Lemmy
Healing skin and flesh only takes a few seconds, but bones take several minutes, organs hours; meaning Bucket had to carry her for several kilometers with a missing arm. She felt guilty, but what could she do? She couldn't make her body heal faster, or maybe she could but hadn't learnt how yet? Either way she eventually managed to recover enough to walk, even if she was a bit slow.
The green plants Lemmy saw earlier were grass and trees according to Bucket, but occasionally they'd see a few strange plants, not just herbs with weird names or mushrooms growing under the trees, but instead had rather anomalous traits. Flowers that had gem-like petals, patches of grass where each blade was every color except green, trees made of stone with iron petals, and mushrooms that moved around like rodents; all of which stood out from their rather normal surroundings. Yet Bucket rarely batted an eye unless Lemmy pointed them out, as if they were uninterested in the unusual plants. When Lemmy questioned them about it, Bucket would always give the same answer. "Unstable mana causes the world and creatures to change in unusual ways, there's likely an unstable mana source nearby, but as long as the majority of plants and animals are normal we should be fine." Bucket would write down on a piece of bark and show Lemmy it every time she questioned the unusual plants.
One of the strange, rodent-like mushrooms stared down at the pair from atop of a branch, its body was rather large and white, while its head was a bright red with several pale eyes that all stared in the different directions. Its head split open as a long red tongue shot out to grab a rotting peach sitting nearby Lemmy before it began feasting on it. Lemmy stopped to stare at it for several moments. It was strange even for her, but it was pretty cute in her opinion; she looked around for a rotting fruit before picking up another rotten peach. The smell stung her nose and its mushy texture made her feel gross, the fungal creature looked at it with hunger, Lemmy let out a soft smile as she held it up to the creature which quickly snatched it out of her hand.
It greedily ate it as Lemmy looked up at it, she took a step forward in hopes it'd let her touch its… fur? Whatever covered its body she wanted to touch it. Yet before she could even figure out how to reach it or make it come down, the ground shook as a colossal beast rose from the forest, its six legs were longer than any tree she's seen so far, yet each were as wide as her torso. Its body was covered in several chitinous plates, a dozen eyes scanned the forest below as the many tentacles covering its mouth grabbed various fruits, herbs and small animals. Including the rodent-like mushrooms.
Lemmy frowned as the creature she was feeding attempted to run off in fear, only to get picked up rather quickly and dragged towards the giant's mouth. Lemmy tried rushing towards it to save the small creature, yet Bucket grabbed her arm to hold her back. She turned with a confused look, Bucket shook their head which caused Lemmy to pause for a moment, before the forest began to shake more intensely. In the distance, Lemmy could see an impossibly larger monster, it was as tall as a small mountain, its tentacles would rip entire trees from the ground into its maw, and its black chitin was covered in a green moss.
Lemmy was stunned, she had no clue creatures like that could even move. It must be extremely strong just to walk, the titanic beast briefly looked over her before seemingly forgetting about her presence, like a person overlooking an ant crawling through the grass. Though unfortunately, its relatively smaller companion was interested in her.
The smaller one looked at her curiously as one of its tentacles reached over for her, Lemmy narrowed her eyes as she backed away. Bucket even tried to get in the way and pull out a blade in an attempt to threaten the beast, only for both of them to get grabbed and pulled closer to its eyes. "Ah! P- Put me down!" Lemmy demanded as it stared at her, she struggled and even bit the beast, yet it seemed to not feel pain, at least in its long appendages. So she attempted to gather air to let out an ear piercing scream… only to lose focus as it tossed her in the air to catch her, then it did it again and again, clearly entertained as it let out a low grumble. By the seventh time it had done this, Lemmy's mind had become hazy as her now upset stomach struggled to contain a meal of mushrooms and herbs she found. "Uughhhh… Bucket…" she groaned out as Bucket was being swung around like a toy. This would last for around half an hour, neither being able to resist or escape the playful monster's grasp, at least until Lemmy noticed a woman looking up at her. "Errr, help pl- ughh…"
—
Maria
The woman stared up at the pair being tormented by the juvenile Goleth, it didn't seem to be malicious with how it was toying with them, just likely unaware or uncaring about the fact they were being hurt by its actions. Either way, she was surprised to see the girl was still conscious as it threw her up in the air yet again as if juggling her. It was almost entertaining if it weren't the fact the girl clearly disliked this and looked like she was moments away from passing out.
She raised normal hand lazily as a freezing wind rushed past her, covering the grass below in frost, the trees waved as several leaves froze and shattered on the ground. The beast let out an upset grumble as it shivered, dropping the pair as it backed away. Harming it while its parent was nearby was a bad idea, but fortunately the juveniles were rather skittish with mages and magic. After making a small show of fire, lighting, and ice to make sure the younger Goleth would stay away, Maria would look at the pair it decided to torment.
There seemed to be a rather old looking automation, she doubted it was a monster engine since it didn't seem to contain any systems for keeping whatever was inside alive, but that begs the question… if it was a Valboarian automation, how did it manage to function this long? If not… then who created it? Though surprisingly the other person was more interesting to Maria, a girl with bat-like features laying on the floor who looked quite sick. Perhaps she was a homunculus or undiscovered species of beast men? She could also be a mutant given their proximity to an unstable mana source. Although the crystals growing out of her neck meant she was a mage of some sort, like her, though they were small, it'd be unlikely that she'd been one for more than a decade.
Maria walked over to the pair and helped the automation up first, not only was it missing an arm but also it appeared to be the only one capable of standing at the moment, while the bat-girl seemed quite out of it. Though the automation simply stared at Maria after getting up and went over to help its companion. "Hm, is thanking people uncommon where you're from?" Maria questioned the silent machine, it simply stared back at her and gave a short bow before carrying the girl on its back. Perhaps it couldn't speak? Communicating with them would be difficult, but it'd be a good idea to keep an eye on them. The source of mana disappeared a few hours ago, and soon after she met a young mage girl. Even if they're unrelated, a lone mage with no training could easily result in a disaster, especially if said mage is already showing signs of mutation; Maria only hoped she would have the chance to at least help the girl find a proper mentor to teach her how to control her powers, rather than deal with the results of a spell gone wrong or worse… having to put her down.
—
Lemmy
The girl would wake up in a different place, her stomach felt a lot calmer now, but her head still felt fuzzy, her body pressed against Bucket's cold metal chassis, and the air felt chilly as the sun began to set over a range of far away mountains. She could even see her breath as she slowly woke up, though her gentle awakening was interrupted as the scent of the forest was swiftly replaced by- she wasn't sure how to describe it, but it smelt gross, like some sort of unnatural smoke. Though as she looked around, she saw a massive sprawl of buildings made of stone, wood and metal in front of her, each of which reminded Lemmy of the shack she and Bucket lived in, just bigger and slightly more sturdy looking. The larger buildings looked like they were made of one or two materials at most, some of pillars of smoke pouring out of them, others looked much more clean and had several pieces of blue and white cloth flying off the roofs.
However, soon her attention was caught not by one of the many buildings in the distance, but by a woman walking beside Bucket. She was rather tall looking, at least compared to her and Bucket, she looked very pretty yet- her right arm was covered in a semi-translucent crystal, Lemmy could see the bone and sinew inside the woman's arm as her veins pumped blood to her rather lean muscles. The woman looked over, seemingly just as curious in Lemmy, or perhaps even more so, and waved at the girl.
"Hello there, do you understand me? I am Maria Hastar, may I ask for your names?" the woman said with a small smile, Lemmy tilted her head in curiosity for a moment, the woman looked similar yet different to her. Other than the fact she was bigger, her eyes were nearly pure white except for her iris which was a light blue.
"I'm Lemmy… What are you?" She asked, the only person she remembers ever talking to was Bucket, so Maria was an anomaly to her. The woman considered her question for a moment as Bucket looked over at her, listening in on the pair's conversation as she replied. "I am many things, though the simplest way to describe me is by calling me a human mage." she said, causing Lemmy to look rather confused. To which Maria responded with an equally confused stare.
"I- don't know either of those words…" both Maria and Bucket stopped in their traces as they heard Lemmy speak, Maria's eyes widened as Bucket simply stood still. "I see… I- honestly don't know where to begin with this. Hmmm… Do you know what God created, mutants and monster races are?" Maria questioned, causing Lemmy to shake her head in response. "Okay, so I suppose we're starting with the basics… so, the god created races, also known as blessed, are to put it simply the species created by the gods; this includes humans, elves, dwarves, orcs, goblins, etc. They were the first races in the world and humans, despite being relatively short lived compared to other races, are rather numerous. My family were a nomadic group of scavengers who tore apart- oh wait you probably don't know what Valboarian automations are." Maria said, trying to think of what was to explain.
"Mutants are either sub species of the blessed races that only existed after the god-fall or were animals that mutated into sapient species, while monsters are beings that were either created by mad gods, mana, or rogue mages. Mutants usually have either yellow or red eyes, though they can be almost any colour, while monsters have black eyes." She said, though as Maria spoke she seemed to notice something, Bucket put Lemmy down and stared at Maria. "Oh- don't worry, I don't plan on doing anything with her or reporting her." Maria said as Lemmy looked down at herself, her eyes were black… so was she a monster? She didn't think she was, she doesn't remember most of the monsters in the cave having black eyes like her. Then again, some didn't even have eyes, and when they did Lemmy couldn't even see them with how dark it was in the caverns.
Lemmy frowned the more thought of this, would people hate her just from seeing her? Would she be able to make any friends? She felt a mix of fear and sadness well up inside her before feeling a cold, metallic hand press against her hair. Looking up, Bucket seemed to sense her pain and tried their best to comfort her. Maria approached and knelt down to her level. "I can't be exactly sure at the moment, but I think you're a Chimera, you're technically a monster but… that doesn't mean you have to act like one, but you will have to be careful. Both around people and with your emotions, for your actions will be judged far more heavily, and your body may suffer… certain effects when under extreme stress." Maria said, seemingly unsure if she should elaborate on that or not.
Lemmy didn't find that very encouraging, but she still wanted to meet more people, so maybe she could cover her eyes? While she wouldn't be able to see what the inside of the city looked like, she could still use her ears! "What if I-" before she could finish speaking, Maria put something on her head, her own hat which hid Lemmy's ears quite well, though squished them together quite a bit. "Uh what are you doing?" Lemmy asked, as Maria's crystallized arm began to glow dimly. "Disguising you." She responded simply, her voice sounded muffled as Lemmy's vision briefly became darker before her eyes adapted to the dark.
—
Maria
The spells seemed to work decently, the first was to cause the shadow created by her hat's brim to be darker than normal which made it harder to focus on her face, second was a minor illusion that changed her sclera from black to white, glamor she thinks the spell was called? She hadn't had to use it in over three decades, so anyone who focused on her eyes long enough could see past it, or at the very least notice something off. "Okay, you shouldn't stand out too much, though don't take off the hat, illusions are easier to maintain when they don't stand out." she claimed as she stood up and summoned a mirror for Lemmy to look at. She almost looked like a normal girl if it wasn't for the crystals coming out of her neck… or her ragged clothing. "Hm, perhaps we should stop by a shop after getting into town, after all you'll feel a lot more comfortable in regular clothing." Maria claimed as she motioned Lemmy and Bucket to follow her, which they did after looking at each other for a brief moment.
—
Lemmy
The town was… silent, quieter than Lemmy had expected. She thought people would be louder living so close to each other, yet other than an occasional cough or yell in the distance, it didn't seem that much louder than her home. There weren't even that many people on the streets other than a few men wearing helmets and holding strange looking weapons, they had words like murderer or thief carved into their chest, but they seemed nice otherwise, one even waved back at her, even if they moved a bit weirdly! Though for some reason Bucket and Maria dragged her away whenever she tried to approach one of them…
The buildings didn't look that much better up close, though there was occasionally a colorful mural or a building that looked a lot more uniform in structure than its neighbors. The smell from earlier became even more intense, and the ground was a lot harder than the dirt outside the city. Eventually the group came across a rundown shop that looks like it was barely maintained for a decade, Maria stared at it for several moments, the sign had some of its paint peel off as it waved in the wind. She looked around for several moments before sighing and entering the building, inside was slightly better looking, the wooden floors looked less decayed, the paint looked slightly more colorful, and there was actually a person here. Though they seemed… scared, it was a short yet rather stocky looking man, with a graying brown beard and a bald head. He brandished a blade as the three entered, causing Bucket to reach for their's, yet Maria motioned to stop them.
"Ah, are yah customers? Fine, just get whatever you're looking for and pay for it before you leave. Don't want the judges to come looking around here…" the stocky man said impatiently as Maria narrowed her eyes, yet didn't say anything as she looked around, there seemed to be everything here. From rusty tools, dusty weapons, stained clothing and broken pieces of jewelry. Lemmy wandered around the store with Maria, curious about all the items of various value around the store, yet the owner's gaze encouraged them to move along faster.
Maria eventually picked up a few sets of clothing, she had to put a few of the ones stained red back, but otherwise most of the clothes seemed mostly clean. Yet as Maria got out what looked like a few rings that were far too small to fit a person's finger, the door ripped open. "Thieeef" a loud and raspy voice boomed out, causing both Lemmy and the store owner to jump in shock, Lemmy ran to Bucket's side while the owner drew his blade again. "I- I ain't no thief!" He said as Lemmy saw three figures enter, two of the helmeted men from earlier and a heavily armored man who wore pitch black armor, a bone white hood and had a golden skeletal hand with some sort of leafy branch etched into the chest plate followed.
"Liar… we have over ten individuals who confessed you knowingly bought and sold stolen goods to them, come with us, and we shall offer you means to redeem yourself in life." the raspy voiced man offered, before the short man attempted to flee out the back. One of the helmeted men raised a strange metal weapon, it was too short to be a rifle like bucket's, but it had a crystal in it for ammunition. The handle was under the man's armpit, his right hand held the underbarrel to aim, and their left grabbed a lever on top before pulling it back. Within those few seconds, the owner managed to reach the door, yet the weapon shot out a bolt of lighting which shot him in the back! "AUGH-" before he fell into the doorway.
Lemmy froze as she saw this, why would someone go this far just to stop a thief?! She was worried about the mana, but as the two helmeted men walked over to drag him out, the armored man looked over. "Leave-" he said as Bucket grabbed Lemmy's arm, obeying the man as she pulled Lemmy out of the shop with Maria following them. She looked back briefly, only to see the man gazing at her with dead eyes… just like the monster engine she had fought a few hours ago. Lemmy felt a chill run up her spine even as the man was no longer in sight.
"Who… who was that?" She asked Maria with concern. Maria hesitated for a moment, walking along with her and Bucket as she looked around. "A bone hand of the Order of Al'kun, they're like detectives… people who investigate crimes, but they're also responsible for capturing those they find guilty." She responded, causing Lemmy to look back thoughtfully. "So that man was evil?" She asked, causing Maria to remain quiet for several more moments. "Perhaps, but for now, let's find a place for you to stay. I think I know an inn nearby."