Sallow's eyes fluttered the slightest bit, then stayed still. The little bits of grass and plants peeking through the floorboards started to die. It took a lot of will and encouragement from her for them to grow in the first place, and now that her power had been temporarily weakened, her hold over them had crumpled.
Greed gave her another poke. "Hey," he said, looking down at her face. "I saw you open your eyes for a second there." He poked her again. "Wake up. You can't attack us and then fall asleep right afterwards. We need answers. Mainly why you attacked us, and why you're naked in the middle of a forest."
"Don' touch me" she slurred, trying to open her eyes. "so tired.."
Behind her being drained, a self-loathing was burning for herself. Had she been alone so long and her power grown so weak that her first defense knocked her out cold? She was a disgrace of a nymph. No wonder her sisters had left her.
With a few deep breaths, she lifted herself from the floor, glaring at the creatures who were staring at her.
"This is my home. I don't have to tell you anything."
"Well, that explains why she's not wearing any clothes," Greed casually said, hopping to his feet. He kept his gaze on her. Tired of poking her, he instead turned to nudging her with his foot.
"No it doesn't," Envy protested, turning to his brother with crossed arms. "She just told us to stop bothering her."
Greed shrugged. "It's her home. Haven't you ever walked around your home naked when no one's there-"
He pushed his hand up against his brother's lips to prevent him from speaking. Sometimes he really wished his brother had an off switch. "Of course not. That's really weird and really disgusting." He looked over at him. "Besides, didn't you live with a bunch of chimeras?"
Another shrug.
He groaned. "Why are we related?"
Greed's mouth split open into a joking grin.
Another groan. Removing his hand from his brother's face and shoving it into his pockets, he looked down at the woman. "So you actually live here," he said. "Good. We've been looking for someone who actually came from this place. Where are we, exactly?"
Sallow sighed and stood shakily, pushing away the creature's foot. All the fight had left her, and now she was just mildly annoyed.
"I have no idea what this eyesore used to be before those pesky humans died off, probably by some sort of plague. All I can tell you is that I am cultivating it to be nymph sector 12 of NorthSea." She tilted her head and grinned, really just bared her teeth, "but that probably doesn't make any sense, does it?"
Towards the bottom of the stairs, Kendrik almost ran straight into Jaron. The fox stood just a step or two from the floor, staring out over the scene as his snout twitched. When Kendrik looked past Jaron, he understood why. The place was littered with withering vines and leaves, all apparently focused around a lady who sounded angry. If it weren't for her slurred voice, the hound would've understood her.
Aaand she was nude. Great.
Kendrik looked away as Lunis pushed past him and Jaron, squeezing them against the stairs. Lunis stepped onto the floor and crossed his arms. "So start explaining," Lunis said.
S'io credesse che mia risposta fosse a persona che mai tornasse al mondo, questa fiamma staria senza piu scosse. Ma per ciò che giammai di questo fondo non tornò vivo alcun, s'i' odo il vero, senza tema d'infamia ti rispondo.
"You don't understand," Sallow rolled her eyes and waved her hand, "I'm a nymph. I don't think the same way as you humans do. I don't think in geographical location as much as... through tree roots."
She shrugged and ran a hand through her hair, pulling it back so she wouldn't trip on it. It had been awhile since she'd adopted a physical form.
"This place is just a little project I've taken on to create more territory. And you all are trespassing, just so you know."
Greed and Envy looked over at each other. It was something that they had never encountered before, but it didn't sound impossible. The term nymph sounded vaguely familiar to both of them, but especially to Envy - he had frequented the library more than Greed ever had. Nymphs, in their reality, were the thing of fairy tales.
But apparently fairy tales were more than just myth in this reality.
Envy looked back at the woman. "None of us here are humans."
"Except the alchemist," Greed butted in, raising a finger and gesturing in Clarice's direction. "She's human the last time I checked."
"Except the alchemist," Envy corrected, rolling his eyes at his brother's comment. At least he was trying to be helpful this time around. "My brother and I don't know how we got here. I doubt the others do, either. We just woke up and came to this building to get a better view of this area."
"Frankly, I don't really care what you are. It's all the same to me. Fine." She crossed her arms and stared at the ground, "since I'm not strong enough to send you out by force, let's say that I help you figure out where we are, and how to get back from whence you came. Will you leave me alone then?"
She frowned at the dying plants on the ground and sprouted some new ones.
"I am very much a human," Clarice said. She didn't seem very affected by the stranger's nudity, apart from a slight red tinge to the tips of her ears. "I walked here because I needed a place to sleep, but I don't know anything about this place."
Lunis sighed. He didn't know what a nymph was, what trees had to do with this, or why he was trespassing. And, in all honesty, he didn't much care. The promise of getting away from here interested him much more.
"Yep," Lunis said. "I've got better things to do than stand here, and I'm not planning on coming back." He gestured to Kendrik and Jaron. The latter had just picked up one of the dead vines and was inspecting it with a small lens he'd pulled out from his overalls. "I guess these idiots want to go home too."
S'io credesse che mia risposta fosse a persona che mai tornasse al mondo, questa fiamma staria senza piu scosse. Ma per ciò che giammai di questo fondo non tornò vivo alcun, s'i' odo il vero, senza tema d'infamia ti rispondo.
"Okay, first things first, this building is empty- you won't find any answers here. The one place I can think of is some sort of temple on the edges of this dump."
She took a step and tripped again on her hair. Cursing, she stepped out of the doorway and glanced at the ground until she could find a sharp enough rock. Satisfied, she sawed the hair below her shoulder off and dropped the chunks to the ground.
"Better," she nodded to herself and then turned to the group, "alright, if you want to get out of here, follow me."
Raiden hopped down to the bottom of the stairs, holding Riku's speakers in his hand. "Naked people. Great." "Riku, your microphone is on. Also, I think she's a nymph. Not a human people." "Shush you." "Your mother," Raiden replied simply, leaving Riku speechless. "So, which way, tree lady?"
I'm cool as a cucumber Even if I'm in a pickle
Two possibilities exist: Either we are alone in the universe, or we are not. Both are equally terrifying.
Lunis scowled. He didn't like temples; they were scattered around in the jungle that he'd used to hunt in. Many of them had been hideouts for gangs and targets, thanks to their large size, number of hiding spaces, and avenues of escape. Nearly falling into long-abandoned traps hadn't been all that fun either. On the bright side, at least there were two people stupid enough to use as test dummies.
He headed to the entrance, followed by Kendrik and Jaron. "What do you think we'll find?" said Lunis, stopping in front of the nymph. Behind him, he could hear Kendrik trip over a vine and fall on the floor. Lunis ignored it.
S'io credesse che mia risposta fosse a persona che mai tornasse al mondo, questa fiamma staria senza piu scosse. Ma per ciò che giammai di questo fondo non tornò vivo alcun, s'i' odo il vero, senza tema d'infamia ti rispondo.
Sallow walked out, nimbly picking her way among the underbrush. "Records, for one. They might be able to tell us where this is geographically or what exactly happened to the civilization- interested?" She stopped for a second and listened, trying to use the plants as eyes into some of the buildings. "There are a few other locations that could be of use as well."
A person is more than their experiences, stacked up like stones... Our best moments are the foundations we use to reach for the sky. — Yumi and the Nightmare Painter by Brandon Sanderson
