The System, Not Done With Me Yet

"You two aren't related, are you?" I asked as Mary hugged Jilly's abdomen.

I shivered a bit as all the little golden legs braced Mary, but she was giggling from it. I was still keeping my distance; I didn't like to be tickled.

"No, this little blind vagrant is just someone I see quite often in these parts. I have tried to eat her numerous times and almost was killed each time by freak accidents. So I decided to just leave her be; I also suggest not trying anything that she doesn't like," Jilly warned me.

Interesting, so Mary had some kind of protection thing that made chance work in her favor. That would explain how a blind, cute, and defenseless monster has survived so long in this world.

Jilly had also just confessed to trying to eat Mary on numerous occasions like it was nothing. Looks like there were conflicting views here.

On one side, there was Mary, who couldn't see the world and all of its ugliness, but she assumed that most people were good at the hippie monster. Then there was Jilly, who was a monster like I had read about for all intents and purposes, but a tad bit more civilized in some senses.

She was also an eleven out of ten if you could just get rid of the bug body and homicidal nature, but you can't win them all. It also didn't look like I was going to be getting rid of her anytime soon, so I might as well take her up on her offer.

"You said that you can get some wood or something that I can burn, right?" I asked Jilly.

"Hm? Oh, that, yes. I can climb to the top and pass some wood down. I wanted to try this new thing out anyways… Okay, so it will work, good," Jilly said, but the last part seemed like she was talking to herself, and I started to get a sneaking suspicion, but I was pulled from my thoughts.

I had to watch as Jilly gracefully, and with no effort apparent, crawled almost fifty meters of the waving cliff wall. I had considered trying to climb the wall myself, but even with my new strength and body, there was no way I would chance trying to climb that deadly ascent.

"EEEK!" Mary squealed and fell over backward like something had pushed her, and I rushed over to her.

"You okay?" I asked as I slid my arms under Mary to help her up.

Meanwhile, above, I could hear some thunderous crashing noises, but I was distracted. There was a mostly naked blind snake woman in my arms, sue me.

"OwO, that hurtsss, but I can sssee sssomething blue!" Mary said with unrestrained excitement as she rubbed her head and cuddled into my arms.

"What?" I asked in confusion, but not not liking the cuteness I was receiving as the bagging up top intensified. "How do you know what the color blue looks like?"

That was the best I could come up with at the moment, but suddenly the ground shaking and banging from up to stop. I looked into Mary's grinning smile, about to ask her what the screen said, but then a sound similar to a table saw started.

"Alright, what the hell is that woman doing up there," I said rhetorically, but Mary answered me.

"I don't know," Mary said so cutely that I just stared at her.

I had that one coming for saying it out loud, but I was getting distracted again. Since Mary knew colors, the next most logical thing to think was that she could read, right?

"What does the blue screen say, Mary?" I asked her, but she just shrugged and gave me basically the same answer she had just given, and I was about ready to just throw logic away entirely at this point.

"I don't know, I can't read," Mary said plainly to me, and I blinked at her.

"Then how do you know that the screen is blue if you were born blind?" I asked, just hoping for a sliver of logic to protrude in this mind-bending conversation, but I had no such luck, and I tossed logic out the window.

"I don't know; it's blue," Mary said and then cuddled into my chest again.

Suddenly, the buzzsaw up top stopped, and silence reigned over the rock-filled canyon. Mary had been slowly wrapping herself around me, and now I had no choice but to carry her, not really a bad thing.

"I am going to pass everything down; try to make a nice stack!" Jilly yelled down as she hung over the edge.

"Pass down? I could catch…" I started to complain, but shut the fuck up and ran for my life with Mary laughing in my arms.

The sun behind was blotted out by what I could only assume to be planned and perfectly cut fresh lumber planks of various sizes. What the hell was this witch doing?!

Boards started to rain down like fat long wooden spears, and I was doing everything in my power not to become a precooked skewer. As I dodged, though, I started to notice something strange.

No matter where I moved, the planks just barely missed me, but they did miss me every time. So, I stopped moving and stood still, and the boards rained down around me until I couldn't move, but not a single one touched Mary.

I did get a couple gashes, but my body was healing very fast, and now that it was over, I let out a long breath. What every Mary's power or ability was, it had just saved my life, and I was glad, but I had a large number of other emotions racing around inside of me.

"Isss went up a level!" Mary squealed in my arms, and I looked down at her.

What was going on here? Level? That sounded like some game BS, and I was starting to develop a sneaking suspicion of what was going on, and when Jilly poked her head over the top of the forest of boards pinning me into place where a bright yellow construction-grade hard hat, I was sure.

That damn thing gave the girls both Systems just to spite me!