Fantasy Cursed Island

[Darkling0096]

"I remember that voice," Jalin squinted around his blindfold, "That little golem creature your mother had?"

"That's our crazy aunt... sister," Turacc looked away and realized he didn't really know what role Shuffle filled in the family. Sometimes she was an older sister, other times the crazy relative.

 

[Fangs9090]

"Shuffle is hard to describe." Roy shook his head. Sometimes she seemed more like the family pet. "But yes, she's here. Somehow."

"I followed you."

"How? Turac froze you in the lake."

Shuffle nodded. "I melted my way to the dirt and dug my way out. Then I just tracked you."

 

[Darkling0096]

"Across an ocean?", Turac crossed his arms, "There's no way you followed me, I was in the saltwater within hours of freezing you. Even you couldn't escape that glacier in an hour!" Then he paused, and grabbed Shuffle by the shoulders, "You better not have left a tunnel right to my hoard!"

 

[Fangs9090]

Shuffle put her ears back. “I didn’t see your hoard, I was by the surface! I don’t know how long it took to get out, but your trail was still there so I followed and saw the boat everyone go on. Then I just held onto the side.”

 

[Darkling0096]

"Bull! I froze that lake the second I saw you at the bottom!"

"Turac," Jalin put his hand on Turac's shoulder, "We are an ocean away. The best that can be done is to implore your family patch the hole." He shook his head and looked to Shuffle, "How were you able to dispose of the mounds?"

 

[Fangs9090]

“Acid. Acid cloak, specifically.”

Roy nodded. “That does seem effective against most things.” He paused. “I think I have a bomb for that, actually...”

 

[Darkling0096]

Jalin looked confused at that, "You are a strange creature..." He wondered what kind of properties her blood had to resist poisoning like that... it could be rather potent for hemomanctic ritual spells.

 

[Fangs9090]

"I got the acid ability from Urodor's blood, and I got the cloak ability from salamander blood, which I found in my maker's satchel."

Roy looked at her. "Which reminds me. Where is your satchel? And your weapons. And your clothes..."

"I left it in my bag of holding nearby."

 

[Darkling0096]

"She is naked?", Jalin raised an eyebrow.

"She's kinda hard to keep clothed," Turac sighed, "She's worse than Siege about breaking things." He let go of Shuffle, "Do mom and dad know you're here?"

 

[Fangs9090]

Roy glanced at Jalin. "At least her fur keeps her decent, to some extent..."

Shuffle looked at Turac for a moment before putting her ears back. "Ah... I forgot to tell them."

 

[Darkling0096]

Jalin sighed, "Your family is strange..." He sighed and walked over to the ice crystal containing the other mound, putting his hand to id to do some exploring with his blood.

Turac blinked, "Oh, gods." Now they'd have to tell Jerry and Asta that Shuffle was with them... "How'd you get rid of the piece of Poli?"

 

[Fangs9090]

Shuffle blinked before looking at her wrist. "...Poli's gone!"

Roy put a hand to his forehead. "Gods dammit, Shuffle... You probably put them in your bag of holding then... Or that piece got too far from the main and fell off when you weren't paying attention."

 

[Darkling0096]

The idea of a loose awakened mimic was not a good one. Turac groaned, "Alright, Shuffle, come here," he led Shuffle over to the encased mound.

"This thing is strange," Jalin frowned, "It feels almost familiar... like..." Like the kind of living plant he'd felt on Veo those years ago, but he couldn't place it. "It is controlled, but... not..."

"You can dissect it later," Turac shook his head, "Shuffle, kill it."

 

[Fangs9090]

Shuffle walked over with Turac. Upon receiving the command, she dropped to all fours, acid clouds coming from her salamander marks before her full cloak activated. She charged in, boring through the ice to the creature within.

 

[Darkling0096]

Being frozen solid, the mound didn't stand much of a chance against Shuffle's acid.

Turning to look at the attacked village, Turac focused his attention elsewhere while the beast died. "So... what just happened?"

 

[Fangs9090]

Roy looked over as well. "We'll have to ask the villagers about that."

Most of the villagers were still hiding, some peeking out now that things had gone quiet.

While they were taking stock of the surroundings, Emilia had dismissed her summons, and Nidia was checking on Siege to make sure she was alright.

 

[Darkling0096]

Siege seemed alright, just out cold. Her helm had done its job and protected her head.

"Hello?", Turac called to the villagers, "How'd you get a bunch of plant monsters attacking you?"

 

[Fangs9090]

There was a few moments of silence before one of the villagers stepped out to speak up. "We don't know. They just showed up out of nowhere."

Another one spoke up, reassured a bit by the first one. "Thank you for coming to our aid. We would have lost a lot more people if not for you."

 

[Darkling0096]

"We were in the area," Turac smiled and put Roy up front, he wasn't good with people, and they had a horse and a Shuffle to pull up. They'd need to take a break after that fight to recover, figure out what on earth Shuffle was doing there, and get everyone on the same page about what they were doing.

 

[Fangs9090]

The villager nodded. "We are in your debt. Please, stay and rest a while."

Roy dipped his head. "Thank you. We could use it after that."

 

[Darkling0096]

"If...", Jalin tapped his cane to get a sense of the town, wincing at the destruction the mounds had caused, "Are you certain you can house us? Your town looks like it could use repairs."

 

[Fangs9090]

"Yes, we do need to repair the buildings on this side. But we do have a small tavern where you can rest."

"It's not much, but you can at least get off your feet and have a meal."

 

[Darkling0096]

"I see," Jalin looked back to the cart, "Do you perhaps have a stable we can put up our horse in?"

"I don't think they got to the barn," one of the villagers offered, "We can put your mare up in there."

 

[Fangs9090]

Roy nodded. "Thank you."

"Thank you. You've saved our lives. We can't ever thank you enough."

"But we'll sure try!"

 

[Darkling0096]

Turac decided not to comment on how oddly eager to please that sounded as he got back in the driver's seat, "How's Siege, Nidia?"