In a time before all, with only simple laws interacting with one another without any order, there was a being caring for a garden. Every flower was unique which made the scenery chaotic to look at. No order like the world this being lived in. This was something that brought them great sadness as their brothers and sisters were suffering for no fault of their own.
That being cried and cried as new life was made from their tears only to perish without taking their first breath. For the world was without order, nothing could survive. So, this being decided to create order by expanding its garden. Slowly, it became a lush garden with every variety of flowers such that they represented every law to ever exist. Every color, every shape, every smell, every texture, and every size.
Once everything was ready, the being started watering the garden with the tears it had accumulated since its birth and with this, existence truly began. But unbeknown to the gardener who had placed curses on its garden to stop the sprout of undesirable action, it was now dying slowly, for those curses also affected it. One such curse was to bring pain to the biggest source of unhappiness such that if a tyrannical flower was to bloom, it would be afflicted with unbound pain and die… But here was the gardener who was the one to introduce the flower of unhappiness in its garden. Being the cause was cursed, fell into a coma, and shattered like porcelain after hitting the ground heavily.
The creator was lost in their own creation while around its corpse new flora grew. Undesirable weeds, insects, and infections caused more chaos than ever as all that existed inside the garden fought to survive. This was the war of creation. Although many flowers died, they were reborn since the garden contained a law that stopped something from going extinct.
It took a while, but a strange harmony was created after the garden expanded many times. The scenery was breathtaking. Where there used to be upturned dirt was now a larger than normal Populus maximowiczii surrounded by a blue sea of Mertensia virginica. The blue flowers like bell-shaped lamps huddled together in homey houses of green leaves while above, the green canopy with hanging strips of white fur was protecting them from the heavy sun.
Not long before, this scenery was just a sea of red flowers all fighting one another, before it was just patches of dirt. Yet, they were all pushed back once the large tree first started to sprout. As time went by, more flowers managed to bloom after not always being under the constant red’s attack. The garden became plentiful with many colors all in harmony.
The patches of red flowers were molded into paths like a calm river that enraged them. They couldn’t do anything and so they changed and changed to find a form that could allow them to break free. Yet they couldn’t. In the end, their ruler decided to change into their foes, both in mind and in spirit, to infiltrate them. In an attempt to fake the death of this ruler, all the red flowers in this river of change shaped themselves into delicate spider lilies.
Green Gale, represented by the blue flowers in nests of green, was destroyed by a little scribe they used to trust. They called them traitor while the red flowers called them hero… It was said later that the scribe drowned at sea after being filled with regret.
The one who defended Green Gale the longest was the adopted daughter of the Gale’s ruler. And here this legendary knight was, looking down at a suit of black armor. “Speak and explain yourself!” she said. Her long wheat-colored hair floating up by constant gusts of wind almost came close to reaching a sword floating above her head and aimed at the suit of armor.
And so, the armor responded while putting a knee on the ground, “356 people exactly. They were attacked by a powerful god west of here. They have suffered enough; I ask you to not interfere with them.”
“I neither have interest in them nor did I even know of their existence. Even if I was intent on burdening them, you, small knight, have nothing to offer me. Whether I interfere with them or not will depend on what kind of people those 356 are.”
“Miss Aria,” interrupted the old lady who pained to get back up. This shocked the knight to her core for this was her actual name which no one should know. The old lady opened her eyes, pitch black like the profound emptiness of space, and said slowly with her croaking voice, “We can insure the Gale rebirth. Up north, the Wind Whisperer still lives with all the stories it has amassed. So is in the east and the south, even below our feet your kingdom’s artifacts still wait. Your help is all we need and closer to your salvation you will be.”
The two other Devis who had come with her were confused at what the old lady was talking about. This had never been the plan and they knew nothing about the Gale and whatnot she was talking about. All the Devi and Deva who made a deal with the slumbering part of the knight were all slowly losing their power.
They were all scared because the long droughts that killed so many before were the first sign of universal dissolution. It was something they had never truly experienced but was spoken of extensively with the role they would play in this. Some trained all their life for this moment until an infectious idea came to them: what was the point of their current life?
This simple idea was like a spark on dry grass which soon evolved into a raging wildfire that couldn’t be stopped. Those Devi and Deva were all manifestations of a greater being yet were distinct and in control of their own life. They were all scared to lose their self after dissolution and thus rejected Paramatman (the universal self) since if they did accept the two as the same, they would be dissolved into Brahma, their creator.
One way they found to escape this fate was by corrupting who they were and keeping their self. This was the challenge of the Lord of Dreams which Paundraka failed. Thus, they needed the knight in front to sleep to keep their corruption. What was the point of reviving a gale of some kind instead of focusing on their survival? This was what the two Devis were thinking.
With all the libations and prayers they received, they had grown complacent and couldn’t accept where things were going. The giant suddenly tried to attack the old lady who didn’t move an inch.
“Sleep!” ordered the knight. The large Devi finally fell into a deep slumber which she couldn’t resist this time. The other Devi whose mount was a parrot transformed herself into a puddle of liquid that escaped into the ground. “Solidify!” a solid box of iron formed around the escaping liquid, entrapping her in a coffin.
A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.
The knight finally turned to the suit of armor and said to him, “Young man, I shall help you if you accept to deliver a message for me…”
“Say and I shall do.”
“Find the Wind Whisperer flying above the clouds and tell him the following:
Flying grove and past azure sky.
The song of our lord, the knight's request.
With autumn breezes: dirt to grow our feed,
recall the crying lord for their land bygone.
Sing once more the lord’s stanza which the knight forgets its rules.
If he refuses to listen, just tell him that I’ll butcher him and feed him to the Bear with some walnuts and a side of wild hares.”
“Anything else?” responded the armor after getting up on the dragon made of dreams.
“Yes… If you find anyone called Alice with black hair and blue eyes, kill them.” At this, the knight disappeared in a thick fog along with the old lady.
This order to kill made Alphonse shudder as he was against any form of violence. He looked at the horizon and caressed the head of his dragon which responded by letting out a soft snicker before taking flight into the reddish sky.
❀
Tsuki’s headache was made worse by Hoomaikai's panic screams after finding that everyone in sight was sleeping on the ground as if they were chiffon dolls thrown to the ground. The wounded girl suddenly squeaked upon tripping on Vergeltung’s pig which was sleeping in front of the carriage. The poor animal only wanted to escape the hungry look of people and found refuge where he was now sleeping as no one wanted to disturb the two girls inside.
Surprisingly, the pig didn’t even cry when Hoomaikai fell on him. Even if the impact wasn’t as heavy as to break a bone, it should have still hurt and bruised its skin.
“Maikai!” Tsuki sprung out of the carriage from the broken door and finally caught sight of the situation they were in. With everyone falling on the ground without any restraint because of the woken Lord of Dreams, some were there, barely breathing with their head bleeding. There was even someone that got impaled after falling from a carriage he was repairing: this one would never wake up from his dream…
Only the wind beckoned the trees to whisper with worry at the scene that had lost all its actors. The reddish sky and crackling leaves dancing amidst the cold air, the breathing and snoring like heaves of passing waves, and lastly the irradiant pain brought by Tsuki’s head thumping ever faster under the shock of the sudden situation: this was all that the girl had in mind.
“There!” said Hoomaikai who was pointing at something moving far away, next to someone sleeping. “Quick! There is something over there.”
Alambusha, the king of yellow, reacted to the wounded girl and dashed toward the thing that was moving. In the distance, the screams of the insane old man could be heard, “Onchú! Atapo-tapo-tapo-tapo. Onchú! Atapa-tapo-tapo-tapo…”
After some time, the large tiger came back while dragging the old man along the ground. Some violent lightning started manifesting around Hoomaikai as he was the last person she wanted to see. She was forced to listen to his non-stop rambling while helping Tsuki and the others escape Naraka.
“Was this you who did that!” screamed Hoomaikai who was getting ready to attack the poor old man. “Your rambling finally cursed everyone or what!?” She was unreasonably angry and became enraged after finding he wasn’t looking at her.
He whispered in fear, “Bánánach…” before something big caused the ground to tremble from behind the carriage. Tsuki, out of instinct tried to pull her glaive in the same movement that created her a dress of petals but the moment she tried to do anything else, someone unknown intercepted her by grabbing the back of her neck and putting a dagger on her back.
A deep voice then whispered into her ear, “Just woken up and ready to kill an innocent man. I like that! But least, let him save the drowning child foremost. Then break the sod's neck as I ought to yours.”
Tsuki was paralyzed by fear of whoever was holding her. He was genuinely angry at her. Quickly, she changed into a bird of petals to get away from him and get closer to Hoomaikai. All the while, Alambusha dropped the old man to try and go around the stranger.
“Ho my, look at that little fancy kid we have there. Had to make it all cute. Nice job. Nice job,” said the man.
Now that Tsuki was away from him, she was able to see what he looked like and didn’t recognize him from the survivor. He was burly and completely hairless. His skin was tan and mixed well with the chapan, a quilted robe he was wearing which displayed an unusual depiction of leopards using masonry tools. On his head was a tupeteika with embroidered burning leaves, a small cylindrical hat with a pointy end. More surprising were the man’s ears which were as long as Tsuki’s forearm.
He looked similar, yet with more defined characteristics, to the drawing of Yassil Tsuki found in the abandoned house, when the sky was turned to a mass of gnarly maws. The one in front of her was an elf no doubt.
Yet, the one thing that was more frightening was the giant behind him. It looked down upon them with red eyes incrusted into a goat’s head of which many horns came out in spiraling fashion. With a coat of fur as black as night, the creature was frightening.
“That? Call him Boby,” said the elf mockingly. “Mine’s Sher-Dor. No No No. Don’t tell yours. I don’t care. Just tell me why you are so keen on drawing blood on this wonderful afternoon~”
Hoomaikai who noticed Tsuki was in no condition to talk with her headache trying to split her skull open, said while producing a shield of lighting, “You, are you the one behind all this?”
With the question asked, the man tilted his head as if pondering about something until a flash of insight came across him. “Ah! Did you lass really think it was grandpa, the all-powerful, who made this mess? No, nut brain! That was way over yonder by who knows who!” The elf then started laughing exaggeratedly and even went so far as to roll on the ground.
The man didn’t seem to care much and didn’t even react when Alambusha jumped at him from atop a carriage. He simply produced a fiery lance that pierced the beast along with multiple trees in a line which all caught on fire moments later.
The tiger returned back to Tsuki’s arm in the form of damaged petals. Then came the old man. He placed himself in front of the two girls with his arms outreached as if trying to protect them. Just standing like that was difficult for him.
The elf looked at him for a long time before getting disinterested and left. “Whatever. Go help the wounded or do whatever, I don’t care. I’m just following Boby around. He was all excited about whatever this is. Ha, whatever. I’ll see if I can wake them up.” With this, he was gone as quickly as he came. As for the old man, he began tugging on Tsuki’s dress so she would follow him. In the end, the old man was really just helping someone that was drowning, but now it was all too late…
*
Gupta’s report of the week.
Continuing his exploration, Gupta found a deposit of salt along a cave wall. Using a rock, he obtained some low-quality salt.
Using the salt against the crying sludge seems to affect them. Gupta is now using lines of salt to divide corridors and block anything dangerous from attacking him while he is working.
By using improvised tolls, Gupta was able to reach a medical cabinet and use some herbs inside to disinfect his wound. While he was doing so, something tried to get inside the room he was in but left after touching the salt. It was a large creature constantly producing small crying sludge from a hole in its chest.
Mission: reach the medical wing and make it usable. (new) create a defense against monsters.
Resources needed: 50 units of wood. Lockpicking tools.
Research: (55->65)% sludge. 5% walls (paused).
Map explored: (5 ->8)%