Pink Rain; Part 2

"The hunt serves three purposes," Gua spoke as we walked through a meadow. Flowers dance in the slight breeze, while the openness of the area gives a sense of peace unlike the one in the city. I hear the flapping of wings above us but before I can react, and frankly because I feel no reason to, Gua raises her bow and fires an arrow. Moments later, a bright red bird with blue markings across its feathers falls into her outstretched arms, an arrow sticking from its throat. "One, food. And two, culling the monsters." She gives a wide smile, sticking out the bird for me to take.

It feels like she's trying to make some sort of a point, but I don't take the bird.

"Come on, this is a toxic glomeruloid, duhh. One prick of its beak or claws and your kidneys will explode."

"Unless you're of the superior platypus kind," Perretta chimes in from the side. She was crawling on all fours, sniffing the ground with her knife in her hand. "Aha!" She suddenly stabbed it into the ground, pulling out what looked like a really thick purple worm. While still wriggling, she bit into it, ripping off one of its ends.

"Ewwww, that's gross," Gua gives a smile. "But yeah platypi- platypuses- erm Perry's peeps are resistant to poison, but glomeruloids will kill anyone else. The barrier around the city keeps them out but when monsters mature, they usually turn into a much much scarier version of themselves. An adult glomeruloid is as big as a house and could potentially ram straight through the barrier, so we've gotta kill them while they're young. Like the triptobabies."

I listen intently, nodding every once in a while. "What about the third reason?"

"Hehe, glad you asked. That's to get materials."

"Materials?"

"Duhhh, how else do we make artifices, we can’t just count on finding them ready made like you. Lookie here!" Excitedly, Gua pulls the glomeruloid's beak out of its skull. It detaches with surprising ease, almost as if this was part of its functionality. "A new artificeable arrowhead! Already comes pre-packed with poison! But the real deal are the monsters’ innards. The more mature they become the larger their magic organelle gets. These can be used as power sources, but this one's too small to have a good one."

As we spoke and Gua kept shooting down glomeruloids, tossing them aside after plucking their beaks, Perretta kept digging out worms and eating them. I wanted to inquire as to the purpose of this act aside from feeding, but I decided against it. It looked like a fruitless endeavor to get cohesive answers out of her.

Stop.

We crossed from the meadow into a lush wood. But realizing that wasn't what made me stop. I felt something. A sensation of a flow of electricity in the air. Similar to Akkuiganna's magic. I look left. Nothing. I look right. Nothing.

Woodlands.

A step back. The sensation is gone.

The entire woodlands? No, I am unable to make that conjecture.

"All good?" Perretta taps me on the shoulder and I look at her.

I don't tell her about the sensation. This could be dangerous, but as even if this could be another dragon, possibly even a hunter, I fear the fact it might be an enemy and making them aware we know of them could carry consequences. People react with fear when found out. In addition I am more interested in prodding forward that potentially diverting our excursion. If I can find another dragon this one time I’m able to walk freely outside the house, maybe I can find further ways to explore this realm. Or even escape my maid fate. I have no connection to Gua's family. If anything, they're holding me back. I step forward again.

"Nothing, I just wasn't paying attention to the forest."

Perretta 'hmms' at me, scratching her fringe with soil-dirtied nails, but she eventually just shrugs. “Don’t trip. Pay attention, fartsman.”

//Excellent trickery, Chief. You could be a human//

Shut up, this is mostly your fault anyways, stupid overthinking system. If I didn’t have you, I’d already be telling Gua and Perretta about this. But for once, I am thankful for you as well. I need to find a way to fulfill my purpose. This world has to be wrong somehow. At the very least I could work to destroy all monsters and replace them with domesticated farm monsters. Anything but maid work for these stubborn dragons.

"Today we're hunting for nevrobelches. Reports said some had grown too large for comfort and nesting nearby. Bonus is, the meats off their backs are a delicacy and they have estra large magic organelles for monsters of their size."

"So we'll kill em good and get a big payout, mufufufu!"

“Is there a payment system for this?”

“Heck yeah!”

Gua and Perretta give each other a high five while I observe. The forest itself is similar enough to the ones on Earth, with the main difference being the flora tending towards blue colors, rather than greens. I see a few glomeruloids smaller than the one Gua shot nesting in the lush canopies, ripping the hanging vines and fashioning them into weaves with precision. This world is truly set up in a strange way. I find it difficult to believe this could have ever been the Earth I know. 2600 years for life to re-develop like this, and the entire atmosphere to seemingly change. And where is the sun? I haven't seen it once, despite the day and night cycle approximating Earth’s. Glomeruloids look nothing like the birds of old aside from having wings and feathers, but there is also the fact that all birds died out in the apocalypse. Could life really have repeated in the same manner? The development of birds was already a statistical improbability, so how could it repeat, especially in such an absurdly short amount of time. I had no data on this. I needed to find historic files on this realm when we got back to the city.

//Here they are.//

I hear a woman's voice but cannot pinpoint its location. It also doesn't sound like Gua or Perretta. I turn to the two after quickly scanning the area. "Have you heard that?"

They raise their eyebrows at me. "Uhm, heard what?"

"Mr Farts, I heard nothing."

Gua scoffs at Perretta referring to me as Mr Farts again, but I ignore it. I have bigger concerns. Could this be the surge of electricity I felt?

Gua exclaims all of a sudden. It is a surprised shout, leading to her pointing at something. Beyond a thick bush, barely visible, lays a furry mass. Large, twisted horns protrude from it in multiple directions, forming a sort of crown of thorns on its head, but most curiously, it appears to seep bright blue light, illuminating its surroundings.

Gua and Perretta stand on guard immediately.

//The realm of Einsell, the one and only cell still full of life. Bringing unsightly sins of old out of the Sky Butthole. Defiling the cell’s purity… We will not have it. Now begone, sinners-//

One moment, I am stood firm. The other, my entire body is sent flying from my blind spot.

"Maid! Watch o-" I hear Gua's voice through the blur of my systems starting to malfunction. My body slams against a warty tree a short ways off and I tumble onto the ground.

//Chief, Chief, bad news.//

What is it, stupid system?

//Combat module unavailable//

I know as much. As I open my eyes again, I find my vision has been turned upside down. I must have fallen at an awkward angle. I assess the scene, but I am immediately left without a valid system response. My panic module is set off, but my overthinking module remains silent. I have no answer and no reaction. I’m experiencing error after error. Input, output, everything. No response.

There is a creature. In fact, I find it difficult to describe it as a creature. It is a simple shape, pure white, like a star with four limbs rather than five, all of them bent and stuck deep into the ground, giving it the shape of a crippled spider. Its small body ends in a large head whose egg-like shape I can recognize from my days of cooking. Oh, and it easily towers Gua and Perretta at what has got to be the height of at least 5 meters stood up. Gua and Perreta have assumed combat stances with their weapons, but are also actively shuffling away from the monster. This monster’s body has no holes I can discern, aside from a gaping hole that fully comprises the front of its head, currently pointed in my direction. I see a pink light emanating from it, similar to the glow of that furry lump we saw beyond the bush.

I can only assume this to be a mature triptophage before it lunges at me.