Chapter VI - Cockblock

Paulin 82nd, Tollday! A handful of days had passed, and Arukia carefully inspected tens of homes from afar. None of them gave enough hints of something suspicious, except what she was staring at right now.

Arukia looked around the rundown home, seeing nothing but trees and grass. Soft words slipped out of her mouth, tallying up what her eyes were surveying, “No garden—there’s no broken stuff thrown around sloppily either. No wagon either—tsk!” She looked up at the light sources protecting the home. “Fost lamps are too fresh for a dilapidated bumpkin home— what kind of bumpkin lives here?” She focused on the windows, with the one upstairs letting a bit more light through the thick blue curtains. “The curtain is fresh and thick! They would not be able to afford that! Unless—”

Taking out a nari gel and a spoon from her pouch, Arukia took a hearty spoonful of that bloody red concoction. With one hand holding her nose, the other shoved the thing into the back of her throat and gulped it down as fast as she could. A single tear came out of her eyes as the slight grainy feel from the ground nari stones rubbed down her throat despite the coagulated jelly texture of blood there to soothe it. The string bits of flesh didn’t have a pronounced taste this time, but they were just as hard to gulp down.

She held back her clenching stomach from losing it all. At least tried to. A bit of stringy meat rubbed her throat the wrong way, suddenly causing a half-cough, half-vomit to come through. She tightly held her mouth with her hand and forced her to gulp it down. Her stomach fought her tooth and nail, but her goal-oriented brain prevailed.

While putting the gel and spoon away, her hearing was overtaken by a high-pitched noise. Her inner ear ached like a warm pressure pain, akin to otitis. She massaged her ears and opened and closed her mouth, waiting for it to become sensitive to sound.

The forest around her now sounded like being in the front row of a symphony orchestra. Every leaf rustling made enough noise to be close to sensory overload. “Tsk!” Her tongue click sounded like a gunshot in her brain, startling her in the process. Even the wind rubbing against her black cape was too loud.

Shaking her head, Arukia carefully lifted the armed crossbow from the ground and paced slowly towards the house. She wiped the dirt off the wall and placed her ear on it.

Amidst the cacophony of forest noises coming into one ear, the other heard a constant thud of something striking the wall alongside an off-beat, distinct noise of the moaning kind. “REEEK-REEEK!”

A flush rose on Arukia’s face, but just as quickly faded as something about this cacophony of mating noises felt odd. That’s an odd moan. Kinda like a Winga cackle? Suddenly, a male-sounding orgasm came through the wall, but it wasn’t the usual single breath-out a moan, but broken up like a horse neigh.

Arukia’s ears couldn’t bear to keep hearing whatever this was. She took out her ear from the wall as a disgusting, cold, shaking feeling ran down her spine. Her mind came up with a few possible images, none of which were tantalizing.

“FUCK!” A phonatic scream sounded from upstairs, followed by a loud slap and more screams that sounded like a parrot imitating a human. “WHY YOU STOPPED YOU PIECE OF SANBI SHIT! KEEP AT IT YOU FUCK! I’M NOT DONE!”

Arukia stared at the upstairs window; a surprising gasp came out louder than her inconspicuous profile was trying to maintain. That can’t be her!

Returning to behind the brushes, Arukia sat down on the cold ground, more words sounding softly from her mouth, and people say the Tolerideme folks are the eccentric ones! They can’t be weirder than her! She paused. The intel said she was experimenting on him—is that part of it, or are they hiding a forbidden romance? No. That’s wrong. There’s no forbidden love in Sanbi culture. Neferteri is pulling the strings, so she wants to hide away whatever Eori is doing.

“Tsk!” Arukia startled herself again with the tongue click sounding like a gunshot. She breathed through her nose deeply trying to reset herself, then rubbing her hands to warm them up. Whatever! Just finish up already and go to sleep! I got work to do!

Paulin 83rd, Sannday! In the wee hours of a new day, Arukia moved through the house quietly, finding herself in the upstairs bedroom, where two humanoid figures lay in bed peacefully.

No wonder Neferteri wanted to hide this! Not even the Forway crazies would talk about that in public! The crossbow in her hands was itching to fire, but her trigger finger postponed the decision. Memories of the Sanbi castle passed through her mind like an unwanted virus. Even though Princess Eori was a silent odd, stuck-up bitch, she was still part of her Sanbi maid’s life—the life that would forever be tainted with just one muscle twitch. Is that even Eori? The excuses floated in her mind, seeing the womanly curves attached to the beautiful wings, faintly visible in the greenish hues of the moon casting on them. Nina is the only hope left for them!

In the blink of an eye, that same humanoid thing rolled around towards her and swiped at her.

THWIP! The crossbow released on its own, or more like Arukia’s fingers flinched on their own. Striking the bird-like Eori near the left shoulder.

“ARGH!” a womanly voice with an odd nasal parroty sound echoed in the room. “You fucking bitch!”

Shit! Arukia jumped backward, her hands automatically grabbing another arrow and coking it into the crossbow. Still, before she could even slide it in place, the humanoid princess was already standing up and lunging towards her.

“FUCKING—FUCK!” Princess Eori attempted to do another swipe towards her with claw-like hands, aiming right at Arukia’s blondish short hair and purply eyes.

With no time to react, Arukia shoved the crossbow upwards to block it. Sounds of metal and wood scraping turned into a ripped cloth. Arukia jumped backward again, looking at torn-up strings of the scrapped crossbow, then at her right arm as a sudden warm, pained feeling called to her attention. “Tsk!” A single loud clack of her tongue broke through her silence.

A vivid, heartfelt laugh came out of the humanoid princess. “Fuck me! This is going to be fun!” Her wings expanded, letting a few feathers fly as she lunged again with another swipe towards the intruder.

Arukia got out of the way and threw the broken crossbow toward the bird monstrosity, hitting it right in her face.

Eori, the bird princess, tried to put her arm up in defence, but didn’t react fast enough, getting a bonk of a broken crossbow right in the head and left eye.

Grabbing a short sword stored in the belt across her chest, Arukia crouched down, bent forward, and lunged forward with both hands in front of her, holding the knife toward the birdly princess like a sort of spear.

The glint of the sword from the invader seemingly gave away the attack, but it was too late. “Ahhhhhh! FUCK!” Looking disoriented, the birdly princess did not react fully to the attack. She tried to lunge backward, but she hit a wall instead.

Arukia impaled the birdly humanoid in the stomach and tried to slice it up to gut it, but uncommonly strong claws stopped her hands. She could feel the tightness of the claws, clenching the muscles of her forearms into the bones, feeling like it was close to snapping. Her hands betrayed her, releasing the plunged knife before it could gut her like a wild animal.

The knife clacked on the ground, next was the sound of thick blood droplets falling down from Eori’s wounded stomach. Guts peeked a bit through the narrow slice from the knife while blood profusely came out of it and ran down her legs. She panted heavily, “Fucking bitch! I’m gonna kill you!”

“EORI!” a half-human, half-egua hybrid screamed across the room. It was Harry, standing still, seeing the red all over her. All this time, he was there, silently observing everything unfolding.

Now I have two to deal with! Arukia silently readied herself, pulling another knife from the same belt. “Tsk.” She kept looking between these two humanoid figures, where a standstill took place for a few seconds. She turned towards the half-egua humanoid hybrid and began performing the same crouch-down, bend-forward maneuver, and lunge.

Harry remained immobile as he watched in terror, his mouth wide and eyes bulging, as a knife glinted towards him—and a pair of claws as well.

“FUCK YOU! HE’S MINE!” The birdly princess struck herself against the invader, protecting her plaything.

Arukia flew towards a bookshelf, striking her head first while the knife in her hand flew away into the darkness of the room. Her body slumped downwards, and she limply moved her hands to regain her footing. Her spatial awareness was gone, and her vision blurred. How does she still have strength? Sluggishly, Arukia threw books at this bird-like figure approaching her, picking her up off the floor by her neck. Those damm nari gels!

Choking for air, Arukia tried to free herself, but Eori was too tightly squeezing her neck. She could feel the claws at the end of this bird of prey digging themselves into her throat. The strain on her neck was unbearable as it bore the full weight of her body.

Paulin 83rd, Sannday! It was a day that did not go according to plan. Arukia kept wriggling around as she felt the veins in her neck almost ripping apart. The thought of this being her last day in this mortal plane passed through her racing mind.

"Whoever you are, I don't give a shit! You're never leaving this place!" Princess Eori brought the near-lifeless intruder up to view closely. "I knew you were a woman! Even better!" Eori's bright purply eyes seemed to enjoy the pleasant view of the life vanishing in the intruder's also purply eyes, which stared deep into her soul.

Arukia's body relaxed on its own. Her feet dangled, sapped away from whatever energy it had left. With the last ounce of strength and vitality, she plunged her hand into the moist warmth of Eori's open stomach wound, grabbed whatever fit into her hand, and yanked out.

Blood and guts spilled on the floor. A mumble came out of Eori as she released the intruder and tumbled backward.

"EORI! NO!" Harry rushed to meet the humanoid bird, catching her mid-fall and crashing with her towards the floor. A cry came out of him toward the intruder: "PLEASE! PLEASE! LEAVE US! JUST TAKE WHATEVER YOU WANT! DON'T KILL US! PLEASE!" He hugged Eori, "DON'T GO! PLEASE! DON'T GO!"

A soft, pained mumble came out of Eori, letting one final breath in the half-egua humanoid arms.

"Nooooo!" A loud wail and stream of tears came out of Harry as he tightly hugged Eori's humanoid corpse.

Catching her breath and regaining her lucidity, Arukia stood up. Her determination to complete her mission was still there, but something about the wailing from a half-egua humanoid felt just too much, just too real. "I'm here for you. Do as I say, or she will soul die."

"Whatever you need! Just please, don't let her die!" Harry continued hugging her lifeless body, blood and guts from her wounds soaked into his fur.

That would solve the wagon issue if he came with me willingly. The problem is all this blood, it will make some beasts attack even with the fost lamp at full. Besides, I can't trust him. Arukia took a blueish nari gel vial from her belt and handed it to Harry. "Drink this."

Grabbing the vial, Harry put it up towards the moon, casting it into the bedroom. Mixed petals of a yellow flower cast against a bluish-looking nari gel peppered with black dots. "It—is this Body Paralysis?"

"With Sleep Inducer." Arukia grabbed a bloodied knife off the floor and pointed towards Harry. "Take it! Or she’s done!"

Still hugging Eori's corpse, he corked the vial. “But—But!”

“Fucking take it!” Arukia stepped closer, aiming a knife right at the corpse’s soft neck, inches away from Harry’s face.

Harry chugged it down without further hesitation. "I'm sorry—Eori. I—am—sorry." The vial took effect quickly, making his head thud against Eori’s.

"You actually took it! So you two were lovers, after all!" Arukia cleaned the knife on the bed sheets, "What was even the purpose of the ceremony with Maiara? Public fun for Itagiba to brag about?" She stored the knife back into her chest of belt. "If only I could get Itanema to clean this up. Tsk."

Arukia grabbed a timekeeper out of the same belt and pointed at the moon for a bit. A small translucent light appeared on a deep greenish section of the clock face. It was Monnohigh, around 2am.

Storing the timekeeper away, she looked at Eori's lifeless, birdly body. "No time for you, my princess. I have to wash your egua first—"

Paulin 83rd, Sannday! The moon was waning to a sunrise just right around the corner. Rays of red and yellow faintly tainted the clouds in the dark greenish sky. Arukia felt a cold breeze as she walked to the wagon outside this dilapidated house. Her right hand was high up in the air, with clenched fingers. From the palm of her hand, a black flame linked it to the back of Harry, tied him up, and passed out as he effortlessly floated in the air.

Arukia carried the limp body to the wagon, controlling his position through meticulous tilts and shifts of her hand. She slid him into the open hatchet in the back, then released the Gravity Down spell by unclenching her fingers. She then threw a filthy old blanket over the unconscious body, “It is what it is!” She lingered, looking at the blanket, making a body outline. “Tsk!” She clacked her tongue, returning to the house.

With a grunt, she grabbed a basket containing a handful of pinkish journals, each with a small metal Sanbi decoration. Her arms struggled to lift it off the ground, but with the power of her swaying hips, she took one step at a time towards the wagon.

She did the same thing next with another basket, this time with a handful of nari gels. Then, organize the body against one of the walls, and the two baskets of stuff press him against it. Shuffling the old, filthy blanket on top of it, the contour of a body was far more hidden.

Arukia paused again to look at it, making a slight nod, closing the hatchet in the back tightly. “Finally!”

Jumping on the wagon, grabbing the reins, Arukia gave the egua a firm slap.

The egua gave a loud snort and pulled the wagon with firm stomps. With each stomp, the dilapidated house was being left behind, getting consumed by the dark forest.

The image of Eori’s cold corpse left behind haunted her. She saw nothing but forest and dirty road in front of her as well, barely lit by the fost lamp at her feet. Something eerie about it made her pick up the fost lamp and hold it up high.

Despite its weight, Arukia could not let herself lower that fost lamp. It felt like, at any moment, she would see her corpse again. Don’t let her soul die! Harry’s pleading voice echoed in her brain, haunting the fact that she did not even cast Body Restore. She shook her head, “Not my problem! I’m nothing to them! And they are nothing to me!” These words sounded hollow, coming from her mouth, but not resonating in her brain.

She kept riding alone on the dirty roads illuminated by the fost lamp, and soon, by the morning rays of another morning! She was alive to see it—somehow.

In the sea of green around her, the thought of wearing her cutesy black and blue maid outfit and walking through the same neighborhood towards the castle came to mind. Even the unique, fishy, salty sea air was there—maybe it was her nose hallucinating it, but she could literally still smell it. The bread from the corner bakery was also just as present. Her face soured even more, remembering how the baker was madly in love with her and kept outdoing himself with sweeter and unique finger cakes to conquer her heart. She had a bit of feelings for him, too, but his pushiness just weirded her out.

“Doesn’t matter! None of it matters!” She slapped the egua with her reins again. Keeping a close eye on her vicinity for anyone or anything that could threaten her mission—the only thing that mattered.

Paulin 83rd, Sannday! The day that just seemed never to end! Arukia rode away from the hideout near Dead Fish since morning. Her butt was getting sore from the constant trepidations on the roads. Her clothing was mildly wet and cold, and her face and eyes were bothered by the drizzle. In her hand, a piece of hard bread was all she had to eat.

“Tsk!” was the only thing that came to her mind when she approached an intersection of dirt roads. Pulling on the reins, she looked at the different signs. She would reach Sanbi East in two largeadis if she kept going forward. Turning right would take her to Sanbi in eleven largeadis. Turning back would take her back to Dead Fish, now twenty-five largeadis away. Turning left would take her to Green Sea, a whopping sixteen largeadis away.

A strained mumble came from Arukia, “Argh!” She pulled on the reins to the right towards Sanbi, then slapped them even more aggressively than before.

The egua neighed loudly, but not in a friendly tone, trying to rear; however, the weight of the wagon paraphernalia prevented her from lifting much—or perhaps her hind legs no longer had the strength to support it.

“Stop it already! Just go!” Arukia slapped the reins again.

The egua neighed again, but this time it pulled the wagon towards the right of the intersection as obliged. However, its pull was no longer as firm and quick as before. With a lowered head, the egua continued to pull the wagon through the soaked dirt.

Arukia took out a timekeeper from her bag and pointed towards the overcast sky for a few seconds before glancing at it. An orangy cluster of grainy sands lit up, showing it was in between Sunnolow and Sunnohigh, right at the point for a late lunch. Her grumbling stomach confirmed the timekeeper was indeed accurate. She looked at the bread in her hand, taking another chunky bite of it. It tasted like a week-old sourdough bread. No condiments, nothing else added to it.

Suddenly, something notable appeared in the distance. It was a cluster of people and eguas quickly riding towards Arukia and her wagon.

Arukia put away the timekeeper, feeling her heart pounding in her chest. She brought her armed crossbow, lying to the right of her, closer, getting it ready to fire.

If it weren’t for the mudding dirt on the road, the galloping eguas would be kicking up a duststorm behind them. They came into view, revealing it was a group of guards, evenly spaced between two groups. One was four people dressed in mostly metallic attire with black undertones. These were none other than Forway guards, easily recognizable by their tabards! A Forway logo was visible on the small cloth hanging from their pauldron cape. The other group was far more light-dressed, with leather garments in a blue color palette, throwing knives hanging from their chests, and a large bow attached to their backs. These were none other than Sanbi guards.

“Guards?” Arukia’s heart throbbed fast as it was trying to jump out of her chest. “Forway guards? Sanbi guards?” The words rushed through her mouth as they were approaching even closer.

Her egua slowed down on its own, veering off to the right and giving a wide berth to the other eguas rushing past it.

“What’s happening?” Arukia loudly exclaimed to the passing guards, one hand on the reins and another holding her bread, but ready to grab the crossbow and fire.

The guards didn’t answer. They kept rushing past her towards the intersection she had come from, throwing up mud everywhere.

“Stop it!” Arukia pulled on the reins as she shuffled towards the right, protecting her face with her arm from the flying mud splattering everywhere. Her bread now was mud-flavored, but likely not a condiment one would desire.

One Forway guard suddenly halted at the intersection while the others dispersed and continued galloping through the different roads. Suddenly, a voice came out thundering from the Forway guard at the intersection: “PROSPERITY TREATY SECTION FIVE SUB FOUR. SANBI FORWAY EMBASSY HAS DECLARED A KINGDOM ALERT ON BEHALF OF EIRI SANBI KING-MAID. ARUKIA SANBI MAID AND HARRY SANBI-EYE ARE BOTH DECLARED MISSING! ALL ADVENTURERS REPORT TO THE SANBI FORWAY EMBASSY IMMEDIATELY!”

Arukia’s ears rang as if the guard was shouting through a megaphone right in her face. The noise was so loud it gave her a splitting headache. Her body could nearly feel the impact of each of the spoken words. She plugged her ears, but could still hear the guard just as loud and clear.

Meanwhile, the egua carrying Arukia’s wagon tried rearing again, but its strength was even less than before. Its ears bent backward, and it put its face towards the bush, likely trying to hide from the thundering words.

The guard immediately continued riding down the intersection away from Arukia to cast these exact thundering words somewhere else. His shouting voice still echoed in the horizon, sending the birds and critters running away.

One thought, and one thought alone, came to a mud-soaked Arukia. It was Eiri firmly saying YOU HAVE TO SEND A WINGA MAIL WHEN YOU GET TO LONG-BRIDGE, OKAY? Her words lingered on Arukia as she looked around for other guards. She looked at herself, splattered with cold mud. “WHY? WHY?” She screamed in an angered voice. “WHY DID YOU DO THAT TO ME?” She threw the mud-soaked bread aside, grabbed the reins, and slapped it harder than before, “I AM NOTHING TO YOU!” She bit her teeth hard and slapped the reins again.

The egua, with its head down, trotted slowly forward, this time not making a peep.

“Tsk! You’re nothing to me!” Arukia stared forward at the muddy roads with a clenched face as this uneasy feeling took over.

A familiar face came to mind: a tall blond woman with womanly curves that brought envy, a confident smile that made anyone around less confident in themselves, and fiery red eyes that bent anyone to her will. It was none other than Emelia Lakeeye Rich-Flower. Arukia cursed at the person she could nearly see appearing in front of her. “You filthy flower hoe! You lied to me! How am I supposed to get rich doing this?” She looked at her black clothing, mud soaked deep into it. She could feel the coldness tickling her skin.