image [https://imgur.com/VN3AJLx.png]

Dolcia nuzzled against the sun warmed curls atop Tenton’s head. She was babbling soothing commentary on the surrounding landscape, and Tenton was happily chatting back. Internally Dolcia was screaming, and even she was not sure if it was in fear or joy.

This villager was extruding a MASSIVE reality distortion field that seemed to have no limits inside of its sphere of influence. Dolcia was starting to “feel” the mindscape of the young boy, and it was incredibly fragile, even if he was so bubbly and cheerful externally.

Clearly he was from the destroyed town, but seemed to have no memory of it being destroyed. She very gently inquired about innocuous things, and pieced together that to him his town was alive and well, and he was on some kind of vague “Heroic Journey”. Ironically he also wanted to “punish” Xanther and The Hero. Dolcia gently laid down more soothing mental magic. She glanced over at Vess. “Vess”. Hahaha! He had even tamed a Lord’s Vessel. If she wasn’t careful she would actually become a Fairy. It did seem that he needed to actually want things to be a certain way for the reality to alter, and to believe in them being that way.

She had seen him reach out to grab fruit from a tree, and the fruit had been there. But before he had wanted that fruit, it had been just a regular tree. Clearly he had gotten lonely, and wanted a friend. Vess was that friend now. She trembled all over, and then giggled. It was a silent war. Either Fangmore and herself would exert control over this child, or he would alter them to be his playthings. But they were experts in these kinds of struggles, and as long as he didn’t notice this internal battle, then they would have the upper hand.

She turned her attention towards The Hero and Xanther. They were both scary as anything. Xanther was more of a “normal” Hero, but still very fragile and was now equipped with a VERY powerful sword. The Hero was anything but normal, and could be very unpredictable with how he acted. He also could easily kill her and Fangmore. She wasn’t sure what would happen if he struck at Tenton or Vess. Well, back to the task at hand.

“Heyyy Tenton? Do you think we could find a safe place to spend the night? The sun will be setting soon and I don’t want to get cold.” She put some pout into her voice, laying on the charm as thick as she could without being obvious. There was no town within a two day’s walk. She was very curious what Tenton could do in such a situation.

The boy scanned around, and then frowned. “Huh, let’s see.” He pulled a massive map from his backpack, and unfurled it. It was beautifully made with incredible detail, and had no right being in the backpack of any villager. He squinted and then made a happy sound. “Aha! Right through that forest there should be a little fishing village!”

Sure enough, on the map there was a small lake nearby and a town called “Warf’s Rest”. The imp rubbed at her face, the action thankfully hidden by her “fairy” glow. “Wow! That’s so… lucky! Cool cool cool, let’s go!” The group followed Tenton as they walked through the oddly dense but tiny forest that had emerged around the bend of a hill. She heard Xanther remarking on something, but she was too focused up ahead. How would his ability handle this?

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As they emerged from the woods a light but obscuring mist filled the air. Ahead they could see a low stone wall and a few thatched cottages. Warm light spilled out from the few homes they could see. Dolcia was gobsmacked. Was the skill making it so Tenton would not see the limit of his own powers, was he doing this without even realizing? It was very believable, but Dolcia could use her [Demonic Life Detection] skill to see the cracks in this incredible ability. Sure enough in the homes ahead there were life signs of humans going about their daily tasks. But past them, and a bit into the mist, the life signs stopped abruptly. Sometimes one would flicker into existence as it came closer, or vanish as it went further away. How “real” were those people? Did they have real blood? Hopes and dreams? She chuckled again, and Tenton looked at her curiously. “Hehe… just… just sooo nice to have found this little town. I’m very pleased!” He grinned. “I just KNOW the people here will be happy to see us! Maybe they’ll even need us to kill a fish monster or something!”

Dolcia was quite sure his guess would be correct.

Fangmore was looking at her, sending her very quiet mental messages to be subtle. But she couldn’t help herself. She wanted to stir the pot a bit.

“Wait… you said this town was ‘Warf’s Rest’?” She gasped dramatically, and Tenton looked around quickly. “What? What is it Sparkledust?” She shivered against him, putting a tremulous tone into her voice. “Oh no… this town is supposed to be one filled with HUNGRY CANNIBALS!!” Tenton started. “What? Really?” She flew up in front of his face, her little glowing form illuminating his face. “Oh yes!! They will pretend to be nice, and then EAT YOU UP! There’s a big bounty on killing them! They keep sending heroes but the heroes KEEP BEING EATEN!” Fangmore was yelling at her mentally. Hee hee.

Tenton looked shocked, and then he frowned, his face growing serious. “Thank you Sparkledust. It looks like we found this place for a reason.” He strode forward, and Dolcia flitted back. When she got close to Fangmore he smiled at her. “Sparkledust… what… are you doing…?” She orbited around his head, giggling. “You gotta test things silly! You taught me that!” She heard him let out a shuddering exhale in deep weariness.

Some of the mist retreated, and a large solidly built home emerged. The door opened and a huge man came out. He was smiling coldly, his eyes almost fishlike. He had an apron on that was covered in spatters of gore and in his hand was a massive cleaver. “Oho. Travelers. Welcome. Perhaps you could join us for… dinner?” His face broke into a cunning and twisted grin at the last line. “Oh brother.” Dolcia heard Fangmore mutter as he rubbed his face with his hands.

Tenton stood up straight, his sword held tightly in his hand. “Sir! I have heard troubling tales that you, and this whole village, are made up of cannibals! Defend against this accusation or we must attack!”

The large man began to laugh deeply, as more of the unsettling people came out from the homes. All together there were about seven of them. Clearly a village like this should have a greater population than that, but perhaps this was what Tenton felt comfortable dealing with. She doubted this was the extent of what he could manifest.

The people suddenly roared, and charged at the group. They flailed their arms and all held bloody weapons. Tenton pulled back an arm and slashed, and half of them dropped to the ground, dead. A thin red line seemed to be the only indicator of a wound on their bodies. Vess joined him, his powerful fists sending villagers flying back, their bodies broken and mangled by even a glancing blow.

The Hero also stepped forward along with Xanther. The Hero punched at one of the charging figures and the man staggered, but then snapped back, attacking savagely. Xanther’s sword glittered as it cut into the villagers, hacking into them as if they were hunks of wood.

Tenton turned, and then seemed to freeze as he saw Xanther and The Hero cutting down the villagers. The villagers suddenly froze and fell to the ground. Dolcia scrambled, swooping in and darting around Tenton’s head. “We did it! Wow what a glorious fight!!” Tenton was panting, his eyes dilated. “Ha… ha… it was right..” Whoops. Very fragile. “Hey, we don’t need to stay in this crummy town, let’s go camping! We have enough bedrolls, right?”

Tenton seemed to slowly come back to himself. “Ah, yeah. Let’s go to sleep. I’m tired.” He yawned massively, and began to shuffle away from the village, Vess striding up to walk besides him.

Fangmore came up behind Dolcia, patting her gently. “That was… maybe not the cleverest thing, my dear.”

Dolcia giggled uneasily.