ALL NOVEL Welcome to Eternal Shroud!
I woke up.
'I really wish this wasn't what happens every time. Why am I somewhere else? And why am I looking up at.. the... sky?'
I sat up quickly to find myself partially buried in sand, on a beach, of which I had no idea where I was.
I lifted myself up and out from under the sand, and then dusted myself off, sighing.
"Oh boy, thanks world.. now I remember whatcha did. Didya just decide to get my hopes up? Make it look like my ENTIRE journey was gonna be easy? What a cruel trick. You absolutely suck, world~. Now...."
I looked around the beach, and found a lot of fog. Out of the fog, I just barely saw something and decided to head towards it. Turns out, the closer I got, the more I could see.
It was the mast of my ship. The flag was drooping down off the top, and I realized something. My ship was on its side.
"Why'd this have to happen to me? I thought my skills were at least enough to TRAVEL through Paradise, but maybe I should've consulted Rem on this.. or even maybe.. Taki? Huh? TAKI! REM! WHERE ARE YOU TWO!?"
I panicked, looking around frantically, only finding more fog.
'WHAT CAN I DO? I MEAN, THEY CANT BE AT THE BOTTOM OF THE OCEAN, RIGHT? THE-THERE'S NO WAY, RIGHT? How do I...? Oh, duh! I have Observation!' I smacked my forehead before looking around using my observation. I decided to search absolutely everywhere, and found Taki immediately. She was also partially buried in the sand.
I ran over, and dug her out, and dragged her from the hole she was in. Thankfully, she was still breathing, and not drowning.
"Whew! Okay, Taki, you're safe. Now, what happened to Rem?"
I turned to look around, and found the fog lifting. It wasn't lifting much, but visibility with my eyes was getting better.
"REM! REM, WHERE ARE YOU?"
'Wait, where was Rem? I don't remember that she was on deck when we got dragged into that.. monstrosity of a whirlpool, so.. where was she?'
I decided to extend my view from observation, and found nothing.
'What am I missing? Was she not tossed around as much? Or is she still on the ship?'
I decided to focus my search on the ship, which was on its side, with several pieces of the ship broken.
And then, I found Rem. She was inside the vault of the ship, which was surprising, since I didn't exactly expect her to be there.
And so, I ran off to the ship, which was more visible, and got to the vault, walking on the walls as if they were the floor. Turns out that the vault door was locked.
'How did...? What? The door's locked! How did she get stuck in there? I specifically made it so that it could only be unlocked AND locked from the outside, what is this?'
So, I awkwardly unlocked the door, and found Rem on the wall, or what would be a wall if the ship wasn't tilted over.
She was curled in a ball, and when she heard the door open, her gaze moved from the floor to me.
"How'd you get in there?"
"Bugs? Oh, thank...... Mora! Apparently. Bugs! Can you help me out of here?"
"Sure? But you're answering my question afterwards!"
So, I detached my arm while holding the door up with the other, and had Rem grab onto it, so I could float her out of there. When she was on solid ground, she let out a sigh of relief. I slowly let the vault door go back into place before locking it, and then the two of us just stood there.
"So.. are you gonna tell my what you were doing in the vault?"
Rem shook a little.
"W-well, I was.. umm.. getting in..."
The rest of what she said was quiet, somehow quiet enough for my own observation to not be able to hear.
"What?"
"... I was getting inspiration for...."
And she was quiet once again.
"Uhm...."
"I was getting inspiration for my art!" She shed some tears when saying that.
"Uh..." I started to freak out internally, conflicted between asking her what she used as inspiration and comforting her to make her stop crying. "R-rem.. were you..."
She fell to her knees, and just accepted something. I didn't know what, but she just went with it.
'Wait. So she was getting inspiration from something in my vault. And she made art out of it?'
I looked at the defeated Rem and asked "So.... What were you using as... inspiration?"
"If I tell you... you'll just... do the same.... thing as.. Roy and.... Rianna!" She was choked up while saying that.
'Roy? Rianna? Who? Were they the others from around that table? Well, obviously, are they a part of Djane now? Wait.. did they destroy her art? That's a sad possibility, right?'
"Rem? Did you perhaps have your art destroyed? Is that why you're so.. protective of it now? Or, having a lot of sadness for it?"
She then stared through drowned eyes, and nodded.
'Oh! Hit the nail on the head! Wait....'
"Rem.. are you thinking I'll destroy your art if you tell me?"
I kneeled down to look at her at the same level, and she nodded even more, while crying harder.
"Rem. I will not destroy art. I may not like it, but I will NEVER destroy it. Now.. whatcha use for inspiration? I don't remember anything."
She spent about a minute calming herself down after hearing my words and barely spoke "..th-... the notebook...."
That set off alarms in my head.
'Shes.. read the notebook? MY notebook? Don't I have future events in there? Does she.. know?'
"What... Perhaps, do you remember from it?"
She sniffed for a second, then answering slowly "We-well, everything.... I guess... Why?" He breath became shaky, and I could see a shiver go down her body, as it fell farther down to the wall.
'Crap! Really? Why didn't I expect people ON the ship to do something like this? I mean, I purposefully didn't keep that much security on THIS version because I want a better one built.. but now someone else knows the future. And... She's scared her art is gonna be destroyed, what do I do here?'
I cleared my throat, coming to a decision.
"Okay. So. You know everything from that notebook, right? I need you to never. Speak. A. Single. Word. Of it. No one needs to know the future when it's so maleable. Now. You can keep quiet about it, right?"
Still afraid, she looked at me, and nodded, barely. I felt terrible seeing her in such a position, one where she was completely broken.
'Okay, I'll need to teach those two a lesson for doing this to someone. Rem doesn't deserve this.'
"Okay. One more thing: I do need you to put your 'inspired' art into the vault, okay? I want to protect the contents of the painting itself, but I also want to make sure your art doesn't get destroyed. It seems like that was something major that I missed. But we'll have to do that later. Now.. let's get going."
I went to her, and stuck my hand out to pull her to her feet, and she hesitated to grab, until she pulled herself up, and made herself more presentable. And then, we left the ship.
•
I grabbed my new scythe on the way out, just to test it out if needed. Nothing had happened to Taki while I helped Rem out, as she was now sitting up, looking around, probably for me and Rem. She was looking in the direction of the water, and then her ears twitched, causing her to look towards us as we emerged from the ship.
"Ah! So you're finally awake!" I yelled to her, and then the three of us met up between where we once were.
Taki noticed Rem had been crying, and spoke "Rem? Are you okay?"
"Um.. yeah." She looked at me, and we nodded at each other.
"I resolved the issue, just.. don't mind it? It's gonna go away after a little bit."
Taki looked suspiciously at the both of us, then let it go.
"Bugs? Where are we? Do you know?"
And then a shadow and wind moved behind Taki, and both me and Taki got ready to attack while Rem just watched, eyes red.
It became extremely quiet, until a whoosh passed by, once again.
'Why isn't my observation going off? Is this.. shadow not hostile?'
I let my scythe fall, digging the tip into the ground.
"Come out! I know you aren't here to hurt us, so, let's see who you are."
Taki was still defensive, and then, someone came out from the fog.
A young girl with green, short, sticking out everywhere hair, twigs with leaves in the hair, with large leaves and brown cloth around her chest and in the form of shorts. Her clothes were in one piece, held together with some rope and a little bit of sewing. She has some leather boots, surprisingly, along with a belt holding a book and a couple compasses. She gave off a feeling of a native to the island, but the boots and belt and sewing were all dead giveaways that she wasn't, or couldn't have been just a normal native, at least, from my experience.
She just casually walked out from the fog into our vision, her arms behind her back.
Pouting, she spoke "Oh, you ruined my fun!"
I looked at Taki and Rem, realized they were both not exactly in the talking mood, so I just went straight to the point and asked "Who are you, and... Where are we?"
"You wanna know that? I'm Xetalona, travelers, and welcome to Eternal Shroud! The home of the trapped!" The girl in front of us smiled and posed, surprisingly like JoJo, while telling us that.