Chapter 7: Eli
With the pressure of the cape against the corner of the wall Jaeger didn't even have to hold his body up with his limbs. Merely orienting the cape into two 90 degree angle points. Using this, he slowly lowered his body down as the sound of a cork rang out in the room.
The kid didn't even hear Jaeger as tears welled up in his eyes. Jaeger slowly pressed his hands down on the kids shoulders, but for some reason the kid wasn't spooked, most likely because he was about to die anyway but what surprised him was the gentle voice that spoke several heads taller than him.
"Would you like to live in a place outside the city? It isn't paradise, and it isn't large…but if I give you the material, would you build there? Live well? Work for me?"
"Wh…what?" The kid tried to turn around but the hands held him in place tight, forcing him to look out the window into the fog.
"Do you want to leave this place, at the cost of serving me? If not, I will let you drink that potion back and end it now. I can't carry you amongst the streets, my powers and skills…would kill you, as you aren't protected by them. So…what is your…" Jaeger was cut off with a shout from the kid.
"Just fucking take me!" He shouted and threw the poison at the window.
Jaeger smiled and nodded, "Hold your breath…you're the first I am doing this with."
"Wait…what the fuck does that…" The kid was swiveled around and held tight in Jaegers embrace before he was whipped around to the right with his feet flailing and then everything became silent in the room.
The kid slowly opened his eyes and stared at the space between the trench coat that Jaeger was wearing. A solid framed chest with a shirt and vest, as he slowly took a step back the black cape like wings slowly lowered down from above Jaeger like angel wings until they wrapped over his shoulder and layed silent.
The child looked up at Jaeger who was still wearing his mask, but soon that was slowly taken off to reveal a smiling figure not much older than the kid.
"Let's keep it simple, this is a small space I have power over…my name is Jaeger, I am an investigator…well originally, now I am someone who does work for well… the gods mostly. I planned on robbing the store of potions since it was an Andromeda Alchemist organization…but found you, so…" Jaeger pointed left and right, behind the kid and then using his thumb to point behind his own back, "Mile by a mile…goes high, but I haven't found out how high yet" both he and the kid looked up to the vast space above them.
"I…robbed it too." The kid was straight forward, but didn't reveal his past.
This was the first time Jaeger had stepped foot into the space as well, all around them was flat ground stretching to the borders of the space not far away.
Strangely it was earth that layed beneath their feet, a sky above their heads of a place with wisps of energy. It wasn't daylight, but it wasn't night either.
The kid looked around for a long time before speaking out, "My name is Eli…glad you aren't a pervert."
"Fuck your pretty forward, yeesh…" Jaeger muttered under his breathe with a laugh.
"If I am gonna serve you or something…all I know are potions…I was an assistant for the shop, and that was…well my room I had slept in. People came into the shop in a rush, and then everyone in the shop looked at each other and left outside and I followed them…we entered a fog, people began to die and the last thing I could do was be thrown through the front door by my big bro and…well all I saw was the door slam in front of me. I waited a long while for him to come back in…but well…never saw him."
"I'll look for him kiddo, Whats your name?" Jaeger rubbed his chin.
"Eli…listen, I'm not related to my big bro, he took me in when I was orphaned around I think…2 or 3…I don't know, he told me I was left in an alley, and after that he was my parent"
"Look?" Jaeger asked while making notes in his mind.
"About 5 years older then me, lighter skin and blue eyes…uhm, long golden hair" Eli muttered but nodded.
"How old are you then? 13?" Jaeger asked after some thought.
"Uh yeah…" Eli nodded while looking at the earth as he bent down to touch it, feeling a cool sensation transmit into his hand.
"I'll keep an eye out…anyway, try to quell the boredom in here…ill take you out when it is safe, or I reach the next sanctuary. At that point, ill without asking give you the choice to stay with me or stay there okay?"
"Why do this for me?" Eli asked mildly confused, as someone left in an alley like trash when he was young the one thought he always had apart from his big bro was that people were selfish.
"I was an orphan too…besides, you are too young to drink" Jaeger laughed, patting Eli's shoulders which were trembling with laughter he vanished from the space.
Eli stared at the space Jaeger had stood before as his chuckles died down, "What a wise guy…sheesh…" He kicked the earth and layed on his back, finally take a nap that was without fear or anguish.
---------------------------------------------------
Jaeger appeared in the space he had been in before, his shoulders slumped, "I never wanted to be a dad…fuck me." He sighed, before walking around the corner and breaking open the storage door.
"I wonder…" Jaeger summoned frog, and like he expected the space inside frog was still there, separate from the space in the cape. Although Frog was used as a tiebetween for his ability over space with the cape, it seemed that Enigma had kept it separate and allowed him two spaces.
Inside frog, Jaeger found all the things he had their before which left him with a sigh of relief.
Gathering the materials for his ability, the items left by the others, all of it would be hard to come by without a price in a sanctuary. Especially the desk he had come across and favored.
"However…can I combo the two" Jaeger lit his cigarrete, and appeared out from within frog before disappearing into his cape again and appearing with a step before Eli.
Eli swiveled his eyes down as a Frog landed on his chest with a pat.
"Stay still" Jaeger muttered out from behind a breath of smoke.
Eli cocked his head sideways and then whipped it to his left and right as item began to appear like machine gun bullets all around him. Materials, steel, wood, plastic, plants, a desk, magical items, all assortments of random shit.
"I'll leave him here with you" Jaeger pat Frog's head and disappeared again.
"Oh…right…" Jaeger appeared back in the space, scooped up frog, disappeared again, reappeared again and dumped out hundreds of bottles of potions as well as all the materials in the storage packed with plant and medicinal supplies.
Jaeger nodded, "Right…should've pulled it all in first, then entered…okay."
He took a large step forward and entered the large room, not a bottle lining the wall from before was there, he had pillaged the whole place and even took the glass ware.
"What would this be deemed…a side quest? Hahaha…" Jaeger slipped down the steps and outside.
With eyes panning across every direction, Jaeger continued on his path forward and towards west central. No other living person could be found on the route, but signs of people having had been there were sure marked everywhere.
"I'm close…" Jaeger stared at a strange crowd of creatures roaming about an alley like piranhas. Their tiny figures were merely the size of a baby, but they were thin and fast as the swing of a sword. There was most likely well over 40 of them situated in the alley.
Without taking any risks, Jaeger teleported to the other side of the alley without batting an eye. The amount of bones and morbid gore that filled the alley showed testament to how vicious and difficult to kill these little fuckers were. He was already under the mindset of 'if you don't have to fight, move on' and thus continued on his way.
However, what he didn't notice was that one of the small creatures began to smell the air and move about. All the creatures around it quieted down instantly before a horrid air of fear surrounded them. They separated like a tide, hugging the walls on either side of the alley as best they could as a looming shadow walked through the newly made path they had made. The shadow turned towards the direction Jaeger had left, and as it did the small creatures that looked like grotesque gnomes scampered in the opposite direction while dropping chunks of uneaten flesh from their mouths.
Jaeger, did not know any of this nor that he had a supernatural stalker.
With several turns, the maze of the Abyss grew more prevalent. The first thing that Jaeger noticed about the city now that he had been given the chance to explore it continually, was that some of the buildings weren't exactly normal.
It was as if other 'places' were being forcefully shoved between buildings. Tree's that weren't there before now stood tall, almost as high as some of the 6 story buildings that connected to sky scrapers on either side. In other places, strange bunker like buildings stood solemn and silent, out of place, and in varied shapes.
The first thought Jaeger had when he was told the city was expanding, was that some buildings would be widened or duplicated but it would seem the fog and whoever controlled this great change had other plans, and that was to combine other places into this place itself.
These could be from across the world, or even separate dimensions for all he knew.
It wouldn't be wrong to explore these places, if and when he found some note or letter within would he be able to confirm if it was from this world. He didn't know all the cities, but the key ones were known by most.
"Woh…" Jaeger slowed his steps as an expanse of mixed vegetation surrounded a building. The strange thing wasn't the plants themselves, but the fact that buildings were well over a 100 meters from the building which was much unlike the cities natural structure. Most buildings were less then 5 feet from each other, with alleys sometimes being 10 feet across. The largest distance would be a building across the street to another building as the city had main routes and roads and needed space above for walkways but even then the city was compact even as large as it was.
This building however had cleared space, or rather the vegetation had. Jaeger could see with the human eye vines and leaves slowly moving across the ground centimeters at a time. As they did the space rippled around the building, maybe it was an illusion to the eye, but it looked like the building were being pushed farther away from it as the vegetation grew.
"Not fucking with this…nope…hell no…" Jaeger turned without looking back and continued on the path to the western central.
This is a short chapter I know, but its because I needed to make room for several large chapters to come. I broke down two chapters into this single one, and edited out several points that I found irrelevant. However...by the fact I left what you have read, you may have already realized...that they may show up again. Cryptic? Yes. Ive always meant to be.
Book 2 Chapter 7: Eli, the first villager and assistant