Jacob sat next to Archival in the covered wagon, on their way out of town. He had his new leather adventuring pack laid across his lap, his shoes and socks safely tucked away.
Archival turned to Jacob, “Well care for a chat? It will be hours before we get to Stone Hearth.” Archival asked in a chipper voice. “Sure, it will help pass the time. So, let us do this, I ask a question you answer, you ask a question and I will answer, so on. Sound fair?” Jacob asked
Archival’s already considerable smile only widened. “Ask away.” “What kind of city is Stone Hearth?” “It is a dwarven city, oh you probably…” “I know what dwarves are.” Jacob interrupted Archival to keep time from being wasted on things he already had a fair understanding of.
Archival crossed his arms and leaned back with a toothy grin, “Is that right, then do please enlighten us, what do you think Dwarves are?” Jacob was surprised by the challenge but had foreseen such a possibility.
“They are short and stout people built like barrels. They commonly have beards and love their booze. They are famous as miners and crafts men, often carving their cities into mountains and underground. I knew that before I arrived.”
Archival’s grin faded and his eyes widened, “Hellen told me that you had come from another world but to think you already possessed such knowledge before you even arrived.” “You need to finish answering my question.”
Archival nodded his head before continuing, “It is a large walled city, great big grey stone walls. The whole city is a giant circle. You can see the building when we get there. However, the one thing you should know before you arrive is that at the center of this city is an enormous spiral staircase that leads down to a dungeon.”
Archival remained silent, eyebrows raised as if waiting for something. “Dungeons. Places that have for one reason or another become home to monsters. Many times, consisting of multiple floors.” Jacob took a breath before continuing.
“I am uncertain as to the nature of magic in this world, so you will have to tell me. Are they just places that became filled with monsters or is there a beating heart to the dungeon, a dungeon core?” Archival’s face was pale, he had not expected Jacob to be so knowledgeable.
“It does indeed possess a heart, a dungeon core just as you have said. The dungeon was one the dwarven city, before it was abandoned for a several years during a war decades ago. By the time they came to reclaim the city, the dungeon had formed and was rooted too deep for them to conquer.” Archival said as he leaned forward, arms on his knees, hand and head drooped.
“I will take that as my question answered. What is your question?” Quick as a bolt Archival shook himself from his thoughts returning to his prior chipper attitude. “What was your world like, I have heard stories, but I would love to hear it from someone who actually live there.”
Jacob was silent for a moment, “There was basically no magic. Maybe god gave out holy magic occasionally if he is real, but I do not know. Many magicians were rumored to have sold their souls for real magic, but no one knew for certain.”
Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.
“Most people didn’t believe in magic. We believed in the machines we had built. We build our whole world around technology, and then we used it to leave our home world and venture out. Not long before I arrived here, they had finished construction of a space elevator. A tower that connected to a habitat in space.”
“It sounds like a lovely world, filled with bright minds.” Archival said absent mindedly. “It wasn’t. We build weapons to use on each other, with the push of a button a single man could kill thousands on the other side of the world. We build Nuclear Weapons. Bombs with enough power that they could probably kill a god.”
Jacob was meet by silence, he looked around to find everyone else was staring at him, mouth agape. Even Calisa who was driving the cart, had turned back, and was now staring at him.
“We didn’t have magic, we had to fight tooth and claw with the beasts of the world and use the only gift nature had given use, our minds. With that we became the apex predators. We sat ourselves upon the top of the food chain. Men called themselves wise as they destroyed the world that had given them life. No, it was not a lovely world, but it certainly was filled with brilliant minds.”
I believe it is my turn again. The rest of them closed their jaws and Archival indicated for him to ask his next question. “You’re a Druid, right? What’s your magic like?”
Archival instead of answering leaned down he held his palms to the sky and closed his eyes muttering words that Jacobs could not understand. Archival’s left hand began to glow lime green, then his right began to glow gold.
He placed his palms against the carts wooden floor, and the floor began to move as if it were alive. From the floor grew a small sprig, it grew into a tall thin wooden rod and then it fell over onto the wagons floor as it returned to what it had been before, ceasing its writing motion.
Archival picked up the new staff and tossed it to Jacob. “I just cast, Wood growth and Shape Wood. Levels 4 and 5, respectively.” Before Jacob could respond he felt something strange from the staff in his hands.
The staff began to glow with faint golden light, and at the top of the staff the wood began to move on its own, much to the surprise of those watching. They watched as the wood grew, warped, and shaped itself. When it was done the staff was a little shorter than when it had been made. What was now at the top of the staff was an all to familiar face to him. It was the face of the great mother bear.
Archival was the first to speak after that, “How did you get the class Totem Master?” Jacob recounted how he had arrived and first wielded magic, how a dire lioness had found him and intended to make a meal of him.
“I beseech the land and sky, send unto me a great beast that I might not die!” Archival quickly butting in with another question, “Why those words?” Jacob pondered that question for a long moment before answering.
“When in my panic, attempting to burn the damn thing failed, I thought I was going to die.” Jacob pausing for a moment weighing his words, none dared to interrupt him. “I’m not strong enough to fight this. What kills a predator? A bigger predator. So, I called out to the world and it listened. It’s probably always listening.” It was Hellen’s turn to chip in now, “Why is there a black spot on your chest still? Archie here healed you.”
Jacob pulled the neck of his shirt out to look at his chest. His eyes widened and he took off his shirt. Jacob was never as strong or fit as his peers but now, he was ripped.
He had a six pack, and his chest was broader than it had been before. The most startling thing, however, was that upon his now sculpted chest, over his heart was a black tattoo of a bear’s paw. Right where the great mother bear had touched him. “This is new.”