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The sun was high in the sky once more, its heat saturating the land around their camp. Once more, each of them had found themselves in the deepest, shadiest part of the makeshift pavilion. Gage himself sat comfortably. The legs of his pants had been pulled up to just below his knees and his shirt was draped over his pack just off to the side. This time, even in the depths of his mediation, Gage could feel Elfric’s eyes on him. “Yes?” He offered his friend.
“Why did you keep it?”
He didn’t need to open his eyes to know his friend was referring to the sandhopper, as he had taken to calling it. “As you may recall me saying before, my world didn’t really have ‘magic’ or anything like it. Since getting here, I have healed not only myself, but others.”
He paused in his explanation. As he did so, he did his best to keep his breathing even as he opened his eyes. In and out. With each breath out a small puff of pink left his mouth to swirl in the air for a moment, before he pulled it back in through his nose. “And after healing Eshu, I don’t think healing is all I can do.”
After a moment to consider, “My Breath had gotten swept up, a little bit, and I was able to learn just how Eshu’s sense of smell worked. All the little things that captured the scents and the part of his brain that processed that information. It was so cool,” In and out. He turned to look to Elfric, who sat cross-legged a few feet away. He was hunched forward, his forearms resting on his knees. “But before I go trying to mess around with my brain, I figured I would test things out on something that may be a little more practical to this new world.”
He glanced down at the bundle containing the dead arachnid, though he still thought of it as a bug. With a steady hand, he unwrapped it and picked up the now desiccated corpse. His power flowed into it. This time instead of letting it settle throughout the full breadth and width of the creature, he focused it into the shell. Carapace? No, technically, exoskeleton. Its chitin. He closed his eyes once more.
As when he had patched his skull back together, he began to imagine himself. However, instead of keeping himself seated, he pictured himself standing before him…self. It was kinda hot. He had a ‘soft athletic’ build. Normally he liked them a bit more muscular, but he could go for… Gage shook his head, feeling the heat rise in his cheeks.
That had been… new. It was kind of different seeing oneself standing before them, not just being a reflection in a mirror. In and out. He concentrated on his breathing, getting his mind cleared once more. Taking his Breath, his power, his… pink light, he began moving it around his body. As he did so, he also focused on the chitin of the bug. Using his Breath, he started shaping plates of chitin across his body.
He started with his chest, making a plate for each pec that went up to his collar bone. The stomach was next. Gage did his best to segment it, having his double move about to test the flexibility and maneuverability of his belly plating. When he finished, the chitin thinned out near his sides with interlocking plates crossing from the pec plates down to just above his groin.
The drain of manipulating his power like this was starting to hit him. He wasn’t just moving chitin around and placing it. With each bit he added, he could feel his power and body growing the chitin into place. He was going to nap hard after this. Gage took in a deep breath and pressed on. There were two final places he wanted to cover before he was done.
He started on his forearms next. From elbow to wrist, he diligently worked on providing plates. On the side of his forearm that followed the back of hand, he thickened the plate. Making it solid and sturdy. It looked like a gauntlet in thickness but styled as a bracer. He followed suit on his shins and calves. Thickening the plates on his shins. Hopefully he would be able to block or deflect some basic attacks with his new armor.
Finally, he stepped back from himself and gave his body double another inspection. It looked… all right. It had the same sort of sandy look and texture as the sandhopper had. He looked like he was wearing a thin padding over his muscles, only in solid pieces.
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Gage focused on his breathing once more, bringing himself back to his surroundings. As he pulled himself apart from his power, he drew in a sharp breath. “Oh. My. KIN!” he roared! His eyes flew open and he fell backwards, his hands scratching at the edges of his new plating.
“My Lord!” Ma’tuk was instantly darting about in the air over him. Eshu leapt to his feet, barking loudly. Elfric rolled away, coming to his feet with his hands held defensively before him.
“IT ITCHES! I didn’t know it was going to itch!” His hands darted back and forth. From his chest to his legs to his arms. Scratching at the persistent itch. “By all that is holy! GAAH!” It felt like scratching a callous. An itchy, itchy callous.
It took a few minutes for the itching to fade and Gage found himself laid out on the sand, panting. “That… was… terrible…” he gasped out. His head rolled to the side to see Elfric sitting once more. The elf was petting Eshu, keeping the dog calm. It wasn’t hard to see that he was once again holding back laughter at Gage’s expense. Ma’tuk had once more brought him a bottle of water.
He had to fight his own greed to not gulp down the water. Instead, taking some sips to steady himself. Once he calmed, he stoppered the bottle and set it aside. The water had helped sate his thirst, only slightly, as hunger began to gnaw at him. He was famished and immediately he pulled an energy bar out of his bag. He tore into it and barely stopped himself from scarfing the whole thing down. Instead, he forced himself to take the time to chew and swallow.
“So,” Elfric began, “you have made yourself a shell.” His eyes flicked from the ravenous display to the new plates that adorned Gage.
“Yeah, well. I don’t really know how to fight.” Gage ran a finger over his forearm, before flicking it. He didn’t really feel the contact itself, but he could faintly tell he had been touched. Like when he ran his hand through his hair. He knew the sensation, even if his hair itself didn’t actually feel anything. “I figured I should go for something defensive. Help, you know, keep me alive.” He shoved his arm out towards the elf. “What do you think?”
Eshu’s body stretched out as he reached with his nose, sniffing. Eventually he came forward, bumping his head under Gage’s hand for scratches. Gage chuckled, looking to Elfric. His eyes went wide as the elf reached over, plucked up one of his discarded boots and drew a small knife from inside it. With some disbelief, “You had that with you, the whole time.” He stated flatly.
The elf only grinned in reply. He grabbed hold of Gage’s wrist and drew the blade across the thick plate on the presented arm. A thin scratch was drawn across the surface. It was a very strange sensation. He could feel the knife being drawn across the plate and could even tell it was sharp. But there was no pain or discomfort, though it did feel rather dull. Before he could even open his mouth, Elfric moved. The elf flipped the blade around in his hand and stabbed it down at the thick section of the plate on his arm.
“Gaah! Why!?” Gage stared at the knife embedded into the chitin. He could feel it inside the covering. He paused, staring at it. It didn’t hurt. It was uncomfortable, sure, and where the chitin had parted, it stung. The knife however, hadn’t reached the flesh underneath. Slowly he looked up at Elfric, locking eyes. “You. You are a dick.” Ma’tuk was darting back and forth in the space behind Elfric, muttering obscenities.
With a chuckle, the elf removed the blade. Gage winced at the feeling of it being yanked out. He focused his gaze on the crack in his armor. In and out, he Breathed. A pink light filled in the crack, it flared softly. When it faded away the plate was whole again.
The elf nodded, looking thoughtful. “This is good. It is not the best armor, but I am surprised at how well it holds up. All of this from that, bug?” He shrugged and slid the knife back into its spot in his boot. “It should help keep you safe, at least for a while.”
“Just keep an eye out for boot daggers, eh?” Gage said, setting the two of them off with a shared chuckle as they settled back down. Gage stifled a yawn. The expenditure of energy, coupled with the sudden rush of being stabbed, left him exhausted. He laid himself out on the cool sand, wrapped in the warmth of the day that wafted into the pavilion.
He listened as Elfric moved to a different spot in the shade and settled himself in. It was only a few moments after, that he felt the presence of Ma’tuk next to his head. With another yawn, he forced his eyes open and rolled his head over to look at the archon. “How can I help you Ma’tuk?”
The orb was silent, a shifting of colors in its depths. “I am in awe, my Lord. You have progressed quite well with your Breath in a short time.”
“Well thank you. I wouldn’t have gotten to this point without you, you know.” He watched as Ma’tuk went a rosy peach.
“You honor me, my Lord.” It did a small happy bob. “I cannot wait to see how you progress next, though you mentioned something about your mind?”
Gage took in a deep breath, his eyes closing once more. “Yeah, yeah. I learned it from Eshu. The bit of his brain that processes smells is bigger than mine. It lets him shift through them better, identify them with more accuracy, and just get more out of them. I’m worried that if I try that though, I might break something. I just wish there was a way I could be sure I could do it safely, before trying.” He was fading, his exhaustion pulling at his consciousness.
It almost came as a whisper. “I can do that, my Lord.”
Gage frowned slightly, struggling to open his eyes once more. “What?”
“It would draw on…” It twisted side to side, as if looking around and it lowered its voice. “Your pool, my Lord, but I can guide the changes you want to do safely.”
His eyes fluttered and his head rolled in the sand. “All right,” He yawned, “Lets… do… it…” In a moment, he was asleep.