the 'evil imposter' just wants to be a baker!
Prologue: The Foodie turned Imposter?!
Part 4: hilichurl style stew
[ part 3 ] || [ masterlist ] || [ part 4.5 Special! ]
divider is made by @/saradika-graphics
When you finished the sad attempt of a cup (or rather pot) of Mint Tea, you felt marginally better and decided to try and carefully explore the area again and try to catch or forage for something you could actually eat.
But first. . you sniffed at yourself and gagged at the smell of fish and sweat that clung to you and your now very much torn and raggy clothes. You couldn't help but frown in sadness at the state of your favorite set of pajamas as well as losing your slippers. Your feet were beginning to ache from the rocky and unsafe paths you unfortunately had to cross to get to where you are today.
You backtracked to the pond you had taken water from, it was small but big enough for you to clean yourself in. Looking around, the area was void of any humans, perhaps because this was Stormterror's area after all.
Hearing the sound of something squishing, you turned to the small pyro slime that tried it's best to catch up to you. "Are you going to be accompanying me little one?" you asked and it stared at you, bright eyes blinking before it nodded in excitement. "Alright, you're too cute to be mean too, let me just bathe." You said, and it understood you as it settled itself on a small rock near the pond.
Fighting back a smile you shook your head fondly, strangely feeling already attached to the warm slime. Then you neared the pond, first dipping your foot in the water as a moan of relief escaped your lips from the cool waters. So you went in deeper until your waist was submerged. Then you begun to undress yourself, it's not like there was anybody or rather any person near the area to accidentally peek at you.
Peeling off the now wet clothes, you flung them, watching as they slapped the surface of the water and now merely float about. You'd scrub them clean later, because all you wanted to do was relax and rid the smell of fish off your body.
However your relaxation was short lived as when you tried to go deeper to hid your chest in the waters, you whimpered at the pain from your arms and you finally noticed the scars that littered your body. It was healing, but still the wounds were there. You didn't know electro attacks could leave such hauntingly beautiful scars, you remember seeing it in the internet, from people who were struck by lightning to gain branch like scars that spread across their bodies.
Yours was no different, the librarian had struck you at the side of your left arm, it started at your shoulder before branching out in purple glowing lines. It trailed down your arms and even to your chest.
Hesitantly you let a finger traced the lines but you could only wince at the remnants of electro, it felt like grazing at a live wire, making you jolt up. And letting it touch the water triggered 'electro-charged.'
You sobbed once more, you'd been doing it quite often. . a part of you wondered at how you never seem to run out of tears.
"It's. . *hic* it's bad enough they had to hurt me" you complained to yourself as you tried to ignore the pain and began to scrub your body raw against your better judgement, hopefully the scars disappeared as did the smell of rotten fish. . you did not want to live with a reminder of how the characters you had grown to love had hurt and betrayed you.
It felt like hours until you stopped, staring at the your raw skin, the scars didn't disappear nor the remnants of electro. Bathing was supposed to be relaxing yet now you only felt pain due to the elemental reactions.
Standing up you gathered your clothes, rubbed them in silence in an attempt to clean and rid the fabric of the dirt that clung to it. Then you proceeded to get out of the pond, uncaring that you are naked as you laid the clothes on the rock for it to dry. .
"huh, wheres. ." you frowned worriedly when you noticed your slime friend was gone.
Did they leave you? did something bad happened. .
You started to chew on your nail, your nerves slowly starting to consume you once more until. .
"Unu! Unu!" you flinched turning as a group of hilichurls came, approaching you as they were led by the same slime friend you were worried about.
You felt your cheeks flushed as you jumped into a bush to hide your body from them, embarrassed. The slime was the first to approach while the hilichurls hesitated.
Realizing that you were naked the slime turned and communicated with the hilichurls in a language you didn't quite understand, who knew slimes could talk anyways? that wasn't mentioned in the games!
"mani. ." (to give) a hilichurl was the first to step up, bowing as it held out some fabric, your eyes narrowed, were they giving you clothes? Seeing your hesitance and confusion, the slime bounced about in a way that you could only deduced as encouragement. So you stood up, hand outstretched and the hilichurl took it as a sign to approach.
Slowly and respectfully it placed the gift in your hands and you felt the leather and animal skin to be nice as you wore it quickly and then stepped out of the comfort of the bushes. You smiled warmly at the hilichurls "Thank you."
The hilichurl then fainted with a weak "*Mosi mita. . ."
"a-are you okay" you worriedly crouched down, poking at its mask and was only to be met with silent, the hilichurl was definitely out cold. .
The samachurl facepalmed at the sheer idiocy of the hilichurl, but they couldn't really blame them for they were truly in the presence of their God, their most revered mother. "Olah, Unu" (Hello, Creator) the samachurl greeted, getting your attention as they bowed as well, laying down their staff to ease your suspicions and cautions towards them.
"h-hello" you greeted awkwardly, also bowing causing them to shake their heads, were you not supposed to bow to them? still, you watched as the samachurl motioned the pyro slime to give them something.
You crouched as the slime, remembering something, quickly approach you. What happened next surprised you, the slime had spat out a vial of purple liquid. You remembered it as one of the craftable potions that could help you in battle, raising your resistance to a particular element.
"Ah!" you realized it was to raise a person's electro resistance.
Testing it out, you put some of the potion into your hands and began rubbing it on the scars that now decorated your arms. . the tingling sensation seemed to numb and the purple cracks of electro faded. .**
you slumped in relief, staring at the hilichurls then at your slime as you grabbed the slime, ignoring the warm burning sensation "thank you. ."
Seeing as the hilichurls were far nicer than the knights of Favonious, it didn't take much for you to agree to follow them to their camp. Your little pyro friend was still in your arms as the burning sensation slowly disappeared. You didn't bother to check your arms to see whether the 3rd degree burns simply numbed all the pain away.
Their camp was similar to the ones you saw through your gadget, except it seemed livelier, and far more large and filled with more things like tents, beds, crates of definitely stolen goods.
You found yourself ushered to be sat down, were the younger hilichurls slowly approached you filled with restrained excitement. They played with you in a game you didn't quite understand, they gave you small gifts like flowers and interestingly shaped stones.
You accepted it all, a part of you was overwhelmed from their actions and affections. .
weren't you some imposter of a god that you never knew existed?
Seeing your dampened moods, the hilichurls took it as a sign that they had offended you and dejectedly began to give you space. Your pyro slime friend was called over as they settled themselves in a pile of wood and lighting it up to make a good sized fire.
The other hilichurls began to bring out ingredients as another three were busy hanging up a pot just above the fire your pyro body managed. Curiously you stood up and approached, watching as they began cooking. Their utensils were crude, improvised and makeshift versions of the real deal. It seemed they had gotten stones and carved and sharpened them out.
They had carrots, radishes, meat and more.
Scrunching up your brows you tried to remember some basic hilichurlian speech, awkwardly you got their attention and shyly asked "mi tomo?" (I help?")
You felt an arrow stab your heart 'did they just say no? in a matter of seconds?!' you felt a bit offended, until the samachurl from before guided you away, taking your hands into his own as he looked at the cuts and callouses you obtained from hard labor "Unu. . " it muttered sadly, finger tracing the scratches.
"Oh. . i'm fine, so please, let me help you." you whispered hoping he'd understand, the samachurl shook their head, "nye." No again. You frowned at that, why? did they not want your help?
Seeing your confusion the samachurl tried his best to communicate but you didn't quite understand their language so after wracking his brain, he said with a slow way as he focused on each syllable. .
You blinked, okay you reacted, that meant you understood him "let your . . . wounds . . .heal." he added taking long pauses between each word. Human speech although familiar to him, he had not used such speech for such a long time. .
"Okay" you nearly stumbled over your words as you sat down and the Samachurl tended to your wounds more. "I'll rest."
The hilichurl's special stew was delicious, you had an extra serving as you tried to decipher the spices they had used. It was mostly filled with meat and had a few carrots and potatoes as well as thin slices of radishes. You couldn't help but chuckle at the hilichurls who seemed to not eat the vegetables as much as compared to the meat. They reminded you of children, so you couldn't help but dote on them. Wiping their masks (as they ate with their masks on, only raising them up to reveal their mouths) when it go messy, tucking the younger hilichurls first and helped clean up the pot.
The pyro slime was fed with fire and combustible objects and leftovers of meat. Once he was full, he left the fireplace where only ashes and flickers of flames remained. "Are you full?" you asked watching as the pyro slime let out gulps of smoke, was he burping? that was an interesting sight at least.
Calloused fingers pet the top of the slime, "thank you for getting help."
The day had ended better than the first, you slept with the hilichurls bundled in warmth, wearing fresh clothes and with a full stomach.
*Mosi mita means "eat meat" which is also a positive expression or an expression of happiness. Yes, the hilichurl fainted out of bliss because their creator smiled at them.
most of the words in () are rough translations you can find in the official hilichurlian website.
taglist: @fantasyhopperhea @rhoswen-drake @cchiiwinkle
**I wanna milk the electro scars for a few more chapters :v
