Here we go, folks! Happy Monday; I hope you all have a fantastic week :)

-Plum

29 – Friend Brew

Andy spent his first ten minutes of flight, which was what he could manage on a full pool of mana, circling high above the mesa, expanding outward as he scoured the ground with his magically enhanced vision. He saw creatures down there—huge jackrabbits, javelinas, and even a giant scorpion, but he didn’t see any armies or groups of intelligent-seeming enemies.

He might have doubted his ability to spot them, but with his Perception attribute at eleven and with his excellent vision, he felt confident there weren’t any imminent threats to the settlement. Andy settled down a few miles southeast of the mesa, and used his little magical compass to point him in the right direction before he started walking, waiting for his mana to regenerate.

The compass needle pointed straight toward the distant shadow of the Santa Ritas, and just the fact that it worked gave him some comfort; he doubted the magic would point toward Lucy if she’d been killed in battle. “Of course, I don’t know that,” he muttered, opening the tin and looking at the neatly folded yellow sock inside. He smiled, imagining Lucy throwing up her hands in frustration, wondering where her sock had gotten off to.

He closed the tin and tucked it into his pocket, continuing his hike through the dark desert. The only spell he maintained was Flame Sight—any more, and his mana regeneration would be far too slow. Andy figured he’d fly whenever his pool got full. Judging by the faint lightening of the eastern skyline, it seemed the sun would be up before too long and then he could drop Flame Sight too.

While he walked, Andy reflected on everything that had happened in the last few days—since he and Lucy had split up, essentially. The first trip into the city had felt like a waste of time, but he and the others had rescued a lot of people and made friends with Delilah. He hoped that the relationship would pay off, now that he and Omar had laid eyes on a significant threat. It seemed to him that the mesa couldn’t stand against the Night Kingdom alone.

Thoughts of Delilah and poor Trevor—killed by a giant toad—led Andy back to the bogwart settlement and the three Boon Points Mesquite Mesa now had to spend. He paused mid-stride and turned back toward the settlement. He’d lose a lot of time going back to allocate the points, but would it be worth it? Was there something time-sensitive that he should get started before leaving?

In the end, he decided to press on. With any luck, he’d only be gone a day or so, and hadn’t he just confirmed that the mesa wasn’t under any imminent threat? The eastern sky was decidedly gray, with a pale yellow-orange line at the horizon when he cast Flight of the Cinder Hawk for the second time and took to the air.

He spent his first minute or two gaining altitude and banking in a wide circle, scanning the surrounding desert. Then, when he didn’t see anything alarming, he turned toward Lucy again and pumped his wings hard. He was getting accustomed to how his body moved under the effects of the transformative spell, but flight was still anything but ordinary to him. It was an exhilarating sensation—the feel of the wind, the way the world slipped away beneath him, and the utter freedom of soaring over places he couldn’t even see from land.

He was so caught up in the thrill of his speedy progress that he almost didn’t notice the circle of big wagons off to his right—farther south than his current heading would take him. Andy tilted his wings, slowing and banking toward the wagons as he glanced at his mana reading: 321/1070. He only had a few minutes of flight left, so he pumped his wings hard, soaring toward the strange sight, and as he drew nearer, he realized the wagons were quite large.

He got closer still, and from his high vantage, he could see the slumbering forms of giants wrapped in blankets around the embers of a massive fire pit. A great shadow moved farther south, and Andy looked to see fifteen or twenty shaggy, elephant-sized beasts. His eyes widened when he saw their meter-long, curved black horns jutting from the center of their skulls. Knowing his mana was nearly gone, Andy swiftly descended, putting himself about half a mile to the east of the wagons.

He had a good idea who the giants were. Lyta had spotted them when she’d done some scouting for the settlement, but the System had also mentioned them in its message about nearby factions: the Huorn Nomads. Andy didn’t know if he’d be able to communicate with the giants, but he was confident in his ability to escape if they were aggressive.

More importantly, the System had, perhaps unwittingly, given him a clue about their nature. While it had labeled some factions “hostile,” it had called the Huorn Nomads “neutral.” So, with that in mind, Andy left Scirocco in his storage ring and walked with empty hands toward the giant wagons. He might not be able to speak to the giants, but, with any luck, he could at least give them a favorable impression, even if all he could do was wave and leave without doing anything violent.

He took his time approaching, giving the sun time to climb a bit higher and also allowing his mana to regenerate. If he had to flee, he’d want to be able to cast Smoke Cloud and Deepsmoke Shroud. He heard the giants before he came into sight of the wagons again. It sounded like deep voices in conversation, though he could tell they were speaking softly. It didn’t alarm Andy, though; it was early morning and the giants were just waking up.

When he came into view of the wagons, he approached from between two prickly pear cacti and stood in the open so it didn’t look like he was sneaking. The wagons looked like something out of a circus—wheels as tall as Andy and sides painted in bright colors. Most of them were red, but one was blue. They weren’t just solid colors, though; Andy saw stars and moons, a brilliant yellow sun with a smiling face, and, on the blue wagon, green-painted grass and flowers.

One of the giants moved between two of the wagons as he approached, and Andy got his first good look at their features. The giant had long blond hair decorated with colorful ribbons, and though she looked almost human, her two curled horns disabused him of that notion. She didn’t notice him, but Andy lifted his right arm and called out, “Good morning!”

The giant woman—easily ten feet tall—straightened up, and her eyes went wide as she looked his way. To Andy’s relief, she smiled, exposing broad, flat teeth with a wide gap in the center, and waved. “Ulrada hom lifta!” she called out.

Of course, Andy couldn’t understand her, but the smile and wave were clear enough, so he started forward again, noting how a handful more giants appeared, working their way over the wagon hitches as they moved outside the circle. “I’m afraid I don’t know your language. I don’t suppose any of you are able to work any translation magic?”

Another giant, this one a man with curly brown hair and two straight, black horns, waved his hand and said, “Orf grana labro kin mot.” Then he walked toward yet a third giant—a much older-looking one with a gray ponytail and beard, and wearing a heavy blue robe. As the big, curly-haired giant approached, the older one reached into a tooled leather satchel. Andy continued to advance, and when he was just a few yards from the group of giants, he saw the older one take out a small blue bottle.

He passed it to the curly-haired one, and the giant grinned, nodded at Andy, and then tossed the liquid into his mouth. He coughed out a cloud of blue smoke, shook his head, and then looked at Andy. “Can you understand me, traveler?”

Andy’s eyes widened with surprise, and he nodded emphatically. “Yes!”

“And I you!” The giant handed the empty bottle to the older fellow, then put his hands on his knees, leaning forward to look into Andy’s face. “I’m Felbol, the leader of Clan Drostas. Who might you be?”

“I’m Andy and I’m the…” He hesitated; for some reason, he still felt strange calling himself the leader of an entire community like Mesquite Mesa. Still, it was an undeniable fact that he had System-granted authority there, and, more importantly, the respect of most of the citizens. So, after just a slight hitch in his speech, he cleared his throat and said, “I’m the leader of Mesquite Mesa, a community about five or ten miles that way.” He pointed to the northwest.

“Ah! The System made note of your settlement when it announced the faction event.”

Andy nodded. “Yes. Am I right in guessing that your people are the, um, Huorn Nomads?”

Felbol laughed, nodding. “That’s us! Huorn is both the name of our species and the continent from which we hail—on our homeworld, I mean.” For a moment, as Felbol’s head moved and Andy was distracted by his long horns again, it struck him how their name—Huorn—sounded almost like horn, and it made him smile. Luckily, Felbol took the reaction as a friendly one. “My kin here would surely love to chat with you, but only I drank the Friend Brew.”

“Friend Brew? Is that the potion you just swallowed?”

“Aye! We can make more, but it would be better for us to learn your tongue. We’re traders and take pride in our ability to communicate with everyone along our route.” He chuckled. “Of course, we’ve not established a route on this world yet, but that won’t stop us for long.”

Andy looked at the wagons, nodding along as the giant spoke. “Have you met anyone else yet?”

“None who were friendly. We’ve taught a few denizens of this place to keep their distance, though!” He laughed, shaking his enormous head. “There are some fierce creatures in this strange, hot, rainy place, but not near as bad as our world. On Huorn, we contended with insects that could snatch us up in a single bite, and sands that blew in from the south that were sharp like broken glass. This feels like a paradise by comparison!”

The other giants were talking in low tones, and when Andy looked away from Felbol, he was surprised to see there were seven of them lingering nearby. He wondered how many there were, considering there were only eight wagons. “Do you have a large clan?”

Felbol nodded. “To us, it is large. Twenty-two of us have come to live on this world—Earth, correct?”

Andy smiled, his mind already racing, chasing ideas for trade deals and wondering what kinds of things he and the others at the mesa might learn from the giants who were, at the very least, capable alchemists. “Yes! By the way, welcome to Earth!”

The giant laughed, holding out a large hand, and Andy did his best to grasp it, though his fingers couldn’t quite span the breadth of Felbol’s palm. “Thank you, friend, Andy. I wonder what you might be able to tell us about the terrain hereabouts. Are there other friendly folk such as yourself?”

“Well,” Andy said, “I can definitely give you some information. For starters, you should know that Earth wasn’t always the way it is now. When the System came, things changed dramatically. Um, I don’t really know where to start… My settlement has been looking for trading partners. We have quite a few natural resources—more than we can use.”

“Is that so?” Felbol turned to the nearby giants and repeated almost exactly what Andy had said. The words sounded like English to Andy, but clearly, the giants heard something different. They began to smile and nod, and one of the burlier ones pounded the older one on the back, laughing.

“They’re celebrating because we were beginning to fear there’d be no friendly folk in this region of Earth.”

“You don’t have to worry about that! My settlement is friendly, and we’ve made friends with at least two others. I have a feeling we’ll be able to help you get a trade route started in no time.”

“Well, Andy, why don’t you come and join us for breakfast? We can talk awhile, and we can showcase some of our wares. We didn’t come to your world empty-handed!”

Andy couldn’t stop grinning; the encounter with the giants was so diametrically opposed to what had happened in the city with the undead that he felt like a dark cloud was lifting—a creeping dread that had begun to weigh on him. After all, if the Huorn were friendly, maybe some of the other newly migrated factions would be too!

Even so, his worry for Lucy couldn’t be ignored, so he shook his head, but tempered the gesture with some encouraging words: “I would love to sit down with you, Felbol, but I have some friends who may be in danger. I need to hurry to them, but I wonder if perhaps you and your people might want to make your way toward our settlement? With any luck, I’ll return around the same time you all arrive. Even if I’m late, I’ll make sure someone there is looking out for you—I have a means of communicating with them.”

Felbol repeated what Andy said to the other giants, and Andy was encouraged by the many nods and understanding looks that came his way. After a moment, the giant turned back to Andy and said, “We would like that very much, Andy. Please point us in the right direction!”