disclaimer: I don't own the monster girl encyclopedia, and that's the last I'm saying it.
also, I originally made Tobi and his brother 14 and 18 respectively, but I updated the chapter so they were older by 2 years. Review please.
It Ends with the Beginning
beginning and end are reversible
Fire and ash.
A boy looked on.
Flames rolled across the Earth like a flood from the river, and turned grass to char and flesh to charcoal. As fire's hideously intense heat warped the air like an imperfect lense, cottages of wood and thatch collapsed under the hungry inferno. Others made of stone stood, but were blackened and stained by spiteful fire and thick smoke.
The smoke poisoned the air, turning lungs as putrid and revolting as chamber pots, and replaced the sky with clouds of tar, itself lit aglow by the conflagaration. The village, once joyous and happy with life, was now immolated by a fire meant to erase everything and all which he called home.
The boy looked on.
distorted figures ran from the flaming epigies, once whole and happy humans, now panic stricken, and warped by fire and heat into abominations. they screamed constantly. Screamed to end the pain, screamed to be saved, screamed for sons and daughters.
other, more eldritch figures ran and shouted and prayed to all together different forces, but to the same point.
someone screamed for him.
the boy looked on.
Other figures ran, mostly on horseback. They didn't pray, and only screamed with blood lust and rage. They're sole purpose to cleanse and purge every living thing from the once village now inferno, and laughed. They fought for their faith, and saw this slaughter as holy.
Others knew it was abominable, but fought loyally anyway. Others didn't care-they just loved the slaughter.
as everything once held dear was torn apart by crimson steel and golden flames, a boy looked on...
...And GRINNED!
Mimiru's POV
Mimiru was the best, and knew it. She was a prodigy among prodigies. She mastered basic magic at age 5, and at age 12, she was a colossus among ants. She was one of the youngest of the Holy Order's magic using army, and controller of Lescatie's caster division. she was indispensable, irreplaceable, and had truly reached the top.
...It was lonely there.
Sure, she was a little miss badass, but could you blame her? The order looked at her more like a tool than a person, grown men were afraid of her, even her own parents treated her like some temperamental godling.
It was good fortune for her to meet 'him' and wilmarina. Wilmarina was a prodigy of the sword, and bore similar demons. Gryffon, on the other hand. Almost made her feel normal. He and his little bro Tobi came from a village invaded by monsters. Gryffon managed to escape before they took over, and returned with the Lescatie army.
He was brave, loyal to the fault, and actually pretty uptight. Despite his almost painfully polite mannerisms, he was the only person who she could simply talk to, who would scold her if he thought she was being "inappropriate", and just held her until she slept. True, he was 8( 7 next week!) her senior, and she outranked him in position and blood. She didn't care. She could wait, and any neigh-Sayers would could just eat a cowpie.
that being said, she was more than willing to even run errands for the lancer. For that reason, she found herself hunting for the younger bro...
"hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, say it five times until waking, Mimiru!
'Speak of the devil'... She looked straight up into a huge tree. On a lower branch was a youngish figure with hair like dark copper and eyes of mirrored amethyst.
"Straight from uncanny valley," the boy grinned wider.
"Tobi Noscrim! Ray Gonrava!"
Tobi's POV
15 minutes ago
" I spy with this little eye," Tobi held a strange telescopic device in front of his face. It was a brass-colored tube with markings of lightning, and a lateral welt where it had been rolled up and welded together to form the tube. While one end was glass, the end he looked into had a multi-faceted black crystal, and attached to a spiral tube inside the scope. This spiral was short, and it's lateral surface was multicolored, with a white iron dial pointing from the 'scope's main body.
He was currently on a squat but largish orphanage run by the nun and ex-monster hunter, Sasha Folmoon. She was currently handing off supplies to the crowd of peckish and over affectionate children to carry inside. She was tall, with long green hair, a gorgeously benevolent face, and, somewhat ironically, a huge bust.
Seriously! He barely survived their first hug!
Despite her nun-status, her holy robes were even weirder: a blue on white blouse with gold accents. Her dress only really covered the space between her thighs, while the the thighs themselves were horribly exposed. Her clothing was at least adorned with stylized golden crosses, notably over her bust and thighs.
He trained his eye on the forest, rotating the spiral on his telescope,"Cassandra", and sighed. No visitors. Not that he expected; rather, if they did appear, he'd be their warning system. This orphanage was different than the one Sasha ran out of the church.
This was a monster orphanage.
He spotted an ogre wrestling a cowgirl(nice pun Toby) and shouted a warning,"Anna! Let go of Alice, or I-"
The ogre girl 'Anna' immediately let go of the squealing holstaurus she had in a headlock. She was bigger and slightly older than the human orphan, but had gotten the ogre snot beaten out of her enough times to understand he was beyond her level.
Tobi resumed his lookout position, mindful enough to snap his fingers at the orc girl trying to jump him. She immediately backtracked off the roof, along with a neon green lamia that realized there weren't strength in numbers- not enough to get her the prime husband material.
He couldn't help but smile at there un-innocent fun, and the group that congregated to Sasha, remembering the first time they met...
It was Lescatie. He'd been here before, but left. Something made the others sad, so why...?
...
His question could wait. The church people, they...
were not the ones he knew. They were dead, trial by fire. He got scared for a second, because they didn't like his eyes, that they were corrupted...
'my eyes were always corrupt?'
like the monsters, they thought.
When they brought a 'hero' to inspect him, he didnt expect the woman whose chest was like the dead ones who burned. Those ones... Made him scared. He hoped for verdict to be death. He didn't want to see those 'smiles' again.
...
There were no more mother and father, since they died by fire. But he liked this Sasha. She wasn't like the wing-and-tail women, or the horse-2-horn.
he hoped they burned, but he didn't see the horse-2-horn.
He knew her a 'hero' like the blood men of his village's death. She killed, as she was meant to. Why then, did he find that place in the woods where she kept the monsters? Why didn't she hate? rage? Slaughter?
...
He never forgot her answer. It resonated within his heart since that tenth birthday party. Every covert message he carried away to another monmusu sanctuary, every orphan he led from slaughter, every shipment of food to feed them...
...was so they're parents could smile from heaven, knowing they're children could go on smiling as well.
Tobi blinked away the daze from his eyes. 'Crap!', He knew it never pays to let your guard down in a place full of monmusu with proactive procreation tactics, and an inability to get the word 'no'.
When Mimiru was coming dangerously close to Sasha's boundary spell. If she got on the same side of the invisible dome as the orphans, then things would get complicated. So much so he'd have to cut the Gordon knot.
"Mimiru, eastward! She's probably looking for me, so I'll be back tomorrow!"
Sasha replied as the orphans groaned about his early departure," Caution, Tobi! She is quite perceptive..." She trailed off as Tobi leapt the gap between the forest cottage and forest itself to mess with his favorite small girl, with big gun.
Mimiru's POV
She always enjoyed walloping Tobi with a light gravity spell. However, falling two stories either K. him, or gave him justification to fake it. Either way, she was physically dragging the guy by his left arm. She was in love with Gryffon, no doubt about it. But Tobi never failed to freak her out. Even though she knew the brothers since Tobi was 8, he was a mute for the first two years she knew him.
They first met at magitec, as both had impressive spiritual energy. While Tobi couldn't sustain anything larger than a small fireball for extended periods, she tolerated the flunky to hang out with his brother. Despite her own attempts to tutor the dork, he always gazed at her with those dead eyes, and even gave her nightmares. She sometimes suspected he wasn't human, but a monster would have much better magical power than he did.
Even so, the first time the guy ever spoke was to quit learning at magitec when he was ten. She never knew why, or even what he did with the halfling in the woods( she knew it wasn't 'that') so he was a puzzle, one she didnt care fo-
SNAP!
"What the fallen!?" The pink magi glared at the green archer in the trees.
"Tobi! Are you alright? What's wrong?" The halfling Alleyne was panicked. She never knew why Tobi hung around this stretch of woodland, but she could not fathom what Mimiru was doing.
Tobi twisted out of the caster's grasp before dusting off black tunic and green leggings. They reached past his knees, but stopped before the heels.
" Just faking unconsciousness to get Mimiru to carry me."
"You ba-," she stopped, and took a breath. Tobi smirked at the gesture, while Alleyne scowled, since she didn't want to Tobi to know about her all-she was at tsundere.
Mimiru relaxed."Gryffon sent me after Tobi, since he's the only one who can find you."
"Order business, I guess? What's the mission."
Alleyne just gazed impassively at the humans until Mimiru reminded herself. Gryffon loved his brother, and she'd be the first suspect in the investigation." Just some noise near the northern woodlands. While Gryffon leads his team to guard the northern plateau, you take down any interlopers. Got it, archer?"
Alleyne gave an imperceptible twitch. He hated this bossy girl, but she was necessary. "Message received, Mimiru."
The deed done, Mimiru dissolved like dust in the wind, back to her lancer.
Tobi's POV
Tobi waited until he was sure Mimiru was gone before revealing 'Cassandra'. Alleyne gave him a puzzled look before descending. He had showed her and Sasha the spyglass, but saw nothing significant about it besides that he helped forge it's outer layer. With an unspoken signal, they met at an abandoned watchtower on the Far east side of the castle manor at sundown.
it was a usual conversation: Tobi complimented Alleyne's bow, to which she countered he smiled like manure, he apologized, and she realized it wasn't an insult.
"Come back with your marbles- there's no brain bleach if you see something nasty."
Alleyne smiled that small happy/ half sneer at his odd vocabulary." And you as well, my friend." So saying, she leapt through the trees to uncertain doom.
Tobi saw the setting sun and frowned. He could return to town and the orphanage tomorrow. He entered the tower, wide as a small cottage and five times taller.
He descended a trap door he and Alleyne found when they were younger. It led to all of the other guard towers, but the tunnels were impractical and unused. He stopped in front of a door, that led to a storeroom. Alleyne didn't know what this room held, and Tobi kept it that way.
The door had only one key, and only Tobi could hold it.
The door opened upon the essence of nightmare fuel.
Mystery POV
madness. across the city of Lescatie, in the manor itself, madness manifested. Tentacles sprouted from their beds, and batwinged women appeared in the window. Noises of night turned to passionate insanity, and those once human surrendered to instinct, and implacable hunger and lust, steady thumping, smacking, and other lewd sounds echoed.
Seven of the strongest came up to meet her... And all danced her carnal dance. Even a seventh maiden, now a roper hybrid...
Delicious!
And even that uppity one on the plateau will fall to his instincts, and sooner rather than later.
But something was wrong... Where...
"Where are you," Derualla lustfully queried the city," are you my septima code, key to the heavens?" she panted the final words," my lover!"
Tobi Noscrim's eyes opened in fear. Like eight years ago!