Slowly Zen moved her hands away and took a step back. How should I react in this situation? Currently, I was doing my best not to make any sudden movements, as I had learned in my previous life, that this alarmed humans. It also worked with polar bears, but that was another thing entirely. Trying to stay as unthreatening as possible, I watched her, half expecting her to run out the door screaming as soon as possible.
Realizing that that would be bad, I used my human hands to pick up my necklace and put it back around my neck. Feeling that cold change, I returned to my human form and looked at Zen.
“You can’t just pretend like that didn't happen.” Zen said.
“Ba…” I avoided eye contact, splashing in the bathwater.
“Well, I can’t say that I expected this.” Zen said. “But I suppose that this is one of those things that is above my paygrade to worry about.”
“…” I nodded, desperately hoping that this would be the end of it.
“I guess that explains a lot actually.” She sighed.
“Ba?” I asked.
“Ranger Washington suddenly coming to this town, Lady Haywood's deteriorating eyesight, and her family’s all but abandoning her.” She said. “To be under the effects of a curse are… I’m sorry I failed to notice earlier.”
“A?” I asked.
Curse? I’m not cursed. Or am I? Is that why I have this body despite being around humans in both my lifetimes? But on Earth there was no such thing as magic. Was there? I’m confused.
“For a child as young as you to bear such a curse…” She started, tearing up.
What?
“Don’t worry.” She said, patting my head. “We won’t let any harm come to you.”
Whatever! This works for me, so I don’t see any problem with this!
“Ba!” I said placing my hand on hers.
“Oh, Lady Abigail!” She said, holding back tears.
Thankfully putting that episode behind us, Zen finished bathing me and took me to the familiar play room. This room was said to be baby proof, however in my true form I could definitely find a way to hurt myself. From the looks of Zen, she too noticed several weak points in her work. Though somewhat reluctant to let me roam on my own, she let down onto the soft rug. Having another maid keep watch over me, she got to work fixing what she could. Though I had no intention to harm myself, I was happy that she was putting the effort in to protect me. As she and the other maids worked, I practiced my movements in relative peace.
Time as a baby seemed to go slow, but as the days passed by, my movements became easier and my body grew bigger. I was still a ways from walking but my crawling was second to none. In my free time, when I was not playing with blocks, pulling at the rug, or practicing moving, I spent time looking out the window. It snowed a fair bit. Either we were in the mountains or it was winter here. Regardless, that didn’t bother me as I was stuck inside. What did bother me however was the fact that dad didn’t come as often. She apparently still had work to do to prepare for the snow but that didn’t make me less lonely. Mom too seemed busy and she has been working late into the night for a few days now. She was getting a bit grumpy.
Possibly knowing this, Dad offered to take me off her hands for a few days. Although I was happy about this, mom didn't seem so interested in it. She wanted to keep me by her side. That was at least mostly true. What was also true was that she didn’t want to work, and her looking after me meant that she wasn’t working. Zen too seemed to notice this and although a bit reluctant, she agreed with dad’s proposal.
Sitting in my play room in mom’s lap, who was sitting in a cushioned chair, I held a tool that rattled. I called it a rattle, but I didn’t use it much. It reminded me too much of snakes and I had bad memories of them. Despite this, whenever I left the raddle, mom or a nearby maid placed it back in my hands. It seemed to be a tool to make me suffer.
Looking out the window, I saw the continuing fall of snow. It wasn’t heavy, though it made the day dark. Possibly as a result, there wasn’t much in the way of activity here, or in the town. Even the regular deliveries seemed to have slowed down. Leaning back, mom had her arms wrapped around me, which only tightened. Not so much that it hurt, but enough to hold me securely. Hearing the regular beating of her heart and her soft breathing, I soon felt my eyelids grow heavy. Looking up I saw mom’s eyes closed as usual. I was unsure if she was sleeping or just relaxing.
Dad was going to be here soon, and we planned to have lunch together, so I couldn’t go to sleep just yet. Admittedly I did seem to fall asleep before lunch almost every day, but today was different. I wanted to stay up and greet dad when she arrived. I just needed to wait a little bit longer… Maybe it wouldn’t hurt to close my eyes for just a bit…
In the Pacific Ocean, on the formerly inhabited island known as Hawaii, was an unusual sight. Under the shadow of an ash cloud of the remains of a volcano, three ships were deliberately beached with numerous other ships in the distance. The large caliber guns that they had were aimed at them and with their missile systems ready. Helicopters took off, flew, and landed. Some dropped off armed soldiers and others recovered bodies.
The three ships were what remained of the UN fleet that were involved in the invasion of Alaska. Though they were labeled UN ships, in actuality they were ships from a handful of European nations. Including the ones that were incapacitated or destroyed in Alaska, there were French, German, Prussian, Spanish and even a Greek ship. There could have been ships from other nations as well, however after the Vienna Incident, many nations wanted to keep their forces nearby for defense.
For a time Europe had been unified in opposing and destroying any Illuminati forces across the world, however even that usually happened with the consent of the nation involved. Possibly due to the Illuminati being seen as a branch of the United States, no notice was given before the invasion of Alaska, which is an ally of the US. However since the invasion, Europe has been fractured. There were riots in Paris, protests in Berlin, and burning of embassies in Spain. Italy in particular was a major opponent to the operation, even threatening war should they continue with their aggression.
Global tension was at an all time high, and to make the situation even more confusing, Mongolian special forces assassinated the Russian prime minister and detonated chemical weapons in several Chinese cities. Both sides threatened to use nuclear weapons, however considering Mongolia’s lack of a nuclear arsenal, many assumed that this was an empty threat. However recent Illuminati intelligence reports seem to suggest that the Mongolians have plants in both nations' nuclear programs. How did they manage that?
Ignoring the possible nuclear threat, the three UN ships posed a different problem. As it turns out, during their invasion, they stole information on Project Acer and activated a prebuilt prototype in the middle of the ocean, creating a portal to another world. From the recordings of the onboard security system, it was easy to tell what had happened. Their activation caught the attention of some otherworldly creature. Luckily after killing the crew of the three ships, it returned to its own world. Had this been in any city, it could have been worse than Vienna.
Due to this, and perhaps for the best, Project Acer was placed on indefinite hold. That meant that any creature that was on earth would stay on earth. It also meant that whatever killed the crew wouldn't be able to come to earth. That was the hope at least. And they were really hoping that was true.
Many days had passed since its little field trip to earth, with nothing of note happening aside from it being decided to take care of Abby for a few days. Having sorted through its recently acquired information Etrius wondered how it could be applied to help the kingdom, or put the king out of his misery. There was no curing him, everyone knows that you can cure genetic monstrosities, just put an end to them. Medical technologies aside, their weapons and machines would do wonders in the agricultural sector and also in war against the demons when they inevitably returned. Possibly even the dragons as well. Though given current airship designs the most useful weapons would be too heavy and require too much power. If they were on a single ship, Etirus could possibly fake it, however that would require Etrius to be on said ship. Maybe the witch hunters could do something about that. It would need to be sure to send them some plans later. Even if it didn't work, Etrius was sure that they could do something fun with missiles.
In the middle of thinking of something that would not help the kingdom in any way, shape or form, Etrius decided to visit Decker. Unlike Maul who was in stables with other horses, Decker was all by his lonesome self with humans who couldn’t understand him and mice that were his food. Passing by the usual patrol, Etrius saw Decker laying in what little sunlight made its way through the clouds. Hearing its approach, Decker lifted his head but relaxed upon seeing Etrius.
“Hey bud, how's it going?” Etrius asked.
“It’s weird to not feel hungry.” Decker replied with his head still down.
“Yeah but that's a good thing.” Etrius said. “Better than starving out in the woods.”
“Its getting cold.”
“Yep. I brought you some gifts by the way.”
“Gifts?”
“Yeah two things.” Etrius said, taking out a collar and an uncooked egg.
Without lifting his head, Decker looked at them.
“Is that an egg?” He asked.
“Yes it is.” Etrius said, placing it in front of him.
“Neat.” He said taking the egg in his mouth, but not eating it.
“And this is so that people know you work here.” Etrius said, placing the collar around his neck.
“Do I really need that?” He asked, not resisting.
“Well if you walk around town, people won’t look at you and think, ‘oh hey look, he would make a nice hat.’ so there's that.”
“That's nice.” He said.
“Mommy Mommy!” A small child said. “She’s talking to a dog!”
“That’s just how rangers are sweetheart.” Her mother said, walking faster past them.
“Why is it that humans can’t understand me?” Decker asked.
“Well some can. They just needed to be granted some form of authority by the king.” Etrius explained.
“What’s a king?”
“It's like their boss, or rather the head of their pack.”
“How does that work?”
“Being the head of the pack?”
“No, the other thing.”
“Oh, well kings are granted a certain authority from the gods, and they can share that with others, though that lowers their overall authority, so it isn’t done all too much. Usually some is given to nobles and nobles divide their authority as they see fit.”
“So why is it that they can understand you?”
“That’s because I can speak their language.”
“That sounds troublesome.”
“It is what it is.” Etrius shrugged.
“You’re weird.” He said.
“You’re not the first to say that.” It said.
“For some reason I’m not surprised.” He said.
“That being said, I did come to check up on you, so is there anything that you need?” It asked.
“It’s getting cold, so a way to stay warm would be nice.” He said.
“Got it, anything else?”
“A friend would be nice.”
“If I run into anyone, I’ll bring them over.”
“I’m glad to hear it.”
“Well, if that's all you need, I’ll take my leave.”
“Thanks for the egg.”
Leaving Decker behind, Etrius walked though the roads as snow slowly built up. Though this was the capital of the territory, it was still on the scale of a large town, so there were no organized efforts to clear the roads of snow. Aside from a few main streets, any snow that was there was going to stay there. With most people inside Etrius, aside from the shadows, crawling shadows, Deacons, Akeynni, and Onniakanies, was alone on the streets. Hopefully it wouldn’t be too cold when it brought Abby back home. Soon, it arrived at Torie’s residence and aside from the guards, who at this point recognized Etrius, there was little activity. With the usual nod to the gate guards, Etrius entered with no issue.
