Chapter Twelve

A/N: Grandpa's comin' out of retirement early, boys and girls! (I am NOT a grandpa, and am still in the prime of my life! I just needed some figurative language.) Enjoy the chappie~~

“Fe-Fenny not want to play, anymre!”

“Gergina, neither!”

“Why??!”

“Well, you see, boss….. How should I phrase this? Ah, yeah! Well, you found us all too quickly!”

“But Tiffy...”

“No, boss. You really did find us too quickly. I also have lost my will to play this game….”

“Wait! Those can’t be real tears, can they Laurine?! How does losing a game make you so sad?!”

“Well I only had one point that I got after taking on two challenges,” sobbed Laurine,”and because I lost to you, I lost two points! Whaaaa! I’m in the negatives!”

“R-Really, what’s there to be sad about? Can’t you just gain more?”

“Whaaa! Wuaua!! But I wanted to use a favor to ask for one of your massages! I haven’t had one for over a month! Your massages are so heavenly, and I bet not even gods can compare to them!”

“Oh, so that’s what you wanted….. How about this, I’ll give you a free massage if you forgive me…?”

“Eh?”

“I know you probably don’t want one, but—”

“What are you talking about?! Of course I want one!”

“W-Wow… okay.”

“Yes! I will get a massage! A massage!”

While saying that, Laurine was wiggling her cylindrical body inside of the tiny hole in the ground she was coming up from. She looks cute while doing that, but I’ve just got a question in my mind….. I pride myself on giving massages, but are they really that enjoyable? I mean, sure, I have heard compliments from the Lendren Runners and Piffy Lugs about my massaging abilities. However, isn’t that just an over exaggeration? 

Meh, whatever. Hmmmm….. why do I feel as if I have someone staring at me? Let’s just turn around to make sure no devil’s looking at my back….. Ah!

When I pivoted to look at what was behind me, I saw two pairs of blue-colored eyes. One belonged to a white Lendren Runner and the other pair belonged to a black Lendren Runner. Those eyes were currently staring a hole into my chest, which was originally my back before I’d turned around. I’m not stupid, and I know what they want.

“So you girls also want a massage….?”

““UN!””

“Um, well, okay.”

“Hey, boss, could we al— ow!”

“Huh? Were you saying anything, Giffy?” 

“Nu uh! Gify wan’t said anything! Have you, Giffy?”

I blinked. The latter part of Georgina’s sentence was a sentence without any lisping! They grow up so fast! Because I had been celebrating that monumental moment, I didn’t notice that her voice had gotten dark.

“O-Oh, yeah! Yeah! I didn’t say anything! Nothing at all!”

“‘Kay. Also, Georgina, you didn’t lisp! Isn’t that great?”

“Hmmm? Gergina not lips? Whut lips means?”

“Ahhh, I guess it was too good to be able to be repeated.”

……….

Inside of Georgina’s mind

“Ay! What did I just do?! I didn’t lisp! I know that I’ve been trying not to lisp for years, but why at this moment in time?!!! What will happen if Cadmar finds out about my smarts!? Or worse, Fenny will find out and use it to separate me from Cadmar! Ugh! That stupid Giffy! Well, at least I got to kick him once. No use worrying about what you can’t change…..”

……….

“Well, does anyone else want to have a massage?”

“No.”

“Ohh, no!”

“Nope!”

“Nah!”

Okay. But why did everyone’s eyes dart towards Giffy and towards Georgina? Could it be…..? No, impossible! Well, it really isn’t that impossible…. They’re so kind! The rest of the Piffy Lugs just want to let Georgina, Fenny, and Laurine have a nice, long massage. They probably don’t want to cut the girls’ time.  So kind! They have really been raised well! 

To those wondering what had happened earlier to lead to this situation, I’ll rewind a little.

*******

I had just found out where Giffy was hidden. I then had used the Dark Magic called [Shadow Movement] to get to the places that all the monsters had been hiding. The total time it took me to find out the location of the monsters was less than five minutes…..

[Shadow Movement] is a magic that allows a person to meld in with the shadows. Using [Shadow Movement], it is possible to travel through the realm of shadows. The place called “Shadow Realm” is an artificial creation that intelligent creatures created into our world. 

It is where all Dark Magic comes from. All magics that we use have roots from where they were created. For example, Light Magic was created in the Holy City of Mander. Mander is mostly home to Light Magic users. Mander’s people use Light Magic only, because it is a symbol of their culture.

 Exactly twenty million years ago, the country was founded. The people of Mander had excavated ancient ruins which held many scriptures about Light Magic. Before the findings of Light Magic, there was no magic word or chant that included Light Magic. 

It was rumored that everything about magic had been lost throughout the passage of time after all the gods and demi-gods disappeared. Then, we started to rediscover the lost magicks once again. 

The travel between places is very strange. Also, I seem to not have to think about properties of nature a lot anymore to cast magic. I should ask Feeh what this is about. Back to my explanation about shadow travel. 

When I cast the magic [Shadow Movement], I sink into my shadow. Then, I am put into a space of complete darkness. After a moment, a few lights start to appear which are blinding in this empty darkness. Those few quickly multiply into thousands…. then millions…. then billions….. then are multiplied into the trillions….. after that, there are so many shadows that there isn’t a number in this world that measures them all…. Those lights are all the shadows in our world. Everything’s shadow is laid out before me, well, not EVERYTHING, but still most of the things in our world.

Those lights that I saw were technically gates towards the things beyond. You could say I had everything in the world laid out before my eyes. However, as I’ve said before, not everything was laid out. The reason for that is because there are some people or things with spells/magic artifacts on them that stop or block their shadows from appearing in the “Shadow Realm”. Those spells/artifacts are most likely using Light Magic— which is the exact opposite element as Dark Magic— to counteract [Shadow Movement]’s abilities.

I haven’t finished explaining how [Shadow Movement] works, yet. Let me continue. While using [Shadow Movement], my body is split into light particles. Those light particles then go deep underground, summoned by the mana at the core of our dimension. Just about five million feet above the core, they go into a dark mist which is a gate to the artificial space in our dimension that is like a sub-dimension. That place contains all of the shadows that aren’t protected by something.

There, you can think of anything or person you want to get near to, and bam! The shadow comes out to the front of the trillions of shadows. You then think of yourself going into that space of light, and after you are completely through, you are able to appear right out of that thing/person’s shadow. You never know about the surroundings of the shadow’s owner, though. I may come out of a vertical place if the shadow is on a wall or something. 

I explained all of that because my process of finding everyone was a bit too boring. I appeared behind Giffy and he didn’t even know that I’d gotten behind him. I made sure to not tap him before he knew I was there so that it didn’t count as an attempt to make him my henchman. 

I used [Shadow Movement] once more and appeared a few meters away from where Giffy was hiding. The shadow that I’d moved to this time had been the shadow of a large tree. I could hear some birds chirping in the trees, but I’m pretty sure that they’re not actual birds. Normal birds would quickly die because of the monsters in the forest, so they were probably some species of monsterised animals. 

I walked towards Giffy, making sure that my steps were loud. 

“Hmmm! Oh, where could someone be hiding? Maybe in a………. Hole?!”

Saying the last word of my sentence, I ran towards the dug out earth in front of me. I could see that Giffy was squirming his tiny brown body inside of the hole, trying to dig a tunnel to run away from here. I couldn’t let him run away! Besides, if he tries to dig a hole trying to run away, he will break the rules.

Perhaps realizing that fact, Giffy stopped trying to run away and just waited for me to come. 

“I found you!”

“Boss, how’d ya find me so fast?”

“It’s a secret…..”

“C’monnnn! Tell me, boss! I could maybe use it for another one of my pranks…… hehe!”

“Since you’ve said it so plainly……. I won’t give it to you! I don’t want another copy of the “Great Frog Incident” happening again! You know how disastrous it was?”

“Ohh, so the “Great Frog Incident” , huh? Wasn’t it great, boss? It was one of my most intricate plans that I’d ever created! And the result was soooo great! Hahaha!”

*Sigh* “Well, I’ve gotta go find the rest of the people. Go to the stable and everything that will happen next will be decided there.”

As I said those words, I walked towards the trees again. I then used [Shadow Travel] to go to the others’ locations. I did that so that Giffy couldn’t figure out how I got to my space from behind the trees so quickly. The events that happened next went just like the one with Giffy. I went right behind them and then travelled a few meters away and went to the hiders. They asked me questions, but I just gave them a mysterious smile and told them to go to the stable.

Now it is the present time.

*******

“Well, what should we do now that you don’t want to play hide and seek?”

“Hey, boss,” starts Miffy,"could you read us a story?”

“Huh? Why?”

“Because the stories you choose to read are the most interesting ones ever!” this time it was Tiffy who exclaimed that. Tiffy is mostly an introvert, but when he gets excited about something, nothing can stop him from talking about it.

“That one time that you read us The History of Magic  , it was amazing! You gave me so many new facts to throw around in my head! Also, you’re a good reader! Your emotions are so expressionary when you read! It even makes us listeners seem as if we are inside of the story and are participating in the events happening!” continues Tiffy while squirming a lot inside of his little hole in the ground.

Aya! He can be a bit too excited about his favorite things! If he goes at this rate, the ground around him may be completely destroyed! Besides, it seems that it is uncomfortable for Miffy, Giffy, Diffy, and Laurine who are around him, since there are some uncomfortable movements of their cylindrical bodies inside of their respective tunnels. 

“Tify need calm down!”

“Yus! Tify need to calm down, like Feny sayd!”

I guess Fenny and Georgina were also getting a bit uncomfortable because they decided to speak out to Tiffy who was basically a shaking mess in his little area. (A/N: Yay! A usually quiet character who becomes crazy at times! Just another good addition for this soup which is my story! I am the chef and the characters are the ingredients. You, the readers, are my customers!)

“Oops. Let me just go hide somewhere……”

While he said that, Tiffy’s body slowly sunk into the ground, his brown face a bit darker than usual because of embarrassment. At least the shaking’s stopped. 

“Are you sure you want me to read you guys a book?”

“I guess.”

“Well, okay. Any preferences?”

“Hmmm,” thought Laurine,”what about a fantasy story?”

“Are you guys okay with that,” I ask the rest of the people inside of the stable.

“Yes, we’re okay with that,” said Fenny, acting as the representative of them.

Looking around, I noticed that no one else had any objections, so I nodded my head and told the guys (and gals) to wait while I got a book from the library. I went to the hut as quickly as possible and got to the library.

In the library, I picked out a random book and ran back towards the stable. Only after getting close to the stable did I read what the title was. The story was a short story called Fewis and Dlark's Adventure. I ran towards the red stable and rushed through the large doors. 

"I'M BACCCKKK!!!"

I realize that that may have been a bit too excessive, but I just felt like I needed to say that.

"This story is called Fewis and Dlark's adventure! Let's start to read!"

"""""Mhm!"""" 

I went towards the large pile of yellow hay in the right side of the stable and sat down on it. You know, that's the best place to sit in the stable, except for the Lendren Runners' beds. Everyone gathered around me. 

The monsters placed themselves into two rows. All of the small Piffy Lugs were at the front row, and the two Runners were at the back, since they were large. I started to tell the story.

………..

Soon, the day was almost gone and light was about to disappear. I finished reading the book and told everyone to go to bed. I wished them a good night and went to the hut. I could see that a light was on in the hut because of the brightness of it illuminating the darkness.

When I got to the door and opened it, I could see Feeh dozing on the sofa and I, not wanting to disturb him, climbed the stairs and went to bed. Though a long one, this day was fun. Now, tomorrow I will have to do the grueling activity of learning Krav Maga…..

A/N: I've been wondering….. should I do a special Valentine's day chapter? It would be like a sneak-peek of the heroines.

 Fun fact!

         

“No one knows who or what group named Earth “Earth”. Unlike the other planets, Earth isn’t named after a Greek/Roman god or goddess. However, the roots of the word “Earth” trace back to Old English and High Germanic. “ CadmarLegend-senpai told his readers, who had never asked this question before. 

One more.

“The length of an animal’s yawn depends on how large its brain’s capacity is. If it is smart, it will have a long yawn. If it is dumbo-jumbo, its yawn will be short,” told CadmarLegend-senpai,”.....so that was why my parrot always yawned for less than half a millisecond and peed in its food…… who knew?”

Now, a new thing!

Trivia of the day!

“This is a riddle,” says CadmarLegend-senpai,”and I want you to answer it without asking Google-senpai.”

“Yea, just like CadmarLegend-senpai said, no askin’ me!” exclaimed Google-senpai.

“Now then,” CadmarLegend-senpai started once more,”answer the following riddle. If you can’t, just wait for the next chapter and it will be one there!”

Riddle:

I talk, but I do not speak my mind

I hear words, but I do not listen to thoughts

When I wake, all see me

When I sleep, all hear me

Many heads are on my shoulders

Many hands are at my feet

The strongest steel cannot break my visage

But the softest whisper can destroy me

The quietest whimper can be heard.

What am I?