Mingrui watched over Charon's sermon carefully under Amanises's concealment, feeling as if he leaves this guy alone for too long their new worshippers might start doing ritual sacrifices. But he had to admit Charon did quite a good job, aside from his fanatic expression and a bit of a childish attitude he did quite well all things considered
He huffed when he realized instead of sitting here, he could have gone with Amanises. But she had already disappeared with the hunting party.
Yesterday, she had realized without a clear border , the hunting party might pass through the edge unknowingly. Getting themselves caught up in the jaws of some monster.
That aside his attention focused back on his environment. His tail wagged unhappily, he can barely see Charon from even this high up. And he was already sitting on one of the taller rocks for height, surely the curse of being so tiny.
He sat there for a few more minutes before huffingly catching a ride on a cart passing by by jumping on top from his vantage point. He plopped on to a soft cushion of fluff. It was probably being sent to a seamstress to be turned into yarn and later cloth.
He paused, pushing his paws up and down to test the texture. He did not know this village produced such products. Was it from a plant? Curious he spotted a cart heading the same way where the previous one came from and with a little start he was able to jump jnto the other one.
As the cart was empty, the landing was quite heavy for Mingrui, who had to roll a few times to stop the momentum. He stumbled to the edge and peered his head out to observe the scenery passing by.
---
Amanises stalked behind the hunting Group of sixteen, her figure unseen by the others. In this day and age where even the most common beasts were large and imposing it had to be at least this size to bring something back home.
Her gaze wandered the 'forest'. The red light shone past dark silhouettes of dry twisting trees and the ground was filled with dark grass like foliage. They passed a large ruin and with her keen vision, she could easily see the marking left there without having to touch it like the others.
Although she still held worry for the gathering group, she was much more worried about this group that had to move farther in the forest. She hopes that soon enough they could develop agriculture here and make sure the contact with the outside world remained minimal as possible. After all she was pretty sure her 'siblings' still stalked the area pretty close considering their giant wolf forms.
A flicker of a shadow passed her periphery and with a quick turn of her head she catches the sight of a rabbit. Or well what resembled a rabbit anyway. It had too many eyes ans horns to be considered a rabbit. It didn't matter much in the end, the prey was too small yet too fast to be a worthwhile endeavor.
Finally after passing by many animals, the hunting party seemed to have found a suitable prey and they readied themselves. Few men climbed the twisted trees, finding a perch to draw their bows from, some got out a shield like item with long sturdy spikes taking a closer look it seemed to be actually a shell from a monster, and the others drew long spears from their backs.
The deer like thing did not seemed to notice them yet, focusing a bit the archers shot an arrow in front of the deer. It suddenly startled from the noise in front of it, quickly scrambling back, unknowingly right into the awaiting hunters.
Four shield bearers jumped up from their hidden spot in the foliage catching the unwilling beast, pinning it between the spikes. It thrashed around, struggling amongst the spikes, it did not penetrate its flesh but it still held it in place, it could not move its limbs freely, even it's grotesque long neck and antlers could not reach the bearers from its position. It started this almost wailing sound. So unlike a human but so much closer than comfortable.
Taking this opportunity, the long spear men quickly used their weapons to end its mesirable life. As the blood seeped to the ground , a strong odor escaped it.
The hunt leader quickly inspected the corpse, he cut it open with a knife at the chest, and with his bare hands he reached in creating various squishing and squelching noises. Finally he seemed relieved.
"No parasites and no traces of it either." just as they were about to cheer a guttural growl started, causing them to take on a fighting stance.
As it walked into the crimson light, it's form revealed itself. It was a bear, but not a bear. Everything was a little wrong with it. It's head was too small, it's eyes were too big, it had a disgustingly numerous amount of teeth. Amanises hated it already. It must have been wandering inside the zone for a long time.
it reared itself up on its hind legs, ready for s confrontation. Amanises silently looked towards the group, looking at their reaction. Would they be anxious, scared, or maybe even confident?
She saw pure determination and sadness, they were ready to die and some of them showed the resolution to sacrifice their fellow teammates to get the news of such a beast back to the village. She could not just watch anymore, and she moved in to help.
---
Alvin stared up at the humongous bear, it's body was crackling under the pressure. Not too uncommon in beasts, after all not every mutation they gained was helpful for them.
His feet stilled on the ground, every instinct in him telling him to run. His hands were drenched in sweat, and the grip on his spear almost slipped.
He knew his duty, he should run. Run with his group to warn the others. That's how they did it. Quarter would be sacrificed and the rest would run.
Then they would avoid this place for the next five hunts. That's what they did. That's how it has always been.
He let out a sigh of defeat, readying his body for a sprint when the darkness within the forest came alive. The bear stalled. He did not care for what stopped it, quickly burning ths built up tension to propell himself In the other direction.
He ran with a few other companions. But then he realized there were not enough footsteps behind him. Why were there so many stopping? Was there an incident?
Against his better judgment he turned around without his own input, just to see what kind of thing took the fleeing down.
From the liquid darkness, a beautiful pale hands reached out gently, almost embracing the disgusting body of the bear. The world around them stilled, the quiet chirping and clicking disappeared. In any other situation they would already be on the ground, prone to make themselves look worthless to whatever that came their way.
But they didn't
They couldn't help but stare at them.
It didn't even take a second. One moment they were gently holding the beast as if it was the most important thing in the world, then next the bear was already torn into multiple tiny pieces of flesh.
The first thing to fall was the blood, crimson red blood starting to drip like candle wax before quickly changing into a torrent of blood and guts. Pieces of unknown organs plopped down with a disgusting wet sound.
Alvin would have started running already but he did not. Like deer stuck in front of an arrow, he stood still, his body did not follow his commands. Out of his periphery vision he could see one of his teammates fall to the ground. Alvin's head turned with a sharp turn, afraid that it did not stop at the bear. But he only saw the man kneeling on the rough ground, his hands above his head. He was praying.
Mindlessly he followed suit, dropping to his knees, uncaring if this would put him at a disadvantage in both fleeing and fighting.
Only one thing came to his mind.
Is this. . . is this the so called pale lady?
---
Mingrui jumped off the cart. His feet carefully landing on the soft soil with the grace of a cat. Something he had thankfully learnt after having to jump out of Amanises's arms million times already.
His gaze turned to the scenery around him. Attempting to find the location of the fields. Since they took this village as their own, he really wanted to see what the current situation was like. It seemed like most of the food came from hunting, supplemented by some gathering.
But if they could grow cotton plants, couldn't they also grow some grains? If that wasn't possible, maybe potatoes? He had heard once those could grow pretty much anywhere.
Though looking at the eternally dark sky it just might be because there was no sun at all. Mingrui wondered to himself, what kind of twisted food chain existed in this place.
He found few sturdy looking stone fences in the distance, decided to go towards it. If there were anything here it would be there.
Finally as he got closer, a paddock came into view. Bunch of giant yaks were grazing on a field of black grass. And they were surprisingly normal looking, if Mingrui just ignored a few aspects he might as well. . . Who was he kidding, even if the animal generally looked normal, the environment was definitely not.
He laboriously climbed the fence and mindlessly jumped on top of a passing yak. It was sturdy and large. He kneaded the fur again. It was the same texture as the fluff in the cart.
It was quite a weird feeling. Kinda synthetic, but also not? And it was much too airy and thin to be normal animal fur too. The fibers were more like a human's hair than any other animal. Maybe that's why, all the clothing and cloth were quite smooth and soft despite the general quality of life here
It would be nice to get a pillow with this material.
He dropped down from the Yak he was riding, but having misjudged his landing he stumbled a few steps forward. He got off embarrassed thankful that with Amanises's concealment no one was going to see their god stumbling like that.
He turned to face the direction where he came from, deciding to find an another cart to get him home. And he was met face to face with a yak.
Finally from this angle he could truly see what was wrong with it. Human teeth. Normal sized human teeth in their mouths, the tiny molars filling the mouth with numerous amounts of it row after row.
From his perspective it looked like it was smiling at him.
He ran as if his life depended on it
---
March 4th
Festival of Hope
Festival of Hope
The day that the younger brother was born. Every year on this day, in winter country where the Cathedral of Serenity is located, a giant parade and a feast takes place.
It's a beautiful ordeal really. One that every believer of the sibling gods should see once in their life.
In Mythos this festival used to take place wherever the faith in the sibling gods was celebrated. But sometime after the dark century, it had changed to be celebrated only in the Amantha Mountain Range.
Most scholars agree that since this happened just after the dark century, where no documentation had been found from, what most likely happened was a great restructuring of the church's internal governance which probably caused the Amanises followed the hunting team back to the town. They seemed quite panicked, not even bothering to skin the beasts. Just leaving the corpses be.
Did she overdo it? She could've just slashed it down, whether by her abilities or claws it did not really matter since the disgusting little thing was quite weak. But she was a little afraid that they would link her to the cruelty of her siblings.
She sighed, they barely knew them. If they were to associate them with the mad gods rummaging outside, she was a little afraid that some people might do something little drastic. Their newly formed religion was so fragile she was quite worried a small shock like that would completely destroy the budding trust the villagers had placed in them.
The hunting party barreled out of the tree line, barely holding their equipment. Seeing as they were probably going to be fine. She pulled Charon into a dream.
---
Charon sat on the broken altar, quietly revising the first draft of the holy scriptures. He had to make it perfect, after all it was an offering to the gods. How could it be anything but perfect.
The once holy place filled with candles were cleared out, and was covered in pages and pages of black and tan animal hide papers. At this point he had even stopped caring about how much paper he had already wasted. The ground was already covered with them, and it would not be too embarrassing to not know that the original floor was nothing but packed dirt.
But besides that Charon had only been the blessed for what? A few days and he already was so lost on what to do that he might as well just go back to the village chief, say sorry and give back the authority.
The best thing he thought to do now was to create a holy scripture. If he could organize down all the rules and commandments. . .
His hands found themselves in his hair, the gods have not sent down their holy commandments yet. And although he was literate, he was barely so. He just could not find the right words to describe the majesty of the gods. To write down the rules that the people would worship as the divine law.
He leaned back, closing eyes in thought.
But when he opened his eyes again he found himself In the divine field of flowers again. His was hit with the smell of rain and flowers, and the air itself felt fresh.
He quickly swirled around attempting to find that figure again.
In the distance, he saw a woman. He could not see her clearly her figure coveted in shadows that logically should not have fallen there. Behind here floated the silver halo he had seen before, glowing in it's mystical unnatural way.
But even so none of the light ever fell on the woman and she only remained a silhouette he couldn't quite grasp.
His eyes naturally drifted to one of her hands which held a severed head belonging to a fearsome beast, she stood there unmoving. Soon as his eyes met the head, she nodded. Confirming something that he just couldn't grasp.
The world around him collapsed and the silver halo became bigger and bigger. Completely enveloping him. He closed his eyes in the face of this light and then he opened his eyes.
He was back in that broken little altar again.
He blinked a few times before devoutly lowering his head.
"Praise be thee lady. I have received thee oracle"
He stood up but his legs were already shaking uncontrollably. What was that? What did it mean?
Was it a punishment or a prophecy. Was he meant to go find the beast and slay it. He stumbled out of the little tents shaking on his feet.
Uncaring about the scrolls of drafts he left behind. Just as he was about to shout to get one of his closest followers, he saw a group of shadows moving quickly towards them.
It was the hunting crew. Was the goddess's oracle related to this?
This?
He quickly ran over, his head pounding with questions he might never see the answers to. He pushed through the strong men and women of the village and finally see the people coming from the forest. They were all heavily breathing as if they had just ran the entire way here from their hunting grounds.
"What happened!" His voice was breathy and heavy from running all the way here but still and melodic. Using the same cadence his mother tribe used to use.
The quick and panicked voices overlapping with each other was incomprehensible to him. He screamed his usually quiet voice straining to be overheard by the crowd.
"What happened?"
"I-" the old captain suddenly stopped in his tracks, he looked back. Back into the forest his eyes scanning the surrounding deformed trees. Then a look of realization fell on his face.
"I- what have I done?" everyone took a step back, their gazes also following to the tree line. Nothing appeared, not even a hint of a shadow.
"I- I know it followed us. Surely it had to have followed us. I feel it's gaze. I felt it's gaze" the man fell apart "I dragged in with me a terrible beast. I should have led my men out of the valley, not bring it here to our children and wives. I am so sorry my-" Charon raised his hand, stopping the old captain from continuing. Motioning to one of the calmer hunters to continue the story.
"We- we accidentally walked into the territory of a terrible beast. It was a bear. It almost killed us but then, then a pair of pale white hands appeared. It killed it. The bear wasn't even able to struggle. . . "
If he was right. . .
"If I'm right, then. . . You did nothing wrong Mister Jones. You did nothing wrong. It was not a terrible thing as you claim that saved you. It was the goddess" he raised both his arms, his tone of speech subtly shifting back into a preacher without his input.
"I was imparted an oracle. 'She' held the head of a beast. Of a bear" this finally calmed down the old weary captain, letting him finally collapse into a weary relieved heap on the ground. Almost everyone in the hunting group did so, finally letting go of the fear and anxiety that kept them up and moving.
He thought it over at the moment. "She" did not give him any other message than the beast. Surely a goddess wouldn't impart an oracle just to signify that "She" had shown her blessing. Maybe, maybe it was more of a command. That they were to sacrifice the beast.
He did not even need to think twice, he picked up a spear and pointed at one of the hunters.
"Tell me where you left that thing . We need to sacrifice it to the sibling gods. It is by ''Their'' oracle"
---
One moment he was back in the paddocks then he found his tiny feet taking him somewhere. Anywhere other than this. He does not really know how long he had ran but he only stopped when he as picked up by Amanises.
Still running on his adrenaline, he trembled, trying to snuggle a little closer. A warm hand started rhythmically stroking his body.
"What happened?" His nostrils were filled with the unmistakable odor of blood. He jumped in fright, trying to focus on it.
Seeing Mingrui panicking and squirming in her arms, Amanesis put Mingrui down on the ground for him to write.
[Are you okay?? You smell bloody] Amanises blinked
"Yes?" Amanises took a minute to smell herself, she was absolutely drenched in the smell of blood. She hadn't had the time to clean herself yet.
[What happened?]
"Something tried to hurt the hunters. And I went and killed it, that's all. What about you?" Seeing the panic Mingrui was under, Amanises's hand slowly went through his fur in an effort to calm him.
[I thought there were livestock but it was monsters. Why are there monsters in the village? it was] before he could finish Amanises brought him back up from the ground.
"I- I'm sorry. It's my fault, I haven't really told you about how the outside world is right? You've only seen glimpses of it" Taking the little thing in her hand, she walked towards a little more isolated area, unconsciously taking Mingrui closer into her arms.
"This world . . . is not like the one we left. It is filled with madness and monsters"
"I should have told you this before. I- I guess this just didn't cross my mind."
---
A man stood by a church of the evernight siblings. He had curly black hair, broad forehead and a singular lens on his right eye. He did nothing but stand there, if anyone was there who was able to perceive him, they would have noticed that the man had not moved for days at this point.
After days of standing like this his gaze moved upwards, up into an unimaginable height. He smiled, the corners of his lips raising an uncomfortable amount.
"Evernight . . . I just wish to meet with my friend. No need to get so defensive"
His figure disappeared, his outline become transparent as if he was being erased by an eraser. The crows that had gathered around crowed, their hackling noises becoming a horrible symphony.
Then
Everything
Returned to their normalcy.
Notes: