Eileen's Oddysee Chapter 2: From the Inside Looking Out
I awoke hours later, it was dark and the stars and moons were out. Odd knows how many moons Oddworld has. One night I counted three, the next five, then another only two. I suppose as the planet rotates different moons become visible or something along those lines. On this night I noticed something odd about one of the moons... A strange looking hand print. I held my hand up to it, but it didn't match. The third finger was too short to match mine, and the thumb was much too thick. I assumed it must have belonged to another species... Glukkons? No... I'd never seen a Glukkon but from what father had told me their hands double as their feet and are very big... Still having have never seen one I guess I couldn't completely rule that out. Paramites and Scrabs I'd only ever seen illustrations of, and they don't have hands. I'd only ever seen the face of a Mudokon... So that was a possibility. Or perhaps it was just a meaningless collection of ruts on a moon.
I stretched slightly and rolled onto my side. I didn't really want to go back home yet, and elected to instead just sleep the rest of the night out in the clearing. I could apologize for worrying Mother and Father in the morning, and continue eating that disgusting food like there was nothing wrong with it. I chuckled slightly to myself. 'Slig Stew... I bet Slig is just a term Glukkons use for unidentifiable processed meat...' With that thought, I drifted back to sleep, making little note of all the noises I could hear coming from the direction of my village.
Amoungst my many talents, is over sleeping, as I woke up to find the sun sitting in the middle of the sky.
"Shit it's noon..." I muttered to myself, standing up and stretching. If my parents weren't worried before... They would be now. I rushed back to the village without another thought... Perhaps if I hadn't been in such a hurry I would have noticed the flattened grass on the forest floor... When I arrived, no one appeared to be around, which was strange since the village was usually so lively in the afternoon, but now it was silent, almost eerily so.
"Hello...?" I called. "Is anyone out...?" No one responded. I headed to my house and opened the front door, only to find that the insides of the house had been picked clean, no furniture, no people, and many scratches and ruts now on the floor. I think it was then that it dawned on me that something had happened during the night. I searched the house, no furniture, no people. Even my own room, all that remained was the pillow I had ruined. They were gone. It occurred to me then, that the whole village could be gone, vanished in the night like spirits. I wanted to cry I was so scared. Was this Miha's punishment for me? I always thought Miha was a loving and forgiving goddess, but how else could this have happened if not the work of a god?! My eyes widened, as I heard a metallic sound coming from outside. I ducked by a window, and peaked out to see- oh odd. I wasn't sure what they were, but they had mechanical legs in similar shape to that of us Forest Katkireen, wore masks that covered their faces (with the exception of these strange tentacle mouth things they had) and carried guns. They resembled the illistration on the Slig Stew label. Were these Sligs? Had I been eating them? Had my whole village been eating them? Were they pissed off that we had been eating them?! I wouldn't blame them, I'd be pissed if someone had been eating my species too.
"CHECK... TORCH THE PLACE." One of them ordered in a mangled voice. I didn't hear everything it said, but I didn't like the sound of 'torch the place.' I fled to my brother Charles room, once filled with art work and decorated in with blood black gems, now it was empty, leaving nothing behind to be remembered. I opened the window of his room, and listened.
"Yeah yeah... Just make sure these isn't any of those gem hoarders in there... One of their pelts is worth thousands!" One of the creatures yelled. Pelts... Oh odd... Were they here for our furs?! Who would want to wear our furs?! Is it not a little morbid to wear what was once on something living?! In my panic I jumped out the window, only to find there was nothing to stop me from plummeting three stories to the ground. I silenced my groan. My ankle hurt, I had probably twisted it. I could hear one of those creatures coming towards me, I tried to get up only for it to grab me by my arm and pull me up. I screeched, only to be met by a two fingered hand slapped over my mouth, while the creature used his other hand to restrain my arms.
"HEY 074!" One of the others called. "WHAT THE HECK WAS THAT?!"
"AH IT WAS JUST A STUPID FUZZLE!" 074 yelled back. "HATE THOSE BUGGERS!" I almost felt offended, I wasn't a fuzzle, but at the same time, I was surprised that one of these creatures who had supposedly come here to find me and anyone else remaining, was lying to them. Of course it could just want the money to itself, I thought. "... Listen..." 074 whispered in the rough voice that seemed to be shared by this species. "I'm not gonna turn you over to the slaughter house." Slaughterhouse?! Was that where everyone else was?! A slaughterhouse?! "You're probably a little scared right now... It's okay... I am too... My name's Craig, I'm gonna getcha out of this. Just promise me that you won't yell of do anything stupid when I let you go. Nod if you understand." I didn't really want to trust this strange creature, especially not when it had a gun, but at this point in time, I didn't see many other options. All I knew was on my own I was potentially screwed, and this creature who supposedly had some idea what was going on says he wants to help me. Reluctantly, I nodded, and it let me go, and picked back up it's gun. "We're not safe here, just follow me I'll get us far enough away so we can talk."
I followed the creature into a deeper part of the forest, away from the village.
"So... Craig, is it?" I started.
"Yep! They usually call me by my number, but I like Craig better." Craig explained. I nodded, trying not to show how awkward I felt talking to something that I couldn't look in the eye, let alone had tentacles on it's face.
"So your number... That's 74?"
"Actually it's 074 but I guess that's the same thing."
"That's oddly specific." I commented.
"Well, what's your name?" Craig asked.
"Princess Eileen Meekarien of the Eastern Tribe." I introduced with a hint of pride in my voice, as I held my hand over my chest.
"That's a bit of a mouthful. Can I just call you Princess?" Craig asked. I glared at him.
"You will do no such thing. My name is Eileen."
"Then why'd you say your name is Princess Eileen Meekairen of the Eastern Tribe?"
"Because that's my full name and title! It's how one is to introduce themselves!" I explained.
"Right... Well... My species barely even have names so I'm just Craig, but I guess if I wanted to be fancy like you I could be Slig 074 Craig of the Southern Magog Enterprises Butchery and Warehouse." He said, holding his hand over his chest in a similar matter to how I had.
"Are you mocking me?" I asked. "Because so far you've given me little reason to trust you and if you were to be mocking me-"
"Alright alright I'm sorry Miss Eileen. I didn't mean to upset you." I rolled my eyes.
"It's fine I guess... I have worse things to worry about than my diplomacy being mocked by an unknown creature-"
"I'll have you know I'm a slig." Craig interrupted. "We're pretty common in Mudos." All those memories of meals of Slig Stew came back to me.
"Oh... Uh... Sorry about the whole, 'used in really nasty stew' thing... I imagine that sucks quite a bit." I said awkwardly. Craig laughed.
"Oh please miss, your species flesh and blood has been being sold for ages! Apparently your blood makes some mighty fine wine!" He said in a way I'd never expect anyone to speak of slaughter, especially when his words made me grow faint.
"People... Eat... Us...?" Craig stopped laughing.
"Shit. Right. You wouldn't know that. Sorry..."
"Is that what will be the fate of my village?" I asked.
"Well... Maybe. That is a very valid possibility, and given the Glukkons have been doing a lot of advertising for people's last chance to get their hands on Katkireen Cuisine... Yeah. That's probably the plan." I sat down to prevent myself from being injured if I fainted. "I think they also want to work the angle of mass selling your pelts and holding some in secret, and then pretending they found the last of your pelts and auctioning them off in various parts of Mudos for Odd knows how many times the profit. Not to mention your fancy gems and silks." He explained. "Don't worry I'm not gonna let that happen to you though. I'm gonna take you some place real safe! There's a Mudokon Fort a bit north that would take you in! You'll never have to worry about the Magog coming after you again!" He assured me. "Hell with enough convincing they might even take me in!"
"What about my family?" I asked him, tears welling in my eyes. "Do you expect me to just let the, die?" Craig was hesitant.
"... No. Of course not..." He muttered. "It was stupid of me to think you'd do that."
"Is there any chance of saving them?" I asked him. He thought for a bit.
"Well... It would be a long shot, but as a stitch lipped Mudokon proved, it can be done." He started. "We'll have to wait for the slig patrol to leave your village, they'll probably just assume I died or got lost, happens a lot for us. Then, we can head out of this forest to these train tracks. There's a train that comes through here every day in the evening and heads down to the Magog Enterprises Butchery and Warehouse. If we can catch it, it can take us there by morning. All we have to do from there is get in and get everyone else out." Craig paused. "... We'll have to take out the guards. I can do that easy, just... I'd rather not... They really don't know what they're doing..." I stood up again.
"Look maybe we can find a way to spare the guards, but if they're shooting at us, I'd appreciate it if you shot back. I just want to get as many out of there as we possibly can... And maybe some of our stuff if we have time."
"Right, well we'll see about that."