City of the Elder Things.
Frosta got up as soon as the alarm clock beeped. It was still before dawn, the bright moons hadn't risen yet, and it was chilly enough, at least for those born outside her realm. But she was tough and fearless, as mighty and fearsome as the glaciers that covered the mountain tops of her homeland. She was a Terrible Ice Bane. It was a really great name. One day he'll thank the Horde Ultymate for them ... right after, he'll punch him in that filthy face of his, if only for not calling her Princess Terrible Ice Bane!... And for everything else, of course.
She stretched herself, warmed up, and ran to make tea without waking anyone, though Melog began to twitch his ears listening. She could use Entrapta's plasma stove . She saw it last night, the inventor uses it and it was easy to paunch someone's face ... I guess she really wanted a fight, but who wouldn't in her place. She wanted to make tea quickly, before everyone woke up she would be waiting for them, hot and fragrant. So she turned all the knobs and turned on the fire…
As soon as she managed to escape, the flame shot up to the very sky ... and then it went out and the stove was smoking . The kettle has disappeared. Everyone jumped to their feet, preparing to repel the attack. Netosa surrounded the camp with a power grid, Catra stood by Melog with her claws out, ready to fight anyone stupid enough to mess with them. Even Lance and George stood up, armed with George's flashlight and ancient sword… Only Entrapta was unfazed. She walked over to the stove and studied it, or rather its remains, with fascination.
"What happened? How many are there, where are they hiding?" Netossa called, looking menacingly around.
"It's just me." she said in a broken voice. "I didn't want something like this to happen. I think I broke the stove and the kettle disappear. I'm very sorry." She sat down with her arms wrapped around her knees and sniffled
Everyone calmed down, Netossa unsummon net..
Catra walked over to her and, smiling softly, said.
"Nothing happened, the important thing is that you're okay." She sat down beside her and put her arm around her.
Netossa also approached her and knelt down.
"That's the way it is with modern technology. Greypaw once accidentally flew a Skimmer and only stopped when it hit a tree." The Lady of Armoria added .
Entrapta, ignoring them, cried.
"It's fascinating. It was close, and everything within a kilometer would disappear in a huge ball of plasma!" She clapped her hair and hands. Catra and Netossa looked at her with frowns, but the inventor did not notice.
"Well, we will eat a cold breakfast, and in the evening we will make a bonfire. We haven't done it for a long time." said George, smiling at his memories.
"There will be no need, I have a second one in Alice. Ten minutes is enough, and if we hurry, we can do everything in five minutes." Entrapta said, summoning her bot and began to pull out loaded equipment from it. There was horror in the eyes of the participants of the expedition.
"You know, Entrapta, why don't we give it a quarter of an hour and assemble it safely and carefully?' Catra asked cautiously.
"We'll save a whole five minutes, and the chance of an explosion will only increase by a dozen percent." The former lady of Drill was already assembling the machine.
"By a dozen or up to a dozen or so percent? Netossa asked, barely hiding the panic in her voice.
"Hmm." Entrapta muttered and began to calculate something on the datapad
"You know, George, I think we have that portable tea warmer Bow gave us, I think it would be a good idea to take it out now." Lance said, and his husband nodded.
They prepared tea, on a strange disc, although it took quite a long time, because each portion had to be heated separately. She offered everyone a portion of butter with tea, because you have to eat it while it's still fresh, but everyone looked so strange ... as if she wanted to poison them? These inhabitants of warm countries could be really strange sometimes. Only Catra, after a moment's thought, asked for butter for tea and a double portion for sandwiches with crispbread and smoked fish.
"Well so? I like butter, cheese and cream, all dairy products. They didn't have anything nearly as delicious in the Fright Zone." Adora's girlfriend said. They gave the rest of the butter to Melog , who licked it off with relish. In this Kryat, knew what was good. Then they packed up and headed for the old guys' town or whatever. She knew enough about hiking in the mountains to know that the city was not as close as it seemed. She and Catra walked ahead, trying to find enemies to beat. She took a deep breath of the cold air, feeling the stress of the morning's accident melt away. Yes, she felt much better now. She was strong, scary and invincible! She was really happy. But Catra looked preoccupied.
"Catra, is something wrong?" she asked with sincere concern in her voice. The feline girl sighed heavily and said with a reassuring smile.
"No, absolutely nothing happened. I just miss Adora and get nervous before the wedding. Nothing more." the Great Marshal assured her, but something in her voice made her not seem completely sincere, and Melog's eloquent look towards his friend and companion only confirmed her in this belief.
:You know, Catra, we're friends... - you can be honest with me and all." she said smiling friendly, but the feline woman sighed heavily and asked.
"When we were in the ice palace, we saw that he was talking to a woman named Storm Heart, who comes from the Isles of Sorrow." Catra sounded like she wanted to say something she didn't say, but she didn't understand what she meant.
"Yes, She visits us once every two months. She is a warrior and her mother is the leader of their kingdom… or whatever their country is. " She said shrugging. Catra looked at her in amazement. b
"Is their mother alive?" the Grand Marshal asked incredulously.
- Well ... yes, is there anything strange about it? She is Saihe, they live very long, sometimes over five hundred years." She asked, growing more confused. Catra pursed her lips, turned to the blue sky, and spoke in a very low and grim voice.
"Storm Heart and her sister Midnight Mask are Shadow Weaver sisters. I've met both recently , and especially the second one, they seem to be little better than my ex-teacher."
It took her a moment to fully understand what her friend was talking about, She had never spoken to that nasty sorcerer in her life, and she had only seen her face a handful of times. From what she heard, she was very mean to Catra and Adora. Too bad no one had punched her in that nasty scarface when they could have. But when it all dawned on her, she asked with undisguised astonishment.
"Does that mean you have aunts…and grandmother?" she asked cheerfully, but Catra laughed very bitterly.
"Definitely not. I'd have to have a mother first, and Shadow Weaver didn't deserve to be called that. I don't have a family... by blood and I'm fine with that, Adora too." There was a strange severity in the feline woman's voice.
"Yeah, but why are you asking me about this Storm Heart?" She was nice to me and even gave me a spider that looks like it's made of jewels. He is beautiful!
Catra sighed and said with concern in her voice.
"Listen... I don't like your chancellor talking behind your back to someone like this woman. Bad things can come of this."
She looked at her friend in bewilderment.
"So what! I'm the princess of the elements, what can she do to me?" she exclaimed, trying to sound as confident as possible.
"Scorpia's aunt" said that too." There was a warning note in Catry's voice. She responded with a snort.
"I'm only afraid of saber-toothed penguins."
Catra laughed.
"Saber-toothed penguins? Does such a thing exist at all?" she asked with amusement in her voice.
"Yeah, they just haven't been heard of in a thousand years!" she explained.
"For a thousand years? We're not in danger of meeting them, are we?" Catra cheered up for some unknown reason.
"You know, She-Ra hasn't been heard of in a thousand years either, and then one of them showed up at my ball. she said with a grin, but the feline woman replied with absolute seriousness.
"Good point."
They watched in silence as a pillar of blue flame shot up into the sky, then faded, plunging the tundra back into darkness, until Lonnie spoke.
"What the hell is this?" Their girlfriend was clearly hunched over.
"Looks like we have company." Scarlet said with interest, coming to the right of the general's companion.
"You dont say!" Lonnie replied, still annoyed, though until recently such a remark would have infuriated her. During this trip, a lot changed in the relationship between them.
"And was there supposed to be no one here but us?" he asked with concern in his voice. Lonnie gave him a sideways look.
" Kyle , you're starting again…" she began irritably.
"I'm not starting anything ..." he interrupted her "There wasn't supposed to be anyone here. And such things are not blown up by ordinary wanderers." he said in a resigned tone, and Rogelio nodded at him.
The general's companion stared at him, blinking several times.
"Does it change anything? When we were going, we knew we might run into someone we would have to fight. Hell, when we launched the rebellion, we knew we'd have to force our way to victory." She took a deep breath and added. "We are highly trained and have a new weapon that no one here knows about. We can beat anyone we meet." Lonnie spoke firmly, pressing her lips together tightly.
"Almost everyone." corrected their girlfriend.
Comrade General snorted.
"She is not on Etheria, as far as I know."
"Supposedly." he added, and Lonnie gritted her teeth.
"We can't act like She-Ra, Catra and the goddamn princesses are waiting around every corner. And even with bloody Frost waiting for me in the fridge, it doesn't change the fact that our rebellion's goal is to take away their power, and we won't do it without a fight. –
He thought for a moment and said.
"You know, when you think about it, the prospect of Frosty waiting for me in the fridge is pretty scary. This is probably the scariest of the princesses.
Their girlfriend blinked a few times dumbfounded.
"What are you talking about, Kyle . she said in a hushed voice, then turned red and started screaming.
- You're doing it again. You want to talk me into letting you sit in Drill and sit upside down again.
He was about to say that wouldn't be such a bad idea, but Scarlet put her hand on Lonnie's shoulder and said, smiling at him and Rogelio condescendingly.
"Enough of such pointless discussions, Comrade General." The sorcerer's voice had a barely perceptible tenderness in it, as if it contained a hidden promise. "We'll only know who or what we're dealing with when we see it for ourselves."
Lonnie took a deep breath, calming down a bit, and asked Scarlet.
"Do you know any magical ways to find out what's there?"
The sorcerer shook her head…
"Unfortunately, I'm not proficient in this kind of magic. Maybe if I had a little more time I could do something about it."
Comrade General snorted contemptuously.
"If you were Shadow Weaver, you'd think of something." she said reproachfully, quite irrational in his opinion.
Scarlet smiled mysteriously and said
"But you only have me, and you only have to deal with me."
"I'm glad she's gone. To this day, I have nightmares about her walking the halls of Castle Crypto ." he said, swallowing loudly.
Scarlet looked at him askance, mysteriously and ominously.
"Indeed, she is gone, for now." she said, and something in her voice sent shivers down his spine, and when Dr. Moors metallic voice rang out , he jumped in fright.
-"We can always send your little winged friend Imp . He has served Hordak well as a spy, and he will help you too." said the brain in the cylinder.
He frowned. Over the last years, they have practically forgotten what position he occupied in Fright Zone Imp. Everyone liked him very much, but in the old days he was often feared, and the older members of the People's Rebellion still became wary of him. He was their scout, though he was less and less in that role these days.
"Yes, that sounds reasonable." Scarlet said with a strange, dark joy in her voice
She helped Lance, who was supported from below by her husband, to the rock, and together they lifted him up. Entrapta, who had climbed the mountain on her own hair, and Frosta, who had made herself an ice staircase, were waiting at the top. Netossa said she didn't want to strain her back and waited downstairs ready to intercept anyone who fell. Melog, in turn, guarded Netossa . He didn't like the place and was very nervous. Small obelisks with flattened surfaces stood at the entrance to the city. Thanks to this, they could see them in all their glory.
"It's old. It must be thousands of years old, you see, there is a road under the ice canopy, but on our side it's covered with a thick layer of earth. Given the meager vegetation here, it took thousands of years to create such a thick layer of soil, so this city must have been here before the first people arrived! Lance exclaimed in an excited voice.
"we can forget about myth of Etheria's original colonizers." She murmured with satisfaction. Of things related to the First Ones, only Adora didn't disgust her. Even She-Ra turned out to be something much older than that damned bunch of imperialists.
" Entrapta , could you redirect that satellite of yours here?" she asked the student. She nodded her head and said.
"That's what I'm doing, but first I have to listen to Susan . You know, she's a very meddlesome gossip girl." Entrapta said, shaking her head in disbelief.
"This city was bigger than any on Etheria, except maybe the Fright Zone. Catra, you probably visited them the most of all of us, what is your opinion"? George asked.
"Some make the Fright Zone look like a sleepy town. Especially on Icarus? she almost added that she had recently visited even greater ones in her sleep. She shivered. "But I don't know much about the ruins, even if the Fright Zone looked like it was about to fall apart at times. Ancient cities, this is your job." She managed a warm smile.
Netossa created a energy net and they jumped into it. Then they headed for the city. She had to admit that a good night's sleep, even if interrupted so abruptly, had significantly improved her mood. Life seemed much better to her now. She felt a familiar tingle of excitement before a new adventure. Full of impatience, curiosity about what the coming hours will bring. She wished Adora, Bow , and Glimmer were here , but maybe they'd be back soon. They won't explore them all at once, and the ruins won't escape... she guess...
Frosta was also radiant with enthusiasm, despite their recent conversation. She was worried about the youngest of the princesses. She didn't seem to care what her chancellor was doing behind her back, and if the Shadow Weaver family was half as mean and calculating as a dark sorceress, that could cause problems. She approached Netossly anxiously she said in a hushed voice.
"Hey Netossa, we need to talk about Frosta" and quickly summarized her concerns about visits from officials from the Isles of Sorrow. The Lady of Armoria frowned deeply.
"You're right, it's disturbing." The white-haired woman sighed. "It used to be the Star sisters who were supposed to look after her and protect her, but you saw how Halo became, and Neutrino was always the dark and mean one. She was feared by everyone when she was young, but she never joined the rebellion."
She shuddered and spoke in a grim voice.
"If Neutrino is worse than Halo, I'd tear her throat out. We need to talk to Glimmer after we're married and look into the whole thing. Maybe we'll even go to the Isles of Sorrow. I would love to meet Shadow Weaver's mother, I wonder if she will call me her daughter's ward. Or maybe she'll consider me a granddaughter."
They listened to the voices coming from Imp's mouth . One he hardly recognized, this one probably belonged to Netossa . And the other he knew from early childhood.
"You know, I've almost forgotten what Catra's voice sounds like when she's not yelling at anyone or threatening anyone. It even sounds nice, don't you think, Lonnie?" he asked the general's companion. Lonnie snorted.
"She could always be polite and accommodating when she wanted to. We can not believe her." she said with contempt in her voice.
"Your... Our relationship with the great Marshal is not as important as what we intend to do with her presence here. We all know he's a tough opponent. Scarlet said in a gentle and careful voice, just the kind not to make Lonnie angry… about Scarlet, she was beginning to complicate their relationship. Though Lonnie tried to hide it, though he didn't understand why, he and Rogelio could easily see that the bond between the sorcerer and the general's companion had grown stronger. It didn't bother them, they were never jealous, and if either of them wanted to establish some kind of additional relationship, they accepted it, although they thought it would be nice if they were informed, but they both understood that it was not easy for Lonnie ... he just felt that Scarlet was different. He knew her from the old days, better than most. He remembered that she was a very laid-back girl who chattered about nonsense all the time. Their new Scarlet was calculating, cunning, and absolutely focused. Plus, she was a sorcerer, though she hadn't shown any talent in that direction before. Actually, come to think of it, it had something of a Shadow Weaver about it, which was a scary thought.
"She's alone, without She-Ra and Glimmer, and we've known her weaknesses since we were children." said Comrade General in a firm voice.
"But did you know it works both ways? Besides, as far as I remember, she was usually the one who beat you in training. And that's when she was alone, and from what I understand it's Netossa and Frosta here, and did I say that I'm afraid of Frosta?"
" Kyle is right, fighting Catra was never our goal. Maybe it would be wiser if we passed each other. And then we'll search the city ourselves, perhaps even following in their footsteps." Scarlet said, supporting him to his surprise. Lonnie thought for a few moments, then spoke through clenched teeth.
"They won't hide and run again. All my life I had kept my head low, submissive and humble, while pet Shadow Weaver was ready to set the whole world on fire for her ambition and wounded pride. No, I won't humble myself again. Now it's time for me to roll the dice, and I will, even if only dragon eyes fall out." she mentioned the result of two ones on the dice, symbolizing both bad luck and good fortune, depending on the context.
From the inside, the city was much larger than it appeared from a distance, and also much more alien. The buildings were made of a strange substance that looked like crystallized clay up close. But she was tough, and even her claws couldn't scratch their surface.
Maybe you forgot to sharpen them? Frost asked, but then she hit the stone and left scratches on it.
"Sometimes I forget how sharp they are. It's surprising that Greypaw 's are not as sharp!" Netossa exclaimed
She smiled grimly.
"Mine are… special," she said, wondering whether or not to tell them about her "discovery.
"Catra's claws contain titanium, tungsten. I tested them in the Fright Zone when… Entrapta began , but unexpectedly bit her tongue and changed the subject pointing to the mounds. "It's unknown, but the scan shows it contains organic elements, as if someone had forced the snail to produce slime as hard as diamond when it solidifies. Oh, biotechnology is really amazing!" shouted the inventor so effectively changing the subject that she probably forgot what she was talking about.
The city was surprisingly modest looking. Or maybe more gray? Lance and Entrapta theorized that the creatures inhabiting this place simply perceived the world differently and perhaps for them this city was beautiful and fabled. They didn't see much technical equipment here, here and there they saw places where there might have been some equipment but it had been dismantled or…completely decayed, Entrapta said. The road was hard, made of a similar substance as the buildings, but there were no sidewalks anywhere, as if foot traffic didn't exist.
They discovered the truth when they came to a great cavern exposed by the sliding people. It was dark here, so although they had flashlights and chemical lighting, she was their guide. There was a strange smell everywhere, leaving a bitter-sweet taste in her mouth. Melog didn't like it here. He put his ears down. Everywhere they cut small indentations that arranged them in groups. Lance George finally came to the conclusion that there must be some subtitles.
We don't know him. We expected them to use Aklo here" Lance said.
"Aklo?" She asked because she had a feeling she had heard the name somewhere before.
"It's a language spoken by many of the older races." said George, and after a moment added, " Lightspinner has created the best translation of this language."
"That explained a lot."
Finally, they reached a place that explained the mystery of this place a bit. It was a great chamber, capable of holding thousands of beings. And it was covered with countless paintings. They were white in many different shades. Here, for the first time, they saw the inhabitants of the city, or at least their images. They were tall and elongated conical creatures with "Heads" topped with tentacles. They had great webbed wings and five legs. She had never seen anything so strange.
- They're ugly. Netossa said, grimacing in disgust.
"We shouldn't judge others by their appearance." Frosta said, and everyone agreed with her. Subsequent drawings depicted meetings of the city's inhabitants with equally strange creatures that looked like winged beetles. They also saw a drawing of a giant with an octopus head. Unimaginable evil emanated from him.
"Isn't it Great Cthulhu from the Book of Dead Names?" George asked.
"Didn't we use this book as a support for the leg of the table, you know, the marble one? Lance said, rubbing his beard.
"Yes, we didn't want the boys to be scared by these terrible illustrations. This table is really heavy. " There was concern in Georg's voice.
Yeah, I guess we'll have to invite the sons to help us lift it. Lance added with absolute seriousness.
"All of them). It's a really heavy table after all." George stated, and Lance added.
"And we'll take care of our grandchildren." Both men bared their teeth in a sly smile. He and Melog exchanged significant glances.
"Slap me on the head if I start acting like a grandma." she said to her companion. Then they looked at the drawings again. They saw that the inhabitants of the city had made servants for themselves. They were formless creatures with many eyes and tentacles. They built the city and many other structures. They were controlled by the city's rulers with strange staffs that emitted multicolored light.
"You were right, they are nasty bastards. They have enslaved the multi-eyed monsters!" Frost exclaimed indignantly.
Then they heard the flapping of wings that sounded oddly familiar to her.
"Hey Catra," Lonnie's voice said.