Chương 43: The Aftermath

[HUMAN: DEFEATED X 7] [+700 XP] [SURVIVAL BONUS +50XP] [XP: 5871/?] [CATALYST EVENT CONDITIONS MET] [SPECIES: UNICORN(MAGICAL BEAST)] [GALLOP EFFICIENCY: 85%] [PARTY MEMBERS: 3] [HERD BOND: HERD(RAPTOR ADEPT)] [HERD BOND: COMPANION (SESSILE)] When he came to, a snake was looking down at him. No… shaking him.

"Andrew." A pause. Shake shake"Andrew Snodgrass." Another pause, "Andrew!" Andy groaned. The ground felt strangely cold. His head hurt. Everything hurt.

"Oh excellent. He lives." Andy opened his eyes and sitting (standing? laying?) next to his head was a rather small snake. The snake was wearing a silk cape with a popped collar and had four tiny vestigial legs." Andy stared. The snake stared back and adjusted his cape.

"Andrew. I have finally found you. It isss I. Ssssir Reginald Boggart Hemsssworth the Third." Andy closed his eyes.

"No, this is a horrible dream."

"You are awake, Andrew."

"I refuse."

"That doesssn't make lying in a field of bodiessss any less real."

"I… what?" Andy's eyes snapped open. The tiny snake remained. Sir Reginald cleared his throat and motioned dramatically with one tiny foreleg.

"Obssserve." Andy pushed himself upright and immediately regretted it. Pain exploded behind his eyes. The world tilted alarmingly. For several moments he sat there waiting for the valley to stop spinning. When it finally did, he wished it hadn't. The grass around him was blackened. Large sections of the valley had been scorched. The ground itself appeared cracked in places and scattered throughout the field were bodies. A lot of bodies. Some groaned, but most remained motionless.

"You seem to have…exploded." Andy blinked, "I what? Memory returned all at once. The Torchbearer, all those soldiers, the ropes, the magic suppressing staves. Auri.

"Auri…?" Andy said, looking around desperately for her and reluctantly for her body.

"Barnacle?"

"Your crussstaceousss friend is here." Beside Reginald in the remains of half a glass jar sat Barnacle.

"Do you know where Auri is?" Andy asked Barnacle as much as he asked Reginald and himself. The valley was empty. Just trampled grass and churned earth where the edge of the inferno had stopped.

"Auri!" he sent as far as he could in all directions. There was no answer. Reginald clutched his tiny hands together.

"The remainder of the army that wasss not…burnt… took her with them." A shadow swept overhead. Gustave landed heavily several feet away.

"Andy, I came back as quickly as I could. Others are on the way…" The hawk looked around the ruined valley. His eyes widened as he took in the sight, the smell.

"What happened?" Andy opened his mouth, closed it and then opened it again.

"I– don't know." That wasn't entirely true. He knew what happened with the soldiers and the ropes. The staves. The torchbearer and Auri. After that everything became considerably less clear. Sir Reginald cleared his proverbial throat and sent, "Andrew exploded." Gustave blinked.

"What?"

"Exploded." The hawk slowly turned toward Andy. He attempted to shrug and immediately regretted it. Everything hurt.

"I think I exploded." Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions.

"Who is this?" Gustave asked, narrowing his eyes, electricity crackling at his wingtips.

"I am Ssssir Reginald Boggart Hemsssworth the Third." Gustave looked across the valley. There were dozens of bodies, and most of them were not breathing. The smell of burnt flesh was enough to make his eyes water.

"Andy…" A dragon and a unicorn crested the valley and Andy watched as they looked across at the devastation. He took a painful step forward and stopped. Something felt wrong. No Not wrong. Something felt different. His balance shifted unexpectedly and he looked down at Gustave with confusion.

"Why am I taller?" Gustave stared." Oh."

"What?"

"Oh." He paused and then finished,"You've evolved." Andy froze. The words hit him almost as hard as Auri's disappearance.

"What?" Gustave hopped over.

"Andrew. You've evolved." Andy looked down at himself. Now that he was paying attention in addition to the pain, everything felt different. His chest was broader, his legs thicker. The world seemed smaller. He was bigger. Considerably bigger. Andy crossed his eyes trying to look at his horn. He could see the barest tip if he strained hard enough. Spinning around he called, "Auri, I did it I'm–" Auri was gone. The realization struck all over again.

"They took her." Anger flared and the tip of Andy's horn glowed bright red, exuding heat. Tiny green shoots pushed through the burned earth around his hooves.

"We're going after her. Gustave, follow the trail, see if you can catch up to them, find out where they're going." Gustave took flight and with the wind at his tail he was out of sight in moments. Andy realized several things in that moment. There was a dragon walking toward him next to a unicorn, there was a tiny snake wringing two sets of vestigial hands at his feet and he was standing in a field with a bunch of humans that he'd killed. He killed humans.

The world began spinning again and he heard his name being called several times before the world faded to black once more.

"Auri." He breathed before he felt his head hit the ground. When he regained consciousness Andy was back in the council complex. He groaned and his eyelids fluttered open. Andy rolled over and began to get to his feet. A hand on his shoulder kept him down.

"Easy. Take it slow." The low gravelly voice belonged to Kesseroth and was far more subdued and gentle than Andy imagined it could be. He was in his human form and was sitting in a chair next to the makeshift bed Andy was lying on. Georgina stood nearby as did the small snake.. Regg–something. Trying to remember was making his head hurt. [MAGIC EXPENDED: HORN RESERVES: 8%] [PASSIVE HEALING INACTIVE WHILE HORN RESERVES BELOW 25%] [MAJOR INJURY: CONCUSSION. REGENERATION INACTIVE. ESTIMATED RECOVERY: NaN]"Auri?"

"Not yet." Kesseroth said quietly. Andy struggled harder.

"Auri!"

"We have not found her yet." The room was silent.

"Gustave?"

"He hasn't returned." Georgina said softly.

"You have a pretty major head wound from when you fell. You also broke off an arrow in your shoulder. You aren't healing, you need to rest until a healer gets here." Andy stared at her.

"Why can't you do it?"

"I don't have an affinity with life magic." Georgina came and sat in a chair next to Andy.

"Andy, we will find out what happened to Gustave and Auri, but first I need to talk to you. Where did the fire come from?" Andy paused.

"What do you mean? It happened when I got mad." Georgina and Kesseroth exchanged a look.

"Andy. I thought your affinity was life magic."

"I do have a life magic affinity. I also absorbed a fire magic affinity when we were fighting the ants. Is there something wrong with that?"

"Yes." Kesseroth answered.

"Sophonts only have one affinity. Life, Psychic, Fire, Storm, Stone, Water and Death. Are you telling us that you have two affinities?" Andy's head throbbed as he tried to absorb the information.

"Yes?" Kesseroth slowly leaned back in his chair and Georgina swallowed.

"Before we go further, who is this Sir Reginald?"

"I don't know."

"That.. is unfortunate." Reginald began wringing his hands again.

"You sssee, Andrew Snodgrasssss. You do not know me. But I know you. I heard your broadcassst months ago. We're from the sssame–place. I knew you could help me." Andy turned and stared at the snake. In the light Andy could see that he was quite long. Dark purple black scales lined his body. His cape was a deep plum silk and the collar sat tall and straight around his neck giving him the appearance of a cobra. His eyes were a midnight black with silver lined slitted pupils.

About twelve inches (or thirty and a half millimeters) down from his face sat four vestigial legs that never seemed to stay still.

"Does it look like I can help anyone? You came to the wrong horse."

"Unicorn." Andy groaned.

"This is all too much."

"Okay," Georgina said.

"We will let you rest. Come back in a few hours."

"No. We continue."

"In that case, It's only fair to tell you, Reginald knows too much and therefore will not be permitted to leave." Sir Reginald gulped.

"Now that we're on the same page with that. Having multiple affinities is not difficult, Andy. It's not rare or unusual. It's unheard of. Impossible." Quiet settled over the room.

"I don't think that word means what you think it means."

"It means exactly that." Kesseroth rubbed one hand across his face.

"You mentioned the horn had an unprecedented trait chain, right? What does that mean?" Andy grimaced, "Well the System said unprecedented means 'never having happened, done or existed in the past.'""Kesseroth closed his eyes, "The System told you? The System responds to questions you pose to it?"

"Not all the time." Andy said, looking around suspecting that he'd once again committed some sort of magical anomalous crime.

"Doesn't it do that for everyone?" No one answered. A knock came from the door.

"Kesseroth. The Sky Herald known as Gustave has returned. Additionally, there's something else you need to see."