Ruins of Majesta: Vol. 2.1 Creatures and Cupcakes

by Taj McCoy El

  “What did you do to my chicken???” The farmer yelled with a look of concern.

  Mephi having enough of this nonsense grabbed Driskel by the collar and lifted him to his feet and began yelling in the man’s face.

  “What did we do to your chicken???” Mephi angrily pointed at the chicken. “We barely survived is what we did to your chicken.”

  Mo grabbed Mephi and pushed him away from Driskel. “Let’s everyone calm down and talk this out.”

  Everyone huffed and took a breather except for Ziggs who sat there silently for once. As the energy slowly left the air Mo started up the conversation again.

  “Now as you can see Driskel, there is no doubt this is your chicken. It also explains why no one else has finished your quest.”

  “Most likely because they died,” Mephi angrily added in.

  Mo glared at the skunk man until Mephi threw his hands up and walked away.

  “There… at least we can breathe again,” Mo sighed, casting a sad look at Driskel. “Now if you want us to finish this quest we need to talk: one, to your elemental stone dropping son. And two, to you. Because this quest just got super thorny.”

  “But how can this be my chicken?”

  “This is now a shadow mutated chicken. Who knows how much it might sell for and how much its parts might be worth? So, you need to make it worth our while to bring them back to you instead of just selling them in town—reputation be damned.”

  “How much it might be worth?”

  “Get with the program Driskel.” Mo snapped his fingers in the farmers face. Have you ever seen a chicken like this before? Has anyone ever seen a chicken like this before? You could literally put it in a cage and charge money for people just to see it!

  “Now if you can make that much money off it, guess how much money I could make off the other ones if I put them in my own personal zoo?”

  “Wait, you wouldn’t?” Driskel said finally catching on.

  “Do you know why I wouldn’t—why we wouldn’t?” He pointed at his teammates. “Because we have integrity, and I’m hoping you do as well. That’s why we came back to share what we learned with you. Now do you wanna negotiate or do you want to test your luck that someone will come along and accept your quest before we pull the rest of the chickens out of the forest and disappear?”

  “But they’re my chickens…” Driskel stuttered.

  “But you didn’t even recognize it until we dropped it on your doorstep so don’t try that load of manure on me.”

  “Well… when you put it like that.”

  “And ‘put it like that’ I did for a reason—we need to renegotiate. But, before we do that we need to know what kind of stones the chickens ate so we can be prepared for anything. At the very least we’re going to need an extension.”

  I would love to give it to you but somehow the chickens escape every three days.”

  Mo didn’t want to beat a dead horse named game programming and wanted to talk to Driskel’s son to figure some things out. “Well, where’s your son?”

  “He should be here before sunset. I sent him a letter that someone had taken up the quest. He likes to be here when people attempt to capture all the chickens.”

  “He doesn’t live here?”

  “No, most of the time he studies at the Elementalist’s college on the other side of Drahtspule.”

  “How often does he come home?”

  “If I remember correctly, recently he only comes home when someone takes up the quest.”

  “Really?”

  “As far as I’m aware.”

  “Okay…” Mo deflated at having to battle against time while waiting for information. “Do you have a place where we could freshen up and get a bite to eat while we wait for him to arrive?”

  “Under normal circumstances, I would point you to the barn but seeing as how you coulda run off with my golden egg layer, I’ll have the missus whip something’ up for ya.” Driskel smiled and offered Mo his hand.

  “Thank you kindly, Driskel,” Mo said as he shook the farmer’s hand.

  Driskel leaned in close and said in a whisper, “Do you think you could get that friend of yours not to stink up my house?”

  Mo swore he could hear tiny echoes of laughter coming from inside Ziggs.

  ✽✽✽

  Mayah had already climbed thirteen of the steps by leaping up to grab the edge of the next step and pulling herself up. With her strength, it was easily accomplished. Vergie was going ahead of her and sitting on the step above her watching silently.

  Mayah was getting ready to spring for the next step. Her legs bent and arms swung back. She leapt upwards and caught hold of the ledge and pulled herself up when there was a loud crack, and the stone she was holding onto tore loose. A two-foot-wide piece of the ledge threatened to drop her into the open air below her.

  Shaaaaaaaaaz!!!!!I

  She tried to swing outwards and grab for the next section of the ledge, but the stone came free as her fingertips touched. She fell the twenty-five feet through the air, holding a stone in one hand above her head and fell onto the steep hillside. As she slammed onto her side the block of stone tore loose from her grip as her elbow bent. The impact of it crashing on her overextended shoulder shot stars through her vision.

  You have taken damage

  -169HP Falling

  -186HP Falling rock

  1285/1640HP

  You have received a Debuff

  Dislocated shoulder

  Right arm -97% mobility.

  Health regen -30% until fixed

  She rolled down the slope a few times, spikes of lightning blasting out of her shoulder, her HP dropping with each stab. She was slowed, and then stopped by the grasping tendrils of the duskrass. Her head was pointed downhill and her dislocated arm was pinned underneath her back, bent at an abnormal angle. The pain rolled through her body like a lightning coated fury of fire and ice. She tried to right the wrongness that was her arm but another, larger jolt of pain flared causing her to become nauseous and grit her teeth.

  Assess the situation!!! Remember the first aid grandpa taught you. Don’t go into shock.

  She moaned pulling in a few breaths and looked around. Up above she saw Vergie pacing worriedly on the edge and mewling with concern.

  “Stay there… I’m gonna try and get myself free,” she yelled up at them. With her one good hand, she called up her inventory and set the whip to hotkey into her left hand. She called it into existence and activated it. Duskrass began dying just from the proximity of the light pulses. She swung the whip weakly around her head and shoulders and the duskrass pulled her upwards by her feet. Her arm was still held firmly in place causing it to be pulled up behind her back like a chicken wing of agony.

  Mayah screamed and blacked out.

  She came to a few minutes later. Her stamina at three quarters and slowly dropping. Vergie had hopped down a few steps to be closer to her.

  This totally sucks!

  She threw the whip towards her feet attempting to clear the duskrass that was pulling her and finally created a perimeter around her free of any tendrils. She swung the whip as hard as she could around in a circle to widen that perimeter, and then got down to the nitty gritty.

  She took the whip in her mouth which made her teeth tingle like an electric current was vibrating her face and ran her hand along it and pulled. After doing this three times, she had the light enchanted stiletto in her hand. And ran it along the side of her body and behind her head and shoulders. She tried to reach the right side of her body but was stopped by the icepick of pain in her shoulder and a damage notification for 5DP. So instead she reached underneath herself to kill the duskrass that was holding her in place. She kicked her legs to free them and got ready for the best part of all this.

  She slowly spun her body counter-clockwise, her feet going from twelve to eleven, and then ten. Gritting through the excruciating pain her arm was pulled out from behind her ignoring all the damage notifications. There
were many grunts, exclamations, and more than a few whimpers during this process. When she made some of her more pathetic sounds, she could hear Vergie and the rötten voicing their concerns. She barely managed to allay their attempts to come to her and got back to freeing herself.

  "I swear, when I get out of this game I’m going to kick someone’s flarfin’ fanny until it’s flattened and bloody,” she yelled at the sky.

  With her arm finally beside her she rolled over as much as was possible without passing out and cut away the last of the duskrass and cradled her arm to her body. She sat up and gingerly let the arm fall to her lap.

  She pulled up her status window and clicked on the dislocated shoulder notification.

  Dislocated Shoulder

  Your shoulder is dislocated and your mobility in that arm has been reduced to 3%. You need to reduce (put back in joint) the shoulder to end the negative status. While in this state and until fixed Dislocated Shoulder will act as damage over time

  Health regeneration will be reduced by 30%, Stamina usage will rise 15%, and Stamina regeneration will be reduced by 25%

  Mayah groaned at the information.

  I need a sling so I can get back up to Vergie.

  She looked up her pets. “I’m alright.” she waved. “I’ll be back up there in a minute.” She pulled out the remaining fabric from making the rötten harness and wrapped a wide swath of fabric around herself. Then using her teeth, she tightened a knot in the fabric. After making it as tight as she could she doubled the knot and stood up.

  Her makeshift sling held, and she reached for her whip and cleared a path sideways along the hill because climbing was out of the question. Finally, with beads of perspiration dripping down her face and teeth gritted in pain she reached the ledge. Vergie was there waiting for her.

  Mayah collapsed against the vergax and hugged her with one arm.

  “It’s alright girl.” She gave Vergie a scratch. “I’ll be right as right as rain in a few minutes, but I’m going to need your help.”

  Vergie mewled and the rötten chittered.

  “Just let me catch my breath.” Mayah fell flat on her back and let her stamina slowly fill. The injury was slowing her regen and her hit points were trickling away with every movement. She examined her status bar and the dislocated shoulder status didn’t have a timer.

  “Looks like I gotta fix this myself.”

  She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. I gotta relax so I can pull up the info from my field medic and healer trade. After a few deep breaths she calmed and the adrenalin jag she was on subsided. The rubbery fight or flight sensation ebbed from her body in gentle waves, and she recalled the information she needed.

  Her eyes popped open.

  “Shaznuggets!!! This is gonna flarfing suck.”

  She opened her inventory and selected single hand equip for Happiness in her left hand. And hot keyed it into existence. She didn’t even attempt to hold it aloft and the head struck the white sand with a thump.

  “Now for the hard part.”

  She unswaddled her arm and made a loop out of fabric about 4 feet long and tied it off. She slipped the loop over the handle of Happiness and put a few twists in it to shorten the length. Then very gingerly she held her arm and stood up. She put her damaged arm into the loop and stood up to make sure she couldn’t stand up straight with it hooked on.

  “Vergie, I’m gonna need your help here.” Vergie sidled over inquisitively. “Stand on the end of the handle.”

  Vergie put a paw on the hammer looking into Mayah’s eyes. Mayah smiled at her kitty.

  “Whatever happens don’t move. This is gonna hurt me a lot and I don’t wanna do it more than once. Okay?”

  Vergie chuffed.

  Mayah put a reassuring hand on Vergie’s head. “Good girl. It will be over soon.”

  Mayah stood to the left of Happiness and put her right hand lightly on the inside of Vergie’s right leg that was holding the handle of happiness. Riker and Deanna looked at Mayah worriedly from their harness on Vergie’s chest. She gave them a wink, and then looked at Vergie again.

  “Okay, girl. Here we go.”

  Mayah bent her knees so that her torso was straight up and down. Keeping her elbow to her side, she oh so slowly stood up.

  Remember to relax… it’ll hurt… urrrk… more if you tense….

  Mayah felt her bone begin to slide across her ribs and muscle and turned her body away from Vergie causing her arm to rotate outwards away from her body. She grit her teeth and tried to keep her arm relaxed through the pain. It built in intensity with every degree the arm rotated. A tear dropped from her eye as veins bulged in her neck. She moaned loudly forcing herself to keep going.

  A sudden pop and a lessening of pain made Mayah drop to her knees and cradle her arm in hysterics. She sat there rocking and weeping in relief.

  “Mooooom…” she wailed. "I want my mom…” and she rolled to the side holding her arm ignoring the messages that popped up.

  DING!!!

  Field medic level 2

  DING!!!

  Healer level 2

  ✽✽✽

  Mayah took an hour to rest more for the emotional strain as her arm was right as rain in about five minutes. She had lost over 600HP by the end of her ordeal. She had fully recouped it in that hour thanks to her beefed up constitution and endurance. She made a promise to always up endurance and constitution until the time for a full regen was under a half an hour.

  I also really need some healing potions.

  She used her mana to refill her stamina and charged her whip and let her mana recharge again. She took the remaining time to eat and give Vergie a ration and the rötten a half of a ration.

  “No, you don’t get any more until we get to the top.” She pushed back against Vergie’s giant pleading head. “Okay, okay… Let’s go.”

  Mayah stood up, brushed her clothes off and rolled her shoulder through some stretches to make sure it really was okay. Vergie stood extremely close to her as she prepared to leap to the next step. Mayah swung her arms to get ready and hit Vergie accidentally. Vergie didn’t even react keeping her eyes locked on Mayah’s face.

  Mayah straightened and looked Vergie in the eye. “Trying to make sure I don’t fall?”

  Vergie nodded.

  “Thank you fwuffy, but I think I’ll be okay this time around. I appreciate the concern though.” She put a reassuring hand on Vergie’s shoulder. “You ready to go?”

  Mayah turned to the next step and leapt through the air, arms spread wide to make sure that if one hand caused the rock to fall her other hand would be on solid ground. She grabbed the edge of the next step and pulled herself up and Vergie quickly followed.

  They repeated this act for the better part of an hour because they were taking their time before they reached the last of the steps. There lay a path between two large rounded boulders that she had to shimmy through. Vergie bounded over the tops and met her on the other side. She saw the portal stone up a small rise and went towards it. From the center Mayah could see the twenty rounded boulders in a rough circle crowning the hill. The portal stone was surrounded by a magical circle and Mayah recorded the lights as they activated at her presence. She walked the circle fully before entering.

  The lights pulsed towards the stone like reverse ripples and lit up the base of the stone. She quickly crossed the circle and placed her hand on the round glowing ball at the top. Her bracelet flew off her arm and a stream of black flew out and formed itself into a gem of obsidian that socketed itself between the bands of silver and copper.

  Ding!!!

  You have received the key to Clacker’s Alley

  Ding!!!

  You have unlocked the entrance to

  Clacker’s Alley

  A boulder opposite her entry point rumbled and rose up out of the earth. It rolled upwards revealing two indentations that looked like eyes that stared into the fear in her primordial soul. It kept rising revealing a third indentation betwee
n the two, but lower and Mayah was starting to feel that this was a bad thing. Then a gaping hole opened below the indentations that continued growing as the boulder continued to rise.

  Yep! It’s the ol’ skull entryway.

  The entryway seemed to be covered with dirt and cobwebs that looked like mummified skin flapping in the breeze. The boulder stared ominously, frozen in a silent scream of pain and terror. The darkness of the skull’s maw didn’t invite her in the least. If anything, it was screaming for her to run.

  I don’t like this at all. But we’re just going to take a look right?

  She walked towards the maw in the stone and pulled out a club light, made sure it was fully charged, and then entered the entrance.

  10.5 Seal of Disapproval

  Mayah held her light up to see further into the darkness. The floor slanted downwards into the throat of the darkness where her light petered out. She saw a few feet past that with her Shadow Eye, but there was nothing to see but the floors and rough-hewn walls that transitioned into complete darkness. The tunnel was wide enough for two Mayah’s, holding dual Happinesses out at arm's length, to stand side by side. The ceiling was covered with small stalactites. With the downward slant of the tunnel, it made it seem like the throat of the skull was barbed to trap its victims.

  Am I really gonna push my luck? I mean i’m just going in to look. All of the other sections let us go back and forth so I can assume this dungeon will be the same, can’t I? I just wanna spot mobs, and then retreat. It should be okay, right? what’s the worst that can happen? I can lose the dungeon. I might also get important recon.

  She pulled at her hair. Her lizard brain seemed silent on the judgement and her curiosity was in overdrive. being here by herself had her bored beyond tears and the lack of progress was maddening.