Blood and Cupcakes

by Taj McCoy El

  “Take a look.” She tossed him the knife which he swiped out of the air by its handle. He looked like he had just fallen in love.

  “Acid stiletto? For me? You should have.”

  “Don’t make me regret it.”

  Grax wound up to toss the dagger and thought better of it.

  “Master Smith, do you perchance have a place where I might test this weapon without harming your building?”

  John laughed. “I do, and can you stop with all of the Master Smith stuff? I liked you better when you were cracking wise.”

  “Oh, you’re gonna regret that,” Mayah tsk’ed the two.

  “Stop it, Fluff.” Grax looked disheartened. He took a deep breath and looked towards the Master Smith. “John, I just want you to know how serious I’m taking this. You have knowledge from the Thieves Guild that will make me a better rogue. I don’t want to steal anything, but I love striking from the shadows. Ambushing my enemies. I want to learn all that you know.”

  “That’s all fine and good, but if you keep up with the Master Smith thing others might start to follow suit. So how about you call me John and I call you whatever it is I want to? Okay Shirley?”

  Grax smiled, puffed out his chest, and rose to the challenge. “Shirley, you jest?”

  Mayah groaned. It was gonna be a long day of PUN-ishment.

  “Now you want to lightly toss it in,” Mayah said, pointing to the crucible in the middle of the floor. “We want to see what type of damage it’s gonna do, but it might splash out. So be careful.”

  “Alright, alright,” Grax waved her off. “Jump out of the way when I drop it in the crucible. I got it.”

  He looked at the stiletto for a moment, then gently tossed it into the crucible point first. Acid (D) violently splashed into existence, sending a few drops flying. The splatters sizzled on the ground as a wave of green sloshed to a sizzling rest inside the crucible. They stepped closer and saw the volume of Acid (D) had actually quadrupled instead of tripling.

  I guess the more runes of the same kind, the more powerful the rune becomes. I wonder what would happen with multiple rings of different runes? ...or multiple rings of multiple runes.

  Grax hugged Mayah suddenly. “Thank you for this. This is amazing.”

  She held his feline form on her leg for a moment and then, with two swift pats on the back, she said, “If you like them so much, learn how to make them. That way I can figure out how to make your daggers do Acid (D) damage.”

  Grax looked at her wide eyed.

  “And I think ice damage on your katanas would be good.”

  “Yes, yes… Please. Thank you!!!!” was all that he could say as he fist-pumped himself into a frenzy.

  “It’s almost time to open. So, let’s get you two squared away.” John walked out of a back door that led to the alleyway where he lived. Instead of entering his home, however, he turned away from his front door and exited the alley to cross the street. He entered the alley opposite and led them to a walled in park. It wasn’t easy to see from the main streets. She guessed not many paladins had found it. They walked along a crushed slate pathway that led to a playground tucked away between some trees and the building next door. John approached the playground with his arms spread wide, “Ah this feels like home.”

  “What are you talking about, John?” Mayah asked.

  There was a swing set for six on each side of the playground, three enormous jungle gyms with rope and rock climbs spread throughout, two roundabouts for teaching children the joys of centrifugal force, plenty of seesaws, climbing poles, slides, crawl tunnels, balance beams and some springing rockers. Two thoughts crossed Mayah’s mind. One, she hadn’t seen any children in the training village. So why was there a playground? Two, this looked like a dangerous playground.

  “Is this just a playground?”

  “That it is, and do you know what you do at the playground?” He asked.

  “Sit on the swings?” she shrugged.

  “Think back. Farther than when you were …’COOL’” he said, Making air quotes. “Or before you even started thinking about cool. All the way back to when you could roll on the floor under a table and be happy for hours, or with blanket forts and fluffy animals. What would you do at the playground?”

  “Run around crazy.”

  “Try to climb everything,” Grax added.

  “Crawl under everything and see how it was fastened to the ground. My mom really hated that.”

  “Swing one handed like a monkey.”

  John held up his hands to hold back the avalanche of playground examples. “Since you remember fairly well, it’s going to be simple. Just play a game of ‘the ground is on fire.’ Pushing and shoving is allowed, no mana though. When you’re playing, just go as fast as you can, jump as high as you can and if you fall, land as well as you can. Since you’ve been training with Jensen, I know that you know what an ability is. Just keep going until you get one. The more aggressive your movements and the more risks you take, the faster you’ll get it. And don’t forget to walk on your hands either. There is no out of bounds, but every time you hit the ground, add one to your score. The one with the lowest score wins. And I’ve got a prize for the winner.”

  Mayah and Grax stood there.

  “Okay… Go…!!!” John yelled with a wave of his arms, and then turned to go back to the smithy, leaving them staring at his back. They turned and looked at each other. Telepathically they both thought the same thing, LOOT!!!

  Mayah and Grax raced to the nearest jungle gym and climbed to the top where they faced off.

  “That prize is as good as mine,” Grax laughed.

  Mayah laughed at him, “Keep telling yourself that.”

  Grax suddenly ran at her legs. Mayah sidestepped on top of the metal tubing and almost slipped, arms wheeling for balance, but managed to turn to follow Grax as he leapt down to a lower platform. He ran through a crawl tube, slid down a slide on two feet and then jumped onto the roundabout which started to spin slowly.

  “Try to keep up,” he yelled to her.

  “So, follow the leader? I can do that.” Mayah jumped down to the platform, crawled through the tube as fast as she could and did a somersault at the top of the slide, riding it towards the bottom. She jumped into the air with a front flip and landed on the roundabout with enough force to make Grax bobble on the spinning device.

  “Continue…” she waved at Grax.

  “So, you wanna play like that? Challenge accepted.” He jumped from the spinning roundabout to the seesaws with a graceful single pike, landing on the raised end of the seesaw causing it to slowly lower to the ground. Then he ran to the opposite side, raising the fallen end back up into the air.

  “Your turn.”

  Mayah timed her jump perfectly, but the roundabout spun backward under her feet as she pushed off. Lacking the necessary force to complete the maneuver, she flew into the air. Everything went slow-mo as her brain realized that this maneuver was going to be unsuccessful. After it realized there was no way to avoid catastrophe, it ran through countless simulations where she could minimize her pain. Her feet lazily rotated over her head as her arms flailed wildly. There was a moment where she looked at her feet and it seemed as if she was standing on the sun. That moment ended suddenly as she landed right on her back with a solid thud.

  She lay there trying to inhale. The dust that rose from her impact made it even harder to breathe. She let out a weak cough, rolling to her side and going fetal.

  Stupid Newton and his third law.

  Grax laughed from the seesaw, “Hurry up, keep going.”

  Mayah rolled to an elbow and said, “Shut up,” with a wheeze.

  …..

  6.2 Gold From Crystals

  Two hours later they were cartwheeling across the tops of the swing sets. Mayah’s agility had risen by 2 and her bruises numbered in the twenty-something range. Grax, however had only fallen three times. She was tired of him laughing at her. He is definitely better at this than I
am. A spark of jealousy pushed her to try things that her body would never have been able to accomplish back in the real world. Here she could be fearless. Broken bones would mend in hours, leaving her only a few ‘other’ reasons to truly be afraid.

  She slid down the chains and rocked the swing back and forth. After three or four swings, she was at the top of her highest arc. She launched herself off of the swing set into a long, slow aerial landing on the top of the jungle gym. She quickly slipped between the rungs to catch one with both hands and hang from it, kicking her feet towards the platform that was five feet away, and released her grip. As her feet touched down, she folded her body into a low crouch and dove through the crawling tube, again performing the somersault onto the slide. At the end of the slide, she performed a layout with a half twist, landing on the right-hand side of the roundabout. Grabbing a support, she swung her body outwards, forcing the roundabout to spin counterclockwise. She timed her jump using the momentum of the spin to give her extra thrust. She flew through the air, and tucked, landing gracefully on the raised end of the seesaw. She spread her arms and rode it softly to the ground.

  DING!!!

  You have gained a new ability

  Acrobat Level 1

  +2 to agility

  +5% to agility

  “Hey Grax, I got it!”

  “Finally… Geez you’re slow.”

  “How did you get it so fast?”

  “I had it before we started,” he sniggered. “Remember, I want to be a rogue, and a rogue's best weapon is his capability to move silently and conceal themselves in places people won’t look. I’m already level 4 in acrobat.”

  “How come you didn’t say anything?”

  “I didn’t want you to be jealous.”

  She reached out as if to choke him, “Oh, you are so going to teach me that dash ability.”

  “Only if you can catch me.” He ran off towards the smithy.

  “Stupid cat,” she yelled, trying to sound angry as laughter betrayed her true feelings.

  She chased after him, catching up at the smithy.

  John was hard at work. Paladins stood in line to have their blades sharpened, armor repaired, and items crafted. There was a sign above the order desk that read “The cutoff for any orders needing to be finished before the tournament is 3pm today.” Obviously, John had his hands full and wouldn’t be going to bed anytime soon.

  The line of paladins stared at them and then above their heads. She had totally forgotten about the PK marks. She groaned with the realization that people would see them as a target, especially now. She received some serious stink eye as she made her way directly into the smithy. So glad I don’t need to leave the village for anything. Having a PK mark made them eligible to be killed without having the player mark transfer over to their killer. In essence, it would be the same as killing a bandit ...XP and all. The mark usually had the effect of lowering your standing with the local authorities and governments. That didn’t seem to be the case in Majesta.

  She spotted John at an anvil and walked closer. She waited for him to put the blade back into the fire then yelled so he could hear her, “John!”

  He turned and took off his gloves, striding over to her. “So, how did it go?”

  “Pretty well. Did you know that Grax was acrobat level 4 already?”

  “I figured as much. I wanted to see if he could help you, though. Needed to know what kind of pers… cat he is, if you catch my drift.”

  “You know I’m right here?” Grax said.

  “Aaaaah…” he moaned waving a dismissive hand at the feline, “I figured that out a while back too. Catch up, why don’t you?” Sarcasm dripped from the words.

  “You wanna see catch up? Why don’t we race? ...in a narrow alley…”

  John let out his booming laughter, “I see you got your spirit back. I like it.”

  Grax playfully fake smiled. “Yeah, it’s great, Master Smith.”

  John’s massive finger wagged in his face, “Oh there you go. On about that again.”

  They all turned suddenly to the sound of a paladin yelling at the blacksmith manning the order counter. “Why does she get to go talk to the Master Smith? If she gets to talk to him then I want to talk to him as well.”

  “Looks like I need to pull this youngster’s scruff back in line. Back in a sec.” He walked over to the source of his displeasure. Mayah and Grax followed, to be in earshot of the proceedings.

  “Now, what seems to be the issue here?” John placed his hands on his hips and stared at the paladin.

  “Why does she get to talk to you when none of us can?” The crowd behind him grumbled their assent.

  “I’m sorry, I wasn’t under the impression that any of you had ever stopped by to see me before now.” His scowl deepened as he said, “You could have walked into my smithy and asked for me at any time. But because you see one paladin actually having conversation with me, you finally get the idea in your head and just want to bull through. That’s the problem with you paladins. You just walk over anyone who would actually help you if you just asked, and you think it’s okay.” He shook his head in frustration.

  “Look, I have a lot of orders for the tournament and I need to be about my business, much like other people should. So, if you don’t have anything pressing that concerns me or my family, please come back the day after tomorrow.”

  Somewhere from back in the line a voice yelled. “Hey shorty!!!! Take your cat and let the smith get back to work!!! The NPCs are here for everybody, not just for player killers.”

  That stung Mayah a little. She walked slowly towards where the voice originated. She pulled up her hood and saw recognition in a few of the paladins’ eyes. She armed Happiness and held it across her body.

  “Oooh… I’m gonna record this,” Grax whispered.

  She stopped by the door where she heard the voice. “Who said that?”

  A muscled rogue stepped out of line.

  “Do you know who I am?”

  He crossed his arms leisurely. “I’m not scared of you.”

  “I don’t want you to be scared.”

  “Do you want me to be terrified?” He laughed at his own joke and solicited a few chuckles from the crowd as he looked around.

  “No, but respectful might work.”

  “What’s this you’re sayin’?” He started to make a move towards her.

  She dropped her head slightly with an exasperated sigh, then loudly said, “Do you want to know how I got to meet the Master Smith?”

  She said it loudly so everyone could hear. He was about to say something rude when he was cut off by voices that said they wanted to know.

  Thank god there are some smart people here.

  “I got to meet him because I created a new item in Majesta. I actually created a new item. Think about that for a second.” She looked up at the rogue, “What game have you ever been in where you could create new items? Items that the game catalogs and then rewards you for the effort. Majesta is so far beyond whatever concept you’ve come up with for what a video game is.”

  “Have any of you actually talked to a Majestan? Not just the usual, ‘Hello sir do you have a quest for me?’ nonsense. Let me tell you, if you ask for a quest that’s what they give you. Try buying a Majestan a meal or a drink, actually figure out what they know. They’re really nice.” She let Happiness hang in her hands and bounced it on her thigh, “And they really want you all to stop being such gnarlzaflarfs.”

  The silence was getting a bit awkward, “Look, I challenged Travisty right here,” she pointed to the spot where John had labeled him an Oathbreaker. “I challenged him because he tried to stop me from working in the smithy. John, back me up here.” She spoke over her shoulder “Did you warn Travisty to stop pushing away the smithing apprentices?”

  “Aye... warned twice. And broke his oath after the second warning,” John confirmed.

  Mayah continued, “If Travisty had just shared this world with others, he would’ve been fi
ne. There is so much more going on than loot and farming mobs. If that’s all you’re here for, you’re going to miss out on a lot. Like this.” She pointed above her head and she made her raider mark visible.

  “What’s that?” someone said.

  “It’s a raider mark. You get it for finishing a dungeon first,” she told them.

  “So, you got first duel and first dungeon, and maybe even first PK? You gotta be kidding me,” the rogue hissed at her. “Who are you?”

  “Who I am doesn’t matter. I’m not here for you. I’m not doing this for you. I’m doing it for them.” She pointed at the crowd, then John and the other Majestans. “I became a paladin to protect Majesta from Ba'alquion. And believe you, me. He’s closer than he seems.”

  She looked around the crowd. “Look at the person next to you. They might become a valued member of your team, but they could just as easily become a servant for Ba'alquion. You haven’t even seen the real Majesta yet. The training village is a gateway to their world. Did you know that most Majestans are at least ten times as strong as you? Did you know that when you walk out of the village you aren’t going to have it nice like you do here? Spend some time with the Majestans while you still have a chance. They may be able to help you more than you know.”

  The crowd murmured at her words. She pointed to her temple. “You really need to think out of the box on this one. And you,” She pointed to the rogue who originally spoke, “I don’t want you to be scared or terrified, and especially not angry” Her voice was calm and deathly flat. “Because if you harm my friends or the Majestans., I will come for you. Not a threat, a promise.”

  She twirled the hammer in her hands. The rogue stepped back with a polite nod of the head and said, “See you at the tournament.”

  She nodded back. “Good luck tomorrow everyone.” Some in the crowd returned her well wishes. Some sneered and the rogue watched her silently.

  She walked back over to John and Grax. Grax scurried up to her and hisspered, “This footage is awesome.”

  “Hopefully they get the point.”