The Walking Green
Chapter 1
Phelphor opened his eyes after sleeping for the night. He put his hand on his head and grunted.
"Argh. I think I drank too much. Urgh," Phelphor grunted putting his hand over his forehead.
A hangover was something Phelphor despised, but he forgot to moderate. He stood up and ate something when he heard M'arrillians screaming outside.
"What is going on-" Phelphor wondered if it happened again. "Oh no. Don't tell me this Santa Claus finally came back!"
He dashed outside his home and when he looked around, he saw no one. He put his hand on his forehead and thought about it.
"Did I really hear someone screaming?" he second guessed it. He had a hangover after all.
He walked at the middle of the town for a while. His hangover eventually calmed down and stopped walking when a M'arrillian passed near him.
"Run away! They lost their mind!" he said before leaving Phelphor alone.
Phelphor wondered what the M'arrillian meant. He wondered if it was catfight between Vix'ben and Lam'inkal again. He reached the center of the town and it was unusually empty. He looked to his left and right, empty.
"What is going on here?" Phelphor asked. "Was I out for a longer time than I thought?"
He heard some footstep. He turned at the source of the sound and waited for a while. He saw a Coral soldier appeared from a corner and walked around.
"A coral soldier. I was scared by a foot soldier," Phelphor commented.
The Coral soldier suddenly looked at him. He walked at his direction and raised his pincer: "Greeeen," he said in an uncanny way.
"What is it?" Phelphor asked.
"Greeen," the soldier said.
"What is going on in town soldier?" Phelphor ordered.
The soldier repeated the word green and kept coming closer. Phelphor didn't like it and took step back and maintained his distance with the Coral soldier.
"Stay back! What is wrong with you?" Phelphor shouted.
"Greeen," the soldier replied.
Phelphor back hit the wall: "Stay away from me!" the solider kept approaching him. "Don't come any closer!"
The soldier raised his pincer and clapped it: "Greeen!"
"Why aren't you listening to me?!" Phelphor shouted.
The Coral soldier grabbed Phelphor with his hand and clapped his pincer.
"No! Let me go!" Phelphor shouted.
The pincer came closer and the soldier pincher the cheek of Phelphor. Phelphor grunted in pain, but he was confused by it when a tentacle grabbed the pincher away from him. He Coral soldier let him go and was thrown away. Phelphor saw that the one who saved him was Aval'par.
"W-" Phelphor was cut.
"No time! Are you bleeding?!" Aval'par shouted.
Phelphor put his hand on his cheek and felt nothing. Phelphor nodded negatively. Aval'par didn't say anything to his reponse.
"Why are you asking me this?" Phelphor said.
"No time to explain. We have to go before more Kha'ralls comes here," Aval'par replied.
He flew in the air and Phelphor decided to follow him, it was clearly safer than staying there when the situation was confusing.
He ran in the desert town for a while until he saw a lot of Kha'rall. He noticed that they were only saying green, if it was only that, he would think they were insane. He noticed that some of them had their body painted in green of a few places. All of this was confusing for Phelphor. Aval'par landed on the roof of a blue shell house and Phelphor joined him. Phelphor breathed loudly for a few seconds until he regained his breath.
"What is going on here?" Phelphor asked. Aval'par glared at him and the fluidmorpher realised he was ordering a chieftain to give some answers. Phelphor tried to apologise, but he was cut.
"I'll let it pass considering the situation," Aval'par said. He also noticed that Phelphor noticed the insult. "I do not really know, but the Kha'rall are sick. They are acting very strangely today."
"You mean when they said "Green" chieftain?" Phelphor asked.
"Yes. I am not sure why they said that, but it's clear they lost their mind. If it was only that, it would have been easy to contain, but it's not the case. It started very soon this morning, every green Kha'ralls started to say that word and acted strangely. It was unsettling, but it wasn't only that. They attack anyone who doesn't have anything green on them. Those who don't wear green are pinched." Aval'par said.
"But I had some green crystal on me. They shouldn't-" Phelphor noticed that the green crystal on his bracelet were gone. He gasped. "There's gone."
"This is bad for you, me and any M'arrillians who aren't green. There's something worse. If you are pinched too hard by them and you started bleeding...You will turned partially green and become one of them. It's something contagious," Aval'par finished his explanation.
Phelphor realised that he almost became one of them: "You saved me from...whatever it is," Phelphor said. He thought of something and asked: "Is there any mugic to counter them?"
"No. There is no mugic to cure them and I haven't found anyone who knew more than I have. I tried searching for anything green for protection, but there's nothing. Anything green disappeared from the Deep Mine. I tried communication with anyone else mind, but they didn't answer. We are on our own," Aval'par answered.
"This is catastrophic. If any tribe decided to attack us, we are done. They will destroy us," Phelphor gulped when he thought about it.
"Maybe we will infect them if they come here," Aval'par said.
"Okay. What do we do now?" Phelphor asked.
"We need to find somewhere safe," Aval'par said.
Phelphor and Aval'par watched the road and saw no Kha'rall. They jumped off the roof and walked quietly.
"I never thought we end up in a situation like that in our own home," Phelphor commented quietly.
"Agreed," Aval'par replied.
They continued walking when they heard something that started to scare them: "Greeen!"
They looked behind them and they saw five Coral soldiers walking at their direction. They pointed their pincer at them and repeated the same word.
"They spot us," Aval'par said.
Phelphor nodded and they ran away. After a while, Phelphor looked behind him and noticed that they just walked after them.
"Wait. Look at them, they are walking after us. Not running after us," he said.
Aval'par looked behind him and stopped running: "They are slow. We should slow down if they remained that way."
"What is going on in here?" Phelphor asked.
"Greeen!" the heard someone shouting in front of them.
They saw more Kha'ralls walking at their direction.
"We are surrounded!" Aval'par shouted. He raised his arms and pointed at the Kha'ralls standing in their way: "Coral Spike!"
He fired at them and they lost their balance.
"GREEEN!" the Kha'ralls screamed.
Phelphor and Aval'par saw the Coral soldiers dashing at them.
"Run!" Phelphor shouted.
They ran away from the Coral soldiers by passing through spot the chieftain opened and looked behind them. The Coral soldiers chased them and some were getting closer.
"We're outnumber!" Phelphor shouted.
"Thanks! I didn't know that!" Aval'par shouted.
Aval'par was starting to get exhausted and changed his strategy. He flew in the air and moved faster.
"Hey! Don't leave me behind!" Phelphor shouted.
Aval'par looked at Phelphor and sighted. He didn't really care that much for him, but the fluidmorpher might be the last normal M'arrillian. He flew lower and grabbed Phelphor with his tentacle arm around his stomach. One Coral soldier managed to pinch the foot of Aval'par who grunted in pain. He then flew higher in the air and safe from the Coral soldiers.
"Thanks," Phelphor said.
"I only saved you because I'll lose my mind if I was the last sane one," Aval'par replied.
"Great. That's really making you more heroic," Phelphor replied sarcastically.
"I can still drop you with them," Aval'par commented.
"No!" Phelphor shouted.
"Then don't insult me fluidmorpher," Aval'par warned. He said nothing for a while before he looked at Phelphor. "Can you look at me feet and tell me if I'm losing some of my body?"
Phelphor looked at the chieftain feet and saw nothing falling out of his purple body.
"Nothing," Phelphor replied.
"Good. I'm not contaminated. We have to reach the Record shell. We will surely be safe there," Aval'par sighted relief.
"I agree with you Chieftain," Phelphor replied.
"Good. The location is not easily reachable for the Kha'ralls and any M'arrillians who can't fly. Also, the Record shell is a little like a fortress," Aval'par said.
"How long shall we be safe?" Phelphor asked.
"I hope we will be safe long enough to have a good idea. Maybe there's other sane M'arrillian there," Aval'par answered.
"I also hope it's the case," Phelphor replied.
They reached the Record shell. Aval'par let Phelphor fall, but the fluidmorpher expected it and landed on his feet. Aval'par was by his side and they watched the entrance.
"I just thought of something," Phelphor said.
"What now?" Aval'par grunted a little annoyed.
"What if there's some infected Kha'ralls in there already?"
Aval'par eye became as large as they could when he realised it was a possibility: "If there's some infected that want to pinch us, we shouldn't attack them. I believe it makes them even more aggressive."
"Understood."
The two M'arrillians watched the entrance and hesitated to open the door. They looked at each other's and waited there.
"You go first," Aval'par ordered.
"Me?! Why me?" Phelphor replied.
"You are expandable while I'm not...To be honest, I'm less expandable than you and I'm a chieftain!" Aval'par replied.
"*Perim Swear* Fine! When I'm pinched to blood, I'll be after you!" Phelphor shouted.
"Yeah," Aval'par rolled his eye.
Phelphor moved his hand at the door. His hand trembled, anticipating the worse behind the door.
"We don't have unlimited time here Phelphor!" Aval'par shouted.
Phelphor opened the door and looked inside. He carefully watched to his left and saw nothing. He turned to the right and no danger was present. He looked over him and also saw nothing.
The only thing he saw was the blue stone of the Record room with a lot of shell case. The shell case was like cook case, but it contained shells with information's recorded in it.
"I saw nothing in here," Phelphor said entering first.
Aval'par followed behind and closed the door: "We don't want them to suspect we are hiding here."
They walked deeper in the room and they looked around and saw nothing that could ambush them. Their footstep resonated in the room. Usually, it was something normal, but with the strange thing that happened in the morning, it became intimidating. The sound only gave more fear in them. Aval'par contained his fear without trouble while Phelphor gave a glance anywhere with his loud breathing.
"Don't be such a-" Aval'par was interrupted by a loud sound coming from behind a shell case.
Phelphor gulped when Aval'par pushed Phelphor at the direction of the sound.
"What are you waiting for? Inspect behind the shell case. I'll go over," Aval'par flew at the top of the shell case.
Phelphor walked slowly at the direction where the sound resonated and slipped against the case. When he was near the end, he slowly took a glance and saw nothing. He sighted, relief nothing dangerous was there. He continued more confidently. He moved at the other side of the shell case and when he picked a glance, he saw nothing.
"Nothing," he whispered.
Suddenly, something felt on him and pushed right on the fluidmorpher spine. Phelphor thought he was about to be pinched and turning into whatever the Kha'ralls had.
"Don't pinch me to blood!" he shouted.
"Wait...You're normal?" the voice said on his back. "You're clean of that mysterious infection?"
Phelphor felt the weight coming off of his back and he turned around. He saw purple M'arrillian looking a little like a dauphin.
"Dror'niq?" Phelphor asked.
"Yes. Are you alone?" Dror'niq, another fluidmorpher asked back.
"He's not," Aval'par replied landing behind the other fluidmorpher. "I'm the only one with him. Are you alone?"
"No. There's Milla'iin waiting to ambush you with Vitar'zu who escaped the contamination and Ihun'kalin. Ihun'kalin wasn't attacked because he was green and everyone ignored him. There was a problem thought," Dror'niq said.
The other M'arrillians showed themselves. Phelphor and Aval'par saw the problem with Ihun'kalin and Milla'iin.
"Red paint felt on him and he's red instead of green," Dror'niq said.
"What about...him?" Phelphor asked Milla'iin.
"I was this way since the moment I woke up," Milla'iin said.
"In...candy pink?" Aval'par asked.
Milla'iin didn't reply. Aval'par and Phelphor didn't mock him since they also had some pink on their body.
"Didn't we have enough with this Santa Claus?" Vitar'zu asked. "That coat really scared me. I always thought he was about to pierced my exoskeleton and boiled by flesh to eat it."
The others looked at him.
"You don't know what Chaotic player do to crustacean and marine creatures of their world?" Vitar'zu asked."
They nodded negatively.
"They eat them after boiling them alive. I'm sure they would hunt us if one of them decided to eat one of us," Vitar'zu answered.
Every M'arrillian shivered except Milla'iin who grunted.
"Can we deal with one problem only?!" Milla'iin shouted at Vitar'zu.
"Hey! I saved your tentacles back there! So you better stop acting so highly! With the situation, it doesn't matter if you are a chieftain or not!" Vitar'zu shouted.
"Chieftain are here to rule over the others. We are an Oligarchy and only chieftains have power to make decision!" Milla'iin replied aggressively.
"That's not important! We are maybe the last sane creatures in the Deep Mine! That's means you aren't commanding us anymore. I'm taking charge!" Vitar'zu shouted.
"You?! No. I have a brain compare to you!" Milla'iin replied.
"I also have a brain!" Ihun'kalin replied.
"You have a big eye where the brain should be!" Vitar'zu replied. "I know how to survive! None of you could survive in the desert!"
"I survived in the desert!" Ihun'kalin replied.
The three started arguing while Dror'niq looked at them and eventually joined the verbal fight about who's going to take command during the crisis.
Aval'par looked at Phelphor: "I'm afraid we are doomed."
"True," Phelphor replied.
The two didn't join the verbal fight; they felt it was present before they came there. Their argument ended when they heard something.
The six M'arrillians looked around and heard the sound again. They slowly turned their gaze at the source of the sound and observed Milla'iin. The sound repeated again and Milla'iin put two of his tendrils on his stomach.
"I didn't eat. The infected attacked me before I could eat anything," Milla'iin said.
"Infected?" Aval'par asked.
"It will be easier to name them that way. They are all crazy over the green thing and it seemed like it's infectious," Milla'iin replied and looked at Aval'par as if he was an idiot.
"You better change the way you look at me," Aval'par warned.
Ihun'kalin moved in their way: "Enough. We cannot afford to fight against each other's right now!"
"You were in the fight in the first place!" the others replied.
"Burn," Milla'iin said. The five others looked at him confused: "What? I know Chaotic player said that, but admit you wanted to say that to Ihun'kalin."
The four others put their hand at the back of their head. Milla'iin was right.
"Chaotic player infected our mind with some simple yet amusing vocabulary," Phelphor said.
"Anyone had food?" Milla'iin asked when his stomach grunted again.
"Nope," they replied.
"We have to stay here for now, we cannot take the first for food and we can survive for a few days without eating," Vitar'zu said.
"I know," Milla'iin replied.
Dror'niq opened his wings and flew in the air near a window and looked outside: "I see nothing approaching the Record Shell for now. I think I should stay here and watch outside."
The other's nodded and they eventually sat on the ground.
"We have to think of a way to get out of the Deep Mine," Ihun'kalin said.
"Get out of the Deep Mine?!" the others shouted.
"What he said?" Dror'niq asked.
"Ihun'kalin wants to get out of the Deep Mine," Phelphor replied.
"You're *Perim Swear* crazy!" Dror'niq shouted.
"You know we are dead if we even tried to get out of here!" Milla'iin replied.
"The four tribes are watching the door with heavy artillery! We can kiss out tentacles good-bye if we tried to get out of here!" Aval'par replied loudly.
"We have to find a place where we will be safe from contamination in the Deep mine," Vitar'zu suggested. "I don't know if I'll get it by simply breathing it."
"Maybe we should start by what we know about the infected first," Phelphor suggest.
"Shut up fluidmorpher!" The chieftains replied harshly. Phelphor put his hands over his ears when they shouted at him.
"He's right," Vitar'zu said.
The chieftains looked at him and said nothing.
"We have to know who the enemies are if we want to survive. I thought you have a brain," Vitar'zu said clapping his pincers, since no one could see him smirking.
"Burned!" Dror'niq shouted.
"SHUT UP!" The chieftain screamed back.
"Enough! What do we know about them?!" Vitar'zu ordered. "Don't reply!"
"We know that the said green pretty often in a scary way," Ihun'kalin started.
"Thanks for stating the obvious," Milla'iin replied sarcastically.
"Milla'iin! With our current situation, I think saying the obvious is important!" Aval'par replied.
"Anything thing we know is that they are slow. They don't move fast unless we provoke them," Phelphor added.
"True. When I attack them, they all started running after us instead of walking and they were much more aggressive," Aval'par said.
"So fighting is out of question," Vitar'zu said.
"I also know that when pinched to blood, it will infect us and turned anyone into an infected. That's why I chose the word," Milla'iin said raising one tendril and twisted it with some vanity in it.
"You're head got bigger. I guess you're ego expanded when you brought so many victories against the other tribes, but it won't be useful here," Ihun'kalin replied.
"Back to focus! I guessed that the Kha'ralls who were naturally green were the first infected. They target any M'arrillians who aren't green. If we could find some green paint, clothes or battlegear, it will save our life," Vitar'zu suggested.
"I should have some green, but my green crystals are gone," Phelphor said.
"I'm painted in red and Milla'iin in candy pink," Ihun'kalin said. "This is no accident! This infection must be send by the other tribes!"
"Biological battlegear," Milla'iin said. He then grunted doubtfully. "No tribe can do it."
"Chaotic player?" Dror'niq suggested. "I know it's hard to believe, but they had scanner that can teleport, maybe they could create something like this to enslave us."
"Ha! Like I'm going to believe such thing," Ihun'kalin replied.
The others laughed except Phelphor.
"I should remind you that we know nothing about them. Maybe they hid some trick after all. We thought no one could defeat our leader Aa'une, but it happened," Phelphor said.
Once that said, the others stopped laughing and took the possibility more seriously now.
"That question is useless anyway. Anything else about the infected?" Vitar'zu asked.
"Those who aren't Kha'ralls also pinch us. I first thought it was a bad joke because it was too unreal, but when I saw Bahrakatan the Coralsmith with a green body...I knew it was all real," Dror'niq said.
"Bahrakatan is...infected?" Milla'iin asked.
Dror'niq nodded.
"I still think we should escape the Deep Mine," Ihun'kalin said again.
They looked at him and grunted loudly. The Chieftains and Vitar'zu argue once again.
Phelphor suddenly felt something chilling on his back. He didn't know why, but he felt his instinct telling him something was wrong. He looked around, but saw nothing.
"Does anyone feel like we are watched right now?" Phelphor asked.
"You too? Yeah. The problem is that there's no one outside right now," Dror'niq replied.
The others stopped arguing.
"I feel like something's his watching us," Aval'par admitted.
They said nothing for a while and Milla'iin stomach grunted once again. "I hate having an empty stomach," he grunted.
The chaotic players were on the roof of a cliff and watched the town with only the green M'arrillians walking around and shouting green. The only difference was that 70 Chaotic players were there instead of 50 and they were sending the situation to Chaotic were a lot of player were watching it.
There were also a few crystals to see with more details what was going on in the M'arrillian town. Those crystals were in houses and it was funny to see how the remaining normal M'arrillians were freaking out. It was currently uneventful right now.
"That's surprising," Kaz commented.
"What do you mean?" Tom asked.
"Their entire social structure pretty much breaks in less than an hour," he noticed.
It was true. They saw that most of the Chieftains weren't the one taking command. They were pissed off when a Kha'rall or a fluidmorpher was the one in command and caused tension in the small group. The most interesting « survivor » was with the six at the Record shell. They were the one complaining the most.
"It's not as funny as last time when they believe Santa was a dangerous enemy they couldn't fight," Sarah noticed.
"You find it boring?" a voice said.
The chaotic players saw a Coral soldier joining them with a bag on his hand. The players were cautious about him.
"Eel'Soprano. What are you doing here?" Serena asked.
The chaotic player relaxed when the Coral soldier laughed at her question and put his hand on the girl shoulder.
"I was checking if you were having fun watching my tribe misery. It's sad to see it's a little boring when I put so much effort convincing the Kha'ralls to put this prank. Even Bahrakatan is in and I wasn't expecting him at all. The other thing is that we all have fun causing this chaos and seeing some of them pissing themselves, literally," Eel'Soprano replied. He took his bag and opened it: "I'm also here to collect the chocolate."
The chaotic players took out their chocolate and Eel'Soprano collected, to his great pleasure, for 15 kilos of Belgian chocolate.
"That's more than I expected. If you find it boring, I'll spice things up," Eel'Soprano suggested.
"How?" Serena asked.
"You're going to provoke more chaos?" Peyton asked.
"Yes. I think they need to witness a « horrible transmission » of the illness. Blak'drin is ready to infect a chieftain from the Record shell. We are ready for an ambush," Eel'Soprano chuckled.
"When will it be ready?" Sarah asked.
"Soon. I'll also be here to coordinate the prank. We give them enough time to relax, it's time to increase the tension and the fear," Eel'Soprano then gave a bad evil laugh.
The humans were struggling not to laugh at the worse evil laugh ever heard on Perim.
Serena tapped the M'arrillian shoulder: "Never do evil laughs again if you want some respect."
"Okay," Eel'Soprano replied before giving the instructions.
AC: This is the end of the first part of The Walking Green.
I hope you like it.
The next part will be release 9 March.