The trimb jabbed at the base of the blade, making the hilt convulse and wrap around Stelimus' left foreleg while the blade bent backwards against his leg.
"So that's what that flat part behind the blade was for," Stelimus noted.
The trimb remained silent for just a second. "Yes. That's why," it replied awkwardly.
Stelimus narrowed his gaze, but the trimb ignored it, preferring to walk towards where Effervescence was...'delicately repairing' her forest. The trimb and Effervescence returned in front of the weird tree, with Effervescence trying to awe her nephew by posing and having a gentle golden light wash over her from above. It didn't work. Stelimus looked up briefly at her without moving his head, then turned his back to her so she would leave him alone. Naturally, she became flustered. In response, she grabbed him by his upper shoulders then spun him around so he could face her directly.
"So? What do you think of my gifts to you?" She fluttered her eyes slowly and delicately.
"They're nice, and I'm quite interested in how those two work so well, but won't I grow out of these?"
"S' flexible mahtehriel, that is. It'll stretch wit yer bodeh whoyle yeh grow oldah," Veeyol said.
"Ah...I almost understood you, that time."
The yusimon grinned...or smiled? Stelimus wasn't certain as he couldn't see through the thick wool of this giant creature. Effervescence stepped in front of him, cutting his view of the two smiths and putting herself on center stage.
"You don't want to learn what they do or how they do it," she spoke matter-of-factly.
Stelimus cocked an eyebrow. "And why not?"
She chuckled sarcastically. "Because you're royalty, obviously. You must keep your appearances out of their reach and stay away from them, now come along."
Stelimus turned around and looked at the two smiths with an apathetic gaze just to show that he really didn't care about what his aunt thought, and they were smart enough to understand his intentions right away. Every day was the same thing with his aunt. She would try to shower him with gifts and other things for some reason he didn't understand. Yet, she wouldn't even ask about Yolumay, let alone think about her. It became quite apparent that she had focused all her attention on her nephew now, which was a good thing...in a way. She was becoming more and more obsessed with her nephew every day, and it was starting to worry not only Stelimus, but his sister as well.
Still, he adored his weapon and armor and frequently trained with them, if only to get used to their weight. His lance was surprisingly easy to wield despite its size and its wielder's strength, although that as about all one could note from it. The stag would only ever take it off when he needed to clean it when grime and muck latched onto it, or simply for hygienic purposes. What? Can't go walking around in the same underwear for seven days, so why do that with armor?
Stelimus was currently busy trying to use his lance better in a bipedal stance. Strangely enough, the armor created a sort of counter-balance at the base of his tail, providing him much easier control on his hind legs despite his cervidae body not being made for such a posture. He wasn't perfectly upright, but he wasn't hunched over, either.
"You're getting better with that thing," Yolumay said.
She was doing much better under the care of her brother, something she couldn't come to term with.
"Yeah. It's actually quite fun to use."
There was a long moment of awkward silence the princess had to interrupt. "So, is she teaching you anything? That's the only reason you would have remained her for so long."
Stelimus jabbed the lance-head into the ground and leaned against it. "I was supposed to learn her side of magic or whatever it was." Stelimus scratched his chin. "Unfortunately, she has been trying to gain my favor with gifts. She thinks giving plenty of gifts is going to buy someone's love. It's worse when the target is family, because you know how the person is."
"Have you tried bringing it up?"
"Yes, and she constantly avoids the question and changes subject. It's like trying to talk with a politician."
"Huh?"
"Nothing."
"When is Grimliss going to get you out of here? It's been a week."
Stelimus conveniently ended up getting contacted by his uncle mere seconds after Yolumay mentioned him.
"Stelimus, it'll be there in a few minutes. Hang in there," Grimliss told him.
The young stag grabbed his lance and wrapped it back around his foreleg. "His transport is coming. Well," he clapped his hooves together. "looks like I'll be bidding our aunty goodbye."
The stag when towards the throne 'room' where his aunt was being courted by a group of males who had started to fight each other, much to her amusement. Stelimus carefully waded his way around them and climbed atop the pedestal to see his aunt eating a weirdly colored grape. It looked like a paintball.
"I hate to interrupt your gladiator battle, Caligula, but I have to tell you that I'm leaving."
The doe crushed a piece of her throne under one of her hooves but kept her 'delicate' and 'beauteous' expression. "What do you mean 'leave'? You have everything you need right here, and we've become best friends, haven't we?" she smiled.
Stelimus pushed her foreleg off his shoulder. "No. Showering someone with gifts won't make them like you more. I do appreciate the armor and lance, however, but you did not teach me what I needed to know, so I'm taking my leave with my sister."
Effervescence stood up on her throne and the atmosphere around the surrounding area started to became heavier and more poisonous.
"So...you're saying that, not only are you leaving me, but you're taking her away from me too?"
"Taking her away? You didn't even take care of her the first time!"
The 'courting' stallions and stags stopped their fighting and were galloping away. Effervescence's energy exploded outwards, nearly destroying the entirety of the forest area that constituted her throne room. Stelimus jumped back at the last second and pulled out his spear to slice away some life energy that bolted towards him in mid-air.
"YOU WON'T LEAVE! I WON'T ALLOW IT!" Effervescence bellowed.
Her voice was exceptionally loud and nearly deafened Stelimus, but he hung on. He used his spirit essence to conjure up bone smog; Basically just smoke made from powdered bones. It wasn't difficult for the stag, and he took the opportunity to flee towards his sister, but his aunt ignored the distraction and gave chase. Whatever her essence was doing, it was bringing life to the forest. Literally. Roots were bursting out of the ground to try and grab Stelimus' legs while trees swooped down in an attempt to immobilize him. He used more essence to bring some of the still-dead plant life out of the ground and meld them into a wall. Looking back, it seemed to work for just a moment, but the smile on the prince's face flipped upside-down when he saw his aunt burst through the wall, making the wood splinter in all directions.
"I've been killing myself to please you, Stelimus! Why would you betray me like this?!"
"I'm not your pet, you crazy cat-lady! Oooh. Cat-lady. Oh, that was very clever, Gregary. Way to go. Certainly deserve first place comedian award for that one. Oh God. I BECAME ADAM SANDLER?!"
The chase continued until Stelimus arrived in Yolumay's retreat, prompting him to jump in the air and spin around mid-air so he could face his aunt while he slid to a stop, weapon ready and magic prepared. Yolumay started firing crescent-shaped blades of life essence at her nephew who cut them in half with his lance, giving another point to its already amazing status.
"I took care of you and gave you love when your own family would not!" Effervescence cried. "Your father doesn't care about you, nor does your mother! And your uncle is only using you!"
"Yes. Logical, Mr. Data. Using me by only giving instead of receiving and protecting me."
"You say that now but wait until the future, when he kills you for some contrived reason! I'll keep you here, along with your sister." She caught sight of Yolumay and started yelling at her as well. "And YOU! They loved you even less! They pushed you away! What did I give you? A chance to belong! I taught you everything possible to be loved by everyone, but you rejected me. You're just like your father and all your siblings before you! Selfish, vain, violent."
Yolumay wouldn't stand for such talk and stepped forward next to her brother. "Selfish? Vain? You were only trying to turn me into you." She pointed accusingly. "I refused it, and ran away to keep my own identity. I chose my own path, one you tried to destroy, and my brother helped mend my wounds, something that no one else in the family ever tried to do. Ever."
Effervescence's eyes started to well up with tears, then she glared at her nephew. "It's YOUR fault! You're the one who did this! HOW DARE YOU!"
Several sharp vines burst out of the ground but were incapable either getting past Stelimus' blade or penetrate his armor. That's when Yolumay witnessed one come from her brother's right side and jet towards his neck. She jumped in front of it and immediately felt a sharp pain in her rib cage. Stelimus had no time to react to the vine, but he was horrified by what happened to his sister.
"Yolumay!" He fell to her side and put her head on his hoof. She was already in poor condition before, but now? She definitely wouldn't make it.
"She'll love me in death if she didn't love me in life, and so will you, Stelimus. She tried to kill you! This is another gift to you. Shouldn't you be happy and love me as well?!" Effervescence begged.
The stag kept a stoic face and said nothing. Removing himself from his sister, he faced his aunt and closed his eyes. Death energies started to focus into his growing antlers. The lights around the forest began to dim and white bolts of magic started to erupt in mid-air between the two warring parties. Stelimus was blown back when a tear in space opened itself. Looking at it, the stag witnessed a giant, long, arm of bones reaching out and opening the portal more. Out of it came some sort of gigantic, clothed being. It hadn't even fully stepped out that Effervescence was already blasting it with a tremendous amount of life magic to push it back in. She was absolutely terrified of whatever that thing was, but it took every bit of effort and concentration to keep it at bay, preventing her from stopping a gigantic, undead worm from erupting out of the ground and 'eating' Stelimus and his sister before burrowing back deep underground and refilling the hole behind it.
With a final effort, the doe pushed the creature back into its hole and closed the spatial tear. She fell to her knees on the ground and huffed, then she started to cry quietly and held her head low in the darkness. "You'll love me. Everyone will love me. I don't want to be alone...I want family, too."
Effervescence needs a serious intervention. A regular one obviously doesn't work since both Steli and Yolu have. A serious one might not work either, since Grimliss apparently tried in the past. She needs to let the God-I-Am slip a bit and see how normal people interact when they want love.
Nice to see Steli loves his new toys though. She at least got that part right. Bucks and their pointy toys.
But don't kill Yolu... I was just starting to like her!
i really hope he makes amends with his aunt
anyway great chapter! MY HUNGER FOR WORDS HAS BEN SATIATED... for now
Goddamn graboids. Hate the things.
"u"? Dude, come on, seriously.
Jesus fuck that chick has seriously lost it.
As an aside. how do you come up with names for your characters? I honestly love what you have going here. "Stelimus," "Anglacite," "Yolumay," it all has this general theme to it that most stories here don't manage to achieve. It's honestly pretty nice and feels consistent in ways that only the best kind of fantasy ever does.
7018568 *vomits* Must've done that automatically because I keep seeing that written everywhere.
Uhhh...I make a character, I need a name, I make one up on the spot. Choose a letter, choose a sound, warp the sound, get the name. I don't plan anything. It's extremely rare that I ever give a name for a specific reason.
I be hoping she survives this, also yay for giant bone thing
7018586
Huh. That's kind of impressive, then. It all has this quasi-latin-nordic-but-also-not feel to it that I find really consistent. It really only stuck out to me because of that. All the Deer names really sound like they belong to the same tribe, which is something the vast majority of stories here really have problems with. I liked that.
I have family members how are like Effervescence who think they can buy affection from other family members, but in the end they just use it to try and trap me into us it to toy with my affections with their off handed comments; I hate it. I know that they do actually want me for company but they don't want me as a person, as difficult it is to describe it. In the end I am alway reluctant to accept anything from them and has left me always suspicious of the motive behind most presents that I receive. It is a shame that Effervescence's has such a rotten personalty, and that she is so callous about life, I don't dough that she wants to be love from a family members but she has serious psychological issues that she would need an expert hope for her to get better.
It's a little like a paradox or catch 22, it seems. She tries to bring her family closer to her and tries to gain their affection, but only ends up pushing them further away. i feel... pity for her. We all need love and having none kind of leaves us... empty inside. she wants love, but just can't get it.
Man, saying that this family has issues is a massive understatement. I can see effervescent becoming sometime later, but she really needs to work on her insecurities, also helping to heal yolumay thereby fixing her mistake is a first good step towards positive character development, though whether or not she will is dependant on the next chapter coming out soon. *hint**hint*
While I think that effervescent could improve herself by receiving and comprehending real love, Anglacite has only,(so far as I know), shown himself to be a total nugget of toilet chocolate. Nice chapter overall, I hope yolumay lives.
7018785
Word. To, like, all of this.
7018597 Welp, I'm not the one who decides on names and things like that. My sub-conciousness does. It's very helpful for things like this. Hell, it knows words I've never even heard of. A Shooting Nightmare has a character I based off of Psycho whose name is actually a word that means 'wanting to return home' or something similar, and it fit with the story idea. It's a reader that pointed it out.
7018608 Hmmm. I was about to suggest something dark, but...nah.
Hmm, a heart of ice to a rule a frozen land. A thorned touch to a primal rose. A breath of life to the unquiet dead. They may be apart, but they all miss what makes a mortal soul in their own ways. Fitting.
7018785 I love the family friendly tone you apply here oh wordsmith.
7020030 Very poetic.
7020055 Fun flaws and strengths to see compliment their portfolio's.
I saw the update and fist pumped in joy!
This stories awesome X3
Also the fact that an artist that helps me with my art a lot make some for dis story by an author that helped me with my stories XD teh irony
7020795 Thanks, and I don't get what you mean in yer striped sentence.
7021546 Oh XD
In basic terms (I'm too lazy to copy and paste the whole thing C:) the artist who helped me with my art made art for the author that helped me with my stories XD
Teh irony
That was basically all it said
7021605 I know what you wrote. I just copied it then increased the size in Microsoft Word.
I just can't remember you or your stories.
7022966 It was like a year ago XD I wrote some messed up Sombra story that was gonna be really long- even though it was my first story. Was a loooong time ago XD
7023727 That explains why the cover art of that one particular story seemed familiar.
7023750 XD
... Thanks for the help back then too X3 My stories would probably still be pretty bad if you hadn't suggested trying a one-chapter fic (which was way more successful then I had thought it would be)
7023836 Yeah. If you're not used to writing, one-shots are an easy way to work on your skeelz dat keelz.
7023870 precisely
7023984 They're also an easy way to...gather followers whose organs you can harvest at a later date.
7023990 ... Oh, yes, I've thrown quite the amount of parties for my stalkers... Each one featuring
poison lacedcupcakes7024095
Ok so his aunt is some sort of attention/love hungry yandere?? Anyway i love this story!! I just hope copper wont fall in the yandere category....That being said, MOAR PLEASE!!!
7030270 What's a yandere?
7030317 Dude, just use the googles.
7031164 Okay.
i.ytimg.com/vi/iNvVPZD9nFM/maxresdefault.jpg
It didn't work.
7032969 Ugh. I won't do that kind of ending. You don't have to worry about that...OR WILL I?
uploads.skyhighnetworks.com/2014/12/blog-banner-dr-evil.png
I won't, though. That's an annoying, boring cliché ruining the whole trip.
7032054
Here you go.
7033415 Huh. Effervescence showed affection to Yolumay, so it's not really suiting for her, I find.
7033422 Well...
7033430 And the more you know, the less you care.
I fucking new it. That bich just wants some friends but she's a crazy cartoon bich with social problems. She is God queen of assburgers.
7033436 static1.fjcdn.com/thumbnails/comments/4920435+_9ff2ebfe77a69336850d8b84324d73b6.png
7058169 Hmmm. You have a point. I think Majora and I accidentally a paragraph. You think I should delete it?
7059038
Ah, sorry. I didn't get an alert for your reply. If the reply ends up being attached to a different chapter than the original comment FiMFiction seems to lose track of it.
Deleting the line would be the easiest fix, or you could just have them address each other by name in the two preceding lines instead of generic 'you's. Either way would fix that narrative conflict. Which one is entirely up to you, after all several people really liked that joke and the only thing it is really missing is them saying the names as set-up.
7061024 Hmmm.
Suddenly I'm feeling bad for her. I mean, she seriously needs a hug!
7161051 Yeah, but she's going about it in a pretty terrible way. . .
Stelimus was blown back when a tear in space opened itself. Looking at it, the stag witnessed a giant, long, arm of bones reaching out and opening the portal more. Out of it came some sort of gigantic, clothed being. It hadn't even fully stepped out that Effervescence was already blasting it with a tremendous amount of life magic to push it back in. She was absolutely terrified of whatever that thing was, but it took every bit of effort and concentration to keep it at bay, preventing her from stopping a gigantic, undead worm from erupting out of the ground and 'eating' Stelimus and his sister before burrowing back deep underground and refilling the hole behind it.
With a final effort, the doe pushed the creature back into its hole and closed the spatial tear.
Hastur? Is that you?
8401509
Who?
Also, I realized I didn't really reuse this guy when I meant to in the sequel. *taps chin* That wouldn't be hard to write in, honestly.
What a madhouse...
That Armor and Weapons are epic
Effervescence used Attract. It wasn't very effective.
Hello, Pot; meet Kettle. You're BOTH black.