Mironov Arc
Chapter 1 – Island Of Eden
*******
The rebirth of our master – it’s a blessing and a curse. A blessing that he’s back, but a curse at that. A curse of embarrassment.
Until now, we’ve done nothing but mess up.
The whole island started moving. Our places of residence were destroyed. The places master himself built, for us. We didn’t even think about taking precaution against such things.
That is unacceptable…
But… But master never said a thing about it. Neither was he mad, upset or anything like that. The most troubling thing for him was probably that we, his lowest servants, were walking on the same ground.
It was probably for that reason he gave us a place of residence, even if they could be considered royal quarters. Again, an embarrassment that there’s no place for us to be put other than there.
We still try, I believe we do. We, the maids do our jobs to the utmost. The amount of effort that is being put in now is so high that what we previously did could be considered basically nothing. Though the actual difference in the end is not that large.
No, such thoughts are not allowed. We must try even harder, work to the bone. It is our purpose after all. Personally I am sad that we don’t get ordered more, but that’s not something we could just ask.
Some places are so high though. So high I can’t even reach. If only I had wings of sorts…
Currently, me and the others are cleaning. Two days have passed since the arrival of master, his resurrection or just him deciding to come back. No one truly knows, at least the grunts don’t. We should be happy with just his arrival.
Since our previous homes were trashed, we have been given permission to use the quarters below, the quarters of the large gem, the heart of the tree of life. At least that’s what we call it, though in all actuality no one is sure what it really is.
The rooms we were given are pretty large compared to the bunk beds we previously had. I heard even master was sometimes using these rooms. I am still unsure if we should actually use these…
Some of the simple residents on masters’ land were given even better rooms, after we pushed it at least. In a way, we pushed all the embarrassment on to them. I feel a little bit bad, but at least their children are quite lively. How could they not be?
I overheard from one of the elites that we’re actually moving towards some land now. I hope it’s worthy of being a place of disembark.
I don’t truly know how the tree works, but I guess it picks soil off wherever it feels like doing it.
*hahh…* I need to focus on my work more. While the elite ones aren’t exactly doing much of the physical labor, they’re probably brainstorming just like me right now, they’re probably brainstorming a lot more than me right now. I mean, even being near master feels nauseating.
Not in a bad way of course. The mere sight is both awe-inspiring and horrifying. From afar, if not for masters’ head, (I think?), he would resemble a really tall human. Just a really dark one. No, no, what am I saying. Humans are far, far bellow. Guess I can say humanoid.
Whenever I get a little bit closer, as awkward as it may be, I can see tiny sparks of bright yellow in between the mashed up vines of wood. It truly is beautiful.
For the last entry, I guess… I got scolded a lot today, but I don’t truly regret anything. I would probably be able to die happy right now.
I got to thank master. Though I forced it unbelievably so… It truly is hard to get close, even getting close to the elites is quite hard. Not that I’ve ever actually did, just that even the head maid fidgets so much whenever she reports something to Torch, who is the head of the elites. I truly felt how she must feel every time she does that, though… I did something even more amazing.
How master reacted was truly amazing… I’m… thankful… Even as much as I was, or should’ve been before… Now…
But… I hope I wasn’t being a nuisance. If I was, I hope to have my head severed right now. Though I do have defensive scales all over my body, it should be nothing for the common soldiers, there’s no need to talk about the elites.
While I am happy of what I did, it also brought a large amount of concerns, but those aren’t really necessary to write down, as they’re kind of self-explanatory.
Let’s see… Let’s… see… What else… Hmm… I guess…
Master also has a book. He seems to keep around him right now, but I wonder if it will be some sort of an idol in the near future. The ceremony seemed to work this time, since lord Borrors brought it by the looks of things. Maybe it’s a diary like mine… Maybe a spell book of sorts? Or maybe… There’s countless possibilities actually, so let’s leave it at that, before I think of something I shouldn’t.
Well, the head maid is going to bring me to Torch probably to offer an apology, she is like that. While she should relax more… No, never mind. She does have it hard. But Torch does have the highest position, so probably Throna or Slosher again.
Speaking of Slosher, while he is a beautiful and quite confusing… man… or was he an incubus? He can’t compare much to master. Guess that’s simply the aura they have.
While I do hope to receive a punishment, I wonder how hard it will be. While death is acceptable, I still want to look at that mixture of emotion our master is. To serve him, to say the least.
Well, I’m going to have some rest, on this magnificent bed. I am enjoying it, but I still want to have my bunk bed back, it was easier to actually sleep on it, no matter how little of sleep we actually need.
Diary entry, 3rd night since masters rebirth.
*******
Mironov sat in the throne, although his expression cannot be read, he still looked perturbed. 12 creatures surrounded him, in groups of 3. The oddity in one of the groups would be the box, though everyone was an oddity in any case.
The group in front of him had two women and a flame. If just looked at the faces of the women, they could easily be called twins, though their clothing was heaven and earth. One was wearing brown garbs, completely covering her, except for the face and the other had a more revealing red dress.
As for the flame, it was a mixture of blue, black, red and yellow colors, with tiny visible black beads for eyes. Its form was that of a perfect water drop, round and squishy looking. The only thing that made it a flame was the constant waving and the heat that radiated from it though that heat was not too much.
“Welcome back, dear Master.” The flame spoke. More accurately, it let out a sound, seemingly from its eyes.
Mironov just sat there, silently and looked over them. Some looked confused, some looked nervous. One of them, a, simply put, handsome man jolted a bit as if electrified and then just bowed deeply. The others looked at one another in a confused manner and did the same.
“N-no need, raise your heads.” Mironov motioned his hand upwards, signaling for them to rise. “I… am thankful. But may I know…” He raised his wooden hand to a protrusion on his substitute for a head, as though covering his mouth and looking thoughtful. Everyone just looked at him like curious children, silently staring.
Their master looked thoughtful for quite a long time. Simply a bit too long. So long that it started turning awkward and each one of them was uncomfortable.
The woman in front, wearing the red dress spoke:
“Master Mironov, may I speak?” Her angelic voice spread through the area.
Said master motioned with his hand, in an implication of allowing her to speak.
“I think Master simply wants an explanation of the current situation…” She looked nervous for a little bit until speaking up again. “Torch, you are the most informed out of all of us, may you go on ahead?”
The flame seemed to flash up a bit, as if it was waiting for this. “May I?”
Mironov looked confused, but motioned with his hand again. If all of this were to be sped up, it would look as if he was trying to swat a fly.
Torches’ explanation went on for a while.
He explained how, for an undefined amount of time, master was missing. No longer did he visit them, but none of them suspected anything, since this wasn’t a very rare occurrence.
But slowly, they started to feel it, the fact that they would no longer be visited.
They were disturbed. None of them knew what to do. Torch went through several hours, days, years’ worth of books until he found something. Most of the books were about reincarnation, resurrection, teleportation and so on. But none of them had anything that would seemingly work.
After quite a bit of time, Torch felt despaired. None of his research bore any fruit or anything remotely close to that. Days went by, until Borors made a simple suggestion – sacrifice.
Some of the servants knew blood magic which combined with resurrection magic would have chances of success. Torch was quite reluctant at first, but majority vote ruled over his reluctance.
Thus they experimented, time and time again. They used many different methods of resurrection, but not blood magic, since the amount of blood they used was massive, other ways would be completely impossible due to physical conditions, even in manipulated space.
Everyone was starting to lose any kind of expectation. While they still attended the experiments, the rituals, enthusiasm was fainting bit by bit.
They tried this many times and everyone started losing more and more expectation, until it finally happened.
Torch, the flame, explained this like he was reading a book, bit by bit. Though it was quite detailed, it was extremely bland, as though Torch was the said piece of text.
“And thus we’re here. Sorry, but I am unable to explain how the Tree of life is moving or why, but I feel like it sensed that it is time to move forward, now that master is back.” Every one of the creatures nodded, accepting those words, except for Box of course. This was how they truly felt inside their hearts, though some may not have wanted to admit it.
“Good. Thank you…”
*******
Mironov stood in front of the giant jewels opened doors. He looked onward, to the blue horizon which looked like it would never end. While there should’ve been a road going ahead, there was none. It was a ledge which just like a reef would kill you if you fell, so would this, most likely. He stood there with Throna and her counterpart on each side of his, the wind blew strongly past them, but Thronas garbs didn’t flutter in any way unlike the other womans.
Everyone else seemingly had a job to do, thus they were not present.
He looked onwards, towards the ocean, or perhaps it was a sea? None could actually affirm this fact. His face hid any readable emotion, but sometimes air would escape from the protrusion in his head. Perhaps he was nostalgic? Disturbed? Depressed? Or simply tired? Maybe… Maybe not.
Looking onwards, he raised his wooden hand. The wood lacked bark, it was mashed up and weaved like rope.
Ah… It truly is an annoyance…
He let his arm go, into the feral wind around him. The wood around the arm thinned out, as though withering, and scattered in the air like ashes. What was left was yellow hot metal like veins, which bent in many ways where the wood had previously been.
With another flutter of wind, the wood around the arm rebuilt itself.
What the hell is going on! I feel like I’m going to vomit at any time for the last two days. It’s like my stomach is turning inside out, even though I don’t have it!
The arm was now fully rebuilt and Mironov gnashed it into a fist which looked like simple thump.
Things I remember, things I don’t. It’s like they’re the same. I even think about things I don’t understand the meaning of!
The two beauties beside him just looked at him before turning their heads back to the front. While they must be prepared and do their duty even if not directly ordered, they can’t read minds or thoughts, especially that of their master.
Let’s recall things: name – Mironov, correct; position – master, debatable; race – Ent, false; situation – unknown, correct; I can’t understand what is going on… I need a distraction or else I might come off as weird…
“Let’s go back, I’ve witnessed enough.” Mironov turned back through the door and proceeded back inside the building.
The two women just looked to one another and nodded in agreement.
“Perhaps we should visit Meya? Though she was rude not to come to the main event, I think we will get a better view from the area she’s at.” The two of them looked at him with pleading eyes and he just raised the arm that restructured itself, to his imaginary chin.
“I suppose. Don’t think there’s anything to do at the moment anyways.” He let his hand go and motioned for them to show the way. “While I do recall the area, you’ve done some… remodeling.”
The two of them just panicked and kneeled in place.
“T-there’s no n-…”
“We thank you and we’re sorry… While thinking of efficiency we did not think of your personal feeling towards such… events.” The one to answer was Thronas counterpart and if not for the drastic appearance their voices would be completely the same.
Pfff… I was thinking about efficiency! But there’s so many of you I couldn’t handle everything by myself, I had other things to do as well!.. Of course I can’t say this to them… But did I actually have anything better to do? I can’t remember… And… it’s hard to take this seriously for whatever reason…
“*hah*, it’s alright. Let’s go find Meya.”
They walked onwards. Mironov looked troubled. Just like he said, they should lead the way, but it looked like they were just walking to an unknown destination because Mironov was still in the front.
I told them to lead the way… Whatever, I can recall the way there, even if it’s ever so slightly… But this feeling, like an itch…
*******
Mironov, Throna and her sister walked through the large hall of the gem building, wrapped in the enormous trees roots.
To either side, left or right, maids could be seen diligently working, cleaning the innards of the place, bit by bit. The work simply looked extremely tedious. While the cleaning seemed like it would never stop, not all maids were visible in the area, most likely due to the ones above them, but still below their master giving necessary orders.
How can they actually… While the thoughts of Mironov were conflicted, this wasn’t the first time he’d seen this. There’ll be a need to either recruit more maids or actually make use of all this space.
The three of them walked on through the long hall. For a couple of minutes, if not tens, until they reached a spiral staircase. The said staircase was without railings to hold on to or be used as simple means of security. It spanned sky high, that even from the side you wouldn’t be able to see the end of them.
For them, it wasn’t of any concern, at least not for Mironov as he began slithering up the said stairs. His feet spawned several tens of small needle sized hairs which were still strong enough to lift up his whole body.
On the time aspect it wasn’t a problem either. In all actuality, there should’ve been an easier way to reach the top, like flight or maybe even teleportation. But it wasn’t a problem because Mironov was brainstorming various things and the two ladies behind him didn’t have any right to complain.
Necessity for more maids. Use of all this space. Fixing all the problems that will occur once we arrive… And this… unease…
“I’m sorry master, but wouldn’t the use of our teleportation mirrors be more efficient?” The one to speak up was Thronas sister.
Of course it would be, but… I can’t actually tell them I need to put things together… “Yes, you are correct. But while correct, efficiency isn’t necessary rig-…”
“Sarah, efficiency isn’t the main goal right now. There’s need for master to think things through, to remember the feel of the place, of his… domain and of us.” Throna stuttered as she hid her face from sight by looking down, even though no one looked back at her and continued on without break.
“I-I-I am terribly sorry… To show such…” The gorgeous woman’s name was seemingly Sarah, who was flabbergasted and prepared to kneel on the spot but was interrupted by Mironovs wave of the hand, or branch, or whatever one could call it.
“*sigh*, it’s alright, let us just move on.”
*******
The three of them moved on in silence, for an exceedingly long amount of time. Hours passed and Mironov ran out of content to think about. While he did not reach conclusions or solutions to his thoughts or the problems that occurred to him, this amount of time was enough to tire anyone out, at least the brain.
They moved on like zombies, Mironov glancing back from time to time only to see an either delighted expression or a confused one, which confused him even more. But he paid it no heed and moved on with it, with new thoughts and problems in his mind, which were just repeats of the old ones.
I can still feel, this feeling… It’s like a gut feeling like at the top I’m going to unlock a piece of the puzzle, but I’ll have to find where to put it. Though it sure took a long amount of time till we finally reached it.
With those thoughts they arrived, finally.
Even if they arrived it still looked that they will have to go further since there was no one around. Though the place was nicely kept. On the branches of the tree grass grew which seemed to be cleanly cut. They moved onwards, the grass gently brushing the bottoms of their feet.
They started moving up a branch which seemed to have wooden stairs carved out. The sight was as though tree grew on tree and if one lived here they would most likely feel like living on a lush mountain.
Why does everything take so freaking long? Even the sun is coming down… While I’m not exhausted I’m still tired of walking the whole time.
The sun was indeed coming down and with that thought Mironov sat down on the soft green grass.
Let’s just stay here for a bi-…
“Shall we take a break, master?” Sarah asked. While Throna wasn’t particularly looking like she was exhausted, Sarah was, as her cheeks were hinting red. Or maybe not, maybe she was just flustered as she wasn’t able to see her master actions ahead of time.
“No, let’s just move forward.” Without any regard to them he stood up once again and proceeded moving through the grassed path. The thing to show that this was the right path was only the grass which was slightly more light colored than the rest and even that wasn’t really that clear of an indication.
The path was quite narrow for a while and they were unable to walk side by side yet again which seemed to annoy Throna. But all of them kept their composure, at least two of them as it’s not like Mironov had any definitive facial features.
They walked on and stopped. Seemingly it was the end of their long walk as the shallow grass was no more. There was a large area where they arrived after walking through the bridges of branches. It was completely covered in the same soft grass with a couple of trees and bushes decorating the area.
The main thing that actually seemed to catch their attention was the huge orb. It was made out of some sort of slime or simply very thick skin and had a face inside of it, a sleeping face which didn’t seem like it would wake up.
“What do we do now?” Mironov asked, completely confused on what to do. Waking it up would seem like the obvious choice but how would one do that?
“We wake her up of course, she’s being extremely rude right now.” With a swift answer Throna neared the giant ball and patted it. More like started pounding it.
The face inside the ball shook a bit and opened it giant eye revealing a completely black pupil. It looked around and yawned.
“Hello, why’d you wake me up?” Not noticing the elephant in the room the face asked Throna wetting its lips.
Although Throna looked like she would pop a vein right now she still kept her composure, Sarah was indifferent as though one would expect this turn of events.
“You’re being rude…” She angrily gnashed her teeth together.
The ball just looked around once more and finally noticed something. The thin skin split apart in the back and spilled goo on the ground. What came out, or more like fell out, was a thin small girl with slightly darker skin and pointy ears. Her current appearance would be that of a dark elf but two horns and a red gem on her forehead would say otherwise.
Apart from the fact that she was completely naked and had a flesh cord stuck to her belly and the giant ball, the only other ambiguity would be that her eyes were a bit narrower and made her have an aggressive look.
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With clumsy movement she lifted herself up from the grass and trotted towards Mironov and kneeled.
“Meya, overseer, at your service. Please excuse my behavior recently.” Not only did she have a childish body she also had a childish voice which made Mironov cringe inside after hearing that line. Of course, he couldn’t show that.
Instead of visibly cringing he hid a silent laugh which no one seemed to notice or pretended not to.
“How can anyone forgive your behavior? You were extremely rude and I think punishment is in order.” Throna aggressively started scolding her to which Meya had no comeback. If anything could explain this situation it would be a nun scolding a child for running around naked.
“I’ve slept for a long time and no one ever came to wake me up! Not once! And why is that?” Throna looked like she was hit in the heart by an arrow but still had a comeback.
“You’re the overseer! You should be able to notice abnormalities!” With that Meya kept her head down in her kneeling position and contemplated her inadequacies. “I do notice them…” She mumbled under her breath.
“Now, now. Let’s stop… Stand up Meya. There’s no need for punishment as I think I left something with you to guard.” Mironov gestured for the little girl to stand up.
“Uhmm…” She put her hand to her chin and proceeded to think while narrowing her eyes even further. “Ah! Yes, yes, just a second…”
The little girl went to the back of the ball with the cord trailing behind her and searched for something in the protrusion she came out of. Once she finally found what she was looking for she went to Mironov and presented it to him.
Mironov took it, nodded as a gesture of thanks.
“Let’s see what’s insi-…” Mironov immediately opened it and just like before, time stopped. The book was almost exactly the as the last one, at least the cover, though its contents were not. This time it had readable text and was actually understandable that anyone who knows how to read could understand it.
A guide?
*******
I will be your guide…
Time froze around Mironov, at least that was the case for him, nothing moved even by an inch. The leaves that were rustling stopped, the quarrelling between the other two also stopped. Everything just stopped.
For Mironov that is. The others felt time normally, were still quarrelling and the leaves were still rustling. The only problem would be, Mironov.
He stood completely still, like a rock. His veins no longer glowed the orangey gold and the wood that held those veins grew even darker. But for the others, this event was a second time occurrence and simply written off as something that’s normal.
“This happened again.” Throna exclaimed, hinting a tiny bit annoyance, most likely at her inability to understand the situation. “What are these books exactly? Meya?” Instead of looking at Mironov she turned towards the nude child which seemed to be completely comfortable in her state even though the winds were pretty cold.
“I dunno…” Meya just shrugged innocently. “Seem like normal books to me. Maybe magic ones of sorts, but I have read several of them, or at least similar to this one.” She gawked at Mironov with her mouth slightly open and tried to figure out the real answer to the question.
“You read them? Master’s books?..” Throna lowered her head a bit to hide her, most likely, angry face.
“Yeah! I had them stored away for a bit, but I noticed them again and decided to read them again.“ She continued to examine Mironov’s current state. “Though nothing like this happened to me, I don’t remember at least.”
Sarah put her hand on Thronas shoulder who jolted a bit from the contact. “You mean, nothing like this happened before?” Sarah inquired Meya.
“Nope, don’t think so… To me…”
After Throna woke up from her tantrum they all continued to examine the stone-like Mironov.
But all that didn’t last long as a sound of meowing and two thuds came behind Meya who looked back twice to understand what was going on.
A little ball of fur just growled at the place from which Meya came out of. It started tip tapping towards the edge at a pretty slow pace and seemed like it just wanted to look around.
Meya rushed towards the fur-ball but tangled her legs in between the fleshy cord which came out of her belly.
“Gnar!” Meya yelled at the ball which turned around and started tip tapping towards her at a faster pace than before. Once it got close it jumped on Meya’s head with its paws and started lightly gnawing on her horns with its teeth. “Stop that Gnar! It hurts! Ow, ow…”
A shadow was cast over both Meya and Gnar. Both of them turned around to see Throna and Sarah standing before them looking a bit baffled. “What is that?” Throna pointed at the excess hair on top of Meya’s head.
“It’s Gnar! Ow, ow, stop that!” She tried swatting the thing off her head but it wouldn’t let go.
“I kind of like it already, but what is it exactly and how did it get here?” While looking a bit happy she still asked her firmly.
“It’s Gnar. I don’t know what he’s supposed to be, a cat or something but he bites like crazy. Get off me! Ouch!” The more Meya tried taking Gnar off her head the more he bit.
“A pet then.” Sarah blurted out. Though it was but an accident no one paid any heed to that comment and simply accepted it as is. “Then what is that?” She asked and pointed towards the edge of the plateau where a small silk ball was rolling.
“Zicks!” Meya tried standing up again but Gnar just gnashed even stronger. “Gnar! Stop! Ahhh!” She didn’t even manage to stand up properly in time as the ball rolled over the edge and fell. “Nooo!”
Meya threw the fur ball off of her head and rushed towards the edge only to see a tall figure shoot over her head.
The figure then dropped and grabbed on to the edge of the plateau near Meya with its razor sharp talons, slightly embedding into the ground.
It fluttered majestically with the wind and leaned down to Meya. “Hello young miss, you seem to have dropped something.” It was Smol, but with a different mask this time, that of a teddy bear. He handed the egg to Meya who snatched it instantaneously.
“Zicks! You’re safe, my soft little…” Before she could fully enjoy the silky feeling of the egg, she felt Gnar gnawing at her small horns yet again, but was merely interrupted and paid it less heed than previously as though realizing something. “This might be a good way to keep them from running around.”
The two women behind her just sighed and turned towards Smol.
“Another pet… Anyways, this is the first time I see you with that mask on, Smol.” The one to address him was Throna.
“Ah, yes! I thought this mask would be more appropriate for encounters with children. And it seems to be working! Looks how calm she is…” After exclaiming that very pompously, he was interrupted by a thudding which came from down below.
After basically breaking his neck he could see a little girl with an orange ball of fur on her head holding an another ball of silk pouting. “I’m not a child!” The girl exclaims kicking him again.
“You sure act like one…” The one to comment on that was surprisingly Sarah while Throna was just chuckling while hiding inside her hood.
Meya turned towards Sarah with eyes that were just about to spill tears but she paid her no heed and proceeded to question Smol. “Anyways, why are you here? I think Master has already put everyone to work.”
“Not that many of us were really put to work…” He mumbled while scratching his head. “More like put on standby…”
“Standby or not, isn’t that what you should be doing? Are you disobeying orders?” This time even Throna tilted her head up to look at Smol who is about to give his excuse.
“Well even if we’re on standby, wouldn’t I be able to react even quicker if I am near? Well whatever! I am not disobeying! I am simply out on a stroll since I am already ready! Hah!” Smol basically shouted out this line, but after not getting anyone’s approval he started darting from face to face looking for acceptance.
“*sigh*… Well whatever. I am sure Master did that simply because we’re not taking any serious actions yet. Still… I am going to report about you to hi-…” Sarah who was still scolding Smol noticed that he no longer paid attention and was just looking past her, towards Mironov.
“Why is that happening?” Smol pointed at him with his extensively long arm.
“What is?!” Throna asked him panickily.
“That! That mana drain! It’s beyond insane!” Before starting to panic just like Throna, he fixed his composure, lowered his head, took off his mask and magically a new one, a doctors’ mask, appeared which he put on. “I forgot you cannot read mana flows.”
Smol and everyone with him approached Mironov. “Hey! Hey! What’s going on?!” This time even Meya started to worry. “Shut up you little brat! Let Smol investigate this!” The one to throw a fit was Throna who just staring at Mironov with eyes filled with disbelief.
“It’s not really that hard to… Nevermind! Bring him directly to the nursery room and swiftly, but do not use teleportation as that will drain even more of his graces mana. Don’t detach the book as well, I can’t comprehend what it is…” After examining Mironov with his sharp fingers by simply slightly trailing one of the wooden fingers, he rubbed a ring which was on one of his own fingers and disappeared.
“Sarah! Quickly, but gently!” Both of the womanly beauties extended their hands and some sort of flow bit off a chunk of the earth where Mironov was standing and raised him up slightly, but extremely steadily. He was soon enveloped in that flow and thus they began to move faster going towards the edge of the plateau and descending straight down.
“Eh?” The only one left was Meya with the ball of silk in her hand and Gnar biting her horns ever so slightly less than previously. She was simply baffled at being unable to comprehend what was going on.
*******
Nothingness. Nothing was inside Mironov’s head except for his own body floating in a pitch void.
He knew this. This is where he once came from. Nothing is here, that is simply how things should be.
And yet, he could feel that his forehead was being lightly tapped. *tap* *tap* *tap*.
He chose to ignore it for but a moment and focus on his surroundings. He felt nothing, just as it should be. But then what is this tapping? As though someone was poking him with a finger without a break.
*tap* *tap* *tap* *tap* *tap*.
He could feel that nothing was there, yet this tapping…
He tried opening his eyes, knowing full well that nothing would happen, as there is nothing here that his eyes could perceive. No objects, no light, not even mana.
But as he opened his eyes and focused to his fullest extent he could see smoke in humanoid form floating in front of him. Floating and tapping his forehead.
Though his body existed in that world, it did not in this one, or at least it shouldn’t have been. But he still shook off the smoky finger which was tapping him even now.
“Hello. Are you awake?” A sort of melodic, nostalgic voice rung out in the nothingness. It was clearly coming from the smoke figure, but was still incomprehensible why it did so, why it was even here.
“How? Am I back?” Mironov asked, neither bewildered nor confused, just a neutral voice, without emotion.
“You could say that in a way, yes, you’re back where you came from.”
“Uhm… How?” No emotion. While he was confused, his voice didn’t let that emotion show. No, he was simply repeating the question.
“The book. Anything else?”
“Why?” Mironov asked, completely puzzled.
“To reshape you.” In that instant, Mironovs wooden body started bending, gnashing and gnawing at itself, just like it did when he first came out, seemingly becoming smaller and smaller as though reverting to a childlike state. Except this time it was seemingly a lot more painful, because his face couldn’t hide the emotion of pain, but no sound came out.
“No more questions? You can think freely, I’ll just read your thoughts anyways, as a method of communication, hehe.” While Mironov was slowly writhing in pain, the smoky figure didn’t seem to give any concern for that matter. “Well then I’ll ask for you: Why? Simply because you’re nothing now, and that’s unacceptable. You’re simply static, without whims, without happiness, without regrets, though you didn’t have the time to have any. Still, I can see that will never happen, ‘cause I am You and You are me.”
Mironovs body finally stopped morphing and he was simply laying there as though dead.
“How do you feel? You don’t need to answer-…”
“IT fucking hurts!” His body was now considerably smaller and thus his voice was also a lot thinner.
“Yes, I know. But don’t worry, I doubt you’ll feel such pain out there, at least physical one.”
Mironov took deep breaths in and out without even trying to lift himself up.
“Hah… Hah… Hah… What is it that you want from me?!” He shouted out to him, as though throwing a tantrum.
“Hmph. That’s much bette-…”
“Answer me dammit!”
“Nothing, nothing. Relax. You just be you. Your objective will be to… hmm… simply move forward I guess. There’s nothing I really need of you.” The smoke just floated above Mironov, without moving much, which seemed to irritate Mironov even more.
“Liar… Liar!”
“Pffff… Hahaha! Now that’s hilarious. Good… Good. Ahh… No really, I’ve got no reason to lie, but whatever. Now let’s see… You don’t really know much about anything. You know their names, but none of their origins, nothing. You don’t even know what or who you really are.” While the conversation conveyed feeling, the figures body movements did not. “Guess, we’ll just have to make you something. Hmm, I’ve got some memories which I’ll happily donate? Implant? Well whatever, but you’ll need a flaw to be different from me.... Hmm…”
“Stop! I know what and who I am, there’s no need, please…” Mironov conveyed his pleading feelings with a voice which seemed almost crying.
“There is need. I should be sorry, because whatever you felt up till know will practically disappear, whether that’s a good or bad thing, but that’s not what you were supposed to be. We’ll start fresh, at least not rotten, haha!”
“What is it that will I need to do?”
“Nothing, just move forward! Explore! Be who and what you want to be! There’s no need to restrict yourself to the Island, actually you’ll need to go out or else you’ll go insane and my work will be wasted… Hah… I suppose that’s not much of a problem though because it isn’t going to be my problem anymore.”
The figure went silent for a bit to recollect itself, just like Mironov, whose now smaller and slightly round wooden body was lifting itself up, or at least trying to raise its head.
“Anyways, go now, they’re calling. And if you still don’t know what to do find another book, I’ll be your guide. Though the pain will be a thousand times stronger, huhu…”
With those words the smoke disappeared and in its place a small crevice of white light appeared.
Mironov laid there for a couple more minutes before recollecting himself and slowly raising his body up, though recollecting himself mentally was even more of an effort.
He stretched out, his limbs were not so small as he thought them to be previously, they were simply… carved, like that of a statue. While there were bumps and cracks on them it simply looked like that was left on purpose to add a feel of realism that that is him. At least that’s how Mironov himself felt, but to someone not used to such a phantasmal form it would look like a wood golem made by a genius.
…I feel just tired now, though damn it that was quite embarrassing. It feels like I just need to take a nap… Haaah… I’m so confused, what the hell was that… Guess I’ll leave it for later, now I… *sigh* must get to a bed or something.
Mironov got used to his body once again, inspected all the different qualities it now had, yawned twice, stretched himself yet again and proceeded towards the crevice of light.
That light was clearly the exit, but as Mironov moved towards it the smaller and more distant it became.
He started running, seemingly catching up to it and he got closer slight whimpers were heard, but he paid them no heed and moved towards even quicker than before.
There was only the sound of his legs tapping against the dark non-existent ground as he ran and when he finally reached and reached out for that small light everything turned white for an instant and quickly faded back into reality which left Mironov confused yet again.
*******
Mironov laid on a table in a white lit room. Everything was white and clean beyond one would be able to imagine. Specks of dust, marks of filth no matter how small were non-existent, only tables, racks and shiny tools with extremely precise alignment were placed on them. This was the perfect operation room.
Because this was the perfect room for a doctor to work the tools were also simply perfect. Some of them didn’t even have names as they were shaped in weird ways and made out of even weirder material though still contained their shiny clean feel.
Smol, Throna and Sarah were in the room. Well, Throna and Sarah were so close to the exit that may as well be outside of it, while Smol silently inspected Mironovs body which was rapidly grinding itself together in weird unexplainable ways without touching it.
While the tools were numerous and clean they gave off a lonely feel of never being used.
“I dislike this room…” Smol silently muttered under his beaked doctors mask which he seemingly changed every possible occasion.
“Is something wrong?!” Throna yelled out at him, looking flushed and confused as she raised up her dark brown hood while raising her head.
“Shhh… Do not yell. Nothing and everything is wrong at the same time.” Smol answered calmly while changing position to look at Mironov from a different angle.
“What?!.. What do you mean?” Throna yelped out again but was quickly silenced by Sarah next to her by a swift punch to Thronas shoulder.
After giving a long sigh Smol straightened himself out and answered: “Nothing as in the mana reserves will never deplete and everything as in they’re simply none existent so I’m just confused right now… Very confused… The walls are already storing the leaking mana in reserves. But… Well anyways, I’ll just show you.” Smol lightly clapped his thin palms together and the white lights instantly turned into dark ones. It was not that there was no more light, it was simply a dark type of light.
While the surroundings changed completely that wasn’t what was weird, it was the waves of red light mixing within the dark ones.
“While the mana doesn’t eliminate the shadow lights these waves are-…”
“Beautiful…” Sarah whispered in awe, though it was silent it completely negated Smols voice.
“Yes, both beautiful and massive. While Master doesn’t require mana in any way he still uses a different sort of energy, which cannot be seen or monitored, but this… isn’t him.” Smol said this with a slightly mournful voice.
“What?! What do you mean?!” Throna lashed out in anger and this time Sarah didn’t even try to silence her.
“Silence… I said it isn’t him, but maybe Master is simply unconsciously converting all his energy into mana to stave off some sort of negative effects, like a biological defense… Just shut up and wait… I don’t know…” While Smols voice was being muffled by the mask it conveyed slight anger, ever so slight, but it still made Throna and Sarah listen to his commands, even if they never truly had to.
“I don’t know… I don’t know… I don’t know…” Smol just repeated the same sentence over and over again standing completely still and just looking at Mironovs body.
The red lights slowly disappeared which brought Smol back to his senses who started examining Mironov yet again. Once they disappeared the room was filled black, and lights had to be switched back to white or else he couldn’t see anything.
Smol clapped his hands yet again and found Mironov sitting on the table. For a moment he was just sitting there not doing anything but then turned his head towards Smol looking at him without breaking contact. After even that bit of contact Smol started shaking ever so slightly, as well as Throna and Sarah, which seemed like they would collapse at any given moment, but Mironov looked away from Smol and shook his head, coming back to his senses.
His face was now more orderly, though cracks were still replacements for his eyes and mouth, it had a different feel to it. So was his whole body, it was more even, as though all the moss which was previously there was simply carefully brushed off.
“Sorry… Guess I took a nap.” Mironov said somberly as though sad that he woke up.
Sarah and Throna were just jittery, not knowing what to do, while Smol immediately knelt in place. “I-I-I am terribly sorry for not knowing what to do. But as r-rude as I may be I request immediate punishment. My inabilities may have caused something i-irreversible! Thus I beg for punishment! Anything will do!” His voice shaking through the muffled mask made it seem like he collapse crying at any given moment.
“It’s fine. It’s nothing. Something happened which I didn’t even understand, so don’t worry about. Now rise.” Mironov answered him calmly while inspecting his arms.
“Please! I beg of you! This embarrassment cannot go unpunished!”
“I said it’s fine! Now rise! It’s not embarrassing that something like this happened. If you’re going to be stuck up about it, the punishment can be the embarrassment.” For the first time they saw their Masters anger, as slight as it was, which had an immediate effect.
“M-may I speak?” Sarah inquired with worry in her voice.
“Go ahead.” Mironov still sat on the table while feeling his whole body with his fingertips, or branches?
“It’s not just Smols fault, we’re also at fault. We didn’t even notice that something was wrong until Sm-…”
“I said shut up about it already!” Mironov shouted towards her and once he turned around he saw Sarah collapsed to her knees, her red dress slightly more red at a certain place. “*Sigh* It’s fine. Calm down... I’m sorry.” Mironov took a deep breath again. He got up from the table, went towards Sarah and lightly patted her head. ”Now heed this – none of you did anything wrong, so shut up about it. It wasn’t anything serious, you can call it me just taking a nap.”
“Y-yes…” Sarah stood up, still jittery, just like Throna, except the bottom of her red dress was sort of damper than before, but no one seemed to notice it.
“Alright, how long was I… asleep?”
“About 15 minutes.” Smol answered, seemingly calmer now.
“Huh? Why get so worried then?” Mironov looked over them, but realized that this would start unwanted chatter thus he continued. “Anyways, let’s go back. We should be approaching land soon.”
“B-but maybe Master should take a rest? I mean something like that isn’t worth much of your attention anyways.” Smol inquired, still worried about not being able to do anything previously.
“Damn it… I’m fine. Let’s just go back.”
“Understood…”
*****
They climbed the stairs to the high watch yet again. While it took some time it was definitely sooner than previously, probably they rushed their new ‘port’.
Once they got up there they found Meya sleeping in the middle of the soft grass field tightly holding a silk egg while some fur ball bit on her horns. It definitely hurt, but perhaps she used some sort of magic to negate the effects.
“Oh, right. I created these not long before… Weird how they haven’t grown even a bit.” Mironov inspected the critters and the girl laying on the ground in front of him. To the left of him and the others was a gigantic eye with closed eyelids, probably also sleeping. “Well whatever, let them rest.” It was starting to get dark, but even so, this kind of behavior would’ve been considered rude, especially since none of the elite creatures on the island required any sleep.
Mironov looked back at the ones behind him but they just straightened up even more and didn’t say anything to the bundle of rudeness in front of them, probably because of their previous blunder.
Mironov turned back towards the direction the island was headed and just sighed. Land was indeed close. But what would he do after reaching it? Explore?
Even if he could do that, a new problem seem to arise as a ghostly figure of a woman appeared behind them.
Her appearance was ghostly as in her skin was even paler than Throna’s. Other than that she wore a gleaming light blue and black dress decorated with many different kinds of red and white flowers. She also wore a
“U-u-uhm… If I may trouble you a b-bit…” Her soft, but beautiful voice stuttered while addressing Mironov.
“Ah, Tia. Yes, of course. What is it?” As Mironov turned to her Smol, Throna and Sarah moved out of the way in completely synchronized movements.
“Ah… uhm…” The ghostly Tia was definitely confused about the atmosphere but managed to speak up in the end. “S-S-Slosher h-has committed… t-t-t-treas-on.”
*******
After stuttering her way through explaining what actually happened, Mironov was just confused. He ordered everyone out except for Meya, even though Throna was silently protesting that she could offer some assistance, she still left quietly.
Hmm… I don’t really know what to think of this… This was Mironovs internal monologue. He hadn’t really done anything for anyone of his subordinates to commit treason but maybe that nothing was the problem itself.
On the other hand, after he ordered everyone to leave, Throna still left a very small fragment of herself. While Mironov had the general idea why this was done, he couldn’t really trust something that cannot be confirmed to be completely true. Spying, monitoring, or simply a fragment of herself so she could materialize quickly if called. The latter was the most probable of the three choices, but he still doubted himself.
Mironov found a nice sturdy edge to let his wooden legs sway from on the small plateau that was kind of Meyas playground, the only reason Meya was jittering all over the place now was probably because she was worried that her master would fall and injure himself, though that was simply impossible for him. But Mironov still considered a latter idea where she didn’t really want to stay in one place with him for long.
Mironov put his elbows on his knees and rested his chin on his arm while thinking.
Watching things from Meyas point of view, the reason she was restless was most likely because Gnar was silently creeping up to Mironov and she was confused if she should snatch him or smack him. None of the elites, citizens, or other creatures in Mironovs island truly knew him, the only thing they knew was that they must give their devotion to him, without any reason. He could’ve simply been foolish, ignorant, arrogant, evil, good, anything. Most of them, excluding the newborns, were his creations, so doubt could only be cast on them, but no one actually went that far.
Back to the topic of Meya being jittery, she was silently creeping up to the creeping Gnar, the bundle of fur, but she was trying to be as quiet as possible to not disturb her masters thinking.
But as she was silently hesitating, Gnar was silently approaching Mironov and was quite near him now. At this point Meyas mind started going blank, well not blank, more like overflowing with countless situations of what would happen if she or Gnar would do this or that.
After standing still for a couple of seconds she shook off her negative thoughts and proceeded to try and get Gnar back but it was already too late. Gnar had nicely planted himself on top of Mironovs head and started biting into the sharp bark protruding from the head, which was shaped like a crown.
While Meya thought that she should commit seppuku right at this moment, those thoughts came to a halt as Mironov showed no reaction. This was her chance, to extract the foreign hair on the crown.
She came closer, so close that after she noticed it herself, her cheeks became flushed and she instinctively fell back. But the fur ball turned around to face Meya and enjoyed the bark even more as though showing off his superiority to Meya.
She could not allow it. Neither her pride as the overseer nor her responsibilities allowed her for this to continue. She steeled her resolve and approached Mironov again. Her body was small, and Mironov, not so small. As she was basically a child, she extended her hands as tall as she could and tried grabbing Gnar, but the hairball simply pulled back by a tiny bit, which was enough to make Meya not reach him.
As Meya was quite small and didn’t have actual knowledge of how to properly use her humanoid body, she fell onto Mironovs back and turned completely red, her whole body turned completely red. She thought this was the end, if she could die right now she would both be happy and embarrassed. Embarrassed at the fact she did something, no one had yet. Touch Mironov directly.
Mironov on the other hand just looked like he had regained his senses. He turned around to look at Meya who is currently in a state of complete bewilderment, but his voice snapped her back:
“Ah, that’s right. Meya, you can see what happens all around the island right?” Mironov inquired, unsure if his guess was actually right or if he was mistaken.
“Ah! Uh-h-gh… I’m sorry. Yes, yes. I see everything happening around the island in about a 100 kilometer radius.” Meya was still disturbed by the fact Gnar was on Mironovs head, but answered to the best of her abilities.
“Hmm… That’s great! Then could you please tell me what Slosher did before…” He didn’t really know if he could name it treason himself if he knew certain circumstances. It wasn’t as though Mironov had actually known Slosher that well. Neither did Mironov remember much about his past and he didn’t actually converse with them much, other than Throna or Sarah, well he guessed he can also include Smol. “Well before the incident, I suppose.”
Meya was stuck between running back to the shell that was her eye and trying to tell Mironov about Gnar being on his head. But she finally steeled herself and ran back towards the eye thinking that she would tell him a tiny bit later.
She entered the opening that was behind the huge eye and though the cord that was trailing from her to that eye was still out, once the eye started a motion as if convulsing did the cord get slurped up into it.
The eye opened its lids and started shining ever so slightly, as though it simply wet its eyeball.
And then it closed again with a strange, soft, yet mature voice speaking to him: Uh, hello Master… It doesn’t seem like Slosher did anything special before leaving the island except that he brought you a glass of water and just stood near you for a couple of minutes until you dismissed him.
Nothing else, really? He thought as though conversing with it, but he didn’t know if the voice was audible or a communication method through minds, telepathy, thus he asked once more, audibly this time: “… Nothing else, really?”
Uh, yes…
After hearing her answer, he fell into thought. Maybe this really was his fault, he must simply recall the reason, but he wondered if Slosher would come back even if Mironov were to correct his faults.
Uh… Sorry… But Meya is unable to tell you this herself…
“Yes?” Mironov looked back at the closed eye again.
It appears that Gn-… No, it doesn’t matter… Uh, it does, but Meya will tell you herself…
Mironov really didn’t understand what those two were getting at but maybe it was something about Slosher. Maybe not. He scratched his head which was shaving wood chips because of Gnar, but it seemed like he didn’t notice or didn’t mind until now.
“Oh. Hi.” After scratching his head Mironov felt a bundle of hair on it and picked it up. He held the squirming, silently rawring hair by the collar in the air in front of his face and suddenly realized something. I must have looked pretty stupid…
Mironov had put Gnar back on top of his head and just went to sit down by the ledge.
“M-master…” After coming back out of the eye Meya stood behind Mironov and steeled herself. “G-g… Gnar is on your head!” After yelping out she covered her mouth.
“Hmm? Oh yeah. It’s alright, I think it good in a way since he’s taking off all the moss from it.” Mironov raised his hand to his head and lightly patted Gnar as he purred to himself. “More importantly, where’s that egg shaped thingy you had?”
Mironov didn’t turn around while he was conversing but could still see that Meya had lost her egg.
“Zicks!” She swifted her head quickly all around the place to find the egg by the edge yet again. “You’re going to fall! Stop!!” She ran towards the egg and grabbed it with all her might. It was even that close to the edge to begin with but she still scolded it, though it probably didn’t understand a thing.
While Mironov was thinking about what to do he still noticed Meya coming towards him with the silk egg. “I-I am sorry for not telling about Gnar earlier…”
“It’s fine, not much of a problem. Can that egg understand anything in the first place?”
“Maybe? Hmm…” Meya fell into thought for a couple seconds before speaking out again. “Uhm… Master, I don’t want to disturb you again, but we’re going to reach land soon… An island to be more precise.”