Fantasy Lost Glory . [ closed ]

[StarryKnights]

She wasn’t sure where she ought to be going, she’d been wandering about aimlessly ever since waking up in that cemetery. It had been a rather barren place, Patches had awoke in a shallow grave partially covered.
After climbing out she found she was surrounded by properly filled graves, with markers so worn and old she couldn't make out many of the names.

“I don’t have much of a destination…it’s more of a feeling I suppose”, she glanced down to her hands.
“With these…powers awakened I feel a stronger urge to head south, but outside of that”, she looked back to Frey. “I don’t have a destination”.

Looking up at the naimar, she took notice of details she hadn’t been able to see before. His horns were much lighter colored than she’d originally thought, and his mismatched eyes were a bit darker. She imagined he could see all the obvious details regarding her undead heritage. The pale skin, sunken eyes, most importantly of all the stitches.
The black threads criss crossed around her neck and seemed to be the thing holding her head on, there were similar stitches running down her arms, under her dress and over her legs.

They were what held the girl together and as she’d discovered once after taking a tumble down an embankment, she could in fact come apart at the seams.
She was like a doll, a poorly stitched doll.

“If you wish to accompany me, I will not stop you, though I cannot guarantee your safety. No doubt more people will be out for the apparent bounty on my head”, she frowned. “I…I do not remember this Temple of the Fallen…but I also lack memories of any time before I awoke several weeks ago. If I have some sort of past with them…I…I can’t remember it”.

She looked to the floor. “I can only hope I didn’t do something horrible to them”.
In the meantime, getting out of this inn seemed like the best start.

 

[PhoenixMire]

All she knew was that she needed to head south? And she didn't even know why? Great. Frey shifted his weight with his lips pressed into a thoughtful line, wondering what to do with the girl. He didn't know if he wanted to follow her in some vague direction for an unknown amount of time. The sooner he could sell her off, the better...

"You don't remember anything about the Temple of the Fallen?" he asked, eyeing her carefully. He didn't know how much to believe. Was everything this girl said a lie, or was she telling the truth? He didn't trust anyone so easily. "I wonder why they're after you." He considered asking her if she knew where these Temple of the Fallen people resided, but that would be too obvious, even if he did try to justify the question by claiming he just wanted to know how to avoid them. Besides, he doubted Patchwork had any answers.

He would just have to ask elsewhere.

With a long sigh, he ran his hands through his hair in a vain attempt to make himself look presentable, then he left the room. He made his way down the stairs to the first floor of the inn. It was much easier to see its details in the daylight; the room somehow looked smaller than it had in the darkness, and he could see some dust here and there, and the plaster on the walls peeling in the corners. He scoffed. What a great place.

"Let's get out of here," he mumbled, leaving the building and walking out into the dirt streets of the small town. He opened his satchel and produced a map. Unfurling the parchment, he squinted as he tried to figure out where he would need to head - somewhere to the south, according to Patchwork. Were there any towns nearby? Didn't look like it. There was a long stretch of hilly wilderness followed by wetlands that would take quite a while to traverse.

 

[StarryKnights]

She wouldn’t have blamed him if he decided not to accompany her. She had no idea where she was going, and there was a dangerous group chasing after her now. Try as she might she couldn’t recall ever meeting anyone associated with the Temple of the Fallen, yet the name sounded so familiar.
It was beyond frustrating, knowing that there were so many key details missing from her past.

She shook her head in response to Frey’s inquiry.

“I do not know them…but I feel like I ought to”, she frowned. “It is a…frustrating feeling, one I cannot explain well. At this time though I do not wish to run into these people, even if they could provide me with some answers”.

She didn’t want to know what they intended to do with her.
“My only real hope is this…instinct will tell me when I’ve gone far enough”.

It wasn’t much to go on, but it was all the girl had. She moved to follow him out, not even thinking about the fact she was walking about in broad daylight. It wasn’t until they stepped outside, past the front desk and the now confused and horrified attendant that she realized she might be freaking people out.

As Frey looked at the map Patches tugged on his sleeve.
“…Frey, people saw me. I think I should wear your cloak again…”.

​

 

[PhoenixMire]

So he had a dangerous, undead, amnesiac child on his hands. This was certainly a unique situation. "Well then, let's try to avoid these people from the Temple of the Fallen, shall we?" Frey glanced at her with a small smile. He'd just have to find some time to himself to go off and search for them and inform them he'd found their quarry.

He stopped walking when the girl tugged on his sleeve. He blinked and looked down at her with a thoughtful frown on his face. "Ah. Right." He produced his cloak and handed it to her, but reminded her not to let it drag on the ground. It wouldn't do to scare everyone they passed - and plus, Frey didn't want anybody else discovering Patchwork and claiming her for themselves. If there really was a handsome reward for her, he wanted it all for himself.

Of course, he needed to find out more about the reward, first. He hadn't had any time to yet - not with the child around. If only he could manage to seek out information without her finding out... Sighing, he idly rested a hand on his hip and stared out into the horizon, wondering where their journey would take them, and how long he'd be tagging along.

 

[StarryKnights]

Patches nodded in agreement. Avoiding these temple people was the best course of action, at least until she regained some of her lost memories. She had no reason to trust these strangers now. They could lie to her, to use her for something ghastly.

There was also a chance that Frey himself could be lying but given all he’d done Patches felt this was unlikely. He’d agreed to travel with her, and to help her avoid the temple. These weren’t the actions of someone who held ill will toward her.

She pulled the cloak over her head and grabbed the extra length by the handful, so it wouldn’t drag on the ground. She held these ends fast in her hands and followed Frey’s gaze out over the horizon.

“…The sun rise is…colorful”, she commented softly. The sun was still ascending, streaking the sky with ribbons of pink and purple. The small town was starting to wake up now, people were coming out of their homes and going about their morning routines.

“So…where should we head first?”, she peeked at the map Frey held, but couldn’t make heads of tails of it.

 

[PhoenixMire]

The sunrise was indeed colorful. Frey watched it without realizing there was a bit of a smile on his face. He always appreciated the beauty of the world and what it had to offer, which was why he'd left his village all those years ago. He hadn't been back since. Part of him wanted to see his family again, but the other part of him didn't care - he was sure they'd been incredibly angry when he'd left, and it was likely that the more time passed, the more bitter they would become towards him. He fully expected them to disown him if he attempted to return now... so there was no point.

Shaking himself from his thoughts, he looked down to the little girl beside him. "Right," he sighed, "where to." He returned his attention to the map and scanned its contents. As he'd seen before, there were only hills and wetlands for a long while, and somewhere in the middle of those wetlands, a town was marked on his map. Frey stared at it with brows furrowed. What an odd place for a town.

"If you're heading south, then this is it," he told her, pointing to the wetland town on his map. He'd never been there before. Lifting his eyes to the surrounding landscape, he found that they were nearly outside the village already, and they were facing a seemingly endless field of rolling green hills. "This is where we should be going. That's south. Those cliffy mountains -" He turned around and pointed to them - "that's north, I'm pretty sure... so we don't want to go there. We need to head for the hills.

"Odd that there's no path between them though," he murmured, mostly to himself, studying the map again and then turning his attention to the landscape. Why was there no path leading to the wetland town? He couldn't see one in front of him or on the map.

 

[StarryKnights]

Patches looked over the map, spotting the small marker which indicated a town. She frowned.

“I don’t recognize that area…”, but that didn’t change the fact that now, she really wanted to go there. Somehow, she felt this town was where she ought to be going. Nestled in the middle of some wetlands, Patches had no idea what would be waiting them when they arrived.

They were pretty much outside the village now, which was good. It meant Patches wouldn’t have to worry about anyone seeing her and panicking.

She nodded in agreement as he pointed to the northern mountains. “I do not want to go north, but I do think going here’, she pointed to the marker on the map. “Is where we ought to go…maybe as we get closer, we can find out more about the area”.

Perhaps they would come across a fellow traveler or something, maybe if thy were lucky they would come across someone from the city itself.

There didn’t appear to be any sort of trail they could follow, so how were they to get there.

“Perhaps if we head south then we will come across a path of sorts?”. She looked to Frey. “Or maybe we should ask someone here if they are familiar with the location?”.

 

[PhoenixMire]

Frey scoffed. “No, I don’t need to ask anyone if they know the area. I doubt they will anyway. Let’s just set off.” He paused, looking at the child with a small frown, as something occurred to him. “Do you need to eat?”

She was undead... so he hoped she wouldn’t require food, especially since he only had enough for himself. His satchel held a fair supply of dried meats, vegetables, and fruits (along with a canteen of water of course) - nothing too exciting, but at least enough to survive on for a few days. That was, if he didn’t have to feed Patchwork.

He supposed he could always hunt food if he had to. He wasn’t the best at it, but he’d manage; he’d been living and traveling on his own for a while, after all.

Studying the horizon, Frey exited the town and made his way out into the rolling fields. They were beautiful - verdant and dotted with colorful flowers, stretching for as far as the eye could see. In the far distance, he could just make out the vague impression of a couple trees, and he assumed that was where the marsh started. He kept glancing between the map and the landscape before him as he walked. Eventually he decided to tuck the parchment away into his satchel again, since he didn’t need it to reach the wetlands; as long as he went toward that faint outline of trees in the distance, he wouldn’t get lost.

 

[StarryKnights]

Patches cocked her head to the left.

“I do not require food, drink, sleep…though last night I think I nearly fell asleep”. She supposed it was an important detail she should’ve shared, traveling on the road meant they would have limited supplies. But Frey only needed to worry about feeding himself.

She supposed if they needed more food, they could hunt for it.

She followed the naimar as he headed out into the field. She couldn’t help but look around in awe, it was all so colorful. Flowers dotted the hills which surrounded them, in the distance she could just make out what looked to be the edge of the marsh.

“How long do you think it will take for us to find this place?”, she looked to Frey questioningly.

Assuming they had no interruptions she assumed it wouldn’t take too long, maybe a couple of days.

 

[PhoenixMire]

It was good that she didn’t need to eat. That saved him a lot of trouble.

“How long will it take...?” Frey looked out across the flowery hills, lips slightly pursed in thought. “Well, since we can see the edge of the wetland, we might reach it tonight if we hurry. And even if we don’t, it’s not a big deal. As for the wetlands themselves...”

He looked at his map for what felt like the millionth time. "I don't know how far away the town is, exactly. It looks like it's in the middle of the wetlands somewhere, but I don't know where. I guess we'll just have to start our journey and see how long it takes." Frey tucked his map back into his satchel; he wouldn't need it until they reached the marsh, after all.

He walked onward quietly. The colorful flowers dotting the hillsides swayed in a gentle breeze, and the sky was slightly overcast above them, with pale gray clouds drifting slowly. Frey glanced up to the sky. Would it rain soon? The clouds didn't look heavy enough yet to threaten a storm, so he hoped there wouldn't be one. As he crested a hill and began walking down its other side, he found his thoughts drifting to the marshland village, and wondered what it would be like, and if anyone from the Temple of the Fallen would be there. It would be nice to cut this journey short and get rid of Patchwork soon.

What was the Temple of the Fallen, anyway? Of course, he didn't trust anyone upon first meeting or hearing about them, so he was almost just as wary of the Temple of the Fallen as he was of the undead child in his company, but he couldn't resist the idea of a nice reward if they would really give him one. If only he could find out any information about who those people were.

 

[StarryKnights]

Hm, that was even shorter than she’d been expecting.

“It would be nice to reach this place sooner rather than later…”, she looked to the road ahead of them, wishing that they were closer to their destination.

“Perhaps we can escape the notice of these temple people in the marshlands as well, that could be helpful”.

Not knowing who was really pursuing her, and why they were doing so was driving the girl mad, as that nagging feeling that she ought to know the why behind the scenario only seemed to grow worse.

“…have you ever felt like you forgot something important?”, she asked softly, looking up to Frey.

“I’m finding it is a very…vexing condition to be in”, she looked ahead once again, frowning.

“How was it I came to be in that grave…why do I exist at all? Who is this Temple of the Fallen…why are they chasing me? Too many questions…questions I feel like I should know the answer to them”, she shook her head. “It is…aggravating”.

Despite her child appearance, Patches didn’t really speak or act like one. Soft spoken and reserved the most childish thing about her was her constant questions and somewhat curious nature.

“…I’m hoping to find some of those answers in this village, hidden away in the marshlands”, she looked to Frey once again.

“You do not have to accompany me you know…but the company is appreciated”.

 

[PhoenixMire]

"Yeah, I'd like to get to the next town soon, too. I've never been there and I don't know anything about it. A town in the wetlands... seems a bit strange." He wondered what it would be like, and felt a little bit of excitement. He'd always loved adventuring - which was why he couldn't bear to stay in the same tiny town for the rest of his life. Going out into the world to see what it offered was much more interesting.

When she asked if he ever felt like he'd forgotten something important, he looked to her with his lips slightly pursed in thought. "Hmm. Not really. Everyone has little moments where they forget what they're going to say or what they're going to do next, but your case seems... different." She had full-blown amnesia, from what she'd been telling him; that wasn't necessarily normal.

Frey simply listened and walked onward as she continued to talk. He found himself pitying her a little, if she was really telling the truth and couldn't remember anything about her life. Poor child. He cast her a quick, sidelong glance, noticing the solemn expression on her face. What would it be like for him to lose everything he knew? Would he be bothered by it, and set out to try and regain his lost memories? Or would he not care and simply move on with his adventures?

"No, I'll accompany you. I'm a traveler anyway - I go wherever I'm needed and take up odd jobs to make money." Oh no. He hesitated for a moment, wondering if he'd said too much. From his words, would she guess that he was planning to sell her off? He hoped not; what he'd said hadn't been outright suspicious, and it shouldn't reveal his inner thoughts and feelings, at least he hoped. He sent her a quick smile. "So I'll come with you to this marsh town and we'll see what we find there. And we'll avoid the Temple of the Fallen the best we can."

He pressed on, trekking across hill after hill, long green grasses swaying at his shins and flowers dancing in the breeze. The clouds ahead grew slightly heavier, but were nothing to be worried about just yet. "Are you sure you don't know anything about the Temple of the Fallen? Nothing about who they are? It would be really helpful if we knew what to avoid."

 

[StarryKnights]

It was comforting to know that she wasn’t the only one out of their depth. Frey had never been to this location either, what was located there was a complete mystery. It had to be something important, why else would she be so driven to find it? These instincts were in place for a reason and Patches saw no other option but to follow them, no matter what obstacles stood in her way.

But of course, that comfort was tempered by the fact that she was alone when it came to her fractured memories.

“I see”, she frowned. “What does a normal person do when they have these… lapses in their thought process?”.

Perhaps she could follow a similar course and regain something important, it was worth a shot at any rate.

Regardless of her memory frey was still intent on coming with her, apparently adventuring was apart of his normal routine. That would perhaps explain why he’d been out the night they’d bumped into one another, he was likely moving forward in the hopes of finding a place to rest for the night.

“That must be quite exciting, getting to travel wherever you wish…guided only by your whims and the roads ahead”.

It sounded like a dangerous but rewarding path to choose in life. Somehow, Patches felt such a patch could never be her’s.

She shook her head as he asked about the temple again. “I remember nothing specific, but I do have this awful nagging feeling that I ought too. I…I know there is something there, something important. The fact I’ve forgotten is maddening. But every part of my being tells me to avid them for now…and to find this town in the marsh. What is waiting there is also a complete mystery”.

She hoped it wouldn’t be anything too dangerous, gods forbid it could be the location of the temple for all she knew.

 

[PhoenixMire]

Frey paused to consider her question. "I'm not sure. Usually when I forget something important, I try to remember it, which... for some odd reason, makes it even harder to remember. So most of the time I'll distract myself with something else and I'll remember at some point later on." He shrugged. "But I've never had amnesia like you. I only forget minor things. I don't think my experiences can even compare."

He continued on, smiling a bit when Patchwork said that it must be nice to travel wherever he wanted. "It is," he agreed with a nod. "But it has plenty of downsides." Not that he wanted to talk about those downsides. That was too personal. Wandering all over the place and never staying in one place for too long sometimes felt incredibly lonely - he didn't have any friends he trusted. There was no such thing as "home". Sure, if he wanted to he could return to the town he'd grown up in, but it didn't feel like home anymore. It had been so long... whenever he thought of his hometown, it felt distant and foreign now.

He realized he'd been caught up in his thoughts, and was only broken from them when the girl started talking again. He gave her a sidelong glance as she spoke. "Yeah, it's a mystery to me too, Patch. We can only hope we'll find something useful in that town - and not anyone from the Temple of the Fallen." That last part was a bit of a lie. He still wanted to find these people and ask them about the reward on the undead child's head.

They wandered on for quite a while. As the clouds started to clear up and the sun stopped its climb into the sky and slowly began to descend, Frey figured it was time to stop for a rest. His legs ached and his stomach growled. He merely sat down on the crest of a grassy hill, enjoying the feeling of the breeze tousling his black hair. He produced some jerky and dried fruit from his satchel, polished it off fairly quickly, then took a few swigs of water and stood up again.

It had only been a momentary interruption. Soon he was off again, descending a hill only to climb another, the same process that he'd been repeating through the entire morning. Despite the beautiful scenery around him, he was growing tired of the hilly terrain.

Eventually the landscape evened out. Hills grew less frequent, and as the sun sank into the horizon, painting the blue sky with golds and reds, the stretch ahead of them was almost entirely flat. The marsh was much closer now; in fact, it would only take a few minutes' worth of walking to reach its edge. Frey stopped with a sigh. "I think we should rest for the night and continue in the morning."

 

[StarryKnights]

Trying to remember something only made it harder to remember? That seemed like strange logic, but Frey had more experience in the matter than she did. Though they did point out that nothing they’d forgotten rivaled the memory loss plaguing Patches, but it was all she had to go off.

“Perhaps if I stop focusing on it so much, the memories will return more…naturally”.

It seemed like a poor solution, but it was better than dwelling on these cursed blank spots tormenting her. She wasn’t sure what else she ought to focus on then. The scene around them was beautiful, but such things didn’t matter much to Patches.

Beauty, ad desirable as a trait as it was, served little purpose to someone who was undead. Focusing on their destination only served to make her think on what was awaiting them there, and how she ought to know what it was.

Everything seemed to loop back to her missing memories.

“…Not focusing on it might prove to be impossible”, she muttered with a frown.

She followed after Frey, pondering the best way to coax her memories to return, she was so lost in thought that she didn’t notice as it started to get dark.

Frey took a seat atop one of the grassy hills, signaling that this was where they would stop for the night.

Patches plopped into the grass across from him.

“As you wish”, she looked toward the marsh, they were close now. Even if they stopped and rest for the night, Patches held little doubt that they would reach the marsh by tomorrow. Hopefully by tomorrow evening, they would reach the town.
Given she didn’t tire or require sleep, she figured she could keep watch while Frey rested.

“If you require rest, I can keep watch”.

 

[PhoenixMire]

Frey nodded when she said she could keep watch. His legs protested from all the traveling up and down hills he'd been doing through the day, so he was tired, and glad to sleep while she kept an eye on their surroundings. In his exhaustion he almost entirely forgot that he didn't trust her. He set to work laying out a few blankets, since that was all he could be bothered to do, and he wrapped himself up in them.

"Make sure to wake me if you see anything suspicious," he said - then quickly drifted off to sleep.

The night must have passed uneventfully, because Frey awoke in the morning almost undisturbed - save for the chirping of birds. He groaned and made himself get up, no matter how much he didn't want to, and tucked away his blankets into his satchel. "So I trust nothing happened, Patch," he said as he pulled his rations out of his bag. "Let's go. We can walk while I eat." They were so close to the wetlands, after all...

With a sigh, Frey gnawed on a bit of jerky as he set off across the field and toward the edge of the marsh.

It didn't take too long to reach. The flat wetlands stretched on for quite a distance; patches of water dotted the ground for as far as the eye could see. The landscape was only occasionally interrupted by long grasses or a scraggly tree, making the place feel lonely and even slightly alien. Gray clouds scudded across the sky and cast a dull sort of shadow on the earth beneath them.

With every step Frey took, mud stuck to his boots and made it hard to walk. He narrowed his eyes and frowned at the inconvenience. The marsh had no defined path, at least not that he could see. Occasionally there would be stretches of muddy dirt marked by tracks of some kind, most likely animal tracks, but there was no trail.

He stopped at some point to shield his eyes with a hand and squint into the distance. The landscape was so flat that he thought it would have been easy to see the marsh town in the distance, but he saw nothing. Maybe it was being obscured by that little copse of trees afar off. It would take a while to reach it. He heaved a long sigh and wondered how long it would take to traverse this place, and how in the world he'd manage to get any sleep in an area like this. Where would he set up his blankets at night? They'd be caked with mud wherever he put them!

Maybe if he made good time, he'd be able to make it out of these wetlands before nightfall... It was still somewhat early in the morning, so he hoped they could make it to drier ground if they hurried.

image credit​

 

[StarryKnights]

Patchwork settled in to keep watch as Frey fell asleep. With nothing else to do the girl balanced keeping an eye on their surroundings with picking at the stitches in her arms and hands.

Doing so felt somewhat unpleasant, Patches wondered if that was what pain felt like.

The night passed rather quickly, Frey awoke early to the sound of chirping birds. Patches nodded when he asked if things had gone smoothly.

Nothing of note had happened, of course if something had she would’ve woken Frey immediately. The naimar fished his breakfast from his pack and the two set to walking once again. They were so close to the edge of the marshland that it didn’t take long before they crossed over.

The lush forest gave way to a muddy, wet and all-around drab looking marshland. Each step she took caked more mud onto her feet, given she’d been wearing thin black flats her feet were soon caked brown.

Patches didn’t complain though, even though the extra weight slowed her down a bit. Frey wasn’t complaining, so she wouldn’t either. There wasn’t any clear path through the swamp, no roads or signs to follow.

There were some animal tracks, suggesting that some things did call this marsh home, but no signs of human life.

Still, Patches trucked forward, driven by this unspoken instinct to find the supposed town at toward the center of the swamp.

“This way”, Patches pointed off to the left and set off that way, assuming that Frey would follow suit. Given how early it was Patches had little doubt they could find the town that day. She hoped they would, so Frey wouldn’t have to set up his blankets in the mud.

The marsh was home to a plethora of insects, most of which ignored the undead child, her lack of flowing blood made her an unappetizing meal to the mosquitoes and flies.

She barely noticed the swarm that followed the pair, as Frey was a four-course buffet as far as the insects were concerned.

_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+
​

The day was quickly passing, and they didn’t seem to be getting any closer to their destination. As the day moved forward and evening approached Patches began to worry that she’d lead Frey on a wild goose chase.

If they didn’t find anything the naimar would likely be angry, rightfully so. The sun was beginning to set, and Patches was covered in mud.

Her limbs felt as though they had an extra five to ten pounds on them, and each step took a considerable amount of effort. She began to wonder if this washed out feeling was what it was like to feel tired. She could feel the treads straining in her legs to hold her together.

“Frey…it would see that”, the girl began, but stopped short as she suddenly sank about three inches.

She’d stepped into water, that went up to her waist. It was so dark she hadn’t even noticed the shallow body of water stretched out before them. There was an old wooden bridge to her left, and it lead to a ramshackle old house.

Patches blinked.

“…That we’ve found something…”, she looked to the naimar, her eyes shone with a light that had never been there before. It almost looked like excitement.

Patches pushed forward, sloshing through the muddy water until she made it to the structure. It didn’t appear anyone had been here for some time, but just seeing it lit a spark in the girl.

Reaching out to touch the rotten wood she frowned. This place felt so familiar…yet something was wrong. It shouldn’t have looked like this…

 

[PhoenixMire]

Frey followed the undead girl for a very long time. The day stretched on, and so did the marsh. He began to worry that they’d never find anything at this rate. With a frown, he pulled out his map and tried to figure out where they were and how close the village was, but it was no use. The wetlands were large and featureless, and he couldn’t tell where he was.

Not good. What if they got lost and couldn’t find their way forward? He cast a glance back, but couldn’t see the hilly terrain they’d traversed yesterday. Which meant that they couldn’t even use the hills to get their bearings.

Anxiously biting his lip, Frey tucked the map away and kept following Patchwork. He didn’t know what to do. Obviously he still didn’t trust the girl, and wasn’t sure how long he should be letting her lead him around. He was beginning to change his mind on selling her to the Temple of the Fallen; all he wanted now was to abandon the girl and leave this accursed marsh, then return to traveling on his own like he was used to doing.

Bugs swarmed him as they walked. He swatted them away, but they persistently followed him. He was getting beyond frustrated with this. The day was far enough along that he wouldn’t be able to retrace his steps and return to the hills, but tomorrow, he determined to give this up and leave Patchwork behind, and he’d set off for the town they’d most recently stayed in. After that... well, he’d find some work somehow.

But then the child stopped and pointed something out. Frey noticed it too - a rundown house. His brows furrowed. He walked around it, investigating it as he went, then passed between a line of scraggly trees off to its side.

His eyes widened. There beyond the trees stood an entire town that seemed like it had all fallen into ruin. “What is this?” he wondered aloud. What had happened to the town?

 

[StarryKnights]

Patches paid no mind to the rest of the town, which was in a similar state of disarray. The warped water-logged wood that comprised most of the buildings was weak and caving in on itself.

There was deep black scorch like marks on some of these buildings, and the rot of the wood seemed to extend from these marks. There was no sign of life anywhere, not even the wild animals dared to step foot in this place. The air was oddly still and stagnant, with an unpleasant putrid smell.

If Patches could smell it would’ve made her crinkle her nose.

The girl seemed transfixed with the rotten structure that she’d stumbled across, it stood apart from the rest of the small city.

Cautiously, she climbed up the steps, causing them to groan in complaint. The main door was slanted forward so patches had to duck under it to step inside.

Here, the rotten smell was stronger, not that she noticed. It almost looked like a place of worship, there were warped wooden benches on either side of a narrow aisle. She walked down this aisle, toward the small alter at the far end of the room.

There was once a prominent stature located upon the cracked stone table, but it had been melted down, leaving only a mangled silver base, marred with the black scorch marks which covered the buildings.

Reaching out, her fingers brushed this warped metal, a deep frown knitted on her face.

“This isn’t right”, she mumbled aloud.

Meanwhile, outside the structure, Frey might spot a fleeting figure moving through the back of the town.

 

[PhoenixMire]

What had ruined this village? It looked... burned. But it didn’t look like it had been ravaged by a terrible fire - no, it seemed as though something had merely scorched a few parts of the village, but not the entire thing.

... Fire magic, maybe?

But who would want to destroy this place? It looked small and mostly unassuming, like there had never been much here. It was simply a tiny village in the marsh. What motive would someone have for ruining this place and driving out its inhabitants?

Frey lightly wrinkled his nose at the odd stench that hung in the air the further he walked. He didn’t know what that smell was, but he didn’t like it. Something very wrong had happened here. A feeling of dread sat in his stomach like a heavy stone, and he kept sending nervous glances over his shoulder, as if expecting to see someone following him. The atmosphere in this place was just so inexplicably... wrong.

Then he saw a shadow pass between buildings at the edge of the village. He blinked. And a couple seconds later, there it was again. It was fleeting and he could make out no details about the silhouette, but it was tall - much taller than Patchwork - so it couldn’t have been her. Should he approach the figure? It was the only sign of life he’d seen all this time. In fact, he realized belatedly that even the bugs had stopped bothering him as soon as he’d entered the ruins.

Frey rushed toward where he’d seen the silhouette. Something inside him made him feel wary and somewhat nervous to approach, but his curiosity got the better of him. “Hey,” he called when he caught a quick glimpse of the fleeing figure once more. “Wait! Who are you?”

 

[StarryKnights]

The silhouette remained ahead of Frey, but stopped short when he called out to it.

For a moment the figure remained frozen in place, but then they moved again, this time toward Frey. It disappeared behind a forgotten building.

“You there…are you…sane?”, a soft voice called out from behind the house.

A shrouded face peeked around the structure and peered at Frey before stepped out into view.

It was a young woman, maybe in her mid-twenties. She wore a dark cloak over a black dress, she almost looked like she was dressed for a funeral. As she pulled down her hood, she revealed her ash blonde hair which was pulled back in a braided bun.

Her eyes were a pale shade of red that was quite striking. She regarded Frey from afar for a moment before beckoning him closer.

“You seem to have your facilities about you, but why are you here?”, she asked quietly.

 

[PhoenixMire]

What? Why were they asking if he was sane? What kind of question was that? He frowned as the figure stepped into view, dressed as if for a funeral. What was she doing here?

Frey slightly cocked his head to the side. “Oh, you know, just wandering,” he said vaguely, and with a slight - and forced - smile. “Saw this town on the map and hoped it would be a good place to stop for the night. But...” His smile dropped. “It’s all in ruins. Wasn’t expecting that.”

He hesitated, eyeing the stranger suspiciously. “Why are you here? Who are you?”

Frey was ready to bolt if anything happened. He would run back the way he’d come, grab the kid, and go. Where? He didn’t know... but if this strange woman tried to attack him, getting out would be the priority. He could figure out where to go after that. Of course, he had confidence in his strength, and knew he could easily win a battle like that, but he wasn’t too good at defending himself against magical attacks. If it came down to a battle of magic, he’d rather flee.

So he remained ready to run, unsure of what this stranger would do - but he remained in a casual stance with a somewhat bored look on his face, successfully hiding his feelings of suspicion.

 

[StarryKnights]

The woman looked around them and sighed.

“…You came to the wrong place. This village…it was ravaged by a terrible, terrible plague. The sickness rotted the mind and made previously normal and healthy individuals run mad”.

She shook her head. “The poor citizens…they…they were all infected and none survived in spite of our best efforts. We had to burn the bodies as well…in an attempt to prevent the sickness from spreading”, she looked back to Frey.

“My name is Emmie…I am a follower of the Temple…”, she flashed a small smile. “Now tell me stranger, who are you?”.

 

[PhoenixMire]

Frey couldn’t help a deep frown at her words. A horrible sickness? He looked away, more concerned now than before. Would he contract the illness just by being here?

His eyes widened when she said was from the Temple. “The Temple of the Fallen?” he asked hesitantly, still eyeing her suspiciously. If she was actually from the Temple of the Fallen, he had plenty of questions to ask her - such as what their purpose was, who Patchwork was, and... how much they’d pay for her.

But of course he knew nothing about these Temple of the Fallen people. Were they a group he should be suspicious of? He wasn’t the type to trust anyone so easily, but could he at least trust them when it came to selling the undead child to them? He wondered how much he should say and how much he should ask.

 

[StarryKnights]

Emmie blinked. “Yes, The Temple of the Fallen, we serve Our Lady dutifully…caring for the ailing and ensuring a peaceful pass on”.

She sighed. “We had hoped to help these people…but things were already too far along…the rot had settled in, it’s even spread to the buildings themselves now…”.

She frowned. “All thanks to that…well, I won’t bore you with the worries of my people. If you value your health, you ought to leave this place. Tell others to avoid it as well”.

She turned away from the naimar and pulled her hood back up. “Well then stranger, I bid thee farewell”.