Style Quest: Requinest

Varick used the desk in front of his parent’s shop to fill out paperwork. Once this was all done and filed, hopefully, the Adventurer’s guild would let him rent out an empty store in one of the halls to use. He could finally get his store and wouldn’t need to bum off his parents. His guild wallet had more than enough money to pay for the down payment. It was just a matter of annoying bureaucracy right now.

 

“Hi, are you the one who makes all those high-quality costumes,” a coyote that Varick hadn’t noticed asked. It seem like everyone just wanted costumes from him anymore, but that was his fault for being good at it. “I need a costume of The Necromancer for a cosplay event.”

 

“No,” the Clydesdale shouted as he stood up from behind the desk. Varick didn’t make costumes of any of The Matriarch forces from the war. He didn’t like making costumes of villains and believed that no one should ever dress up as them. “I won’t make that costume!”

 

“Come on, man, I’ll pay you triple your regular rate,” the coyote offered as he pulled out a large bag of coins. “I need it for a Villians Ball on Eventide.” 

 

“Leave this store and never come back,” Varick declared as blue and purple fire lit up the horse’s mane and tail. The coyote looked like he would continue his plea when balls of flame whirled to life in the mahogany horse’s hands. “Run!” Not needing another prompting, the coyote ran out of the store while Varick stomped out the backdoor past his parents and sister, who had come to the front of the store to see what was happening. 

 

“I’ll go get him,” the Clydesdale’s mom told the others as she followed her son out the backdoor. Blue and purple flames lit up the sky as Varick angrily fired spells into the sky.

 

“Why is Varick so anger at that coyote’s request,” Kaytlyn asked her father as the fox followed him to set an upended chair back on its feet. The young fennec had never seen her brother in the grips of rage like this before. She was a little scared, if she was being honest.

 

“To explain that, I’ll have to tell you the tragedy of Requinest,” her father explained as he took the chair previously occupied by Varick. “We were going to wait till you were older, but it’s probably a good idea in light of today’s events to tell you what happened in the final days of our home.” 

 

Requinest was a planet full of many different herbivore races. Across the world, there were different biomes where other species lived. Clydesdales mostly lived on an island in the northern seas that was a little isolated. We stuck to ourselves for centuries until the first explorers found our island. From then on, Clydesdales spread through the planet, becoming part of the global community. 

 

Mostly, there were no major wars or conflicts, as no one desired to rule over the others. While a small portion of the population had magical powers, we were considered a low-magic world. Magitech was unheard of, which is why we sew everything by hand, as it is tradition for us. The Adventurer’s Guild hadn’t yet charted our world, so we didn’t know anyone was beyond our atmosphere. 

 

Varick was three years old when the black ships filled our skies. Everyone gathered outside to see them. No one had ever seen anything like them before. The flagship landed outside our global capital city, Tepidellis. The Necromancer, followed closely by his large badger bodyguard, greeted a cadre of our world leaders under the guise of peace. It was all a lie, though with a single handshake, that one-legged coyote drained the life out of every one of our representatives. His magitech right leg glowed with foul energy as our former leaders rose from the ground as the first of his undead disciples.

 

What followed was a planetary siege that lasted months. Our armies tried to fight back against the waves of the dead, but we didn’t stand a chance without the proper magic. There was a rumor that The Necromancer was abducting children for use in his foul experiments as their souls were “purer.” When the bunker that sheltered us came under attack, we lost track of Varick, and the enemy took him directly to their foul general.

 

“His breath smelled of death and decay as he licked his lips when he saw me,” Varick cut in, still visibly upset, but this was his story. After a deep breath, Clydesdale pulled up a chair and continued the story.

 

The Necromancer had converted Tepidellis into one massive laboratory for his wretched experiments. I was taken directly to the monster himself in the very heart of the facility. Blood, guts, and all kinds of unmentionable substances were seared all over the floor and walls. I was terrified before he picked me up and embedded one of his long black thumbnails into my chest. He must’ve found whatever he was looking for in me because the lich then pulled a syringe full of a green glowing liquid that he injected into me. I passed out and then woke up in the middle of a foul runic circle made of the pieces of those that the evil coyote didn’t choose.

 

Magic swirled around me as The Necromancer began his foul ritual. My body started to feel weird as the foul-smelling magic began to flow into me. I don’t know what would’ve happened to me if the samurai mech hadn’t busted through the wall at that moment. Izebel ejected from the mech’s cockpit and right into the coyote lich. Her mech scared me, but it picked me up and put me inside myself as Izebel fought The Necromancer. Once the tiefling’s mech signaled no other captives besides me, she disabled the coyote’s magitech leg with a kunai and then leaped back into the cockpit. I had never seen a tiefling before, and she scared me a bit but less than the alternative. Izebel somehow managed to pilot her mech out of there with me clinging tightly to her in the cockpit. After getting me to one of her medics, the tiefling ninja found Mom and Dad and reunited us.

 

The planet was declared unsavable as the foul influence dug itself too deep into it. All the water turned to poison, and plants died on the corrupted earth. All Izebel could do was lead an evacuation mission to save as many as she could. After that, Requinest became a planet solely inhabited by the undead. Drakethorpe took us in and gave us a new home.

 

“Is that why you like Izebel so much,” Kaytlyn asked as Varick finished the story. “Does she remember that she saved you? Is this why you blew up at that coyote earlier?”

 

“I tried to ask Izebel about it several times, but she doesn’t remember too many specifics,” Varick answered solemnly with his head down. “It was the single most horrific thing that happened to me, but for her, it was just another battle for Izebel to fight. As for that coyote, it’s terrible when people start to worship monsters while conveniently forgetting what they did.” With a great breath in, the Clydesdale stood and turned towards the door. “When we forget what monsters did, they are doomed to be reborn.”