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Cowboys and Wizards

S01E06 - Looting the Wolves

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“I am Deliliah Silverwood, of the Tengaoi Elves” she said in that thickly accented English. “My apologies for the trouble. I am grateful for your help.”

“Vincent Carter,” I said, offering what I hoped was a winning smile. “People call me Vinnie. So, uh, what’s the deal with with the wolves?”

Delilah squatted and jumped from the stable roof to the ground below. “I was seeking a totem spirit when this pack attacked me.”

“Totem spirit?” I asked, sitting up and making sure my Mongoose was ready for more action.

“I am a summoner.”

I scooted to the edge of the roof. “Annnnd? How does that work?”

Delilah stared at me for a hard moment, then turned her attention to the monster wolf that tried to eat my face. “I bind spirits to totems, items that have significance to the departed creature. Then I can summon the spirit to perform tasks for me.”

I dropped to the ground and gathered up my brass, then headed over to one of the smaller wolf carcasses. “You have any preference on how I Dissemble these guys? Are they any good to eat?”

Another strange look. “The meat has a strong smell, but is very tasty in a stew.” She looked around at all the carcasses. “It is a shame that most of this will go to waste.”

“Not if I can help it,” I said, triggering standard disassembly on the wolf and watching it dissolve into blue sparks.

[40lbs Wolf meat]

[1 Wolf pelt (normal)]

[2 Wolf fangs]

[1 small blue mana stone]

- Converting acquired Mana to Battery power: +20

- Battery: 1969/2300

“You are a mage? I didn’t hear you chant.”

“Psychic,” I said, snatching up the mana stone and moving to the next carcass.

“Di medri Celestia mo prutigi isporoty!” Delilah swore, making some complicated hand gesture in front of her face.

*Ding*

A pop-up appeared in my vision:

-=-

- Tengaoi language pack -

Why waste your time learning to manipulate your aura to acquire languages?

Buy the Tengaoi language pack and speak like a native instantly!

Includes Novice (Low + Mid + High)

Includes Intermediate (Low + Mid + High)

Includes Advanced (Low + Mid + High)

Includes Superior

Bonus! Popular swear words, catchphrases, and colloquialisms included!

Bonus! Choose your dialect! Sound posh or common any time you wish!

Cost: 1 Gold

Memory: 1

Requirements: None

In-App Purchases: None.

-=-

I banished the pop-up. Sorry ad-buddy I don’t have the gold, but thanks for the tip. I’ll be testing out Aura Manipulation sooner rather than later.

“Hey now,” I said, trying to act nonchalant as I processed another wolf. “If I didn’t know better I’d swear you just heard something really upsetting. Wanna tell me about it?”

Delilah was watching me process wolves like I was a talking snake.

Something about me mentioning I was a psychic upset her, so maybe psychic was a bad choice of career paths? Is it a Delilah thing, an Elf thing, or is it an everyone thing?

“Help me out here, Delilah,” I said, picking up another small blue mana stone and moving to the next carcass. “You seem upset and I really don’t have a clue why.”

She remained silent and turned back to hacking at the neck of Mr. Chewie Face.

I pushed the matter to the back of my mind and disassembled the remaining wolves. She would talk when she wanted and pushing the issue wouldn’t solve anything.

Half an hour later I had 226 lbs of wolf meat, 14 small blue mana stones, 4 small white mana stones, 36 wolf fangs, and 18 wolf pelts, and I noticed that selecting the “Valuable” disassembly option increased the condition of the pelts from ’normal’ to ‘good’ with ‘excellent’ popping up on a couple. I guess sacrificing everything else for pelt, fangs, and mana stone makes a difference? I only collected the meat from four wolves, because didn’t want to ruin more pelts than necessary crafting ‘wolf bags’ to hold the meat. I stitched eight of the pelts together with twine and dropped them into inventory. Five vanished into blue sparks with no trouble.

[Inventory weight limit exceeded]

Well, shit. What’s my weight limit? I did some mental guesstimation and came up with about 290lbs. The amount of ‘memory’ I had available. Looks like my dream of becoming a one man cargo service just got axed, especially if I buy more skills or classes. I reconfigured the load and sighed at the wasted meat on the ground. I managed to convert a bit over 360 mana into battery juice for me, so I was still tired but sitting at 1593/2300. I could use a good meal and a soft bed.

Shit. My spit roasted rabbit is probably charcoal by now.

I wandered out of the ruined stable and over to where Delilah had finished carving a new hole in the back of Mr. Chewie’s neck. My auric vision showed her glowing like a goddess, surrounded by blue and black motes from the decaying carcass. She had carved out one of the neck vertebra and was sitting with her back against the wolf, playing with it in her gore covered hands. Yeah… that’s not disturbing at all, it it?

“Whatcha doing?” I asked.

She glanced up at me, complex emotions playing across her features. “Carving a totem for her spirit to reside in.”

I watched as she seemed to mould it with her fingers, twisting and shaping, adding detail with her fingernails. She was done just as the sky was turning that deep, bruised purple colour that heralded the immediacy of night. Rising to her feet, she clutched the palm sized wolf totem in her left hand and placed her right against the huge beast that nearly chewed my face off.

As she began to chant in a low voice, I watched the blue sparks drifting from the corpse swirl and shift, accelerating into a vortex that twisted and flowed into the totem she held. The corpse vanished in an explosion of motes which were drawn into the totem like a magnet. Moments later, nothing remained of the wolf but a small black stone.

“That was beautiful.” I whispered, overcome with the feeling that I had just watched some sacred ceremony. I cleared my throat.

Delilah picked up the black stone and placed it in a pouch at her waist, then turned to me. “Psychics are feared, Vinnie” she said, and paused to collect her words. “Maybe fear is too strong. Mistrusted. They are not mages, but perform magic. They can read your thoughts, change your thoughts. Even possess your body like a powerful spirit. The fact that you announce yourself as a psychic scares me more than if you were a mage.”

“What do you mean, being scared of mages?” I asked, furrowing my brows at her words. “Aren’t you a mage?”

She shook her head. “I am a summoner. I use mana provided by the Loa to work my magic. Human mages get their mana from their towers that broadcast mana. Licensed mages that are powerful beyond words.”

Mana broadcasting towers? I really don’t know anything about this world, do I?

Blowing out a heavy sigh, I said “Look, I’m a traveller from a distant land who’s gotten himself lost. I could really use some information about this worl…country, and stuff. I was making camp and getting ready to eat some dinner when you came flying by, so why don’t we head back there and get some dinner, and maybe you can tell me a bit about this place?”

-= NOTES =-

[CAST]

Vincent J. Carter

Horse

[PLACES]

Fort Galos

[PEOPLE]

Delilah Silverwood

[OTHERS]

Mr. Chewie Face

Tengaoi elves

-=- PERSONAL -=-

[[ Next chappie Wed 30Dec20 ]]