(Skyseas of Gensokyo) Nazrin Quest (Part 13)

[Oldmansour]

>Let's just lie here and die. That'll help with pain.

[DracoOmega]

>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.

[Oldmansour]

>Be that as it may, we're not getting up that hill tonight, are we?

[DracoOmega]

>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.

[Oldmansour]

>Then let's just roll over until we fall asleep. Or until we're not feeling like death warmed over. Whichever comes first.

[DracoOmega]

>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.

[Hello Purvis]

>Let's try to look up. Bit at a time...

[DracoOmega]

>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?

[Hello Purvis]

>Emit a groan. It is too shitty today to engage in vocabulation.

[DracoOmega]

>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!"

[Oldmansour]

>Male or female voice?

[DracoOmega]

>Male or female voice?

>Female.

[Oldmansour]

>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?

[DracoOmega]

>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.

[Oldmansour]

>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.

[DracoOmega]

>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.

[Hello Purvis]

>"Don't wanna..."

[Oldmansour]

>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."

[DracoOmega]

>"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.

[Oldmansour]

>"Stupidity."

[DracoOmega]

>"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.

[Oldmansour]

>"What are you doing out here, anyway?"

[DracoOmega]

>"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."

[Oldmansour]

>We really are doomed, aren't we?

[Hello Purvis]

>Groan.
>"I'm just busy dying."

[DracoOmega]

>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.

[Oldmansour]

>"Never mind that, just, help me sit up. I've lid down long enough."

[DracoOmega]

>"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."

[Oldmansour]

>"Least of my problems."

[Hello Purvis]

>"Just be nice to lay someplace softer than gravel."