The Noble Queen-A Shadow Slave Fanfic

For the next couple of hours, Noble lived each moment on edge.

Part of her brain wanted to latch on to the feeling that the illusion had given her, but deep down, Noble knew that giving in to the emotions would be detrimental. She was lucky to return once. Even if Syrce kept her friend's physical body from departing, the mind might not be so lucky.

So, Noble focused instead on the people in the caravan and making sure they didn't wander off.

That was not to say that she was silent. Ignoring her hostess would be rude, and possibly a different kind of dangerous if Orrin was to be believed.

The only good thing about Syrce thinking that her new best friend had lost her wits was that the Saint was quick to explain every little thing. The grey-eyed woman might have been this accommodating for everyone, but Noble did not think this was true. 

"If you take the bark from the purple and gold ones, you can distill it down and make a very sweet tea," Syrce played the part of a doting aunt. "I should make you some, Sweet Bel. Maybe your memory will improve. Wouldn't you like that?" 

"Tea sounds nice, but I am not thirsty just now." Noble smiled politely. 

"When we stop, then, I will have some made immediately." Syrce snapped her fingers. 

Taking the cue, Orrin hopped down from the carriage, presumably to tell someone about the order for tea. 

Letting the reins rest in her lap, the Saint reached out and plucked a plum from a chartruse and eggplant-speckled fruit tree. 

"And this," the lady nodded, "will help your stomach when you have overeaten. Give it a try! You look a little sick." 

Noble looked at the green plum with a bit of trepidation. "Are you sure it's safe to eat from the Wonder Woods?" 

"Of course! When I was young, some of the best produce came from this very grove. Please, try it!" Syrce handed over the plum to her companion. 

But before Noble could firmly grasp the green delicacy, the fruit was taken from her palm by an impossibly long arm. Wrapped in pink flesh, the plum drifted over the back of one of the two beasts in front of her before being tossed in its mouth. 

It grunted, sending a spray of juice as it smacked and chewed. 

"I guess Delia likes the fruit also," Syrce smiled. "You may not take things from my friend, Delia!" 

It seemed the second beast was also upset by the theft, but not for the same reason. He wanted a piece of the action, too. His pink, fleshy arm, which Noble now recognized as a trunk, flew through the air and took hold of the other creature's ear.

Delia squealed, retaliating with the brute force of her shoulder. The massive animals tussled, causing the carriage to lurch. The bench under Noble brushed against her, and the Master hissed in pain. 

"Be nice, both of you! You are hurting our guest. There is plenty to go around!" 

Seeing the trouble, one of the travelers on foot hurried up to investigate. A moment later, he returned with an entire basketful of the green fruit for the two ladies to enjoy. 

Syrce placed one in the male's trunk to settle him. "There's a good boy. If you both behave, there is more where that came from."

"Do they understand you?" Noble noticed how the pair responded to her voice. 

Noble Beasts were unlikely to be treated like chattel, but these creatures also didn't seem stupid. 

"I think they speak the language of food," the Saint said after a moment. "Imagination's creatures were wild once, but over the years, we have tamed most of them. Now that she is gone, they have no other master to serve." 

"Imagination....you mean like the deity?" Noble's eyes opened wide. 

"Yes! Did you know her?" Syrce smiled. 

The pieces began to fit together. Human imagination wasn't the limit around here. The Daemon of Imagination was. 

Or at least used to be. Syrce was referring to the Divine being in the past tense. 

'A Nightmare that takes place after the gods are dead?' 

It was rare but not impossible. That brought up many questions. But Noble would not ponder them while she was still in this perilous part of the woods. 

"I did not know her," Noble answered. "Did you?" 

"Imagination was a recluse. I don't think even my parents saw her before the..." Syrce's voice trailed off. "As I said, she spent most of her time alone. The most we got to witness was her fanciful inventions, like those two right there. Quite the pair, aren't they?" 

'Creatures made by Imagination?' Noble decided to take a closer look. 

They weren't mundane beasts, nor would the professor call them Noble creatures like Kosi had been. 

They had an eerie quality about them that could not be defined. They possessed a mechanical property in addition to the flesh and bone, as if being real and fantasy at the same time.

Each of the creature's four legs was round and close to a meter in diameter. Their bulky frames were covered in rosy spots and strong enough to knock over trees just by brushing against them.

That was the crashing that Noble had witnessed when they turned off the path to examine her unorthodox appearance. Thankfully, now that they were back on the trodden road, the destruction to the foliage was minimal.

Their most notable features, though, were their enormously wide ears and the trunk that worked as both a hand and a nose.

'They…they look like…elephants?'

Of course, the large mammals had been extinct in the Waking World long before Noble was born, but the studious professor had seen pictures of the pachyderms.

'Only the ones in the pictures are always grey or brown.'

"What do you call them?"

Syrce gave her a strange look. "We call them by their names."

"I mean as a whole. What are they?"

The professor could feel a research paper ready to be written. The magnificent inventions made by the Daemon of Imagination's own hands! Noble's fingers flexed as she imagined writing the names of the creatures for the first time for the people of the Waking World to read. The magnificent name which was…

"The Pink Ones."

Child of Promise blinked. "What?"

Syrce pursed her lips. "We call them the Pink Ones. Each of Imagination's creations is a different color, so we just refer to them by their hue."

The professor's jaw dropped.

"But…surely Imagination had names for them!"

"I'm sure she did, but didn't you hear she kept to herself? What did you expect humans to do? Knock on the door of a deity and ask her? You are very funny, dear Bel!" Syrce laughed until she felt a tear drop from her eye.

My, was her best friend amusing!

For her part, Noble was lamenting the loss. Names held special value. Not having one was like losing a priceless treasure.

'Oh well, it will still be an interesting paper,' Noble comforted herself.

She took another look at the lumbering creatures and smiled softly.

'The Pink Ones, hm? And all the creatures are different colors. That is poetic in its own way. I wonder what the purple ones look like…'

Noble's smile faded.

'Oh no!'