B 2 C 5: A FAMILIAR FACE
Though a tad frightening, as I’d never noticed it happen before, the smoke plume doesn’t seem to indicate anything other than the natural activity of the Fire Biome. The dark cloud that arises from the volcano dissipates long before it even remotely approaches the edge of the biome.
Oh, hey, it dawns on me, the gravity powers definitely belong to Teuila, and not her equipment. I’d always been slightly curious if her Valkyrie form needed the equipment to perform her incredible leaps. Yet here she is, half naked, sailing through the skies as she embraces me. I doubt the torso bindings, or leggings provide magical leaping power. I know they don’t for me, since I wear them frequently, and also frequently find myself skidding on my face from a failed step, let alone a failed jump.
I realize Teuila is laughing almost nonstop at my completely random train of thought. I try to call her out on it. “So, Te, how does it feel being in my head? Because it’s like that. It’s that completely random, all the time!” Te’s only response is to pull me closer, burying her face in my neck. She wraps her legs around mine, aiming them down like the tip of a spear.
Suddenly we’re rocketing towards the ground. We zoom quickly down past Lil and Luni, who seem to shout dejectedly, though they laugh as they do. I’m a little frightened that we’re going to break our legs, but at the last moment, it feels like all the kinetic energy bleeds out from us. Just before impact I swear I heard a thundercrack, or maybe a sonic boom, and the ground craters where we land. The crater seemed to form an instant before our impact, maybe a quarter of a meter ahead of us.
“Wow.” Awe escapes my lips and I just stare at Teuila. She flashes me a sly smile and flips her hair back, while brushing mine back. We both look pretty wind-blown at the moment, in our hair styles anyway. We stand there, staring into eachothers’ eyes for a while. After some time, Teuila sighs and looks away. I can feel trepidation building in her, as I realize what she’s about to do. I also know she’s getting ready to flee as she does it.
As Teuila’s form begins to shrink, I clasp her tightly. Even though I begin to shake, I maintain my grasp. “You never have to leave, ever, ever again.” She doesn’t fully believe me, but she relaxes into my embrace. I let my gaze meet hers after some time, and my muscles seize, my breath catches in my throat, forcing me to gulp. My pulse rockets so hard that it feels like it’s shaking me each time my heart pounds. I can’t help smiling though. “You’re amazing. Every last bit of you. That was amazing, you are amazing. You’re so, so, so, Awesome!”
A frown that had been playing across Teuila’s lips suddenly cracks into a smile as she starts to laugh. “Heeee, really, awesome? Ya goobtube, thanks. I guess.” She sticks her tongue out at me, blowing a raspberry, pulling lightly on her right cheek, near her lower eyelid, not enough to really move her eyelid though.
I’m glad she only half heartedly performed the gesture, it allows me to be serious with what I’m about to share. I sense Lil swooping and performing breakfalls, or well, brakefalls more accurately, closing in on the ground, trying to catch up with us safely. As Lil arrives, they drop their Lilagnewt form, and bounce on the ground while Lu descends gracefully as if hanging in midair for a moment. I try not to let that confuse me, as I get around to stating my plans. “I’m going to start traveling again, for a bit. First I need to see the beavers, to ask for some lumber. I’ll come back after that for a while. None of you have to come with me. I don’t want to be away from you, but I know I’m already interrupting your lives with my erratic return. I’m.”
“Bup bup bup bup.” Each of them interrupt me, and I receive a facefull of palms and scaly butt. Lu and Te both perform their elongated laugh of bliss, “Heeeeee.” I can’t quite figure out why, until they tackle me to the ground in a hug, one from the top right, one from the lower left, knocking my feet out from under me, causing me to land on Lil. I’m still not quite certain, but I think this means that they’re coming with me. I chuckle at my own uncertainty.
“Doy, buddy! You won’t be able to get rid of us now that you’re back!” Lil’s response is as exuberant as I’d expect.
“Okay, but, guys, you just, I just, we just. Earlier, I asked about your plans, none of you said, ‘hey I wanna go see the beaverfolk and get back to adventuring.’ You each had plans, desires.” I struggle to find the words. I’m still a bit shaken by Teuila’s presence.
“Uh, yeah, dinglehopperberrybush. With the amount of trouble you get into, adventuring with you is always going to be the fastest way to reach those goals, pootbrain.” Te’s creativity continues to stretch terms of endearment to their extreme, granting me confusing laughter. Thinking back on my life so far though, she’s probably right.
“But what about you Lu? I thought you were storytelling and singing with Ag, for the family?” I ask Lu, who still hasn’t put her dress back on from the swim earlier. Her fur is poofed wide from the air dry caused by going from soaked to the sky. It’s a vaguely adorable, slightly amusing sight.
“I think Agwai can handle it, silly. Um, you know, besides, maybe, just maybe,I could maybe use a break from the puns.” She chuckles slightly nervously as she meekly answers. Ah, I’ve only heard the one, but if she and Ag are practicing regularly during the days, Ag is probably telling a lot more jokes. Lu grimaces slightly as she reads my thoughts, though it’s a playful grimace, with laughter underlying it. I’m actually exceedingly happy that she’s comfortable enough with us to show her meek side, to feel like she doesn’t have to put on the extroverted face as much with us.
My stomach rumbles and I sigh. “I don’t know about you guys, but I’m famished, my food stocks are low, and I could use at least one nice night of having the whole family back together for a full cuddle pile. Care to join me for some fishing?”
“We better rush Pal! We’ll have to beat the twins there, it’s almost time for them to wake up. They’re getting pretty good!” Lil exuberantly explains.
Well, with that answer, there’s naught for it, but to rush home. One obstacle to that plan however, well, two, the gals grin, pinning me down over top of Lil. I’d worry that it might be hurting Lil, but Lil’s ridiculously strong and resilient.
“You betcha I am! I can barely even tell you’re squishin’ me!” Lil then releases a squeaky noise that I’ve only ever heard before while they sleep. Suddenly Te and Lu are rolling away, coughing, gasping, gripping their noses. I’m suddenly grateful for having lost my sense of smell so long ago.
“Ugh, that was foul! What is that, brimstone? You dorky little dragbutt!” Teuila exclaims as she lunges for Lil, who slithers out from under me and starts hopping away. Lil transforms midleap to flit across the river. “Oh no you don’t, get back here you little punk!” Te cries as she chases after Lil.
Lu laughs so hard she cries, as she sidles closer to me for a moment, laying against me. Her hands clasp mine for only a second, before she tosses my own hand into the air so she can throw her arms wide and tackle me into a hug. “I’m, um, I’m so proud of you. I told you before, you got this. You’re you’re, you’re my hero, still, always.” After her admission, she blushes, and scampers towards the river. Luni leaps in and swims across as if nothing had just transpired.
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I scratch my head, a bit dumbfounded. First they say that I won’t be able to lose them again, then they race off to home without me? “Heh, hahaha, as Te might put it, oy vey, my bunch of dorks.” I check to make certain the equipment that was divested disappeared. Sure enough, it did, so at least there’s no risk of Teuila leaving extra copies of Gae Buidhe around anywhere. Satisfied, I chase off after my friends, taking a shortcut, the river itself. I swim with the river’s flow, and use my tattoo tendrils to fairly rocket along downstream. As I’m about to pass the bend in the river that leads to the offshoot wherein lies Shellcracker pond, I flick out a tendril to pivot around a rock. Once done, I’m swinging into the offshoot at breakneck speed. As I see my inner circle approaching in various states of evolution, playfully chasing one another, I lazily float about on my back, spitting water like a fountain.
“Whaaaaaaaaaaaaat? No way!” Lil cries with incredulity, still in a chipper manner as they leap into the pond. Rather, they leap atop my stomach, causing us to both fall into the pond slightly, laughing. I wipe the water from my eyes, and spy Teuila just grinning at me, beaming with pride. As Lu finally catches up, she notices our orientation, and realizes our order of arrival.
“Heeeeee. Told you!” Luni gleefully sends into my brain across our shared wavelength. I can’t help but smile widely, even as I stare at Teuila, who sets my heart aflutter for several reasons. The panic under the surface steels my resolve to complete the tasks ahead of me.
“Guys? Make sure the twins stay back for a bit, I’m gonna do something that’s probably a bit stupid.”
Immediately I hear Lil groan as they leap off of my chest. “Awe maaaaaaan, tell me you’re not gonna do what I think you’re gonna do pal.” As serious as they sound, there’s a light air, laughter under their statement. I flash Lil a bit of a wicked smirk. Lil rolls their eyes and bounds over to the gals. Lil starts butting them playfully towards the side of the pond, where they can keep Manaia or Manameia away if either or both of the twins do show up.
I summon one of my last few meals from my inventory, and equip myself fully, including a sword that I hold by the blade. I need to be a bit careful, I’m back down to maximum energy capacity values similar to what I had when I was first here so long ago. Still, my stamina reduces the cost of my magic far more than back then. I eat the fish, calling forth an angry swarm of every fish in the pond.
The little fish are of course no challenge, I flit about, so much better at swimming than I was in the beginning. With how much time I’ve spent in, or under water, who could expect anything less by this point? The larger fish only take the slightest bit more force than the smaller ones. When I’ve stricken down nearly every fish, save a large barracuda, and some bass that got away, I enact my very dumb plan.
I gash my left hand with the sword that I’m holding by the blade. That stings like heck, but as a cloudy poof of blood enters the water, it has my desired effect. Sure enough, a familiar old foe returns, as if called from the ether. Feeling a little cocky, I launch an attack at it, which it deftly dodges. When I say deftly, it moved like lightning, I could barely see its movement.
A bit confused that Vampguppy is so quick, my eyes widen when I count its health bars. Seventeen that traverse the color spectrum from green through yellow to red. Well now, this just got interesting. Also, Vampguppy rises up far, far taller than I recall.
“Need any help fam?” “Yeah Pal, you good?” Luni and Lil call out. Teuila however watches on in bemused silence, tapping her foot impatiently.
I call out, “No no, not yet anyway, I’m good.” I dodge a lunge from Vampguppy, barely. “For now.” I mutter. I decide to take the fight to land, on the far side of the pond, away from the family. My family. My heart swells with pride. Shellcracker Pond, my family. I close my eyes as my smile spreads wide. The danger wraps guide my movements, and I find myself summoning radiant copies of spears for Vampguppy to impale itself upon while I dash past its attack, dragging my sword along its torso. Vampguppy does manage to nick me in the passing of one lunge though. Suddenly their health starts rocketing up.
“Oh come on! Really?” It barely touched me, and that recovery is much faster than before. I don’t want to call Lil over just to stop its regeneration, so I need to figure out something that provides a lot of heat. Electricity burns, right? I’ve heard the term electrical burns. I’ve been calling it a thunder stick for a while now, but the staff should have the power of both thunder and lightning. Sheathing my sword, I pull my thunder stick from my inventory. What sort of willpower, what kind of action did Staff Ninja require, to activate this staff’s abilities? Teuila keeps tapping her foot impatiently, and she stares at me with one eyebrow raised. She taps two fingers on her wrist. How does she even know the signal for time, or a watch? Her knowing the gesture is confusing enough in and of itself, but my staring at her weakens my muscles with panic. Still, I persist. Luni is watching Teuila, and laughing. Lil is rolling around on their back, proclaiming how bored they are.
“Hahaha, I feel so disrespected right now.” Alright Reggie, think, this thing has more health than even a certain serpent, this was a really stupid idea. I’ve got less energy than I need for this many health bars. Unless I can get this staff to work. I try to picture Staff Ninja in my memory. They were very showy, and flashy with their staff movements, not treating it like a club as I have. Wait, flashy movements? Flash of lightning? Is that literally all there is to it? I begin spinning the staff, windmilling it, twirling, and as I cartwheel, I strike the staff into the ground, imagining that I’m becoming a lightning rod for a bolt to jump from me to Vampguppy. The thunderclap probably woke up any of my family who isn’t awake yet. Whoops. That, and the bolt of lightning that streaks through an otherwise clear sky above the canopy, down to meet me.
“OW!” Perhaps that wasn’t quite the right thing to imagine. I’m struck by lightning, and it does indeed leap to Vampguppy, utterly destroying a large section of their health. It continues to drain bar after bar, as I channel lightning through me, into good ol’ evil VG here. Vampguppy somehow seems to be everywhere at once, lashing out, flinging me towards the deep end of the pond as has happened once before. They leap after me, but before they can even hit the surface of the water, I can think only the phrase, “Nah fam.” No words leave my lips though, only a cough, and a puff of smoke shaped like an oh.
As Vampguppy is about to make contact with water, I’m still channeling lightning, which is bouncing around, ricocheting off of the blue barrier, and the surface of the water. It sets the pond aflame, somehow igniting the water itself. Perhaps more likely, separating some hydrogen from oxygen, and igniting that. I then summon dozens of radiant copies of Gae Buidhe, facing point up, under where Vampguppy is about to touch down. I really want to cockily say checkmate, really really badly, but I bite my lip and hold it in, waiting as time slows.
That familiar crashing, cracking, tinkling happens as Vampguppy derezzes. They fade away to wireframe and polygons, and I’m met with cheers, and sneers, when I can finally hear outside the pond again, as the barrier drops. Agwai is slapping their own face and probably rolling their eyes. Mat is sneering, jeering at me. Teuila is smirking at me, she nods approvingly. Lil and Lu are cheering me on, as are both pairs of twins. Laomati has her arms crossed, and she’s tapping her foot, with a half smile on her face that betrays her attempts to appear stern as she gazes my way.
I actually have to take a victory lap to gather everything in the pond, which makes me feel like I’m coming off a bit more cockily than I intend to. The first family member I need to talk to is Lao. As I leap out of the pond, I unequip everything save some clothing. I approach Lao and she holds up a hand.
“I can see it in your eyes. You’re leaving us again, soon. No? If that is the path you must walk, so be it.” For a while, her words linger in the air, they sound stern, and unforgiving. “But dear, sweet child, our beloved Reggie Shellcracker, did you really have to do that, so early in the morning?” She chuckles, and pulls me in for a tender, motherly embrace, laughing. She really had me going there for a moment. The fact that my family can tease me, that they are confident enough to stand around and watch me battle some giant creature, all of that adds up to me feeling so happy for them. I made the right choice, I gave them the right home. Our experiences made us stronger.