A cascading array of roofs stretched across the Village. It had a nice aesthetic to it. All one could see was brown wood with the occasional green from some growing algae. They had shutters streaming down to the ground. The shutters themselves were dry with some leaves playing inside them and they tussled in the wind.
Lozo stood nested at the top of one of these roofs like a hawk. He gazed and watched as the people went about their dailies from groceries to strolling. Just near these homes was a playground of sought. In the middle of it was large tree that shaded most of its green leave, remaining with little to none brown autumn ones. Below the tree children, all ages and sizes, scampered and laughed as they jumped over the tree's overgrown roots. They seemed happy, all rows of teeth in full display.
A memory sparked in his bank. A memory of back at the orphanage's sycamore tree. Of back then when he too ran joyous around a tree with his fellow agemates… he missed it.
But that was the past. A painful past, best to be handle another time. He got other things to think about.
His gaze drifted to the street he had climbed from and to the roof he was currently standing on. Karin was there. She was busy hanging some papers.
He jumped back down, bracing for the impact with the cemented ground. Daring moves like those had become cumbersome since he lost his ability to muster his natural energy. He'd been trying regularly lately but for some reason he couldn't. every time he summoned it the summon was replied to by a searing pain spiking across his body. It would flare up his senses and in turn leave him with nothing but a huge migraine to nurse.
His feet met the ground. The force was distributed through his body sending him to his knees.
"What are those papers?" he asked rubbing his knees.
Karin ignored him. she walked onwards across the alley and placed another white piece of paper with some ink on it. the ink was less of writing and more of a smudge. Like a cat had tipped a bottle of ink and the ink settled into a nice perfect square.
The papers were placed at an interval to each with alley they were in having three… four with the newest that Karin had pasted on the walled.
"You should try to be less dense." She said plastering the paper on street wall.
"Huh?"
"Earlier. With that girl. Try to be gentler with them." Karin reminded Lozo.
"The cat caller girl?... It was funny."
"Yeah, to you but to them, not so much."
Karin left the alley and walk into the main street. She branched of and entered another alley on the other side. Lozo followed.
"How so?"
"Urgh. To them these cases are not just your normal day occurrences. Normal humans don't see or feel the things we do every day. We are not the same."
She pulled out another piece of paper from the batch she had and pasted that on the wall.
"To them being associated with Harmatia is bad and worse if you start having personal experiences of your own. So next time try to be more sensitive for their feelings."
Lozo was quiet. He got what she meant. Even explained why the grouch guard and the girl thought he was a dog. But that didn't stop the name cat caller from being funny.
"So, what are these papers you keep plastering on the wall?" Lozo asked zooming in on the first paper of the alley they were in.
Lozo didn't know but Karin was staring at him. Quite judgmental at that. She could tell by how he had brushed of the topic on the girl that he didn't really care for it. Funny was still funny. But then that was her judgement of him. She could have been wrong.
"Hey? Did you hear what I said? What are these papers?"
Karin sighed.
"They are called TNTs."
***
The street they were in was quite spacious. The two buildings around it weren't that talk and leaked out some golden rays onto it. Just ahead the street branched of to a large square like zone. It was railed with curved wooden planks. The other thing was that it reeked. All around it were garbage bins full of things that were decaying in the golden rays.
But the two teens standing in the alley nearby didn't seem to be deterred by it. Or even notice it was there.
"TNTs? Quite the fancy name."
"True Name Talismans. They help us find any nearby domains of either of the three classes, Purger Wanderer or Limbo." Karin responded.
She pointed to the dark square ink smudge on the paper then explained.
"You see the dark spot on the paper. That's some special ink the fief provides to make these papers. Whenever a domain is nearby the ink starts to mold…"
Just then as she was explaining the ink on the paper she had just pasted started to mold and shift form. It thinned and stretched into stroke and arches across the paper and finally settled. With one final stroke a name showed up on the paper.
"Cat Caller Covy!"
""Cat Caller Covy? What is that?" Lozo asked mesmerized by the sudden writing.
"That's the name of the Domain. Come on Let's go." Karin called.
"Where?"
Just as before, the ink on the paper started to move. This time it was simple, just three strokes.
"We follow the arrows!" Karin called already paces ahead of Lozo.
Drawn on the other paper in the same alley was an arrow. It pointed in the same direction as the first paper. The direction Karin had just ran on.
It's quite obvious from here.
Lozo followed the arrows.
***
"Hurry up." Karin shouted at Lozo who was panting a lot.
"The domain is around here." she said cautiously looking around.
This alley was similar to the one they had first ran out of. It too had a large open square space at the end of it fenced by wood. Except this one didn't have the odor. Just a bunch of empty cardboards boxes stacked randomly on each other.
"G—Give me a second." Lozo said trying to catch his breath. They had just ran through the village, following the arrows to wherever they pointed, arrows which changed directions quite frequently. They finally stopped and homed to one alley bay. The one they were in.
The TNTs here were not arrows but circles.
"It's here." Karin commented, narrowing her eyes.
Suddenly one of the cardboards flipped over and out came the other presence in the alley.
Legless it slithered through the air. Its body of no definite shape, just a blob swirling through the air while shifting its pigmentation from purplish to a cold lavender. Its skin was translucent and a result of the shifting color pigment. No eyes No face. Just a sphere of swirling lavender.
"There it is!" Karin called. Around her hands a fluid shimmer black ignited.
"What should I do?" Lozo asked frantic as the blob raced towards him.
"Nothing. I got it."
Tazugata!
Whoosh!! A black mass coiled towards Lozo. It bended and nestled into two fingerlike webs and shot after the escaping blob.
The black coiling mass spiraled around the blob faster than Lozo could get out of the way. Then a high pitch snapping noise followed.
"Caught it." Karin echoed.
Lozo looked up and what was like a black slime ball was falling towards him. It protruded elastically, back and forth, but held. It wasn't going to let out blob within it.
Noticing its importance Lozo raised his hands catching the black ball before it hit the ground.
What Lozo hadn't anticipated was that the shininess of the ball meant that it was slippery and it wouldn't settle on the first try.
"Careful… Don't drop it." Karin shouted rushing to Lozo to help him stabilize the sphere.
…
"Wow! What was that?" Lozo asked.
In his hands he held the sphere tightly, Karin had necessitated that.
"One minute the thing flies out then your hands glow and dark strings pop out and circled the blob. What was that?"
"It's nothing. "Karin retorted. "It's just a normal Gen art! Now hush."
"Why? Something wrong? We got whatever this thing is."
"Yeah, but something doesn't add up. Normally when…"
As she talked some footsteps echoed through the alley. They soft and clumpy but were enough to get Lozo's attention.
And Karin was right. Something was wrong.
Especially with the kid that was strolling their way. He wore school clothes, a shirt and some shorts. He had a small back-pack on… anything bigger and he would be able to move. He had an unknowing look on his face, like he was lost.
"Is that a ball? Can I touch it?" the kid asked.
"I don't– "
Lozo's eyes squinted to get a closer look at the child. The kid's eyes were odd.
They were tired. Like extremely tired. Like I'm dying tired.
The eleven year old boy that stood before Lozo and Karin, for some reason, had the eyes of old man.