The Malformed Realm is an incarnation of hell in it's most abstractly horrifying form.
A single village of children think they are the only inhabitants beside the upper class society they provide sustenance to. The elements of nature are the gods th...
Mary pulled the sheets over a now softly snoring Jonathan. She smiled. He looks so peaceful.
They had finished their dinner and she had helped Orlando in sorting through their luggage and piled up their clothes and other accessories by the side of their hay beds. It was easier to manage if they were carried in smaller units.
Grace yawned from her side and patted her shoulder as Mary lied down.
"They seem nice," Mary said, her back to Grace.
Grace seemed to ponder over the statement for longer than Mary would have expected. "They are quite secretive. I would have to say that. Still, they have shown politeness and now that we know those guards- the only hostile ones we came across, aren't related to these people and work mostly on and of their masters' volition, we can relax as they are tasked to protect the village. The old men however...I don't know what to say about them. They are hard to figure out."
"They are very creepy," Mary said, giving out a chuckle without humour.
"Definitely." Grace grunted.
"But that guy, Horatio. And Agnes and Mary. They seem genuinely nice. I think we can be good friends!" Mary looked at Grace from over her shoulder. She was frowning and Mary could not quite understand why. They were nice people! We had misunderstood their intentions and that's why we thought they had tricked and trapped us. So why is Grace still hesitating to believe in them?
"I don't know, Mary... It's still a bit too early to judge them I'd say. And...I don't like how direct that Anabel girl is. She is a bit too assertive. She is still a stranger to all of us and only has had a brief encounter with Jonathan before, yet she acts like she's known him for so long."
"Why, are you jealous?"
Mary saw Grace getting flustered, her face contorting in denial. She grinned.
"Why jealous? I'm a bit mad you can say. She's overtly trying to assert dominance upon my friend by doing things I should do, trying to get closer by force."
"My, you are jealous." Mary giggled softly.
"Hey, I said-" Grace stopped talking all of a sudden.
"What?" Mary turned over, but right then her ears picked up some noise. Voices. "Is something happening outside?"
"Sounds like it."
"Should we go, take a look?"
Grace was silent for a while. "Uhh, yes. But let's keep our distance. We don't want to get involved into anything again."
"I understand." Mary nodded.
They got up slowly. Beatrice and Orlando were sleeping together soundly. On the other side was Jonathan.
"Make sure not to wake them up," Grace murmured as she put on her slippers and quietly walked towards the barn doors. At night with the lanterns put out, the place seemed like a dark cave inside a hill. Mary quickly followed behind Grace and advanced ahead her.
"Ugh, Grace. These doors creak like hell!" she cautioned before opening them.
"Right, I remember."
For a moment they looked around for some solution, then spotted something.
"I think that is a door. It must be for smaller animals to pass." Mary pointed at one of the two smaller doors on each of the two large doors, near the bottom. Their wooden planks stuck out.
They tried to open it by undoing the latch. These did not sound so awful. And so, carefully, they passed through it and out the other side.
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