Tales Of The Underlands (jjba part 5 Wonderland AU)

In The Shine Of The Fire

A warm orange hue surrounded the camp as you sat down near the campfire with a bowl of food, right between Prosciutto and Ghiaccio.

It felt strange eating with men you didn't know anything about. Traveling with them for one day had left you only with vague answers and more questions. Trying to sort your thoughts and the things you found out today left you with more confusion.

Sure, you understood that there was a rebellion lead by the prince against the king who usurped his father's throne and that since the new king took over everything got worse.

But what did this prophecy and Polpo have to do with it and how was that connected to you. Your head already hurt thinking about it.

As you just stared at your food you felt someone aggressively nudging your side.

"Eat it before its cold. I don't want to hear you complain later on about how your food is not hot anymore." Ghiaccio said before going back to grinding his teeth.

You took a bite of the unusual looking food, still not used to it glowing in different colors. Honestly sometimes you thought you landed on Pandora from the Avatar movies. This world was beautiful, but it wasn't your home and you didn't feel safe here one bit since your encounter with Doppio.

Thinking back to what Polpo said about the men who were sitting with you working for the king and betraying him, you decided that they owed you answers if they wanted you to trust them.

Right now you had no other choice than to stick with them, but that didn't mean that you felt safe.

Looking up from your bowl you began to speak:"What did Polpo mean when he said that you worked for the king?"

You made eye contact with Risotto, trying not to flinch under his intimidating gaze. You wouldn't back down, they owed you this answer if they wanted you to keep playing along.

When he noticed that you didn't accept a no Risotto let out a sigh. Illuso and Formaggio were whispering among each other, while the latter was bouncing his leg. Melone laughed nervously as you directed your eyes at him, while Pesci avoided looking in your direction.

Prosciutto had stopped eating and looked at his leader, silently asking  what they should do.

As soon as Risotto started to speak it became dead silent.

"We worked for the king for some time, different jobs, but we mostly did his dirty work. A few months ago we had enough of it and we went into hiding, but we officially became traitors when we defied the kings orders and attacked one of his outposts. That's all you have to know."

"How did you know about Doppio and that I was with him?"

" We observed him for weeks, he's the kings right hand man. We knew that if a human showed up sooner or later Doppio would be the one to capture them."

With that Risotto started eating again and  the others started talking with each other. You guessed that meant that the talk was over.

Finishing up the rest of what was in your bowl, you frowned. Dirty work didn't sound like they were known for kindness. Things slowly made more sense. Whatever your role in this prophecy was supposed to be, they were counting on you to fulfill it.

Everyone had finished their meal and soon you were involved in a conversation with Formaggio, Illuso, Ghiaccio and Melone.

They asked you all sorts of questions about your home and what it was like, in return they told you more about the Underlands and themselves.

At first you answered hesitantly, but with time you started to be more open towards them. You found out that it was very common for underlanders to tame some of the big bugs you saw in the forest earlier and keep them as companions. Taming your own animal was like an adolescence ritual. Ghiaccio was from the north and so he had managed to tame an Isabella Tiger moth. Formaggio boasted that he had a giant spider as a companion, while Illuso tried to impress you by talking about how shiny his scarab beetle looked. He said you could see your own reflection in its armor. Melone talked about his butterfly which he had since he was only a tiny caterpillar.

When you asked where their companions were, they just shrugged and told you that they would come to them if they called.

It began to fascinate you how the people down here had their own culture and customs which were so similar, yet so different from your own.

You also learned that Ghiaccio was easily offended when his Isabella Tiger Moth was referred to as anything else than that. It seemed to just tick him of. If someone just called her a moth he began to yell at them. You learned that she was called White Album, which seemed like an unusual name for a moth.

At one point they all argued about whose companion was the most loyal. They all (except Formaggio) agreed that the Spider called little feet was the least loyal one out of all. They described her as moody and mostly useless, which caused Formaggio to strongly disagree.

In his words little feet was a very loyal friend, who had never disappointed him with her capabilities.

You wondered if you'd ever get to see them in flesh and blood, the stories they told you about them sounded magnificent.

Night had fallen over the swamp some time ago and slowly you noticed yourself becoming drowsy and your eyelids heavier. You couldn't suppress the long yawn you let out while you tried to listen to what Melone had to say about his butterfly, which from his description sounded like a peacock butterfly, named baby face.

You decided that it was time to get some shut eye, the only problem was that you had no place to sleep, the others all shared tents, well except for Risotto, but you still didn't know if anyone would be kind enough to let you sleep there with them.

After looking at the tents for some while, Pesci noticed your dilemma. He went to tap your shoulder.

You looked at the boy expectantly while he told you that you could share a tent with him and Prosciutto. He even offered you his sleeping bag, saying that he wouldn't mind sleeping on the floor. You thanked him for his kindness, but he didn't have to give up his sleeping bag for you.

He still insisted on getting you at least a blanket and maybe something you could use as a pillow. How did someone like him end up working for the king, you wondered.

Pesci returned with a blanket and began leading you to the tent you'd spent the night in.

The day had been exhausting and you couldn't help but feel relieved that you got to rest a bit.

After hours of walking through strange terrain, a talk with some man who liked to blow smoke at people and getting to know some of the team members you just wanted to sleep.

You were the first to fall asleep that night, not hearing the seven others whisper about their plans.