Capítulo 6: (Dance and Die in Endless Fire)
Hat Kid walks and crawls through the overgrowth toward the surface. She's getting tired of everything that tries to kill her without hesitation. Though it's no use complaining about it, because; what unknown creature isn't trying to kill her, it isn't anything new to her. Why do most non sentient and even highly sentient creatures pretty much want her dead at one point or another? Not even including Hallownest. She emerges from below crawling out of the small underground entrance. She finds herself full of dust and dirt once again. "I would like to think that talking to myself helps my sanity but the voices in my head say different."
Hat Kid finds herself in the familiar cliffs in which she first set foot in Hallownest, with the wind still howling. She journeys through a small cavern and finds a reddish stone. Further inspecting it, she finds a small charm similar in size to the great slash one. "This one looks kind of evil... cool." She pins it to her hat and continues scaling the cliffs.
She finds a cave emerging from the wall and creeps inside. "Another wood bench like the one Sheo had." She fits so she sits; and wags her ponytail because she physically can do that; out of a sense of sanctuary and safety. Hat Kid gets up after a minute or so and continues a very short length forwards to enter a dimly lit room. A figure sits on the floor, it looks like the same species as Sheo.
The creature speaks, "Your presence is... off, you seem of magic, but not the kind used in these lands... who are you?"
"I'm Hat Kid and I come in peace."
"Hat Kid, I see you bear the mark of the great slash on your hat, I can also grant you a powerful fighting move, care to know?"
"Yes please, um..."
"It's Mato, let's begin."
After some practice and focus of not getting dizzy too quick, Hat Kid learns the cyclone slash. "Well done Hat Kid, like the great slash; overuse will drain your kind, please use with caution." Mato hands Hat Kid a cyclone slash charm icon to which she pins to her hat without hesitation. "Thanks Mato, I've got to keep moving though so thank you for your efforts." With that, Hat Kid leaves with a wave to Mato. Mato's face expresses a bit of a sad look as she leaves his cave home on the cliffs.
Hat Kid climbs to the top of the howling cliffs and is able to spot her spaceship in the sky. "I have no idea how I'm going to get back up there, I still haven't found any timepieces, I feel like I've done nothing but get beat up." She spots the red eerie tents she saw before she entered Dirtmouth earlier. "Either I now feel like I can defend myself or I have nothing left to lose, but I think I should see what's going on in the red tents for the sake of finding what it's all about."
Hat Kid keeps scaling down the cliffs to reach the tents. Some long neck bugs greet her with a "welcome." She enters the main tent to find a bug playing music. "Go see master," it says. Hat Kid without a word continues down the hallway. She enters a large dimly lit room and then bright red lights start to circle her with the music intensifying. Hat Kid pulls her hats brim over her eyes a little to shadow the blinding light.
A new bug poofs out of red mist. "Casæh gosumën," the bug greets... apparently.
"Uhg, why is it that mostly everyone's first words are untranslatable," Hat Kids whispers; unfazed at what's happening due to everything else she's been through.
The bug speaks in a raspy voice. "I am Grimm and you are a child, why are you here... have you come to join the troupe?"
Hat Kid squints her eyes to think about Grimm's vampiric appearance; when her medium sized brain clicks.
This is the guy who stole her timepiece and slashed her eye. She decides it's best to keep him calm for now.
"Well, child, why are you hereeee... You! You can understand me now, you ordered your flying home to assault me earlier."
Hat Kid realizes that this was a terrible idea and turns around diving for the exit. Some spikes in the ceiling slam down and Hat Kid hits her head mid dive, falling face first on the ground. She gets up full of fear as she cowers around the edge of the room. "You must listen to me child, we have something in common. We love... to dance!" Hat Kid is so confused right now; but yes, she loves to dance, smugly as you know. Hat Kid decides it's better to dance with confusion then fight for her life. "Ok then, let's dance." She says confused and scared. Grimm snaps his fingers and the room lights up to reveal an audience full of troupe bugs.
Grimm bows respectfully to Hat Kid. She takes this opportunity to pull up her weapon and slash Grimm's leg. He immediately lets out his paralyzing "Screeeeeeeeech!!" Grimm teleports away in a red mist. Hat Kid is now filled with the most regret she's had since she got here, realizing she's going to die. Grimm appears in the middle of the room and his body blows up like a pufferfish, giving way for balls of fire to spew out all over the room. Hat Kid starts running around the room carelessly trying to dodge the fire. She dives through some until she miss calculates and her sleeve catches fire.
Grimm teleports away once again while Hat Kid desperately tries to put the fire out on her sleeve by shaking, patting, and blowing on it. The fire is dispersed and Hat Kid's sleeve is charred up. Grimm appears at a distance from her and jabs his wings into the ground. They sprout around the arena at top speed; which barely misses Hat Kid's head and pierce's a hole in her hat, carrying it into the air.
Hat Kid focuses her mind for more onslaught as she moves around. Grimm appears from the air with a wing dive attack. Hat Kid dash cloaks out of the way at high speed, but as Grimm lands he dashes at her right away. She jumps over his head and releases the cyclone slash; spinning, she cuts Grimm in the back and he teleports away screeching.
Hat Kid picks up and puts her ripped hat back on her head. Her eyes with disheartened sorrow.
Grimm poofs in front of Hat Kid. "Wasn't that a glorious dance?"
She looks at him with a bit of anger. "Look, I don't care that you tried to kill me, and questioning things only leads me to more confusion, so all I'm going to ask is why did you take my timepiece and what did you do with it?"
"You're a very straightforward child aren't you?"
Hat Kid stares at Grimm annoyed, waiting for an answer.
"Fine, I took it because it was shiny."
"You took it because it was shiny!" She yells, placing her hands on her head.
"I'm a moth, can you blame me?"
"And here I thought you were intelligent."
"Old instincts I suppose."
"So what happened to it gRiMm?"
"Don't you get sassy with me, child... I wanted the light inside so I smashed it and then it disappeared."
Hat Kid curls up on the floor and pulls her hat over her face and gives off mildly muffled screams.
"Screeeeeeeeech!" Grimm screams.
"Ahhhh! Why did you scream, Grimm!?"
"You screamed that's why."
"My head hurts from so much screaming, let me give you a little rundown of how broken time rifts work, ok?" Grimm stares in silence. "I'm going to take that as cooperation."
"When a timepiece breaks, it may restore itself to seconds before it broke, or it may create a rift in time and depending on how it broke. It may stay where it was or travel throughout time and space to the past. The present is what we are in right now and that is the farthest time there is. You can't go to the FuTuRe because it does not exist yet. So let's just assume the timepiece/rift went into the past and forget about it; you get all that Grimm?"
"Fonel ka tuuu...?"
"Good, well I'm out. Actually... you seem smart, what kind of power supply do you guys have in Hallownest?"
"Other than physical fireflies... there are crystals in the peaks, but they carry a dangerous energy and are unstable."
"I've faced worse than some exploding crystals." She starts heading for the exit.
"Very well, one last question from me... are you lonely travelling Hallownest?"
Hat Kid stops in her tracks as she exists and turns back at Grimm. "Uh... I mean... I have a Roombi, but if I took them with me; they would probably be torn to pieces."
Grimm snaps his fingers once more and a small creature appears floating in the air. It flies towards Hat Kid and rubs its head on her shoulder. "Awww!" Her eyes light up as she hugs it tightly.
"This is my child and I need you to collect flames from wherever you may see them. My servant Brumm has already collected some flame and the child has already grown even more from our dance. I need you to collect the final amount for me."
"Sure sure, whatever you say." Hat Kid says running out the tent with Grimm's kid, completely not listening.
Hat Kid sits on the bench outside while Grimm's kid relaxes inside of her hat, sticking his head out of the hole Grimm made. "I think you need a name, soooo..." She thinks long and hard with her eyes closed and arms crossed. "No, that's too edgy... oh definitely not that... hehe, the conductor would like that one, but no not that either." She opens her eyes and snaps her fingers. "Your new name to me is... Snappy. Hope you understand what I'm saying." She gets up and starts heading down the well and toward the direction of the glowing cliff she saw above. "You good up there, Snappy."
"Scyaaaa." Snappy responds.
"Aww you're just too cute... but not cuter than me of course." The 2 make their way through the forgotten crossroads while Hat Kid slashes up husks and Snappy watches from the safety of her hat. They come to the area where Hat Kid and Tiso killed the False Knight. "This room is a lot more empty and lonely than I remember." She spots a purple light down at the end of the room and walks towards it. Hat Kid enters a small cave room to find a snail standing in place, staring.
"MadÉ ma tuu hoouh." The snail says.
"And who are you mr. creepy?" Hat Kid asks.
"Ho ho ho hoo, I'm just a simple snail shaman and I have a gift for you. I hope it works for someone like you." The snail waves his staff in the air and the room shakes a bit. A white spirit appears in between the girl and snail. "I've already had my soul stolen once before and it wasn't that bad so eh, what the peck." She jumps into it and falls to her knees. Shaking; she holds herself as she slowly collapses to the floor from the internal pain while the spirits slam into her body...
Hat Kid awakens at a bench with her hat on the floor and Snappy inside watching her. She gives a reliving smile at Snappy. "I have no idea what happened but it sure hurt." She puts her hat back on as Snappy clings to the inside. "Try not to tear it even more, Snappy, alright?"
"Scyaaaa."
"Glad we understand each other... I guess you are pretty much a baby so it makes sense you aren't translatable." Hat Kid walks over to a skinny machine and notices a hole. Being the smart time traveler she is, she takes out a geo and puts it into the machine. She hears the geo rattle inside and puts more in until it retracts into the ground and a bell stand pops out. She stares at the long, dim, and empty tunnel in front of her. "Don't take me into the twilight dimension please." She says with annoyance and fear. Hat Kid hits the bell hard with her nail. A large rumble is heard from the tunnel and a figure slowly comes into view from the dim lights. A large stag pulls up to the road and makes some grunts. Hat Kid is hiding behind the bench with a surprised look at the stag.
"You rung, it's been so long since I heard a station bell ring."
"Oh, you are a mode of transportation?"
"Yes, it is my job till I die; which won't be very long, I am quite old and the last of my kind."
"That's so sad, I can't imagine being the only time traveler. All the weight of a team effort job; It must be a lot of pressure on you."
"Not much of a job left to do with so many souls lost in this kingdom. I can take you many places in this kingdom whenever you want since you seem to be my only passenger."
"Can you take me to the surface?"
"I believe so, whenever you wish it; I'll be waiting here, or if you find more station bells I can meet you wherever you ring them."
"Thank you, I will be back for your services later Mr. stag." Hat Kid takes off back towards the mines to find a substitute power source for her time watch.
Status de energia semanal
-- Ranking de
Poder 
-- Pedra de
Poder