The Obsidian Tale
Episode 10
[Opening 1 music]
[Opening 1 music]
~ South of Silver Forest – three-way split ~
The way back from the isolated house
to the three-way road split seemed slightly shorter this time around now that
there were actual conversations being made with five people.
“Are we there yet??”
Except for Forrest, who was most
impatient during the walk. Felix and Leo were busy talking about different
types of weapons that they preferred while Rina tried to stop Lydia from
tasting random objects along the way.
“Are we there yet??????”
“Shut your mouth or I’ll set you on
fire,” Rina threatened Forrest.
“But this walk is sooooo
loooooong……”
The moment they reached the road
split, they could hear a train calling from afar. Forrest was alert, hoping that
he doesn’t have to walk anymore. Leo started rubbing his stomach as if it was
churning.
“What’s wrong, Leo?” Felix tried to
push him forward by tapping his back.
Rina raised her right eyebrow. “It’s
not one of those over-exaggerated yells again is it?”
“That train arrives at my house once
in a while to check if I live there but I always hide by the time they find me.
The train drops by every so often because they’re still searching for me.”
“Pretty dumb of them to not hide
until you reappear though,” Rina commented.
“I know, but I’m not their biggest
concern.” Leo decided to walk away from the train tracks. “And they are also
just displaying the fact that I cannot come any closer to the city.”
Lydia asked abruptly, “Why are they
after you when you’re the one who left on your own will?”
“I… I don’t know.”
Rina took a step back. “What? You
don’t know? Even Lydia makes a good point here. You are suspicious after all. I
was contemplating that back at your house!”
Leo coughed. “Uh, well, they
probably just want to protect themselves because they believe that anyone who
escapes Ouli Brye, are possible assassins.”
Forrest pointed at the fog, “I can
see the train coming! What should we do?”
Rina continued to yell at Leo, but
Felix had to break them.
“I know I would hate this idea so
much, but I think we have to get onto that train if we want easier access to
Ouli Brye.”
Rina stomped her foot. “Ugh, fine!
I’m pretty sure they have their walls guarded anyway, so sneaking into that
train would be the best idea.”
“Don’t we have to wait for it to
stop?” Forrest whined.
Lydia pointed at a nearby hill, “How
about that little dent on the tasty-looking hill? We can climb up there and
jump on top of the train at the best time possible.”
“Good idea, but bad taste in food,”
Rina said.
“Do we really have to go on that
train?” Leo shivered. “It’s risky!” [End music]
The group of four, besides Leo,
headed onto the hill. Forrest began jumping in excitement. Felix and Rina
glanced over at Leo, wondering if he was going to join them. Out of peer
pressure, Leo decided to follow along in the end.
One by one, each member jumped onto
a block of the train, and then they decided to jump down into the grated seals
below them on their own, or else it would be obvious that several people were
jumping down at once.
~ Train between Ouli Brye and Leo’s Isolated House ~
There were about twenty blocks of
the train – a rather small train at that. The first block included the drivers
who piloted the whole train. The second block contained the main leader of the
group and a few of her elite soldiers. The leader had blackish hair and lazy,
angry eyes. She had a green garment with light blue linings that spelled out
“Le”, standing for “Lennox”. Her legs were crossed and she tapped her foot with
impatience.
“Why did they make me lead this
group of inferior beings?” She complained.
“Miss Garnett, we were ordered by
the Lennox army to help search for missing man who was once a part of ro-”
“Missing, schmissing. My daddy
shouldn’t be putting me on these baby expeditions just because he thinks I need
more experience. I need a real fight.”
The speakers above made an announcement
at the right moment. “We have suspicious beings reported to the south of here.
Please reallocate your allies towards them and confirm this.”
Garnett stood up with pride.
“Finally, something to do.”
“Do you need some assistance, Miss
Garnett?”
“Nope. Out of my way.~” She said as
if she was singing.
Meanwhile, the order from closest to
the farthest from Garnett is as follows: Leo, Lydia, Rina, Forrest, and then
Felix who happened to take the last block. [Music 10.1]
As Leo jumped down, he thought to
himself, “(Why did I even go first, to ensure them that I wouldn’t run away in
the end?! Geeeh.)” He then sneezed.
“Stop, you there.”
Leo was facing a few soldiers in
front of him.
“Identify yourself.”
Leo felt his beard and his long
hair, along with his beautiful… armor outfit? “Oh, um, I’m just a passenger.”
“We do not allow passengers on these
train rides at the moment. Identify yourself!!”
Leo grabbed onto his sword behind
his back but the door to the front block opened. Garnett appeared with an apathetic
expression.
“So you’re the infiltrator I’ve been
hearing about, hm? My God, you sure do look familiar but you just look so
hideous with all that hair and ugly clothing.”
Leo began to panic. “Stay back.”
“Is your name not Leon-“
“Don’t speak of my name that way!
It’s just Leo.”
“Heheh. Tell you what: we need to
capture you, and you’re doing us a favor by voluntarily entering this train.
That means this will be easy for all of us.”
Leo shook his head. “Yes,” He lied,
assuming Garnett would stop her search for more infiltrators after him.
Garnett smiled. “Good. Soldiers~”
she said with an angelic voice, and then suddenly speaking with a demonic tune.
“Trap him.” She decided to enter the next few blocks in search of more
infiltrators.
“Wait, stop right there!” Leo
commanded, but Garnett ignored him and went on.
At the last block, Felix jumped down
and one foot fell into the toilet.
“Augh! Gross! I guess this is
payback for what I did at the battleship…” He took his foot out and then he
heard footsteps coming. He jumped into the bathtub and closed the blinds in
front of him. “(Why do I always end up in a bathroom?)”
A soldier barged in and Felix tried
to stay as quiet as possible.
“I don’t see anyone in here!” He
called out.
Felix sneezed and the soldier
waited. After a few seconds, Felix decided it was time to start making a move.
He kicked the soldier on the face through the blinds and the man yelped. A
soldier from outside the bathroom pushed the fire alarm and the whole train
began sounding off their alarms.
“Crap, that’s not good!” Felix
rushed out and headed for the front blocks without trying to get caught.
Forrest was left unnoticed due to his
height. He must have gotten lucky because this room in particular was a
weaponry storage. What was even better was the number of ammunition around him.
“Mmm! I could almost smell the
bullets! Is that bad?” He asked himself, ignoring the fire alarms.
Rina was great on her own. She could
fight off any soldiers who were in her way. Her flaming knives caused several
distractions which were good for her, but she wanted to move forward to find
Lydia as soon as possible. Speaking of Lydia…
Lydia was crying on the floor and
half of the soldiers were confused at what they were seeing. The other half was
focused on the fire alarm. They headed to the blocks towards the end.
“The alarms… they must be because of
me, isn’t it?!” Lydia panicked, sniffing.
“Y-Young lady, I assure you…” One of
the soldiers felt guilty and confused at the same time.
Another soldier said with a
dumbfounded voice, “She’s like a crybaby.”
The next unintelligent soldier
followed along, “Baby?? But she looks like an adult.”
“You idiot! That’s just an
expression,” a third soldier replied.
Lydia interrupted them. “It’s
because I’m so hot that the fire alarms went off, right?! Isn’t it?!” She kicked
one of the soldiers on the genitals and she ran off to the block closer to the
front. “It’s always my fault! Why am I such a burden?!” She continued asking
herself rhetorical questions as her voice eventually disappeared in the distance,
along with the obscurity of the fire alarms.
By the fifth block, Lydia and
Garnett appeared face-to-face. The soldiers were asked to step aside while the
two of them talked.
“Well, well, well, look what we have
here. You look spaced out.” She checked the windows. “We also missed our stop
at the lonely house. I guess we’re turning around. This is a problem - you know
that, right?”
“I’m so sorry!”
“Excuse me?”
“It’s all my fault!” [End music]
“Er… You’re already pissing me off.
What’s worse is that you kind of have my hair color. I don’t like that.” She
took out her axe. “It’s lucky we’re not related. I can see your eye colors are
different, or is it because you lack the pupils?!” She rose her voice as she
ran towards Lydia with a small axe. [Music 10.2]
Lydia began to scream. “Help!
There’s a crazy girl on the train!! And why is she trying to kill me?!”
“Who are you calling help to?! Get
over here!”
Lydia ducked without thinking, and
then she jumped over a few seats. “Oh please, someone help me!”
“How are you dodging me?!” Garnett
became highly annoyed. She hacked and slashed against the seats, cutting them
in half. The wooden floors were breaking and they could see the ground from
outside.
Leo appeared from where Garnett
entered the block. “What do you think you’re doing?! You’re destroying Ouli
Brye property.”
“I don’t care. I want her DEAD!”
“What did she do to you?!”
“I don’t like her!”
Leo tried to slash her lightly on
the arm but he missed. He had always hated swords anyway. Garnett kicked him on
the stomach and he fell over against the seats. Lydia was on her knees. Their
block was slanting compared to any other train block around them.
Lydia was still in tears. “I can’t…
I’m going to die!”
Rina stood at the back end of the
block. “Lydia! I found you!” She turned to Garnett. “And who the hell are you?”
“Hehehe, HAHAHA! That’s MY line!!!”
She threw her axe towards Rina, but
she ducked and the axe hit a soldier’s helmet. The soldier fell over against
every other soldier behind him like a stack of dominoes. Rina grabbed the axe.
“Is this your weapon?”
“Give that back!” [End music]
Rina threw it out the window. “Too
bad! This is what you get for trying to attack me!” She threw a flame knife at
Garnett, but Garnett jumped off to the side of the train and the knife cut
through one of the seats, causing it to burst into flames.
The soldiers from behind began to
panic. They decided to jump out of the train on their own. Rina tried to head
over to Lydia and drag her closer to the front blocks. Leo followed along.
Garnett had no purpose to chase after them without her weapon, so she only sat
there.
Felix made his way to Forrest’s
block and he noticed that Forrest was taking his time choosing a weapon.
“Forrest, we have to hurry out of
here. The train feels a lot shakier than it was a few seconds ago.”
Forrest dragged a giant machine
towards Felix. “Okay, but can I take this with me?”
“W-What?! You do know that’s really
deadly and risky to use, right?!” [Music 4.2]
Forrest sat on top of the machine.
“What? A bazooka?! I want a real weapon, and this is what I’m going to take
with me!”
“You can barely even carry it
though! Scratch that. You can’t carry it at
all!”
“I’ll grow stronger!”
“Can you now?”
“But… but…! I want it, I want it!!”
He jumped carelessly.
The train started to shake massively
this time. Forrest fell off the bazooka and Felix tried to roll his way back
up. [End music] The middle blocks exploded by the time all of the soldiers escaped,
thankfully. The train itself… was breaking apart. Garnett was at the very edge
of the explosion. She could feel the breeze from outside rushing in as the
flames slowly dispersed closer to her.
After several minutes, Rina, Lydia,
and Leo could not ask the pilots to steer the train as there were only four
blocks left. At the same time, Felix and Forrest reached the fifth block,
separated from the first four. [Music 10.3]
Felix crouched down to see the only
person left: Garnett. “Hey, are you still alive?”
By this time, Garnett was about to
pass out until she saw that there were still people on the train.
“You… You’re an infiltrator.”
“Get up. We have to get out of
here!”
“Why? You are an enemy.”
“It doesn’t matter if I am or not.
You have to make it out safely! Forrest, lend me a hand!”
“You got it, Mister Felix!”
The two boys helped Garnett closer
to the door further away from the flames. The train had made a complete stop
and Felix wondered if the flames came from Rina herself. Garnett slowly made
her way out of the train.
“Who the hell are you two…? You
should have let me be.”
“Why? So you could die in there with
the fire?” Felix asked, but Garnett didn’t respond.
“Where are you from?” Forrest
questioned her innocently.
“I’m going to Ouli Brye. My daddy
lives there.”
Forrest jumped. “Yay! We’re going
there too!”
“Father’s house? What for?”
“No, I mean O-Ouli-… That place.”
Felix interrupted them, “Uh, um,
well I just need to find a safe place to live in.”
“A safe place? You want to go to the
southern portion of Ouli Brye then. The north is where I live, and it’s not
safe at all. Well, the only safe place is my mansion.”
Forrest’s mouth gaped open. “A
mansion?! Felix, we found our jackpot!”
Felix sighed. “I don’t know… For
now, let’s focus on taking this girl back to safety.”
Forrest and Felix had Garnett over
their shoulders. Well, Garnett was slightly slouching because of Forrest’s
height, but that’ll do. [End music]
~ Ouli Brye (top half) – Northeast district - entrance ~
The walk was not far since the train
was near Ouli Brye anyway. Felix, Forrest, and Garnett didn’t spot the first
four blocks of the train yet, but it must have made its way inside the train
station deep in Ouli Brye.
“Why are you helping me anyway?”
Garnett finally asked. She had been quiet throughout their whole walk.
“I couldn’t just watch you lie there
and die in the fire. Wouldn’t that be common sense?”
“You risked your life for a
stranger. That was a stupid move.”
“I guess you could say that. It’s just
that… Never mind.”
“Huh??” Forrest thought to himself.
Garnett pointed to her house at a
close distance, “My place is not that far from here. And by the way, I’m
Garnett.” Felix then introduced himself and Forrest did the same. Felix agreed
to continue helping her until she could sit down at her own place.
~ Ouli Brye (top half) – North district – Garnett’s Mansion
~
The mansion was four stories tall.
Before even reaching the garden, Forrest examined the whole building as if it
was a tower. His eyes were wide open for the scenic view. There were flags of
Ouli Brye’s pride all over the walls and you could even see men and women
working at the rooftop. They were hanging clothes from all sorts of places.
Down below was a bunch of steps leading up to the front door and a statue on
each side was of Lennox veterans.
Felix gave a sigh. Garnett shrugged.
“Eh, well then thanks for the help or whatever. I need to report to my father.”
“Wait.”
“What do you want?”
“Do you know… of a guy who’s
slightly taller with me with blond hair and a ponytail? He wears mostly blue.”
“Er… Not really. Does he belong
here?”
Felix thought about it carefully,
but he knew that the Village of Saradeli was not exactly a part of the Gammel
territory. Nobody wants that village anyway.
“We’re both from the Village of
Saradeli, but he came to visit here supposedly.”
“Outsiders usually visit the capital
first, you know, where the king is. I’m about to take a visit later today with
my dad to tell them of our report.”
Felix nodded. “Ah, I see. Well then,
we should be off.”
“Um, ‘kay. See ya.”
As Garnett was running towards the
front door, Forrest stood in front of Felix, angry.
“You don’t want to rest for a bit?
Their mansion must be so cool!”
Felix was hesitant. “Well… we have
to focus on finding the others. I tried my best not to mention them. Back then
in the fire, I could tell Rina clashed with that Garnett girl at some point. We
can’t risk letting Garnett know we’re that
much of her enemy.”
“Oh you’re right. Where should we start
looking?”
“First things first: I’m sure we’re
safe to roam around here since Ouli Brye is a part of the Lennox army. They
have nothing to do with us.”
“Finally some peace and quiet,
right? Hehe!”
“You got that right! All we have to
do is trace back to the train tracks and follow it to the station since we
haven’t seen the rest of the train yet.”
~ Ouli Brye (top half) – Central district – Train Station ~
The Northeastern portion of Ouli
Brye marks the entrance, or also the exit depending on which direction you are
going. Just east of that (the northern branch) is Garnett’s mansion, but it
seems like the only greenish land in the area. Her father must have invested in
so much money in order to make a mansion that large. Near south of her home is
the central portion: the train station. It’s not very far from Garnett’s home,
but it already looked run-down to begin with.
The train station is supposedly
where Lydia, Rina, and Leo had left off assuming they never left the train
until it stopped at the station. Felix and Forrest made their way to the
station only to find a bunch of people in work outfits. And of course, a few
soldiers were left slightly displeased by the fact that their mission to get on
the train for the next ride had been canceled.
Forrest pointed at a few weapons across the room. “Lookie! It’s the bazooka that I wanted!!!”
Parents Gone Missing
Forrest pointed at a few weapons across the room. “Lookie! It’s the bazooka that I wanted!!!”
“How did heavy weapons like that get
here so quickly?”
A female voice under one of the
soldier outfits spoke to him, “Reinforcements got on their own little rides to
pick up any missed weaponry and allies. It’s best you hide before they figure
out you’re the outsiders from the train.”
“Wait, how did you-“
“It’s me, stupid Suspenders,” She
gave a chuckle. [End music]
Felix was surprised. Rina made a
smile, but Felix knew it was not directed to him, but to the fact that she
turned out okay in the end for herself.
“What are you doing in a Lennox
garment?!”
“We stole some from the train before
it made a stop. The pilots thought we were the only soldiers who stayed on the
train, heh. What a bunch of losers. They couldn’t even control the damn train
after that explosion.”
Forrest began to cry. “I know you
don’t like me either, but I was so scared you got caught!” He hugged Rina.
“G-Get away. Don’t touch me! Get off
of me!”
“What about the other two?” Felix
wondered.
Rina pointed at Leo and Lydia. “The
two of them are safely wandering around.”
An old woman cringed. “Euuugh, what
is that soldier doing?!”
Leo tried to pull Lydia away from
the train. “Stop it, Lydia!” He whispered.
Lydia was pushed away as if her
tongue got stuck on a slab of ice. “But this train tastes delicious.”
Rina sighed. “Okay, they are safely
here, regardless.”
“So is it better that we disguise
ourselves here in Ouli Brye?”
Rina headed for the restroom stalls.
“Well, I’ve heard lots of the soldiers from the train saying they couldn’t
identify any of the infiltrators except one tall man. That would be us versus Leo.”
“That’s weird… We were clearly seen,
right?” Felix tried to think about it. “Oh wait! That’s right! I kicked a
soldier in the face before he could see me, and then someone set the fire alarm
which lighted the room.”
“And it was super duper red!” Forrest
added.
“So you’re the idiot who made them
set the alarm? Nice going I guess. Now they don’t know who we are. Lydia told
me how nobody really saw her once the alarm came on except for that bastard
girl in green with an axe.”
“Her name is Garnett,” Felix
corrected her.
“How do you know that?”
“We kind of helped her back to her
mansion north of here.”
“Y-You idiot!! Grrr… This really
pisses me off. I dragged you all the way down to Ouli Brye and this is how you
repay us?!”
Felix took a step back. “H-Hey,
people are watching us. I was just trying to help her. She was going to die in
the fire!”
“She tried to kill us without any
viable purpose!”
“Via-what?” Forrest asked in the
background.
Felix sighed. “I know what I did was
stupid, but I just wanted to do the right thing. She wasn’t hurting me or
anything anyway.”
“Ugh, whatever. She’s the only one
who saw the three of us as infiltrators. What I’m more concerned about now is
that Leo guy. The soldiers saw him, so we might as well pretend we don’t know
him.”
Felix gasped. “What?! We can’t just
drag him here and then leave him when he’s in danger!”
“Why do you insist on doing the
right thing? It’s so annoying! When times are tough, we should stop helping
those if it drags us down.”
“But that’s just selfish!”
“Y-You guys…” Forrest frowned.
Lydia walked by without any emotion.
“Hello all. I have a suggestion.” She suddenly grabbed Leo with her left hand
and then she took Leo’s sword with her right hand. [Music 9.2]
“Wait what? We’re not going to kill him,” Felix stared at
her.
Lydia shrugged. “Good idea. Killing
him can be my second option.”
“Geeeeh!” Leo cried.
“My first option is to cut his hair
and shave his beard. Then, we can put on some nice clothes for him.”
Rina jumped. “Great idea, Lydia!
Besides, his exterior really bugs me.”
Leo shook his head. “No, no, no, no!
I-I don’t think that’s a good idea!”
Forrest giggled. “Yes! I like that
idea.”
“If it works, then I don’t have any
objections,” Felix concluded.
Forrest hugged Leo from behind.
“Yay! We’re going to take him to a haircut salon!!!!!”
“If they have one,” Rina said
angrily as the group of five made their way the marketing district.
The Takoyaki Gang
“Wait, we should take these outfits off first,” Rina suggested as the group suddenly felt idiotic for forgetting. They slowly made their way to the restrooms, getting ready to explore Ouli Brye in one piece! [End music]
[Ending 1 music]
~~~
Next time on The Obsidian Tale, we get to explore one of the bigger cities of the entire world! Well, at least north of it. As the group explores Ouli Brye, they will decide which is the best haircut for Leo! Leo's conspiracy story about King Nader will be unraveled as true or false in this episode, and there may be surprise characters returning to the series! Let's see what's in store for next week!
~~~
![[Click here for a larger image resolution]](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhj9UkCvVPmf0aVrggDQWxrFsUXZf60amJHy8L31aq5aofkfT8CVIQf_XAh5t92-MIMbKw-ezEDTTVpAQrtZi2sXyneDk8KJHsrd6A7zy8mgOwXT2ygpb9oVOOPY3uLtf9fioYSw52OskHg/s1600/opening+1.4.png){kind=link}