by Kevin Culp
As of right now though, I really don’t feel like I’m up for moving on. I would think that adapting to a dream like this would mean I should feel adventurous and anxious for combat, but everything seemed too real. If every combat was like fighting those Orcs, then I would probably end up throwing up in half the battles I fought. Sure it was easy but seeing and smelling that much gore and guts is something my stomach can’t handle.
“I promise you sir that I don’t want to cause any trouble for Christina. She has helped me a lot, and that would be the last thing that I want.”
He grunted. I wasn’t sure if it was in affirmation or to say he was frustrated that I even commented on it.
“Can I ask you a question?” I looked him in the eye.
“What is it, kid?”
“Why was that Joseph guy so adamant that Christina would marry him?”
He sighed and seemed to not want to tell me but started talking. “Before Christina’s mother disappeared, Joseph and her were betrothed. Honestly, Christina didn’t want to marry him even before that, but after her mother disappeared, she asked if they could call off the engagement at least for a while, and I agreed.
I actually still don’t know if I made the right decision. Joseph has acted like a child ever since, but I still don’t think he’s a bad guy, and it would do Christina some good to have a home and children of her own.”
I was kind of surprised to hear all this. I mean arranged marriages used to be a big thing, but I thought they were normally only among the nobility. Obviously, neither Christina nor Joseph were nobility but maybe in a small town like this, arranged marriages were more out of necessity since there weren’t that many children of appropriate age.
Once I finished eating, I got up and went outside. Zeus got excited as soon as he saw me. He really was just a giant puppy at the end of the day. People definitely gave the tavern a wide berth when they saw a giant wolf laying in front of it. Hopefully, he wasn’t driving away any of their customers.
“We should probably move behind the tavern bud. I don’t want you scaring any of the guests away.”
He cocked his head to the side as if to say, “Me? Scary?” To Zeus, the thought of being scary without trying seemed to be foreign, but that didn’t stop him from growling at Joseph and putting on a performance that had caused him to pass out.
We walked behind the tavern and sat down. I started petting him and was surprised to see that he was kind of wet and didn’t have any blood in his fur or on his saddle. I’m guessing he either licked himself clean or Christina came out and cleaned him though I’m not sure when she would have had the time.
“Do me a favor Zeus and listen to Christina while we are here. There shouldn’t be many issues in a small town like this, but I’ve probably caused trouble for her. Try not to hurt any villagers though.
I wonder where those Orcs came from. They could have just been traveling bandits, but don’t Orcs normally live in like war tribes.”
Zeus cocked his head as if to say I don’t know. I pulled up my notepad but kind of like I expected there was no extra information there. I guess that it doesn’t require knowledge (local) to just identify something as common as an Orc, but it does to know much more information about them.
Christina came out the back door. “I thought I heard you back here. What are you two talking about?”
I paused for a moment. “Have I caused you any trouble being here?”
She laughed. “Definitely not. Meeting you was probably one of the more exciting things that have happened here in a long time.”
“Well, that’s good to hear. This may be an awkward request coming from someone you just met, but when you travel to the farms for produce, can you make sure to take either me or Zeus with you? With Orcs around here, I’m not sure that wandering around alone is very safe.”
She seemed concerned, “Ya…. That’s what a lot of people inside are talking about. Some of them just think you are a liar, and that was animal blood or something and just wanted to seem heroic. Others are worried that if there really were Orcs out there more could come. Especially if you killed them. Orcs aren’t exactly known to carry grudges, but they crave battle and if six of them were killed, they would want to fight the people that did it.”
“In other words, I probably should have just run away from them because killing them might cause trouble for the town.”
“Well, I don’t think that’s very likely. I doubt they would suspect someone in a small village like ours to be responsible, and they rarely have individuals that are good at tracking. Plus, if you stayed on the path it’s so worn down you would be hard to track, anyway.”
“Even so, I’d feel better if you would at least take Zeus with you when you go places. I was actually thinking about talking to the tanner about getting saddlebags for him too, which might make him good at carrying stuff for you.”
“That would be nice. We used to have a mule that we kept at Uncle’s farm, but she passed away about a year ago. It was much more convenient back then.”
“I think I will go to bed. Things have still been kind of hazy, but I want to wake up early tomorrow and try something.”
“Okay well, goodnight… Archaeus. Please let me know if you need anything.”
I’m guessing she stalled because she almost called me Sir Velnir, but I liked her calling me by the name Archaeus. I walked inside through the back door and went up to my room. Part of me was hoping that when I closed my eyes, I would wake up again in my own world this time, but another part knew that I would miss Christina if that happened. Eventually, though, I closed my eyes and drifted off to sleep.
Chapter 6
I woke up early the next morning and found that my clothes and armor were sitting just inside the door. I’m guessing that Christina had finished washing them and dropped them off inside after I fell asleep.
After putting on my own clothes, I sat back down on the bed. I wasn’t really sure how to do what I was trying to do. In-game, Archaeus had to spend an hour every morning praying for his spells. He didn’t follow a particular god, and we never really specified the process.
I’m not really a religious person. I haven’t actually prayed since I was a kid, and it would feel kind of strange to pray traditionally for spells. I folded my hands, bowed my head, and closed my eyes. When I did, I noticed that even though my eyes were closed, there was something flashing in my vision to the left. It felt strange to try to focus on something while my eyes were closed, but I did and my notepad popped up.
The last line on the notepad read, “Turn the page to access your character sheet.”
I focused on turning the page.
Suddenly, Archaeus’ character sheet was in front of me. I could see all my stats, armor rating, attack bonus, class abilities, and hit points as well as everything else. I scrolled down on the page and saw my inventory. All the equipment that Archaeus normally wore had a line through it. I’m guessing that was because I no longer had that gear.
Eventually, I got to the section that showed my prepared spells and there were boxes for each tier of spell one through four that seemed to represent how many spells of the respective tier I had per day. I tried to consciously select one of the boxes, and a menu popped up. All the first tier paladin spells were displayed in front of me.
I decided to keep things simple for now, so I just prepared lesser restoration for all my first tier spells. Next, I did my second, then third, and fourth tier spells. I probably should have taken more time with it and thought about what spells I might actually use, but I was more curious about how the whole system worked. I closed the menu and opened my eyes.
It had only been five minutes at most since I had started preparing my spells, but there was a plate of food and a cup of water sitting on the nightstand. I’m sure I was distracted, but I’m surprised I didn’t hear anyone come in.
It was a pretty simple breakfast. A couple of fried eggs, some cheese, and bread. It was all cold even the eggs. Tha
t kind of surprised me since Christina normally tried to serve me fresh food.
Once I finished eating, I put on my breastplate, grabbed my sword, and went downstairs.
“Good morning, Archaeus, was the breakfast good?” Christina asked.
“Yes, delicious as always.”
She blushed a little. “I hope I didn’t distract you when I came in. I didn’t realize you were praying. Do you always spend that much time praying in the morning?”
Hmm, I hadn’t been praying for long, so that seemed weird. I had finished eating about fifteen minutes after preparing my spells.
“I didn’t feel like it was that long. How long ago did you drop off my food?”
“Umm… Maybe an hour ago or so. I’ve been pretty busy since, so I’m not completely certain.”
In-game, it is supposed to take an hour to prepare my spells, but I did it in what felt like five minutes. Maybe it really had taken me an hour, but since the process on my end was so quick, it just skipped forward for me to when I was finished.
“Zeus was a big help this morning. I commented that we were still low on meat when we got back into town, and he just ran off. An hour later, he came back with a wild boar. We’ll have bacon tomorrow, which we haven’t had for quite a while since my uncle stopped raising pigs, and the only guy in town that does is pretty stubborn.”
“Hey, Christina, do you have a little bit of time and want to see something that’s pretty cool?”
“Umm…. I’m sorry Archaeus not right now but maybe after lunch.”
That made me a little sad. I know that Christina has to work, but ever since I got here she’s pretty much been by my side whenever I needed her. She even ran off with me on Zeus in the middle of the day yesterday. I guess I really need to respect the fact that she has a lot of priorities other than me.
“Okay, I guess I should really test this out on my own first, anyway. I’ll be back in a little while.”
I left the tavern and headed outside of town. Zeus started to follow me, but I told him to wait at the tavern in case Christina needed his help. I walked past all the farms and back to the creek where Christina and I had been the day before.
Yesterday, I had tried this, and it didn’t work because I hadn’t prepared the spell for the day. I focused on what I wanted and started speaking words that I didn’t understand and waving my arms around. It may have seemed stupid to see me from someone in the real world, but in this dream, I could feel the magic working.
As the spell finished, white feathery wings erupted from my back, which just felt strange. My vision seemed to get sharper, and my body was practically glowing. I focused on moving the wings and they spread out, then suddenly whooshed downwards. My feet left the ground, but I stopped my wings and immediately touched down again.
That was probably the strangest thing I’ve ever felt, I thought to myself. I guess though the only way to learn was to try. Archaeus had no training in the flight, but it should be useable untrained, and these wings were supposed to have decent maneuverability. On top of that, Archaeus had a somewhat decent dexterity modifier.
I started flapping the wings and watched the ground move further and further away. Not having any kind of solid ground beneath me was somewhat unsettling. Of course, I had been on a plane before, but really, you are just standing or sitting on a plane so still have a surface. The only thing carrying me now were magical wings that had grown from my own back.
As I watched, a flock of birds flew up from the field and came in my direction. They flew straight past me and I could feel their tiny wings seem to be caught off guard from the wind whooshing around my own. I decided to try to move around a little more.
I focused on propelling myself forward and took off at an incredible speed. I was probably moving even faster than Zeus had run the day before. The town flashed around beneath me as I darted back and forth through the air.
It was all quite exhilarating. Zeus looked up at me with a forlorn expression as I flew overhead as if he wished he could be in the air with me. I don’t think I had ever done anything to make him fly before, but the thought of a flying wolf was kind of amusing. Form of the angel had a range of personal, but I should be able to cast it on him due to the spell sharing ability of a bonded mount. As I thought about it, I noticed something blinking in my vision and focused on it.
Form of the Angel
Duration: 20 Minutes
Time Remaining: 1 Round
I tried to swoop down as far as I could and level myself out before it ended, but I was still probably a hundred feet or better off the ground. My wings disappeared, and I began to fall. It was terrifying. A normal human could never survive a fall from this distance, but Archaeus might be able to make it.
The roof of Gadrick’s Place got closer and closer, and I realized the mistake I had made. I had tried to get low and level before falling but didn’t make sure there was nothing beneath me. With a crash I smashed through the roof of the building, followed by rows of shelves of assorted knick-knacks, and into the floor.
“Oh my god, that hurt.”
“My precious shop! What have you done,” exclaimed the gnome!
“I’m sorry, I’m sorry, please forgive me. I promise I’ll pay for the damage,” I pleaded with him.
“What do you mean you will pay for the damage? Do you have any idea how much this will cost? You tall people just think you can get away with doing whatever you want to us little guys don’t you?” He was furious.
“I promise you it’s not like that. How much do you think it will cost to fix the building and replace the merchandise?”
I could see that there were a few people gathering outside. The door had been opened, but people were just staring in at the scene unfolding. The gnome started going through everything and appraising it.
“Well, I’ll have to get Sonnie to appraise the damage to the building, but I would estimate about fifty gold to cover all the merchandise you wrecked and fix the building. This is just awful. How are you possibly going to take care of all this?”
“I’m so sorry once again, but is this acceptable to you?”
The belt of physical attributes had a couple of small pouches on it that could fasten shut. I opened one up and pulled out some coins. I presented to him seven platinum coins hoping that including a little extra might help me stay under the radar. The gnome’s eyes lit up immediately.
“Oh wow, certainly stranger man I like you. Crash through my roof any time you’d like it’s easily replaceable,” he seemed downright giddy. I was thinking this gnome was basically Kreego without the green skin.
“Well, I’m glad we could reach an arrangement with this, but I promise I don’t intend on crashing through any more roofs that hurt.” I smiled at him and turned to leave.
As I left the building, I put my hand to my chest and activated my healing hands ability. It seemed to heal all the damage from the fall. I wasn’t sore at all anymore.
The crowd parted as I walked out the door, and they seemed to be murmuring about the exchange they witnessed. Some of them were questioning how I fell from the sky, but from the talk, I’m guessing none of them saw the wings. They were also talking about how much money I had handed Gadrick and seemed to really be talking about me as though I was a wealthy noble all of a sudden which I guess wasn’t wrong.
Christina came running up about that time. “What’s going on Archaeus? I heard someone saying that you just fell out of the sky. Are you okay? How did something like that happen?”
“Well, let’s just say that I’m glad that you didn’t come with me this morning, and Gadrick is happy about the fact of needing his roof repaired.”
“Huh,” she seemed confused by that but didn’t really question it any further.
I walked her back to the tavern and went inside with her for lunch. She served me some lunch that was basically just vegetable soup, and I told her about what had happened.
“What you can grow wings? That’s amazing Archaeus. Is
there anything you can’t do?”
“Well, apparently flying without wings is on the list of things I can’t do.”
She laughed at my dumb joke.
“I was going to take you flying this morning, but I’m glad I didn’t. I guess before I take anyone with me I should probably try to get a little better at it.”
“Yeah, it’s not that I don’t trust you, but honestly, I would be too scared I think to do something like that. I like my feet on the ground.”
“After what just happened to me, I certainly can’t blame you. I’m pretty certain that if I wasn’t so hard to kill I’d be dead right now myself.”
We sat there and talked for a little while longer as I finished my meal. Even in the real world, I couldn’t remember the last time I just sat and talked to someone like this. Working in a call center, I really didn’t want to talk to anyone when I wasn’t at work. I pretty much just went to work every day and tried to ignore people when I could. Playing tabletop games and tcg’s required people which I did pretty much once a week, but I didn’t really carry much of a conversation that was actually as myself during that time.
Christina was easy to talk to. She was a good listener and never acted like she was tired of me. I wish there were more people like her in the real world.
The next week went by pretty fast. Every day I was surprised that I was still waking up in this world. I had kind of decided for the dream to be this consistent and with how little I remember I must be in a coma in the real world. I would wake up, prepare my spells, eat breakfast, spend a little time testing out my spells, and talk to Christina. I decided to try practicing swordplay a little, but it really feels weird to just swing a sword around through the air.
Gadrick acted like I was practically his best friend now, but not in a good way. He would ask me if I wanted to fall through his roof again to practice getting better on my landing. When he saw me training with my sword, he said he had a few things that weren’t very expensive that I could practice cutting through to see what it felt like when my sword hit different materials. He practically wanted me to destroy his shop so I would pay him a bunch of money.
