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The air was humid and thick. The sun shone down onto a land full of bark, bushes, bees, bears, and a lone batfolk. Zeph flew high above the tops of the trees, making his way southeast since his last encounter. Traveling was tricky with an injured leg, so the safety of flight was quite helpful.

It was magical at first seeing the world from such a high point of view, and he hated to admit that he was getting so used to it. Now, it was simply a convenient way to get to places and a blessing that enabled his hobbies. Flying above, Zeph trained his ears on the ground as he looked for a pleasant spot to land. Finding a tall tree as a vantage point, he slowed his movement and dropped onto it. The branch shifted and leaned with a slight bend, but sustained his weight.

He took a few stretches before finding a comfortable position on the branch and pulling out the metallic eye. It was the cause of his current pain, though Zeph had hopes it was worth it. What was the point of this trouble if he wasn't going to use this new toy, after all?

Hinode 25, Noon - Speakers: Zeph

Zeph: Wondering what happened, eh? Well, when you’re as skilled and cunning as I am... you bet chumps are looking to gut ya even when you’re trying to have a good ol’ chat with a metal eyeball. Heh. Cus this synic you’re listening to isn’t mine. I don’t tend to get stuff by doing the traditional sense of 'work real hard and reap your benefits.' Chances are, you’re that same type of chump, and you’re not real privy to the idea of a thief like me talking to you.

But really. The only thing people have money for is some dumb mindset that it'll solve all your problems. If you found a pile of shiny rocks and told me they're as useful as a nice meal or a broadsword or something... Hehehe. Maybe useful if you can throw em real hard. The only reason I even steal money is cus I don't plan on upsetting EVERY schmoe I come across. Heh, wonder how much better the world would be if we ain't all tied to a fascination for shiny metal.

Anywho, I’m not tellin’ you all this so you agree with me. You just gotta like me enough to cheer me on for all the crazy stuff I’ve experienced and lived through. And if you hate me, well, you might get a kick out of this first one. Cus I got stories, and I’m not dying before I put my foot down and cement it into this place. This first tale… is all about me! So, go sit down somewhere and get comfortable. Cus this is how a legend was born.

First, if you missed it, I'm a batfolk. For anyone who knows the typical ‘ratty long-ear’... You'd probably assume I'm a lil' prim, proper errand boy, a nutcase about nature, or a sports fanatic. And if you've never met one, trust me, you're not missing much. All of 'em talk about how important it is to stick to the natural order of things. How you find a good place in 'ye old society.' Working, following rules, doin' nature's bidding, all that typical forest folk stuff.

I was born in this big tree community, easily taller than any castle or mansion you'd find around most parts. The trunk of this thing was stupid wide. Forest chumps have this way of using magic to grow branches into platforms, rooms, roofs, y'know, the whole nine yards. It makes the place way safer than any other homes in the forest, cus you gotta scale the ridiculous trunk of that thing. There's a path, but man, you bet it's defendable. I think a few other forestfolk lived there too, but it's really just batfolk. And humans rarely are seen around those parts except for diplomacy or travelers.

To be blunt, I hate that place. But when you’ve seen as much of the world as I have, you start realizing they got quite a knack for style. They've got these fancy little figurines everywhere, dozens of wind chimes, jars of fireflies hangin' from branches... Oh, and some of those chumps even have these little bundles of herbs that they burn for the smell. You’d never see me being a scent connoisseur, but you bet I wasn't complaining. They also got these real nice hammocks you can hang upside-down in, normal ones, typical beds for chumps, plenty of hanging sticks, and a bunch of weird magical sleep stuff.

Look, if I lost you with all the boring scenery and details, just know that it was one nice place to live. But talent doesn't mean nothin’ if the people there are awful.

I came into the waking world about half-dead. In terms of close calls, both my mother and I just barely made it. I was a runt born with defects, came way too late, and had a twin that only lasted a few hours. That damned poor soul was born with a spike cracking out of his skull, and it doomed him to have a quick life. Poor Bud's death spooked my father cold too, and he believed I wasn’t making it either.

So, of course, I passed away and I’m throwing all this shade from the afterlife.

But nah, I held on, and you better bet I’m lucky I don’t have an extra head or something. I was born skinnier than most Batfolk around, had some orange splotches on me, and get this, I grew a long, skinny tail. Now, the little bat animals around here got tails, and nobody bats an eye. A walking, talking batfolk gets born with one? Whole group goes ballistic. Chumps say that some folks are born with mutations and hidden genes, all that. And forestfolk think that we all ascended from animals, so maybe I really did tap into some primal history, ey? Heh. But the bottom line was I looked weird to em. And if you think being special is neat, you can bet none of my peers had that stance.

Some of them thought I was cursed with death, or a demon from the underworld. Some disgraced mutant that ain't even a real batfolk, an insult to the family legacy. A whole lot of something when the chump you’re talking about didn’t have a single choice in the matter. The whole family even thought of cutting it off at one point, especially this crazy lady who happened to be my aunt. Said some stupid stuff about me being risen from hell to wreak havoc on the angels.

Ironic, huh?

But you know what shocked me the most about all that? I got out of that slouchfest unscathed. And that was the only thing my father ever did right. Now, you gotta understand, my father is this massive pushover who couldn’t think his own thoughts if he wanted to. He got this big job as family co-leader and these punks loved him. You give him a few sweet words and he would endorse whatever you wanted. Real high praise from everyone, which meant his kid was a big deal. But... he's not one for letting a kid like me get ditched, and I’m glad he had a sneaking suspicion that their ideas were stupid. Instead, he dyed my fur normal and tried feeding me more. Don't think he had much of a chance to cure my nature, though. And when the rumors about chopping my tail off or using fleshcrafting magic came up, man stood firm. He wasn’t about to lose another son with freak magic, so he really fought em. And wouldn’t you know it? I'm glad that chump stood his ground. Now, he's also a two-faced crowd-pleaser, but I can’t quite knock em there.

The other family though? Ha!

My mother was this shouty lass who ruled over anything she touched with an iron fist. Had magic too. She was the real co-leader, it's just that they didn’t allow ladies to get that position. But despite all the dumb rules they had about that, she had a ton of authority regardless. She was driven, I’ll give you that, a I guarantee you there wasn’t any soul in that body. You mess up once? You get punished. She even roughed me up when stuff didn’t go her way, and said a whole lotta dismissive junk that made me feel like dirt.

Told me that I was a mistake once.

...

Heh. For her.

But luckily, she wasn’t always around a ton. She was a diplomat for forestfolk and left for weeks or even months just to talk about a bunch of political stuff. I was pretty interested in some of that when I was young, but now? Trust me when I say it, it's pointless.

Now, back when I was learning to fly, there was this one odd night I was out wandering around. I was a bit scared of heights, so I liked being around the trunk a lot. There were a few homes around the base, but that was generally the nice chill spot around there. One time I was there, my aunt suddenly flew over to me out of the blue. She whispered to me that she wanted to go on a little trip to grab more shrooms, herbs, y'know. A typical task to hand a small child in the middle of the night. She said I was gonna surprise my parents with something big, so I got real eager. Man, word of advice if you're young. Don't ever go into the woods with completely insane lunatics. Now, a chump like me hadn’t learned how to say no yet, so I grabbed onto her and stayed shut as she flew out into the woods. Itty bitty me had barely seen anything past home, so you better bet I didn’t tell a soul.

She brought me to a distant place far out from the tree and set me down, laughing cheerfully all the way. When she sat me down, she told me to take a seat and started tellin’ me all this crazy conspiracy stuff. She said she kept secrets and kept the family safe, cured em of what ails you. And that she was gonna cure me of my sickness. The fact she didn't clarify should've been enough for most chumps, but man was I stupid. This lady had the most manic look plastered on her face I’ve ever seen a batfolk make. All the while, she told me to spin around, face the ground, and I just complied. Face planted in the dirt.

The next thing I knew, I got a knee pinning me down as this idiot snickered and started pulling out a knife. Well, I wasn't so trusting then. Psycho started slicing through my tail, laughing all the way through. All the while, I'm screaming bloody murder. I start kicking and screaming, trying to escape this mad lady's foot slamming me down. But what was little kid me gonna do at that point? She just kept shredding through it with this jagged-edge knife, and I was coughing blood. And she went deep, like, bone deep. It sounded like this horrible scrunching, popping, steel grinding. Don't try to imagine it, you don't wanna. All I knew was it felt like I was going to die.

Horrible thing about it is, she had planned this whole thing out. Psycho lady had flown real far off cus batfolk are probably the best chumps at hearing that you could ever find. Screaming for my family wasn't gonna help. And worse, I was the little midget who couldn’t fly well and couldn’t do a single thing about it. The family probably wouldn't have even cared, so I was really just hopeless.

Trapped in circumstances that I never asked for.

But… you bet I was lucky.

All of a sudden, there's this figure sprinting towards us. Aunt must’ve noticed since she looked up and saw whatever it was with the most scared, wrinkly face I’ve ever gazed at. Aunt said something before getting slashed straight in the eye and losing her ear. Served her right, but she got away after getting hit a few more times, and that wasn’t the last I saw of her. At the moment, the only thing I was seeing was red, and my vision and hearing were fading QUICK. But the one thing I remember hearing is that figure picking me up and looking me over. Now, as an itty bitty kid, I can’t recall much about my life besides these broad strokes and things that really mattered. But with all this happening, you’d think that THIS is what I’d remember better than anything.

Heh. Here's the fun thing.

I can’t.

And you better bet it’s some magic shenaniganry or a suppressed memory spell or something like that, cus I couldn't stop thinking about that person. And being unable to remember who it was or what they looked like, you bet I still hate that fact to this day. Tried a bunch of magic stuff to pull that memory back, but nope. Just a lone wolf that saved my tail. Literally. And I’m sure I’ll meet em in my travels someday.

Anyway, I woke up that evening and found myself in my bed. I hurt a ton, but you know something shocking? No visible scars or damage anywhere. Whoever that figure was must’ve healed me. And my aunt came back unscathed too, but get this! She accused me of tryin’ to kill her in the middle of the forest. Oh, a demon transforming ‘right before her eyes!’ I wasn't a real batfolk; I was some fake! Hah! After I told em all what really happened, the whole family has no clue what to make of it. So they decided to curfew us both for a month and kept us distant from each other. Really, I think they knew she was crazy, but seeing me throw a rebuttal back? They must've thought we had some hallucination trip. But I know what I saw, and that day stuck with me. My father even mocked me for having this imaginary hero I kept talking about. Jeez.

Now, getting older, they gave me a few shots at educating, and it worked just as well as you'd think. They didn't like people gettin' creative, and I couldn't stop getting into trouble. So, they just let me be until my father came up with a new teaching plan. His plan was me working with an old lady who couldn’t even echolocate anymore. She was sweet, all things considered, but I didn't learn much cus I wasn't doing anything. You know what I wanted more than anything else at that time? To see the world. To get out of that dumb tree. There was a whole world of mystery and intrigue out there, and nobody cared. Ever since all this stuff happened, those people always kept an eye on me and stopped me from going anywhere. “Oh! You just need to apply yourself, and you’ll be so great!” they all said. Yeah, and the best way to do that ain’t listening about what someone else did. It’s being there and seein' for yourself.

Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

So!

When I got older, I snuck out a few times and tried to find my way around the forest. It didn't work very well at first, but I kept at it. Even found a bunch of bandits once, though they chased me all the way back cus they thought I was spying on em. I flew all back to the tree, where they hurried off like scared little girls when the family guard shook em up. They're not good fighters, but you’d be scared too if there were a lot of them.

Now, after a while, the family started getting sick of trying to corral me all the time. My father said he was going to leave for a bit to find mother, cus I suppose some plans got messed up. Taking too long or a hard travel, it was one of those. So I was getting watched by the family, and most of em didn't know what to do with me. But after getting to be 13, that group of chumps finally got an idea. They let me explore wherever I wanted, on account of getting followed by this forestfolk named Casper. He was gonna be my new caretaker. Apparently, he knew a guy who knew another guy, and now he's a de facto friend of the family, y'know? And Casper was the real thing. He meant business. Don’t think he’d beat me in a fistfight nowadays, but you gotta respect knowin’ you can’t hide from that man if you wanted to. Even when flying.

Casper at the time was this pretty middle-aged folk, with orange-gold fur, a big ol’ snout, and a big bushy tail. I hadn’t seen many walkin’ foxes around the land, and much less ones that gave me such a run for my money. Casper had this massive pelt collection, even of some foxes too. Now, he was a little bit of a shrewd man, but he's a decent guy. He has some real knack for hunting and barely let me catch my breath when he was teaching me all his tricks. I wanted to see the world, so he made me work for it. I also got to see the forest more, along with all the towns around the area. They have these little huts that forestfolk live in, and most species do things a bit differently. The only rules around were the ones made by the Ground Pack, which is just a fancy term for forest kingdom. I wasn't part of any tribe there; I was just myself.

And that was fantastic.

The family told Casper that they bet the only path for me was going to be trapping or hunting since I wasn’t doing well with “normal people.” But I learned more about that community than most of the chumps up in the tree ever did. Funny how those things play out. Now I gotta say, I have no clue how much he got paid by my family to take me in, but he wasn't a slouch. All the little details like scents, tracks, plants, bait, real juicy stuff. Turns out HIS growing up was way less about teachin' and more about doing. The lucky bastard. He wasn’t afraid to get messy either. I learned more about what’s inside more things by gutting them than any book was gonna tell me for years. Casper said he’s a fan of going places too, and he had plenty of stories he shared about the wilds. Don’t think I’d be the legend I am today without him giving me a shot. And when I told him about all the crazy stuff I endured up to that point, he listened. He wasn’t laughing in my face or calling me a demon or something benign like that. He just listened. He kept making fun of my decisions and antics, but he listened.

I got plenty of stories about him and me for another day, but we basically did everything together. For a good number of years, that was my life. But there was one day that all changed.

For the worse.

I was out grabbing some of the traps we set one day, and Caster started cooking some camp stew. I was in charge of grabbing some stuff on the way, so I picked up a bunch of traps, dropped em off, and left for a bit. But when I walked back with a few things, I hid when I saw this group trying to rough up Casper. Two chumps were standing over him, shouting loud enough that the forest heard them. This buff snobby-lookin’ human stood over him and dangled a sword over his head while a rabbitfolk interrogated him. I listened in, and it turns out they were gonna try and jail him for violating some natural order rules garbage. Turns out he and I hunted some critters going extinct and soul crystals. They store magic after you kill something, but these chumps believe a bunch of mojo about the spirit world. You let 'em go into the forest cus it’s good for it or something. Except chumps around the rest of the world don’t give a rat’s tuckus about that.

I was scared and didn't want to get involved, but you know what set me off? Casper had a hint about this powerful forest beast and they wanted info on it. Badly. They wanted to be set for life by finding it, and he knew where it was. Of course, he didn't budge an inch, so they started kicking and bashing him. They were gonna kill him right then and there, and I wasn’t going to let that happen. I jumped right onto that human and bit down on his neck, clawing into his back and tearing through it. He was so surprised, he dropped forward screaming and tried prying me off. He struggled hard, but there wasn’t a chance he was getting his life back after that. The other chump was about to kick me off, but Casper had my back and suddenly brandished a knife. It was a whole mess of a fight, and those few seconds made blood spill everywhere. I only felt rage as I tore through that neck. I killed the human, but that rabbitfolk ran for the high hills.

I didn't get hurt, but Casper got hit for saving me. The rabbitfolk had a spear and got him right in the side. He told me to run for it cus this forest wasn’t safe anymore. It was gonna be our tomb. Well… he was right about that. But I wasn’t about to leave him to die in the middle of nowhere like that. Not after all that stuff he did for me. He was a close family friend, so y'know what my first thought was? Head back to the tree and get the family to heal him. 'They were just plannin' on jailing him anyway, so there was no reason he had to die like that,' I told myself. Even after Casper directly told me I was gonna die trying, I didn't listen.

Flying all the way back to the tree, I got screams and magic straight into my face. Turns out having a bloody face doesn't scream a need for support. With a swift punch to the face and a kick to the ground, they told me that the damn rabbit got here first. He told them I was a murderer. I was pleading my case that they were going to kill Casper, and that he needed help, but you can guess what happened. They didn't listen. They chained me up, brought me to their in-house court, and held a trial deciding my fate. I tried to struggle out of there, but those chumps tied me up before they even decided anything. My family brought up all the past rumors, my history, and plenty of people I thought were friends told me how awful I was right to my face.

The family decided they were gonna kill me. For protecting my chum.

For a bunch of chumps that are really insistent on peace, nature, unity, honor, all that schmuck, you'd think they value that. You'd think they give sympathy for everything working against me. But life ain’t like that. They don’t like when someone’s doing the right thing. And chumps like them make it perfectly clear that some people really do deserve to die.

After the decision was final, they brought me to the base of that big tree. A bunch of forestfolk and family watched as they gave this little speech about renewing life. Their whole prospect was I'd die and be born someday as a better man. Sickos. The way they execute people is brutal, mental, and straight-up torture. They use magic to open up a tree and then throw someone in it. Now, you think that's bad? It's days long and it's agony. The walls started slowly closing in, little by little every minute. When you can't move anymore, little roots grow into your skin. They go deep, and they HURT. It feels like little slow needles of death prodding into you everywhere and anywhere. It sucks the life out of you, replacing it with stronger roots that don't give up. You become the fertilizer to nurture the tree. You can see how messed up this is, right? All the while, their thoughts are I could be used for something 'greater'. I screamed out, but the wood just made everything muffled. It crushed me just enough to hurt, but not enough to kill me. And the worst part was the time, the endless time of regret and hate. It was slow, and it was agony.

My family just sat there looking all mopey when they locked me in. They didn’t do a single thing to try and listen to me or even help Casper. Mother and Father were nowhere to be found for years. And my brothers from the family all didn't care. They weren’t gonna lift a finger either. Casper was out there dying, and he warned me not to come back. He wasn't going to save me. He couldn't. And that strange figure? Seems like once was enough for em. No trinkets, tricks, knives, or any of that. Just a hollow emptiness and pain as I was trapped in a cage of wood.

Nobody would ever hear me again, and I felt like every part of me was screaming murder. That’s what the family always wanted for me. To get rid of the problem. For a while, I was just stuck there, rotting. I was defeated, but something made me keep going. I knew my life was over, but I couldn't accept it. I felt like I was going insane. Outside, I was quiet. I didn’t try and scream out to the family cus there was no point. But inside? I was burning up. These villains. These absolute scum of the earth act like they're right when they don’t know a single thing about what matters. And they had the gall to hurt the closest friend I had for their own benefit. The wood cut deep, but those scumbags cut deeper. At that point, I knew that I wasn't in the wrong. I knew that I had to do something to keep living. That rage I felt. That drive that motivated me. When there’s nobody you can rely on but yourself, you don't hold back. You make your own future because nobody makes it for you. And in that moment, I discovered a lil' something in me I didn't know I had.

I channeled everything I had into one last push, one last effort to escape. And you know what happened?

I blew up.

And that whole tree started bursting into flames.

Now, most chumps would think that means I died. I didn’t, though some of that wood bled into my real sore and painful body. The explosion made an entrance out of this trunk for me and it was beautiful. I could see moonlight. Those wooden veins started setting on fire and melting off me. I was covered in fire. Smoke. Ash. But I didn’t care if I was burning alive, I was able to move. I climbed out of the base to be greeted by a group of family guards just stinkin' terrified of me. And you better bet I had a bone to pick with em. I socked the first guy straight in the face and he went straight flying. Another one ran towards me with a spear, but I yelled as fire dripped out of my mouth and onto him. He caught ablaze, and suddenly jumped back. I had power and I had control. More and more family poured out of the tree, trying to see what happened. And you know what I sent back in return? A stinking ball of fire straight into their faces. I wasn’t even sure what was happening. I was burning up yet able to control it. I could barely even see past the flames, but I kept going. I started throwing fire everywhere. The whole place started smoking like crazy, and most of the family ran to get it put out. One guard here and one there kept getting lit like moths to a flame, and I kept at it. The guards started flying out of the building as I flew up and lit more things on fire. They made the right call, but while everyone was flying away, there was one person who stayed.

My aunt.

That awful, horrible, lying sack of insane voracity.

Y'know what? I’ll let you in on her name for this one.

Yuya was one of the main chumps that got me started on this whole mess, and she said she was saving everyone instead. Told me how she knew this was gonna happen, that I was finally showing my true colors. But y'know what shocked me? She’d been training for this day. The day she was gonna kill me herself cus she got scared those years ago. Yuya kicked open a pot of water and it swirled all around her with this magic tingling. It glimmered all shiny as she moved it. She said she had ‘inner foresight’ that I was gonna mess up someday, and she was waiting for her right chance to be some vigilante. Course, she didn’t try to kill me when I was stuck in the tree or gettin' arrested, so something tells me she was bluffing about everything.

Now, while I was paying attention to her monologue, water came from some jars below and pushed me up into the air. It froze all around me, extinguishing my flames and leaving me like a living popsicle. She leaped towards me, water swirling all around as she prepared a knife to stab me straight in the eye. But it’s a good thing she didn’t cover me fully. I took a swallow of air and breathed out a giant waft of fire right in her mangy face, leaving her scrambling to put it out like a dancing fire spirit. It was amazing. The first time I felt like I was able to act. That I had more than my fate dragging me along on a leash. I was using magic, and it was AMAZING.

Only took me a little more time to get on fire again and melt the ice, but of course, she had put herself out already. She tried grabbing me with a water hand, but as she did, I dashed and kicked her straight into one of the houses midair. Wood was flyin' everywhere. The room was pretty small and I didn't let up. I kept punching the snot out of her as she struggled to do anything. I was getting my revenge, but she wasn’t having it. All the water she melted from the ice? All came rushing into the room and surrounded me again. But this time, she surrounded me in this big bubble of water. And she wasn’t done. It rushed into every little crevice that the wood made and held me there. It was in my body, all my wounds, in the nails, nose, mouth, everything. I was being held there and choked while I desperately tried to claw the water off my face. But I couldn’t move and I couldn’t breathe. I shot a bolt of fire toward her, but all that water surrounding me snuffed it out instantly. Even when I tried flying towards her, she pulled me further back into the room. That bloody face of hers smiled at me. Inside me, everywhere, I felt like I was gonna rupture. I underestimated what she could do, and even though she was hurt, It looked like she was gonna come out on top.

I went limp, not fighting back from her pressure. She laughed, thinking I had finally given up. I started just floating there, losing consciousness and seeing darkness. You better bet she slowed her magic to take a rest, and I took that chance. With everything I had left, I shifted to the back of the bubble and springboarded off the drawer behind me. It went with me but popped as I crashed into Yuya with another punch. Something cracked, and brain matter got hard-pressed into the wall behind her. The water fell like water normally does, and she started bleeding everywhere.

She was out.

I fell and coughed out water for a good minute. She wasn’t fighting me anymore, and I ended her life. I was in pain, but I was alive.

I took a second to look at everything around me. After everything, it felt… still. There was still a ton of commotion outside with people rushing to put out the fire at the base while I just sat there listening to it burn. There were parts of this place I hated, but it was sentimental, y'know? This was where I grew up, and as much as I hate to say it, not all the family was as crazy as Yuya. And now everything was getting consumed in flames. My flames.

But hey, it toughened me up. I left that place knowing I was something more, and you bet I haven’t been back there since.

Now, that’s a whole lot to throw onto your plate at once. So, for all those who weren’t listening all that well, my summary for you is this. My family was a bunch of chumps, this weird stranger saved me in the woods one day, and I got crazy awesome magic. Course, all this was messed up for the family to do. For all the forestfolk to do. But I'd be lying if I said there weren't some nice highlights of my life there. Maybe even a story for another day, eh? Hehe.

Now then, I think it’s about time I stop resting and get traveling again.

Oh, and don't think that I forgot about Casper.

I'll see ya real soon.

Recording Ended