Four Days Ago
Merisi pursed her lips, staring up at the big, silver-wrought gates. The fence stood proud and powerful, shimmering with anti-fey wards. The errand girl recognized them instantly from her bardic schooling, of course. She wasn't sure she much cared for them.
Well, guess this is the place,
she thought. She crouched, then whistled a single note.
A powerful gust of wind rose up around her, sending her flying into the air. Merisi—who was not that tall to begin with—rose high above the gates, doing her best not to flail. Her ebon hair billowed behind her as she landed. Fortunately, she had dressed for such stunts, and her wrappings did not even slip a little.
It took her a moment to recover from the landing, however.
After that moment had passed, she straightened and put her hands on her hips.
What a curious locale!
Hazelnut trees—definitely not native to her Wild East homeland—lined a walkway leading up to a humble little farmhouse. She had to squint to make it out in the late twilight, but there it was. Nice house, but something about it put her off. It took Merisi a second to recognize what: After traveling through native settlements for the last few days, she couldn't help but notice how extremely...
western
the construction was. Lacratians never remembered to twist the chimneys.
She didn't like the looks of those hazelnut trees, either. Merisi had been a bit of a mindless adventurer for the first few years after coming of age, and she'd spent a week or two in the arms of some excessively agreeable hazelnut dryads. You could never trust a tree that looked quite so
healthy
.
No time for that tonight! Humming a spell to help herself concentrate, Merisi grabbed a few shadows and furtively scurried beneath them.
It was a good time to be stealing shadows, but even at the twilight, shadows were thin. They were already breaking apart by the time she made it to the other side of the treeline. Merisi glanced back, and for a moment, she thought she could see a pair of pretty brown eyes watching her disappointedly from the branches.
Merisi gave a merry grin and wave.
Maybe next time, hon.
She turned, her expression turning serious again, as she approached the front door. After all the hassle this young man had caused the Bardic Orders' Postal Service, he'd better give a damn good tip. She had half a mind to lecture them about a Lacratian-owned ranch in unsettled forest, but Yuuma had advised caution here. This was probably an illegal enterprise. Best to leave the message and get out before anyone thought to question
her
.
She raised her worn elm staff and rapped several times on the door.
Softly. Best not to disturb whoever was making the erotic ruckus that could be heard even from downstairs, after all. Sounded like an awful lot of young women. Well, bards never judged.
After a moment, there was no response, and Merisi decided to disturb the erotic ruckus. She banged much harder on the door.
Still nothing. Merisi's eyes narrowed. "Bardic delivery!" she called up. Then, adding a singsong lilt, she added, "I need proof of receipt, so can someone
please
open this door?"
A pause. Merisi heard a faint jingling.
After a moment, the door squeaked open. A strange, unpleasant buzzing settled in the back of Merisi's head as it did so, and she jumped as two bright green eyes peered out. She couldn't see much of the owner's face, as the door was only opened to a crack. The eyes regarded her with a mixture of confusion and wariness. "You're a bard?"
"Aye." Merisi was nothing if not professional. She drew herself up tall. "I am a bardic messenger of the second class. I was sent to deliver some letters."
The door opened a bit wider, and Merisi's cheeks reddened as she realized the opener was a catgirl—and, it seemed, totally naked save for a belled collar.
The bell had a strange resonance. Merisi squinted, realizing that this was the source of her discomfort. There was musical magic on that bell.
Realizing she was staring a good distance below the dark-haired catgirl's eye level, Merisi managed to close her mouth and bow to the Fair One. She even managed to mutter a slightly garbled fey greeting she remembered from her grandmother's teachings.
The catgirl blinked. She returned the greeting, sluggishly, as if it hadn't been used for a while. Strange. Very strange. "I'll take those letters," she said slowly.
Merisi shook her head. "Sorry. I need to deliver these to one Senya Wetherdean. I have to make sure he gets them this time."
The catgirl shifted, scratching at her neck with both hands. Merisi noticed she was
very
careful not to disturb the bell. Her eyes darted back behind her. She squirmed a little. "I... can't..."
She seemed almost physically pained. Well, physically
something
, anyway. Her eyes weren't exactly shy about studying Merisi's tightly-wrapped form.
"Can you bring me Senya, then?" Merisi asked, trying to peer around the catgirl without appearing to ogle her. "That would be a wonderful service, Wise One."
The catgirl was breathing heavily, clinging to the door. "Can't," she squeaked.
"Why not?"
"Because..." The catgirl shuddered. "Master mustn't speak with strangers," she whispered, and slammed the door.
Merisi stared blankly at the wooden door for a moment.
Well.
This was all kinds of fucked up.
What was she supposed to do? Yuuma would have her hide if she got back and nothing was turned in. The Bardic Orders were
never
this badly delayed. But things clearly weren't normal here. Merisi readied a spell of mental protection, just in case.
That collar had been binding magic. Merisi wished she'd listened more to her grandmother's stories when she'd had the chance. Was this just a misunderstanding? Merisi couldn't imagine it was.
But it wasn't her business. Her job was to deliver these messages. As the creed went:
One must never kill the messenger—but a messenger who gets distracted is not a messenger.
She had two choices: She could try to break inside, potentially fight her way past a catgirl—and Merisi was bad at keeping her magics up in melee, so if that bell was made to bind
others
, she was in trouble—and hope that Senya was in here. Or she could scout around and look for more information.
Merisi was a bard, and bards weren't heroes. They were snoops. So she turned and started sneaking off into the ranch.
~~~~
Bards tended to have either very good hearing or very bad hearing, depending on how reliant they were upon sonorous magic. The Postmaster was nearly deaf, as he wielded a type of magic largely revolving around very loud pots and pans.
Merisi had good hearing, however, and she trusted her ears. So when she heard noises coming from the curious bog, she danced a quick spell of foot protection (a surprisingly pivotal bardic spell, actually) and made her way into the slog.
Lush bushes grew all around. Merisi was pretty sure they were some kind of berry bush, but most of them were covered in mud and filth, and the berries were almost all gone. Perhaps the bog had flooded recently. Was the bog flood-prone?
Merisi bit her lip. She wasn't exactly an expert on flood patterns.
Should've gone to the Standing Stones, like Dad wanted...
As she drew nearer, she developed a slightly clearer picture of what she was hearing. There was a large wooden platform up ahead, and atop it sat a humanoid figure—a woman, possibly, judging by those curves. The young woman was absently humming.
Merisi couldn't make the woman out very well. She was blurry from distance, and the whole area was, after all, very dark. The sun had set. Stars were rising overhead, but cloud cover made it difficult. All she could see was a voluptuous silheouette.
Merisi hesitated, examining the figure.
I should turn back.
The thought rose unbidden, but inescapable, and the second it emerged, she agreed. She didn't know who this was—or
where
this was, for that matter. Things here weren't right. She could wait by the door until morning, or better yet, look for a stealthier way inside. She could even wait outside the gates, since this whole place gave her the creeps. But running towards strange humming women in swamps was not the basis of any kind of healthy lifestyle. Her mindless adventuring days were well behind her.
The young bard took a step back. As she did so, the figure turned to face her.
And that was when Merisi realized that this woman was most definitely
not
human.
"Oh! Hello!" The green slime girl giggled, oozing to her feet. She walked towards Merisi with an almost cartoonish sway, due to the way her hips seemed to slosh back and forth as she moved, coming to the nearer side of the platform. A bright smile crossed her lips, and she extended a slippery hand. "Wanna hand, cutie?"
Merisi bit her lip, then waded forward, snapping her fingers in a spell of warding around her own hand as she reached up. If she was spotted, she might as well go for it. The element of surprise was clearly a thing of the past, regardless.
She felt a brief tingling as the slimy hand wrapped around her own a little bit too freely, slicking down to the wrist, but the spell held and expanded a little to accommodate. She allowed the most curious dryad to hoist her up onto dry land.
"Thank you," she mumbled, pulling her hand away. She executed a low bow and recited the greeting her grandmother had taught her.
"Aw!" The slime girl beamed at her, head tilting to the side as though she found Merisi adorable. "Nobody's given little old Sleek that greeting in
such
a long time!" She performed a jiggly curtsy—despite being painfully naked—and returned the greeting.
