Anything ~ 49!

“So, just to make sure we’re all on board with the plan, Taylor,” Zed paused to send a scathing glare at the ‘leader’ of the party, “We go into the desert here with no plan except to ‘fix stuff’, two of our party members are severely limited in the amount of help they can offer, tensions are high… but if we win, we go on a ‘vacation’ from being told what to do and try to become as powerful as we can for ten years or until caught; whichever comes first.”

He took a deep breath and stared at the seemingly endless sand all around them. “Anything… else?”

“Sounds correct to me,” Andre stated easily, scattering a handful of seeds into the air. Catching Taylor shaking her head in his peripheral vision, he coughed defensively and pointedly ignored her. “Just because I can’t grow them myself now doesn’t mean I don't want them ready to grow when I can.”

“I didn’t say anything.” Taylor deflated slightly and edged closer to the Druid. “Look… I’m sorry. I didn’t realize that I was pushing you like that. Into a bad place. I just… I saw what you could do when motivated, and I thought you wanted it to be the best it could be. When I was doping that, I thought I was helping you. I really did.”

“Talk is cheap, Taylor,” The Druid told her softly, the lack of anger in his voice taking the sting from his words. “You need to let go of your words, stop imposing your impulses on us, and be a better leader. Or you won’t be leading us. I have enough authority to be the team leader, and if you force me to make that call, I will. Then ten years of hiding from the Hollow Kingdom will be a blink compared to the amount of time I order the rest of us to vanish, while you rush back to the Kingdom and get put to work.”

There was very little conversation after that ultimatum, which was just as well, as far as Luke was concerned. He was still trying to figure out how he had been singing, of all things, and not noticing it. How long had that been going on? When had it started? “These are the real issues.”

“You say something?” Zed called from his position of being draped over Andre’s shoulder so they could make better time. His chin was propped up on his hands, and his elbows rested on a few vines that looped up from Andre’s back. “You cut a strong figure from this position. You know, I know a few lovely ladies that would love to meet someone with ‘Prismatic’ Mana Channels. How does that work? Lots of unicorns, even at the start of your world?”

“No. I bathed in liquid mana, breathed mana vapor, used solidified mana to spice my food, and it was my only water source for nearly five decades.” Luke decided to get it over with all in one go, as ‘sharing the troubles from your past was a good way to strengthen bonds in the present’. Chapter seven of his book. “My Mana Channels were ‘Destroyed’. No mana could work through me, which is why I didn’t pop like a bloated cow carcass. Eventually, the buildup was so great that when I earned my first Skill, new channels were carved through me by what I assume was a Higher Ascender.”

“Carved?” Andre frowned at that. “Aren’t Mana Channels only partially physical? That part follows your nerves… oh. Luke. How do you have a mind at all?”

“Sigil.” Luke flicked his forehead, and the branded enchantment lit up with a proud *chime*. “Activated for the first time right after that, and glued my mind back together. Been finding little chunks floating around every once in a while that I stick back on.”

“How… horrible.” Taylor’s soft voice brought the conversation to a screeching halt, and they walked in silence until they made camp for the night. Zed slept as soon as his head hit the wadded-up rag he used for a pillow, and the others each took a shift for night watch.

An uneventful few hours later, the group started walking again, crossing countless dunes under the scorching sun. Zed was looking over an old document, and he rapped it lightly. “Welp, we are officially off of the newest maps. All we have to go on is this… let’s charitably call it century-old directions to a town that once existed. Certainly isn’t a map. You’d think they would have given us better gear, ya know?”

“Small reminder that they not only expected us to fail, they’re banking on it so that we’re out of the public eye for a large chunk of time.” Andre cheerfully patted his burden. “Can’t let us get more popular than the Crown Prince, or people will think we’re trying to rebel!”

“Wouldn’t want that, would we?” Zed muttered darkly as he returned his attention to the ‘map’ he had salvaged from the wreckage of a village the swarm had… eaten. “Oh, this is fun… on the other side of the desert is an ocean filled with many monsters and few fish. No wonder no one wants the Hollow Kingdom as a vassal state. Even invading us can only really be accomplished via portal or a route filled with garbage.”

“Remember that whole… warfront situation?” Taylor cautiously ventured into the conversation. “Dynasty of Dogs slowly nibbling away at our land?”

“Yeah, yeah.” Zed waved her comment off. “I meant from this side. The sea is a great natural barrier. Might need to build up a big seawall when this place is green again, Andre. The beasties probably got bigger in the last hundred years.”

Luke finally had enough. “Can you stop making threatening foreshadowing for two minutes?”

“Hello, I’m… a Bard.” Zed tipped his oversized feathered hat and grinned cheekily. “No one knows what’s over there. Doesn’t mean I want to be bored for the rest of the walk. Gotta write the story, and that means leaving breadcrumbs I can point at and say, ‘Aha! I told you we should watch for that’!”

“All this does is make me want to force you to walk on your own.” Andre’s retort caused Zed to choke on the water he was sipping from a vine connected to a watermelon, and pause the fern fronds that were providing shade and waving air onto his face.

“Please, no.”

“Wait… why am I walking?” The Druid leaned back, and a moment later, the two of them were supported by a vine-hammock that walked along on several ‘legs’. They grinned at each other and ignored the stares from the other two more physical members of the party. “So, I’m thinking...  mobile oasis for camping while we hunt down the Scar that the bugs are coming out of?”

“You know I like your style,” Zed responded in a put-upon noble voice. “Ah-ha. Ah-ha!”

“Alright, I’m done. I’m gonna go scout ahead.” Luke grabbed Cookie and started twisting in place. On his third revolution, Cookie was generating a howling wind as he built momentum. On the fifth, he threw her out and up with all the force he could muster… then Bum Flashed after her and grabbed on as the four hundred pound Greatclub shot into the air.

“Did I actually just see that?” was the last thing Luke heard a dumbfounded Zed say before the howling wind made it impossible to catch anything further. When he reached a few hundred feet in the air, Luke let his armor fade away and activated Feather’s Fall.

He had plenty of time to search the horizon for any abnormalities, but… there was nothing. Wait… almost nothing. Far, far away, Luke caught movement. It was only a flash, but it was noticeable for the sheer fact that there was nothing else moving for dozens upon dozens of miles. With a grunt, he tossed Cookie in the direction of the movement and fell to the sand below.

Luke waited patiently until his team had caught up to him, and ignored them as they tried to dig answers out of him with their eyes. He held up a hand to forestall their questions. “Hang on.”

Activating his Soul Brand, he called Cookie back to him. She shot toward him across the sand, drawing a line in her wake. When she slapped into his hand, Luke pointed into the distance. “Cookie drew us an arrow; let’s not waste her efforts. Wind’ll erase it soon.”

“Wha~at laws of nature did he just break?” Zed pointed an accusing finger at Luke as he poked Andre with the other hand. “No, wait; how many natural laws did he break? I want a full accounting, please.”

“You know what? I need to fight in any direction, and sometimes that means innovating on the fly. I see a problem, I find a way to get around it.” Luke shrugged and pointedly looked over the Bard. “I can’t be in two places at once, can I?”

“Okay, fair. I’ll try to stop doubting the reality of what you can do, even though I hate that you can do that on a deep level, for a reason I can’t clearly explain,” Zed pouted at him.

“Where does this go?” Andre quizzed Luke as they followed the line.

“Saw movement. I figured if we could find a bug, we could find the nest.” Luke’s explanation drew nods of understanding. “We find the nest, we find the Scar. Kill the bugs, close the Scar, relax for nine years and work hard for one.”

Taylor tensed at that, but, to her credit, didn’t naysay his statement. Zed cheered, while Andre smiled softly, “Not gonna be much relaxing going on for me.”

“Onward! To vacation!” Zed pointed grandly into the distance.

Over a week later, the group stopped to get out of the heat of the day and started to rethink their strategy. Zed cleared his throat and politely tapped his ‘map’. “So, I think we’re lost, but we’re doing fine overall.”

“I haven’t killed anything in a week, Zed.” The Murderhobo turned bloodshot eyes on the Bard. “Already startin' to get the itch. Problem is, Zed, I got nothin' to scratch. Celestials, I'm hungry. Hungry for action. Hungry for Potentia.”

His stomach rumbled, and he snarled, “Abyss it, I’m just hungry. We ran outta food days ago. Forget this; let’s just go after that Scar I felt a few miles back. Bet we can kill and eat something there.”

The others took a few moments to process his words. Andre was the first to slowly react. “You… felt a Scar? Uh… okay. That aside, why didn’t you direct us to it if you thought there was one? We’re hunting for a Scar.”

The Murderhobo shook his head firmly. “No, we’re looking for a Scar that bugs are coming out of. Why would a nest for flying bugs be so far underground? Seriously, it was ten miles down there. At least.”

“I guess now we know why no one ever found a way to bottle up the bugs.” Taylor’s words set Andre off, and he chuckled for several tension-easing minutes while Zed started furiously scribbling words on the back of his map.

“Let’s do this, Luke!” Andre turned expectant eyes on the Murderhobo, as did the others.

“It’s below ground.” Discerning that they didn’t understand that flying bugs would be out in the open, Luke shook his head and sighed as he adjusted his trudging. “Look, I get that you work with animals and plants, not bugs, but… oh, whatever. I wanted to go there anyway. Maybe we’ll find some food, at least?”