Viola’s perspective:
The house was silent; Chuma was in the kitchen brewing some coffee for everyone, the Giant Hyena lady was sitting on a large twin board chair that I swear wasn’t here before, and Kabiliti was “””sitting””” on the couch with me.
Earlier, I blew up on Kabiliti for her skill choice because of what it triggered.
I mentally willed the prompt to reappear by thinking “Show quests” and like I thought. The game-like prompt appeared in my face.
_________________________________________________________________________
A Happy Family
Quest:
Thanks to a Firstborn gaining a Race Perk, your people have all grown stronger as a result.
The only problem is: that your people consist of you and the original you.
Grow your population and take advantage of the fact you can reproduce asexually to speed up this process.
Isn't it great you don't have to wait 9 months to make any progress?
Goal:
Have offspring of some sort. Doesn’t matter how.
Failure:
Die/kill any of your kids.
Rewards:
Your Branch of humanity will have a high likelihood of not becoming extinct.
Unknown.
Note from quest giver:
“No, I’m not going to give you a progress bar and Yes I did trick her.
But honestly, it might be for the best.
Good luck.”
_________________________________________________________________________
I look to my left on Kabiliti, Her body inside the egg turning away in response
Viola, telepathically: “Kabiliti I’m sorry,”
Silence.
Viola, telepathically: “I thought you acted without thinking and I was wrong.”
She still wasn’t responding, and I didn’t know what to say. I mean what do you say after you spend nearly an hour arguing with someone over a choice motivated by their death?
“So, umm. You're Viola right?” the giant woman asked. She kind of looked like a Gnoll from the video games Kabiliti used to play except more humanoid. Her head was similar to a hyena, with a snout and muzzle present, but her ears were human and her overall body structure and stance were also clearly human. Honestly, you hide her head and shave off her white fur and would just think she’s an extremely tall person. She was built like a twig with the potential to buff up, like an ex-bodybuilder who clearly used to be jacked but stopped going to the gym decades ago.
I turned to face her “Yes, yes I am. Sorry you had to walk in on our… argument”
It was clear she felt awkward around us, probably because from her perspective she just saw a lady argue with an ink-black egg with a mutilated body inside
“Oh no, it’s no problem. Everyone has their disagreements and sometimes they can get heated. We should be the ones to apologise for not announcing our presence before we entered and giving you time to compose yourselves” the woman quickly corrected.
Chuma then interjected with “Each home is partially soundproof, they likely wouldn’t have heard us” The woman instantly glared at him as soon as he stated that, to which Chuma turned back to the boiling kettle.
“I-I’ll get back to the coffee” Chuma shrank.
Chuma, what did you do to her? As for the woman, something was off about how she talked, it wasn’t natural.
“Anyway, I’m Winda-” Winda said while outstretching her furred hand-“I’m glad to be joining your quest fate- I mean fate quest”
A job interview, that's what it felt like! Did Chuma hire her to make me and sis clothes or something? Aye! talk about going overboard! It would explain why she’s upset at Chuma. She probably thought it would be a simple tailor job but then she saw, use.
I looked at her and sighed. Then tried calming her down” You don’t need to worry, I may not know what reputation Firstborn have but you can trust me when I say ’No one here is going to hurt you’ ”
Winda looked at me a bit confused. “Was…that a possibility?” she asked.
Now I was confused, wasn’t that why she was worried?
Viola:” No. It wasn’t. I just thought you were scared of us and I was trying to calm you down”
Winda:” Why would I fear the person a quest is telling me to help?”
Wait, she said quest again. Could it be that she is somehow related to my quest? No, that doesn’t make sense and I’m not exactly sure how that would even work seeing as were both women. It has to be something else.
Viola:” Winda, before you mentioned a quest, and if I’m involved I doubt you're here to give me clothes”
Winda” Why would I give you clothes?”
We both turned to look at Chuma who looked like a kid fearing a beating
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“I may have gotten a little sidetracked while looking for your clothes and encountered Winda then completely forgot to find and buy you some clothing” Chuma informed, his tone hinting that what happened was much more than a ‘side track’.
Before I could question him further, Winda hopped in with her own account of past events
Winda: ”You found me minding my own business, publicly humiliated me to escape some merchants then let loose my hyena. It was MUCH more than an encounter”
I stared at Chuma, shocked, and out of the corner of my eye, I could see Kabiliti had joined me in my disbelief. “Chuma! What the hell man?!? We just asked for clothes!” I exclaimed
“Ok, I know it sounds bad” Chuma started defensively, his tone betraying him “But…. I…screwed up?”
In just that moment something appeared on his back then disappeared as quick as it appeared.
“You saw that right?” Kabiliti asked me through our link.
It looked like a grey, 3 eyed gremlin.
“Yes,” I responded back, “What do you think it is?”
Kabiliti, telepathically:” Don’t know, but I have an Idea.”
I tried to ask Kabiliti what she had planned but as soon as she heard “What-” she acted.
As Chuma was visibly communicating “I’m screwed” with his face, a sharp black tendril shot out from Kabiliti’s egg, missing Chuma’s neck by a centimetre, making a squelch sound as it audibly penetrated, something organic, and connected to the wall behind him which was, rather impressively, only dented.
Chuma collapsed and fainted, seemingly out of shock
”Beast Mother above! I wanted you to fail him, not kill him!” Winda protested in a panic on her face as she quickly stepped up to try to protect Chuma.
“Pain, PAIN! I surrender!” a harsh and high-pitched voice protested behind Winda.
A pebble appeared above and slightly to the left of where the tendril hit the wall and fell to the ground at which point a small pale grey pot-bellied creature appeared.
It had a wide head and a mouth to match, its ears were as long as an elf's but were asymmetrically crooked, and it had 2 empty eye sockets leaking a black ichor from the inner corner of each eye. A prominent and large hole directly above the nose and eyes was a present of its forehead from which smoke bellowed. It wore a tattered cloth that seemed to be studded with precious gems, around its waist and had a gaudy golden ornament hanging by a diamond ring pierced into its overgrown belly button. Its body was covered in white hairs and its arms were long enough that its hands could grab its feet while standing upright. Despite being the size of a child, its features were closer to that of a small-nosed goblin.
If there was ever a creature that deserves the title of “Gremlin-King”, this would be that creature.
It turned to look at me, small blue flames appearing in its eyes
“You, Viola, please tell egg-sister; no kill Mampara!” it pleaded in its horrid voice
Viola:” Ugh, what the hell is that thing?”
I felt a distinct emotion of disgust from my telepathic link with Kabiliti, which I sympathised with as a green ooze started bubbling out of the creature’s stab wound
Winda:”Is that a Tokoloshe?”
“A what?” I asked while trying to think of a way to defend myself without touching it
Winda:”I think that's a Tokoloshe. A monstrous spirit that causes misfortune, tragedy and… other bad stuff?”
Viola:” What was doing doing on Chuma’s back?”
“Mampara’s pain is growing! Please, let Mampara go!” the Tokoloshe begged.
Winda:” I guess you should ask it, tho. It sounds dumber than in the stories”
“Mampara is not dumb! Mampara is smart Tokoloshe! Smarter than even Master! Mampara trick master, Mampara better than master, Mampara-” With a bit of movement made by Kabiliti’s tendril the Tokoloshe was reminded of its situation “Augh! Me get it. Not time for Mampara’s glory be shown.”
“What were you doing on Chuma’s back,” I demanded, to which Mampara responded.
“Living Mampara’s life; free and entertained”
Winda:” Free?”
Viola:” Entertained?”
Mampara:” Yes! Master say, when Master could still breathe, Master say Chuma have great future. Make many people, might even ascend to be a small god.”
Kabiliti, telepathically “Did it just say ' might become a god?’ ”
Mampara continued:” Master want me to go to Chuma when he second smallest human and trick him into special Spirit Contract so she gains Chuma’s fate at the cost of her sleep and MY, MAMPARA’S, life! Mampara no like that, So Mampara change contract so master die, me eat and get to sell Chuma fate and Chuma get master’s Uchawi, because me find irony at time and funny.”
Winda: “Wait, what happened to your nail?”
I was confused by that question so looked at Winda quizzically
And reading my face, answered my unspoken question “Tokoloshe are brought to life with a red hot nail. That nail is supposed to stick out of its middlemost hole”
The Tokoloshe looked at us, annoyed and explained “Master use last of power to push nail far in brain while die slowly. It hard think or talk now, so me spend most time, trick Chuma into say stupid things."The gremlin started letting out a revolting laugh as it thought about its ‘entertainment’ ”Funniest shit ever seen happen when you do that, One time. Get slapped by first crush when ask to court, Me ruin and Chuma cry for DAYS after!” Mampara bellowed “Best thing, Crush Man also love Chuma!”.
Winda looked at him with pure rage” So you're the reason he was such an asses ass!?!”
Mampara slowly regained his composure “No…Ah no…Mampara… Mampara only makes Chuma say worse words he thinks to say. Contained in reason. Mampara can’t make Chuma call everyone sex worker, trust Mampara, he try. Mampara get rich and fat on Chuma suffering. Tastier than anything Master tell Mampara to harvest”
So, not only was this thing likely bringing general bad luck and misfortune to Chuma, but it also ruined Chuma’s social ability and derived pleasure from his suffering! But why did it reveal itself at all? Was it gloating?
Viola “Why reveal yourself then?”
Mampara stopped in its revelry and looked at us with an insulting level of disgust “You!, egg statue and beast. You 3 keep giving Chuma fortune, Mampara can only stop so much of it. Chuma even get entire Fate quest. That don’tnt be possible!”
Viola: “Fate Quest?”
Winda:” Yes, Fate Quest. Didn’t Chuma tell you?”
Viola: “No.”
Winda looked at the vile creature, contempt in her gaze ”I guess we know why.”
She then turned to face me” A Fate quest is the most coveted form of quest the gods can give. It promises the chance to become legendary in some way. All the best stories involve tales of fate quests and have continuous rewards, some of which are legendary in their own right. Like the man who gained immortality-” Winda Grasped my hands-” Chuma and I have been tasked with helping you and your sister, first with the egg situation then. Likely other things as the quest proceeds. At first, I thought Chuma was undeserving of such a quest but even I can tell that he needs this”
“Mampara think this disgustingly sweet, but can egg let Mampara go back to-”
The second tendril shot out from Kebiliti, piercing Mampara’s opposite shoulder
Mampara screamed in pain as I lightly moved Winda to the side and approached Mampara “What makes you think that anyone here would let you go after all of that?”
This creature made me furious. The Idea of systemically ruining someone’s life from childhood all the way up to their early adulthood. Just. For. A. LAUGH. To cut them off from the mere possibility of love to Literally steal their future and watch them suffer for the rest of their life? And this…thing, is arrogant enough to think we, I, would let it go?!?
Viola, telepathically: “Kabiliti. I know we are hiding, but-”
Kabiliti, telepathically:” I know, you and Winda go get the appropriate authorities. We can’t let IT, escape.”
I didn’t need to look at my sister to know she had the same look of hatred and disgust. At this moment Mampara’s face went from pure joy at showing off its crimes to one of fear. Good
Viola:” You're lucky we won’t kill you, Winda, do you know someone who can deal with this monster?”
In a deeper tone, she answered “Yes.”
Viola:” Good, please get them while-”
Before I could finish my sentence she commanded in a bestial snarl “Beast, Devor.”
I turned to see a 3-metre female were-hyena, hunched over, mouth dripping in hunger, fangs as sharp as daggers, and a smile that inspired nothing but fear, and eyes that displayed an endless hunger.
In a voice 10 years more mature than the Winda and FAR too sophisticated for its monstrous form, she spoke “As you wish, madam” She looked to me, and smiled as pleasantly as she physically could, then turned to the Tokoloshe” My, what awful luck you have Mampara”.
With one swift bite.
Mampara was no more.