Blood and Cupcakes

by Taj McCoy El

  He sat back in his chair taking a breath so deep Mayah was afraid he might suck all of the air out of the room. “And you want to learn runes, why, exactly?”

  She weighed her answers, wondering if she should share everything. This man felt straightforward. He was married to Maam, whom she trusted. He was the village smith for heaven’s sake. She decided to trust him.

  “I want to embroider runes on fabric to do things. Incredible things that have never been done before.”

  “And what else would you use those runes for?”

  “Excuse me? What else?”

  “Yes. What else?”

  “I, I don't know, I hadn’t thought about it yet.”

  A small silence passed. He tapped his fingers and leaned forward in his chair. “So, have you thought about it yet?”

  “Engineering!” she said. It felt completely right, but she was still surprised by the answer as it tumbled out of her mouth.

  The man was more surprised. He sat back, scratching his head. “I see why you brought her home,” he said to Maam.

  “If you'd like some help with projects, I can spare the space for someone so tiny.” He continued laughing at his horrible joke as he said, “Stop by whenever you want to. I'll show you around the forge.” He reached for her hand, shaking it firmly and turned to go back to the smithy. .

  “You will always be welcome in my home.” He lost all of his gruff demeanor and smiled as he sidled through the door.

  Well, that was interesting.

  Maam blew him a kiss and watched him go back into the smithy. “He’s not the best in social situations, but he sure took a shine to you. Engineering? Why in Atmos’s name did you have to say that? Now he’ll train you so hard your arms will fall off.” Her business face was now firmly back in place.

  “I'm headed back to the shop. Those dresses won’t make themselves. Don’t you have some monsters to kill, dear?” She asked while standing her up and hustling her out the door.

  …..

  3.2 Waiting to Die

  Fluff walked towards Jensen’s stand. He was leaning on his elbows, watching the people go by with a glazed look to his eyes. She pulled up her hood and decided to have a little fun. She made her voice as low as it could go and gruffed it up a bit.

  “I have 3 silver. Can I ask a question for that?” She acted like she was fumbling with a coin pouch under her cloak.

  “Well of course ye can... if ye want to.”

  She held out her fist as if it contained money. Jensen held his open hand out under her fist. She slowly opened her hand finger by finger then turned her hand exposing her bare palm. “My question is, what is the cost of a question?” Jensen’s eyes looked to the left and right and then back at her. He mumbled a few semi-formed answers, none of them even close to intelligible. He had the look of a wild animal caught in a trap. She reached up and slowly pulled back her hood, exposing her face contorted with silent laughter. As it burst forth, her sides began to ache and she had to hold her belly.

  Jensen looked like he had seen a ghost. He was definitely not pleased. “By Atmos, don’t scare me like that child! I'll keel right over dead with fright.” He held a hand to his chest and leaned on his counter with the other, taking deep breaths. “Ye seemed so menacing. Where did ye get that pack of rags?”

  “I made this pack of rags.”

  “And a very nice pack of rags it is, too. May I take a look?” He shot her a knowing look.

  “Of course, ye may,” she said in the deep voice she had conjured up to scare him. She laid her arm and her cloak on the counter.

  Jensen touched the cloak and whistled. ”Not too shabby ...for something so ...shabby”

  “Get off!” she pulled her cloak from between his fingers and stuck her tongue out at him.

  “Let’s see if you can do that after what I have planned for you today.”

  “Before that, how did you message me?”

  “Since I’m the local postmaster, I sent ye a package and then I tweaked a package reminder and sent it to ye. It’s a national offense, mind ye, bordering on treason, so don’t ask me to do it again. So, what I’m going to do now is tell you about a service the Majestan Post offers.”

  “Selling me something again?”

  “I have to get you back for that little prank, don’t I?” He pulled out a small crystal disc. It looked cheap.

  “What’s that?”

  “This lassie, is short range communication. Range is a few miles in the wilderness and usually the whole city that yer in, except for some of the biggest ones.”

  OOOOOOOHHHH….. do want!

  “Is that for me, Jensen?” she said hopefully.

  “It was. but alas, now it’s for sale.”

  “Meanie…”

  “Says the tiny terror.”

  “Okay how much?”

  “10 silver.”

  “Fine,” and she thought Skinflint, but ten silver still disappeared from her inventory. “Hey, wait a minute!”

  “Did ye try to flint the Majestan Post? Lucky for ye it didn’t work. Ye’d have paid for that with time in the mines of Mountün. The crown doesn't look favorably on theft.”

  That's good to know.

  “So how does this work?”

  He pulled a similar crystal from his pocket and placed it next to hers.

  Activate message stone

  Jensen Clanmeister would like to send you contact information. This will activate and bind your message stone.

  Accept Y/N?

  She accepted.

  Message stone activated

  If message stone is stolen or lost you will lose the ability to receive short range messages. Your messages will remain private to you alone but you will have to retrieve messages from an authorized post service worker or buy a new message stone.

  1 new contact

  Her contacts icon added a small number 1. “Thank you, Jensen. This’ll make a world full of difference.”

  “When ye get out in the big, bad world ye can find stones with much larger ranges.”

  “How wide of a range?”

  “How much platinum do ye have?”

  “Okay, I get it. Your wallet’s the limit. What did you have in mind for training today?”

  “So, I'm thinking that ye could get to level 5 today. Maybe team up with some noobs and get group experience.”

  “That I can do.”

  “Off you go, then. You’re scaring away business.”

  “3 silver a question business?”

  “Exactly,” he said indignantly

  She pulled her hood back on and bowed, spreading her cloak out to the sides. He laughed at her theatrics and she was off.

  With her strength and stamina up, she walked much faster than she could before. A few heads turned as she walked through the village. She ignored them for the most part. Heading back towards the dorm, she made her way to the barrier and stepped through.

  She walked carefully through the high grass looking for grasnakks and any number of unknown beasties, heading to the tree line on her right. The grass got shorter and faded to a leafy carpet as she made her way into the forest. She could see three players attacking groaks in the distance. She ignored them. A groak approached her and she took it out in two blows. Not even winded, she took the loot and walked on. A few minutes later she ran across something called a “peacrell” and took it out without much fanfare and two swings of Happiness. She was just too fast for these creatures. It looked like the day was going to be a bleak and boring exercise in futility.

  Grindtastic….

  She walked on, meeting random creatures here and there, heading to where Jensen said some harder creatures would be. She came across a clearing with a fairly large mound in the center. A mole-like creature ran across the clearing and dove into hole at the base of the mound.

  Mayah’s attention was quickly drawn upwards where she found a woman, crawling on her hands and knees on top of the mound. Mayah examined her while slowly moving for
ward

  The woman looked to be in her mid-forties. She was clearly terrified. Her pale skin was flushed and red. Her reddish-brown hair was stuck to her sweaty forehead. She was attired in, what is that? A business suit? A twig snapped under Mayah's foot and the woman's eyes searched for the noise. They went wide as she spied Mayah.

  “Please, oh God, please help me?” She squealed, begging for mercy.

  “Help with what?” Mayah sensed no danger as she walked towards her.

  “STOP…” the woman yelled, holding out her hands, “or they’ll get you, too.”

  “What’ll get me?”

  “The terravoles.”

  “And, what’s a terravole?” Mayah asked, stopping and scanning the clearing.

  “They look like big moles, kind of. At first there was one but then there were about 50 that came out of nowhere. I ran to the high ground. At least I thought it was high ground but instead it’s their mother!” The woman sounded well beyond terrified.

  “Their mother? Where is she?”

  “I’m sitting on her! She’s too big for me to beat, and every time I try to get down, the terravoles attack in force. If I don’t get out of here soon I think I’m gonna die. I’ve been here for hours.”

  “Really...?” Mayah asked, with a quizzical look on her face. “Why didn’t you just die and go for respawn?”

  “I guess...” The woman’s face dropped and went blank. “I hadn’t thought about that.” Most of the tension seemed to leave her body.

  “I know this seems super realistic, but this is just a game,” Mayah smiled.

  “Yes, yes I do believe you’re right.” Mayah could see her brain catching up.

  “Since I'm here, would you like some help?”

  “Oh God, yes.”

  “You said there were about 50 of them?”

  “Yes—at least.”

  “What level are they?”

  “Level 1. They only had 2HP so I thought I could take on the one that I saw, but that’s when things got out of control.”

  “Hmmmm… hold on a sec.” Mayah thought, I need to find some stones. It’s time for an enchanted grenades test run. Don’t want to flarf it like Leeroy Jenkins.

  “Hold on a sec, I'll be right back,” Mayah told the woman. Mayah could see the worry in the woman's face as she left the clearing to search for stones. She found about 20 and quickly headed back.

  “So, what's your name?” She asked the woman.

  “Margaret.”

  “Did you get your magic yet?”

  “I have necromancy level one.”

  “And did you try to use it?”

  “No!!!” Her face was a mask of disgust.

  “Why not?” a quizzical look passed over Mayah’s face again.

  “Dead things are icky.” Margaret shuddered in revulsion

  “So, why’d you pick necromancer?” Mayah asked. This woman might be more trouble than she was worth.

  “I opened the book to get more information on it and… let’s just say I wound up paying for it, with gold. I should have listened to that Ibn Daw fellow.”

  “Probably,” Mayah muttered under her breath.

  “What?”

  “Oh, nothing.” Silence hung between them for a moment as they stared at each other.

  “To get you out of there without you dying, you’re gonna have to use your magic. How many creatures can you resurrect?”

  “Three, because they’re low level.”

  “Okay here’s the plan. I'm going to come into the clearing and when these terravoles attack I'm going to kill a few. You have to use your necromancy non-stop. I mean cast it as soon as your mana fills enough. It’s gonna feel like a burning in your chest and your gonna wanna quit. Don’t! I might die, and you’ll still be stuck and I’ll be mad. Just grab as many as you can and make them attack the other terravoles. Okay?”

  “Okay.” Margaret wrinkled her nose and her voice begged a bit, “...Do I have to?”

  “Well, I could always just leave you there.”

  “Point taken.” She looked at the ground. “I guess it’s time to pull on my big girl bloomers, as they say.”

  Mayah just shook her head. “Okay, you ready?”

  “Yes.”

  Mayah walked into the clearing. Three terravoles watched her approach. The closest one charged her. She swung her hammer and took it out. The other two started to charge along with roughly twenty more that swarmed out of the mound. “Now, Margaret!!!”

  Mayah saw the black glow of necromantic energy shoot across the field as she swung at a second terravole. The terravole behind her got to its feet and just stood there. Mayah hastily began swinging at the swarming critters and yelled, “Margaret what are you doing? Make it attack!”

  Margaret snapped back to reality with a disgusted look on her face and yelled “Attack!!!”

  The terravole attacked Mayah.

  She smote the little guy a second time. “Geez lady, be a bit more direct with your orders,” she said as she squashed another terravole.

  “S... Sorry. This is my first time.”

  “What???” Mayah was getting angry at the noob for not sharing that piece of information.

  The terravoles continued their attack. Ankles and calves were bitten. Mayah jumped and pranced like a cat on magma. Happiness joined in and picked up the beat for killing. Her feet started kicking and stomping, instead of hopping. Terravoles were flying and then running back towards her. In between the hammer swings and swift kicks, she yelled “WHAT ARE YOU DOING…? CAST THE SPELLS!!!”

  Margaret cast Resurrection Doll on a terravole that had been finished by a hammer to the face. It stood up, part of its head hanging off in a flap. Margaret finally willed the courage to speak while looking at it. While she had been wallowing in her fear and disgust she failed to realize that those emotions had tainted her voice. When she said, “Go kill the terravoles," the loathing, disgust, and nausea she felt sounded like the BESTEST… most darkest and creepiest necromancer voice ...ever.

  The terravole turned on its brothers. The surprised terravoles turned to address this new threat when another terravole came from the other side of the swarm and started to attack. Mayah danced on their backs while she swung Happiness. She punted the second to last one into a tree for a kill and hit the last one with Happiness.

  “Done… I thought you said there were fifty?”

  Terravoles began to scurry out from the mound heading straight toward Mayah. There were about thirty of them and they were coming in fast. That’s what I get for opening my dumb mouth.

  “Margaret, get those dolls moving!”

  “Right!” The three dolls started to run at the new terravole threat, well more like a fast shamble, but they collided with the group, drawing their aggro. Mayah grabbed a stone and started enchanting. Just short of completion, she threw it into the mob.

  A four-foot ball of stone chunks, terravole bits, and fire erupted in the middle of the terravole swarm. It took out six terravoles and injured three more. It also served to draw their aggro. Her mind worked to correct the mistake she had just made.

  When handling mobs, whoever hits the hardest gets the focus of the attack. Duh!!!

  She had just hit them with a grenade that said, “Hey, I'm over here. Come and get me.”

  The rest of the swarm turned, forgetting their reanimated brethren, and rushed her like a furry carpet of death. She swung her hammer. The swings took too much time to complete. She switched grips during her follow through, and held the hammer upside down in her hands. Using the same motion she learned on the training field to build her stamina, she began to churn their ranks like butter. She lifted her hammer only high enough to clear the head of the next terravole, then smashed down with every step adding weight to the blow. She used Happiness to balance herself as she danced on her enemy’s heads and backs. She spun, kicked, churned, and smashed, occasionally swinging Happiness into a denser group of the beasts. Margaret's dolls were doing their best to defe
nd her, but she still wound up getting bitten fourteen times and it hurt. It wouldn’t kill her, but it was fourteen individual bites. Three had locked on and caused tearing damage ...owww

  The dead terravoles lay there. The mound rose slightly, starting to shake loose some dirt. A terravole the size of a large cat with the build of a bulldog scrambled out of one of the holes, bringing up a lot of dirt with it. It had a short horn on its head and a row of plates down its back. Three more heads followed suit, exiting the mound. They slowly stalked towards Mayah ignoring Margaret completely.

  “Margaret when I drop this thing you get him on his feet A… S…A…P. Do you hear me?”

  “Yessss…” It sounded like the guttural sibilance a snake man would have, but Margaret was only trying not to throw up while playing with dead things. She was also a little green in the face.

  Mayah ID'd the creature as a level 3 terravole jack 20HP “Ooooh, this is gonna be fun,” she winced.

  Two of the jacks flanked her on the left and one was circling around to the right while the original one came straight forward. She ran forward and decided to use a golf swing as the jack finally charged. She put all of her strength into it as it connected with the jack’s shoulder. As it flew through the air, it hit a tree on the edge of the clearing and fell.

  Critical hit x3

  18DP

  New active skill

  Crushing Blow

  Increased damage with weapons that deal in blunt trauma

  When activated uses 25% of available stamina. Deals up to 200% of max damage and increases the chance of a critical hit by 5% for even more damage.

  Cost: 25% of available stamina

  Cooldown N/A

  She had hit it for 6 damage with Crushing Blow but the critical hit multiplier took that up to 18. Meaning that it still had 2HP. Mayah ran towards it to finish it off when she was bitten on the leg, losing 10HP. She turned rapidly and, using her momentum, rung the attacking jack’s head like a bell. It fell over, stunned. The other two were making quick work of all of the terravoles that Margaret was raising. She finished striding over to the weakened jack and hit him one last time.