Post by Cabin on Nov 30, 2020 15:30:24 GMT -8
"No. You're crazy."
"I've been called many things in my life, child, but Baba Yaga is ever wrong." the shakey voice sternly reprimanded. An old woman, perhaps half Cabin's size, tapped a long, gnarled finger against the crystal ball that sat in front of her. The ball was cloudy and swirling and Cabin couldn't make anything out in the haze, but the old woman who claimed to be Baba Yaga seemed to read the clouds as if they were a book. Not that Cabin could read books at all either.
She held out her finger and made a beckoning motion to Cabin, who nervously slid closer to the orb. "It lies there, child. You're hidden potential is locked away, but these cursed grounds will be among the many keys to unlock it." Cabin tightened his grip around a small parchment roll, clenching his teeth as he sat in disbelief. Only hours earlier had he won what the man had called a 'deed' in that hotdog eating contest and the old woman had zero'd in on him only moments after he left the fair grounds.
"You seek power, but you have no path. I can show you where it lies. she had tempted him with. A path power was always something on Cabin's mind, and like a sucker he fell for it. But this old woman didn't seem to be one of the many street grifters Cabin had beaten up before. Her words seemed to latch into him and whisper directly into his mind, a feat he hadn't known anyone other than himself to be capable of. An unseen tendril of ki reached out, carrying Cabin's thoughts with it and wrapped around Baba Yaga in that dimly lit fortune-telling room. She sent him at first just images, showing him the manor in all it's splendor and the little lord and his mother.
"Kessho-ko they called it, the Estate on the Crystal Lake. The little lord was born a sickly child. His beautiful mother cared for him as best she could, using her late husband's vast fortune to staff the manor with specialists just for her son. He was sick nearly every day of his short life but when he had the strength for it, he loved to sit by the lake. Images of a young child in opulent clothes flashed in front of his eyes, sitting by a bright blue lake that was like a mirror to the sky. The little lord's life flashed in front of his eyes, showing his days spent reading, writing and painting by that lake, "He loved that lake, almost as much as his mother and attendants loved him. On these days when his constitution was weakened, his attendants would say he spent his waking hours staring at the paintings he had made of the lake...."
Cabin stood up, jarring the table and chairs around him, "That's all well and good, Demon-woman, but I'm in no mood for stories." He spoke out loud, perhaps purely out of habit and instinct, and the connection he had offered her broke off.
"Impudent, rude child!" Baba Yaga scolded but Cabin simply scoffed at her, "Skip to the important parts, my power awaits me." A large sweatdrop formed at the corner of her forehead and she facepalmed at the arrogance of the Saiyan in front of her. This time she formed a connect, and a quick series of directions and landmarks filled his mind, almost overwhelming so. With a thin sheen of sweat forming on Cabin, the old lady smiled and chuckled at his discomfort, "When the little lord's mother found him drowned in the lake, they say she went mad and accused the entire staff of murder. When no one could prove their innonence, she killed them all. Rumor has it that on nights much like tonight, a night where the moon is dark and hidden, she comes out to hunt down the staff once again, who even in the after life are dedicated forever to their little lord."
"Chilling tales, old woman, but I fear no spirit or woman pretending to be a spirit. Probably just some wild beast that I'll have for dinner." Cabin smirked, and Baba Yaga could only shake her head at him, "Foolish child, you know so little of the world. Take heed of my words, or maybe you'll be joining her staff."
-----
It was no wonder that none had been back since the reclaim this land. Besides the natural beauty of the lake itself, there was little to draw a person to take patronage of lands like these. The dirt was compact and lacked any topsoil. When Cabin reached down and ran his fingers through the dirt, it was dry and rocky and not even insects seemed to inhabit it. Clearly the land had been salted in spite, perhaps as a way to ward of the spirit so many claimed resided in the lake.
His armor having been destroyed in endeavors past, Cabin had this time opted for what Baba Yaga had called "traditional spiritualist garb." He assumed the traditional part was because it lacked any sort of taste or aestetic to make it pleasing, and instead it felt more like burlap sacks draped over his body. The old woman had claimed that the connection to the spiritual would allow his ki to flow more freely, and that claim alone was worth the discomfort and ugly get-up. The grounds, at least from where he stood, seemed quiet so Cabin decided to take the time to use the meditation technique the old woman had shown him just before he left.
Flicking the tail of his robe out, he sat cross legged on the most comfortable patch of dry, gritty ground he could find and closed his eyes.
"It all starts with a feeling. Reach out, slowly, with your life energy. Let your field wrapped everything and feel it. Turn your other senses off and let your ki show you."
Cabins aura flared only for a moment before being drawn back inward. He took a deep breath and held it in. This was so stupid. Saiyans didn't meditate, and they sure as hell didn't wear stupid, embarassing clothes. Perhaps in his haste to get stronger he had let himself be scammed?
Unseen tendrils of ki worked their way out from Cabin, at first clinging low to the ground like a fog. As it passed over the ground, working it's way over rocks and the tiny channels in the dirt, Cabin's was startled from his concentration. With an audible woosh his ki quickly returned to his body, stirring up dust as it did. It took only moments for Cabin to regain his composure but his heart was still beating out of his chest. He had seen... felt.. sensed the ground and even the small life that resided within it. It had worked, just as the old woman had shown him! He took another deep breath and tried to center himself again. Most ki users could also detect ki, but this was the first time he had managed to detect with ki. In that moment, he felt an odd kinship with the bats of the night and wondered if baby bats are similarly surprised their first time using echolocation. Or was this technique even anything like that? In the end, it didn't matter. While it had given him a start, he was still determined to grow in strength and an ability like this would be especially useful in a dark, unknown region like this. Wait.. Was that why the old woman had show him the technique?
When Cabin let his breath out he could feel his ki sweeping out again, faster this time but still low to the ground. It had nearly reached the entrance to the decrepit mansion itself when he felt it stop. He sighed internally. Nothing could ever be perfect, he supposed, and this must be the limit of a technique like his. Nothing ever came without a cost, but for such an ability a limited range seemed like a fair cost to pay. Besides, this was only his second try with the technique so who knows what sort of limits he could break after mastering it. With another rush of air, his ki returned to him once again and he rose with the confidence only a power-hungry Saiyan could manage. Cautiously, watching his corners, he slunk into the courtyard, humming a dramatic soundtrack in his head before plopping underneath an eerie but oddly familiar tree to resume his meditations. With a deep breath, his ki sunk inward than slither across the floor, a bit higher and more spatial-filling than the last and as it found cracks in that tree and slithered inward, he felt a deep sense of dread that was quickly replaced by a sense of knowing.
"Haven't seen one of you since home!" Cabin laughed and slapped the trunk of the tree. This must have been the source of the little lords that ghost story mentioned. Some fool had planted a Saiba tree in the courtyard and when the grieving mother spilled blood, there could be no telling how many of the podlings had already dropped and burrowed themselves around the grounds. It would have easily turned into a cascade of violence as every drop of blood would awaken another podling hibernating underground, quickly growing into a Saibaman or one of it's many variants. Looking over the tree, it wasn't like the one in his home village. It was somehow uglier than a normal Saibatree and the bark looked ashen. He inspected the branches and found but one disgusting fruit hanging from it, rotten and foul-smelling but still giving off the distinctive ki signal of a living Saibapod. The question of ghost children was easily enough answered, but if there were truth in this, could there be truth in the mother? After all, the stories only mention the appearance of the deathly little lords after the mother's killing spree, but that could also just be poorly remembered tall tales. Maybe someone had actually killed the little lord, and in the mother's revenge she slew the killer and unleashed the Saibamen? The Earthlings were so superstitious, it was sickening. They had left such a perfectly good Saiyan base to rot just because of some silly, admittedly Saiyan, tree. He took a moment to survey the courtyard and it once again became aparent why no one had bothered to retake this area. The mansion held many collapsed rooms and walls and the roof looked like it would have to be replaced entirely before most of the mansion would become livable. A few kick-overed piles of rubble later and he had found some rooms that could at least be boarded against the elements and provide some measure of peace and quiet. Cabins spent the rest of his time tidying up and trying to make it look less like the ruined house it was.
With a satisfied sigh, he took a seat in the middle of the room. He had foolishly gotten distracted before finishing his scouting, but nothing had disturbed him during the cleaning. However, he decided it was better safe than stabbed in the night, so he took a deep breath and pushed his aura outward once more. Inside the room it was easier experiment with how to move his ki optimally and he soon discovered he could easily infalte it's size like a balloon to cover all three dimensions of said room. This made 'clearing' the rooms much easier, and with a more forceful push, his ki enveloped nearly the entire mansion, a sonar of life force pinging make every minute detail of the building. The swept the whole of the ruined building and except for the small amounts of vermin nothing stirred in Cabin's new home. Still, he didn't feel any relief. His detection hadn't been able to reach out to the lake and he still hadn't shaken the idea of the mother rising from the waters while he slept. A piece of the story had been true after all, and the demons that ihabited this region were known to be shapeshifters and tricksters, to some degree. Could one of them have heard the same story as he and decided to wayleigh travellers and sightseers? He could only grumble to himself and pull the thick wool blanket over his head. Saiyans weren't afraid of ghost.
WC: 2076