Grigory

Several times on the way back to the encampment, I almost cried joyful tears.

I refused to do so in front of Ursula. It’s the burden of a leader to never show weakness in front of those he leads.

That said, I inwardly exulted my twice-born soul for finally opening its secrets to me.

Once we made it back, I set Ursula down under a shady rock and called out to my followers.

“All of the sick or infirm, come to me and I will [Cure] you!”

Several people rolled their eyes at me, which caused me to clench my jaw by reflex.

I reminded myself that it was normal for people to be non-believers before word spreads of your miracles.

I closed my eyes, repeated my favorite meditation mantra for ten seconds, and then opened them again.

While I was doing that, a woman with many infected cuts and a weak smile had approached me.

I smiled back at her, even though it was clearly desperation that drove her actions, she was the first to believe in my powers without seeing them personally.

I held out a hand and she looked at it. “Give me your hand for a moment.”

Tentatively, she complied.

I put my other hand on top of hers and focused. “[Cure].”

One by one, her cuts closed, and then the infection vanished.

After ten seconds, she was cleared of all of her festering wounds, as though they had never existed in the first place.

The masses looked on in shock, utterly stunned by my powers.

I smiled, but then tempered myself and returned to seriousness. “We will begin a triage of the wounded, as my powers only last for a maximum of thirty seconds per hour!”

At that moment, Atticus stepped in and started formulating the details of how people would be sorted.

The next few hours were filled with short bursts of healing, followed by long periods of miscellaneous tasks.

During one of the periods of [Cure]’s downtime, Atticus asked me a question that caught me off-guard.

“Do you really believe in reincarnation?”

I felt rather insulted by the question, which implied I was somehow faking my beliefs. “Of course I do!”

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Atticus was quiet for a moment before speaking again. “My sister was really big into Buddhism and mantras, but I never really understood it.”

I furrowed my eyebrows. “I’m not a Buddhist, I’m the second coming of the immortal Rasputin.”

Atticus sighed. “My sister died last year of cancer, I was just thinking about whether it would be better if she reincarnated, was sent to heaven, or… whatever else there is out there…”

I pursed my lips, unsure of what to say.

I decided that just saying what came to mind would be best in this case.

“I believe that anyone with a strong enough will, or in other words, a strong enough soul, can transcend the boundaries of death and live a second time.” I replied.

Atticus chuckled. “Well, if you’re right she’d claw herself back even if it took a thousand years.” He then turned pensive. “She was a woman with very strong opinions and a head as hard as iron… it was more than once that she came to my house, threw out all of my painkillers and left essential oils in their place.”

I frowned. “That sounds extremely annoying.”

Atticus nodded. “Oh it was… it’s just that, looking back, I think it was her way of showing me that she cared about my health… even if the essential oils never helped.”

Out of nowhere, Ursula’s voice cut itself into our conversation, as she walked over to us with a limp and sat down. “My Aunt Pamela was like that, except she was also a pompous asshole who said that eating meat was murder.”

Atticus and I looked at each other, before, despite ourselves, bursting out laughing.

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Clarissa

Hunting using exploding flaming balls of metal is a massive pain in the rear.

I lost my ability to stomach coconuts a few days ago, any further attempts simply threatening to cause my lunch to pour all over the floor.

So I turned my attention to the many beasts which roamed the beaches and palm forests.

Unfortunately for me, there weren’t any easy prey like crabs or clams… just dog-sized crustaceans who stank of blood and lemurs which had the ability to turn invisible.

I clacked my teeth together gently, a habit I’d picked up recently, as I scanned the landscape for something that I thought would be slower than me.

I spotted a lemur as it decloaked, and set my fireball to be 1% zinc, before inhaling.

The lemur burst into flame, leaving nothing but an ashen husk behind, and that’s not even to mention the surrounding trees which also caught on fire.

I groaned and pulled down on my bottom eyelids. “Why-y-y me-e-e?!”

I stood up and ran away from the quickly-spreading fire, as they tended to put themselves out on this weird hellish island.

This is what my last few days have been like… just that over and over.

What I wouldn’t give for a frozen pizza right now, something simple and easy to make… or wait, how would I cook a frozen pizza without an oven?

I clacked my teeth together again, trying to figure out some sort of plan of attack… but my brain wasn’t having it.

Sure, I could remember everything I’d ever heard or read, but my mind absolutely refused to make any sort of critical connections in its addled state.

I sat down where I was and tried to calm myself down so I could focus again, when suddenly I heard a rustling in the bushes near me.

As quietly as possible, I peered over at the noise and saw something strange.

Before me was a small lizard-like creature with large pointy ears and eyes that reminded me of a horse.

It was holding a small spear, which it used to push bushes out of the way as it surveyed the area around it.

The poor bugger was making quite the racket even though it was clearly trying to sneak around.

It was honestly too adorable to take my eyes away from, so I watched him go about his business for a good ten minutes.

I would have watched for longer, but the little guy’s stomach rumbled, which pushed him to search even more frantically.

I stood up. “Hey you moron, how do you plan on catching anything if you’re making enough noise to wake up the entire forest?!”

He jumped in surprise, and tossed his spear at me.

I barely dodged it and looked back at the little creature with annoyance. “What the heck man?! I’m trying to give you advice and you try to spear me?!” I crossed my arms in disappointment. “Very uncool of you.”

“You pop out of nowhere and start shouting, and then you’re surprised when my self-preservational instincts kick in? What kind of logic is that?!”

“That’s fair.”

Then silence fell over the forest for about a minute, before both of us looked at each other in shock.

“YOU CAN TALK?!”