Chapter 14 [Don’t Worry | Kyle]

Kyle hardly had time to read the notifications that Iroh was relaying, but he managed to get the gist of it. Somehow, his daughter had instantly shot up to the second Semi-Stage in Stage One. Worried that something had slipped past his wife, he’d been prepared to plow through the small army of Slimes like an all-star linebacker, but when he looked at the hill Leah and Maeve were calmly walking along the slope, bending over to pick up something he couldn’t see from so far out. It only took him a moment to piece together what had happened.

That clumsy youngin, he’d thought ruefully as he went back to flattening Slimes. That had been nearly three hours prior and killing the things had become second nature at this point, and he was tearing through them faster than ever while losing very little Health. The numbers between himself and Leah had begun thinning drastically after he took out the last of the Stage Threes. With only a bunch of Ones and Twos left, it was just a matter of kicking them all to the side and collecting the Cores while making a path for the kids to walk through.

Gettin’ close to mid-afternoon. I reckon we’ll make it ‘fore nightfall. Kyle took a break from killing the small creatures and looked back at the entrance to the Domain. In seconds his bare feet and legs were covered in the grimy creatures—greedily trying to absorb the innards of their own kind clinging to his skin and the surrounding ground. He ignored them.

After hitting Stage Four, the things couldn’t even burn the hair from his skin. That wasn’t to say they couldn’t damage him… it just took a while. With his current build, it took ages for the acid to take effect—to be exact, nearly fifteen seconds for Stage One Heat Slimes and five seconds for Stage Two. The other types took longer.

One… two… three… Kyle took a few seconds to count the larger Slimes closer to the entrance. He’d pushed his way to a center point of the holler around what he considered the enemy’s twenty-five-yard line before working his way back to the hill. Some of the ground he’d cleared had already been filled with new, lower Stage Slimes, but he could hardly bring himself to worry about those. It was the larger ones that had his attention.

Gots to be at least a dozen o’ them that’re taller’n me now. Three dozen o’ them that look like Stage Four. How the blazes’re all these here lil’ ones still around. Only way they’re gettin’ bigger is from eatin’ each other. It ought to be that there are less o’ the lil’ ones, not more. Iroh, yer sure noneo’ the other critters can grow this fast, right?

Ain’t no way Humans can handle anythin’ stronger’n these here beasties if’n they can. Ain’t no sinner worse fer greed an’ gluttony than me at this point, yet I ain’t even hit the first Semi-Stage in Stage Four. If’n I’d brought the whole damned neighborhood to split it even-like, only a few folks’d just now be hittin’ Stage Three. Look at all ‘em Stage Fives. Tier One my ass. These here critters gotta be the most dangerous species out there.

[I’m sorry to disappoint you again, Kyle. I just don’t have the answers you seek. What I’ve told you is all that I know. Perhaps more will come to light once the transition period has ended. Just a hair over 5 hours to go. We may also find answers within the Domain. Oh… Hoho! It seems your daughter has tried to assign points again. And in a different way from last time. How amusing!]

Kyle chuckled and glanced at his daughter’s new ‘build’ idea on the page that had appeared during all the drama. This time, she was requesting permission to put alleleven AP into Vitality. The last time it had been two points in everything, and the time before that had been Vigor and Intuition.

Less than a hunnerd o’ these small Slimes between us now. A few more’n the guts o’ them poor Slimes Leah’s smackin’ around’ll be hittin’ me in the face. Odin help me. How much o’ them Attributes has she put into Force? Anywhos, I’mma need to give Maeve a lil’ talkin’ after these here’re all mopped up.

He reached down and plucked off a Mire Slime that had made it to his knee before throwing it at a Heat nearby, causing a few points of damage to both. It only took half a minute to free himself, then he resumed smashing, determined to finish this lot and talk with Leah about all he’d learned.

Being in a hurry as he was, and with there being so few Slimes in the area, he began ignoring the Cores—there wouldn’t be any critters left to absorb them soon, anyway. Leah—being within talking distance at this point if they spoke loud enough—noticed this change and started swinging her baton faster than before, also leaving the dropped Essence Cores. Between the two of them, the last of the annoying varmints collapsed in a heap only a half hour later.

“Well, look at you!” Kyle grinned and could hardly contain the excitement in his voice as he spoke. “Here I was thinkin’ we’d be meetin’ somewhere’s in the middle an’ you done pushed almost to the fifty-yard line. What’s yer damage with that there stick, now? Thirty-five? Forty? Gots to be as much as mine, at least! An’ the way them jugs is jigglin’ when ya swing it?” He put his fingers to his lips and made a motion. “Mwah! Chef’s kiss.”

He almost didn’t see Leah’s cheeks turn red under the mess that covered her face, but his grin widened when he noticed. This ol’ boy’s still got it.

“Oh, shut up! What if Maeve heard you?” she asked.

“C’mon, now, Leah.” Kyle laughed. “She’s still sittin’ on that hill o’er yonder. She can’t hear.”

Leah sighed. Some of the color faded, but not entirely before she flashed him a sly grin. “As for your question… I’m up to forty-three.”

“Damn, girl.” Kyle held his hands up, backed away, then forced himself to look as serious as possible while placing a hand over his heart. “I promise I ain’t gonna do nuttin’ to piss ya off. Just don’t take a swing at me. I ain’t ready to see what’ll happen if I hit zero Health.”

Leah scoffed and rolled her eyes. “Of course, you’d make a joke about it. Couldn’t you be just a little bit jealous that your wife can hit harder than you?”

“What’s the fun in that?” Kyle asked, then waved to Maeve, who was jumping up and down excitedly on the hill, flailing her arms. “How’s ‘bout we go an’ get the youngins? Move ‘em a bit closer ‘fore we clean up the rest. Don’t worry ‘bout the Cores here—we can gather ‘em up on our way back.”

“Did you know that she—” Leah started to ask, but Kyle had already flipped to the Overseer Page and mentally prodded Iroh to float over so Leah could see. “Oh. Thank the gods. I told her not to mess with anything, but I just knew she’d get bored and start playing with it anyway.”

“Ya wasn’t wrong.” Kyle chuckled and indicated the multiple requests. “Girl’s done sent me ‘bout half a dozen.”

“Better you than me…” she replied, then trailed off at the end. Kyle looked down from the page and saw Leah staring at his legs with pain in her eyes—which then traced his wounds up to his arms, which had been bicep deep in the higher Stages multiple times. “Kyle… You can’t keep…” She sighed, then gave him a forced smile. “What are you doing? Letting the damned things eat you?”

“Aww, ya ain’t gots to feel like that.” Kyle put one of his scarred arms around her shoulders, then pulled her into them so that they were walking side by side. He noticed she didn’t flinch away from the smell and smiled. She’s gettin’ used to it. That’s good. I don’t reckon things’ll get any better’n this any time soon.

He gave her a quick squeeze and continued, “I can take it. The big’uns still burn a bit, but these lil’uns here ain’t doin’ much o’ nuttin’.”

“If you say so…” Leah didn’t look convinced.

Kyle leaned over and gave her a kiss on the cheek, despite the thin layer of muck. He pulled his arm back and started clapping. “I said don’t worry… ‘bout a thang… ‘cause every lil’ thang… gonna be alright!”

“Oh, stop it…” Leah giggled and pushed him away playfully.

Kyle grinned and raised his voice, “Rise up this mornin’! Smile with the risin’ sun! Three lil’ birds!”

They reached the slope of the hill, which Maeve had sprinted down when they reached it. She jumped into Kyle’s arms, and he snatched her up and spun in circles, still singing, “This is my message to you-hoo-hoo! Singin’ don’t worry!”

He stopped when they got closer to Rowan, who was still passed out and oblivious to the goings-on around him. “Has yer brother moved at all, Maeve?”

“Nope!” The little girl shook her head. “Not once.”

“His Health is still full, an’ Iroh’s still insistin’ he’s fine,” Kyle assured his wife, catching the worried look she gave the boy. “Y’all were the same ‘fore the evolution’r whatever it is was o’er. Both o’ ya were still as the dead. Maybe if’n ya always slept like that I’d get some rest every now an’ agai—ow!”

Leah punched Kyle lightly on the shoulder, and he jokingly rubbed his arm like his wife had hurt him. She gave him a look before bending down and carefully scooping Rowan up—with much less effort than normal, Kyle noticed.

“I am notthat bad,” she said.

“Oh? Yer wakin’ me up every night with all yer movin’,” he replied, then waggled his eyebrows. “An’ all them noises ya make. What kinda dreams’ve ya got goin’ on that make me feel like I’m missin’ out? If’n me an’ yer toys ain’t quite doin’ it fer ya no more, we can always ask one o’ our ol’ girlfriends to—”

“Kyle!” Leah interrupted him, then cut her eyes to their daughter, who was listening intently.

“I thought toys were for kids?” Maeve asked.

“Ahh…” Kyle scratched his cheek and looked to the sky, then snapped his fingers. “That’s right! Maeve, ya ready to see yer reward?”

“Yes!”

“Nice save,” Leah muttered under her breath.

“Right… lemme just open this here…” He opened his Overseer Page and focused on one of the earliest notifications. “Ya sure ya want the garment an’ not the weapon?”

“Kyle!” his wife admonished him.

He shrugged. “I figure it’s better she has somethin’ than nothin’. If’n that’s what she wants. Somethin’ dangerous comes out, you can trade ‘er that stick o’ yers.”

“I know. I already told myself I’d be fine with whatever she chose, but it’s just hard to…” Leah sighed.

Kyle didn’t respond. He didn’t like it, either. For him, it wasn’t the idea of his daughter having a weapon, though. All his kids had shot his old .22 plenty of times at targets and gone hunting with their great-grandpa and uncle, so they’d been taught proper handling and respect for both the weapon and the lives it could take. What bothered him was picturing any of them having to kill or protect themselves with their bare hands.

Iroh… ain’t there any way to make her reward be a bow’r a slingshot’r somethin’? I ain’t gonna let ‘er get close ‘nuff to get hurt.

“I want a garment!” Maeve spoke up before Iroh could respond. “I hope it’s shoes!”

Worryin’ fer nothin’. There oughtta be somethin’ good fer her an’ Rowan in one o’ the shops.

He accepted the prompt, and there was a quiet pop as a box appeared from nowhere. Kyle reached out and barely managed to catch it before it fell on his daughter’s head. Ain’t no way the almighty System could let it pop up in front o’ ya instead o’ on top o’ ya?

The box wasn’t anything special—an old, wooden container with a simple brass latch that looked like it would fall apart at any moment. He placed it on the ground and gestured for Maeve to open it—which she did hurriedly… only for her excitement to fade once she saw what was stored within. She carefully pulled out two items and held them up to the light.

“A string? And are these… jammies?” she asked while turning them this way and that.

Kyle almost laughed. “Them there is lady’s undergarments.”

“Undergarments?”

“They ain’t always had yer lil’ panties with the cartoons on the front.” He kneeled next to her and took the short, baggy, off-white leggings. They were heavily stained, and the frills on the bottom were torn and falling apart. “Women used to wear these here under their dresses. Just yer size, too, by the looks o’ ‘em. Here, how’s ‘bout we get ‘em on ya so’s ya won’t get sick?”

Kyle held the waistband open while Maeve stepped into him, and he was surprised to see the crotch area was open instead of sewed together. While helping her tie the string around her waist to hold them up, he Appraised the item.

[Name | Children’s Worn Drawers]

[Tier | 0]

[Stage | 1]

[Description | A pair of undergarments good for most occasions. These may have been well-used, but they’re still holding together.]

[Protection | 2]

Protection..? That’s a new’n… Somethin’ like Resistance, maybe? Armor? He poked his daughter gently in the side, making her giggle. “There ya go, Littles. Yer lookin’ like a proper princess. How’s ‘bout we look fer a dress when we get to that cave o’er yonder?”

Maeve beamed. “Can I get a blue dress? Like Elsa?”

“Haha. As ya wish, little missy. If’n there’s one in there, then I’ll make it happen.” Kyle stood and grabbed her hand. “For now, yer momma an’ I need to get rid o’ the rest o’ them Slimes. ‘Fore we do, you an’ Rowan need to come closer so’s we can get to ya if somethin’ happens.”

“Maeve, you come with me. Your father needs to pack up those Cores you stacked for me, and I could use your help piling up the ones we haven’t picked up yet.” Leah nodded toward a massive pile of Cores about halfway up the slope. “That alright, Kyle?”

“Course it is, darlin’,” he answered quickly. “I’ll count ‘em up and be after ya shortly. Wanted to peek my head up o’er the top anyways an’ see what’s goin’ on.”

“Alright but hurry up.” Leah gestured for Maeve to follow and the two of them started toward the Domain. “There may be less Slimes over there compared to what we already cleared, but they don’t look as easy.”

“Won’t be but a minute,” Kyle called back, having already started jogging up the hill. “Can’t get to fightin’ ‘til I’ve told ya what those big’uns can do. Ain’t the same like fightin’ the lil’uns.”

No. It ain’t the same at all, he thought.