Chapter 951 The First Take

951 The First Take

The Abandoned Realm, Scene 24B, Take 1, was what was written in chalk on the clapperboard. Like the sharp edge of a pulled and primed guillotine, it plunged close with a mighty crack. A loud call of "Action!" rippled onto a stifling silence, and quickly the board was whisked from the wide shot. This was it. This was what everything was building up to. And frankly, speaking as both outsider and in-character, there really wasn't much present to anticipate. Here we were. Taking respite in a clearing a long journey through the forest. Together, a group, but not companions. Allies but not friends. Working towards a solidary goal that no one was actively striving to save for a solitary one. Leonardo was the glue holding this party together and definitely not in the complimentary sense of the phrase. It felt like anything, even the slightest change in the breeze could upend this uneasy peace... and according to the course set by the plot, that was exactly what was about to happen. Remelda returned from her wanderings, coming upon the sorry, miserable state of our party and seemingly of the belief two negatives would surely spur a positive, began talking shit once more... aiming her sharp tongue swift and true toward the thinning mettle of our great illustrious leader. "So, tell me, how the hell did you even get yourself stuck in our realm to begin with?" She asked him, stomping and crunching closely around the grass of his personal space. "Supposedly, you're the great hero of your Realm. A legend among legends. But tell me, how does someone so great let himself be taken so easily?" My great and peerless insight tells me that the best thing to do was to ignore her. People only speak cruelly when they desire a reaction regardless of what it was. The worst thing to do was to encourage such actions by responding back. But alas, I suppose our hero is also great beyond mere reason. "You do not know Terestra. Not at all," He told her, a curled fist resting beside him in the grass. "And even if you did, you will never know her as I do. The strength she possesses, her sheer prowess. How you can even stare unfazed at the mere utterance of her name is a luxury you can't even begin to appreciate." "So what does that make you? If your demon really is as fearsome as you say, if she can just chuck you to another world at a mere whim, what hope do you have to even stand a sliver of a chance against her? Or anyone, really?" "If you're concerned your world is next to be threatened, then don't be. When I return, the problem will be dealt with swiftly. She couldn't kill me, so she misplaced me. She hasn't beaten me, only impeded me. For that is all she can do." "Then why the need for aid? For her?" Remelda asked, pointing at Tressa nearby. "Or for anyone else, really? Why can't you just simply do as you desire and return yourself?" "I do not have that power." "Then what power do you really have against someone of that measure? Please. I beseech you. Can you elaborate on a plan if there truly is one?" Now if I were in her position, I probably wouldn't have decided to be condescending to the guy with a sword at his side, especially not when his hand seemed so tempted to reach for the hilt. "None? Only silence to give?" The elf's smile was like a dagger. "Or are you diving deeper into delusions to try and find one?"

"You know, you remind me of another Elf I know," Leonardo said, sounding less dignified. "She too doubted the extent of my abilities. Would you care to take a guess what has become of her?" Remelda scoffed. "If you managed to slay her, then I assure you she is nothing like I am." "Maybe I did, maybe I did not. And maybe you are, maybe you aren't," he said. "Would you care to find that out for yourself?" "Oh, would ya two just quit it with yer yammering!" Tressa yelled, a bundle of stray leaves blasting back with her shout. "If I'm gonna have to be listenin' to the shit ya'll be spouting the whole way through, I'm dropping dead! And I certainly ain't meetin' no maker doing stupid fools like you a favor!" Remelda just laughed, ears wriggling with pure unadulterated cynicism echoing throughout. "Forget about it then! No need for favors. Just go home. That goes for all of us! I fear all our efforts here would only be going toward just sending this fucker to an early grave. Not worth it one bit." There was a clunk of hard, heavy metal. Leonardo lifted himself from rest, staring forward and staring mad, the tip of his sword digging into the soil. His grip, the strain, visible against his knuckles. "Allow me to prove myself to you then," He said quietly, in a calmness that was anything but. "Unless you rather I do not." The Elf did not sway in the slightest. A smile on her lips, completely mad, unhinged, truly living up to the nature of her species. She returned his stare, looking gleeful, ecstatic. "Much more eager for death than I thought." I knew it was high time for me to step in again. The relegated peacekeeper of our little posse, it seems. But I needn't bother to placate and appease. I knew it wasn't my role to be the one to disrupt their heated affairs. No, that was someone else's job.

And here she comes now. Like a gust in the wind, a silent slither through the grass, at once, we all felt her. Every single one of us, the same sense of alarm, of panic, fear, pulsating through us. We all turned, searching the grounds, the darkness beyond the trees for a source. Instead, we heard her voice. "You'll die. He'll kill you. By all means, keep teasing him, Remelda. But know your limits and your place when you do. Otherwise, you wouldn't be able to live to even regret it." Then, suddenly, there she was. The moment I laid eyes on her face, on that smile on her lips, I knew it was her. Emerging from a narrow crevice between crooked, withered trunks. A stark blackness slithering into the light, into view. Like a blemish, an unsettling wrongness in reality. Terestra. "And you, Leonardo. I'm surprised. Picking fights? The good hero himself, the champion of all life? Surely not, no?" She was a contradiction to all I'd heard of her from Leonardo. I pictured a demon. Something vile, absolutely putrid, irredeemably wicked. But this was worse. Much worse. Nothing about her achieved to any kind of expectation I had held. Speaking to them, to us, as if like a friend, as if like any other. It's the politeness, the sincerity ringing true in her voice; her entire demeanor conveying a kindness when every fiber of my body was screaming and telling me otherwise. "Or maybe you simply have just gotten too restless is all," she mused on, getting gradually closer, her strides invisible in the cascade of darkness that clothed her whole body. "I mean how long has it been since I left you here? Has it been weeks? Months? Years? Who's to say time flows the same between realms? Is there still even a realm for you to get back to after all this time? Why, it really is quite the unnerving mystery, isn't it?" The initial posting of this chapter occurred via N0v3l.B11n.

"Cut. CUT!" Oh boy, here it comes. "Leonardo, your line! Say it! You're acting! Act!" The Director blared out from the sidelines. His annoyance magnified tenfold with the megaphone smushed against his lips. "Of all times to mess up, of all the people, seriously, you? What's gotten into you?

Then it was like Leon just woke up, snapping awake for some kind of spell. He blinked around, his blue eyes lost for a moment, taking a moment to compose himself before even attempting to speak. "Sorry. My bad, I was... I didn't... I don't know what that was, honestly... I'm..." "Forget it! We'll start from the top!" He cut him off. "Everyone back to your places! Don't mess this up again. That goes for everyone. Am I clear?" To be fair, it wasn't as if Leon was the only one who had clammed up. Everyone else was just as unnerved, Hayley, Amanda... the rest of the crew watching the scene unfold. Nobody was immune. Put anyone else in his place, and I highly doubt you'd be able to get anything better. "Are you alright?" Mom asked him, shifting her eyes, and without a single noticeable change in her expression, the smile on her face was one of more motherly concern. "I didn't scare you, did I?"

"N-No, no... you didn't, of course not," Leon said, forcing a smile. "You just... you know... you caught me off guard. I didn't think you'd be that amazing at that." "I try," she replied humbly, stepping back to her place hidden behind the trees. "Ready to try again?" "Sure," he said, confident and ready. "I'll get it perfect next time. I will. Yes. No worries." Yet the slight quiver in his lips says otherwise. Before slinking away, Mom threw me a brief glance, a fleeting look, telling me she knew just as well as I did. We're definitely gonna be here for a while...