Inverted Paths

Well, I've finally decided on what the third story will be about! This follows after the events of Departure and The Mines, so it'll be pretty confusing if you don't read those first.



Prologue:

The sun finally began to rise over the valley, casting light down upon the trees. The sound of birds chirping signaled that the break of dawn had finally come. Near a forest-side lake, two nagas were leaning over another one, examining his limp body in the sunlight.

“How long has it been now?” Alyssa asked. She glanced down at Zinverinth, who was still in a comatose state.

“About a month, give or take a few days.” Salvyrn replied, sighing lightly. “It’s pretty bad.”

“He’s not going to die, is he?”

“I don’t think so… I’m sure he’ll be up and about soon, just give him some more time.”

Sycniele poked her head out of their den, glancing down at the other two. Trent poked his head out shortly after to see what was going on. “Any sign of recovery?”

“No.” Salvyrn said, glancing back up. “I’m not really a doctor.”

“Jesus, it must be hellish.” She grumbled in return, carefully climbing down. Trent followed with relative ease. “Maybe there’s someone else who could help?”

It had been nearly a month after the celebration following the escape from the mines. All of the slaves had gone off on their separate ways to try to find a new place to live and spend their lives. The two dridders that helped make sure the mines wouldn’t fall under corrupt control again were trying to fix it up to make into a real mine. Things were going back to normal, but Zinverinth still seemed to be under the affects of the mine’s poison gas.

The lake water suddenly began to ripple, and soon enough Crescent rose to the surface with a big yawn. “Morning already?”

“Time flies when you laze around all day.” Sycniele mocked. Truthfully, none of them had been that active. They weren’t really looking for adventure, especially now that one of them was out of commission.

“Can’t really blame me… you guys went off on an adventure and left me behind.” The mermaid whined. Being confined to the lake was a bit of a drag. “Hey, wait, what’s that?”

All of them turned to look instantly. Not too far off was a small wagon cart, which seemed to be moving all on its own. It was probably some sort of travelling merchant.

“When there’s one, there’s several.” Sycniele mumbled. It probably wasn’t worth the hassle.

Unfortunately, Trent didn’t seem to agree, darting away from the group to go examine the strange wooden contraption. Sycniele jerked up to stop him, but was already close enough to it that the wagon stopped its movement, not wanting to run the poor creature over. “Haaaiiii!” The nagaling said happily, before sniffing at the wheels.

The door to the wagon slid open, and a blue-cloaked neko hopped out to see what was going on. He held a staff in his left hand, and glanced down at the hyperactive naga. “Can I help you at all?”

“I think that’s some kind of wizard.” Alyssa mumbled, looking him over in the distance. “Why would they come out this far? And in a merchant cart none the less?”

Trent didn’t seem to mind, moving closer to examine him. “Maaaaybe. I want a pizza.”

“I don’t have one of those.” The neko replied, leaning down to pet him gently. “I’ve got a job to do though.”

Sycniele watched them for a while, before slithering closer. “Hey! What are you doing here?”

He turned to locate where the voice came from, before getting up to walk over. He held his staff tightly, although seemed pretty relaxed. “I’m here to sell some magical goods to people who need-“

“Yeah, I really don’t give a damn, you piece of neko sh-“ Sycniele got cut off, as Salvyrn whapped her in the back of the head. She fell down, but just grumbled and kept quiet. “You know magic then?” Salvyrn asked, wondering if he could help. “We’ve got a friend that needs help.”

“I do, yeah… I’ve got to go places, but fine, I can help if it doesn’t take too long.” He followed them as they led back towards Zinverinth’s body. The neko glanced over it for a while, before crouching down. “Yeah, I can fix this easily.”

Salvyrn grinned. That wasn’t too hard. “Thanks… we’ve tried everything else.”

“It’s not too hard, I can do it quickly. That’ll be ten tetros for the transaction.”

The others glanced at each other. What the hell was a tetros? “No, you don’t understand… we just want you to fix him, and leave. We don’t have the money to pay.” Sycniele grumbled. Figures things would be harder than anticipated.

“No cash, no flash.” The wizard said simply, before getting back up. “I don’t think he’ll wake up anytime soon though, good luck keeping him alive.” He quickly turned to head back towards his cart. If they couldn’t pay, there was no reason to stay.

Salvyrn whimpered slightly. “Wait, isn’t there some other way? We don’t have any money! We need our brother back!” He was pretty desperate… he didn’t want Zinverinth to die… not after all they’d been through.

“No can do, I work for money. Gotta make a living somehow. At least you can make him comfortable before his time.”

Sycniele growled after him, before unsheathing her sword. “We’re not asking you to help, we’re telling you. Get your ass back over here!” She quickly darted after him before attempting to take a swing at his leg to stun him. Maybe amputate as well.

The neko jumped upwards quickly, over the slash, before turning around and pointing his staff in her direction. “Bad idea, snakey. Maybe this will help.” Within seconds, a green bolt shot out of the staff and into the naga, making her cringe and fall to the ground instantly.

This got the attention of the others quickly. “What did you just do!?” Salvyrn yelled, staring at her body.

“Self defense, she got too rowdy.” He replied simply. He didn’t seem to care much.

Salvyrn and Alyssa quickly moved in front of him, while Trent and Crescent made sure he wouldn’t go in the other way. “Fix her! Now! Or else! You can’t take on all of us!”

“BAD KITTY MAKE MOMMY TIRED! IT NOT BED TIME!” Trent screamed. It was a federal offense.

“Oh, fine, we’ll do it the hard way. A curse for all of you!” The neko raised the staff, before slamming the bottom of it into the ground. A large green wave of energy shot out and enveloped all four of the attackers, and in seconds, they were all unconscious, just like Sycniele. “Maybe you’ll learn not to mess with mages.” He mumbled, before casually walking back to his cart, leaving the rest of them on the ground. He figured the curse would help stop them from following after.

Just read the first part. Your story flows a lot better than it used to, great job on improving that! I think you could do a bit better antagonizing the mage, though; the way it's written, the main characters seem to have brought the curse upon themselves, and it's hard to sympathize. Maybe you could have one of them try to appeal with the mage before they turn to coercion (is that even a word?). But then again, it's not necessarily mandatory that you antagonize him. Just something to think about, I guess. Liking the story, I'll read the rest when it's up!

The Rev wrote:

Just read the first part. Your story flows a lot better than it used to, great job on improving that! I think you could do a bit better antagonizing the mage, though; the way it's written, the main characters seem to have brought the curse upon themselves, and it's hard to sympathize. Maybe you could have one of them try to appeal with the mage before they turn to coercion (is that even a word?). But then again, it's not necessarily mandatory that you antagonize him. Just something to think about, I guess. Liking the story, I'll read the rest when it's up!

He's not really 'evil' though. I mean, he's just another guy wanting to make a living, but since he was threatened, he decided to attack back. The characters see him more of an antagonist, but truthfully he's not really evil. The others were mainly trying to save Syc from whatever he did anyways, but yeah. Glad it's flowing better than before at least!

Edit: Second thought, maybe you're right. I'll try to change it slightly.

Chapter One:


It would be hours that the group was out, until Sycniele finally came to. She felt a little bit light headed, and looked around quickly. "Guys? Are you all ok?" She individually slithered to everyone else, giving them a few timid pokes to see if the rest were alright. Salvyrn would be the second to stir.

"What the heck just happened?" He groaned, getting up and brushing himself off. "What'd that cat do?"

"I don't know… I just saw a big flash and it was scary and I'm so glad you're alright!" She announced, suddenly giving him a hug. Well, this was awkward. He carefully pushed her off, before glancing at the other. Trent and Alyssa were still snoozing, but Crescent was gone. "Where'd the mermaid go?"

The water bubbled a little, before Crescent tried to rise out slowly. "Don't… look at me…" She mumbled self consciously. They both looked anyways, and recoiled at the sight. She was about as big as they were! She had shrunk! Sycniele quickly got into the water to help pull her out… Crescent didn't seem to want to be seen so small, it was humiliating! "I think that neko did something to us… or at least to me."

Salvyrn looked down at himself. "Wasn't just to you, the spell hit all of us… although I don't think it's a simple shrink spell, or else we'd all be tiny. Maybe it has varying affects?"

Crescent wiggled out onto the land, flopping about for a while like some kind of fish. "Ugh… haven't been on dry ground for so long… someone help me up!"

Sycniele delicately picked the mermaid up and slung her arm over her shoulder. "Easy does it… you'll get used to it."

Crescent slid a bit, holding onto Sycniele as if she were wearing roller skates for the first time. She didn't like this nearly as much as hanging out in her lake all the time… but she did bring it upon herself for whining about not being on any adventures.

The next one up with Alyssa, who got up a bit after the rest. "Ugh… my head hurts…" She groaned, as if she had a hangover. "Anyone see where he went?"

Salvyrn shook his head. "Nope… he just shot a spell at us, then vanished."

"He ruined my life!" Crescent whined, before slipping down onto her belly again.

"That wasn't a spell; that was a curse." Alyssa mumbled, glancing over herself as if to search for any obvious changes. Not seeing any, she sighed in relief. "In case we all did get afflicted… we'd better find a way to cure it, fast."

There was another groan, before Trent finally got up. It seemed they were all finally awake now. He frowned, before licking over his arms and tail to clean himself.

"Ok, we're all up." Alyssa stated, before looking around. They were all alone again. "Ok, first of all, we need to go find that neko… and beat the living hell out of him for cursing us." She growled. She didn't know what the curse did, but since when were curses good? At the best it would probably be something harmless, like temporary obstruction of bowel movements.

"Maybe we could just apologize and hope he forgives us?" Sycniele asked, raising her hand. The others just stared at her for a while. Eventually she shifted around awkwardly, before heading back to her den. "Be right back."

"Something's up." Salvyrn mumbled, quickly checking Zinverinth's body. It was still there, and seems pretty uninfected. "At least it could be worse."

"What about meeeeeeee!?" Crescent whined, trying to awkwardly crawl over. She was getting a bit more adjusted, but it was still pretty hard.

"You could have been turned into a mushroom." He pointed out. Crescent dwelled on that thought, before nodding. That did sound a bit more tedious. How would she move?

"Ok, so, plans?" Alyssa asked. They had to do something. "We could try to track him down, or find another way to remove the curse if we can't."

Sycniele suddenly returned, carrying several large citroise fruits. "I just wanted to make sure everyone was well fed and happy before we went off exploring!" She said happily. The others glanced worriedly at her. Maybe she had a change of heart? Odds were she didn't though.

"Give." Trent demanded, grabbing one of them and slithering away to slowly eat it. It was his now.

"I think I'm beginning to see more affects of the curse…" Alyssa murmured worriedly, watching Trent rip the fruit to shreds while Sycniele chased a butterfly. "We'd better hurry, in case it gets worse."

"So where are we going then?" Salvyrn asked, frequently looking himself over as if anticipating some sort of sudden change.

"First, let's see if we can find him… or at least someone else who knows about magic. Just keep close to me, I know good paths to avoid predators."

Trent finished mauling and devouring his fruit, before getting up and following after them. Sycniele helped guide Crescent over so that she could keep up with the rest. It was going to be a looooong journey.

"I guess we'll just follow the trail he left. As long as it's still here, it can't be too hard."

Sycniele glanced up at the others, squirming a little. "Guys… I have something I'd like to say. Something I just need to let out."

The others turned to stare, wondering what she was talking about. Sycniele glanced down shyly, before clearing her throat. And then began to sing.

"I used to worry about, my past… never thinking that it, would last… it just seemed to fly, by me, so fast… but now, I've seen the light, that shines so ever bright, and now, I forever, refuse, to fight!"

Sycniele unsheathed her sword and implanted it into the ground, before continuing.

"When life makes you blue, and you're not sure what to do, don't be sad, or resent, just be blissfully jubilant!

With all of my, blind rage, I could never flip the page… to the next, chapter, of, my life! And now that I can be happy, as blissful as I can be, I have no need, for a sword, blade, or knife!

Can't you seeeeee, what's, ahead, of yoooouuuu? And be glad your paaaaaaast is no longer following tooooo?

The rooooaaaad aheeeeaaaad! You should not dreeeeaaaad! Just start your life anew, and I promise you, completely through and through, your dreeeeaaaams, will come true!"

"Is she done?" Alyssa whispered.

"But don't you ever fear! Forever I'll still be here! Ready to help guide you, so there's nothing we can't do!

Now I know I used to be a jerk… and I barely had a perk… my mind, was clouded, with hatred and wrath! But I swear to you, the light has shown me, the path!

So there's no more need to vent! I've decided to repent! Evil, no longer, plagues my soul! I regret my past, and I have, finally, paid, my toll!"

"Syc…"

"So why would one be mad? When everyone could be glad? Just raise out your heart, towards the light! There will never again be blood, and through my body, rage will not flood, as I promise that I will, never again fight!"

"SYC!"

"So now remember this, feel only the bliss, no more vengeful Syc, the gods have heard my plight, and have shown me the light!"

"Maybe if we start running she'll stop…"

"So leave your past behind, be clear in mind, cease all war at hand, no need to reprimand, no room for remorse, just let life… take its course! I've seen the light! Shining ever bright! With all its might! Yes, oh yes, I've seen the liiiiiiiiiiiiiight!"

Sycniele concluded her song, looking back at the others with a smile. Everyone else was stunned and silent.

Salvyrn finally spoke up. "…Syc, you're not allowed to sing anymore."

"Awww…"

* * * * *

"Some…where… over, the rainbow! Way up high! There's, a, land, that-"

"Syc! Stop singing already!"

It had been roughly an hour since they had left, and things were already getting hectic. Only Crescent seemed to be doing better, starting to adapt to moving on land instead of water. She didn't move nearly as gracefully or efficiently as the others, but she still managed to go on her own. They eventually stopped their trek near the middle of the forest, stopping to rest for a while by a tree. It was getting late… when they first met that magician, it was morning. Maybe they'd been out the entire day. The trees above started to leak a bit of dew down below, until the amount of water falling began to increase.

"Looks like its raining." Alyssa mumbled, taking shelter near the base of a tree. Sure enough, the rainfall picked up heavily in only a few minutes.

"Maybe we should have just found the money to pay him… or found someone else to help. I don't even know what he did to me." Salvyrn mumbled. Other people seemed to be changing slowly… only he and Alyssa seemed to stay the same.

"It'll be fine, really. Just remember, tomorrows a new day! We'll have Zin fixed, and Crescent back to her normal size in no time." Sycniele said happily.

"Syc, you're starting to scare me." Alyssa mumbled. She seemed to have the biggest personality change.

"Someone needs a huggie!" Without consent, Sycniele gave Alyssa a nice big hug.

"As much as I think Syc's new demeanor is an improvement, it'll probably also make her less of a fighter." Salvyrn mumbled. Maybe the magician chose to make her that way on purpose. Figures that the one person that fought a lot would become more of a pacifist.

"Hopefully, we'll figure out what exactly these curses did… they didn't seem to affect everyone the same way. That probably means that each one of us will experience a different type of change, or changes."

"Was it really necessary to do all of that though? Couldn't just put us to sleep?"

"Probably a precaution so that we wouldn't be able to track him down as easily… by the time we find him, we can be completely different people."

"I want you here with me, can't you see that love, is all we need…?"

"Syc! Stop singing!"

"…Sorry…"

The five of them moved closer to huddle against the tree's trunk. Looked like they were sleeping outside tonight.

"It's alright guys… we'll get through this, I'm sure of it. There are worse curses out there… I'm sure if he really wanted to kill us, he'd have done something much worse. As long as we just hang together, we'll pull through. Just try not to let this curse overcome you. We'll get back to hunting tomorrow." Alyssa murmured, before laying against the tree and curling her tail around the others as best she could.

"Hopefully I'll get used to land travel by then." Crescent mumbled, staring at the sky. "I'm missing my lake already."

"Don't worry… it'll be fine. We just need to wait a bit longer."

The five of them quickly wrapped around each other, like some sort of cuddle puddle. After a while the only noise was the sound of thunder and rain as the night storm brewed. The valley got dimmer and dimmer until everything was dark and black, the occasional lightning strike illuminating the area.

"…Hush little baby-"

"SYC!"

Curious to see what everyone's curse is. One or two grammar errors but otherwise fine.

Errors:

In paragraph 4, there should be a 'had' in between 'she' and 'shrunk'.

In various places, you have 'he' and 'she' capitalized immediately after dialogue, when it should be lower cased.

Good story and interesting characters. Keep it up.

MrNobody13 wrote:

Curious to see what everyone's curse is. One or two grammar errors but otherwise fine.

Errors:

In paragraph 4, there should be a 'had' in between 'she' and 'shrunk'.

In various places, you have 'he' and 'she' capitalized immediately after dialogue, when it should be lower cased.

Good story and interesting characters. Keep it up.

Alright, fixed the first thing, thanks for pointing that out.

For the he and she thing... I'm not sure if that's really a grammar typo, it's just how I write it. I treat the dialogue and the action following as two separate sentences usually, which is why I generally capitalize them like that. I'd fix it... but the problem is, I'd probably forget to often, and then there would probably be cases where I used capitalization is some areas, and not in others... I think it's mainly just a preference thing, but I see what you mean.

And I'm glad you enjoy it as well, I'm trying to think up unique and hopefully interesting ideas.

Chapter Two:


The rainfall seemed to have finally ceased; the sun rising up to help dry out the wet forest below. It had been a pretty heavy rainfall, not enough to really cause any small flooding, but enough to leave the forest floor mushy and awkward. The first of the five to wake was Crescent, who made a sudden yelp to wake the rest up. Salvyrn, Sycniele, and Trent all shot up, wide awake now, before scrambling backwards a bit. All they could see was a big wall of red scales in front of them.

“What… what’s going on?!” Sycniele asked in a panicked state. The wall shifted a bit, before raising up.

“What’s with all the noise…? I’m sleepy…” Alyssa grumbled. Even after hours of sleep, she could still feel her tiredness trying to drag her back to dreamland. Glancing down at the others, she blinked a few times. Something was wrong. “Did you all shrink?”

They just stared in response, not sure what to say. She was about twice her original size… maybe even more. “I… don’t we think shrank.” Salvyrn mumbled awkwardly.

“Oh what the craaaaaaaap!?” Crescent whined. She had shrunk, and the other naga grew? It was unfair! “You’ve got to be kidding me! How is this a curse?!”

Alyssa gave another yawn, trying to awkwardly get up. “Wait… what? I don’t… want to be giant yet… I’m not ready… I need a nap.”

“Aw… how am I supposed to give you a hug?” Sycniele mumbled, sniffling a little. She tried to give her tail a small hug, which didn’t work all that well.

“You seem lazier.” Trent pointed out. Salvyrn briefly glanced at him, before glancing at Sycniele.

“Umm… Syc, did Trent always talk like that?” Salvyrn seemed worried; the nagaling seemed to be speaking more… fluently at least. And had a slightly deeper and darker voice. Not bytoo much, but it was noticeable.

“Maybe he’s learning! Gosh, how old is he now? Maybe it’s his birthday soon! When was his birthday again?” Sycniele seemed to have lost all sanity.

“…August Seventh.”

“Only nine more months! We better prepare!”

Salvyrn and Crescent glanced at each other briefly. What the hell was going on with the group? At this rate it’d be impossible to keep themselves organized.

Sycniele didn’t seem to notice however. “What do you want for your birthday, Trentie?”

“Go away.”

“What kind of cake?”

“Leave me alone!”

“I bet we could get Locura to-“

“Shut up!”

“Do you want to-“

“BUGGER OFF!”

“Well… we certainly know what’s changed about them…” Crescent mumbled. She was going to miss Trent’s cheery attitude… maybe Sycniele would replace that instead.

Sycniele continued trying to talk to the nagaling, who eventually stormed off in a literal hissy fit. Salvyrn glanced back at her; she seemed a little depressed. “I don’t think talking to him is going to get you anywhere…”

“He’s just confused… I won’t give up! What kind of mother would I be then? Maybe I should talk to him about Christmas instead. I’m sure he’d like that. Or maybe he just needs a huggy! You need a huggy too!”

“No I don’t! Snap out of it!”

“Huggy!” Sycniele gave Salvyrn another hug against his will. He vowed to himself to get her cured as soon as possible… she was scary when she was nice and affectionate. He managed to gently push her off, before turning back to the others. She simply tackled him to the ground again for a snuggle. Pushing her off again, he slowly got up.

“Ok, we really need to get more organized… let’s see; first off, we know Crescent’s shrunk… Sycniele became all friendly and affectionate… Trent became grumpy… and Alyssa apparently grew and became exceedingly lazy.” Alyssa was already asleep by the time he had finished talking. “I really fear what’s going to happen to me.”

“We’ve got to stop wasting our time talking then! We’ve got to… you know, get going, find him, and get me back to normal!” Crescent explained, before thinking. “Wait… how am I going to get back to the lake when I’m giant again?”

“We’ll figure that out later… we’ve got bigger problems now. Mainly this one.” Salvyrn gestured at Alyssa. A giant naga that was always tired and lazy wouldn’t be much use… and impossible to carry. “Alyssa! Wake up!”

Alyssa yet out a lazy yawn, getting up and scratching her belly. “Wha? Wussup?”

“We have a job to do, you can’t just fall back asleep.” He grumbled. It was official. He was the only unchanged person currently. And it probably wouldn’t last long. “You’re the biggest here now, we need your help more than ever. Can you track?”

“Sort of, yeah… but can’t it wait… like, an hour? Or two?”

“…Syc! We need some motivation!”

Sycniele perked up. “On it Sally!” She quickly slithered over. By the time she did, Salvyrn remembered her new nature made her ‘motivation’ techniques different.

“Alright, our big giant friend, the time to nap has come to an end! There’s no time to wallow or lurk, we really need to get back to work!

So waaaaakey wakey, yup! Open those eyelids up! The sun shines above to display, the beginning of a brand new day!”

Salvyrn put his hand over her mouth before she could get too far in her ‘latest masterpiece’. “Syc... stop… singing…”

She mumbled something muffled, before pulling away from the hand. “But you said-“

“I didn’t mean sing. Ugh… this isn’t working.” Alyssa gave another loud yawn, beginning to lay down again. “Trent! Maybe you can help? Give her a little jolt?”

Trent, off in the distance, glanced over, before smirking darkly. Saying nothing, he slithered over and began to charge some electricity.

“Don’t go too hard now Trent… remember your manners!” Sycniele reminded him. Trent seemed to ignore her, charging up a lot more energy.

“My name isn’t Trent… I’m Boltstorm!” Trent hissed. It was almost like he was possessed by a demon. “And if on the ground she wants to lie, on the ground she gets to FRY!” Before anyone could really do anything, he shot a heavy surge of electricity at her.

Alyssa shot up in an instant, yelping in pain. One part of her tail looked singed… but she didn’t seem anywhere near dead, or even fried. “I’m up I’m up I’m uuuuup!”

“Trent! What are you doing?!” Sycniele squealed, trying to grab the toddler. “You just cost yourself a nappy!”

“Get off of me! And my name’s not Trent anymore!” A sudden surge went through his body, which coursed through her body in turn, causing her to wince and let go immediately. She looked hurt, both mentally and a bit physically as well.

“We’re not getting anywhere…” Crescent mumbled. They had hardly moved since waking up. At this rate they’d never get back to normal.

Sycniele already seemed to be recovering. She wouldn’t let her mood be ruined so easily. “Well, just a few minor touch ups and we’ll be fine! Where are we headed?”

Salvyrn leaned closer to the ground to sniff out the trail again. “It’s getting fainter… the rainfall didn’t help much. It’s still trackable, but if we wait too long we’ll probably lose it.”

“We’ve already lost it.” Crescent mumbled. “Or at least Sycniele and Trent have. Maybe we should just try to find another way to cure ourselves…”

“I doubt anyone would try to help a group of nagas and a mermaid, especially when said mermaid would suddenly become giant after being cured, and how one of the nagas seems to be becoming a giant.” Salvyrn explained. “Plus, we don’t have any money. Last time we tried without paying, this happened.”

“Well, come on, let’s hurry. Just tell me where to go.” Alyssa mumbled. She was already beginning to feel sleepy again; the shock of the jolt already beginning to wear off. She quickly grabbed the others gently in her hand before trying to follow after the scent clumsily. In her current state, she moved about as well as an extremely tired drunk driver.

Trent managed to evade the hand, instead following from ground level. He refused to stay in the same area as the others. He was slowly beginning to hate them all.

“Stay awake… watch out for trees.” Salvyrn reminded her. Alyssa tried to remain in control, beginning to navigate into the deeper parts of the forest. As least travel was finally faster, even if unreliable.

“Guess we have to work together.”Crescent mumbled. There was no way any of them could finish this alone. None of them had the capability anymore.

Sycniele laid back in the hand, glancing up at the sky. “But I know what I’ve been told, you gotta know just when to fold, but I can’t do this all on my, own, no I know, I’m no superman…”

Interesting and colourful chapter. Kinda cool to see the various effects of the curses kick in, very spicy :p

This miiiiight be slightly filler chapter. I wanted to have it done by New Years though.

Chapter Three:


Their trek went on for about three hours until the giant naga flumped back to the ground, exhausted.

“Aww, come of Alyssa!” Crescent whined. They had finally started moving too… and the large serpent was already half asleep again.

“She’s tired, she tried her hardest!” Sycniele defended, gently rubbing what she could of the larger naga. It wasn’t much, but she managed. “Poor dear’s probably hungry.”

“She’s not eating me!” Salvyrn yelled instinctively. That brought up a few stares. “…Well she’s not…”

“Nobody said she would.” Crescent said slowly. It just seemed to come from nowhere.

“Right… whatever you say.” He grumbled. Like he could trust her. She was a predator too, after all… wait, they were all predators! Salvyrn glanced around, before going silent.

“I say we shock her again, that’ll give her a jumpstart.” Trent encouraged, rubbing his hands together. “How many volts? Ten thousand? Twenty thousand? I’m willing to try sixty thousand…”

“Can you go that high?” Crescent asked worriedly. What was a toddler doing with that type of power!?

“Can always find out!” Trent started rubbing his hands, but Sycniele picked him up and held his arms behind him. “LET GO YOU ****ing **** ****!” He screamed violently. Sycniele looked ready to cry.

“He’s just on a tantrum…” Crescent explained, grabbing the slightly evil nagaling from the breaking down parent. “Maybe if I eat him, he’ll settle down.”

That got Trent’s attention, and he immediately stopped his squirming. “Now apologize to your mom.”

Trent let out a low hiss. “Sorry.” He muttered sarcastically. None of them were sure they liked Trent this way, even if he seemed smarter than usual. With that, Crescent dropped him onto the hand again, which was now pressing against the hand.

“Alright, we need to wake her up.” Sycniele decided, seemingly better again. At least her cheerful demeanor made it easy to get over things.

“Why?! She might eat us! Or crush us! Or do awful things!” Salvyrn hissed. The others stared at him again.

“She’s not just some random giant predator you know…” Crescent mumbled.

“You don’t know that!” Salvyrn defended. “You’re one of them! You’d probably be trying to eat us all right now if you were still big!”

“I wouldn’t! That’s stupid! Why would I do that!?”

“You just thought about eating Trent! Get away you shameless predator!”

“You’re a predator too!”

“I won’t let you harm me!”

Sycniele and Trent watched them bicker for a while. It was getting back. “Someone’s getting paranoid.” Sycniele chimed in.

“He’s obviously suffering from an increased fear of paranoia and phagophobia.” Trent explained, rolling his eyes. “Probably part of his curse, to make it hard to work with other predators. Just like how he made you a pansy, her extremely sleepy, and her really, really, small. At least I have the benefit of the doubt.”

Crescent turned around to stare at him. “Phagophobia? Is that a fear of gay people?”

“You’re an idiot.” Trent explained, before curling up to take a small nappy. They weren’t going anywhere anyways.

“It’s not paranoia! It’s a perfectly reasonable assumption that people like HER, and HER…“ Salvyrn growled, pointing at Crescent and Alyssa respectively. “…Would try to eat people like us for nothing other than sick pleasure and a quick snack.”

“No I wouldn’t! You guys are friends!” Crescent defended.

“That didn’t stop you from trying to eat Sycniele and Trent!”

“That was before I knew them! That doesn’t count!”

“You’re still a cold blooded predator!”

“ALL of us are cold blooded predators, literally! Except Trent, who can’t eat anything bigger than a cat.”

“The cats will die.” Trent chimed in. “Those vile beasts… they think they’re so smart with their cute fluffy fur and cat-like meows…”

“Cats have cat-like meows? I never would have guessed.” Crescent mumbled sarcastically.

“SILENCE WENCH! It was a slip of the tongue!”

“Did he just call me a wench?”

“Will you guys be quiet? I can’t sleep.” Alyssa groaned, shifting around. They’d been arguing for quite some time now.

“Alyssa! Wake up!” Crescent whined, giving her face a couple of light slaps. All she could reach was her nose. Alyssa groaned, before getting up again.

“But… sleep.” Alyssa mumbled. Sleep sounded nice. “We have all day.”

“You’re going to be tired no matter how much you sleep, we’ve gotta go now!” Crescent retorted, prodding her a bit. “Wake up!”

Alyssa finally rose up to her full height, letting out a loud yawn. “Alright, fine, I’m up, I’m up… let’s go.” She slowly began to slither off again… man, what a pain. All she could feel was the alluring aura of sleep beckoning to her… calling for her to return the blissful valleys of dreamland. She hoped she could be fully refreshed after a quick nap, but that probably wouldn’t happen anytime soon. She had to face the facts; she was never going to be fully awake again unless she got herself cured. If this meant doing everything in an overly tired state, then so be it.

“Great, she’s up…” Salvyrn muttered under his breath. Just what he needed… another giant predator to feast on his flesh. “You leave me alone!”

She stopped to stare at him, before continuing. “He’s a cute little guy, isn’t he?”

“I’m not edible!”

The others sighed… this journey just seemed to keep getting longer and longer. They finally managed to leave the forest, heading towards some mountains. Alyssa, tired as she was, continued to sniff out the neko’s trail. She stopped as they left the trees, suddenly face to face with a large mountain. It was bigger than she was! Although in a place like Felarya, that wasn’t saying much. It looked cracked in all sorts of places, but still had a little vegetation living on it. The rocks were either a slab gray or a light brown color, even some brick red every now and then. It looked like it reached up to the sky. But what would a neko wizard be doing at a place like this? Alyssa sniffed the air, before moving closer to the ground.

“The scent’s fresh.” She explained, before getting comfy. “Perfect place to take a-“

“You’re not taking another nap!” Crescent snapped, swatting her palm lightly.

“Oh fine, we’ll find the stupid neko, then I’ll take a nap! Don’t be so needy…” The naga slowly placed the others on the ground, to see if they could get any lead in.

“Maybe this is where he stores his entire inventory? Or maybe where he lives? Or maybe it’s one of the routes for his trade?” Sycniele piped in. There were several reasons for why a wizard would be camped out near mountains.

“Or maybe it’s where he keeps a bunch of predators to eat the smaller people… maybe we should find someone else to fix us.” Salvyrn mumbled.

“Or maybe it’s where he keeps his magical energy reserves, so that one can become unstoppably powerful if they can gain control!” Trent added.

“Or maybe it’s where he sleeps.” Alyssa said tiredly. That was easily predictable.

“Does it matter why he’s here? Let’s just go get him to fix us! Apologize if we have to!” Crescent reminded them. They were on a mission.

“It sort of does matter. I want infinite power. Plus, we don’t want to disturb him if he’s in the middle of a big spell, or taking a dump.” Trent explained. “Or both at the same time. That’d just be terrible.”

“We should wipe our feet before going in.” Sycniele admitted.

“None of us HAVE any feet! And go in where!?” Trent growled. There was no entrance, at least not on this side of the mountain.

“We’ll just have to explore a little more than… find out where exactly this guy is, and have him fix us…” Crescent explained, before awkwardly moving towards the mountain.

“Then skin him alive for what he did!” Trent finished. Revenge was sweet. They all headed towards the mountain, ready for whatever awaited them. At least, they thought that they would be ready.

I agree, Sycniele can't be allowed to sing anymore- Or talk to wizards, either.

They could always have asked the wizard how long did Zinverinth have, then if there was any gathering point they could meet in the near future after they looked for ten tetros. The nearby mines would've been a good starting point for Sycniele, who can travel as a bird, if they remembered to ask the wizard what tetros looked like: those dead guards on the bottom level must've had pocket money- or they could've asked if he knew of someone else who could help, or if a warm meal would do instead, after all, it had been pizza day a month ago in the cafeteria.

A good smack to the back of the head while he wasn't looking, after a long questioning, could've bought them time if he REALLY had places to be RIGHT AWAY- though of course they shoulda been ready to find a hundred or so tetros in case the blow made him feel smarter. You can also bluff, "half up front" if you can only gather five tetros... or "ten up front" and then give him a single tetro, ten percent instead of ten tetros: when he asks for the other nine, hit him on the back of the head again.

Before that, though, they could have tried to steal something from him- something like ten tetros. If he left the wagon door open, it wasn't impossible. And if everything else failed, they could always ask if he'd accept payment in Sycniele instead.

Eeeither way, it was a fun read... don't get me wrong, I love the way things went from there, but you can only rely on stupidity for so long. Even the most foolish become Sun Tzu when it comes to finding flaws in their greaters. In this case, Salvyrn, though, I found no real flaws here.