Incoming Request
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Request Declined
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Notification
World: A-220
Unit: XXXXX
Karma: 0
A notification? I’ve gotten these before, back when I first fiddled with blessing people. But those were messages. This one is more like a request. What’s going on here?
Request Accepted
An explosive impact, and brilliant colors overcome the darkness of space, painting a vivid landscape, before dimming down to their natural intensity. It is day, and a beautiful blue sky stretches overhead, with thin wispy clouds lingering while the sun beats down a gentle warmth. A giant towers over me.
“Who comes to break my peace this time?” he seemingly complains, but there is no bitterness in his voice. The man is middle-aged with overgrown hair, lean, wearing clothing he appears to have made out of wild materials. He is sitting some distance from a fire. By the fire, several skewered fish roast.
“I greet you, esteemed mortal; I am called… I am not called anything.” Wow, that’s wooden. What I intend and what comes out aren’t exactly the same. There is some sort of automatic translation taking place.
“Ha, esteemed mortal! You flatter me! Call me ‘Old Man’. That’s what everyone else around here calls me. Your kind never give their real names in the first place. You just happen to be direct!” He knows my kind? Wait, what do I look like?
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“How do you know my kind?”
“It’s more like your kind knows me! Somehow or other, I stick out to you.” Yeah, you do. “But as for you, you’re responsible for me having a second shadow in broad daylight. You lot are unmistakable. If it looks like nothing else in this world, it’s probably one of you.”
“…” It’s true. I’m glued to the ground, looking up at the majestic sky. I don’t know that he’s particularly tall, either. Anyone would look like a giant from where I am.
“Did you come to watch my meal cook? You can’t have any.”
“I answered a call for my help.”
“No, I did no such thing! You appeared all on your own after I wished for some shade. Suits me right for thinking there was peace and quiet out here.” I can’t take credit for the irony.
“You are without others. You are disconnected from your kind.”
“That’s right. That’s how I like it. Everything you’ve got, that’s just one more thing you can lose. And when you’ve got truly got nothing, folks like you start popping up. There really is no peace in this world. But you lot can’t play your tricks on me!”
“Your fate defies weaving.” How did what I said translate to that?
“You mean I can’t be cursed! Kings and heroes receive blessings. Little folk like me, we catch curses when your kind are unhappy with us! Curses against the land that cause us to starve, curses against the water so we can’t drink it. We’ve got enough problems without your meddling.”
“Your fate is not cursed.”
“Not anymore, it isn’t. How do you think anyone becomes a hermit like me? I’m out here because I have to be. There is only one way to escape a curse, and it’s this.”
I don’t think he wants to talk about his past. Not now, anyway.
“Old Man, my visit has run its course. Be well.” Wooden!
“Don’t hurry back!”
My surroundings darken, and tiny lights appeared in the distance. I am once again in the place between worlds.
Mana spent: XX
So that’s how this works. I wasn’t summoned, so I had to pay the fare.