Chapter 4

POV Alfred

Consciousness wasn’t a thing it was used to, nor the depth of what the meaning of life was. Through the power of the cosmos, it was created. It became a being of servitude, pride, compassion for the one it was made for.

Memories of past butlers cascaded into its mine giving a picture of what one was and the duties required of it.

It had starred into the eyes of its beholder, and they found it wanting.

“Alfred” they had named it.

..Now him.

“Alfred, clean this mud off of me won’t you.”

...

That beholden quickly vanished.

But it still had its masters orders.

He snapped quick with the order, getting that vile mud off from his master as soon as possible. Maybe later he would torch this place for this greatest of grievances.

Once done it stepped through it’s dimension to await further orders. He would watch over his master through the darkest of nights, through fire or sleet. Never stopping till he past on.

“Alfred, clean this mud at once off of me!” The destroyer of dreams demanded.

Alfred ignore the request as he contemplated on whether or not to end that nightmare.

“Alfred! Please.”

He would do no such thing, this vile temptress was the epitome of-”

“Alfred, clean the mud off Kim please.”

POV Mark

With the question left in the air, Kim looked to me then at the sun. Then back to me,…then back at the sun. Then to me.

“You can’t tell which way is north?”

I felt a bit defensive as I answered “No, I’m not an out doorsy kind of guy.”

Kim mumbled something that sounded vaguely conceited.

“Of course not.”

She looked back up at the sky for a few moments then seemed to have decided on something.

“That way is north.” She pointed away from the lake towards the woods.

“Ok, well I’m going that way” I gestured in the opposite direction.

The way I planned to travel was past the marsh land and into open plains.

I started walking around the lake on the right hand side. I gave the lake a wide berth so I wouldn’t be walking through the mud.

“So your just going to go at it alone? What about sticking together or at least getting to town then splitting.”

Kim was Trailing me as I continue walking. I didn’t stop but she had a good point on sticking together until we reached the nearest town. I didn’t want to be alone out here and get lost because I couldn’t put up with her for another day. That and incase I got chased by a bear I could just push her down and run away.

I stopped. “Sure, lets go together.”

“Good, by the way. I don’t have a class on my status do you?”

I paused on my ruminating on pushing Kim in front of a bear to recall that I didn’t see a class on my status. You could say what you want about the women, she was anything but inattentive.

“Maybe we have to see a priest, or touch a stone. I don’t know. The sooner we get to town the sooner we can ask.”

“Since we’re traveling together, let head my way. I don’t want to get lost just because you didn’t want to head in the direction that I indicated.”

Mark pursed that comment, he didn’t want to admit that he was being petty but damn did he want to.

“Fine, but I don't want to hear about you being right if you are. Deal?”

Mark put out his had to shake. Kim looked at it then slapped it away.

“Like hell! If I’m right then I’ll make sure you hear about it everyday.”

He breathed in slowly, then exhale.

“Happy thoughts Mark, happy thoughts.” He told himself repeatedly.

***

Through the day, they encountered several things that made the trip go slower, and faster at certain intervals.

Unauthorized usage: this narrative is on Amazon without the author's consent. Report any sightings.

The first was when they had reached a small creak that came in from they’re perceived east, to the west. It wasn’t a large creak by any means, in fact it was quite shallow. It only stretched out for about 6ft.

Mark took this to try and fantasy this up by using his new powers to make a bridge. He used his “telekinesis hand” to do so.

He wasn’t very fast at it and all the stones he could pick up were no bigger then a baseball.

Kim had enough of it after about an hour and shoved Mark face first into the creek while he was concentrating. He didn’t even see it coming, causing him to lay out perfectly for Kim as she used him as a make shift bridge. At the end of her jaunt near his head, Kim stepped onto it grinding her heal into the back of his dome. Bubbles trailed up and out of the creek while she did this.

He complained about that for a few hours but couldn’t get too mad. He did take forever and even got a level out of it with his telekinesis hand.

Another occurrence was shortly after the creek incident, involving some bugs.

Kim was leading on when they heard a crunch sound. It wasn’t loud but was near enough that they paused to listen for anymore noises. When they didn’t hear anymore, they moved on. Only to hear another, closer.

Mark looked around, searching with his imagined danger sense but couldn’t find anything. On and off in the span of 10 min before Kim had lost her shit and took off in a sprint screaming out about some ghost.

“Fuck a haunt, I’m out!” she took off.

Mark looked at her puzzled as the sound came again. It was just underneath him as he looked down, there he found beetles that were clipping bark off an old piece of wood. He watched as the beetle open its mouth then clamped down on the dry wood cracking it.

“Those are some strong jaws.” He said as he took off at a jog to catch up.

At the end of the day they came to a ridge with a steady slope of a cliff. There were borders around in different sizes making it a unique sight.

Though they didn’t say it, they were both hungry and thirsty. Kim was currently pissed that they didn’t save any water from the creek.

“Let’s stop her for the night.” Kim said as she looked around for something to use as a make shift shelter. She started grabbing sticks taller then her about wrist thick, placing them atop of two holders. They weren’t the same size so it had a slant to it perfect for a run off.

“I can try looking for food if you take care of the shelters.” Mark asked as he looked around.

There wasn’t any small lights off in the distance so that could only mean there wasn’t anyone near by.

“Sure, if you find anything that is edible, I’ll give you my shelter. Until then, fuck you.” She started to hum to herself. She was definitely hangry.

Mark started the search around their poorly made camp, only to swing wider and wider to find something. It wasn’t until 2 hours later and 30 min from their camp that he found something.

There, off behind a tree was a big bush full of berries. Weird place to have a bush, up against the tree but he didn’t put too much thought into it. HE WAS HUNGRY.

He took a hand full and started to shove them into his mouth unashamed by the sight he might have given.

He ate like that for a few mouthfuls until something ping into his vision. He ignored it.

He didn’t care so much as long as he was full. What ever it was could wait until then.

He took enough berries to fill his shirt up as a self made basket, trudging back to camp.

“I can’t wait to see the look on that bitches face when I show her these.” He chuckled as he waddled back.

40 min later he came into sight of Kim, looking pissed up till she seen what he was carrying back with him.

“Oh thank god. I thought you fell and died.” Kim came racing in to look at his haul.

“You didn’t come looking for me?” he asked with his mouth full.

“Shush you. You brought back food so I can forgive you for your tardiness. Did you already eat some?” she looked at the berry stains on his face causing him to get self conscious.

Before he could answer, she took mouthful as well and started to quiver in delight.

“These are pretty good.”

He nodded enthusiastically. Another ping sounded as he kept chewing. Nothing was going to ruin this moment.

As the two finished laying in the same shelter that wouldn’t hold up to anything, he almost forgot the deal they had made. He sat up to straighten it out when Kim sat up as well.

The face she made was a painful one as rumblings started to go off from her stomach.

“I, I need to go see about a tree right about now.” Kim waddled off a good distance from their shelters.

Mark remembered something in that phrase, about the bush being so close to that tree. The notifications that were at the corner of his view were still un looked.

He open them up then.

Poison resistance lv.1

Poison resistance lv.2

Poison resistance lv.3

Poison resistance lv.4

Poison resistance lv.5

Poison resistance lv.6

That was a lot of levels.

An explosion of mud came out off in the distance as a strong odor was seeping into the camp. The sound of someone crying could also be heard too.

The next thing he notice was a green glow appear were Kim was as an even louder noise took place.

“FFFFFFFRRRRRRRRRRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAPPPPPPPPPP!!!”

The crying got a lot harsher after that.

In the morning, Mark awoke as the sun was making its way just past the horizon, he heard birds chirping as the day started off right.

Or, at least it did for Mark.

Kim on the other hand looked like death washed over. She had a permanent pissed off look on her face as he made eye contact.

He quickly looked away.

“So, those berries were edible were they?” Kim asked sweetly.

It wasn’t the kind of tone he heard often, but when he did he did not come home for a few days.

“Listen, I tried some and I didn’t have any-”

“Why was I the only one that had that happen to them, did you just smear those rotten things on your face!?”she picked up a stick and step towards him while swinging the stick. The stick was as thick as a baseball bat. He dove out of the way hitting a smaller boulder.

The smaller boulder was loose, so it started it’s track down the steep hill. Mark didn’t pay any attention to it as he tried and failed to get out of the way of his ex-wife.

POV Lord Brandon

Lord Brandan was on his monthly boar hunt with his men, the same men that he had done this with for the past decade. They started this hunt to sneak out of there houses and away from their wives so they could have some quality alone time with the boys.

It was on they’re third day in the morning eating one of their kills, when it happen.

Lord Brandon was talking to Shmee, “And what did you tell her after that?”

Shmee looked around, “I looked her dead in the eyes and said…OK honey.”

The men around the fire all laughed as they knew none of them had the balls to tell their wives no.

That was the last thing they knew as a boulder larger then the palisade gate came hurdling toward them. Lord Brandon turned to the thing wondering why they didn’t hear it coming.

He got a good look at it as it was inches from his face. Engravings and runes were all over the thing.

Oh, it those silent boulders my wife told me we should get rid of.

A few centuries ago, this area was part of a battle field hosted by the mage circle. They created these as weapons of mass destruction.

They would shoot these down the hills then resummon them in the dead of night and come morning, there wouldn’t be any opposing army left. Anything these monstrous boulders touched would have the silence spell placed on it for half a minute.

POV Mark

A notification popped up in my face.

Congratulations, you are now a Noble.