World Walker Park [Magical Amusement Park Base-Building]

Snake was a snake. And a good boy.

He protected.

He guarded.

He slithered.

He hissed.

Today was a trial, the first of many to come. Immortality was strange like that. Massive and incredibly long, Snake passed trees and bushes, slithering into Emberwood Forest silently. Leaving Ressen would be dangerous—but Snake knew he must. Because Snake wasn't just protecting Ressen, but the people Ressen wanted to protect—family, even if they were not trees like her.

Snake didn't fully understand. But he was also a baby, a young slippery big guy born by the world to fulfil a task. Instinct told him how to protect, and now he simply did.

Telepathy was also something Snake did on instinct. Again, he did not understand how or why, he simply did. So, when the question "Where are Annie and Vlad?" fluttered into his mind from one of the small humans, Snake knew what he had to do.

Snake remembered Annie and Vlad. Annie was godmother to Ressen and friend of Snake. She had once fed him a piece of roasted frog. It was okay. Overcooked, but okay.

Vlad was a mortal enemy of Ressen. Snake did not know why, nor why he wasn't allowed to exterminate such an enemy. He also did not know what root beer was, or why Ressen demanded casks of it daily.

Protecting Annie, he could understand. Food givers were nice. Vlad, on the other scale? Snake did not have a clue. But Ressen deemed it so, so Snake protected him. He found them walking together outside of the territory called the "park." Park what? Snake asked himself, not knowing.

Annie muttered rushed words too fast for Snake to understand. He much preferred it when people thought at him—snakes couldn't speak words, only think them. It was a problem with their forked tongues and Snake felt a little self-conscious about that, actually.

From Vlad's thoughts, however, Snake understood the pair was late for an event. Re-in-car-nation, a strange name for a kingdom, in Snake's mind, but he was also a snake and did not care.

Currently, Annie and Vlad were safe. But utilizing future sight—something Snake simply knew how to do since his birth—Snake understood that they were, in fact, in danger. People with strange hair were stalking, hunting, ready to pounce. What they were going to do with Annie and Vlad, Snake only understood as horrid screams.

Snake could not allow that. So, he did not.

In seconds, Snake swallowed those wishing to do Annie and Vlad harm, slithering silently through outside of the "park." Trees moved to his will, scampering like scared barn cats. Bushes flattened themselves under his belly scales, eager to get out of the way. Beasts and animals stopped to watch.

But Annie and Vlad? They did not know. No one did, in fact. Snake might be big, but he was also stealthy like some sort of super snake. Snake liked that, "Super Snake." He repeated the words in his mind as his stomach acid dissolved the strange hair people.

He returned the way he came, beasts and animals cheering as he went. It was then Snake understood. Ressen said to protect family—the whole forest was family, beasts, animals, trees. Only enemies don't get protection… except for Vlad, he's okay, Snake supposed.

Snake coiled back around Ressen, content with his meal and his job. He understood a lot more now, and graciously hissed at the sun for warming his cold blood. His first trial was over, and Snake only had one thing to think about the matter—one thing that echoed happily through everyone in the nearby area's mind.

Super Snake protect!

***

Luka flinched when an alien voice entered his mind, pausing his work on one of the new rides.

Super Snake protect!

"Yes you do!" he yelled, unsure if Snake could hear him from all the way over here. Still, it was nice to know the big guy was having fun doing… whatever it was snakes do.

Turning back to his work, Luka maneuvered his magic into a rectangle in front of him. Grabbing a plot of air the size of a skyscraper window was relatively easy, as far as he was concerned at this point, what wasn't easy was manipulating it in esoteric ways. Luka had long learned how to grab air and make invisible steps into the sky.

This was similar, but instead of solid, tangible steps he wanted a big rectangle of lightly solid air. He was working on the temple section of the river ride and imagined entering the domain of the leviathan. The rectangle of air would blunt against the rider, pushing against them as they entered while the skipper explained lore and the power of the domain.

While Luka tinkered with the effect, he also changed the color of the air. The Temple of the Leviathan was supposed to be mysterious and a touch spooky. What better way to convey that than doorways that stretch into the black void, forever housing oddities and anomalies never to be seen.

That meant for Luka that the rectangle of air was black with speckles of white for stars. Add in some glyphs of fog and other special effects, and the temple doors were done!

"Now to do that a few dozen more times…" he muttered, idly criticizing his river ride layout. The ride would show riders the inside and outside of the temple, floating through cracks in the ancient stone works and sailing through hidden passages only known to the Skipper Guild.

Stolen novel; please report.

And with that thought, Luka sighed. The "Skipper Guild" wasn't something he originally planned for, but it was a good idea and he knew he had to include it somehow. Maybe the queue theming could see guests through the Skipper Guild's headquarters and inform them of their travel itinerary? Then when the ride was over, guests would exit through the Skipper Guild's field office and gift shop?

It was perfect. Luka checked the sun. "And will take me until night fall," he said with a sigh.

"So, this is how you do it," Blomfum said, sitting nearby. Well, nearby was relative. He was actually quite far away, but since he was so massive, he seemed much closer.

Luka looked over. "Just some magic."

"'Some magic,' he says. No, World Walker, this is divine magic."

"Well, yeah."

Blomfum snorted. "You don't understand how jealous I am watching you work. You are doing things I could only ever dream of."

Considering that, Luka simply shrugged. He was ignorant in many ways when it came to this world, magic, and society. And while he was beginning to understand all of them, magic was his least understood by far. Sure, Sol and Eve taught him the basics of glyphs, but apparently that was all to change soon? He wasn't sure on the details, only that the more efficient illusion glyph that Sol, God Neb, and Goddess Tippy discussed were making waves in the magical research community.

How that would affect Luka, he wasn't sure. Only that it was an "in" when it came to the Guilds. And now that Blomfum purged Sneerhome's Guilds' leadership, that relationship was surely to grow.

Speaking of which, Luka asked, "Want to talk about the other part of our Guilds contract?"

Blomfum sighed loosely. "You reaalllly know how to put a damper on conversation, huh? But fine, we can talk about the boring stuff."

"Personally, I think discussing the Guilds' involvement in the park's future is very interesting. Especially since it would be surrounding the next themed land after the Bestial Grove."

The giant leaned forward, suddenly more interested. "That does sound better than paperwork, I suppose."

Luka, and in turn World Walker Park, had entered into an agreement. The first part was the illusionary glyph information and Sol's illegal use of Guilds'owned glyphs. With both of those fixed, the next part was alchemy reagents. Again—thanks to Blomfum—the Guilds was coming through with shipments.

The last and yet to be realized part of the contract was the Guilds' presence in the park. In return, the park would have access to all glyphs the Guilds owned. This included various teleportation glyphs, reality-reshaping glyphs, pocket dimensional glyphs, time dilation glyphs, and many other esoteric glyphs that Luka figured he could get some use out of.

All of this for a simple Guilds recruitment office inside the park was a price he figured was worth it now that Blomfum was in charge of Sneerhome's branch.

"After the Bestial Grove is finished," Luka explained, "we're going to expand significantly. I'm talking two dozen more rides and attractions and enough space to accommodate another ninety-thousand guests."

Blomfum whistled. "That's a lot."

"It is. But that's the size of parks from Earth. And while I'm using Earth's parks as a reference, I think we can make several improvements. Such as transportation. I've already looked into teleportation and portal hubs. Past that, we have access to magic. How many effects can we pump into the park to give guests the best experience possible?"

"Like regenerative health effects for sore feet?"

"Exactly. There's, realistically, endless things we could do. Sore feet are the tip of the iceberg."

Blomfum nodded. "I see. Where does the Guilds fall into this?"

"The next themed land we were thinking about is tentatively called the 'Arcane Lane.' In my mind, the area is a small back alley. Cobble stone floors, buildings that are a hint desolate and dank. What I would call the underground, but for magic. Rogue magic duels in the streets, strange elemental creations in the windows. Shops that sell odds and ends, trinkets and bobbles."

The giant scratched his scalp. "Sounds… interesting?"

"You're not impressed."

"I guess I just don't see the vision."

Luka considered that. Magic was real in this world. Maybe an alley expressly themed to magic wasn't the right idea. But then again, it wasn't the "magic" that was the draw, but rather the "legality" of the place that was. In a bubble, Arcane Lane would be safe. But also, it would feel dangerous. It was the wild west of magic, a place where the law is more gray than white. That was the draw.

He explained as much to Blomfum.

"That does sound a bit more fun. Maybe you could even host magical duels, those always bring a crowd." Blomfum hesitated and added, "I worry about safety, however."

Luka smirked. "You don't have to worry about that. Goddess Tippy blessed the park, remember? And since the illusion glyphs don't make people sick anymore, we're about as safe as we can be."

The Guilds leader was on the fence, so Luka added, "Think about this. You're a child, a little hellion bouncing around the park, pointing at all the fun things to do and see. Your parents are, understandably, tired. You enter the Arcane Lane, where magic walks the street beside you. You enter a shop, buy a magical wand—courtesy of the Guilds—and rush back onto the streets, blasting pink sparkles and polymorphing other guests into frogs for a minute or so—"

"That's not good, Luka. Rogue magic like that is dangerous—"

Luka held up his hand. "It is. But not in the park. In the park, it's just another thing. Let me keep setting the scene. You've just polymorphed the father of another kid with a wand, so the other kid duels you. Sparks fly, magic blasts, frogs turn back into people, and watch their kids have fun. Safe, adventurous fun. Obviously we'll have park employed 'enforcers' wandering the Arcane Lane, stopping stuff before it goes too far. In fact, they'd be in character and maybe every few hours we could host an event where the underbelly guests raid the enforcer's stronghold. If they're successful, everyone involved gets a coupon for a free ice cream cone or something."

Blomfum's skepticism started to crack. "I do like ice cream…"

"I think it's a good idea," Luka said. "Fun, exciting. Safe. That'll be a big priority. But we've got time to iron out the details."

"And the Guilds would be, what, a sponsor?"

"I'm sure a lot of people are going to become very interested in magic after visiting the park. And the Guilds will be right there, ready to hand out information." Luka hesitated. "We will, however, have to talk about the Guilds' business practices. Sol is adamant they are the scum of the planet."

Blomfum's expression darkened. "I agree—well, regarding Sneerhome's branch." The Giant considered for a moment. "But if there's one, there's more. Maybe I'll visit all the branches and see what's what."

Luka smiled to himself. This wasn't his intention, but boy did it feel good.