“What?” I said, then realizing she couldn't hear me I sent a, “What?”
“Well some people say I shouldn't share those types of songs with this world and I was all like ‘What do you mean by those types of songs?’ and they were all like ‘I just meant…”
“Ah! Stupid snake head thing!” I'd almost lost a finger when the things head moved unexpectedly.
“... and I was like ‘No. You listen. You can't judge an entire genre of music just because of the 1990s and early 2000s. There are some really inspirational songs…”
“Die! Die! Die! Ah! No! Ha ha hah! Yes!"
“... so what do you think?”
I sent her an image of what exactly what I was doing and she went silent for a few seconds.
Then she said, “Ohhh… sorry… you're busy.”
“Please hold,” I sent her and focused entirely on the task at hand.
Without the distraction it only took a few more seconds for me to finish it off, which was lucky because I was getting low on magic.
Panting and still keyed up from the fight, I looked around to make sure there weren't any more.
Then, as I looted the Nilum I answered her. “Okay. So. I would only share the best of the best. No songs that glorify violence, drugs, female degradation and criminal activity. Only the songs that are about rising above all that despite everything that holds you down.”
She was silent for several moments before saying, “So, about one percent of the songs from the 1990s and early 2000s. Got it. Are you okay?”
“A little out of breath but I got through it without a scratch. Only a few bruises.” I looted the razor sharp teeth and said, “Maybe I should of named these things Razorteeth instead.”
“That would make more… wait. What do you mean you named them?”
I grinned but said nothing.
“You named them Snickersnacks? And… you're the one responsible for Whatsits being called Whatsits!”
I sent her a visual of me whistling in a pantamon of innocence as I walked down the road.
“Everyone is calling them that and you just made it up?”
“Well, they needed names and I was in the unique position of being able to make them up. While having the complete and utter lack of shame to lie about it.” I paused before asking,”Is everyone really calling them Snickersnacks and Whatsits?”
She went silent for a moment and I resisted the urge to spend the magic to read her emotions.
"Yes. Yes they are," she said and I felt an echo of her humor.
She sent me a snippet of conversation from three Aegis Elves who lamented the names.
I laughed. Then laughed harder when she showed me the three Elves looking at her in confusion when she burst out laughing as well.
It felt good to laugh. Laughter is the bug repellent of fear, it kept the buzzing, mosquito sized fears from biting. The chupacabra sized fears were a different matter.
I started jogging and asked, “How many stamina potions did you give me?”
“I'm not sure, I got as many as they were selling, which wasn’t that many. About six, I think. You didn't check your inventory did you?”
“I got distracted.” I started running faster. “Only six?”
“Hey, you want more, you make them.”
“I never learned any Apothecary Skills,” I paused, "Or do they call it Alchemy here like they do in Aegis?”
“Alchemy. And you could always learn.”
“I have no idea even how to start learning… wait,” I thought back to a few other game worlds and how such things worked there. “I remember! One way to learn what an ingredient does is to eat it!”
“Um… Ruin? I don't think - “
“Yes! I'll just eat everything that might be an Alchemy ingredient and see what happens! What are some ingredients? From Midian I remember it was certain flowers, roots, bees, butterfly wings, giant toes - “
“No… Ruin nooo…”
“Oh, right. Sorry. Of course there are no Giants around.”
“You're horrible.”
“I'm also running out of magic.” I grimaced. “And stamina…”
“You still have those potions left. Use them.”
“I don't want to use then all at once. I thought it would be better to keep some in reserve in case of emergencies.”
“Oh, right. That would be the smart - “
“But you know what? Forget that! You're right, I'm using them all!”
She sent me an image of her face palming while I pulled out a potion, but paused when she asked, “Isn't there a way to use your magic to move faster?”
“Not really. The spell is used for jumping not…” I trailed off as an idea exploded into my mind with pure awesomeness.
“What? Did you think of something?”
I put the potion back and slowed to a walk. “Maybe, gotta go, my magics low anyway.”
“Already?”
“Yours isn't?”
“A little, but I guess I wasn't fighting a ‘Snickersnack’.”
“You got a better name?” I shot back.
“Yes. Several. Want to hear them?”
“Psssshhh… signal pssshhh being pssshhh lost. Can't psssssssshhhhhhh…”
“That's not how this works, Ruin. But fine, just contact me soon, okay?”
I said I would and our minds parted, her presence fading back to a comforting weight in the back of my mind.
If my idea worked, it would be awesome. If not, it would be the exact opposite of awesome.
I looked at my Soul Tome to see my advancement.
Learned Spells:
Force Spike: (Cast On Release) A short spike of energy, that causes damage at close range.
Rank: Competent. Level 6
Note: This spell was imprinted upon you in the realm between, as you reshaped your soul.
Bounce: (Modulated) A burst of energy used for blasting away objects.
Rank: Skilled. Level 10.
Skills:
Hand To Hand: The use of the body as a weapon. Though you may use hand weapons in battle your main weapon is your body.
Martial Arts Rank: Skilled. Level 1.
Claws Rank: Competent. Level 5.
I was happy with the rank I'd achieved with the Bounce spell. Constantly using the spell, even just putting power into it without casting had really helped me get a feel for it.
It was more or less instinctive by now, letting me modulate the strength of it without much thought.
I also had a Martial Arts rank I was pretty sure I got from the fight in the alley. I was lucky I already had some experience in fighting, from AR games as well as real life.
The level of my Class had gone up too and I hoped it would grow fast as well.
I unsummoned the book and walked down the road at a quick but steady pace. Cycling magic through my spells without casting them until I felt that particular sensation which meant my magic had regenerated.
Then I left the road for the trees, keeping the road in sight while I started running.
First I got a feel for parkoring around trees and over bushes. Then I channelled my magic, dodged around a tree, jumped up and kicked off it with my Bounce spell.
I soared through the air, far faster than I expected towards another very solid looking tree. I managed to twist sideways in the air, digging my claws into the tree bark, rolling around to the other side and kicking off it.
If anyone had been watching in that moment, they would have thought I had the grace of someone bitten by a radioactive spider monkey.
The next instant however, would of proved them wrong. So, so wrong.
Because behind that tree was another tree. A tree much, much too close. A tree I was headed for face first.
There was no time to do anything other than to try to slow myself down with another Bounce spell. It sort of worked.
Instead of hitting it head first, I crashed into it chest first. Slamming into it so hard it knocked the breath out of me. I c
ould almost see a little ghost version of myself going along with it.
For a few seconds I was molded to the rough bark, my arms and legs splayed out on either side of the tree like one of those ancient cartoon characters.
Then gravity told momentum that enough was enough and it slowly peeled me off the bark as I fell backward. I had a moment of relief.
Then I hit the ground.
It was not awesome.
A long, high pitched wheezing moan burbled out as I lay there, my hand twitching towards my bag.
It was only when I grabbed a health potion and downed it so fast I barely registered the taste, that I could finally breathe.
What came out was a choking, blood gurgling laugh as I rolled over onto my side. The laugh was replaced by a hiss of pain as my broken ribs shifted. I got determinedly to my hands and knees, the blood at the back of my throat turned from liquid to vapor as it hit the air.
My whole body hurt and it felt like I'd cracked one of my horns.
And that's when I learned several things. One: It is extremely painful to talk with a dislocated jaw. Two: It does not stop me from talking. And Three: Health potions taste like strawberries.
After putting myself back together I decided that the smart thing would be to never, never, never, never ever try that again.
So the second time I tried it...
Yes, of course I tried it again. No, I am not a masochist. No, I am not some fearless daredevil.
It helped that I had no real fear of pain. Pain was unpleasant, a warning your body sends to your brain, telling you that something was wrong.
But in this world physical pain was temporary. Without healers or potions we would heal, even if it took a while and left scars.
Emotional pain was where the real suffering was at. I've been beaten a quarter to death and I'd rather face that again than a broken heart.
Still, I took things slow this time since I had a limited amount of health potions. I bounced off a tree, aiming for the side of the next tree. Timing it so I had time to maneuver.
There were a lot of falls, trips, stumbles and one face plant but nothing as bad as my first try.
Eventually I got the hang of it and was pretty happy with this new mode of getting around.
“Woohoo! Yeah! Booyah! Cowabunga! Kupaianaha!”
I jumped from tree trunk to tree trunk, swinging from branch to branch. Using my claws, my magic and my momentum to soar through the forest like an anime ninja.
Honestly it wasn't very hard once I learned the trick of it. The skills I learned from running over rooftops, losing police drones and scrambling around in the underground transferred perfectly.
It was awesome.
Until night came.
I jumped and landed back on the road, jogging for a while to let my magic refill when I noticed it getting darker. But I figured with my ability to see in the dark I would be fine.
However, I turns out that while Forest Elves can see pretty well in dark under the bright stars and a full moon, in the woods under thick tree cover it's another story.
I could see well enough to walk around but leaping from tree to tree was a no go. All it took was one branch I didn't quite see to make me take an involuntary dirt nap.
I might have done it anyway if it wasn't for the fact that I was so tired. Stamina potions aren't the same as energy drinks and I had been walking, running and fighting since morning.
Resigned to the fact that I would have to stop for the night, I dropped onto a soft patch of grass in an exhausted heap. Then I moaned, got back up and climbed a tree.
I hoped that being high enough off the ground would hide me from any Nilum or dangerous animals while I slept.
I contacted Cherish while I searched my bag for food, not even caring what I ate.
Mmm, medieval granola bars...
I gave her a quick update as I ate a few bars, but I could barely stay awake after becoming stationary.
I had a blurry memory of Cherish ordering me to sleep as I licked my claws clean. Then of her telling me to be careful before she pulled away.
After that, I dreamed.
♦♦♦
I dreamed of Midian.
I dreamed of the Grey Hell.
I dreamed I wasn't alone.
We were all there, lying on the cold concrete floor of the Grey Hell, while our avatars lay on a rooftop.
All of us gazing up at the enormous, ice white moon in an arterial spray sky.
Flesh and digital bodies aligned so closely we could almost believe we were there, almost believe we were free.
We moved closer, sometimes slowly, sometimes suddenly. Pretending to move unconsciously closer in our sleep so the cameras didn't flag anything.
The back of a hand against a hip, a foot pressed to a leg, one head resting against another, until we were all huddled together into a pile. To protect ourselves from the loneliness as much as from the chill of the floor.
From long practice, our bodies moved as one with our avatars. Mimicking positions as we lay together, watching Midians moon.
We held each other close amid the empty silence of the Grey Hell night and waited for the dark sunrise.
It started as a speck of black in the middle of the moon. A speck that grew into crisscrossing, spiderweb thin lines that oozed thicker and thicker. The black unfolding against the white like a dark flower blooming in the snow.
The black sun rose from the bright moon and as it did, the world dimmed. The brightness of the red sky darkening, thinning until the true shape of the world could not be ignored.
We you looked, really looked, you saw that the horizon curved up, like the smile of an enormous beast. Then you realized you did not walk across the skin of the world, but inside it.
Twilight came, the moon and the sun in perfect balance and in that single moment, time stretched to the edge of breaking.
In such moments you could see the far side of the world more clearly than ever.
Their was the land of Murmuring Mountains. Filled with lakes of lava and rivers of water that looked like snakes and staring faces that stared down from the sky.
The inhabitants of the Falling Sea and it's floating islands moved like fireflies behind the shadowed sun.
Lights dripped up and down the Candlelight Mountains as luminescent bats migrated across the impossibly narrow formations.
There were other places, the Eater Woods, the Hollows, the Feasting Forest, the Spire City and the other hexencoral cities spread across Midian.
Then, the moment passed and the sun, slowly yet inexorably, consumed the light of the moon, until the black sun shone shadows down to darken the world.
The hearts blood black sky hid the shapes of the far off lands, leaving only the glowing, glowering, shining and flickering lights above as a reminder.
In my dream, in my memory, we talked, joked, shared ideas and plans just as we usually did after sunrise. Sometimes we split up, other times we stayed together.
This time, we each had our own quests to resolve or works to pursue. So when we left, this time, we left separately.
My claws scraped over the skin of the building as I dropped. Occasionally catching the odd window sill to slow my fall to the ground.
The others made their own way down and we waved at each other as we left. Alone on our own, but still connected, still touching in the Grey Hell.
A feeling that became more and more of a comfort. Our only source of comfort, as the memories of Midian and Hell chewed away at our recollections of the Outside.
As I walked a mist storm rolled in, the rushing streams of fog flowing over the empty streets and through black skinned buildings.
They were alive, those buildings. Tamed and bred to grow out of their twisted spire shapes and into a mimicry of civilization.
But it was only a mimicry.
Their edges were rounded, the windows never quite regular, the doorways gaped open like smiles, grimances or gasps of pain. While others were closed, barred
with bared stalactite and stalagmite teeth into snarls and grins.
What looked like wide spikes, jutted from the black walls at seemingly random interveles.
As I watched, a spike facing an alley shot away on a twisted tentacle, splitting open to reveal needle teeth and barbed tongues within. It bit into a squealing rat and the spike retracted with its prize, swallowing the rat before the vermin even stopped moving.
I kept walking, knowing I wasn't it's preferred prey and that the building wouldn't attack unless I tried to hurt it.
I heard music, the strains of a lonely saxophone drifting down the street though the mist. Then, in the way of dreams, the music changed. It grew and mutated until it was something else entirely.
Then I was in another memory, this one older. A memory from the Outside.
I dreamed of hidden music, deep in the abandoned tunnels beneath the city. Where people danced, colored lights flashed and the rhythm of the music was the heartbeat of existence.
Dubstep slammed into my ears and rolled through my mind. Purely instrumental, heavy on the guitar riffs, it pushed everything away. Everything but the here and now. Nothing mattered but the moment.
Until I saw her.
She danced alone, her movements had the fluid effortlessness of a ballerina and the ferocity of a warrior in battle. Her body flowed, bent, curved and twisted to the music, while I stood there, entranced.
It wasn't until then that I realized this was a dream of a memory. That the Outside was unreachable, untouchable and gone forever.
The way I saw her now, in this dream, was wrong.
No, not wrong. Just different.
The strawberry blonde hair, freckles and long lean body the same height as mine were all the same. What was different was that in this dream, unlike the memory, she wore the body she had in Midian.
Her fingers didn't have nails but extended retractable claws as she flexed them. Her eyes were closed but I knew they would slitted like a cat's, bright blue and with irises so wide they drowned out the white
Small horns, slightly more golden than her hair, rose in an elegant sweep up from her forehead. Her long tail swayed along with her body, dripping poison and lashing at any who came too close.
She was beautiful.
Even if she wasn't really there I still wanted to go to her. To talk to her. To…
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