Sometimes, Wu Chenhua, oftentimes simply known as Mrs Wu, mused there really was no point in getting up in the morning. Things generally went downhill after getting up and leaving the warm comfort of one's bed, or sleeping bag in her current situation. And really, why would it be so bad to stay in bed and ignore the harsh reality all around, at least for a day or five? Sure, food and drink would quickly become a problem, both incoming and outgoing, but it might be possible to find a solution for that, right? Or maybe not, maybe staying in bed all day would be akin to lying in a coffin, just a little less final.

For the small group she was travelling with, this was one of those days. It had been weeks since Kevin managed to stumble into a mess that left him fundamentally changed in a way very reminiscent of the way her dear student Samantha and Cassie Grim, the self-proclaimed cleric, had been changed, only that Kevin didn’t appear to have any additional skills, just the changed biology. Now, even after weeks of trying to understand that biology, it did nothing but give Oliver, their medic, and herself an ever-growing headache, each time they thought they came across something they recognised or that made sense to them.

At least the strange concoctions Oliver had been brewing continued to work on Kevin, just like they worked on all of them, even if nobody could truly explain why, not even Oliver. Oh, sure, he could give an explanation but when pressed, he quickly lost himself, trying to put his thoughts into words other people could understand. It came down to, as they all liked to joke, trying to explain the colour blue to a blind person, there was simply no reference frame and one had to resort to similies and comparisons but again, without a shared reference frame, that didn’t work too well. One could describe the colour blue as the wide, open sky, compare it to the sensation of the wind on your face or some other comparison that hinted at freedom and openness. Or one might compare it to a heavy blanket that covered a person, pressing them down and making them feel, well, blue. Both similies could be used and neither struck at the essence of the question, what was blue.

Trying to have Oliver explain his strange concoctions or the ointments he regularly put on bandages to help people heal from wounds that should require weeks of recovery or likely be fatal within minutes or hours, was similar to that, it didn’t make sense for anyone but him. Just like trying to talk to Kevin about magic didn’t seem to make sense to anyone but him. Only, there the comparison broke a little, there was somebody who could talk to Kevin about magic and not only understand what the boy was talking about but teach the boy, had taught the boy initially, so there had to be a logic and a shared reference frame. Just not one that Wu Chenhua or any of them really shared.

However, while Kevin’s altered biology and the differences in his anatomy made treating problems without resorting to the methods created by Oliver with the help of the system troublesome, the real problem was his altered appearance. Cassie Grim could pass as a human with very strange physiology, at least if the other party didn’t look all that close, and while Samantha had some distinctly inhuman features, they enhanced her appearance, only aided by the power and grace she carried herself with. Glittering hair, slightly blue skin and pointy ears didn’t scream alien to others, especially if the ears were hidden under the waves of her luxurious hair.

Kevin, on the other hand? If Samantha had managed to hit the jackpot with her inhuman features, Kevin had done the opposite and lost house and home. While his skin had a green tint reminiscent of deep water, that wasn’t too much of a problem. No, the real problem was that his limbs had become long and gangly, his height shooting up from a fairy average metre and seventy centimetres to almost two metres, all of that length added to his legs, making him look strange, even at a distance. Furthermore, the growths that had initially appeared in his hair had turned into stringy vines, adding a slightly unkempt quality to his appearance.

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And today, that appearance was seriously biting them in the behind. They had been travelling a bit, exploring and generally trying to figure out where to go and what to do, when they saw smoke on the horizon and decided to check it out. What they found wasn’t a real surprise, fires generally didn’t start without a reason and while there were some creatures that did so, they were fairly rare. There had been some tales that these creatures preferred to dwell in places where fire was already present, something like volcanoes or maybe sun-baked deserts and similar places, but there was no such place in the area they were in. Or at least there hadn’t been a place like that before the world went crazy, who knew what had changed since then?

But in this case, the obvious answer turned out to be the correct one and the smoke they had seen came from simple fires, used by a group of survivors to cook their food, try working metal and similar applications.

Wu Chenhua made the initial approach by herself, using the various tricks she had been taught many, many years prior to keep hidden, tricks she had augmented and improved with the help of the system. Though, amusingly, she was just as incapable of explaining those tricks to the rest of her group, let alone teaching them. There were times during which they all wondered how Samantha had been able to teach magic to multiple people but there was nothing they could do to understand, only shrug and consider it part of the Pale Lady’s abilities. Just like Samantha had, according to rumour, had put one of the Shattered back together and turned the creature into her daughter. Nobody had dared to ask, especially as that ‘daughter’ had once been the daughter of Apple Gate Farm’s owners, leaving that entire topic a sore one, though one that was repeatedly talked about nonetheless.

After Wu Chenhua managed to confirm that these people seemed to be fairly peaceful, with no indication of violence within the group or a few other red flags, they decided to approach as a group, hoping to join up, at least for a time. Since Apple Gate Farm had turned into a massive mess of complacency, bureaucracy and idiocy, they had been trying to find a new home for their group and this place might work.

Their approach was met with a mix of curiosity and vigilance, at least until the five of them got close enough to be studied in detail. Once that was possible, the curiosity was replaced with a morbid disgust and the vigilance shifted into hostility, all of it directed at poor Kevin. Warnings of ‘Drowned’ were shouted, leaving the five of them confused and a little bit horrified, especially when the locals readied their weapons, preparing to meet them with violence.

The situation could only be calmed down a little when their group stopped their movement, neither retreating nor advancing but instead starting to talk, even if the talking had to be done at almost thirty metres and by shouting. The locals didn’t want to go out and kill people, they had all seen enough death already but it quickly became obvious that they also wouldn’t accept the drowned, as they continued to call Kevin, into their midst.

Slowly, and fairly carefully, Wu Chenhua and John managed to draw out information, learning more about these drowned, which apparently were a type of local monster, occasionally wandering out of a nearby swamp, in addition to some other information about local threats. It quickly became obvious that the locals only told them about those threats in hopes that the five of them might be able to deal with the threats or, if not, the threats would be able to deal with them. Either way, it would be a positive development for the locals, taking care of threats or potential threats without any risk to their own people.

Overall, no matter what Wu Chenhua, John or anybody else tried to say and argue, the locals showed no mercy and wouldn’t accept Kevin as a person, instead of a monster.

Eventually, as the day was slowly drawing to a close, their group had to retreat and look for shelter elsewhere. The only thing they managed to accomplish was to get an agreement that Oliver would be allowed to trade medicine for food, though even that was met with a certain distrust. The five of them could only accept defeat and retreat, the sting of distrust setting in deeply and painfully, striking nobody harder than Kevin.