The Obsidian Tale
Episode 9
[Opening 1 music]
[Opening 1 music]
~ Silver Forest – southern portion – exit ~
“Slow down!” Felix commanded, making
sure that Forrest had enough time to get back up.
“What are you, stupid? We have to
continue running from the soldiers.”
“D-Did you hear the growls along the
way though?”
“It’s probably the dumb kid’s
stomach again,” Rina said, pointing at Forrest.
“Hey! That’s not nice,” Forrest
frowned.
Lydia swiftly turned around, facing
the forest again. “Danger.”
Two mountain lions appeared. Forrest
proudly took out his BB gun while Felix panicked, reaching for his crescent
blade. [Music 9.1]
Rina rolled her eyes. “Okay, we
don’t have time to stall. Suspenders, distract them while we make a run for
it!”
“What?!?!”
As Rina faced Forrest who was behind
her, she noticed the other two mountain lions had surrounded the group.
“Crap, we’re surrounded,” Rina said.
She grabbed for her knives but then she thought about what Lady Pria had said
to her.
“By
the way, your aiming sucks.”
One mountain lion pounced onto
Felix, biting against his crescent blade. Once he fell over, the other mountain
lion from behind became angry after Forrest shot its face with a light pellet
from the BB gun. The lion only staggered whenever a pellet hit its face or
eyes. Rina was standing in between her two allies who were slowly getting beat
down by mountain lions.
Rina coughed. “Ugh… At least I still
have Lydia!”
One
of the lions tried to jump onto Lydia, but her lack of control caused her to
punch the lion on the chin.
“Oh no…! I’m so sorry, lion!” Lydia
crouched down, crying over the fact that she attacked an animal. The lion
whimpered and rolled all over the floor and Lydia kneeled over, trying to calm
it down. “I didn’t… I didn’t mean to! I’m such a horrible person!”
“Guess I lost her too,” Rina said as
she watched Lydia in tears, “In the weirdest way possible…”
Simultaneously, Rina watched as each
person struggled. Felix pushed the lion away and he grabbed onto his crescent
blade. Instead of running towards the lion, Felix ran the opposite direction so
he could get closer to Forrest.
“Look out!!” Felix shouted, hoping
to get one lion away from Forrest. He then yelled at Rina, “Why aren’t you
doing anything?!”
The first lion that was chasing
after Felix was about a few yards closer until Rina finally, and quickly, threw
her knives at it. Two knives burst into very tiny flames as it stabbed through
the lion. She did the same for the other two and they were rolling along the
floor in pain. The fourth lion was still in pain from Lydia’s impact. [End music]
Felix knelt onto the ground, his
eyes wide, and his arms shaking. Forrest was slightly afraid, but he was also
excited that he could actually participate in a real fight. Lydia continued to
cry, and Rina glared at the lions in anger.
“Stupid Suspenders! Why didn’t you
kill the lion when you knocked it down earlier?! Why did you run instead? Geez,
you piss me off sometimes!”
“You’re the one who stood there for
the longest time! You have knives, geez!”
Rina rolled her eyes. “You were just
in the way,” she said as an excuse.
Felix stopped feeling anguish
towards her once he noticed that the lions were excreting blood out of the stab
wounds. “Th-The lions… they’re bleeding.”
“Well duh. I did that.”
“But they’re… bleeding!”
Forrest tilted his head. “Felix is
afraid of blood?”
Rina shrugged. “Just a bunch of
dying animals. Who cares?”
Felix closed his eyes. “But they’re
innocent animals. Of course it’s natural for them to chase after us as prey,
but that’s just what they are. You killed an animal!”
“Are you stupid? It could have
killed you. It’s survival.”
“I know that!! It’s just…”
Forrest patted Felix on the
shoulder. “You never seen someone die or get hurt this much before, right?”
Rina yawned. “Hm. Even Forrest knows
what is happening here. Boooooring!~”
Forrest gave Felix a hug. “Let’s
keep going. We can rest when we are safe from those meany soldiers.”
Felix stood up. He was still a
little shaky, but he could move and think consciously. Rina helped Lydia as
well, lying and pretending that Lydia is just dreaming and that she will only
wake up if she calms down.
~ South of Silver Forest – three-way split ~
It has been only a few minutes since
the group of four continued to walk. The Silver Forest was past them now, and
they could only see it in the mist from afar. Now, they have arrived at huge
grasslands with a continuous train track reaching out to the ends of their
vision. Felix had not spoken since they left the mountain lions, but he came to
a stop. [Music 5.1]
“Hey, you guys?” Felix said with
concern.
“What is it now?”
“I was just wondering… how did you
get used to seeing these things die?”
Rina said nothing. Forrest tried to
remember. “Um… In the Ouli Brye place… I’ve seen stuff like that happen before,
but I was little. It didn’t really get to me though because I didn’t understand
what was happening. It was kinda normal to see it happen a lot.”
“Is Ouli Brye dangerous?”
“From where I lived, it used to be,
but I don’t know anymore. People say there are two parts to Ouli Brye. The
wanna-be warzone and the place where people sell stuff.”
“It’s called a flea market,” Rina
corrected him. “From what I read, the north stopped being a warzone ever since
a new king reigned over. Both the north and south have markets, but the south
has a lot more. I haven’t read recent books, so I’m not sure how Ouli Brye is doing
now.”
Felix sighed. “Are we going to the
warzone size then?”
“Most likely. But right now, I don’t
think there is any point for Ouli Brye to be fighting with anyone. From the
readings, Ouli Brye is occupied by the Lennox army, and the one we’re trying to
avoid is the Gammel army, so we should be safe there.”
Forrest agreed with her, “I follow
the evil lady for once.”
“Hey!” Rina said in the background.
Forrest continued, “And so far, the
Gam-mel army people are going after us right? They can’t be focusing too much
on their enemies or whatever. There won’t be any wars!”
Rina turned away. “You also have to
take into consideration of their army size. Maybe they’re using parts of the
army to chase after us, and the other half to fend against Lennox.”
Felix grinned. “Why were they ever
opposing sides in the first place?”
“Eh, beats me. I haven’t read that
far into history. Who do you think I am, a bookworm?”
“Well you’re always nagging people
to do what you think is best,” Felix replied.
“I hate you,” Rina said to him. [End music]
Let's Sing a Song!
Lydia began biting onto a slab of
wood nearby the train tracks. [Music 6.1]
“L-Lydia, don’t eat that!”
Lydia stared at her with a blank
face. “Wood doesn’t taste so bad.”
Rina grabbed the square-shaped wood
away from Lydia. “How many times have I told you to stay away from trying
anything exotic? Cave walls, flowers, wood, and even more wood?”
Forrest looked up at the wooden
piece. “Looky there! There’s something on the wood.”
Rina turned it around and she
noticed a sign showing “hills” and an arrow pointing to the left and “Ouli
Brye” pointing to the right.
“We all want to go to Ouli Brye,”
Forrest reminded them, “So let’s go right!”
Rina kicked his butt, knocking him
over. “Don’t be stupid. Whenever something like this happens, we have to go the
opposite direction.”
Lydia suddenly began crying. “I-I’m
so sorry… I shouldn’t have bitten off the sign! If I didn’t, we would have
known which way to go!”
Rina rolled her eyes. “Stop blaming
yourself. It’s not your fault, geez.”
Felix tried to correct her,
“Actually, this time it really is her-“
Rina kicked him in the face. “It’s
not her fault!”
Forrest ran towards him to check if
he was bleeding. Rina continued leftward towards what could be either the hills
or Ouli Brye itself. [End music]
~ Left path of train tracks - Isolated House ~
“I swear, you really need to get
your shards back because by the time I find them, you’ll be unhealthy and dying
from all these poisonous plants.” [Music 3.2]
Felix shook his head from all his
deep thinking as he pointed at a house up ahead, “Hey guys… are you sure we
went the right way?”
Forrest looked confused. “Hm… Ouli
Brye sure looks a lot smaller than I remember…”
Felix elbowed Rina’s arm, “This is
the wrong way, and you chose it.”
Rina grabbed his neck with both
arms, shaking him back and forth, “Do you want to die?!” She screamed at him
while she blushed.
Forrest watched one of the wooden
planks on the roof suddenly fall apart.
Lydia took a step back. “Something
is inside.”
Rina threw Felix onto the ground and
then she stood in front of Lydia.
“Don’t scare me like that. We should
just ignore this creepy-looking house and walk the other way.”
Felix, while making his way back up,
noticed that the train tracks also stopped here. Forrest was surprised at how
Lydia could sense something in the house beforehand, but Rina simply insulted
him and said it is because of the smoke coming out of the chipped chimney.
Forrest and Felix were slightly
hesitant to go into the house which looked abandoned and old. The grass in
front were still green but the exterior of the building was run-down. There was
sheer silence, and a small amount of colored birds pecked at the little pond
near the grass. Rina wanted to prove the boys wrong, for real this time, so she
went ahead with Lydia. This forcefully made the boys follow.
~~~
At the front door, Rina grabbed the
doorknob and pushed it forward, but the whole door fell over instead.
“Er…” Felix said slowly.
Rina smiled. “Oh. Suspenders, looks
like we’ve found paradise for you after all. Now you can live happily ever
after here.”
“Very funny.” Felix rolled his eyes.
“Is anybody home?” Lydia asked
rudely, mostly because she couldn’t express kindness and emotion.
“You know, on the way to this house,
I noticed that the weeds were recently picked and harvested. It seems like
someone really is here, and no ghost,” Felix whispered.
“D-Don’t say ghost! They’re scary,”
Forrest whimpered.
“HEL-LO??!!” Rina shouted without
any care.
Felix interrupted her. “Sh, sh!!
What if it’s some kind of assassin?!”
“An assassin wouldn’t leave smoke
coming out of the chimney along with plants being weeded out. Do you know how
they work?”
“How would you know that?” Felix questioned her.
“It’s common sense. I read
fairytales too. Well… not for me, but for Lydia.” [End music]
The group heard an extremely loud
noise from the room to their upper right corner, followed by a pathetic yelp.
“Gyeeeeh!!!” They heard.
Rina stood in front of Lydia,
complaining that the scream came from Felix. Felix ignored her and he stealthily
headed closer to the next room.
Forrest began shivering. “Ghosts… it
has to be!”
Felix peered into the room with just
his head. “I could have sworn I heard a loud noise. It sounded like armor but
it’s sitting up-right against the wall.”
The room was bright and
squeaky-clean. There was a mattress sitting on top of a steel bed frame. The
drawers were nice enough to see your reflections on them. Anything else was
just storage that was stacked neatly off to the side.
Forrest tip-toed into the room. There
was nothing thrown on the floor even if it sounded as if something fell.
“I-It’s the ghost, I tell you!” He
examined the armor but nothing happened.
Lydia shrugged. “It still feels like
we are being watched.”
Forrest inched closer towards the
armor’s helmet. “This is cool. I haven’t seen this before.”
His face was only about a foot away
from the helmet until it suddenly pushed itself forward with a scream. “BOO!” [Music 9.2 - mainly the first 22 seconds]
Forrest screamed and he hurriedly
hid behind Felix, crying. Rina laughed barbarically and Felix readied his
crescent blade. Lydia walked in front of all of them, however.
Rina gasped. “Wait a minute. Lydia,
let me do this.”
Ignoring her, Lydia kicked the
helmet away but there was no head!
Lydia suddenly cried. “I’m so sorry!
I must have kicked your head off!!”
Forrest screamed even louder from
the headless armored body. “EYAAAH!!!! It IS a ghost!!!!”
Suddenly, a head appeared out of the
armor head instead.
“Phew! It was a good thing I
ducked!” He said, sighing. His voice cracked.
“That doesn’t look like a ghost to
me,” Felix said, placing his blade back into his sheath.
The tall man, still in his armor,
walked closer to Forrest with all of his clinking noises. Forrest was still
crying, grabbing tighter onto Felix’s shirt.
“It’s okay, kiddo. I won’t hurt
you.”
“You might as well though,” Rina
suggested, feeling annoyed by Forrest’s constant crying.
The strange man lent out his hand
and Forrest slowly tried to hold on. Forrest literally had to look upward in order
to see his face.
“See? Everything is fine,” he
smiled, letting go.
“So… you’re not a ghost??” Forrest
wiped his nose which was dripping in snot.
“I’m not! H-Hey, don’t let that drip
onto the floor!”
He took off his armor, revealing what he was originally wearing. He was tall with a poorish, dirty-green garment. He had long hair and a notable mustache. Although he looked as if Big Foot went to the gym for a few years, the man's expressions showed friendliness towards the main group.
He took off his armor, revealing what he was originally wearing. He was tall with a poorish, dirty-green garment. He had long hair and a notable mustache. Although he looked as if Big Foot went to the gym for a few years, the man's expressions showed friendliness towards the main group.
Rina stared at him. “I don’t get it.
You haven’t shaved your mustache, nor have you cut your hair. You look like
some hobo with that ugly ragged clothes. Yet… your room is clean as hell.”
“You can’t say a room is clean and
then call it Hell,” He laughed. “I just like being clean around me. It doesn’t
matter if I’m not. Anyway, I’m Leo!”
“And I don’t care.” Rina turned
away. “Alright, Lydia, let’s get out of here. Suspenders, you might as well
stay with this weird guy. It seems peaceful here enough.”
“Oh?” Leo stopped her. “And where
are you in a rush to?” [End music]
“Ouli Brye,” Lydia answered without
thinking.
“Lydia! Don’t tell strangers where
we’re going. Sheesh.” Rina forcefully grabbed Lydia’s hand as she tried to run
out.
“Ouli Brye is not a safe place right
now,” Leo said.
Rina paused by the doorway. “What do
you mean by that?”
“If you care enough, we can sit down
for a cup of coffee. I would rather enjoy your company since you all seem
harmless.”
“Ugh… this guy is so lonely,” Rina insulted. “But hey,
I’ll take some coffee.”
Felix whispered to Forrest,
“Whatever happened to being in a hurry like she always has been?” Forrest
chuckled in response.
“I heard that!” Rina shouted.
~ Isolated House – dining room ~
Leo handed everyone a cup of hot
coffee. He had already finished cooking a small portion of food, assuming it
was only for him before. However, he vowed to share it all with his visitors.
Juggling with Glass
When Forrest grabbed onto the cup of coffee with two hands, Leo suddenly screamed in fear. [Music 9.2 - starting at 22 seconds]
Forrest dropped the cup onto Felix’s
knee, burning him a little. “Wh-What is it?! What happened?!” Forrest asked
Leo.
Leo pointed at Forrest, “The
horror!”
“Huh???”
“You need to hold it by the handle
with your pinky out!”
Rina tapped her own forehead onto
the wooden table several times in shame, one after each word: “We. Don’t. Have.
Time. For. Overdramatic. Situations.”
Lydia watched her, and then she
copied Rina’s forehead taps. Forrest grabbed the cup, hoping there was still
some coffee left.
Leo frowned. “Sorry. Force of habi-
UWAAAH!!!”
Forrest was startled again, dropping
the rest of the coffee onto Felix’s knees.
Rina stood up. “What is it now?!”
“You’re dropping coffee all over the
floor!” he said dramatically. He suddenly calmed down, “Anyway, you wanted to
hear about Ouli Brye’s current situation, yes?” [End music]
Felix spoke before Rina could throw
a tantrum, “Um, yeah. My friend is apparently a part of some expedition. Well,
he’s doing it as a hostage by the Gammel army for assumed infiltration.”
“The Gammel army is already making
their way to Ouli Brye?!” Leo clenched his fists. “This is happening faster
than I thought.”
“Why? What’s happening? I used to
live there!” Forrest panicked. [Music 8.2]
Leo became serious, “The current
king of Ouli Brye is whom we’re supposed to call ‘King Nader’. I overheard a
conversation between him and some woman talking about the overthrow of Ouli
Brye’s kingdom. When the past king passed away, King Nader called forth his
agreement to support the Lennox army, but that conversation just reeked of
Gammel conspiracy. Eventually when Gammel creates enough army masses, King
Nader will get the signal to make the Lennox army defenseless. The new king had
been appointed seven years ago, but I barely heard about the conspiracy a year
ago.”
“What?!” Felix responded. “You mean
the current king is just waiting until the Gammel army is giving them the
signal to take over?!”
“Exactly. I know all of this
because… I used to live in Ouli Brye as well, just like this young boy here.”
“The name’s Forrest! Hehe.”
Rina crossed her arms. “Hmph.
Interesting. What made you live out here on your own? To get away from all
that?”
“You could say that. I suppose I
didn’t want to deal with Ouli Brye. No matter what, though, my heart still goes
to that city itself before the old king passed away. It’s just that… I will
have to stay here from now on in order to stay out of trouble. Maybe you all
can live with me! It would feel like a party every day.”
Rina shook her head. “Um, no thanks.
I need to get the shards for Lydia. Apparently, they’ve been split into seven
different pieces all over the world and we only recovered two. I have a feeling
that with the Gammel army getting close to taking over Ouli Brye, that stupid
Talbot scientist should be there any time soon.”
Forrest tried to remember.
“Scientist… that crazy guy back in Kyrie? He was after that shiny thing that
Jess was holding!”
“Exactly. Whether you’re coming or
not, I’m still going after that bastard. He might have a better idea about
where the shards are, so I’m going to force some answers out of him.” [End music]
“At any rate, we should get going immediately.”
Green Like the Environment
“At any rate, we should get going immediately.”
“For once, I agree with Suspenders
here.”
“Haven’t you agreed with me on
something before?”
“Shut up.”
Felix turned to Leo, “Thanks for the
coffee, sir. This will keep me awake for a while longer. I need to find Clyde,
and maybe we can even have a little truce talk with King Nader himself.” [Music 4.1]
Forrest grabbed onto Leo’s arms,
“You should come with us! I’m sure it gets lonely here.”
“Wha? N-No, I shouldn’t!” Leo
hesitated.
“What? Scared that your motherly
hometown is going to get destroyed by the king?” Rina mocked. “You love the
city so much that you’re just going to let it rot in the fake king’s laughter?”
“I-If you put it that way… But you
don’t understand!”
Rina scratched her head. “Hm, well
then, you can stay here. I was just suggesting because we need someone older
with us. I don’t want to deal with the dumb and dumber here.” Rina pointed at
the two boys that she had been traveling with.
Lydia clapped her hands together
without a smile. “Then it’s settled. The five of us are going!”
“Um… you mean four,” Felix counted.
“Leo said he’s not going, and we should respect that.”
“Leo,” Lydia spoke hopefully, “you
should go with us. I think it would be nice for you to see your homeland in one
piece, whether it gets destroyed or not. We might not understand, but you could
at least try to stop the king.”
“Words of wisdom coming from someone
who’s supposed to lack wisdom at the moment, very nice,” Rina complimented her.
Leo was shaking, “But I… Fine. If
things go wrong, then that’s when I should take my leave. I’m warning you now:
you don’t understand my situation.
Hold on, let me go get my weapon.”
While Leo went into his bedroom,
Felix said to Rina, “Leo is an adult, so now you can refrain from all of your
insults, heh.”
“Who said he’s going to stop me?”
Rina questioned.
Forrest stood behind Felix, “I don’t
think Leo is capable of stopping her, Felix…”
“Yeah, you’re probably right.”
Rina headed for the front door with
Lydia.
Felix said to Forrest, “I know she
seems mean, but I can see why she’s like that. She told us before that it’s
because no one took her seriously, so I’m sure she’d prefer if people were
scared of her so that they can finally listen. She seems very optimistic in
helping Lydia too. It might be interesting to find out what Lydia’s true
personality is like because right now, she spaces out so much. I might want to
help her instead of finding a safe place. Like you said, it would get boring to
live alone out here, right?”
Forrest giggled. “Hehe, you’re
right! Can I follow along too? Maybe by the time I return to Kyrie, I’ll be
much stronger!”
“Well first, we have to find you a
real weapon. Maybe Leo has one?”
“I only want to hold weapons with
bullets in them!”
Felix scratched his head. “You know,
I think you’re a bit under-aged to use them.”
Forrest sighed. “Even Sydney used to
complain to me about that. I’m only going to use it as self-defense. I won’t go
crazy.”
“Sorry, Forrest,” Leo said,
interrupting them. “I don’t have any ammunition weapons, but I do have swords.
A long sword, at that.”
“Yuck. I don’t want that stuff,”
Forrest coughed.
“Fine then, I’ll keep it,” Leo said
kindly. “I actually don’t like these weapons but you know, a weapon is a
weapon.”
“What is your preferred weapon?”
Felix asked Leo.
Leo shrugged. “Good question. Even I
don’t know. In Ouli Brye, they always forced me to learn how to use a sword but
I never liked it.”
“They?”
Forrest wondered.
“Oh don’t worry about it. They’re
just people I used to talk to and live with back in the city. They would say
‘use a sword, not a bow, or a gun, or knuckles’. I’ve tried bows and guns, but
I’m terrible at aiming. Knuckles seem the easiest to use, but I haven’t been
fighting with them for a while, so even swords are easier.”
Felix gave Leo a handshake, “Well,
I’m with you on that! My friend Clyde always forced me to learn how to use the
rapier, but I never liked it. I think a crescent blade is easier to use since
the blade is all over the weapon and not just the pointy end of a sword, so
it’s harder to miss.”
Rina shouted from afar, “Hello?!
Lydia and I are waiting, damn it!”
“Sorry!” Felix called. He faced Leo
and said, “We really should head onward. And um, are you going to leave dressed
like that?” He pointed at Leo’s ragged clothing.
Leo sniffed his overall beige
garment, “Why not? If it still smells nice, I don’t see the problem.”
Felix and Forrest looked at each
other, and then back at Leo.
Felix tried not to judge him. “Well
then… let’s go, new friend!”
“You said it!” Leo said happily. [End music]
[Ending 1 music]
~~~
On the next episode of The Obsidian Tale, Leo finally joins our group! Why is he so hesitant to go back to Ouli Brye anyway? When the group meets up with the train, they decide to sneak in as if there was no other way to enter Ouli Brye. The only problem is that the leader of this expedition is a crazy nutjob named Garnett who dislikes Lydia with a passion! It's even worse to remind you that Lydia can't fight at all with only two shards. Find out what happens next!
~~~
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