Ancient Trials, Ancient Sins

Drakador_Chaos

Dumb
A way was found with relative, as one of the gates was nearby, she just had to follow the wall.
The sun was soon reaching noon as she wandered, the days here were rather short after all. Walking down the dirt hill, a couple of locals passed her on their way to the gates, carrying large flat baskets filled with teh leaves of the odd trees. As she reached the others further down, she could also see them gather more of them, though notably limiting themselves to comparatively few from each individual tree. She also so tiny sprinkles of a blood like substance from the trees whenever they removed one of the leaves.
Some of them looked at her as she passed and observed, though didn't seem to mind her presence, going back to work shortly.
One of them turned around, looking at her directly and approaching.
"Greetings, dear guest, is there anything you need?"

Galar in the meanwhile watched the figure walk around on the walls for a while, before it disappeared again behind.
Just as he thought he'd lost it again, he saw it walking out of one of the gates, headed towards the fields of trees.
Given, it was considerably closer now, could as well be mainframe, at least from what he saw.

Dumb

Drakador_Chaos
Focusing on getting reading on non-functioning sensors, Mainframe didn't appear to have noticed the approached figure until the greetings.
"Ah, greetings."
A slight bow from Mainframe, before continuing.
"I was just wondering what sort of work is performing here... if I'm not mistaken, the leaves are collected from these plants, yes? What purpose would they serve if I may ask?"
Mainframe points at one of the nearby baskets while looking at the figure.

Peeking from above, Galar's attention got distracted by the settlers harvesting the leaves.
"wait those can be plucked whole? should've tried one back then..."
Galar imagining what sort of taste a leave full of red juice would be, before remembering that those juice are full of radiation, so much that even a drop would get banned for entry by Yukikaze.
"...or perhaps not trying is the better option...but...huh..."
Galar shuffled between his notes, and proceed to make even more edits without paying much attention to Mainframe anymore.

Drakador_Chaos

Dumb
The woman nodded, half turning towards the otehr workers as she spoke.
"Yes, we do indeed harvest the trees here. That is right. Their leaves are our food, or most of it."
She turned back to Mainframe, even now there was little she could see beneath the cloaks, although they did bear an eerie familiarity to Halcyon from what little she could see.
"They are dried for storage and later consumed, sometimes eaten fresh, we make sure not to harvest too many from one tree at a time, so they have time to regrow."
She paused for a moment apparently thinking about what else to say.
"There is little else food out here, it is all we have but also all we need."
She tilted her head, in curiosity and took one of the leaves of the basket, mainframes systems already warned her about the radiation even just from standing close.
"Do you... wish to have some?"
As odd their habits and behaviour may be, these people seemed to be honest and friendly enough, what little hostility they had likely came from living under the conditions they were in or maybe that was why they were so communal?

Dumb

Drakador_Chaos
"Ah...I'm afraid i can't quite try them, being mechanical and all."
Mainframe switch off a part of holographic "skin" on her arm, revealing porcelain-like texture, and producing a hollowed resonance as she taps on it with a finger.
"Thanks for the offer anyway..."
She waves her hand above the site, and instantly the "skin" returns to normal. Surely she can consume it like a normal being, but being a "doll" which many emergency supplies are stored within, Mainframe doesn't want to risk basking all those supplies in radiation of such high quantity.
That said, Mainframe do want to take a sample of such foreign flora. She looks at the nearest tree and asks the woman.
"Is there any regulations for harvesting from these trees? and if my presence isn't an obstruction to the operation here, may i take a closer look?"

Drakador_Chaos

Dumb
The woman tilted her head in confusion.
”Rules… for harvesting? Do…Do you wish to assist us?”
She slowly shook her head in response to the other question.
”No, it shouldn’t be a problem if you want to watch but please stay away from the trees with our kind on them to avoid injury.”
She turned around and walked off to one of the trees to begin work as Mainframe watched.
At first it seemed like they were just plucking leaves off trees at random, however, after a while she saw that there was a system to it.

Occasionally, some of the leaves pulsed, as if the tree had a heartbeat. When the pulsing subsided the woman went over to those leaves and waited for a moment. Afterwards she bent the base of the leaves at the branch until they snapped off.
Interestingly enough the blood-like liquid coming from the openings coagulated almost immediately closing the ‘wound’. Another thing of note was that the leaves seemed to be considerably less radioactive directly after the pulsing, indicating the trees were likely feeding off the radiation instead of sunlight.

Time passed, the sun began setting, out of noon became evening and the woman came down from the tree.
As Mainframe was still watching she heard steps behind her, when she turned her head towards the noise she surprisingly saw Hal, coming down the hill towards the trees with the young girl walking in front of him, pointing at the trees and apparently talking.
When the girl turned around she apparently saw something and began running towards them.
”Mother!” She yelled out happily, coming to stop somewhat clumsily and then clinging on the woman's leg.
”Ah, Serlay, where have you been all day?”
”I showed Halcyon the settlement, he’s a very nice man!”
”Halcyon, who might that be?”
The girl pointed at Hal who had by now arrived as well, Halcyon in turn bowed formally and then leaned down to pat the girl's head.
”You have served me well.”
He turned towards the woman.
“I apologise if she was needed elsewhere.”
She simply laughed in return.
”No, no, that is quite alright, I’m glad she was in good company.”
Halcyon looked at the slowly darkening sky and then turned his head towards Mainframe.
”What have you been doing all day then?”

Dumb

Drakador_Chaos
"Well Yuki's morphs show me the way out of the house, so i decide to take a stroll around, and happen to stumble upon this field with Serlay's mum doing some food harvesting."
Mainframe points backward to the general vicinity of where most of the trees are with her thumb without looking. She picks up a leaf from a nearby basket and shows it to Hal, while her other finger slightly nudges against the leaf on the bottom side, collecting some of the external fiber.
"Looks like people here have to rely on these radiated thick leaves as food, which sadly I cannot have a taste myself."
Slightly tossing it with her hand for a few times, she put the leaf back on the basket, making sure the side she nudges on remains on the bottom side.
"So, how have you been, got any discoveries?"

Drakador_Chaos

Dumb
Halcyon nodded.
"I see, I see."
He paused briefly looking at the sky then his gaze returned to them.
"This settlement was rather fascinating. They are very far out so they sustain themselves mostly independently., They farm leaves for food, as you can see here and also some other things underground, they get water from a nearby spring and their well, if the weather is lenient. They have storages underground to maintain food for less generous times, they hunt 'Hazra' for their leather and as bait and they herd..."
He paused again, though this time apparently out of necessity, he seemed to be thinking, trying to remember something, though eventually the little was faster than him.
"Glugra!"
Halcyon nodded.
"Yes, that, they provide them with their building materials and other things, rather... curious creatures.
They are also why they will go on a journey tomorrow, the one we will accompany them on."
As they were talking they saw the first people start collecting some of the baskets and carry them into the settlement thoughit would likely take them a while.

Dumb

Drakador_Chaos
"Hmm....? There is fauna? What do they look like? Carnivore or herbivore? or perhaps, omnivore? and did you just mention bait? what are they used to bait on?..."
It seems the mentioning of other lifeforms sparked off the curiosity for Mainframe, whose eyes gleam in hunger for more knowledge. Quickly realizing her slightly inappropriate behavior, she hides her embarrassment with a cough.
"Ahem....sorry about that, it's been a while since I have seen animals roaming around, so the part which was responsible for ecological management just went out of control for a bit."
She gazes at the setting sun, before returning on Hal."[/color]
"well...guess it's time for us to return back to our house, or is there anything else that we can attend to?"
Mainframe's gaze sway toward Serlay and her mum, pending for answer.

"foooooooooood....."
After sleeping through most of the day, Yuki stumbles out of her room, opening two ration packs and using her remaining two morphs as a substitute for hot soup, successfully made herself two cups of noodles which she devours almost instantly. Sitting on the chair burping, while the morphs leave her mouth ghastly and reform by her side as the usual floating spheres, she looks towards where Hal, or to be precise, the location of that third morph.
"Hmm...should I go for them?...eh, let's just wait a little longer..."

Drakador_Chaos

Dumb
Hal shook his head.
"I'm sure the other inhabitants can tell you more at a later point. I, too, have only surface knowledge on this."
He looked off into the increasingly fast darkening sunset as the girls mother picked up one of the baskets and headed off with the girl.
"Let us return for now, There will be much to do tomorrow."

As they returned the meagre lights on the walls were already on, guards were standing at the gate, waiting for the last few stragglers, including them, to return to the settlement, ready to close the gates. In silence they walked through the paths of the settlement, Hal occasionally flexing the fingers on his broken arm. It didn't didn't take them long to find back to their provided housing, as whilst the settlement was not exactly particularly overseeable, it wasn't particularly big either. They walked past a couple guards and as they opened the doors with a creak the first thing that greeted them was Yuki, who had already been awaiting them.

Hal nodded a greeting and then walked past her.
"I will be heading to bed then. Unless you have any further questions at the moment."
Interestingly enough he seemed to be considerably calmer than on the day of their arrival, actually, about as calm as when they first met him, whatever it was that had upset him, had likely either been settled or proven wrong. Tomorrow they would head off to whatever sort of temple or ruin this settlement had.

Dumb

Drakador_Chaos
"I will fill Yuki in about the details, may you enjoy a good rest."
Mainframe answers as she sit down next to Yuki, who waves as Hal enters his room. The two waited in silence for a brief moment, before beginning sharing information.
"Huh... thats quite an interesting way for an ecosystem to develop around the heavy radiation, although..."
Yuki curls her fingers, seemingly doing some calculations in her mind.
"The energy input and output per individual don't really add up, or perhaps radiation is simply regarded as a waste that can be isolated and expelled from the body? If only..."
"Yuki."
"Hmm?"
"Don't"
"Hmm~ I still haven't said what i would do yet."
"But I know what you would do to sate such curiosity, and as someone who objectively knows what you have done, I must voice out that such actions of yours would greatly hamper our relationship and progress here."
"Eh alrighty, but don't pretend that you and I are so different, be it the information we possess, or the morals that we act from."
Yuki stand up and head towards the nearest window.
"What are you doing?"
"Just some pre-emptive recon, don't worry, I won't do anything to the natives, so don't worry."
"...sigh...hope you keep your words."
Yuki leaps out of the window, and quickly climb up the walls using the two molds as makeshift footholds, leaving Mainframe yet again alone sitting in the living room.
"Not so different...huh, well perhaps she is correct."

Guess I worded it too harsh huh...
Within no time Yuki is on the rooftop of the house, sitting cross legged while thinking to herself.
Ayaya this is why i hate indirect conflicts, if only we can just punch each other for a few times and forget everything like a bunch of idiots...or maybe...
Memory of that occasion where she accidentally saw Mainframe completely dominating Galar floods through her mind, making her shudder in fear.
...That would probably happen huh... eh guess i would plead for forgiveness with some new information then.
Finally making up her mind, she stands back up, and begin jumping from rooftops to rooftops towards the wall, while keeping an eye out for the guards.

Galar finally finish editing his little study report, and gazing back down, discovering that its nighttime already. He with his psudo-biological eyes ain't exactly suited for looking into the darkness, and with the contrast created by the scarcely distributed lights, identifying individuals from such altitudes proves to be impossible.
"Welp, guess i will wait for the sun to rise."
He tune his seat to lay down completely, and wait for the time to pass.

Drakador_Chaos

Dumb
As mainframe pondered and Hal had made his way up to his room, Yuki was steadily approaching the outer walls.
Using the rooftops, getting across the settlements did not proof too much of an issue, jumping from building to building, only the stars above and the occasional torch of one of the guards beneath, however, it was when she was reaching the walls when things started to become complicated.
Betraying the small looks of the the settlement, the walls seemed to be quite heavily guarded and frequented, luckily for her, they were all observing the outside, some occasionally stopping to exchange a word or two, rarely was any guard out of the sightline of another, which begged the question what it was outside the gates they were so wary of.
If she wanted to go on the walls, she wouldn't have much of a timeframe. She'd have to be careful not to make any sound as well as there was no telling so far how keen the senses of this race were, given the strange display of the elders.

Dumb

Drakador_Chaos
Yuki did not pay much attention to the potential difference in the detection ability of the natives as she is still mind-boggled in deciding what exactly she wants to know about without harming anyone, in addition to confidence in her own ability to get out of any sticky situation.
She waits for the closest guards to begin talking, before jumping to the interior side of the wall, avoiding all contact on the actual wall itself and just using her one morph as a stepping stone to get to the top, while the other morph wrap around her like a cocoon, with the exterior mimicking the textures of the wall and with some peeking holes for her to look around.
Once up to the top she immediately flattens herself on the surface and has the cocoon flattens out to resemble a slight bulge on the surface, as she slowly crawls forward towards the outside of the city.

Drakador_Chaos

Dumb
As it looked currently Yuki had been successful in egtting past the guards out of the city, as there was alarm or yelling coming from up the wall she now stood outside of. Additionally, she now also was in teh shadow of the wall so she would be safe here from the eyes above, at least for the moment.
As she turned towards the wasteland, the light was dim, stars shone above, but there seemed to be no moon in the sky to provide any additional light, although a distinct red hue from space seemed to have replaced that.
What she saw in the shadows was... curious. Thin branches moving and swaying in the night wind almost as if the trees were moving, the resulting of leaves being carried to her over the distance, further out she could see considerably less, when she realised... there was no wind.
Though besides that, she saw no other lifeforms at least in the immediate vicinity of the settlement. Though she heard a faint, high pitched screeching carried from far away.

Dumb

Drakador_Chaos
Yuki waits patiently and focuses on the movements below the wall, while the remaining morph, aside from the one used as the cocoon and the other still holding Halcyon's arm, levitates above her head and slowly elongates itself, while adopting for a more robust composition.

Drakador_Chaos

Dumb
Although it took a while, as they weren't moving particularly fast, especially with the sparse lighting, she could could eventually confirm, these things they considered 'trees' were indeed moving. Furthermore, there seemed to be a system behind their movements. Whilst some of the fuller ones moved actually closer to the settlement, the more sparse ones moved away, seemingly shrinking until they eventually disappeared completely under the sand, the question remained what actually attracted them, though there seemed to be at least no immediately discernable reason for their behaviour.
Another set of faint far screeches echoed, they hadn't gone any further away, though nor did they get any closer.

Dumb

Drakador_Chaos
Hmm...now what...should I wait for a bit more and see if these things would attack the city?... the odds are undoubtedly low, or last night would be noisy as heck already......
Yuki pondered as the morph continued to elongate, now resembling a Javelin but much sleeker, designed for sheer penetration if given enough force. She glances at the guards, making sure that they haven't noticed the morph yet.
Perhaps...well even if there are any casualties cuz of this, it won't be my direct doing anyway...
She wills the javelin to ascend while remaining vertical, and launches it downward with maximum force along with the accumulated potential energy, aimed towards the root of the nearest "tree"
"May the Carnival begins.."
She mutters, awaiting for the reaction of whatever creature dwelling under the sand.

Drakador_Chaos

Dumb
There was the hiss of air as the spear crossed the way towards the supposed 'tree' and Yuki waited in anticipation every second.
There was wooden, almost metallic 'thunk' as the spear sunk into the sand and then...

Nothing happened.

At least not with the tree, like before it slowly seemed to be moving further towards the outskirts, apparently not even realising it was hit, whatever was beneath the surface was eitehr quite resilient or she aimed at the wrong spot, either way it seemed to have no effect.
What did have an effect however was the sound of the spear and its impact, voices and footsteps were heard from up the wall and she could hear the guards gathering, the shine of their torches casting eerie shadows over the walls.
She heard whispering from up the walls, despite their agitation they seemed to be intent on making as little sound as possible.
"Glugra?", "Hazra?", "Ongruy? ", were things she heard the most amongst the whispers, none of which she had heard about before.
They were searching for what might have caused the sound and for a tense few seconds, Yuki wondered if she may actually be found...

Yet again, nothing happened, whatever it was they had been searching for was certainly not someone stuck to the wall benath them and so the commotion quickly died down and the steps of the guards above slowly returned to their former routine. The night was silent once more.

Dumb

Drakador_Chaos
Yuki tries to reach out and sense the javelin-formed morph, hoping to at least have it anchored on the carapace of whatever creature down there instead of getting shattered and losing connection.

Drakador_Chaos

Dumb
As she reacehd out she noticed the spear had indeed not shattered, however, it was only loosely stuck to the tree and given its movement through the loose ash it would likely fall off in due time, though where that would be only the gods could tell.
Interestingly enough she noticed the 'tree' was still moving away from the settlement and, most notably, it was also going deeper, as if descending deeper into the ash.
In the meanwhile, she could hear the footseps above, calm and regular, it seems the guards had calmed down.
Then, there was suddenly another hissing screech, it was still the same as the ones before, though what was notable about it was that, while still distant, it seemed to have closer... if ever so slightly.
Had she attracted the attention of something different?

Dumb

Drakador_Chaos
The fact that the javelin remained intact relieved her a slight bit, but then the nearer screech completely overwhelmed her with the opposite of being relieved, as her mind raced to estimate what would be the origin and what action she should take in order to be the safest for herself and for Mainframe.
After bargaining on whether or not she should withdraw the "morph" which makes up for Hal's arm holder and with no clear result, Yuki decides to first retrieve the javelin, sending it towards the sky once more, be it for defensive purpose or to strike whatever's making that noise. Meanwhile, she slowly shifts backward along with her cover, just in case if she needs to make a quick escape.

Drakador_Chaos

Dumb
Yuki waited and waited, as the spear rose into the darkness without her actually seeing it.
It had been several minutes in fact, of her waiting in complete silence and stillness, until there came another screeching, again in about the same distance.

The air was still, no sound could be heard, even the guard above her were dead silent, only the flickering of their lights indicating they were still there.
Another screeching. Silence.

She stared out into the darkness but saw nothing in the direction but the slowly shuffling trees.
Another screeching, then... relief.
This one was more distant again.
She heard steps above and the lights moved, judging by the guards whatever danger she had been summoning with her attack was now over, at least for the moment. It took a while longer until the guards had returned to their usual pattern, though it should be safe to return back into the settlement now.