The moonlit knight was pacing around their new camp. So. They were definitely not where they planned to go at all.
They were led through the tunnel by Melina, which had put them out through a portal and on top of a gigantic tree. Luna was about ninety-nine percent certain they went the wrong way, but at the same time...
Her gaze drifted down as her thoughts started racing. 'It looks so... hurt...' She stared down from their rotted mushroom platform.
What once was a golden, lush tree by her assumption was now rotten and hollow. Its branches lost of leaves and swollen with bulbous growths across its massive arms. There were great insects feeding on its rotting bark and equally seemed infested by these strange reddish parasitic growths.
'Scarlet rot...' She thought to herself as it dawned on her.
'We forgot our make-up.' Another voice chimed in as she began to feel her anxiety spiking like it hadn't for ages. Everything had gone so far off the tracks.
'Where the fuck are we?!' She nearly barked at herself inside in frustration.
'Luna, you forgot your make-up!'
'How in the fuck did we get so far off course?!' Her feet were practically burning a hole in the mushroom head now. She was frantic. Her thoughts were starting to completely buckle free from her control, and all she could do was feel this surging rush in her chest like it was fighting between crushing in on itself and erupting out suddenly.
'This place is covered in rot! Marika could get sick! The baby! Melina! Fia, Ranni, Blaidd, Malli- What the fuck have I done!'
'Luna! Marika is going to see -'
"Love?" She turned and met the gaze of her worrying lover.
The moment of shock made her open her eyes.
All six.
...
10 minutes earlier
Marika sighed as she planted the last stake. Her new arm flexed a little oddly in the way its gear turned, and she often had to adjust it. She would tug at its connecting joint and ensure the lock was set. Luna had said it would normally take months to set these, but they did not have time to wait. She felt it inside that something was brewing, and even if they had ended up in this strange mimicry of the Erdtree, she could just sense that something important that they would need was here.
Her hands brushed some of the dust from their sleeping bags, trying to keep them clean in the strangely windy and dust filled air of this oddly hidden place. Dead or not, there was still great power in the branches of this tree, and something had taken root within it to wield said power. That made Marika's stomach turn even considering it. Someone wielding the might of even a pre-pubescent Erdtree meant someone with enough power to rival a god, and they were fresh out of those she was afraid. It was rare she missed her old power, but she found herself doing so tonight. At least, she assumed it was night.
Something about time had felt... wrong since she had met Luna. Before it had just been a feeling, but now, she had noticed even her days never seemed all that together. She no longer felt tired by nightfall, and there were times she seemed to slide so deeply into her thoughts that what felt like days rushed by, only to snap free and find mere seconds had passed. She knew her lover was special, she had learned the in depth details when she had visited that quiet place, but now she felt compelled to chase just what she really was.
She handed off the campfire tools to Blaidd and turned to see her knight pacing. She smiled to herself, knowing how much she must be worrying herself sick right now. She was chewing on her nail, and she swore she noticed new stress lines on her face. They were little creases above and below each eye in slightly diagonal angles. Funny how she had never seen those before.
She approached her love and began to notice the signs of panic. Her pacing was rapid, she was muttering to herself, and her eyes lept darting back and forth like when she was heavily thinking over something.
She stepped closer and raised a hand to touch her shoulder, and softly spoke. "Love?"
Her lover turned and faced her, eyes snapping open as she saw the panic heavily flinching in her eyes. Marika's own heart did quite a few motions of its own.
Six eyes. Six matching eyes that each hummed like little storms of ice backed by a blue star. Marika's cheeks felt a rush of red in them, both bewildered, and fascinated by what she was seeing.
"... What are you, really?"
"... " She started to open her mouth just as the flood of memories came rushing back. The life she had before coming here.
Why she had come here. The real reason she had begun to forget.
Then her left eye began to dim as the scar that He had left crystallized. The pain of it all came crashing back.
Marika embraced her, as her beloved began to wail. The ring that had sat on her finger since the start of their journey began to dim, and then...
It shattered.