Fog woke up with a scream. He was surrounded by thick blades of
green grass. Green, that was all he could see, it obscured his
vision and enveloped him. He walked through the grass, searching
for someone....or something. "Hello! Is anyone here?" he shouted,
slightly panicking. Why was he here? Where was he? Fog crouched on
the ground, sobbing slightly. His tears dropped down on one of the
leaves and dropped on the ground. It started to shudder, and a
shadow enveloped it. It shaped into a large crow, eyes burning red.
It let out a large shriek, and dived at Fog, clawing his face and
pecking his arms. Fog screamed and ran fast through the grass, the
crow hot on his heels. It dived again, and narrowly missing the
axolotl.
Darling Desire (DD for short) woke to a darkened sky. She sat up
and looked around. All she could see was grass. Tall tall grass. It
was everywhere. She quickly took stalk of herself. She had her
chess pieces of course, an infinite supply of chess pieces to call
if needed. She had a dagger and a single gunsen for her own weapons. Nothing else... She
stood and tried to figure out what direction she was facing, not
turning so she didn't lose her positioning.
Fog manged to get a a grip on the crow and with one quick movement
of his hands, the crow was dead. The boy slumped down, panting from
exhaustion. He looked around, but he didn't see the way he just
came from. Everything looked the same, green, sharp blades of
grass. Fog pondered for a moment, hoping that someone could save
him. Without provisions, he wouldn't last much longer.
DD soon gave up trying to figure out what direction she was facing.
There were no stars out in the sky and no distinguishable landmarks
for reference. Just grass, grass everywhere. She decided to simply
head in the direction that she had heard something from, some sort
of bird?? Though it no longer made any sound, she could still
distinguish what direction its call had come from. Hopefully she'd
find something or someone...
Overcome with fatigue, the boy couldn't walk further. Instead, he
crawled on all blue fours and crawled in a random direction. Fog
hoped that he could see something that wasn't green, or anything to
do with plants. The grass was so tall it blocked the sky from his
vision, so he could never tell what time it was. Day or night, he
never knew. Fog shivered, the temperature seemed to be dropping
every day, ever so slightly. Mud splattered his knees as he carried
on crawling. Then, he found something. A large and twisting spire,
made entirely out of copper. It towered above the grass, shining
bright in what Fog suspected to be moonlight. He touched the cold
copper with shaking hands, feeling its smooth, cool surface. He
didn't know why it was placed here, maybe as a marker for
something? Fog didn't know. The ground shook again, and a large
shadow loomed over the spire, it was the crow. More crows. Cawing
ferociously, eyes burning with hatred, they shrieked at the boy and
dived. "No..." was the only thing Fog managed to whisper, before
collapsing from exhaustion and fear.
DD had walked for quite a while. She had estimated around fifteen
minutes or so of walking. She had paused in her walk to rekindle
her strength. She was tempted to call forth her servants to carry
her but decided against it, just in case there was something else
out in the grass... Then she heard it; the crow had started up
again. She still couldn't see it, so she kept walking towards it,
nearly running into...a spire? A very tall, metal spire. She
pressed her hand into the cold metal. Why was this here? She heard
the crow again. Circling around the metal landmark, she soon
found...a person. Being attacked by a large crow! She batted at the
beast as it tried to peck the person on the ground, managing to
break one of its wings and pinned it to the ground. With a harsh
stomp to the head, it was dead. She looked at the creature for a
few moments, before grabbing some of the grass and using it to
mummify the carcass. "It may be needed later on if I can't find
any provisions..." she told herself and turned to the person
passed out by her. It was a boy, with short brown hair, pale bluish
skin, silver whisker-like appendages on his face, blue clothes, and
a silvery tail. "What are you??" DD whispered to herself. She sat
down with her back on the metal spire, simply gazing at the
unconscious boy next to her. She idly wondered if she this boy
could help her out of here...
At the sound of a voice, Fog's ears pricked up and he stood up
suddenly. "W-Who are you? What do you want?" He asked nervously.
The grass swayed underneath his feet and the sudden appearance of
DD made him on edge. Was she another foul trick by the grass?
"W...where's the crow? It was just there....attacking me," Fog
whispered, gingerly putting his hand on a large gash on the side of
his face. He winced and the wound stung. He noticed that the girl
had weapons, where did she get them from? He didn't have
anything....and there didn't seem to be any provisions laying
around. Fog grew more and more suspicious of DD as the time passed,
thinking that she was going to be some sort of harm to him. His
gills were tense and pale, something they did when he was anxious.
Fog's eyes were dark blue, he was scared. His small but sharp teeth
glinted in the....was it moonlight? He didn't know....and didn't
care. All he wanted to do now was get out of the grass.
DD spoke after watching the awoken boy for a moment. "My name is...
DD. The crow is dead, in theory." She gestured to the wrapped up
bundle next to her. "I'm not really sure if it is, but its head is
utterly destroyed so it should be dead." she said prodding the
bundle to check for responsiveness. There was none. She turned back
to the boy. "And as for what I want, I suspect it's the same thing
you want; to find a way out of here."
He hesitated before replying to DD, "My name's Fog Karaudo," Fog
said. He looked at DD, puzzled by her strange royal attire. Was she
a queen of some other planet? "So, any ideas on how to get here?"
"Unfortunately, no." she said, upset that she couldn't answer what
should have been an easy question. If only one of them had some
sort of idea to get out of this place... She stood up, hopping and
jumping to try and see over the grass. She managed to see just for
a moment the vastness of the grass that spread out over the land.
She huffed a little, out of breath from the repeated jumping. She
sat back down. "I can't see anything of use from here. It's just
grass, for miles by the looks of it... Maybe there is something out
there, we just need to find it..." she trailer off, slowly standing
back up and moving around the spire, either looking at the metal
structure for an opening or stairs of some sort or jumping to try
and see something in the vast grass.
Fog walked around weakly, panting. "I-its no use, I'm going to call
it a night." He whispered weakly. "Good night DD," Fog muttered and
leaned against the spire, and soon fell asleep. The leaves inched
closed and closed to him, shaking around his ankles and creeping up
his arms. Slowly, ever so slowly, they enveloped him, leaving only
his gills peeking out. The grass was suffocating him, Fog thrashed
around but couldn't move. The grass had a sickly sweet smell,
making him feel sleepy. In a matter of a few minutes, Fog was in
something like a coma.
DD walked around, trying to spot something, anything!, that could
help them. Nothing within her eye range. She made it back to the
spot where she met Fog, only to find a mummified version of him in
his place. Horrified, she whipped out her dagger and began slashing
at the grass that engulfed the seemingly unconscious body. She
occasionally had to whip around and slash at the blades of grass
that attempted to ensnare her as well. Soon though she made it
through and yanked the boy close to her, continuously slashing the
grass blades that reached for the both of them.
In his semi-coma, Fog dreamed. He dreamed of terrible things, dark
things that happened in his past, and now came to haunt him. He was
in a dream-like landscape, his homeland but brighter, and he seemed
to float with every step, as if he was on the moon. Fog gazed at
the tall mountains of ice, remembering the fun times he used to
climb them as a kid. But then, the picturesque landscape seemed to
darken, and all the fond memories he had disappeared and only one
remained. The dark and sad one, the scientists. Fog watched sadly
as the events were replayed again in the dream, watching himself,
being taken from his parents. Watching their death, and himself
being tortured. He felt cold, for the first time in his life, his
body freezing, in the dream and in real-life. Fog curled up in a
ball, icy tears running down his solemn face.
DD had been slashing the grass blades for a while now, but it
seemed that they had finally backed off. Only then did she realize
that the boy in her arms was very, VERY cold. Icy patterns had
begun to appear on him and subsequently her arm that was holding
him. She switched arms and waved the now free arm in an attempt to
get her blood flowing to warm it back up. She didn't want to risk
putting the boy down in case the grass blades tried to cocoon him
again. Wait, why did she care? She was Darling Desire! She cared
not for the wellbeing of others! .....And yet....this boy....was
somehow breaking down her emotional defenses. How though? She
didn't see him as a threat, but also didn't see him as another toy.
What was happening to her?
Fog subconsciously sent a wave of ice threw the grass, freezing all
the plants in a few metre radius. He twitched slightly, his body
temperature cooling. The frost that was gathering on his arms flew
to the sky, and began to fall as snow. It sprinkled on the spire
and on his gills.
In the dream, he felt something falling on his gills. He shook
them, but nothing was on them. Fog frowned, and rubbed his face. He
opened his eyes and suddenly he was in reality. Fog looked around,
still rubbing his eyes. He was next to DD, and she was holding her
blade. Slashed leaves littered the ground, she must have been
protecting him from the snaking leaves. A small smile appeared on
his face at the thought. Fog's wounds started to bleed again and he
groaned.
DD watched the frost turn to snow above the duo in awe and slight
envy. She didn't have powers like this boy did... She heard him
groan in pain and looked down at him. He was bleeding!! Thinking
quickly she took some of the slashed leaves and, after slashing
them a bit more, wrapped them around the boy's....Fog's....wounds.
She bit her tongue to keep herself focused on the task and not on
the fact that she was helping someone out of kindness and not for
some debt of some kind. Why was she doing this?? "Tssh.
Emotions...how...fun... And I thought you had been wiped clean of
such things." came the ever present voice in her head;
Desire. "Desire, what are you doing?""Oh
please, don't get your pigtails in a twist Darling. I'm simply
observing, that's all.""You and I both know what
happens when you 'simply observe'. What are you planning?" No
response. DD could only hope this boy never had the misfortune of
meeting her.
"T-thanks," whispered Fog, shivering slightly. "I think we should
set off, and look for anything, weapons, food. Whatever could be of
use. What do you think?" He asked.
"Yes, that would be wise." DD said after considering Fog's words.
They needed sustenance after all. They were living beings. They
also needed to find a way out of this field and fast. Who knows
what dangers lurked within this 'playground'?
Fog closed his eyes and clenched his hands. He opened them, and
shaped an large ball of ice into a tiger. He whispered something to
it, and the tiger nodded. It let out a loud roar and hounded into
the grass. Fog did the same, this time creating a lion, and a pack
of cheetah. He whispered the same things to all of them and after
letting out a roar, they each ran into the grass. Fog turned to DD,
"Which way should we go?"
DD watched in awe at Fog's display of power. Feeling she needed to
prove herself, for whatever reason, she pulled out four knight
pieces from her pocket. Tossing them in front of her she called
out, "Serve your queen!" The chess pieces transformed into
humanoids with horse-like heads. Each carried a different weapon
and each bowed to her. She commanded, "You are to stay with me and
Fog," she gestured to Fog so they knew who he was, "Protect us with
everything you've got. We're in someone's play field and don't know
what could be out here." The pieces called out, "Yes, my queen!"
and stood and moved around the duo, forming a protective diamond
around them. Satisfied, DD turned back to Fog. "I suppose we just
need to pick a direction and hope for the best... There's no clear
landmarks aside from this spire that I could see." she explained,
idly wondering how in the world they were supposed to find their
way home in this mess.