The Knights Gauntlet #
Chapter 1 - The Fool #
Our story begins with strange boy in a puffy outfit, wearing a mask and a bell cap without a single bell. Sitting at a table, across from him is a knight with folded arms, very heavy looking sword. The funny dressed boy draws three cards from a deck sitting on the table, rolling them over one by one. There’s a little drop of nervous sweat on the bearded knights face. The boy, focused, after all three cards have flipped over, he speaks.
“It seems you lost a loved one last week… and it seems to be hitting you harder in your home. However! Happiness is not out of reach! I see happiness, one that will last the rest of your life!” the boy says with a grand flare and intensity, “Take your children to the castle park today. There you will find your happiness!” He then throws confetti everywhere in the tent from seemingly nowhere. The man stands, arms still folded, dower expression. Suddenly his eyes water and his former expression melts away, clasping his massive hands around the boys gloved hand.
“Do you really think so, Hisoki?” the knight asks, tears flowing from his face.
“It’s in the cards! And my cards, do not lie,” The energetic boy nods after, assuring the knight
The knight plops down fifteen gold pieces on the table, fire in his eyes, “Alright, time to be the back my family deserves once again!” He runs out of the tent, Hisoki can hear his footsteps, smiling happily, picking up one of the gold pieces, resting his elbow on the table then his head in his free hand. Rolling one of the gold pieces down and in between his knuckles before scooping them all up and putting them away in a medium sized chest full of gold pieces. He puts the chest away and stares at his tarot deck, his smile fades and he sighs. He pulls his chair in to the clothed table and shuffles the deck. He then cuts it and rolls over five cards one by one. Each one… blank. Not showing how he feels. Not sad. Not happy. He checks his pocket watch which slides out from his long puffy sleeve into his hand
He stands and walks around his table to let the sunlight hit his watch, “Just one more hour… then its its time for this jester to become a knight,” his back facing the light, eminating from the tent, a figure soon darkens the opening and a very snarky giggle can be heard, turning to see a white haired girl in heavy metal armor. She carries two daggers on her left and right hips, making her way over she pulls out the reading chair and sits in it.
“So,” she says and leans forward, elbows on her knees, fists under chin. “Think you’ll actually try this year?”
Hisoki nods, “Yep! I’m going to walk in there and finally take those challenges head on!”
She chuckles, “Or walk in and come up with some excuse not to finally take the challenges.”
“Hey… My scrolls needed to be organized,” he says, looking down, playing with his fingers.
“And I could’ve used a partner like you to watch my back,” she says sharply.
He stops playing with his fingers and sighs, “I’m sorry, Nozomi… But, at least the cards said you’d become a knight, right?” The jester tilts his head, shrugging a little with his hands up
“Weren’t the cards wrong about you last year?” she asks, casting some doubt over his readings.
He nervously swallows, “Not exactly… I kind of… Lied about my reading,” he says holding the back of his head
“Oh?” she asks and leans back, looking over the blank cards on the table.
“My cards can’t show my future, nor can any Oracle…”
Nozomi jumps up from her chair, “Hang on… Only God-Knights futures can’t be read,” she thinks for a moment and puts her hand up. “You… You caused that Oracle to swallow her tongue last year!” she says pointing at him, quite shocked, “And you lied… and said she had some kind of disease affliction!”
He huffs and crosses his arms, looking away. “Look I didn’t know what happened to her at the time, I was going to heal her but the clerics shoved me out of the way and that’s when you asked me what happened… I didn’t know why my cards came up blank at the time so I lied to you. I was scared. So, that’s why I’m telling you now, because I found out why. How did you know she swallowed her tongue?”
“I asked one of the clerics after they fixed her, they explained that bad predictions could sometimes cause that and it’s nothing new.”
The Jester begins a hand stand, walking around on his hands, “I know that’s not true for me at least,” he says continuing not to address the situation in full.
“Do you think it has to do with your curse?”
“Yeah… That’s what I think,” he continues his walking around on his hands
She grabs one of his legs that are pointing toward the ceiling, “Look, I know you don’t want to think about this. But this curse could be more than just a danger to you once a week, or some random Oracles,” she lets go of his leg and watches as he jumps back to his feet. “How are the nightmares?”
“Nothing I can’t handle, you know me!” he gives a little thumbs up with a hand on his hip.
She rolls her eyes, as she knows he’s lying. The truth was, his nightmares were getting much worse. “Hey, are you serious about being a knight this year?”
He stretches, “You bet, I’m going in there to win!”
“Good! Because, I know I missed your nineteenth birthday last month. Mainly because I had no clue where you were. I did some dungeon diving and found something,” she pulls from her magic satchel a saber, she removes it from the scabbard slightly, revealing a mirror polished saber blade. “There’s silver etched in the blade, lots of it, so it can handle most beasts.”
Hisoki takes the blade and scabbard, “Not magic,” He says, instantly knowing just by touching.
“Yeah, sorry, all of the magic items get confiscated after missions. I thought this one would be and I knew you’d notice it the moment you got your hands on it.
He slides the weapon in his belt and tightens it. “It’s perfect, Nozomi. I do have a question, who shined it?”
“Found it that way, the tomb I found it in kept it better preserved than the magic items we found.”
“I love it, and I’ll put it to good use in these challenges.”
“I guess that means you are ready?” she asks and opens the curtain to the tent.
“More than ever!”
Chapter 2 - Magen #
Making their way to the capital, they still have about thirty minutes to kill, so Nozomi decides to share some information with Hisoki. He’s got a spring to his step but she has to tell him so he doesn’t freeze up before The Gauntlet starts. “Before we get there, I have to tell you something. All of the God-Knights are going to be there.”
The jesters pace slows and stops, looking at her with a worried expression. “All of them?” he asks.
“Yeah, do you need a moment?”
He puts both hands on his hips,“Nope! I’m alright!” he presses on, reasures her.
She shakes her head, “You are really silly, you know that?”
Once fully in the Capital, they witness many performers, stands, and other sites for this event, Nozomi has already seen these, but Hisoki has never seen this big of a city being this active. The Capital has never been invaded beyond the first wall. All because of the God-Knights. The Capital is as big as four countries, its roughly ten million square kilometers of land with 9 rings of walls dividing up the land. The Capital is the center ring which is where they sit now, however the entire Kingdom has often been refered to as The Capital, the real name of the Kingdom is Magen
They both decide to get something to eat as they have more than enough time, Hisoki has to avoid eye-contact with the Oracles that are doing free readings. “Geez, why do these Oracles give away readings for free before these events?”
She sips on her tea while they are both sitting at an outside table, “A lot of people come here for this event, one just might be destined to become a God-Knight. If an Oracle finds one, they are given a wish.”
“What? A wish?” The jester, dumbfounded over such a reward.
“Straight from one of the God-Knights,” she explains, taking another sip.
Hisoki forking around with the noodles on his plate. “What else do they give out wishes for?”
“Great acts of selflessness,” she sets her cup down, putting her hands in her lap. “About two months ago, I was on a mission to deal with a necromancer in a large magic graveyard. If he made an army of wizards, the Kingdoms to the west would have fallen. He had already resurrected a very powerful mage and with that he attacked one of my partners on my team. I was hidden waiting for an opening but… I jumped out in front and saved him from a spell that would have melted him into nothing. I lost my arm to a necrotic spell and killed the necromancer by throwing one of my daggers into his head.”
Hisoki, hanging on every word, puts down his fork, “Well? what happened after?”
“While in the infirmary, I wasn’t able to be properly healed quickly. One of the God-Knights visited me and offered me a wish. I wished for your curse to be removed. He laughed at me… and walked away, the moment he walked away my arm reappeared.”
“You mean… they gave you what they wanted you to have, they never planned on giving you anything you wanted.”
“I’m honestly glad they gave me my arm back, though I am mad they didn’t even consider my request. I would have healed, but you?”
“Honestly, you deserve your arm back! I’ve been dealing with this curse for a long time, I can deal with it. You would have been suffering from healing for a week minimum.”
“I guess, but, there is some kind of favor I want to ask you.”
“Sure! What is it?”
“If you win, any chance you could join my team?”
“That’s not really up to me, is it?”
“You could try to impress my team with your abilities, maybe.”
“With what exactly?”
“I know you’ve been building up your magic abilities, not to mention your natural affinity with magic items.”
“Is it that obvious?” he asks, worried he might be read in these challenges.
“No, I just know you. How’s that Kobold anyway?”
“He’s fine, a little silly but he does what I ask.”
“A kobold that speaks common, that’s a rarity,” she says longingly.
“I told you I can’t just sell him to you,” Hisoki says standing up from the table.
“Shoot, thought I had you there,” she stands too and they both pay for their meals.
From there they walk to the entrance of a decently sized building, this is where they will part ways. “I guess this is where I go in,” Hisoki says putting his arms behind his back.
“Just, take it easy, and I’ll see you… Probably sooner than you think,” Nozomi says, giving a little wink.
“What do you mean by that?” He asks, as she starts to leave, giving a little wave while looking away from him.
Chapter 3 - The Deal #
Hisoki, staring at the building where he will be signing up. More than a thousand people have gone into this one building. “It must be a mad house in there by now,” he whispers to himself. He takes a couple breaths, “Just… stick to the plan,” he opens one of the two giant doors, the room he walks into is very small, no one in site except one person. He’s very tall, very thin legs. He resembles someone on stilts. Elderly, wearing white gloves, full tuxedo, and a top hat. He pulls spectacles from his pocket, placing them on his face delicately and bending his knees to get to eye-level with Hisoki. He sports a very toothy grin.
He begins to speak. “Excuse me,” his low voice echoes in the dark room. The only light coming from the window behind him. “I had to take a small break and had to remove my specs, are you a contestant?”
Hisoki, very troubled by this man’s awkward appearance. Barely working up the courage to walk in this building, speaks. “Yes, yes I am.”
“Excellent,” He lifts his long arm and snaps his fingers, a book appears in his hand, it opens and flips to a completely blank page, where a quill lay. “Please, sign your name here,” He says eagerly, Hisoki takes the quill that is already inked and writes his name down in the book. The quill vanishes and the book does too, the wall next them forms an archway, with a white barrier covering the entrance. “Make your way through there where the other contestants are. Feel free to talk, and eat; you have some time before it begins.”
Hisoki stands in front of the archway, taking some breaths and stepping through. The last room was nearly silent, this room filled with chattering, bustling, and so many people. It’s more like two thousand people have entered it seems. All of these people from different walks, different lands, Hisoki sees one guy sharpening a blade, they eye-ball the jester and watch him as he walks by along their little group snickering at him. One guy is lifting two girls directly on his biceps. Letting them sit there while they giggle. Hisoki hears a small whistle sound for attention. His head turns to some guy in a Cattleman’s hat. He’s… waving him over while he leans against the wall.
The jester has no clue who he is. But, not knowing anyone here; he decides it would be in his best interest to make some kind of ally here and walks over too him. He’s pretty tall, about 180cm, he has a pauldron over his right shoulder and several patches of armor on his chest and stomach wrapped in leather like makeshift arrow protection. His left arm covered by a long draping cloth. He’s hiding something under it. Something on his waist.
“Well, well, I thought I saw everything. You’re a first,” The man says gesturing to Hisoki’s appearance.
“I could say the same about you, that hat especially!” Hisoki says.
“This old thing?” he gives it a flick with his right hand, tilting it backwards. “Something my pops gave me,” He wraps an arm around Hisoki’s shoulder. “Names Vic, this’ll be my third time trying to become a knight.”
“Really?” the question just blurts out, as now Hisoki is faced with someone who’s had to retake this challenge several times.
“Oh yeah, its been tough every year, who knows, you might make it,” Vic explains, there’s a smell of ash on his breath from smoking.
Right after he says that Hisoki notices something, and crosses his arms, “I would like to continue this conversation, but first, I’d like back what you just took from my bag of holding,” Hisoki confronts him.
Vic laughs and pats the jesters back, “Holy shit, you felt that?” He reveals the item he stole in his off-hand. “Mind telling me what it is I even grabbed?”
Hisoki takes it back and puts it back in the bag of holding on his hip. “I’ll tell you, if you tell me why you need to steal magic items to win, is The Gauntlet that hard?”
Vic takes his hand off of the jesters shoulder, takes a cigarette from a little round container and lights it, taking a long breath of it. “Besides those magic items, can you cast spells too?”
“Oh, yeah I can, why do you ask?”
Vic looks directly at Hisoki, “Can you cast Counterspell?”
“I can, yes…” Hisoki says, raising an eyebrow.
“How many times?”
“I’d rather not say.”
“Alright, is it more than once?”
Hisoki pauses for a second, thinking about lying to him. But, decides not to. “Yes, it’s more than once.”
Vic takes another puff, “I think we can help each other out, these challenges need partners, doing this solo with any kind of handicap is asking for trouble, I can’t use magic. You seem to be able to just from what you are telling me.”
Hisoki looks around and sees what Vic is talking about, there are no actual ’loners’ in this room so far. There are people trying to find potential partners, friends, or have came here with friends. Now he realizes why Nozomi needed a partner which makes him feel bad for leaving her hanging in her time of need.
Vic nudges him, noticing his expression, “Hey, what’s got you down?”
“Nothing!” He says in a small panic, correcting his expression before asking him, “If I’m bringing magic to this, what are you bringing?”
He leaves the cigarette in his mouth before uncovering what’s attached to his hip, a leather holster and something metal inside. “This, is a device of my own makin’, I call it the peacemaker. It fires slabs of metal at incredible speeds using a new black powder mix I’ve created.” He then reaches in a bag behind him and pulls out something small and metal. “It fires these cartridges, devilvering death in a mere moment.” He shows the very small metalic cartridge right to the jester, rotating it, almost flaunting his creation.
Scratching the side of his face with just a finger, giving it some thought. “Wait… if you have this amazing weapon, why haven’t you won this thing yet?”
Vic sighs, putting away his ammunition. “I carry twelve rounds of these ‘bullets’ at a time. It takes me at least 6 hours to make 12 more. The metals for them are hard to come by and a little pricey.”
“So… You run out and half to quit early?”
Vic glares at him not wanting to admit it, but just nods while looking away from him.
“Hmm…” Hisoki thinks for a bit then asks, “The metals, are they gold or silver?”
“Uh, no. It’s lead, copper, brass, and… That’s it.” Vic explains.
The jester grins and pulls from his bag another bag. “This should fix that issue!” He says with the biggest smile.
“The hell’s a bag of holding going to fix?”
“No, no, it’s not a bag of holding! Take those ‘bullets’ out of your bag and put it in this one.”
“Alright, I’ll bite,” he does so putting all twelve bullets in the jesters bag.
“Set!” Hisoki says, tying off the bag. “Allow me to demonstrate,” He opens the bag and takes out one bullet, then he casts ‘destroy item’ which annihilates that bullet. Before Vic can say anything the jester taps the bag and says “refresh,” showing the contents of the bag to Vic, all twelve bullets are back inside the bag.
“H-How did… I don’t understand.”
“I’ve never had a use for this bag, it only has the ability to clone up to the same number of items placed inside of and set in it when one or more of those objects are destroyed and only once every hour using a command word, and as you can see… it’s small. Very small. So, I couldn’t use it for arrows or bolts.”
“So, you’re telling me you’ve fixed my ammunition problem?”
“Mostly!” Hisoki puts the bag in Vic hands and begins whispering some kind of incantation to transfer the ownership and attunement to Vic. “And now it’s yours. No one can steal it from you without you noticing it and no one can use it except you!” The little jester ecstatic that he actually helped someone with his ability.
“Damn, kid, this is really really helpful. I might even be able to do this solo now,” he looks down at him. “But, I won’t need to, so long you got my back with those spells of yours and whatever else you’ve got in your little bag of tricks.”
Things progress a little while Vic and Hisoki talk, but someone takes notice of the two of them together. This hooded, tall figure walks straight toward them both with someone about Hisoki’s height in tow. As they approach Vic, they unveil their hood and it’s a werewolf. Staring down at Vic.
Vic instantly looks at the werewolf as it speaks. “Vic! You came back this year. Crazy, really.” The werewolf says, looking down at him. Vic seems to not understand at all, what or who this is. The beast pats his shoulder. “Oh right! You wouldn’t know. I got bit not too long ago, man. It’s me, Augustus!”
Vic almost has to recompose himself. “Holy hell, Augy! What happened?”
“Keep up, Vic. I said I got bit.”
“Yeah but… Why do you look like that right now? Why not… You know man. In a few weeks.”
“Ah, right… Well… It seems I got bit the same time I killed the werewolf that bit me. So… I’m kinda just stuck like this.”
Hisoki, immediately interested by this. Can’t help but ask. “So you’re stuck with a curse no one can cure?”
Just then the person beside the werewolf pipes up.“correct, my brother will never know his mortal flesh. Save for a miracle.” She is dressed in a clerics nun-outfit. Constantly keeping her gloved hands together.she reaches out to the jest and places her gloved hand on his face. Over his mask. “Oh my… Something seems to have taken you too…”
Hisoki immediately pulls back, almost like he’s afraid of anyone touching the mask. The girl pulls her hands together. “I am sorry… I just wished to know the origin of your curse.”
The Jester, rightly short of breath from his panic. “I…” He take a breath and recompose himself. “It’s fine, it’s just not something I’d like to talk about.” He smiles nervously, kind of clutching his chest.
The Nun bows her head. “Maiyori is my name… I’m going to become a knight along with my brother here.”
The werewolf pats Hisoki’s shoulder. “Relax. If we take the first challenge together, we’ll be siding with you and Vic here. What’s your name anyway?” He asks releasing his grip.
“Hisoki, I specialize in… " But the moment he’s about to say it he looks around. “Actually… I shouldn’t say here. There’s a lot of people.”
Vic waves his hand. “Don’t worry about it. I already know and they’ll find out if we can team up.”
“Alright, well what have you-” as Augy asks this trumpets begin to sound. “Nevermind! It’s starting.”
Chapter 4 - The First Challenge Begins #
After the trumpets die down, on a very big stage, the same old man in the top hat appears in smoke. “Now that all of you have signed up, and you are all more than ready. I have something to give you all,” as he says that, he outstretchs his hands and beams appear from his fingers hitting each person to the right of their chest. There’s no pain, but instead a number appears there on everyones chest. “This is your number, pay careful attention to where you need to go when told to.” pulling his hands back and gesturing to the curtain behind him. “And these, are your God-Knights!”
Instantaniously, six people appear, all wearing very similar themed white and gold armor with accents of different colors. The first is a man wearing a white helmet that resembles an eagle with blue accents all over his armor. As the Helmet disppears and the mans white hair flows, the old man announces; “The First of the God-Knights, Nacori,” He says, and our little jester clenches his fist tightly in glglove to wear even Vic can hear small crunching sounds beside him coming from those gloves, seeing something akin to anger on Hisoki’s face, or maybe its glee. But, he chooses to ignore it for now.
The God-Knight, Nacori begins to speak. “I hope all of you make it this year, all of you deserve to defend your kingdom. Because this kingdom is yours. Not ours.” he then waits patiently as everyone applauds and yells, all except for Vic who looks back at the very silent jester.
“Next we have, Alaca, the Primary. Our Second God-Knight.” the old man says.
Alaca gives her small, regal response. “Charmed, and I hope the best for you all.”
“Isn’t she just modest?” tipping his top hat toward her. “Next, The Lion, Egalon! The third God-Knight!”
A bellowing laughter rings out from the Giant God-Knight, standing nearly 243 centimeters tall, Egalon speaks while throwing his massive weapon on his shoulder. “Show me your strength, all of you! Or you’re bums.”
“And our fourth? The Sliver, Wendy.” A very timid looking woman with only half of her face exposed by her dark hair, her armor only having touches of white in it.
“Um… Hi…” she says before backing up a bit.
“And our Fith and Sixth, the Twins of Chaos, Zaxi and Voxi.”
Two twins with opposite helmets that cover one eye but expose the other. “Hey! Weaklings!” Zaxi says in a very high energy voice. “Get out while you can.” Voxi says in a low energy voice.
“These, everyone, are your asperation. and I’m your humble guide; Tur,” the old man says. “In a moment the archways,” they appear as he talks, each one with two numbers on it. seperating those numbers is a dash. “Will open, and in there will be your group of 100 peoples’ challenge. no more than two people per team. If you decide to make a team that is. good luck to all of you.” and he disappears with the God-Knights, the archways aren’t opened yet. but they have appeared.
“Seems like you’re with me, Kid,” Vic says pointing to his number and then Hisoki’s. Their numbers are 224 for the jester and 252 for Vic. They both see the archway that reads ‘201-300’.
“A little lower or a little higher and that wouldn’t be the case,” Hisoki says putting a hand on his hip.
Vic shrugs “I’m pretty lucky when I least expect it.”
“Let’s hope that continues then,” Hisoki whispers, his heart beating out of his chest, “I can beat this in a week. I have to,” and with that the archways open their portals and every contestant runs through with reckless abandonment.
Upon getting through the archway they are greeted to an open field, beyond that is a tree-line. Everyone seems very confused, now that they are here, they are not sure what to do. Just as the muttering begins among themselves. A woman’s voice can be heard.
“Hey! Up here!” there’s a woman waving from the trees in the distance, she jumps and lands in front of the entire group of people. “Names Eta, this is my gauntlet,” she exclaims with out stretched arms. She reaches in a font pouch on her coat and pulls out a berry. “This is a mokoi berry. You have two weeks to collect a thousand of these berries. These will also be your only meal. Not to worry though; a single berry is as much as a thousand calories and yield an abundance of vitamins and necessities for a full meal in a single berry.” She pitches the berry in her mouth. “So, get going! Meet me back here when you have a thousand berries. You have two weeks to complete this task.”
Everyone bolts toward the tree line, including Vic and Hisoki, scattering like ants. Hisoki and Vic stay in a single area of the forest while everyone else scatters. “What are we doing?” Hisoki asks, huddled behind a bush.
“Not wasting energy,” Vic says. “Getting into the forest was necassary, but if we don’t have to run anymore than we have to, then we shouldn’t.”
“That’s really well thought out. And we have two weeks, which will give us time to find a water source and hopefully a group of berry bushes.”
“So you know these berries?”
“I’ve lived off of them for two months at one point while exploring.”
“Great, so we can both easily identify these things. I’ve never eaten any but I can identify any plant, poisonous or not.”
The jester looks around while Vic is watching the foot traffic in the area. “I think first we should find-”
“A water source?” Vic interrupts and points to a lake in a wide open part of the forest.
“Huh… Yeah,” Hisoki says considering the source of water. “I have an issue with the location. Isn’t it a little open?”
“That would be a good way to drive contenders into fighting one another, wouldn’t it? Like luring predators and prey to a watering hole.”
“I don’t have a solution unless I can find a stream that breaks off from that lake.”
“What do you mean?” Vic asks, kneeling and setting up a snare that could catch something as small as a rabbit or as big as a person, the wire he is using is as thin as possible but as durable as steel.
“Let’s find a stream first; if possible,” Hisoki reaches in his bag and reveals a forked dowsing rod. “This rod will point me in the direction of anything I want. I just need to concentrate on that something and I’ll find it.”
Hisoki begins trying to use the rod and it begins pointing away from the pond entirely, “Oh! Here we go,” he begins following it to Vic’s bewilderment.
“Not that I’m doubting your stick there… but, wouldn’t any old dowsing rod work to find water?”
“This isn’t your normal dowsing rod, and besides, this one actually works. As I said before; If I want it? I can find it.”
“So say you needed a toilet… Really badly, or the finest shot of whiskey.”
“It will absolutely point me in the direction of the closet one. Whether it be the toilet or the whiskey.”
“Huh… But then it could be three hundred miles away and you wouldn’t know it.” Vic voices his worries.
“Not necessarily. The lake is no more than a couple miles away and we could see it, it’s more than fair to assume that if this dowsing rod says something else is closer, that it’s less than 2 miles away, otherwise it would just lead us to the lake.”
“I was talking about the toilet and whiskey really,” Vic begins looking around while they keep following the rod.
“You mean you actually need one? Go use a tree!”
“If I do that while we don’t know what is out here, we could be attracting other contestants and animals.”
“Luckily, if we can find water, I have a solution for that.” Hisoki happily keeps walking with the rod pointing and leading them.
“Wait, with this rod we can easily find the berries.”
“Exactly, but we need a camp first, we’ll have more than enough time to setup camp next to water and look for berries before night fall.”
The two travel for nearly a mile, and in doing so find a steady stream of water from that bisects a part of the forest. It looks as clean as the lake, Vic promptly sighs. “Not going to lie, I thought that thing was a complete waste of time for moment there.”
Hisoki is putting away the dowsing rod in his bag and takes out a small little cloth cube. “I told you, you can trust me. I know my items better than most know their own weapons,” he then throws the little cloth cube on the ground and it makes a square tent right next to the stream next to some bushes.
“What is that?” Vic asks.
“A tent!” Hisoki says with a proud giggle.
“I can see that… I meant with how it put itself together.”
“Right! It’s a tent that can have a couple of different functions. A Shop, A Tarot reading stand, and…” He walks over to the tent and opens the zipper, light pours from it as he steps in, ushering Vic to come inside.
As Vic steps inside, he is see’s a very lavish home on the inside, complete with fine furniture, a kitchen with food spilling out of the shelves, a massive bed in the bedroom that is open, and a couple guest rooms. A bathroom but the door is shut. “A home, this has been my home for a long time.”
As Vic is a little overwhelmed by this he get poked by something at his waist, he looks down and sees a kobold, a very dark scaled kobold, he’s holding out his hands waiting for something. “Uh… Who is this?”
“He’s a sort of roommate, oh and he’s asking to take your hat.”
“Alright then… I guess it wouldn’t hurt,” He takes it off and puts it in the kobold’s claws, the kobold runs off with it into a storage room. “What was that about?”
“Normally he takes jackets and boots, but I think he knows we’ll be leaving here shortly.”
“Then why did he take my hat?”
“He likes hats,” The jester says without hesitation.
“I better get it back,” Vic makes his way to the kitchen.
“I’ll make sure he gives it back,” he says while following him into the kitchen.
“Isn’t the tent easily exposed from the river side?” Vic grabs an apple from the fruit basket on the counter.
“There’s an invisible enchantment on it that I placed on it as soon as you came in.”
“Oh, good, but… I won’t be able to see it.”
“Sure you will, you were inside when I cast it, so you can see the tent no issue!”
“Alright I guess… Can we use the invisibility to look for berries easier?” Vic is tossing the apple while thinking.
“No, I wish. People are complex and constantly moving internally so the best you’d get is a little transparency. A tent is just a tent.”
“But, this one clearly isn’t.”
“Correct, if it were, we’d be perfectly visible inside the tent. We are in a literal tesseract. The inside of this tent is smaller than a spore. which is why I can store many types of rooms inside it.”
“To dumb it down for me. We are in a room so small and complicated, the outside being invisible doesn’t affect the fact that we are standing in the ‘middle’ of this tent?”
“Sure! That works, it a bit more than that but if it helps!”
“You know, it’s really lucky you keep food in your home here. We don’t have to eat berries for two weeks.” Vic says as he bites into the apple he’s holding.
Hisoki turned his back as Vic bit into the apple. “I make sure to stay stocked up. I’m not wealthy in money, but in food? I-” Hisoki turns back to see Vic, frozen in place. Like a statue. “Vic!” Hisoki, panicked he digs through his bag and picks out a small wand tapping Vic with it. “Remove curse!” The wand dissolves, expending it’s use but nothing happens. “It’s paralysis!” Hisoki picks out another wand and taps Vic with it once more, “Cure!” and just like that Vic is freed and stumbles back against the cabinets.
Vic drops the apple and he pants. “The hell was in that, clown!”
“Nothing! It’s just a bunch of apples I picked up a couple days ago!”
“Are you sure!” Vic is clearly angry.
“Vic, these apples aren’t even magic, I check all fruits for evidence of clone spells being used to make them, because they are considered magic items by that point.”
“Then what the hell?” Just as he says this, they both hear a crunch from the other room, they both go to look, and the kobold; while wearing Vic’s hat, is eating the same kind of apple from the fruit bowl while reading in his bed, but he’s fine.
Hisoki and Vic walk back to the kitchen and think. “Do you think this place itself is affecting us?” Vic asks.
“No, if it was, then he’d have been paralyzed. This space in this tent is still existing within this forest,” Hisoki thinks really hard, sitting on the couch, hanging his head off of the edge of the sofa.
“Hey, here’s a thought, what if it was the gate?”
“Gate?”
“You know, the portal we went through.”
“Huh, you know. That makes sense. The tent was compacted in my bag. Which is another dimension entirely. And I bet the portal coated us in some sort of curse-like enchantment so we don’t cheat by eating other foods!”
“Can’t you remove the curse?”
“I already tried, it’s must be a conditional curse. Conditional curses can’t be removed by any means except meeting the condition, but, the condition has to be as simple as possible for the curse to be as strong as possible. Which, if I had to take a guess, it’s passing through the portal we came out of.”
“Damn it, guess no apples for me.”
“I was looking forward to cooking tonight too,” Hisoki sits upright on the sofa, sighing in annoyance.
“I’ve been on my feet all damn day. I’m taking a nap,” Vic declares, sitting in a chair and putting his feet up on the coffee table.
With a very worried expression, Hisoki has to ask, “Are you sure that’s a good idea? We still have plenty of time, we could get a lot of berries!”
“If you wanna do that? Go for it. Unless there’s some reason we should be in a rush?”
“I was kinda hoping we’d get done before Sunday,” Hisoki looks away while he’s saying this.
“Why Sunday?” Vic closes his eyes when asking.
“I just… I need to get this challenge over with before then.”
Vic opens his eyes, and looks at the worried jester, “It’s bad if we don’t, isn’t it?”
Hisoki nods, not saying a word.
“Give me an hour to nap, alright? I wasn’t going to sleep until tomorrow. I just need a boost before we get started. Also, we’re partners. Treat me like one. If it’s serious, you have to tell me so I can be a better help to you.”
“I’ll tell you soon, I promise.”
Vic falls asleep soon after, and an hour later, he wakes up on his own with the kobold standing to his left, offering him his hat. “Thank ya,” He takes it and puts it on his head. “Hisoki?” He says looking around, not seeing him, when he comes back in the tent with a little sack full of berries. “Already started?”
“Yep! I couldn’t wait any longer, however, I got about a hundred on my own!”
“Did anyone see you?”
“Nope! I actually stayed in this area, though all of the berries here have been picked it seems.”
“Picked? Or haven’t grown in yet?”
“Picked. Someone has been through this area other than us.”
“Guess that invisibility works, huh?”
“See? Also, I’ve seen them. There are three men. Two small guys and one very big guy.”
“I bet they are camped close by, can’t have neighbors when we have the best spot we can get,” Vic stands up, holding onto his hat.
“What are you going to do?”
“Ask them very nicely to stop breaking the rules, and hit the damn road.”
“For some reason I don’t believe that’s exactly what you’re going to do.”
Vic turns to Hisoki as he’s leaving, “Look, you can follow if you want, I just don’t need these guys lingering around here while they are clearly cheating. Because we might get had for cheating too.”
Hisoki gives it some thought, “You’re right, I’ll follow too. Close behind but you can handle them. I don’t want to give away that you’re on a team as well.”
They both make their way in the direction of where Hisoki saw the three men leave to. Sure enough, after just a few short minutes, they both see smoke and head toward it carefully. Vic being a tapper is able to very easily make his way through the brush of the forest without drawing attention, they both can see the three men around the campfire. One of them is huge, the other two are around Vics height and weight. The huge guy is fat as can be, eating tons of those berries, five at a time it seems. Before one of the others make their concerns known to him “Hey, you’re eating too many of those, we’re already having to collect tripple the amount and we’re breaking the rules.”
The big guy snorts, mouthful of half-chewed berries he says “Shut the hell up! I don’t care if we gotta collect four times as much!” He pops another five berries in his mouth. “We’ll do it! This shit is all I can eat or I’ll end up like you’re friend back there!”
Vic, with no warning walks his way out of the bushes and straight up to the campfire with no worries or care. “Excuse me, guys!” He says, the two guys grab their weapons but don’t pull them free yet, the big just stares, eating away, more focused on that. “Seems you guys are kinda breakin’ the rules you know?” all while Hisoki watches from the shadows.
“Why do you care? Unless you’re camped out around here.” The big guy shows his intelligence straight to Vic.
“Look, I’m just asking you guys, break up your triple threat into a duo and one of you goes solo.” Vic puts a thumb in his belt loop and even relaxes.
“Wait a second… You’re Vic! Oh man, I’ve heard a lot about you. Your sis became a knight before you didn’t she?” the big guy says before the other guys could get a word in, everything goes eerily quiet. The wind isn’t even moving now.
“I’m gonna have to ask you keep my sister out of your nasty mouth.”
“Or what? You’ll give up like you did with her? Quitting in the middle of the first challenge! I’d never abandon my sister if I had one!”
Just as the big guy opened his mouth for more berries a loud bang could be heard. The loud thud of his massive body slumping over and hitting the ground. Vic sighs, his peacemaker on full display, smoking as he holsters it and begins looking through the massive body for his stuff. Finding a nice bag full of berries over a hundred, Vic takes over half and walks over, giving the bag to one of the other two guys closest to him. “Don’t break the rules anymore.” He gestures to the berries in his other hand. “My finders fee. Oh and… Pick somewhere else to camp. Now.”
They shuffle to their feet, berry bag in hand and wander off, leaving the campfire. Vic sighs and takes out his canteen and pours out his water on the fire, walking back over to Hisoki leaving the body of the big guy. “There, wasn’t too hard.” He says, making his way back to the tent with Hisoki following shortly after.
“You kinda just killed that guy…” Hisoki says almost accusingly once back in the tent.
“Don’t tell me you care about the ‘sanctity of life’ or shit like that. Come on, man, we’re trying to be knights here!”
“That’s not what I mean! I mean you blew your stack!”
“And maybe he shouldn’t have lit the fuse.”
“Listen, that thing is loud is what I’m getting at. Who knows how many people heard it!”
“No one will know what it was either.”
“Right! Someone may think it was a spell and come check it out.”
“Damn it!” Vic kicks over one of Hisoki’s chairs. “I messed up bad…” he covers his face with his hand.
Hisoki thinks about it for a moment, “Actually, this might workout in our favor.”
“How’s that?”
“Think about it. If multiple people or groups come, they’ll have a fight and hopefully knock some more people out of the gauntlet.”
“I guess that’s true, just know there are situations where I tend to lose my focus and act out like an idiot.”
“I’ll remember that. And realize that I’m not against taking a life rather the idea of lives deserved of taking.”
“What do you mean by that?” Vic asks seeing some nervousness instantly hit Hisoki’s face even through his mask once he asks this question.
“J-just that- What mean is…” He fiddles with a random gem he has sitting on a mantle. “It’s just that there are bad people that I don’t necessarily wish death on, but the world would just be better off without. You know?”
Vic chuckles and begins a full on laughing fit. “I can tell you’ve got a bad habbit yourself. Can’t be fully honest with a single soul, can you?”
“Guess not…” Hisoki says admittedly.
Vic, wraps his arm around Hisoki’s shoulder. “No need to be fully honest with me, alright? Especially about all this you’ve got goin on. Just have my back, ya hear?”
“Of course!” Hisoki says looking directly at him.
“There we go!” He takes out a new cigarette and is about to light it before Hisoki stops him.
“I’d… prefer if you didn’t smoke in here, okay?”
“Didn’t know a clown would have so many rules…” Vic says putting it away.
They head back out into the night, scowering the forest for more berries, Vic has gathered around two-hundred plus the amount he got from the big guy. bringing his total to two-hundred and seventy five berries. Where as Hisoki, with his one-hundred berries from earlier, now has a total of two-hundred and fifty.
“Hey, these go bad just a couple days after being picked. Got something for that?” Vic asks while they head back to the tent.
“Yep! I do!” Inside his bag he takes out a little box. “This box contains infinite space but only for one kind of item. Also, items stored in here are frozen in time. So they don’t age, decay, or whatever else.”
“Why don’t you just put the berries in your that bag of holding?”
“They’ll still age in there. This specifically prevents that problem. Think of it like… a statis spell for sick people.”
“Jeez… You’re prepared aren’t you?”
“Most of this stuff I haven’t found a use for. Until now!” Hisoki says, dumping in his berries, then Vic does too. While doing that Hisoki attunes Vic to the box so he can also retrieve the berries.
“Not worried I’ll run off with this box and the berries?” Vic asks jokingly.
“Not even a little.” Hisoki says with the most serious tone yet.
Leaving the little box on the table in the center of the tent. “I’ll bring it with us when we collect more berries, we’ll instantly have fresh berries from the moment they are picked, any time.”
“At this rate, we can do three berries a day for our meals and still be fine.”
“I think that’s the point of the challenge… These berries have so much to them, you can live off of them for a while. It’s keeping them preserved if you want to pick them in advance. Which means she doesn’t expect people to literally pick them over the course of two weeks, she wants them picked with in a couple days!”
“The same number of days until they expire normally.” Vic says. “Guess she never thought of someone like you coming a long with magic items, huh?”
“The challenges don’t plan for every contingency, it’s probably another form of resourcefulness they consider.”
“What if someone could duplicate the berries perfectly?” Vic flops on the couch again.
“Then they probably stayed behind and waited for everyone to leave before just taking one and making a thousand.”
“Can my ammo bag do that?”
“It could have but we would’ve needed five hundred original berries just to make a thousand or a thousand orignal to make two-thousand.”
“You’re saying we could’ve done half the work if you didn’t help me?”
“Kind of… Because you already have your ammunition in the bag, it will only ever clone that substance that makes the ammunition. Even if you replaced everything in there with say… some lead pieces? it won’t even make the lead pieces.”
“We each got two hundred and fifty or more. I think we can relax a bit on getting two-thousand berries. Three, maybe four more days an we’ll have done.”
“Let’s try to make it three please.”
“Right… You want it done within a week. Seems like especially before Sunday, huh?”
The Jester just nods at Vic.
“Alright then. Lets try to wake up at 8am.” He picks up the small twin-bell alarm clock sitting next to the couch and sets the alarm.
“Sounds good…” Hisoki looks away, making a fist, clenching it really tight.
Vic takes notices as he sits down on the couch. “Okay, the hell is your deal?”
Hisoki looks at him in surprise, unclenching his fist. “Huh?”
“You know what I mean, clenching your fist. Not saying more than a few words when you’re not getting your way.”
“No, that’s not it. I’m just extremely worried.”
“Then tell me how I can help, we’re partners, right?”
“I get it… Fine. I’ll tell you. This curse I have… It puts me to sleep for twenty-four hours exactly. Once a week. Specifically on Sunday. I have never once seen a full Sunday.”
“A full one? you mean you’ve seen partial ones?”
“Normally? No. I have ways of postponing falling asleep for a very short while.”
“Doesn’t seem so bad, really.”
“Until, I get the nightmares. The nightmares are the serious issue. Doing this challenge would leave me defensless alone. I had a friend I was going to do this with last year but… I chickened out not wanting to be dead weight.”
“What do the nightmares have to do with that?”
“I stop trusting who I’m with when I wake up. I can’t tell if it’s a dream or reality. They often start so realistic then turn into something like hell.”
Vic gives a chuckle, then a laugh. “If that’s all, then I’ve got you covered.” He takes one of Hisoki’s journals from the table and tears out two pages, and writes something down so Hisoki can’t see on both pieces. Folds them up so the contents can’t be seen. “I know a little about dream logic… See. Your brain can’t understand something it’s never seen. If I had this to you. And you hide it somewhere obvious on your person, then when you do fall asleep, your subconcious will remember it’s there. You can pull it out and open it. If it’s blank? you’re dreaming. If it’s not? Then you’re in reality. Stick in in your bell cap.”
As Hisoki puts it inside his cap he has some worries, “What if I am dreaming and it’s not blank?”
Vic lays back. “Then ask me what it is if I’m around. If I can’t answer it. or don’t give something satisfactory. Kick me in the dick until you wake up.”
Stunned by the response given he sits on the recliner across from him. “And how do you know this?”
Vic puts his hat over his eyes, “My sister had nightmares too when she was younger. She hated sleeping because of it. This worked for her. I think It’ll work for you.”
“Did she have a curse?”
“Nah, it’s nothing like that. She was just really afraid after a horse chased her into the barn. Her nightmares always turned into a horse that wanted to eat her.”
“And a piece of paper helped?”
“Sure did. Now can I be the one to get some real sleep?”
“Right, sorry, I’m going to do the same.”
Hisoki makes his way to his bedroom and they both sleep for the rest of the night into the next morning.
Chapter 5 - Confrontation #
That morning, both Vic and Hisoki wake up, and get to work by collecting lots of berries farther from the tent, it takes a while to find more because of the foot traffic within the area. It’s next to impossible to tell how many, but the snares that Vic had left were tripped and not by rabbits or other small creatures. Not only was there foot traffic, there were burn marks on bushes and trees, the temperature so hot it looked as though the bushes and trees were cut with the fire rather than just burned like with a torch. Vic waves over Hisoki to take a look at the damage on the tree that sits behind the burnt bush. “What do you make of this?” He asks, touch it slowly. Hisoki touches the trees’ burn mark and then focuses on the bush.
“How does a source of fire catch a bush halfway then then a tree only on the left hand side?” The jester asks Vic
“Magic?” Vic asks, staring at Hisoki. “How come we didn’t hear it?”
“We are pretty far out right now from our tent… and we were very tired last night. But it does seem rather fresh from the immense heat alone.”
“Is there any chance they could still be here?” Vic looks around. Almost paranoid.
“I doubt it… There would be no reason if they got into a fight and finished it quick.”