NOVEL NEXT 3.11: Gifts
A quick interruption from some highly ambitious Otodus shark later, Henry and Rocky broke the surface and took in the mighty trees that housed Thalis.
Rocky was speechless as Henry worked on reducing his size, which now that they had gotten to their destination, had brought to the forefront another matter. While they couldn't just wait in the water, out in the open like this, he still gave the Stoneclad kraken a minute to enjoy the view before he spoke up.
"[So, Rocky. Can you make yourself smaller?]"
Right now, the kraken was pretty damn large. Henry had been larger, sure, but Henry could control his size. At this moment, Rocky wouldn't even fit on the dock, much less the walk-ways leading up.
I'm sure I could whip up something with Lifeweaving of the Trickster to make him smaller…
Henry had advanced pretty well in creating one-time skills though in Rocky's case, he might need to use all of the Aspect's reserve to affect the B-rank. Then Rocky would have to pay the cost in mana—if it worked.
Thankfully—and somewhat unfortunately—the challenge evaporated as Rocky finally responded. "[I can… but…]"
There was hesitation in the kraken's deep voice. As if he really would rather not grow smaller, but he was aware of the dangers in the water.
Henry tilted his head. "[But what?]"
"[I will lose a lot of my stones…]"
Oh. That was fair. But it didn't feel like much of a problem to Henry."[Can you not regrow them?]"
"[Yes… but it will take many, many days. Regrowing my protection takes a lot of mana.]"
Henry eyed the cracked and jagged brown stones upon the kraken's back. "[Well… we're going to be up there for a few weeks once the wave is fully here. You will be safe. I promised that. And after that, I can help you out with mana.]"
Rocky gave him a puzzled look, so Henry pulled one of the rejuvenating orbs. "[I can make these. And once I push my ability to B-rank, they'll grow even more potent. I'll even make a few empowered ones. I bet they could cut on your stone-regrowing time by a bunch. What do you think?]"
The kraken took the orb of swirling lights, took a longing look at the rocks coating the upper side of his arm, and with a sigh, began shrinking.
***
Henry gave the Stoneclad kraken time to look and observe his environment while he told Maurice and the others to wait above through his clone. Rocky was now around 10 feet long, from head to the tip of his arms, and Henry had him telekinetically floating right next to him.
Rocky was still, letting himself be carried while quietly taking in the life and movement of a human city for the first time in his life, and pretty quickly, a sense of anxiety and dismay was welling within the kraken, only to turn into nearly full-blown panic once they reached the market platform. When Henry asked what was wrong, he nearly burst out laughing at the kraken's response.
"[I don't have enough gifts!]"
The two quickly moved past the market as the attention was making the kraken's anxiety worsen. They attracted quite a few curious gazes—and a couple of unfriendly ones, but Henry could not give less of a crap about those—then slowly made their way up through the schooling platforms.
"[I don't think you can give everyone you see a gift, Rocky. Those you meet, sure. And by that I mean those who you talk with, learn their names, and all. If you want, of course. No one's expecting you to give them gifts, and they're not going to get mad at you for not doing so. But you most certainly don't have to give a gift to every single person you see. There's too many people around for that.]"
That appeased the Stoneclad kraken a bit, though Henry could still feel a little bit of guilt emanating from him. Thankfully, a distraction came through before they managed to get up to the next platform in the form of a large floating dolphin resting on a giant orb of swirling water.
"[Hi Henry! Is this Rocky?]" Stormsong sent both of them as she left her students behind. Twenty frowning young faces were sending each other jets of water, catching the stream, making it flow about them before they sent it back. None dared to stop, even when she seemingly wasn't paying attention to them.
She clicked in amusement, lowering herself so she came face to face to the suddenly shy kraken. "[Did he finally convince you to come on up? Have you seen Maurice yet? He keeps talking about as well!]"
That seemed to get a reaction from the kraken. He turned to Henry, gaze questioning.
"[Right. Sorry. This is Stormsong. She is a friend of ours, and she traveled with us for a bit. And yes, if you want, you can give her a gift.]"
Stormsong tilted her head at that while Rocky reached with an arm toward his mouth, only pausing before he discreetly sent him a message. "[What does she like?]"
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.
***
It didn't take them long to reach the arena where the rest were waiting. Stormsong had come along, ending her class earlier. She was munching on a calamari leg while she chatted with Rocky as they all made their way up, taking a small stop near the farms to pick a couple of fruits for the kraken to try.
Within seconds of them arriving, there was a fold in space, barely a few yards away, and out came a soaked, limping bipedal ape, which nearly gave the poor kraken a heart attack, even though he'd met Zerathstra in the past.
"Welcome to Thalis, Rocky! Sorry, I was busy convincing a pretty stubborn turtle not to get close to our territory," said Zerathstra, panting a little. Still, the ape gave Rocky a wide smile, then produced a whole barrel of Ambercrisp apples mixed with another mango-shaped fruit Henry had not seen before. Within seconds, a fragrant, slightly citrus-y sweet smell wafted out of the barrel, and Maurice instantly tried to clamber up the container to take a peak, only for the ape to pluck him out by the shell before he lobbed him toward Stormsong's water-bubble.
The dolphin created a landing pad to catch the curious crab.
As if nothing had happened, Zerathstra continued, tapping the edge of the barrel. "Here's a little gift. I'm sorry about what had happened the last time you came here. I promise none of that will happen this time."
While Rocky scrambled to find an appropriate gift for the ape, Maurice recovered and came barreling back toward them. "Henry! What happened? Hi Rocky! Why didn't you take me with you? What do you think of Thalis, Rocky? Henry!—"
Henry turned Maurice out and began introducing everyone. A grinning Velistraine introduced herself first, followed by Arisia, then Ash and Fabian. When Rocky asked him what they liked, Henry couldn't answer, embarrassed. At the end of the day, he did not know them all that well.
"[Maybe something shiny? We like trinkets. Gold. Gems. Pearls… You know what, let me just ask.]"
Turning toward the small group, Henry just explained to them that Rocky liked giving gifts, so it would be easier for him to tell him what they liked.
Velistriane grinned, very much enjoying the distraction. "Well… I like exploring and finding strong opponents the most, but I don't hate gold and jewels. Got any of those, Rocky? Found anything shiny in the depths?"
The kraken turned to Henry, questioning, at which point Henry pulled a golden coin he'd gotten from one of the crew. "This is gold."
Rocky reached out, turned the coin in its arm a couple of times, then gave it back before reaching into his mouth and pulling out a bowling-ball sized gold nugget.
All the humans froze. You would have been able to hear a pin drop, if it wasn't for Maurice. "Shiny!"
When asked about where he had found it, Rocky's response was very matter-of-fact. "[I found it in a cave. It had lots of this yellow stone in the walls… I tried making my rocks like it, but it's not very good for defense. It's soft.]"
Zerathstra started chuckling.
Velistraine blinked, looking down at the nugget, then at the jagged stones covering the kraken's back. "You made this? Yourself?"
Rocky stared down at the nugget, then at the people staring at him. At least, those who seemed to suspect what Velistraine's question implied. "[Yes? I have more, if you want it.]"
Stormsong was completely uninterested in the metal, and Maurice just wanted it because it was pretty. Zerathstra was still having the time of his life, while everybody else but Henry—because he already knew of the kraken's capability—stared at Rocky as if he had just grown another head.
A slow, creepy smile stretched on Velistraine's face, and slowly, she reached behind her back and unsheathed a small dagger. A parrying dagger with a pretty simple pommel. The only peculiar thing about it was the blade itself. It was… rose-gold. Nearly veering on red.
Turning the pommel toward the kraken, she handed it to him. "Can you make this metal? Or do you remember if you found any of it?"
Rocky gingerly took the dagger, turning it in his arms. In Henry's telepathic sense, it was curiosity at first, quickly followed by a growing sense of amazement. Privately, as he kept turning the dagger in his arm, he asked Henry how this object had been made, but before Henry could answer, there was a spark of recognition, before it turned into complete and utter puzzlement. Rocky brought the dagger to his beak, then tried biting it.
Zerathstra was already laughing by this point, attracting a curious look from Arisia, and an annoyed one from Velistraine.
"[This is amazing. How it was shaped in this manner. For the stone…yes… I found some of this. But it was not this hard. It crumbled. Very quickly. And it was so expensive to make.]"
Rocky could not stop examining the dagger, taken with its craftsmanship, so he didn't notice the shocked silence that followed his words. Even Arisia's mouth was agape, while Zerathstra's cackle grew in intensity. Velistraine was at a loss for words before the smile returned to her face. "You can make this? Are you sure?"
Silently, Rocky lifted an arm, and let a small portion of the brown stone covering it fall away to reveal the glowing clear brown skin below it. It wasn't a large surface. A square centimeter, at most. Then he closed his eyes, and Henry sensed a prodigious amount of mana rush down to the kraken's limb, concentrating on the arm, as the patch's color began to veer to pink. The mana built up for a few seconds, growing in intensity. Then the first grain of rice-sized bit of gravel broke the skin.
A full minute later, Rocky stopped pushing mana down his arm, completely spent, and now, on that same arm, there was an uneven patch of skin, that had a few gravel-sized bits of the chalky pink mineral. One of which detached and fell to the ground.
"Well," said the ape's voice as he appeared and put an arm around Velistraine's shoulder. "It looks like your suspicion was right, Velistraine. Our new friend here can literally grow raw Adamantium out of his skin."
Arisia was blinking frantically, as if she was trying to quickly wrap her mind around what that implied, while Velistraine still looked to be in shock. Ash looked pale, as if she suddenly found herself learning something she shouldn't have, while Fabian looked just amazed.
Zerathstra shook his head, wiping a tear from his eyes before he glanced at the many faces present still staring at the pink patch, making the poor kraken feel a little self-conscious. Maurice had already picked up the gravel-sized piece that fell, while Stormsong was still unsure what the fuss was about. But the ape's next words made it clear, and the flare of aura he let slip told them how dead serious he was.
"Rocky is my guest, and this information does not leave this space. It is not repeated. To anyone. Or you'll be dealing with me. Understood?"
Henry grinned, patting the kraken on the head. "See? Told you it'll be fun."