Prickly Things and Looking Sharp

Hedgehog Fields

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Hedgehog Fields was a thriving land of hedgehogs and porcupines alike. The little insectivores thrived and flourished, their population abundant and their kind numerous (more than even the number of quills on each of their backs put together). Every step you took in this fantastic and mythical land was a step taken on a hedgehog and, when that hedgehog had been stepped on, you'd get a bunch of quills on your body. Terry learnt that the hard way, as you'd learn if you could translate his squeals as cries for help from this pointy plain. Alpha looked ahead of the clearing, seeing nothing but the endless cycle of moving hedgehogs abound. She felt like logging off there and then at the sight. Hundreds, thousands, maybe an uncountable number of these small creatures skedaddled and constantly bumped into each other in a clumsy fashion. There was no way getting through this field without a few pricks on each square foot of your body. Sympathetically, Alpha tossed a fish stick at the dingo's way and the dog immediately jumped up to catch it with an eager chomp, devouring the snack and forgetting about his current misfortune.

"What're we gonna do," Alpha groaned, falling back and (incidentally) landing on a startled hedgehog. Her eyes twitched as she sat up, thin needles scattered throughout her hair messily. Terry grinned and cackled, giving barking laughs with the intent of mocking the girl until, as he laid down since his body couldn't support his giggles, got yet another prick right on his left buttock. He gave a yelp in pain as Alpha laughed hysterically, pointing her finger at him and thumping her legs on the ground in good humor. "That's what you get!" she laughed, wiping a tear forming at her eye. Karma was such a generous woman. The problem of navigating through this traffic of hedgehogs, however, remained unsolved.

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@Felicitas Hellewege @Sera Phim

 

Sera stared at the field of hedgehogs before her. She had died, she decided. She had died, and found her way into hell itself. That was the only possible explanation. Sometime during the night, her camp had been stumbled upon, and she had been killed. Instead of respawning like everyone said she would, she'd gone to hell instead. It wasn't so much that she hated hedgehogs. The little bastards could be cute, from a distance. But a long distance, and in limited numbers. This? This was hell. Not just any circle of hell. This was some John Constantine finally slipped up, and the devil himself had finally taken his soul level shit. She spoke her contact word, and her prism of light began floating herside her, casting off its seven rainbow colors.

Before she did anything though, she noticed that not too far away, a young girl and a dog were also in the field. Okay, she could use them to help her clear some of this field, she figured. She had gone looking for somewhere she could experiment with her Astramancy, and this seemed as good a place as any, but the number of hedgehogs here pissed her off. As a result, she decided she would kill two hedgehogs with one stone - practice her magic, and kill some hedgehogs. "Hello!" She called to the girl and waved. Watching very carefully where she stepped, Sera would make her way over toward Alphabet. The rainbow prism would float over and circle around Alphabet's head once, and once around Terry's head as well, before returning to float above Sera's shoulder. "Hedgehogs," the prism said audibly, this time allowing it's voice to be heard by anyone instead of just Sera.

Sera frowned at the prism. "Yes, hedgehogs," she said to it. She shook her head and turned back to the girl. "Sorry, it can be a bit odd, sometimes. It's friendly, though. My name's Sera, nice to meet you. Uh... so do you have any plans on what to do with these things?" She asked, gesturing to the hedgehogs.

 

Felicitas had to do a double take as she approached the field. What developer had gone mad, and decided that it was a good idea, a good enough idea to put in a piece of media that would be seen by a large number of people, to create a field absolutely covered in hedgehogs.
And porcupines, she noted, cringing. The hedgehogs would smart, but those porcupines could actually be dangerous, if she wasn't careful. She shrugged, walking closer. She straightened her grip on her hammer, holding it loosely at her side. She could probably clear herself a path pretty easily, provided they wer just normal hadgehogs. If not- she shivered- a swarming creature with any sort of ability, as well as prickly quills- she could easily die if they had any dangerous secrets.
As she wandered closer, she noticed Sera, as well as another girl and a dog.
"Hello!" She called, lifting her hammer in greeting, "Do you know what the deal is with these hedgehogs? Are they like an event or something or are they always here?"
She started swinging her hammer a bit as she drew closer, pulling up her spell chart to familiarize herself with the changes. She was excited by these basic utility 'spells' that were listed, though there wasn't much detail on them. Maybe she'd just have to try them out.
She drew close to the hedgehogs and knelt to examine one. It turned, surprisingly brave, and looked right at her. It's pointy little nose wriggled as it tried to get a tiny little sniff of her, causing her to chuckle.
The noise was apparently too much and it promptly balled up, chittering and trying to sound threatening.
Felicitas laughed loudly.

 

Alpha turned, startled, and then calmed as two strangers revealed themselves with friendly greetings. All the large hammer was a bit intimidating, they seemed to be good people and Terry hadn't really gotten feisty (albeit he's only feisty with felis and other cat-like creatures). She giggled as they both seemed to be as confused by this plain of hedgehogs as well. "I have no idea!" she grinned, responding to both of their questions. And then plopped back to the ground, making a snow angel in the grass. Terry sized them up before laying down next to her, completely hopeless and without an idea on how to go through the clearing.

As they laid there, a few hedgehogs crawled on Alpha's stomach, legs, and arms. One of them settled and sat comfortably on her face. Sometimes she regretted getting that 'Beast Tamer' mastery if it meant getting suffocating by a particularly fat hedgehog that seemed to waft its putrid scent all over her. She resisted the urge to gag, knowing it'll only result in her getting a few quills in the face (and, possibly, the rest of her body). She gave a muffled sound of annoyance. This was not her day. Hopefully those two other women would figure out how to get these hedgehogs off of her since Terry didn't seem interested by the way he was scratching his ear absentmindedly.

@Felicitas Hellewege
@Sera Phim

 

Sera turned toward Felicitas at the sound of her voice. "Oh, hey! Felicitas! How have you been?" She asked her fellow crafts woman. She frowned though, when the girl said she had no idea what to do about the hedgehogs.

The prism floated down toward one of the hedgehogs and bumped against it. It suddenly jerked up to where Sera was. "Kill them!" it shrieked loudly.

"Yeah, sure," Sera said. She waved a hand and the prism glowed a solid green and suddenly flew toward several of the hedgehogs that were well away from any of the three girls. A small explosion of green light would erupt, killing several of the small prey animals. She spoke her contact word once more, and the prism appeared beside her once again. "Seriously, over population is bad for the entire environment. If we don't kill some of them at least, then the entire species in this area will starve to death after they wipe out their food source," she explained to the other two girls. "This is really doing the creatures a favor."

 

Felicitas smiled widely as Sera greeted her, "Hey Sera! I've been doing great, and this hammer is serving me well so far! How have you been? Anything exciting going on with you?"
She cocked her head at the prism, and its viciousness, but shrugged, "I agreed with the floating, possibly sentient thing?" She chuckled, drawing close to the hedgehogs, and swinging her hammer low in a sweep attack. Hedgehogs went fliyng, some dead, some just broken and snuffling.
"I do agree. If the creatures in this world are supposed to follow more realistic laws of survival of the fittest and such, these will turn to cannibalism soon, and that can't be good for anyone. With the mechanics, they may start mutating and really become threats," She laughed, swinging her hammer in another low arc, sending hedgehogs flying far and wide.
"You know, I keep finding that the cooking skill would be useful, I bet we could sell these as a delicacy if we tried hard enough, or coated them in enough seasoning."

@Alphabet Chocolate

 

Alpha's eyes widened as she sat up despite her better judgement upon seeing the hedgehogs get blown away by the hammer sweep and green explosion. Terry cowered at the noise but, upon realizing it came from the two women and not a strange, mysterious source, he calmed and sat next to Alpha's foot, uncaring. Alpha hastily pulled a few quills out of her face and clothes, patting it down gently, and then turned to face the two with a disappointed and disapproving glare and puffed up cheeks to show her discontent.

"Maybe we could just move them," she suggested, wincing at the shrill sounds of dying hedgehogs and porcupines. She could feel their fear in a dim corner of her mind. She empathized with these creatures and she couldn't help but feel sick at the sight of this callous and carefree action of near-genocide solely because there were too many hedgehogs to be found. "Like, put them in places where there are less hedgehogs."

One of the critters took refuge on her foot. It looked at Alpha, almost as if it was begging, and Alpha immediately scooped the creature up into her arms. The hedgehog nuzzled there, believing it was safe. One of the perks of being a beast tamer, Alpha supposed. She nuzzled the creature next to her, its quills withdrawn and smooth. It didn't prick her as she calmed the poor creature down with a few well-placed pats and a soothing coo. She held it helplessly as she, the hedgehog, and Terry watched the carnage ahead.

@Sera Phim @Felicitas Hellewege

 

Sera smiled at Alphabet's request to just move the hedgehogs, rather than killing them. "That's actually what we're doing," she said. "We are trying to move them to a place with no hedgehogs at all. Did you know there's not a single hedgehog in heaven?" She asked the girl. "So we're trying to help them get there, unfortunately, they're all taking a wrong turn on the path to the afterlife, and instead are ending up in hell." Sera paused for a moment and blinked. "That was a bit aggressive of me, I apologize, I don't know what came over me..."

If anyone had paid close attention, the prism and glowed the colors on the earlier side of the spectrum in the opposite pattern as it usually did, moving from green to red rather than the other way around as Sera had finished her first sentence.

With another wave, the prism would glow orange, green, blue, and indigo as it launched toward a large group of hedgehogs once again. There would be four explosions this time, one of each of those color, moving increasing outward to hit more hedgehogs. "Oh, that was a good one!" she said, before bringing the prism back. "Is there anything we're supposed to be doing, actually?'

 

Felicitas laughs through Sera's statements until her voice changes, then glances at her with a start.
"Are... You okay? What is that thing anyway? It's not possessing you or anything, is it?"
Felicitas bent down to look at one of the dead hedgehogs, poking at the torn flesh, then stood back up, preparing another swing.
"Yeah, is there anyhing we're supposed to do? This many hedgehogs, it seems like there'd be an event or something similar."
She looked to Alphabet questioningly, "Also, I don't think we've met before. I'm Felicitas. And you are?"

 

Alpha listened intently on Sera's words but found herself disagreeing as she cuddled with the scared, shivering hedgehog in her arms. Terry looked inattentive to the brutal slaughter in front of them, instead lurking and picking up one of the dead, fried hedgehogs and punching on its quills and hedgehog-meat (much to Alpha's dismay and repulsion at the sickening crunches). "It's okay Corn," she gave the newly-named critter a gentle pet, earning herself a few nervous pricks on her palm before the creature calmed down. "You're not going to Hell or anything!" she reassured him and it seemed as if the creature understood.

She flinched as more hedgehogs flew upward in the air, squealing and singed or dead upon contact. The armored woman (she remembered the green lady calling her by that name) addressed her. She stuttered, a bit off her toes by the current events unfolding before her eyes. "Alpha," she said without paying the woman any attention, opting to instead state and wince as the poor critters were displaced from their happy, waddling civilization.

Maybe it was a sign that she should just retrace her tracks and go back to the place she was before. She wasn't sure she could cross this path with so much hedgehog corpses and blood staining it anyway. "Uh, see you guys later," she meekly said before dashing away, Corn still in her arms and Terry at her heels. Sometimes, there was nothing she could do (especially against very crazy women who threw magic around to kill hedgehogs and, if what Felicitas said was correct, gets possessed by bloodthirsty forces). She could help but feel a teeny bit guilty, though.

@Felicitas Hellewege @Sera Phim

 

Sera turned toward Felicitas and frowned. "I don't think it is.... I know some of them are a bit more aggressive and like to be in charge of things a bit more, but I don't think they have any effect on me. In fact, they told me it was the other way around, that I had an affect on them."

When Alpha started to leave though, Sera frowned. "Hey, wait up. We.... we're sorry. We thought this is what we were supposed to be doing to help, but it looks like you know a thing or two about how animals work. In the game, at least. Tell us what we should be doing to help them, rather than killing them," she said.

"Let's start again. I'm Sera, Sera Phim. This prism I call Roy, short for Roy G. Biv, like the rainbow thing. Cause it shines like a rainbow? It houses, or at least lets me communicate with, the spirits I get my Astramancy powers from. Some of them are nicer than others, I admit, and we have a bit of a back and forth influence on each other, but they assure me that I influence them far more than they influence me. So let's try to all be friends, alright?" Sera bent down and picked up a hedgehog. She held her hand over it for several long second, before stroking the air above it in a poor hover-hand like pet, grimacing slightly the whole time. "See? In truth, I... love.... hedgehogs..." she said.

 

Felicitas immediately felt a pang of regret as the girl, Alpha, started to flee. She recognized that she had acted callously toward the situation, and that just starting swinging had been a bad idea.
She bounced in place for a moment, then yelled after her, "Alpha, wait! I don't know what I could do, but I'd like to make this better somehow! Please, help me figure out what that course of action should be."
Felicitas seemed mildly more competent with the hedgehogs as she carefully picked one up, wincing as it balled in her hands, and pricked her many times in the process, but leaving her hands flat underneath it. As it slowly unballed, she quickly, but gently started after Alpha, "Besides, I think more of them would benifit from your company. They seem to like you a lot."
Though the hedgehog was still snuffling angrily, its quills were beginning to lay flatter and flatter, the longer Felicitas didn't kill it.
@Alphabet Chocolate