1 Nutcracker!
Dori couldn't breathe. She was flat on her back with a lung full of water. Water that refused to come out in one go even after a violent feat of coughing. The pain crashed on her chest wave after wave. She rolled over, hoping to ease the weight that wasn't there. The world beneath her shook like a carnival horse and there were no safe words.
She rolled around on the sand. She hated sand. It's coarse and rough and gets everywhere but she could no longer care.
She soon got used to the dizziness. She sat up, looking at the water drifting away in harmony. It's a river bank, she realized. The scene didn't fit her memory. Why was she in a river bank?
Then she saw the flying man floating above the water, closing in on her.
It's the wrong pose, she wanted to complain, but then she saw the hover-board beneath his feet. Ah, the pose made sense. She pondered the situation. Her brain was out of oxygen, so the amnesia or the hallucinations weren't out of question.
To prove her wrong, Mr. Morty McFly Junior flew closer and closer and she saw his running nose and the teary eyes. The guy was crying and yelling in gibberish. Fear, delight, agitation, and relief plastered over his face.
She prepared to greet him and ask where the heck she was, but the guy jumped off the hover-board thingy and gave her a full contact hug.
Only now did she realize how tiny she was compared to the mountain of muscles wrapped around her. She yelled, pushed, wriggled to get away from the stranger, but Morty McFly Junior was too busy crying and didn't hear any of her protests.
She sighed and gave him a few pats on his back, hoping that it'd calm him down and she'd get a breather.
She noticed her arms, tiny and flabby, like the arms of an eight or nine years old. She hadn't been nine for twenty years. She didn't mind the weakness of her limbs nor the lack of their reach; what the hell was that hover-board thingy and how the hell did it disappear inside the guy's ring?
She saw a ship approaching from upstream. A large wooden ship.
A hover-board inside a ring yet a wooden ship? Was this an alternate universe where Newton was born before Archimedes?
♪ ♫ ♬ ♪ ♫ ♬ ♪ ♫ ♬ ♪ ♫ ♬ ♪ ♫ ♬
✌ New Achievement! ✌
✯ Make a grown man cry! ✯
♛ Respect Points: +600
Dori realized her brain wasn't equipped to handle the situation before fainting.
The second time she woke up, the pain wasn't there. Her headache had disappeared too. Someone was gently rubbing her throat and did it feel good! The warmth was permeating deep inside her skin and she closed her eyes in pleasure. "Eli, I dreamt that I was young again," she murmured.
"$%& # *^?"
She heard an unknown voice in a weird language. Opening her eyes, she let her sight focus.
It was a woman with a long black hair, pale skin and a pair of clear, deep dark eyes. Eyes that carried confusion and concern. Dori sighed. It no longer felt like a dream.
She remained silent, not sure if her words might freak out the woman. She calmed herself and ignored the undecodable interrogation.
She remembered the bell-like sound she heard before fainting and the weird text that appeared in her vision before her blackout. Was that real too? Was she in a simulation? Did the future technology invented time travel and saved her consciousness before she died? Imagination ran wild as she quietly enjoyed the warm rub.
❀ ❀ ❀
It was late winter when she woke up by the river. Soon spring came and went by, inviting a summer that brought with it the east wind, carrying volumes of dark cloud, and hailing storms after storms.
She fell in love with her new home, her new world, its weather, and its purity. She was young now. She had missed out on so much in her previous life and now she could try everything.
Five months had gone by since the boat incident and Dori could understand most of the words now, thanks to her well behaved home-schooling teacher who was madly in love with Dori's father.
Dori knew the infatuated look on her well-behaved teacher's face, the rush of blood to her neck, the timid, innocent voice mixed with coyness. The girl was barely twenty, if not less. Dori blamed the society and their teachings. The guy was a walking disaster to budding maiden hearts in this world and the guy knew it, enjoyed it, while still boinking her mother almost every night.
Dori wondered how long would the drama remain innocent. She'd rather have a teacher who was more concerned about teaching her the words properly than the size of her father's biceps.
Her visitors had dwindled over the months. Other than the occasional visits from wandering healers and her well-behaved teacher, she rarely got any visitors. Her two brothers were busy doing their own things. Her sister kept a distance for whatever reason.
Dori wondered if Miri, the old owner of her body, had any bad reputation or if she was socially inept. Or maybe people thought of her 'amnesia' as a contagious disease?
She wouldn't mind the isolation much if it came with any freedom. It didn't. She had scored the 'overprotected' zing after the incident. She wasn't allowed to go outside, lest people laugh at the retarded girl who couldn't speak properly at the age of eight and couldn't remember her own family.
Even though she could speak well enough now, she was still being guarded. Many times she sneaked out, only to be caught soon after. Turned out her entire neighborhood was basically an extended family, occupied by her uncles and cousins, twice or thrice removed in some cases.
She didn't mind the visits from the wandering healers hoping to cure the rich girl in town and score a large sum instantly. Whatever their motives, she enjoyed the occasional eccentric, alien company.
Then there was the young Casanova.
As per his daily routine, Morty McFly Junior came to 'see his daughter's progress' and told Dori that there was a new healer in town. The healer had caused a sensation by curing any diseases he had treated so far and Morty McFly Junior had invited the healer to examine her.
"He didn't even ask for much money. He only wants the 'Spirit Nourishing Herb' and said that he'd take payment after he healed you." Her father seemed confident of the guy.
Rolling her eyes, Dori pretending not to notice her father enjoying her well-behaved teacher's eye-molestation. She wondered what it would mean to be cured. Will she be flooded by memories that didn't belong to her? Will she disappear?
Later that afternoon, as she was lazying around in her bed, she heard a knock.
It was her father, followed by a handsome, younger man.
The younger man was his eighteenth or twentieth, Dori couldn't tell. Tall, only a head shorter than her towering father, with flaming red hair and purple eyes. Thin lips, solemn, moody stature, like a lonely god who couldn't help but exude scholarly charm. A wannabe emo, Dori thought.
The boy looked at her up and down, scrutinizing her with the enthusiasm of examining a rock. "My methods are a secret. You can't be here while I treat her," he said to her father.
Morty McFly Junior looked at her, signaling to behave, left the room and the shut the door behind him.
"Um, hello," Dori greeted.
"OK. Give me your hand." The guy rudely ignored her politeness. When she extended her left hand out of experiences, he corrected her, "The right one."
All the previous healers had checked her left hand. Maybe that's why this guy was more successful. His hand was warm and damp.
"Turn around and uncover your back," he then said monotonously.
Dori's heart skipped a beat. "Why?"
"So I can treat you."
The guy looked way too confident and uninterested to think inappropriate thoughts, so she turned around and reluctantly pulled up her upper garment.
She felt his fingertips pressing down on different points on her spine. A wave of cold penetrated her skin, making her shudder. The chill went up and spread to her head. It felt spiky and comforting at the same time.
♪ ♫ ♬ ♪ ♫ ♬ ♪ ♫ ♬ ♪ ♫ ♬ ♪ ♫ ♬
✌ Discovered Phenomenon! ✌
☢ Pure Spirit Energy Flow ☢
🎉 Unlocked Item: ??? (insufficient access)
🎉 Unlocked Potion: ??? (insufficient access)
🎉 Unlocked Perk: ??? (insufficient access)
🎉 Unlocked Title: ??? (insufficient access)
🎉 Unlocked Skill: ??? (insufficient access)
Dori had always hated the bell. She'd gotten quite a few dings over the months. The last one she received was when she sneaked out the third time and was notified of a 'Rebellious 101' milestone and got 50 points, whatever those were. She had hated the pointlessness of it all. She liked this world, and the bell made her doubt the authenticity of it.
Now, however, her interest piqued. Potions, items; she felt excited, planning to fiddle around once she was free.
A minute or two later, the awkward contact ended. She fixed her clothes and turned to see the healer, regretting her decision immediately.
There was a tiny hint of a bulge on his crotch area, prominent through his loose and long silky coat.
Dori'ser neck and cheek warmed up. "Father," she looked behind him, and the guy immediately turned to face a guy who wasn't there.
Wham!!
Her leg squashed his future prospects unobtrusively. The guy looked at her, no longer nonchalant. His eyes rolled to the point Dori only saw the whites. Then the guy fell to the floor with a thud.
♪ ♫ ♬ ♪ ♫ ♬ ♪ ♫ ♬ ♪ ♫ ♬ ♪ ♫ ♬
✌ New Achievement! ✌
✯ Nutcracker! ✯
♛ Respect Points: +500
🎉 Unlocked Item:??? (insufficient access)
🎉 Unlocked Potion:??? (insufficient access)
♪ ♫ ♬ ♪ ♫ ♬ ♪ ♫ ♬ ♪ ♫ ♬ ♪ ♫ ♬
✌ Milestone Achieved! ✌
✯ 1000+ Respects! ✯
🎉 Unlocked Feature: Potions (access)
🎉 Unlocked Feature: Analysis (potions)
The feeling on her leg lingered; the guy definitely had a hard-on.
The door opened and Morty McFly Junior peeked. Seeing the scene before him, he almost jumped in. "W...Wha...Miri! What happened?"
"He said to touch his pee-pee. I kicked him." She conjured the most innocent face she could think of and pointed accusingly at the handsome pedo.
Her father's face slowly contorted, his veins threatening to pop out. "Go out," he growled.
Like the good girl she was, Dori complied and closed the door behind her so no one would be disturbed by the commotion. Then she ran off to her room and pressed her ear to the stone wall. Walls filter out high pitch noises as sounds travel through them. Sure enough, she could barely hear the wailing but the thumps and thuds were easily audible.
Falling back to her bed, she whispered, "Potions."
A translucent screen titled 🍾Potions🍾 appeared, overlapping her vision. There were two entries. She clicked each one.
🍾Spirit Energy Flow Enhancer🍾 (100%)
[Cost: 20 RP]
[Effect Duration: 10 minutes (full)]
[Overuse Restriction: 20 minutes (full)]
[Spirit Energy Flow: x4]
[Spirit Energy Control: x2]
🍾Nutcracker🍾 (100%)
[Cost: 10+5 RP]
[Effect Duration: 10 minutes (full)]
[Overuse Restriction: 20 minutes (full)]
[Leg Strength: x4]
[Leg Control: x2]
[Nutcracker Effect] [ON] ☠
[Cost: +5 RP]
[Direct Damage: x2 (against nuts)]
[Indirect Damage: x0.5 (against nuts)]
[Indirect Damage Range: 6" (against nuts)]
Her grin knew no limits. Looking around the screen, she saw a box near the bottom.
♛ Respect Points: 1460
She couldn't accurately remember all the instances she had earned those points but she felt the number wasn't low considering the potions' costs. She bought a 'Nutcracker' and saw the number drop by fifteen and a transparent vial materialized on her palm, filled with glowing blue liquid.
'Analysis,' she thought in her head and the same data that she had gotten from the potions tab appeared. That's disappointing. At least the commands worked non verbally, she consoled herself. She was still eager to find out how to unlock the other tabs that were promised. Probably needed more milestones or achievements related to points.
She tried to gather her memories related to point acquisition. There had been two achievements so far and a few achievements. She got a ten once while she was bathing, not sure for what, a few fives while trying to read books, a few tens while running around in the yard. She couldn't isolate any sure-fire way to earn points, it all seemed random.
She heard the door open and Morty McFly Junior came in. He looked rather composed, dignified even. "Don't tell your mother," he said.
"If you let me go outside."
Her father /stammered, seemingly not expecting any demands, "Um, uh, it's for your own good. People will laugh at you. You are already eight but you don't even..." He stopped, realizing how insensitive he might sound.
"I can speak now!" She argued.
"What if you get into trouble?"
"I'll call my uncles."
He laughed. "You don't even recognize most of your uncles."
"I know their faces!"
Morty McFly Junior sighed. "If you can name ten of your uncles and promise never to sneak out again, I'll ask one of the maids to walk you around for an hour every day. But only for an hour and I'll hear no more complaints."
She didn't push. Finally curious, she asked, "What did you do to the guy?"
Morty McFly Junior grimaced. "Said that he's the young lord of the Megor family. Gave him a good smacking and let him go."
Her father felt guilty admitting that, Dori could see. So she pushed her luck again. "OK. Can I go to school too? Madam Niela is boring."
Niela was her well-behaved home-schooling teacher, and Dori knew that'd get a reaction. She harrumphed inside when she saw her father's face falter.
"You aren't ready for schools yet. Once your treatment is..." He stopped.
"But I'm bored. Teach me how to fight then," Dori laid down her actual demand.
But the guy instantly refused. "No. Training your body will disfigure your shape. Art of combat is strictly for men. If you grow muscles, no one would want to marry you."
"Then what about spirit arts?"
Dori saw a hint of amusement in her father eyes that quickly disappeared. "You'll be taught the mage arts at ten."
Dori knew there were different schools of arts, mage art being most widely spread, followed by more powerful but rarer spirit arts. To her, magic was monolithic and she didn't know the difference between mage arts and spirit arts, but she didn't pester him anymore. Getting an outdoor permit would suffice for now. Besides, she was smart enough to figure stuff out in time, and she was determined to test a lot of things on her own. She was used to being self-reliant.
Late afternoon, she nagged and nagged till he let her out, with her brother as an escort, despite failing to name even six of her closely related uncles.
Her second brother was an unsociable prick that always remained in his own courtyard, training to be the Mountain of Muscles Junior, leaving when he was required or had to attend the training den.
The boy was probably fourteen, yet already close to their father's height. Genes. Dori wondered if she'd as tall as her father. Maybe not. Her mother was a thin, shorter woman with the right assets and she had earned the fancy of her prince charming. Dori snorted. She'd rather be fit and able than be a prize for boys. Then she'd travel the world.
Her brother was extremely annoyed, she could tell, and the feeling was mutual. But the boy was taught proper manners to not argue with parents' orders, so he was only hulking and sulking beside her, ignoring the occasional curious gazes from passersby.
Dori didn't know where she should go with her newly found freedom that came attached with an annoying string. "Take me to your training den," she demanded.
The Boy looked at her with suspicion, "Why?"
"Why what? I want to see." She returned his frown in equal fashion.
The boy squinted. "We don't allow girls inside."
"I'll ask them nicely."
"No."
"Take me there or I'll tell our father that you bullied me."
Her brother was enraged. "Why, you tiny, intol..." He didn't finish as he saw that everyone on the street was looking at the duo. "Fine," he lowered his voice.
Dori followed her brother's shadow in a hurry, triumphantly. The water-jar on her waist rattled as she picked up her pace and after an exhausting, long stroll, they arrived near the den.
Dori narrowed her eyes, trying to read the large words carved into the wooden plank on top of the huge arched door. Words she wasn't taught yet. She didn't understand why it was called a den. The place didn't look questionable enough to justify the word. It looked more like a camp.
"Stay here," her brother said before running into the den.
She saw her brother went inside one of the buildings. She snickered. If Morty McFly Junior found out that her brother had left her in front of the den, alone, they'd have a field day.
But Dori didn't mind. The door was opened so she peeked inside. There was a large gathering near the buildings and two boys were fighting. She walked in closer to watch. She could feel the curious gawking aimed at her, but she acted like she belonged there. No one came to challenge her as she enjoyed the show.
The fight didn't last long. The two boys were close to her age, probably a year or two older at best. Thin strands of muscles were already squirming around their arms and necks. The fight ended in a minute when one guy swiped the other one's legs off the ground and the loser fell on his butt with an almighty thud. Dori laughed out loud and then grabbed her mouth immediately.
Too late, she knew, and a guy who looked like the leader, or could be the coach, stared at her, suspicious. But before he could say anything, she walked toward the middle. Pointing at the winner boy, she shouted, "You! You look too weak. I challenge you to a duel."
Silence ensued, followed by a roaring laughter from the crowd. Dori knew it was meant for the boy. Nothing is funnier than a boy being challenged by a girl. Dori rolled her eyes and waited.
The boy stood there like an idiot, not sure what was happening and what he should do. Then embarrassment and anger slowly chipped in. "I don't fight girls. Go home to your mommy, kid."
"Don't be a chicken. Promise, I won't use my hands." Dori reprimand.
The boy snapped instantly. He pointed his index at her and snarled, "Nobody! Calls me! A chicken!"
"Don't fight a girl, dummy." Dori heard someone retort from the crowd. She didn't give the boy a chance to back out. Gulping a mouthful from her jar, she mimicked a fighting pose she saw a minute ago.
Heat erupted like a volcano from her tummy to her heart, then down to her waist, to her legs. Her heartbeat rose by the seconds and she felt the rhythm melt, resonating with her movements.
"No rules. Whoever falls on their back loses," she said to the boy. "Come."
Lots of sneering, jeering, and laughs were thrown at the boy and probably some were directed at her. She didn't bother.
The boy took the 'high road' and posed in arrogance. "Take your shot. I'll give you a free pass for the first time."
Dori laughed and ran like a hurricane. The sudden twitch on her opponent's face was a welcoming sight. Her right leg bent like a bow when she was just a single step away and then cracked down like a whip on his raised arm. She was a flabby eight years old, yet four times the strength was definitely enough to overwhelm the boy. Her gown ripped, revealing her trousers, and absorbing a lot of force, yet the boy's arm flapped back after the collision and hit his own face.
The boy staggered back, surprised, and then saw her left leg coming for his unprotected thigh. Too fast to dodge, he realized. He tightened his muscles and braced for the impact. Yet when her leg hammered onto his waist, he froze. He was wearing nut-protectors. He wasn't even hit there. Not knowing how or why, but his legs cramped and he fell to the side.
Dori looked at the crowd. "Anyone else?"
Half the crowd was laughing and the other half had fallen silent.
She saw a grumpy looking guy coming forward and she staggered back. "You are too big!"
The guy immediately halted and went crimson. When the silent half started laughing, the guy almost melted back into the crowd. No one came forward. It was a lose-lose situation and the only way to be safe was to not play. Dori snorted and looked at the curled up boy.
"You will write a letter to the Leafheart family, proclaiming that you've lost a duel against the young maiden Miriun Leafheart, daughter of Damien Leafheart, and that she deserves combat training more than you."
♛ +10
♛ +10
♛ + 5
♪ ♫ ♬ ♪ ♫ ♬ ♪ ♫ ♬ ♪ ♫ ♬ ♪ ♫ ♬
✌ Milestone Achieved! ✌
✯ Unbound Arrogance 101 ✯
♛ Respect Points: +100
She turned and left the arena. No one followed.
She felt guilty for humiliating the boy for her own selfish gains. And for the first time, she realized that her young blood was affecting her mind. She stood outside the gate, waiting for her oblivious brother.
Her brother came rushing moments later, looking down at her with wide eyes. "Did you go inside and had a fight?"
Ah, she remembered that her brother shared the same family name and people inside must know him. "I fought a duel. It was boring. Can we go now? It's getting dark."
He looked at her as if he was looking at a freak, unsure what to say. Dori didn't mind. She led the way for a while before her brother cut the corner and took the lead.
Dori didn't have to blackmail her brother to keep quiet, he didn't share the story with their father on his own volition. So her afternoon strolls weren't questioned, though now she had an older woman escorting her when she went out.
