Enter the Dragon
Chapter 7: The Nosk's Den…
Stepping off of the tram, I breath in the earthy scent of Deepnest. It was unlike the rest of the kingdom, much more of an earthy smell than even the land above, and quite nice. Reminded him a bit of home, to be honest.
Continuing forward, I make my way towards the hot spring, stopping when I come upon a loose feeling dirt. Searching my memory, I recall that this was the drop down into an area where the Sharp Shadow charm was, in the game. Who knows what could be there now, and I don't even have the ability to shade dash anyway, so best not to mess with it for now.
Leaping and flying over the various spike obstacles, which were as annoying in person as they were in the game, I eventually make my way to the hot spring, which glowed a soft white color. And there was a metal bench there as well. Surprisingly, there were no bugs in or around the hot spring, but I wasn't going to question my luck.
Stepping around the spring, I continue forward, eventually find myself in the heart of Deepnest. And it was a cramped and dark as I was expecting. Fending off deeplings and dirtcarvers, who were very, very hungry for my flesh for some reason, I climbed over the various obstacles, until I found the tunnel leading to the nosk's den.
Breaking through the week wall blocking off the tunnel, I began my trek down into the depths, searching for another hidden wall, finding it after several minutes with my nail, crashing through the weekend dirt wall. Through this wall, the tunnels got very short, forcing me to crawl forward, putting strain on my joints and dirtying my cloak. It was while going down a downward sloping tunnel, that movement caught my eye. A face, my original face, stared at me in the darkness, the low light obscuring the body, but I could recognize my original face anywhere. Picking up the pace, I follow after it, knowing I was walking straight into a trap by the nosk, but that's what I wanted.
After some time, following the face disappearing and reappearing throughout the tunnels, I finally stepped out into a larger tunnel, soft light illuminating what could only be the nosk, it's cloaked body wearing my original face like a mask, simply staring at me. I pulled my cloak off, setting to the side as I held my nail at the ready, my wings twitching in anticipation.
For a few minutes, we stared at each other, me waiting for the nosk to make a move, and the nosk waiting for me to come closer. Eventually, I grew impatient, and raised my left hand, launching a vengeful spirit blast at the nosk, who recoiled from the sound, but was unable to dodge the attack. The impact of the spell blew the cloak of its body, and it shrieked in anger, it's form contorting and stretching until it resembled a nosk in full form, charging at me with reckless abandon.
I jumped up, my wings propelling me through the air as I rained vengeful spirit blasts upon its body, sending orange blood splattering from the smaller limbs upon its body being broken and bent from the impact. Once underneath me, it leaped up, shrieking as it reached with a pair of its limbs. I deflected the attack with my nail, before descending upon it in a charge, soul gathered in my left hand as I slammed my nail into it's back, the soul explosion shredding several of its limbs into pieces, it's cries of pain echoing around the chamber.
It bucked with sudden strength, throwing me off, my nail coming loose from it's back. I fluttered my wings, landing a short distance away before diving to the side as the nosk leaped at me, screaming in rage. I launched another spirit blast into it as I moved, circling it as it attempted to stand, many of its limbs broken and crushed from the fight. It lurched towards me, spitting orange acid from its face, forcing me to dodge to the side, accidently stepping off of the raised platform, loosing my footing and falling onto my side. I immediately try to stand back up, my wings buzzing behind me as the nosk lands atop me, trying to force me into the dirt. The nosk, holding my left hand between a pair of it's claws, reach forward and bit down upon my left arm, it's fangs piercing through the carapace, tearing into the flesh beneath. Screaming in pain, I grip my nail, and stab through it's head, nearly severing it from the body from the force of the strike, pulling my nail back, stabbing again and again until the head comes off, the body stepping back before falling to the side, it's limbs flailing in death throws.
I stab my nail into the ground next to me, and pry off the nosks head from my left arm, crushing it underfoot, before jerking back in surprise as the nosks body lashes out with one of its limbs, catching me in the side, tearing a long gash along the right side of my body, cracking and tearing carapace from the force of the blow. And my vision turns red.
When I eventually come too, the nosk's body has been torn apart into many small pieces, and I'm absolutely covered in blood, the pain from my wounds catching up to me as I kneel, taking in deep breathes before spitting out a glob of discolored phlegm, the taste acrid in my throat.
After catching my breath, I stand back up, and begin looking around, noting a surprising lack of bodies in the place, before I look up, and my breath catches at the sight above me. Strung up in webs, were both small weaverlings, and vessels. Upon catching sight of me looking at them, the weaverlings begin to shake, tying to hide in their restraints, while the vessels simply stared at me, unmoving. Counting them out, there were 14 weaverlings, and 12 vessels, all strung up together in distinctive groups.
Taking some more deep breaths to fill my lungs with air, I take wing, flying up first to the weaverlings, saying "Don't be scared, I'm here to rescue you." and begin pulling the strands apart, using my claws to cut through tough silk with ease. After freeing the first two, they begin helping out, pulling their siblings free, as I fly over to the vessels, who haven't made a single sound the entire time, their faces tracking my movements.
Once next to them, I began freeing them one by one, hearing a slight "Sibling…" within the back of my mind with each one, barely more than a whisper. Unlike the weaverlings, who at least seem to be physically ok, the vessels are in rough shape, several of them sporting cracks in their masks, forcing me to heal them with soul before getting them down, lest the strain kill them.
Once I had all of them down, I sat down, taking deep breathes to cool my rapidly heating body from the exertion, my wing muscles feeling like they were on fire from so much flying. While catching my breath, the vessels and weaverlings all crowd around me, the vessels all chanting "sibling, sibling, sibling" while the weaverlings chitter amongst themselves.
The largest of the vessels, sporting a curling pair of horns that created an hourglass shape between them, forced itself onto my lap, reaching up for my mask, it's voice solidifying in my mind while it spoke "sibling, big sibling, kill big scary, fix siblings, save siblings, protect siblings?", the impressions of fear and hope strong in equal measure, both overshadowed by pure, unfiltered love.
Giving the impression of safety along the link, I respond "Yes, I'll protect you, as much as I'm capable. But first, we need to get out of here.", upon which the vessels all piled on, hugging me with reckless abandon, only for several to pull pack, staring at the red colored blood they found, turning their gaze up to ask me "sibling, hurt?" with an intensity not felt before. I calmly go to stand up, saying "I'm alright, I'll heal later. For now, we need to go. That includes you as well.", directing my gaze to the weaverlings, who have been staring at me the entire time.
"Before we leave, was there anyone else alive, here?" I ask, glancing over both groups, who all shake their heads no. Sighing, I stand up fully, several vessels clinging to my form while the rest follow after me. Collecting my cloak, I begin making my way out of the nosk's den, saying "Well, guess the next stop is the Hidden Village."
Herrah, following along the trail of sound, the screams of the nosk and whatever it was that was fighting it having gone silent, was stuck with a conundrum.
When she had returned to the Village, she found it in chaos, weavers and devouts frantically doing a head count. A nosk, the cowardly beast it was, had assaulted one of the weaver's dens while she was gone, leading away a group of their younglings with it's mind magic, leaving behind the corpse of a pair of weavers that had attempted to stop it initially, 14 weaverlings missing from their homes.
The frantic search had stalled, the trail ending in a collapsed tunnel, forcing them to dig out the tunnel. This was halted when the screams of a nosk, engaged with some roaring creature, echoed down the tunnels, the sound focused ones triangulating it to be emerging from the near the hot spring towards the lowest sections of Deepnest.
And judging by the sounds of the fight, it had clearly ended, with the nosk going silent, while the beast that fought it roared in anger and rage for a while, before going silent itself. Leaving them just short of the location to the nosk's den.
Keeping her needles at the ready, she continued forward, her eyes easily seeing in the darkened tunnels, when she caught a scent. A heavy, irony scent, unlike anything else she had ever smelt before. It reminded her of rusted metal, but there was a tang to the scent, denoting it as organic in origin. Breathing in the smell, she began following it, gesturing for others to follow behind her as she zeroed in on the scent, and found herself face to face with a robed being.
Said being was the origin of the scent, and her sharp eyes could see tiny drips of its irony blood dropping from beneath it's cloak, almost imperceptible to all but the sharpest eye. She drew her nails, shouting "Halt, strange creature."
At her words, the being, who had stopped moving when she came into view, startled a bit, standing up straight as a swarm of weaverlings burst from behind it, swarming towards her, chirping in distress and relief. Herrah, eyeing the being before her, lowers her nails, talking in native weaver tongue to the weaverlings "I'm so happy your safe, my weaverlings. Come, we need to get you back to your nest. Who is this one?"
The weaverlings stopped crawling over her, a pair of larger ones stepping before her as they reply "Vessel friend, saved us, killed scary bug, hurt." Herrah gave the mysterious bug a once over, saying "Stranger, you have my gratitude, for finding our missing weaverlings."
The bug lowered its hood, the sight of his white, vessel like face shocking Herrah to the core, as the bug responds in a silky smooth, but still masculine voice "You're quite welcome, Herrah of Deepnest. But it wasn't just weaverlings that I rescued." and opened up his cloak, showing off 4 vessels within his cloak, all 4 of them absolutely tiny, holding onto his body with their tiny hands. And from within, Herrah could see the long gash on his side, leaking a bright red hemolymph, the smell of iron increasing without a barrier of cloth in the way.
What shocked her even more, was when more vessels came forward, surrounding the strange bug, staring at her, their eyeless faces being quite unnerving to look at from so many. Herrah says "You're wounded, and we owe you quite the debt for saving so many, come, I'll escort you to the village. And, may I have your name?"
The strange bug, starting to falter back and forth from hemolymph loss, responded "My, my name is Ray. And I would much, appreciate…." before starting to fall over, Herrah lunging forward to grab him, setting him down gently, immediately spinning up some emergency webbing to clot up the damage, gesturing to a devout nearby, saying "Quickly, go get some weavers. We need to ensure this bugs actions are not in vein, and secure the safety of the younglings.", looking over the weaverlings and vessels, taking note of the positively scorching warmth coming from the strange bug, Ray.
Nearly a cycle later, the strange bug was bundled up in a guest room, their wounds healed with weaver magic, and asleep, with the vessels all piled up on and around them. The rescued weaverlings had been safely returned to their home, with extra guards placed around the village. A pair of devouts had explored and found the nosks den by following the irony blood trail left behind by Ray, leading them straight to the den.
The devouts reported, that the den had been wrecked in their fight, stones crushed beneath the force of their blows, the body of the nosk torn apart into many tiny pieces, it's face shredded apart. The ferocity of the fight showed that this Ray, despite how soft spoken they had been, were a force to be reckoned with, and needed to be treated with care.
What little Herrah had been able to get out of Ray before he succumbed to his exhaustion, was that he was a being from beyond Hallownest, and knew of the nosks den, somehow. She'd have to interrogate him more thoroughly once he awakened, but he would be treated as an honored guest regardless of what she learned. He had saved those weaverlings, after all.
But now the question of the Kings lies. She had been told, quite convincingly, that there was only one Vessel, the Pure Vessel, who was of without mind, will or voice, the perfect vessel to contain the infection within. She, Lurien, Monomon and Vespa would join together under a shared dream, to create another seal on top, both to protect the Vessel from outside influence, but to strengthen the seals upon it.
However, the vessels rescued from nosks den acted just like children, staring at anything and everything around them, but congregating around Ray the entire time, hugging him at various times, and at the moment, were all curled up with their guest.
Them acting like children clearly shows that whatever the Pure Vessel may be, a mindless being it is not, which meant that the entire plan was a failure in the making. And all of the various complaints and concerns by Hornet now became much more believable than before.
Herrah grabs a pair of tablets, and begins writing a pair of letters, the first one detailing that in a decacycle, she would be coming to the Palace, for a meeting of great importance, and she requests that the other dreamers attend the meeting as well. The second letter was to the White Lady in the Queen's Gardens, requesting that she be present for a meeting of great importance in the White Palace. Signing the letters, she exits her personal chamber, coming out onto the central platform in the center of the village, and points to a nearby messenger weaver, saying "You, deliver this message to the Palace and the Queen." The messenger bows, accepting the tablets, stowing them away into a satchel, and leaves, moving towards the stag station.
Just as the weaver makes it to the stag station, Herrah sees her daughter come flying through, followed by her half-sister, the both of them heading straight to Herrah. Hornet lands a perfect landing, needle held at standard carry height, while Helia lands just after her. Hornet strides up to her, saying "Mother, we found evidence that the Pure Vessel is unlikely to be perfectly hollow, like father claims it is." while pulling out a dark grey book.
Herrah almost wanted to sigh, the timing of this was almost too perfect, but responds instead with "I believe you, Hornet. Something has come up that throws the Pure Vessel plan into doubt, come, I'll show you what I mean." and heads towards the guest room, gesturing for them to follow. Hornet and Helia give each other looks, before following after her, making their way through the main building. They find themselves in front of the honored guest room, which hadn't been used in many cycles.
Herrah brings up a finger, shushing them, and opens the door slowly. Within, Hornet and Helia see vessels. Several of them. Counting them out, there had to be a dozen of them, all slumped together in a pile, asleep. And underneath them, just barely visible, was a scarily familiar mask, similar in shape to Hornet's, but with two curling points in opposite directions. Hornet opens up the book, flipping it to the last page, her eyes widening within her mask as the familiar visage of the 'burning one' is revealed.
Herrah pulls them back, closing the door, gesturing for them to follow her. She leads them to the her personal chambers, and sits down, saying "Alright, now show me what you found." Hornet opens up the book, handing it over, talking it through with her as she read the book.
While reading through the book, Herrah had a terrible thought. With the vessel plan a failure in the making, another solution would have to be sought. And given the Pale King's desperation before, she hoped that whatever sacrifices were needed for it, were less drastic than the Pure Vessel plan. She could only hope.
AN: And now the cats out of the bag. Herrah, who has long been suspect of the Pale King's plans but was going through with them to save her people, now has to contemplate the fact that the Pure Vessel plan isn't going to work. Hornet and Helia will finally meet Ray, and Ray gets loved on by Vessels. Hurray. But, complicated times are ahead, and the infection still has to be dealt with.
Anyway, I hope everyone enjoyed the chapter, and will be ready for the next one. Peace out.