Last Words chapter 77 (Patreon)

“You want to go on a ROAD trip?” Ron asked in disbelief. “Because that seems like kind of a hasty decision. I mean I get your reasoning, expand the business, get access to more items, all good things, but a thousand mile trip is substantial. I’m assuming you did some research and looked into travel options?”

I nodded. “I headed back through the door last night, slipped out and asked around. Reasonably priced, good at off roading, and fast. I also went with size because I want to be able to ram something if it tries to get in our way mid trip. There are monsters out there, and while most of them probably won’t screw with anything the size of an SUV moving at a hundred and fifty miles per hour, I’d prefer to have options.”

Ron looked dubious. “And you don’t think there’ll be consequences to driving an SUV through the countryside? What if people see it?”

“What if they do?” I shrugged. “Let’s go down the list of what might happen. Most likely they dismiss it as some kind of monster, they have no context for a truck so there’s no reason for them to believe it’s anything related to machines. Especially if we go with some tinted windows so they can’t see in.  On top of that, there’s no internet or anything, and they don’t have cameras, so anyone who DOES try to mention it will be spreading it word of mouth, most likely after we’re long gone.”

He frowned. “But what about when we get to the city?” he asked cautiously. “Obviously pulling up would make us noticeable.”

“I’m planning to park a few miles out and walk it,” I shrugged. “Should avoid any major problems. Even on the off chance someone sees and decides to bother mentioning it, people will assume it’s an urban legend about some new monster roaming the plains. It’ll be dismissed as storytelling. Seriously, I did think this through.”

Riley snorted. “It’s a miracle. But I don’t hate the plan. I’ve been training my ass off, and honestly I need some supplies. Those mushrooms are good, but my cultivation has been dragging. You said this warrior system is some kind of parallel to mages, so there’s no way they don’t have more powerful stamina boosters for me to use up there. I’ve made a lot of progress so far, but not enough.”

Focusing on the air in front of us, I selected the SUV I’d found for the trip, full tank. I winced at the hundred thousand dollar price tag. “Behold the 2021 Jeep Grand Cherokee Trackhawk,” I said with a grin. “Nearly brand new, tinted windows, and I even managed to track one down with a supercharger. Mostly they run about 90k, but this one just managed to hit 100 even with the upgrades. Offroad tires pushed it over the edge.” I patted the car with a satisfied chuckle. “This thing does 180 on a road, and with the right runway the supercharged version can hit 200.”

Ron whistled. “That’s not too bad,” he admitted. He kicked the tire nearest him lightly. “Looks like it’s custom for offroading. Where the hell did you find this thing?”

“Custom car workshop,” I shrugged. “Alistair knew a guy who knew a guy. This thing does 17 miles per gallon on the highway, 11 in the city, and the tank holds just short of 25 gallons. If we assume the offroad speed will be somewhere in the middle at fifteen, we shouldn’t need to refuel more than three times for the trip.”

“Shotgun,” Riley said without missing a beat. Ron cursed, turning to glare at him, but my best friend just shrugged. “Call it faster next time. Anyway, just the three of us for this trip?”

I nodded. “I’m down to 850k at this point, but I did a full restock of the drugstore that should tide them over for a few days at least. Bran has Esther to check in on him, and Ridley and the others are looking out for our shop just in case. Alistair, Connie, and Alice all know where we’ll be, so we should be good to get going.” I tossed the keys to Ron. “Oh, and by the way? My ass gets shotgun. It’s my car.”

He gaped at me as I climbed in, sputtering as he slid into the back seat to buckle in. “Why the hell aren’t you DRIVING it then?”

“Because I don’t know HOW?” I said bluntly. “I grew up in Portland, where the hell do you think I learned to drive offroad? I don’t even drive ON roads. Ron is the only one of us with experience driving in hostile terrain, and frankly I trust him way more than you behind the wheel. Mostly because he’s never crashed me into a soft serve food truck because he fell asleep behind the wheel.”

“That was ONE time,” he spat indignantly. “And my monkey form enhances reflexes and fine motor control!”

I ignored him as Ron started the car. I passed him a map I’d gotten from Ridley, trusting he could read it better than I could, before turning back to Riley. “That reminds me. Now that you’ve had a chance to really start learning the five animal frolics, can you tell me more about them? You get your first perk yet?”

He sighed, shaking his head. “Unfortunately not. The speed I learn is contingent on the amount of internal energy I can generate. The mushrooms are better than nothing but they’re bottleneck me already. I’m at level eight right now, but I’ve been stuck there for a while. Still, I’ve managed to puzzle out a lot of interesting things about the qigong that I think would be useful to know, even if you can’t practice easily.”

I turned in my seat, looking back at him as Ron, punched the gas and the car rolled into motion. “What kind of things?”

“Well for one,” he said with a grin. “The Five Animal Frolics isn’t just about animals, or even abilities. The number five is important because it represents the five elements. They’re more than just stances that can improve the body, as far as I can tell they’re improving my elemental affinities for mana too.”

“Really?” I asked with interest. “How much?”

He shrugged. “Not clear yet. But I’d be interested to see what the perk is for this. It’s more than the elements too. It’s also the seasons. Albeit, Monkey and Bear are both summer, or bear is late summer I guess, but still.”

“So what are the elements?” I asked. “I’m guessing Tiger is fire?”

“Wood,” he corrected. “And spring. Tiger represents the emotion of anger, and of the organs it governs the liver and gallbladder. Its focus is building power for rapid release, strengthening the tendons for rapid release. Like a Tiger pouncing. Tiger form releases anger and helps you achieve stillness before letting loose a stored attack.”

“Liver, huh?” I asked, fascinated. “So it boosts your resistance to toxins?”

He nodded. “So does Bear, in a sense. Bear represents earth, and the emotion of worry. It enhances the stomach and spleen. Increases digestion, and it grounds and solidifies the body to protect from harm. Bear represents late summer and its focus is stability and immovable defense. No worries can trouble you if nothing can knock you over.

“Monkey is fire,” he continued. “It represents Summer, and the emotion of joy. It enhances the heart and small intestines. Monkey represents the nimbleness of joy and fire, and enhances agility and focus. It controls the flow of blood and enhances the reflexes and speed of movement.

“Crane is metal,” he continued. “The five elements in qigong don’t use air as one of the elemental forces. Crane represents Autumn, and the emotion of sadness. It enhances the lungs and large intestines. It controls surety and lightness, enhancing speed and complimenting the agility of the monkey form.”

He paused before the last one. “Deer is water,” he finally said. “That one is harder to define. It represents winter, enhances the kidneys and bladder and represents the emotion of fear. Deer is kind of halfway between Monkey and Crane. It governs grace, balance, and flexibility. It helps to remember all five are meant to create a complete cycle of mutual generation. Each one leads into another, and when you do them all in conjunction it creates a perfect flow of energy through the body.”

“And that leads you to practicing the microcosmic orbit, right?” I said eagerly. “That one is supposed to help with energy control.”

He grimaced. “I’m TRYING. That one is hard, even with my word. It’s like…have you ever worked out and gotten to a specific exercise, and you’ve never used the muscle that it works before at all. So you try to flex in a specific way and realize you don’t know HOW to do it? Like your body just doesn’t have the context to move that way.”

“No,” I said dryly. “I don’t work out. You know this.” I paused. “Or I didn’t, I guess I do now. But I do pretty basic exercises in any case.”

That got a laugh. “Fair enough, but it’s a thing. If you haven’t learned to use muscles, your body works around them. I had a buddy who couldn’t flex his pecs. He’d never bothered to work them and had spent his whole life not using them and just couldn’t make his brain comprehend the motions. Microcosmic Orbit is like that, but for your whole body. It’s like someone asked you to stand up and walk, but you forgot how every single muscle works.”

I winced at that. “Sounds confusing and frustrating.”

“It is,” he confirmed. “But I’m working on it. It’s slow, but I’m making progress, and I can feel that it’ll be damned useful when I finish learning it. I have a feeling I know what the perk is going to be too, but I don’t want to say in case I’m wrong. Whatever it is, I bet it’ll be a good one. These legendary skills or whatever you want to call them are pretty interesting, and the perks seem to be worthwhile.” He drifted into silence, clearly thinking about something serious that he wasn’t feeling ready to share.

I nodded. He was right. His skills had come from the mushrooms, not the mana fruits. I was mostly sure that his word was the only reason he was able to bridge that gap, just like mine was why I could use mana body mana to summon the fae when I was pretty sure it was different than magic back home. If there WAS magic back home. I still had to look into that at some point.

In the meantime…I glanced out the window, watching the fields of tall grass blur by as the jeep poured on the speed. I couldn’t help but grin at the sight, and I put the tinted window down an inch or two to let the air in to whip my face. Then I reached over and turned on the radio. I grabbed my mp3 player from my pocket, plugged in the aux cable, and flipped to a familiar song, turning it up as I leaned back to listen.

Riley snorted, rolling his eyes at my song choice. “Sweet Child of Mine?” he said disbelievingly. “You picked Guns N Roses for our road trip soundtrack across an alien world and you didn’t put on ‘Welcome to the Jungle’? I’m ashamed to even know you.”

I just laughed, closing my eyes, letting the air buffet my face as the guitar riffs washed over me. Riley, seeing I wasn’t going to respond, just snorted and settled in behind me audibly. Then we all just sat and listened as we tore across the fields. I didn’t know what was coming, what I would need to do, or how much trouble I was going to get in. But right now, riding in a suped up car with two of my best friends on the road to a pirate port, I could take the time to enjoy my life for what it was. Even the apocalypse doesn’t erase the need for downtime.