Chapter 13: Blessing and Prosperity
After leaving the vault with their new items, then heading back into Colter to browse around, the rescue party went south, following Spider Gorge to Lake Isabella. They decided to change the look of their avatars to try to keep a low profile, so Arthur changed into a different looking man while O'Callaghan chose to be something called an Asari. Jack made himself look like an elf and Lugh decided to experiment with being a duck man (aka Duckworldian), which was a very short duck with arms instead of wings and while he stood like a person on two legs, he had duck legs and a feathered tail on his rump.
Darrach couldn't stop laughing when he saw it.
Arthur remembered Lilly telling him way back where she'd found Tessa, the wild white Arabian that she had lassoed for her husband as a gift. And sure enough, there was a white Arabian on the western bank of the lake. The group stopped to get a look at the white horse and Arthur smirked.
"So...how do we approach this?" Lugh asked. "Arabians are skittish by nature."
Arthur dismounted from Holly, kissing O'Callaghan's hand. "I got this," he said confidently before stroking Lilly's face and kissing her cheek. "Don't go nowhere," he whispered before walking slowly towards the wild horse.
Arthur stayed low to the ground as he inched his way over to the unsuspecting horse, its back to him. Suddenly he whistled a bit and clicked his tongue to draw the horse's attention. The white Arabian looked behind herself at Arthur with a look of disinterest before going back to nibbling on some grass poking through the snow. Arthur got closer still, calling out words of encouragement. This seemed to make the horse ornery because she turned abruptly, locking her knees as she took a defensive stance. Arthur paused in his steps as he gauged the situation.
"You're okay," Arthur spoke calmly, holding up a palm. "Easy, girl."
The horse sized him up with her eyes as he got closer. Suddenly her eyes rolled and she snorted through her nose. "Alright, look pal," the horse said in an Irish accent, much to Arthur's astonishment. "This ain't me first rodeo. I know what yer tryin' tah do here, but it ain't happenin'. I'm waitin' fer some folks."
Arthur scoffed in shock as he straightened himself. When had Lilly learned to make animals talk? Or was this horse even a real horse? Was it a machine? A computer program? A hallucination? This place just got weirder and weirder the further they got in. For example, they passed by a ravenous, flesh eating elk on the way down. With metallic, rotating antlers. And razor sharp teeth. And it was covered in what Darrach called "graffiti". Honestly, it looked like a bunch of paint to Arthur.
That thing was still hard to kill, though.
"Look, uh, ma'am," Arthur mumbled with uncertainty. "I know who you're waitin' for."
"Oh, ya do?" Tessa chuckled. "And who am I waitin' fer, pray tell?"
"The Four Horsemen," Arthur replied, making Tessa's eyes widen. "Courage, Justice, Redemption and Honor." He pointed behind himself. "And we ride on War and Death."
Tessa trotted up to him before looking at what he was pointing at. She neighed loudly before gaping at Arthur. "So, which one are ya?"
Arthur chuckled. "I gotta be honest, I...I ain't sure. We just found out that we're part of some prophecy. Some archeologist had a book and you and Doc were shown in the book as Blessing and Prosperity. Which one are you?"
Tessa giggled. "Oh, I'm obviously Blessing. Doc is Prosperity. But what I was askin' fer was yer name, ya silly man."
"Arthur Morgan."
Tessa blinked a few times. "Junior or Senior?"
"Senior."
"Oh!" Tessa laughed suddenly. "Oh me goodness! Yer The Griffin God!" she sang, prancing around Arthur happily. "It's time! Yay!" She slowed to a stop and neighed at him. "What are ya waitin' fer? Permission? Get the feck on!"
Arthur laughed before mounting the horse. "Alright, let's go find Doc. You know where he is?" he asked before whistling to the others and waving them over.
"No. I ain't met him yet. I just know about him because of me programmin'," she said as she watched the others trot towards them.
"Oh. Why?"
"Me creator wanted tah try a little...experiment, I suppose. Somethin' about predetermined fate or what have ya."
When the rest of the group got closer, Arthur turned Tessa around. "Alright, well, do you know anythin' about what happened to Lilly's eyes, ears and voice and why she's stuck in her wolf form?"
Tessa looked at Lilly as she came trotting up beside her. "Hmm...they didna grow back? That's strange. The Cursekeeper musta done somethin' tah her."
"How long have ya been down here?" Lugh asked.
"Lilly made me, uh...about two hundred years after she was dragged down here but she kept me in one of her vaults fer safe keepin'. Next thing I know, I'm awake again and me vault was open so...I ain't got a damn clue." Tessa eyed the groups' wrists. "Oh! Ya got one of those...Pip Pop things! It outta tell ya how long time has passed!"
"Uh, that's Pip Boy," O'Callaghan chuckled as she looked through her Pip Boy for the date. "Oh...oh my. It's...it's May of 2404."
Arthur grumbled as he made Tessa go faster. "We gotta hurry up and find Rose."
"Ya, where is that little varmint? Wasna she locked up back in the corridor?" Tessa asked.
"She got out some time ago," Lugh chuckled. "Took O'Callaghan's seer eye and went off tah rescue Lilly."
"Ha! Lilly did say she was an escape artist. She told me all about that time when she got drugged and cursed with wine and she had," Tessa wheezed out a laugh," she had all sorts of strange visions but Rose ended up in the Greek Underworld?"
"Oh yeah!" Lugh laughed. "Arthur and the kids had tah go get 'em in Big Boah. Ya literally raised hell when ya got them out, Arthur."
Arthur let out a cackle. "That I did. But uh...Tessa, how come time moves faster down here? It's only been six months for us on the outside."
Tessa gasped. "Yer kiddin'! Seriously? Only six months?!"
"Mmhmm. Been seventy two years for O'Callaghan, though."
"Woooow," Tessa emphasized. "That certainly explains a lot, doesna it? See, Lilly was almost certain ya all were dead. I remember her sayin', "somethin' musta happened tah them, Tessa. They wouldna waited this long tah come get me, so all I can do is rely on meself and kill that bastard Mallacht"."
There was a loud crash in the trees and the whole party stopped. "What was that?" O'Callaghan asked.
A loud, animalistic growl came from the forest and Arthur saw movement. A giant, blue troll of some kind with a black leather vest and a circular belt holding up a loin cloth came marching onto the road. It looked at the rescue party and roared.
"What is that?!" Tessa shrieked.
"A monster from Fuschia's gaming simulation," Arthur replied before everything went dark.
"Here's to another battle," he thought.
Walking had been a mistake.
It wasn't until Aynaet made it to Rhodes that she realized this. Walking made her womanhood extremely sensitive to everything, not to mention how soaked it was. She could've flown the rest of the way but she didn't want to draw too much attention outside Saint Denis. People were not very fond of her here.
And for good reason.
Aynaet purchased a ticket for the train headed for Valentine and found a seat on it. As she sat, she hissed from the involuntary spasm of pleasure that hit her. People whispered amongst themselves as they went nowhere near her. They tried to be discreet in their staring but they were amateurs, really.
"All aboard for Valentine!" someone shouted.
The train blew its whistle and rung its bell, announcing to the passengers that it was ready to leave. When it began to chug away, Aynaet relaxed in her seat and stared out the window, grasping her staff upright. She gazed out at the scenery, her eyes calculating the type and amount of herbs that could be picked in this area. The variety of different animals that she created with some of her children. Aynaet's eyes locked onto a white nine tailed fox running across the grass into a clumping of trees. A small chirp escaped Aynaet's mouth. That one was one of Strawberry's first creations.
Strawberry was a conniving little bitch, but she had her moments of genuine imagination.
The train continued on the tracks, the occasional whistle blowing to announce its way to random strangers near the tracks. Aynaet got lost in her thoughts for a good while, her mind wandering to better times, so when the train abruptly screeched to a halt, Aynaet narrowed her eyes as she saw men on horses running around the train.
Outlaws.
Aynaet quickly got out of her seat and rushed through the aisles to the front of the train. People were getting out of their seats to follow cautiously but she had to keep stopping to yell at them to stay seated, not that they could understand her. Eventually she gave up and got to the first passenger car, glaring at the men who were threatening passengers and taking their money. They froze, however, when they saw her.
"Shit," one of the masked men said. "It's the queen."
Aynaet hissed with a wheeze as she pointed at the outlaws, others bracing in their seats for some shit to go down. She saw the scattered coins and valuables on the floor and she pointed at those, then pointed at the victims. The men immediately gathered up the valuables and handed them back to their rightful owners while others emptied their pockets to give back what they'd stolen. Once they were done, she slowly approached them, motioning with her staff for them to get lost. They quickly vacated the train, some of them clogging the entrance to try and squeeze through. When the last man exited the train, Aynaet followed to make sure they left immediately.
They rode away on their horses quickly without a word and the queen huffed before walking to the front of the train. The front of the train had a gray face with big eyes, a hook nose and thin lips with a cigar hanging out of it. It looked at Aynaet and grinned as it took the cigar out with one of its small hands. "Your Majesty...are they gone?" he asked in a New Jersey accent.
Aynaet nodded and the train chuckled before puffing on his cigar. "Your doing?" he inquired.
Aynaet nodded once more. "Thank you, Your Majesty," he said. "Hop back on, let's go."
The queen bowed her head before walking back past the conductor. "Thank you, Your Majesty," the conductor called out.
She waved at him briefly before getting back on the train, looking upon the frightened faces. Clearly, she wasn't going to get a thank you from them. Aynaet swiftly made her way through the cars as the train got going again. She found her previous seat and plopped into it with a brief sigh.
"All in a day's work," she thought to herself.
Time went on and after a few stops, the train finally pulled into Valentine. Once it was just a small livestock town but her son Valentine had added businesses here and there to attract tourism and pleasure. Drugs, companionship and alcohol were the main commodities in Valentine now. Aynaet got off the train and headed straight down the road to the more well known saloon/drug den/brothel that was next to the general store. People paused and gawked when they saw the queen had rolled into town and a lot of them didn't look happy about it.
Aynaet had to take notice of these things because down here, almost everyone was her enemy. Assassins hid everywhere. Luckily for her, though, Valentine cared enough for his mother to make sure she was well guarded whenever she stopped in for a visit.
The Demon Queen glimpsed her son's favorite business as she got closer to her destination, a small smirk appearing on her face. A random dog came running up to her and started barking madly at her. "Rosco, get back here!" Aynaet heard a child yell.
The kid came running across the road and grabbed the small dog before picking it up in his arms. "Rosco, you can't run off like that!" the child scolded before looking at the queen in fear. He gulped before bowing his head. "I'm sorry, Your Majesty," he said, his voice trembling as he slowly backed away.
Aynaet waved off the apology with a hand before walking past the boy and his growling dog. The words "The Wanderer's Paradise" were up on the building in red paint. The queen took steps onto the porch before walking through the saloon doors.
"So, this is America, aye?" Sir Jack asked a top Lilly as they saw Valentine in the distance. Or at least what Arthur thought was Valentine. There were new buildings and such added to the place, but it still had the remnants of the old livestock town that he remembered with fondness. "It's not too shabby."
The group was now in different clothing more suited for the spike in temperature. They were out of the mountains now and out of the cold snow. Arthur looked further into the distance, spotting some rock formations that he knew were common in the area. He examined his Pip Boy and tuned into one of the radio stations.
"Hey y'all, this is Valentine Broadcasts," a cheerful woman said over the radio, the group getting closer to town. "Y'all can stop listenin' to Three Dog and his so called "fightin' the good fight with the truth" program, because I just got word from Colter that a vault was opened."
"Uh oh," Arthur said. "So much for bein' discreet."
"And not just any vault. The Griffin God's vault. And...AND! Word is the guy who opened the vault isn't a descendant, but the OG Griffin God himself! In the fucking flesh!"
"Word travels fast 'round here, I guess," Arthur surmised as he turned the radio off.
They passed by houses and buildingsas they got further in, eventually getting to the large stables at the corner of the town. Some men were currently wrestling around with a big black Shire horse who was refusing to go into the stables. Arthur immediately recognized the horse's demeanor as well as the coat.
"Oh, who is that dreamboat?" Tessa asked with a deep voice.
"That big horse there? That's our Prosperity mount, Doc," Arthur explained with a chuckle. "Knowin' Lilly, he's probably the same ornery bastard as the original one was."
"Shouldna we go help him?" Lugh pointed out.
Arthur chortled when Doc managed to get a hold of a man by his jacket and toss him into a big pile of manure. "C'mon! You can do better than that!" Doc's voice bellowed, his eyes wide with rage as he yanked on the ropes that were tied around his neck, legs and body. "I'll take all you sons of bitches on! C'mon!"
"I think he's got it covered," Arthur laughed.
Tessa sighed. "Please, Arthur, do somethin'," she pleaded.
"Alright, c'mon," he said, jerking her forward. "You guys go on and see if you can dig up some information, then we'll meet outside that saloon there," he said, pointing at one of the buildings before getting over to the men. "Doc, where the hell have you been, boah? I been lookin' everywhere for you!"
Doc and the men holding him by ropes paused and looked at Arthur. Tessa batted her eyelashes at Doc and he gulped, his eyes filling with surprise as he stared at the Arabian. "Uh, this ain't your horse, buddy," one of the men said. "I caught this boy fair and square."
Doc rolled his eyes. "I told you, I was made before this so-called "proof of ownership" law came into existence but I still have an owner. This guy," he hissed, pointing his snout in the horsenapper's direction, "assumed I was just a wild horse! But the guy on the," he looked at Tessa, "really...tiny horse here is my owner."
"Well, technically he's my wife's horse," Arthur corrected, Tessa abruptly narrowing her eyes at Doc.
"Tiny horse?" she scoffed. "Yer a feckin' overgrown oaf."
Doc peered at the smaller horse. "You got quite a mouth on you, don'tcha?" he chuckled. "Little lady, you couldn't handle this overgrown oaf."
Tessa raised her head with a hmph. "As if I would even let ya touch me!"
"Enough with the bickerin', you two," Arthur said, motioning to the men. "You guys, let my wife's horse go, please."
"Do you have his papers?" the apparent stable owner asked.
"No. We never got papers for him," Arthur explained.
"Then I can't let you have him."
In the blink of an eye, Arthur had drawn out his revolver and aimed it at the man's head. "Don't make me kill you over a damn horse," Arthur complained.
"What is going on here?" a Eastern European sounding man said behind Arthur.
Arthur didn't bother to move. "These men won't give me back my wife's horse," he explained.
"Do you have papers for him?" the man asked, the sound of boots approaching Arthur's side.
Arthur eyed the tall, bulky man coming to beside him. A man with six large, twisted black dragon horns were nestled in his thick, long, wavy blood red hair. He had a braided beard and his blood red irises glowed with authority. "No, never saw the need," Arthur replied casually.
"But he is my owner, as is his wife," Doc interrupted.
The man nodded. "Very well. Let the horse go," he demanded gently.
"But Prince Valentine, he-" the stable owner began.
"If the horse claims this man is his owner, then what is the problem here?" Valentine explained, brushing off his expensive red silk suit. "Don't make me repeat myself, Jonathon. Let the horse go."
The nen sighed before taking their ropes off Doc. The horse neighed with a shake of his head. "Thank you," Doc said to the prince.
"You're welcome." He looked at Arthur with a smirk. "I apologize, I never introduced myself. My name is Valentine," he said, holding out his hand.
Arthur shook the prince's hand after holstering his gun. "Theo...Powell."
"Nice to meet you, Mr. Powell," Valentine said. "Might I suggest you go to the licensing office in town to get papers for your horse?"
Arthur nodded. "Sure, I'll do that. Where's it at?"
"If you go down the street here," he said, pointing to his left, "you'll see an old abandoned building. On the right of it is the licensing office. And welcome to the town of Valentine," he said before walking away. "After that, feel free to go to my saloon across the street from the bank."
"Thank you, sir," Arthur said before looking at Doc. "C'mon, let's go get you some papers." As the two horses slowly walked up the main street, Arthur sighed. "This place is so god damn crazy," he muttered under his breath. "Computer horses, monsters, vaults, puppets, a blind, deaf and mute wolf that walks around without bumpin' into things...good fuckin' god!"
Doc got closer to Arthur. "Uh, sir, are you related to the Griffin God?" he whispered.
"Nope. I am the Griffin God," Arthur replied.
"Oh," Doc said in surprise. "What year is it?"
"Accordin' to this," Arthur began, tapping his Pip Boy, "it's 2404."
"What the hell took you so god damn long?!" Doc hissed.
"It's only been six months on the outside, Doc," Tessa responded.
"No bullshit?"
"No bullshit."
Arthur paused Tessa when he saw Lilly, or at least someone who looked like Lilly, walk into the abandoned building. "Darrach, did you see that?" he asked as he dismounted. "Stay here," he said to the horses before rushing to the building.
"I do believe I saw something," Darrach said into the ear com. "But I couldn't make it out."
Arthur ran inside and saw Lilly at the old, dusty counter. "Lillian?" he said out loud.
An older gentlemen came into view behind the counter with a smile and a bad sounding cough. "Hello, miss. My name is Mr. Gowry. What can I do for you?" he asked Lilly.
Lilly pulled out a gold watch and placed it gently on the counter. "I'm Lilly and I would like to have you fix my...gentleman suitor's watch. And to add things to it as well. I have some drawings of what I'd like done," she said, reaching into her satchel and pulling out papers. "They're just rough sketches."
Arthur came over to glance at the drawings as she opened them up on the counter. He raised a brow at how good the sketches were. They were of the Morgan family crest. Another was of his gold watch and a drawing of how it currently looked from different angles, welded bullet ends and all.
When the hell did Lilly learn how to draw?
"I think you're looking at a memory," Darrach said.
"These are some mighty fine drawings, miss," the old man chuckled as he inspected the watch. "How long has the watch been like this?"
"About fourteen years," Lilly replied.
"Huh. Where did you get the idea for the family crest?"
"Oh!" Lilly said, pulling out her own watch. "I have one with my family crest on it, too. It belonged to my father." She held it out to him. "Go on, have a gander."
The horologist examined the front with a smirk. "This is beautiful craftsmanship." He turned it over and his face went pale. "Oh my."
"Is somethin' wrong, sir?" Lilly asked.
The man looked at her curiously then shook his head. "No, I just...your family motto is on the back. The last time I saw this motto was in the Saint Denis newspaper about...huh, back in...what year was it?"
It was Lilly's turn to go pale. Arthur frowned, knowing exactly the reason behind her anxiety. "Aww, Lilly," he sighed, rubbing his face. "I ain't sure I can watch this."
"Hmm...1885, I think it was? 1884? Something about a serial killer running amuck in that area," the old man said. "This killer would leave, "Fidus Et Audax" behind for every kill."
Lilly swallowed hard. "Huh. That...hmm...sounds rather ghastly," she replied quickly. "How long would this job take you?" she asked, obviously trying to change the subject.
"Hm," the man said, going back to the gold watch. "Well, I think I'll have to get new parts into the watch itself but I have plenty of those. That won't take long once I remove the bullet and open it. As for the bullet welding, I just received a new tool from Saint Denis today that will be perfect for the job, so...a couple weeks, maybe? As long as I don't get a rush of people, which I never do," he chuckled.
Lilly smirked and grabbed her watch before stuffing it into her satchel. "And how much will this cost?"
"Repairs, parts, welding, customization...mmm, a hundred seventy five dollars."
Lilly bit her lip. "Could I pay ya half now, half later?" she asked.
"Oh, you can pay me when the job is finished. That's how I usually operate."
Lilly blinked in confusion. "Oh, well...guess I'll just stop by periodically to check in?"
"Sounds good," the man said before taking the gold watch and placing it on the counter behind him. "Should I have O'Callaghan or Lilly as the name on the order?"
"Both, if you prefer. Thank you for your time, sir," she said. They said their goodbyes and Arthur followed Lilly out of the horologist's shop. She closed her eyes and huffed. "I'm gonna haftah rob so many people tah pay fer this," she said. "But it'll be worth it."
As her image disappeared, Arthur frowned and bowed his head. "I wonder if there are any other memories of her scattered around this place," Darrach said.
"Maybe," Arthur said, looking at Tessa and Doc who were arguing with each other. "Great, now what?" he groaned as he walked over to them.
