Chapter Text
There were new people at the edge of her home. She could feel them itching at the corners of her mind, her connection to her forest telling her three people were living here.
She thought it was just travelers at first, but night after night they had returned to her home.
Bells jingled as she shifted, reaching out to her forest, she focused on the new presences.
She could feel the mind of one of them already. She pushed, letting her call reach towards them.
Three new friends.
Three new souls to join her flock.
A worn old journal is placed onto a rotting table. It sits inside a small home, though, home is a generous word for the shoddy four walls and roof that had been ravaged by weather and time. It was a single room with burlap and moth-eaten fabrics layered in one corner, one nice blanket, a table against the front wall with a single chair, and a well-kept trunk across from the door with a strange tangle of gears and metal locking it shut.
The journal is opened up, the occupant of the home sitting and pulling it close, beginning to read it’s fragile pages.
Entry #72: I’ve just moved into the town of [the text has worn away]. There’s a quaint little cottage on the edge of the town, my grandparents gave it to me before they passed, and I finally made it here! It’s already late, and my new apprenticeship will be starting tomorrow, so I need to sleep. I’m really excited to start a life in this place, it’s going to be great.
Entry #73: Its been a few weeks, but last night I slept horribly. I kept hearing noises outside of my house. I’m know I’m not used to the sounds of nature around here, but this was different. I thought I heard [illegible writing that has been crossed out.] No, I was just tired. It was probably just an animal. I hope it was just an animal.
Entry #74: My head hurts. I keep staring at the forest. The noises at night are getting louder. Something is calling to me.
Entry #75: It’s been three weeks. The noises are always here now. They follow me through the day, growing louder and quieter. [Smudged ink, it can’t be read] found me standing at the treeline. I’d been standing there for hours. They were worried. Everything feels far away.
Entry #76: [The pages are covered in scribbled lines and splashes of ink making them unreadable. It continues for several pages, but the frantic writing on them is large and shaky, a few partial letters can be seen.]
Entry # [Its been scratched out]: I can’t keep doing this.
[There is one last message, scrawled across the whole page, written over itself many times.]
The bells are calling.
[The rest of the pages are blank]
That was much weirder that Zam thought it would be.
She’d found the old journal in the town’s library, tucked away in the storage room in a random chest.
The librarian had agreed to pay her a few gold if she cleaned up the storage room, sorting the cluttered shelves and getting rid of any trash. They also let her take any of the old books that they didn’t intend on restoring and returning to the library.
She’d ended up with the few gold, and half a dozen books. She’d dropped five of them into their trunk, re-locked it, and took the sixth to start reading.
It was leather bound, looked handmade, and the starting entries were normal. But those last few…
They made her feel off. Not quite scared, but tense, like there something was watching her.
Zam’s thoughts were interrupted by the door opening.
“Hello Zam!” Sausage called, making it a single step inside before a hand grabbed his collar and pulled him back outside. She’d seen how stiff his leg was in the brief second she’d seen him, and rolled her eyes, amused.
“Sausage! You know you need to recharge. Your leg died an hour ago.” Legundo chided, voice creeping higher as a small scuffle started outside the door.
“But I want to hang out with Zam!” Sausage said, still fighting to get out of Legs’ grasp.
“I’m coming outside.” She laughed, standing to follow her friends, and closing the door behind her. “Hi Sausage. Hi Legs.”
“Hi Zam!” Legs called, finally getting Sausage to sit down and start recharging. “How was the library?”
“It was fine.” She said, sitting next to Sausage and crossing her legs. “Got some books. They’re old and falling apart, but I’m excited to read them.”
“That’s great! We snuck into the villa’s kitchen again.” Sausage said while opening a panel in his mechanical arm.
“We got stuff for that salad you like.” Legs said, sitting down as well.
“Oh, thank you.” Zam said, a smile began to stretch across her face before she stopped, dropping it back to a neutral expression.
It was a habit she hadn’t been able to break. The townsfolk always screamed or got angry or hurt her when they saw how strange she was, but her friends didn’t mind her smile or non-human-ness. Sausage and Legs were nice.
The three fell into easy conversation, sunlight passing through the branches above them. Their home was not directly in town, but it was within eyesight of it, the sight of other buildings poking between the trees showing how close they were. After an hour or so, Sausage’s limbs had recharged in the Sun.
She and Legs started reading through some of the books that evening. Nothing nearly as interesting as the forest one from earlier, but it was still fun. Sausage was practicing with his magic, using it to jump up onto the roof or into the tree branches. Eventually he convinced them to join him, and a game of hide and seek tag broke out.
The Sun had fallen by the time they grew tired. They ended up laying in the field near their home looking at the stars. Zam pointed out constellations she knew, this time not suppressing a grin as the others asked more questions about the stars.
Sausage dragged them all back inside; and to be honest, she and Legs would have fallen asleep out there if he hadn’t.
Within minutes sleep had claimed them all.
Zam swore she heard distant ringing as she drifted off… it was probably nothing.