RP Squad: Route Swap

Unfamiliarity

Aster would open his eyes, a little dizzy from the sudden bright light. Regaining his senses, he looked around. The surroundings were unfamiliar. It wasn't the lively city he knew. Instead, it was a thick forest with incredibly tall trees with a stream going along the forest path. Green plants and mossy rocks were everywhere on the ground.

"woah. i.. i did it! i used the necklace! haha! yeah!" Aster jumped enthusiastically. He wasn't expecting it to work, since he didn't know what he was doing.

"still a long way to go, though.. this is a completely random location." Aster pondered on how long it'd take to master the powers of the necklace. Sounds like a real pain in the neck. But no turning back now.

Once again, Aster reached deep into his SOUL and disappeared. Appearing in a different location. And again. And again and again.

He could definitely get used to this. While he isn't really a travelling guy (whether if he likes it or not. he wasn't really allowed to get OUT of Underpolitan often.) , this seemed like fun. He just hopes it won't get old too fast..?

Aster appeared in a rocky area. Looks like it was pretty high up. He'd be careful not to accidentally fall off a cliff.. He took a glance at the edge of a cliff and swallowed. "wow, uh, that's pretty high up." Aster would step away. 

Aster took something out of his pocket. It was a yellow smoking pipe that he called "The Holy Smoking Thing". He also pulled out a lighter and lights the pipe. "well, that cliff isn't going to be the only one that's high up." Aster chuckled at his own joke.

"now, uh.." He scanned his surroundings. "man, i really don't know what to search for here. how do they even come up with things to bring home..?" he blew out a puff of smoke.
Aster felt something move on his suitcase. Immediately glancing at it, there was a small critter that resembled a squirrel on it. It quickly jumped away and ran away. It looked a bit odd to him.

"huh- hey, wait for me!" Since he didn't have anything better to do anyways, he decides to chase down the strange critter. He's a pretty good runner, so he was catching up to it. Looks like it was running towards higher parts of the rocky area. Farther in, the ground would be blanketed with snow. Thankfully, Aster already had some pretty warm clothes already.

They soon passed a gate made out of wooden stakes. Aster didn't notice it, though. It was wide open and he was laser-focused on the critter. Pine trees were scattered around. Then, the critter climbed up to one of the trees. Looks like it was the end of the chase.

"oh. well, okay. of course, you'd go to your house." He was looking up the tree. "where'd you lead me to, though..? i haven't seen trees anywhere when i arrived." He glances the path forward. "huh.." He muttered. Squinting, it looks like there's a village up ahead. It may be worth talking to people here. maybe they'll give me a quest, he thought. that'd be awesome.

Walking the path forward, with snow crunching beneath his sandals. He'd only seen snow one time when he was little. His mother needed to run an errand outside of Underpolitan and he begged to follow her. At that time, it was winter.

By now, he expected some villagers around to greet him. But the only thing that greeted him was the sound of whistling wind. It was dead quiet..? Maybe the people who live here are extremely shy. That's why they live so high up here.

Aster clutched the necklace nervously. This place is little eerie. But he's gone all this way, so he pressed on. He'd be at the entrance by now. "..no sign or anything? geez, town with no name 'round here." He noticed something in the center of the village. It was the same critter.

"oh, hey little guy! you're here. uh, i hope i'm not intruding anything important here.. since i came up completely unannounced." Aster walked up to the center of the village. There was a statue of someone he didn't recognize. Figures.

Aster sat at the bottom of the statue. "man, there's really no one in sight, huh?" he then glanced at the critter, that has disappeared. "..well, alright. i guess i should've expected that." he rested his head on the statue and blew out a puff of smoke.

something's seriously wrong with this place, he thought. but it's probably just abandoned. i'll just use this as a quick smoke break..

Something rustled in the bushes. Then only the feeling of being watched slowly crept up. ..it's just the squirrel, aster. he reassured himself. And he was right. Well, sort of right. A couple of critters crawled out of the bush that Aster was looking at. They were just staring at him. Aster sat upright. "....um, what's th-" All of a sudden, the squirrel lunged at him and latched onto him.

"AAHH! what the ff-uuUUHHH??" Aster blurted out, startled. But before he could continue with what he was about to say, the critter was transforming. The others were too. They took form into a large, dark-colored blobs with what looked like sharp teeth. They were towering over Aster. Aster swatted the "critter" away while it was mid-tranformation and tried to make a run for it.

"hhHOLY SHIT! I KNEW THIS PLACE WASN'T NORMAL!" A shadow loomed over him. The village was small — there wasn't anywhere to run to. The creature swept Aster's legs with an appendage that stretched out of the blob. Aster grunted as he fell to the ground, and rolled over to look at the blobs that were staring him down.

"w-what the hell are you?! you're not human nor monster!" Aster tried to drag himself backwards. It only crept closer. "un-fucking-believable! how'd i get myself into a deadly situation already?" Aster has little to no fighting experience. His family would be the one who would defend him in dangerous situations back at Underpolitan. But he has to defend himself now.

The blob would lunge at Aster but he would hit it with a bone he'd had summoned in his hand. "ha! yeah, you do you like them app-" But the blob was only stunned for a mere few seconds. It stretched out an appendage and hit Aster, knocking him towards one of the houses. His hat flew off.

Aster winced and tried to get up. "oww, ow ow.. m-maybe i shouldn't have gotten too cocky there.." He was surrounded. He held the necklace and tried to reach into his SOUL. But it failed. He was too weak to do so. He looked around, desperately trying to find something to help him out of this. But there was nothing.

With a deep breath, Aster stood up. And he stood his ground. "okay, you asked for this, alright?" Aster huffed and got into a fighting position.

But before he could do anything, a gunshot sound filled the air.