Chapter 39

Stories for Breakfast

After my conversation with my companion, I took the time to clean up the kitchen. Someone, presumably Ivo, had taken the omelet I was making off the burner after Pierce sucker punched me. It was cold, but I didn't want to toss it, so I just put the thing in the bottomless garbage disposal that served as my stomach.

I wheeled the serving cart, stocked full of breakfast items into the main room. I had no idea when, or even if folks would file in for their breakfast, so I just filled a plate for myself, and sat down in my normal chair to eat.

It wasn't long before the door opened. I saw a still blankly staring Torill being led by the hand by the kid. Alexander looked more nervous than usual while he held her hand.

He practically jumped out of his skin when I spoke to him.

"There's food in the cart, I didn't want it to get cold since I bet some people are going to show up late." I gestured at the serving cart, and treated him a little like a frightened animal by making sure I wasn't looking directly at the two of them.

"Th- thanks." He stammered out quietly, before looking at Torill. "Go sit in the chair next to the big cat man, okay?" The words were whispered, I don't think he meant for me to hear them.

He let go of her hand like it was burning him, and she robotically followed his instructions. I pulled the chair out for her before she got to it. She sat down, but didn't scoot it forward until I quietly advised her to. It was painful to see her that way, I hoped she would return to her old vibrant self soon.

"Uhhh… s-sir?" I heard the kid say hesitantly. When I looked over at him, he was staring at the serving cart like it was a snake. "C-could you… I m-mean… uh… I-I don't want to risk t-touching other people's food… Do you th-think you would b-be willing to h-help?"

The poor kid was visibly trembling, and blushing at the same time. His eyes were cast downward intently staring at the floor.

I nodded, I was curious about whatever was going on with the kid to terrify him so much, but I wasn't going to make him tell me. I just grabbed two plates, one I filled with things I knew Torill liked from before, the other remained empty.

"Hey Alex, right? What do you like?" I spoke as gently as I could, just loudly enough for a normal human to hear from where Alexander was.

"A-Alexander s-sir, and I would just like eggs and toast." The kid was still looking at the floor, his blush had grown a little darker.

I smiled a bit at his correction. He had almost sounded a little annoyed at being called Alex. Annoyed was way better than scared.

I piled some scrambled eggs onto his plate, along with a few pieces of toast. I also filled a small sauce cup with that sauce Ivo had put together. I had tried it on my food already, and it went amazingly well with eggs.

"Okay Alex, I'll just put yours where you usually sit, okay?" I started walking over to Alexander's spot with both plates in hand, along with some utensils that I wrapped in the cloth napkins that we usually used for the both of them.

"It's Alexander… but um, that's great, thank you." He was slightly more annoyed this time, I couldn't help but notice the lack of stammer.

I smirked, and decided to relent. I gently set his plate and a set of still wrapped utensils down at his place, and walked away.

"There you go Alexander, it's no problem at all." I said, continuing to speak as softly and calmly as I could, though I was beginning to realize it wasn't me he was afraid of.

I couldn't sense the young man's Class Concepts from where I stood, Sense Concept only had a range of just a hair under seven feet, but I had a feeling whatever he was afraid of had something to do with his class. The suppression collar around his neck was offensive to my mana senses, it sucked in any mana the kid had, to power itself, I couldn't imagine walking around with one on voluntarily. Well, a collar like that could very well kill me, given how I reacted to being in mana debt. But even if it wouldn't be deadly, the idea of having all the magic I had access to in this world drained from me filled me with dread, the concept felt absolutely abhorrent.

Once I returned to my seat, I set Torill's plate in front of her, and unwrapped her utensils for her. I cringed when I registered her lack of response.

"Go on Torill, eat up." I whispered to her.

She only seemed to notice the food after I told her to eat. She mechanically reached her hand out to grab a fork, and began to unceremoniously shove the food into her mouth.

We ate in silence for a bit, before the door to the outside opened once again, this time with a groggy looking Janus shuffling in. His half lidded eyes took the place in, and he silently made for the bar with an ugly frown on his face. His eyes spoke of heavier than normal drinking the night before, and it looked like he meant to continue.

After filling a cup with something that I could identify as some sort of hard liquor by smell all the way from the table, he made his way to the serving cart. He only grabbed a few pieces of toast and some berry preserves. He took his plate to the bar, and ate his toast with his back to us.

Martin didn't take much longer to show up, he also looked hungover. He stared at Janus's back for a moment before sighing and shaking his head.

"Mornin." He grumbled as he went to the cart and filled up a plate. He also grabbed a large cup and filled it to the brim with water. "Where're Ivo 'n Pierce? gotta thank'em" he mumbled out.

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"I uh, I'm not sure where they went, they were here earlier though." I responded.

As Martin took his seat at the table, he gazed at Torill, he seemed greatly disturbed by her current state.

"I hate bein' stuck in here." He said loudly. "Ain't right, I wanna help. I'm almost level 90, I could totally help with whatever's out there."

I decided that Belua hadn't told me it was a secret, and I wanted to know what it meant in this world. Of course I'd heard of wendigo in fiction, but their powers and origins seemed pretty variable. I wasn't even sure what the original story of them even was, something about cold, starvation, and cannibalism? That wasn't even taking into account that while it translated to me as wendigo, it was an entirely different word, in an entirely different language, on an entirely different world.

Assuming I knew something seemed foolish.

"Do you know what a wendigo is?" I asked.

I heard a clatter next to me, as Torill dropped her fork onto her plate, and started moaning. "Hungry eyes, freezing claws, so cold." She spoke without much inflection, but there was a tinge of fear in her voice.

I looked over to see her hugging herself, her still somewhat blank eyes shedding tears. I reached over and pulled her into a protective hug without thinking about it. She buried her face in my mane, and continued to cry, her body was shaking like a leaf.

"How do you know what it was?" I heard Martin question.

I looked at him over Torill's shaking head, he looked aghast.

"Belua told me, I still don't really know what it is." I stated simply.

I didn't know quite what to do with the woman crying her eyes out. So I simply kept my arm around her. Trying to give her whatever comfort I could.

"Belua told you!? You spoke to the great mother? What else did she say about it?" He seemed awed.

"Well, she said that it would probably take them a long time to track it down, since they aren't going to take Zeke, she implied that he would probably get hurt if they did." Some instinct had caused me to start purring, and my voice took on a soft hum as I answered Martin's question. I patted the sobbing woman I was holding on the back.

"Oh yeah, Zeke's not even level 40 yet, a wendigo wouldn't just hurt 'em, it would eat him alive. She didn't say anything else?" Martin seemed taken aback by what I was saying.

"Well, it wasn't the topic she brought me to her realm to discuss…" I hesitated to tell him how she was sending me out in a couple days, and her mission involved me simply avoiding the wendigo for now. "What do you know about them?"

"Her… realm? You were in the Mother's realm?" Martin asked with pure shock in his voice.

"Yes?" I said, suddenly understanding how obvious it should have been that casually name dropping the goddess and mentioning my time spent in her realm might be a little much for most people. "But come on Martin, we were talking about the monster. What is it?"

"What was it like?" He asked, still sounding awed. "Uh, I mean, okay. Wendigo are not the absolute worst thing that can happen when a sapient becomes corrupted by death mana. But they are up there, they are at minimum, level 180, and they have some nasty abilities. Like Torill said, they have an aura of hungry cold that saps your energy and will. They have extremely long, sharp claws and teeth. They are supposed to be in a constant state of frenzied, desperate starvation, and when they eat, they grow in level depending on what they consume. They gain the most from eating other sapients. They are scary fucks, it doesn't even seem to matter what race they started as."

Martin shivered a little as he spoke. I saw an electric spark jump from him to one of his utensils. He cursed loudly. "Well, I guess I'm glad we're stuck in here, we wouldn't stand a chance. Even Nefen shouldn't be out there, but Samuel might have trouble finding it without help."

I nodded gravely. "That sounds bad." I noticed that Torill's trembling had only increased while Martin spoke, and she had somehow managed to end up huddled in my lap. I decided to lighten the mood if I could.

I spent the next twenty minutes or so waxing poetic about the beauty and joy of Belua's realm. My mark began to glow shortly into my description, and emanate some of Belua's more comforting Concepts. Some of which flowed into me, making me feel a damn near parental need to comfort Torill. I rocked her slightly in my arms while I spoke of playing with the various beasts, with everyone in child form. I spoke of the joy and comfort I felt every moment I was there. I told how Belua had held me like a child, and looked like she could be my mother. I didn't mention how I was in the form of a cub at the time.

After a while, I noticed how both Martin and Alexander had become enraptured by my description. They both had small smiles on their faces, like they were experiencing some of what I had felt. Which seemed likely with the Concepts that had flowed out of my mark. Alexander even looked relaxed for once, there was no sign of his normal fearful expression. Janus had been drawn over from the bar to listen too, he was still drunk as a skunk, but the shadows of anger he had been carrying around, had fled.

Then I realized Torill had fallen asleep.

I looked at Alexander. "Do you think you can show me to her room? I think she should get some rest now." I whispered, just loud enough for him to hear.

He nodded slightly, still looking more relaxed than he'd ever been in my presence.

I slowly, carefully maneuvered Torill so I could carry her in my arms. She felt so delicate and light as I lifted her. My mark continued to glow, Belua's Concepts stopped traveling so far though, only flowing into Torill and I, mostly just Torill though.

I knew she was going through something terrible. I felt Belua's concern for her as my mark acted on the poor girl. I had questions for the next time I saw the goddess, but I didn't think Concepts like Resting , and Solace were anything but good for Torill right now. The ones that flowed into me seemed a little unnecessary though. I already would have made sure the girl was taken care of.

My staff quietly floated behind me as I followed the kid out of the guild hall.

Alexander led us to the fourth floor of the apartments. The whole building seemed to be a lot bigger on the inside since it hadn't seemed to have more than three floors when looked at from the outside.

Torill's room had a woven flower wreath on the door, the flowers were just starting to wilt. The kid opened the door for me, and I carried Torill to her bed. As I tucked her in, she mumbled something unintelligible. I waited to make sure she fell back to sleep, and walked out.

Alexander had wandered off right after showing me Torill's room, so I was alone. I looked at my staff, I wanted to leave Torill a little gift. "Do you think you can bring a little life back to that with a spell? I'd try, but I'm afraid I would overdo it." I asked my companion out loud, pointing at the wilting wreath on Torill's door.

My staff glowed green, I saw it craft the spellform for the healing spell it had used on me before. The flowers returned to life from their wilted state, new leaves grew, filling out the empty spots, and some roots began to grow from the wreath, the spell ended before there was trouble though.

I smiled a little, I was confident Torill would recover quickly. As I walked away from her room, I made the decision, when she was herself again, we would go for that walk Torill had talked about, if she was still interested.

Belua said I should live a little, and something about the tragic sight of Torill without her ever present smile, made me realize how much I'd like to see that smile again.

I headed to the arena to get some practice in, hopefully Ivo and Pierce would show up eventually to practice with me. My staff shared a feeling of wanting to test its new abilities too.