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Chapter 294: The floating city
🕑 Added 2024-06-28 14:00:12 +0000 UTCMason followed the bird and ape men with the young priest he'd saved, not really sure he should. First of all, he still had no idea where Carl and the others were. Second, he wasn't actually sure why he should care about this priest anyway.
All he had was that the man professed to worship ‘Nephus’, and an intuitive sense that he should. And of course a complete lack of any other ideas or plan on how to 'save the Nephalai'.
Only when he thought of the word again did he blink and glance at the priest. He lowered his voice and whispered.
"So...what are the worshipers of Nephus called? Nephites? Nephus' witnesses? Nephilim? Nephalai?"
"Oh." The young man put a hand to his hairless chin. "Well. I hadn't thought about that." He looked for the first time maybe slightly...hesitant? "Technically, there are not currently worshipers of Nephus. He's a very new god. Only recently created to fill the void left by..."
"Wait.” Mason put a hand to his face. “How can a life god be 'new'?" He saw the priest was ready to explain and held up a hand. "Nevermind. What do you mean there aren’t worshipers? Where did you come from?"
"Technically..." the priest shrugged and looked up as if thinking. "Counting myself. There is only one. Though it appears now he has some servants.” Here the man smiled and nodded towards the players.
Mason blinked, no idea what to make of that. Even if followers of this 'Nephus' were what the game meant by 'Nephalai'. How the hell was Mason supposed to save them…when there weren’t any?
"And you're here..." he said slowly, lowering his voice even more, "to convert...these people? Why these people? I mean...why not start in some nice, peaceful village? You picked a jungle full of...man eating..." Mason tossed up a hand.
"Because these people need Nephus most," said the priest, his face losing any doubt. "Because it is why he came to me in the first place. They are to be his guardians. They are to build and defend his temple."
Mason nodded like that wasn't all insane. How long was he going to be in here? Did he need to help convert a city? Help them build a temple? Protect them?
He couldn't imagine that was the case, and yet...the same intuition that had him walking beside this 'prophet' made him think that was exactly what he was supposed to do.
"Did Nephus speak to you, also?" said the priest, searching Mason's eyes. "Did he truly send you to protect me?"
Mason did his best to keep his shoulders from sagging in defeat.
"Yes. Yes he did."
The priest made some kind of holy gesture again, taking Mason's hand.
"Bless His wisdom, and your strength, my friend. And your companions."
"There's more of us," Mason said. "Three more. We've...lost them somewhere in the jungle."
"Have no fear, my friend," the priest smiled. "He has brought us together. He will bring them, too. Have no doubt."
Mason was rather filled with doubt. He let the man walk on ahead, moving back towards Becky and Seamus.
He noticed plenty of the bird men watching him from the corners of their eyes, and hoped they weren't just intending to ambush them as soon as they had more men. But there wasn't much he could do except be ready to fight.
He explained the whole 'Nephus' situation to the others, and got pretty much the reaction he expected.
"He has to convert them?" Becky's green eyes widened. "How long will that take?"
Mason shrugged helplessly.
"Tell him to offer them a bunch of virgins," Seamus said, then met their eyes when they stared. "What? It works! Hell I thought I might convert myself with them Arab boys a few years back, just couldn't on account of all the praying and whatnot, plus I love pork, and..."
"Seamus. Let's leave the prophet to his converting. We're just going to keep him alive. When we get wherever we're going, which I assume is some kind of village, we'll see how dangerous it is then maybe I'll go look for the others. Any questions?"
There were none, so after a 'can I leave you with him?' sort of glance at Becky, and an affirmative nod, he wandered back towards his new prophet and the dangerous creatures all around him.
"They say we are close to their homeland," the priest said with a grin. "I must say, I'm very excited to see the floating city."
Mason felt his eyebrows raise, and he glanced again at the essentially loin-cloth wearing hunters.
"You're telling me...the half-naked guys with the giant apes, who were about to roast you, have a floating city?"
The priest blinked. "Of course they do."
"And you are confident…”Mason said slowly, “after letting you see this mystical floating city, buried deep in a jungle…they are simply going to…let you leave? Alive?"
Here the priest shook his head as if Mason's question was some kind of joke. When he realized it wasn't, his eyes moved back and forth.
"I have no intention of leaving, my friend. This quest will take me the remainder of my life."
Mason nodded along, trying not to panic, or pray for the remainder of that life to be rather short. Instead he said nothing, mind lost in thought as he followed his ridiculous new charge deeper into the jungle.
*
Turned out the human-eating bird and ape men actually did have a floating city.
The group finally reached a break in the jungle, which dropped down into a civilized valley, completely covered in farmland and town.
At the center of the valley was a lake dotted with small boats, and in the center of the lake was a small city somehow half built into the water. Mason assumed some kind of wooden pillars/stakes were holding it up, except he could see a few segments of the thing literally floating in the air.
"Sweet Jesus would you look at that," Seamus said, and Mason couldn't think of anything better.
"Incredible," said the priest, his eyes moist as he held onto his religious charm. "It's everything I imagined and more."
"We go down here," explained their guide, gesturing to one of several stone-covered roads that led to the lake. Then all of the bird men, including their leader, leapt off the edge of the valley, to what was a good fifty foot drop off a sheer cliff.
Their wings extended to at least twelve feet, and all took easily to the air. Most of their feathers were white or black but a few with multi-colored plumage, and the display as they flapped and turned was like a flock of birds coordinated in flight.
"Amazin'," Becky said, looking at Mason with such genuine joy he couldn't help but smile back. He really hoped he wasn't going to have to murder his way through these people.
"Come with us," said one of the apes Mason had fought, still walking with a bit of a limp and a constant glare.
"Sorry," Mason said, gesturing between the ape's legs. "About the cheap shot. But...you're very big."
"Not so big," said another ape, and the two creatures exchanged a look before the few others all showed their teeth and started making pretty obvious laughing sounds.
"No honor," said the butt of the joke, squinting at Mason. "Next time I crush you, little pale monkey."
Mason shrugged.
"Next time I'll hit you in the other ball."
Again the other apes showed large, vaguely frightening teeth as they howled, and Mason hoped he didn't have to kill them, either.
The apes led them down along the road, the players soon finding a few new types of 'humanoids' working the fields or walking the roads. Some were dark and maybe slightly furred, with clawed hands and curled frames that made them look like...burrowers. The others were hairless and almost blue, looking more like fish-people.
They all stared at Mason and the others.
"What? We aren't the bloody weirdos," Seamus muttered, and Mason gave him a glare, keeping his voice low.
"We are here. And if I have to fight or kill because you insult someone, you won't like the result. So be polite. Better yet, just don't talk."
Seamus opened his mouth as if to reply, then shrugged and started whistling.
They walked on, all staring at the mostly wooden buildings designed with beautiful, curving architecture. Mason was briefly curious how they could even make wood look like that when he remembered they had floating buildings.
Eventually they arrived at one of several bridges from the outside of the lake to the city, and Mason felt he'd come to a kind of point of no return. He glanced at the still mostly bored and unafraid Streak, its gaze moving longingly to the water.
He met Becky's beautiful eyes, trying not to consider that fact that he may one day make a decision that got her killed. And that decision might be entering this city.
The apes were gesturing them on.
Other citizens of the valley were moving around them and going in or out with curious or annoyed glances. Still Mason's feet kept him at the edge.
"Ready?" he said to Becky, hoping she understood his hesitation. She nodded, and squeezed his hand, and he reminded himself she was a warrior, ready to fight and die just like he was.
"OK," he said, nodding to the apes, then following behind them across the long, sturdy bridge.
