As I walked through Shimmer Lake I realized one small fact about myself. I hate being watched closely. That feeling of eyes being on you is a hard one to shake, and its not paranoia when they are watching you. Well, it was my left hand they were watching really. Not every day you see someone walking down the street with his hand engulfed in shadowy-smoke. The children however did more than just stare, they came up and asked a million questions in half a second.

Most like ‘How did you get like that?’ were answered with ‘Dunno.’ When they asked what I could do with my hand I smiled and threw around some small balls of black smoke that puffed into the air for a short while before dissipating. Playing around was rather informative, as I found that the smoke I could create would be easily countered by a quick breeze. I didn’t have many tricks yet, but the one I call Shadow-Teleport I decided to keep a secret. Not that I wanted to keep secrets, it’s just that I’ve learned to trust gut feelings in my life. Right now my gut was telling me to keep that one under wraps.

The children laughed as they ran through the puffs of smoke that I tossed around. Their fun was quickly cut short however. Worried parents who watched nearby told them to thank the Lord of Darkness before calling them away. I needed a new title. Lord of Darkness just sends all the wrong signals about the kind of person I am. Thankfully the kids knew me as Mark thanks to Petal, so at least they called me by name.

“I have a hard time believing you are the Lord of Darkness, Mark.” A familiar voice spoke from behind me. I turned to see Kria grinning at me while Keena gave me a perplexed look.

“I agree,” Keena began, “The stories my parents told me the Lord of Darkness is supposed to be a being of evil. Not one that plays with children.”

“Ah, but you only see the start of my truly evil plot.” I rubbed my hands together with a sinister look. Kria scoffed while Keena’s listened intently. “You see, now that the children have gone with their parents they shall bug them until the parents relent and let the kids roam free once more. Chaos will return to the Town of Shimmer Lake. Muwahahahahahaaaa. Now if only I had a long mustache to curl snidely…”

Keena sighed, “I should have expected as much based on my previous observations based upon your person.”

“Wait till you see him when he gets serious.” Kria said with a grin, “I’m still waiting on our sparring match Mark.”

“Yes, yes. Later, promise. First I gotta meet up with old Ovvy and see how Bartholomew is doing and how soon we can get him up and running. You two wanna come see?”

“That’s the plan.” Kria confirmed as Keena nodded,

“Yes I’m quite interested in this self-driving carriage of yours.”

“Then you’re both in for a treat, we got the radio running last night.”

I walked ahead as the two gave perplexed expressions as they wondered aloud what a radio was.

Before long us three stood before Ovglach’s workshop. In fact, it was more than just us three. A whole group of townsfolk stood outside the building where loud music was coming from. Questions filled the air wondering what was happening inside the building. I rubbed my head and groaned, bemused. Keena tilted her head as Kria’s ears moved about erratically before they looked at me.

“I take it the source of this sound is your radio?” Kria stated as we moved to get into the building.

“What do you call this kind of music?” Keena asked, “I’ve never heard its kind before.”

“It’s Toto.”

When we made it to the door I held Kria back from entering. I had to explain that these sorts of things needed to be done with precision. With an ear against the door I listened. Yep, Ovglach was singing along to the song. I waited for the right moment.

“Hold the line!” I heard a faint voice sing from inside the building. I chose that very moment to open the door and yell at the top of my lungs, completely in sync with the song.

“LOVE ISN’T ALWAYS ON TIME!”

It was at that moment I witnessed something magical. I saw the dwarf fall from a step ladder, frightened by my loud voice, onto his back the whole while cursing up a storm that would make a marine blush. When Ovglach stumbled to his feet and saw me laughing at him he took the wrench he had dropped and chucked it straight at my head.

Unlucky for him I have the reflexes of a cat. It only hit my arm.

Kria and Keena had to hold us back from getting into fisticuffs. I mean, I wasn’t really mad at the dwarf, but a man has to uphold his honor when he feels slighted. In the end we both calmed down enough to go over what Ovglach had been up to. As of right now he was about two-thirds of the way done fixing up my jeep. He reassured me that he’d be done before sunset so I could, “Go piss up a cactus in the meanwhile.”

Unfortunately for him, that was the last thing I was going to do. I pulled him aside as Keena and Kira played with the radio after I had shown them how to change CDs.

“I’m gonna need one more thing from you Ovglach.”

“Aye, could tell ye were thinkin’ hard fer awhile there boy.”

“I need a carriage, one I can hook onto the back of my jeep. And not a small carriage either. Also it has to be able to handle high speeds without having anything breaking. Oh, and a padded interior for safety.”

Ovglach ran a hand through his beard in thought. “A mighty tall order there boy. Mighty tall indeed.” He motioned for me to follow him. Together we walked to the back of his workshop and went out the back door. Outside was a wide metal wagon that was in pieces. It looked as if it were in the process of being scrapped for parts. “This should work decently.” He gumbled, “Never thought I’d be putting this old thing back together.”

“No offense, Ov my man. But this looks like junk.”

“Aye, it’s a piece o’ shit. But it’ll do on such short notice. It’s me old Shaper Wagon. Could have it fixed in an hour or so if need be. So what’s with the rush and necessity all of a sudden?”

“The inquisitors that were here last night have prisoners with them. I’m planning on springing them free and bringing them to safety.”

“Ah, them zealots are a pain in the arse. I’m grateful of me Shaper status when they come through.”

“What does being a Shaper have to do with Inquisitors?” I asked as we walked back into the workshop.

“Old laws made before I was a lad. Breaking into a Shaper’s workshop is grounds for hostile retaliation. Them inquisitors like to push as far as they can, but have never had the stones to call our bluff. They fear what us H’grndyr can do so they just leave us alone.”

“H’grndyr?”

“Aye, it’s the name for my people.”

“Huh, and all this time I’ve been calling you a dwarf. My bad.”

“Bah, I’ve been called worse by better people than yerself.” I chuckled,

“I’ll drink to that.”

Together we started to work on Bartholomew. Kria and Keena stood around asking questions to which we would respond either with a technical answer from Ovglach who has far more mechanically gifted than I. Or a ‘Dunno’ from me when Ovglach was busy. Keena lost interest in the mechanical aspect quite quickly and went back to perusing my musical collection and trying different CDs in the radio.

She was rather upset when it came time for us to put the radio back in and had to have it turned off.

By the time the sun had begun to set my whole body ached. I don’t know how mechanics could do this sort of work day in and day out. Though I guess they had much better equipment in my world than in this one to make most of the work painless. But we didn’t have to deal with the entire engine block like normal. We just connected everything run by power to the giant topaz sitting in a custom-made holding unit that would hold it where the engine would go.

But now, it was the moment of truth. I sat in the driver’s seat as everyone watched with anticipation. I held the key high as King Arthur once held Excalibur before placing it in the ignition slot. It was do or die time.

“This is one small step for Dwarf, Mikthar and Dra-Hkan kind. Well, one giant leap. Us humans do this every day.” I turned the key. Nothing happened. No sound, no feedback. Pure one hundred percent nothing. Ovglach scratched his beard as he stared while everyone else let out a collective sigh in disappointment. I popped the hood and looked inside.

“Ovglach you fucking boob, you forgot to connect the ignition!” I took the wire that would start the vehicle and connected it to the metal that held the topaz. Electricity would run from the topaz to the metal, powering everything attached to the metal. However, I am a bumblefuck who forgot to take the keys out of the on position in the jeep. As I connected the wire to the metal, electricity surged up my arm. I had a split moment to exclaim my catchphrase.

“Fuck!”

Everything went dark…for a moment at least. When I came back to reality I found myself surrounded by everyone I knew from this strange new world. Petal was kneeling beside me in concentration with her hands out. A calming yellowy-white glow flowed from her hands. I was being healed. It felt strange, like the tingling sensation you get when you cut off circulation to and arm or a leg and then let the air back in.

Everyone stared at me in shock as I looked at each of them. “It’s impolite to stare. You guys should know that.” As I sat up I felt Petal cling to me in a hug.

“No go.” Those two words made me freeze as she hugged me tight. I could feel her tears falling from her face and pouring onto my arm. No go. My brain cycled through what I remembered. I had taken a full on blast of electricity from something far more powerful than a car battery. And electrical shocks from car batteries are often fatal. By all means I should have been dead.

I now knew why everyone wasn’t speaking. They were in shock themselves. Two impossibilities sat before them. One was a man who had survived an electric blast strong enough to turn my insides to goo, which felt just fine. And two, the girl who had brought him back to life.

I hugged Petal close as she cried. “You are an angel.”

She hit me lightly as she cried. “No go.”

“No go.” I confirmed.

As I stood everyone’s eyes shifted from me to Petal and back again. “What’s the matter? Cat got your tongues?”

“Arm…” Keena stated in shock as she pointed. I looked to my left arm and found it engulfed in shadow from hand to shoulder.

“What the fuck?! I had only just gotten used to the hand and wrist being all shadowy!” I didn't like this, not one bit.

“I have a theory.” Sage spoke as he stared inquisitively. “It is that you absorbed a good portion of the surge of magical energy from the topaz. However, what you couldn’t absorb had killed you.” He looked me straight in the eye, “And you did die.” Petal slumped against me and breathed softly as if in sleep. When I looked at her she was indeed sleeping.

I lifted her into my arms and handed her over to Velle who took the sleeping girl with reverence. “I have many questions and I’m on the verge of freaking out. But one thing at a time.” I turned to Ovglach, “Is the wagon ready for use?”

“Aye, Kria still planned to go through with yer rescue and insisted I do whatever I had to. Crazy Mikthar was even willing to take yer vehicle and use it herself! Not that I’d have let her, see. I’d have driven it me-self!” I could see the gleam in his eyes.

“Sorry buddy, but your legs are too short to reach the pedals.” Just because I had died doesn’t mean I can’t knock people down a peg or two. He cursed at me but his heart wasn’t in it. “I’ll attach the wagon out front so bring that beast around.” Ovglach stated as he walked towards the back exit.

“Alright, Kria I need you to gather up a few guards for this. Bring me the best people you’ve got that can move without being heard. Tell them no armor and blunted weapons only. This is a rescue, not an attack so we’ll be using stealth.” It felt good taking charge. It felt even better when Kria saluted me and ran off to gather her people. I could faintly hear Keena whisper something about the Lord of Darkness but I paid her no mind.

I moved to the front of the workshop and opened the large sliding door. As it opened I noticed that it was midnight in this world. A full moon hanging lazily in the night sky full of twinkling lights. I hoped we had enough time before sunrise, my plan needed to be done at night. “Now or never.” I mused as I returned to the jeep, hopped inside and turned it on.

There was no sound which I found odd. No vibration either. Bartholomew was basically running as silent as a ghost. Everything worked however, I even tested the radio. Everyone watched me as I played around inside.

“Well don’t be strangers, come hop in! Velle you can take the seat next to me since you’re carrying Petal.” I hopped out and helped them all into their seats. Velle held Petal in the passenger seat while Keena and Sage sat in the back. I hopped back into the driver’s side and lightly pressed the gas. We started moving forward slowly. I could hear gasps of awe from all around.

“If you think this is amazing wait till you see how fast it can go.” I smirked and pulled out front the workshop. Ovglach waited for us with his metal wagon that had been reassembled. It was upheld by four large, thick, metal wheels and looked to be able to hold around ten people if we squished them uncomfortably together. We then punctured two holes in the front of the wagon and ran a length of rope through them before tying them tightly to the jeep’s supports.

We didn’t have to wait long before Kria had returned with a group of guards. They weren’t wearing armor as instructed. In their hands were blunted weapons suitable for what I had in mind. I then told Kria to pick out four of her best. When the four were selected I had two of them sit in the back of the jeep while the other two sat in the wagon. I then had Kria sit in the passenger seat.

“What about me? I want to come rescue my father too!” Keena announced as she stepped toward me.

“I understand. I truly do Keena. But I need you to stay here.” I spoke with sympathy. “People tend to act irrationally when they have loved ones at stake and we can’t afford irrationality tonight.” She looked like she wanted to argue. She looked like she was pained by my words. But thankfully, she nodded and stepped back and wished me success. I gave a thumbs-up as I climbed into the driver’s seat and pressed on the gas.

Other than the sounds of moving wheels and the sounds of Bruce Springsteen playing on the radio, we drove silently into the night.

----------------------

Couldn't get this out yesterday due to thunder knocking out my power as I worked on it.

For those interested in what the general races look like I decided to download some pictures for to use for reference.

For Mikthar: Thanks to Silverfate for linking: http://i.imgur.com/H4TQwgH.png Which is very on-point on how I imagined Mikthar, except they don't have human hair above their fur on their head. Males have longer fur around their neck like a lion's mane.

For Dra-Hkan: http://i.imgur.com/3imwWHe.jpg They basically look like this, however their whole body is scaled, no human skin or hair. Soft scales cover their underside from their chin to their stomach and below. Also the females have flat chests cause lizards dont have mammaries. Sorry boob lovers, flat is justice.

Hib'litan aka frogmen: http://i.imgur.com/7K5eF7B.jpg is a great representation of the males except they're a peaceful folk. Females would be similar in structure but have large chests on average.

Shren aka ant people: http://pre07.deviantart.net/61bd/th/pre/i/2015/120/e/a/ant_warrior_by_n0b0d1-d37rdzb.jpg suits them quite well, except they have two sets of legs and one set of arms, otherwise this is spot on for males and females.

Bonus unrevealed race: Theyre going to be similar to Katt's second form from Breath of Fire 2. http://i.imgur.com/GHUYEmC.jpg

Also know that I probly won't be posting a chapter tomorrow or later today. Gonna be busy exploring vast expanses of nothing in No Man's Sky until I get bored.