Aimee Marseille knows something is wrong when she is summoned quickly to return home. Upon her father's death, she finds startling news about the family's secret. Mechanical knights walk the countryside, an odd woman who seems to know more than she...
Turning behind her, Aimee spotted a strange looking creature standing upon its hind legs. The entire body was covered with a layer of dark blue fur and four ears jutted out. He had whiskers upon his face yet wore the same clothing as a man – brown leather jacket and matching pants. The only difference was there were no shoes to be seen.
There was also the aspect of the rather sizable gun he held in his hand with green smoke remnants fuming.
"Hate these bees. Every time you think you're finished with them, another one pops up. I swear if I could find their hive I'd burn the thing down," he stated with a firm tone of voice. He looked at Aimee. "I take it you're the friend of Narit's."
His weapon continued to smoke as he stood there and she wasn't entirely sure whether or not he planned on using it on her. "I am. Have you seen her?"
"Here I am," Narit said with a smile on her face as she popped out from behind him. She held her flower still in her hand as she looked at Aimee.
"That's wonderful. I was looking everywhere for you but then the bees kept coming." Aimee turned around, unsure whether to brace herself for another attack from a bee buzzing towards her.
The field seemed relatively quiet with only a few of the leaves brushing against one another to break the silence. Whatever was out there was being quiet.
"We should get into the house," the strange man said with a snarl on his face. "I don't want to be out here when it gets dark. No telling where those buggers will be." He looked through the flowers as though staring at something
Aimee wasn't sure whether or not he saw anything but from the way he turned, creeping back through the tall flowers in the direction of the shack, she preferred not to pursue it.
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The shack was exactly what it looked like when Aimee spotted it from atop the small hill. The wood exterior was graying, breaking apart in pieces from the remainder of the framework. There were small pieces of metal embedded into the ground around the shack which seemed to prevent any of the flowers from growing in the vicinity. A small pathway made from sizable rocks led to the entrance where half of a metallic golem rested, only the waist down seemed connected while the remainder appeared to be elsewhere.
Aimee felt dread growing within her. Perhaps there was a reason why this man sought to keep himself separated from everyone else. "How long have you been here?" Most of the devices around seemed to be in relatively new condition although there were a few which appeared to have rust on them.
He shrugged. "Don't really keep time out here. Besides, only want to stay away from everyone bothering me. I don't need to be constantly inundated with people yelling and talking about nonsense." He stepped over the threshold and into his shack before quickly poking his head out. "And I want to make it perfectly clear once you're inside, keep the chattering down."
"Understood," Aimee responded as she kept looking around at the various gadgetry hanging from ropes in precarious positions. One strong wind would throw all of this aside and likely harm anyone who came near them.
The sound of the metal rustling with each small pass of wind made it appear as though the metal figures depicted around the shack were simply waiting on a command from the man to attack. Her hand slipped to her side as she felt for her knife, thankful it remained at her side in case the worst case scenario happened.
She crossed into the threshold as well and discovered the interior looked almost identical to the outside. Metal wires hung in odd arrangements, strung across the wall as though they were veins coursing throughout a person's body. "Your house looks... interesting." She hoped that was the right word to use. She didn't mean to offend him at all.
He continued on through his house, dropping his cannon of sorts onto the nearby teak table, nearly breaking it in two, and made his way to a nearby counter where a steaming kettle of sorts piped away. "You like this? This is only something I've cobbled together. You would've loved the place back in the Glass Star."
The words hit Aimee hard with excitement. "You're from the Glass Star?" She noted a nearby chair and sat upon it, the dark velvet exterior of it seeming as though it had never been touched before. "What is it like there?"
"Bunch of people." He reached for three small teacups and poured what appeared to be light green liquid into it. "Couldn't stand to be around so many people who had no idea what they were doing. Every time you tried to explain, everyone already knew everything anyway." He shook his head as he turned, walking towards Aimee and Narit with the teacups balanced by their handles.
"Was that why you left? Just because of the people?" She took a sip of her drink, hoping she wasn't asking too many questions. She wrinkled her nose at the sour taste within her cup. It reminded her of eating blackberries before they ripened with a dash of sugar which did nothing to mask its potency.
He frowned as he handed the second glass to Narit. She took a sip and seemed not to note anything peculiar about the drink. "That's part of it. That blasted Stanton... when she took over, it seemed there was no use for an engineer to remain."
"So you left and moved here."
"Exactly." He sat on another chair in the room, propping his feet up on a small crate nearby. "I spend my time making devices no one will ever see but at least it keeps me sane."
Aimee nodded. "I understand. We were on our way to the Glass Star to get rid of Stanton. My father was the king and now I'm going to see about helping his people." She took yet another sip before placing the cup on a stack of circular metallic disks nearby.
His face dropped. "Your father is King Retrik?"
"Was. He died a few days ago."
A smile crossed his face. "Do I have some things to show you."
