“It’s nice to meet you Lucy.” I grinned back at her while holding the out Core Essence.
“Yeah. Yeah. Whatever. Lessons over.” She grabbed the Core from my hand, picked up the metal case and carefully placed it in the empty spot from where I had taken the Insect Core. After closing the case she turned to the rest of her supplies and began examining them for damage.
“Aren’t you going to ask for my name?” I asked.
“Oh… sure. What’s your name?” She said with a tone.
I thought about giving her a sarcastic answer but matching her tone would probably lead to more conflict and she was the only person who could potentially help me.
“It’s Ben. Ben Hunting.” I stepped up next to her and started helping reorganize her boxes and crates. We worked on cleaning up the mess in silence for a while before Lucy finally spoke up.
“So why’d you pick the Insect Core?” She asked standing up and placing a slightly broken crate on top of another.
“I don’t know. I didn’t even know it was an Insect one. Why do you ask?” I said stacking a few smaller cases next to another pile.
“Well people in Asherik have a special connection with certain Essences. It’s not fully understood but Bonders seem to be drawn to certain types of Essemons. From the looks of it you’re connected to Insect Cores.” She opened up one of the cases I had set down and started counting the cores inside. I could see at least ten different colored cards. I tried to lean in closer to see if I could tell what each of the different Cores were but she quickly closed and snapped the case shut.
“Well back… back in my world I collected bugs. It was my hobby of sorts. People called me… Well, lets say it didn’t make me popular.” I turned to look at the grasshopper Essemon. It had moved over to the tree and was resting under its shade. I still had a hard time looking directly at the Essemon and every time it moved its legs or stretched its wings I felt an uncomfortable shiver up my back.
“It’s not gonna make you popular here either. A lot of Bonders consider Insect Cores to be inferior to the rest. I don’t collect many of them because they don’t sell as well as the others. That’s why I was surprised when you picked it in the first place.” She lifted her arm, pulled up the sleeve of her jacket and that’s when I saw her ARC Band for the first time. She swiped on the screen and started motioning with her other hand in the air. There was a faint sign of something holographic sitting in the air before her but I couldn’t see what she was looking at.
“So does that mean I am stuck with using Insect Essemon?” I asked.
“No. Not necessarily but your connection with your Essemon and its Designs will be stronger. Crap…” She swiped angrily in the air and put her hands on her waists.
“What is it?”
“I don’t have enough resources to use my Glidecycle. We’re gonna have to camp out the night.” She walked around her stack of crates until she found a backpack on the other side. Lucy pulled out a small metallic disk with a small red button in its center. She pushed the button and threw it out a couple of feet. I watched in amazement as the device began to unfold itself until a round yellow tent had popped up and settled onto the ground.
“Woah… That is awesome.” I said walking around the tent and looking inside. It was big enough for two people to fit inside, maybe three if they slept close together. I suddenly blushed as I realized I was probably going to have to stay the night with her inside her tent. “Umm… Are we going to share? I mean I…I… I don’t have my own —”
Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more.
“Shut up.” She walked over and pushed a bag into my arms. “It’s only weird if you make it weird. Besides as a complete beginner you’re not gonna wanna stay in the forest alone. Throw the bag inside and help me build a fire.”
I threw the bag inside and proceeded to walk around the outer rim of the glade we were in and picked up every stick I could find. I didn’t know how to make a fire or what kind of wood we even needed. I assumed anything that looked dry would burn.
I had a lot to think about as I helped Lucy set up our little campsite. A whole new world. Strange creatures and technology that was blowing my mind. It was almost too much to handle. I was feeling sick to my stomach and my mind was racing at a thousand miles per hour. Besides all of that I didn’t know where Locke or Sam were. They had been standing next to me when I saw the big flash and the world went dark. Were they also here? Maybe somewhere in this forest or one of the starting towns Lucy talked about?
I also started worrying about my mother. She would be worried sick if I didn’t come home. She may have already called the police by this time marking me as a missing child. How long have I been missing though? How long had I been in the endless darkness?
All these questions were making my head spin. I took in a deep breath, focused on steadying my heartbeat and closed my eyes.
“Are you okay?” I opened my eyes and the grasshopper was standing in front of me. It had a look of concern on its eyes and its antenna were drooped to the sides.
“Uh yeah. I’ll be fine.” I rubbed the back of my head trying not to be obvious with my discomfort being so close to the Essemon. “So… Do you have a name?”
The grasshopper lowered its head and looked at the ground intensely. “I… don’t think so. I don’t really remember anything before you showed up. It’s all a blur…. I know! Why don’t you give me a name? You’re my Bonder after all.”
“Sure. Umm…” My mind went blank. I couldn’t think of a single name to come up with. I had never had any pets growing up and I never thought about naming any of the ants or butterflies I had in my collection back home. “Wow. I am having a really hard time coming up with something. I could use a little help. Any suggestions?”
The grasshopper fluttered its wings in excitement and started looking around as if its new name would suddenly appear out of the forest. “What about Tree or Leaf? Maybe Pond?”
I couldn’t help but smile at its childlike questions. “Those aren’t names. Those are things. You know like grove or forest or motte—”
“Motte? I like Motte.” The grasshopper said with another flutter of its wings.
“Okay… I guess that could be a name. Yeah that will work. It’s nice to meet you Motte I’m Ben.”
----------------------------------------
Night had taken over Eversprout Forest casting the world in a swirl of living darkness. Despite the fact that everything had gone dark the world was alive with the sounds of the forest. I could hear the buzzing of insects, the chirping of birds and the distant rustling of the winds in the trees. I was a calming experience to sit and relax for the first time.
Lucy was sitting on a log near the tent poking at the fire with a stick and eating a bar of food. She had given me an extra bar to eat and a handful of some kinds of pellets for Motte to enjoy. We didn’t talk very much as we sat and enjoyed the warmth of the fire. I was too famished and exhausted for a conversation. As well my mind kept wandering over to the knocked out Pondfang no farther than twenty feet away. If it woke up we would be in trouble.
“Don’t worry about the Pondfang. It won’t be an issue.” Lucy said tossing her stick into the fire.
“What do you mean? Couldn’t it wake up at any time?” I asked.
“Just keep watching the Essemon. You’ll see.”
I watched carefully for the next ten minutes or so when suddenly the Pondfang began to fade away like a drifting glow of embers.
“What’s happening?” I asked in awe.
“The Essemon’s Design was shattered. Don’t worry it sounds worse than it is. When an Essemon is defeated in battle and loses all its HP it gets knocked out. If the Essemon doesn’t recover its HP shortly after, its Design is broken and it fades away. The Essence then drifts off back to the world to bond once again with something new. Nothing in the world of Asherik truly dies. It is reborn again to live another life.” Lucy motioned for me to keep watching.
It was actually quite beautiful to watch as the Pondfang’s body seemed to dissipate into amber energy and drift off into the night sky. Like a thousand fluttering fireflies it danced among the tree branches, waving strands of tall grass to finally become one with the stars.