The Fool 10

Hobbling over to him, Macy wiped the mud out of Al's eyes and helped him stand up as best she could. In the background, he heard Adam bark for Roy to help push the SUV to the garage. Feeling even more embarrassed by Macy over the 'miraculous' recovery of his vision, he shuffled over to where the SUV had been. With a flourish of a ritual aided casting of Presto, Al cleaned up the bits of broken glass, plastic and less savory pieces of evidence remaining from the older woman's timely assist in dealing with Jaffir.

The more he moved around the stronger he felt. Al also noted that he didn't quite feel the same either. The white and colorless nimbus about himself was gone. He was taller, sturdier, slimmer in some areas while more substantial in others.

Anxious to inspect himself, a habit he'd developed for quite some time, he was more anxious about his niece and Hunter. After spending some time rubbing a generous amount of mud he'd collected on them, earning a weakly muttered protest from Myra and a curious but tolerant one from the teenage boy, he quickly made his way to the basement.

A five minute wash-up in the shower later and he was looking himself over in the large bathroom mirror. What he saw filled him horror touched awe and admiration. He felt somewhat like a stranger in his own body and could only find a few recognizable features.

For the time being, the heterochromia had blended enough to create the Caribbean blue that Orison's eyes usually held with the help of a touch of Spirit Sight's glow. An artfully messy thatch of wavy honey blond hair framed a youthful, masculine face that was somewhere between the oval of Al's face and the delicate, sharp angle of Orison's mixed with a stronger definition of jaw than either had possessed. As his eyes roamed over the rugged fighter's build he hadn't earned, he realized he was missing one prevalent feature he expected to see and two that were just barely shy of absurd.

Looking at his side profile, Al muttered, "Where's all the rest of my, uh, hair!?W-well, at least I won't have to rush out for new pants. That back there will hold them up just fine but what do I do about underwear?"

A voice coming from the door, had the stunned man turning to see Adam admiring with the expression of a sculptor pleased with his work. "A slim waist and heavy equipment begs 100% cotton boxer briefs or a jock if you're bold. You're welcome, by the way."

Looking back at Adam in irritation, Al said, "What's that 'you're welcome' even mean?"

"According to Zoe, some 'holder of the green's special traits rubbed off on you. If you don't know what that means then I'm just as clueless as you but there's the reason I was tossed out at you first. If it had been Roy, I have a feeling you'd be very sad and angry right now," Adam said in amusement.

"In light of that revelation, I suppose I should say thanks, then," Al said as he casually passed by Adam to grab the clothes he laid out.

That action went from attempting to be 'cool and uncaring' about being admired by another guy to being embarrassed and frantically dressing when he realized that Hunter had walked in, froze like a deer in headlights.

Unlike Adam, Hunter had turned around immediately after his brain caught up with his eyes and stammered out, "Nana sent me down to t-tell you that Dad got into a car accident trying to get here. Him and Uncle Devon are busted up but it not super serious."

As soon as the boy was done, he rushed back upstairs like he was afraid his book collection was on fire. The ex-Rowdy captain chuckled but was tactful enough to bite back whatever he was about to say.

Since the show was over, Adam said, "Roy's taking up the main bathroom. Do you mind if I take a quick shower? What benefit the mud had is gone and now I just feel grimy."

Striding towards the stairs, Al said, "Sure. Help yourself."

"I do have important things to tell you. I could give you a debriefing while I debrief," Adam chuckled at his own lame joke as he started stripping off his muddy uniform.

At the foot of the stairs, Al shot back, "I'm not in that big of a hurry... Look, feel free to be you. But just so we're clear, mine is not among the many heads I have no doubt you posses the ability to turn."

In wry humor, Adam said, "As devastated as I am to hear that, I have a practical reason. I need you to check where it's hard for me to see if I have crystallization. You do know how dangerous overexposure to aqua vitae is?"

Trying one last gambit to wiggle out of it, Al said, "I'm sure you'd be able to feel if you had stony lumps somewhere. Besides, you're a Roger."

Adam sighed. "Whatever. I'll have Roy look later. Apparently, you're not the part with Orison's professionalism or medical skill."

Al paused on the stairs and ran Adam's request through the knowledge he inherited from White. It was likely just an unnecessary precaution but the ex-Rowdy was the captain in charge of the Plague Barrens and even a half percent chance meant that two people could die. 'Likely unnecessary' wasn't in THAT Rowdies station's dictionary.

With a hesitant step and and a belly full of bitterness, Al gave the man a professional examination while Adam cleaned himself and reported. "Of the people from the mud flats, there were no fatal casualties of the people that Orison personally knew. Many were critically injured by the Third Triumvir's previous adjunct who escaped by the cabin that you produced but... it was the mud flats. Anything shy of fatal wasn't going to stay that way.

"It was a heavy handed move but Noxflora ensured that all her siblings were brought safely to their place of inheritance. There was some sort of issue with 'green' but don't worry about your grass deer friend, he will grow under the supervision of Gan... Sounds like a lot of code word nonsense to me but I assume you underssstaaand... the reason."

In a dangerously thick voice, Adam said, "Picking and scratching at sensitive places is foul play."

Embarrassed, annoyed and about ready to have Roy handle the rest, questionable professionalism or not, Al replied. "There was a fleck. If it couldn't be scratched off, especially if there was evidence of tunneling, is THAT where you want potential cancer to spread from?"

Suddenly a little embarrassed himself, Adam responded, "Fair point. My apologies and carry on... Where was I?"

Mercifully finished with his inspection, Al left the bathroom and grabbed another shirt to change into while Adam continued. "When Noxflora was ready to send a few different people to you, Granny Georgia said that only Zoe would be able to reach you without harm. Zora seconded that she had seen Zoe saving many of your lost friends and that her love would sleep until she returned to his bosom... or some such poetic nonsense.

"The Weird Sisters couldn't help. They were blocked from seeing by a Great Horned One. There's probably a few details I can't quite recall well. Most of what Zoe told me to tell you wasn't ordered enough to really stick in the mind well. I'm pretty sure that Zoe might have been the best girl for the job because she can save people lost out there in the 'in between' but she has the short term memory retention of a butterfly."

Done talking, Adam checked his storage device for a spare change of clothes to see that he had coated everything inside in mud. He laughed it off and declared it was worth it. Al hit the man's original suit with a Presto and both of them were a little happier once Adam was fully dressed again.

About that time, Myra came down the stairs after knocking with burning ears and occasional glances back upstairs. "Um, Roy said to bring this uniform ornament thing to you."

Frowning, Al said, "Did he do something to you?"

Shyly, Myra said, "Not really. He asked me to check him for crystals and I agreed but I didn't think... Macy took over. He... accidentally dumped the mud in it on Macy while they were in the bathroom, I guess. She kind of gasped for a moment but then she started laughing. So, I guess it was okay but that's when Roy handed me the patch through the door and said that it might take them some time."

Al frowned but didn't say anything. If it hadn't been for Roy, all the healing mud and core crystals might have dissipated to worthless on the driveway. Lost in those thoughts, he decided to herd Adam and his niece back upstairs and assess everything. As they were walking up, he paused for a moment because he felt a rush of the colorless come back to him before being sucked away again.

Above him, Al saw the two instinctively dodge to the side as a view of various stuff was revealed falling towards him. Out of an instinct he hadn't been aware he possessed, he felt himself coated in cool darkness for a moment before that darkness started pulling the edges of him in, making him instinctively withdraw it again. Instantly re-emptied of essence so harshly he felt sick, he passed out a second time.

***

As he came to, he was staring into the smiling face of someone White had thought of once or twice but never thought to see again. Cray handed him a stone bowl with some not very appetizing contents. Looking around, he saw the mouth of a moderately sized cave overlooking a dirty gray sky. Behind him, towards the back of the cave, huddled under a ratty looking blanket, were Hunter and a slightly older grim-faced boy with ashy black hair and matching cat ears.

Judging by the puffy closed eyes and tear tracks down his face, Hunter had cried himself to exhaustion. Caught staring, grayish-green cat eyes stared back from a dirty but pale face, radiating defensive wariness. There wasn't much else to observe, other than the minimal rags Cray was wearing.

"You're probably right confused. You kind of missed out on a lot during your nap. In a way, you're lucky. It wasn't happy times, Orison," the country boy said, not looking much older than he'd appeared the last time the young mage had saw him.

He was about to contradict that he was 'Al' but that was only a third true. All things considered, he was far more curious about what was going on anyway.

"Care to fill me in?" he said, noting the youth in his voice and vaguely aware that he felt a bit lighter than he had before he passed out on the stairs.

The young mage checked himself over while Cray spoke. "You want the little details, you'll need to ask Hunter. Poor kid's done and beat himself clean up over things that can't near be his fault. You want someone to poke a finger at, I'd say that Zoe lady would be the place to start but she's little more than a girl in some way I'd have a hard time explaining."

Noting the lack of ring and the inability to activate the suit, Orison added, "She hasn't had a lot of time to rack up life experience beyond mimicry. Without that, common sense is a pipe dream... Sorry, continue."

Country was about to launch into the next bit when the cat boy said in a raspy voice, "If you don't want that bowl of brown and green, I'll take it."

It was at that moment that Orison managed to vaguely feel the presence of a moderate sized space inside himself that had a couple of familiar items in it.

Feeling a little angst over the boy's constant mean mugging, he handed it over with a saintly smile on his face. "It's alright, I'm not that hungry right now. I hope it helps you keep your strength up."

Seeing both Cray and the boy look at him a little speechlessly, he realized that their situation must be fairly dire. The slightly watery eyed look the boy gave him before taking the bowl with a slightly trembling hand made him instantly feel crappy.

Before the boy took a bite of the barely edible cave wall scrapings, he pulled out the slightly dirty Crimson Moon uniform patch that Myra had handed him before everything went sideways and rummaged in it for a few ration bars. "While you're at it, might as well try to get some of this down too. Let Hunter sleep for a little while longer, since it looks like he needs it... Cray, you want in on this or are you full of lichen and vine for the moment?"

"Do bears do their business in the woods?... What's this jerky coated in? Oh, never mind. It's a ration bar right? Don't be playing a cruel joke on me and say it's soap," the country boy said as he took a bite, followed by a few more ravenous ones.

Orison said, slightly alarmed, "Chew that up really well and wash it down with some water. Yeah, here's a bottle... You too, uh..."

Between a mouthful of ration bar, the cat boy said, "Cole... for the hair, I guess. Sek gutter rats don't really care much what people call them."

Startled, Orison said, "Sek!? You're from Osomo? How in the... Wait, are you the boy from the Wish Tower? I don't remember you having, uh, ears."

Reaching up and touching them as the flicked a little, Cole said, "Beggar chief cut them off. I was pretty much deaf. Cut my tail off and broke my foot too. Cripple kids get more coin. Cripple adults... not so much. He kicked me out as soon as I turned fifteen."

Somewhat baffled, Orison said, "Why'd you leave the tower? Duran was trying to help you."

Grim frown turned into a sadder look of helplessness. "I didn't. The beggar chief of my group held legal guardianship over me. He tried to trade places when he saw where I was... Please... Please tell me he didn't steal that from me too."

The look on the cat boy's face would have made Orison lie if the boy's tormentor had but luckily he didn't have to. "No and we would have killed him if he had, after knowing what happened... How did you end up here?"

The boy looked at Hunter's sleeping face and then back at Cray with the same helpless look, causing Country to speak up. "Like I was saying earlier. Hunter's got the details but that Zoe lady brought most of us. There was a few more after whatever it was Hunter had done with that Genie and them cards... Nope. Don't bother asking me about that. It would be all second, maybe third hand and that ain't helpful.

"What I can say is that it was pretty crowded up there in that house of yours. Then, we all just kind of got kicked out but, like WAY out. Zoe said she couldn't delay the draw to her child any longer and didn't have the strength to carry us all. Some silver key opened up a hole and the ones who couldn't go through that, tried to go into the one that swallowed up all them other Redlander folks, the girl who said she was your niece and a couple others.

"Funny thing. Any womenfolk or elves had no problem going with the key. The only ones who could go with Zoe was two vampers and a weird wolf that was whining all pitiful like after it got separated trying to follow one of the elves. After that, the rest of us started falling. That's what it felt like any way.

"On the way down, you coughed up a feather and a lady's voice said that anyone who wanted to join her choir as an angel in training could pray to the feather. The catch was that they'd have to forget their old lives or some such. Whatever women folks was left didn't seem to have no trouble with that but Hunter over there couldn't let go.

"I didn't want to leave you to fall all by your lonesome. It didn't seem right. After everything you did for me and then I went running off like that back to my girl... I feel like whatever happened to end my sorry hide, I deserved it. She didn't want me no how after a little while. Don't know why Cole stayed and fell with us."

The cat boy sneered. "Who wants to be a useless angel? They never helped any of us."

Seeing how the boy was looking at Hunter, Orison remembered how Gan used to look at him when the scout thought he was just a plucky kid with too many problems. It was the look of a person who'd lived a too hard life and found someone they wanted to save from as much of that as they were able. It hurt his heart seeing that same look on the face of a boy who still had some growing left to do. Someone who should still have a protector, not looking to fill the role himself.

"I'd say THAT angel helped us out plenty. Don't you have Corvinus' skills and whatnot? He's an angel now too... I guess. Sounds disrespectful like to him if nobody else," Cray said disgruntled.

Cole turned thoughtful and then said, "You were friends. Yeah, sorry and all that." Face turning wicked, the boy added, "But what about YOUR angel in training? Corvinus asked that if what he had to let go of should be useful, he wanted me to have it but what did that Adam pervert request to give you in that whisper?"

Cray snorted. "Nothing that would peel the paint off a brothel's walls any faster than what went on in the Emerald Island Fort."

Folding his hands together, the archer added, "Corvinus, I'm going to miss my favorite fishing buddy. Maybe a world without your girl was just too hard for you to stay in. I hope you get to see her again someday. And maybe when my time's come a knocking again, we can find a fishing hole wherever you're at.

"Thank you kindly, lady angel. We sure appreciate the gentle landing... Thank you, destruction mage lady who gave Hunter a little helping hand on your way to paradise. I'm sorry I never took the time to learn you mage folks' names...

"And Adam, thank you for the useful stuff but you ain't half as disgusting as Hefty nor half as perverted as Mellow. By reputation, no one who went knocking on Mercenary Chief Rune's door on a cold winter's night, didn't come back for seconds or thirds. Either he's a good cook or you got beat there too. Don't think so highly of yourself... Amen."

For a second, Orison could swear he heard Sammy laughing around coughs from choking on a drink.