Save State Hero 3 -CH 18-

Chapter 18

Edmund was staring at the strange creature in front of him. Unable to truly comprehend what it was, or the fact that it was talking to people without an issue.

To Edmund, it looked a lot like a humanoid bird.

A crow, no less

With large dark black eyes, black feathers, and all in all just a large bird.

“Hello,” said the bird, tilting it’s head to one side and looking at Edmund with one large eye. “Greetings. How can I help?”

The words that came out of the bird’s mouth were odd. It didn’t have lips to form words but it spoke clearly and cleanly. As if it had recorded the words from somewhere else and were being replayed.

“Greetings,” Edmund said, then shook his head. “I’m sorry for staring. You’re fascinating. I’ve never met someone like you. My name’s Edmund. A pleasure to meet you. I wanted to speak with you about perhaps figuring out what the Randolph family line would like as a present in honor of this situation!”

The strange bird-like humanoid swiveled it’s large beak the other way, then tilted it’s head again. Watching Edmund in a way that left him feeling as if she were picking things out about him just from what he said and how he was dressed.

“Presents,” said the creature. “Well. I am Rahak. As to what to offer as a present, I am unsure. There is little-mm-that the Randolph line couldn’t purchase directly.”

“Oh? Oh. Hm. What… could I offer that you can’t purchase,” Edmund said, more to himself, looking down tot he ground. “Oz, suggestions? Srit?”

“It is indeed true that the Randolph line doesn’t need much in the way of material goods, as they can purchase many things through a special ledger. One that allows them to make deals and trade with worlds that share a similar foundation.

“Zeus’ world is an ideal example but locked behind the fact that it’s a Zeus world. Worlds like that can be traded with their ledger. It doesn’t quite reach a modern era though. It’d be high renaissance at best. You could probably bring them modern tech but… I’m not sure Runner would approve.”

“Ah? Yes? I… yes?” Rahak said, interrupting the conversation quickly. “You are speaking with a god? A spirit? Ah, yes, I’m so sorry. I did not realize you were genuinely asking what we need. Yes.

“I will think on this. May I have-mm-time? I would appreciate time.”

Edmund looked to Rahak and stared at them for several seconds.

Then shrugged.

“Sure, take your time. I’ll just go back in time once I find out what you need and then offer it to you,” Edmund admitted. “Does that help you figure out what to say you want?

“Oh, the reason I’m here, is I want to dig a hole. Probably about four-hundred or five-hundred feet deep. It’s to the north of here near a river. I just want to dig a hole, get to the bottom, and then probably vanish from there. I don’t even care about anything in the hole.

“If I hit a gold mine, you could have it. Not interested.”

Rahak’s clawed fingers on their feathery wings opened and closed. Staring at Edmund.

“A hole,” they said, sounding exactly like Edmund.

“Yep! I want to dig a hole near a river in the north. Anything in it is yours. Lotta dirt though from that. Rock, too,” Edmund confirmed.

Rahak made an odd chuckling noise at that.

“Dirt and rock. A present. Digging a hole in the north. Yes,” they said, once more sounding like Edmund. “The present can be more holes. I will indicate five other places I wish you to dig holes. You will dig them, yes? The materials can be handled as it comes up. You do not need to concern yourself with it further. As well as one more thing as a present.”

“Oh, alright,” Edmund said with a nod of his head.

“Do not… do not go backward. This is fine,” Rahak said, nodding their head quickly. “This is fine. I… one moment. Please. Wait.”

Rahak scurried off to the side and began speaking with someone.

That individual ran off.

“I am getting a map,” Rahak said, raising their volume to reach Edmund. “Your gift will be linked to this. Please… wait.”

A minute passed and the individual who’d run off came back at a trot along with a stack of papers.

“Yes, yes,” Rahak said coming back to Edmund. “Now… let us test this-mm-ability to ‘go back’ of yours. Once you show me the ability is real, then I will get you permission to dig. You will dig six holes in total, one for you, five for us.

“While you dig, I will notate all things that occur and-mm-do things. Then I will write a report, and you will give it to me earlier, yes?”

Edmund grinned, looking at the bird creature.

Rahak wanted him to do, the same thing he often did.

He suddenly liked this individual very much.

“Alright… six holes, and I help you ‘see the future’ in a way,” Edmund confirmed.

“Yes! This is very-mm-good for our country. Thank you. You will be a good… friend… to us if this is real,” Rahak stated, their bird-like head bobbing up and down quickly. “Good friend, yes-mm-very good friend.”

***

“Right here!? Really? I can just… dig? Hahah, really?” Iren asked, bouncing in place for several seconds. She looked incredibly excited.

“Mm, yes? Yes, you can dig,” Rahak said. “You are… a Dragon? Are you sure?”

“Yeah! I totally am. Oh man, I haven’t gotten to dig just to dig in a while! This’ll be fun,” Iren said, stripped out of her sports-bra, shorts, and flicked them at Eddie. “Here Teddy. Sniff my shorst, okay?”

Raising his eyebrows, Edmund had no idea what to say to the naked Dragon about that.

Still bouncing around, Iren seemed quite happy to be naked in front of him. Staring at him even as she jiggled in place.

Only to laugh, shift into her Dragon shape, and almost immediately begin digging.

The massive Green Dragon that was Iren began to claw, pull, and shove the dirt right out of the way. Flinging it just about behind her as she went. A large mound quickly forming as she went.

“It’s been so long!” squealed Iren even as he claws scrabbled over a large boulder, then flung it off to the side. Sending it tumbling around and then falling still. It was easily the size of a volkswagon bug.

Giggling madly Iren looked more akin to a gigantic dog that’d been left outside too long and was now bored. Bored and attempting to keep itself busy.

“She is a Dragon,” Rahak stated, looking to Edmund.

“Yeah, she is. Green Dragon,” Edmund confirmed. “The Dragon we saw earlier, was that a Red Dragon?”

“Earth Dragon,” Rahak stated.

“That’s weird. I feel like an earth dragon should be green or brown,” Dot murmured, staring out to the north.

Edmund had also been staring out to the north before Iren and Oz had found the exact place to begin the digging.

That was because to the north was where an entire military encampment was. Along with a lot of barricades, soldiers, defensive emplacements, and fancy looking spells.

On the near side of the river was another defensive fortification. Filled with a great deal of wooden and stone structures that looked as if they’d caught a lot of arrows, stones, and spells.

“But maybe I’m used to all the Dragons I’ve seen in Legion and Yosemite,” Dot murmured almost more to herself. “I’ve never actually seen Dragons here. I honestly didn’t even know there were any. I’m originally from what I suppose you’d call Brittany and that’s quite far to the west from here.”

Edmund walked closer to Dot and out of the way of Iren. Who was now already digging to a point that she only had her back legs braceda gainst the surface. Most of her upper half was in the hole now.

He set her booty-shorts, because that’s what they were really, over his shoulder along with her sports bra. As if it were entirely normal.

“That’s where your tower is?” Edmund asked.

“Yes,” Dot said with a nod of her head. “Ryker and I are from the same area.”

“So… he really was human first?” Edmund asked quietly, glancing over to where Alina and Harper were quietly talking to one another. They were discussing something about the Log last he’d heard but hadn’t wanted to join the conversation. “Because I’ve seen him and Runner… build… the universe.

“If he was mortal, before that, doesn’t that mean there are worlds that predate his godhood?”

Dot snorted at that, turned her head partially to the side, and looked at him with a side-eye.

“Yes,” she said finally, then looked back out to the encampment. “This is where it all started from what I’ve figured out and can understand. This is where Ryker and Runner began.

“They became gods here. In this world. Then they took their divinity from here, and built out all the other worlds. This is the birthplace of everything, because it was here first, and gave the power for others to leapfrog outward from here.

“And no, I don’t actually know much more than that before you ask. I met Ryker when I was just… a kid. Same with Runner. Got this scar in fact defending my new home that was with Ryker.”

Dot had said it quietly while touching the scar on her face.

“I’d been a homeless orphan before that. Without… without anything,” she said after a brief pause. “Ryker came along and taught me magic. Him and Shirley. Gave me a home, a way to defend myself, and a lot of reasons to fight.

“I’ve been moving along in that direction ever since then. Moving along and trying my best to help out where I could. To pay back whatever I could to Ryker and his cause for all that he gave me.

“Which after meeting Dot-e, I clearly didn’t realize how bad my life would’ve been without Ryker forgiving my uncle. Forgiving my uncle and becoming who he is now, which allowed me to become who I am now.”

“Hey, I like Dot-e,” Edmund argued.

“You just like her cause she dressed hotter than me and id her makeup better. Even if it was a goth-girl thing,” Dot muttered, looking at Edmund again. “Don’t think I don’t remember my ‘villain cam-girl’ days, as you called it. I did incorporate most of those memories in the end, you know.”

“Ugh, I really didn’t like how you dressed during that period,” Edmund said with a shake of his head. “It didn’t feel like you at all.”

“It wasn’t,” Dot said with a laugh. “It wasn’t. In retrospect, I can clearly tell it wasn’t me in my own mind. I just wish I understood how Zeus did it. Claire doesn’t quite understand it either, but she said she can tell a clear difference as well.”

“Holy shit it’s a big ass chunk of iron, haha,” Iren called out.

Edmund looked over his shoulder again and managed to look at the right time to see Iren appear in the hole. She’d dug down far enough, fast enough, that she’d had to get into the hole.

She had a massive hunk of glittering red metal in her clawed hands.

With nothing more than another laugh, she stuck it down to the side.

“Hey bird girl. Want a shiny rock?” Iren teased with a laugh.

“I-mm-most certainly want the shiny rock,” Rahak agreed, followed by a rueful chuckle as she inspected the large hunk of iron. “Thank you.”

“Yep, yep, yup. More dirt!” Iren said and vanished back into the hole.

“Like a giant dog,” Dot whispered to herself, looking away from Iren as she dug.

“I had the same tho—”

A barrage of arrows flew up and out of the camp he and Dot were watching all at once.

“Oh shit,” whispered Edmund, grasping his Save-state immediately.

Only to stand there with a shocked feeling runnign through him as Dot simply battered the arrows away with a flick of her hands. A massive cloud of gray spell-power moved forward and then to the side with her gesture. Enveloping the arrows and simply absorbing their power.

Sending them crashing to the grass, into the water, or amongst the defenses on either side of the river.

This action from Dot was followed by her holding her hand up in front of herself in a ‘stop’ gesture.

A shimmering gray wall appeared in front of her a second before several flaming, spiraling, or just shimmering arrows struck it.

There were seven or eight of them and they were all suspended in the wall Dot had made. Glittering with magical effects and other things that clearly were aimed for Edmund and his group.

Two were clearly aimed directly at Edmund and would’ve connected with him before he had even realized he was being targeted. Somehow, in some way, Dot had known it was coming, was ready for it, and had acted before he had known there was a problem.

“Thanks Dot,” Edmund whispered, feeling rather strange about the situation.

“It’s one of the reasons I’m here, Teddy my love,” Dot replied in a murmur, sighed, and flicked the hand downward that she’d been holding in front of herself. “One of the reasons. Thanks… for playing along by the way. I know we haven’t been intimate since my villain cam-girl days but the others don’t know that.”

Edmund chuckled at that and shrugged.

He had no idea what game they were all playing with one another, but Adeena had already told him not to get involved. Or at least, told him not to get involved in her own way.

That they were all living their lives and were having fun with the situation.

“How long will we be here?” Dot asked, looking to him again.

“Iren said she’d dig the fastest at the top, where it’s soil. The deeper she goes, the slower it’ll go,” Edmund answered. “Which means probably a few weeks. Which is fine. This is technically the time period where normally Ryker and Runner go to fight Zeus.

“We only need to do this once and then I can Save-state it or just Shadow-state it all into place. Just have to get there the first time which… is pretty fucked.”

“Yeah, I get that,” Dot said in a near whisper, her eyes still glued to Edmund. Then she gave him a beautiful smile. “As a woman who just needed to be rescued once, I can certainly understand. That does mean that I have several weeks to work up the courage to get into your bed though.”

“Good luck with that,” Edmund answered and looked back to their private encampment that was just beyond a small rise. Where Ellie was currently setting up a camp by encouraging the very trees, bushes, and grass, to construct it for her. “I get the impression Ellie has designs on me and she’s tired of playing nice.”

“Ah, yes, I did notice that,” Dot grunted out then looked across the river to the enemy encampment. Her lips curled up into a grimace and she shook her head. “Because of course the beautiful Dryad decides she’s done playing nice right around the same time I work up the nerve to make a move.”

“Isn’t it because you worked up the nerve, that she’s deciding to not play nice anymore? Alina is clearly in the same boat,” Edmund offered up as if it were comforting.

It was true, too.

Alina had been giving him a lot of attention, a lot of pouting, and a lot of smiles and touches. Leaning deeply into the new personality she’d developed after absorbing all the different iterations of herself.

She even threw out a number of flirty comments and jokes at times.

Dot huffed, grunted, clicked her tongue, and then promptly folded her arms under her breasts.

“I suppose you’re right. When everyone finally figured out that they wanted to move forward, Ellie finally started moving to stake her claim,” Dot acknowledged. “I feel like Harper is the only one who hasn’t made a move though. Has she?”

Edmund wasn’t about to discuss the fact that he had gone back to the Zeus world and spent several nights with Harper there, in a bed, and exploring things most childhood friends never did.

“That’s a question you should be asking her, not me,” Edmund replied, rather than answering her directly.

“Damnit. Alright. Then… villain camgirl energy, but… traditional Dot looks and emotional beats,” Dot said with a sharp nod of her head. “I can do this. I can do it.”

Edmund only watched the military encampment across the way.

He noted that there were a number of units from this side of the river getting ready. As if they were planning an attack of some sort.

“I am-mm-testing responses,” Rahak stated, coming up on Edmund’s other side. “It is fortunate that you’re our friend and we can test the enemies resolve and defenses without having to actually do so.

“Yes, yes, it’s quite-mm-the royal gift you’re giving us. We thank you for giving us guarantees as well. That was very… handy.”

Edmund only laughed at that, then looked back at Iren.

His plan was simple.

Follow through with the gift, then, bring over Farady and Cashatok to help Iren dig. So they can bulldoze through all six holes in no time at all.

In the end, all he’d had to do was give them a cart full of gold-bricks as an assurance of his power, which Dot ‘borrowed’ from Ryker. Given that they were moving their army about, he imagined the cart of gold would offset the cost of lost soldiers in case Edmund was fooling them.

Which made sense.

And really, given all the madness that Edmund and his group had been committing to in Ryker’s labs, taking his gold really didn’t seem like a stretch.

More than a few of his work areas had been turned into living spaces after all.

“No worries,” Edmund muttered.

Only for Dot to deflect a fireball moving with such speed that Edmund didn’t even have a chance to blink before it struck a shield she threw up. Sending the spell high and wide.

“Maybe… it’s time to fall back a bit. Iren’s made a nice big ol’ dirt pile to hide behind,” Edmund grumbled and began walking away quickly.

Dot seemed unbothered by the attacks by Edmund certainly felt unnerved. He saw no reason to stand around inviting attacks.