[Fern]

(This ICly took place before the scheduled day of the Childhood Coffin event. Part 2 will likely be posted a bit after the event. Credit to Cereza for helping transform Part 1 into storytelling, and any art that may be posted here later. Very helpful!)

 

Characters Featured:

Meek Umbral (Sashi)

Sinister-looking Priestess (The Alpha Bat)

Jackrabbit (Cereza)

Bladed Prodigy (BluStark)

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PART 1

In the cross of the afternoon and the evening, four scouting 'adventurers' came towards the small plagued village in Lordwain, and though these four were mostly from four different walks of life and there for differing reasons, one goal united them that day: to seek out the source of the plague of the village, the force that was causing children to disappear into the night.
 
When they arrived, they found the village had people all across the place. They seemed to be working - carrying crates, food, and doing all sorts of other things. Some of the children that had not been lost to the wake of snow were scattered around the place, but they were held close to their parents and unhappy. Some of the families seemed stressed, to say the least, but the place wasn't as gloomy as one would expect.
 
The red-headed Prodigy that was ahead of the rest of the four rubbed at his arms to keep warm in the uncomfortable Lordwain breeze. "Why do I always forget to being my warmth enchanted gear? Being cold sucks..." He grumbled, though likely just to the two people behind him - as the fourth was lagging behind them. The similarly red-headed Jackrabbit behind him was rolling the sleeves of her jacket down, seeming relieved in brief that her sleeves were not fake, sewn to the jacket itself. "Could be worse." she commented ahead, "Could'a forgotten your clothes entirely, somehow." The Prodigy didn't even turn back to her, but the rest of them could feel he was slightly annoyed. "As much as Gracie would love that image, I'm sure she'd rather me be warm... right?" Though, despite him asking, there was no true response to it. The meek-looking Umbral behind him simply rolled her eyes at the conversation as a whole. "So, Kazuya said that things kept... disappearing here, and these people seem stressed out. Let's go take a look around, see if anyone's heard something." The villagers around them trailed their eyes to the adventurers, as if acknowledging them... though they seemed to be fairly reserved - at least, for that day.
 
The fourth, a darkly-colored Priestess who had finally caught up to them, spoke out from behind as they barely took a step forward. "I take it you're adventurers, here to investigate ahead of the horde. That should have been immediately apparent from how you're all dressed, in hindsight." She mused, though it didn't seem like the other three had really minded it. They all were the rather obvious adventurers, and didn't seem the type to try and deny that. "Would you mind terribly if we went in together? I have a stake in this as well." The Priestess had asked. The three responses were, well... a resounding yes. Nobody seemed like they'd want to deny a fourth - if the source turned out to be a danger.
 
The Prodigy moved onto the village, not straying too far from the group as he moved ahead - and the rest seemed just as eager to move on. The first they came across that was not too reserved, was a young boy of darkly-colored hair and blue eyes. He stood amidst the snow, his lethargic gaze simply staring into the white underneath. The Prodigy went afront the boy, asking: "Hey, are you okay? You're kinda just staring at the snow." and he perked up. "Oh, uhm..." The boy didn't seem to notice the group at all, caught clearly off-guard. Noting that the child said nothing back, the Prodigy attempted once more... "Hey, it's okay. We're adventurers. We're here to see what's going on."
 
The Jackrabbit behind him took another step forward, coming up next to the Prodigy - and keeping her hands out of her coat's pockets in an attempt to seem less suspicious. "Aye, we're here to help." She followed up, keeping a polite and casual tone to her voice in an attempt to keep the kid from being frightened. "If you don't feel comfortable, do you know any adults that might know what's going on a little bit more...? I know there's rules about strangers and stuff." She commented, as the Umbral hidden behind them was observing the boy, as if checking his physical condition. The young one looked sickly, but not i nthe traditional sense. It was more like his entire behavior, expression, and eyes lacked any of the light you'd normally expect from the common kid. It didn't seem like a magical of physical condition; he just simply... looked sad. "Uh..." and a bit shy, on top of that. "I-I.." He began with a stutter, before a brown-haired woman with her hair done into a ponytail stepped from a nearby house.
 
"Chris, it's time to ea--" she began to call, but was stopped short staring at the group. "-- Mom?" Chris said, seeming a bit startled - but more than likely it was because he was so long in thought earlier. The appearance of the mother seemed to momentarily put the Umbral and Priestess on edge, but while the Priestess remained quiet, the Umbral was the first to speak. "Hello. Sorry if we were interrupting, we just arrived here." she calmly said, and the Jackrabbit picked up behind her. "Howdy!" She said, sweating only slightly in her out-of-element place. "Uh, we're investigating the stuff that 's been going on here, if it's not to much to talk about or anything - or, uh... even a point in the right direction. I wouldn't want to interrupt dinner, very important, especially for growin' kids." Said, in only slight awkwardness.
 
Thankfully, the child's mother seemed not to be too unnerved by the group. "Ah... you're adventurers? I see. I guess everything that's been going down has become common talk after all. It's not surprising. The circumstances we're in aren't pleasant." She said, before coming over to her son and setting a hand stop his shoulder, looking back towards the group as she tilted her head and smiled. "So you want to help...? Is that true?" She giggled. "I don't think anybody would mind, really."
 
The Jackrabbit gently plowed her fist into her palm in a confident matter. "That's the travelling adventurer's job, innit? If nothing else, we can gather up a group'a people to come help clear it out." The Umbral was the first to thrust into helpful questions, however. "Yes. We were hoping to resolve it, but first wanted to gleam some details about the case. Is there anything you could share with us? A strange occurrence you might have witness, or a particular notable detail about those that have disappeared?" Chris's mother frowned some, glancing towards her child. "We've been trying to figure that out for some time now. We're not sure why, but many of the kids have been going through strange episodes. They seem to just stare at nothing, their eyes turn black... and the next day they just mysterious disappear. Some people say they've seen the kids wander off from the village before just vanishing, so we believe something evil might be pulling them in. We've been keeping an eye on our families to make sure they don't' disappear as well, but it's been a lot easier said than done."
 
As she spoke, Chris gritted his teeth and looked off to the side, seeming irritated by something, but wasn't explaining what it was. His mother, on the other hand, seemed to just know by looking at him and sighed. "I can understand..." the Jackrabbit commented on. "It's a big feeling of just wanting to keep them inside and safe with you, but knowing that you can do that without, well... the cons of doing that. I'm sure everyone's doing to best to keep everyone safe."
 
The umbral asked her next question: "Mm... so a force luring children in. Is there anyone in the village who has some kind of spiritual sensitivity?" Though, the mother gave an unfortunate response, "We do have people like that, but they've not sensed anything out of the ordinary." Which, the Jackrabbit followed up with another, "Do they wander in any specific direction out of the village?" which gleamed more hopeful answer from Chris's mother. "We barely have any leads, except some people saying that they've seen a few of the kids wander off north of the village. Our bravest people have gone to look around, but they haven't found any of them yet." and after, Chris repeated "North..." from her answer, for another reason there was no elaboration of.
 
"I don't know much else... I wish I did. But I want to say that I'm sure everyone here will appreciate your help, and that if you go look, be careful please." The Jackrabbit nodded to her. "We're gonna do our best, and if nothing else... we'll figure out something and be able to  grab more people to help." The rabbit then squatted down a moment, matching  as close as she could get to Chris's height. "Hey, little man... be brave, alright? We ain't gonna let nobody be taken anymore if it kills us. There isn't anything in the world that gets away with taking friends away like that." She'd said, in a moment of trying to bring a minor amount of hope - as if she'd had experience with a child of this age.
 
Chris had just been staring at the door that his mother came out of, and then suddenly said, "I'm going to sleep.", beginning to walk towards the house. On his way in, he simply grumbled, "Nothing gets away with taking friends like that? Say that to everyone just disappearing." and slammed the door shut once he entered. His mother just sighed, muttering his name under her breath in a defeated tone. The Prodigy, Umbral, and Priestess seemed a bit on edge from it, as if they believed that he was already coming under affects of what was going on... but the Jackrabbit just seemed to feel as if she'd just said the wrong thing to a dejected kid.
 
Though, truly, only the Umbral spoke of note after it. "Has he lost any of his friends?" The mother glanced down with a disheartened look on her face until she had processed the question. She gave the Umbral that same look. "Eight of them. His best friends." The Prodigy and Umbral spoke lightly in response, but the mother seemed not to listen, only going on... "I have been doing my best. I'm trying to support him, but... this all made him very sad. He was feeling bad when the first one left, and he felt all the worse with every single one that came after that..." She paused for a moment, before finally saying, "If you head over to the north, I hope it all turns out fine and that maybe you find something. And if you don't? Well... nobody will blame you."
 
The Prodigy just simply asked, as the Jackrabbit and Umbral let out their bittersweet comments. "How far north is it exactly?" The mother chuckled at the other comments, and then explained, "We don't know how far north they've gone, we just know some of them have wandered off towards the northern exit of the village. And... thank you. You are all very sweet for helping." She offered a gentle smile with a tilt of her head. "Really, I appreciate it, and everybody else will. I'll... go check on Chris. Good luck, and don't get hurt!" The Umbral and Prodigy nodded to her in response, before moving north, and the mother bowed before quietly heading into the house.
 
The Priestess followed them as they started their long walk, addressing the group. "Given that there was a heading but not destination, I imagine you all plan to start that way." She said, and then followed with the obvious, "Barring local landmarks, I'm sure you types would be able to detect something strange where village-folk would not." To which... the group didn't really acknowledge, only clarifying back the 'heading' of the expedition. However, before they could make it from the village, the group was suddenly interrupted by a little girl, no older than nine, staring right at them - seeming like she was just surprised. "Hello there, are you alright?" The Prodigy questioned, given the oddness of the children in the village. "Um... just a bit scared, I don't wanna leave... are you going to help us?" She asked in return, which the Umbral nodded softly in response. "We are."
 
Suddenly, the girl's demeanor brightened as she beamed up. "Wait, you're really going to help us?! Really?! Really?!" The Jackrabbit gave the next comment, with a brief chuckle. "As much as we possibly can." The girl then just shouted in cheer, and began jumping around as if all the energy was coming back to her. She runs up to the kid next door and explains: "The heroes are here! The heroes are here!" In which, the kid just kind of stares awkwardly, but then raises his eyebrows. "Huh...?" It looked like she was spreading the word.
 
The Umbral tried not to giggle too much at her excitement, a smile crossing her face. "Just make sure to stay close to home, okay?" She called out to the kids. "Let an adult in the village know if you see or hear anything!" Though, it seemed as if she wasn't listening... because within a few moments, the little girl returned with a whole crowd of kids. She placed a fist on her chest, smiling proudly. One of them called out to the group, "We're supporting you! My name is Reilly!" - and then the other kids did the same! "And mine is John!" - "I'm Lucas, nice to meetcha'!" - "My name's Annie!!" - "GOOD LUCK!!!" They all cheered simultaneously, and it seemed like they were fine to get going with the kid's well wishes.