... I'm not sure exactly when I woke up in the Dark World, but considering Kris wound up in there shortly after me, I couldn't have been out that long. I wouldn't have just left them wherever they fell, scared or not. Then again, we could've been in two different places all together...
I groaned and tossed over from my uh... "nap"... and sat up. "Ough... What happened to me...?" Thinking about it, that was a pretty dumb question. I immediately remembered exactly what happened. I fell down a bottomless pit that opened up inside the woods after... Well... You know...
... I frowned and hung my head. "Oh..." And then, I immediately there-after became aware of my situation with frown. Looking around, I realized I was in a dark forest where the trees were utter behemoths... along with.. pretty much every other form of flora. My teeth bit into my lower lip while I rose to my feet and whined in distress.
My first thought was, [Did I shrink?! Everything is so huge!]
Of course, that couldn't have been the case, I realized, since these trees, the giant mushrooms, the trees that were grown around large, stone pillars- none of it so much as vaguely resembled the woods in town.
I looked down and at my hooves as they clacked against a stone walkway of some sort. It was overgrown by the forest around me, tree roots ensnaring it on several sides and dirt caking almost all of it with grass to accompany. The path looked like it had never been maintained. it was simply built and then left to rot, as far as I could tell.
Though, I jumped at what I saw while I was looking down. I began to look myself over and found out that I was dressed up in all these strange clothes and gear! "W-wha?! Where did these clothes come from?"
I was dressed up in some sort of outfit totally made up of natural or raw materials. I looked at one with SOME forest, but it wasn't this one.
The dress over my body was long and made of many composite pieces. It was all over the place, though. It was a kind of flowery robe made mainly of red and green... rose petals, I think. Or at least, that's what they looked like. One side had a sleeve while the other did not, merely hugging my body and passing under an arm while cupping said side's breast in a green petal curled outward.
Thin vines of... mistletoe(?) (that's not how mistletoe is supposed to work, but it WAS mistletoe) lined the sleeve and lead down across my chest, then split into two directions. One vine set crossed over the un-sleeved shoulder and rounded to the back. The other crossed over my body, down over my hip and rounded around back to meet the aforementioned vine over my bare shoulder in back. The dress's skirt was formed over several red and green"petals" with curled outward edges favoring my right leg.
The entire dress was speckled in white flakes and small "mosses" with red berries on the edge of my skirt.
Looking over my arms with concern and blush in equal, I realized the one arm left alone by the dress wore a flared, red petaled, loose sleeve held up on my arm by a leather buttoned band. My other arm wore an arm band of green leaves and leather. On the same hand, a red ribbon glove wrapped itself around my hand, tight. It appeared to be a sort of silk.
Looking down and stretch out a leg, I came to see that my legs were wrapped in rough, leather straps down to my hooves. Once again, no footwear. Out of all the changes I had taken on, feet were not one of them... Though they DID seem to be painted a dark green.
... Blinking, I came to realize my head had a few things on it, as well. Taking my hands and feeling around the crown of it, I found an actual crown of some kind. Taking it off, I looked at it and found it to be a laurel crown composed like a Christmas wreath and with a single golden flower on it... I kind of thought it was cute, but I really didn't know how it got there, along with the rest of the outfit.
Furrowing my brows, I decided to place it back on my head for the time being. Checking myself over one more time, I spotted two other things. One. My ears were pierced by white berry, hanging earrings. Two, When I actually fixed my hair from it's apparent, I had pulled it into view once or twice and finally taken notice of the fact that it was now a lighter shade of blond... That troubled me.
I didn't know the nature of the Dark World back then. I didn't even know I was in it or even what it was! For all I could tell, some creep had just gotten done dressing me up in a fantasy outfit before dumping me off in some forest!
... ... ... Sorry. That was a little much. Uhm. Anyways...
Another thing I found when I was investigating myself... I found a pocket. Something was in it. It felt big, despite the fact that the pocket wasn't very big at all. I pulled it out... and out... and out... It was a long, gnarled staff with a large emerald and ruby combo gem in it's head, much to my utter disbelief. My eyes were as wide as dinner plates... I soon began to sweat a little as my face curved uncomfortably under an incredulous grin. "W-what the heck...?! How did that fit in my pocket?!"
... When I gained some sense back, I took the staff in both of my hands and looked around again... I didn't even know where I was meant to go. There were several ways I could have gone, but I ended up going the safest route; I went along the worn-out stone path.
I was hoping to at least find people. Someone that could tell me where I was and help me.
I was scared, sweaty, stuck in a dress I never remembered putting on for a costume party I never knew about and never got to. And to top everything off, I felt horrible for what I put Berdly through...
While walking that path, I started to hear sounds of increasingly close scraping and clawing that made me jump and whine, shivering. I turned all around and eventually found myself looking at a hollow in a huge tree being carved out by a very big, white furred "squirrel"... Though, this was only kind of a squirrel because of it's bushy tail and somewhat thick back end... Still... Even if it HAD been a "squirrel", It was twice my size with just the backside showing and much thicker... I couldn't bring myself to stop shaking and I didn't want to get near it...
I tried to step around it, being as quiet as I could with my hooves as I held my staff out at the ready, never taking my eyes off of the "squirrel" as it carved into the tree noisily. My steps were becoming shuffles, because I was trying to keep my noisy hooves from making a sound. I was too scared to try and walk, even with the idea that it might not be able to hear me over it's own clawing...
And that led me to getting my foot stuck on a root, much to my yelping fright, before I went falling down and over into the rooted stone! I fumbled down on the ground while my staff was dropped from my hands and clattered noisily against the stone blocks!
suddenly, the scratching and crunching of burrowing stopped... My worst fear, if my horrified expression wasn't clue enough.
Suddenly, the creature backed it's body out of the tree... and revealed to me exactly how long it was. It was not a squirrel. It took a whole ten seconds to withdraw it's enormous and long body from the tree... And then, it faced me with sharp, deep blue, glowing eyes that possessed four-pointed star pupils, which were sharpened on my shivering and sorry form. The face had an intense, black fur pattern pattern, making it look constantly overshadowed. The muzzle was pointed and 's ears were canine and pointed directly up, sharp. It's entire form, now that it wasn't overshadowed, I could see was littered with an indescribable, tribal fur pattern.
The claws on all eight of it's legs were out and sharpened into razor hooks a single claw would be enough to stab through me...
And when it saw me... I froze... I couldn't move and my breathing was rapid. I could feel my heart hammering and my blood draining from my face.
It was like a big, fluffy, vicious dragon.
I didn't want to move. That was the truth of it. I couldn't hope to beat that thing, even if I were that brave to try.
... But it soon began to growl and sink it's head down to me. I gasped and finally scrambled forward for my staff, taking it in my hands and holding it close for my own comfort!
It let me, I think, because it knew there was nothing I could do that would hurt it. Then it bared it's massive teeth in my face, snorting over me through a growl. I sat there as my eyes grew wider still and leaked tears, unable to keep from whimpering. I couldn't tear my eyes away, even though I didn't want to see it. "P-please no...!"
It snarled and pulled it's head back as it opened wide. And then, it drove it's sharp-toothed maw down toward me!
I gasped and held my staff up in defense, shutting my eyes tight and screaming at the top of my lungs! "NO!"
There was a high pitched hum over the beast's snarl... And then... nothing. I was expecting it's teeth to gnash down into me at a second's notice... but they never came down around me.
... Still whimpering and shaking like a leaf, I slowly dared to peak an eye open... And I was left... confused along with apprehensive...
My staff's body had turned white and the compound gem was glowing a bright green and red. As it was returning to normal, my eyes moved beyond it as I was startled into gasping and scrambling back... The beast. It had stopped and was staring at me with a calmer, more at peace expression, it's pupils no longer sharped and it's teeth nowhere to be seen passed it's lips. Not even it's claws were out anymore...
... This further confused me as I furrowed my brows and lowered my head. "H-huh...?"
The beast tilted it's head and made a low rumbling. It moved it's head in on me as it took a step forward, much to my gasping terror. I curled up on myself as it's nose began to sniff over me much like a dog would. I couldn't move.
And I guess that made the face that it licked me over much more comically when I yelped and fell on my side.
I peeked an eye open as it continue to lick me over, much as it started to tickle me. I couldn't help it. I cracked up and started giggling from the rough tongue lapping me over and tried to put a hand out. "Ehee-hee-hee! Stooop-hahaa!" ... And it did. It actually listened and pulled it's head back, rumbling at me with a tilt.
I was left very confused myself, blinking up at it's large face... Now that I thought about it, the creature was like Susie, in a way. It looked scary, but maybe it was misunderstood. I couldn't help but smile, despite being dripped from slobber. "Y-you're not bad, are you? Just a bit different..."
I hadn't realized that I made it act this way. I'm sure you can guess how, but at the time, I had no clue.
Still, it suddenly rose up from me, much to my surprise, and stared down at me for an extended moment... Then, it leapt up and ringed around the tree as it flew away into the sky above, it's long body vanishing into the dark of the sky and leaving me in awe...
I stood up and dusted myself off, but...
"Your magics tamed a Shulong..."
I nearly jumped out of my fur with a shriek, whirling around and swinging my staff in defense! The one behind me caught it's gem encrusted head in their odd, three fingered, red-furred hand, however.
I immediately looked up and into the person's... mask. It was made of tree bark and shaped like a leaf. The eye holes carved out were sharp. Piercing, even. I couldn't see the eyes beyond them.
The person's body was a bit like a satyr's, but with notable differences. For instance, their legs were not goat-like. They were fox-like with tiny feet, but thick muscle. So were their ears, their tips black and notched. Their tails was large and bushy like a fox's as well, but there were three thin appendages growing from that same base like furry tentacles, all of which were prehensile by the way they moves and curled every so often.
There was also the four-fingered hands with retractable, serrated claws. They reminded me of furry bird talons, but were not quite right.
Some unique features to this individual? Curled, white horns that grew out of the side of their head and then spiked straight up. Long, uncut hair the same color as their fur: tan. White speckles all over their thighs and forearms. And a white belly. They wore orange rags of foliage over their top half, like a poncho, and a skirt of large red flower petals much simpler than my own...
I really couldn't tell what gender they were. They looked like both at the same time. Hah. Kind of reminds me of someone.
But in all seriousness, their lack of action made me apprehensive of what they intended... Then, much to my growing confusion, they just let go of my staff and stared at me before stepping back. "The Vale has bestowed a Bright One with it's trusted gift... But I see your fear, girl."
I furrowed my brows and withdrew my staff into my arms with a frown, stepping back. "W-who wouldn't be afraid when they d-don't know where they are...?"
They shook their head and scoffed. "Yes. However, I am not referring to such trivial fears. I am referring to it's large place within your heart... You are a coward." The name stung enough to make me bow my head and frown further. While backing away, they went on. "I cannot fathom the reason for which you were gifted power. If you are a chosen daughter, you've little to offer in aid of the Vale." I didn't even know what that meant, but I knew I was a coward for earlier... And it ate me up inside that I was that terrible a friend.
The fox-like satyr stopped and stared at me. "If that stings you, then prove me wrong and save this forest of it's blight. Stop the Black Geyser and heal the Vale's wound. We need not RED EYE's unnatural curse."
I shook my head and huffed. "I don't know what any of that means! And I'm not who you think I am! I'm just a school kid!"
They shook their head yet again. "It matters not what you are or what you know. All will be clear to you in time, should you merely observe." ... They tilted their head down and swished their odd tail. "Heed this warning. Do no trust our Shepard. Their reasoning has been poisoned. And they would attempt to poison yours..."
I wanted to asked them more, but a chilled wind blew through the air and made me shiver. I was wearing some awful clothing for the cold...
... Yet, the person seem to raise their head and look in the direction from where it blew... "... I see... Another Bright One has fallen from above... My people will surely greet them..." They turned to face me one last time and said, "I must take this moment to leave. Our paths may cross in the future, but hopeful in the time between you abandon a measure of cowardice. May the leaves serve as your boon, all the same..."
And then, they crouched low, before shooting up in an insanely powerful jump up into a nearby tree. From there, several more jumps carried them from tree to distant tree... until they vanished...
... I was in awe of the feat for an extended moment... before their words began to sink in as my head sunk down, a miserable frown on my face... They were right. And that's why it hurt so bad.
... In that moment... all I wanted to do was go home... And I didn't think I could... That thought finally brought me to soft sobbing hiccups...
Still, some part of me was aware enough not to just stay there, so I started to move on down the stone path, trying to merely keep moving and hoping by some miracle that I would end up where I wanted to go...
... I know it sounds like I'm trying to draw upon sympathy... But actually, I'm not. I deserved every wake-up call I got. After all... What was a little coward going to do if her friends were in danger...?
... ... ...
... I followed the stone path for what felt like a long while. I didn't have a real idea of where I was going. It was really just wandering around in the dark (no pun intended) down the only path I recognized as such.
Creatures here looked like something straight out of those super detailed animated movies by that one guy that likes animating everything to be as strange as possible. In a sense, they were like Monsters. Many of us resemble animals in obvious or passive ways, but are ultimately something entirely different in some ways more than others.
And beyond just looking weird, the food chain was backwards. Incredibly so...
I saw a gazelle-like creature with spine plates down it's back eating some sort of tiny loin-like creatures with way too many legs that crawled out from holes in the ground. It bent it's long neck down, snapped them up one by one like they were popcorn and - ... You get the idea. In the moment, it appalled me enough to draw out a small retch. I just backed away from the scene, before full on jogging away, merely wanting to get away from there as quickly as possible. It had to have heard my clopping hooves, but I guess it didn't care.
... Beyond the animals, the forest itself was strange no matter what angle you looked at it from. Just about everything had a flat color to it that made it look unnatural. When the sky is as dark as what I was seeing, you'd expect the world to be just as dark. But no. Everything had flat color to it, for the most part. I had no shadow. The trees gave no shade. Even the clouds just barely visible in the sky didn't make anything below them any darker.
... I started to feel like I was on an incline after a while, much to my dull realization. I looked up and hummed at what I saw.
What I saw was a stone bridge that had seen it's better days. Have you ever seen those post-apocalyptic movies where the protagonists happen upon a bunch of broken down overpasses? This bridge looked like one of those. Tons of broken arches running over it that had mostly fallen apart or at least were cracked up messes. Some holes in the pathway that went all the way through to the ground below. The guard rails of stone were superfluous with all of their missing or fallen off pieces.
I whined through my frown at the look of the thing. It was a safety hazard of potential architectural failure. I didn't want to traverse it, but it looked like the only way forward the way I had been traveling.
With a sigh, I just began my ascension up the questionable path while keeping my eyes on the ground for "pit falls".
I walked around one, then made sure to step over a small other that would have trapped my leg. From there, I walked a ways over what appeared stable enough ground... Only to hear and feel a cracking beneath my hooves! I quickly hopped forward with a shriek, just as a large slab of the stone walkway crunched and fell away where I had been standing before! I spilled over arms and staff first when I reached solid ground ahead of the newly forming hole! The large piece crumbled into several before falling away down toward the forest ground below!
Picking myself up into a leaning sit, I turned to look at the gaping hole and frowned through a frightened frustration. I flinched as I heard the falling debris hit the ground below with a resounding -thomb!-
Immediately after, I growled and shouted, "I HATE THIS PLACE," into the sky above...
After picking myself up and dusting off, I began to climb the iffy broken bridge again, the air becoming colder as my altitude increased. By the time I finally reached the top of the huge arch bridge, I had to have been at least three-hundred or so feet off the ground. It could have been more. The trees rivaled that height, but I could finally see over them, even if just barely.
Rubbing my arms and hugging my staff, I came to a stop. My legs were sore, I was cold, my head hurt from an increase of pressure and I wanted to go home- but that last part's not important. The first thing I did when I got up there was look down... I frowned at what I saw...
The bridge was snapped multiple times over, but a long enough portion existed that could safely (enough) lead me down from where I was standing without me taking a deadly slide down a horrible slope. This was thanks not to ingenuity on the bridge builder's part, but the roots and trees of the forest having ensnared a large portion of the bottom side of the snapped side of the bridge... Honestly, from this angle, it almost looked like the forest was trying to DEVOUR it.
... Looking on over more of the bridge's length, It was easily longer than just the two pieces that led up and down. At least a mile long, it could have previously been a landmark to an ancient civilization...
Whatever the case, it lead outward through a sea of orange leaves to a ruined castle-town overgrown by massive flora. Reddish roots bound together like the world's largest rope wrapped down upon the outer-walls, leaving them "worse for ware." I could tell, even at that distance. I couldn't see the actual town very well, but I could tell by the orange and red sprouting up from within the walls by branches that the town had to be overrun by the flora as well.
The castle itself was grand in scale, but utterly ravaged and overgrown by greenery... But it was the highest spire that caught my eye and made me take a step back. My expression was both awe and fear, eyes wide, mouth agape and brows furrowed.
It was what that person had mentioned. A Black Geyser bursting from the ruined spire... It spewed upward and pierced the clouds, leaving a massive, drilled out hole. And it went even further than that. Further than I could see. It seemed to go higher than the sky itself...
The very sight filled me with anxiety. I could feel the sweat running down my face and wetting my palms... I wasn't about to go near that.
And so, I shook my head and sighed through shut tight eyes... Then, I looked out in any other direction I could as my eyes opened again. I kept them from making contact with that sight again, searching for anything else of interest... A large group of white lights down in middle of the forest east of the castle-town drew my attention next.
I couldn't make out what was over there, but a group of lights could easily mean people. Maybe I could ask for their help. That was my thought on the matter. And it was all I had to go on as far as desirable destinations... But that still meant that I had to navigate this nightmare of a forest...
... I whined at the prospect, fearful of what I might encounter... though, I didn't have another option. Taking a deep breath to clear my head, I then thought to myself about home. My dad. My mom. My little sister... Susie... Kris, too... I even thought a little of Berdly, despite everything... I wanted to see everyone again.
Sighing out, I grew more focused on the task at hand, firming my brow and clutching over my chest at my anxious heart. Thinking of them, I began my cautious walk down the snapped portion of the bridge.
... And that's what helped me cope. I wanted to go home and see my family and friends again... more than I was afraid of that forest...
At least out of every other phobia on the list, Noelle isn't afraid of heights.
To help continuity's sake, this takes place somewhat before Kris wakes up, but might also "end" at the same time they fall into the river. Noelle has been awake longer, obviously. (Speaking of the river, I was going to describe it as well, but then I realized... How the hell would Noelle see it through a literal sea of orange leaves? So, I cut it.)
Can I also say that Noelle's costume WAS A NIGHTMARE TO DESCRIBE? I don't want to tell you exactly what uh... "class" she is meant to be. Just know that it isn't any she has been illustrated as thus far. Not a White Mage. Obviously not a Bard or an Archer. She would have comfortably fit into the role of Bard and White Mage. I'm not saying she wouldn't have. But I wanted to go for something more unconventional, especially since Ralsei is technically already a White Mage.
And for those who might be wondering why the forest feels empty, I'm not really trying to go for encounters like the game had. The monsters encountered thus far that were sapient either hopelessly outnumbered someone or were not hostile. And the Shulong attacked Noelle while she didn't know what she was doing and still doesn't. Otherwise, more often than not, none-sapient monsters won't attack what doesn't threaten them, unless they consider the party prey.
That said, I could have gone for that here, but I'd rather examine things for a little while, THEN we can decide what fights back and why.
But yes. The monster types here are probably the most diverse and odd out of anywhere else in the Dark World. You'll see more of that in time.
Getting off of that, this chapter, as you could probably tell, was going to be shorter than the length it ended up at. I didn't feel like that was enough, so I wanted to take the time and illustrate more of what this place is like.
And yes. I know. Still no fluffy boy. I'm in the middle of a debate on who should meet up with Ralsei first, but I didn't want to have him come in just yet, since the Dark World is actually quite large. It would have taken him an even longer amount of time than what I'm going with for a convenience's sake.
Speaking of who meets who first, I would like to know what you guys think. Technically, Susie is also a candidate for meeting up with Ralsei, but she first needs to get into the Dark World to begin with. And her scene with (Mordecai) Berdly is already going to be a good bit of that chapter as well. Though, I'm not saying she couldn't meet up with him first purely by chance at some point... So, one of three people could meet up with Ralsei first: Kris, Susie or Noelle.
Lemme know what you guys think! Not just on that, but the story so far, as well. It's been pretty fun so far! ^^