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Entry 6 | Date Unknown | Damage
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I was not sure what to make of the person who was cautiously walking into my domain. It was much taller than the Goni. It had a lithe body and feline features with pointed ears that seemed to twitch at each sound. It did not have any fur. Just hair on top of its head, which was long, fine, and silver. They seemed to be female.
She had leather armor, climbing gear, and a snug backpack from shoulders to hips. She stalked their surroundings as she spoke into a device held to their lips. It was wood and brass that surrounded a glowing yellow crystal. I could hear a quiet voice screaming in agony. But I couldn’t tell where it was coming from. It was like hearing a voice being carried in the wind.
As she slowly made their way through the area. Careful not to disturb the mushrooms, slimes, or fungaceans. I tried to leave my crystal to investigate. However, each time I tried, I hit a wall. Well, that is not a good enough description. More like, as my vision left the crystal, it was like moving through tar. Each centiblock was exhausting. I was trapped in the crystal.
I looked back at my orbs, allowing them to return to their natural state. They were filling, but not fast enough for me to react to this… visitor? Anxiety filled my mind. I pulled up the map again and nervously watched the visitor as she stared at the elemental mushrooms. She plucked one and put it in a leather bag with circular markings on it. The circles were divided into four sections, with some kind of writing intermixed between the sections in one flowing, unbroken line.
I felt three hazy orbs pop into existence. I tried to leave my crystal. The ‘tar’ had loosened, but I still could not leave. I looked at the map again as the visitor harvested another of the elemental mushrooms. Another three hazy orbs appeared. As I watched the visitor, ‘Come on, a few more! Please take a few more. I need to get out of here.’ I desperately asked.
It was to no avail, she only harvested the two. Then she resumed making her way to my exposed crystal. I had the slimes come and protect it. They all rushed over and covered the crystal and turned black. All except one. It disobeyed, staying hidden under the mushrooms. I was not sure what to do about that. I didn’t feel like I could command it because of my limited supply of orbs. Sighing in frustration, I paced back and forth within the liminal space. Hoping the visitor would just walk by and be only interested in the mushrooms.
I didn’t have that kind of luck. She stopped right in front of the crystal and looked at the swirling mass of slimes. She attempted to reach out, and the slimes attacked her with multiple pseudopods. The visitor just scoffed and drew a sigil in the air. It looked like the one Bea’Don made, but more refined. Then a stream of flames burned away all the slimed. Singeing my crystal.
Pain racked my existence. Before I could recover, the invader took out a knife that glowed with a dark green hue and scraped off some of my crystal into a vial. I felt my claimed area reduce a small bit and some of my mind being ripped away… again.
I cried out in pain. The crystal turned a deep red. Bathing the passageway in scarlet light and all the flamorels shot balls of fire at the invader. She turned on her heel and used the knife to deflect them. However, three balls hit her and left a burning liquid on her armor. She frantically scrapped off the liquid and patted out the fire. Then she drew a different sigil and a bubble of force surrounded her.
The fireballs smacked against the bubble with little to no effect. The invader turned to me and placed the vial into another contraption that seemed to be built around a yellow, glowing crystal. I heard the same whispers of a scream when they turned on the device. A series of lights lit up. Five lights in total. The invader gave the crystal a wide, unearthly smile and patted the crystal. Saying something in a language I didn’t understand. Her pat was not comforting. Even through the pain, I could tell it was predatory. I wouldn’t allow this to pass. I spent every orb on the flamorels.
The liminal space darkened, only illuminated by the central beating orb, now faint and devoid of any color. I watched as the map flickered. I expected it to disappear, since I didn’t have any orbs left. But it held on, showing the flamorels absorb the energy sent through my roots.
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As they did, they grew in size and brilliance. Before, they gave off the same light as a candle. Now, like torches, they lit up the passageway. This… this… creature reacted to the change by looking away from the crystal and focusing on the flamorels.
The map flickered again as the flamorels assaulted the bubble with larger balls of flaming liquid that stuck to its surface, eating away at it. The creature hurried out of the passageway. But slipped on a liquid released by the Aquarels, falling into the patch of mana mushrooms. Purple spores burst forth in a cloud, covering the creature.
She coughed as she struggled to her feet. The map blinked out of existence. I scrambled to command it back, but it wouldn’t respond. I couldn’t see what was going on. I only heard fall after fall and coughing as the sounds retreated.
I panicked as I flew around the central orb, trying to force my crystal to give me the map back. When it finally reappeared, the creature had made it to the T junction. She seemed to be covered in those purple spores, and her armor was burned through in some spots. She looked ragged, but still alive. She yelled something down the passageway, while making a gesture with her hands. Then left my sight as I sat there, watching the map as it flickered again and disappeared. This time I didn’t command it back. I just sat there, in pain, with a part of myself missing…again.
The trauma of being attacked and a piece of my crystal being scrapped off caused me to become dizzy. I didn’t think I had adrenaline anymore. But the aftereffects of the battle made me reconsider that thought. Nausea wrecked into me as my vision faltered and fell away from the central orb, down into the abyss. Darkness filled my mind as I fell into a dream-like state.
Then there was a blur of images. I was small and walking into a kitchen. Only the center of my vision was clear. Everything else was vague and hazy. I knew I was hungry and wanted something to eat. I wobbled over to where a person I knew as mom was and made a sound. I looked up at her. Her face was hazy as she said something. Her words were muddled like speech through a thick wall. But, whatever was said, I mustn’t have liked it. Because I made a louder, whiner sound in response.
She nudged me with her foot while saying something. I couldn’t keep my balance and fell over. The sudden pain from hitting the hard floor made me cry. A few moments passed as I cried before a door opened and closed. A person came and picked me up. Patting me on the back. I knew it was my father because of his smell, wood and oil, and his red beard. He consoled me and then said something to mother in angry tones. That scared me a little. He patted me and reassured me I was okay. He grabbed something out of a cold box and handed it to me. It didn’t take me long to devour it. As I did, they continued to argue. He must have said something nasty because she got up and ran over and hit him across the face with such force that I was knocked out of his arms. Hitting the ground and blacking out.
Everything rushed by in a torrent of color and images. Then I was in a car, leaving the only home I had ever known. I was a little older, as I did not need a car seat. I watched as we drove away from my mother screaming in the street waving a bat. I turned around and sat back down in the seat. I looked up and saw my father crying. He had a black eye and a bruise on his cheek. Then the pain in my left arm reminded me that I was hit with that bat. He said something to comfort me, but I didn’t believe him.
Images rushed around and then a blur of color as I was being pushed around after school. A group of kids had me cornered. I didn’t have time to focus on their faces. By the time I stopped moving, another would push me. They were chanting something that made me feel weak, alone, and powerless. Then one of them hit me to the ground and pushed my head into the mud. I felt kick after kick land on my back as they laughed.
I had to walk home because no one came to pick me up. As I walked into the house, I saw that my mother was back and sitting on the couch. She just looked at me and then returned to staring at a box with moving pictures. She said something mean; I think. Because fury welled up in my chest. I didn’t want to get hit again, so I ran to my room.
When my father got home, he checked on me. Seeing the blood and muddy footprints on my clothes. Along with dried mud in my hair and dried blood under my nose and on my lip. His face flushed red. He took a few long breaths before he ran a hot bath for me and said something that made me feel better.
While I washed up, he stepped out and started to argue and yell at my mother. There were loud thuds and smacks. He came back with fresh bruises and said something to me. I didn’t believe him. A growing anger that was quiet, cold, and resolute formed in my chest. Its focus was only on my mother. Another blur of motion and I was checking a book out of the school library about mushrooms. The anger had hardened in my chest, in my heart. I was looking for something, something specific, something to solve a problem.