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"I'm glad you could but I'm sorry I can't make it. Something suddenly came up." Alfbern read Kayla's reply to his message and sighed. "She said something suddenly came up for her and can't make it to the show." He said. Melody, Fiorina and Felicity looked saddened.
"She's going to miss out." Felicity dejectedly said, and took a deep breath. Camelia entered the back gallery where the event participants were gathered.
I began venturing into the forest. With every step I was in a hurry, but I also stopped sometimes to look in each direction. When I was still close to the entrance, I recognized a berry bush growing by the trees and ran over to it. Its berries are ones I recognize as a prized edible! Their cyan berries with broad leaves that have turquoise stripes among their pale bluish greenery are unmistakable.
To enjoy this bounty of these sweet and slightly minty berries, I brought out a basket and started to fill it up! I knelt down to pick the lower-hanging berries, but stood up again. Further ahead was a long stretch of trees that blocked out much of the sunlight that remained. I continued walking towards what was ahead. Treasure? Doom? I wondered these possibilities, when suddenly I heard something rustle after I took another step and ran several paces ahead. Something fell, and I looked behind me. It was a weighted net. Did the forest spirit set this up to capture its victims?
I carefully walked ahead again with my lantern and basket in hand, but I put the basket away in hammerspace. It might get in the way navigating if there are more traps. Between whether treasure or doom were ahead, it's more likely to be doom, but I've already gotten this far. There was still some daylight, but since the inside of the forest was getting darker, I brought out my lantern.
A large bat flew into my view; its wingspan was about the width of a large platter and its wings had cyan tips that were just noticeable among their flapping. Less noticeable when they're flapping their wings is that these bats have snowflake patterns on the backs of their wings. This bat kept its distance. It wasn't interested in biting me, but it kept enough distance to form a ball of ice in its mouth and aim it right at me!
I dodged it and materialized one of my weapons; a cutlass with a blue handle that was made from a metal material that also sparkles; between the hilt and blade on both sides it had a generator in the shape of a 5-pointed star with rivets on the inner corners of the rims; its rims looked to be gold or brass, and it had a panel of the same shape in the middle that glowed as the weapon was activated. Along the blade on both sides along the top, if it could be called a blade since it's blunt enough to normally be non-lethal, was a row of power indicator lights.
Just as I brandished it in front of me and held it out, I could momentarily stop time around me to boast; "Sharpshootin' Sualocin!" I invoked the name of this weapon, and set my lantern on the floor so I could pose. Sualocin's generator glowed brightly. Stopping time for a moment was a deliberate feature in these weapons to allow the wielder to show it off and boast to enemies without being attacked, but just for a moment and in this specific situation once per fight.
The bat fired another ice ball, but there was no sharpshooting from me. I simply swung Sualocin like a regular sword to block the ice ball which shattered into pieces, but Sualocin was marginally more practical than my other weapon for this situation. It has a name too; Roarin' Rotanev!
As I continued forward, I fended off many ice bats in that mundane way, just physically blocking their shots and waving Sualocin at the bats to threaten them and get them to leave. The sign that I saw at the entrance to the forest had another next to it that was a warning to visitors to leave the trails and everything as they were.
The bottom of that sign cited which law that's from, but the urban legend also goes that in this forest, breaking that rule will lead to the forest spirit's vengeance which will get you before the park rangers do.
I also would provoke her vengeance while stealing from her, but only if I got caught and it's not me plan to get caught. Heh heh heh. I chuckled to myself. As to why I ditched me art mateys and am going through this bloomin' rigamarole instead, me mateys in the Magical Revolutionaries decided to place a wager tonight on whether I could plunder food from "the forest spirit" at this one. I wanted to be at the art show, but forgot that was scheduled this evening and I wasn't just going to back down from a challenge! It'd be too late now anyways. If I headed back now, I'll return empty handed with nothing but wasted efforts.
There's an urban legend that in Skog Forest Park, the person who has been camping there for a long time is actually a forest spirit. Elusive and mysterious in both personality and threat level, but one of me matey's great-great-great grandsons' has a friend whose second cousin's dog's manager claimed that she is formidable and has unusual abilities.
How assuring... Hardly, but what am I, chicken? No, I'm Kayla Faber- err that's who I normally am. This is Ultramarine Revolutionary! I, Ultramarine Revolutionary, have something to prove and I'm going against commonsense for it! When I come back, I know I'll be in trouble with me art mateys for ditching a major event, but they should thank me for the knowledge I can give them by proving or disproving that urban legend!
I kept walking and wasn't dealing with so many of those darn bats, but something else almost deterred me from going any further. A foul, fishy ammonia-like smell lingered through the area. I felt nauseous for a few moments yet looked around to find its source; an open can of surstromming. "Hey! Whoever set an open can of surstromming here, the smell is tough, but I'm tougher!" I loudly boasted and kept walking forward, sometimes with my nose plugged. I briefly looked back and saw some animals eating from the can.
The fire in a bonfire pit and lights from electric torches came in view after walking for several more minutes. The stench of the surstromming had given way and as I came closer to the campsite, I smelled something pleasant. I hid out kneeled behind bushes just at the edge of the campsite, and used the lens in my eyepatch to scan the area and zoom an image of the scene. There weren't any hidden trip wires. No one immediately appeared to be in sight despite the open bonfire.
Some more paces behind the lights by the campfire was a cabin. Curtains covered the windows, but there didn't seem to be any trace of light coming from the inside.
"Aye! that smells delicious!" I thought. I took another sniff, or several as I walked closer. It was rich, smoky and meaty and irresistible. It was calling out to me. However, it wasn't at the bonfire. I looked around to see what it could be coming from. Several paces away but still within sight was a wooden building with a door on the front and a circular vent above it; smoke wafted out of the vent. It was a smokehouse.
That rich, irresistible smell was stronger. This was it! I glanced around in each direction and didn't see anyone, but slowly opened the door when I saw its treasure in the surrounding electric lighting: smoked meats hanging from the ceiling! They looked smoky with a pepper and herb seasoning on them.
I pilfered a knife and fork from a tray that held them and carved a piece off of the hanging meats. I looked in awe but before I was going to eat it, I needed immediate proof to send to my friends in the Magical Revolutionaries. I reached through hammerspace again to bring out my phone. When I flipped my phone open, there were notifications about new text messages, but this wasn't the time to read them. I hastily went to the camera, so in one hand I had a piece of smoked meat on a fork, and on the other was my phone camera pointing at it. In the background was the opened door to the smokehouse.
The light flashed and I had a photo! I popped the bite of meat into my mouth and savored the flavor. "Mmmmmmmm! I'm bringing some of this back!" I thought, but I started to feel a sense of dread in the pit of my stomach.
The lighting around the campsite dimmed and its warm white changed to a pale blue, and fog started covering the area.
"Did you assume I'm an irresponsible camper?" Someone said in an ominous tone.
"Yes. Who in Davy Jones' locker leaves a campfire and a smokehouse unattended?! I've had marks who were that foolish!" I said and turned around, momentarily unfazed by what I saw; a person in low lighting, still mostly cloaked in shadow and fog.
"My friends and I were watching. That was your mistake to assume we weren't." The person said and took a step towards me. "I've been camping here for a long time, kid. Probably longer than you've been written into this world." The fog added to her ghostly appearance, or concealed whether she's actually a ghost but I felt a chill around her.
I saw that she seemed to be a bit taller than me so she was of average-ish height with a light complexion, had hair in a shade of brown that was tied into braided pigtails that were about as long as her height. She was wearing an old hunting outfit in a muted tint of red, with a jacket and I faintly saw through the fog that she wearing a knee-length pleated skirt with dark gray boots that reached just below the knee.
She took a few more steps. Goggles with dark lenses covered her eyes, but for a moment, I think I saw an orange glow coming from them. She also had futuristic headpieces resembling a pair of long glossy black hair clips on the sides of her head. They were faintly visible, but their glossiness reflected the light. I hope those are just an unusual anachronistic fashion choice and not an identifier of the cyborg super soldier mages that were decommissioned due to alleged problems with their project because allegedly, they're still formidable.
"Hold on, can I film this?" I foolishly asked and brought my phone again. It took only one second for the picture on screen to turn to static and the signal to drop.
"There's your answer."
I groaned and put my phone away. "Oh bloody hell-- are you the forest spirit?" I asked in amazement, fear and defiance.
"I'm aware that's what I'm often called." The so-called forest spirit said in a deadpan tone. "You probably have a name too, but right now I'm calling you an intruder!" She said more harshly and pointed at me.
"How did you sense me? I didn't detect any cameras!"
"Several ice bats came back to me, alerting that you're an intruder." She said. "Oh..." She said in an icy tone and looked at the insignia on my brooch. "If it weren't for the bats scouting for me, I'd still know you're an intruder now."
She took another step closer. "I haven't seen you near here before though. Did they set you up for this?" She asked.
I wasn't going to snitch on them. "I did this on my own." I defiantly said.
"Whether they did or didn't, I'm still not going easy on you if you're not going to leave."
The short story and drawing I did for an art challenge of Kayla having a bootleg Magical Renegades weapon is canon and incorporated into a main story! However there are a few changes; she dual wields a cutlass and a blunderbuss; the latter is so I could eventually have one of her special attacks be called "The Blunderbuss is Coming" (and everybody's jumping) 🙃 Keeping up with the star theme for weapons, hers are Sharpshootin' Sualocin and Roarin' Rotanev.
This chapter re-introduces another character in an unusual way that came to me when I was getting ideas for this story. She's only mentioned by her nickname in the story, but it's obvious who this is from the webtoon so she'll be mentioned by name here. It's not really a spoiler.
When I began thinking over how to start Architect Deco House Rebuilding, the idea of Kayla being the protagonist was one of the first things. As I brainstormed further that day, I thought the idea of her and Katt having a hostile relationship when they met would be interesting, and their conflict in this chapter adds the twist of making Katt the first antagonist of this story. When I was writing the webtoon, I wanted to eventually get to a flashback showing how they met, but that would've been so far ahead, and I'm not sure exactly where I would've placed it.
It would've taken such a long time with the update schedule I had. I solidified how they met during my brainstorming for this story. Making a prequel was daunting because I really want to focus on finding a way to continue the plot of ATC in a more doable way, but rushing tends to have its problems in both of my story projects.
Katt's characterization here is a re-tool, but also based on something I intended for her backstory as one of the magic cyborg super soldiers from a defunct project trying to live a normal life. This story being a prequel will much better show the challenges. Several characters will benefit from this shift.