29: A Laughable Prize

Tears kept coming. They wouldn't stop, though the reason behind them changed drastically. I told myself they were just because of the dust in my eyes. The air was thick with it. I shut them and waited for the dust to settle.

My petrifying fear finally released its hold on my muscles, letting my head and shoulders fall to the ground where the rest of me waited. The danger had to be over after that, right?

"D-damn… What just—? That… That was… What's a word for… beyond horrifying?"

A laugh got stuck in my throat and turned into a cough from the dust. The coughing continued until laughter broke free, then became a cough again. There was no reason for it. Nothing was remotely funny about the day's events. My laugh persisted and grew, transforming into an unstoppable force that shook my entire body.

Maybe it was because of how much I'd run, a physical impossibility for an out of shape nerd like me. I might have actually impressed my old gym teachers if they knew I had it in me. An absurd scenario played through my head of teachers using terrifying creatures to force students into record-breaking sprints. I imagined something goofier than the one about to kill me moments ago, of course. The twisted image of Fake Fabri and the sight of her gaping maw now permanently stained my brain—unavoidable nightmare fuel for the foreseeable future.

"H-hey! Do… ya wanna share… what's so… funny?" A familiar voice spoke through ragged gasps.

It IS her!

She literally flew to my rescue, oversized sword in hand, like a superhero or anime character made real. What did I do? I laid there like a chunk of stone, not even a damsel in distress.

"Ya can get up now… little Skyler."

She's back!

I opened my eyes to see her leaning over me. Seeing her alive was the answer to an unasked prayer. The twin-tipped sword supported her weight like a crutch, and the tips sank into the soft ground of the embankment.

"F-Fabri! Fabri, you're alive!"

Blood, sweat, dirt, and fluids that must have belonged to the creature covered her from head to toe. She was clearly worse off than me, yet there she was, offering a trembling hand to help me up without even asking me why I ran from her.

"Course I… am. What? Ya tellin' me…? Did ya think I…?"

I grabbed her hand, and she pulled me up with a grunt. The moment I was upright, I pulled her close and hugged her with a tight squeeze neither of us expected. Fabrienne wheezed and winced from a sharp breath in.

Wait, what am I doing?! Stop it! Suddenly realizing my actions and our proximity after the fact, I shoved her away without thinking it through. In my haste to separate from her, I knocked her off balance, nearly throwing her to the ground. Idiot!

"S-sorry!" I blurted out. Strands of slime stretched between our bodies, dripping to the ground as they broke. "Why did—? You saved… Are you alright? Do you need—?"

"It's nothing," she chuckled. "I've… been worse." I saw her wince again before turning away to avoid eye contact. "But ya shouldn't have run off!" Her words stung, and I froze. The creature said the same thing. "Things… could've been so much worse for… for you and me, little…"

Fabrienne shifted her weight to the sword and took a step. The blade quickly sank deeper into the soft ground, making her stumble. I reached out to return the favor and stop her from falling.

"What are ya doing?!" She twisted abruptly, avoiding me while taking a step away.

"I…" Did she do that on purpose? "You're really okay? Are you… sure? Here, let me help—" I moved towards her again.

"No!" she scolded.

"Sorry. I—"

"I-I told ya, this… It's nothing! Got it?" I heard the strain in her voice, obviously a lie. She forced another hobbled step to get away from me, letting a grunt slip out. I moved behind her to follow at a distance. The least I could do was catch her if she fell. After some deep breaths, she limped a few steps more and focused on the creature’s body several meters away from us.

Deep crimson stained Fabrienne's shoulder piece, coating her harm and dripping to a growing puddle on the ground. Not only that, there was some gunk matting the fur trim of her leather armor, now shredded and torn in many spots. She must have been through hell after I abandoned her, but it didn't prevent her from coming back to save me. Her cheeks flushed with redness under a mask of grime as I watched her.

Fantastic. You've pissed her off again already, dumbass. She doesn't want 'your' help, get it? You're the reason… Wait. Is that… her blood, or…?

"She sounded so much like—" Fabrienne flinched before I finished speaking. "W-what is… it?" I looked at her mangled twin. Fake Fabri's bladed arm twitched, and I almost leapt out of my skin.

I… abandoned her to face… that thing… alone? Wow… I really am a worthless piece of—

"Versipur…" she muttered, then spat at the corpse.

"Versi…pur?" Eldritch Horror seemed a more appropriate name after my close encounter. Despite countless years of diving headfirst into games and fantasy books, I'd personally never heard of something like it.

"A twisted… mockery. I thought they only existed in… stories, myths, legends. Most folks call them Mimikith," she explained. Her voice remained low. "A-an old fable… told to scare young… They’re not just… Ya can’t… They actually get in your head, somehow, and… It’s more than resonance. They know ya better than—" Her grip tightened on the sword. "Why simply wait around, mimicking an… unsuspecting thing when ya can hunt your prey by standing beside them, lowering their guard, and getting in close to savor the—? It should've stayed hidden… long forgotten."

"Mimi…kith?" The name was just as foreign as the other one she used, but my brain chose that moment to glitch out and latch onto the unintentional spit of how I pronounced it. "Mimic Kiss?" A nervous laugh escaped, and the memory of Fake Fabri getting intimately close to my face trampled through my head. Shuddering, my legs nearly dropped me on my ass. I shook my head to wipe away the image. "N-nope. Ew…"

Fabrienne's shoulders flinched.

Stop… talking.

"N-no way. Not looking like that."

She flinched again with a squeak.

You’re STILL talking! Why?!

"Kiss? Maybe a kiss of… death. Yikes."

Another flinch, this time with a sound like a boiling kettle.

Enough! Quit the verbal diarrhea, dammit!

"Am I… Am I right? Well, maybe if she didn't go all… 'Creep Show' with that massive… face… m-maw… thing?"

What's wrong with you?!

Fabrienne's shoulders were practically up to her ears. She was almost vibrating, and the redness on her cheeks deepened.

"Kith!" Her body went rigid. She spun back to face me with a fire in her eyes that made her look more dangerous than the creature had. "Kith! Ya got it?! Kith, ya dolt! Mimi-KITH!" She yelled with fury. "It… It means… friend, or… " Her voice cracked, instantly drowning her fury with sadness. "Or a… companion. Do ya understand now? It wears the face of someone ya… trust… and… and manipulates—" She cut herself off as her breathing became sharp and shaky. "This… It's not… They aren't a… a joke… to laugh… about."

"S-sorry. I didn't—It just… slipped out…" I mumbled, feeling about two inches tall. "I… couldn’t… stop."

I stood there like an idiot, silently waiting before daring to speak again. Only when she stopped shaking did I figure it was safe to ask about what happened after we separated, both in the root pit and then during our escape. There was little I could pry out of her, but she told me what felt like a vague summary—the bare minimum.

Apparently, she shot the thing with pallumb cap skewered arrows to create the diversion she used to rescue me. After I ditched her, it sought revenge for being drugged with those damn glowing mushrooms. Using her form, the fight was fairly even. Thanks to her unique stature, it savagely used the same ninja-like agility and strength I'd seen her showing off and turned it against her. She refused to tell me what it looked like before, advising I was better off not knowing.

Even though she was upset with how I left, she emphasized how much of a liability, or nuisance, I'd have been if I were present for the attack itself. My disappearance was a blessing in disguise until it left her for dead and returned to the hunt. Her duty, and a large helping of adrenaline coursing through her, gave her the strength to pursue it and protect me regardless of the injuries.

"B-but why mimic… you?" I immediately regretted my question. She was more likely to take it as an insult or accusation than anything else.

"Because—" A flicker of blame crossed her gaze. She turned away and lumbered towards the body. Beside the creature, she dropped to her knees and reached into the still gaping mouth to fish around for something. "It'd be foolish… to copy… prey."

Ding! Ding! Ding! Congratulations! You were the prize all along. Of course, I was the target. It practically admitted—Oh, no! Did she hear what it said about… about me? What was it? Something about a smell? Yeah, the smell of something… pitiful, an unimpressive coward.

Most of the rambling rant went over my head. My key take away was that I reminded it of someone or something it once feared, but I was nothing except a pathetic comparison. No surprise there.

"I really don't know, but it… must have sensed a… trust between us. Don't know where it got that idea. I must've been the only choice, being the only one with ya. Haven't a clue why it wanted ya, though. Can't sense—" She stopped herself from verbally finishing her thought, but I recognized the non-resonance jab. She didn’t need to say the words. "Maybe ya just smelled like a tasty treat? Could be all those cyruba berries ya ate. They might’ve made ya taste just as good, aye? Nysh only knows how many of those things ya ate out there to make those luterrum roots anywhere close to appetizing."

Battered, bruised, injured, hobbling along, and she could purposely make a joke about the entire thing? Maybe it was just payback for what I’d said about the kiss, but that didn’t change the fact that everything happened because she wasted her time by putting herself between me and her disgusting double instead of saving herself. I didn't know how to apologize or thank her, but somehow she simply moved on like the whole thing happened daily.

How?

Fabrienne laughed to herself, still kneeling beside her mutated replica and rooting around its squelching innards. Something inside made an audible pop, even from that distance, and she pulled out a gooey prize.

Whatever she took from the versipur's corpse caused it to decay, rapidly turning the body into a putrid puddle of bubbling slime. A new stench wafted over to me, somehow worse than before.

"Hmmm…" She inspected the thing and grinned. "Aye, this might actually work for… Thanks a bunch, Sweetie."

I shuddered as soon as I heard the word come out of her mouth. The way she said 'sweetie' was anything but sweet.

"Um… C-can you… not?"

"Hmmm? Not what?"

"Please… don't say, um… you know…that… ever again?"

She shrugged her shoulders, dismissing the disgusting irony. After cleaning her harvest by wiping it on her already filthy clothes, Fabrienne shoved it into her pack.

Unable to avoid the urge any longer, I puked.

"W-what did… urp… you take from… it?"

"Something that might just make this little excursion worthwhile, or maybe nothing more than a piece of trash. Not sure which, yet. C'mon then, we should hurry home."