Eight days passed before we were anywhere near our destination, and in that time I had experienced some of the worst pain a human could possibly feel. No I did not give birth, but I did want to amputate my hand. FOR YOU SEE, Max Jr. bit me.
Now, you might be wondering how I managed to get bit, but that would be a very stupid question; I’m sure many of you have been bitten by a bug before. Regardless, I probably deserved it anyway. This little chihuahua-sized bastard decided that he didn’t like me hand-feeding him a weird armored fish that I somehow speared with Stabby, so he bit me. Oh but other times this shithead is all cuddly and some such. Or at least as cuddly as a bug can be. Last I checked back home, bugs were never really the cuddly types. I swear this dude was more temperamental than a damned macaw.
I also just now realized that I didn’t describe Max Jr. in any detail in the last chapter, so let’s take care of that! He’s got a pretty wide and flat shield-shaped body, and his legs are normally pretty sprawled out with some massive feet to boot, though he can tuck them in. He’s got eight of ‘em too, though I don’t think it would be right to call him an arachnid — this is an alien planet after all.
His back sports a pretty tough set of elytra, with some admittedly beautiful wings underneath. The elytra are black with orange splotches. Every other part of him is a dark ash coloration, not quite as dark as his elytra.
His mandibles are on the smaller side, but that just means there’s more room for bite force. I wasn’t lying when I said he could bite hard, though I don’t think he broke any bone when he bit me. It was almost like a warning bite or something.
Max Jr. actually had quite a bit of personality, for a bug. Or not for a bug? He was weirdly intelligent, so I’m really beginning to think that Helsan arthropods or whatever are probably able to get quite a bit smarter than their Earthly counterparts. Max Jr. can also make a few chirps and hisses, though how these sounds are formed is beyond me. I imagine that since he has some kind of lung-analog organ, he can use that air for vocalizations.
He’s still a bastard though, and I think Sanon agrees.
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I’ll spare you the nitty gritty on the majority of our time in the wetland since it was mostly a lot of the same. There was a staggering amount of biodiversity, but aside from that, there isn’t much to say.
It was midday by the time we had made our way to Bybros, and it was then that we stopped just outside the town. A wave of anxiety had passed over us as we deliberated on whether or not to enter the town. We didn’t know if news of my crimes had reached this town or not, or if Oresco had even come this way.
I turned to Sanon, Max Jr. on my head. “So, any ideas? Do we go in?”
Sanon was visibly and justifiably unimpressed at my hat-bug, but she still responded without skipping a beat. “I… I don’t really know. I can’t fight and as much as I hate to say it, but you are not reliable in a fight either.”
We stood in silence for a bit while we thought on the matter, before I formed a plan. “Sanon, I have an idea.”
If looks could kill, then the expression that Sanon had given me should have atomized me on the spot. “Max, you had better not do anything stupid this time.”
Max Jr. fluttered his wings from atop my head, likely in retort to Sanon’s lack of confidence in my competence.
“Relax! I uh… I think I’m gonna work on my impulsiveness when it comes to my uh… ideas. No, I sneak into the town alone and ask around about Nauphi. If no one knows, then we go in together and figure out what to do from there. BUT, if I’m not back out here in an hour, I give you full permission to abandon me, as much as that would hurt.”
Sanon gave an exasperated sigh. “Max, I’m not going to abandon you, but sure. That idea is reasonable, so go ahead. Just please be careful — you’re the only person out here that I can trust.”
Well at least I know she won’t up and leave.
I gave Sanon a number of my belongings before walking around the side of the town to sneak in. I wanted to make sure she had them so that if I were compromised or something, she’d at least have a map to work with.
The town was surrounded by a sparse tropical forest similar to Tokal, which resulted in a lack of places to hide my approach. Fortunately, it was noon and the sky was clear, so with consistent light conditions, I donned my coat and ceased to exist.
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Large village was probably a more accurate descriptor for Bybros. It wasn’t anywhere near as big as Nauphi or even Tokal, though something notable about this place is that it had quite a lot of farmland to work with. I doubted they had a large or well-trained guard stationed here, so I foolishly lowered my own guard somewhat. I was still practically invisible though, so as long as I stayed in consistent light I’d be safe.
I explored the town for a quick moment before ducking behind a building to uncloak now that I had actually entered, making sure to stay out of the shadows so that the cloaking didn’t go haywire.
A sizeable number of elves were bustling about the place, though there was plenty of space in the streets, compared to somewhere like Nauphi. Unfortunately this meant that I was very easily spotted, and my status as a human meant that I stood out quite a bit. Back in Tokal and Nauphi, people generally kept to themselves, but the villagers here were much more obvious about their curiosity. I could feel several stares at any given moment, though most of them averted their eyes when I turned their way.
Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
I eventually decided that it might be best to find a gathering area like a tavern to speak to someone. The last thing I wanted was to make a scene in the middle of the streets. I wasn’t afraid of these people by any means, but Sanon was right in that I couldn’t be trusted to win a fight, so I’d bet money that most of these villages would wipe the floor with me if a fight were to break out. Not that I thought one would happen, but you can never be too careful.
I looked for a tavern or anything resembling one, and it would be my luck then, that I did not find one. I didn’t want to take too long though, so I picked up my pace.
I made my way around the village before coming to their farmland. They had all sorts of crops, from small fruit-bearing trees, to smaller leafy plants that seemed to be very well-tended, even more so than their other crops. These plants were fenced in by what looked like a glowing barrier about ten feet tall.
I’ve said before that hard shields are very expensive to maintain, and this hasn’t changed even with my innovations at time of writing, so how these villagers were able to do this has me confused even now. In fact, I’m planning on taking a trip back there again once I finish writing this book!
Regardless, the plants were obviously valuable to them, and when I approached, I could feel a slight inward pressure as I got closer to the field. It was almost like my mana was being drained just from the proximity. I ended up having to retreat from the field before I went into depressurization, but not before I got a whiff of the air around it. The smell was strong, and somewhat familiar, but I couldn’t quite place it.
As I retreated, a youthful, yet experienced sounding voice called out to me. “Hey there traveller! You might wanna stay away from that there sky herb field. The stuff’s commissioned by the prince, so we’ve got a lot of protection spells on it. T’ain’t a good idea to be around it without proper keyspells.”
This elf was rather short compared to his peers, and he certainly sounded young, so if I had to guess, he might have been a child working the farm. And I’d also like to say that this guy somehow had a twang to his voice that really reminded me of a certain somewhere, despite him clearly speaking Common.
Anyway, I waved back at him as he approached me. He didn’t seem angry or hostile, so I just went with the flow of things. “Sky herb?”
The colorful young elf nodded. “Yep! It’s really popular in the capital, and the prince’s been gettin’ real particular about it lately. He’s always coming around here to ask us how we’re doing and inspect the field. My parents won’t tell me why he wants it, but every time he’s here, he seems really happy and laid back! He even gave me candy once!”
…
Does Helsa have weed??? Did someone accidentally bring weed here? Is it convergent evolution?? There’s actually no fucking way, but now that I think about it, it definitely smelled familiar… Wait is the prince a fucking stoner?!
I nodded along with the kid’s explanation before attempting to change the topic. Max Jr. chose a real weird time to start chittering from atop my head, eliciting a laugh and a “weird hat!” from the kid.
“So, I’ve actually got a question for ya. Mind if I ask?” I started.
“Oh sure thing mister!”
“Did you or anyone else happen to hear about any kind of disaster in Nauphi?”
“No? Did something happen? I’ve never been there before, but we get caravans selling some of their goods occasionally… I hope nothing happened.”
And it was here that I decided to flip the script. No causing a scene, nor a panic. “Nah I just heard a rumor. I thought someone here might know something. Thanks anyway though!” I said, moving to escape the situation and report back to Sanon.
The boy’s face lit up momentarily before he began waving to me. “Oh okay! Well if you’re still around later, come by my parents’ shop and buy something, we sell all kinds of fruits and vegetables!”
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I returned to the bushes where I had left Sanon to find her sitting cross-legged and staring intently at my map. Whatever it was she was thinking, it clearly had her in a zone of some kind. She was talking to herself, though it was in Lontish, so understanding her wasn’t exactly an option.
On the topic of Lontish, briefly, I’d like to say that it is a hell of a language to learn. Don’t do it. Save your sanity for other endeavors.
Anyway, back to Sanon and her map reading reverie.
I decided that maybe being alive was for suckers, so I did what any sane person would do.
“Hi.”
A high pitched yelp was my reward as what I guessed to be a reflex resulted in Sanon’s hairs entering pinecone mode. She’s gonna kill me if she ever reads this book.
“Damn it Max! I had a train of thought going!” she said, brushing her hairs back down with her hands to little effect.
Does Helsa even have trains?
“You did?” I said, before immediately correcting myself upon seeing her glare. “Y-Yeah you did!”
…
“May I ask what station that train of thought was heading to?”
“No. Follow me.”
“Wh- But the town is safe!” Max Jr. chittered with me as though presenting a case to a judge.
“Good. Do you still have those runebrands?”
“Y-yeah??”
“Good. Follow me.”
She was not walking in the direction of the town.
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Five days. I followed Sanon through the woods, back into the swamp, for five motherfucking days. Though I’m pretty sure we were walking east, so wherever it was we were going, it wasn’t backward. Sanon also refused to tell me anything about her plan, so there was that too.
“Sanooon, where are we going??” I whined.
Sanon put a finger to her lips. “Shush. We get there when we get there.”
I opened my mouth to protest, but when Sanon glared back at me, I decided that maybe I didn’t want to die, and that I should shut up.
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A couple hours more of walking, and we came to a clearing where a reasonably large river was flowing from uphill. It looked pretty rough, so crossing it definitely wasn’t an option.
Sanon briskly walked over to me after we stopped, getting right up in my face. Or rather, she tried to. She’s like 4’3”, so in reality she was standing on her toes. She firmly grasped the shaft of Stabby, whom I had been using as a walking stick, wrenching it from my hand.
She meandered her way over to a tree and gave it a good punch before pointing the business end of Stabby at the trunk. The trunk was torn to shreds as Stabby’s penetration spell fired, bringing the wooden behemoth down with a resounding thud.
A bridge?
Sanon moved over to the fallen tree and began to strip it of its branches with Stabby, dulling the blade in the process. I wanted to protest, but I feared that doing so may have further incurred her wrath.
After thoroughly dulling Stabby, she turned back to me, a manic look in her eyes that nearly put the fear of god in me. “Get out those brands. We’re building a boat.”
Come again?