The trio made their way to the tavern, where he and the others had a light lunch. They then found Tiffany and Everest.
“You brought another one with you?” Tiffany asked, surprised.
“Yes, this is Damian, another friend of mine.” Damian stated
“I see. I just finished sparring with Everest and was going to go for lunch. Going by the sauce stain on Kyrion’s shirt I assume you just came back from lunch.”
The sauce on the haunch of pork Kyrion ate was good. So instead of cleaning off the sauce with his magic. Instead, he took a finger and scooped it up to finish it off.
“Good sauce.” Kyrion stated.
Everest sighed.
“Oh.” Kyrion cleansed his shirt and hands with water before drying it out.
“What am I going to do with you?” Tiffany shook her head.
“I’m fine with a second lunch.” Kyrion volunteered. Rolling his arm in a circle.
“We can also go talk in the tavern, we haven’t seen each other in a while.”
“Some better introductions would do.” Tiffany stated.
Ceres turned around and ran to warn the innkeeper.
Luckily for the innkeeper, Kyrion wasn’t very hungry. He talked, ate, and then played around the small town. Finally, the sun began to set very quickly, and it was time to visit the springs.
They then went to the indoor springs. Dawning swimwear is made for them by the tailors. So easy to move in and very durable, Kyrion felt as though he could fight with complete freedom of motion.
“These are nice.” Damian started.
“Don’t even think about fighting in those.” Everest said.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Damian said stoically.
“I was. I will try not to.” Kyrion stated.
“That’s the most I will ask. Aria will be the agent in charge of the swimwear store. An easy way to make money and keep track of tourists.”
“Bla bla bla, money. Let’s go play in the springs!” Kyrion dragged his friends to the pool leading them into the hot water with a cannonball.
Damian was raised by travelers, growing used to harsh weather conditions and temperatures. Everest had gone through some deep conditioning to prepare for torture and injury in the field. Neither of them had a low pain tolerance and were fine entering the deep hot water.
The trio horse played in the water for half an hour before Everest brought something up.
“Where’s Issac? Doesn’t he love water?” Everest said.
Kyrion muttered to himself. “Almost forgot about that bird.”
“You should summon him.” Damian said.
“Fine, fine.” In his merriment, he summoned Issac.
Issac appeared angry. Had the bird had eyebrows, they would be furrowed.
“Who is Sir Issac?” Issac asked with irritation.
Kyrion recalled his childhood companion, Sir Issac, the brave! A taxidermied meerkat that did little dances every now and then. He and Asela had gotten a bit of a pulling match, and the poor hero was pulled apart. Stuffing, straw, plants, and insects came spilling from the insides.
“One of my best friends from childhood?” Kyrion said as a question.
“Well it’s a macabre figure no normal kid would play with something so disturbing.” Issac stated.
“It wasn’t that bad.” Kyrion said, recalling the many adventures that they’d been on.
“Oh it was. Not to mention you named me after that creature.”
“Your Issac, that was Sir Issac. Completely different.”
Issac raised a figurative eyebrow “Mmmmhmmm. Well I’m mad, and to make matters worse you’ve kept my companion trapped in her core!”
Damian and Everest looked at each other, then back at the indignant bird.
“Fine, fine. If it will make you happy then fine.” Kyrion pulled Undine’s core from his space. Noticing that a lot of water had been pooling in there
Undine materialized in her full glory, resulting in Damian turning as red as a strawberry.
Kyrion immediately ran to heal his friend, but nothing happened.
Everest looked at the spirit apathetically.
“Ninety, forty-five, Ninety. Twice the size of a normal human in height. Would take a lot of….” He mumbled, dressing the greater spirit.
“Look who came kno….” Undine started.
“I forgot. Feel free to join now. You can talk to Issac about it later.” Kyrion interrupted.
The great spirit decided not to push the human and returned to being core. Which Kyrion absorbed before melting into the hot water. In a peaceful trance, Kyrion’s body floated to the surface.
“Huh. He can float on water.”
“I would prefer the term all terrain for our friend here.” Damian didn’t know how well he was on the mark.
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Kyrion felt as though all of his blood had evaporated. It then reformed with a much cooler feeling. It felt goooooood. Kyrion opened his eyes halfway and looked at his friends, who looked at him in horror.
“What happened?” Kyrion asked as though he wasn’t all there.
“There is a lot of blood in the pool.” Everest stated.
Kyrion let his body sink into the water to see the change better. He could clearly see an absurd amount of blood starting to spread in the water from the bottom. With a casual wave of his hand, the blood congealed and compressed before vanishing into a jar in Kyrion's space. It was a lot of blood, after all.
“Could be useful one day.” He said while underwater, not noticing how clear he was.
Kyrion stood up and approached his friends.
“Do you feel any different?” Damian asked.
“Aside from feeling really goooooood?” Kyrion stretched with a chuckle. He wasn’t facing Damian but a space to the right of Damian.
“Yes, aside from feeling really good.” Damian said stoically.
“I’m as hapbe… hamknee? Haddy as a newborn benquin in the dessert.” Kyrion reached to pat the area next to Damian.
“Huh. You need to eat more, Damian, you’re kinda thin.” Kyrion said.
“Kyrion, are you drunk?” Everest asked.
“No. I’m Kyrion. I don’t know who this drink is, but I’m not them.” Kyrion pointed to Damian, who was to the right of Everest.
“How do you feel Kyrion?”
“Like I’m full of bubbles!” Kyrion slapped himself on the chest, and bubbles came out of his mouth in a loud burp.
Damian and Everest watched as the tips of Kyrion’s hair turned blue, and he climbed out of the pool.
“Kyrion! Where are you going?” Damian asked.
“Out!” Kyrion said as he walked into a wall. The wall seemed to open up for him because he clearly walked through it without breaking the thing.
----------------------------------------
Kyrion awoke in the ballroom in his hotel, surrounded by a bunch of people sleeping on the floor around him. He had a righteous headache that was slowly fading and a gap in his memory that started right after he started absorbing Undine’s core.
“What’s going on?” Kyrion asked, extricating himself from the bodies on the floor, still sleeping.
Tiffany and Ceres were already up and in the ballroom watching the boy with worry in their eyes.
“Kyrion? Are you really Kyrion?” Tiffany asked.
“Yes.” Kyrion said, confused
“Then you have a lot of explaining to do.” Tiffany scowled.
“What I’d do?” Kyrion scratched his head.
“Follow me.” Tiffany led Kyrion to the indoor garden.
Kyrion did not recall having a garden in the hotel. In fact, he was sure that this was the training hall.
Ceres was shaking her head. “I tried to stop you, master.”
“Its a nice garden. Whats wrong with a garden?” Kyrion asked.
“This was the training hall. You turned the training hall into a botanical garden.” Tiffany stated.
“There’s even a fish pond in here. Where did you even get the fish?” Ceres asked.
Kyrion blinked twice before walking to the ornate earthen pond that seemed quite well constructed. He also noticed that it was somehow connected to the plumbing and irrigation system while freshwater seemed to cycle in on its own.
“I had to have help.” Kyrion mumbled.
“I’m sure you did. Though you’re the first one to wake up.” Tiffany stated.
“Why am I still not wearing a shirt?” Kyrion looked down, confused, pulling a tunic out of his space and slipping it over himself.
“Well you solved that issue. Last night you were a kid possessed.” Tiffany stated.
“Can you tell me what happened?” Kyrion asked.
“If what Damian said was to be believed.” Tiffany crossed her arms.
“It is!” Ceres stated.
“Anyway, he said you lost a lot of blood and had a big case of delirium. Somehow in that state you threw a party that only ended three hours ago when you finally passed out. Which apparently was contagious as most of the people from Damian’s school passed out with you.”
Kyrion blinked twice. “Why would they do that?”
“I’m not sure. But it’s what happened. You’re going to need to clean this up however.” Tiffany said.
Kyrion looked around the room and clapped his hands before filling the space with life mana. “Ok, plants, start moving. I want you out of the building in five minutes. Feel free to take root outside of the hotel. Just remember to make yourselves look pretty for the tourists.”
“Kyrion, you can’t just tell plants to up and…move….” Tiffany said as shock appeared in her eyes.
One by one, the plants uprooted themselves from the floor and somehow hobbled over to the door. Within a few minutes, the pant portion of the garden was gone from the largest tree to the smallest blade of grass.
“You can talk to plants?” Tiffany asked.
“Nope, I talk at them while feeding the mana. I think they guess at what I want them to do.” Kyrion lied.
He could command plants with ease, but those weren’t typical plants. How the dryads got here and why they left. Were questions he’d rather ask directly and not in front of people who would think he was crazy.
Tiffany didn’t say anything and just left the room with an irritated expression.
Ceres shook her head and made her way out of the training hall.
Kyrion was, in fact, confused. Still, that fish pond was good and stuck there. He could remove the fish and purify the pond, making it a drinking source or something.
“This is odd.” Kyrion pouted as he started clearing the ground and cleaning out the room.
Throughout the day, Kyrion noticed that various creatures that were clearly out of place were, in fact, living right outside of the small town.
Kyrion decided to get some food in him before moving forward with his investigation.
The tavern was strangely empty this morning. Most of the usual patrons were gone, and the only worker seemed to be the owner.
“You’re going to run me out of business at this rate, Kyrion.” The bartender joked.
“Did I grow anything in here?” Kyrion asked.
“No, but many tiny floating people claiming to be your friends ordered tons of liquor. The heavy stuff by the barrel, and they paid with gems and other valuable rocks.”
“That doesn’t make much sense…I don’t recall very much of yesterday, but that’s outlandish.”
“You were out of it. Had I not been the only source of liquor in town, I’d think you’d have been drunk. But knowing you, you probably stayed up past your bedtime and were confused.” The bartender stated.
“Some sort of blood loss thing… Now I’m tired, hungry, and lost.” Kyrion scratched his head.
“Then you should probably avoid alcohol.” The bartender said honestly.
“Aren’t you supposed to sell alcohol?” Kyrion asked.
“I also have juice and other non-alcoholic beverages.” The bartender placed today’s breakfast abomination in front of Kyrion.
It appeared to be some sort of large piece of bread. Enough to fill a large plate. Large by Kyrion portions was a plate the size of a circular dining table.
Upon opening it, the young boy found golden eggs mixed with bacon, cheese, potatoes, tomatoes, sausage, and onions. Suffice it to say, he had all the food groups covered as far as things went.
“I like this one.” Kyrion said honestly. Filling up just on that alone.
Kyrion returned to the training hall to find that the fish pond seemed to have up and moved itself.
“Odd… Oh well!” Kyrion said as he turned around to leave.
“Kyrion. How are you feeling?” Asked Damian’s teacher, who was standing in a doorway.
“Decent…A little tired.” Kyrion said.
“Are you who I should speak to if I want to build here?” She asked.
“No? You should ask Tiffany and by extension her father. I don’t own the land here.”
“Huh, by what I’ve heard various you seem to be the one in charge.”
“Nope. I do have a deal with them, though.” Kyrion looked at the woman, who seemed to be covered in petals.
“I see. If I give you my name can you put in a good word?”
“I’m being honest. I’m probably not going to remember it.” Kyrion shrugged.
“I’m a pretty famous entertainer, you know.” She said.
“And If I cared you wouldn’t have to say that.” Kyrion retorted.
“Maybe the name, Glersora will jog some memories.” She said proudly.
Kyrion slowly blinked before cleaning his ears out.
“You don’t know? I’ve performed in every country on the continent.” Glersora said with surprise.
“Listen Linda. I don’t know you. You’re my friend’s teacher. Go talk to the land owner.” Kyrion could feel hostility rolling off the women and decided to end the conversation.
A wave of mana collided with Kyrion, and a pressure formed on his forehead. His body removed it much faster than expected this time.
“Hmmmmm. I see. Such a shame. Since you’re my student’s friend I’ll leave it at that. Just keep in mind that in this world you’re still weak. Many creatures can still overpower you.” Glersora sighed, walking away, looking a bit more cheery for some odd reason.
Kyrion waited until she left before he cleansed himself with warm water.Making himself squeaky clean
“What was that pressure?” Kyrion left the training hall.