Rh

The rest of the night was peaceful. The sound of buzzing fireflies and slowly fading talks came and went quickly. Heavy eye’s from the–frankly exhausting day. People dropped so quickly and the only ones who seemed not tired were the three adults.

They sat with Flame and his wounded comrade as they drifted asleep, and discussed things in hushed tones with each other. Not with Flame. They treated the boy like they treated the healing body of Rumble. Invisible to the conversation he could hear.

Rhodney watched as Flame did that thing. You know, that thing when you look out while people are talking. Pretending like your mind is preoccupied while you listen intently.

And while Rhodney was just as tired as his friends, he kept his eyes and ears open. It was a struggle. He felt himself ebbing and flowing, his consciousness sloshing like a low and mid tide. But he had to keep going,

Because the conversation was insanely worrying to anyone who listened.

“...Seven missing, I can’t find them.” Nike says.

Shoji swears under his breath, “Are you sure you looked everywhere,”

“Aye, I even checked the cave entrance.” Nike rolled a smooth rock in his fingers to try and keep his concern at a low level. It wasn’t working. Shoji looked over at our lesser pile and sucked his teeth. “Damn duds,”

“Are you seriously blaming them for this?” The lesser adult said.

“The lessers made us split our attention between Flame’s group and theirs.” He snapped, “If it wasn’t for that flying construct, we would’ve had everything under control.”

““Under control.”” Nike said. He made big air quotes with his fingers, implying that that statement was as goofy as it sounded. They couldn’t fault Rhodney’s group for Flame’s getting attacked and the other kids getting lost.

In Rhondey’s eye’s, it was Shoji and Nike’s fault. They should’ve brought more people to watch the kids. Children -especially magic fantasy children- are a valuable resource no matter what world you’re in.

Hunting, defending, building, learning, leading. Rhodney’s group was the future, and to only have like two people watching them…

It was… stupid. Maybe they were so confident in Nike and Shoji’s physical abilities that it seemed like a good idea at the time, but he didn’t know.

Maybe bring the girl with thirty eyes next time? Or some other evolved creatures?

The leadership in this place so slap dashed. Who was in charge? Did he need to go full Karen and give them a piece of his mind? Rhodney laughed a little to himself as he remembered Karen’s from earth. He could see one of those mom cuts slapped on Shoji.

The look would suit him.

The men continued to talk as Rhodney slept in his pile. And almost as soon as he closed his eyes–

“Rise and shine!”

He was hit with a flash of light and the sounds of chirping. A chorus of groans came out of the camp as the energetic minotaur yelled into the sky. Rhodney’s eyes were red with a lack of sleep, and he imagined this was how a hangover would feel.

The veins in his head BEAT. The mental exhaustion from the night before not even close to being gone.

His sleep was so instant that he couldn’t even have a nightmare.

Can’t even give him that, Mr.Minotaur?

“TODAY WE’RE COMPLETING THE TEST!” He yells, to the children. Standing next to him is a short crouching imp woman, and a very large gord. The woman has stubby round horns and has graying hairs similar to Nike.

She looked almost as tired as the rest of the kids.

Long robes, horns that stretched back and hung down, and a face in a perpetual yawn. Her exhaustion and age were apparent. She had thin wispy lines of gray that threaded through her hair, and eyebags that were almost purple.

Rhodney noticed how her hands were almost as rough as the battle hardened Nike, thick calluses and large fingers. She was thin, and looked like she only recently has been eating well.

Though, that last detail was probably just his intuition talking. No, who was he kidding? He was practically reading people at this point. It was probably going to turn into [Mind Reading] if he wasn’t careful.

Her eye bags and slouched demeanor tells us all that he had to know.

Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.

She’s a hard worker.

She yawned as Nike started pointing and exclaiming at what she had brought.

The gigantic gord, even horizontal, looming over their bodies. Olive green skin, slightly rough exterior, and a nutritious value.

It has a smoked outer body and was prepared well. It smelled of salt and… other alien spices that he couldn’t quite place. ‘Thank god,’ he thought. The unsalted meat cubes gave Rhodney a bad first impression when he first got into this world.

And he fully expected, as a monster, to be only eating unsalted cooked meat for the rest of his days. But vegetables! He’d never been so excited at the prospect of taking a bite of the juicy gord. And it smelled incredible.

His mouth practically salivated at the thought of taking a massive bite of the gord. Rhodney could even feel its nutritional value.

Feel?

His blessing buzzed slightly.

…His face turned sour as he placed two and two together. He could feel far more than what he could before. His nature magic seemed to have gotten an… enhancement in the night.

If the power applied to knowing if a plant was poisonous or unhealthy, it could be useful in the woods. But that was neither here nor there.

He was more–concerned with the implication.

The upgrade felt like a membrane. A congealed jelly that wrapped his brain in a thin jelly of permanent nature magic.

He could feel her connection at the back of his mind, ringing as his eyes darted plant to plant. His knowledge blessing and nature blessing working heating up with excitement that Rhodney couldn’t control.

He could barely think as his mind started hungrilly gulping down the info that was fed by the tree's invasion.

Like an invisible profile transposed on his ears, it was like a second voice fed him info.

It sounded like him, but it felt like he was reading a book that he wasn’t even looking at, like invisible words were worming into his head.

Carna Grass. light bluish green, soft feeling, non nutritional value, surprisingly good at being pulled taut. Ado Tree. Blue bark with a rough feeling. Non nutritional value, has a malleable will.

His mind was in an entirely new state. Giant and fantastic in size, Rhodney completely forgot the gord he likened to james and the giant peach. His mind became cloudy as he darted from thing to thing.

The words that Nike said sounded like they were underwater. Only the base ringing out as Rhodney’s mouth hung. The buzzing. His pectoral and back of his thigh burned as the two hit an insane feedback loop.

Identify, compile, stack, identify, compile, stack, identify, compile, stack. His head started to hurt as it didn’t stop. Knowledge, Nature,

Nature,

Knowledge,

Knowledge,

Nature, Knowledge,

Nature, Nature.

…

He needed city.

He needed town.

He wasn’t enjoying the forest as much anymore.

“Navy,” he called, when did his command spell activate? He barely heard his friend say anything as the underwater sounding world began to get thicker and thicker.

The membrane’s cloudiness had started to grow more opaque. Rhodney’s green had painted his vision.

“Turn it off,” he said.

His eyes gave a thousand yard stare.

…

And then he was back.

“...And that’s why you should eat your vegetables, Unless you want to be eaten up by the sloth!” Nike said, finishing his seminar. Practically getting out a white board and laser pointer. But most of them were unconvinced.

“I don’t know sir, it looks a LITTLE weird,”

“You’re gonna have to kill me to get me to eat that!”

“...Can’t we just eat plums?”

“That sloth story doesn't even sound real.”

Nike huffs out smoke. “It is real. I was there!” The older woman nods her head and agrees, but most of the kids weren’t moved by the wives tale.

Rhodney breathe’s out and–tentatively–get’s Navy’s hand off his shoulder. “You alright?” Navy asks.

“...” Rhodney answers with a movement, he walks up to the giant gord and looks it up and down. The words come in his head again, but with his… drained, pool of mana, he restrained it. Sending a pulse it’s way like you’d tug on a dog’s leash as it walks in the wrong direction.

He realized that intuitively, it was very similar to the command spell. And worked with similar results.

He felt the second voice get a lot quieter. Not silent, but far away sounding and harder to compile for the blessing.

It would have to do.

“Ah, Rhodney,” Nike said.

Rhodney stared at the giant laying gord and smelled the smoked meal. It jiggled at his touch. Surprisingly squishy, but just firm enough that it wouldn’t collapse on transport. He reached in with his monster strength.

Schlock.

It made a wet sound and dripped with juices as he pulled it from its purchase. A golden meat beneath the green skin. He took another giant handful in his other hand, and stumbled back with the two pieces. The two scoops radiated steam and would burn if he wasn’t an imp.

Rhodney got back with his group of lessers, and sat down on the ground. The rest of the camp watched in silence as the boy took at first a tentative bite, then a bigger one. They watched Rhodney’s face go from indifference, to confusion, to ecstasy…

His bite’s turing more greedy as he ate.

Anticipating the rush, Navy and Flame immediately started booking it to the Gord.

Then, sooner rather than later, everyone began to feverishly tear while Nike laughed in the background.