Manifest Read online

  “Wait, private. Where’s his family? WHAT KIND OF HEARTLESS FAIRY TAKES A PUCKLE ROCK AWAY FROM HIS FAMILY!?”

  So, terrified, they spent another half an hour scavenging for appropriately sized puckle rocks, while the sergeant continued to play with his new lupine friends, laughing a bit maniacally. Eventually, they located Felix’s wife and two kids. (At one-point Chitt brought over Felix’s estranged nephew, Toby, and he needed to do push-ups for causing Felix to rehash long forgotten memories of the two fighting over the best moss. Felix was a sensitive puckle rock.)

  Sergeant Pinaki then let them both off the hook, after they arranged the ‘family’ in a little circle for some communal bonding. Exhausted, they traipsed over to Gitch and those assembled to take a long-awaited breather.

  The rest of the fairies laughed and clapped them on the back, though some suggested there might be more family members present passed the tree line. Gitch was having a merry old time, enjoying the fellowship of others of his kind. Fairies were a fun-loving bunch and had a very infectious way about them. Even Kraznik cracked a grin or two.

  Eventually, Captain Selah waived them all over and addressed them stoically. “We will be splitting into two teams. Avocado team will continue on toward our original objective. We have received additional intel from Brother Gitch, and must travel north to locate the source of the magical disturbance.

  Beet Team will be heading back to Fae-thil to escort our new… friends.” He grimaced, obviously uncomfortable referring to the imp as such.

  “Sergeant Pinaki will be leading Beet Team. Chitt, Wasi, Jiri, you three will likewise travel south as a part of Beet Team. The rest will accompany me north. You wolves are free to do as you wish, you may choose either direction, or neither.”

  Alpha looked troubled. Her gaze shifted from one fairy to the next, before finally landing on Gitch.

  “WE GO WITH GITCH FAIRY! YES! YES! HE GOOD FRIEND. HE MAKE ALPHA LEADER! YES! YES! YES!” Alpha barked.

  Gitch was touched by the sentiment. The she-wolf was definitely growing on him. He was glad they were not yet parting company.

  “Very well. We will head out within the hour.”

  Time passed quickly. Gitch chatted up a few of the fairies, interested to know more about his own people. He learned that cursing was not permitted by the queen, which was not a popular proclamation among the players, but it was obeyed by the ‘true fairies’ without question. Fairies were very respectful of their leadership and true rebellion was not even a thought.

  Though they were not permitted to curse openly, the fairies did come up with some very creative expressions. Gitch actually found the exercise pretty entertaining.

  Apart from Sergeant Pinaki, the fairies were a cheery bunch. They laughed freely, and constantly played jokes or games on one another. Five of them took up a game of Tug of War with Alpha, for which they were surprisingly well matched. Alpha ended up the victor, but not without some serious yanking on her end of the rope.

  A few of them were playing a different game. They would fly high into the air, at least 100 feet, before diving to throw something at a fairy standing still on the ground. It looked like the divers would gain points based on how close the object landed to the still fairy. Gitch watched on with fascination.

  The look on his face must have been obvious, as a lemon-colored fairy sauntered over to him. He thought his name was Faik. “Would you like a turn at nut-splat? It is quite fun and helps increase one’s accuracy from high up,” he said merrily.

  “Yeah! That sounds great! What do I do?” he asked the friendly fairy.

  “Follow me, and I will show you once we are up in the air.” Faik took off from the grassy floor. Gitch followed him, and they continued to climb until he could barely make out the small fairy on the ground. Faik finally stopped, and Gitch slid up next to him.

  “It is rather simple. Just take this nut and hit Teik on the ground. You will need to dive as fast as you can, but pull up before hitting the ground. The closer you are to the ground, the more likely you are to hit Teik, but you will also be more likely to be hit in turn. She is holding a dart-gun that will cause some… unpleasantness, so try not to get hit. She is a poison specialist, but doesn’t use anything overly lethal in training. That’s about it. Good luck!”

  Gitch did not like the sound of that. He absolutely did not want to get hit with one of those darts! He also didn’t want to look like a novice in front of the other fairies, even though he was most definitely a noob in comparison.

  Before he psyched himself up, Gitch took Faik’s nut and took off toward the ground. He was expending his maximum of 5 points of mana per second, and he truly didn’t think he had ever traveled so fast. It was enumerating! Sure, maybe it would have been nice to have an altimeter. Was he 30 feet up or 20? How fast was he actually going? How fast could he stop? He had no idea and didn’t really care. He began to cackle like a mad-man. The dive gave him a sudden rush of adrenaline, and he was literally flying high.

  It took some effort, but he again started focusing on the contest at hand. He didn’t want to pull up too early, but he would rather not be dead. He waited just another second, trusting his instincts, and began to pull himself up. Rather than a full nose dive, he slowly began to fly parallel to the ground. Very slowly. He began to think luck and instinct might be one and the same. As the ground approached, he cursed them both.

  He couldn’t have been more than a foot and a half above the ground by the time he finally leveled out. At this point he began freaking out so badly that he almost forgot to release his load on Teik. She looked shocked at his reckless proximity but recovered quickly. Teik raised the dart gun to her mouth and fired. Given the short distance, she ended up hitting the fast-flying nut rather than the screaming pink fairy on the other side. The dart did slightly deflect the nut, but it still ended up hitting her in the foot, leaving a nasty green welt.

  Gitch zipped on by. He had no clue if he hit his mark or not, but he had a pretty good idea once he heard a feminine voice shout from behind, “OPPIE MOOBS!”

  That seemed like a good sign, but he had no time to celebrate. He was careening out of control as he spun off towards the forest. He entered the tree line, missing trunks by mere inches. One direct hit and it would be lights out. He would respawn miles away, completely alone. Well, not alone. Todd was there.

  Gitch was tumbling through the air and close to blacking out. Before he lost all consciousness, he spotted a thick red bush near the ground. He tried his best to fall into it, but everything turned black just before impact.

  There was no dreaming, only the black. In a way, sinking into the abyss was a relief, or even a respite, from all the crazy. He had no sense of time, but eventually felt two delicate hands on either side of his face as a warmth flowed through his veins. He was up and better in an instant! He opened his eyes to see Teik kneeling over him and muttering silently. Once she saw Gitch open his eyes, she slapped him across the face and walked away.

  He rubbed his cheek and looked at her in confusion. In a weak voice he called after her. “Thank you?”

  He wasn’t sure whether she had heard him, but after a few more steps, she looked back over her shoulder and said, “Your pleasure, noob.”

  She continued on into the glade and passed out of sight, just as Faik landed next to him.

  “Gitch! I am glad to see you are still alive. I did not think you would wait so long to pull up and was afraid you did not make it. Now I find you not only alive, but I hear you even struck Teik! Congratulations! She has never been hit by a level 1 dive bomber!”

  “Dive bomber? What are you talking about?” Gitch asked as he lifted himself up from the ground. It seemed like he had made it to the bush, but only just.

  “Have you not noticed? You should have received a new skill. This is very useful for fairies, and I suggest you continue to develop the skill as much as possible.”

  Gitch did in fact notice a new blinking notification, and he selected it to chec
k out his new skill.

  Congratulations! You have learned the skill: Dive Bombing

  Take a steep dive through the air to release devastation upon your target. The closer your target, the greater your chance for a successful attack, but also lessens your ability to dodge.

  When dive bombing, you experience the following:

  +1% dive mobility

  +1% accuracy

  +1% damage

  +2% critical hit damage

  This was awesome! He could definitely see himself sneaking up on unsuspecting enemies from overhead. He was basically a flying ninja! Death from above, pew pew pew!

  “I can tell by that creepy grin you like the skill. I confess, it is one of my go-tos in initiating a battle with ground enemies. Just be careful, you will be more susceptible to attack the closer you become to the target,” Faik said, completely derailing Gitch’s train of thought.

  That was a good warning. He thanked Faik and asked him about Teik’s strange behavior. “Ahh, don’t pay that any mind. She is just not used to losing to someone of your level. She almost always hits her mark, even with more experienced divers. You also flew off in a jiffy, which was rather rude by the way. You’re lucky she still flew over and healed you. I tell you; I have never met two more proud fairies than Sergeant Pinaki and his daughter, Teik.”

  That was news to him. So Teik was Pinaki’s daughter. That would explain the temperament, not that he would ever tell her that. He liked not being poisoned. Gitch and Faik flew back to the group congregated in the middle of the clearing. As they approached, the fairies began to clap and cheer. Gitch did a mid-air bow, much to the delight of those gathered, before landing next to Dwik, Kraznik, and Alpha. Everyone was in remarkably good moods. Everyone but Kraznik. The imp had not been overly enjoying his time with the fairies. He wasn’t at hatred status any more, but there was still an extreme dislike for one another.

  Captain Selah and Sergeant Pinaki were all business. They each knew the dangers that lay ahead, and that this may be the last time they ever saw one another. Their mood slowly began to trickle into the hearts of all present. The laughter began to die out and smiles disappeared. Captain Selah bade them farewell and good luck before taking Avocado Team north.

  After just a few minutes, Beet Team left as well. The wolves were lined up in pairs, with Alpha in the lead. Dwik sat astride Goldie in the second row. Next to him was Kraznik, tied and blindfolded atop Half-Tail. Apart from Alpha, these were the two most capable wolves, and they promised they would each take care of their charge.

  Sergeant Pinaki flew as the rear guard, just behind the last pair of wolves. Chitt flew to the right of the column, with Wasi flying on the left. Jiri was on scout duty, flying high above, scanning the surrounding area for danger.

  Gitch was the floater. His job was basically to patrol up and down the column to scout and help out as needed. It was boring, but he was treated to some pretty amazing views of the forest. He spent the time chatting up Alpha before moving down next to Kraznik.

  “Hey Kraznik, it’s Gitch,” he said as he flew between Dwik and the bound imp. Kraznik grunted in response. He wasn’t a fan of how the fairies were treating him, but he didn’t want to complain too loudly on the chance that they kill him out of spite. Along with binding his limbs, they had tied a thin strip of cloth over his eyes to block his sight.

  “Hey Gitch, call me Kraz. I like it better.”

  “Sure thing, Kraz. So, what was Manifest like before GameChangers pulled everyone back in? Was it much different?” Gitch asked.

  “We could log out then. That was nice.”

  “Well… besides that? No one left on the outside had ever been in the game, and I want to know if GameChangers changed anything else apart from taking away the log out option.”

  “Fine,” Kraznik sighed. “While I was rampaging around the camp, I noticed a few things that are now different. For one, there was an aim assist option, and we could just select an ability to use it. Everyone, NPCs included, had their name, health, and level floating above their heads. We also had a built-in mini map, instant access to our character sheets, global messaging with other players, and some other stuff. All that is gone now. GameChangers kicked the shit out of-ow!” Kraznik exclaimed. A large nut had dropped from the sky and landed directly on his head. Jiri soon flew by and shouted, “No swearing, devil imp!”

  Apparently, they took swearing seriously, even among other species. That, or they just found any reason satisfactory to strike a blow to an imp. Gitch found it a bit funny, but he stifled a laugh to not offend the imp.

  “Fine!” Kraz shouted back. “GameChangers betrayed us pretty bad. Better?”

  He wasn’t actually expecting a response, but each of the fairies responded back with a loud and cheerful, “Yup!”

  Gitch couldn’t help but chuckle. Kraz just shook his head and muttered, “Fairies.” He turned his head, clearly done with the conversation.

  Gitch was left contemplating the imp’s words. GameChangers had promised not to interfere with the game world, which he now learned was a joke. Freaking liars! It came as no surprise, given their history of betrayal, but it still sucked. He would love to be able to send a message to Tommy, or access pretty much any of the other features that had since been disabled.

  It did seem that Lily was fighting back, however. She had provided him with a means to check his manifestation sheet. Also, he may not have a true mini map, but Dwik had given him a map of the forest which was the next best thing. The dots above everyone’s head were also nice, even if he would have preferred a bit more information. Maybe other features would be made available in time, or maybe they wouldn’t. Either way, he would find a way to not just survive, but really thrive in this new world. He would find Tommy, and if he met any GameChanger admins along the way, he would do his best to make them suffer. Horribly.

  The trek went smoothly for the first several hours. Gitch took turns talking with Dwik, then Wasi, and then Chitt. When he strayed back to talk with Sergeant Pinaki, he quickly learned that their leader was not one for shooting the breeze. All the sergeant had said was “Stay alert!” and “Don’t bother Jiri. She doesn’t need any more distractions!”

  Most of the fairies Gitch had met were quick with a smile and joke. Sergeant Pinaki was the exception. Gitch hastened up to the head of the column and sat comfortably between Alpha’s stiff ears. He gave her a good, long scratch before pulling up his manifestation screen. He figured there were enough of them on guard duty that he could spare a few minutes to check out his progress.

  Name: Gitch

  Age: 22

  Alignment: +3

  Level: 4

  Experience Points Required To Level Up: 222

  POOLS:

  Health: 82

  Mana: 352 (348)

  Stamina: 213

  ACTIVE EFFECTS:

  +3% Experience gain for 24 hours

  Gift of Todd:

  +10% flight speed

  +15% chance for a critical hit

  +1 charisma

  ARMOR VALUE:

  Ragged Trousers: 0

  Total Armor Value: 0

  RESISTANCES:

  Light Magic: 15%

  Nature Magic: 50%

  ATTRIBUTES:

  Strength: 1

  Dexterity: 25

  Constitution: 4

  Endurance: 13

  Intelligence: 16

  Wisdom: 20

  Charisma: 15

  Luck: 1

  Unused Attribute Points: 3

  RACIAL TRAITS:

  Tiny Creature

  Terraformer

  Beast Friend

  ???

  ??? ABILITIES:

  Transmorph, level 2

  Dubious Missioneer, level 2

  SPELLS:

  Wing Blast, level 1

  Polymorph, level 1

  SKILLS:

  Flight, level 5

  Tracking, level 3

  Diplomacy, level 2


  Dive Bomb, level 1

  QUESTS:

  An IMPudent Ritual

  Cultivating Todd

  Hmm, still level 4. Oh well, he thought with a shrug. He considered where to dump his available attribute points, but then remembered that option was currently off the table.

  “Damn it!” he shouted in frustration. That was when something hard hit him on top of the head. In his anger he had already forgotten the ‘no swearing’ rule. It seemed a silly law, but one he needed to live with if he was going to travel with other fairies.

  He closed his screen, readying himself for a short, fairy lecture on vulgarity. Instead, he found what hit him in the head was not a nut after all. It was a small silver head.

  Jiri‘s head.

  Chapter 15

  Her mouth hung open and her two eyes were frozen wide with terror. It looked like she had been about to shout a warning, but would now forever remain silent. Gitch did the first thing that came to his mind. He screamed and kicked the head away from him as far as possible. The thing was gross and blood was still pouring out of the hole. It landed on the ground with a sickening thud.

  His scream caught the attention of the rest of the group, and each began looking for the new threat. It was Sergeant Pinaki that first spotted the imps. With a shout, he pointed his left hand to the hidden sky.

  “Look up, you daft fupine cluggers!”

  Gitch had no idea what a fupine clugger was, but he understood the tone of Pinaki‘s message. He looked up and saw between 30 and 40 imps staring back down at them with hate-filled eyes. An extra-large imp, probably twice as tall as the others, was holding Jiri‘s body, minus the head. With an ugly sneer, he dropped her corpse, which plummeted toward the ground and landed with a small thump. Raucous laughter came from above. The imps knew they had the high ’air’, and they vastly outnumbered their prey.

  It did look a bit hopeless to Gitch. Only four fairies remained, and neither Dwik, nor the wolves could fly to meet the imps head on. Even so, Sergeant Pinaki, Chitt, and Wasi came together and flipped in the air to hover with their backs facing the ground. They held their arms outstretched, waiting for the imps to come into range so they could unleash whatever magic they had in store.