Amanda stepped out of the apartment behind me, where I was sitting on the steps. She stepped down and sat, letting the baby raccoon free to run around in front of the apartment. I watched it run around and check things out at the front of the apartment, “That things getting pretty big. How long until you have to let it go?”
“A few months from now. When he gets a little older I will have to teach him some things like how to open jars.” Amanda answered.
I nodded, "That's probably a whole lot easier when you can speak to them.”
The raccoon chittered at her and she dug around in her hoodie pocket. I heard the crinkling of a bag and she pulled out a rolled up bag of chips and handed it over to me, “Give him some.”
I took the bag and opened it up. Inside were little square chips, I pulled one out and held the chip out to the raccoon. He came over and took it from me with his little paws then wandered over to Amanda, chittering at her. She smiled then waved him off and watched him eat the chip then turned to me, “He brought that to me to share it. He's gonna do fine when he gets into the wild.”
Amanda played with him for a bit, rolling him around and petting him. When he wandered off she asked, “How do you like your apartment?”
I shrugged, "It's a place to live. It's nice to have my own place though.”
I chewed on the mouthpiece of my kiseru and watched the raccoon play around. Every few minutes it would look back at Amanda and chitter at her. It would look at me and I would give it more chips. The raccoon eventually got bored and wandered over to Amanda. She played with it a bit before heading back inside. I stayed outside, enjoying the night and the subtle sounds of the city before heading inside too.
My apartment was small. There was a sitting room attached to a kitchen with two doors to the side, a bedroom and a bathroom. Carpet flooring I had to vacuum and a refrigerator that was here when I started renting. It was empty, I hadn't been here long enough to start accumulating things. I could hear a subtle buzzing from my bedroom so that's where I headed. Inside was a bed and a table next to it where I placed all my stuff. On it was the little black square Owl had given me, vibrating up a storm. As soon as i picked it up it slid open and what looked like a hologram appeared of Owl's helmet in an icon form, “Took you long enough.”
“This thing is pretty fancy. What is it?” I asked.
“Quantum signature coms.” Owl answered. Owl’s icon disappeared and a map of the city appeared with a little dot. It was pretty far away, “Meet me here. I need your help.”
The thing snapped shut after i got a good view of the map so i tucked it in my pocket then reached over and grabbed my coiling dragon staff. I didn't go down, I headed up to the roof access. It was a steel door the swung open and let me see other roofs. Reinforcing my body with chi i turned and started jumping from rooftop to rooftop. This was the first time Owl had messaged me so I was curious as to what she wanted. I got to the place she gave me and I didn't see her so I hopped around in an extended circle looking for her until finally she showed it. I caught her out of the corner of my eye, just poking up above the edge of the roof she gave me. I landed on the roof near her, “Why didn't you meet me here?”
“You beat me here.” She replied.
She stepped closer and held out her forearm. The screen on her forearm lit up and she flipped through a few things before she showed me a world map, “do you remember that thing I took from that warlock's office?”
I nodded, “The thing that looked like sandstone?”
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She gave me a nod and the world map she showed me flashed and a few dots appeared around the globe, “I scanned that then used the data i got from it to scan the globe. The one I found was just a part of a full slate. It's made from some type of alloy, I don't know if it was made from magic or advanced tech but these are all the pieces I found.”
“What do you need from me?”
She dropped her arm and looked me in the eyes, “I have been collecting them. One of them is in what I can only call a fortress. I need your help to get it.”
I bit my lip before asking, “What do you need me to do? I kind of don't want to kill anyone.”
Owl gave me a slow nod, "That's a good moral to have. I don't need you to kill anyone. I just need you to be a big distraction.”
“I can do a distraction,” I replied with a nod. “How are we getting there?”
She waved at me to follow then turned and hopped off the roof. Her cape flared weirdly and it slowed her quite a bit before she landed on the ground of the alley. I touched down behind her. When I got closer to her she lifted her arm and pressed a button on her forearm. Around us I heard something speak in a lighter robotic tone, “Owl Access. Two People. Port.”
Only due to my heightened senses did I see what really happened. I watched space twist and warp around us, then suddenly we were elsewhere. Woods, we were wrapped in trees. A type of tree I have never seen before. “How did you do that? How far are we from our starting destination?”
“Math,” Owl replied. “We are on a different continent. You don't speak the language here, which suits our purpose better.”
She started trekking through the woods and I followed her. Soon we stopped at the edge of the woods and Owl knelt down. I stopped next to her in a crouch. In front of us looked like a massive rice farm that went on for miles. There were little buildings and a few people walking around. They looked less like guards and more like regular farmers out at night. I was scanning the place, it was supposed to be a fortress but I didn't see it. Owl shifted beside me as I gave her a questioning look, “It's underground.” She replied in a whisper. Then the horns of her mask extended down and covered her jaw, closing off the helmet in full, “just go out there and become an annoyance.”
I watched as octagons flickered over her then from her feet up she started to disappear. I could still sense her, feel the way her heart beat against reality but to the naked eye she was gone. I felt her move from the treeline and into the open, I swear she crossed some water without disturbing it. Standing up, I stepped out into the open and headed to the nearest person.
The closer I got to the person the more things stood out to me. All of the people out were walking around in patterns and the person I was approaching didn't acknowledge the fact I was there. As I got closer he did but not like a normal person would with eyes. They were all walking on edges of pools where you would plant rice. When the one in front of me stopped and looked at me they all stopped. It looked to be made of stone with swirls carved into the surface.
I stopped about five feet away from it and waited. The one in front of me stood straight and watched me as others started to wander closer. They got pretty close when someone stepped out of one of the buildings planted around the farm. Him screaming at me was the only reason I knew he was human. I couldn't understand him but he was gesturing me to leave and I could understand that.
Owl needed a distraction so I stepped into the range of the stone person in front of me and kicked it. It left its legs behind as its chest flew off into the distance and bounced off one of the buildings. The screaming person ducked back inside at that and the rest of the stone people stopped playing human. They started leaping across the pools of water at me.
One landed close enough to take a swing at me. I side stepped it and grabbed its arm, lifting it from the ground. Spinning, I used the stone person as a bat the hit the next one that landed near me. To the sound of rocks smacking each other they both exploded and kicked up a lot of dust. I walked backwards out of the dust and watched a few more land around me.
The stone men worked well together. They acted as one being trying to put me in positions that would let one of them score a hit. They were throwing kicks and punches, one even tried to tackle me. I put a stop to that by slapping the top of its head, kicking up more dust. I ducked and weaved through most of the barrage then started grabbing them and throwing them away from me. I had enough dirt in my mouth for this adventure.
The guy who was screaming at me before came out and this time he was followed by a few more people. They got into a circle and started waving their hands around. It looked like they were doing something important so I kicked a chunk of the stone men around me at one of them. The person did a flying leap to dodge it and ended up in one of the pools before scrambling out and getting back into the circle.
I felt a burst of amusement at that. The bigger chunk of rock would have missed them and they would have been peppered with pebbles if they stood still. I did it again and another one took a dive so I made it my job to get them all wet. A couple of them had spines of steel and I had to get really close with my stones to get them to take a dive.
The guy leading what had to be a ritual started screaming at the people around him. I could feel the power start building in the air so I finished off the stone men and started walking over. They saw me approaching and started waving their hands faster than before. I got about within fifty feet of them and they all brought their hands down in concert. The power that was building swirled together and sunk into the ground.
I stopped walking and watched as the people all started scrambling in one direction, away from me. There was a pause in the ait then I felt the ground quake beneath me. I watched little pebbles at my feet start rolling behind me so I turned around and followed them. They flowed into a giant mass, each pebble turning into a liquid as they touched. Legs extended out from the bottom of the floating mass as more stone from the surroundings flew through the air to it and it started to take on a humanoid form. It set its feet and the sound of grinding stone exploded from it as its form compacted and hardened.
It turned its head down at me and I was hit with a flood of nostalgia. This thing looked like a giant temple guardian from mid level raids before all the expansions in [Freeflow Dream Online].