I shift for what has to be the thousandth time in the last few hours, unable to get comfortable. I grimace: when I get out of here, I’m going to have to cast a Lay-on-hands just to deal with my muscle spasms from being stuck in this cramped position or I won’t even be able to walk. My stomach is grumbling; my mouth is dry. I will admit to taking a sneaky leak, though – aiming as far out of the cage as I could manage. I’d fought against the shame of doing it in plain sight with anger. Fortunately, I have plenty of anger boiling inside – from the treatment of Lathani, to them treating me like I’m a dumb animal. So at least I haven’t had to be dealing with a full bladder on top of everything else.
It’s been a long time since I was shoved in here. I don’t know how long, but it was only mid-afternoon when I entered the village and dark is starting to fall now. My initial fear subsided after some time, perhaps thanks to the lizard-folk essentially ignoring me. I’d tense again any time I saw their eyes on me, but in between times, I was able to relax. As much as I could considering my physical discomfort, anyway. Once I stopped battling my panic all the time, I found boredom creeping in. Without River nearby to be my translation app, I couldn’t understand the vast majority of the lizard-folk’s speech, but I could watch, observe. I also distracted myself with going through my memories, both those I had before I came to this world and those I gained from the knowledge stones. When I got bored of that, I focused on meditation. At least my forced inactivity has proved productive in its own way.
Although it was a bit difficult to actually begin meditating, considering the situation in which I’ve got myself, I found that the longer I kept it going, the more my fears and worries subsided and were replaced with calm. This last hour, I’ve done little else but meditate. Despite my physical discomfort from my cramped position, as well as the hunger and thirst which threaten to intrude, I can find peace in my surroundings. Time itself also feels more amorphous, sometimes seeming to stretch out like honey from a spoon; other times the sun appears to leap across the sky in a great bound. Perhaps it’s because I seem to become slightly detached from my body: the more I sink into the state of stillness, the more I feel connected to everything around, some sense of self spreading out to touch my surroundings.
When I start feeling connected even to the lizard-folk walking past me, I pull myself out of my trance. Perhaps logically I can accept that they’re part of the natural environment, but right now, I don’t want to feel any sort of connection with them. Not when they hurt beings I care about. Not when I’m shoved in a cage of their making. Not when I might be faced with killing them before the night’s over. As I recognise the shaman’s ornate adornments on the lizard-kin striding past me now, I feel my eyes narrow and my fists clench, the remnant sense of peace from my meditation fleeing. I don’t think I’ll have any problem killing that one, no matter how ‘connected’ I might feel.
Deciding to take a break, I check my messages, feeling the nagging sense that there’s more than one waiting for me. When I look, I feel a grin pull the corners of my mouth up and immediately conceal it. Though, not that these lizard-kin are likely to be able to understand my body-language any more than I can understand theirs. I still choose to bury my face in my knees to hide it, the dark caused by my covering arms no hindrance to reading the messages.
Congratulations!
You have worked hard on your Intelligence and have earned a point. This point has been added to your status.
Next message? Y/N
Nice, I think to myself. A point I don’t even have to spend any Energy on. The next isn’t quite as good, but I’m still happy with it.
Congratulations!
You have worked hard on your Intelligence and have earned a point. Would you like to apply this to your status?
Next message? Y/N
Is that some sort of record? One and a half Intelligence points gained in...what, six hours? Not that I’m complaining. Clearly my efforts to analyse the situation and make connections between my memories have paid off. I accept the point and move to the next message.
Congratulations!
You have worked hard on your Wisdom (Breadth) and have earned a point. Would you like to apply this to your status?
Next message? Y/N
Another point! Clearly down to my meditation, this one. I’ll need to figure out Breadth and Depth sometime, but so far it seems like I get Breadth when I meditate and feel the connectivity of all nature to each other and to myself. Though what that means in practical terms for me, I don’t know. Once more, I accept the addition and move on.
Congratulations!
You have earned a Skill: Meditation
Read Skill description? Y/N
Meditation
You have discovered that by sitting still and calming your mind, you are able to feel your connection to the world around. Due to your receptivity to your surroundings while in meditation, you increase your Energy absorption rate by 5% for each level in this Skill that you have. This will be automatically diverted into refilling your mana pool, at a rate increased by the same percentage as your Energy absorption rate. As a result of using this Skill to relax in difficult circumstances, you can also use this Skill to replace some need for rest. For every four hours spent in meditation, gain the same benefit of an average hour of sleep. This benefit may improve as the Skill’s level increases.
Close message? Y/N
Not, perhaps, the most exciting of Skills since five percent of my current Energy absorption is approximately one more Energy storage percent per day. Better for my mana regen, though, since that’s another eighteen units per hour, letting me pull off almost two more Lay-on-hands if necessary. Still, I’m sure I’ll find that the small increase shows its worth in the long run. Being able to replace my need for sleep, at least partially, is probably the most immediately useful, though: I’m tired, but can’t imagine daring to fall asleep in this environment. But with what’s likely to happen later, I really ought to get some rest. However, first: stats! I close the message showing my Skill and pull up my status page.
Name: Markus Wolfe
Race: Human
Class: Tamer
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Level: 3
Energy to next level: 16%
Energy absorption rate: 29u/hr
Energy towards debt: 4%
Intelligence
18
Mana: 180/180
Wisdom
15
Mana regeneration rate: 375u/hr
Willpower
20+4 (+20%)
Health regeneration rate: 24u/hr
Constitution
15
Health: 150/150
Strength
12
Stamina: 60/60
Dexterity
14
Stamina regeneration rate: 140u/hr
Class skills
Dominate – Beginner 7
Tame – Beginner 4
Fade – Novice 9
Non-Class skills
Lay-on-hands – Initiate 3
Stealth – Beginner 9
Animal Empathy – Novice 4
Meditation – Beginner 1
My Intelligence score is looking significantly more healthy than when I first arrived. I don’t feel a lot more intelligent, certainly not three times as much, but I have to admit that I do find it easier to make connections with things now. Watching the lizard-kin, I’ve found that since I paid attention to the conversation the Path-walkers had while piggybacking on River’s understanding, while I can’t actually understand them, exactly, I can actually pick up certain things they’re saying to each other.
Nothing complex, and more based on their colour-changing crests than anything else, but I can imagine that if I spent much longer here, I’d learn their language pretty quickly. Be able to understand it, at least. Pronouncing it would be a whole different story. Possibly my Animal Empathy is helping me, though I don’t know if it has any effect on my interactions with sentient beings since it is Animal Empathy. Then again, we’re all animals, technically speaking. Does that count...?
I push the thought from my mind, trying to settle back into a meditative trance. A couple of hours’ worth of rest is better than nothing, and I don’t have any idea how long it will take for River to give me the signal. I told him to come at a moment when the village is as quiet as it’s going to get; that could be when true dark comes, or it could be even later than that. Better to make the time pass semi-productively with meditation until then.
*****
One moon has passed overhead and the other is only just cresting the horizon before anything stirs. In between meditating, I watch as the lizard-folk settle down in their huts soon after the sun set. It’s once more an indication that they don’t seem to use fire as they had no lights showing even as it got dark. Sure, maybe their night vision is better than mine, but they’re clearly not nocturnal.
Once everything goes quiet around me, I sneak some water and food from my Inventory to refresh myself. I hadn’t dared to do it while the lizard-folk were still hanging around out of fear that it would reveal that I wasn’t as defenceless as I seemed. Plus, that first-on-my-kill-list shaman had maliciously ordered me to be left without food or water; obviously contravening that didn’t seem like a good idea. Not having eaten or drunk since this morning, my belly thought my throat had been cut and my tongue had felt like the Sahara had taken up permanent residence. Fortunately, I do have my Inventory, so am able to make sure that I’ll be ready for escape.
And on that note, I surface from my meditation as I feel my surroundings shift. It hadn’t been easy to notice movement when there were so many lizard-kin around; now the whole village is still, the change is noticeable. I open my eyes and strain them, looking into the darkness. Fortunately, although the first moon is no longer overhead, it’s still sending some fingers of light through the canopy above, otherwise I’d be completely blind – my night vision has improved a little since I came to the world, but not enough to see in the darkness of a moon-less night.
For a few moments, I see nothing. Then one of the beams of moonlight is broken and I whip my head to the side. My ears pricked, I hear a slight shift in the earth, the faint scrape of a claw. A figure looms closer, odd shapes sticking out of it. I touch the Bond, the slightly instinctive fright of a silhouette in the night calming as I detect the presence of my Bound. Relief sweeps through me, ridding me of the majority of the worries which had been running rampant ever since I stopped meditating. That he’d thought better of our deal and decided to betray me anyway. That something had gone wrong with the plan and he wouldn’t be coming at all tonight. Or even that he’d just fallen asleep and lost track of time. I’d reckoned that if he’d got caught, I would have heard the fracas, so I hadn’t worried about that. Much. But his presence here indicates that the plan’s still on.
Crawling forward, wincing as my muscles protest the movement after hours of inactivity, I shove on the door. Along with sneaking some food and water, I’d also prepared for this moment by quietly slicing through the hinges with my knife. Mostly slicing, anyway – I didn’t want there to be any indication of my actions for any sharp-eyed lizard-kin to see. I’d have done the latch as well, but couldn’t quite reach it, even with my knife. As it is, I didn’t need to: a quick shove and the hinges break. The door almost clatters against the opposite side, but my hand is around one of the bars it’s composed of, preventing it from creating noise and potentially alerting someone.
Climbing out of the cage, I hold up a hand as River starts forward towards me.
Give me a moment, I tell him grimly, sending a Lay-on-hands through my body. Ooh, that feels better, I moan to myself as the healing energy washes through the muscles, loosening them and increasing the blood-flow to them. It even heals a couple of areas which were cut off by my crunched-up position. I send a quick glare at the cage. If it wouldn’t have been a red alert for everyone around, I’d have lit it on fire and danced merrily in the light. Well, not danced. Punched the air or something. As is is though... OK, I’m ready, I send, looking at my Bound.
Here, he tells me, handing some items over. First of all is my mace, second is my spear, and I use the thin vine he also hands me to tie them on. My spear goes onto my back, my mace at my waist, though tied in a way that ensures it won’t constantly get tangled with my legs and trip me. Straining my eyes, I examine my Bound. He’s still got a strange shape on his back.
Is that…? I ask him. He sends a feeling of agreement and I nod unconsciously. OK, then. Let’s do this.