Dinosaurs! (Forger of Worlds Book 3) Page 2

  “When are you going to come back?” Zemia inquired with just a hint of concern. “Don’t do anything to get hurt. The Amorphie still require your assistance.” Her mischievous eyes met mine then. “I still require your assistance.”

  “Ah, when he has me around him, he won’t get hurt. Right, my liege?” Gobta, the Hobgoblin King I’d also killed and resurrected as my eternal servant, smacked me on the back.

  “Right.” I grinned at him before turning back to Zemia. “We will be back the moment we figure out a way to mine the ore beneath the ocean effectively, if not sooner.” I sighed. “That’s why we have to go back, so our resident genius can think.” I gestured at Jodie, who was busy filling her face, very messily I might add, with pancakes, “Because, in her own words, she’s the best engineer in the universe even when she’s drunk.” I cupped my hand beside my mouth before lowering my voice conspiratorially. “But, between you, me, and the cat, I think she’s better when she’s sober.”

  “I will stab you with my fork,” Jodie mewled at me before putting her head down. “I can’t help it if the drinks here are so good. You don’t even feel like you’re drinking, and the next thing you know, everyone looks like whales in tutus.”

  “Right. Which is why we need to get back.” I paused and glanced around at my friends. “Plus, it’ll be nice to take a second. We’ve still got a lot of shit to do if we want to defeat Zaxcs.”

  “And you should go do it,” Elephelie said as she came and put a care package full of pancakes on the table in front of me. “We won’t keep you any longer.”

  Zemia looked at her sister Elephelie. “Actually, there is one more thing we wouldn’t mind showing you before you go.”

  “Oh?” I asked as I looked at the pair who seemed to be doing some kind of silent sister communication thing.

  The princesses then turned their attention to me and nodded. “Follow us,” they said in unison.

  “I’m going to sit this one out.” Jodie looked over us. “Oh, and I will need Hudson.”

  “Which one?” I asked her. “Gobta’s or mine?”

  Hudson was the High Priest of the Amorphie who was now also my servant because, well, you know the drill. The thing was, my power sort of recreated the person out of Aura, and Gobta could reanimate a zombie. So, in this particular instance, there were actually two Hudsons.

  “Yours, not Gobta’s minion,” she responded with a wave of her hand. “Gobta’s one is busy doing boring town building stuff.”

  “On that note,” Gobta said as he looked at me. “If you don’t mind, I’d like to do some final training with my Hudson before we leave.” He smacked his chest. “He is the founding member of the G-Unit, after all, and is the one we will leave behind to protect this place while we’re gone. He should be stronger.”

  “Sounds fine.” I nodded to them. “Do whatever you think is best.”

  After leaving them all to their own tasks, Queenie and I followed Zemia and Elephelie into the wilderness beyond the edge of the village, and as I looked around, I realized I had no idea where we were going. While I wasn’t worried about predators or anything, especially since Gobta had long ago cleared the immediate area of enemies, I still found myself scanning the sea trees for monsters.

  “Where are we going?” I asked after we’d traveled for several minutes, and I hadn’t seen anything beyond dense foliage. “It all looks pretty much the same.”

  “We’ll be there soon enough,” Zemia answered me. I wasn’t nervous. I trusted them, but I was curious.

  “Master asked you a question.” Queenie glared at the Princess of Night. “He’s clearly uneasy about whatever this is, and that makes me worry for his safety.”

  “It’s okay, Queenie.” I smiled at her. “If it’s a surprise, I’d like to find out about it when they’re ready to show me.” I looked around curiously. “It’s more that I’ve never been to this area, so…”

  “I understand your concern for your master, Queenie, but I assure you, he will come to no harm.” Elephelie smiled at Queenie and me. “And we will be there soon.”

  “I’m keeping an open mind.” Queenie didn’t quite glare at Elephelie, but she also didn’t not glare either. “For now.”

  “We’re not that far off,” Zemia said as we approached a sea tree much larger than the others. “We just need to go to the top.” Then, without another word, she began to climb it.

  “Do we really need to climb it?” I asked as I watched Zemia disappear into the foliage above

  “Of course,” Elephelie said as she gestured for me to go ahead of her. “You’ve gotta go up to go down.” Then she winked at me.

  “Go down?” I raised an eyebrow at her.

  Instead of answering, she just smiled sweetly at me, which made me even more curious, so I grabbed onto the handholds I’d seen Zemia use and made my way to the top.

  Zemia was waiting for me at the top when I arrived, perched in what looked like a tree hut thingy that had been built into the branches. As I climbed into the hut and stared out at the ocean, I realized this particular spot of ocean seemed less rough than the waters near the village where we’d been before.

  “Like what you see?” Zemia asked as she came over to me.

  “Honestly, I think I’ve reached my limit on oceans for a little while.” I shot her a congenial smile. “Where I come from, it’s mostly dry land.”

  “I can’t even imagine a place like that,” Zemia replied as Queenie and Elephelie clambered onto the platform. Unsurprisingly, Queenie had just flown up here rather than climbed, and honestly, I didn’t blame her.

  “Well, maybe I’ll get to take you there sometime.” My words, for some reason, made the princess blush.

  “I would like that,” Zemia said as she walked to the edge of the tree hut. “Just remember, cross your arms and keep your legs in tight, say ‘Wetv-reaxctr,’ and aim for the green spot.”

  “What?” I asked, but instead of answering, Zemia jumped high into the air before plummeting into the ocean below.

  Her pencil dive perfectly hit a green spot in the middle of the water that I hadn’t noticed before. A moment later, she’d completely disappeared from view, and I turned to look at her sister.

  “What was tha--?”

  Elephelie went flying off right behind her sister and hit the green spot down below in the water before also vanishing beneath the surf.

  I looked at Queenie, and she looked quizzically back at me.

  “Master, that is unusual.” She bit her lip as thoughts twinkled in her multifaceted eyes. “I will go first. After all, we know the water here is often filled with danger and you… cannot be replaced.”

  “I think it will be okay,” I said as I stared at the ocean. “If the princesses can do it, how dangerous could it be? They aren’t warriors in their culture, so I doubt there are any evil fish monsters down there.”

  “That is a fair point, master,” Queenie mused. “But what if it is not safe? It will be better if I go first to scout, and then if something happens, you can resummon me. As unnecessary as Gobta is sometimes, he is continuously right in reminding us of that fact whenever we encounter some peril.”

  “Normally, I’d agree with you, Queenie,” I smiled at the Ant Queen, “but I think they know what they are doing. If they can survive it, I’ll be fine.” I smirked. “Besides, it looks kind of fun.”

  “Of course, Master.” She nodded. “Whatever you say is undisputed. I do wish you would be careful, though. I couldn’t stand the thought of not being by your side.”

  “Thank you, Queenie. I’ll be fine,” I assured her. “And hey, for what it’s worth, I couldn’t imagine not having you by my side either.” Queenie beamed brightly at me. “Stay back here and keep an eye out. I’ll be fine.” I gave her a kiss on the forehead. “I’ll see you on the other side, I guess.”

  “Good luck, master.” The Ant Queen shot me an awkward thumbs up, and for a moment, I wondered where she’d seen that gesture since she’d never used it
before.

  “Thanks.” I stood up and balanced carefully on the ledge of the tree hut.

  This was kind of wild. I’d kind of always wanted to sky dive. Interplanetary space travel can be fun as hell, but something about leaping off into empty space seemed freeing to me like there was something exciting about just letting go and plunging off.

  “Uhhhhh…” I thought about the words that the princesses had given me and looked for the little green spot to aim for. Man, did it look a lot smaller than it had a minute ago? It looked like I was firing at a shrinking target. I closed my eyes for a moment.

  “Wetv-reaxctr.”

  I held my arms in an X tightly against my chest, like I was on the launchpad about to hurtle into space, and jumped.

  SPLOOOOOOOSH!

  I smashed into the water with reckless abandon, gravity playing out its natural course.

  GURGLE--

  GURGLE…

  I kept my eyes closed as water went rushing past me. I felt myself in a sort of tube, like I was on a waterslide or something, being shuttled down. Suddenly, I came flying out into a clearing. I felt myself briefly not submerged, and then my ass landed on something semi-hard. It was sturdy enough to have some give so I wouldn’t break anything from the fall but not soft enough to keep me from feeling like I didn’t bruise a few things.

  When I opened my eyes, I saw the two princesses standing in the underwater sort of cavern lit with iridescent cave moss.

  “Well, thanks, gals, for telling me about that fun little ride,” I said as the two girls clambered over to help me.

  “Hey, I bet it’s your third favorite ride here,” Zemia said as she laughed at me.

  I laughed and then spit out a bunch of water. That took more out of me than I was ever going to let on. I laid back briefly and looked at the cave I was now in. The rock formations above me formed a cozy little dwelling, the stream that I had fallen into was unbelievably beautiful. The water was clear and clean. Like I said, unexploited.

  “This is a neat little spot.” I gestured at it. “But I thought you said that rock was rare here?”

  “Sure is.” Zemia smiled at me. “This is a sacred spot, so the rock can’t actually be taken from here.” She gestured at the wall where the striations were pretty dark. “It would be obvious that it came from our sacred place because this rock is unique to our family.”

  “Oh.” I took that in as I looked around. “Anything in particular that you brought me here for? Or did you just want to share in the view?”

  Elephiele walked over and wrapped her arms around me. “Actually, a little of both. Let’s enjoy each other’s company one last time.”

  “I don’t think we have time for that.” I laughed, but she only winked at me and took my arm as Zemia moved toward the far wall.

  We followed Zemia as she walked slowly over to the other side of the rocks, and as I got closer, I realized there were pictures carved into the rock. She traced her hands high up along the rocks and onto a series of engravings.

  “We were in here the other day and realized we wanted to show you these,” Zemia said with a smile. “They’re old. From long before our great-great-grandfather’s time.”

  “Those who came long before us, our ancestor's ancestors, are said to have drawn these.” Elephelie moved next to her sister. “But we would be curious to hear your thoughts on them.”

  I looked up at the drawings against the wall. Stars were drawn above a singular figure holding a very familiar looking sword, and he stood on top of a red circle. It looked to depict a planet, I think. A depiction of a swarm of ants encircled the red planet with one larger ant above the shoulder of the figure.

  Hmm.

  “Garrett, do you recognize the sword?” Zemia looked at me intensely. “It looks like the one we’ve seen you use in battle.” She pointed to the design on the sword carved there. “That is the same design as the one on your weapon as well as on the new glove you got.”

  She was right, of course. As my eyes turned toward the Hand of the Destroyer King I was now wearing, I couldn’t help but wonder what was going on because the symbols did match. Sure, I’d obviously known about the legends of the Destroyer King, and hell, I’d even gotten a piece of gear here, so that was only mildly interesting.

  No, what was more interesting were the ants.

  And the bigger ant.

  And the red planet.

  Because part of me wondered if maybe, just maybe, that ant was Queenie? And that red planet… could it be Ares?

  “And this is old?” I asked the two princesses. “Like, you guys aren’t playing a trick on me?”

  “Very.” Zemia nodded. “It is the oldest thing our family possesses.”

  “Are there any stories?” I asked as I committed every detail of the cave drawing to memory. “You know, about this?”

  “No.” Elephelie shook her head. “Those have been lost generations ago.”

  “Right…” I pondered it for a moment before pinging Queenie over the link. “Have you seen this before?” I sent the image to her.

  “No, master.” I felt her shake her head. “Should I have?”

  “I dunno.” I chuckled. “I just don’t know anything anymore.”

  “Master, perhaps you should try imitating the pose with your sword?” she offered, and I shrugged.

  “Good idea,” I said as I drew the Sword of The Destroyer King. The effect was instantaneous.

  The sword in my hand began to glow with blue light as did the one drawn on the wall, and then, for a brief, scintillating second, I saw the sword in my hand as it was meant to be. Not rusted and pitted and dulled, but pristine, with an edge that could slice a planet in two, and thrumming with so much power that sparks leapt off it.

  “Wow,” I mumbled as everything returned to normal.

  “Wow, indeed,” Zemia said as my eyes readjusted to the relative darkness of the cavern

  “That was amazing.” Elephelie turned to look at me. “How do you make your sword look like that again?”

  “I guess… I guess I need to fix it?” I shrugged. “I suppose time will tell.”

  And, of course, that’s when I got a quest prompt.

  You have completed a Hidden Quest: The Destroyer King’s Mantle Part Three, but are you worthy to carry the power of the Destroyer King? Only time will tell.

  4

  How did I fix the sword? What was the red circle in the picture? Why were there so many ants? Those were the questions that plagued me as I clambered back out of the ocean.

  “Master, how was it?” Queenie asked me as I emerged from the sea.

  “It was fine.” I shrugged. “I’m honestly not sure what to make of it.”

  “I think it means he needs to fix his sword,” Zemia said as she emerged from the water and came over to me.

  “Yeah, it looked really powerful in the cave,” Elephelie added as she swept some water from her brow with one hand.

  “Of course, he should fix his sword,” Queenie snorted. “My master needs to have pristine weapons and armor. Ones that truly befit his station.” She turned her attention back to the princesses. “By the way, what does the thing you had master say mean before you all jumped in the ocean?”

  They looked at each other and laughed before Zemia said, “I’m not really sure. It is a word from the ancient language. We just say it before big jumps and all…

  “Yeah, it’s just nonsense.” Elephelie giggled. “It’s all in the dive and hitting that little spot.”

  “So, like geronimo or something back on Earth.” I couldn’t help but smile at them. “That’s what we sometimes say when we jump off cliffs or into a big pool or something.”

  “Then, yes, it would be similar.” Zemia nodded. “Now, shall we head back?”

  “I think so.” I smiled at her. “Thanks for showing me the cave, by the way. It’s definitely one of those ‘more questions than answers’ things, but I appreciated it nonetheless.”

  “I am glad you enjoyed it,�
� Elephelie said as she and her sister took my hands and began to lead me back toward the village.

  It was time to leave this world. We had been here and accomplished all we could for now. The portal being open was proof of that.

  Sure, we’d return when Jodie figured out how to mine it, but that was a task for another day. There was still so much to do and learn, and I had to continue to gain experience so I could fuck up Zaxcs when he showed his face. If he had a face.

  I didn’t really know what he looked like in person. A video game was one thing, and even there, he’d always been a sort of shadowy, indistinct figure. Did he look like that in real life? Graphics had improved considerably, so maybe Terra Forma’s depiction of him was perfect. Either way, I still wanted to look up close at him and get a sense of him because his presence sort of hung over everything, and I’d always found that things were scarier when I couldn’t properly picture them. Not that picturing an indistinct shadowy figure was better.

  Also, it sort of didn’t matter what he looked like. Zaxcs was more of a future problem, and if I focused on him now, I’d go crazy. Instead, it would be better to focus on the things I had to do right now.

  Melanie, the buxom blonde catgirl scientist, had already gotten ahold of the Amorphie samples we’d sent her and was busily adapting them to Ares in her lab in the Halls of Research. Once that was done, I’d have to go to the planet and seed the life there like I had with the algae we’d used to convert the atmosphere into something breathable.

  We also needed to plant the dungeon core in a planet, and that too would take time, especially since the thing needed to be babysat until the dungeon was nearly totally done. If I just planted it in a planet and left, I risked it going all sorts of sideways.

  There was also the mining of this planet and helping the Amorphie get more technologically sound, which would be hard without fixing the mining problem first since they wouldn’t be able to level up the class of their planet until they established some substantial amounts of trade. Once that happened, we’d be able to procure items cheaper and easier from the Bazaar.