The Obsidian Tale
Episode 3
[Opening 1 music]
[Opening 1 music]
~ Village of Saradeli – southeast district ~
“Battleships?!” the group of three
yelped together.
Right at that moment, Lydia punched
Felix out of the carriage.
“Ow! What the heck was that for?!”
Felix asked as Rina chuckled.
Clyde snuck out of the carriage to
help him rise, understanding that Lydia’s impulses were still uncontrollable at
this point. They could see soldiers looking into the forest-like patch in
between them.
“Sh!” Rina whispered to them even
though she was the only loud person with her obnoxious chuckling.
Some of the soldiers started walking
closer. Felix and Clyde abruptly stood up and they had to think of a plan
before they were found! Rina still sat in the carriage with Lydia.
Only a Few Seconds of Panic
“Anyway, now that I got my answer on how
they got here, I’m leaving. You said there is another exit south of the
village, right?” She questioned them.
Clyde stumbled. “Wait, you’re
planning to leave already?”
Felix took sight of one of the
battleships. “I want to go inside the ships though. My dad has to be in one of
them.”
Rina began to point at him angrily.
“What are you, stupid? Look how big those ships are! There are too many. Having
to check each one would take hours, not to mention that we’re running away from them.”
“No. You two are running away from them. Look, I don’t think that crazy
scythe guy told his soldiers about us yet. For Clyde and I, it’s safe to walk
into the docks and ask around like innocent children.”
“Hah. They won’t even let a fly into
that ship. Well, I rest my case anyway since you’re basically a fly. But my
point is, you’re wasting your time.”
This made Felix a little surprised.
‘You’re just wasting your time’, he repeated in his head. These were similar words
he had said to his mother.
“Rina, if you think about it, the
soldiers will expect that your next escape plan is the only route south of the
village. If you sneak into the battleship and wait for them to leave, then
you’ll be somewhere far away and unexpected,” Clyde suggested.
“That sounds like a smart idea, but
I’ll end up being even closer to the enemy base.”
“So when the ship lands back to
their base, why don’t you just sneak out whenever no one is looking?” Felix
added.
“Like I can do that already by heading
south?! I mean, why should I put in the extra effort to sneak into the ship if
Lydia isn’t even thinking properly? I’d rather leave by foot. It’s practically
safer.”
Felix became frustrated with her.
“Fine, then go. I need to get onto that ship!”
Rina yelled, “Finally! I didn’t want
you around anyway! Clyde, let’s go. You’re coming with me. Since you’re both
responsible for causing a bigger mess for me earlier, I might as well take one
of you to repay me by helping me find those shards.”
Rina grabbed onto Clyde’s left
sleeve while Felix gripped onto the right sleeve.
“You can’t just take my friend away.
Clyde’s going to the ship with me.”
The two of them started pulling
Clyde towards themselves simultaneously. He was feeling quite uncomfortable
since he promised himself to help Rina, but at the same time he couldn’t leave
his close friend behind.
“H-Hey…” Clyde said slowly.
Lydia suddenly pulled a rope that
signaled the horse to ‘neigh’ out loud. Oddly enough, she did this without
showing emotion. The three students quickly turned around, hoping that the
soldiers didn’t hear the horse. Unfortunately, they heard. [Music 1.5]
Rina had to let go of Clyde in order
to stay on the carriage as it rolled off. Meanwhile, with Felix still holding
onto Clyde, they both fell over, giving time for the soldiers to come closer.
“U-Uh oh!” Felix panicked. “What are
we going to do now?!”
Clyde grabbed Felix and pushed him
into the bushes. He ran towards the nearby soldiers with his rapier.
“Clyde?!” Felix screeched. “What are
you doing?”
“Run off to the side. You’ll reach
the ship’s back entrance.”
“There is a back entrance to that
thing?!”
“Everything always has an emergency
exit.”
“But what about you?”
“Don’t worry about me. I’ll try to
find you along the way. I’ll distract them,” He said, readying his weapon. [End music]
Felix had no other choice but to run
ahead and hope that Clyde will make it out in one piece without getting caught.
With Rina and Lydia already gone with their horse carriage, he had to do this
alone…
~ Village of Saradeli – southeast district – nearest
battleship ~
Once Felix reached the battleship,
he took an immediate stop when he saw soldiers guarding the back door. There
were civilians standing around, watching the commotion. To Felix’s advantage,
he said out loud for the soldiers to listen, “Something is happening over there!”
He said, making up a random lie while pointing at the opposite end of the dock.
As they hurried to the front, Felix
grabbed onto the door’s handle but it didn’t budge.
“Why were they guarding a locked
door?!” Felix complained.
Next
to the rear door was a ladder attached to the ship which led to the upper deck
in case of emergencies. His plan to sneak in from the rear had been crushed,
but he could still climb onto the top of the deck.
Upon reaching the top, some of the
villagers began gossiping to each other about Felix illegally sneaking onto the
ship. He tried to silence them with ‘shhh’ a few times but nobody listened. One
villager down at the docks had the audacity to point at Felix and a few
soldiers became alert.
Felix suddenly came to a stop as he
reached the top deck. “Oh crap… Why didn’t I think of this before?!”
Felix reminded himself that
battleships obviously need cameras in every room, so there was no point in trying
to sneak around until he finds his father. At this point, Felix started running
mindlessly towards the door leading to the bottom deck. One soldier stood in
front of the door and he aimed a gun at Felix who was still stampeding closer. [Music 3.1]
The soldier hadn’t expect to shoot
under-aged children before, so he startled and panicked. In no time, Felix
pushed him but they both fell together, slamming apart the back door. A
staircase to the next bottom floor was revealed. Down the steps, Felix used the
soldier as a sled to slide down the staircase. A few more soldiers were in
separate rooms watching Felix as he continued running down the narrow hallway.
Most of them didn’t really care since they weren’t ordered to guard anything.
Instead, Felix created a festivity in the ship for the soldiers’ entertainment.
Great!
Out of nowhere, a soldier appeared
outside his bedroom and Felix had to make a quick stop before crashing into the
man. He made an immediate turn to the left which was another bedroom. In these
battleships, most of the soldiers had to live in separate bedrooms, or they at
least shared it with another roommate during their voyages at sea.
“What are you doing in here?!” a
soldier said, frightened instead of being brave.
Felix saw the nearest door in front
of him, so he opened it and barged in.
“Hey, I wouldn’t go in there if I were
you,” the same soldier said.
Felix shrugged as he turned around
after closing the door. There was a naked soldier behind him but he had a towel
over his unmentionables.
“Wh- A bathroom?!” Felix stuttered.
The soldier blushed. “G-Get out of
here!”
The previous soldier barged in to
help pull Felix out of the bathroom, but the door only pushed Felix forward,
who then crashed into the naked soldier. The soldier slipped, turning around
and accidentally dropping his own face into the toilet. Felix looked up and he
could see a vent right above the toilet seat. In a hurry, Felix pushed the
bathroom door shut so that one of the men was locked out. While the naked
soldier had his head in the toilet, Felix dropped the toilet cover and he
stepped onto it, accidentally banging it onto the naked soldier’s head.
At the very last moment after Felix
entered the vent and re-closed it, the naked soldier took his head out of the
toilet to look around.
“Huh? Where did he go?”
Felix snickered. “Hehe!” [End music]
Like usual, Felix became the
troublemaker of the village, only with the soldiers.
~ Village of Saradeli – southeast district – battleship
interior ~
It has been a quarter of a mile
since Felix entered the vents. He began feeling exhausted due to the minimal space
he had, and he had to push through while bending as small as he could. All he
had seen so far were bathrooms from each bedroom until he stumbled upon a
hallway. The conversations he had heard ranged from what was for dinner in a
few hours and what their plans were for the village. Most were unsure exactly
about what was going on, however. [Music 3.2]
As he was about to move along, he
heard a soldier calling out ‘Floir’ to a woman who casually walked down the
hall. Felix paused to take a look.
“Lieutenant! We have urgent news,” the
soldier said to the woman.
It turns out that this woman is the
same person who ordered Lionel to enter the village from before. The soldier
whispered into the woman’s ear.
“What? I will take care of it right
now. Tell the pilots that I, Floir, will be off the ship. They can start
channeling themselves back home. I will board the other ship in the back.”
“Yes, ma’am!” He saluted and ran
off.
“Floor?” Felix guessed her name
wrong. “Someone named her after a floor?”
At any rate, he knew there was
little time left now that the ship was going to steer off once the pilots hear
the news – whatever the news was. Felix continued onward.
Not too far ahead, he became too
annoyed of the narrow vents that he was in for several minutes. He looked for
an empty bathroom so he could jump off and continue sneaking around by foot.
Luckily, the next bathroom was in the clearing, hoping that he would not find
another naked man in the stall by surprise. As he jumped down as quietly as
possible, he headed for the door and placed his ear against the door. There was
no sound. He then crouched down to see any shadowy footsteps through the
opening under the crease. None.
“The coast is clear,” Felix
whispered to himself.
Slowly
opening the door, Felix took sight of a completely different room. There were
weapons of all kinds stacked against the wall: spears, hammers, swords, axes,
poles, and mostly strange hybrids. On the other side was a wall of firearms:
snipers, pistols, carbines, and even small bazookas.
“Do they really need all these kind
of weapons?” he questioned, noticing one of the hybrid close-ranged weapons.
He hunched over to view the name. “Crescent
Blade. Interesting,” he said as he grabbed it by the handle. “And it’s light!”
The
handle was a silver pole that was bound together by sockets attached by a long,
blue, crescent-shaped blade. Felix did not prefer much of a rapier weapon as
they were long and thin which felt flimsy to him as compared to how Clyde used
it. With a light blade such as the one he is holding now, he could easily
attack at a quick speed and use it as a defensive shield at the same time. [End music]
One of the soldiers walked in and
saw Felix with the crescent blade. “Whoa, put that down.”
Felix took a step back. The man
pointed his carbine weapon at Felix which basically checkmated the teenage boy
immediately. Instead, Felix did not drop his weapon and he retaliated with a
question.
“Do you know of a man named uh…” His
memory of his father’s first name must have run off. They were not very close,
so he only used his father’s last name. “Mr. Wolfram?”
“Who?” The soldier kindly placed his
weapon beside his hips.
“Um, well, he works for the
government. I was just wondering if-…”
“Oh, no. We soldiers work for our
lieutenants only. We may be ordered by the government, but we never get to see
them directly.”
Felix sighed. “So that means he
could be anywhere… Oh, hey! Do you happen to have an extra outfit?”
“You don’t belong here, do you?
Listen, I am in a hurry. I heard there has been an infiltrator coming from the
docks and he was trying to make his way into the battleship. The lieutenant
told me to pick up some more weapons for the other soldiers.”
Now, Felix realized the soldier came
in to get weapons and participate in stopping the ‘infiltrator’ which could be
no one else but Clyde!
Felix took a step aside. “Alright.
I’ll just leave you alone or something and find Mr. Wolfram myself.”
The soldier began walking to the
wall with ammunition and Felix elbowed the man’s head onto the machinery. The
impact made the guns fall along with the man.
“A-Alright, it’s time to bust on out
of here,” Felix said to himself, leaving the room with a crescent blade.
Another man in the hallway was
accidentally pushed aside. “What do you think you’re doing?!”
“I’m getting out of here!”
“But the exit is this way…” he said,
correcting Felix.
When Felix turned around and started
running again, the man paused. “Wait a minute. You must be the infiltrator!”
“Wait, what?! No I’m not!” Felix
said in a panic. “Well, I mean I guess I’m infiltrating right now but I’m not the infiltrator you’re looking for!”
The man stopped in confusion. “Huh??”
“See ya!” Felix continued running.
The only easy way to find any exit was to just head to the upper
floors until he accidentally finds the ship deck. With luck, he made his way
out, pushing a guarding soldier away from behind. The soldier stood up and
aimed his rifle at Felix.
“Stop right there!”
Felix turned around to see that he
was trapped. A few more began to circle him in an outer crescent. The only path
Felix had left was to walk backwards, but that was not going to last long. He
took one more step back and half of his foot landed against the edge of the
ship. Below him was not water that he could jump into; it was hard land!
“You are trapped. Drop your weapon!”
another man called out.
Felix looked at the ground and he
noticed that Clyde was still pushing his way through the men with his rapier.
It was amazing that Clyde could last this long while Felix was inside the ship.
Even for such a narrow weapon, Clyde managed to deflect any gunfire. ‘When did
he get so good?’ Felix asked himself. At that moment, the same woman named
Floir appeared without any weapon at all. Knowing she was one of the leaders,
Felix knew Clyde would not make it to the ship successfully.
“You guys may have trapped me,”
Felix said, “but you forgot one important thing!”
Some of the men looked confused.
Felix made a quick jump off the ship from almost three stories above. He aimed
for a hanging fishing net nearby a few crates and soldiers.
“Losers!! Hahaha!” Felix yelled.
The soldiers down below stopped
their quarrel with Clyde as they watched Felix flying from the deck of the
ship. Well, he stopped flying eventually. Natural turbulence made him feel a
little wobbly and he suddenly got out of control and landed on top of a soldier
sitting on top of a few crates.
A bunch of villagers screamed at the
crisis. Floir, on the other hand, had her palm over her forehead in
disappointment at yet another commotion being created.
With Felix being the main
distraction now, some of the soldiers were able to catch Clyde from behind!
Floir smiled as she said out loud
for everyone to listen, “You there, boy. We have your lovely friend in custody
now.”
Felix stood up and he jumped away
from the soldier that he landed on. Floir continued to bargain with him, “If
you run, we will hunt you down. But if you come with us, we will not hurt you.”
Both Felix and Clyde obviously knew
this would be a lie. Clyde gave Felix a nod – a signal to run despite how he
had no defensive shield, besides his crescent blade.
Felix took a few steps back until he
was leaning beside a few crates. With his swift movement, he pushed all the
crates down and some of the men began firing at him. Most gunshots took the
crates and any successful aim only landed against Felix’s crescent blade.
Clyde yelled out to him, “Run,
Felix! Run as far as you can!!!! We will meet again, I promise!!!”
Felix clenched his teeth in fear.
“Clyde, you better stay alive! I’ll come back for you!” He thought to himself.
“I’m not giving up on you!”
Several dozens of soldiers began to
follow him into the forest leading into the village itself. Floir glared at the
leftover crates, and then to Clyde.
“Tch,” she said. [End music]
Even in the battleship’s dark
surveillance room, security guards watched each screen that showcased every
camera both inside and outside. One man in a silhouette watched. The only
object shining on him was a wedding ring in his hands.
~ Village of Saradeli – north district ~
The villagers began to falter once
they saw a stampede of soldiers rushing in. Since Felix was running alone at
first, not many of them noticed he was the target. The only safe place he could
go to was his home now that Lionel knew of his secret hideout at the eastern
portion of the village.
Upon reaching his home, he rushed
into the building and called out to his mother. “Mom! Are you there?!”
There was no answer. Maybe she was
still in the gardens, doing late-night farming during dinner hours.
“I’m out here, Felix,” she said with
a trembling voice.
Felix could not see her in the dark
but as long as she was there, everything must have gone well for her. Felix
rushed into the garden to have a word with her about Clyde, but the only thing
he saw was… Lionel with the scythe on his right arm, gripping against Felix’s
mother from behind.
“Welcome home, kid,” Lionel said
sarcastically. [Music 3.3]
Felix’s heart sank. His eyes widened
and he could see his mother being kept as hostage. The blade was close to her
body.
“What do you think you’re doing? How
did you find us?!”
“You’d think we lose sight of you
that easily? I followed you in secret and found out where you lived. All I had
to do was wait for your sorry little butt to come here crying to your mommy,
and here you are. Ahhh hahahaha!”
“Let her go!”
Lionel took a few steps back,
stepping on the freshly planted seeds over the mulch that Mrs. Wolfram just
spent all day planting.
“Come with me, and when we reach the
docks, I will let your mother go. Then again, I’ve also been told that this
village is being taken over by the Gammel military.”
‘Gammel’ is the name of the military
that has been on the docks all this time.
“What did you say?!”
“Yeah, something about this village
being poor so it will need some proper regulations. I dunno, apparently some
weird guy must have been talking about it at the council in Vector.”
“The city of Vector?” Felix gasped.
“The Gammel government? That’s my dad you’re talking about!”
“What a coinkydink!~ The little
village boy crying to his mommy has a daddy in the Gammel government? Hahaha!
Now this is an interesting story to tell. Anyway, get your butt over here or
I’m going to have to make your legs bleed.”
Felix stopped for a moment. “(My
legs? Is this another way of saying he wants to torture me by crawling my way
towards him in order to get my mom back?)”
A large ball of flame flew past
Lionel and it hit the trees behind the garden.
“Oh,” A girl said apathetically from
the rooftop. “I missed.”
Lionel said angrily, “What the hell
was that just now?!”
Suddenly, the same horse from Clyde’s
horse carriage stampeded over Lionel.
Rina called to Mrs. Wolfram, “Have
you decided yet?!”
Mrs. Wolfram said kindly, “I want to
stay. If what this man said is true about new regulations, my husband will come
any minute.”
Felix stomped his foot. “Are you
still going with that?! He’s not-…”
Rina stopped him, “Suspenders, she
makes her own choices. The military is ordered to take over the village, not
kill the villagers. She will be safe even if she decides to stay! Now, you decide to stay or leave.”
Felix looked at his mother, “But
mom… the soldiers are after me now.”
“Get this stupid horse off of me!”
Lionel said without paying attention to the conversation.
Mrs. Wolfram only gave a smile. “It
is best for you to go, now that they are looking for you. I want you to find a better place to live in,
and this village may not be the best for that.”
Felix began to cry. “But mom… I’m
not going anywhere without you!”
“You can come back any time when
things calm down. For now, I want you to go out into the world and find a city
that seems right for you! Please, do this for me?”
Felix wiped his tears away. “I… I
will!”
Rina came back downstairs and said
to Felix, “Welp, I’m leaving. Come on, Lydia, let’s get out of here!”
Felix looked at Rina, and then back
to his mother.
“Go with her,” Mrs. Wolfram ordered.
“She will keep you and herself safe from danger.”
After a long bit of contemplation,
Felix finally made a decision. “F-Fine!” Felix said. “It’s time I… say goodbye
to this village…”
He ran out of the house, looking at
it one last time before moving on. The fiery bright blaze seared to the top of
the tree behind the house like a beautiful campfire soaring in the night sky in
smoke. Then, Felix began to run away, now completely out of sight of his
mother…
[Ending 1 music]
~~~
On the next episode, we're finally moving the setting away from the Village of Saradeli. This 'basic' arc is now going to open towards more paths. What do I mean? Well, the plot doesn't only focus on Lydia and the army! There seems to be more characters coming in who were affected by a genocide that occurred seven years ago. Maybe we'll get a clue as to why Lydia is being chased down. Tune in for episode 4!
~~~
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