Tim woke to throbbing in his arm and Chris snoring under the lean to. You up, Dryfu?
You mean after saving your butt all night, have I slept enough yet to do it again?
Something like that, Tim chuckled and stretched through the pain.
Yeah, I managed to sleep well. Your Protection spell worked. Can you smell that?
Tim took a whiff. No… he tried again. A little maybe?
Keep working on it.
Tim staggered in a sleepy daze toward the edge of the perimeter, catching Dryfu flying ahead in a blur of green highlighted by dots of sunlight through the tree canopy. He smelled again and caught a stronger hint of man odor. Yep, got it.
Dryfu dipped in the air and landed on a thin sapling branch in front of Tim. “Good. Had you not made the barrier, all of you would have been attacked in your sleep.”
“Oh good.” Tim’s jovial tone amplifying his relief. You’re welcome, he joked.
“Well not me. Now that I’ve earned the skill Kamikaze Dong, I would have slapped their cocks and made my escape, as per uge.”
Dryfu’s attitude strut in fine form today. “That’s not the real name, is it?”
“No, not really. It’s Air Strike’s first level. I just aimed well.” Dryfu took off in a leap scaling twice Tim’s height to land on another tree ahead.
“I appreciate it! Are you enjoying yourself?” Tim asked, wondering what it would feel like to jump that much higher than your size.
“You should have seen the aerial acrobatics I was capable of before I died. It’s fuzzy, but it was sure better than this.”
Forage led Tim’s sight to a small patch of arcus with their buds enclosed in dark green bonnets narrowly exposing the rims of orange flower underneath. He knelt and stabbed his knife into the soil. The cooling end of this land’s summer still had the benefit of recent rain, so it wasn’t too tough to cut out.
“Have a chew on that while we walk,” Dryfu said. “It takes longer to recover after a day like you had. Especially those with magic enhancements like your Childockian friends. They take a longer time to regen, or they lose their enhancements.
“How’s that? What kind of magic enhancements?”
“They have blessings from their High Priest and High Lord running through them, spells concentrated in their blood and spirit to last the month. That’s the length of the Hunt, until the first leaf falls from the shuepaya tree and the jewel’s discovery. The sooner that’s found the sooner they can return to their home for the Post-Hunt Census.
“Similar to the Protectorate of Kiber, Childockia focuses on expanding their magic and aura over weapons. Weapons get lost, broken or fall into the wrong hands. Spell enhancements on the soldier stay with them for the mission, granted the caster and their Constitution are high enough level.
Tim bit the soap and grass flavored bud from the stalk of the arcus plant and watched Dryfu torque his body into a tornado type spin attack from branch to branch.
Dryfu’s few inches of height slouched in the taking in of breath. “When Childockia wins the Leveling Jewel, they use it on their priests and other spellcaster classes who then cast buffs on their warriors to make up for their lower levels. I am only assuming based on history and what the Whisper allowed me to retain with this new life.”
“Don’t sound so excited,” Tim said. The earthy grit of the plant stuck to his throat and made him cough. He drank some water from his canteen and choked even harder.
“How about you learn to drink before you jump on my sunshine. As your guide, I have basic historical information of this world, as well as what you would call its gamelike elements.”
In a nearby tree, bird babies chirped from a nest. Their mother danced about, trailing shreds of bark and spongey weed by its claws, and he wondered if she too had a level.
Self Defense expanded to grant the skill: Analyze.
A “Level 1” lit up in Tim’s HUD view over the bird. At a thought, the class Mother Bird wrote out above the Level tab.
“That’s what the Leveling Jewel is for,” Dryfu said. “She can still function as a level one. That’s base for all creatures. You can still grow physically, mentally, and in character and skills, per say, but not the way The Whisper can evolve someone through the Leveling Jewel. If you want to train birds or other animals, they must attend your leveling inn and would be included in the cost paid the nivelador or acolyte. Some call this system, and its apparent intelligence and actions as Veiltongue, Eldergene, or the common title of The Whisper… I could go on.”
Tim stopped at the edge of their camp. “With my protection spell up, can I leave?”
As soon as he asked it, he knew he couldn’t. More of his ranger sense kicked in as his mind triggered the thought.
A squirrelish creature with a colorful bush of a tail and a piggish snout hurled a shuck of a heavy seedpod at Dryfu and bolted up a tree into an escape hole in the trunk.
Very good. Dryfu switched to their mental connection as his flight took him into the trunk and out of sight. And that’s good to ask. Keep examining this world and the power that works within you. It’s why some call it the Whisper. Its knowledge is subtle, intimate, near-by... Known sometimes only in the moment of need.”
Can I wake my friends?
Dryfu again didn’t answer. Each body in his protection spell emitted a resonance of strength or in Thron’s case, pain. Tim pressed a wedge into that to distinguish himself from the big man so he could see how much pain was from whom. The greater was Tim’s aura. Thron’s was more of a long plateau compared to his wavelengths of pain.
Protection Spell has expanded to include Party Oversight.
Using that awareness, Tim stretched his fingers over the others, pressing into the auromatic valleys separating them. Jil emitted a valley he felt best matched to exhaustion. Chris’s was more hunger, and yet the nourishment he needed was different than Tim’s. It was lighter, like a net compared to Tim’s bowl. His brother would catch and siphon through his pores. Tim’s stomach would require whole substance and raw energy.
His gut quaked.
And resolved the dilemma with the shuffling under Chris and Roz’s lean-to.
That’s one way to wake them.
As the stirring continued, Roz’s muttering helped Tim to track the lizardman’s aura to the secondary plateau. His was higher than Thron’s, stronger in its metaphysical elevation.
“We don’t have shovels,” Chris said as he rolled up.
“If you need to go squat have at it,” Roz said. His tail brushed through the grass in a calculated rising to his feet. “I’m up and will ensure we’re safe, just don’t go far. And keep your eyes for more Wachamian like we saw yesterday.”
“I think it’s the poison, maybe,” Tim said and hurried off to ruin a small bush or something as unthreatening to his nethers.
He found more arcus weed and forced it down with sweet sap leaking out of a afyl tree. Cones nearby gave him an idea and after carving a hole from the bottom to the tip, he used sticks to prop them against the tree holes. While they collected the syrupy goodness in flows of orange and honey brown, he surveyed the woods in a circle around their camp. Chris joined him on his way back to the cones.
“Whatcha up to?”
“Making breakfast.” Tim carried an arm full of bushi roots and edible mushrooms, which he planned to crush up and put in the syrup. Call it a hunch, but he figured that would help weaken the bitter root.
“You, okay?” Chris asked, with genuine concern in his tone. He didn’t let Tim’s quick acknowledgement deter him. His gaze held on until Tim took the queue to try again.
“Yeah. Last night was helpful.”
Chris made him stop at the cones. “I have enough strength to finish the job.” He motioned for Tim to raise his arm and show his wounds from the frung’suq’s tongue.
Burned brown scars as thick as a finger lapped his arm in raised rivers. The skin in between was flushed in pink and hairless with many sores tipped in white or already burst and oozing into the neighborhood.
“I got this,” Chris said. “Sit back.”
His eyes misted into sand as though in a concave illusion where wind swirled within the spheres producing great power.
Tim braved the coiling of new strands to encircle between the others, popping the lesions and grounding his oils back into his pores as a double dose of magic filled them with heat and strength. In the end, when his brother blinked open eyes to the normal pupils, Tim examined tiny mahogany spots he didn’t think were there before. Not that he studied his brother’s eyes often, but the red-brown spots stood out among the swirls of green and flecks of darker brown.
Doesn’t matter, he told himself.
“How’s it feel?” Chris asked, smiling as if he already knew.
The burn had died down to barely noticeable. “Great, thank you. It’s toned down.”
“That it?”
“Okay, yeah, it feels better. Thank you. Do you still want breakfast, or should we arm wrestle right here.”
“Right now?” Chris said, puffing his chest.
His klandrog familiar stood up on his hind legs in a tiny display of ferocious intent and stretched his mouth open to reveal his cute white fangs and pink gums. The growl somehow topped the adorable scale as he clawed a paw at Tim playfully.
Tim pulled his brother into a side hug and guided him toward the cones.
The klandrog lowered to all fours and bounded after, barking and moaning in a way more alien than bear; it was a little unnerving.
Dryfu swept out of the tree with a couple bulges in his belly. “Careful now, he can lay a bite like you wouldn’t believe,” Dryfu said.
Tim stopped the rough housing before the little buddy could bite his ankle.
“Easy Jogey,” Chris said and caught the klandrog by the throat, gently but unwavering like wrestling a bone from a dog.
“Are we gonna make it with you being around?” Tim asked, referring to him and his brother making it this far without a fight or reason to part. “Or will you find an excuse to leave?”
“I don’t know, it looks to me like we work well off one another. I need ingredients and you seem to have a penchant for trouble.”
“You’re the one who fell off a cliff.”
“And I heard you tried stomping on a reindeer’s tongue. At least mine was unintentional.”
Tim chuckled. “At the time it made sense,” he said, reliving the infamous tongue stomp and the sting of the antlers. His arcus weed still hasn’t erased the soreness.
They gathered the cones, with Tim telling Chris to start drinking right away. “You look a bit pale.”
“I feel it,” Chris said.
On the way back, Chris interrupted the buzz of insects. “It might be hard, if I’m being honest.”
“What’s that?”
“Sticking around.”
They walked on a bit more before Chris added, “I made some pretty ugly enemies in my path.”
“Oh?” Tim had a suspicion about how little Chris told him about his advising beyond some of the sights he visited.
“Yeah. Part of it was I didn’t want staying too long to put you or your family in danger. Then when Rachel… I didn’t know if it was somehow my fault. Like maybe—”
Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.
“Chris, that’s ridiculous. It was a blood clot and some cysts. There were complications. It happens, they said. None of that’s your fault.”
“What if it is, like bad karma for me trying to find a gateway between our world and this?”
Tim didn’t know what to say. “Is your last name Bourne or something?”
Chris snorted. “No, not like that. But my hands aren’t completely clean. I don’t want to talk about that. Just to say why I didn’t stick around. I didn’t want that filth to rub off on you and yours or mom when she was around. Then when it was just you, man, at first, I, well, that was a dark stretch of years. Eventually, I snapped out of it; actually, my breakthrough came during a mission where I got the clue that led to the door that brought us here.”
“How much of that dark stretch would you want to know about if you were me right now, about to join parties?”
Chris chuckled nervously. “They can’t find us here. Don’t worry about it. This is a fresh start. I don’t want to talk about that. I’m here. You’re here. I want what’s best for you.”
Chris stopped to face Tim, eyes ablaze with determination. “Whatever it was about me that led to those results, I let it go. Maybe took too many chances. I won’t do that here. I got what I wanted. We’re here together and can develop powers just like when we played Final Fantasy. You can be in charge. I always looked up to you in that way. Being on my own, I don’t know. I guess I was trying to prove to myself that I could make you and mom proud if I took chances.”
Tim started to say Chris had no need to prove anything, but his brother cut him off.
“I get it. It was mostly in my head. But you went to college, and I didn’t, exactly… stuff like that. And our dad, living up to that potential. It always pushed me.”
A lot of good his liberal arts degree did for his former security guard career, or here. All he could remember about the Brothers Karamazov was the longhand essay he had to write for his final.
Tim squeezed his arm and eyed him with a brother’s love. “The skeletons in my closet come from the same drive. Let’s use it for good and whatever it is we can do here. This is our new home. I’ve got your back.”
“You too.”
“I’m waiting to see if we survive the week before I say thank you, but there are definitely aspects of this world that excite me far more than my life on Earth.”
“Like a certain lady—”
Jil appeared beside a tree, having watched them, proving once again how great his younger brother’s timing was. Her appearance startled Tim, then he wondered why he hadn’t sensed her. “What’s that about?” Tim asked playfully. “You spying on us?”
“Yeah, kinda.”
“Did you hear…?” Chris started.
“You’re both too cute. Her gaze landing on Tim made butterflies take flight in his gut. “Gotta harden up if you’re gonna survive these next few weeks. The only ladies you need to worry about are the ones who’ll gut you for the jewel.”
“I sure hope that’s present company excluded, and thank you, but he’s not cute,” Chris joked. “For an older brother I think… lovable is a better word. Attractive? No. Cute? Certainly not. A bit like the dog at a shelter that just looks at you like, your life can’t be as bad as mine. Can I come home with you?”
Jil examined Tim with this new light. “I could see that,” she said, playing along.
“Alright you two.”
“I thought I’d warm up my Stealth skill,” Jil said, strutting toward camp at their lead.
Tim lifted his eyes right before she turned back to look at him. He couldn’t hide if he’d been caught studying her figure. Not disrespectfully. Just curious, and then impressed. Even after ten years a widower, he still felt embarrassed whenever a woman caught him observing them in that way. Now he was sure she’d caught him, and the glimmer of a smile before she turned back to the camp tickled him with something he hadn’t felt in a long time.
“You need to push your senses out beyond just to what poses a threat,” she said. “A lot of animals are watching you, especially with how loud you two are, but your job will be to track those who are watching and pretending to be impartial. It takes a higher intelligence to do that, but the ones who can are the real threat.”
“Like you?” Tim joked.
She turned and winked. “Exactly. Now what took you two so long? Your stomach giving you issues?”
“Sort of,” Tim said. “But also, I got breakfast.”
“Oh?”
He handed her a syrup cone.
“Oh, thank you. Never had this mix together. You sure it’s all–”
“It’s good. I mean, safe,” Tim clarified. “I haven’t tried it yet.”
“I’ll try it first,” Chris said, and bit into the cone. It crunched loud enough to make Tim fear he’d broken a tooth. His brother kept chewing though and mumbled ascent. “Malicious!” he said with mouth full.
“Dude, you weren’t supposed to eat the cone.”
“Weren’t I? I am a wood priest after all.” Chris winked.
“I… okay. If that works for you.” He had seen his brother absorb the root splinters.
“Right.” Jil scooped a finger full of the sticky amber morsel and put it in her mouth. A surprised look crossed her face. “Good,” she mumbled.
Roz caught a green haired raccoon creature called a dwapt and insisted Jil let them cook it before they broke camp. Plus, the items Tim foraged went well with a few concoctions Roz planned to teach Chris to make.
“Alright, since Thron is up and we need to hang a little longer,” Jil said, resting against the fallen tree. “I put my preliminary vote in to join party with Tim and Chris.”
“Preliminary?” Tim asked.
“Yeah. We haven’t heard your terms,” she said. “This is how we start the conversation, with a preliminary vote. If Thron or Roz agree and cast their vote, then we’ll ask to hear your terms and if you’re also interested. If it sounds agreeable, we’ll share our terms as the inviting party. If you agree, and the vote is in favor, then we join a pact.”
“A pact?” Tim asked.
“For a conjoined party,” she said. “The terms of which both sides give in the aforementioned part of the process.”
“Okay… so what’s standard for terms?” Tim asked. “Should we consult a lawyer first?”
Jil didn’t seem to know the term lawyer but got the idea. “It’s up to you. If you don’t care, make it simple. You can counter after we give terms. Then we get one as well.”
“One thing,” Tim said, “is I don’t know much about any of you. Where’re you from? What’re you doing here? You’ve already shot me, but while I can let that slide, it wasn’t long before someone else shot at us. Why’d they say Theos?”
Jil held her hand up as if to say enough, then put on an air of pleasant nobility. “I’m Jilsarda Leoric, niece to the High Priest Beaunival Meem the Fourth of the Childockian Theocracy.” She gave a sweeping bow. Then in a flash of cunning mystery added, “Sent to find out why and how Wachamia have broken the level ceasing pact. As well as our suspicion that the next country to hold the jewel won’t have won the jewel fairly. We need to find out how they’re subverting the nivelador magic that is supposed to assure us of an honest hunt. But, if there is anything we can do to assure Childockia wins the jewel for the next term, we’ll do it. No big deal. Boys?”
Thron formed a fist with the armor-decorated hand. “You saved my life. You have my vote. I’m Thron, Packer of the Oakhamney Parish by way of the Pighouse district of Sudling. I became an orphan when the Brecs raided my home and flock, burned our farmhouse. The smoke killed my parents and when I tried to escape with my little sister, they took her and nearly killed me, too. First chance we get at open war, I’m crossing the border to look for my sister, even if I have to start it. First, I need at least one more trip to an inn. Plus we’ve all made a pact to do that together. Jil’s been like a second younger sister I… I’ve known Jilly since she was wrapped in a bonnet and destroying her underclothes.”
“Thron!” Jil said in mostly mock outrage.
He shrugged. “I’m a family friend of the High Priest,” he told Chris and Tim. “If she doesn’t make it back safely, I won’t… Let’s just say I won’t let that happen. Beyond that, our mission, were we to fail, would end in our nation at war. I’ll let Rozman introduce himself first before we get into all that.”
“What. I’m sorry, Roz,” Tim said. “What’s a packer? Or Packer of the Oakhamney Parish mean?”
Thron popped his decorated fist against his palm. “Pack bones. Pack stones. Whatever we need crushed to finish our mission successfully. If we can get a night at Wendalces castle and level my years’ experience, that’ll be a good start.”
Roz waited patiently until Thron nodded respectfully for his brother in arms. “I’m Thiszroz, or Roz as that’s easier for the human tongue. I’m a Zret Dragon, purchased from slavery from the Hai Trading Company by my choice so I could help Childockian Theocracy in their defense against the Kingdom of Brecievancia. Hai Trading’s slavery saved me from a caravan massacred by the Brecs. Once I was old enough to defend myself, I was sold but in truth was given free room and board for the last four years at the Plei An Dau castle, where I met and trained with these two.
“I’m a whirlwind class with proficiencies in swords, bow staffs and projectiles. I have a level five skill in wind terror. Thanks to Thron,” he concluded with a slight nod to his compatriot.
“I escorted him to a leveling inn two years ago, and again to one in Wachamia a few months ago.”
“The way the leveling inns work,” Jil added, “is they get one year to make as much money and earn as many favors as they can while their leveler, or nivelador has their jewel power. If you don’t cash in on the experience you earned, once the leaves fall and the nivelador loses their power, the experience you earned over the last year erodes into the basest form. You don’t gain any levels until you meet the next nivelador, though your skill and proficiencies may trickle a little in strength through sheer muscle growth and natural coordination. For the more magical of skills and proficiencies, however, the nivelador is the only way to tangible growth.”
“We’re also on our way to Wendalces,” Chris said. “Sorry to mention this first off without talking to you about it, Tim, but the person I bought the portal stone from told us about the Hunt and gave me a contact in Wendalces.”
Tim didn’t love the secrets his brother held, but would he have believed him before he saw this world anyway? “It’s okay. I’d like to know more about your contact and how our two worlds interact. Do people travel back to Earth from here?”
“No,” Chris and Thron said simultaneously.
“There is a seer on Earth,” Chris added.
Thron nodded agreement. “Many have tried, but none have been able to open a portal to Earth. Part of Childockian theology is the belief that ours is the destination of ascension for all life until the jeweler stone and niveladors’ work is complete. If we use that power to produce wickedness, then that’s what we’ll spread once the elders decide if this planet is burned and they start over; or if we produce good with our powers then they may grant us freedom to colonize new worlds with endless leveler jewels.”
“What is good to you?” Tim asked.
“Spreading a kingdom where wickedness is uprooted,” Thron said.
“Protecting the innocent,” Jil added.
“And ensuring the leveler jewel is not manipulated for evil gain,” Roz concluded. “Where it has been, we will fight to stop it.”
“I’m on board with that,” Chris said, stirring his cauldron with his staff.
Tim wasn’t so sure how sanitary that was since he’d used it as a walking stick, but they were essentially eating roots and shrooms. Chris’s friendly, Jogey watched the inside of the pot as if it contained fish ready to be snatched out by his claws.
“I agree,” Tim said. “That seems pretty much in line with my beliefs. Or my theology,” he said, conceding that his brother held different beliefs on Earth, though morally they were pretty similar, “doesn’t or didn’t have anything about portals to new worlds, but I don’t know everything. Fighting for justice for the innocent and supporting kingdoms without wickedness is good enough for me. As well as protecting the good intentions of the Leveling Jewel and why we’ve been granted it on this planet. If I’m going to gain powers I want to use them for good. That would be part of our terms, right Chris?”
“Yeah.”
“I don’t know about anything else besides being fair with one another and treating each other with respect,” Tim added. “As far as time goes, I guess I reserve the right to leave if I ever disagree with the party’s path. Anything you’d add, Chris?”
“Roz has already taught me a great deal. I trust him to treat us fairly and you two as well. I’m confident we’ll work together to make each other stronger.”
Jil smiled, cupping her hands at her waist. “Our terms are essentially the same. But so you know, we’re on a dangerous path. The Leveling Jewel formed a splinter early this summer and the Federation of the Jewel voted to halt leveling for the rest of the year. The FOJ is comprised of a leader of each of the six pillars plus one randomly assigned representative from the other nations.”
“We know that pact has been broken,” Thron said. “And we’re going to demand Childockians get another round of leveling before the leaves fall.”
“Which won’t be easy because the Wachamia have made an under the table deal with Grand Duchy of Teglarmat and the Kingdom of Zevehe, the two closest nations to the north.” Jil unrolled a map of the continent and pointed to Wendalces, near the center of Wachamia, then to Teglarmat and Zevehe, which formed the heart of the largest continent.
“If there’s anything slimy going on, those three are most likely up to something together,” Roz said.
“These two, the Protectorate of Kiber and Witesbu have their own deals.” She pointed to Kiber which formed the eastern most peninsula of the main continent. Her finger ran south through a bay to the country, Witesbu, which was far enough to fall out of the tropical looking climate that Kiber and most of Wachamia enjoyed.
She traced a line off the Kiber’s eastern coast and into the bay. “Ma and Lee’s Reef stretches along here. Witesbu helped protect Kiber from the last Pillar War, and ever since, the two have created a monopoly on reef goods. Their conjoined navy is the strongest in our world.”
“But they turn a blind eye to pirates who steal my kind from our island.” Roz pointed to a small land mass north of Zevehe.
“Witesbu isn’t part of the pillars,” Jil said, “but they’ve found ways to insert themselves into key conflicts without suffering the destruction and rebuilding costs that pillar countries have whenever the Hunt would spill over or take place within larger scale wars. They’re a top economic powerhouse even without having local leveling inns so they can buy their way in.
“It helps that Kiber has had the leveling jewel seven more years than the rest of the pillar nations and has focused its experience on the magic classes. That’s how they make their fleet so strong, and stronger by the year, as well as protecting their land forces on the border with Zevehe so they can trickle up in strength and maintain their numbers. Wachamia’s deal with Teglarmat and Zevehe has secretly been leveling up their elite while breaking the cease level accord. I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s part of a plan to invade Kiber. If we encounter any Kibers or Witesbus, we can offer a truce and combine our efforts to get our levels.” She placed two fingers spread to point at Witesbu and Childockia’s borders with Brecievancia. This crab shaped formation made up the continent’s southernmost peninsula and had shared land along both Witesbu and Childockia. “We don’t love Witesbu or Kiber, but Witesbu hates the Brecs, too. We’ve allied with them in the past, though the Brecs have made inroads in industry and education inside Witesbu, leading to record numbers of cross immigration that could make war between them more difficult.”
By the look of their clothes and the kinds of markers on the maps for bow and arrow and stables, it seemed obvious they wouldn’t encounter a car or high-speed locomotive anytime soon, and these continents spread across over a thousand miles east to west.
Technically you might, though none have worked in years.
Cars? Or Trains?
We have trains, but tracks are limited and often derail. Adopting Earth technology has always been a high risk, low reward option as the Whisper seems consistent in disrupting the effectiveness here.
Okay, interesting. So, no Jeep Wranglers in my future?
If you could manage to build the parts to make it without any number of unlikely accidents, you would experience a curse-level spell of bad luck which precedence says would maim or kill you soon after.
“I have a riding skill,” Tim said, wondering if Jil might suggest a more lighthearted topic. “Do you have horses? It seems like a long way to walk to Kiper, let alone Witesbu. I was just curious what animals you have here that I could ride.”
Jil smiled. “We’ll get to that. Might be a boat. Depends on what we find out in the city.”
Tim remembered the numerous times on boats where he either did or was close to losing his meal. Stepping off the one along the Great Barrier Reef and spending the whole-time inland laying on a bridge praising God for stable land was not his favorite moment. “I’d prefer riding,” he said, patting his stomach. “But I’ll concede waiting on that for what’s best. And speaking of that, I’m still starving. Is the food ready?”
“It is,” Chris said from the cauldron.
“The only other terms besides what we seem to have in a general agreement to use our abilities for good is to let you know we will do what’s best for Childockia as well. I don’t see anything coming between us in that regard, but it bears saying. Brecuevancia is also trying to blackmail Childockia into winning the jewel and then paying them a hefty tax in leveling because of a noble’s daughter who died within Childockian borders.”
A Gerard Butler and Morgan Freeman movie about being accused of treason and protecting the president came to mind. He was always a patriot at heart as well. Hopefully they didn’t uncover anything about Childockia that would force their separation, but for now it sounded good enough. He offered a hand to shake and Jil accepted with a bit of confusion at first, but took the meaning soon after.
“Welcome to our party,” Jil said.
“Finally,” Thron added. “I was two seconds from eating someone’s hand.”
Too late.
Dryfu crawled over the rim of the trunk crunching the limb of a black bug in its mouth.
You have earned the Ally Maker Skill and expanded it with the sub-category Politician.
Does that come with stock advice?
Tim pictured a certain slimy politician from Earth coming here and having eyes sprout across their skin for trying to replicate insider trading.
It’s probably best you not test out that theory. I’ll teach you the ropes here without going slim shady.
Or…
Tim and his new friends enjoyed a good breakfast catching each other up on the most colorful politicians on both sides of the Gates.
Tim left camp convinced Nancy P was still the worst.