Nick knew exactly what Grizzizzik was planning. He felt it in the way the rogue closed himself off to everyone. Giving enough dialogue to make it so no one was concerned about him. Made it seem like he was still a team player. Brushing off words or looks of concern. Doing the bare minimum to make sure no one noticed what he was doing.
And, admittedly, it wasn’t much. Grizzizzik was giving it a few days. Letting the shock of it simmer down. Let everyone think he was just moody with nerves instead of cooly planning out a one person intel mission that would undoubtably end in disaster.
Sunday they all lost steam, which is when Grizzizzik was at his peak quiet. Nick was exhausted. Calawit had nothing for them, saying it had been less than twenty-four hours, and what did they expect? They tried to travel around Elmwood to see if they could find demon rats, but Mr. Anderson had his address locked down. Not even Evelyn could find it, who was a pro at finding everything about a person through their social media. As far as anyone could tell, Mr. Anderson didn’t have social media. No one was finding his house. The probability of their quiet but intense science teacher giving out his address to a select few of his students, even for demon rat extermination, was low. According to Derek, Mr. Anderson would rather have the demon infestation than have students hanging around his house.
After searching for four hours, they stumbled on a nest of baby vultures that breathed a weak flame. It felt almost wrong to smash them, though Grizzizzik had no trouble doing so. It gave him ten experience points, and some looks from the group.
Which meant they needed another day. Nick was anxiously folding his arms, knowing what Walt would say.
“You can’t spend your entire weekend playing that game, Nick.”
It was eerie when Walt repeated the same phrase Nick predicted he would say when he finally asked him about it Sunday night.
“Dad, come on. I don’t have work on Monday. The bookstore’s closed for Labor Day.”
“I’ve been lenient, letting you play two games over the weekend. I can’t possibly let you play a third.”
Nick drained his glass of water. “And why not? It’s not like I have anything else to do.”
“There are plenty of jobs around the house you can do,” Walt said.
Nick made a point of rinsing out his cup before placing it in the dishwasher. “Come on, dad. This is literally the only thing I have in my life right now.”
Walt kept tapping on his laptop as though already finished with the conversation. “And I don’t want you to forget that you’re still in deep trouble.” Nick didn’t mean to, but it happened. Walt mentioned the entire reason for this prison sentence. It caused his eyes to relax enough to give a semblance of an eye roll. A vein in Walt’s forehead popped out. “It’s for your own good!”
It was far too easy to make Walt angry, even if he didn’t mean to. “Is it, Dad? Is it really? Or is this some sort of a power trip for you?”
Walt stopped tapping, giving Nick a glare. “Don’t make me take away your little game, too.”
Nick glared at his father. Glared at the man who would rather see his son wither up and become a shell of a person than ever embarrass him again. Nick hated he couldn’t tell Walt exactly what he thought. Not just about the characters, but about his parenting. Walt threatened to take away CCNC. The man who swore Nick would be grounded until he was eighteen, and stuck with it. Even if this wasn’t a matter of life or death, Nick couldn’t lose CCNC. It was his only socialization.
Nick turned around and went to his room, not trusting himself to stay near Walt. He shut his door, knowing Grizzizzik heard the whole thing. He knew because Nick rolled a high stealth check right before the conversation. No doubt Grizzizzik would listen to the whole thing, forming a plan. It was in Nick’s best interest to pretend he didn’t know his rogue was planning something. Nick was still terrified.
Evelyn came soon after the fight, assuring him she’d take Grizzizzik with her. The evidence of him rolling the dice during school made her believe Nick had a close enough bond with Grizzizzik that he could combat with him even if he was away. Nick agreed to it as his rogue popped back into the room again, acting like he did nothing but bathed in the sun.
Nick worked on some last-minute homework as it got late. He waited patiently as his rogue finished making his weapons. Nick got up and walked over to Evelyn’s room. He texted something on his phone as he knocked, waiting for her to come out.
The door opened, and he saw her out of the edges of his vision. “I wanted to wish you good night.” He then held his phone up to her. He didn’t hit send, because then Walt would read it, and he wasn’t in the mood to explain the situation.
“Um, yeah. Good night, Nick.” Evelyn’s eyes skimmed the unsent message.
Grizzizzik is planning something. I don’t know what it is, but it makes me uneasy. Never let him out of your sight tomorrow.
Evelyn finished reading it, gave Nick a grim look, and nodded.
***
Evelyn once again had her backpack of water bottles. Her shoulder felt like it had a permanent dent in it after lugging this around for two days. But things were picking up again. They were driving again toward a nature hike. Calawit said she heard some rumblings deep in the ground while she was meditating. She admitted she wasn’t sure how far the bubble reached, but she couldn’t deny the rumbling.
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.
Derek eased the minivan into the dusty parking lot. They all piled out, and Evelyn tried not to be obvious in making sure Grizzizzik stayed close. The rogue was quiet. Moody. Much like Nick this morning as he ate his sugar marshmallow cereal. It didn’t help when Walt slid him a list of jobs that needed to be done around the house, and Nick shot him a deadly glare.
Grizzizzik caught Evelyn’s gaze, and she turned her head, focusing on the path ahead. Considering Grizzizzik didn’t fall asleep the moment they headed toward the minivan, Nick had a strong enough connection to do long distance combat. Evelyn figured this, but the confirmation was nice.
Evelyn walked next to Alejandra. She was in choir, and they had a concert coming up. Alejandra was pretty confident, mainly because she didn’t try out for any solos.
“Why not?” Evelyn asked.
She shrugged. “I mean… that’s not really my thing.”
“Have you even tried?”
“Well, no, but I’d rather let the seniors try out. It is their last year and everything.”
Evelyn moved the backpack from one shoulder to the other. “I suppose.”
Derek turned around, walking backward. “I think we should all keep our eyes peeled. Which means Tyler needs to prompt us to roll for a perception check.”
Tyler frowned, glancing at the other characters. “This feels more like a passive perception kind of thing.”
“Oh, great. So, our two chaos GM’s might be rolling dice right now?” Derek asked.
“One of chaos, one of order. And… probably.” Tyler glanced around. “But that doesn’t mean we don’t have to.”
The ease with which he talked about this prompted Evelyn’s curiosity. “Do you know anything more about this chaos and order game masters?”
Tyler shook his head. “I have no idea.” He checked his phone. “I’m already starting a list of questions to ask Neal at con. The end of the month can’t come soon enough. I’ll tell you that much.”
Exhaustion seeped into Evelyn’s bones. It was barely September, and she was already counting down the days to the thirtieth. It was going to make for a very long month.
Grizzizzik slowed to a stop. He unfolded his arms, holding them out like he was balancing on something. “Does anyone else feel that?”
A silence reached all of them. At first Evelyn was worried Grizzizzik was using the opportunity to try some sort of sleight of hand. She missed Nick not being here to confirm his rolls. But she saw genuine unease in his eyes as his eyes scanned the desert. They were getting near the shade of the mountains. Grizzizzik backed away, his eyes wide.
Hraktar unsheathed his great sword. “Grizzizzik, what do you feel?”
“Don’t you feel it?” Clarissa asked.
Hraktar looked confused. “Feel what?”
“That… vibration,” Milo said, getting to one knee. He touched the ground, frowning.
Once Clarissa and Milo pointed it out, Evelyn could sense the deep rumbling in the ground. She took her bag off her shoulder, easing a water bottle out as the vibration grew. This couldn’t be good, whatever it was.
The dirt near Tyler and Derek shifted as though something was underneath. Both stumbled away. Evelyn took a few steps closer, but wished she hadn’t.
A twelve-foot long creature shot out of the dirt. Evelyn couldn’t help but scream as she stumbled back.
The creature landed, and she was able to get a better look at it. The dark blue scales on the thing looked thick, with cream-colored scales on its underbelly. There were so many teeth in the creature’s mouth that it couldn’t close it all the way. Evelyn’s eyes were wide as she took a few tiny steps back. The tail was thick and ended in some tough spikes. There were two horns on its head, and Evelyn did not want to be in the way of it charging, even if logically it couldn’t happen.
“Drake,” Tyler whispered. “That’s a drake.”
“A drake made it through the bubble?” Alejandra asked.
Derek shook his head. “Drakes aren’t as deadly as a dragon, but you still don’t want to mess with one.” There was another roar as a second blue drake dove out of the sand. “Or two,” Derek added.
“Shit,” Tyler said.
Time slowed down, and Evelyn felt all the information come to the forefront of her mind. A d20 floated in front of her.
Roll for initiative.
Evelyn knew this was coming, but it still made her nervous. She grabbed the d20 out of the air and gave it a shake.
Nine plus two. Eleven wasn’t bad, though the frozen time helped her study the drool hanging off one of the drake’s crooked teeth in front of her. It didn’t help.
Time resumed as the drake in front of them leapt toward Hraktar and opened its mouth to bite him. Thankfully, the fighter was prepared for such an attack and dodged out of the way. The tail of the drake came down hard, and Evelyn gasped, fully prepared to see Hraktar take a face of the spiked tail, but it instead nicked his great sword, sending it flying.
“Stupid nat one,” Alejandra mumbled.
Grizzizzik leapt to Hraktar’s side, pulling out his rapier. He went with a deadly blow, piercing the scales and causing blood to come from his shoulder. The drake roared in pain.
Milo stumbled back, giving his crossbow a good whack with his wrench as it glowed with a poisonous green aura. He aimed at the drake behind him and fired. The green bolt buried into the drake’s shoulder. The creature snarled at Milo, who made him back away even further.
“There aren’t many places to hide,” Milo mumbled.
Evelyn got the feeling that the mana fusor was feeling quite self-conscious of those nineteen hit points above his head. She had little time to think about it, as time slowed down and her options were in front of her. She chose ice knife, then she also chose her new feature with the Circle of the Shepherd, picking the bear totem. That should help everyone.
Evelyn shook her dice. It looked like it was almost going to land on a three, then it landed on sixteen. She let out a breath of relief as +4 bumped it up to a dirty twenty. A d10 appeared in front of her. She gave it a nice shake and was pleasantly surprised when it landed on eight.
Time resumed, and Evelyn sprayed droplets of water in Clarissa’s direction. Her druid princess chanted an incantation, moving her wrists around as the water slowed down. It lumped together and froze into a sharp edge. The ice knife disappeared into the drake’s shoulder, and it let out a scream. The knife burst, slamming ice chunks in the face.
The bigger drake fighting against Hraktar and Grizzizzik looked up and saw Clarissa finishing the last of her movements with the spell. It snarled at her. She looked back, then chanted something else, throwing her hands up into the sky. Her eyes glowed a golden color, and the spirit of a bear flew out of her.
“What is that? What is that? What are you doing?” Milo asked.
Clarissa had no time to answer. The bear sprinted around the group, roaring.
“You’re all welcome!” Evelyn called out.
All four of the hit point bars above the character’s head pushed further, giving everyone seven additional hit points. The numbers above all their heads were no longer green, but yellow, with a tiny portion of their health bar in the same color yellow.
“You are the best, Evelyn!” Derek said.
She gave a thumbs up. But that’s all the time she had. The drake Clarissa stabbed with an ice knife, leapt forward and chomped down on the druid’s shoulder. The tail came down, barely missing her. But that bite took out eight points of damage from her health. The yellow number disappeared, and she went back to the regular green. It was a good thing she used the bear spirit, or else this would have been a lot worse. The drake let go, and Clarissa backed away, holding onto her torn shoulder as her hit points settled at sixteen.
“Princess?” Milo asked.
“Just focus on killing this thing!” Clarissa said.