With a wordless groan of pain and despair, TJ dropped Stanton to the ground beside the test tree to be sacrificed. He khat the tree wouldn’t actually die or anything from Stanton’s magic, but TJ did feel a slight passion for another living being that gave up fort and a part of their health for Stanton’s tinued survival. Despite any feelings of iseration or uanding though, TJ cked the energy to take aep forward to another pnt.
This was the fifth stop they’d made sihe mountain lion’s attack. The first time, TJ had made it a full fifteen minutes before taking a nearly ten minute break. He’d had enough energy at that time to wonder where any cars would be. This particur stretch of highway didn’t have a ton of people on it, but there would have been someone here, in this stretch of road, in the space they’d traveled already. No such vehicles appeared, though, and as he resumed his journey, he was too exhausted to wonder any lohey’d both only gotten more and more exhausted as he’d tinued his painful trek. Stanton was rec markedly, and his stomach stopped leaking blood all over after the sed stop, though the movement pained him and split his scabbing wounds. TJ had only managed a bit over ten minutes of walking the sed leg, and Stanton’s MP had only recovered by five iime between. It was hardly enough to heal himself a rge amount, but he was vihat the Druid level was very close. With that hope driving him, TJ didn’t hesitate for too long before resuming their journey.
Again and again, he walked until his shuddering legs proved to be too much for him to tinue. Each time he stumbled to a ree, Stanton would exhaust himself to force healing into his body, but the results grew less and less impressive with each stop. With less MP to work with, there was much less that he could do, but now, on the fifth stop, Stanton groaned but stood tall. His shirt remaiained with his blood, and TJ could see the puckered scars that patterhe old man’s stomader the ribbons of torn shirt and jacket. That he hadn’t bled to death on the highway in the middle of nowhere was a miracle, and now the old man, though not healthy or whole by any stretagination, was on his feet. TJ dropped the backpacks to the pavement of the highway aured for Stanton to get whatever he wanted out of them as the exhausted younger man stood as tall as he could while holding both his hands behind his head and breathing deeply.
Stanton stumbled over to the backpacks, where he pulled a water bottle from his pad drank deeply from it before ripping a of out of as well, stabbing it open with three swipes of his knife, and drinking the kerhat spilled out. He acted like a starving savage, his entire focus on dev as much as fast as possible. The water it had been suspended in dribbled out of the er of his mouth and through his stubble to soak his colr. Stanton didn’t seem to care. He merely tinued dev the food as TJ walked forward to stand nearby. Too tired to stay on his feet, he activated Diviransformation and id down while keeping his eyes and nose peeled for anything’s approach.
Maybe a mier, Stanton finished his “meal” and looked at TJ, who id coiled in the middle of the road while his eyes felt heavier and heavier.
“You doJ asked.
“For now.” Stanton replied. “I’m huhan a bear in the spring, but I better move before I eat anything else.”
“Fine by me. you carry your pack or should I take it for now?”
“Better you, for now. Maybe in an hour or so I heal myself enough to carry my own gear. Sorry.”
“It’s better that you’re still alive. Taking another backpack is nothing pared to carrying you the four miles.”
“Probably closer to five.”
“... Shit.” TJ quietly cursed as he shifted back to his human form. Befrabbing their gear, he idly massaged his feet for a minute while looking around. There hadn’t been any pukwudgies, coyotes, snakes, or even lizards in the past nearly two hours, and he was feeling antsy. Even so, nothing appeared, and TJ strapped his pa and adjusted Stanton’s to sit on his stomastead of his back. Then, with his feet ag but not ihanks to his massive Vitality, Endurance, and Toughness attributes, TJ resumed walking onward.
With Stanton walking, they couldn’t go as fast as TJ had managed when carrying everything and everyone, but they made much more sistent progress as they tinued walking for half an hour. Every five minutes or so, TJ had turo ask if Stanton wao stop, but after the sed question, Stanton had shot him a death gre so potent that TJ’d stopped asking any questioirely.
At the thirty minute mark, though, Stanton’s face had gone pale and, with s down his face, he’d requested a stop. TJ activated Diviransformation as he went first to the ree, sg out any potential threats, but seeing nothing. There was no st or indication of any potentially threatening creature being nearby, so TJ gestured for Stanton to approaow cleared to approach, the old man didn’t hesitate to lean against the tree and begin to take some of its vitality for his own.
TJ kept an eye on the surroundings and the other on Stanton. Though he was a stubborn, tough old man who had magi his side, he wasn’t rec as quickly as TJ had expected. For the first time in horse, his mind was clear enough to think to ask the System a question. In a hushed whisper, he did as much.
“It’s been this long, about 2 hours, and Stanton hasn’t recovered as much as I’d expect. Why?”
The System will not provide specififormatiarding another Partit’s physical, mental, emotional, spiritual, divine, or other wellbeing. If you have any questions for another Partit, you must ask them or acquire a Skill that would allow you to access that information in some other way.
He fought not to roll his eyes. “What kinds of ditions or afflis are there that might impede the natural recovery of a Partit? Does HP recovery ge if someone’s currently hurt?”
on Afflis such as Crippled, Maimed, Septic, Cursed, Poisoned, and Blighted, as well as more unon Afflis and most Afflis causing stant HP drain serve to slow or even cease ehe natural HP recovery offered by the Vitality attribute. Certain severe injuries will also cause an individual to suffer from any number of multiple on Afflis.
TJ felt a surge of gratitude that he’d never even feared getting any of those more exotic sounding Afflis, much less suffered from them. Also, a part of him mentally thaanton for the idea that his wounds might go septic, sihat was a on enough occurrence for it to merit its own “on Affli” title.
“What Afflis do you have right now? You’re not healing as fast as I feel like you should.”
Stanton stayed silent for a time, but TJ didn’t ask again. If the injured old goat needed some sileo tinue healing himself, TJ wouldn’t tierrupting it. Two or so mier, Stanton finally replied as he easily rose to his feet.
“Called it ‘maiming’, localized to the iines. You don’t want to kly what it did, but it kept me from healing anywhere near as much as I should.”
“You’re looking great now, though. You finally level up in Druid?”
A grunt. “We should be able to make it pretty fast now.”
“Sure hope so.” TJ replied as he gratefully kicked Stanton’s backpack over to the now healthy older man.
“Now listen here.” Stanton protested, his eyes abze. “I packed that special, and there’s good stuff in there. If you break it because you’re being zy, you won’t o worry about any damned goblins houls or whatever else. I’ll kill you first!”
The angry rant tinued, but TJ didn’t pay it any mind. Instead, he stepped forward aled his own pack more fortably around his back while looking for any movement in the forest. After all, it’d been long enough without seeing anything that it was almost worse that there wasn’t anything ambushing them right now. That would at least reduce the tension. Disregarding whatever he wahough, only the rustling trees and the grumpy man’s grumbles answered his nervous observations of the world surrounding them. Stanton didn’t take long to prepare himself a off at a quick walk towards their destination.
As they tio walk down the mountainous highway and around one of the dozens of bends in the road, Stanton perked up and pointed. “That there is Pine.”
Looking over the precipitous drop at the edge of the road, TJ was the town. Several thousand homes, at most, with the single “main” road crossing through being the highway itself. No stoplights in sight, and TJ imagihere wouldn’t be oher.
“Straight shot there through the forest.” Stanton mused. “Probably cut half a mile off our jouro gh the trees instead of on the road.”
“And you’d get stabbed again.” TJ gaped at the foolish man. “Are you stupid or something? We see them ing on the road, and we’ve still got an hour and a half before su begins to be a problem.”
Stanton chuckled. “It was a test, I guess. Just seeing if you were gonna rush.”
“No, that’d be stupid. You do have enough MP to refill Suzie at this point, but that’ll probably be all we’ve got until we get to town. Irees, you’ll be more a liability than you are on the road with wide open shots.”
“I get it. Drop it.”
TJ shook his head and tinued walking onward. Even at this brisk walk to preserve Stanton’s feet, they’d make the couple of miles left in an hour at most, getting into town just before the beginning of su. Nothing to do but to tiheir path. With their goal in sight, TJ couldn’t help but feel a pit in his stomach begin to form with each step. Surely they couldn’t reach their goal without any additional roadblocks. TJ wasn’t sure if it was worse if he thought that nothing would happen or something terrible would. On the one hand, the universe seemed to enjoy kig people in the balls whehought that everything was going to be alright. Oher, it also seemed to love making your worst fears e true. Like your wife dying and leaving you a siher in a job you hate. For example.
With a force of effort, TJ wrehese thoughts from his mind and ihought about and observed what was around them. The wind wasn’t as loud, though TJ felt that it was still excited to have someoo talk to. How he thought that he could uand the i of the wind was beyond him, but he could turn into a snake, maybe he could uand the damned wind.
And just when he felt like he could uand the wind, it whispered to him that there was something in front of them. Something bad. TJ stretched out his awareness, trying to uand whatever it was that it was saying to him, but he couldn’t pce it. He looked out, and saw nothing. Nothing but the faint shimmers of pukwudgies. Dozens of them. With coyotes. And more ing from their fnks in the forest.
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