Galen Vesa
Blood. Why does it always have to be blood? Something about the subconscious mind? No idea. Although, speaking from experience, excessive amounts of blood splashing around you have a significant chance of not being real. So, unless you work in an abattoir there is no way for a normal person to come in contact with more than a drop of blood. Barring any serious accidents.
Meaning? If you see bleeding walls, ceiling or blood pooling beyond your ankles on the floor, you are tripping. And quite badly I must add. So was I.
Rivers of blood came rushing from a crimson sky, dousing everything in gooey redness. Stone paths, grass, lakes and deserts vanished among this deluge.
A world bathed in blood. A dead world. And yet a familiar one. I was here. Still am. Floating in that red syrup. Unmoving.
Something must be horribly wrong with my body if even my mind felt so sluggish and unresponsive.
Is this it then?
“Far from it.”
A voice as if my own hit my consciousness at about the same time as a boot stomped my head deep into the gore, blocking my view. I choked, spat, and coughed only to realize I was yet again somewhere else, somewhere I had no reason to be. Hmm, what was the saying again? I hate it when that happens. Yeah, something like that.
“Yet, since you are already here, would you care for a cup of tea?”
I turned and here I was, knee deep in grass no one cut since years untold. Behind me, several rotten stumps marked a place where my teacher once lived. Now, devoid of life, Rooth’s little cottage withered without its master. Even the tall chimney became nothing more than a pile of upturned stones.
“Looks different in the sun, doesn’t it?”
“Yes…”
I cast my gaze over familiar and yet alien surroundings. Touched by the tooth of time, the place changed from what I remembered. It was no longer the place I left. No longer cared for, the small herbal garden lost the battle against invasive weeds and vanished under common grass. The paths beaten by my feet as I ran circuits around the place were no longer distinguishable from the undergrowth. All that remained, unbothered by the flow of time, was Rooth’s simple wooden table at which my master used to spend his time smoking his obnoxious pipe. Right now, someone else occupied his sacred resting spot.
“Should I know you?”
My eyes stopped on a woman sitting by the solitary table, her smile inviting me to join her. Perhaps it wouldn’t be so distracting if she chose to use any other guise aside from my own, sparsely clothed likeness.
Watching her felt as if watching my own perverted reflection. Same beastly eyes, same unruly mane, same pillows, same lack of single thread guarding our modesty. As if I just came out of shower and stared into a mirror. Just… I could not smile like that and while the spirit rings adorned my fingers and my lantern held hostage my wrist, her hands were bare.
“Indeed, we met before.”
My doppelganger shot me another charming smile and as if reading my mind, she winked at me, causing a cascade of golden dust to envelop my view for a moment. When it subsided, I found us both groomed and dressed in a sparkling, puffy gowns stolen straight from the pages of some Shōjo manga about adolescent, evil fighting teenagers.
Also, judging by the sudden increase in my height, at least twelve-inch-tall heels gobbled up my feet. Well, if I wasn’t me, I would probably raise an eyebrow at her but alas, my face defaulted to my neutral and empty stare. Content with her little joke, the apparition continued.
“Although, you were much less willing to listen and Rooth was much more grumbling. Come, sit with me.”
So, I did sit across from her and watch her pour me a cup of tea. I also discovered that some ungodly thongs were now riding up my arse, the discovery causing another chuckle from my host.
“You’ve been busy, wanderer. More so than I expected.”
“Not my choice.”
I reached for the cup and gave it a tiny sip.
“Perhaps not but a choice it was and, as they say, a wrong man in a right place makes all the difference and you my dear wanderer have an uncanny gift of wandering into all the wrong places at just the right time.”
She winked at me and my manly pillows then added after a while.
“You are being unnaturally silent. Have you no questions wanderer? That is so unlike you.”
Questions. Eh? What was the point? Perhaps this was the moment I could sigh and showcase my mastery of that pointless action but… I limited myself to sipping my tea.
“Is there really nothing you’d like to ask?”
“And you’ll answer?”
“No.”
She said without blinking.
“Then why bother? If anything, I can tell your interest in me has nothing to do with my stellar personality. Do what you need and let me be. I am tired of being a pawn in a game I have no say in.”
Well, the tea was nice. I think. My pallet ain’t the most sensitive one but I had little desire for yet another intrigue. Besides, a loony dryad not so long ago tried to vivisect me with a stick. I still felt it in my side. Me, the num-numb-dolt still felt the pulsing remnants of a soul crushing pain she caused me. If this interloper came to add more to that while I was busy dying, then I wished to have nothing to do with her, him, it, whatever-the-fuck. Thank you. Not interested. Bye.
Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.
“It saddens me to hear you think so little of me. I am not your enemy and while I cannot claim to be your friend, your wellbeing is of… some interest to me. And you are not dying. Far from it.”
She put a finger to her moist lips and gazed into me. A frown creasing her forehead.
“Now that I look at you, I don’t think dying is something you are capable of at this junction.”
O-kie-doke. That ranks somewhere in the top ten fancy things I heard from my hallucinations and, umm, she still hasn’t blinked ever since I saw her.
“As for the game as you called it, hmm, you see the problem with telling anything to someone like yourself lies with not how you use that knowledge but, when you use it.”
I never thought I would miss this much my world-dulling-meds. There sure is a first to everything. Eh, whatever.
“I don’t think I follow. I can’t use whatever until you tell me what the whatever is.”
I quipped. I may as well play along.
“I’m afraid that logic doesn’t apply to you, wanderer. How to explain… your bracelet. Would you show me?”
“It doesn’t really come off nor does it listen.”
I said yet the entity just sat across me with her hand outstretched and waiting. Without any alternative, I offered her my left arm. Not the brightest thing I could have done.
As soon as it came close to her hand, she flicked my lantern, making it ring and reverberate. Suddenly I felt as if countless other me were sitting at this place and this moment. All similar. All me. All different from each other.
“What…”
The ringing stopped as suddenly as it began and again, I was only me and alone in this personal moment. Staring.
“You are a wild card, wanderer and that on your wrist is the worst thing you could possibly possess.”
Her words took me by surprise.
“And here I thought you were more concerned with me knowing stuff or someone getting the things stashed inside me.”
“That is another issue. Both combined make chatting with you a tad bit counterproductive even though necessary.”
Again, this Kafkaesque nonsense. This time I did sigh. Let her have it.
“An improvement I see. You have grown wanderer. That was a brilliant sigh. Bravo!”
“Enough. Why did you bring me here? How am I even alive?”
“Ah! There we go, questions! Now, now, don’t give me that look. I will tell you what I can. First off, I did not bring you here. You came of your own volition. As for your unusual resilience, how should I put it, while you wear that trinket, dying may not be such a straightforward affair for you. By no means do I imply it would protect you, or that it makes you immortal while you wear it. No. On the contrary, it does not care. It may prevent your death as it did so far on numerous occasions while it finds you useful however, do not rely on it or its intervention. It may betray you at the slightest whim.”
This evil nonsense again?
“I’ve been warned before.”
“A warning you did not heed. That…”
My host vent silent while I felt slight heat building up at my left wrist. Not to the point of burning but enough even for me to notice. Whatever she wished to say, I never learned. In silence, my tween kept staring at my lantern while biting her lips.
After a while, she closed her eyes and hid her annoyed face behind her cup, taking a longer sip. Putting her cup away, she gazed at me.
“Wanderer, as you’ve been called because you are one, you and those alike possess a gift of…”
She paused to choose her words carefully.
“A gift of certain freedoms not given to others. That which you carry, may elect to enhance or restrain that gift of yours at times. That I may tell you.”
Yay me. More nonsense to add to my loony pile.
“Broken but skeptical mind? You never cease to surprise me, wanderer. You may doubt my words now, but time will come when you shall embrace your gift.”
Another heat pulse emanated from my lantern before the entity managed to say more.
“Ah, I’m afraid someone just cut short our time together, wanderer. A shame, I wish we could chat more. Alas, while I cannot shield you from what is to come, I may offer you some respite for the favors you rendered me. A year. That is my gift to you. Try not to squander it on useless things. Now go, your sister is growing restless.”
Huh? Sister? What on earth… and she was gone. Well, it was more accurate to say I left and went back to my old aching bones. Sigh.
I blinked again and found myself starring up a slanted ceiling of… a cave? It ended in a large hole through which sun rays filtered in, warming my face. Alright, no clue where the heck am I? Check. Can hardly move? Check. All the usual crowd in my nogging? Kinda muted but, check. Pillows? Check. Undies gone with the wind? Check. Morning as usual I see.
Cora? Erta? Nothing. Not great, not horrible. Anyway, I tried to move and knocked myself out with sharp pain radiating out of my abdomen. That was new, I guess.
When I came to again, my entire front felt as if on fire and given the dragon flame in my blood I wouldn’t be surprised if something indeed was burning. After a considerable while, the feeling lessened and to my surprise, I could move again. Somewhat. This body of mine wasn’t too keen on running on fumes and mana I had little in me. Perhaps that’s why I blacked out for the second time?
As they say, third time’s the charm. Gods knows how long it took me to return from the darkness this time but so far it went better than my last two attempts. The pain while still present mellowed to the point it no longer threatened my consciousness. Perhaps a result of my body knitting itself back together. Or trying to. My mana didn’t seem to be recovering at all. Or maybe it did and was spend right away? Who the heck knows. I still suck at this whole magic thing, regardless of how much effort Rooth put into teaching me.
And my ears rang. Then buzzed. Then bwhipped. Then did their flappy-flappy dance. Then settled on a high-pitched hiss. Oy, long time no heard from you, tinnitus. Hope this time around you ain’t going to stick around for long.
At about the same time as I was trying to puzzle out whether I was having a migraine, my nose came online and confirmed that indeed, something burned. That something was me. Or the blanket that used to cover my body. Either way, everything including one or two layers of my skin and something inside me, went bwoosh and turned to ash.
Note to self, don’t look. Having a hole in your abdomen gushing fire and smoke is too creepy even for me. Either way, my head went bonk against the stone ground and knocked me out when my neck failed to support its weight. Yay for another concussion…
The fourth time the light tickled my eyes started, uneventful. I think. I’ve no idea. I woke up numb, which at most other times was my nominal state.
Although, at this point I gave up on doing anything and just kept staring at the rock hanging above me. It was a rock. Grey rock. Grey rock with speleothems. No darn clue why or how I knew that word but, sure those were some big speleothems.
“Galen?!”
Oh? I rolled my eyes towards the sound and behold, there a not so big, snotty nosed lizard arrived at the cave entrace. I gave her my fake, five thousand and six smile. The ‘almost’ natural one and...
W-whait! Wait! Dolt super squishy! No squashy-squashy dolt! I tried to mumble yet no sound came from my parched lips. Instead, my back made a thunderous crack when Erta’s arms closed around me.
There goes my spine. Or not. I can still twitch my toes so, that probably was a rib or two. Ouche, I think? Could have been worse. I Sighed or I would if the lizard wasn’t trying to turn my midsection into a paste while simultaneously squashing flooding my pillows.
For an ancient creature that softie does sob a lot. Eh. I tried my luck and dragged my hand over to rest my palm atop her head. It did nothing to stop her sobs, but she did at times mumble something that probably meant ‘stoopid dolt’. Or something.
I patted her head. Yeh, I missed you damn lizard. I missed you too.
Although, a big gob of something slimy slid out of my pillows pleasure valley and began pooling within my neck’s notch. And then it overflowed.
Snot covered pillows… yuck.