Void Rift (rp) - Intermission

She seems to almost sneeze as you end up passing over her nostril.

 

Getting on top of her snout, I peer over the edge and into her nostril to look inside, rather than just standing in front of it.

Crystal gets curious as to what I'm experiencing, and goes over to poke a tentacle.

 

She looks around for any possible pathways.

 

"Hm, alright." Lian says, going quiet again.

 

There's a protective flap of flesh that seems to protect her from inhaling things accidentally.

Crystal feels the same odd set of feelings as Thirteen; cold, soft, flexible, and absolutely no give.

There's the one way out, then there's the hall to the library, and, by the smell of it, the less bloody right hall.

"I'm going to head off to the lake later. Think this one's called the Crystal Fathom. Regardless, Milla needs water to survive, and now I probably do too."

 

"Once it turns night, if you wish, I can easily gather water for you." Lian suggests.

 

I gently tests the strength of the flap.

Crystal, on the other hand, tries to text the strength of the tentacle.

 

"If you wouldn't mind, sure. Mind the hellhounds, though." Sophie says, still winded.

Crystal can't make the tentacle have any give.

The flap isn't particulrly strong, but her breathing makes it hard to stay in one place, especially as messing with it causes her to sneeze.

 

"Hellhounds?" Lian asks, curious.

 

"Demonspawn that feed on souls. They were having a field day over a spacecraft of sorts when it fell. Turned out to be a race on the run - and half of them died in the crash, more to the hounds."

 

"O-Oh, uhm...well...I may not be strong enough to survive out there, then." Lian says apologetically.

 

"I'll go with, then. Besides, shadow dust is a wanted commodity around these parts. Bounty hunters may try to make a side profit off you."

 

"Y-Y-You mean...p-people smash our c-crystal forms for its d-dust?" Lian asks fearfully.

 

"You didn't know? Lesser shadows used to be harvested for them on this world and several others. Turns out your corpses are extremely good for medicines."

 

"S-Sweet Tenebrae..." Lian says quietly, shocked into silence.

 

"Not anymore. Shadows don't come here, and they now fear the ever increasingly active king. Thus, populations are shrinking. It's kind of strange; you'd think less shadows means less fear for the population. This world has no medicinal herbs of its own, but combining them with shadow dust makes near-omnicures."

 

"I-I might have to t-tell the king about this...situation. I-I can't stand to s-see my people slaughtered for medicine!" Lian says, gaining some confidence.

 

"Remember, they aren't anymore. Only the lowest of the low tier fall for the obvious traps - like 'walk outside to the well immediately' when it's in the middle of the day."
Sophie pauses.
"On the flipside, others probably feel the same way about being killed for food."

 

"I mean...we have killed a lot of people just to eat them. We used to sustain ourselves purely on humans, back when there wasn't much of a society other than killing other Shadows for their power to become the strongest," Lian says, "Though, luckily, we've moved onto more...human, food sources, if you get what I mean."

 

"Yeah. Glad that's changed." Sophie yawns.