】〓〓〓〓【

Tara

】〓〓〓〓【

 

Mom is gone, again. Every time her presence disappears my heart starts to race. I’m afraid that this time she might just not come back. That one of her siblings will replace her forever. I like my aunts and uncles, but I like Mom more.

I land on a roof and collapse my wings. The petals withdraw into my back, pulling through the fabric of my shirt. The tiles crunch loudly under my feet as I walk. I’m currently in the centermost part of the bottom tier. This place has lots of horrid names, both because of where it is, and because of who lives here. 

The day-lights overhead flicker, much dimmer than they should be. It gives the entire area a strange permanent twilight. Everything here has the vague scent of filth. The stench comes from a large circular opening in the ceiling. The house sized hole above mirrors an equally massive one below. Every few seconds some unnamable fluid or solid falls from the hole overhead and lands in the pit below.

The sewage treatment facility. The reason this area has so many names. The filth of the entire town ends up in the massive cistern to be siphoned off and cleaned by Municipal mages. All of that is irrelevant to me at the moment, I’m here for a different reason.

I swing off the roof and leap through an open window on the upper floor of the building. I land inside, tucking into a roll. The smell inside is much more bearable. 

The floor is one large room, with the bathroom being the only part divided off. A bed is tucked in one corner, covered in ragged pillows and blankets. The ground is covered with random knick knacks and trinkets. I wade through the mess, finding the small, squat desk in the corner opposite the bed. 

I shake my head. I’ve been gone less than a week and there’s this much mess already? The desk is covered with papers and random objects. I can’t even see the wood of the furniture beneath. I swipe all of it off the desk, placing what I’ve brought in place of the trash. 

I scan the room for my friend, who has on occasion fallen asleep in the papers. He’s so small he’s almost invisible when he does that. Deciding it’s likely he’s out still, I lean back and relax. 

My head goes fuzzy. Things get slower again. I wonder where he went, he’s always late or sleeping. Very rude. I wish there was sunlight in here, that would be nice. I wonder what he’s doing?

I met my friend after some big event. No one told me what happened, and mom said I shouldn’t know. When she disappeared that time, before the event, I got lonely and flew around. I ended up seeing a kid walking around near the knight buildings. 

I flew over and landed in front of him. He was odd, wearing something over his eye. He also was walking funny. He said his name was Danny, and that the knights saved him. I played with him for a while and we became friends. But then Danny had to go home. When he left he told me I had to come see him sometimes. 

I feel the jerk of my mind speeding up again. When I came to visit him the first time I realized that he didn’t have a home, that he was living on the streets. I know that the Count would’ve helped him, but he didn’t tell anyone his situation. 

He wouldn’t take any money I offered him, so I decided I’d hire him. I asked Mom for some money and used it to pay him. He taught me reading and writing in exchange. He was able to buy this crummy apartment. I pay him enough for a better place, but he still picked this one.

My mind goes into another slowdown. I get bored of waiting and start looking through Danny’s stuff. There’s lots of odd smooth stones and tons of tiny heartgems. The stones are all in odd shapes. Why does he even have these? 

The door opens and Danny limps inside. He uses a cane to walk, so he’s pretty slow. He’s smiling really brightly, and it makes me happy too. He walks over to his bed and sits down. He looks up from the bag he carried inside and sees me. 

He looks really surprised. “You beat me here Tara!” 

I smile. “Yeah! Only cuz you’re slow!” 

Danny makes a funny face and nods. “Yeah, but that ends today!” I tilt my head. I don’t understand. He opens up the leather bag and pulls out a weird shaped heartgem. It’s shaped like a lever that has no base. 

“This” He points at the stick-like gem. “Is an encoder!” He smiles wildly. “It has a simple spell put inside it, and copies the spell to other heartgems!” 

I clap excitedly. “Wow! What’s that mean?” 

Danny laughs at me. “Feeling a bit slow right now?” I nod, which makes him smile more. “The encoder will make other gems do what it says.”

“Oooooh!” I nod, that makes much more sense. “What will it say?” 

“That’s the fun part! It tells the other gems to grab, and listen!” He hobbles over to some of the stones and gems on the ground and sits. He starts mumbling to himself, sticking gems with the new tool. Over time he sticks the stones and gems together, slowly making something. 

“Ta-da!” He cheers. He holds up a gray foot. Oh wait, that's the stones! “I can make false limbs!” He cackles evilly. “Now I can do this!” He pulls the shoe with his wooden foot off, and pushes the exposed gemstone in the top of the foot into his scarred skin.

The gem flashes brightly, making Danny squeak in pain. The light slowly dims to a barely noticeable level. Danny’s smiling and crying at the same time. He jumps up and tries to walk with his cane. He’s not good at it and starts to fall.

I jump forward, shooting vines out of my arm to catch him. The tendrils wrap around him and gently place him standing up again. My mind snaps into focus as the adrenaline leaves my body.

“Be more careful Danny!” My voice comes out squeaky, but there’s a little growling underneath. Danny sheepishly grins at me and nods. 

“Back to full speed?” He winks at me.

I sigh. “For now. You know I’m not supposed to be this way, right?” Danny shrugs.

“Whatever, either way you’re my friend.” His words make me blush. “Anyways, this seems to work great!” His smile jumps to life again. Hopping in place he shows off his fancy stone foot. “It’s a bit heavier than the other, but it’s better than the wooden one!” He fiddles with some more stone, clearly starting on a hand.

“Danny, you aren’t missing a hand?” I ask him.

He nods, but continues to fiddle. “This is for one of the other survivors. There’s a bunch of 'em down here in the cesspits.” He smiles at the completed hand, each finger joint held together by a miniscule gemstone. 

“Is that why you live down here?” He never told me why before. He just nods, completely consumed by his tinkering. “How’d you learn to do this?” I point at his foot.

He looks down at the false limb, like he’s unsure of what I’m talking about. “Oh! I dunno, just thought it up.” He’s started making an arm now. 

“Do you have a class yet?” I ask him, he shakes his head.

“Nah, I’ve never been able to get one. Never had a family to do the ritual in the church with.” He goes back to the now moving arm.

He made these things, with no prior knowledge, only on his own ideas? No use of abilities or skills, no bonus from a class? If he had those things, what could he make? He puts the hand onto the end of the finished arm and touches the shoulder joint stone. There’s no flash this time, but the fingers on the hand still wiggle.

“Y’know, that crazy guy who cut us up? He was always talking about a new body.” He smirks. “I bet with some time and money I could make a whole body like this.” He waves the false arm with his mind. “Idiot probably didn’t even think of something like that.” 

Enough of this. I grab Danny’s hand, causing him to blush. “Tara! What’re you doing?” I give him a look.

“We’re going to go get you a class.”

 

】〓〓〓〓【

 

The slumbering beast cracks open one of his large eyes. Something woke him up, something new. He breathes in deeply. A strange scent. The creature closes his eyes. He doesn’t want to wake, he wishes to slumber. 

The scent gets stronger. Closer. The beast lifts himself up, his massive limbs creaking and cracking from disuse. Plants fall from his rough skin, small animals run from their hiding place beneath him. The small things always hid beneath him, it amuses him.

He forces his way out of his grove, pushing down a tree from his path. The hundred foot pine crackles from his blow and falls to the forest floor. His sleep was long this time, saplings are now mighty things. The smell is closer yet.

He lumbers through the woods, the plants and animals quivering in fear as he moves past. They’re afraid he’ll eat them, destroy them. He is hungry, but eating such small things would not satisfy him, in any way. The scent is becoming repugnant. 

He pushes his head into a clearing near a swamp, and sees some figures. The figures are huddled around the edge of the swamp, making lots of noise. ‘How irritating’ The beast thinks. He continues to move towards the rancid creatures.

They don’t notice him until he’s within reach. They all become much noisier, irritating the beast further. He stands and watches, waiting to see what the little things do. A group of about five of them scramble to huddle together. They’re still incessantly chattering. ‘What noisy creatures.’ He thinks.

One of the things calls upon power itself and creates a small orb of fire. The thing hurls the tiny projectile at the beast's head. The flames hit him, and immediately extinguish. The beast narrows his many eyes, zeroing in on the attacker.

‘They are aggressive, and do not know their place.’ The roar the creature lets out shatters the trunks of the nearby trees. The five annoying creatures burst into blood and gore. The creature looks down in disgust. ‘So weak, yet they dare attack me.’ He kicks the refuse into the swamp, to smother the scent. 

But the scent doesn’t go away. It only gets weaker. The scent leads away from here, deeper into the swamp. The beast narrows his eyes, irritated at the infestation he must exterminate. 

 

】〓〓〓〓【

Cleave

】〓〓〓〓【

 

Paperwork. News. Paperwork. Paperwork. News. I give each paper a glance before flinging them into one of two piles. Things have been busy the last year. I’ve done more paperwork this year than in the preceding decade. When I was a duke! I let out a sigh.

Most of this is expenditure requests asking for more funds for reconstruction. The main reconstruction campaign has been done for a month, but different departments keep finding things that could use fixing. “Well you fixed blah blah department’s bobulator, why not our thingmicfinger?” And I can’t really argue. The whole town really could use renovations.

So I’ve been granting most of the requests, handing money to different people for construction. That just leads to more requests though. I’m hoping eventually this will slow. The news however, is as lively as before my children appeared. 

The neighboring Rarkin Kingdom is accusing our kingdom of destroying their new colony along our shared border. The idea is fairly silly, as far as political gain goes. The race that dominates Rarkin, the muuts, are newt people who live in swamps. None of the races or people in the Gemshell kingdom want their marshlands, we don’t even want our own.

I understand why they’re upset. The colony was reportedly doing well and they had just started seeding their special algae in the swamp there. That plant is their equivalent to our townhearts, and their main food. Losing that was probably a massive blow.

I’m worried about how our childish king is going to handle the accusation. Probably with some dramatic idea or another. My stomach churns, he’s going to pull me into this. I just know it. The colony was along the border to my county after all. 

I glance over at my communication device. I had to get a new one when mine disappeared one night. My gut is telling me that king is going to call me any time now. My hand slowly opens the cabinet behind me, pulling a bottle from its depths. I pull the cork and go to take a swig.

Then the device beeps, incoming message.

 

】〓〓〓〓【

Iota

】〓〓〓〓【

 

“Too slow, boy!”

My frozen blood rushes to my head. I slide on my heels, trying to get under my opponent. He stabs his massive sword into the ground, causing me to ram straight into it instead. 

“Nice try! You pulled that trick too early, I had time to set up a counter. Now get up.” The bulky knight reaches down and offers me his hand. I grab it and he yanks me upright.

The charcoal-toned man looks down at me from his towering perspective. He gives a cocky but friendly smile. “Kid, I’m always shocked at how much muscle you pack into those noodle arms.” He points at my admittedly thin arms. 

I just grunt, too worn out to say anything. The large man finds this hilarious and starts laughing like a lit box of explosives. We walk over to the edge of the training grounds to drink from the water pump. The cold water makes a good portion of the fatigue melt from my body. I wipe the ice that formed on my mouth away.

“Damn, kid, you being around is really convenient. Can’t get too hot while training, our water is cold by default. It’s great.” He gives me a huge goofy grin. This man clearly forgot I’m nobility. It wouldn’t shock me if he didn’t care anyways.

My trainer and sparring partner, Sergeant Quill, is from one of the knight squads not commanded by Jet. He’s also probably the only knight bigger than Jet. Quill looks at me with a strange expression.

“Y’know, I always wonder how you don’t get frostbite. Your skin is so cold that your cup of water is solid.” He points to the wood cup I’m holding. I look down and sure enough, the water in my cup is frozen. I hit him with a shrug, I have no idea. 

He grunts at me. “Lucky kid with your fancy magic powers, all I got is muscle,” The mountain of human excellence complains. He looks down at me with a raised eyebrow. “You gonna pick a weapon yet?” 

I groan loudly. “I said I’m not going to use a weapon! I have my ice, Quill.” 

He grunts, clearly unconvinced. “Well, how's you gonna cut through godsteel with ice?” Scratching his chin, he looks me over again. “I won’t say it's impossible, though, seeing as you should be dead from the cold right now.”

With a derisive laugh, I chide him, “Most people don’t go around in full godsteel platemail, Quill.” 

The man nods at my comment, unperturbed. “That’s true.” He fondly touches his greatsword. The hunk of metal has intricate carvings running the length of the blade. It’s easily larger and heavier than I am. “Having a big fuck-off weapon is good though.” 

I laugh at his nonsense. Some nearby flowers wither at the sound. My voice isn’t that bad, jeez. Of course, Quill notices the now frozen plants and explodes into a round of his own booming laughs. 

We’re interrupted as a weedy kid runs up to us. He can’t be much older than me, but is easily taller than Quill. The kid has a darker brown skin tone mottled with green, like moss growing on a stone. He has a couple twigs stuck in his messy brown hair.

Quill looks up at the kid. “What is it, Private?” The poor stick guy jumps at being spoken to. He fiddles with his hands for a moment before gaining the courage to speak, in a shockingly low voice, like someone hitting a stump with a big stick. “T-there - There’s a meeting in the mess hall. F-for our squad.” Quill nods at the private, who quickly scampers away.

I look up at Quill. “Why didn’t you tell him he had sticks in his hair?” My question makes Quill chuckle.

“Iota, those weren’t sticks, they were a part of his head.” He gives me a pointed look. “Now let’s go.” Before I can ask any more he starts walking towards the mess at a leisurely pace, which means I have to almost sprint to keep up with his long strides. 

 

【〓〓〓〓】

 

We hear the meeting before we see it. The sounds of distant yelling fill the air. The shouts get clearer as we approach.

A woman’s voice shouts, “What are you talking about!?” As we enter the hall, I see a tall woman standing in the center of the room. Instead of hair her head is covered in large, skin-toned scales. She has two stubby ears on either side of the crown of her head. She also has a long scaled tail that is currently whipping behind her angrily. 

“Ya heard me! Our squad is taking over your patrols from here on out!” a shorter man yells back at the woman.

“What for? We have no trouble managing our own patrols, Clint!” The woman stares daggers into her verbal opponent.

Apparently-Clint gives a snide smirk. “You might, but the folks on your routes have trouble with ya!” 

The woman’s face bunches up in frustration. She runs a hand back over her smooth head. “What for? We’ve been nothing but cordial.” 

“It’s 'cuz yer all a bunch of half-breed fre—” The man doesn’t get to finish his sentence as he’s lifted up by the front of his uniform. Quill holds him up high, glaring at him with burning contempt. I look behind me, when did he get over there?

Contrary to his inflamed stare, Quill's voice comes out ice cold. “Go on, bud, finish yer sentence.” 

“That’s enough,” a calm, commanding voice calls from the back of the hall. A thin man stands up, stroking his beard. Quill drops the ass, giving the newcomer a salute. The rest of the knights around me do as well. 

“Captain Sasifer, I didn’t know you were here,” Quill says with a stoney expression.

The Captain nods. “I know, I came in a minute ago and waited… To see how this played out.” A rapier glints on his hip. He walks between Quill and the troublemaker. “What Clint said isn’t false, though, we will be taking over your patrols.” 

Quill’s face goes flushed. “Why’re you telling us that, instead of the Captain?” 

The faintest smirk flickers on Sasifer’s face, so quick I’m unsure if I actually saw it. “Well Sergeant, your Captain is currently busy with his… condition.” Quill glares at the Captain. “The reason Clint gave was also true. It’s unfortunate, but people in town don’t want to see people with your features.” He gestures to the surrounding knights. 

The scaled woman from earlier jumps forward, pushing in front of Quill. “You’re saying it’s really because of that? Are you kidding?” The woman is nearly in tears, her voice torn by a fury filled with disappointment.

Sasifer keeps an even face. “Unfortunately, yes, it seems your squad scares people. Perhaps if you were less… bold about showing your peculiarities, people would tolerate you more.” The woman’s tiny ears droop as she slumps onto one of the nearby benches. One by one the other knights sit down as well, as a sense of melancholy settles over them. The only one who remains standing is Quill.

“Is that all, Captain?” Quill practically spits the words. The Captain just nods and walks out of the mess hall, Clint in tow. The moment the door shuts behind him the room erupts into yelling.

All kinds of complaints and angry comments are thrown around. I’m admittedly lost as to what’s happening. Quill eventually walks back over to me. His face is dour.

“What happened?” I ask. 

He looks at me like I have four heads, and lets out an awkward cough.“You… don’t know what just happened?” He waves his hand over the room. I just shake my head. I honestly don’t understand. 

He lets out a sigh. “C’mon kid, I’ll explain it out on the training field.”