Izzy Chapter 15: Armed for Gnoll (Patreon)

Mash had to hand it to Izzy: she’d handled Howl surprisingly well. Maybe it was because so many of Mash’s own memories remained in her body, or maybe it was thanks to Mash’s advice. Or, maybe it was both, or neither. In any case, Izzy had Howl listening to her, which had never been an easy thing to achieve.

“Anyway, that's how it is,” Izzy finished. “I can’t prove it. One of the fairies can, but he doesn't speak Goblin. Still true, though. Not crazy, just talking to the spirit in my head.”

She'd been telling the rest if the younger goblins about her “familiar,” trying to tell as few outright lies as possible without letting on that the roles were reversed — that she’d taken over Mash’s body, and that now the young Shaman they’d all known their whole lives was hanging on by a spiritual thread as a Displaced Soul.

Mash wondered if they'd notice. For now it was best if they didn't, and Mash would help Izzy keep up the act, but… they'd all known each other their whole lives. Mash was barely older than Crack. The idea that they might not realize that Izzy was just an imposter wearing her body was disheartening.

The kids all looked kind of weirded out, but one by one they shrugged, either believing Izzy or deciding that it wasn’t worth arguing with crazy. A rare silence hung over them until Buttercup asked, “So, okay, right, head-spirits and all, but now what do we do?”

“Now we eat, and sleep, and wait for the rest of the fairies. Tomorrow we find where the gnolls are. Then we rescue any goblins they’ve captured.”

“How?” Squirrel asked, her voice quick and clipped. “How find them and how rescue anyone?”

“Caj here.” She pointed to the rude little bastard fluttering next to them. “He’ll help us find the gnolls’ camp. Can’t really plan on how to do the rescue until we see the camp.” From one breath to the next she switched from speaking Goblin to Fairy. “You’ll help us find the gnolls, right, Caj?”

The fairy took a deep, dramatic breath, at first letting it out through his nose but moving with impressive smoothness into a long, put-upon raspberry. “I reckon. Saved my life and got us the tree back an’ all. Going to have to send the others back home by morning, though.”

“Had no idea if I could count on you, glad to hear I can.” Izzy grinned at him as he made a rude gesture, then turned back to the goblins. She seemed a little lost at that point.

Mash’s Intuitive Advice nudged her to speak up.

Howl and Squirrel are both Huntresses, so they should have Sneaking. They can sneak into the camp with us.

“Right. Howl, Squirrel, you’re both really sneaky, right? The three of us can sneak into the camp and get the others out, maybe, the rest of you, ah…”

Crack is a Scrapper, and Twitch and Buttercup are both Crafters. They should make weapons and traps.

“Thanks!” Izzy smiled into the air, and though she faced the wrong direction, Mash still appreciated it. “Yeah, so Twitch and Buttercup, we’ll find some stuff for you to make weapons with, and then together with Crack you can make some traps. Can work on that today. In case we have to run for it, we can lead the fuzzbutts through the traps, right?”

There was a chorus of impressed agreement from their little scrum. And, yeah, maybe it wasn’t the most amazing plan ever, but it was a plan. They had something to do, and maybe that would be enough for now.

They might even have a real chance of pulling it off. Mash didn’t know how fast someone was supposed to Level, normally, but it felt like getting to Level 8 in a few days was pretty fast. With every Level, Skills and Spells became stronger, their reserves of Mana grew deeper, and though it wasn’t something they could see, Akashic Knowledge told Mash that her — well, their, for the time being — body became more resilient.

They’d been higher Level than the gnolls they’d met even before getting to Level 8. Now they had a scrum of goblins with them, all Level 2 or 3, and Izzy’s Scrum Fighting and Sneaking would help them all get around and win if they got into a scrap. And it wasn’t like Izzy was the only one who’d Leveled.

Mash had come to terms with the idea of gaining Levels, simply because it was too awesome not to accept. At Level 8 she’d chosen another Level of Advisor Spirit. Akashic Knowledge was quickly becoming her favorite Skill ever, and one thing it let her know was that the Skills from Bound Spirit didn’t scale very well with more Levels. But Akashic Knowledge did. Intuitive Advice did. And with Level 3 came another new Class Skill. She’d chosen Navigator, which, admittedly, wouldn’t scale well either. It wouldn’t help them find the gnolls, but now she could perfectly remember every place she’d visited, and where those places were in relation to each other. It was amazing — she could lead Izzy anywhere she’d ever been!

She’d also chosen a new Non-Class Skill, and this one she’d picked just for herself. Mash had no idea what Poltergeist meant, even with Akashic Knowledge, but being able to affect the world again, to poke and prod and make little noises anywhere around her body? That had the potential to be hilarious.

Oh, yes. She was going to have fun with this one. And her Summary had started looking pretty impressive, if she said so herself.

[Summary for Mash, Displaced Soul

Classes:

Bound Spirit (5)

Advisor Spirit (3)

Total Class Levels: 8

Directions:

Helper

Mana: 80/80 (+3)

Skills from Bound Spirit:

Fount of Vigor

Fount of Mana 

Fount of Healing

Sight Beyond Sight

Skills from Advisor Spirit:

Akashic Knowledge 

Intuitive Advice

Navigator

Non-Class Skills:

Soul Bond

Traveler

Identification

Force of Will

Poltergeist

Quests:

A Lone Goblin Is A Dead Goblin]

She might have liked a little more Mana — Poltergeist used Mana, and Izzy could draw on Mash’s as an extra reserve — but there were Skills for that.

Izzy clapped her hands, pulling Mash out of her thoughts and pausing the other goblins in their bickering. “Right! Can’t sit on our butts all day! Huntresses, I guess you don't have any weapons yet, but go look for some mushrooms and nuts and stuff, right? Stay together, don't go too far, and Howl, if anything comes after you, just be yourself!”

“Yep, yep!” Squirrel hopped to it, grabbing a startled Howl by the wrist and dragging her away.

“Twitch and Buttercup, start looking for stuff to make weapons and traps. Crack, help them carry, and stuff. You can work with sticks and stones, right?”

“And grass and vines and pine sap and stuff!” Twitch chattered. The two Crafters barely paused before running off a little ways downstream, where the riverbed bulged and created a shallow area. Crack went with them, only grumbling a little. They immediately got to digging up rocks, looking them over, and tossing most of them back into the water. A select few instead ended up on the bank.

“And you lot!” Izzy turned to the fairies. “Great job finding these five! Mind going out again until it gets dark?”

“What's in it for us?” one of them whined. “We’ve done our job.”

“All the gusts of wind you can ride, and all the berries you can eat.” Izzy cast a Bramble Growth nearby, a long thicket hiding them from anyone upstream. “You like berries, right?”

The fairies descended on the bramble like locusts, and that answered that. Once the bramble was thoroughly savaged the fairies spread out to search for more goblins, with strict orders to stay high and hidden in the trees.

For the first time in a while, Izzy and Mash were alone.

So… what do we do?

“I dunno. You’re the Advisor Spirit. Do you have any ideas?”

I guess I would have probably helped out with gathering mushrooms or something. Maybe. But you’re a Scrum Boss now. Can't really do grunt work if you're a boss, it’ll, what's-it… undermine your authority.

“I like picking mushrooms, though. They're tasty.”

Yeah… Mash's voice was wistful. Wish I could taste stuff when you eat. Oh, but do you know what we could do, though? Make stuff bigger! Like if Squirrel or Howl find something good! That helps, and it shows that you’re powerful!

“Oh, yeah! Good idea!”

And so they did. Izzy had Twitch and Buttercup make her a couple of baskets, which they did with impressive ease out of twigs and birch bark. Then it took a moment to find the two Huntresses, but they hadn’t gone too far and stumbled upon one another after a bit. Together, they searched the nearby forest for mushrooms, roots, berries, and other tasty things, and when one of them found something Izzy would use her Plant Magic to grow it extra large. Roots grew thick and starchy, and berries plump, juicy and sweet. Mushrooms… they were still just mushrooms, but that wasn’t so bad.

Howl and Squirrel were suitably impressed by her magical prowess, and after a few fingers of time they returned to the fallen tree with their baskets full of goodies. They found the guys making spears; Twitch was knapping flint while Buttercup prepared several young trees to use as hafts, and Crack sat a little ways off, tending a small fire where pine resin bubbled in a hollowed out stone. He watched the bowl suspiciously; apparently the first one had blown up, shooting sharp bits of stone everywhere.

Mash hovered above Izzy as they both looked at their little scrum with pride. Izzy’s ear twitched, and Mash used Poltergeist for the first time to scratch that one stubborn dry spot at her hairline that always got itchy.

Yeah, this was the start of something good. They may be down on their luck, but with a bit of cleverness and goblin grit, they were going to get right back up. Mash could feel it.

The fairies didn't find anyone else. Two of them had spotted small groups of gnolls, which might have been one group spotted twice, but the gnolls hadn't been carrying any squirming bags or anything like that.

By the time night fell, Twitch and Buttercup had made four spears, an axe, and several small knives, all of them with flint business ends. Izzy had asked why they didn't make any bows, and Buttercup had earned himself a light bonk by scoffing.

“We could,” Twitch explained as Buttercup grumbled and rubbed his head. “A bad one. Real bad. Would take a while to make, then get weak quick, maybe break. Waste of time. Need the right wood.”

“Oh. Okay,” Izzy said. “See, Buttercup? That's how you answer the boss.”

“Yeah, yeah,” the aggrieved guy grumbled.

Izzy let it slide this time. She had no idea how many bonks it took to do real damage, and she didn't plan to find out with her own scrum.

  *

They slept without a fire, all in a big pile, the way goblins usually slept. The fairies were all off in a tree somewhere. Mash, of course, didn’t sleep. It wasn’t a thing she did anymore. Instead she hung a foot above and away from Izzy — from her body that Izzy currently occupied — keeping vigilant watch and ready to wake Izzy at a moment’s notice.

Mostly, though, she watched the goblins sleep. The way they poked and kicked each other, constantly jostling for position; everyone trying to be the one in the middle; it made her… not smile. She didn’t have a mouth to smile with. But she felt like she was smiling, and that was almost as good.