The Messengers of Sanctuary

47 - Chicory

Fen watched the falling box with some mixture of worry and resignation. He seemed to know what it was, curious. The other two Pyros - Vincent and Ephriam - didn't seem to know much more about what was happening than Chicory did.

So logically, Chicory glanced at Fen, "What is that thing?!?!" She asked eloquently.

Fen frowned at it, tracking it with intensity, "It is a demon box. I don't know why they're sending it this far north, usually they end up close to the southern tip of Chile, We're basically in Panama already."

The names of the old world countries mostly went over Chicory's head, but she got the jist of what he was saying, "Is it dangerous?"

Fen frowned, "Depends on if it's an actual criminal in there or not."

Chicory blinked, still in the middle of turning her cart to face the trajectory of the box, "There's a person in there?!" It did seem big enough now that she thought about it, but sparks, that was so strange. "Alright, it's settled then, we're checking it out!"

Fen sighed and sat back down, allowing Chicory to begin sprinting in the correct direction. It took them off the road, and the uneven terrain definitely slowed her down, but there weren't many obstacles in this stretch of land so they made it to the area relatively unimpeded.

By the time they were there, the box was already on the ground, the parachute affixed to the top sitting limply upon the box. Chicory stopped a few meters away, the group watching the box warily for several seconds before it made a sort of whooshing sound and the side opened up.

There was silence for several tense heartbeats, and then someone pulled themselves from the box, two candles held loosely in one hand. 

She was shorter than Chicory to a decent degree, she looked to be somewhere in her forties. Her hair was long, longer than Chicory realized hair could get, reaching past the end of her back. It was black, her skin was pale ivory. She scanned the world around her in wide sweeps before focusing her red eyes on the group with the cart. Chicory noticed a slight squint in her eyes, just like Fen.

Beside Chicory, Fen made a noise that was probably a swear in another language.

The woman raised a perfectly manicured eyebrow at that, she spoke something in the same language, Fen scowled.

Chicory glanced between the two, "Do you know each other?"

Fen didn't look away for a moment, "unfortunately."

The woman smiled, "Oh, they speak English here? Fantastic, where in the world have they been sending us?"

"We're currently in central America, just south of Panama. You can leave now." Fen practically growled.

She cocked her head in a way that resembled a bird, "Oh? But you gathered a whole welcoming committee and everything, Fen!"

He growled in annoyance, his eyes flashing gold, "Chicory, we can just leave, she's nothing but trouble."

The woman rolled her eyes extravagantly, "Now now, is that any way to speak about your dearest aunt? Does family not mean the same thing it used to these days? I suppose it all fell apart after the outbreak, but really Fen, one would assume that it would only make the family we have left all the more important!"

Chicory frowned, glancing between the two, clearly they had unresolved issues with each other, but wow, family? Chicory wished her parents were still around, or that she remembered her cousins enough to seek them out. "I'm Chicory, a Messenger of Sanctuary, and you might be?"

The woman brightened at that, "At least one of you is respectable, this one is Song Yijun, a pleasure to make your acquaintance."

"So ah, where did you come from?" Ephriam spoke up, glancing nervously between Song - er Yijun? Chicory wasn't sure what to refer to her as - and Fen.

Song pointed upward, "Well I fell out of the sky, what do you think? Perhaps I'm an angel in disguise..."

Fen rolled his eyes, "If they'd given you the tian, you would be here. Now how in the world did they manage to catch you? I was fairly certain that you'd never allow that to happen. You were fairly quick to abandon me once I got caught after all."

"Oh, you're still salty about that? Really, hun, you need to stop taking everything so personally. Although...if it helps at all the base was compromised since they finally got Lianmin. We didn't last much longer without her. I just figured it would be better to end up here than to die." "

Chicory raised her hand politely, "Pardon me, but what the sparks is happening?"

Song blinked, "Ah, well I suppose it doesn't matter. Just discussing home."

Fen growled and she glanced at him curiously, though he didn't seem happy that's for sure, "Everyone's been captured? That means they're being sent here? We need to track them down?!"

The woman looked kind of sad at that, "Fen, we can chat about this later, alright? We have no way to find them and it won't hurt anybody to wait a couple more hours."

Fen frowned, but didn't respond

The woman sighed and turned to Chicory, "You seem relatively coherent, if you will, please explain to me the general situation here." She paused, looking over the cart. "And ah...what's with the refrigerator?"

Chicory nearly laughed aloud at the last part, resorting to a rough cough to cover it up. "We're heading north to Ironwind stronghold so we can get a...friend there. We've got a feral zombie in there."

Song frowned at that, "And we haven't killed it yet? Why? Purging the world of the undead is our only purpose." She glanced at Fen curiously.

Chicory laughed nervously, "well ah, he's a tad bit stronger than pyros."

Song tilted her head, "Pyros? Ah, an interesting nickname. In Eurasia we call ourselves demons." Song frowned, "You though, you're strange..." she whirled on Fen, "Why in the world does she have that same sour afterscent as the tian?!"

Fen blinked, "Ah, I've actually been trying to figure that one out. She has something else though."

"Heartfire." Chicory supplied helpfully, "It's a mutation of the zombie virus." She brightened, "Do you want the short version or the loooonng version?!" 

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Vote for Chicory to deliver the long version :D