Chapter 11: [Unknown]
Rik upon realizing he has lost his gem checks his other pocket and pats on his vest.
"What? Where? Did it fall out?" Rik asked to no one in particular. "Where is it? I can't be stuck here!" Then Rik hears a fox howl from a tree, Rik looks up and sees the animal looking down below.
"Wait, can foxes even climb trees?" Rik asks. Then suddenly the fox jumps from the branch and spreads wings gliding down gently. It was glowing and white with blue markings on it's fur and had four tails.
"Woah" said Rik, "you look different from a normal fox." Rik then sees that the animal was holding in his mouth Rik's missing gem.
"Hey, that's mine" Rik said, "maybe give that back please?" Rik steps forward and the mystical fox backs away. "Please just give it back" Rik said, "I won't hurt you I just need the gem so I can find my friends." Rik takes another step forward and then the mystical fox beat it's wings and begun to fly away.
"Wait!" Rik shouted chasing after the animal. Rik ran after the fox deeper into the forest and eventually the fox disappears before Rik's eyes right into a rock face.
"Wha-what? How?" Rik stammers. Rik looked all around the area to no avail, the creature disappeared into the cliff side. Rik sits on a fallen log and soon realizes something is behind it. It was a skeleton of some girl, her bones looked as if they were ancient.
"Whoa, wonder what happened to her" Rik said examining the remains. In her hand was a bottle of some kind, Rik picks it up snapping a few finger bones.
"Oops sorry" Rik said as he raises the bottle up to read in the moonlight. "Drink to see what is unseen" Rik reads aloud in the moonlit silence.
"Drink to see what is unseen?" Rik repeats confusedly. "Should I?" Rik asks himself unsure. "Well, it wouldn't hurt to try right?" Rik asks himself as he pops the cork. Upon opening the bottle it smelled of despair and agony, at least that is what it felt on Rik's nose.
"Ugh, why do I get the feeling that this might kill me instantly?" Rik says holding his snout. Suddenly Rik here's a voice,
"Drink it, you will never leave if you do not."
"What? Who are you?" Rik says. Nothing, there is only silence as Rik is left there standing and contemplating on whether to drink the foul concoction or not. Eventually Rik plugs his snout and takes a sip from the bottle. He still gags even though he tried to not taste it; it tasted like moldy swamp water and rotten fish digiore and that description was the least disgusting. Rik's head ached as everything around him morphed into a nightmarish version of the forest he was in.
"What just happened?" Rik says looking around, the forest was now more sinister looking and evil. The overall blueish tint of the moonlit forest has been replaced with a slightly red one with a menacing looking moon overhead. The skeleton is now a corpse ridden with maggots,
"Ewah!" Rik sputtered in surprise and stepped back, looking around he saw that the cliff face was now a cave. "How could something so mystical be part of all this?" Rik wondered as he walked along. Upon entering the cave Rik could see a Werewolf surrounded by bones, the Fox stood at the other end of the cave. Rik slowly tries to sneak by the Werewolf unnoticed but accidently steps on a bone awakening the creature. Rik quickly sips the horrible liquid again before the Werewolf attacks and Rik finds that it does reverse the effect. He was in a cave with a natural spring and moonlight peeking through the cracks, safe and in peace.
"What even is this stuff?" Rik asks looking over the bottle. The voice echos in Rik's mind again,
"This potion allows you to see both realities as you now know, to escape however you must switch between them."
"What?" Rik says, "who is saying that?" Again silence, Rik has no clue what is going on but he continues on anyway. Perhaps in time all of this will make sense, but for now all he needed was the gem from the mystical fox. Rik exits the cave and sees the fox is nowhere to be found. He drinks from the bottle again and sees the fox in front of him.
"I got you now! Rik says, the fox flies upward and through the twisted looking trees. "Okay I guess not then" Rik said, looking around Rik saw some heads hanging from a tree, entangled by their long white hair.
"Whoa, what?"
"Yes, you" said a head, "we will give you this shiny thing if you help us".
"Okay, but why are you all.. like that?"
"Curiosity befel on us when we saw the shining trinket in this tree." a head answered.
"Retrieve our comb from the nasty Wolf monster and we will reward you."
"What?" said Rik, "Is it even worth it?"
"Depends I suppose" said another hanging head.
"What is it anyway?" Rik asks.
"Don't know" said another head, "it's shiny, that's all."
"Okay, I will keep it in mind" Rik said as he moved on drinking the bottle again to go back to the nice moonlit forest. Eventually Rik finds the fox was back in that reality too and at some kind of door. The fox phases right through it leaving Rik on the other side. Rik pulls on the door but it will not open.
"Come on!" Rik said trying to force it open, "I will burrow under it then!" Rik starts to dig at the base of the door but finds out that the floor on the other side is made of metal.
"You've got to be kidding" Rik said exasperatedly. Rik inspects the door and finds that the shiny thing the heads had was a piece of the lock needed for the door. It looked to only be two pieces,
"Okay" said Rik, "this shouldn't be too hard." Rik walks back towards the Werewolf's cave, drinks the potion again and readies himself. The Werewolf spots him and Rik pulls out a bomb and chucks it at the ceiling crushing the creature under rock. Rik looks around and finds the comb a little bent but still useable. Rik walks back to the heads and presents the comb.
"Ah yes! Thank you" the heads clamored "now please comb our hair and set us free."
"What?" Rik says, "what do you guys do when there's no one else?"
"A good point" said a head, "however we are feeling a bit weak, would you kindly comb us free?" Rik sighs,
"Alright fine, just be warned I've never combed my own fur so don't get mad over me not being a good 'hair comber'." Rik did the best he could and soon the heads turned into shiny looking bugs. They thanked him and flew away leaving Rik to really ponder the weirdness of it all. He pockets the first lock piece and begins searching around and eventually he comes to a shack with blood at the doors base.
"That don't look too welcoming" Rik said. He takes a sip from the bottle to enter the peaceful moonlit forest again and looks around. Rik eventually comes across a single tree in a meadow outside the forest and realizes the other lock piece was up high on a branch. Rik couldn't find any good sized rocks to chuck at it so he threw the lock piece he had. It landed in between branches in almost a perfect way to get stuck up there.
"Oh come on!" Rik shouted in frustration throwing his arms up. He takes another sip from the bottle and the meadow turns into a ghostly graveyard full of lost souls. Rik back pedals toward the shed he had seen and tries to open the door. The door was unlocked to his surprise and Rik entered with the door making an eerie creaking noise. He looks around and finds something that is perfect for taking care of trees, an axe.
"This should do it" Rik said picking up the tree chopping tool. "Mpf, a little heavy but I can do this" Rik said as he walked outside to be met with a scary looking man wearing a mask. "Aaa!" Rik yelled, he quickly drinks more of the potion and reality shifts into the moonlit forest again.
"Ech," Rik says wiping his mouth with his forearm. "Weird, it's not starting to taste half bad now". Rik walks toward the tree with the axe and begins to chop at the tree, it was hard and took him awhile but finally the tree falls down.
"Whew" Rik said, "that was as hard as I thought it would be." He picks up the two pieces of lock and races towards the strange door. Rik puts the lock pieces together on the door and realizes he will need a key.
"Where am I going to find a key?" Rik wonders out loud, he begins to search, switching between realities constantly.
"This bottle is bottomless!" Rik comments eventually seeing how it was still half full. Eventually Rik realizes the mask wearing murderer had the key. Rik could not even begin to understand why he had the key. He took no chances and pickpocketed the key off of him when he got the chance. Rik then switched realities quickly before the Masked man noticed.
"Yes I got it!" Rik said, "look out fox I'm comin for my gem." Rik uses the key to unlock the door and to his surprise it looked to be a portal of some kind. Rik steps through and is whisked away to another world? A place? A reality? If only he knew. After being tossed out of the portal Rik sees the fox waiting for him. It scampers off after he approaches taking flight, the night was stormy now and it was raining heavily.
"Great, can't see anything" Rik said to himself as he tried to follow the fox. This stormy night in the forest is a disorienting mess, eventually he sees a lone figure in the distance. It was kobold and only a child, Rik was surprised to see he somehow was back in his own world. There was no way Rik would have just left the poor little Kobold in the storm. So Rik steps forward and introduces himself,
"Hey" he said to the young Kobold, "have you lost your pack?" The young Kobold looks up at him but says nothing.
"I guess you haven't exactly found your voice yet" Rik said. "Follow me okay? I will help you find your pack." As they walked the young Kobold followed closely, Rik considered possibly adopting him if he could not find his pack. After all Rik never had a pack of his own and perhaps by keeping this little one he could provide some form of comfort for the young one.
"What's your name?" Rik asked after walking for a bit. "Can you at least say that?" The little Kobold said nothing, perhaps he was scared, or maybe he truly did not know how to speak. Without warning Rik was knocked down by something,
"Aaa! Hey, what was that?!" Rik shouted, and then he saw the looming figure over the Young Kobold. Rik runs up and stabs at the creature's back and it dissipates into smoke.
"What was that thing?" Rik asks himself.
Rik sees another one when the lightning flashes. He chucks a knife in the direction of where he seen the creature. It screams and Rik knew he had hit it. Rik then picks the Young Kobold up and puts him on his back and begins to run. The dark figures were everywhere, there were too many, Rik ran as fast as he could to keep him and the youngin safe. Rik eventually came to the edge of a waterfall. Thankfully the storm faded at that moment and the morning began to rise, the dark creatures began to dissipate in the morning rays of the sun.
"Looks like it's over" Rik said looking up at the Young Kobold. The Young Kobold smiles and nods but then as a final attempt a dark creature charged at Rik and knocked him over the ledge. Rik fell down trying to hold the Young Kobold close but upon hitting the water he lost his grip and the Young Kobold was whisked away by the rapids. Rik tumbled down the waterfall and luckily there were no jagged rocks at the bottom, it was a pool of water. Rik bursts from the bottom pool gasping for air and then makes his way towards the bank of the river.
"I hope the little guy is alright" Rik said searching for him. "Where did he go?" He searched up and down the riverside and eventually moved in towards the forest and began looking. Rik eventually found him but he was being picked up by a human woman.
"Aw look at you" she said, "all alone and without a pack?" The woman cradled the Young Kobold and said,
"Don't worry, me and my husband will take care of you." She then walked away with the Kobold leaving Rik to watch as he is taken to a new home. He could not see the face of the woman, but he had a feeling he was in good hands.
"Well, at least he will be looked after" Rik said to himself. "She kinda sounded familiar though, I wonder-" Rik then hears the mystical fox again and looks up at a nearby tree.
"You!" Rik shouted, "come back here! I need that!" The mystical fox jumped down and nosedived to the ground. Before making contact with the ground a portal opened up under the fox and he went through. Rik raced after it and jumped into the portal and was whisked away to wherever the fox was going next. Rik blacked out and upon waking he seen the fox standing before him, he waged his tails in anticipation. Rik tried to grab the gem from the fox but it flew away again and the chase continued.
"Where are you going?" Rik said as he tried to follow the fox. Rik was in another forest but this one was.. well beautiful, the surroundings were vibrant and colorful. As Rik continued he was held up by monsters on the way.
"I don't have time for this!" Rik said as he slashed at the monsters and threw knives. Eventually Rik came across a village, he approaches the guards. One of them was a skinny old looking mouse and another was big, strong and much younger.
"Um hi," Rik said, "there's monsters out there ya know."
"Yes we know" said the bulkier looking guard.
"Just makin sure ya know" Rik said, "where am I anyway?"
"This is Aurora Village" said the older looking guard. "You are welcome to visit as long as you bring no trouble."
"Thanks, I won't be around long" Rik said, "uh, seen a glowing white and blue fox with wings and four tails by the way?"
"Yes," said Old Guard, "it scampered through the town". "Er, well more like flew through but you get my meaning."
"Thanks" Rik said, he then made his way through the town.
Some of the residents were a little weird, some were friendly and one was a jerk. A green wolf was obsessing over a box, a strongman offered to arm wrestle, an offer Rik turned down. The mayor seemed nice however, but he seemed a little preoccupied. And upon leaving some mouse fellow was attempting to improve gear with what looked to be slime coats. Rik then sees the fox again on a nearby tree, it fluttered into the forest and Rik ran after it in pursuit. The fox then landed on a branch overhanging a dark figure. Rik then realized that the fox was actually leading him all this time; because Rik quickly realized that the figure was Tox…
End of Chapter 11
Chapter 12: The Cycle is Broken
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