by R J Triveri
“Says the man armed with a gun, coming fresh from a dungeon, and was just hellbent on fighting a Suit for shooting his escort,” the young Queen pointed out oh so eloquently.
“I needed supplies,” he wanted to say more, but it was still a sore subject. “Walt’s last letter said to stop in if I was in the area, so I figured they wouldn’t come to look here.”
“Look?” Sally added with a raised eyebrow. “Why would they come looking for you?”
Damn.
“After the duel was over, I shot Lucas before I left.”
“You shot him? After the duel was over, you shot at him?” She almost laughed as she repeated it in disbelief. “You shot him?” If there was any joke in it, the acknowledgment of a nod shook it away. “You’ve got some serious balls to do that.”
“Sally Queen! You watch your mouth, young lady!”
Fear bounded from her eyes at her mother’s words, and Sally nodded. “Sorry, Mom.”
Sandra smiled just enough to force fear to bubble to the surface in Athos as she kept her eyes trained on him. “You didn’t kill him, did you?”
Before his mouth could even open, Walter took the lead from him, “Course not, Sandy! Look at him. If he had, the boy would be Red by now.”
“No, I don’t think so,” Athos answered. He wasn’t completely sure, but the alchemical arm was mostly positive that it was the truth as a little more justification slipped out. “I just couldn’t let him get away with it. His face... The look on his face was just too much.”
Walter nodded in understanding as Sally smiled and compliment him. “Not bad, but if I were you, I wouldn’t be heading through the Sea without an escort. If they control the hunting rights, they could put a bounty on you or tax you into oblivion.”
Athos hadn’t thought of that. Well, not in the long term. He had expected them to hunt him down or at least try to make him regret what he had done, not make it into a game.
Sandra sighed as she listened to her daughter’s insight. “She does have a point, Walter.”
“I hear ya, Sandy, but we’re not heading back to town for a few days.”
“Then he’ll stay here,” his wife said matter of fact before consulting Athos, “but if you stay, you’re going to work. There are no free meals in this house. Do you understand, Athos?”
The alchemical arm nodded, not really having time to argue as he used the salve Walter had slipped him a few moments ago. He watched happily as his integrity began to rise out of the critical zone until he reached fifty-eight percent. “What will I have to do?”
“Hunt Wild Ones, keep the animals safe, and keep Walter and Sally out of trouble if things get too heated.”
“Mom! We can take care of ourselves just fine.”
“She’s right. Athos isn’t much of a fighter.”
Athos grinned a bit to himself, but Sandra continued oblivious to his personal joke. “Alchemists are support anyways, loves. He can watch your backs and keep you out of trouble.”
To that, Athos had nothing to do but agree with her assertion. “I wouldn’t mind that at all. If I hadn’t run into your husband, I might not be here now. I’d love to return the favor.”
“Then we’re settled,” Sandra declared before slowly trying, and struggling, to get to her feet before Sally got to her side. “Thank you, Sally. Just needed a little help there.”
“Then ask, Mother. Don’t just do it.” She turned to Athos as she finished helping her mother to her feet. “We start early, so why don’t you follow me. I’ll show you to the guest room.”
He nodded, glad to be able to get up but even more excited at the chance to sleep in a real bed, not just the makeshift one at the inn. “For a bed and a home cooked meal, I’ll start before dawn.”
Following her out of the room, Sandra and Walter watched as the two left, waiting patiently until they were out of earshot.
Sandra was the first to speak as she sat back down on the couch. “I might as well not have feet anymore.” She sighed but smiled all the same at her husband. “He seems nice, Walter. Genuinely nice.”
“I told you. Athos really seems like a nice guy that had a bad run of luck.”
She nodded, patting a spot on the couch next to her. “Did he tell you what that luck was?”
“No, I think it’s still a little too fresh for him to talk about,” came the response as he joined her on the couch. “He almost froze up when he let slip about being in the hospital back on Earth.”
“I think I can understand that,” Sandra replied before nodded again and resting her head on his shoulder. “Why didn’t you tell him that the hunting rights didn’t extend into dungeons?”
Walter kissed the top of her head and wrapped his arm around her before answering. “How do you think he’d feel if he knew he had gotten swindled?”
She looked up at him and smiled. “Sally doesn’t give you enough credit.”
He only grinned wider. “Not many people do, Sandy.”
Talk shifted between Athos’s situations, to the farm, to their pending trip, and then to simple nothings as the couple sat happily basking in the warmth of their well-tended fireplace.
A Day's Work
Waking up was not anywhere near as fun of an experience as the blissful nothingness of sleep as Sally shook him rather violently awake. If his gun were at his side, he might have drawn on her as she melodiously drilled him into alertness by more than once shaking the bed and then raising her voice when he resisted.
“Hey! Time to get to work, Slacker. Get up and get yourself ready. Breakfast is getting cold, and we’re getting a bit bored waiting for you.”
The groggy growl that made its way to his lips must have been taken as some sort of agreement as Sally closed the door and left a moment later. In reality, it was just an afterthought of the man’s. Why did I have to sell myself so cheap? Athos thought to himself as he rubbed the sleep from his eyes before realizing the action had no real purpose now a days. It was still so strange to him. Sleep was not nearly as restful as real world’s sleep had been and the time loss was really disorienting when it wasn’t set in stone how long he would have to sleep, but he couldn’t argue with the results of how he felt. As he had every morning, Nekka was there to greet him with bright eyes, a bushy tail, and polished armor.
Good morning, Athos! You have had 100% of your data integrity restored. You have no mew messages and two friend requests! Someone is becoming popular, aren’t they? I hope you slept well.
Athos got up and flexed what digital muscle he had learned to use. Nothing hurt, there wasn’t even a headache that lingered from last night. That is if he had only been asleep for a single night. “Not exactly, but I feel amazing.”
The cat’s smile grew almost comically large before an answer almost purred from its mouth. You will feel that change when you know what it’s like to be operating nearly fragmented.
“I’ll make sure not to let it happen again,” he joked, but the heart just wasn’t there. He hadn’t felt that sore or weak since he had arrived here. It wasn’t something that he wanted to get used to.
Nekka just smiled for a few moments, unnerving Athos, before he spoke again. Have a good day, Athos!
With his parting words, the armored feline was gone, and Athos was left alone in the dark of the small guest room best described as a walk-in closet. Throw that up there with the fact that losing hours on end in a millisecond and being awoken by a rather harsh woman and you’ll have the start to a great day. As he sat rubbing the nonexistent sleep from his eyes, Athos couldn’t escape from one fact. One simple, glorious fact.
Even digitally, food smelled amazing.
As he got up, he checked his sleeves and chest to get a better feel for the extent of the damage, only to see that it had been repaired sometime when he had been sleeping. The fact it was part of him made sense that it would heal with him, but he just couldn’t help himself from chuckling about the absurdity of it all.
Heading from the small guest clos
et upstairs wasn’t a difficult task. Once he reached the bottom of the stairwell, he turned and followed the wonderful smell into the kitchen. The single plate that sat on the table was laden with bread glistening with some sort of coating, a glass of some blue liquid, and most glorious smelling, and looking, of all, “That can’t be bacon.”
A more than excited to answer voice rang out from beyond the doorway on the left, “Nope, but you can’t tell the difference, Athos,” Walt said, emerging from a side room as Athos took and devoured a piece of it, “We let you sleep in, so eat and get your ass outside. With three people, this work is going to fly by!”
If there were any lingering complaints still in Athos, they faded as the ‘bacon’ stimulated all the right parts of his mind. Despite the fact it vanished as soon as his mouth closed around it, it was exactly what he had hoped it to be: sweet, delicious, salty bacon. The taste brought back more memories than he cared to admit, and to him, it was funny how something like that could bring tears to someone’s eyes.
Whether Walter noticed him wiping it away or not, it didn’t show as he continued talking, “You’ll be taking it easy today. Checking the pens, tending to the animals, and showing that gun to Sally to get some work done on it.”
He hesitated to put another piece of the bacon into his mouth, “Why?”
“That’s a gunner’s gun, and you aren’t a gunner. Well, not really.” The idea seemed strange to Athos, and the confusion must have shown though as Walt further explained. “Look, everything has a perfect form, and since you’ve gone dual, your weapon’s form needs to change too.”
“Makes sense as much as anything else,” Athos relented before another piece of the bacon vanished.
Walt nodded as he relaxed at the table with Athos. His hulking form making the table seem almost a little too small for him. “Sal’ll be able to take a look at it and upgrade it for you if you have the materials,” Walter explained as he took some of the bread from Athos’s plate. “Now, eat up. It isn’t every day we have comb bread, and someone might take it from you.”
Survival of the fittest, Athos rationed and devoured what was left of the bacon, the bread, and almost lost it all choking back on the blue liquid. “What is that?!”
Walter had his own glass of the thick, blue liquid, but he threw back like a college student taking a shot at a frat party. “Malso milk. It tastes like shit, but the strength and dexterity buff make it all worth it. A little more strength and you get just that much more control over your actions. Takes a bit to get used to, but trust me, the taste is worth it when you can go twice as long in the fields without suffering damage to your integrity.”
A taste best described as honey-laced rotting milk for twice the ability to work? He eyed the cup suspiciously before looking at Walter again. “You’re kidding me.”
He shook his head. “Farmer’s best friend, Athos.”
Athos waited until Walt drank his own before choking down the rest of it. A shiver ran through his spine as the shock of what he had done passed. Strangely enough, he did feel much better after it. He body coiled, ready to move into whatever had to be done. “Feels weird.”
“All buffs feel like that. It’s different for everyone, but you get used to it.”
“Don’t know if I want to.”
The smile on his face seemed to echo through his voice all the same. “You’ll forget it as soon as you’re out there. Now, we need to get going, the farm isn’t going to keep together without us.”
Athos hoped that Walt was kidding, but he figured that the chance wasn’t worth it and stuffed what was left in his mouth before getting up. “Lead the way.”
Out beyond the door of Walter’s house, the farm in the daylight was everything he had come to expect from Incipere, realistic enough to suspend anyone’s disbelief. It may have been smaller, but the land seemed well tended enough. Two large greenhouses glistening in the sun stood beyond a larger field full of blue, petal coated flowers and a barn stood far enough away from it all with the same soft blue paint job. Must have been Walt’s favorite color, Athos rationed as he caught one last detail. It wasn’t much, but a simple, dirt path connected all of it together nicely.
His eyes took it all in and smiled as Walt’s hand came down on his shoulder. “She’s beautiful, isn’t she?”
Athos couldn’t help but agree with him in a silent nod. “So, where do we start?”
“Cross that field and head to the greenhouse on the left. I’ll join you as soon as I lock up.”
“Sounds like a plan,” Athos added with a nod as he began walking through the field towards the other side. He didn’t last more than a few steps before soft pings rang in his ear. Looking around, he noticed the petals from some of the flowers were vanishing. He still had the auto collect set for his gauntlet. With a sigh, he looked back to Walter who was facing the door and called out to him. “I took some of your flowers by accident.”
Walt simply waved him on and busied himself with the door.
Athos shrugged. The door must be a little more complicated than the lock on his room back at the inn. His attention returned to his gauntlet where he pressed the green stone again to bring up the window and set the auto-gathering to off. He didn’t think it would be best to take from Walter’s crops while he was a guest here. He did have plenty of seeds though now that he thought about it, maybe they’d make a proper gift for his hospitality? No sooner had he thought it than he walked into one of the flower bushes. Before he could back out of it, he found himself in the air flying from the ground, landing poorly on from his feet, and within moments on his rear from an unceremonious, yet equally hilarious, fall involving a flip, a turn, and more than a few curse words that he didn’t even know he knew.
Damage Received - 98% integrity remaining
As the message cleared, Athos realized he could hear Walt laughing from halfway across the field, but the distance was closing quickly. “I was starting to think you’d make it across without disturbing them,” he managed between laughs as the shadowy eyes of a creature were upon him.
“What is it?” Athos managed as he dared not move. The creature wore the legs of a cow, or maybe a deer, but its entire body was a leafy bush of seven huge, blue tiger lily-like flowers. Its face... well, lack thereof, was simply a hole of shadows with a pair of glowing blue eyes.
“It’s a malso. Cute, ain’t it?” Walter explained as he walked up to it and brushed the grass patch above its face. “Don’t be scared, they’re domesticated. Wouldn’t hurt a fly unless you actively attacked it or didn’t watch where you were going.”
Athos nodded and pulled himself to his feet as the malso watched him warily before popping back into the ground. “Freaky.”
“You get used to it. I’ve raised them for as long as Sally’s been around. She’s great with them, even earned that perk of yours for a while before she went into the machine shop,” Walt seemed a little lost in his own thoughts as he strolled around the edge of the field closer to where Athos was. “Unnatural perks burn away the natural perks and all that.”
Again, game logic, but at least it made sense. “Wait, she was a Child of the Forest too?”
He nodded. “She loves the animals but the forge more. Once she learned how to build, I knew she wouldn’t keep it for long.” Once Walt walked into the field and got next to him, he motioned for Athos to follow him. “If you keep to this path, you won’t bother them.”
Not that it hurt his integrity much, but he didn’t know if his pride would have held up from another attack like that. With Walt’s guidance, the pair made it through the field without any more harassment and to the greenhouse. Even close up, the greenhouse was a beautiful sight. Through the windows, Athos could see a few pots, a few tables, nothing really that different than the average green house. To him, it seemed too normal for Incipere as Walter lined himself up with what he could only figure was another lock system.
“I’m glad you’re here for this, Athos. Normally, I have to do this alone
,” Walter began as he finished what he was doing and opened the large door to the greenhouse. “Since we just harvested everything, we needed to fertilize it and wait for it to rest long enough to be ready to plant again.” As he cleared the way, Athos quickly realized that the size outside the greenhouse didn’t exactly reflect the inside. Through the open door, he could easily see what really rested inside. The building had much more room than the outside showed with hundreds upon hundreds of different size pots and hangers for hundreds upon hundreds of plants. “In other words, it’s seeding day!”
Athos looked at him for a moment and sighed as a trade request opened with an offer of seeds from Walter. “This is why you invited me, isn’t it?”
Walter simply grinned as Athos accepted the offer. “That obvious, huh?”
Tweaks and Tests
After hours of staring at his inventory window, clicking the right seed, selecting the proper pots, and finally confirming that, yes, planting the seeds he had been given by Walter was exactly what he wanted to do, Athos longed for the walk he had been saved from those few weeks ago. It may have been long, it may have been boring, but it couldn’t hold a candle to a day of planting in Walter’s greenhouse. Walter had been right about one thing; he hadn’t taken more than two percent’s worth of damage to his integrity. That malso milk was something else.
As the last seed was transferred into the pot and set, Athos breathed a sigh of relief. “Finally.”
On the other side of the greenhouse, Walter chuckled. “What? Too much work for you?”
“No, just… I can’t imagine doing this day in and day out.”
His voice rose, but the joy in his voice never lessened. “Athos, you’d never last as a farmer, but you’ve been a huge help today. I’ve got the rest of the day free now thanks to you.”
Whether it was the way he explained it or the tone of happiness that rose in his voice, Athos figured that free time wasn’t a common occurrence for the man. “No problem, so what’s next?”
All the while, Walter had been working his way towards Athos, careful not to disturb any of the plants the alchemist had planted. “Now you’re going to go over to the forge and get that weapon looked at. You still have that requisition, right?” Athos nodded. “Good, Sally’s may be my daughter, but if you had lost that slip, your wallet would be in a world of hurt.”
