Sahdi and G'athoong crowded around Kahli to look at Sch'laong's map.
"What exactly are we supposed to be looking at?" asked G'athoong as she twisted her small, scaly head around to either side so that each of her reptilian eyes could try and look at the map. Neither times did she seem to gleam much anything at all.
"Right here!" Kahli pointed at an indeterminate spot of the map.
"Sorry, what, Kahli? I can't see anything," said Sahdi.
"This!" Kahli pointed her left pointer finger, which was made out of living wood, at a small black speck on the map. "This map can track our location!"
Sahdi and G'athoong looked at each other and coughed.
"Kahli," Sahdi started, "Are you sure that isn't just a splotch of dirt or something?"
Yea, that's what it looks like, agreed G'athoong.
Kahli was feeling quite cross. "You guys are jerks. Look, seriously, this speck of dirt has been directly on the ruin the whole time I've had this map, but the second I left the ruin, it moved over to the left of the ruin on the map. This map can track the holder's location. It's probably [enchanted] or something. You know what? I'm going to analyze it with my system. Which, don't both of you have systems? Why don't we all just analyze it with our systems. Probably would be the best way to confirm this instead of you two bullying me."
Everyone shut up and analyzed the map with their system.
[Sch'laong's Map (enchanted)]
"Hah! It is so [enchanted]," said Kahli, feeling vindicated. Now it was time to read the item's description and learn even more about it.
[This map of Nomachiato details, among other things, the location of the eight key ruins across Nomachiato that contain obelisks. On activation of all eight obelisks, it is said that Quantimidas will awaken from their slumber. This map's enchantments serve several functions. First, and most importantly, the map tracks whether obelisks are activated or not. Other than that, it tracks a few more things - it is keyed in to the greater Nomachiato meta in that as nations grow, change, and rename themselves, so they will on this map too. It also tracks the user's location by use of a subtle, nonintrusive dot.]
"Well? What did everyone else's systems say?" asked Kahli, a smugness in her voice that she didn't even kind of try to hide from Sahdi and G'athoong.
But Sahdi and G'athoong didn't say anything in response. They just stood there, silently, with both of their mouths agape.
"Um, G'athoong? Sahdi? What's going on, guys?" Kahli furrowed her brow, realizing immediately that some of the new living wood growth on her face was there on her brow.
"Did that map's description really say what I think it just said, Kahli?" asked Sahdi.
"Yes, yes it did," Kahli smiled with glee. "I was right, it does track your location."
I don't think that's what Sahdi's asking about, Kahli, thought spoke G'athoong. I think she's a little concerned about the fact that the description described activating obelisks in order to, um, to awaken Quantimidas.
And it was then that Kahli realized she'd forgotten to mention the whole deal with the obelisks controlling Quantimidas' slumber when she briefed Sahdi on what all had happened to her since they separated. She did her best to go over much of the details quickly - that Quantimidas was, apparently, definitely real and that they had implemented obelisks in ruins all over Nomachiato in order to keep as a failsafe in case something went wrong with their scheduled sleep shifts. And if Quantimidas was indeed real, then something had very much gone wrong, for it had been so long since Quantimidas had last awoke that even G'athoong seemed to still be a little skeptical of their existence at all.
"I can't handle this shit. You're telling me that all those stories were actually real? Kahli, that's about the last thing I ever expected to hear. Seriously, I thought they were just legends," said Sahdi. She was actually trembling a bit.
"Yes, or at least some of the stories. Who knows what about Quantimidas is true and what is a fabrication?" said Kahli. "However, think about it like this: I thought [pairing] was legendary, too. And honestly, I thought it really only happened with dragons - no offense, G'athoong. But here I am [paired] to Froufrou, and now I've even got a [class], too!"
This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.
Froufrou squelched with glee at these affirmations from within her holding purse.
No offense taken, replied G'athoong pleasantly. In fact, I quite like the idea that we dragons seem somewhat special to you taumans. As I understand it, dragons are the most likely to [pair] with you. This may be, however, due to the ability we have to thought speak and thusly to quickly bond with taumans at the language level. These are just my own musings, of course, it's not like I ever [paired] with anyone before.
"See, I think my [pairing] with Froufrou is different than that," said Kahli. "We didn't really have much of an understanding when it happened, we just kind of... clicked."
"Cool," said Sahdi. She seemed annoyed again, for whatever reason - although Kahli couldn't discern the cause.
There wasn't much for her to be jealous in as far as Kahli and Froufrou's [paired] status. After all, Sahdi already had a system - there was no need for her to synch up with a Harbinger of Doom. Along with that, surely Sahdi knew that once Froufrou did decide to start taking over and destroying the world, Kahli would do her best to get her a seat of power for a century or so before literally everyone died. Assuming Froufrou still wanted to end the world. Kahli would have to follow up on that at some point, she was still pretty divided herself on the whole thing.
So, last question here - how trustworthy was this Sch'laong creature? asked G'athoong. Because positing that this map indeed confirms the existence of Quantimidas is quite an extreme claim. Kahli, I guessing you might've already somewhat believed in Quantimidas' presence in this world if you didn't have any difficulty accepting that information from Sch'laong. Am I correct?
"Well, yes, of course! You know that Lloyd guy? The alien?"
G'athoong had no idea what Kahli was talking about, but Sahdi nodded along.
"Lloyd talked about Quantimidas as if they were all too real. In fact I'm starting to think that the whole thing might be real - that is to say that I suspect Quantimidas' brother, Drafuska, may also be real."
Sahdi and G'athoong both chortled with laughter.
"What? What's so funny?"
"Come on, Kahli. Drafuska is such a clear bedtime story character that there's no way he's real. Didn't your parents ever tell you to behave well, or Drafuska would pop out from under your bed and consume your soul?"
"Duh."
"Well, there it is. Drafuska was just a made up character. Sure, maybe Quantimidas is real, who knows. But Drafuska? Some ridiculous villain hellbent on destroying the world because he was jealous? That's just absurd, Kahli, really."
Kahli was feeling a little frustrated with Sahdi. It was like she was trying to put her down and make her feel silly, like she was mad at her or something. It was no fun. But with that, Kahli decided to stop talking about Quantimidas and Drafuska. Sahdi and G'athoong could believe her, or they could not, it made no difference to Kahli and to her opinion other than to aggravate her sensibilities. Arguing further just wasn't worth the energy.
With that, they resolved to set out on a trek through the woods to Flungunglia. G'athoong, apologizing profusely for being unable to fly them there herself, offered instead to swoop up into the sky and scout the area for them as they progressed further and further into the dense forest. At first, this was an excellent help, however as the canopy of trees became thusly stronger and thicker it became more and more difficult for G'athoong to be of much help, and soon enough she found herself walking alongside Kahli and Sahdi on all fours as opposed to flying above them.
As they proceeded through the woods, oddly enough, Kahli soon noticed that the little black speck that was her on the map had... stopped moving.
"What's going on?" Kahli asked.
"What do you mean?" Sahdi looked at her with an eyebrow raised over her living wood.
"We're not moving on the map. The little black speck hasn't budged in, like, two hundred paces or so."
That's impossible, Kahli, said G'athoong. We've been walking straight forward. There's no way that we haven't made any progress. Maybe the map is just taking a while to update, or maybe it's not to scale.
Kahli squinted. The map said that it was to scale, though of course words could lie sometimes she knew. Still, Kahli was suspicious. It had taken the map all of half a second to update when she left the ruin, and when they'd initially journeyed out towards Flungunglia, it had been tracking their progress closely as well. This lack of movement was a new development, and it seemed to directly contradict their conscious experience, as the three had been walking forward in the forest with no impediment.
"Maybe it has low reception because of the tree coverage. Kind of like how G'athoong can't fly up because she won't be able to see anything through the top of the canopy," said Sahdi with a chuckle.
"Sahdi, that doesn't make any sense, this map is [enchanted], it's not a dragon flying overhead!" Kahli was getting frustrated that nobody seemed to be taking this as seriously as she was.
On they walked for a good while. Time passed, hours indeed, and on sight of a particularly crooked Dhouglass Firm tree, finally, Kahli had had enough.
"I swear to Theseosus herself we have walked past this stupid tree fifty times by now! I don't care that it looks like we're walking forward in a straight line because that's obviously not the whole story! We need to stop taking this stuff at face value and figure out what exactly is going on before proceeding further!"
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With that, Kahli found herself and Froufrou in the void.
"Oh, wowie," said Kahli with a sigh. "Looks like something substantial is about to happen due to my outburst. So I guess I was barking up the right tree, huh, Froufrou?" She forced a small chuckle.
Froufrou let loose an unenthused squelch. She did agree with Kahli that something had been terribly wrong in the forest, but Kahli's delivery had been, among other things, a little embarrassing, even for such a putrid, squelchy creature as Froufrou.
Kahli looked down at her big left foot. It was time to see what scenarios were laying in wait for her.
"Here goes nothing."