Chapter Seventy-Three — Denying Moronity
Chapter Seventy-Three — Denying Moronity “Skipping,” I explained to Awen who was listening with rapt attention. “Is the very best way to travel. Not only is it more fun than just walking, it also lets you practice your jump skill and it’s a bit faster.”“Ah, I see,” Awen said.Amaryllis shook her head, and unlike Awen, she didn’t start skipping next to me because she was just unfun that way.The area around Greenshade, or at least to the immediate North, was flat, only marked by the occasional patches of trees or a jutting boulder or two. The ground wasn’t even though, with a slight downhill grade that made it hard not to break out into a jog. It would be hard to walk back to the city up the slight incline, but that was a problem for us on the way back.So far, we’d been walking for a few hours, with only one or two little breaks. Awen’s first bathroom pause-behind a large rock-had left the girl quite red faced and embarrassed. I suppose she had never really roughed it before.I had to be extra-nice to her to make up for it. The adventuring life could be a little harsh. I loved it, but not everyone would, and I didn’t want her to get disillusioned. If she decided that it wasn’t for her, then that would be sad, but I’d still do my best to make it so that she was happy while doing whatever else she chose to do!We stepped to the side of the road as a caravan rolled past. It hadn’t been the first to move by, and it probably wouldn’t be the last. There seemed to be a fair amount of traffic so close to the city, but Awen assured us that it thinned out the farther we would go.Most of that traffic came from the North, from the independent cities. Some came from other parts of Mattergrove, and still some came from the huge desert to the West, though the last was a bit uncommon.“Look, flowers!” I said as I pointed ahead. There were, indeed, some flowers growing next to the road a little ways ahead. They caught my eye because they were a bright, cheery yellow, with hundreds of tiny flowers all clumped together at the end of a stalk.“Can you identify it?” Amaryllis asked.“Sure thing,” I said as I stopped near them. The flowers seemed to turn to face my way, so I didn’t dare approach them too much. “Insight.”Common Goldenrod.“Hmm,” I said. I moved to the flower’s other side and the plant shifted so that the flowers followed me around, aleit slowly. “Neat,” I said as I dropped my backpack and searched for my copy of Herbs for Healing, Plants for Power.“This is, um, part of your mission, right?” Awen asked as she stopped nearby.“Yup. I have the Gardening skill, so I figured it would be a neat mission to take. That, and I get to grind my skills a little. Gardening is approaching disciple. Not sure if I’ll put any points into it yet.”“Have you decided on how you’ll distribute your early points?” Amaryllis asked.I nodded as I rifled through the book. “Yeah. I’m going to get Cleaning to Expert. I have the skill points for it, but Cleaning isn't ready to rank up yet.”“Expert Cleaning, huh?” Amaryllis said. “Can’t say I’ve ever heard of anyone bothering to get it that high,” Amaryllis said. “What about you, Awen?”“Awa? N-no. We have some maids who have Cleaning, and Albert has it too, I think.”“Aha!” I said as I found the page on Goldenrod.GoldenrodA common plant found in open prairies and plains. The flowers will always face the sun or the nearest source of gold if said source is near enough. Some thieves plant this flower within cities to pick out people carrying valuables on their person. The stem and roots have uses as simple anti-inflammatories and cures for toothache. The flower can be used in the creation of the GoldenEye potion.There was a recipe for a simple potion that would act as an anti-inflammatory, but nothing about the GoldenEye potion. I shut my book and approached the flower. It didn’t move my way, probably because my gold was in my pack.“Thank you, miss flower,” I said as I bowed to the flower. I cut off a few stems with my knife and yanked out a few roots, then cleaned them up before turning it into a neat bundle that I slid into a pouch. “Ready to move on?” I asked the others.“Yes!” Awen said.I grinned at her enthusiasm. “Alright! Let’s go!”“What did I do to deserve this?” Amaryllis asked the skies.Giggling, I pulled at her taloned hand and started moving again. We had a few days of travel left, most of it over roads that seemed rather quiet. It would be a great opportunity to get to know each other.“Miss Bunch?”“Call me Broccoli,” I said. “We’re friends, right?”“Awaa... th-then call me Awen,” Awen said. “You have the Gardening and Cleaning skills, yes?”“I do,” I said.“Um, are they important to adventuring? I’m not sure if my skills are good for this or not,” Awen said.I shrugged. “They’re good for adventuring the way I like to do it, but that doesn’t mean they would be good for you,” I said. “I guess it depends on what your role in a team is, and maybe whether or not you intend to adventure alone.”“I’d rather adventure with you, Broccoli, than alone,” Awen said.“Aww, you’re just so cute!” I said as I grabbed Awen into a sidelong hug.Awen shook her head, her cheeks warming up. “No, no I don’t have that skill.”I froze up, then laughed. It might have sounded a little high-pitched. “Of course not, of course not. No one has that. Haha.”“I’m just worried that I’ll slow you down, Broccoli,” Awen said. “I’m only level eight, and I know that I should be stronger, but I’m not.”If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.“No one’s worried about slowing me down?” Amaryllis asked. “Broccoli, pass Orange over to me. At least the cat’s indifference feels natural.”I blinked, then smiled sheepishly at Amaryllis. “Don’t worry Amaryllis. You’re my best friend in this world. There’s no way I’d forget about you. You don’t need to be jealous!”“I’m not jealous,” Amaryllis said... jealously.I raised my other arm, an invitation for her to join the hug.Amaryllis huffed.I wiggled my arm in the air and let my lower lip wobble a little.Amaryllis crossed her wings, looked the other way, and slowly walked in such a way that she somehow, through no fault of her own, ended up within hugging range.Grinning so hard that my cheeks hurt, I hugged my friends close until Amaryllis huffed and pulled away and I had to let go of Awen because her face was turning very red. Was I making it hard for her to breathe?“Anyway,” I said. “Don’t worry about your level Awen, you’re a level above me already, and we’ll only get stronger as we adventure!”“Awa, I am?”“Yup! I’m only level seven.”Amaryllis eyed Awen for a bit. “Still, eight levels with your original class in... how old are you?”“I’m fifteen?” Awen said.“A year younger than me,” I said.“R-really,” Awen said. “Oh, thank the world, I was worried that I would be so far behind.”I snorted. There was no way she would be that far behind me, of all people. “So, what kind of skills do you have?”“That’s a rather rude question to ask,” Amaryllis said.I blinked. “Didn’t you ask me something similar not so long ago?”“Yes, but you’re an incompetent moron who doesn’t know that it’s taboo to be asked that kind of thing,” Amaryllis said.“B-Broccoli isn’t incompetent,” Awen said.Amaryllis trilled. “You’re not denying that she’s a moron?”“Awa! That’s not what I meant!”I couldn’t help but giggle as Awen waved her hands in the air and made motions as if to deny everything. “I’m sorry if I shouldn’t have asked that,” I said once things calmed down. “I tend to be very proactive at sticking my foot in my mouth.”Awen smiled at the ground. “That’s... okay. It’s endearing. Um. As for my skills, I don’t mind telling Miss Broccoli.”We all paused as a carriage rolled up before us and rattled past on the way to Greenshade, the man at the reins looking half-asleep. When the dust cleared off the road we continued our trek.“My skills aren’t very impressive. Um. I have Tinkering, as a starting skill for my Mechanic’s class. Um, did you want me to explain them as I go?”“I’d love to hear about it, yeah!” I said. Learning more was definitely a good idea.Awen flushed. She was probably the kind of girl that would have hated to make presentations in front of the whole class. “Awa, yes, well. I have Tinkering, as I said. That allows me to make things with more ease. Book Smart, which is to help me learn from reading.”Amaryllis nodded. “That’s a good skill. I have it as a general.”“Ah, yes. Um. Kitbash, which is to make things with... non-standard parts. Clockwork, which is a skill that helps make timed devices and that helps with, um, my timing?”“So cool,” I said.Awen flushed harder. The poor thing. She was like a puppy that had never gotten any love, and everyone knows that puppies deserve literally all the love.“And, my last skill is Mad Scientist. It’s, ah, it allows me to enter a fugue state to build things. It’s a little strange.”“It sounds awesome!”Amaryllis looked at Awen for a bit. “That’s a rather focused spread of skills, I’m reluctantly impressed.”“Thank you, miss Albatross,” Awen said.“What about your general skills?” I asked. “I just got a new one called Physical Manakinesis, and I need to practice it a bunch soon to get good.”“Ah, well, mine aren’t all that great,” Awen said. Her hands clasped together over her tummy and her head bowed a little more. “I have... Unnoticeable. It allows me to go unnoticed.”She definitely needed more hugs. And maybe her parents deserved a stern talking-to.“And I have Etiquette, Dance, Instrumentalist and Embroidery.”Amaryllis made a happy humming sound. “Instrumentalist is impressive, that must have taken some effort to obtain.”“What is it?” I wondered.“It’s a skill,” Amaryllis began. “That allowed a person to better play musical instruments. It’s a merged skill. I think you need three separate musical skills to unlock it. Awen here must have spent some time learning to play different instruments.”“Awa, the flute and the piano, mostly,” she said. “Um, uncle would bring strange instruments home too. I have... had a lute.”“So, if we find you a new lute, you could play music for us when we camp?” I asked.“Speaking of camp,” Amaryllis said. She gestured ahead of us, to where the monotony of the open plains was broken up by a little patch of woodlands. “We could set up there. It’s a little early for it still, but better to camp near a ready source of wood than in an open field where the wind will toss our tents away.”“I’ve never set up a camp before,” Awen said. “I hope you don’t mind showing me how?”“I’d love to!” I said. A look at the sky revealed that it was getting a bit later, with the sun well on its way to the horizon and the big mountain ranges to the East. We still had time for a bunch of campside fun.I only wish we had brought some marshmallows that we could roast while talking around the fire. But that didn’t matter, we were going to have tons of fun!
Chapter Seventy-Four — Dibs on Petting
Chapter Seventy-Four — Dibs on Petting Setting up camp was something of an adventure.We had found a nice spot a little ways off the main road. Close enough to hear the few carts still moving about, but not so close that we could see anything. It was a nice enough spot, with a flat bit of ground on the downwind side of a little hill. We had plenty of trees all around us, and no animal trails that we could see.Awen had been left to guard the camp while Amaryllis and I scavenged branches and such for a fire. Really, it had been an excuse to let the poor girl sit down and relax. Her feet had started to blister from all the walking and I think she was minutes away from just collapsing. Her previous lifestyle hadn’t included half-day-long walks and trekking through forests.Amaryllis and I made a few trips until we had a nice pile of sticks to work with. Some Cleaning magic took off any moss and such from them and I set about preparing a campfire while Amaryllis pitched a tent.I stacked the wood as neatly as I could, two pieces on each end serving as walls to hold all the branches that I chopped into foot-long lengths in place. Then I stripped some bark and made a neat pile of it to one side.Digging a small pit was easy because I had a spade. I found it mildly ironic that I had done a lot of things with my spade, but it was only now that I was using it for actual digging.A few rocks picked from around the campsite served to line the sides of my little firepit, then I tossed in the bark and a few smaller branches.The entire time, Awen looked at me with fascination, as if I was doing something really cool instead of just starting a fire.I pinched my tongue between my lips and brought my hand up as I crouched before the fire. Mana poured into my hand with just a tiny bit more ease than it usually did. A byproduct of Physical Manakinesis, maybe? Then I started to form a fireball.It was slow going, carefully crafting first the ball itself, then the cone, then I aimed it at the firepit and let loose.A few branches and some bark flew out of the pit as my anemic fireball burped.There was a distinct lack of fire when the dirt cleared, and Awen had her arms thrown over her head for cover as little bits of wood rained down around us.I pouted. Had that been too weak? There was certainly some sort of kinetic component to the tiny fireball, and a bit of an explosion. Maybe I needed to think hotter thoughts?“What kind of moronic idiocy are you up to now?” Amaryllis asked as she stomped over to me and placed her talons on her hips so that she could glare down.“I’m starting a fire?” I tried.“The only spells you know are Fireball and a plethora of cleaning magic. Now, seeing as how I’m the one with the brains between the two of us, I can only guess that you’re trying to start a fire with a Fireball spell.”“Uh, yeah?”“A spell meant to kill things, with fire, as opposed to one meant to light things on fire?” Amaryllis added.“Uh, I mean, it should work, right?”She sighed and for a moment looked like someone trying to suppress a headache. Then she bent down, picked up a bunch of sticks and tossed them in the pit. Her hand glowed for a moment and then a small, controlled jet of electric-blue fire shot onto the wood. When she cut it off a moment later the sticks were most definitely on fire. “Don’t try that again. There are spells for starting fires. What you tried was like... cutting toast with a claymore.”“Ah,” I said. “Well it’s a good thing you’re here to help!” I said.Amaryllis huffed. “Moron. The tent’s set up. We’ll need to squeeze in two at a time. Are we doing three watch rotations or..?”I thought about it for just a moment before shaking my head. “No. Two. You and I are both a bit more used to this. Awen needs more time to recover.”“Awa, I, I can do my part. I wouldn’t want to rob you of sleep.”I shook my head, a grin plastering itself across my face. “Nuh-uh. Tomorrow will be your first full day of adventure. You don’t want to miss it because you’re a little tired. And besides, Amaryllis and I weren’t planning on having a third person, so later on, when you do take your turn with the watch, we’ll both get to sleep more than we thought.”“Awww, oh okay,” Awen said.Grinning, I tossed a few more sticks onto the fire while Amaryllis returned to working on the tent. “Do you know any magic?” I asked Awen.“Awa, a few little spells,” she said. “Some for lighting lamps, a few cooling spells. And I’m okay with the levitation spell. The wind aspect one.”“That sounds awesome!” I said. “I want to learn all sorts of neat magic. Mostly because magic is cool, and I want to be even cooler.”“Then I think you’ll be the best at magic in no time,” Awen said.“Thanks!” I said. “I have a few scrolls for spells that aren’t Fireball. Amaryllis, do you think you could teach me another spell?”“You’ve hardly mastered Fireball,” she said. “But I can’t see the harm in you practicing something a little different, as long as it’s a simple enough spell.”I pulled my pack closer and rooted within until I found the scrolls I had bought at Booksie’s store. “I have Holy Light, Light Ball and Draw Water,” I said.“Light Ball,” Amaryllis said almost right away. “It’ll be the easiest to teach you, it’s fairly close to Fireball, and it’s the sort of versatile spell that will teach you how to do other things in the future.”The harpy came over to sit next to the fire and, with a twist of her hand, had pen and paper next to her. She wrote something and poofed it away, then her rucksack appeared. I watched as she fished out a pot and a can with a metal screw tab on it. Soon, beans were being warmed on the fire and Amaryllis was sticking some sausages on sticks. Rocks placed just-so held them near the fire.The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.I pulled my attention back to my scrolls, then selected the right one and began reading through it. The spell was close to Fireball at first glance. Though this one had less swirls to it, and a long thin line of mana needed to be fed into it at all times. One that supposedly let the caster control the spell with a thought.“Light aspect mana, huh,” I said.“Obviously,” Amaryllis replied.I set the scroll aside and fished out plates and some hardtack and cheese. Then I fetched out my tea kettle and filled it with water to boil.Sending mana into the kettle while also pooling some in my opposite hand took a lot more effort than I would have thought, like rubbing my tummy and my head in opposite directions, but that just meant it was a good bit of exercise to practice my magic. “Hey, Amaryllis, do you have a skill for magic stuff?”“I’m a mage, Broccoli. Of course I have magical skills.”“No, I mean, manipulating mana and such.”My birdy friend nodded. “Thunder Aspect Manipulation, at disciple. It’s a merged skill that comes from the Thunder and Mana Manipulation skills. It narrows down the range of spells I can easily cast, but the added efficiency of my main mana aspect can’t be overlooked.”“More boom for your buck?” I asked.“Something like that. Speaking of skills, last time you were mentioning your skills you spoke of three of them, but you’re level seven. You should have four class skills.”“Haha,” I said. “I, uh, have... the Cool skill.”Amaryllis stopped paying attention to the food and turned to give me the flattest look I had ever seen. “Broccoli. You are not only a poor liar. You’re an imbecilic one.”I flushed and looked away. “Sorry. Lying is wrong, I know.”“So, what’s your fourth skill?” she asked again.“I’d rather not say,” I said.“My class skills are Thunder Aspect Manipulation, Electrostatic Discharge, Thunder Clap, Mage Sight, and Electrostimulus. It’s taboo to tell someone you’re not close to what your skills are, but I trust you enough that I don’t mind telling you. And Awen here couldn’t do anything with the knowledge if she tried.”“Why are you telling me that?” I wondered.“It’s part of the social contract that when someone tells someone else something private that they need to return the favour by sharing something in kind. We call it reciprocation at the academy. It works better on humans than on harpy.”I choked, uncertain of what to say as my jaw worked. That was utterly unfair. She was trying to manipulate me, in broad firelight, to tell her something I didn’t want to divulge. And then she explained how she was manipulating me! The height of meanness. That was telling the puppy you were going to kick it before doing so.Maybe it wasn’t that bad, but still.“Th-then I won’t tell you,” I huffed.I had better things to do, like prepare the tea. And practice my magic and....“It’s Cute, my last skill is Cute,” I sobbed.Amaryllis gasped and turned towards me with wide eyes. “Cute? Cute? The forbidden skill? Don’t you know what happens to people with that skill?”I stared back, eyes widening to match and heart thumping in my chest like a crazed bunny. “N-no, what happens?” I asked.She leaned a little closer. “The people who have the Cute skill,” she said in a low whisper. I came closer to hear better. “Get mercilessly teased by their friends... forever!”It took a moment for that to register, and by the time it did, Amaryllis was trilling with strange birdy laughter. “Rude!” I shouted back.“Really Broccoli? You got the Cute skill? That’s... well it’s certainly you,” Amaryllis said. “I’d advise against putting too many points into it. Maybe you can merge it with something later.”I flushed. “It’s not like I asked for it. I wanted the Cool skill.”“I, I think you're cool,” Awen said. “Even if you’re also c-cute... awa.”“Thanks Awen,” I said. “You’re a good friend. Did you hear that, Amaryllis? Awen can make uplifting comments without teasing her friends about their misfortunes in life. Be more like Awen.”Amaryllis chuckled and leaned to the side to bump her shoulder against mine. “Food’s ready,” she said.We separated everything onto three plates, then I poured some tea into some mugs that Amaryllis had and we got down to eating. It wasn’t inn food, but it was filling and hot and it tasted a little smokey from the fire.“So, tomorrow we’re on the road again,” I said after swallowing some beans and wiping my mouth clean with the back of my hand.The girls both nodded.“Are there any monsters or anything we need to be careful about? Bandits?”Amaryllis hummed, but she looked to Awen since she was our sort of expert here.“Awa, I don’t think so? There are wolves, but they’re rare. And in the desert there are lots of monsters in the sand, but not in the plains. And we have lots of guards passing by, so there shouldn’t be bandits. The only ones we might run into are the drolls, and they’re easy to handle. Or, awa, so I’ve been told, I guess.”“Drolls?” I asked.“Large dog people,” Amaryllis said. “They roam in packs. Not too violent, unless you provoke them. They’re clever enough to barter with, though they don’t have much worth trading for. Some have tried to put them to work, but it’s not usually worth it.”“Awesome,” I said. “So, um, dibs on first watch, and if we meet some drolls, I get to pet them first.”
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