curses ➵ schlattbur

uno ➵ poet

the next morning, a man sat on a rock had been working on a new song. something along the lines of war, considering the previous events of the night. as he strung the strings uncomfortably, he sighed.

it's hard to write about something that has been lost in time so fast.

yesterday, the second war for the mine had come and gone without any explanation. there were only quiet reports from nearby onlookers and soldiers who had survived the attack, but details were few and the leaders of their respective armies refused to disclose any info, explaining it away as a mere magic-based attack that disoriented their troops and caused them to hallucinate. only one hour after the war ended, orders were sent out from both king wilbur and king schlatt respectively. orders to disallow any worship of gods and to officially ban "cultists" from entering the kingdoms. there were rumors that the war went on above a meeting of cultists, and that after the mysterious incident occurred, that some members by the names of callahan, hbomb, and eret were captured and imprisoned. two other members'--skeppy and alyssa--whereabouts were unknown as of now.

"da da da~ religion has been banned~" the bard sung, his voice dripping with sarcasm. what could he even write at this point?

rumors about what exactly happened that day were few and scattered, although the bard's friends had managed to gain a lot of them. rumors included the gods' return, cultists casting a horrifying spell, underground molemen, and more.

but one specific detail that never changed throughout them was that at the scene, seen right before all hell broke loose, was a beautiful woman.

"da da, da da dah, da da daaa, da daaa dum~ beaus underground made a horrible sound and struck the scene with a..." the bard paused. "no. there was only one 'beau'." he muttered.

he was soon interrupted by a yell, as a white-cloaked, blond boy walked into the clearing, waving manically. "alex! heyy!"

"punz?" the musically inclined fellow spoke up, looking at him curiously. "is there any news you want to convey?"

"ahh, news? nope! nothing at all! but i'm here to drop off some food if you want it!"

"punz. i swear if you give me rotten flesh again i will-" alex was interrupted by a plop as the other fellow threw a bunch of apples onto his lap. "...thanks."

punz nodded enthusiastically, turning around to leave before spinning back suddenly. "oh! actually, i do have some new info!"

"what is it?" asked alex, already crunching into the apple--it was surprisingly, not one of the bad ones. punz was honestly untrustworthy most of the time, so this was interesting to him. he usually wasn't all that nice to people like him--"other neutral dwellers" he called them mockingly--but maybe the situation had really gotten to him.

"well, firstly, you're eating apples i stole from schlatt's own damn garden!" he said cheerily, laughing extensively as alex stared at him. stealing property from king schlatt himself? unspeakable. he opened his mouth to respond snappily, but punz interrupted him. "but in all seriousness, i do have to say that king wilbur just issued a public announcement--apparently the incident was simply an earthquake. followers of gods are allowed back into the kingdoms now!"

alex scoffed. "first of all, you fucking dick. you know how i feel about king schlatt. secondly, an earthquake?! what do you mean an earthquake? by the gods, nothing of that scale can even comprehend being a petty little earthquake."

as punz spoke, he froze, and alex stared at him for a moment before realizing they were both frozen. they weren't moving an inch... but why? he didn't have the time to think before he collapsed onto the ground, the apples rolling away as punz broke out of the trance as well.

"...alex. what the hell was that...?" punz stammered, his eyes darting back and forth. "...hold on. hold the fuck on. i remember now! dream...!"

"you remember who...?" alex inquired before suddenly his head flushed with memories. memories of dream and his disciples. "what the... what the hell?!" alex shouted, backing off and shaking nervously. dream and his disciples? why did they lose their memories of them specifically?! from what he could recall, only they were the things that the two of them had forgotten...

"what the... fuck..." punz whispered, shaking and trembling as he got up and almost stumbled to the ground again. he managed to help alex up and they just stared at each other.

something was wrong. very, very wrong.

"you remember too, right? dream... his disciples... but..." alex stammered, before adding in panic, "why did we forget them? them specifically? and why are we only getting memories of them back now?"

punz muttered, "by dream... but nonetheless, as i was saying. followers of gods... wait. dream..." he stared into space for a moment before exclaiming, "dream! dream's followers were fucking banned from the kingdoms! they were called cultists! and... and... eret, callahan, hbomb... they're all apparently in prison!"

alex added, "hell, i think everyone has already gotten their memories back at this point. do you think their captor will free the poor guys?"

"no! absolutely not!" punz responded in fright. "wilbur would've already set the damned fuckers free considering his announcement, but schlatt... schlatt's infamous for denying all parole requests without thought! and considering wilbur hasn't made any note of the purported prisoners..."

"...then eret, callahan, and hbomb are trapped forever." alex finished.

"well this is a shit situation. now i don't know who to side with in the case the war continues on." punz muttered.

"is there anything else you remember? anything else to take note of?" asked alex, but punz only shook his head with a sigh.

"nope. nothing at all. it seems the trail is dead now." punz dismissed, "poor fucks. they probably won't get any more fucking prophecies from the disciples. i guess it was best after all that i stayed in the neutral territories." he rolled his eyes. "probably just a sad case of mass hysteria."

alex looked at punz's dismissive, cool, and flippant face. he didn't know what was going on, but still... this couldn't just be a case of mass hysteria. mass memory loss? a faked earthquake? specific forgetting of dream and his disciples? a mysterious woman? no... this was much more than that, he felt.

"well, i guess i'll be on my way. i'm not staying here with these fucking apples." he said.

"ha! you sure you're not actually going to try finding out what's happening? daaaamn, can't believe you're that heroic after all. try not to bump into your ex on the way!" punz said mockingly, before skittering off, bow on his back.

it was at that point alex sighed. that guy really pissed him off. that guy...

motherfucking schlatt.

a/n: how was the first chapter?? :) please vote, comment, and/or follow me! it really helps support me and my writing!