The Quantum Wanderer

The houses are simple, there is apparently not much material around. The air is pretty dry. The little guy guiding us walk hurriedly. We arrive at a second wall, the guards in that wall are giving us bad looks.

However, instead of going in, we turn right, and we walk a little more until we reach another house. He opens the door, we all go in.

It is a completely empty space. The ceiling is very high, and there are no backdoors. The windows are very high as well, close to the ceiling.

After we all enter the place, the little guy is a lot calmer. I turn towards him.

“Hi, my name is Marcelo. Can we talk now?”

The little guy gives out a big sigh of relief, and clears his throat.

“My name is Garruk. Yes, now we can talk.”

“What is going on around here? Are you guys afraid of the goddess?”

“Shhh! The most we mention is Her! Don’t say her title or her name. That can invite trouble.”

“Is she this terrifying?”

“To us, she is. She doesn’t like us, the mutts. The mixed blood. Her law says that we should not exist. That’s why we were trying to give you jobs, and dispatch you inside quickly. The less you move around, the smaller the chance of being discovered.”

“Jobs? What if Akiko did not want to work for the lord’s mansion?”

He shrugs.

“She would be free to go. She wouldn’t go very far, but she is free to go.”

“What about the guards with the lances pointed towards us?”

“I am just a city worker. Do you want me to receive strangers without any escort? We have reports in the past of people that tried to stir trouble.”

I keep staring at his face. I messed up bad. Muninn starts laughing. He jumps out of my shoulder, assuming his big size when he hits the ground.

“You got lucky, little Garruk. I was about to destroy the lord’s palace.”

“You would have been stopped by our elites.”

I tilt my head. Ruby laughs, and answers.

“He destroyed a whole city in seconds! Believe me, it would be gone before anyone realized what was going on.”

He looks at me, I nod. He looks at Cecilia, she nods. He looks at Akiko, and she also nodded, and complemented.

“No one knows that it was him, but the city destruction became widespread information in the whole continent.”

I clear my throat.

“Anyway, I am sorry. I thought we were being made slaves, and that one guy was looking at my wives in a… weird way.”

He shrugged and sighed.

“I am neither guard nor judge. Frankly, there were some weird stories about Varg… But let’s put it aside for now. I assume you are all humans, right? Other than those… Those…”

“The current word we have is brâns. Cecilia, Akiko and I are humans. Opal, Aquamarine, Shandon and Ruby are dragons.”

He tilts his head, looking at the girls.

“You don’t look like dragons.”

Shandon shrugs at the comment. The dragonesses are getting bored with the talk, probably. Muninn snorts.

“You are worried about her noticing a bunch of humans, and you want to see four full fledged dragons in the city? HAHAHAHA! Do you use crayons to fill in your paper work? HAHAHA”

Muninn is really not helping. Ruby laughs, the other girls smile. Garruk didn’t quite enjoy the joke, though. I try to change the subject.

“That aside, how can we get to the g… her? There are some people that have been kidnapped, and we want them back.”

Garruk laughs with some inner joke.

“I am sorry, that was out of line as well. Very well, we do have some commerce that happens with the country of Wings. They are one of the people that work in her service, be warned. They are the closest to us.”

I open my mouth to keep the conversation, when the door opens. Through it comes another beastkin. This one looks like a rat, the fur around his nose all white. The color changes gradually to black around his head, and the rest of his body is a deep black. He walks with a cane, evidently using it for support, not for fashion.

He turns around, closes the door. Then comes towards us, no hurry, just some calm.

He stops right in front of the table, looks in all directions, taking the air in the place. He sighs, and then turns to the other beastkin.

“So, Garruk, are these our new guests?”

Garruk bows to the new beastkin.

“Good afternoon, elder Hameln. Yes they are.”

The elder nods with his head. His whiskers move up and down while he takes a look at us.

“Humm… Humm…”

He keeps staring at each of us very slowly. A very weird silence goes on while he does that. Finally, he takes the last seat in the table.

“How should I address you? Child of the stars?”

“Huh? What do you mean?” I ask him.

The rat beastkin twists his whiskers, and assumes a formal position, as if reciting some official law.

“I am taking a guess. There is a prophecy going around.

“From a place hidden behind the stars,

“He will come, forced not offered,

“A king that would not be,

“Ahead of people that are not,

“Justice his own, enlightened by chaos, held by order,

“To take away the will of the land.”

I let him finish while I rub my chin. Because of my past as a student, I have always been wary of prophecies. I also don’t know if I fit the bill. Though I do fit the first line, I don’t really want to show more than needed.

“That sounds like a nice prophecy. Do you have any idea on what it means?”

The ratkin opens a smile.

“An explanation for our behavior. For her behavior. Generally, spirited would die in the desert before reaching our city. Those that arrive here should be taken to the tengus.”

“And what do the tengus do with those people?” I ask, interested.

“When we see a troop of armored soldiers, well armed, flying in in the city, we don’t really try to ask too many questions.” The ratkin answers.

At that point a group of people, in civilian clothing, enter the place. They are carrying some fruits and some water. We stop talking while the put the stuff on the table. I look at Opal out of curiosity, she calmly nods at me.

The people leave the place, the ratkin continues.

“Anyway, how can I address you?”

“Oh, sorry. I am Marcelo. The are my wives Cecilia, Shandon, Opal, Ruby and Aquamarine. And this one is Akiko. These are Muninn and Huginn, my kids?”

The ratkin nods at everyone.

“Nice to meet you, ladies, and… Gentlemen…?”

The look he uses for Muninn and Huginn contains a lot more respect than the one he uses for me and the girls. But then Muninn and Huginn are in their normal forms. For me they look like two cute birds, but I understand how the size and the four eyes can make someone uncomfortable.

We all have some water. The ratkin cleans his whiskers, and turns to us.

“So, uh, lord Marcelo, what are your plans?”

I smile.

“Just Marcelo is fine. Our problem is that we have had some friends… Taken. We just want them back.”

“Do you know who took them? The tengu? The fox people?”

“Does it make any difference?” I ask.

“Perhaps. The tengu are more of a military unit. They are… Dare I say… Practical. The foxkin are personal servants, you could call them… Entertainers. Whether blessed or cursed, they are very close to her. Toys are kept whole a little longer than enemies.”

I scratch my chin. Our situation just improved, even if a little bit.

“Where can I find the foxkin?”

“Like I said, they are the ones closest to her. The foxkin live in the Forbidden Land. Others are forbidden of going there, only her and the foxkin reside there. That land is encircled by military forces, the Country of Wings being one of them. That’s where the tengu live. We are outside their land. These are the Resonance Wastes, where the mixed and undesired can come to be ignored.”

I keep thinking that if they come here to be ignored, what would happen with being discovered.

“And what can you tell me about these places?”

“I can tell you what you see. This land has distortions. There are bubbles in the air where it seems that time is slower. This apparently interferes with her vision. Other than that, she knows everything. The land was birthed out of her will.

“Our land is this desert, and in that direction one can reach the Country of Wings. The border is very hard to miss. We don’t have much information about that land, though; I know that there are some cliffs, and it looks like the land was designed for a people with flying abilities. This information comes from past disgraced tengu that ended up in the Wastes.”

This gets me curious.

“Disgraced tengu? What did they do?”

The elder turns his back on us, and lowers his shirt. There is a pair of very small black wings amidst the fur.

We stay in silence while he brings the shirt up, and ties it back. He then walks past the room, and to the door. He steps outside, and talks to the guard. He comes back.

I taste the fruit they offered, it is very sweet. Impossibly so.

“This is good!” I mention.

“Thank you. We don’t have much to offer, though; this is a desert.”

“Do you guys also hunt, outside the city?”

“Yes, some hunters do. They come back with a desert ant or beetle every once in a while.”

I keep thinking about the city in the middle of the desert. We already have a lot of kraken steak on us. That thing we killed does not look tasty.

“We killed a monster on the way here, do you want the remains? It is a gift.”

“Sure. What monster?”

“It looks like worm, one end is this mouth, with a lot of teeth? What do you guys call it?”

“We call it Hulud. Congratulations on killing a child hulud. We are definitely enjoy it.”

If they call that thing a child hulud, I am curious to the size of the parents. I stand up from the table, and get a lot further down the big building.

When I am far enough, I bring out the corpse from my holding bag. I clean my hand with fire, and get back to the table. I notice that both Garruk and Hameln have the hairs in the back of their heads standing up.

I turn to them.

“How big do those things get? If this is the infant…”

“What? Oh. Oh, lord Marcelo… That is an adult one, not an infant. I just didn’t… Nevermind…”

We have this weird silence. Garruk is taking deep breaths, he manages to calm himself down. The hair in back of Hameln’s back goes down slowly, but his poker face is a lot better.

Garruk goes over to the dead beast slowly. He pokes the side a couple of times. Then he comes back to the table.

“Thank you, lord Marcelo. This is… This is going to feed a lot of families.”

“Okay. Good.”

After a moment of silence, where Hameln was taking a sip of the water, he asks.

“May I ask how was the battle?”

I look at Ruby, she is grinning from ear to ear. I let out a small giggle. I stand up. I go behind Ruby, and I place one hand on each of her shoulders. She places her head on my right hand.

“My wife Ruby here is the one that did the kill.”

Ruby sets her head straight.

“That thing was not qualified to face our lord.”

Hameln stretches his head forward.

“Is lord Marcelo stronger than you?”

“YES! He is the one that made me stronger as well.” She answers with enthusiasm.

I smile. I kiss the top of her head and head back to my seat.

“The true answer is that we are not ever going to know. They are my wives, why would we ever fight? Besides, after the evolutions, things could have changed.”

“But my lord, you killed Malagar in single combat, he was strong than us.”

I giggle.

“Key word is ‘was’. I think that right now any of you girls could face Skylar, for instance. Just, please, don’t create trouble.”

“Never, my lord.” She says with a smile.

Muninn breaks out laughing.

“Well, father, if we have to be honest, the wife behind winterizing and the final exam at the academy was mother Opal, right?”

The girls and I take a look at Opal, she is embarrassed. Her red cheeks contrast with her white hair and noble demeanor.

We laugh. Hameln twists his head.

“Winterizing? What is that?”

“Do you guys have seasons here?”

“What is that?”

“So, in other lands, depending on the place, the temperature and amount of rain varies according to the months in the year. Some months it is colder, some months it is hotter. The hot part of the year is the Summer, followed by Fall when the temperature starts to drop, then Winter, then Spring.

“In some places, Winter is really cold, with ice and snow. So trees let their leaves go, and keep mostly only roots and trunk alive.

“That being said, a kid challenged Opal for a duel. I asked her to not kill him. So she winterized him, you know? No fruit, no seeds.”

Both Garruk and Hameln were looking at me, they slowly move their head to look at Opal. She was satisfied with the account. Muninn was just laughing really hard. We started laughing a little too, the scene was funny.

Garruk and Hameln laugh without much enthusiasm.

The door to the place opens, and a squirrelkin girl, with heavy animal features, enters the place.

“Excuse me, elder, I was told to…”

At this point, she starts looking up from the table, to stare at the worm lying on the floor after it.

“Kiik”

She turns around, but the elder screams.

“GABI!”

She freezes, the fur on the back of her neck and her tail fully raised.

“WAIT! Come here!”

Hameln then softens his stance.

“Everything is alright, this very, very dead worm is a gift from lord Marcelo…”

She starts turning around, slowly. She breaths deeply for some time, and then comes to the table. She takes a bow to both Garruk and Hameln. Muninn and Huginn assume their small size, while landing on the table.

“How can I help you, elder?”

“Our friends, lord Marcelo here and his wives, want to go to the Country of Wings. I need someone brave enough, and with the knowledge of the trails, to take him there. Are you up for the job?”

It’s easy to see Gabi’s tail twitching when he mentions brave enough. I almost giggle. She hits her chest.

“Yes, elder! I will do it!”

“Great. Your portion of the worm will be waiting for you.”

“Thank you, elder! When do we leave?”

“I think you would be better off leaving tomorrow morning. The day is coming to an end.” He turns to us. “Can I offer you a room in my humble house?”

Opal, Cecilia and I nod our heads a couple of times. We all stand up, get out of the storeroom, and move toward the inner part of the city.

On the way, after a gesture from Hameln, Garruk dispatches instructions to the guards. Probably related to the dead worm.

The internal part of the city has a lusher green. There is a castle close to it, but there is a lot of movement in and out of there.

There are a couple of larger houses around it. We are following Hameln into one of those. He points to the castle.

“We built something a little more… Intimidating… To serve as a city center. It exists before my time. I hope that it doesn’t get used as a house after I am gone.” He sighs.

We go into a house. It has two floors, but it is not a particularly large house. He knocks on the door.

A dogkin with an apron. She looks at us. She sighs.

“Really, Ham? Again?” She complains, with a female voice. Her tail slaps the ground. “How many this time? Seven people? Do you think the pantry is magical? My ass is not a bag of holding!” She sighs, shaking her head. “I am sorry, guest. This is not something I should have said in front of guests. It’s just that I would really appreciate a heads up on my dear husband inviting people over.”

“Don’t forget the two crows.” Muninn says while laughing. Hameln feels the staring gaze.

“Oh, don’t mind us. We actually carry our own food. I wouldn’t mind sharing, but I don’t know what kind of effect it would have on you. You know, spirited meat.”

“Lord Marcelo, this is Lupelia, my lovely wife.” He extends his hand, and scratches her behind the ear. She mellows out. “Love you too, dear.”

She sighs.

“Get in, get in. Do you want me to prepare your meat? Do you want a drink?”

“Thank you, lady Lupelia.” I answer.

Cecilia takes a step forward.

“Believe me, I understand you. Our hubby is also always creating a confusion wherever he goes. And then he brings stuff home that you wouldn’t believe.”

We go inside. Lupelia turns towards the stairs and gestures to us.

“Follow me guests. You mentioned that he is your husband? Are all of you wives to him?”

“No, lady Akiko here is our friend.”

Luperlia turns around and looks at the group. Akiko bows down. Luperlia nods. Luperlia shows us to one room, and Akiko to another, side by side. We go inside ours.

It is a simple room, with a large bed. There is a bathroom, but it has some wet tissues, there is no flowing water, though.

We clean ourselves with the wet towels, it has some magic in it. It is freshening, actually. We clean out the goo that had remained after our “fire bath” from before.

“So, my lord, what now?” Opal asks.

“We are going to rest for the night here, and tomorrow morning we go to the next land. After that, we go to her capital.”

Ruby looks at the bed. She has a disappointed face on her.

“Do you think we all fit in the bed?”

“I am going to do some meditation. You girls take the bed.”

The dragonesses look disappointed, each their own way. Each their own person.

“For now, “ I continue, “ let’s go downstairs and have dinner with our hosts.”

We dress in something casual, and go downstairs. Akiko is already there, talking with the couple. Lupergia’s humor improved by a lot. She was placing her hand on Akiko’s arm, laughing.

“I would just love to see something like that…”

They silence up as we enter the room.

“Honored guest! We were just waiting for you.” Akiko says.

“Sit down, I will bring the food in.”

We sit around a dining table, there are seats for everyone. Lupergia brings food to the table. After the food is on the table, she sits down, gestures towards the food.

“Nothing too fancy, but it was prepared with care.”

“Lord Marcelo, this is a part of the beast you slayed.” Hameln gestures towards the meat.

I look at the steak it doesn’t strike me as fancy. I look at Opal, she is throwing me a sad face, looking for help.

“I am sorry, sir, but our situation is… weird. Can I just have big plate? I will drop some of my spirited steak in there, it should be safer for us…”

“Of course!” Hameln says, but Lupergia is the one that stands up and brings a very large plate. the plate. I put a chunk of kraken meat in it. The normal supper amount. Twenty pounds per dragoness, almost a pound for me, another half a pound for Cecilia, five pounds for each brân… Almost a hundred pounds of meat slab on the plate. It is a very large plate, yet the slab is higher than wide.

Opal gives out a long sniff. Both Hameln and Lupergia tilt their heads. Lupergia hits Hameln on the shoulder.

“Did you invite more people?”

“I swear I didn’t, Lulu.”

I giggled a little and then added.

“As I mentioned before, my wives eat more than usual.”

They both looked at Akiko. She nodded.

Then they looked at Cecilia, she also nodded. They just shrugged and started eating.

The girls and I produced knives and started eating the slab of meat. We would cut a slice of meat, and then one of the girls would use fire breath to prepare it.

I tried using some fire magic. The mandalas did not work. I reinforced my brain, and I tried to reach a balance with the mana around. I managed to produce some small flames.

Aquamarine approached my ear.

“Do you need help with that, my lord? I can just toast it for you.”

I looked at the rare steak. Well, it looks a little on the bloody side, that it was enough.

“I am good, thank you.”

I ate it.

We finished dinner, under the scared amazed eyes of Lupergia and Hameln. We had some chit chat over the city state, how somethings work, nothing major, then went to the bedroom for some resting.

I sit down, legs crossed. I reinforce my brain, and start meditating. I have just been able to manipulate at least some mana. I should be able to understand the mana in this place. I should be able to use it.

I go through several different states. I meditate, trying to match the “frequency”, then I sleep a little, then I wake up, do it again. This goes on for a very long time.

After what looks like days, the sun, or what passes for it around here, is rising. I sleep. When I wake up, the girls are starting to move on the bed.