Chapter 4; To stride or not to stride
Unknown Location
Oakenvale, Menoia
Wendas, 66th of Summerset
POV: Vriska
Grass. That's odd. Why am I laying in... Grass?
"Vriska? You ok?"
I groaned as I sat up and looked around. We were in a field. Trees surrounded us. It would be quite nice, if I didn't have Nepeta trying to drag me to my feet.
"Vriska! Your arm! All of your robot parts are gone!" Nepeta sounded frantic as she tried to pull me up.
I shook my head. That's impossible.
"Nepeta. You know that..."
I paused. She was right. All of my body had been made whole again. Even weirder, I was in a blue costume that resembled pirate clothes.
Why?
I got up, shrugging Nepeta off. These clothes. Where. Ridiculous.
"Nep, where are we? And why am I healed?"
Nepeta stopped looking so innocent and shrugged her head. She looked around for a moment, then stopped a lowered herself slowly. She began to speak slowly.
"Vriska. Get down. Someone's coming."
I slowly lowered myself into the grass, hoping the black and blue suit I was wearing wouldn't give us away. Two men approached. One wore silver and blue armor, and the other wore a black and gold suit. The armored man was young, had blonde hair (handsome), and a confused expression on his face, whereas the suited man was old, had long grey hair, a mustache, and looked thoroughly amused.
"You do realize that the suits you two are wearing are rather obnoxious, and not very good for stealth..." Said the blonde man awkwardly. "...Orrus, get them something to eat."
The older man bowed, and walked away.
I got up. And I noticed, much to my annoyance, that Nepeta insisted on hiding. Like that worked well the first time. I accepted the man's hand, and got to my feet.
He bowed. "I am King Griffon Tempest, lord sovereign of Angair, and defender of these lands. Who might you be?"
The way he spoke was soft, but concerned. He was wondering what we where.
"I'm Vriska. Vriska Serket. We are trolls from Alternia. Why do you ask?"
I guarded my tone. I didn't want to offend him, or come off as hostile. But I also didn't want to sound too friendly. He was still a stranger, and I couldn't guess his intentions.
"Is it not custom to..." He looked down at Nepeta, then looked back up. "...offer help to those who look lost?"
Nepeta slowly looked up, looked down again when she noticed him. And then whispered to me.
"I think he can SEE us..."
I fought the urge to laugh. This was not the time. Griffon kneeled beside Nepeta, looking increasingly concerned.
"Ma'am. You... Do realize you're visible, right?"
Nepeta looked up at Griffon. She immediately started blushing, got up, and hid behind my shoulder, peering over at him.
"Hello. My name is Griffon. What's your name?" His voiced was honeyed, as though he spoke to a 2 year old.
"Nepeta." Was the simple reply, barely loud enough to hear.
"Sir. I have brought the food you requested." The old man had returned, and held a small platter of food, including various grapes and pastries.
"Thank you Orrus. If you would distribute the rations"
Orrus walked forward, giving me and Nepeta two pieces of bread, some cheese, and a group of grapes on a plate. He gave the same to Griffon, and left only a slice of bread for himself. Griffon offered him some of his own food. They exchanged a look, and Orrus accepted the offer.
"Look what we have here! Not only one bounty, but THREE! We are rich now, boys!"
We all turned to see a group of bandits approaching. Griffon went to draw his sword, but Orrus stopped him. He flipped his walking stick forward, and strolled in front of us.
"Hey, look at this guy!" Laughed a younger bandit. The leader turned and grinned.
"Well aren't you just the motherfucking image of gentlemanly! Hello, grandpa, what can we do for you?" The whole group burst into laughter.
Orrus simple put his finger to his mouth, and they all grew silent. They looked aggravated.
"Hello, sirs. My name is Orrus Van Kyre. I am the server of the Tempest family. My job consists of ensuring their well being, everything from feeding them, ..." Orrus whipped out his walking stick. It extended it into a staff. "...to disposing of the waste. Such as yourselves!"
The bandit leader's grin began to disappear. Suddenly, Orrus jolted toward them, spinning his staff. In a matter of seconds, barely enough time to notice it happened, he had successfully knocked out every bandit. After the single strike, he brushed off his suit, and walked toward the lead bandit. He quickly recovered a note, bundled within the bandits armor, and walked to us, handing it to Griffon. Apparently that old man had something going on.
Griffon quickly read the letter, then handed it to me. I looked down, only to see they was both English and Troll. How did they know our language? Where there other trolls here? Is this where a sect of our race fled? The letter read;
'Bounty: 10,000 Gold pieces
For the retrieval of any TROLLS of ALTERNIA.
They resemble humanoids, but with grey skin, and horns.
All trolls MUST be alive and relatively unharmed in order to collect the bounty.
They are to be brought to the Royal Palace by the command of Lord Ampora.'
Eridan. Of course.
"That fuckerrrrr! He put a BOUNTY on us? When I get a hold of that slimy son of a..."
Griffon interupted. "Excuse my interruption, but we need to go. More will come."
Nepeta stepped out from behind me.
"How? They had no way of knowing we were here?" She asked.
Griffon pulled out an emerald. It appeared to be chipped, and had fallen out of the letter.
"This is a scrying stone. If a scrying stone is damaged, it sends a signal of sorts to any others it can contact. This one bears the symbol of an eagle..." He pointed the eagle carving out for us. "...this means that it will only transmit to stone marked with this symbol. And this is the symbol of a well known bandit gang. The vultures."
"Why do they have an eagle symbol, if they're known as vultures?" Nepeta's tone was still guarded.
"My dear young lady, they have no sense for which bird is which. They are unfortunately lacking in education." Orrus answered.
"Unfortunate for them. Fortunate for us."
I found that statement to be very true at the time being.
"So, what now?" I asked Griffon.
"Now? Oh. Now we go ahead and get to our carriage. We will be taking you to the safest place possible, the Castle of Silverwind."
The carriage was surprisingly roomy. Again, this magical arcane stuff was involved. The seats could easily sit 6 people, instead of 2 each. Griffon, Nepeta and I pilled in one side, while Orrus sat on the other side.
For the longest time, we sat in silence. Orrus sat up, intently watching us. Nepeta had fallen asleep against the edge of the seat. And I could feel myself slipping into a dream state. To the point where I could find no comfortable spot to lay. Until finally I awkwardly rested my head on Griffon's leg. I felt his hand close around my arm. I fell asleep a minute later.
*****