Chapter 3: Dumb & Dumber:
As Jaxon continued along the path, which seemed to lead in the general direction he was aiming for, he practised controlling his Scent and Gaze Abilities. During this practice, he became more adept at control. As he was walking, he suddenly remembered he had a third passive ability. Curious, he accessed his interface once more to review the description:
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Spiritual Awareness: Level 1 of 5
This passive ability enhances your sensitivity to magical energies and spiritual presences.
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Stepping over some leaves on the path, Jaxon mused, "I wonder how I can tell if I'm using that ability? And how does it work?" In an attempt to activate or feel the ability, he concentrated hard, pulling his eyebrows together. It wasn't long before he realised he was doing a pooping face, and he quickly abandoned the expression, though he continued to focus on the ability internally. "Surely, the ability doesn't require pooping expressions to work," he reasoned, half-amused by the thought. "Well, who knows in this world?" he said aloud, shaking his head.
The idea then struck him in an amusingly vivid way—an envisioned army of people using their abilities, all with intense concentration faces akin to the one he had just made. He couldn't help but laugh out loud at the thought, picturing lines of warriors prepared for battle, their faces contorted in serious yet comical pooping faces. The absurdity of it all offered a light-hearted moment on his journey. As he walked for a few hours and continued focusing on his senses and how they worked, he started to get a good feel for them. However, he could not tell if his Spiritual Awareness was doing anything. After a while, Jaxon noted it was getting on in the day, and the sun would go down in the next few hours. A little worried, he enlarged and checked his map and saw that he was only one-third of the way to the city. "Okay," Jaxon thought, "well, I have been going in the correct direction on my minimap, but I guess the scale is not what I thought."
He decided to pick up the pace of his walking, particularly now that he was gaining some small amount of control and confidence over his situation.
As he walked along, he noticed a light blue light off to the right of the path. Jaxon stopped walking and thought, "Righto, let's give these senses a go." He focused his vision, but all he could see were tree trunks. It seemed like the faint blue light was behind the trees but somehow shining through them. "Wait, that can't be right," Jaxon thought to himself. Then he realised that it was Spiritual Awareness that was the cause, not his “Sight Ability.” He focused his hearing around the blue haziness but didn't hear much, except for two people stomping about in the forest approximately 50 metres from the blue haze.
"Arrgh, IT HAS TO BE HERE SOMEWHERE!" a male voice yelled to the other person. "Well, if you hadn't been mucking about with the map and navigation pointer for so long, it might not have escaped," a woman's voice retorted. "Well! Where were you, eh!" the man snapped back at her. "I told you I had to go relieve myself while you were reading the map, and you grunted at me like you always do! So I went, it's not my fault," said the woman. They continued to stomp around, searching for what they had lost, while Jaxon quietly walked towards the two people. Just before he caught sight of them, the man said, "Well, if we don't bloody find it, the boss will kill us, and I mean figuratively, not literally. Wait, or is it the other way around?" The woman looked at him with an expression indicating she was baffled at how this man remembered to breathe.
"Hello there!" Jaxon called out. Startled by his presence, the two people drew the weapons they had on their belts. "Hey, woo, woo, woo, I'm unarmed. I just came over 'cause I heard yelling and was seeing if you're okay or needed any help," Jaxon explained. "Oh," said the woman, lowering her weapon, then her expression changed to mild surprise when she properly looked at him, "You're an orc!" she exclaimed. "And you're a human?" Jaxon replied. "Oh yes, sorry," she said, not accustomed to seeing orcs around here, "I didn't mean... WE DON'T HAVE TIME FOR THIS," the man interrupted impatiently. "Can I help you with something?" Jaxon offered. "Yes, we caught and somehow now lost a Water Elemental." "Oh," Jaxon responded, "What does it look like?" Both of them looked at him as if he were simple, "It's a blue floating blob thing," the woman said sarcastically, her look conveying, 'great, now there are two male idiots I have to deal with.'
"Oh," Jaxon said, his mind racing to the blue haze in the trees, now only 20 metres away from them. "YES," he bluffed, "I was walking along the path back there, and this blue thing came out of the forest, crossed the path, and went into the other side," Jaxon lied. "What?!" exclaimed the man, "It's not even trying to head back deeper into the woods." "It could be trying to trick us by heading in that direction to lose us, then double back to go deeper into the woods." "Quick, let's go," the man urged, as they both sprinted off towards the path without giving Jaxon another thought.
Jaxon waited a few minutes until he heard them cross over the path. Then, he turned and headed directly for the blue haze. As he approached the tree with the haze, he was puzzled; he was sure the blue haze must have been the Water Elemental the two were searching for. Jaxon paused for a few seconds, then decided to walk around the other side of the tree, where he saw a hollow in the trunk. "Ahh," he thought. He crouched down slightly to peer into the hollow when something squirted him in the eye. "Hey," he protested, "HEY, I'm not going to hurt you. I just saved you from Tweedle Dum and Tweedle Dee. I sent them over to the other side of the path looking for you. It's okay, come out. I won't hurt you, I promise."
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Carefully, Jaxon crouched down again but kept his face away from the hollow. Inside was the most amazing thing; it looked like a large blob of water, pressed up against the wall of the hollow, trembling, trying to escape. He softened his voice, "Hey, hey, hey, little one, it's okay. They are gone for now, shh, shh." As Jaxon calmed the blob down, it retracted from squeezing itself against the inside wall of the tree trunk and resumed a more uniform water blob shape. Jaxon noticed the water constantly moving inside of it, with what appeared to be some much smaller blobs behind it, like 3-4 decreasing in size. They floated separately but together, akin to a tail until the last blob was but a speck. "Hey, how are you doing?" Jaxon greeted.
To his surprise, two little indents appeared at the front of the water blob, seemingly looking at him with cautious eyes. "Are you okay? I can help you get home if you want," he offered. The water blob's eyes narrowed as though suspicious of Jaxon's intentions. "Alright then, or not," Jaxon conceded as he stepped back, "I'll leave you to yourself then, but I wouldn't hang around here too long. I reckon Dumb and Dumber will be back soon."
Jaxon turned and took two steps back towards the path when, quick as a flash, the blob zoomed out of the hollow and hovered at head height. It floated there for a few seconds, then vibrated, making a kind of sloshing and bubbly sound, and changed shape into a hand with a finger pointing behind him. Jaxon looked in the direction it pointed. "You want me to go that way?" The blob vibrated, gurgled, and the hand then gave a thumbs up. "Well," Jaxon said out loud, "that's convenient."
The blob then reverted to its main blobby form, and its eyes reappeared. It performed a small loop, like a rollercoaster, and zoomed off in the direction it had indicated. Moving at a fast pace, it kept a distance from Jaxon, then turned around, waiting for him to catch up. After a few minutes, Jaxon reached the blob, which now seemed to express impatience. "What," Jaxon said, "am I moving too slow for you?" The blob seemed to fold the top half of itself and rock forward slightly, indicating, yes, you are. "Okay then," Jaxon said, "shall we run?" The blob vibrated and gurgled with what seemed to be excitement. "Okay," Jaxon laughed, "is it safe? You're not going to make me run into a pit trap, are you?" The blob looked at him as if to say, "Seriously?"
"Okay, okay," Jaxon conceded, "I'll work my way up to full running as I haven't run before." The blob gave him a look that questioned his sanity. "Well, I have run before," Jaxon clarified, "just not in this... LOOK," he cut himself off, stopping from entering a complex and possibly insane explanation to a blob of water. Jaxon laughed again at the absurdity his life had become. "Just let me work my way up, okay?" he said to the blob. The blob
seemed to shrug in response. "Okay," Jaxon agreed, "try to stay just in front of me." The blob took off quickly, then instantly stopped approximately 3 metres from him. It was astonishing that the momentum did not cause it to break apart, stopping that abruptly.
Jaxon focused on his senses, particularly his “Sight Ability,” and started jogging, paying attention to where his feet were landing. As he jogged for about a hundred metres, he noticed his “Sight Ability” guiding him to the next few places to place his feet. Trusting his ability, he accelerated, and as he did, his senses guided him to further and wider locations to place his feet as he ran. As he picked up the pace, he gained about 2 metres on the blob, then he realised he was watching the blob and watching where he was putting his feet at the same time, as if his foot placement was intuitive, even though he knew his eyes were scouting the forest ahead of him. It was like his eyes moved three times faster than his body. He did not understand how his brain was comprehending the rapid information intake, but he found that the more he didn't worry about it and trusted it, the easier it was to run. Hmm, he thought, I'm not even getting tired, yet he realised as he was running just behind the blob. "I guess this Orc body has some go in it," he thought. At that moment, the blob's eyes appeared at the back of it. Jaxon gave the blob an enthusiastic wave, and the eyes of the blob widened in surprise, then turned curious. Then, with a vibration, giggle, and gurgle, the blob became aerodynamic, acquiring a kind of pointy nose, and as it flew along, its four little smaller blobs flailed behind it. Its eyes then spun around to the front, and the blob accelerated.
Jaxon laughed and thought, *Okay, let's see what this Orc machine can do!* And he pushed his energy and focus into his speed. And it felt wonderful; it felt like flying, the trees zipping past him in a blur, the exhilaration pushing him onwards. Soon he caught halfway back up to the blob, and it was awesome. After about 15 minutes of full-speed running, he noticed he was starting to tire. Hmm, he thought, I better not overdo it, as fun as it was. He slowed his pace to a speed he felt he could maintain for a while but still at a very fast run. The blob maintained the aerodynamic shape but slowed to match his pace. When Jaxon looked at the blob again, he saw its eyes were back around looking at him again, with a look saying, *Yeah, you wish you were as fast as me.*
"Alright, alright," Jaxon said as they continued to run. It was now very dark, but Jaxon had not noticed, but his vision had changed to a kind of mono grey but with hints of colour still present. Okay, he thought, I guess I have a kind of colour night vision. Then Jaxon saw that fog was coming in, and the blob had slowed down to a slow run, like a normal human level of running. His vision was getting worse and worse, but the blob seemed to know where it was going, so Jaxon followed. *Gee, I hope my mapping ability has been keeping up with me, as I will need to find my way back,* Jaxon thought.
And then… he woke up!