The denizens of the old world rebuilt their humble Tazumili Village to accommodate the four hundred-strong lot of them. And that was going to be it. Quite frankly, the whole "rebuild Osohe Castle" thing was all Duster's idea.
He'd meant it as a gift for Kumatora, a place where she could take refuge if she ever wanted to be left alone. A rather sweet gesture, but she would have tried to talk him out of it had construction not been half-over by the time she'd noticed.
To build an entire village at once sounds like a daunting task; a castle, even more so. But with all the New Tazumilians pitching in on the same project, it was done in a matter of months. So, as mentioned earlier, within two years, the tomboy princess wandered these newly constructed halls as queen of her own castle.
At first the interior unnerved her. She had lived in the original Osohe castle for sixteen years of her life, but it was trashy, disheveled, and ancient; this new one, though in structure the same as the first, was almost completely bare. No torn banners. No toppled bookcases. No broken suits of armor. And as sour icing on the lemon cake, the kitchen was orderly. It wasn't that she expected the castle to be filthy, but the sheer neatness made her feel less at home.
Then there was the matter of the other beings who'd occupied the castle with her: the Magypsies and the ghosts. Though the Magypsies looked after her in her prepubescence, she'd long ago accepted they wouldn't be returning. But the ghosts had been her only other set of friends. The lack of her spooky companions also served to make the castle rather uninviting.
But Kumatora was determined to get used to these accommodations after all the effort the other New Tazumilians put into it. They'd tried to reproduce the castle brick by brick, and some had even taken pains to stitch up a tapestry reproduction of the crest she'd made up and stitched onto one of her shirts. As a whole the new Osohe was a testament to the zeal they poured into their work.
In a few hours, she'd grown to the spacious corridors. She'd gotten lost in them as well, but that fact didn't bother her; since the new castle's halls and stairways were the same as the old, if she focused she could find her way out well enough.
Passing a window, she took the opportunity to admire the view. And what a view it was: the Terri Forest, with its rich greens, stretched out over the landscape, and many animals - moles, vultures, flying mice, mole crickets, Salsa the monkey and his girlfriend, and countless others - cavorted through the trees and scurried across the ground in little dances. New Tazumili, in its triumphant glory, was visible in the distance, and in the sky a first quarter moon dared the sun to go down and leave it in peace to illuminate the night.
In a brief disharmony with her nature, she sighed wistfully, and the thought presented itself that Duster was right to give her a sanctuary where she could absentmindedly do something kitschy like that and not have to pay for it later, the same way, let's say, a jock would pay if his fraternity brothers came across his store of unicorn artwork. Yes, just like that.
She then mused that the other New Tazumilians must be quite grateful to her for her role in saving the world, for them to put such effort into something that was only for her.
But she didn't intend or want to spend all the time she spent in the new castle by herself. If there were ghosts no longer, then she intended to at least have visitors, possibly from the forest, seeing as New Tazumili was a long ways from Osohe.
A soft noise echoed through the mostly empty castle, a scuffling or shuffle, and an occasional clang clang clang. She'd noticed that sound about an hour ago, but only now began to wonder what was causing it. Perhaps a curious animal from the forest, or a New Tazumilian wanting to know what she thought of her castle, or, a stretch though it was, maybe the ghosts had returned and were making themselves at home. Whatever it was, she began to try to follow the echoes to their source.
"Hello?" she called out. The scuffling became a bit anxious, and the reply was a roar, the roar of perhaps some hideous beast that no one would want to run into, especially somewhere that should have been safe. It uneased her a bit, but she was sure she could handle any creature with bad intentions, as she had a few years back. Maybe it was the ghosts and they were playing a harmless prank for old time's sake. But she still chuckled to herself nervously.
The shuffling continued, now joined by some sniffing about and loathsome growls, sounding like some large, deadly beast searching for its dinner. In case she'd end up having to run from this creature, as it increasingly seemed she would, she leaned out a window to assess where she was. From this row of windows, two others were below, and a column stretched above the window to her left all the way down to the door, so she was on the third floor a little to the left of the middle spire. Now it was a matter, if this was a creature intent on making her its food, of whether she could take it on or should run from it.
But she was determined to run only as a last resort; as threatening as this creature sounded, it didn't scare her. Yes, she had been nervous before in her life, worried, unsure of an outcome; but outright scared, dreading something? Only once, under completely different circumstances.
She searched the halls, mostly not worried. The hair on the back of her neck prickled, and a nagging instinct tugged at her in the back of her mind, but she ignored it. Whatever ghastly being was in Osohe with her, it couldn't be hard to take down, at least in comparison with the tougher creatures she and the other three had faced two years ago, she was sure.
But then as she and the thing causing the noise converged on the same spot, what should it be but the one thing she couldn't take.
Lucas had told her about it, a long time ago. A horrible beast, one that he'd barely escaped with his life, one that he still had nightmares of to this day. A red mechanical chimera, with a large, sharp-toothed mouth, small wings, and a little bird on its back. Built to kill effectively, and kill it had.
At first, she'd shrugged off this goofy-sounding creature as a harmless fairy tale, but as she finally saw it towering over her, the teeth in its massive jaws dripping, his voice echoed in her head:
"...I opened the door and the room was drenched with blood, and it was there, with remnants of Pig Army uniforms stuck between its teeth, and it stared right through me with its blank, soulless eyes, as if I were next..."
Fear was a strange emotion. Every instinct in her screamed at her to run, but she couldn't move, frozen right where she stood. It lumbered closer, and instinct told her scream, maybe something might hear you, but all that came out was quiet whimpering. But as the chimera reared up and opened its gaping maw to leap on her and tear her open, instinct then commanded fall back! fall back!, and fall back she did, just as it sprung.
She saw red, but it wasn't her blood; it was the chimera standing over her, not knowing where she went, dumb brute as it was. Opportunity whispered in her ear, and she raised her forearm, let her hand go limp, and shoved her wrist into the creature's stomach. An unusual attack method, but it worked; the chimera reared up in surprise, and she took the chance to scramble for her life.
Not knowing how fast the beast was, she stopped for nothing, and hoped to death it couldn't catch up to her. For you see, she wasn't very fast herself: Duster, even with his bad leg, could outrun her, and on bad days she couldn't even catch up to Lucas. But fortunately, the adrenaline gave her a burst of speed, the only good thing about being afraid.
She began to curse these circumstances, cursing that this beast invaded her sanctuary; cursing that it still existed to begin with; cursing that it had one hard-to-exploit weakness Lucas told her about, but she had forgotten; cursing that it was otherwise impervious; and cursing that she'd gotten lost once more in the excitement.
All the while behind her, she could hear the chimera lumbering ever closer, growling with rage. Lucas' story of it played vividly through her mind, and she finally understood the uncertainty, the heart-pounding panic that came with being chased by a blood-thirsty monster, and the imagery of a painful, messy death that would come should it catch her. She cursed her weak running legs, and all but prayed they wouldn't fail her entirely.
Passing a window, she saw but one chance for salvation. She took the deepest breath she could muster, leaned out the window, and screeched "Get me out of here!" as loud as she could, in hopes something, anything, would come to her aid.
But her cry had alerted the chimera, which had almost gotten lost in the halls itself, to her exact location, and as she paused to regain her breath, she could see it out of the corner of her eye turning the corner into the hall.
This time she climbed onto the windowsill. There was but one option.
As once more the chimera leapt towards her, she leapt out the window to catch a tall tree ajacent to it. Her attempt to escape brought them to the top of the rightmost forward spire, and luckily for her, there was the tree, just barely within jumping distance.
She clung tightly to it, and the chimera paced in front of the window impatiently. She relaxed a bit, thinking that finally she was saved.
After a minute, the chimera reared up, and leapt out of the window after her.
Suddenly, she became aware that she was falling, the chimera a few feet ahead of her. Apparently, she had subconsciously let go of the tree, just in time to save her from a gruesome fate at its claws.
She took hold of a branch, and the chimera fell past her to the ground, where it surprisingly remained intact. It got to its feet and paced beneath her, waiting for her to fall. As she dangled from the branch, she tried to think up a plan to incapacitate it somehow. Valiantly, she'd decided that whether or not she made it, she wouldn't let this beast devour the other New Tazumilians or any of the peaceful animals in the forest.
A fall wouldn't harm the creature, and she wouldn't risk getting close to it to try to remember what its weakness was. That left locking it up somehow, and the only available cage there was Osohe Castle. Didn't Duster say there were iron bars for the windows if she wanted to keep nosy forest creatures out? Yes. Yes, he did.
This was it. It was all or nothing. Sidney or the bush. Everything she did from now 'til Osohe was in complete lockdown had to be perfect.
First she had to swing herself into the window just below her at just the right angle. Any less and she'd fall to her death at the hands of the chimera, if not the ground. Any more and she might hit her head on the arc, possibly knocking her out, and possibly she might not wake.
Luck was on her side as she let go of the branch to drop through the window, barely missing the sill. She leaned out the window to see the chimera reenter the castle after her. She noted where she was in the castle, as she'd have to keep her trail in mind to make certain she closed all the windows.
She first made her way to the top of the middle spire to get it out of the way, shutting windows along the way. It was nerve-wracking; if the chimera caught her at the top, that was it for her.
She had to struggle to keep her place and her wits as she dashed 'round each hall, as the chimera's growls echoed through the castle so that she couldn't tell where it was. Fatigue left her, but it was replaced with a pressing need to vomit out of stress.
Several times she crossed paths with the creature; on one, it almost killed her. She barely got away, but it tore her arm open, so she left a trail of blood wherever she ran. And that only served to make it easier for the chimera to follow her.
After what felt like an eternity, she finally shut the last window. All that was left was the door, but the chimera was hot on her trail, and every bit as quick as she was.
So as much as she hated it, she backtracked a bit, tossing blood here and there to try to throw it off. Once on the second floor, she took a scrap of fabric and tied it 'round the gash on her arm t
The chimera seemed to fall for her fake trail, and she managed to get out. She shut the door and looked upwards at a window it was looking out of. It slammed against the bars a few times, to no avail, and roared with rage.
Finally, the living nightmare was over.
The fatigue came back, and she stumbled about aimlessly for a bit, shivering as if she'd just crawled out of ice water. With no need to hold it back any longer, she then leaned over a bush and lost the clam chowder she'd eaten for lunch that afternoon. She collapsed, wanting to fall asleep and not wake up until the end of the month.
"Kumatora!" she heard a voice call in the distance. It sounded like Duster's. So now someone comes, she thought bitterly, after I'm almost dead?
She quickly stood up, almost falling down again in the process. Sure enough, it was Duster, with his father Wess following close behind. When they arrived, poor Duster's leg buckled under him, and he collapsed. Wess fell to his knees to rest.
Duster looked up. "Kumatora, my lady," he asked with grave concern, "are you all right?"
No, I'm not all right! she wanted to yell, but didn't. I just got chased through my sanctuary by a bloodthirsty monster, and not even Salsa tried to help when I screamed!
"Duster has great hearing," Wess continued. "A while ago, he said he heard you calling for aid. It was faint, he said, but desperate-sounding. I doubted him at first, but finally I went along. And, it seems he was right. You look half-dead. And your arm..."
She glanced at her wound, then shifted uneasily. Nothing in her wanted to admit what had happened in there. It was over. She just wanted to forget it. "I... just fell down a flight of stairs," she lied. "That's all. I had no idea I screamed that loud."
Wess looked suspicious. "So, you weren't in any danger? You cried out like that just because you fell down some stairs?"
"That's right." She stiffened a bit. "And... It's not that there's something wrong with the castle, but... I can't stay in it. Really, I didn't intend to live in it anyway. It's nice, but I'd rather stay in New Tazumili." She then took off for the village, trying not to show her fatigue. Duster and Wess followed her.
"She's lying," she heard Duster whisper to his father. "The Kumatora I know wouldn't be spooked like that just by falling down stairs. Something happened in there that she doesn't want to admit."
A sinking feeling settled in her stomach.
"I wouldn't press her on it, though," Wess advised. "Whatever it is, I'm sure she has a very good reason for not telling us."
She breathed a soft sigh of relief. The fatigue left her again, and she no longer worried that she'd collapse halfway there and have to be carried.
But even though she'd locked the chimera away, it wouldn't be confined to Osohe forever. There was one secluded window on the third floor she'd overlooked...
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