Fourteen Days until the duel with Edbert

Late Morning

I lounged in the sunshine of the great hilly plain of the Tidewarren. I know the question, - “Wade, why weren’t you using that time more productively comes to mind?” - comes to mind, but sometimes relaxation is important. So I was relaxing after several hard days of work. I had spent those days learning how to best use the Shepherd’s class abilities to their fullest and just practicing my newfound skills as a shepherd. Now, I lay on the grass of the countryside and enjoyed the clouds going by. Baloo and Bagheera played a game of what I could only describe as tag and pro wrestling nearby. Occasionally, they would range right beside me, and in no less than two moments, my knee or side had been the turnbuckle one of them had rocketed into. In Bedevere the Beelebian’s case? He sat on my chest and nestled against me.

I really should have been doing something more productive, but when I had finished my training with the shepherds and checked on the work that the carpenters were working on, I was told to get out it’d be ready when it was ready and no they did not need my help. In the case of the Filigree Clan? I dodged several firebolts, fireballs, and fiery curses. Both had confirmed they still needed one more day to finish the project and to go find something else to do.

So I stopped at the Tipsy Tauracean Tavern and got a to-go lunch before coming out here to picnic with my monster partners and take a moment to decompress and take in things. To relax as I knew I should do because it would help me better perform in the hardest part of my test remaining; but relaxation wasn’t coming. Even if I smiled at my Baloo and Bagheera’s antics, and reveled in how much the animals playing a game so similar to the ones my kids had played cheered me; if I let my guard down, I would let worry and doubt in. I needed to stay busy.

So I sat up. If I was going to successfully distract myself from any doubts or worries I needed to do it the way I had back on Earth. It wouldn’t be the same without Melody and the kids, but it was time to go see someone about a fishing rod and some tackle – then go fishing.

***

When going fishing I had rituals which had to be followed. The first was to have snacks and drinks. That was handled before I had even decided to go fishing. The second was to gather some worms for bait. Yes, I knew it was not likely to work as well in a marine ecosystem or with every kind of fish but I went for worms because that was what I was used to using as bait, and this was not about fish caught – it was about the time spent fishing. Thirdly? I needed to get ahold of a fishing rod. With step one of the ritual done, I moved on to the next steps.

Finding some worms and other bait for my endeavor was easy – it was as simple as showing Baloo and Bagheera how to dig for them and letting them go at it. The Cerbearus and Ossicarn were naturally built for it, and having them both search for worms meant that the output was more than doubled because no matter what else I could say of my two first monster partners, they were competitive with one another to a fault.

However, as easy as steps one and two were, I had no luck with step three. Jose was nowhere to be found to borrow a fishing rod and tackle from. When I had offered some coppers or silvers to rent a fishing line from one of the multitudes of fishermen who lived in Strongbridge, I was turned down. When I visited the Lively Lathe, I could hear they were busy; so getting one made from them was off the table two.

This is why I ended up spending far too much – two gold and five silver, which equated to around a hundred dollars in equivalent value from what I could calculate – for a few hooks and a pitiful-looking fishing rod and line. It had a reel, which was its only saving grace. I did not want to have to pull in the line by hand.

In the hunt for a fishing line, I had spent two hours going from one part of town to another and herding the roughhousing of Baloo and Bagheera. Almost smashing into a fisherman’s barrel had barely been avoided and saved us from being chased around town by said fisherman.

Now I was sitting on one of the unused fishing pier. Bedevere remained perched on my shoulder, his buzzes and chirps keeping me company. Baloo was frolicking on the beach below us, letting out chuffs and grunts and generally living his best cerbearus life.

Bagheera? She didn’t want anything to do with the entire affair. While my ossicarn wanted nothing more than to march off of the pier and right to the solid cobblestones of the streets of Strongbridge proper, she cuddled into my hip and let out meows of misery and indignity.

It wasn’t that different from fishing back on Earth, going to the lake with Melody and my kids. Osbert was always happy to sit beside me and fish. Gwendolyn was always happy to enjoy splashing on the lakeshore nearby. Alec? He was generally miserable any time we went fishing, he enjoyed the indoors and the joys of a controlled environment. As to my youngest child? We had yet to take a family trip to the lake with her. So there was nostalgia in the whole thing but fishing trips hadn’t become a part of my immediate family after the birth of my children.

This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

Melody and I had one of our earliest dates at a beach and we found ourselves inevitably drawn into fishing. Since then, we have always taken time to fish when we could. Then we talked about our dreams and the future, about our worries, and made jokes.

As I cast out the line I focused on what I could control. I wouldn’t get the joy of my kids being around me any time soon, but I could find Melody, and together we could make our way in this world until we could save our kids. I wondered where she was, how she was. Was wasting my time and risking so much a good choice when I had no idea where she was or if she needed my help?

I missed her laugh, her smile, the way she would brush her fingers across my shoulder when she walked past me. For a moment, I even felt it – and I thought on those days gone past. The fish nibbled, and I reeled the line in.

As the line came out of the water and I caught my first fish; complete with a system prompt I didn’t read, it was then that I saw a ghost. A phantom. A mirage. She was there for a second and after that, I found a girl around my age sitting beside me fishing. She wore a black, yellow, and orange colored sundress and a woven straw hat that was several times too big for her.

“Melody?” I could not help to blurt.

“Shut up and fish. I’m not supposed to be here, and not supposed to be talking to you, Wade. If that truly is who you are.”

Before I blurted another word she turned and put a finger on my lips. “Shhh. Just fish. The winner gets two questions which the loser must answer truthfully. That’ll work.”

As I took in the mackerel-like fish I had caught and removed it from the hook I began to load another worm and let out another cast. I took notice of my having gained one skill point in fishing and I tried to get into the zone.

Melody had always been competitive about fishing, too. So real or no, I fished alongside her.

“You used to beat the games like this in days! What’s got you so slow about moving now?” she said, and while she said it with the same characteristic energy I would expect from the real Melody in the case she was a mirage I didn’t want to consider, there was accusation in it too.

“It’s not a game, Melody. I can’t pretend it is, even if my whole being wants to wake up and it to have all been a dream.”

It was not spoken so much as mumbled by me, but the words could be heard by her. I could tell by the punch she gave me to the shoulder.

“Stressing. Stressing. Stressing. You really shouldn’t. We’re in this together.”

As we talked she had pulled out one fish and presented it with a flourish to Bagheera. The cat monster went from trying to sit between us on the pier territorially to practically purring. What a traitor! As I mused on my jaguar-like monster’s heel-face-turn towards Melody I felt another nibble on my fishing line and mechanically, almost meditatively reeled it in.

I took another mackerel-like fish off the hook, then I unconsciously went through the practiced motions of baiting the hook with another worm and sending out my fishing line once again. It continued like that for a good deal of time. Minutes turned into an hour and then a few hours, and as they did she pulled in ten fish to my five. Sometimes, I thought she had some sort of infernal gift to pull fish out of the water.

So she won, and I had no way of knowing if she was really a hallucination fueled by worry, loneliness, exhaustion, and sorrow or the real thing.

“I win! I win! Naner naner.” she said, bringing one of her lower eyelids down exaggeratedly and making me notice her eyes were not the same. Where the real Melody had brown eyes with a warmth I could get lost in, this illusion had vivid eyes with purple irises and golden rings around a normal pupil. As my mouth fought with my will she spoke up. “So, question one: Wade, do you think you can do it?”

Illusion or not, imagined by my mind or not, if I let a seed of doubt enter me I might not finish the preparations. I might even lose. I nodded firmly.

“I do.”

She smiled, before planting a wide smile on her face. “Try not to get sidetracked. Given I stole a question during our competition, my other question is this. Had you won, what would you have asked me?”

“Is it really you? I’m not hallucinating?” I did not expect to see her so soon, that was part of what my plan was – if I won like this I would have allies with a ship and I would have free reign to try to go look for her myself; given Jose had me convinced Lord Darville wasn’t to be trusted.

“I don’t know how to answer that other than that I brought you a donut.” she sounded sad, and placed an orb-shaped package with wax paper wrapping. As I looked at it, she said, “Well, goodbye! See you soon.”

Then she was gone, as if into thin air. My heartbeat was so fast it could’ve led an oarline on a ship, I had to have been hallucinating! But the package remained. As I opened it, expecting a donut or something like it, I found an onigiri riceball, and from the shape and placement of it I had a flash of memory.

Melody was here. I had to find out where! I had to see her and help her. Leave it to her to break the mold and go straight for the main quest while I was off doing sidequests like she might have. But before I let myself think like that too hard, I reminded myself this was a real world, and I had to take that into account. I didn’t know what had happened to her, I didn’t know what was driving her. I didn’t even know it was not a hallucination as I bit into the onigiri.

The next step couldn’t come fast enough, because the sooner I was through the Dragon’s Fang Dungeon and ready for the duel, the more time I would have to find.