Chương 37: Purple Brain

Weightlessness. I was weightless. Floating. Higher and higher and higher above. No, not higher. I was still on the ground. I could feel each individual thread of my clothes. Every soft fiber against my skin. I ran my hand through the dirt, and each individual grain said a fine how-do-you-do as it tumbled off my fingers like a plethora of little acrobats. I smiled… and then I giggled like a schoolgirl. The wind told jokes to me. None that I needed to hear, but oh, how I needed them.

My back hit the ground, and I stared up at the sky. No longer blue, but purple and churning, the clouds were like whipped cream over ice cream. I licked it, and it tasted… purple? Did I like purple? Surely I did, or why would I have tasted it? Why didn't I eat purple every day? With a mix of green, of course. You needed the fiber. I turned and found Vaelith to my left. She was purple too. Would she be mad if I licked her? Could I eat her? No… she wasn't a monster. Demons weren't monsters.

And I could only eat monsters now. Unfair. But then again, what was a monster? Something that did evil? There were plenty of humans who were evil. And evil itself was such a spectrum. Could I eat… people? Soylent green style? Oh! Vaelith was melting! She rolled and rolled around as her body softened, like she mulched into the ground. Maybe she would sprout little Vaeliths. Would I need to raise them? I didn't want to be a father just yet. I was only twenty… or was I eighteen? I'd forgotten.

Everything had changed since I came to this world. Oh yeah… I wasn't even from this world. I came from somewhere else. I came from someone else. My father… bah, he was a prick. But not so bad. Yet a prick all the same. Why did I not like him? Hmm… couldn't remember. And my mother… gone. Gone, gone. No family, no friends… the truck that killed me did me a favor. I felt something in my pocket. Something familiar. A Scarab Lord Carapace Rind. My last one.

I rolled it between my fingers like a poker chip while smiling to myself like a fool. I glanced at Darwin to my right, and he was now ten feet tall, his stinger casting a massive shadow overhead. Wow! Something deep and primal bade me to eat that Scarab Lord Carapace Rind. At first, I resisted. There was a part of me that knew my trip was over if I did. But there was another part of me, a sneaky part, that wondered why I didn't see Sable around. Take a chance and let fate decide.

Flip the rind into the air and catch it in your mouth. Three… Two… One… Flip! It spiraled and twirled, catching light that wasn't really there, and all of time itself seemed to slow. The colors wrapped around it, and like a droplet of water on a leaf, it fell back to the earth. Fell back to me. It was like a descending angel… one that I tried to eat as soon as it got close. I missed. Shit. Guess my trip wasn't over yet. Unless…

"Cast… Cure Poison." Mana: 10/20 I had the most vivid and sensational dreams, yet all were as fleeting as grains of fine sand that slipped between my fingers whenever I tried to recall them. I heard something at the edge of my senses. A voice. No, voices. Slowly, I pried my eyes open from the endless dream. I laid sprawled out on the ground. It was rough and no longer felt as comfortable as I had remembered. Vaelith lay flopped out on my left, Darwin contorted strangely to my right… he was no longer giant.

He likely never was.

And then there was Sable. She was speaking with Elder Mossbelly. He had a stern look on his face. Or, at least I thought it looked stern, crinkled in ways not too dissimilar to humans.

"Twice!" she said.

"You pranked them twice?" Elder Mossbelly scratched his head, little spores drifting off the mushroom.

"This was not a prank, Miss Sable. We were told to do it."

"Told?" Sable's face went blank.

"Did she tell you to do it?" You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

"Quite so." Sable growled.

"That bitch of a witch—when I finally get my hands on her." Mossbelly cleared his throat.

"That is what she wished to discuss. I will tell you exactly what she said. Remember… these are not my words, but hers. She says, 'Tell that stubborn bard that this curse is of her own doing, and if she wishes it undone, she simply must do the thing that she cannot do.' Sorry... that's what she said. Could you forgive the mistress?" Sable got a dangerous look in her eye. She walked over to one of the small homes and kicked the side, causing it to collapse.

Two rootlings popped from the remnants and began yelling curses in a language I didn't understand.

"Forgive her," Sable growled.

"Forgive her! It's been eighty years. Eighty! I know that doesn't seem like a long time to rootlings, but to me, it is a lifetime. I should be long dead."

"Then perhaps it is a gift you are not—""Oh, shove it in a hole and bury it. All of you are all about being reborn… how can I be reborn if I can't die?"

"Being reborn takes many shapes, Miss Sable. Many shapes indeed."

"And what of you lot, eh? You're still doing the witch's business?"

"Tending places of power?" Mossbelly asked.

"Why, of course. It is our duty to use our sacred fire to tend the forest. Reborn. Rebirth… cleansing through flames. It keeps the forest pure. Keeps the power flowing."

"Yeah, yeah," Sable said, dismissing the elder rootling casually.

"I know my problems with Ysra are personal. But if I could just find her, then I could—""Kill her?" Mossbelly asked.

"I… I don't know. Maybe. Maybe not. I hurt her… I know that. Does she think I don't know? But still… eighty years. She cursed me for eighty years."

"And you've always had the means to lift it. Forgive her and be free."

"Heh, free… I think you and I have different ideas about that. It wouldn't be a lifting of the curse, rather her holding it above my head. If I stay with her and comply, then she will let me enjoy my music again. She would let me sing again. But free? No… never that. Not with her."

"Think… could you really not find her after all these long years? Or were you too afraid to try?"

"You know, for having a mushroom for a brain, you can be quite wise."

"Naturally."

"Fine," Sable sighed.

"Maybe I was scared. Maybe I didn't try as hard as I could. If I were to say… want to talk to Ysra. Just talk. Could you tell me where she is?"

"One moment… I will ask." The rootling's eyes burned bright, and his limbs grew and sank beneath the dirt. He seemed to be muttering something until, suddenly, his eyes went purple.

"Ysra," Sable said.

"I am… sorry about what I said in the mineshaft. I am sorry about killing your minotaur—although it had it coming."

"Are you now?" Mossbelly replied, but his voice was now the sweet voice of a woman.

"My dear, sweet Sable… if you ever wanted to find me, all you had to do was ask nicely."

"So then… where can I find you?" Mossbelly smiled mischievously.

"As if I can't see the devilish intent behind those eyes. You wish to know where I am? I think… not." The rootling's eyes blazed green once more, and he retracted his roots from the ground.

"So sorry, Miss Sable," he said in his own voice again. Sable waved him off.

"Don't worry about it. I had a feeling she was just trying to mess with my head." She sighed.

"It is her way."

"Is there anything else we can do to help? We have so valued your continued friendship over these past eighty years. You have come to see us… two hundred and eleven times."

"That many, eh?" Sable replied, whistling.

"At this point, we may as well be family." Mossbelly nodded.

"Well… you can let my friends here sleep it off. We're on our way to Stoneford so that this potion maker can… well, I'll not bore you with the details. Treat 'em well… and no more pranks." Sable stood and sighed, running a hand through her hair.

"I've gotta let Marnie know what's going on." She walked by me, and I closed my eyes. After a moment, I could still sense a lingering presence.

"Caught me, eh?" I said.

"Like a spoiled child caught with his hand in the cookie jar. You weren't supposed to hear any of that. Ah, well… go back to sleep. The drugs really take it out of you, and you'll need to be able to walk." As she said it, I suddenly felt very tired. Drained, really. I didn't so much willingly go to sleep as I did pass out.

We awoke, and Elder Mossbelly had given us each something to eat. Some sort of mushroom bread. None of us ate it. Not even Darwin. Sable returned, said her farewells to the redcaps, and bade us leave. I stood, remembering something.

"My recipe," I said.

"It calls for redcaps." Sable eyed me curiously.

"Do you intend to kill them? Sure, they are pranksters… but they aren't evil. They tend the forest. They'd never harm you."

"Say that to my poor head," Vaelith replied groggily.

"It hurts like hell. And the sun… oh, damn the sun. Has it always been so bright?" I pretended as if I felt the same, but in truth, the Cure Poison spell had staved off any lingering effects from the drugs. Or had prevented them in some way.

"I'd like to try something… if I can." I turned to Elder Mossbelly.

"Could I take a small piece of your… head? The mushroom part?" Elder Mossbelly stared at me with bright, curious eyes.

"It's for a recipe I have. For my class. I'm a Glutton. I… eat monsters." Elder Mossbelly feigned shock… and then laughed it off, the other rootlings nearby chuckling.

"Of course, young human. Take as much as you need. It, uh… grows back." Elder Mossbelly tipped his head forward. I shrugged and ripped off a piece. Elder Mossbelly shrieked in pain, causing me to jump… then he laughed again. The rootlings all joined in.

"You lot can't help yourselves, can you?"

"To consume is in your nature," Mossbelly said as I tore off another piece.

"And to prank is in ours." After I had collected a decent amount from other rootlings who volunteered, we waved our goodbyes. Then, as we reached the edge of the rootling village, a woman's whistle stopped us dead in our tracks. We turned and Elder Mossbelly, once again, had blazing purple eyes.

"I am impressed, Sable… you took my refusal well. Perhaps these past eighty years have taught you something I never thought you'd learn… patience. Perhaps it is time that we meet again after all."