Chapter Text
It has been a while since the King's curse hit your home. All you could do was run and run and run away, hoping to escape it. And now, you have! At least for a while, it might end up getting you eventually, you have no idea if escape is even possible or if the whole world is freezing.
Being all on your own has been rough too, you didn't realize in your panic that you didn't really bring much with you. Well, you had Icecream, that was important, even though everything was scary you still had your best friend. He's nice, he's soft, he's nearly the same shade as your hair, and he's a crow, like you. It's just that you're crows in different ways. He's a nice comfort during the cold nights, but it's starting to not be enough.
You've been going for who knows how long, and you're hungry, and thirsty and stressed and everything's Changing and that's scary!
The scariest part to you was that some of the adults just accepted it. The second scariest part was that you started to understand why. If you had been frozen, you'd be dead, yes but at least you'd be with Malcer, and if the country did get saved you would be safe with him. Instead you're lost in the wilderness with no food or water, so you might just end up dying anyway. Unless a sadness gets to you first, but you've been good at avoiding them so far. And the paper ones aren't so bad, even if it does take a lot out of you to fight one!
Regardless, you've been making good progress today. Your aimless wandering has finally netted you something useful, a trail. You just have to hope whichever way you pick is the right way to go. Luckily for you, there's some footprints to follow, so you have an idea of what it probably is.
You can only hope to get somewhere soon, some real shelter and food would be nice right about now. You really don't want to have to struggle with making a fire again, you barely remember the steps, not even to mention that some wood is worse at burning. Which is frustrating when you need it to keep warm and "cook" if you've caught something. You're not really sure if you're doing it right, you know you have to get the fur off and stuff but figuring out the exact right way is tricky. Not even to mention you're not all that good at this, maybe you would be if you had taken up on the offer to teach you, but you're not the best at hunting. Things either die or get dazed when you use combat crafts on them, so that's how you try, but you mess up the before steps too much.
All that being said, you had a pretty good excuse for not noticing the feeling and smell of craft in the air until you're hit by something. It hits hard, rock craft probably, if you had to guess. Instinctively you turn and launch a piercing attack at whatever hit you.
It barely makes a dent, if it hits you again you're not sure how much longer you'll be able to keep fighting it. Of course a sadness would get to you first, right when you're almost out of the woods. Your only hope is to run for it, but you're so tired already, you're not sure if you could.
You aim a piercing attack at its eyes and make a run for it. Even if you can't run for long, it'll give you time to think. You have to come up with something, anything.
But there's nothing! Nothing but trees and the continued trail! … Wait, if you can remember how to get up a tree, it might work? Can sadnesses climb trees?
You go for the nearest and tallest one, scrambling up like a panicked animal. You scream as the sadness follows you. It doesn't seem to start climbing but that doesn't mean it stops attacking. It launches rock craft your way, mostly hitting the tree branch you're clinging to. You start crying, both in pain and in fear.
You're scouting the trail you're going to head down tomorrow for sadnesses and other things, when you hear screaming distantly. It seems like a sadness caught a traveler unaware, you rush to go help. Craft rushes to your hands as you see the situation.
Someone's in a tree, getting terrorized by a sadness, its hands clenched into fists, launching rock craft at them as they scream and scramble to another branch as the previous one they were on snaps and tumbles to the ground. There's no time to assess further; you just run, taking out your weapon and raising a fist to strike it with protector craft.
Its attention turns to you, moving towards you as it directs craft your way. You mostly dodge out of the way, taking an indirect hit. You strike again and it shudders and shambles, and you recognize what it's doing. You recognize too late as you, spring backwards and--
The sound of piercing craft, and the sadness dissipates. You breathe a sigh of relief, you would have gotten frozen if it weren't for that.
"Oh change, thank you." You say with a sigh of relief. "Are you alright?"
You glance at the area around the tree now that you're not in combat anymore. There's something dark laying near the base of the tree with something light coming out of it. You don't receive a reply to any of your words. There is only the sound of someone crying.
Slowly, you approach the tree. "Hello?" You call out as you meet a very fearful and tearful gaze. A young kid, clinging for dear life onto the tree branch, looking wild eyed at you. Dark short hair, relatively plain outfit besides the fluff, and some kind of feathered thing on their head.
They still don't respond, you'd think they were in shock but they had to be the one who fired off that craft attack. They must be afraid, you suppose. You turn your gaze to the object on the ground. It seems to be a little plush bird. You lean down to pick it up and-!
The feeling of craft sizzles through the air.
Wh-! The little crab attacked you! Well-- maybe that's a little too harsh to say about a kid and it was piercing so it didn't do as much damage as it could have but…
"Don't… touch him." Their little voice shakes with a bit of fear.
You back away from the plush. "... Him?" You dare to ask.
"Icecream!" They exclaim matter of factly. "He's my best friend in the world and I won't let you break him!"
Their hand, still in the scissors sign, starts to shake. You seek to reassure them that you're not a threat.
"Hey, see I'm not going to do anything. No rock craft, see!" You tell them, putting your weapon away and holding your hands up. Doubling as paper signs as well as an indication of being not a threat.
Their eyes narrow as they glare at you. "So…" They trail off.
"So… what's a kid like you doing out here anyway? Did you get separated from your guardians?" You wonder aloud.
"You!!! Have no right to ask me that!" They straighten out their arm towards you as they exclaim. "You're a stupid adult! And I'm fine on my own! Leave me alone!"
"What? But… what if there's another sadness?" You counter.
At once whatever fighting spirit was in the kid seems to vanish. "What if there's another sadness…? Hmpt... I guess that would be bad…."
"Yeah, see! I'll protect you from any sadnesses until we get to town. So..." You say gently, trying to calm them down. "Let's get you down and you can… hug Icecream!"
"Hug Icecream? … Yeah… that sounds nice…" The kid looks around at the branches around them and looks down.
You take a look too, it seems like they don't really have a way down. The sadness took out most of the branches. So it seems like there's only one option…
You very carefully offer, "I'll catch you if you jump? Since there's no other way to um… get down without hurting yourself?"
The kid glares at you again. "Are you sure there's no way down?"
"I'm pretty sure?" You reply.
The kid makes a valiant effort to climb down on their own, but they get scared and scramble back up the branch.
They puff out their cheeks in frustration. "Fine… Fine! You crab! I'll jump!" They exclaim.
You prepare yourself to catch them, moving closer to the tree and you practically fall backwards onto the ground behind you as they land on you.
"Are you okay?" You ask them, watching as their face scrunches up in confusion.
"Shouldn't I be asking that? Not that I would…" They glare at you. You try not to take it to heart, they're clearly a kid. Kids are rude sometimes, and it's fair enough, you're very much a stranger!
"Well I'm not the one who got ambushed by a sadness, of course I'd ask if you're alright." You reply.
"Whatever!" They snap. Getting off of you and going over to pick up the plushie.
You get a better look at them as you get up. They're wearing a blanket as a cape, and it looks like it got roughed up during the sadness encounter. Their outfit is way fluffier than you thought, aren't they hot in it? They pick up the plushie, gazing sadly at it.
So, perhaps a distraction is due? "So, what's your name?" You ask.
"My name? Bleh! Why should I bother telling you that?" The kid exclaims, sticking their tongue out at you.
Well, they've certainly calmed down a lot more since you first saw them, so you're probably doing good!
"Well, it'd be rude to start calling you kid or something." You laugh softly, dusting your hands off. You hold your hand out for a handshake. "So let's introduce ourselves, I'm Doc, I use she/they pronouns and I like to bake."
They squint at you, deciding whether or not to go along, seemingly.
Eventually they shake your hand. "Maldwyn, they/them, um… crafting… I like using craft."
"Alright, nice to meet you Maldwyn!" You greet happily. "Now let's get you to town so you can be safe and we'll figure everything out, alright?"
Maldwyn stops making eye contact with you as soon as you let go of their hand. The strewn fluff on the ground is what has their attention.
You follow their gaze. "Um… we can pick those up… can clean them up before fixing Icecream up?" You suggest.
"Um! I'll do it! You don't touch any of his guts, I'll get it!" Maldwyn exclaims, rushing to pick all of it up.
Before long they have it all gathered up.
"There! See, I don't need you rubbing your hands all over his guts! I can hold all of him." Maldwyn says, sounding proud of themself.
You laugh a little. "That you can, Maldwyn."
You take a glance around before you start walking back. It doesn't seem like there's any more sadnesses so it should be safe travels for them.
Maldwyn follows you naturally, they just keep a bit of distance between you two.
They seem to be really determined to glare at you. Which, again, you understand, but still, it stings a little.
Maybe you could give them something to do? They might be worked up after all that, most kids probably would be.
You turn to glance back at them. "Is the coast clear back there? No sadnesses?" You ask.
Maldwyn vehemently shakes their head. "No, are you bad at spotting them or something?"
"Just making sure! It's been a stressful few minutes so I might've missed something!" You assert, Maldwyn probably already thinks you're stupid, but still. You feel like you have to defend yourself.
“Mmm… whatever…” They reply, hugging the broken plushie tighter as they start keeping an eye out. Continuing to glare at her whenever she takes a glance behind her.
The two of you make it to the relatively safe outskirts of the town, carefully sneaking past the few sadnesses roaming around. Maldwyn started staying closer to you after the two of you spotted a sadness out there.
Suddenly you hear something rustling through the nearby foliage, it’s quick, so you think you know what it is. Maldwyn freezes in fear. You quickly take out your weapon and put a hand in front of them.
A sadness rushes out, its slender body quickly twisting as it starts slashing wildly at the two of you. Mostly at you though, Maldwyn quickly turns and runs out of range, letting out a fearful yelp as they get hit. It’s exactly what you expected, a relatively weak sadness, an Ombrageux. Before the King attacked these were usually one of the more common sadnesses. You remember reading about them, since if you wanted to travel it would be best to know as much as you can about which sadnesses you can encounter.
Ombrageux, a scissors type sadness that usually attacks alone. These lizard-like sadnesses seem to be afraid of most other sadnesses, a majority of encounters with them are due to the sadness getting scared of something and running into people when they flee. Be wary of using area of effect crafts on it, if its tail snaps off it, along with any other sadnesses it’s with, will gain a speed boost.
It's on the weaker end for sadnesses but it doesn’t mean it didn’t hurt like crab when it hit you. You try to relax, it’s scissor’s type, it’s weak against you. You can do this.
You hit it with your strongest craft attack. It's not enough, but you've weakened it a good amount. Another attack should get rid of it. It strikes again. Only targeting you thankfully. You strike it again and it dissipates. You breathe a sigh of relief. Though, you immediately turn around to check on Maldwyn.
They're crying from fear again, without thinking about it you run up to them and hug them. They don't hug you back, they're hugging Icecream tightly. "You're okay… I got it, we're okay."
“I just… I just…!--” Maldwyn sobs out.
“Shh… shh. It’s okay, it’s gone now. We’re not that far from town, it’ll be a quick walk and then we’re safe.” You reassure them.
You try to make comforting Maldwyn quick, as much as it hurts to do. The poor kid is frightened sick… but when they calm down a bit more you get the two of you moving. Soon enough, you start seeing buildings and other signs of life.
You’re safe, Maldwyn will be safe. You make a sigh of relief. It almost makes you want to start laughing, but you have to keep it together. You’re gonna have a lot to explain to the locals. It’s for their sake though, you’ll survive.
You lead Maldwyn into town. Suddenly you’re not sure what you should be doing. You… think you should go to the house of change… they’re usually good at organizing stuff. You could just let the kid loose on anyone, this is Vaugarde after all, we all feed weary travelers. … But if Maldwyn ends up sticking around, you’d like them to have something more permanent, whether that be staying in a house or staying with a stranger.
You take a deep breath in to ground yourself. "Okay Maldwyn, we're safe but I'm gonna take you to the local house so we can get shelter sorted out for you. I already have mine but… some privacy might be nice right now." You tell them.
Maldwyn hums an approval, they've been a little quieter since the sadness attack. You're not sure how willing they'll be to leave you, they've been sticking very close to you.
You head confidently into the house of change. They're probably still busy, a lot of houses are still running classes and stuff… even though the King's curse is going to get them eventually. Though, there isn't that much else to do but live normally, at least for most people.
But if they weren't going to try anything they could at least let you--
Not the time. Not the time. You've got to ensure Maldwyn's safety. At the very least you having been here before has its benefits, you waste less time getting to the head housemaiden's office. Even if the housemaidens here are a bit too nosy right now.
You take a deep breath in, and knock on the door.