Thief episode 11

[eva_02's soul]

The portal spit Garrett out into a small clearing ringed by a lush green copse of trees and shrubbery. He landed on his hands and knees, hearing the crunch of dirt and grass underneath his weight that he hadn't heard in what felt like an age. The anxiety he had experienced earlier had started to melt away and crawl back down into his heart as he rose from his position and looked around in mild surprise. This looked more like a clearing in a dense forest than a cave so many miles underground, there was something else too but even though he struggled to let his mind divulge it, he couldn't work it out. His eyes fell to the trail of angry red that had stained the peaceful green, and saw that the Pagan had run off down a passage up ahead. Cautiously, he ran to the entrance of the passage, and snuck down it. He had no idea where the mechanists would be, so he would need to be very quiet. grass was crunchy and stone was noisy, so he would have to be on his toes.
The tunnel came out into a large open cavern with many pools of liquid on the ground. The liquid gave the room a light blue glow, and as the glow hit Garrett's cheeks, he felt a feeling of warmth. Not fiery warmth, but more of a gentle warmth. The room was empty, so he quickened his pace to the other side. Halfway through, the thief stopped. A noise had just faintly come through his eardrums. He turned his head to investigate the sound, and saw that one of pools was rippling faintly. He ran over to the pool, quickly unclipping his rapier in case it turned out to be dangerous. The metallic feel in his hands made him feel a lot calmer in this place where anything could happen. Standing over the pool and looking into it, he saw that a small plant was resting on the bottom. It was barely more than a sprout. Garrett crouched down to get a closer look and as he did so, the plant began to grow. The thief's eyes grew slightly wider as the sprout grew to encompass the entire pool, and a long thick stem grew out of the middle, causing more ripples as it broke through the surface of the pool. Garrett jumped to his feet and immediately stepped back, unsure of what to do. A bulb formed on the top of the stem, and then an eye grew from it. A large, slimy, human eye. Garrett felt his jaw drop, but he was too busy staring deeply into the eye of this plant creature to do anything about it. The eyestalk blinked at him, breaking the spell it held on a fascinated Garrett. He felt the familiar rush of adrenaline course through his body and without even realizing it his hand containing the sword swung up and sliced the stalk in two.
Garrett stood for a second, not too certain on whether what he just did was good or bad, when he heard more noises. A large eyestalk quickly grew from the pool next to him, towering high above him. That was enough, Garrett could feel his common sense snapping in his brain and before he knew what was going on, his feet had carried him out of the chamber as even more eyestalks grew to stare at his uncourageous exit. Eventually he stopped to catch his breath and waves of sickness stabbed through him as the adrenaline was ending its journey through his veins. He flung out his hand and gripped the wall to support himself, feeling a little weak as his mind worked hard to get him back on track. He looked in the chamber he was in. It was large, and this time the warmth coming across his pale face was the hot warmth of lava bubbling and seething in a boiling lake. Strange plants had rooted themselves onto some of the worlds, shaped like water jugs, and almost twice the size of his tallish form. The collection of bones and bloodied limbs on the ground in front of some of them confirmed their danger.
Garrett finally pieced everything together from the clues he had been witness to. Firstly, this was not the Maw of Chaos he remembered, at least not in cosmetic design. It was still a twisted, perverse funhouse but instead of an elemental feel this one held its domain in nature. /Can this place actually reflect the personality of the one in power?/ He thought to himself. That seemed to be the only explanation unless there really was two Maws of Chaos, which seemed doubtful. He stopped before running through his second conclusion, in case he was wrong, in case he wasn't ready to actually tell himself that she was here, but everything pointed towards her. The letter being addressed to V, the 'lady of nature' remark, the natural influences on the maw. If the Maw reflected the one in power, then the one in power here had to be-
"Viktoria!" Garrett felt the name escaping from his lips, and his hand gripped the rock wall so tightly at the sound of it that a chunk broke off in his hand. If she was here, Garrett was going to find her, and then he was going to kill her. He felt his resolve strengthen, and that conclusion led into his final one. He wouldn't find any mechanists here. They were most likely all dead by now. If Viktoria could take one eye so effortlessly from him, then they would have no chance. He pushed on, trying not to concentrate on another though that entered his mind. If she could take his eye so easily, could he actually kill her?
He blended into the wall as he heard the first telltale snuffling of an apeman. It seemed to Garrett that there were still some alive, and they were serving Constantine's lieutenant now that the man himself was dead. Garrett took aim with his crossbow as the furred creature passed by the alcove he was in and fired into its back. The dart plunged silently into its fur, delivering its payload. The creature fell to the ground instantly, unconscious. Garrett stared at the body, he had come face to face with something from his past, and he could not stop the hatred from rising up in him as he thought about how much mud he had been dragged through in his life, through Darius, through Constantine, through everything. He kicked the body angrily, again and again, getting out of his emotions. Every blow made him feel better, and when he was done, he pushed the body into the lava fields. A half-smile crept onto his face as he saw the corpse sinking into the lava, and he felt ready to move on.
The next passage he found was a staircase. He walked down, keeping his eyes ahead of him at all times, until the scuff on shoed upon stone was replaced with a thump of shoes upon wood, and Garrett looked down. The stone staircase became a wooden one at the halfway point. Confused as he was, Garrett knew what it meant for him. He crept slower, so that the sounds his shoes made on the wood were less audible, until he finally reached the bottom. He was in a forest cavern filled with the largest, thickest trees imaginable. He stood in wonder at the immense trunks, the shrubs that bared those strange purple fruits that Garrett had so desperately needed last year. He looked up to see how high the caverns went, and saw a massive system of houses and walkways high up in the air. This must be where the Pagans live.
He looked around for a way up, and found another staircase carved on the inside of one of the trunks, spiraling up into the darkness. He climbed cautiously up, and examined some of the village. In one hut, he found more letters from Rodriguez to Viktoria, but they weren't of much concern to him. There were some patrolling apemen and Pagans, but Garrett knocked them out quickly and silently. The blood trail continued here now that the surface was highly absorbent, and Garrett followed it to another cavern, again boasting trees. This time, though, they weren't nearly as impressive, dead and dying, and covered in blankets of snow and frost. He was in winter, which meant that he had probably just left summer. He continued on, until he came into autumn. At least, he was fairly sure it was autumn by the colours of the leaves on the trees. There weren't many trees in The City, just ones the officials had placed there to make certain areas look better. Even they had been dying out lately though, as more and more industries were springing into existence. However, he had seen enough trees in his life to know the red, extravagant colours of autumn. The blood trail had become very patchy, as if the messenger was running out. Garrett frowned, the messenger was single-minded. He ignored every distraction to bring his message to his leader. It seemed Pagans were as bad as keepers in that single-mindedness.
He crouched down and crawled through a hollow log that connected autumn to another cavern. The chirping and cackling of strange animals flew through the cavern, as befitted the rich, new life of spring. Garrett got up, the knees of his outfit now stained green through the dew and grass. He snuck from tree to tree, following the blood trail but not really wanting to meet any of the creatures that made those noises. The blood had become barely recognizable now. Garrett looked into a well-lit clearing, and saw that the trail had permanently ended. The Pagan lay on the ground, his eyes closed and peaceful. However, the rest of his face betrayed his pain. It was locked in a final grimace, as he lost the last little bit of his life. The message lay on the ground next to him; he had been loyal to the end.
Garrett walked forward, not sure on what to do now that his link to Viktoria had been cut. He knelt down to examine the body further, just to waste time while he tried to build together a new plan. Just then, he felt a thud behind him. His reactions flew out ahead of him, and his rapier was in his hand before he had even turned around. The corpse of a mechanist had fallen from one of the trees, an oozing hole carved into his stomach. Garrett jumped back as another body fell out of the tree, and he almost tripped on the messenger's corpse as he did so. Regaining his footing, He walked over to the bodies and looked up, trying to see what made them fall. The branch that they had been skewered on was moving, sliding back into the tree. Just then, the entire forest seemed to move closer together, closing in on him as the realization dawned that he would not find Viktoria, she found him first.
He tried to escape the clearing, but a thick wall of vines came together and stopped him. He hacked furiously at them to try and get them to separate but to no avail. As he cut them down more would replace them. He would not give in though for fear was lending him wings. He hacked and he slashed futilely until an all-too-familiar voice resonated behind him. “Garrett!” It screamed, and Garrett spun around to attack it. All of a sudden, a thick multitude of branches and vines slammed into his stomach and chest, pinning him to the trunk of the nearest tree. His sword flew from his hand onto the mossy ground, and Viktoria stood before him.
Her eyes were pure red, and her thick black hair went down to her back. Her tree-bark like skin stretched and contracted depending on her movements, but Garrett wasn’t concerned about that. He was concerned about his survival, which wasn’t looking very good in his present circumstances. “Who do you want to fight Garrett? Me? Or my sycamores? Or perhaps my Elms?” She asked, pointing to all of the trees in turn. Garrett groaned in discomfort as he uttered a reply. “Just you!” he said, before feeling the vines crush his chest even further. Suddenly, the vines relaxed a little and Garrett fell onto the ground, taking in heavy gulps of air. “you wish to fulfill your selfish little dreams while my children wither and fall dead around me. It is as I suspected.” Viktoria muttered, turning her back to Garrett and looking at the dead Pagan messenger. Garrett was about to say something harsh as the emotions again threatened to consume him, but his memory of her weeping stopped him. He had always allowed his mind to see every enemy as a monster, evil and cruel. He had not been prepared to see one cry, and now when he was here standing right behind her, able to say so many things to her, to destroy her emotionally, all he could see were tears on the ground, and all that came from his lips was silence.
Viktoria continued talking to Garrett, while vines reached around the body of the messenger and formed a grave mound over him. “I have read Lt. Rodriguez’s final letter, as I’m sure you have even though it was not yours to read.” She said softly before turning to the thief “She believes we would make good allies in this war you find yourself involved in”. Even though he was not sure if he could tell himself to kill Viktoria, Garrett felt pretty sure that he could tell himself not to join her. He was sick of being a third party to everybody. “No” he replied, his face turning into an angry frown. “Selfish fool! What if I wished to avenge the death of a man who was like a father to me?” Viktoria yelled, her pitch rising as the nature seemed to blend together around her. “You’ve seen how easy it is for me to crush you!” Garrett tried to retreat but stopped when he felt hard bark against his back. He was one big conflict now. Hate fighting fear fighting fascination. Her mention of losing a father figure had plunged into his heart, bringing up images of Mephisto and Darius. They had been lost because of this man, whoever he was. With Viktoria’s power behind him he could be a much more intimidating figure to this mysterious foe, but would Viktoria stab a knife into his back at the first chance? He shivered involuntarily as he realized that that was what he would do.
“Garrett, please! I have struggled for a long time to put aside my prejudices towards you for this, and I have succeeded. I know it is possible for you as well, no matter how much you deny it to yourself. Now do you agree to work with me?” Viktoria asked, an almost pleading tone in her voice. Garrett still wasn’t convinced as he stepped over to her. “I… I’m not sure…” He replied, thinking his possible responses through very carefully in his mind. Viktoria held her arm out, and bracing herself for the pain quickly turned the fingers on her other hand into claws and stabbed it. She let out a cry as a yellowy-orange liquid seeped out, falling onto the ground. Garrett watched in horror as the blood seeped into the ground, steam rising from it. “I have made an oath with the earth, I would be cursed to break it. Now do you agree? Do you agree?” She asked, her expression pained as her actions caught up with her. Garrett couldn’t think of any other options. He felt mesmerized by what she just did, the image of her blood soaking the ground. “I…agree…that…” He started to say, before Viktoria interrupted him by grabbing his arm. He felt a wave of pain searing through his body, and then he saw his blood soaking into the ground from a deep cut on his skin. Steam once again rose from the ground as he blood disappeared into the earth. “Good” Viktoria said. “The Earth keeps your promise for you!” Garrett looked up at Viktoria as she let go, and wondered just what he was involved in as he picked up his sword and followed her out of the clearing.

To Be Continued

[Cetacious]

That's just what I already knew would happen. This is getting predictable. No new ideas showing up yet, just a slightly different but quite less interesting shots of the old ones. Something smells like sequel.