Chapter Text
The sun has just barely risen when Ruby wakes up. Pinks and oranges fill the sky, it's dazzling, but Ruby doesn't stop to look at it. She finishes packing up her tatted tent and heads off east. Flowers tilt away from her in hope they won't got squashed under her boots. The sky seems to get brighter the more she doesn't look at it. It's burning her eyes. She runs a hand though the end of her plait unconsciously. It helps. Kinda.
She had been walking for a while now after all the sun was higher in the sky now. The only noticeable difference was some triangle shaped rocks and a few butterflys every now and again. *yawn* wow she was getting tired. She stops for a bit, just looking around. That's when she notices a strange blue light with eyes? in the sky. She watches it float down near some butterflys. Before Ruby gets time to think about the floating eyes they suddenly attach the one of the pink butterflys. The unrulynis of it gives her enough adrenalin that she just books it.
Now Ruby was never a fast (or good) runner so she got tired pretty quick. But the adrenalin kept her going. She ran intill she spotted a town, only then did she slow down. The town had more trees then the plains she'd been walking in. The houses were all spaced out and cottage like. Nothing like the ones back home. As she approached she was able too read the name of the town. "Greenhorne." She whispered too her self. What a lovely looking place.
She walked in to what she assumed to be the town centre. Market stalls, kids running around and just a overall feeling of belonging. "Phew... Bit boring today..." a voice sighed next to her. It almost made her jump. The voice belonged to a rather pretty man. Thinking of things that make her jump she remembered why she ran all the way here. Distress clearly on her face, the man turned to her. He spoke softly as if not to scared her off, "huh? What's up with you?". As Ruby started to explain what happened, the man suddenly laughed. "A butterfly with eyes?! Gyahahaha!" With in seconds he calms down and says, "you're having a laugh! Greenhorne's a peaceful place. A place to leave all your woes behind. Go talk to Denny if you what somebody to believe you." When he finishes Ruby walks away with a wave. Well that was... unpleasant.
As she walks she spots a stall selling fruit. The lady at the stall greets har happily. "Oh, joyous day!" Ruby respons with a wave as she looks over the fruits. She has no gold but that doesn't stop her from looking. "Isn't the weather just be-YEW-tiful?" She questions but Ruby doesn't answer. Not because she doesn't have an answer but because she's not entirely focusing on what this lady is saying to her. That is intill the nice lady asks, "Why the long face?" That's when she looks at the shopkeeper and they continue, "you can't go round looking like that! Come on, give us a smile! You know you want to." Ruby gives in and laughs. She remembers her mother saying the same when she was younger. It makes her eyes water slightly but she just fiddles with the end of her braid and it goes away. "A smile brings happiness don't you know!" The shopkeeper says with a smile of her own. Ruby walks away feeling a bit better.
As Ruby walks a small child bumps into her, he doesn't fall but starts roaring at her (like a dragon he says). Not to far away what seems to be the boy's mom yells out, "stop it, Denny! Calm down, or you'll hurt yourself!" The boy's mother then turns to Ruby, "this child has me at my wits' end!" She then corrects herself, "I love him with all my heart though." Ruby gives a curt nod, then walks away. She wondered if she was that hyperactive as a child.
She then spots a lovey-dovey couple. "D'awww..." one of the men say. "Tee hee hee!" The other one laughs. "Your so lovely to look at, Sam." The first one says. "Oh, and your so smart, Harry!" Sam respons. "I feel like I'm dreaming..." Harry says lovingly. "Shall I pinch you? Tee hee hee!" Ruby just watches for a while. 'I almost wish someone loved me like that.' She thinks to herself 'but I don't know if I can love someone like that.' She pushes that last thought aside. As she starts walking again she sees her self in a window.
Her sky blue eyes look at her, trying to spot any dirt or leafs on her. When she doesn't find any she then thinks, 'thank heavens keep, I don't look like I climbed out of the sewer.' She then quickly redoes her pink flower pin, tucking unwanted bits of hair out of her face. Looking at her outfit, it's a normal travellers outfit with some pink bows doted around. It's actually quite neat dissipate Ruby wearing for three days in a row. Oh heavens, what if she stinks?
Somebody then bumps in to her. She turns to see who bump in to her. When she sees the man she has to look up to see his eyes. "What?" He says as if looking at someone who bump into you was weird. Before Ruby could get a word in, the man looked her up and down before saying in a sarky tone, "We don't see your type often." The tan man squinted at her before continuing, "You here visiting or something?" Ruby didn't know if she should say the entire reason why she was here or just sum it down to, "yeah, visiting." She settled on calmly.
"Huh, some kind of relaxation holiday, is it?" He tilted his head to the side in a rather mocking way, "Must be so nice for you. I'm sooo jealous..." She frowned as he finished talking, 'I already don't like you, asinus cacas.', but she didn't get the chance to say anything as he was off. She then spotted someone who seemed rather famous.
She walked over when bearly anyone was near the man. He notices her quickly, "Welcome, traveler. I am the mayor of this town." Ahh, so that's why people gathering around him and why he has better clothes, "Greenhorne's a nice town but I am mayor, so I would say that." He chuckled to himself, then he looked up at sky as something very strange happened. "What in the world is that?!" Someone yelled. "Who? Where? What? How?" Someone questioned. "What is it, Mummy?" Denny asked his mum, "shhh, keep quiet!" His mum shushed, hugging her son. "This can't be good..." the bloke from before said.
Ruby tried to find what the villagers were worried about but all she could see was rain clouds rolling in. That was all that was there for a little. But then a puff of purple smoke spurted across the sky. As the smoke disappeared Ruby could see an enormous figure; their face had a huge scar across one eye, and their hands looked like they could snap the strongest soldier in half, and around their neck hung a green eye looking amulet.
"Mwaa ha ha haaa!" The creature (?) laughed, "I am the Dark Lord, Icrmana! I've come to wreak havoc and terror on this miserable little world!" Ruby could barely believe what she was hearing. She shrunk down, hiding behind the mayor. Maybe if Dark Lord Icrmana nothing will happen. She runs a hand though the end of her plait. Hears hopeing. "And I'm starting with you, people of Greenhorne!" The Dark Lord point towards the town centre. "It's time for your first taste of true fear! Say goodbye to your faces!"
Not a second later Ruby sore with horror has peoples got plucked off their heads. All the faces had this light blue light surrounding them as they floated up and around the Dark Lord. Then Icrmana spoke, "hm. This should do nicely for now. Now listen here, you faceless freaks! I hope you like a life of wordless terror, because that's all you've got now!" they stopped for a moment to laugh a devilish laugh then continued, "And to those of you left behind... Take a nice long look at your poor little friends... AND DESPAIR!!!" and with one finale laugh the Dark Lord left. Ruby look around at all the poor souls and made a decision to help.
The mayor was screaming for someone to help, some mayor you are no don't think about that it's a time of stress just help. She put a hand on the mayor's shoulder making the man look at her. "We need to get these people to the town hospital." She spoke with a calmness about her, even though she was kinda scared/spiralling/worried. But she just pushes those feelings in a jar for later. The mayor looks confused at first but then nods and walks off grabbing as many peoples as he can. Ruby walks of in the opposite direction. She helps carry people to either their homes or to the large group of people that formed around (what seems to be) the town hospital.
After a while of doing that she spots the mother and her son. While the mother still has her face, her son doesn't. "Oh Denny! My poor baby!" She was crying, holding her son close, "don't panic... don't panic..." Ruby didn't know if she was saying that to herself or her son. It didn't really matter, because all Ruby wanted to do was to console the morning mother. The mother noticed her first, "Oh I beg you, please! Please help my Denny!"
"Of course, how can I help?" Ruby replied quick. She might regret that later.
"Oh thank you ever so much! I know..." the mother fiddled with her necklace eventually taking it off. "Please take this. It’s our family's good luck charm." Now that Ruby had it in her hand she was able to see the gold detailing of a closed eye on a bluey-purple background. Her attention gets directed back to the mother as she speaks. "I fear the Dark Lord still lurks nearby. Could you look outside town for him?"
"Yes I will. Now get your little one to the hospital for me please." Ruby gave a wave as mother and son departed. This shouldn't be to hard, I'm just looking for him. she looks back down at the necklace, you'll keep me safe, right? Tieing the pendant around her neck, she sets off.