Viexy's Story

Vi opened her eyes to the woods around her, her head hurting as her nose twitched. The smells were different here, fresh and crisp as she turned her head, looking around. She was in some sort of woods, the green trees around her swaying softly as their whispers brushed past her ears. The sky was bright and blue, so bright it hurt her eyes. She closed them, rolling onto her back as her fingers sunk into the damp earth. Her nose took in the tang of the grass below her as her wounds stretched tight. The scabs didn’t pop as she pushed herself up.

Her vision swam as she stood softly, her knees wobbling under her as she steadied herself on a tree. The back of her head hurt, but not like someone had struck her, more like there was something magical working through her body that made her want to go back to sleep. Slowly she shook it off, her gold eyes surprised to find a backpack. She didn’t remember having one, but it smelled like her as did the things she found in there. It had to be hers then, right? Even if it wasn’t there was no one else around that she could see or smell. Her ears twitched as she looked up and around, slinging the pack onto her back before staggering off into the woods. She headed with her back against the sun, leaning on trees as she made her way deeper.
She had a name, it was Vi. Her brows crinkled in confusion. She didn’t know who had given her that name, but she knew that’s what people had called her. That and a number. 7 something something. So where were they now? And where had she come from? How had she gotten here in these woods? And even more pressing, where was she going?

Her hand reached up and grabbed hold of the necklace tight around her neck.
“Guide me home,” she whispered softly.

Vi gasped, her body already unbalanced as she was hit. There was no warning except for the splashing of water which had driven her closer to the river in the first place and now this. Her hand clutched her head, as she let her body slump back against the roots of the old tree. It hurt. Her head swam and her butt was sore from its sudden smack against the ground, not to mention the bounce against the roots of the tree as her tail crimped between her legs.

“Oww,” she moaned softly, the sudden urge to vomit passing through her thoughts as she took a couple of deep breaths, head touching the ground softly as she forced her body to kneel. Breathe. In and out. There we go, nice and steady. The bile that had worked its way to her throat she forced back down, looking upwards and around to see exactly what had hit her.
It wasn’t like her much. It had a body like hers only different; no tail, no ears. She cocked her head, blinking a couple of times to copperhead that it was looking at her too, soaked through with the sweet smell of water and wild. Something about it triggered a memory, though it was more of a feeling, and she shuddered and cringed away from the tree, the scar on her shoulder twining with the memory

“Who-What are you?”

Patraeko wondered through the woods, his face full of boredom and annoyance. Not far away sat a massive battleship, Patraeko's ship. It was shaped like a colonial battleship with four sails designed to convert the gases of the atmosphere into a fuel called 'blutrinium'. It had about forty weaponry on both sides with another ten at the front and back, it was obviously designed for warfare. However, it also seemed like it had seen better days. Scratches, dents, metal patches were littered around the hull. Showing that this ship is either old, or has been in war. Of course, there were a massive amount of people manning the ship. Numbering up to around five hundred, all of the people were of different races, ethnicities, skills, etc... This was the important factor of the Payemyndii Clan.

Anyway, we were talking about their leader, Patraeko, who had left the ship to go for a walk. Being confined in the command room does need to be treated by good fresh air and a walk. We don't want the cybernetic implants to seize up now don't we?

Without a word, Patraeko glanced to a being who was also wondering around. A female, with ears. She wasn't part of the clan of course. But, she may be able to know of some edible foods to feed the crew. That would be very helpful.

And so, he walked over to the strange female. Calling out carefully. "Hey there! I kinda need some help, are you native here?"

A voice, calling out to her as Vixey turned her head. It was another man. Her skin crawled as her ears fell back against her head, her body shrinking visibly as a tail wrapped around her midriff. No-she was not a native here, she'd just gotten here herself. How she still had not managed to figure out. Her back was against the tree, blinking as she shook her head quickly, finding that her voice had refused to work once again. Why was it always--wait. What was that?

She stepped forward, slowly cautiously, looking off into the trees. Holy shit. Was that a boat?! She'd heard of boats and how they had big sails and beautiful movements on the water. But there was no watter over there. Was it a land boat?! Her nose sniffed the air and she cocked her head, for a moment all fear of the person with black hair and metal smell gone. Curiosity had the better of her.

"Is that a boat?" She asked, voice dancing across the air across from them, tinkling like a melody of bells and musical notes that had no sign of fear unlike her body language.

The strange character seemed scared... Well, that makes sense. Seeing a cyborg suddenly approach you in the middle of the woods with a massive spaceship in the background would be quite scary. But, she isn't a native. Damn, well it is worth asking anyway.

But wait! The strange tailed girl had broken her fear at the sight of the ship! That, doesn't make sense. Unless she is quite.. unfamiliar with spacetravel. It's best to be nice, don't want to have many tailed people coming after the small clan.

"It's more like a sky/space boat. Do you like it?" Patraeko giggled at the girl's curiosity, that voice was beautiful. Where Patraeko's was deep, boring and showed hints of insanity.

"I need your help though... Do you know where I can get a large amount of food? Oh yes! How rude of me!" Patraeko interrupted himself and held his cybernetic arm out, gesturing for a hand shake, "I'm Captain 56, of the Payemyndii. Who're you?"

Her eyes were wide, looking over at the ship. How marvelous. How splendid. How...big. Her attention turned to the meltal man, his arm was out, hand open. What did he want? She shrank back, tail curling back up as he back hit the tree and her heart skipped a beat. She quivered, but the tone in his voice was so low and so soothing that she let him approach.

"Vixey," she said for the first time declaring the name she called herself. Around her neck the metal collar flashed and she cautiously took his hand in her own. "You said there are others like me?"

Well, it seemed that this woman was amazed at the ship. Is she some kind of mechanic or something? That would be helpful, might as well try to recruit her. The more the merrier. And then they shook hands, well it seemed more like aimlessly holding hands... This girl obviously has no idea what's happening.

"I did? Well, there are many people with me. Thousands of different kinds, and they all work for me!" Patraeko smiled as he spoke, feeling higher than anything around him, well that was what's expected of a king. "Would you like to see my ship? Vixey? It should be refueled and ready to go." He smiled once more.

How could she say no? Her head bobbed and she nodded, releasing his hand to walk forward. Her few belongings were slung over her back, the tank top and pants dirty and filthy as she lead the way. Her hips wiggled and her tail acted as an extra balance, going from light to dark in the most unusual way. She cast a small glance back at the captain, a small smile on her face, her pointed teeth showing as she suddenly sprang forward, waving in and out of the trees like a ghost, not even a rustle of movement betraying her position. And she didn't stop till she stood at the front door, jaw hanging open.

Patraeko giggled at Vixey's actions, she seemed very excited to see that ship. But those movements, they were majestic and well controlled. If he didn't know she was there, then he would not even know of her existence, if he ignores the infrared of course. Might as well catch up. So, Patraeko broke into a run to catch up with the strang tailed girl to see her standing in the middle of the encampment, gawping at the ship.

The other Clan members were too busy packing up and reloading the ship to pay attention to the girl, but as Patraeko walked through, they all somehow saw him. Casting him their greetings, acting excited to have their leader smile and reply back.
The ship itself seemed even more bigger. About the same length as the city of New York. Massive legs held the ship upright as several openings were seen with large catwalks to allow entrace and exit to the ship. On the side of the hull were the words "Seishaw", the name of the ship.

"Ain't she a beauty, Vixey? But, due to my people's position, it has to be a secret. And so, would you like to join me and my people? Our quest is to find peace in the multiverse, and our next course is Misrana."

Being who she was she had no issues walking almost all the way up to the ship, her feet just lingering in the grass below one of the metal ramps that lead into her belly. People paied her no mind, she was still invisible to most of them—as any fox or animal could be when they needed too—and so she just took it all in. The ship was very big, surely there had to be a hundred-no-a thousand working parts in there, all doing one job or another to do—what? He said that this thing could fly, right? How excellent. Her eyes roamed hungrily over the hull, scathing over every ding or nick the ship had. Why it pained her to see such awful patchwork was beyond her, but it looked sound enough. Her eyes fell to the name, “Seishaw”. She had seen some war, this ship, or she was very old—either way her fingers began to twitch with the urge to do something. That’s when people started to take notice, but not of her—of their captain.

Vi looked up at Patreako, the captain, her captain maybe? Was he really offering her a chance to get off this place? To run away with him and his crew? It sounded dangerous. She didn’t much like danger, but the offer to get aboard the boat-ship was too much and she nodded excitedly. Green eyes marveled at the size of the ship, all the workings, the hum of energy from her hull and the glimmer of power and awe. Then turning back towards his metal arm, leg, and eye. Her normally shy demeanor disappeared and she grabbed at his automail, twisting her head left and right.

“Doesn’t it hurt?”

The fox girl seemed excited to be invited to join the Clan, and the nod was an obvious yes. That's great! Another person to add more fun to the great group of extremists.
"Well, there are alot of things to go through, but we have to get off this planet. So I'll question you about the gift later." Patraeko spoke, showing that there is a lot for him to do by spreading his arms, symbolising that he has to look after all of the people here.
But then, the girl grabbed his arm. What the hell? Why would she do that?

"Doesn't it hurt?" The girl asked him.

"No, it doesn't. It hurt when I first lost my limbs and eye, but that's all." He smiled, slowly placing his biological hand on her's, pulling it away from his arm.

"I think you would like a tour of the ship, right?" Patraeko asked, without waiting for a reply, he called over a couple people. "You two, give this newbie a tour of the Seishaw. Be nice to her. I have things to do."

Vi walked forward, accepting the tour as either woman fell aside her. She was nervous and she waved softly as they waved back. "So-erm- where do we start?"

"Hey there, I'm Jo and this is Xer." The human spoke to Vi as she leaded the two up the ramp and into the bottom storage floor.
"Oi, don't think that your all special because the King recruited you. I know it's rare for him to do that, there's only 4 people who have been personally recruited and they are members of the special ops." The insect-like being spoke to Vi, seemingly angry and full of insults.

Vi blinked, her eyes blinking to adjust to the sudden dimness around her as she suddenly shook her head. "N-no miss!"
Xer clicked her tongue and continued walking, silent. "This is the storage, it's where we keep all of the weapons and ammo, sometimes the King comes around and does some of his experiments." Jo explained as they walked through the dimly lit bottom floor of the ship, dodging around the other clansmen who were still loading up the ship.
"Experiments?" Here she paused, her eyes going wide as she stopped. Her hand reached up for her collar, fingers stroking the numbers engraved there.

"Huh? Yeah, it was where two of the special ops became weapons. With the successful experiments, one guy managed to rip a hole into a planet, causing it to loose 2/5ths of it's mass and the other will not die." Jo explained, not noticing anything in the darkness. The three had reached some stairs which led to the next floor, inside were a large amount of large cannon-like weapons poking outside the hull with ammunition spread around the area. "This is the first layer of guns."

"So many," she said, wrinkling her nose at the smell. "Why?"

"Why? Because this is a major battleship. Stolen from the Payemyndii's main enemy. The Shadonian Empire." Jo answered, a bit confused at the silly question. The three reached another set of stairs, before walking up, Jo pointed to the back of the floor. "That's the engine room." They then headed up the stairs, another similar room which was almost identical to the first floor of guns

She said nothing but continued to walk with them both, her eyes soft and wide.

The three got to the layer beneath the top deck, the area was filled with large farms, UV lamps and housing rooms. "This is the living layer, where the members who do not fight work to help the clan survive. I'm one of them, my husband fights for the clan and since we're always on the move, me and my kids were given a room to live in. If you noticed outside, the engineers were working on some sheets of metal to build another ship for housing. They will have to continue inside the ship anyway. We would steal another ship, but we lost over 1000 members from the last time we encountered the Shadonians." Jo explained, she then pointed to the ceiling. "The top deck just contains more guns and ammunition along witht he shield generator." She then lead the three to some stairs near the back of the ship. "Up here is the special ops rooms, tactical planning room and the captains quarters. Head to the top floor and knock on the door, that's where the King is. You should tell him that we've given you the tour."

Dhodrimme flew high in the sky on the back of Feraspar. They made their way above the top of the Whispering Woods, far beyond the groves and bramble below.

It was off to the Exalted Mountains.