Immortal Insanity or Innocence 04

Immortal Insanity, or Innocence?

Chapter 4: Searching

By Arceus. Conberma (Liyu Conberma)

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The caravan was huge, but there were no more than two dozen wagons, and most of them for equipment and supplies, not living quarters. The majority of the performers must have walked wherever they went and slept in tents. There were circles of wagons making up about five smaller camps that had evidently each been centered around a cooking fire. Some of the larger tents were set up nearby, housing the entertainment from the previous day.

When Athena and Captain Alexei arrived, the pair couldn't help but cringe at the sight. A fine layer of ash covered the entire scene, the foul scent of burnt corpses lingered in the air, and faint, wispy trails of smoke curled up from the remainders of wagons and tents. Most of the bodies had already been gathered in a clear area nearby.

Athena still couldn't believe all of this was done by one person…

"Spread around the field, and make sure no one other than me and the soldiers are in this area," Athena ordered, and the rest obeyed as they began their work. “If anyone finds something unusual, they are to inform me immediately.”

The queen surveyed the place with a growing sense of nausea. While she walked, grim thoughts ran through her mind. It was intensely difficult to imagine this butchery of burnt, bloodied corpses had been alive and entertaining people the day before.

Crack!

Athena stopped and took a step back.

Then she noticed a strange symbol on a burnt wooden plate. She picked it up and observed it. Fire had eaten away at the surface leaving mostly a black mess, but the pattern still showed enough to be recognizable. She called Alexei to look at her discovery.

The symbol, or at least half of it, was a triangle within a circle, an image of some kind of a curved horn, and there were mysterious scribbles around the circle.

Athena ordered the nearest soldier to place it into a wagon of evidence to be sent back to the castle. If necessary, they could ask Regina about it.

While he wordlessly obeyed, Athena and Alexei continued searching. And yet the young queen couldn't help wondering how Mortesen was doing on his journey. Would he miss her every single moment as much as she did him?

But before she could dwell any longer on the one she loved more dearly than anyone else in the world, the sight and smell of burnt wood and flesh distracted her. It was hard to ignore it, to be honest. Athena shook her head and mentally reminded herself to focus on the case. Personal feelings, occupied here or elsewhere, would have to wait.

Soon she discovered a wagon home belonging to one of the circus staff, only grazed by the fire. Despite that the room was literally a bloody sight, Athena sucked it up and held her breath. She ventured in, determined to find any potential clue among the carnage. Almost immediately she caught sight of strange patterns carved onto the walls and partially-burnt books lay scattered everywhere, but the most intriguing part was that all the books were about summon rituals of the Underworld. In another word, and to put it simply…

Hell.

Deciding these were too important to ignore, Athena picked up the remains of one that appeared to be mostly complete and asked a soldier to come into the room to draw the patterns on the wall as a record.

As Athena continued searching further, she eventually made her way to one of the outlying camps. However, for some reason, the blue hedgehog could sense an ominous feeling here that hadn't affected her anywhere else.

There, Athena noticed a cage with its door opened, then she accidentally stepped on a hard object. She moved her foot aside and saw a half-rusted lock. Bending down, she picked it up and slowly turned it over in her hand. She glanced back at the iron bars.

'This must be from that cage.'

The queen gave it to another soldier, wondering momentarily at the lock's intact state, then decided to look into it later.

Finally Athena and Alexei returned to stand over the corpses. All of them were placed on the ground, in several rows. They were twisted into a variety of positions, every man and woman frozen in horror and agony.

The sight was horrendous. She had seen dead bodies before, but never so many at once. She held a handkerchief over her mouth and nose to keep from inhaling the stench of rot that was already beginning to permeate the air beneath the hot sun. It just barely helped.

She turned to Captain Alexei, but couldn't entirely tear her gaze away from the dead. Her voice was slightly muffled as she said, "So these are ALL the bodies?"

Alexei tried to hold his breath, but he had to remain strong in front of his queen. "Most of them. There's another fifty or so on the other side of the largest tent."

Just then Athena felt a jab of pain in her belly. She squeezed her eyes shut at the sudden spasm, hoping no one would see her like this. However, a certain skunk with keen eyes noticed.

"My Queen," Alexei spoke with genuine concern, "are you well?"

Athena was actually suffering some discomfort, but she masked her pain with a smile. "I'm fine, Captain. This is a gruesome sight here, you know. I just need a few moments. I'll go down to the river and be back shortly."

Alexei was skeptical and decided to accompany Athena to the stream, but at a distance to give her some privacy. Though this was much to Athena's protest, she knew his actions were out of loyalty and consideration.

The Queen of Cosium washed her face in the nearby river, not so far away from Alexei and the soldiers. She just needed a breather. And hopefully they wouldn't suspect her, especially the Captain of the Guard. The last thing she wanted was to be cast off on the grounds that she was inadequate or weak in this condition.

After scooping up handfuls of water to drink, she leaned forward to see her blurry reflection. Hopefully she didn't look as haggard as she felt. But as the queen knelt there, movement caught her eye and another reflection joined her own from the opposite bank, no more than ten feet away.

Athena's head snapped up and she couldn't help letting out a surprised gasp. Her eyes flicked back down to the water, but the image she'd first seen had changed—or had it been there at all? Wondering if she had just imagined it, she looked again at the stranger.

Standing on the other side of the river was a light purple hedgehog in a small brown cloak, a plume of banded black and turquoise blue hair hanging down into his eyes. It was difficult to tell how old he was because he was so small and thin, as though undernourished, but he couldn't be more than twelve at the most.

But what first caught Athena's attention was his face—his split smile roughly stitched on both sides of his cheeks. Lines of dried blood hung on his lower jaw, mixed with what could have been tears...and there was something haunted in those dark eyes.

Then her gaze trailed down to his abnormal pair of hands. The left one had long nails that looked like iron needles, and the right hand only had three huge, claw-like fingers. Athena noticed there was no part of his body left unscarred. Until this moment she had never seen anyone with more scars than Rakar.

The two of them kept on staring at each other for a long time, neither one speaking. When Athena titled her head to right, the strange hedgehog would mirror her. Normally the queen would find someone like this disturbing, but for some reason, she found him…fascinating. What was it about him...?

They had been there for a while, both of them completely intent on the other, and weren't aware of Captain Alexei's arrival until he was nearly on them.

"My Queen?" he called, the bushes behind her rustling as he pushed his way through.

The deformed boy was startled by the voice and fled into the brush quick as a streak of lightning, leaving Athena staring at the empty riverbank.

"My Queen, are you alright? You didn't return after a few minutes, so I was worried," Alexei explained. He didn't appear to have noticed anything out of the ordinary.

"Yes, I'm fine, Captain," Athena breathed.

The queen looked back to the other side of the river, knowing he was already gone but hoping somehow he might still be nearby. Alexei kept speaking about the condition of the demolished circus, and yet Athena didn't seem to hear what he said as her eyes continued to stick to the spot where he once stood.

"I've requested the villagers to let us borrow some more wagons to transport the bodies, but so far we… Are you listening, my Queen?" Alexei interrupted himself to ask.

That snapped Athena back to reality. The queen looked at the Captain of the Guard, his eyes full of concern.

Athena sighed and apologized, "I'm sorry, Alexei. I guess the day has worn me out."

"That's alright, my Queen. We can return to the castle and investigate more tomorrow. I think we gathered more information than we expected," the skunk said.

Alexei noticed the silence from Athena and assumed she was having misgivings about their ability to catch the criminal. He did his best to reassure her.

"Don't worry, my Queen. We will find the monster and bring it to justice. That I swear, with Coizard Honour," he declared.

But Athena wasn't thinking about the one who had slaughtered over two hundred people. Yes, part of her was, but she couldn't shake the image of that purple hedgehog.

She wanted to know more about him. Who was he and what was he doing here? Why had he looked at her that way? What was it that made her feel so...?

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To be continued...