A Gamer's Guide 374

By the time we go in for a landing, I’ve got a bunch of altered skills, and Lett has gotten maybe two or three hours sleep in total. A pretty productive night, all things considered!

Among others, I spent some time working on the peel skill, the rat summon skill, the—

Hm? Hey, Garath, where’s the city? This is just an empty field!

<...This is unprecedented.

The city of Jurmuran ought to be 

in this very spot. Yet, there is nothing!>

Very odd indeed. Hmm.

I look over over the empty plains covered in a thick layer of snow. A bit away, there’s a gloomy-looking farmhouse, sitting all squat below a thick layer of snow. Realistically, I know that it would be kind of stupid to approach since they might get scared, but… Isn’t this supposed to be an adventure? A journey to undo the five remaining Ps branded onto my forehead! What’s a journey without people to meet?

Hey, Garath, how about we—

<I am fully capable of hearing your

internal monologue.>

<Personally, I do not mind.

Should they react in a way we disapprove of,

we can simply—>

“Where are we?”

I turn to look at Lett, who’s currently cradled in Garath’s hand. Oh, yeah, he can’t hear our conversation because we aren’t talking out loud. Easy to forget… 

“Not sure!” I tell him. “I’m going to go over there and check if the guy who lives there knows, though.” Hm. Wait a minute, no, that isn’t right. What I mean to say is… “Let’s go over there and check it out!”

Lett lights up in excitement, only to realize the existence of the dragon in the room. “Won’t they fear the approach of a dragon?”

“Yeah, sure, but they’ll also get spooked by me being a human, so there’s honestly no real win here. We’ll just have to do our best to look nice and unthreatening!”

The look on Lett’s face seems to indicate that this may be easier to do for some of us than others.

My internal quip makes Garath chuckle, with startles Lett. Now that I’m looking at the two of them, Lett does seem a little uncomfortable with this whole situation. That makes sense, I suppose. He doesn’t know Garath like I do, so, to him, Garath must come across as a big dumb dragon and not much else. 

<Hey.>

Which is, of course, a massive generalization that fails to accurately express your numerous positive qualities! Such as… um…

With the solemn grace of a man returning from war, Garath lowers his head to the level he’s holding Lett, and tells him, very gravely, “He is insulting me in his mind. Be grateful you are unable to hear and trade thoughts with this man. It is a most humiliating endeavour.”

The ball slots into place for Lett, clear as day. “Is that what’s been happening?” He shakes his head. “Kitty, you are a strange human indeed. Though I hardly believe this is the time for it, I must admit that I’ve yet to comprehend all that happened yesterday. Would you mind clarifying but one small detail for me?”

“Sure,” I say, waving for us to start walking. Talking and walking is way more fun than just standing around. Since Garath is so huge, he has to take teeny-tiny steps to not outpace me. He’s also chivalrous enough to hold Lett close enough for me to hear him easily, so there’s no issue with not hearing him over the thoom of Garath’s mammoth steps.

“Then… Are you truly a god?”

Ah. That question. “Um… Do I have to answer that one?”

“If you choose not to, I will resent it.”

“Right. Well, uh… In that case, I guess the answer is yes?”

Lett nods, all sage-like. “That’s what I thought,” he says, “but I got unsure about it because you seemed to unhappy about the praise you received. Shouldn’t a god be happy to be worshipped?”

This might be the worst conversation topic I can imagine at this moment, aside from the birds and the bees. At least then I could say well I don’t know how goblins reproduce and sweep it all away, but this? “Yeah, that’s… I wish I could give you a good answer, but it’s really more like… I don’t want to be a god? I didn’t set out to become one, I never had anyone say hey if you keep doing this you’ll become a god! and at no point did I get flashing lights saying godhood ahead! put on a helmet and safety-vest! One day I got an angel and the next… No, not even the next, it was the same damn day I became a god! Can you imagine that? You get a little pet spider because you did a bunch of unknown tasks for a bunch of gods, and then boom! You’re a god. Like, what?” I shake my head, winded by my own tale. “It’s ridiculous. There’s no way I can emotionally react to anything that’s happening with it cuz I don’t deserve—” I bite my tongue. Right, deserve is a bad word. I told myself so. If you start talking about what you deserve or don’t deserve you get caught up in expectations and nobody ever gets what they deserve anyways.

Since I went quiet, it apparently gave Lett some time to think, as he’s been staring at me for a while now, thoughtful. “I think you deserve it,” he says, after some time. “Being worshipped, that is.”

“What?” I ask him, genuinely dumbfounded. About fifty paces from the farm, I stop entirely, staring up at him. “What does that mean?” 

Above, Garath’s voice rumbles down, tinged with dark amusement. “He doesn’t know. Or perhaps he doesn’t care.”

“Know what?”

Lett affixed me with his gaze. I’ve forgotten how old he’s supposed to be, but I know that the way he’s looking at me is way beyond his years. “You undid a four-winged dragon. Do you understand what that means?”

Is that what this is about? Christ. “Yeah, I do. Four-winged dragons are pricks who can’t turn back into dragons or formers and their minds are all gone, so they have to be killed on sight. So, undoing that would be pretty impressive.”

“It’s never been done,” Lett adds. “Not because it’s hard, but because it’s literally impossible.”

I glance up at Garath. “Clearly not the case.”

“No member of the God of Multitudes could have done it. Do you know what that means? You have done something that no other god is capable of. This has instantly put you ahead of every known god, placing you in a realm of your own. Thinking back on it, I’m surprised they didn’t worship you even more fervently. This could change the world and how we view dragons forever.”

“Could,” I mutter. “It could. Doesn’t mean it will.”

Garath shakes his mighty head. “It’s useless, Lett. Let them erect a church in his honor—he will call it a cruel jest.”

Somehow, going just by the way Lett is looking at Garath, I’m starting to think he might see more logic and sense in the dragon than in me. Which I would take as an insult had I ever finished high school. Ignoring their ridiculous antics, I point a thumb at the farmhouse, which is starting to look more and more abandoned and run-down the closer we get. “Great discussion guys, but we’ve arrived, so… Put on your best I-won’t-kill-you smiles, and let’s have a friendly talk!”

Garath and Lett remaining a few paces behind, I stride up to the side of the house only to realize that this is that kind of farm with an inner court framed by other houses, so the front entrance is on the other side. Great. I swirl my finger in the air to tell Garath to go around and into the courtyard, only to remember that he can hear this entire thing. Hi Garath!

<You are a very forgetful man.>

I sure am, huh? Anyways, let’s get this info!

Keeping my spirits up and alive, I go around the side of the house, all the way to the front porch. Again, it is very run-down. Once upon a time it might have been painted some warm shade of yellow, but now it’s faded and sort of melted into the rotting wood. At a distance it looks a bit uninhabited, but now that I’m close enough, I can tell that there’s someone in there. No need to be shy, in other words. 

Preparing my best human-smile, I knock on the door, and take a few steps back. Sniff sniff, let’s see here… Yep, they’re heading straight for the door! Not a whiff of fear on this guy, heh. Love to see it! 

Just to ensure that our preparations are great, I take a peek over my shoulder real quick. Garath is standing, hulking like a felled skyscraper over the shoddy, snow-crushed buildings. Since he’s so white and fluffy, his feet actually merge a little with the snow below, which is, frankly, pretty cute.

<Thank you.>

With Lett in his hand, he looks fairly relaxed. Not a bad sight. Trustworthy, genuine… Yep. This will go well.

My ears pick up the soft padding of feet against wood, and turn back to the door just in time to watch it open, revealing a young goblin, barely any older than Lett, with odd scars along half his face, going down his neck and into a thick, hand-knitted scarf. He’s dressed head to toe in well-worn but comfortable rags, a thick blanket of some sort swept around his shoulders. Dang, is it really that cold? 

“Hi!” I say cheerfully. “I’m a human, Kitty, and these are my friends, Garath and Lett. Garath is the bigger one, ha-ha.”

The guy leans a little to look over my shoulder, up at Garath. One of his fingers peek out from inside his bundles of cloth to point at Garath. “That’s a dragon, isn’t it?”

“Sure is!” I say. “A nice one. So don’t worry about him going around eating your crops or animals!”

“He won’t eat me?” he says, in the tiniest, most pathetic voice I’ve ever heard. 

I chance a look over at Garath. 

<Wouldn’t be the first.>

Right, right. I return my attention to the guy. “Say, what’s your name?”

“Larry, son of… No, that doesn’t matter anymore, I guess. Sorry. You seem very nice but I have nothing to give guests.” He makes a movement similar to cocking his head, except the whole thing is so limp and weak that it looks more like he flopped his head over to the right. “What do dragons eat? Mom never got to that part. Anyhow, are you come to take me away?”

“That is…”

“Away where?” Lett pipes up.

“Big sea,” Larry says. “You know, like in the stories? When you’re going to die the wind comes and takes you to the big sea to sail out. I’ve never seen the sea, so I’m pretty excited. Personally I thought the wind would look like a pretty lady with long hair, so you’re a bit…” He frowns, his lips briefly covering up his loose yellow teeth. “No, the hair is pretty accurate.”

Since this is absolutely not the conversation I came here to have, I smile and try to steer it in a more sensible direction. “Was there a city here before? In the general area, I mean?”

“A city?” He shakes his head blandly. “No, I can’t remember anything like that. Nearest city would be… Dad would know it, but I don’t. I’ve heard that dragons can fly though, so I’m sure if you just go up into the sky you’ll see something.” Reaching up a hand, he begins scratching at the strange wounds on his neck. They open up at his touch, bleeding thick, mucus-like blood the same color as tar. “Say, could you let me go into the sky a bit?”

I take in a deep breath through my nostrils. I can’t smell exactly what it is, but there is something very diseased about him. The whole house stinks of rotten meat. Like a plague house. Almost as bad as the house back then with the corpse flies and the kids. 

It’s all the way up in his head. Nearly pouring out of his eyesockets. 

I smile at him, at first with pity, and then with resignation. “Alright. Sure, we can do that.”

For the first time since I’ve seen him, he smiles at me. It’s dull, though, and doesn’t quite reach his dead-fish eyes. “Really? Thanks.”

In hindsight, I’m not exactly sure why I went along with the whole thing. We didn’t gain anything from taking the guy on a ride through the sky, and by the end of it, I felt reasonably certain that he wouldn’t last the week anyways. Still, we did it. He was scared at first but then he quickly warmed up, laughing and giggling like a child at Disneyland, grinning widely even though his eyes were never quite there. 

Even now, as we’ve said our goodbyes and gone on our merry way, having gained absolutely nothing from the encounter, I can’t tell why we did it at all. It didn’t make me feel especially good and it’s not like he gave us anything in return. 

Still, somehow, I could tell that if I hadn’t done it, it would’ve felt wrong. So, if I flip it around a bit… I guess that means I did it because it felt like the right thing to do?