Traversing between timelines and universes should be already a piece of cake, yet she accidentally had fallen into an unknown world, by mistaking the water from a lake of an alternative universe for the river of that place, yet another mistake committed for distracting herself. Being confused about where she was now, she decided to explore that place, feeling in her bones that they weren't inside of her multiverse anymore. The soil was dry under her feet together with the dry brittle grass, some of the trees had lost all their leaves and were being consumed by fungus and insects that were somewhat still alive, while others had fallen and were being eaten by the remaining trees that still were alive, thanks to the fallen ones. The sky that once was probably a bright blue, was colored in a dark tonality of red, the sun nowhere to be seen, the clouds being black, mixed with the faint red light that the sky provided. the cloaked being felt overwhelmed by the place’s suffocating atmosphere, a strong smell of rotten flesh started filling her nose holes behind her mask, they noticed that it came from the river she just came from, which made her look behind herself, there was floating the body of a deceased deer, being carried by the water of the river, that also didn’t look very clean. All of this made her overflow, and puke in the process, she then started walking away from the river at a brisk pace. While exploring they found a stone statue, looking like a memorial of a fallen hero.
The cloaked girl crouches down to the level of the statue, which was also crouched, to get a better look at its details. The statue appeared to be very old, its bony hands tightly gripping the handle of the staff it was leaning on, its expression was one of regret and lamentation, one of its knees was pressed to the hard ground; Like a Greek statue, her clothes were merely cloth wrapped around her skeleton, tied together by a piece of frayed cloth, on one of her arms, a small crown (or was it tiara?) hung like a large bracelet, too small to fit her head. they thought it was a fabulous statue, its details almost seemed so real! She thought it was a shame she could never know who had sculpted it, but now she wanted to take it with her to decorate her garden, since it didn’t look like it belonged to anyone, considering its lack of care.
When she was about to leave with the statue, someone also covering himself with a cloak appeared in that desolate place, that person was sent by somebody to guard the statue against people who might steal it, they were probably hiding in the ruins of a village close by. They demanded to be handed over the stone statue, which she refused, making the unknown being start to chase them, wanting to retrieve the statue at all costs, however, she was too nimble, mostly because they didn't need to stop to breathe like the others. Even with great difficulty and almost losing their breath, the person was able to finally corner the girl with their magic. She had nothing to fear, so she threatened to break the statue into a million pieces if the person tried to approach her. Her pursuer gets scared, being obligated to make her an offer to exchange the statue for anything she asks for. The cloaked girl decides to trick the person, so, she tries to convince them that she would only give the statue if they brought up a bag full of gold for her.
It was, of course, a lie.
Somehow, the person believed her (it seems like there are still beings left who are naïve enough to trust a stranger’s words), and tries to contact someone urgently to help fulfill the request, but soon realizes that had fallen into a trap, as the girl had already disappeared with the statue the moment they took their attention out of her. The skeleton, after escaping to another dimension, took off her cloak, revealing herself to be the protector of that multiverse. She put the statue aside and laughed derisively at the person, who underestimated her as well as the others. After some time of laughing, they finally calmed down and focused back attention on the statue that she had just taken if that person was so worried about it at the point of exchanging it for anything, maybe it meant that the statue was not just a common statue, but something more, maybe it was actually someone who was cursed, or the statue itself was cursed, or maybe it was a powerful being in a deep slumber, or it could be a statue of an old god... there were so many possibilities that it made her overthink them.
Even though freeing whatever was inside of it could be either good for her or disadvantageous, the protector saw a sparkle of hope in it. Ever since an anomaly has spread over the multiverse for some time now, the protector was filled with work, her duties took all the free time that she had, and she couldn't stop to appreciate the things that she liked to see, she couldn't stop to learn about other universes anymore, the only thing she could do was recharge her magic and go back to work most of the time. If it was someone who could help her in times like these, it would be worth the gambling. The protector, unlike many other entities that resided in the multiverse, was the only one to not possess a soul of its own (excluding Flowey's), it was born without one. The magic normally would be something that the soul produces, but since she doesn't have one, she relies on the magic that the creators feed her with their creations, the very multiverse was her soul, and the magic that she uses is what makes her 'alive'.
Unfortunately, this magic is not unlimited, it needs to be recharged when used, and it needs to be wisely used, or else it could be fatal. Yet, they decided to risk it, using the magic that she possessed to free whoever was inside that statue, they could recharge later, right?
After some time trying, she was slowly losing hope, nothing seemed to happen no matter how much magic she used, if it kept going this way, she would need to stop to preserve her magic until another batch came to refill all her vials and the backup vials stored in her home.
Time passed; insisting on releasing whatever was there, the statue slowly began to gain an unusual glow, gained a cozy warmth, like a fireplace in winter. And then it shone brightly, which took the protector by surprise, who inevitably had to cover her eyes with her hands, looking directly at that glare was like staring at the sun.
Then, the statue stopped glowing, what was once a statue was now someone, the guardian who had been petrified 480 years ago.
The guardian fell to the ground immediately after being brought back from her petrified state, letting her staff fall to the ground together with her, as it had been a long time since her body had been motionless, her entire body was numb and hurt a lot, it would take some time before she could move again. The guardian cursed the pain using an unknown language, which the protector had never heard before, perhaps it was the language spoken in her world when she was not yet a statue. Anxious by their screams of pain, the protector lifted her off the ground and carried her in her arms to her own house, so she could place her somewhere softer than the ground.
The protector knew that if she stayed there for too long, many universes could be in danger of their absence. The few people who volunteered to help the multiverse weren't that powerful and all they could do was rescue as many people as they could as quickly as possible, and some others needed the help of others to be able to transport themselves from universe to universe, it would take too long time until they managed to find the cause of the problems before it was too late, and the affected universe ended up in ruins or destroyed.
They thought of leaving her there to recover while she went back to patrol, to check that nothing bad was happening, even though she was hesitant to leave now, and also, leaving her in the Doodle Sphere without being supervised could be a bad idea, despite the protector being the only one who could leave and come back from there, it was better to be safe than sorry, after all, life is full of surprises. The multiverse was huge, and even if she dedicated herself to just her work and ceased to have the same lifestyle as mortals, such as eating, drinking, and resting, it would just be a waste of energy and she won't get things done if she was overwhelmed with work. The protector was always someone who liked to work alone, but after the anomaly appeared, working alone became suffocating difficult, she was often called irresponsible and useless by those who lost their homes and their families, because she wasn't quick enough to save them.
Though she was the one who decided to take this job herself, her insecurities were getting the best of her over time. Yet she thought that taking time off to help the guardian wouldn't be a bad idea, because if she turned out to be a precious workforce, maybe she could help her do much more than she could do on her own and less damage would be done, even if she had to face criticism from others for staying out of action, their disapproving words became normal to her anyway, she was determined to go with this plan.
It was decided unless she turned off the offer, the protector would help the ‘heroine’ become a great protector just like her! But if she turned out to be an evil person, she would have to banish her from the Doodle Sphere for safety. But first, she would need to know how to communicate with the heroine, and teach her how to speak the language, the problem was, how to start doing it? She hardly had any interactions with other people besides casual chatting, since she mostly just hangs out with people to not feel too lonely, but didn't have any friends, well, she did have friends before, but now they're gone, corrupted by the ‘anomaly’.
While the protector was still thinking about what to do, the guardian was having trouble adjusting to the sudden light that filled her eyes. Having been deprived of her 5 senses, left her for a long time at the mercy of her mind, which has not been very kind to her all these 500 years, her imagination mixing with her memories, including the most painful ones throughout time. Having nothing else, all these years had left her memories confused, the sudden flash of light was like a blade in her eyes, the limbs of her body she had long forgotten were there were aching from lack of use, the hearing ached and buzzed agonizingly, her throat ached from the dryness and tears of pain streamed from her eyes. It took a long time for her to adjust and look around her, confused by her unfamiliar surroundings.
Her eyes eventually crossed with the eyes of the protector, who looked anxious and worried, the protector tried to say something but stopped midway and cowered down. Then, she made an expression like she had suddenly remembered something and went to grab the long end of her pink sash, that had been tied into a cute bow in her back, above her brown overalls skirt. She had written something there and was reading. after some seconds, the protector looked back at the guardian, more confident than before.
“Hello” were the words pronounced by the protector, slower to be more clearly heard, accompanied by a wave made with her right hand, trying to show that it was a greeting.
She blinked a few times in confusion, trying to understand what was happening, her memories were so confused that it seemed she had just fallen into a new world, unlike her world of nightmares and bizarre things, she didn't even know if what was happening was something real or a continuation of yet another distorted event in her mind, but something was different from before, usually, things ended up changing to a strange place with a macabre aura, faces ended up being distorted and words became squeaks or sentences without sense, which a long time ago meant something, but ended up being lost over time, it was as if her mind was trying to make her remember something and at the same time, mixing things created from her subconscious because of her guilt.
It took a long time for the guardian to react, which made the protector a little more anxious during the long silence between the two. The heroine responded hoarsely, trying to imitate back the "hello" pronounced by the protector, followed by a timid wave of hands, which left the small one relieved that she managed to get an answer.
Rose looked at something written in her sash, then decided to follow the communication, pointing to herself and saying only her name: "Rose Ink"; and turning her finger towards the heroine, and saying "You?" with hopes that she would understand that she wanted to know her name.
The Guardian was perplexed and decided to settle into a sitting posture on the sofa she had placed earlier, her limbs still sore but much less than before, her hands touching the texture of the fabric of the sofa, feeling its softness, her eyes widened as she realized this new sensation, meaning that it was (definitely) different from before, it felt more real than ever. She then looked back at the protector, with eyes wide, as if she still couldn't believe what was happening.
The Protector smiled back at her gaze, patiently waiting for an answer, and trying to appear as friendly as possible. The answer made with a smile was enough to prove that she was no longer inside a dream. Inside her mind, she never got a straight answer and was always answered with gibberish by the figure-like-people or silence, it always some cold atmosphere in their conversations, but this one felt warm and welcoming, besides that person looked completely detailed, her white hair (was what she assumed it was) shining with the light coming from the window behind where she was sitting, the colorful cartoony big eyes in her mask staring at her without blinking a single time, fully concentrated in her face while playing with her fingers, waiting for her answer.
She broke her trance off the protector's attentive gaze, returning to reality, realizing that she had been staring at her for a long time. She cleared her throat and coughed about 3 times before answering her name, but when she was about to say it, nothing came to her mind, her name had long since been lost in her mind, misplaced among the distorted memories, by the lack of use. But what if she didn't have a name? Then who was she? What did she do before? What had happened? A name was such a simple thing, so how had she lost it? All her answers had vanished, together with most of the dreams she could no longer remember she once had.
Was it okay if she just let herself forget all of them?
No... Probably not, something inside her told her that they were important.
With each passing minute, the protector became more frustrated and anxious about the delay, she tried to ignore these thoughts to remain focused on the heroine's words. The protector wasn't the patient type, at least not on that scale, and she couldn't stand to sit for too long without moving when she knew she had things to get done. The silence was killing her patience, but she tried to remain calm, holding on just this once. She can be useful; she will prove it to everyone.
The guardian took a few more seconds until she shook her head in defeat, which made the protector make a disappointed face and look away, breathing deeply to relieve the stress.
Rose turned her gaze to the guardian after taking a few deep breaths, now calmer, she showed the palm of her hand to the heroine, in a gesture of stopping, and said "Stay here". Then she got up and walked to another room in the house, leaving the heroine in the living room. But shortly after she left, she came back as if she had forgotten something, then remembered again and went back to the other room. The guardian was confused and wondered what she was doing, then there was a loud crash coming from the room the protector was in, a curse was shouted, that the heroine couldn't identify, and not long after, the protector left the room with a pile of books in her hand, with an annoyed expression in her mask, she closed the door angrily but not hard, so as not to damage it.
She then noticed that the guardian had listened to her making a mess and got flustered from embarrassment. Trying to avoid eye contact, the protector shut her eyes and tried to walk with confidence to the living room, but ended up tripping in her long sash, falling to the floor with everything that she was holding, making herself more embarrassed than before. The guardian held her smile with one of her hands and tried to get up from the sofa to help, but ended up almost falling too, but she managed to stand firm on the floor. Once she manages to balance, she helps the protector, by lifting her off the floor, the smaller skeleton avoided eye contact and picked up the books that fell to the floor after saying “thank you”.
The two after making themselves comfortable, ended up in an unpleasant silence. Minutes of uncomfortable quietness passed painfully slow, and then the protector coughed and finally decided to put into practice what she had in mind before her accident. She picked up one of the books and pointed at it while holding it up to her face, saying "book" as clearly as possible without rushing her speech. After she realized that the guardian had understood, she opened the book, many words that the guardian did not understand were filling the pages, it’s not like she knew how to read anyway.
It’s going to be a long learning journey in this new age; others may say that they don’t have time for that.
In the meantime, welcome back, sister.
We’ve been waiting for you; we’ll bring you back to us, you have something that we desire.
We don’t mind waiting a bit more; take your precious time.
Next (Not made yet, come back later)
