Chapter 8: Schizo Schism
When we entered into South Gustaberg it was immediately apparent that something was wrong. The corpses of monsters and Beastmen littered the terrain, but there were no parties to be seen, not one warrior, not one mage. N-o-t-h-i-n-g. "Ooooooook, anyone got an explanation for what we're seein' here? Cuz I'm drawin blanks right now." I said truthfully.
"Perhaps this place was already fully purged and all the parties that were here have moved on elsewhere. Altana knows we got held up plenty on the way here." Murris offered helpfully. I nodded in agreement. But then immediately shook my head when I got close to one of the corpses, a Quadav. It was still bleeding, slight moans escaping from its throat but it was short lived. There were others too, Goblins.
"Anyone wanna offer an explanation why these guys ain't showin' any signs of a fight?" asked Lauria in a voice tinged with fear. I did not understand her meaning at first until I inspected the wounds of the corpses further. There were indeed, no battle scars anywhere on their bodies, no sign of magical assault of of being struck anywhere but in the one wounded area. It was as if something had just come in and given a single fatal stroke to each beast that had felled it without a fight.
"Morrre to the point. What kinda sumthin' is so strrrrong that it can kill a Quadav in one blow?" Again, an observation I'd failed to make (I suck at this). Even the one wound on each creature was just that, one strike, no signs of repeated attacks to the same location. Slowly, the rusty gears in that atrophied organ within my skull began aturnin' and suddenly it all came together.
"That thief, he told us "not to get in his way", remember? Said he was after some great reward…" I said simply, standing up straight from the last corpse I'd examined. "Well, anyway, ain't nuthin' goin on here, what's say we head back up to Bastok, regroup, and come on back down to one of the other areas." To say that I was unanimously opposed would be quite the understatement,
"No way in blitty H. We've wasted enough time trying to get HERE." said Murris, finally managing to show irritation without sounding whinny. Who knows how skimpy the pickings will be if we take the time to go back and regroup. I saw we continue forward to North Gustaberg and-" whatever else he had to suggest was lost to history as Lauria took the time to interject.
"HEYHEYHEY! Wait Just A MINUTE! YOU TWO ARE TALKING LIKE YOU PLAN ON IGNORING THIS WHOLE SITUATION, WE SHOULD REPORT THIS TO THE AUTHORITIES AT BASTOK, THEY NEED TO KNOW!" geez, drama queen much? More like drama empress, but I digress.
"What? Go back to Bastok and tell them we found a massive number of dead beastmen in South Gustaberg? Something tells me they AREN'T gunna find that to be all that surprising. I mean, in case you've forgotten, the mission objective is to annihilate every last beastman in the three defined areas." I didn't see how this was our problem, sure a whole buncha creatures were dead but that was what Bastok wanted, I doubted they cared much how it was done so long as it got done.
"B-b-b-b-b-b-ut this is too strange, I MEAN COME ON! YOU'RE TELLIN ME SEEING QUADAV TAKEN OUT WITH JUST ONE BLOW DOESN"T EVEN CAUSE YOU TO BAT AN EYE? THIS THIEF GUY COULD BE DANGEROUS! WHAT IF HE'S SOME HARBRINGER OF DESTRUCTION OR SOMETHING?" Oh for Altana's sake now she was just talking like a raving lunatic.
"Would you calm the H down already? Just because some thief claims he after power doens't mean he's a harbringer of destruction. Seriously, does the term "power-monger" ring a bell? Some guys just like to fight and fight and fight, it's their thing, that doesn't make them "harby... whatever the H that thing you called him." I said with finality. I wasn't about to let someone else dictate the path of my life, even if this thief guy was some hoby destro, what business was it of mine? That was Ethis's thing, the whole hero deal, he seemed pretty tough, and apparently had equally tough allies, why not let him deal with it? He'd find out eventually right? "The Red Wings are no band of viglante's, we're hunters, pure and simple, we stalk that we may consume. We've got no business prowling another hunters territory."
Lauria looked indigninant but said nuthing further, Murris seemed to approve, Silvie looked relieved. "And herrrre I thought we werrrre gunna get drrrragged into sumthin wayyy overrr ourrrr heads, no point rrrriisking ourrr necks when therrres no payoff right?" Myself and Murris nodded. Lauria seemed appoplectic.
"I don't believe this, I really don't, I don't think I can be a member of this party anymore, come on Murris, let's go." she spoke in a voice so low I could barely hear it, though that didn't disguise the flagrant anger in each of her words. Geez, what was she getting so worked up about,it wasn't like she had some personal stake in whatever was going on. Murris refused to listen.
"I ain't goin nowheres, you wanna go off on anuther of yer holy rollin tangents go right ahead, I'm here for the rewards and I ain't leavin till I get a fair - OUCH WILL YOU STOP THAT YOU INFERNAL WOMAN?" Lauria had shut him up by casting a stone spell on his head...again. I kinda got the feeling these two didn't get along all that much despite their apparent togetherness. I decided to ignore it however, and turned to head up North, we'd been delayed enough. I started walking. Deciding to also ignore that sudden, unexplanied, sharp pain in my head and chest, like a needle through my heart... yeah, too many eggs for breakfast, that wwas it, gotta start getting on a diet yeah... Silvie folloqwed close behind.
"You comin'?" I heard Murris ask. Didn't need explanation who that was directed at.
"Yeah, yeah fine, I wouldn't be able to do anything on my own anyway." she said almsot defeatedly.
In that moment, it simmed that the small flicker that was the flame of the Red Wings might just blow out. However, by the time we made it to North Gustaberg, grivances had disappeared in the exictement of new battles to be had, if South Gustaberg had nothing, North Gustaberg had way way wayyyy tooo much. Qudav and Goblins we're present in incredible numbers, no doubt the result of crafty "pulling" on the part of some group leaders. Being en mass like that made it easy to chain spell large numbers of Quadav and Golbins into submission. It was rather suprising, I had thought that the teams would compete AGAINST one another for greater booty, but then again, the crowd was more then likely predominantly made up of Bastokers, if that was the case, it wouldn't be suprising that they had put rivalries aside in the name of greater fortune.
Needless to say, to claim that the fighting was chatoic was an understatemtn worthy of,... some kinda reward that would go to understatments. It was a total war zone, spells flying everywhere, emrgin and converging as one on various beastmen, some hysterical laughter here and there at the sheer joy that was collective destruction of a common enemy. You've probably figured it out by now, but I was not immune to this excitement blended with ecstatic fear. I foundd myself leaping into frey after frey, Enthunderized dagger in hand, dia spell in the other. I had Murris go around wacking as many Quadav with his big sword as posssible and dragging them back toward Lauria and me. Silvie in the meanwhilee sfotened them up with her fists as they came, each strike being far too quick for them to even notcie that they'd been struck. By the time they got to Lauria and me they didn't have a chance as I attacked with my dagger and she pelted them with Thunder spells.
"HHAAHAHAHAAAAAA SUMBODY STOP ME! OWWWWWWWWWWUUUUUUUU!" Yes, I howled, is there I problem with that? I didn't think so. Anyway, we had som much fun that I didn't even have time to acknowledge that weird pain in my head and chest, or the weird sounds that now went along with it, all of it lost to the joyous cacaphony of battle that was raging all around me.
... want my reward...
...In time...
...You have fullfilled the pact...
... Dark Knight...
... As promised...
... power beyond...
...shortly...
...come...
By the time the battle had ended, we were all exhausted, but the adrenaline rush still coursed through us, for a time, ti felt as though we, the Red Wings, were of a single pulse, single life. The excitement of the battle had completely drained us of energy. The other parties in North Gustaberg did not seem to share this problem of exhaustion to the same extent that we had, but then, most of them were probably more "professionally" set up then we were. So what? All it meant was a little more challenge for us and a little more break time, who would complain about that? No one in their right mind that's who.
...To the mountains in Dangruf Wadi...
...shall feast...
...adventurers...
...even greater power...
"Anybody got sumthin for headaches?" I asked frustratedly, that weird pain in my head and chest refused to go away, in fact, it was getting worse, hell, it was beginning to sound like WORDS now. Maybe I was goin insane? Enough had certainly happenned to me in a short enough amount of time to warrent that analysis, but I had a weird feeling that... it was just a damn headache that refused to shut up and go away, that's all.
"Eh? headache medicine? Hold on, might got sumthin..." Lauria sifted through her own travel pouch for a short while before producing a small bottle of Remedy potion. She tossed it over to me and I caught it, drinking the contents. It seemed to work, at least somewhat, the pain was gone, but the weird noise was still there, but muted, like someone talkin through a thick piece of cloth. "Alright, let's get goin, Dangruf Wadi ain't gunna be chocie pickings for long." Is said a I stood up, the others did the same, and together we headed off for Dangruf Wadi...
Except we didn't.
"...ru..."
A voice from somewhere among the corpses of beastmen Quadav and Golbins... one of them still breathing? not surpsing, in all that chaos it was bound to happen.
"...aru..."
Again that noise, muted, like it was under something thick... like a rock. The four of us approached one of the Quadav, as we did, the sound got louder, ostensibly, that should mean we were getting closer to the source of the sound. "Murris, go see if that things still alive." He suddenly whirled on me like I was mad.
"What's that all of a sudden? Are we not all approaching it as one." back to good old whiny Murris.
"Someone seems to be forgetting Who's the duly elected leader here. Besides, your a Paladin, it's your job to take the lead." Murris grumbled as he approached the Quadav carefully. He unsheathed his sowrd and poked at it. No response, he poked at it again, harder this time.
"Aru..." What the hell was that noise it kept making? weird, I'd never heard a Qudav make that kind of noise. It sounded almost childish. This time Murris got bold, went up to the Quadav, and kicked it.
"-ARU!" Aru? what the H was taru supposed to mean? and why was this Quadav squeeking it in that weird tone? It sounded as though the Quadav had felt it that time though. Murris seemed to agree, so he kicked it again, harder.
"-TARU" Before I could make heads or tales of that last sound, Silvie suddenly rushed forward and grabbed the Qudav, she seemed on the edge of tears.
"OHNOHNONHONO!" Why was she getting so worked up over a dead Quadav? it was lost on me, she hastily turned it over, so that it lay on its back, revealing beneath it, a tiny child-like form.
"Arrrre you okay little guy? Yourrr not hurrrrt arrrre you?" she asked, her tone had changed radically from what I was used to. She sounded almos motherly, as if the creature she was cradling was her very own child.
"Little-wittle guy-taru? I'm older-wolder then you-taru." Okay, the little guy clearly had an attitude several sizes larger then his head. Which I guess wasn't saying much, seeing how shrimp the thing was. He leapt free of Silvie's embrace and did a quick scan of the environment. "Oh no-taru! They didn't even loky-wooky for me-taru!" I shook my head in amusement. The creature ran aroundd in circles, spotuing out angry platitudes about ingrates, crudes, barbarian,s ruffians, screws. It was all too much.
"HAHHHHAAAAAAHHAAHAHAAA Y-you lose-lose your party there or something buddy, ho-ha ho-haaahahahaa!" I found myself lost in a fit of laguther, the whoel situation was just absurd. The little guy turned toward me with an indignant look.
"I don't getty wetty no respect-aru, no repect-aru at all-taru." WHen I finally got over my laughing fit, I was able to assume a compsed manner, and was approach the little guy seriously.
"Tell you what guy, you'r friends probably went on ahead to Dangruf Wadi, so why don't you team up with us in the mean time? We're the Red Wings, just so you know."
The little guy looked up at me as though pondering. "Red...Wings... why not-aru? Just don't givy-wivy me no disrepect-aru." I nodded my head and knelt down to shake his hand, more of a hand pinch then anything.
"Well, alirghty then, it's a done deal. Glad to be workin with ya." I stood up. "Well, let's head off, don't wanna let you'r friends get too far ahead now do we?" I said amusedly as we once again began to move forward. Suddenly, I remembered that I'd forgotten something important. "By the way, what's your name little guy?"
"My namey-wamey is Curru Wurru."
"Right then, we'll just call ya Curru?" The little guy nodded as we walked. Then I stopped again abrubtly as I remembred ANOTHER important thing.
"By the way... what's yopur job?" The little guy smiled, struck a pose, and declared mightily, well as mightily as a little guy like him could.
"I'M A WHITE MAGE."
"What-aru?"