The vast majority of mouse society and technology existed within the shadows, completely unknown to the local humans. Even when they happened to see a mouse, it was easy for them to dismiss it as an ordinary unintelligent creature, or at least it had been in the past. Humanity might have seen very little of their weapons and their cities, but one thing was apparent at even a glance: They frequently wore clothing.
Mice had gotten smarter, and weren't spotted quite as often, usually able to avoid traps and the like. Still, mistakes were sometimes made, and some of the small creatures were considerably more cautious than others. Every once in a while, a human would see a group of well dressed mice strolling around on two feet, a fully clothed corpse carried in the mouth of a pet, or a pair of the rodents hurling teeny-tiny bolts of arcane energy at one another. These sightings were consistently ignored.
Humans are busy creatures, after all. They have families to feed, jobs to go to, cars to maintain, and countless other minuscule problems which add up to a fairly complicated existence, even for the simplest among them. They just don't have the time or energy to need to contemplate the nature of sentience, and with it the ethics of setting traps for creatures which could very well hope and dream and fear and feel in very much the same way that humanity does.
As a result, they simply looked away, considering it someone else's problem, which someone else could, in turn, worry about. Every once in a while a local would speak up about these strange occurrences, but found their concerns quickly dismissed.
"Seriously? You're talking about mice while the economy is in the shape that it's in?" they'd say, or something else very much along those same lines. These reactions would shame the original questioner into silence, putting any hope of discussing the matter to an abrupt end.
It's easy to notice the obvious flaw of simply passing the buck, leaving it for someone else to think about: if everyone does this, nobody thinks about the matter at all. This, of course, was not actually a flaw, it was the machine working exactly as intended.
As much as one might be tempted to look down on such a philosophy, thinking poorly of those who hold it, both the humans and mice were probably much happier this way.
<3~ <3~ <3~ <3~
Their newly purchased supplies in hand, the four stood, side by side, looking to the massive metal gate, the portal to the outside world.
"Are you sure there's no tunnel which can take us to this dark lord of yours?" Aaron asked.
"First of all, it is not my dark lord, it is simply a dark lord whom I and Mathias happen to know of."
"We do?" The thief asked.
Rowan nodded. "I suppose you would not remember. You were quite young at the time. Your mother had taken you to visit it on a personal matter."
"And it didn't kill them?" Aaron asked.
Rowan furrowed his brow, shaking his head. "No, not that I can recall... although my memory is, admittedly, not quite what it used to be."
It was a rather stupid question, but still somewhat good news. The region hadn't gotten any more dangerous over the past months, and if a mother and small child could safely make the journey, a group of armed adventurers should hopefully have little trouble.
"Huh, yeah, I don't remember that at all." Mathias said, scratching his head. "Why did she need to see this creature?"
"I cannot say exactly. She claimed that it was of the utmost importance. This creature we seek is a very unusual one, blessed with foresight, which it uses to aid those who find themselves lost." Rowan said.
"Foresight?" Jerin asked.
"The ability to see into the future."
"Really? Is that all? Everyone can do that." Mathias said.
"While it is true that we can all analyse information around us and use it to judge what may happen, this ability is far different. It allows one to have a clear image in mind of what events will occur, not based on simple deduction, but instead seeing it as though it were happening right now."
"Yeah, I know. Everyone can do that. It happens all the time." the thief responded. The other three looked to him with blank expressions. "What? You know what I mean... sure, you can't really control it, but every once in a while you get a vision in your head, sometimes of something happening far away, sometimes of the past, and sometimes of something that hasn't happened yet, usually followed by a really bad headache."
They continued to stare blankly.
"I'm pretty sure that doesn't happen to anyone." Aaron finally said, breaking the awkward silence.
The thief simply chuckled. "Of course it does! I told my mom about it ages ago, and she said that it was completely normal. Extremely so."
The three continued with their blank stares, uncertain of how to respond.
"It's true! Why, hardly a day went by when she didn't tell me how completely ordinary I was, and how there was absolutely nothing wrong with me!" the boy smiled, then paused, the smile fading as he gave in to thought. "Huh, you know, now that I say that out loud, it does sound kind of suspicious."
"Wow, you can see the future?" Jerin asked, hopping over to him, taking hold of his hand, looking up at the confused thief.
"Well, yeah... sort of... not really." he stammered, still trying to come to terms with this new information. "I can't really choose what I see, and it's not usually anything too interesting." he paused. "I, uh, haven't seen anything about our journey, sorry. I can't give any helpful information."
Rowan coughed and cleared his throat, it sounding as though tiny loose bones were rattling around within it. "Well, be that as it may..." he said, making a point to file way this very significant bit of information (significant for him, not necessarily for this story) for later, "This being is significantly more advanced. It can see clear visions of nearly any point in the future, knowing virtually all which will happen before it does. There is almost no information out there which this creature does not have access. The only issue is whether or not it is willing to share such knowledge with us."
"Wait, shouldn't we talk about this some more? It seems like kind of a big deal!" Mathias said, his voice uncharacteristically nervous.
"I know, I get it. You're worried about the implications of these abilities, where they came from. Why you have them and nobody else does. Probably even wondering they somehow make you less of a mouse, or instead you're actually some sort of abomination, and as time goes on, it will only get worse, until you get more and more monstrous, and those who you thought were the same as you will seem strange and alien." Jerin said, eyes closed, nodding her head.
"Wow, I hadn't even considered that!" Mathias replied, eyes wide.
"Anyways, we've got more important stuff to worry about than unnatural pre-cognitive abilities. We can't expect everything to grind to a half whenever one of us finds out that everything that we thought we knew was a lie, and that we really have secret and potentially demonic powers possibly designed to lead us to a strange and possibly horrible destiny. Let's just forget about it, and continue on our way."
"Yeah, you're right. I'm feeling a lot better about this, now!" the thief grinned.
Aaron was tempted to ask how any of that could have possibly made him feel better, but decided that it was ultimately best to just let the subject drop.
Jerin paused a moment before turning back to Mathias. "Uh, if you feel like your head is about to explode or anything, though, try to give us a little warning, so we can keep our distance."
Mathias nodded. "Um... right."
Another awkward pause.
"So, this dark lord of yours, it can help us find Midnight?" Jerin asked, changing the subject, to which the mage nodded.
"Quite possibly. Perhaps not, but it is the only lead that we have."
Mathias was still busy going through his inner turmoil. He looked back on much of his life with new eyes, trying to put the pieces of it together, reinterpreting them with this newfound information. He never quite put the big pieces together though, such as exactly why his mother had disapproved of his relationships with others. The thief never did realize that his ability to become the center of attention and similarly blend in with a crowd may not have been entirely natural. Aaron looked to him with suspicion, with Jerin and the elder mouse, Rowan still conversing when the group was approached by a town guard.
"Hey, Aaron and Jerin! How are you folks doing this fine day?" the tall female mouse, round of both face and body asked. She wore no sort of uniform, the job being a fairly low paying and unofficial role, as Aaron could attest to. Most of the local guards didn't bother with armor, even if they all did carry weapons of some sort or another. There was similarly no shared coloration or even loose style of dress for the job, the employees basically just wearing whatever they happened to own. As a result of this, it could be rather difficult to identify one, when needed, but generally anyone around who looked tough and happened to be armed could be gone to for aid. Even if they didn't happen to be a guard, those who regularly carried weapons tended to be eager for any excuse to use them. As for those requiring the sort of aid which didn't involve violence, well, in those cases they are still probably better off not going to a town guard. With the job offering little money, prestige or other support, it tended to attract only a few specific types of mice: Those who were relatively selfless and genuinely wished to make their community a better place, and those looking to abuse their rather petty amount of authority. Of course there were also the third type, the less ambitious sorts who enjoyed standing and wandering about, yet still wished to feel as though they were properly working.
As for the woman in question, she was well dressed, in a light yellow flower patterned sundress, a polished wooden bracelet on each of her four paws, and an assortment of ribbons fastened to her light brown fur, an outfit which likely would have looked downright gorgeous on many, but she wasn't quite dainty enough to properly pull the look off. A wooden shaft was strapped to her back, at the end of it a crescent moon of jagged, light-blue glass was bound into place.
"Hello Gabriella." Aaron replied, avoiding her gaze. He knew that the woman had fancied him, but she wasn't really his type, even though he didn't quite know what exactly his type was, or even if such a thing existed. In truth, it probably didn't. "We need to go through the gate."
"You sure about that? I don't need to tell you how dangerous it is out there, and this gate is heavy. If you find yourselves being chased, I can't promise we'll have time to open it up to let you back inside." another mouse said as he approached, older, thinner but with visibly ropey muscles under the grey fur,, looking more than a little bit tired. He wasn't dressed for fashion, purely function, wearing thick, dirty padded gloves, a heavy apron, a sagging belt holding assorted tools, and nothing else.
Jerin looked from one mouse to the other before excitedly saying. "Wait, I know you two! You're from the play!"
While the woman was clearly a little bit annoyed, the the man, Leonard, smiled a bit. "Sure are. They did a good job with the likeness, don't you think? Amazing what performers can accomplish these days.
"I just wish I didn't have to be the comic relief." Gabriella huffed, arms folded. While her technical role was just as a city guard, she tended to spend much of her days operating as an assistant to the builder. As stated before,, being a city guard wasn't a very demanding profession with strictly defined objectives. It wasn't remotely uncommon for them to take on multiple roles within the city. "It would be one thing if I were the most popular character, but the king always gets the really funny lines."
"Anyways, the gates?" Aaron asked.
The pair looked to one another. "Oh, right." Leonard said. "I can't say I entirely approve, but I suppose you know what you're doing. I don't need to tell you to be careful."
All the while Jerin approached the heavy metal barrier, rubbing a paw along it.
"Impressive, isn't it?" Leonard said. "It's my pride and joy, and took months of work. Too bad the rest of the wall isn't as secure."
The wall was terribly uneven, but certainly didn't look weak, made of assorted plates, beams, cords and other metallic bits fastened, bound or nailed over top one another resulting in a series of very heavy and more-or-less rectangular barricades.
"The wall is fine." The female guard said.
"No, it's not fine! Sure, some places are good and strong, but others are barely held together! And don't even get me started on the walls around the palace!" Leonard said, turning to Jerin and Mathias who looked to him with confused expressions. "Maybe you've never been there, but outside the palace doesn't have a ceiling like the city, it's just high walls around it, but it's hard making walls that are both tall and secure. Usually they aren't either. They're tall enough that a mouse would have a damn tough hard time climbing over them, but I'm not so sure about a dark lord."
The bulk of the city, of course, existed beneath the rusted wreck of an abandoned truck. The main wall, as a result, filled in the space between the tires, from ground to the main body of the vehicle. Securing this rather finite amount of space wasn't particularly difficult. There were no shortage of open spaces above, the vehicle having been gutted a long time ago, but they were not easily accessible. A bird could, theoretically, get inside, but would need to navigate a labyrinth of beams, pipes and old wires, only to find the upper portion of the city heavily fortified. As stated, the palace district was a different matter. Without a proper roof to work towards, the walls needed to be built as high as possible without collapsing in on themselves, which was far from a simple task. The good news was that the entire region didn't need to be encircled, as two crossed fences had formed a natural barrier surpassing anything the mice could hope to create, but that still left open areas which needed to be as fortified as possible. While far less secure, this region did enjoy significantly more natural sunlight, not to mention the ability to collect rainfall which wasn't filtered through ancient engine parts. Still, while it was a region that housed the most prosperous of mice, the common people had little desire to live there. No shortage of them were refugees from destroyed villages, or at least the close descendants of such mice, and to these people, the open air above offered no sense of peace.
"Nothing has ever breached the city walls." Gabriella said, impatiently, apparently having had this discussion many times before.
"No, but it only needs to happen once. We've seen what the dark lords have done to the outlying villages. If one could find a weak point in the wall, and managed to get into the city, it would be a disaster!"
Jerin looked away, the mention of villages being attacked bringing back more than a few bad memories. Aaron couldn't help but feel much the same.
"We really need to be going." The older sibling said.
"Oh, right..." the male guard/worker mouse nodded before calling loudly over his shoulder. "Hey! Open the gates!"
"What?" A voice in the distance shouted back.
"I said, open the gates!"
A brief pause. "I'm on my break!"
The gates were strong, made of such heavy materials and did not open easily. There were four mice, two at each side, whose entire job was simply to open and close them as needed, and since one never knew when exactly the doors needed to be opened or closed, it was very much a full time occupation. Entire days would regularly go by without the passage needing to be opened even once, but still they needed to be there just in case. As a result, despite the weight of the doors, it was actually quite easy work. People rarely came or went from the city, aside from those who ventured out to scavenge, but even they tended to use tunnels to get in and out (good scavenging spots being well kept trade secrets, after all). Adventuring groups were similar, often taking long journeys from which they never returned, which while unquestionably tragic did mean one fewer activation of the gateway. While the occasional visitors from the very few remaining nearby villages would come to trade, or more often escape the ruins of their former homes, far more often the gate simply didn't need to move at all. So far as jobs went, it was an incredibly easy one, except for when actual work was needed to be done. Then it was back-breaking labor, which nobody looked forward to.
"On a break..." Leonard grumbled. "You open this gate right now, or I'll give you a real break!" he shouted over his shoulder, before turning back to the adventurers. "I mean I'll break his legs. Maybe his head. Haven't quite decided."
Mathias nodded. "Yeah, I figured."
For a little while, nothing happened, and it appeared as though Leonard would need to make the tough decision about which bone was best to shatter in order to motivate the others. Then came a series of loud groans, both from the metal as it ground against the earth, and the heavy exertion of the mice heaving the chains to either side. Ideally, the door would have something set along the ground to slide across, but instead it simply sat in the dirt, the sheer weight of it pulling downwards, offering another form of resistance. This was somewhat handy for security, but poor for those occasions where it had actually needed to move.
At first, the gate only opened a crack, but even as it did, sunlight streamed through, making passersby stop in their tracks to watch as the lower portion of the city now found itself bathed in natural light. Sun wasn't completely alien to this place, but due to the complicated network of metal plates and beams overhead, there were few places that it pierced through with any consistency. The metal moved slowly and deliberately, before finally coming to a stop.
"Is that enough?" one of the gate workers called down. There were no windows, at least no windows facing the inside of the city, so they had no way of telling what exactly the gate was opening for. They could only hope that it wasn't a loaded caravan or anything of the sort. It was challenging enough to pull it a single mouse-width.
"Yeah, that's enough."
As the four stepped through the gateway, the large mouse woman called to them. "You all be careful out there!", to which Aaron responded with a passing wave of his paw.
It was like stepping into a whole new world, this wide open space which was so close by yet so far away. After spending so much time within the comparatively dank and confined walls of the city, it was easy to forget just how big the outside world was. It wasn't simply the sky, which seemed to stretch on forever, it wasn't just the grass which grew taller than most of the buildings in the settlement, it wasn't necessarily the sights seen, the distant sounds heard, the feel of the cool wind, it was simply everything. Along with the sense of how big everything was, came the unavoidable sensation of just how small the four mice were in comparison.
The immediate vicinity was relatively safe. Up in the rusted structure overhead, mice of the overcity kept constant watch for potential attacks. This was a sort of small culture, a village over top the main town, populated mostly by mouse tinkerers who lived in metal shacks built into the ancient skeletal ruins, spending their lives among the narrow catwalks and uneven platforms. They kept also watch for threats from the sky or across the plains, the elevated position offering a far more clear view of the world around them. Those of the undercity, as it was called by those above (and only by those above, the rest simply call it 'the city') rarely thought about the mice above them and vice versa. While distinctly different cultures, they were simply so segregated that they had almost never interacted, with no real bigotry or animosity existing between the groups. Instead there was simply the occasional realization to be found by both that "oh yeah, there are mice up/down there too, for some reason", which would be forgotten as quickly as it had been recalled.
These mice lived fairly carefree lives, despite the dangerous terrain upon which they walked everyday, but were more than ready to sound the alarm or at least give a more subtle warning should a dark lord wander too close. That was rarely the case, however. Even aside from the walls keeping potential threats at bay, this simply wasn't a place that dangerous creatures explored. It was a little too far from the wilderness, and while certainly not far from the many shrines of the Makers, it was distant enough that there was little chance of finding discarded food about. The large creatures would occasionally roam nearby, but took little interest in what looked like a heap of discarded metal. Hardly a surprise, as it wasn't exactly an uncommon sight.
The wooden peaks of shrines, each painted their own colors were visible over the flowing blades of grass, the sounds of machinery audible from all directions at once, but mercifully far away. Then of course, there was the sun, not simply the occasional stray beam which managed to fight its way past the maze of plates and latices above, but the actual sun bearing down upon them. Jerin was particularly awestruck. Had someone told her, even the day before, that things like light and air had actual weight, she would have laughed, but standing out here? She could easily believe it. Within the shrine the ceiling had seemed so very high up, but out here offered a proper lesson in what 'forever' truly meant. While not entirely accurate, as far as she was concerned, the sky did, indeed go on forever, the heavy tufts of darkened clouds like minor accessories drifting within it, and every little bit of that infinite sky seemed to press down upon her small body.
"You okay?" Aaron asked her, knowing full well that her last experience in the open air wasn't exactly a pleasant one.
"Yeah, I'm fine." Jerin said, briefly squeezing her eyes shut and shaking her head. "We'd better get moving."
Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.
The out-of-doors wasn't quite such a grand novelty for Aaron. Unlike his sister, he'd spent a considerably greater portion of his life outside of the city compared to within, but still had to admit he didn't feel the least bit at ease. Mathias, of course, still had his mind on other matters, and as for Rowan? Well, even stepping out of the university was quite a special occasion, and his eyes weren't really strong enough to catch all the minutiae around him. If asked, he simply would have said that it was all very nice, and have genuinely meant it.
"Have you taken this road many times in the past?" Aaron asked the old mouse, who shielded his sensitive eyes from the sun.
"No, never. I have simply read about it, and heard from others who have met this dark lord. It should be fairly safe, however. Dark lords do not prowl these parts often, not during the day, at least, and there will be no need to step out into the flats." he said.
The flats, of course, were the bits are artificial land, paved unnaturally flat. Very convenient for traveling upon, but not so much for staying out of view. Even stepping out onto them for a moment involved putting your life in the hands of fate, with the cover of darkness doing little to make things safer. Sure, one was less visible, and there were fewer dark lords about, but those that were tended to be extra vigilant, quick to react to the slightest hint of motion.
"Think we can make it back to the city by nightfall?"
"What do you mean back to the city? Once we find out where Midnight lives, we should attack him!" Jerin interjected.
"We'll see what happens. Depending on what, if anything this creature can tell us, we might need to head back to town to rethink things." Aaron said. His sister didn't verbally disagree, but still frowned in disapproval.
The route wasn't the most scenic one, but not being able to see also implied (even if it didn't guarantee) that one wasn't being seen, either. It mostly involved traveling through the tall grass, which seemed to go on forever. The soil underfoot was full of life, with them passing a wide assortment of spiders and insects, but neither they or the assorted creatures were looking for a fight, the bugs avoiding the group as it passed through the dense greenery. After a while they reached a wooden wall, clearly an unnatural one, and far beyond anything that the mice could hope to construct. It was made of relatively smooth wooden boards, coated in white, uniformly spaced apart, and seemingly reaching up to the clouds, where each ended with a sharp point. The spaces between were too narrow to climb through (well, too narrow for anyone but Jerin to fit through), and it stretched all the way to the flats on one side, curling around behind the abandoned shrine to the other. There was a small gap beneath, where the earth sloped downwards, yet the fence remained straight. The party were able to pass underneath the wooden wall without trouble, as a result.
The four adventurers were focused on the countryside, some of them simply enjoying the sights, as limited as they may be from their low vantage point, the more vigilant among them looking out for potential dangers, but none of them had noticed the creature eyeing them from behind a far away stone. It was no surprise that they had missed it, it was simply another mouse, a large pack on his back, eyeing them anxiously. At first he was sure that they were following him, but as he stopped, they continued, showing no signs of seeking out a trail. Riccard let out a sigh of relief.
Scavenging was a very competitive business. It was tiring, dangerous and very, very profitable, with a scavengers hunting grounds of choice being a carefully guarded secret, one which many eagerly sought. Every trader was looking for a good spot, somewhere not too far away, with a strong or varied selection of materials, ideally in small enough pieces to be easily transported, but still large enough that they could be shaped into a variety of different items. While it was true that plenty of virtual treasure troves existed, with enough wood, plastic and even metal and glass to build a hundred cities, they also tended to be extremely dangerous, and any scavenger worth their salt knew that their life was more important than money (well, slightly more important), and that it was far more practical to get a little at a time, rather than risk it all for a single big score. This was especially true when even smaller bits of the right materials could prove to be extremely valuable.
Metal was a particularly problematic material. It was in high demand, both for it's beautiful shine and natural strength, but unlike something like plastic which could be carved into desired shapes, there were very few options for shaping and modifying metals. As a result, finding useful pieces depended on two things: one, was them being small enough to actually transport (and bringing in extra mice just resulted in more potential weak links to the project), and two, more-or-less shaped to be of use. Both are serious problems, with metal not being the sort of substance one can simply break away a shard from, unless severely rusted, and often coming in pieces too large for even a hundred mice to carry. Everyone wanted metal items, and there was a nearly infinite amount of it around, but very little of it ended up making its way to the city, and most that did just ended up either making up or reinforcing the city walls or buildings. Glass wasn't quite as desirable, but it stood well above plastic which was comparatively easy to come by. Either way, he was quite content with the hidden cache of broken bottles that he had discovered.
Jerin and her friends passed harmlessly from his view, thankfully, never realizing that there was another mouse about. The last thing that he wanted to deal with was a heavily armed group who was potentially after his claim.
Beneath the fence, the landscape opened up, the grass neatly trimmed, with a massive apple tree at the center of the sea of flowing green, framed by benches. The occasional leaves fell from the branches and slowly drifted down in the breeze. Beneath it, shaded by the irregular green canopy, were scattered pieces of fallen fruit in various states of decay. A place like this would normally be considered dangerous, the grass neither high nor thick enough to conceal, but the presence of the creatures ahead offered a pretty clear sign that there weren't any dark lords about.
The four stopped. The creatures were hardly larger than the average mouse, and even though they appeared in great numbers, were not generally considered dangerous. They were, however, considered very unsettling. There were a few reasons for this. One, was due to their relation to a particularly dangerous sort of dark lord, a much larger version of themselves, which could swoop down from the sky and catch even the strongest and most vigilant mouse without warning. The second was due to their rather peculiar personalities. They weren't necessarily stupid, but not necessarily intelligent either. Similarly, they weren't particularly malicious, but they certainly were not benevolent. Unlike the Makers, which were considered incomprehensible due to the complexity of the devices that they created and the lives they led, these brown feathered beings seemed quite simple, but no less comprehensible.
Mice were creatures heavily driven by superstition, some of which was based on very good reasoning, some of based on pure, animal instinct, and far more based on simple ignorance, with most beings that fell outside of their understanding considered bad luck to deal with. These were no exception.
"Should we find a way around?" Mathias asked, keeping his eye on the flock of birds ahead, which were happily chittering with one another. They always sounded so happy, even if they rarely ended up saying cheerful things.
"No, it would take too long. We need to make sure we're back by nightfall." Aaron said in a soft voice, eyes on them as well.
"Yes, you need to make sure you're back by nightfall." said a high pitched chirping voice to the left of the young thief. He turned to see a round, brown-feathered feathered face with a short beak and the characteristically creepy, large round black eyes which always seem to shine, even in the shade.
"Yes, terrible things happen at nightfall. Night is when they come, soaring through dreams, on wings of chaos, waiting for the timid prince to call their name." another said, with a voice exactly identical to the first, to the right of the group.
The four were tempted to back away, but more of the birds now stood behind them. In what had felt like the blink of an eye, the flock which were was once far down the field now completely encircled the group of mice who turned back to back, facing down the strange creatures. Jerin narrowed her eyes and drew her sword, holding it out, sweeping it in a slow arc in front of her her, the tip aimed from one bird to another. Not one of the blank eyed avians showed the slightest hint of concern over the threatening gesture. Quite the contrary, the countless creatures giggled in a high pitched chorus in response, hopping about on their twig-like legs.
"Little hero wants to fight." another chirped. "Have you seen it?" It asked, wide eyes focused on Jerin.
"Seen what?" She asked, her blade now centered on the speaking creature.
"The red, of course. Have you seen the red?" another spoke up.
"What? Uh, yeah, I've seen red before..." Jerin said, not daring to even blink.
The shine within the black eyes flashed, drawn to the center as a tiny gleaming pupil, before scattering once more towards the rim of the eye. "Yes. Yes you have, but not for so very long. It's missed you, but you can't escape it forever." another said behind her. There seemed no clear difference in tone or inflection, no signs of age or gender, it was as though all of the speaking birds shared a single voice and mind, simply passing it back and forth.
"Huh?" Jerin asked.
Many of the birds were chittering with one another, some pecking at the grass, some looking about, but at this moment, every one of them raised their heads and stared directly at the group, their eyes vacant black pits, the shine vanishing entirely.
"You are all going to die." they all said in unison, in the same cheerful, high-pitched and melodic voice, before bursting into another fit of giggles, and taking to the sky.
The four stood there for a few moments in silence before Aaron decided to break it.
"Let's- let's just go." he said, not wanting to give the creatures any more thought. The others all responded with a nod, looking less than comfortable about the encounter.
There was still a fair bit of walking ahead, and although the mice remained silent, in the distance they could frequently hear tittering avian laughter, along with high pitched whisperings, as the creatures shared jokes at the adventurers expense. The four knew that these were the sort of jokes which they were better off not knowing, and did their best to pretend to not be aware of the birds which had continued to watch their trek, for all the good that did.
Centered around the great tree were large wooden benches, a slightly darker green than the grass, massive altars which the Makers often sat upon, but were now, thankfully, empty. While not as tall, they reminded Jerin of the great wooden pedestals of the shrine, massive platforms which in this were case supported by a pair of green stone legs, covered in chips and cracks through which the original stone color bled through. These structures felt ancient and abandoned. Grand monuments that they could never hope to recreate, yet were seem by the Makers as trivial and ignored, like so many of the things that they built.
Jerin was very quiet for the entire journey. Occasionally Mathias would try to make a little observation or crack a joke, but was met with a monosyllabic response, if that. This served to put all of them on edge. Aaron thought that he would constantly need to warn her to not make too much noise, or keep her from eagerly exploring every nook and cranny that they stumbled upon, but instead she was silent, alert and seemingly prepared to fight at a moments notice. This should have made the older brother happy, but instead he wished that she were excited and boisterous.
By the time they had reached another fence, this one having only the occasional flakes of white paint left on the wood, more than a few of the posts completely missing, it had been quite a while since any members of the party had spoken. Rowan placed his paw upon the wooden surface, finally speaking up.
"The domain of the prophet lies directly past here. It does not like to speak with groups, however, so I should continue on alone."
"No." Jerin said flatly, still breathing a bit quickly, eyes not looking outright frightened, but still very much alert. "I'm the leader, this is my mission. I should be the one to meet this dark lord of yours."
"I am... not certain that that is such a good idea." The old mouse said. "He is said to be quite easily angered. I have not known you for long yet, but I can tell you have a good heart. Still, I am not certain that you yet understand the ways of diplomacy. They can be quite muddled and complicated, especially when dealing with such an ancient and mysterious creature."
"I'll figure it out." she said, as her expression softened, turning to Rowan. "Sorry, I don't mean to be rude. We owe you a lot, taking us all this way, even though we didn't really give you any reason to trust us, and I know..." she looked to her brother and Mathias. "I know this is all of our journey, not just mine, and we've all got a stake in this. Still, I need to do this. I need to hear the answers myself."
Jerin stepped forward between a pair of wooden beams, one bent nearly sideways, offering an easy passage when Aaron grabbed her upper arm.
"If you find yourself in trouble, we're right here. Call for help, or better yet, just run." he said in a low voice. "Just don't do anything stupid."
"Do I ever?" Jerin asked, giving a hint of a smile for one of the first times since she had left the walled city. Her brother didn't return it. She simply nodded in agreement, stepping through the passageway, standing within the shadow of the great shrine.
It was truly a massive structure. This wasn't entirely surprising, as she had seen them through the grass during the travel, even having been inside of one before, but standing right next to it was completely different. It put the walled city to shame, and even the inner sanctum where she had first found her holy sword, the room that seemed to sprawl out forever was dwarfed by this. It looked old, reminding her of the benches in the disused park earlier, paint faded, large tools and other objects strewn about the landscape. There were a series of massive patterned stone platforms acting as a pathway to the building, weeds and grass growing between the cracks of them. Her destination wasn't the shrine, however, it was the structure right on the other side of the disrepaired fence.
At first glance, the building appeared to be miniature shrine, although completely without detail, having a similar sort of walls and even a peaked roof, the paint and tiling in no better condition than the original. Alongside it sat a pair of large, round, red plastic objects, one half-filled with water, the other holding what looked like a series of brown, dried chunks, each as large as the girls head. She suspected that they were food, and while she briefly wondered what they would taste like, knew better than to take one. The creature she sought was nowhere to be found, however. The miniature shrine did have an opening, one wide and tall enough to easily fit the entire city gates within, but inside appeared to simply be a pile of stone or dirt, shadowy lumps that piled atop one another, unmoving, with a metallic sheen of chain going from the side of the miniature house, ending clasped at a seemingly arbitrary point within the darkness.
That was when the eyes appeared. Jerin had expected something monstrous, huge and terrifying, and while they are certainly large, appeared far more tired than menacing. They weren't filled with flames or the spirits of the damned, they are just muddy brown pools, ringed by white, which fought to hold up the heavy eyelids. She at once became aware of the creatures breathing. It must have been breathing before, but seemed unnaturally still, yet now each labored exhale pushed warm, wet air towards her as the massive beast struggled to its feet.
Struggled might be the wrong term. It didn't seem to have real difficulty, it's movements quite deliberate, but it moved incredibly slowly, like some ancient clockwork which hadn't been operated in many years. The stunned mouse felt like she could almost hear it's bones and muscles grinding against one another as it rose up to a height far greater than Jerin had anticipated, forcing her to have to look straight up to meet its tired gaze.
"What do you want?" It asked, it's voice a deep, solemn echo. After the words, it yawned, revealing massive teeth which were more yellowed and decrepit than fearsome.
Be diplomatic, Jerin said to herself. "Um, sorry for waking you from your nap. Are you the prophet?"
"No, you're not." it replied in a bored voice. Jerin blinked, looking up with confusion before it clarified. "You're only sorry when something unexpected happens. Sorry means that you wish things had turned out differently. If you felt bad about waking me, you wouldn't have done it." it paused. "Or am I supposed to believe that you've grown so much over the past few seconds? That you're the sort of person who cares about such matters now, whereas previously, you did not?"
"Um..."
"Again, what do you want? I've got dreams I have to get back to. Terrible, terrible dreams."
Jerin head-tilted. "Why do you want to dream if they're so terrible?"
"Weren't you listening? I said I have to, not that I want to. If it were up to me, I wouldn't, but they aren't going anywhere. If I don't dream them, then who will?" he sighed. "Now, I'll ask again, what do you want?"
"Can you really see the future?" The girl asked, even though of course that wasn't the question she had come here to have answered.
"Yes."
"Does that mean you know what I'm going to say before I say it?"
"Sometimes, yes."
"Well... what if I say something different?"
The creature let out an annoyed grunt. This wasn't the first time it had had this sort of discussion, and the novelty of them had worn off a very, very long time ago.
"If you were going to say something different, that different thing is what I would have predicted..." it said, sighing once again, "And before you ask, no, I can't tell you what you're going to say next, which would make you say something different, just to break my prediction. It doesn't work that way. If knowing the future was the only thing required to change it, nothing I predicted would ever come true. I'd just be another old fool having waking dreams about events which don't end up happening."
Jerin gave this a moment of thought. "Okay..." she said, trying and somewhat succeeding to sort through it in her head. "But if you know what's going to happen, shouldn't you know I was coming, and what I want?"
"I do." it said with a very slow nod.
"Then... why did you ask?" she asked, finding herself confused once again
"I was seeing if you knew."
The young mouse blinked. "Huh? Of course I know! I need to know-"
"Yes, yes, you need to know where the dark lord, your enemy makes its lair, but that's not what you really want to ask, is it?"
"Of course it is! That's why we came all this way!"
"No, it's not. You've got another question, deep down. One that's nagging at you, but you're afraid to even ask yourself, let alone me."
Jerin folded her arms, looking up at him with an annoyed expression. "Oh yeah? What's that?"
"You want to know whether or not you will defeat the dark lord."
"Huh? That's stupid! I know I will!"
"That may have been true once," it said with it's slow, echoing drawl, "But since then you've gained allies. Logically, this should increase your chances, but it doesn't seem so cut-and-dry when others are depending on you, does it? It's one thing to protect yourself. It's another entirely to have their lives in your hands. Now, even with what you laughably call your strength bolstered, you are less certain than ever."
The girl stomped a foot, paws balled into little fists, shouting up at him. "That's not true! I'll find the dark lord, take my revenge, and everyone will be happy!" she paused, forcing a smile, remembering diplomacy. "Um, if you could tell me where he is... please?"
The great canine shook its body, and stepped out into the light. Even in plain view, it looked more like a stone statue than a creature of flesh and blood, it's fur so short and matted that its skin felt painted, flesh seeming to hang from the bones. "I don't need to tell you. You'll find it soon enough."
Jerin frowned. "Sooner than right now?"
"No, of course not, but since you're going to find it already on your own, there's no need for me to tell you, so I can't."
"Why not?"
It sighed once again and shook its head, raising a hind limb to scratch as its back. "We've already been over this. I don't tell you, you find it on your own, that's what happens. if I were going to decide to tell you, I never would have predicted that outcome in the first place."
The small mouse looked away and grumbled. "In that case, I could have just found out on my own without wasting my time coming here." she paused. "You could have at least said that it would be more rewarding to find out on my own, rather than making dumb excuses for why you refuse to help!"
"Could I have? I wonder. Anyways, there's still the matter of the second question... although you don't want to hear the answer to it."
"Huh? Why wouldn't I?"
"Because nobody ever does. Nobody wants to know what will happen tomorrow, they just want reassurance that tomorrow will go exactly as they hope, no matter how foolish that hope may be. Knowing the future is a terrible, terrible thing. Look far enough into the future, and things always end poorly. Worse, sometimes you don't need to look very far at all."
"Good things must happen sometimes, too, though." she said.
"Sometimes, yes. Maybe you'll see you'll go for a ride in the car tomorrow. Maybe the day after, your owner will bring some of your favorite treats. Then maybe the day after, the skies turn dark. Then maybe the day after that, your owners flee in terror, abandoning you. Maybe the day after that, you run out of food. If would be nice if the days simply ended there, but they don't. There are still worse days to come. There are always worse days to come, and unlike memories, which even when terrible, still leave their traumas behind them and fade in their own way, the future always grows ever closer, the visions stronger every day, every minute, a reminder that there's no possible escape."
Jerin blinked again, looking up at the dark lord. "What's a 'car'?"
"The answer is 'no'." the creature said, abruptly.
The mouse froze. "What do you mean 'no'?" she asked, an anxious lump in her throat.
"Why ask a question when you already know the answer? No, you will not defeat the dark lord, Midnight."
"Huh? Why not?"
"Virtually every battle in history has had a winner and a loser." it said with a yawn, "Just think of all the reasons that anyone in the past has failed to defeat their enemy. It's probably one of those."
The girl glared and drew her sword, pointing it towards the massive black creatures nose. As for the canine, it couldn't muster up a greater expression of apathy if it had tried. "If you know that, you must know what I can do differently to change it! There must be some way to win!"
"Why?"
"Huh?"
"Why must there be some way to win? Because you want it really badly? If that's all it took, everyone would always accomplish their goals." the creature laid back down, lowering its head, less then a fingers length from the tip of the sword. "Is it because you think that you're some sort of hero? Do you think that means reality itself bends and shifts to accommodate you, just because you believe that you're right? Here's a word of advice, kid: even if you are right, and your enemy is wrong, the world doesn't care. It's a machine that keeps on moving, and no matter how important you think you are, you're wrong. You aren't important at all. None of us are."
"Just tell me what happens!"
"Haven't you been paying attention? I can't. That's not how things work. That's not how time works. Yesterday, today and tomorrow, they're all a matter of perception. Once in a while creatures like me come along that can see in extra dimensions, but that doesn't change anything. You can no more change what is going to happen tomorrow, than you can change what you had for breakfast last week. So far as the universe is concerned, everything has already happened. It's just waiting patiently for the rest of us idiots to catch up at the finish line, and figure that out for ourselves."
"If that's true, then why tell me? And don't give me some dumb answer about how the gods of time forced you to."
The creature looked to the mouse with half-closed eyes. "There are no gods of time. There are no gods period. There is just time. It's true, in the small sense I have as much free will as you do, and I make my decisions for my own reasons, even if those decisions were ultimately decided before I was ever born. As for why I told you, it's because you wanted to know. Sure, I could have lied and just said that everything would turn out exactly as you wanted. That's what I used to do in the old days: just give out easy answers, and be rewarded with smiling faces, but in the end, there just seemed like there was no point. Even if smiling now, they won't be in the future. In the end, I've got a gift, and as miserable as it is, I intend to use it." it added, after a brief pause. "None of us can deny our destiny."
Jerin frowned again, lowering her blade, turning her back to him. "How do I know you're even telling the truth?"
"You don't. Maybe I'm just telling you what I think you need to hear, for my own selfish reasons, as one part of an elaborate plan which will somehow pay off down the line. Maybe hearing this will somehow motivate you to grasp victory which otherwise seemed impossible. Maybe you'll return a hero, get married, and have children who don't need to grow up in a world of flames and destruction. In the end, what happens, happens. It doesn't matter whether I'm telling the truth or not."
Jerin turned back, staring up at the creature, intently. "Well, I don't believe you."
The massive creature simply shrugged. "Nobody ever does. As for you, you and your friends could use a little break. Tell that one that you call your brother that he should go have a nice drink. Maybe things look bad now, maybe they even are, but after a good rest, everything feels a little better in the light of day."
The creature rested its head in its paws, and closed its eyes.
"You're wrong." Jerin said to it. The dark lord opened a single eye half-way, but didn't respond.
"Not just about Midnight, about everything." she said. "What, so something bad is going to happen sometime, so everything is miserable? Unless it's going to happen today, who cares? And even if it is, why spend the time until it does moping? I know, I know, you saw all this coming, and saw you'd spend it all lazy and depressed, so therefore that's what's going to happen or whatever, but that's just stupid. It's your life. If you're just going to decide it's over because of something that hasn't happened yet, you might as well never have been born! None of us might as well even exist! You're supposed to be some all knowing dark lord, but if you can't even figure out something as easy as that, I don't see how you can predict anything."
The creature closed its eye once again, and appeared to fall to sleep, the heavy churring of its breath returning to a soft mechanical rumble. The mouse frowned and walked away. As she did, she turned to the food dish, and quickly snatched up a piece and bit into it, far too angry right now to fear any sort of retribution. No retribution came, and as for the food, it wasn't bad, even if she wasn't in any sort of mood to appreciate it. As she left, she never noticed the faintest hint of a smile which appeared on the lips of the massive prophet. A young fool, it thought to itself, but a little foolishness isn't so bad, once in a while.
"So, what did the dark lord tell you?" Aaron asked as she returned.
"Nothing... he was just a big... dumb... dummy." she replied in a cold voice. The journey back to the city was a particularly quiet one.
---
Riccard once again watched from his place behind the stones as the adventurers passed by. They clearly weren't following him, but still, it was best to not draw attention, especially when his heavy pack was so filled with valuable treasures.
"Hey. Nice day, isn't it?" a soft, masculine voice whispered into his ear.
The scavenger froze. There was something behind him, and it was not a mouse. He cast his eyes down to his shadow, seeing only his own silhouette, no looming black shape consuming it. There's nothing else there, but that didn't offer any sense of relief. He could feel the weight behind him, smell the death on the breath whispering over his shoulder, and had the distinct and unwavering sensation that he had already died, and if he were to even move even the tiniest amount, the rest of the universe would realize it as well, and react accordingly.
"A little cloudy though. It will rain before long." the voice continued.
"Uh..."
"Yup, I can smell it in the air. Will be clear tomorrow, though: just a little bit of wind, and not a cloud in the sky. Simply marvelous weather."
"You don't say?" the mouse asked nervously, both scared to acknowledge the force behind him, but even more scared to risk offending it by ignoring the words, not daring to turn around.
"Yup, it will truly be a wonderful, wonderful day." the voice purred, pausing briefly. "How'd you like to live to see it?"