There was a few minutes of silence between the two, besides the echoes of shoes treading on dirt and rubble. Winter’s gaze peered over to Fancy Hat, who seemed quite focused on the holoscreen he pulled up from his watch. The device around his wrist lit up the entire tunnel with a bright cyan, reflecting off the humid surface of the cave. In Winter’s perspective, it still appeared like magic to her, imprisoning her in this trance at how this ‘technology’ worked. She still has many questions, but with the graphics appearing on the floating holoscreen, she didn’t even know what to ask first.
Not long ago, she was ready to kill this man, this Demi-God that was praised about in her hunter contract. But now? She’s his personal bodyguard for a ridiculous amount of gems.
“If you’re wondering what this is, it’s a map of the Elator cave. We’ve had this place mapped out a while ago in case we needed to evacuate the lab.”
“So…That’s how you know what tunnels to go through?” Winter adjusts the box of gems in her arms.
“Yes.”
Winter ponders upon what he mentions earlier. He spoke about a disease killing people, but it wasn’t something she had heard about on the plains of Divon. Winter can only safely assume that whatever Aress had is what the Cosmos Plague was. She remembers how Aress bled from several orifices and lesions–or what looked like tumors that had formed on her body.
“You mentioned about me being unaffected by this Cosmos Plague? What is it?” Winter peers over at the scientist further, eyebrows raised.
“An oncovirus. It creates tumors in the thoracic cavity, around the heart and lungs. The biomass in the chest grows in such large capacity and speed…eventually it just bursts out into what you can imagine is visceral.”
“Is that what happened to Aress?” It doesn’t make sense nor does it sound like any disease Winter has ever heard of, not even close. Judging by Fancy Hat, he’s definitely not from around here. Which means, this oncovirus he’s talking about, must not be from around here either. Right?
Maybe…it’s alien? Winter thinks to herself.
“Yeah. I saw it myself when we tranquilized you.” He knows that comment might set the Winterlance off, but he'd rather be upfront about it.
“...Hope you’re not expecting me to thank you for sparing me from seeing her fate.”
“I’m not. But–” Arch Extent is cut off by Winter.
“Hold on. I think I hear someone ahead.” Winter quickly warns the scientist.
She places one of her hands out to his shoulder, digits pressing him to make sure another step isn’t taken. Winter listens to the echoes down the cave carefully, cautiously yet slowly taking her hand off of Arch Extent. She kneels down to the ground and gently places the brown box to the floor. As the Winterlance stands back up, that same arm she placed at the scientist now extends out, formulating ice along her fingers. Her black boots are placed firmly into the ground, fully ready for any looming danger to strike out of the shadows of the cave.
Arch Extent grasps his pistol in the holster, readying his own fingers much like his newly acquired business partner. Depending on how Winter reacts will be his basis for how he also takes action. After all, she should be the expert on fighting rather than him.
Sounds of mush in the form of footsteps echo towards the scientist and huntress. The cyan light from his mask unveils the silhouette approaching them. The man is covered in blood, gripping to a machete decorated in crimson. His face was shocked to see the duo, and his yellow eyes were far more noticeable now. Winter stares at the man with relief, like a massive weight had finally freed itself off her shoulders.
It was her brother, Neil.
He was fine, safe from what Winter is capable of seeing. Arch Extent notices the swift change in demeanor from Winter and releases his hand from his pistol. They should be in good company, though Arch Extent suspects that this Treetop brother of Winter’s is responsible for the murdering of Prayers. She did mention falling through a hole and losing her brother, after all.
“Neil!” Winter perks up, alleviation blipping out from the woman. Neil seemed just as relieved as the huntress.
“Winter! Are you okay…? Also, who the hell is this guy?” Neil spews out the remark, his gaze focused intently on the man in a glowing mask. He’s a bit puzzled by the mask and how it’s glowing, making him cock his head slightly to the side. For him, his natural night vision makes it easier to see the details of his mask.
Ah…So that’s her name. Winter. I guess we found her brother then. He’s already taking the initiative to analyze the Treetop, from height, size, age, weapon of choice, and how dangerous of a foe he is. If he was able to slaughter Prayers before getting here, it would be in his best interest to stay on Winter’s best side. Personally, Arch Extent wouldn’t want to make a deal with her brother, but it may eventually come down to them being a package. The gems he’s offering Winter will only go to her though.
“He’s the Demi-God!” Winter smiles, confidence striking her voice.
“Scientist.” Arch Extent is trying to correct his occupation.
“But more importantly…What the fuck happened to you?!” The huntress’s expression withers down to confusion.
“Prayers.” Neil replies with an annoyed expression.
“Prayers? You mean you ran into them?” Winter looks genuinely surprised.
“I thought my machete covered in blood made it obvious.”
“Right. Dumb question.” She felt a bit stupid with her question.
For some reason, this exchange rubs Arch Extent the wrong way. The scientist has already made the deduction that the real threat would be from this Treetop and not the Winterlance bodyguard. The Treetop is more reserved, cautious, and more easily annoyed compared to Winter. Winter, at some level, doesn’t have the same inflection that Neil emits off in terms of tolerance.
I should make sure I don’t upset this Treetop.
“So, Scientist…Where’s the princess?” Neil inquires.
“She’s dead.” There’s no need for nonsense, not when Treetops are a tribe where brutal honesty is a must in their society. “But you can blame the Prayers for that. Your sister is the one that found her before she perished. And–”
“Actually…” Winter cuts Arch Extent off. “...Fancy Hat indirectly got her killed. I can explain everything on the way. Let’s just get out of here.”
There’s a penetrating gaze from Neil directing its way at Arch Extent. Neil’s gut tells him to not trust him at all. The death of a princess? This is a case where he and his sister could be captured and brought to King’s Court themselves for this kind of result. Especially if it involved a third party being suddenly tangled with people from the Hunter’s Code. Neil can’t trust Arch Extent.
In return, Arch Extent is right in his concerns over Neil. The scientist will have to find a way to eventually separate these two. He hopes that her explanation isn’t as faulty.
“I agree. Let’s get out of here. I know the way out.” Arch Extent asserts himself past Neil and begins walking.
“So, mind explaining it to me then?” Neil raises an eyebrow at his sister, trying to clean some of the blood off of him and his machete.
“Well, to start I fell down that hole and after waltzing around in the dark n’ all that…I found Aress. She was sick. And I mean like, really sick. She…she was bleeding from a lot of places on her body, and she had these weird dark patches of skin on her body. Kind of like tumors.” Winter describes the imagery.
“It’s called Cosmos Plague.” Arch Extent adjusts the holoscreen, shifting through a few menus.
“So what exactly is Cosmos Plague?” Neil puts his machete away behind him.
“Fancy Hat said it was a disease killing people. The fun part is I’m not affected by it.”
“So, was the princess affected by it?” Neil stops for a moment.
“Aress was killed by Cosmos Plague and–” Arch Extent tries to explain before Winter cuts him off.
“She was killed by you, Cosmos Plague, and Prayers. You traded an innocent girl to give some supplies to King Uthar. It doesn’t sit well with me when you say ’Blame the Prayers.’” Winter tries to cool herself a bit. “But, she was also killed by her father in a way...He disowned her.”
“Why would the princess be disowned by her own father?” Neil turns to Arch Extent for answers.
“I don’t know why. That wasn’t in the agreement we made. The Cloaks Tribe Leader stated that Aress had never been sick a day in her life. I had a sample of her blood taken, and she was a potential candidate to become immune to Cosmos Plague.”
Neil grabs a fistful of Arch Extent’s jacket and pins him to the wall. The scientist is a bit caught off guard, knowing that his next words will have to be extremely choosy, fit just right for a Treetop to believe his narrative.
“What kind of supplies would you give to King Uthar that would convince him to send a princess to you?!”
“She said supplies for a war,” Winter chimes in, hoping to calm her brother down. “Neil. You can let go of him at least. He paid us a lot of gems. And–”
“Winter, you’re an idiot if you think for a moment we can trust this guy. Think about this for one second. A random man you meet has a princess delivered to him for whatever reasons about curing some fictional plague and gives her father some supplies for a war. He’s non-tribe, and he’s got a glowing mask. You realize that we’re about to cause some serious problems between the Cloaks and Blazerocks?” Neil lashes out at his sister, obviously angered and irritated by the situation at hand.
“I’m not saying trust him, big bro. I’m just saying my gut says he’s telling the truth about this Cosmos Plague. I saw how Aress was, and if more people get sick with that disease, it might be more than a war we’d have to worry about.” Winter tries to vouch for Arch Extent, despite her ill feelings towards the man about the situation. However, she doesn’t want to necessarily displease her client now that she has so many gems in her arms. Arch Extent could have killed her with a gun.
…But he didn’t.
“Fine. I’d like to get out of here. We can talk more about it later.” Neil finally lets go of Arch Extent and returns to a normal stance. The scientist places his hand where Neil had grabbed his clothing when he shoved him into the wall before glancing briefly over at Winter. Neil starts to walk ahead, already having an idea of where the entrance to the cave is.
Seems I’ll have to be more cautious of her brother. As for her…I’m surprised she vouched for me. She’s smarter than she looks. She gets it, and all it took was for her to see Aress with Cosmos Plague.
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