“Out-Freakin Standing!” Kedryn whooped, jumping to his feet, arms raised in triumph. That lasted all of two seconds before he crumpled to the ground, head cradled in his hands.
“You, ok?” Glade asked, ending his meditation long enough to ensure the Kid hadn’t hurt himself.
“I.. I think so…” came a tentative reply. “My head feels like it’s about to explode. Draining my mana like that took a lot longer than expected. At least I got the +1 to wisdom. I also raised my fire magic another level. Some real solid gains. But arrrgghhh… the pain! It feels like a …like a…”
“Like a hedgehog is lodged in your cranium and it can’t stop sneezing,” Glade said, standing up from his hour-long meditation. “It wouldn’t have been as bad if you had drained your mana in one go. You took too many breaks.”
“That is by far the worst idiom I’ve ever heard.” Kedryn half moaned.
“Didn’t say it was a good idiom, just what zeroing out your mana feels like,” Glade snorted. He took a moment to see how much mana he had recovered. The bar was just above 20%, high enough for the headache to have finally dispersed. “Give it an hour or two and you’ll be right as rain.”
Kedryn sat up, asking something or other to Riya in that musical language.
The girl was still eating, taking small nibbles of the beetle steaks with her eyes closed. A moment later, she carefully set aside the meat before rising from her seated position and approached the groaning Corporal.
Glade glanced between Riya and what little remained of the beetle steaks with a raised eyebrow. Apparently, she had been eating the entire time. The pile of meat had dwindled to less than half. He didn’t know whether to be impressed or if he should worry about what passed for edible food in this new world. He was all for eating something to stay alive, but even he could only stomach two of the rubbery slabs of charred insect.
A flash of golden light flared to life in Riya’s hand, which she promptly placed on Kedryn head.
“Much better,” Kedryn sighed, saying something more to Riya that Glade couldn’t understand.
Riya nodded, then returned to her seat and resumed eating.
“Do you mind telling Riya that we need to ration the rest of the beetle meat?” Glade asked as he stretched. He took a deep breath. He felt… alive.
A shadow passed in front of several glowing mushrooms near the water’s edge, revealing an outline of something large. Large and silent as shadows.
Glade’s pistol was already out of its holster, pointed at whatever potential threat was coming their way.
“Get behind me!” Glade hissed, already moving to place himself between the shadow and the others.
“What’s going on?” Kedryn asked as he remained seated, turning his head every which way to identify the threat. Which was exactly the opposite of what Glade had just told him to do. He would have serious words with the Kid later.
“Ask Riya to create as much light as she can on the count of three,” Glade whispered in a deceptively calm voice.
“I’ll just cast flame…” Kedryn hissed, already moving into a crouch position while raising a hand.
Glade cringed. The kid was far too eager; he could hear it in his voice. Even worse, he wasn’t thinking. At best, all Kedryn could do in his current condition was worsen a headache that had just been healed. At worst, he would light enough of a spark to draw the things attention and still get a headache. Either choice could get them killed.
“No! You’re out of mana, you moron,” Glade hissed. “Do what I said and ask Riya for help!”
After a moment’s pause, Kedryn whispered some unintelligible comment to Riya, who was still quietly eating with her eyes closed, oblivious to the potential danger around them.
This was Glade’s fault. He had allowed everyone to let down their guard because he had assumed the grotto was safe. He had no excuse. Not only did he need to have more words with Kedryn later about listening to him, but he would also have to ratchet up their security posture.
He really hated this place.
“She’s ready. I’ll count to three in elvish,” Kedryn whispered.
“Re’ya… va’al… fro!,” Kedryn hissed, and Riya’s spark of light flared into existence, illuminating the immediate area.
Blinking rapidly to get past the initial burn of the increased light, Glade trained his pistol on the beast’s head… and stopped himself from pulling the trigger.
Somewhere in the background he heard Riya yelp in surprise.
A massive turtle met their gazes with a placid glance. Its eyes were inky pools of darkness with rings of muted green. The skin of the creature’s head was speckled in patchy, miniscule horns that wrapped around its neck and head in a spiral pattern. A fist sized brown crystal was prominently displayed on the turtle’s forehead.
Everyone simply stared at the beast, until Kedryn broke the silence.
“Do you think we should kill it?” He whispered. “I mean, look at that thing. It’s as big as a Great Dane and four times as wide, which means we could get some serious XP for it!”
“Stop thinking like this a game!” Glade hissed as the reptile slowly looked them up and down. In the same placid manner it had shown before, the turtle turned its massive bulk away from their small group, and began lumbering past them. Only then did Glade realize the monster’s shell was covered in dying moss and plants.
At first glance, the turtle didn’t look dangerous to Glade, but if it was anything like snapping turtles on earth, then the slow movements were a ruse. He had seen turtles move at impressive speeds when they needed to, and he refused to assume they were any different here. Their group had already faced metal melting insects. Who's to say this wasn’t an acid farting turtle trying to get into position to attack them?
Riya shoved her way in front of Glade, pushing his arms aside as she began yelling at him. He immediately pulled the firearm up and away so as not to accidentally discharge a round.
“What’s she saying?” Glade asked, purposefully giving ground as Riya began hitting him with her fists.
It took a moment, but Kedryn finally answered his question.
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“Riya’s saying, we shouldn’t harm the turtle.”
“Pretty sure she’s saying a bit more than that,” Glade grumbled.
“It’s hard to explain,” Kedryn replied, either ignoring Glade’s rhetorical comment or he had been too focused on the reptile. “Apparently, these turtles are considered sacred, or something. It’s hard to translate into English.”
Seeing that Glade wasn’t about to attack, Riya shifted targets, adopting the universal lecturing pose used by all women - hands on hips and a look of absolute authority. Kedryn wisely put both hands up and stepped away, giving the universal sign of male deference in the face of a potential rampage.
“Kid, I don’t like getting the play by play,” He yelled over Riya, which caused her attention to turn back to him. “I don’t care if this turtle is the equivalent of the Dali Lama. If it’s dangerous, I’m going to take a shot!”
“Sorry sir! Riya was reminding me that I should have used my Natural Lore skill to identify the turtle. At my current level I can only see its species and some general information about it, but it was enough to know it won’t harm us.”
That reminded Glade of his own aura reading skill. With a flex of will, he consciously spent the required mana.
Fen Turtle (Matriarch), Level 13
Attunements: Earth ?%, Water?%
Health: 123/210
Mana: 90/140
Stamina: 65/350
Status: Severely Malnourished
While the skill didn’t tell him much about the turtle’s disposition toward them, he could now see that it was in bad shape. The sluggish movements, the dim eyes, and the patchy skin made a lot more sense.
Deciding to holster his pistol, Glade turned his head to look out over the water. He couldn’t see much, but if the turtle had come from the dark depths, who knew what else was out there?
Kedryn and Riya finally stopped talking and focused on their newest guest. The Fen Turtle moved with simple grace through the patch of mushrooms. It was slow. Ponderous. And extremely careful. Not a single mushroom had been disturbed as it made its way toward the mushroom Glade had used magic on earlier; its bright glow easily setting it apart from the others.
The giant reptile stopped in front of the mushroom and breathed deeply, like it was smelling flowers for the first time in its life. Everyone watched in fascination as the turtle lowered its head, carefully wrapping the blue mushroom with its outstretched tongue before pulling the morsel of food into its mouth.
The beast closed its eyes, chewing slowly with a look of absolute contentment.
Riya immediately began jumping up and down in excitement, grabbing hold of Kedryn and shaking him enthusiastically. Over the years, Glade had seen girls go crazy over the most random things. Of course, a slime covered sickly monster turtle that had likely been irradiated to be so big was a first for him.
The two elves again began talking in earnest, with Kedryn pointing between Glade and where the mushroom had been.
It didn’t take a genius to know they were talking about what he had done to the mushroom. The tone of Riya’s voice shifted as she began gesturing wildly between the turtle and the rest of the mushrooms.
Again, Kedryn said something while gesturing between himself and Glade. Only this time, Riya’s excitement vanished, replaced first with a look of utter horror, followed quickly by absolute anger.
Glade could only imagine what they were talking about, but he felt Riya’s pain. He’d rather go through a root canal than deal with Kedryn’s methods of explaining things. Apparently, whatever the kid had said wasn’t satisfactory as Riya began yelling again.
As he watched the interplay between both elves, Glade was struck by a wild idea. If his willpower ability allowed him to regenerate mana faster, could it maybe help him learn a language.
Not seeing a downside, he pulled up his willpower menu.
No sooner had he thought of the idea than a prompt appeared.
Attention! Due to your miniscule knowledge and exposure to Elvish (plains dialect), learning this language will cost a total of 101 points. You do not have sufficient will, or knowledge, to accomplish this goal.
Stunned, Glade reread the message to be certain he understood it correctly. It was possible to use his ability to learn a language. It just wasn’t feasible with his current level of understanding. The cost was far too high, but that was because he only knew a few words.
Glade decided to test a theory.
“Kid! I need to learn a few words in Elvish. Doesn’t matter what, just need you to teach me.”
Kedryn stopped his conversation with Riya and looked at him with a ridiculous expression. Riya started yelling louder.
“Corporal,” Glade said, snapping his fingers to get the Kid’s attention. “What is the word for turtle in Elvish?”
“Tor’shil,” Kedryn responded, slowly, “why do you need to learn a few elvish words?”
Glade jumped back to his willpower menu and tried again.
Attention! Due to your miniscule knowledge and exposure to Elvish (plains dialect), learning this language will cost a total of 92 points. You do not have sufficient will, or knowledge, to accomplish this goal.
Learning that one word had dropped the cost by almost 10%. A smile spread across his face. This could work.
“Great! Now tell me the words for earth, water, fire, and air.”
“Gaiye, vorth’eh, vagon, and friya,” Kedryn replied hesitantly. “Sir, why are you asking? While I appreciate the distraction from Riya, I think it’s going to backfire. She is really upset…”
“Not now,” Glade interrupted. The cost had dropped to 77.
Encouraged by the progress, both he and Kedryn went back and forth in the same manner, all the while Riya continued to demand Kedryn’s attention, until finally Glade began to grasp the fundamental structure of the language.
A brilliant plan began to take shape within Glade’s mind as he watched Kedryn frantically try to answer both his questions and Riya’s demands. There was an age old saying from back home. Never pass up an opportunity to mess with family or friends. While Kedryn wasn’t necessarily a friend, he was still a teammate. Close enough.
“Let’s try a basic sentence,” Glade asked, right when Kedryn was distracted by Riya’s incessant cries. “How do you say, ‘It’s too old to grill, but we could use it in a soup.’”
“‘Karesh ib noya vagon’il, si fierra convi’sa boule,’” Kedryn responded without thinking. “To be honest though, I’m not sure what you’re trying to do. There are better ways to learn a language, but now isn’t the time. Riya’s upset and I’m trying to explain we are not intending to hurt the turtle...”
Kedryn stopped talking, realizing what he had said and quickly glanced between Riya and Glade with the look of a trapped animal.
That’s when Riya really started to yell.
Glade knew he should feel bad about placing Kedryn in such a situation, but he just couldn’t stop laughing. Internally. It wouldn’t be good if Riya were to shift her anger toward him.
He pulled up the willpower menu again.
Attention! Due to your miniscule knowledge and exposure to Elvish (plains dialect), learning this language will cost a total of 12 points. You do not have sufficient will, or knowledge, to accomplish this goal.
Glade grinned as he allocated two of his attribute points into willpower, taking him up to 13 in the attribute with 12 points remaining.
The message changed before his eyes.
Attention! Due to your minute knowledge and exposure to Elvish (plains dialect), learning it will cost a total of 12 points. Would you like to use your willpower to learn this language?
Yes/No
Warning! Once begun, the process cannot be stopped.
Excited, Glade selected yes.
Burning pain exploded in his head as his mind shattered. Languages he had learned on earth reverberated through his subconscious like echoes in a cave, stacking one on top of the other as more were added from his memories. Elvish slowly began to bleed in with the others, creating connections as his mind wove tenses, cases, and roots into an incredible tapestry of linguistic beauty.
He somehow heard the urgent cries from both Riya and Kedryn, their words added to the maelstrom of analysis that continued to be broken down in his partitioned mind, dissected by some other worldly power until all he could see, hear, remember, breathe, and taste were elvish sounds and meanings.
Gradually, the storm of words buffeting his mind calmed to the point where he could pry his eyes open.
The blue light of glowing mushrooms welcomed him back, his head protesting from surviving the self-induced torture.
A notification began blinking in the corner of his vision, but he didn’t have the energy to open it. His last thought before drifting off to sleep was of the mushrooms on the ceiling.
They looked like stars.