Inspired by this image and set in the world of the creator of said image,  LandingZone
http://www.furaffinity.net/view/27843517/

Please note this story is not canon.

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Nau and the corrupted farmers

The traveler stifled another coughing fit, Nau’s assurances would only do so much to ease his tension which brought about the childhood blight that was the hay cough. Despite his nerves his step was a brisk saunter like he had all the business in the world to tread where he went down the simple path beyond the woods that’d been his more recent home.

‘You’ve studied them for a full week and never seen a hint of security, by now you know what to expect!’ But his inner monologue didn’t find him reassured, his mind always expected treachery and surprises. His hand gripped tightly onto the hollow walking cane that was his only implement should he need to defend himself and he much doubted it’d suffice if the need came. He felt naked in his bougie outfit and found little assurance in the ability of his silken vestment and linen cap to hinder any attacker’s blow. Still he stepped into the sunshine with the realization his apparent helplessness was a shield in its own right as a medium of bewilderment for his wits to act play upon.

Now visible to all that’d cast an eye to the strutting feline Nau hooked the corners of his mouth into a cheery smile and acted for his life. Spotless leather shoes clopped down the rough path and Nau looked about him as he walked, casting his eyes about in fleeting, sightseeing glances at everything from the roiling, cultivated hills with their turned earth, the demarking fence posts and the two distant structures which both troubled Nau for contrasting reasons.

The first building was closer and the definition of innocuous for any farming community. A white-plastered, peak roofed barn that fit perfectly in Nau’s memories of the place. He clearly recalled as a matter of fact the height to the loft from his childhood misadventures of leaping from there with his sister. The chagrin of his mother and father at this had been immense and was about the only part of them the passage of time had not reduced to a mist of haze and uncertainty. Briefly he considered that the reason he remembered these parts of them so vividly was because of the hay cough he had contracted not heeding their warnings and had become a permanent reminder. Still he found smiling easier considering his youthful folly had not hindered him from becoming an agent of renowned skill in the Empire’s service.

The second building was an obvious newcomer and its architecture was a marring eyesore of juxtaposition on the otherwise idyllic agrarian landscape. It was a tower of an unknown material, though clearly the work of the empire’s cultist enemies. The main body was in the shape of an oval spike or nail, protruding from beyond the hill and into the sky. From this a pair of lean, organic wings or fins encircled this central column from the tetrapodean base, stopping abruptly not hallway up the weakly ovoid pillar’s full length. It was a symbol of the difference to the place Nau had escaped from and the object of his greatest fascination in the line of his duties.

Nau’s eyes flicked away from the buildings and out into the fields where the new inhabitants tended the brown, fertile soil. From the distance he was they were but vague, blue shapes following the furrows plowed that very morning. Suppressing a nervous cough he pretended to mistake the cultists for nothing of importance and started to whistle as he walked down the path that’d eventually lead him up to his childhood’s barn. Finally the workers had noticed him now he’d practically forced them to and after a moment of perplexed gawking one stepped out of line and strode over to intercept him.

This was the one his attention was on as Nau continued walking, feigning ignorance of the representative’s approach but in truth his examination had already begun. From the periphery of his vision he gaged the creature’s trajectory changing as he subtly slowed to look some more into the empty fields on his other side and, taking out a notebook and a ballpoint pen to make a note;

‘Predicts my movements. Conscious or subconscious?’

As the cultist approached he considered making detailed note of the former-person’s appearance and other defining features but settled for only the details that stood out. He had figured it’d go beyond mentioning, considering the Cult’s frequent attempts to seduce outsiders, that a female would be sent to meet him. Similarly he reasoned that he’d hardly have to mention effects the cult’s corruption had had in producing the proportions she sported. Naked as she (and indeed all observed cultists) was he could easily tell she were well wider than he was, her torso resting upon a plush cushion of hip and derriere that was well twice his shoulder width despite her only being another half his own height. Similarly her breasts were blooming like water melon sized buds waiting to burst and dawdled weightily with each long stride that’d allow her to intercept him with such expedience.

‘Anticipated subject morphology.’

After which he turned to the approaching Cultist and made himself seem surprised and stop to stare with a gawking fascination befitting the naïve traveler he’d disguised himself as. Nau then, despite himself for fear of the creature, leaned up to the fence that separated them and waved like he thought a child would and called out;

‘Oh hello there!’

It made no response and while he waited the appropriate time to seem surprised and dismayed of the downturned greeting he observed that she indeed metered out well to his expectations of her height and the proportionality of her body. Still he made observation of the dyed patterns of floral and solar motifs and with her locks of faded crimson hair he had to make another scribble in the notebook.

‘Locals indoctrinated.’

What did surprise him however was still the physique on display. While extensive muscular development was not rare what was to the degree it had developed. The engorged muscles seemed to pull the skin tight over each rounded sphere such that the balling shoulders to the arms rippled with barely contained might and her body curved and rose and fell like a carnal landscape. As he looked she raised a leg that seemed packed with enough brawn and sinew to equate to his own entire bodyweight and with a single bound she had cleared the petty obstacle he’d leaned up against.

She turned to block his path, straddling it with goliathan legs on either side and finally turned to meet his gaze and made Nau suppress another nervous cough. Her gaze was callous and focused and Nau found himself unable to dwell too long. What unnerved him the most however wasn’t the physical power she held nor the cattle-plow slung casually over her shoulder that appeared as her implement of choice. What held his fear was the closed vertical slit of the third eye that designated her as a node cultist. When Nau spoke the fear was genuine.

‘I-I was just pass-‘

‘You’re not allowed here Unjoined. You’d best leave.’ Her voice was raspy and as cold as her gaze and had the quality of tired or unused vocal cords. It struck Nau he’d not heard a peep from the workers in the field and briefly he remembered it had been speculated cult members, once absorbed communicated by telepathy. Considering this support of their theory Nau temporarily forgot his nerves and when he realized he carried the rehearsed act forwards before his inhibitions could simmer to the surface again.

‘But you don’t even know who I am.’

A blankness spread over the Node Cultist’s face, she’d clearly expected the fear she’d seen in him and when it was not forthcoming, coupled with his near childish tone had clearly surprised her. Nau wished he could smirk as he could practically see the gears in her head come to an abrupt halt.

‘It doesn’t’-‘ she began but stopped the moment Nau pressed her massive hand with both of his and shook it with such vigor that even the shoulder and breast it was attached to quivered.

‘I’m Nemo.’ Nau informed her. ‘Philanthropist pedestrian and Natural explorer. I’m new in these parts, having recently come by from Karnosea to see the world on my grand tour!’ With joy he saw the cultist look upon him with the kind of confused revulsion one might expect from a filthy yet overly friendly house pet. ‘So it begins.’ He considered before proceeding to bowl over any chance she might have to regain composure and remember what she was meant to do. He decided to start with simple lead-in questions.

‘I’ve gone down this path all the way from Sharur, do you know of it?’
The revulsion faded slowly to be replaced by surprise at the sudden question that was over even before she had had the chance to stammer a reply. ‘Wha…no, I.’

‘Awful place, Sharur, too sandy, rough and gets in everywhere.’ That it was a lie didn’t bother Nau in the slightest. He’d started lying young and become so good at it he’d gotten himself his new name and identity from the Imperials. Then when they’d found out, they had awarded him this way to repay the thievery and make the lie of his identity true. The thought of what might happen to him here should he be found out had been pushed so far at the back of his head he had practically forgotten it himself.

He chuckled, humored without a joke having to be uttered which confused her all the more. ‘I much prefer this place. It is very nice I must say! What do you call it?’

‘W…’ then the cultist’s mind clicked with remembrance to the question and the voided mind blurted out the answer before she’d been able to hinder it. ‘Farfallow.’
This time Nau allowed the smile to creep to the surface, being so bewildered he knew he could pose any kind of question and she’d answer as truthfully so long he was fast about it. To this end he sped up his speech, hiding his efforts behind a rising pitch of enthusiasm that’d grab her attention.

‘That’s a nice name! What is it that you do here?’

‘Farm….’

Unsatisfied Nau surged ahead again into the mental breech, refilling the dazzled blankness with more questions to answer. ‘What do you farm?’

‘Don’t….know….’

Nau weighed the Imperial reward for knowing whether the plants could be corruption vectors to the risk of asking too obvious a question to reveal a secret. In a moment he considered his safety to be paramount and to throw her off he raised his hand and pointed towards the two buildings. He then asked with a twinge of irritability to goad the subconscious mind;

‘What’s that building for?’

She briskly turned, presenting a profile that was both inviting and threatening by its combined muscular might and feminine curvature. As Nau had hoped he’d been vague enough that her mind selected the building he desired as the one that’d supply the most interesting answer.

‘It makes rain when needed, I’ve planned a shower later today when the seed’s in-’

She wavered and Nau, reading her micro expressions, saw the telltale sign of suspicion in a slight twitch to the corner of her lip and narrowing of the eye. When he then course corrected he fell back on his vagueness and the annoyed tone to snag her back to the trance-state.

‘No not that one, the other one!’ She turned fully to look at the building she thought Nau had actually meant and gave a reply he didn’t listen to while Nau allowed himself a sigh of relief. He let her drone on for a moment as he considered which subject to continue the inquiry and how he’d weave them into his line of questioning. Settling on the matter of the imported workforce’s origin he made formulated an unassuming lead-in question.

‘Oh that’s lovely! But if I may ask, where are you from?’ The node cultist continued casually, having apparently failed to recall her initial hostility and she was more relaxed then she’d ever been.

‘Local born, lived here with my husband Kalas and little Eziek but….’

She waned into silence, a mourning silence that filled all the space from the weather-making tower to the woodland and encapsulated them both. Inside however, Nau’s body was reacting violently to what she’d said. His heart raced like a hunting hare’s and the rapier inside the cane rattled by how furious his hand was shaking. Worst was to come however and with the dread realization of what it’d mean for him he desperately tried to hold in the nervous hay-cough. He lurched forwards, clutching his stomach to try to still the diaphragm but it would not be contained and the rasping cough erupted before the alarmed look of the node cultist that had uttered the name of his father and himself as a child.

It was the worst coughing fit he could ever recall experiencing, though it was shorter it felt for him as though it was well over a minute he stood keeled over on the road, panting between the salivating coughs that strained his lungs to pain and made his throat too sore to speak. He tried to turn to run and expected to die in the process but was first alarmed when first his knees failed him and he barely saved himself from falling, then he was alarmed when she did not move, not even to remove his now unveiled hidden weapon.

It was only by exhaustion his fit slowed and he could lean back to see the knowing, sly recognition on his mother’s face.

‘Ah I remember that, a mother always remember their children’s ails…ails now long gone for The Joined.’
Eziek saw the way the conversation would from then go, how she’d lecture her with the cultist propaganda all the while he’d be forcefully absorbed in all aspects. He’d become one of them without consent as so many others. He practically read it on her lips;

'I’m glad you’re here Ezie, though you’ll have to fall in line first.' Was what she’d say.
‘I’m glad you’re well Ezie, though you have fallen in with a bad crowd.‘ Was what came out.

Stunned silence met her and she absorbed it all, on her face Nau read a tumultuous emotional response, in her eyes were elation while her mouth was tight and stern. He guessed his own was much the same, shifting between confusion and fear. It was again his mother, the node cultist that spoke first and when she did he thought he could hear the tears just behind her words.

‘That was a nasty trick Ezie, I thought you were gone with Kalas and then you return only to pretend you’re not my son.’ It shocked him how much guilt washed over the Imperial spy and for a moment an apology appeared on his lips that was halted by some instinctual part of him, the agent he’d been for years held back the child he’d temporarily reverted to and all she met was a scowl.

‘Father’s fate was better than yours, death is preferable then to be a mindless slave to the Corruption!’ She remained calm in the face of his outburst, something Nau the Imperial found the most provocative she could’ve done.

‘No, Kalas was brave but a fool when faced with his end.’ She saw his clenched jaw and in a flash of a moment she became the disciplinarian that had chagrinned as Nau contracted the hay cough despite her warnings. ‘And I’ll not have you speak of things you don’t understand Ezie.’

Then he stood up, his anger propping him up for a burst of energy not befitting his nerves and his words were like the crack of a whip upon the ears.

‘I’m Nau!’ Then there was silence again as the meaning of the words sunk in and the cultist was emotionally shaken in the way anyone could clearly observe.

‘I see…’ she muttered and Nau was in serious consideration of drawing his weapon to kill her off and then make his escape. However the eyes of the other laborers were on him and unlike his mother’s, they were cold and predatory. They would rush and tear him limb from limb if he so much as tried to breathe funnily.

So he waited and the node cultist assumed a dignified pose and suddenly was disturbingly composed. Then the third eye in her forehead sprang open and cast its venomous green glare across him. Its gaze was like the others and while he could still feel the remorse in his mothers’ normal eyes this third one observed him as from an unfeeling third perspective. An alien peering in on him from another realm.

‘I’ll happily tell you why you’re wrong if you stay…Nau. A frightful storm’s brewing and around there’s nothing but wood and open field as you know.’

From the tower rang a bellow like a hound given the slip and a baleful green beam of light raced into the clear sky. Gusts of cold winds rushed up past him from the woods and all around, supplanting the summer’s dozy warmth with a shock of autumns chill. Nau was not a stranger to threats and ultimatum’s but remained frozen by the surprise he was offered one at all. He briefly considered his options, then saw reason and turned, throwing his eyes away so they couldn’t witness the two normal eyes water and then harden until he was at the edge of hearing.
Already clouds were gathering and the wind roaring and Nau was making considerations of his shelter when she called out the last time.

‘Nau, tell your Imperials Naote doesn’t ask filth to join her. Tell them her presence, and the gifts they bring, comes at your own volition and then only if you’re worthy enough.’ The final gaze she gave him which he never saw revealed how she considered his relation to this threshold.