More Zipper Girl to sink your teeth into
GARDEN GROVE
MEANWHILE WITH ZIZI AND MAUDZ, Lady Renza is walking outside the gate
“Lady Renza!” Maudz calls out to her, Lady Renza waits for them to approuch
“Where is Ezeria?”
Zizi starts to explain and Lady Renza goes wide eyed
COLLECTOR’S QUARTERS
Lady Renza kicks in the door to the Collector’s building, Zach is washing the floor with another boy, she stalks past them to go pester the older Collectors
Zach follows her and listens in behind the door
“Ezeria is missing! We have to go find her!” Lady Renza is yelling at a Collector
“All the girls are tired from their first day of Collecting. Even if we woke up some of the older girls it wouldn’t be safe right now. You know as well as anyone the many legged…what do the Decoder’s call them?”
“Centipede.”
“Those things come out at night! Should we kill more girls to save a single one? Especially one who is so rash and impulsive?”
Lady Renza slams the older Collector against the wall
“I lost our mother…I will not lose her as well.”
“Then you go rescue her! I will not put any girls in needless danger.”
Lady Renza storms out of the room and nearly knocks Zach over with the door and the other boy has to move out of her way for fear of being kicked
Zach looks at his bucket and rag and then at the stairs, he walks up them to Ezeria’s room, he lays in her bed for a moment
GARDEN GROVE GATE
Lady Renza is about to leave when Zach comes running up to her “What are you dong?”
Zach adjusts sachel on his side and looks up at her
“Oh no! You’re not coming with me! Go back and clean something with the other boys.” Lady Renza tries to shoo him, but Zach won’t go
“You’re weak. You’ll only slow me down! And then who will rescuse Ezeria?”
Zach takes her hand and places it over his heart
“Boy, what do you have in your sachel?”
Zach opens it and shows Renza some guaze and medicine
“I see. Well, since you’re obviously more pragmatic than boys tend to be then I suppose you can come. But stay close by! I’d hate to have to rescue you too.”
Zach smiles and follows Renza out of Garden Grove
WASTELAND
MEANWHILE LILLIAN AND EZERIA…ARE LOST
“Are you sure you know where you’re going?” Lillian looks around
“You know, now that I think about it…” Ezeria falls over
Lillian sits down “Are you tired, Ezeria?”
“Maybe.”
“I shall find shelter for us then.”
Ezeria looks up as Lillian rises “Hey, Lillian. I’ve been wondering about that queen person you mentioned earlier. What happened to her?”
Lillian looks taken aback “Well…she…”
Suddenly a centipede monster attacks, Ezeria jumps up to run, but Lillian draws her sword and slays it
Ezeria is amazed “Wow…that was amazing!”
“Really? I was just doing my duty as a knight.”
“Do you think you can teach me how to do that?”
“I don’t know. You are rather small. I don’t think you could even lift my sword!”
“I bet I could!”
Lillian chuckles and drops her sword on the ground “You can try if you want to.”
Ezeria grabs the handle and barely manages to get it off the ground, meanwhile Lillian is looking over the next hill
“How do you swing this thing around like paper?! It weighs a ton!”
“Not to be disrespectful, but I am stronger than you. Also I see a cavern nearby. Perhaps that can provide shelter for the night.” Lillian picks up her sword and sheaths it, she starts to lead the way to the cavern
CAVERN
Lillian starts up a fire from delapitated homes within and Ezeria digs through the piles of junk
“Hey Lillian! Look at all this neat stuff I found!” Ezeria dumps various trinkets near the fire “I don’t think anyone has been down here for ages!”
“It is tucked away out of sight. It’d make for a strategic hiding spot.”
“I’m going to have to sew another bag if I’m going to take everything home!”
“We can always come back here after I return you to your queendom.”
“Yeah. Be prepared to get swamped with Decoders when we find Garden Grove.” Ezeria plays with a trinket
“Decoders?”
“They’re the women who study the things Collector’s like me bring them. Heh, I bet I’ll be the first Collector to ever bring a giant person to Garden Grove. Renza’s going to be so amazed and I bet Zach…” Ezeria goes from excited to sad
Lillian looks concerned “Who is Zach?”
“He’s…a really special friend.”
The fire flickers
“I bet Zach’s worried sick about me.”
“Wouldn’t your sister be too?”
“I don’t know. I don’t think Renza likes me very much. She always yells at me and lectures me.”
“Perhaps she just wants you to be careful. You did wind up in a hole with a monster. Then attacked by one again.”
“Yeah, but I met you. That’s been good.”
Lillian smiles “I’m glad you think so.”
“I bet Zach will like you when you meet him.”
“I’m sure he’s charming.”
“I think he is. Did you have anyone like that, Lillian? Back with your old queen?”
Lillian has a far off look “Actually…my queen was…a special friend. A very dear and special friend.”
“Did you kiss her and stuff?”
“I-yes. We did. She was so lovely…”
“What happened to her?”
“She-she became very sick. No one knew what was wrong with her and there was no cure for it.”
“I’m sorry.”
“It’s in the past. Besides I wasn’t able to save her from it.”
Ezeria continues digging through her junk pile
“I’ll go keep watch for now. Stay close to the fire.” Lillian stands and walks off
WASTELAND
Lady Renza crouches by where Ezeria and the monster were buried
“Of course she’s not here. Ezeria has to make things difficult for me. You being a prime example.” She glares at Zach who’s looking at Lillian’s foot prints
“Hurm…another set of footprints. Very large ones at that.”
They march up the hill Lillian and Ezeria marched up
“If we’re lucky this trail will lead us straight to Ezeria…and whoever is with her.”
Zach smiles down at Ezeria’s footprint before they start walking again
The sun starts rising
CAVERN
Ezeria is curled up asleep against Lillian’s leg, she awakens and gets up, she starts walking toward an unexplored part of the cave
As she digs through some stuff she finds the hand of a Fallen Beauty and some petals/leaves
Lillian wakes up and reaches out for Ezeria, she opens her eye in horror “Ezeria? Ezeria?! Where are you?!”
“Good morning!” Ezeria pops up behind her
“Ack! Ezeria, don’t scare me like that.”
“I wasn’t that far away. I found something interesting.” Ezeria digs in her pocket and shows her the petals/leaves “What are these?”
Lillian picks them up and examines them “Well…I think they’re flowers. My mother told me stories about how people used plants before the Great War.”
“Flowers? Can you eat them?”
“Uh, I guess so. They’re supposed to be gifts though. People gave each other flowers so much that they made jewelry and pictures of them.”
“So they’re plants? The plants I’ve seen are the grains, vegetables, and fruits grown in the Green House.”
“You know, now that you mention it…I’ve never seen flowers before either. Perhaps we could find them.”
“Then we’ll bring them to Garden Grove!”
“Where did you find these?”
“Follow me.”
They gather their things and Lillian follows Ezeria
What lays in wait for our heroines? Stay tuned for when I write more!