Chapter Twenty Nine – Amy’s Red Cross

Iron didn't stay logged in for long after telling Dull Beauty and I about Amy's sickness. Even while present in the moment, he seemed distracted and anxious to get back to his world. I was glad he'd taken the time to come tell me though, but I didn't quite know what to make of his words.

Amy was dying. That... sucked, but I couldn't conceptualize it. Dying didn't mean anything in particular to me. If anything, dying was more of a relief than something to fear, at least from my experience with it. Sharp pain before-hand but simple peace afterwards. It was sort of like falling asleep very abruptly. But... I remembered what I'd said to Red Thorn, not knowing that these adventurers had much more to fear from death than I did.

Death was real for them in a way it wasn't for me... but perhaps it was. I thought of Busterbear and Skeledog. The other bugbears. I thought of Torchlight, the unicorn who'd saved my life from Red Thorn, and how he'd been destroyed with the wave of a developer's hand. I shuddered. Perhaps I did know what death was. It was just, for me, the term was different.

Erased. Erasure was my death. Having my behavioral code removed. Stripped of all that made me, me. I'd be like the NPCs. Like my Kin. The monsters that roamed Twisted Wronkle Woods mindlessly attacking adventurers for no reason and no benefit to themselves. I wasn't even particularly annoyed that they attacked and died anymore, but what bothered me was the lack of reason behind it. Humans, invaders as I'd once thought them, at least had a reason for attacking my Kin. They needed the loot, experience, and enjoyment of fighting without fear.

What did my Kin need? What if they could be given a reason to want to destroy adventurers?

Oh well. None of that mattered at all unless I could get more information on how to build a world from Tyrone or one of the other developers.

With my new gear equipped I was fully prepared to be the stealthiest, friend-huntingest Jellyfae that had ever Tread the Sky!

'Huh," I thought, amused at the term. 'For a game called Tread the Sky, it seems like I'm the only one whose ever actually tread it.'

I floated above the forest and fumed, annoyed at the fact that I couldn't venture below and actually discover anything. I was stealthy alright. Invisible, even, for all the good it did me. Irritatingly, these monsters seemed supernaturally capable of finding me. It only took one to snap at me and somehow they would summon a whole pack. Soon enough seven raptors were all hovering on the ground just beneath me, or climbing up trees to try and jump at me. While they couldn't actually hurt me, same as the bugbears in Dungeon Home, I was having trouble doing what I'd come for. Searching the forest.

Fortunately, these Raptors would not chase me for the entirety of the jungle. I could get rid of the entire pack and try again, only to be inevitably spotted and chased back into the sky. I was considering just flying over the forest and shouting for Bugbear until the entire jungle was chasing me, but I didn't see the point. Bugbear had never done more than grunt at me before. He'd saved me when my life was on the line against the other Bugbears, probably at the expense of his own, but otherwise he'd rarely managed to so much as twitch at me.

He might hear me shouting and grunt in my direction before continuing on a new patrol. Clueless, lovable, bug.

Gods I missed him. Was I wasting my time with this search? Tyrone had said he thought Bugbear had come this way. He didn't know for sure, and was just guessing based on... unusually high server load. Whatever that gibberish meant. I sighed as I headed towards the entrance where I knew the raptors would finally return to their designated routes. Their cycles never varied, the same as my bugbears once were, but there was a lot of overlap in their paths, and there were a lot more of them. Still, enough time and sooner or later I would be able to discover a way around them all.

A message arrived in my invisible interface and I made it tangible in order to inspect it. I beamed, excited to see that Amy had logged in. I'd found a way to configure my Friends list, so it would alert me if any of my friends "logged in," which was their term for visiting Tread the Sky. There was an option to select whether I wanted alerts for individual people, but I'd decided I wanted to know when any of my friends logged in. Still, I couldn't help but be extra excited to finally see Amy's name highlighted in my friends list.

Iron's name lit up shortly afterwards indicating he was visiting, so I decided to leave the forest as soon as I could.

I wasn't having any luck with all of this searching. For all I knew, I could've passed right over Bugbear more than once and I would never have known it.

I left the zone, flying slowly for the Shady Woods Copse near Dungeon Home. I could teleport back immediately, but the rates were cheaper when I did so from a safe zone. It had been quite a while since I'd seen that "Insufficient Funds" notice way back when I'd first wanted to become a builder and had been unable to do so. The last thing I wanted to do was waste my coppers.

'Had I really thought of money as 'my round interface numbers' once?' I thought, amused at how much I'd learned in the short time since I'd come to Variak.

I arrived in Variak a short while later, fresh from my teleportation to find Iron and Amy waiting for me at the teleportation gate.

"Amy!" I exclaimed joyously before running to her and leaping into the older woman's arms. I'd done the same to Iron when he'd finally logged in and then scolded him for staying away for so long.

"Gell!" Amy shouted with a laugh, swinging me around once before placing my feet back on solid ground. "It's so good to be back. I missed you.

The air was crisp and a little on the cold side and I buried my face in her shoulder enjoying the warmth of the sweater she wore. Then I remembered that I was mad at her and pulled away sharply.

"Well that's your own fault isn't it?" I told her, annoyed. "It's not like I can go visit you! Why were you gone so long?"

Amy shot her own annoyed look towards Iron, who shrugged, amused and a little confused.

"Iron was supposed to have told you," she said sourly.

"I did!" He exclaimed, before turning to me. "Gell, I told you that she wasn't feeling well. She was sick!"

"Uh huh! And after you left I asked Miss Tutorial what being sick was and she told me that could be fixed with a Remedy! So why didn't you just give her one of those and then come back to visit?" I insisted.

It was the truth, too, though I was almost certain that sick meant different things to adventurers and to people from my world.

Iron sighed, and turned to me. "Gell... that's the thing. Being sick in our world is–!"

"Yeah, yeah," I said waving my hand in a motion I'd seen Akwa use when she was impatient. We'd done this before and it was getting old. "Let me guess; there's no Remedy in your world?"

"Exactly," Iron said sadly. "I'm glad to see you're catching on."

"What is even the point of learning this world if everything in it isn't true for any friends I might make?" I asked, annoyed, though I didn't exactly expect an answer.

"Gell, that was... something I wanted to talk to you about. There's more to this sickness than we've let on," Amy said. She was hesitant and sounded almost a little scared. It was like when she'd abandoned me to fight Red Thorn alone.

I cocked my eye towards her. "More to it? I thought you were better now?"

"I am... sort of. But I–!"

"Is it true?" came a sudden question from the teleportation pad. I jumped and spun, surprised to find North Cross standing there.

The lingering light of a completed teleportation lingered there around the girl. Her dark skin, a shade somewhere between Amy's pale and Derek's dark color seemed more flushed than usual. Her eyes were red and wet with tears. Sympathy welled up in me immediately. I wanted to be mad at her. This girl had made Amy cry the last time I'd seen her, after all, but right now she looked so vulnerable. Her eyes were red and wet.

"Alev...err N-North Cross! What–uhm... What are you doing here?" Amy asked, shakily. If she'd been nervous before, now she was downright flustered.

"I-is it true? Are you really...?" she asked softly.

Amy gave a smile, but something was wrong with it. It was like the action didn't fit the mood. Tears sprung up in her own eyes, too. "How did you find out?"

North Cross turned and looked to Iron but didn't say anything.

"Find out what?" I asked, confused. "What's going on?"

North Cross turned to me, then back to Amy coldly, but neither of the two women answered or even acknowledged me.

"I'm... sorry," she said, the apology holding about as much truth as an apology from Red Thorn might.

Amy's dim smile fell off her lips and she hugged her arms around herself. "There's nothing to apologize for. For what it’s worth, I'm certain I owe you an apology, too."

"Are you giving one?" North Cross asked.

"Would you believe it, if I did?" Amy returned. Something about the conversation was falling into old grooves. Their speech was picking up, getting faster and more comfortable. I didn't like it. It reminded me of the Instinct.

"I know why you're playing this game, North,” Amy said. “Why you're in Tread the Sky. Does... it feel more real here? More like you're how you always thought you were supposed to be?"

North Cross scowled and looked away. "Yeah... it does. As if you care."

Amy smiled. "I do care. I'm glad. I'm happy for you."

"Will one of you tell me what the jellyheck you're talking about!" I shouted, now supremely annoyed at being excluded.

Their eyes snapped to me, each of them holding a weight that they'd never had before. I suddenly felt ashamed, like I'd interrupted something terribly personal. Like I'd crushed a moment. That didn't stop me though.

"Gell. I..." Iron sighed, choosing then to interrupt as the other two women glared at me. "Maybe we'll explain it some other time. For now, how about you and I go and let Amy and North Cross talk for a while, okay? You can show me the progress you've made as a Builder, okay?"

"But I want to know what they're talking about!" I shouted, stomping my foot. "Why is North Cross being so mean? What were you about to tell me about Amy's sickness!?" I shouted angrily. "I deserve to know why–!"

"No, you don't," Iron said sharply. His face turned dark as a stormcloud. For the first time since we'd met, I jumped away from him in fright as he spoke. "Come with me, and let them talk. Now."

I gulped, fearfully glancing between him and Amy and North Cross.

Amy nodded to me, sympathetically. "Please go on, Gell. I'll explain later. At least a little, alright?"

Why was Iron so mad? What had I done? They'd never been hesitant to answer my questions before. What had Amy been about to say about her sickness?

"O-okay," I said meekly.

'Did I do something wrong?' I thought.