Chapter 30: Walk In The Park

In fact, Lena pulled her punch so early, no amount of shaky-cam could have hidden it from a disgusted stunt coordinator.

I still flinched away.

You know. For the sake of the video.

Lena danced back. “Don’t worry, folks. I wouldn’t really damage the face of my lovely assistant. Even if he did take seven whole HP from me.”

I took a moment to compose my voice. An editor could cut it. Should they? “Ashbird and I are teammates. We know we aren’t going to hurt each other. If you’re doing arranged PVP, you should be able to trust it’s physically safe, too. If you try to invade someone and scare them badly enough, though...”

“They might fight back out of game,” Lena said. “You could get really messed up, or you could hurt somebody by accident. No bueno.”

“We’re hoping we’ll be able to arrange invasion ‘zones’ once we know PVP isn’t kicking people out of the game.” I said “we,” but if those zones did get set up, good luck getting me to set foot in them with Third Eye on. “Someplace players can gather for semi-structured PVP.”

“Look forward to it!” Lena flashed another V sign, then pointed at me. “Kay, we’ve moralized enough. Let’s get to the really cool stuff.”

“Right.” I guided the Iron to the stack of objects. “For now, most of what Air does with our Materials is cosmetic. And when it comes to cosmetics, the last two we’ve found are the most impressive. For instance...”

I manifested Glass.

At first, it looked like I’d just dropped the Iron without conjuring anything in its place. Even though ShakeProtocol had demonstrated this to us last night, I still tensed for a moment. I didn’t have enough MP to screw things up.

Then I tilted my hand and the light from Lena’s flames caught on the edges of the pane.

Glass emerged almost as thin as Iron, and if you looked at it head-on, you couldn’t see it at all. Only hints of reflections or distortion when it tilted made it visible. A window of thin, almost flawless transparency, moving under my command.

Through it, I saw Lena chewing her cheek.

“Sup?” I asked.

“It looks super cool to me,” she said, “but I’m not sure they’re even gonna see it in the video.”

“Oh.” I considered the resolution we’d have to upload at. “Well shit.”

“We can make this work.” She paced around the glass and ran her fingers over it. Where her flames passed close, the glass distorted and reflected their light. “We just need contrasting light sources, see?”

“Damn, that looks good.” A minute passed with Lena moving her hands and wings around the glass and me staring. I blinked and shook my head. “You better back up so it’s easier to cut the video, then we’ll start the segment again, okay?”

“Gotcha.”

While she retreated to the bench, I swayed the Glass back and forth to make sure Third Eye didn’t consider it deselected. God, what a mess that would make.

I replayed our outline in my head. What needed to change if the audience could only see the glass when Lena went near it?

“Ready?” she asked.

“Set, go.”

She took a step forward and I cleared my throat to talk.

A bark stopped us both.

Let me clarify.

LikeItsNinetyNine’s little spotted dog could bark, and it would be kinda shrill, but you’d pause and go, “What a cute dog.” and then move on with your day.

This was not that kind of bark.

It penetrated bone deep. The Glass vibrated, Lena’s bobbleheads shook, the trees rustled, squirrels shot up into the leaves and birds burst from them. Even the pile of discarded objects rattled. It startled me so much my hand twitched in some way Third Eye didn’t consider a valid command.

My Glass hit the pavement and shattered.

Good thing the source of the bark didn’t come up the sidewalk I’d just turned into a field of caltrops – but it wasn’t real glass, I reminded myself, so my fuckup couldn’t hurt a dog. Anyway, this one bounded across the grass toward us.

What’s the biggest dog you’ve seen? Maybe a Newfoundland or a Great Dane? This one was as broad as the first and as tall as the second, with a spectacular curly tail and a really cool coat, auburn but the fringes looked golden in the sunlight.

He loped forward and did a wide figure-eight around Lena and I. He kept barking periodically, but at a lower volume. More of a chuff. You know. Only enough to shake fillings from teeth.

A singsong voice, tiny compared to the dog’s but clear and carrying in the thin morning air, called out, “Hush.”

The dog fell silent and the silence sounded deafening.

The voice’s owner – and, I had to assume, the dog’s – ran up the hill after him. A little girl with Vocaloid hair, Hatsune Miku hair. Although I assumed kids associated aquamarine dye with a newer reference. Some VTuber, probably. She had on sweats a shade darker than her hair and oddly sleek wraparound glasses. No coat, but heavy boots and knit gloves.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

She skidded to a stop on the grass and said, “Come.”

Her dog loped over to her.

“Good boy.” She hugged his neck. Her arms looked like they barely fit around it. I wondered how much the dog outweighed her by. He stood as tall at the shoulder as she did at the chin.

She waved to Lena and I. “Whatcha up to?”

Lena spared me having to try to explain it. She padded past me and bent down to get level with the girl. “We’re making a YouTube video for a game. Do you like games?”

“Mmhm!” The girl practically bounced. “Can I play, too?”

“That would be fun,” I said, optimistically. “This one is still in beta, though. That means grownups have to play first to make sure it’ll be fun enough for kids.”

Lena shot a venomous look over her shoulder. Like either of us knew how to talk to kids?

The girl stuck her tongue out. “I know what a beta is, silly.”

Lena rolled her eyes at me. Apparently, she thought this should’ve been obvious. I wondered how much it took out of her not to say, “Yeah, silly.”

The girl stood there, leaning against her dog and scratching his neck. She opened her mouth, then frowned and shook her head.

Lena leaned forward to make eye contact. “What’s up, kiddo?”

“My big bro says I shouldn’t talk to strangers.”

“You prolly shouldn’t.” Lena nodded to herself and stood.

“Mmhm.” The girl looked up, eyes bright, smile beaming. “So you better introduce yourselves!”

Lena gasped. “Did you miss the start of our video shoot? I’m the magnificent Ashbird, and this is my lovely assistant, OldCampaigner!”

She did a twirl and ended on her start-of-video pose. I took a bow.

The girl applauded, and her dog hopped up and ran in a circle at Lena’s feet, following her motion. At her feet? Hell. Forget the girl, the dog was chest-high to Lena.

She laughed as he trotted around her and unleashed more of those tooth-rattling half-barks. She asked, “Can I pet him?”

“Sure,” the girl said. “He only bites bad people.”

“Ehhh. Better not.” Despite her words, Lena reached out. When the dog slowed in front of her, her hands disappeared in his fur and scratched behind the ears of his great shaggy head.

I joined the three of them on the grass and patted my chest. “My actual name’s Cameron, by the way. This is Lena.”

The girl mimicked Lena’s spin. She tripped over her feet and had to skip to stay upright, but she landed the pose, fingers splayed in a dramatic V, a grin splitting her face. It looked more appropriate on her than Lena; with her long dyed hair, she could’ve been a young JPop idol. Although she didn’t look Japanese. It occurred to me that her hair dye and her odd glasses made it tough to place her ethnicity. Golden skin. What color were her eyes and the roots of her hair? She moved too much to tell.

She announced, “I’m Albie!”

I didn’t think I’d heard that name before, but I hadn’t hit up one of those baby naming sites since the last time I ran a roleplaying game and needed a quick moniker for an NPC. “It’s nice to meet you Albie. And your dog?”

“He’s Marroll.”

Another name I didn’t recognize. Where do people even get dog names?

“He’s so cool,” Lena cooed. “What kind is he?”

“My big bro says I shouldn’t tell.” Albie pretended to lower her voice to a whisper, but I could still hear her fine. “Marroll is real rare. He’s a couple kinds at once!”

Lena drew back and regarded the dog with new appreciation. “So. Cool.”

Marroll didn’t react. Accepting her praise as his due.

I stepped forward and let him sniff my hand, then started to pet his head. His coat was absurdly soft.

While I petted him, I looked around.

No brother in sight, just a couple of women jogging on the other end of the park. We’d picked a quiet time to shoot our video. Most times were, on a Monday in the middle of winter.

“You’re here with your brother, Albie?” I asked.

She bobbed her head. “He’s real busy, though.”

Lena started to frown.

Albie caught it immediately. She jutted her chin forward. “I’m a big girl, Ashbird.”

“You can call me Lena, kiddo. And I’m sure you’re real grown up, I’m just not used to kids your age walking their dogs alone.” She looked Marroll over. “I guess with such an impressive guardian, you’re plenty safe.”

Albie beamed and scratched under Marroll’s chin.

Lena’s smile looked forced, but force it she did.

“Thanks for letting us meet Marroll, Albie,” I said. She was a cute little girl with a cute big dog, but she needed to get back to her brother. Or home, if she’d come to the park alone.

Plus, we had Glass to clean up and a video to finish. How to pick up the shards? They wouldn’t hurt animals or most people, but if a Third Eye player walked past, they could get their HP cut up. Not exactly sending the right message to the playerbase, you know?

My thoughts drifted to Glass-scooping methods. Iron would probably be best to gather it up. Did I have precise enough control to do that? Could we dump it in the backpack Lena had used to bring her bobbleheads over?

Her voice snapped me out of my thoughts.

“Do you want to watch us wrap up our video?” Lena, it seemed, had picked up on half of my concerns. “You can look through my phone if you want. It’ll be really cool, I promise.”

“She probably needs to get home, Lena,” I said.

“Oh.” Albie hung her head. “I guess.”

Lena flicked a glare my way. I had no doubt if I looked at her through my phone camera, I’d see her wings battering the air around my head.

Then she plastered her smile back on and said, “You can always catch it when it comes out on YouTube, Albie.”

“Yeah!” Albie kicked at the grass. “Only...”

Lena sat down next to her, which did not strike me as a good way to hurry her safely home. “What’s up?”

Though Albie looked down at her boots, I saw a tentative smile on her face. “I better not. It’s kinda mean.”

Lena considered this. “To me, or to Cam?”

Albie’s little smile widened. She leaned over and whispered her answer to Lena.

I couldn’t hear her this time. I didn’t need to.

“That’s fine,” Lena said. “He can take it.”

I rolled my eyes.

Then, because what else was I going to do, I crouched beside them. “What is it, Albie?”

She glanced up at me. Trying and failing not to smile. “It’s really okay?”

“Lena’s right.” I clenched my fist to my chest and tried to look serious. “I can take it.”

Albie giggled and that – and surely not my expression – set Lena giggling as well. Marroll panted and looked like he was laughing at me, too.

I held my pose, determined to outlast the lot of them.

Finally, Albie covered her mouth and got control of her laughter. Which made one of them. She met my eyes. Hers were the darkest brown I’d ever seen and, all of a sudden, as serious as I’d pretended to be.

I waited for her to decide what to say.

“It’s just,” she said, “it didn’t look like you were real good with Air.”