"Hey little boy!" shouted Professor Darcy. "Whoever is sitting in desk C3, tell me the answer to the question."
"I don't know," replied the boy in a meek voice. "I don't know the answer to the question ma'am."
"I don't believe you," said Professor Darcy. "Your body language tells me everything I need to know. I'll repeat the question one more time and you WILL give me the correct answer. What is the process for creating a Transmutation Potion?"
"Ok fine, I'll recite the process for you," replied the boy hesitantly. "To make a Transmutation Potion, you need to mix 4 parts Bleeding Widow, 6 parts Dark Cuphea, and 2 parts Purple Ternatea with 24 ounces of water."
"So it seems we are both correct," said Professor Darcy. "You knew the answer to the question all along and I knew that you had the answer. Surely you will tell me your name, right boy? You don't want me to call you the boy who sits in desk C3 all year long now do you?"
"My name is Nemeth," said the young boy. "Anything else you need from me?"
"Well Nemeth," replied Professor Darcy. "I don't need anything else from you now. At least you're off to a good start. As for the rest of the class, that remains to be unseen. They are probably a bunch of morons compared to you."
All of the students in the class turned their desks around in the direction of desk C3 where Nemeth was sitting. They began to stare blankly at him and started to cough. Nemeth slumped down in his chair nervously. He folded his arms, put them on the desk and pushed his face into the center of his folded arms. This was one of Nemeth's first memories of feeling embarrassed and he was reliving it through his dreams.
"CLASS!" shouted Professor Darcy. "Stop pretending like you have to cough and turn your desks around this instant! Turn them around now otherwise I am going to have to punish you! This is your last warning!"
The class was unresponsive. They continued to stare at Nemeth. The coughs became louder and synchronized. He remained frozen with fear with his face pushed into the center of his folded arms on the desk.
"Hey silly!" said a familiar voice. "This is just a dream. Well, maybe it's a bit of a nightmare. But you can change the outcome! Lift your head up! It's safe!"
The familiar voice was that of Aria. A vision of Aria appeared in the far right corner of the classroom near Professor Darcy.
"Come on silly!" said the vision of Aria. "Remember how we spoke about the power of lucid dreaming? Do whatever you want! Hee hee!"
Nemeth lifted his head from the desk. He unfolded his arms and raised one of them into the air. Professor Darcy looked at Nemeth.
"Yes Nemeth?" asked Professor Darcy. "What is it you have to say?"
"You're doing a terrible job teaching us," said Nemeth. "You're doing an even worse job trying to punish these kids. You've lost all control of the class. Now you see, I answered one of your questions and I think that it's only fair that you answer one of my questions back. What in the world is stopping me from punishing you for your poor performance as a teacher?"
The students in the room stopped coughing suddenly and shifted their attention off of Nemeth and back onto Professor Darcy.
"Who in the bloody hell are you to judge me little boy?" asked Professor Darcy angrily.
"I'm afraid that's the wrong answer to my question," said Nemeth with a devilish look on his face. "Don't answer a question with another question. Now it's time for you to learn another lesson about Transmutation Potions."
Nemeth envisioned three steel chains that busted out of the classroom walls. The first steel chain wrapped around the right arm of Professor Darcy. The second steel chain wrapped around the left arm of Professor Darcy. The final steel chain wrapped around the throat of Professor Darcy. Professor Darcy was locked into place and was unable to move or speak. He envisioned a very large Transmutation Potion floating in front of Professor Darcy. He then made the Transmutation Potion smash into her face. Professor Darcy slowly started to transform into dozens of other smaller Transmutation Potions that floated around the classroom. The students began to clap and cheer loudly. The Transmutation Potions suddenly started to zigzag across the room. Each one of them smashed directly into the faces of one of the students. The students clapping and cheering quickly turned to screams of terror. Within moments, each one of the students began to transform into a clone of Aria, just as she looked when she was a first year student. Nemeth looked over at the original vision of Aria.
"I always wanted you to be in all of my first year classes," said Nemeth. "Professor Darcy's class was one of those that you weren't in, until now of course!"
"Hee hee!" laughed the vision of Aria. "Good job! I certainly was cute when I was 8 years old wasn't I? You were cute too, but I've got you outnumbered here! I told you that lucid dreaming was powerful stuff. You can do whatever you want to in your dreams! One of these days, with more practice we're both going to master lucid dreaming!"
"WAKE UP MASTER!!!" shouted Jaida. "A half hour has passed already and it's time for you to get up. We've got to continue on our journey."
Nemeth slowly awakened from his slumber. He was face down and covered in drool. He turned over and saw Jaida hovering above him and let out a large scream. He rolled over several times to his right and fell off the comfortable bed onto the floor.
"It's me master," said Jaida. "What's wrong with you?"
"You scared the hell out of me!" exclaimed Nemeth. "I'm sure there will be a time when I don't freak out when I see a Guardian Spirit floating around after I wake up. But for now, please don't do that Jaida. Use that 100 foot boundary to our advantage ok?"
"I'm sorry," replied Jaida. "I meant no harm. I was just doing my job. "
Nemeth got up from the floor and looked around room 11. He walked over to the window and looked up into the sky. The heavy rain had stopped. The sky was pitch black and all he could see Despisa, one of the 10 known moons of Tyraneus. Despisa had an unusual red halo around it.
"It's ok," replied Nemeth. "So there are two ways to get into the weapon shop next door according to the people I met in the dining area downstairs. We can either get in through the roof of the weapon shop or through a trapdoor behind the front desk that acts as an underground passageway throughout the town. We're already on the highest floor of the inn. All we need to do is get up to the roof of the inn."
Nemeth opened the window which pushed it outward. He turned around and leaned back looking upwards at the outside of the inn. He turned around again and took a step backwards into the room. He closed the window and sighed.
"There's no way I can scale the outside of the building and I can't fly," said Nemeth with great disappointment in his voice. "I guess I'll have to try the trapdoor instead. Let's go Jaida."
"If only you had a magic broom," said Jaida. "You know, something like an Escoba Retama X."
"Here we go again!" exclaimed Nemeth. "I didn't mean to break the magic broom! And sure, maybe throwing the broken pieces of the broom into the flaming rumble of the potion shop wasn't the brightest idea after all."
Nemeth gathered up his items that he previously placed by the desk before taking a nap. He opened the door to room 11 and walked out into the hallway. He shut the door gently and then locked it. He began to descend the staircases to the main lobby, doing so very quietly as to not wake up anybody in the inn. The innkeeper was still nowhere in sight. Nemeth was very pleased at this and began to smile. Many of the candles were now blown out, so it was quite dark in the main lobby.
Nemeth lifted himself up and on to the top of the front desk. He made his way behind the front desk and started to crawl on his stomach. He inched his way forward. After a few minutes of crawling around in the dark, he finally found the blue rug. He slowly pulled the rug off and found the trapdoor. The trapdoor appeared to open upwards and toward the back of the room. Nemeth slowly got to his knees and pulled upward on a moderately sized brass ring on the trapdoor. He pulled upward until he got to his feet and managed to slowly lower the trapdoor's hatch to the floor. The trapdoor made a mild
creaking noise as it was lowered but nothing too alarming. Nemeth looked down into the newly revealed hole. He couldn't see how far down the hole went. He thought about using the lantern, but figured that someone might be wandering around at night time and he would be caught sneaking around.
"Wait a minute," said Nemeth quietly. "Didn't I see a treasure chest back here too? Maybe there's something of use in there."
Nemeth began to crawl towards all the way towards the back of the front desk area. He eventually bumped into the treasure chest. Nemeth tried lifting the lid to the treasure chest but to no avail. The treasure chest was locked from the front in the center with a small lock.
"There's only one way I know to pick a lock," said Nemeth quietly. "My oversized lock pick should work very well."
Nemeth drew his sword and sliced the small lock off of the treasure chest. Nemeth sheathed his sword. He opened the heavy lid to the treasure chest and began to dig blindly inside of it hoping to find something good. As his hands ran through the contents of the treasure chest, he felt what seemed to be coins. He initially wanted to grab coins and stuff them into his backpack but he decided against it. After all, he probably had enough money from robbing the treasure chest at Madame Magica's Potion Shop to last him for years. More money wouldn't help him get any closer to getting down below or on top of the roof. After several minutes of shifting coins around from side to side, he felt something sharp poking his right hand. He moved his hand slowly around the edge of the object making sure not to get a cut in the palm of his hand. As he moved his hand around the object he wondered more and more about what the item was. It felt like a small metal pipe. He lifted the object out of the treasure chest carefully and examined it carefully. It wasn't a metal pipe after all. It was something much better. It was a metal grappling hook with a large length of rope attached to it. This is exactly what Nemeth needed. Nemeth closed the lid to the treasure chest slowly and placed the damaged lock back on it as best as he could. He slowly crawled his way back over to the trapdoor. Nemeth took a look down into the hole that the trapdoor was covering once again. Nemeth came too close to the opening and clumsily fell into the hole. He screamed loudly as he fell in and was holding on with only his right arm. He managed to bring his other arm up and out of the hole. He struggled to pull himself up out of the hole.
"WHAT'S GOING ON OUT HERE?" asked a voice very loudly.
A clapping of hands and snapping of fingers caused all of the unlit candles to once again light up all around the room. Nemeth heard loud footsteps coming towards him. Suddenly a pair of large sweaty hands clasped around Nemeth's hands and he was pulled up partially from the hole. Half of Nemeth's body was still in the hole and he was dangling from the grasp of another person's hands. Nemeth looked up and saw that it was Tioli the innkeeper who had pulled him up from the hole.
"YOU'RE TRYING TO ROB ME BOY!" shouted Tioli angrily. "You probably had something to do with the theft of our Ambrule supply too. I knew I shouldn't have trusted you the moment I first saw you walk through the door. I allowed you to stay for free in our nicest room and this is how you repay me? I should just drop you down below into the darkness! Your bones will shatter from the fall and the creatures below will finish you off."
"Allow me to explain!" shouted Nemeth nervously. "Just lift me out of here and I'll explain everything to you sir."
"Don't you try and weasel your way out of this you little thief!" shouted Tioli. "Tell your lies to the creatures below and see if they have any mercy on you. I won't feel any guilt to see a thief die and there will be no blood on my hands."
Nemeth raised both of his knees up his chest and forcefully kicked Tioli in the chest with both legs knocking Tioli backwards into the front desk. This broke Nemeth free from his grasp and sent Nemeth backwards into the treasure chest. Nemeth rolled to his left a couple of times and then made a dash at Tioli who was sitting down against the front desk. Tioli made an attempt to stand up but was too heavy to make it to his feet on his own. Nemeth took out his sword and pointed it at Tioli's throat.
"Shhhhhhhhhhh… " said Nemeth in a soft voice. "I'm only going to tell you this once more. I didn't take your Ambrule and if you don't sit there and shut the hell up, I will hurt you, you fat, disgusting pig."
Tioli began to flail his arms wildly and started screaming for help.
Nemeth flipped his sword over so he was holding the handles with both of his hands. He jammed the handle of his sword into the right side of Tioli's head knocking him unconscious. Tioli fell face forward onto the ground. Nemeth flipped his sword over once again and put it back in its sheath. Nemeth grabbed Tioli by his head and dragged him over to the hole that the trapdoor was covering. He forced Tioli head-first into the hole. Tioli was so fat that he got stuck upside down inside the hole. Nemeth removed Tioli's shoes and tossed them aside. Nemeth covered his mouth with both hands trying not to laugh at the sight of the fat, shoeless innkeeper trapped upside down in the hole. Nemeth looked around the lobby to see if anyone else was there but it didn't appear that anyone was around despite all of the noise that was made. Nemeth climbed back onto the other side of the front desk and made his way back to the top floor. He unlocked room 11, opened the door and then quickly shut it behind him and locked it again.
"Calling Jaida," said Nemeth. "Come on out Jaida!"
Jaida appeared before Nemeth as he commanded.
"What do you need now master?" asked Jaida.
"I had some trouble with Tioli the innkeeper downstairs," answered Nemeth. "I nearly fell into the hole that was underneath the trapdoor behind the front desk. He wanted to drop me into the hole as punishment for searching through his treasure chest. He even blamed me for stealing his Ambrule supply. I couldn't see how far of a drop it was but according to Tioli it sounded like it was far enough that I would have broken a lot of bones. He kept insisting that there were creatures below that would have finished me off if I went down there. I had no choice other than to knock him out and stuff his fat ass into the opening himself. But all of that trouble was worth it! Take a look at what I found in the treasure chest!"
Nemeth grabbed the grappling hook from his backpack and showed it to Jaida.
"Do you like it?" asked Nemeth. "I was going to use it to climb down and see what was underneath the trapdoor. Now that's no longer an option. But all I have to do now is use it to get on top of the roof!"
"Yes, I like the grappling hook," replied Jaida. "I predict that this plan will work. Please proceed but be careful not to fall."
Nemeth ran over to the window and opened it. He leaned backward and looked up towards the roof of the inn. Using his left hand, he threw the grappling hook as high as he could above the roof. After hearing a loud clang, Nemeth tugged on the rope hard to make sure that the grappling hook was securely latched onto the roof.
"I guess I'm better at using a grappling hook than I thought," said Nemeth. "I would have figured that it would have fallen off and hit me in the head. Oh, but I still have to climb up. I hope I didn't jinx myself."
Nemeth gripped the middle of the rope tightly with both hands and hopped out of the window. He planted his feet against the exterior of the inn and began to pull himself up while walking up towards the roof. In just under a minute, Nemeth reached the roof of the Norfall Inn. He picked up his grappling hook and placed it into his backpack. Nemeth took out his lantern and walked the entire length of the roof towards Numandu Weapon Shop making sure to inspect the floor for anything that may get in his way for his next risky task. Numandu Weapon Shop was about one and a half stories lower than Norfall Inn. The gap between the two buildings was about 13 feet total. Nemeth felt confident that he could make the jump.
"Alright, let's do this!" said Nemeth with much excitement.
"I'll float on over to the roof of the weapon shop," replied Jaida. "If you're planning on jumping master, just aim for where I'm floating. If you crash into me, you'll pass completely through me unharmed since I'm completely transparent."
"That's a great idea actually," replied Nemeth. "I'm surprised I didn't think of it first."
Jaida floated over to the roof of the weapon shop. Nemeth walked back to where he first climbed up to the roof of the inn. A warm breeze could be felt against his back. He stretched his arms and legs and then made a mad dash towards the other side of the inn. As he reached the end of the roof, he leapt up into the air aiming for Jaida. He landed successfully on the roof of the weapon shop and did several forward somersaults to slow his momentum. He rested on his back on the roof of the weapon shop momentarily.
"Ha, I knew I could do it!" exclaimed Nemeth while breathing heavily.
Nemeth put his hands behind his head and performed a nip up bringing him to a standing position. He looked out at Norfall. The town seemed to be quite affluent as a whole, not just the Norfall Inn. There were quite a lot of lights on in the surrounding buildings but the town appeared to be completely deserted. Everyone must have been asleep.
"Now all we have to do is get inside the weapon shop," said Nemeth. "I wish Bastilone was here. He would be able to smash a hole in the roof with his fists alone. It is quite the feat to see."
Nemeth began to pace back and forth on the roof of the weapon shop trying to think of a way to get into the weapon shop.
"Master, I believe that potions are your best option," said Jaida. "An Acid Potion would be the best thing to try first."
"Of course!" exclaimed Nemeth. "I've still got plenty of potions left in my backpack. If an Acid Potion was able to cause that much damage to Madame Magica's leg, just imagine what it can do to the roof!"
Nemeth peered into his backpack and began searching frantically for a precious green colored Acid Potion.
"Yes, yes, here we are!" exclaimed Nemeth. "It's time to dissolve the roof! This had better work!"
Nemeth took out an Acid Potion from his backpack and smashed it violently in the center of the roof of the weapon shop. Nemeth watched with a big grin on his face as the acid began to create an opening in the roof of the weapon shop. The plan had succeeded. Now all Nemeth had to do was drop down below and gather whatever he needed.
The Orphan Wars (Book One) Page 11