(Nathan)

“Do you know whose wall this is?” Nathan asked.

He tried to get Dorian’s attention by stepping between him and the wall. But that didn’t faze the unstoppable elf.

“It’s just a bunch of rocks. Nobody owns rocks,” Dorian said as he sidestepped his brother.

“Wrong.” Nathan put a hand on Dorian’s chest and said, “That’s a rock wall and it denotes the property line of Judge Urvana Curtis Cobblebain of the Waxford Conglomerate.”

Dorian finally glanced up from the rock wall to Nathan. “How do you know that?”

Nathan stepped back and pointed to the property sign: “Welcome to the estate of Urvana Curtis Cobblebain of the Waxford Conglomerate.”

Dorian nodded after reading the sign and admitted, “Fair point, but how do you know she’s a judge?”

“I met her in court the other day.” He waved his hands. “But that’s not important—”

“You’re already friends!” Dorian reached for a long, flat rock that topped the wall.

“Dorian! Don’t you dare touch that rock,” he warned.

“It’s fine!” Dorian picked up the long stone slab as if it was made of wood. “You already know a judge if we get into trouble.”

Lifting the rock revealed dozens of basic and small gems. They glittered and sparkled in the light. Nathan’s eyes grew wide, and he checked to his right and then to his left. He felt guilty, like they were already in trouble. Nathan didn’t know what rule they were breaking, but Dorian always treated rules as more of a suggestion.

Dorian grumbled, uninterested in the thousands of credits worth of gems lying on the revealed rock wall.

“How did you know she kept her gems here?” Nathan looked up at his brother, who still held the slab.

Dorian shrugged and said, “Those aren’t her gems. It’s my secret ability I told you about.”

“You have an ability to find people’s hidden stashes?” Nathan kept looking around, expecting Dartmouth constables to surround them at any moment.

“Nope.” Dorian tossed the slab. The corner caught the ground first, and the slab snapped in half.

Nathan thought, ‘Oh Mother, he broke it,’ as his hands went to his head.

Dorian noticed. “Oops.”

Then he proceeded to pick up another of the long slabs that topped the wall. This time, there were creature parts: fangs, bones, pulsing-sacs, a few eyes, and a very large, twitching insect stalk.

Nathan stared with a mixture of curiosity and disgust. “What is all this?”

“Alchemy reagents, I think?” Dorian shrugged and gently leaned the slab up against the wall. “Either way, it’s not what we’re looking for.”

Nathan couldn’t look away from the array of twitching parts. “What are we looking for?”

Dorian was mid-reach for the next slab when he paused, leaned in to give him a flat look and said, “Glyphs…” as if that should have been more obvious. “What did you think we’re looking for?”

“Rocks,” Nathan said. “I’m pretty sure you told me to look for rocks.”

“This is my secret ability.” Dorian gestured toward the gems and critter parts. “I haven’t told or shown it to anyone else.”

He hefted the next slab up and off the wall. This time, it revealed chunks of unrefined metal. Nathan wasn’t a metallurgist and couldn’t tell the difference between them. The small chunks of ore were so abundant they covered the stones underneath.

Dorian sighed. “Not big enough.”

A gnomish woman appeared in the doorway of the large house. “Hey!” she called out to them.

“Hi!” Dorian stood up straight and waved back. “We should go find bigger rocks,” he murmured to Nathan, keeping his smile.

Nathan quickly looked at Dorian and then back at Urvana, struggling with how to explain what they were doing. She strolled off her porch, approaching them.

He hung his head and thought, ‘We’re going to be in so much trouble.’

Dorian placed a hand on Nathan’s shoulder and said, “Hang on.”

“To what?” Nathan turned to face his brother; concern written on his face. ‘Maybe she doesn’t recognize us?’ he wondered.

“Nathan?” Urvana asked just before both boys suddenly teleported away.

If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

The teleport was disorienting for Nathan. Dorian held on to his brother’s shoulder, preventing him from spinning and falling over. They now stood on a flat rock jutting up from the ground.

“Where… are we?” Nathan asked.

“Oooh, that’s a big one.” Dorian let go of Nathan’s shoulder, excitedly wandering off to examine a rock the size of himself.

Nathan stepped off the flat rock and onto the ground. They were on the top of a rocky hill, which felt both alien and familiar, like looking at the side of a building he’d only ever seen the front of.

‘Is this the hill behind the fields?’ he wondered. After some mental mapping, he guessed Nightshade to be on their left. A quick glance confirmed Dorian had taken them to the hills, far past the crops. He turned around as Dorian tried to hug a boulder as tall and twice as round as he was. His hands kept slipping off.

“The big ones can be tricky,” Dorian grunted as he tried to squeeze the rock.

“Why didn’t you grab the loot before we teleported?”

Dorian paused and took a step back to re-evaluate his approach. “We’re looking for glyphs, not just any loot. Also, I’ve got a looting ability, not a storage one.” He looked at his brother. “Do you?”

Nathan shook his head. “No.”

“There’s no way I’m walking around with bloody, gooey, moving bits in my pockets. That’s just gross.” Dorian stepped around the boulder and tried again from the lower side.

“But what about the gems, or the metal? We could’ve used them to buy a glyph.”

“I didn’t see you stuffing your pockets,” Dorian grunted with another failed attempt. He continued to circle around his problem. “Buying a glyph takes all the fun out of it. You think I bought you that Swift glyph?”

“I thought maybe you got it from a lootbox,” Nathan admitted.

“A lootbox?” Dorian scoffed. “Runemist cracks the team lootboxes and divvies up the items. Any glyphs she isn’t saving for our rank ups, get sold for League credits or donated for Nightshade standing.”

Dorian narrowed his eyes and gave the boulder a test kick. It didn’t budge. “Besides, now Judge Judy—”

“Judge Urvana,” Nathan corrected.

“Yeah, her. Now she’ll have the funds to pay someone to restock her rock collection. Bet she’ll get some fine rocks for all the gems we left her.” Dorian spread his arms as wide as they’d go and pushed himself up against the rock. His fingertips inched their way into place. “Give me a hand, will you?”

Nathan hurried over and leaned against the boulder, mostly for emotional support. Dorian strained to lift it. His feet sank into the ground up to his ankles before the boulder even shifted. The unstoppable elf grunted as it rose just enough to roll it out of the way. Luckily for them, the rock was mostly resting on the surface of the ground.

Dorian rolled it on its side, but the oversized rock was too round and the grade too steep. Nathan watched helplessly as the boulder slowly wobbled over. The wobble turned into a slide, which evolved into a revolution. Both brothers watched as the rock went downhill toward the forest below.

“Mother, I hope there isn’t anyone hiking today.”

As it picked up speed, it started skipping more than rolling, leaping dozens of feet at a time, gouging holes and kicking dirt in its wake. The trees were no match for the inertia of such a heavy object. It was easy enough to track, even after it disappeared into the forest, with a line in the canopy marking the path of the boulder’s journey.

Dorian sighed. “It was too big.”

“You should be more careful. That could’ve killed someone—”

“No. The rock was too big… We got an orb, not a glyph.” Dorian bent down to pick it up.

“What?” Nathan couldn’t believe it. His brother just found an orb under a rock. No, technically, he made an orb by picking up a rock, which was even more outlandish.

“Your common-ranked looting ability gets you orbs? Divine Mother of the world, Dorian really is Destiny’s favorite child,” he muttered and then sighed. His curiosity overcame his jealousy. “What kind is it?”

Dorian held up the orb, filled with purple clouds swirling about and an obscured blue object hidden in the center. He tossed it up into the air and caught it a few times. “Looks like an Arcane orb, I think?”

Nathan stared at the orb as his brother casually juggled it in one hand. “That’s… really valuable.”

Dorian shrugged, tossing it directly at him. “Want it?”

His eyes went wide, and he raised his hands to catch the precious orb.

‘Oh no. What happens if I drop it?’ he wondered, fumbling his first attempt to catch it. They both watched as it popped back into the air. ‘For the love of Mother, don’t drop it,’ he told himself, catching it mid-air on his second attempt.

Dorian motioned toward the orb. “I bet you could trade that for a bunch of great glyphs.” He turned around, not giving it a second thought, and started looking for his next rock.

The brothers spent the next half hour scouring the hillside for rocks about half-Dorian sized. Every rock Dorian lifted, moved, or even kicked revealed a secret treasure underneath. Nathan wished he had bigger pockets. He’d stuffed them full of gems, trinkets, and anything else of value that would fit. Adding more storage to his wardrobe would be the first thing he’d spend his newfound wealth on.

Dorian complained as he rolled a quarter-Dorian sized rock on its side. He was upset that his ability only worked once on each rock. But Nathan didn’t see the problem. It’s not like they were going to run out of rocks, even with elvenly long lifetimes.

Nathan envied his brother’s looting ability—it was really something special. He didn’t even have to kill or hurt anything for it to work. Most looting abilities required a recently slain corpse or something similar.

He strolled along, looking for big rocks and dreaming of all the people he could help by just going out and playing geologist with such a wonderful ability.

In the end, they found two more glyphs, one Fire and another Life. Nathan was especially excited to use the Life glyph. The Fire glyph was hot to the touch, an open flame spiraled in the center of the dark metal band, which made it difficult to carry for long. They left that one on the ground until they were ready to head back.

Life glyphs were disturbing. A mass of muscle writhed in the center of the dark metal band—a mimicked heart of the last person to hold it. The mass took the form of an elven heart, matching Nathan’s heartbeat as he held the glyph.

Myths of immortality surrounded Life glyphs. Rumors circulated they could sustain your heartbeat indefinitely as long as it matched your own. Nathan was fairly sure they were only rumors, but that was one of the many reasons they were hard to find and, if found, expensive.

“You ready to go back and glyph up?” Dorian flashed him a grin, his excitement ready to boil over.

“Are you sure you don’t want to bring some of this stuff home with you?” Nathan gestured to all the treasure on the ground. “All of your pockets are empty.”

Dorian just shook his head. “Imagine when someone takes a walk up this hill. Two things are going to happen.” He walked over and threw his arm around Nathan, waving his hand across the un-looted items. “First, all that loot is going to make their day.”

Nathan glanced up at his brother. “That’s really kind.”

“Second, they’re going to spend the rest of their lives trying to figure out how it happened and if they can do it again.” Dorian nodded with a smile.

Nathan sighed. “That’s… much less kind, Dorian.”

“I know, but I enjoy causing mystery.”

‘Not the word I would’ve used,’ Nathan thought.