Welcome to Gaia! ::

It had only been a few months since he’d become aware of any of this, but Somniorum was already well sick of unfamiliar voices in the night. Even if they didn’t belong to horrible creatures from whatever unspecified pit was disgorging its contents today, or to sirens seeking to pluck at the souls of the unlucky, they tended to belong to well-meaning folk warning him about the former.

Not that the page was complaining about having a heads up, of course, he just wished that it was easier to avoid what came after, given the fact that it usually involved him putting in a more valiant than preferred effort to prevent himself from becoming dinner.

His face twitched slightly as an acrid smell twisted through his olfactory bulbs. He would have liked to believe that it was an open sewer line or something, but it was never something that simple.

“Wha-?”

Somniorum looked around, not bothering with a more eloquent response.

Cryptid?

Right.

Of course there was a cryptid.

Probably like that damned wolf he’d met the previous winter, no friends to be made there. Even if Somniorum was inclined to befriend ravenous monsters he would have given that one a pass. If he hadn’t heard more than he wanted to about Tempesti’s adventures with some horrifying poultry demon, the word “chicken” would have been enough to convince him that the Saturn Knight was playing a bizarre joke on him. As it stood, however, he had to draw the unfortunate conclusion that he was about to make the creature’s acquaintance.

The page felt his eyebrows twitch at the stranger’s comment, less at her observation than at its accuracy. Even if he had magic in his arsenal, he wasn’t entirely certain that it would make all that much of a difference and for the thousandth time he questioned the moon’s judgment.
Or the Code’s?

Or both?

He still wasn’t entirely clear on the hierarchy that may or may not be in place there, but he suspected that whichever ancient sentient force had been in charge of that decision had been a bit impulsive in its selection. More frustrating still were the difficulties the Moon Knight had getting his hands on something that might actually enable him to defend himself.

“I already have a stick.”

He held up the splintery wooden handle attached to his lantern with something resembling an attempt at humor before summoning a hefty wooden table leg from his subspace. It had been his grandfather’s idea, people might find it a bit strange for someone to carry a furniture support with them but it was unlikely to lead to any arrests.

“My granddad made me this though.” He was painfully aware of how stilted his anxious speech sounded as it made its way out of him but there was very little to be done about that at the moment.


He shifted his grip on the sturdy wooden implement as he waited for whatever was coming.
True, Somniorum had never actually used the makeshift weapon in combat, but he’d practiced with the thing. As much as he could call using it to bludgeon a punching bag “practice, anyway.”

Somniorum could hardly blame the other knight for her bafflement at his choice in weapon, were he in her position his expression probably wouldn’t be much different. “Yes, that’s where it lives.”

Carrying it anywhere but his subspace felt entirely impractical, allowing him to have at least one hand free while it waited to be summoned. Felt more convenient than the alternative. Any thought of continuing that line of conversation vanished at the sound of the horrifying screech the blackness delivered. As for the stench, he decided that was best left unconsidered for now as he opted to sacrifice his nose to keep his mouth unsullied.

“OK. OK. I’m ready.” Somniorum wasn’t normally one to lie, but as he clutched his table leg he hoped that he could at least fool himself long enough to get through this unshredded.