by Ryan DeBruyn
They were waiting on him, and he didn’t disappoint them. In a single motion, he tilted his head back and drank.
As soon as the drinks were empty, Rocky screamed, “Go, enjoy this night. Tomorrow, we get back to work!”
As he turned, a cheer went up, but this one surprised him not in its volume but in what they were saying. “Rockland! Rockland! Rockland!” He turned back, chagrined, blinking at them all and feeling a lump in his throat. He had done nothing to deserve this, and he swallowed against the quick surge of guilt this brought on.
Quickly, he exited the stage, and the crowd dispersed once he was out of sight. Breathing heavily, he placed his hands on his knees and glanced up at a smiling Joe. Joe shook his head and chuckled, “Normally, when people are cheering your name, you don’t run away.”
Rocky stood up, and just the look in his eyes made Joe reconsider his words. In a quick motion, he grabbed both of Rocky’s shoulders. “Don’t you ever think you don’t deserve what just happened!” Joe paused with tears starting to brim in his own eyes. “I get it, Rock. I do!”
Joe moved a hand from Rocky’s shoulder to form a fist and place it over Rocky’s heart. Then tapping that fist lightly on his sternum, he entreated, “This is what they are cheering for! Most people would have packed up and left Ottawa once they discovered a problem like that.” Using that same fist, he forced Rocky’s chin up so their eyes met. Then he earnestly continued, “We all know you came back to Ottawa to find your family! We all know they weren’t there, but instead of running off to continue to search, you brought everyone here!” Joe pointed over Rocky’s shoulder at the crowd they could hear behind the stage.
Then letting go of Rocky, Joe stated flatly, “What you’re suffering right now is survivor's guilt, and I know a bit about that! I would keep you here and talk to you all night if that would help, but,” he paused and pointed at the backs of people walking towards the cooking fires, “I think you’ll do better mingling with the people you saved!”
Then he turned Rocky around and gave him a shove towards those fires. Rocky looked back over his shoulder to smile sheepishly at Joe and nodded his head. His chest was still tight, but he trusted Joe. Plus, he wanted to see this feast!
As he blended in with the crowd, he saw people recognize him and nudge their neighbors, but each person kept a distance for some reason. He looked up, trying to see what emotions people were feeling and saw many happy smiles and nods turned his way. He smiled back and felt his spirits begin to lift, but then his eyes met with someone’s who wore a look he recognized from opponents on the basketball court.
The eyes staring at him were filled with anger and promised retribution for something that Rocky wasn’t sure he deserved. His smile faltered, but he forced it back, pretending nothing was wrong. Coming to a quick decision, he pretended to have forgotten something back at the stage and veered off from the smiling group of celebrators.
Once clear of the throng, he checked over his shoulder and saw ten people veer out of the crowd to follow. Now that no one could see his face, he let his false smile fall away and made another decision. He could trigger Stealth and Dark Cloak and vanish, avoiding this problem, but those looks promised pain, and he worried if they didn’t try it on him, they would find another less prepared outlet.
With his slight buzz causing his blood to pump loudly in his ears, he swallowed and chose to keep walking in plain sight. One of the men shouted in a slurred voice, “Stop, you psychotic bastard.” In it, he heard the clear notes of intoxication and groaned slightly before choosing to ignore it.
Another voice yelled, “You think you can bring us here and use us as cheap labor! We were safe in Ottawa!” He felt his heart pump louder and fall into his boot.
He quickened his pace, but his battle senses gave him a moment’s notice, and he sprang into a somersault as a large, bat-sized tree branch sailed through the space his head had been. Turning the roll into a twist and coming to his feet in one motion, Rocky held up his hands to the men and women of the group. He tried to placate them, “Listen, guys, why don’t we–”
Another one jumped at him, and he dodged left, allowing the poorly trained individual to trip over one of his trailing legs and tumble to the ground. He quickly used Analyze on the group, checking for dangerous classes and high-level threats.
Everything he saw was average at best, and he glanced over his shoulder to gauge the distance to the stage where he hoped Joe and some of the military still stood. A swing of a staff nearly took his head off because of his distraction, but he used his shoulder to divert the blow and tilted his head. This caused the strike to sail above his ear and would probably leave a bruise tomorrow, but it was better than getting the weapon to the temple.
In a quick motion, he jabbed at the individual with a quick fist and saw the woman's knees buckle. He grimaced, not having recognized that it was a woman attacker. Then he turned and took off at a full sprint towards the military uniforms he had just managed to make out on his glance back. He heard the group give chase behind him.
Phew, now, I won’t have to hurt any of these drunken idiots.
He made it to the military far ahead of the group, and seeing the angry mob behind him, they sprang into action. Within moments, the group was disarmed and down. Rocky pointed back the way he had come and stated, “There is a woman with a staff in that direction. I think I knocked her out.” At his words, two men split off and moved towards the direction he indicated.
Joe jogged up, looking worried, and Rocky rubbed his shoulder where the staff had hit him. Joe began to open his mouth, looking apologetic, and Rocky just shook his head at him before saying, “Just keep them under guard until morning. I’m hoping they were just drunk.”
With that pronouncement, he turned away from the man, walked up to a military woman holding a mostly empty Aguarvo bottle and smiled. Still smiling, he reached out and pulled the bottle softly from her hands with a crinkle around his eyes. Then winking, he opened the bottle and took a swig, planning to get truly sauced and forget that some of his own people had just tried to kill him.
***
Arggh. Aguarvo doesn’t leave a pleasant aftertaste the next morning! Also, who let a horse kick me in the head…?
Rocky grimaced at his massive hangover headache and tried unsuccessfully to produce saliva to wet his tongue and lips. This was far too similar to how he had awoken the day after the first Ether wave for him to not see some irony in the whole situation. At least, this time, he’d actually drank the night before.
He kept his eyes shut tight and recalled the events of the previous evening that cajoled the group of survivors deep into the night. He’d visited the shop first and picked up ten alchemical cleansers for ‘pungent, cloying odors’. Those had taken care of the skunky debuff for him and the group that was close enough to be inflicted.
Additionally, while he’d been in the shop, he had queried the Gnome-looking lady, Trixie, about alcoholic vendors. He probably should have realized that her smile was far too devilish, and even prior to that, maybe he could have figured out she knew how to party based off of her name.
Check, don’t ask a woman named Trixie her suggestion on alcohol.
Opening his eyes was a task unto itself, but after some furious rubbing and blinking, he managed to scrub out most of the stupid decisions from the night before and could see again. The immediate area surrounding him was littered with sleeping survivors. Some were awake, but anyone he saw who was ‘lucid’ seemed to be suffering the same problems as him. He chuckled and then winced when the chuckle hurt his head.
A picture of a withered and shrunken, mummified-looking man was sitting on his debuff bar.
Extreme Dehydration
Your body has cleansed a poison known as ‘Alcohol’. This poison acted as a diuretic and purged your body of a great deal of water. Additionally, the cleansing of this poison has taken more water. You will suffer extreme headaches, nausea, reduced stats, and muddled thought processes.
>
-20% All stats.
These effects will last until you rehydrate your body fully or for your age minus seven hours.
Current time remaining 23 hours, 30 minutes, 27 seconds.
Celebration time! Come on—how does your head feel?
Rocky blinked, seeing the sarcastic and snarky comment at the end. It had been a while since one of his notifications had one. In fact, the last one he remembered had been early, in his Territory…
They all seem personally tailored too. I wonder who’s in charge of the notices?
Rocky slowly stood and began moving sluggishly towards the river. Not wanting to talk to anyone who was there, he went to a free area and dunked his head under the surface to cool off and clean the alcohol-induced sweat from his face. Once he was done scrubbing that off, he took a few mouthfuls of the cool, refreshing water and came up for air.
Then he sat back on his heels and looked around him at the Grotto. Again, the size of the space made him blink, and he considered the future of everyone present. A few moments later, a recognizable figure in military fatigues striding his way made him wince.
Joe strode up to him a few blessedly silent moments later. “Rocky, what would you like us to do with the captives?” His voice sounded like concerned gunfire. Rocky winced, held up a hand, and tried his best to hold back the nausea. He doubled over on the ground, and to contain the vomit, he chose to dunk his head back under the surface of the water.
He had completely forgotten about the group of ten individuals who had tried to attack him last night. Thinking back on the night, he found it ironic that they had tried to attack him just after he had made his speech of welcome and safety, which they clearly hadn’t listened to!
He took a few more large gulps of water before his stomach settled enough for him to resurface. When he was no longer dizzy, he shook his head sadly. Then he looked at Joe before speaking softly, “I remember the ten people who attacked me. Where did you end up keeping them?”
“Ten? Rocky, this morning, we have closer to seventy people under guard behind the shop,” Joe claimed with shock clear in his booming voice. Rocky wanted to strangle the man when he smiled at Rocky’s newest cringe at what appeared to be an intentional decibel assault.
Rocky blinked and whispered delicately, “Seventy! What in the hell? When did you gather up the others?”
Joe explained while raising the volume of his voice further—if that was possible. Rocky shushed the man and got a smile in return. Joe did lower his volume, though and told him a good portion of the detained were because of drunken antics. At one-point, Joe even looked skeptically at Rocky. “You were also almost detained a few times. Do you remember much of last night?”
Rocky shot to his feet and groaned as Joe began detailing a few of his rather embarrassing moments from the night before. He attempted to flee the persistent man and make his way towards the shop, hoping Joe would take the hint.
He didn’t. He followed and continued his recollection of the night before.
As they walked, Joe detailed more to him, and Rocky sheepishly began recalling portions of each. His face flushed beet red, and Joe seemed to be enjoying his impromptu torture. Rocky groaned again when Joe recalled for him, “Then I thought you and Sela were finally going to kiss and get over that awkwardness between you. Instead, you chose to bet her that she couldn’t shift from form to form without becoming a human in between.” Joe paused and looked at Rocky more seriously. “Honestly, did you know she only had two charges left?”
Joe waved his hand and chuckled. “Well, she won the bet.”
Rocky felt cold sweat break out on his skin at the reminder. He had barely averted kissing his Ancestral Guide, emphasis on ancestor!
He had flip-flopped back and forth a bit with what Sela being his ancestor really meant. If she was really a distant relation to him, she had lived over a billion years ago. In his very limited understanding of the human race, this most likely meant that the bloodline had diverged so significantly that to call her a relation was a stretch. On the flip side, the system had termed her an Ancestor, which implied a closer relation than he felt comfortable with. She also was the person he usually asked about these sorts of quandaries, so this left him in quite the emotional limbo on the subject.
I wonder which form she ended up being stuck in. I don’t fully remember this.
Joe was chuckling to himself, and Rocky looked at him sternly before whispering, “I think that’s enough amusement at my expense for a while. Go wake up anyone still sleeping and have them gather somewhere centrally. When I am done with the detained individuals, we’ll have Meditation training for everyone.”
Joe continued to laugh as he saluted, handed Rocky back his bag of holding, did an about-face, and then strode off. Rocky frowned at his departing back, not seeing the humor in the situation. Then again, he didn’t remember everything about the situation…
A short walk later, he spotted the seventy people all sleeping or sitting in a circle with military guards surrounding them. Immediately, Rocky knew some of them were there because they had gotten a little too drunk and done something stupid. The shading of the eyes with hands was a dead give away. Yet, there was a contingent of about twenty who glared daggers at anyone around them. Rocky’s brow furrowed in thought.
Some of these people chose to attack me or others only after they got to the Territory? Either they are secretly part of Corsair’s contingent, or something else set them off. Was Sela right? Am I really going to regret teaching them those skills?
Continuing his walk, he saw many of those glaring eyes change targets and begin tracking him. Still unsure what to do with these bad apples, he Analyzed the guard in charge and then opened his mouth and addressed him, “Good morning, Letty. Could you please run through what each person is here for from least severe to most severe?”
Letty saluted and then, in a pure business tone, began listing the severity of problems that people were detained for. The first twenty barely would be considered problems in the old world they came from, and in this world, when small bruises and injuries could heal in minutes, Rocky didn’t think a drunken fistfight or shove should count for much more than they had already suffered through. On top of that, each name that was called were the people who seemed to be in the worst shape physically from the alcohol. He held up a hand after the guard began listing people who had tried to steal weapons from the militia.
“Alright, everyone up to Jayden listed, get up and go get some water. We’ll be meeting for training in an hour.” After Rocky announced this, many groans were heard, and the group of misdemeanors stood up and stumbled out of the remaining individuals. One even disregarded any shred of dignity he had and crawled away. Guards checked their names as they left and told them to not get into fights in the future, which made Rocky chuckle. The guards looked like parents scolding children, but the children were all grown up.
There was a strangely silent moment as the entire group watched the crawling man make his way past the guard, mumble his name, and keep crawling.
Some people just can’t hold their Aguarvo!
Turning back, he grew immediately serious and felt some cold anger rise up in him. Turning to the lead guard again, he stated, “Send the rest to me by severity. One by one or if they were in a group when apprehended, all of that group at once.” Rocky then walked a short distance away towards a pointed tree stump. Since he wanted somewhere to sit, he formed his slithering Soul Blade into a sword and sliced the stump into a flat top with one smooth motion.
The act caused a few gasps to be heard from the guards and the prisoners, and Rocky blinked in surprise before shrugging and sitting down. He chose to sheathe his sword this time to keep it visible in hopes it might deter any particularly dense individuals from doing something stupid. A group of five young adults was walked up to him, and he tried to blank his face. Instead of speaking, he just stared at the five people casting Analyze on each until one of them spoke up.
“Sir,” a young, very pretty girl named Bailey, who looked no older than twenty years, stuttered out, “I am sorry. My friends and I were a bit drunk, and we were playing a game of truth or dare that… umm… led us to try to take a few of the guards’ weapons.”
He raised an eyebrow, and she continued, “We had dared each other to take one, and then I might have insinuated I would kiss the man or woman who did it.” She coughed into her fist but forced herself to continue while blushing red, “Umm… then… I tried to take it and stop them from arresting the others.”
He looked at them sternly, but inside, he could feel his anger fade slightly, “What do you five plan to do now that you are in the Territory?”
Bailey looked at the group, and at their nods, she continued, “We want to be adventurers like you and your team!” This answer made Rocky tilt his head quizzically before looking at the guards who were smiling proudly.
For some reason, they seemed proud of the young adults who had committed a minor crime the previous night.
He did a quick Analyze of the members of the group. None of them had an NPC class, which meant that farming and hunting was definitely within their wheelhouse.
Rocky suddenly felt awkward and conflicted at the sudden change in the mood. “Okay then. Well, yeah. Then go get cleaned up and meet in just under an hour for training.” He had responded clumsily; how does one punish young adults anyway?
The next group was similar and had tried to see who could catch the largest nearby monster but had run away in fear after attracting the massively aggressive Elk herd’s attention. They had luckily only led a group of five creatures back to the Grotto, and a few shots had been enough to deter the Elk from continuing into the area. This foolish action had also happened when drunk, and Rocky shook his head, glad none of them had been hurt. He let that group of ten individuals go with a similar message to the first after they sheepishly claimed they wanted to be hunters for the Grotto.
