《Wild Child》Ch.27 Farewell
Advertisement
Nearly a year passed and the Swift Retribution gained access to the root way. Karamen and John were sparring when they received the news from the AI. The arbiters cheered loudly, some rushing to their rooms. They would finally be able to contact their loved ones.
“Finally,” laughed Karamen, “I’ve sorely missed my holoshows these past decades. It is time to get back up to date. Let us end our spar here for today, Wild Child.”
“Just holoshows? Don’t you have anyone you want to talk to?”
“Everyone I want to talk to is on this ship,” Karamen smiled.
John went back to his chamber and explored the root way that everyone was so excited about. Gaining access to it now meant that they were in the vicinity of the elven territories. He gazed out his window and could see strange devices made of metal shining in bursts. They were like buoys in the aether, pumping some substances in and out. These were aether engines, John learnt when he telepathically questioned the AI. They powered the elven homelands with far greater efficiency than a dyson sphere ever could.
“He watched an elven holoshow. It was much like a soap opera back on Earth. Ugh! He hated soap operas. How could the immortal elves watch such things? Did Karamen really enjoy such things? There was no accounting for taste.
“Jehun,” he heard Sor Al in his mind. “Pack your things and say your goodbyes. We are leaving.”
“Leaving? Where?”
“To my homeworld of Kumra. A transport ship will meet us in real space in a few hours.” Kumra, it sounded new and exciting.
“Okay.”
John ran to Karamen’s chambers, who was chuckling loudly at some comedy holoshow. Why had John only been able to find soap operas?
“I’m leaving in a few hours,” John said, as soon as Karamen allowed him to enter.
“Leaving?” Karamen asked in surprise. “Where to?”
“The planet Kumra. It’s Sor Al’s homeworld.”
“This is too sudden,” said Karamen. “Let us toast our days together with some wine.” Karamen took out a crystal bottle he had hidden in the recesses of his wardrobe and poured out two glasses of a blue liquid. John was now a forty year old soul trapped in a child’s body. He felt no compunction in drinking alcohol. He threw his head back and downed the contents of the glass. It was very spicy and very alcoholic. John felt a little giddy. Maybe he shouldn’t have drunk it so quickly.
Advertisement
“What was that?” John coughed.
“A brew I made myself when I was back on my homeworld. It contains a variety of herbs and the pula flower for added flavor. You drank it all up before we could toast,” Karamen said, downing his own glass. “Let’s have another.” Karamen filled the glasses and raised his own. “To all the adventures we shared.”
“To our adventures,” John echoed. There had not been many of those, but the few they had, had been filled with excitement and peril, joy and sorrow. Too many had died. John began feeling a little melancholic.
And so began a series of toasts. When John left he was half drunk, with half an hour left to pack all his things. The only possessions he had of any value were his arbiter armor and weapons. They were fitted into a large metal suitcase that had come with the suit. He turned on the hoverpads and the suitcase lifted into the air. He looked out the window and found that he was in real space. It was time to leave.
Lianel hailed his room. Outside, John found a huge amount of luggage packed on a hover trolley. Sor Al was waiting impatiently by its side. Did all those things belong to her? It was like a small hillock.
“You stink of liquor,” Sor Al said with disgust. “A child should not be touching liquor. Was it that Karamen who gave it to you.”
“I’m old enough to drink,” John said, swaying a little. He began to chuckle. Nobody would believe how old he really was. How old was he anyway? Thirty something? His head was spinning too much for him to think.
“You’re drunk,” Sor Al harrumphed. “You’d best get a hold of yourself. I don’t want to babysit you.”
“I’m fine,” John said, his entire body in a pleasant state of inebriation. He knew the hangover would come, but it wouldn’t be for a few hours yet. “Karamen treats me like a friend, not a child. He is nice and kind.”
Advertisement
“He uses levity as a mask. You have not seen the real Karamen. He will betray you if it suits his interests.”
“He’s my friend. He’d never betray me,” John said. He followed Sor Al to the docking bay where a small ship awaited them. It looked like a falcon and there were even brown feathers painted on it.
“Welcome aboard, realm mistress,” the pilot said, ushering them to their seats after taking care of their luggage in the cargo hold. It had seats for only five people, but they were well spaced and it was all very comfortable. John sat back and relaxed.
The pilot communicated with the Swift Retribution’s AI and the ship unfurled its wings, taking off into space. “It will take us approximately five standard hours to reach Kumra’s orbit,” the pilot said, seated at the front of the room. There was no cockpit. The ship was entirely controlled through telepathy. “Tales of your journey have begun to fill the root way, realm mistress,” the pilot said.
“It was a harrowing journey,” the realm mistress said. “The majority of the crew died in the voyage.” Majority? Had more elves died before John boarded?
“Nevertheless, tales of your power and bravery have reached the ears of the twelve stars.”
“The twelve stars,” Sor Al sighed. “I have finally returned. Tell me,” she said to the pilot, “what do you know about the situation on Adan.”
“Half the known galaxy is on tenterhooks because of Adan,” said the pilot. “Three great empires colonizing a planet with us elves stuck in between them, it does not make for a cheerful song. The skirmishes grow more frequent. The empress of Oor is also eyeing our mines on Aroth. There has been a lot of noise on the root way about historic claims and such.”
“Aroth,” Sor Al shook her head sadly, “ever a place of conflict. That planet has changed hands over twenty times in this past century. Jehun, it is a multiracial planet controlled by us elves for the moment. The planet contains a unique metal that are used in our aether engines. It is our biggest lifeline and our biggest weakness.”
John nodded, trying to follow the conversation as best he could. His head still spun. “That is where Edrach’s family met their end.” Edrach, his one true foe. John hadn’t wanted him to die, though he hated him. He could understand Edrach’s hate even if it was misplaced.
“Is it?” the realm mistress asked. “It is the graveyard of many people, humans, elves and orcs alike.”
“Orcs,” John said loudly, not able to control the volume of his voice. He had heard stories about orcs on the ship but never thought they were real. “Are there orcs close to the elven homeworlds?”
“There are,” said the pilot. “They usually settle near the Tyras system, where their warlock overlords live, but many have started colonies close to our lands. Their colonies are easy to destroy but hard to fully uproot. They are simple creatures but because of their vassals the gnomes, their war equipment is beyond count and advanced enough to be a threat.”
He had fought a holographic warlock. They were blue skinned humanoids, and accomplished in necromancy.
“Have you heard of a human planet called Earth?” he asked the pilot. The pilot’s information was more up-to-date than the navigator’s.
“No,” said the pilot. “Look, we have reached Kumra.”
John stared at the blue planet coming into view. This would be the real start of his new life in the galaxy.
Advertisement
Dungeon Divided
How hard would it be for humans to reach another unniverse? It's a more common occurence than you'd think Now imagine making that journey without any kind of special suit or magic wormhole or divine being protecting you. The chances of survival are slim and those unlucky few that do reach their destination, well let's just say they're not quite the same people who began their journey. Liam dies during a colision with a truck; to be precise he was the one who drove said truck into a lamppost. The manner of his death aside he is reborn after having his brain squeezed through the proverbial ringer of interdimensional transference, and to add insult to injury is forced into the body of a dungeon core (one of those things responsible for building fantasy type dungeons, labyrinths, mazes .etc). What follows are the adventures of a mentally unstable dungeon core - you have been warned.
8 280Tales of Mana
Announcement: I (the author) am currently on a journey through guides, feedback and countless pages of miscellaneous other stuff to improve this work. I will not change the plot, but the style should be improved by a lot. I also intend to give more insights on the world and its characters. Once that is taken care of, this message will be removed. Until then, I wish you keep this in mind if you keep reading. - You know the stories about how some random person get's resurrected as the hero of a fantasy world after dying in their previous one? Well.. Mana may have been revived, but definitely not as a hero. This world does not require to be saved. It has to be changed. However.. how much can something be bent.. before breaking? - Mature tag due to: description of gory scenes. Some violence. This will go down after the first few chapters, but will resurface later on. Example: """"had literally drowned on its own blood"""". No sx scenes. To get some things out of the way: -this is my first submission, and the first story I ever wrote. If you find mistakes, or have something to criticize, please do so, but DON'T just write """"xy = bad"""". Explain me how to improve. Would be nice.
8 135Aliens.exe
Jake is a mess. He's completely sick of life. His only interest is the video game Lapine Death Corps which is played all over the universe. Jake has no inclination for social interaction, except through video games, of course. In fact he actively shuns it - so you can imagine his dismay when he inadvertantly starts an intergalactic war and becomes the most wanted man in the universe. He just needs to be boring old Jake again. Could his favourite video game be his saviour, and, somehow, the key to ending the war? Strap yourself in for a hilarious, good vs evil, rollercoaster ride across the galaxy.
8 159A Curious World
This is a story of how a modern day person reincarnated into the body of a 14 year-old Duke's son. He doesn't have much to rely on, having lost part of his past life's memories. Slowly but steadily, he'll forge his own path in this world.
8 183The Wu Clan's Rise: Legends of the twin dragons
The Immortal Domain is a vast cosmos consisting of the Upper Realm and the Lower Realms, both of which are controlled by the Three Great Families, the Wang family, the Lui family, and the Xue family. Each one of them holds an immense amount of power that could overturn the heavens, reverse yin and yang and change the fate of anyone or anything in the Immortal Domain as they see fit. But, with all of that being said, our story doesn't start from those ancient overpowered families in the Upper Realm, it starts from one of the countless fragmented Lower Realms, called the Wither Daemon Realm, in which there was a planet named Daiyu. On this planet, heavenly prodigies that were born with one of the thirty, rare Legendary Physiques were starting to pop up like common weeds. Longwei, born into the Wu Clan while in possession of the third rank Legendary Physique, was known as one of the six monster-level geniuses on planet Daiyu. His brother Longmin on the other hand, though was a genius in his own right, had faded into obscurity since his birth and was shunned by his own father after a certain ‘incident’. This story is the supposed legends of two dragons, who, through a journey of bloodshed and betrayal led their clan to unify the Immortal Domain and stand above trillions as the highest existence. ******* If you lovely readers can't be bothered to use your eyes, you can join my Patreon and get to stream my audio chapters like everyone else. https://www.patreon.com/TSETH Discord: https://discord.gg/tEdkhmrj5g
8 141My Papa
COMPLETED A short story about a man named Lorenzo De Luca and his son's, Christopher, Vincenzo, Vincent and Giovanni who hate their young daughter/sister. They believe she was a mistake, she wasn't supposed to be born. She's only five : Blair Elizabeth De Luca. Shy, sweet and extremely bubbly despite her situation.When a serious accident almost kills her, they see her in a different light. A short storySorry for anyone who was currently reading this - I had some technical issues so the book had to be removed. It's been fixed and I have put it back up - Thanks for reading
8 202