Voices... Someone is talking...
Warm, so warm... Bright, is it morning?... Cooozy... I feel cozy, someone is holding me... holding me cozy...
Voices...
Rum felt his mind gently ascend out of sleep and into a haze of awareness.
"But we’ll be the criminals if we don't!" Rum felt his ears perk up. That voice, Rum was sure it belonged to Elrith. He peeked open his eyes. Next he opened them full, because this was not the world he was used to. Everywhere he put his eyes, the world was all caught in an unusual blur, at least that was the case for anything further away. And the colors? Blue shades. Yellow shades. That was all there was. Then it hit him – a WAVE of SENSATIONS – SMELLS! An overpowering torrent of stimulation shot straight into his brain. Rum felt a dizzyness trying to process it all. A hazyness and a dizzyness. A confused moment unfolding until THAT – that sensation. An abrupt and mind-fixing urge to do one thing – TO BARK – at anything!
Suddenly erupting with energy, Rum looked about himself. He was down on the grass. He had to be, because all the grass was so tall, and the person in front of him also tall. In the distance there stood 3 massive figures, their blurred shapes having the familiar contours of his party members: of Elrith, and the dwarves. The wizard tried standing with his feet – no, my paws? Rum looked down at himself. Fur? My fur? He tried to look further down at himself, and at his arms. FUR! FUR EVERYWHERE! And the other arms! He was wrapped within the huge arms of a robed and ginormous sleeping person. Rum followed the arm resting around him like a bed, and his eyes traced the limb up to a shoulder, and then – a face.
Bresh. A giant Bresh?
The urge to bark now was intolerably strong. And Rum suddenly recalled that he ought to bark whereever he wanted to come back human, and so, as not to smother the sleeping Bresh, Rum pointed his face – or snout – at the blurry trio whose conversation had continued amidst his confusion.
“Wreff!”
As soon as the puppy bark had left him, Rum saw the trio of faces snap around to his position – all of their postures turned rigid.
That was all Rum saw, before his whole body left him, and he dissolved, his consciousness turning into a blank and total void. However, just as suddenly as he’d turned to nothing, he once again felt the world. A quiet breeze picking at his robe, warm rays of sunshine on his torso and head. He opened his eyes, a calm feeling inside, while his curiousity surged to the outside. He was standing in front of his party. A brief glance down at himself and he recognized that everything was the same. Just a human body. Pudgy, bearded, Rum touched the top of his head. Bald.
“Good morning” Rum spoke to a trio of shocked faces.
“Good morning” Rulli replied automatic. The dwarf’s eyes remained fully wide, along with his open mouth, and drained complexion.
Gilda and Elrith did not greet Rum, instead they just stared for a prolonged moment. After a few seconds Elrith gulped. The woman looked away. A strained grimace combined with a big breath of air gave the impression she was forcing herself to relax. It took a pause to happen. When she’d done so, the others broke their stares of him and did similar quiet breaths, each one of them seeming to compel their faces to look less anxious.
“I’ll have to get used to that” Elrith commented without looking.
Rum just nodded. “So, what was this group talking about?” The wizard looked from face to face. Each one averting his eyes.
“Just–” Elrith eventually responded, “–discussing the journey back home.”
“Ah. Anything I should know?”
Elrith shook her head. Rulli shook his head. Gilda shook her head. Rum glanced quickly through each shaking head.
“Oh, okay” Rum responded a little confused. “I’ll go and see if some of the others are awake then.” He walked off.
What was that about? Rum thought about the experience briefly, but decided to let the matter go.
Instead he looked over and past their camp, which was just outside of The Forest of Ermos on their way home. They’d set it up in a spot familiar to Rum from their first time going to the dungeon. In the near distance, all the way down a sloped terrain, there was a grazing field with a bunch of swollenly round horses, almost short enough to be ponnies, and most of them lazily feeding on the yellowed grasses of autumn, their tails swishing away bothersome flies. A little further away down the slope, a young mare and stallion flirted vigorously with their prodding, rubbing muzzles. As Rum looked, both of them burst forth into gallopp together, running away like a wild couple in love.
The wizard turned his gaze from the horses and back to the camp. Just ahead of him, the other wizards and witches all slept together in a pattern of 2 rows and 3 columns with thick blankets and animal skins in place of bedrolls. Rather accidently, the men were on one side, while the women were on the other, all of their 6 heads meeting in the middle. As far as Rum could tell they were all fast asleep still, and he quite understood why. He himself had never been a particularly early waker. Yet somehow, even with the sun now barely risen across the horizon, he felt refreshed. Very refreshed in fact. I don’t think I’ve ever slept this well before. I can hardly fathom I’m THIS well-rested. And waking up before everyone else on top of that? Rum glanced down at the Puppy-Sleep Bracelet. What a magnificent power you are.
His eyes went up and roamed their camp again. He found his brother Amez sleeping next to what should’ve been his own bedroll, but which was now empty. Bresh must’ve abducted me to her own bed when I became a puppy. Rum pondered that most likely event, wondering whether he should be bothered by the abduction. No, I think I can forgive the woman. At least while I’m feeling this good I can’t be mad at her for stealing me away. After all, puppy-me did really like that one arm of hers. That arm was amazing. Like being all wrapped up in an embrace, but in a way I don’t think an adult person could ever truly appreciate. Unless someone truly enormous in size cradled them. This must be what it’s like to be a baby, or maybe a toddler, when they get cuddled. It’s like having another person’s body for your bed, except they’re big enough to be the bed.
His eyes continued to roam in thought. He vividly remembered that single moment of awareness as a puppy, and he about the experience for a while. That is, until his eyes eventually fell upon Electroblade and he noticed that his warrior friend was, in fact, awake. Awake and staring right at him from her bedroll. Rum’s eyes lingered on Electroblade for a while, glancing momentarily towards the adjacent White Rose, who pretended expertly to sleep like a completely normal human being. He looked back at the gnome, lingering within their eye-contact.
“Good morning” Rum spoke as he became increasingly aware of their mutual staring.
“It is a morning” Electroblade responded.
Thoughtlessly, and perhaps in anticipation that they were going to have a conversation, Rum slowly strolled over to the mecha-gnome. He came up to her and stopped only when he was a bare half a meter away, whereupon he squatted down and next to his babysitter.
“You did not sleep well?” The wizard asked, an eyebrow raised.
Electroblade glanced her deep-scarred face over towards Elrith, Rulli, and Gilda, who all seemed to have disbanded their group conversation for now, and were spreading out to prepare for breakfast.
“I've seen it before” she spoke quietly.
Rum took a couple of squatted steps closer to the ex-adventurer, and glanced where the gnome had been looking. At his party.
“Party members hiding important secrets from each other” she explained, and nudged her head towards Elrith who was bringing out their party cauldron. “Something’s up with your friends. I couldn’t quite get what they were talking about, but from what I heard, it appears to be serious. And they’re hiding it from you.” She eyed him, and Rum met her eyes. “It’s not good to keep important secrets from your party. Rarely ends well. Trust me, I have the experience to speak of it. My body is my witness.”
Rum glanced to her stump and steel peg leg. “Well, we’re going home now” Rum said a bit too loudly to make their conversation truly private. “How bad can it be when the danger is all behind us?” He smiled reassuringly at the mecha-gnome, and she just rolled her eyes.
“You’re so naïve.”
“Naïve? Perhaps. But better off than Misses Experience.” He gestured to her body.
She paused for a moment, then found the words to reply. “I don’t want you to have my experience. But if you don’t listen to what I have to offer, you might get into a lesson you wish you’d be without. Maybe it won’t be this time, but the next time, when my honed instincts force me to give you a warning, perhaps that time.”
Rum glanced back at his party members again. “Nah. They’ll tell me if I need to know.” He looked back to Electroblade. “You are too gloomy this morning. You know I have a bit of life experience of my own. Not so much dungeons, but I’ve met many people and been many places. You shouldn’t worry about me.” Rum looked over to White Rose. “You should worry about ze. I haven’t seen you practice words ever since we left the dungeon? Worry about zes education instead, that is important.” Rum stood up from his squat. He had given the impression of being completely relaxed about the situation, but in fact he felt at least a tiny bit dread, considering the gnome’s words. Still, he managed to let all that feeling seep out of him as he walked up to his party members. He sat down close and next to them as always, lighting up their bonfire with Channel Bio-Energy.
The others soon began waking up, one at a time, slowly. First there was Meti, who sat up and stretched with a yawn from her blanket, before standing up and shambling over to sit besides Rum near the campfire. They didn’t talk much, instead the witch simply hugged her arms a bit, and smiled sideways with tired eyes over at her would-be teacher. Rum smiled back, and put a hand to her shoulder, whispering “Warm Body”, trying very hard with concentration to modulate the amount of magic he was pouring into her. In particular, he was trying to rather undershoot than overshoot. Because overshooting – I know where that can lead. A memory of nearly stopping Gilda’s heart on their first dungeon run flashed before his inner eye.
“Thanks” Meti brightened up further as the spell took effect, and her hands dropped from holding her body. The two mages continued to sit in silence after that, letting the emerging fire next them warm them.
The next one to wake up was Farklend. The man heralded his waking with a sudden GRUNT! from the crowd of sleepers and a visible jolt of his neck up from the grass. Rum and Meti both caught sight of the man. Sleepily, Farklend opened his eyes to the world, and then gently lowered himself back down to the grass. Yesterday, the man had rolled his whole body up in his blanket, making him look like a sausage wrapped up in soft flatbread. Back to the moment though, the man looked to be taking his time simply staring up into the sky, perhaps wondering whether he should bother at all getting up. Eventually though, Farklend did decide to sit up, using his back muscles alone – his arms being inaccessible within his human-roll. However, the wizard came against a problem next: how to proceed from there? In a somewhat comic turn for his audience, Farklend began a strange, and very irregular crawl. The crawl involved the man leaning forward with his chest so as to stabilize his center of gravity, before wiggling his buttcheeks forward, one at a time, using them as extra feet to move away from the rows and columns of other sleepers. About a minute later, when he was finally clear of any neighbouring mages, the man again went down on his back again, before simply rolling along on the grass until his human form emerged from inside the envelopment. Free at last, Farklend used his arms to push himself up, and grabbed the blanket next, starting to fold it and putting it back into his backpack – all of it under the casual stares of Rum and Meti. Only when all of this was done did the man finally look up from his task to see he did, in fact, have an audience.
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“Morning” he raised a hand, an embarrassed smile on his face.
“Morning” Meti smiled back.
Rum let Meti’s reply count for both of them, and merely smiled friendly at the other wizard, as the latter turned towards his backpack and began to rummage within. Rum let his eyes wander across the man’s features while this happened. He noticed that Farklend had a quite vertically long face, going from the top of his head which was covered by a thinning but long brown set of hairs, and down to his small chin, which was hidden under a wizardly beard. As Rum studied the latter, he noted that it was a little less well-developed than his own rounder fuller beard (or what remained of it after its recent experience with Jorteg’s fire). However, it was a beard indeed, properly formed, if slightly whispy at the end. Rum gauged the man’s age to be around his early thirties, so a handful of years older than himself. He had a surprisingly slender body for someone who’d grown up in the rurals of the Agadeya swamplands, which would be a land of much small plot farming and difficult hunting. However, his hands were big and a little rough, marking them as used for toil, and he appeared physically fit under that robe of his as he moved about with energy.
That was another thing. Rum hadn’t just fixed the robes of The Apprentices of The Forest yesterday, he’d also fixed the robes of The Apprentices of Rum. All besides Bun and her Robes of Mandatory Vacation of course.
Meti had received a purple partially form-fitting robe, with big baggy sleeves ending just below the elbow, and a wide neck region. Most of that neck-region was covered by her big untamed hair however, whose tentacular bundles of strands sometimes found themselves down her front as well as her back.
Farklend’s robes were totally different. Color-wise his robe was a darkish brown, with a thicker material, and it was oversized for his slender body. Also, he had a big hood, which he’d used during his sleep, and also during yesterday’s evening when it had gotten colder.
Farklend seemed to have found what he was looking for, as he finally picked up something from his backpack and turned towards the stares of Meti and Rum. Briefly meeting their eyes, he began stepping across the grass in a spirited gait, over and towards them, angling for a spot in the adjacent grass.
“Teacher” Farklend spoke as he came close, “what can you tell me about Woof?”
Farklend displayed the dog-like book in front of Rum, who took the offered item. The man looked expectantly at Rum, before sitting down next to his teacher in the grass. Meti next to both of them too looked interested.
“You know this is not my area of expertise?” Rum cautioned, giving Farklend a raised eyebrow.
“I figured as much, but... well... I don’t quite know what to do about it, Teacher. Sentient magic books are not exactly common, and Jorteg hadn’t studied it as much as I would’ve liked, or at least he kept little record of it.”
“Didn’t his notes tell you to read it?” Rum reminded.
“Ye-yes, but – is that all? You don’t know anything about sentient books, or enchanted books?”
Rum thought for a moment, looking down at the book in his hands. He stroked the snout of the dog face, and the normally inanimate fur bindings came alive in his hands. Bland leathery surfaces where the dog’s eyes would’ve been suddenly popped irises, scleras, and eyebrows. The furry surface around became more soft too, less like a taxidermied animal and more like a live one. Looking up with its cute little eyes at him for a moment, the dog soon relaxed, closing its eyes and leaning its little snout into Rum’s slowly stroking fingers, accepting his touch with all of its magical heart.
“You might need to do more than read it” Rum smiled, glancing over to his student. “But I can tell you something of what I know. I was on a journey not long ago. A journey far and wide.” Rum looked up from the book and across into the horizon. Far in the distance one could catch a glimpse of the mountains that began The Three Brothers, and The Desolate Lands. They were tall things, snowpeaked at the top, and sharp climbs. “During that time I visited many far away cities and towns, and as I always studied to become a scholar back home, I was always on the lookout for a book I’d yet to try. I did find my way into some private libraries, and the public libraries of course. On a couple of occassions I even bought some books in exchange for spellcasting. Hmf...” Rum reminisced in thought. “I remember there was one book, in a private collection in Sunseen. You know, few but sky elves are allowed to venture up to the city atop – Sunpeak – but sometimes the sky elves, or rarely a visitor, bring things down. And those elves collect knowledge like no others. More importantly, this book that I have in mind which they brought down, it was something I could actually read – I knew the script.”
The two students of Rum sat wrapped in attention as Elrith began to pour water into the cauldron at their side, and their teacher continued to stroke Woof The Book and tell his story.
“It was written by a mecha-gnome actually, in gnomish. She’d been a travelling witch, hundreds of years ago, when there were no schools for mages. Only masters with apprentices, and a few private tutors at that time. Anyways, she met a master who had a couple of apprentices. The master had also made a sentient book, I believe it still exists and is called The Speaking Ghoul? Another recent book about the dungeon lords did mention that artifact, and said that one of the dungeon lords had it, one of their necromancy specialists. No matter, the master told the gnome about the technique for making The Speaking Ghoul, and the gnome was able to formulate a theory of how it all worked. Apparently, there are these tiny creatures which she called manabits. They are too small to see with the naked eye, but if you have an exceedingly small magnifying lens you may see them individuated.” Rum stopped stroking the book and gestured with it, holding his other hand as if looking down at it with a magnifying glass. “They are like ants, in that by themselves they are quite simple. However, when they form colonies as is their way, those colonies act like their own intelligent organisms. And if you take some manabits, and give them something magical to feed on: they will multiply, making an even bigger colony and bigger organism. So, imagine that you use a book that you have enchanted, and you let a colony of manabits eat their way into the enchantment. The manabits can over time merge with the book and the enchantment on it, and give it life. Then it’s mostly a matter of feeding it enough mana, and have a strong enough enchantment that lets the colony within the book feed on adjacent mana sources, and also store reserves of mana for later use. And that’s it, in the theory of this gnome at least, that’s how you get a sentient book.” Rum glanced down to Woof The Book. “I think Woof is probably feeding on me right now actually. It’s probably nibbling on my mana body, taking small and barely noticeable bites out of me. It’ll probably do the same thing when you read it, too. Not enough mana to cause alarm, but enough to keep your regeneration working. By the way” Rum looked up, “the gnome was insistent that we call them bookbits when they’re fully merged, since apparently they metamorphose and therefore there’s reason for distinguishing between them and the unmerged manabits.”
Rum stopped speaking, but his two apprentices just continued on looking as if there would be more. But nothing more was forthcoming.
“That’s interesting Teacher, but is that all you know?” Farklend looked with interest and hope into Rum’s eyes.
“That is all, unfortunately.” Rum handed over the book to his student. As so often happened when he needed to think, Rum put his hands on his beard, stroking it while Farklend looked down at Woof, and tried himself to stroke the snout, just like Rum had done. “It might become a very useful friend of yours though, that one.” Rum nodded at the book. “Have you looked at the spells inside?”
“Yeah” Farklend replied. “Its a bit of a mixed set, and not as many as I’d hoped. But still, it’s 12 spells.”
“12? Really?” Rum looked surprised. “That’s actually a bit of an arsenal if you can master them all, and better yet if Woof will master them with you. Any properly amazing spells?”
“I haven’t gotten a proper look at them all, but, I think the first one I’ll try to master is going to be Hold Weapon. There’s also a Mass Hold Weapon spell in there, but it’s waaay difficult for me yet. The mana cost alone is apparently huge, the book recommend I be at least level 40 before I try learning it.”
“Oh? And what level are you?”
Farklend shrugged. “I’ve not been tested in 2 years. Last time Jorteg tested me I was level 26. But a lot has happened since then.”
“Would you like to know your level?” Rum raised an eyebrow, and glanced at Meti as well. “You too, if you don’t know yours.”
“Yes!” Farklend responded, positive surprise spreading across his face.
“Yeah” Meti replied, a mildly excited smile on hers.
Rum turned to Farklend and pointed his hand, closing his eyes. “Rumalize!” As the spell took hold over Farklend, and the sensations came into Rum’s head, the wizard disciplined himself to understand it all, speaking out the details as soon as they cleared inside his mind. “Your level is...”
Farklend (male human)
Level
30
Health Pool
490/490
Stamina Pool
500/500
Mana Pool
720/720
Constitution Score
9 (natural) + 40 (level)
Strength Score
13 (natural) + 50 (level)
Dexterity Score
10 (natural) + 40 (level)
Intelligence Score
12 (natural) + 60 (level)
Wisdom Score
9 (natural) + 34 (level)
Willpower Score
8 (natural) + 44 (level)
Luck Score
9 (natural) + 32 (level)
Known Basic Effects
None
Almost as soon as he was done conveying the full details of his magical inspection, Rum briefly opened his eyes only to switch his casting hand and point his other at Meti. The witch barely managed to get ready before Rum verbalized his spell. “Rumalize!” The new flood of sensations caused Rum to close his eyes again. He was quick to transfix all the sensations though, forcing them into stable, analytical numbers as the spell sought to guide him. The information clearing in his mind, he conveyed his findings. “Meti, your level is...”
Meti (female human)
Level
27
Health Pool
520/520
Stamina Pool
460/460
Mana Pool
710/710
Constitution Score
10 (natural) + 42 (level)
Strength Score
9 (natural) + 33 (level)
Dexterity Score
10 (natural) + 36 (level)
Intelligence Score
13 (natural) + 58 (level)
Wisdom Score
6 (natural) + 30 (level)
Willpower Score
7 (natural) + 40 (level)
Luck Score
15 (natural) + 31 (level)
Known Basic Effects
None
Rum opened his eyes. He took a long, slow, nasal inhale, before breathing out through the nose. “So, you got some levels to climb.” Rum tilted his head. “But not too far off. If you focused a little more on intellectual activities you could probably try to learn Mass Hold Weapon at, say, level 38, if you’ve acquired enough of an intelligence score. Anyways–” Rum looked straight over into Farklend’s eyes, “–you might reach level 40 within the next year. It is possible, but it’ll require for you to seek out challenges like few others.”
Farklend let his mind think for a few breaths. “You recommend that course of action Teacher? Would you guide me through such a path?”
Rum shook his head. “Nah, you could seriously hurt yourself if you do that. No, slow and steady wins the race. But maybe if you’d really like to know that spell you could aim to get there in 2 years. I can’t guide you through that path though.”
“Oh” Farklend looked disappointed.
Rum reached out with a hand and placed it on Farklend’s shoulder. “I can’t because I don’t practice that kind of magic. My magic is special, remember? If you truly want to learn magic from me, what you’re going to get is something different. You’ll have to learn that book on your own. From me–” Rum took back his hand and gestured with both hands at himself, “–I can only offer you customized spells. Spells that you’ll learn to craft with your own mind, through your own labor. And they will be unique, entirely unique to you. Nobody else in this world will have your spells, not even me. That is what I can teach you: to become your own private spellbook.”
Rum turned to Meti. “Same for you. For all of you. I have left behind all the spells I learned at Flipped. All I have now is the spells that only I can use, and which I made.”
And with that, their conversation came to an end. Because now more apprentices were waking up, and breakfast was starting to look ready, with smells already disturbing the concentration of minds around the campfire.
After the expanded party had eaten, they all packed up their things, and headed onwards along the road. They passed by the grazing horses in the distance, including the horse couple, who lay down next to each other, dosing off to the warm morning sun in the sky. It’s a good day, Rum thought, before remembering what he’d heard that morning, and Electroblade’s ominous warning. The experience knawed at him for a couple of minutes. No, he eventually shook his head, I won’t learn anything by just thinking about it, going round in circles. I need to let it rest. So instead he slowed down and let himself walk up next to Electroblade and White Rose in the rear.
“Hey there, my White Rose.” Rum smiled, and gestured towards a blackboard tucked away to the side of zes attire. “Can you try and spell the word: SECRET?”