Rosebush island

Roll blinks at where Kiko come from and started his miming. Wasn't he just in his pocket? Regardless, Roll responds to the tug and watches the bunny's moments, getting the gist of the problem. "Well, I don't have carrots at all, but I do have a few food rations from the Owl if you'd want one of those. If not, I guess we can try to see what some of those vendors have."

The vendors were disappointing. Most of them focused solely on drinks, and those who sold anything considered edible sold candy or other stuff that would be considered unhealthy, especially for bunnies.

Roll opens his backpack after inspecting what these vendors had and pulls out the ration pack that has some berries and a power bar. He opens the pack and shows Kiko the food, wondering if the bunny would even take the berries. He wasn't even sure these would be good for him either.

Kiko rejected the berries, almost tossing them on the ground. There were carrots promised, and carrots he shall have!

Roll furrows his brow, looking back into his bag. He pulls out the other three packets to see if any of them had carrots in them, hoping one did.

No such luck. All three packs contained the exact same identical field rations. Reluctantly the bunny took some berries and ate them, while looking a little grumpy at the same time.

More than a few people cast an eye to Roll as he was seen interacting with a bunny at a place like this island of all places. From this point one could take a path leading straight to the rosebush, or another leading back to the ferry station and to the Talons.

"Sorry little guy. As soon as we get back to Magix you'll be getting an extra large bag of carrots due to this." Roll answers, releasing a short sign knowing a grumpy bunny was not a good thing. He ate part of the power bar and looks back to the main road, "He's we had better travel to Rosebush island's center now, unless you want to head to the mainland to grabs carrots and come back."

The bunny rolled its eyes and pointed towards the "rosebush" sign with more than a little impatience, wanting to get out of this dreary barren and carrotless place as quickly as possibly and not having to return.

Once again Roll was confronted with the monotonous nature of this island. Just dark gray sand, a single meandering path slicing through sand dune after sand dune. With the sun past its afternoon peak the swelter relented, though only slightly.

Approaching the top of a sand duna, Roll can actually see grass. This is the first and only time Roll has seen anything remotely alive on this island. At the dead center of the grassy hilltop stood a single rosebush, bearing full and lush flowers. At the border of the grassy patch a pedestal with a story is placed, similar to those at the Talons and at the village.

Occasionally Roll would hear an ugly disharmonious whistle being carried by the wind.

"Well, I guess its not called Rosebush island for nothing." Roll mutters as he approaches the pedestal to see what twisted words were scribbled upon it. He takes out his phone to snap a picture of it just to have a record. The sound of the whistle from the talon sends a slight shiver down his spine.

[The pedestal]
"The tainted mages bight have killed the island. But this bush stands for the heroes that preserved life, while the world was at the brink of becoming like this entire island is. It reminds us that even when times are the bleakest, hope always remains."

The quote above is claimed to have been written by General Tao, the one heading the forces that cleansed the island of the scourge it once held. The general found an island, dead shy for this small patch of green. The bush blooms perpetually, even when no rain touches it for years. Attempts to remove the bush, or touch it with any metal tools have resulted in a loud piercing screech that deter any who try. Even the most advanced sound protection doesn't seem to help one bit against this. Unknown is what causes this. Stories say that this sole surviving rose bush is thanks to those who cleansed the island, a representation of the bleakness they have prevented from tarnishing the whole island.

Roll closes his eyes a moment to take all this information in. Maybe the Rosebush, wasn't really what it seemed. No way could it survive if it wasn't time locked like everything else. But the loud piercing screech with touching it with tool got his attention. He could try touching it with his sword, but that may leads to the noise. He could just try to touch it and see how that work. He slowly reaches his hand out to the bush, the mystery of the island had something to do with this.

As Roll touches the rosebush, it feels exactly as one would expect a rosebush to feel. To the touch nothing seemed odd about the thing, other than it being the sole surviving thing in this barren place and for some reason perpetually blooming.

Kiko emerged from Roll's sleeve and observed the rosebush. That must be the biggest most juiciest of flowers he had ever seen... Enthralled the bunny started to head for the flower, and would try to eat it if not stopped in time.

Seeing there had been no reaction and disregarding the sign of what would happen with metal, the young man slowly un-sheeths his weapon, slowly lowering the point towards the ground, but making sure the body of the weapon would at least hopefully make contact with a few of the leaves. Upon seeing Kiko head for the flower, Roll jams his sword into the ground and tries to grab the little creature in an attempt to stop him.

For the briefest of moments Roll would hear an earsplitting screech that ends as soon as the metal breaks contact with the bush. Though, that tinge, something feels familiar about the surge that caused the noise. Stranger even, no one else seems to react.

When the sword enters the soil, Roll would hear the ugly whisper and the metal harmonize. For a tenth of a second, everything sounded right. Something flashed in his mind, but too short to get a clear image.

Kiko was stopped from eating the flower and ceased his attempts upon noticing Roll's disapproval.

This reaction of noise and earsplitting screeching makes Roll freeze for moment, which prevents him from getting to Kiko. The young man just stands there in a slight daze, but shakes it off, but still feels his head hurting. Something had happened there, but he had no idea what it was. He just rubs his temples and looks at Kiko in confusion. "Did you hear that noise just now?"

Kiko looked confused and shook its head. Though that eerie whistle doesn't seem as eerie as it did before for some reason... nah, he must be imagining it. This though process resulted in a lot of different expressions on the bunny's face in rapid succession.

From the corner of his eyes Roll could see the ghost hunters approach the rosebush. They couldn't have been far away and they looked like they were in a rush, heading straight for the rosebush while gesturing wildly to their camera man and all but shoving some sensors in the cameraman's face. Probably footage they might use in their show.

Roll watches Kiko's expression change and begins to think, but the ghost hunters do catch his attention and he pivots on the spot to look at them. "Seems like whatever I did caught their attention little buddy." He wondered if he should just touch his sword or he should just deal with the ghost hunters and then pull his sword from the ground. There weren't any good options at this point.

The ghost hunters saw Roll and the sword sticking in the soul next to the rosebush and pointed towards their readers and him in alternating fashion. They looked at Roll, knowing something was up and it involved him, it just seemed they hadn't quite pieced together the how and what.

"If you've got something to say, please do so." Roll calls out to them, but points to the woman, "And she speaks." He points to the rude man from before, "And you shut your rude pie hole, any peep out of you or insults to her and we're done talking." The man had irked him before, so he might as well make sure he couldn't do anything.

The man glared indignantly, first at Roll, then to the cameraman who filmed Roll's tirade. Eventually he looked at her female partner and gestured her to get going already. Even without words he still manages to play the asshole.

"Sorry sir," the female ghost hunter apologized. "it's just remarkable that every time our devices give any readings, you're near," she said "suspicious you mean," the man interjected, but she completely ignored him and she went on: "If it wasn't for this thing, I would have dismissed it as my imagination, but the wind's sound changed for a tiny little bit," she said and pointed to her device. "it spiked briefly in a specific frequency, and then even background noise fell dead again."

Roll just shrugs, but the wind having changed to interest him, "What do you mean it changed, like it wasn't eerie anymore?" That was news to him since he had sort of missed it, but regardless he had to stay on task. H He glares at the man for a moment, glad he had opened his mouth. He felt bad for the woman since she seemed to be trying to find the truth as well to the island, while these other two bozos were there for other reasons, "I guess we're done miss, since your boss can't keep his mouth shut. I'm very sorry."