Save State Hero 3 -ch 10-

Chapter 10

Edmund had spent at least five months further just watching over Sam, Leila, and Red. Rewinding to his previous Save-states and having Iren fly off to go search the areas for things they’d need to stave off an unfortunate end for the trio.

The Dragon would return with a creature, they’d release it into the nearby vicinity for the three people, and let them handle the rest. As if they’d found it all on their own without any help at all.

Day after day it all bled together. Watching them as they wandered about endlessly trying to find a way to civilzation or simply out of the situation they were in.

Except there was no civilization nearby that they’d be able to reach. Iren had scouted a significant ways in every direction. Without interceding directly, there wouldn’t be a way for these three to exit the area.

Which Edmund was loathe to do. He wanted to keep these three more or less sectioned off, then just return them to Vince at the right moment in time. The plan was to drop the three of them off around the time that Vince would be battling the Hungry One as Steve had called it.

Realistically, Edmund only had to do all of this once.

Once he had the Save-states, this timeline would become a Shadow-state and he could return to it at a later timer. At a later time, rip this section clean out, and stuff it into the current timeline.

Given that time didn’t work correctly here, he already knew it’d be fine as well.

Though he would have to find a place in this world where time was flowing backward so he could exit it at roughly the same point he’d gone into it.

Because if he wasn’t in the world when he returned to it, then there wouldn’t be a paradox. He’d just be taking his correct place as if he’d never left.

Or so we think.

“—name him Theodore,” Iren whispered, kissing and nibbling at Edmund’s neck and ears. Pressed in close to his side. Her clutch of eggs, despite how large they were, weren’t far. She carried them around as a dragon. Using the leathers and skins she’d stitched together from things she’d killed for them to eat. “Okay? Theodore.”

“Yes, dear. I hear you,” Edmund replied as warmly as he could manage. This wasn’t the first time Iren had gotten pushy with names. Nor was this the first run-through of this particular day. The trio he was watching over were dealing with a pack of wolf like creatures today and Sam had managed to get herself killed several times.

To the point that Edmund had Iren track the animals backward finally and kill one of them.

The trio could use the meat, blood, hearts, and skins for their survival so he didn’t want to eliminate them.

“I’m repeating things again aren’t I?” Iren asked, chuckled, then sighed, laying down on the ground next to him. “Sorry. Though I feel like I’m getting a better sense for this.”

Iren stretched out, then slumped into the ground.

“My clothes don’t fit again. I’m getting bigger again,” she said, peering up at him from where her head rested on he rarms. “I can’t explain it. When I asked Adeena about it before we left half a year ago, she told me not to worry about it. It’s hard to not worry about it though.”

“Want me to push on her?” Edmund asked, looking to her.

“Would you, Teddy? Thanks,” replied Iren with a warm smile, watching him. “I love you, you know.”

“I do know,” he answered, finally putting down the binoculars and looking at her.

Before he could say anything his phone started beeping loudly.

Wildly.

Then, behind him, a portal opened up.

“And there we are,” Dot said, peering at him through it. “The time’s complete on this side. It’s the day before the mission with everyone. How long has it been here? Hasn’t been that long here.”

“Long enough that I clutched and they’re going to hatch soon,” Iren answered then rolled over onto her back to look at Dot.

“Holy shit you’re huge, Iren,” Harper blurted out, coming to stand behind Dot. “You look like the other Dragon’s I’ve met at Legion do, now.”

“I know right?” Iren said, sighed and grabbed her boobs. “These got a lot bigger, too. I went from fitness thirst-trap to camgirl body. Ugh.

“But yeah, it really has been roughly what Time said. About six months I think.

“So… what next then? This was the part we were trying to get to, wasn’t it?”

“Kind of,” Edmund admitted, then snorted. “Now I need to get the next Save-state for when we would’ve pushed these people over to Vince’s world ready. After that, I need to find a place here that’s rolling backward.

“Then step through it so I can reappear before the mission and make all this happen. Which… is kinda crazy.”

“This’d make a pretty good gal-game,” Harper said, grinning at him a moment before Alina pushed in behind Dot and Harper to watch him over their shoulders.

Before anyone could say anything, Alina pushed her way through the portal, fell atop Edmund like a blanket, and went in straight to start drinking from his neck. Pushing in close and tight to him even as she began to gulp loudly.

“Dev, I—alright just… don’t kill me, hm?” Edmund said and put his arms around the vampire. With him being gone as long as he had, she had been forced to rely on drinking blood from others.

Which given her loud gulps, didn’t seem like it happened.

“She’s been blood free since you left,” Harper explained with  shrug. “Adeena promised me it wasn’t too long, it’d just make her twitchy and irritable.

“And it did. A lot. I nearly brained her twice. But here we are. Next checkpoint done. Bucket up I guess and get ready for the next.”

Edmund nodded his head.

Bucket up.

I… wait.

Would the helmet Ryker made actually help with the time here?

Mmm, I should wear it.

Edmund nodded his head even as he pet and caressed Alina’s back and the back of her head and hair. Holding her as she drank from him.

Iren unfolded a wing and covered himself and Alina with it.

“Where’s Ellie? I want to give my clutch to her to mom for me since it’ll be easier for her to tend to them tahn me,” Iren asked.

Alina’s arms tightened around Edmund and he just laid there.

Can I even consider leaving them behind as I thought anymore?

***

Edmund pulled the helmet down firmly over his head and moved it around a bit.

Dot had given it to him through the portal as well as a small pre-built spell she’d stuck in a cube. It’d open up to the place they wanted it to for Vince to get his companions.

“The fight went really badly this time, by the way,” Dot offered. “Really bad. I think… without you there, Ryker didn’t really… try hard as he normally does. Or maybe Runner doesn’t try hard.

“Whatever it is, without you there, it definitely doesn’t go as well. Ryker and Runner still won, but the losses were significant. I think Warner and Rene died outright.”

“Really?” Edmund asked sounding confused. “Oz? Any comment? Or Srit, if Oz is stuck.”

Edmund really couldn’t keep track of which one of them was with him at any given time anymore. The various Save-states all blended together anymore. It was all a blur in his mind and he couldn’t keep track of it.

“Yes, Edmund,” Oz said. “If you are not there, Runner and Ryker both do not try as hard. They assume merely that everything has failed, as without you there, the chances of victory are deeply reduced.

“Which in turn, plays against them and they do not try as hard. Which reduces the chances of victory.”

“Got it. Well. Good to know. I’ll have to make sure I find a damn spot in Australia that’ll let me go backward far enough to come back at the point that I went in,” Edmund said, laughed, and then paused. “But uh… huh… shouldn’t I be over there right now if it worked?”

“If it worked? Yes,” Oz confirmed. “You would be on the other side of the portal right now. Quite possibly talking to yourself.

“However, I cannot be sure.

“Time-travel and the calamity event that has ruined the continent of Australia is not something that is well understood. In fact, an interesting footnote about it is that—”

“Oz, thanks,” interrupted Edmund. He waved at those on the other side of the portal and began marching across the open plain toward Sam, Leila, and Red.

They would hold it open just to make sure the time of Australia didn’t squirm away and ruin things.

If this worked, Iren would be remaining with him as he went to try and find a time period that’d move them backward. If it didn’t, they’d have to figure out a different way to make this happen.

Edmund’s thoughts began to run away from him as he walked.

It was going to be a decent walk just to get to where the trio was. Edmund and Iren had always set themselves a significant distance away because otherwise, Sam, Leila, or Red, would sense them, or become aware of them.

I mean, a Shadow-state would work, wouldn’t it?

Maybe?

Maybe not.

Adeena won’t even tell me one way or the other, and when I texted Time about it, she just responded with a damn shrug emoji.

It’s worth trying a Shadow-state if this time shenanigan doesn’t work out.

“Who’re you!?” shouted the red-eyed beastkin as he marched toward them.

“A man in the wilderness who wants you out of his territory!” Edmund answered, holding his hands up in a type of surrender as he closed on them. “I’m wondering if you’re lost, however? Are you supposed to be here? Because this is my territory. I’ve never seen you before, you clearly have been killing my game, and it seems like you don’t belong. I’ve never seen people like you at all.”

The Gnome moved forward, put a hand on Red’s shoulder and lifted her chin up.

“You’re right. We don’t belong here. Where are we?” she asked, her tone much more neutral. Far more politically neutral and without hostility.

“Australia,” Edmund said, coming to a stop maybe ten feet from them. “You don’t belong here. You clearly belong elsewhere. If I could send you back, would you go? If you could leave right now, would you?

“You look like you wouldn’t survive out here much longer. That you’ve already been surviving by the skin of your teeth in fact. Isn’t that right?”

Edmund began pulling out the cube Dot had given him from his front pocket as he spoke.

“I don’t think that’s—” said the rather large fairy named Sam.

Edmund didn’t wait.

He didn’t have the time to, in fact.

Time was strange here and for all he knew, a day had already passed by because he’d moved so far away from the portal that was still open.

Even as Sam spoke, Edmund opened up the portal to Vince’s location.

Not even given them a chance, Edmund moved toward them, moving the cube as he did so.

The portal glided across the ground as he did so, and right over the three women. Pushing them through to the other side as if they’d walked through it.

With a flick of his hand, Edmund turned the cube around and looked to the three women who were now staring at him after turning around.

“The hell are you doing?” demanded Leila and lifted her hand upward as if she were about to cast a spell.

“Sending you home,” Edmund answered, then closed the portal by crushing the flimsy cube in his palm. “And done. Leila, Sam, and Red returned. Now I just have to see about that backwards time thing and go from there.”

Turning he started walking back to the portal.

Only to find the portal had closed at some point. Unless Iren had come through it before it had closed, he was now quite alone here.

Just himself and the wide open horror landscape that was Australia.

“Goodie,” Edmund hissed and kept walking back to the portal’s location.

On reaching where it should have been, all he found was the pack he’d prepared in advance and set down nearby. No Iren, no Dot, no-one.

Something had happened and he wasn’t quite sure what.

If he had to guess, it was opening a portal here that led elsewhere, while a portal that led here was already open. Australia and it’s calamity didn’t seem to operate by normal rules in any way shape or form.

“Well shit,” Edmund said, flung the pack up over his shoulder, and contemplated how to handle this. Part of him just wanted to run the Save-state back and try again. Make sure Iren was on this side of the portal when it closed.

Standing there, he considered that.

Then shook his head.

This was the first time he’d been on his own in a long while.

No Ellie, no Iren, no Alina, no Harper, no Adeena.

“Oz, any chance you can guide me to local temporal disturbances?” Edmund asked.

“I most certainly can do that, Edmund,” Oz answered immediately.

“So I don’t need the log or running this back to bring someone with me? I can do this by myself for once?” Edmund pushed.

“Yes, you most certainly could. It isn’t advisable, though,” Oz offered. “You should have someone with you just in case. Moving around without someone is a mistake and asking for problems.”

Edmund stood there, let out a slow breath, and considered what Oz had just told him.

Oz was right, of course.

Huffing, Edmund decided to load the Save-state from only minutes ago and run it back. He’d make sure Iren, Alina, or Ellie was with him.

With a thump, Iren in dragon form landed next to him and tipped her head to the side. Dumping a strange deer-like creature to the ground beside him.

“Oh hey, all done?” she asked with a laugh and watched him in her full sized Dragon self. She was far larger than she’d been when he first met her and everyone had noticed. She lowered her head down and laid it to the ground, watching him. “Does that mean we get to start moving around? I’ve had so much fun you know. Just… you and me.

“You’ve had long periods of time with everyone but me, really. Even Harper, technically. Not me though. This is nice. I even had my clutch and… I’m a mom. They’re just not born yet. Ellie will be a great aunt. She was so excited.”

Watching Iren, and truly listening to her, Edmund realized that Iren always gave him everything.

She gave him everything, threw herself completely into every situation, and never held anything back for herself. Often dying at his wish and need without even considering her own safety.

Smiling, he reached out, and rubbed the spot between Iren’s nostrils.

“Love you, Iren. I look forward to when we can have a clutch and keep moving forward with them, rather than resetting,” Edmund confessed to her. “Now… Oz is going to help us find some time gaps we can move into. See if we can’t go backward and figure this out.”

“Alright. Then we’ll have a nice quick roast, maybe some fun, and get going!” Iren said, her eyes crinkling as she watched him. “I’m rather excited.”

Shifting her head away, Iren shrunk down into her normal human sized version of herself and walked over to her kill. It was hard to not stare at her as she hadn’t been kidding about her physical changes.

“Oz, why is Iren changing so much? She’s changing between Save-states even,” Edmund asked as the large beautiful Dragon began breaking down the animal with her hands and claws.

“You are growing, she is growing with you. You have been growing for a long while, but Iren hasn’t had the chance to catch up with you given that it takes time for her body to mature,” Oz offered. “If we compared Iren to a human, she is nineteen years old. She is still growing.

“She has bonded with you and tied herself to you.

“Her growth is rapidly catching up to where she should be as a fully mature Dragon and your bonded Dragon. In a few months she’ll catch up.”

“Uhm… is this my real size then?” Iren asked, pausing after pulling the guts out of the animal. “Like, what I am right now? Or is all this going to get bigger.”

Apparently Oz had spoken aloud to the point that Iren could hear him.

“Bigger in several key areas that you have commented you are happy in previously to,” Oz offered.

“Really? Awesome. Can I compete with Ellie?” Iren asked in a squealing voice. “Will my ready for Eddie clothes end up being ridiculous?”

“I cannot comment on that. I can state however that few can physically compete with Ellie in her measurements, as she is now a reflection as to what Edmund wants at a level he cannot articulate. As the competition would be for Edmund’s favor, it is hard to argue when she becomes the emobidment of his prefrence,” Oz offered. “Now, I will begin stating coordinates that you will need to travel to so you can begin traveling backward. These will be precise, and in some cases, deviation will cause issues.

“Please pull out your notebook in your pocket Edmund and prepare to write them down. You may confirm them against the log and notate your map accordingly.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Edmund muttered and did as instructed.