The Quantum Wanderer

I turn to the girls.

“Girls, they are about to arrive. We should get back to the main square.”

The sales clerk leaves the back room, he stays behind the counter. We leave the stuff we were inspecting behind, and leave the store. We start walking our way back to the main square. Half our way there, a bell start tolling. It has some urgency to it.

The elves around us start running in panic. In a very short time, the streets become way emptier. We keep walking towards the main square. Now the streets are empty, windows closed. We can still feel the eyes on us.

We arrive on the main square, and we see a dragon landing, and assuming the submissive position. Piotr. He is alone.

“Piotr salutes the Soul Devourer.”

I take a look around.

“You can be at ease. Where is the dryad eater?”

Piotr doesn’t move.

“He refused to come. We could have overpowered them, my lord, but I wanted to make sure you wanted to go that route before we took action.”

“Thank you. You can stand up.”

I feel some murder intent coming from my back. I turn around. Dark mana is emanating from Ruby and Shandon. The only person in the group that not as angry is Cecilia. Opal and Aquamarine are equally angry as their sisters, but they don’t have the same amount of mana leaking out. Huginn, on my shoulders, tighten her claws. The wood around Shandon and Ruby start to spoil slowly. I open a portal to the Nursery, big enough for Piotr as well.

We all move out to Piotr’s cave entrance before the girls do more damage on the ground.

The dragonesses are still angry. I turn to Muninn.

“Muninn, can you please send a crow to Skylar? I would like to have a short conversation.”

“Sure, father.”

After a little moment, I see myself in front of skylar. He is laying down on top of a roof, while troops down bellow are active doing their thing. He has a very bored look. I approach him.

“Good afternoon, councilor.”

He turns his head, he looks at me, then turns his head back to normal position, closing his eyes.

“Good afternoon, councilor. What do you want?”

“Some of your clan in the Nursery have been… Creating issues.”

He looks like I have just told him that the sky is green.

“And…? Do you really need my help to deal with some adults and hatchlings?”

“No, I just want to make sure I don’t start a war.”

He laughs.

“Over pests in the Nursery? Who the fuck gives a shit about them? Have fun.”

I get back. Hum. This is better than I expected. I turn to the girls.

“We have a go-ahead from Skylar.”

Opal looks at me with a weird expression.

“Why did you ask, my lord? Do you really think he would risk his neck over a couple of petty idiots?”

I shrug.

“Next time I will just check with you, I realize you know more about the protocols. Anyway, lets get back to business. Piotr, what is the name of the dryad eater?”

“Visix, my lord.”

“My lord, I don’t think you should involve in this. Why don’t we just remove his head and be done? Let me do it.” Shandon says.

I smile at them. I mention what I am thinking.

“I expected Ruby to say that, to tell you the truth.”

Ruby shrugs.

“I thought that you would enjoy it a little bit, it is so hard to have something better than a fenrir to kill… Now it’s too late.”

I giggle at it a little bit. I turn to Cecilia.

“Keep close to me. Really close.”

“Why?”

“You will see…” I have a mischievous expression. “Just don’t get far from me.”

“Ok.”

We go to the end of the cave. The small part of land looks over the crown of mountains around, several caves in arch format sprouting around. The valley is extensive. I can hear the life around flowing. The dragons talking in their growling language, some bickering. Some sound of birds that are too small to be considered food using the dragons as shield against bigger predators. I start to prepare myself.

I cast a sanctuary spell to keep replenishing the mana. Inside the ley line, it has a huge effect. I reinforce my brain and my senses. Time stops to craw. This is not the effect I desire, though. I don’t want to have this much time dilatation. I want my body to be able to respond immediately, but I don’t want to be stuck in this slow moving pace.

I use the magic and the amount of mana to make this my current normal state. I force the time passing to make me perceive normal time as an illusion. That is going to allow me to react to anything based off mana interaction rather than limited biological responses.

I turn to the girls first.

“You are going to feel heavier than normal. Endure it a little bit.”

I turn to the entrace and get close to the edge. I put a lot of mana on my voice. This is the strongest war cry I have used yet. I also project gravity magic. I increase the weight of everything around by several times.

“VISIX! COME OUT NOW! YOU HAVE ATONE FOR YOUR DISRESPECT!”

The sound of life that was gone. There was an eerie silence around. No whisper. No birds moving. No little wild rats moving between the rocks. The silence was absolute. I let some time go by, to make sure that the little trouble creator is really not coming out. I turn to Piotr.

“Piotr, which cave is the trouble maker’s?”

Piotr comes close to the edge. He points with his nose.

“That one, my lord.”

“Thank you.”

I cast a fly spell on me and Cecilia, I take her with me while we float towards that cave. The cave in question is close to the floor of the valley, just a mere 100 feet from the creek in the bottom. Considering that dragons are like cats, they like to see things from above, this is not the cave of a very important… dragon.

I float in front of it, Cecilia is right behind me. The girls are about a hundred behind, a little higher. I put mana on my voice, and repeat my self.

“VISIX! COME OUT NOW!”

I can see the ball of mana in the back of the cave. He is in. Another dragon from the same complex of caves comes down, and float between us and the dryad eater.

“STOP! WE ARE NOT YOUR CLAN!”

The dragon is a little too close to comfort, I prepare for a fight.

“Visix disrespected my hunting ground.”

“Pray tell, human, what hunting ground?”

“The land of the elves belongs to me. It is my hunting ground.”

“Oh? Who did you decide that with?”

“Skylar.”

The dragon turns his head up, and starts laughing. I sense the mana wave. I step back, so that Cecilia and the dragon are in my line of site. I cast a soul absorption, targeting the dragon, making Cecilia the recipient of the experience.

The dragon’s head fly away mid laughter. His neck becomes a fountain of blood, throwing the red liquid high up in the air with each heart beat. The head is still in the air when the dragons body starts falling down. Ruby is at the point the head was severed. I look at her, brows up.

“What, my lord? He laughed! At YOU!”

I giggle a little. I can understand that she is being protective.

“It’s ok, thank you.”

Cecilia starts feeling the pressure of the abundance of experience. A quick euphoria, the experience of ingrained inherent knowledge that was on the edge of the high level soul permeating her body, changing her as she advanced.

Then the pain caused by the changes, and she goes limb, unconscious. I princess carry her.

“Shandon, do you want to make the honors?”

Shandon floats down, staying in front of us. She goes eerily slow inside the cave, I follow her, carrying Cecilia. There is still some more experience for her. Se is unconscious, but it would still work. The hatchling is shaking in the back of the cave.

“HIS SOUL! Soul Devourer! Please! I am sorry! I didn’t mean…”

The small dragon is still a big beast. Still over 70 feet. Shandon is oozing mana with kill intent. She is now floating slowly, approaching the dragon. The dragon is scraping the back of the cave. He leaves scratches on the rock, but he is not going to be able to dig himself out of this. The cave only has one exit, and it is blocked by an angel of death oozing killing intent.

She absorbs the light around, it looks like she is making shadows. The little dragon throws a breath against her. She gets out of the front of it. I throw a sanctuary spell and remove the oxygen. The fire doesn’t reach Cecilia and I.

Shandon is now to the right of the dragon, and she attacks him with her open hand, clawing out a part of the his jaw.

I put on the soul absorption spell, redirecting it to Cecilia. Shandon hits the dragon in the head with a microwave maser, and fries his brain. He falls down, still hot. Very hot.

Cecilia jerks in my arms. I can feel the experience getting absorbed by her. I turn to Shandon.

“Do you mind bringing the hatchling?”

“Sure, my lord.”

We turn around. I am floating out with Cecilia, and Shandon is dragging the carcass by the back of the neck. The other body is laying down in front of the cave, but on the ground. I go down. I think about opening a portal to my safe, but we are too close to it.

I open a portal to the main square in the elven city. We all go through it, carrying the carcasses. Once we are outside the portal, some dryads come over, around a dozen of them. The big dragon is still dripping blood on the floor. It is going down the drains. The smaller one lost a piece of his jaw, but is otherwise intact on the outside.

The dryads are all together, over each other’s shoulder, like curious children. One of them puts out her hand. A rectangular bump comes up from the wooden floor, it starts raising and transforming to flowers. Lots of flowers. The platform raising up, the petals accumulating, it becames a bed of petals. I lay Cecilia on it.

The dryads get close to Cecilia. One of them pokes Cecilia on the cheek and looks at dragons’ carcass, then at me.

“How many dragons did kill? All of them?”

I giggle a little.

“No, just those two.”

She looks back at Cecilia.

“Big sister was already strong, but now… This is not two dragons’ worth…”

I tilt my head. She looks at me. She opens a wide smile.

“Big brother is fantastic! We are all impressed with big brother!”

The other dryads are nodding at her. I smile. They look really cute. The main difference between them are the colors on their clothes, hairs and skins. They are combing Cecilia’s hair, some flowers appear in her hair. I turn to them.

“I just came around to let you know that the matter is closed.” I take a look at the sun, it is close to setting now. “Can I come tomorrow?”

“Can you come?” They laugh musically. It is a mix of birds and creatures having fun. “You can always come! Big brother is always welcome!” “Most welcome!” another one say. The others are nodding.

I throw the two carcasses in my safe. I take Cecilia in my arms. We open a portal and go home. I put Cecilia on the bed. The girls and I hit the shower. Ruby is covered in blood. The other girls are a lot cleaner. We eat, and retire for the day. We sleep deeply.

Next morning, I wake up to a rumbling sound. I look at Cecilia.

“Your stomach is rumbling like a thousand storms…”

“Or like a congregation of elders, sister.” Opal giggles.

The girls wake up, one by one. We wash up and go down for breakfast. Cecilia is eating more than normal, she was really hungry. But then she wasn’t able to eat the night before, so it looks normal. Once she has her fill, she slides a little on the chair, she places her hand over her stomach.

“The food tasted better than normal.” She says.

“You ate almost like us, sister!” Ruby exclaims.

I giggle. Cecilia continues.

“What happened after I fell unconscious?”

“WERE YOU HURT?” Charles stands up and asks Cecilia.

I hold my hand up, in a conciliatory way.

“She just gained too much experience at once. She probably gained a couple of levels.”

Cecilia finally takes a look at her stats window. I smile while she phreaks out.

“FUCK! I’M GONNA SUCK YOUR COCK TO ETERNITY! I CAN’T BELIEVE THIS!”

I gesture with my head towards Charles. He is looking down, his right hand behind his neck. Lucille was looking at her plate. Cecilia puts her hand over her mouth.

“Sorry, papa.”

“Don’t worry. Nothing I haven’t heard yet. I just hoped I didn’t hear that from my precious little daughter.”

Cecilia hits herself in the head.

“Teehee!”

The dragonesses are still eating. Once they finish eating, we go back to our room. We get dressed again in our armors. I open the portal and we go into the elves square again. There are some stands around, a lot more than yesterday. The tops of the trees, that were brown are now with a lush green, several flowers around.

The smells are intoxicating. I feel like they can actually contain some opiates and THC. The happiness around is spreading like fire. There are some dryads on the square.

“Big brother!!! Big sisters!!! Welcome, welcome. We are preparing a party for our valiants brothers and sisters!”

The elven councilors approach, while I am looking around. Some branches rise from some places. Vines with leafs and small flowers cross around the square. The councilors get close.

“Good morning, lord Marcelo.”

“Good morning, lord Autumnstart.”

He looks around.

“I have to tell you, it has been a very long time the forest has been this happy. It even declared a day of tame.”

“What is a day of tame?”

A dryad approaches us, dancing to sound of wind passing throught the trees leaves.

“No prey, no predator for the day.” The little dryad answers. The council elf complements the answer.

“Every animal in the forest will be tame. No attacks are to take place. We can pet Fenrir pups while they feed in their mother’s tits and not get attacked.”

There are now three dryads where the previous one was alone. They are all nodding at me, self satisfied. Some tables are emerging from the ground. Some elves are sharing some fruits, there is a whole kind of electricity in the air.

We start to smell bread and cakes. The dryads turn to Cecilia.

“How are you big sister?”

“We hope it didn’t hurt too much…?”

“Big sister now is very strong!”

They have this electric way about themselves. They almost talk above one another. Almost. It is easy to get distracted by the sounds coming from all of them, almost at the same time.

The tables form. There are some fruits on it. There is a corner of the table that has this kind of bow embedded on the table. I hear a buzzing sound, this swarm of bees approach. Cecilia, Huginn and Muninn have some discomfort, but the bees land briefly on the table. The bow now has honey in it.

“You have a dagger to peel the fruits.”

“Don’t you,”

“Big brother?”

I peel a fruit, dip it in honey and taste it. It feels like lime with honey. The combination of tastes are exquisite. The elves start gathering around the tables. A quartet start playing a song, things get more and more excited.

The music has a nice rhythm to it. It is slower than the demons’ songs, less formal than the songs that play in balls for the humans. I take a look around. The blood that was had been on the ground now is completely clean. I wonder what they used.

Elves start coming around. The party is starting. One dryad touches me on my ribs. I turn around. She gestures me to bow down a little. I kneel down. She places a crown of flowers on my head. The girls have other dryads near them. They all receive flower crowns as well. I stand up. The music stops for a second. The elves are all staring.

A small wave goes through the ground, with us at the center. The elves all kneel down. I have a yellow smile on me. I don’t really enjoy the spotlight. I scratch the back of my neck.

“Please guys, I don’t really…”

“Sister, he is embarrassed!”

“Big brother is cute!”

The third one just laughs. I squat in front of them.

“Thank you, I appreciate the gesture. But can we all just get to normal?”

“Of course, big brother!”

“Everybody!”

“LET’S PARTY!!!!”

Life itself start making more noise around us. The noise pick a rhythm, a repetitive almost hypnotic rhythm. Then it speeds up a little. It becomes this danceable music. It is similar to the one played in the wedding, while going more towards a chaotic side and less formal.

One of the dryads turn back to me. She looks at Muninn, Huginn and then at me.

“You know, the secret about them is already kind of out… Don’t they want to stretch the wings a little?”

“May I, papa?” Huginn asks. She just knows how to press my buttons. Another Cecilia.

“Go ahead.”

Muninn and Huginn fly back, and assume their natural shapes. The elves stop in their tracks, staring at the two brâns. I turn to them.

“If it is something that you two enjoy, we can always do this more often.”

“That sounds good, father.” Muninn answers.

The elves start moving around. A lot of them staring at Muninn and Huginn suspiciously. The music gains a faster rhythm. This is fun. Autumnstart approaches us. He raises his cup.

“Surprise after surprise! Good morning, lord Marcelo! I have never seen a day of tame. There were some reports in history books, but we all thought that it was just stuff of legends.”

“Why didn’t you ask the dryads?”

“We did. But they only speak what they want. We have never really been able to have a normal conversation.”

I tilt my head. That has not been my experience so far. He laughs.

“Perhaps not with you, big brother.” He adds.

Another elf joins us. It is the sales clerk from the weapons shop. He has his head down.