Extricating myself from beneath Lowki was no easy feat. Stella flatly refused to provide any semblance of aid, believing I had been responsible for her jarring awakening. Though my strength stat far exceeded a regular human, technically half-human in this case, I was no match for the sheer weight of muscle enjoying himself as I struggled underneath. Eventually, I was able to move my head just enough for me to call out for Ripley’s aid.
“Ripley…” I labored to say. One of my hands was hopelessly pinned against the side of my body, while the other could do little more than flailing about uselessly. “Help… move… Lowki.” The hard thud of her plated boots heralded relief as her approach finally convinced my so-called panther friend to release me from my forcible confinement.
Using my body as a launching pad, to my dismay, Lowki sprung away. Sitting up, I gasped for air. Trying to catch my breath, it had felt like the fat cat had nearly collapsed my lungs with how heavy he was. Initially, I debated corrected Stella on her misplaced grievance about who truly disturbed her precious slumber, but thought better of it. She wouldn’t believe me anyway.
Reaching the inescapable conclusion I was ‘always at fault,’ I instead shifted to the topic that caused this mess in the first place. Fast promising to cook up some breakfast for us all, I got out of bed. Well, in actuality, I would be simply pulling some food from my spacial inventory. Lowki excitedly beamed a toothy grin back at me before he bounded down the stairs with only a glance back, ensuring we were following. Of course, everyone knew I wouldn’t be cooking anything, but the distinction didn’t bother the ebony panther in the slightest.
Passing through our well-stocked kitchen and into the dining room, I pulled out one of the ornate chairs before taking a seat. In moments, I retrieved a casserole from my inventory brimming with honey-glazed meat kebabs. Most of the skewers only had cooked chicken pieces, though several at the bottom of the pile did have a mix of roasted vegetables such as onions, bell peppers, and a few thick slabs of tomatoes. Knowing Lowki was a moment away from impatiently grabbing a mouthful, skewer, and all, I withdrew the large plate we used for such an occasion and slid off the meat from four of the chicken-only skewers atop it. Sliding it across to the end of the table where Lowki waited, he instantly devoured the lot of them.
Stella had me place two meat and vegetable skewers on her plate but declined my offer to slide off the portions, saying, “I am more than capable of doing it myself, thank you very much.”
Shrugging, I helped myself to four mixed vegetable and chicken varieties. With my two friends contently munching away, I did have to restock Lowki’s empty kabab plate a couple of times. Soon after, I realized Tallos was nowhere to be seen. He likely spent the entire evening with Leandra, the lucky dog. I was only moderately jealous, but I wasn’t about to tell anyone that. Tallos would have to find his own breakfast, meaning all more for us. We had more than enough, of course, but surprisingly, we still quickly emptied the dish of the flavorful treats in record time. Stella’s paws were an absolute mess and necessitated a thorough washing afterward.
“So, what do we want to do today?” Stella asked afterward, having moved to lounge in the middle of our solitary couch. She beat Lowki to it, who seemed to snicker at her before bounding up the stairs. There was enough room for both of them, but apparently, he had wanted it all to himself. With a loud crash, his quarter-ton weight slammed onto one of the upstairs beds, causing an inordinate amount of dust and wood shavings to sprinkle down from the ceiling.
“Well, it sounds like the council meeting is a couple of hours before sundown,” I replied, rinsing the last stickiness from my hands under the kitchen sink. How the elves managed to get flowing water, I hadn’t the slightest clue, but it was appreciated nonetheless. “We could explore more of the city, see if there is anything else of note to pick up, or… we could simply relax until Tallos meets up with us. Didn’t he say something about meeting us for lunch, or was it dinner?”
“Lunch,” Stella replied succinctly before nuzzling her face into a fluffy bath towel she pulled out to dry herself with. When she came back up for air, she plopped down on it before continuing indifferently. “I’m down for whatever.”
“I wish we could open these enchanted windows,” I commented as the motion of the leaves outside caught my eye. “It would be nice to get a breeze through here.”
Stella called out to Ripley, standing guard near the front door, and asked her to prop it open. Soon enough a cool draft wafted into our lovely home, bringing a delightful scent of pine. Thanking Stella, I joined her on the comfortable couch.
“This could be our last day in the city,” I admitted, thinking forward to what was to come after our council meeting later in the day. “I’ve thoroughly loved our stay here. It’s been wondrous. But I’m not going to lie; I’m pretty hesitant to stay longer. Simply because of our presence, we’re keeping the city in harm’s way. Very soon, Duke will bind with his new Accelerator, right? A strong part of me doesn’t want to be anywhere near here because of this eventuality.”
“I feel like we should stay in and enjoy the rest of the morning,” Stella announced as she stretched out across her wide section of the couch, pushing the damp towel to the floor. Funny enough, she was somehow taking up more room on the leather couch than I was. She was taking up even more room than I was somehow. “Plus, I don’t think we have much in the way of trade even if we did find something. Let’s relax and enjoy the comfort and hospitalities of our amazing accommodations. We can decide this afternoon if there is something else we want to do.”
“Sounds like a plan,” I smoothly agreed, leaning further back into our wonderfully cozy sofa. The tanned animal hide was buttery smooth, provided ample support, and swaddled us like a warm blanket.
Something we hadn’t done in what seemed like a long time. We did nothing. Not a damn thing beyond comfortably relaxing as the blissful morning passed by around us. At one point, Stella took a nap, wrapping her small body around the back of Ripley’s neck and board shoulders. At one point, as I fiddled through my Hunter interface, I noticed how close I was to my next level. Surprisingly, only a few hundred more experience would elevate me to level twenty-six. Fighting just about anything would push me across the threshold. At twenty-six, the System would offer me the choice between three new spells, all within the average tier. Perhaps it would offer even the rare skill, yet, at this point, I was far more interested in acquiring new methods of slinging powerful magic.
Perhaps we could go out for some light hunting, just about anything would put me over the edge. Yet, it was for naught when I recalled that hunting in the forest was strictly forbidden. Even if we decided to head to the northern boundary, with a good portion of the morning already behind us, it was unlikely we would make it time for the council meeting. I wasn’t about to chance missing it. We were receiving a reward for our aid to the city, after all.
With roughly an hour before lunch, perhaps longer depending on when Tallos got back, there was nothing to do, so I decided to run through a calming and regulation exercise I was taught in my past life. Planting my feet on the floor, I purposefully sat up straight, straightening my back and lifting my chin. Closing my eyes, I shifted my weight with my glutes, back and forth, while similarly raising and lowering my legs one at a time. Next, I inhaled slowly through my nose and exhaled through my mouth while focusing on the present. Combined with the celestial buff from the night before, I found the practice extraordinarily easy to accomplish as my emotions came into balance.
A sudden noise from a nearby desk brought me from my grounding techniques. Opening my eyes, I found Stella rifling through several of the drawers. She must not have found anything of note as she next flew over to an exquisite cabinet next to the deck, swinging the doors. I was not sure what she was looking for, but she would most certainly tell me in due time. I closed my eyes once more and shifted to meditating. With a calm center, I mentally pictured myself sitting on a beach with ocean waves gently crashing nearby. While imagining the scent of salt on the wind, along with the soft rustling of leaves, my attention was pulled right back to my dear friend as she happily exclaimed.
“Eureka!”
Opening my eyes once more, Stella collected a square tin with her paws before hurrying with it wrapped against her chest to the dining room table. “Xaz, get over here. Look what I found,” she said excitedly.
I could only imagine what she got her grubby paws onto, especially considering how animated she became all of a sudden. My curiosity piqued, I doubted it was food or some tasty treat as our bellies were still more than satisfied from our plentiful morning meal. Perhaps there was an interesting trinket or magical bauble? Promising myself I would return to my meditation if whatever she found wasn’t worthwhile, I nonetheless sat up and moved to join her. The simple act of sliding my chair across the wood floor brought Lowki bounding down the stairs, his expression excited at first as if it was lunchtime. Seeing nothing of the sort, Lowki disappointedly walked over to the couch and flopped down.
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Smiling to myself at the cat’s antics, he was always hungry. I reoriented on what Stella had in her paws. Turning the tin over, several stacks of what looked to be playing cards spilled across the table. Card games were an enjoyable pastime, so I was more than content with checking out what she found.
To see what we were dealing with, Stella giddily spread the entire collection haphazardly across the table. Picking one up, each card looked made of wafer-thin sheets of wood, almost like tightly pressed cardboard. Each was smooth and as pliable as a typical playing card. The cards were flexible and could bend slightly without much fear of snapping it in half.
The back of the card held a glossy, hyper-realistic rendition of the bark of the majestic giant sequoias throughout the High Thicket. With the thickness of less than a quarter millimeter, had I not known better, I would have believed these cards had actually been created by modern-day presses. With magic so prevalent, especially among the elves residing within this magnificent forest, I was confident the mystic arts had been put to good use in creating them. Much like standard playing cards, with rounded corners and straight edges, I was taken aback at its immaculate condition. It looked brand new, without the slightest wear or tear you would expect with how carelessly the cards had been stored.
Picking up several others, each was in the same remarkable condition. “I bet these would have been graded gem mint,” I said under my breath, thinking back on the modest collection of graded cards I acquired in my past life.
“What’s that?” Stella asked as she too closely inspected a small number of cards. Even though she had no thumbs, she still had no problem holding a handful with her paws.
“Never mind,” I casually dismissively. “Stella, these are incredible. The detail is amazing.”
The front of each card held an artistic rendition of animated woodland animals, such as a frolicking deer, a pouncing fox, or a grumpy-looking bear. Others held far less friendly creatures, such as oddly grotesque monsters and monstrosities. Beyond creatures, a good number of the cards flaunted strikingly beautiful habitats and environments, such as vast lakes, budding forests, serene grasslands, wavy prairies, jagged mountain ranges, or snow-covered wildernesses. The plentiful beasts and differing environments were no less detailed than the unique complexities of the furrowed redwood bark on the opposite side of the cards.
“What do you think the game is called?” Stella asked in wonderment. Each of the hundreds of cards spread out before us was a stunning work of art that would surely impress even the most ardent of modern-day art collectors. Looking at me with a vibrant smile, she asked eagerly, “Can we play?”
I chuckled before responding, “We don’t even know the rules.”
“Not to bother. We can make them up as we go. Please, Xaz!” Stella said as she put on her best ‘puppy dog eyes’ in a charismatic attempt to persuade me. “I will be fun. Pleeeaaasssse?”
“Alright, I guess,” I agreed while pretending to be only mildly interested. In truth, collectible card games were a favorite pastime of mine. As I examined one card after another, my mind fondly recalled a particular entertaining card game involving strategy, fantastical beasts, and lands of power. “First, let’s separate these into two decks. One for you, and one for me…”
And, so it went for the next couple of hours as we created what soon became known as the 'high thicket brigade.” Stella came up with the name, mostly because of the redwood bark proudly displayed on the back of each card. The many rules of play were agreed upon slowly, foremost the necessity to ‘play’ a habitat card before we could summon a beast or monster. In order to summon a creature, it must have been reasonably agreed it could live within what biome we had on the playing field. Each turn we would draw a card and work towards building an army to fight against the other army.
For example, a grizzly bear couldn’t be played if you only owned a lake, but a river would do fine. For the more extreme creatures, Stella actually pulled something resembling a titanic dragon, of all things. We argued back and forth, finally agreeing she needed at least four or five habitat cards to summon it because of how powerful it looked. From there, our creatures would fight against whatever the other person had on the table or, if nothing remained, the other player.
We were heading into our fourth game, with Stella surprisingly lucky enough to win the last two, when our front door opened, and in walked Tallos.
“You two look to be having quite a bit of fun,” our friend called out as he pulled up a chair. Unlike yesterday when the elf sauntered in from an entertaining escapade, today his hair was neatly combed, and his clothes looked spotless enough to have been professionally dry-cleaned. Over the top, he still wore his hardened leather armor, but it wasn’t unusual, considering everyone else in Quarris was similarly geared. The city had come under attack only a couple of days prior, after all. Tallos, like last time, wore a happy-go-lucky smile and an affable look about him.
Stella's attention returned to her hand before a distressing thought crashed through her. Eyes going wide, she shot a look to her friend with a question desperately needing an answer. “Tallos, can we keep these when we go?” she asked, indicating the cards in her hands and the decks in front of us. “We found them over there in a tin. Please, please, can we keep ‘em?”
Apparently, she was pretty worried we would have to give back her new favorite game and was none too happy about the prospect. I couldn’t blame her. I was getting into it myself.
Tallos chuckled, more than familiar with Stella’s eccentricities. “Of course, you can, Stella,” he answered reassuringly, spreading his fingers out placatingly. “Other than the furniture, for obvious reasons, everything else is yours if you want it. Until we decide otherwise, this home will be reserved for us alone.”
He tilted his head, looking at the game on the table between us, before continuing with a slightly confused expression, “Though, I’m not sure you’re playing it correctly. From the look of it, I doubt you know the first thing about its many rules. But… if you two are enjoying it that much, there is a couple of shops I can take you to who specialize in creating these cards if you want to pick up more.”
Stella’s eyes shone brightly at his words, cracking a wide smile before she promptly turned to me. “We’re totally going there, right? Well, right after I sweep you for a third time.”
“Oh, no, you won’t,” I countered, bucking down and reviewing the half dozen cards in my hand.
Tallos watched along as Stella amassed a small army comprised of an enormous bone-spiked badger, a flying quadruped amalgamation of a scaled lizard and ruddy seagull, along with several adorable squirrel ‘generals,’ as she called them. Tallos had made a single attempt to explain how the game was supposed to be played but was immediately shushed by the concentrating Stella.
“We like our rules, thank you very much,” Stella snapped before her dastardly opponent played a card, summoning a colossal dinosaur looking not unlike a Giganotosaurus. She hesitated, intently studying my side of the board as if trying to come up with an argument about how my three mountains, two plains, and three forests couldn’t possibly be enough to beckon such a titanic beast. She met my eyes and narrowed her eyes, seeming to believe I had cheated somehow.
“Care to surrender?” I teasingly answered. For a second, a devilish look flashed across her face like she was a second away from flipping the table. I had no idea how she could have managed such a feat with the table weight a hundred times as much as she did, but it was an entertaining thought. Stella thought better of it, thankfully, and laid down the rest of her cards in surrender.
With that, it was two games to two. I could live with that, though I could tell that Stella was going to hound me for another game as soon as possible.
“You guys hungry?” Tallos asked innocently as we collected our cards. At his words, Lowki’s massive head shot up from the couch, his eyes shining toward the lean elf like heat-seeking missiles. Tallos recognized his mistake immediately, doing his best not to make eye contact with the ravenous panther.
At this point in our creation of the ‘high thicket brigade,’ the pair held a deck of around a hundred cards. Wanting to separate them, we placed Stella’s in another tin found in the kitchen and kept my set in the original. Slipping both into my bag of holding, Stella asked Tallos if he could show us to the card shops he mentioned earlier. “Well, that and somewhere to eat, of course.”
Locating the two shops was easy with Tallos as our guide. At Stella’s insistence, we purchased nearly five hundred cards for a couple of gold pieces—a steep price considering we only had a handful of the golden coins left. She brushed aside my concern with the cost saying it was more than worth it.
“We have all the time in the world together, so we might as well pick up as many as we can, seeing as these can only really be found in elven settlements. We have more than enough now, so quit complaining,” she muttered after I gave her an incredulous stare. I would have been happy with maybe a twentieth of what she picked out and told her as much. “Oh shush, you know you’ll enjoy going through these together.”
Stella wasn’t wrong. I was looking forward to more games with her down the road. She was happy, so it was worth the price. The matter settled; we went on the look for lunch. Considering most of the city were vegetarians, it was a harder prospect than locating the two specialist stores.
“There’s a pair on the higher levels I know of,” Tallos offered, pointing several levels above us. “They’re somewhat near the elder chambers anyways, so I say we head there.”
Sounding as good a plan as any, we worked through the myriads of platforms, lifts, and countless rope bridges. Stella sat on my shoulder, suspiciously appearing to be doing nothing. Yet, from the corner of my eye, I noticed as she subtly swiped a paw to the side. It could only mean one thing. She was going through the new cards without me!
“Stella!” I blurted, shocked to find her cheating. “We said we were going to do that together!”
Stella, clearly shocked her pathetic act of deception had been caught, at first denied my accusation. “What are you talking about? I was just… checking a menu, that’s all,” she deflected pathetically.
Before I could reach up to grab her, she veritably sprinted through the air, crashing into Ripley for protection. “Why, I would never…” Stella said as she
It was my turn to narrow my eyes as I contemplated her cheating butt.