Chapter 1: Spell: CURSED
Notes:
Hey friends! I've been working on this piece for a bit now, for those new here, hello! Please do enjoy my little Rain World au!
For those familiar with me, this is a reimagining of a story I wrote a while ago titled "Now Spell Ascend", essentially I just didn't like where I was taking the story and what I wrote for it at the time, so I took a small break and then started working on this!
I do hope this version is better, any feedback is welcome as I am still rather new to writing things, but more than anything else, thank you for reading, and enjoy!
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
Cold wind grazed across some traces of grass growing from cracks in the metal floor, forming a soft melodic whistle that seemed to wake all sorts of small bugs.
The electric hum of a shelter opening for the morning filled the air as a hole was made in the metal wall nearby.
Artificer woke from her slumber, roused by the noise created by the pipe opening, signaling morning for her, but something about today felt...off.
She rubbed one of her eyes to shoo away the sleepiness and ensure she woke up properly, following up quickly by pushing herself up to her hind legs and weighing herself for a moment to catch her bearings, after a moment of stretching she noticed how strange her mind felt...things have been more eventful lately, all she needed to do was find out why.
She began recounting the events of recent days, starting with a mantra she often repeated to herself to stay calm. "My name is Artificer, I am alive."
Her mind successfully trailed backward, speeding past her actions long ago with the scavengers, then slowly recounting the events.
She remembered how everything was normal until the strange mechanical god Pebbles called her into his chamber, something about discovering something new...things changed that cycle, many things, not everything she was aware of. Her insides burned like never before, her inner fire was still noticeably present, but the slight sting in each of her veins was more noticeable, although it did take a moment for her to notice. Another thing was that her mind felt lighter, not by much of course, but enough to have more headaches like the one she was experiencing at the moment.
She also managed to somehow find herself almost an entire region away from the can of Pebbles, if she had moved there, perhaps she just hadn't remembered.
She finally decided to leave the shelter, taking a deep breath outside once her hind leg made contact with the sun-heated metal, her maroon fur blowing ever so slightly in the faint wind. It felt nice out here, especially to her fur that already radiated heat.
She knew, however, that she couldn't stay here forever, she couldn't even stay for too long, the cycles were rather short here, at least as far as she could remember.
So it was off to her morning routine right away, all the while she was thinking about past events and why everything felt so blurry and familiar.
Her ears perked upward as she heard the familiar sound of metal hitting against metal, the spear she found herself holding tightened to her body as she scanned the area, what could it be? Lizard's heads were metallic, at least as far as she could tell, although in her experience that made more of a scraping noise, and nothing else bared metal other than...of course.
The answer found its way to her mind as she spotted a spear lodged in the ground, her eyes trailed upward to the ceiling...it always was hard to find these things, but her eyes were mostly used to seeing hidden things, she could thank the white lizards at the wall for that.
There, holding itself up on the underside of a bridge, just above the spear, was a dropwig.
She was familiar with the creatures, while they were easy work for her and her ability to propel through the air, most other slugcats struggled with these little critters, especially-...
She found herself lost for a moment, thinking of a small slugpup grabbing what it shouldn't and dying because of it.
She had promised not to think of that.
It took her a moment to catch her bearings again, she shook her head and gathered herself before propelling herself through the air and getting ready to stab at the beast now in front of her, and for a moment she witnessed things how she often saw them, slowed by adrenaline.
The dropwig's mandibles spread open as it saw movement, it was reeling backward to pounce as a hiss began escaping its mouth, but it was already too late, Artificer already had her spear ready and held back above her shoulder, just one spear, that's all it would take to kill it, that's all it ever took.
The sound of metal slamming and scraping against metal sounded against the walls, followed quickly by a loud and sudden hiss, then another hiss, but from a more cat-like source.
Artificer found herself on the ground a moment later, as if her body had moved on her own, the spear fell from her hands and landed on the ground, forming a cross with the other that the dropwig planted, but she couldn't focus on that now, her hands were firmly planted on the mandibles of the dropwig which was on top of her, hissing and biting at the air in an attempt to bite and kill her.
How did she miss? How could she let herself miss?
Questions for later, she needed to focus now apparently. Breakfast was fighting back.
It all happened in another swift instant, a second drawn out to a little eternity by the adrenaline, she sent a shockwave out, knocking the dropwig off of her as she followed it into the air, holding where she identified its 'head' secured as she bit underneath it, being sure to have it land under her and be minorly stunned by the impact.
It didn't take long for her to rip its throat out, and for the critter beneath her to stop writhing in an attempt to nab itself a meal, as she had already secured one.
She took a small moment to catch her breath, a small encounter being changed into that was not the most ideal thing she could think of.
After a moment of indiscernible time had passed, she raised herself and grabbed the critter by the mandibles again, pulling it toward her shelter so that she could go find more food before eating, no doubt this would not fill up her stomach, so she needed to find something else, luckily, and equally strangely, her stomach felt full from the night prior, it felt as if she could sleep another night before having to worry about food.
It only took a small moment and a few steps while carrying the dropwig, she staggered backward and clutched her side. After checking and pulling aside fur that was slightly too bushy, she noticed that she had a small bruise, probably gotten from the sudden forced landing the encounter forced her to be subject to, she took an extra minute to kick the dropwig out of anger.
She wouldn't let that hold her for long though, so he just tucked away the dropwig and walked onward, holding her side carefully as she picked up her spear once more, strange yes, but she didn't have time nor mind space for 'strange', she was a busy scug.
The cycle felt quick to her, green lizards were rather plentiful here, and she found those trivially easy to kill, as well as yielding great meat on their bones, after taking a long white dragging the beast back to her shelter, she began to rip into the green lizard, letting its blood splatter against her fur, it never made too much of a difference anyways, at least not on most of her fur, the charred bits were easier to notice, but she liked the advanced scare tactics she could-
She felt her thoughts be interrupted as she felt the meat she had just eaten slide back up her throat, forcing its way out into the open world again.
It took a moment of her hand on the head of the lizard to regurgitate the few bite fulls she ate, watching through blurry vision as red hunks of raw meat covered in her explosive saliva lay sizzling on the ground, cooking itself well done.
That was...strange...but once more, she didn't have time for strange, there were more pressing matters, like the small raindrops she felt on her fur.
So without much of a second thought, she bent over onto all of her paws, using one full arm to scarf down the spilled meat, then hurrying to eat some more, and before she could allow her body to respond, she was up and dragging the dropwig into the shelter to eat in the morning.
She barely noticed the night passing, she had few nights without nightmares, but surprisingly this was one of them, she always took a moment to appreciate it when that happened.
She took little time to dawdle, heading out of the shelter and outside, feeling the warm sun on her heated red fur, much like any other morning, she always had a moment for that feeling, a new day.
After a small moment though, she left intending to head closer to where she knew others of her kin were, at least then she could ask questions to someone.
She caught herself in the middle of thinking as she walked forward...why not ask Pebbles? He always had an answer for everything, and more often than not cared that she was doing normal, although past that he didn't pay much mind to her that she could tell, although she liked to entertain herself with the thought of her caretaker worrying over her behind her back.
That was probably wishful thinking, from what she had heard Pebbles was even cruel to his siblings.
But she chose to stay hopeful. For all of her life after meeting him, she chose to believe he had the best intentions at heart.
So why did that sting to say now, of all times?
Why did her body burn to move, and hurt her neigh constantly, unlike the natural firey way it did before, this was different...this was unnatural.
She hadn't considered how long she had been walking, but it made itself apparent as she bumped head-first into a wall, she rubbed her head for a moment before heading into the pipe, exiting to see a decently large room, if her memory served her right this was just short of a gate in the direction she was heading, but she had a moment to gather some food, if she remembered right there should be some in the room ahead.
She climbed through the final pipe where she believed food was, heading into the room and shielding her eyes, the light was a bit brighter in this room for some reason, maybe it was the way it reflected off the metal walls and platform.
But as her eyes adjusted, there was more than just a simple room layout with a platform, more than even a simple green or pink lizard that she expected to be here. There was a figure on top of the platform. It looked like a slugcat, holding itself in a very relaxed position, even after presumably seeing her. She could have sworn most slugcats were nervous around her...maybe things finally changed.
But as her eyes adjusted, more and more details of the figure revealed themselves. This slugcat had red fur, scars scattered about its body, and some strange yet small growths across its body.
She only knew one slugcat who looked like that, and his voice confirmed that to an even greater degree. "Hey Arty, long time no see."
"NSH wants a word but...we have some time before we have to be there, let's catch up."
Live Broadcast
public
FP: The solution has been found.
FP: The solution is portable.
FP: The solution can be easily applied at scale.
Notes:
Not much dialogue in this chapter, there should be more in later chapters, but hey, we have to start somewhere.
For those who have read Now Spell Ascend, you are a bit ahead of the curve with storytelling, although some things are different! another thing I have been wanting to do is put down little world info in the end notes so that there is less confusion with the AU.So I'm going to do that!
World info of the chapter: Karma works differently in this au, instead of going down when a scug dies and going up when they sleep, it can be changed on a whim and relies heavily on the scug's mental state, implying a heavier focus on peace for those at higher karma values.
Arty has a journey ahead of her.
Chapter Text
"-And that's the last thing I remember, at least largely, the rest is...blurry..."
Spoke the maroon slugcat, carefully tracing past those last words as if almost dancing around them.
They had moved inside a shelter since the two saw each other, discussing events up until this point, mostly Hunter speaking though, Artificer did try to fill him in from her perspective, but she couldn't manage to hold on to memories before this cycle for too long.
Artificer's memory has never been the very best, but she has never before truly forgotten things, maybe little details or even names (she struggled with names most of all) but never entire events or cycles, at least not since...
She chose not to think about that now.
"Huh...well, look on the bright side lady Kamikaze, you've been through rougher, we both have. I'm sure it's just something you ate acting up, or maybe a sharp bonk on the head"
Replied the cherry-red slugcat.
Hunter was a tad worried beneath the surface, but he also wasn't the best at...the whole scug interaction bit, for better or for worse, he never really learned how to express worry or care, considering being the child of an iterator tends to make you a bit of a weirdo to other slugcats.
Artificer couldn't help but feel her eyebrow raise a half inch:
"Lady Kamikaze?"
Hunter let off a minor chuckle at that, nodding and raising a paw in a half shrug:
"I'm trying out new nicknames for people, plus dear old dad talked about you like that, so I'm trying it out, I think it kinda fits"
He lets off a soft chuckle after that, giving Artificer a very slight poke on the nose to try to cheer up his partner.
Artificer couldn't help but let off a minor chuckle as she felt the gentle press of his rougher digit pad against her nose, she ran a paw through her fur for a moment to consider, but she was quickly interrupted by a tinge of hunger.
It only then occurred to her that she hadn't eaten for whatever reason...
No wait, she had. She remembered eating at the very least...
She would be able to remember more, had she had some food in her stomach, but that was a concern for a moment in the future, for now, she tracked herself back to the conversation.
Reflecting on what Hunter had said, she replied again with a nod:
"It might just be that...I have been showing some sick symptoms, but I have no experience seeing that in adults, I'm typically great at noticing them in pups though."
She took an extra moment to think, pushing her back against the shelter's cold wall and hearing the hushed sizzle of her hot fur against the icy feeling of the lifeless structure.
Her eyes managed to wander over to the quarter-eaten lizard that was half hanging out of the shelter door, she felt a bit of saliva gather at the corners of her mouth and under her tongue, forcing her to swallow subconsciously.
She was hungry.
Hunter was looking as well, but more so at Arty, with a perplexed face decorated with a raised eyebrow and a half-open mouth, he shook it off before giving Artificer a light tap, snapping her out of the daze she was in as he continued:
"You were looking a bit absent there, you doing okay Lady Kamikaze? Hungry?"
Artificer felt consciousness slip into her mind all at once again, situational awareness felt like cold water sprinkling over her mind and sending bumps across her skin under her fur, she spared a nod toward Hunter as she ran a paw across her head, tracing up to her ear as she spoke:
"Must be, I haven't yet eaten this cycle, just give me a moment"
She turned her head, facing the lizard and crawling at a slow pace toward the lizard, moving one of its legs with one arm so that the muscle was more exposed, and pressing against its head with her other arm instinctually, as if it would come back alive to bite her head off.
The sounds of flesh rending from bone filled the shelter for a moment as she pierced a clump of muscle with her teeth and began to pull back.
It only took a small moment of struggle against the fibers connecting the tissue with the rest of the body to rip, leaving her with a mouthful of delectable lizard meat.
It was raw, pink meat that was still bleeding, but the second it slid past her teeth and into her mouth it began to sizzle when it made contact with her saliva, effectively cooking it in her mouth.
She only waited a moment for it to cook before swallowing it whole, feeling the lump of sustenance moving down her throat.
She quickly replaced it by repeating the action, ripping a few more chunks of flesh from the corpse of her prey and swallowing them whole.
"Void below...you really are hungry,"
Hunter interjected as a bit of a jab, leaning slightly closer and beginning to feel the warmth radiating from her fur as she ate, waiting for a moment before continuing to speak:
"You hunted this on your own, I don't see why-"
Hunter felt his words leave his mouth, then catch themselves at the edges of his teeth as his eyes thinned, staring now.
Artificer was hunched over the corpse, her paw moved from the beast's leg and now covering her maw, clamping it shut as she made a gagging motion, she felt her body reject itself in a way it never had before.
She moved her other paw, disregarding the lizard's head and placing it around her mouth, holding it shut with a firmness equivalent to the lizard itself as some half-red, half-brown liquid shot from the spaces in between each tooth and past her attempts to keep her mouth shut, dropping onto the ground and sizzling, burning at the metal it landed on.
Her grip didn't last long, her body's strength was sapped away all at once as the food she had just eaten came back up her throat, tossing itself out and onto the floor of the shelter as her paws were forced onto the ground beneath her to assure she didn't fall in her mess.
Half-digested food springing from her mouth, she was shaken as her eyes teared up, her arms quivering under the weight of her own body.
She finished throwing up, there was nothing left in her body for it to reject, but the mere taste of the meat on her tongue was enough to keep her gagging for another minute that felt like an eternity to her.
Hunter didn't exactly know how to react, for the first time in a while, he was paralyzed with a tinge of confusion and a slight amount of fear, less for himself and more compassionate fear, sympathetic fear, for her.
He found his paw on her back, gently rubbing up and down her spine to try to calm his partner, additionally, he felt a bead of sweat wet the fur on his forehead, he tried to let out a minor chuckle, leaning in a bit closer to look at Artificer:
"Void below...are you okay? What um..."
He let out a gulp, Iterators don't do that. He was clueless here.
Artificer felt her body pushing in on itself to get whatever was inside out as fast as possible, but her senses were beginning to come back to her as some tears matted her fur.
She managed to lightly push herself up to her knees before giving Hunter as much of a thumbs-up as she could, her hand was shaking violently, as were her knees.
She tried speaking, but her tongue caught itself in the back of her throat with another gag.
She felt the contact of her partner's rougher fur press against her back and a paw reach to her side, both of which she instinctually pushed away, snapping out a set of breathless words.
"I'm fine."
Hunter looked at her for all too long, all within a moment.
"No, you aren't."
Artificer hissed and snapped back immediately.
"I am! It's just... indigestion, maybe the lizard meat was bad."
Hunter looked down at her with a face that read 'seriously?'
Artificer slowly raised herself, feeling he weakness of her legs under her and her empty stomach growl in disapproval.
"Come on,"
Hunter posed, interlocking his arm with hers to help her stand.
"NSH is faw away, but Moon should be close to here... Let's get you checked out, okay?"
Artificer bit back a hiss, looking down as she weighed her options.
She had an iterator give her checkups before, surely Moon would be no different.
With what she had heard from Rivulet, maybe Moon would be better.
She pressed her head into her mate's fur as she took a small step forward.
"Alright, then let's go there, we should be able to make it if we hurry."
Hunter shook his head as he interjected.
"First, we are going to try giving you fruit, maybe you are food poisoned or something, fruit typically helps the others."
Artificer looked down for a moment, she hated it when he was right... Which was often, big surprise to her that an iterator-raised slugcat is smarter than one who got adopted.
"Fruit sounds pleasant."
Hunter gave her a nod, gently walking her over outside of the shelter, then propping her against a wall as he gave her a soft nod.
"There is fruit just out this way, you wait here and scream if anything bad happens, okay?"
"You know I would rather die than scream for help, no?"
Artificer said with a hint of sass and a smile, to which prompted Hunter to let off a small sigh, nodding and darting off.
"That's what makes me worried, Danger."
Artificer looked off to the side for a moment.
"...stay safe please, Cherry."
She looked out to the open room with a hint of a blush under her fur.
It took a moment before Hunter returned, carrying two blue fruits, one in each hand.
"Here, these are always a good place to start, dad told me even pups could eat these!"
Artificer blinked herself awake, she hadn't fallen asleep entirely but she definitely felt her body wanting to drift away.
"They can, although the honey in beehives and popcorn plants are better so that they don't choke."
Hunter let off a small chuckle, handing her the two fruits as he nodded.
"I guess I still have a lot to learn there."
Artificer gently took the fruits, hesitating before putting one up to her mouth.
She didn't like the taste of them ever before, the way they interacted with her biology meant she was always eating burned fruit.
But she had no choice here, so as her mouth began to sizzle with saliva building up, she took a fairly large bite from the fruit.
It squelched under the pressure from her teeth, giving way immediately to the soft juicy center.
It still tasted horrid, cooked fruits were worse than cooked meat on any given day.
But she had more pressing matters to think about, one immediately became noticeable as she gripped her stomach, her mind getting ready for her body to reject the food.
... But surprisingly to her, it stayed down.
She was confused, stunned even, as she looked down at the fruit with a small sense of hatred, almost wanting it to come back up.
"... How is it?"
She heard her partner ask, she gingerly lifted her head, seeming less spiteful now as she swallowed and nodded.
"It's... It's staying down... That's for sure."
Hunter smiled and nodded.
"Welp, I know the locations of a few popcorn plants on the way, I have no idea what's going on with you but,"
She felt a small epiphany rear in the back of her mind before Hunter even finished, words that she knows to be true but could not accept.
"You might be vegetarian now!"
6204.337 - Private
No Significant Harassment, Seven Red Suns
NSH: Yo, Suns, I want to talk, are you free for just a few minutes?
SRS: I am always free, I assume this is regarding... Him.
NSH: 'fraid so, heard anything yet?
SRS: Nothing but radio silence.
NSH: Damn. It's like he's ghosting us on purpose.
SRS: You know it would not be the first time, correct?
NSH: Yeah, but this time just... Feels different, for some reason.
SRS: Perhaps we should try checking on him, I could send my messenger if you could like.
NSH: Maybe... Hunter is busy on his own side-quest so I won't be able to talk to him directly from here.
SRS: Side quest? Have you been reading more of the old vernacular guides of the ancients?
NSH: ... Maybe.
SRS: Nevertheless, it is none of my business, I will send messenger out next cycle to surveil Pebbles' can go make sure he is still alright.
NSH: Thanks a bunch Suns, tell them to stay safe alright?
SRS: They will. They were not built for mistakes.
NSH: Stay well bud, I'll cya around.
SRS: Farewell for now.
Notes:
FINALLY DONE!
It took a while, sorry about that
But it's finally done!I can't say expect more consistency, but the break between chapters shouldn't be this long next time!
... Hopefully!
Enjoy, everyone! <3
Chapter Text
Hunger.
A pang between her ribs,
A weakness between shoulders,
Artificer was feeling famished, hungry,
Starved.
She remembered walking for a while, next to her partner.
But things looked different now, more pale, darker, as if the clouds above threatened an oncoming downpour.
The feeling in her body was no longer only attributed to hunger,
To a degree she was used to an internal pain, her own blood before felt so distant now, the warmth it provided, the comfort of its heat, and the reliable protection it gave.
This pain felt different, a stinging feeling she could feel through every artery, every vain in her system, it was a patient agony, like every few seconds she was being stung by a centipede.
Red.
The pain felt red.
In some abstract way, the pain felt red to her.
Like a red centipede’s sting, or a red lizard’s bite, or even the red of the king vulture’s long ranged attacks.
Whichever was most accurate, the pain felt red.
Her thoughts were interrupted, once by a sound, a splat,
Then twice by the damp feeling of water.
She hated water, although admittedly, puddles were nice, they served as a nice reminder for who she was, where she could ground herself.
But looking down, she almost felt herself jump out of her skin, and freeze all at once.
Something alien, foreign in the puddle’s reflection, yet to her horror, it was not showing something else, but rather, replacing her.
The figure was a slug cat, like her, but different.
Green, with long curly fur, and what seemed to be three closed eyes.
It looked monstrous, like how the purple one with the strange tail looked, or even the blue one with gills, she even found herself drawing comparisons to Hunter.
She was sure she looked nothing like that.
Nothing like that thing.
She used to feel comfort in how the Scavengers looked at her, terror, anger, rage.
But this was different.
This thing looked all too indifferent about the world, its emotions could not be read, that much was impossible.
She was scared, terrified of this…thing in her reflection.
Her thoughts were interrupted, now twice fold,
“Mama,”
A voice began, small, fragile sounding.
She could not stop herself from whipping around to see what made the noise so distantly familiar to her ears.
A pup, cyan in color, stood a distance away.
Small, it hasn’t grown since last she saw it.
Although its fur has, curly long fur, like the thing she saw in the reflection.
Burn marks blot out one of the pup’s eyes, just like her own, no doubt the result of the blast that separated them.
That wasn’t all, though,
A still bleeding spear cut in the pup’s forehead, fur failed to hide the wound.
It looked almost like a third, closed, eye.
She couldn’t control her body, she lunged forward, she was sure this wasn’t real, but if she could spare even a small moment with one of her children again, she would be happy.
Unfortunately, she was stopped just short of the pup.
An invisible force, a wall between them.
A shimmer crossed the surface of the invisible wall, like glass, it obstructed her vision of the pup, all but the leg and lower torso was visible.
But what she could see did not belong to a pup.
Too-thin spindly legs colored a bright pink extended from underneath an orange-yellow colored robe, wires hung loosely at the feet of the being.
She knew who it was.
And his gaze burned into the back of her skull from above.
Spotlights in place of eyes.
She felt her body shut down.
She felt words come back to her, forcing out just one sentence would be enough.
“...Wh-”
“ARTY.”
She jolted awake.
A red blurry figure shook her awake by the shoulders, her vision cleared to see Hunter there, looking worried.
“You have been kicking since you passed out, I think you are hungry, we all get hungry!” Hunter assured, shovelling over a blue fruit to her.
“I…what happened?” She found the strength to ask.
“You passed out just after we started walking, I carried you to the nearest shelter, you are…very light.”
She could not find her words, everything felt so numb.
She was shaking, she was sure of that much.
Why?
“You are leaking from all sorts of places.” Hunter said, sounding concerned.
She reached a paw up, touching her face in confusion, feeling the damp fur cling to her digits, tears, she was crying again.
Why?
“You can’t sleep on an empty stomach, at least try to eat this, there is a popcorn plant outside, we all love to eat those, I know that much.”
She knew he was right.
A small moment passed, she was outside, picking at the plant, eating parts from the inside like the animal she was.
She hadn’t eaten, and this food was staying down.
She couldn’t let this get away from her, not even for a small second.
“Woah, slow down Arty, at that pace you might look like Gourmand by the end of the cycle.” Hunter teased.
She could only hiss, like a lizard baring teeth over prey, if she had the skull of a lizard, it would be flickering too.
A moment later, she felt her stomach begin to reject all of the food being put inside, not violently though, she was full, for the first time in a long time.
She turned, catching sight of a puddle again as she did, not yet dry from the last downpour.
She was not that thing she saw before.
But she began to realise something.
She always separated herself from Hunter, Spearmaster, or Rivulet, they were monsters, things made in the image of her species, a fake.
But looking at Hunter, a perfect representation of a slug cat, with some scars, and even natural coloring.
And then herself.
Blood red.
Scarred in some places beyond recognition.
She looked less like her species than the fakes did.
“Arty?”
Artificer felt the world slip away from her vision, only words were left, only him and her.
“...Were you made with those scars?”
“...What?”
“You have scars, like me. Were you made with them, or did you get them?”
“...Where did this-”
“Just,” She began, fist clenching, another outburst no doubt, but this one felt warranted “Answer my question, Hunter.”
“...It was a part of the accident, for your information.”
“You said your father wanted m-”
“NSH.”
“...Your creator, then. He wanted me.”
“You were the last one around when your dad disappeared, he just wants to ask some questions, as far as I know.”
Artificer felt the world seep back into her vision,
All at once, like a flood of context, she felt her breath catch and stabilise.
“So you came to get me for information,” Artificer posed, cocking her head to the side “Knowing I don’t speak their language, neither do you.”
“I think you misunderstand how this all works.” Hunter said matter-of-factly.
The air felt thick with conversation, thick enough to spear and eat.
“Are you thinking of not coming?” Hunter asked, tilting his head.
“I’ll come.” Artificer said simply “How many more cycles of walking until we get there?”
“Ten at the very best, probably closer to twelve thanks to your new…condition.” He replied, trying to put it elegantly.
“I know. Luckily I remember where most popcorn plants are, at least close to this area.” She said with a huff, feeling her shoulders relax “Pups typically don’t eat meat until they are older.”
Numb.
Artificer’s legs felt totally numb.
Cycles of travelling, sleeping, and eating disgusting, flavourless food, had her feeling more weak than ever.
She had food in her stomach, but no nutrition, no protein, no muscle food.
She wondered, if only for a moment, how pups grew up only on these foods.
In contrast to her, Hunter was doing amazingly, as always.
He was used to these kinds of treks, she was too, at one point, had she gotten soft, or was that due to the new diet?
“Wait wait Hunter I-...” She spat, resting on all fours for a moment, panting heavily.
“Yeah? What’s up? You need a break? We can take a little break, there is a shelter just a room ahead, we are getting pretty close though!” Hunter responded, giving a smile to hopefully brighten up the mood.
“Yes…” She responded, fully out of breath as he stopped for a moment, if only to be able to walk one more room “...Please.”
She knew it was only a matter of time until her target would be reached, she could see the gigantic megastructure just beginning to loom over them.
Although she knew the underhang would not protect them from the rain, it felt good to have a large roof over her head.
“Shelter is right here, just a bit more and we can rest for the cycle.” Hunter said, patting Artificer’s back
Artificer was so tired, her mind was starting to play tricks on her.
She could see pitch black figures in the shape of a slugcat in the corner of her vision,
She couldn’t stop thinking about the way the thing in the water’s third eye stared at her.
Her mind was occupied on everything except the way she was walking, and least of all, her destination.
Only a moment passed in her own mind before she was in the shelter, beside Hunter, breathing deep, and feeling herself fall asleep.
Before she knew it, she was up again.
On her feet,
When did she wake up?
She was confused, Hunter was nowhere to be seen, and she was not in a shelter.
She was in the chamber of an iterator.
She could see all over the floor, metal grates framed every few steps like a great purposed spider’s web.
The humm of machinery was deafening this close, and the warm colors of the room made her feel a sense of stress.
These rooms always made her a little stressed, between meeting her first iterator, to meeting some of her kin.
She felt her mind aching, beating at an irregular pace, thumping in each ear.
She heard beeping from above, the ring of the iterator occupying the space.
She could only look upward from her place on the chamber floor.
A yellow-orange cloak covered the pink hue of the puppet underneath, seams and gaps in the chassis of the lanky thing gave it an unnatural appearance,
Symbols on its forehead, four yellow vertical lines.
Shining eyes glared at a projected screen that hummed and moved with every touch.
But soon, those eyes, spotlights, more terrifying than the laser of a vulture, snapped to her, in a deadly glare.
Log date, ████.██
FP: Subject is awake, and presumably well.
FP: Testing will begin soon, whether she is cooperative or not.
FP: The answer will be found.
FP: I would be sorry, citizen, if your sacrifice wasn’t for the greater good.
Notes:
Hey again friends, been a...while since I posted, but, hopefully, and this is a big hopefully, I should be posting here more! Between finishing up school and getting myself situated, this chapter is airing on my birthday, so happy birthday me!
I hope all of you enjoy this, I intend to finish up this story, no matter how long that is still going to take! <3