Ch.46: Dreams, Hellos and Checks
‘Hey! Heard you got out before me.’
‘Wondering how you’re holding up.’
‘I’m alright, got out with a cool cast tho’
‘It’s suuupper shiny and probably hard neough that I could take on a Wight’
‘Enough’
She sent a picture showing a red sparkly cast, it almost like it was made of silk. That must be one expensive cast.
‘Got that hot-rod red cast. Looks like a pricy car.’
‘Yeah! I’mma go cruising with my hair down and hit a few cons maybe explore a few beach towns’
…..
‘Hey….’
‘Um’
‘Sorry about yesterday
‘It’s alright, don’t blame yourself for what happened’
‘if you want, we could hang out again sometime, maybe watch a movie or something.’
‘Yeah… I’d like that’
‘And tanks’
‘Thanks’
‘No problem, we’ll have fun soon enough’
Hopefully she’ll pull through and keep a positive attitude. Though things like this can be really difficult even if you’re mentally prepared for it, I wonder if people can ever see life the same way. Even I wanted to right the wrong, through blazing fire if I had to. That thought only reminded me that bastard could’ve used at least a few extra holes in his head, maybe then his brain would work properly. My mind Shouts for payment for this offence and my muscles twitch, making me feel like ants were storming across my body.
Wait... No and more no! looks like I’ll have to burn off this- grime on the treadmill now or……….HUNT IT DOWN! TEACH TRUE PAIN! No! Not now! I mentally shout back as I ran for the work out room and blasting the treadmill at high speed.
“Oliver!? Are you going to run all day again!?” Mom called with mix of worry and concern.
“Just feeling antsy after being in that bed all day! It might be that mana feast thing!” I call back in a rush.
“You mean mana frenzy? But you were… Alright!” she said rather calmly, it seemed she bought it but why is there something poking at the back of my head? My body started feeling like I rolled in mud making me shudder with a twisted face. AAAAAAHHHHHH!
I ran for a couple hours until the tingling bu- ugah! Until my body felt calmer but even then, my body sort of vibrated softly.
“No!”
A warped face, deep tunnel like holes where the eyes should’ve been, a mouth that hung open so wide that its jaw dragged across the floor. The humanoid had pasty white sagging skin, covered in black blemishes as if beating by a bat, most fingers and toes looked melted or fused together. Its lower leg was fused to another one by the arm, dragging it over the glass filled street, leaving a smudged trail of black behind it.
“HHhhhhhhuuuu…..” The fused creatures wheezed through the gaping holes as if it was being strangled.
It reached out to me, its skin that was attached to its stomach stretched like a fleshy cloak. Some of it ripping apart and hitting the floor in wet slouching sounds.
Behind it was a huge hole that looked like a giant explosion happened underground. The edges of the hole were covered in a thick white fleshy fungus that squeezed together before pushing out, swallowing more of the street in its gunk.
“mmmooommmmmmammmmhahaa…..” Hummed across the paling town, it was like a soft whine that vibrated my into my skin, shook my bones and cried into my soul.
Looking to where the sound came from only revealed the white mountains, white hills, white grass, white horses and white skies
“Whiiiiiite….” Cried the creature in front of me.
“Huuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuurrt….” Moaned the one attached to the other’s leg.
“Whiiiiiiiiiiiiitte…”
“Mmmoooooooooooooommmieeeeeee…….”
They crept closer howling and moaning, wheezing, with each sound, each breath my body slowly chilled, my skin becoming black. I cant feel… Why do I….c……r…
“NO!”
“GO AWAY!”
I fell to my knees as I started to freeze, becoming colder and colder under their eyes. I’m sorry…. I didn’t mean to let this happen…. I felt their spongy and loose skin cling to me as they grabbed me, sucking out my body heat faster.
…….dark…..
….cold…
…home….
I feel......... warmer…I think I can sleep like this for a little longer
“Hmmmm…?” I mumbled in frustration with my blurry vision, all I can see are green letters…. “Wait!” I shout as my vision becomes clearer. The time on my clock was 1pm! “Shit! I over slept!”
Jumping out of bed I ran over to my dresser and quickly changed clothes before rushing out and almost running into my mother.
“Whoa! Oliver you didn’t have another nightmare did you?” She asked with a worried face while grabbing my arm and gently squeezing it.
“What? Uh, no I don’t think so? No, I’m rushing because I promised to meet Mark today. He has a prototype he wanted help with.” I said with a confused expression.
“Oh?” She let me go but before I could move she grabbed my arm again. “Not before you eat something first.” She said while pulling me to the table set with several sandwiches, fries and salad. “Remember what the dr said, you’re still growing so you need a good diet or your scales might grow weird when you get bigger or maybe shed? We don’t really know now that I think about it…” She said somewhat confused about dragon anatomy.
“Alright, I’ll eat first.” I sigh as I take my seat and begin eating.
After eating I made my mad das- I mean, I calmly walked down the street, definitely not ripping up any sidewalk or being stopped by my mother-nope….. Anyway the walk up to his house wasn’t too eventful except for spotting a little demon girl and a lean man driving away from Mark’s house. Maybe that was a friend of his sister? Unless he has another sister in this world?
Walking up I pressed the doorbell, waiting for Mark to answer. There was some shuffling and I heard a something fall over.
“Hey-!” Sounded like Mark.
“Tooo slow!” Sounded like a girl?
The door slightly opened and a purple succubus with blue hair poked out her head, her eyes widened and she flashed me a hungry smile.
“Hey~. You might be my kid brother’s girl but, uh” She winked at me. “Wanna hit the town and have some fun?” she asked in a flirty voice.
What? How is she so calm?! Everyone else is scared by my- her face was trembling but that seemed to only make her more excited.
“Abby! You know you can’t handle mana that dense!” Mark shouted at her.
She finally let him through the door. “I know… but her mana is just sooooo thic!” Abby whined as she rushed back to the couch, grabbing a slice of pizza while keeping her eyes on me.
“Sorry about Abby. Once she found out you were a dragon well, that happened.” Mark said with a very uncomfortable face.
“It was kinda weird…. Maybe we could just move past it for now.” I said annoyed that she wanted something from me because I was a dragon.
“Yeah…. Let’s get out of here.” he said leading me to his dad’s workshop. He did glare at his sister who stuck out her tongue back.
Once in the workshop, Mark brought me over to a small glass tube with a pair of glasses sitting within a yellowish liquid.
“Huh, it’s like a brain in a jar.” I say while leaning in to get a better look. These glasses were made of a nice silver metal and the hinges were even covered by gold plates. Other than that, these glasses looked like regular sun glasses.
“Na, it’s just soaking up some external enhancements.” He said as he looked closer with a small eye piece held up to his left eye.
“Still looks cool to see it.” I said with a whistle before turning back to look at him. “What kind of last minute touch ups are they.”
“Just some durability and material strengthening. It might be a prototype but it needs to survive all the tests. In case it tries to pop. ” Mark said while he put down his eye piece.
“Like a bomb?” I ask with a worried face.
“No enhanter worth their hammer would ever put an internal mana battery in their work.” He gave a somewhat confused look. “Did you forget again?” He asked a little annoyed.
I don’t know crap about this! “Yeah, it kinda slip my mind.” I lied.
“You really gotta write this stuff down.” He sighed in annoyance. “Well, since you forgot. Again! I’ll say this. A mana battery needs a controlled environment so that its casing doesn’t degrade and leak charged mana. That’s where you get a boom from.“ he said making an explosion sound while waving his hands apart.
“So these glasses could just break?” I ask, calming down.
“Like a sledgehammer hitting them, yeah.” He nodded before taking the tube and connecting it to a notch that it fit perfectly into. He then pressed a few buttons and after a few seconds it made a sound like releasing steam and the liquid drained from the tube. After pressing another button, the cap of the tube opened.
“Now it’s time to test these babies.” He took the glasses to a table with small glass plate on the left side. “Let’s see if it can handle mana.” He turned on a switch on the side making the glass plate glow yellow. It felt warm like the mana lamps in here, my mind really wanted to lay on top of it too. “Why are you staring?” Mark asked.
“What do you mean?” I ask as I stared at it.
“You look like my sister’s cat friend when she spots a lobster, like she really wants to eat it.”
“I see.” I responded as my eyes focused on the warm glass plate. Maybe a heated mana blanket is a thing?
Hmmm? The glasses’ lens began glowing as if it had a LED light, it looked like a small glowing disk started humming softly.
“Is it supo-“ I was cut off as the humming got loud enough to sound like a ringing echo. Without wasting a second Mark turned off the plate, the glow fading away and the ringing sound slowly died down.
“Sorry about that….” He grabbed a few metal caps and placed them next to the glasses, which made the glow within the glasses slowly fade. I guess it’s some siphon for the mana in the lens or some magnet. “But at least we know that there something wrong with them.”
“Like what?” I asked as my eyes focused on them. It seems like there’s small cracks on the gold plates and one of the lens is a shade darker than the other one.
“Well it could be the nexus circuitry or the materials didn’t absorb enough of the enchantments. Either could’ve led to this problem or created one that compounded into multiple problems.” He sighed in disappointment. “Guess I’ll have to examine them again. I was hoping the show off.” He said while pressing his finger nail into his finger but mumbled the last part.
“Well I don’t have any homework to do sooooooo, I’ll help out.” I announced which made Mark's head snap up to look at me, surprised.
“Really! Normally you….” He paused to think before nodding with a growing smile. “Alright, yeah! Let’s figure this baby out.”
what does this mean? Well, updates might be once a week and I'll be busy making or trying to make a large back log. But yeah...I hope you understand and be patient with me.
Anyway, I hope you keep trying to be the best you there is and breathe when you need to. Don't go breaking your body you hear.