Lore for April. This lore is written by cat from Harriot’s perspective, Dante will be posting a lore written from Dante’s perspective. The events that are about to happen are a crossover of Dante and Harriot meeting for the first time.
The Tale of Waffles (Harriot’s Perspective)
Entry #120
After Charlottes departure I felt lost once again. Somehow the loss of her presence made it unbearable to be alone again. She had promised to return with good news but something just didn’t sit right in my stomach. For starters promises were always made to be broken, something I was beginning to lose focus on. I had put my faith too much in Charlotte. It was 3 days past the date she was supposed to send word. I had be expecting her not to contact me again but a unsettling feeling of worry was beginning to sink in.
I had to get out of the cave, I needed fresh air and time to think over a whole new perspective. My mind kept thinking about Ancient Greece, those stalls held all sorts of wondrous items, some of which Charlotte had expressed an interest in before she had left. I couldn’t stop myself and found myself staring at the stall she had been ogling before she left. The clay necklace with its enamelled pictation of Poseidon, God of the sea. When I overheard a familiar voice. The Bear-Man! He was standing on a Mable box in the middle of the square. People had stopped to gather around him. My curious nature took over.
“You all have to listen, we face a grave threat that could potentially disrupt your peaceful lives here. Sebastian had stolen ancient Tech from us, something that, in the wrong hands, could bring great chaos to all. I heard rumours that the Lonely Ape told of a diary he kept of their endeavours. Once Sebastian heard about it he went crazy and in a rage of fury he ditched these pages to make sure his plans would never be known. Rumour has it that they are scattered across Ancient Greece and the Island.”
Everyone seemed to pass him by as if his words were nothing but the words of a mad-man. I, on-the-other-hand, leaned in closer. The bear-man seemed to spot my curiosity. He jumped off of the box and made his way towards me.
“I know you right? We met, oh where was it… That’s right, I bought some crystals from you. You believe me don’t you?” My eyes glanced across the crowd that had started to form.
“Don’t talk so loudly, so what if I believe you or not? What difference does it make?” The bear-man seemed to have a wry smile on his face. He passed a tattered note to me as he whispered.
“Meet me here at midnight and I’ll explain all the details.” I gave my most intimidating stare I could muster.
“Don’t hold your breath, I haven’t agreed to anything.”
The Tale of Waffles (Harriot’s Perspective)
Entry #121
Midnight came around, faster than I liked. Time seemed to work differently in Ancient Greece. The building he had chosen was off the beaten path and out of view from all others. The house was empty and void of furniture. My first thought being it was a newly built house but the wear and tear was obvious. The bear-man stood at the far back of the house, the lone table the only furniture in the house.
“Come, we don’t have much time.” I held my breath, sword at the ready just in case I had walked into a trap.
“Nice place you got here.” An edge of sarcasm lingered in my voice
“It’s a friend’s place, he’s redecorating can’t you tell?” The bear-man seemed to laugh as if it was the funniest thing on Next Island. “Sorry, that was a joke. Don’t just stand there.”
On the table lay two maps, one of Next Island and one of Ancient Greece. These looked up-to-date unlike the one Charlotte had brought with her.
“Here are all the potential locations of the missing pages. We already found a good portion of them, this one…” He handed me a tattered blood stained page. “Led us to believe he had been illegally experimenting on the new model of Julianna the Loyalists had been working on. We managed to confiscate the modified bot before any real harm had happened. But if he has knowledge of such technology then who knows what he’ll do next.”
My eyes spotting an all too familiar place.
“You believe he hid a page here?” I pointed at a section that was marked in the sea, it held a lot of deadly sharks and was a no rules free-for-all area. I sometimes went there just to mess with visitors.
“Yes, have you heard of the megalodon? No one as of yet has been brave enough to check if that mad ape hid a piece inside of that beast yet. But it may just be a rumour, in any case we are assembling a team later to check it out, you’re free to tag along if you like. I’m pretty sure that sword ain’t just for show.” At the thought of throwing myself back into battle it was enough to readily agree to this mad plan of his.
“So who’s on this ‘team’ of yours.”
“Just some old mates, and a Stel warrior I believe. Seen a lot of battles. Heard he’d be joining us too.”
The Tales of Waffles (Harriot’s Perspective)
Entry #122
A Stel! Of all people, I was trying to avoid A STEL WARRIOR was on the top of that list. The bear-man seemed so nonchalant about it all as if it were an everyday occurrence. My instincts kicked in and were on high alert.
Before I could make it to the door warriors started to filter in. Both men and women dressed ready for a battle. They filled the small barren house in no time at all. I counted 10 in total with myself as the 11th. Something about that number didn’t sit right. I was about to up and abandon the team when a 12th person came through the door. There was no mistaking that aura, he was the Stel warrior for sure. I held my ground readying myself for a battle. He seemed to eye my outfit.
“Who’s the Resa? She better not make any trouble on this hunt. I have a lot riding on this.” The bear-man seemed to shrug before turning to me.
“A Friend.”
The Stel warrior had come prepared, he handed out weapons to the team, some of which didn’t look like standard issue Stel weapons. He eyed me cautiously.
“Make that yourself?” He pointed to the sword on my back. I gave a curt nod, how did this man know I was Resa, I had changed my clothes before coming to Ancient Greece, even adopted the wear of the Athenic Tunic I had picked up at the stalls.
“Mind if I take a look? Don’t worry I ain’t like you, no honour in stealing a team mates weapon. Just need to know if it’s up to the task.” My hand gripped tightly around the hilt of the sword, I was either going to show him how wrong he was by slicing him in two with it or present it as an exhibition of my crafting skill. His eyes seemed to glint at the blade.
“That made with Portal Guardian metal?” I gave a nod as a response. He sighed for a moment as if something pained him. “Damn, why am I trusting my life with a Resa. Seems though you have no trouble taking care of yourself. I’m Dante.”
“Harriot.” Shoot I should have used a fake name. If he somehow recognises my name I could be in a lot of trouble. I was still on a ‘kill on site’ list, to those that still remembered about my mentor I was a traitor to the Stel.
To my luck our interaction was brief as he turned to command the team to the den of the Great White Sharks.
The Tales of Waffles (Harriot’s Perspective)
Entry #123
We made our way over to the lawless zone where people were free to kill anyone that got in their way without reprimand. It was a zone unto itself and was not a safe place for low level people to be. Dante had instructed the team to hunt as many sharks as possible to tempt the creature known as the ‘Megalodon’ out of hiding. My Blade seemed to sing to me as we entered the shark infested waters. It didn’t take long before the Megalodon found us. It was fast and was upon us before we had a chance to react. The team quickly seemed to know what to do before being commanded to do so. I had always hunted alone. Group hunts were a liability, too many people to watch out for. But here I was, hunting beside people that looked like seasoned team hunters and had done this a thousand times.
“Stay strong. Stick together, surround it and focus your firepower on the Megalodon. Ignore the other sharks in the area. Harriot, get up front where I can see you. We have a healer on standby so just fight with all you’ve got”
We had spent hours of killing sharks before the megalodon had showed up and my arm was feeling the strain of that battle. The water seemed denser around the Megalodon as if trying to cut through thick treacle. The other hunters looked powerful compared to my weaken state, no way would I back down or admit I was tired at least not in front of the Stel Warrior. I tried to block out the pain and swung with all my might at the Megalodon. It brought back the bad memories of the time I had spent hacking the Island Sharks, I still had a pile of cured shark meat to go back to that night. The Megalodon was putting up a good fight, something I had been missing for awhile, it was 3 times as big as any shark I had seen so far and 10 times more vicious. The healer had been working tirelessly to keep us all alive.
The ocean fell silent for a moment. A Golden swirl like I’d never seen before engulfed the team. Dante seemed pleased.
“Let’s not celebrate too early, we still need to check if what we came for is here.” The bear-man swam up to the shark, cutting its stomach open with a knife. He stuck his hand into the shark’s stomach and pulled out what looked like a plastic sheet. And sure enough he held a laminated diary page from Sebastian’s diary. We got a brief moment to breathe before the sharks began to surround us. Dante looked over the team as he tucked the page neatly into his armour suit.
“I hope you’re all ready for another round of sharks. We need to fight our way back to land. If you see one person struggling, help them out. That goes for you too Resa! If we get separated, meet back at the house.”
We spent the good part of an afternoon striking down shark after shark till we made it back to the shore. Everyone seemed exhausted but hyped as if they were ready for round 2.
Dante let out a sigh as he looked over the team.
“I don’t know about the rest of you but I need a drink after that. Carolines?”
The Tales of Waffles (Harriot’s Perspective)
Entry #124
I had never been to Caroline’s bar before, it was a place I thought off-limits to me due to always hiding from everyone. And now I was in the middle of a bar with all factions in one place. Something about it put my senses on high alert.
“A round for my team, after today’s profitable hunt I can spare that much.” Dante brought over a tray of drinks. After my experience in the cave I was wary to drink anything.
“It’s not poison, you can drink it.” The stares of the others in the team were making me self conscious. I had to draw attention away from me and took a sip. When I did the team seemed to relax and carried on chatting about the hunt.
Before too long Dante took out the page. He seemed to inspect it for a moment while everyone watched eagerly.
“Let’s see what all the fuss was about shall we.
-Day 50, Experiment 12.
Today I will learn to reprogram the robots of Next Island. I tried to approach Julianna but she shooed me away when I got close. I did however manage to find a Julianna that hadn’t been finished yet. On my time at the ancient ruins I had come to see as my home, I had found what I could only describe as a glowing ball. It was small in size, not much bigger than my palm. Maybe I could use this to reprogram Julianna to get rid of the pesky boar piglets.”
A soft uproar of laughter filled the bar.
“Well that was not what I expected at all” Dante seemed to stare at the page for a moment before handing it to the bear-man.
Dante seemed to order more drinks than one person alone could drink. Bottles of all kinds of imported liquors, most of which I have never heard of along with a case of Next Island beer. I had barely touched my first drink when a message came through. Charlotte had finally replied!
-You better not have trashed the cave while I was gone. I’m coming home!
-Charlotte
I snuck out the bar as quietly as I could, my curiosity had been filled. What happened with the other pages would have to be a quest for someone else. I had no idea what news Charlotte would bring or when she would arrive but I knew for a fact the cave was a mess when I had left that morning. She had been gone for what felt like several months. I had wondered if she would never come back and go back to her life on Calypso as if nothing ever happened. I wouldn’t have blamed her if she did, after all, the world of Next Island was a harsh place that wasn’t forgiving to newcomers. Of course I would never admit to her that I had missed her.