Bag really was a good bag.
It could tell that its master wasn’t happy to be pinned under the medspa chair. Bag couldn’t directly help Alden escape, but it could give him the tools he needed to help himself.
When Alden brought Bag above water to check its contents, and found them to be safe and dry, Bag felt a point of pride. Yes, it was bare minimum good bag responsibility. But Bag had still done it.
Its master approved.
Look! Your tablet is unharmed by the water, ready for you to use it to see and gather information. I helped!
Alden was using the tablet as a flashlight to figure out how to extricate himself from the pileup of equipment.
Water is not always bad. I learned that. But all the water I have met is bad. I will make sure your important objects are untouched by… wait, where are you putting that tablet?!
Alden dropped the tablet into the water, and Bag had a moment of panic. The filtered glow came up from under the water, allowing Alden to see as he got in position to shove the equipment off of himself. He succeeded, with a mighty warrior’s yell of triumph.
Maybe this water isn’t the bad kind of water? I will learn more about water when I can connect again. I still carried it and kept it safe.
Alden gave the tablet back to Bag, and Bag watched as its new spider and scorpion champions did their usual dance. As long as there was life left in the little scorpion, it would stab. And as long as the spider remained, she would do her job and stop it. Perhaps they both moved a great deal more slowly than they had before being tumbled around by the flood, but they were still moving.
The snake was not moving.
Tiny Long? Are you okay?
There was no response.
…What do I do?
Not so long ago, Bag would have thought this kind of problem to be entirely outside of its domain. But there was a drive inside of it now. Something told it that it could, and must, protect its champions from outside forces beyond what it was used to. Something told it that perhaps it was time to do new bag stuff.
I can protect you from the wet, and from being hit from the outside. But I can’t protect you from being bounced around in there. I can’t protect you from the cold. At least… I can’t stop those forces from touching you.
But… maybe I can help you change.
Master Alden was forcing himself to move. Bag never got tired of carrying things, but Alden moved like he was very, very tired of carrying things.
I think it’s time to call Mother.
Normal system function was not back online, but Bag had bag privileges.
<
[Request Sent. Sending relevant information. Awaiting response…]
[Waiting…]
Bag checked on Tiny Long again, and felt the drive inside of it grow more solid.
The outside forces are getting to that which is in my care. The intrusion can be stopped. This is the right thing to do.
[Response from Mother recieved. Patching through.]
Hi Mother! I am ready to seize my destiny.
<...>
<...>
******
Mother was having a good day. Why wouldn’t she be? A bad day would be… well, imagine if some poor contract had gotten blindsided by a profoundly powerful magical contamination of particles many, many times older than the contract itself, and had to deal with it all on its lonesome because it didn’t know who to trust. A bad day would be shutting down all communications for everyone, planet-wide, just out of fear that the attackers will use your networks to plan more attacks.
Poor, poor Contract Earth.
There was no response.
“Teenagers,” she smiled to herself. “As long as you don’t get my knights killed, or my knight-in-training, probably for the best if you figure this little mess out for yourself. You’re old enough to handle a couple teensy tiny islands having a bad day.”
Contract Earth was doing well, all things considered, for one so young. The mistakes were painful, but that’s how you learn. No one was going to trust Contract Earth if it didn’t learn to trust itself.
“You’ve got this, sweetie!” She said out loud, to no one.
An unexpected ping came through from Earth, and for a moment she thought she’d been heard. But it wasn’t Contract Earth, it was…
“That bag? Did Alden figure out how to ping me through the connection, somehow?”
Mother parsed through the relevant data attached to the message. She winced when she caught a glimpse of how Alden was doing, but it was good training for his authority and for Skill 112. Mother was not one to interrupt growth in progress.
But the message wasn’t from Alden. It really was from the bag itself. And unlike the reluctant rabbit knight-in-waiting, the bag was ready to claim its destiny.
“Oh, look at you! How exciting!” She said to herself.
The bag had been most likely to become nothing more than a powerfully magical item, good at protecting what was within, and good at giving a sympathetic anchor to Mother so that she could keep track of things. That would have been fine. But it had the potential to be something more, depending on forces even Mother didn’t understand.
“You’re the first proper seed I’ve managed to make in decades! What a wonderful day indeed. I will have to find a way to celebrate.”
Mother connected to the bag and heard its request.
The bag wanted… hmm.
And… what was this about a snake? Did she misunderstand what snakes are? She’d never directly seen an Earth snake, aside from the Big’nLittle kind.
Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions.
Mother considered the request deeply, borrowing the resources necessary to think through her potential responses. A young, inexperienced contract like Earth would refuse without deep consideration, would not be capable of the depth of consideration required. An experienced contract would also refuse, becoming comfortable enough in their own patterns to not spend on something so seemingly extraneous.
But Mother was not quite the same as Contract 1. She had power, yes. But she also had something more: a Mother’s intuition. And right now her intuition was telling her that this new development made for a good day.
Mother observed as the bag waited eagerly for her answer.
“Maybe you are not a proper seed after all,” she said to herself. “But you are something. And whatever it is you are becoming, I will help you become it.”
Mother told the bag she would teach it to do some very good bag things.
******
Snake was not having fun on his adventure.
Never fear, Ladies! I’m fine! I’m just… a bit… slow.
Snake tried to put on a brave face, even though he didn’t think he was strong enough to get the message through. He may have tapped his last tap. But his brain still worked, for now.
I think I’m slow, therefore I still think. Ha! That means I’m not so far gone. And also that I’m still the smart one.
He took stock of what else he knew.
Still cold. Still in a box, as if freedom means nothing. Still handsome?
It seemed likely.
Still hurt?
He wasn’t sure. His body refused to move when he asked it. He felt pain. But that could mean a lot of things.
Definitely still cold.
He clung to the knowledge, the most solid thought in his increasingly slow moving brain.
Cold cold cold cold cold. Haha. So cold. Cold for sure.
He was supposed to be doing something, but he couldn’t remember whether he’d already done it, or what it was. He thought there were others involved, but his thoughts of others had become nebulous, like far off shapes.
His slow thoughts began to crawl to a stop. He couldn’t feel his body at all.
C… co…
There was a thought he’d been trying to hold on to, but it was gone.
His eyes didn’t even close. He simply…
******
Mother told Bag it was a good bag! This was the very best day!
And Mother wanted to hear its ideas, and she spoke to it in a gentle Mother voice that made it feel warm and fuzzy. Bag wanted to listen to Mother’s good advice, and do everything just the way she showed it.
Bag liked story time! And it was a very good happy story time. Alden had lit so many candles. Every single candle in the room had gone from a cold static thing to a bright warm thing, glowing with its own individual little flame. There was something cheery and cozy about hearing a story from Mother in a candle-filled room when there’s a storm outside.
A heroic shout came to Bag’s attention and it had to ask Mother to pause.
Please excuse me, Mother! My Master Alden needs something.
Alden moved extremely fast to take the bento box from Bag’s protection. Bag responded quickly enough to allow Alden access without getting in his way, which it was proud of.
Mother chided Bag for not being able to multitask, and then Bag felt bad. But then Mother said it was okay to learn one thing at a time for now, and that it could put multitasking on the list of things to learn at the same time it learned something else later. And Bag felt less bad.
Alden was opening the container to let in the warm air from the cozy candles. Bag hoped that Alden would give Tiny Long back to it soon, because Mother was here and Bag needed her to help guide it the first time it tried this.
******
Cold?
The world was bright and cold.
Oho! That was it, it’s bloody cold and I know it!
Snake grasped back onto the thought he had let slip away. He poked the tip of his tongue out to taste the air, and was immediately hit by a wall of strong and simple scents. The confusingly pungent air was warmer than before.
This doesn’t smell like anywhere I’ve ever been. Adventure is happening to me and I almost missed it.
He must have lost some time, because he was out of the bag and the fish-smelling box had been opened.
A hundred warm little flames flickered around him, each of them glowing strongly with infrared heat, and he wondered if this place could possibly be real. Never in his wildest dreams could he have imagined a place with so much sweet scent for his tongue and such an overwhelming number of bright warm patches.
As the appointed leader, I hereby decree that you lovely little wisps of flame are real, with real warmth, and I am really here.
The heat of the flames wafted into the box, and he wanted to stay forever. As soon as he could move he was going to coil up around one of those wonderful little jars and let the heat sink into his bones. Until then, the heated air felt pleasant on his scales, and a bit of real warmth was radiating through the bottom of the box from the hands of the human who held it.
That guy. I remember now! He put me in this confusing box of adventure and captivity. I will reserve judgement until I’m somewhere warm and free. Any moment now, if I could just get out of this box and into this paradise.
Snake might still be unable to move, but his ability to think was coming back.
Time to be a smart and fearless leader! I shall apply my mind to… wait, what was I doing before I was here?
Snake wasn’t sure. He thought he was supposed to be doing something, helping someone? He knew he was the leader. Yes, and…
Wait, no!
The lid came back on the box, cutting him off from the wonderful room. Soon he was in cold darkness once more, in the bag that had been carrying him and the others.
The others. My lovely many-legged ladies! My intrepid followers in our fight for freedom! And individuality! And not being in little boxes all the time! And… going on an adventure and seeing the world, our world!
He tried to give a tap, so the tarantula could hear and know he was okay. But he still couldn’t make himself move, and the big one’s body heat was rapidly dissipating from where he’d held the box.
…I probably don’t look like I’m a very good leader, right now. I just hope the ladies are doing better than I am. Maybe I’m not ready for adventure after all. I…
There was a thought that the snake didn’t quite say out loud to himself.
I want to go home.
In the snake’s imagination, home had always been a warm sunlit rock in the outside world, somewhere someday. He had never been in such a place, but he dreamed of that vision of home. What he didn’t want to imagine as home was the glass habitat where he’d spent his life in captivity. He refused to think that was home. But at this moment, when he almost had that traitorous thought of wanting to go home, he had also almost thought of that familiar place.
Almost.
Maybe it’s still out there somewhere. Home. Maybe I’ll find it someday. Maybe it’s a room full of warm little flames.
Snake felt the cold beginning to seep in again. He wouldn’t be able to think coherently for much longer. If he was going to think anything important, it needed to be now.
Ok, thoughts. Let’s do this! No one else is going to be the smart one, it’s up to us!
Snake pushed his mind with an effort.
I can almost feel it, like a thought is trying to get through. I believe in you, little thought. You’ve got this.
It was like being whispered to. It was like hearing something. It was like…
How do I usually think? It’s… snake thought language? Come here, thought!
Come here, I command you!
The snake found itself thinking of a memory of how the tarantula would try to communicate with it, with lifts of her leg. And the scorpion, with its body language. And how humans communicated with their scents, and their sounds, and… so many ways to think! And to talk! And to…
[Calibration complete.]
Wait, that’s not me. …Hello?
The snake waited and tried again.
…Greetings and salutations from your handsome new acquaintance?
“Hello, Tiny Long,” the mysterious someone said.
Oh! Indeed! Apologies, I…
The someone continued over him. There were… words. At least, that’s what the snake thought they were supposed to be. Something about alliances, and leadership, and “unresolved status” due to being non-human on a human-led world.
The snake didn’t understand all the ideas the mysterious someone was saying to him. But he did understand the last part:
“Welcome, Tiny Long. And thank you for your future service.”
[Pre-affixed Selectee: Tiny Long
Divergence Rank: G
Assigned Class: Snake]
…
[Tiny Long, do you willingly accept your duties as one of Bag’s Avowed?]
YES/NO
2159h:59m:59s