A darkness unlike any other. An endless abyss of swirling bck, shadow and little gray sparks. A single mote of light in the center of a swirling dark gaxy. Stretching that energy, reaching it out towards the gray sparks nearest. [Iron Order], [Bone Salt], [Towering Presence], [Magic Eye], [Vicious Strike]. Words, a feeling of self, of truth, as the light stretches closer to each. Then it stops. Too tight. Too far. Can’t reach all of them, not yet. How many, two? Three? No, two. What to choose, what to take into the self of the soul. Did he make the right choice? What if the other’s were-

  “You alright big T?” Toni’s cheerful question woke Temate from his memory of the night before. An aspect of this world, a ritual to strengthen your soul, yourself, with things beyond the natural. At least the natural of his home, this was natural here.

  “Yes, just…” He trailed off, a finger poked his shoulder, he looked down at Toni giving him a ‘really?’ look. “Sorry, you really should take the time to Empower, it was an… experience, and it’s useful stuff.”

  “Yeah, yeah, but you and Pip said that took hours even if it only felt like a few minutes in your heads, and Surrender- '' She motioned over to the Gremlin who was helping Pipuck stow the gear the spiras didn’t want to handle. “Says we’ll be at this vilge by midday, based on how we traveled yesterday. So I can wait till we’re safe.”

  Temate nodded, “I understand and appreciate that, just making sure you know neither Pip nor I have a problem waiting here with you.” Toni waved him away dismissively, grunting as she shouldered one of their two rge camping bags. It looked so heavy for her. He could see her arms tensing under the weight, see how they moved, how each fiber of her being was given motion. Not just in the physical, but in the abstract, the magical.

  [Magic Eye], one of two ‘powers’ he’d picked st night. Or maybe [Powers] was a better way to think about it? Pipuck had thrown out random words, like ‘Empowering Ritual’ and ‘Powers’ and several more. Surrender had agreed with some but not others, so they agreed to use the words she recognized. Temate preferred more gamified terms though, so in his head it was [Level Up] and [Skills]... Maybe [Talents]?

  [Magic Eye] was a strange skill, it let Temate focus on something and see the Magic that was apart of it it. It didn’t seem immediately useful, sure, but neither had Bone Salt. Temate had chosen it for the gamer nerd in him, and gave himself one practical [Skill] in the form of [Vicious Strike]. Straightforward, and immediately useful, if he had to chop anything. It would cause his strikes to be more impactful and leave more harmful wounds as he understood it.

  The [Skill] hadn’t popped up a big blue box, or given him a description in his mind read by a sexy dy. Instead, as his soul reached out to grab it, he felt a growing idea of what it was. When he’d finally connected he just… Knew. Like how you know you can take a deep breath to get more air, or how you know you can move your arm and hand to grab a thing.

  Or how his [Magic Eye] showed the magic, flow of energy and the elements of motion, in Toni’s hefting of the bag. She looked up at him with a smile which quickly became a curious look.

  “Hey, you’re staring big T” She poked his nose, “boop, come on before the other two leave us.”

  “I not leave! I show you way!” Surrender pouted looking over to the two.

  “Hahaha I know Ren, I’m just teasing Tay a bit.”

  “Ren?” Surrender asked

  “Tay?” Temate added, both looking confused, though though for different reasons.

  “Yeah, don’t like it? Your names are like, three sylbles which is a sylble too much if you ask me. If I’m gonna use nicknames!” Toni grinned at the two. Surrender’s ears lowered a bit.

  “Name Surrender, I pick, no change.” She was pouting and Temate had to agree.

  “I don’t mind a nickname personally, but I’ve known a few Tay’s in my life and I’ve never liked one. If you must, call me Mate or TT, or big T as you've done a few times already.” He said, Toni looked between the two.

  “Awwwww, but I think Tay and Ren are cute nicknames!” She pouted, not with any real seriousness. She did that a lot, Temate had noticed, he wondered why. “Surrender, you don’t like it? I’m not changing your name it’s just a short way to say it! It’s cute!”

  Surrender growled! “No, name Surrender.”

  Toni sighed “Fiiiine” then she smiled a little and looked over at Temate. “Ready to go Mate.” She giggled and Temate rolled his eyes which just made her ugh louder.

  “Yes, I’m ready. Pipuck, Surrender?” Temate turned to look at their two small companions who were… going through the forage bag?

  “Pip? What you lookin for bud?” Toni asked as she walked over to the two.

  Temate followed close behind, they were fully packed up so he was ready to go. It was only a bit irritating to have to wait. Mostly because if they were gonna wait it should be so Toni could learn to Empower. When Temate reached the group squatting around the bounty of his harvest from the night before he peeked over their heads. Pipuck had taken one of Temate’s pots and mixed something in it. A green mess of mixed, mashed and threshed pnts sat in a pot of water.

  “I’m lookin’ for somethin’ specific. See I picke’ up a power s’ nigh’ when I di’ the Empower thin’ an’ AH-HA!” Pipuck shouted in excitement, lifting a couple reddish mushrooms from the bag. They tossed them into the pot of water and ran it over to the smoldering coals of the fire pit. They tossed the mushrooms in and pushed the pot into the coals. With one hand they used a mixing spoon to stir up the mixture, the other went down to the side of the pot and began to glow slightly.

  “What on earth… Could you expin better than just ‘you got a power’, if this is gonna take long I would have just done that Empowering thing you guys were talking about while I waited.”

  “No ss! Won’ take long a’ all! Jus’ a couple of minutes. You and Temate were talkin’ an’ so I though’ I could do this before you were done bu’ i’ took too long to find the extra bi’ I neede’.”

  “That doesn’t help.” Toni said and began to walk over to Pipuck. Surrender followed and Temate decided not to follow. He wanted to try his own [Skills] too! Like [Vicious Strike], he knew he could use it and how, but it pays to practice. He totally wasn’t just having a little nerd out in his own head.

  Temate took his machete out and headed over to one of the small trees near where the group were working. He blocked out the back and forth arguing between Toni and Pipuck, ughing a little as Toni exasperatedly went to the riverside and began washing her bandages. He turned to his own testing, since he had time apparently.

  First a test swing, just a normal horizontal ssh into the tree with as much strength as he could muster, without [Vicious Strike]. Temate stood facing the tree, and took a firm stance as he’d learned to do in his lessons. His arm came back, not so far that it would be an impractical swing to make in a fight, but far enough to get some momentum behind it. Temate swung his bde at the tree.

  THUNK

  It smmed into the tree about halfway down the bde. Not bad, though surprisingly less than he’d expected. He hadn’t bought what would be seen as a cssic machete. Oh no, like many other things he’d purchased, this was a modern tool. Made with modern alloys and techniques, with a weighted bde. So bigger, heavier, sturdier and sharper than a normal machete. Easy for him to handle, but most average folks back home would be using two hands with it. Sometimes it was nice being big.

  Temate liked swords, he’d recently started working out with his roommates help. When he finally got into a habit of it, he started taking lessons in various sword fighting techniques. Why not? He’d also collected a few in his day, even had a custom forged katana at home. Was that nerdy? Yes, he was a nerd, fuck what other people thought. So he'd done some research and hadn't just gotten a machete at random.

  The machete he brought was called a parang machete. If memory served they were designed, or perhaps just common in, Indonesia. A well-known line from an old favorite game came to his mind ‘they have curved swords, curved swords.’ Parang’s were curved much like a scimitar was, though not quite as pronounced. They had a small bow to them unlike their sword cousins, and were better for chopping through thick wood. Since all Temate had expected to be chopping on his trip was thick fallen branches, this was his choice.

  Temate looked at his bde, having drawn it back out, then back at the tree. The tree was smaller than the ones in the forest, younger, surviving by its proximity to the river letting it fight less for sunlight. He ran his hand over the small groove, it wasn’t deep enough for his liking, were the trees sturdier here? A result of magic? Well he might be able to check in a minute with [Magic Eye] first things first, comparison cut.

  Temate drew the bde back one more time, trying to match the position of the bde before and swung again. This time, using [Vicious Strike]. He shouted no word, there was no back of the mind switch he flipped, he simply decided. This swing was a vicious one. It was so simple and easy to do, like breathing a little heavier. Some intention but he didn’t particurly feel anything different.

  If the tree could feel, it would have felt the difference in the strike. It would have sensed the intensified intent that came a fraction of a second early. It would have tried to duck, dive, dip or any other descriptor it could have imagined, out of the way. It might have looked to the other trees around it, wondering why it had to be the one getting hit. Tree's don't feel though, so instead it stood there and waited.

  The bde Temate swung with his [Vicious Strike] skill cut into the tree digging nearly twice the depth of the bde. Temate blinked and shouted! It was so smooth! The bde of the machete even came out smoothly, that was amazing! Then, Temate’s head spun and he fell on his ass, then his back. A shadow covered his face as the glimmering blue eyes of Surrender looked down into his.

  “Good swing Temate! Very good! Deep cut, but why fall, fall bad after swing yes?” She asked, Temate just nodded as he sat up. He recovered quickly from it, and knowing it was coming he would probably be fine next time, but if he did that too much... Did it too quickly or too often... boy damn. Some sort of internal resource, maybe, that he didn’t know about?

  “Surrender, do you know about anything called mana or stamina or the like?” He asked the gremlin girl, she thought for a minute then shook her head slowly.

  “Mother said [Powers] take power, yes? More power means do [Powers] more!” Surrender sat down next to him, nodding her head in satisfaction at the expnation.

  Another person might have been confused by the statement, but Temate had used stupider descriptions himself before. He started thinking out loud, “Hmmm, so both a resource and experience? I wonder…”

  That had many potential implications, he was just starting to think through them when something caught his eye. He looked over to where Toni and Pipuck were sitting to see Pipuck soaking Toni’s cleaned bandages in the muck in his pot.

  “What are those two up to I wonder.” He started standing and Surrender leapt onto his shoulder! He caught her, holding her out in front of him and gring at her. Well not seriously, just weirded out a bit.

  “What are you doing Surrender?!”

  “I ride, faster, long legs move fast and I don’t like ground?” The words she used made it seem like a statement, but the way she said it, was it a question? Temate thought about it for a moment. He was big, and she had followed them in the trees all day. He didn’t really have any compints except.

  “I don’t mind but two things first, okay?”

  Surrender nodded enthusiastically, her tail wrapping around his arm.

  “First, don’t just jump on me, ask to climb up or be lifted up, I don’t like getting suddenly touched by anyone got it?”

  Another nod, even more energy in this one.

  “Okay, second, watch your cws. I’m big, but my skins not any thicker than Toni’s. You scratch me, you lose riding privileges okay?”

  She nodded again.

  “Alright then, be careful.” Temate helped Surrender mount his shoulders. She sat atop the camping bag, hands carefully rested on his head so as not to scratch him. Her feet rested on his shoulders and her tail wrapped down around one of his two arms. She was fuzzy and warm and very excited by this whole situation. She giggled and squealed as the two made their way over to Toni and Pipuck.

  Toni turned back from her quick gnce at Temate, caused by an abnormal shout of surprise from the big man. She looked at Pipuck, then stared down at the gunk Pipuck had spread on her arm. The spiras had gathered a whole bunch of, by their own admission, random greens and tossed them in the pot. Apparently it was just important they be fresh, non-poisonous, vegetation. The important part to the mixture were the soft streaks of red made by the fungi Pipuck had thrown in and the magic heat he instilled in it.

  “You’re doing magic?!” Toni said, she was surprised, hadn't the Righ taken Pip's magic?

  “Aye an’ nay ss, fairy craf’. I go’ an instinc’ for this stuff, I los’ i’ all when we came ‘ere.” Pipuck finished scooping some of the paste into a pstic box from one of the first aid kits. It had originally housed small bandages for minor cuts and abrasions, but the spiras dumped those loose into the case in order to fill it with the thick green and red paste. They handled the pstic carefully and with a grimace of not quite disgust, but something close to it. They really didn’t like pstics and the like.

  “Bu’ when I di’ the Empowerin’ s’ nigh’ I go’ a power tha’ brough’ some of tha’ back.” They held their hand up and a small globule of light hovered above it. They smiled at the small light for a second then waved their hand through it, snuffing it out. They returned to their work as they used water to turn the paste into a liquid then soaked Toni’s freshly cleaned bandages in the mixture. When they pulled them out and began wrapping them around her hands, Toni finally asked the question on her mind.

  “But you couldn’t do it before?” Toni asked as Pipuck carefully wrapped the bandage, tightly, over the pasted scabs on her hands.

  “Aye, I coul’ ‘ave, i’ jus’ woul’ ‘ave taken time to learn the nature of things ‘ere. Bu’ the empowerin’ thin’ le’ me ge’ some of my spiras magic back! From wha’ I coul’ feel in there, tha’ wasn’ all there is either. Heck, I coul’ become even stronger here than I was back 'ome!” Toni winced and held her tongue as Pipuck finished wrapping the first bandage.

  “Grante’ it’s no’ likely the empowerin’ will give ya a way home, bu’ if there is, I’ll fin’ i’!”

  “Wait, you’d help us get home?” Toni asked, blinking at Pipuck.

  He looked up at her and ughed, “Of course ss! I may no’ ‘ave force’ ya along, bu’ I do share some responsibility. An’ I feel guilty, if i’ weren’ for ya lo’ bringin’ me with ya, ya migh’ ‘ave gone to somepce more connecte’. Somepce you coul’ travel the realms from.”

  “Wait really?!” Toni practically shouted the words in her shock, and also in the pain brought from Pipuck firmly tying the second bandage around her hand.

  “Really what?” Toni looked over and saw Temate walking over. Suddenly what Pipuck had just said flew out of her mind. Surrender was riding Temate. No, rephrase that cause that gave her images that made her skin start flushing. Surrender was sat on Temate’s shoulders, hands wrapped around his head. Grinning like the cat that got the milk. Even though she didn’t look catlike in the least.

  “Oh. My. God.” She said, mouth never fully closing. They were so cute, Surrender almost looked like a strange hunters cap. Her fur was practically the same shade as Temate’s hair so she might also pass as a weird wig.

  “Really what?” Temate asked again.

  Pipuck answered, "I was jus' expinin' 'ow I go' some of my magic back, and apologizin' since I feel somewha' responsible you're 'ere and no' in a more develope', realm travel capable, realm." The spiras nodded to Temate who shrugged, he was about to reply wh Toni leapt up from the ground!

  She reached up, speaking loudly, having held herself back as long as she could. “ OH MY GOD YOU TWO ARE ADORABLE RIGHT NOW, and also when can I get a piggy back ride Mate? I’m so jealous I didn’t think to ask first, seeing the world from your height would be soooooooo interesting and-”

  “Toni.” Temate said, she stopped and blinked a few times at him. Her hand gently patted Surrender.

  “Yeeeeeeees?” She asked cautiously.

  “As cute as we all are, we need to get moving.”

  “Nothin' to say abou’ the whole realm thin’?” Pipuck asked.

  Temate shrugged, “Not worth the time. You’re here and so are we, where we could have been doesn’t matter.” It was said in a very Temate way, or what Toni had come to see as a Temate way. Straight forward and matter of fact. “Now, which way are we headed, Surrender?”

  “Go this way! Follow river!” Surrender pointed west, a whole 90 degrees away from the direction Pipuck was taking them the night before. Toni was confused, and then she was concerned.

  “Are you sure? Pip said there was civilization north.” She pointed over the river.

  Surrender shook her head, “Maybe yes, maybe no, but pce I see near on river by waterdrop.”

  “You mean waterfall?” Temate questioned the gremlin, she shook her head.

  “No no, waterdrop it not fall… right?”

  “You mean a big spot where water falls down from?” Toni asked, the gremlin thought, and then nodded slowly, Toni finished. “Yep, that’s a waterfall.”

  “Huh, but brain say waterdrop not waterfall.”

  “Either way you lo’, I say we cross the river and hea’ north, I know there’s a pce there!” Pipuck chimed in.

  “You don’t trust Ren you mean?” Toni said

  “Surrender!” The gremlin growled.

  “Oh come oooooonnnnn, it’s cuuuuuuuuute and you’re cute and, OH what if we get in a fight? You don’t want people thinking we’re surrendering when we call out to you do you?”

  “Su-ren-der!” The gremlin growled again.

  “Surrender, cws.” Temate said calmly and Surrender whined. She pulled her cws away from his head where they’d begun to dig in slightly.

  “Oh, I sorry, not mean to hurt!”

  “It’s alright, someone is ignoring your very specific request that they use your full name.” Temate looked pointedly at Toni and she flinched a little at the accusation in his voice.

  She sighed, “fine, I’ll stop, but it would be good to have quick ways to call out to people in case.” She didn't want to wholly give up on it. Ren is a cute nickname, and as much as she loved talking, she hated long words.

  “It would be good yes, but she just chose her name, and it’s very important to her, respect that.” Temate agreed with, and chastised, Toni in one statement. She blushed, embarrassed more than anything.

  “Pipuck, how far do you think to this town of yours?” Toni asked, trying to change the topic.

  Pipuck shrugged, “Coul’ be hours, coul’ be days, I don’ ‘ave as goo’ a connection with the ligh’ as I use’ too.”

  Temate nodded, “Then we go until just after midday, Surrender said we should reach her pce by then right?” The little gremlin nodded on Temate’s head emphatically. “So if we still haven’t seen the pce by just after midday we’ll stop for lunch and head in the direction of your thing Pip. Sound good to everyone?”

  Varying degrees of agreement rang out and, once Pipuck finished cleaning the pot out again the small group of travelers headed off, following the pointing tail of an excited gremlin deeper into the woods.

  Force2reckon

  Temate Temaku | Power 2

  Magic Eye | Focus and see how magic exists within and interacts with the world.Vicious Strike | Make a particurly vicious strike that is more likely to cause persistent wounds and is harder to healFall Harvest | Blessings of the Fall Harvest upon you, child of fae and friend too

  Toni Terosia | Power 0

  Harvest Moon | Under your light let Harvest bloom, living light of full Harvest Moon

  Pipuck of Harvest Light | Power 2

  Fairy Light | Natural sunlight and heat created at will, reduce light to increase heat and vice versaNature's Bounty | Discern how to craft various minor magical medicines from natural ingredients

  Surrender the Gremlin | Power 4

  Sap Strike | Make Strikes which may leave target weakened and woozyNight Sight | See perfectly in moon and starlightWild One | Improve senses alert you to danger in the environment or in things you intend to eatSkitter | Move quick and quiet even while sneaking