Light in the Darkness

The hour of the tiger pulsated in the darkness that was almost solely caused by the thick roof of treetops shadowing the lower parts of the jungle. This place existed left and right, up and down, all around Ian as he tried his best to stay undercover. He didn't actually think he would get another filtiger today. He just wanted to clear his head as he ran.

He bumped straight into a tree while trying to dodge a peculiar, vaguely humanoid being covered in light.

His brain registered the potential danger only after he had managed to be seen by the creature.

He had never met a humanoid before.

While they were not outright secretive, they really did not seem to care much for regular people, instead appearing into meetings where everyone had matching ties. They were rumored to clothe themselves in light to avoid scaring people. Incidentally, that was much like Ian imagined angels to be. Scary, yet benevolent.

"Uh…" He choked on his own tongue, shaking, even with his awesome cybernetic suit buffing him up and making him look way bigger in every direction.

"I'm sorry for disturbing you like this."

"I was looking for you," a voice said from the ball of light that was apparently the head of the humanoid.

Then the light began to fade away.

The humanoid tales were mostly true. The skin of the creature was of a greenish hue, reminding Ian of all those ridiculous vintage alien clips that had been banned due to fears of offending the benevolent humanoids. Its eyes, though, they were not what they were supposed to be.

They were too numerous, too black, and still, an image of pure beauty was maintained. This thing had carefully applied makeup to all five of its eyelids, and it even had lips, but its voice was unmistakably male, perhaps because it was using an universal translator and had decided that a voice of a human man would not be as intimidating as the voice of a woman.

"I was looking for you specifically, and I have to be direct. We don't have much time. Kortock is a good man."

"Is he?" Ian asked. Funny how the question was literally two syllables and his voice still managed to break completely.

"He is. He means well. But you should not, under any circumstances, trust him." The humanoid blinked and offered his hand to the young man.

Ian saw that the creature was handing to him one of the most ordinary items he had ever seen. It was a flashlight, one of those old appliances that had been designed in case of an energy failure that would leave the entire world without light and without power.

It was a bit better than a whole damn candle, but Ian laughed nonetheless.

"A flashlight and advice to be suspicious of my own mentor. No offense, Mister, but I have trouble trusting you."

"You're highly territorial, you humans, aren't you…well. I must go now. Use the flashlight. Try to find some old batteries that still work. I doubt they sell those at the corner store, but you will need it. I'm here alone…"

"Does your species approve of this?" Ian said, amazed by this development.

The humanoid looked away, and then back at his feet. These things had a strange understanding of polite behavior. It was a well known psychological fact that staring at a human's shoes made them freak out a little.

"They do not know. I am considered to be an outcast…insane…"

Then the humanoid turned away and ran towards the depths of the jungle.

Ian was astonished. He tapped the button on the flashlight. Nothing happened. If he wanted to find out what was going on, he would have to find batteries that actually worked.

He went hunting for filtigers, remembering what Kortock had said about losing momentum.

He was so upset and confused that a cobra nearly got him, but he caught a glimpse of something moving faster than it had any right to move, rhinoing towards him like nobody's business and charging through the grass.

"Oh damn! A COBRA!"

Ian had one thought in his head right now, one thought only.

A piece of wood near the murderous serpent went up in flames as the dying animal caught fire in a fraction of a second.

Ian chuckled, but the fire kept spreading and threatened to cut him off from the way back to 13. He swallowed.

His suit provided him with some protection against the elements. He had to make a leap for relative safety.

He escaped the forest fire unscathed at first, but the flames did not stop there. He had to run.

As he ran, he heard a terrifying roar coming from behind him.

A window appeared in front of him as he jumped over a fallen tree trunk.

[FILTIGERS SLAIN: 2/5]

[QUEST PROGRESS: 40%]

"Yes!" he cried out. "Go baby, go!"

He could not stop to celebrate, or he would be fried as well. It seemed like the entire jungle was going up in flames, with grass giving its flame away to the trees and the trees passing the fire along to the bushes.

He had surely committed a lot of arson that day.

Pretending to be innocent, he came back to 13 and found himself a popular ice cream place. He ordered a cream toffee ice cream with a coffee. As he sat down, he realized that the people in the room were staring at him.

"Can that be…"

"His hair looks funny."

"That's Ian, damn."

"He got buff."

"I just got myself a nice system," Ian said. "Don't get too excited."

One guy called Nick came up to him to shake his hand.

"You know, I always knew you'd make it big in life," Nick said.

That was a big fat lie. Nick had called him a no-lifer, a troll and some things that were much worse. He had the common sense to only say those things about Ian behind his back, but word always got around. Nick was from a good, military family. He had a tradition of greatness built into his very genes.

Meanwhile, Ian was much like a lottery winner. He was supposed to feel great about himself, but instead, he felt like his success was all luck and no skill.

"Go away and let me eat my damn ice cream in peace," Ian snapped at Nick. "You're one catty little boy. Did Daddy give you enough money to make your girl happy? The one with the speech impediment?"

"I left her," Nick said quietly, looking like he would have rather confessed a white collar crime to the tax man.

"Ha, so you do know who I am talking about. You think she spoke funnily?"

"Ian –"

"Well, you'll find someone else who's dumb enough to watch your face every day as you make that expression you always make when you have to add two and two together. Is there still a lack of dopamine in your brain?"

Ian was really enjoying this right now. He was outdoing his old bully, and the people Nick had come with could not help laughing, either.

"What the hell's a dopamine," Nick said, his old demeanor falling over his sour face like an ugly curtain. "You're just new money. You have zero integrity."

"I don't expect you could tell me what integrity means?" Ian asked, faking confusion. "Is it something to do with the spine?"

"Kind of, you're so dumb…it's this thing when you do one thing…and then you do the other thing the same way…and…"

Nick was probably close to bursting into tears, for he ran out without even finishing his Banana Banana Strawberry Banana Sugar Shake.

Ian laughed. He laughed until tears fell from his eyes due to the sheer hysterical nature of this encounter. He laughed until someone punched him in the back of his head.

It was Kortock, now angrier than ever.

"You caused a whole goddamn forest fire. Come with me. There are consequences for that."