Chapter 15
Quest Complete! 2 skill points awarded!
My mind was completely reeling as I stared up in shock at the massive reptile creature above me, his eyes locked onto mine. Behind him I could hear Rosemary screaming for me to run, but I couldn’t move.
She appeared next to me, waving a hand in front of my face, “Move! Shayla GO!”
“Don’t move,” Kal laughed as he walked over to us and patted Leem’s shoulder. “Not now.”
“I can wait,” Leem said with a sinister smirk.
“Kal, why can’t-” Lemon Tape began to say, but Kal sliced his hand through the air.
“Drop the aliases, Lenrick,” he snapped.
“Sorry, Lorenzo,” Lenrick said as he looked at me, a grin on his face. “Why can’t we just do her in now? Quick stab and go?”
“Because where’s the fun in that?” he asked, stepping over and crouching down to me.
I narrowed my eyes as he stared at me with those insane eyes, “What the fuck is this?!”
But he just kept smiling at me, which pissed me off further. I climbed to all fours and sneered at him, “I said, what the-”
“Shut up,” he said in a way that caused me to lose the will to continue my sentence. “That’s better,” he said, standing up and reaching into his pocket dimension, leaving his hand in it as he looked at me. “I’ve put up with you for quite a while, letting you think you were manipulating me.” He pulled out what looked to be a camera and tossed it to Lenrick.
The other man smiled as he turned it on me, filming us.
“Shayla, you need to move,” Rosemary said from right next to my head.
I took a step back, but his stare intensified, “DO NOT MOVE!”
The intensity in his voice seemed to stun lock me.
“Now look at the camera,” he said in a sinister tone.
I did not do as he asked, keeping my glare on him as he reached back into his pocket dimension, leaving his hand in there again.
“Father, what are we-” Domitor began to say, but a glare from Lorenzo stopped him and caused him to back up a few feet.
“Now,” Lorenzo said, waving for Lenrick to move around for a better angle, “do one thing for me.”
“Fuck off,” I growled, getting ready to book it, just as soon as my legs stopped shaking.
“Yeah, just like that,” Lenrick muttered, keeping the camera on me, an aroused look on his face.
“Just one thing,” Lorenzo said with a wide smile as he began to pull his hand out of his pocket dimension. “Tell mommy Scamp you love her.”
“You’re a fucking-”
Four gunshots filled the air as I stumbled back, eyes wide. My head hurt as the last one had snapped my head back roughly. But I stayed up as I saw Rosemary screaming something, waving her hands for me to run.
So, I did. I spun around and took off running, my legs shaking and causing me to stumble. So I flared my wings and took to the air, only for a fifth gunshot to be heard. My right wing went limp as I crashed right back into the ground, my hearing still not fully back yet.
Something rushed through me, getting me to push myself back up and take off running as fast as I could.
ooo000<^>000ooo
“Cut filming,” Lorenzo growled as he raised the gun and shot again, snapping the fleeing mare’s wing at the base.
To his annoyance he saw her get back up and keep running.
He growled as he turned and pointed after her, “Lenrick, go after her and finish her.” Then he turned to Domitor, “Want to be one of us? Then go help kill her, now!”
Domitor was at a loss after seeing the events that had just unfolded, but at his father ordering him to go after her, he knew he’d have to do so. The promise of finally being accepted to tempting to give up.
“Gladly!” Lenrick laughed, taking off after the fleeing mare.
Domitor was a bit slower to give chase, but at his father’s glare, he gave a nod and ran after Lenrick.
“Did her skull just deflect a Ego bullet?” Rendrik , formerly Ulystee, asked with a frown.
“It did,” Lorenzo said with a scowl. “She’s got Ego inside of her. Which means she more than likely has Loric’s Wandering Ego in her as well.”
“I can go kill her,” Leem said, seeming very eager.
“No, you will be allowed to kill Scamp and her wife, but only after we show them footage of us murdering their brat,” Lorenzo said, pulling out a belt and holster setup and putting it on. “I want that pest to suffer for all she put me through,” he growled, rubbing his throat at the memory.
Leem licked his lips, frowning, “I prefer the simpler just kill them method, I’m not a fan of all this theatrics.”
“You will do as I say,” Lorenzo warned. “This will be much more satisfying for both of us.”
ooo000<^>000ooo
“Keep going, come on!” Rosemary yelled to me as I kept pushing myself to move forward, taking as many turns and paths as I could. I could hear someone chasing me, but I couldn’t look back for fear of tripping.
“Go right!” she yelled from ahead, waving her hands for a path on the right.
Listening to her I swerved right, galloping down a path and into a ditch.
“Left!”
I sprang left, running down the ditch as fast as I could.
“Up this log!” she exclaimed as she stood on a log.
Doing as I was told, I ran up the log and found myself near a clearing.
“Left, stay at the edge of the clearing!”
My lungs wanted to give up, but I pushed myself to keep running, my head and ears pounding painfully.
“Up ahead, there’s some kind of hole in the ground!” she yelled, pointing to a spot on the ground.
With everything I had left I ran and jumped forward, landed into a hole filled with dead foliage.
“Cover yourself, come on!”
I groaned in pain as I struggled to pull the foliage over myself, completely covering myself.
“Now quiet! They’re coming,” she said, standing above me and staring in the direction we’d been running from.
After a few moments of silence, I heard the sounds of two others chasing after me. Luckily, they ran right past my hiding spot, heading further down.
“Who was it,” I croaked out, not meaning to talk out loud.
“Shh!” she hissed, watching them leave. “It was the one named Lenrick and Domitor.”
“Pricks,” I groaned, curling up into a ball as the pain finally started to push me over the edge.
“Okay, don’t give up and pass out, Shayla,” Rosemary said as she laid down on the edge of the hole and stared down at me, seeming to examine me. “Just as I feared, he used a firearm with Ego bullets.”
“Great,” I coughed out.
“Left lung is punctured,” she said with a grimace. “One bullet went through your neck but missed everything, thankfully, and two others are lodged in you right now. They seemed to have hit your Ego enforced bones, one hit your lung and the other is right next to your heart. The other seems to have dented your face plate, right above your right eye, but no real damage done.”
“My wing?”
“The bullet dislocated it, so it’ll be an easy fix,” she reassured me.
I began to cough violently, spitting up a good amount of blood. Great, I’m going to die.
“You’re not going to die,” she said as she looked at me with panicked eyes. “We just have to try and close the wounds with your Ego.”
“I can’t use my Ego,” I grumbled, everything starting to feel faint. My body was starting to not hurt as much as well. That really can’t be good for me.
“I know, but I’m going to try and show you how to close a wound!” she said in a almost desperate voice.
“Go for it,” I muttered weakly. “Ya got… a minute before I take a nap.”
“Okay, focus on your left lung!”
I tried to do as she asked, but I couldn’t quite focus on it. My mind kept reeling with all the events that had just happened.
“Focus, Shayla!”
“I have ADHD!” I yelled out, causing her to try and shush me again. “I can’t focus right now!”
“Shayla, please, be-” her head snapped up. “Someone's coming.”
“Oh well,” I muttered, letting myself slump in my hole.
“Don’t give up, damn it!” she yelled as someone appeared over her, staring down at me.
The foliage was swept away from me, followed by me using everything I had left in me to lurch upward, my claws ready to strike. But all I achieved was springing upward and collapsing at the mouth of the hole.
“What in the world are you?!” someone exclaimed.
With the last of my energy, I raised my head to the blurry figure and raised my hand, shakily flipping them off. Then everything felt like it was floating away from me as I went limp.
Huh… dying feels just like I remember it…
ooo000<^>000ooo
“We lost her!” Lenrick hissed, slamming a fist into a stone next to him, cracking it down the middle.
Domitor stood silently behind the man, awkwardly watching him.
“You distracted me, you brat,” he growled, throwing the blame right onto Domitor’s shoulders.
“I… did not,” the stallion said slowly, watching as the man turned to face him, a sword appearing at his side.
“If we do not find her, Lorenzo will kill both of us.”
“My father won’t-”
“Shut up, kid. We’re not playing ponies anymore, this is the real world. This isn’t a game anymore. Lorenzo is-” he was interrupted by some kind of creature slamming into him, tackling him to the ground.
Domitor jumped back in horror as the muscled creature roared and tried to get at the man beneath it. The creature looked like a male Kejtdra, like Mallogory, but had red fangs and crazy eyes. Its body looked wrong, with bulging muscles and sagging skin.
It’s mouth snapped down at Lenrick as he used his sheathed sword to hold the creature back, but just barely.
Another one came around the rock behind them, and began to stalk towards Domitor.
He stared at the sight before him, his eyes wide as this was the first time he’d ever faced a real threat.
The creature moving towards him roared and flexed its body, causing broken bones to extend out of its body, forming blades.
As it stalked towards him, watching his movements, the young stallion composed himself. His eyes locked with the creatures and his hoof shot to his side and gripped the blade, attaching it to his hoof.
Now ready to attack, the creature lunged towards him.
Domitor flicked his hoof to the left and shot his tendril into the ground, dodging out of the way just as it reached him. Then in one fluid motion, he attached the tendril to the back of the creature and shot over, slamming the blade into its neck. He snapped his hoof over and attached it to the other creature attacking Lenrick.
Pulling himself towards the struggling pair, he twisted his blade hard, cutting the head from the creature he was on and zoomed towards the next one. He flung past it, his blade flashing across its head, splitting it down the middle at the ears.
He hit the ground and slid across it on all fours, turning to face Lenrick as he held up the now dead creature.
Lenrick stared at him with wide eyes as he shoved the creature off of himself and stood up. “What was that, kid?!”
Domitor just blinked at him, smiling sheepishly, “I uh… I’ve been training… a lot…”
“Shit, that was impressive!” Lenrick said as he walked over and slapped his back. “Keep that up and I might actually start to like you!”
This brought a smile to Domitor’s face as Lenrick looked around, frowning.
“We still need to find her, otherwise we’re both dead,” he said, waving for Domitor to follow him. “Come on, kid, let’s get this bitch.”
A feeling of warmth ran through his body, as this marks the first time any of them had not talked down to him. “Coming!” he yelled as he ran after the man.
ooo000<^>000ooo
A few hours later
“Ah shit,” I moaned as I rolled over onto my side, followed by a rough coughing fit as I felt a bit of pressure on my lungs.
“Shayla, do not panic,” Rosemary said from next to me. “You were saved by an old Kejtdra who was able to stop the bleeding and repair some of the damage with what I think was a Thorn.”
Looking around, I found that I was in some kind of bedroom, a very nice and tidy bedroom at that. There wasn’t much to speak of, just a few portraits on the walls and a chair in the corner. Next to me was a medical tray covered in my honey colored blood. Nice.
Sitting up, I winced, feeling a stinging pain in my chest. But I pushed through it as I climbed out of bed and trotted towards the door, holding a hand to my chest as I walked. Upon pushing the door open, I found myself in a nice looking living room.
“You shouldn’t be up,” someone said from across the room.
Glancing over I saw that it was indeed an older male Kejtdra, a rifle of some kind laying across his lap.
“What’s the gun for?” I asked cautiously, getting ready to dash away if needed.
“Precautions,” he replied, gesturing to a chair on the other side of a coffee table form him. “Take a seat.”
“Think I’ll stand,” I replied evenly.
“Suit yourself,” he said as he adjusted the rifle so it was easier to raise and fire. “Mind telling me what I just witnessed?”
“What’d you see?” I asked carefully.
“You and those other creatures appearing out of nowhere and then one of them gunned you down like a rabid animal,” he said, revealing he knew of what happened to me.
“That’s basically it,” I said with a shrug. “I got tricked and betrayed, nothing much to it.”
“What are you?” he asked next, moving right along with the questions.
“Erm,” I muttered, not actually sure how to answer that. “Part pony part Kejtdra?”
“Are you asking me or telling me?”
I scowled at him, narrowing my eyes, “What is this, old man? Twenty questions?”
“Just making sure I didn’t save a monster,” he deadpanned, keeping the gun level with the floor under me. “So you’re telling me you’re a hybrid? Of a pony and a Kejtdra? How’d your parents make that happen?”
“They did the deed?” I said crudely, then rolled my eyes. “I dunno, they used magic or some shit. Why’s it matter?”
He eyed me hard, then laughed, lowering the gun, “lady, I wouldn’t tell anyone that. Hybrid’s are rare here, and require literal divine intervention to happen. If you tell the wrong person you were made with magic, they’ll probably do something rash with you. Lot of religious folk around here.”
“Duly noted,” I said with a frown. “Why’d you even save me?”
“Believe it or not, because it’s the right thing to do,” he said, placing the rifle down next to him and sitting back. “Lucky you. You'd've died within a few minutes if I hadn't shown up when I did.”
“I guess thank you,” I muttered, walking over and finally taking the seat ahead of him.
“Now, mind telling me what you’re doing here? Because I can clearly tell you’re not from around here,” he said, leaning back and cupping his hands over his stomach.
“Like I said, got tricked,” I repeated, leaning back and propping my head up with a hand. “I was supposed to bring some people here and then do whatever I want, then head home. But now I’m trapped here.”
“I see,” he said, looking me over. “What about that body of yours? I could barely make any cuts in you to get to those bullets.”
“Got Ego covering my bones and nerves,” I said casually, getting a raised eyebrow from him. “You know, Ego? The Soul? Gives you all kinds of cool powers and shit?”
“Lady,” he said, chuckling, “I do not know what you’re talking about. What you’re describing sounds like a Thorn, but those are very rare.”
“This isn’t a Thorn,” I said with a touch of annoyance. “I got something called Egonetics, and it makes my body super tough, at least my nerves and bones. At least till I get some sweet upgrades.”
“I’m barely understanding a word you’re saying now, lady,” he laughed. “But okay, you have something in you that’s hard to cut through, got that. That explains why I couldn’t just cut down to the bullets and had to dig around so much.”
“Thanks by the way, for saving me,” I forced out, not used to thanking others.
He just waved me off, “it was the decent thing to do.” Then he leaned forward, smiling. “Now, what of that name of yours?”
I wasn’t sure if I should tell him my name, felt wrong since I didn’t know him.
“I believe we can trust him,” Rosemary said from my side.
“Shayla Beltosh,” I answered, getting a nod from him.
“Beltosh, that’s a vaguely familiar name,” he said, looking to search his mind. “Ah, yes, they own the little firearms workshop over in Frokinko, the city inside that giant tree you can see in the distance.”
Looking out the window to my right, I indeed saw a massive tree far in the distance. I forgot we were shrunk down here.
“Wait,” I said, looking back to him, “My mom’s family is there?”
“If it’s the same Beltosh’s, then yep. I’m actually heading into the city tomorrow if you want to tag along,” he said with a warm smile.
“Nah, I’ll fly there,” I said as I flexed my wings.
“I’d advise against that,” he said, pointing to a painting on the wall. It depicted a massive bird attacking a train car with a few Kejtdra shooting at it. “We got massive avians that fly around and will snatch anything out of the sky they see.”
“That’s dumb,” I grumbled, pulling my wings back into myself.
“Besides, you need to rest a night. The wounds you have will need two more sessions with my Thorn before you’re back to normal,” he said, holding up his right hand to reveal a glowing hole in it, just like my mom’s.
“You have a Thorn?”
He chuckled and nodded, “I do. It’s not an amazing one, but it gets the job done. I’m able to heal most wounds, but nowadays it takes a few sessions before I can fix the problem.”
“Fine,” I said reluctantly, sitting down. “I’ll wait around till tomorrow, but only because I need to get healed.”
“Of course,” he said as he stood up. “You hungry?”
“Starving! What you got?” I asked, mouth starting to water.
My actions seemed to amuse him as he moved for the doorway to a kitchen. “By the way,” he said as he reached the door, glancing back at me, “name’s Raffy Gerges by the by.”
“Raffy’s a funny name,” I commented, getting a smile out of him.
“Guess it is,” he said, moving into the kitchen. “Hope you like meat.”
“Love it!” I yelled after him.
Now that I was alone, I sat back, rubbing my chest as I examined it more closely. I had three bullet wounds that were now just scars, two on the chest and one on my neck.
I was so lucky back there…
“Incredibly lucky,” Rosemary said as she flopped down on a couch. “It’s my fault.”
“Nah, it’s my fault, I didn’t approach this situation very well,” I admitted, sighing loudly.
“No, I recognized Lorenzo the moment he swapped his forms, but I was too shocked to react properly. Then seeing Leem again…” she said, wrapping her arms around herself.
“Is Leem the one who…”
“Yeah, it was both him and Lorenzo. Lorenzo is the one who really killed me, but Leem is the one who ate half of me…”
“Geez,” I muttered, shuddering at the thought. “My mother spoke a bit about Leem… but they were sure he and Lorenzo were dealt with.”
“Apparently not,” she deadpanned.
“Yeah, apparently not,” I mumbled, leaning back and staring at the ceiling.
Now what?
New Quest! 'Rank C: Travel to Frokinko!'
... thanks, Ego.