Chapter 16: Revelations and Resilience

Chapter 16: Revelations and Resilience

Groaning slightly, John began to stir awake, finding himself stiff and slightly sore, as he expected, and extremely tired. Surprisingly, he was able to remember every bit of his time with the old man. Sitting up and looking out the window, he gathered his bearings and tried to figure out where he was. Before long, the events of the previous night caught up to him, and he remembered everything: the dragons, the changes, his first kill. The memory of taking a life made him feel nauseous, but he was relieved that he hadn't relived it in his dreams. Then the rest of the night came to mind – Alice, his near-death experience, her saving him, and their use of the house as shelter for the night. Reaching up, he put a hand to his head, rubbing his temples. Speaking of Alice, she seemed to be bouncing around him, almost poking him and staring at him as if he were a freak show exhibit in an old-time circus. "Ooooh, you're finally awake! Awww, but it doesn't seem like anything has changed. I mean, you were glowing a bit and stuff while asleep, and I thought you were evolving like a pocket monster, or like a digital creature. But instead, nothing at all has changed. You didn't even level up or change or become super skinny or muscular or anything," she said, sounding super giddy and then disappointed at the end, poking him in the stomach and sinking a finger slightly into his stomach to make her point. "What are you doing? Also, what do you mean glowing? The last thing I remember is laying down and somehow passing out. Wait, you drugged me!" He started speaking before yelling at the end, eliciting a squeak from her as she backed away, pointing a shaky finger at him. "You, how did you know? I made sure there was no proof or evidence, so how?" she asked him with a mix of over dramatic and serious tones, almost fearfully. "Calm down. I just want to know why, how, and lastly if you did something to me while I was out cold," John said, trying to calm her down.

Surprisingly, he saw her visibly relax a bit. "So you're not mad?" she inched back, giving him watery eyes and acting like a cat of all things, slowly getting closer and closer. "Please just answer my questions," John said to her, trying to get his answers. "Fine, I'll tell you. First, it's a special sleeping drug I made from some special flowers when I became Alice. You seemed like you wouldn't be able to rest otherwise, so I decided to give you a small push to help you rest. Lastly, noooo, I didn't do anything, I promise. But uhm your big knife thing kinda broke when I tried playing with it while you were asleep, and I don't know how I promise!" She tells him, a hand behind her back with crossed fingers as she tries to put on her best innocent act and a whistle at the end, getting a sigh from John who honestly expected something to have happened but not that, he hadn't even properly used that machete for goodness sake, but with a sigh, he figured there's no point in crying over spilled milk he proceeded to try and find his phone in his pocket to check the time only to find it on the little table next to the bed, knowing already that Alice had no doubt gone through it he only shook his head and checked the time, seeing it was almost 7 in the morning he couldn't help but ask. "Did you get any rest? I thought we were going to do shifts so that we could both get some rest. So why didn't you wake me up when it was my turn?" He sternly asked her, slowly getting out the bed and making his way to try and find a bathroom to freshen up slightly and relieve his bladder. "Well, you seemed to need the sleep more than me, and it's not like I didn't sleep.

You make a very soft squishy bed pillow just so you know." She tells him with a giggle and a very wide smile on her face, causing him to sigh at her words, not sure what he was expecting but it certainly wasn't that. "I'll go make us some breakfast. We should make the most of the fresh stuff while it's still on hand. Who knows when we will be able to get the fresh stuff for free like this? My guess is that traders might sell it, but at a cost. Well, if we manage to find any, that is. Any real preference, or is eggs, toast, and either bacon or whatever is available good for you?" John asks her, taking his phone out to message Fae and checking in on her while he heads to raid the kitchen. "Nope, but wait, are you telling me you can cook?" Alice says coming into the kitchen and asking in surprise. "Yep, when I was younger, one of my dreams was to be a cook, so I learned a lot about cooking. Admittedly, nothing fancy and I judge more by taste than measurement, but I think I'm pretty decent at it. Or what, did you think I only knew how to eat due to my size?" John asks her with a laugh and seemingly hitting the nail on the head with how red and embarrassed she seemed. "Eggs, toast, and a meat side are fine. Whatever you decide, I'm good with it," she says, clearing a spot at the table. "Fried or scrambled egg? And coffee, tea or milk? Hmm, it seems they have the expensive stuff here, real quality stuff," John asks, finding a toaster for the bread while frying some sausage and bacon. Cooking being something he often enjoyed doing and helped him focus and keep calm. "Scrambled, and coffee would be really good in the morning. One spoon of coffee and 5 sugars with milk. Oh, and can you make the toast really, really light with a thin layer of butter? Pretty please?" Alice says, pleading with John only to get an okay sign back and doing a small little victory dance in her seat. Bringing over the food and setting the table, John sat down and began helping himself. Alice was already loading her own plate. "So, tell me about you. So far, all I know is you like fire, glow when you sleep, and your best friend is a phone. Oh, and you make a very nice pillow for cuddling up to. So tell me about you, and I'll do the same. We are traveling together now, after all, so it should help," she said between bites of a sausage, earning a thoughtful look from John as he pondered her words. He realized she had a good point. "Well, I'm 31, single, a loner as you clearly pointed out last night. I have a younger brother and parents at home that I want to check on. I used to be good at working with my hands, never good at book learning, but oddly loved reading novels, manga, and enjoyed a lot of anime. My hobbies are things like gardening, cooking, and, well, reading like I mentioned before, also a avid fan of games and music, to use a quote I heard before 'a person doesn't stop playing games because they get old, rather they get old because they stop playing'. And well I took that to heart, Oh and I studied and pursued a career in herbalism, got qualified and everything, but things there went bust. I'd rather not talk about it. So I ended up taking odd jobs, handyman work, and so on to get by and try to help my family. Oh, and dealing with depression hit me really hard when my grandparents passed. Funny thing is, even with all this chaos going on and the unpleasantness, I think I will fit better in this world than my old one and not feeling it as bad as I did before," John tells her, finishing his meal and looking at her. "Your turn now to share, don't you think?" he asks her, seeing him stare at her. She finished her own meal and gave a big smile. "No girlfriend or anything? No someone special? Just your family and your phone friend?" She says wiggling her pinkie at him for some reason, getting a blank stare back with a sigh. "At one point there was, and I wasted a lot of years due to it. We were on and off, and then I was an idiot simp and only realizing it after it was too late. When I did try to find someone new and actually move on, well it was a bit too late at that point," he tells her with a shrug, getting a hug from her. "Well, you have me now. You aren't so alone anymore. So let's get packed up and get going to that family of yours," she tells him, getting a small smile from John, he knew she was doing it to get out of talking about herself but didn't press her about it. He had her then raid the kitchen to try and find non-perishables for them, loading them into the backpack to the point of stuffing it full before taking out the dagger the jester had given him. He felt that it would be better than nothing and definitely better than the kitchen knives he thought of using before. Leaning over his shoulder, Alice looked at it and almost had stars in her eyes upon seeing the dagger. "Ooooh, pretty pretty shiny shiny, gimme gimme?" Alice says slowly reaching her hands out before John pulled it a bit away from her. "Nope, not this one. This is something special for me. It's going to be the weapon I choose to use from now on. True, the reach isn't great, but I think it's an item, so better than what I had," John tells her, somehow having his new cloak grip onto it and hold it for him. "Well, that's convenient. I didn't know it could do that. That's so cool! Aww, why did I have to give the cloak to you instead of keeping it? Oh well, it should still be of better use for you than for me," Alice says, all excited before slowly acting like she didn't care, but the pout showing she did. "Let's get going. The sun's up, and I won't be stopping for much until we get to my house. This delay was already too much in my opinion, even if I might have needed it," John says to her, the pack somehow sucked into the cloak as he put it on his back. "The plot armor is strong with this one," John says in an exaggerated gravelly voice before laughing a bit at his own joke before stopping at seeing the scene outside. The street seemed broken, the houses in pieces, burnt-out cars, knocked over phone poles, small dog-like creatures roaming around. "They should be a good source for training. I doubt they will give much experience other than practical experience. Based on what I've read and watched, they might have a core or gem in them. If not, maybe they can drop an item or currency. If nothing else, I'll need to learn if they disappear or not. If they don't, then it will be learning how to skin them and test if their meat is edible. Adapt and survive, that's the only choice we have now. Funny I should feel fear and trepidation, but I feel excited about this part. I felt far worse when I had to take a life, but this feels entirely different. This right here is where I'll thrive, where I will need to thrive. I will grow stronger; I will make my place in this world, and I will make those responsible pay dearly!" John says, roaring the last part loudly into the air, causing a weird rat-like creature with furry wings to let out a loud screech.