6 Chapter 6 The Subconscious

After gathering up about a dozen more of the dead creatures, Thomas held his head for a moment and said, "Tired." Toby stared at him for a moment as he said, "Your mana is probably running low, you should stop before you completely exhaust yourself." Lily nodded as she said, "He's right, you should rest for a while." Toby glanced at the other few dead creatures that he couldn't gather as he said, "By the way, we don't have to gather them all, in fact, we don't have to gather any of them, the field will eventually swallow them back up or one of the other creatures will eat the remains." Toby began to walk off as he said, "Now then, let's head back to the inn." Lily stared at him for a moment as she asked, "But… shouldn't we give the dead animals and parts to the butchers and merchants you mentioned?" Toby stopped moving as he glanced at her and nodded, saying "Normally yes, but he's already low on mana and if he pushes himself any further he might injure himself." Lily glanced at Thomas, who looked half asleep as she said, "Y-yeah… that might be for the best." Toby continued to walk as he said, "Besides, he'd probably collapse after trying to take one of the monsters out of his storage." Lily nodded as she said, "Alright, we'll wait until tomorrow to turn them in." Lily grabbed Thomas's hand and began to pull him along as she said, "Come on. You can't sleep here. It's dangerous to sleep in a place where monsters appear." As they both followed Toby, he said, "You know, you two might actually make it big as adventurers, although you might want to wait a few years before starting." However, even though he had said this to them, neither one paid much attention to him since Thomas was still half asleep and Lily was still trying to drag him back to the inn.

Once they all finally made it back to the inn, Lily led Thomas towards one of the seats in front of Cali, to which he immediately sat down and began to sleep on the counter. Cali stared at him for a moment as she asked, "What's wrong with him?" Lily stared at her for a moment as she said, "He got sleepy." Cali stared at him with a curious look as she asked, "Is that all?" Lily nodded as she said, "Yup, he was working really hard today." Cali glanced at Jason from across the room with a concerned look and then back towards Lily with a fake smile as she said, "Well, you should go wash up, I'll keep an eye on him for you." Lily seemed happy as she said, "Okay!" Once Lily was gone, Jason walked over and asked, "What's going on over here?" Cali glanced at Thomas who was still asleep as she worriedly said "He reeks of blood and his mana pool seems exhausted… I'd say he's got quite the injuries." Jason glanced around as he asked, "Does Lily know?" Cali shook her head as she said, "I don't believe so." Jason sighed as he said, "We should probably tell her, right?" Cali nodded as she said, "Yes, we should, that way she doesn't try to do anything unreasonable with him." Jason glanced at Thomas as he said, "I'm gonna take him to Lily's room and treat him there." Cali nodded as she said, "That's probably for the best." Jason shook Thomas's shoulder, waking him as he said, "Cone with me upstairs." Thomas stared at him for a moment and then stood up, following him upstairs, all while barely managing to keep his eyes open. Once in the room, Jason said, "You're hurt, aren't you? You're trying to keep it a secret from Lily, aren't you?" Thomas flinched as he nervously said this and soon after nodded as he said, "B-back… hurts." Jason sighed as he said, "If Cali wasn't an elf, I never would've even known that you were hurt… I suppose I might've been able to figure that out, but… how did you manage to drain your mana pool?" Jason sat there waiting for an answer for a short while and then said, "I'll just ask Lily later, for now, take off the top half of your clothes, so I can see what we're dealing with." Thomas flinched as Jason said this and then glanced away as if he were trying to look less guilty.

Jason stared at him for another moment before saying, "It must be pretty bad if you're not showing me… does this mean you two went after more than just those baalloons." Thomas flinched once more and his ears drooped down as if he were a dog being yelled at as Jason said this, but Jason didn't seem very surprised at the sight of his reaction. Jason sighed as he said, "Look… I'm not completely mad that you two went behind my back and ignored me… but I am a little upset that you still don't trust me enough to show me your own injuries." Thomas glanced back at him with his ears still down, and then turned around and raised his shirt and jacket. Jason stared at his back for a moment with a look of concern as he saw dozens of bruises, cuts, and scratches and plenty of blood. Jason continued to stare as he ran his hand down his back and asked, "Just what did you two do to end up looking like this?" After standing there for another moment, Jason sighed and said, "I'm gonna guess that you'd rather not tell me… right?" As the two of them stood there, Cali burst into the room and quickly asked, "Are you the demi-human the guards mentioned that tried attacking a boss level baalloon?" Jason stared at him for a moment as he asked, "What else did these guards see?" Cali pointed at Thomas as she said, "They said by the time they got over there to slay it and prevent it from running around near the city some demi-human was picked up by it and dropped his sword on top of it while being hung up above it, and soon after they seen the demi-human go blasting off into the sky." Thomas glanced at her and then away as he began shaking from fear of what they might do now that they know what he did. Jason stared at him as he asked, "And how did he survive?" Cali sighed as she said "Well apparently the reason the guards find it, so funny is because a poison berry boar broke his fall, the boar died in the process and the guards have given that occurrence a nickname… I believe they've been calling it the blast off incident."

Jason poked one of the cuts, causing Thomas to let out a grunt of pain as he said, "See, telling the truth isn't so hard, and I'm actually quite impressed that you managed to beat a monster like that." Jason glanced back at Cali as he said, "Thank you for letting me know." Cali nodded as she said, "Of course." Jason began to walk towards the door as he said, "You should remove your shirt, I'll go grab some disinfectant and some bandages, I'm also gonna stop by that Toby's room in case there's anything you aren't telling me… although you haven't really told me anything." Once Jason was gone, Thomas took the shirt and jacket off and sat down on the ground against a wall. After sitting there for a few moments he began to close his eyes, but after closing his eyes for a short while he reopened them only to find himself in a large open field with a gentle breeze. There were no flowers, but there was grass as far as the eye could see. Thomas sat there for a moment before laying down in the grass but after laying there for a while a female head came into his view, her head blocked the light allowing him to get a good view of her face, she has long straight purple hair and was wearing a white dress and straw hat to block sunlight. Thomas stared at her for a moment trying to think of what to say however before he could say anything the mysterious woman said "I'm already aware of what you're thinking, to begin with I'll tell you that this place is called the subconscious, it's a dimension inside of your head, and although you can't remember that right now it does seem rather important to mention. The mysterious woman then held her fingers out making a two as she smiled and said, "Second, my name is Poppy, and I am the caretaker of this place, although it's rather empty right now I expect it to start filling up in no time." Poppy opened a square box in the air and pulled out a few books as she said, "I suppose I might as well start filling it up a bit now, let's start with these books you've read before."

Poppy set the books beside him as she said, "That's odd… I thought there would be more." Poppy shrugged as she said, "I suppose that's all you've got so far." Poppy then held up the number three using her fingers as she said "Well then, last but not least, you are not actually here, this is all in your mind like I said a moment ago, but that doesn't mean you can't actually come here. Although you probably can't currently, you can still however come here when you're asleep." Poppy thought for a moment as she said, "And that's all I really need to tell you." As Thomas sat up to ask her something, he found himself being shaken by Jason, who was asking "Are you alright?" Thomas stared at him for a moment and then noticed Lily standing behind him looking scared. Jason let out a sigh of relief as he saw Thomas's eyes open and then said, "You weren't responding to us for a little while, for a moment, we thought you might've been dead." After Jason said this, a tear slipped down Lily's face as she asked, "Why… why didn't you tell me you were hurt?" Thomas's ears drooped once again as he heard her say this, but as Jason heard it he glanced at her and said, "He was only hiding it for your sake, he didn't want you to feel responsible." Lily stood there with tears still rolling down her face as she said, "But he still should've told me… what if… what if he didn't wake up." Thomas stared at her for a short while and then tried reaching out his hand, but before he could reach her, she ran out of the room and down the stairs. Jason and Thomas watched as she did this, but once she was gone, Jason said, "Please don't blame her for this, she's just scared of losing you." Jason held some bandages as he said, "Let me get you bandaged up, and then I'll go have a talk with her."