Waking Up
James felt a little body or two walking around on his chest.
It took awhile for the feeling to register in his mind and then when it did he rolled to the side and then pushed himself to a sitting position. It was dark. He couldn't see a speck of a light source.
[Cheep, cheep! Calm, calm, it is okay.]
A female voice entered his consciousness through his taming bond. And then it had been long enough and memories came flooding back.
"Argh, what happened?"
His voice squeaked from disuse.
[You have been out for many days. Careful, go slow!]
The female voice said in answer to his question and then quickly cautioned him when he flopped back down.
"Oh, I am sorry! Did I crush anyone?"
Horrified that he might have hurt one of his pets James panicked a bit.
[No, you are fine. I am worried more about you! Don't worry about us. We are strong.]
The last bit was said with a sense of pride and even joy in that strength.
"What is you name?"
[Kareth, master.]
"Oh, please don't call me master. My name is James. It is nice to meet you."
She snickered at his attempt to get her to call him James.
[That is enough, thank you Kareth. Good afternoon, child.]
The voice over the bond was very familiar by now.
"Hello, Kareen. Argh! Why am I so weak?"
Stuggling back up to a sitting position James made another effort.
[Child you tamed the whole field! Tens of thousands of individual stalks of moss. It can be expected. Your body has been cannibalized by the energy needed by the contract.]
Silent and astonished was all James could be at this moment. The difference in clarity and understanding was stark. Kareen was theorizing on what had happened. This was not something that she could have done before.
"What happened to you?"
Saying this James immediately thought of Kareth. Kareth who he had not met before, but could talk over the bond better than Wilbur. It was almost as if these mice had evolved.
[I don't know what you humans call it, but I can tell the contract allows a pet to rank up in some way.]
Again James was amazed.
"You, you, evolved?"
[That is what you call it? Then yes? We are not sure if it is a true evolution or just a boost. But either way there have been many benefits.]
Suddenly a diffracted beam of light illuminated the darkness of the mouse dungeon and James could see.
"How long have I been asleep?"
James asked uncertainly, suddenly completely distracted from the evolution conversation.
In the place where the mouse holes had been were three mounds of earth. Between these mounds there were bridges and wooden towers built. Next to the mounds and the field there was a lake. A mouse sized lake, but an incredibly large lake for a mouse. Big enough for even James to swim in.
And the field was ten times as large with moss sweeping across all of it.
"What, how?"
[It is no big deal. You have been out for three weeks. We were afraid you were going to die several times there. If you weren't feeling weak I would be wondering who was doing what to you.]
After hearing Kareen's explanation James looked down at himself.
Horrified he could see the bones of his arms and legs. All his ribs were showing.
"I should be dead… and I am naked again…"
Saying this to himself Kareen overheard him.
[Child, we would never let you die. You are safe with us.]
"But, how did I survive, then?"
[Some humans took your things away and put them in a dark place. We found that place and there were some little round balls inside. Since you had them we thought they would work for you and fed them to you.]
Kareen narrated a few details to him as if it was nothing.
"My things? … Oh you mean the stuff I had at the apartment? … I had three hundred twenty three stamina pills..."
'I only had stamina pills because the recipe was so easy!'
James said and then thought something extra.
[Child, I suggest you go back to your human doctors. You need more help.]
She said with a tone that suggested he was weak.
A space gate opened up, the large size that James could fit through. The other side of which he could see the dorm room. His bed had been made sometime in the last three weeks.
Once again he got up, but this time just to his hands and knees. This time he was paying attention and could feel how such a normal movement cost him so much in terms of strength and willpower.
On the other side of the gate by the time James looked back Kareen had already disappeared. The gate was gone, the only evidence of the mice left was his cellphone which must have been pushed out of the dungeon behind him.
Sitting on the floor, James rested his head on the bed for a while. Of course his phone was dead so he had to get up and walk out the door if he wanted any help.
'I can feel myself weakening every moment. I have to get help now or I might fall into a faint again. But I have to come up with an excuse. How am I going to cover for the mice? If only they had dropped me somewhere else!'
I can't explain showing up in my own room! Pushing himself he found his phone cord already plugged into the wall, all he had to do now was charge his phone. Each step in this process had to be thought over carefully. His mind was really running that slow.
Within a few minutes it was charged enough to power up. In the meantime he cleaned off some dirt and grime that had built up. Not wanting to even think about what he was cleaning off James focused on his thoughts.
'I can't just brush off, I have to take a shower and put on some clothes!'
James had to find out what the mice did with his clothes every time.
'Why do they always strip me naked?'
Maybe they just don't understand why humans wear clothes. James didn't understand.
'Wait, I am getting side tracted!'
Carefully standing up he made his way to the showers. Each movement was exactly painful, but each thought was hard to think and any little thing could distract him.
For example while he was showering he realized that people might ask him where he had been. There was no way he could come up with a good story for what had happened the last three weeks.
'I just have to fake it like there hasn't been a problem.'
Resting off and on, James finally washed all the grime off and then climbed into some clothes.
'Hopefully, these last me longer than a few weeks!'
Sighing James stood up and shaking walked to the door. Opening it was difficult. Once through he took a deep breath and put his shoulders back. It wasn't that he was hurting to much, just some aches and pains. What he was struggling with was just weakness. Each step was a huge effort. But he hoped he was making it look like everything was normal.
His destination was the dormitory main desk. There would be various types of pills available there. If he survived this long on stamina pills he could survive even longer by taking another stamina pill. This wasn't too intelligent on his part, but he was in no condition to think much.
"Hello, what can I do for you?"
James was given the normal welcoming treatment which he appreciated so much right at this moment.
"Do you have a medium grade stamina pill?"
James skipped straight past the low stamina pill and asked for the medium grade.
"Yes, of course, we even have high grade pills."
The desk attendant explained in a bored voice.
"No, it is okay. Let me try a medium grade pill first."
Shaking his head in a controlled no, James decided not to over do it.
Eating three hundred pills in three weeks probably meant that he had pill poisoning. It was just one more thing he had to take care of. Awakeners could not grow with too many toxins in their body.
The attendant went into the back and came back a few moments later with a pill jar. A long slender glass jar just wide enough for ten pills. James had thought she was only going to give him one pill, but he wasn't going to complain upon receiving a whole jar.
"Since you are new, I want to make sure you know, we will charge your account. Hope you have a good rest of the day."
With a shrug James acknowledged her before going back to his room. He was surprised that she knew who he was. He had never seen her and had only been at SPAM for a day before disappearing.
On the way back he popped a pill. Instead of chewing it he quietly let it dissolve on his tongue. The rush of energy was almost intoxicating in his current state. By the time he was back to his bed he had the impression that everything was fine again. Everything wasn't fine, yet, the stamina pills could only help him so much with what was a mana problem at its heart. He didn't have enough mana to sustain all his pets.
He took two more medium strength pills as he laid down and then closed his eyes. Right at that moment he could care less about stories, excuses, or what people might think. Within moments he was asleep.