Chapter 5

  “Come on over then missy,” Max said, motioning for me to come closer to the counter, "I won’t bite,” he winked, in the creepy way only old men could, and smiled, “unless you ask.”

  Revulsion filled my mouth, and I shuddered as I walked near him. A part of me wanted to leave, right then and there. I could nope out of this shop, and find someone else. Surely, to give me a gauntlet. And yet, that would cause a scene, and at the very least, the Mayor seemed, mostly respectful. I figured I could get this over with the quickest if I just ignored the creep, and moved things right along.

  "Last thing to try and take a bite out of me," I said as I reached the counter, “got it’s teeth knocked clean out.” I said it with a sweat smile, which grew as I saw the smirk fall off Max’s face. He grumbled under his breath I couldn’t quite catch, but stayed quiet as the Mayor walked up beside me.

  “As you can see Max,” the Mayor slapped me on the back in a friendly manner, “I think Taylor’s a good fit for our world. I’ve no doubt she has what it takes to be the savoir we need.”

  “And I say you’re just a hopeful optimist,” Max said, not looking me in the eyes as he rumbled beneath the counter. His earlier excitement was all gone. Seemed he was all bark and no bite, and that was completely fine with me. “Still don’t see how you resistance folk can actually believe the Disciples will be defeated. Especially what with Liz at the lead.”

  “Liz?” I asked, looking at the Mayor while Max took his sweet time looking for whatever it was he needed. I kept hearing the sound of stones crashing together, and random metal cranks twisting. What was he doing?

  “It’s what some folk call the leader of the Disciples. Her first name is Elizabeth, you see, and—”

  “—you know that ain’t why we call her that.” Max correct, from below. “It’s ‘cuz of her Mun preferences.”

  I cocked my head to the side as I looked at the Mayor. He let out a heavy sigh, “it’s both, and you know it.” He said, before he looked at me sheepishly. “Her first name is Elizabeth. But she also has a perchance for lizard based Mun, to the point well… she’s got the nickname Liz the Lizard.”

  Max muttered something else, and I could have sworn it sounded quite close to ‘monster fucker’. But, I ignored it. None of this was my concern. I just wanted my gauntlet, so I could get around to capturing and taming Mun. The world, it’s problems, and Liz, weren’t my issue.

  “Here it is,” Max stood, holding in his hand a grey stone about the size of a quarter. He beamed happily as he held it out to me. “One Tamer’s Gauntlet.”

  I looked at it, apprehensively. “This… is a Tamer’s Gauntlet?”

  “You really haven’t told her anything, have you Bill?” The shopkeeper shook his head, “this is a storage crystal. Practically everything in our world can be turned into a crystal and stored. Special properties of matter in our dimension and all that fancy magic talk. Best you need to know is only thing that can’t be stored in a crystal, is us humans.”

  “Do I want to know why?” I asked hesitantly. I’d been mid horror movie thought about people capturing humans and storing them in crystals, forcing them to fight in some strange, twisted version of a monster battler. And while his words removed that fear, it still caused my to question things.

  Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  “Because we ain’t originally from this world either, far as the stories go.” Max said with a shrug. “Ancestors long, long ago found Mutopia. So we ain’t connected to the planet’s core like everything else, and therefore,” he flipped the stone into the air, the crystal gleaming, my eyes following it, “we can’t be stored in these stones.”

  As it fell, he caught it, “which arm’s your dominant one?”

  “My right,” I answered quickly.

  “Give me your left then,” I did as he said, wondering if that was why most, but not all people had the gauntlets on their left hands. Were they linked to your nondominant hand? It definitely would make sense.

  Max set the crystal atop the back of my palm, and pushed. I flinched, expecting the stone to like, cut into my skin, or for some magic to flare up, filling me with pain like when I’d been transferred into the world. Instead, the crystal melted away, flowing like liquid all around my hand and wrist, shimmering in a warm, glowing light.

  Slowly, the light took shape, until my entire left hand, and then up my forearm just past the wrist, a gauntlet appeared. It felt like it was made of some strange mixture of leather and silk, extremely soft against the skin, thin feeling, almost like it wasn’t there, and yet durable.

  I moved my fingers, marveling at the fact I hadn’t lost any dexterity, and noted the five empty gem spots on my knuckles. Atop my hand proper, there was the same, empty spot for a larger gem, and, surrounding my wrist, where normally a bracelet would be worn, was the back of the gauntlet, with it’s six spots for the Mun crystals.

  “And there you have it,” Max said, grinning, “fits like a glove.” The man laughed at his joke, while the Mayor and I just groaned.

  Max reached under his counter and pulled out what looked like a leather leg satchel. The type I’d seen in a variety of action movies or medieval shows. The badass assassin type ones, though this one was a dull brown leather, and much less sleek and appealing.

  “You’ll be needing this too,” he set it on the counter. “It can hold a hundred item crystals inside, and all you gotta do is think about what you want from it, as you reach inside.” He unzipped it, to show me that the inside was just pure darkness. “More of the strange magic of our world. It’s made from the hide of a special Mun, that has the ability to store things magically within itself. Quite handy, to say the least, though it’s the cheap basic model.” He pushed it over, “heard tale ones in proper cities can even hold up to a thousand crystals.”

  I looked at the Mayor, who nodded for me to take it. I did so, and began fitting it to my left leg, trying to get used the new accessory that adorned my left hand.

  “Is this permanent?” I asked as unclasped the satchel and wrapped it around my thigh, pulling the bands snug into place. “The gauntlet, that is.”

  “You can make the glove itself retract if you wanted, but you have to remove your set crystals first.” The Mayor answered.

  “Right proper pain,” Max grumbled, “so most folk don’t bother.”

  I wrapped the strap of the thigh bag around my waist, feeling it settle in a comfortable way across my hips. All in all, this felt about as close to the start of any and every stereotypical monster taming game I’d ever played, minus being offered a choice of starting companions.

  “So, considering I don’t have any…” I trailed off, looking at Max.

  “You just imagine it disappearing, and it will.” He said simply. “It’s a part of you now, it’ll respond to your thoughts,” he waved his hands to the side, palms outwards, “like magic.”

  I did as he said, and sure enough, the cloth slid up my skin, tucking itself into the six slotted portion on my wrist. Neat.

  “If you’re done,” the Mayor said, looking from my hand, to my satchel, and then my face, “how about we go get you your first Mun?”

  I turned my back on Max so fast as I headed towards the door, excitement fueling my every step. “What are we waiting for?” I asked, halfway to the door before I noticed the Mayor was in the process of passing some crystals to Max. Payment, perhaps, for everything?

  He looked up at my words, smiling kindly. “Absolutely nothing,” he nodded to Max, and headed to join me. “Let’s go Taylor, and get you started on your Tamer’s journey.”