Chapter 91
Ashagi, Eden – Day 36, Tuesday
Jay woke up to a vibrating noise that reminded him of a cellphone alarm. Something about a cellphone tugged at his mind until he became fully conscious and remembered where he was. A moment later he remembered who he was with and smiled, his eyes still barely open.
M'redith moaned and rolled out of bed and made an eeep sound when the bottoms of her bare feet touched the cold stone floor. Jay looked on with half lidded eyes as she opened her backpack and turned off a vibrating device ringing softly. Jay looked at her curiously.
M'redith yawned and placed one delicate hand up to cover her mouth when it didn't end immediately but drew on for a few seconds. “Uh. Sorry,” she said as she stretched her arms out to her sides. “That's my wake up alarm. Why, how do you wake up in the morning?”
Jay rubbed his head with one hand as he lay groggily back down in bed. “You or Aiden usually wake me up to be honest.”
M'redith was shaking her head at Jay, “You need to get yourself a wake up alarm. What if I slept in?” she said as she scratched an itch on her side and yawned again.
Jay shrugged as he went to get up. “I'd sleep in too I guess.”
She motioned him to stay put. “Turn around, let me change first.”
Jay obediently faced the wall and rested his head back on his pillow. “Mmm. More sleep.” he said as he closed his eyes.
M'redith was already half undressed, “Hey! No napping!” she said, her voice muffled as she changed shirts. She dressed in her heavy leather armor and folded up her clothes and put them in her bag. She sat on the bed next to him and laced up her boots. “Your turn big guy.”
Jay groaned. “Five more minutes,” he said as he lazily waved one arm at her to go away.
M'redith poked him in the side, tickling him by accident.
“HEY!” Jay said as he bolted upright and turned to face a grinning M'redith. “Hey now.” he said trying to sound serious but failing. “I'm up! I'm up!” He stood up and M'redith lay back in the bed, her boot clad feet still resting firmly on the stone floor. She 'rested her eyes' while Jay got his armor on.
He wadded his clothes up in to a ball and put it against the opening of his bag. The clothes were neatly stored as he did so thanks to his Traveler's Inventory system.
“Ok. Good to go.” he said as he sat down next to her and put on his boots.
“Great,” she said. “Now we can sit here and wait until Koots gets here.”
Jay sat there as she leaned up against him happily. They were clean and rested and felt rejuvenated after their travels. Jay had been a little worried that sleeping in the same bed would be awkward or might spoil things between them. Instead it had probably been the best sleep of his life even though murderous monsters lurked just outside of his door for most of the night.
M'redith didn't seem bothered either. Sharing a bed certainly was the most intimate thing they had yet to share and it had left her looking happy and satisfied with the arrangement.
Jay felt closer to her than he had the day before but their friendship didn't seem affected at all for which he was thankful. They were still playful with each other without it feeling weird.
A hammering sounded at the door, a violent beating as if the person was in imminent danger. “JAY! JAAAAY!” Koots could be heard almost screaming from the hallway outside. Koots voice became more and more shrill the longer it took Jay to open the door.
Jay and M'redith bolted up and off the bed in a heartbeat and ran to the door, pulling the heavy crossbar out of the way and setting it aside before Koots burst through the door, leaving it open behind him.
“We got to go!” he yelled at them with a wild look in his eyes and ran out of the room.
Jay and M'redith quickly snatched up their bags and weapons and followed him out in to the hallway where the rest of Jay's party was already waiting.
Koots didn't slow as they ran in to the hallway but took off right past the others. If anything he picked up speed and barely avoided hitting a wall as he made the turn. Now moving quite fast he took off down the long hallway with all of the K rooms 1 through 20.
Jay shrugged and the group took off after him.
Koots was wearing a voluminous white robe with a tan cardigan which appeared to restrain his hump making it easier for him to run. He carried only a lantern which he held aloft over his head as he ran. The lantern threw wild shadows across the hallways as they moved as quickly as possible throughout Ashagi.
They turned a corner and found themselves face to face with a hallway absolutely crammed full of monsters. The door they had been headed towards was right there, buried under a mass of horrific creatures. There were far too many for the space they occupied and the larger monsters were trying to fix that problem through the simple expedient of eating anything smaller than themselves.
Hot sprays of steaming monster blood showered the writhing mass as monsters chewed on other monsters, rarely finishing their meal before biting in to another different creature. The mass was covered in the blood of its participants.
They were mostly shiny black in color, the kind of shine that lets one know the surface is wet, or at least moist. Their forms were a riot of shapes and sizes and showed absolutely no agreement on the most efficient number of extremities one should have. Some monsters weren't even symmetrical and had wildly divergent limb counts for their left and right sides.
They all had at least one thing in common. They were fast.
The monsters took a few seconds to become aware of the new arrivals and Koots made the best use he could of the time that gave him. Not even pausing he skidded to a stop, turned around, and ran full tilt in the opposite direction, darting down a side corridor.
The rest of the group wasn't quite as quick thinking on their feet and had fallen a bit behind by the time they turned and ran after him.
A number of monsters pursued them, some being snatched up and eaten by larger monsters as they moved past them, but others made it out of the monstrous cluster of blood, talons, and teeth and gave chase.
The hallways weren't all lit and the ones that were had only enough light to make out the outline of objects. Only Koots' lamp gave off a bright enough glow for the group to see where they were going and it was that very light which the group chased after as a number of monsters in turn chased after them.
It was a long train of things chasing other things that Koots led further and further until he had found what he was looking for. Throwing himself at the door it burst open upon contact and the group spilled in to the room. Koots had immediately turned and was already in the process of shutting the door when Glenda, the last one in, slid past him and he slammed it shut.
Jay and M'redith had grabbed a cross brace and slammed it in to its fittings giving the door extra strength to ward off the outside monster's attacks. The creatures could be heard snarling and chattering as scrapings and banging struck the door repeatedly.
Jay looked about and found that they were back in the map room. “Hey, we've been here before.”
Koots nodded as he walked to the other side of the room and sat down. “I was trying to get us to breakfast but it looks like the monsters beat us there. This will have to do for now. This is exactly what I was talking about yesterday when I said you always need to have a backup plan. You folks have anything to eat?”
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“Not unless you like travel rations,” Aiden said as he sat down and took out his travel rations. He stared at one wafer which he had removed from his bag and was now considering eating. “They taste like chalk but..”
A moment went by and Norri spoke up, “They taste like chalk but.. but what?”
Aiden looked at her and shrugged, “I couldn't think of anything positive. They taste like chalk. Period.”
The rest of the group laughed. No one was happy to be eating travel wafers but they had no choice. The group sat at the map table and ate their sad breakfast quietly.
Jay and M'redith didn't fit in with the others that morning. Jay and M'redith looked great, their clothes clean, no mud, not even a speck of dirt on them. Their skin looked fresh and scrubbed, their hair light and bouncy – not weighed down with filth and grime. They shared a happiness with each other due to their night together that the others couldn't hope to match. They practically glowed.
“Ug, Goddess you two. Can we rotate tonight? I'd like to get cleaned myself,” Aiden suggested as he couldn't avoid comparing everyone else to Jay and M'redith's pristine appearances. He looked jealous of Jay's apparent comfort. “I've still got mud on my boots, in my clothes, in my hair for Goddess sakes!” he said, frustrated with his discomfort.
M'redith frowned but agreed. “I suppose fair is fair. Unless you think you could clean him and then you two run to your different rooms?” she asked as she looked at Jay fondly.
Jay shook his head and gave a harsh chuckle without even thinking about it, “Last night the monsters reached our door long before I reached 30 seconds of aura use. There's no way it would work. We'd be killed long before we hit the thirty second mark.”
The others all groaned at that. They had been desperately hoping to get cleaned. Adventures seemed fun until one realized how dirty they could get. Although they could push through their discomfort for the duration of their adventure the fact that they didn't HAVE to suffer was almost too much to bear. Seeing Jay and M'redith in front of them drove home just how uncomfortable the rest of them were.
“Ok then.” M'redith said cheerfully. She could afford to be cheerful, she was clean and well rested. “Tonight someone else gets a chance to room with Jay then, is that acceptable with everyone?” she said as she looked at Jay with an apologetic expression.
The rest of the group all agreed.
Koots had been listening to the group and had just figured out what they were talking about. He turned to Jay with a quizzical look. “Wait. You can clean people and clothes? Just like that? Thirty seconds?” Koots peered at Jay and M'redith, inspecting their hair and clothing. They were sparkling clean and it was Koots' turn to look jealous.
Jay nodded and placed his Mighty Book on the table opened up to the page which described his aura. Koots leaned forward immediately when Jay placed the book on the table. Books had immense value in Ashagi and if Jay was willing to share one then Koots was only too happy to read it.
Tropical Island Aura (rare)– When in use the caster is surrounded in a 6 foot in diameter aura that constantly keeps the user clean. The user's body as well as outfit will no longer get dirty. Should it come in to contact with something dirty the filth falls right off, unable to stick to the user or their clothing. The aura comes complete with ocean breeze scent and may affect one other person so long as that person stays within the aura for thirty seconds. Auras may stay active as long as the user chooses.
Can keep user dry in light rain. Can dry off user completely in 30 seconds.
Koots had read the description out loud and attracted the interest of Fred who was sitting in the same corner she had sat at the day before, reading out of three books at the same time, all opened up on the table in front of her. She looked up after a moment and carefully placed a bookmark in each book before shutting them with care.
One did not mistreat books in Ashagi.
Aiden had leaned over to read it as well. “Hey, I don't remember you mentioning the 'Can keep user dry' part before.
Jay looked at him in surprise, “C'mon, you knew about the dry in light rain part already didn't you?”
Aiden nodded, “Sure, I knew about it. I just don't remember it being part of the book's description.”
Jay shrugged, “It appeared in the Book after I figured it out. Until then all I had was the first paragraph description. Seems that if I figure out new facets of the ability the Book adds it to the description without my intervention.”
“Handy.” Norri added. The gathered group nodded. Fred looked intensely interested.
Norri startled when she realized that Fred was directly behind her, leaning over her left shoulder to get a look at Jay's Aura description. Norri caught sight of her out of the corner of her eye and turned.
“Sorry.” Fred said as she took a step back, not appearing sorry at all. Sometimes people said things just to be polite. “Is this real?” she asked.
Aiden laughed. “Jay is all too real I'm afraid.”
Jay pushed him lightly in jest.
Fred watched them with disapproval. Fred seemed too focused on her question and had little patience for Jay and Aiden's goofing off. “You can do this thing for me?” she asked formally.
M'redith frowned before she realized what she was doing and schooled her face in to a calm and relaxed expression, her face as still as the surface of water in a pond on a windless day.
Jay nodded, “I can do it for anyone. One person at a time. Thirty seconds a pop.”
“A pop?” Fred asked, confused by the expression.
Jay shrugged, “Thirty seconds each activation I meant to say.”
Fred nodded at his correction as it was more in line with the description she had read.
“I would have you do this thing for me. You say the monsters reached you quickly?” Fred asked.
Nodding, Jay answered, “We had maybe twenty seconds at the most.”
Koots shook his head. “I'd like to give your aura a go myself but not if it costs me my life. I can't even remember being as clean as you two look right now,” he said as he glanced at Jay and M'redith with a shake of his head. He let out a sad sigh.
“I think I can help you two. You'll need to find us a place where I can use a Class Ability but I won't become trapped after using it.” Jay said with a shrug.
“What is your price?” Fred asked seriously. Fred didn't get things for free. She paid for them. She owed no one anything and wasn't about to start now.
“My price?” Jay asked lamely as M'redith nudged him in the ribs. Jay had learned his lesson long ago and said “Excuse me a moment, please.” to Fred as he leaned down to listen to M'redith.
M'redith looked pleased that Jay had paused the conversation to speak with her and said a few quiet sentences to him before she stood up straight once again.
Jay returned to his full height before continuing. “I need to find Rods of Siphoning, could you help with that?” Jay asked.
Fred stared at him for a moment and blinked, “Those are dangerous. Especially for someone so young and inexperienced, I intend no offense.”
Aiden frowned but Jay briefly put a hand on his arm to calm him.
“No, she's right. We are just starting out, we need to be honest with ourselves. We need four of them. Five if we can get them.” Jay said placatingly.
Fred pursed her lips. “One or five, does not matter. Ashagi has many things, I know of a few locations where you could possibly find some. I know of only one place where you can certainly find one in here.”
“I'll be honest with you. We need it for a quest. They'll be used in a dungeon, not around others.” Jay said.
Fred shrugged. “I gave you my warning, you do with it what you will. I'm not your parents, here to tell you what to do.”
Jay felt like he was being scolded by a teacher no matter what Fred said. He'd have to remember how dangerous the rods were once he found them and handle them with care. He nodded, “I'll keep your warning in mind, thank you.” he said and meant it.
“What about me?” Koots asked plaintively. It came out almost as a whine.
Jay smiled, “We need help returning a book. Would you help us with that?”
Koots chuckled dryly. “What in Goddess' name have I been doing!”
Jay laughed, “Ok that's fair. As long as you two agree to help us with those things I'd say we have a deal as long as you can find us a place to do it.”
Fred grinned, “I know just the place.”
Koots groaned as he looked at Fred's smiling face, “Oh no. No!”