Jebidiah's Change Bk. 01 Ch. 11

Several questions hit him at once.

Crystal asked, "Are you injured?"

Yantzee asked, "What humans?"

One of the First assigned to guarding Mila asked, "What direction did Mila go?"

Dana and Joy asked, "Who is Kelek?"

Sift asked, "What is the denition of the word fuck?"

Her voice, so unexpected yet so casual, had the sort of effect one would expect on battle worn, exhausted soldiers. Swords were drawn, curses were shouted, and a crossbow bolt bounced off Sift's arm.

Sift looked around at everyone then down to where the bolt had hit.. "Fuck is the opening sequence of a fight? A verbal response would have been [******]. I do not require visual demonstrations."

Jebidiah sighed and sat on the ground, when his anger left, the hyper focus he had been holding onto left with it leaving him drained emotionally and physically. "No Sift. I will explain the word fuck later. You just gave us a fright. Are you injured?" Uttering the word was enough to make his own injured shoulder flare into pain enough he almost fainted. Tenner noticed first and rushed to sit beside him and physically support him.

"[******] [******] took longer than projected. Rate of [******] was approximately [******] percent."

"I can't express how frustrating it is to hear you use words we don't understand that are most likely critical to our survival. We will work on that after we get our immediate problems fixed. You alluded to being able to see the humans aiding the goblins when we couldn't, can you still?"

"[******] [******] is [******] rapidly. The humans are currently out of [******]. Your companion is returning from their position." Sift abruptly stopped speaking and went completely still before continuing just as abruptly. "Your companion is about to [******] Kelek. There is a [******] percent [******] of combat."

"Fuck, what direction? How far?" Jebidiah asked.

"In the same direction your companion left, distance is [******] [******] from here." Sift replied, pointing as she had before.

"That's fucking helpful. Yantzee, we need Kelek back, unharmed."

Yantzee began barking orders and he and several others took off.

"Fuck has too many use cases for any given word. Do you have more words like it?" Sift asked.

It was enough to make Jebidiah lose some of his anger and chuckle. "We'll go over it Sift." He used Tenner for leverage and tried to stand but put too much weight on the injury. He meant to continue his line of thought but the pain hit him harder than expected and all that came out was a mangle "Fuuuuuuuu" as he fell into oblivion.

-- Somewhen, Somewhere --

Jebidiah woke slowly, disoriented as he found himself standing, attired in strange plated armor, armed with an axe in his sword hand and something resembling the smaller Ancient weapon they had found in the other. He floated nearly a foot in the air over what would have been any common cobblestone town square, a well in the center, alarm bell raised beside it, cobblestone surface running off into... nothingness. A gray expanse of nothing. He was unable to move, not even to blink, his vision locked into what was before him.

Several forms blinked into existence before him, arrayed in an arc of a circle which Jebidiah would have been the center of. There were six of them, silently talking to each other. Jebidiah heard absolutely nothing from his surroundings or those before him, the quiet was extreme enough he could hear the faint pulse of his own heart, which he noticed was calm. The shadowy figures became more agitated in their motions, obviously arguments occurred between them. Some began pointing toward him as their gesticulations became more pronounced. They were arguing over him then. Several sets of arms raised into the air in the universal sign of exasperation as one of the figures stepped forward.

There was no definition to the figure, its shape and size stayed the same but constantly changed at the same time in a maddening fashion. The face was featureless, much like side characters in a dream who would fluidly change identities and even genders as needed. The voice that issued forth was both masculine and feminine, several timbers overlain into one. "Jebidiah Valor, First of Your Name, you have much to do. Your journey is set but the path is up to you. Tread well champion."

-- Somewhen, Somewhere --

Kelek woke slowly, disoriented as she found herself standing, attired in supple leather armor, armed with a spear in her fighting hand and a wand in the other. She floated in the air over what looked like a breeding den, warm mud bubbling from the heat hidden under the mud flows. Around the den was a gray nothingness that spread off into the distance.

Several forms blinked into existence before him, arrayed in an arc of a circle which Kelek would have been the center of, none seemed to care about the mud they stood on, nor did they sink into it. There were six of them, animatedly talking to each other in a silent argument.

Another of her dreams then. This was stupid. If not for her other dreams leading her to the crossed axes she would attempt to wake herself in disgust. This dream couldn't be of her making, why would she don leather when her own hide was stronger? Why a spear? Nothing made sense and this was a stupid waste of her time. She hated it.

The figures before her kept making gestures and became more agitated but Kelek ignored them. She had been slowly crawling away from the small army of the man with the crossed axes when something had hit her head. She woke to this dream, if this could be called waking. It felt like waking but she could not move. She hated this. Her anger boiled and she made a hissing noise. The discussions among the figures suddenly stopped and all stared at her. One approached her, she was sure she knew this one from earlier dreams. They may have stopped the sound but someone forgot to mask the smells.

"Kelekhandrackzanamanderentide, Death Spawn Guardian of the People." The figure used her language, only the people were capable and this confused her. "Your journey is set but the path is up to you. Tread well champion."

-- Ruins of Valor City, Second Tenday of Yantaen 813 AGR --

Jebidiah woke slowly, disoriented, failing to collect his thoughts. It was mornings like this he often imagined there was a solitary little man running through his brain, desperately clearing the cobwebs that blocked normal activity, never gaining ground on the army of spiders spread out around him constantly spinning new webs. He cracked open a bleary eye to see who had his left arm trapped, who was sleeping with him? He no longer had feeling in it which meant upon its release he could look forward to at least ten minutes of the horrid sharp pains that came when the feeling returned. His answer came quick enough when he spotted the unruly green hair spread across his chest. His thoughts still murky, it took a few seconds to realize his failure to rub her back was because his arm was still trapped under her. His right hand was free so he brought it up to run fingers through her hair. It was a soothing, relaxing motion and he lay staring at the ceiling of his tent for another couple minutes, mind blanked, A nagging thought burst through a cobweb to tease him. Hopefully the damage to his shoulder wasn't the reason he lost feeling in his arm.

Cobwebs began to rapidly clear after the thought registered. Damage to his shoulder, the magic missiles, the shaman, the battle, Kelek, Mila, where is Mila! He sat up sharply and yelled out "Mila!" Crystal was unceremoniously dumped into the cushion beside him and let out a startled cry. He began untangling himself from the sheets and crawled out of the tent, naked as the day he was born, into the chill night air. All around was a sea of tents backed by one of the former keep's crumbling walls, all barely lit in the waning light of the moon. A glance up to Phanos showed it was very early morning, an hour from sunrise or close to it. Two sentries were rushing over in response to his cry.

Crystal's somewhat muffled voice came from the tent behind him. "Jeb, it's ok. You need to rest."

"I'll sleep when I'm dead." his flat response came unbidden.

"That's not close to being funny, Jeb. You could have been killed. Again." Crystal managed to poke her head out of the tent flap.

"Something is coming, Crystal. It weighs on the back of my mind. Think of it like in those books where there's a menacing danger looming and all the characters call it a storm on the horizon ready to break. We need to be ready, the storm is on its way."

Crystal smiled, "Jeb, would you please at least get dressed? I don't mind, but you are literally hanging in the wind right now."

He glanced down at his nakedness then looked up to see the responding sentries, all female, all doing a bad job of not staring at his more prominent attributes. He called out to them anyways. "Who is the watch commander?"

One of the sentries looked directly at Jebidiah when he spoke and had the decency to blush as she tried to maintain eye contact. "Sergeant Hollander, my Lord."

"Call the Sergeant here please. You two," he referenced the other sentries, "be about your patrols please. Nothing to see here" When he ducked back into the tent to get dressed he could have sworn he heard a "could have fooled me." Chuckling to himself, he quickly pulled on tunic and trousers. As he re-emerged from the tent a statuesque blonde approached. "I am Sargeant Hollander, my Lord. I am glad to see you up and about. How may I help?"

"What is the status of our wounded?"

Hollander had to think before answering. "If I recall correctly, all are stable now and most are ambulatory. We lost two of the more severely wounded this afternoon. Our combat effectiveness is down more than I like but we can hold a line if needed."

"And Captain Gentry?" he asked.

"Lost part of a foot but still mobile. Will make one hell of a war story for the tavern." she answered with a small smile.

"Very well, how long until your watch ends?"

"In two hours, just after first light."

"Not any longer, rouse the Captain and her staff. Send them to me. After, wake the camp. We will move out as soon as we can."

As the Sergeant moved off, Jebidiah looked over to Crystal, who had also dressed and crawled out of the tent. "Do you know which of these is Yantzee's tent?" He motioned around them.

"He's right behind you."

A tired and muffled voice came out of the tent. "I am awake. I will join you shortly."

Sounds of the camp coming to life filled the air as Jebidiah and Crystal moved to a nearby fire that was burning low, providing just enough light to fully illuminate those standing around it. He used an easy cantrip to fan the flames some. First to join were Corporals Yantzee and Harris but soon the rest of his group woke and crawled out of their respective tents as Captain Gentry and Lieutenant Humble approached. Some of the tension he was holding in melted away as Mila joined the group, the sight of her was the first confirmation he had that she was ok. When he had his quorum, Jebidiah began.

"I cannot say I have enjoyed the escalating severity of the last few Group Conferences we have had since leaving the Keep." That was met by some small laughs, breaking the tensions in the group. " We need to discuss our departure first though. Captain, my apologies for rousing the camp without discussion, but how confident are you in our ability to travel?"

"That depends on where we are going, my Lord." Gentry responded, sounding a little guarded in her response.

"I'm not looking to walk into pointy things, Captain, rest assured. We make for Soldier's Rest. We need to get back to the Academy and the Keep."

She nodded in agreement with a relieved look. "Thank you, my Lord. It is the best course of action, we still have many wounded and our strength is reduced. With your leave I will see to the preparations."

"Hold for a moment. What of Kelek, the lizard person?"

"Devilish one that is." Mila spoke, rubbing at her shoulder. "Strong fighter, nasty teeth. Knocked her out I did."

"The lizard is secured and under guard. We cannot communicate with it to tend to its needs." the Captain added.

"Where is Sift?" Jebidiah asked. She was the only solution to that problem he could think of.

"I am here." The voice was right behind him, Jebidiah actually jumped forward a step, the heat of the fire neared his pain threshold before he turned with a raised fist.

"By the Divines, Sift, you just turned a hair gray. Don't sneak up on me like that! That will get either you or I killed.." He was unnerved at how easily she had gotten so close without his notice.

"I fail to see how the words I spoke 'turned a hair gray'. Which hair is it, one of yours or was it a hair you had under observation? I would like to examine it. I should not be capable of auditory assault." Sift responded.

"It's a saying, just... nevermind, I will explain later." Jebidiah said, slightly bewildered by the conversation.

"I will queue your input."

"Queue my what?"

"You are scheduled to explain the word fuck first, I will add the gray hair issue to the queue."

"Fuck!" Jebidiah said louder than he meant, he was losing control of the conversation.

"Yes, fuck first. Gray hair second."

"Ok, fine, just... fine. Can you help communicate with Kelek to make sure she is not in distress?"

"Affirmative." Sift stated.

Jebidiah sighed. That took longer than it should have. "Well, at least I can understand what all you are saying now."

"Lady Crystal has been supplying me with context for words that do not exist in the common vernacular. What you call commonspeak is a conglomeration of several [******] dialects combined in a manner which displays no discernable pattern. Comprehension and communication are negatively impacted."

"And yet, that one word we do not understand is most likely vastly important. We can work with this though. Earlier you spotted a group of humans. Mila, did you find them?"

"Signs of them and a glimpse. Far off they were on horse, black cloaks, black horse. Left ghouls behind, retreat I did." Mila answered with a hint of regret.

"Retreat was the right thing to do. We need you safe and alive more than we need information." The response made her blush and he sensed a couple trickles of amusement through the bond. Shaking his head he continued. "So that just confirms they were the necromancers that raised the ghouls. We won't find out who they are this trip. Sift, how did you locate them? Do you have magic of your own?"

"What is the definition of 'magic'"? Sift asked in response.

"Magic. At the most basic level it's a force of nature that permeates everything, like gravity, that allows us to manipulate people or things." Jebidiah answered, intrigued by the question. He had never considered a scenario where he would need to describe what magic was. Everyone just knew.

"Relevant examples would help provide context."

He considered her request. "Ahh, I know. This fire before us, observe. He ran through the control flame cantrip he had used earlier and lowered the fire to the point of smoldering embers. "With magic I can put this fire out, or," he flamed the fire, briefly turning it too bright to look at and a wall of heat hit his face, "I can increase it if needed."

"[******] has not been recorded as a capability of humans, just in conjecture. Is [******] your only ability or have you manifested others?" Sift asked.

"Ok, I guess add the explanation of magic to our queue. It will take too long to explain here. Back to my question, how did you find those humans?"

"Local area observation was possible out to a distance of fifteen [******]. Power loss has now diminished that range and complete collapse of the system is imminent."

"Are we in danger?"

"Core is shutting down. Danger is negligible."

"So with this collapse, you can no longer sense where the humans are?"

"Correct."

Jebidiah sighed. "That would have been a nice trick to have in our bag. Can you help Kelek?"

"Affirmative [******] Jebidiah." Without any other indication that she was done speaking with them, she abruptly left.

"That will take some getting used to." Dana quipped.

"Are we keeping it?" Stern asked.

"I think we would be dumb to leave it behind. Someone else could use it." Joy said.

Michael, Shirley and their personal guards joined the group around the fire. Shirley's small horns had an odd reflection, glowing from the glint of the fire.

"Captain, I believe we have spent enough of your time. If you would please make ready the preparations for departure. I want to make the best speed we can." Jebidiah said to Gentry.

Gentry saluted. "By all accounts you broke the back of the horde, my Lord. I doubt we will see the likes of them again." She moved off with her staff.

"Fuck, I wanted coffee." That brought another general chorus of laughter. It wasn't meant for humor on purpose, but at least they were all still capable of some levity,

"Corporal Molson!" Yantzee yelled out. A distant "sir!" could be heard followed by footsteps and Corporal Molson, Captain Gentry's runner, stepped into the light of the fire, her cheeks flush from the sprint.

"Corporal, our Lord Valor requires coffee. We need several pots. Find provisions and have them bring us some tack or something similar to chew on with our coffee."

"Sir!" he sped off into the surrounding darkness.

"Your thoughts, Yantzee?"

"Coffee would hit the spot about now." Yantzee replied with a straight face. More laughter escaped various lips.

"Sift is bad enough, Hiro. Seriously, your thoughts on what's going on."

"You are doing about as well as I would have done. No arrogance is meant by that, I simply have a lot more experience to draw on. We took a beating but we survived and we prevailed. Sift, the weapons, the books, and possibly even Kelek, may prove to be of value beyond calculation. We did not find out more about our enemies, in that respect we failed, but overall I consider this expedition a strong success."

"Books?" Jebidiah asked, surprised.

"A secured library was discovered in the remains of an outer building. The fighting exposed it. We pack all the books and scrolls contained within for transport back."

"Outstanding. Michael, Shirley, did you get a look at any?"

"Some chronicles, some contemporary books for the time, some account ledgers and the like. Standard fare but we did not get an extensive look. It will take weeks to review when we return." Michael responded.

Shirley just nodded her agreement. Outside of her lectures on magic she used almost as little speech as Hiro had when they first joined forces. The odd reflection on her horn drew his attention again. Her tiefling Shange gave her skin a more pink, almost purplish tint and her golden, pupiless eyes had a slightly darker tint to them in the firelight. Her high cheekbones and sharp facial features of her race gave her a well suited other-wordly beauty which was often masked by her bland expressions. On a human the term would have been hauntingly beautiful. Jebidiah knew he was staring too long when she turned her head in embarrassment. With her head angled he finally noticed that there were now matching sleeves on each of her horns of some sort of metal, causing the odd reflections of the flame.

Jebidiah nodded, he continued without addressing why he stared, "I will have Master Standing pull some people to help catalog everything so we can sort through it faster. Did you stay safe during the battle? I'm sorry we exposed you to this when you were meant to be tutoring. Michael, I imagine the Princess will not be so pleased to see me after she hears what I put you through. Where is Farrah?"