Race Through Time:
Legends & Goblins Attack
Dozens of hours had passed. The pilgrims and Rosetta had woken up extremely early (an hour before dusk, specifically), eaten leftovers of last night's cooked beans for breakfast, packed everything onto their mule-pulled carts, and started making their way towards the ends of the Eastern Highlands. Aaron, despite his old age, walked by foot and led his sheep all the way. Seeing him guide his sheep like the humanoid shepherd dog he was really intrigued Rosetta.
Speaking of the latter, Rosetta stayed near Dwight the Tapiser ever since Tristan's freakout at last night's campfire. The caring spider had stayed guard in front of her tent all night, with only one eye closed every eight minutes while the seven others were open the same way the monstrous Argos guarded Io the Cow with one eye asleep while 99 were on duty. And now Rosetta was sitting next to Dwight on the driver's seat as he drove the mule-pulled cart carrying all their tools and equipment as they traveled. Occasionally, she would look ahead and see Tristan riding his mule. A frustrated look could be seen on his tanned face.
"Is Tristan hating me right now?" Rosetta asked Dwight as the group kept walking under noontime's sunlight.
"Tristan is somewhat...uneasy about what you said last night," Dwight said. "Batrishans are so hard to find these days, and one that you claim to be near 3 centuries old...it has quite an impact on him."
"I wasn't lying about Fidget." Rosetta put a finger on her forehead. "Most of the scars I have right now on my head came from him."
With four eyes and four eyes busy steering the mules, Dwight used the other half to analyze the scars that Rosetta had. She had received them when Fidget had first arrived in Storybrooke and kidnapped Rosetta and Henry in order to seek his revenge on Killian. During that time, he had put Rosetta under discipline by giving her face and neck cuts with a dagger, giving the Batrishan fresh blood to drink from. Even though months had passed and the scars were gradually fainting, they could still be seen.
"He did this to you?" Dwight gasped as one of his hands touched one of the scars located on the little girl's left cheek. "That can't be right. Old Batrishans are supposed to be pacifists."
"Well, he used a dagger...And his manners are slightly improving. But what exactly do you mean by 'old Batrishans'?"
"It's the term used by folks for Batrishans who lived before or during the Batrishan Genocide. If you know a Batrishan, than you should know that about 3 centuries ago, a majority of that species was decimated."
"The only thing I know about that is that some god got angry at them and killed them off. Fidget appeared to be the last Batrishan remaining...until now," Rosetta replied solemnly.
"It's a very dark story that became a legend," Dwight told her as the group kept moving on. "A long time ago, a Batrishan priestess named Svjetla was betrothed to a fellow priest that she loved very much. One evening, while she was alone in her chamber, she made a wish to have a great child with her love. Unfortunately, an evil god nicknamed 'The Evil One' had heard her wish and used the opportunity to break into her room and grant her wish..."
"Should we guess that he twisted the wish?" Eglantine asked as she and her mule passed by the cart.
Dwight nodded. "The Evil One did twist her wish. When the other priests barged into her room after they heard Svjetla scream, all they found was the young priestess in state that indicated one sole thing: raped pregnancy.
"Like every demigod, the Evil One's child was born four months later. But since it was his child and it was born on an annular eclipse that briefly made the world go dark, the first thing that occurred after the baby's birth was the death of its mother. Svjetla's ex-fiancé and the other priests planned to kill the baby, but somehow it disappeared and was never seen again.
"Things got worse when a few days later, the Evil One appeared once again in the sanctuary and demanded custody of his child. Wrath and hatred came out of him when he found out that his child was missing and the priests wanted to kill it. The Evil One went straight on and began sending in plagues, monsters, and natural disasters to the Batrishan Sanctuary. Many lives were lost and barely a few managed to survive. Those who survived became the subjects of endless manhunts until barely a quarter of them managed to find holy sanctuaries where the Evil One couldn't penetrate. There have been humans who safely hosted the Batrishan refugees into their homes but had to turn them over to the Evil One when he threatened to take the humans' own lives."
"And if the Evil One wasn't the end of my species, the Batrishans started to lead themselves towards their dooms," Tristan joined in solemnly. "Many females joined convents and males monasteries to protect themselves from rape, which caused birth decrease. Some chose to mate with humans throughout each generation, which only caused the erasing of Batrishan blood heritage."
Rosetta was speechless. She couldn't believe it: the Batrishan Genocide was worse than anything she had heard before. And now, even the mere solutions that the survivors had come up with to avoid their extinction through the Evil One's wrath had only led to self-extinction. If Rosetta did the math correctly, it might take several future generations before the Batrishan species has faded away for good.
"Remind us again how you survived it, Tristan?" Aaron asked. "After all, you are the grandson of an 'old Batrishan'."
"I am," Tristan confirmed. "My grandmother was only a mere child back then, and she had the dirty luck to be among nomadic Batrishans when the genocide occurred..."
"Nomadic Batrishans?" Maurice frowned.
"Batrishans who occasionally left the Batrishan Sanctuary to explore the outside world for a while," Tristan explained. "My grandmother was born from a Batrishan herbalist and a farmer. One day, when my grandmother was six, when the farm was running low on green vegetables for soups and herbs for making medicine, my great-grandfather took his wife and my grandmother on a long trip in order to go collect more seeds for the crops. They left on a small pilgrimage with a few other Batrishan farmers and healers with similar purposes. After a month of traveling around the world and successfully collecting bags full of seeds, they came back to the Sanctuary, only to find it in ruins and ashes. Thousands of corpses were found everywhere.
"After burying the corpses and hearing a revenge-promising prophecy, the nomadic Batrishans left the Sanctuary for good and went off to the outside world, seeking shelter and sanctuary among humans while dealing with the Evil One sending his army to kill any of us. As for my grandmother, she, her parents, and a dozen of Batrishans had run away to the Midwest, where castles holding civilizations safely thrived. My grandmother was ten when the group tried to reach Camberley, which is like a smaller version of Camelot, while being pursued by goblins sent by the Evil One. Only half of the group managed to enter the safe gates of Camberley while the goblins crushed the other half. Among the dead ones were my great-grandparents.
"The king of Camberley had pity for the Batrishans and granted them legal shelter within the city. The adult survivors took on jobs in monasteries, farms, healing centers, and workshops while the children were placed as servants in the castle with the promise of a better life. My grandmother had become a servant to a lady of the king's court until her hard work and loyal service got her a promotion to lady in waiting. She then married a Batrishan of her age, who had been placed as a squire as a child until he became a knight during his adult years..."
"Which led to the birth of your father, The Knight, who went on several crusades in the name of the king with his son, The Squire, by his side!" Rosetta realized out loud. Too loud, unfortunately: Tristan brutally stopped his mule and turned to give a dark glare at Rosetta.
"You make it seem like you already knew this before we even met you," he said suspiciously.
Rosetta tried to say something, but Dwight covered her mouth with one hand and used another hand to motion his fellow pilgrims to remain silent. His eyes looked in eight different directions, obviously concerned about something being near.
"I feel like something's coming," he said.
Just when he said this, a pack of ghastly black creatures dug their way out of the green grass and crawled out, surrounding the pilgrims and Rosetta. Anaïs and Eglantine yelped in fright at the sight of the withered-looking beasts as they walked on all fours with their claws buried on the ground and their drooling fangs hissing at the group.
"Goblins," Maurice gasped. "I've seen the images in one of my books."
"They must have sensed my presence," Tristan said in horror. "They must be working for the Evil One."
"Smell danger," one of them hissed. "Evil One smell danger." It hissed again before its blank eyes turned towards Rosetta.
"Evil One smell danger in Death's puppy. MUST KILL DEATH'S PUPPY!" It shrieked louder and darted towards Rosetta.