Desolation

[Guest]

11:43:04 PM
Full Moon
Path to Carnia Village

It was a dark night, illuminated by the careful gaze of the moon's rays. The only indication there is a settlement ahead was a dirt path leading to it, with trees scattered around it, making it so narrow, a vehicle is impossible to take through, despite the long miles of distance to walk through a forest to get to a remote village high up on a vast hill. Strange animals laughed in the wilderness, bushes rustled, as light was up at the horizon, two torch lights. A big flat board of wood sloppily brushed with paint would spell out Carnia. If anything, the town had high circular brick walls surrounding it, with an assortment of at a few buildings. It looked as if it were stuck in the Medieval ages, back in the times of antiquity where misery and filth were common place as death from diseases.

Minoru, the former commando, was tasked by some Chief of Security (not Nikolaus), to get a following census from the village of the population count, buildings, their purpose, and assess the jobs out in the backwater of practically buttcrack, Amestris. A basic and easy job for someone of renowned marksmanship with a gunslinger, more akin to make a cowboy lower his head in shame, rather than an actual official whose job is to actually take census.

The only opening from the village, being an empty door way, gates made to withstand an explosion, was open. A big man with a twirled thick mustache parted aside, with ethnic Amestrian yodeling uniform worn, and an open collar that splits all the way down to his chest exposes the chest hair he has. Basically, if someone makes a comparison between Big Foot and this man, it would be hard to tell the difference. His teeth were mixed with rotted black and pristine gold, and one of his eyes are mangled, he didn't bother to hide it. Standing outside the gate with a torch, he awaited his new guest to arrive with a pleasant smile.

[Guest]

Move in and get a damn consensus of the place! We need it humngamu rampug solten! Or at least that's how his superior had phrased it, except that the overweight man may have used words with actual meaning instead of nonsense for a large part of the conversation. Not that Minoru cared. The twenty-seven year old soldier had extracted what was useful from the speech that was given him, and even when broken down into basic pieces that the requirements for could be expanded upon, his mission carried little to no actual significance. It could make a man wonder why an ex-commando was sent on such a mission but then again, Minoru would not complain verbally. This time. And it helped that he was secretly, even to himself, glad at receiving a mission in which his morals and personal guidelines would not have to be broken to accomplish the goal.

But here he was, riding an issued motorcycle between the rural backwaters of Amestris, at times stopping to consult the map he had with him. The slowly failing light was not making things easier, and not for the first time that journey he wished that he had packed more night-op equipment into his duffel bag. Not that it would matter for much longer, he was heading for the closest base once the consensus of this little village was done.

The darkness of the forest was pierced by the headlights of the official Amestrian Security vehicle and Minoru slowed to a stop. Looking at the small trail of dirt, nothing more than a beaten path that could almost have been mistaken as animal in origin, Minoru frowned and checked the map again. "Refer to section D15? Let's see here..." It took some searching but eventually, after fishing out the complimentary booklet of map sections aptly named 'Backwater places you never go to of your free will and how to find them', Minoru knew without even the shadow of a doubt that he was supposed to be heading in there. "Great," he sighed to himself. The trail was too small for the motorcycle to fit, so it seemed like he would need to walk on foot from here.

The motorcycle was easy enough to park a slight bit into the forest at the side of the road, all that it then needed was the camouflage covering to keep it a bit more out of sight, not to mention dry, and he would be set to go. Doing some last minute checks Minoru took his smaller mission backpack, a neat affair that kept relatively close to his back compared to the huge duffel bag he could bring on real long distance missions, that was simply a pain to lug around. But with black and gold travel coat over his shoulders, his guns safely strapped in place, and the backpack with rations and extra munitions brought Minoru ventured of the gravel road and headed into the forest, small flash light in hand. It took him some hours, and some half-worried reflexive reaching towards his weapons, but in the end Minoru arrived at the base of the hill unharmed and still pretty calm.

His hand on Freya's handle had nothing to do with his mental state.

Leaving the slightly creepy forest behind, Minoru trod towards the twin lights by the village at the top of the hill. "Welcome to Carnia Village," the soldier thought sarcastically, "just as a greeting we have placed our village at the top of a large hill and with no stairs leading to it." Suffice to say, Minoru wished he could have a talk with whomever designed the village placement, strategic or not, lacking stairs was almost a crime, not to talk about lacking a pathway for vehicles. Yet Minoru was a soldier, a former member of the commando forces. Running up the hill was not likely to produce more than some light sweating and deeper breathing, walking up to the gates would be nothing in comparison. His small flash light trained on the ground in front of him helped with navigating possible obstacles like stones or roots, but with the full moon out it was not all that difficult to see, so Minoru turned it off about one third of the way up.

Approaching the gate and the man guarding it, Minoru winced internally but taking great care in not letting his feelings show. The large man's dental hygiene left much to be desired and his uniform made Minoru almost immediately associate things with racist bigots and other types of simple minded people. Hopefully this would not be the case. Well, pleasantries were at least a way to start things with, showing his Amestrian upbringing and mannerisms. Not to mention his fully fluent Amestrian. "Hello there, good man, my name is Minoru Kowalke and I'm here to take a consensus of the village."

[Guest]

His finger was inching every inch of his nose, twirling about and scooping up mucus solidified into hardened mass of boogers. His eyes were absent-minded, gazing at the path with a vacant appearance of a black hole's dimension. Things really were uneventful this night, and by uneventful, it would be he wasn't doing much but waiting for someone that was thought to be ANOTHER census worker. Just how many census workers does the government keep sending to this village? And why do all of them happen to be SOLDIERS?! That's some thing this big village chief thought. At least more than he ever thought in his life since ever in the middle of a nose grooming session.

"Hello there," His eyes widen, he sees this little cowlick puny man came out of nowhere to suddenly greet him. The big villager looks around, looks behind him, sideways, up and down, before looking back at this pipsqueak. Looks like he was actually talking to HIM.

"Good man, my name is Minoru Kowalke and I'm here to take a consensus of the village." Why was there a slit eyed raven haired wizard talking to him? OH WAIT! Some spark occurred, that single strand of nerve fiber in his brain connected, leading to a bio-electrical impulse which made him come upon something most would define as... realization.

He flicked a large piece of booger the size of his pinky out at the Kowalke's face, reaching out his greasy hand to present for shaking. A man's way of making themselves known, before snorting and grunting in what one would call... Amestrian. The huge man gestured for Minoru to come along, walking into the village, as the gates close by themselves. Sealing tight. Quite the vast doorways they are. But as they do, loud hisses sounded off, bright eyes of red leered through the darkness of the path way, sealed away by the protection of this walled town.

The man would grunt and snort some more in his Amestrian, apparently he is telling Minoru to sleep, and because they don't have spare beds, he'll share it with a girl known as Big Olga. He snorts and points at the ancient cobblestone built shack, with straw roof. What would stand between Minoru and Olga is a door... and if the door would open, he would be met with two eyes, and a grunt.

"Ooogh?" Olga looked over the newspaper, smoking some fine tobacco whilst reading a newspaper, seated at a one-person couch that would be above her salary, she had a bulky figure, she had lipstick on...

...

......

.........

And she is a gorilla.

[Guest]

Minoru was still slightly nervy about this whole situation, especially the walk through the forest, although that had proven to be uneventful. The darkness didn't really help much as the typical rustling and other forest sounds had his minds playing tricks at him. At one time he could have almost sworn that he had heard a hissing sound from within the forest, deeper in from the beaten path, and the reflexive almost-jerk his right hand had been doing at the soudns until then was completed, leading to his gloved hand resting at Freya's hilt. It was no longer resting there, being raised to greet the man at the very large gate. The wind briefly picked up in strength and seemed to bring another sound of hissing from the forest.

Reflexively glancing backwards, the abrupt rightward lean of his body caused the booger to sail past harmlessly, bouncing on the strap to his backpack and landing on the ground behind him. When he did not see any movement in the dark, not even with his highly trained peripheral vision, Minoru turned his gaze front and centre, clasping the offered hand in greeting. Words followed and the gestured motion of the man had him directed into the village. The gates closed behind them as they entered and Minoru quickly looked back at the strong hissing from beyond the protective walls. "What in..." For the large man it seemed like an everyday occurrence. "What the hell was that?" the soldier thought. "Was that what I heard in the forest? The walls and the large gates would make more sense if they have to deal with, whatever that was."

A small cobblestone shack was pointed out and from the man's instructions, in a grunting and hard to distinguish Amestrian, this would be Minoru's lodgings for the duration of his stay. Wonderful. Opening the wooden door into the cottage Minoru's gaze quickly flitted about the small room. A hearth, some shelves, what appeared to be the kitchen area, an armchair and a very nice one person couch. Further into the room a doorway, strangely large for such a small house, seemed to lead into the bedroom. Minoru's hazel eyes moved back to the couch when a grunt was heard, it was occupied. The make-up wearing Gorilla seemed to be sitting there and waiting for someone, for Minoru? The village leader, as the grunting words from before had told him, said that he was to share this... Big Olga's bed. Big Olga was a gorilla? Or was that a Chimera? He hoped it was for the alternative was, well, odd to say the least. "Hi, I'm Minoru Kowalke. The village leader said that I was to be lodged here before I begin my duties tomorrow. If you don't mind, may I sleep in the armchair?" Minoru indicated the piece of furniture with a wave. "My back does not agree with me when I travel long distances by motorbike and I need to rest in a sitting position to recover..." There was no lie, only slight exaggeration, a habit from his days in the commando unit. Travel by motorbike for long distances really did make his back hurt, but no more than what he assumed to be normal for people riding motorbikes for hours at a time. In short nothing he could not handle. And it was not like he could not recover from it with a night's sleep, regardless of if he lay down sleeping or not, but if he had to share bed with that... female... he would likely not get any rest at all. He was a rather light sleeper and preferred to sleep alone when he could. In the usual vein of talking to people, or acting to himself, Minoru did not divulge his inner workings, showing politeness and respect when appropriate.

Hopefully the chimera would agree, and if it was a gorilla he hoped for the same. For if it was indeed a gorilla yet intelligent enough to live on its own and wear make-up it was probably intelligent enough to understand his request and the reasons he had given it. And should this Olga not have any questions Minoru would go to sleep, bag at his feet and clothes still on as he had not planned on staying the night in this village, rather on the small outpost some tens of kilometres further than where he had left the bike. And once again he cursed the fact that not only had the village not been available on the maps he had seen before he left on this mission, but that he had also been told that 'the village will be practically just by the road!'. Three, almost four hours of trudging through a dark and creepy forest inhabiting who knows what was NOT what Minoru called 'practically by the road'. "God damn it, Alfred!" the soldier would mentally curse while he prepared for sleep in the armchair, cursing just like he had done many times before when the intelligence on the mission had not been up to date.

[Shula Brighton]

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