Final Integration

"Get up!"

Roth took a practiced swing of his cane.

"Oof!"

Glim got a good whack on his side. Roth often woke him up like this. Sometimes he was able to avoid the blows. Today was not one of those days.

Seeing that the boy was awake and moving Roth left the room. This might have been Glim grumbling and rolling on his bed while holding his side, but that was good enough for Roth.

Glim got over that whack soon enough and got out of bed.

"Geez. Why does he have to wake me up so violently? Would it hurt that grumpy coot to just wake me up normally one day?"

Glim grumbled to himself as he put his clothes on. Roth was a physical parent. Roth would never beat Glim, but he also wasn't afraid of giving him a good whack when he thought it was needed.

Take this morning for example. If glim had gotten up by himself it would have been fine. Since he tried to sleep in some more because the bed was comfy he got a good thwack. Not enough to actually hurt Glim, but he was definitely awake now.

Soon Glim was dressed and left his small room. The house he lived in was rather small. His room was just barley bigger than his bed. Roth said that it used to be a small storage room before he made space for glim.

Glim had been living with Roth for a little over fourteen years now.

As he exited his room he saw Roth waiting for him at the kitchen table with two bowls of porridge for breakfast.

"Good morning Roth. You know you don't have to hit me to wake me up right?"

"If I didn't you wouldn't get out of bed. If you wouldn't sleep in all the time I would have to drag you out of bed all the time."

"Sigh..."

Glim took his seat at the table and started to eat his breakfast. It was pretty simple, but Roth had added some herbs so it wasn't to bland.

As glim ate he looked over at Roth. Roth had stopped eating to give his right thigh a light massage. As Glim looked over the old man he though he saw another wrinkle.

When he was very young Glim had learned that Roth looked much older than the other kids parents. Glim asked Roth why he was older than all the other kids parents. Roth had then told him the story of how his sick mother had come into town and died in childbirth.

Roth told Glim that he had decided to take him in and raise him because he felt pity for the child. Now he would always sarcastically complain about how such a cute baby grew up being so lazy.

Now that Glim was older he though he could see Roth age more rapidly. He often had trouble getting around. Whenever Glim would make fun of him for his old age Roth would get all upset and tell him that he wasn't to old to beat his ass still.

Then there would be several swings of Roth's walking stick or cane he would have to dodge.

Roth was still massaging his leg when he asked his usual morning question. "Any dreams last night?"

"Mmm." After swallowing the food in his mouth Glim continued. "This one was a different one though. It wasn't scary at all. All I did in this dream was mix some ash into some soil and plant a flower in it. The place that I did it was beautiful. I was at the top of one of those towers of glass. I could see all the other towers of glass surrounding me in the sunrise."

A small smile cracked on Roth's face as he kept massaging his thigh.

"That's good. You have been having less and less nightmare recently. Sounds like the Angel star has been helping."

"Yep."

Soon both of them were done with breakfast and cleaning up the dishes.

"Are you going into town today?"

"Yeah. Need to make a follow up visit to the Olson's their son had a bad cough a few days ago. I gave them something I think will help. Need to check up on the kid though."

Roth was the town's healer. He was the only one in the small village of tulip that could use healing magic. A few people in the village could use some very basic magic, but it was mostly small flames to start a fire, making a handful of water, or other minor unimpressive things.

Roth could use his magic to heal cut at speeds visible to the eye though. Glim still remembered watching him heal injuries when he was much younger. Even now he was always amazed. No one else that Glim knew of could heal with magic.

Glim had asked Roth to teach him magic several times through the years, but the answer was always the same. "Not until you are older."

He would say something about the mana not settling yet and it being dangerous. Glim figured Roth just didn't want to teach him.

"Okay. I'm going to go look for herbs in the forest today then."

Roth glanced over at Glim.

"Hmmm.... Just make sure t-"

"to only go in the forest and never travel farther than the foot of the mountains. That's the territory of the magic beasts. I know. I know. You tell me every time."

Glim had been gathering herbs from the forest for several years now. He had first started when he was only a few years old. He would go with Roth when he went out. Now though it got harder and harder for Roth to go traipsing through the woods due to his age.

Glim had started going by himself when he was eleven. Roth would hound on him over and over about the danger of the magical beasts and the mountains where they lived. Glim was just tired of hearing it all the time now.

Roth looked over at Glim who was just rolling his eyes. He knew the boy had done this many times. He was just worried though. Who wouldn't be letting their kid go running around in the woods the whole day?

Roth may have a bit of a rough personality, but he cared deeply for Glim. He had watched him grow up from a baby to a young adult. He would always be nervous when Glim went into the woods by himself. This was just how he expressed his concern for glim.

Glim had always been a bit more mature than the others his age. Roth wasn't sure of this was because of his frequent nightmares growing up or not. Roth could only sigh. He could only hope the boy would follow his warnings.

"Just be sure to be back by sunset."

With his last warning, Roth left the house. Once outside he got on the donkey and rode down the road. The village of tulip was mostly a farming village. Because of this the houses were rather spread out. Roth would go to the "town" as they called it every day of the week except one. This "town" was really just the blacksmith, hunter's house, and a few small shops. There are a few houses right near them so that small grouping was what they called the town.

Three was a small wooden building that Roth would use there. People would come there with their illnesses and Roth would heal them. He wouldn't do it for free though. Small injuries cost two coppers to heal. Large wounds or infections started at four and could vary.

This might not sound like much, but for the residents of Tulip it could be. Since most of these people were farmers they didn't make much money. Maybe a few coppers a month on average. If they went to Roth every time they got a small cut they would quickly run out of money.

They had to save the coppers. It was what they used to buy new tools, get their old tool repaired at the blacksmith, or other various things. A trader would come to the village a few times a year to trade their extra crops for seeds, tools, clothes, or a few extra coppers but they didn't make that much money.

That doesn't mean Roth would take all their money though. Roth may show a rough and callus exterior, but he was rather soft inside. If someone got very sick Roth would let them pay on credit or accept food and goods if they didn't have the money.

Sometimes people from other villages nearby would even come to see Roth. Tulip was the only village for quite a ways that had a healer. Glim had even learned that this village had grown because of this. When people learned that there was a healer in Tulip, they would much rather settle there than a village without.

Roth only had so much energy, or mana as he told Glim, so he couldn't heal everyone. With the lighter wounds or sicknesses that he felt didn't need his powers he would give them some herbs. Sometimes the sickness Roth couldn't heal by himself so he would also use herbs to boost what he could. These herbs were usually hard to find and therefore expensive. Only people like the merchants that came through from time to time could afford this care.

Since glim was older now he would go into the woods most days to get herbs for Roth. He was taught what most herbs looked like and how to harvest them. Glim also enjoyed the freedom. When he was with Roth it was always getting nagged at. In the woods though he was free to enjoy it.

He even ventured a little ways into the foot of the mountain once. He only went a little ways in and was very slow and quiet, but he always felt like something was watching him. He could never shake the creepy feeling so he avoided that area.

Today Glim figured he would go looking for furem berries. The furem bush usually grew near the banks of the streams that were in the forest.

The berries are a little sweet, but are really good for stomach pains and diarrhea. Because of this Roth often needed them for the villagers.

Glim garbed his sack and slung it over his shoulder. In the sack was a little bit of bread and dried meat he would have as a small meal later.

Since they lived near the forest it only took a few minutes until he was there. Roth liked to live away from the town. He said that he saw enough of people during the day, he didn't need to see them during the night too.

Glim had been gathering herbs in the forest for years so he was very familiar with it. Before to long he was following one of the many streams that came from the mountains. A few minutes of walking and he found what he was looking for. This furem bush was a little small, only a little over Glim's knees.

There were some flowers blooming on the bush, but no berries. If needed one could eat the flowers for a similar, but lighter, effect as the berries.

Glim gave it a quick look over before he kept on. Soon he found a bush that had several berries. The berries grew in small clumps at the end of the branches.

Glim just broke the end of the branch off to avoid getting the berry juice everywhere. He didn't take all of the berries though.

Roth had taught him several years ago to not take everything he can. If he took all the berries there would be no seeds to grow other bushes later. You might get slightly more berries now, but in several years you would have much fewer.

He would leave a few clumps on every bush. The bigger the bush the more he would leave. Glim wasn't afraid of not finding enough. These bushes grew all over the place and were pretty easy to find..

After finding a few bushes and adding several bundles to his pack Glim decided to take a small break under a tree.

A few hours had passed so the sun was higher now. The day had started to warm up into a nice spring day.

Soon Glim's nice relaxing break under the tree was interrupted.

"Host's soul is ready for final integration."

Glim shot up and looked around for whoever had just talked.

"Hello? Is someone there?"

Glim hadn't seen anyone all day. The only person he had ever seen in the past was the hunter a handful of time tracking prey.

"Host is recommended to brace. This will provide some slight discomfort."

This time Glim stood up. He definitely heard the voice.

"Who's there!?"

"Final integration will start in Ten seconds"

"What the hell!?" Glim couldn't see anyone, but it sounded like the voice was right in front of him.

"Nine"

"Eight"

"Seven"

Glim kept trying to find the voice, but couldn't tell what direction it was coming from.

"Four"

"Three"

"Maybe I've gone insane."

"Two"

"One"

Glim got more nervous the closer the countdown got to zero. He didn't know what was going to happen, but he had a bad feeling he wasn't going to like this "slight discomfort."

"Zero. Starting final integration"

For a second nothing happened. Glim just stood there because he didn't know what else to do. Then it hit him.

Pain. Searing pain.

First it started in his chest. Like someone shoved hot coals from the blacksmith's forge into his heart. Glim dropped to his knees and clawed at this chest.

Then the pain started to spread. From his heart to the rest of his chest, then to his limbs and head. It felt like the fire was slowly eating away at his entire body.

Then everything went black. Glim had blacked out from the pain.

"Final integration complete"