Lian's Peculiar Adventure: Starlight Paladins
Chapter 9
The Pollen Princess
The Paladins arrived at the inn they had originally arrived in and stood on the porch, waiting a few moments before entering to inspect themselves.
"So you're telling me there was a stand that was just a bow?" Lian asked Lex as he wrapped some bandages around his forearms.
"Yes, and that was the name of the stand. The Bow." Lex added.
"The Bow?" Sarah pondered and placed her fingers on her chin, "What an original name…"
"Apparently he was partnered up with another stand user who had the power to travel through mirrors." Lex continued, "Do you have some water? I am quite parched." He asked Lian.
Lian nodded and pulled out her canteen.
"To think that scum ran away before I could cut him to bits…" Zhin grumbled and crossed his arms, "I would have done so too if it wasn't for those meddling kids…"
"Relax, Zhin." Lian shook her head, "You made him wet his pants as he scurried off with his tail between his legs, that should be enough for now."
Zhin grunted, then chuckled.
"I must admit that was a bit hilarious… I guess I'll kill him last…"
"We must rest." Lex said, "To recuperate from our wounds."
"I suppose that is a smart thing to do. Lian, would you help them get a room? I could get the food while you do." Sarah told her.
"I suppose." Lian shrugged.
"Alright, I'll see what we can get." Sarah nodded and walked across the street to the general store. She avoided some horsemen coming in, and then walked around a wagon to reach her destination.
She entered the general store and walked to the counter.
"Excuse me sir, do you sell food in bulk?" she asked the man.
"Absolutely." The cashier responded, "Heading out on a trip, young lady?" he asked her.
"Hehehe." Sarah giggled at the thought of being called a young lady, "But yes, we are heading south."
"Pioneers I see." The cashier commented as he walked to some large crates, "Well, the Magistrate does pay well to settle those lands. What would you like to take?"
Sarah looked at the foods inside the crates and mostly saw bread, fruits, and vegetable.
"Do you have any meats?"
"For your long journey? Sure, we have some jerky out this season." The cashier walked to a window, where some dried meat was hanging in the sun.
Sarah's mouth watered when she saw the delicious meat.
"I'll take all of it!" she said and pulled out a bag of coins.
"Absolutely." The cashier nodded and reached for the bag of coins, but then noticed something on her arm.
"Young lady, have you seen that?" he pointed to her forearm.
"Hmmm?" Sarah looked at her arm.
There was a gash across it that was forming a large boil over her skin.
"What!?" she gasped and looked at it.
"It looks like leprosy…" the cashier murmured and stepped back, "Young lady, you need to get that looked at." He went back behind the counter, "May I ask you to not touch anything as you leave?" he stammered.
Sarah mumbled as she looked at her boil.
"Alright…" she started walking towards the door.
"The doctor is next door to the constabulary right down the main road." The cashier pointed outside his window.
Sarah nodded and stepped outside.
"What could this be? How did I not notice it? How did we not notice it?" she looked at the inn and wondered how this passed by Lian, Lex, and Zhin.
She started to walk to the doctor's building, trying her hardest to hide the boil under her left hand as she walked past people.
The woman once again avoided horses, wagons, and people as she crossed the street.
"Alm- ouch!" she felt a stinging pain in her left hand and retracted it, "What was that?" she saw a small stream of blood dripping down from a nip on her skin.
She looked at it but continued walking towards the doctor's building, finally entering it when she passed the constabulary.
The nurse on the desk looked up to see the woman.
"How can I help you, miss?" she asked.
"I would like to see the doctor for this boil." Sarah told her and showed her arm.
The nurse gasped.
"Right away!" she said and ran to the back of the building.
Sarah looked at the boil and saw that appeared to be bubbling under her skin.
"What the… what is this disease? Could the Pyre cure it?" she was about to use her pyre but was interrupted when the doctor came in.
"Miss, I heard what is happening to you." The old man walked up to Sarah, "Oh yes… that looks very concerning." He looked at the boil from a distance before grabbing her arm and inspecting it closely.
"What do you think it is, Doctor?" the nurse asked as she stood behind him.
"It doesn't appear to be leprosy." The doctor rubbed his gray beard, "What have you been doing the past few days, miss?" he asked Sarah.
"I came in to town, I've been traveling." Sarah responded.
"Where was the last place you visited?"
"The town of Margia." Sarah answered.
The doctor pondered.
"You must have gotten bitten by one of the swamp insects there." He deduced, "But… I've never seen anything devolve to this caliber." He poked it with his gloved hands.
A mouth suddenly appeared from the boil and bit the tip of his pointer finger off.
"AGH!" the doctor yelled in pain.
"What the!?" Sarah gasped as the doctor's blood dripped down her skin and his finger disappeared into the small mouth.
"Ugah…." A face appeared on the boil.
"More… More…." It said.
Sarah's arm suddenly jerked and landed on the nurse's belly.
"NAM!" the face on the boil bit into her body.
"AHHH!" the nurse shrieked.
"What is going on!?" Sarah cried out and brought back her arm.
The boil had now formed into a flowery looking head and continued munching the skin it had gotten from the nurse.
"Tasty." It said and looked at Sarah, "Oh hello there, mommy!" it giggled, "Thanks for giving a spore like me a body to grow on!"
"It can talk!?" Sarah looked at the doctor.
"Who is saying that?" the doctor murmured as he looked around, "What bit me!? Was it that?!" he pointed to the boil.
"It was this!" Sara pointed to it as well, "This creature is growing on me?"
"What are you talking about?!" the nurse asked.
"Do you not see the face?" Sarah asked them.
"Silly mommy!" the head giggled, "They can't see you! Hahahahaha! Don't you know that?"
Sarah gulped.
"Could it be that this little boil is-"
"A stand!" the head responded.
"What is that?" the doctor got nearer to what he saw was just a large boil, "Is that where the sound is coming from?"
"Get back!" Sarah saw that the old man was getting too close, but it was too late.
The stand caused Sarah's arm to jerk and then caught itself on the doctor's nose, which it then bit off and ate whole.
"DOCTOR!" the nurse shrieked as the old man fell back with a stream of blood following him.
"Nam! Nam! Nam!" the stand finished chewing and grew a torso, "Can you feed me more, mommy?" it asked.
Sarah fought against the pulling force the stand was making against her arm.
"Stand back!" she told the nurse, who stood there in fear.
"No you don't!" the stand bit off Sarah's bracelet and jerked its head to send it straight into the nurse's left eye.
"AH!" the nurse shrieked and stumbled forward.
"I got you!" the stand jerked Sarah's arm again and bit off the nurse's ear, then grew small stubs for arms.
"Stop this!" Sarah growled, "If you're a stand, I will end you with mine! Furious Flame!" she yelled and called out the angelic stand.
"Burn her!"
"And burn your whole arm off, mommy?" the stand taunted as it bobbed around.
Sarah grumbled because she knew it was right, and even with the healing power of the Pyre, she could not regrow her arm.
"Give me more food!" the stand jerked her arm again while she was deep in thought and came down on the base of the back of the nurse's neck, as she was cowering in fear and hurt.
"AGH!" the nurse screamed and died, as the stand had severed her spinal cord.
"Mmm… Tasty!" the stand ate the chunk of meat and grew arms and an upper body, "Ta-Da!" it laughed.
"What is your name!?" Sarah said and ran out of the doctor's building.
"I guess a daughter should tell her mommy her name." the stand smiled, "My Stand is POLLEN PRINCESS." The stand posed childishly.
Sarah grumbled and shook her head, "I'm going to one of my friends to get rid of you." She looked at the inn.
Pollen Princess grumbled and then saw two Enforcers standing outside the constabulary.
"Oh no you don't!" it smirked, "Hey lunkheads!" it screamed.
The two Enforcers turned to the sound of the voice, only to see Sarah standing there.
"You good for nothing pigs are just stinking up the town!" Pollen Princess continue, "I wouldn't be surprised if a bunch of criminals came and smoked you all into bacon!"
The Enforcers growled.
"Run along, girl." One of them said as she pointed at her.
"You'll be running when I punch your face in." the stand continued.
"What? Stop!" Sarah shook her head and looked at her enforcers.
"You don't even look like you can get a man! No wonder you're a cop, you short haired dyk-"
"Why you!" the female enforcer yelled.
"We told you to stop, this is now harassment of a law official!" the male enforcer added and the two bolted towards her.
"OH NO!" Sarah yelled and ran away from them, "You good for nothing parasite!" she yelled at Pollen Princess.
"A mommy should always love her daughter!" the stand taunted as they turned down a dark alley.
"Dead end!" Sarah stopped when she as a large stone wall before them.
"STOP RIGHT THERE!" the cries of the Enforcers in pursuit sounded behind her.
"Furious Flame!" Sarah called out her stand, and it picked her up and flew over the wall to another alleyway.
"Huh?" the two enforcers came up to the alley and saw no one there.
"Where'd she go!?" the female enforcer growled.
On the other side, Sarah continued to allow her stand to fly her as she held on to its arms.
"Hmmm…" Pollen Princess saw that it was on the arm that was holding on to the stand, "Time to cut this ride short! HAMPH!" it bit into Furious Flame's right arm.
"AGH!" Sarah yelled as the bite mark appeared on her wrist, causing her grip to falter.
"AHHH!" she fell and hit the ground hard.
"Oops! Silly me!" Pollen Princess taunted and grabbed hold of a nearby alley cat, then ate its front leg to grow bigger.
The cat shrieked and scurried off.
"Ha… Ha…" Sarah panted as she stood up, "Hrr… If you are a sickness or a parasite…" she looked at Pollen Princess, "Perhaps my Pyre will get rid of you!" she breathed in.
A pulse of fiery energy surged through her body and concentrated into her arm.
However, when it reached Pollen Princess, it just passed through.
"What!?" Sarah gasped, "How!?"
"Mommy dearest… You should know daughters come from a part of their mommy!" Pollen Princess taunted.
Sarah stopped and remembered a bitter memory.
"Of course… the Pyre would never harm a child… especially one within me…" she murmured and looked at her abdomen, then looked at the general direction of the inn.
"How could I be so forgetful of that-"
"Hamph!" the enemy stand bit into her arm.
"Damnit!" Sarah cursed and started to run, "It seems that Pollen Princess is considered part of my body to my Pyre energy!" she growled, "I need to get to my friends so they can help me get rid of- HWAK!" she was punched in the chin.
"No you don't! HYAH!" Pollen Princess started to use its fists to punch its host, "You need to take care of your daughter!"
"Stop this!" Sarah blocked her attacks with her arm.
"FURIOUS FLAME!"
Her stand's arm appeared from her own and grabbed hold of Pollen Princess with its hand.
"Pyre Bind!"
Small strings of fire appeared and wrapped around Pollen Princess.
"HMPH! NO!" Pollen Princess stabbed Sarah's arm with a shard of glass.
"Ahh!" Sarah shrieked, causing her stand to fall back, "Where- Where did you get that!?"
"When I had that encounter with the cat!" Pollen Princess told her, then used the shard of glass to cut her bicep.
Sarah winched in pain and shook her head.
"I have to keep on going to the inn, no matter how painful it is- AH!" she yelped when Pollen Princess slashed her lip.
"I'm close enough to slit your throat, then Seris will save the Summer Court and help us defeat the humans!" Pollen Princess laughed.
"So you're with her, huh?" Sarah growled, "I knew she would be behind this!"
"I guess she trusted the right girl to finish off her sister." Pollen Princess giggled and slashed Sarah's tricep.
"She told me all about you. How old you are. How many battles you fought. How experienced you were. Yet I see none of that! I think she was right in dismissing that when she told me."
Sarah snarled.
"I knew my sister would discredit me so…" she ran down the road.
"Look at you, all those years alive and yet you learned nothing from either your sister or your little daughter, mommy!" Pollen Princess aimed its glass shard at her neck.
"Now you die!"
"Hwak!" Sarah gasped as she felt the shard go through the hand she used to stop it.
"There's no use fighting! You will wither!" Pollen Princess pushed on her hand, trying to get the shard to her throat.
"It's so hard to push this back!" Sarah groaned.
"Now you'll die all old and withered… I wish I could look as young as you in my old age too!" Pollen Princess chuckled.
"Well, you'll never live to that!" Sarah yelled and jumped over a fence.
"Hey!" a couple of workers yelled as the woman appeared before them.
"You can't be here!" one of the workers put down his hammer and shook his fist.
"Where are you going!?" Pollen Princess laughed, "Do you want to do some hard work before you die? Is stopping this glass not enough for you!?"
Sarah grunted.
"Is this enough for you!?" she suddenly pushed Pollen Princess back and dunked her arm in a puddle of mud that was on the ground next to some bricks.
She saw the mud bubble, but then the glass shard shot out and hit her throat.
Pollen Princess popped out in this moment of weakness and grabbed the shard again, "This time I'll drive it straight through you!"
Sarah stammered as her free hand started to fail holding back the stand.
"You think you could have gotten rid of your daughter in that icky mud?" Pollen Princess asked, "How silly of you, mommy! Now you will retire once and for all!"
"Hmph…" Sarah smirked, "FURIOUS FLAME!"
The angelic stand appeared.
"Heat wave!"
"Burn your hand off, I don't care! I'm so close!" Pollen Princess' fairy eyes opened up.
Furious Flame shot out a wave of intense heat from the palm of its hand.
"HAHAHAHAHA!" Pollen Princess laughed childishly, "Now you die-" it stopped.
"What?!" it yelled when it could no longer move.
"You thought that was icky mud?" Sarah smiled as the stand strained to move.
"What did you do!?" Pollen Princess asked.
"That wasn't mud, little girl. It was clay." Sarah informed, "Did you not look around to where we were?" she said and pointed to the construction site around them.
"They're making a building around here… and with that they need bricks… and with bricks they need clay. Do you know what happens to clay when it heats up?"
"Ah… Ah…" Pollen Princess stammered.
"It dries up and gets hard." Sarah told her, "And with that!" she made Furious Flame grab hold of it, "I can rip you out while you can't move!"
"And hurt yourself?!" Pollen Princess yelled.
"Nothing the cleansing Pyre can't heal." Sarah smiled as all the cuts Pollen Princess had made started to vanish in a glowing light.
"Now you will face vengeance!" she said.
Furious Flame ripped out Pollen Princess from Sarah's arm and threw it sky high.
"INCINERATE!"
Furious Flame raised its hands and blasted a beam of super-hot white fire from its hands.
0000000
Zhin stood outside the inn drinking some tea from a cool iced glass.
"Hmmm?" he looked to his left and saw the children from before playing, "What the? It's those brats." He walked towards them and followed them to an alley.
"Willo! Willo! Jump higher!" the kids told a pink fairy as she used her wings to fly.
"No! No!" Willo cried out.
"Hey! You stupid brats!" Zhin shook his fist at them, and they all turned to face him.
"AHHHHHH!" Willo disintegrated into ashes before him.
Zhin's eyes widened in shock.
"Uh…. Look at me!" he walked to them and kept their heads from looking back, "Come on, I got some tea for you!" he led them out of the alley, but not before looking at the pile of ashes that lay there one more time.
"What was that about?" he murmured and walked away.
0000000000
Sarah arrived at the inn to find her allies sitting at a table eating a meal.
"Took you long enough." Lian said as she swirled some wine in her glass, "What did you buy?"
"Two crates of bread, a crate of fruits of vegetables, and 10 bags of jerky." Sarah informed, "They're all on the wagon. We can leave whenever."
"Not yet." Lex told her, "Zhin has informed us of a possible stand user in the area. One that can disintegrate people in ashes."
Sarah rubbed the back of her head, "Eh… About that." She smiled cheekily and giggled.