The Obsidian Tale
Episode 2
[Opening 1 music]
[Opening 1 music]
~ Village of Saradeli – southeast district – docks ~
A certain woman took a step onto the
deck from her battleship. She gave a sigh of boredom as she commanded her
soldiers to visit the village without having to hurt the villagers, as much as she
wanted to. Her purple bodice garment was tied beneath her main armor and her
French braid struck resemblance.
“Interrogate them about that girl. We need her alive.”
A younger man appeared next to her.
“This should be fun. It’s lame that we still have no word about the Obsidian
Orb.”
He had ferocious eyes, and you could
tell with his apathetic expression and red eyes, he is always sarcastic and
ready to strike down his enemies respectively. His orange overalls were carved
with green crosses on the bottom. He was armed with several belts and a large
scythe.
“You see, this is why we need to
find the girl with the black hair and figure the results ourselves. Lionel, I
will have to put you in charge of that.”
“I will check around then! If those
villagers get in my way, I can’t promise you that there won’t be any
casualties! Hehehe, hahaha!! ” The strange boy concluded as the woman sighed
again.
Writer's note: From here on, characters may have physical changes in the image below. For example, Lydia's smile turns into a blank expression due to her personality loss.
Writer's note: Also, Lydia's level turned into 'Guest'. This means she is still traveling with the main group, but she is incapable of fighting.
Writer's note: Also, Lydia's level turned into 'Guest'. This means she is still traveling with the main group, but she is incapable of fighting.
~ Village of Saradeli
– east district ~
“So uh…” Felix said awkwardly. [Music 1.4]
The group of three: Felix, Clyde, and
Rina were watching Lydia sit upward, barely moving her own limbs. Rina seemed
most uncomfortable. This is not the Lydia she once knew.
Clyde passed an apple to both Felix
and Rina, but Rina rudely snatched it from his hands without saying thanks. She
sat next to Lydia, trying to feed her an apple.
“Come on, Lydia. Eat.”
“What is this red thing?” Lydia
stared at the apple with a blank face.
Felix raised an eyebrow at her, not
taking the situation seriously. Clyde scratched his head in curiosity. “Might I
ask a few questions?”
Rina rolled her eyes. “Since you let
us rest in here, I guess I can let
you ask some questions.”
“First of all, I will trust that she
really is your best friend. If so, what happened to her exactly?”
Rina began to explain her situation
starting from entering the village at the hill. Felix and Clyde were utterly
surprised knowing that the village almost never had exotic situations as a memory
extraction that transferred into an orb. The two of them shared judgmental
looks towards one another.
Rina became annoyed. “What, you don’t
believe me? Whatever then.” She turned to Lydia. “It doesn’t matter if you
don’t know what this apple is. Just eat it. You have to eat something before
you get hungry!” Lydia only looked at her without saying a word.
Felix began stretching his arms.
“Well, this is interesting. We might as well just wait until you finish feeding
that weirdo.”
Rina clenched her teeth after
hearing the word ‘weirdo’. She ignored him as she continued to feed Lydia some
apples. Then, she uncomfortably unzipped her backpack to get more granola bars without
taking her backpack straps off.
Clyde noticed an old scab on Lydia’s
right leg. “Do you want me to help patch that up? We have some old paper wraps
in the storage room.”
“I’ll do it myself,” Rina stood up
and headed for the wrappings.
Sometime after patching Lydia’s right leg, Rina’s stomach began to growl. There were no more apples and Rina was also stumped with the amount of food left in her backpack. She stood up and then she put Lydia over her shoulder. [End music] [Music 1.6]
How to Tie a Knot
Sometime after patching Lydia’s right leg, Rina’s stomach began to growl. There were no more apples and Rina was also stumped with the amount of food left in her backpack. She stood up and then she put Lydia over her shoulder. [End music] [Music 1.6]
Clyde stopped her. “Wait, where are
you going, Rina~?”
“I’m leaving. That’s what I’m doing." [End music - interrupted] "Thanks for letting us stay for a little bit, I guess. It’s nice knowing you -
just you. Not Suspenders.”
Felix pouted and Clyde thought of a
suggestion. “Why are you in a rush? You were talking about a suspicious scientist,
right?”
“You also said some soldiers are
after you,” Felix added.
Clyde shook his head. “Right. Do you
want us to help you sneak around? It’s only good of me to help a pretty girl
like you.”
“Okay cut the flattery,” Rina said
without feeling any emotion towards Clyde’s flirtatious comment. “I’ll go check
outside by myself. Lydia, stay right here,” She ordered. She then turned to the
boys, “Don’t touch her just because she’s vulnerable. I’ll make sure to crack a
fireball at you if things go wrong.”
She faced the front door, but
quickly glancing back at the boys. They were awkwardly shocked by her surprise,
and Rina turned back to the door after seeing that they did not touch Lydia.
Before heading for the door, she turned around again.
“Just go already,” Felix said
abruptly.
As she left, Felix whispered to
Clyde, “I kinda wanted to ask her about that magic stuff that she pulled out of
her hands. What was that anyway?”
“Hm… Not anything I can think of at
the moment. We will have to ask her when she comes back before it’s too late.
Once the coast is clear outside, she’s going to take Lydia and leave for good.”
“That’s good. I don’t want to see
that girl again anyway,” Felix chuckled.
Not too long after, Felix and Clyde could hear Rina shouting at some soldiers outside.
The Type of Girl She Is
Not too long after, Felix and Clyde could hear Rina shouting at some soldiers outside.
“Get away from me, you jerks!” Rina
gave an eerie stare at every one of the soldiers, especially towards the two
men who grabbed onto her arms.
Meanwhile back in the lot, Clyde
grabbed onto Lydia and threw her into a closet in the storage room. Once the
doors closed, her eyes suddenly widened. Clyde then threw a rapier to Felix.
“We’re going to stop them!”
“What? But I don’t like this weapon!
How do I even use it?!” Felix complained, but Clyde ignored him and ran out the
front door.
As Clyde left, the front door swung
backward and Felix accidentally hit his face against it. He fell, caressing his
forehead. [Music 2.1]
Outside the abandoned building were
a bunch of soldiers, probably about eight of them from the same group that
infiltrated the southeast docks. Clyde was immediately caught by two soldiers
waiting by the doorway.
“Ah-hah! I knew there were more of
you rats,” Lionel, the same soldier from the docks, appeared beside
captured-Rina.
Clyde grinned. “Who are you?!”
“Hah! You think I’d tell you my
name? Well too bad! I’m not going to tell you, but I’m going to do it anyway.”
Both Clyde and Rina became confused,
but that was not their concern.
“I am Lieutenant Lionel, one of the
captains of the Gammel army!” He checked the area around the lot. “Aaaaand, that
should be all of the damned teenagers, or so I’m guessing. Hehehe!” He then
turned to his allies, “The other four of you, stop standing around and check
for more of that girl’s friends!”
Felix ran out with his hands behind
his back. “I don’t think there’s a need for that!”
Two of the men who held onto Rina
were surprised that he would turn himself in so easily. Rina clenched her
teeth, angry that he had already given up.
Clyde, however, noticed that Felix
had a plan. He gave Rina a signal, letting her know that they should stay calm
and wait for Felix to take out whatever was behind his back.
Lionel swung his scythe, ready to
strike back if something peculiar happened. “Put your hands up where I can see
them,” he said in a predatory voice. He was eager to see what Felix was going
to do. [End music]
Felix suddenly threw a bitten apple
at one of the men nearest to Clyde but it flew past him and towards Rina’s
face. She quickly avoided it with her head, the only thing she had control of
at this point. The soldiers crouched down along with her.
“Hey, Suspenders! Watch where you’re
throwing that thing!”
Felix blushed. “That’s all I got.”
Clyde froze. Lionel began to laugh.
“Aaaaah hahahaha!! What a loser!”
“Sir,” one of the soldiers called
out. Lionel stopped swinging his scythe, suddenly unamused. “This girl has a
suspicious backpack. She could be carrying something dangerous.”
“Do you not realize we are looking
for a girl with black hair? Just trash the backpack or something, who cares!”
Rina’s front bangs covered her eyes
as one of the soldiers rudely rummaged into her backpack without having to
remove it from her back. Felix watched her, already able to see her fall into
misery.
“My backpack…” she said sadly. “My…”
Lionel gave a smirk. “So, that
backpack is your weakness? You must
be hiding something interesting after all.”
She began to whimper. “No one… No
one touches my backpack.” Her voice trembled at first, but it gradually rose.
Clyde knew what was going to happen next.
“No one DARES touch my backpack.” She
turned her head to the soldier who stuffed his arm into her bag. Her eyes were
filled with bright red flames as her voice shifted into a demonized acoustic. From
others’ eyes, they imagined a girl who first shed tears, and then twisted into
anger that could destroy a whole continent. She said even louder this time:
“Whatever I have in my bag is MY BUSINESS!!!” She shuffled against the two
soldiers’ grips and then she punched their faces as if swords and scythes were
no big deal. [Music 1.5]
The two soldiers yelped in pain,
crawling across the dirt like fallen pill bugs. Clyde and Felix said nothing. A
sweat drop crawled down both of their heads as Lionel became frustrated with
her. He commanded the six other soldiers to stop her but Clyde was already on
his way to victory with that.
Lionel took a step out of the
battlefield, waiting for the perfect opportunity to interfere with Rina’s
attacks. As Felix threw another bitten apple at his head, Lionel turned around
like an angry rhino. With this distraction, Rina rushed back into the abandoned
building. Clyde followed, and Felix knew at this point, he should be doing the
same thing.
“What the?! Where the hell did you
put my best friend?!” Rina shouted. [End music]
Clyde ran for the storage room as he
opened the closet door. “She’s safe in here.”
Rina could see Lydia shivering but
there were no tears coming out of her eyes. “Why would you put her in a
closet?! She hates closed spaces!” Rina scolded the two boys.
Felix took a peek at the living room
and he could see Lionel walking in from the outside. “He’s coming closer!”
Without thinking, Rina threw Lydia
onto Clyde. “Here. Since Suspenders here looks like he’s as flimsy as a stick,
you’re better off holding her.”
Felix stopped her. “And where are we
going to run off to? This storage room leads to nowhere!”
Rina quickly casted a fireball at the
wall, exploding the entire wooden barrier. “I found an exit,” she said
casually, pointing at the new hole in the wall.
“My place!!!” Felix cried as he
followed along in tears. Clyde easily had Lydia on his back, but her shivering
did not seem to suppress.
“Let’s take this young woman back to
our place. It should be safer there!” Clyde said to them.
The group made their way to a horse
stable nearby where Clyde ordered a horse carriage for a short while. Luckily,
the owners let him without questioning his motive. After all, Clyde was one of
the most trustworthy members of the village. As Felix was about to climb onto
the carriage, he had noticed that Clyde bowed to Rina and Lydia so that they
could enter first. Felix backtracked and copied him.
Rina rolled her eyes as she first
threw Lydia in, and then herself. At this rate, no soldier would suspect them
to be in a horse carriage.
So, What's Edible?
~ Village of Saradeli – north district – housing sector ~
The northern district was much
livelier compared to the eastern portion of the village. In its northern point,
there lie plantation owners such as Felix’s mom herself who dedicated more than
half their day tending the fields. It was almost sundown and Felix barged into
his place the moment he took a step onto the dirt. Clyde went to the side of
the building to tie the horse leash onto a pole while Rina and Lydia took their
time getting out of the carriages.
“Mom! I’m home!” [Music 1.2]
“Felix, honey! I’m so glad you’re
safe and sound.”
Felix gave a soft laughter. “Eheh,
well… I brought Clyde back, and some other people.”
“Goodness, which other villager is
it?” She asked as if she was familiar with all the other villagers.
It is true, however. Every villager
must know almost everybody else in order to help communicate in this little
community.
Rina stomped her way into the dining
room (which was also the living room, and the bedroom… and the kitchen).
“This place is so tiny,” she said
rudely. “You both live here?”
Felix’s mother stood up and she
could see Rina, Lydia, and Clyde from the distance. Clyde was already heading
for the first aid kit where he could find large, blue bandages for Lydia’s leg.
Meanwhile, Felix’s mother entered the large and only room in the building as
she bowed to Rina.
“It is nice to meet you.”
Rina stretched her arms. “Damn
finally! Another sane woman is here living with you. My name is Rina, and my
friend here is Lydia. And by the way,” She turned to Felix and Clyde, “I would
have lost hope if it was just you two living here.”
“She’s my mom,” Felix was already
annoyed by Rina’s introduction to his mother.
Clyde shook hands with Felix’s
mother after helping Lydia, “Good afternoon, Mrs. Wolfram.” He then said to
Rina, “Felix’s mother was kind enough to bring me in as a homestay individual
for a while until my parents come back from their voyage at sea. It has only
been a few weeks.”
Mrs. Wolfram shook her head in
pride. “And I never regretted it. This sweetie has been such a great help.”
Rina was staring at some old
pictures on a bulletin board nearby, already ignoring their conversation. “Oh
okay. Hey, is this Felix when he was little?”
Felix smiled. “Yeah! That was when
my mom and I went fishing for the first time. I caught a big on-…”
“You are still just as hideous as
you were in this picture. Haha!” Rina joked. Felix’s mother only giggled.
“M-Mom, don’t laugh with her!” He
blushed. [End music]
Mrs. Wolfram knelt down in front of
Lydia who was still emotionless. “And why is this young woman not speaking up?”
She put her face closer to Lydia, wondering why she did not respond.
Suddenly, Lydia was about to punch
her but Felix grabbed onto Lydia’s arms. Rina only scolded him not to touch her
like the usual.
Clyde held onto Mrs. Wolfram as they
took a few steps away from Lydia.
“What the heck did she try to do to
my mom?!” Felix became uncontrollable in Rina’s grip until Lydia punched him
instead. His face fell flat onto the wooden floors, also breaking parts of the
wood.
Clyde sat down across from Lydia. “I
am starting to understand the situation. You say Lydia’s mind was extracted
into some kind of orb, yes?” Rina waited for him to continue speaking. “Does this
also include some kind of instinct of hers? Maybe she lost her ability to sense
the different between what is right and wrong, and what to do and what not to
do.”
Rina crossed her arms. “Hmph! Then
why didn’t she punch Suspenders in the face
earlier at that trashy abandoned
building? That would have made our situation a lot easier.”
“She appears to act spontaneously
due to an imbalance between her morals. They have been completely emptied into
this so-called orb.”
“Great. I don’t suppose you know of
a solution to that?” Rina questioned him.
“Well first, if this orb is of
physicality, we can retrieve it and think about what to do with the orb from
there,” Clyde suggested.
Felix stood up immediately. “Hold
on, hold on. We? Why do you want to
help this girl?” He pointed at Rina. “She’s rude!”
“Who are you calling rude?” Rina
said with attitude.
Felix walked away from her in
nervousness. Clyde said with a voice so soft, it rang in harmony: “I always
help beautiful women,” His eyes sparkled and Mrs. Wolfram could see flowers
blooming in the background. Her garden radiated in tune with Clyde’s eyes.
Rina slapped him. “Alright, stop
with the flattery. The point is, the orb kind of shattered and it flew into the
sky. That’s pretty much it. I don’t know where else it could have gone.” Clyde
was lying flat on the ground – all sparkles were lost from his expression.
Felix began to joke around. “Looks
like we have to go to the… sky to get
it,” He started snorting as he tapped his thighs in his own amusement.
Rina was not impressed. “Shut up.”
Throughout their conversation, Clyde
insisted Rina to explain the exact terms that the scientist mentioned at the
northern riverbed. Some of the keywords that Rina could remember were the
rainbow spectrums and how delicate the orb was if it were to break apart. The
only conclusion that Clyde could make out was that the shards could be anywhere
and it must have shattered into more than seven pieces by now. However, he did
not tell Rina about this mostly to avoid causing stress.
“I will join you to help find these
shards,” Clyde concluded. [Music 2.2]
Rina jumped. “Y-You will?!” She gave
a smile that soon faded. “I mean, I don’t really need your help or anything.
It’s just, you and Suspenders here brought me even more trouble, so you were
going to help me regardless if you liked it or not.” She looked away as she
closed her eyes. “Hmph.”
“Hey! I didn’t agree to this! I’m
going to stay here and support my mom,” Felix claimed.
Clyde walked over to Felix and
whispered, “Didn’t you always want to leave and find a better place in the
city?”
“Talkin’ smack?” Rina said in the
background.
Felix grinned, still talking to
Clyde, “Er… I guess so…” He stumbled from Clyde’s question which did make a lot
of sense. He was to support Rina for only a short while as an excuse to escape
to the big city with his mother. “My mom is coming with us.”
Rina agreed with him. “Now that is logical. I’d rather have a
proper mother like her take care of us than to be stuck with Suspenders and
pretty-boy here.”
“I… I don’t think I want to leave
this village. I want to wait for Felix’s father to come home,” Mrs. Wolfram
said in the nicest way possible.
“Mom,” Felix raised his voice.
Clyde glanced over at Felix with a
concerned look on his face. Felix stopped. “Fine, but can we at least think
this through?”
His mother agreed to give her some
time. She already decided to stay no matter what, but she needed to stall more
time before he could start nagging her again. Rina, however, did not want to
wait around. [End music]
“While you guys sit around wasting
time, I really want to check out the outskirts of the village.” She looked out
the window to see if there were soldiers nearby. “It’s kind of suspicious. Not
a single soldier could have followed us that quickly after we fell into the river.
Where are they coming from?”
“Did you just mention the river
north from here?” Clyde interrupted her.
North of the village was the river
which was basically the end of the road.
“It’s pretty dangerous to go on your
own. What are you going to do, take the horse carriage by yourself?” Felix
asked.
“That’s exactly what I’m going to
do,” Rina played along. “Lydia’s coming with me too though. Come on,
pretty-boy, you might as well follow.”
Simultaneously, Felix turned to his
mother who returned to the gardens, and then back at Clyde. He is Clyde’s best
friend, and there was no way they were going to separate because of some
stranger who came out of nowhere with her mindless best friend.
Felix shook his head. “Alright. I’ll
go with you to check out the outer area of the village, but if you’re planning
to escape, I’m going to have to come back for my mom so she can finish
deciding.”
Rina whined. “Uuuuugggghhh. You’re
just going to slow me down. I’ll probably leave you then.”
Felix didn’t want to wait around
either. In the meantime, he could at least go along with Rina and Clyde.
“Mom,” Felix said. He stood by the
back door, “I’m going out for a little bit. I’ll come back though. Will you
decide by then?”
“Yes, honey. I promise. And you
promise me, you’ll come back safely okay? As long as you stay out of trouble
from those soldiers, they won’t bother you.” She turned to her plants where a
bee flew into a sunflower. “Just like the bees.”
Felix tried to give a smile. “Okay,
I promise.”
“Hello?!~ Are we ready to go or
what?” Rina yelled from the large room.
Felix hurriedly made his way to the
group of teenagers as the four of them headed into the horse carriage again.
Their next destination was the outskirts of the village up north where the
river resides.
Further away from the entrance of
Felix’s house, Lionel appeared behind a tree adjacent from them. “So this is their
house, hm? Heh, this should be fun.”
~ Village of Saradeli – north district - riverbed ~
The riverbed was rather peaceful.
Past the village consisted of chirbing birds above the teenagers and running water
in front of them. This was the deciding factor that the soldiers did not come
from the river at all, strangely enough.
Rina checked the grass around her.
“This is weird. There are no footprints,” She could see her own along with
Lydia’s, however. “Oh, except ours. Hehe,” She began hiding it with loose grass
nearby.
“The river seems to be flowing at a
normal pace,” Clyde said. “They could not have crossed by foot or boat through
this river.”
Rina shrugged. “Hmph. To think those
stupid soldiers were up to no good. Who even catered them? The government or
something?” She headed back into the horse carriage.
“The government?” This came to a
shock to Felix. His father is indeed
in the government. He turned to Clyde, “We have to check out the docks. It’s
the only other way for them to come to the village besides the south exit.
Maybe we can find some more clues there?”
Clyde had his arms crossed. “Hm? Do
you think your father has something to do with this?”
“I don’t know. I can’t see how it
connects with that Lydia girl and I doubt there is a connection, but if he’s at
the docks, I can ask why military is following these girls. Once I get the
details, I can ask him what he’s going to do for the village’s poverty, and
then we got our economical solution!”
“That sounds like a plan. You know,
it is quite dangerous to roam through the entire village just to get to the
docks. We should take the small road off to the side and sneak our way south,” Clyde
suggested. Felix agreed with Clyde’s plan, and Rina only shrugged.
~ Village of Saradeli – southeast district ~
At the southeast district, the group
of three peered out of the carriage to see the docks as far as they could.
Lydia only sat in place.
“Gee, there are lots of people,”
Rina said.
“What? It’s not usually this packed,”
Felix commented.
Clyde grabbed both Rina and Felix’s
heads back into the carriage. “Hide! Those are soldiers,” They peered through
the other side so they could get a view of the docks. “And they’re coming
from…”
The group of three could see about
twenty other ships, some the size of large army boats and some were
regular-sized luxury boats. Armed soldiers were appearing at a rapid pace.
“Battleships?!” the group of three
yelped together.
[Ending 1 music]
~~~
On the next episode, the three teenagers (and don't forget Lydia!) will have to face a bunch of battleships from the Gammel army. What kind of plan will they have? Also, Felix will sense that his father must be a part of this invasion, so he rushes off alone to find him! What will the other teenagers do and how will they deal with his clumsiness? Let's find out on the next episode!
~~~
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