Private Vintergard The Dragon

[Rook the Quick]

Aquamarine-blue water splashed near Rook's feet, leaving glowing, sizzling flecks behind. He hopped on one foot to avoid it, quickly retreating from the streambank.

He studied it with one eye and then the other, alarmed but fascinated.

The stream was beautiful. In the desolate remnants of Vintergard, it gave off the impression of something pure, glacial, sparkling. Spiderwebbing cracks from the tech ship's impact had split wide furrows in the earth, breaking rock and leaving free pathways for groundwater to bubble up and thread its way along the surface.

It was also unmistakably wrong.

Water didn't look like that.

Water had no color. It might be like a mirror, reflecting the sky. It might be filled with mud or sediment or tiny plants, appearing brown or green. It didn't glow like a robin's egg. It didn't shine like the core of a magical device.

As Rook watched, a small animal pulled itself out of the shallows, shook itself off, and imploded in a dripping burst of light like a miniature star.

"Werk!"

...Something had to be polluting it.

He pattered upriver, wending his way between chunks of inert ship-hull and fragments of long-lost artillery. This part of Vintergard was known as the Dragontail, a junkyard of broken pieces and remnants of the ship's back end. The black arches of its hull could be seen in the distance, rising above the glowing stream like giant, flattened ribs.

There were few defenses here. Most everything of value had already been picked through by residents long before the Travelers had returned. Perhaps something had been missed beneath the water.

Where is the source?

Rook crouched by the streambank, testing the surface with the tip of his sword, thinking carefully.

@Moonsong​

 

[Lune]

Barren lands, automatic flight killer bots, and bandits waiting in every corner of the ruins. Why would anyone want to live anywhere close to this region?

It looks like that's also the reason literally nobody took this job, forcing the commissioner to amp up the rewards. Well, good for her and the guild. Pulling out her UI to check the location, Moonsong reviewed the description of the request.

Lately, the economy around Camp Hope IV hasn't been good. The wildlife is behaving weird and plants are dying. Something might be going on around the river that runs through the Dragontail.

She raised her face to find a stream of water in the middle of the desolate area. Right, this should be the place. At this time of day, there shouldn't be that many sentries patrolling around. Moonsong quickly walked up to the riverbank to see what was up, only to be met with a splash of glowing blue water. Glowing, like nuclear wastewater in video games.

"Crap."

She quickly jumps backwards. Fortunately, nothing got on her or her clothes. Nobody knows how dangerous this water might be. As she hiked upstream to investigate, the girl stumbled on another person already at the point of interest, most likely also investigating this water problem.

Wasn't she the only one to take on this request? Who is this man then?

Putting aside any negative thoughts, she approached the crouching man from behind. "Hey, are you here to investigate the water problem too?" She asked in a rather monotonous tone suddenly, that might or might not surprise the other person.

@Rook the Quick​

 

[Rook the Quick]

The water problem.

Rook hadn't thought of it as a problem- just something interesting. Something different. Something that called to his collarbones and created questions only a Quick! could answer.

He cocked his head to the side curiously, as if wondering what's the problem?

Water was for drinking and for swimming and for catching fish, but this river was radium-blue and filled with false promises.

As he considered, a drop of midwinter rolled down the steel of his blade, then dripped to the streambank. A small puff of blue smoke rose from where it had landed. Electricity crackled in the grasses like a dying firework, prompting Rook to quickly skip back again and eye the stream with renewed wariness.

...Rook the Quick would help!

He clicked his tongue rapidly for attention and pointed upstream, then patpatpatpat! pattered off towards the direction he'd been pointing, skinny legs flapping like drumsticks.

Soon enough, they found the source.

Rook rushrushed back to @Moonsong, shifting from foot to foot. I found something! said his eyes.

"Kwek!" said Rook.

Sticking out of the river was what seemed to be the front half of an unusual bicycle, its spokes rusted black with age. Long, cerulean wires trailed from its handlebars, dangling into the waters around it. Something darker was buried beneath the surface, as if this was only the head of a monstrous, mechanical chimera.

All around it, pooling from the murk at its heart, was the strange, gleaming water.

Rook was making an odd motion, like he was making a lasso out of something only the little swordsman himself could see. "Kwek!" he said triumphantly, holding up an invisible cat's cradle for Moonsong to admire.

To his eyes, the red threads would be the perfect tool to extract the strange machine from its unstable surroundings.

He bumped Moonsong with the back of his hand insistently, offering her one end of seemingly nothing.

Then he pointed across the deadly stream.

He blinked, as if to say What are you waiting for?

 

[Lune]

Rather than answering her questions, the man pondered for a while, before clicking his tongue repeatedly and motioning her somewhere. Moonsong raised her left eyebrow and then continued to talk shortly after. "Ah, you're the type to not talk much. I like that." She nodded, eyeing his attire and appearance to confirm that he was a traveller before asking a question.

"So what's your name— you're not going to answer that, are you?" The peculiar man had already rushed off upstream before she finished talking. Exhaling, she followed his trail.

Soon, they stopped at something that might be the source. She scanned left and right, assuring that there were no recon drones in the area. The man made a noise and looked at her in a way that reminded her of a child's excitement. "What is it?"

Something that most certainly doesn't belong to a river. What is this? Some kind of a magitech bike? The overall shape of the front part that sticks out does resemble that. Deep in the water where it is lodged, the azure color emitted intensely from what seemed to be a larger part of it.

"Yeah, this looks like it. How do we pull it out, though? I might be able to cut a part of— what is it you are doing this time?"

The man proudly presents to her... nothing! Yes, literal nothing. "No, I don't understand what you mean." @Rook the Quick insisted that she grab into that nothing that he conjured, also out of nothing. With great reluctance, Moonsong did.

Wait, what's this?

She can feel something, just enough trace to indicate that something was actually there. It's not magical, at least not in a realm that she knows, else she would've known what it is. A rope, a band, a thread? The black-haired woman looked at the man straight into the eyes in disbelief, as if asking "Do we yee-haw this thing into that thing?"

As if he was guiding her, Moonsong lined up with the strange machinery, and with his help, they managed to fling the invisible nothing into somehow latch onto the handlebar. Maybe, as she can't see shit of anything happening at all.

"Uh, so do we got it? Now we pull?"

She wasn't lacking in the strength department. If something was in need of pulling, it shall be done.