The Road to Red Thorn

by Blaine Hicks

  In truth, it hadn’t been very long since Radley had cried for his mommy but that wasn’t an important addition to the conversation. He was losing his patience and tersely ordered the grendel, “Go find some water and take a real bath. I can’t even breathe when you’re this close to me.”

  The grendel snorted again and rose to all fours, posturing towards Radley with its chest flexed outward like a gorilla to emphasize the difference in their physical forms. Even from the opposite side of the fire pit, Radley could see that it towered over him and he regretted the blunt provocation.

  It replied slowly with vehemence accompanying the silent words, My odor has not stopped your breathing but other things will. You are a weak baby bird that has fallen from the safety of its nest. You will be trampled under the feet of rampaging beasts who you do not understand. When you die, I will eat your spirit shard and become free from this captivity. Then I will hunt you down wherever you wake and grind your immortal flesh into butter. I will do this each time you awaken until your broken mind refuses to return.

  Then, without waiting for a response, the hulking grendel turned and lumbered away into the woods. Radley watched his new familiar go and wondered what he had gotten himself into.

  With the grendel gone, the rocky outcrop fell silent and Radley looked around again. The grendel was a messy eater. Chunks of meat were chewed up and spit out around the area. There were also other signs of activity that indicated the grendel had been busy during the night. A swath of the forest’s foliage was uprooted including several small trees. The path of destruction created a rough circle of plant litter around the entire rocky outcrop. It was both impressive and disturbing that Radley had slept through the remodeling. He couldn’t tell what the point was for the destruction since it didn’t create a physical barrier; he could step over the debris at any point. It might have been a mindless rampage, but the circle seemed too precise for that. It was more like a warning or visible boundary between the campsite and the forest. The only creatures he’d seen in the forest with an ambient aggro status were carnivorous plants and the other grendel but he doubted they’d be deterred so easily.

  He shrugged away the puzzle as a familiar urge gripped his bowels. He needed to poop. Despite having no boy parts, he apparently still had a butt. He hurried to a nearby bush and squatted down for what turned out to be an important life lesson. Rabbits apparently had a lot of bones and when he had digested the carcass whole, those bones remained behind. As Radley did his business, he promised himself to never swallow a rabbit whole again no matter how good it smelled. When he was done, he gathered his leather grendel hide and other loot in preparation of moving on. With his walking stick free of the grendel meat slabs he was able to use it as intended and set out again towards his beacon that marked the location of the mysterious smoke plume somewhere to the north.

  ***

  The grendel caught up with Radley an hour later but they were both still in foul moods but Radley’s mood improved when he saw the familiar had made a surprising effort to clean itself. He easily noticed. The grendel’s radiating stench was gone, replaced by an earthy odor like freshly turned dirt. It wasn’t roses, but it was a marked improvement over hot roadkill. Despite this effort Radley didn’t say anything to the grendel. So, for a while, they marched along in silence. Finally, curiosity got the better of the grendel and it asked, So, little bird, to where do we travel?

  Radley thought a moment, unsure how to respond. The familiar was obviously still dangerous, especially if there was a way for it to escape their bond. Regardless, it was decidedly not an ally. He didn’t have a firm destination in mind anyway, so he stuck with the RP story he’d given the elves. “I'm on a quest and need to head north to find some people” he finally replied.

  What people? the grendel asked tersely.

  “Anyone really...” Radley elaborated honestly, “I’m also looking for information and I think I can find it up north.”

  The grendel scowled at the ambiguity. He was used to a life of simple goals. He finally asked, What information are you looking for?

  Radley’s desire for an explanation got the better of him and he finally leveled with the familiar. “I’m trying to find out what happened to the world. I’m trying to find out what happened to everyone. I need to find a way to fix things.”

  The explanation came out more frantically than Radley had planned but the grendel ignored the desperation and actually appeared to be considering the goals. Radley continued walking despite the growing anticipation that his grendel might be able to explain some of this.

  When the grendel finally responded, the information was less than helpful. The world is not broken. If you do not like things, it is because you do not understand your place. When you find your place, the world will feel right.

  Now it was Radley’s turn to scowl. He wouldn’t argue the point, but he didn’t have to accept the answer either. His high willpower focused his mind and pushed back. There was something wrong. He had put on the neural gear, the game had glitched, and everything he knew had changed. Finding his place in the world wasn’t the problem but maybe the grendel didn’t the answers he needed. He let the topic drop and they moved along again in silence.

  Despite hours of walking, the morning passed without running into any trouble. Radley could smell other grendel permeating through the trees, but the odor was faint like a few days had passed since they had been there. The lack of rivals disturbed Radley’s large companion who kept projecting, there should be more grendel here, along their mental connection.

  Eventually, the tree’s started to thin somewhat, letting more light reach the forest floor. With the extra light, the carpet of leaf-fall began to transition into a spotty knee-high grass that slowed their progress slightly. Radley had learned enough to be wary of new environments. The grendel seemed unconcerned. As the tree’s thinned, the lingering stench of other grendel faded even more, replaced by a new scent that Radley didn’t recognize, and strange angular structures could be seen ahead of them. At first, Radley thought they were rock structures but as they got closer, he could see the telltale details of crumbling steel and cement. These were modern buildings, or more precisely, the ancient remains of modern construction.

  Undoubtedly, this had once been the downtown of a large city, but Radley didn’t recognize any familiar landmarks. The forest had consumed everything at street level and what little remained of the high rises were full of dirt and plants.

  CH. 25 Where has the time gone?

  “What is this place?” Radley asked.

  The grendel snuffled and ignored him for nearly a minute as they slowly moved into the shadows of the towering structures. Finally it replied, Grendel call this place ‘the warren’. It is full of all manner of creatures that can be killed for strength.

  “Like level grinding?” Radley asked.

  The grendel snuffled again but this time didn’t answer.

  Radley wasn’t ready to give up and tried again. “How long ago was it abandoned?”

  Long ago, the grendel grumbled then it increased its pace and moved in front of Radley, clearly done being helpful.

  Radley opened his map to get his bearings. He looked around and realized he could already see the end of the high rises and the forest ahead thickened again into a dense canopy. For some reason the ruins seemed more inviting then returning to the dark forest. They were only a couple hours away from the beacon and still had most of the day ahead of them. There was probably enough time to do some exploring. He called ahead to the grendel and told him they’d be stopping to rest and of course the bonded familiar didn’t respond.

  Radley found a crumbled block of cement that made a comfortable bench and set down his bundle of supplies and walking staff. His arms ached and he reiterated to himself that he really needed to invest in some strength and constitution, just to improve his quality of life. He flicked his tongue checking for any danger. “I don't smell any grendel nearby.” he said casually to the fami
liar.

  In this place, it is not grendel you must be wary of little bird. The grendel responded cryptically.

  “Then what should I be wary of?” Radley asked.

  The grendel didn’t respond again and simply stared back at Radley with a mischievous expression. Despite the ominous warning, Radley was tired of their monotonous walking and wanted to peek into the nearby structures. Finding people wasn’t the only way to find answers. Perhaps, exploring these ruins could lead to some new discovery.

  The nearest building protruded from the ground several stories but had no exterior doors that he could see. All the windows had long since been broken out and any wood had rotted away, leaving the building a pitted cement shell. Radley slowly approached and peered in through a long gap that had once been a window. It was dark inside and smelled oddly like oranges.

  Radley entered and stepped down into a layer of soft wet mud. The room had probably been a conference room for some fancy company but now held only rotting leaves sprinkled with the small bones of rodents. Radley moved to a doorway that led deeper into the building but could only see darkness ahead so he flicked his thermal vision on. The interior lit up in shades of grey and presented Radley with the view of a great oval atrium. He moved forward towards a bent handrail that looked out over the expanse.

  Radley realized he had not entered the building at the ground floor but nearly at its top. The atrium extended downward into the depths of the earth and even with his heat vision, the bottom of the large space was concealed in darkness. He caught the faintest pale shape of a humanoid behemoth standing far below. It was not just large but had four distinct arms instead of the usual two.

  Radley felt a moment of vertigo as he realized he was standing several hundred feet up with only the crumbling remnants of a walkway preventing his death. If he fell and the impact didn’t kill him, he was sure whatever that creature was, would finish the job. He carefully moved back towards the doorway of the conference room and reached his hand out for support. The doorway was coated in a thick slime that Radley hadn’t noticed when he’d entered. His augmented thermal vision robbed his sight of all detail and made the coating of slime practically invisible.

  Radley tried scraping it off, but the substance was resilient and clung to him. He decided he’d have better luck cleaning his hand outside where he could see it more clearly. The goop was starting to itch so he hurried through the window back into the sunlight and flipped off his thermal vision to take a closer look. The slime was a thick red gel, stretchy and sticky, like the kind Radley had made from borax and glue as a kid. This slime was just stickier and seemed to be drawing itself towards him. He also noticed a long filament of slime that trailed from his hand back into the building. This didn’t bother him at first until he noticed something moving in the darkness of the conference room near the spot he had just left. It was an insubstantial shape like a moving shadow, but the trailing strand of slime led straight to it. Radley backed away from the building trying to put as much distance between himself and the unknown entity as possible. He was pretty sure at this point that anything he found and couldn’t immediately recognize was probably interested in killing him. Actually, the killer bunnies had proven that recognition didn’t guarantee something was safe to play with.

  When Radley had moved halfway back towards the makeshift bench where his gear was stacked, the strand of slime grew rigid, almost like a muscle flexing. The slime felt like a hand pulling him by the arm back towards the building. The force with which it pulled was not overwhelming and he was able to pull against it and resist. If he had still been human, it’s possible he would have succeeded, but his weak naga body grew tired quickly and failure seemed certain if only a matter of time. Frantically, Radley looked around for a solution until he spotted his familiar staring casually back at him, but the tamed creature made no move to help. The grendel instead settled down into a comfortable position like a dog watching kids play outside a window.

  “Help!” Radley called out, but the grendel just yawned and began to scratch its neck. Radley was beginning to lose ground now and looked around a second time for anything that might break the slimes grasp on him. Then, he remembered he was a mage and quickly invoked his fire palm. His opposite hand lit with magic flames and Radley gasped in relief. He slammed the flaming hand down into the wad of slime that now engulfed his whole hand to the wrist. Instead of the typical ignition, the flames sputtered and died as soon as his hand contacted the slime. There was a sizzling pop like pouring water on hot coals and the magic fire was gone again. The spell had done nothing except get the attention of the creature lurking in the shadows. It began to move towards him while it continued to pull on the strand of slime connecting them. When it emerged from the building into sunlight, the magnifying glass icon appeared in Radley’s HUD denoting he could identify it. But Radley had no time for that at the moment and continued to struggle against the snare. The creature was translucent and reddish like the goop stuck to his hand. It had no specific shape or features and undulated towards him like a slug. His hand was growing painful where the slime held him, and he knew things were about to go from bad to worse if he didn’t figure this out quickly.

  “Help!” Radley called again to his familiar. The grendel swatted at a fly.

  In his panic, Radley couldn’t remember his newest spells, so he uttered the incantation for stone fist. His hand shimmered beneath the slime coating and expanded into a gleaming shard of purple obsidian. This didn’t dissuade the slime who seemed equally capable of hanging onto the stone as easily as his scaled hand.

  The creature was reeling him in quickly now and had already closed half the gap between them. Radley though, had an idea. He drove his fist down into the ground. The stone fist shattered into innumerable shards. This attack did no damage to the slime, but it was momentarily hanging onto only crystal shards instead of Radley’s hand. Radley pulled away as ribbons of slime let go of the shattered spell and reached for him, but he was too fast. He scrambled away just before the shambling slime’s main body reached him. Despite its size and apparent strength, the creature was slow, and Radley was able to run a safe distance away. He finally selected his magnifying glass icon and identified the creature.

  Vicious Red Blob - 350 HP

  A vicious blob is barely sentient but deadly just the same. These predators live in moist crevasses and set slime snares to catch prey. They produce an aroma like fruit to bait insects and animals. Red Blobs engulf their prey and secrete a proteolytic enzyme that will slowly digest anything they catch.

  Battle consideration: This blob is level 16. Touching this creature will slowly liquify you.

  Radley looked down at his hand. It seemed okay. It had been itchy and was starting to burn during the fight but as soon as he had shattered the stone fist, it had felt better. That was probably worth remembering. He took another step away just to ensure plenty of space separated him from the monster. The creature seemed to understand that continuing was pointless, so it reversed course and began its crawl back towards the shadows of the building.

  The grendel finally stood up and wandered closer. Oh, you have found us a little snack, it said with an over-pleasant smile. It casually walked past Radley and approached the gelatinous mound which was almost to the building again. With a powerful swipe from the grendel’s clawed hand, a chunk of slime was torn free from the main body. It quivered for a moment on the ground then began reaching out toward the main slime but the grendel grabbed it in its powerful jaws and swallowed the piece in a single gulp. The larger blob didn’t slow down or try to fight back but simply tumbled through the window back into the safety of the derelict building.

  Radley stood in shock. He didn’t have words for the audacity of his familiar. Not only had it been completely useless in the fight, but it had blatantly demonstrated that the failure had been intentional. Radley wanted to say something, but no words came out. By the time he had thought of some appropriate adjectives, he also realized tha
t such a reaction was exactly what the grendel was hoping for. Instead he said, “Thanks for letting me fight that slime, it was really fun.”

  The grendel’s expression grew confused as it tried to process this unexpected reaction. After a few moments of thinking it finally decided that the tone in Radley’s voice was still the reaction it was hoping to get. I think you should explore some more buildings, little bird, I’m still hungry.

  “I think you should choke on that slime.” Radley replied. He tucked his rolled grendel hide under his arm and set off northward again, without looking back.

  CH. 26 Ambush

  Radley’s tongue flicked to grab the new scent trails as they walked. There was definitely a fishy note in the air but having no experience with the scent, Radley couldn’t tell how far away it was. He was also distracted by a scent he did recognize, and his gaze settled on the source: a white rabbit idly nibbling on a small berry bush.

  Radley had gained 4 levels since his last rabbit battle along with extra skill points in elemental magic and the addition of two circle 2 spells. After his less than stellar performance against the blob, he wanted to see what difference the extra levels made in a fight and was anxious to try his new spells. This would be the perfect opportunity. The grendel could see he was targeting the rabbit and was unimpressed by such small prey. It groaned like a child at the grocery store and asked, This is what you choose to hunt? Against such a frail creature, you may actually stand a chance.

  Radley ignored the criticism. He’d had less combat experience than a typical adventurer at the same level since he had gained most of his levels from KS-ing the other grendel. Being cautious now would probably save him more pain later. Besides, there was nothing else around to practice on. He turned back to his familiar and said, “Wait here and be quiet!”