The place we would arrive to is a large town called Rosamond that was filled with farmyards, vineyards, farmsteads, inns, and drinkers in all corners and alleyways. The wealthier of the people dressed in fine suits with top hats and fancy canes while the lowborn in simple peasant clothing that would be looked down by others. The farmers appeared to be quite laid back and there were bars where they drank with one another while the wealthy kept themselves secluded to their town halls. The town streets are filled with artists of all kind that drew various sorts of arts with poets and thinkers often socializing in small secluded establishments. There is a large oak tree in the center of the town and underneath it laid a large pool of water from where the locals seemed to get most of their water from. There were many banners throughout the town with the symbol of a golden eagle over a black background covered by roses. There are many hounds running throughout the city that greatly resemble German Shepherds.
“Over here…”, Paleskin remained silent for most of our journey and when she finally spoke is when we were in front of a large estate filled with many animals and vineyards filled with grand gardens for all that the eyes could see.
There were chunks of earth afloat in the skies above the estate from which poured water into her many lakes that moved throughout the property with many workers manning the fields. It was then that, suddenly and out of the blue, an old man fell down the stairs and several gooses chased after him that seemed to peck at him as Paleskin completely ignored him.
“Mistress Pharon.”, one of the farmers said and Paleskin turned towards him, staring at him without emotion like she always did. “Do you have any wool?”, she asked and the farmer replied. “Yes, ma’am, three bags full. One for my mistress, one for my dame, and one for the little boy who lives down the lane.”, he replied.
“Then make sure he gets his wool first before you get to mine and the dames.”, she ordered and he bowed his head. “Yes, ma’am, at once!”, he then rushed away immediately, running past me, without even giving me a look while the gooses kept pecking at the old man.
“That will teach you to never forget your prayer again, old man.”, said another farmer that kicked the old man on the ground and I approached about to confront him until Paleskin grabbed me, and we both exchanged brief looks with her shaking her head towards me, telling me to stop.
“So this is the visitor from beyond the stars.”, these words surprised me and then I turned as Paleskin’s hand still held me, and when I looked I saw a woman in red knelt in the field.
Beside her there was a white lamb that she was petting, rubbing and over all combing. It was marked with a red ribbon bowtie much like her handler that carried a farmer’s cane. “I have been expecting you for quite a while, Kirya Hennington.”, she revealed that she knew my name.
“Baa, Baa!”, the sheep fled with a few farmers with pitchforks emerging from the meadows. “If you are wondering, yes, your android has turned against you but not willingly, of course.”, said Mary. “I infused her with the soul of one my dead farmers and so I made use of what she knows. It wasn’t difficult for me to figure out she was a spy.”, explained Mary.
“In the past, we use to trade a lot of wine with your Empire through her and one day I had it followed, wondering who these mysterious customers of hers were. Then I saw it for my own eyes and it didn’t surprise me, of course, I always wondered where most of our technology came from.”, explained Mary and I stood there, dumbfounded for this was going south pretty quick.
“Do you like my garden?”, Mary asked. “Do you wonder how it grows with silver bells and cockle shells, and the pretty cowslips all in a row?”, it was a rather odd question for sure.
“The cuckolds sing while the pretty maids tend to the lady bells all in a row.”, Mary got up to stand on her feet and stared at me while I looked into the field where a farmer dug with his shovel and beside him stood another farmer that was in tears before they pushed the body of another into the hole where they proceeded to bury him.
“The undertakers gather the bodies of the dead and bury them deep beneath the earth in the end. They make for great fertilizer to the living that thirst for fine wine that can only be found here at the Bloodstone Estate.”, the way she said that made me realize she was truly unhinged. “You’re insane.”, and it didn’t take me long to voice my opinion to her even though I was clearly fucked.
“That may be so, but your kind does not belong to this world and yet you meddle with its affairs. So why do you think I will care for the opinions of an outsider?”, she grinned. “I will just add you to the collection along with all the rest.”, she then reached for a horn and looked at her watch that went ‘tick, tock’ before she said. “But tell you what…”, she smiled as she said.
“Let’s see what you got, I’ll give you a few seconds head start before I blow my horn and all is for naught.”, I then turned to my right to face Paleskin that stood there waiting along with the other farmers that stepped aside with their pitchforks and spear-drills.
“Tick, tock, tick, tock…”, said Mary. “Goes the clock and time is running out, I am afraid.”, she added and then I ran into the meadow down a steep cliff past the many farmers that tended the field who knew better then to raise their heads for they all knew Mary would have them killed.
It was then that I heard the sound of her horn sound in the distance as I ran one of the many scarecrows that were scattered all around the farm. Their heads rose and their heads turned to face me for they all seemed to growl and gnarl their teeth at me once the horn had sounded. In the air I heard the sound of jets as Paleskin rose to the skies with butterfly-like wings and her arms transforming into arm cannons that terrified me. They ran on all fours like malfhi with a tail that snarled and I ran into one of the barns where I saw three cages where there are appeared to be three malfhi hanging from large cages, each of them had their eyes wrapped in bloody clothing and their tails seemed to be missing. I turned to see the scarecrows running towards me and I kicked the large barn door open only for one of the scarecrows to hit it. When the door opened, I saw the scarecrow shake its head and leap up from the ground before I shut the door closed so hard yet again that she banged her head again. I then placed my back against the door.
“Fuck!”, I swore as the three blind elves from above laughed out loud and then I looked to a contraption where there was a rope-line tied to each of their cages.
The scarecrows banged on my doors and then one of their claws burst through the door along with the plenty of others that caused me to run only for a large scarecrow to kick both doors in as many malfhi emerged in. I ran to the rope-line and the big scarecrow, which looked at me with his blue eyes that seemed to be in tears, held his scythes firm with an evil smile on his face. I then slashed through all three of the rope-lines and the cages fell down while I was pulled upward while the scarecrows missed when they leaped towards me intending on snatching me. The three cages fell down and only one of the doors opened from which one of the malfhi emerged that landed onto the other cage door, destroying the lock with her jaws before her sister emerged and she attacked one of the scarecrows. The second malfhi then released the third one from her cage and all three attacked the scarecrows while many other scarecrows climbed the walls to chase after me. There were farmers up here that seemed to be on break and quickly moved away from the oncoming scarecrows that attacked me with their claws. I pulled out my sickles with both hands and slashed through their arms that didn’t even bleed blood. One of them then leaped over top off me and raised her claw about to kill me until I grabbed her neck with my right hand as a mechanism activated with a concealed blade emerging into the flesh of her neck. The scarecrow then quickly placed her claw back to her neck and her tail struck the floor after it was intended to strike me. I kicked it back and another grabbed my shoulder as it quickly dragged me away only for her to be attacked by one of the blind malfhi I had saved earlier. I then looked to see another scarecrow leap towards me and pulled out a pistol that shot her straight in the head as she rolled over and fell of the second floor to her death. I looked down to see the scarecrows scale the walls, ladders and ramps before I saw a window behind me where the three blind malfhi fended off more scarecrows. Knowing it was my only way out; I ran towards the window and jumped out. I’d rather die on my own accord then be eaten by the scarecrows and then I landed into a field of hay below. I quickly moved through it and then leaped down to the ground, touching myself and checking myself.
“Oh, thank god…”, I said to myself. “Oh, thank you god!”, I raised my arms to the sky thanking the heavens before a gunshot flew by me. “Oh, fuck me, god!”, I then ran as a group of cuckolds shot their pistols and rifles at me while giving chase on their horses.
“Look out!”, one of the riders yelled only for one of the malfhi that I freed to knock him off his course and bite his neck as she ripped into his flesh like an animal before another intended to gun him down only to be attacked by the second malfhi while the third came to assist her sisters.
It was then that all three of them turned their heads once they heard a sound of a rocket that flew in between them, exploding and setting of a large explosion that consumed them by the flame before Paleskin emerged from the smoke left behind. She flew over past me and her jetpack lit the fields of hay on fire in a large circle that became a ring of fire that prevented me from running away any further. She rose into the air, her arm cannons turned to her hands and with them she charged a huge sphere-like globe of light and fire that she unleashed towards me. I ran the opposite direction immediately as it seemed to chase after me. The sphere struck the ground and a huge explosion rose from the field that knocked me forward due to how powerful it was. It took me time to recover from the knockback and when I looked up, I saw her body disappearing like the similar to the arcane magi back at the bakery and re-appearing below while she was levitating in the air. She surrounded her body with a large sphere of light and six rockets moved from above her that were each aimed towards me, they seemed to be homing rockets and I did, indeed, sigh for I knew they were heating seeking rockets.
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“Oh, come on…”, I said to myself before the rockets launched and the android watched.
I ran on the side and dropped several miniature grenades that exploded which got the rockets to move towards their direction. The android noticed this and then proceeded to land on the ground as I charged up to it with its sickles and arm blade emerged from sleeve as our weapons met. She then raised her right leg so fast and kicked me so hard in the groin with her foot that I was sent flying back into the air, landing over the ground on my chest.
“Naomi Pharon…”, she said her name. “That is my name.”, she stated the obvious. “It is a name that I was born with and that I carried with me since my conception until it came to this planet.”, she looked at the palm of her right hand, implying heavily to me that she was referring to the android whose body she was now in possession off.
“Dame Bloodstone had me spy on it and unfortunately for me, it noticed that I did.”, she lowered her hand and looked down at me. “Clearly…”, I said as I gasped for air. “You were bad at your job.”, I replied, intending on taunting her and in my way spitting in her face.
“Yes… Yes, I was.”, she confessed. “And yet…”, she raised her other hand and gazed at the palm of her hand. “Fortunately for me, I have acquired a new body.”, she smiled and then turned her head to face me once more before lifting her right hand that charged with power.
“And unfortunately for you, your time has run out and you won’t be as fortunate as I for your life ends here.”, she smiled with an evil grin on her face until a malfhi landed on her arm, biting it with her claws and her mouth as the blast missed me and shot into the field behind me.
The malfhi that attacked her was on fire and kept biting into her flesh while Paleskin could not even believe it. She punched the malfhi in the head but then another malfhi landed over her back and bit her neck as she furiously yelled and impaled the elf with her blade into her shoulder. The third malfhi then ran towards the android that got kicked and flew over on the side as the three elves attacked her. I then saw the scarecrows stand behind the ring of fire, glaring and shouting at me in the distance, and whenever I turned I saw them waiting for me.
“Get off of me!”, Naomi shouted and used her jetpack to launch herself deep into the air, where she looked at me and raised her hand only for her to notice then that it was missing.
She looked down and saw one of the malfhi holding it in her mouth, biting it so hard that it split the hand in two pieces that fell over on the ground and Naomi was very angry and upset.
“You bitch!”, she shouted and rose up in the air, lifting her other hand that was intact until suddenly the TEC-9 struck her and sent her flying away much to my surprise.
The spaceship flew above ground and the three malfhi fled, each of them in opposite directions, and I ran towards the spaceship that dropped its retractable ladder that I jumped to grab and very successfully, dare might I add. The spaceship then moved faster into the skies and two hands reached down for me that grabbed me, pulling me up into the ship as the door closed behind me and the ship’s thrusters and jets propelled us deep into space. Mary, Mary, was quite the contrary of what I expected and so was the world itself that I now realized was far more dangerous than I could off ever known. I immediately made my way into the lounge where the jackal appeared to be along with Jack’ron Horner that was on deck. Drakwa made his way into the room.
“Oh, we made it just in time, las!”, shouted the dwarf. “We were lucky as we were. If it weren’t for that android and that ring of fire that she caused, we would have had a hard time getting you out of there in one piece without endangering our ship.”, he added and I couldn’t agree more.
“I thought the locals were unaware of us and yet, they’re pretty fucking aware of us it seems!”, I raised my voice and the dwarf shrugged his shoulders. “It wasn’t our fault. None of us could of have known, las, that it was possessed by another.”, explained the dwarf. “I know!”, I shouted.
“I know…”, I calmed down while placing both of my hands over the lounge table and the others gazed at me, noticing my pent up anger. “Wait…”, I said thoughtfully. “How did you know?”, I asked and the dwarf sighed. “Because I decided to watch over you, las.”, he replied.
“I wasn’t going to lose another crew member, not after last time…”, I turned around to face him. “What do you mean after last time? What has Thomas not told me about this mission that I do not know about?”, I asked the dwarf that raised his head and shook his head.
“Las, we barely know Thomas.”, said the dwarf. “And he barely knows us. Let’s just say that for some stupid reason, the Empyreal Council reassigns jobs to others whom they think will do better than the previous managers of that said job that they were assigned to. You are here by chance and we are here because we never managed to solve the mystery behind this planet. The android would usually communicate with us; inform us off the death of our comrades and every time shortly after they landed on the planet, they would die. I found it rather suspicious but the council believed the word of an android over our own.”, the dwarf explained and I sighed.
“I can finally return home with living proof that the android is no longer on our side.”, said the dwarf. “Now let us head home.”, he explained and turned towards the cockpit. “No.”, I replied and the dwarf turned, and the crew looked up towards me surprised at what I said.
“We complete the mission.”, I said much to the dwarf’s protest. “Las, everyone down on that planet is against us. Mary Bloodstone runs the town of Rosamond with a bloody iron grip. If we take you back down there, there is no telling what could happen and worse, you could die.”, he explained the gravity of the situation and I already understood the situation, so I felt unmoved.
“I know of the dangers that lie ahead, Drakwa, and the off chance that I might not return, but I won’t give up. I am going back down there and I will complete the mission. If you do not wish to stay or wish to head home, so be it, but only after you drop me off. Do you understand?”, the dwarf didn’t look happy to hear what I said and looked down, shaking his head.
“You got balls, las.”, said the dwarf. “I mean, not literally but you know what I mean.”, he added and several of the crew members nodded their head. “So does that mean you’re going to help me complete the mission or will you be returning home without me?”, I asked and the dwarf lifted his head, smiling at me an nodding his head at me repeatedly.
“Aye, aye, captain!”, he saluted along with the rest on board that seemed to be proud of me. “However…”, said the dwarf in thought. “We’ll have to scan the planet for a more isolated part of it, somewhere where you could land safe for the time being.”, he explained. “I agree.”, I said.
We would spend our time looking at a planetary globe where the dwarf and the crew explained to me the layout of the entire planet, where the towns and villages were after they studied it all. They marked all the hot points that were filled with danger in red and the unexplored regions as the blackened shadowy zones that they labeled as unknown to them. The Kingdom of Rosamond was in the center of the world with a large Oak Tree in the center that was gigantic in nature and whose roots spread across the entire planet, each world had their own world tree and this world was no different in that regard. The spaceship made its way to the far opposite side of the world, far away from the town of Rosamond, and into one of the unexplored regions of Teyvat. Meanwhile, on the planet, Mary Bloodstone was managing her own crew…
“So let me get this straight…”, said Mary that sat on her lamb. “You created a ring of fire because you wanted to trap our victim and because you wanted to set her on fire, and yet you failed because of three blind mice that attacked you and on top of that a spaceship that struck you?”, she questioned Naomi that was broken in two and that didn’t say a word for.
“No wonder the scarecrows wanted to tear you a part. You denied them their hunt.”, said Mary before she stood up and looked towards the moon, sighing at the stupidity of her comrade, and beside her stood the largest scarecrow of them all with two scythes held by his claws.
“You’re lucky it wasn’t me in the field. I would of killed you in an instant.”, she added.
“Oh, well, there’s nothing we can do about it now but wait on the cuckolds.”, she sighed. “The rest of you, get to work on reconstructing a new body. I need her back on the field as soon as possible.”, the scarecrows turned to face Naomi, who gulped for she knew they would be taking he a part first before the engineers would get back to repairing her and they were very angry.
The crew of the TEC-9 took me north-east the next day and lowered the hatch to drop me off on the planet that I was to investigate. This time I would be going in blind, as I should off from the very start, and Drakwa appeared to be worried f or my safety as he disembark the ship only momentarily to look at our surroundings.
“Look, las.”, the dwarf nudged his head towards a field of tall trees, brambles and thorns that seemed to spring up to the heavens. “Perhaps we should head somewhere else?”, he suggested and I shook my head. “No, this is perfect. My enemy will have problems finding me as equally as you will have finding me as well.”, I explained to the dwarf who stepped before me.
“But las, this time we won’t be able to reach out for you and get you out of there alive. This forest is too tall for us to brave!”, he explained. “Scout it.”, I ordered. “See if there is any gap, any opening, and if I should happen to find myself inside one of them, just let me know.”
The dwarf didn’t like my reply at all. He looked down and dragged his right hand through his hair, thinking about everything I was telling him to do and he was torn about it.
“Drakwa…”, I said his name and he looked up to my eyes. “Why is there a forest of tall trees, branches and thorns reaching to the heavens anyway? What are they hiding?”, I asked the dwarf who turned to the forest wondering what the forest hid, indeed.
“Well, las, we were sent here to explore this world and discover what happened to the Kingdom of Rosamond, and yet we never found a kingdom but a world of villagers and townsfolk.”, the dwarf explained. “So perhaps beyond that veil lies the Kingdom of Rosamond, our answer?”, I asked and the dwarf shrugged his shoulders and also nodded his head with hope.
“I hope so, las, I hope so. The sooner we get out of here, the better…”, he said and I nodded my head. “I shall head into the forest then. Keep your open and wait for my signal.”, the dwarf bowed his head in respect. “Of course, Lady Kirya.”, the dwarf waved his hand to those behind him and they all boarded the ship while I ventured deep into the dark ominous forest.
I swung at the tall thorns, the brambles and the branches. There were so many paths to choose from and what I failed to notice was a scarecrow on a hill overlooking us all. The malfhi’s head hung down while crows rested over her shoulders and whispered to her ear off my arrival. The scarecrow then raised its head and her bones cracked after many months of not moving. She looked pale compared to those at the Bloodstone Estate and she whispered to the crows that took wing while she fell off the wooden cross she was over. She reached for her scythes and many others nearby soon joined her for they would begin the hunt once more…