I yawn, or as much as I can while made of ice. Its been about a week since the nightmare started, I've put in a lot of effort into figuring out the written language. It's not too hard, i already knew some things and I knew the basics before this all. I summon my armor and I pull up a chair to sit by the door. Soon it opens
"Oh I'm sorry I'm late...."
Turns out scout isn't a morning person. Her hair is horribly messy and she looks more then a little disheveled. She brushes it with her hand trying to smooth it out.
"Well, breakfast time"
I get up, she grabs my hand and we go to get some of the 'breakfast' they made today.
Apparently there's a saint ruling the place, a woman who's a seer. She deals with the worst of what comes out of the mountains. This little base is at worst for fallen monsters, the only reason there's two masters is because it's not too far from some towns.
I was allowed to stay, thankfully. Me and scout are like eachothers babysitters. I keep her on task and she keeps me from
"Running off and fighting something too strong"
Like I'd do something so stupid. Apparently the crushing isn't a thing, like at all. It's probably related to the end of this nightmare.
"Oh oh since your new to the kingdom of hope why don't I tell you some stories and rumors"
I nod still eating and looking at my book, quite the simple thing, a book on PTV's
"Well theres the old stories of the chain beasts, its said they come in swarms and eat any metal they find when they appear, a chain is said to die"
So a chain worm
"Theres the many handed sludge, its said to have been made from the true darkness within the mountains"
I remember sunny saying that the rusty knight he lived with controlled true darkness and that was a fallen devil, so is it of the fallen rank? Or maybe even the corrupted rank.
"Oh a new one is a voice from the mist"
I remember sunny mentioning a voice that sounded like cassie's back when he first was dealing with that tree. Maybe it's something like that.
"Oh or the iron titan that the ivory army has."
She shivers and i look up, iron hand island, and the iron giant under it shipwreck island, that's what likely became of the iron titan.
"I've heard that a Transcendent is inside of it controlling it"
I tilt my head, she seems to light up at my interest
"it's said that that Transcendent is one of the chain lords"
I hope i won't have to deal with that, but knowing my luck, and the fact sunny's here I'm sure I'll have to.
I twirl a stick as me and scout leave the base. Our job to is check for nightmare creatures, if we can deal with it then we kill it and report it. If we can't then, we go and get help. Not that it's common, apparently it was before but not with me around.
From what I can tell I'm pretty well liked, only because I lessen the workload on them. Although I'm not too good at telling what people think of me as a person. I'm good at telling what people think of eachother but not me, that's caused me some problems in the past.
Me and scout stand across from eachother. She dashes forwards with a thrust aimed at my eye. I side step, grab her arm, and I pin her down.
"Oh come on heat seeker"
I get off of her. I've been training her, mostly out of boredom but she really seemed to appreciate it. She gets up patting herself off
"Your too good at this, I'll never beat you"
She sighs, I pat her on the shoulder. I shake my head and I do a little again motion. She looks at me
"I know i know, the only way to get better is to do something over and over fixing mistakes as you go"
I never said that. I think it's something someone else said to her and she's weirdly just put it on me. How weird, but she's real weird so I don't mind. She gets up and we start again. That continues for about a hour or two.
We flop down together and she takes out lunch. I start a fire as she does. She puts it over the fire. It seems to be stew today. I dig into my satchel handing her some random spices. She mutters something about it.
She mutters a lot I have to say, or not say I guess. She adds some into it and when it finally gets hot enough she takes out some bowls and we start eating.
"You know those spices you have are real incredible. You are rich where you come from right?"
I nod, i guess I am. It's weird to think about, being rich
"Wow really? That's so cool, maybe one day you could show me where your from!"
I glance up, at her. I wish I could, she seems so kind. The world needs more people like her.
I look over the green planes. Another day, more scouting.
"You know heat seeker. I'm almost jealous of you, I mean I'd love to leave hopes kingdom one day, I want to see more i want to explore. I want to go to wherever you come from, I want to see where you've been."
Her voice is softer then normal. I know.... I know she thinks that, but she wants what she thinks I've seen, not what I've really seen. I won't ruin it for her, she has the right to dream.
"I know its stupid but its just a dream of mine."
I shake my head, the love of exploring isn't stupid, even if I don't have it myself.
I look away, I think i know a way to comfort her. I offer her my hand
"Hmm? Oh do you want to lead me somewhere? Sure!"
She takes my hand and I pull her close, picking her up
"Woah, Woah, woah, what are you doing?!"
I put up a word is had learned
"explore"
She stares at me then I put up another
"hold"
She holds onto me
"Don't do anything foo-"
I jump up activating my cloak. I jump and jump and jump, far above the kingdom of hope. I slowly float down
"its...."
I look out around us, the distant villages, the base, the trees, the mountains, all of it. I look back at her, she seems star struck
"....beautiful"
We go back to base, nothing today. She still seems not all there, like she's reliving that moment in her head over and over. I did it because she seemed down, I didn't think it would make such a impact on her. We go to get dinner, soup again.
The soup is fine I guess. I sit down and I start studying once again. She finally snaps out of it
"You know i can't figure what exactly that stuff your reading is. I know you showed it to me but still"
I look up tilting my head.
"I don't recognize the style of lettering and the drawings are just as unknown to me"
She gestures at it
"I wish I could ask you what it is" I nod, I wish I could talk too.
I've been allowed to be out more. I'm still not allowed to leave by myself but I get alone time after dinner. I walk over to the walls and I hop on up. I sit down staring out... at the hollow mountains. It's not because their comforting.
The opposite actually, it's deeply upsetting. I only do it to remind myself, to get stronger. One day to cross them. If I cross them, maybe ill find Neph, then together, probably with the cohort, we'd find a citadel and we'd get her out. I'm sure that would never happen but... its both a nice and a cruel idea because she can't wait that long.
I've been coming up here more, because i know I've been getting too comfortable. I need to keep my eyes on the goal. Sometimes while I stare out feel watched, it's only when it's gotten dark, not long before I'm told to go back to my room.
It's odd because every time I check the area with my heat sense and there's always nothing around.
"Heat seeker! It's time to come inside"
I look down at scout away from the hollow mountains, away from the fog and I hop down.