Somewhere Someplace

As the sun drifted ever-away from noon, appearing at long last in the distance afar were the old and aged sprawling walls of the humble settlement of ‘Upperberry’, located in the northernmost tip—or so-called ‘stem’—of the Huckleberry Dutchy; it was the capital fief of the ‘grand barony’ of the same name, being one of the only direct vassals of Grandberry to hold such a title.

Compared to that through which they had traversed, this region was somewhat…rockier and more ‘bumpy’—higher in elevation with respect to the rest, seemingly. It felt slightly dryer and colder as a result, though not by too much.

Not that Antica had any visual reference to anything, for her cyanic ignited eyes—as always—remained shut and closed; reliant, indeed, exclusively on her ears. Despite the enlistment of those two adventurers, Red and Blue, into their given mission—the location and extraction of Blossom Coastfield-Sunnycloud—, Antica was nevertheless…never given any explicit mandates specifying that she could now open her eyes…or speak, for that matter.

Secrecy and ambiguity regarding she herself was still…necessary, Antica surmised, even if it was so…rather…tediously boring. She was not even talkative nor in the mood for any such discourse, especially not with denizens, but she could not even provide basic suggestions or inputs… Nevermind not being able to see with her own eyes…

Certainly, her ears when adapted could infer much details even without snaps or clicks, but…sight was still…significantly more preferable, both tactically and…generally.

She was…perhaps…beginning to regret not simply wearing her half-mask; the reasons for why she had opted to go maskless had long become lost to her, to be quite frank. Now that she had been in her Remnant so-called ‘disguise’ uniform system for quite a bit, it was hard for her to conceive of unequipping it—regardless of mission necessity. Indeed, the thought of being without her equipment…made her feel so very…strange; though, she could not comprehend in full—affect ever shrouded to even herself, despite effects being present.

Regardless, she was relying on the visual observations of those around her to fill in the blanks of whatever her brain could not infer from her ears alone; although, relying on such was not always…reliable.

“Yeesh… I remarked this before, I believe, but…why does everything here feel so…bleak and empty…?” so blurtfully pondered Blue, her frost-blue eyes gazing out…

“Eh… Upperberry’s always been like this” Red so dismissively waved; “Far, remote, with not much productivity going on… Unlike most of the other dumblefuckberries of the great dutchy, Upperberry isn’t connected to a network of towns or even villages… It’s only got one road leading to and from it with barely any intermediates”.

“I mean, certainly, but… That does not answer as to why everything here feels so…bleak, as if…we are the only ones in the whole world…” Blue replied…

“It’s getting cloudy, land’s barren and doesn’t grow much so there isn’t much grass or farms, tree’s look miserable, and so on… This stuff is just tricking your head” Red so replied.

“Hrmm…” Blue gently grumbled, unsatisfied with this reply… “Alrightly, so then, I guess to ask… Why is there only one road? I mean, it is not as though this place is that far from the rest of the dutchy… We were in ordinary places not even two hours ago…”

“Don’t ask me,” Red so shrugged, “Gods’ demon-fucked knowledges do I know…”

“Hmm… Well,” thus Novea began to insert herself, “Upperberry is a frontier town; it is right at the boundaries with Milkfield and Toastgate, who have a mutual…history…with Huckleberry… My guess is that if they ever invaded and managed to capture Upperberry, their armies would only have one road to the rest of the dutchy; one road to march and transport supplies… One road easy to contest…”

“I suppose that explains that awfully…unsettling castle-fort we saw just earlier…” Blue remarked; “Albeit… couldn’t any invaders simply do what…armies always do? March away from road and forage off of the land if they must”.

Yet, as if Fortune and random chance schemed yet again, the wagon so abruptly jerked as its wheels hit rather the bump, answering…Blue’s inquiries in effect.

“…Upperberry’s terrain is not exactly…supportive to off-road travels…” Novea thus…promptly stated; “Just look around, the earth here is more gravel than soil; there is not much to forage from… And that is only if they manage to capture Upperberry, which is another hurdle in of itself”.

“Yeah…” Blue began to peek her head out and forward, staring into the thick and rather…out-of-place walls which thoroughly surrounded the town, the settlement behind remaining completely obscured; “Heaven above, those are…quite the walls…” she remarked; “I have never seen anything… It looks as if they belong to a fortress than a frontier town…”

“Apparently they were built by elves—legendary elves, not…contemporary…” Novea began to state; “Used to be an elven city during those times, though most of the…signs are long demolished, besides the great walls… Sturdy, hardy, and durable; they are stupidly defensible, not even bombards can break them, and what we see is only the first layer too…”

“Huh… Elves?” Blue gently tilted her head, fascinated…

“Yeah, according to…the histories at least. During the Legendary Age, this entire portion of the great dutchy belonged to a kind of…civilized elves. Back in those days, Old Huckleberry was just a small realm in the south of what it is now, where Elderberry is… Everything else belonged to other realms or even races…back when there were more” Novea explained.

“Huh, I see…” Blue was…quite interested, indeed; “So, wait, hold…” yet she suddenly…realized, “if the Huckleberry Dutchy during the Legendary Age…was only a small meagerly realm, so…does that imply thus that the dutchy of many-many berries…expanded itself, and annexed its neighbors, and then…renamed every…single…place they took…with the ‘-berry’ ending?”

“Well, some were ‘berries’ before then, but…yeah, essentially” Novea simply replied.

“Huh… Speak of commitment, I suppose…” Blue remarked, before sighing, eyes gazing out; “Certainly, for as much as I have tried to overcome my lesser upbringing, there remains so much I am still ignorant of…” she reflected aloud, slightly lowly yet also…encouraged; she was one who did not shy away from acknowledging her ignorance and expanding her knowledge, seemingly.

A gentle quiet ensued as Blue silently peered out… “Hm…” she murmured; “I still cannot seem to free myself from this sense of eerie creep... Everything before this realm was alive and fine, but now…it is all deathly and…gritty…”

“A catastrophe happened here long ago… It is what left the land barren and unproductive, from what the histories tell… The details were lost, though” Novea stated.

Blue shivered a little… “Great, one of those places, then… I already know more troublesome ventures await us...” she muttered, eyes then peering to Red who remained silent… “So…why did we even come here again?” she inquired; “I understand that there is a Guild hall of sorts here, but… I thought we already handled reporting that…Pebbleberry cave affair…to the Grassberry Guild hall—we were held there for an entire day… So, why are we not just going to Grandberry? Is that not where they wanted to go?”

However, Red was still in…perhaps a more sour mood over the…‘held-at-gunpoint’ events which had transpired hours earlier. His breath’s hughed; “Blue, I already told you… It ain’t about that… Those two just have some business here; that’s all there is to it, and I never bothered to ask…” he replied, tone perhaps a bit more…snappy than warranted.

Novea, meanwhile, opted to simply…remain silent, not answering.

“Hmmh…” Blue glared, affect freezing; “Well, considering that what was supposed to be no more than one day of travel had mutated into four days of side-venturing around, I seem to be ‘misremembering’…” The sarcasm dripped from her now more…antagonistic voice, by no means amused by Red’s tone.

Indeed, what was supposed to have been a journey to this ‘Upperberry’ locality lasting less than a full standard day had dragged into…multiple days.

The first delay came from their diversion to a settlement called ‘Grassberry’—which was more of a citadel than a town—, in order to report the events of that…cave to the Guild branch there. Antica had waited outside of that castle town in order to ‘watch’ the unicorn; thus, all she knew was that Novea and the others had gone in expecting a simple affair, only to not return until the following morning. Apparently, they were held there for questioning, to which Novea had remarked was ‘odd’ and that they were ‘awfully interested’ in confirming the affiliation of those encountered cavern contacts; however, Novea spoke no more of that matter.

Of course, even after Grassberry, they still ended up facing delays for reasons that were a myriad, and not just due to the expected terrain and general geographical hurdles.

From what Antica had understood from Red and Novea’s prior conversations since his enlistment, the area between Pebbleberry and immediately preceding Upperberry was, bluntly, a mess.

Apparently, an entire subdivisional county had ‘collapsed’, resulting in a ‘power hole’ that neither those supporters of this ‘Eldeberry Alliance’ and those ‘loyalists’ of Grandberry were able to fill, leaving behind what could best be described as—to use local words—a ‘fragmented nightmare’ of ‘competing and contradictory interests’, with belligerents, free separatists, mercenaries, deserters, bandits, ‘greenies’, and such so frolicking about…

That adventurer, Red, being familiar with this locality, was able to—somehow—avoid running into major…problems, navigating down alternative routes and going off road several times, which…slowed their travel.

However, the bulk of the delay after delays came in the form of Red’s apparent…seemingly special and unique…unbridled power of becoming sidetracked from the primary objective.

Indeed, in a constant reminder of the civil war on-going, there were plenty of beleaguered locals in need of some kind of assistance or help—for which they would promptly ask as soon as they realized Red was an adventurer. Gathering, collecting, finding, escorting, monster containment, in one case even rescuing kidnapped others; truly, all throughout these past days since Pebbleberry, there was always something or something else…

Although Novea and Antica themselves had hardly contributed much besides monitoring the unicorn as Red and Blue went off, the delays such side-ventures incurred were…rather irritating, nevertheless. And Red, ever the adventurer, was unable to simply…say no to those hapless souls they stumbled upon.

Not that Antica could blame him; not at all, in fact… Not at all…

Though, regardless, as to why Novea had diverted course to this ‘Upperberry’ locality instead of going to Grandberry as was originally planned was…something she was, as always, being deliberately vague about—particularly to Red and, perhaps more especially…

“And it is not as though you have been telling me anything besides ‘oh, by the way, we are now venturing hither hence’…” Blue so added.

“Yeah, yeah… Look, sorry about that; didn’t mean to get man-bitchy…” Red, realizing his tone, apologized and relaxed his voice…

Blue sighed, calming down… “I have not been asking, but that does not mean I have not been wondering… I already said before that I do not mind taking them wherever they need to go for their…‘businesses’ —they had paid us handsomely—but I am becoming rather…”—her eyes slightly drifted to Novea who still remained silent, before returning to Red—“Never mind… Apologies, I am just sick of the road…” She abruptly dropped the subject…

Indeed, despite Red’s induction into their Bureau mission, he was nevertheless remaining rather…vague and ambiguous with Blue regarding…the details of such matters. He had yet to even inform her regarding what Novea even was—never mind the Bureau—nor what he—thus Blue—was even helping them with. She was still being kept in shadows despite her present participation.

In a way, Antica could not help but perhaps…understand Blue’s evident frustrations, considering that she herself had yet to be…thoroughly briefed regarding this mission in which she was an actual operative and not a mere collaborative asset.

“Anyway,” Red began to say, “no more chatter… I can’t find any place to hide this unicorn, so we’ll be taking him in… I’ve gotta prepare my head, ugh…” He was by no means looking forward to what he suspected would be the impending…conversation.

Indeed, incidents similar to that which had just occurred hours prior…, among many such others, were also responsible for their delays.

-|-

The Upperberrien guard, crude and rustic in his armor, stared…at the wagon before his eyes… The unicorn, standing still, stared into him in kind…

He had noticed their approachment in advance, obviously, yet he believed he had drunk far too much the night before, for he could hardly believe his eyes… Though, he could hardly believe anyone in general…would bother coming here, not even those fleeing the war.

And there were only two kinds of sorts who would ever bother: traders and…

Ah… “Adventurers, Ich receive it?”

“Yeah. Who else would come to this mud-dump?” Red bluntly replied.

Yet the so…obviously hung-over guard could only shrug “Yah…” in agreement. The sole guard stationed at this gate of entry proceeded to walk around the wagon, inspecting…

“Ah, an Raven ‘nd one other cloakede mysterie… ‘O course” he so observed; “Whatever, Ich shan’t asken…” he frankly said, returning to the gate. He was far too hung-over to possibly care about things he was not paid to care about—and he had not been paid in…too long of quite the some time. “Alredie openede; go enter…” he thus waved.

Without delay, the unicorn clopped forth. “Huh…” Red mumbled as the wagon passed through the already open gate… That was easier than expected.

“Someone was with a drunken mindache…” Blue remarked.

The wagon passed through two layers of wall, thus two gates, with a little gap in-between each though hardly anyone stationed within.

Before, finally, they entered the…

“…town…” Blue’s eyes shifted to Red… “You said this was a ‘town’, correctly?”

“Yeah…” Red replied.

Blue’s eyes gazed at everything around, taking it all in… “So, then, where are all of the buildings and people and towndomness??”

“Scattered…” Red simply said.

Indeed… Upperberry was rather the…opposite of dense. In fact, it was hardly a single continuous city as much as…a dozen smaller settlements—villages—scattered within the protective confines of its walls, with a few detached buildings and such sprinkled in-between. And contrary to the material quality of the elvish walls, the majority of buildings within were predominantly of mudbrick, fired clay, and some wood, the roads having been paved in gravel and dirt.

Quiet and sparse, indeed… Upperberry was certainly the miserable-looking place. Despite being fairly populated in truth, everything was so spread out that…it created a sense of…depopulated loneliness. There was enough free space, in fact, that sizable agriculture would be possible within the confines of the walls, if the soil was not so lifeless.

But at the heart of this collage of villages was another reminder, besides the walls, that it was, indeed, a single town… the palace of to whomever this fief so belonged—a strange amalgamation of wood and brick within the foundational structure of a once elven palace from an era bygone. Surrounding the palace were a few buildings of slightly greater quality, also of elven origins.

“Muddy, desolate, it hardly looks as though we are outside the wilderness and in civilized domain…” Blue blurted, somewhat…unsettled; “Yep, still creepy… Too creepy…” She did not like this place too much, indeed.

“Eh, it’s fine… The people here mind their business and are close nit” Red stated. However, he then glanced up, eyeing…a battered naked corpse dangling from a pole of sorts as it—conveniently timed—came into view, visibly…emasculated…with ‘DESPOILERS UNWELCOME’ carved upon a sign strapped to its bloodied torso… “And they don’t take kindly to wrong-doers either—the people, I mean… Not even the guards…”

“Yeeesh…” Blue was by no means any less unsettled than before… As that dangling corpse retreated behind her sight, she peeked her eyes out more, squinting as she spotted in the distance… “Fantastic, ruins… I so wonder what work may be hiding in such a place…” she so remarked, bemoaning… “Though, ruins…? Hmm…” She quickly became…curious.

“Yeah, it might come as a surprise,” thus Novea began to say, “but Upperberry used to be a larger city… One that stretched from its center palace all the way to its walls, and would have rivaled even Megaberry today; those ruins are the few remains of that golden era”.

“Huh…” Blue turned her eyes to Novea… “That is interesting…” Indeed, it was. “And that catastrophe you mentioned… That had something to do with…”

“Partially, yeah…” Novea began to answer, “That catastrophe destroyed much of the old city, but apparently it was already on the decline before… And was long-long ago, but due to the…unproductive barren land, and all of the wars and repeated sackings since then… Upperberry was never allowed to truly recover”.

“Huh…” Blue mumbled, lightly nodding her head with a gentle chin’s stroke… “Wow, you surely are a walking book of random knowledges, aren’t you?” she abruptly remarked, smiling.

“…” Novea…hid the perhaps slightly embarrassed blush behind her corvid mask. Though, she shifted her attention, eyes peering out… “Hmm…” she observed… “Well, this is far enough… We will split from here” thus she spoke, attention turning to Red; “You two…settle yourselves in and attend to whatever you must while we attend to our own; we could be here for a bit…”

“Great…”

“Fantastic…” Blue and Red said as one, though their voices’ tones were…divergent; one dismayed, the other irritated.

“Of course... Fine, fine; got it” Red so spoke, before making the wagon come to a swift pause, the unicorn puffing and tapping its hooves; it did not want to stop, no doubt. “Just be sure to take your shit… I ain’t holding onto it” he added.

“Already planning to” Novea simply replied. She promptly grabbed her large carry-bag, in addition to that revolving-rifle she was so borrowing, before hopping off. She turned and looked at Antica… “Come on now” she gestured; “It’ll be us now…”

Antica sighed and immediately did the same; she grabbed her primitive backpack and…dismounted in kind. Once off and with her back facing those peering eyes behind, she used the…senses of her exposed fingers to make sure that she did, in fact, have everything… She did, obviously, though it was always preferable to be absolutely certain, and then to be…double…triple absolutely certain—preferably quadruple.

Novea then looked at Blue who gently stared; “Just to say, we appreciate the transportation and your willingness to help” she thanked, perhaps feeling a little…bad.

“Not a problem!” Blue smiled; “I cannot be…too angry at you or others…” Her eyes, however, looked at Red… A piercing glare he could feel; “Him, on the other hand…”

“Well, have a nice birdy date, ladies—I’m off” Red plainly waved; “We’ll be at the Guild…” The wagon promptly began to move once again, Blue gently waving with a smile as it departed away.

Although Red was clearly jesting, his…words nevertheless caught Novea with an abrupt blush… As if an intrusive zap to her mind that distorted all prior contexts into contaminating thoughts that caused flusters within…

For indeed, this was…not…a…date…

Despite not having said a single word, Novea ahemed. “Anyway, follow” thus she said and promptly began to walk.

“Following…” Antica’s voice was finally allowed to stretch; “I may speak now, rightly?”

“…huh? Oh, yeah, obviously…” Novea replied, slightly…awkwardly; “There was nothing stopping you from speaking before, you know? Now that those two are…participating, if you understand, no need to hide your speech anymore… They’ll be with us for awhile” she stated.

« … » Antica was silent and flat affect. She was ordered to not speak, and it was not as though that directive was rescinded… Ugh, denizens and never making such things explicit, so generalized her mind… What was she supposed to do? Think? She already did far too much of that…

Yet sometimes far too little

“That would have been good to have known many days ago…” Antica frankly said…

Novea turned and glanced a little… “Oh… Yeah, rightly… You are a very…orders-driven…gal… And I didn’t actually…”—she looked away and back to front—“Sorry about that… It just seemed…obvious to me, but… Yeah, sorry… I should’ve…made it clearer that…you could…speak if you… Sorry, again…”

Considering Antica had spent the last…week or so seeing the more stern, deliberately ambiguous, and otherwise ‘Raveny’ side of Novea, it was…perhaps a little…strange to see this side of her again—Antica had not the descriptors to describe.

Nevertheless, she sighed; “We both do not do enough thinking, I suppose” Antica simply spoke… “I might maintain this silence, however, since that is what they are used to” she added; “Besides, I would not say both of those two are ‘participating’, since one is left with confusions without answers…”

“Yeah, that is true…” Novea…acknowledged, a bit mellowly…

“Yet you have done nothing to clarify” Antica frankly stated.

“Red doesn’t want to tell her, and I don’t want to intrude on their…well…matters. It’s his prerogative, and it’s his consequences to deal with—not ours” Novea replied. “But, anyway, it is nice to be able to speak with you freely again…” she remarked, voice opening and relaxing; “And it’s nice to be with just the two of us again…” Her voice suddenly paused… “I-I meant that in a mission sense, n-n-not in any… Not in any… In any…” she became flustered yet again.

Antica sighed; “I understand what you were meaning… What other things could have been possibly implied?” she simply said, her voice rather forthright and blunt.

Novea quickly calmed… “Rightly, of course…” she mumbled, exhaling… Truly, yet again she had been so reminded that Antica, indeed, was in fact…Antica—for better or…worse. She ahemed; “Anyway… Just keep following. There is a special…old building we are going to; one discreet… Also, not many are around, so you can open your eyes if you want…”

Antica opened her ignited eyes, only to become even more blind than prior, her visual processing needing to…readapt itself… “Why are we going to this wherever?” she simply asked.

“Reasons… I did tell you that you’ll be briefed once we get here, albeit I do have…other business which will have to come first” Novea explained; “But I believe you are finally owed…”

“Hm. I do not know. My memory is not very good. Did you tell me that?” Antica so pondered… The deadpan dryness in her voice made it hard to know if she was being serious, sarcastic, or plain witty.

“I am just going to assume you are attempting to mess with my own memory, since I do remember clearly telling you…” Novea replied.

“Hmm… That is the thing with memories; they are not reliable. And it is easy to make memories of things that did not happen.” Antica so remarked.

“Oh Raven Mother, Nilia…” Novea blurted, sighing…

“Antica.” Antica corrected.

“Nilantica…” Novea so counter-corrected.

It would be a lie to state that Antica was not…perhaps…finding this all to be amusing deep down within, even if such ‘amusement’ was hard to comprehend in detail, despite clearly influencing her continued behavior and responses.