-You give me a taste of amazing and then send me off before I can have a serving?- I scoff, getting rid of my chair and sitting on the ground, shaking my sleeves out and crossing my arms.
More laughter and Old Granny sits down to explain that the Water Monkeys have been gutted, deboned, and then skewered. The pink meat is cooked until it is very pale. If it’s flaky, it’s over cooked. No need for seasoning, which is something she says even I can handle. Cheeky bish. The blood becomes sweet when heated, and, when made into Grey Life Wine.
-I don’t know what that is,- I stare at Granny, eyes wide, daring her to figure out what I know and how to explain it to someone with my level of ignorance.
-Dry, and grind Death Wood seeds --. These are also used as a treasure called “seasoning”, - Old Granny says, widening her own eyes mockingly. More burns about my cooking. -Boil them in clear water, strain the water. -- Don’t let it cool too much.- She holds up a finger and stares at me. -Quickly, in another container, thin Water Spirit blood with water, then pour the Spirit Blood into the hot seed water, stirring until dissolved.
-If there are clots or cooked bits, you’ve probably ruined it, otherwise you have Grey Life Wine. It’s very good,- Old Granny leans back, crossing her arms and looking smug AF.
-Do you all have black wood any more?- I ask, turning to Granin. He’s been obnoxiously blunt so far.
-We still have the seeds,- he says, sipping from another bowl. -We’re trying to develop enough ground to start planting.
-Ah, the mulch,- I nod lightly, wondering if I should offer my void for them to rest in.
Immediately the peanut gallery chimes in. The difference between my former residents is that I don’t have to worry about poisoning these fucks, and we eat the same foods. They’ll be able to grow more shit for me to eat, and I’ll learn how to make new foods. They’ll teach me crafting, I’ll learn how to not house pet, -- fuck you, Trinity, I hope you’re safe, -- and I’ll be helping conserve an advanced spirit society.
I’m warned that they’ll swarm, but they weren’t swarming in the sealed area I met them in. I’m told that they’ll consume everything, leaving nothing for me, and I point out that they better not or I’ll end up eating them. They’re toxic. There’s a long pause, and I turn to ask Granin to come with me to my void. That last comment didn’t warrant a response.
-Would I be able to safely have your people occupying this space with me?- I ask. -As long as you don’t do anything too resource intensive, you can stay in here and recover. We eat similar things, you already suggested I learn from you and you from I.
-I occupy a small space near a lake, but that leaves so much area.-
-How do you mean...?- Granin says slowly, narrowing his eyes, his arms crossed over his thin chest.
-Can you fly?- I ask slowly. I don’t want him to be offended, but I don’t wanna just take off and piss him off.
-It is a bit more complicated than gliding,- he says noncommittally.
-Not a proper answer, don’t hit me,- I say before transferring us up.
I quickly grab him by his arm. He curses, -- I’m on his good wing side so he can’t open it fully, -- and claws at my hand. I hold out my foot for him to alight upon, and he glares at me while gripping my belt. I raise an eyebrow and he turns away from me before looking around.
-The space is small, but I can maintain it. There’s space to dig and there’s room to grow. The better I become in learning how to be a void bug, the more space I will gain.-
-Hm,- he says before climbing up my side to sit on my shoulder. -You could have imbued your silk.-
-I honestly keep forgetting about imbuing,- I say while drifting towards my empty lake. -I’ve had others here, hunans against my will. They were supposed to train me, but I was in a resting phase. They modified my void to suit themselves, not me.
-After that I had tried to bring in a rat with her young pups, but she got into my food while I was away, and she died. Half the pups died, and the others adopted hunan forms fairly quickly. Some hunans managed to trick them into nearly killing me in an attempt to gain my “void key”.-
-Void key?- Granin says oh so casually, and I’m tempted to drop him.
-They think I have an artifact that gives me this space,- I drone. He immediately laughs, and I have no idea why.
-Truly, they were ignorant,- he guffaws before fully processing the implications. -Poor things. Are they here?-
-After trying to kill me? Repeatedly? I evicted them and told them to join a priest. Not even a day later the people who had tricked them caught up to us and they joined hands trying to kill me,- I sigh. I’d tried so hard to keep them alive... -They’d gotten rid of most of my poisons. I haven’t gone and cleaned out their burrows yet...-
-Ah, this is your house,- Granin says as I drift over the lake. -Truly, you were raised by hunans. Hmm? What’s that?-
-What? The miasma? A buffer, although --,- something sinuous coils through the miasma, spikes growing on its form. -What’s that?-
-I believe that was my question for you,- Granin says.
-Hold on,- I transfer him in front of me, panic as I see I can’t grab him, -- I’d forgotten about his wing and prosthetic, -- and transfer us outside of my anchor. -So that you’re not trapped if anything happens to me,- I say quickly before transfering back to the lava river to drop my anchor. -Okay, what the fuck?-
I’m back over the lake bed looking for forms in the miasma. Something coiled through the miasma.
“Oh, no,” I have a sinking feeling that that snake isn’t a snake. I take a trip to the fish farm and things are definitely different.
There’re dragons, heads up, tails down, just anchored to the bottom of the aquifer. There’s a weird glow and I look up to see what might be a ball of enclosed sun essence. It looks like a fake sun, and I don’t think the stone light is supposed to glow that bright. There’s a lot of fish flickering in and out, but the tethered dragons seem unaffected.
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
I move upwards, looking down to see if the rooted dragons take notice of me. Higher up there are more slithering bastards, and I hope they taste good because their movements are creepy as fuck. If I don’t at least like the taste I might just bank the lot of them and hope they don’t evolve again. Something slams into me before going into a confusing death throe.
Tagging me over and over, hitting different spots with tooth and claw, shredding my robes and giving me superficial cuts, I finally realize it’s not dying. It’s trying to kill me. The wild thrashing? It dodging what it expects to be my wild clawing and biting. And I’m just floating like an idiot.
I transfer us out to the lake bed and it immediately tunnels into the dirty. I absorb the miasma to look at the ground, trying to see where the not fish went only to learn the dirt has a bunch of divots in it. The fuckers can dig and they’re not trapped in the lake anymore. Well, shit.
“So much for giving the Death Moths a safe place to recover.”
I bank the condensor and head out to give Granin the bad news. There’s exclamations of concern and surprise and I look down in confusion.
-Right. The blood,- I turn to Granin. -My fish farm produced fake dragons, right? Well, they’re getting better at being dragons. And they can dig.-
-Amusing,- Granin snickers, taking in the damage I’ve sustained.
[Name: Kisandera “Kissy Kissy” or “Sandy” or “Eclipsed Rainbow”]
[Affiliation(s): Thousand Valleys, Seven Moons, Companion of the Sacred Phoenix Sovereign, Inner Void Productions, Wimble Sunrise, Scarlet Silk Society, The Naturalists, Hunter’s Association, Eager Heart, Red Silk Clan, Red Silk Spider Sect]
[Race: Celestial Void Moth Queen[Shattered] (Saint)] 🦋
[Current Form: Hunan]
[Current Realm: Shimmering(Tier 5)]
[Current Karma: 95,601,347/107,275,977]
[Master: Shimmering Steel]
[Max Will: 9,579,451]
Rank: SS
[Current Condensed Qi: 1,831,227/23,900,336]
[Current Qi: 1,905,120/95,7945,100]
[HP: 9,579,447]
[Mortal Wallet: 12E,692K,180P,697R,179Da,255De,2605k]
[Spirit Wallet: 0Dr,0Ph,0Th,1325Di,126Co,10680St]
It would be easier to see how much damage I’ve sustained if I remembered how much health I had originally. Aunty shrieks that it’s the same as my Max Will, and I swear she’s going to strangle me with her silk when I get back. The fact that she shrieks “yes” is not comforting. Considering the dragon kicked my ass unopposed, I didn’t take that much damage. I tear off my robes, eating them while donning another set, then remember that there are other people in the room.
-Apologies, I should have checked if you had any issues with nudity,- I mumble, face burning as I focus really, really hard on eating my robe scraps.
-You can do it again, if you’d like,- Old Granny says with Granin’s level of casualness, and I wonder what her motives are. I get laughter from the Death Moths and the peanut gallery, but no one says anything, which is super unhelpful.
-I meant that it wouldn’t be safe for you to come over until I managed to contain them,- I glare at Granin, who is still snickering.
-Me thinks you should let some of the children in there to help you with your fishing issue.- Dis bis. -Clear out the miasma first.-
Absolute bitch.
-Do you doubt us?- he asks, a strange glow and glint in his eye.
I get warning pings and then notice that he’s slowly shifting to goblin mode. Is he really this sensitive? Holy shit, he’s an angry drunk! Wait. How much does it take to get him drunk?
-The food is done,- Old Granny starts swatting people to get them to move. -Everyone out. We will call you.-
-Come,- Granin stumbles to his feet before waving me over.
I have no idea where in the hells we’re supposed to line up, to be fair I don’t know how they managed to cram so many people into one small cave. I follow Granin to the cave mouth, the Death Moths ahead of us pushing through the brambles before launching themselves in various directions, and I’m worried what will happen when Granin falls. He’s clearly not safe to fly, he’s already pissed, and I already man-handled him earlier. Unless that’s why he’s spoiling for a fight? I wasn’t trying to embarrass him, I wanted to show him the aerial view so he can get a better grasp of what he has to work with if he took me up on my offer.
Granin casually swings out on the brambles and then climbs up like a creepy monkey. I don’t know why it’s creepy, but there’s a toddler free climbing. Very well. Like parkour anti-gravity flips, lazily reaching out and catching himself with his fingertips then, with this tenuous grip just flinging himself skyward. I swear he’s using the weight of the wing to fling himself farther.
-Oh, shit.-
If i didn’t know for a fact that he kicks ass, and not all of his people are this capable, I’d think clearing up the miasma and letting the kids run would be great. Until I think about creepy, chubby goblin infants running around, teeth and claws out. Mm. Not a fan.
I wonder how he’s going to cross the ravine, but he just flings himself, horizontal, a quick scissor-kick and he frisbees himself to the next side. I collapse, laughing at the casual free disregard this bitch has for gravity, and the fiery death below. He’s literally using his prosthesis like a ball and he’s the chain. And he’s making it look cool...
“What is my life?” I pause as I realize I’m fan-girling over a drunk cripple who is either incredibly skilled or has no regard for his life and the work that went into the tool crafted to give him flight again. “Those craftsman have to be pissed.”
I Wind Walk up, wondering why it’s not triggering notifications, but at least I don’t have to do any ridiculous counter-balancing calculations just to make it to bed. Or in this case the kitchen and then the dinner table. Transfering is easier than walking, I just like walking as I transfer. The instantaneous movement is weird without some kind of transition, so I “walk” from place to place.
-We wait until we’re called to go down to partake of any food gathered,- he says, reminding me that they are looking a bit thin for a reason. Not so chubby toddlers. -We alternate burrows, foragers and fighters first until we can get stable harvests established.-
-When you sober up I need you to see some of the dragons,- I say as we sit down. -Can you swim?-
-Of course I can’t swim!- he snaps. Yeah, he’s still mad about the sky ride thing. -If our wings get wet, we’re dead.-
-And yet you guys like fish...- I try to correlate wanting to eat the thing in the deadly place.
-And hunans like Shiver Thorn, what’s your point?- he snaps.
-Is this because Old Granny wants to see my dick again?- I say as a joke. I’m hoping to cause a brain restart, so I can talk to him without him getting offended.
-Get out!- he says, going full goblin and punching me in the face.
-What the fuck?!- I scream, transfering “away”. I’m surrounded by snapping branches before I land heavily on my back. “No, seriously! What the actual fuck?!”
[Name: Kisandera “Kissy Kissy” or “Sandy” or “Eclipsed Rainbow”]
[Affiliation(s): Thousand Valleys, Seven Moons, Companion of the Sacred Phoenix Sovereign, Inner Void Productions, Wimble Sunrise, Scarlet Silk Society, The Naturalists, Hunter’s Association, Eager Heart, Red Silk Clan, Red Silk Spider Sect]
[Race: Celestial Void Moth Queen[Shattered] (Saint)] 🦋
[Current Form: Hunan]
[Current Realm: Shimmering(Tier 5)]
[Current Karma: 95,601,347/107,275,977]
[Master: Shimmering Steel]
[Max Will: 9,579,451]
Rank: SS
[Current Condensed Qi: 1,831,227/23,900,336]
[Current Qi: 1,905,120/95,7945,100]
[HP: 9,579,446]
[Mortal Wallet: 12E,692K,180P,697R,179Da,255De,2605k]
[Spirit Wallet: 0Dr,0Ph,0Th,1325Di,126Co,10680St]
“Shit! How hard did he hit me?” I heal up pretty quick and the dragon had to do work to get my health down. He popped me once. “And they sent kids to fight that guy?”
I’m upset, and I know I’m upset, but the memory of this self-frisbeeing bastard casually popping people with a staff in a safety battle. Wait. If we’re in an essence rich environment, did Seven Moons just send noobs to get rekt on purpose? Why? They literally couldn’t have stood less of a chance, and this was a standard part of the exam. What were they looking for in new students?
“Even I counted as a fighter,” I remember. I think I was top ten, but they only took like the top three, and then had the nerve to say I wasn’t good enough. “Didn’t stop them from telling everyone and their dinner about me being a student.”