Chương 58: Barnacle

The dust began to settle. When from somewhere inside the dust cloud came a voice, "Well, Andy." A pause"I hope you're proud of yourself. I was perfectly content in the river doing absolutely nothing. Day in. Day out. And then you came along…" A figure emerged from the dust. A very tall and broad man was carrying something.

"And then," he continued.

"You show up. You invite me to your party. What the heck, I said. What could it hurt being a mascot? But then you had to go and get yourself in trouble, and you invited me along." The man continued forward carrying a limp humanoid shape.

"I couldn't say no, now could I. All the conversations you'd shared with me. All of the friendship you gave and asked nothing in return for. So there we went. You brought me to the my old stomping grounds, my mythic council. Irony? Maybe. Destiny? Absolutely." He came closer into view and now Auri could see the humanoid that was being carried had a horn.

"Kesseroth asked me to come on this mission. To explain things to you and to protect you if things went the way he figured they might." The figure stepped fully out of the settling dust. The man was enormous. Broad shouldered. Barefoot. He looked strikingly similar to Kesseroth, midnight blue scales creeped up his neck and at his joints. His hair hung nearly to his waist and shimmered in the afternoon light. It was the color of an oil slick. Matching eyes smiled at Auri as he came to a stop in front of her.

In his arms he cradled Andy. The unicorn's body hung limpy, His silver white hair was now dual toned as a black streak now hung across his face. His horn glowed faintly, black, red and green energy swirled around it in lazy spirals.

"My liege," Georgina and Sessaly bowed deeply. Auri was moving toward Andy. She skidded to a stop in front of the man.

"Is he alive?"

"Ehh, mostly." the Man said.

"What does that mean?"

"It means that he is breathing, his heart is beating, that his soul seems to be attached."

"Seems to be?"

"I mean, it still is. Probably. And if it's not, it'll reattach." Auri stared at the stranger.

"Stop. Enough mind games." She looked toward Georgina for back up when she noticed both Sessaly and Georgina bowing. The injured sophonts had taken their lead and also were bowing.

"Who are you?" Auri asked, looking back to the hulking man. The giant laughed softly.

"You don't recognize me then, young Auri? We've been in a party together for a bit of time."

"Barnacle?"

"King Zyphraxon." Georgina corrected.

"I've grown rather fond of Barnacle. Barnacle is fine. Now as for Andy– Oh, please stop" He gestured toward Georgina.

"Please stand. This is awkward." Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. He looked back toward Auri.

"Andy needs some rest, as I think most of you do." The rescued sophonts were all looking wide-eyed. Auri looked at them, and to be honest, Auri felt much the same. One moment Andy had been in an explosion, and the next Barnacle, who was no longer a barnacle but was instead a King, was carrying Andy like a sack of potatoes"Rest." Auri repeated.

"How can that possibly be your plan? Don't you need to go chase down the Harness?"

"Generally speaking," Barnacle replied, "when someone absorbs enough magic to level a building and force a Nightmare to retreat, rest is considered a polite first step."

"Force a Nightmare to retreat?"

"He did flee. It was hubris that won Andy the day though. Do not mistake me. Even at full strength, prepared with his friends beside him, Andy is no match for that one." Auri thought for a moment, "How exactly did Andy manage to level a building?" The king smiled sheepishly and adjusted Andy in his arms.

"I'm not sure." He looked down at the unconscious unicorn. The black streak in Andy's hair rested gently across his face. The swirling energies in the horn pulsed. Green, Red, Black, Red, Green, Red, Black. The pattern repeated.

"Normally," Barnacle continued.

"No sophont can house more than one affinity within themselves. Now there was a case very long ago, but that's ancient history. What is really baffling though is how he is housing both life and death energy in one body. Usually in nature the two conflict, they cannot exist in the same space." Auri frowned. The giant quickly continued.

"Death affinity consumes. Life affinity creates. They are opposites."

"So why isn't he dead?"

"Why isn't he dead, indeed?" Andy groaned and opened his eyes. He took in his surroundings, the first thing that he noticed was the lack of rubble. The second was the very very mad fox sitting on his chest.

"How dare you." Auri began pointing one of her russet paws in his face.

"How dare you throw me out a window!" Andy cleared his throat and coughed before responding. Which he found particularly hard to accomplish considering there was, as mentioned before, a fox sitting on his chest.

"Auri." He said weakly.

"You're okay. Where are we?"

"Do not ignore me Andrew Ponypants Snodgrass""Pony pants?"

"I don't know your middle name." Andy thought for a minute, "You know. I don't remember. It's probably not important any way. PonyPants it is."

"You threw me out a window."

"To save your life."

"I am not a damsel, Andrew."

"I know. I wouldn't have thrown a damsel out a window. I'm glad you're back. Back somewhere. Where are we?"

"We're uh, at Barnacle's castle." Andy blinked.

"I think I'm still a bit groggy. Did you say Barnacle's… castle?"

"Yes, apparently he is the King. He appointed the Mythic Council in his absence as he 'Existed' for a while. He said you'd understand." Andy laughed weakly.

"Is that so."

"He's also a dragon. Apparently he was Kesseroth's mentor." At the mention of Kesseroth Andy looked away.

"Between Barnacle and Georgina we got the entire story. Kesseroth went on the mission for one purpose only. To fix a mistake he'd made. He knew what would happen." A tear slid down Andy's cheek.

"There's only one detail you got wrong." He said after a moment of silence.

"Yeah and what's that?"

"It wasn't a mission. It was Operation BONER." Auri closed her eyes slowly and then got down off of the infirmary bed Andy was laying in.

"No wait, come back."

"I will not."

"Did the Harness escape?"

"Yes," Auri said solemnly. Andy sighed.

"That's unfortunate. You see I was really hoping for an explosive climax." Auri began walking again. She turned.

"I'm glad you're okay. Get some rest. You're going to need it. Your explosion created yet another Nexus. This time a death Nexus. There are all sorts of horrors, and undead multiplying in there. On top of that we have a Nightmare to hunt down, and apparently an unknown number of Andy's running around." The door closed softly. Andy called out, "Oh Auri." She opened the door back up, "Yeah?"

"I'm still the horniest Andy, right?" Auri stared at Andy a long moment.

"Good night Andy." The door slammed shut.