Return of The Corruption (Empires SMP Fanfic)

6

      Fawn had been gone for almost 48 hours. Jimmy and Scott grew worried. They hadn't seen a trace of the demon either. The soldiers were out, no word of trouble had come back yet. As the two heatedly discussed her disappearance. Flora, Misty, Dune, Reap and Rylie burst in at the same time.

     "Have you seen Fawn?" Flora asked, out of breath. Jimmy shook his head.

     "We have no idea where she is. Nor the demon," Scott delivered. 

     "No! We've all been sending messages and she hadn't responded which is unlike her. We found something out..." Misty cried, just as fatigued as the others.

     "What have you seen?" Scott asked, suddenly intrigued. 

     "Red. It'll be there and then it's gone," Flora frowned.

     "Dad...has been...acting..." Reap began, still exhausted.

     "Strange. Really, really, oddly," Rylie finished.

      "I can't find my dad. He's been missing for the past couple of days. I think it's three or four now..." Dune added.

     "Sorry, we've been running through every kingdom trying to find her and some of the others...we found a book. It told us things," Misty apologized for their breathlessness. 

     "What did the book say?"

     "Lots of things," Reap answered.

     "The title?" 

     "It didn't have one. It was discarded in a Blood-sheep pen..." Rylie continued the stream of replies. Flora looked at Scott.

     "King Scott, might I tell you something important?" Scott looked away from the floor, his train of thought at a pause. "The book said the corruption had returned. It said she was looking for us.  It said she needed us. The whole line of Empires needed us. All of us." The kids looked dead serious. Scott looked like he knew something the rest of them didn't.

Jimmy just looked plain confused. In this dimension, he and most of the other rulers had no memory of the corruption. Turns out most of these kids can travel between dimensions. Things in the original dimension have changed...an owl flew in. It dropped a note into Scott's hands. He read it.

     Dearest King Scott,

                            It has returned. We both know it, as does Shrub. It's getting worse. Protect what you have and be strong, my elven friend.

Blossoms blessings, Queen Katherine of the Overgrown

    "Oh, and you may also want to know," Dune began to say, "Mari and Ty are missing too."

..:^:..

     There was something weird about the scene Fawn had witnessed. The demon looked...familiar? She remembered glowing purple tendrils swirling along the twists of the demon's horns. The scar was light across it's skin, a white scar, not red like most scars. Something in the back of Fawn's mind clicked at the peculiar similarity. She didn't realize it yet though. The demon's eyes were purple, surrounded by a rosy red-pink color. Something wasn't right. Fawn could see resemblance. She hated the feeling of not knowing. She came to a clearing with a large tree planted in the middle of it. Something flashed before her eyes. Oh no, not again. Her vision flicked back and forth before she saw a large wolf, the size of a grizzly bear, or more accurately a horse. Another one stood behind her with many normal wolves sitting at it's feet. She saw a girl with a wolf mask pulled over her face.

     "Shrub," the girl read aloud. "You must go back to your empire. Something terrible has happened." Fawn froze. Aunt Shrub? Was she back in the other dimension? No, this looked fuzzy. Fawn realized everything had been fuzzy. She thought for a moment. The scene flicked away, being oddly short. Fawn looked around, confused why it stopped short. A loud horse whinny startled her, sending her sprawling onto her back as a a group of soldiers, some on horses, emerged from the trees. Leading them was a tall, broad shouldered boy with ruffled mocha colored hair. He looked down at Fawn, who lay  fearfully on her back, propped up on her elbows, with a sneer.

     "Princess. What are you doing here?" He snarled. Fawn helped herself up, more soldiers gathering by the moment. 

     "Nigel?" Fawn groaned, brushing off her pants. Nigel went to Crystal Cliffs at the same time as Fawn. He was four years older than her, always made fun of Mari for her name and gave her dads weird looks, as if he was more superior than them. 

     "I asked you a question, girl," he spat. Fawn narrowed her eyes.

     "Do not speak to me like that," Fawn stated firmly. Nigel shrugged. 

     "Some people, unlike others, miss your presence back at the palace," he taunted. 

     "I, unlike others, am trying to stop the demon that keeps stalking me and my friends. What have you done to be helpful in the past nine years? I'm not sure you barely passed out of Crystal Cliffs so the bar isn't very high," Fawn spoke quickly but clearly, making her sentence sound that more powerful and confident. The other soldiers whispered among themselves like young gossip girls. Nigel glared harder at her. 

     "You? Trying to stop the demon! HA! You crack me up, Princess. You're petty and weak. You're a child. Stop dreaming bigger than that stupid statue. Give up; you can't fix everything with a cute little snowflake." Something flared in Fawn. 

     "Funny how you insult Aeor. Probably because he didn't give your family a power like ours," she slammed her fists at her sides. Ice spikes ripped the ground around the soldiers, spooking the horses. Snow whipped around their faces inside the circle of spikes. Fawn turned on her heel, fuming.

     "You're not much different from that demon, you know!" Nigel called after her. Fawn continued on her path, only a singular tear slipping down her cheek.

..:^:..

     Gem batted a cluster of red vines away from the ground. She was direly worried about the other Empires. She could distantly remember bad things happening. It scared her. Gem's students were getting unsettled. She had cancelled all lessons for the next two weeks out of caution. Something was wrong and she knew it. 

Worlds we're colliding.

..:^:..

Fawn arrived at the edge of the beach, calm but motivated. She noticed an odd frame of logs forming a hut. Before her eyes, things became the same amount of fuzzy as the flashbacks did and a set of buildings appeared. Although buildings sprouted, to her astonishment, all water in the area had drained.

      "Oh, this is all my fault," the voice got louder and faded.

    "Dad..?" Fawn wondered aloud. She peeked around the edge of the cabin, watching past-Jimmy running around the drained Empire. She didn't pay attention to what he was saying, realization striking.

Her visions were memories. 

From the other dimension.

The buildings disappeared, along with the frame of the hut she was peeking around. The water returned, surrounding the beach. She looked into the distance. She could make out a head of pink head bobbing around the tall towers. She was exactly where she needed to be. 

She was going to fix the demon problem.

To make up for posting later, I wrote another chapter :) *cough cough* I wanted to keep going....I wanted to begin developing Nigel's character, and now I've said too much. Just a little note, I saw this fan-made empires thing, it's called "The End" but I forgot who created it. It's on the playlist that I'll post at the end of the book.....but seriously it was SO GOOD! The clips were put together really well and it elevates Empires to another level in like 2 minutes. So sorry for my unpaid advertisement lol.

-Strange