Deer Me: Adwanee Sands

by The Psychopath

Weak Frame

Hora kept a hand on Oriyis' shoulder and was mumbling something to the zaoris. Whatever ye was saying, Oriyis was grumbling and refusing the words.

"Hey!" Stelimus shouted. Oriyis and Hora both looked at him with curious eyes. "Your attempts to kill me failed, and it's clear you weren't under that...thing's influence." Ice started growing from under Stelimus' hooves and was slowly expanding outwards. "Either Hora does something about you or I kill you here."

Copper blinked in disbelief. Stelimus was absolutely enraged and with a bloodthirst in his eyes that she had never seen before.

"That's not Stelly," she thought to herself.

"Wow. He really takes from you, anglacite," Gfefner whispered to his brother. Anglacite shared a narrowed glare in return.

Hora put a foot forward to place yimself in between the two rulers, but Oriyis prevented yis guardian to do so. Struggling to get back on yis feet, Oriyis cracked yis neck and stared directly at Stelimus.

"Fine. Yes. I did attempt to kill you, but this is not what I expected." Oriyis brushed sand off yis legs. "It never did that before, and it wasn't long before I lost control of my own body." The zaoris looked around at the anyubinites' damaged capital city and splayed yis arms forward to emphasize it all. "Look at what happened to my people's homes! This is far beyond what I wanted. FAR beyond." Ye scratched at a scab on yis cheek, growled, then bared yis teeth angrily. "I'll have to dig deep into my personal coffers to repair everything."

"...You would dig into your own money to repair damages?"

"Why wouldn't I?"

"But--"

"Deer King, I would appreciate that you drop the subject," Hora interjected. "Enough damage has been caused today."

"And what about you?!" Yolumay bellowed. She hopped down from the dried plants whilst the two bodyguards dug around the city for reasons known only to them. "You invited us here, and then you suddenly intervene when he turned into that THING!"

"I am not a 'he'," Oriyis corrected.

Hora exchanged stares with the princess at first, then ye continued yis explanation. "Because I am one of Oriyis' closest advisors and am of the actual very few to know about the secrets of my own people. What you thought was just a diplomatic envoy with some minor advantages on the echelon was more. Much more."

"Then what about that sudden transformation? Yolumay asked.

Hora looked down at Oriyis who shook yis head. "It seems that Zelmar, as my zaoris mentioned, took an interest in the deer king." Ye lifted an eyebrow in suspicion. "Zelmar has never done so in the past. Not to this extent. Whatever interest it has in the deer king seems to be known only between the two." Ye straightened yimself out and looked straight at Stelimus. "I trust whatever deal you made with it will be benign?"

Before Stelimus could add more, the remaining few gitz-gitz-guak emerged from the sands, unharmed. They all stomped towards Hora and lifted yim up violently by yis thin body.

"Put me down," Hora spoke with a commanding tone. This went over the giants' heads.

"You promised to return our homes and history to us."

"And they will. We have some issues of our own. I keep my word, even if I lose everything else."

Hora was dropped limply onto the ground and the creatures walked towards the intact pyramid whose middle half became ajar again. "We will wait in this palace," the giant said bluntly.

Once the bugs were gone, Stelimus took the moment of silence as an opportunity."This doesn't explain how your 'gods' managed to manifest themselves physically or how my father is here," he said.

"We can explain that," former god-king Anglacite said. He and his siblings floated towards the current deer king and Hora, although they didn't seem too pleased about being near an anyubinite. "It's because of the sheer concentration of death gods and agents of theirs."

"Huh?" Stelimus blabbed.

"He means that, with so much spiritual energies of godly proportions focused in such an area, the barrier between the living and the spirits is as thin as the velvet that falls from new antlers," Gfefner explained. "It's how we managed to get through and follow you around, Stelimus Anglacite."

Stelimus remained expressionless and pointed to the three. "You were stalking us?" he stated dryly.

Tyeda and Gfefner both coughed in embarassment and averted the stag's gaze. Stelimus frowned at both of them and grumbled, then he turned back to the two anyubinites. "That still doesn't explain why you would attack the one who supposedly brought you to where you were. How are you even still in control of yourselves? My father went crazy and violent after he became corrupted."

"Don't remind me," Anglacite said in the back.

"Because we found a way to limit its influence on us, but we won't refuse it entirely," Hora explained.

"By having a zaoris, we create a focal point where any anyubinite deemed worthy enough will intake the powers and forces of Zelmar and keep its influence in check," Oriyis added. "I'm busy both ruling my country and bringing offerings in secret to Zelmar so that things like this don't occur, or that we don't get any 'black snow', as you call it."

"I thought it was called 'Adwanee Snow'," Gfefner thought aloud.

"That is the naming convention of the Berbiers."

"They see it as a different color which they call 'Adwanee'," Hora added. "Their eyes are strange."

"Can we just go home?" Copper asked. Stelimus forced himself towards her and held her. "I just want to find the comfort of my bed and the soft, fluffiness of Stelly's pelt." She buried her face into the deer king's pelt and smiled in satisfaction with her eyes closed. Stelimus blushed in response.

"You will have to wait at least two weeks," Hora said. "You won't be leaving until we can repair everything."

"And I need to send out messengers to the quarries around our sands and to the Saddle Arabian sultan. I have much financial business to work with and some coffers to empty."

"Wouldn't using so much of your own money, including the actions you performed here, find you weakened in multiple aspects?" Anglacite asked.

"Yes, but if my people wish to judge me, then so be it. Another zaoris will take my place. We zaorii are only here to keep Zelmar's power in check and to maintain the country. If we are seen as unworthy, then so be it."

"You are not here to be kept on a leash by your own people. The pet does not walk the master."

Oriyis and Anglacite exchanged glares. Two different eyes from two different worlds.

"You and I both have concepts of ruling. While you were busy crushing your own people, I was busy instilling both fear of my abilities and respect towards the actions I undertook to keep them safe and to let them grow into a powerful country worthy of resisting any threats from the outside."

Hora nodded and helped yis ruler upon on yis own feet. "So you know the source of your 'black snow'. What now?" he asked Stelimus.

"I was expecting you to figure out how to keep it from attacking us again. I might not be there to live through it again, but the future reindeer will," Stelimus said.

"And I think we've all seen enough death over such long periods," Tyveda added.

"We will have something ready for you. You have my word that it will be delivered before you are sent back to your home country. Until then, I believe you have some catching up to do, and you are more than welcome to return to the pyramid for your rooms." Hora bowed and aided yis zaoris back to yis pyramid.

"Wait!" Copper Blossom's plea stopped the anyubinites in their tracks. "You aid that the walls between the world of the living and the dead is weakest here, right?"

"Yes."

She looked around nervously, her whole body trembling. "Where is my mother? Where's Cadance?"

There was a long moment of silence between the two save for the few gusts of wind blowing sand to-and-fro. "I never said anything about everything realm of the dead being here."

"What does he mean by that?" Copper looked at Stelimus then quickly darted back to the anyubinite who was already walking away. "What do you mean by that?!" she shouted.

"Copper. Leave it be. Relax. We're safe now."

Copper started crying. "You can talk. Your whole family is here. Even my biological parents aren't."

"If it makes you feel any better," Anglacite started. "Those that don't wander like us tend to actually be in the after life. They're most certainly watching for you and waiting when your time comes. Until then, they won't let bad things happen to you."

Copper's sniffle sound so phlegmy that Tyveda and Gfefner backed away and stuck out their tongues in obvious disgust. Anglacite approached his son and looked at him with melancholy.

"Well...it's me. Your father," he presented himself awkwardly.

"Eeyup," Stelimus responded whilst putting Copper on the ground to relax.

"Well...I was expecting a more surprised and maybe happy reaction from you."

"And I was expecting kiwi flavored ice cream to all from the sky."

Anglacite rolled his eyes. "Well, at least you're not behaving like Effervescence over there."

Stelimus leaned over to see his aunt hugging the two deceased god kings and crying about it.

"I can't believe you're both here. It's been so long!" She backed away and looked at them. "And you're still how you were so long ago."

"And you turned into a vegetable," Tyveda teased.

Effervescence looked at her with puffed up cheeks and an angry expression. "At least I made something of myself," the doe underlined.

"Yeah. A garden, and anyone can make those."

Gfefner shook his head and rubbed his face. "Can you two give it a rest? I'm more interested in how you even became like this."

"Consistant exposure to the energies of vegetation in a rich and powerful forest, amongst other things..." she trailed off.

"Really?" The god king rubbed his chin pensively. He scooped up a bit of sand and gradually let it slide from his hooves. "I would be remiss if I didn't say I would have loved to see such a thing happen to me with sand." He turned to face his other sister. "What do you think, Tyveda?"

"I don't like sand. Too coarse and rough. I'm content with the soft and cold feeling of ice and snow."

"We thought the same, and now we're like this," Effervescence hummed. "Although Grimliss didn't become like he is voluntarily."

"Oh yeah. Grimliss!" Tyveda shouted. "Where is he?"

"He's...not here..." Effervescence looked away.

"I see," Gfefner mumbled. "Well, eventually, perhaps. We'll spot him when we do, what with his obsession with potions and things."

"He...Sure." Effervescence forced a calm expression and gave a little smile.

"I wonder if we can't remedy the issue of not getting to live as long as we wanted. I'm really curious as to how much the world has changed and would love to see it physically." The god king looked over towards Stelimus and Copper and hummed.

Author's Note:

The story is almost over. Normally, the next chapter should be a more 'calm' chapter with proper explortion of the surroundings and the people.