal to her aid; if you don't, you may be dead already, so you have precious little to lose.
>You are currently in some kind of supply depot in the fort, having just purchased a few items of surplus gear, with Sekibanki's assistance.
>"Yeah, you were a huge help, more than i can say."
>"If you say so," Sekibanki replies impassively, then turns and leads out of the supply depot.
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>Follow!
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>Follow!
>You follow the captain as she leads you back to the gatehouse where you first entered the fort. The layout of the place is starting to feel a little more familiar in your mind now, though it remains a tangle of stone and brick and poorly-considered renovations with scarcely enough space inside the walls to contain it. You suppose it could almost be cozy, after a fashion, provided you got along with the other people crammed inside.
>"Well, here we are," Sekibanki says as you arrive at the gate. "I'd wish you good luck, but I don't believe in the stuff; don't know it would do you much good where you're going, even if I did."
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>"Thanks, though. You mean well and that's better than a lot of folks I've dealt with."
>Go get that sword back, daaaa!
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>"Thanks, though. You mean well and that's better than a lot of folks I've dealt with."
>Go get that sword back, daaaa!
>For a moment, Sekibanki seems almost to grin. "Heh."
>The captain turns and head back into the fort as you walk through the gate, the heavy door closing behind you with a dull thud. Wasting not another moment, you walk up to the guard at the gatehouse and ask for your sword back.
>"Sure thing," she says, reaching around a counter and handing Kumokirimaru back to you, along with the kunai you left in her care. "Every bit as good as they were an hour ago."
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>"Thank you very much."
>Clip it back into place, sigh with relief.
>Once things are prepared, head out.
Okay. So. We do not have time to screw around. Checking Kagerou and the Faerie village will cost us a day we may not have, for only a possibility of getting better data. In particular, as much as I like Kagerou, we have no guarantee at all she has anything useful to contribute. The faeries, at least, may have some idea of where to go. Assuming we haven't been misinformed.
So, what do?
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>"Thank you very much."
>Clip it back into place, sigh with relief.
>Once things are prepared, head out.
>"Just doing my job," she says brightly.
>You put your weapons, and particularly your sword, back where they belong. Though you seem no worse for wear than when you deposited it, it nonetheless feels very reassuring to have your hands back upon its grip once more.
>Then you bid the fort and its outermost inhabitant farewell and march off along the road that leads to the eponymous cross. The stars have moved slightly, but otherwise the night has changed little.
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Tough call either way. I think there can be no doubt that Kagerou would be the more reliable of the two. But we know that some fairies found Yuuka.
I myself would opt for heading back to the village and seeing if we can expand our information store about Kagerou. It seems the safest option, at the moment.
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I'm not seeing us really finding more information on Kagerou that's useful. If she were a legendary tracker or a cartographer extraordinaire, or anything else that would make her more useful, we'd know about it already, it would have been volunteered when we asked. I take the opposite tack; if we want to find Kagerou, we need to head out that way right now, and make up for lost time as much as possible. We'll put that room to use when we get back. In fact, we might want to be doing that anyways just to get a head start on the faeries if we're going that way. And we most def want to do it if we feel we have as much info as we're going to get for lost time and we're just heading out that way now. At this point, I'd personally give Kagerou a miss, but I won't oppose it if we're burning some midnight oils.
>Check detections once more, where are Kagerou and the faerie village with relation to the village and the general direction we are going to want to go.
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>Check detections once more, where are Kagerou and the faerie village with relation to the village and the general direction we are going to want to go.
>From your current location, the garden is somewhere far to the west. Kagerou also lives within the woods to the west, so you've been told, though much closer. Gwen only gave a general indication of her location, but you'd need to pass fairly close to that section of the river anyway, and it probably wouldn't be more than a couple miles out of your way at worst. The fairies' lake is along a separate road to the southwest, screened from the western wilderness by ridges of hills that you think would be impractical to cross. The village of Isir's Cross itself is to the east, and currently closer than any of these other locations, though also directly opposite where you will eventually need to travel.
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Taking into consideration that Kagerou is more or less along the way to where Yuuka is (hopefully), I advocate heading that way first. It shouldn't take us too long to find her one way or the other, and while I'm all about making the time we have left count, if she DOES turn out to be a dead-end (which I largely doubt), it's not much fur off our tail.
That said, however, it is still late, so, before we head either way,
>Assess fatigue and hunger status.
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>Assess fatigue and hunger status.
>You feel a little weary, but you've still got a couple hours left in you before you might want to lie down, and probably some more if you need them. You had a decent meal on the ferry just before disembarking and aren't especially hungry at the moment.
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Well fuck it, I want to get something done before New Years.
>Let's go find that lycanthrope.
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>Let's go find that lycanthrope.
>Having finally made up your mind, you set off to the west in search of Kagerou, and the hope that someone who lives in this forest might know a little more about what lies beyond. The rugged grassland soon gives way to dense clusters of trees and moon is quickly veiled behind their branches.
>While it would be far too generous to call it a road, there is the suggestion of a trodden path for some part of the distance, mossy dirt trampled bare by the steady passage of feet. It does not seem that any did so very recently, however and the only accompanyment to sound of your transit is the scamper and voice of the ocasisonal mouse or racoon, and the droning call of a nightjar. You orient yourself with map and compass periodically, as the trail divides or grows vague. Dense pine and hickory give way to small bumpy clearings and stands of oak or maple. In the distance to your left rise craggy hills, visable in snatches through the leafy cover - the ones which seperate the lakeshore from the northern forest, you think.
>The journey is not overly taxing, but nor is it light. Even at your height, you are forced to duck beneath branches and push others aside, circling around small boulders resting indolently in the middle of crossings between thick trees. The wood is dark and the underbrush sometimes tangled, but it's still quite manageable. For the time-being, anyway. An hour passes without event, and then most of another.
>It's hard to guage exact distances in the absense of explicit landmarks, but the protruding heights of the southern hills have been falling further and further behind you, when the forest around you gives way enough to see them. The Grau cannot be much further ahead now and that would put you in the general region the woman back at the tavern indicated for Kagerou. From there, she could be north or south or further west or who knows where - Gwen might not even have been fully correct, after all. You are already feeling more weary than expected and you know that the longer march ahead of you has barely begun.
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>Look around. Do we see:
>Human feetprints?
>Wolf tracks or spoor
>Trails with enough brush cleared that people might conceivably use them them without the troubles we've had thus far?
>Trails at all?
>Other interesting thinglets that occur to us while searching about for the above?
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>Look around. Do we see:
>Human feetprints?
>There are signs of old trodden ground, but no prints are distinct and fresh. Once or twice along the way you found a suggestion of something more recent, but only just - you think it may have rained since the last person walk along here.
>Wolf tracks or spoor
>Those you have not seen even a suggestion of - at least not that you noticed. While you've run across various animal trails, most seemed to belong to smaller animals than a wolf.
>Trails with enough brush cleared that people might conceivably use them them without the troubles we've had thus far?
>Trails at all?
>You've been following the closest thing to a trail that you've encountered. Some parts might conceivably have been deliberately cleared, but not recently enough for the human intervention to be incontrovertible. Really, the number of times you've had to duck under or around something is reasonably tame for a couple hours' hiking and you might not even be following the most ideal route - simply the best you've noticed from where you entered.
>Other interesting thinglets that occur to us while searching about for the above?
>As you take this moment to pause and examine your surroundings, hints of a new smell drift to you on a faint southerly breeze, beneath the enveloping scent of old wood and bitter moss. Smells like... blackberries?
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>Let's follow that odor!
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>Let's follow that odor!
>You turn to follow the source of the breeze, making your way off of what passes for a beaten track around here, though thankfully the surrounding terrain isn't much worse at the moment. After passing a couple small hills and a dense stand of maple, you emerge into a partial clearing; there are just enough gaps between the high canopy to let in several ragged pools of moonlight, their contour shifting steadily with the wind.
>Sure enough, towards the other side is a dense thicket of blackberries, hanging full and dark and ripe. There are enough of them to fill several large buckets, easily.
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>Approach the thicket and look around for signs of people having been around.
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>Approach the thicket and look around for signs of people having been around.
>You walk over to the blackberry thicket and take a look around. The plant growth is very dense here; you could probably even hide yourself inside it without being visible from the outside, though you'd make an awful racket just shifting a limb. There are some signs that parts of the plants have been disturbed - a broken or bent branch here or there and patches that seem bare of berries - but that could have been caused by any number of creatures. Otherwise, it doesn't seem clear that- ...wait. Footprints. Humanoid footprints.
>They are small and light and hard to notice at first in the mossy soil, but unmistakable on second inspection. In fact, there is more than one set, woven in and around each other and the blackberry thicket. They're somewhat recent, though perhaps older than today, and much too small to belong to an adult - an adult human, at any rate.
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>Do the prints seem to lead anywhere?
>Do they match what we'd expect from faeries?
>Are there anything other than faeries and children we'd expect to have such footprints?
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>Do the prints seem to lead anywhere?
>Do they match what we'd expect from faeries?
>Are there anything other than faeries and children we'd expect to have such footprints?
>They seem to lead in all kinds of directions at once; it's rather unclear.
>That would be your guess; on closer inspection there is a faint lingering scent of... hyacinth?
>Nothing else comes readily to mind, though it's not impossible that some other youkai might be as small.
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>Are lingering floral smells a common feature of faeries?
>Do we see any footprints around that are larger?
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>Are lingering floral smells a common feature of faeries?
>Do we see any footprints around that are larger?
>It's not altogether uncommon, though you find that fairies can vary quite a bit in this regard.
>Some are larger than others, though all are small in absolute terms.
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>Let's try to follow that hyacinth odor, then.
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>Let's try to follow that hyacinth odor, then.
>Though it is faint even to your nose, you do your best to lock onto the out-of-place floral scent and follow where it leads, amid the underbrush and jumble of tiny footprints. You go north, the west, then south and north again - it seems whoever it is didn't much care for walking in straight lines. More footprints can be spotted here and there, where the soil allows for them, though none are more distinct than those back by the blackberry thicket. Then the trail seems to end abruptly; you circle the vicinity several times but find no further footprints that you aren't reasonably confident you've already seen. The lingering floral scent also seems absent. There appears to be nothing special about this location as far as you can determine.
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Draco I can't finish King's Blade til you get on IRC =[
>Let's have a look around for faerie hidey holes, and see if we can pick up that scent again in the process.
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>Let's have a look around for faerie hidey holes, and see if we can pick up that scent again in the process.
>You redouble your search of the area, looking for any place that something fairy-sized could have gone to ground, but the only thing you manage to flush out for your efforts is a feisty red squirrel; it protests its displeasure at this interruption with great vigor. Though not too far away you spot s tiny snatch of purple cloth caught on a elevated branch. The scent you'd been following is definitely stronger there, but it doesn't seem like its owner is currently nearby.
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>Fuck you squirrel. You're just a rat with a hairdo.
>Examine the area around the cloth for interesting things. Then take the cloth and examine it, unless doing so would ruin any aforementioned interesting things.
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>Fuck you squirrel. You're just a rat with a hairdo.
>Examine the area around the cloth for interesting things. Then take the cloth and examine it, unless doing so would ruin any aforementioned interesting things.
>And the foul mouth on that one, too!
>The area around the cloth contains an unremarkable assortment of leaves and other branches. The cloth itself appears to be fairly plain linen, frayed along the edge where it was torn. It seems to have gotten skewered upon a small but sturdy y-shaped branch, about ten or so feet off the ground. It's too small to even properly flutter in the breeze, such as it is at the moment.
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>Does the tree around it seem to be exceptional? For instance, might there be disturbed or broken branches to indicate that someone flew through them?
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>Does the tree around it seem to be exceptional? For instance, might there be disturbed or broken branches to indicate that someone flew through them?
>Not specifically, but if you had to guess, you might say that someone flew past it. It would explain the abrupt end to the footprints.
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>Consider the direction the footprints have gone, and toward the trees in that direction to see if there are any signs of passage among the branches.
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>Consider the direction the footprints have gone, and toward the trees in that direction to see if there are any signs of passage among the branches.
>On closer inspection, there is a bent twig or two in that direction, though the tree itself is sturdy enough that you wouldn't expect heavy disturbance unless whoever it was literally crashed into it.
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>Let's pay some more attention to those bent twigs; do they feel consistent with a flight path?
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>Let's pay some more attention to those bent twigs; do they feel consistent with a flight path?
>They could.
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>Let's continue in that direction a bit, checking the trees and the ground alternately, to see if any traces show themselves. Or interesting scents.
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>Let's continue in that direction a bit, checking the trees and the ground alternately, to see if any traces show themselves. Or interesting scents.
>This seems difficult, as that direction is primarily up and you're limited to the treetops at the very best - these are not particularly tall.
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>Does the direction of the traces which have a compass seem to be going toward where we think the faerie village would be?
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>Does the direction of the traces which have a compass seem to be going toward where we think the faerie village would be?
>It is somewhat hard to be exact from your current position, as you're not sure exactly where your current position is, but you don't think so.
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>Hmm.
>Produce rods and scan for unusual metals.
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>Hmm.
>Produce rods and scan for unusual metals.
>You take out your dowsing rods and have a scan for any unusual metals in the area. A few moments' concentration turns up trace deposits of iron, tin, and a little zinc in your immediate vicinity, though this is neither unusual nor economically interesting; you can find as much or more nearly anywhere. You sense nothing rare, nothing magical, nothing even worth somebody's time to dig up. Casting wider, you find much the same thing, though it grows increasingly hard to sense at all as you go further out. The fort is not hard to find if you pay attention, even from this distance, the refined metal of its clustered armaments and faint hints of multiple enchantments standing distinct from the unsettled lands that surround it; in a more densely-packed region, it would long ago have been lost to background noise. And probably still would to most people, for that matter - even in your current state, you can allow yourself a little pride.
>In a similar vein, there are a couple hints of something in the opposite direction which just barely brush across your attention after another minute or two - something which feels less rough and natural than its surroundings. It is so faint that it might be nothing, but it's also in the general direction you believe you're supposed to be traveling anyway. The distance is hard to gauge - closer than Isir's Cross, certainly, and much smaller - but probably still the better part of an hour away.
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>Let's close in on that feeling about an hour away.
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>Let's close in on that feeling about an hour away.
>You stow your dowsing rods again and head westward in the general direction of the faintly conspicuous signature you detected. This is not far off the path you were originally following before you diverged in search of blackberries and fairy footprints, and sometimes the terrain itself forces you to follow closer to it than would be strictly direct; there is only so much you can do about the bumpy terrain and thick underbrush. Faint birdsong and the rustle of tiny animals through the bushes offer sporadic counterpoint to the steady thump of your feet against the mossy dirt. Just once, you thought you might have heard a voice call out at the edge of your hearing, but if it really was, you were unable to find further sign of who it belonged to. You continue forward.
>You take periodic measurements with your dowsing rods as the terrain forces you to steer aside in one direction or the other, referencing your map each time you do so. It seems increasingly likely that what you're sensing is some sign of habitation, past if not present - smelted metal of some sort, more refined than that in the ground around it and much more of it in one place. It could just be a few tools strewn around an old campsite, but maybe an actual dwelling. You even start to sketch roughly where you think it's located on your map, correlating the shifts in its relative position with the changes in your own - probably on the other side of the Grau, towards the south.
>The Grau itself, at least, is easy to find. The gentle rumble of what could be nothing else first reaches your ears about twenty minutes after resuming your journey, then weaves steadily louder among the sounds of the forest until it has risen above them all. A hint of fresh spray from its waters mingles with the heady scent of the wood around you long before you can spy the river's flow through a gap between the trees.
>The river is broader than you suspected, though it does not look to be particularly deep, judging from the multiple protruding rocks that can be seen cresting its surface even far from shore. The waters churn grey around them, but the flow elsewhere is clear and cold - forceful, but not rapid. Trees crowd close to the river on both sides, before their soil gives way to rocky ground with little for a plant to find purchase. There isn't really much of a shoreline to speak of, but you suppose someone could prop themselves up on one of several convenient rocks and have a comfortable enough time fishing, if they cared to - assuming there's actually something worth catching in the river, of course. The meandering course of the river and the dense forest that surrounds at least this part of it prevents you from seeing more than a couple hundred feet along it in either direction, and nothing that you can see particularly catches your eye.
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>Do we see any spots where the river might be forded, or crossed without getting into it?
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>Do we see any spots where the river might be forded, or crossed without getting into it?
>Not from your current vantage. While some of the rocks look navigable, if rather water-slick, there aren't enough of them close enough together to reach from one bank to the other without diving into the water itself.
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>Have a look around, anything like footprints or signs of passage?
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>Have a look around, anything like footprints or signs of passage?
>A brief search turns up a few animal prints, but nothing that conceivably belongs to a person.
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>Presumably no wolf prints either.
>Does the river seem to widen or narrow in either direction?
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>Presumably no wolf prints either.
>Does the river seem to widen or narrow in either direction?
>None that you saw. The largest thing was probably a badger.
>The width varies a little here or there, but does not seem to do so consistently in either direction. There are, however, a couple spots on your map which are presumably fordable - at least the trail crosses the river without comment - though they are somewhat out of the way of where you're trying to head at the moment and would require some backtracking.
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>Compare the directions of those trails to how irritating the forest looks in their respective directions, and determine which one would seem to take the least time to get to.
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>Presumably the trees are not close enough to enable us to either swing from one side to the other, or jump across?
>Cast Detect Evil.
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>Compare the directions of those trails to how irritating the forest looks in their respective directions, and determine which one would seem to take the least time to get to.
>Well, they're all northward of your current position, and the place you're aiming to reach is southward, so it doesn't really matter which - you'd be walking the same way. The shoreline seems fairly navigable in general, though.
>Presumably the trees are not close enough to enable us to either swing from one side to the other, or jump across?
>Cast Detect Evil.
>The tops of the trees are further away than the banks of the river are, anyway, and the height wouldn't add nearly enough distance to a jump to cover the whole width of the river here - probably it would just a be a great way to break some part of yourself against the rocks. Though maybe if you could get a rope to the other side somehow, you might be able to get across that way. Would be tricky to secure it from this far away, though.
>If only evil were that easy to sense, the world might be a less complicated place. Sadly, you couldn't even cast Prestidigitation if your life depended on it.
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>Don't we have a grappling hook?
>Bullhonkery. We have to have at least one level in Diviner. Mage/Rogue ftw.
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>Don't we have a grappling hook?
>Bullhonkery. We have to have at least one level in Diviner. Mage/Rogue ftw.
>You do, and enough rope to reach the other side. The issue will be in throwing it that far across and managing to land it on something secure; if it were half the distance that it is, there'd be no problem.
>I'm afraid this dowsing business is all Use Magic Device feats, sorry.
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>Wait a minute, we're a douser. Water is easy.
>Scan for the thinnest point of the water's flow within a short distance.
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>Wait a minute, we're a douser. Water is easy.
>Scan for the thinnest point of the water's flow within a short distance.
>While detecting water isn't hard, it's rather more difficult to measure specific changes in the width of the river from your current position, in somewhat the same way that it's hard to measure someone's height by looking at them from directly above; the bend and meander of the river would confound any attempt to get a good read on the width at any specific distant point without yourself being geographically aligned with it. This probably means standing in the river. For that matter, a more pertinent point here is probably the height and closeness of surrounding trees, which you definitely can't dowse for in a useful way.
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Will not be flummoxed by a river.
>Make sure no one's looking.
>Then string up a rope & grappling hook combination and attempt to hitch up to one of the trees on the other side.
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>Make sure no one's looking.
>Then string up a rope & grappling hook combination and attempt to hitch up to one of the trees on the other side.
>You are fairly certain no one is watching as you produce your rope and grapple and tie them together. Though one wrinkle in your brilliant plan becomes fairly obvious as you size up suitable trees on both banks: even with the best candidates you can see, the distance between them is greater than their elevation from the ground. In other words, someone swinging from a tree on one side would land in the river long before actually reaching the opposite bank.
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>Well, then.
>Stick arm into the river to gauge depth, if we cannot gauge this data from a visual assessment.
>Outside of cold feet, there's really no reason we couldn't just walk across the river, is there? Assuming it doesn't drop off in the middle.
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>Well, then.
>Stick arm into the river to gauge depth, if we cannot gauge this data from a visual assessment.
>Outside of cold feet, there's really no reason we couldn't just walk across the river, is there? Assuming it doesn't drop off in the middle.
>It's easy enough to see the river bottom by the shore, but it does descend visibly as you get further out and soon enough is hard to gauge, between the churn of the water and the lighting conditions. You couldn't really reach your arm out that far without wading into the river first, though.
>You strongly suspect you will get up to at least your torso, and quite possibly deeper; the current is likely not strong enough to cause you real problems, but isn't completely ignorable either.
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>Well, if we can't swing across, could we use such a tether as a safety line? Or possibly as a way to help keep our balance as we try to cross across those rocks?
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>Well, if we can't swing across, could we use such a tether as a safety line? Or possibly as a way to help keep our balance as we try to cross across those rocks?
>You suppose you could, though the main danger in swimming across seems to be becoming thoroughly wet; the current doesn't look strong enough to cause you any real issues. Unfortunately, beyond the problem of keeping balance on wet rocks (which you might be able to manage regardless), there are simply gaps between them too large to actually jump across. Maybe somewhere up or downstream would have a more convenient arrangement of them, but a balance aid isn't going to help you leap a 15 foot gap from a standstill.
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What do you think, ford here or go for a walk to find a better place?
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Find a better place. Werewolfen gets to town easily enough.
>Let's mosey more toward our ultimate goal for now.
>And maybe dowse briefly to see if we can detect anything like a bridge in the distance; the worked iron in the nails ought to stand out.
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>Let's mosey more toward our ultimate goal for now.
>And maybe dowse briefly to see if we can detect anything like a bridge in the distance; the worked iron in the nails ought to stand out.
>You follow the river southward for a little while, dowsing after a few bends in the path to see if maybe a bridge might lie ahead. You have to admit, upon reflection, that it's possible what you've been sensing all along is a bridge; it's near enough to the water relative to your distance from it that it could very well be. Though as you continue onward, you start to have your doubts again - at least if the river's path on the map you're holding is accurate. It somehow doesn't feel quite in the right position.
>After maybe ten minutes of walking, you come to a point where the river narrows slightly. But more importantly, there is a small rise in the opposite bank where the forest loam - and the trees rooted in it - extends much closer to the water than normal before descending steeply to the rocky shoreline below. There is the rock face itself to contend with, but the angle between the trees on each bank could certainly keep you above the water's surface from here.
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>All right, now we're getting somewhere.
>About how far away is that reading we've been following now?
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>All right, now we're getting somewhere.
>About how far away is that reading we've been following now?
>It's hard to say for certain, but probably at least another twenty minutes, you'd guess.
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>Glance furthur downriver. Does the river narrow perceptibly any more down the line that we can see?
>Assess this location as a crossing point.
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>Glance furthur downriver. Does the river narrow perceptibly any more down the line that we can see?
>Assess this location as a crossing point.
>Not appreciably, though you can only get a good view for another hundred or so feet, from here.
>In terms of swimming, it seems fairly comparable to the first point; the journey would be a few feet shorter, but that makes little difference in the scheme of things. And if anything, there are even fewer rocks to use as stepping stones than the last location. The height differential does make grappling across more viable, though it would still require some measure of acrobatics.
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>A level of acrobatic beyond or within our current capacity?
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>A level of acrobatic beyond or within our current capacity?
>You grudgingly have to admit that you're not in top form anymore, but you still think you could manage this. Aside from landing and securing the hold on the other bank, the trick will be not to simply careen straight into the rock face when you swing. If you aim to the side instead of directly across and learn your weight against the arc, you can probably swing clear around and miss it, then drop to the shore below. Probably. Assuming your grapple holds, of course.
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>How confidant are we in getting a secure grapple grip on the other side?
>If the answer to the above is 'rather confidant' or above, make the attempt.
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>How confidant are we in getting a secure grapple grip on the other side?
>If the answer to the above is 'rather confidant' or above, make the attempt.
>That really remains to be tested. It is liable to take several tries at best and probably quite a few more, and there's only so confident you can be about it bearing your weight if you can't actually inspect where it lands. You can at least give it a few good experimental tugs before hoisting yourself across the river by it, of course; you know how to be thorough, within the limits of what you have to work with.
-
>Several tries. Bah. We're Nazrin. We'll get it in one.
>Let's start with making that shot.
-
>Several tries. Bah. We're Nazrin. We'll get it in one.
>Let's start with making that shot.
>Feeling a bout of irritated confidence - you don't have time to be flummoxed by a river! - you produce your grappling hook once more, choose a suitable target on the opposite side - a nice stout oak with a few good protruding branches - move to somewhere with a clear shot, take aim, and fire! Sadly, this soon gives way to just plain irritation.
>Your first shot doesn't even reach the tree, instead clattering against the side of the rock face and tumbling down to the shore. You reel the rope back through the river and take a second shot, spray flying off the rope as it sails over the water again. Your aim is fair, but the grapple is a lot less aerodynamic than what you're used to throwing, and also heavier - particularly with so much rope trailing it. You put a bit more muscle into it and try a higher arc and this time it does come pretty close to the mark, but fails to catch on anything. You try a third time. There is a bit of hope on the fourth, but whatever purchase the grapple found in the oak branches gives way once you try throwing your weight against the rope - from the safety of the shore, at least. With a grumble, you press on.
>Possibly the worst part of all this is the utterly vexing tendency for the grapple to get caught on scrub on its way back - far too tenuous a grip to hold your body weight, but bloody well enough to be insufferable. Thus every second toss is followed by a wrestling match against ungainly plant life too far away to even see properly, letting go of the grapple only to grab it again a few inches later. It would almost be enough to make you quit if you hadn't nearly nail it last time. C'mon... just one more...
>Success! Tentative success. Need to really throw your weight against it first, you remind yourself - can't declare victory just yet. You bear against the rope as much as you can without actually being suspended in the air, and it holds fast. There is a slight rustle of leaves from the accommodating tree which you've been battering at for the last few minutes, but nothing gives the slightest inch and the branch itself looks sturdy enough to hoist a pair of oni, let alone you. You think you did it.
-
>
How come that Skywalker kid could pull that trick on the first shot, and not us? Mice > Jedi.
>Grin.
>"No grappling hook can make me look like a scrub."
>Let's get our tarzan on. But, a well-measured tarzan, with 95% less shouting. We're a mouse, not an elephant.
-
>How come that Skywalker kid could pull that trick on the first shot, and not us? Mice > Jedi.
>Grin.
>"No grappling hook can make me look like a scrub."
>Let's get our tarzan on. But, a well-measured tarzan, with 95% less shouting. We're a mouse, not an elephant.
>Need more people shooting at you while you work, obviously.
>Rope in hand, you select a suitable tree on this side of the river and work your way up it without letting go. You take a moment to center yourself, line up with the angle you think you need to jump, and visualize what you're about to do. You can do this. Hell, this should be easy compared to landing that grapple across the river. Of course, you also only get one shot to do it right. Focus.
>You take a deep breath and leap! There is a rush of vertigo as the air takes you and you fall, the wind fluttering your hair across your face and misting you with spray flicking off the rope you're tightly clinging to. You brace forcefully to the right, throwing as much of your weight as you can to swing your path aside. You feel a tautness in the rope as you pull against its length and momentum rotates you around the point where the grapple is lodged upon the oak. You sail swiftly over the river and the other bank approaches rapidly. And so do the trees.
>You have only a second or two to pick your landing among the stolid pillars and the web of limbs between them. The edge of the river passes beneath your feet and you let go, tumbling against the soil as gently as can be expected - which is to say: not very. You come to rest against a cluster of obligingly springy bushes, a startled bird rapidly departing the scene of your sudden arrival. Your shoulder aches.
-
>Let's have a moment to relax, and rub our shoulder. Then contemplate how we're going to get our hook back.
-
>Let's have a moment to relax, and rub our shoulder. Then contemplate how we're going to get our hook back.
>You lie in the soft bushes for a moment, rubbing your sore shoulder and absently noting the various other parts of you that ache - though several of them were already doing so before that feat of acrobatics.
>Retrieving your hook should be easy enough, though. You can simply walk up the little hill next to you and untether it from the oak that you hooked it on; it is on this side of the river, after all.
-
>Once our shoulder feels less murderous, grab the hook, then dowse again for that source of iron and such we had been following.
-
>Once our shoulder feels less murderous, grab the hook, then dowse again for that source of iron and such we had been following.
>It smarts a bit, but it honestly isn't that bad. You hoist yourself off the ground and walk up the hill to the oak that served as your anchor. You climb about halfway up, work the grapple loose, unwind the rope from around the branch it was coiled upon, then start to reel back the full length from where it's spread across the terrain.
>After gathering it all together, a quick dowse reconfirms the direction to your target; you have a clear enough path in that direction to head on mostly straight, if you wanted to.
-
>Head straight for it.
-
>Head straight for it.
>You give your rope a few shakes to flick some of the residual water from it, then stow it in your pack and continue westward, following mostly near the river where the tree cover is less dense and movement easier. Being on this bank does allow you to cut quite a few corners, however, as the river bends back and forth in broad and languid curves. Leaves rustle faintly as you pick your way beneath a stand of jeuvenile maples, and the beat of tiny wings in the distance softly punctuates the unbroken flow of the Grau.
>Before too long, a faint but distinct wisp of wood smoke brushes past your nose. In the middle of a forest, such a scent might normally be alarming were you not fairly convinced you were approaching some kind of dwelling. And sure enough, the faint yellow glow brushing across one spot on the horizon could indicate little else - much too subdued for a wildfire at this distance, but in contrast to the dull grey moonlight, might as well be lit like a beacon. As you round a rocky hill upon which a stubborn pine has taken root at an improbable angle, a thin tendril of smoke can be seen lazily winding upward between a gap in the trees. Whether you're approaching the right place or not, there's almost certainly someone not too far ahead.
>The source of the smoke comes into clear view a couple minutes later, nestled among some shady beech near a sheltered expanse of open shoreline. It is a log cabin of modest size, but surprisingly tidy construction, broad ruddy logs fitted together with careful evenness beneath a sharp gable roof and ringed around half its length by an elevated deck with a small logwork rail. Some distance to the side is a smaller outbuilding in a similar style - a shed, most likely - and not far past that is a triangular wooden rack suspended over an empty fire pit. An old wiff of smoked trout suggests its likely purpose. A warm flicking glow streams from the cabin's windows, dancing softly upon the wrought iron shutters which flank them. One might even call the place 'quaint' - it's certainly better-looking than some houses back in Braston.
-
>Approach the door and knock on it gently.
>While hoping for the best, let's mentally prepare ourself for the possibility this to be some crazy person who might come at us with an axe.
-
>Approach the door and knock on it gently.
>While hoping for the best, let's mentally prepare ourself for the possibility this to be some crazy person who might come at us with an axe.
>You approach the cabin's door, idly noting the large geometric design carved into its surface - a bit rustic, but executed with obvious care. From beyond you can hear a woman's voice very softly humming to herself; she sounds normal enough, for whatever that's worth. The sharp scent of woodsmoke tickles your nostrils.
>You give a little knock. The humming stops. There is a quick patter of footsteps, followed by a dull sound of metal scraping lightly against something. The footsteps approach.
>"Who is it?" the woman's voice calls out. She sounds slightly uncertain, but not overly pensive.
-
>Ah hell, she does have an axe...
>"Just a traveler, looking to ask some things. Heard about you in town."
-
>Ah hell, she does have an axe...
>"Just a traveler, looking to ask some things. Heard about you in town."
>If worst comes to worst, at least swords get a bonus versus axe-users
>The voice grows slightly more guarded. "Oh?"
>The door opens a crack to reveal a tall brown-haired woman with bold red eyes, the hint of a canine ear barely visible by the edge of the door frame. Her expression is a touch wary, but not enough to immediately inspire the same in you. What little you can see of the room beyond looks tidy and welcoming, all warm wood and simple accents. The crisp crackle of a wood fire issues from within.
>"What sort of things?" she asks.
-
>"Stuff about the region. Word has it that you know your way around."
>Let's do a quick mental summary of what we've learned about our goal thus far.
-
>"Stuff about the region. Word has it that you know your way around."
>"A little," she says reservedly. You note her eyes rest upon your sword for a moment, then she looks back up at you with a quizzical expression. "Did someone really send you out here to me?"
>Let's do a quick mental summary of what we've learned about our goal thus far.
>Somewhere in the wilderness to the west lies a garden supposedly filled with all manner of flowers kept perpetually in bloom; the story has been corroborated by enough independent sources by now that you're fairly confident there's at least some truth to this. Dai claimed that some of her sisters had encountered it in person, and spoke in frightened tones about the youkai the garden belonged to - one by the name of Yuuka - trying gently to discourage you from investigating. Sekibanki apparently holds a strong suspicion that this is Yuuka Kazami, a notorious figure in the Wild Surge, linked with at least one massacre and presumed dead 50 years ago. Even she wasn't convinced this was true, but she didn't strike you as the type prone to flights of fancy. ...just flights of noggin, you guess. The garden cannot be found on any map you've seen, but Sekibanki indicated the region she believes it must occupy, based on some combination of reports and patrol routes which rule out its presence in other areas. This region is still larger than you'd like, but nonetheless narrows the terrain you'd have to search considerably. You could reach this area in approximately three day's hike from Isir's Cross, and you are a couple hours in that direction already now.
-
>Remind ourselves of what we know Kagerou and how we came to hear of her.
-
>Remind ourselves of what we know Kagerou and how we came to hear of her.
>That was only a couple hours ago! Is the blight making you go senile too?
>You know very little about her, other than that she's a werewolf who lives out this way and comes into town every couple of weeks. Several people seemed to know of her, at least. One of the woman at the inn called her 'sweet' and said 'she wouldn't hurt a soul', for however much that's worth. Beyond that, you actually know very little.
-
>"Not so much sent as I got the idea you're one of the few folks who knows much about the wilderness."
-
>And I'll have you know that theives can never be senile. Only mages can be senile. ... Or are we a myrmidon?
-
>"Not so much sent as I got the idea you're one of the few folks who knows much about the wilderness."
>"Well, I do live here," she admits. There is a moment's hesitation, then she opens the door a little further. "Would you like to step inside?"
-
>Nod. "Certainly. Thank you."
>Politeness always helps.
>Enter casa de fur.
-
>WIPE FEET BEFORE ENTERING.
-
>Nod. "Certainly. Thank you."
>Politeness always helps.
>Enter casa de fur.
>WIPE FEET BEFORE ENTERING.
>You accept Kagerou's offer graciously, wipe your feet on the deck, then step inside.
>"You can take off your shoes on the mat there, if you'd please," she says, indicating one that you just stepped on, as she moves further into the house. "Would you like some tea?"
-
>Take them shoes off.
>"Please, if you have some ready."
>Have a look around.
-
>"Oh, I haven't introduced myself yet, have I. I'm Nazrin."
-
>Take them shoes off.
>"Please, if you have some ready."
>Have a look around.
>You take your shoes off on the mat, leaving them neatly beside a pair of sturdy leather hiking boots that look like they've seen their share of action.
>"Well, I wasn't expecting company," she says, "but it's no trouble, really."
>You take a look around the place while your host steps into an adjoining room. It seems to be relatively open-concept, with porch and living and dining space all sharing the same room, though perhaps this is a concession to the building's small footprint. The walls are largely bare wood, though the effect is more cozy than crude, with splashes of color from a large rug and comfortable-looking throws over the chairs. Shelves lined with small ornaments and carvings run along one of the walls, flanked by a framed painting of a waterfall cascading off a small islet and several wood burnings of modest skill - mostly of nature scenes, though one bears a reasonable resemblance to Kagerou herself. A wood-burning stove rests in the opposite corner; even at this distance you can feel the heat radiating from it. Above all the space seems bright and tidy, with multiple blazing lanterns spread about, and nearly every object seeming like it belongs exactly where it is. The only arguable exception is what appears to be some kind of worktable along the rear wall, beside a stepladder presumably leading to the loft space, judging from the outside of the house; currently it is spread with an assortment of small metal tools and a small slice of log with the bark still on it - not unlike some of the wood burnings hung from the wall, in fact - and looking rather as though someone was recently using them.
>"Oh, I haven't introduced myself yet, have I. I'm Nazrin."
>"Pleased to make your acquaintance. I'm Kage-" she stops, then suppresses a chuckle. "I suppose you must already know that if you're all the way out here. I don't usually get many visitors."
-
>"I imagine not, Except maybe the odd faerie. Sorry to bother you so late at night."
-
>"I imagine not, Except maybe the odd faerie. Sorry to bother you so late at night."
>"Oh, don't worry about the time. I don't usually go to sleep until dawn."
-
>A girl after my own heart.
>Is that remarkably uncommon in our own experience?
-
>"Well, that's good to hear. Anyways, what I need is information about these woods, and the lands to the <direction of the legendary field>. Would you be willing to have a look at my map and see if there's any obvious flaws?"
-
>A girl after my own heart.
>Is that remarkably uncommon in our own experience?
>Not really; quite a few youkai trend towards being nocturnal, particularly if they ascended from some animal which also was. Integrating into wider society sometimes puts a dampener on this, but you suppose it might be all the more common if one lived a largely isolated existence.
>"Well, that's good to hear. Anyways, what I need is information about these woods, and the lands to the <direction of the legendary field>. Would you be willing to have a look at my map and see if there's any obvious flaws?"
>"The west?" she asks quizzically. "I, um... I suppose I can. I'm not much of a cartographer, though. I know the area mostly because I lived here a while; I haven't really look at a map of it in a long time."
-
>Nod. "That's okay. We'll do what we can."
>Spread out the map on a table and let her have a look.
-
>Nod. "That's okay. We'll do what we can."
>Spread out the map on a table and let her have a look.
>You spread your map out on the kitchen table, placing the additional sections you traced from the fort's charts alongside it as Kagerou reappears from the other room bearing a small black kettle and other related supplies. She puts the kettle on the stove.
>"Ginger snap?" she asks, offering one in your direction. You can't help but note the long claw-like nails on her hand.
-
>"Oh, that's be nice!"
-
>"Oh, that's be nice!"
>With a still faintly pensive smile, Kagerou hands you the cookie, then takes a bite of a second one. She leans over your map.
>"These, uh, 'additions'," she says, pointing at the extra pages laid next to the map. "Are they your doing?"
-
>"Yeah, from other charts and stuff I got from the fortress. If they're wrong, let me know."
-
>"Yeah, from other charts and stuff I got from the fortress. If they're wrong, let me know."
>"Oh." She seems a little surprised. "Well, I don't think I could spot any mistake they hadn't. I mean, they have proper cartographers and all." But she keeps staring at the maps nonetheless.
>"These go pretty far out," she says after a moment.
-
>"Well, you live here and they're just visiting. So I'm inclined to give some weight to your word, you know?"
>"And yeah, they go out pretty far."
-
>"But, they don't show what I'm really looking for out here. Well, at least not so far as anyone can tell."
-
>"Well, you live here and they're just visiting. So I'm inclined to give some weight to your word, you know?"
>"Well, I'm flattered, but...."
>"And yeah, they go out pretty far."
>"But, they don't show what I'm really looking for out here. Well, at least not so far as anyone can tell."
>She frowns warily. "And what's that?"
-
>Have a bite of that cookie.
>Wryly, "A needle in a haystack, it's starting to feel like."
-
>Have a bite of that cookie.
>Wryly, "A needle in a haystack, it's starting to feel like."
>You take a bite of the cookie. It's a bit on the dry side, and the ginger is rather pungent, but it's not bad.
>This answer does little to dispel Kagerou's frown. She looks as though she is anticipating a follow-up.
-
>"You've heard of the legendary flower garden, right?"
-
It just occured to me, Purvis, that we're taking for granted Kagerou isn't a healer herself. Maybe she is, maybe she's even seen this blight before, or at least heard about it. We should ask, if the opportunity comes up.
-
There's really nothing about the house that indicates she's any kind of medic. Medicines don't just get conjured out of thin air, you need to have the supplies on hand, and you have to prepared. If she were, we'd be seeing a lot more herbs being dried and mortars and pestles and such, and less wood-burning stuff.
I suppose the question is; is there any more reason to think she's any more of a healer than Sekibanki or Yuugi were?
-
Probably not. I admit, it's a reach. Probably too convenient.
-
>"You've heard of the legendary flower garden, right?"
>Kagerou's brow knits tighter. "Legendary?"
-
>"A grandiose term, I admit, but not an inaccurate one, I don't think."
>"See, I've heard that somewhere out here... Well, there, I suppose," Indicate the map area we think the garden might be. "is a garden that stays in bloom all year 'round, rain or shine, snow or drought. I need to find this garden, but so far, I haven't found anyone that knew where it was, or how I could go about finding it."
-
>"A grandiose term, I admit, but not an inaccurate one, I don't think."
>"See, I've heard that somewhere out here... Well, there, I suppose," Indicate the map area we think the garden might be. "is a garden that stays in bloom all year 'round, rain or shine, snow or drought. I need to find this garden, but so far, I haven't found anyone that knew where it was, or how I could go about finding it."
>"Well, I don't either," she says firmly, then gestures at your map. "No better than this, anyway." A moment's pause - hesitation? Lips seem to open, then close again, but all she says is "I'm sorry."
-
>"I didn't think you'd really know where it is. What I'm trying to do is figure out where it isn't, and what kind of obstacles there are out there. See...it's kind of important. I mean, enough to make me show up at your house in the middle of the night unannounced important."
-
>"I didn't think you'd really know where it is. What I'm trying to do is figure out where it isn't, and what kind of obstacles there are out there. See...it's kind of important. I mean, enough to make me show up at your house in the middle of the night unannounced important."
>She frowns tentatively. "May I... ask why?"
-
>"Because I need to find a flower that blooms only once every few years to make a cure for someone who is suffering from an obscure plague caused by by an obscure youkai. They have about a week left, according to the best estimates."
-
>"Because I need to find a flower that blooms only once every few years to make a cure for someone who is suffering from an obscure plague caused by by an obscure youkai. They have about a week left, according to the best estimates."
>Kagerou's scarlet eyes grow suddenly serious. "A week?" She glances at the map again, then back up to you. "But it would take most of a week just to get there and back again!"
-
>"I don't anticipate much sleep, no."
-
>"I don't anticipate much sleep, no."
>"Even so...." She stares intently at the map again.
>"Is this person back in the village?"
-
>Shake head.
>"I don't anticipate much sleep."
-
>Shake head.
>"I don't anticipate much sleep."
>She frowns. "How... far?"
-
>"Far enough. Right now, let's focus on cutting that travel time, shall we?"
-
>"Far enough. Right now, let's focus on cutting that travel time, shall we?"
>"R- right." Kagerou returns her eyes to your map, slowly tracing up one side and down the other as a worried frown plays upon her face. She says nothing. In fact, you can scarcely hear her breathing over the crackle of the fire in the background. After a few moments, she starts to fidget inattentively with the nails on one of her hands, flicking one against the other - nervous habit? You think you can hear the kettle starting to simmer.
>"...how well can you swim?"
-
>"...Passably. But I've had some bad experiences. What do you have in mind?"
-
>"...Passably. But I've had some bad experiences. What do you have in mind?"
>"Somewhere around, um... here, I think-" she lays a finger upon a protuberance of the Grau to the west "-there's a grotto. It exits... here. Or, uh, thereabouts, I'm pretty sure." She circles a small spot to the northwest. Notably, this is on the other side of a ridge of rugged terrain marked as impractical to cross. The most obvious route on your map is appreciably more circuitous, as you round the ridge from the northeast then double back.
>"The entrance on this side is... underwater." She grimaces slightly. "Not very far; just a couple feet, really. I'm sure this wasn't what you had in mind," she adds apologetically.
-
>"...For that kind of time savings, it's worth it. Tell me more about it."
-
>"...For that kind of time savings, it's worth it. Tell me more about it."
>"Well, the grotto's mostly one long straight path, so you shouldn't need to worry about getting lost in it - I don't have any map I could give you. It's open to the sky in places, just... too narrow to-" She pauses, then frowns in your direction. "You... can't turn into a mouse, can you?"
-
>"Never could figure out how to do that."
-
>"Never could figure out how to do that."
>She gives a little smile. "Fair enough. Anyway, like I was saying, the grotto isn't completely enclosed, but the only exits a normal person could get through are on either end. I don't know exactly where it comes out," she adds pensively. "But it's definitely somewhere in this general area. The entrance on this side is... Well, along this bank here is mostly sheer rock." She traces a finger along the area she said the grotto was located. "The entrance is... just a little more than halfway between this bend and the other end of the pond. There's a spot where two parts of the cliff butt together like this?" She holds her hands together at an angle. "There's a seam of smoky quartz right down the middle - it looks a bit like a big 's'. Kind of. The grotto entrance is about... hmmm... 15 or 20 feet further up. You duck right under the rock and come up in a little pool. You probably only need to hold your breath for 6 or 7 seconds if you're going the right way."
-
>How much of our stuff can we expect to get uselessly soaked on such a venture?
>"I'll have to keep this in mind. Something of a side question, does the name Yuuka mean anything to you?"
>Where have we narrowed down the likely locations of the garden to, based on the data we've gotten so far?
-
>How much of our stuff can we expect to get uselessly soaked on such a venture?
>Where have we narrowed down the likely locations of the garden to, based on the data we've gotten so far?
>Your pack is thoroughly waterproofed, so hopefully nothing. Sadly that won't stop your clothing getting soggy.
>Sekibanki indicated a (still admittedly fairly large) area about 3 day's journey to the west. This is well beyond any of the places Kagerou has mentioned so far.
>"I'll have to keep this in mind. Something of a side question, does the name Yuuka mean anything to you?"
>"That's..." She frowns in thought. "That's that name of the woman whose garden you're looking for, isn't it?"
-
>"Yep. Sounds like you know something?"
-
>"Yep. Sounds like you know something?"
>Kagerou shakes her head. "No, not really. I've just heard her name before. I heard she's supposed to be dangerous," she adds in a concerned tone.
-
>"Me too."
-
>"Me too."
>"I suppose you know what you're getting into better than I do," she says.
-
>"I desperately hope so."
>Indicate the region(s) where we think the garden may be. "Can you tell me anything about this, at all?"
-
>"I desperately hope so."
>Indicate the region(s) where we think the garden may be. "Can you tell me anything about this, at all?"
>Your response does little to dispel the worry from Kagerou's face.
>"About any of that?" she asks, peering at your tracing of the furthest reaches of the Isir's Cross charts. It's pretty sparsely detailed and sketchy, but the original honestly wasn't much better.
-
>"Yeah. Have you been there? Heard anything about it?"
-
>"Yeah. Have you been there? Heard anything about it?"
>"I don't... think I've been out that far," she says. "...maybe?"
>Kagerou picks up that part of the map and stares at it, a distant cast falling across her eyes. She slowly nods. "Yes, maybe. Once or twice. This hill here." She points at one. "I think I may have been there. I could be wrong!" she adds hastily. "But the way the edge curves in there looks familiar; there's a really good view from the top of that hill, and the tree cover is thinner along the north. One side of it was covered in poppies; it might be too late in the season for that now, though." The memory of a smile plays upon her face for a moment.
-
>"That's something I didn't know, at least."
>Consider where the hill is in relation to the grotto she mentioned.
-
>"That's something I didn't know, at least."
>"And it's... possible I've been somewhere around here a couple times." She gestures along the southeastern edge of the garden region. "There isn't really much to tell it apart from everything else around there, really."
>Consider where the hill is in relation to the grotto she mentioned.
>The hill is far to the west of the grotto, as is everything in the garden region, and also a decent bit north - probably two day's hike, all in all.
-
>"Let me ask you something different. How well do you know the faeries in that village near here?"
-
>"Let me ask you something different. How well do you know the faeries in that village near here?"
>"Some of them, a little," she says. "A few of them come and go out this way fairly often, and there's more of them out in town; I can't keep most of them straight, though."
-
>"The most specific information I got about this was from a faerie at the university in Val Razua named Dai. Heard of her?"
-
>Did we ever get her full name, or was it always just 'Dai'?
>If we got more, add it.
-
>Did we ever get her full name, or was it always just 'Dai'?
>If we got more, add it.
>That was the only name that was mentioned.
>"The most specific information I got about this was from a faerie at the university in Val Razua named Dai. Heard of her?"
>Kagerou shakes her head. "I've only been to the city once or twice."
-
>"Figured you might have met her around here. What with her being a faerie they let hang around the wizard's college and all. Anyways, she seemed to suggest that some of the faeries had actually been there. What I was hoping was you'd have some idea whether they were something like reliable, or if this was just another flight of fancy from them."
-
>"Figured you might have met her around here. What with her being a faerie they let hang around the wizard's college and all. Anyways, she seemed to suggest that some of the faeries had actually been there. What I was hoping was you'd have some idea whether they were something like reliable, or if this was just another flight of fancy from them."
>"If this was... um, which part?" She looks a little lost.
-
>"Is it worth my time to go there and ask them, or what?"
-
>"Is it worth my time to go there and ask them, or what?"
>"For directions to this garden you're looking for? I suppose it's possible?" Then her ears perk up in mild alarm. "Oh, the tea! Excuse me one moment."
>She gets up from the table to go attend to the kettle.
-
>Let her tend to that.
-
>Let her tend to that.
>You give Kagerou a few moments, while she takes the pot off the stove and pours the tea into a pair of plain ceramic mugs.
>"How do you like it?" she asks, teaspoon poised above a small jar of sugar.
-
>"Sweet, please."
-
>"Sweet, please."
>Kagerou pauses a moment, as if to consider how far she should take this, then spoons a generous helping of sugar into the tea and gives it a stir. Repeating the action with the other cup, she brings them both back to the table and hands one to you with a somehow still-awkward smile. "Here you go."
>The tea is hot and smells sharply of cinnamon.
-
>Sip!
>"I suppose the question is, would you trust 'em enough that it's not a waste of time?"
-
>Sip!
>"I suppose the question is, would you trust 'em enough that it's not a waste of time?"
>You take a sip of the tea. Youch... still too hot for you. Kagerou seems alright with hers, though.
>She considers this a moment as she nurses her tea. "I don't know. With someone's life on the line... I don't think I would unless I had to. But that's still a lot of territory to search. I could ask a friend or two, but I don't know there's time for it; I mean, I doubt you want to wait another day before leaving, right?"
-
>"I'd really rather not unless you're very sure these friends would know something."
-
>"I'd really rather not unless you're very sure these friends would know something."
>She shakes her head. "I'm not, sorry. I don't think very many people are in the habit of going that far out, and a garden is, well... probably pretty easy to miss in so much forest, anyway." She frowns. "I feel like you've come to the wrong place."
-
>Blow on the tea, then sip a little more.
>"How about this. What's the fastest and easiest way to get to the faerie village from here?"
-
>"Oh, I wouldn't say that. You've given me more details than I had before, that's always a help. Plus, I appreciate the hospitality."
-
>Blow on the tea, then sip a little more.
>"How about this. What's the fastest and easiest way to get to the faerie village from here?"
>You blow on the tea, then take another small sip. Still a bit hot, but drinkable.
>"Overland? Probably take the road southwest of the fort and get a boat across the lake, I guess. It would be quicker to just follow the river upstream if you could fly, but the hills that way are very hard climbing."
>"Oh, I wouldn't say that. You've given me more details than I had before, that's always a help. Plus, I appreciate the hospitality."
>"Oh, well that's the least I can do," she says. "How's the tea?"
-
>"Quite good, thank you. I've always liked cinnamon."
>Comparison. How quickly would we be able to travel with a guide? I mean, would we move faster and make better time if we traveled with someone to serve as a guide, or would we be better off unfettered by a companion?
-
>"Quite good, thank you. I've always liked cinnamon."
>Comparison. How quickly would we be able to travel with a guide? I mean, would we move faster and make better time if we traveled with someone to serve as a guide, or would we be better off unfettered by a companion?
>She smiles; perhaps a little unguarded for once. "I'm glad you like it."
>Surely that depends on how effective a guide they are, and how quickly they move themselves? You expect you could make better time than the average person, but you imagine anyone worth using as a guide ought to be able to move at least as quickly - otherwise why would you be using them in the first place?
-
>Allow me to rephrase.
>Based on what we've heard about Kagerou back in town, and from what she's told us thus far, do we get the impression that she could serve the role of an effective guide to us in this case? Never mind if she will or not, we'll cross that bridge when the time comes.
-
>Allow me to rephrase.
>Based on what we've heard about Kagerou back in town, and from what she's told us thus far, do we get the impression that she could serve the role of an effective guide to us in this case? Never mind if she will or not, we'll cross that bridge when the time comes.
>Not much was said about Kagerou's wilderness skills, other than that she chose to live out here and travels back and forth to town fairly regularly, which implies at least some facility. You don't know how fast she moves, but familiarity alone ought to give her some advantages on you, particularly in your current lackluster physical condition. However, this might not hold if you were to enter territory she was not familiar with. Though she did say she reached that hill within the garden search area, you don't know if it means she could reach it again without issue, or - more pertinently - with significantly less issue than you already could by following the map. You suspect that unless you are accompanied by someone with unusual skills or specific knowledge, their presence would not be a strong help to the pace you could keep. It's possible she could know a few more shortcuts for the first part of the way though, you guess.
-
>Plus she brews a good tea, that's always a plus for a companion.
Especially in a touhou game, eh.
>Grin wryly. "'sides, I've got a long way to go and not much time to get there. It's good to be able to have a nice cup of tea before getting into the worst of it."
>It's the little things.
-
So, now we make a choice. Do we go for the faeries, or dive into the unknown?
-
Honestly, at this point, I say we just dive into it. Since we haven't found anyone who knows where Yuuka is by this point, I have to assume there's something between here and there that will point us there, or that there's something in the garden we can lock onto and douse for. I don't have enough faith in the reliability of fairies to think they'll be anymore help than the dullahan or the werewolf.
-
The only thing that gives me any faith in the faeries at all is that Daiyousei claims there are faeries who have seen it and seen Yuuka. And she knew Yuuka by name.
-
But she didn't say how long ago that was. For all we know, those fairies could have.... returned to nature, or whatever happens to fairies in this canon. And even if they haven't, Dai may have a good memory for a fairy, but I don't think that's true for the bulk of them. At the least, I'd prefer not to gamble already limited time on it.
-
>Plus she brews a good tea, that's always a plus for a companion. Especially in a touhou game, eh.
>Grin wryly. "'sides, I've got a long way to go and not much time to get there. It's good to be able to have a nice cup of tea before getting into the worst of it."
>It's the little things.
>It is a necessary survival skill in Gensokyo!
>"I wish I could be of more help," Kagerou says apologetically.
>You'll take whatever niceties you can get at this point.
-
>Nod. "It's okay. I knew how hard this was gonna be when I set out. Believe me, Kagerou, I'll be glad when it's over."
>"I'm actually a bit sorry myself. Forgive me for saying, but you seemed a bit... Well, uncomfortable, earlier."
-
>Nod. "It's okay. I knew how hard this was gonna be when I set out. Believe me, Kagerou, I'll be glad when it's over."
>"I'm actually a bit sorry myself. Forgive me for saying, but you seemed a bit... Well, uncomfortable, earlier."
>Your comment seems to bring some of this uncomfortableness back. Kagerou fidgets.
>"Well, it isn't every night some stranger shows up at your house and asks you to help save someone's life," she says. "Makes you feel a little... on the spot, you know?" She shakes her head. "I can't tell you where this garden is, but is there anything else I could do to help?"
-
>"Probably not, unless you have any sudden epiphanies or feel like being a guide. Think I'm gonna give the faeries a miss, though. I'd hate to have to steal the boat that the soldiers keep on the lake."
-
>"Probably not, unless you have any sudden epiphanies or feel like being a guide. Think I'm gonna give the faeries a miss, though. I'd hate to have to steal the boat that the soldiers keep on the lake."
>"I'm sure someone there would be willing to help you with that," she offers. "They've always been friendly when I've been there."
-
>Nod. "They didn't seem a bad bunch, ones I talked to anyway. Still, fairies being fairies, I'd probably be better off left to my own devices. I like fairies, but they don't make the most reliable guides in the world."
-
>Nod. "They didn't seem a bad bunch, ones I talked to anyway. Still, fairies being fairies, I'd probably be better off left to my own devices. I like fairies, but they don't make the most reliable guides in the world."
>"Sometimes they seem to have a good sense of direction," she says. "And sometimes they... don't." She cringes slightly, as if she were recalling some example of this.
-
>Chuckle quietly. "Seen the latter in person, have we?"
-
>Chuckle quietly. "Seen the latter in person, have we?"
>Kagerou chuckles awkwardly. "Once or twice."
-
So what else do we have to ask?
-
Only if she wants to come with us. I don't know if it's, strictly speaking, a 'good' idea, so do feel free to stop me if you think I shouldn't.
>Ah, fairies. Ever entertaining, even in absentia.
>"Right, well. I suppose I shouldn't stay too long. I've got a long way to go after all."
>"On the other hand, I hate an unsatisfied curiousity, and since I may not get another chance to ask... Would you mind if I asked you a personal question, Kagerou?"
-
>Ah, fairies. Ever entertaining, even in absentia.
>"Right, well. I suppose I shouldn't stay too long. I've got a long way to go after all."
>"On the other hand, I hate an unsatisfied curiousity, and since I may not get another chance to ask... Would you mind if I asked you a personal question, Kagerou?"
>You find yourself having more of a soft spot for the little ones than you'd care to let on.
>Kagerou nods.
>"Um, I... guess so?" she answers uncertainly.
-
>"Obviously I haven't known you that long, but I can already tell you're good company, and a good person. Not everyone would open their door to an armed stranger in the middle of the night, after all. So why do you live out here, way off the beaten path?"
-
>"Obviously I haven't known you that long, but I can already tell you're good company, and a good person. Not everyone would open their door to an armed stranger in the middle of the night, after all. So why do you live out here, way off the beaten path?"
>Kagerou fidgets a little as you compliment her character, though the question itself seems to leave her a little uncomfortable.
>"I, uh, guess I enjoy the solitude; it's comforting."
-
>"I can respect that. And I'm sorry if I made you uncomfortable."
-
>"I can respect that. And I'm sorry if I made you uncomfortable."
>She shakes her head. "Oh no, it's fine. Besides, you sound like you have far more important things to worry about than me."
-
>Swirl tea. But what if we're not back this way again? What if this is all just a wild goose chase? What if we find Yuuka and she doesn't help us, or worse? What if she DOES help us only we keel over half way back? We still have such a long, dark, lonely road to walk...
>"Wish I could argue that."
-
>Swirl tea. But what if we're not back this way again? What if this is all just a wild goose chase? What if we find Yuuka and she doesn't help us, or worse? What if she DOES help us only we keel over half way back? We still have such a long, dark, lonely road to walk...
>"Wish I could argue that."
>You give your tea a swirl, thoughts of your uncertain future swirling with it. You answer simply. Kagerou just gives you an sympathetic smile in return. The air feels heavy even as the crackle of the fire remains constant; it does not care whether you are to live or die, after all.
-
>Ponder. Based on the progression of our disease thus far, if it remains consistant, how soon before we can expect to be seriously impeded?
-
>Ponder. Based on the progression of our disease thus far, if it remains consistant, how soon before we can expect to be seriously impeded?
>It is hard to say for sure. It been around a week now, and you can definitely feel something off, even if it's not acute enough to stop you doing most of the things you would be doing. If it was twice as bad or so in another week, you might have to drag yourself around, but maybe could still do so. Beyond that, who knows? For all you know, you could be feverish in just a few days.
-
Yknow, as much as I'd love to bring her along, and having backup does sound like a good idea, the more I talk to her, the more I think she wouldn't go for it. Not given the circumstances, anyway. If she knew we were sick, then she might, but she doesn't.
>Did we see any signs of weaponry within or without this house? Any sort of signs that Kagerou might have experience with arms training/combat?
-
>Did we see any signs of weaponry within or without this house? Any sort of signs that Kagerou might have experience with arms training/combat?
>No. Though her choice of domicile and the infrastructure around it suggests competent outdoorsmanship.
-
>Outdoorsmanship doesn't always mean being to take an angry bear if need be.
>Speaking of which, what have we learned so far about the more threatening wildlife out this way and where we're going? Beyond Yuuka, of course, we might need more than Kagerou to deal with an angry one of those anyway.
-
>Outdoorsmanship doesn't always mean being to take an angry bear if need be.
>Speaking of which, what have we learned so far about the more threatening wildlife out this way and where we're going? Beyond Yuuka, of course, we might need more than Kagerou to deal with an angry one of those anyway.
>'Take on', perhaps not, but 'handle', perhaps. Though it's not the bears you're worried about.
>Sekibanki said there wasn't much dangerous wildlife in the area to speak of. There was the occasional bear, but not generally hostile, you're led to believe.
-
>Well, we handled giant spiders. Even sick, we can probably handle the occasional bear.
>Finish refreshments.
-
>Well, we handled giant spiders. Even sick, we can probably handle the occasional bear.
>Finish refreshments.
>You finish up your tea in relative silence, happy for the warmth and a moment's respite before the journey ahead. Kagerou contemplates your map, fingering her mug tensely. She doesn't say much - you suspect she isn't sure what she ought to - but her drink seems nearly forgotten in her reverie. A few quiet moments pass. She asks if you'd like seconds. You decline; you want to cover more ground tonight and you're already feeling tired.
>As you stand to leave, she hesitates a moment, then says "Let me go with you. At least part of the way. I may not know to find what you're looking for, but I do know the woods around here. Maybe I could shave a little time off your trip. Maybe that would even matter; I don't know. I can't promise much, but... I feel I should do something."
-
>Smile. Thank heaven she didn't make us ask.
>"That would be very kind of you, and I'd be grateful to accept."
-
>Smile. Thank heaven she didn't make us ask.
>"That would be very kind of you, and I'd be grateful to accept."
>You smile. Kagerou looks a little relieved, if anything.
>She nods. "Alright then, just let me gather up a few things."
>And with that, she puts down her tea and marches purposefully into the adjoining room. You hear the sound of rummaging.
-
>Finish off any treats left to finish off.
-
>Finish off any treats left to finish off.
>Having already finished your tea, you wait patiently while Kagerou gathers up her things then hastily surveys the room, tidying little details here and there as she moves about, almost as if by instinct. She puts out the fire, grabs a small leather pack then throws on a heavy black shawl.
>"I'm ready if you are," she says, stern resolve in her eyes.
-
>Smile. "I can't tell you what this means to me, Kagerou. I'll make it up to you one day, if I can."
>Stand.
>"Let's roll."
-
>Smile. "I can't tell you what this means to me, Kagerou. I'll make it up to you one day, if I can."
>Stand.
>"Let's roll."
>"No need to worry about that," she says.
>You rise and depart, Kagerou giving one last cautious glance around her home before closing the door behind you. She leads the way around the back, up the rise upon which her house rests, then into the closed woods beyond.
>The terrain is much the same as always, once you move beyond sight of the river, rugged sometimes rocky ground with large looming trees and clumps of leafy underbrush. You spy scattered impressions of past footfalls in more yielding patches of ground, but Kagerou's pace gives little time to observe and even less need to. Despite her demure and and often hesitant demeanor while you spoke, she moves now with focus and purpose, traversing rough terrain with confident strides that are telling of her familiarity with it. You don't think she'd be quite as agile as you under ideal conditions, but she barely has to so much as pause for bearings or question whether to move left or move right. A surprising lack of genuine obstacles make you wonder how many you may have avoided by letting her make one choice instead of yourself making the other.
>Indulgently, it is pleasant not to have to think about where you are going, but simply follow - though this lasts only briefly before your mind resumes churning nonetheless. This cannot last until the garden - she has said as much - and you know before long you will be adrift in a distant wood with only hope and an old map to guide you, and little enough time to rely on so little. Each of the many unknowns before you loom like predators lurking in distant shadows. This doesn't have to work, after all. There are so many ways it could fail. So many ways you could fail. Sekibanki mightn't have even been right, and you could spend your last week scouring the wood for a place that isn't even there. Wouldn't that be a great way to go?
>You let out a sigh, the arborescent air tickling your nose as you draw breath again. For now you are in someone else's home turf, and they are showing you the way. Just for now, that will have to be enough.
>"If you... don't mind me asking," Kagerou says after a long silence. "How did you come to be searching for this? I mean you. This sick person... are they someone you know?"
-
>Pause.
>Darkly, "Yeah. Yeah, you could say that."
-
>Pause.
>Darkly, "Yeah. Yeah, you could say that."
>"Someone... close?"
>"I'm sorry, I don't mean to pry," she adds hastily.
-
>If you'd pry a little more, I wouldn't have to come out and say it...
>"No, no, it's... If anything I should apologize to you, for not coming out and saying it. But I didn't want to lay that on your doorstep on top of everything else." Grin faintly. "Figured you had enough to deal with out of the blue as it was."
-
>If you'd pry a little more, I wouldn't have to come out and say it...
>"No, no, it's... If anything I should apologize to you, for not coming out and saying it. But I didn't want to lay that on your doorstep on top of everything else." Grin faintly. "Figured you had enough to deal with out of the blue as it was."
>Kagerou frowns warily. "I'm not sure I follow."
-
>Nothing's ever easy.
>"It's me, Kagerou. I'm the one who's sick. I'm the one who's... dying."
-
>Nothing's ever easy.
>"It's me, Kagerou. I'm the one who's sick. I'm the one who's... dying."
>You watch the slow dawning of realization creep across Kagerou's face, her mind wrestling to reconcile what you've just said with the assumptions she'd already made. When she speaks it is quiet, as much a breath as a word, though her eyes are sharp.
>"What?"
-
>"Just as I said. Don't worry, you can't catch it."
>We think.
-
>"Just as I said. Don't worry, you can't catch it."
>We think.
>"That's not-" She shakes her head, but seems unable to find the words she wishes to speak. "But you seem fine!" she eventually blurts, still frowning.
-
>"I've cheated death for a bit now. Just need to find something so I can seal the deal."
>Roll back a sleeve so she and see the veins.
-
>"I've cheated death for a bit now. Just need to find something so I can seal the deal."
>Roll back a sleeve so she and see the veins.
>You roll up your sleeve to show Kagerou the large blight mark on your right arm - it's at least the size of your palm now, dark and ragged.
>Kagerou stares at it, cringing slightly. "Does that... hurt?"
-
>"Not as long as I keep it medicated."
-
>"For now, anyway. The medicine I've got, miraculous as it is, is just a temporary measure."
>Realization. This is actually the first time we've told anyone about our blight since those pirates, isn't it?
-
>"Not as long as I keep it medicated."
>"For now, anyway. The medicine I've got, miraculous as it is, is just a temporary measure."
>She nods slowly. "Just for... another week?"
>Realization. This is actually the first time we've told anyone about our blight since those pirates, isn't it?
>It is. You were careful to frame it as a problem afflicting someone else, if you even mentioned a disease at all. You don't believe Kyouko knew even that much.
-
>"About that. There's no way to be sure exactly how longer I've got left, but it's no more than two weeks, and that's being optimistic. Which is something I haven't been able to be a lot, lately."
-
>"About that. There's no way to be sure exactly how longer I've got left, but it's no more than two weeks, and that's being optimistic. Which is something I haven't been able to be a lot, lately."
>Kagerou just nods slowly, a troubled frown on her face. You walk on a little more in silence, save for the sound of the forest beneath your feet and the rustle of leaves at your passing.
>"I wish I knew what to say."
-
>"You didn't run off or scream abuse at me, so you're doing pretty well by my book."
-
>"You didn't run off or scream abuse at me, so you're doing pretty well by my book."
>"Has that... happened?" she asks.
-
>"Not as such. But that's why I don't go spreading the news. Not many people are going to hear that they can't catch it feel at ease about it."
-
>"Not as such. But that's why I don't go spreading the news. Not many people are going to hear that they can't catch it feel at ease about it."
>"No, well...."
>Something in her tone and posture makes you strongly suspect she doesn't either, but she keeps moving forward nonetheless.
-
>"Trust me, I've been assured by Minoriko herself."
-
>"Trust me, I've been assured by Minoriko herself."
>Her ears twitch. "Who?"
-
>"The harvest goddess from back in Braston. Well, further inland, but around there. She's the one who made my medicine."
-
>"The harvest goddess from back in Braston. Well, further inland, but around there. She's the one who made my medicine."
>"Braston? That's... way out east... isn't it?" she asks uncertainly. "Across the sky?"
-
>"More or less."
-
>"More or less."
>"A long way to come..." she says absently.
-
>"Tell me about it. But I had a little help. Managed to find a ship that was a fair bit faster than your average passenger hauler."
>"I didn't have a lot of choice in the matter, either. Not even Minoriko knew about a cure for this blight. So I had to look somewhere else. Val Razua, specifically."
-
>"Tell me about it. But I had a little help. Managed to find a ship that was a fair bit faster than your average passenger hauler."
>"I didn't have a lot of choice in the matter, either. Not even Minoriko knew about a cure for this blight. So I had to look somewhere else. Val Razua, specifically."
>"And now here?" She ducks beneath a large oak bough. "Was this really the only thing that could be done?"
-
>"The only thing within the time I've got. I explored every angle I could think of, and a couple more besides, and this seems to be my only option. If I had more time to work with.... But I don't."
-
>"The only thing within the time I've got. I explored every angle I could think of, and a couple more besides, and this seems to be my only option. If I had more time to work with.... But I don't."
>Kagerou is silent for another few moments, then says simply: "I'm sorry this is all that I can do for you."
-
>"I'm grateful for this much." Smile. "Believe me."
>"And let's not get too grim, shall we? This may be the biggest challenge I've ever had, but I'm a Seeker. Finding things is what I do. And having a reliable partner along only helps."
-
>"I'm grateful for this much." Smile. "Believe me."
>"And let's not get too grim, shall we? This may be the biggest challenge I've ever had, but I'm a Seeker. Finding things is what I do. And having a reliable partner along only helps."
>Kagerou attempts to return your smile, though the gesture feels rather half-hearted; you fear you may have pulled the woman into something she's not altogether sure how to deal with.
>"Well, let's hope."
-
>"That's the plan."
-
>Hey, she volunteered for this gig. We'dve been a fool to turn her down.
>"I didn't come all this way to lose. I got too much to do when I get back home to die here."
-
>"That's the plan."
>Kagerou chuckles a little uncomfortably, then looks up at the crescent of moonlight as it passes between a gap in the trees and takes a slow, measured breath.
>Hey, she volunteered for this gig. We'dve been a fool to turn her down.
>"I didn't come all this way to lose. I got too much to do when I get back home to die here."
>She nods. "Right."
>The two of you carry on like this for a while, Kagerou leading you over the uneven terrain and weaving purposefully between thick stands of elm and maple, the uncertainty in her frame slowing her pace only slightly. Every now and again you exchange a few words, though she keeps wide of the topic of your illness - deliberately, you have to assume. You're not fully sure if that's intended for your benefit or her own. She asks a little of Braston and your time on the skies, offering only a few words of her own quiet life; you feel this is as much because she believes there is little worth saying about it than any sense of privacy. She appears to lead a humble life in a humble corner of the world and, as best as you can tell, seems content with this. In other circumstances, you would probably be dismissive, perhaps even a little derisive; but as different as the two of you seem to be, it is hard to think ill of someone who is extending themselves so much on your behalf.
>She is not very much like how you might have imagined a werewolf to be - quiet, even gentle. The claws seem somehow unbecoming on her. Were it not for her nigh-instinctive knowledge of the terrain through which you're travelling, you'd probably even have assumed she had place on any serious expedition. Perhaps things are different when the moon is full?
>After a little while, the placid strains of slowly moving water reach your ears from the west, the Grau long silent behind you. It is the first real sign of progress in over an hour, if you're honest.
>"We're getting close to the grotto now," Kagerou says.
>The trees thin to broad patches of tangled scrub and the odd stunted tree clinging stubbornly to increasingly rocky soil as the water comes into view; the change in terrain is abrupt and almost jarring after so long trekking through the homogeneous forest behind you. It is more a small pond than a branch of the river, much wider and more placid than the Grau through still very much longer than it is broad. The opposite shore is framed by a sheer wall of rock, its surface smooth and angular, as though it had been hewn in haphazard fashion by some giant chisel. You cannot immediately spot the quartz formation Kagerou told you marked the grotto entrance, but you're virtually certain this is the place to look for it.
-
>"It was a quartz formation, right?"
-
>"It was a quartz formation, right?"
>"Down this way a little further," she says after briefly surveying the opposite bank. She points across to your right, then follows along the shoreline in that direction.
>Before very long at all, you spot what she must have indicated. A large seam of quartz crystal, coarse and smoky, sprouts like some rocky moss along a furrow formed between two angular slabs of the cliff face. It is quite a bit longer than you are tall, running one direction and then another as it follows the contours of the surrounding rock; it really does look remarkably like a large s.
>"Over there," Kagerou says belatedly, pointing at it.
-
>Let's see if we can get a glimpse at the underwater passage from here.
-
>Relative trade value of quartz back home.
-
>Let's see if we can get a glimpse at the underwater passage from here.
>Even were it not for the glimmering moonlight upon the gently rippling water, the distance and angle would make it very hard to see much beneath its surface all the way from the opposite shore. You can't honestly claim to see anything at all.
>Relative trade value of quartz back home.
>You suppose some particularly attractive specimens might be worth something as a trinket, but quartz in general is a very common mineral with fewer non-decorative uses than many. This vein is rather striking to look at, though.
-
>Hmm. If we can't see if it, would we know how to douse for it?
-
>Hmm. If we can't see if it, would we know how to douse for it?
>Well, it's presumably some kind of tunnel in the rock, so you imagine it would be easy enough to detect by dowsing, though the impression Kagerou gave you was that it would be pretty easy to find in the proper location, even without it.
-
>But if we can't see it from here, then we must not be in the right place, right?
-
>"Don't see the tunnel. Point it out to me?"
-
>But if we can't see it from here, then we must not be in the right place, right?
>You couldn't see much of anything beneath the water's surface at such an angle, just the water itself and the moonlight reflected off it. There could be a whole shipwreck down there and there'd be no sign of it unless you were much closer.
>"Don't see the tunnel. Point it out to me?"
>"A few feet below there." Her finger moves downward. "You can't really see it from the surface."
-
>Follow her finger, see if we can detect anything.
>"I guess you found it going the other way through, huh?"
-
>Follow her finger, see if we can detect anything.
>"I guess you found it going the other way through, huh?"
>Her finger is merely pointing at the water directly below the quartz formation. Unless you wanted to break out the dowsing rods, there is nothing in particular you can detect from that direction.
>"Actually, a, um... friend showed it to me once." She fidgets.
-
>Might as well.
>Produce rods.
>"Mind if I ask how she found it?" Pause. "Or, he, I suppose, eh."
-
>Might as well.
>Produce rods.
>"Mind if I ask how she found it?" Pause. "Or, he, I suppose, eh."
>You pull out your rods and aim them at where Kagerou was pointing, trying to get a sense of the shape of the rock, and any tunnels that might run through it. Kagerou gives you a curious frown as you do so.
>"Just exploring, I guess," she says. "She's, uh, a mermaid."
>It takes a few moments of acclimatizing yourself to the resonances of the rock before you, but you can start to sense characteristic changes in its density that feel consistent with a relatively sizable hollow beyond the apparently-solid cliff face. Mapping its shape in any detail would require moving and getting multiple points of reference, but nothing you can sense gives you reason to question Kagerou's description of it.
-
>Have we ever met a mermaid before? Or know what one is, for that matter?
>Wait, have we asked that before?
-
>Have we ever met a mermaid before? Or know what one is, for that matter?
>Wait, have we asked that before?
>You have never met one before, but you do know what they are, yes.
>Not so far as I can recall.
-
>"Does she live in this pond?"
-
>"Does she live in this pond?"
>Kagerou shakes her head. "No. Much further upstream."
-
>Are we going to be heading much further upstream with the path we've decided upon up to this point?
>"Say I came across this mermaid, anything I could say to her to let her know I'm an acquaintance of yours and don't intend to mug her?"
-
>Are we going to be heading much further upstream with the path we've decided upon up to this point?
>"Say I came across this mermaid, anything I could say to her to let her know I'm an acquaintance of yours and don't intend to mug her?"
>You don't believe your path, once you cross the grotto, should put you near this river again at all.
>Kagerou cringes slightly at your choice of words. "Why would she think that?"
-
>"Because I'm some random armed stranger. And a seeker, which is about the same thing as a mugger if you ask half the people out there."
-
>"I don't mean to imply that she would." assure her, quickly. We don't want her to think we're insulting her 'friend', now do we? "But I also know that, not everyone I've met, or will meet, is as trusting as you were when you saw me."
-
>"Because I'm some random armed stranger. And a seeker, which is about the same thing as a mugger if you ask half the people out there."
>This does little to dispel Kagerou's frown. "That doesn't seem right."
>"I don't mean to imply that she would." assure her, quickly. We don't want her to think we're insulting her 'friend', now do we? "But I also know that, not everyone I've met, or will meet, is as trusting as you were when you saw me."
>"I don't think it was anything special," Kagerou says bashfully. "I'm not sure if it's different where you're from, but we don't get a lot of dangerous sorts around here." Then a smile faintly crosses her face for a moment. "And I'm sure she's more trusting than I am, anyway."
-
>Give her a smile in return. "Well, all right, then, no worries."
-
>"So I can just say I'm you're friend, and it'll work?"
-
>Give her a smile in return. "Well, all right, then, no worries."
>"So I can just say I'm you're friend, and it'll work?"
>"Well, I guess you could," Kagerou says reluctantly. "I'm sure we won't see her where we're going, though."
-
>"Shame, that. I've never met a mermaid before."
>We have heard they're supposed to be beautiful folk, right?
>If so, add, "I've heard they're a lovely people."
-
>We have heard they're supposed to be beautiful folk, right?
>You have heard them described as comely and charming, and also somewhat... amorous.
>"Shame, that. I've never met a mermaid before."
>If so, add, "I've heard they're a lovely people."
>"Well...." She trails off awkwardly, looking out across the water. Is she... blushing a little?
-
>Raise an eyebrow.
-
>Resist urge to grin a needling grin.
-
>Raise an eyebrow.
>Resist urge to grin a needling grin.
>You raise an eyebrow and suppress a grin, but Kagerou seems to be busy staring out at her surroundings and takes no notice of either expression, walking further along the shoreline in relative silence.
>After a short while she stops. You are nearly opposite the grotto entrance by this point.
>"Well, this is about as far as we can go without getting wet," she says.
-
>"Alright then. Thank you for everything."
>Assess our gear, how much of it is going to be bothered by diving into the water.
-
>"Alright then. Thank you for everything."
>Assess our gear, how much of it is going to be bothered by diving into the water.
>"It's the least I can do to help," she says. "Given the circumstances."
>Your pack is waterproof, and most of the gear outside of it doesn't care much one way or the other. Well, water probably isn't the greatest for Kumokirimaru's sheath in the long term, but you doubt a swim is going to cause the leather any real harm. Mostly, you're going to get your clothing soggy, and the night isn't particularly warm for the season as it is.
-
>Start talking off our boots and socks, and stowing them away.
>"You could have done a whole lot less than that, let me tell you."
>We don't happen to have something to dry off with, do we?
-
>Start talking off our boots and socks, and stowing them away.
>"You could have done a whole lot less than that, let me tell you."
>We don't happen to have something to dry off with, do we?
>You start to take off some of your clothing and store them where they won't get wet from the trip.
>Kagerou watches you take your shoes and socks off, then glances back at the water again and frowns. "I can get you a little further, at least," she says after a slight pause.
>The closest would be the spare clothing you have in your pack, though it isn't really very absorbent.
-
>"Oh?"
-
>Smile.
>"It's up to you."
-
>"Oh?"
>"I know the area beyond the grotto fairly well, at least for a little distance."
>Smile.
>"It's up to you."
>"I wouldn't feel right just going back home," she says determinedly.
-
>"Well, thanks again. I'm not about to tell you any different."
>Faithful dog. She gets a treat. Oh, wait, by the look on her face a minute ago, that mermaid probably handles that part.
>Follow our helpful guide.
>If the opportunity presents itself, "So, mind if I ask what she's like? Your mermaid friend, I mean."
-
After an extremely extended hiatus, Nazrin Quest is back in action! I promised that I would eventually bring this to a proper conclusion and so I shall. The pace of updates may be slower than the last time it was active, but I plan to keep it fairly steady.
And on the off chance that anyone new is glancing at this, don't let the regular participants intimidate you - this is open to anyone, and a categorical knowledge of events up to now is absolutely not required. If you have a question, just ask. If you feel like making idle in-game banter, I encourage it. Clever ideas are not required and don't worry about messing things up - I assure you that literally everyone else here has already done so, and I strive to a gentle GM.
>"Well, thanks again. I'm not about to tell you any different."
>Kagerou nods slowly as you stow your shoes and socks away in your pack, then asks cautiously "How waterproof is that?"
>Faithful dog. She gets a treat. Oh, wait, by the look on her face a minute ago, that mermaid probably handles that part.
>Follow our helpful guide.
>From the way she reacted earlier, you would bet your lunch that either the relationship between Kagerou and her mermaid 'friend' is a romantic one, or that Kagerou wishes it were.
>Given that she is currently standing still, perhaps it would be more productive to wait until she leads somewhere.
-
>"It's waterproof enough. Gonna give it a real test, though."
-
>"It's waterproof enough. Gonna give it a real test, though."
>"Is there any room in there for a few more things?"
-
>Is there?
>If so, hold a hand out.
-
>Is there?
>If so, hold a hand out.
>You are a master of efficient packing; there is still room to spare yet.
>You hold out a hand and Kagerou appears to hesitate.
>"I didn't really pack for swimming, you see. I didn't expect to be going further than this when we left." She sounds almost apologetic, but there is faint redness to her cheeks. Her hands fidget with her dress.
-
>"Honey, you have more to show off than I do. Don't worry about it."
-
Considering it's been a few months, you'll permit me a couple of catch-up questions?
>Where are we again?
>How far are we from where we expect to find Yuuka?
>How much time is left on the death clock?
>Do we still have our potted plant?
>What exactly did we need from Yuuka?
>Do we know if Yuuka has a last name?
-
>Where are we again?
>You are standing at the bank of a wide river in the woods west of Isir's Cross, several hours past the fort itself, and beyond the Grau and Kagerou's home. You have paused opposite a large seam of smoky quartz embedded in the sheer rock of the far bank - a landmark which Kagerou told you lies almost directly above the entrance to an underwater passage which could cut many hours off your journey westward.
>How far are we from where we expect to find Yuuka?
>It will be another couple days' hiking before you reach the area where the garden is potentially located and your search for it can begin in earnest.
>How much time is left on the death clock?
>That is very hard for you to tell. Even Minoriko wasn't sure, and she was the only person with any relevant expertise to offer on the subject. "Maybe two or three weeks" was the best estimate you had to work with, and one of those weeks has already passed. The blight marks upon you continue to spread each day, and you're starting to feel noticeably weaker on your feet and slower in your stride, though perhaps not yet enough for someone else to notice. Whether you will continue to deteriorate at this pace or rapidly accelerate once you reach a certain threshold, you have no way of knowing.
>Do we still have our potted plant?
>You do, though it has not changed appreciably since its initial rapid burst of divinely-assisted growth. No flowers are forthcoming, and you are forced to suspect that this isn't likely to change in the near future.
>What exactly did we need from Yuuka?
>To complete the remedy you unearthed in an old tome in the basement of the Grand Academy's library, you will need the petals of a bittercress flower - a plant which blooms only once every seven years. While the plant itself is not rare, by conventional methods this would require you to wait patiently for several more years - something obviously not tenable in your current condition. The rumors were that Yuuka's garden was filled with all manner of flowers, kept perpetually in bloom no matter the season. Your hope is that one of these is bittercress, and that it too will be in bloom, even if it is the wrong year for it to be so. It's a long shot, but it might just be the best you have to work with.
>Do we know if Yuuka has a last name?
>Sekibanki, commander of the border fort at Isir's Cross, held suspicions that the Yuuka to whom this garden belonged was Yuuka Kazami, a notorious figure in the Wild Surge and potential mass-murderer, presumed dead 50 years ago. If so, you were warned that she was exceptionally dangerous, to the point that Sekibanki wouldn't trust an entire squadron of her soldiers to survive an encounter if Yuuka's intentions were hostile. Quite frankly, you'd much rather Sekibanki be wrong here.
>"Honey, you have more to show off than I do. Don't worry about it."
>Kagerou chuckles nervously. "I'm not sure if that makes me feel better or not."
>But after just another moment's pause, she takes a deep purposeful breath and quickly doffs her shawl and pulls her rather voluminous dress off over her head, folding them about as neatly as one can manage in a couple seconds. The linen slip beneath them is not exactly revealing, though the subtle suggestion of curve does corroborate what you just said to her, even though you try not to look too openly for the woman's own sake.
>After another moment's fussing with her dress, Kagerou hands the bundle of clothing to you, never quite making eye contact.
-
>Has the blight affected our five senses yet?
>Our pack proved to be perfectly watertight back when we fell in that underground river, didn't it?
>Can we gauge if it will rain soon?
>Why wasn't Horo naked? It'll upset the casuals.
-
>Has the blight affected our five senses yet?
>Our pack proved to be perfectly watertight back when we fell in that underground river, didn't it?
>Can we gauge if it will rain soon?
>Why wasn't Horo naked? It'll upset the casuals.
>You've felt sluggish and more easily winded, but thus far have not noticed any clear sensory impairments.
>It did. And you should hope it would; you paid good money for this thing! It was the very best you could afford on an apprentice's income, squirreled away over months, and should hopefully survive just about anything you can. No Seeker worth their salt should be traipsing around the untamed corners of the world without a proper pack!
>The sky has been virtually cloudless all evening; you don't anticipate any rain in the immediate future, anyway.
>Content yourself with the knowledge that no linen slip will survive a swim in a river without becoming form-clinging
-
>Enough talk, let's strip down, stow everything away, and do this. Eyes on the road.
-
>Enough talk, let's strip down, stow everything away, and do this. Eyes on the road.
>You wordlessly accept Kagerou's clothing and stow it in your pack, then strip down to your own rather less modest if more practical undergarments. For a brief moment your throat seizes at the sight of all the blackened marks upon your body laid bare ? ragged brands on torso, arms, and legs, some grown so large now that they have almost woven together. Though Kagerou turned politely away when you started to undo your skirt, you can't help but feel exposed all the same ? less by your lack of clothing, and more by the vulnerability normally kept hidden beneath them.
>Whatever. You're here to fix this, not feel sorry for yourself.
>You swallow thickly, then shove the rest of your clothing away and close your pack up tight. Kagerou wades a few steps into the river, the edge of her slip trailing lazily upon the water's surface. A few moments later, you follow after her, the bed of the river rough and rocky beneath your bare feet.
>?Finished?? she asks without turning back around.
>?Lead the way.?
>The water's embrace is surprisingly cold, and Kagerou an unexpectedly strong swimmer ? you're not sure you could actually keep up with her if she hadn't slowed her pace to match your own. But as broad as the river swells here, it's still only a short swim before the both of you are treading water beneath that great seam of quartz. It is even more striking up close, the pale moonlight scattering brightly through its translucent surface; the crystal is the color of a dark brandy, seeming aglow with its own inner light.
>?The tunnel is about five feet below us,? Kagerou says, less shy with her modesty preserved beneath the rippling water. ?Take my hand and stay close. The tunnel's quite wide, but the ceiling is uneven and it's very dark, so try to keep your head low. If we move quickly, we should come up the other side in about seven or eight seconds. Are you ready??
>You nod your acknowledgement, and Kagerou nods back, then you take a deep breath, hold firm to Kagerou's hand, and dive.
>It is a curious sensation, being enveloped in water and cut off from the light and air, and knowing only in theory that new breath awaits you on the other side. For that brief moment when you are wholly beneath the rock, memories of tumbling wildly beneath the surface of a raging river seize upon your mind. Unpleasant memories. You had felt then as though you might die within those waters. But your fall into the depths of Yamame's cavern is half a world away now, you remind yourself. There is no fear here, no panic, only confidence and well-placed trust. The feel of Kagerou's hand clasped tightly in your own anchors you. Then you feel it rise, and rise with it.
>You crest the water's surface with head intact and draw a fresh breath to replace the old one. You are in a large hollow, cloistered beneath smooth walls of rock that jut against each other overhead like the fingers of some stony giant. A few thin gaps in their embrace let in narrow shafts of moonlight that fall in shimmering pools upon the watery floor. Here and there, the walls are traced with small blossoms of crystals, pale green and blue and iridescent black.
>Though the floor of much of this end of the hollow is covered in a damp sheen the deeper pool in which you are treading extends for only about a dozen more feet before rising abruptly to ankle-depth and gradually growing even shallower. A single open path meanders off a considerable distance in a vaguely westerly direction; beyond a hundred feet or so, it looks basically dry.
-
>Exhale with great force. We have earned it.
>"You okay?"
-
>Exhale with great force. We have earned it.
>"You okay?"
>You take another deep breath. Air is good.
>"I'm fine," Kagerou says. "You?"
-
>Stamina check.
-
>Stamina check.
>The swim itself was bracing in its way, but not particularly strenuous. You have, however, spent hours hiking through the woods and it was already getting late when you arrived at Isir's Cross. And from the moment you woke up this morning, there's been a sort of dull weariness hanging upon you. But you aren't ready to call it a night yet, and you can probably push a couple more hours from yourself before you need to collapse.
-
>"I'll be good. So, we follow that path, right?"
-
>"I'll be good. So, we follow that path, right?"
>Kagerou nods. "Yes. It eventually opens onto in the woods again. Maybe... 15 minutes or so."
-
>Assess our level of wetness.
>Assuming we are wet and cold enough to want to dry off, flick our tail out and say, "Though maybe we oughta dry off a bit first."
-
>Assess our level of wetness.
>Assuming we are wet and cold enough to want to dry off, flick our tail out and say, "Though maybe we oughta dry off a bit first."
>You just swam across a river, spent multiple seconds completely submersed beneath it, and are still floating in it nearly up to your neck. It doesn't get much wetter than this.
>"Certainly if we're to go much further in this temperature," she agrees.
-
>Let's get out of this pool or whatever it is and onto the path.
-
>And then cook us up a campfire.
-
>Let's get out of this pool or whatever it is and onto the path.
>You swim over to the edge of the pool and pull yourself up onto solid, if still wet, ground. Kagerou trails slightly behind you, her feet sloshing noisily through the ankle-deep water that lines this part of the hollow. As you approach drier ground, you can hear a steady patter of it dripping off the edge of her sodden shift. You keep your eyes on the path ahead, since you can't help but think that Kagerou falling behind you is deliberate and you'd lay odds that what she's wearing becomes a whole lot less modest when soaking wet. And if this gives her a good view of your own half-naked backside, for whatever that's worth with the criss-cross of the blight upon you, well... not much worth doing about that.
>"That looks like a good place to stop for a bit," Kagerou says, "Over there by those rocks." You assume she's indicating the cluster of rounded boulders huddled within a small moonlit recess about forty feet ahead; it looks like it would be about the most comfortable spot in view to sit down, at least.
>And then cook us up a campfire.
>Although you have the means to spark a campfire, it's rather difficult to produce one without wood and there are no trees to be seen here. You do have a couple torches you could light as a rather smaller version of this, and your heatstone could probably dry out some of your clothing, given enough time.
-
>"Yeah, I wanna get somewhere where I can wring out my hair."
-
>"Yeah, I wanna get somewhere where I can wring out my hair."
>"At least yours is short," Kagerou replies with a nervous chuckle.
-
>"Normally I'd say I got a tail, but I guess that doesn't work here."
>Head for the boulders and get comfortable. If there is any breeze, keep out of it.
-
>"Normally I'd say I got a tail, but I guess that doesn't work here."
>Head for the boulders and get comfortable. If there is any breeze, keep out of it.
>"At least it's not a full moon," Kagerou replies cryptically.
>You cover the rest of the distance to your chosen resting spot in silence, save for the sound of your feet upon the rocky floor and the steady drip of water rolling off the both of you. You plant yourself on a particularly choice boulder; though the rock is hard and unyielding beneath your posterior, at least it's nice and smooth.
>"I don't suppose you have a towel or something in that pack of yours?" Kagerou asks.
-
>Do we know where out towel is at?
-
>Do we know where out towel is at?
>You sadly have no such thing. Probably the best you can muster is one of your spare outfits, and they're not the most absorbent things in the world. You weren't really packed for an underwater excursion either.
-
>"Not really... Just some spare clothes, and I dunno how well they'd do."
-
>Distance check to nearest wood.
>How much time for the heat stone to dry us off a bit?
>Local insect status.
-
>"Not really... Just some spare clothes, and I dunno how well they'd do."
>"Oh, I wouldn't feel right getting your clothes all wet. I really didn't pack very well for this," she adds apologetically.
>Distance check to nearest wood.
>How much time for the heat stone to dry us off a bit?
>Local insect status.
>You can't actually see any trees from where you are, though Kagerou suggested the hollow opens up onto the woods in another 15 minutes. You'd rather be dry and fully-clothed before that point, all things being equal.
>Though you've never used the one you own, it's rather small and the atmospheric heat generated by them is not enormous. It's probably better-suited for drying clothing than drying you, something like a warm iron. It could still help a little, of course.
>Fairly mild, given the general lack of vegetation in your vicinity.
-
>How many torches do we have?
>What did we hear about lycanthropes before meeting Kagerou here? And didn't we hear that she was one?
-
>How many torches do we have?
>What did we hear about lycanthropes before meeting Kagerou here? And didn't we hear that she was one?
>You have two.
>You understand that they are humans who manifest youkai attributes under particular conditions - a full moon is a common one, though not the only possibility. The people you spoke with in town did refer to Kagerou as a werewolf and there are non-human features evident on her even now, though perhaps they grow even more pronounced with a full moon? You're not wholly sure what Kagerou meant by her earlier remark.
-
>From the read we get from her, she seems the self-conscious type. Best not to pry.
>Mutter, "Don't know if I did, either."
>"Well, use what you have." Produce a torch a ignite it. Then produce our heatstone. "Not having any wood around, this'll have to do, for now."
-
>From the read we get from her, she seems the self-conscious type. Best not to pry.
>Mutter, "Don't know if I did, either."
>"Well, use what you have." Produce a torch a ignite it. Then produce our heatstone. "Not having any wood around, this'll have to do, for now."
>You decide to continue erring on the side of respecting Kagerou's privacy, though it's soon going to get rather awkward if you have to keep avoiding looking in her direction.
>"I do hope this idea of mine doesn't end up causing you more trouble than it's worth," she says.
>You produce one of the torches from your pack and find a secure spot among the rocks to wedge it in place, then set it alight. The brightly burning flame quickly pushes back the dimness of the hollow and you can feel the heat from it waft across your damp face. Could be hotter, but it's better than nothing. Then you dig out your heatstone, set it on a boulder, and activate it. Little spots of water dot the rocks around you as you drip all over your campsite. You hear Kagerou ringing out either her clothing or her hair.
-
>"Saving a bit of time is what I need. Even a minute here and there all adds up, in the end."
>Can't be as awkward as she might feel looking at our body, the way it is now.
>"'sides, now I know at least one more thing I need with me at all times: at least one big towel. And maybe a portable campfire, if I can get a decent deal on one."
>Leave out that last sentence if we do not know of a source for such an item.
-
>"Saving a bit of time is what I need. Even a minute here and there all adds up, in the end."
>Can't be as awkward as she might feel looking at our body, the way it is now.
>"'sides, now I know at least one more thing I need with me at all times: at least one big towel. And maybe a portable campfire, if I can get a decent deal on one."
>Leave out that last sentence if we do not know of a source for such an item.
>"I wish I'd thought ahead more," she says.
>You're sufficiently driven by pure pragmatism at the moment that you find you scarcely care if someone you met just hours ago is staring at you in your underwear right now. Stare away. Though you'd just as soon switch into some drier ones before too long - for the sake of comfort more than modesty.
>Kagerou lets out a small chuckle - one of the first glimmers of mirth you've heard from her for a while. "There's a firestarter and a few other supplies in my satchel, but that's not much good until we get back to the trees. And I'd really rather not walk the whole way barefoot, either."
>That depends on how you define one. There are certainly portable sources of fire and fuel that wouldn't require foraging for wood, and a larger heatstone can do most of the work of a campfire, short of the scent and crackle of the flame itself.
-
>"Yeah, I hear that."
>Pause.
>"The 'whole' way?"
-
>"Yeah, I hear that."
>Pause.
>"The 'whole' way?"
>"Out to the forest," she says. "It's a good fifteen minutes still, and the rocks get... pointier."
-
>"Oh. I thought you meant, y'know, the WHOLE way."
-
>"Oh. I thought you meant, y'know, the WHOLE way."
>"I..." she hesitates. "I don't... think I would be much of any help to you out that far. I don't really know the terrain either." There is another pause. "I'm sorry."
-
>"Don't be. I'm grateful you came this far. Especially when you didn't have to."
-
>"Don't be. I'm grateful you came this far. Especially when you didn't have to."
>"I couldn't let myself just sit home without trying to help. Not when you're, well... y'know...." She lets the statement hang for a moment, then takes a deep breath.
>"Anyway! I'd really like to get out of these wet clothes now, and if there's nothing for me to dry off with... could you just... do you think you could maybe just... not turn around for a few minutes while I try to shake myself off?" Her voice trails off meekly at the last part. "...and possibly move a little to the left so I can get some of the heat from the torch on me, too?"
-
>Have we ever known a canine youkai to use that term before, shake themselves off?
-
>Have we ever known a canine youkai to use that term before, shake themselves off?
>Not specifically, though you've seen one do it before. But really, you wouldn't assume Kagerou is referring to any particular canine affectation so much as one of the only reasonable way to dry oneself in these conditions without a handy piece of fabric - not that it is particularly efficient.
-
>"No problem."
>Engage in doing these things.
-
>"No problem."
>Engage in doing these things.
>"Thank you."
>You shift over to the other side of the boulder, opening up a spot for Kagerou to get some heat from the fire without any risk of you accidentally looking at her naked. You hear her peel off her slip and let it fall wetly on a nearby rock, then proceed to generate as much airflow as she can to dry herself; some faint traces of it waft across your own back, though too weakly to accomplish anything. Resting closest to the flame of the torch, you feel the dampness very slowly receding from your left shoulder as Kagerou fans herself, though the rest of you feels as wet as ever; little droplets run slowly off your legs and drip onto the ground beneath you. Your hair clings wetly to your forehead.
-
>Let's see if we can wring our hair out a bit.
>"Lemme know when you're done."
-
>Let's see if we can wring our hair out a bit.
>"Lemme know when you're done."
>You wring your hair out a little while you wait, thin trails of water dribbling down you as you squeeze. It's a modest improvement, but you'd still rather dry it more properly; even if Kagerou didn't want to towel off using your spare clothing, you still could.
>"I'm trying to be as quick as I can, sorry! This is not the most..." she chuckles. "I feel slightly ridiculous."
-
>"Don't worry, it's just drying off. No one here to laugh at you but me, and I'm too busy being wet and miserable to laugh at anything anymore."
-
>"Don't worry, it's just drying off. No one here to laugh at you but me, and I'm too busy being wet and miserable to laugh at anything anymore."
>"Oh. I'm sorry," she replies meekly. You hear her resume vigorously shaking the water off her limbs, the light from the torch flickering slightly in their wake. After another minute or two of silence, she asks "Do you think you could hand me back my clothes now?"
-
>Reach back over our shoulder to offer them to her.
-
>Reach back over our shoulder to offer them to her.
>You dig out the bundle of Kagerou's clothing from your pack, then reach over your shoulder to hand them to her. She accepts them with a polite "Thank you."
>"Okay, I'm decent now," she says after a few moments' dressing herself.
-
>Then lets get ourselves decent.
-
>Then lets get ourselves decent.
>With Kagerou finished, you turn your attention to your own state of dress. Between the heat from the torch, and a little toweling from the more damaged of your spare outfits, you are feeling reasonably dry as you step into fresh clothes - a bit damp still, but not terribly uncomfortable. There's still the issue of what to do with the articles of clothing that are still seriously sodden.
-
>Wring em out as good as we can, then see if we can dry them a bit with the torch.
-
>Wring em out as good as we can, then see if we can dry them a bit with the torch.
>You wring the water out of your wet clothing as best you can, then apply a combination of the torch and heatstone to start evaporating the rest.
>"How long do you think you'll keep moving tonight?" Kagerou asks, looking up at the sliver of moon visible through the gap overhead.
-
>"Couple hours, yet."
-
>"Couple hours, yet."
>"There's a little glen we might be able to make it to by then. It's nice and sheltered, and there's drinkable water; could be a good place to camp for the night."
-
>"I like the sound of that a lot."
-
>"I like the sound of that a lot."
>She nods slowly. "Okay, that's the plan, then."
-
>Once we're satisfied our clothes are less damp, put 'em back on and gather up the torch. "Let's get going, then."
-
>Once we're satisfied our clothes are less damp, put 'em back on and gather up the torch. "Let's get going, then."
>You give your underwear a few more minutes in the heat before deeming them dry enough to stow away and get back to the trail. You deactivate your heatstone, put out the torch beneath a pile of gravel, pack everything up, and let Kagerou know you're ready to go.
>She nods. "Okay, let's."
>The two of you carry forward along the western path out of the hollow. For what is essentially a hole in the side of a rock, it's surprisingly picturesque, with small bands of brightly colored minerals streaked here and there through the walls, all the way out; every now and again the moon catches one of them and makes it scintillate faintly. The footing is slightly uneven, between the patches of gravel and lumpy rock beneath, but less-so than some of the forest you've already trodden.
>It is only a couple of minutes before you spy an opening ahead, though quite a few more to actually reach it. The interlocking rock above recedes and the light of the moon is let in in full. Bare stone gives way to thin soil and then moss, with a stand of reedy birch just beyond. Kagerou glances around the terrain for just a moment, then points at a bare patch between the trees and a lone boulder.
>"This way."
-
>"Right."
>Make with the following.
-
>"Right."
>Make with the following.
>You follow Kagerou as she leads further into the woods, past the boulder and along a small depression that skirts the thickest of the trees. Mostly she follows the curve of the terrain, moving wherever the ground itself suggests is easiest to move while still heading westward, though a few times she points out some small landmark she's using to orient herself ? a tall hill crowned with a gnarled pair of dead oaks, a small fen dotted with tiny red wildflowers. Her knowledge of the terrain in this area seems less intimate than it was earlier, though you're still making good time. Once, you are forced to backtrack several minutes when you emerge from a tangled stand of trees onto the wrong side of a shear ridge ? Kagerou's apologies are profuse ? but largely your progress is without incident.
>Far more bothersome is how little time has passed before you find your steps feeling leaden, your body weary. It's just as well Kagerou's not being very talkative, since you don't think you could hold much of a conversation right now. It's been a long day, you've spent quite a few hours of it hiking, and you're... not well. But you soldier on, putting one foot in front of the other. One foot in front of the other. You're thankful you have someone else to lead you, so all you have to do is plod along behind them ? less thinking that way. Thinking takes too much effort.
>It's damnably frustrating to, in the same moment, want to forge onward until dawn and collapse right where you stand. Instead you do neither. One foot in front of the other, Nazrin. You can keep going as long as she can. Are you ever going to reach that glen?
>The last leg of the journey passes in a dull haze, the steady voyage of the moon above your only anchor to the passage of time. She slowed the pace for you. You told her not to and she did it anyway and then you pretended not to notice. You didn't want to need it. It feels like reality hasn't cared much about what you've wanted for a while now. Perhaps you ought to thank her for that when you're more lucid. When you're somewhere that isn't all trees and hills and rocks and trees.
>As you trudge up yet another ridge lined with patches of thick scrub and stocky beech, Kagerou pauses. She takes a good look at something to her left and then with two words relieves your weary spirit.
>?We're here.?
-
>"Good..."
>Try not to collapse, just set up something to sleep in.
-
>"Good..."
>Try not to collapse, just set up something to sleep in.
>Kagerou descends the bank and you follow gratefully after her, carefully sliding down the loose soil into the rocky basin below. The glen is scarcely thirty feet wide at this point, but very long; you could see it wind through the terrain for more than a mile while you were on its lip. It is cut through its center by a thin rivulet of flowing water; calling it a river feels far too generous, but it looks fresh and clear and drinkable. Small leafy plants and clusters of buttercups and the occasional violet dot the edges of the waterside. A short distance to the south is a sheltered overhang, where the edge of the terrain above forms a narrow canopy, trailing leafy green. It should be reasonably protected from the elements if it decides to rain overnight, and the ground is mossy and soft.
>You follow Kagerou over to tonight's resting place and doff your pack with a grateful sigh.
>Kagerou chuckles wanly. She also looks tired, though not nearly as tired as you feel. ?I guess there's no chance you have a second sleeping bag in there, is there??
-
>"Eh, guess you can have it, since I drug you out here."
-
>"Eh, guess you can have it, since I drug you out here."
>It seems rather unkind to get Kagerou's hopes up in this way when you don't even have the one.
-
>When the hell did we not get a basic supply when resupplying at a border town?
>Don't bother saying that, then. "I'm just looking for something to use as a pillow."
-
>When the hell did we not get a basic supply when resupplying at a border town?
>Don't bother saying that, then. "I'm just looking for something to use as a pillow."
>Perhaps it was an oversight while you were deciding what to purchase from the fort's surplus?
>"Well, the ground's about as comfortable as one could hope for, I guess," she says with some modest resignation, feeling the moss with her hand. Then she sinks down on it, resting her back against the wall of the depression.
-
>Do we have enough to at least offer her an ersatz pillow?
-
>Do we have enough to at least offer her an ersatz pillow?
>Between another spare and dry outfit of yours, and the heavy cloak you purchased from the fort's surplus, you think there's enough to finagle at least a little something for both of you.
-
>"Here."
>Toss her the cloak.
-
>"Here."
>Toss her the cloak.
>You pull the cloak out of your pack and toss it to Kagerou. She catches the rumpled bundle and examines it for a couple moments before giving you a tired smile. "Thanks."
-
>Fish out some clothes and make them into a decent pillow. "You're welcome. Thanks for the company."
-
>Fish out some clothes and make them into a decent pillow. "You're welcome. Thanks for the company."
>You take out some of your spare clothes and set about making your makeshift bed just a little more comfortable for yourself.
>"You're welcome," Kagerou says quietly. "I know I haven't been very talkative."
-
>"You've been there. That's important. And you've been another pair of eyes and ears, which is priceless."
-
>"You've been there. That's important. And you've been another pair of eyes and ears, which is priceless."
>She smiles gently; there is a sort of self-effacing quality to it, but also contentment.
>"I don't know much further I'll be of any use to you, though. It's not often I'm out this far, and very rare I've gone much deeper. Last time I was more than a few miles past this spot was...." She shakes her head. "Years ago, I think. I might remember a few things, but I wouldn't trust to it much."
-
>"I'm not worried about things like that. Let's just try to get some sleep."
-
>"I'm not worried about things like that. Let's just try to get some sleep."
>"Right," she says, as if softly chiding herself. She is silent for a few moments, then walks over to the edge of the water and cups some to drink. Her gaze drifts slowly upward, staring distantly at the pale moon.
>You think you've made your sleeping area about as comfy as it's going to get tonight. The ground is honestly pretty soft here, if not altogether flat; you've slept on worse. And you're frankly approaching the point where falling asleep upright would also be acceptable.
-
>Let's beat that to the punch, then.
-
>Let's beat that to the punch, then.
>You have just enough awareness left in you to remember to take your nightly dose of medicine before lying down. Then you settle onto your bed of moss and bundled clothing, say goodnight, and are asleep practically before the words are out of your mouth.
>It is a dull and dreamless sleep, like being smothered in cotton wool. It feels like a very long time has passed when you become aware of your surroundings again. However long it's been, there is warm sunlight streaming through the curtain of leaves to rest gently upon your nose and the left half of your body. Somewhere, birds are singing cheerfully. You hear something small and swift scamper along the pebbles by the edge of the water. You, on the other hand, feel weary and dim. Your limbs ache. Lifting them is effortful, as though your whole body were draped in a leaden sheet. There is a stiffness in your right shoulder when you try to move it - perhaps from the ground or perhaps not. You remain still for a few minutes to muster enough will to roll onto your side and try to stretch; you grimace slightly as you work a few kinks out of the muscles in your neck and back.
-
>Groan, and try to get up. Take any medicines as necessary.
-
>Groan, and try to get up. Take any medicines as necessary.
>You groan and slowly pull yourself to your feet. Joints crick. You give yourself a proper stretch and try to work out some of the stiffness from your muscles, then take your morning dose of medicine. Hasn't gotten any more palatable.
>You can see a large depression in the moss where Kagerou presumably slept, and the cloak you lent her is folded neatly up against the rock, but there is no other sign of your companion at the moment.
-
>Glance about for feetprints while trying to get some of this deadness off us.
-
>Glance about for feetprints while trying to get some of this deadness off us.
>You can see depressions in the moss where it was trodden on, coming in and out of the alcove. It's hard to say which of these is most recent and the rocky ground just beyond it is poorly-suited for leaving legible footprints, but a casual stroll to the water's edge turns up some footprints heading south, further down the glen.
>It's warm today; the heat of the sunlight upon you feels a lot more true to the season than it did yesterday evening. Glancing up at where it rests in the sky, you'd guess it's just a little more than an hour before noon. All things being equal, you'd have liked to be back on the trail before now, but the lead in your body suggests you probably needed all the sleep that you got.
-
>Call out: "Hey, you around?"
-
>Call out: "Hey, you around?"
>You call out, but there is no immediate response beyond startling a small finch which was investigating the waterside.
-
>Head back to camp. Assuming she's not around, contemplate if the moss is suitable for leaving a message with a stick.
-
>Head back to camp. Assuming she's not around, contemplate if the moss is suitable for leaving a message with a stick.
>You head back to camp, though in truth you'd only wandered maybe 20 feet away in the first place. While the moss there might be hard to leave legible messages in with a stick, there's dirt nearby which should be quite suitable. A cursory inspection finds no such message, however.
-
>Head out toward that glen.
-
>Head out toward that glen.
>You walk back out to the brook and follow the footsteps southward, feeling just a little bit more awake as you get your limbs moving, though the ache in your shoulder is soon replaced with one in your stomach - how many hours has it been now since you've eaten anything substantial?
>The footsteps are only intermittently visible, but there's nowhere else to go but straight unless one were to climb all the way back out of the glen. And, as it turns out, you're no more than a minute away from camp before your ears catch the sound of someone humming contently to themselves, just a little further on. There's a levity in the tone which you've never heard in Kagerou's voice, but you still think it's probably her.
-
>Close in on it.
-
>Close in on it.
>You continue onward, the lightsome stains of the voice growing steadily clearer. Once you round a gentle bend in the glen, you see a stooped figure a short distance away, apparently rummaging around in a cluster of bushes. Though you can't see her very well amid the foliage, it is unmistakably Kagerou.
-
>"Find something?"
-
>"Find something?"
>The humming stops the moment you speak. You see an ear flick in your direction. When Kagerou turns around to face you, the levity of her song is replaced by the guilt on her face.
>"Oh, I'm so sorry! I thought I'd be back before you woke up!"
-
>"I should still be asleep, all told. So, find anything?"
-
>"I should still be asleep, all told. So, find anything?"
>"Blackberries," she says, holding out a handful. "I thought I remembered seeing some bushes out this way once. They're quite ripe!"
-
>"Good! I could use some breakfast."
>Get some berries!
-
>"Good! I could use some breakfast."
>Get some berries!
>Kagerou seems relieved by your reaction. "There's plenty here for both of us," she says. "I was gathering some to bring back." She gestures to a small cloth bundle laden with dark ripe berries. "Help yourself."
>You go ahead and do so! The berries are plump and juicy, though still a touch bitter on your tongue. But still, they're not bad, and a decent break from dry preserved rations. Kagerou resumes picking them while you eat, though silently this time.
-
>Did we bring our pack? If so, do add some rations to the mix.
>"This is great, thanks!"
-
>Did we bring our pack? If so, do add some rations to the mix.
>"This is great, thanks!"
>You left it back it camp, since you didn't plan to go far, and thought your shoulders could use at least a few minutes in the morning without lugging it around.
>"Glad you like them," Kagerou says with a faint smile. "I hope you got a decent rest?"
-
>Tweak neck. "I did, actually, yeah. Not bad for an improv setup, all in all. You?"
-
>Tweak neck. "I did, actually, yeah. Not bad for an improv setup, all in all. You?"
>"Oh, well enough," she says with an awkward smile. "I may be more human than you are, but I've done this before. Thanks for the cloak you lent me. It helped."
-
>"Good, good. I'd have hated for it to be useless."
-
>"Good, good. I'd have hated for it to be useless."
>"No, not at all."
>She pauses and look up at the sky, shading her eyes with one hand. Wispy clouds streak across the eastern half of the sky, just thick enough to shade the blue with spots of white. "It looks like a nice day today," she says.
-
>"Good. I'd hate to get rained on after last night."
-
>"Good. I'd hate to get rained on after last night."
>"Well, I think we're safe from that for a while," she says with a tentative smile, dropping another handful of blackberries onto the cloth.
-
>Devour more, now is the time for breakfast!
-
>Devour more, now is the time for breakfast!
>You continue to toss back blackberries at a hungered pace while Kagerou keeps the pile from shrinking too much by working her way through the bushes. You exchange only a little chatter; though Kagerou seems in slightly lighter spirits than yesterday somehow, there's still a certain awkward tension between you. You know she was basically dragged out of her house by a stranger in the middle of the night and spent it sleeping on the bare ground miles from home. Next to someone afflicted by a mystical plague that she has only that stranger's word isn't contagious. While you more than appreciate her aid, you can't help but imagine the thoughts that must be wrestling in her head about where her obligations to you start and end. How long will she keep going if you don't tell her to go on home?
>Eventually you start to feel you've had enough - if not of breakfast, then of blackberries, anyway. You assist Kagerou with picking a few more for the road, then she ties up the bundle and you return to your camp.
>"There's a easier slope up the other side of the glen about... 10 minutes north of here," Kagerou says while you take your morning medicine and munch on a thoroughly dry cracker. "If you didn't want to climb up the harder way."
-
>"Not unless it'd take me significantly longer to go that way."
-
>"Not unless it'd take me significantly longer to go that way."
>"Maybe a few minutes," she says.
-
>"Then I'll be going that way, thank you."
>"In the mean time, what are you planning to do?"
-
>"Then I'll be going that way, thank you."
>"In the mean time, what are you planning to do?"
>"I think I still know the next few miles well enough to save you a little time," she says. "Beyond that...." There is a long pause. When Kagerou speaks again, it is almost as a quiet sigh. "I don't know."
-
>"You're already helped me a lot, and I owe you for it."
-
>"You're already helped me a lot, and I owe you for it."
>She shakes her head. "If you find what you need, that's payment enough."
-
>Nod and gather up our stuff. "Best get to making good on that, then."
-
>Nod and gather up our stuff. "Best get to making good on that, then."
>Kagerou nods. "Right."
>You gather up your things and set off to the north, following the bend of the glen until the steep western wall of it gives way to a gentle grassy slope. The terrain beyond is pleasantly navigable for an hour or two - more meadow than forest, dotted with patches of scrub and only a few large trees - and you set a good pace. The lethargy you felt upon waking recedes a little, though never entirely; there remains an ambient level of weariness that doesn't quite feel like fatigue, and is just present enough to play on your mind whenever you give it half a chance. You try your best not to.
>Sadly, the ease of your day's beginning is more than offset by the terrain a few miles onward - tangled stands of stumpy trees clumped altogether too densely between uneven spurs of rock, with little open ground besides the large field of nettles you were reluctantly forced to circumnavigate. Kagerou's sense of direction becomes less and less certain as you progress, and you are forced to rely more heavily on your map and spur-of-the-moment terrain judgements; there are false starts, short bouts of climbing, and the pace slows dramatically. The map gives you hope that things will get a little easier in another couple miles, but that doesn't make this leg any less onerous.
>By the time you pause for lunch, you have covered less ground than expected and are all the crankier for it. Kagerou is busy picking out stray bits of thorny scrub that got tangled in her dress somewhere along the way.
-
>"You alright? None of those stuck you, did they?"
-
>"You alright? None of those stuck you, did they?"
>"Not really," she says, frowning in concentration as she gently wiggles the branch to try and pull it free without tearing something. Even her mood seem slightly frayed.
-
>Nod. If she wants to be that way...
>Give her a decent share of trail rations and divide up the berries appropriately.
-
>Nod. If she wants to be that way...
>Give her a decent share of trail rations and divide up the berries appropriately.
>You take out some of your rations to share with Kagerou, while taking an equitable share of berries for yourself. She absently mumbles a thank you for the food, still fiddling with her clothing. A few minutes later, she flops back against a stump with a tired sigh and starts to gnaw on a piece of salted jerky.
>"I don't remember it being like this," she says. "I must have been further north or something. Don't know if that was just good fortune or if I'm just as bad at pathfinding as I feel like right now."
-
>"When was the last time you were in the region?"
-
>"When was the last time you were in the region?"
>"Oh, probably a few years," she says between bites. "Not really sure, to be honest. There's no real reason for me to come out here. Usually."
-
>Nod.
>"So probably just poor memory, as opposed to things getting shifted around?"
-
>Let's not be quite so blunt about. She's obviously bothered by this experience enough as it is.
>Say instead, "Yeah, things have a knack for fading after that long, 'specially if you don't think about them regular."
-
>Let's not be quite so blunt about. She's obviously bothered by this experience enough as it is.
>Say instead, "Yeah, things have a knack for fading after that long, 'specially if you don't think about them regular."
>"I've never combed every inch of woods myself, not out this way. I mean, why would I? We're already something like... twenty miles away from home now?" She is quiet for a bit, then slowly shakes her head. "Can't help but wonder if there was a better route somewhere."
-
>"There tends to be, but there's not really time to worry about finding it. Good pathfinding takes time."
-
>"There tends to be, but there's not really time to worry about finding it. Good pathfinding takes time."
>"Yeah." Her tone is sullen. "Time."
-
>Lunch it up.
>"If nothing else, you're keeping me from being out here alone. That's a pretty big help, too."
-
>While we nosh, perhaps we can get her out of her funk with a more optimistic topic.
>"On another note, though, Kagerou, something I've been curious about for a bit now."
>Assuming she indicates us to continue, "This mermaid friend of yours you mentioned before... What was her name again?"
-
>Lunch it up.
>"If nothing else, you're keeping me from being out here alone. That's a pretty big help, too."
>Kagerou lets out a tired breath. "Maybe."
>While we nosh, perhaps we can get her out of her funk with a more optimistic topic.
>"On another note, though, Kagerou, something I've been curious about for a bit now."
>Assuming she indicates us to continue, "This mermaid friend of yours you mentioned before... What was her name again?"
>"What's that?" she asks, as you mention your curiosity. The question itself seems to catch her a little off-guard, though after a moment's uncertainty, she replies "Wakasagihime. ...why do you ask?"
-
>"Just curious, is all. I've never met a mermaid before. What's she like?"
-
>"Just curious, is all. I've never met a mermaid before. What's she like?"
>"She's... nice," Kagerou offers simply. "Gentle. She likes to simply drift and watch the moon on clear nights. She has a beautiful voice." That last sentiment seems to spring forth unbidden, and it is only after it is uttered that Kagerou begins to seem embrassed by it.
-
>Well, embarrassed is better than sullen.
>Gently, "She means a lot to you, doesn't she, Kagerou?"
-
>Well, embarrassed is better than sullen.
>Gently, "She means a lot to you, doesn't she, Kagerou?"
>Her mouth struggles with this one for a moment before blurting out an awkward "What's with that question?" Though it's as plain as day to you from her reaction that the answer can only be 'yes'.
-
>Try not to laugh at her reaction.
>But when that fails, chuckle lightly.
>Slightly singsong, "Oh, nothing."
-
>Try not to laugh at her reaction.
>But when that fails, chuckle lightly.
>Slightly singsong, "Oh, nothing."
>You can't suppress a small chuckle at Kagerou's consternation and then you very lightly tease her further with your reply.
>"What?" she asks plaintively, looking not altogether sure how she's supposed to interpret your reaction.
-
>Chuckle again, more quietly.
>"I was just taking that as a 'yes', my friend."
-
>Chuckle again, more quietly.
>"I was just taking that as a 'yes', my friend."
>Kagerou stumbles over this for another moment, then lets out a very quiet laugh herself - part chuckle, part sigh. "Is it that obvious?"
-
>"'fraid so."
-
>"'fraid so."
>Kagerou lets out another sigh and sags, like a tautness was lifted from her. When she raises her head again, there is the faintest trace of a vulnerable smile on it.
>"I guess it's not some kind of secret," she says. "But... yes. Yes, she means a great deal to me. Though I still don't really know why you're bringing this up now."
-
>"Like I said, I was curious."
>"And I thought it might cheer you up a bit. You seemed a mite... frazzled."
-
>"Like I said, I was curious."
>"And I thought it might cheer you up a bit. You seemed a mite... frazzled."
>She smiles wearily. "A little, maybe."
-
>Have we seen much in the way of mouse activity out here?
-
>Have we seen much in the way of mouse activity out here?
>It's the wrong time of day to notice much mouse activity out in the wild, though you did hear a few of them going about last night; they were most certainly too far away from your target to know any useful information about it, however.
-
>"Let me know if you see any mice around here. I might be able to ask them for directions."
-
>"Let me know if you see any mice around here. I might be able to ask them for directions."
>"Oh?" One of Kagerou's ears perks up in apparent curiosity. "You can... understand them?"
-
>Nod.
>"Yep, never forgot the old tongue. Though...it's not really good for conversing."
-
>Nod.
>"Yep, never forgot the old tongue. Though...it's not really good for conversing."
>"Do you think a mouse would know any trails that would... actually be useful to us?" she asks with some hesitation. "They are... a lot smaller than us, after all."
-
>"They might, you just need to know what to ask for. Make sure they're thinking of us. Some...might not be so good at that, though."
-
>"They might, you just need to know what to ask for. Make sure they're thinking of us. Some...might not be so good at that, though."
>"Well, you're the expert," she says. "I'll let you know if I see anything."
-
>Nod.
>Once she seems ready to go, resume course. Keep a particular eye out for mice.
-
>Nod.
>Once she seems ready to go, resume course. Keep a particular eye out for mice.
>Once the two of you finish your lunches, you get back up and resume your course westward, through yet more tangled and rocky thickets that conspire to make the journey unpleasant. Progress remains slow, and your casual appraisal for mouse activity turns up little, unless you were willing to move even more slowly. Your trail does stumble upon one poorly-concealed mouse hole within the first hour, but the occupant - even upon being woken and then placated - is not especially bright, and also unable to tell you anything beyond what your map already does. Kagerou watches the exchange with a kind of faintly amused curiosity; you're not sure how much of it she can actually hear - a human would hear almost nothing at that pitch, but those ears aren't very human. You've no doubt you've passed a dozen other mouse dwellings by now, but in a wood this dense and knotted, it would take a concentrated search to uncover them while their owners were all asleep.
>Eventually the trees start to thin, and while the terrain remains rocky and uneven, their absence does a great deal to ease your journey. There are fewer obstacles to avoid and better sight lines to plot the easiest path; it's not exactly light walking, but after the last few hours, you'd take it in a heartbeat.
>More time passes. The bright sun of midday slowly wanes and the very first twinges of red are starting to grow visible on the horizon, if one looks for them. Over the last couple of hours, Kagerou seems to have grown increasingly... pensive. It's hard to put your finger on for certain, and she wasn't exactly comfortable around you from the outset, but it felt like there was an easing in her manner for a while that seems to be thinning out again, your companion's thoughts turning inward more frequently. Once or twice she seems almost a little despondent. Perhaps it's because she no longer has leading the way to preoccupy her; the further you've gotten from familiar territory, the more navigational decisions have fallen to you to make, and she simply follows. She makes a visible effort to mask her unease if you appear to be looking, but she honestly has a pretty terrible poker face. Something is bothering her.
-
>"Are you feeling alright?"
-
>"Are you feeling alright?"
>Kagerou seems to start slightly. "What? Oh, uh, I'm fine, really." She gives you a wan smile.
-
>"You sure? Frankly, it looks like something's been eating at you."
-
>"You sure? Frankly, it looks like something's been eating at you."
>"Well, um... maybe a little," she offers hesitantly. "But really, it's nothing you need to worry about."
-
>"Well, I won't try to drag it out of you if you don't want to talk about it. But, feel free to tell me if you want. My ears are big enough I can lend them for a little bit."
-
>"Well, I won't try to drag it out of you if you don't want to talk about it. But, feel free to tell me if you want. My ears are big enough I can lend them for a little bit."
>That one draws a genuine chuckle from Kagerou. Then she falls silent for few moments before quietly saying "I was just thinking about how far out here we've come now. The sun's already starting to set." She is silent again for another long moment, the only sound the steady passage of your feet across the rocky soil. She takes a slow, even breath.
>"Her birthday's the day after tomorrow. Uh, Wakasagihime's, I mean," she adds hastily. Almost immediately, a pall of guilt catches her face; her gaze drifts downward and her shoulders tense.
-
>"That's important."
-
>"That's important."
>"Not as important as the next few days are for you." Her voice is small, and she does not look up.
-
>"Maybe not, but it's not a question of what it means to me. I've never met your friend. So, what are you going to get her?"
-
>"Maybe not, but it's not a question of what it means to me. I've never met your friend. So, what are you going to get her?"
>"It was a- I make wood burnings, sometimes," she says. "You might have noticed that, the other night. Well, I was making one for her. I was actually working on it just before you showed up. It's almost finished," she adds. A faint smile, almost unnoticed, plays upon her lips as she recalls it.
-
>"So you need to get back now to finish it, huh?"
-
>"So you need to get back now to finish it, huh?"
>Kagerou fidgets. "Well, maybe not now, exactly... I probably only need another evening. Really, it doesn't matter very much in the scheme of things," she adds in a strained voice.
-
>"Still, it'd take you all day to get back there, then you'd have to work on it."
-
>"Still, it'd take you all day to get back there, then you'd have to work on it."
>There is a pause. "Yeah."
-
>"Then I'll expect you to have a nice place set up for me to sleep for a few days."
-
>"Then I'll expect you to have a nice place set up for me to sleep for a few days."
>There is a shorter, more uncertain pause. She turns to you, looking a little confused. "What?"
-
>"I'm going to need a place to collapse, and I don't feel like paying the inn for it."
-
>"I'm going to need a place to collapse, and I don't feel like paying the inn for it."
>"Oh, well, um...." Kagerou looks down at the ground. "I don't want to feel like I'm abandoning you here."
-
>"If you were 'abandoning' me, you wouldn't be here talking about it, you'd have just done it. You gave me a head start when you didn't have to."
>"And don't forget. I AM a Seeker. This kinda thing is what I do."
-
>"If you were 'abandoning' me, you wouldn't be here talking about it, you'd have just done it. You gave me a head start when you didn't have to."
>"And don't forget. I AM a Seeker. This kinda thing is what I do."
>She chuckles nervously. "Yes, I suppose that's true. I just... wish there was more that I knew to tell you. I've lived here for years, and yet twenty miles out and you're already doing most of the navigation."
-
>Grin. "Take that as a sign that I can find my way back, too."
-
>Grin. "Take that as a sign that I can find my way back, too."
>She smiles tentatively back. "Are you sure you're okay with this?"
-
>Nod.
>"It's one thing to have a friend in the thick of it. It's another thing to know you're dragging that friend away from something important."
-
>Nod.
>"It's one thing to have a friend in the thick of it. It's another thing to know you're dragging that friend away from something important."
>"Seems so selfish..." she whispers. The guilt on her face is plain to see, but she seems to be slowly coming to terms with what you've said. She takes a deep breath and looks up at you once more, a kind of hesitant determination in her eyes. "Promise me I'll see you again."
-
>"I'll do everything in my power. Don't worry, I'm a seeker."
-
>Nod. "Count on it. I got too much to get back to."
-
>Nod. "Count on it. I got too much to get back to."
>"I'll do everything in my power. Don't worry, I'm a seeker."
>She smiles slightly. "Guess that's not just for show." Then she takes a last deep breath and reaches her resolution. "Be safe."
-
>"You too!"
-
>"You too!"
>Kagerou nods, then turns and heads back the way you came, her footsteps crunching the dry and brittle scrub beneath them. Slowly growing fainter. In another minute, you are alone in the wilderness once more, beneath the reddening sky. That's one more promise to keep.
-
>Let's carry on.
-
>Let's carry on.
>You continue onward, across expanses of dry scrub, over forested hills, and through fields of stocky wildflowers and tall grasses. The wisps of pink in the sky burn brilliant crimson, then fade to deepest blue as the stars begin to show themselves. A few strategic questions and offerings of food glean useful tidbits from the local mouse population once they are out in force ? a small gorge avoided here, a difficult hill detoured around there. None of it is earth-shattering, but five minutes of conversation is a fair price for ten minutes walking saved, particularly as you start to tire. You heed Sekibanki's warning about drinkable water and ration yourself accordingly; it is not until well after sunset that you find a small stream where you can refill your canteens.
>Fortunately, it seems the worst of the day's journey was already passed by the time you and Kagerou parted ways; in the end, you think you've covered pretty good ground for one day ? if not by virtue of speed, then through sheer persistence. You keep walking as long as you feel your legs and consciousness can reasonably carry you, growing steadily slower as the night deepens, but refusing to stop altogether until an embarrassing stumble over a gnarled root forces you to concede that you're reaching your limits.
>You spend the next ten minutes scouting for a suitable campsite and settle upon the backside of a lone rocky outcropping, beneath the shade of a very large maple. It is not as ideal a spot as the glen Kagerou led you to last night, but it'll do.
-
>Check the area a bit to make sure nothing suspicious seems to cross through here as well.
-
>Check the area a bit to make sure nothing suspicious seems to cross through here as well.
>A brief search of the surrounding area doesn't turn up anything you'd term either unusual or suspicious. A couple small animal trails, but nothing noteworthy or immediately within your sleeping area.
-
>It'll do. Get that cloak out to serve as bedding, spare clothes as a pillow, and have something to eat while lying down.
-
>It'll do. Get that cloak out to serve as bedding, spare clothes as a pillow, and have something to eat while lying down.
>You take out a few things from your pack to make your camp a little cozier, then have a light snack as you settle down for the night. Your limbs ache, your body is weary, and your mind is dull and thick - you push raisins into your mouth almost unconsciously, but they do take the edge off a growing pang in your stomach. The one bright spot is that you're not quite as exhausted as you were last night, which gives you some hope for tomorrow. You still have at least another day before you're in range of the garden, and no reason to expect the terrain is going to get any easier.
>After a few minutes of light eating, you pack your rations away, take your nightly dose of medicine, and settle down to bed. The ground here isn't all that soft, but the clothing does help somewhat. A nightjar flutters into a far branch of the maple you are beneath and starts to trill. You think you're maybe even tired enough to ignore it.
-
>Let's ignore it. Yelling at it takes too much effort.
-
>What is a nightjar?
>Does it taste good?
-
>What is a nightjar?
>Does it taste good?
>It is a kind of nocturnal bird with a very distinctive cry. They hunt insects, you think?
>You have absolutely no idea. You've never heard of anyone eating them. But possibly they taste like chicken.
>Let's ignore it. Yelling at it takes too much effort.
>You decide to lie still and simply ignore the bird as it drones on... and on... and on... and on... and doesn't it need to breathe eventually? As the steady trill of the little bird continues without interruption, you find yourself idly wondering if a nightjar youkai would be able to recite an entire novel in a single breath, somehow. Eventually its voice fades into the background as your ears grow numb to it and your consciousness dims. You are asleep before you're even aware of it stopping.
>You awaken feeling every bit as leaden as yesterday morning, if not moreso. Your limbs are stiff and resent your attempts to move them and your mind feel veiled in fog. The air is damp, and what patches of sky you can see through the foliage above are dull grey. Wonderful.
-
>Is that bird still around?
>Wild empathy check to lure it in.
-
`>Groan, take medicine, try to wake up.
-
>Is that bird still around?
>Wild empathy check to lure it in.
>You suppose it's possible it is, but if so, it's probably asleep, and definitely silent; it was never actually visible to you in the first place.
>You're a rogue, not a ranger, sorry!
`>Groan, take medicine, try to wake up.
>The groaning comes easily. The waking up is rather harder. Eventually, you do manage to pull yourself to your feet and attend to the basic affairs of the morning. You take your medicine, have a light breakfast, pack away your bedding, and do your best to work the kinks out. They're quite stubborn today. The air feels like it's dropped almost ten degrees since yesterday, which mightn't be so bad by itself if it didn't look perilously liable to rain before the day is out.
-
>Gather our wits and bearings.
>Sniff the air. Any metallic or otherwise unusal odors about?
>Any sign of mice?
>Any latent sense of magic or things we can detect with our dousing power?
-
>Gather our wits and bearings.
>Sniff the air. Any metallic or otherwise unusal odors about?
>Any sign of mice?
>Any latent sense of magic or things we can detect with our dousing power?
>You've been trying to gather your wits since you woke up. It's... kinda working. Between your map and your own navigational skills, you do have a pretty good idea where you are, though.
>You smell many different kinds of plants, the trails of two separate squirrels and what you think is a marten, a little fly agaric, a hint of rotting wood, and absolutely nothing of consequence.
>None nearby, at least; you are sure there are some within the local area somewhere, though most are likely asleep.
>You sense nothing else you would describe as remotely unusual. By all accounts you are beneath a completely nondescript tree by a completely nondescript rock in the middle of nowhere.
-
>Well, since no better option presents itself as of yet, continue on as we had been.
>No wait. Check water supply first. If it is low, smell or scan about for a potential source of fresh water.
>If we're good, then continue on as we had been.
-
>Well, since no better option presents itself as of yet, continue on as we had been.
>No wait. Check water supply first. If it is low, smell or scan about for a potential source of fresh water.
>If we're good, then continue on as we had been.
>Your water supply is fine for the moment. You're attentive to refill when you get the opportunity and drink conservatively otherwise.
>After a few more minutes idling beneath the tree, you shoulder your pack and set off westward once more. The sun is reticent today, masked by a wall of dark clouds, and the damp air clings to your skin like fine mist. A thin fog hangs at the very edge of your vision, the outlines of trees and rocks fading subtly into grey. Still, it is several hours before the first real drops of rain start to fall - though once they do, it is very abrupt. You have only just enough time after the first ominous droplets to contemplate retrieving your cloak before the sky opens up and drenches you. The forest around you comes alive with the sound of the rain crashing through curtains of foliage. Leaves tremble and raindrops strike heavily against the soil; patches of bare ground soon turn slick and muddy beneath them. If you'd been even five seconds slower deciding to don that cloak, you'd have gotten absolutely soaked to the skin; you find yourself immensely grateful you decided to purchase it in the first place - even if it is the wrong size and none too fresh smelling.
>The weather continues on like this for half the day, lessening slightly, but not enough to stop calling it a downpour. You manage to find just enough shelter in time for lunch to keep the crackers from turning to mush in your hand, but it isn't until after supper that the rain eases enough to finally pull your hood back. It feels like it's gained several pounds of water since you first put it on, and it couldn't completely shield you from growing damp beneath it after so many hours of rain, but things could have been much worse. The rain-slick ground did force you to tackle some sections slower than you would otherwise, but you managed to remain upright the whole time, despite the mud and the puddles and the slippery rocks. Though even as the rain fades, the clouds do not disperse. It is a drab and dark sunset.
>The final leg of the day takes you through a large field of nearly neck-high grasses, still laden with the afternoon's downpour like heavy dew. You feel almost swallowed by them, engulfed on all sides by a sea of green and yellow that rustles loudly with your every motion, occasionally flicking water into your face when a tall stalk rebounds. For a time, they fill your entire field of vision unless you stop to crane your neck up at the starless sky; a faint pale glow in one corner of it is the only sign of the moon's presence tonight, beneath that smothering curtain of cloud. You find yourself wondering if Kagerou's made it home by now. She could have. But that would also mean she didn't take shelter from the rain. She wasn't dressed for it as well as you; you find yourself hoping she wasn't too miserable.
>Finding a suitable campsite proves more difficult than it was yesterday. Though the grass has given way to forest once more by the time you considering stopping, between the underbrush and the mud and the increasingly uneven ground, there's few places you'd relish lying down. You have enough energy to press on just a little further, but if that doesn't turn up a better location, you don't know you'll have it in you to improvise something better than flopping down on the nearest patch of mud.
-
>Have we seen or smelled any sign of larger predators in the area in or around the long grass?
-
>Have we seen or smelled any sign of larger predators in the area in or around the long grass?
>Rain is very good for washing away scents, but about the largest predator you've detected signs of thus far on this trip has been a fox.
-
>And no signs of smaller prey animals with which we might supplement our food stores?
>For that matter, how are our trapping skills?
-
Trapping takes time we don't have, really.
>Let's press on and try our luck.
-
>And no signs of smaller prey animals with which we might supplement our food stores?
>For that matter, how are our trapping skills?
>There have been plenty of signs over the course of the last few days. Mostly you have not been paying close attention to them, since none seemed unusual it any relevant way; you're in the middle of a forest, so it would be more strange not to run into any sign of small animals. You have more than enough food already on hand to last the trip out and back, however - and even if not, gathering fruit and berries would seem a more efficient means of supplementing your food stores.
>You have very little experience doing such a thing. Your wilderness training was more about tracking, foraging, and basic survival skills. You understand the rudiments of some kinds of traps, and could maybe construct one if pressed, but have never actually tried to catch an animal and eat it.
>Let's press on and try our luck.
>You press onward through the woods, looking for somewhere better to lay your head. Twenty increasingly slow minutes pass and still your choices all seem to be some variation on 'muddy patch of ground' or 'vaguely flat rock'. Nowhere is dry or soft or sheltered - at least nowhere much more than anywhere else. This is one of those few moments where you miss the benefits of your former size; you've passed several hollows that would be quite cozy and dry, if only they could house more than your hand. You don't know how much longer you can keep going before your body refuses to cooperate; you're already sagging on your feet.
-
>Might as well keep going, we'll need to cover these steps anyways. And maybe just settle for someplace kind of adequate.
-
>Barring us suddenly remember how to revert back to mouse form. Youkai can do that sometimes. Right?
-
>Barring us suddenly remember how to revert back to mouse form. Youkai can do that sometimes. Right?
>It's not altogether uncommon for beast youkai to be able to transform into something resembling the animal they once were, but far from universal. You've never possessed this ability, and while you suppose it's not impossible for youkai to acquire new ones through the simple passage of time, you wouldn't count on it ever happening - and certainly not in time to be useful here.
>Might as well keep going, we'll need to cover these steps anyways. And maybe just settle for someplace kind of adequate.
>You keep dragging yourself forward on sagging limbs. The next twenty minutes passes in a haze, trees and rocks and bushes all blending together in a sort of interminable mass of featureless forest - undifferentiated, unending, and almost unnoticed. There is little room in your fading consciousness for anything beyond keeping your body in motion and hoping you soon find a place where it can stop. The steady squelch of your footsteps through the mud is the loudest sound in your world right now, almost lulling in its regularity. You have to fight to keep your eyes open.
>Eventually you find a patch of slightly drier ground beneath a toppled slab of worn rock, the space beneath just barely large enough to accommodate you, and none too comfortably - but it's enough. It wouldn't take much longer before even the middle of a bush would be enough. You're so exhausted....
-
>At least we have our cloak already on. Crawl under the rock, this'll do.
-
>At least we have our cloak already on. Crawl under the rock, this'll do.
>You doff your pack, crawl in under the rock, and are dead to the world almost before you stop moving.
>Your first conscious thought upon waking is that it's an awfully dim day today. Did you sleep clear until sunset? The second is that there's an incredible crick in your left leg. You try to move it just a little and wince at even this slight motion. You think it must have ended up pinned beneath you somehow while you were asleep; you're not even sure how. Your thoughts are slow, there's a dead taste in your mouth, and someone has been tenderizing your shoulders with a mallet.
-
>Slowly extricate ourself, then take a break.
-
>Slowly extricate ourself, then take a break.
>You try to rise, and almost immediately bash your head against something extremely solid. Dammit, what the hell?!
>Right. You're under a rock. That's why it's so dark. Owww...
>Cringing and cradling your forehead with one hand, you slowly come back to yourself and then shimmy out of your shelter. The sun is actually fairly bright today, as it turns out, though your own condition is... less cheerful. Even ignoring the throbbing in your head and the fact you can't use your left leg properly without wincing, there is a deep achiness throughout your whole body; you can't tell how much of this is the disease, and how much is the last few days' exertions, but that doesn't make it any less palpable. As you try to gently stretch your leg, you notice a new blight spot on the back of your right hand - about the size of a guilder, but dark and plain as day to see. The large one on your leg is down past the knee, and there's even one snaking up the side of your neck, just past your collar. You swallow thickly, then cringe at the taste and take a drink of water. It helps a little.
-
>Have a decent ration of water, then our medicine.
-
>Have a decent ration of water, then our medicine.
>You have a few more sips of water to try and get the ick out of your mouth, then take your medicine. Well, it's a different kind of ick, anyway.
-
>Let's make sure nothing is too fucked up with our leg.
-
>Let's make sure nothing is too fucked up with our leg.
>As uncomfortable as it is, you don't think so. Most likely it was a combination of cramped sleeping conditions and all the walking you've been doing these last few days; maybe you pulled something? It does seem to be improving a little as you stretch it and move around, though you'll have to favor it for a while if you set out shortly, you think.
-
>Favor it and get to setting out. Eat along the way.
>Have far have we estimated we need to go?
-
>Favor it and get to setting out. Eat along the way.
>Have far have we estimated we need to go?
>Setting a modest pace that allows you to go gentle on your bad leg, you resume heading westward. The ground has dried a bit from yesterday's rainstorm, though is still slightly muddy in a lot of places. It looks to be early afternoon now and the temperature is only mild, so it probably won't dry out completely until tomorrow. Still, it's a major improvement over yesterday, and you're able to forgo the cloak entirely.
>Today's the day your search starts in earnest. Your map has grown increasingly vague, but at the same time that means you're approaching your target - or at least you hope you're approaching your target. You better be approaching your target. At any rate, within a couple hours, you should start to enter the bounds of region Sekibanki narrowed down for the garden's potential location. From there... who knows? That region still covers an awful lot of territory, and there's no way to know which direction within it would be best to head first.
>Your leg holds up fairly well under the gentler pace - and to be perfectly frank, the rest of your body is also thankful to have fewer demands placed on it for a while, even as the visible signs of your disease spread further across it. You eat breakfast on the move, slowly chewing on a dry honey biscuit and some nuts. Despite the pangs in your stomach, your appetite feels a bit... subdued, and you have to apply conscious effort to eat enough for the day's activities. Even thoughts of the cheese regrettably absent from your rations is less enticing than usual. Still, despite the aches and the pains and the soreness throughout, the next few hours pass without event or complication. It's hard to say for sure when you reach the edge of the search area, but now would be a good time to decide how you should approach dealing with it.
-
>What is the terrain like here? Do we see anything akin to what we anticipated while looking at the maps and listening to various people?
-
>What is the terrain like here? Do we see anything akin to what we anticipated while looking at the maps and listening to various people?
>The terrain here is not unlike what it has been for much of this journey: rugged, hilly woodland, with only sporadic patches of open terrain. At this distance, your map shows only the largest of terrain features, There is a ridge of rockier hills to the south, and the edge of the island itself is some miles north. If there are any bodies of water, they are not indicated. Sadly, no one was able to be specific in the slightest about the terrain surrounding the garden, though you could probably use the very same words to most of this wilderness thus far.
-
>Can we see that ridge at all?
>If so, how far would we we estimate it to be? Do we think we could get to the top of it?
I'm thinking the ridge, in order to look around.
-
>Can we see that ridge at all?
>If so, how far would we we estimate it to be? Do we think we could get to the top of it?
>No. All the trees around you make it hard to see very far into the distance in any direction.
>The ridge is at least a few miles to your south. It is clearly indicated as much more steep and rocky than any of the other hills in the area - rising into legitimate mountains after a while. If you are to get on top of any of it, you expect it will require actual rock-climbing.
-
>Let's have a douse of the area around us and towards the ridge, let's see what we can scan. If anything.
-
>Let's have a douse of the area around us and towards the ridge, let's see what we can scan. If anything.
>You stop and do a thorough dowse of the area around you. Your senses feel less acute than usual, and your mind slower to interpret them, but you still manage to piece together a decent picture of your surroundings, even if it takes longer than normal.
>Your immediate vicinity contains nothing of interest that you can notice - some trace quantities of various common minerals, but nothing unusual. Towards the mountains, you sense increasing quantities of natural iron and some nickel - maybe not enough to be economically viable, though still distinctly higher than elsewhere. The mountains themselves stand out clearly to your senses, being the massive chucks of rock that they are, rising far above their surroundings. You also detect what you think is a small stream the better part of a mile to the northwest; it seems to be the largest body of water nearby, though still tiny in absolute terms. Nothing beyond this catches your attention.
-
I'm inclined to avoid any serious rock climbing unless it's necessary, with the condition we're in.
-
YEah. Let's hit the stream and follow it. Flowers tend to need a lot of water, and so do we.
-
Makes sense. And hey, you never know. Maybe we'll strike lucky and find a helpful mermaid. (Ain't I optimistic.)
>Head towards the stream.
-
>Head towards the stream.
>You elect to investigate the stream, tracking northwest through dense scrub and over rugged forested hills. If you were hoping to avoid climbing by choosing this direction, you may have been a little premature; the terrain grows increasingly difficult as you progress, and without a useful map, you are often left to cut directly through obstacles rather than efficiently navigate around them. There is a brief moment where you crest the barren top of a rocky outcropping and get a decent view of the surrounding mile or so, but all you can see are more trees and hills, the vista blanketed thickly with dark green between spurs of rocky brown. A few lone birds stalk the treetops, their forms so distant as to be mere specks of dark swirling upon the bright blue sky. The terrain is so uneven here that the stream you are pursuing is completely obscured behind the dense curtain of wilderness, though you know it to be less than half a mile away now. But at least the height lets you plan your route better, and avoid any further climbs before your destination, and after another short walk followed by a slide down a gravel-strewn slope, you reach the banks of a small river. A tawny rabbit bounds away upon your arrival.
-
>Mutter. "Nice to see you, too."
>Find a place near the water to have a sit down and catch our breath and wash our face, and ponder the visible routes to determine the path of least resistance.
-
>Mutter. "Nice to see you, too."
>Find a place near the water to have a sit down and catch our breath and wash our face, and ponder the visible routes to determine the path of least resistance.
>You mutter at the rabbit as you hear it rustle safely away into the underbrush, then perch yourself on a small rock by the water's edge and have a rest. You wash some of the sweat off your face, have a drink, refill your canteens, and munch on a few nuts.
>The trees crowd fairly close to the river in either direction, but while the banks are fairly rocky, they're also shallow and look like easier traveling than most other places you've been today. The stream bends such that you can't see more than a couple hundred meters in either direction, and neither seems more obviously appealing than the other. From your appraisal of the wider terrain and your earlier dowsing, you think the river runs vaguely from south to north-northeast.
-
>Produce rods. Take a quick scan in both directions.
-
>Produce rods. Take a quick scan in both directions.
>You take out your dowsing rods and have another scan. There's really not much useful to report that differs from your first scan, aside from a possible branch in the river further south. Still, nothing in particular catches your attention.
-
What do we think, P, Nor'east?
EDIT: Wanted to get one last one before I crashed.
>Let's try heading downstream, then. NNE.
-
>Let's try heading downstream, then. NNE.
>You follow the flow of the river as it winds away to the north, stepping carefully along the waterworn stones that line its bank. Sometimes the trees recede far enough to allow you easy walking along the shore, while more than once you are force to skirt around angular rocks still being washed by the current. A trio of squabbling finches scatter as you duck beneath the tree in which they are perched and a second rabbit eyes you warily from the other bank of the river as you pass by. Every now and again you catch sight of motion or sound in the river itself as a tiny fish darts through its waters. Two hours in, you spot a cluster of berry bushes and break for a light lunch, but this makes the most noteworthy discovery until you reach the river's end.
>About three hours after you started following the river, the interminable forest which framed it gives way abruptly to open sky and the water cascades down over the island's edge. Trees still press close to its sides, leaving you only a narrow view of the sky beyond, but you can narrowly spot a more prominent peninsula of land extending to the northwest without getting uncomfortably close to the edge yourself. Living Braston, you've been close to the open sky more times than you can count, but there's something distinctly more leery about it when there's no guard railings, and the terrain all the way out to the edge is little but water and angular rocks. Particularly when your confidence in your balance is steadily waning.
-
>Well, if the forest has given way, let's look down along both sides of it and see what there is to see. Cling onto a tree or a sturdy rock if we fear this gets us too close to the edge.
-
>Well, if the forest has given way, let's look down along both sides of it and see what there is to see. Cling onto a tree or a sturdy rock if we fear this gets us too close to the edge.
>The trees do extend nearly to the edge, except directly in front of the river, but nonetheless you shimmy a little closer to the abyss for a better look, holding onto some sturdy tree branches for security. The air is light and breezy out here, tousling your hair as you examine what lies in both directions. The edge of island continues eastward in a relatively straight line until a small spur - maybe half a mile distant - conceals whatever terrain lies beyond. To the west, there is a small peninsula that sweeps a good ways to the north, slowing rising higher into a bare plateau with only a few lone trees topping it. The peninsula itself is perhaps a mile away, and extends for several more to the north. The open sky is clear, and without the shimmer of aether currents, except very close to the edge; either there are none which reach this place, or they are quite faint.
-
>How far off course do we feel like we are from where we estimated the field should be? Can we follow this river on our map at all?"
-
>How far off course do we feel like we are from where we estimated the field should be? Can we follow this river on our map at all?"
>The search area, even narrowed down as much as you could, still covers hundreds of square kilometers. You have no idea where, within this, the garden might lie - assuming your directions up to this point are even correct. The level of detail on your map at this distance is extremely vague, and there is no indication of this stream that you can notice. Mind you, it is small and shallow enough that you could ford it easily at any point along its length so far.
-
>All right, Nazrin, you're a treasure hunter. This is what you do. What do your instincts say is the right way to go?
-
>All right, Nazrin, you're a treasure hunter. This is what you do. What do your instincts say is the right way to go?
>If you knew that, the circle on your map would be much, much smaller.
-
>Do we have the tools and knowhow do do a proper sun sighting and translate that to map coordinates?
-
>Do we have the tools and knowhow do do a proper sun sighting and translate that to map coordinates?
>You lack specialized navigational tools beyond your compass, and the accuracy of your map at this distance from settlement is sketchy at best; you're practiced at positioning yourself relative to even subtle terrain features, but there's simply not much to go on here. That being said, you can use your dowsing skills to ascertain a very approximate distance from certain characteristic mineral signatures and use this to track your relative position as you move around, sketching in a few extra details as you go. It should be well within your skills to broadly partition off the terrain and search it systematically, though the degree of tree and hill cover will necessitate doing this in narrow sweeps or risk missing something. It would be nice if you knew how large this garden was supposed to be....
-
>Or that we had more time to work with.
>Inventory.
-
>Or that we had more time to work with.
>More time would be nice. It's gotten to the point where you can no longer write off your deterioration to ordinary fatigue or uncomfortable bedding.
>Inventory.
>Kumokirimaru (worn at side)
>Prism Pendant (around neck)
>Seeker's Badge (pinned to chest)
>273 Val Razuan guilders
>Compass
>Traveling pack
>Traveling rations
>2 canteens (partially filled with water)
>Lockpicks
>4 kunai
>Picture of Sokrates
>Fuwafuwa Heart Droplet
>Antique Val Razuan 1 guilder coin
>Dowsing rods
>Tie-dyed umbrella
>Spool of baling twine
>Bottle of Kumokirimaru-imbued medicine
>Empty sachet
>List of physicians' contact addresses
>Neu's note
>Pencil
>100 feet of rope
>2 glowsticks
>2 torches
>Small heatstone
>Basic grappling hook
>Blue ribbon
>Two spare outfits (one somewhat damaged)
>Piece of peppermint-raspberry chewing gum
>Recipe for Athran's Vigor
>Potted Bittercress
>Chitsuki Ukizaki's business card
>Heavy black cloak
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I've just had a radical thought.
>In our time, have we ever heard of anyone living in a cave that opens out into open air? A house, as it were, in the side of the island?
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>In our time, have we ever heard of anyone living in a cave that opens out into open air? A house, as it were, in the side of the island?
>You've seen just such a geological formation yourself, while on an excursion to a small island south of Estval during your apprenticeship. The place was dotted with shallow, well-lit caves like swiss cheese, and many opened up onto the clear sky; it was quite a striking view, if you're honest. They'd held a sort of treasure hunt among them as part of your wilderness navigation training. You won decisively. You never saw anyone actually living there, mind, but you've heard of stranger.
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>And thus far, we've detected no signs of anything out of the ordinary out over the edge in our vicinity, correct? Either with our mundane or mystic senses?
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>And thus far, we've detected no signs of anything out of the ordinary out over the edge in our vicinity, correct? Either with our mundane or mystic senses?
>That is correct. It looks like perfectly normal sky, as you have observed more times than you can count.
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>What about vines or tree roots that extend down or out of the side of the island, ones suitable for climbing?
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>What about vines or tree roots that extend down or out of the side of the island, ones suitable for climbing?
>There is only a little organic matter protruding beyond the island's edge and certainly not enough to safely hold onto. You do, however, have a grappling hook and a great deal of rope if, for some reason, you wanted to descend over the edge a little.
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>Maybe if we have to. But rappelling down into infinity isn't something we should do right now unless we have to.
>And since we don't have to, at least as far as we can tell, that leaves us with more mundane terrain.
>Let's strike out west, vaguely in the direction of that plateau.
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>Maybe if we have to. But rappelling down into infinity isn't something we should do right now unless we have to.
>And since we don't have to, at least as far as we can tell, that leaves us with more mundane terrain.
>Let's strike out west, vaguely in the direction of that plateau.
>You decide you're not especially in the mood to dangle precipitously over the abyss today, and instead head west, looking to find a way onto that plateau. This turns out to be less straightforward than you'd hoped, thanks to a ridge of jagged rock and a series of miniscule ponds that you are forced to slowly circumnavigate. Between the rise and fall of the terrain and the continually thick tree cover, more than an hour passes before you reach the peninsula, and almost another more before you can be wholly certain you're actually on it, when the trees thin just enough to catch occasional glimpses of the open sky to either side. The slope of the terrain is mild at first, but grows slowly steeper as you progress, and the final half mile is demanding enough to make you pause to rest more than once.
>When at last you crest the tree line and emerge onto the flat of the plateau, you are immediately braced by a fierce wind that sets your hair fluttering. Just a handful of stalwart trees find purchase on this windswept sheet of rock and gravel, their forms gnarled and stocky, but the view is absolutely striking. Everywhere but behind, you are encircled by the endless sky, and beneath you in all directions spreads out an expanse of a hundred shades of green, dotted with deep red and ribbons of blue. You can see clear to the mountains in the south, distant hulking spectres of granite that loom impassively above forest-capped hills. You can see the thin cascade of water sparkle in the sunlight where the river you just left tumbles over the island's edge, and two more just like it further to the west. You can even see the faintest hint of the tallgrass meadow you crossed last night, far to the southeast, in the shadow of the slopes beyond.
>Across hill and valley and sheltered pond, your eye wanders, taking in the landmarks and building a map inside your head to complement the one in your hands. There are still a dozen hills obscuring a dozen more valleys that you cannot see, but this is by far the best vantage you've had yet of the lands in which the garden rests and in which you must find it. Somehow.
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>No obvious or immediate signs of our target, though?
>Come to think of it, have we seen any signs of other sapient individuals passing this way since we left Kagerou?
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>No obvious or immediate signs of our target, though?
>Come to think of it, have we seen any signs of other sapient individuals passing this way since we left Kagerou?
>No. There is plenty of green, and maybe even a few flowers, but no immediate sign of a garden.
>Not that you've been able to spot. Even if fairies come out this way every now and again, the woods are vast enough that crossing paths with the trail of one is a long shot, and yesterday's rain undoubtedly wiped out nearly any trace that might have been left.
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>All right, well, how much does our new vantage point, pretty though it may be, help us narrow our search, if any?
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>All right, well, how much does our new vantage point, pretty though it may be, help us narrow our search, if any?
>Well, you can see quite a lot of terrain, and assuming the garden is not so small as to disappear under heavy tree cover (could so many flowers even grow beneath that kind of shade?) you can probably rule out anywhere that you can see clearly. There's still a lot that you can't, obscured by the rise and fall of the land, but you can also spot other elevated vantage points from here that probably could see them, and plot a path towards them. Perhaps by bouncing back and forth between hilltops you can rule out a lot of ground without having to walk through all of it? Assuming the garden is not concealed through some more effective means than just isolation and obscurity; if it is deliberately camouflaged, then you can't rule out missing it even if your eyes wandered right over its location now.
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>And there's no kind of magical camouflage that we've sensed either?
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>And there's no kind of magical camouflage that we've sensed either?
>You've detect nothing particularly magical at all. Now, presumably magic intended to disguise would be more subtle in its own presence than other magic - you've never really occasion to try and detect something magically concealed before - but even conventional magic would be difficult to detect at great range unless it was massive in magnitude. You doubt you could detect anything meaningful from this distance, no matter what it was.
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>What's the terrain like between us and the nearest of those elevated vantage points?
>Assuming pass-ability, let's head up and there and see what we can see.
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>What's the terrain like between us and the nearest of those elevated vantage points?
>Assuming pass-ability, let's head up and there and see what we can see.
>Rugged, hilly, and partially obscured. Getting anywhere from here is liable to require some roundabout pathfinding, and you can only plot the generalities of your route from this distance. But one thing you can do is make sure you know where you're going. You quickly sketch in landmarks, compass bearings, and approximate directions for other places you plan to visit, then pack up and set off back down into the forest again.
>There are thankfully few complications along your journey to the next peak, save the final part; the ascent here is far steeper than the last, and after a few minutes spent looking for an easier way up, you concede to climbing straight up the rock face. You adroitness is... not what it used to be; your grip is less certain, your steps slower, and the effort leaves you panting on shaky limbs before you're halfway up. But eventually you pull yourself back onto flatter ground and collapse, breathing heavily.
>The view up here is less impressive than on the plateau and you're less in the mood to appreciate it, but you can still see an entire valley that was hidden from you before. The sun is fading now - bands of gentle crimson etching across the lower sky. Not so far away, a small flock of birds bursts from between a grove of maples, quarreling loudly.
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>Analyze valley.
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>Analyze valley.
>Without yet mustering the strength to stand back up, you stare out at the new terrain your perch has revealed. It is a broad expanse of deciduous trees and tall grasses within a shallow decline, less dense than much of the surrounding forest; you can see more than one thin ribbon of water peek through the foliage. But though your eye slowly traces over it while you try to catch your breath, you see nothing within it that catches your attention.
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>All right, roll over and rest a minute.
>A thought occurs. Is there some money to be made by our cartographical efforts out here?
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>All right, roll over and rest a minute.
>A thought occurs. Is there some money to be made by our cartographical efforts out here?
>You roll flat onto your back and lie still for a while, the brisk wind sapping the heat from you. You're not looking forward to the next hill one little bit.
>It's certainly possible that a good map of this area would be worth money to someone - if not the fort, then some academic in the city, perhaps - but it would need to be a lot better quality than the notes you've been taking. It's a task that's within your skillset to do, you think, but you'd want more time to do it than you currently feel you can spare. Whether even a few rough observations could fetch a quick buck... you suppose it's possible, but you wouldn't count on it.
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>Assess stamina. From what we saw, how much more progress can we reasonably expect to make today?
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>Assess stamina. From what we saw, how much more progress can we reasonably expect to make today?
>You could maybe find it in yourself to climb another hill like this today. If you had to. You really don't want to have to, but you could. You think. Some of them probably have gentler slopes; maybe it won't be so bad? You kept hiking a lot later than this each night so far, but this afternoon has been unusually physically demanding and your condition is only getting worse. Your lip curls in quiet frustration.
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>Well, lying here isn't going to get us anywhere, this youkai isn't going to drop out of the sky onto our face.
They're saving that for the doujins.
>Once we catch our breath, stand up and have a better look around.
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>Well, lying here isn't going to get us anywhere, this youkai isn't going to drop out of the sky onto our face. They're saving that for the doujins.
>Once we catch our breath, stand up and have a better look around.
>You let yourself rest for another couple minutes, then pull yourself to your feet and have a better survey of your surroundings. Much of what you can see is what you already observed from the plateau, of course - that had the higher vantage, even if it was further away - but some bits are new and you take note of them. The largest of these is the valley you examined earlier, but there are some other small hills and bands of forest that you think must have been previously obscured by the hill on which you are presently standing. You take out your map and rotate it around to compare notes.
>Though several minutes careful observation further cements your understanding of the area's geography, it turns up little else that's exciting. The terrain is mostly homogeneous, if bumpy, and no section of forest looks very distinct from any other. There is no sign of sapient influence on the land, nothing obviously out of place, very little open ground, and not even much in the way of animal activity you can observe from this high up, save for a single lone hawk circling somewhere to the south and a... actually what is that?
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>Well? What is it?
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>Well? What is it?
>That's a good question. It's just the faintest hint of motion on the side of a distant hill - too far away to make out anything more than a dark speck - but for just a moment, there was a bright glint of light from it. ...and there it is again! The light is ruddy orange. Could that be reflected sunlight?
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>How far away? Close enough to reach before we wear ourselves out today?
>Any details at all as to what could be reflecting that sunlight?
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>How far away? Close enough to reach before we wear ourselves out today?
>Any details at all as to what could be reflecting that sunlight?
>You think so, though you can't be sure with some of the terrain along the way obscured by smaller hills. More pertinently, if that thing keeps moving in the direction it's going, it will almost certainly be somewhere else long before you can reach it.
>It's so far away that you can't really tell, but you can't think of any mundane animals that could do such a thing. It could even be a person, though it's useless to try and resolve their figure from their distance without a spyglass or something.
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>So we, a clever and savvy ranger, failed not only to bring along something to sleep in, but also a set of binoculars?
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>So we, a clever and savvy ranger, failed not only to bring along something to sleep in, but also a set of binoculars?
>Your recent shopping habits leave something to be desired, yes.
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>Then let's chase them down. With all due speed.
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>Then let's chase them down. With all due speed.
>You peer over the edge of the cliff for a few moments, then lower yourself down the rock face with a small sigh of resignation. The descent is easier than the climb was, but your condition is all the worse for the latter and your limbs sometimes shake when you bear your weight on them. You curse your trembling arms when a narrow ledge of dolomite slips beneath one foot. You don't have time for your body to not cooperate! Eventually you reach the bottom with nothing worse than rubbery muscles and a thin sheen of sweat to show for your troubles. You pause just a moment for rest, then press onward as fast as you can manage, and frankly faster than you probably should - urgency and discontent spurring you beyond the complaints of your body. It can complain later.
>The sun has already set by the time you reach the foot of the hill on which you spotted that gleaming speck. At least you're fairly certain this is the right hill. You pull out your compass and your map and compare bearings against your last vantage point. Yes, this is definitely the one. But though the tree cover is almost absent here, there is no immediate sign of anything either gleaming or moving - just an empty, rocky hill.
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>Still as good a lead as any we've had.
>Let's see what if anything we can douse.
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>Still as good a lead as any we've had.
>Let's see what if anything we can douse.
>You pull out your dowsing rods and see if you can hone in on whatever that gleaming spot you noticed earlier might have been. Nothing is immediately obvious - just lots of quartz and dolomite, with the smallest traces of copper - so you expand your search. Or, rather, attempt to; it takes only a minute of struggling to tease apart resonances for it to become abundantly clear how poor your focus is tonight. After several minutes more, it's all you can do not to throw down your rods in frustration. This should be straightforward! Why can't you seem to keep your thoughts in one place? Readings blur together into vagueness and the more irritated you become at your failure to separate them, the less sense you can make of anything. You've know you've pushed yourself hard today and each day it feels like there's less and less to push, but surely you can still do this much? It's like you're a novice, all over again.
>You sigh and stop and just sit down on the ground for a few minutes, watching the stars come out. There's a cool breeze tonight; the kind that feels like a gentle caress across your cheek. It's a pleasant enough night, you guess, to be all alone and dying on a rock in the middle of nowhere.
>Eventually, you muster up the resolve to try again. Even if you're off your game, even if your... mind is slipping, you're still an expert. Even on a bad day, you can still beat the pants off almost anyone at this. So you tell yourself. So you try to believe. You are more patient this time, slower; if you need five times as long to localize a reading in the distance, then you'll just give yourself five times as long to do it. You sweep your dowsing rods methodically across the horizon, and gradually start to make sense of what you're seeing. More quartz and feldspar and a handful of uninteresting carbonates... a little silver vein of silver half a mile underground, some hematite and... tanzanite and... and is that...? Your brow furrows and you throw all your meager focus to the task of picking out one little subtle blip among miles and miles of rock, one tiny spot of... of....
>Of worked steel. No metal that hasn't seen a forge rings like that; there is absolutely no doubt in your mind, even now. Somewhere, a mile or two northwest, there is something made of tempered steel. And it's still moving.
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>Moving in which direction?
>Is that close enough for a human to hear shouting? On second thought, never mind, we probably shouldn't. We'd just as easily frighten them off or anger them at our presence.
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>Moving in which direction?
>Is that close enough for a human to hear shouting? On second thought, never mind, we probably shouldn't. We'd just as easily frighten them off or anger them at our presence.
>Possibly north? It's a little hard to tell exactly at this distance. Maybe a little west-ish?
>And there's a good chance there's an actual hill in between the two of you, which isn't exactly going to help voice transmission, to say nothing of all the trees.
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>Good, that means we have some cover if worse comes to worse.
>Track them down.
>Wait, is it just the one sense of forged metal we've sensed, or is there more from this source?
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>Wait, is it just the one sense of forged metal we've sensed, or is there more from this source?
>At this distance, it would be impossible to differentiate multiple metal signatures in close proximity. You don't think it's a large quantity of metal, but you can't tell if it's a single object or multiple smaller ones.
>Track them down.
>You head westward in pursuit of this moving steel and are quickly stymied by a steep gorge that was rendered nearly invisible by plant cover until you were almost upon it. You're actually a little lucky you didn't fall into it. Finding a way across ends up necessitating a significant detour and your target gains ground on you. Fortunately, their presence still registers clearly to your senses, now that you know what you're looking for, and you adjust your course to follow.
>It doesn't feel like they're moving very quickly, but your own progress is frustrated by more strenuous inclines than you're in any shape to tackle and thickets you could only barely squeeze through at the best of times. The better part of two whole hours pass without either seeing or hearing your quarry, and nearly all your stamina feels spent by the end of them. You're much closer now - that much is certain - but you feel like you're pressing forward on grit alone now and there's a new problem: it seems whatever you're tracking has moved somewhere high within a sheer rocky ridge and come to a stop. If you're reading your own cartographic notes properly, this ridge has no obviously walkable slope from any direction.
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>How far away are they now?
>How far away can we usually detect that kind of material?
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>How far away are they now?
>How far away can we usually detect that kind of material?
>A little more than half a mile, you think.
>It depends greatly on your surroundings. In the middle of the wilderness, what you are tracking is essentially the only object of its kind for dozens of miles, which makes it much easier to spot at a distance, even if your current condition does diminish your effective range. It may have been about two miles away the first you spotted it, and you think you could have detected from somewhat further away than that.
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>Can we see this slope and ridge from where we are?
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>Can we see this slope and ridge from where we are?
>Clearly. You're very nearly at the point where you either abandon following the trail here or start to climb straight up. The rock is very nearly sheer in many places, and though it affords decent handholds and ledges, will be anything but easy to tackle in your current condition.
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>Well before we start climbing, have we sensed any magical auras about this hill in general, or anywhere in the vicinity of our quarry?
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>Well before we start climbing, have we sensed any magical auras about this hill in general, or anywhere in the vicinity of our quarry?
>No. It seems like a perfectly unremarkable hill in all respects, notable only in that it's in your way.
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>We do still have our grappling hook. Do we see any sturdy places we could hook that onto to aid our ascent?
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>We do still have our grappling hook. Do we see any sturdy places we could hook that onto to aid our ascent?
>There are perhaps a couple spots you could use this, but you don't think it would be especially helpful. The rock isn't lacking for ledges to grip. The problem is that the ascent would be mostly vertical, and climbing a rope doesn't stop you from having to lift your own weight up to the top of the cliff.
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>When we were tracking our quarries ascent, did it seem like whoever it was was impeded by this surface as we seem to be?
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>When we were tracking our quarries ascent, did it seem like whoever it was was impeded by this surface as we seem to be?
>It's hard to say at the distance and frequency you were tracking them; at the very least, they never moved in a way that would suggest flight while you were watching.
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>Or any sign of magically assisted climbing?
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>Or any sign of magically assisted climbing?
>You've noticed no sign of obvious magic in that direction at all - or anywhere else nearby, for that matter.
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>Well they had to get up there somehow.
>Presumably there's also been no sign of trees or roots or other signs of plantlife that could assist climbing?
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>Well they had to get up there somehow.
>Presumably there's also been no sign of trees or roots or other signs of plantlife that could assist climbing?
>The rock in front of you is perfectly climbable to someone skilled in doing so. The one you climbed earlier today was not a great deal gentler-looking. The problem here is that you're exhausted and in deteriorating physical condition; a week earlier and this mightn't do much more than slow you down. It's not hard to imagine the other party climbed up the old-fashioned way themselves.
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>So if we were able to climb up there tonight, we'd be absolutely drained by the time we got up there?
>If we fell, how much would falling hurt?
>Does there seem to be any easier paths up the hill within line of sight?
>How much time would it take to circumvent the hill to find another way up?
>Do we even have the stamina to make the attempt tonight?
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>So if we were able to climb up there tonight, we'd be absolutely drained by the time we got up there?
>If we fell, how much would falling hurt?
>Does there seem to be any easier paths up the hill within line of sight?
>How much time would it take to circumvent the hill to find another way up?
>Do we even have the stamina to make the attempt tonight?
>You're pretty close to drained already. You can keep pushing on fumes for a bit, if it's important, but you really wouldn't want to have to do anything strenuous afterward.
>That depends a great deal on how high you are when you fall. You'd guess the top is at least a hundred feet up and the ground below is gravely. A short fall wouldn't exactly be comfortable, but you could shrug it off. A fall from near the top could give even a youkai several broken bones. It should go without saying that this would hurt enormously. You'd like to think you could manage a better landing than that, but you're also well below par at the moment.
>This is the assuming the easiest path of ascent that you can see. It's not entirely straight up - there are a few small sloped ledges that would allow some careful walking - but it's demanding nonetheless.
>You don't know that an easier path up this hill exists - at least one within several hours of walking distance. You got a good look at this ridge when you were mapping from your last vantage point, and it looked quite steep on all sides but the south, where it meets the larger mountain range. This southern access is useless to you, since those cliffs are even higher.
>It's not out of the question, but nor do you feel altogether comfortable trying.
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>I don't suppose there's any visible ledge above us where we could pause half-way up or so in order to rest, should our stamina fail us?
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>I don't suppose there's any visible ledge above us where we could pause half-way up or so in order to rest, should our stamina fail us?
>There are some small ones, though none that look large enough to make for entirely comfortable seating.
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I find myself very torn here, troops. Not the least reason being this could be Draco leading us around by the nose, and though I do doubt this strongly, I can't rule out the possibility that this is a wild goose chase.
So here's how I sees it. If we climb this hill and make, we could find ourselves at Yuuka's doorstep only to pass out, at which point she could very easily throw us off the hill when she finds us, or simply mulch us.
We could also camp out down here for the night, but if we do, we risk losing our quarry.
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I say we do it. If nothing else, we die on her doorstep and hopefully she catches the plague too and follows us >=|
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My, we are generous. Still I suppose action does trump inaction nine times out of ten.
>Sigh deeply. Only natural that things wouldn't get any easier.
>Okay.
>By the best possible means, ascend.
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>Sigh deeply. Only natural that things wouldn't get any easier.
>Okay.
>By the best possible means, ascend.
>With a very heavy sigh, you size up the task in front of you and then get to work. The rock is unpleasantly smooth, the ledges narrow and angular, and the ascent long. Your fingers fight for grip and you press yourself as flat against the cliff as you can to retain your balance. With what little stamina you have left, each meter feels like a minor accomplishment, each new foothold bought with sweat and struggle.
>But still, you press on, clawing yourself up to one ledge then carefully skirting along another. Every now and again you reach one just wide enough to pause and try to rest; your breathing is heavy, your thoughts thick. The wind is growing brisker now, colder, with just a hint of dampness lingering upon its touch. The ground recedes away from you - thirty feet, forty... Your arm trembles slightly as you let its muscles relax a moment; it's a good thing your legs don't do likewise. You crane your neck upward. Not quite halfway yet. Do you even have it in you to climb all the rest of it? Never has so short a distance seemed so far away.
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>Aim up at the uncaring sky and wonder aloud, "Can I get some help here?"
>In for a penny, in for a painful fall. Keep going.
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>Aim up at the uncaring sky and wonder aloud, "Can I get some help here?"
>In for a penny, in for a painful fall. Keep going.
>After quietly beseeching the heavens for aid, you resume climbing; one hand over the other, carefully feeling out the surface of the rock for the safest place to grasp it. Your fingers quiver slightly, but you steady yourself and focus your thoughts. Careful, mechanical, methodical. Exhausted. But you know what to do - you just have to do it. Fifty feet, sixty... All your limbs feel like heavy rubber and sweat that even this wind cannot whisk away trickles down your nose. The sound of your breath rises loudly above the stillness of rocky wilderness.
>You stretch your left hand up to a distant handhold and grip it tight, lifting yourself upward to the next ledge. Your muscles tremble slightly and your brow furrows; come on, Nazrin, it's not that hard... You shift one foot up to a tiny lip of rock and then carefully move the other.
>Suddenly your foot slips from its purchase! The abrupt movement throws off your center of gravity and you react too slowly to keep your left hand's grip from being jerked aside. Your fingers claw at the rock for an instant, then lose grasp of it entirely. Your whole body swings to the right, and for just a moment, you are left dangling precipitously from that arm alone and it is absolutely everything you can manage for it to not give way immediately.
>It's not enough. No matter how strong your will, no matter how much it matters, you've spent everything it had to give and now there's nothing left. Your arm does not so much tremble as it quakes, and then it gives out completely and you fall.
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>If we're falling along the cliff face, we might as well try to grab onto something, anything.
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>If we're falling along the cliff face, we might as well try to grab onto something, anything.
>You grasp desperately for purchase as you plummet away from the rock face, hands scrabbling with renewed vigor for something, anything! One hand brushes narrowly across the edge of a thin ledge, but your fingers slip past before you can grip it. Your shoulder bangs hard against the cliff, sending you tumbling sideways. You try to right yourself, try to reach forward. Everything is a blur of rock and sky and panic; the air whistles shrilly past your ears as you fall, but you scarcely hear it.
>There! Your hand slams down on flat rock - hard enough to drive it numb if you had focus to notice - and you push against it with furious resolve. You feel your shoulder wrench as the rest of your body falls past it and twists, but you slow! And then something strikes you in the face and you lose your grip once more. The rest of your fall is a disoriented haze of scrapes and bruises and the relentless pull of gravity. And one sickeningly sudden impact.
>You are normally a stoic person. You take pride in this, in fact - in your ability to keep a straight face despite fear, or pain, or disbelief. But at that moment when the ground meets your body and batters it with the force of a sledgehammer, you cannot help but howl with all the air left in your lungs. Pain. All the fear and panic in your weary consciousness is replaced with one single overriding sensation: Pain.
>It is hard to remember that there are other thoughts to think. Harder still to remember where you are or why you are here. Hard enough to merely hang on.
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>Fuck...everything. All of 'em...
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>Fuck...everything. All of 'em...
>Slowly, the bitter cold of resentment seeps into that misery of pain that is your current existence. You might pound the ground in frustration if your everything did not hurt too much to consider moving. It is hard to tell where one pain stops and another begins; your whole body feels bathed in it, like a sheen of lava beneath your skin. Each breath stabs you, and is taken only by necessity. You think there is a boulder pressing into your side, but it's difficult to determine which way is up. In the dim part of your mind able to process such thoughts, you wonder if it might have been just plain better if you'd lost consciousness altogether. But no, you have to be aware of all this - fuck that, too.
>Eventually, with excruciating lethargy and just plain excruciation, your thoughts pull back together enough to open your eyes. There is a red sheen to your vision and a pile of gravel in front of your face. You seem to be on your side, though you're not sure if that's how you landed. You head feels too big for your skull.
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>How much of that gravel seems discolored? Or are we seeing too much red to tell?
>We're going to die out here. This much is certain now. So now we have a new plan. Somehow find that garden and die there. Let the plague take that youkai and every damn plant there.
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>After we lie down here for a minute. Or two.
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>How much of that gravel seems discolored? Or are we seeing too much red to tell?
>We're going to die out here. This much is certain now. So now we have a new plan. Somehow find that garden and die there. Let the plague take that youkai and every damn plant there.
>There is a bright red stain on the ground, though it does not extend a large distance from where your head is uncomfortably resting, at least. Your vision is hazy and swimming a little, but not totally discolored.
>Your spirits, on the other hand, mingle pain and bitterness in equal measure. Some part of you wants nothing more than to lash out at the nearest target you can blame - whether out of frustration at her or at yourself, you're not wholly certain.
>After we lie down here for a minute. Or two.
>For once, you are in the very exact opposite of a rush to get moving now. You were exhausted enough already before you did.... whatever it was that you did that makes so much of you hurt so badly. Were it not for the pain, you think you could just fall asleep on the spot. You might still manage to do that anyway.
>But not in the next few minutes anyway, it seems. It is hard to tell exactly how much time has passed, between the disjointness of your thoughts and the chorus of agonies throughout your body, but eventually some of the worst of the pain starts to subside a little. Or maybe you're just getting used to them. It doesn't really hurt to breath now, at least. Much.
-
>Let's just lie here and die. That'll help with pain.
-
>Let's just lie here and die. That'll help with pain.
>It probably would. You hear that dead people feel remarkably little. Maybe you could even go turn into a nice little vengeful spirit and go haunt someone. Being dead seems to have worked out okay for Murasa. It's got to be better than this.
>Sadly, your body does not seem to be in a hurry to cooperate. Blood runs wetly down your forehead to drip onto the rock beneath you and more parts of you throb profusely than you care to catalogue. And if this wasn't bad enough, you're starting to feel significantly nauseous. Still, you seem to be alive. Youkai are rather hard to kill with blunt trauma, no matter how thorough. Perhaps a pity.
-
>Be that as it may, we're not getting up that hill tonight, are we?
-
>Be that as it may, we're not getting up that hill tonight, are we?
>That seems absurdly unlikely. At the moment, you're not even sure you can walk.
-
>Then let's just roll over until we fall asleep. Or until we're not feeling like death warmed over. Whichever comes first.
-
>Then let's just roll over until we fall asleep. Or until we're not feeling like death warmed over. Whichever comes first.
>You roll over to rest and immediately regret this decision; pain blossoms from a dozen places and you groan weakly. But slowly it settles back down to merely miserable as your consciousness's grasp on the world around it grows hazy. You are not sure you properly fall asleep so much as drift in a reverie of enveloping discomfort while your mind gives up on processing it. You have no idea how much time has passed when you hear footsteps of some kind echoing off the rock above you.
-
>Let's try to look up. Bit at a time...
-
>Let's try to look up. Bit at a time...
>You slowly crane your neck upward, wincing slightly. This hurts less than the last time you tried to move, anyway. Your senses still feel rather muddled, but the sound seems to be coming from somewhere near to the top of the hill you fell off. You have to shift the rest of your body to get a look in that direction, and wince louder this time, grimacing against your body's dislike of doing anything at all right now. The footsteps don't sound human; some kind of... quadruped? Before you can do better to identify it in your disoriented state, something round and grey pokes over the lip of the cliff above. ...is that a helmet?
-
>Emit a groan. It is too shitty today to engage in vocabulation.
-
>Emit a groan. It is too shitty today to engage in vocabulation.
>You groan in lieu of finding words to say. Somehow this seems to get a response anyway.
>"Hark, Thelonious!" a small voice cries crisply from above. "A damsel in distress!"
-
>Male or female voice?
-
>Male or female voice?
>Female.
-
>Okay, so that's the right gender at least. But this Yuuka was supposed to be a loner, and thus wouldn't likely to have company around to shout at, right?
-
>Okay, so that's the right gender at least. But this Yuuka was supposed to be a loner, and thus wouldn't likely to have company around to shout at, right?
>You have no idea Yuuka's personal habits, though no one else was ever mentioned in context of her.
-
>It would be our luck, though, to come this far out into the the ass end of nowhere, and find the wrong person.
>Let them make the first move.
-
>It would be our luck, though, to come this far out into the the ass end of nowhere, and find the wrong person.
>Let them make the first move.
>Grumbling quietly about your success on this expedition, you remain still and wait for the person above to do something.
>Moments later, the figure crests the lip of the hill and bounds lightly down the side of the cliff. A goat?! Yes, a tawny goat bearing a small passenger holding fast to the goat by its horns. Those diaphanous wings on the rider's back can only belong to a fairy. She is wearing some kind of yellow and burgundy tabard with a shiny, but ill-fitting helmet - at least if the way it rattles with every leap her mount makes is any indication. And is that... some kind of miniature lance at her side? For the goat's part, it seems almost preternaturally surefooted as it descends the cliff only slightly slower than you just did, yet significantly less battered for it; you can't help but feel slightly bitter about that. When they reach the bottom, the duo trots over to you and pauses a few feet away.
>"What ghastly injuries," the fairy declares with an in-draw of breath. "Can you speak? Are there blackguards about?" She scans the horizon rapidly, as if expecting to spot some.
-
>"Don't wanna..."
-
>Of course. A fairy. We're saved now.
>I suppose I did ask for some help here. Though the term is used loosely.
>"No. Just me."
-
>"Don't wanna..."
>"Fear not," she says. "If there are villains about, I will defend you!"
>Of course. A fairy. We're saved now.
>I suppose I did ask for some help here. Though the term is used loosely.
>"No. Just me."
>Was this really what you were chasing after? A fairy with a glorified pot on her head? Was this what you just nearly broke yourself in two trying to reach? You swallow thickly and answer her second question.
>"Then what, if I might ask, is the cause of your injuries?" Her eyes still apprise the trees warily, as if she isn't quite sure whether to believe you.
-
>"Stupidity."
-
>"Stupidity."
>"Stupidity?" This seems to give the fairy pause for a moment. "Are you sure you're alright- no, of course you're not alright. Allow me to render aid!"
>With this, the fairy dismounts from her goat with a brief flutter of her wings, then walks over to you and bends down. She winces when she looks at you, then her visor falls down over her eyes with a clank.
-
>"What are you doing out here, anyway?"
-
>"What are you doing out here, anyway?"
>"We are-" The fairy pauses and draws back. "Oh, please forgive my rudeness. I have not introduced myself."
>With this, she draws herself up to her full diminutive height and proudly declares from the inside of her tin can: "I am Fearless Grapefruit, Knight-Errant of House Pardicas and this is my faithful steed, Thelonious. Say hello, Thelonious." The goat bleats indifferently. "We are on a sacred quest to seek the mythical Overgoat - watchful progenitor of goat kind."
-
>We really are doomed, aren't we?
-
>Groan.
>"I'm just busy dying."
-
>We really are doomed, aren't we?
>Your faith in your rescuer is extremely limited at the moment.
>Groan.
>"I just busy dying."
>"Dying?" she asks with dismay. "Oh, that won't do at all! We must tend to your injuries."
>She kneels down beside you and reaches into a satchel at her side, producing a small roll of... bandages? ...they appear to be bright yellow, with smiley faces on them. She tears one off and sizes up your face carefully.
-
>"Never mind that, just, help me sit up. I've lid down long enough."
-
>"Never mind that, just, help me sit up. I've lid down long enough."
>"Are you certain?" she asks dubiously, still holding the bandage in front of your face. "Your injuries look... unpleasant."
-
>"Least of my problems."
-
>"Just be nice to lay someplace softer than gravel."
-
>"Least of my problems."
>"If there are other matters weighing upon you, please allow me to assist. A knight is honor-bound to help travelers in need. Isn't that right, Thelonious?" The goat bleats on cue once more.
>"Just be nice to lay someplace softer than gravel."
>"Oh, of course." She puts aside the bandage and extends a small hand towards you. "Take my hand."
-
>This can only end well.
>Take her hand, and while she's aiding us, "Sure, why not. By any happy chance, have you stumbled on a big garden out here?"
-
>This can only end well.
>Take her hand, and while she's aiding us, "Sure, why not. By any happy chance, have you stumbled on a big garden out here?"
>With no shortage of doubt, you take Grapefruit's hand and let her try to help you up. She strains vocally against your fairly modest weight, but she's much less rough than you'd feared - leaning in beneath your shoulder once you give her enough leverage to do so. The journey into an upright position is still painful in a dozen different locations, but you manage it without making too much noise. A fairly sizable puddle of drying blood has accumulated on the stones where your head was resting and you can see some of it soaked into your capelet. Some relatively superficial cuts criss-cross your legs, aside from the enormous dark welt where you struck the ground.
>"A big garden?" she asks. "What kind of garden?"
-
>And the enormous other dark colorations that are our real problem? How are those?
-
>And the enormous other dark colorations that are our real problem? How are those?
>While noticeably worse than when you set out on this trip, they don't seem particularly different than they were immediately before you fell off the cliff.
-
>"Flowers, everywhere."
-
>"Flowers, everywhere."
>"Flowers everywhere...." Graprefruit's voice trails off thoughtfully, then she suddenly flips up the visor of her helmet up with a look of alarm. "Surely you don't mean the demesne of the Verdant Demon?"
-
>Do we know that verdant is a word for green?
>If 'yes', then crack a grin. "Poetic name."
-
>Do we know that verdant is a word for green?
>If 'yes', then crack a grin. "Poetic name."
>You could certainly imagine that name being applied to a magical gardener who may or may not have been a war criminal, fanciful as it is.
>"Is that a yes or a no...?" the fairy asks tentatively.
-
>"That'd be a yes."
-
>"That'd be a yes."
>There is a pause. "I have not set foot in it myself," she says quietly, "though I know where it lies. Why do you ask this question?"
-
>"I need to find it."
-
>"I need to find it."
>"That is a very dangerous place to seek," she says. Thelonious voices its agreement. You think.
-
>"So I've been told."
-
>"So I've been told."
>"Yet you search for it still? Despite-" She pauses and examines you critically, craning her neck forward and peering at you. "What did happen to you, anyway? I've never heard of anyone bleeding from stupidity before. Especially this much."
-
>Jerk our thumb upward. "I had a fall."
-
>"The fall helped."
-
>Jerk our thumb upward. "I had a fall."
>Grapefruit slowly follows your gesture with her head. It seems to take a few moments for it to click, but when she turns back to you, there is a look of great dismay on her face.
>"You fell from the sky?! How dreadful! How- ...how did you even get up there without wings?" Her own flutter slightly.
>"The fall helped."
>"Helped? Helped what? You don't look very helped." She pauses and frowns at you some more. "Are you sure you don't want a bandage? Your face is really red...."
-
>"...Just get me to the damn grass."
-
>"Tried climbing from here. Didn't go so well."
-
>"...Just get me to the damn grass."
>"Oh! Oh yes, my apologies!" Grapefruit bends down and tries to get in beneath your arm and hoist you up. This is slightly awkward for both of you, and the fairy doesn't have a lot of muscle power, but it still helps quite a bit to have someone to lean on. You slowly, and with much grimacing, make it back to your feet and the two of you start hobbling towards the trees. Thelonious ambles along behind you.
>"Tried climbing from here. Didn't go so well."
>"Then please accept my humblest apologies that I did not arrive sooner," she says solemnly. "Thelonious would gladly have ferried you over whatever obstacle laid you low. He is the most adept of climbers." The goat's reply sounds almost dubious, somehow. To be quite frank, you don't think the creature could bear your weight very well.
-
>Just try to keep balanced and moving.
>"...Well, thanks. Ain't worth worrying about."
-
>Just try to keep balanced and moving.
>"...Well, thanks. Ain't worth worrying about."
>You do your best to keep steady on your feet and not grimace your way back to another painful reunion with the ground. Slowly, you approach the trees and the softer ground beneath them; all things considered, you've moving fairly well for what just happened to you.
>The fairy shakes your head; unfortunately this jostles you enough to make you have to stifle a wince.
>"Your misfortune is worth my worry," she says. "It is the duty of any questing knight to help those in need. If I was too late before, then I must redouble my efforts in compensation. Whatever you need of me, I shall do. Is here okay," she asks as you reach a bed of moss beneath the branches of a large tree.
-
>"Yeah."
>With assistance, collapse on it as gently as possible.
-
>"Okay, then, Grapefruit. If you think you owe me something, then tell me where I can find that garden I mentioned before, and we'll call it even."
-
>"Yeah."
>With assistance, collapse on it as gently as possible.
>With Grapefruit's help, you settle down upon the moss with only a small groan. It's definitely softer than your last resting place. And less bloody. Well, you'll probably get it a little bloody again unless you clean yourself up, but it feels like the wound on your head has stopped bleeding, anyway. Grapefruit settles in beside you with a look of dignified concern on her face while her companion decides to start nibbling on the moss.
>"Okay, then, Grapefruit. If you think you owe me something, then tell me where I can find that garden I mentioned before, and we'll call it even."
>"Though I am honor-bound to aid you, in this I must first ask - why do you seek this place? It would be loath of me to save you from one danger only to deliver you into another."
-
>Check that wound with a free hand. "You're probably gonna think I'm a few rice grains short of an onigiri, but I need Yuuka's help."
-
>Check that wound with a free hand. "You're probably gonna think I'm a few rice grains short of an onigiri, but I need Yuuka's help."
>You gently feel the wound on your forehead and grimace nonetheless. The sheen of blood is thick and sticky beneath your fingers and the area is swollen and very tender, but you don't think the injury is really that severe in the scheme of things - at least as best as you can guess without a mirror. Grapefruit winces in sympathy as you poke yourself.
>Her response to your question is rather more nonplussed. "Yuuka?"
-
>Bravado aside, would one of those bandages of hers do us much good?
-
>Bravado aside, would one of those bandages of hers do us much good?
>You doubt the bandages are enchanted and you're also dubious of Grapefruit's skill in applying them, but you'd certainly benefit from having your wounds tended to and properly dressed.
-
>"Okay. Maybe a little first aid might be in order."
>"Oh, right, you'd probably know Yuuka better by 'Verdant Demon'."
-
>"Okay. Maybe a little first aid might be in order."
>"Oh, right, you'd probably know Yuuka better by 'Verdant Demon'."
>Grapefruit produces the bandages again and sizes you up as if debating where best to stick them, then suddenly stops dead when your words finally click in her mind.
>"Her help?!"
-
>"There's a certain flower I need to make a medicine for someone suffering from an otherwise incurable disease. And as far as I can tell, Yuuka's the only one who might have that flower, at least that's close enough to find before it's too late."
-
>"There's a certain flower I need to make a medicine for someone suffering from an otherwise incurable disease. And as far as I can tell, Yuuka's the only one who might have that flower, at least that's close enough to find before it's too late."
>The fairy's eyes light up. "A noble quest! Are you, perchance, a fellow knight? I do not recognize your colors." She scrutinizes your clothing with a thoughtful hum.
-
>Blink. Think. Oh yeah, it did kinda sound like we were on a quest, the way I said that, didn't it?
>Might be just as well. It'll get her on side.
>"Wouldn't mind being a knight, then I'd have had a horse out here. But no, I'm a Seeker."
-
>Blink. Think. Oh yeah, it did kinda sound like we were on a quest, the way I said that, didn't it?
>Might be just as well. It'll get her on side.
>"Wouldn't mind being a knight, then I'd have had a horse out here. But no, I'm a Seeker."
>"A horse? A horse??" Grapefruit draws herself up to her full height. "I'll have you know that a horse makes a far inferior steed. Could a horse walk straight up the side of a mountain? Why, of course it couldn't! A goat is truly the most noble and faithful of companions." She scratches Thelonious gently between the ears. "Isn't that right, Thelonious?"
-
>"I'm too big for goats, so I gotta work with what's there."
-
>"I'm too big for goats, so I gotta work with what's there."
>"Oh." She looks you up and down, then glances at Thelonious, then back to you again. "Oh. Um... are you sure? I've seen some pretty big goats before."
-
>"Maybe I'll have a look at my options after this job's done. Or quest, if you want to call it that."
-
>"Maybe I'll have a look at my options after this job's done. Or quest, if you want to call it that."
>"If, after your quest is fulfilled, you wish to become a squire of our house, I can sponsor you," she says gravely.
-
>"Very generous. But the first thing I'm doing after I have that medicine made is head back to Easthaven. My home. I left a... situation there unresolved."
>"But before I can do that, I have to find Yuuka."
-
>"Very generous. But the first thing I'm doing after I have that medicine made is head back to Easthaven. My home. I left a... situation there unresolved."
>"But before I can do that, I have to find Yuuka."
>She nods repeatedly. "Of course, of course. When you are well enough to proceed, I shall lead the way!"
-
>Blink. "Lead?"
-
>Blink. "Lead?"
>"Of course!" she repeats. "If I can aid another on a noble quest, then I must!"
-
>A fairy with delusions of knighthood and a fixation on goats is going to guide us to Yuuka?
>Is this some cruel God's idea of a joke?
-
>A fairy with delusions of knighthood and a fixation on goats is going to guide us to Yuuka?
>Is this some cruel God's idea of a joke?
>That is at least what the fairy in question appears to be claiming!
>Yes.
-
>All right, be logical. Given the state we're in, and the fact that we're going to get worse before we get where we're going, do we honestly feel that we would be served well by having her and her goat as companions?
-
>All right, be logical. Given the state we're in, and the fact that we're going to get worse before we get where we're going, do we honestly feel that we would be served well by having her and her goat as companions?
>You would certainly be well-served someone showing you the way! If indeed she does know it.
-
>"Well, let's start with something simpler, if you don't mind."
>Produce our map.
>"Can you show me where it is?"
-
>Let's also check up on our botanical buddy.
-
>"Well, let's start with something simpler, if you don't mind."
>Produce our map.
>"Can you show me where it is?"
>You take out your map, sketchy additions and all, and show it to Fearless Grapefruit. The fairy apprises it with a dubious frown, turning her head one way and then the other. She looks up at the trees behind you, then back again, as if hoping they would provide some kind of insight. She taps a finger on the chin of her helmet, looking increasingly distressed. When she speaks again, her voice is uncharacteristically small. "Um... where are we now?"
>Let's also check up on our botanical buddy.
>You root through your possessions to examine the state of your bittercress. There's a thin crack in the pot and part of it seems slightly squashed, but damage to your possessions overall seems very minimal; you guess they were padded well enough to avoid the worst of the impacts.
-
>Gonna have to wrap something around that pot when we feel better.
>"I wish I knew..."
-
>Assuming we can tell, point it out.
-
>Gonna have to wrap something around that pot when we feel better.
>Fortunately, you think the cracks are superficial rather than structural; you don't anticipate the pot breaking and spilling its contents anytime soon.
>"I wish I knew..."
>Assuming we can tell, point it out.
>Considering you do know - at least approximately - you point out your current location on the map. This does surprisingly little to dispel Grapefruit's uncertainty. She peers at it from the left, she peers at it from the right, she even tries to peer at it upside-down, her helmet threatening to fall off as she does so. Eventually, she just points a finger off somewhere into the trees with a small sigh.
>"That way."
-
>How rough does the terrain look between here and there?
>How rough does the terrain look around where she pointed?
>Have we had lunch?
-
>How rough does the terrain look between here and there?
>How rough does the terrain look around where she pointed?
>You have no idea how far into the distance she is indicating, though the terrain generally in that direction is not too dissimilar than anywhere else northward - away from the mountains and back among the trees. It's all fairly rugged and difficult in absolute terms, but no different than you've been tackling for a while up to now.
>Have we had lunch?
>You've had lunch and supper and snacks beyond; it's late enough that you would really be thinking about bed right now, were it not for this whole affair with Grapefruit.
-
>"I...really need to rest, okay?"
-
>"I...really need to rest, okay?"
>"Of course! Thelonious and I were about to make camp for the night before we heard your cry of distress. Though we have little to offer, you are more than welcome to share it. We can lead you to the Demon's Garden come the morn."
-
>So about what time do we make it for now?
>How long should it take us to travel to where she'd indicated on our map?
-
>So about what time do we make it for now?
>How long should it take us to travel to where she'd indicated on our map?
>A little after midnight, you think.
>A key problem of your previous exchange seemed to be that she couldn't indicate a location on your map. She merely pointed in a direction. You have no idea how far away it is, and you're not certain she could quantify it, either.
-
>Doesn't mean we can't ask.
>"Is it a very long journey between here and there?"
-
>Doesn't mean we can't ask.
>"Is it a very long journey between here and there?"
>"If you can keep pace, we should reach it before another nightfall." A pause. "I think."
-
>Well, there's some good news. We can smile at that.
>"Wonderful."
>Oh yeah, have we had our evening medicine?
-
>Well, there's some good news. We can smile at that.
>"Wonderful."
>Oh yeah, have we had our evening medicine?
>Grapefruit returns your smile, her eyes twinkling proudly.
>You have not; you hadn't really stopped for the night yet. Deliberately.
-
>"Did you and your goat have a better place to camp than this, or will this do?"
>Actually, how does this place serve as a camp for us?
-
>"Did you and your goat have a better place to camp than this, or will this do?"
>Actually, how does this place serve as a camp for us?
>"We planned to make camp atop yon hill," she says, gesturing to the one you just fell off. "Thelonious likes tall places. But here will do as well."
>It's soft and it's beneath a large tree. It's not ideally sheltered from the elements, but as places to stop abruptly go, it's hardly bad.
-
>"Right."
>Then let us set up camp. As best as we can. We may have a guide now, but we're not there yet. Still got a ways to go.
>"And thanks, by the way. Your... assistance honors me." If she wants to be a knight, then playing to that can't hurt.
-
>"Right."
>"And thanks, by the way. Your... assistance honors me." If she wants to be a knight, then playing to that can't hurt.
>The fairy's smile broadens until she is nearly beaming; she even blushes slightly. "Think nothing of it, fellow quester! This is merely our duty."
>Then let us set up camp. As best as we can. We may have a guide now, but we're not there yet. Still got a ways to go.
>There isn't a whole lot for you to do regarding setting up camp, save doffing your pack and getting a little more comfortable. Giving your wounds some attention before going to sleep would seem to be a good idea, though it's a little hard to get properly cleaned up without a mirror. Just how bad do you look at the moment, you wonder.
>It seems Grapefruit's idea of 'setting up camp' is pretty similarly minimal, though. She hefts off her helmet, letting her sandy hair fall free, then produces some kind of inflatable pillow from her satchel and blows into it with great gusto and more than a little noise. Her steed wanders over and starts sniffing at your pack once you take it off your back.
-
>Shoo, mule. That our stuff.
>Inflatable pillow? That would've been handy.
>"Where'd you get a pillow like that?"
-
>Shoo, mule. That our stuff.
>Inflatable pillow? That would've been handy.
>"Where'd you get a pillow like that?"
>You try to shoo Thelonious away, but the curious goat just ducks in to examine a different part of your pack.
>"From a toy shop in Braston," she says, giving her pillow a gentle pat as she lays it on the ground. "A knight should always make sure to have a proper pillow, no matter where her head must fall."
-
>Shoo more firmly. "Must be a nice toy shop."
-
>Shoo more firmly. "Must be a nice toy shop."
>"Oh, they have all kinds of things! But a knight must take only the necessities on a long journey," she adds in a more sombre tone.
>You shoo more firmly, but Thelonious only pushes back more stubbornly, sticking his head beneath your hand to continue poking towards your supplies.
-
>"Uh, Grapefruit, what does this goat of yours eat mostly?"
-
>"Uh, Grapefruit, what does this goat of yours eat mostly?"
>"Hmmm...." She presses a finger to her lips. "Well, there's grass and leaves, berries, dandelions... Oh, he likes potatoes! Raisins, too. Clover, honeysuckle, ivy, pine trees...."
>For his part, Thelonious keeps wrestling with your hand.
-
>"I've got a flower in my bag, and he is not allowed to eat it."
-
>"I've got a flower in my bag, and he is not allowed to eat it."
>Grapefruit frowns. "Thelonious! Leave the lady's flower alone."
>Remarkably, the goat seems to stop almost as soon as she speaks, and trots over politely to the fairy's side before plopping onto the ground. She gives him another playful rub behind the ears.
-
>Impressive.
>"Thanks."
>And to the goat, "Nothing personal, Thelonius."
-
>Impressive.
>"Thanks."
>And to the goat, "Nothing personal, Thelonius."
>Whatever her eccentricities, Fearless Grapefruit does seem to have quite an affinity with her companion.
>The goat gives a slightly sulky bleat in your direction.
>"Oh, don't be like that," Grapefruit chides softly.
-
>Chuckle. "Hope he's not the type to hold a grudge."
-
>Chuckle. "Hope he's not the type to hold a grudge."
>"Oh, of course not," she says. "He's a most gentle, noble goat."
>Thelonious's eyes drift closed as Grapefruit continues to pet him.
-
>"Glad to hear it."
>And with Potty the Potted Plant safe, let's tend our wounds as best as we can. Since apparantly we hadn't yet since Sourfang forgot.
-
>"Glad to hear it."
>And with Potty the Potted Plant safe, let's tend our wounds as best as we can. Since apparantly we hadn't yet since Sourfang forgot.
>With other matters dealt with, you try to tend to your wounds a little before you call it a night. You're honestly not in a very ideal position to do this - no reflective surface to look at your face, no ready source of water, and few medical supplies - but you make do. You pour a little water from your canteen onto the spare outfit that is quickly turning into a go-to rag, and try to clean your face. You hiss when you dab the gash on your forehead and the drying blood that was streaked across it soon soaks the cloth red, but you feel better by the time you're finished - particularly once your bang is no longer so matted and plastered against your face with the stuff. It's not exactly clean - that will take a proper washing - but it's a little less uncomfortable; you wonder just how ghoulish you must have looked to Grapefruit while you were talking to her. For her part, the fairy pulls a cloak over herself like a blanket while you work, settles onto her pillow with Thelonious's head in her lap, and is snoring within seconds. Rather loudly, in fact. But you're almost a little envious of the complete lack of worry on her little face.
>While your new companion sleeps, you take stock of your other wounds as best you can. It still hurts to move in a multitude of angles, but you can at least manage it without making noise, if you're gentle. Mostly. There are a variety of cuts and scrapes along your arms and legs, though the majority seem superficial; you wipe them with the cloth and bandage a couple of the worse ones. Gingerly poking your side, you strongly suspect that a couple of your ribs are cracked, though fortunately the break feels relatively slight; this could have ended a lot worse. You are bruised all over, of course, with some particularly nasty swelling on your right leg - and honestly, you still feel pretty miserable - but there's hope the morning will bring a decent improvement.
>Though by the time you are done, you wonder if you're traded looking grisly for just plain looking ridiculous; these yellow happy faced bandages feel obscenely cheerful for the circumstances and you can't help but feel a little absurd as you stare at the two on your leg. One of them is juxtaposed less than an inch from the ragged black brand of the blight, oblivious in its mirth to the death that is steadily creeping across you. But there's still some hope. If what Grapefruit said is right, then maybe tomorrow, you can finally put this saga to rest.
-
>Let's find somewhere nice and put ourselves to rest.
-
>How long does it usually take us to heal up from cracked bones? Specifically, will they pose much of an impediment during our travels?
-
>How long does it usually take us to heal up from cracked bones? Specifically, will they pose much of an impediment during our travels?
>It depends on the severity of the break, of course - and these seem mercifully mild, in relative terms. They won't be fully healed for some days, but you would like to think you'll at least be able to walk by tomorrow without being too impaired by your injuries; you can't say for certain until you try it, though.
>Let's find somewhere nice and put ourselves to rest.
>You find the most suitable-looking patch of moss nearby and make it as cozy as you can with your limited supplies. It's a better bed than the one you had last night, though less comfortable by virtue of your own numerous injuries. Grapefruit's snoring doesn't help, either. But, as it turns out, you're so exhausted from the day's exertions and that final ordeal that sleep claims you almost the very moment you let yourself go.
>You awaken an indeterminate length of time later to something nudging you insistently in the side of the face.
-
>If it's daylight, fine, but if we don't see the sun, roll over.
-
>If it's daylight, fine, but if we don't see the sun, roll over.
>It seems very bright, but why is something prodding you? It tickles a little....
-
>That better not be Honeysuckle. She oughta know better.
>.. It's not her, is it?
-
>That better not be Honeysuckle. She oughta know better.
>.. It's not her, is it?
>You... you don't think that's a fairy. Unless it's an incredibly hairy fairy. But why is it poking you. Can't it see you need sleep?
>"Thelonious!" comes a hushed, but insistent voice from somewhere to your left.
>Why do you ache so much, anyway? It feels like someone's been pounding on your body with mallets.
-
>See if those mallets are still lying around. Couldn't hurt to have one of those on hand.
-
>See if those mallets are still lying around. Couldn't hurt to have one of those on hand.
>Yes, what if you needed to hit something, too? Always need to be prepared. Can never be too prepared. You grope around the moss with one lethargic and stiff hand - it hurts to bend, for some reason. Must be the mallets.
>That's an awfully fuzzy mallet.
>...did that mallet just lick you?
-
>A multipurpose mallet? Cool.
-
>A multipurpose mallet? Cool.
>That's handy and all, but does it really need to be so... wet?
>"Oh, have you woken?" a voice calls out brightly. Honestly, you're not so sure you have.
-
>"... maybe?"
-
>"... maybe?"
>"It is a beautiful morning, is it not?" Someone has a great deal more enthusiasm than you do right now.
-
>"I want to murder everything with a face..."
-
>Or perhaps, rather than frighten and alienate the fairy with delusions of chivalry...
>"I'll take your word for it."
>Are we dead yet?
>No? Fine, then sit up.
-
>"I want to murder everything with a face..."
>Or perhaps, rather than frighten and alienate the fairy with delusions of chivalry...
>"I'll take your word for it."
>Are we dead yet?
>No? Fine, then sit up.
>You nearly groan out a general complaint at the world before considering the chance of Grapefruit actually taking you seriously. You reply non-committally instead, then slowly drag yourself to your feet. That hurts more than you'd hoped; you feel like someone wedged rocks in half your joints while you were asleep.
>In contrast, your fairy companion appears to be performing calisthenics, with a sunny smile on her face. And the day is sunny; you have to shield your eyes with a hand as soon as you try to open them.
>"Good morning!" she chimes without breaking stride.
-
>"Yeah, 'morning."
>Might as well rise ourselves. Food and medicine ain't coming to us.
>Assuming that goat didn't eat them on us.
-
>"Yeah, 'morning."
>Might as well rise ourselves. Food and medicine ain't coming to us.
>Assuming that goat didn't eat them on us.
>"I hope you're feeling better," she chirps happily. "It's too grand a morning for frowns."
>Her sentiments notwithstanding, you try and force your body to start the day. You are actually in better shape than you were when you went to bed, you think, though that isn't saying a lot at the moment; you are leaden and sore and weary and hurt whenever you make a handful of basic motions. But you are still mobile, and also rather hungry. You take your morning dose of medicine and start to chew on some raisins.
>You survey your pack for any goat-related damage while you eat, but it fortunately seems untouched. Thelonious himself appears to have conveniently wandered off to nibble on a distant bush and allow you to eat unmolested.
-
>Knight or no, there's no doubt she's a fairy.
>"I've been worse."
>Morning exercises.... Mm. Would that help?
-
>Knight or no, there's no doubt she's a fairy.
>"I've been worse."
>Morning exercises.... Mm. Would that help?
>"Good to hear it, good to hear it!"
>Some gentle stretching would probably help, though there's no way you can manage to be as vigorous as Grapefruit is right now. She's... surprisingly flexible.
-
>Something's better than nothing.
>Once we finish our breakfast, let's give that a shot.
-
>Something's better than nothing.
>Once we finish our breakfast, let's give that a shot.
>You allow yourself a leisurely breakfast as Grapefruit works her way through stretches and cartwheels and some kind of complicated half-aerial twist you would be helpless to replicate even in peak condition; it looks a little like trying to perform push-ups and rhythmic dance at the same time without fully understanding either, but it seems to leave the fairy in good spirits nonetheless. Your own stretching regimen is far more modest and also more uncomfortable; within moments, it's clear you're going to have to be very gentle with yourself today, no matter how much of a rush you may be in. Still, a few minutes of gentle stretches does manage to replace some of the rust in your joints with a slightly smaller amount of rust, though you're left a little uncertain how you should take the encouragements Grapefruit insisted on chanting in your direction while you were at it.
-
>Do we know the cost of a set of wings is? Assuming that's a magical enhancement that's available.
-
>Do we know the cost of a set of wings is? Assuming that's a magical enhancement that's available.
>There are certainly magical means that can allow a person to fly, though you're unfamiliar with something permanent on that sort of scale - at least something that could be operated without magic of your own. If it's possible at all, you'd imagine it would be quite complicated and commensurately expensive, though if there's anywhere in the world it could be done, you'd bet on Val Razua.
-
>Note to self: Check market price on wings once we get back to town. If expensive, use loot from eventual revenge on Aya.
>So then. Fed and watered. And about as limber as we can get. Then we can move out.
>Once Grapefruit and the goat are ready
-
>Note to self: Check market price on wings once we get back to town. If expensive, use loot from eventual revenge on Aya.
>So then. Fed and watered. And about as limber as we can get. Then we can move out.
>Once Grapefruit and the goat are ready
>You make a mental note, then let Grapefruit know you're ready to go. She calls Thelonious over, mounts up, and then your curious brigade is underway for the day.
>The fairy sets a casual pace once you make it clear how little speed you're capable of at the moment. But despite the not-quite-ignorable pains that come with every step you take, something about this day feels bright. The sun is warm, the sky is clear, the birds are singing cheerfully, and maybe - just maybe - if Grapefruit is right, you'll get your flower today. It's a glimmer of hope to hold onto.
>"You know," Grapefruit says after a few moments, "I never caught your name last night."
-
>"I- Oh. Sorry about that. It's Nazrin."
-
>"I- Oh. Sorry about that. It's Nazrin."
>"I am honored to meet you, Nazrin." The fairy sketches a graceful bow in your direction and nearly falls off her goat in the process - saved only by a quick flurry of motion from her wings.
-
>"Likewise." Return the motion. Without the falling and the fluttering.
>Fairy or no, this is the first time we've met a proper knight, isn't it?
-
>"Likewise." Return the motion. Without the falling and the fluttering.
>Fairy or no, this is the first time we've met a proper knight, isn't it?
>You return the bow, to the protestation of your ribs. Grapefruit smiles at you.
>You don't know if you'd exactly call her 'proper', even if she does seem to be wearing actual House Pardicas colors - at least as best you remember them. Thought she certainly seems to have the spirit of the enterprise down pat.
-
>Presumably she is the first fairy we've seen who fits the bill, though, right?
-
>Presumably she is the first fairy we've seen who fits the bill, though, right?
>Well, that ice fairy you tangled with back near Easthaven certainly styled herself a noble swordsman who did good deeds. Her execution... might have left a few things to be desired compared to Grapefruit's disposition, though. Either is certainly pretty atypical.
-
>Cirno seemed to be cut from a different bolt. Warrior, yes, Knight, no.
Unless she was some kind of prestige class.
>"Do you mind if I ask you something, Grapefruit?"
>Assuming 'yes', "How did you come to follow the path of a knight?"
-
>Cirno seemed to be cut from a different bolt. Warrior, yes, Knight, no. Unless she was some kind of prestige class.
>"Do you mind if I ask you something, Grapefruit?"
>Assuming 'yes', "How did you come to follow the path of a knight?"
>Clearly she's a Cold Iron Warrior.
>"Of course not."
>"It is a calling that comes from one's heart," she says solemnly, placing a hand upon her chest. "But if you are asking how I came to be a retainer of this noble house, one of their seneschals noticed my bond with Thelonious and was so moved by it that he inducted me on the spot. A paragon of caprine brotherhood, he said." The fairy looks rather proud of herself.
-
>That's awfully erudite for a fairy. Didn't she just use more big words than Daiyousei?
>"So you and Thelonius here go way back, eh?"
-
>That's awfully erudite for a fairy. Didn't she just use more big words than Daiyousei?
>"So you and Thelonius here go way back, eh?"
>That other fairy in the library used a lot of big words too - you're not certain this is always an indication of understanding what they're repeating. Or maybe this one's just practiced in reciting knightly things?
>"We do!" She rubs the goat's head affectionately.
-
>Oh right, brainy fairy. What was her name again?
>"Did you meet in the city?"
-
>Oh right, brainy fairy. What was her name again?
>"Did you meet in the city?"
>Dai called her Shady, you think? 'Brainy' is dubious, but she was certainly wordy.
>"I've only been to the city once," she says. "It was waaaaay over that way." She points vaguely eastward.
-
>"Yeah, it is that, all right. I just hope there's a quicker way back there than I took getting to this point."
-
>"Yeah, it is that, all right. I just hope there's a quicker way back there than I took getting to this point."
>"A straight line is the shortest distance between two points." She nods sagely.
-
>Okay just for fun, what does a straight line from here to Val R look like on our map?
-
>Okay just for fun, what does a straight line from here to Val R look like on our map?
>Your map is far too local to include Val Razua on it, but the city would be somewhere northeast of your current location, and a straight line would unquestionably take you over many miles of open sky.
-
>By 'open sky', that means over the edge of the island, right?
-
>By 'open sky', that means over the edge of the island, right?
>Yes.
-
>Grin. "Maybe for those of us with wings to rely on."
-
>Grin. "Maybe for those of us with wings to rely on."
>Grapefruit looks at you for a moment, then lets out a soft "Oh. Right."
-
>"Don't worry about it. I got this far. But, I'm not gonna need wings to get to Yuuka's, am I?"
-
>"Don't worry about it. I got this far. But, I'm not gonna need wings to get to Yuuka's, am I?"
>"Not in the slightest! ...I think."
-
>One bridge at a time.
>"So, how did you come by this place, anyway? Yuuka's, I mean. How'd you find it?"
-
>One bridge at a time.
>"So, how did you come by this place, anyway? Yuuka's, I mean. How'd you find it?"
>"While on our holy quest, we heard many rumors of the Verdant Demon and her garden - a place of great beauty and terrible danger. I saw it once from afar, but dared not draw closer."
-
>"Wise choice, by all accounts. But did it live up to the rumor? The beauty part, I mean."
-
>"Wise choice, by all accounts. But did it live up to the rumor? The beauty part, I mean."
>"I, uh... didn't get a very good look," she admits. "It was a long way away. But I'm pretty sure it was it!"
-
>"So, you didn't see the 'Verdant Demon' herself?"
-
>"So, you didn't see the 'Verdant Demon' herself?"
>"Oh no. I hear she's twenty feet tall and wrapped in thorns with maws that snap and teeth that drip acid sap! Also bees! An army of bees at her command!" Grapefruit shivers slightly. "Were I not honor-bound to help you, I should be happy never to see her myself."
-
>"Well don't worry. Once we get there, you don't need to get too close to it. It's my mission. Quest." How would a knight say this, uh... "Honor will have been satisfied." That'll do it.
-
>"Well don't worry. Once we get there, you don't need to get too close to it. It's my mission. Quest." How would a knight say this, uh... "Honor will have been satisfied." That'll do it.
>"I'm the one that decides that!" she says with a note of pride. She does look just a little bit less chipper than usual, though.
-
>"As you wish. You're the knight, after all."
>Look at Thelonious, "If you and your partner do get close to the place, probably best not to nibble. This demon's supposed to have a temper. And bees, apparently."
-
>"As you wish. You're the knight, after all."
>Look at Thelonious, "If you and your partner do get close to the place, probably best not to nibble. This demon's supposed to have a temper. And bees, apparently."
>"She's right, Thelonious. We must both be on our greatest guards once we draw near to her lair." Then she smiles abruptly. "But for now the sun is shining and the day is bright and this is no time for frowns. Just listen to the chickadees!"
>She is silent for a few moments in appreciation. "Were there time to tarry, I think this should be a grand day for a picnic, do you not agree?"
-
>When was the last time we had a picnic? If ever.
>Assuming it was a long time ago, if ever, chuckle quietly. "I can't even remember the last time I had a proper picnic. Not a bad idea, either." Smile. "Maybe I'll do just that when I get back home. Maybe ask Honeysuckle to join me, or Orange. Be nice to relax like that."
-
>When was the last time we had a picnic? If ever.
>Assuming it was a long time ago, if ever, chuckle quietly. "I can't even remember the last time I had a proper picnic. Not a bad idea, either." Smile. "Maybe I'll do just that when I get back home. Maybe ask Honeysuckle to join me, or Orange. Be nice to relax like that."
>The last time might have been on some outing during your apprenticeship, though you don't remember it distinctly. Further back, you probably haven't been on one since you left Ichirin's to join the Seekers in the first place.
>"Where do you call home?" Grapefruit asks. "If I might ask."
-
>"Ea- Braston. You probably wouldn't have heard of it, it's on Estval island."
-
>"Ea- Braston. You probably wouldn't have heard of it, it's on Estval island."
>"Ah, a far away land." Pause. "...right?"
-
>"Quite far. But I was lucky enough to find a fast ship in Braston to get me to Val Razua quickly, and a generous crew who were willing to help once I told them what was at stake. I owe them, big time."
-
>"Quite far. But I was lucky enough to find a fast ship in Braston to get me to Val Razua quickly, and a generous crew who were willing to help once I told them what was at stake. I owe them, big time."
>"Generous souls," she says approvingly. "Though you shall owe me nothing for any of this; I am only happy to render aid! ...though if you do know anything about the location of the Overgoat, I would be indebted to hear of it," she adds.
-
>Gonna go out on a limb here and think that we've never heard of that before today, have we?
-
>Gonna go out on a limb here and think that we've never heard of that before today, have we?
>Aside from Grapefruit's initial mention of it, you have literally no idea what she's talking about.
-
>"Afraid that's one legend that I haven't heard about."
-
>"Afraid that's one legend that I haven't heard about."
>She lets out a small sigh. "Unsurprising. It is not a widely known thing, though of great importance to my house. Others have searched in vain for many years, but we shall persevere."
-
>Memory refresh. What do we know about this House Pancreas of hers?
-
>Memory refresh. What do we know about this House Pancreas of hers?
>You saw the House Pardicas banner flying along the cliff walls of airship approach to Val Razua. About all the details you got from Neu were that they had a peculiar fixation on goats - the banner itself also featured a goat placidly munching grass.
-
>"Why?"
-
>"Why?"
>"Because we are determined, of course!" She looks slightly offended.
-
>"Of course. It's just that, well, no one back home has the same, uh, affinity for the way of the goat that you and your noble house does. So I was curious."
-
>"Of course. It's just that, well, no one back home has the same, uh, affinity for the way of the goat that you and your noble house does. So I was curious."
>"Of course, of course. The mysteries and majesty of the goat are many, though few have eyes to see them as we do. Worry not - we shan't hold that against you! Right, Thelonious?" Thelonious bleats.
-
>How mightily generous.
>"You've obviously traveled a ways in your own quest as well. You two were the first faces I'd seen in days."
-
>How mightily generous.
>"You've obviously traveled a ways in your own quest as well. You two were the first faces I'd seen in days."
>A fairy wouldn't be a fairy without at least a handful of strange notions, though you find yourself wondering just a little how many of these she acquired from other members of that house....
>"Likewise! We are far into the wilds, here. Fortunately, we at least have each other for company." She pats Thelonious gently.
-
>Makes ya wonder what the rest of the great houses of Val R are like.
>Out of curiousity, have we ever run across a goat youkai of any sort?
-
>Makes ya wonder what the rest of the great houses of Val R are like.
>Out of curiousity, have we ever run across a goat youkai of any sort?
>From the way Neu reacted to your mention of it, you got the impression Pardicas may be something of a black sheep. Uh, black... goat?
>You have, once or twice. None you really interacted with, though.
-
>Wonder if any of them ever had a friend like Fearless here before they became youkai.
>"Yeah. Good company goes a long way sometimes."
-
>Wonder if any of them ever had a friend like Fearless here before they became youkai.
>"Yeah. Good company goes a long way sometimes."
>?It does, indeed!?
>And for her part, Grapefruit makes pretty decent company for the rest of the day ? a trifle odd, but inoffensive and cheerful. Maybe just a little of that's even starting to rub off on you. Or maybe it's that you've got your first real lead in days ? even if you have only a fairy's word for it. Your knightly escort is quiet for the most part, barring the occasional bout of whistling to herself or commenting grandly on the beauty of some tree or bird or somesuch. Periodically, she takes advantage of Thelonious's mountaineering skills to ascend rocky lookouts and reorient your course; you can't help but think it would be easier on both of them if she just flew up, but the fairy never once dismounts from her goat except when you pause to rest. The goat himself seems remarkably content with this state of affairs, ambling steadily wherever she leads and only very occasionally pausing to nibble at bushes; your pack remains unmolested.
>Though it does feel very heavy today. The aches in your body only worsen the more ground you cover and you're forced to slow even further as the day goes on. The pace would feel almost glacial were it not for the sense you might actually be approaching something. Still, even this cannot stop the day from feeling long by the end, when the sky begins to fade to red before you've seen even a single sign of progress ? just more oaks and maple and hollyhock and far, far too many rocks. Maybe it was too much to hope for. Maybe she doesn't really know where she's going and you're going to have to resign yourself to more days spent walking around in circles with a decaying body. You've made some unnecessary detours as it is, you're almost certain; you've tried to track your course with map and compass and it's been far from direct. Knight or no, fairies aren't generally noted for their sense of direction; maybe it was foolish to trust in her.
>It is with the sun blazing crimson and thoughts like these swirling in your head that Grapefruit ? poised on an overhanging ledge ahead ? calls back with three simple words that make your breath catch in your throat.
>?There it is!?
-
>"Really?"
>"How far!?"
-
>"Really?"
>"How far!?"
>"Indeed! I think. I mean that's probably it!" She nods vigorously.
>"It's, um...." She mulls this one over for a few moments before settling for "Only slightly far!"
-
>"...Let's just go."
-
>"...Let's just go."
>She nods. "Let's. This way!"
>Thelonious bounds nimbly down to the forest floor once again and Grapefruit leads confidently northward. Nothing much around you seems to have changed, but there is no mistaking the confidence in her posture; you find yourself moving just a little faster than before as well.
>In fact, so little seems to change in the next twenty minutes it takes you to reach the garden that it almost catches you off-guard when you finally do. A gentle downward slope grows quickly steeper and the trees abruptly thin as you reach the edge of a sheltered valley, surrounded on nearly all sides by steep vine-covered hills; it would be nearly impossible to spot from afar, you think, except from a few narrow angles. And within this valley, filling it from end to end, is a profusion of bloom and color - tulips, daffodils, violets, sunflowers, hydrangeas, snapdragons, and hundreds more you cannot name, in every possible shade. The expansive nurseries of Val Razua look tiny and utterly barren by comparison; you could drop them all within this valley and never find them again among the foliage. It appears wild and unmanicured at first glance, and yet there is a subtle sense of aesthetic to how it is arranged, how the different shapes and colors play off each other. You need no further confirmation that this is what you came to find; it could be absolutely nothing else. You find yourself a little amazed that such a place could exist at all.
>"Wow, it's so pretty...."
-
>"Yeah..."
>Look around for signs of habitation. Or failing that, something like trails through the garden.
-
>"Yeah..."
>Look around for signs of habitation. Or failing that, something like trails through the garden.
>You see no signs of habitation, though the sheer density of plant life obscures much of the valley. Upon a closer examination, you can spot a few faint trails between the flowers, but they are winding, almost hidden - organic, like they were grown alongside them.
-
>"So. I suppose we part ways here?"
-
>"So. I suppose we part ways here?"
>Your companion seems so enraptured by the view that it takes a few moments for her to realize you'd spoken to her. When she does, there is a slight frown upon her face.
>"Are you sure you'll be okay?" she asks. "It would be shameful of me to leave you to face such danger alone." Somehow there is less enthusiasm in her tone than usual.
-
"It'll be easier if she doesn't have to worry about Thelonious nibbling on her flowers. I mean, we know he knows better, but she doesn't."
-
"It'll be easier if she doesn't have to worry about Thelonious nibbling on her flowers. I mean, we know he knows better, but she doesn't."
>"That... that may be true."
-
>"I mean, once I'm done, I'm going back anyways, so I wouldn't even help your quest much."
-
>"I mean, once I'm done, I'm going back anyways, so I wouldn't even help your quest much."
>"It's not about my quest, but my duty to yours." Still, she sounds uncertain.
-
>"You helped me find this place. I'm thinking that's duty enough."
-
>"You helped me find this place. I'm thinking that's duty enough."
>She turns to look at you. "You are alright with this?"
-
>"I am. I'm only sorry I couldn't help with yours. I'd offer to ask Yuuka about it, but something tells me she probably wouldn't be a lot of help, either."
-
>"I am. I'm only sorry I couldn't help with yours. I'd offer to ask Yuuka about it, but something tells me she probably wouldn't be a lot of help, either."
>Grapefruit fixes her eyes on you with great seriousness. "Be safe, Nazrin. Whether you triumph or fall against the Verdant Demon, I am glad to have shared the trail with you."
-
>Do knights salute each other with their weapons?
>If so, draw Mouthful Katana and salute the little fairy with it. "Safe trails, Fearless Grapefruit. You and your companion have honored me with your aid, and I am pleased to call you both friend."
-
>Do knights salute each other with their weapons?
>If so, draw Mouthful Katana and salute the little fairy with it. "Safe trails, Fearless Grapefruit. You and your companion have honored me with your aid, and I am pleased to call you both friend."
>You're not familiar with the finer points of knightly etiquette, but you figure the gesture is something the fairy would appreciate nonetheless. You draw Kumokirimaru and salute Fearless Grapefruit. She draws herself up to her full height and returns your salute with her lance.
>"As are we! I hope to hear tales of your success!"
>Thelonious bleats his agreement.
-
>"Count on it."
>Once she's gone, replace our sword with our dousing rods. We're here, but that's just part of the battle. If this Yuuka has any traps lying around, magical or no, we need to find them before braving this place fully.
-
>"Count on it."
>Once she's gone, replace our sword with our dousing rods. We're here, but that's just part of the battle. If this Yuuka has any traps lying around, magical or no, we need to find them before braving this place fully.
>Your knightly escort smiles and nods with enthusiasm, then turns and rides away. You sheathe your sword and take out your dowsing rods. Even if some parts of Yuuka's reputation were exaggerated, you've heard enough ominous things from enough people not to treat this with the utmost caution.
-
>Let's see what we can scan from here before daring to go.
-
>Let's see what we can scan from here before daring to go.
>You take a careful scan of the valley before you. At first glance, there is suspiciously little to note, though you slowly get the sense of some kind of subtle magical presence suffusing the area - noticeable mostly by contrast with its surroundings. There is something about it you find vaguely disquieting, like there were understated depths to that power and it was not altogether friendly. But try as you might, you can figure out nothing more about it than that. As for the rest, you sense no unusual minerals or metals or anything else to speak of; you don't believe anyone maintains a conventional dwelling nearby, at least. But plants were always outside your domain; there could be a nest of carnivorous vines lying just beyond the marigolds and you'd have no way to sense them from here.
-
>Nothing for it, take follow the most nearby path and try to wend deeper into the garden. Take a moment to dowse every so often for anything around that feels different enough to be noteworthy.
-
>Nothing for it, take follow the most nearby path and try to wend deeper into the garden. Take a moment to dowse every so often for anything around that feels different enough to be noteworthy.
>With some measure of trepidation, you descend into the valley and approach the edge of the flowers. The air grows thick with their scent ? it's almost a little overpowering, if you're honest ? but nothing more ominous or threatening presents itself. You take a slow and careful look through the thick tangle of vegetation; it is difficult to make out very much of anything, but no flashes of movement catch your eye, no signs of animal or artifice. Just endless rows of flowers and hanging vines.
>You circle around the outside, past a procession of bellflowers and scarlet trumpets, to a path you spotted earlier. It is scarcely easier to notice up close than it was from afar; the wall of blossoms thins just enough to allow passage through for an individual of modest size, but only just, and curtains of honeysuckle nearly hide it from sight. You peer along its length, but the trail curves out of view after less than fifteen feet with no indication of where it leads. The ground look faintly trodden upon, but no footprints are visible.
>Well, nothing to be done but press onward. Taking a deep breath, you duck beneath a dangling vine and step into the garden.
>The space is quiet and cloistered here, cut off from the wider world by endless curtains of virid color. Yet, rather than feeling tranquil, it feels... claustrophobic somehow, almost oppressive. It is beautiful, without a doubt ? awe-inspiring, even ? but you cannot shake a nagging sense of antipathy, like the garden itself is judging your trespass within it.
>That's nonsense, surely? They're just perfectly ordinary flowers and clearly no one else is even nearby, or they're being incredibly quiet about it. And yet, as you walk slowly past the silent blooms, you feel a chill run down your spine. Are you that on edge? Are you that nervous about Yuuka, after all that's been said about her? Perhaps it wouldn't be wrong to be so, but you've already faced down murderous spiders and an entire band of sky pirates ? you have standards!
>You continue onward, pausing now and again to take another scan of the area. It is impossible to use your dowsing rods in this confined space without brushing up against the plantlife, but you do your best to avoid disturbing things unduly. There is still that damnable sense of... something pervading the garden, but it grows neither stronger nor weaker as you walk. Nothing else changes; there is only flowers and the gentle rustle of your passage among them.
>Why is it so quiet, anyway? Have you even heard so much as a bird? That can't be right.
>The path forks, then forks again, and soon you are spiraling ever-deeper within this labyrinth of color and ominous beauty. You cannot escape the feeling that you are being slowly swallowed by some kind of vernal behemoth. No two places in the garden are the same, every step there is some new combination of plants, some new interplay of form and color. It is a magnificent showcase of floral beauty in all its forms, from clusters of the most impeccably tiny blossoms to towering red hibiscus, each nearly as large as your head. You try to swallow your ill-ease enough to appreciate it, or at least keep an eye out for a bittercress, but even though you've seen a drawing of its flowers, you could surely spend days roving this valley and never spot it among all its brighter cousins. Did you even know so many kinds of flowers existed in the world?
>An ear twitches. You think you just heard something rustle in the foliage, behind you to the left ? the first such sound you've heard beyond yourself in much too long.
-
>Look that way, try to keep calm.
-
>Look that way, try to keep calm.
>You keep your breathing steady and turn around. There.... doesn't appear to be anything there, just some rather large sunflowers. You wait a moment for any further signs of movement or noise, but none come.
-
>"Hello?"
-
>"Hello?"
>You call out, but there is no response.
-
>Nothing for it. Time to carry on.
-
>Nothing for it. Time to carry on.
>You resume moving forward, but have barely taken a single step before you hear rustling behind you again - this time on both sides.
-
>"I want you to take note that I am not drawing a weapon."
>Glance toward the new rustling.
-
>"I want you to take note that I am not drawing a weapon."
>Glance toward the new rustling.
>You announce your lack of hostility to whoever might be listening, then turn to look at this new noise.
>...nothing. Again. How can something make noise so near to you and then disappear without further noise?
>...were those sunflowers facing this direction a moment ago?
-
>What directions do they seem to be facing?
-
>What directions do they seem to be facing?
>...your direction. All of them.
-
>"...Um...Hi? I'm Nazrin..."
-
>"...Um...Hi? I'm Nazrin..."
>You tentatively greet the flowers and anyone else that might be listening, but still get nothing but silence. The air around you feels heavy.
-
>"Okay...I'm just gonna keep going and looking for whoever runs this garden. You guys have a good one."
>Goddamn flowers. Move on as we were.
-
>"Okay...I'm just gonna keep going and looking for whoever runs this garden. You guys have a good one."
>Goddamn flowers. Move on as we were.
>You explain your plans to the flowers. How does this work, anyway? Can anything here even understand you? Flowers aren't supposed to look at people like that; it's creepy.
>Cursing inwardly, you continue along the path. As soon as you start to move forward again, the flowers shift subtly to face your new position - ones within your field of vision as well, now. But while the effect is distinctly unsettling, nothing else appears to happen; when you remain still, you could almost pretend they were behaving perfectly normal. Why are they even doing this? It's not like they have eyes to look at you. ...right?
>A few more minutes of that damnable rustling dogging your every step pass before you reach the next branch in the path. It's difficult to tell how deep you are now, though you've tried to keep some sense of your bearings; the outside feels very far away now. One of the trails ahead is wider than the others so far; it might even be bright and sunny, were the sun not almost gone by now. To its left is a narrow passage shadowed beneath some large flowering ferns you do not recognize at all. Past a long procession of bluebells to the right, you think you can very faintly see a brook in the distance. A trio of rose bushes stare at you accusingly.
-
>Stare back at the roses.
>"Hey, can you point me toward whoever runs this place?"
-
>Stare back at the roses.
>"Hey, can you point me toward whoever runs this place?"
>You stare down the rose bush. Think they're so fancy with all their thorns and their socially indoctrinated romantic significance, do they? Well, you have arms and legs! ...they better not sprout arms and legs.
>The flowers are as non-responsive as you would expect flowers to be under any other circumstance. You can't quite decide whether this is fortunate or unfortunate.
-
>Let's follow that wider path.
-
>Let's follow that wider path.
>You elect for the wider path; engulfed in this oppressive atmosphere, that break in the foliage looks almost like the tiniest breath of fresh air. You seize it. In the sky above, the last hints of crimson are giving way to dusky blue and the temperature is falling rapidly; perhaps the chill within you will soon be matched by one without.
>The scent is ever so slightly less overwhelming here, the terrain less confining. Though the flowers are still playing silent sentinel, compared to the last few minutes, it feels like the smallest of reprieves. As you walk past beds of mums and daffodils and some kind of strikingly violet plant with star-shaped blossoms, there is only the sound of your footsteps and the gentle rustle of the flowers turning to follow and the voice coming from immediately over your shoulder.
>"I see a little mouse has wandered somewhere she doesn't belong."
-
>She's already less dangerous than advertised. She didn't attack us on sight.
>Well, let's have a look at her.
-
>She's already less dangerous than advertised. She didn't attack us on sight.
>Well, let's have a look at her.
>You turn around to find a tall green-haired woman looming over you, scarcely two feet away. How'd she get so close without you hearing her?! She is dressed in a simple red plaid vest and skirt with subdued floral accents and carrying a large white parasol nonchalantly over one shoulder. Her face has a strangely placid expression - there is even the faintest hint of a smile upon her lips - and yet there is something chilling to the look in her dark red eyes.
>"But you already knew that, didn't you?" she continues.
-
>Mice live in gardens all the time, you...whatever you are.
>Nod.
>"Yeah. I'm sorry about that, but it's one of those kind of situations."
-
>Mice live in gardens all the time, you...whatever you are.
>Nod.
>"Yeah. I'm sorry about that, but it's one of those kind of situations."
>"Oh?" Her gaze grips you still tighter; you find it very hard not to look away. "And what kind of situation might that be?"
-
>"One of the ones where you gotta make a move, and none of 'em are good."
>Offer a proper bow.
>"I'm Nazrin. Sorry to bother you."
-
>"One of the ones where you gotta make a move, and none of 'em are good."
>Offer a proper bow.
>"I'm Nazrin. Sorry to bother you."
>You introduce yourself and do your best not to fumble a bow. Your throat feels thick and your limbs unsteady.
>The woman smiles. "Oh, I don't think you're quite sorry yet."
-
>"Maybe so. But, I came because I need your help."
-
>"Maybe so. But, I came because I need your help."
>"My help?" Her smile broadens and she lets out the very softest of chuckles - almost ethereal. Her gaze never wavers. "And whatever makes you think I would care to help you?"
-
>"I ain't got much choice but to hope you would, really."
-
>"I ain't got much choice but to hope you would, really."
>"Oh, you must be quite desperate to come all this way," she says, lightly stepping past you to approach one of the flower beds. It is a struggle to hold your ground as she gets closer. "Or very, very foolish."
>She reaches a hand out to a cluster of flowers which seem to rise just slightly to reach her palm. "The statice are lovely in this light." She turns her head back towards you; there is a cold mirth in those dark red eyes. "Don't you think?"
-
>"Oh, you must be quite desperate to come all this way," she says, lightly stepping past you to approach one of the flower beds. It is a struggle to hold your ground as she gets closer. "Or very, very foolish."
>She reaches a hand out to a cluster of flowers which seem to rise just slightly to reach her palm. "The statice are lovely in this light." She turns her head back towards you; there is a cold mirth in those dark red eyes. "Don't you think?"
>Keep calm, keep calm. We've already won, either she helps or she tries to kill us and we take her to hell with us.
>"They do look nice. They have some kinda of symbolism?"
-
>Keep calm, keep calm. We've already won, either she helps or she tries to kill us and we take her to hell with us.
>"They do look nice. They have some kinda of symbolism?"
>"That's a human conceit," she says curtly. "Flowers need no trite sentiments to give purpose to their beauty; their beauty is its own purpose."
-
>"Huh, makes sense. Is that true for other plants, too?"
-
>"Huh, makes sense. Is that true for other plants, too?"
>"Of course. They existed long before humans could name them, and will sprout upon the ruins of their civilizations." She pauses, then leans in towards you with a unsettling smile and softly whispers "Yours as well."
-
>...Really? Really , lady? This is what you're doing?
>A little less timidly. "Not surprising. Just I was thinking how rare it is people give that kinda praise to weeds and stuff. Like those little ones with the leaves that get in people's lawns. Sheep sorrel, I think? I always thought it looked kinda nice."
-
>...Really? Really , lady? This is what you're doing?
>A little less timidly. "Not surprising. Just I was thinking how rare it is people give that kinda praise to weeds and stuff. Like those little ones with the leaves that get in people's lawns. Sheep sorrel, I think? I always thought it looked kinda nice."
>The woman pauses at your words, and then a moment later lets out of a short peal of laughter; for a moment, it sounds almost genuine. "Oh, you are doing your best, aren't you? But I'm sure you didn't come here to discuss your appreciation for flowers." Her eyes harden again. "So what do you want? And I suggest you be quick about it."
-
>"Alright, I'll be quick. I need a bittercress flower, or I'm going to die from some obscure disease...within a couple days at most."
-
>"Alright, I'll be quick. I need a bittercress flower, or I'm going to die from some obscure disease...within a couple days at most."
>"I suppose that would be a hard thing to come across right now, wouldn't it?" She smiles pleasantly at you, but says nothing further.
-
>"This is as close as I've gotten."
>Produce our botanical buddy and show her.
-
>"This is as close as I've gotten."
>Produce our botanical buddy and show her.
>You produce your potted bittercress to show to the woman you can only assume must be Yuuka. She regards the whole process nonchalantly at first, though you could swear you saw a frown creep onto her face after looking at your plant. But a moment later it is gone without a trace.
>"It looks healthy," she says lightly. "I'm sure you can expect some lovely flowers in, oh... a few years' time." She makes no attempt to mask the gleam of icy mirth in her eyes.
-
>"Maybe sooner than that, have a look at the soil. Just...won't be soon enough for me."
-
>"Maybe sooner than that, have a look at the soil. Just...won't be soon enough for me."
>"How very unfortunate for you." A widening grin tugs at the corners of her mouth.
-
>"So, I need your help. You're pretty much my only hope."
-
>"So, I need your help. You're pretty much my only hope."
>How very unfortunate for you," she repeats. She is practically leering now, her smile like that of a thirsty predator. You feel very small and vulnerable beneath her gaze.
-
>Try not to waiver. If she acts, she's already dead from our blood.
>"Lemme ask you a thing, then. Have you heard of Earth Spiders?"
-
>Try not to waiver. If she acts, she's already dead from our blood.
>"Lemme ask you a thing, then. Have you heard of Earth Spiders?"
>You try not to waver, but this is harder than you'd like to admit at the moment. You hope too much of it isn't leaking through.
>"Perhaps," she says indifferently, without changing her expression.
-
>"Then hear me out. I need this because an earth spider cursed me some weird disease that apparently ravaged things some time ago. That sound familiar?"
-
>"Then hear me out. I need this because an earth spider cursed me some weird disease that apparently ravaged things some time ago. That sound familiar?"
>"Not especially."
-
>"Well, it was a big deal some time ago. Centuries ago, if not more. Earth spiders were a huge problem, there was a war, they got driven underground. I managed to come across what's apparently the last surviving one."
-
>"Well, it was a big deal some time ago. Centuries ago, if not more. Earth spiders were a huge problem, there was a war, they got driven underground. I managed to come across what's apparently the last surviving one."
>"I suggest you reach your point swiftly," she says, looking slightly irritated.
-
>"Right, right. So this earth spider, she's been terrorizing a local village, just doing whatever she pleases. So they call me, and I go to deal with it. Now, she has a thing with other spider, they follow and obey her, she claims to love them. I can sympathize, I'm the same way with mice. And I bet you're about the same way with your flowers. Except, she's cheerfully sending them out to die against me. And I tell him this, all she's going to do is get more and more of them killed. If not by me, then by others. She didn't even have a clue she was like a day away from major city. And the idiot convinces herself she can take care of it on her own. Well, I fight her to a standstill, but she diseased me. Now, I get out, alright, and I make sure the word is spread. But it's not enough to beat her, you see. Because she still thinks she won against me."
>"That's why I need your help, and why I need to survive. So I can waltz back in and rub it in her stupid damn face just how utterly she failed to on every level, and show her she did nothign except sacrifice the people she claimed to care about for her damn stupid ego."
-
>"Right, right. So this earth spider, she's been terrorizing a local village, just doing whatever she pleases. So they call me, and I go to deal with it. Now, she has a thing with other spider, they follow and obey her, she claims to love them. I can sympathize, I'm the same way with mice. And I bet you're about the same way with your flowers. Except, she's cheerfully sending them out to die against me. And I tell him this, all she's going to do is get more and more of them killed. If not by me, then by others. She didn't even have a clue she was like a day away from major city. And the idiot convinces herself she can take care of it on her own. Well, I fight her to a standstill, but she diseased me. Now, I get out, alright, and I make sure the word is spread. But it's not enough to beat her, you see. Because she still thinks she won against me."
>"That's why I need your help, and why I need to survive. So I can waltz back in and rub it in her stupid damn face just how utterly she failed to on every level, and show her she did nothign except sacrifice the people she claimed to care about for her damn stupid ego."
>You start to expound upon the mission that that brought you to Easthaven, and your battle with Yamame. Yuuka's interest seems strained from the outset, and the impatience in her mien grows swiftly as you continue. A moment later, you hear a rustling in the plants behind you and before you full realize what is happening, a vine has whipped out from the foliage and coiled tightly around your throat, cutting off your words with a strangled gasp. Yuuka's smile returns.
>"Not swiftly enough."
-
>Welp.
>Draw knife, and quickly cut our arm. Make it shallow and bloody, and preferably over an infected area. If the arm seems suitable, got for the leg, preferably somewhere without too many nerve endings.
-
I don't know what you're trying to do, Purvis, but pulling a weapon on Yuuka is a bad idea, especially given the current circumstances. She could have that vine snap our neck in a second, not to mention all the other things we both know she's capable of.
So, let me try something else first before we get desperate.
>Instead of mutilating ourselves:
>Choke out, "You're right. I'm sorry."
-
>Not yet.
We're pretty much past negotiations at this point. And we're not pulling it on her, we're using it on ourself because it's the only leverage we got. She has established she has no fucks to give about our condition, she has no fucks to give about our situation, we are nothing to her. Any kind of sucking up is not going to work, she's clearly too smart for it and too capricious. What we have left is to let her know just how badly she has messed up, that her garden is contaminated and that she's going to die with us, much more quickly than we ever did.
If you wanna do some think where she rips open a nice bleedy wound instead of cutting it, go ahead. But we're out of options unless you have something I haven't thought of. It's time to pour on the terror of the unseen.
-
Let me see if I get this straight. You want to scare Yuuka Kazami, of all Touhous, into submission?
-
With the horrible invisible killer she cannot fight, cannot bargain with, and is already exposed to, yes.
Unless you have an idea? I was kinda waiting for you all week ;_;
-
Yeah, I have an idea. We try a different approach, since, be honest, man, you can't scare Yuuka Kazami into... Well, really anything. Trying's only going to annoy her more than she already is. So let me try it my way. And this first thing we need to do is get this vine off of us. If we can. And we're not going to cut it off, she'd either kill us first or be enraged at us damaging one of her plants, so that leaves the one option.
>Instead of mutilating ourselves:
>Choke out, "You're right. I'm sorry."
-
I don't recall planning to cut it off. And what is this plan? Because the more we screw around, the more it comes off as an empty threat.
-
Well it IS an empty threat, since we know we're not contagious.
As it stands right now, she has no reason to help us. We're just appealing to her humanity, and that's probably a lost cause. And I think I know how we can do that, but we can't do that with her as annoyed with us as she is now. We need to calm her down a little, or at least convince her not to kill us right at this moment. A little humility might do that. In fact it has to, since I can't see anything else working. Fingers crossed.
-
What empty threat? We die here and she's gonna follow. Blood would spill, or anything else, and it would contaminate her. You're mistaking the idea that it's not airborne with the idea its noncommunicable at all. And we've tried appealling to humility and humanity, this is what we started with. She don't care. I mean, roll with it a bit, but unless something new happens, I can't see it working.
-
>Instead of mutilating ourselves:
>Choke out, "You're right. I'm sorry."
>You try to gasp out an apology, but the vine's hold around your throat is so tight that little more than a pained gurgle emerges.
>"You'll have to speak up," Yuuka says pleasantly. "I'm afraid I couldn't quite hear you."
-
>Gasp as loud as we can, "I'm sorry!"
-
>Gasp as loud as we can, "I'm sorry!"
>You try again to force sound out your constricted throat and manage the thinnest of uneven whispers.
>"Oh, I think I almost heard that one. Try your best now!"
-
>"I'm sorry!!"
-
>"I'm sorry!!"
>You put every bit of vocal force and will you can muster to demand words escape your lips while the relentless coil of green squeezes tighter. There is no immediate response from Yuuka, just a very contented smile as you struggle. The way the vine digs into your skin would be enough to make you wince, were it not for the more immediate problem of breathing. You can feel your lungs start to complain and then burn as you fight for air that will not come, for words that will not form, and still Yuuka just... watches, her face almost placid if not for the hungry gleam in her eyes. Just as you are starting to wonder if she really means to kill you here, like this, the plant releases its hold on you and slithers teasingly across your cheek before retreating back into the foliage. You let out a gasp.
>"I do hope you can be quicker next time," Yuuka says lightly.
-
>Rub our throat. "Noted. Thank you."
-
>Rub our throat. "Noted. Thank you."
>You rub your throat and catch your breath.
>Yuuka smiles beneficently at your gratitude. "Now then, care to try again?"
-
>"All right."
>"The flower I came here looking for is for a cure for a blight. A blight that once affected plants and people alike. It had been wiped out for a long time, but that Earth Spider has the power to unleash it. For all I know, she may have unleashed it on my home by now. Now you obviously know plants, but that means you know plant diseases as well. From what I know of this blight, it's one of the worst ones."
-
>"All right."
>"The flower I came here looking for is for a cure for a blight. A blight that once affected plants and people alike. It had been wiped out for a long time, but that Earth Spider has the power to unleash it. For all I know, she may have unleashed it on my home by now. Now you obviously know plants, but that means you know plant diseases as well. From what I know of this blight, it's one of the worst ones."
>"Are you trying to suggest I should care about what happens to your home just because plants there might also be dying?" Her expression is hard to read.
-
>"I'm not suggesting that you care about my home one way or the other. Distant lives of humans and youkai wouldn't mean anything to someone in your position. But I am suggesting you might care about a potential threat to plantlife in the world. Especially one that might not be contained to some backwater village across the world forever."
-
>"I'm not suggesting that you care about my home one way or the other. Distant lives of humans and youkai wouldn't mean anything to someone in your position. But I am suggesting you might care about a potential threat to plantlife in the world. Especially one that might not be contained to some backwater village across the world forever."
>"Consider it noted," she says coolly.
-
>"Then again, you might already have seen this blight and beaten it. I'm sure you've seen and beaten more diseases that affect plants than I'll ever hear about."
-
>"Then again, you might already have seen this blight and beaten it. I'm sure you've seen and beaten more diseases that affect plants than I'll ever hear about."
>"You are very bad at getting to your point, aren't you? Perhaps you could use some more encouragement."
>At her word, you hear more rustling in the plants around you - slower than last time, and slow enough to observe the group of vines snaking languidly out of the foliage towards you, some along the ground and others a few feet higher. You could probably try to evade them if you wanted, though you're not sure she means this as anything more than intimidation, given how much time they're taking.
-
>What's the point of evading? If she wants us dead, there's no much we can do about it.
>"Help me make the medicine I need, and I can take the knowledge of the cure back home to help protect the plants and the people there. And help contain or destroy the youkai who can spread the blight as well, to keep her from doing this to anyone or anything else."
-
>What's the point of evading? If she wants us dead, there's no much we can do about it.
>"Help me make the medicine I need, and I can take the knowledge of the cure back home to help protect the plants and the people there. And help contain or destroy the youkai who can spread the blight as well, to keep her from doing this to anyone or anything else."
>You stand still and make your plea while the vines steadily creep towards you. You try not to flinch as one starts to wind around your ankle.
>Yuuka's smile is mawkishly. "How gallant! How noble! How brave!" The words roll off her tongue like she finds them amusing. You can feel the smooth-textured plant slowly coiling up your leg as the smile falls abruptly from her face. "How very little I care."
-
>"Then what do you care about?"
-
>"Then what do you care about?"
>"The sanctity of this little haven of beauty I have nurtured here, and the peace of knowing it remains unsullied by nosy travelers like yourself." A vine winds around one arm as the first rises past your knee. You feel a third tickle your left ankle. "You knew you were unwelcome here," she continues. "I know you felt it, chose to ignore it, chose to trespass in another's sanctuary. How very rude! I wonder if you properly regret yourself?" She lets out a laugh as the vines bind you steadily tighter. "I wonder if mice make good fertilizer."
-
>Proper regret?
>... There's a thought.
>Get down on our knees. If she allows us to do that, bow our head down as one does when they might be begging someone for forgiveness.
-
>Proper regret?
>... There's a thought.
>Get down on our knees. If she allows us to do that, bow our head down as one does when they might be begging someone for forgiveness.
>You attempt to sink to your knees, but your right leg is bound too tightly to bend properly and your left arm pulled too high, so mostly you stumble face-first to the ground instead, only righting yourself a little after the fact.
>"Oooo... That's a good look for you." Yuuka actually sounds impressed, albeit in an unsettlingly predatorial way. "Are you going to beg?"
>The vines dig steadily tighter into your flesh as they coil around you; it's actually starting to get a little painful.
-
>"If you want me to. I need your help, Yuuka. And if I have to beg for it, throw away my pride for it, then I will."
-
>"If you want me to. I need your help, Yuuka. And if I have to beg for it, throw away my pride for it, then I will."
>There is a pause, then a peal of laughter rings out, rich like fine wine. "Then show me! Show me how pitiful you're willing to be!"
-
Vexingly, I've been hitting a bit of a creative wall for the past couple days with what to say here, so I'll try this first. Just to see if it works.
>Let us grovel before this powerful youkai who has us plainly and unquestionably in her deadly clutches.
>No point in having pride right now if a shameful display will get us out of this mess.
-
Yeah, I've been trying not to mess up your flow.
-
I think I actually messed myself up a little bit. I made the mistake of going to sleep after Yuuka said that last line of hers rather than going with the flow at the time. Got out of the groove. You know how it is.
-
>Let us grovel before this powerful youkai who has us plainly and unquestionably in her deadly clutches.
>No point in having pride right now if a shameful display will get us out of this mess.
>You're more than willing to throw away your pride; only a fool would think pride was worth dying for. But... do you even know how? You don't grovel. You've never grovelled. You were always stronger than that, always more composed. It would never be fear that reduced you to blubbering, and none of the binds you've been in would be solved by begging. You're pragmatic. You pick the solution which works and ignore the rest - or so you like to tell yourself, no matter your success rate these past few weeks.... But if this is the solution this situation requires, then so be it.
>You do your best. You admit defeat. You admit your powerlessness. You admit that you are at her mercy. All of this is essentially true, so it's easy enough to say it. The vines continue their leisurely climb across your body, wrapping your legs and arms and coiling around your torso. They draw steadily tighter as time passes, slow enough that you don't quite notice until it starts to hurt. But the one that brushes over your cracked ribs actually makes you gasp mid-word when it squeezes. Yuuka smiles. It does it again. Harder.
>You try to keep speaking, try to find something to say that might satisfy her. Try not to groan too loudly as the plants contract around your injuries. All the while, Yuuka watches silently, your words echoing in the stillness.
>"Is that really the best you can do?" she says after another moment. Her voice sounds lightsome, but disinterested. "I'm not sure I quite believe you."
-
Well it was worth a shot.
>"What more would you ask from a pitiful, powerless mouse such as me? You hold my life in the palm of your hand, great Yuuka. I do regret disturbing you, disturbing the peace of your life, disturbing this little peace of paradise that you have made for yourself. Know only that there was no choice. And if by any means I can make amends, ask it of me, and Nazrin will deliver as best as she can."
-
>"What more would you ask from a pitiful, powerless mouse such as me? You hold my life in the palm of your hand, great Yuuka. I do regret disturbing you, disturbing the peace of your life, disturbing this little peace of paradise that you have made for yourself. Know only that there was no choice. And if by any means I can make amends, ask it of me, and Nazrin will deliver as best as she can."
>"Eloquent," she says. "But it still lacks... conviction. Let me give you some more motivation."
>You feel something stab into your legs like a dozen tiny daggers. The vine around your torso constricts your ribs so forcefully that you can't help but cry out, and it does not let go.
>"Take as much time as you want. I can be very patient."
-
>Assuming we have breath enough to shout, "For god's sake, what do you want from me?! What else to you want me to say?"
-
>Assuming we have breath enough to shout, "For god's sake, what do you want from me?! What else to you want me to say?"
>You rasp out a shout of frustration amid the pain.
>"Oh, nothing in particular," Yuuka replies lightly, then her face splits into a devilish smile. "But I do enjoy watching you try!"
-
>Scowl. "Don't you have any heart at all?"
-
>Scowl. "Don't you have any heart at all?"
>"You were the one who offered to beg," she says, smile never wavering. "I just thought I'd make the experience feel more... authentic." The vines contract again.
-
>"You want to frighten me? I am frightened. You want to hear me say I'm powerless? I am, completely. How many more times do you want me to say I'm sorry?"
-
>"You want to frighten me? I am frightened. You want to hear me say I'm powerless? I am, completely. How many more times do you want me to say I'm sorry?"
>"That's a good expression! Cornered, afraid, and yet still defiant enough to rail against your lot. It's been a long time since I've seen that." The puncture wounds in your legs are starting to burn. "It takes surprisingly little to reduce someone to terrified weeping," she continues, walking slowly past your helpless form as you smother another wince. "A limb, a loved one, seeing all their decades of training defeated by a single gesture. Empty, hollow fear. But that isn't what I see on your face, even now. Oh, you curse me, curse the world, curse your own powerlessness, and yet you still haven't quite given up your resolve." She leans down and holds your gaze in her own, her eyes deep with age-old malice, but her smile surprisingly gentle. "You're a brave little mouse, aren't you?"
>You don't feel very brave right now.
>"I could break you, of course," she says lightly, as though she were discussing the weather. "I could ensure that every last moment of your life was spent in such pure agony that you'd only wish for death to claim you. But that seems like a terrible waste, don't you agree?" The vines around your chest make it difficult to draw enough breath to respond, even were you not gritting your teeth against the searing in your legs. "As it so happens, I have no desire to kill you. You've been a polite enough intruder that I'm willing to give you a chance to redeem yourself ? a chance, even, to gain the very thing you came here seeking. Are you interested?"
-
>"At the risk of stating the obvious, yes. Very."
-
>"At the risk of stating the obvious, yes. Very."
>It is difficult to speak properly at the moment, but you do your best.
>"Splendid!" Were it not for the past few minutes, you could even believe that smile was genuine. But the vines do slacken enough to catch your breath.
>"This garden is the most beautiful that has ever been, but it is still incomplete. There are still flowers that belong here, and yet are not. I want you to bring me one of them."
-
>"That's actually up my alley. I am a Seeker after all. Did you have a specific one in mind, or is it more a 'Any of the above'?"
-
>"That's actually up my alley. I am a Seeker after all. Did you have a specific one in mind, or is it more a 'Any of the above'?"
>Yuuka regards with amusement for a moment - lacking even the cruel undertones that you've come to expect from her smile - though you can't imagine why.
>"Any I do not possess would be fine, but I shall spare us both some time and give you a suggestion: a lunar orchid."
-
>Presumably we've never heard of that one?
-
>Presumably we've never heard of that one?
>It doesn't ring a bell.
-
>"I don't think I've heard of that one."
-
>"I don't think I've heard of that one."
>"A pity, though I am not surprised. It is an exquisite blossom that glows softly in the moonlight with the light of the moon itself, but you would not find it growing in the wild should you scour every corner of the world. Though in your condition, I should think you would rather not have to do that, yes?" She smiles pleasantly.
-
>"Not if I had any choice."
-
>"Not if I had any choice."
>"And fortunately, you do!" she offers lightly. You'd almost think she cared. "I can tell you exactly where such a rare and precious flower can be found, and that is in the inner gardens of Eientei, demesne of a certain Kaguya Horaisan. I do trust you've heard of her?"
-
>"Her, I know. Well not personally, but I've heard of her."
>Beats being sent half way across the world. But do we have the time now to make it back there and then back here to Yuuka's before we run out of time.
-
>"Her, I know. Well not personally, but I've heard of her."
>Beats being sent half way across the world. But do we have the time now to make it back there and then back here to Yuuka's before we run out of time.
>"Good."
>That is a very good question. Conservatively, that's at least another week's traveling and probably more. Given how you've been feeling these past few days, you have significant concerns about what shape you'll be in by that point.
-
>"What I don't know, though, is whether or not she's willing to deal for this sort of item. Am I going to need to steal this flower?"
-
>"What I don't know, though, is whether or not she's willing to deal for this sort of item. Am I going to need to steal this flower?"
>"That is your own business," she says. "I don't care if you buy it or steal it or take it by force, just so long as you bring it to me intact. I'm sure you understand the nuances of your little societies far better than I do."
-
>"So you never dealt with her before you came out here?"
>"Actually, would the seeds be acceptable if I can't get the flower itself?"
-
>"So you never dealt with her before you came out here?"
>"Actually, would the seeds be acceptable if I can't get the flower itself?"
>"We have never met."
>"That is also fine, though it produces seeds only rarely. If you can manage to find some, be my guest."
-
>"Good. Options are always good when you're trying to make a deal with someone."
>"So, if you've never met her, how do you know this flower grows in her gardens?"
-
>"Good. Options are always good when you're trying to make a deal with someone."
>"So, if you've never met her, how do you know this flower grows in her gardens?"
>"Do you really need everything spelled out for you?" Yuuka replies in irritation. "You'd never met me, and yet somehow you're still here."
>The profuse stinging in your legs is really very distracting by this point; you even think your legs are starting to tremble, despite being mostly held in place.
-
>"Sorry! Sorry. I just like to know as much as I can about a job! I want to do it right, whatever I get asked to find."
-
I'm pretty sure she's just trying to send us off to die elsewhere. It'd take a week to get back and then a week to return.
We need to be paid upfront.
-
I agree. At least with the 'give us what we need first' part. But I'm hoping that she releases us from these vines before we start negociating that part.
-
She kind of has to give you what you want up-front, because it's impossible for you to get her what she wants otherwise.
-
The trick, I think, is going to be convincing her of that. I get the feeling she doesn't have too much faith in people in general, and the way this conversation has gone, we haven't entirely placed ourselves in her good graces. She only has our word that we don't have the time we need to get there and back without curing ourselves along the way.
-
>"Sorry! Sorry. I just like to know as much as I can about a job! I want to do it right, whatever I get asked to find."
>"I'm afraid I can give you little more information than this, other than I know that she has it. But she's a very visible figure; I'm sure it can't be too hard for a investigator of your caliber to figure out something."
-
>Nod. "I sort of wondered if my path would ever cross one of those big players back in Val Razua. Didn't think it'd be like this, but it seems like I've had nothing but surprises lately."
>"Okay, you have my word. One way or another, I'll get you your flower."
-
>Nod. "I sort of wondered if my path would ever cross one of those big players back in Val Razua. Didn't think it'd be like this, but it seems like I've had nothing but surprises lately."
>"Okay, you have my word. One way or another, I'll get you your flower."
>Yuuka smiles broadly. "Wonderful!"
>The rest of the vines uncoil from around you, leaving you lying on the ground. You almost feel like you're floating, now that the rest of that pressure's finally been released; this does little for your still-trembling legs, however.
-
>Take a moment to catch our breath. "Thanks. You, uh, wouldn't mind if I sat down for a little bit before I set off again, though, would you?"
-
>Take a moment to catch our breath. "Thanks. You, uh, wouldn't mind if I sat down for a little bit before I set off again, though, would you?"
>Your breathing is fine, if only various parts of you would stop their insistent hurting.
>Yuuka laughs softly; you can't help but feel it's at your expense. "A brief respite, but I am sure you must be in a hurry to get underway again."
-
>"You're right about that. Time isn't my friend."
>Assuming it's safe to sit here, then take a load off.
>"But there's no point in running off if you're just going to fall over half a mile off. That wouldn't do either of us any good."
-
>"You're right about that. Time isn't my friend."
>Assuming it's safe to sit here, then take a load off.
>"But there's no point in running off if you're just going to fall over half a mile off. That wouldn't do either of us any good."
>You think it's as safe to sit here as it is anywhere within a mile of this madwoman.
>"Oh, I'm sure you have a lot more resolve left in you than that," she says cheerfully. "I have full confidence in your determination."
-
>Manage a small grin. "Well, I don't give up easy."
>Pause. "But I'm going to need your help to get the job done."
-
>Manage a small grin. "Well, I don't give up easy."
>Pause. "But I'm going to need your help to get the job done."
>"And what exactly do you mean?" she asks with narrowed eyes.
-
>"I haven't been exaggerating when I said time wasn't my friend. I can't make it back to Val Razua and then get back here in time. Not without a much faster means of transport then my feet."
-
>"I haven't been exaggerating when I said time wasn't my friend. I can't make it back to Val Razua and then get back here in time. Not without a much faster means of transport then my feet."
>"I'm afraid I have none to provide you," she says.
-
>"Which leaves the second option, and I doubt you're going to like it, but I wouldn't say it if I felt I had any choice. I need to bring the bittercress back with me to get the medicine I need." And assuming she doesn't throttle us right away, "It's the only way to be sure I won't just fall over before getting the job done."
-
>"Which leaves the second option, and I doubt you're going to like it, but I wouldn't say it if I felt I had any choice. I need to bring the bittercress back with me to get the medicine I need." And assuming she doesn't throttle us right away, "It's the only way to be sure I won't just fall over before getting the job done."
>She arches an eyebrow. "Is it customary for your kind to expect full payment before performing a task?"
-
>"Not for me. I don't like taking money for something I haven't done. Some Seekers might, but I'm damn sure not one of them. But I've never taken on a request while I was dying before, either. I don't mind trying to get this flower for you, or any other flower you might want to add to your garden, but I can't get anything for anyone if I'm dead."
-
>"Not for me. I don't like taking money for something I haven't done. Some Seekers might, but I'm damn sure not one of them. But I've never taken on a request while I was dying before, either. I don't mind trying to get this flower for you, or any other flower you might want to add to your garden, but I can't get anything for anyone if I'm dead."
>"Then I suppose you shall just have to take care not to die beforehand, hmm?"
-
>Sigh. "I actually do get it. You don't have a reason to trust me beyond my word, and you don't know how much, if anything, that's worth. Am I right so far?"
-
>Sigh. "I actually do get it. You don't have a reason to trust me beyond my word, and you don't know how much, if anything, that's worth. Am I right so far?"
>"I think I am being quite generous to make this offer in the first place," she says. "You may take it or leave it, but the latter seems rather detrimental to your health. In more ways than one."
>The vines behind you stir just enough to make you stifle a flinch. Your poor psyche feels nearly as frayed as your body, as much as you'd hate to admit it. When are you ever going to get to leave this place and go someplace safe like, oh, an active volcano?
-
>"I'm just trying to get us both what we want. I'm guessing that this is the first time in a while that you've had a chance to get a hold of this lunar orchid. You might not get another chance for decades or more."
-
>"I'm just trying to get us both what we want. I'm guessing that this is the first time in a while that you've had a chance to get a hold of this lunar orchid. You might not get another chance for decades or more."
>"I might not," she says indifferently. "I can be patient."
>A faint grin tugs at the corner of her mouth. "Can you?"
-
>"Not with any degree of sincerity. But I'd also be a fool if I betrayed you."
-
>"Not with any degree of sincerity. But I'd also be a fool if I betrayed you."
>"You were a fool to come here in the first place," she replies.
-
>Desperate times call for desperate measures.
>"Okay, a bigger fool for betraying you." Look around where the vines went. "You I think are now on the top of my list of people I do not want to cross."
-
>Desperate times call for desperate measures.
>"Okay, a bigger fool for betraying you." Look around where the vines went. "You I think are now on the top of my list of people I do not want to cross."
>You look over your shoulder. There are vines still present, protruding from the walls of flowers that surround you - just close enough to feel threatening, yet not quite in reach of you. Every now and again, they undulate slightly.
>Yuuka smiles silently for a moment. "Good."
-
>"So if you gave me the bittercress flower I need now, and I just took it and ran, I'd have to spend the rest of my life looking over my shoulder, wondering when you were going to come after me to make me regret it. And I know you can make me regret it."
-
>"Wise words, but you're still wasting your precious time. I don't particularly care if you live or die, and you should consider yourself very fortunate to get even this chance; I suggest you not squander it."
-
>Sigh.
>"I don't suppose, by any happy chance, you know of a faster way back to Val Razua? I'll never make it if I have to go back the way I came."
-
>Sigh.
>"I don't suppose, by any happy chance, you know of a faster way back to Val Razua? I'll never make it if I have to go back the way I came."
>"Well, I hardly know the route you took here, do I?" she says lightly.
-
So she is just sending us off to die elsewhere, then. I think we need to change our tactics.
-
Any suggestions?
-
Nothing that wouldn't cause the situation to deteriorate, unfortunately. I think the best we can do is emphasize whether she actually wants to get this plant or not.
>Can we tell how badly those vines hurt us without looking? Can we feel what seems like cuts, abrasions, or the like?
-
>Can we tell how badly those vines hurt us without looking? Can we feel what seems like cuts, abrasions, or the like?
>There are a multitude of small puncture wounds across your legs; they didn't feel very deep, but the persistent stinging and trembling in them makes you think the wounds must have been affected by some kind of venom. Fortunately, you don't notice any effects on your respiration or any other part of your body, so hopefully it's highly localized. Regarding the rest of you, the vines mostly just gripped far too tightly; this was a little painful in a lot of places, but most acutely over existing wounds from your fall off the cliff - in particular, your cracked ribs. It's possible there's some bruising, but you don't think there are any actual cuts. You wouldn't be surprised if they exacerbated that fracture a little, though.
-
But I tried that myself only a handful of posts again. The way this conversation has gone, she'll just say, 'I can be patient' again and then mock us for retreading old ground.
I don't like it any more than you do, but I think we have to accept that we've come all this way just to get a fetchquest.
-
I am pretty sure it's just telling us the time for talk is through, and it's time to bring her to hell with us, metaphorically speaking. We explicitly do not have time to pull this off; there's been numerous posts telling us this during the journey. She's just trying to get rid of us so we don't leave a diseased corpse in her garden.
-
I explicitly asked that very question a couple of pages ago. The answer was not 'No you can't do it.' It was:
>That is a very good question. Conservatively, that's at least another week's traveling and probably more. Given how you've been feeling these past few days, you have significant concerns about what shape you'll be in by that point.
Which isn't a 'No'.
-
It's also not a yes, which is the important part. Because we were given like three weeks to live tops and have used up one and a half already, at least. And given how we've been rapidly falling apart just in the past two days, it's pretty clear we're on our last legs. The thing you got to remember is we're not getting any faster as we deteriorate, but rather the opposite. Also you have to consider we're not just going to waltz into the Houraisan stronghold and just take the flowers. There's going to be any amount of stonewalling, expected bribery, refusal to see us, and so on. And we're going to be in notably worse condition by then unless the disease miraculously stops getting worse.
The only way forward I can see is pointing out that she's in a zugzwang, and that's going to escalate things horribly.
Edit: Actually...I can see one way we could theoretically do it. But that requires us to be reasonably close to the edge of the continent (I think we are?), Murasa to be around, and for hang gliders to exist.
>Do gliders exist?
-
I agree, there's not a lot of room for optimism. But we're not going to able to threaten Yuuka into submission. All that's going to achieve is her hurting us more, and we both know that we can't afford to take any more damage. Worst case scenario, she just kills us. She doesn't care if we die, she's not going to have any compunctions about killing us. This is not a situation we can strongarm our way out of.
-
>Do gliders exist?
>You think you've maybe heard of such devices in passing - kappa are forever tinkering with things - but never encountered one yourself.
-
It's not that she doesn't care if we die, it's that if we go she comes with us. Thus the zugzwang and why she'd have to care. It's pretty much the only tool we have to getting anything other that more disdain out of her; nothing either of us have tries has worked. And, it might well have an effect if we suddenly stop caring, and further violence doesn't sway us.
-
But that's a hollow threat. And you'd be gambling everything on her not calling your bluff.
-
How's it hollow? We're diseased. They have to spread, that's how they work as a species. Given that it's been affecting our blood veins visibly, it's almost certainly a blood-based disease. Meaning, our blood is dangerous as fuck, and she's already spilled it. And to kill us, she'd have to spill a lot of more of it; blood doesn't just evaporate out of a corpse. Hell, we could spill more of it ourselves.
So where's the lie?
-
Because it we were contagious, everyone on the Maiden would have been dead by the time we got to port. And so would half the pirates or more, though we'd have no way to know that. Remember after we were infected by Yamame? We very nearly died before the day was out, and only divine intervention kept us alive, in conjunction with the sword designed to fight spiders and this stuff. The Maiden crew had none of that. If we could infect anyone in proximity to our blood, Murasa and us would have been the only two beings on the ship when we made dock.
-
They didn't get in contact with our blood. Yuuka has, via the vines. Moreover, she'd have to get in contact with us further to remove an remains; or risk them infecting the garden.
-
The crewmen who cleaned up our blood would have, though. And we did splash our blood on some of the pirates when we fought them in the corridor. That close quarters combat with bladed weapons, we splashed one of them, for sure. And probably the crewmen who were there as well. Or they would have touched our spilled blood during the fight. We touched theirs, they had to have touched ours.
-
Spoke with Draco to confirm some things, you're right. We don't have a disease, we were hit with a biological weapon that isn't designed to spread. So...guess we do have to bluff it, because I don't see any other viable options for getting through this. It's pretty clear she wants to leave and die.
-
Be honest, Purvis, do you really think you can bluff your way past Yuuka?
And on another level, you know Draco's style and habits about as well as I do. He wouldn't resurrect this game, shortened version or otherwise, just to give us a task we couldn't accomplish. He's not that sadistic a DM. I don't like that we came out here only to be turned around with nothing any more than you do, but I have to assume that we can still win.
-
That's why I am certain it's the intended solution. If MAD isn't an option, then we need to make her think it's an inevitability.
-
I can't agree. And it's not a risk we can afford to take. The way things have gone, if you try to look all ballsy now, she'll lose whatever patience she has left with us. We're going to need all the strength we have left to haul our carcass back to town.
-
Well, that's my point. We don't have enough strength to do that as it is. It's not coming back, not until we are cured. We barely know where we are. Retracing our steps is going to be difficult. Blazing a new path is even riskier and that's assuming there's a new path to be blazed. We have a few days at best, and all signs point to less than that given how hard we've been crashing lately. Leaving...isn't an option, there's nowhere to go.
-
And if we don't leave, Yuuka will just kill us.
We appear to be at an impasse. You don't hold any hope if we leave, I have no hope if we don't leave.
-
I suppose so. The difference is one is cold math, the other is merely unlikely. The latter choice is definitely the way to go in such a situation.
-
Nazrin would just like to pop in and point out here that if she doesn't have enough stamina to make it back to Val Razua, then she's already completely screwed. Even if you had the flower this moment, you still lack the other components for the potion as well as the expertise to prepare it - both of which require you to get back to Val Razua in the first place. So even in the best-case scenario, you still have a few days solo travel ahead.
As for barely knowing where you are, you have detailed enough map notes from the vantages you reached, as well as additions and compass measurements along the way, to fairly confidently navigate your way back; Nazrin is good at this stuff, remember! It's true that your physical condition is tangibly deteriorating, but you've still got enough in you to keep putting one foot in front of the other for a while yet, even if you'll have to be slower about it and take more breaks.
-
You know, there IS just one last thing I think I can try with Yuuka here. I'm going to revisit an older gift from God.
>Insight Point: As a negotiator and clever speaker, has Yuuka given us any clues or hints or any other indication that she might be open to being convinced to give us what we need before we give her what she wants?
-
>Insight Point: As a negotiator and clever speaker, has Yuuka given us any clues or hints or any other indication that she might be open to being convinced to give us what we need before we give her what she wants?
>If the short-term acquisition of the lunar orchid is as low-priority as Yuuka implies, and she truly is content for you to die in the process of trying to retrieve it, you would seem to have limited bargaining power. She appears to believe that if she gave you what you needed first, you would not return - which might honestly be the safest course of action, to be fair. You have little hope that promises will help convince her of this - not only because she seems disinclined to be generous in any fashion, but if she truly has no urgent need for what you can provide, it makes sense for her to hedge her bets against you breaking your promise; whether you retrieve her flower or die in the attempt, she has lost nothing. You get the impression she might even get some satisfaction out of you failing, making this a win-win situation for her. Honestly, without a sense of compassion - which she bloody well has demonstrated an absence of, damn her - what does she even stand to lose, no matter what happens? Either she gets her orchid or the satisfaction of knowing a rude little trespasser spent her last days struggling in vain for something she could have provided easily. This is a woman who clearly enjoys holding all the power in any situation, and as much as it galls you - she does.
>You have two insight points remaining.
-
>Maybe we really were better off with the pirates. At least Ren seemed to have something approaching a sense of decency.
>All right, fine. If we must, then we must.
>Stand, if we aren't already. "Well. I guess I'd best be on my way. You'll see me again. I haven't let down a client yet."
>Let's start making our way back to town.
>If we can.
-
>Maybe we really were better off with the pirates. At least Ren seemed to have something approaching a sense of decency.
>All right, fine. If we must, then we must.
>Stand, if we aren't already.
>With a heavy heart and a sense of weary resignation, you pull yourself back to your feet. Your legs tremble precipitously beneath you when you bear weight on them; it takes a moment just to be confident of your balance. This wasn't what you'd hoped for. At all. Could you really have come all this way, found the unfindable, and then be forced to turn away without it? You could scream, if it would do you any good. Still, you can do this. You'll make yourself do this. You know where you're going, you know where to come back to, and all it's going to take is not keeling over in the meantime. Simple, right?
>And dammit, would your legs stop stinging already?
>"Well. I guess I'd best be on my way. You'll see me again. I haven't let down a client yet."
>Let's start making our way back to town.
>If we can.
>?I look forward to it," she says with a smile.
>Remembering your way back out of the garden is a little tricky, but doable. At least there's no longer any menace it holds worse than what you've already experienced. The flowers don't even bother watching you as walk away; somehow, you almost feel insulted.
>"Try not to die, now!" Yuuka calls out as you round the corner of the trail and pass out of view. "It would be quite a shame!"
>Yeah, really.
>The next few days pass in a blur of weary exertion, trees and hills and tiny brooks all blending into an endless tableau of lonely wilderness. The most contact you have is with a single chatty mouse who takes up residence near the hollow where you try to sleep on the second night; he wasn't very bright, and mostly just there for your biscuits, but it was a voice, anyway.
>The physical aftereffects of your encounter with Yuuka are mostly gone by the first night, but each day still feels harder than the last, each step paid for with just a little bit more spirit. It won't stop you from walking. Complete and total exhaustion wouldn't stop you from walking. The only thing that could stop you now is literally dying on your feet ? if you have to bankrupt your psyche to keep yourself alive, you'll do it. There'll be time enough to collapse in a heap afterward.
>The blight continues its inexorable spread across your body. The first mark stretches all the way down to your ankle as you wend across the wilderness and the back of your right hand is now nearly covered by a web of blackened tendrils. The last time you refilled your canteens, you could even see one that had snaked up past your neck to bloom darkly upon your cheek. There is no way that won't be immediately obvious to anyone who interacts with you unless you take special care to cover up.
>Your vision is also starting to blur slightly. You barely noticed it at first, or chalked it up to dry eyes, but no; the edges of objects are less distinct and colors muted, like there is a dark haze across the world. Are you going to end up blind before the end, too?
>At least the weather holds.
>It is late afternoon on the third day after leaving the garden when you reach the Grau again. That was barely quicker than the trip in, despite the route being much abbreviated by your knowledge of where to go; this does not bode well for the return journey. You are... not in great shape, to be frank ? exhausted, dull, unsteady, and short of breath. Maybe some of it's just the result of a week's constant hiking and not your organs failing. Some of it.
>At least you don't have too much further to walk before the boat ride and a chance to stay off your feet for an entire day. Maybe it'll even do you some good.
>Kagerou's house isn't far away from here, if you wanted to stop in for a moment and rest, though you're not sure how much it would accomplish beyond worrying her. With a wan smile, you wonder how her friend's birthday went. Hopefully someone found a happy moment in this wearying week.
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>Do we feel that we need Kagerou's help? We did promise to see her again, but not like this.
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>Do we feel that we need Kagerou's help? We did promise to see her again, but not like this.
>If you mean 'Do you need physical assistance to reach the village?', then no. You're in lousy shape, but you can still keep moving. As for anything else you might ask of her, that's up to you.
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>What about supplies, are we still good there?
>If so, let us press on to town. We have promises to keep, and miles to go before we sleep.
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>What about supplies, are we still good there?
>If so, let us press on to town. We have promises to keep, and miles to go before we sleep.
>Your supplies are still quite sufficient; you packed yourself a margin when you set out, and supplemented them with things you could forage, when you could.
>Sparring only a brief thought to the kind werewolf and you promise to her, you keep moving forward.
>It takes you another two hours to reach the edge of the woods and finally step back onto open ground for the first time in a week. You can see hints of the stonework bridge leading to the village in the distance, and even fainter hints of the village itself, spread out across the other bank of the river. This is the first you've seen of it before sunset, and it looks perhaps even more paltry for the better lighting. As you get closer, you notice that there is a riverboat docked, which you hope is a good sign - you have no idea their schedule.
>The bridge itself is empty of people, but there are a decent few milling around the docks, yarning idly while others slowly onload cargo from a small boat. If you planned to do anything to cover up the disquieting marks on yours face and limbs, this is probably your last chance.
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>What do we have on hang that could be used for that purpose?
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>What do we have on hang that could be used for that purpose?
>The large cloak you purchased from the fort is bulky enough that you could probably hide your face from view with it if you were willing to look down a lot and appear generally shifty. The sleeves are long enough that you could likewise keep your hands from view. Neither does much for your legs, though you do have some spare clothing you could possibly sacrifice to do... something with. Pretend it was some kind of poorly-constructed impromptu bandage? Slather dirt all over it and hope that it looks like you took a roll around in the mud instead? Should have bought some pants....
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>Does it look like we could pass it off as a bad allergic reaction?
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>Does it look like we could pass it off as a bad allergic reaction?
>You could try to play it that way, but it doesn't look like any allergic reaction you've ever seen; you guess it depends on how gullible the people you interact with end up being. Assuming that even if they did believe it, they wouldn't send you right off to a doctor post-haste.
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>Does it bear any resemblence to any sort of medical condition we could pass it off as without drawing too much undue attention?
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>Does it bear any resemblence to any sort of medical condition we could pass it off as without drawing too much undue attention?
>None that you can think of. I mean, it's a large ugly black spidery pattern creeping down most of your leg; this is not especially pedestrian.
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>Spidery pattern...
>Have we seen tattoos along the same vein?
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>Spidery pattern...
>Have we seen tattoos along the same vein?
>This is rather too ugly and unhealthy-looking to pass for a tattoo, you think. Though you have seen some ugly tattoos before.... Maybe if no one gets a good look at it?
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>Here's a thought. We're not above scavenging. From where we are, can see any out of the way yards or alleys where we might be able to borrow some coverings?
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>Here's a thought. We're not above scavenging. From where we are, can see any out of the way yards or alleys where we might be able to borrow some coverings?
>The village isn't really dense enough to have alleyways or heaps of convenient litter - at least not until you're in the most central part of it - and you couldn't remain entirely from view while you skulked around. That being said, you doubt anything about your condition will be obvious until you're close to someone. No suitable coverings are visible from where you're standing, but there are more than a few houses isolated from wandering people; if you're in the headspace to pilfer laundry, you might be able to find something suitable without being spotted doing it.
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>Does it appear that any of the shops down there are open?
>Pull Yuugi down from the sky and ravish her.
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>Pull Yuugi down from the sky and ravish her.
>You bring the thread to its climax in the traditional manner.
>"Oy," Yuugi says, breathing heavily, "if you keep that up, I might just have to take you home and keep you."