Ch.7 Grub

Jean lay in his comfy prison cell staring up through the opaque cloud ceiling at the reddish sun over him.

I am so comfortable. I won’t mind living in prison if it will be like this. I’m still hungry though. I wonder if Gabe is actually going to bring me food. I feel like since I’ve gotten here I’m just so hungry. Every time I used magic I just feel hungrier.

Jean put his hands up and let his claws slide out, the first time for his newly formed left hand.

It’ll be a while until I get used to having these things.

Curious, Jean tested the cloud ground and he felt like he could still conjure a spear out of the stuff. He decided against it since he did not want to cause any problems. But he still had an ability that he didn’t understand well.

Sitting in a cross-legged meditative pose, Jean felt his bones. The feeling was a little nauseating. He started to increase the density of his pointer finger. It didn’t get any bigger, though he thought that he would be able to do that too. The tip of his finger was getting heavier and heavier. Unsure of how physics balanced magic and mass, Jean started to reverse the process.

Halfway through, he heard an “Open it up, sir!” And the door swung open.

Gabe walked in with a serving plate and cover. He sat opposite Jean setting the dish between themselves. Revealing it he loudly announced, “Dinner is served!” Pulling the cover off, Jean saw a foot-long shelled burrito.

“Is that a grub?” Jean said.

“Indeed it is! Ever have one? They are one of my favorites on this side of the planet.” Gabe replied.

“Nope, I’ve never had the pleasure of eating any kind of bug, except an ant-protein powder that my brother made me drink.” Jean was pretty sure this was a joke but unable to tell, he carefully gestured, “you first.”

“Don’t mind if I do,” grabbing a spoon from beside the massive grub, Gabe broke through the top of the shell, scooping out some innards with shell pieces. He eagerly ate. It was disturbingly similar to a potpie, even in smell.

Jean hesitated, but after Gabe had eaten a third of it, he picked up the other spoon and tested the grub guts. It was subtle, earthy, salty, and nicely chunky. Pretending that this was just a creatively designed potpie, Jean started to eat. It was good, even though he couldn’t admit it. More importantly, he was feeling satiated. The warm food sat well in his stomach bite after bite. Jean took an exploratory bite of the broken shell bits with a bite. It was like a slightly spicy saltine cracker.

“I am shocked I’m saying this, but this is fricken good,” Jean said while scraping the bottom of the carapace bowl.

“Oh yeah,” Gabe mumbled while breaking off the harder edge pieces of the grub, crunching them down like chips.

Once the plate was empty, Gabe pushed the plate to the side while resting back on his arms. “So now it's time to talk about who you are and what I’ve got planned for you, sport.”

Gabe leaned forward meeting Jean’s eyes. “You are an outworlder, aren’t you?”

Jean, not sure if him being an outworlder was a good or a bad thing, nodded. “But, I don’t even know what that means. And I promise I won’t cause any problems for anyone…”

Gabe silenced him with a raised hand. “No worries friend. More and more of your kind have been showing up. I’m pretty sure it is the Gods trying to help somehow. But you’ll also get unwanted attention if it’s known. So, here’s what I think should happen: I think you should lie, and tell people you are from the Cold Regions. You won’t be able to hide what you are in the monastery, but trust me, you don’t want to be known as an outworlder.”

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“Ok. So you think I should pretend I’m from a place called the Cold Regions, and then what?” Jean asked with concern, truly wanting guidance. “I’m so lost right now. I just don’t want to die and I don’t want to hurt anyone.”

“That’s a lot easier said than done. First things first, you need to learn aura control. You are currently hurting everyone within one hundred feet of you, because of some sort of aura ability. But we can get that figured out. That’s the main reason I put you up here,” Gabe said with a sad smile

Panicked Jean asked “What? Am I hurting you right now?”

“Ha! No. I’m perfectly fine. I’m way too strong to feel any damage from you. But to be clear, your ability causes minor resonating force damage. Almost like an annoying itch, it’s spooky. And people would not take it lightly if you scared a kid without Essences.”

“Yeah, I wouldn’t be ok if I scared a kid either.” Looking down at his lap, “I scared off a bunch of bugs and wildlife in the forest earlier. How can I not do that?”

“One step at a time. We can get to training soon, but I’ve got a few questions first. It’ll require a bit of trust though. Can you trust me, buster?”

“Yeah. You’re the only person I know in this world so far. Besides, you remind me of a friend back home. I can tell you are trying to help. I’m a pretty trusting person anyway.” Jean said with a forced smile.

“Thanks. First, what are your Essences, how did you get them in one or two days, and why didn’t you take the Confluence Essence?” Gabe asked.

“Um, well, I got my first Essence, the Bone Essence, by killing a zombie about 5 minutes into coming here. A got a couple of Hand awakening stones just a bit after in a quest reward for killing another zombie. That one was a girl that I appeared with. Then I got a purity Essence from a priestess who almost killed me. I got the discord essence the next day in a field of dead zombies. I also got a gore awakening stone.”

“Woah.” Gabe stopped him, “That must’ve been hard. And I know you probably don’t feel like it, but you’ve been crazy lucky. Bone is an uncommon Essence, and is looked down on. But the discord essence is an epic Essence that lots of people would kill for. And a purity essence? That doesn’t make much sense. Those are usually only given to priests by their God. So, there is very little known about the related Confluence Essences. And mixing with bone and discord? What was the Confluence Essence?”

Jean’s mouth felt dry, remembering the feeling of desiring to consume the world, “It… It was the confluence of terror. It wasn’t good.”

“Terror Essence. I’ve never heard of that. I’m guessing it seemed too evil, so you didn’t take it?” Gabe asked to confirm his suspicions.

“Sorta. I actually absorbed it, but I took it back. It started to change me, but I have an ability that can take back mistakes.” Jean said quietly, ridden with guilt.

“That is the strangest thing I’ve heard all week,” Gabe said with wonder on his face. “Anyhoo! We need to fill your Essences for you to get to Iron Rank. Is there an Essence that you want? Maybe dark, blood, or sword? Those would probably fit your Essence set that you're moving toward.”

“No! I do not want some more powers that will make me into a creepy murder type.” Jean said.

Gabe raised his hands in surrender, “No worries. What would just feel right then? Like, what sounds fun?”

Jean laid back hoping to find inspiration by looking into the sky. That’s exactly what happened. “Cloud!” Sitting back up quickly, looking into Gabe’s eyes with eager hope. “Could I get a cloud essence? It would be so cool to get a flying nimbus and sleep in the sky. It would be nice to have something light and friendly. My other Essences just happened to me, but I would like to have cloud armor and stuff, that’s more of me.”

Gabe looked at Jean for a moment and then gave an impish grin. “You are built for trouble, did you know that?” Standing, Gabe walked to the door. “I’m going to ask my master if he can come to teach you aura control. I’m going to find you your Essence and some awakening stones. Just sit tight.”

Smiling, Gabe let out a laugh and walked out, closing the door behind him.

_______

About an hour later a bald man with twisting robes walked in. He looked too young to be Gabe’s master, probably around the same age, 35 at the oldest. His face told of hard life experiences, with a scar running down the side of his head. With sober eyes, he looked at Jean.

“What God do you venerate?” Was the first thing out of the man’s mouth.

With a pause, Jean answered, “umm, Jesus.”

“Does this God offer forgiveness?” He said.

“Yeah, it’s kind of his whole thing,” Jean replied.

“Then spend the rest of the day to find solace in what you’ve done, and ask that God for forgiveness. Your aura is riddled with guilt and regret. Tomorrow I will start to instruct you in aura control. If you have not made progress by then, I will wait. Goodnight.” As he turned to leave, Jean stood and asked,

“What’s your name?”

Stopping, but not turning he said, “Tigris the wise.” Then continued to walk away until he disappeared with a subtle flash.

Jean stood in his cell alone again.

That man was on a different level of power.