Chapter 2: A Bizarre Happening
The Bamboo Forest of the Lost…
… A forest home to many bamboo shoots and canes with numerous leaves…
Areas of interest: One mansion in the middle of the forest...
Residents: Lunarians and a mass of rabbits…
Reason for it being there… Unknown…
Purpose: Supposed refuge for the inhabitants…
…
…
Message end…
It was still day time in the world which both teams had inadvertently travelled to. She had been walking for a long time, following the rabbit whom she saw from before. She was eager to find out who the person was and why he or she had been in the area. The thought of Velvet stayed in her mind, not ridding herself of the thought as she was curious of the person, the thought of it being Velvet making it worse.
She stayed amidst bamboos, moving within unison of the mysterious figure who had kept moving forwards on the clear pathway that was well away from Blake. "Alright. Where are you going, Faunus?" thought Blake, keeping her eyes on the person as the person continued onwards.
"I still can't believe there's one here. Maybe we didn't travel to a different world, after all." The suspicions of their being in a different world grew weary for Blake at this point, diminishing that very thought as she has seen many a Faunus during her time, having been raised with them and being on herself, as is commonplace, she took the taken to reflect upon the situation and think to herself that perhaps they were still in Remnant. Maybe the machine took her to a different part of Remnant? Maybe it just produced computerised, physical versions of Faunus and not just visual ones? None of that mattered, as to her, it was a real person, given what little proof there was. She had yet to be refuted.
Nevertheless, she continued to spy on the rabbit-eared anthropoid and noticed same was carrying something. This grabbed Blake's attention, as she narrowed her eyes after she moved to a bamboo cane at random and observed her closely. "What's that person holding? Hmm… It's too dark to see. Darn these tree stumps!" she sighed with eyes being closed instantaneously, disappointed by the fact that the tops of the bamboos, the countless leaves, were obstructing her view.
She began to talk to herself and tried again, thinking about something silly which caused her to sigh, "Ugh, I should've been paying attention. I can see in the dark." she announced, believing herself to be acting like an idiot by removing the fact that she could very much see in the dark but neglected it. She was… in disarray, therefore did not adjust herself to her . She breathed in and out again slowly, trying once more without the clouded mind and looked very carefully at the person, the supposed Faunus looking much more clear and detailed, equipped with rabbit ears, striking uniform with dress, some enclosed herbs and spices held within her arms and… a matching rabbit tail?
"OK… Now that I have become accustomed to this... " she was still in the process of examining the rabbit, spotting the held items and moving over to the rest of the person's abdomen. "... I can see…," she opened her eyes a little bit wide, closing her left in response to what she had been, mind-boggled from the sight as she continued her talking, "... a tail? I see a Faunus… with ears and a tail…" She opened her eyes back to her previous position and returned full vision, whilst less stressful and more manageable vision. She was confused at what she saw, an anthropomorphic person with more than just one area of animalistic features.
"That settles it. I must know more about that person. Whoever she is, this isn't normal for a Faunus. Is she a mutant?" With her improved night vision, thanks to the area removing most of the light, she could tell that the girl in front of herself was a female… but to her, a mutated female. Obviously she has never seen one of her kind look anything like the person whom she had just witnessed, still moving to whatsoever place, until she looked into where she was moving and noticed a mansion in the distance. She stayed amid bamboos, jumping on top of one, keeping her balance and ensuring the plant did not sway, keeping her eyes on her and waited until finally, the unknown girl had entered the premises of the mysterious place.
She jumped off acrobatically, performing a backflip as she did and causing the cane to rustle and move back and forth briefly. She brushed herself off from her chest down to her midriff repeatedly. "Alright, little bunny. Now let's see where you got your new looks." she said, now eager to find out just who that person was, now acknowledging the fact that the person in question was not Velvet. Oh, she could have told Ruby that straight away upon further speculation, but her thoughts were more fixated on the area, the strange building AND the apparent alien, who was akin to her own. She finished cleaning herself of any dust and other particles and therefore started to walk towards the building, still keeping in mind to maintain her stealthy demeanour.
Meanwhile, taking into account Ruby's presence within the other forest, the Forest of Magic…
Ruby was busy trying to find her way through the forest. The forest itself was too dark to be able to see anything clearly, as she was in the area which suffered the most from it. In her struggle, whilst flustered, she moved head head continually, trying to find a light source. A torch would have been helpful, electrical or inflamed. However, she possessed one source of light, that being her Scroll.
Without any such delay, she grabbed her Scroll and turned it on, immediately moving it to her front and shining the way with what little light it emitted. She could see the area of the forest in which she was.
- Additional information acquired -
The Forest of Magic…
… A dark, secluded area of mushrooms and countless spores, home to some to practise magic…
Areas of interest: None…
Danger level: Unorthodox...
Proprieties: Only for those who want to intensify their own capabilities…
After improving her sight of the area, Ruby could quite clearly see trees, horizontal logs and hundreds of mushrooms scattered about the place, the funguses themselves emitted different-coloured spores glowing, moving upwards as she flickered from time to time, creating a magnificent view.
She continued to look around, walking as she did and wondered about the area. "Wow… so pretty!" she said with astonishment from the sight of her surroundings, "But where am I? Mushrooms and lights, it looks like some fantasy land." "Fantasy land" was a wording in the right direction, however. She continued to talk to herself, thinking back to how she did not have her weapon, looking back at her Scroll and trying to call upon it. However, just like Blake's experience, Ruby was only denied permission of the transfer.
"What? No, no, no, no!" she said in a flustered tone, pressing the same button continuously, still getting the same obstinate "Denied!" response. Ruby soon relented, bringing both her arms and head down in dismay and sighed, "Why do you hate me, Scroll?" She then brought them up at the same time soon after, tightening her grip of her Scroll as well as clenching the other and letting out an outburst, "Fine, don't give me my stuff!
In her little, childish fit, she recklessly threw her Scroll in the air in front of herself, making a loud cry of frustration as she did. After which, she opened her eyes, as she did close them briefly, and produced a gasp, realising what she had done and wondered about it. "Oops! I… I didn't mean it." After saying that, she thereupon moved towards it to pick it up. Crouching down and moving her right hand towards it. But just as she was under this procedure, she noticed something occurring. Faint lights shone in the distance, grabbing the attention of Ruby and looked into the direction of the evanescence of the lights, as they soon disappeared just as she turned around.
She blinked a few times and tried to ponder what just happened. "Wh-wha-...? I swear there was something there." She turned back to face her Scroll and continued the process of picking it up, thinking to herself, "Maybe it was nothing." After thinking that, believing it to just be her imagination, which would not come as a surprise given the area in question, she picked up the Scroll and regained her posture, standing upright. However, the lights appeared in two more distinct areas, this time staying in place. Ruby looked around, eying the lights, "OK, this is weird. I'm seeing double lights." She moved backwards, her mind focused on the lights to realise anything else. Just then, the lights sparkled, moving towards her. She touched a log that was behind her and fell to the ground, letting out a gasp and giving out slight complaints after falling down, rubbing her backside.
The lights moved around the area at a moderate speed and Ruby just kept staring at them. Soon enough, the lights faded away and figures of fairies could be seen, although not fully, since the frontal part emitting light was facing downwards. Ruby could hear some form of sound. The oddity was... Seemingly wondrous. She took her Scroll to the front of herself and tried to look at what was happening and saw fairies flying about. Amazed, Ruby looked at the area with wide open eyes and an open mouth like a goldfish, "Wow… Amazing!"
The fairies danced about and seemingly made sounds of laughter amongst what other sounds were emitted. This, with the colourful spores from the mushroom, created such a spectacular scenery! One fairy stopped in place and saw Ruby, leaving Ruby to look and blink and it as it did her. "Hello, little guy. What are you?" What this, the sound of Ruby caught the attention of the other fairies, who then became null and void and veered their eyes towards her. Ruby began to feel happy all of a sudden, finding such wonderful things. In her delight, she had a glint in both eyes, which moved back and forth a little bit, and instantly closed them and jumped shouting, "This is perfect! I don't know what you little things are, but I want to find out more! You're so adorable!"
Despite the content atmosphere for Ruby, the fairies became frightened by her uplifting nature and dissipated, moving in all directions. "No, wait. Don't go!" said Ruby, putting her empty, open hand out in protest. "Please…?" The fairies had already flown out of sight, causing Ruby to feel very disappointed after coming under the realising. The air within the area began to thicken, giving off a foul foreboding.
Ruby then altered her expression, trying to rid herself of the thought of those mysterious things and trying to put her mind at ease, now thinking about how to get out of the forest instead. "Anyway, I'm sure I'll find them soon. But now…," she then moves her surrogate torch in front, moving it around and moving herself in unison, deciding upon where to go. "I guess I'll just pick any direction." she said without any sign of confidence, beginning to walk into the direction of her choosing. But… there were… ominous red eyes lighting up within the darkness, which Ruby did not see.
Author's notes: I think I will slow down regarding the uploading. I have been posting the chapters up quite frequently (once every 3 days) and considering how I posted the prologue just as a test, that is quite unprecedented. The last thing that I want is the suspicion that I am doing this for nothing.
If people enjoyed this, then that is good. But I am not sure if I should continue with this or not.