Chapter 7 Part 1 of 7 (Patreon)

Rugrat cleaned his rifle, Matt had left as Rugrat took over checking on Erik who had fallen asleep. Egbert looked up from his book.

“Interesting.”

“Good part of the book?”

“The book is good, but no, our next guest.”

“Guest?”

Egbert had a mysterious smile on his face returning to his book.

“Fine, be the all knowing skeleton in the corner.” Rugrat started to assemble the rifle again, making sure to clean the table properly of any stains.

The door opened as Momma walked in with a tray.

“Momma,” Rugrat stood to help her.

“No, don’t you worry, I have plenty of strength to carry a tray now,” She admonished with a smile as she put down a pot of chili, bowls and bread.

Erik blinked his eyes and rose up, rubbing his face.

“Can even raise the dead,” Rugrat laughed.

“I wish I still had a stomach,” Egbert said.

Everyone sat around the room with a bowl. Egbert muttered to himself and tried to get lost in his book but Rugrat saw him looking over the top of his book watching them.

A knock from the door made Momma make to stand.

“I’ve got it, you just sat down,” Rugrat put down his bread and bowl.

He opened the door to an unfamiliar fit young man, he was wearing a stained and torn pair of pants, red runes dissipated from his skin, his hair like flickering blue flame settling into red.

“Master!”

The man said and Rugrat heard in his thoughts. He hugged Rugrat.

Rugrat’s brain backfired, then clunked forward, he held out the man at arms reach.

“George?”

The man laughed and grinned.

“Y-you’re human?”

“Mostly,” George raise his hands as he flexed claws out from his fingers, grinning the entire time.

“What happened?”

“Who is it?” Momma asked.

“Is that Chili?” George asked, his tongue falling out as he started panting.

“Uh, yeah come in,” Rugrat said, still thrown.

George walked past him and into the living room.

Rugrat closed the door slowly, he traced his link to George and it clearly led to the young man that was heading into the living room.

Demi-human Knowing Fred and his family he know that ehere were demi humans out there, but he didn’t think that George would become one of them.

He walked into the living room who were all looking at George.

“Welcome home George, can you still take on your other form?” Egbert asked.

“Oh yeah,” George leaned forward as his fur sprouted across his body, his tail that had been hidden behind his back stretched out as his form altered, his nose extending into a muzzle, leaving him looking like the same old George, sized to fit into the room and with a pair of shorts around his back legs.

“Well I,” Momma looked at the fire wolf in the middle of the room.

George reverted to his humanoid form, his ears retracting, his eyes remained the same and his tail shrunk while the fur disappeared. He grabbed onto his shorts to stop them falling off, pulling the drawstring-tight.

"What happened?" Erik asked.

"I appeared on a glacier when this voice started to ask my why I fight. I gave it some answers and these golems of ice appeared and started to chase me. I kept on giving answers, when I thought I was going to die I said. I fight so I will have the strength to not be hurt again. The golems faded away and then the voice said I had found my will. Said that knowing one's motivations will allow you to change anything and everything. Then this power started to flow into me, it was as if my body was like those drawing's Matt makes. I looked at it and saw flaws and I started thinking of humans. It was as if everything I learned led up to that point. I held a new form of my body in my mind and through my will I guided my body into a new form, this." He patted his chest.

"Becoming a Demi-human." Rugrat said.

"Yeah, now I think about it I felt that I would have undergone the change by myself if I kept increasing my elemental cultivation. I just sped up the process. It felt like I was just picking from different Beast-kin forms. Like I had a plan in my head already." George shrugged, eyeing a bowl of chili.

"Help yourself," Rugrat said, pointing at his bowl.

"You sure Master?"

"Rugrat is enough, and go for it."

George grabbed the bowl and made to tilt it backwards.

Momma Rodriguez cleared her throat, stopping him mid-movement.

George hid in his shoulders.

"Spoon young man, we're not," She caught herself before saying animals. "Going to eat with our hands, sit down, do you know how to use a spoon?"

"Ah, no I'm not sure," George said.

Rugrat hid a grin, looking at Erik, they could hear the pain in George's voice, the bowl was so close!

Momma Rodriguez taught him how to use cutlery and he dove into the meal with relish.

"Did you answer the voice only once? Get it on the first try?" Erik asked.

"Nope, I don't know how many times I said different reasons of why I fight. Kept saying that I was giving weak answers, that I needed to go deeper, search my fears. That damn voice kept bugging me." George shrugged. "Though I didn't think that was the reason that I fought. Now that I know why I fight, I, well I don't know, feel like I have endless energy. Like there was a mental wall and really what I saw as a wall was just some paper and there is so much more beyond it."

So, then my answers were really wrong? Why do I fight?

"How did you get back here?" Egbert asked.

"Well the transformation took a few minutes, but then I appeared in the ninth realm, there was a beast-kin waiting for me, he tossed me these shorts and invited me to enter the ninth realm Academy. Said that if I was able to get a position in the Academy, then I could join the tenth Imperium or something." I declined and asked him if he could help me back to the first realm. That mana stone pincher. He sent me to the Mission Hall. Apparently I have a Three Star Hero rating and I was able to get a loan from them for a Celestial mana stone to return to the first realm."

Rugrat winced.

"Celestial?"

"It was the ninth realm," Egbert said.

"How did you get back?" Erik asked.

Egbert opened his shirt, showing a large gap in his chest where there should have been mana stone.

"Ouch."

"Don't really feel it, though will take me some time to recover the mana passively."

"Did you not answer the question Mas-Rugrat?"

Rugrat sighed and interlinked his fingers.

"No, I didn't have the answer."

"Well I am sure that you will find the answer, there is nothing that can stop you."

Rugrat smiled and sat back in his chair. "Why do you fight? Guess I just need some more time to think on it."

The same kind of answers started to float to the surface as he looked at the ceiling.

Egbert cleared his throat, somehow. Magic I guess?

"I was just told by Delilah that you will be heading to the Violet Sky Realm. Special Team One will be going with us. Anymore and it will make it look like we don't trust our hosts."

"Us?" Erik said.

"I will be heading out with you as well. I'm the strongest mage that Alva has and I'm a moving dungeon. Also, it's fun getting away from Alva. Don't get me wrong I love Alva and it's people but."

"But now you have your freedom you want to see the rest of the realms. Doesn't mean that Alva isn't your home," Erik assured him.

"Oorah, just getting stuck in one place, we're made to roam. When we heading out?"

"Three days, get the team together, then head to Purkesh, then fly to the transition point. One week till the transition point opens." Egbert said.

"Hear that there should be all kinds of rare ingredients, ancient weapons and technology," Erik said.

"Won't that stuff have fallen apart by now, hasn't it been like a hundred years since it opened last?"

"Like eighty years, but it is its own contained place, some say that it used to be a city, but then beasts and plants took over, they grew over the city. The whole place has nearly no mana in it, just filled with elements, a perfect environment for ingredients. The ancient gear, well most of it will be broken, but the really strong stuff should be fine. As long as they have enough elements or mana charge, they should be fine. Storage rings for one pretty much don't fall apart for hundreds of years as long as they get some passive mana." Erik said.

"Sounds like you've been researching," Rugrat said.

"Well I was hoping that they would send an invitation, its a one in a lifetime experience, be lying if I didn't think it could be fun."

***