Azure Chronicle

Forest of Ark

The chain dropped to the ground and slid back into the girl's hands where she coiled it in a sack. 

"Lets get her to the buggy." The large muscular, but obese man said in a deeply serious tone.

The girl stopped swinging her chain and put her hands behind her back as if being cuffed. She gestured as if I were to mimic her.

Reluctantly I too put my hands behind my back.

She then wrapped her chain around my wrists and somehow fastened it to itself.

The high pitch wine of the buggy scared away much of the foliage.

The girl walked the few yards to the buggy backward watching me. Her feet one behind the other, it was actually quite impressive. At times she even seemed as if she was trying to be goofy.

I sat in the "back seat" of the buggy, but it was more gently sitting on a plate above the engine. My chain now wrapped around the roll bar.

"Welcome to the Forest of Ark, this has been a refuge to many rebels and like-minded people. People who no longer wish to see the Veil with their iron fist, nor the Cerberus and their pompous idolatries rule this beautiful land." He stretched out his arms to showcase the magnificent forest.

I nodded in amazement, concealing my quick spidery fingers, feeling every edge of the chain.

"What makes you think I want to see either side win this age-old cold war?" I posed.

"You did seem to get along quite nicely with likes of the Valiant people, with their mechs and fancy train."

I held down a ridiculous laugh. "I suppose that's true if having a gun held to your head is a sign of "Getting along"." I started to gesture, realizing my hands were still chained.

I noticed the large man look to the girl who in return nodded, then took her hand off the wheel to make a gun gesture and blow out her brains.

"Hmph...Elaborate show" He huffed.

My fingers found that the blade had been jammed into a link to form a handcuff. The buggy hit a bump, the blade shifted, leaving a painful cut on my finger.

"Ouch" I jerked. Then recovered with a question.

"Who are you?"

"I am Oberon and this is my daughter, Dolly"

I gently pushed up on the blade, dislodging it fell the chain landing in my hand.

A large settlement emerged from the trees, wood shanties and small pillars of smoke scattered the somewhat busy refuge, hidden by the dense woods around and amongst it.

The buggy stopped.

"Welcome to my humble abode." Oberon cheered. "You can call me Obe, by the way."

I nodded and tightened my grip on the chain. Dolly undid the bondage and yanked, practically pulling me from the buggy, I nearly lost my grip on the links.

This bitch.

I secretly jerked her back trying to "catch my balance".

She simply glared.

The huts seemed to be a part of the woods, the moss seamlessly flowed from tree to roof then off the edges like rain.

I smelled the air, it smelled like home. I had been in the desert far too long. The dancing forest seemed to imbue me with new energy.

"This way" Obe invited. Wood steps terraced into the ground. The wood spider hole was lit by torch and featured a few amenities such as a cozy looking bed with a wolf skin atop it. Viny wooden nightstands and chests throughout. Across a wall, a large spider with a dark red turtle shell of sorts was pinned and dried. Its spindly legs some several feet in length. Its sight made my skin crawl.

Why would they put that on the wall?

"Make yourself at home here." Oberon smiled.

Dolly began making symbols with her hands. Oberon paid close attention to the quick movements. Some like drawing a circle on her hand, another, two fingers like scooping from a jar.

But one symbol told it all, her index finger erect like a person and with the other hand, she slid across it like a knife. At that moment Dolly looked to me from the corner of her eye.

My fist connected with her face in mere seconds. The small girl tumbled to the ground, in a sad pile.

Large hands grabbed my waist, my momentum instantly reversing me back to where I started, only this time I found a wall.

My head slammed against the solid wood. My feet hit the floor first followed by knees then hands.

By that time Dolly had recovered and made her way to me. She yanked back my hair and shoved her heeled boot into the side of my face.

My face went to the floor. I roared and pushed with all my might and she began to lose her balance.

The fight ended with a boom from Oberon. A shot rang through the room.

"I am not here to fight you! If you wish to continue to be training for young Dolly, then, by all means, continue to suffer."

My mouth still mashed against the floor. "Then wha you huhuh."

"Dolly, please take your foot off her face."

She let go then stood at attention. I took the moment to catch my breath. 

"Then what do you want?" I asked sharply.

"What I want is irrelevant, what our people want is to bring a new system, one which unites the values of the two factions."

My face had begun to ache. I stood and composed myself and proceeded "Then why further divide them with your propaganda?"

"I don't know what propaganda you speak of, we speak only the truth. A truth that will give rise to the old mankind." His eyes lit up as if he were glimpsing into a utopian future.

Seems interesting... "You really think Vale carried out that attack on Accord?"

I looked around to see that Dolly had disappeared.

"Doesn't the evidence tell its own story? Valiant mech, destroyed Cerebrus city, Zaamu on the prowl, surveying the dead?"

"Have you not seen the new blight dragon? I was there, he destroyed everything." I paused, recalling the event. "He destroyed it all in seconds."

"A grand story for likes of children, but we are not children here miss." He put his gun back and laughed.

Dolly and another person suddenly entered the room