Sylvia sighed and the blanket that fell to the ground wrapped back around the unconscious woman. She also talked to the others about their perspectives on what happened. Soon enough, the woman woke up again. This time she kept the blanket tightly around her.
Sylvia asked the woman, "What is your name?"
"My name is Talia. Lady Sylvia, can you explain to me how I was saved?" replied the woman.
"The other women around you can fill you in on the details of what happened. I can tell you though, that Kain is your savior." Sylvia pointed to the unconscious, floating Kain.
The woman, recognizing Kain, blanched.
"Oh, you know Kain?" queried Sylvia when she saw the look on Talia's face.
"Yes, Lady Sylvia. I sat next to him on the transport plane." Talia looked down to the ground guiltily.
Sylvia, did not continue to query her. She knew that Talia would need time to recover from her experience. There was a good chance that she would have PTSD and it was yet to be seen how bad her symptoms were.
Sylvia brought out a large circular platform and said, "Alright, I have counted 37 of you besides Kain. I can transport everyone on this platform to the temporary base as it will be much faster. Everyone get on."
Everyone filed onto the platform and then it floated into the air with everyone on it. Sylvia, her swords, and the unconscious Kain also floated up at the same time and flew in a certain direction. By this time, night was falling and the quiet around them sounded unnatural. They didn't see a single zombie or monster as they were flying overhead.
Off in the distance, they finally saw the mesa that Sylvia was talking about. It was most definitely a mountain before and the missing top half was toppled over next to the mesa and destroyed a whole section of the forest surrounding the mesa.
On the mesa itself, there were several large tent structures arrayed alongside each other. They looked large enough to accommodate dozens of people in each one.
When they got close enough, a few people gasped and pointed out, "Look!"
They were pointing to figures that were crucified on the trees surrounding the mesa. There were hundreds of crucified figures. All the figures were evolved zombies and monsters! There were countless jackals, a few squealers, and even 3 tentacle zombies. All of them seemed to have been crucified alive and blood was everywhere.
"What are those frogs that are crucified alongside them?"
Someone pointed out giant orange frogs with mouths bigger than their bodies that were crucified alongside the other special zombies.
Sylvia brought out a giant orange frog from her pocket dimension and said, "These are the things that were launching the fireballs into the air at us. Gerris and I went on a hunting spree when we figured out the culprit. This mission was not a complete wash as we discovered a new species for the scientists to dissect. I have hundreds more of their bodies in my pocket dimension."
"Lady Sylvia, were all these crucified creatures killed by just the two of you?" queried someone.
"No, the crucified ones were all me as I had a bit of a meltdown after the planes went down. Gerris just obliterated the ones he killed. I wanted to put them up like this, so other creatures would be scared to approach the temporary base." said Sylvia in a dead-pan voice.
Looking at the gruesome mutilated figures on the trees, everyone on the circular platform was speechless and resolved in their hearts to never cross this woman.
They touched down on the mesa and saw that there were already quite some people set up in the beds within the large tent structures. Before they went off to look for acquaintances and claim a bed to sleep in, Sylvia said, "Get some rest as I will go out one more time tonight to see if I can find other survivors."
"Thank you again, Lady Sylvia!" the whole group bowed and then dispersed.
Talia, Elisha, and Jake approached Sylvia and asked, "Where will you take Kain?"
"I plan on having him rest in my tent as he is a special case and needs to be watched." replied Sylvia.
Jake nodded and went off to find his own bed, however, Talia and Elisha stayed.
Seeing Sylvia's questioning gaze, Talia asked, "Do you need someone to watch him while you head out? I can watch him while you are gone."
Elisha also jumped in, "I can too."
Sylvia hesitated a little, but nodded in the end and said, "Just don't touch the ration pills on his chest."
"Yes, Lady Sylvia." they both replied.
Sylvia led the two of them and the floating Kain to her tent and situated Kain on an extra bed. Talia and Elisha both grabbed seats and sat near the passed out Kain. Sylvia then said, "You will only have to watch him for an hour or two. Thank you again."
The two of them bowed as she left before sitting back down on the seats.
Meanwhile, Kain was having a peculiar dream. He found himself walking with mists surrounding him and a hazy fog filled the air. He kept on walking and he could hear the step, step of his feet as it seemed like he walked on endlessly.
The fog seemed to be alive, as it made way for Kain as he stepped forward, before swirling after his wake and caressing Kain's body, like playful children following after their parents.
Kain seemed to see the shadow of something ahead of him in the distance, and he quickened his pace. As he got closer, he saw a familiar figure floating in the fog: it was a squealer! Curious, he walked up to it and saw up close, that the squealer was constantly breaking down and remolding itself.
A light was flashing through the entire figure, and wherever the light passed, parts of the squealer's body would disappear and reappear. He reached out his hand to touch the figure and found that as soon as his hand got close enough, particles of light from the figure would phase into his hand, and then phase back out when he pulled back his hand.
Each time his hand melded into the figure, he felt the squealer becoming an integral part of his very being, and the light particles danced with seeming joy, as if happy to become a part of Kain's very being. When Kain finally pulled his hand back to his side, the particles of light returned to the floating squealer and he seemed to feel a distinct feeling of…disappointment?
*Tappity-tappity-tap-tap-tappity-tappity-tap-tap*
Suddenly, a sound of what seemed to be dancing footsteps echoed out from the swirling mist. Kain turned round and round, trying to figure out from which way the dancing steps were coming from, but the sounds seem to be coming from all around him.
Kain intuitively felt that the dancing footsteps were light-hearted and happy. Kain was feeling slightly dizzy from all the turning and he couldn't help but fall onto his butt. As he looked up at the mist from the ground, he finally saw a hazy blue figure dancing along to the sounds of the footsteps.
When the hazy figure danced close to Kain, he couldn't make out the face at all. Right as the figure got in front of Kain sitting on the ground, it seemed as if the figure had discovered Kain and promptly danced a jerry-jig, like a court jester in a king's court trying to entertain the king.
"OH, WHAT'S THIS, WHAT'S THIS, WHAT'S THIS? IS THIS WHAT I THINK IT IS? WHAT I REALLY, REALLY THINK IT IS?"
Kain couldn't see the face of the blue figure, but he could imagine the figure was smiling at him from the tone of the voice.
"OH, MERRY TO ME, MERRY TO ME, I MUST HAVE BEEN A REALLY GOOD BOY, A REALLY GOOD BOY! HOW ELSE CAN I FIND SUCH A TOY LYING ON THE GROUND LIKE THIS? LIKE THIS?"
The legs of the figure capered side to side and Kain was starting to worry a little, because he felt a sense of hysteria coming through from the words. Kain was afraid, but he gathered his courage and spoke up:
"Who are you?"
The dancing figure stopped and turned his head toward Kain.
"THE TOY SPEAKS, THE TOY SPEAKS! THE QUESTION ISN'T WHO AM I, BUT WHO ARE YOU? WHO ARE YOU? THAT IS THE MORE IMPORTANT QUESTION!"
"My name is Kain."
"OH KAIN, MY GOOD BOY, MY GOOD TOY! WHAT A WONDERFUL NAME!"
"Where is this? Can you tell me where I am?"
"ANOTHER FABULOUS QUESTION! THIS ONE ALSO WISHES TO KNOW WHERE YOU ARE! A MOMENT, A MOMENT, THIS LITTLE ONE REQUESTS!"
The figure put a finger to where its lips would be and his head slightly tilted up into the sky. The figure froze into this pose for a minute, which then stretched into two minutes. Finally,"THERE YOU ARE! I KNOW WHERE YOU ARE NOW! I CAN SEE, I CAN SEE! O BUT WHAT DID YOU DO? I SAW THAT MOUNTAIN BEFORE, BUT WHY IS IT BROKEN NOW? AND WHY ARE SO MANY OF MY FRIENDS HANGING ON THE TREES? I'M SAD I'M SAD! I'M MAD I'M MAD!"
The figure seemed to be alternating between pulling at his hair and banging his head with a fist. It stopped its actions abruptly and then:
"WHERE ARE MY MANNERS? MY MANNERS? YOU ARE IN MY VERY BACKYARD, AND I MUST BE A GOOD HOST, GOOD HOST! MY VERY GOOD FRIEND WILL COME FROM AFAR TO ATTEND TO MY HONORED GUEST, HONORED GUEST! WAIT A WHILE, WAIT A WHILE, AND HE WILL COME, HE WILL COME!"
Kain was a bit fearful and was scooting his butt back away from the figure. To which, the figure hurried closer and put its hazy faceless face right in front of Kain.
"NO NEED TO FEAR ME, MY FRIEND, MY FRIEND! I CAN MAKE YOU A KING! NOW I KNOW, NOW I KNOW! YOU AND I WILL HAVE SO MUCH FUN TOGETHER NOW THAT I KNOW YOU ARE YOU! I CAN'T WAIT, I CAN'T WAIT!"
The figure finally stood back up and started to dance again before leaving in a similar manner to when he came. The fog twirled around the figure and Kain was left with only the sounds of dancing feet as they seemed to get farther and farther away.
Kain yelled out into the fog, "You didn't answer any of my questions! Who are you? Where am I?"
To which, Kain heard a distant whisper:
"WAIT, WAIT…HE COMES, HE COMES!"