46) Now recording

“Hi Brat. So first things first. I lied.”

I frowned at the camera mounted in the front of my phone. I had already tried recording with it three times to figure out how to get it to work, and how to then get it all the way over to my computer so I could send the file through the website that I wasn’t even sure if my Granddaughter checked on all that often.

But I had enough trouble sending her anything at all with the website that I was at least a little familiar with, so she was going to have to put up dealing with a social media thing that was almost twice as old at her… I think it was that old. It was something like that.

“Right, sorry. Not about lying. But about getting lost in my thoughts. What I lied about was getting one of those classes. I figured that telling you would just get you all worried about me, and with you on the other side of the country, well… there was nothing you could do about it, so why have you get all upset?”

“So here’s the truth… ish, kiddo. I got a class called Kami, or at least that’s what I’ve been telling people. I was thinking about the minor gods from Japanese mythology, but apparently it’s some kind of anime character too.”

I grimaced at that. If I had only known…

“My real class has something to do with where I live and the land I own, including any land I acquire later on. Like the two houses, the store, and some vacant land on my block I just bought. Those Dungeons can’t appear here.”

I turned my phone around to show the Heap pulling free some blocks of mortered together cement blocks that had made up the foundation of the burned down house. It had to use a big metal chisel my uncle had called a cement buster to break up the morter, which had also busted up most of the big gray bricks until I figured out it just had to crack the stuff between them and then it could work them back and forth until they broke free, mostly intact.

There wasn’t a plan for those blocks, it just offended me to have something that belonged to me get busted up when I could have something intact that I might have a use for someday.

Even if it was just having the Heap pitch them at something. Or someone.

I lifted my phone up out of Acey’s reach as she tried to wave a hand in front of it, and held her back with my free hand on her forehead as I turned the phone around so I was looking at it again.

“That the Heap. My third level power. It’s not really a living thing, but some sort of sub personality of mine. Which means it’s not really smart, just ornery and mean. I got it since I have power over Life essence, which let me make it.., and some others who are actual people.”

I gave Acey a warning look, which she blightly ignored with a grin, before turning the phone to point at her.

“This is Acey. She a Dryad that popped out of a tree because I pushed life Essence into it to try to fix it up.” The little green girl smiled, waved, and blew a kiss at the phone.

The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

Leaning forward, I spoke up since I wasn’t sure if I could be heard clearly without the phone pointed at my face. “I’m trying to teach her, and the others, how to read. So if you could find some videos you can point me at that doesn’t have creepy looking cartoon kids singing, I would appreciate it.”

As I felt someone clawing at my pant leg, I turned the phone toward Blue as she settled down and sat at my feet looking up at my phone. “This is Blue. She got cut up by one of what the Brackets called a Lasher Imp. They don’t exist anymore. Not around here anyways. Your Grandmother and her friends ended that Dungeon. I helped a little.”

I panned the phone up to Wylina and Chubby resting up on the front porch. Mom coyote rose up and gave the phone a bow, while Chubby only gave it a disinterested glance before looking off down the street.

“That’s Wylina, which was my best guess for a girl version of Wylie Coyote’s name. The other pup is Chubby, who eats too much. The three of them are Spirit Coyotes because I channeled enough Life Essence into them to turn them into people.”

Stepping along my front lawn, I slowly began turning in a half circle to show off the rapidly growing gardens in my backyard and the one starting to catch up on the unpaved area next to the… my store next door.

“I also have awokened the land. My second level power. But I’m not sure what's going to happen when it wakes up all the way. But it’s going to be soon, maybe before the end of the day.”

Turning the phone around again, I gave it a shrug. “Right now though, I got a guarantee that Dungeons can’t open on my land. And I got the Heap to protect it even when I’m not here. So if you want to visit, well… I think it’s safer here than anywhere else… and I would like to see you again.”

I was a little surprised to mention that. I hadn’t realized for all it was annoying having a small child in my house again. I had missed that little girl.

It must have been her mother being here too that had made it annoying, I’ll blame her.

“...love you Brat. I catch up with you again soon.”

Flipping the phone open, I got the recording to end on the first try. Then started a new one.

“Patricia. Watch the message I sent to Bea first. Then watch this one.”

I waited a moment.

“I got hurt in the Dungeon. Bad. But I can heal myself, and Beryl’s crew has a Healer that can and will do the same for me. Right now Beatrice is my legal heir to everything I got and the Dryad and Coyotes will remain magical and can learn to be loyal to anyone I cared about even if I die.”

I took in a deep breath. “I don’t know how bad things might get, but if you get Bea here before I die, and things do get bad. She might be safer here than anywhere else. And I intend to turn her inheritance into something that will always keep her safe.”

Beginning to walk toward the back of my property, I turned the camera to show the houses on the other side of the alley. “That house, and that one are now owned by me. I plan to rent the rooms out in one of them with a promise of protection from the things from the Dungeon and use the money to fix up the other one. Once that one is liveable, it’s yours, by way of Beatrice at least.”

I turned the phone around one last time.

“Even if things don’t get as bad as I fear. It would be good for Bea to get to know the people of the land that will one day be hers. Because even after I’m gone I think it might have a lot of value, either for her to use as a income, or to sell off. But she might need to bond to the place while I’m still alive, and if the shit hit’s the fan, the safety this place could hold for her isn’t going to do her much good from halfway across the country.”

Starting at the phone for a moment, I clenched my eyes shut. “And I want to see her again.”

Acey took my free hand in hers after I ended the recording, and I smiled at her. “If she doesn’t come in time for me, can you try to be her friend?”

The green girl nodded slowly and then hugged me around the ribs until I began wiggling my way free to get back into the house so I could send the messages.

Sitting at my computer a half hour later, I slowly began to feel a presence all around me.

A protective presence, in a cold, alien sort of way.

[ Awakening of the land 100% complete ]