RP:Tegrity Farms
Summary: Queen Reginae hears rumors of a naga helping out on a farm that was disturbing the best produce! Come to find out, it’s a goblin run farm with zoned out looking labor workers and two of them she knows. The guardian she had assigned to her dear friend and Brennia. Needless to say she rages out like a boss and rescues them.
Overgrown Garden
This garden looks like it has been left a very long time, weeds are growing waist high, and the ground is covered with rubble from the surrounding buildings. There are remnants of string around, and the look of the raised flowerbeds suggests that this place was once tended. Perhaps if you search the undergrowth you might find something interesting.
Brennia starts off her day the same way ever since her disappearance. Wait? Did she disappear or is she still in hiding from the Flewminati? It’s probably unclear of exactly how long she’s been gone, but who cares about details… Definitely not Bre, not anymore. Before the sun starts to lighten the dark skies upon a forgotten area of Gualon, one of the goblin grunts steps into the workforce dwelling which is a large hastily made hut with straw mattresses that line the dirt floor and no candle light within to illuminate the many faces sleeping on the floor, or the fact that they are currently chained together. The grunt scurries in with a key ring in one hand and a lantern in the other before kneeling by every sleeping captive to sprinkle some sort of magical dust over their faces so their chains may safely be unlocked. Brennia almost becomes fully aware of where she is, the subtle light from the goblin’s lamp glows on the straw roof comes into view and the feel of too many people too near to her… one person is actually ON her WING!? Then the stench hits, holy guacamole the STENCH! It’s then that she saw the face of a goblin standing over her and those large teal optics narrow, but before she can will her lethargic body to even move, a powerful magical dust is sprinkled over her and fills her senses with a pleasant dullness. One by one, the workers meander their way out of the sleeping hut like a group of zombies; this group includes a handful of elves, a few humans, a couple of dwarves, Brennia and the naga with blue and silver colored skin that was ordered by Queen Reginae to protect her, Thedez, in his natural form. The workers are fed, only enough for survival, but mostly because the food is laced with a powerful potion to keep their ‘employees’ under the control of the goblin shaman running the farm. Brennia looks before her at Thedez while mindlessly sipping gruel from a bowl that looks grotesquely like the top half of a skull (gross!) and something about the man seems familiar, but as much as she wills herself to speak up, ask questions… say SOMETHING… she can’t. The rest of the day is spent working on a field and cultivating the plants around them in the forgotten gardens within Gualon from sun up to sun down, until it is time for more mind numbing gruel, but this time it makes the workers sleepy and Bre falls into a deep dreamless sleep until the day starts over again.
To the outside world beyond the camp/farm: It has taken nearly two years to perfect and construct the delicious produce, so they’ve been selling out the past few months. The jackfruit that comes from this farm is rumored to have healing properties and those who abstain from meat have gone bananas over the benefits for its diverse ability to replace meat in recipes. There is also the avocados that the younger crowd is obsessed over… they gotta put it on everything and avocado ice cream!? What, even? Whispering of consumers and produce shops have mentioned that the farm ~must~ be touched with magic by the naga AND avian willingly working there because they cannot keep the items that come from Tegrity Farms in stock!
Reginae, overhearing mention of a naga being on this hip and happening farm, wades through the tall grass and crops surrounding. She’s not exactly sneaking as a white haired child in the mid-afternoon sun, but she’s trying to stay well out of reach for any guards that might happen to catch sight of her. It was a simple scouting mission she’d imposed on herself; find this naga, interrogate (converse with), and entice back to Alithrya. All plausible. Thedez, towering over everyone in the field, is easy to spy. He’s in his natural form, which strikes Regi as odd. Once she draws closer she can see it’s someone she knows, someone she sent to guard Brennia, which registers as stranger still. The goblins in the field are few and far between. They’re loitering in groups, rolling bone dice by the looks of it, paying very little attention to the field at large. Each worker moves with the same automatic numbness regardless of strength or height or race. They keep practically perfect pace with one another. Looping through various greenery, Reginae’s child sized feet catch sight of folded wings and her heart races. It couldn’t be…she was gone. She’d heard, she knew…But it’s Bre standing there, shielded by stalks of corn and flowering cucumbers. If and when Bre moves close enough to Reginae’s location, her little pale hand will dart through the stalks and attempt to drag the avian into the field alongside her. “Bre!” she whispers urgently, even if the naga can’t snag her.
Brennia is sweaty and honestly kind of rank smelling, despite her avian ability, along with all the other workers because goblins really don’t care about the stench. The workers all get hosed down in the back fields about once a month, if they are lucky! The avian’s long dark brown locks are tangled in the renewed growth without care and her wings lack their usual lustrous allure, but as always, they are impressively large. She is dressed the same as the rest, in tattered shorts and the women have a simple cloth wrap around their chest. The once confidently curvaceous woman is now slender even though she doesn’t look nearly as emaciated as the rest of the workers. Her whimsically filigree ink pattern has returned and now remains stagnant on her dark skin, which is only getting darker in the harsh sun of summer. Silence is a constant on Tegrity Farms and a few sentries make their rounds to ensure there is nothing amiss in the fields, but goblins aren’t entirely smart and miss the fact that there is an intruder in the disguise of a child. Easily manipulated in her current state, she allows the child to lead her away from her work as the name falls on deaf overly long tapered ears which used to be adorned by a myriad of piercings. Even if she wanted to recognize the nickname uttered, the bard cannot will herself to speak and an expressionless facade is all that remains on the once layered woman… a shell. A sharp whistle sounds and chittering of irate goblins can be heard, but -that- Brennia hears and heeds as she turns from the strange child to go back to her station in the field. Then, and only then, did the whistling and chittering stop as the sentries make their way over to the spot Brennia was just in to begin checking for the reason she left her post. Meanwhile, the lowly avian must be punished for her insolence, thin welts can be seen on her hips and thighs as the whip being brought down on her flesh is to blame. Brennia does nothing and doesn’t even yell out in pain… totally chill!
Reginae manages to lead Bre a good distance away before they’re spotted. Her friend neither speaks nor appears to recognize the child in the slightest. When she turns away, Regi tries to take hold of her wrist but Bre’s resolve to obey the goblin commands won out against the short statured child. So the disguised naga lets go, flopping backward into plants and dirt, still ignored by the guards as they move to punish the avian in her stead. Ridiculously, Regi screams. The high pitched roar of a titan passing those small lips. Her clothes stretch and strain as her form increases in size to that of a dragon or worse. She towered over the fields. The other workers continued on with disinterest, ploughing dumbly into her elongated tail, which encircles a large chunk of the fields and the makeshift cabin. She could coil up and crush them all if it pleased her, but it doesn’t. Instead, she swipes her tail over the goblins, blowing their stubby bodies to the side so she can pluck Bre up with her thumb and index finger and set her several yards away on the outside of ring her tail made. It separated Bre from the farm and all the workers. A few of the goblins are dumb enough to try and fight her but she lies down flat on her stomach, tail twisting behind her like a funnel cloud, as she exhales another threatening cry that topples them backwards. Some worker is prodding her with a pitchfork, much to Regi’s annoyance, and when she turns to flick the individual away she spies Thedez again. She shakes her gigantic head and plucks him up to, by the tail, and sets him next to Bre. They are the size of small dolls to her presently. The rest of the goblins look fine to let these two workers go in the face of fighting this horrible snake beast. Reginae scoops both Bre and Thedez into her hands before flicking her tail across the pasture and destroying the make shift hut and all the workers inside scattered with the wind.
Reginae slithers a few, safe miles away before shrinking back down to a reasonable size and depositing Brennia and Thedez on the ground beside her. They look glassy eyed and hollow. The queen frowns before grabbing their wrists and dragging them to the nearest Healer’s shack. This was beyond her expertise. She specialized in killing more than curing.
Reginae is FUMING at the staff as they work. Her face is contorted in harsh lines that make her look monstrous. Truly upholding the Naga stereotype. She looks over her charges, restless pacing on humanoid legs in the waiting room. Her fangs are visible and her eyes are reptilian slits of annoyance. Every word out of her mouth is a heavy command and if anyone should cross her, she’d slam them down to the floor by their throat for their insolence.
Brennia looks on with no expression upon her face and Thedez squirms a little in the strange creatures grasp. When the avian tries to walk back over to her designated spot, she finds the path blocked by a massive scaled tail and for whatever reason she reaches a hand out to gently caress down the feel of them. Thedez just watches Brennia like a mouth breather. With the goblins so thoroughly overpowered, they either parish or scatter while the mindless workers are left to flee as well.
It’s all a blur after that and some fierce woman screaming. ‘Wow… She’s so angry. I hope everything is okay,’ is all she thinks as she lays on a stretcher and only sees blackness since her eyes are closed. ‘I must help her, I want to. Just to tell her everything is going to be alright.’ These two are a mess. Thedez and Brennia receive constant observation while they start to wean off the potions, sleeping draught and fairy dust. They had been cleaned up, clothed in simple gowns before given a steady regimen of rehydration remedies and salves on their sunburn. The first night was the worst, Brennia and Thedez had to be placed in separate rooms because their night terrors never seemed to end. The next day was spent retching, shivering, sweating and whimpering. If the avian wasn’t groaning and writhing in pain, she was whispering something over and over, “I’m nothing... Insignificant… nothing!” The second night wasn’t much better, but they could not give the pair anymore sleeping aid for that’s one of the many things which they are recovering from. The bard spent that night eerily sobbing while curled up in a ball under the cover of her wings because the tremors were unbearable and started to make all of her muscles ache while her bones felt as if they’ve been set ablaze.
Finally, the fourth day… Brennia shoots up in the patient bed from a short restless slumber, her hair is stuck to the side of her face a little from sweating. Even the sheets are a little moist from it, but with dark circles under her solid teal gaze, she looks around the unfamiliar room as her dark dull wings hang lazily behind her. “Where am I?” She asks some random healer in the room who hurried to go get Reginae. “Rude….” the warm alto timber became smoky and rough in her tired and weak state while she slowly swings her long legs off the side of the bed to feel the ground below her feet. They feel a bit raw at the bottom and she winces while sucking air through her teeth.
Reginae stays in the clinic for the entirety of the four days. She writes to Muzo, who she was supposed to meet on the third, to let him know there’d be a delay. She used his humanoid name for his monk persona in Cenril and expected that he’d understand. He was patient with her at her worst. During the time, she was told multiple times by the staff that Brennia and her naga guard needed to be resting so their bodies could purge all the mind warping influences the goblins had inflicted. It explained why neither of them reacted to her calling their names or even her face. They looked straight through her.
Every day, twice a day, the clinic staff let Reginae visit the individual rooms where they are recovering. She has confidence that her guard is strong (not that she doesn’t have the same confidence for Brennia, but she knows the naga physical make up). Warrior race, build for opposition and world conquering. With Brennia sick, she looks so small and fragile, tucked into her wings and oblivious that any of the clinic workers or Reginae herself were there.
When Reginae’s summoned by the nurse the fourth day, she bolts down the corridor to Brennia’s room. Her heart was pounding, resisting the urge to throw open the door and crush the delicate Avian with an embrace. Instead, Reginae opens the door slowly, letting sunlight filter in from the windows in the hall and stands there, silhouetted and uncertain.
“Bre…?” Her voice is shaky with emotion.
Brennia looks delicate and slight, but not nearly as bad as when she was rescued. Her hair a little tousled from sleep and she is in the middle of raking her long slender fingers through it in attempts to smooth the wavy strands down when the door opens. The bard’s heart sings when the first person she really sees is her dear friend and partner in crime, Reginae! Ignoring the fresh skin stinging her feet with every step (the thick calluses had to be shaved off the bottoms) she clears the distance quickly and pretty much tumbles right into Reginae. Her arms clutching the woman in a tight embrace, well, as tight as the recovering avian could and tears of joy fall freely from her eyes. Wings follow suit, enveloping the naga in her favorite scent and their velvety caress coupled by their warmth, but they shake somewhat as the avian’s shoulders where bobbing up and down. Was she sobbing or laughing!? Both? The hug lasts for eons, but then the tattooed woman took the other by the shoulders and pulled back to reveal the biggest, beautifulest smile that reaches solid teal optics, “it was you, wasn’t it?” A raspy chuckle follows while she rubs the back of her hand on her own wet cheeks. Remembering their last conversation and how much it contrasts how she’s feeling this day, “I never thought there could be something worse than death.” She did shamefully admit that she was ready to be at rest again way back when, but now… there is so much warmth and hope in the bard’s eyes. So much appreciation for life and it’s obvious that she’s so ready now to just be herself again… her true self! No Raven, no Charlise, no Brennia the Write Off! She chuckles again through more tears and smiling, “I owe you my life Regi…” Her hands slip into Reginae’s in a platonic manner to give a soft squeeze, “thank you so much. I don’t even know how you did it, but I have a pretty strong feeling that you saved Thedez and I.”
Reginae tries to close the distance, in surprise, when Bre starts towards the door. It feels like she just collapses into the naga woman’s arms. This is the first time since bringing Brennia and Thedez to this clinic that Reginae can sigh with relief. Regi hugs the avian back, trying to act the anchor of their unsteady embrace. The smell of old books and wet gardens consumes her as Brennia’s wings fold around them both. The nurse stands in the doorway, ready to urge Bre back to bed if she falters, but Reginae holds the embrace as long as she can. She doesn’t say anything, what could she say? It’s an ineffable reunion. “It was.” She agreed. She felt guilty though. Reginae –should- have been looking for Brennia but she hadn’t been. How would she have known to? People travel and don’t return for years! But Reginae holds the burden against herself and believes she should have magically known somehow. The naga remembers how Brennia shrugged at life when she’d been revived. So for her to say this now made it that much more powerful a declaration. “No, no, no…” Regi insists, squeezing Bre’s hand back just as the nurse moves in behind them to encourage Brennia to sit back down on the clinic bed and rest her feet. Reginae didn’t want to get into the specifics of how it came to pass that she’d saved them. She didn’t want to tell Bre how their eyes were void of light and their bodies manipulated like magic puppets. She can’t look at Bre’s wet face and say those things. “I don’t either,” she lied easily, “but it’s over and done with now. You need to focus on resting.” Still, the naga had many questions she wanted to ask. How had Brennia and Thedez ended up there of all places?
Brennia allows the nurse to take her away from Reginae and leads her back to sit down, but she’s still so happy to be alive and in control again that she cannot stop smiling. “Oh Regi, it doesn’t even matter. I’m here and I’m not going to shirk life, love and purpose again,” she plops down on the edge of the bed as the nurse checks the fresh skin on the bottom of her feet. “It’s amazing how Thedez and I were just traveling around, as you know,” she was writing her here or there and if she wasn’t then Thedez had been sending reports. “One random night, it was late, we were tired and bickering like siblings,” as usual, it’s just their dynamic, “when we spotted this inn off the beaten path and as soon as we walked in, a trapdoor opened up below us.” The avian doesn’t sound bitter or mad and not the least bit sad as she retells the story as if it were an everyday occurrence, “and that was that.” It was just then that Thedez came through the door and the worry that had been on his face is replaced with a sarcastic smirk, “it’s about time you got up, always with the theatrics with you bards.” Brennia lets out a raspy giggle and playfully glares at Thedez, “you’ve always got to be first with things, huh?” Right back at it with their playful banter and Thedez bows respectfully to his queen. “I bet Queenie is worried sick about me,” her stomach flutters thinking about the owner of the mastiff dog, Niall, and her hopeful smile returns. She never got the chance to tell the man she loves him back and guilt stirs in her heart because she turned him away when he has admitted it, “how long were we there? And did the others get out?” She asks both Reginae and Thedez, but the naga warrior looks to his Queen for he doesn’t even know they’ve been missing for a little over a year and a half.
Reginae looks relieved to hear Brennia sound so overjoyed to be conscious, in control, and –alive- but she still can’t bring herself to break any detailed news about what happened between then and now. The nurse moves around and between them, seemingly ignoring their conversation while treating her patient. Brennia is explaining the trap door when Thedez enters behind them. Regi spins her head about quickly, still holding Bre’s hand but her face was contorted in a fearful rage…until she saw it was just Thedez and not a random threat traipsing through the clinic. Why would it be Reginae? The traveling companions exchange quips while Reginae steadies herself and nods acceptingly as Thedez bows. “It’s all right,” she promises in what sounds like an apology. The naga tilts her head at the name ‘queenie’ and hopes this isn’t a new nick name she’s acquired. Then Bre asks how long they’ve been gone…and Reginae swallows hard, squeezing her hand briefly. “A lot of the camp was scattered, I’m hopeful the others were also able to escape.” She doesn’t know, wouldn’t put money on their success unless someone else came along and found the drugged workers. The answer of how long they’d been gone sticks in the back of her throat. “Well over a year, nearing two I think…” The nurse is rubbing salve on and bandaging Brennia’s feet. Thedez was blessed in this regard; no feet. “…but you’re okay. You’re safe now.” Reginae would kill anyone who tried to say otherwise or threaten them again.
Brennia caught the sideways look from the Queen and reached up a hand to gently cup her friend’s cheek, “you know you’ll always be Regi to me. Queenie is this adorably loving mastiff belonging to a tall ridiculously handsome and bearded farm raised man who is just as kind. I was spending a lot of time with him before I had apparently been kidnapped,” she did sort of glance away with her hand back within Regi’s. It was a bit awkward talking like that in front of her when they had flirted a little while Regi was Nicolau, but that seems so far away now. Brennia pales a little when she hears how long she’d been gone and her wings sort of slump in reflection of her emotions even though she used to have such complete control over them. It would seem she came out on the other side of this thing with an attitude shift, “oh…” her gaze drops to the cotton gown they put her in. “I’m sure,” what? That he’s moved on? Probably lives in a house he built for his newfound love? How wouldn’t he be already… he’s a catch. A tightness wraps around her heart in the brief silence before she reforms her sentence, “I’m sure I’ll run into them again one day.” She looks up and smiles again, “I am safe now. And I cannot thank you enough,” she slips her arm around Regi’s waist the best she can from her seated position and curves her wing around the naga before resting her head on her hip/stomach in a half hug. “Regi, would you sit and talk with me for a while? I would love to hear what you’ve been up to.” She pats the space on the bed next to her and Brennia listens while Regi fills her in on matters of the world- or at least Reginae’s world.
“I don’t understand what you mean,” Reginae mumbles when Brennia’s hand cups her face. The recovering avian goes into detail about this paramour of hers and she listens intently. There didn’t appear to be any uncomfortable feelings on Reginae’s side of the equation but she notes the change and attributes it to this man she missed. She wants to comfort her, tell her that Muzo was missing for a long time and they eventually reconnected. That the same might be true for her but...Reginae couldn’t disclose Muzo’s secret. Regi hoped Brennia would forgive her. “Don’t worry,” is all she manages before adding, “I’m sure you will.” Bre starts to thank the naga again and Regi shakes spider silk hair away from her face, dispelling the notion. The nurse leaves them, Thedez curls up on his tail and tucks himself into a corner by the door to rest but stay nearby. “Of course I will…” Reginae’s tone drops to one of concern. Slumped wings and a fragile sounding voice. With a frown, the naga in human form plops her weary body on the bed and considers Brennia’s face. There’s indeed a different light to her. It isn’t dimmer or brighter, just clearer than before. Like the glass was fogged but has since been polished and renewed. Because of that, she can tell Brennia’s sadness clearly. What could she offer in the way of news of her world? Muzo had to stay a secret for his safety. It wasn’t that she didn’t trust Brennia, it was that she couldn’t trust rooms or walls or shadows. If Yozenra was here, she’d fill Brennia in on how the Queen has been prone to violent mood swings since the war was won. Instead, Regi offers - “I’ll be competing in an upcoming Larket tournament. It would mean a lot to me if you came to cheer me on.” It’s not much but it’s something. “I’ve just done my best to stay busy, to not think about Muzo.” It was true, there was a time before she found him that she felt that way. Angry. Bitter. Violent. Betrayed that he’d leave her behind for his own intellectual pursuits. Selfish. Reginae snarls, looking at the floor and clearing her throat just as her fangs become visible between her lips. “Not much else has changed, I’m sorry.” Reginae goes on to report little things - the Saurian’s she’d met, the potential opponents she’d face in the tournament, Yozenra, her snails...but she doesn’t touch the nerve of Muzo’s name again. When the naga’s worn her tongue to dust, she looks back at Brennia to appraise her mood. “I’m sorry you were stuck for so long. If I’d known, I would have come so much sooner.”