Being The Little Guy.

by **Archailist** on February 27th, 2014, 8:54 pm

54th of Winter, 513.

Continued from here.

After that fateful night two days ago, he'd thankfully been allowed to go home and think over what he'd seen. However, nothing had happened. Nothing bad, anyway. He begun wandering if the two monks were just joking - playing some strange prank to punish the squirrel for fooling them and escaping them. An for going outside in the middle of the night and breaking curfew on purpose - not once, but twice. However, that went against everything he knew about monks. They weren't ones to joke, and if they were, they certainly didn't look like they'd been joking. They looked dead-serious, and they looked nearly afraid at what they'd heard. They hadn't even seen the Lady in Purple, but they'd been scared. And these were monks - the people that spent many, many seasons of their lives, and often their entire lives, in this city. People that should have known the city inside and out, and people that should have been used to the occasional odd occurrence. Not to mention, that these monks spent a significant amount of time training their bodies. All of them had significant skill in combat. Those were multiple good reasons that they shouldn't have been scared.

And yet they still were. And if the monks were scared, then the squirrel was definitely scared. Not scared enough to investigate, though. Not scared enough to still go out in the middle of the night to investigate what was going on. But this time, he wouldn't get caught. He'd be more sneaky.. he'd go about his business on the rooftops, and the rooftops only. He wouldn't venture to the ground unless he was certain that he could see something suspicious going on. He'd keep to the Celestial and nowhere else, since that was the one place practically hanging on the Aperture itself. If the strange monsters and women dressed in purple clothes were going to turn up anywhere in Nyka, it was going to be around these areas. Heck, he'd even seen the Lady in Purple on the bridge leading from the West and into the Celestial. He didn't even need to explain what that said about the place.

As the monks began their final rounds and the civilians of Nyka moved off and out of the streets, in favor of the comfort of their own beds, the squirrel wedged a small rock against the window of his room, to keep the thing open. He'd need to return to it after he'd done his investigations. And he'd need a place to escape to. As far as he knew, these creatures.. whatever they were.. didn't make it inside buildings. Otherwise there wouldn't be a curfew, everyone would just move to another city instead. Therefore, if anything happened, he would return to the Hostel. Anything that he wouldn't be able to handle, anyway. He didn't know what he'd be seeing tonight but that didn't really matter, as long as he saw it. As long as he discovered what was going on in this damn city, and what these monks were hiding from everyone else. And obviously they were hiding something. They knew about the Lady in Purple. They knew about the Aperture - they knew about everything and yet they never told another. Therefore, they were withholding precious and possibly vital information from the rest of the citizens, and the rest of Mizahar.

He was going to get down to the very bottom of this. When there were only monks wandering about the streets, he begun his steady journey towards a suitable perch to watch over the majority of Nyka. He kept a careful watch on the streets below and around, in case a monk walked around a corner. Over his journey, he found himself frequently pausing to duck behind corners and away from view - but that was a good thing. The Lady in Purple had only appeared when all of the other monks strangely vanished. So, he would use them as an indicator for strange occurrences. When the monks disappeared, it was time to prepare himself. No freaking out like last time. No screaming and yelling. He was going to do this. He was going to build up the courage to face these monsters and find out exactly who, or what, they were. And he was going to punch that Lady in Purple right in her face. If she had a face.

by **Archailist** on June 15th, 2014, 6:37 pm

My Words | Your Words | My Thoughts

It didn't take that long for the squirrel to find a decent place to sit down and watch the rest of the city. Perhaps it was just because it was pretty easy to see around the city without the blaring light of Syna blinding you all the damn time. Still, once he found the highest spot on the highest building - excluding any of the constantly-guarded government buildings - he perched on the spot with his legs and arms all gripping the same anchoring point. Most of his balance was retained by his clay shifting subtly until it took absolutely no effort to maintain his position. The remainder came from his tail, that swayed steadily behind him and used its weight to constantly make tiny and unseen adjustments to his balance. He loved that tail for so many reasons, but perhaps it was his balance that made him love it most of all. Not to mention the fact that when he finally got bored of leaving it hanging around behind him, the squirrel decided to wrap it around the narrow anchor point - and just like that, he was perfectly sturdy.

His eyes kept a constant look-out, and since he was perfectly still, he could actually be mistook for a regular statue in the poor light conditions. The few monks wandering about the street never really bothered to look up - and those that did stared right at Archailist and never showed any signs of surprise. They just continued walking steadily about on separate tracks, never really saying anything apart from when two of them met up. Occasionally one would cross a bridge but that was all that there was. Never anything interesting, particularly. The squirrel was almost disappointed with what he'd been given. One day, plenty of strange goings-on, monsters and creatures from beyond this world. And a few nights later, utter silence. He was beginning to wonder if he'd be spending the entire night perched upon the same spot in the city and waiting for a mysterious woman to appear, that he wasn't even sure was a real woman. In hindsight, it seemed like an utterly moronic adventure.

It had barely been half a bell before the squirrel finally tired himself out. But he wouldn't return to the Hostel. Not until the lights had crested over the Nykan walls once again, he wouldn't. He just needed to find a better place to station himself. Somewhere closer to the action. So, eventually, he hopped down from the perch atop the building and gripped the lip of the roof, before hopping up into the air and swinging his lower body over his upper body in a frontal flip. By the time his body had performed a three-quarter revolution, his paws released their grip on the edge of the roof and he practically flew backwards, straight against a ledge. Sometimes, it really was good to be a squirrel. Especially one that knew enough about acrobatics to make rooftop climbing easy. He never would have survived in Syliras if he didn't have it.

Regardless, once he'd slipped down to the lower ledges - which were mostly decoration for the buildings, rather than imperfections of the stone or the lips of the windows or door-frames - he finally made his way down to the ground quickly rolled over one shoulder to break away the last of the stress focused around his legs, and came back up on all fours from the forward-roll. Then, it was a short run from there to the nearest shadow-engulfed alley breaking off from the main streets. Just in time to avoid a passing monk that turned around the corner, down the street and right passed the alley he'd managed to slip inside. Damn, that was close. But also exciting. Which, overall, was still good. He just needed to make sure that he wasn't seen - and that if he was seen, that he wasn't caught. He wasn't spending another night locked indoors when he could be out and about, exploring the mysteries of the Nykan city and its inhabitants.

As he raced through the street, he quickly rushed around a corner and stopped just before it opened up again into another wide street. There was a monk stood at the end of the street but his back was turned to the alley. He was sure he could make it - but should he? Well, of course he should. How else was he supposed to make it around the city, looking for mysterious creatures if h couldn't even sneak his way around the monks? Of course, when he did rush, he had to be quiet about it - no clacking his claws against the cobblestones, and with as little noise as possible. Which meant going a little slower than usual, but that didn't matter. The monk didn't turn around, and the squirrel was free to continue with his patrol. The monks should have been happy any way, he was doing them a favour. He was patrolling the streets of Nyka, keeping their citizens and their monks safe from the strange beings that wandered about in purple robes and made bad things happen. Or so he believed any way. Why would such a thing appear only when bad things happen, unless it was the one that caused such bad things?

by **Archailist** on June 15th, 2014, 7:08 pm

My Words | Your Words | My Thoughts

When the squirrel finally rounded to the edge of the next alley, he was greeted by a rather profound surprise. He'd arrived upon the same patch of land - a courtyard, rather - that he'd always seen the Four Day Market occur in. The Celestial Square. And thankfully there were no monks in it, or even around it as far as he could see. He didn't take this to mean anything, because although the area was large, it also wouldn't be a place for monks to be milling about if they were on patrol for people breaking curfew. After all, the buildings surrounding it were all business and not residential. There shouldn't be a soul in the area and indeed, apart from the squirrel, there wasn't. However, he still shouldn't have spent too long in the place. He was supposed to be searching for the strange creatures from before - if anything, he should have been as close to the Apertue as possible, around the bridges. Not in the Celestial Square. And he was about to turn back and head off in those general directions, until he saw something glinting in the light of Leth. A beetle, of sorts - although it was a pretty big beetle.

Big for the Pycons standards, because the Pycon was as tall as the beetle was long. The beetle might have been a little bigger, actually, when he looked at it. A strange thing with fairly large horns sprouting out of the front of its face. Actually, large. Really large. To the squirrel, they were swords. Not because they were sharp, but just because of how big they were. As soon as he saw them, he knew he needed to get a closer look at this very strange creature. Thankfully it was in the middle of the Square, so he had plenty of room to move around the giant beetle to get an even closer look at its body. Mostly green and with an odd shell, it was something he'd certainly never heard of, or seen for that matter. Sure, he'd seen beetles that were big, but this one was huge. Probably big enough to cause a bit of damage to a human being, with pincers able to wrap around a good chunk of ankle and deal some damage. Even if that carapace didn't look that tough. One of the most important things, though, was that as the squirrel inched closer to the thing and begun circling it slowly... the beetle followed it. It turned to keep those huge mandibles always facing the squirrel, and almost seemed to be pushing them towards him.

It reminded the squirrel of an angry bull displaying its horns before it charged. Though, surely a beetle couldn't charge. Well, he was proved quite wrong there, as the thing suddenly lurched forwards into a stampeding run, with its horns braced and prepared to skewer the poor squirrel. In response, Arch quickly and nimbly leaped over the beetle and landed behind it. Only, the beetle followed him, and turned around sharply when the squirrel tried to get in close for a better look. He nearly got his arm taken off by one of those massive horns - maybe even both. And with the speed and ferocity of the marching beetle, there was little doubt in the squirrels mind that those large mandibles could actually tear off a bit of his arm. After all, he was made of clay - and though his total body mass was comparable to a brick, or so he was told - the individual parts of his body were rather weak and easy to remove, or break away. Like clay, really. With a human, it might cause a scratch or two, but for a Pycon, it could do some serious damage.

Not to say he wouldn't be able to restore the arm to the rest of his body afterwards, but there it was. He'd have to keep a close eye on the beetle, because even as he begun to inch back towards the alley from whence he'd came, he found the beetle following him. Obviously it wasn't hungry.. because, well, he was a squirrel made entirely out of clay.. but perhaps it was just being territorial? Of whatever territory it had? Or was it working in self-defense? He didn't know, and to be honest, it didn't even matter. The thing needed to die now.

by **Archailist** on June 15th, 2014, 7:32 pm

My Words | Your Words | My Thoughts

Indeed, the more he tried to move away from the beetle, the more it stormed heedlessly forwards and lashed out with those massive pincers. He found himself struggling to even keep up with them - jumping backwards, over and over, or simply directly over the beetle. And he couldn't keep it up the entire night, because he was already getting tired. He needed to start putting on an offense - after all, it was just a damn beetle, and nothing more. A few good slams and it'd crack and fall over, and all would be well again. And then he could really start looking for those strange creatures around Nyka. The next time the thing rushed forwards with both pincers ready to crash into the poor Pycon, he ran towards it a few steps and then leaped up into the air - up and right over the poor little thing. However, this time, his tail swung around and kept his weight low. And it kept his legs pointing down, as they folded up tight against his chest.. and at once, slammed down straight over the top of the beetle with all the force that the squirrel could muster.

Nothing. Not even a little crack. Nothing at all. As the force ricocheted back up through the squirrels legs, sending him back up into the air - where he performed a lovely little somersault involving his tail swinging quickly around in nearly a three-quarter turn, bringing his body to face the beetle he'd just used as a literal spring-board - the beetle rose once again from where it'd been knocked down onto its stomach, and turned to face the squirrel once more. And then, as he landed, the beetle rushed forwards in an attempt to catch the squirrel again. He'd barely had time to recover, but he quickly hopped back over the beetle once again, avoiding those huge mandibles as they rose to try and catch him, and once again slammed his feet down into the hard top of the exoskeleton.

This, unfortunately, repeated itself many times. As many times as the squirrel repeatedly slammed the entire weight of his body down into the carapace of the beetle, the beetle itself rose up once again and charged the squirrel. Of course he could evade the thing - and the more times he ended up ducking, weaving, and jumping around those heavy pincers, the more he began to understand the beetle. But that didn't make the whole experience any less draining for the poor squirrel as he struggled to kill the damn thing. Or at least cause it damage. It just wouldn't stop. And the more the squirrel slammed himself down against its back, the more frustrated he became with the thing. "Why don't you DIE?" he nearly yelled at it before the squirrel charged again, at the same time as the beetle. Of course, once again, those heavy mandibles swept high and missed, because the squirrel was already behind again. But he was really getting tired of it. So when the beetle swung around to try and catch the squirrel in a swipe, he jumped neatly over them like a hurdle, and landed at the side of the beetle.

Here, he spread his arms and charged as fast and as hard as he could, suddenly slamming into the side of the beetle. His arms tucked underneath the thing and his paws found purchase on the bottom lip of the exoskeleton - he could only guess that there it held its wings, but for whatever reason it held these wings was beyond the squirrel. In all its combat, it'd never seen the beetle rear up and fly away - nor use the wings at all, for any strategic advantage. And now they would be its disadvantage as its legs began to struggle, while being lifted off the ground. Slowly, and steadily, the squirrel tipped the beetle over until its weight toppled and it rolled over onto its back. And there, it was helpless. Its legs scrambled about comically and sections of the back exoskeleton tried to open to release the wings in the hope that it could fly away or right itself, but it wouldn't work.

It even swung its heavy head around but that provided nothing. They were in the middle of the Celestial Square, and there was no building and no purchase to use for the beetle to right itself.

by **Archailist** on June 15th, 2014, 7:51 pm

My Words | Your Words | My Thoughts

The squirrel felt absolutely no empathy for the beetle as it struggled helplessly on its back. None at all. Instead, he stepped forwards and clasped his paws together to make a double-fist, before slamming it roughly down into the middle of the chest of the beetle. Nothing. He pushed more of his clay into the fist, until his fingers begun to mash together into a seamless lump attached to his wrists. He could even feel the weight pulling on his arms, but it was worth it. He raised both paws over his head once again, and slammed it down against the carapace a second time. And this time, it was hard enough to do at least something. He could tell because the beetle begun thrashing even more violently, trying to roll away. But he still had no purchase, and so the squirrel repeated. Over and over, slamming the massive weight of his fists down into the center of the beetles chest. It took many tries, and many attacks. His paws felt completely numb and the figure was becoming deformed.

The clay that made up his fists soon squished and compacted itself into the rest of the mass, and even that was becoming loose. But, he could see something. Imperfections in the carapace that weren't there before, that soon became little dents. Dents that turned into cracks, that spider-webbed over the particular spot that he'd been mashing for goodness-knew-how-long. And these.. eventually snapped away, with one last, solid crack. The carapace split and a hole formed, small but exploding exponentially with a few slams of his separated fists when they reformed from the singular mass. The beetles thrashing finally stopped, and he could see some strange ichor flowing out of the wound. He didn't dare touch it, but it mostly just pooled around the particular area.

Only when the beetle fell completely silent and several long seconds were sent in awkward quiet, the squirrel slumped back and sighed heavily. He was exhausted - the carapace of the strange beetle had felt significantly stronger than anything else he'd come up against. It was almost scary how much damage the thing needed before it would give. But, perseverance had proved its worth on that day, thank goodness. He could have been mauled and split in two by those huge horns at any moment. Of course, though, while the squirrel struggled to catch his breath, there would be monks. It started with one walking around the corner of the square and immediately stopping when he saw the squirrel. He could tell he would be in for a beating this time - after all, it was the third time in a row he'd been found breaking curfew. And when one monk was alerted, it wasn't long before a few others grouped together and moved towards the squirrel.

However, when they saw the dead beetle lying on its back, with its chest covered in the strange liquid, they all stopped and stared aghast.

by **Archailist** on June 16th, 2014, 9:36 am

My Words | Your Words | My Thoughts

More awkward silence. The monks all stared down at the huge beetle and the squirrel stared up at the monks. But by this point, the squirrel was incredibly tired and really felt like going home and curling up in a nice warm bed, where he could forget all about the weird bugs and people dressed up in purple, along with all the other strange things that went on in this wacky city. He'd be happy when he returned to Syliras and completely forgot about the place, if he could be quite frank and honest. Some part of him would miss all the adventure, there was no doubt about that.. but another part of him would like the fact that he didn't have to worry about dying at every possible turn. Being killed by manic cultists, or weird apparitions emerging from the Aperture, or weird creatures that looked like bugs but had an exoskeleton that couldn't be pierced by the strongest knight in the Order. "What're you staring at, huh?"

The monks all looked between each-other silently, before one eventually spoke up. They all seemed especially afraid of the giant wound that was still seeping odd liquids.. although the flow was slowing now, and soon enough it would stop entirely. Not because it'd run out.. mostly just because the stuff was coagulating around the wound and hardening once again. Hopefully not to the same consistency - gods forbid he would ever have to try and crack that shell for a second time. He'd be there all night. "... That's a Gesentke Beetle." It sounded like a really weird name but.. once again.. he'd managed to stumble across something that all the monks knew about and yet the squirrel knew nothing at all. What a surprise. Maybe he should have just stopped bothering with all of this, if the monks knew about everything and never even bothered to tell anyone else. He was about to ask exactly what a Gesentke beetle was, but the monk continued unhindered. "They live in the Aperture.. and are very deadly. Their poison can remove limbs.. and they are built like steel. Did you manage to kill that one?"

Well, now it was the squirrels turn to be astonished. He'd known that the thing was tough as all heck, and he knew that the thing was dangerous. But.. that it emerged from the Aperture was a significant surprise. After all, the only thing he'd seen from the Aperture before was the Lady in Purple and he'd been entirely unable to punch her. This was real, because it was dead. Lying at his feet and very dead. "Oh.. cool. Well, I guess that's one less beetle out there to cut off your limbs, isn't it?" The squirrel tried his best to act cool and lean further back against the beetle that had soon turned into a comfortable chair, but he still felt a little nervous, surrounded by a bunch of monks that were still staring down at him. Or rather, the beetle, and not the Pycon himself. "Guess... you owe me some thanks for doing it, don't you."

Some of the monks nodded dumbly, but others glanced between one-another as they muttered quietly. "You know.. there would be a lot of people paying good money for that beetle. They make excellent poisons out of the venom in its mandibles. And they make other things out of the wings and the shell too." Now the squirrel was really getting nervous, and found himself backing up against the beetle even further. Although, as he did, his arms wrapped around the large beetle and gripped tightly to the small pieces of shell that would once open to allow it to release its wings. Now they were handles. He wasn't going to let them steal this beetle if it was worth a lot of Mizas! He could sell it for himself and make a bit of profit out of it.. maybe even buy some more weapons to train with. Who knew what possibilities could be opened? He didn't even need to know exactly how much he could make out of a Gesentke Beetle's body, if monks were going to try and steal it from him to make the profit, then it was bound to be more than just two or three Gold Miza's.

by **Archailist** on June 16th, 2014, 10:31 am

My Words | Your Words | My Thoughts

Just as he'd suspected, the monks took little time enclosing the squirrel when they finally begun to make a move. They seriously wanted the beetle, but they weren't getting it. The Pycon wanted it now, and as he held the thing tightly with both paws, he turned and leapt off as fast as he could. Of course, being encumbered with a heavy beetle carcass nearly as big as the squirrel was himself and weighing probably the equivalent of a full set of plate armor - Pycon sized - made it much slower and more difficult than previously anticipated. He had to hunch over and use all four of his limbs to the best of his ability, with his tail wrapping around the carcass to hold it steady while he ran. It was difficult, but being a courier helped here. He was used to running around with heavy objects and parcels affixed to his body. This was no different.

Except for the small cluster of monks quickly running behind him - all of which were completely unencumbered and yelling different things at each-other. Apparently they weren't even interested in getting the carcass and sharing the profit between each-other - they were gabbling about who was going to get it. They were actually fighting over it, just like the squirrel had been fighting the beetle itself. Almost hilarious when he thought about it - and in that moment, he realized just how happy he was that Nyka was a big mess of four different factions at war. It meant that he could make a quick and nimble escape while the other monks argued and battled each-other over the smallest little things.

Eventually, with the monks slowing in order to yell even louder at each-other, he found a corner into an alley and turned into it. There was a lot of struggling turning corners without the aid of his tail for weight distribution but he survived it any how, at the extreme expense of speed, and ran down the narrow alley as fast as he could manage. Another corner and he was out onto a different street, and bolting down it before turning into the next available alley. He needed to cover as much ground as possible to escape the group, and hopefully they wouldn't get onto the roofs in order to try and find him. Then he'd really be screwed.. unless he got onto the roofs to. With such a heavy weight to hold onto while climbing, he'd struggle for certain.. but as he rounded the next corner, he found discarded wooden boxes left next to a closed door at the opening of a shop. Perfect. A quick hop up those few boxes turned them into a ladder for him to climb, and from there, it was a short jump to the upper lip of the door-frame. The entire experience became so much more difficult by the massive beetle held only by the squirrels tail, though.

Every ledge became harder to grasp, and he couldn't move one paw off a ledge for more than a second before it needed to find the next. But, steadily, he clambered up the building, from one perch to the next. From the door, to a small ledge, and then to a window-frame to climb all the way up to the roof. After that, it was a swift run along the lines of houses that stretched down either side of the street. Turning corners very, very carefully for fears that he might topple right off the edge of the roof, and always keeping an eye open for any signs of those damnable monks. Eventually, though, he found the Hostel again, and immediately hopped over the last remaining roofs until he could clamber up the side of the building and find his window. Still held up by a small pebble, so he could open it the rest of the way and clamber inside. Bringing the beetle with him.

He'd try to find somewhere to sell the stuff later. The body and the poisons and all the rest.

Continued here.