Chapter Eight - The Undignified

51st Day of Spring - Year 1758 of the Golden Era

Shorefarm, Yellowfield, Draya Calyrex

There was something very inhuman about crouching over the corpse of a dead dog, her chest opened up and siphon stabbed down and slowly filling with the essence of the thing they'd killed.

Green noticed her siphon no longer pulling anything and tugged it back. She hadn't even been sure that they could all use theirs at the same time, and yet... here they were. Her counter now read 148. Dogs were more than fish, it seemed.

She pushed off and away from the body, Red and Blue doing the same a moment later.

They stared at each other, framed by the fog and the dilapidated buildings of what might have been an abandoned down, three monsters made of wood and steel over the corpse of another, its blood staining all of them.

Green pointed at the creature between them. "Dog," she said.

Red stared back, then a moment later, she started to speak. "E e e e e," she said.

It took a moment for Green to realize that Red was laughing.

Her own shoulders shook a little, and she joined in. "He he he," she said, the slow, artificial laugh only making it all stranger and funnier.

Blue looked between the two, then shook her head. "Un...dig ni fied," she said, slowly and deliberately.

Green laughed even harder at that, not that it really showed in her voice. It was still the same tinny sound, at the same volume, but Blue speaking up for the first time to say something like that...

With a slap on the ground, Red reached up as if to wipe her eyes, then seemed to realize that she didn't need to, so she just shook her head and picked up her sword. "Mmm..." she began. "ore. Mmmmore."

"Dogs?" Green asked, and at Red's quick nod, she stood up herself and scanned the village. There weren't any dogs that she noticed, but there might have been more around. "No," she said after a while.

Red nodded, then gestured with her sword. She paused, as if to talk, but after a moment of stuttering and failing to say anything, she merely shrugged some more and started to walk further into the village.

"Blue," Green said as she turned towards the other puppet. "Go?"

"B...blue?" Blue asked. She pointed to herself. The small conversation had Red pausing to stare back at them.

Green pointed to Blue's chest. "Blue," she said. Then to Red. "Red." Finally, to herself. "G...greeeen."

"Reed," Red agreed. It was close enough, at least according to Green.

Blue, however, seemed to think differently. She shook her head again. "Un-digni-fied," she said, carefully pronouncing each syllable.

Green shrugged. It was descriptive enough, and Blue didn't seem ready to volunteer better names just yet.

"Dogs," Green said instead while waving her sword deeper into the town.

The other two considered it before nodding. And so they pushed in. The road they were on eventually reached an intersection with a much wider, more travelled road. There were several carts left along the sides, and the homes here were split evenly between shops and houses.

Red raised a hand for them to stop, then lowered herself slowly next to some crates by the side of the road. They were filled with the rotting remains of fish. Green imagined that they stank, but she didn't have a nose to tell.

Lowering herself as well, she crept up next to Red, then peeked out ahead.

There were people walking along the middle of the road.

They seemed like normal peasants from afar, with the wafting fog hiding them. At least, they seemed that way until they started to move. The three of them walked with a slow, unsteady shuffle. One was dragging their leg behind.

There was a dog with them as well. It was limping along next to the group, and had what looked like a single extra limb protruding from its back.

"Shh," Red said.

They remained quiet. All three of them huddled behind a few chests as the villagers came closer. As they did, Green was able to make out more of their forms.

They wore rags. Their clothes torn apart and open at the chest to expose large, scarred emblems burned into their sternums. All three had flakey scales growing over their skin in rough patches.

It was their eyes that arrested her, however. They were twisted in pain, and it seemed like all three were crying.

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She finally noticed that they weren't entirely quiet either. The three were muttering, speaking in low tones. Green shifted slightly, to better catch on to one the man in the middle of the trio was saying. "Aurynth, oh, Aurynth the Golden, why have you left us so?" he lamented.

She had no idea who or what that was, but the three seemed very upset about it.

Green was considering leaving them be, when Red moved and the dog in the group started to growl.

All three peasants stopped moving. Their eyes started to glow faintly, golden light spilling out. "Oh! Aurynth! Oh! Great dragon baron of the Yellowfields!" one of them shouted.

The dog barked, then rushed forwards.

Moving fast, Red shifted her sword around and brought her free arm up. The dog leapt, and when its jaw snapped on her already-chewed arm, Red was quick to start stabbing it in the chest.

It didn't go down so easily. Green turned and stabbed it from the side, and Blue did the same.

The dog shook, growling and clawing at Red as best it could, but with all three of them punching it full of holes, it eventually went down.

Green spun towards the three peasants, afraid of what they might do.

One of them fell onto his knees, then raised his arms high above his head in supplication. "Aurynth! Great dragon! We are under assault! Blessed be your servants that we may carry out your divine and golden will!"

The man caught fire.

Green staggered backwards as the man's clothes burned away and his skin, scales and all, turned incandescent. Somehow, the fire seemed to avoid the other two, who stumbled forwards, their eyes glowing and their faces twisted in horrid anger.

The burning man's scream was a terrible, otherworldly sound. His form lit the fog around them in flickering shades of orange and gold, casting grotesque shadows of the remaining two villagers as they lurched forward. Green could only stare for a moment, transfixed by the impossible fire that consumed him but didn't reduce him to ash.

Red didn't hesitate. She lunged at one of the advancing peasants, her sword cutting through the fog with a faint hiss. The blade struck true, biting deep into the villager's side. A strange, golden ichor spilled from the wound, the man staggering but not stopping.

Green stepped forward as the same man reached for Red. He was clawing at Red with glowing, claw-like fingers. The edge of her blade sliced into his elbow and he screamed as something broke and glowing blood sprayed out of him.

The burning man, now fully engulfed in flames, stood still as though in a trance. His arms stretched skyward, his face a grotesque mask of agony and exaltation. The golden glow from his body pulsed, and Green felt a wave of heat wash over her. The air shimmered unnaturally, and the other two villagers seemed to grow stronger, their movements more precise, their eyes blazing even brighter.

Blue finally managed to down the first peasant with a clumsy strike at his knee. As he fell, Red stumbled over his body and started to plunge her sword into his back with repeated, mechanical motions, like a sewing machine punctuating flesh.

The second villager screamed and lunged at Green. She almost forgot Sir Jorvin's lessons, but some parts came back to her.

She stepped back, making room, then swiped at eye-height. She didn't expect it to land, but it did, cutting across the bridge of the villager's nose.

Still, he reached out and grabbed her, and somehow his emaciated arms were strong enough to pull her in. The villager started to punch into her chest with his free arm. Three blows in, and she started to hear wood splintering.

Then, suddenly, he went down, and Green found herself looking at Red as the puppet removed her sword from the man's back.

All three of them turned to the man on the ground. He had changed, the fire burning back skin to reveal scales, only... they were malformed and misshapen, and the man was left folded in half with his face pressed to the ground. He was wheezing, bleeding from his eyes even as something shifted under the skin of his back.

They didn't wait to see what that was. Instead, they moved closer and all three of them started stabbing.

When it was all done, they scanned the area, but the street was still empty.

Shorefarm was far more cursed than she'd been led to believe.

***