Magic Cloud

[Starfire]

-She had been walking around aimlessly when a weary traveler pulled her aside. He began to tell her of a magical place that was full of mushrooms. He had been there once and it had made him see visions that couldn’t possibly have been real. She decided to go to this “magical” place and see what all the fuss was about. She took a few steps away from the man and began her journey to the mushrooms. Wondering what she would see as the man had told her that each person sees something different. More often than not people had reported mushrooms from Mario which made her laugh. She figured it was just some old folk tale but wanted to see for herself.-
-She approached the forest where she had been told the mushrooms were located. She noticed an odd smell that lingered in the air as she made her way into the forest. When she got closer to the middle she began to see the oddly colored mushrooms. After taking a few more steps she found herself in the middle of a colorful array of the mushrooms. Leaning down she picked one of them and held it up to examine it. Other than the color and size it looked like a normal mushroom, though it did smell odd. She couldn’t place the smell but quickly realized that it wasn’t the mushrooms that made you hallucinate. Determining the aroma smelled of flowers she quickly became a bit dizzy. It was indeed the aroma that had made the people hallucinate and become high. She sat upon the forest floor and breathed in deeply for a few moments, expecting nothing from the aroma. She was wrong and she learned this swiftly. All of a sudden a group of people came out from different directions of the forest. They did not look normal. Standing she felt a lump in her throat.- “Those are our mushrooms. You have defiled them and now you shall die for it!” -She was running before the creature even finished its sentence. Hearing the footsteps behind her that meant they had given chase.-
-She continued running at a quick pace, picking up speed when the footsteps sounded closer. She was not paying attention to where she was running and stumbled over a large tree root. She quickly scrambled to her feet but wasn’t fast enough as she felt the cold hand of one of the dark creatures upon her shoulder. Grabbing the dagger from her boot she swiped at its hand. Obviously not expecting the creature yelped in pain and released her. She scrambled away from the creature and onto her feet once more. Running immediately at full force. She quickly climbed up a large tree and sat upon a high branch looking downwards. To her amazement the creatures began climbing the tree after her. She yelped some before looking around for her escape. Seeing another tree that was close enough for her to jump to she knew this was her escape. The creatures were but a few feet from her so she rapidly leapt from the tree she was on to the one next to her. She squirmed her way through the branches and down the tree to the forest floor. Knowing this would slow the other creatures down she began to run at full force the moment her feet touched the ground. Her clothes snagging on branches she passed that had stuck out further.-
-All of a sudden one of the creatures appeared in front of her which sent her reeling backwards. She screamed loudly and turned on her heels to run in the other direction. Quickly realizing this was a mistake as the rest of the group was still behind her. She looked for an escape but found none as the creatures surrounded her.- “Please, please, what do you want? I did no wrong. I’m sorry I touched the mushrooms it wont happen ever again!” -The creatures laughed with demonic voices before the darkest of the group spoke.- “It was never the mushrooms you ignorant fool.” -Before she had a chance to speak the creature grabbed her and smashed something hard against the side of her head. It had knocked her unconscious quickly.-
-Her eyes fluttered open and she groaned at the pounding in her skull. She tried to lift a hand to her aching head when she realized she could not. She had been tied down to something. Once she finally managed to get her eyes fully open she looked around and realized all of the creatures stood around her, watching. She tried to scream but the pain in her head was to much and prevented her from doing so. She didn’t know what to do so she began to struggled against the restraints that had her tied down. One of the creatures approached her and harshly pinned her shoulders down against the table like object with its hands.- “There is no point in hurting yourself to try and escape. You will not get out of this until we choose to let you go.” -The creature said this but she refused to believe it. She spat these words in his face.- “Let me go or I’ll kill every single of you. Let me go right now.” -He simply chuckled at her attempt to frighten them before he spoke.- “You can try that if you wish but we both know it is a front.” -She growled at the creature. He simply chuckled once more.- “You should not be traveling in the woods alone. Now I will tell you why you are here. You see, our king has been looking for a bride and you are quite attractive so we decided as a group that you would be who we presented to him. It is a great honor.” -Her eyes widened at the words before she screamed one simply word.- “Never!”
-The creature untied her arms and harshly ripped her to her feet, the pounding in her head growing worse.- “The way I see it, you have no choice. Now we need to clean you up before presenting you to him.” -She struggled against the grip of the creature but realized it was of no use as he was stronger than herself. He threw her into a bathtub with her clothes on. A group of women surrounded the bathtub and nodded to the male as he turned on his heels and stated before leaving.- “Make sure she is clean and tastefully dressed, I will be back in an hour to retrieve her.” -She growled at the way he referred to her as some object. The women began to wash her. She knew she could not escape as there were a few guards left there. Though she was amazed at their respect as the kept their backs turned to her. She was washed and clothed in a dress. She scowled at the dress as it made her want to vomit. She never wore things like this and hated that it was on her. However, she had to act behaved to make the plan she had work. She allowed the women to brush her hair and apply jewelry to her. Once they were finished the creature that had brought her here returned to the room and grabbed her by the arm to stand her up.- “Well not that’s better. Lets go woman, you have an engagement for dinner.” -She scowled at the creature before she allowed it to lead her from the room.-
-She was lead down a few hallways before she reached what seemed to be the main dining hall. There was a large table set up with a single chair placed at each end. Far from each other, she was grateful for this. It seemed that their king was not there yet as the creature forced her down into one of the chairs and left the room. She contemplated trying to run at this point but knew she would not make it far. Reluctantly she sat in place and awaited their king. She heard a door open and turned her attention to it. The man walked in was obviously the king as he was surprisingly fairly attractive and wore a crown atop his head.- “Ah, glad to see that they have found me a suitor.” -She growled at him before responding.- “Not willingly and I have no intention to marry you. It was brave not to have me tied to this chair.” -He chuckled at her response.- “My do I love the feisty ones. I am well aware of how you were brought here and needless to say I most certainly approve of their choice.” -He looked her over before continuing.- “You will have no choice in marrying me because if I say you are well then, you are or you sit in prison being tortured for years until you slowly reach death. As for tying you down we both know you weren’t going anywhere because frankly you wouldn’t get anywhere.” -His answers only made her scoff as she knew he was right.-
-He took his place in his chair across the table from her. Clapping his hands twice servants would begin to bring out a large assortment of food and set it along the table.- “I wasn’t sure what you liked.” -He stated as a large grin came to his lips.- “I’m not hungry nor will I eat from your table.” -She said this, her voice cold and harsh as well as her eyes.- “Oh, you will, or it will be forced into your throat. I promise it has not been tampered with.” -She growled and contemplated testing him but decided better of it. Looking down at her plate she shifted uncomfortably in her chair before picking up her fork. She began to poke around the food before lifting a small fork full to her lips and letting it slide off the fork and into her mouth. Chewing on it for a moment she admitted that the food tasted good. Swallowing it she looked to the glass of wine that sat in front of her.- “The wine is also not tampered with. I would not let them spoil something so delicious.” -He stated while drinking from his own glass. She thought about it for a few moments before deciding she had nothing to loose. If it was poisoned she wouldn’t be sad for she would either die or not remember any of this the following day. Lifting the glass to her lips she parted them some. Taking a small drink from the glass she allowed the sweet liquid to slide down her throat. Before returning to her food.- “You will come to my chambers when we are finished eating so we may discuss your options of being queen.” -She nearly choked on her food at his statement.- “I will most certainly not come to your chambers you foul creature.” -He laughed at her before returning to his plate.- “Oh come now, your hardly have a choice in the matter. You come willingly or you get dragged by your hair. I’m fine with it either way.”
-She weighed the options as though she thought about being dragged but they both knew she was going to go willingly. She finished her plate and pushed it aside, he had finished long before her but had waited patiently. He now stood and crossed the length of the table to where she sat. Holding out his hand to her.- “Come with me.” -She stood from her own chair but did not take his hand.- “I can well walk on my own.” -He chuckled before turning and walking towards the door.- “Very well then, follow me.” -A guard appeared behind her so that she could not run so she reluctantly followed the male. He entered a room at the far corner of the building, instructing the guard to stay outside his door and post a few more incase I got and bright ideas. She smiled as this would not affect her plan in the slightest but she was complimented that he thought he needed more than one guard. She entered the door behind him but stayed a few feet away from him in case he tried to touch her. The male crossed the room as she had suspected and grabbed a hold of her arm before whispering to her.- “I am not going to hurt you. I have a plan, you see, I am trapped here. I was not king of my own will. I will help you escape but you have to take me with you. They have planned to kill me for years and I think their plan was to do it tonight so that you would be queen and they could over throw you.” -She was quickly confused at what he had said.- “Please explain what the hell you are talking about.”
“My father was one of those creatures and he was king. I had been trying to escape for years and once he passed away I was forced to be king of this dreaded place. I have been trying to escape still, this whole time, but they threaten to kill me. They want to run themselves and have been trying to find a way to kill me for years without anyone suspecting anything. I have to escape this place or we will both be dead by morning.” -He explained the situation to her and she nodded some.- “I will help you but do you have a plan?” -As she asked this he moved to a bookshelf. She watched as he pushed it to the side to reveal a portrait. Removing the portrait it would reveal a passageway.- “We can go through here. I have been working on this for years now, it is not completely finished and we will have to go through some of the castle but it is the best that I can do. If we run into any creatures whilst we are escaping I think we would be able to take them on. Either way it’s the only chance we have.” -She nodded in understanding before she moved her way to the passage. Grabbing his arm and leading him behind her.- “Stay behind me and stay quiet. If you die I’m fucked, I have a plan if we run into creatures and I need you alive for it to work.” -He nodded as she said this and they began to make their way through the candle lit passage.-
-She was thankful for the candles as they kept it light enough for her to see in front of her. No creatures could sneak up on her this way. As they continued walking they soon made it to the end of the passes which held a doorway just to the right of them. She inched the doorway open, instructing the king to be silent. He nodded as she did this. Peeking out from the doorway one of the creatures grabbed her rapidly by her hair. She screamed as he did this and she was forced down to the floor.- “Escaping are we?” -The creature demanded in a harsh tone.- “No no, the king is right there, we were simply returning to the kitchen for desert!” -As she said this the king came from the doorway and stood as if he belonged there.- “Leave her be this instance you are damaging my merchandise you big buffoon!” -The creature growled and quickly pulled a knife from a pouch at its side.- “I have waited years to do this.” -He lunged at the king and she scrambled to her feet and threw herself in front of the creature. The knife slid into her skin and she let out a harsh scream before falling to the floor.-
-Opening her eyes she realized she was still in the forest, sitting on the floor as she had been.- “Son of a bitch he wasn’t kidding. That whole thing was fake! I can’t believe it… It was so real!” -She stood from the ground of the forest and brushed off her form. Shaking her head she began to make her way back to her town. She wanted out of that forest and fast before it happened again. Running through the forest she tried her hardest not to breath. Though she had to breath every now and then she managed to make her way out of the forest without the high affecting her once again. Thankful for her escape she began the journey back home. After about an hour she saw the city and slowed down to a walk. Breathing heavily she entered the town and searched around for the man that she had met earlier who had told her about the forest. She found him standing where he had been the first time and she approached him. Waiting until she had caught her breath to speak.-
-She began telling him all about the king and the creatures. The story that she had hallucinated when she was in the forest.- “You weren’t kidding, that stuff is horrible.” -He had laughed at her remark and listened closely whilst she continued on with her story. His eyes got wide as he looked downwards at her shirt. She hadn’t noticed his gaze as she continued to ramble on. He simply held up and hand to her. She stopped as he did this and looked at him. He pointed at her shirt so she looked downwards. As she did this she felt her heart stop beating in her chest, for there was a single drop of blood on her shirt. Right where she had stated the knife had stabbed her. There was no other signs on her form, just that one blood drip on her shirt.- “Oh my god.” -Were the only words that escaped her lips as she stared blankly downwards. Unable to make sense of the single drop of blood that sat ever so neatly upon her blouse.-

Word count : 3,001

[Killswitch]

Approved, good job. I think ill have to try this one soon ^^

Rewards: 600 zeni, +3 SP, +30 to all stats.