Chapter Twenty Seven – To Float Above

"You've been apprehended!"

“You’ve been caught for theft. Either pay the fine or serve the time.”

I was caught stealing a furniture piece that I didn't really understand by an orc standing seven feet tall. In his inventory was a pair of "Fuzzy Dice." I didn't know what they were for and I'd wanted to see them for myself. I didn’t even recognize the whistle when he used his Catch ability right after I touched him.

I blinked at the man owlishly, but he grinned.

"How?" I asked, still shocked by the fact that he hadn't even hesitated.

He shrugged. "Special item. Warding Amulet of the Cautious. Tells me immediately when someone's stealing from me. Bad luck for you. Awesome skin though. How'd you get your character to look all... blue? Is that a side quest?"

The city guards were holding me even as I glared at the man.

"That's cheating!" I insisted as I paid the fine. This time I understood the prompt for my theft much better than I had before. The last time I thought Tread the Sky was the real world. Now, with the profits from my career as a builder, and a few of the items I'd already sold to merchants as a thief, I had gained more than enough to pay the unexpectedly small fine of forty copper. Lucky for me. If the guards had noticed all of the other stolen items in my inventory I figured I would've been stuck in jail for a long time. Long enough that I would definitely begin to waver on my promise not to use Fae-Touch on the guard at any rate.

Last time I was in jail I had met Nyan Cat and FlamboyantasF*** though, and they'd been nice people. I wondered how they were doing and if Flamboyant had ever managed to get the twenty silver to get herself out of jail? Either way, I doubted she'd still be there now. Still, maybe she would be one of the friends Amy had asked me to look for?

"Really?" The man, a Fighter by the name of Herculinbad asked me incredulously. "You were trying to steal my fuzzy dice? Why? Higher steal chance and value for the herbs."

I looked back at the man, trying to understand his confusion. "They looked cute. I wanted to know what they were for."

"What they're...? Eugh. Whatever," he said, pulling the Fuzzy Dice out of his inventory.

'I was right! They are cute!' I thought excitedly as he tossed them to me. I preened and nuzzled the fuzz against my face. "Oh my gosh they're so soft! Like Bugbear's fur!"

He laughed. "You can keep them if you like em so much. They're like 5 copper on the auction house."

My eyes widened. "Really!? Thank you Herculinbad! Hey, do you want to be friends?"

He laughed again and said sure before pulling up his friends list, sending me an invite and walking away. I didn't regret the decision though. Anyone willing to give a gift to someone who'd just tried to steal from them was good people in my book!

I hit level fifteen about three cycles later, my inventory nearly full. Almost as I did so, an old friend logged in, a notification in my invisible interface happily informing me of her presence. I sighed, thinking about how much I'd changed in the cycles since meeting her. She'd held a knife to my throat the first time we'd spoken and now and I happily sent her a message, hoping she'd be willing to meet me. Funny world, Tread the Sky.

Recipient: Dull Beauty

Sender: Gell, the Jellyfae

"Hiya Dull Beauty! How have you been? Did Bellcandy ever contact you and try to make better friendship with you? Actually, please tell me about it in person if you've got some time! It's been so long since we've talked! Oh oh! I think I can finally repay you for that bow you gave me if you'd like! I've been stealing things! Anyway, I'll be at the market selling things for a while if you'd like to meet up!"

The message sent, I set off for the marketplace. There I would either sell my ill-gotten-gains on the auction house, sell them personally for coin in the case of materials that I couldn't use as a Builder, or I'd simply sell them to the NPCs with their repetitive queries.

I arrived there quickly and immediately made for an auction booth. The Auction NPCs always seemed to be helping nine or ten players at once, each of them crowded around and silently staring at the Auctioneer as they interacted with their NPC boxes. I was no different. Attempting to talk to the Auctioneers immediately brought up a sales menu. It was almost as if the developers hadn't even bothered giving these particular NPCs the barest hint of a personality. I grimaced at the thought, but I had to sell all of this loot somewhere.

Before I could start selling anything, I heard a soft voice call out my name from behind me. I beamed at the sound and canceled my interaction with the Auctioneer.

"Hi Dull Beauty!" I called as the girl approached.

Dull Beauty never seemed to be in a hurry. She was fast, but never rushed. I wasn't quite sure but I was pretty certain she modified her armor and weapons to look as plain as they could. I'd discovered that there was a whole world within Tread the Sky that revolved around glamour and making yourself look different. Exotic. Strange. I'd stumbled into that merely by being me but I couldn't help but remember the way characters like FlamboyantasF*** had dressed. Dull Beauty always as the type of person who did her very best to not even try at that sort of thing, though I didn't understand why at all.

"It's good to see you, Gell," she said with a scowl. "I'd been missing you, but if you call my that horrible name one more time I'm going to slap you."

I grinned. She couldn't hurt me in town. "I missed you too, Dull!"

She frowned. "I warned you."

Light burst around her suddenly, green and vibrant. I yelped as a tangle of vines suddenly erupted from the stone steps beneath. They appeared from nowhere and immediately ensnared me before falling limp. I tugged at them, slowly managing to pull myself free. It was an arduous process though. People around, the few not staring at the Auctioneers smirked and laughed.

"Oh yeah?" I challenged when I realized that struggling my way free would take all the heat out of any sort of comeback I might make. "Two can play at that game!"

I used Fae-Form to switch to my Jellyfae body and the tangling vines, once oppressive and mighty, could no longer hold on so strongly to my tiny body. I zipped up into the air, watching in amusement as the vines dispersed fading into nothing. Unfortunately, I didn't have much in the way of retaliatory abilities, but I had stolen something that did.

I pulled out a small wand that had a curious ability. I'd wanted it the moment I first laid eyes on it in a Dwarf's inventory and I was glad I'd gotten the opportunity to use it so quickly.

Wand of the Patch

Non-combat Item

Gives the target a pumpkin head for thirty minutes.

Uses 20/20

Transforming rapidly back into a human, wand in hand as I landed, I aimed my wand at the surprised girl and activated its ability, grinning as the girl's head was suddenly covered by a giant pumpkin. Oh! A scary face had been carved into it too! I didn't know that would happen!

I doubled over, laughing at the girl who had crouched back into a defensive posture. When she realized she wasn't actually under attack, she rolled her eyes. The exaggerated effect this had on the pumpkin's expression made me laugh even harder.

"Gell... Really?" She said, pretending to be annoyed while trying to hide a smile.

"You started this!" I exclaimed when I was able to get my breath back.

She sighed and did something that got rid of her pumpkin head immediately, and I pouted.

"No fair."

"Gell, I wanted to talk to you about what you said in your message," she said, suddenly serious.

"Oh?" I replied, trying to remember what I'd written.

"About..." she hesitated before looking around dubiously.

"Come with me," she insisted, dragging me away to a quieter street heading towards the outskirts of Variak. For some reason her face had flushed a reddish-pink and I realized it was the same color my body glowed when I was embarrassed.

When we had reached an area sufficiently free of other people, she finally turned to me and asked, "What did you mean when you asked if Bellcandy had tried to... 'Make better friendship' with me?"

"Oh! That. Last time Bellcandy and I talked, I asked him about you and he turned all red. Actually, his face was almost the same color as yours right now! But then he started asking about Tyrone, and I got distracted," I said.

"Well, in the future, I'd appreciate it if you didn't ask questions like that. I've already told Bellcandy I'm not interested in a relationship," she said, certainly.

I glanced at her, confused. Relationships were... like friendships weren't they? That was one of those words that had a lot of different definitions. "You... don't want to have a relationship. So you don't want to be friends with him?"

She blinked owlishly.

"No. I mean. Yes, Of course, I want to be friends with him, but he asked if I could share... personal information. Where I lived in the real world-err. Where I live in our world. What my real name is. I'm not comfortable sharing things like that," she said softly.

Somehow that made me feel excluded. I tried not to let my face sink at her slip with the 'real world' but I'd begun to notice that almost everyone I knew did that on occasion. They were censuring themselves in order to spare my feelings, but they did not think of Tread the Sky as real.

"Would you... feel uncomfortable sharing something like that with me?" I asked, fearfully.

She didn't hesitate. "Of course. Sharing your name and location in games like this is incredibly risky. Just because Bellcandy is a gentleman here, doesn't mean he is in the real world. Some people come to this world in order to act as they don't in real life. Some people are lying. You can never be sure who or why. I've only known Bellcandy since we partied up with Half Bold to come hunt you. How would you feel about giving the location of Dungeon Home to someone you barely knew?"

I frowned in thought. "I... guess I wouldn't want them to know. If you told Bellcandy where you live, would he raid your home and steal your family's loot?"

She flushed again though I couldn't quite tell if it was amusement or embarrassment. "That's... possible. I don't think he would do anything like that but..."

"And you do like him," I interrupted, feeling ever more confused. "You said you wanted to be friends with him. It sounds like it's just a matter of trust. Do you trust Bellcandy not to raid your Dungeon?"

She snorted, then laughed involuntarily.

I quirked an eyebrow. I'd been being serious. Had I said something funny?"

"Don't ever change, Gell," she said with a smile. "And... perhaps you have a point. I do like him. More than I expected to like anyone I met in a game like this but... well. I'm not... very much to look at. In our world, I mean."

"Would you say you're kinda Dull?" I asked.

She scowled. "That's not what I meant, you little Jellyrat."

I grinned sheepishly, but sensed that now probably wasn't the time to make jokes.

"I don't... Gell, I can't walk in my world," she said softly.

I blinked. "Can't... walk?"

She nodded. "In here, in Tread the Sky, I got to experience what walking was like again, but in my world, I'm confined to a rolling chair. I couldn't ever go dancing with someone, or walk with them on a beach or... you know. All that cheesy romantic stuff in the movies. That's not for me and never has been."

I didn't know, as she seemed to assume I did, but I found myself wanting to. Cheesy? Why would walking on a beach be... cheesy? Dancing? Dancing sounded fun and after my knowledge filled me in on what the word meant I realized that I felt terrible for Dull Beauty.

"But... you don't need to be able to walk to be friends right?"

She grimaced. "Gell... we're approaching a subject I'm absolutely certain you're too young to be discussing. Perhaps Amy would be better at it, but suffice to say, Bellcandy would not be nearly as interested in me if he knew I couldn't walk."

"Why?" I asked. "I'm just as interested in you. Even more so! Why can't you walk? What happened? Did you have a Momma Bossbear who accidentally dropped her Battleaxe on your legs or something?"

"More liked a Papa Bossbear, and much less accidentally," she said darkly.

She brightened back up quickly as she took in my horrified expression.

'Her family had...? No. That didn't make any sense,' I thought, unnerved. Family's couldn't be bad to one another. It... it didn't make sense.

"It's okay. It happened a long time ago, and I'm away from him now. Just... well. This world... It's more real to me than I feel like it might be for other people. I'd love to find out that Bellcandy is everything he seems to be. A kind, good guy who could get past my disability. But for now... please don't tell him any of this?"

I agreed immediately, still rocked by the notion that one of her family could've done that to her.

"Of... of course. I won't tell anyone if you don't want me to," I said almost absently. I shook myself away from my own horror, to focus on the girl before me. "Can I ask... why you felt comfortable telling me? You know me even less than Bellcandy."

"I don't really know. For one thing... uhm. Don't take this the wrong way but you're fully in this world. Letting you know of my weaknesses in the other doesn't really affect you," she said softly. "That and... you're easy to open up to, Gell."

"Maybe I'm just tricking you," I said, trying to lighten the mood. "I'm a Fae after all."

She smiled at that. "Perhaps."

I felt a lump in my throat, though I wasn't really sure what I had to feel guilty for. "I'd never tell anyone your secrets, Zephyr."

Her smiled widened a little. "I know. You're too nice for someone whose been through what you have Gell."

My freckles glowed a happy yellow at the compliment.

"My name is Noella. Noella Custer," she said.

I beamed. "Nice to meet you Noella."

I glanced left and right as if I could somehow see if the Developers were watching me. Looking at Dull Beauty, at Zephyr Bird, I didn't really care. I activated namer and returned her name to what it was before. Francis could get mad all he wanted.

“So, Gell. What were you selling at the market anyway?” she asked, her voice relieved in a strange sort of way.

“Oh! Here I’ll show you!” I said happily, opening my inventory and spinning it around to show my loot.

Her jaw dropped open.