The town of Cliffside was bustling, loads of bricks getting moved to be dried, others moving into storage, further teams downriver harvesting lumber for charcoal.
With most of the adults doing the work of the town, there were few available for de when a pack of children, already in trouble for ditching school, run back into town with even graver news.
After getting a stern hollerin' to by one of the elder constables, moreso about waking him up from his nap than ditching school, he assembled the town council that was available and small search parties were formed, with a more concerted enough getting organized when folks got back from their shift, if little Timmy hadn't shown up all by himself by then.
Montese the Hamster Scout's job was finding people, but there was no way he was getting lumped in with a random search party. He would work solo, or better yet, with the help of a friend.
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| Montese the Hamster |
One such entity was Soul'Miz, a Mutant Venus Fly-Trap.
For most of the night, the Montese and Soul'Miz dodged search party after search party Um'brallers, no small task with a scare seven-year old human boy in their possession, but near dawn they stumbled upon one of the Cliffside search party that foolhardily decided to make camp inside the Nightwood. Together they made it back to the buffer zone, where the human woman with glowing up was sitting on a falled log...
After Soul'Miz agreed to help, the duo traveled straight in the depths of the Nightwood.
"I know exactly where he'll be," Montese proudly declared.
Once a month, the lumberjacks of Cliffside would stop harvesting down along the Infernal and stay up near town to "manage" a small section of the Nightwood. It was much harder than their normal work, but the yield of fine and rare trees, as well as an open buffer to protect the town, benefitted all.
But once the duo got through that open buffer zone, the world almost went dark. The Nightwood got its name from the thick canopy it created, nearly blocking out all sunlight. Bioluminescent mushrooms and moss dotted the ground, giving the whole region a mysterious tone on top of the random creatures that lived within.
They had cautiously walked a bit of woods, when Montese cried out, "Soul'Miz, duck!"
A series of rocks, tied to ropes, swung down from the high branches. The Venus Fly Trap was not prepared for fast action, but luckily her short stature was enough to save her. Each rock peaked and swung back and forth innocently until they stopped.
A ghastly little trolls barreled down the hill where they had been hiding, their hoots and hollers piercing the eerie quiet of the woods.
These were Um'brallers, once the fiendish races that somehow from the Nightwood liveable, if not completely pleasant. They rarely visited Cliffside, but they were the number one suspects on Soul'Miz's list.
The base of the plant began to expand, forming bags of gas that allowed Soul'Miz to float above the reach of the creature.
Montese, always a secondary target, and somehow vanished from everyone's sight. While the Um'Brallers were jumping up, trying to touch the plant, the hamster re-appeared between them and bashed their heads together.
"I really wished you weren't such a pacifist." was all Montese could get out.
"Hey, if they accidently fall into a coma and land in my mouth, I'm not adverse to slowly digesting them. I just don't want to hurt them. We're on their land."
"With our kid..."
A bit further, and they had another encounter with a lone Um'Braller, a much larger monstrosity, probably keyed to the previous ruckus. Soul'Miz stared the beast down, raised a tendril, and suddenly the Um'Braller was floating. She barely had enough energy and focus to move the creature into a nearby tree. The smaller Um'Braller were quite nimble, but the larger "Gum'Brallers" developed a fear of heights for some reason, and they would frozen in fear for a number of minutes until they would start to cry out for help. That gave the pair enough time to make a hasty exit from the area.
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| The Um'brallers (Two from the rock trap, and the one that chased our heroes) |
They travelled for most of the day, although they could barely tell the sun had already set, until they fell upon a rare "bald", an opening the Nightwood. A New Moon in the sky barely changed things, but the bald did create an interesting sight.
Dozens of small tents and few small fires filled the void. It appeared the Um'Brallers, who were afraid of most light, took advantage of no moon and decided to camp out amongst the stars.
Located on the edge of the camp were three woven cages, a mixture of branches and briars. One of them had little Timmy.
Montese moved up undetected, and opened all three cages, quieting waking up and coaxing out Timmy, a woman with glowing eyes, and a man with very pointed ears. The three prisoners making even the most mild stretching actions, as the cages were quite tight, was enough the alert some of the guards.
A long chase commenced. Our duo grabbed Timmy with them, but the other two prisoners split off in opposite directions.
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| The Mystery Woman |
Next: #2 -
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