Fantasy Cursed Island

[Fangs9090]

"Must be sad." Niudisa fluttered over near Jerry's head, leaning down to look at her. "...where's the crystal now? Doesn't look like she's wearing it."

Asta spoke up. "She took it off and put it away with the rest of her stuff, shortly after the tail started coming forth."

 

[Deadwood Deer]

"And where is that?", Adran asked in turn. "I don't see her kit on any of you."

 

[Fangs9090]

"Ah... I think it was left back at the village. I believe Joanne and Beri stayed back there."

 

[Deadwood Deer]

"Of course," Adran threw up his hands, "And the rest of the crystal is in the bag."

"How is the crystal supposed to help here?", Emfa didn't see the connection beyond cause and effect, the effect was happening and needing to be dealt with, why did it matter where the cause was?

 

[Fangs9090]

Niudisa looked over. “The tail has stopped growing, hasn’t it? Maybe it’s because she’s not wearing the crystal anymore. If that’s the case, then putting it back on should let this finish, otherwise she’s gonna be stuck with this sensitive thing.”

 

[Deadwood Deer]

"Well, she's gonna be unconscious for a while," Veo stood up and brushed some bark dust off of her lap. "And last time Jerry was out, we got stomped, so either we wait and get Joanne and Beri to come back, or we go to them and risk something happening along the way." Veo, Adran, Emfa, Erina, and Niudisa were the only ones that didn't know about Shuffle and Fia's cave-in escapade, so Veo was referring more to the nature of goblins and minotaurs.

 

[Fangs9090]

Emil spoke up from near the back of the group. “Shuffle’s gone back and forth between here and the village and hasn’t encountered anything, so that should be clear at least. She and Fia said that the caves past that are flooded though.”

 

[Deadwood Deer]

"Flooded?", Veo looked around for Shuffle and Fia, "The caves are flooded?"

 

[Fangs9090]

Shuffle and Fia hopped past Emil at the chance to tell their story again, speaking in unison before Shuffle took the lead. “Yeah!”

“There was a bunch of water dripping from the ceiling.”

“It’s like it was raining.”

“But then there was a thud and it came down harder.”

“Then the ceiling broke and it really came down.”

“And brought something else with it.”

“Something big!”

“That roared!”

 

[Deadwood Deer]

"Wait, wait, wait, slow down," Veo tried to get the two to calm down and speak coherently.

"That sounds like either a leviathan, or a dragon turtle," Adran groaned, "And I can't swim."

"And you think we can?", Emfa gestured between herself and the other minotaur.

 

[Fangs9090]

Erina looked up as well. “I would be surprised if I could swim, but I’ve never tried.”

Niudisa crossed her arms. “Sounds like we’ve got another issue to deal with. That one can wait though, as long as it’s not flooding up to where we are.” She looked at Shuffle and Fia for an answer to that.

Shuffle blinked. “Um... I don’t know. We didn’t look back.”

 

[Deadwood Deer]

Adran facepalmed. "Mirror."

"Why do we keep forgetting we have the mirror?"

"Because we're idiots," Adran shook his head and pulled his out, trying to connect to Joanne.

 

[Fangs9090]

Niudisa shrugged. “One of those things that’s easy to overlook, like how Shuffle’s been naked for who knows how long.” She paused before fluttering over to the creature in question. “Hold up, those wings are new.”

 

[Deadwood Deer]

"And where's the elemental?", Adran added as Joanne's face appeared on the mirror. The reflection didn't move, more like a portait of the paladin, but her voice came through.

"What is it you need?", Joanne sounded irritated, whether it was because she just did not like the mirrors or she was busy wasn't clear when voice was all they had to go on.

"Hey, Shuffle and Fia said there was a cave-in, and a flood, can you do us a favor and check on it?"

"Beri has already found it, I had assumed that the goblins had a way to deal with water as they lived so close to it." At that moment, the larvis stirred in Shuffle's clothing, climbing out and looking around, confused as to where everyone was and tip-tapping down the hall towards the noise.

 

[Fangs9090]

Shuffle looked at Niudisa as she went to check her wings before looking at Adran as he mentioned the elemental. “...oh!” She looked down at her chest first before glancing around. She turned to go search for it, accidentally swatting Niudisa with a wing. The fairy took a moment to recover, and Shuffle hurried to the elemental as she spotted it.

 

[Deadwood Deer]

While Joanne and Adran were talking over the mirrors and between the others in the room, Jerry on the bedroll stirred a bit, curling into a more comfortable position on her side, much to Veo's bewilderment since she should be just a breath away from a coma. "What?"

----------
Outside, the little Larvis saw Shuffle and raised its arms like it was looking for a hug as it toddled towards Shuffle.

 

[Fangs9090]

Niudisa shook her head and glanced over at Veo. “What what?”

—————

Shuffle was more than happy to pick the little thing up. “Hey! Sorry I left you behind.”

 

[Deadwood Deer]

Veo pointed at Jerry. "She shouldn't even be able to move, and she just did." She knelt down next to Jerry and try to reposition her back on her stomach, better to keep the sensitive injury off of any pressure and the ground, but Jerry was apparently harder to move once she'd found a position she liked, even when asleep.

-------------------
The larvis didn't have a mouth capable of speech, so its expression of affection amounted to hugging Shuffle's neck.

 

[Fangs9090]

"Oh?" Niudisa fluttered over. "What did you give her?"

----------

Shuffle giggled as she hugged it back before lifting it up to the top of her head. "Can you hang on up here?"

 

[Deadwood Deer]

"Lithe nectar," that name didn't match anything on the surface, a discrepancy between being born and raised in the ruins and being born on the surface. There was also that Veo didn't really know what each plant her parasite had the seeds for actually was, and was making names up based on what the plant did when she asked for a specific thing. She asked for an anaesthetic, it gave her a little white bloom dripping with nectar. She called it lithe because the smell made her momentarily forget what she was doing.

-----------------
The little larvis nodded and gripped Shuffle's horns. If it had a little cowboy had and a bandana, it would look like it was competing in the Flesh Golem Rodeo.

 

[Fangs9090]

"...right. And what's that supposed to do?"

----------

Shuffle smiled as she felt it hold on. Remembering that it had been on fire before, she briefly flashed the flames from her horns to see if it would like that.

 

[Deadwood Deer]

"It's an anesthetic." Veo rolled her eyes, "It puts her a few steps above death so I can work on her without her moving around or feeling much."

"Okay," Adran put the mirror away, "Joanne and Beri are on their way back, they've finished looting the village."
-----------------

Indeed it did enjoy that, lighting itself in turn. It tapped Shuffle's forehead as a rock rolled Shuffle's belongings to her and lifted it up to her, going back down once it was grabbed.

 

[Fangs9090]

"Mm. Well, something's acting against it, it seems." She glanced over at Adran's announcement.

----------

Shuffle looked at her stuff and smiled. "Oh, thanks." She picked it up and started getting dressed, starting with her wraps. It took a bit to figure out how to account for her wings now, but she managed. Get the rest of it on took a little longer than it used to as well as she struggled to get her wings through their appropriate hole. With all her moving around now, the larvis may as well have been in a rodeo.

 

[Deadwood Deer]

Veo knelt down near Jerry's head and laid the back of her hand against Veo's forehead, pulling it back quickly, "She's burning up! Can any of you make ice?"

"Uh, I might be able to chill water," Adran offered.

"Do that, quickly."

--------------
The larvis did not turn out to be very good at rodeo, quickly getting flung away and shattering against a wall.

 

[Fangs9090]

Niudisa fluttered back to let the others work.

----------

Shuffle stopped as the larvis lost its grip, going over to make sure it was alright. She hadn't made a whole lot of progress. She hadn't even gotten one wing through a hole yet.