Chapter Two: The Serpent's Gift

Over the next few days I read the book titled "Daisy" and learned all sorts of awful things- vague accounts of terrible happenings related to the Queen of Sarasaland. I think I could say it was honestly the worst thing I'd ever read.

I knew the government wasn't too great (As I've said earlier, the Queen's reign is absolutely riddled with corruption) but the idea that the Queen was this deranged, this horrifying…I dismissed it as fiction at first thought, and then I settled on it bein' some kind of weird propaganda. But then, I had to ask, whose propaganda was it? The Organization that John was a member of? If so, did he give it to me because he believed this craziness? I would have to talk to him some more before I could believe any of it- save for some public events the book mentioned that I had personally witnessed.

Reading the book especially reminded me of a conversation I had had with John about a week before I had found out that he had joined the "Organization". This was about a year back. John had become obsessed over the question of why a human royal family, humans being such a rare species, ruled over both Sarasaland and the Mushroom Kingdom while the other kingdoms were represented by their most populous members: Koopa Kingdom = Koopas (although weirdly mutated ones), Beanbean Kingdom = Beans, Tribal Lands = Humans, and Jewelry Land = Shies (it was formally known as Subcon, did you know?).

I was drinkin' way too much, looking around the latest place we had found and trying to forget where I was, and when I was, and why I was.

"Lukas…" John began seriously. He too was drunk though. "Have you ever thought about why…humans rule Sarasaland and the Mushroom Kingdom?"

"Of course I have." I shrugged. "Hasn't everyone?" I reached around for my drink but couldn't find it. I frowned dramatically. I probably looked like one of those theatre masks.

"Well, what do you think, then?" He seemed seriously troubled. I was too wasted to notice until (as you can guess) I looked back on it later.

"I don't know. It's the…it's a thing you don't talk about." It really wasn't. The Queen had issued a proclamation that it was as simple a matter as that humans had founded both Sarasaland and the Mushroom Kingdom…despite the fact that some archeological digs had come up with old nyololin and nokonoko crafts (about 1500 years old) while human crafts were only dated to about 1000 years back. Of course, those crafts had fallen victim to an 'accidental' fire a few weeks after their finding, so who could say for sure anymore…

"Right. A thing you are not supposed to discuss…" John folded his hands and glared at a nearby wall. If you seriously and loudly questioned one of the Queen's proclamations you'd disappear very quickly. Back then it was just another thing I accepted as a part of life. But John wasn't so ready to accept it. Thanks John- I never would have woken up to just how bad our world was if it wasn't for you.

But enough with flashbacks within flashbacks. After John gave me the book titled 'Daisy' thoughts stirred up by it ran through my mind over the following three days. My subconscious self wasted time with the provided information: I began to treat the book as a novel or a work of fiction, and began to pry it apart based as one, rather than a historical account. Instead of wondering who could've discovered such deep insight on the Queen's hidden activities, I began to judge the book on its characters, the plot, the themes…my literary-minded self was engorging on the thing.

It wasn't like I had shut my brain off, though. I hid that book better than any of my most prized possessions (of which there were few). If someone saw it (with its flashing-lights title) I'd be in gigantic, treasonous trouble. The Queen had made it a law that if you had any written works that didn't consistently praise her you'd get a death sentence- and if there was ever a book that didn't praise her it would be the simple-titled "Daisy".

I read about an hour-and-a-half's worth a night, as much as I could before I collapsed from the day's exhaustion. I ended up getting that kumo (it's a species kinda like a giant spider) jerk Sandolz as my manager, and like usual he worked his subordinates to the brink of breaking down. If I took some Redroll I could've stayed up and read all night but I really didn't want to: I couldn't take too much of that book at a time, its foul contents were mentally exhausting to take in. That's a big part of why I was sure it was propagandized fiction. Heck, I still can't say that most of it wasn't- as far as I know there's no way to prove most of it anymore.

I had gotten about halfway through the book when the fated day rolled around. That day I hid the book in a secret paneling located underneath my crappy bed and then got ready for work. That day I was working in the Uruk Vortex just south of Shinar. The vortex part refers to the fun wind blasts that endlessly toss sand about. Working there normally was one of life's worst experiences, but fortunately for me I had managed to, uh, nab some special equipment a few months back that would protect my face against the sand. Best part was that the mask I had to wear looked just like my face, and since no one can see worth a damn in the sand, no one could really tell that I was wearing an oversized, er, mask.

When that fated day came the only real ominous rumbling I got before my life was launched from a catapult was the absence of Sandolz from the workforce. We had a replacement manager arrive who explained that he had merely been ordered by an even higher-up superior to show up today in lieu of our hated manager. The reason for Sandolz's disappearance wasn't directly connected to what was going to happen after I left work that day but it was going to end up screwing me over in an entirely different manner that tied into my steps towards suddenly being the leader of a small army. Aw hell, just saying this is making me feel dizzy.

So my shift ends eight hours later and I come out as happy as you can be after having to spend my day searching for oil in a miserable sandy wilderness. I make it to within one block away from my dumpy apartment building before a car that had been waiting nearby flies out and screeches to a halt next to me. I'm so shocked at just seeing an actual, real life car that I don't have time to react before two pionpis rush out, punch me in the face, and then toss me into the back of the car while I'm semi-knocked out. I hear the door slam and the screech of tires before I'm able to open my eyes and see Eleme looking down at me, her currently worried face presented along with the one sharp tooth that was always sticking down and out of her mouth.

Eleme's a nyololin, one of the snake people of Sarasaland. Nyololin's are technically a minority in Sarasaland but I see them everywhere since I live in Birabuto which is apparently the minority region of the kingdom. Eleme's been my Redroll dealer for a few years now and she's always been very dependable: her price has rarely risen, and she's always had stock available, save for some seldom "trips" she would take. Other than that I didn't know her too well.

"Wha…? Eleme…?" I mumbled up at her.

"I'm sorry…" She said sadly. That rang some loud bells that helped me to wake up.

"Wha-? What are you sorry for?" I sat bolt upright, my back going up against the car door that I had just been thrown through. I turned around and looked out the window at the sandy streets that passed by with a speed I was unfamiliar with. The car had to have been outfitted with some special kind of tires to deal with the wavy sand beneath.

"This shouldn't take too long...just a few days, probably…" She replied just as sadly as before, accompanied with a sigh.

"What…what shouldn't take a few days? Eleme, you're not speakin' in full sentences here." Next I turned to the front of the car. We were completely segmented off from it save for a metal grill made for speaking-through. I used it. "Hey! HEY! What's…"

"Shut up!" Someone snapped back surprisingly fast. "You'll get your assignment when we get there."

Assignment? What was this? This sounded like it had something to do with John's Organization, but…Eleme didn't have anything to do with that, did she?

"Eleme, what is going on?" I hissed.

"You, you're going to have to…" She sighed again. "It'll be quick. You just need to…you just need to help us with something."

"Help who? You're part of the Organization?" I couldn't believe this. I bet everyone I knew was part of the Organization, and I was the only person who had no idea. (Of course, that was just my literary side whispering nonsense into my ears).

"Organization?" Eleme winced a bit confusedly. "If you mean the 'ST…'"

"NOT ANOTHER SYLLABLE!" The driver of the car shouted…or maybe it was the guy sitting next to the driver- there had definitely been two pionpis that had come and knocked me out. Following the orders me an' Eleme sat in silence for the rest of the time, awkwardly glancing over at each other every once in a while. I tried opening the door to the car in silence but it was locked- probably for the best now that I'm looking back from a slightly calmer (if much more dangerous) part of my life. If the door had been unlocked I would've just fallen out into the road at whatever speed the car was going at and then would've just been picked up again anyway.

It took about half-an-hour to get where we were going. I spent the time trying to piece together what was happening. As far as I could tell Eleme probably wasn't involved with the organization…whatever group was controlling this had the first initials of S and T. I wasn't sure who that could be, probably cause' I had gotten out of gang activities about four years ago and had never looked back. New gangs could pop up and die off within weeks- "Eleme's group" as I thought of it during that car ride, could've been created recently…or maybe I just hadn't heard of them.

But what did they want with me? Well, that was the big question, wasn't it? I should've seen the answer coming from a mile away.

When we reached our destination two miles outside of Shinar the two pionpis forced me and Eleme out of the car. They kept swords at the back of our heads and led us over to a crumbling and crummy shack (one had to wonder what wasn't crumbling and crummy in Birabuto). I was ordered to take the lead of our little band and go into the shack first.

This was when I took my chance: I snapped my head forward violently, releasing two kunai stored behind my mask to fall out through my eyeholes. I caught them, just like I was still eleven, then turned quickly, arching my right arm out to stab through the bigger pionpi's stomach and then made a quick spinning motion to move around the collapsing body and slice through the second pionpi's neck.

Well, I really really wish that was what had happened. Instead when the kunai fell through my eyeholes I fumbled to catch them and only managed to grab one of them. The pionpi behind me immediately knew what I was doing and brought the hilt of his sword down against the back of my head, knocking me out completely. I had escaped the gang life but by consequence I had become too soft.

"We know who you are, Kuneyes Koden." The larger pionpi smirked down at me as I drifted off. Good god did I hate that name.

I woke up tied to a chair and getting stared down by a fly, another one of the species here in Sarasaland (they're basically giant flies, can you believe it?). He was a really nasty lookin' guy with a long tongue that seemed to be eternally hanging out of his mouth. If you're picturing this right you should probably be grossed out right now.

"Hey there." He sneered, like there was something funny on my face.

"How long I have I been out?" I asked groggily, getting straight to business. Even after I had tried to kill one of my kidnappers I still hadn't been killed myself which meant they must have been planning to keep me alive…for something.

"Well, if I had to guess, I would say about twenty-five minutes." The fly smacked his lips and continued staring at me. It made me wonder if the guy was a cannibal or something idiotic like that.

"Have you been staring at me this whole time?" I had to ask.

"I was just waiting for you to wake up." The fly rubbed his front legs together. "It is a pleasure to meet you, Kuneyes Koden."

"Don't call me that." I squinted and moved my head around a bit. My face felt oddly weightless without my weapons stored behind it. I wondered where they were. Oh, and hey- there was Eleme, curled up in another chair nearby and still looking depressed. Looked like she didn't have the privilege of getting tied up. She noticed my looking at her and she smiled apologetically at me. I felt a strong urge to strangle her. Well…then again, could you strangle a nyololin? That's a great question.

"What should I call you then?" The fly shifted a bit in his own chair. "Oh, wait, how rude of me. I should introduce myself first." Yes, you should. Then I'll know how much trouble I'm in. "You can call me 'S'." A pseudonym- wonderful. And he and his group here already knew my full name. "And…just to make sure…you are Lukas Koden, right?" He glanced over at Eleme, that damn creepy look on his face increasing in intensity.

This S guy was just having fun or something- after my little stunt earlier there was no way he needed further confirmation on who I was. Kuneyes Koden- that awful nickname had spread during my gang years. The pun was obvious and yet my opponents were still surprised again and again when my kunai dropped out of my face and was planted in theirs. Anyway, there was no point in denying it. They had dragged me here because of who I was- if I wasn't Lukas Koden I had the feeling I'd be dead very quickly.

"Yup, that's me." I admitted sardonically, the tone of my voice referencing myself and the S character sitting across from me.

"Excellent!" Some of the shininess left S' eyes. "You've been out of the game for a while now, haven't you? Ardo told me about your…little slip-up. It must've been very embarrassing. Hehehe." He chuckled lightly but roughly, each 'he' a strong syllable. It was the most annoying laugh I had ever encountered.

Ardo, huh? I had the feeling that that was the name of the bigger pionpi that I had aimed my attack for. He did seem to be more like the type to be second-in-command, directly reporting to the boss. Interesting how S was comfortable with namedropping his underlings but not himself- well, less interesting and more scummy.

"But," S stopped laughing abruptly. "Your reputation is the reason you're here." He pointed a thin front leg at Eleme. I turned slowly to glare at her. "Eleme here told me all about where to find you."

Well of course that was how she was involved in all of this, but hearing it directly heated my blood up. Now I wasn't sure which why I wanted to ask first: why Eleme had sold me out like this or why some gang wanted me years after I was out. Fortunately for my angry curiosity and unfortunately for my near future, S was happy to tell me.

"Well, I've had my fun being mysterious." S shifted his tongue to hang out of the other side of his mouth. "I guess we'll get to business."

"Yes. Let's." I gritted my teeth. I could feel an aura of endless guiltiness floating over from where Eleme was.

"Long story short, my associates and I of the STA have lost a shipment to one of the CBC," (Chai Bio Cell, the government's anti-bioterrorism squad) "a shipment that is worth upward of a million coins."

A million coins?! In all my years on the streets I had never been in the position to work with that kind of money. My curiosity about who the 'STA' was skyrocketed. I began to try to remember where I had heard the acronym before.

"Now my associates and I were planning to deal with this problem ourselves, but something big is going down in Jewelry Land and many of them have found themselves busy." S shrugged with his thin fly legs. "So I decided to pull in a debt. El…" S' eyes shined more brightly and he looked over at Eleme again. I saw her coil more tightly out of the corner of my vision. "…owes me quite a bit of money. A LOT of money." Drool started to drip out of his mouth and down his tongue.

Wait…STA, STA, it was coming back to me…

"You know that El works for us, right?" S turned back to me, still drooling. "She's the one that sells you your candy. You know what I'm talking about, right? Hehehe. And she gets it from us- but she hasn't been giving us all of the money that she owes us, so now…she is on the chopping block." He said the last two words with tangible relish. I resisted shivering. S laughed again. I wanted out of there.

"And why am I involved in this?" I said quietly.

"Yes, great question." S clapped soundlessly. His legs were too thin to make any noise. "I like Eleme, so I found that the best way for her to pay me off was to have her retrieve the product for me. But, it will be a difficult job, and she'll need someone experienced…"

STA: it hit me. The Starm Transportation Alliance: a group that mainly worked with the drug Starm and moved it wherever they sold it, as the name suggested. Apparently they also worked with Redroll (my stuff) which was illegal like Starm but was way, way, way less dangerous.

Maybe you think I'm being hypocritical right now but trust me- Redroll is absolutely NOTHING like Starm. Redroll has its dangers, I freely admit it, and if you use it wrong, you can become a bit crazy. But Starm…Starm is as bad as it gets. It's a yellow powder, in comparison to the red of Redroll, and with one whiff- this is what I've heard and read many times- you will be driven entirely, murderously insane. Instantly, in a snap- you even get a fun dose of physical mutations with it. I know, it sounds like bull, but the stuff is no joke. It'll give you a feeling beyond any other in the world that apparently even sticks with you after you recover from the effects…but the price is absolute slaughter. If it gets in the wrong hands, which is absolutely anyone who wants to use it, hundreds of people can die.

The STA, as an underground group, was formed specifically to transport the stuff. They're practically monsters selling it. The only thing that prevents some kind of a national tragedy is the small doses the STA sells with. The more Starm you take the stronger and more psychotic you become. At least with small doses only a few people are killed…

"I am not helping you get Starm." I spat. So I had moved Redroll in my younger years- but that was nothing. Most of the people around here knew how to use it correctly. Moving Starm was absolute terrorism.

"Starm? Who said anything about Starm?" S moved his tongue to the other side of his mouth again, ladling a large globber of drool onto the ground. "It's simply a shipment. Besides, even if it was Starm, you have no choice in this matter. You will be helping us. I had Eleme point you out because you've got quite the reputation in Shinar and, as I said, she'll need some help."

"So you're dragging me into this just because I bought from the person who screwed you over?" I growled.

"And because you're the deadliest person I have access to. Yes." His tongue seemed to be drying. "You're going to have to break into a CBC facility and get the product back. Certain actions may be necessary."

Hell no. I was done with being hired for this illegal crap, never mind being downright forced to do it. "And what makes you think I'm going to go along with this little mission and not bail out the moment you send me off to it?"

"Oh, don't worry about that, you'll have a third member in your little party: Ardo, a faithful member of the STA." The big pionpi. Goody, I'd get to work with the guy who had abducted me and knocked me out twice. "Also, I will be paying you a handsome sum of 100,000 coins once the job is finished." You better believe my ears pricked up at that.

One hundred thousand coins? My first assumption was that he was lying, but one look at his creepy face told me he wasn't. One hundred thousand coins…with that kind of money I'd be the king of Birabuto, I could move to Chai, get really educated, and live well for the rest of my life. 100,000 coins…

"I'll let you think over it tonight." S clacked his pincers and the looming door that had stood behind him opened up.

Eleme and I were 'escorted' out by Ardo and taken to a small room containing two rusty metal beds. We were pushed in, he slammed the door shut, and I heard the familiar sound of the door being bolted shut, just as I do every night back home. But, what am I thinking this entire time? Am I thinking about how I'm being forced to commit serious crimes again even though I swore myself out of them? Am I thinking about why this S guy is having me do a hardcore mission like this despite the fact that I was trash at fighting now? Perhaps I am thinking about what happened to my kunai? Or wait, maybe I was thinking about the fact that this mission involved infiltrating a government base: a terrible idea any day of the week.

But no, can you guess what I was thinking about first and foremost? I'll give you a hint: I was thinking about 100,000 of them. As I'm sitting on that rusty little bed I am technically thinkin' about all of that other stuff I just mentioned…but I'm thinking about all of em' as small problems to jump over in order to get that money. I mean, I definitely have the confirmation now that I won't be stealing Starm, right? That's what S said. And sneaking into a CBC base wouldn't be too difficult. If it was out here in Birabuto it'd be falling apart just like anything else in this region.

"Lukas…" A familiar voice whimpered near me, shaking me out of my calculations. It was Eleme, looking just as troubled as she had been since I had been abducted. "I'm sorry! They were going to kill me if I didn't…cooperate." She was being sincere. We hardly knew each other yet she sincerely felt bad about pulling me into this. It touched me- even though at the time my stupid and greedy side was feeling somewhat grateful to her.

"It's fine." I lied back on the bed and felt a rusty spring poke up at me. "It's just another job. We'll get through it, you'll pay your debts off, and I'll get my payment." Money money…maybe I was just really tired that night and it took an okay night's sleep to clear my head and remind me how dangerous the situation was.

Eleme stayed silent after that. I don't know if she sensed my greed and was disgusted, or if it was just a matter of guilt. I've never been too good at reading people. My own response was to try to sleep, even with a rusty spiral of metal being driven up into my back. It was bullet bill black in that room anyway, so there was nothing else to do.

So it was that Eleme had given me a gift, an indirect gift of knowledge that John had and would give me further pieces of as well. It was being held here that would lead to the moments when I would gain the realization and strength to fight.

Author's Notes: 'Shie' is the proper species name for shy guys with 'Shies' being a plural form of it. Shy guys, the term used in the Mushroom Kingdom, is actually considered to be a slightly rude name.