《Trials of a Babysitter》2. Monster
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I was tripping. There was no other rational explanation. I thought back but I couldn’t remember getting high. That didn’t prove anything, but… why would I get high when I knew I had a babysitting gig?
I inhaled hot, humid air… which was weird for late Autumn in Minnesota, and took in my surroundings.
What I had originally thought to be grass was too soft and warm, and I realized it to be moss. It covered everything; overturned logs, tree trunks, water. The trees themselves were massive, with branches that drooped down in a canopy of green. Everything was green, except the flowers.
I didn’t have enough words to describe the colors of the flowers. They ranged across the rainbow and from snow white to the darkest black. I had never seen anything more vibrant and beautiful in my life.
I turned around and the coat closet was gone, with nothing left but a tree trunk.
“What the fuck did I just walk into,” the words escaped my mouth before I could remember I was talking to a five year old.
Elsie, who had been walking ahead without me realizing it, turned back to me and cocked her head. “What’s a fuck?”
I knew better than to tell a five year old to not say something, so “I didn’t say fuck, I said duck. It’s an expression people use…”
“Oh. Okay. What the duck, what the duck, what the duck duck duck!” She started skipping and chanting in a sing-song voice before she abruptly stopped and froze in place.
“Elsie? What’s wrong?”
Slowly, she turned her head back to stare at me and raised a finger to her lips. Then, wide-eyed, she pointed. I followed her finger with my eyes and screamed.
It was monstrous. The closest thing I knew of in my...world…would be a crocodile. It was scaled and seven feet long, but its hind legs were monstrous. Its tail split into two and its maw was large enough to swallow me whole.
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“I just said to be quiet!” Elsie ran back to grab my hand and pull me into a sprint as the monster looked up and made eye contact with me. Those glowing yellow eyes would haunt me for the rest of my life, assuming I lived long enough to be haunted. It seemed to smile, and I learned what the huge hind legs were for as it shot like a frog through the air and halved the distance between us instantly.
In another leap, it was where I had been standing a second before. Elsie stopped running to turn and face the monster. Elsie pushed me behind her--wait wasn’t that my job?-- and I prayed to every god I knew of that the afterlife would be better. I was ready to die when suddenly the monster reeled back as if it had been shot. It snarled and lunged for us, suddenly much angrier, but bounced off the air between us as if there was a barrier.
That's when I looked at Elsie. The five-year-old stood with her legs apart, knees bent, beckoning the monster forwards like a bullfighter. She was chanting something in a language I didn’t recognize as the monster rammed itself against the invisible barrier over and over.
Without looking away she yelled at me, “Miss Anna please grab my hand, I need to anchor the spell to you.”
Spell?
Well, seeing as she was the only thing standing between me and death, I grabbed her hand and felt something rush through me. It felt like I had just drunk three red bulls and pulled an all-nighter, but it wasn’t a bad feeling. I didn’t even realize words were coming out of my mouth until I focused on them.
“...sasunt’vath fur van. Nerunt’vath fur van ab jas. Sasunt’vath fur van. Nerunt’vath fur van ab jas. Sas’vath fur…” the words involuntarily spewed out of my mouth. I had no idea what I was saying, but I neither wanted to nor could stop them. They seemed to be what was holding the monster at bay while Elsie did whatever she was doing.
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Translation: "You provide for your children. You protect your children from harm."
I couldn’t fully focus on her, but the monster kept reeling back, as though shot by invisible bullets. At first they seemed to only annoy it, but as Elsie fired more and more it eventually began to slow. Black blood ran from hundreds of holes which Elsie had spread across its body, and a final shot through its open mouth caused it to stop.
Elsie’s tiny hand let go of mine and all the energy was sapped from my body as the spell dispersed.
“What was that? You have a lot of explaining to do,” I mumbled before my knees buckled and I sank to the mossy ground.
“Sorry Miss Anna. I’ll explain later, but first we should go somewhere safe. Miss Arantia can help, she lives nearby. She might also know where Carter is!”
Shit, in all the commotion I had forgotten that Carter was missing.
“Who is this Arantia? You and Carter should not be talking to strangers from another world!”
“But she isn’t a stranger. She’s our magic teacher!” Elsie smiled gleefully and began to skip away again. I pulled myself up and followed after her, clenching my jaw closed so that I wouldn’t scream again.
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Cybernetic Dragon
Idea Seven, or Inter Dimensional Explorer Automaton Unit-7, has had a bit of an accident. Hijacking the egg of a dragon rather than its intended target of a bird egg, it isn't fully in control of its host brain. Rather the two, dragon and cybernetic AI interface, must work together to survive in a hostile world of magic, dungeons, beasts and adventurers. The AI must deal with being a machine from a world of science trying to carry out its mission of exploration, while the dragon, Rex, must deal with being a cyborg living with symbiotic nanotech that sets him apart from other dragons. What adventures await them? Author Note: I tagged this story GameLit because it contains concepts like levels, classes, and dungeon/beast cores. But, it isn't tagged LitRPG because no one has status screens, other than occasionally Idea Seven who likes to organize data into blue boxes. It isn't a natural function of the world to display level ups or skill ups with an announcer voice. I mention this to set expectations, because otherwise I feel like LitRPG fans might be disappointed by my lack of LitRPG elements while others might be turned off thinking I have a lot of LitRPG elements. I think that if you approach the story with an open mind you will appreciate the gradual way in which the main character learns and expands his understanding of how the world works, but the game mechanics aren't meant to take center stage to the actual story.
8 402The Power of Systems
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8 257Artifice: Iysinfyr
Nalulthyn is the young daughter of a duke that is one day asked for a favor. This favor involves the adopted daughter of the duke from a neighboring area. This girl has had a traumatic past and has closed herself off from the world completely and reacts violently when touched by anyone but her personal maid. The duke hopes that a girl close to the age of his adoptive daughter will be what she needs to recover, but things are never as easy as they seem. First is that this adopted daughter is a Terran, a rare being from a different world that has skin and hair as white as snow and an almost alien build. Second is that there is a power to this girl, one that makes her recovery all the more dangerous to Nalulthyn and perhaps beyond. Author's note: This is a soft reboot of Artifice: Tools of the Gods. As I wrote the other story years ago I felt it would be better to do this approach as my writing has changed and improved since then. For now only two characters will return though I might reintroduce others later in the story. Even though this has the gore tag, I don't plan on being excessive with it. Most chapters shouldn't have any. The only reason I have it is to be realistic with the descriptions.
8 147Voidsong (A NaNoWriMo 2018 winner)
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8 153Ocean of Poems (Completed)
[Completed]In this book, you will a see a lot of poems of various themes. Currently, there are only 2 poems of mine in it.Cover is made by Humna20Enjoy!"Out of the light that covers me,Black as the Pit from pole to pole,I than whatever gods may be For my unconquerable soul.In the fell clutch of circumstancesI have not winced nor cried aloud.Under the bludgeonings of chance My head is bloody, but unbowed. Beyond this place of wrath and tears Looms but the Horror of the shade, And yet the menace of the yearsFinds, and shall find, me unafraid.It matters not how strait the gate, How charged with punishments the scroll I am the master of my fate: I am the captain of my soul." ©️ All Rights Reserved No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying without prior written permission from the author. I do not own any of these poems, credit goes to respected authorsDone on 9/7/18 subject to changeRankings: #79 in relatable out of 1.6k stories #70 in literature out of 700 stories #201 in deep out of 1.9k stories #11 hardtimes out of 102 stories #28 in meaning out of 150 stories #35 in relate out of 187 stories
8 197Part II
𝚆𝚑𝚘 𝚠𝚊𝚗𝚝𝚜 𝚝𝚑𝚊𝚝 𝚙𝚎𝚛𝚏𝚎𝚌𝚝 𝚕𝚘𝚟𝚎 𝚜𝚝𝚘𝚛𝚢 𝚊𝚗𝚢𝚠𝚊𝚢...𝚊𝚗𝚢𝚠𝚊𝚢...𝚌𝚕𝚒𝚌𝚑𝚎, 𝚌𝚕𝚒𝚌𝚑𝚎, 𝚌𝚑𝚒𝚌𝚑𝚎
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