Tracy

Tracy caught up to the two youths around noon, noticing immediately the glazed eyes of the girl and the nasty rash spreading on her arms. I knew it trouble finds that family like a magnet. Well, I will forage for medicinal plants and leave finding water to the Prince.

Unfortunately, finding the plants she needed took the rest of the day. Tracy didn't catch up with the pair until sunset, just in time to watch the girl's head slump against the Prince's chest. Smiling at the scene, she thought back to when the Prince was still a baby. He always threw a tantrum if he couldn't bathe with that child from the Barnabus household who spent so much time at the palace. If the girl still lives, she should be a year or so older than the Prince. Maybe they will meet again when I bring him to the Underground Capital.

Shaking those thoughts from her head, Tracy walked to the river and stripped the filthy dress off before setting foot in the river and washed both it and herself. Finishing that, she walked to the kid's pack and began sifting through it, finding what she needed. Then wrinkling her nose at the dirty dishes. She gave them a disappointed look every Mother learned to use even if they promised themselves they would never use it on their own children.

After cleaning the dishes, Tracy built a fire and hung her wet dress on a nearby low-hanging branch to dry. Thinking better as she turned to the kids, she sighed and put it on. Adults don't wander around naked in front of children. It will be unpleasant for a bit, but it will still dry even if I'm wearing it.

An hour later, she knelt over the kids and gently shook their shoulders. "Come on you two its getting cold, and I made a salve for your arms and sunburn."

Tracy watched, amused as they slowly stirred. The moment they discovered that someone was kneeling over them, she almost laughed outright. Tracy instead kept a soft motherly smile on her face. However, when she got a clear look at the girl, her countenance changed to shock. "Cassandra?" Then her eyes filled with unshed tears. "No Cassie is gone, along with the rest of the Kings Champions."

Jumping at the name, the young woman moved out from behind; as the Prince stood protectively in front of her, grabbing Tracy's hand. "You knew my Mother?"

Unable to speak for a bit, Tracy could only nod until she got herself under control, she then placed her hands on Anita's face turning it this way and that. "You look just like her. She would be so proud if she were still here today. Cassandra, Rachel, and I grew up together practically like sisters. Well, actually, Rachel and I are half-sisters, but you get the point.

Theodore grinned at this. "I know your Aunt Tracy, Mom... I mean Aunt Rachel talked about you all the time. But, how come you can talk like Aunt Rachel?"

Tracy placed one hand on Theo's cheek. "You can call Rachel Mom anytime you want. Elenore would understand... You have her eyes so very blue. But your looks come entirely from your Father. Also the uncanny ability to get into trouble. As for talking." Tracy pulled the silver pendent from inside her dress, handing it to Theo.

Theo slowly took it and sat down on a nearby boulder staring at the pendant. "I knew in my heart they were gone, but a small part of me, kept hoping Mom would appear and tell me to come home."

A tear made its way down Theo's cheek, and Anita started to move toward him, but a hand placed on her shoulder by Tracy, who, unable to speak, used her hands. Come with me. Men don't like to cry in front of women nor children." Anita thought about ignoring Tracy but, in the end, followed her to the campfire.

Tracy then spent the next fifteen minutes applying a salve to Anita's arms then coaxing her into the only bedroll. Although Anita said she would wait for the Prince to go to sleep, she underestimated how tired she was.

Getting to her feet, Tracy went to the Prince, placing one hand on his shoulder. After getting him to look up, she signed. "Rachel would be proud of you, no matter what course you take. Remember that, and don't get too worried about the future. Ah, Elenore too, and your Father."

Theodore smiled sadly but nodded his head. "You should get some sleep, I can take first watch, after all I just woke up with a beautiful girl in my lap, so I am well rested." His usual Mischievous smile was making its way home.

Tracy smiled as she shook her head. "Way to much like your Father. Alright I expect to be woken in three hours for my shift and we can discuss plans in the morning." walking back to the fire, she grabbed a ratty grey cloak from Anita's pack. Wrapping it around herself before removing the still quite rank dress, hanging it from a nearby branch. Maybe it will air out a bit in the night.

Before laying down next to Anita, she glanced one last time at the Prince, who had moved next to a large nearby tree and was facing away from the fire. Tracy had to raise an eyebrow at the strangeness of seeing him swiping his hand through the air, poking it at times. Is he pretending to be an Outworlder?

- - - - -

Theo

Theo stood glaring at the annoying, blinking lights that keep popping up every once in a while. How did I read the one that said I learned the skill Soverighnes Right? Focusing on the top icon, he imagined dragging it to the center of his vision.

Congratulation's you have discovered Blackrot Marsh +10 exp.

Congratulation's you have discovered Rocky Wastes +10 exp

You have been struck in the back of the head blunt-force trauma - 2 hp

You have been struck in the back of the knees - 1 x2 knees = - 2 hp

An enemy has cast a compulsion spell on you. Willpower insufficient, compulsion was a complete success you are being controlled duration 100 minutes times castors willpower. Enemies willpower 25 compulsion duration of 2,500 minutes.

Theodore gaped at the list that went on in the same way for several pages. Skipping the irrelevant discovery and damage taken notifications, he came to the bottom.

Congratulations, you have learned a valuable skill. - First aid, Novice - Beneficial for those annoying scrapes you get while running through the woods without the proper gear. Or, in your case, naked, no seriously, put some clothes on your Aunt is watching.

You have earned the Loyalty of Lady Anita Barnabus. Aka Anna. Current reputation, max, Loyal. You lucky dog must be that stupidly high charisma. Just my opinion, but you should have practiced your willpower rather than spend so much time flirting with girls, just saying.

Theo scratched the back of his head in embarrassment. I don't think I did anything to warrant earning anybody's loyalty. I am almost sure her rash was my fault. Deciding to deal with that in the morning, he turned his attention to another blinking icon.

Status, Sorry this page is still under development. Come back later.

"Okay, next one then."

Warriors Legacy found. A great warrior has implanted his knowledge of being a warrior somewhere on or in your body. (Creepy) Knowledge will become available as you grow stronger. Current Ability available - Cleave- Level 1, x2 damage - AC for heavy armor, ignores light armor. Use a small amount of magic to surround your bladed weapon in a sheen of energy to cut your enemy in two. Or, in your case, make a grown man bleed a bit. (wuss) FYI don't try to steal one of your girlfriend's knives. This Ability requires a short sword at a minimum. Now that beauty Aunt Tracy carries, that would do the trick, but good luck taking it from her. If you tried, you might find your head getting real close to the dirt in a somewhat permanent fashion.

Theo scowled at the screen, then turned to look at his Aunt. She was still clutching the hilt of her two-handed sword, even in her sleep. "Okay, maybe the cheeky notification has a point." Let's see here we go skills list.

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Skills. Abilities. Soverighnes Right - Level 1 - 50% Cleave - Level 1 - 0%

Curious, Theo focused on Soverighnes Right.

Soverighnes Right. Cost 10 MP, 24-hour cooldown. Removes adverse effects from anyone that considers themselves a citizen of Andoon.

"Interesting I only used the skill once and it is already fifty percent so if I use it on Aunt Tracy it should level. I wonder what that will do maybe lower the cooldown?" Theodore pondered this as well as whether to use it on Tracy now. At the same time, pacing in a wide half-circle around camp. "No better not I really don't want to find out how sharp that sword is the hard way." Or would that be the easy way?

I might as well do something constructive. Picking up his only pair of clothes, Theo scowled at the numerous holes his journey during the last couple of days had caused. Then the smell hit him, and he scrunched up his nose. "Guiss I should wash them and try and repair them, I saw some thread in Anna's pack hopefully their is also a needle."

Shrugging, he grabbed Anna's clothes and armor pieces as well as his Aunt's dress. "Was she rolling in a pigpen how in the Realm did she get so much mud on it?"

After hanging the wet clothes near the fire to dry, Theo began trying to repair his pants. Or at least keep them from falling to pieces before he could get something else.

Theo also absentmindedly played with a few options he found for something called HUD. He first stopped the annoying flashing icons. Instead, he had a Menu with a drop-down list of categories. Theo placed a blue bar marking his Magic levels at the bottom center of his vision. It was weird, but he could get used to it. There was also a red bar for health, but he was pretty sure he could tell if he was about to die without a reminder.

However, the most helpful thing he found was a compass that showed small icons of nearby locations of interest, like an abandoned mine two miles to the east and a town near that.

There are several options that Theo couldn't activate; Like the map, the function requires an unknown skill. Or the Crafting part, the list went on. Eventually, he asked for a way to block unusable options, soon an option highlighted itself in the settings menu.

Finishing his shirt, he put it on, and a chime sounded, letting him know he got a new notification. Much better than blinking icons.

But before he could check, a low growl from the treeline caught his attention. Theo frowned as he looked around for a weapon. "Well, I suppose beggars can't be choosers" Theo picked up a palm-sized rock in one hand and a sturdy stick he picked up earlier in the day.

Remembering that he had gotten stronger when the strange skill appeared, his confidence grew, and he stepped toward the growl, placing himself between whatever was out there and his friends. Two seconds later, his confidence plummeted as six scrawny green wolves that looked like they hadn't eaten all season stepped into the light. "Wake Up, Attack!"

Theo stared at the wolves and decided to lose the rock; placing the stick in a two-handed grip, he darted toward the one on the far right. Aunt is a veteran soldier. She will hopefully make up for any mistake I make. As soon as the wolf was in range, he decided to try his new Ability. I mean, if you squint just right, you could maybe think this is a sword. Strangely unlike when he used Soverighnes Right, there was a slight pause before the ability activated as if whatever is in charge of it wasn't sure if it should count.

Theo brought the stick down, and as he did, his magic bar dropped almost to nothing. The stick gave off a slight red glow right before it hit the wolf on its head. The wolf gave a loud yelp and dropped, twitching. The familiar chime sounded again, but Theo had already turned toward the next wolf, and when he leveled his stick, he found it was half as long as it used to be.

"Well that's not good." The wolf lunged, and Theo barely grabbed it by the throat before it could clamp its jaws on his own. Theo tried to beat it with what he now wanted to consider a club but was really just a broken stick. But it didn't seem to faze the wolf as it tore its claws into his chest and shredded his just mended shirt. With no recourse, he dropped the stick and ignored the wolf's claws as he strangled the thing.

Rolling the unconscious wolf off him, he looked around, noticing it was silent. Two wolves had their heads looped off. Another looked to be skewered, and the fourth had so many knives in it he almost thought it was a pincushion. While Tracy and Anita watched him with raised eyebrows. "What it's my first fight outside the occasional bar brawl."

Grumbling about the judgmental woman, he took one of the knives from the wolf corpse and finished off his fallen enemies. Then returned to the fire examining the remains of his shirt. "Well that's it for that shirt." Tearing it the rest of the way off, he began shredding it into strips; he used them to dunk into the bowl of water warming next to the fire, then started cleaning his cuts.

Several wasted seconds later, while the ladies finished dressing, he walked back to the small inlet and plopped himself in, watching as the water turned a lovely shade of red. "I feel like this should hurt, a lot more then it does."

Anita walked over curiously, the wolf attack not fazing her as she had dealt with them before. "what do you mean... What why is there so much blood? stand up let me see." However, Theo's head flopped back, and a snore escaped his lips. Anita could only gape at the sight before quickly trying to pull Theo out of the water.

Tracy came over after locating the pendent since Anita seemed about to go into a full-blown panic attack. "Relax the green forest wolves have an anesthetic on their claws, that also acts as a soporific. Strange but not the strangest thing in these woods. Of course, if he had tried to fight them alone most likely he would have fallen asleep and been eaten alive."

Tracy grabbed one arm while Anita grabbed the other, and they managed to drag Theo back to the camp, where they laid him on the bedroll. "Alright Anita, relax already, look the bleeding has mostly stopped. Clean him, while I skin the wolves, we might be able to sell them. Or atleast trade for some better clothes for Theo and me."

Anita stared at Tracy's back as she walked away. "Arent you even worried about him? he looks like shredded jerky."

Tracy sighed before responding. "Why don't you examine his wounds closer, then you will understand."

Confused, Anita did and yelped loudly as she jumped up and took a step back. Theo's wounds were wriggling a tiny amount, and she could see them closing along the ends of the tears. Getting herself under control and flushing at the open laughter coming from Tracy. Anita bent down and watched until they were closed, leaving a small pinkish line. She was sure they would be gone within half a day or so.

It took Tracy until sunrise to finish cleaning the skins. When she finished, she stood over two sleeping youths. She made a loud clap, and both shot to their feet, although not entirely awake. "We are going to work on that. But first clean up camp, its nearly morning and we need to figure out what we are doing."

Theo spoke up immediately. "I am going to Mallorn mine to get Michail, you can both come with me if you like but before that. Aunt Tracy, I can remove the geas, if you want?"

Tracy didn't look convinced, so she turned to Anita, who nodded her head. "I suppose but I am still keeping the pendent to give to Michail, I promised Rachel."

Theo shrugged. "That's fine, She would have wanted to either give it back to the King, or failing that whoever Michail ends up marrying. However, there is some kind of magic in it. I can feel it, now that I can use magic myself. I am not sure if it will interfere, so hand It to Anita for now."

The authoritative tone he used, while surprising Anita, only made Tracy smile. "Just like his Father, the man was constantly playing pranks, but when it came to important matters he became a different person." Tracy took the pendant from her neck before passing it to Anita, who took it with a solemn nod.

Moments later, Theo watched as almost his entire Magic bar vanished again. Then an obnoxious notification appeared.

Skill leveled up Soverighnes Right is now level 2. Cooldown did not decrease, hah, you wish. The cost also didn't change. But you know what did change what it can accomplish. You can now unlock the system in others by placing your Royal hand on their heads. (In other words, I can interact with them. I know you are a bit slow, so I spelled it out for you.) 10/10 available uses, level this skill to unlock more. I think by now, you have grasped the concept of leveling skills, right?

"Turn off all notifications no matter what kind." Anita stared at Theo in shock at his random outburst. Still, Tracy didn't even notice as she seemed to be looking around at everything in wonder as tears rolled down her cheeks.