Early morning came with a fog-bank descending upon the village. Neither of the two suns had come out, and things were quiet as Damon stepped out of Linda’s house. He carried a large backpack that was mostly empty and a bag with gold, silver, and copper coins dangling from one side of his hip. The wooden club hung from the other.
He found Idina waiting for him near the village entrance. She’d been talking with one of the users but quickly hurried to greet him. “Sir.” She bowed a little.
Damon hid the grimace, also trying to ignore the surprise in the eyes of the users that were standing guard. “The others?”
“They are just outside.”
“Welp, time to hit the road.” With a slight pause, he turned to the two guards. “Careful with the traps.”
They startled a little, standing straight. “W-will do, sir!”
Damon shot them a weird look as they walked into the milky white fog. “I’m going to have to get used to people getting startled or scared of me, aren’t I?”
Idina gave him an apologetic shrug and a little nod.
Keeping the grumbling mostly to himself, he focused on the wagon Sybil and Han had bought. As well as the dark gray clopper that was to be their steed of choice. The two users were checking straps and double-checking the contents from the various boxes and parcels.
“This seems expensive.”
“We bought enough to spare.” Han mumbled under his voice. “We can sell off everything that’s left when we get to Sky Bridge.”
“Which is why protecting the cart and clopper are very important.”
“Clopper looks like he can protect himself just fine.”
Han shook his head as he reached out to pat the flanks of the beast. “They’re very shy, and easily startled. They’re not harmless, but when they panic they’re as likely to hurt others as they are to hurt themselves.”
Damon eyed the furless demon-horse with suspicion. “Is it a monster?”
“Depends on who you ask. But the simple answer is yes.” Han heartily patted his way up the beast. The creature leaned forward to sniff at the cloak. “They’re one of the few kinds of monster that’s been successfully domesticated.” From within his pockets, he pulled out something that looked like a purple potato, and gave it to the clopper to munch on.
The animal made a happy kind of sound that was a middle-point between crackling glass and the purr of a diesel engine. Damon observed for a moment, nodding absently. “And how does this domestication work?”
“Food.” Sybil hopped onto the cart, taking the reins. “Certain monsters enjoy normal food, and you can use that to train them. Only works if you start soon after they break out of the ground, if you wait too long they become aggressive and stay that way.”
“I agree that cloppers are terrifying, sir.” Idina spoke in a half whisper, hopping to sit on the back of the cart.
“What do monsters eat anyway?” Damon asked.
“Nothing.”
“That… that doesn’t make sense.” Damon frowned.
“Monsters don’t starve. If you capture one, it can survive indefinitely, barring exceptions.” Sybil declared. “They’ll sometimes eat each other, and eating people is something they’ll usually seek out, but they can also go without food entirely.”
“They just become more lethargic.” Han added with a nod. “Dragons are the more known example. They spend most of their time sleeping and only awaken when they detect food or a threat.”
“Don’t touch the sleeping dragon, got it.” Damon nodded. “Let’s get going! Whole day ahead and lots of road to cover.”
Sybil looked over her shoulder at him. “You’re going to walk?”
“At least for a while. If monsters show up I’d rather be warmed up.”
She didn’t seem to buy his excuse, but had nothing else to say. With a tug of the reigns, the clopper set off, and Damon kept pace. With the fresh morning air and the two suns slowly peeking over the horizon to illuminate their path, the day looked like it was going to be a good one.
----------------------------------------
It was most certainly not a very good day.
“Why the fuck are there so many!?”
Damon roared, swinging his club. The piece of hardened wood connected with a teether’s skull. The rat-thing’s cranium exploded like a water balloon, blue blood spraying all around. He hadn’t even finished the gesture when another had leapt to take a bite out of his good arm.
He managed to spin and bash the monster’s face in with his shield-wielding arm, turning the long snout into something more closely resembling a pug.
“It’s a rebirth from the caravan’s trip!” Han called out as he stood next to the cart. “You’re doing well! Don’t worry, they’re young!”
“This is good practice.”
Sybil’s voice oozed with amusement as she kept herself on one of the branches on the tree, looking down as Damon continued to swing at the horde of teethers. Each arch would end with something turning into a splatter of blue gore.
“Move-.”
“Forward, I know!” He growled, the teethers had been trying to get at his ankles. He took two long steps towards a fallen tree, kicking several of the monsters out of the way as he did.
With the trunk as a waist-high barrier, he only needed to swipe at whatever tried to get over it. The horde was quickly moving around it, and Damon had to change locations again. The dance continued, the monsters only and exclusively focused on chasing him down as more of them would fall to his club, shield, or boots. The numbers dwindled, and after four more laps around the fallen log, the teether horde was no more.
Damon, splattered in blue goop, was staring daggers at Han and Sybil.
“I should’ve fucking known something was up.” He dropped the club. “Nooooo, it’s just one lone teether! I’m sure you can handle it on your own. What could possibly go wrong!?”
“And now you know to be careful with how you kill a lone monster.” Sybil proclaimed.
“Yes, monster blood makes monsters go on a frenzy. I knew that!”
“Sure didn’t seem that way when you turned that teether into an overripe piece of fruit.” Han tossed a metal bottle at Damon. “Better start cleaning up before it dries.”
He grumbled, opening the bottle and pouring the water onto himself. Han was right, of course, Damon hadn’t been mindful about the blood situation, he’d just wanted to kill the monster and get on with the road. But surprise surprise, after the first one turned to chunky soup, more started popping out of the forest and zeroing on Damon.
Was it wrong that he’d been a bit eager to test out the club against the ugly things? Now he had so many cuts on him he’d probably need to get everything Han had to offer in terms of healing.
“What are you doing, Idina?”
The sasin perked up as she was carefully inspecting the area Damon had fought in. “Picking up your spoils, sir. Unfortunately it seems Han was right, these monsters were very young, there wasn't much laying around.”
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“Do teethers give anything useful?” Damon asked, emptying the third bottle of water, removing his shirt to squeeze as much of the blue-tainted water out of it as he could.
“Teether bones are a good source of salt.” Han commented idly. “And their fangs are a very cheap alternative to needles. That, and their leather repels water quite well.”
Damon glanced at the metal bottle he’d been holding, and the little metallic string hanging from the cap. The wither seed was a cube that appeared to suck up humidity from the environment and dribble it out through the string down into the bottle. “If this is going to be a habit, I’m going to need to get my hands on a bunch of wither seeds.”
Taking a long swig, he emptied the rest on his head, doing the best he could to try and get the blood off of him.
“If there are too many in an area, they start losing efficacy.” Sybil commented offhandedly. “But if worse comes to worst, you can always bleed a monster.”
Han visibly shuddered at the proclamation, the grimace clear even across his thick golden beard.
“That doesn’t seem appealing.”
“It’s not. Monster blood is mildly toxic, to properly bleed one out, you have to put a wither seed inside them. The water tastes horrible, and it still has some toxins in them. Drinking that water will give you severe stomach pain. But it’s better than dying… by a very slim margin.”
“That feels like it has a story.”
“Let’s just say that I know that biters give two days’ worth of water for a single person, and that I will never go back into the western sands even if you pay me a mountain of gold.” Han visibly shuddered again, tossing the next metal bottle for Damon to use to clean himself up.
Grumbling, he moved to remove his pants so he could work on that instead.
“By the way.” Damon made a gesture at the sky. “Where are we going to make camp for the night?”
“I’d say two hours further down the road. If we stay here, the smell is likely to attract more monsters down wind.”
“Peachy.”
----------------------------------------
Damon sniffled, rubbing the underside of his nose as he lay on a mantle on the cart. The night air was cool, but not enough. It was comfortable, almost as if summer was right around the corner. They were taking guard rotations, but so far he’d been unable to fall asleep.
“Sys, can you at least do motion tracking?”
[…]
Query Answer:
No access to visual feed found.
[…]
“Then how in the blazes can I read the prompts and windows?”
[…]
Error
Query answer not found.
[…]
“What about keeping track of my hand gestures?”
[…]
Query Answer:
Access to touch and kinesthesia detected.
[…]
“Could you register this gesture…” he paused, frowning. “Scratch that. Could you register this gesture of only my right hand as an equivalent to dismissing a text window?” He made a vague swiping motion. “Apply change to user and admin systems.”
[…]
System Update:
Changes applied to User system.
[…]
With a smile, he made a swiping motion.
And nothing happened.
Damon frowned.
“Sys, why didn’t the window get dismissed?”
[…]
Query Answer:
Input did not match dismiss window command.
[…]
“What!?” He began making swiping motions. “This doesn’t match!?”
[…]
Query Answer:
Input did not match dismiss window command.
[…]
“It feels like you’re not really helping me figure out the problem here. Could you give details, Sys?”
[…]
Query Answer:
Kinesthesia as well as tactile input did not exactly match the dismiss window command.
[…]
“Now that just feels like I’m getting sassed, dismiss.” He rubbed at his temples, trying to chew through the problem. If the axon only recognized exacting input, then… would it ever be possible to replicate a registered gesture? Especially if the requirements were so stringent? “I really hope I don’t end up having to learn programming to be able to work this out.”
With a weary sigh, his gaze moved up to the night sky.
Damon remembered that first time he’d gone to his uncle’s ranch, so far out, away from everything. The air tasted of dust and had the lingering scent of manure. He’d hated the place right away, his nose scrunched up every time he breathed a little too hard. The food was mostly microwaved, and his uncle had absolutely no shits to give. The cranky old man had been a slave driver, pushing him to help with all the tasks throughout the day. By the end of it, right as the sun started to set, Damon had his first beer as he sat in the worn-out creaky house.
It was like a magic trick. Just like that, all the effort from the day had felt worthwhile.
They’d shared the silence until the stars came out. Back then, Damon had been shocked by how many there could be. He was no city kid, but the night sky he knew of was dull and boring, milky-gray with a hint of orange. Out there, so far out from everything, even electricity wasn’t a guarantee. The night sky had been beautiful.
And yet, it paled to the one he was looking at right now.
From horizon to horizon, countless tiny brilliant dots covering a tapestry of purple, orange, and red formed out of gas far off in space. Upon the firmament, it looked as if four giant cloths were being dragged in entirely different directions, sprinkling glitter in their wake. And smack in its center, right above everything, a rusty red moon a size too large, an orange shadow cast over a part of it.
Damon bitterly realized that he couldn’t pick out or find a single constellation. Just how far away from home was he?
“That red star is Janus.”
Damon almost jumped, glancing up and seeing Idina. Had she just been pretending to be asleep at the corner of the cart all this time?
Her hand pointed up to the red dot that shone the brightest, right next to the moon.
“You don’t say.” He laid back on the sheet, keeping his focus upwards. “And the rest of the stars?”
“The heroes.” She replied, quietly.
Damon allowed the pause to linger, just breathing in the cool air. “So all those dots up there are heroes…”
“Once the Nameless One had been struck down, the Gods left. And they rewarded the great heroes, taking them along.” She proclaimed, then let out a soft sigh. “It’s one of the few stories I remember from when I was young. When each hero left, Janus made a tiny hole in the darkness, so that the night would be full of light for the rest of us that were left behind.”
Damon’s gaze lingered on the shining dots lingering overhead.
“Sir?” Idina interrupted the silence.
“Yeah?”
“I’ve been thinking of your… weapon. The sling.”
His brow furrowed ever so slightly. “What about it?”
“I tried using it. I couldn’t.”
“I mean, the edict of peace kind of fucks with that, doesn’t it? You’re a non-user.”
“No, sir, I couldn’t use it at all.” Idina spoke, leaning to look at him with a serious expression. “I can throw rocks at trees just fine, so long as there’s no one there, I thought I could make a sling and try it as you had. But I couldn't.”
Damon sat up, meeting her gaze for a moment. “What are you trying to say, that there’s an edict?”
“It didn’t feel like one.” She muttered. “Edicts paralyze you, they make you feel so much fear you stop moving entirely. No, this was different.” The young woman wrapped her arms around her knees, staring at something in the distance. “I was angry, when I thought of using the sling the way I’d seen you do it. I was so angry that I broke it, tore it into pieces. Just thinking about it felt wrong. Unnatural.”
Damon looked around, Sybil and Han weren’t there, patrolling the area further off. In the darkness of the night, he could barely make out their silhouettes roughly thirty or so meters from the cart. Sybil could see far better than any of them in the dark.
“Could you keep this secret? There might be something else going on and we should approach it carefully.”
Idina nodded. “I will, sir.”
“Thanks. Now go to sleep, tomorrow’s going to be a long day.”
She did, but Damon felt himself unable to.
Indeed, something was off about this whole damned place.