“Are you the ‘Boss’ of this raid?” Mom questions as she puts herself between me and the lizard. Its eyes twitch, looking out for any sudden movement from either of us as if we were its prey.
“Some might call me that. Why do you ask?” He responds with a question of his own. His voice isn’t unpleasant like one might think for a murderous cultist. It’s actually quite refined, smooth and practiced as if he was some kind of noble. Though given the state of his soot and ash covered clothing and mask, I highly doubt that he is.
Mom squints her eyes at the man, almost confused as to how that could even be a question. “Well I live here so, you know, I’m a little miffed that someone is trying to kill my neighbors and burn my home.”
The man laughs and the lizard lets out something similar with him, though it’s more like a croaking choke than anything. “I suppose you’re right about that. I’m sorry that you can’t understand our righteous goal and that we have to fight. You seem like a very charming woman.” I cringe at that and his ride shoots an eye to lock onto me. “Ah. A child, hmm, I’m guessing he’s your son.”
Mom blocks the lizard’s gaze and holds her needle at the ready behind her back. “And you seem like an interesting man, how about you come down from there and send your little friend there away.” She locks her sight on the man, watching for any movements or weakness that could be exploited.
“Not likely. I think that I’m fine right here and I think I’ll keep my pet here as well.” The man strokes the lizard’s hide affectionately and it… purrs… in response. Eugh.
I don’t know what I’m going to do. I feel tired from all the stuff I’ve been doing so far, I doubt I could run from something like that. Especially since it can breathe fire. Don’t want to take any chances at ducking into a building or something either. Plus, it keeps looking at me really creepy like it’s hungry or something…
Looking over the man, it seems like he has some different stuff in comparison to the lady from before. Across his chest are these little wooden, kinda miniature barrels. On his back is a long spear that ends in a black hooked metal point. And his mask isn’t red and white, but rather blue and white. Kinda a weird contrast to his monster. It also has three horns instead of two, with no brand visible.
Mom looks like she’s having a hard time deciding what to do. Probably thinking about how she can get me out of here safely and put some distance between this man and us. I’m running out of energy, but I think I’m going to have to try to do something here. I let the energy from before, whenever I form a tentacle, pool in my arm and try to stealthily form another one as a distraction.
But as I do that, the lizard’s head whips towards me and its tongue shoots out. It wraps around my arm and lifts me into the air. Shit. The energy I had gathered dissipates and the exhaustion sets in.
“Oliver!”
The man grabs my face and looks me in the eye. “Well, well, aren’t we a little hero? Some kind of magic casting Inkling?” He scans me with a careful gaze. I’m so tired, it feels like the world is slowing down around me. “Though you’re looking a little gastly…”
As I’m being held there, I feel something. A pulse of something from his hand and the tongue wrapped around my arm. It feels energizing. I… I want it. I need it! That feeling of grabbing comes back to me, but instead of another limb for an extended reach, it feels like I have another set of hands. I can feel the new set of hands reach out and dig into the fleshy meat of the tongue. They find something. It’s pulsing. I pull and suddenly energy rushes into me!
The tongue goes slack and I’m now only being held aloft by the masked man, who seems to be surprised. I use the unseen hands again and reach out into him now, pulling at a similar pulsing feeling. Again, a surge of energy flows into me and he gasps for air. Like he was just punched in the gut as his grip loosens and I drop.
Mom catches me and quickly throws her needle to pull us away while the two of them are stunned. “What did you do?”
“I don’t know. But I feel a lot better than I was earlier. I think I can use those tentacles again!” I exclaim, a little excited to be this energized. It feels like I just had the best sleep of my life! Everything is abuzz inside of me, like a fire was just lit and the warmth is seeping into my very core.
A tongue shoots out forwards and attempts to strike us, but Mom pulls us away and onto another roof. “Little Hero’s got some tricks, huh? Well we have some of our own.” The man vanishes with his monster into thin air. That’s going to be a pain to deal with.
I look around us, preparing a tentacle so that when the two of them reappear I can lock them down. Mom keeps her needle at the ready to get us out of danger, or to attack if I manage to get them pinned. A flash of red and black enters my field of vision and I react by summoning my tentacle to lash out. The lizard jumps out of the way and its red scales begin to glow brightly. Fire erupts from its mouth and sets the world ablaze as Mom backpedals us out of danger.
I have no idea how we’re going to handle this thing, I mean it’s fast and can attack at a distance! I don’t have much if I can’t hold it down. And I doubt Mom’s needle can hit it while also getting us out of the reach of its flames and tongue. Feels like we could really use Charlie right now…
I use the tentacle to reach out again, but the lizard uses its tail to swat it away. The man pulls off one of the small barrels from his chest strap, holding it down next to the lizard’s mouth. It spits an ember of flame onto a piece of rope coming out from the top before he hurls the thing at us.
“BOMB!” Mom throws her needle again and tries to pull us away from this throwable bomb, but suddenly it detonates which causes a small explosive blast. It catches us as we fly away, forcing us to spiral towards the ground. Mom squeezes me closer to her and throws her needle out to try to find a hold in a wall somewhere.
We’re pulled aside as parts of the roof we were just standing on come crumbling down around us. And to make things worse, another pillar of flames makes its way towards us. Mom shifts and pulls her needle back, sending into the flames and yelling, “Magi Pierce!” The fire parts around the needle as it grows into a spear again, cutting through whatever magic that’s powering this attack.
I summon another tentacle underneath them, trying to catch them off guard while Mom’s attack goes straight forwards. Luckly, it isn’t blocked this time and wraps up around the lizard’s midsection while curling around its rider. He pulls out a dagger from inside of his cloak, just as the tentacle wraps around his body and pinning his arms to his side. The lizard shuts its mouth and the black scales around its face shimmer with light, Mom’s needle makes contact and a loud clang fills the air. The monster’s snout has some scratches but other than that it seems to have absorbed most of the impact.
This is going terribly right now. I have no idea what this thing is, Mom can’t focus on dodging and attacking, and that tentacle wrapped around it is starting to fade. We could really use some backup or something from Charlie or her dad right about now. …Really? Nothing? I mean her dad had that really incredible timing with the wolf, so why not a second time?
Okay Ollie. You’ve got a little bit of intellect. Time to use it. It turns invisible. Umm, its scales seem to tell whenever it’s about to do something. Red glowing means fire and black shimmering means tougher defense. But I wonder… does it harden all over? I mean only the scales closest to the mouth shimmered, so maybe it can be hurt in a different place if it’s distracted. Maybe I could use a tentacle to, I dunno, punch it in the stomach or something?
Actually I wonder if its underbelly is unprotected like with other lizards… I turn to face Mom while she continues to weave us across the rooftops, avoiding random flame pillars. “Mom, can you try aiming for its stomach? Maybe that’ll work.”
“I don’t think that’ll be all that easy Dear. We’d have to be under it and I don’t really want to be somewhere that we could be easily roasted. But you can take a crack at it if you think you can.” She says without looking at me.
“Okay, just keep them busy again.” I start to focus on finding an opening in the monster’s reappearing and disappearing movement. Eventually I spot one and Mom manages to keep its attention, so I will a tentacle to appear and sucker punch the slimy critter in the gut. Success! As it breathes out fire, I manage to catch it off guard and it chokes down its own flames.
“A clever little hero. Never did like people who were clever…” The man takes his spear off of his back and places a hand on the top of the monster’s head. One of the reptile’s eyes looks at him and then returns to its usual darting around. Then its scales around the head shimmer as it charges towards us at blinding speed.
Mom spins us, using her needle and thread, out of its path. Only for us to be greeted by the rider’s spear, which looks like it’s going to go clean into my face. Suddenly time slows for me, my hair glows brighter than before in a slightly red color. I feel an odd protective aura envellop me and a new tentacle shoots out, but this one is more solid looking and a deep crimson color. It forces the spear to change course and miss me narrowly, giving my cheek a small cut.
“Don’t get used to this Kid. I’m just making amends for my little sister’s behavior.” A male voice says in my head, before the world speeds back up.
I’m going to unpack that later I think. I’ll just chalk it up to my mysterious benefactor doing something nice for me, for now at least. Mom looks confused as to how the spear changed direction, like she didn’t see that tentacle move it out of the way.
“Hmm. I could have sworn that I was dead on with that strike…” The man sitting atop the lizard says, glancing towards his spear tip. “Well no matter, I suppose I’ll just have to try again.” He readies himself again to charge us, but Mom is ready this time and pulls us away before he can start moving.
“And that is one of the many reasons that I’d rather you not be here with me, Oliver.”
Really? That’s how it’s going to be? “Mom, you brought me with you!” I complain.
“Shush. I’m busy telling you how irresponsible you are and how I’m definitely not at fault here.”
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I roll my eyes as we start running away from the lizard, which is hot on our trail. It looks like Mom is planning to head back to where Charlie and her family are. Which is good and bad. Good because then Charlie can do something cool like before and her dad can help fight this spear wielding man. Bad because I have no idea if they deal with the wolf lady yet, so it might be bad to add lizard man into the mix. Hopefully it doesn’t come to us fighting both of them at the same time.
Mom ducks out of the way of the lizard’s tongue as we arrive at where Charlie and her family should be. Immediately I notice two things, one, the wolves and their master are all bound by some very thick looking roots and, two, Charlie’s parents are nowhere to be seen.
“Charlie! Hey! Where are your parents? And can you tell us anything about this lizard chasing us!” I yell out as we head down towards her on ground level. She turns to greet us, only to stare as another pillar of flames pour forth from the monster in question. Mom pulls us to the side and the fire scorches the stone where we would have landed.
“Umm, I think it’s called a…” She pauses and closes her eyes in concentration. Then she opens them quickly and exclaims, “Ah! It’s a Pyrmeleon! Breathes super hot flames and can turn invisible! It can even toughen its scales in certain places. Magic sense, prehensile tail, multi-directional sight, and quick footed. Very good choice on that dude’s part.”
The fire dies away and the masked man is sitting there unmoving. “I’m flattered,” The pyrmeleon purrs, “And so is he, it seems.” The rider pets his scaly monster, before he pulls his spear back out. The lizard lunges towards us as the spear whistles in the air with the motion.
“Oh no you don’t!” Charlie’s dad runs out of the house and uses his axe as a shield to block the spear’s assault. Then, with a strange shimmer, he forces the point back and a shockwave follows. It manages to knock the two off balance, but not enough so that they are separated.
“Another? Hmm… perhaps I should check with the early reconnaissance team later and ask why we were not warned that there were this many strong individuals. Fran!” He turns and throws his spear towards the roots, keeping the woman from before wrapped up tightly.
“Consider this the last of my favor.” That same male voice creeps into my head and my hair’s tips turn crimson as it rises around me. Cobblestones stretch and warp into a spiked tentacle, red light pulsing inside of it. It turns and snatches the spear, crushing it into splinters. Then it lashes out at the lizard and its rider, missing all of us as it knocks the two apart. “A week. You’ll have some answers then, a message from… well I guess she’s the lady in green to you.”
I blink and my hair returns to its normal state, falling down from the air. I take a deep breath and the pillar falls apart into a pile of rubble on the street. Mom looks over at me, as does Charlie and her dad. I shake my head, showing that it’s not the time, and they focus back on the now unmounted rider.
“An interesting trick, Little Hero. But I’m afraid that it’ll take much more than that to stop me.” He reaches down for his chest bombs, only to find nothing as when he was send flying to the ground the strap holding them came off and is now lying by my friend’s feet. His face, still unseen behind his mask, feels like a scowl has covered it and he runs towards them.
Charlie looks down and takes note of what he’s trying to get, so in her usual fashion, she snatches them and books it towards me and Mom. The lizard, who has only just gotten to its feet, shakes its head and shoots its tongue forwards to wrap around her. I counter with my own tentacle, its standard greenish see through form pulling the tongue away. I turn to make eye contact with Charlie, maybe because I want to tell her that she shouldn’t put a target like that on her, only to see her pulling one of the bombs off and looking around for something to light it with.
“WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!” I scream.
“LOOKING FOR SOMETHING TO SET THIS THING OFF!” She yells back.
Mom seems stunned, as does her father, as all of a sudden the cord on the bomb in her hand sparks to life. Charlie turns to look at it, smiling like she just told the best joke ever, and then she starts to get ready to throw the damn thing! I swear her head must have taken a hit worse than mine for her to be acting this crazy, then again this is Charlie…
“YAHOO!” She cheers as the bomb sails through the air, her throw giving it much more force and distance then I expected given her usually weak upper body strength. Not that I’m any better, but still. It lands with an explosion, bigger than the one Mom and I dodged earlier, nearby the masked rider. He’s sent flying and the lizard rushes towards where he would hit the ground, shooting its tongue out to catch him.
“Charlie. Don’t play with bombs please.” Her dad gives her a side eye while she jumps up and down in excitement. “It’s not safe, despite you seeming to be quite good at it.”
She nods rapidly and runs to his side next to us. A groan can be heard as the man rises out of a nearby building that he’d crashed into. Thankfully, it seems like most people aren’t home. Actually, maybe that’s a bad thing…
“Well. Didn’t see that coming. Should have brought my good gear. Ugh…” The right half of his mask crumbles and falls off of his face. It’s blue. His face is blue. Is he a Netherfolk? What am I thinking, of course he is. No other race has blue skin as one of its tones. “Seems like the cat’s out of the bag now.”
He remounts the monster and assesses the situation. “I think that I’d better take my leave. You could chase me, but then who’d deal with the rest of my minions?” The demon? Man? I don’t want to be offensive. Whatever. He laughs and disappears, seemingly running away. “I promise we’ll meet again, Little Hero! One day, when you’re stronger and I’m prepared, I’m interested in how you develop! Nelfrus! Remember my name Little Hero!”
I hope not. I don’t think we really did that much to threaten him. We only ran away until that voice helped me out. And after that, we only managed to get him to run away when Charlie used one of his own bombs against him. He probably is a lot stronger than what we got to see today, and I for one hope not to see him at full strength. Sorry Nelfrus, but I’m not much for fighting people.
“Mom. Should we try and find all of the minions he’s talking about?”
“No. You’re going to stay here with Charlie.” She turns and looks at Mr. Teafle. “Garrison, you’re with me on clean up duty.”
He nods and glances over to his daughter. “Go inside and wait please. Shouldn’t take us long to finish up.” Then he looks back at Mom. “I’ll go that way, take the other side?”
“Sure. Just a quick question, do you know where everyone went?”
“Ah, I actually do. Melody sent people into the woods to stay with the river golem, they should have spread the message around so I’m assuming most people are safe there. That stone man is more than enough protection for them.”
“Good. I’ll go fetch them once I’ve done my sweep.”
With that the two split away from this little crossroad section of the village, going to apparently look for any lingering threats. I turn to Charlie, only to see her waving from the porch. Hurrying along, I reach her and notice she still has the belt of bombs.
“Are you planning on keeping that? Or do you just like having a bunch of dangerous explosives on you at all times?” I ask sarcastically.
She scowls at me. “Maybe I do. It’s cool. But, I promise that I won’t take any off unless there is an adult around who can keep me safe.”
I’m unconvinced but I’m also too tired to care. Whatever energy I pulled off that dem– person from earlier, is starting to fade. I feel like I’m gonna fall over or something, not to mention this headache coming in.
Entering Charlie’s house, it feels like forever since I’ve been here. It’s much larger here than my own home. Suppose that makes sense since Charlie’s dad is pretty well off, despite only making any income as a lumberjack. They even have the connections to get some ‘indoor plumbing’, something the gnomes and dwarves came up with apparently. Really handy stuff they make over there.
Wonder if I’ll ever be as well off as Charlie’s family. Hope so, this indoor plumbing is really convenient. You can even have heated water! It’s fantastic! Feels weird to be excited about though…
I put a hand on my head as I walk into the house’s main room. I slump down onto the ‘sofa’, another piece of furniture invented by gnomes across the ocean. As it consumes me in its soft cushions, I feel at ease like someone wrapping me in a blanket, and the world fades as I fall asleep. No dreams come, only comforting darkness greets me in my rest which I feel is welcome after these past few encounters.
…
Unfortunately I have to get off the sofa, as someone is shaking me awake. “What?” I grumble, pulling at a quilt that had been placed on me while I was asleep.
“Wake up. Time for breakfast. Our parents want to talk about something,” Charlie says. She then jumps off of the sofa and rushes away, presumably to our parents.
As I wake up, I notice the smell of meat cooking and fresh bread which makes my stomach grumble. Okay, okay, time to get up. I shiver as I pull the quilt off and trudge towards the source of that lovely scent. Mmm… buttered bread…
“Well look who finally decided to join us this morning. How’d you sleep Kiddo?” A female voice, older than Charlie’s, asks as I pull out a chair. I only grumble in response as I try and open my eyes properly to see whoever was talking to me. The woman, who I’m assuming is Charlie’s mom, laughs at my grogginess.
“Now that my son is, well sort of, here we can talk about that thing from earlier.” I groan as I blindly reach out for food, which is kindly given to me. “Or I suppose we can wait till Oliver has properly woken up. I swear, I’ve never seen you this tired before!”
“Yesterday was a lot… I’m not even sure if what happened was real.” I munch on a piece of bread with butter on it. It’s soft and flaky, the best kind to have warmed and buttered. I’m in my own little heaven for a good ten minutes, eating and slowly opening my eyes so that I can actually reach for food on my own. “Plus, I felt like I was gonna pass out after all that.”
“Well now can I continue with what I was going to say?” Mom asks and then continues without an answer, snatching a piece of meat I was eyeing. “Oliver, Charlie.”
“Yes,” We respond in unison.
“We’ve talked about this and now we’re more than certain about our decision. I’ll be taking the two of you to college. We’ll leave in a day.”
“What?!” Charlie exclaims. “College? But we just got our Inklings and– and I’m not packed and–” She’s cut off as her dad puts his hand on her shoulder.
“Charlie. Calm down. Take a breath and slow down a bit.” She does calm down after a moment of panic. “We’ve been thinking about this with Venna for a while now and this only shows that we should send you to where she suggested.”
I process what’s being said. Mom is taking me and Charlie to college… So where would that be? And how are we going to afford that? I know that Charlie’s parents have a decent amount of money, but how is Mom going to pay? I hope that Charlie’s parents aren’t going to pay for me. It wouldn’t feel right.
“Where are we going to go anyways? Into a nearby city?” I ask my Mom. Charlie and her dad both tense up as I mention going into a nearby city. I’m going to ignore that for now and focus on what’s in front of me right now.
“No. We’ll be going somewhere else. Do you remember your aunt? My sister?”
“Umm, no. I remember Auntie Helia was always traveling or something as a kid. But other than that, nothing.”
“She’s working at a school apparently now for adventurers or something. If yesterday was anything to go off of, it’d be a good idea to at least get you enrolled in some kind of simple combat training. I’d rather you not put yourself into any danger, you too Charlie, but the world is dangerous so it’d be good for you to learn how to protect yourself.”
“Oh, okay I guess that makes sense. But where would we be going?”
“To where all the finest colleges are.” No way. Is she talking about what I think she is? “I’ll be taking the two of you to Golosumna, the capital city of the Bardic Republic.”
Charlie lets out an excited squeak and I just stare at Mom in disbelief. We’re going to THE Golosumna, where heroes and geniuses of all types are educated and trained?! I feel like I’m in for a ride with this…