thundamoo

33. Lion's Den

Hiverock night passes. Some other hunter team is sent out to investigate the closest drop zone. My team is given a while to rest, with of course the exception of myself and Penelope. We’re eating breakfast, anticipating the branch leader to come looking for us. Remus hasn’t stopped being a problem just because another problem has been added on top of him.

Sure enough, it isn’t long before I feel the portly old man walking towards our guildhouse. I tell Penelope as much, and swallo...

32. Mother of Thieves

You’d think that having Templars swarming all over the city would be a bad night for thieves.  You’d be wrong.

Oh, it’s bad for stealing from most places.  Me, though?  It’s perfect for me.  I just wish Vita had been able to stay home and guard the kiddos for Hiverock night.  I’ll just have to trust in Rowan's illusions and abandon the job if things get hot.

Oh, Vita.  I hope she’s not in over her head.  She’s been growing so fast I...

31. Hiverock Night

Hiverock floats abnormally close to our island.  It skims just barely above the great mountain Claw Peak, which crested a few thousand feet above the walls of Skyhope.  I've heard that closeness, as well as the abundance of farmable land on Verdantop, is what makes our island so appealing for those invaders.  Yet who really knew?

Back at the guild, we find the rest of our team together in the mess hall, along with a huge number of other hunter teams.  Almost all of t...

30. Poisonous Revelations

I open the door for Penelope, walking in afterwards.  The branch leader is a portly man, completely with impressive jowls.  I haven't seen a lot of jowls before, but I immediately decide I don't like them.  He's got thin, graying hair, and is sweating enough to stain his shirt, yet he gives me a big smile when I walk in, opening his arms with a welcome.

"Ah, you must be Vita, then!  Hello, hello!"

"Hello sir," I say politely, nodding to him.

This guy was ...

29. Take Your Vitamins

I stare at the words.  Rowan looks on with concern as Lyn tries to hold in a laugh.  I pick up the small rat in my hands.  She squeaks happily, nuzzling me.

Then I hug my beautiful rat-daughter.

"I hereby name you Vitamin," I declare, squeezing her carefully to not break the dead bones.  "For you are like me, but very very small."

"Look who's a mom now, eh kiddo?" Lyn says, grinning massively.

"Oh gosh, Lyn!  You're right!" I say, smiling evill...

28. Friendship Prison

We return to Skyhope unaccosted, and I am immediately thankful Penta stopped me from fucking around with my soul. I don’t know if other people would be able to sense that, and, for some reason, Templars were everywhere.

Is it war? Doesn’t seem like it. They didn’t stop Penelope or me at the gate, so they’re probably not after me either. Are Lyn and Rowan okay…? Rowan is working with the Templars, but Lyn is wanted by them. It’s a toss-up on whether or not this is actually go...

27. Monster Mash

A monster looks around with my eyes, flexes my hands, and inhales with my lungs.  For once, it’s not even me.

“Wow,” the slime comments, voice sounding as if I was trying to copy Penelope’s tone and cadence. “You’re very short.”

Hey, fuck you, I think, mentally grinning.  It doesn’t take at first, but after a delay she makes it real.

Then, she turns my body to Penelope and bows deeply.

“Thank you,” she says fervently, “for allow...

26. Ego Death

"Chill out!" my body laughs against my will. "Her memory's pretty good, there’s a lot here to sift through.  Oh, fuck.  She’s…”

My instinct takes over, fear surging through me.  Can’t let it say “Necromancy.”  The little black slimy soul has notes of springiness underneath, orange and bouncy.  I barely note this in the split second before ripping it from its body.  Whatever its words were die with it.  I stumble ever so slightly ...

25. Shattered Mirror, Pt. 2

The constant danger leaves me a shaking wreck when we finally make it to my home, which is a place I’ve never been before.  Skyhope.  So familiar and yet so alien.  I know so much, I’ve seen it so many times, and yet seeing it now is still the first time.  Remus and I have never had a chance to talk about what we truly are, though we have signaled to each other.  We know that the other is our only ally in this place.  He uses his host’s authority to take me...

24. Shattered Mirror, Pt. 1

The colony is important.  That is simply how it is.

Dig, dig, dig.  Protect when it is needed, expand when it is not.  This is life.  Dig, eat, dig, sleep, dig, eat, dig…

Pain.  Pain in belly.  Badness.  Walking is hard.  Digging is hard.  It is not time to rest, but…

Death.  Cannot move.  Exit the host.  Need new host.  Feel new host.  Enter, subsume.  The new host also knows the colony is import...

23. Sleeping Twice

“The first misconception about magic you need to disabuse yourself of is the idea that it is at all mystical or inscrutable,” Orville lectures, pacing around with his hands clasped behind him. “Magic is as much part of the world as the things it affects. It is real in the same way that heat is real, or sound is real, or you are real. What makes magic special is how deceptively easy it is to control.”

“Easy?” I ask, surprised. “I thought magic was like, super hard.”

22. Future Worries

Dinner had long since ended, and I’m still sitting around in my room waiting for Penelope to leave the bathroom.  It’s been over an hour and I’m starting to get a little worried.  What was going on in there?

Normally I would just leave her to hang out in the bathroom.  That’s not my business.  Today, though, I feel like everything is explicitly my business.  I hope my paranoia doesn’t piss Penelope off too much, but I’d rather piss her off than miss ...