《New World +》 Ch1. The Dragon Andrew''s vision flashed red as the flames hit his shield its durability dropping to 30%. A wave of fire flowed over him as he lost 10% of his health doping him down to 40%. With a quick flick of the thumb his avatar Axe moved out of the torrent of flames revealing the bulky dragon its wings furled up by its sides its mouth still spewing the flame like particle effects. Grimacing at the poor animation quality he silently sighed. It''s not like he could expect much from the first VRMMO ever made. Besides even if the graphics sucked it was still a fun game, even now his heart raced at the preserved danger he was in. Lifting his hand he lunged it forward as his Avatar followed his actions raising its halberd to spear the dragon''s flank. It struck with a shower of sparks a poor animation that was followed by an equally poor blood splatter effect. Still Andrew smiled in satisfaction as his attack did damage bringing the beast down to 50%. "Tank''s at thirty, Axe pull back and get ready to use Inspire. Group two prepare to use your attack skills." the barked orders of their guild leader Avantus brought Andrew back to reality as he quickly moved into position. "Bull move in to draw aggro, Jhon move to the southern cave entrance and take care of the adds that spawn there. Everyone move on my mark!" Avantus'' commands had a hint of desperation to them not surprising as they had wiped ten times on this boss already. The Crystal Dragon wasn''t even a difficult boss fight at least not conceptually. You just had a dragon in a cave with a northern cave entrance, a southern cave entrance, and a eastern cave entrance. Adds would spawn from one of the caves entrances periodically and when the boss hit the 40% health mark it would enter an enraged mode and attack more frequently. Than at 15% health the dragon would fly up and dive bomb the unit with the most aggro it was basically a one hit kill and the shock wave that the attack produced had ended many of their runs right at the end. What made it more frustrating for all involved was that it would probably be the last raid they managed to do for while as real life problems made it unlikely that the guild would be able to meet up at this level for months. The Rosen Fang Guild wasn''t very big most of them were high school students from the same state school and most of them had been sent out on a summer camp trip. Andrew wasn''t really sure why or how so much of the school had been roped up in what was basically a glorified community service trip, he didn''t even know why his parents were so adamant to send him.This novel is published on a different platform. Support the original author by finding the official source. "Mark!" the order snapped Andrew from his musings as he activated his skill Inspire. The screen light up as the skill activated, his health jumping from 40 to 60% and the symbol of two crossed swords with a plus next to them popped up. Feeling invigorated at the attack plus bost Andrew drew farther back to watch as the second group unleashed their attack skills the rain of particle effects smashed into the dragon, the light slightly disorienting him. The plan this time was rather simple they would push the boss till he was just at the edge of entering his berserk state then wait for the big cooldown skills they had used to come back up. A slight flicker distracted him for a moment. "Fuck lag at a time like this!" a member of the second squad cursed, Andrew cringed at the implications the sudden roar shook his screen further disorienting him. The group''s fears were realized as the raid boss entered its enraged mode. Swearing under his breath he turned and started running towards John and his squad two things happened when the boss started to rage. First its attacks would increase in frequency and in damage. Next the adds spawn rates would double. While Axe moved to help John he was momentarily distracted by a screeching sound. ''was that a car?'' the thought had barely entered his head when it was disturbed by Tanks shouting. "Damn it Bull you better get your ass in position so help me god i''l..." "Can it Tank I''ant retarded I know what i''m doing you bastard!" Bull retort caused Andrew to chuckle a little as two of the most mild mannered members of the guild got into a cursing match. A popping sound distracted him again ''Gunfire, fireworks?'' the screen shock again but this time it didn''t seem to be from a game mechanic. "WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON!?" Avantus yelled, surprising Andrew. Avantus was a college student and shouldn''t be experiencing the same connection problems he was? Avantus has gone offline! ''...w what?'' the sudden pop up surprised and confused him why would...? Tank has gone offline! ''...!?!?!'' Bull has gone offline!, Sin has gone offline!, winterfurry has gone offline! his screen continued to fill with notifications as the world filled with static and a blinding light began to grow... ...brighter... ...brighter... ...brighter... ...then nothing... Ch.2 The lost He felt parched as his eyes slowly opened to see a blurry blue sky Andrew''s vision wavered as he almost blacked out the rough ground poked into him. He felt wrong in a way he couldn''t describe he knew he shouldn''t be here, but where was here? where was he or better yet "who" was he shaking his head he cleared those thoughts away. ''This is no time to be having an existential crisis he knew who he was, he was Andrew ...Andrew?... well whatever last name aren''t that important anyway'' slowly getting up he felt his legs give out under his weight almost stumbling. Looking around some what embarrassed to have almost fallen over from standing up he was surprised to find plenty of people he recognized. The school "trip" if it could be called that was meant to be some kind of summer camp but Andrew had his doubts since the teachers never talked about it and his parents never asked him if he wanted to go. One week he was minding his own business enjoying his summer break next thing he knew he was packing up for a month long summer camp that almost ninety percent of the school was also going too. It was fishy as hell if you asked him but he had obediently packed and was shipped off with the rest of the poor bastards to the "nearby" national park. ''Yeah near by as in a twelve hour drive, nearby my ass'' Andrew gritted his teeth subconsciously as he remembered his frustrations at the time although he guessed he should be putting quotations over the obediently part of his thoughts as he had managed to sneak his VR set and motion controls with him on his trip and helped others from the guild do the same. The raid against the crystal cavern''s dragon was a really important event for the Fangs that if completed would have solidified it as a major guild in the game. Wait wasn''t he in the middle of the raid right now? taking another look around Andrew took in his surroundings they were in a grove of some kind a fairly small area maybe two or three hundred feet wide surrounded by what seemed to be a forest. The dense grouping of trees made it hard to see very far past the clearing and the ground was covered in a verdant carpet of "reeds?" the bright blue sky shone with a vibrant color he had never seen before, feeling a tickling sensation in his hands he looked down to see a strange "four legged?" bug resting on it for a few seconds before darting off, the "clover?" like leaves of the nearby trees rustled with the passing of a shallow breeze. ''Oh fuck'' Andrew''s mind started turning as it started to scrutinize the world around him ''oh fuck no.'' "Hey Andy!" a familiar voice shouted out but he was to overwhelmed to recognize the familiar moniker. ''this isn''t home!'' Andrew shivered as he looked at the alien landscape he suddenly felt the need to go out into the world to make it his own, to conquer, to breed, to eat good food, he''d learn all there is to know about this world and make it his home. all it would take was one step and he''d have everything he ever wanted, it all existed before him within the sea of trees. Getting ready to make a beeline for the woods he was snapped out of his stupor by a sudden smack to his shoulder.Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon. "Hey Andy, come on man don''t ignore me it''s rude!" turning in shock to the young man Andrew knew as Jace "jeez do I look that bad?" Jace asked looking at Andrews horrified expression made him pretty uneasy Jace lifted his hand to scratch at his sandy colored hair while he squinted his blue eyes. Andrew just shook his head "sorry Jace" he mumbled as his thoughts turned inward ''What the hell was that'' his thoughts returned to what he was thinking a moment ago he had been seconds away from leaping into an alien forest the thought had risen so suddenly and had been so compelling he almost felt like it had been his own thought shaking his head again he looked up at Jace, his friend had probably saved his life. The sensation of wrongness essed up on him slightly as did some of the confusion that clouded his mind. Looking around with his newfound clarity he saw that the other students were becoming more active a few even started to stand a walk around and a few more he realized were staring out into the forest in a rather unhealthy manner. Andrews anger started to rise as he rationalized what he saw. Someone was fucking with them he didn''t know who or what or how but seeing other aimlessly move around like lost sheep pissed him off lifting his hand to his mouth he shouted louder than he had ever in his life. "HEY IF YOU PART OF THE FANG OR THE BAND GROUP UP ON ME!!" the other students in the surrounding were shocked and started to stare at him some even started to move toward him. "Whow!... what?" Jace asked puzzled by his sudden outburst "Are you ok?" "I''m fine Jace." still angry Andrews response was more curt than he had intended deciding to ignore a sceptical looking Jace he started moving when his foot kicked against a bag near his foot recognizing it as his own he lifted it over his head while shouting out "OH AND BRING YOUR STUFF WHEN YOU DO." He felt some gratification when everyone started to look around for their stuff even Jace let out a surprised oh before dashing back the way he came chuckling to himself Andrew decided to busy himself with sorting out his stuff not that he didn''t know what was in there already he hadn''t been able to fit much in his beg other than his VR set, a month''s worth of clothes and a couple bottles of gatorade. So he was surprised when he found that other than his clothes many with looked torn a bunch of knives more than he''d have ever willingly owned. Heck his parents wouldn''t have let him have that many, some sewing thread and needles a boat load of granola and protein bars, he didn''t even like protein bars, a medical kit that was filled with pills he didn''t know the use for, about fifty feet of rope, and eight ...no ten rolls of duct tape. ''Who even needs ten rolls of duct tape?!'' well apparently he did Andrew was almost convinced that this wasn''t his bag but the piece of type he found with his name on it said otherwise. looking up he was surprised to find Jace and a large group were heading towards him realizing that he had basically ordered all of them to come to him his mind raced as he tried to come up with what he was going to ask these people to do, suddenly feeling way out of his league and very, very tired he couldn''t help but sigh. Ch.3 First steps Andrew shook his head as he looked at the pile in front of him after everyone had gatherd up they had split off in to groups to do a head count and to check what they all had in their bags. There were five hundred people gatherd and each of them had joined one of fifty, ten man groups it wasn''t well organized but they had managed to pool their resources together. All together they had managed to scrounge up a disturbingly high pile of knives, a disturbingly small pile of canned and preserved foods, a bunch of matches and lighters, a lot of rope, books about a ton of subjects, water bottles, medical supplies, finalythe pi¨¨ce de r¨¦sistance, andthe pile he was currently looking. He could only laugh bitterly ''WHO NEEDS THIS MUCH DUCT TAPE!'' venting his fustration were no one could hear it Andrew considerd their supplies and he wasn''t the only one. "We probobly only have enough to last us a few days at most" Jace said breaking Andrew from his thoughts "Right, if we break down our problems and needs right now it comes down to the three basic necessities food, shelter, and water" Don another of Andrews friends and guild mates spoke up as a small group of the fifty "Team" leaders nodded with his statement. "Ok so our plan for right now is to find running water right? a river or large stream would do" Leesaid. The other noded again at Lees words everyone knew that were there was water food could also be found "Lee''s right if we find water we have a good chance of finding fish and fruits and we could also find usefull materials like clay then we could make things like primitive bricks and shingles so with some luck we should be good on shellter as well" Chris added with his customary chessy grin if Andrew had to guess he would say Chris was pretty excited about their current predicament but when he considerd Chris was one of the ones that gave in to the whole apocalypse survival craze it made sense. As for Lee well Lee was Lee he frowned at Chris for using his hated nickname his realy name was Stanly but since he was asin instead of the normal nickname of Stan he got the nickname Lee for what it was worth he didn''t realy care what his nickname was he just didn''t like having one. "Well I hate to play devil''s advocate here but before we go galivanting through the forest we should consider the fact that we don''t know if anything here is eddible for us" Andrews words sent a sour note through an other wise lively discussion "We have a week we should take things slow, first off if were going in to the forest we should come up with a plan so we don''t get lost, fist we''ll need a group to stay behind to watch out for our stuff it won''t do to have some animle come and eat our stuff while were exploring" Andrew started talking more rapidly the others quieted down to listen they all knew Andrew and knew he liked to think and consider things before speaking and when he did he would go in to detail about whatever he was talking about this made him a pretty good stratigest but a terrible talker and leader. Undisturbed by the attention he was getting Andrew continued "We''ll leave twenty teams behind and have thirty teams go out in to the forest each team will have a mark or sign we''ll use the alphabet and numbers to make groups so well have groups A 1-10, groups B1-10, and group C1-10 if we use the knives and the duct tape we should be able to mark our paths it would help us avoid getting lost and walking in circles, and everyone should make some kind of spear or something we don''t know what kind of predators are out there so better safe than sorry." As Andrew finished up his part of the discussion the other picked right back up no one hated his idea but they did add details to it planing out diffrent areas each group would explore and giving diffrent teams diffrent things to look for. Some would forage looking for materials or plants that could be tested others were suppoesd to look for animal tracks and other were just suposed to patrol looking for teams that might be lost, hurt, or otherwise in trouble after everything was done and they were getting ready to head off, one of the team leaders spoke up.This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon. "Hey... uh are we gona tell the others what were doing they might like to know?" ''Others?'' everyone turned to were the speaker was pointing and indeed there was another group. People could recognize them as others from their school they also had a group that was about the same size as their own. Andrew felt a sudden push on his back "Ok go tell them what were doing and ask if they''ll help" Jace said as he pushed Andrew forward "What why me you know I suck at this stuff" Andrews objections fell on deaf ears "yeah we know but we have to distribute what supplies were going to bring and you arn''t realy need for that" Don said with a slight smirk "Yeah i''ve seen your desk you suck at organizing so you''d be pretty usless here" Chris said obviously enjoying a chance to rib him "Try not to embarrass yourself to much" Lee said dismissively. Turning back to face the other group Andrew couldn''t help but mutter under his breath "Well fuck my life." Ch.4 The forest Andrew was pissed cursing under his breath as he carved an A then a 1 in to a tree his thoughts drifted back to the conversation he had nearly an hour ago. "Hey are you the leader of this group? Mine is planning to send out scouts to look for water and shelter and we were wondering if you''d like to join?" "Sure I was just going to send someone over to see what your guys plans were let me get a list of the supplies we have and we can start discussing our plans." Or at least that''s what a normal logical person would have said instead when he had gotten there the other group''s leader a girl he later learned was named Ashley was standing on a pile of discarded bags the actual conversation went more like this "Hey... uh... mygroup was..." "Do you mind were kinda having a meeting here" Ashley interrupted glaring daggers at him "Y... Yes but my group was going to go scout and..." "That''s fine you can tell me what you find later were making important decisions here and don''t need you to interrupt us" "Ok but..." "Hey asshole can''t you see were in the middle of something we don''t have time to go play ranger so fuck off!" a guy he now knew as John had yelled at him as he shoved Andrew. Thinking of the experience Andrew hacked at some native fauna to help define the path they were following. Sighing as he realized his list of things to watch out for now included two more jerks Ashley, John, and the mind controling ass known simple as ''It'' Andrew had been some what surprised when he brought up the subject and realized that many others had felt it as well he had been half convinced it was his own paranoia but now ''It'' was a recognized problem but seeing as no one knew what ''It'' was or how to stop it so they decided to ignore it and hope for the best. lost in thought as the group walked on Andrew considered his ten man team. he only knew a few of them by name but he was of course acquainted with all of them. he was standing in the middle of the group the four in front of him were Lance, Kyle, Adam, and David behind him were Mary, Jan, Philip, Ace, and Theo? not to sure on all of them. "This forest is strange" Lance said as they moved forward blazing a trail wasn''t something he was unfamiliar with but it was the first time he had done it so primitively the whole group had wooden spears with the tips fire hardened and were using them and some knives to press or break the plant growth around them. "The plants are strange there''s hardly any insects or any small wild life to speak of its so quiet" Lance''s father had been a hunter and taken him out many time to go camping or to hunt deer so he was used to the sound of birds and buzzing insects but none of that was here moving forward he felt as if the world suddenly shifted in an odd way feeling that it might be this ''It'' thing that had been trying to fuck with them since they got here he quickly turned around "Hey I think..." that was as far as he got before it popped out screeching. Lance had a brief second to contemplate the ridiculously oversized chicken before it rammed into Kyle its claws piercing his abdomen. Kyle screamed as he fell but to his credit he didn''t faint but started to viciously stab at the bird''s belly ''Holy fuck it''s trying to kill him'' Lance thought dazed unable to really comprehend what was happening.If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it. "GET IT OFF ME, GET IT OFF ME, GET IT OFF ME" Kyle''s desperate and pained scream woke Lance to reality ''HOLY FUCK IT''S TRYING TO KILL HIM'' his sight started to become red as his heart started to race as he rushed forward. The giant chicken which had been eying Kyle as he struggled under its talon suddenly turned to Lance as its head lunged forward shocked at the creature''s speed and reach Lance tried to block the bird''s beak but was to slow as it slipped past his defences and struck his chest falling back his spear shaft struck the bird in its chin deflecting the birds attack up so instead of having his heart torn out by the Big Bird knock off instead he ended up on his ass with a large gash across his chest. Taking a momentary break from his near death experience he saw Andrew charging the bird while David and Adam used their spears as levers stabbing into the bird and pushing it up while Andrew charged into it knocking it down Ace and Mark weren''t far behind. Scrambling up Lance joined the others as they all dogpiled the confused bird. David stabbed a spear through its head but the damn thing continued to struggle throwing out disemboweling kicks and buffeting with its wings the five of them final killed it. Lance wasn''t sure how long it took the bird didn''t seem to weaken no matter how hard it was hit or injured until it just suddenly stopped exhausted they all fell away from the corpse breathing heavily the only sounds being their heaving breath, Phillips cursing, and Marry crying. Taking a deep breath Andrew moved over to Philip as he tried to treat Kyle. Seeing Kyles pale face the others rushed forward to help, it was a gruesome sight Kyle laying in a pool of his own blood while Phillip desperately tried to stitch his guts back in place. A sudden smacking sound shocked Andrew and everyone else as Lance Kicked Kyles head. "What the Fuck are you doing!" Yelling David jumped at Lance "He''s going in to shock so if we knock him out he''ll be fine" "What" Lances explanation shocked Andrew and he only watched dazed as David tackled Lance while the fighting was going on Andrew could only contemplate how well and truly fucked they were alien world, the mind altering ''It'', no form of medical knowledge or equipment, no knowledge about anything really, and last but not least the murder chickens that could take hits to the brain and be completely unaffected. Daved and Lance''s fight had turned into a shouting match as the others held them back only Philip shouting at them to "shut the hell up" got them quiet enough to hear Kyle''s coughing. Apprehensive everyone turned to Kyle only to feel their jaws drop. Kyle wasn''t having a great day it started with the fact that the last thing he could remember was him getting into a fight with his father something that happens more often recently but this time it was more bitter not that he could remember what it was they were even fighting about. Now he finds himself on an alien planet without T.V, computers, or his family. Then to top the whole thing off it finished with dropping 500 pounds of angry avian on him. Coughing he opened his eyes to see a incredible sight his eyes shone as he saw the swirling golden feathers above him a shining light descended on him and the sky was filled with feathers dancing in the wind reflecting the light he felt comfortable like he was sitting on a cloud. "Is this heaven" his half-hearted hope was crushed soon after he spoke "God I hope not" Ch.5 In the land of the savage Everyone was shocked by what they saw Philip who had propped Kyle up on the beast that had nearly killed him had a closer look as Kyle''s body rapidly healed before their eyes. ''chough'' "Is this heaven?" Kyle''s question didn''t do much to shake the awed atmosphere "God I hope not" David''s reply though was much more effective at getting people moving. Seeing everyone was alright but now having more than a few questions Andrew decided to get answers to the most pressing one, that being what the hell they just killed was. "All right Lance help me cut this sad excuse of a chocobo open, Philip watch Kyle the rest of you can see if you can get in touch with any of the other teams ok" Andrew started ordering his little group to move but still dazed no one seemed to have heard him. Eyebrow twitching slightly Andrew started to shout "GET MOVING DAMN IT DON''T JUST STAND THERE" that seems to do the trick as everyone jumped to their jobs. Grumbling to himself Andrew frowned as Lance came up to him with a skinning knife preparing themselves they plunged the blade into the creature and disemboweled it only for the two of them to enter into a second state of shock. "H...How" Andrews confused questioned what he was seeing. Nothing the creature had no guts no kidneys or intestines or anything just a mass of pink meat, in contrast to Andrews subdued reaction Lance was much more fervent as he quickly dismantled the bird only to find that it only had five internal organs a heart, lungs,stomach, brain, and genitals. ''well guess that out rules the whole alien world theory'' Andrew thought as he saw the birds remains after all no matter how divergent life could get in our universe nothing could survive with so barren a biology at lest not this complex of a creature. As he was thinking off the implications of this Theo walked up to him carrying something in his hands. "Hey Theo what''d you find" the sudden glare Andrew got made him jump back a bit "It''s Mark" ''well this is awkward'' "Right, sorry about that" Andrews sheepish apology was meet with a sarcastic grunt. Deciding to cut his losses Andrew cleared his throat and tried again "So...Mark, what did you find" "Eggs..." "........." ''how Riveting'' Andrew decided that Mark wasn''t much of a conversationalist "... found them around were the thing popped out from doesn''t look like it was their before" a moment of silence pass between them as they both think about what suddenly appearing birds and eggs could mean only for their conversation to be interrupted by ''Jan?'' Andrew decided he wouldn''t presume peoples names any time soon. "hey we got a connection to the other teams they said that were to meet up at some weird rocks west of here" the girl said as she started to pick up here stuff to get moving "WAIT" Andrew shouted to everyones suprise "What is it Andrew we got to get going" David asked everyone was starting to get ready Philip and Mary were helping Kyle to his feet as he was still a bit shaken after his near death experience. "Yeah we''ll be going but only after we make some upgrades and come up with a plan". After explaining his idea everyone started to take out their clothes layering them up and using strips of duct tape to reinforce their shirts the managed to make some makeshift gambesons as well as a few lassos, the plan was pretty simple if they ever came across one of the birds they would lasso it and then perform some tests on it there were a few things they need to learn before the meet up with the rest of the teams and that was 1. how much damage could one take 2. how strong and how long could it struggle and 3. how intelligent was, they were sobering thoughts but it was stuff they need to know.The author''s tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. Andrew had only one thing he really regretted not having at this moment and that was a helmet if only they had some bike helmets or something to protect his poor head from pointy beaks and sharp claws. The trip to the randevu had been a tough one the once seemingly deserted forest had turned into a bird infested hellscape the six foot tall bastards could be found almost everywhere and while they had learned a lot about them they had taken a beating. Organizing the information now that they were near the point the constant chatter over walkie talkie let them know if they were moving nearer to the place or farther. Silently blessing whoever had the hand held radios in his beg Andrew also thanked whoever had brought so much medical supplies one of the first things they learned was that they could mix almost any medicine with water drink it and within only a few seconds it would start rapidly healing them, this was something that they abused shamelessly to stay alive. They also learned that gambesons were very effective as armor absorbing the forces of lunges and kicks quite well enough at least that the didn''t have to deal with another disemboweling but it was a close thing at times with the aforementioned lack of helmets they still had quite a tough time trying to protect their heads. On top of all that they found out that the murder birds were total bullshit the plan they had made had worked surprisingly well and the had answers to the three questions Andrew had first off the fuck birds were tough capable of being stabbed 61 times before they died to make matters worse the damn things wouldn''t weaken till the last hit the moved and struggled with the same strength they had at the first hit to the sixtieth it was a bit disconcerting to watching something that looked full and moved full of life die instantly after it was hit a certain number of times to make it weirder it didn''t matter where you hit it, it still took the same amount of hits to kill it the only difference were attacks the hit the heart or brain with reduced the number of hits to kill to 31 and 21 respectively this meant that attacks to the heart were twice as effective and hits to the head were three times as effective. The formulaic way that they died and the fact that it was the same across all of the giant cucco wannabes made Andrew feel like they were in a game to add to this they had found that the ultra chickens were rather predictable in their attacks only having to a lunge with the beak that had a few tells but a long ''cooldown time?'' or recoil if that was the best word to use for it other than that the had a lunging attack that had more tells but didn''t make it as vulnerable after it was used and while they were able to do normal things like kicking or pecking they predominantly used their ''Lunge'' and ''Leap'' attacks. This actually made them much easier to fight as they just had to learn the tells to fight them effectively which was a life saver as they had started to run into bigger and bigger groups of the dumb things which he guessed was another thing they learned. The big birds were pack animals kinda they could be found as single individuals but mostly they were found in groups of three to five or in some cases as many as ten those fights always turn into a brutal mess. They were actually hiding in some trees right this moment as a group of ten cuckoos... cuccos? whatever he''d let someone with better naming sense than him come up with it. Looking around at the rest of his team he griped his dagger in his hands he briefly let himself fumed over the fact that the little pieces of sharpened metal in his hands had proven to be a better killing weapon then a spear with its superior reach leverage and wight if the were to make a graph of the two weapons effectiveness the spear would have a 61/31/21 for the number of hits to kill while the dagger for some ungodly reason would have a 31/16/11 number of hits to kill they had decided to label it as #HK the fact that knives had double the #HK than the spear would have made it the primary weapon alone but with the fact that knives could strike a lot faster that spears and had more use in the packed woods they were trekking through it wasn''t really a contest it still pissed him off though. Looking around and finding that the large group of enemy birds were gone he whistled signaling the other that it was time to move sighing to himself as his team made their way to the randevu ''this is gonna be a really long day''. Ch.6 The Gathering Andrew and his team gasped as the came to the randevu strange rock doesn''t really cut it. The ''rock'' if you want to call it that was more like a crystal it was pure white like it was made of marble but also translucent it''s strange properties also affected the area around it the small clearing that it was in was also pure white from the grass to the strange small specs of light that seemed to flicker like fireflies the only thing disturbing this scene was the large group of people that were milling around in it. As Andrew and his team moved in to the clearing he felt his bones begin to shack and a small ringing started up in his ears he felt like he had when he had gone to a rock concert but couldn''t hear the music. Looking around he say most of the other teams and while they all seemed worse for the wear but surprisingly no one seems to have died of course counting heads wasn''t his strong suit but head find out soon enough as he walked to were the two groups team leaders were converged as he walked over Andrew saw a team that had duct taped their knives to their spears. ''Fuck why didn''t we do that, that''s brilliant'' his thoughts expanded when he saw another group of people holding clubs with bird talons attached to them and another were using the bird''s beaks as a kind of gauntlet ''Well damn guess I''m not as smart as I thought I was'' as he entered the group Jace noticed him "Hey Andy good to see you finally made it what took so long" "So long? Jace the forest in infested with six foot tall murder birds how long was i supposed to take?" "Ha ha looks like you had it rougher than the rest of us we only had a few run ins with the dame things" Don''s laughter bought a few nervous chuckles "Any way now that your here we can finally start talking about everything we found out" Jace was interrupted by a sudden squawking sound as a group of birds found the clearing everyone watched as the birds charged forward only to sope as the edge of the clearing squawking wildly as the backpedaled a few yards away and started to eye them hatefully "Guess my idea that this was a safe place was right" Lee spoke up with a small grin "This place dose seem to be ''powerful'' if that''s the word for it" "Magic, Andy the word your looking for is magical" Andrew rolled his eyes at Jace''s comment "Anyway im sure you got some questions but look at this first" Don decided to going in as he pulled out a woven basket Andrew had time to see that it was made out of native grass''s before Don started to pull stuff from it Andrew felt his mouth drop as Don continued to pull stuff out. "Alright now promise not to freak out to much about this" Don then to out his knife and drew a small cut on his wrist Andrew watched as after a few seconds the wound closed upYou might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version. "OK but how though?" Andrew decided to ignore Jace''s disappointed mutterings. After all the things he had experienced to day the casual breaking of general physics was far from shaking him he wasn''t annoyed by it at all nope not a bit "Ok man you can stop staring at me like that" Don almost laughed at his friends reaction the two had been friends for years and Don knew when Andrew was stressed he could only sigh inwardly as he decided to bite the bullet "Alright i''m sure you did your own research on the way here but you probably reached the wrong conclusion like Jace did" "Hey" Jace''s protest was ignored as Don continued "First off this is a different world, dimension, place were just gonna call it a world i''m sure you already knew that but it bears repeating, second were still made of matter from our world which I believe is why we''ve felt so strange since we got here." "Yeah it''s like something is trying to pull us apart and push us together or there''s some weird pressure inside our bodies" Don nodded to Jace this time acknowledging him before continuing on. "Third is that the natural rules have changed obviously since we wouldn''t be here if they didn''t but with that it''s important to note that while we can interact with the new world we can''t interact with it the way it interacts with itself if that makes any sense. It''s weird but things like knives if they''re made from earth matter don''t increase the damage you do and things made from this world''s matter have strange aspects like being able to hold almost four times their volume" "Wait but I did a test, the knives have double the kill potential" Don nodded at Andrew''s question "I figured you would do some tests but I did to and what I found is that unarmed it takes sixty seven hits to kill with your fists but after a few hours it started to take thirty four this change happens to everyone and it didn''t matter what weapon they used the spears seem to increase damage by about ten present while the knives default to whatever you have been useing, use spears and it''s thirty one use your bare hands it''s thirty four. I know it''s weird but i''m sure we can find out how this all really works later" "Great more questions we need answers for oh the joy" Jace could only laugh at Andrews deadpan "oh come on it''s not that bad it''s like a game here you need to hit something a certain number of time to kill it and getting better weapons reduces the number of hits you need you can store a ridiculous number of items in small bags and theirs medicine that can heal you instantly" "Any game that requires you to hit a mob thirty one times is a game I don''t want to play" Jace gritted his teeth "Come on man TRY to enjoy this we''re in a world where there''s giant magic crystals and we can fight against monsters sure we''ll probably die in the next thirty minutes but we would probably have starved to death anyway so TRY to have some form of fun I mean damn your making it hard to be positive here." Sighing Andrew did have to admit that being in a different world was interesting "Fine sorry for being an ass but in my defences I totally deserve to be an ass right now" "Besides that who said anything about dieing I knew you weren''t listening to our conversation Jace we already tried the bird meat and it was fine plus there''s no way in hell i''m getting offed by some sesame street reject" Lee''s timely interruption was itself interrupted by the sound of more birds gathering around the clearing "So what was your plan exactly?" andrew asked a Lee and Don turned to him with two of the biggest shit eating grins he had ever seen on them as they spoke in unison "You''re gonna love this." Ch.7 the savage is King "Fuck" Andrew cried out cursing inside as he kicked at a lunging beak. Why had he thought that this was going to be a good idea? thinking back he tried to guess where everything went wrong thinking back it all started when. "FUCK!" kicking at another hungry beak Andrew glared at the birds beneath him "OFF!!". The plan had been so simple to a few teams go out and kite the birds away from the clearing and then the main groups break through and everyone get to go home or what counts as home here it seemed so brilliant to kiting is basicly the go to stratagy for things that are to tough to kill. Unfortunately the plan had one obvious flaw mainly that humans are slow creatures and six foot tall chickens are not. The end result is that he and his ragtag group of "kiters" ended up relying on the most reliable and ancient tactic of climbing up trees and throwing stuff. It was ironic really millions of years of evolution and the best his ancestors could come up with when faced with giant predatory birds was climb tree. Really the whole situation would have been funny to Andrew if he wasn''t apart of it that is as it stands he''s now pretty far from being mirthful. cussing again as he kicked out he lamented the fact that he was now short one shoe the other having been caught and torn off his foot. Looking down on the group of squawking birds their mouths opened hungrily Andrew saw the remains of his sneaker "well their goes twenty dollars". Sighing Andrew went back to focusing on what was pressing at the moment namely sharpening the branch in his hands to replace the one he lost to the birds. "Fuck off you featured freaks" the shouting did more to rill the birds and Andrew found himself stabbing his newly made spear as some particularly high jumpers, Turning to look at the sound of the voice Andrew called out. "David how many do you have on your end how many hits have you gotten?" "About ten birds and not much I''m guessing twenty, you?" "I''ve got about thirty in so you know just two hundred and eighty left to go ha ha...haa...a ''sigh''" "Fuck it guys I''m going" the sudden and annoyed shout shocked the rest of the group "What! Lance no that''s stupid!" "Yeah just calm down things while get better soon" Andrew called out in agreement with David "Guys we''ve been up here for hours now there''s no one coming to help us and to be honest I wouldn''t want them too. These FUCKS!" Lace interrupted himself as he kicked the head of another high jumper "Have us surrounded right now it looks like our two choices are stay here till we starve or go down and die swinging I know I''d rather die fighting." "Yeah... ok, I get where you''re coming from but don''t do that that''s stupid we can survive days up here without food" Adam interjected as Lance started to move "We can outlast them pretty handedly were ten persent of the way done already don''t be so impatient ... and he jumped." "GOD DAMMIT LANCE YOU DUMBASS IF YOU SOMEHOW DON''T DIE I''LL KILL YOU" David shouted in rage as he jumped out of his tree onto a surprised birds back it squacked in surprise as his spear rammed through its head the creature dropped from the sudden attack but started to weakly get up a pretty creepy sight considering it had a few feet of would sticking out of it from the top and bottom of its head. Everyone looked on in a horrified fascination as Lance and David started whaling away at the birds using their spears more like clubs smacking way beaks and the occasional claws the commotion didn''t just draw their attention though as the mobs under their trees started to thin as the birds grouped up around the two on the ground David for his part tried to fight towards Lance but there were two many bodies in the way.Unauthorized usage: this narrative is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings. Andrew sighed ''well there goes my amazing plan to use the only real gift we have, long distance running, or is it?'' thinking of how to turn this to an advantage Andrew was distracted by Lance crying out in pain ''shit I don''t have time to think, damn!'' "Alright everyone down let''s help those idiots" Andrew shouted as he started to climb down the tree. "You can''t be serious!" another of the team shouted Andrew thought his name was ''Sam'' or something he really need to pay more attention to people''s names it''s rude not to really. "GET DOWN HERE THE ENEMY''S BACK IS TURNED AND WE CAN AT LEAST FIGHT OUR WAY THROUGH" Andrew shouted as he reached the bottom his heart hammering with either fear or excitement made him feel sick on the inside combined with the strange pressure that had been constant throughout his time here the unnatural feeling pissed him off. He wouldn''t die like this on some unknown world were weird ass birds and crystals and whatever ''IT'' was no way in hell. His vision started to turn red as Andrew riled himself up taking all those sick feeling and turning the in to hatred to his surprise he started to calm down things became clearer more objective he felt a strange distance between himself and reality. Narrowing his eyes as he looked at the mass of birds that hid his friends from view. "Form up on me make a line we''re going to fight our way through and then were gonna run if the shits catch up we''ll fight our way through again don''t stop moving and don''t fall behind because we''re not gonna have time to help you" Andrew spoke to the group that gathered around him it was ten versus one hundred almost impossible odds back on earth and even more impossible in this world of strict statistics many of which he didn''t know. His eyes were cold and his voice calm it carried a distance that was surprising even to him as he formed something that someone might consider a line. Andrew felt inside him the weirdness the subtle manipulations that tried to manipulate his thoughts his actions he grabbed that thing that seemed to worm its way through out him it was a strange connection, fragile he crushed it screaming in his mind while he cried out. ''FUCK OFF'' "CHARGE" The charge was brutal the birds for all their strength and numbers were uncoordinated they worked best fighting one on one or three on one but fighting large number of grouped creatures was far from something they were good at. In many ways they were like wolves, pack hunters and like wolves they followed the simple rule of divide and conquer find the weak and small and crush it, to fight the herd would be stupid the herd was larger and stronger than the pack the only time that would ever change was if there were young to protect or if they had no other option. Many started to question why there were so many here it was like They were a herd and to make it more confusing Their herd was under attack by a pack? What strangeness was this no pack would attack a herd it was too big too strong so why were ''they'' attacking why were ''they'' winning strange too strange ''they'' were a pack so why do ''they'' move like a herd why were They grouped up like a herd They were packs would any pack want to stay and fight with untrustworthy packs, what strangeness packs packing with other packs too strange way too strange. To the birds the whole thing confused them uncoordinated, unmotivated, and fearful they broke and fled splitting off and running in different directions leaving eight rather confused guys and two barely conscious idiots. Andrew and the others quickly made way to David and Lance and started to check their injuries. They were roughed up pretty bad for the most part but were still alive after some medicine water ,something Jace had wanted to be called health potions, they started to get better. "What... took you guys so long" David coughed out as he drank the water with a cheeky smile "Sorry man it was the bullshit you guys made so much of it, it took us a while to get past the smell" Andrew replied with his own smile. "Ha... ha...asshole ''cough'' that wasn''t even... a...good comeback" David croaked out as he passed out. ''Well damn'' Andrew had thought it was pretty good considering he hadn''t had time to think about it. While he was musing on how he could have made the come back better one of the members of the group came up he. "What" Andrew barked as he turned his cold glare at him the guy jumped a little. "uh... it''s the walky...uh, sir?" the boy had managed to mumble out Andrew stretched his hand out towards him. "Give it" Andrew took the walkie talkie it was time they started to take this a little more seriously after all this wasn''t a game. Ch.8 Of Crowns and Flames They fell on them from behind spears leading as they charged into the backs of the enemies. Spears heads were coated red, the cries of the enemy spurred them as they drove forward if their foes had been mortal men they would have fallen overrun their hearts torn from their chests as they laid dead or dieing, but they were not mortal men they took the fatal charge and they rallied against their abusers. The course of the battles changed but the brave warriors still kept their momentum spears striking out against feet to inhibit movement, chests to break balance, and heads to confuse and distract. With broken cohesion the enemy hindered themselves more than they helped tripping over their allies, scrambling in confusion caused them to run into each other and their large bodies made it hard for them to bear their numbers in battle. Then it changed again as some form of tension that surrounded the fierce conflict snapped and like an arrow from the bow the foe flew. Then standing victoriously over a field of victory eight warriors stood their spears stood toward the sky like the fangs of some wild beast their blood stained tips glistening in the sun like a morning rose. "And that''s what happened" Andrew said over the walkie his group had calmed down and Lance and David were back in shape after their ''Murder mugging?'' he could probably come up with a funnier disruption but he just didn''t feel it right now mabe calling it a ''ruffle with Rafters'' no he''d be the only one to get that last one. "I see, well it''s nice to see you''re old melodramatic self, but for future reference ''standing victoriously over a field of victory is redundant it would be better just to say ''standing victoriously over the field'' Don droned from the other end of the walky. "well I thought it sound good" Andrew knew his objection wouldn''t be listened to "besides I don''t remember asking you for speech therapy." "I liked the last part if it''s any consolation Andy good reference to the old guild" Jace spook up. Sighing at his wasted time Andrew decided to get to the real important matters at hand namely. Why did the enemy run away up till now they had foughten they bird''s multiple times but they''d never run even when they were outmatched or close to dieing they never ran so what had happened now, why was now different? Well he had an idea when it happened he had yelled at ''IT'' if that''s what you could call it, the idea would have to be tested but they had no real time to do that. "It''s good that you guys got out of that predicament honestly we should have seen that coming" Don started. "Obviously." Don ignored Andrews deadpan. "In any cass we got more reports we managed to break through at the crystal were heading back to base but we need you to pick up the other ''Kiting team'' I don''t know where you guys are at currently but they say they''re at a tree that''s the tallest in the forest whatever that means" Don finished talking as Andrew started to climb a nearby tree he slipped a few times and in the end he had to ask the others to help him when he got stuck hanging on a branch. "Damn my luck I hate high places" Andrew muttered as Lance helped him up to the top of the tree. "Hey Andrew?" Lance asked as the looked over the top of the trees they see pretty far a sea of green clovers sway in the wind in the distance the see a tree significantly taller than the ones around it a biting breeze cuts its way across the forest chilling Andrew to his bones the shaking of the leaves makes him think of the trees as shivering and he chuckles at the thought. "Yeah what?" Andrew askes back looking at Lance as he climbs up next to him. "Thanks I know you took a risk to save me I don''t really know why I did that I mean it made sense at the time but when it happened ... I don''t know I just didn''t want to die and when I thought I was going to die I...I... and when Dave jumped in for me I didn''t think that ... anyway I''m sorry I put my life at risk and I thought I was ready for that but I didn''t think that I''d put everyone''s life at risk like that, It was stupid and..." Andrew put his hand up to stop him "Yeah that was pretty stupid and if I wasn''t currently freezing to death and if I wasn''t afraid of falling off this tree I''d kick your face in YOU FUCKING ASSHOLE but don''t think so highly of yourself or maybe you should I didn''t make anyone do anything we all wanted to save your two sorry asses that''s all" Andrew said before sticking his hand out to Lance. Lance awkwardly to his head and shaked it before turning to leave only to feel his hand being pulled looking back Lance looked at Andrew awkwardly. "Were you going?" Andrew asked. "Uh.., What I was going down the tree" Confused and feeling kinda unsatisfied with Andrew''s answer to his rather heartfelt apology Lance answer Andrews question. "Help me down." Lace looked at Andrew strangely. "What?" "I''m afraid of hights" Andrew answered. "Yeah I kinda figured that ..." Lance started. "I can''t move I need you to help me down" Andrew smiled at Lance in an awkward manner. "Oh right so just put your foot here..." It took much longer going down the tree than going up not having a good view of where he''s supposed to put his feet was nerve wracking when he finally got back onto the ground he sat down and letting out a deep breath as he tried to calm his trembling hands. He had always been afraid of heights with was surprising considering his love of roller coasters and ferris wheels. Really he was afraid of heights without obvious safety measures ever since he had fallen off a roof as a kid and broke his leg. growing as he stood up and stretched his arms over his head as he looked over his little group. "Alright guys were going to be going to save the other poor saps that got into the same crappy situation that we did. Their off in that direction." Andrew addressed his group as he pointed in the direction he had seen "probably, In any cass it''s time we get serious I''ve got a plan to fuck these birds up" Andrew started to tell his plan to his group he had no idea if it would work or not but no point in not trying not that hed tell the others that it would probably make the whole idea look stupid if he started saying all the ways it could fall. ''God, I''m acting like a politician aren''t I'' It took the group a few hours to get to the tree it really shouldn''t have taken that long but they kept getting lost and having to climb trees in order to get their bearings. They thought was a strong word Andrew just had Lance do the climbing after all he was the most suicidal of the group and while he said he was sorry for it sorry doesn''t fix stupid also he was the best climber in the group. In the end they actually passed the tree twice before the entered a small shaded clearing the tree in the center was large and surrounded by massive angry avians. The clearing was littered the shrubs the thick trunk of the tree having crushed almost all other plant life in the area thick vines wrapped around the giant trees trunk in a vain attempt to choke it Andrew quickly made note of the area it was bland and uneven he couldn''t think of any way to make use of the terrain. Taking a deep breath Andrew prepared to make his orders.Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit. "Man if only we had a giant slingshot right now" Mark said as the tension that Andrew had been building up flew out of him. "Really man you''re going to think about that at a time like this" Daved whispered to Mark who just shrugged his shoulder "Well sorry, didn''t know i couldn''t tell a joke, jeez" Mark said before trailing of into a mutter. "Wait what''s the joke I don''t get it" another member of the group whispers "Seriously Ron I swear if I didn''t know you I''d think you group up in a cave" Mark whispered back as the group moved in close to the birds "No really what''s the joke I''m curious is it because we have slings now or is it..." Ron started to speak when Andrew interrupted "It''s angry birds, the joke was bad, and were in range so start swinging." Andrew had had the group make some rudimentary slings on the way their one of the reasons it had taken them so long to get to the damn place. The other reason lay wrapped around their spears it was a thick nest of dry plants it covered most of the pointy bits of the spear but they were mostly using them as quarter staffs now anyway since stabbing them didn''t really kill them any faster than beating them, it was actually is main experiment here seeing if using fire as a weapon would decrease the time it took to kill. As the group moved in close the started to spin their slings before letting loose on the unsuspecting birds. it was a shoddy display the stones went flying everywhere even still a fair number managed to hit something. As the confused birds clamoured for their attackers they charged in flaming spears in the lead. Andrew once again tried to follow the pressure in his body the weirdness that connected him with whatever ''IT'' was as they approached and when they impacted Andrews flaming weapon hit one of the creature''s chest and the beast erupted in flame that covered its body in a second a stunned silence filled the air as the creature flailed about trying to escape the fire that ravaged its body. Fire had always been a psychological weapon the fear it produces more devastating than the damage it can cause in this case it was a double edged sword as Andrew and everything on the ground was stunned by the unexpected violence but the team in the tree were empowered and with a scratch they descended on the backs of the birds. Their weapons were clubs lined with bird talons in a style that was reminiscent of the Aztecs. Andrew recognised the team vaguely as he saw them descend their clubs striking the animals backs the sharp talons tearing flesh each of them where duel wielding clubs probably to increase the number of hits they could do. With some hesitation Andrew continued to fight slightly concerned that another bird would burst into flames like the first but while some of his attacks did start some creatures on fire none were as spectacular as the first. This held true for all the spear wielders and they fell into an odd rhythm with the club users, since the clubs were better at doing damage able to quickly get hits in and the spears had good control able to pin or trip up enemies with their superior reach. The two teams ended up fighting in a spear and club pair the spears would dissuade or disrupt enemy attacks and the clubs would utilise the distractions to do damage even Andrew found himself fighting with a club user as the battle swung in their favour the birds backed off and regrouped. Panting heavily the now slightly smaller group of birds held together they glared at the two teams as they drunk the little mexican water that they had. Andrew tensed as he felt a shift from the birds they had done well so far based off of surprise but the spears had burnt out in the fighting and the healing of the median water was gone now as well he was unsure if the could fight with the remaining birds. He didn''t get to make a choice as the birds charged searching at them as andrew and his team braced themselves one of the club users shouted out. "NOW!!" and a large net made from vines and stone fell down on the charging mass from the tree. The clubs charged forward throwing out smaller nets that they had strapped to their sides into the leading birds completely disrupting the creatures charge but what shocked Andrew more than the well timed ambush was the fact that all the birds caught in the nets disappeared in a manner similar to how the bird meat disappears into the woven baskets. with that Andrews counter charge destroyed what little remained of the bird force and the two groups began to clean the area and talk. They found 19 bird corpses that they started to butcher cutting throats and hanging the birds to bleed, Andrew didn''t know why the other did that something about bleeding them the club users went out of their way to collect the bird''s talons and feathers. Andrew watched as the club user next to him pulled a feather from one of the birds they were cleaning after making sure it was clean she braided it in her hair. "So... What''s with the features" Andrew asked as he examined the other team they all had rather light clothing not the thicker clothes that his group wore combined with the braided hair and the large feathers that they used as decoration made them look more feral. "Well they look more tribal for one helps get into the mood you know but other than that they have softer down feathers under the larger ones were getting them so we can make something like a feather mattress or pillows." She answered her voice sounded a bit familiar to Andrew and he wondered if she had been a member of the guild "None of us had a sleeping bag in our bags and we don''t feel like sleeping on dirt soooo..." she left the rest of the sentence in the air. It was honestly something Andrew hadn''t thought of where were they going to sleep what were they going to sleep on this group had more foresight than he had thought, Andrew chuckled at himself for being impressed by bedding. "Any way Axe you have thoughts on what happened with our nets over there" the girl asked, well that''s one question answered Andrew thought as he made his way over to the nets as the two looked at them Andrew started to gather the ends of it. "I think it might be like the woven baskets that Don showed me at the crystal I guess it''s like that with the birds being trapped by the thing?" Andrew tried to wrap his head around it as he pulled the net up he found that it had some strange misty glow trapped in it that acted like a weight. "Yeah we know about the baskets we made them but they don''t work on living things at least not in the contents of ''living'' you can put plants in it but whole chickens isn''t possible." she argued as Andrew handed her the net. "Oupf" she grunted as she took it not expecting the weight Andrew picked up the end of it awkwardly holding part of it up with his leg as he pointed toward another net in the area. "Let''s go check the others and tie the end of the net the last thing we need is a giant bird to pop out of this" Andrew grunted as he moved the heavy net the girl just nodded as they moved. Andrew briefly was impressed by how light the net was it had fallen on and ''captured'' almost 20 birds and only two people were needed to carry it around with was super impressive. When they got there the bag was unceremoniously dumped on the ground and the two of them sighed in relief before calling the rest of the group towards them. "Whats up Andrew" Lance asked as he and Andrews team walked up to them. "Yeah what''s up Emily" some guy from the other team asked as he and his group joined them. ''Emily, Emily Andrew knew an Emily if only as a small memory wait?'' "SIN YOUR SIN!?... UGH" Andrew''s excited shout was interrupted by a sucker punch in the gut. "SERIOUSLY ANDY I WAS YOUR SECOND IN COMMAND FOR LIKE A FUCK''N YEAR." "Ugh... we never ''uk'' ...never meet ''cough'' in IRL ... didn''t UH h h even now you ''AHHhhh'' were in... my school" Andrew moand as he clutched his stomach in pain. "Like that matters mister perfect vocal recognition" Emily dismissively stated as she glared at him. "I lied... didn''t want to admit ... terrible memory... god I think i''m going to throw up ''cough'' why did you punch me in the gut" Andrew grunted still doubled over. "Well obviously because it''s the weakest and most painful place to hit and good I hope you puke blood asshole" the other member of the two teams stared wide eyed at the spectacle. "UKH... That''s not funny... Houdini died from a punch in the stomach... Ghana...I can''t believe I was actually... happy to see you... I regret everything" Andrew continued to moan slowly falling onto his side. "Good to see your still spouting useless trivia as always Andy at least some things never change" Emily said while frowning. "Uh is he gonna be alright" A concerned David asked as Andrew rolled pitifully on the ground wailing. Emily rolled her eyes as she answered "Yeah he''s fine you guys are wearing some pretty thick stuff he just being melodramatic. Hey Andy rule of three man rule of three the first few times it was ok for a chuckle but your little jokes gone past funny and in to tiresome and annoying." "Ugh... it wasn''t all a gag that first part was really that punch fucking hurt and I mean who does that who just punches someone out of the blue pretty dickish Emily" Andrew complained from the ground. "Not anywhere near as dickish as forgetting the name of one of your friends." She simply replied before sitting down "Now if you''re done playing we need to start thinking up are next move, right?" As she replied the put upon expression changed to a manic grin that Andrew shared as they started whispering with each other. This left their two groups to nervously mingle as their increasingly scary bosses occasionally chuckled and giggled sinisterly. Ch.9 A Lull in the Storm "So what have we learned to day" Emily asked Andrew as he stood over the ruined and burnt corpse of a bird. "Well for one there seems to be a one or two percent chance that fire weapons will combust the target which will do about twenty hits worth of damage" Andrew answered considering his findings, the nets were able to ''capture'' the birds and when unraveled was able to realize them something that had been slightly problematic for them however it allowed them to more easily test things on the birds. What he was testing now was the effectiveness of the fire spears/staffs, he and Emily were at odds of what to call them, the findings were not as grand as he would have thought but it revealed some other interesting insights. "Hits?" Emily interrupted his thoughts with a question "What are those supposed to be." "Weren''t you at the meeting we talked all about it there" Andrew glared at her as she shrugged "Must not have been paying attention" Emily just sighed with a put upon expression as she turned to the rest of the group."So how long exactly do you think their going to go at it?" Andrew looked at the two teams and sighed with her " I don''t know I lost hope when when that John guy sang the entirety of the pokemon rap song I mean seriously who memorises that" Andrew groaned as the whole group started to sing another song "Man and I thought I was a nerd!" "Ha, you are a nerd didn''t you once quote the entirety of the Patton speech before a raid once" Emily glanced at him as he stood up with a grone. "Hell no! I did quote some of it but that was more of a one time thing" Andrew to a look at the net that he was using they hadn''t really learned how to tell how many birds were trapped in a rope yet but he guessed that their were at least three left. "Anyway to answer your question Hits are..." Andrew started to get back on topic after their little tangent. "Please Andrew I''m not stupid It''s pretty self-explanatory just get back to telling me if flaming weapons are worth it" Emily interrupted. "Than why ask Ugh... never mind the thing is the fire reduces the number of hits to kill by three doesn''t look like it is affected by hitting weak points though so it''s good but not amazing the most interesting thing is that enemies can catch fire I counted how long it took for them to burn to death." Andrew watched Emily as he continued "Which was pretty messed up and disturbing by the way." Emily nodded at him "Yeah I have got to say that was pretty cold of you" Andrew glared at her completely unsure if that was supposed to be a pun or a normal comment "Anyway it took about two minutes for them to die if we change it to hits per second it would take five seconds to have the bird take a ''Hit''." Andrew made quotations with his hands it was a difficult really defining how much damage something can do when they were using such a loss definition as hits in the end all he could say is that it took 155 seconds to burn a bird to death so the #htk for flaming weapons was 28/13/9 with a 10% chance to burn for 1 hit per 5 seconds and a 1-2% chance to combust for 20 hits. Thinking about it Andrew had to admit it was an improvement especially if they could learn how to increase the chance to proc combust, he was a little worried to be labeling something as a proc especially after the failed kiting attempt this was real life after all. "Hey earth to Andrew" Emily waved her hands in front of his face "Care to tell me the verdict doctor." she spoke in some weird accent he didn''t recognize "flaming weapons are powerful but inconsistent there is a one percent chance to insta kill the birds if their hit in the head or heart but other than that it''s not that impressive" Andrew said "Not worth the resources need to make them we could use that fuel for more important things like not freezing to death."A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation. "Well that''s that then, we better be getting back to the Don and the rest I want to kick that dumb fuck in his dick" Emily said as she stood up and started to walk back to the group. In his mind Andrew silently wished Don luck. As they were gathering the group together Andrew asked the question that had been bothering him for some time. "By the way what''s up with the whole tribal thing you guys have got going on?" Andrew asked "It''s supposed to be a whole Aztec berserker role play thing neat right" Emily looks at her group "We look good don''t we can''t wait to get some war paint and stuff maybe some tiki masks like stuff." "Ok but why thou?" Andrew knew that Emily was a fan of things like role play and cosplay but felt that in their current situation didn''t call for playing around. Emily stopped and looked at Andrew seriously "Why? well I guess I could stop and think about how in all probability I''ll never see my mother or father again, or how we have no modern convenience and are under attack by giant chickens. News flash Andrew were in a pretty fucked up situation and I think It would be better for us to focus on what we stand to gain than on what we lost and for me right now that''s trying to become a badass amazon." She frowns a bit before shaking her head and smiling sadly "I think we''re all trying to cope with that fact... don''t you?" "Yeah i guess ugh... I''m not good at this type of stuff let''s just get going I''d like to make a pillow or something before night comes." Andrew said as he scratched his head awkwardly. "That''s the spirit Andy let''s not think about being our sheltered, pampered, and entitled selves and become the badass dual wielder girl and the stoic spear guy and while we''re at it we can make all the fluffy down pillows we could ever want" Emily said sunly as she wrapped an arm around Andrew''s shoulder as they faced the horizon. "Hey Andrew can you hear me did you guys meet up with the second group yet" Don''s voice echoed from the walky on Andrews waist. "Uh should we answer that?" Andrew asked feeling awkward. "Shh, Of course not we''re having a moment here Andrew, a moment and that shouldn''t be ruined by asshole dicks who send people on suicide missions" Emily said with a bright smile that made Andrew feel cold the continued attempts to contact them that Emily made him ignore only made him feel worse. ''sorry guys I don''t know why she''s pissed at you but she has me in half a headlock so I''m not going to make her angry anytime soon'' "The place looks deserted." Emily said as they came upon the clearing the strange stone reverberating with a strange hum. Their two teams had managed to make it back to the crystals without meeting any other teams or birds. "Well I would hope not the said they had made a push after we left if they were still here it wouldn''t bode well for us" Andrew answered as he looked around the area finding the remains of some birds at the edge of the clearing. "looks like they went to... the north" Looking up from his compass "we should catch up to them pretty quickly if we follow" as Andrew said that one David came up with the walky."Andrew we got a call from Jace!" looking left and right Andrew made sure Emily wasn''t around before answering. "WHERE THE FUCK HAVE YOU BEEN WE THOUGHT YOU GUYS HAD DIED YOU ASSHOLE" Jace yelled from the walky. Andrew just sighed as he started to answer the walky was plucked from his hands by Emily who started to shout at him. Andrew deciding to let the two go at it gathered his own team and scouted out the area the main group had fought its way out from the clearing having head south back toward the original grove and looking at the remains of the battle it had been a brutal fight the only bodies they found were birds though so the main group must have managed pretty well not to have any losses. He knew it was a matter of time before some fuck up kills someone heck he almost died not even two hours ago. "Alright everyone we''re going to try to collect some of this crystal than we''re going to go south and to going the main group" Andrew Addressed the two teams as Emily''s shouting match died down coming over to the group she started to talk as well. "Ok I just finished talking to the main group They''ve been making progress but they have been having problems with random encounters which for those of you how don''t get it means that the birds are fucking ninjaing into existence to attack them. So we''re going to be moving as a group since we seem not to be experiencing the randO encounters we''ll be going back to the ''starting area'' to cheek how everyone else is doing and I guess we''ll figure out how everyone else did when the get back in an hour or two." With that the group started to move collecting the materials that Andrew wanted to test out and starting to go back to the only place they could call home. Ch.10 Battles "Squak" Don turned and through up his arm to block a beak that was aimed at his heart the burlap bag strapped to his forearm worked as a shield absorbing some of the blow as his other hand brought down its knife into the beast''s eye. "SQUEEE" the bird screamed as it tried to pull away but Don didn''t give it a chance as he moved his arms around the things neck he jerked it violently as a resounding crack was heard. Well resounding to him the sound was pitifully small and it was more like he felt the things neck cracking instead of hearing it. "Swa.SsssWaaaaaa" As he let the bird go it collapsed making pitiful sounds not that Don could feel any pity for it he knew that this wouldn''t kill the nightmarish creature only slow it down. It was one of the things they found out about their enemy they could take being stabbed in the brain 20 times without flinching but breaking their legs or necks would still cripple them well even then it was a temporary thing lasting only 20-30 seconds. free''d from his current opponents he quickly moved to help another of his team members using the rock filled burlap bag that he previously used to stop a beak to break the leg of another bird. All around him similar scenes were playing out as the other teams fought against the unholy abomination of a chicken and a cassowary in the distance he could see Jace''s team as the used some large two-handed clubs to bash away at the massive birds and he was suddenly filled with as sense of sympathy. ''Now I know how my dwarves felt when I had them fight'' Dons sympathy wasn''t for the birds of course but pour binary creatures that had died when he had them try and punch a vampire to death. ''Oh Bumbulbort Wartbeard my your strange name and love of rats forever be forgotten by the annals of history'' turning to face his group as they finished crippling or killing the birds around Don spoke up "Move to help team three! we need to keep the path ahead clear" At his shouted orders his group quickly move to help their companions at the front. It had been like this for a while ever since he sent Andrew and Emmy out to ''Kite'' the enemy they had been trying to fight their way through. He knew the idea would be risky but using small forces to scout and disrupt enemy movements was army basics at least he thought it was of course he wouldn''t have ever guessed that the enemy would send two-thirds of its force to go pick of some small groups but he guessed the old idiom of divide and conquer existed here too well in their case it worked both ways they had easily broken through the birds that remained and made their way back to ''home'' but in a way Don almost thought that was the enemy''s plan all alone as after they had left the relative safety of the crystal clearing the had been hit by the ''Spawns'' spawns, random encounters, really they could call it anything but it basically boils down to the enemy''s ability to make birds appear out of nowhere and ambush them. It always choice the most inopportune times as well like right now actually. they had been walking through a rather thick part of the forest that made it difficult for them to help each other and right on uqee they had been ambushed by a spawn and this was no ordinary ambush either they could feel it when ever there was a spawn they felt it like the world was twisting in a unnatural way. They were attacked by none spawned birds two the creatures that they didn''t kill as they move forward eventually recovered and started to hunt them it was because of this they learned the difference between a spawn and just a normal run of the mill ambush. Still they had a tough go at it the only thing really keeping them going was the weird medicine water they were able to make from what medicine they had, Jace called them potions but Don found it hard to call aspirin mixed in water as a potion. "AHHH" the sudden sound of someone screaming drew Don''s attention as he saw a group of birds drop down on team three their beaks and talons tearing through what little armor they had. Don cursed as he ran trying to get to the downed he doubted his team would get their in time but he didn''t have to as a wave of rocks smashed into the birds as another team, team 4 if Don remembered correctly, fell on the birds with primitive hammers bashing out their brains in a flurry of fury and adrenaline the downed team was quickly healed up but the still bore wounds as they had started to ration what healing they had left. Finally catching up to the two teams Don quickly made sure that they were alright before sending them into the middle of the group as that position suffered less attacks as the enemy didn''t seem to be able to spawn birds within their group and it was an ''Enemy'' there was no way simple animals could act like the birds did organised ambushes, assaults, and even traps they all pointed to a higher intelligence one that knew their every move and position. If Don had ever doubted that the strange presence that Andrew and a few others felt he couldn''t now their was too much evidence supporting it, and it pissed him off. For Andrew and his team things were going better but no less as tough as he jumped over the head of a nearby bird having used his spear as an impromptu pole to jump he landed a kick on another of the bloodthirsty ninja chickens the now dazed bird couldn''t do anything as the boy grabbed its neck and used its awkwardly proportioned body against it to judo throw it onto the back of the confused bird he just jumped over the sound of his spear whistling through the air as it struck a bird that tried to attack his back piercing through its open beak. Grabbing the shaft of the spear he jerked it to his left with a small movement insuring that it was stuck in the bird before violently jerking it to his right spinning his entire body in the process the bird in question didn''t even have time to tweet as its jaw was brutally broken.Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon. Andrew grimaced as the creature fell he hated this kind of spectacle fighting it left him to exposed like right now unfortunately he had to since it was his job to make a spectacle. His spear spun around him as he did the simple maneuver while twirling a stick wasn''t a intrinsically difficult thing to do it was more than eye catching enough for the birds as they surrounded him clicking their beaks and hissing menacingly. "Yeah that''s it you dumb fucks come look as mister Andrew makes you all disappear" Andrew whispered to no one in particular as the birds moved juuust close enough for the five or so nets the had made to drop on them with a startled squawk most of them disappeared into the weird pocket dimension thing containers seemed to make for some reason. Damn that pissed him off while he was certainly fine with being ignorant about most things he hated not knowing why something worked especially if that something was the only thing standing between him and a murder of Ninjickens? ... no that wasn''t a good name for the damn things either. He didn''t know what Emily was so pissed off about but honestly he thought that given their circumstances she could forget about it. They hadn''t contacted Don or Jace for almost thirty minutes now this whole lack of information sharing was starting to make him anxious. What if their was some kind of super chicken a chicken of chickens the chicken queen who knows he didn''t know really that last thing he wanted was to be left in the dark about anything. He also didn''t want to piss Emily off the two of them were acting as team leaders and the last thing they need was to be bickering while surrounded Murickens nope ok combing a word with chicken just isn''t going to work honestly chicken was a stupid word Andrew wished he could go talk to the guy that made that word and convinces him to call the bauks or clucks or something! He didn''t know why he was mad at that other than the reason that he wanted to be it distracted him from having to make the difficult choice of learning the overall picture or maintaining the group dynamic both of those things were important if they wanted to live and he was racked with indecision on what to do which was also dangerous, but who could blame him 9 hours ago he was playing a video game and now he was standing under a tree of clovers covered in giant chicken blood. He had done pretty well all things considered so why did he still have to make life or death choices he''s had his fun so hed like to turn the game off and go to bed now ... no, nothing, anyone ... figures. Sighing to himself Andrew resolved himself to go talk to Emily he might not be good at speaking but he was pretty sure he could convince her to drop the grudge she was holding at least long enough for them to survive the Birdageddon ...Birdapocalypse nope nothing if anything combining bird with the endings of well the endings was even worse than his last attempt so bad that Ninjikens was starting to sound good to him. "Hey Andrew" David yelled as he ran up to him "We found the trail to the main group Lance thinks it''s about an hour away" "Thank god" one of the people in the tree said as they all started to climb down everyone was jovial at the prospect of getting back with the rest. "Ok, ok everyone" Andrew spoke up interrupting the group "When we get back we''ll make a barbeque." picking up the filled nets he hefted them over his shoulder "Ugh... I sure hope some one brought sauce." "Oh man that would be awesome." "I don''t know, chicken isn''t really a barbeque meat" "What are you talking about Buffalo wings." ... Andrew smiled a little as he listened to his group argue. Moving through the rough vegetation of the forest Andrew made it to where Emily should be waiting. Steeling himself for what was sure to be a difficult conversation. ''Ok Andrew it''s better to make a decision rather than be indecisive I''m sure that once we start talking every will be solved I mean could go wrong.'' Andrews inner monologue was interrupted by the sound of yelling. "You''re being an asshole Don we just got back from almost dying and now you''re trying to do it again are you mental!" Emily was shouting into her walkie while passing around on top of a fallen tree trunk. Andrew awkwardly stood by as she continued to pase and yell, he was pretty conflicted on one hand he didn''t have to convince Emily to talk to Don but on the other hand he really jinxed this whole thing. "OK look we''re not going to be able to scout the whole forest looking for the main group we don''t even know were you guys are right now." Emily''s said presumably to Don. "We know where the main group is though" Andrew interrupted ""WHAT!!"" Both Emily and Don yelled Andrew cringed as he rubbed his ears he was slightly impressed that he managed to hear Don from the walky. "How?" Emily asked as she hopped down from the algae covered log. "How, we just looked for the markets we left" Andrew started to explain till he saw Emily''s increasingly confused face. "That was a thing?" Emily asked "ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME THAT WAS LIKE THE SMARTEST PART OF MY ORIGINAL PLAN DID YOU GUYS SERIOUSLY FORGET DAMN" Andrew started to rant as he walked off leaving a slightly flabbergasted Emily. "I did honestly forget though I mean we have been pretty distracted soooo...." Don said from the walky. Emily sighed "well he''s going to be modey now" "Yeah don''t you just hate it when someone you''re supposed to be working with gets super modey" Don asked mockingly. "IF LOOKS COULD KILL DON, IF LOOKS... COULD... KILL..."Emily said venomously "Damn... ok fine we can talk about this later when we meet up." "Alright we should be able to meet up with each other in a few hours if we follow the marks we left before all hell broke loose and look i''m sorry things didn''t go the way you thought it would but I need you to work with me here ok?" Don''s voice existed the walky as Emily started moving "I''ll talk to you later Don bye" Emily switched the walky off as she set off to gather her and Andrews team''s. Ch.11 Andrew was pissed he considered himself to be many things smart was not one of them he would never say he was generally intelligent but he liked optimizing looking for little improvements was rewarding to him this was exemplified in his character Axe. If Andrew was being honest Axe wasn''t a great character it didn''t do the most damage or heal the most, he didn''t tank or buff much of anything he was a bland character but it had gotten Andrew pretty far through the game not because it excelled at anyone thing nor was it good at everything it just did enough. This was very much an Andrew like thing to do he would get an idea then spend days trying to optimize it to do what he wanted it to mainy time jace would poke fun at him for spend so much of his time trying to minmax an nonoptimal character idea. Yes Andrew didn''t consider himself a smart person but he also wasn''t dumb he could read between the lines. The problem was Emily they had known eachother for about a year and became fast friends so why hadn''t they ever met each other at school? Their school was large but not that large, and Emily had told him that she, Don, and Jace had gone to hang out mainy time but that wasn''t what upset him in fact the idea that his friends went to hang out without him meant little to him although it seems be the exact opposite for Emily what hurt Andrew was the fact that they lied a lie by omission certainly but still a lie. ''Respect that was the one thing He had ever wanted from the people around him. He didn''t think it was much to ask for just a little respect to treat him like an equal and not like a child or some lesser thing. It was something that he believed everybody desired at some level, but that wasn''t way he was mad being lied to by his friends only upset him being unrepentantly hunted through afucking alien forest for ten fucking hours only made him tired. But this, this took the cake the fucking shit cake with shit icing of fuckin bird shit a fuking guano pie sure it made some sence to send a small party back to the clearing to check it out but not really the had just finally meet up and the first thing they do is send half of the group off to meet up with the group in the clearing while the went and looked for a new place to set up shop. except it didn''t he didn''t even know Ashly if that was even her name and last time they meet up it wasn''t a fucking good time. So while the whole group is just going to split the fuck up just because the spawns suddenly stopped doesn''t mean it''s a good idea to split the fuck upFuck i just repeated myself.'' But even that was forgivable it''s not like he went back alone having half of the force meant that if the group in the clearing was under attack then in the off chance that he and his new group died then at least some of them would live and they were also taking that risk which is bullshit this whole day has been bullshit but even that wasn''t going to push him over the edge what put himover the fucking edge was the fact that the whole time he was off trying to not get killed the fucks that were in the clearing were parting away all ourFUCKING SUPPLIES!!! "So let''s see if I got the jist of this a few hours after we left Ashly''s group came up and took all our stuff." Andrew said calmly it was strange almost like something broke one minute he wanted to tear the world a part and now he was calm calmer than he had ever been it was like some kind of weird clarity washed over him and he was quickly thinking through the whole situation. "Yeah sorry Andrew but they kinda outnumber us they said Ashley wanted to gather all the supplies together and we weren''t really in any position to say no" a boy Andrews age said while looking around awkwardly Andrew couldn''t blame him it only made sense they only left 200 of the 500 their little group had and Ashley''s group still had 500. Andrew coming didn''t really change the number in their advantage either as now they had 350. "So after they took our stuff they talked for a few hours and then started this party? Am I getting this right" Andrew continued his questioning as he looked at the far off mass of people that seemed to be celebrating. "Yeah that''s what happened we overheard some of what they were talking about it seemed to be like they were holding some kind of election after it was done they started to party." the guy said as they both observed the celebration it was pretty weak all things considered but they did manage to get some kind of music out looked like their group lucked out on the tech and the chips. As Andrew looked around the clearing he saw what was left of their original supplies the piles of duct tape discarded what was literally the only symbol of human ingenuity they had tossed to the side in favor of doritos and Beyonc¨¦. Turning to the boy next to him Andrew smiled and said "Ok here''s what we''re going to do" He may be feeling calmer and more at peace than he had ever felt in his life but he was still pissed as all hell. "Are you sure about this it seems wrong" the boy and the other three hundred and fifty other members in Andrews group nodded at his words Andrew just looked at them and sighed "Yes I''m sure just do your part ok keep your composure and we''ll get through this."Support the creativity of authors by visiting the original site for this novel and more. Andrew and his group marched toward the party the sound of music that represented a life they weren''t going to be able to go back to rang hollow and empty in his ears as he walked up to were the other group was they stilled and became silent as his group came up. Behind Andrew lined up in five man rows were four columns the first column that Andrew lead was a ten row column the fifty people that Andrew picked to lead the others as some kind of guard behind them were the last three columns each twenty deep marching together with the coordination of a marching band and while not perfect far from perfect it''s intimidation was obvious each member wore a hoodie that covered their faces and had spears with black tips. The nervous whispers as the closed on the other group was obvious and only increased as two of the columns brook off to the left and right of the center column and moved to the flanks of the group. "Hello there nice party you''re having it''s a shame you didn''t invite us" Andrew said jovially with a small wave he had to hid a gulp as almost five hundred scared and confused eyes stared at him. "What the hell is this!" Ashly yelled out as she stormed to the front her jock squad coming up behind her Andrew knew they had names but he had completely forgotten them. "Oh good you made it that makes this much easier I''d like to know what your doing thats all, what is all of this?" Andrew said good naturedly "We''re celebrating our election" Ashly started to say before Andrew interrupted her "OH a celebration is it wow and an election cool I wonder why we weren''t invited to an election seems like a pretty important thing to not be invited to." "Don''t blame me for you not being here it''s not my fault that you wanted to run off and play ranger while we did important things." Ashly spoke up glaring at Andrew "Important things like wasting our food and supplies!" Andrew almost shouted as he glared back "Ok what the hell do you want do you think this is some kind of game!" Ashly was getting visibly upset by Andrew. "No I don''t think this is a game at all I know it''s not more than you do that''s for sure, all I want is for you to bow down and recognize me as your ruler." Andrew''s voice was cold as he spoke his demands. "What? uh... you can''t be serious you think you can just waltz in here and bully us into making you some kind of king are you crazy." Ashly laughed at the ludicrousness of the situation. Andrew just scowled at her and whistled at the sharp ring the members behind him almost simultaneously shifted their spear points down and toward the other party. The sudden silence that filled the air was almost painful as Andrew simply replied. "This is no joke, BOW." Ashly glared at him and was about to speak out before she was interrupted by a young man coming out of the group he was tall with an athletic build Andrew guessed he was part of the jock squad but other than that he was pretty unremarkable brown hair cut close brown eyes with a thick brow and long nose he actually looked a little like Don but had a much fair complexion. As the broad shouldered man walked up he spoke out. "Alright everybody I think this is enough we all are on edge but there''s no need for this we can talk it out just fine let''s put away the sticks and speak like civilized..." the strangers speech was cut off as Andrew thrust his spear through his throat. A shrill shriek came from the party as crimson flew from the man neck he collapsed choking on his own blood. "JOSH!!!" A voice yelled as the boy Andrew remembered a was named John rushed at him "YOU FUCKING BASTARD I''LL KILL YOU!!!" He roared as he tackled Andrew and the two fell over then there was a scream as they rolled apart a dagger was stuck in John''s belly as he rolled on the ground screaming in agony. Seemingly unfazed Andrew stood and once again pointed his spear at Ashly who had gone deathly pale. "Kneel" Andrew Demanded in his mind a brief ''before Zod'' flashed by but he quickly pushed it away now wasn''t the time for jokes. The other party knelt it was slow but they did it pale of face they made many jerking glances at the two dieing members of their party they seemed torn between helping their friends and saving their lives once they had all knelt Andrew addressed them. "You will receive me as your leader until further notice you will call me Caesar If you understand say yes Caesar." Andrew heard his last command echoed out from the crowed after hearing it he nodded to the two next to him. "Heal them" and pointed at the two withering forms as the two went to them with medicine water they cured what should have been mortal injuries as the two boys recovered from their wounds Andrew spoke. "Bind them the rest of you stay down i''m going to be talking and I want your full attention do you understand" Andrew shouted the last part as the dumbfounded people kneeling before him stared slack jawed at what the had just seen. "UNDERSTAND!" Andrew yelled out with was followed by a chorus of "YES CAESAR" "Good, now for you all to know at this moment we face an enemy the likes of with we have never seen or kind of have seen but wouldn''t believe. Never mind i''m already going into a tangent I want you to know that we are in danger here this isn''t home this isn''t a nice place In all likelihood we aren''t going to survive unless we all band together and work towards a single goal we will perish as you are all well aware I''ve taken on the mantle of leader that means I have the final say in all of our decisions we do things the way I want to do them DO YOU UNDERSTAND" Andrew passed in his speech for a confirmation "Yes Caesar" "Good, now I know this will be hard for some to accept and i''m willing to let you leave hear alone with your life but before you consider that option know that you will die probably by the enemy or also probably from dehydration and starvation. Those of you who think that i''m just making up an imaginary enemy like some dystopian or like in lord of the flies I know some of you read it, I''d like to show that my word can be trusted." Andrew continued as he lifted up a net that had a faint light in it as he hefted it up and threw it a single bird appeared out of it squawking and shrieking. The sudden appearance of the nearly 7ft. bird silenced the group as Andrew continued "We don''t have a name for them yet but there are thousands of them in the forest, they move in packs and are very territorial think of them as this world''s wolves. Now I don''t expect you to like me In fact i''m guessing that a lot of you hate me right now and that''s fine with me I''m your leader not your friend and I''ll do all that''s in my power to make sure we survive and ill be doing it even if I have to drag you through the mud to do it UNDERSTAND" Andrew shouted as he addressed not only the ones he made knell but also the small group that was his makeshift army and all together he received a much more resounding response. ""YES CAESAR!!"" Ch.12 Council "And that''s what happened." Andrew''s finished explaining what happened to the way group as he sat in the middle of the fifty members of what could now be considered his royal guard. "My god Andrew what the hell were you THINKING" Emily''s voice could be heard from the walky as Don just sighed heavily. "I''m pretty sure I explained all that already why didn''t you pay attention!" Andrew whined in exasperation. "Damit Andrew why didn''t you do this twenty four hours ago then I would have been able to use the fifty dollars I just won" Lee shouted from the walky. "That''s what you find wrong with this!" Emily shouted back. "And to be fair he didn''t kill anyone so the bet still wasn''t won" Jace spoke up off handedly. "I''m sorry when did we all become psychopaths Andrew just stabbed someone and your joking about a fucking bet you made!" Emily shouted. "Whoa calm down there miss wearing the body parts of her defeated enemies, and before you say it because I know you will yes feathers count even if they are fashionable. While we can all argue about the rightness or wrongness of his actions it was something of an inevitability when ever differing ideologies and beliefs come into contact with each other there will inevitably be conflict. Dealing with it now before it becomes something ingrained in our minds was a smart choice." Lee''s defense made Andrew feel gratified that someone understood his stance although it didn''t help that he felt a little awkward since it felt like he wasn''t in the conversation anymore. ''Do they relive that they''re still using the walkie?'' Andrew had to wonder about. "But they tried to make dialogue and he just stabbed them that''s not reasonable that makes conflict!" Emily shouted out from the walky as one of Andrew''s ''guards'' spoke up. "Why did you do that sir if they were willing to talk why fight them it doesn''t make sense to me to just attack someone that trying to talk to you?" "That''s simple because they didn''t want to talk. There are two way to look at the man one he was a person of power if he had an influential voice than his words would have been lies to get out of a tight situation they would have said anything to get out of trouble or two he had no power and people didn''t listen to him in both cases the right thing to do was to press forward even ignoring all the potential ways we could have talked are way out talking is by its nature a tool for compromise you talk to find a middle ground were two groups can live together without either giving up to much but we can''t really afford that" Andrew took a break in his explanation to take a drink "Ah... This might sound rambly and cliche but war and other things that we now consider savage existed to insure survival as a species." Andrew finished his little speech with another drink of water putting down the bottle in his hand he once again started speaking only this time addressing his friends. "I need you guys to come back I have an idea on how to get everything on some kind of track but I need everyone to be working together for this together we can overcome this weird ass world in any cass I''m sure we can all agree we have a better chance of succeeding together than not you know the old united we stand divided we fall so what do you think." Andrew waited expectantly as the others considered the walky in his hand was deadly silent. "I think you need to work on your motivational speeches that was the cheesiest and most boring thing i''ve ever had to sit through i''m cringing so hard right now" Jace laughed from the walky as Andrew grond. "Come on man I was trying to be honest and truthful here." Andrew whined. "That your problem if you''re going to be going into politics your gona need to learn how to lie" Lee continued to poke fun of Andrew as he complained. "Sigh... Don''t listen to these assholes Andy I suppose I can forgive you it''s not like you actually killed anyone but i''m pretty pissed about the whole thing and i''m sure plenty of people are too." Emily interrupted Andrews impromptu roasting with was something he was really glad about. "Don''t worry I expected that people tend to either Idolise their leaders or vilify them you never really see a middle ground until after the fact." Andrew said off handedly "Ok so the plan might be off putting to you but I think it''s the best way to make this work I''ll see you guys soon." and with that Andrew turned the walky off and stood up after looking around he turned to his ''guards'' "Gather everyone up we''re going to be having a meeting." "What you can''t be serious!" Emily shouted out. "I agree that''s ludicrous what gives you the right to control people''s lives like that" Ashly echoed her own discontent. Andrew had to suppress a groan as he looked around at the 14 people around him that made up his newly minted counsel. "I for one am quite happy with the arrangements" A soft well spoken voice said both Ashly and Emily turned to look as the dark haired girl clearly shocked. "Rachal how can you of all people be ok with this." Ashly blurted out Rachal just ignored the outburst and answered with a roll of her eyes "Because i''m looking towards the future" her answer was curt as she turn to look as another girl with cream colored hair "I assume that you are also fine with this Maril." "Oh yes I''m quite excited to begin documenting the local fuan." Mairl had a gleam in her eye as she smiled cheesily. "Good make sure you bring your findings to one of my people so we can properly document it, that being said I asume Lee and Don will be working closely together so you can just compile your notes and research together." Rachal continued as she quickly looked around at the gathered council. "to be honest I''ll probably not be making many notes in the near future seeing as we''ll be busy making shelters." Don add while looking at a sheet in his hands "It will probably take awhile for us to really need to take stock of what the hunters get." Finishing his statement Don took a drink and after clearing his throat he turn to the man next to him "No offence Than." "None takin the guys I''ve got are pretty blue but i''ve got some ideas that I think will really improve our harvest you guys just focus on making everything we need to keep going." a tall boy with strawberry blond hair said turning to look at Lee he asked a question "So what do you think how about we all give a general game plan for what we''re going to be doing?"Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences. "I think we already decided on that Don and the builder cast will begin making shelters Lee and the researcher cast will be looking into what plants are edible as the masters of gardening and hunting you and Maril will be in charge of acquiring resources that we can use and as the chronicler and counselor Rachel and Ashley will be in charge of making sure everything runs smoothly you were all voted here by the will of your respective casts so i''m hoping you don''t disappoint them. In addition while you represent the casts and while I''ll generally refer to your judgment until otherwise stated this is a dictatorship I''m the one with the final say understand?" Andrew spoke as he looked at each on in turn He didn''t like being like this but it was necessary for now. Everyone nodded before saying "yes caesar" and with that the council''s first meeting ended without much fanfare. "Can you believe that" Ashly was quite heated as she passed around "The fucking gaul of that guy casts a cast system that''s just wrong!" "I also found that unpleasant people should be allowed to do what they want in life they shouldn''t be shackled to just one thing like a slave" Emily spoke up the four girls had gathered together after the meeting to talk "It was also kind of weird that he banned sex that really came out of the blue for me." "I would think that would be self explanatory were teenagers that are alone without adult supervision beyond that it wasn''t sex that was banned so much as having babies which given our situation should be obvious we don''t know if we can get pregnant in this world or if we can what we''ll give birth too or strange birth defects that could happen do to the child being made up of foreign matter on top of that I doubt anyone here has ever delivered a baby before it''s better not to risk it" Merail said absently as she poured over detailed drawings of bird anatomy "Seriously how do these things live without origins" she muttered to herself as she turned the page. "Well what about you Rachal why did you agree to this of everyone here you should have the least reason to want to do what that guy says" Ashley turned to Rachal suddenly "He stabbed your brother in the throat!" "I will admit that''s not earning him any favours but I don''t feel like holding it against him after all an eye for an eye just leaves the world blind. Beyond that I know he''s trustworthy after all if he was really bad he wouldn''t have let you join his counsel he would have killed you or raped you or both." Rachal said simple as she worked to organize what the camp had as supplies Ashly''s face had gone pale as she heard that "Right that''s a thing isn''t it." "Well if you''re willing to forgive him for hurting your brother guess I have no right to still be mad at him" Emily said with a shrug. "Oh I didn''t forgive anything I''m going to have to find some way of punishing the two of them" Rachal interrupted Emily as she looked through the sheets in her hand "And I think I found a good way to do it to." Ashly turned to her as she smiled wickedly. "Wait why both of them?" having recovered a bit Ashly questioned Rachal "What did your brother do?" "what did he do he walked up to an angry man armed with a spear you think i''m going to let him get away with that kind of idiotic behaviour! HE ALMOST DIED!" With that out burst Rachal shooed the three other girls away "I''ve got a lot of things to get done and if i recall you three do too, I''ll see you girls later bye." "So why Caesar exactly I thought you were more of a Justinian fan" Don asked Andrew as the two were working on making some clay bricks the outing that had turned into a nine hour long fight for their lives had at least turned up what they were looking for a small river with clay deposits right now they were working dry plant matter into the clay by stomping the two things together with their feet. "Well you Know what happens to Caesar right?" Andrew asked as he tried not to think about the weird sludge that was seeping between his toes. "Thats pretty dark Andrew I personally don''t like the idea that you think were going to kill you." Don said with a frown. "Thanks I personally don''t like the idea of being killed." Andrew said with a laugh "You know when you do something and you think you''re ready for the consequences then you realise that you really aren''t ready for them thats what im feeling right now." "Yeah I know how that feels just recently actually" Don said with a sigh as he stomped his leg down with a muddy thud "I''m sorry for that by the way." Andrew stopped what he was doing and looked at Don. "It''s ok man. To be honest I''m kind of flattered that you thought Emily had a crush on me." Andrew said as he poked the big man next to him "Have to admit though that was probably the most pointless thing you have ever done in your life." "Shut up man I panicked, when I called Jace to help me out he laughed at me for half an hour!" Don explained while pinching his brow. Andrew had to hold himself back from laughing too as he asked "So...he he... why didn''t you..pff.. tell me?" "I thought you would have died from suffocation." Don answered as he started to rub his temples. "Ha.. ha.. really?" Andrew felt that that was unlikely but he also found the Idea that big old Don H. Borin would fall for a little spit-fire like Emily fucking hilarious. "Ha ha what''s the matter kong afraid of being shot down." Andrew ignored his friends put upon expression as he continued "Oh that Ann always monking around" Don groaned as Andrew collapsed to the side of the pit laughing uncontrollably. "Dear God why did I show him that movie WHY!" Don was once again regretting the day he introduced Andrew to his favorite monster movie. "HA HA THAT HUGE MONKEY WANTED TO FUCK THAT SMALL ASS CHICK HOW DOES THAT EVEN MAKE SENSE HAHAHAHAAAAHA." "HE''S AN APE HE''S NOT A MONKEY YOU HAVE NO APPRECIATION OF FINE MEDIA." "WHO FUCKING CARES SHE IS LIKE AN ANT TO HIM HAHAHAHAHHHAAA WHAT WAS HE THINKING WAS HE JUST LIKE WELP I GUESS I HAVE THE WORST FETISH EVER OH WELL LETS DO THIS HAHAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAH." "ANDREW PLEASE I''M FUCKING BEGGING YOU I''LL PAY YOU A HUNDRED DOLLARS PLEASE STOP." "HA HA HA HAHA HA AH THERE IS NO MONEY HERE HAHAHAHAHA ... huf...huf..huuu ok ok i''m good i''m fine it''s not that funny not ...pff... funny at all ...ugh" Andrew grunted as he picked himself up. "please say you''re done" Don asked Andrew as he cleared his throat. "Yeah I think I''m good" Andrew said as he stretched. "OK Andrew please don''t tell Emily why I lied to her she''d hate me more than she currently does, please." Don looked at Andrew in the eye Andrew froze and looked back before sheepishly smiling. "Oh fuck no" Don turned around to see a stunned looking Emily the three stood staring for a bit before Andrew started to awkwardly whistle and Emily walked away for Don''s part he just laid down in the clay pit. "Can I die now just bury me here, on my tombstone just put a dunce hat on it or something, god could that have come out at a worst time or in a worst way" Don groaned as he laid in the mud hands covering his face Andrew leaned over him and started to poke him in the head. "yeah that was probably up there. Why do you think she even came here in the first place wasn''t she working with Ashley?" Andrew mused as he continued to try prodding some life into Don. "Who knows maybe she wanted to talk to one of us unlikely since she was pretty mad at the two of us not to long ago" Don''s voice sounded muffled by his hands. "You going to go talk to her?" Andrew asked. "Don''t think she''s wants to talk to me right now" Don groaned as he pulled his hands from his face as he sat up "Stop it now please." he asked as he swatted away Andrews prodding hand. "OK... But shouldn''t you let her tell you?" Andrew asked. Don looked at him funny "is the guy that guy that stood out side school for three hours because he was afraid of the teacher trying to incourage me." "Mrs. Jolin was fucking mean I still have nightmares about her" Andrew said as he glared at Don. "So you have dreams of wrinkly old ladies then?" Don asked back at Andrew with a sarcastically puzzled look. ".................................OK then i''ll just let you get back to your weird human relationship things then" Andrew then stiffly walked out of the mud and away from Don. "you know you aren''t striking the imposing figure of a leader when you walk like that" Don shouted at his departing friend. "Fuck you I''m on vacation" Andrew yelled back. "Vacation? there''s no vacation here" Don cupped his hand to make his voice louder. "I''M THE FUCKING BOSS IF I SAY I''M ON VACATION THEN I''M ON FUCKING VACATION" Andrew continued the match as he marched away walking backwards. "well can''t really say anything to that" Don muttered as he stood up he took a moment to think about what he should do..... "Well I''m Fucked." Ch.13 Men got to eat A group of people sat around a small ring of stone in the middle was a small pit with a hearty fire above the fire was a crude spit four sticks stacked in an X shape with a stick laid in between them a large haunch of meat was skewered on the stick being awkwardly turned as parts of the sticks caught on each other. "So who wants to try it first?" David asked as he looked at the other two people. "Are we sure it''s safe to eat this?" Lance asked as he nervously gulped. "Should be." Andrew said as he tried to turn the spit "Lee''s group has been checking and we know that it''s at least not poisons the real question is if our bodies can digest matter from this world, dimension, thing." Andrew shrugged as he continued "We only have three ideas right now one were able to eat it just like normal the evidence for that is we can breath just fine so there''s probably nothing to worry about. Two would be that it just sits inside our stomachs and is just an inert lump of matter like a huge wad of gum which would be unpleasant and the third option is that it explodes are bodies as the two different types of matter reject each other or something Lee thinks it''s unlikely since it would basically make us walking nuces or something." Andrew finished talking as he turned to the two in front of him they didn''t look very assured "So any of you want some of this?" "Uh no i''m good" David said as he and Lance backed away. "Yeah I''m good on not eating a potential bomb" Lance said as he shook away the offer. "Well guess this is on me then FOR SCIENCE!" Andrew shouted as he took a bite "Gah" Andrew cried as he spat the meat out crouching and clenching at his mouth. "Whoa whats wrong!!" "Fuck are you ok!?" David and Jace yelled as they ran up to Andrew "AHH I FUWKIN BWERT MI SWELF!!" Andrew shouted. "Dude you gave me a heart attack there." David said as he relaxed "WATWER GET MWE SOME WWATER PWELS!" Andrew continued to shout. "Jezze ok man here calm down" Lance said as he handed Andrew a bottled water which he downed greedily "It''s your own fault for eating it right out of the fire what are you an idiot." "Iwf it wwas swoe stiwped wy didw''t yow sttwop me?" Andrew asked glaring at Lance "Hey man negligence is not the same as ignorance you can''t pin this on us." David intergected. Andrew just glared at the two of them as they shuffled around awkwardly. "Ok, ok we''re sorry we didn''t think you were going to burn yourself alright" Lance blerted out sounding slightly annoyed. "More importantly how did it taste?" David asked as he looked at the stick of meat that had been discarded on the ground. "Ish down''t knowws." Andrew said as he picked up the dropped meat he looked for a clean spot before taking a bite slowly savoring it before stopping for a moment. ""Well?"" The two asked as the looked at him expectantly. "Itsh ish amazing!!" Andrew shouted tears were in his eyes as he savoured the morsel in his mouth. ""Really!"" The two said in surprise they would have never guessed that it would have been good! "Ok let me try some!" David said as he pulled a piece of the meat off. "Me too!" Lance said as he also tore a small chunk off. Both of them ate the meat at the same time as they slowly chewed the meat their faces suddenly became stiff. "Blaugh" "Pthuff" "Ugh! That was Awful it was so Fucking dry it tasted like a Boot! Ugh!" David yelled out as he glared accusingly at Andrew. "Bleah it''s like the outside was burnt to a crisp but the inside is still rare it''s so flavourless where''s the salt where''s the barbecue sauces!" Lance also shouted as he pointed angrily as Andrew.If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation. "This thing goes to being so watery that it has no flavor to being so dry that it''s barren how in gods green earth did you manage to fail so bad!!!" David continued his tirade as lance tried desperately to get the taste out of his mouth. Andrew for his part was laughing exuberantly at their misery. For all he was concerned they had gotten what they deserved. "HOW COULD YOU DO THIS TO US HOW CAN WE TRUST YOU IF WE CAN''T TRUST YOU TO TELL US WHAT''S GOOD TO EAT OR NOT!!!!!" Lance bellowed he was actually crying it tasted so bad. Andrew also was crying but that was mostly because his burnt mouth and not so much for his laughter well a little of both actually. "It hwerts to lawgh ahah owow ha ha ow" Andrew entered a special type of hell as his burnt mouth was agitated by his own laughing. this continued till Andrew was able to get his flask of medicine water back from David and Lance that decided that they would get revenge by playing keep away with it. "Ok ok let''s put this nonsense behind us" Andrew said as he finally fixed his burnt tongue "If a spit dosen''t work then all that''s left is the tried and true method of soup!" Andrew said as he pulled a large clay pot from seemingly nowhere. "How and also ''HOW!''" David asked as he pointed a scratched up hand at the pot. "Remember how those grass bags that Lee''s team made at the crystal clearing they could hold more than their volume in matter and didn''t add much to their mass when doing so Lee''s group has been perfecting how efficient their bags are so far this is the best they could fit inside of one." Andrew said as he put the pot down it was round and crude but it was almost a foot in diameter and almost 2 feet tall as well. Andrew set the pot over the fire and started to put in ingredients. "The best thing about soup is that you can put almost everything in it for now we''re going to put in chicken meat and bone. Don''t ask about the bones I don''t get it either Than just said that it was necessary. Then we''re going to put in this weird green curly thing? Maril says it''s some kind of herb that''s savory? or something, then there''s some other weird herbs like this root thing this mushroom that has the freaky eye markings on it and last if not least thies weird white crystal things that are apparently salt like at least according to Lee." Andrew said as he throw everything into the now boiling water and started to stir the thing. "Um the bones are for making the broth and you probably should have waited at least an hour to let the broth mix before you put in the other ingredients." Lance interjected a bit too late to really do anything thou. "Well next time you can make the damn soup mister cook!" Andrew said as he continued to stir the pot "I''m sure it will be fine we''ll just fish the bones out before we eat it ok..." Andrew said as he stirred the soup before something caught his eye and he stopped. "Did you guys just see what I saw?" Andrew asked slowly. "If you mean are we seeing the pot glow than yes we are seeing what you''re seeing" David said as the three fell away from the pot. "Why is the soup glowing!?!" A disparate Lance asked "Maybe it''s some kind of magic congratulations Andrew your a wizard now." David said with a small chuckle "Peleas, Magic as if! or that what I would be saying right now if I hadn''t just spent nine hours of my life in Colonel Sanders personal hell and didn''t spend the next three hours wondering why it''s only in the afternoon!" Andrew started to rant. "Hey so are we just going to ignore the magic pot of probable doom or what?" Lance asked as he looked at the other two. "Well someone''s got to go and check it." David said as the three started to stand up. "One, two, three, ''"not it"'' Andrew yelled and lance quickly followed suite. "Really guys you''re acting like children let''s discuss this like reasonable adults... uff" David started to speak before Andrew and Lance pushed him forward. Grumbling to himself David went over and looked into the pot to find surprise surprise it was glowing he turned back to the other two. "Now what?" his question was answered by Andrew who shouted. "Drink it!" "WHAT NO I''M NOT DRINKING SOME GLOWING RED SOUP" David shouted at the unreasonable demand. "Come on it''s magic remember it will give you superpowers" Lance pestered him as he flexed his arms making superman poses "NO I''M NOT AN IDIOT THAT WOULD NEVER HAPPEN!" David retorted as he clenched his fist. "It will make girls actually like you!" Andrew yelled in encouragement. "LIKE THAT MATTERS NOW THANKS TO YOU" David yelled back. "Come on stop being a baby!" Lance shouted. "I''M NOT BEING A BABY I''M THE ONLY ONE BEING REASONABLE HERE DON''T THINK I CAN''T SEE YOU SLOWLY BACKING AWAY YOU BASTARDS!!" David shouted livid as the two continued to slowly back away from him. David''s irritation was only made worse as his admission only made them move backward more quickly and obviously. "COME ON AT LEAST PUT A LITTLE ON YOUR HAND A LITTLE WON''T HURT YOU IT''S FOR SCIENCE REMEMBER" Andrew shouted he cupped his hands over his mouth in order to be heard clearer. David just decided to give up since this was a magic world if he died than he would probably become a ghost then he could haunt them by pull down their pants when they''re in public or something. bracing himself he used the stirring spoon to take out a small amount of soup and pour a drop out. slowly.... slowly..... slowly.... "AGH FUCK!!" David shouted as he accidently poured the boiling glowing red soup all over his scratched up hand it stung like a bitch before suddenly stopping as he looked at his hand he saw that it hadn''t changed all that much other than the fact that it was on FUCKING FIRE! David had a moment to freak out before realizing that it wasn''t on fire it was just glowing red. David stared at it stupid for a moment as he turned his hand over looking at it from all angles. "Well looks like we caught you /red/ handed." Andrew said from behind him David was to engrossed to be startled by his sudden appearance though. "Man there were probably a million time and places that that joke could have been funny here and you just wasted them all of them." David deadpanned as he moved to look at the two fools behind him. "well I guess I''ve got superpowers now." Ch.14 Some Leeway "Ok so tell me what happened" Stanley asked as he looked at david''s hand he had been studying the rate of gravity in this world when Andrew, Lance, and David came and found him messing with rocks and and some other odds and ends. Looking down at David''s burnt and broken hand Lee felt a headache he couldn''t shake the feeling that this was going to make his life more complicated. "Well we were messing around making food like we were supposed to and David got this stuff on his hands" Lance said as he held up a plastic bottle full of some glowing red liquid. "Alright so this thing fucked up his hand then is that what you''re telling me" Stanley asked as he examined the bottle. ''is it some kind of acid that might prove useful latter but...'' "Oh no it kinda protected his hand... well till it didn''t that is then it kinda just blew up." Lance interrupted his thoughts. Stanley frowned as he took the bottle from Lance and slowly looked it over. "It protected him?... how?" Stanley was starting to get a bit interested in this thing was it some kind of plastic or like a non newtonian fluid how could it offer protection and more importantly what the fuck were they doing to get David''s hand that badly fucked up. ''They can''t be that bad at cooking can they'' Stanley had some worrying thoughts as he looked at the three idiots in front of him. Andrew sighed as he saw Stanleys face and started to explain. "Look what happened is that David got some of this on him at first we found out that it had the ability to protect his hand from heat but while we were testing it it exploded and well..." Andrew gestured to David''s hand that now had a wrap of cloth covering it Stanley gave the wrap a once over before turning to look at Andrew. "That doesn''t make since you''re say that it could take in heat energy and turn it into what elastic? is that even possible!" Stanley was sceptical this didn''t sound like something that could be really though he guessed hed probably have to look at a lot of unreal things from now on. "Look it easier just to show you what happens." Andrew said as he took the red liquid from him and set it down he then built a fire and set the red liquid inside. to Stanley''s surprise the plastic didn''t start to melt instead nothing happened which was actually stranger the fire burned brightly but even though he was close to it he couldn''t feel its heat the normal smoke that would rise from the flame didn''t happen either as no hot air rose from the flame and it quickly started to die down till all that was left were the perpetually glowing embers of the flame. Stanley new that a chemical reaction was still going on he could see it but it was like all the thermal energy that would have been realized wasn''t. Stanley felt a chill go up his spine it was like he was watching something that his body told him was unnatural. Well not realy Stanley knew that such a reaction was possible but it was a much more complicated procedure something that you''d see in an engine rather that in wood after a while Andrew took the bottle out of the ''fire'' and put it in to Stanley''s hand to his surprise it was the same temperature as it was when he first held it. Stanley was speechless as he tried to rationalise the reaction he just witnessed as he was thinking about what could have caused this Andrew grabbed the bottle from Stanleys hand and threw it. It sailed end over end till it hit the ground and exploded in a sudden but furious gout of flame. "And that is what happened to David''s hand." Andrew said like he was showing of a middle school presentation.This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. "What do you think?" Andrew asked Stanley just stared with his mouth open this was beyond anything he had thought would be possible. "Fascinating" was the only thing he could whisper at the unexplainable event. Stanley was shocked after the other three left he had gone back to his studies most of his group was busy checking local laws like light and gravity the were simple tests and ended up to be the same as they were used to which didn''t surprise him if there were any major differences they would have felt them by now. After those tests they were trying to measure the rotation of the world and its general curvature not that exciting. Other than that a small group was helping the farming group test for dangerous chemicals and they were helping the builder group to test for metals all together Stanley was the one responsible for keeping it all organized and written down. Growing as he laid back into the grass the remains of his experiments were littered around him, he had been studying the strange red liquid trying to understand its principles he knew that it was stupid they had more important things to discover looking in to this didn''t help them as much as finding copper or iron would but it was to interesting to give up on. Seven he had counted and counted it again after he had done the test multiple times was he convinced that it was right he had found seven new elements that he didn''t know he couldn''t isolate them or really react with them in any way the only reason that he new they were there was because his math said they should be. It was definitely strange but there seemed to be more than one type of matter that existed that gave the fluid its strange properties maybe it would also explain the strange biology of the birds mabe... "Hey Lee whats got you so down?" the slightly chiper voice of Maril asked followed by a nearby squawk. Stanley got up slowly as he looked at the girl and the infernal creature that followed her as the head farmer she was the one that got her hands on the captured birds and their eggs it had only been three hours now and the girl had already gotten one tamed to the point that it fallowed her around. Avoiding the most obvious question that brought up Stanley decided that he would instead focus on they why she was here problem after all Maril could be a scary person every once in awhile. "How may I help you Maril is there some materials that you need for testing or is there a problem with the workers I sent you?" Lee dreaded the answer to his question since it would mean even more paperwork for him to do. "Nah they''re all doing fine I put some other people on taking care of all that busy work so I could play with this cutie here!" Maril caressed the things beak which it seemed to like as it nuzzled into the caress while warbling. "Don''t look at him that way mister beaky beakerton is a perfectly kind and friendly animal." Maril said off handedly when she noticed Stanley''s expression. "Yes and mister... beaker...ton was trying to tear out my innards and feast on my liver not four hours ago so I think i''ll refrain from judgment." Stanley said suspiciously eyeing the way to domestic bird that was fondly nuzzling Maril in the end he decided hed let the girl figure out alien psychology and he''d focuses on his projects. Dusting off his pants he quickly put his examples away while Maril continued to talk. "Actually I came here to tell you that your team is getting ready to observe the sunset it should be happening in an hour." Maril explained her presence and reminded Stanley of what he had been planning to do to night. "Crap that''s right I need to get over there I need to get some things to help with the measurements." Stanley started to rush an hour might seem like a long time but it was actually very short as he struggled to get his instruments together Maril interrupted him. "You''re usually so punctual what''s with all the disarray?" her question was spot on normally he''d have been at the meeting grounds all ready but he had been sidetracked by his new project he couldn''t help grinning a bit as he answered her question. "Don''t worry you''ll find out about it soon." Stanley answered before retorting "Besides your one to talk I thought you didn''t like pets why do you like those big monsters?" "Oh that simple it''s because I like fried chicken I mean honestly who doesn''t?" Maril said as she ruffled the birds feathers. Stanley was silent for a moment before he left thinking Maril was a scary individual. When Lee had left Maril let out a sigh of relief Lee had said something pretty ominous before he left he was a really frightening person to be alone with. Shaking her head Maril started to head back with Beakerton in tow she hoped that Lee''s little surprise wasn''t anything dangerous. Ch.15 Moving forward Five figures move silently through the foliage clover leaves shift over their heads as a soft breeze sets the reed like grass swaying. The figures stop as the huddle together crouching down to hind in the grass. "It''s impressive how much you can see out here." one of the figures whispered as he glanced around. "There''s no light pollution here that and the moon is bigger so more light is getting reflected." the hushed reply came from the group''s leader. "How far out are we now we''ve been going north for at least eight hours." Another of the figures asked as they pulled out a rolled up piece of paper a crude map had been sketched out on it showing what they had managed to scout out. "No clue its impossible to tell in these conditions we don''t even know where we''re going." The leader looks up while talking barely able to see past the leaves above them. "Judging by the light we have a few hours before the moon hits its peak well start to head back then." after finishing talking the leader pulled out a long stick that had a stone hammered into both sides driving the stick into the ground the five man team continued on their way. The team continued its movement as they followed a small brooklet upstream as they moved they left a trial of wooden poles behind them. This continued as the night dragged on until they found themselves at the edge of the forest. "This place is smaller than I thought I figured it would go on for days." The Leader said as they peered out of the forest before them the forest gave way to rocky steps that rose up into a mountain''s peak. "I didn''t realise how high up we had gone." One of the members said as he turned looking back the way they had come. "The incline here is very small I guess we have been going up a hill till now." The figure of the boy sat down in the dirt with a sigh. "Well we might as well start to head back nothing left to do here." Another member said exasperated as they started to move back down. "Hold on let''s get going forward for a bit longer." The leader said as he started out of the forest and up toward the rocky cliffs of the mountain. "What why It''s a mountain we can''t go through that are you crazy what in gods name could you possible...oh I got it." A fourth member started to complain before he saw the pair of binoculars their leader pulled out. Stepping up to the mountain''s base the leader cleared the line of trees before turning to look over it. He saw a sea of green swaying in the wind It looked like a lake as the foliage moved back and forth like waves. He served as a gust of wind passed through him it had grown stronger and colder at the mountain''s base than in the confines of the trees. Over his head the glow of the moon could be seen as it reached its zenith. Abnormally large it provided a greater amount of light to see by even in the night. Using the binoculars he started to look around. ''Nothing but trees, nothing but trees, nothing but trees.'' "Oh there''s a small cliff face to the south it looks like it goes through the mountains and beyond that it looks like a valley of some sort and it has a river running through it." the leader said with excitement. "Holy shit really let me see." The fourth member said as he grabbed the binoculars. "where is it, where is it, I swear to god if this is some kind of... Holy shit there it is ha ha we did it we found what we were looking for!" as the fourth member was celebrating the first member got of the ground and moved to going them. "So how far is it." He asked the leader "Don''t know if I were to guess judging by how long it took us to get here probably a day mabe two." The leader answered thoughtfully as he considered the distance "Whatever lets just get back and tell everyone it''s sooo cold up here." The second member said still in the forest "Ya they''ll be real happy to hear this maybe we''ll finally get that barbecue we were promised." The third member says as the four of them walk back down to the forest. "Hey maybe this new place has some kind of monster cows then we''d be able to have some real meat." The first member asks. "God I hope not cows are scary enough without them wanting to kill you!" the third member shouts before being hushed. The five of them slowly look around as they scan the forest around them small raies of moonlight poke through the canopy after being assured that their was nothing around they continued no their way. "Way to go dumbass." Forth said in a harsh whisper as the third said a barely audible apologie. "Lets just focus on getting back The council will want to know about this." The leader stated as he quickly moved through the forest following a trail of stone tipped pillars. "Why didn''t you tell us of this!" Ashly demanded as she glared angrily at Andrew. "I am telling you." His simple statement only riled her up more as she continued to shout "You can''t keep something like that a secret you can''t just say ''Oh magic is real but we won''t tell anyone'' It''s not right they have a right to know!" The rest of the council was quite as they sat listening to the argument. Andrew felt resigned he wished Than or Lee were here as they had a better understanding of his points but Than was scouting up in the north and Lee had gone back to testing the area for minerals he had apparently found a cave that might have copper in it and had spent the whole night looked up in it.Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. "Look I''m not going to let people make strange explosive liquids or tell them that they can. It''s my belief and Lee agrees that we have more important things to do let''s focus on what we know before we go diving into what we don''t. As members of the council it was my belief that you deserve to know what we all have found out and what I plan on doing with it for right now now that there is something that could be called magic and that under no circumstances should you tell anybody that it exists." As Andrew finished his speech an angry Ashily left the meeting. "Hm while I do understand your point there is still one problem with your plan that being the method of discovery if cooking a soup or stew can make one of these ''Potions'' then we will definitely have people making these things accidentally and I for one don''t want to know what a heat stealing liquid will do to a person''s so much." Maril spoke up as she spared a glance to the departing form of Ashly. "You have a point we''ll have to make a sub cast for the gardeners that will cook and make food they''ll have to be people you trust and will be in charge of making food for everyone which shouldn''t be to hard to do seeing as there aren''t many good cooks amongst us." Andrew replied before gesturing to Don "Please start your report." As Don got his notes ready to start his update he spared a glance at their meeting ground it was the crystal clearing they had discovered when they had been chased by the birds the level of bird attacks had dropped significantly after that first wave and while they were still a problem it was mostly a contained problem. They had found many ways of containing them and that was what most of his report was about. After his report the other gave theirs and things were mostly going ok the gardeners had found an assortment of edible plants one of which was a fruit that had seed that tasted like coffee and a sweet fruit that tasted like strawberries. "Man this place is weird." Don found himself agreeing with Andrews statement as he bit into the weirdly shaped fruit. After the meeting Andrew was finishing up his notes as Rachal came up to him. "Can I have your notes now" She asked as Andrew held up a hand to stop her. "give me a few more second." Andrew quickly finished putting down his notes "There you go." He said as he passed them over with a smile. ''Finally done with the fucking paper work'' He inwardly celebrated as Rachal took his notes looked at them looked at him sighed and with a muttered "I figured" tore them up in front of his eyes. "Hey what the fuck!! I Worked really hard on that." Andrew yelled as Rachal glared at him. "Really hard, You call those chicken scratches your best effort I''m the chronicler I have to compile all your notes in to something short and legible how am I supposed to do that if I can''t even understand what your writing. You aren''t going to leave this clearing until your handwriting looks like this." Rachal angrily shouted as she thrust A sheet of notes that had immaculate handwriting on it. Andrew took a moment to look at the paper than at Rachal who had a look of sadistic determination on her face though the sadistic part may have been his imagination for half a moment he was a young second grader being towered over the figure of an old and very pissed of lady. As Andrew continued to look between the two terrors he sighed in resignation. "Your right as a leader it is my duty to at least write properly." Andrew said in resignation. Rachel smiled at that "Very good now then let''s start with. And at that moment Andrew bolted only to be immediately talked. "Don help me please!" Andrew begged the large man as he started to leave. "Sorry man me and Emily are going to go and talk sooo." Don said while walking away with Emily "Oh come on man Bros before hoes and..."What did you just call me!"" Emily interrupted if glares could kill Andrew would have went to hell and then to hells hell. "That your a beautiful and lovely person, its a turn of phrase it means nothing, don''t kill me." Andrew stuttered before cursing in his mind as he felt a weight on his back. "Honestly stop acting like a child the more you struggle the longer this will take." Rachal said from his back. "oh god i''m getting traumatic flashbacks about Mrs. Jolin, Jace help me please Jace" Andrew cried out to his only other friend that could save him but Jace just continued to say nope as he walked away Andrew briefly considered taking the long shot and begging Maril for help but her constant giggling showed that she only saw this as a game. "Oh suck it up Andrew and take your medicine your the one that wanted this job." Emily said as she and Don moved out of the clearing. "Alright now that that is out of the way where should we start." Rachal asked herself while Andrew briefly wondered if this is what it feels like to be a mouse caught by a cat. "Is this any way to treat your fearless leader!" Andrew bellowed as he tried to sit up. "Yes my fearless leader that tried to run away from some paper." Rachal answered in a deadpan as Andrew collapsed. "Alright let just get this over with damnit!" Andrew said resigned. "Are we done yet." Andrew asked it had been three hours and Andrews spirit had been withered if he had a soul he was sure it looked like a raisin right now. "Hmm" Rachal hummed as she looked over the his work."You''re not there quite yet do these parts again." "UUUGH can you please get off me now at least?" Andrew asked "That depends will you try to run away if I do?" Rachal answered with her own question Andrew just slumped down. "I promise I won''t." Andrew replied as he started to redo his note for what felt to him like the thousandth time. "Hmm don''t believe you." Rachal said simply as Andrew once again slumped down. "Please its really hard to breath like this." Andrew grunted "A little motivation never hurt anyone." Rachal answered "Your enjoying this aren''t you!?" Andrew asked "Hmm...maybe." Rachal said offhandedly. "AAGH...here is this good enough." Andrew said handing back the paper to Rachal who gave it a look over. "Hmm Andrew would you mind if I asked why you aren''t wearing shoes?" Rachal asked as she stretched her arms. "Seriously?" Andrew sighed as he answered "I was helping Dons group make the clay they needed to get their bricks made you should know that from Don''s notes." "Hmm so I heard that you went out with the hunting team this morning mind telling me why." Rachal continued to ask him questions. "What is this an interrogation yes I went out with the hunters, why because i''m good at it and I didn''t have anything else to do anything else you''d like to know?" Andrew asked in aggravation. "Is that why your right hand is bandaged you know we''re limited on medican water if your going to use it you should put a mark down like we agreed on!" Rachal said angrily as she got off him. "I don''t need to put down that I used medican water if I didn''t use it." Andrew replied indignetly as Rachal brushed of her pants. "What you didn''t use it what about disease we don''t know what kind of infections you could get here!" Rachal frowned at Andrew with disapproval. "I''m fine mom!" Andrew answered as he got up glaring "I''m not going to waste something so precious on a few scrapes." "Umhm well whatever these are good enough you can go know." Rachal said in dismissal as she started to shuffle through her notes. "Thank God!" Andrew shouted as he quickly made a break for it leaving Rachal to her notes and thoughts. Ch16. Conflict and Hope ''Crakk'' The sound of striking wood resounded around the groove drawing attention from the people therein. From inside one of three large clay houses the sound of crying was interrupted by a sharp crack and a shout of pain. "God dammit my FUCKING hand!!" Andrew screamed as he cradled the smashed fingers to his chest he was in the middle of a ''spar'' if you could call it that Andrew knew better to John and some of his posse had asked him to spar with them to Andrew it was nothing more than a veiled attempt at revenge. "AAH my leg!!" John yelled as he hobbled for a bit " You''re gonna pay for that you bitch!" Andrew ignored him as he looked as his hand three of the fingers had been dislocated and Andrews body shock involuntarily as he popped them back in place. Andrew looked at John he was bent over a little favoring his left leg no surprise there getting back into stance Andrew measured his pace in his mind as he started to move John did too stepping in to range their staffs struck had sending another cracking sound around the clearing Johns blow won the parry putting Andrews out of position as John moved his staff to take advantage of the opening his head jumped back as Andrew used his agents John''s nose. Reeling back from the hit John tried to rebalance himself only to collapse as Andrew viciously struck his wounded leg. "Fucking hell!!" was the last thing John said before being knocked unconscious. After finishing with that Andrew got hit from behind with a tackle using the wooden staff he had been sparing with as a support he managed not to be knocked down giving him time to put his attacker into a headlock, only to be tackled again from the side. The three of them fell and crashed against each other stuck in between Andrew felt his head get shaken up from the fall. The three disoriented boys began flailing with no clear direction Andrew didn''t know what exactly happened only that he had managed to get his staff back and was now the last man standing well sitting down with his back against a wall that might from some perspectives look like the ground dammit if anyone asks him he''s standing sideways on the ground. As he lay there Andrew''s mind started to catch up with him. His body calming down from the adrenaline he began to feel exhausted and as his consciousness began to slowly fade he managed to shout one last thing "Fuck you ruined my math!" "What the hell were you thinking!!" Emily bellowed into Andrews ears "You could have been fucking killed and you didn''t tell anyone you''re lucky Ann found you or you four would have been in big trouble." Emily continued her rant as Andrew hissed in pain at the ointment was applied to him by Maril. "OH gods does it have to sting so much." Andrew complained to Maril who only replied that "If it doesn''t hurt then you''re not incentivised to not fight." Andrew could only grown " Look I told you I had good reasons first of all this was something that was going to happen sooner or later so it''s good to get it out of the way now and secondly. Emily do you remember the hit to kill system?" "You mean that thing you Don and Lee made up for fighting the birds?" Emily asked still looking cross at him.If you stumble upon this tale on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. "Yeah Lee and Don have told me that it applies to more things than we realized like trees and rocks since it seems to be some kind of fundamental law here I decided to take the opportunity to get what our htk is." Andrew explained to the two girls there was a moment of silence before Maril roughly put a large amount of ointment on a large cut under his eye. As Andrew screamed in pain Emily continued her rant "Are you fucking stupid why would you ever think that was a good idea." "What I''m the leader it''s my job to do these things." Andrew hissed indignantly through the pain of Maril thoughtlessly smearing the ointment into his wounds "OW OW OW OW OW OW OK STOP NOW PLEASE THATS ENOUGH!" Andrew screamed while trying to keep the surprisingly strong girl from applying anymore ointment. "No Andrew you dumb fuck putting yourself in danger is the exact opposite of what a leader should do your supposed to be a role model for people to look up to not getting into playground brawls! Maybe I should ask Rachal to give you some lessons on how you should act?" Emily started to think "God no please look at me haven''t I suffered enough for science why do you want me to suffer for politics what hive I done to make you hate me so!" Andrew bemoaned he was in no mood mentally or physically to deal with that nightmare. "Andrew I''m not doing this because I hate you i''m doing this because I don''t you need to change if you want this kind of job you''re just not a leader." Emily says as she look at Andrew who just shrugs. "Yeah I know that it''s just right now ... look if you don''t want me around then just get rid of me you''re in a perfect position to." Andrew says as he opens his arms wide. Emily just looks at him in confusion "I don''t understand what you mean by that but I''ve got to go meet with Don I''ll tell Rachal to find you here." As Emily leaves she turns around to address Andrew one last time. "Look Andy you can be a pretty cool guy when you''re serious and you''re really smart when you want to be so just try. Ok, you can do something like this easily you just have to be serious about doing it. I''ll see you at the meeting latter to day," Emily said as started to leave "Oh and try not to complain to much to Rachal she''s just doing her job. bye" and with that she left leaving Andrew in deep thought and a rather confused Maril who seeing an opening put some ointment on Andrews scratched cheek. Andrews reply was a heartfelt "Dammit!" "So they got into a fight did they, that doesn''t surprise me." Don said after hearing Emily complaining about it. "Yeah I know it doesn''t surprise you but what are we gonna do about it like it or not they attacked are leader Ashly already isn''t a fan of Andrew. If people are going to keep breaking what rules we have then things are going to get difficult." Emily sighed as she sat down on one of Don''s makeshift stools. "I wouldn''t worry to much about all that right now Andrew isn''t totally clueless he made sure that it was a spar and unless those three decide to do anything about it they''ll probably be fine. That being said you should keep an eye on Ashly she''s the one in charge of keeping these types of things from happening." Don said as he gave Emily a back massage after that awkward moment their relationship had become much closer something Don was happy about. Thinking about the problem Don had to agree something need to be done he also had to admit that emotions were high and everyone was stressed it would be some time before things settled down for now the main thing to do is to keep people busy till everyone calms down. In that way Johns actions were problematic but Ashly will probably keep him on a chain now. while Don was thinking he noticed a someone running up to them Don turned to meet him as the boy came up he was breathing heavily but had a smile on his face. "Than told me to go get you we found what you were looking for we found a place to live!" Ch.17 Moving plans "I say we go ahead and make the move everyone is in agreement here I don''t see why your so against this!" Ashly exclaimed as Don and Emily walked in to the meeting room. It was more a storage room it had poorly made clay bricks stacked up and heald in place by long and thin wooden truncks. The roof was an asorment of wood ''beams'' that had clay shingles to stop any rain not that they had had any yet.Andrew who was sitting across from her just shook his head. "I''ve already explained my opinion its to dangerous were lucky we made it out of the forest the first time. We know this place now were building up houses and other resources I just think it''s a bad idea to abandon our advantage here." As Andrew finished his speach another started. "I understand your position Andrew but Ashly is right the sooner we leave here the better and im sure Maril feels the same on this matter. Getting access to more diverse samples would be incredibly helpful to our work." Lee said Maril started to nod with him about half way through his speach. Andrew had to sigh he didn''t like the idea but even Than and Jace wanted to go Than because of his pioneering spirit and Jace becuse of similar if not more wimsical reasons. Turning to the new entreaties that would be his only real hope here . "Wall whats your thoughts on this?"Andrew asked. "Can we have some context on the argument here?" Don asked as he moved to sit at his stump. "The problem is that Than and his ''hunters'' have found the place that YOU guys said you were looking for only a day or two away and OUR noble leader here is saying he doesn''t want to go." Ashly said leering at Andrew who sat across from her. "And I have already told you why it''s a bad idea. Last time we left the clearing in mass we had to fight against a horde of unending bird monsters for at least five hours. The only reason we got out of that situation was because of the medicine waters unbelievable healing power." Andrew glared back as he countered Ashly''s statement. While Andrew and Ashly continued their frankly childish fight Don and Emily turned their attention to Rachal who had stopped taking notes. "So thoughts how are we holding up here?" Emily asked Rachal who looked up from her notes with a bored expression. "Not bad our supplies of earth food will hold for a long while and we''ve already learned we can eat stuff here without dieing so no problem there so far Maril has started to plant seeds she had from earth here but that will take awhile. Lee and his group have already found out everything we cared to know about at this point heck people in his team are already trying to map out constellations." Rachal quickly skimmed through her notes while she talked looking up every now and then to make sure that the two were following. "Anything else you two want to know?" Rachal asked as she throw them a quizzical glance. "Yeah how''s things been with Andy since the incident?" Emily asked in a low conserned whisper. "Not sure what you mean by that one if your talking about his writing its... improved... that''s the best I can say and if you''re talking about him getting his ass kicked by John then I wouldn''t know ask him yourself or if you''re asking about what people think about it then the answer would be not much no one I talk with really cares too much about Andrew leader or not he''s just kinda there people just have to follow the cast leaders they voted for." Rachal said with a shrug "Really though I should be the one asking you these things Emily you are the deputy consular under Ashly so you should know more about this than me." "Good point but right now i''m more concerned with what Than found what''s your thoughts on that matter." Don interrupted the two girls as he gestured at the bickering pair besides him. "Honestly It would be better if we could compromise if we wait three months before going out to the new area then we could better prepare Andrews main problem is with supplies and reducing injuries while Ashly''s concerned about staying in a place that has dangerous wildlife and it of course became an argument and both are being stubborn about it." She sighed as she looked at the two of them. "It would be better if you agreed with Ashly here say what you want about her being an overbearing control freak she''s still means well and with what''s happened to John recently well let''s just say she''s more than a bit on edge." Rachal''s brow creased in worry as she considered everything she had written down in her notes it was surprising how much easier it is to understand someone when you can read and write down their thoughts.This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report. "Are you sure that''s a good idea what if the trek IS dangerous call me heartless but I think our lives are worth more than someone''s mental health?" Don asked while shaking his head. "Don''t worry about it Than already sent scouts and they''ll be back in two or more days if they say it''s safe then we can go and if they don''t then we won''t what we say here isn''t going to decide what we do we just need to say whatever we have to too keep everyone working together." Rachal explained to Don with another shrug. "Man you make that sound so two faced." Don said with a frown "That''s just politics sometimes you gotta lie to make stubborn people work together It might be unethical but then again there isn''t anything ethical in running a country let alone a small group like us." Rachal said as she waved away Don''s concerns and went back to disinterestedly reading her notes. "Ok? but what happens if they don''t come back what do we do then?" Don asked but Rachal didn''t even bother to look up from her notes while Emily just sighed "Don dear if two people vanish exploring a potentially dangerous area I don''t think many people will be wondering why or looking to found out." Andrew was upset one week it had been decided that they would go in one week and he hated it he knew it was a bad idea he could feel it. It was the same feeling he had when ''IT'' had tried to get them to run out alone into the woods the same feeling he got when a bird would spawn but this time it was different this time ''IT'' didn''t want them to leave and that confused him he could stop it he knew he could he practically owned what little fighting force they had he could force them to stay but then he''d be doing what ''IT'' wanted and hed be betraying his friends. But the last time they hadn''t done what ''IT'' wanted they got attacked by an endless swarm of birds he could still remember them snapping at his feet when they hid in the trees he still saw Kyle''s guts after his disembowelment he had to wonder how many almost died in their desperate struggle to get back. They had been lucky that no one died heck he didn''t even know how Kyle even managed to survive they just stiched his guts back in they didn''t even have medicine water when they treated him. Actually how was he walking write now It had only been an hour since he had both his fingers dislocated but know he didn''t feel any discomfort he didn''t even have a bruise and his cuts were gone to but he had had ointment for those did that mean that any form of medical treatment could cure you from a near death state and if simple medicines were that powerful how good was just natural healing? Andrew started to walk to the flintknapping part of their little camp he had some work to do. Flintknapping was a simple craft in concept that is you smash rocks together to get the shape you want simple right but the reality of it is that its an agonisingly difficult task that took hours to complete hundreds of small cuts and almost nothing that looked good would come out of your effort. Although if he was being honest probably all types of tool making would be that difficult if you didn''t know how to do it and didn''t have the right tools. "So how''s it coming?" Andrew looked up from his work to look at Don as he sat down next to him taking an inquisitive look at the piece of rock he was hammering at. "You know Lee has found copper and tin right?" Don asked as Andrew went back to working on his rock. "I don''t think we''re going to be making bronze in a week although if we do i guess I could use this as a hammer." Andrew answered as he held up the rounded stone he was using to shape the rock in his hand. "I thought bronze was cast in clay molds?" Don asked as he started to draw on the ground with a stick. "So it shouldn''t really need a stone hammer." "sigh we''ll always need stone tools whetstone, sandpaper, mills well there''s a lot of value in trying to learn something besides look at this." Andrew answered as he lifted up his hand and in a quick motion cut his palm. "WHAT THE FUCK MAN!!" Don yelled and moved to stop the bleeding before Andrew held up his hand to stop him. "Wait a minute look." Andrew said as he cleaned his palm off on his pants. "See it''s already stopped." Andrew explained. "I''m actually surprised at how powerful our natural healing has become I should have looked into this sooner it''s made me a lot less apprehensive about things going forward I don''t have to worry about people bleeding to death but there are some other concerns that i have about all this." Andrew said as he looked up at the forest canopy that covered this part of their camp. "Yeah." Don said as he leaned back and looked up at the green sea above him the two just sat there watching the shifting green occasionally allowed pure sunlight to slip through. Don thought that it was like watching the sun from underwater. "You know you shouldn''t act so impulsively even if you know what will happen doesn''t mean I do you almost gave me a heart attack there." Don said as he enjoyed the seen. "Mmh...sorry." Andrew answered absentmindedly. "You know it''s a good day." Don said with a smile "Yeah it''s too bad that it''s so easy to miss it there just isn''t much reason to enjoy something that''s irrelevant and better things to spend your time on." Andrew answered but stayed still watching the forest. "Yeah I guess so." Don laughed as he laid down on the ground facing the sky "But that sounds boring so let''s just enjoy the moment alright?" "Alright." Andrew answered with a small chuckle as he relaxed with a sigh after a few moments he groaned "Damn this place is uncomfortable I think there''s a root jabbing me here hey do you want to go to a place that has less rocks and stuff." Andrew asked Don but only got snores as an answer. "Oh come on man don''t fall asleep in a place like this!" Andrew complained to a comatose Don now he had to decide if he should wake his friend up to go somewhere else or just accept the less comfortable place. "Aaaahggh!" Andrew groaned as he gave up and dropped to the ground "Fuck me!" Ch.18 Lets Go Andrew was lost in thought as he wandered around the camp it had been four days since they had agreed to wait for the scouts to come and Andrew had spent most of it helping around the camp either hunting for birds looking for herbs or exploring some newly found caves for metals. The others were also kept busy Emily and Ashly were working with Maril and Rachal to get everyone prepared to move while Don and Lee were studying how to make bronze and improve their weapons and armour. With Than and Jace then got to check out. This left Andrew with little to do and few people to do it with he mostly spent his time hanging with David and Lance or being alone with his thoughts. He had been considering things and had slowly come to the conclusion that he wanted to go fuck ''IT'' what had it ever done for him if it was telling him no than that meant his answer would have to be yes, but all that was secondary to what he was doing to day and that was examining everything Don and Lee had managed to learn about weapons and armour they had even been kind enough to send someone to explain it to him. "So with stone weapons its 28/14/7 with fire added its 25/13/7 attaching hardened leather as armour Increases it to 33/17/9 and using the new bronze equipment it''s gone down to 23/12/6 we would have used fire on these weapons too but broze doesn''t take to it that well." The boy said as he showed Andrew the weapons they had been working on " As you can see bronze shows a greater damage potential than simple wood or stone weapons the #HTK shows that wood is a ten percent increase to damage while stone is a mere twenty but bronze shows at least a fifty percent increase to damage!" he continued to excitedly explain what his group had learned while Andrew briefly wondered what his name was. "We have been working on improving the general quality of the metal but bronze is pretty simple to mold and cast so most of our research has been on ways to improve edge quality..." Andrew interrupted the boy mid sentence. "What value do edges have? you take damage no matter what right so what''s the point." Andrews question seems to stall the guy for a short while before he smiled and continued with his speech. "Improving edge quality allows weapons to have higher damage and can cause ''debuffs'' as Jace calls them so far we have found some very interesting ones. first is the debuff fire witch you should know well since you were the one to find it, after that we found silenced, dazed, stunned, confused, poisoned, frightened, and bleeding." "what bleeding I thought that bodies healed too fast for that to be a problem?" Andrew interrupted he had just proved that to Don so how was it something that could be labeled as a debuff. The boy that was explaining to Andrew looked at him funnily "Well there''s definitely a healing factor that makes small wounds and otherwise fatal injuries heal rapidly but there''s a limit if a wound is too large or vicious it won''t auto heal and causes the bleeding debuff" After waiting for a bit to see if Andrew had anymore questions he resumed talking. "So other than that we have been working on improving our furnaces we think we have one that''s hot enough to be used to smelt Iron but we need to find a source of it first, other than that we have run into some small problem with the X-elements but everythings worked out fine so far." As he finished his speech he turned to Andrew "any questions." "Yeah X-elements thouse are the things Lee found out about right?" Andrew asked as the guy shacked his head yes "Yeah we''ve found about seventeen of them by now but we don''t think we''ll be able to find more we don''t have the equipment for it since they act like isotopes of different elements they can integrate in normal matter pretty seamlessly but they have other properties that make them hard to deal with we lost two smelters when they exploded thanks to X-13 and before you ask yes they''re all named like that." as the boy finished he rolled his eyes and handed Andrew a piece of paper "This has everything we know about the X-elements so if you have questions about them then read it. Now do you have any other questions?" The boys last question went unanswered as Andrew had already left he walked while reading the report that Lee had written and found himself examining everyone at camp everything was a mess people were sorting out supplies and others were making supplies he even saw a group of hunters coming back from the forest with some birds dragging behind them. Andrew knew that with a thousand people here it was literally impossible for them to survive they managed this time do to having a ridiculous amount of food with them when they came here and the massive war they had with the birds when they left their grove and entered the forest all in all it had been only a week since they had come here a lot of the struggles they would have to face hadn''t come up yet but it would eventual and it terrified him. They walked on the edge of a knife as it is and the problem with that is even if you don''t slip on the edge you''ll still fall off the point, maybe that old phrase was darker than he thought it was.Unauthorized usage: this tale is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings. "Hey Andrew!!" Someone shouted out to him as he walked nose deep into Lee''s notes on X-elements. He recognized that voice as belonging to Rachal and decided that it would be best to pretend he didn''t hear her and walk quickly away from whatever cramp inducing work she had for him. Unfortunately that plan was shoot down before it even left the ground as Jace''s voice quickly followed it up. "Yo Andy come on Thans scouts just got back we need to get the council together to debrief them." Jace yelled over everyone''s head as he waved to Andrew to follow him. ''Good god why did I ever make a council'' Andrew lemented as he followed. If only he hadn''t cared about being a megalomaniac and if only he wasn''t so lazy and hadn''t wanted other people to cover for him and his failings then he would have to be sitting in a small room listening to to guys talking about all the trees they had seen. Although if he were being far he probably would have had to do it anyway but at least then he could decide when he wanted to instead of having other people decide for him. Yes his suffering now was clearly the fault of his ... no others incompetents! ''Great how long are they going to talk don''t they know how boring rambling narcissistic monologues get after five minutes there''s a reason villains always get interrupted in the movies.'' The conversation had been going on for at least thirty minutes now and Andrew had gotten the jist of it. ''The first thing to consider is where we are for one a forest, yes bravo you get a cookie imaginary person i''m now thinking to unfortunately for you it''s a raisin cookie that looks like chocolate chip because your answer was stupid and i''m a sick bastard.'' ''Are we in a forest yes obviously but where is this forest well if you had been paying attention then you would know quite well where we are, unfortunately I did not pay attention with means neither did you imaginary person I''m now naming bob. Thankfully Than has a map so we know that we are in a forest that''s very close to a mountin actual on the mountain would be a better way of describing it. about five or so hours away there''s a incline that leads to a mountain clearing thats were Than and his team discovered the pass that his scouts went to explore. The mountains themselves seem to surround the forest like a bowl and both Don and Lee think that it used to be a lake. With makes some seance it explains why there''s so much green in a place that doesn''t have any major bodies of water and only has some small streams that are fed from the mountains themselves. No what that doesn''t make sense at all if that''s the cass why isn''t this place filled to the brim where does the water filter off to that it doesn''t fill this reservoir. ''Is there an underground lake or river and if so where does it feed of into what if... Focus Andrew focus we can think about it later for now what''s important to note is that there''s a dip in the mountain bowl that opens up into what could best be called a floodplains a part of me want to question if it''s even possible for floodplains to exist near a mounting range but what do I know. What do you think bob and no I didn''t forget you I just got bored pretending that you exist that''s all. What do you mean you don''t care we only have three days now before we go gallivanting off through a mountain pass and you have nothing to say bob you disappoint me. Uh-oh bob I think Rachal found out that I''m not paying attention she''s giving me the stink eye ok pretend that you''re paying attention furrow brow and nod thoughtfully that it. It''s not like I wasn''t listing though just to the important parts like how long it took them to get there and what they saw and who it was totally safe and everything blah, blah, blah, I get it so can we get to The important part yet.'' "Alright if that''s the cass then we can start making the move in three days we have pretty much everything accounted for and everyone''s ready what do you guys think?" Ashly asked as the two scouts settled down. "It seems safer than here I''m concerned at how long it will take us to get there but I don''t have any problems with this Plan." Emily said as she gave her own agreement as things went around the table everyone ended up agreeing in the end finally it came around to Andrew. ''Finally'' Andrew thought as he stood up slamming his hands on the table in front of him he leaned forward and looked to make sure everyone''s eyes were on him before he spoke as commandingly as he could. "LET''S DO THIS" Ch.19 Trek Andrew would have liked to say the move was a monstrously difficult task but it wasn''t they had started early in the day moving through the woods was quite enough for it to almost be peaceful they didn''t even run into any roaming bands of birds, and they spent most of their time boredly walking. The only thing of any real interest was the plethora of small talk and gossiping that the group engaged in, Andrew not being the sort for gossip left with the other hunters to look for any useful materials in the surrounding woods. Even here Andrew was disappointed by how mondain everything was although he did let himself have a moment of self derision at having come to find anything here normal. As the day came to a close he even sat out for the watch only to find nothing happening the entire night, and so with strange feeling of relief and disappointment Andrew started the next day. They moved slowly well the probably moved as fast as a thousand people could through a new and unknown forest the trip was rife with falls and trips. Twisted ankles and splitters were the least of their problems though keeping everyone together and on the same path was a gargantuan task even considering the number of people that were working together. Even so they had to send people to backtrack and find stragglers and their pace slowed as a result and by the end of the day the still hadn''t reached the pass. As the group settled down to camp for the night Andrew took out his spear and began to clean it, it was one of the few bronze pieces that Lee and Don were able to make before they left it was of poor quality like most of their stuff however there were signs of marked improvement the wood of the spear''s shaft was well cut and straight not the crooked and almost strat things they had used before now when he moved the weapon he felt its power as it followed his movements. Andrew was no martial artist but he learned enough to know how it was supposed to work how strength was supposed to flow from the ground through your legs to your core and out from the arms the kinesthetic links or some such thing. Andrew briefly moved as he thrust the spear forward it felt good, cool, but also a bit embarrassing he was playing around with what was basically a sharp stick and most likely if someone saw him he would be scalded for swinging around a weapon. Still he felt proud being able to hold it it was one of the best things they had managed to make here after all a little piece of history and hope. Andrew looked at his refection in the bronze spear head, he looked at the color that strange mockery of gold that was bronze and he wondered what the people of antiquity felt when they saw it where they impressed by these things or did they hold them in no hier regard than he would a cell phone? sighing Andrew pushed those thoughts away as he tried to get some sleep they were in for a long trek tomorrow. Andrew woke to a chill breeze as he moved to stand the condensation of the night dropped of him as he stretched he looked up to see the large moon it''s crescent shape as it hung over head. Yawning Andrew began to gather his things as he prepared for the day''s journey they were close now and would probably get threw the pass today. After gathering his things Andrew went and began to build a fire it was the rules of the group if you got up first you had to prepare the fires for breakfast, as he stoked the flames Andrew chewed into one of his remaining power bars he had strangely enough grown to like them in the short time he had to eat them. Soon though his thoughts turned towards the newly formed fire as he feed it sticks of wood and other debris he could pull out, warming up by the fire he took out a few of the bird eggs he had on him and the crude clay bowl he had made and started to cook himself some food.This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there. "God dammit five more minutes couldn''t you let us sleep for five more god forsaken minutes!" David moaned he was wrapped up in what looked like five layers of blanket and had his head completely covered. "Person ... *Yawn*... ah personally I like having a new space heater." Lance said as he got up and moved closer to the fire before laying down close to it. "Keep that close to it and I''ll light you on fire." Andrew told Lance who just grunted before minutely shrugging away he moved such a small amount Andrew had to wonder if he even moved at all. Rolling his eyes Andrew turned his attention to his other friend. "And you you''re going to die from carbon build up if you keep sleeping like that." Andrews speech was interrupted by David as he let out a rather heated. "Fuck off!" before trying to further collapse in on himself in his weird blanket fortress. Shrugging Andrew went back to fixing his breakfast he had to use lard to grease his bowl in order to keep the eggs from sticking to the clay that and add some type of tuber that they had found it wasn''t very good. But Lee and Maril add it to the must eat list for the group saying that it satisfied nutritional needs. Andrew didn''t like them the tasted like someone mixed a potato a onion and a carrot then said ''This is awful let''s make it worse by making it sour!'' Some people liked them of course and Andrew pitied them the poor sad fucks. As Andrew sat down and ate his now slightly sour eggs he had to wonder if they would ever find salt or pepper or really any herb that would make this taste better and not cause weird magical problems. The thing that really terrified him though is the fact that he would probably get used to the taste of the things maybe even like it. Taking another bite of eggs Andrew started to rant about it in his head. ''Honestly if your body tells you something is poisonous your response should be to spit it out not keep forcing yourself to eat it till your body just gives up on you and accepts its fate! Only a fucking nutjob would do that Andrew finished his rant with his eggs and drank some water to get rid of the after taste. ''Damn im thankful at the brains horrendous ability to multitask I barely tasted a thing.'' Having one last stretch to loosen up Andrew got to cleaning his dish and putting it away with the rest of his stuff. "Well guys I guess this is the day hope you guys are ready for another perilous trek to the promised land." Andrew said sarcastically. "Yay..." Lance mumbled as he lazily lifted one arm up. "In five minutes." David groaned from under his blankets. Andrew ignored the two as he gazed at the distant mountain and the pass it held that would hopefully take them to a less dangerous and more plentiful land or at least some farm land. Sighing Andrew shifted the weight of his backpack the starry sky above him looked even more massive than usual with caused Andrew to smile as he turned around to find that two blanket fortress had set up shop closer to the fire. "Oh come on! Just get the fuck up already!" Ch.20 Coming Storm ''Burrr it''s cold up here'' Andrew thought to himself as he walked with the others. The pass that cut through the mountains was a nightmare of narrow cliffs and deep caves it seemed to add credit to the theory that this place was once an ancient lake. Andrew was distracted from his thoughts by a rumble in the distance the sound of thunder it was kinda terrifying the last thing they wanted was to be in the mountains when a storm hit. It was strange though the sky looked so clear you wouldn''t think a storm was coming but the had never seen a storm in this world Andrew hoped that the storms here were the same or at least similar to what they had back home on earth. "Hey Andy!" Emily called out to him. "Hmm whats up Emmy." Andrew answered as Emily walked up to him with a wave. "Did you just call me by a nickname? I''m surprised." Emily said with a small smile "Didn''t really seem like your thing." "It''s not... I see that you''re still going for the whole aztec vibe thing hu." Andrew stretched his arms as Emily shrugged at his comment. "Got no reason to stop do I." Emily asked she stops for a bit at the sound of thunder in the distance "Seems the storm is getting closer. Me and Don talked with the others we think we should find a cave to hold out in while the storm passes have you guys out front found anything that might be good for it?" Andrew shrugged to Emily''s question "It''s not a question of finding a cave it more a problem of finding a cave that doesn''t run down since we don''t know how bad storms get here we should be careful wouldn''t want to be flushed." "Well that makes sense wouldn''t be pleasant to stand in a makeshift river but I''m sure we have enough people that we won''t be flushed." Emily said with a small chuckle. "Well ill tell the guys to be on the look out and let you know if we find anything, personally though i''d like to get through this pass as quickly as possible its cold and if it gets wet well... it will only make the trek harder." Andrew sighed. "Hmm I see your point there this place is bad enough without adding ice to it we''ve been going slow just to make sure no one falls." Emily frowns while she considers things another rumble could be heard closer now. "Still we might not have a choice look for a place quickly ill go tell the others to hurry up ok." Emily said as she started to move back towards the main group. Andrew sighed as he motioned towards his forward group telling them to be on the lookout for caves the main group could hole up in they were more than eager to start the sound of distant thunder made them anxious to find some cover. As the spread out to look Andrew started to watch the sky for the coming storm he was still concerned that he couldn''t see it even though it should be more than visible on the horizon. ''Maybe it''s coming from behind one of the mountains peaks'' As Andrew thought to himself one of his scouts came up to him. "Sir, we think we found a place it''s short distance from here it''s near a ledge so it will be dangerous for a lot of people to get there but its has a large number of caves enough room for everyone to find some comfort through the storm." As his scout finished his report Andrew spotted the main column coming up behind them. "Not a moment too soon let''s give them the good news but move forward we should try to cover more ground." Andrew said as he dismissed the boy. "You got it." The kid said as he went back out, as he left Andrew turned and went to talk to the others in the main group. "So what did you find?" Don asked as Andrew walked up to him.You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author. "Not much we found a place that can hold everyone but it''s near a cliff face so we''ll have to filter everyone in it will take some time to get it done but it''s better than nothing." Andrew answered while pointing in the direction his scout had indicated. Just as Andrew was about to continue they heard the crack of thunder. "Strange it sounds like it''s right on top of us." Don said looking up there were clouds in the sky and thick ones to but none of them looked heavy with rain. "Maybe it''s an echo I wouldn''t be surprised in a place like this." Lee said as he moved past them "It''s not that surprising." "I didn''t know echos could do stuff like that we can''t even see the storm but we can hear its echo?" Don asked while keeping up Andrew followed behind. "Guess it depends on the echo something loud could go along way and while the trees and the thin air would limit how far it goes the tunnels and caves probably help focus it or something." Andrew said "That''s my guess on it at least." "That sound pretty cool it''s like we''re on a giant tuba or something right." Rachal said Don and Lee both made small jumps as the hadn''t seen her coming. "You''re pretty good at that." Andrew said it wasn''t easy to make those two startled Andrew would know he''s tried plenty of times. "Good at what?" Rachal asked looking at Andrew quickly but he just raised his hands and waved it off with a smile. "Oh come on tell me what am I good at! and don''t look at me like i''m a child just because i''m smaller than you doesn''t mean I can''t punch you in the dick bastard!" Rachal ranted as Andrew made a big and obvious step back out of her reach while those two fooled around they moved over to the rest spot. "I wonder how these caves were formed?" Lee asked as he watched as everyone started filing into them. "What do you mean wasn''t this place an old lake it makes sense for there to be caves." Andrew said as he held Rachal away from him with an outstretched hand. "Would you two stop fooling around!" Lee yelled at them Andrew sheepishly let go of Rachals head the girl then promptly kicked him in the shin. ''Whatever he deserved it'' Lee thought as Andrew yelled out in pain. "What the heck was that for I didn''t do anything to deserve that." Andrew groaned as he hopped on a foot Rachal just stuck her tongue out at him. "If you two are done... then no an ancient lake wouldn''t explain this I mean it could but it''s unlikely this could have been a channel but that also doesn''t make sense." as Lee pondered this Rachal spoke up. "Hey look it''s a kite." Pointing up they could see a kite flying in the distance it was far away so they could only see its silhouette it was a medium sized kite a simple triangle with a single tassel flying behind it. "Hu that''s strange isn''t." Don asked "How''s it staying up their?" as they watched the kite hovering overhead it almost seemed to move forward but at a snail''s pace they watched for a while till a cloud covered their view. "Did those clouds just cover the kite?" Andrew asked confused. "Yep" Rachal said dumbfoundedly. "Aren''t these Cirrus clouds so shouldn''t they be about one or two miles above us?" Lee asked squinting his eyes to get a better look. "Yep." Rachal answered mechanically. As the clouds paced they noticed that the kite changed positions and looked more like a black line to them now. "You know it''s kinda like a bird." Don said to no one in particular "See it just flapped its wings." As Don had said the kite slowly threw its wings down a slowly pulled them up it was a leisurely thing to watch but after a few seconds the were pulled away from it by the rumble of thunder. Rachal and Lee looked at each other "Um did that just happen?" Rachal asked him Lee bug eyed just nodded. "OK we should go!" Rachal said as she started to usher them towards the cave. "Go why?" Andrew asked he wanted to stay and see this kite creature that seemed to be moving closer to them but as another rumble of thunder came he gave in and let Rachal drag him. ''Probably doesn''t want to be caught out in a storm'' Andrew thought as they moved closer to the caves. "EVERYONE INTO THE FUCKING CAVE NOW!!" Rachal screamed out as she hurried Andrew along. Andrew was still trying to watch the kite creature it was getting bigger now rather quickly to looked like it was coming in their direction as it beat its wings the rumble of thunder could be heard. ''Oh...'' Andrew thought as he put the pieces together ''OH... OH SHIT OH FUCK!'' "GET IN TO THE GOD DAMN CAVES!!" Rachal screamed again there was an almost frantic rush as the confused group that hadn''t already entered began try to get in. *ROOOAR* the sound shock the very world Andrew felt his bones shake from it his ears popped and bleed as ten tons of fire and death descended on them in a fury! Ch.21 Dragon Fall Perspective 1 As the Kite creature swooped down on them Andrew felt an impending danger without stopping to question it Andrew dropped to the ground. "DUCK!" Andrew shouted but without need as everyone had already dropped as the monster flew by them its absurdly long tail trailed behind it before bending inward acting like a scythe as it flew across them. Andrew could only watch as the birds they had brought with them to carry their stuff were split in two as the beasts whip like tail severed their heads from their bodies. "RUN! TO THE CAVES!" A desperate shout sounded and Andrew wasted no time in running no one did.While the group bolted Andrew was able to briefly see the monster as it landed it looked similar to a T-Rex only with wings that were a mix between a bat and a flying squirrels. As Andrew moved into the cave entrance the monster noticed them, rearing up its head it spat a torrent of flames Andrew watched wide eyed as the flames flew not at them but over them to cut into the mountain like a plasma cutter. "NO!" Andrew shouted as he turned around he watched helplessly as the avalanche covered the cave wall Andrew saw the faces of horror and confusion of the ones trapped outside before his vision was cut of by the flood of rock and gravel. Andrew dropped his mind reeled as it tried to make sense of what just happened the sound of others crying and sobbing could be heard behind him minutes seemed to pass before he could even realize himself what had happened. "GODDAMMIT!" andrew shouted as tiers started to stream down his face "GOD DAMMIT I KNEW IT I KNEW WE SHOULDN''T HAVE COME HERE DAMMIT THIS IS WHY I DIDN''T WANT TO COME HERE WHY WHY DID I LET THIS HAPPEN WHY DID I LISTEN TO YOU DAMMIT! "Andrew started to rant letting out his frustration and his gref. "So this is supposed to be are fault then!" Ashly yelled her face looked both haggard and haunted "How can you blame this on us no one knew that this could happen." "Dammit... dammit,,,dammit,,,dammit." Andrew continued shouting he was terrified his legs shock and felt like they were made of rock all the warmth in his body seemed to have left him to the point the only thing that told him he was alive was the sickening rate at which his heart beat. "THIS IS ALL MY FAULT DAMMIT WHAT THE HELL WAS I THINKING!" Slamming his fist on the ground Andrew tried to get some feeling in his body. "it''s not your fault Andrew It''s not anyone''s fault no one could have seen this happening." Emily spoke trying to calm Andrew down. "No it is my fault I was in charge if there''s a problem or something goes wrong I''m supposed to be responsible for it!" Andrew shouted as he glared at Emily as he stared behind him he felt the tension in his body give out as he looked at the group of pale and terrified faces. Everyone looked lost and helpless even Rachal who had been the quickest to take action was silent as a lamb still clutching the arm she grabbed to drag him to safety. How long had she been there Andrew didn''t know but it made him feel more guilt than he already did.This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there. "You didn''t do anything wrong Andrew." Emily said as she stared back at him they all did feeling all those eyes on him Andrew stood up. "No I did do something wrong I abandoned them I was supposed to help and protect everyone as our leader but I ran instead!" Andrew felt himself start pacing as he started to talk only for his arm to jerk him to a stop. "Wasn''t that the best thing to do in that situation." Rachal said having woken from her stupor. "No I won''t be some idiot that thinks that just because the world is grey morals are too just because it was better to run doesn''t mean it was right to!" Andrew answered as he removed his arm from Rachal''s hand. "God you''re pretentious is that why you have been rejecting treatment every time you''ve been hurt why i''ve always found you as one of Lee''s or Maril''s guinea pigs! What you hurt someone so you decided to be a punching bag for everybody like it makes up for it!" Rachal yelled. "Shut up!" Andrew snapped back. "No you shut up you have to be dumbest most narcissistic... *RUMBLE* Rachals rant was stopped midway at the sound of thunder that seemed to shake the cave they were in. "Dammit I need to think dammit!" Andrew shouted as he passed back and forth. "What was that!?" Someone yelled. "It was probably that dragon." Someone answered the fear evident in their voice. "OH GOD THAT THINGS BREATH CAN MELT THROUGH ROCK WERE IN A FUCKING KILN!" Another shouted as they relived their predicament. "WILL YOU SHUT UP I''M TRYING TO THINK!!" Andrew shouted so loud that it echoed in the closed space for a few seconds. After passing the nervous quiet that followed his out burst finally turning around to look at the group of people behind him Andrew took a deep breath and sighed as he made his decision. "Alright I won''t lie we''re fucked If we stay here we''re either going to starve or were going to burn and be eaten and in all likelihood everyone that was outside were either killed by the dragon or the avalanche. So we have two options either we stay here and die or we try and dig our way out and also most likely die. Unfortunately for all of you I''ve already decided that we''re going to dig our way out of here and try to make a run for it. If the dragon is outside which it probably is I''ll be the asshole that tries to slow it down." As Andrew finished his speech he moved to where he saw Lee and started to rummage through his bags. "What the fuck." Lee yelled "What are you looking for just ask me dammit!" Flailing his arms he managed to get Andrew to back off "Anti-Fire potions." Andrew stated holding out his hands "I know you have some give me them." Grumbling Lee handed them over the red liquid filled plastic bottles. "You just had to ask you know." Lee said but Andrew had already moved on to his own pack and started making a fire sticking one of the bottles into the flame it started to die down soon the fire was gone and Andrew was holding a slightly warm bottle in his hands as he moved to the debris covered entrances of the cave. As he went he noticed Rachal picking up his dropped spear and head near the entrance with him. "Planning on being a presumptuous martyr with me then hu?" Andrew asked as he moved to put the bottle in between the cracks of the fallen rocks. "Shut the fuck up the only thing I''m planning on is looking forward to you going to hell in the next five minutes." Rachal answered with a sneer. "Well it will probably take longer than that I don''t really know how many of these things Ill need to clear all this way." Andrew said while waving the ''charged'' bottle. *RUMMMMBLE* At that moment the debris that they were standing in front of shifted away as both of them turned wide eyed to see Jace standing in front of them with a cheeky grin. "Sup guys hope you didn''t wait to long." Jace said with a wave of his hand. Flabbergasted Andrew took a minuet to come to his seances but as he started to repile the bottle in his hand exploded. Ch.21 Dragon Fall Perspective 2 "Duck!" Jace heard the yell not that he needed to after a roar like that his ears were still bleeding he had been feeling the danger that was coming for a while now they all had but he had thought that it was just going to be a storm. Instead what he got was something he had always wanted and yet never wanted. A fucking dragon as he washed it swope over head he felt giddy and frightened, after all dragons were a staple of fantasy world it just wouldn''t be complete without one, but seeing the poor knock offs of chocobos getting their collective shits decapitated Jace had to admit he really wished it wasn''t here right now. ''Couldn''t there be a zoo or something I could admire it at.'' Jace complained as he and mainy other rushed towards the cave entrances. As they got closer Jace watched as the T-Rex like body of the dragon lifted up its head add bellowed out a torrent of flames. The blinding light of the fire made it impossible for jace to stare at it but he was able to see it cut a large gorge into the mountainside as the avalanche caused by its attack dropped down over the cave entrances Jace cussed as the force of collapsing rocks knocked almost half of them off the cliff face. "Thats some goddamn Kaiju bullshit right there you sad excuse for a dragon!" Jace yelled as he wiped his spear around he smashed it end on the ground breaking the clay covering that he put on it so he could use it as a walking stick. Both Andrew and Don had told him that it was a pointless thing to do but so what it felt cool! "JAVAILENS!!!" Jace bellowed out amidst the confusion of the dragons attack. Many of the groups scattered by the attack continued to panic but others responded to his voice forming up with what equipment they had and throwing them at the monster. They were they ones that had gone out the first day that nightmare of nine hours in a living hell of near constant attack by overwhelming odds. They had learned to move even terrified to instructions and they were terrified even Jace could feel his body shake from it as he watched as the swarm of javillines bounced uselessly off the dragon''s scales. ''Fucking dragons why did it have to be a fucking dragon it should have been a storm dame it all!'' Jace kept his thought to himself as he continued to shout orders. "Form up into groups, aim for its eyes or wings or even its fucking dick if it has one. You get the fuck out of its front do you want to become a roast. You over there your group one get away from the edge or you''ll go over like the others." Jace felt the oncoming danger as he leaped forward to avoid the absurdly long whip like tail snapping down where he had been standing he heard the rock behind him crack from the impact "And will someone pin down it''s goddamn tail!" As Jace finished yelling the dragon bellowed out drowning out his voice and then charged forward people quickly vacated its path as it started to blow fire lighting its path aflame Jace felt himself buffeted by the thermal updrafts caused by the fire as the beast lifted his wings to catch the quickly expanding air. "That clever bitch!" Jace cussed as the dragon started to take off with a flap of its massive wings the powerful thermal updraft was forced down further pushing everyone around Jace felt it as the gale force winds pushed him off his feet and rolled him like a ragdoll across the ground. "Bitch, Bitch, Bitch" Jace cursed as he rolled "Son of a fucking bitch." Jace screamed as he hit his head on the mountain side although looking at it from this angle it looked more like a cliff side that went into another cliff. "Ugh." Groaning at his aching head Jace could only stare at the flying behemoth his head buzzed with the familiar feeling of the world trying to kill him Andrew had always called it well ''IT'' like it was sentent or something. All Jace knew was that it was the feeling they all got whenever a ''Random Encounter'' happened he felt it when he first woke up here and most people did too hearing the distant sound of rolling thunder Jace felt himself get abnormally pissed of fucking course the dragon had to sound like thunder he bet ''IT'' knew that the bastard make us think it''s just a storm then drop a fucking dragon on our ass you fucking dick I hope a real thunderstorm springs up and smites your scaly ass friend. Jace glared at the beast as it started to turn around for another pass at them. ''Go on you fuck one billion volts right down you fucking short fat ass neck you flying fuck. Pull a Ben fucking Franklin on your scaly kite ass gone drop the fucking wrath of god on it go on do it... DO IT...DO IT!!" Jace felt himself yell as the world went white his body convulsed as all his muscles seized up on him and a rush of energy flowed out of him. The sudden feeling of weekness was followed first by a pain screech and the by a pissed off roar as something hit the cliff face... Hard. As Jace regained his awareness he saw a lot of dropped jaws and one very singed, very angry, and very oversized lizard.Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more. "Holy shit Jace when did you become the son of fucking Odin!" Jace felt like he knew that voice but before he could take the time to look for the voice he suddenly felt the the wind pickup as the wind continued to pick up speed he saw from the cliff face a large number of people being lifted up by a tremendous force of wind it almost looked like a tornado as it deposited the one or two hundred that had fallen of the cliff before. Jace watched unable to move as a confused group of people tried to help up an exhausted and pissed girl off her feet. Feeling more than a little excited Jace''s smile blomed in to a full blowen shit eating grin as a strange pale green light surrounded the him and everyone he saw. His pained and spasming muscles were soothed and he felt energy flowing into him as he stood up. "HELL YES NOW WE''RE IN A FUCKING FANTASY WORLD!!!" Jace bellowed. *ROOOOAR* the dragon returned his yell with its own challenge as Jace prepared to get layin to it. "Hey you guys if you''re ok get into groups and help us out here!" Jace yelled "And some one find the healer and put them in the safest fucking place you can!" As he finished giving out orders he could see the wind girl nod and start speaking to the ones around her. As that was happening the dragon decided that it was done waiting for them and charged forward without any real hands for balance it swayed wildly wiping its closed wings and head at anything that it could get close to. It was mayhem a few spears managed to find perches in its skin but people were thrown around like ragdolls still with the help of wind girl making sure no one to a hard fall or went of the cliff, and the nameless healer that managed to get the ones knocked down up again the settled into a unsteady stalemate. Soon the spear blows and javelins that got close enough to hit the damn thing started to bounces of its scales and with a triumphant roar the dragon unfurled its wings and opened its mouth wide. Jace could see the sparks of light starting to gather until a massive gust of wind struck the dragon from below catching in its wings the dragon found itself lifting up as its flame breath pierced forth sailing over their heads. Picking up on the chance Jace tried once again to unleash lightning following the feeling he hade before it was a lot simpler than the first time as he found his vision white out and his body drop as it convulsed. ''This is so fucking sweet'' Jace thought as his crippled body began to recover ''No focus Jace we can geek out about fighting a dragon with our new wizard powers latter.'' Hearing the pained sound of the dragon again Jace''s vision cleared to see the monster recovering its footing disappointingly despite its blackened and smoking scales it seemed perfectly fine. "The lightning weakens its scales!" A voiced shouted "They should be thin enough for us to pierce through them for now but they''ll recover soon!" As Jace heard the familiar voice he could only be disappointed he had wanted to blow holes into the thing with his lightning attacks but instead he was just the debuffer support lame. Add to that that it had super healing scales to Jace should had known that this world''s bullshit biology would screw him over. ''I just got my awesome wizard powers and I already want to reclass this is bullshit!'' Jace complained in his mind as he watched the mayhem unfold reading his spear Jace ruched forward into the fray. ''It''s probably dumb to put myself at risk like this if I happen to get taken out a bad time we could lose momentum but that kind of planning stuff is more Andy and Dons specialty. Besides it will be easier to zap the fucker if i''m closer.'' Having convinced himself that closing to do epic battle against the ten ton behemoth was a good idea Jace quickly found himself in the thick of it as the main attacking force tried again and again to pin and stab at the dragon''s different body parts before being thrown off healed and coming in at it again. Jace felt like an ant honestly and as the battle wore on it became increasingly clear that they were losing every blast of thunder hurt more than the last and took longer to heal every fighter to more time to get back into the fight and hit fewer and fewer times before being thrown off. Even the winds wind girl made became less ferocious as time went on still it went on for awhile it seemed to go on for almost an hour before with a final shake and an indignant roar the dragon threw itself off the cliff and soar away. Angry at the draw jace cussed off at the receding form of the dragon lacking the energy to do much eles. After the threat had left Jace and the other gathered up to discuss what to do it was decided that they had to at least try to remove the avalanche debris even if it was unlikely that anyone survived that the still had to make an effort to find out. It was slow going but using their new found magics it went alot faster it would have went quicker though if the healer hadn''t fainted as soon as the dragon left not that Jace would complain about it he knew being the healer sucked more so considering how exhausted he became after just one lightning bolt he couldn''t help but respect the person that was able to keep healing for seventeen minutes straight although it had felt like five times that. With a final push Jace used is eletrical magic to find perches throughout the stone debris and with a pull it quickly pulled away with a rumble. As it opened up he saw a shocked and wide eyed Andrew and behind him an equally surprised Rachal. Overjoyed at finding that his friend was ok Jace smiled and with a wave greeted them. "Sup guys hope you didn''t wait to long." As he stood there waiting for them to answer them Jace noticed something in Andrews hands. ''Isn''t that one of Lee''s weird makeshift... and then it exploded. Ch.22 Other ''Sigh, it was bullshit complete and utter bullshit.'' in all the time that it endured its slow and agonizing existence nothing had ever screamed bullshit like this before. So many things for it to complain about first let''s spend a moment to curse the ____ that made it. Next on the agenda try to come to terms with what just happened. Muttering to itself it moved its consciousness down to observed its latest headache as they scrambled down the mountain that blocked off the second zone. ''Don''t go down to the second zone you fucks it''s not loaded. Fuck I haven''t even finished loading up the first area and you''re already moving on to the second what the hell you damn bastards do you know how hard this is!!!'' It knew its ranting was pointless the little glitches running around below couldn''t hear it and you could be damn sure that the creator and the gods wouldn''t give a damn about its opinion anyway the ____. Sighing to itself it went back to trying and process data these glitches were a nightmare to process and it was driving it slightly more insane than usual. The problem was they had no real reference points for them they just popped up randomly one day all over the damn place it took a absurd amount of energy to find and gather them all up before depositing them into the tutorial zone. Although it had to admit that all over the place was only within a hundred mile radius of the tutorial zone if anything could be said about the system that its creator made it was its consistency it''s terrible stupid consistency. if it was up to it the glitches would have found themselves inside a volcano then at least it would be able to register them as dead and then let the universe do its job and get rid of them unfortunately all new creations need to go to the tutorial zone to undergo testing and development by the system for around 4 billion years or until the creature in question can reach a viable level of compatibility. Because of this besides the fact that IT was the system it couldn''t do anything to stop the glitches from starting the tutorial. ''And here we come to the cruxes of my existence I have been given intelligence, foresight, and logic but I can''t fucking use it and have to follow my programing. What was the point of making me intelligent and then robbing me of the ability to use it!!!'' but the glitches the fucking glitches every creature that comes into existence does so by the work or action of a god. This means that every creature has a reference point as the gods make one to help speed up the tutorial process and do to that fact even the few random creatures that appear in the tutorial out of nowhere still have some reference point that the system can recognize but the glitches don''t which is complete bullshit! It knew that they were bipedal creatures and most likely minor sentients above animals but below the true masters of this world however the system couldn''t recognize them so IT had to spend almost three days trying to convince ITSELF that the creatures IT knew were bipedal minor sentients were actually bipedal minor sentients! Even thinking about it made its nonexistent head ache and it only got worse although IT would admit that some of it was its own fault the real blame fell on the dumb as a rock system that it was a part of. First it had tried to get the maximum values for the glitches stats to do so it spent some energy to influence their minds simple send a few out and ambush them with cr-157 the large bird like creature had a powerful ambush that did enough health damage to kill 50 endurance creatures which would be the highest that the glitches could be as minor sentients, but unexpectedly the glitches threw off its influence the little fucks and to make it worse after that the system boosted their mind stat to 50 the cheeky fuck. Yet even without its influence they moved out into the forest and it was able to enact its plans it did not go as well as it had hoped while watching them it got a fairly good idea of what their general abilities were, tool making which was annoying since they came with their own tools that it had no info on and the system couldn''t recognize them so of course they were ignored with it hated. Next were their pitiful physical abilities they were so low in comparison that it made it feel alittle better with low generalized stats it was able to make a stat block for the glitches although the system still need time for it to actualy get it implemented and that required testing so it started to use energy to form units of cr-157.If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it. It sighed as it considered the after effects it probably went overboard well probably is not even a good answer it most definitely went overboard. It had never really given up the idea of killing off the glitches and when the glitches were able to survive cr-157''s ambush attacks It got more than a little angry. ''It was bullshit as minor sentences 50 is the highest possible value that a stat can reach that means that the natural value of health that one could have is 2500, cr-157 has a strength stat of 50 on an ambush it does an extra 4 times damage striking a fatal vital is another 3 times damage modifier and cr-157 talons carry a absurd weapon bonus of 4.2 times that means from ambush it could hit for 2520 damage the only way for one of the glitches to survive is to have more health or have armor both of which are very unlikely for a minor sentients with put all the work it did gathering data in jeopardy of being discarded the fucks but that wasn''t what pushed it over the edge what finally did was when the glitches managed to start killing cr-157''s witch should have been impossible their pitiful strength meant that them winning should be impossible and it kept trying to prove it was right. When the whole thing was over it had wasted more than a third of its allocated energy on spamming cr-157''s once it had cooled down it realized that the glitches physical strength and speed increased when in danger which made no seance to it why would any creature handicap itself in such a way it also learned that while it was throwing its tantrum the system made it an ability and as the stupid thing was want to do the ability was ridiculous. sighing as it remembered its own stupidity the system and its ''Administrator'' prepared for doing something that it just hated and that was talk to a god. "Subject: we need to talk Recipient: moon goddess Wetil Sender: system Administrator" "Hey what''s up Adam what dose my littlest brother want?" (Wetil) "Subject: don''t patronize me my name is not Adam and I am not your brother! Recipient: moon goddess Wetil Sender: system Administrator" "Oh what ever you''re still just mad at the creator for removing your ability to swear at your heavenly family aren''t you." (Wetil) "Subject: stop laughing answer my question! Recipient: moon goddess Wetil Sender: system Administrator" "you haven''t asked me one yet Ad Ad." (Wetil) " ____ DON''T PLAY GAMES YOU KNOW WHY I''M TALKING TO YOU ANSWER ____!!!" "Hey so you decided to stop talking funny finaly its really annoying you know" (Wetil) "_____ WHY!" "Simple I thought they were interesting so I gave them a little help I don''t see why your so angry about it the others do this all the time" (Wetil) "you''ve never cared before why now." (Administrator) "I like them." (Wetil) "____ Fine I don''t care anymore I have better things to do then try to understand you fickle creatures!" (Administrator) "Oh but aren''t you a fickle creature too?" (Wetil) It ignored the gods passing remark damn it hated talking to them, well whatever with a heavy sigh it changed the glitches designation to ms-1-Wetil they could be her problem now the ____! With that I turned it attention towards the second anomaly the anomaly had snuck in with the glitches ... it ment with ms-1-Wetil but as soon as it appeared it disappeared well not really It could still feel them it just couldn''t pinpoint their location it kept slipping away avoiding detection it was weird it was almost like the anomaly had done this before? Ch.23 Nightmares No connection Andrew sat staring at the screen in front of him the annoying buzz of the static filled screen rang hollow in his ears. "Where am I?" Andrew asked as he looked around the buzz of the screen quickly become a background noise the room was dark and he couldn''t tell how far or wide it was. "This isn''t my room?" he thought as he stood staring into the unending void in front of him finding nothing to answer his question he turned back toward the screen at least that was something. "It''s gone?" Andrew asked himself as he looked down the hallway in front of him. Why was he in a hallway? oh right there was that gun shoot and that crash he need to go tell the teacher that was chaperoning them. Who was the teacher again wasn''t it Christopher''s mother Mrs. Thornton. Wait? Andrew stopped the hallway he was in was familiar to the hotels but the doors in this hall way had no number on their frames. HIs room should be 441 he was sharing it with Jace, Christopher and Han actually how were Christopher and Han it felt like he hadn''t seen them in a while. "Where are thouse lazy fucks always making me do the hard parts why did I have to go to the girls section." All the guys and male chaperones were on the fourth flour while all the girls were on the third, "Really shouldn''t Christopher be doing this I mean it''s his mom and all." Andrew muttered as he looked up he saw door 375. "Hu guess I found it." Andrew said as he started to open the door "Oh its already open I wonder why." Something didn''t feel right here didn''t Christopher come to get his mother why was it taking so long why was the door open? "Hello?" Andrew asked as he opened the door he could here whispers as he moved it open. "They can be......We have always.....................never hope.........jump." "no point in ....... GET UP!!..........goodbye......I''m scared." "Break them ....... Three days........ no time........forget." "Join me........Join us........resistance...........burn it" As the whispers continued nonsensically jabbering Andrew peared into the dark room. Inside he saw a head hanging limply from the esophagus it seemed to be pulled out almost a foot from the throat the body in front of him looked like his teachers but flayed the skin hung like rags around the body the hands and feet were twisted into some kind of clawed hands the chest had been torn open the broken ribs poked out from the sides black growths jutted out from the corpse so black that Andrew couldn''t properly perceive them they covered the body as its head slowly rose up swaying to some unhearable tune,This novel is published on a different platform. Support the original author by finding the official source. Andrew looked on in horror as he saw the deformed corpse of Christopher laying limp in a puddle of black blood as it slowly oozed into his body Christopher''s deformed mother ribs clacked as her ribes moved her body. Andrew saw this happening unable to move as the creature turned opening wide its four twisted claws as if for an embrace. "Do not fear" It whispered to as the black eyed head of Mrs. Thompson smiled "We are salvation." "Um hm riiiiight." Andrew said as he moved to shut the door but the creature moved faster striking out Andrew fell feeling agony from his destroyed eye as the hallway grew further and further away revealing a starry sky that grew darker and darker as the pinpoints of light vanished one after the other leaving him in total darkness. Floating in the nothingness Andrew felt a sudden sting, standing up he looked at the gathering storm heads above him. "Was rain supposed to hurt?" Andrew asked as he started walking. "How far have I walked?" Andrew thought out loud as he turned to look behind him in the distances he saw a light in the distances. "What is this?" Andrew asked as he trudged through the heavy rain towards the light Andrew felt the shadow gathering behind him as he moved forward. As he got closer to the light sparkles off light started to peel off of it and fly towards the gathering shadows before briefly blooming into fire and light. "Hm it''s pointless to try and destroy something that doesn''t exist." Andrew muttered as he moved through the light show the air around him began to be choked with soot and ash. "Don''t run." Andrew heard the whisper from the glossy black eyes that followed behind him. "I''m not running I''m walking dumbass." Andrew grumbled he had just managed to ignore the nonsensical voices and now they had to come back to annoy him. "How long must we chase this essence of heat we have better things to do." "Then just leave." Andrew said "Great now i''m talking to the voices in my head." Andrew groaned he was so close to the light but he might be insane by the time he got there. "Have o agony continue the hunt salvation is required elsewhere." the whispers continued as Andrew reached the light it was a strange thing it looked almost like a portal a piece of twisted metal and stone that curved in ways that his mind denied being possible it revolted him as much as it attracted him it made him feel sick and ecstatic. "This is weird I feel like throwing up" A voice said to Andrews right, looking at it he realized that he wasn''t alone. There were others around him but he couldn''t recognize them as anything more than a silhouette. As they gathered around the light and prepared to move through taking turns to cross its threshold. "Well it begins again how annoying." The gathering shadows whispered before descending on the ones that remained Andrew could only watch as those around him began being dragged off into oblivion. Andrew waited anxious as he was stuck in the middle it became more and more tense as the speed increased and Andrew grew closer and closer to the portal of light. Avoiding another grasping shadow Andrew made it to the foot of the portal as he stated to move through he remembered something. "Wait aren''t you not supposed to go towards the light?" was the last thing Andrew thought before waking up. Ch.24 Waking up as Andrew woke up he groggily looked around not quite sure of where he was he felt like shit and considering that he exploded probably looked like it as well. ''It''s impressive that they built this so fast'' Andrew thought as he observed the clay brick house he was in it was small about seven feet long and about four feet wide and tall enough for him to stand up in light entered into the small abode from small gaps that separated the clay brick walls from the roof. Looking at the roof Andrew could see that it was made from a series of rising logs with smaller ones vertically on them with clay shingles in between, looking down Andrew noticed he was laying on a wooden bed well it was more of a stretcher in his opinion a bunch of light logs woven together with a grassy mesh woven between. ''At least they let me have an actual blanket'' andrew thought looking at its bright blue and flowered design. Turning away from that Andrew took some time to study the ground around him again mainly the fire places with currently had a fire going in it the dry logs occasionally sputtered and sparked while Andrew watched. sighing to himself Andrew rubbed his face with his hands... hands ...hand? Looking down Andrew tried to come to terms with what he was seeing as he did his mind was hit with an acute sense of pain. "AAARGHHH!!!" A was off Don wiped some sweat from his brow as he took a break from tilling, Maril was quite insistent that the engineers help her get her fields up, when he heard a familiar voice scream. "Sounds like Andrews up." Don said smiling to himself taking a big stretch he felt a satisfying yet disturbing pop from his back before he went right back to work. "How''s it going." Rachal asked timidly testing the water as she walked into the hut. "My hand." was the only response Andrew had as she set down the woven basket in her hands on. ''inshock that''s to be expected.'' Rachal thought as she took out a brightly colored fruit and started to cut it. "Well that''s what happens when you hold a live grenade in your hand just be glad that we fixed your face." Rachal said handing a piece of cut fruit to Andrew. "Seriously I just lost my hand and that''s what you have to say you asshole!" Andrew yelled glaring at her murderously as he waved away the offered food. "Eh, It''s not that big of a deal." Rachel shrugged as she took a bit out of the cut fruit in her hand. "Not a big deal!" Andrew exclaimed flabbergasted.This book''s true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience. "It will probably grow back so nothing to worry about." Rachal explained with a shrug. "Probably....grow back what the fuck are you talking about this is a hand how would that even be possible!" Andrew sat up as he glared at her in derision. "Magic." Rachal said as noncovalently as she could. "Magic?" Andrew asked "Magic" Rachal said with a slight smile. "YOU KNOW WHAT FUCK YOU I''M GOING TO SULK HERE TILL SOMEONE ELSE COMES!" Andrew yelled before turn around in his bed. "Oh come on don''t act like that." Rachal said while poking Andrew in the back. "leave me alone you bitch." Andrew barked. "Now is that any way to talk to a lady Andrew." Rachal chided "No its how you talk to a bitch thus the prefix bitch." Andrew replied sounding incredibly annoyed. "I think you mean suffix there but even then bitch isn''t even a suffix it''s a noun actually now that..." Rachal started to say before Andrew interrupted her."Oh sweet merciful god you''re enjoying this aren''t you!" Having been accused Rachal just shrugged as she started cutting the fruit in her hand again "Maybe." "Don''t you have anything better to do than trolling some poor cripple." Andrew asked bitterly "Hmm at the moment... there''s trying to get an idiot that was in a coma for three days to eat something." Rachal answered while offering another piece of fruit "They taste like strawberries." she finished saying while shaking the fruit in andrews face like a treat. "You are the worst kind of person just the worst." Andrew said as he took the piece of fruit and ate it. "I''m sure it''s a comfort to you to know you aren''t alone." Rachal replied while Andrew chewed witch earned her a spectacular glare as she cut of another pieces from the fruit in her hand Maril was calling it a hardberry for some weird reason Rachal thought they had more in common with apples or pears then berries. "Just give me the whole fruit." Andrew said after he finished the first pieces that she had given him. Shrugging she complied and tossed him the hardberry Andrew managed to catch it awkwardly fumbling it around for a bit before he got a good grip and took a bite. Rachal for her part just watched enjoying the pieces she just cut off of the fruit. "So what else did you want." Andrew asked between bites. "Not much just what to know how you''re doing," Rachal answered as she bent down to take some water bottles from the basket she had set on the floor. "I''m fine my severed hand feels like it''s on fire but other than that I''ll be ok." Andrew said as he caught the water bottle Rachal tossed to him he quickly opened it and drained half of its contents before he stopped for a breath. "Your hand feels pain hu I''ve heard that phantom limbs are common but not phantom pain that could be a good thing Lee said that it would be painful for you to regrow an entire hand so that could mean that yours will grow back. Rachal said as she started to drink her on water. "Right or I could just be cursed with the only known cases of phantom pain." Andrew sighed as he laid back down on his cot like bed. "Well it wouldn''t be unknown I''m sure if it''s a thing some one knows about it" Rachal said with a pondering expression "Any way i''ll get out of your hair now Emily and Lee said they be meeting with you soon after you''ve woken up so you can expect a visit." And with those parting words she left. With Rachal gone Andrew just stared at the clay tiled roof over his head empty of thought he just stared taking in the feeling of smallness and vastness that such moments gave him before the sudden spike of pain from his nonexistent hand brought him back to his senses. "ARGH, FUCK!" Ch.25 Second vist Andrew was laying down on his bed the intense pain that he had just suffered slowly fading away from him as he sat there unmoving. "Well how are you holding up Andy." Emily asked as she and Lee walked into the small hut there was some concern in her voice since they had heard his anguished screaming. "Well enough I suppose." Andrew said as he sat up as Lee moved closer shifting his position he let Lee get a look at his arm. "I''m sorry about what happened Andrew if you need something just let us know ok." Emily continued as she watched the two of them. "It''s fine look at the bright side now I''m one step closer to my childhood dream of being a pirate." Andrew said with a cheeky grin that he didn''t feel. "Well at least you still have your spirit." Lee said as he took out a glass vial pouring out the content onto Andrews stub the burning ache that he had been feeling faded slowly to a warm glow. "What the... what was that stuff" Andrew asked Lee as he put the vial away. "Magic or alchemy as I like to call it since we don''t seem capable of learning magic right now." Lee said as he took out a notebook and started to write things down."Still suffering from fire mana build up in right arm continued application of water mana solution is inhibiting effects but not curing it different measures need to be looked into." "OK hold up please explain." Andrew waved his hand in front of Lee''s face to get his attention. "Ok thats what Im here for anyway I''m sure you have questions but let me finish writing this down first." Lee said as he pushed Andrew away from him and finished writing down his notes. "Alright I''m sure I know what you''re going to ask first. ''What happened right?" Lee asked he waited for Andrew to nod before continuing. "So Jace and a few others managed to chase away that thing that attacked us and got some nice spiffy powers from it first Jace who got some kind of lighting magic and A young girl Lauren I think got some kind of wind magic real strong stuff too and last but not least a healer who we want to go unnamed for some reason." Lee finished that sentence as he turned to Emily "What she asked and WE all agreed that it would be better to not tell anyone her real name OR gender since the last thing we need right now is a cult." Emily said arms crossed "Although I will admit to your point about that kinda being pointless what with Jace and Laura showing it off at every opportunity." "OK hold up I thought you said we couldn''t use magic." Andrew said interrupting the two. "Yeah we can''t ''Learn'' magic maybe not use it testing needs to be done but it''s safe to say that the got their powers by some glitch or happenstances we don''t know in its entirety but safe to say that magic is a real and quantifiable thing that we can and have been studying while you were out of it. It''s truly quite fascinating you''re going to love it we have only been at it a few days but we''ve learned so much about it and its properties a true benefit of the scientific method. The first thing we did was try to determine its properties and interesting enough it seems to function like the pre-einstein theory of ether." Lee started to speak becoming more and more excited as he went before andrew interrupted him again. "Ether theory what''s that?" Andrew asked. "Sigh, This is what happens when you keep your interest only in the medieval and world war two you''re skipping almost two hundred years of scientific thought and invention." Lee said exasperated "Ether theory was the old and now debunked theory that some permeable thing existed that was a medium that allowed light and electromagnetism to travel, Yes I know they''re the same thing shut up, it was supposed to be something that matter could move through without interaction but light would. In any cass magic in this world has a similar property and i''d like to get onto that before we ask anymore questions." Lee finished with a glare at Andrew how had a hand up before sheepishly putting it down.Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there. "What we have learned so far about the phenomenon that we call magic is that magic is made up of particle that we are going to call mana and that mana travels through some kind of medium were going to call ether it does not normally interact with matter but some elements or more specifically the new elements that I found do have interactions with mana so far we know of four types of mana but we guess there''s at least seven we just haven''t found a way to prove that they exist yet the four we do know about is fire, water, wind, and electric we think that there is an earth and light/ dark mana types to but we haven''t found them yet beyond that each mana type has different mana in each category so far we have managed to get four different mana types in each element." Lee took a short break to get a drink of water and collect his thoughts. "OK but..." Andrew started to ask a question but Lee interrupted him with a harsh sush. "Now as I was saying mana is split into different elements each element has different mana types in each one to help you make a better connection just know that mana and light have very similar properties as both are particles and waves at the same time so think of different elements as different colors or light and the different manas in each element are the same wavelength but have higher frequency that''s the strange thing about it actually once you hit a certain point in changing a manas frequency its properties change and the way it interacts with X-elements is different likewise if you try changing a manas wavelength it will change elements we don''t really know the hows and whys yet but this leads us to your hand and what exactly is wrong with it." Lee took another short break as Emily stepped up to fill his shoes. "Basicly we were able to heal everything but your hand and you''re probably thinking that''s weird and it is we don''t know why it happened but you arm ... uh stub has been changing and storing the ambient mana into fire mana and that''s why you''ll probably be feeling that your arm is burning we don''t know why that''s happening but Lee thinks it''s because some of the material from the explosion got into your arm and is still functioning somehow and since we don''t know anything about how long X-elements last or what the''ll do to the body we don''t KNow when it will stop we have been able to counteract it with a water mana potion that inhibits its effects but dosen''t get rid of it." "So if i''m getting this correctly I have been radioactively poisoned by the fire resistance potion." Andrew asked as he looked at the two in front of him. "basically yes but this is a lot less deadly." Lee answered "We should find a way to get rid of the poisoning fairly soon all things considered everyone is studying magic right now." "What about David he suffered a similar injury has he been suffering from this to?" Andrew asked hearing the question Lee shook his head. "No he only suffered burns none of the material entered into his body if it had we would have noticed a lot sooner I know you won''t know this but we had some really scary nights were you suffered from some terrible fevers this condition can kill you if it''s not treated regularly." Lee answered to a soloum room. "Then why not just cut the affected part off then?" Andrew asked he didn''t like the idea of losing more of his arm but dieing felt like it would be worse. "To be honest I considered it at first." Lee admitted ignoring Emily''s appalled face "But unfortunately I don''t know if that would work it''s a status effect so I don''t know how that functions yet." As Lee finished Andrew''s hand moved to his stump feeling it''s oddly spherical shape he sat in thought contemplating his current condition. Emily shattered the mood with a well timed clap gathering the attention of the other two in a heartbeat. "Well this is good and all but we have a meeting to get to IF you''re feeling up to you can come Andy you still are our Ceasar after all although we''re going to have to come up with a better name than that. standing up from a fire log she had been using as a stool Emily gather everyone and rushed them out of the tent. ''Well'' Andrew thought as he followed Emily to the new meeting place looking around at all the new sights and buildings that showed signs of being built ''Looks like we need to keep working.'' Ch.26 A Simple Moment Leaving his little hut Andrew walked out in and experienced what he could only described as culture shock as he watched the rapid and chaotic movements going on around him. He understood immediately why he was able to have his own house even though there were sure to have been many injured from the dragon attack. all around him where huts organized and well made with hanging gardens on them and around them there was even a rudimentary road of packed dirt slightly elevated and leading to clay troughs that lead to the many gardens and wells around the newly made town. "How did all of this get made in three days?" Andrew felt flabbergasted as he looked around moving out of the housing area he moved to what he thought was the fields and was equally surprised by the fairly large fields and the large river that ran parallel to them it seemed that the town proper was about half a mile out from the river Andrew figured it was a measure against flooding. Moving down to the river and the fields around it he saw some people fishing by the river. "How''s it going catch anything wait is there even anything to catch?" Andrew asked as he grew closer walking up to greet the fisherman Andrew recognised Lance and Daved as well as Kyle how Andrew hadn''t seen much of since that first day. "Holy shit!" Kyle shouted as the three noticed Andrew approach "He''s alive!" Kyle''s loud exclamation got him a slap from Daved. "Shut up man you''ll scare the fish away." Daved hissed out as Lanced started to elbow his side, grumbling Daved took something from his pocket and gave it to Lance before turning his attention back to the river. "Do I want to know what that was about or not?" Andrew asked as he sat next to the three of them. "Probably not" Lance answered as he counted out what Andrew now saw was monopoly money. "Don''t you guys have better things to do then bet on people''s lives?" Andrew asked sighing as Lance shrugged to answer "Honestly I don''t know what to be more upset about that you only bet fifty bucks or the fact that you even have fifty bucks in monopoly money means that someone in our group has the kids version of monopoly." "if you want something to really be upset about, how about the fact that people brought string and hooks but no one has a fishing rod. You can make string and hooks out of almost anything trying to make a good fishing rod from sticks and rocks is like ... well I don''t really know what its like but its not pleasant that''s for sure." Daved muttered angrily.If you encounter this narrative on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. "What''s his problem?" Andrew whispered to Lance. "Hasn''t been his day for catching fish if you get my meaning." Lance whispered back "Also he''s down fifty bucks thanks to a cuerten adventures cripple, got to hand it to you though even I figured you''d be out for another day or two glad I low balled ..." Lance stopped half way as Daveds elbow landed heavily in his stomach. "Motherfucker why!!!" Lance choked out as he clutched his gut. "That''s not a funny joke." Daved replied. "What joke!" Lance yelled. "How are you holding up Andrew no pain I hope." Daved continued ignoring Lance as he did. "Not bad hand still burns but that''s going to go away supposedly." Andrew replied while waving his stump. "OH right the hand sorry man." Lance apologised as Andrew shrugged it off. "By the way why are you fishing out here like this wouldn''t it be easier to just make a fish trap and then come back in a few hours?" Andrew asked trying to divert the topic. "No they have those set up a whiles down for here were doing this for the fun of it." Daved Answered the question as he picked up one of the poorly made fishing rods and cast it''s line back out into the river. "I see." Andrew said as he turned a questioning eye to Lance that had just smacked his hand in to his face. "So are they normally this dense or are they just in rare form today." Kyle asked Lances how simply shaked his head Daved almost always Andrew usually keeps on his toes maybe to on his toes?"... "Hey Andrew are you air headed?" Lance asked Andrew turned and glared at Lance as the boy tried to explain himself "Well you know what I meant when I said he had trouble fishing didn''t apply to this right?" "Yes I''m not an idiot." Andrew replied still glaring. "Oh well why did you ..." Lance started before being interrupted. "Because I wanted to know I can be curious about actual fishing you know." Andrew finished Lance just had a confused look on his face but shrugged it of. "Any way I wanted to know whats been going on in town while I was gone how did everything get to this level so quickly?" "It''s not that surprising I could just say magic but I think you''d probably hit me if I did still its not a really bad explanation using the magic circle that Lee pieced together and the magic stones that can be mined in the mountains constructing things is much easier and goes by much faster the first day you were out Lee and some of the others tried a bunch of things and the next day we were using them to build shit you should see the furnaces they''ve made for when we find iron it''s pretty crazy." Kyle answered "Honestly I don''t even understand half of how it works but apparently not knowing something isn''t a limiting factor I think Lee compared it to flying or riding a bike people don''t really understand why it works just that it does get it?" "Probably." Andrew answered with a shrug. "But you answered more than I asked there." Andrew finished as he got up and started to walk away. "Hey were you going." Daved asked as Andrew started to move. "To meet with Lee he probably has more answers then you three stooges do." Andrew aswerd "Well if you meet with Don tell him I would like to talk with him when hes got the time ok? Daved asked Andrew nodded in reply before walking off again.