002

The ground was a lot harder than he thought it would be. Good thing the landing was over almost as soon as it began. And hey! His thoughts were still inside of his head. So that was good news.

But he couldn’t move. His eyes were locked forward at the blue expanse above, and at a rather expansive box of text. The whole thing was concerning, but the box was static. Whereas before it was typing lines of text at him, now it was still. He looked the whole thing over. He was not in his comfort zone.

Erick read the whole thing again and again. Eventually, a vague idea of what was happening took hold. He was obviously not on Earth anymore. Or maybe he was dead. Or maybe something else was happening. As his thoughts drifted away from the message, it began to fade. In moments, the blue sky stood unobstructed.

Another message flashed into view.

The second message came and went. Somewhere between the two blue boxes he could feel his fingers. He could wiggle his toes. He rolled over—

Fuck no. Not rolling over. Too much pain.

He tilted his head.

Jane was there. She was sitting up, her back to him. She was bloody, but she moved well enough as she looked around, propped up on one arm, the other cradled out of view. She flinched. She crashed back to the dusty brown ground. A thin cloud rolled away from her landing.

She screamed out, raw pain in her voice, “DAD!”

Erick whispered, “I’m here, Jane.”

Immediate, racking hard sobs shook through Jane’s body. She cried out to the sky. If she could cry like that, she was probably okay. A sudden tension relaxed inside Erick. Tears welled, cutting partially clean lines through the blood and dust on his face.

Erick said, “So. That happened.”

Jane’s sob turned into a laugh. Erick laughed with her, but stopped as a twinge spiked through his chest. He groan-coughed. Jane lurched up at his strangled sound, twisting to see him straight on. He waved at her.

“Hello.”

She laughed again. “You look like shit, Dad.”

“Yes,” He agreed. “There’s probably some shit somewhere in this mess.” He coughed. He moved his hands around. He lifted his leg a fraction of an inch. “How the fuck did we survive? How am I not paralyzed everywhere?”

Jane rose to her feet, unsteady. She said, “We can think about that after we get to safety. Take a look around. Looks like a desert, but not like any I’ve ever seen.” She stumbled over to Erick, offering her hand. “Come on.”

“I don’t think I should be moved—”

She crumpled to her knees next to him, poking him.

“Ow. What—”

“I’m testing for broken bones.”

Erick eyed her, giving Jane his best impression of an unimpressed person.

She poked harder, this time with a white glow on her fingers.

“Ow!”

“Ow?” Erick tried to sit up. He didn’t get far. He would have fallen back, but Jane’s hands were there to hold him steady and upright. “What was that?”

“I got a point for a special action and spent it on the only healing spell I could. Lesser Rejuvenation.”

Erick stared at her. “What?”

Jane poked him again with another glowing white finger. He healed for 5HP again, but this time the words were more a feeling, not actual words. No blue boxes this time. He felt a lot better. His breath didn’t catch, his bones didn’t ache. Well. Didn’t ache as bad.

“The description says that the spell will transform into Rejuvenation once I matriculate, but I’m not really sure what that means. Probably has to do with this ‘children’s assistance’ thing. You got a point too, didn’t you? For surviving a near death experience.”

“… What?”

“Dad.” She shook her head. “Look around. You’re going to have to think faster than this. We’re in a survival situation and it would be best if we take everything at face value. Including those blue screens.”

“You got those screens, too? I thought I was hallucinating.”

“We’re not hallucinating. We’re not dead. This isn’t Earth.”

Erick looked around. The horizon in all directions was a hazy line of mirages, flickering in the rising heat. Over there, maybe a thousand feet away, were the remains of the car, burning, streaming black smoke into the still sky.

But mostly he focused on the crystals. The largest ones were ten feet tall. Prismatic white, they dotted the brown dirt landscape, countless smaller but no less impressive crystal spikes crowding the main spire. They reminded Erick of desert succulents, but impossibly large and crystal. Maybe they were natural? Smaller crystal succulents crowded the larger ones, but none of the growths took up more space than a minivan. None of the ‘plants’ were within 500 feet of another ‘plant’. Erick would have had to be very unlucky to land on one of those. That would have killed him for sure, even with these ‘child assistance’ messages, whatever they were.

“Right,” he said. “Not Earth. Survival is the goal.”

“Yeah.” Jane rose to her feet, bringing him up with her. “Not Earth. Probably ‘Veird’.”

“I’m not convinced we’re not dead.”

“Don’t jinx us. That could still happen. Especially with you singing at the Darkness.” She suddenly shouted, “What the fuck was that, anyway!”

“I panicked. You know me.”

A stranger’s voice said, “Good show. The strange language and the part about the Darkness really helped to bring it all together.”

Erick and Jane watched as a humanoid person stepped onto the ground several yards away. His skin was purple. Horns poked out of his black hair. His clothes were well-made Renaissance Faire shtick, all black leather and white cloth accented in gold. The man stared at them. They stared at him. Then Jane stepped in front of Erick.

He said, “But I don’t believe anything about you.”

Erick whispered, “I would really like it if everyone calmed down.”

The man said, “I would like that as well, but then you people pull this shit, and I have to waste resources to respond to a child in need. Explain yourself.”

Jane yelled, “Who are—”

The man lifted his finger and pointed at the smoking ruins of the car. A thin ball of black and white shot from the man, instantly impacting the car and exploding into white that morphed to yellow, then orange, as it blossomed into a bright red inferno. Heat washed over the desert. The car was still there, but it was even blacker now. It had stopped smoking. Everything flammable must have burned away.

The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.

“Who am I? Really?” The purple man said, “I changed my mind.” For the first time, Erick noticed that the man’s words did not match his mouth, like there was some sort of automatic translation happening. “We’re not doing this. I don’t care how you tricked the Script into considering you children and I won’t be a part of your Quiet War. What I am going to do is point you in the direction of the nearest appropriate settlement. But first! A forced matriculation.” The man tapped the air in front of him.

Words appeared.

Welcome to adulthood, Erick Flatt! Congratulations! Experience gain unlocked! Here is your current Status!

The first screen vanished. Another appeared.

Erick Flatt Human, age 48 Level 0, Class: None Exp: 0/100 Class: -/- Points: 1
HP	11/80		150 per day
MP	160/160		170 per day
Strength	8	+0		[8]
Vitality	15	+0		[15] Continue Reading You are reading a free preview (50%). Log in to unlock the full chapter and join comments. Log In to UnlockCreate Account Related chapter tags #ar’kendrithystchapter2#ar’kendrithystchapter3#ar’kendrithystchapter4#ar’kendrithystlatestchapter#ar’kendrithystreadonline 0 chapter views Related Novels He Who Fights With Monsters Wearing Power Armor to a Magic School (166/?) This Used to be About Dungeons Vows Beneath Black Water 0 Comments You must be logged in to comment. Bookmark Quote TTS Link Play Pause Stop Skip Scroll Settings Note DMCATermsPrivacyContact 1 online