"Well…hey buddy. You look bigger. And, weirder" Lucas knew Coin would look weird either way. But he did kind of fit in with the whole theme of the place. Which was mostly to Lucas. A freakshow.
Freakshow would also describe Coin perfectly. Coin was about as tall as Wendy standing. Which was weird. A day or so had passed, and Coin suddenly had a growth spurt.
His torso was elongated. In a way where he seemed stretched. And his little flippers were now about as long as a person's arm. They looked like a lizard's hands would. But instead of scales, the short feathers had also grown. Though they did look far more natural.
Coin's face only had one change. Instead of four sections. It was six. He looked more like a drill. Maybe that's what he was going for. Who knows? Lucas certainly didn't.
Coin officially looked like an actual monster and not just a mucked up bird.
"So…you ate a few things. And it added to your 'biomass'? And then you saw food crawling out of the ground. So you decided to be better at digging which used up biomass. Which would help you get to the food faster? Right"
Coin nodded. Which looked quite wrong.
"And for the past few days. Anytime you're hurt. You go to a blindfolded man and he fixed you up" Coin nodded once more.
"Well you seem like you're having a good time. Cannot say the same. Anyways, I'm gonna go catch up on sleep. See you later" Lucas stroked Coin's head thingy before he closed his eyes.
When Lucas opened them he was back on the grass. Glancing over, he saw Evie yawn before laying back down. He sighed, before deciding he should probably head back into the tavern. Grab at least something from the tools or clothes section.
Although he could do that later. Right now he was feeling a bit aimless, he didn't have any idea what to do, sure he could keep following the journal but that wasn't really giving him a sense of purpose at the moment. Just instructions on how to survive.
Lucas figured he should probably set up short term goals. So he went about that.
Find Coin and Oz.
Find the other logs. And that other book the author talked about.
Escape.
Lucas didn't really like his goals, mostly because they were just…boring.
None of them felt like adventure. And that was what he set out for when he woke up on that beach didn't he?
Maybe long term goals would help him feel better. Now then what were they? Lucas guessed he should probably get his memories back. But the idea didn't seem… worth it, he couldn't find it in him to muster any effort towards the idea. It just felt like a waste.
Well not a waste. But just, something that didn't require agency. He could do it later couldn't he? Breaking away from the useless thoughts.
Lucas needed something to fight for. Something to give him aim, cause feeling aimless wasn't that great. Not bad, not good either, just nothing.
He could probably follow Oz around for the time being, he was their assistant, although he had yet to be paid. But he had the job for a day or two soo… tomorrow's problems.
And before he forgot. He had to look after Evie. Right now Lucas had no idea how'd he go over that, food and the like were already covered. Although if Lucas had it his way, he wouldn't see this evil tavern ever again.
But he had to think logically, responsibly, and the right thing to do was suck it up, and match back into the tavern. Preferably not longer than an hour.
He should probably wait on Evie to wake up. Wouldn't want her thinking he abandoned her. So now he needed a way to pass the time, now since he didn't like his thoughts he couldn't think to pass the time. But he did have a book. A nice mostly filled journal to read though.
"Log 6. We have unfortunately found out what happens when the rules are broken. We have lost two members. Our group is now stocked with food and water to last us a week. Hopefully we will be able to extend it by a lot more.
In other news. There appears to be a split in the leadership. Wallace is too much of a coward. He keeps us holed up in a single space and is content with doing just that. I fear he will soon have thoughts of further paranoia if nothing is done.
Len is opting to be the far more rational one. She thinks we should head further in, see if we can find anything that may help us. I am inclined to side with Len. I am certain that our group will soon fracture.
When that time comes I will not know if I will stay or leave. Many variables may change, but as of now. I am with Len on this"
Lucas never thought himself a fan of reading. But this was turning out to be quite interesting, he was starting to see the appeal of thrillers. Maybe even horror.
Maybe he could get in another log. Skimming a little. He came upon log 9. Now then. All he needed to do wa-
"Whacha reading?" asked Evie. She looked up at him, curiosity clear in her eyes. Seems like she was bored too.
"A journal. Dunno the author but I'll probably find out, anyways. I'm heading inside, stay here. Actually go behind the trees, you can look after the book" tossing the back towards her. Evie caught it, and scurried into the treeline.
With that done, Lucas made his way to the door. His hand gripped tightly around the handle. And pulled, surprisingly, it didn't move at all. Lucas tried again using a variety of different methods. Most of which included using the meteor hammer as a way to brute force it open. Which failed.
Evie was happily heckling him. Much to Lucas's annoyance, she kept insisting he try and push it open, which he has tried.
Lucas tried to make her stop by reminding her she should be hiding, she countered that she would when he was inside. Which didn't seem like soon.
A good amount of hours passed, and he decided that taking a moment to think would be great. Evie was still making fun of him, Lucas groaned and told her she should be reading the journal.
That earned a flinch and a second of quiet before she continued, trying her best to talk the second away.
Not that it worked, Lucas had good eyes. He saw it, but it was probably better left untouched.
Now though, Lucas was very confused. Until he remembered an important little tid-bit. The tavern might be alive, which meant the unmoveable door was on purpose.
Making sure Evie was hidden. He walked up to the door and spoke as politely as he could.
"Could you umm..open please?" Lucas asked, awkward silence taking hold before the door opened with a loud creek.
What is that?
…
…
Oh god.
Lucas
————————————————
Oz
1..2..3.. and gone.
The beast slowly but surely made distance, and the further away it got, the safer Oz felt.
Tightening their gas mask, they ran through what they knew of the creature.
This one in particular was something else. A snake-wolf hybrid, with bird legs as hindlegs. It was like a mockery of a griffin. Or an attempt at making one. Whatever it was, it was a determined beast for that matter.
For two full weeks it had been chasing Oz down. And whenever Oz seemed to lose it. It would always spring up, like a faulty system that refused to be turned off.
Ah.
It was reminding them of their past, in a way. Oz was a faulty system. But that was long behind them. Time was of the essence after all.
Grabbing their bag and quietly strolling off. Oz had made sure to burn any scent that was left over, if they were making an estimation of how long the beast would be gone.
Oz hoped for at the minimum. A five nights, though they knew better than to be so optimistic. Realistically, at least two nights at the max. Which wasn't much but it was enough to make space between them and the beast and hopefully figure out a counter.
Walking past the crumbled apartment buildings. They made sure to look for any more corpse flowers. As much as smelling like a rotting corpse was disgusting, it was the only way to hide from the beast's superb sense of smell.
Speaking of. From what Oz had seen of the beast, it had poor eyesight. Unless they were standing directly in the beast maw. It would be none the wiser, that would be true if its sense of smell wasn't what it was.
Oz didn't quite recall what had ticked the beast off, the beast was docile the first few times Oz had interacted with it. In fact, it seemed almost friendly, gently pushing them out of the way whenever their paths crossed.
That changed when it seemingly caught a whiff of Oz brewing a potion. Which… now that they were thinking of it, yes. That would do it wouldn't it?
It ignored the deathly stench that seemed to permeate to be ever so common. Only reacting to a smell that didn't quite belong. Maybe it was a guardian to this horrible abomination of a festival.
Or just a beast that grew to suit the environment. Whatever the case, it was gone. For now, which meant Oz should probably head to the leaning tower.
The tower was just a brick apartment which was forever on a slight tilt. It hadn't bothered Oz, but when they showed it to Lucas. He seemed slightly irritated,
Whatever the case. Lucas had seemed off. Warning Oz to steer clear of the tavern to the north. Or Willow's as Evie had so lovingly called it.
Climbing over rubble, Oz found the leaning tower doing what it did best.
Walking over, Oz entered the tower, noting that the five floor building was as empty as ever. That was until you got to the fifth floor.
Ascending the stairway, they pushed open the door to find lanterns hung from iron chains. Items scattered across the floor, each with a small piece of paper with writing on it. The room was a volatile mess.
Oz held no love for this place. Despite its usefulness, being a trading hall and all. It was disgusting. Flies flew freely as if this place was made for them.
"Yo. come to barter?" A voice pieced through the piles of junk. It was reminiscent of an old man. Except the voice pitched up and down at irregular intervals. Making for quite the odd conversation partner.
"Yes. What else would I be here for?" Said Oz, annoyance evident in their tone. Right now they were speaking to one of the reasons Oz had no love for this place.
Passing the piles of junk. Oz was greeted with the familiar sight of a green robed figure, glowing purple eyes staring back at them. Whenever they tried to peer into the robe, all Oz saw was an impenetrable dark.
"Well, chop chop. I don't have all night" the trader was the man's title. Apparently the man was a victi. Whatever that meant Oz didn't know, a word from a long dead language if they had to make an educated guess.
"What do you want?" Questioned Oz.
"I dunno. Whatcha got?" a sharp rocky hand pushed out of the dark to stroke a nonexistent chin. Smugness leaking into its movements.
"You know my wares. And you have no use for them"
"And that means!"
"Must I say it again?" This would be the seventh time this happened.
"Yes, else you can take your useless hide elsewhere, wouldn't want you dirtying my collection"
Oz let out a bellowing sigh.
"It's story time!" The words were not terrible. It was the tone they'd have to use, it changed every time. And now Oz had to find out which one would please the trader.
2 hours later.