Jean, Freddy, and Galadriel sat on the grass with a small fire in between them. They started to boil some pine tea and watched the Screech Echo Steve play tag with Rescue Ranger the Ash Squirrel. They were pretty balanced since Steve was crazy fast, and Ranger could go incorporeal at will, only to appear fifty feet away behind a tree.
It had been several hours of small talk about the world and silence sitting around the fire poking it with sticks.
“Gabe should be here soon.” Jean pondered out loud. “I’m not sure how we are going to get to North Tips, but I’m guessing it'll be quite a long trip.”
The group kinda just nodded to themselves, not knowing what to do or what to say to one another.
Galadriel stood up and beckoned at Jean. “You’ve got some essences. Let’s test them out. I’ve been hankering to try out my abilities but Freddy over here doesn’t want to fight me.”
“Sounds interesting. Are you sure though? I would probably hurt you.”
“Yeah. We’ve got Freddy’s healing vessel and your meditation thing. So we’ll be fine with a few cuts and bruises.” Galadriel smiled with a bit of intensity. “But I’m pretty sure you’re the one who’s gonna get hurt.”
Freddy sighed and then kept poking at the fire. “Could you guys go do that over there? I don’t want to get hit by you guys flailing around.”
“Good plan,” Jean said while walking off into the forest. “Let’s say we go until the first person forfeits?”
The pair walked off fifty yards, barely in the visible range of Freddy through the pine trees and faced each other.
“Wanna know my abilities before we go at it?” Jean asked.
“Nope.”
Then they squared off.
Galadriel spread her arms wide and out of the air formed gleaming armor around her. It gleamed like stainless steel, and instantly Galadriel was in full plate mail. Jean took a step back, not seeing any openings in her armor at all. Then, a four-foot-long kite shield formed out of the air on Galadiel’s arm. On it was an old-fashioned crest, with a Celtic dragon and six stars emblazoned on it.
Jean was shocked at the thoroughly defensive look of the girl but smiled at the lack of a sword.
He let his discordant aura field come and pass over Galadriel, while he also conjured a massive burst of acidic clouds in the area, blocking himself out of her sight.
“Gah, what the heck!” Galadriel spurted out. She grit her teeth and charged in Jean’s direction through the painful cloud. She took ten steps forward and then fell into a pit. Her whole body tensed and she felt an ache with resonating force damage, then slammed into the ground with a heavy crash. She screamed out in pain. Jean felt her humerus snap in half.
Jean dismissed the acid cloud and ran over to Galadriel kneeling next to her and started to shift her arm pieces back into place.
She had fallen from Jean’s Skyfall portal about twenty feet in plate armor onto her arm sideways. She was curled up holding her arm, breathing through her teeth.
“I’m sorry! Here, take this potion!” Jean said in a panic while hunching over her.
Freddy was already running over. “What did you do!?” He yelled. When we got close enough he shoved Jean away and conjured a healing crystal next to Galadriel.
Only then did Galadriel unsummon her armor.
Jean stood off to the side with the healing potion in his hand. He just stared at Galadriel’s cradled arm. The arm was changing colors as he watched. Unfreezing, he took a step forward again. “Take this!” He yelled.
Freddy, looked up at him with hate in his eyes, “Pull your aura back first.”
Heart sinking, Jean reeled in his discordant aura with guilt. And then handed Freddy the potion.
Freddy held up Galadriel’s head a little to feed her the potion.
Jean saw Galadriel clenching her eyes closed in pain. He couldn’t handle seeing what he had done. He ran away to escape the pain in front of him.
Jean ran for about five minutes before collapsing into a tree to cry. Tears went down his face and dripped off his nose while he sobbed.
Why did I hurt her? Why did I have to go so hard? I didn’t want to cause pain. I don’t want to step on anyone’s back to get stronger. I’m just built to hurt people. That’s all I’m good for. I’ve only caused pain. I’m only built to consume. I’m just built to hurt people. That’s all I’m good for…
Jean’s thoughts ebbed out into a numbness. It started to break when Steve leaped into his aura. And then the fog ebbed away more as ranger curled up on his lap.
Some time passed and Jean shifted to lean back against the tree while petting Ranger, eyes red and puffy. The sun was overhead sprinkling light over him through the pine needles.
The sky is so peaceful.
Jean heard someone stepping towards him but he kept his eyes up on the sky. Galadriel slid down next to him against the tree.
Jean looked over to see her staring at the sky. Her eyes were somber but not puffy. He was about to apologize, but she put her hand on his knee. Their eyes connected.
She softly spoke, “I know you didn’t mean to hurt me. I’m not mad. This is exactly why I wanted to spar. We are out of our depth in this violent world. My guess is that your instincts that hurt me were the same instincts that saved my life last night. And if we stick together, those killer instincts will probably save my life again.”
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Jean internally flinched when she said “Killer,” But that’s exactly what it is. I’m a killer.
“…Jean!” Galadriel urged. “I said, this isn’t your fault.”
He looked over at the girl talking to him. She looked genuine. “Sorry.” Jean leaked out with a whisper as tears started to form.
Galadriel looked at him like she could see all the way through him. “I know you are. And I know that you haven’t had an easy time here either. But, you don’t have to be alone anymore, ok?”
Jean started to stand. “Freddy?” He asked.
“He’ll be fine. He’s just protective of me. You should let him cool off though.”
Jean said as if he didn’t hear her, “I’m going to go talk to him.”
Ranger hopped on Jean’s shoulder and they started to walk back to the makeshift camp. Galadriel followed slightly concerned.
Jean walked back without talking and Galadriel just watched his back while they walked.
When they approached the camp, they saw Freddy, back at the fire throwing leaves in.
Jean walked in front of him with the fire on his back. He dropped to his knees with his head bowed.
“Sorry for hurting your friend, and sorry for scaring you. Would you forgive me?”
Freddy stared at the top of his head, “You are making it really hard for me to stay mad at you. You realize that her arm snapped in half right?”
“Yes.”
“Freddy..” Galadriel interjected, “He didn’t mean…”
“I don’t care what he meant to do, Gabs! He could’ve killed you if you landed on your neck!”
Jean stayed on his knees with his head down. While the two others went back and forth.
“Well this sure is an interesting situation to walk into,” Gabe said from beside Jean.
Gabe was just sitting by the fire holding a charred stick like he had been sitting there for a while.
“You all right, yeo-bo?”
Jean jumped up and gave Gabe a hug.
“Woah, that bad eh?” Gabe said while waving his arms around as if he had never hugged anyone before. He settled on putting his hands on Jean’s back. He made eyes at the two others who were staring at the hugging pair.
Jean pulled back and looked at Gabe. “Hey, these are my friends… at least, they are the outworlders that came here at the same time as me. That’s Galadriel and that’s Freddy.” He said while gesturing.
Galadriel immediately stepped forward with her hand outstretched. “Hello. Could you take us with you?”
“Wow, that’s very forward,” Gabe said while taking her hand. Then pulled her forward and got super close to her face in the most awkward and intrusive way possible. “Why should I do that for you?”
“Gabe…” Jean started, but Gabe lifted a finger at him, silencing him.
“We need help. That’s all. We won’t cause you problems. We just need a ride away from the purity church.” Galadriel said without blinking or pulling back.
“Hmmm.. make a deal with me, the two of you,” Gabe started, “Promise me that you will make a party with Jean and that you’ll die for him if needed, and then I’ll take you to North Tips.”
“That’s too much!” Freddy said at the same time Galadriel said, “Deal.”
Gabe smiled and shook Galadriel’s hand. “Deal.”
He broke away and walked over to Jean. “Can you make us a boat? Like, a four-seater?”
Jean was thrown off by the change of events but replied, “Yes? Are we sailing to North Tips?”
“Nope. I just need a way to carry the three of you while flying.”
“Ahh,” Jean nodded and started to walk to the roots of the hidy tree. “It’ll probably take an hour or two to make that much.” Then he whispered to Gabe, “What was that about a party and dying for me?”
Gabe responded in a full voice. “You will need a party to adventure anyway, and it’ll be hard enough for you to get a party because of your race, but that won’t be a problem with these guys. Besides, outworlders always have fun abilities, so they’ll probs be good.”
Jean shrugged and went off to gather his cloud bed to start adapting it into a boat/sled.
Manipulating the cloud of the bed and the chair only took ten minutes, but more material was needed to be able to fit four people into the sky sled. So Jean worked on conjuring more permanent cloud that could hold weight, meditating the whole time.
Jean diligently worked while trying to ignore Gabe and the other two chatting.
Gabe was trying to explain North Tips, but he was proving to be mixed at best in his communication skills. Jean overheard some weird stuff, “Branded faces…run from dragons…bow to gods that will show up…don’t smell like flowers…money, money, money…etc.”
Jean focused on his work. Twice he was notified during his making and shaping.
Essence ability Cloud Conjuration has ranked up to Iron 2/10.
Essence ability Creator has ranked up to Iron 2/10.
________
The result of his work looked like a slim paddle boat with high-backed seats. This time he experimented more with his Creator ability to alter the clouds attribute. He made most of it the same texture at first, but then hardened the bottom of the boat to be hard enough to knock against. Then, for seatbelts, Jean made some cloud strong but pliable like a rope. After that, he made a hard ring to tie the rope to.
It was only eight feet long and four feet wide, but it at least had individual seats. They were lined in a row. Jean thought that in a worst-case scenario it would actually work as a sled or a paddle boat.
Jean interrupted the other three to say that it was done.
The crew walked over and admired the boat, “This looks incredibly unsafe.” Freddy voiced first.
“It looks amazing!” Gabe voiced second.
Jean ignored Freddy’s skepticism, “I made it so that you could just insert the staff onto the front of the boat, so you don’t have to ride it like a Ripstik.”
“Intriguing concept, even though I have no idea what a Ripstik is.” Gabe beamed with interest, “Let’s fly this bad boy.”
Gabe followed Jean’s direction and put his staff into the keel of the boat as the other three got in. Once the staff was fastened, Gabe jumped onto the front of the boat and yelled, “Up, up, and away!”
The boat flew up several feet before flipping over at an extreme speed, dumping the people out of the boat onto the ground.
Growns came out of the three laying on the ground, while Gabe stared down at the others in confusion. “What are you guys doing on the ground? We’ve got places to be!”
________
After thirty minutes of Jean adjusting with four foremen pointing at things, a new design was formed with the boat having a roll bar with a place for the staff to go on top where it can be fastened in. Jean also had to strengthen some of the materials to not break from the focused force of the boat being propelled by the staff.
Once all the adjustments were made, all three got into place much more worriedly. Gabe on the other hand hadn't lost any enthusiasm. As the last one tied in, Gabe called out for a second time, “up, up, and away!”
They soared into the sky. Unlike the last times were Gabe was riding the staff underfoot, this ride was smoother than a luxury vehicle, but had the acceleration of a rollercoaster.
Gabe guided the boat telekinetically up into the air and sped into the distance. Jean heard Freddy behind him laughing. He turned and saw Freddy having the time of his life looking over the forest to the distant mountains. Behind him was Galadriel white-knuckle-gripping the chair under her with her eyes clamped shut.
Jean smiled at the two and enjoyed the ride.
Jean shouted over the wind. “So how do we get to north tips? It looks like we are going east back to the City in the Sky.”
Gabe kept looking forward, but his voice traveled right to Jean’s ears. “We are going back to the City in the Sky. It’s the shortest way.”
Jean was confused but decided to just wait and see.
They approached the city. Freddy and Galadriel pointed at the cloud dome and asked what it was. Gabe decided to be unhelpful and said, “That’s fluff town. We will just be passing through.”
They sped toward the city and slammed through the cloud barrier and dove straight for the bottom of the city where the formal entrance was. Jean started to panic when Gabe didn’t slow down.
“Gaaabe?” Jean muttered.
The boat flew towards a city wall with a wide dark arch in the center of it. The way through the arch glowed with cosmic energy
“We aren’t going through that are we?” Jean questioned before the whole group started to scream.
A second later the boat plunged into the arch. Each passenger felt pinched and stretched before emerging out of the other side with a cascade of vomit.