Transcendental Misappropriation (Book One of the Pentacle Series)

by Roharp17

  Danny was dumbfounded. He opened his mouth, then closed it. Since coming to this world he had been almost completely absorbed with learning and harnessing magic. They really didn't have much time to make friends outside their shadows, and the other boys in their training group were always so much older. They ignored him and he was always consumed by his little side projects. Looking back, he remembered seeing Brooke's brother back at the wizard academy, shooting fireballs faster than he could. Could he be able to beat him now? The same question repeated itself over and over in his head, He was the weakest...?

  Then before he could dwell on that much more, his mind turned to what else Ivy just dropped on him. It had been five years since he first sat across form those three young girls. He was depressed thinking how they had to grow up so quickly. Learning to deal with death, with killing, and all while trying to keep their only chance at having a husband alive. This was too huge of a responsibility on them... all of them. They should be in school, learning a craft, or profession. Going shopping and out to eat with their friends. Not fighting for their lives and learning to kill or be killed.

  After the snake incident he noticed how focused Jade had become. Before the snake incident, she was a shy and timid eight year old. Now she was a fifteen year old silent tool of death. He figured her change was out of a sense of responsibility to her teammates. He never figured it could possibly be because she didn't want to lose her future husband. For the first time Danny really wasn't sure if he liked this new world anymore. Yeah, he had had some hardships, and some things were kind of hard to accept, but this... He now knew his life held more meaning and value than just to himself alone. He couldn't be taking anymore stupid risks like picking mushrooms among the wolf infested forests while not bothering to scan his surroundings. He was now also, for all intents and purposes, betrothed to these three girls. He had been so focused on training and growing stronger, he knew he had to start doing a better job at being their friend and not just a teammate.

  He felt a hand cover his. Jade worriedly asked him, "Danny?"

  Danny shook his head, finally recovering from his shock, "I had no idea. I am sorry for any unnecessary risks I have taken till this point." He looked at each of the girls, worried looks on all their faces. Not wanting to delve into his weaknesses, he chose the coward’s way out of the situation, "So we are going to be married?"

  Ivy face turned neutral and watched him closely as she asked, "Do you not like that idea?"

  He looked over to her smiling, "Oh, yes. Of course I like it! I'm now more worried about disappointing you three." He looked down as he said this, struggling with his inner self doubts.

  Brooke smiled and reached over to push him over, sarcastically saying, "You will have to do I guess."

  Jade looked shocked and surprised Danny by talking back to Brooke, "Brooke, don't be mean to Danny! Danny, you are great." She said the last while looking earnestly at him.

  Danny was horribly embarrassed by this attention and was sure he was blushing. It had to be due to this younger body of his, he never got embarrassed like this in his last life. Though he never had multiple girls fuss over him like this before.

  Brooke frowned looking over at Jade, "I was just teasing him. You’re the one that turned him red."

  Noticing the affect her words had in changing Danny's coloring, Jade blushed and returned to her former shy self.

  Smiling, Ivy shook her head at the three. "Danny I am glad you see our position now and please don't tell anyone what I told you about them almost taking you away from us. I was not supposed to tell you about that."

  Danny nodded, "Of course."

  Ivy returned to business mode, "Alright everyone let's get back to work, hopefully they didn't hear Danny and my outburst earlier."

  A note from Roharp17

  Edited

  Chapter 31

  Over the next day they were able to remove six more goblins before the tribe seemed to catch on that something was wrong. The four team members hoped the goblins would pick up and leave in fear, but unfortunately it wasn't enough. The goblins started posting sentries and the males began building walled fortifications around the camp.

  Coming from the lookout, Brooke sat down with a huff, "We have to do something before those fortifications go up. Otherwise they will be holed up real tight."

  Danny suggested, "They are down in that ravine. Maybe if we start shooting at them from up high, maybe a tree, we can hit enough before they reach us to make the difference we need."

  Ivy shook her head, "I don't like the idea of trapping ourselves up in a tree."

  Danny suddenly had a thought, "What if we got close enough to the cave for me to make a path down into it. We could find the chief or shaman who is in charge and kill them. Cut the head of and the rest will not know what to do."

  Ivy thought about this, "How would you know where to open the hole, wouldn't that take a while with trial and error? We could easily get spotted by then, and that has to be noisy."

  "I found a way to use magic to see gaps in the earth. It is similar to my air scan. I can do the same with water too."

  Brooke looked annoyed and confused, "Why haven't you told us about this till now?"

  Danny shook his head, "Because it uses a lot of concentration and a bit of mana and that cost increases with the size of the area I am searching. Also, I can only stretch my mana out so far. Right now it's between ten to fifteen meters. At the furthest distances I can't really add any more mana. So my spells are weaker."

  Ivy frowned, "We are going to sit down and have you list everything you can do, everything. I figured we would have covered everything by now. Back to the problem at hand, how close do you need to get?"

  "Once I know where I need to go I should be able to start digging a tunnel there from any distance. I can work my way over searching the earth for possible tunnels or natural openings to exit into. Of course, it will just take more time the further away I start the tunnel."

  Ivy nodded, "Alright, we will start searching for a good location today. Tomorrow we will begin the tunnel."

  Danny was laying on his stomach in the grass. A ways behind him in the tree line of the forest, Ivy, Jade, and Brooke, waited nervously for him to finish. When they had reached the area behind the entrance of the cave, Danny hadn't felt anything in the safety of the tree line. Ivy almost called it off, not wanting him go out into the open.

  Danny was sure something just crawled up into his shirt. He did his best to ignore it and kept crawling. Every few feet Danny would stop for a few minutes before moving again. He wasn't just resting, he was scanning the earth below him for access to the cave below. Up ahead of him was the edge of the small ravine and the goblin camp below. He could see some of the goblins on the outskirts of the other side of the ravine, moving around.

  He found it! Danny scanned again to confirm. Then he stopped doing a general sweep of the area below him and targeted specific directions. The cave was comprised of a single large cavern leading to what he suspected was the entrance. He would have to move closer to the edge to confirm, but he had gotten what he needed. He considered just closing the opening and slowly filling the cavern, but was worried they might have more prisoners inside the cave. He tried casting air scan through the earth but could only confirmed there were humanoids shapes moving around inside. He didn't have the skill or experience to differentiate more specific features. He really needed to practice that more. He slowly began crawling backwards. That's when a goblin walked out of the tree line to his left and approached the edge of the ravine. The goblin was a male and began shouting at something below. Danny began slowly inching back, as the goblin might turn at any moment and spot him. His knee came down on a small twig with a loud snap. The male goblin stopped shouting and paused. Just as the goblin was about to turn around there was a crash below, followed by more shouting. Danny didn't take any further chances and slowly raised himself up and crouched/duck walked back to the others.

  Brooke and
Jade barely grabbed and flung him behind them before a pair of female goblins came up to the male and started yelling at the long eared creature. They soon left to go back down to the camp.

  The teammates quietly made their way back to the tree house. Casting a light spell on the ceiling, Danny collapsed onto his pallet.

  Jade complained, "That was too close!"

  "Agreed," Ivy said as she sat on her pallet.

  Brooke chuckled, "I thought he was caught for sure when he snapped that twig in half!"

  Jade sat on the end of Danny's pallet and told him, "We are going to practice your sneaking skill as soon as we have a chance!"

  Ivy interrupted, asking, "So, what did you find?"

  "I could only find one large cavern. They might have expanded on it a little themselves. I also was able to tell there were at least a dozen humanoid creatures in the cave."

  "You can sense people through the earth?"

  "No, I can sense people through the air. My mana can pass through objects and I used it on the air inside the cavern."

  "I see," Ivy said, though Danny doubted that.

  "I thought about collapsing the entrance and just slowly filling the cavern. For one, they would probably notice the entrance slowly closing and some might have time to escape before I am finished. I unfortunately can't distinguish human from goblin. I don't want to inadvertently kill a human prisoner."

  Ivey thought for a minute, "How long will it take you to make us a tunnel from that tree line we were watching from?"

  "A day, maybe less, maybe more. Moving earth isn't easy and I need to make sure to shore up the sides, so it is less likely to collapse on us."

  "Alright we will start first thing tomorrow morning. Danny get some sleep, the rest of us will take watch duty tonight."

  Danny was almost to the cavern wall. After spending half the morning pushing through the earth, he had an epiphany. One of those epiphany's that says, "Hey idiot, yeah you!" Danny started using earth scan to feel the weakest parts of ground between him and the cavern. After that it felt as if he had to work half as hard. Danny went back to the surface where he had surrounded the entrance with roots from the neighboring trees that morning. The roots helped keep the entrance intact and stopped it from caving in. The girls waited there and he sat down next to them, tired from focusing for so long.

  "I have less than a meter to the cavern wall."

  Ivy smiled at him, "Good job. Do you think you can create a small hole for us to look through without alerting whoever is in there?"

  Danny nodded, too tired to speak. Brooke handed him her water skin.

  Ivy stood up, "Alright, I will go with you, Brooke and Jade, watch our backs."

  They returned to the end of Danny's tunnel and he started to remove the last bit of wall. It was slow going as he didn't want to alert anyone on the other side with the shifting and falling rock. Just before he broke through, he realized he still had a magic light going. The last thing he needed was the hole he created to shine out into the cavern like a flashlight. Extinguishing it he used earth sense to finish the last finger length of rock left. Light shown through the hole when it was done and Danny leaned in to look.

  Danny was expecting a large goblin seated on a throne made from the skulls of humans and other animals. Instead, the largest goblin laid back in a pile of furs. She had a long eared male on either side of her and was eating some meat off a bone. Another dozen females and a few males, sat around a large fire.

  Danny leaned back and let Ivy take a look. Going back to the entrance they discussed their findings with the other two. Ivy asked Danny, "If we wait till after nightfall, would you be rested enough to attack?"

  "Yes, I should be good to go by then."

  "Jade, Brooke, do you have any suggestions?"

  Jade spoke up first, "I should stay and guard the rear."

  Brooke said, "I will go in first."

  Ivy nodded, "Agreed, we will begin the att..."

  Danny interrupted, "Now that we are sure there are no prisoners in the cavern, I could just kill them all. I can... create a spinning blade of air and kill the ones around the fire. That way if there is a prisoner I can't see, they will only get hit with a strong wind and... debris."

  Ivy stopped, "How soon can you do that?"

  Danny said, "Give me an hour, and ask again. I would rather be close to topped off, in case something goes wrong."

  Ivy pondered that, "Go ahead." Turning to Jade and Brooke she said, "You two guard here. Danny, you can do this by just looking through the hole in the wall, right?"

  "Yes."

  "...Alright, then let's go."

  Danny and Ivy reached the small hole again and Danny looked through it to get his bearings. He reached out towards the large fire and began making a dense magic, right in its center. He charged the spell for a while before he began to make the magic spin and stretch out into an almost flat circle. The goblins laughed and ate from the meat cooking over the fire. Seeing how happy they were, Danny hesitated for a second before looking away and casting the air rune. There was an audible high pitched whine, followed by the sounds of objects hitting the walls and ceiling, and then complete silence. Danny reached up and felt something wet touch his face. Wiping off whatever it was with his sleeve, he peered back through the hole. The fire had gone out, due to the sudden large gust of wind. Light filtered in from the cave's opening. Body parts were strewn in a circle around the fire pit. Two goblins, probably alerted by the sound, walked in and stopped at the sight. One ran over to the fallen chief. Danny reached out and used the last of his mana to create another smaller air blade and decapitated it. The remaining goblin didn't even scream. Danny heard what sounded like water pouring on the ground before the goblin ran outside the cave.

  Danny was pulled away from the hole and Ivy look inside. He couldn't see her face with it pressed to the hole but her voice was quiet, "... Let's... let's get back to the others."

  When they got to the entrance, Jade took one look at Danny and rushed to him, "Where are you hurt!"

  Danny felt lost, and numbly replied, "What?"

  Ivy turned to him with a concerned look, but replied to Jade, "It's just goblin blood."

  Jade looked relieved, "Oh, thank goodness."

  Brooke had looked alarmed as well but on hearing Ivy's explanation she relaxed, "Did you get it done?"

  Ivy nodded and turned to him, "Danny, please seal up this entrance. When you are done we will head back."

  Danny turned and silently sealed the hole. He made sure to grow the grass back over the new earth. Then they silently headed back to the tree house.

  Once they got back to the tree house, Danny sat down against the living room, just staring into the distance. He vaguely heard Brooke telling Jade to watch him and whispered something else. Then Brooke took Ivy to the lookout. Jade sat down next to Danny so that their arms were touching. "You ok Danny?"

  Danny looked out unfocused at the forest around them, "I don't know."

  They were silent for a bit. Then Danny said, "When they are screaming and running at me, I don't hesitate for a second to kill them. When I bury their bodies, I don't really focus on the details. When they are just sitting there, happily eating, joking and..."

  Jade wrapped her long arms around him and pulled him into a hug. "I know... They usually don't see me before I kill them. Though, it makes me wonder at those times when I realize I have not been paying attention. Who is going to be there, waiting in the shadows for me..."

  Danny shuddered and reached around her and held on as tight as he could. Danny suddenly missed the flickering fluorescent lights and the finicky lab equipment of his old world. They didn't have anything else that night as Danny fell asleep there next to her.

  A note from Roharp17

  Edited: thanks denkkar killashard

  Chapter 32

  Danny awoke to pitch-black darkness and someone screaming. A large weight fell on top of him and a hand closed around his mouth. The screaming stopp
ed. Another pair of hands grabbed his legs and stopped them from thrashing around.

  Ivy's voice came from out of the darkness in a soothing whisper. "Danny, you're alright, calm down, you were just having a bad dream."

  Danny was confused, had he been the one who was screaming? What was wrong with him? Taking deep breaths, the girls eventually let him go.

  Jade's worried voice came from the doorway, "What's going on, what's wrong with Danny?"

  "He was just having a bad dream, go check the camp to see if they heard anything," Ivy told Jade.

  A hand, Danny thought it was Brooke's, was rubbing comforting circles into his back. Her voice came from right beside him, "You want to talk about it, Danny?"

  Danny sat there for a bit, tired and drained emotionally. He started shaking his head, "No,not... no."

  Brooke wrapped him in her arms and rocked him, "It's going to be alright, you will learn to move past this. It is part of what we do now. We have all gone through something like this, and we will probably again in the future."

  Danny accepted her words without question, as he was too horrified by her statement. Brooke pulled her pallet over next to his and held him. "I'm going to sleep next to Danny." He assumed she said this to Ivy.

  "I will sleep on his other side then," Ivy spoke from the darkness as another pallet moved next to his. A hand reached out and held his.

  The goblins had left in the night. Jade returned early the next morning, to report what she had found. She had stalked through the camp, but didn't go into the cave in case there was a trap. The tents were gone, but the cages and their occupants were left in the rush.

  "The man in the cage is still alive, but I don't think he has long," Jade urged them.

  They quickly traveled to the camp. Danny was grateful no one brought up what had happened last night. Danny rushed over to the cage with the man. The cage was made of thick branches of wood tied together. The whole area stunk. Goblins were obviously not big on hygiene and they didn't bother to keep their prisoners clean either. Danny almost protested when Ivy insisted on going in first, but then he remembered their previous conversation. Ivy cut through the vines holding the cage's door together. She walked in and gently inspected the man inside, before motioning Danny in. The man smelled worse up close. His breathing was shallow and his face was a ruined mess. It looked as if he had received repeated blows and lacerations to his face and someone had cut off his ears. Danny could not guess the age of the man but he was definitely an adult.