《It Started with Slime》Interlude V – Karlin, Water Adventure
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Farmer Karlin McCray had been a farmer for most of his life. Ever since he could remember, he had lived in Flue Village on the road that ran from Brewyn down to Pravwell at the Southern part of Darf. It was the largest city in the South and the second-largest city in Darf. Quite a lot of traffic went past Flue Village between the two main cities of the Country. Karlin had even seen some royal convoys, but in all the years' Flue had never gotten any bigger. He thought that it had to do with Pleutr Forest on both sides of the Flue River as well as very little farmland between the forest and the mountains to the north of the village. This was a village of farmers, after all.
As he did every morning, Karlin waded into the river to wash up. Martha came up to the river just as he was getting started.
“Karlin, honey! Do you think you could just get the sheep to the river after your done washing up?”
“Sure, Martha, not a problem. I’ll get to it as soon as I’m done!” He shouted back to her.
Karlin loved his morning wash in the river. It was cold and invigorated him. All of a sudden, he felt a piercing pain from his foot!
“Arrggghh!” Karlin might have been a little higher pitched with that than he would have liked.
Flinging his foot out, something that had been sitting on his bitten foot flew up, and out of the river, it looks like a flat bit of rippling river bed! In all his decades, Karlin had never seen a creature that well camouflaged with the river. Incredulous, Karlin stared as before his eyes the creature flipped end over end and then of all things wings sprouted from its sides! Wings, on a river beast? Karlin had never seen it!
“Karlin!” Martha came rushing over. “What happened? I have never heard you make a sound like that!”
Karlin grimaced at the pain, but a part of him was still in shock by what he had seen. As soon as the wings had come out, the creature, call it a river bed monster, had glided down and into the water and disappeared, with nothing more than a ripple. Incredible! Karlin couldn’t even see it anymore, and he had been watching it like a Mountain Eagle!
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Karlin didn’t even hear his wife calling. He immediately wadded into the river to see if he could find what had done that, not even concerned for himself or his bite. Karlin had discovered a new species of monster or creature or something. Unreal. Just then, he stepped into something soft on the river bed where he had expected stones. He didn’t think anything of it at the time, but later his recollection told him that was the oddity for which he had been searching.
“Karlin, what happened!?” Martha was standing on the river bank now, seeing her husband not in an emergency if he was wading waist-deep in the water right near the middle of the river. There was no way Martha was getting in that frigid water! No way!
“Martha, you wouldn’t believe me if I told you. Honestly, I am not sure I believe it, and I saw it with my own two eyes. Not only that, but I felt it as well!” Karlin wasn’t sure how much to say. He was pretty sure Martha would think he was crazy, but it gave it a shot anyway. “Well, I felt something bite my foot, then next thing I know, I jerk my foot out of the water and out flies a section of the river bed, with pebbles and soil and everything. Then while my foot was still out of the water, this clump of what I thought was the river bed flipping end over end sprouts wings and then stabilizes itself. The next thing I know, it is gliding gently back in the water!
“I followed its movements, but honestly, I...I couldn’t believe it! Have you ever seen a creature like that?”
Martha knew her husband, had known him for over sixty years in their marriage and had known him for a few years before that. He was a wildlife enthusiast and loved to study the flora and fauna that made the Pleutr Forest their home but never had he been one for flights of fancy or one to make up stories for fun. Even when telling stories of his exploits into the forest to Marteen’s children, who were only six and eight years old, Karlin refused to sugarcoat, tone down or embellish the story. Martha had had to come out and give him a scolding once or twice for scaring them. Poor Korin and little Sophie had been scared stiff from the stories of the wild, dark Forest on their doorstep. The man should have some common sense with what to tell children!
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All this told Martha that there must be some undeniable truth in what her husband was telling her. It was just that it seemed so outside the realms of possibility that she was struggling with believing. Martha would be the first to say that while they knew more about the forest than any save perhaps the reclusive Alchemist, they certainly did not know everything that lived in there, and if there were some camouflaging fish-bird in there, it wouldn’t be the first time they discovered something new.
A camouflaging fish-bird though? Martha just shrugged and remained silent. Nothing else she could say to that.
“I know it sounds unbelievable. I told you it was, though.” Karlin shrugged himself as he backed out of the water to join Martha on the bank.
“I mean, it wouldn’t be the first time we saw something new and strange coming out of the woods, right?” Martha sounded a little doubtful of the extent.
“Couldn’t agree with you more there, Martha. However, there was something special about this thing. I didn’t tell you, but it had fins as well, on both sides of its flat body, and at the back as well, long and thin. Then as if that wasn’t enough, it sprouted wings….wings! Martha, a flying fish!? And as if that weren’t enough, it looks like pebbles. I mean, I have never seen a creature camouflaged that well! One or even two of those things would have been a little suspect but all three?” Karlin could do nothing but shake his head at the absurdity of the sighting.
“Haha, no, your right, that does seem incredible, and I know better than to distrust what you say. If you say it was there, then it was. Where do you think it went?” Martha asked.
“Well, I saw it dive down around where I was wading, but I seem to have lost it. It is uncannily good at hiding, I tell you, perfectly blending with the background, not just colour either, like some of the other beasts we’ve seen. Texture as well! Though it is still soft, so it isn’t as hard as the stones it is mimicking. It shouldn’t be hard to tell the difference if I can just get a hold of the cretin! It bit me as well, painful that was! It took a whole one percentage off my Health, you know. I know I’ve bit hurt worse in the ranch but wasn’t expecting that in the river, was I?” Karlin was slowly descending into disgruntlement.
“I think you should just wash up and bring the sheep to water at the river, not much to do about it now, interesting though. Maybe we will be lucky and see it again!” and then under her breath, “or we might get lucky, and it might bite you in the butt next time.”
“What was that, Martha? Didn’t hear that last bit?” Karlin grumbled.
“I said that you’ll get it next time!” Martha called back.
Martha strolled back to their farmhouse close to the river, where the top half of the barn door was open, and sheep could be heard bleating inside. Karlin followed a few minutes later, having cleaned himself up and wash off the bite on his foot. It had already healed, for the most part, courtesy of his high Health Regen and Stamina Regen from his farmer class. Farmers needed to be hardy, after all. Shaking off the lingering feeling, Karlin went over to the barn to get the sheep some water to drink.
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Thief Lord
“What is wrong with you!?” That would be what anyone who knows me would say if they knew what I’ve done. They wouldn’t be wrong, as no sane person would ever quit his job the first chance he got when he saw an opening to follow his dream. To become rich and famous by playing video games. What? Did you think my dream wasn’t childish? The best dreams most often are. No? Well, maybe you just don’t dream big enough. Ever think about that? Dreams are never easy to follow, and neither is mine. There are millions of players who want the same as I do, but very few would actually risk their future trying. Following the path of a Villain isn’t easy, and I have a city filled with thousands of players who would love to see me fail. I will show them though. Just you wait and see... ----- This story is currently only posted here on royalroad. The only exception is an up-and-coming narrator names Agro Squerrils who I have given permission to narrate a few of my chapters on his youtube channel. Feel free to check it out if you are interested!https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLcfzFNUhrNS3YUShvr3W9mKwvhpMgmyua Disclaimer: I would advise checking out the story's tags. The story contains a low to medium amount of profanity. Read at your own discretion.
8 107Kalestra's Chosen (*Finished*)
Hin and Xan are transported from Earth during a storm and wake up on the planet Kalestra. They fight to find their bearings and their place in a prophecy. A place of magic and danger, where Dragons and the Fae hold an uneasy truce and have to work together to save and train the child who will hopefully save them all from an evil that waged war against them a thousand years ago. An enemy they thought they had thoroughly defeated. Co-authored by RR user sjourn. Some strong language. **This is a first draft rendering**
8 222Experiment 636
The world had changed. Over twenty years ago, monsters emerged from the ground and put the earth in chaos. People split themselves apart from one another in desperate attempts to survive. Whiles others were trying to survive on the surface, fighting off the monsters from deep below, she was trying to survive a different kind of monster. She was given only a number. There were no names. No pleasantries. Just tests. Everyday 636 had to undergo painful and inhuman testing. Her whole life she had been in a cage. The scientists around her tried to rip her apart. Turning her into something beyond human, with the end goal of a weapon to use against the monsters that had surfaced years ago. 636 was content for things to remain and stay in the labs forever. Treated like an object. Too afraid to fight for her place. That was... until she met a boy from cell 13 and learned what it meant to have a choice. It took unforeseen circumstances for 636 to realize no one belonged in a cage and she could only go so far before she reached her breaking point.
8 185Toxic
"I told you to find me a business partner, not a wife."Why he chose you? Well, it was an easy choice. How you fell for each other but still managed to be each other's worst nightmare? Who knows.------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------You get busted out of a max pen facility by the one and only Clown Prince of Crime to become his second in command. But things like that, they're not easy; they're never easy.SEQUEL, BOOK 2: MR. & MRS. J OUT NOW!
8 122Geneveive {Rose} | The Goonies|
Warning: I wrote this when I was younger so it has a lot of errors. But I wrote another fanfic which has better detail and ETC. so I know that is better then this one. Geneveive known as Rose by her friends your wondering why people probably call her Rose it's because that's her favorite flower and ever sense they found out that they call her that by her name. Only her family calls her by her real name. Her sister is Andy she's a cheerleader but she doesn't hang with Andy's friends she hangs with her own they came up with the nickname "The Goonies" What happens if she falls in love with one of her best friends? She doesn't even know what Love is but what happens when she figures it out? She's also nothing like Andy she is pretty like Andy but people admire Andy more than her.Rated #3 in #goonie
8 229Sharingan No Naruto
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