30: Elsewhere...

Belle’s view

The change was rather sudden and abrupt. One night, I found myself in a strange church. Though I knew it was some sort of dream, it carried a feeling of importance that no dream of mine had ever had before. There, I met a strange woman, who had much to say. Yet for some reason, I remember little of it. The one thing I remember clearly was her saying: “Lae loves you.” 

Then, when I woke, I realized I didn’t hear the angel anymore. I spent a while just enjoying the silence. If I were to never hear it again, that’d be a blessing. Yet, somehow, this wasn’t the end of the surprises at all.

In the center of town, in the place where the old church once stood, a new church was present. Similar in overall shape, it was obviously a church, yet the giant tentacles that made up the walls and the thinner and smaller ones acting like grass in the surroundings, made it clear: This was no human church, this had to be Lae’s church. What was Lae doing? How could a church like this spring up overnight?

It didn’t take too long to find out a little. It seemed everyone in town had a similar dream, and came out to see the new church. Two people even claimed to now be priests of Lae’s church. Apparently there was a discussion about the name, and they chose to officially call it the Church of Joy. I thought that name seemed a little simplistic, but it is easy to remember, and sounds nice. Most people don’t know what Laetitia means anyway… what language is that even?

…

Ophelia’s view

It’s frustrating dealing with humans. They do not understand the meaning and power of names. They cannot even see Lae’s true beauty! What they see is merely a fragment of her greatness! Yet, it’s clear Lae loves humans. She even tried to become one. Such a thing is impossible of course, but she clearly tried. What could have happened to make you change so? I wanted people to call her Laetitia to restore a bit of what she was, but these humans don’t get it. 

Lae doesn’t seem to understand either. Whatever happened to her, seems to have left her traumatized. She refuses to look at her past. She embraces human memories and human thoughts, but she’s no human, and never was. I want to show her what I see in her. I want to make her see the truth and embrace her own beauty… but she’s so frail right now, that I need to be cautious. It’s frustrating! 

All I can do right now, is help her gain followers and convince people to worship her properly. If enough people accept Lae’s love, maybe she’ll gain the strength to accept her past and stop hiding from the truth. 

…

Orc Chieftan’s view

The head of a clan is supposed to be a great warrior, an admirable existence. I’m just a coward. All the true warriors ran off to war years ago. I’m just the one people kept coming to when problems arose. When they want to flatter me, they call me wise. 

Personally, I just think other people are just foolish since they so rarely remember things like where the good berries are, or where the good fishing spots are. They spend all their head space on battle techniques. You spend all your time making armor! Why do you care about what move is the best counter to the lightning dash? It’s not like you’re ever going to challenge Grotho for the top warrior position! He’s the only one who’s even good with that move!

As the one people so often turned to when they needed answers, and with the actual chief gone off to war, people turned to me when human armies got close. Of course I told everyone we needed to leave. Thus I somehow became the chief, simply because everyone that was left chose to follow me.

Now, standing before Ophelia inside her dream church, I found myself hopeful for the first time in years. A new god, could we finally see the revival of our nation? Have I been brought here for a blessing? Will I gain great power and courage?

… Headpats? I get headpats?

“It’s alright, you don’t need to pretend here.”

Her words sank into me with a weight I didn’t realize was possible. Collapsing to my knees I fell into her embrace and cried. Cried for all the pain and misery and struggle of the past decade. Cried all the tears I had been holding back. I didn’t even realize how much I’d been holding back. How much I needed this. 

Instead of power, I received compassion. Instead of courage, I received love. Yet, when I woke, I felt better than ever. I do not know if we will ever be able to defeat the humans and secure our safety, but I do know this new god is worth fighting for. I was never interested in fighting for glory, but fighting for love? I can do that.

***Author Note***

I’m pretty sure a big part of why I find this fun to write, is because I’m so clueless about what will actually happen. I just get a few ideas and let my imagination run around a bunch. Sometimes rolling dice to help me get started or choose between multiple ideas I like (or just to keep things from getting too predictable).

Bringing in the viewpoint of a monster was something I’d wanted to do a while ago, because I figured it’d be important for actually dealing with the human army. Took a while to finally get the right reasons assembled. I wasn’t really expecting the monologue on fighting for love though. Plus, I’m pretty sure that counts as courage? At least it does if he actually goes through with it.

I’m still not actually sure how to deal with the army. I can’t use standard OP main character approaches, because this army has the backing of a god that should be stronger than Lae (or at least more experienced).

This chapter was mostly just the result of thinking: There’s stuff happening elsewhere I shouldn’t just ignore right? Really easy to forget about the rest of the world.