Chapter Text
Someone important to Alma gave her an (almost) equally important mission, then, as was usual for them, they disappeared off to who knows where. So she left behind the only place she knew as home, picking a random direction and walking directly that way, as she owned no map, and for quite some time she traveled through a desert of black, sandy dirt.
“This is pretty bad.” She commented in her deep masculine voice as she observed her surroundings.
Eventually, Alma arrived near what appeared to be the beginnings of civilization, as a few towers came into view off in the distance and the edge of a forest in front of her. She continued in her chosen direction, through tree and shrub alike, all the way to when she arrived at a coast. Alma only ever walked in a straight line so when arriving at this body of water she was forced to come to a halt, having never seen so much water before, and unsure of how severely it would impede her straight-line travel.
“Hmm it appears my path is blocked.” As Alma looked out at the water trying to figure out a way through the water, a scaly blue fish lady appeared from beneath the waves and walked onto the beach.
The fish woman’s scaly skin shone in the light, her short green hair was a bit messily cut with a few longer strands tied into a braid on her right side that fell below her shoulder. Her wet hair fell across her face because she was not being used to the gravity above the water, and she has fins on her forearms and on her head where ears would normally be, while gills protruded from her neck and waist. She wore a light purple bathing suit like top with a long skirt that was very open in the front and a satchel hanging from her shoulder. She had armor on her wrists and left shoulder.
She was the first person Alma had ever met, beside that important person who raised her, the one who had given her the mission.
“Hail and well met, fish woman!” Alma greets her. “Say, are you a person?”
“Why yes, I am a mighty Triton!” The fish lady said, looking over at Alma.
Alma thought for a moment. She had never heard of this ‘Triton’ person before, but she did know her manners.
“Good to meet you, Triton!”
“No no, my name is not Triton, that is the name of my people,” She corrected. “MY name is Isla Urbina.”
Alma looked skeptically at Isla. “You were not in any of my stories, I’m sure I would have heard of Triton.”
“Oh, I’m sure there are plenty of stories going around about my people. We save you surface dwellers all the time from the beings of the deep!”
“Evil beings?”
“Oh yes, very evil.” Isla nodded.
“How evil are we talking?”
“Quite!”
“Hmm, ‘quite’. That’s one step more than ‘very’. So then would you say you are, a guardian angel of sorts?”
Isla paused for a moment, thinking, then nodded. “You could say that, I guess.”
“Something an adventurer would need?”
“Oh of course! You would of course need my strength and healing.”
“Something a hero would require on their journey?”
“Oh of course! You couldn’t do without a Triton!”
“Hmmmmm,” Alma thought for a moment. “Alright, I have made up my mind! You are coming with me!”
“Well, gladly if you need my help. And you WILL need it.”
Alma was happy to have a new friend, and quickly returned to the matter which had stopped her before.
“Tell me, can I breathe underwater?” Alma asked.
“I highly doubt it, as you appear to be a normal surface dweller.” Isla answered.
“Hmmm, I have heard of this ocean, is that what this obstacle is?” Alma gestured to the gentle waves in front of them.
“Why yes. It is the endless ocean.”
“Mmmhm, by endless does that mean I can not simply walk through it?”
“Uh no. You would just keep going down and eventually drown.”
“Ah. That is something that I wish to avoid.”
“Plus the depths would be quite brutal for a surface dweller like yourself. Only a Triton could survive the pressure at those depths... Well, fish and stuff too I guess.”
“You are quite brave to risk the drowning!”
“Well, we do not drown. We are from the water and live in the deepest trenches.”
“So it is your RIGHTEOUS INDIGNATION that prevents the drowning!”
Isla paused for a moment, unsure of what that meant. “More because we have gills that allow us to breathe in both air and water...”
“Hmmm I too desire these gills.”
“I think you have to be born with them... I have never heard of a surface dweller gaining gills or even the ability to breathe underwater.”
“Not YET!”
“I highly doubt you have the ability to surpass a Triton, but who knows anything can happen! I suppose I do not know much about surface dwellers, you could surprise me!”
Alma, finally realizing she must at last adjust her course from the straight line in which she had been moving, reached into her breast plate and pulled out a piece of paper with a long list on it. She examined the list very closely, hemming and hawing over its contents.
“Now tell me, what is a sea?” Alma asked.
“That is basically another name for the ocean, at least from what I know of.” Isla explained.
“Hmmmmmm, I sense trickery afoot here.”
“Sometimes the sea is a little smaller than the ocean I guess?” Isla clarified.
“Then have you, by chance, seen a g-re-en or-b in this sea?”
“Do you mean this?” Isla said, rummaging through her satchel. After a bit of searching, she pulled out a deep green orb that fit neatly in her palm.
On first glance the orb would just seem like some extra large sized green marble, but the more you looked at it the darker the center would appear to be, as if you were looking into it rather than through it. A small glimmer of light flashed in the center of that darkness for a moment that went unnoticed by the highly oblivious ladies involved.
“Thank you! That was much easier than expected.” Alma was glad to already be one step closer to her goal.
“Well I don’t see any reason to hide this thing.” Isla shrugged, then glanced at Alma who was holding out her hand expectantly. “Do you require it?”
“What sort of question is that? Of course I require it! It is a part of my Hero’s Journey!”
“Well, if I am coming along, I could always just hold on to it for you, unless of course you desperately need to be the one carrying it.”
Unsure how to answer, Alma pulled out her list once more from her breast plate. “Hmm, nothing in the instructions say I can’t have you carry it. Very well! If you shall serve me, then you shall hold the orb! Orb Bearer!”
“Well, I already agreed to accompany you, as you will need my help!”
“Indeed, I’m glad this transaction has worked out so efficiently!”
A few moments of silence passed.
“So where is it that we have to go surface dweller?” Isla finally spoke out.
Ever since she left the water, everything happened so fast that she had not yet had a chance to properly observe her new found companion. Standing before her was a hulking tower of a woman wearing heavy armor so shiny it almost seemed decorative (someone spent a lot of time shining it) with no real signs of wear on it other than a few twigs and leaves sticking out of some of the connection points. Her almost platinum blonde hair fell all the way to her waist, again with a few stray leaves and splinters from the trees she had busted up on her way here, and her face was devoid of any signs of any kind of cosmetic. She had bright, fiery green eyes and freckles across her face. Isla decided the best way to describe Alma’s head was to call it large and hard, like a brick.
Alma, meanwhile, finally noticed the distinctly small quantity of clothing her companion was wearing.
“Are you cold?” She asked.
“No, not at all actually!” Isla shrugged.
The salty cold ocean breeze made Alma shiver slightly in her armor. Then she took out her list again.
“Do you know of a place of great learning?” Alma asked.
“I don’t know much about this surface world, as this is my first time stepping foot on it.” Isla looked at Alma, confused as to why she would ask that to her of all people.
“It appears we are in a similar situation! I was in the magical forest of legend! I have never stepped foot onto this mortal plane! Of course, many here have heard of my coming, as it is their duty to learn about great heroes.”
“That sounds just like how many land-dwellers have heard of my people and their great feats!”
“It seems we are bound by greatness together.” Alma laughed heartily.
“Yes.”
“Perhaps we should march into this ‘place of great learning comma blue’. Obviously they will know who we are and hand the orb over no problem! As you have just done.”
“Yes, of course, if you are the great hero you say you are, then they most certainly would.”
“And if you are the great powerful Orb Bearer you say that you are.”
“I called myself a Triton, you were the one who called me Orb Bearer.”
“Triton is your people, Orb Bearer is your position!”
“But wouldn’t they just call me by my name?” Isla tilted her head in confusion.
Alma’s face goes blank, “NAME, yes. What was it again?”
“It twas Isla Urbina.”
“Hmm hmm I-sla. Understood. Come orb bearer Isla!”
“Do you, great hero, have a name?”
“I am known by many names.”
“Is there one I may call you?”
“You may call me, Alma.”
“Alma, I see.” Isla nodded, committing it to memory.
Alma stared at the sea for a moment, then looked to the left and the right, along the beach. She frowned and looked both ways once more, squinting into the distance in either direction.
“What is it?” Isla asked.
“Well it seems that we are at an impasse. Should we go that way, or that way?” Alma explained her confusion, pointing to the left and to the right.
Isla looked around, and noticed that beyond the dense forest that bordered the beach, a few stone towers were visible in the distance.
“I may be new to this whole surface world thing, but I think those towers over there might be some place that has clues to what you’re looking for?” Isla said, pointing in the direction of the towers.
“Aha! I’m feeling a tug of destiny in the direction towards those towers! Good find Orb Bearer! Maybe if we climb the towers, we will be able to see this place of great learning!”
“Yes! Maybe! I have never really climbed before, this will be fun!”
“Neither have I, but I have read about it! How hard could it be! No foe can defeat Alma, not even gravity!”
“I do not know much about this gravity, is that a surface dweller thing? Well, let us go, great hero Alma!”
“Yes, orb bearer Isla!” Alma turned in a ninety degree angle, until she was facing the towers. Then she began to walk once more in an impressively straight line, this time with Isla following behind her.
-------
After some time, the two came upon a tall stone wall.
“Aha, our first obstacle!” Alma declared.
“This will be easy for us! We are heroes!” Isla boasts.
“Now we just have to employ the master technique, ‘climbing’.”
The wall was quite tall, and seemed nearly unclimbable, and neither of them had any experience climbing. They had by chance picked the perfect spot on the wall, with perfect handholds for climbing, and were in such perfect condition for the climb, and so they did, with ease. This was a feat so fortuitous that even the God of this world would facepalm.
When they reached the top of the wall, they could see a large city on the other side with the wall continuing on to completely surround it. Before they could even do anything, a voice rang out on their left.
“Hey! What are you doing!?”
“We are climbing the wall of course!” Isla answered, turning to the person who had called out to them.
It was a guard of some sort, a tall man in shiny armor. It was impossible to see his face through his helmet, but from his voice it was clear he was quite panicked.
“You’re not allowed this way! Go through the main gate of the city!”
“What is a main gate!?” Isla turned to question him.
“I conquered your first obstacle!” Alma joined in.
“We did it together!”
“Yes orb bearer, I can feel our bond growing!”
“Yes!”
The guard just stared at the pair, flabbergasted. Could people like this really exist, or did he fall asleep while on duty again?
“Which way is the main gate?” Alma asked again.
“Well first you need to climb back down-” The guard tried to answer but Alma interrupted.
“Is it like a door?”
“Yes-” he tried again.
“Or a cave opening?”
“Is it like… I only know…. What IS a door?” Isla chimed in.
“Is it like an ocean? I can’t pass through those.”
The guard began to hyperventilate from their stupidity, not having ever been prepared for people like this.
“I think something is wrong with this surface dweller.” Isla pointed out.
“Should we help him?” Alma asked.
“Excuse me, do you need help sir?”
Then Alma thought of a possible cause for the guard’s strange behavior. “Excuse me, do you harbor evil intentions?”
“No, I’m working for the good of the city!” The guard managed to answer at last.
“Very well then!” Alma walked right up to the guard, Isla following.
“We will help you!” Isla declared.
The guard began to have a sense of foreboding as the two approached him.
“Fear not, I have come to dislodge the object that is in your throat!” Alma reached out.
“THere’s nothing wrong! PLease don’t hurt me!” The guard pleaded. Realizing he was supposed to be the one with authority here, he quickly collected himself then tried to explain slowly. “Ok, so you see that opening in the wall right there?” Both of them nodded their heads. “What I want you to do, is climb down the wall, back the way you came, and go around the town, and enter the city through the main gate there.”
“Hmm, yes, I see, I see…” Alma agreed looking up. “That cloud looks like a dragon!”
“Please leave… Please.” The guard pleaded.
“Are you saying, you want me to take the more direct route to this main gate?”
“...I’m afraid.” Muttered the guard to himself, unsure how else he should respond to them.
“Of what? I will slay it!”
Once again the guard began to hyperventilate.
“There’s obviously some sort of dark caster in the area, it steals this man’s breath!”
“We should probably find this dark magic user and defeat him for this kind sir.” Isla suggested.
“Perhaps this ‘Main Gate’ person can help?”
“Maybe, that person seems like they know what they are doing. They might have the answers we are looking for!”
Alma walked past the guard, on top of the wall heading towards the main gate of the city.
“No, ma’am stop please!” The guard begged.
“Yes?” Alma said, turning towards the guard.
“Only guards are allowed on top of this wall.”
“Ah, do I get to choose what side of the wall I get to climb down?”
The guard froze. That question was unexpected.
“It would be much easier if we just climb this way,” Alma pointed towards the city, “than climbing down the other way and walking around toward the door.”
He stared at Alma for a moment. Was this one rule really worth dealing with them any longer?
No. It wasn’t.
“Sure…” The guard’s eyes slid along the horizon outside the city as he fidgeted with his hands.
Alma took a look over the city side edge of the wall, seeing densely packed rooves and chimneys, every so often interrupted by the knife slice of a paved road. Seeming satisfied with what she saw, she took a few steps forward, in a straight line, of course. Jumping from the edge of the wall. Gravity, doing what gravity does best, gave Alma a few moments of flight experience before depositing her unceremoniously through a roof and into the middle of someone’s living room.
Isla, seeing all this, opted for the safer route and climbed just as nimbly down the wall as she did up it.
------
The lady next to Alma in the room, upon realizing the enormous hunk of metal that had just crashed through her roof was actually a person, screamed no less loudly for it.
“Fear not citizen, I am looking for the evil caster who has frightened you as we speak!” Alma declared, trying to calm the lady in front of her.
At that moment, there was a loud knock on the door.
“Are you there, great hero Alma?” A voice called from the other side of the door.
“Yes, orb bearer Isla!” Alma opens the door.
The woman, who had finally figured out Alma was not a threat, channeled all the energy from her fright directly into her anger. This random lady had just smashed a giant hole in her roof and almost killed her, and now she was inviting friends over? Absolutely not!
She began to scream at Alma to get out of her house THIS INSTANT.
“She’s suffering from hysterics.” Alma explained, shaking her head sadly at the screaming woman.
“Ah, well at least you landed perfectly!” Isla commented.
“As always.” Alma brushes off some debris from her armor.
“Of course!”
They strut out of the house to the sound of soft sobbing behind them. Determining which direction Main Gate was, they began their journey through the city to find this mysterious person, who would perhaps know how to help with this city’s evil caster problem. It truly was not an easy journey for them, as there were so many buildings and houses between them and this “Main Gate”, but luckily Alma had a brilliant idea. To continue on her straight line path, she could simply enter through whatever window or door was in front of her, and exit through the one on the other side. Though it is not very easy walking in a straight line with all these houses surrounding them. Isla, agreeing with the brilliance of the plan, followed suit.
The people who LIVED in each of the houses, however, heavily disagreed with them, as evidenced by the angry and frightened screams that followed the heroes throughout the town.
“It is all right, for we are heroes!” Isla tried to calm the upset citizens.
“Fear not, for the caster will be dealt with!” Alma added.
“Yes, all these surface dwellers seem to have the same issue, that caster must truly be evil.”
“He seems quite powerful, we must speak with Main Gate immediately.”
“Yes, he has made all these people suffer so much.”
As they are walking through yet another house, the woman living there let out a yelp and began swinging the zucchini in her hands at Alma.
“Ah, thank you!” Alma grabbed it and took a big bite, sticking the other half in her breast plate.
------
Eventually, they arrived at their destination, where there seemed to be a large group of guards gathered. In front of the guards stood a person in long blue robes, speaking to them quietly but with authority.
Noticing Alma and Isla arriving, he pointed his finger at the two heroes in a large, dramatic fashion.
“Halt foul villains!” He roared.
“Where!?” Alma looked behind her. No one was there. Strange.
“I do not know who you are pointing at, but we are heroes!” Isla tried to assure him, as he guards began to inch closer, moving to surround the two.
“Hmm-” Alma examined the pointing man. “You look suspiciously caster-y.”
“Are you the one making everyone scream in town!?” Isla gasped.
Hearing this, the man’s mouth gaped open and closed, open and closed, not unlike a dying fish for a few moments.
“No, that was you fools!” The robed man responded, gathering his wits once more.
“You are mistaken, it is the doing of some evil caster!” Isla assured the man.
“Do not fall for this one's trickery,” Alma turned to Isla and advised, “he tries to put untruths in our heads.”
“I will not.” Isla assured Alma. “I know the truth!”
“Why would people scream at their heroes!” Alma looked back at the robed man.
“Guards! Arrest them!” He was finally done with their shenanigans.
“Are you Main Gate?” Alma asked suddenly, having a thought.
“We were looking for you!” Isla added.
The guards froze in their movements and looked at each other, extremely confused by what the two were talking about. Perhaps a sign of the spell breaking?
“Guards arrest them!” Alma pointed at the robed man.
“They are evil!” Isla added
The guards are even more confused now. One of them shook his head, leading to them all just laughing menacingly and continuing to surround the two heroes.
“Ah, it is a situation graver than I thought.” Alma concluded.
“The caster has controlled their minds as well!” Isla added.
“This time, with laughter!”
“Oh, this is a very powerful caster indeed.”
“We will have to slay the evil caster immediately.” Alma turned to the guards. “Guardsmen of Main Gate! See reason and bring us to your leader!”
“Yes, to the caster that is controlling all of you!”
“Does he live in the tower?”
“Is he pure evil? He must be.”
“He must have the orb!”
“Yes! The other orb!”
The random ramblings of the two heroes continues as the guards begin to surround them, now with their weapons drawn.