Chapter 3: Hero of Prophecy

Derek dreamt of catching monstrous sharks from the lake and crowd-surfing through the town in triumph. He fought to stay in the dream when something heavy settled on his chest. It wasn't the first time the family cat had decided it was time for Derek to wake up, but he wasn't ready. It was so rare his dreams were happy these days. The mundanity of his burgeoning adulthood had replaced all the happy dreams one by one. However, despite his best efforts, his dream as the town’s champion faded away. His new awareness he was in a dream acted like a stone thrown into a tranquil pond, the ripples destroying the image. When he reached out a hand to pet his dad's insufferable tabby cat, Tabitha, Derek found a surprise. His hand brushed against something feverishly warm that had the texture of a Ziploc bag covered with sandpaper and filled with warm soup. A bright light flashed on the other side of his eyelids, and a burning sensation struck the tips of his fingers.

Instinct took over. In one swift motion, Derek pulled his entire body out from under the intruder, threw his sheets and comforter over the shape, and kicked it off of his bed. A loud "Gahh" escaped the mass of bedding as it hit the dresser, rattling some superhero figures in the process, and fell to the ground. It started thrashing, trying to untangle itself, and Derek leaped off his bed to find something he could use as a weapon.

"Some Hero of Prophecy you are," a voice said in his room. It sounded masculine with a vaguely European accent that Derek couldn't place.

Derek stopped what he was doing and turned to face the voice. It came from the bedding. He tried and failed to come up with a response to the bizarre statement and instead stared as his intruder disentangled itself from the mess. As Derek watched it remove the layers, he shivered in his boxers and nightshirt, remembering the cold. Two space heaters weren't enough to heat a house in the middle of an Idaho winter, even if that house was only a tiny home. He was weirdly jealous of his strange guest, still wrapped in a warm blanket.

"Well, Human, don't you have anything to say for yourself?" it asked, "I've read Humans are barbarical, but even this seems beyond the pale. What is that horrific smell? Pine?"

At that moment, the creature finally freed itself, and Derek learned that magic was real. The little person, or creature more like, stood at about the height of Derek's waist. It still had the standard set of two arms and legs, but each limb seemed to consist of a redundant amount of joints to the point where Derek couldn't imagine each joint served a purpose. Despite its tiny stature, it still gave off a lean and gangly vibe, reminiscent of a stick insect if it were combined with a human child. Its golden glowing eyes with coal-like pupils glared at Derek. It had pointy ears, but they inexplicably pointed down towards its shoulders. The creature’s mouth was smiling, and Derek wished it wasn't. Teeth that alternated between canines and the flat incisors of humans populated its mouth. It had fingers and toes that terminated in sharp nails that poked out of voluminous black robes that were spotted with dirt and fraying at the seams like the creature had just escaped a Looney Tunes brawl. As Derek stared at the bald little creature, a flash of gold light suffused its entire frame; the light started at its head and followed the branching paths of its veins down to its clawed and shoeless feet.

If brains could short-circuit, smoke would be pouring out of Derek’s ears. Too many questions spilled into his mind, one after another. What are you? Who are you? What is that light? Where did you come from? Did you just burn my hand? Have I gone insane? Hero of Prophecy? Did you actually say barbarical?

"I can see you won't be making this easy," the little man said, "the name's Teetch. You're my Hero of Prophecy, so let's get on with it. What can you do?"

"Hero of Prophecy?" Derek asked, finally settling on a relevant question.

"This will go much faster if you don't repeat everything I say. Focus on answering my questions. The fate of The Realms may depend on it."

Derek bit back the urge to ask the next obvious question. The Realms did sound familiar to him, though, like it was the setting of some movie or video game, but agonizing over it wouldn't get him anywhere. He had to stop letting this pipsqueak bully him around. Derek wondered if all fantasy races were condescending jerks and scolded himself for the thought. It's probably just this one guy.

"Not so fast, Short-stack. I'm the Hero of Prophecy, or so I've been told. How about a little respect? And by the way, my room smells like pine because pine trees are literally outside. What else would it smell like?"

"Where I come from, respect is earned, Human. Because rotten luck made you the blinding Hero of Prophecy doesn't mean I've got to lick your toes about it. And I suggest cutting this pine down if it would remove that malodoriferous smell."

The little guy's response gave Derek some grounding—well, aside from the bit about pine trees. Magic, Heroes of Prophecy, and fantasy realms were way over Derek's head, but if there was one thing he could use as an anchor, it was dealing with obnoxious customers/people. Teetch is in my world now.

"Respect is earned? The way I see it, Teetle, you haven't done anything to earn mine." Derek said, intentionally getting the creature's name wrong, "The Realms can go burn for all I care if you're their spokesman. See ya, I gotta get ready for work."

People like this Teetch, fantasy race or not, operated by setting the dynamic early and treating their opposite like a subordinate, so Derek flipped the script. If he had to guess, the little guy was accustomed to people doing whatever he said. Now, Teetch was the one on unfamiliar ground. The creature had made a critical mistake. He'd let slip that he needed Derek for something. Derek didn't need him. Sure, he was curious about what in the world was going on, but Teetch had already revealed he had no intention of telling Derek anything. Derek had nothing to lose, therefore, all the power in this dynamic.

Derek started getting ready for the day. Things got awkward quickly because he couldn’t get anywhere in his tiny home without passing uncomfortably close to the creature without having to climb over his bed each time. He managed to put on jeans, apply deodorant, and comb his hair before Teetch finally gave in.

"I may have been a bit hasty," Teetch said, nearly growling out the next part, "Please forgive me for my lack of mannequette."

"Mannequette?" Derek asked. It was the second time the guy had said something bizarre.

Teetch let out a deep sigh, "Manners and etiquette. I know you aren't the brightest of Humans, and for that, I forgive you, but if I have to explain every word you don't recognize, we aren't going to get anywhere."

Derek held back a laugh and asked, "Where did you learn to speak English?"

Teetch stared at Derek for a long moment, his amber eyes blinking slowly and deliberately before he responded, "What did I say about questions? English? Nice try. I speak Human. Don't you recognize your own language?"

"Human, of course. I hadn't realized you were that sophisticated," Derek said solemnly.

"I'll have you know that I'm a foremost expert on Human language and communiculture in the Giild, but I must admit that conversing with a real-life Human has been a bit of a struggle. Vaalsa warned me about Human barbarism, but it is another thing seeing it firsthand," the little man said, sweeping his arm out in a gesture encompassing Derek's entire house. Besides the discarded bedding and the knocked-over figures on Derek's dresser, the room was spotless, but Derek guessed no matter what he did, it would be barbarism.

Derek mentally noted the new word Teetch mentioned but nodded in agreement. Questions weren't getting him anywhere. He needed to pick and choose his battles. Derek decided to start from the beginning of this strange encounter.

"I apologize profusely for my lack of knowledge, but you mentioned something about a Hero of Prophecy? Please enlighten me," Derek asked.

"Thank you for the apology. For the sake of brevity, let's assume similar apologies for your ignorance in all further statements," Teetch said without a trace of irony, "And yes, the Hero of Prophecy, unfortunate business, that would be you."

At that moment, a golden light flashed and ran like little rivers down Teetch's vasculature, reminding Derek how unfamiliar the tiny person was, "I don't know what prophecy we're referencing, but I would be shocked if any prophecy had my name on it. You're sure you've got the right guy?"

"Don't insult me, Human. Of course, I've got the right 'guy.' However, I've pinpointed the heart of your confusionment. There is no prophecy, so to speak. I'm, of course, referencing the scroll Hero of Prophecy."

"So it was a scroll that said I'm the Hero of Prophecy?" Derek asked.

Teetch tugged on the lobe of one of his pointy ears, presumably in frustration, "It is written that Humans don’t have access to the mystical, but I assumed that was for the small stuff or that they just couldn't practice magic. I never dreamed it was such a backwater that you'd never heard of the ten Great Spells. Okay, let's start with the basics. What do you know about magic?"

"Nothing," Derek said, shrugging his shoulders, “Before this moment, I would've told you magic didn't exist."

The little creature seemed to deflate and lose some of the frantic energy he'd had since waking Derek. He stood there and scratched his head contemplatively. The image looked comical with his little claws.

"I've reached a conclusion," Teetch said. Another flash of light followed the statement, but Derek would've sworn it looked dimmer than the last time, "Sadly, I have no doubt you are the Hero of Prophecy. The scroll chose you, but I’ve ascertained that you cannot help me."

Until a moment ago, Derek would've agreed with the diminutive creature, but now he wanted to argue in his defense. Derek opened his mouth to protest and-

"Don't argue with me, Human. You've already been Awakened, so I'll give you some information necessary for your survival, and then you and I shall part ways. Upon completion, I'll discover an alternate way to save the Queen."

"I may only be a grocer and sometimes a college student, but if there's something I could do to help, what kinda guy would I be if I didn't give it a shot?" Derek protested.

"I'm afraid I must insist. We are dealing with a precarious situation, and someone with your glaring lack of knowledge would do more harm than good. Now, I suggest you sit down while I attempt to convey the reality of your new situation."

Derek sat on the edge of his twin-sized bed, his eyeline still a head-length higher than the creature. Teetch seemed to realize this and clambered to the top of his dresser so he could look down on Derek.

"My people, the Amberkin, have been saving the scroll containing the Great Spell Hero of Prophecy for as long as any individual kin can remember. It was only to be used for a disastrophe that threatened the very existence of the Giild. We judged… or rather, I, Teetch, judge the current situation as having reached that point. The Spell is designed to imbue one Unawakened individual with the amount of mana necessary to both become Awakened and give that individual powers without limit, but the scroll demands this individual be a Human. They're the only beings left untouched by mana. Therefore, they are a perfect blank slate for unaspected mana used by all Great Spells. The Scroll of Othiamphuus has been gathering raw mana for nearly one hundred million Human years.

I left The Realms and journeyed to the land of Humans to find an ideal candidate for the Great Spell. However, I'd not left the Giild longer than a moment before I felt the Spell activate. All the power stored by the amberkin escaped and flew inside the first Human that crossed its path. Legends and ancient writings are all we have available to guess the effects of Hero of Prophecy, for the sake of furthering amberkin understanding, I decided to follow you and observe the changes firsthand. Imagine my disappointment when all I observed was you fiddling with that device of yours and quarreling with your fellow humans before then falling asleep. I thought the change might occur while you slept, so I waited. I observed for one cycle of the moon, and still nothing. It became apparent that I would need to shape the Amber myself, so I disturbed your slumber.

Now, you and I must discover how Hero of Prophecy will manifest inside you, and I'll tell you what it means to be Awakened. Now, did you notice something beyond your limited understanding happen to you during the night cycle?"

Derek almost told the little creature, something called an amberkin, that nothing had happened the night before, but then he remembered how weird the night had been. His monstrous catch, the burn on his hand, and even the bizarre new app that had downloaded itself on his phone all swirled around in his mind as disparate events. Maybe it’s all connected.

"I haven't noticed anything that made me feel Hero-y, but last night, I got attacked by a light and got this gnarly burn by the lake, and my phone started acting weird. A game installed itself onto my phone, and it knew way too much about me," Derek said, lifting his arm to show Teetch the burn along his forearm.

Teetch waved one of his multi-jointed arms in exasperation. "The burn's my handiwork. It likely saved your life. While underneath that wooden structure at the lake, I observed Chaasmyth’s approach and decided to intervene. Chaasmyth hates those devices you Humans carry. Don't bother to thank me. If given a choice, I'd not save you again. Leaving the Giild was an error. Could the Wheel have been right? It's far too late to turn back now."

"Hold up a minute. You haven't even seen what's on my phone yet," Derek urged. The contrarian inside of him piping up and desperately wanting to prove the smug little amberkin wrong.

"Don't bother. Your silly devices are the negatithesis of mag-" Teetch started to say, but his breath caught when Derek opened his phone.

Dirk Dawn, his character in MythMaker, was in the process of opening his Starting Equipment loot box when Derek last used the app. The animation finished, and lights beamed from the chest, highlighting items in a glowing, neon font. Before Derek could look at the loot, Teetch was scrabbling up Derek’s body, trying to get at the phone. "Raw mana is pouring off that device. It has to be from Hero of Prophecy. What have you done to it?"

Derek held Teetch back, putting his palm on the amberkin’s forehead. The sensation was unpleasant, like there wasn't enough resistance, as there should be. His skin was uncomfortably warm.

"I didn't do anything. It's a game. It's called MythMaker. See?" Derek said, showing Teetch the phone. It was the wrong thing to say.

"A game? The fate of the once-great Giild Othiamphuus, the Millenia Queen, and maybe even The Realms is at stake, and you've reduced it to an ever-blinding game." Teetch said, horror replacing his previous arrogance. Teetch backed away from Derek like he was holding something dangerous.

"I didn't do anything-"

"Enough! Human! You've done plenty—a word of caution. Be careful what you show the Unawakened. The Human mind cannot handle the mystical. Were I you, I'd toss that device and forget you ever saw me. I'll endeavor to do the same."

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

At the proclamation, the little amberkin's skin started getting brighter. Derek lunged at Teetch. He had so many questions still, and if the strange creature left, Derek had a feeling they'd never get answered. Golden light overwhelmed his senses. He tried to grab where he'd last seen the amberkin, but it was no use. Teetch was like a miniature fantasy flashbang. As Derek blinked the spots from his eyes, he pondered what to do next. His alarm clock picked that moment to start blaring, and Derek knew what he had to do. Work.

Φ

His warm shower and walk to Dunn, Dunn, Dunn Market, and Grocery felt surreal. Derek didn't know what he expected, but he didn't expect things to be normal after his encounter with Teetch. Miss Pruitt's bakery smelled as fresh and delicious as it always did. People still exchanged the same pleasantries during their short commutes as they walked to their destinations. The town school bus even drove by, kicking up its typical brown, snowy sludge on a few unlucky commuters. How can there still be school on a day like today?

Derek mimicked the usual motions, but his heart wasn't in it. He couldn't stop thinking about his mysterious visitor and his dire proclamations. Was a world ending somewhere, and no one knew it but him? A more pressing question nagged at him. Could I do anything to stop it even if I wanted to? The amberkin dismissed MythMaker entirely, but something about the game felt like it didn't mesh, like it didn't fit neatly with the other aspects of everyday life. Derek felt like he didn't fit neatly either.

Derek went through the usual opening routines when he arrived at the store. He stocked shelves and took inventory, and by 9 a.m., he was ready to open the store. Dunn, Dunn, Dunn only had ten measly aisles, but within those aisles, there was a little bit of everything, and it was everywhere. Breakfast food, office supplies, and the latest bestsellers all lived on the same aisle but at a steep mark-up compared to what one could get at a big box retailer, which was why his dad was stressing so much about that deal with a big national supplier. Harold Dunn had always hated those guys. Derek could remember a time when everyone came to their family market, but now, working at the store meant a lot of sitting around at the register, waiting for the occasional customer to groan at prices before eventually buying something.

During the winter months, they didn't get many daily customers. The rush, if anyone could call it that, was in the late afternoon and early evening. His parents only bothered scheduling people who weren’t their son after 4 p.m., and Derek still had inordinate free time every shift. Perfect for MythMaker.

Derek opened his phone to see the neon script listing what gear Dirk Dawn would start with. A few items on the list glowed green, while the rest were written in white. If Derek applied video game logic, white gear would be the common rarity stuff, and the other colors would indicate an increase in value. Derek tapped all of the white items first.

Wooden Fishing Rod (Common Equipment)

A fishing rod crafted from supple bamboo. The staple of fishermen used to reel in any manner of catch. It might not look like much at first, but a rod is an extension of its owner. As the Angler develops, so too shall the rod. There is no limit to its potential.

Iron Fillet Knife (Common Equipment)

An iron knife with a wooden handle meant for the delicate work of filleting a catch. A simple item that will suit the needs of a novice fisherman. A Bonus is granted against anything hooked by Wooden Fishing Rod. Warning: This item's upgrade capacity is limited. Tougher catches will require a finer instrument.

Improved Cast (Common Ability)

The Angler has spent hours honing his craft and has gained an instinctual knowledge of how to cast the rod properly. Hook, line, and rod are all bent to one singular purpose: hooking and catching things previously unheard of. Description: The Angler has improved control of his rod. This ability is granted a Bonus while using Wooden Fishing Rod. There is no limit to the potential of this ability.

Identify (Common Ability)

Knowledge is power. Items and creatures beyond mortal ken populate the Realms. A diligent adventurer must be able to identify them all. Description: Identify reveals the behavior and stats of unknown creatures, items, and persons. Identify will level along with its wielder; it cannot be used to identify items or creatures of higher level. Warning: Unawakened individuals cannot be Identified.

After Derek finished reading the item descriptions, rays of grey light, the same color as their item descriptions, spilled out of the phone. Some rays flew past his face while others coalesced at his hip. Derek watched, transfixed, as the light from his phone started to 3D print a slender, fillet knife matching the MythMaker item description sheathed at his hip. Simultaneously, he could feel the familiar heft of a fishing pole and the corresponding strap attach itself to his back. Teetch should've stuck around for this.

Derek pulled the knife from its sheath and admired the slender, wicked blade. It consisted of dull, simple-looking iron, but the shape and sharpness made it easy to tell that cutting flesh was in the mind of whoever crafted the blade. He hoped he wouldn't have to use it. Catch and release had always been Derek's fishing philosophy. Killing the fish had never been a factor for him. Next, he pulled the Wooden Fishing Rod from his back. Preconceived notions from video games made Derek imagine it would be a bamboo stick with a string attached to the end, but this thing was a masterpiece: Nothing common about it. The knife was nice, but the fishing pole was something else entirely. If he turned around and tried to sell it, he could easily clear $1000. An antique bamboo fishing pole was worth an arm and a leg in some fishing circles. Derek ran a hand along it, his hand seeming to glide down its length. He grabbed the end to test the tensile strength and was surprised to find the perfect amount of reflexiveness and recoil tension. Derek gripped it with both hands and tenderly placed it on the counter with the same care saved for fine china and newborn babies.

A piece of his mind wondered how quickly he was accepting all these new changes. That day, a fantasy creature approached and told him he was a Hero of Prophecy, even though the creature eventually took back the offer, it still counted. That, along with his phone creating real-life items out of thin air, should have been enough to have him gibbering on the floor. He'd watched as the Laws of thermodynamics were violated, but Derek couldn't muster up the energy to care. It was like he'd known it was coming. I’m Awakened.

Instead of dwelling on his situation's oddities, Derek picked up his phone. He had some rare green loot to snag. His finger dashed across the three remaining items.

Bucket Hat of Focus (Uncommon Equipment)

A tan bucket hat made of tweed and fibers plucked from a bristlelock. Focus is a key trait possessed by all great Anglers. While wearing the Bucket Hat of Focus, Anglers gain protection from all mind-altering effects to maintain focus on their catch. Warning: Protection is only applied while the Bucket Hat of Focus occupies an equipment slot. Upon premature removal, all lingering negative effects will still be applied.

Line of Steel (Uncommon Passive Ability)

An Angler's line often breaks before they’ve given up the fight. Line of Steel allows the Angler's will to be imbued with the strength of the Angler’s determination. Description: Any fishing line used by The Angler cannot be broken as long as his will persists. Warning: This effect will dissipate if the Angler loses heart.

No Sudden Moves (Uncommon Passive Ability)

Legends say the difference between a novice fisherman and a true Angler is their ability to become one with their environment, unseen by their catch. No Sudden Moves adds to this natural ability. Description: While remaining still, The Angler is more difficult to detect. Warning: No Sudden Moves can be affected by the Angler's attire. Clothes that contrast the environment apply a debuff. Additionally, beings with enhanced perception gain an advantage when seeing through the effects of No Sudden Moves.

Derek smiled a goofy grin while his phone printed him a new hat. He remembered when Harmony and their other friends begged Derek not to get a bucket hat back when he'd started fishing. At the time, he'd acquiesced to their demands, but now he didn't have a choice. Derek imagined the mingled looks of disgust on their faces when they saw the old-style tweed bucket hat for the first time. The grin faded when he realized that Harmony was the only friend left. For a brief moment, Derek had forgotten they'd all left him behind. He shook his head to dismiss the negative thoughts and realized a customer had been waiting for him. Derek didn’t want to know how long As Derek bagged her groceries, he ignored the pitying look on Mrs. Burgeon's face.

Φ

The rest of the shift passed by at a relatively swift pace. The drip feed of customers was nearly enough to keep him occupied for the whole day. In one of his free moments, Derek rechecked MythMaker, but a locked wooden door blocked the avatar of Dirk Dawn. It wouldn't open, not even under a blistering assault of furious tapping. During another free moment, he smeared some aloe vera on his Teetch burn and wrapped it in gauze. He spent the remainder of his free time trying to see if he could figure out how any of his crummy abilities worked.

It stood to reason that Improved Cast would be the most visual, but Derek wasn't sure he would know what a successful use would look like, so he decided to save it for last. Derek brandished his new fillet knife to test out Line of Steel. MythMaker listed it as a passive ability, so he shouldn't need to do anything aside from concentrating on the line. Derek spooled out some fishing line from his new rod and tried the knife test. Stabbing and slashing from various angles only resulted in Derek panting tiredly from the exertion. The line remained unscathed even after one particularly nasty swipe of his knife elicited sparks. He wondered if the line needed to be attached to the Wooden Fishing Rod to gain the effects.

Next, he decided to test No Sudden Moves on the next couple of customers who came to the store. He'd stand behind the counter, as usual, but he'd do it while entirely still and see if anyone noticed. Derek thought there was a good chance the residents of Golden Lake didn't count as 'beings of enhanced perception' mentioned in the skill's description. Paula Milliken noticed him standing behind the counter, but not after she'd stood there for a couple of seconds and even rang the bell for assistance. Derek tested it again, but this time, he stood in the back corner of the area behind the counter instead of directly at the register. Jerry Flanners stood at the counter for over a minute without noticing Derek standing perfectly still in the corner.

Both of the passive abilities were easy enough to figure out. They were only a tough fishing line and active camouflage, but Derek could still feel his excitement mounting. Maybe these abilities wouldn't have been able to help Teetch, but he knew one thing they could do. Win the Jamboree. Derek decided he couldn’t handle waiting for his shift to end. He needed to practice Improved Cast. A glance at the clock confirmed he had some time before the early evening rush.

To test his ability, Derek needed to assess his control over the pole but, more importantly, his hook and line control. For this trial, little bags of candy would be the fish, and the fresh produce section of the store would be the lake. Derek seeded the various mounds of fruit with plastic bags of gummi worms and bears, and if he could thread the hook through the little hole on the top of any bag of candy, he would consider it an Improved Cast.

Derek cast repeatedly and could definitively say that not one cast felt improved. He managed to snag a bag of cinnamon bears that lay nestled amidst the peaches, but Derek was more willing to attribute that to luck than anything. Despite no discernible improvement, Derek kept at it. He even threw a couple of casts while customers were in the store, and they didn't even seem to mind. Old Winona Yates even offered him some words of encouragement. Everyone wanted him to beat Rod.

As Derek cocked his pole back for another cast, the front door jingled, announcing another customer, while simultaneously, three separate voices asked in unison, "What are you doing?"

The Alphabet Squad.

Andy, Beverly, and Chuck strode into the store and bee-lined toward Derek. The middle school just let them out, and the three kids were now going to enjoy their favorite pastime: pestering Derek. There was a time when the three children would have filled him with a sense of dread, but now, the little rascals had somehow wormed their way into his heart. Derek could remember a time when his group of friends also used to roam the town, and Rod Hockenson's store was their first stop every day after school.

Beverly, the leader of their little gang, stood on the right, Andy in the middle, and Chuck on the left, but Derek always thought of them in order: Andy, Bev, and Chuck. ABC. Derek didn't know how to explain what he was doing, so he showed them a cast. The line sailed past a bag of circus peanuts and clattered uselessly to the ground.

"That's so cool!"

"That's so stupid!"

"I don't get it."

The three children said, their responses clamoring over each other, vying for attention. Most people struggled to understand their cluttered mode of speech, but Derek was fluent in the Alphabet Squad’s dialect.

"I'm going to have to go with Chuck on this one," Derek replied, "I don't get it either. Something cool is supposed to happen, but I can't get it to work."

Beverly looked back and forth between the counter and the fruit several times, the motion whipping her blonde pigtails. Finally, she asked, "What's supposed to happen?"

Derek reeled in his line and showed them the hook. "This hook is supposed to go in those holes," he said, pointing at the candy bags. But I can't get it to happen. And it should happen."

The kids looked puzzled, but Chuck looked the most puzzled. With his wide brown eyes and big ears, he always looked like a deer trapped in headlights. He repeated his earlier statement: "I don't get it."

Derek considered telling the three children about his being the Hero of Prophecy and unlocking new abilities. Kids loved that kind of thing. However, Teetch's warning about Unawakened people sounded dire, and if anyone could be considered Unawakened, it was probably these three kids, especially Chuck. On the other hand, Derek had reached a dead end with his abilities, so he figured it couldn't hurt to show them his phone and the character sheet with a list of Dirk Dawn's abilities.

"This game is awesome!"

"What does this have to do with anything?"

"Can I play?"

Derek ignored all of their responses while he searched for Improved Cast. "Do you see what I mean?" Derek asked. "With this type of ability, I should easily be able to get the hook through those holes."

"You really don't know?" Andy asked, scratching his head through his baseball cap. “It's kind of obvious."

Derek fixed the group's shortest and most confident member with a stare, "Enlighten me."

"All the best heroes shout out their moves when they use them. You should do it like this," Andy said excitedly.

He clambered away from the group to give himself some distance, then twisted his cap backward. After posing in an action stance, he shrieked, "IMPROVED CAST!"

"Okay, sport, I'll do it just like that," Derek said with a smirk, "Minus the voice crack."

Beverly and Chuck burst into giggles, and Andy huffily returned his hat to its original position.

"Just try it," he said, "And my voice didn't crack."

On a day when a three-foot-tall glowing fantasy creature told him he was the Hero of Prophecy, Derek supposed he could try shouting out his abilities. It's still not even in the top five weirdest things I've done in the last twenty-four hours.

Derek brandished the Wooden Rod and did his best to channel action-hero energy, but only after making sure he and the kids were the only ones in the store. He cocked back and let out a rebel yell, "IMPROVED CAST!"

Energy crackled to life inside him. When he spoke the phrase, Derek remembered an old biology video he had seen in high school. In it, the mitochondria, the powerhouse of the cell, broke a chemical bond with a little image of an explosion, and energy spilled out everywhere. Shouting his abilities was his mitochondria.

Derek imagined the same energy that spilled out of his phone was now suffusing his muscles. For that brief moment, he felt stronger than he'd ever felt, and his body knew the exact movements to execute like he was a machine following a pre-programmed routine. Derek didn't waste a single motion and moved at the precise angle necessary to achieve the perfect result. When the hook left the rod, it was a foregone conclusion, and when he reeled in the bag of circus peanuts, the alphabet squad erupted into cheers.

As stupid as it was, Derek felt like a hero. Take that, Teetch.

The moment didn't last as long as he would have liked. The energy that powered him left as quickly as it arrived and left him with more profound fatigue than all the previous casts he'd tried earlier combined. Derek could've fallen asleep right then, and his eyes may have even started to sag, but the sounds of the alphabet squad bickering woke him up.

Snippets of "Tell him" and "It was your idea" were exchanged repeatedly, with no sign of stopping.

Derek lifted his head off the counter. He hadn't realized he'd been lying on it. At the sight of the three children bickering, Derek said, "Nose goes!"

The two boys instantly touched the tips of their noses. Childhood reflexes had already taken over. Beverly was a hair later, but it was too late.

"Alright, Bev, what's so hard to tell me?" Derek asked, saving her the embarrassment of doing it herself after losing.

"It's not hard to tell you. We just don't think anyone's gonna believe us, but you're the least lame adult we know, so we decided to tell you."

"You'll find I'm particularly receptive today," Derek said, steepling his fingers and looking at the children intently.

"See? I told you!"" Andy said, "Tell him what you saw, Chuckie."

'Please stop calling me that," Chuck sighed, knowing it was never going to happen, "You know how parents always say not to go to the woods at night? Now we know why."

Upon completing the boy's statement, Derek's phone chirped a familiar sound. It was the notification noise it used for MythMaker, the one that sounded like a sword scraping out of its sheath.

"One second, buddy, let me check this," Derek said.

He opened the app to find Dirk Dawn staring at a notice board that had not been there before. It stood next to the locked door. Dirk held a scrap of paper in his hands. Handwritten text started writing along the top of the screen.

Side Quest Acquired!

Bump in the Night: The children of Golden Lake found something lurking in the woods on the outskirts of their idyllic town. Discover the source of their fears.