Peculiar, isn't it? How one can be native to a certain place for entire decades and still feel uncertain about calling it "home?"

Lilicors Village was the only civilization Beak had known since she returned to the world in her present condition. The only people that may as well have existed in the entire world once her entire world had vanished under the flooding waters. Was she ever truly one of them, though? She'd spent so long hiding, disguising herself, getting what bare essentials she needed from black market vendors simply becuase they were the only ones who didn't ask questions... and now here she is, walking among the crowds as if she were one of them for the first time... well, ever. And all it took was for her to move away!

Crescent Isles. The barrow. Her house with her beloved bondmates and children. That is her home now. A part of her resents the... if not praise she's receiving just yet--she's no hero of the realm, or anything like that--at least the tolerance, the fact that she's made enough of a name for herself through various adventures to have graduated from "monster" to "adventurers are just eccentric, sometimes." Where were all of you when I needed companionship?

But Beak isn't back in the Marsh Flats, back in Lilicors, for an "I Told You So" tour. She's not here to extract revenge on the town that had fifty years to make her feel welcome and never once so much as tried. No, she's here because she's chasing rumors of her people, and the civilizations like her people who had all been conquered and lost so long ago... and she's here in Lilicors, specifically, because she'd gotten close enough on her ruins expeditions to hear rumors about a rather unique predicament that has befallen the settlement.

"So let me get this straight," Beak asked the guard, trying her best not to marvel at the fact that she's talking to the guards now. "You stockpiled enough of a surplus in your storehouses that a hydra has moved in and claimed them as its own. And you want me--" the person you wouldn't so much as piss on if she were on fire not half a year ago, "--to deal with the beast, by any means necessary."

Well, sure, easy to decide Beak isn't so bad after all when they want something from her, isn't it? Such is--

Mmmh. No. She's falling back into old thoughts. Dark thoughts. She's better, now. Happier. She has a home. A family.

Stars above, she needs to get out of Marsh Flats. Something about Lilicors just brings out the worst in her along with all those unpleasant memories--turns her back into the bitter, rejected loner that she'd been for so long. Old habits she thought she'd exorcised. She needs to go home again.

... After this. First, the hydra. She'll see what she can do, of course--there are innocent civilians here who don't really deserve this, probably--but damned if she's going to put the poor beast's head on a wall for them. It's probably just hungry, anyway. Probably just a "monster" with nowhere else to go in this wretched wasteland, yet unwelcome in the one place that has what it needs.

She can relate.

---

Quest details

SPOILER: Click to show

Quest Name: More than we Need
Participants: Two or more
Location: Marsh Flats
Post Requirements: 6 posts per person, 200 words per post
Reward: +1 Renown, Choice of 2 Common crafting materials
Description: A swamp Hydra has taken up home in a nearby village's storehouse, attracted to their supply of food. The creature has made its nest in the storehouse and has been running people out of town, completely taking over a section of the village. They are requesting help from adventurers, who have been asked to go in and remove the hydra in whatever way they see fit. The locals do request, however, that those who challenge the hydra try keep as much of the village intact as they can, moving the hydra out of the village and away from homes.

 Lilicors really wasn’t that far from where the Seiko estate was…. Okay it sort of was. But not much more than a ferry’s ride away, if you pay the captain enough. Nonetheless, word traveled far enough to where the family had heard of it. Celeste didn’t really give a shit - hydras come, hydras go. The swamp was their home as well, after all. Was it a tad unusual for hydras to be that close to settlements? Sure. But it wasn’t a threat to her—

“It’s not a good idea for us to ignore a cry for help, Cece.” Soren states as he walks into the war room, where Yuey had just left after informing her and insisting they go and assist. Celeste couldn’t help but groan in frustration. “Soren we have spent half a year - if not longer - building our newfound reputation just enough to where we’re basically starting with a clean slate. We have far more concerning states of affairs than whether or not we save a little village in the middle of nowhere. I know, I’m aware this could help, but it’ll cost more for us to send a bunch of soldiers to their deaths.”

She looked back to see him leaning against the wall with a smirk. “You think I’d waste soldiers on this? Sister, I’d much rather just go myself. It’s a hydra. That sounds exciting! We haven’t had much fun since - well. When’s the last time you visited the Tento kid?”

Celeste responded with a glare. “Rashi and Keyke are busy, just as I am. They understand. They know I still love them….” She understood his point though. “It’ll be just a little outing?” She adds with a sigh, to which Soren replied with a sly grin. “You, me, and Yuet. Just a little outing.”

“Fine.”

~-~-~

On the way their, Celeste understood a little more why Yuet was so insistent on coming with them - Lilicors was her home town, especially whilst the family was out of commission. She spent a little over three years here as a house cleaner and made quite a life for herself. She left it as soon as she heard the Seiko family was back, but sometimes she missed the simplicity of the village - and she insisted it was her home. Hearing her stories from back when, Celeste was more than determined to help her and the village out. It was important to her handmaiden, her ally- her friend.

The three of them walked up as the bird-skull-masked woman and the guard finished speaking. Soren and Celeste shared a look, then looked back. “I guess we’re not the only ones who heard about the Hydra….”

Beak is, of course, the absolute last person in the world with any room to judge when something appears off about any other seemingly ordinary adventurers she encounters. There's a certain deathly aura that surrounds this young woman leading her group to approach... yet no signs of decay; her body appears to be in perfectly fine condition, just... something about it. Ghost? Vampire? ... Ghost vampire? But, of course, even if she were correct about this newcomer being undead, again, she of all people wouldn't have room to say anything there, either. It's a curiosity, not a judgment; she knows from experience how difficult it can be to attempt to blend in with the living and just live a normal life. And that's assuming she's even correct in her read; for all she knows, she could just be making baseless assumptions anyway.

So it is that, between the unending embarrassment it would cause if she were to assume wrongly, and the fact that she wouldn't have any sort of problem with the woman's condition even if she were correct, Beak chooses to disregard the observation and pretend the approaching party seems perfectly ordinary to her.

"Ah, good day and well met, friends." See? If any of them can speak, normally, like with their vocal cords and everything, then they're already more ordinary than she herself will ever be anyway. As always, Beak just has to hope that the telepathic communication isn't too alarming or taken as some sort of mental intrusion. "It seems the call to deal with this hydra has reached farther than I'd expected. Well... good, I say; some company would be most welcome. Ehehehe~"

Stars above, she's doing the witch cackle thing again. Since finding a family and removing herself from this wretched land, she's come to understand more in hindsight about how that was something of a coping mechanism--gallows humor, a way to wring out some small measure of amusement from an otherwise bitter and lonely existence. Something about just being back in Lilicors really is turning her back into... well, the kind of person she was when she "lived" in Lilicors.

All the more reason to attach herself to these newcomers and handle this mission alongside them, if possible. They don't seem like the sort to trigger old unpleasant memories. Traveling with them for a while could be her once chance to look forward rather than back while she's here.

Celeste and the strange woman - who gives the vibes of a hag - lock…. Not eyes, mostly because Celeste is essentially unable to see them, but where the eyes would be. Just as she felt something off about her, vice versa. Her eyes narrowed slightly, trying to figure it out, but shrugged it off after a moment. After all, it was probably something trivial, and she’s sure she’s seen weirder. The mental intrusion was a little shocking, especially since Celeste could easily tell the difference between speaking telepathically and speaking normally. Again, nonetheless, she shrugged it off. So far, the woman - or creature of sorts - did not seem dangerous. At least not to the three of them. Celeste glanced to Yuet, who was staring at the woman carefully. “Do I know you…?” Yuet asks, in her soft voice.

“Be nice, Love. We could use the help.” Celeste warned her handmaiden gently. She approached the woman and held her hand out. “Celeste Seiko. Head of the warrior family, along with my brother and my handmaiden, Soren and Yuet. I’ll be really honest, the only reason I came is because my sweet friend insisted - this was her home for a while. She’d be very upset if it came to ruins because of a hydra.” Celeste answered with a gentle smile. She then looked at the guard. “Is there anything I should know about the hydra that they cannot fill me in on?”

"You do not know me, no," the robed figure answers Yuet seemingly with no offense taken whatsoever. If anything, it gives her a chance to introduce herself properly. "My name... that is... you may call me Beak. Last warrior of a forgotten people... and something of an aspiring amateur archaeologist, now, thanks to them. I happened to be back in the Marsh Flats chasing a lead on some ruins when I heard about this... situation."

At that, her tone falls. She is nothing but polite, even friendly to these newcomers, as if she's genuinely delighted to be making new friends. As soon as her attention turns back to the village itself, though, the undertones of distaste in her tone are unmistakable. "... It seems to be attracted to the storehouses... it's hungry and this place stores a lot of food, in other words. They can't access their own reserves anymore now that the hydra has taken them over. They want the beast gone and they don't care how--dead or alive, as it were--but they do want us to make sure not to cause any destruction within city limits if we must fight it." Because of course they would put their precious property values over the life of monster. She... doesn't think that last part out loud, though.

"Other than that... well, it's a hydra. They haven't been able to get close enough to tell anything other than that. I have my theories about why it could be so abnormally territorial--perhaps it's an expecting mother looking to secure food for her young, or a juvenile looking for food after finding itself on its own. Perhaps settlers have encroached on these creatures' territory and now they have nowhere else to go; perhaps they simply put too much food in one big building and that attracted the local wildlife. In the end, though, I couldn't find anyone as interested in the why as they were in the part where we get rid of it."