John was a simple man with a simple job.

Run through the village, deliver the mail, and collect his pay.

Well, “simple” was a bit deceptive when your town covered nearly 300 square kilometers and constantly rearranged itself. Still, it was honest work and, more importantly, to John, safe.

Not like those Trappers and Gatherers who regularly ventured out into the wilds of the prairies. Or even worse, his psychotic seniors, the Town Runners, who delivered their packages between the various cities and villages that made up the Wandering Cities. Really, he never understood what kind of person thought it was a good idea to wander through the Radiant Sea without a Grassreader. Who knew what kind of strange beasts or Cultivators you might run into out there?

No, John was perfectly happy delivering mail within the confines of the Slatewalker village. It’s not like much of anything ever happened here.

Today had been a good day; he only had a few more parcels to deliver today, too! He even heard there would be a feast later, though he hadn’t gotten the details of why. No matter. His second to last parcel was a letter to the Captain of the Guardians directly from the Elders, a last-minute addition to his route. It always made John feel important when he got to deliver such vital mail, even if the Captain was an intimidating man.

He hummed to himself as he rounded the corner, following the tracking jade the Capitan carried on his person. Only almost be run over by a huge black blur that rushed past. John froze mid-step, his heart racing, his head turned on rusty hinges to stare at the retreating figure. A giant black spirit beast, the likes of which he’d never seen, races around the open field at blistering speeds, a dozen children screaming wildly on its back.

Four Guardians in full armor chased after it, their silver auras blazing.

What was happening?!

Were they under attack?!

Were the children being kidnapped?!

What should he do?!

Did he need to find someone?!

Did he need to Run?!

Help!!! HEEEELP!!

John turned back the way he came, his eyes rolling and heart pounding in his chest when a large hand fell on his shoulder. John turned to see the Captain staring down at him. The older man smiled and spoke in his deep, booming voice.

“Ahhh, John. It’s good to see you. I assume that means the Elders have sent updated instructions? Good to know.”

John turned, his arms flailing as he tried to speak

“Captain! The thing, Capitan! Big! children! Black! That way! Whatdowewuauth!?!”

The Captain of the Guardians stared down at the runner with a frown, his head tilled. He then turned in the direction John was pointing, his eyes widening. The Capitan turned with a smile and patted the much smaller man’s shoulder with a laugh.

“Ahhh! I see. It must have been a busy day if you have not heard about our new guest. Don’t worry; we have everything under control.”

As if in response to his words, a loud explosion sounded in the distance, accompanied by a small dust cloud and light tremor. John could only stare in silence. When he turned back around, the Captain was smiling down at him, his hand outstretched. John numbly reached into his near-empty satchel and retrieved the letter before passing it over and saluting.

The Captain nodded and turned away, dismissing the quiet runner. Without another word, John turned and ran in the opposite direction, desperate to put as much distance as possible between himself and the Capitan’s giant “guest.”

When he at last stopped, John lend against his knee, sucking in lunges full of air. Well, that was enough excitement for the month. He did not know what was happening back there, and he did not want to find out. All he wanted to do was finish his last delivery for the day, then go home. He needed a nap.

Thankfully, his last stop was one he always enjoyed. All he had to do was deliver the package to the nice elderly couple who lived near the edge of town. It was close by to what luck. This was his favorite stop, if he was honest. Old Malaki could be… grumpy sometimes, but his wife, Maliit, was a sweet old broad who always offered him a cup of some of the best tea he’d ever had. Every time he drank it, he felt revitalized and energized, like he hadn’t just spent 10 hours running all over town.

Grinning ear to ear, he turned the corner… and froze. John stared wide-eyed, mouth agape. What should have been a small, homely cottage was now covered in what appeared to be hundreds of finger-sized… wasps?! They surrounded the building, some flying around in circles, others clinging to every surface. Many continually bounced off the windows and other openings, producing small flashes of light as they collided with some kind of barrier.

John took a step back, unsure of what he should do. There was no way he was approaching the house like that. Yet, simultaneously, it wasn’t like he could abandon the nice old couple to… to whatever this was. Should he turn around and inform the Captain? But then what if he encountered his “guest” again?!

What should he do?!

However, his choice was soon taken from him as the door to the cottage flew open, and an old woman appeared. However, she didn’t look like the kindly old grandma John was used to. No, this Maliit was disheveled, with messy hair and bloodshot eyes, her face and hands stained almost black with various ink stains. So unlike the neat and tidy woman he expected.

The instant the door opened, a large group of the wasps broke away and charged the open door, only to be repelled but the same strange barrier.

Her eyes scanned the surroundings before locking on to him. An icy chill ran down his spine, and the ear-to-ear smile she gave him looked like it belonged more to a tiger than an old woman. She called out to him, waving him forward.

“Ahh! John! About time!! I trust you brought what I ordered? Come, come! Hurry now!”

John’s eyes scanned the buzzing swarm. Grandma Maliit laughed and called out.

“Don’t worry, boy, they won’t hurt you. It’s just two children having a bit of a spat, that’s all.”

John shook his head and took a step back. He did not know what that meant, but there was no way he was getting any closer.

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Maliit sighed and flicked her finger toward him. Instantly, something latched onto the front of his uniform and forcibly dragged him closer. Before he could react, John was standing before Maliit in the middle of a buzzing swarm. The old woman crossed her arms and stared at him, her foot tapping and a brow raised.

Visibly shaking, John reached into his satchel and pulled out the package; a head-sized jar of ink and a dozen new booklets. Maliit snatched them from his grasp faster than he could see and held them to her chest with the fervor of a starving man grabbing a loaf of bread.

“YES! Thank you, John; who knows what I’d have done if you hadn’t shown up!”

Her words were simple, but the way she had spoken them… his shivering redoubled.

The old woman smiled up at the young man with something more akin to what he was used to, then tossed him a coin.

“A tip for your trouble. Have a good day, John!”

With those words, she slammed the door in his face…

John looked down at the coin in his hand to find an entire crystal chip, more than he’d made in a month if he was lucky.

Still shivering, John looked up to find much of the wasp swarm sitting near the doorway, just… staring at him.

His shaking knuckles going white around the small coin in his hand, John could feel tears welling up in his eyes.

He just wanted this day to be over already…

— — — —

Alpha watched as the apparent mailman rushed back to the cover of the nearby house carts. The small [Wasp] clinging to the back of the man’s collar switched out for a fresh one, with the young man none the wiser. Alpha had been tracking the mailman all day, and it had done wonders for putting names to places and people, as well as being a gold mine of other information.

As they (Alpha) said, if you want to really know someone, go through their mail. Of course, most of it had been rather useless to him. Much of it he couldn’t even read; the written portion of his lexicon was coming along far slower than the spoken portion. But he had come across some rather scandalous tidbits that he absolutely, positively would use to blackmail someone sometime down the line.

Hey, if you didn’t want to be blackmailed, don’t use public postal services.

The other part of his day had been attempting GLORIOUS REVENGE!

That old codger thought he could trick Alpha?! HE was the one who was supposed to be screwing with people!! Who did this bastard think he was?! For a moment, he’d contemplated showing up in person… then blowing a hole through their front door!

A calmer part of him decided that would be a poor choice. He was sure his ‘escorts’ wouldn’t appreciate him shooting up the nice old-couple-down-the-lane’s house. That would erase all the goodwill he’d built so far. Instead, he’d sent a few more [Wasps] to the house… only to be blocked by an energy barrier that definitely wasn’t there before when he tried to sneak back in. The old man, seeming to sense Alpha’s attempt, peered out at the drones, grinned from ear to ear, and waved at him.

Alpha had tried to will the drone through the glass, to no avail. Malaki actually stuck his tongue out at Alpha before returning to whatever it was he was doing to the deactivated [Wasp] on the table, his back turned so Alpha couldn’t get a good look.

Oh? He wanted war, then?!

Alpha would show him WAR!

He was built for it! Literally!

It wasn’t even about the [Wasp]; he could make thousands of them. No, this was personal now.

Soon, the house was surrounded by hundreds of tiny drones equipped with various tools and equipment, each trying to break through the barrier differently. But to no luck. It had been nearly eight hours now, and nothing he tried worked. Not even the plasma-wielder rated to repair fighter-class armor put more than a few scorch marks on the old, glowing wood. Alpha doubted he would see any progress unless he could figure out how these barriers worked.

Just as he contemplated if he really needed to show up in the TAWP, the barrier surrounding the house fizzled like static and popped. The connection to the wayward drone was reestablished, and Alpha took control immediately.

The drone’s camera came online, and the first image Alpha saw at the grinning face of the old man. So he did the only reasonable thing at the moment.

He charged Malaki, stinger first.

The old man leaned out of the way, easily dodging the telegraphed strike… and the next one from his blind spot too… and the next, and so on.

The dance continued for several moments before an empty inkwell swapped the [Wasp] from the sky, rebounding to strike the old codger between the eyes. While Alpha stabilized the drone and Malaki nursed his new welt, Maliit yelled from across the room.

“Will you two cut that out?! You’re distracting me!”

Alpha landed on the nearby table, and Malaki sat down, rubbing his head.

Alpha was the first to speak.

“Cough up, old man! We had an agreement! Don’t think I’m afraid to play that recording around town! You think you’re shameless?! I’ve been doing this since your great-grandfather was in diapers!”

The old man folded his hard and leaned back, laughing.

“I’m sure that’s incorrect, regardless of how old you think you are. Nonetheless, young man, I don’t know what you’re talking about. I’ve already upheld my end of the bargain.”

Alpha pointed to Malaki with a drone leg.

“Bullcrap! All you’ve — ”

The old man pulled a small mirror from nowhere and placed it in front of Alpha. The AI paused mid-sentence and turned the drone around to get a better look from various angles. Where once it was just a plain drone, the [Wasp] was now covered in intricate, crossing lines from leg to wing-tip. Some were thick and glowed with a strange light, while others were so thin they might have been microscopic to the human eye. Yet, every single one was made with a level of mindboggling detail, to the point Alpha wondered if the man didn’t somehow have a secret workshop filled with advanced machinery somewhere in the house.

That might have sounded ridiculous, given the technological level he’d observed so far and the size of the house in general, but it was no less ridiculous than thinking the geriatric man had made the lines by hand.

All the lines eventually converged to a single spot; a tiny, glowing gem in the center of the [Wasp’s] head.

The old man in question looked down at Alpha and raised an eyebrow.

“Well?”

Alpha was silent for a moment before responding.

“Well, what? I asked for lessons, old man, not for you to bling my drone!”

The old man grinned, then flicked something towards the drone. It flew toward the drone with astounding speed, but rebounded off a small energy shield before it struck. An energy shield the drone hadn’t been equipped with only a few hours earlier. Alpha looked up to see what appeared to be a chopstick embedded several inches in the ceiling, still quivering from the force of the impact.

Malaki grinned from ear to ear and laughed.

“Everything you need to know about -arrays- is stuffed into that. That is, if you have the eyes to see it. Hahahah! And if you don’t?….”

The old man shrugged and leaned back in his chair.

“Well then, you were never worth teaching. That’s not my problem.”

Malaki folded his hands and smiled like he’d told the best joke in the world.

“Do be careful not to go showing that off, though. Some more… unsavory types would chase you to the ends of the world for what’s there.”

Alpha silently observed the various lines on the drone with interest. There definitely was some… pattern there, some kind of “rule” to how they moved and flowed. There was also a defined progression, where the lines became progressively more complex. The question was, was it enough?

After a long moment, Alpha finally responded.

“Fine. I’ll take it.”

The old man leaned forward, all smiles.

“Good! Now get! I’ve already wasted enough time on this. Maybe if you bring me something actually interesting, there will be more to say.”

Alpha flew up and hovered in the air.

“That’s fair. Then I’ll be on my way. Though, before I do, one last gift.”

The old man crossed his arms and raised his brow with an arrogant smirk.

“Oh?”

At that moment, the cloaking hiding the [Wasp] on the man’s shoulder dropped. Malaki’s eyes went wild, and he moved to grab it, but it was too late. The drone’s stinger pierced the side of the man’s neck and injected its payload a split second before it was crushed.

The man wiped the drone remains from his shoulder and narrowed his eyes at Alpha.

“And what did you expect that to do, little boy? I’ll have you know I’m immune to more poisons than you know exist.”

Alpha laughed.

“Who said it was a poison?”

The old man raised an eyebrow, then suddenly clutched his lower abdomen. The man’s eyes bulged as his gut started making loud rumbling noises.

He turned to his wife, sweating.

“Maliit! MALIIT! Help!”

The old woman didn’t even look up from her notebooks as she responded.

“If you clog the piping, I’m not fixing it. And remember to refill the water tank.”

The old man’s face dropped, and he rushed from the room, deeper into the house.

The house was soon filled with the sound of Alpha’s laughter and more… unpleasant noises.