by Stone Thomas
“I think it’s lovely,” Mamba said.
“Who are you?” Vix asked.
“Mamba Oph,” she said, doing a curtsy. “I’m visiting.”
“Enjoy your stay,” Vix said. “Once Master Arden here approves my stonework, I’m setting out for my next job.”
I approached the stone door. I had been looking forward to seeing Vix again, and the thought of her just leaving really hurt. The door was well made. It was a large round slab of brown rock with an intricate pattern etched into the front. I rolled it to the side easily, using an indented track that Vix had cut into the temple’s floor. When it reached the end of the track, it slipped into a deeper divot to hold the door in place.
“This is a brilliant design,” I said. “Will it hold up?”
“Will it hold up?” she asked. “I’m going to pretend you didn’t ask that.”
“What about a lock?” I asked. “You’ll have to make sure it locks before it’s done.”
“The locking mechanism is on the inside,” she said. “Don’t worry, I thought of everything.”
I wanted to find a flaw with the door, anything that would keep Vix here longer, but I couldn’t. It was exactly what we needed.
“I should give you this then, before you leave,” I said.
I handed her the outfit I had picked out in Valleyvale. In her hands, the top seemed smaller than I remembered. It wouldn’t cover much of her skin, even if it did provide some stat bonuses. She held the top between two fingers and stared at it, in apparent disbelief.
It was too skimpy. What was I thinking? All I did now was come off as a perv.
“This,” she said, “is… the nicest thing. Anyone. Has ever done.”
“Really?” I asked.
“Yes!” she said. “This must have cost a fortune! How did you afford this?”
“I sold my services,” I said. Suddenly I was the one who felt like I had whored myself out to Blade.
She took off her top and I looked away immediately. “You’re so funny,” she said. Beastkin aren’t shy like humans are. How’s it fit?” Her tail waved from side to side behind her as the leather top hugged her body, forcing her beasts together tight.
“It suits you,” I said. “But try on the skirt in private. This is a temple, not a brothel.”
She stepped toward me and placed a hand on my chest. “If it were a brothel, what would that make you?”
“Broke,” I said. “I wouldn’t let any customers lay a hand on you.”
“Good,” she said. “I may be in heat, but I’m not desperate.”
“Still?” I asked.
“It lasts a full week, and it’s only just starting,” she said. “It gets a little distracting until I take care of business to relieve the pressure for a little while.”
“That’s a lot of information right there,” I said.
“Well, you asked,” she said.
Four times, Nola said in my mind. Four times in one day she “took care of her own business.”
Nola!, I said. Can you speak with us? I need to report back on our trip.
Nola’s body still floated in her crystal shell just above the altar. She opened her eyes inside that jeweled case and pressed against the front panel. It separated from the crystal and hovered before her.
“I’m still resting,” she said. Her voice was sweet, but soft. “I’ll have to return to my cocoon soon, but I do need to speak with you all.”
Cindra, Vix, and Mamba knelt before the altar, as did I.
“Two of Duul’s operatives were in the forest earlier, but now they are gone,” she said.
“We killed them,” I said. “Their bodies seeped into the jewels we found in your temple. Someone in Valleyvale called them energems.”
“Oh!” she said. “I had no idea what quality those gems were. I’d never seen energems with my own eyes. If that’s what they are, they are truly rare.”
“We tried to sell them in the city, but there’s really not a black market for these,” I said.
“Few lay people know the full potential of these gems,” Nola said. “When fully charged, they are like putty. They can be molded to any purpose with the blessing of a god. Or, a god can consume them and take the energy the gems contain for him or herself.”
“What kind of purpose can they serve?” Vix asked.
“They undulate with power,” Nola said. “When that power crests, they can release an action. If you bent an energem to the purpose of shooting fire, it would. Every time its internal energy crested.”
“What about snakes?” Mamba asked.
“Excuse me?” Nola said.
“If we told an energem to create snakes, would it?” Mamba asked
“Ew,” Nola said. “I mean, yes, but ew. Who are you?”
“Mamba is a snake charmer,” I said.
“Well,” Nola said, “welcome to my humble temple. Anyway, you killed those two warriors in the forest. That’s the good news. The bad news is, there are more.”
“How many more?” I asked.
“Thirty, maybe ninety.”
“That’s a pretty big range,” I said.
“I’m working very hard to probe what’s out there without letting my psychic link to the gods reveal my location. If Duul knew where I was, he’d come kill me now. As it is, I think they’re scouring the forest for me. They must have sensed that I’m nearby.”
“When you tried to sense any nearby lives earlier,” I said, “you said the nearest person was hours away, but then we found Cindra nearby. Why is that?”
“I can sweep the land’s surface for life,” Nola said, “but I’m not strong enough to sweep the subterranean levels. I’m sorry if my intel was incomplete.”
“So there are dozens on the way now, maybe more if they’re tunneling?” I asked. Nola nodded.
“How do we defend against that many cretins?” Cindra asked.
“Oh, cretins,” Nola said. “That’s a good name for them. And I’m not sure. It may be a lost cause. If you chose to leave, I’d understand.”
“I was planning to leave for the elf lands,” Vix said.
“Why?” Mamba said. “They were so mean.”
“It’s the humans that are mean,” Vix said. “I thought elves would be nicer to beastkin.”
“Are beastkin nice?” Mamba asked.
“Some of them,” she said.
“Vix,” I said, “we can’t face this threat without you. We’ll need to fortify the temple, build walls, maybe some defensive towers.”
“You’re pinning your whole strategy on me?” she said. “That’s not fair.” She crossed her arms and closed her eyes for a moment. “Towers would help,” she said, “but only because they would provide a vantage point for spotting threats and shooting them.”
“I have a bow and arrow now,” Cindra said.
“A wall is only as good as its material, so we’d need a lot of stone from the quarry.”
“My snakies can carry quite a bit,” Mamba said, “if that would help.”
“All this building might provide me enough experience points to warrant some more leveling.”
“I’ll train you as best I can,” I said.
“And,” Nola said, “I’ll let Arden know if I see any clever improvements you could try.”
“How much time do we have?” Vix asked.
“The cretins have yet to cross the river, so time is on our side. A week at least, more if they have a hard time locating us.”
“That would give us enough time for…” Vix trailed off. Her eyes darted back and forth as her mind crafted plans, undoubtedly farfetched ones, but ones that excited her. Enough to keep her here. “Let’s get to work!” she said.
“That means you’ll stay?” I asked.
“For now,” she said.
“Me too then,” Cindra said. “I’d like to find my creator, but I refuse to leave you all in danger’s path. You’re the only reason I’m free of that hole in the ground.”
We all
looked at Mamba. She looked at us back, each in turn.
“Mamba,” I asked, “will you stay and help us fight the cretins?”
“Is that wine?” she asked, pointing to the donkey’s cart.
“Two barrels of it,” I said.
“I like places with wine. They tend to have dancing. How shall we begin?” she asked.
“First thing’s first,” I said. “Mamba, would you allow me to modify your skills?” She nodded. Vix and Cindra started unloading the donkey cart and arranging our food and supplies.
With a quick glance at her skills menu, I could see that Mamba wasn’t starting from scratch. “You’ve been to skillmeisters before,” I said.
“Elves,” she said. “They’re less expensive, unless you count the cost of their words. They use sharp words on half-gypsies like me.”
“Well, you won’t have to worry about them anymore,” I said. I held Mamba’s menu in my mind and got to work.
Δ
Skillmeister View of:
Mamba Oph
Base Attribute / XP to Next / Intended Change / Total XP Cost
-
2 Constitution / 50 XP to Next / none / Total XP Cost: 0
-
2 Vivacity / 50 XP to Next / none / Total XP Cost: 0
-
5 Strength / 125 XP to Next / 5 –> 6 / Total XP Cost: 125
-
3 Hardiness / 75 XP to Next / none / Total XP Cost: 0
-
5 Focus / 125 XP to Next / 5 –> 6 / Total XP Cost: 125
-
5 Resolve / 125 XP to Next / 5 –> 6 / Total XP Cost: 125
-
TOTAL BASE ATTRIBUTE XP COST: 375
Stats Affected by Change
-
[Constitution] Health Points (HP): 200/200
-
[Vivacity] Action Points (AP): 40/40
-
[Strength] Phys. Damage Inflict Range: 50-61 –> 60-73
-
[Hardiness] Phys. Damage Block Range: 16-23
-
[Focus] Mag. Damage Inflict Range: 50-61 –> 60-73
-
[Resolve] Mag. Damage Block Range: 27-38 –> 32-46
-
Skills For Weapon Class: None
-
[Null]
Intended Change: None
Cost Subtotal: 0
TOTAL SKILL XP COST: 0
Skills for Special Class: Snake Charmer
-
Full Thrust 5. Summon 12 snakes to your side. [24 AP to cast] [Requires: Strength 5, Focus 5].
-
Improve to Full Thrust 6 to summon 14 snakes at once. [28 AP to cast] [Requires: Strength 6, Hardiness 6] [2,250 XP to improve].
…
Intended Change: None
Cost Subtotal: 0
-
Slither In 5. Control up to 10 snakes at once with your mind. [Passive] [Requires: Focus 5, Resolve 5].
-
Improve to Slither In 6 to increase control limit to 12. [Passive] [Requires: Focus 6, Resolve 6] [2,250 XP to improve].
…
Intended Change: 5 –> 6
Cost Subtotal: 2,250
TOTAL SNAKE CHARMER SKILL XP COST: 2,250
Summary
-
Available XP: 2,635
Cost of Intended Changes: 2,625
Precision Training Discount (1%): 26
Total Adjusted Cost: 2,599
Total Projected Remaining: 36
Confirm?: Yes / No
∇
“I’ve improved your skills for free. Your snake summoning limit is now identical to your snake control limit, so you shouldn’t have any more runaways. Er, slide-aways?”
She leaned over and kissed me once and each cheek, then on the mouth. I was stunned. I wondered what her habit was when she was really grateful.
“Thanks,” I said. “Maybe you and Cindra could check out the mine? She knows where it is, and you can have your snakes help drag stones up for Vix.” I pulled her close and whispered, “Take some torches and don’t leave her alone down there.”
She turned to leave, but I remembered something. Something that made me a little self-conscious, but I had to get over that if I was going to serve as a competent head priest. I couldn’t leave Mamba’s loyalty in question.
“One more thing,” I said. “I’ll need you to pledge your fealty.” I said it without a hint of the nervous smile I felt coming on. I meant business, and if I wanted to preside over this place of worship with the respect and dignity it deserved, I’d need to project my confidence that I deserved the same thing.
“Of course,” she said. “Dancing light and tasty cakes, I love Nola like I love snakes!” Then, turning to me, she said, “Arden Hochbright, Nola’s pastor. On these grounds you are my master.”
Somehow, everyone knew the exact wording of the customary pledge for a temple’s head priest. I wondered why it had been new to me when I realized, Cahn never had anyone pledge fealty as far as I saw. Maybe that’s more of a frontier thing, when a temple is new and a goddess is vulnerable to the ill-intentioned, before a city grows around her complete with guards to enforce right behavior.
“I accept your pledge,” Nola said. “Now, I must rest while you work if I’m going to evolve before Duul manages to kill me off, but I’ll leave you with this nugget of wisdom: donkeys don’t belong in the temple.”
“Right,” I said. “Sorry.” I pulled the animal through the temple’s doorframe and back outside. “Stay here, little man.”
“I’m sure no male wants to be called that,” Vix said, leaning against the doorframe.
“Hey. Thank you for sticking around. I want to do everything I can to help you work efficiently at building up the temple. What do you need from me?”
She stepped close and leaned in until her nose grazed against my ear. “I need wood.”
+16
The heat of her breath sent goosebumps down my neck. I wondered what a beastkin would smell like up close, and worried her scent would be more fox than girl, but she was all flowers and vanilla. Either she had been rolling around in a bed of daisies before we got here, or she kept perfume handy.
“Grab a hatchet,” she said, handing me one of the two hatchets she had in hand.
“What?” I asked. “Oh, lumber. Yeah, let’s do it.”
As we walked into the forest, I wondered how the past day had affected our stats. I had used my skillmeister skills on a few folks, and battled two snarling death monsters. Vix had fashioned a huge stone slab door. “Want me to check on your skills before we get started?”
“Sure, boss,” she said.
Boss. It was better than Master. “I can up a few attributes and get you closer to Fundamentals 5, which will let you build with iron. Or I can unlock Wallop 2 for your hammer skills. What do you think?”
“When this is over,” she said, “I need to make a living out there. Fundamentals please.”
“And just like that,” I said, “you’re a little bit stronger. Meanwhile, I’m not sure about this being over anytime soon. I think we’re fighting for our lives, and the fate of the world.”
“Don’t be so dire,” she said. “The gods fight all the time. I’m sure the Great Mother will reign in Duul soon and this will all blow over. Don’t get me wrong, I’ll help protect Nola while we’re here. I don’t want to see her die, but this whole god of war skirmish isn’t going to stop me from planning out the rest of my life.”
“You could plan to stay,” I said. “If Nola survives this, we’ll found a city here. We’d need builders for that.”
Vix sank a hatchet into the side of a tree. “We’ll see.”
I picked a tree of my own to start on. My hatchet arm throbbed with the impact of the first few whacks. I spent some XP to improve my Strength to level eight to help with the task.
I never tired of how powerful that feeling was, of every muscle tightening and growing before relaxing again. My body grew just a bit bigger
, heavier. More substantial. At higher levels, my physique would become something truly impressive, to rival the strongest adventurers that walked the lands. I’d just have to make sure I didn’t grow so fast that I became clumsy. Putting on an extra two pounds of muscle is one thing. An extra 20 was quite another. If Blade really had managed to kill Scar after I upped his Strength by nine points, that was pretty impressive from a balance and coordination perspective alone.
It took ten minutes of swinging and grunting before my first tree toppled over. It would take time to cut it into smaller pieces and haul it back to the temple, but it was a start. “How much wood do we need,” I asked.
“Funny you should ask,” Vix said. “Cindra and Mamba will bring back stone, which is great for making strong, dense buildings. It’s slower that way though, and the weight makes building high tricky. So I know I need wood. I just don’t know what to use it for yet.”
“Or how much,” I added.
“Right.”
We worked away at the forest, clearing a small patch where we had knocked the trees over. Five fallen trunks lay in different directions. Vix sank her hatchet into one of them, then threw it aside and bent her knees.
She took in a deep breath, then exhaled quickly. Her voice gave a quick yip as she breathed out.
“Are you okay?” I asked.
“No!” she said. “I’m not okay! I’m hundreds of miles from home, the one man in the whole world that wants me is someone I don’t want back, and he’s probably following my scent here while we play house in a big empty cave.”
“He’s not the only one that wants you,” I said. “I hate to hear you talk about yourself that way.”
“Well if there’s someone else,” she said, “he’d better show up soon, because it’s getting increasingly difficult to concentrate with my hormones raging the way they are.”
I landed my hatchet into the fallen tree I was working on.
“You’ve been working out,” Vix said. She took a step toward me. I wiped the sweat from my forehead.
“Yep,” I said, “I’m stronger than ever. You are too.”
“It’s not just your shape,” she said. She was only a foot away from me now. “It’s your scent. It gets more powerful the stronger you grow.”
I left my hatchet poking out of the tree trunk and turned to face her. She nuzzled her head against my chest and breathed in.
