It had just been a game. A silly otome game with yandere capture targets.
Everything changes when she finds herself in the world that inspired the story she'd played.
The Caretakers warned her her new timeline would implode if she wasn't careful i...
The Thorne estate was a small dot from the view of the mountain range that divided Wofford from the Wilds. Vienna swallowed the lonely feeling that welled up in her throat. She shook her head, she would not allow herself to cry. If she started she would not be able to stop.
"This is for them. Pop, Frey, Ezzie, everyone I love."
Turning towards the other side of the cliff side the floating isles of the Wilds rose high into the sky. The rugged landscape stretched out far beyond the horizon until one side reached the seaside on either end of the Continent. No one would look for her in there and that's what made it safe.
As Vienna traveled she found that the forests that met the rugged terrain of the Wilds felt familiar, more so than she thought they would. It was almost as if she were practicing traveling through the trees back on the estate rather than all on her own in the Wilds.She often traveled leaping from one tree branch to another to keep from making a trail to track on the ground. She remembered her life growing up and realized that it wasn't that surprising after all. Trees always were part of the fundamentals of Vienna's growing-up experience.
One of her first nights in the Wilds, as she came down the mountainside, she stayed in a cave. She woke during the night with a cry, the fire had burned out plunging her into the darkness. She thought she was back in the Void. She wasn't supposed to be conscious back then, the consciousness placed in the Void were meant to be asleep in their minds in a dream-like state. She was different, she would wake to find herself in a darker-than-night world where she could not scream out for help, she could not move and the darkness feel as if it were swallowing her up. Tears ran down her cheeks, choked sobs escaping her and as she buried her head into her knees she screamed out her fear and pain. It wasn't until she dropped exhausted upon her bedroll; her hand falling against her staff, her fingertips grazed something unusual on her staff. Like a vine wrapping itself around her staff, she found the sprout the Old One had given her. She felt a surge of reassurance. As if something was trying to tell her she was not alone.
After that, she stayed away from the area in the Wilds where the floating boulders met the wide lakes and ice barrens. She turned her attention to the tangled woods.
Nights when even the sounds of animals were quiet, and the air felt still and stifling homesickness would invade. Those nights she would climb into the largest tree she could find and curl up into its embrace, hugging Pop's favorite picnic quilt tight to her chest. Her tears would soak into the wood as she slept. She could almost feel her father reaching out to her; feel his longing, his love, and heartache.
Most days though she was busy with forging her path through the wilds of Wofford.
The Wilds were rich with all sorts of edible flora and fauna. In the dense marshes, there were water plants. In the rocky hillsides there were hardy thistles and in the more tree-laden parts mushrooms were plentiful. Vienna found she never went hungry.
At times rain and sleet would come in through the makeshift shelters and she would be cold. By the next day, the weather would grow warm and her clothes would dry and she'd move on.
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Vienna found herself wandering the Wilds with no real direction. Sometimes she thought she might build a dwelling but she'd throw away that idea for she would never be able to think of it as a home without Pop there.
Several months into her journey into the Wilds, Vienna started noticing an uneasiness about the forest creatures around her. The few Terrans she had passed from above were unobservant to their surroundings, staying upon the main road or the beaten paths of gatherers. Some had built small communities among the Wilds, self-sufficient due to their fields that were sprinkled through the non-marsh lands. Their eyes would sparkle in excitement when rain fell from the skies to water their fields.
Vienna had been able to see the Elemširdis that lived upon the hillsides in small holes, most had wings that glittered in the fading light of a sunset.
One day they all disappeared; they hid as if immediately sensing something was amiss. Not knowing what caused the ill ease, Vienna was even more careful keeping to the highest part of the canopy of trees where she felt the safest. She kept her eyes open and stayed camouflaged blending in among the multi-colored leaves.
A day passed and her patience was rewarded.
A troupe of hunters with an odd assortment of varying sizes of cages on the back of their horses trudged through the foliage with no care as to how they disturbed it.
Vienna's brows furrowed as she got closer. She was wary not wishing to get close enough that one of them may be able to hear her. As she watched she counted four lumbering oafs and her frown became more pronounced, none of them were hauling the proper hunting gear. Her father had spoken to her about the kingdom's laws about hunting only beasts in season, which was something that she knew to be smart to not affect too drastically an ecosystem. Those below were all wrong.
Her mouth formed a word as their words confirmed it down below, 'Poachers'.
"Are you sure the intel was correct? You haven't sent us on another wild grouse chase, Mapmaker?"
Dark eyes narrowed into thin slits and thin strong fingers gripped the branch beneath her. Her father had told her of the poachers that the king and queen were recently trying to find. Much like the pirates that once raided the Continent's seas feeding off the sorrows of those from the Great War and before, poachers would often know the forests like the back of their hands. However, the ones below Vienna were not like those her father mentioned. Not once had they checked for tracks.
The three largest of the troupe seemed to blend into each other, brothers, they all looked too much alike to be anything else. All the same height, same structured chin with dark green scruff. Their bulky lumbering statures looked like the Neanderthal automatons Vienna remembered from her other life's childhood visits to an outdated history museum.
Her father had it torn down from that time after finding out she skinned her knee tripping on the long stone steps exiting the building. She remembered crying the night she heard about the old owner having a heart attack, the news feed's sentimental reporter wrote "Some would say he died of a broken heart." Her father sued the news feed center. "Why?" She had looked at him over her breakfast that morning, her young mind turning over everything that happened. She had only skinned her knee. He reached over towards her, his manicured fingers tapping her chin, a smile in its ever-fixed business smirk, "I can't afford anyone harming my girl, now can I?" Vienna shook her head and ignored the tear that fell down her cheek.
A surge of reassurance flooded her senses, she closed her eyes breathing in as her hands ran across the knots of the wood. While she was lost in her long past memories she had failed to hear the rest of the poachers' conversation. Glancing back down below Vienna let out a gasp when she caught sight of their 'cargo'.
Three nearly identical males turned in sync. "Did you hear that?" "Most definitely." "Could it be an Elemširdis?"
The mapmaker this time spoke up, "The woods around here make sounds all the time." What had captured Vienna's attention before rattled the cages catching the attention of the three malachite beings. Her eyes widened as she saw tiny Elemširdis up close. Small tiny figures with pale nearly translucent wings on their backs. They glowed like fireflies flickering between the poles of the woven cages.
Setting her pack down in an alcove she swung her staff from its harness on her back. She would need to remove her extra layers if she planned on following after them covertly. She would be quicker the lighter she was as she journeyed through the pathways of the trees.
Vienna followed the troupe and as she did she watched the four from above, eyes watchful of each of their mannerisms.
She would need to be careful not to alert them of her presence.
