The Giants of Shattered Swamp

by Eddie Patin

  "What the fuck kind of Wayfinder are you?!" he asked with wide eyes.

  "I'm just using a Riftgate that you can't see," Jason replied.

  Vorealus had given Callam a handful of valuable golden carvings that he'd manifested from thin air—a few pounds of gold, at least—and the toothy merc gave Jason and the Reality Rifters a half-hearted thanks before stepping through the rift and disappearing into the Market.

  Then, after a quick trip home to the garage to pick up the case holding the troll's head—no longer regenerating out of control thanks to the inhibitor—Jason opened another rift to Churn and the Reality Rifters all stepped through into the Market themselves.

  Chapter 32

  Jason released the rift.

  The dim, pink light of the world eased his tired eyes.

  He was holding his OCS with the coordinates to their rendezvous point open, but he had a feeling like he was doing more than he needed to. It was almost as if when he unlocked the screen and brought up the bookmark—both for his team and for Callam before—he felt like he was taking unnecessary steps. It was hard to explain, but the instant Jason had touched his OCS, he could easily visualize its display. He could imagine clearly in his mind navigating to the correct screen, scrolling through the bookmarks, and looking upon the strange formula that he normally had to focus on to open a rift.

  "What is it?" Riley asked, scratching his beard. He was still smiling. They all were.

  Jason realized that he was standing in the alleyway of the pink world staring at his OCS. He didn't know—he was afraid to say something stupid—but it felt like he didn't even have to ... use the screen?

  He pulled his hand away from the OCS's display and turned the screen off. Then, he brought his hand to the display again...

  Jason could suddenly feel its menus and different screens in his mind's eye.

  Pulling his hand away from it again, the images dissolved from his brain.

  "...What?!" he muttered.

  Jason stared at the device. He put his palm on the display once more. In his mind, he could imagine unlocking the OCS, and saw the screen with the coordinates to their rendezvous in the Market.

  "What's going on?" Morgana asked, waiting next to Jason. She watched the OCS with him. "What's different? What did he do?"

  "It's ... something's weird with my OCS," Jason said. "I'm still..." He trailed off. The giant had told him that all he would have to do is touch it, and he could interact with it in his mind. Is that what was happening? It made sense, but seemed too mind-boggling to be true.

  He had to find another bookmark. One that wasn't out of compatibility with the block. Jason's mind raced. An enchanted OCS. Taking a massively-powerful tool with a conduit to the tenth dimension and making it even stronger. He could imagine himself pulling up the bookmark to the Wilderlands—God, it was all so clear in his mind as if it was happening before his eyes!—then he shook his head.

  No, Jason thought. The Wilderlands wouldn't work. Outside 95%. Come on. Think.

  He pulled up the bookmark instead to the ocean world where he'd gone to wash the plant-monster's guts off of his armor in the tide. Universe 271; white, sandy beaches with terrible aquatic monsters somewhere beyond the shore and under the waves...

  As if he was playing within the realms of his imagination, Jason visualized pulling up the tropical ocean world's coordinates, then flexed.

  A rift opened before him with a snap and a roar, startling everyone.

  "What?!" Jason exclaimed with a laugh, grinning madly before the sputtering, whirling rift of orange fire. Sparks shot all around them and he turned to face the others. "I can use my OCS without looking at it! It's in my head! I don't have to open it or look at it!"

  The spinning disc smoothed out, eventually revealing a beautiful white beach with a gently-moving turquoise and sapphire ocean lapping at the shore. The sky was bright blue and totally devoid of clouds. It was sunny.

  "Holy shet!" Riley exclaimed with a broad smile. "Major upgrade, Jason!"

  Morgana smiled wide. Jason watched the orange fire play off of her eyes and teeth. He looked up at the great, black form of Gliath. The leopardwere watching everything impassively, holding the big, metal case with the troll's head inside.

  Jason released the rift. It collapsed, spinning, into a single point with a pop, thrusting them all into the dim quiet of the Market again. The only sound was the faint whistle of Churn's wind passing through the interior of the massive pyramid structure above them, and the murmuring and occasionally raised voices of the many people and aliens in the streets nearby.

  "So that means," Morgana said, hanging onto Jason's shoulder and giving him a playful pull, "that ... you don't have to use that strange device to travel worlds anymore like you used to?"

  Jason had never fully explained his rifting to Morgana, or even how the ten dimensions worked. She'd just come with them from a dark-ages world and jumped straight into their crazy lives of monster hunting. He made a mental note to explain everything to her later.

  "It means that it's a lot easier for me to do what I've been doing now. At least, it'll take less time. I don't have to look at this thing to use it anymore. The giant made it so that I can do it all in my head."

  Jason couldn't even believe it when he said it, but there it was. He'd just seen it. Oh, how that would make things easier! He wouldn't even be bound by the time it took to move the screens around with his fingers, search for the proper fields, or unlock the display. Hell—he could just lie down, relax, close his eyes, and study infinite data of infinite worlds whenever he felt like it! It was like having the most powerful electronic encyclopedia ever ... in his head!

  "That sounds like a good thing," Morgana said.

  "Fruk yeah, it's a good thing," Riley said, clapping Jason on the other shoulder. "Can't wait to see how he masters that." Then, he tapped the case hanging from Gliath's shoulder with a hearty thunk. "Now, let's go sell this shet, okay?"

  "Okay."

  Jason activated his image intensifier, bathing his surroundings with shades of pale green and making it a lot easier to see. Then, he led the way into the throngs of foot traffic. He felt Morgana take his hand. When he looked back at her, she smiled and muttered, "I can't see."

  Riley and Gliath followed. As Jason led the Reality Rifters through the Market streets toward the Bounty Boards structure in the center, the cyborg looked upon Jason with happy eyes, walking along with Morgana and the long and tall Krulax behind him. Jason smiled. It seemed as though Riley was ... proud of him.

  Jason felt great. He squeezed Morgana's hand and she squeezed right back.

  Things were really starting to feel like it all ... meshed. Jason was starting to feel like his life made sense and everything was falling into place. What would come next? What sort of crazy adventure would they go on, chasing some other wild bounty that resembled a monster from the DnD; from the years leading up until Jason's real life finally took shape?

  Jason passed a group of weird entities that were seven feet tall, as thin as stick bugs, had multiple arms and glowing eyes like golf balls. Their entire bodies buzzed in a way that made them blurry. The stick-bug-entities looked at him as they passed, and he looked right back. He wasn't afraid. If he'd seen those a few weeks ago, cold and uncertain with no night vision in his right eye, he'd have been scared shitless and following Riley like a puppy.

  It was funny how far Jason had come in perhaps a month of this new life. Maybe it had been longer than a month, considering his extended initial stay in the Wilderlands. Even now, he was starting to get out-of-sync with his friends, traveling through time and spending days in different universes as they remained at set temporal coordinates. He'd accumulated at least an extra three days over them during the whole Vorealus escapade, healing in the Wilderlands while they waited for him in a particular point of space-time.

  When the four of them reached the ornate, carved steps leading up into the Bounty Boards, Jason was surprised by how many people an
d creatures there were milling around up there and loitering below the stairs in the streets outside.

  Many groups of entities in similar armor and uniforms were gathered together, waiting, talking, or interacting in non-human ways that Jason didn't bother watching for too long.

  "What's going on?" Jason asked Riley as he started up the stairs.

  The soldier smirked and shrugged.

  Up in the main area of the Bounty Boards, Jason wove his way through many groups of mercenaries and planeswalkers, trying to find Zayden Skinner as his friends followed. He heard many voices, and because of his ring, he understood them all. They were talking about manticores and unicorns. Bounties without caps. A mining facility on a planet full of some sort of mineral called Pristalline. He heard one man tell another that they'd have to watch out for monsters and other mercs just the same. Another person happily announced that it would be a bloodbath. He heard more people talking about manticores and unicorns.

  Then, Jason sighted Skinner. The huge, ebony-skinned man stood near the big, stone table by the wall with the electronic screens that normally showed current bounties. Skinner was taller than nearly everyone else in the open-air building—save for a group of extra-tall, skinny aliens clustered together near the top of one staircase—and his gaudy, red-gold armor practically shined in Jason's night vision. The manager of the Bounty Boards had his thickly-muscled arms crossed over his broad chest and was talking with a bearded human that had to crane his neck to meet his gaze. Skinner's rainbow-flame hair flickered and waved in the dim light of the Bounty Boards, and his eyes glowed brightly under Jason's night vision.

  The similarities between Zayden Skinner and Vorealus the primordial giant were striking. Skinner was far smaller, obviously. Vorealus was twenty-five feet tall. They were both statuesque, radiated pure power, had smooth skin over chiseled muscles, and each had rainbow-colored fire-based hair and glowing eyes.

  Was Skinner somehow related, species-wise? Was he something like a titan or a primordial giant himself? Jason was tempted for a moment to scan Skinner with his OCS—perhaps even easier to do now that he could use it without activating the screen—but he quickly killed the idea. The thought of what Skinner might do if he caught Jason scanning him was terrifying. Jason didn't even know why he was so afraid to do it. And besides—Skinner could read his mind. He'd know that he'd thought of it.

  As Jason weaved through the crowd with his friends behind him, Zayden Skinner turned his attention away from the bearded man and landed his eyes squarely on Jason's.

  The Reality Rifters approached, surrounded by many individuals and teams chatting about a bounty involving manticores, unicorns, a pristalline mining facility, and a no-cap bounty.

  "Welcome back, Jason Leaper," Zayden Skinner said, his low voice like grinding stone and easily separating from the din of the many conversations around them. "I sense that you have completed your bounty."

  "Yes. What's going on here?" Jason asked. He felt Morgana's hand squeeze his tightly. Looking back, he saw her staring up at Skinner with barely-disguised horror. She was probably still a bit afraid of him after that whole Xarzeth the Black 'demon' thing. He squeezed her hand again and looked back up at Skinner. "What's everyone talking about?"

  Skinner passed his golden eyes smoothly over the crowd around them. His rainbow-flame hair danced and flickered over a smooth cranium like polished obsidian. Skinner's hair was longer than Vorealus's.

  "There is a special bounty starting," he said. "Something open to all and without capacity. Bring forward the case with the item inside."

  The item, Jason thought with a smirk. That damned troll's head.

  Jason deferred to Gliath, who stepped up and put the big, heavy case onto the stone table. Jason eyed the many air holes with revulsion, thinking of the times he had to 'prune the troll'. That head was still in there, probably clenching its jaws and looking around with a furious expression. Gliath stepped back.

  "The new guy forgot to turn the inhibitor on at first," Riley said with a smirk. "So that bastard might have some weird growths and shet inside, but, it should be alive and well."

  "You were away for longer than expected," Skinner replied to both Jason and Riley.

  "We had ... complications," Jason said. He tried not to think about the ettins and Vorealus and the will-o-wisps and harpies and the Wilderlands and his wounded leg, but as Skinner regarded him with a slowly spreading smile, Jason figured that he'd plucked the details from his head.

  Skinner turned and opened the case, taking a quick look inside. His black features remained without emotion or surprise. But, as the case cracked open then shut for just an instant, Jason saw a hundred tiny tendrils of green flesh surrounding the troll's face. It was like a troll anemone. He shuddered.

  "This will do," Skinner said. He latched the case again then it vanished without a sound. A moment later, he raised his broad, ebony hand, palm up, and a small leather satchel appeared there from thin air. "Here is payment as discussed."

  Jason released Morgana's hand, reached out, and Skinner handed the little bag to him.

  Twelve ounces of gold. A quick and easy twelve ounces, Jason thought. That's how they'd considered the job before the broken giant became involved. It was a hell of a lot of money to a normal dude in America on u934 for the time it took to earn, but it didn't feel worth all of the stress and struggle and near-deaths of his friends. It wasn't worth Morgana almost choking to death in an airtight cube.

  Realizing that he was staring at the satchel in his hand, Jason looked up to Skinner, who watched him with an almost amused face.

  "Next time, Jason Leaper," he said, "you will be more prepared, I hope."

  Jason felt a stab of embarrassment. That guy was always reading his mind.

  "Yes, I will be," Jason said. "I learned something very simple that I could do to avoid the same situation again, actually." He had to outfit everyone with their own focus key blanks that would lead him to them, just like what he did with Riley. That was the answer. They each needed a necklace that would lead to Jason, and the other halves of those necklaces would lead Jason straight to them.

  He tucked away the satchel of gold, intending to ask Skinner about the manticores and unicorns, but Riley beat him to the punch.

  "So what's this big, special bounty?" Riley exclaimed. "What's got everyone so excited?"

  Skinner looked at Riley, then seemed to change gears in an instant. He crossed his arms over his chest again and leaned back against the big, stone table. With a deep, grating voice like stone on stone, he explained:

  "It is an open bounty to all. There is a world—a place of value to the client—that is overrun with manticores and unicorns."

  "Unicorns?!" Morgana exclaimed. Well—she must know what those are.

  "Yes," Skinner replied, then went on. "As usual, I will not divulge the nature of the client to you. However, I may say that their business on this world is being interrupted by the presence and interference of both creatures. The unicorns interfere with their ability to mine a resource called 'Pristalline', and the manticores attack both man and beast, also interfering with operations. There is a bounty with no capacity on both the metallic spikes of the manticores, and the horns and wings of the unicorns—"

  "Wings?!" Jason asked, immediately embarrassed for interrupting. "The unicorns have wings?"

  "Yes," Skinner replied, the slightest mask of annoyance flashing over his statuesque face. "I can sell you a focus key for six ounces of gold, or you could tag along with another group going there. Be aware, Reality Rifters, that many other teams will be in that universe as well. Competition will be strong, much like the minotaur hide bounty from before. The pay will be one ounce of gold for every four manticore spikes, ten ounces of gold for an intact unicorn horn, and six ounces of gold for each intact pair of unicorn wings."

  "Sixteen ounces for a unicorn...?" Riley muttered. "Holy shet..."

  "What about manticore wings?" Jason asked.

  "Only thei
r spikes are valuable to the client," Skinner replied.

  Jason looked around. At least half of the crowd was composed of humans or mostly-humans. They were armored and many were bristling with weapons. The other creatures ran a full gamut from appearing strange and incomprehensible to predatory and downright dangerous. Jason didn't see any freaking Nothrix, at least. He was thankful for that.

  Did they want to jump right into a new bounty?

  He looked at the others.

  "Just a minute, Skinner," Riley said, watching Jason, then drew in for a huddle.

  The four of them stood together.

  "What do you think, guys?" Jason asked. He was actually more than a little intrigued. Manticores and unicorns. Both would be fascinating to behold. And winged unicorns, at that! Most unicorns in games and folklore didn't have wings. Were they intelligent? Were they good creatures?

  Riley smirked. "I thought we were gonna hurry up and get a quick troll's head, then get back to R&R..."

  "Aaaaand ... that's an option," Jason said. "I'm fine with that. But I didn't want to speak for everyone. Maybe you want to go hunting manticores and ... unicorns...?"

  He didn't like that idea. If the unicorns were like unicorns in DnD, then he would never be okay with killing them in cold blood for money. No way.

  "We can't kill unicorns," Morgana said with a frown.

  "I agree on that," Jason said. "I don't want to kill any good-hearted, intelligent creatures. Especially a freaking unicorn."

  Riley scoffed then laughed. "Yeah?" he said. "Okay, Jason. What about the manticores? What if we go bag some manticores?"

  "I thought you wanted to get back to R&R," Jason said.

  Riley put his gloves hands up. "Hey now—I didn't say that. I only said that I thought that's what we were planning to do."

  "So you wanna go?"

  Riley smirked and shrugged. "Ya know what? I figured that I'd want to relax for a while after the Shattered Swamp, but honestly, that healing spell that the giant cast left me feeling fruking great! I reckon I'm good to go if you all are."