Steel Sky (Adelle/Mind Flayer)

[Guan Yu]

Rose did not seem different from her usual self, as much as that could be determined from her sleeping self. At the edges, no issue would come to Adelle and she could pee in peace. A night spent drying had done her clothes good, which were perfectly wearable and only a very slight sign of dampness still to be felt from some of them.

Adelle's little wakeup activities did manage to stir the cook satyr from his slumber, and he would not directly answer the question asked as he rolled down to lay there fully, next to the barrels before pointing at the stacked leaf packets on the barrels. If the busty girl looked at them closer, she would find out that they were indeed leaf packages filled with a modest meal's worth of the meat he had been making last night in each of them. The meat had been carved into strips for convenient eating and rolled inside the leaves, making them rather handy for traveling rations.

Rose would stir from her sleep as well as this happened, rising up to a sitting position, looking less prepared and ready to go than Adelle did, frizzy hair and bloodshot eyes showing clear signs of what had happened the previous night.

 

[Mind Flayer]

"Hey hon. You alright? Come on, let's get you freshened up okay. I gotcha. You're probably a bit sore down there. I know I am," Adelle said to Rose, helping her to her feet and then to the water to get her face washed and all that.

Once they were both ready to eat, Adelle would help get Rose some strips of meat fixed up so the big girl could use her claws to be able to get it easier so she didn't need to rely on Adelle to help get the food so much. Unless Garuk or one of the other satyrs wanted to help her instead that is. In which case Adelle would let them.

When they had both eaten their fill and were ready to go again, with Adelle helping Rose get her clothes back on, Adelle would stretch and refill her water canteen, then prepare to leave. "Alright boys. Can you point us to where those flowers are please? Preferably away from those little gobbos," Adelle asked the satyrs kindly.

 

[Guan Yu]

"I suppose... I can manage. We need to climb that big rock still..." Rose would not quite agree with being ready but nonetheless putting herself into it, looking a bit better once she got some water thrown on her face. Left to her own devices, she would somewhat awkwardly pinchgrip the meat in her claws so she could get them into her mouth, not quite as fast as one might hope doing it all.

The satyr crew there did not seem too keen on stirring from their hungover rest, but as they had agreed the day before, it did look like Junior would be there for them after the two of them verbally bashed him a bit, far less smashed than his his two... brothers? Adelle had observed that he had been far less greedy last night when it came to the booze, so she was probably on the same level of readiness with the youngest of satyrs. "I'll take you to the base of the mountain path as agreed. Even come along for a little bit on the climb. But as disappointing as it might be, I won't go all the way up there. The goblins are not brave enough to go there anyway, so it should be safer than the surrounding forests for you two. And... I mean, does your friend seriously need protection?"

 

[Mind Flayer]

"Aye, we do unfortunately," Adelle sighed, helping Rose to get the food in her mouth if she needed it.

"Thanks Junior. I really appreciate it. And they did attack us yesterday, but we managed to drive them off thankfully. I guess we're ready when you are though," Adelle told Junior as she stretched again and prepared to head on out once they had eaten and gotten ready to go. "Is there anything else we ought to be mindful of up there though?" she asked Junior when they'd set out.

 

[Guan Yu]

"Well the mountain has it's own inhabitants of course. The long-nose winged people live on the slopes and we have no real knowledge of them since we don't go up there all that often. They seem to be watching anyone going up there, but at least we have had no encounter closer than seeing them move around at lightning speed, watching. The person who went up there might be something too, but we are unsure of her intentions either with no contact since her initial move up the mountain path. Maybe a few vine-corrupted animals have found themselves there too, if they wandered in the right direction."

 

[Mind Flayer]

"Ah I see. And the long nosed winged people... I think I've run into a few before. And vine corrupted animals eh. Well let's hope that they aren't too aggressive, or that we can avoid them if they are," Adelle commented as they set out, keeping her eyes out for anything suspicious, or dangerous, and being ever watchful for those illusive flowers they were searching for too as she followed Junior along with a hand at the ready to whip her pistol out, which she made sure was loaded as well.

 

[Guan Yu]

With the two discussers being joined by a still frizzy and somewhat wobbly Rose, they started their walk towards the paths. The time spent going there was uneventful, which maybe was for the best, taking about 2 or 3 hours at best to get there. The satyrs had not been talking nonsense, there indeed was a solidly travelled path going up the mountainside. It was not the most hospitably looking path, but did not go up too steeply so the dangers of tripping were less of a concern when it would only result in some bumps and going down a little. This low on altitude, the mountain itself was only sparsely littered with small, bushy vegetation that would not serve to hide anything effectively.

"Here we are, ladies. Do you still need me to get you started or should I go back?"

 

[Mind Flayer]

Adelle stayed with Junior and made sure to help Rose up anytime she might need it. She'd also help get Rose's hair to look a bit less frizzy as they went too, wanting Rose to look her best since Adelle genuinely thought Rose was a rather beautiful woman herself, and she had to admit that she did feel attracted to her as well. Those breasts were something else to snuggle into, she thought to herself.

Adelle was quite glad that the path didn't go up Too steep an incline too, the further up they went. If it had, she might have to consider finding another path up. The further up they went, the more anxious Adelle was beginning to get, as she wasn't spotting the flowers yet. "I think we can handle it from here. Though if you wanna help us find those flowers it'd be much appreciated. But I don't wanna take up any more of your time than we already have, Junior. But... my thanks for showing us the way, the least I can do," Adelle told Junior as she leaned in and gave him a kiss on the lips, nothing too intense, just a simple kiss, more than a peck, but not a French kiss.

Once Junior had started back down, Adelle would begin the search for those flowers, collecting as many as she could find, and putting them into her backpack.

 

[Guan Yu]

The initial look for the flowers was proving unsuccesful, no real sight of them around for a good bit. "Didn't they say... something about a stream on the mountain?" Rose would speak up after that while, a little less messy now but still visibly less neat than her usual appearance. "Looks like we need to head up there... to look for that stream and... see if it leads us to the target."

 

[Mind Flayer]

"Oh yeah, they did didn't they. Well, let's look for a stream then. Should be able to hear it from a ways off, especially if it's going downhill," Adelle replied, nodding to Rose as she remembered that too, and began looking about for a stream, looking up the mountain a ways and agreeing with Rose's comment.

Adelle began to climb upwards, seeming hopeful as they went, and helping Rose at any point the big girl needed her to. She'd get behind Rose to push if need be too, since pulling would likely be much harder for her, when she was half of Rose's size.

 

[Guan Yu]

The climb was thankfully looking to maintain it's ease, the path remaining at the low steepness level as the two progressed. The vegetation started to get dense with the ascent, and soon the path felt like it was the forest again as the trees began to surround the path. But with the trees there, the surroundings started to look a little less inviting, and brought about a feeling as if there was someone watching within the clusters of tree trunks. More than once, there appeared to be a briefest glimpse of something there, but it never was once looked at directly.

Even with her size what it was, Rose was managing, and would probably be just fine as her claws could act like a pickaxe if need be, grabbing the ground or any surrounding terrain features if there was a danger of tripping.

 

[Mind Flayer]

"Mmm, it looks like this place has been a bit...broken apart almost. Like something big and bulky destroyed the place or something, or tried to at least," Adelle said as they got a bit higher up and she saw the the tree trunks everywhere.

She also got the faint sense that something else was there too, and it was disturbing, especially considering that she couldn't directly spot whatever it was. She didn't think too much about it though, but would keep a close eye out for anything that might be out of the ordinary as they continued ever upward.

 

[Guan Yu]

For all their intimidation factor, the lining trees did not seem to hide anything to stalk the girls. Or if they did, the stalker was not one to let themselves be seen or heard. Yet, the eerie feeling of being watched remained.

Going further up the path revealed a split on the path, one going more steeply upward and looking a bit more natural as there were no destroyed trees on the sides of that path, only standing ones. The other pathway was sticking to the side of the mountain, retaining the shallow rise and the trunks on the sides of the path.

 

[Mind Flayer]

"Oh... well this isn't god. I wasn't expecting a split path," Adelle sighed as they saw the thing splitting. "Well, what do you think hon? Steeper harder path? Or safer shallower one? I'm for the safer path myself, because I don't fancy tumbling off the cliff there and breaking a bone," Adelle asked, and if Rose wasn't against the longer safer path, Adelle would begin heading up it.

 

[Guan Yu]

Rose did not seem to mind them going the easier path, understanding the perilous nature of the mountain. So that was where they would go.

The path would go on as it had for a while more, the destroyed trees soon switching to regular standing ones as they came near something that looked like the ruin of a small temple. The roof was was long gone, and if there had been a floor once, natural dirt was now replacing it. Pillars of different heights lined the sides, most having lost their white luster and were greyed out from age or greenish from the surrounding plant life having taken them over. Interestingly enough, each pillar base was surrounded by suspiciously manmade-looking beds of different flowers, with a path going through the middle. But more concerning than the flowers or pillars was something up ahead, a pile of rocks and a leaning monolith lending themselves to possibly try and hide something that looked far more intimidating than anything they had seen on the trip. It seemed to be a statue of some very unconventional demon, but the "statue" could actually be alive as it appeared to be looking at them despite being still as a rock. More telling was the red pinpoints of light that emanated from it's skeletal visage's eyes. If the path went forward from there, they could not tell as the demon and the rock pile obscured the path.

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[Mind Flayer]

Adelle walked, and walked some more. She wished she could have rode her bike up here. But at the same time she was glad she hadn't tried, so that it didn't get messed up or anything. After a while, she was taken aback by the sight of the temple she spotted up ahead, well... an old ruined one at least. "Oh wow... maybe we can sit down in there for a few minutes to rest our feet before we finish heading up," Adelle suggested as they approached it.

"Oh wow, so many flowers. And they're so beautiful," Adelle muttered at the sight of the flowers as they approached, wondering if any looked like the ones they were looking for. "W-Whoa!" Adelle yelped at the sight of the statue, actually stumbling back against Rose in fright.

"J-Jeez... why make something so damned scary like that?" Adelle asked, not really expecting Rose to know the answer, as she righted herself and tried to move a bit closer. "Um... hey... is that actually a statue? Hello? Um, may we pass?" Adelle asked, looking more closely at the statue, after noticing that it was seemingly staring at them both.

 

[Guan Yu]

Unfortunately the red lilies were not among the flowers the girls could see in this bizarre garden, so their search would be going on further. Talking to the possible statue did not seem to produce any results as it stayed silent and still as it had before, but minute movement could be seen in those red pinpoints so it was probably safe to assume it was an actual living thing.

 

[Mind Flayer]

"Damn... still no dice on the flowers," Adelle grumbled as she searched around the temple ruins for the things.

After she failed to spot any, and made for the statue, she stared closely at the thing for quite some time, until she saw its red eyes moving ever so slightly. "I-Is it alive? Its eyes are moving, I can see them," Adelle asked again, moving closer cautiously and giving a wave at the demonic looking beast. "H-Hello? I can see that you're alive. Can you understand me, by chance?" she asked it again, staying just out of reach of its arms, she hoped.

 

[Guan Yu]

Upon closer inspection, Adelle could get a more clear picture of this demon. It was as large as it's stony perch suggested it to be, standing taller than Rose was with it's long neck elevating it. And as luck would have it, a little bit of determination did draw it's attention finally. It did speak, and the voice was as demonic as one would expect from this thing, but it was not speaking conventially. Instead, it used telepathic communication as a voice could be heard inside the huntress' head. "...Don't mess with the flowers..." it would say as it finally moved to bend it's neck towards the girls a little.

 

[Mind Flayer]

"W-Whoa, that's weird. And aw... why not? W-We need just a few of the flowers I'm looking for. They're for my friend here to help her out. P-Please, may we have some of the red lilies, if there are any here?" Adelle replied, bowing politely to the statue.

She had to admit she'd felt a bit weirded out by the telepathic communication, but what with all the magic she'd witnessed recently, it didn't shock her so much that it left her unable to react somewhat quickly. "If... you want something in return for them, I'm willing to trade maybe. Though I doubt I have anything you might be interested in I fear," Adelle added after a few moments, pulling her backpack around and looking into it for her things, wondering if there were anything the demonic statue might want in return for the red lilies.