Everwake (Tim)

[Tikobe]

Enoise doesn't say anything back, while Bayod doesn't look like he's quite sure what to say.



The rest of the walk to the plantation was done in awkward silence

---

Empire of Everwrath
Territory of Old Everwrath
Slave Plantation of Duke Larchont (Outskirts of Saffur)
Night

The moonlight falls on the plantation, which was completely destroyed. It looked no different from the rest of Saffur, but that wasn't necessarily good news. The plants grown grew to unimaginable heights, the slave huts dismantled and covered in vines and flowers. The plantation's manor was completely destroyed from the brand new orchard that grew from within it.

"Well, that's bad news," Bayod mutters. "Still, to think that it was Duke Larchont that set this up. I met him once, he was such a great man."

"Hah! The real Duke Larchont is worse than the admiral. At least the admiral's tastes are legal, but as for Larchont you would never trust him near a child. And since he's got Marquis Isou's absolute support he can get away with it scot free. As I said, Bayod, you're bad at playing games. And as for our escape route, there's still hope," Enoise casually replies. "The airship port is along the cliff face a little into the distance. There're some tunnels all across the estate that lead into a cave that you travel inside to reach the port. Well, at least I was told that they were all over, I was only able to confirm the existence of two of them: One near the slave huts that they smuggle the produce through and another inside the manor that Duke Larchont uses to inspect the airport when he's visiting. So long as either's in tact we should be fine."

Bayod opens his mouth to talk back but all of sudden, a loud of sound of the laughter of children is heard from the plantation.

"Uh, what was...?"

"I said we wouldn't run into many problems with the wisps; That never meant that it would be smooth sailing. Stay on your toes," Enoise warns as she keeps a hand on her dagger.

[Bannanachair]

"If the duke was keeping sex-slaves, they wouldn't be laughing right now," I whispered, to try to put Bayod's mind at ease. "If it's any consolation, the bastard's likely dead given the state of his house."

(Does Therinean have his sword? I think he lost in in the shrine, but I can't remember.)

[Tikobe]

(I think he did. But considering Therinean he could've very easily have looted one off of the crap ton of corpses that was tangled up with him.)

"Sorry, Admiral, the duke wasn't in town today. Actually, if I remember correctly, he was holding a party at his manor in Sunreach just the day before yesterday, though considering how recently it happened I don't have any information on how it went. I'm pretty sure that your father was invited to join, actually. He's been trying to make an alliance with Duke Larchont for the past year so that Marquis Isou's protection might also fall on your house," Enoise whispers back, shrugging off the bad news she just gave you.

"It must be great to be friends with the emperor's younger brother; People start to kiss up to you even if you're wretched to the core," Bayod grumbles.

"Heheh, take it from someone like me, who's met the Emperor herself: The Imperial Family itself is wretched. Anyways, we need a plan of attack: Do we check out the slave's entrance to the airship port or the entrance over at the manor?"

"Therinean?" Bayod questions, clearly deciding to cast his vote with you.

[Bannanachair]

"Why did you ask me, Enoise? You're the one who knows this place."

[Tikobe]

"I was just seeing if you had a reliable side. Alright, fine, let's check out the slave quarters first. This way," she grumbles as she goes left down to the fields. From the looks of it you may have to journey through the overgrowth first.

"Wait a minute, girlie-"

"Enoise."

"-it's dark out and there's wisps about! Shouldn't we wait for daylight?"

"We may not even have until daylight to get out of here. If you're so scared then find a torch or something; I'll set it on fire and then we'll have some light."

[Bannanachair]

"Just ignore the wisps and you should be fine," I say, though I don't particularly believe myself. While I haven't ever heard of a wisp killing someone, I also have no idea what Gen Saeyi might do to alter them.

[Tikobe]

"Sure, they may not do any killing, but that's because they make a game of letting other things do that for them," Captain Bayod grumbles as he follows the two of you.

The three of you wonder around in what appears to be a maze-like patch of monstrously overgrown tomatoes larger than twice the size of your head. The stalks are so warped and large that they're more like trees than anything.

"Oi, girlie-"

"Enoise, damn it!"

"-are you sure that we're going the right way?" Captain Bayod questions, answered only by Enoise giving a small shrug of her shoulders.

"I dunno. It's not like any of this was here just this morning," Enoise replies as she looks at the tomato plants. "Still, to think that this was the power of Gen Saeyi. I heard the legend that she exerted an effect over the world that brought forth plants, but that would imply just simply stimulating growth; This, what we've seen before, feels more like the creation and alteration of life itself. Beautiful, amazing, and horrifying. Very, very horrifying."

[Bannanachair]

"So now we can't trust the grass beneath our feet," I say. "That's not a fun thought."

[Tikobe]

"And to think that we're better off with that than with the alternative," Enoise replies. "Seriously, this would've been harder with almost any of the others than with Gen Saeyi. Seriously speaking, I've heard too many legends about the Terrible Sage, Fon Maloi, and her unprecedented depth of power. Yeah, no, I think we're getting off lucky with the plant god girl. That is relatively speaking, of course."

"Yeah, I'd certainly hope that such a statement was a relative one," Bayod gives a flat retort before turning to one of the tomatoes. "You think these are edible?"

"Even if they were the person eating it would need to be a bear like you in order to have a stomach large enough to stuff it in."

"So Therinean is scum and I'm a bear? Do you have a nickname for everyone?" Bayod groans as his footsteps take on a loud thumping sound.

"Only those who deserve it," Enoise explains, trying to speak over the thumping sound that continued even after Bayod stopped walking.

"..."

"..."

The two turn to face the darkness behind you three. Something was coming from behind you, cloaked in the darkness beyond your line of vision. All you could see was it's massive silhouette as it gave a slight grown and with an arm shaped like a club literally whacked a tomato plant out of it's way.

[Bannanachair]

I turn to face it and draw my sword in anticipation. "Show yourself, whoever you are!" I say to the figure.

[Tikobe]

The figure doesn't respond as it continues to move forward, ever closer until the moonlight disposes of the veil of dark surrounding it.

The monster was well over twice as tall, and was so wide that if you cloned yourself twice and had the three of you stand shoulder to shoulder you still wouldn't be able to reach past it's waist. It didn't wear clothing and featured a wart-covered, dull grey colored skin. It only had it's right forearm. The left was instead replaced by a massive bone-like club almost as long as the monster was tall as thick as the trunk of a tree that's lived for centuries. It had little teeth, and what was there was all warped and out of shape. It stared at with bead-like black eyes that seemed to lack any means of a sentient intelligence.

"What is that!?" Bayod yells, looking at it.

"Well, let us see: A beast like entity with no possible likeness in the immediate area. It's most definitely a tocthani. Quite a good specimen of one, too," Enoise replies. "They're quite a popular item on the black market, you see. Sometimes, a noble needs them to guard some kind of hideaway where they perform illegal activities and other times some of the high-ranking nobles just like to collect them to have them fight each other. Really, this isn't even anything compared to some of the ones that my father has, and is especially trash in the face of the imperial family's collection. Well, then again, I suppose this one is on loan from Marquis Isou considering that even Duke Larchont couldn't buy something this good."

"Huh!? Just what do you nobles do as hobbies!?"

"We're rich. We do stupid things. Now, if you'll excuse me," Enoise smiles as you suddenly realize that she's been walking further and further away from you two as she was speaking, "I'm aware that I've said that I've seen worse, but I still pretty much recognize that if we fight this thing it will proceed to promptly make a massacre out of the three of us. Now, of course, we can play the mighty monster slaying hero game and fight the damned thing in a heroic battle that'll lead to our untimely deaths, but I'm not that kind of person and as such I will run to however far away from this thing that I can get. Good day, gentlemen, I bid you adieu."

She suddenly turns tail and bolts away from the Tocthani, leaving Bayod to look at you.

"She's probably right. I've fought bigger and badder but there's a large degree of difference in the preparations for fighting those and fighting this."

[Bannanachair]

"It's legs are huge. We can't outrun it, we'll just be left trying to outrun eachother. I don't particularly want to die and I doubt you do, either, so unless you can suggest a way to at least slow it down I say our best bet is to take the bastard on together."

[Tikobe]

"Well, I don't think that'd be the case; For as long as it's strides are it's awfully slow to take a step, and we've all of these tre- Tomato plants? Tomato trees? Tomato somethings that will stop him! And while we did see him tear one down with that arm of his something that heavy would take too long to swing. Agh, damn it. I should've run off with Enoise while I had the chance."

The tocthani gets nearer to the two of you, though not enough to attack yet, and lets out an ear-shattering roar. In response, a little girl's scream cries out from behind a nearby tomato plant. The two of you turn your head, and you begin to notice a small arm and some long dark hair accompanied by a small and growing horn. It was an amarzi slave child.

"Oh, damn it," Bayod growls as he sees her as well. Bayod does seem the type to rescue even a slave.

[Bannanachair]

"Keep the thing busy and I'll try to get behind it," I say, and run off to the side to try to circle around to behind the Tocthani.

[Tikobe]

"Grr... Fine, let's do this!" Captain Bayod roars as he takes out his shield and mace. "You, the little brat over there, stay right where you are until I tell you to move, alright!?"

The little girl pokes her head out and gives a hesitant nod before going back to hide behind the tomato plant.

Captain Bayod starts slamming his mace onto his shield as a form of improvised war drum to draw the tocthani's attention away from you as you circle around. Bayod made a right estimate that in spite of the length of it's stride it moves incredibly slow. As it begins to slowly reach Bayod it raises it's left arm in the air. From the size of the club and the apparent strength of the Tocthani you'll need to hope that Bayod's fast on his feet. After all, it would be a solid guess to say that just by being touched by that thing's side you would find yourself missing a chunk of your body.

[Bannanachair]

Once I manage to make my way to behind it, I'll try to slice the Tocthani's hamstring, which should hopefully completely immobilise it.

[Tikobe]

(Attack Roll! (Excellent))

Your sword pierces into the back of the tocthani's foot, with some blood spilling out.

Had it been anything else, it would've actually been an effective attack.

However, the blood you drew with such a superbly performed attack was, when the thing's size was considered, so small that it would equate to being nothing more than having a small thorn lodged in the back of the foot, and it's leathery skin and thick muscles reduced the cutting ability of your blade considerably, threatening to have gotten stuck inside of the tocthani's flesh at one point. All it accomplished in the end was drawing the attention at the source of it's sudden pain. It slammed it's club at Bayod while staring at you, a scornful and furious expression on it's face. Thankfully, Bayod was able to use the distraction to dodge the blow, but the force of it as it hit the ground blew him off his feet.

The tocthani roars angrily at you. Surprise attacks like that might not work anymore considering you're the target now.

[Bannanachair]

I'd say that my best bet is to just dodge its next attack and wait for an opening, hoping that Bayod does something.

[Tikobe]

The tocthani, clearly enraged now, begins to display a vivid tension in it's muscles. Even though the monster was clearly well built before, now it was absolutely massive and terrifying. It holds it club arm behind and swings down with a speed and fury like that you've never seen before. You were going to quite clearly die.

Or so it should've been, but you find yourself tackled and pushed out of the way. The impact of the club slamming onto the ground could be felt even from a distance and you find yourself and the person who tackled you covered in a sheet of dirt flying into the air. With all of what was going on, it became hard for you to focus, perhaps due to a dull pain in the back of your head, most likely from the head wound you suffered earlier in the day. Looks like Enoise's spell wasn't completely effective.

"Horse! Rabbit! Quickly grab Swan and Bayod and lets move on. Hurry! We've only quite a small amount of time before the Beast recovers," you hear a voice in the distance yell as the man who tackled you gets up. The antlers on his head and the red skin gave away the reality that your savior was an amarzi.

"What about this one?" the amarzi asks the distant voice.

"Take him, too. They do say that charity pays off in the end," was the jovial reply.

The amarzi gives no reaction to the response before he stares at you.

"Get up, lest you want me to carry you," he says as he gives a worried glance at the tocthani.

The monster hasn't moved much since the last attack. He was breathing, but he was barely moving and he was groaning like he was in intense pain.

[Bannanachair]

I get up. "Where are we going?" I ask my saviour.

[Tikobe]

"Duck's shack," he says, as if he wasn't aware that you didn't have a clue what that meant. No, given the circumstances he was aware but he just didn't care.

He then adds on, "With haste. The beast 'overloaded' itself by doing that and is going through muscle pains, or at least that's what Duck says. However, Duck also told me that it heals tense muscles quickly so we need to move fast."

He begins to run off towards the direction of the voice, where you see another amarzi man. The one that saved you was large and muscular, but by contrast this one was small and frail looking. As this goes on you notice that another two amarzi, a man and a woman, came to help out the child that Bayod was protecting, and had persuaded Bayod to move on with them to "Duck's shack."

[Bannanachair]

I'll just follow them, I suppose. If they're our allies, then there's nothing to lose by doing so, and if they're our enemies, I'm not letting Bayod go in there alone.

[Tikobe]

You follow the amarzi to the small one who gives a small smiles.

"Nice work, Hog. But next time, don't hesitate so much about saving a person when I ask you to. Had you started running even a second later, then not only would he be dead but you might be, too."

So it would appear that from the distance the group of amarzi had seen you fight the tocthani. The small one noticed you were going to be placed in danger and asked the larger one, who seemed to be Hog, to step in before the tocthani launched its attack, although Hog seemed to be disagreeable to the idea.

"Mm," was Hog's only reply.

"Well, I suppose everything went well in the end," the other amarzi shrugged before he stared at you giving a large smile. "Pardon us for the incident. The ongoing circumstances have been extreme and it's been eating away at our minds. I would like to talk about things in more detail but in front of a monster like that isn't the best place. Let us move over to where we've made our camp."

The small amarzi and Hog led you off towards the distance. You see Bayod and his group a small distance away heading the same direction.

Eventually, you reach a small, rundown shack. Even before it was destroyed by Gen Saeyi you could see it was in poor condition. Now it just had flowers growing out of it.

There was a large population of amarzi over there, all of them staring at you with different kinds of looks. Most of them were distrustful.

"Pardon the glares, my good sir. We were already a little distrustful of humans given the difference in our standings, but now there's nothing left to restrain us. Some of us can't help being paranoid of you," the small amarzi explained, still smiling. He had spoken quite a few times, conversations that told you quite well that he seemed to be quite intelligent and well spoken. But he always had that unchanging smile on his face.

[Bannanachair]

"I understand your reservations. Given the anger that you're likely feeling towards my kind, I can't help but be somewhat paranoid of you. Though, I doubt you'd put yourself in danger to save me just to kill me, so my mind has been put at ease somewhat."

[Tikobe]

"And hearing that puts mine at rest," the amarzi replies.

As you continued your discussion Bayod's group meets yours.

"Duck! It's great to know you're alive," Bayod exclaims as he meets the small amarzi.

"Captain Bayod. It's been a while. When was your last inspection of this plantation, again?"

"Hmm, can't seem to recall," Bayod ponders and shrugs. "Oh well. Admiral Therinean, this man is Duck, the plantation's overseer. Duck, this is Admiral Therinean, the man who leads the Guimar Garnier fleet."

"'Admiral,' you say? My, it seems we've picked up a prestigious person. It's rather unfortunate that we don't have the materials to properly receive such a man. Or rather, it's unfortunate those materials were destroyed earlier in the day," Duck replies.

In the same way, it was surprising to hear that Duck was the plantation's overseer, for naming slaves after animals was a common naming sense used to demean them, so Duck had both the name and the race of a slave, but a slave can't be an overseer, or at least you've never heard of anything like it.

But that wasn't important for now.