Plum Parrot

M17

Morgan pulled some animal skins out of his pouch and sat down on them. As he choked down some of the dry bread with generous amounts of water, he looked at Issa. She was sitting cross-legged in front of him, also crunching on the bread. It looked funny how she crunched the bread in the back of her mouth because she had a lot more sharp teeth than a human. He couldn’t help smiling, watching he...

B9

Bronwyn spent the next few days alternating between exhausted, amazed, and feeling anxiety-ridden. She was exhausted because she worked hard every day from pitch-dark-morning until late in the evening. She was amazed because of how things were taking shape: they’d constructed the wall and several dozen housing units that looked to Bronwyn like the base housing she’d lived in with her dad as...

B8

Needless to say, the forge’s construction, or rather unearthing, caused quite a stir and drew a large crowd. Bronwyn and Arthur were the first to enter, though they didn’t try to stop the curious onlookers who followed them into the structure to see what was going on. The building was a proper blacksmithing forge, complete with a massive, open furnace along one wall with a chain and pulley-...

M16

“Did your scroll give you an upgrade to your class selection?” Morgan asked Issa after he’d waved the notification away.

“It did! I’m only level eight, but I’m very excited. All the fighting we’ve done and challenges we’ve overcome, plus this upgrade reward? I should have some interesting selection options! At least a lot more than most of my people who just level up to 10...

M15

“I said this felt like a trap, dammit!” Morgan growled, adjusting his stance and holding his spear in a way that he just “knew” was a ready stance. Issa readied her rapier and looked around warily.

“Well, that was obvious, though,” she said, inadvertently showing her teeth. Seconds later, she pointed out into the rock field through which the road they’d traversed cut. Morgan...

M14

It turned out, Issa had explored quite a few of the nearby tunnels while looking for the Yovashi’s lair. It had taken her the better part of a day to find her way, having to stop, pull the cloak up and freeze in a corner whenever she heard the Yovashi or some other sound. It had been harrowing, wondering all the while if she’d be discovered and killed. She’d stumbled upon the stairwell le...

B7

Bronwyn stretched her neck, feeling it crack and smiling at the release of tension. The conversation with the crowd that had gathered while the Colony Stone established itself went better than she had anticipated. People were generally in a rather good mood, even with the attack that had happened last night. They’d received her explanation of why she was announced as the “leader” of the c...

B6

When Bronwyn stepped away from the monolithic Colony Stone, she saw Arthur Ballard and two others walking up the hill from the gathered crowd. They were obviously coming to talk to her; she had known he’d come when she realized how large the obelisk was growing and when it started making such a spectacle with steam and golden lights, but she hadn’t known there’d be a System announcement. ...

M13

Golden motes began to coalesce on the corpse of the Yovashi. Morgan could see that they were larger than the motes on other creatures he’d killed and more numerous. They swirled around, forming three distinct streams, the widest flooding toward Morgan, another nearly as large flowing to Issa, and a final, thin stream swirling toward Darran. Morgan braced himself as the influx of Energy slamme...

M12

Morgan lay, staring into the darkness for a long time. Once, he stirred, doubting he had ever heard a voice, and it came again, just a soft breath saying, “Shhhh.” He couldn’t be sure, but he thought he recognized a hint of Issa’s voice in the admonishment, so he lay back down, and he continued to wait. He let his mind drift, and he suddenly thought of his ring. He could feel it resting...

M11

The stairs seemed interminable. Morgan and Issa had to stop and rest after climbing for a couple of hours. There were no lanterns, and the stone steps and wall seemed the same, no matter how high they climbed. After the first twenty minutes or so, the light down the middle of the stairwell from the burning oil faded into darkness, and then it truly became impossible to mark their progress. Morg...

B5

Arthur Ballard was not a difficult man to find. Bronwyn asked around to a few colonists and found him delegating tasks not far from where the attack had been on the eastern side of the camp. As Bronwyn approached his camp, she realized that, while she had been busy rushing to gain the lead, Arthur had been organizing the entire camp. What she thought had been just a massive jumble of tents actu...

B4

The Yeksa were not difficult to follow; they made no attempts to cover their tracks. Bronwyn found she could easily spot the winding path ahead of her, as it glowed red with their residual energy. She headed deeper and deeper into the forest. She estimated that she had been running for about a mile at this point and had seen no sign of the other captives. However, she knew she was on the right ...

M10

At the base of the iron brazier, nearly obscured by the shadows cast by the flickering red flames above it, sat a small, dark, metal chest. Morgan whistled and walked over to it. “That rat bastard must have been curled around it when we first came in.”

Issa nodded, walking over closer to Morgan, “Thank you for not leaving me with that thing, Morgan. You could have escaped while it w...

M9

The first thing Morgan checked was whether any of the dead Urghat in the room had a dimensional bag similar to the one he was wearing. He struck out on the first two, but the third guy, the one that had mauled his shoulder, had a leather case, longer and narrower than his,l with a strap, kind of like an old leather book bag. It was worked with runes that looked similar to the ones on his belt p...

M8

Morgan led the way through the doorway, which opened into a wide, stone hallway. Rather than the carved stone of the level below, this tunnel was made from tight-fitting stone blocks. Just a few feet from the doorway was an alcove highlighted with lantern light. In the alcove were a small wooden table and a crude wooden chair. As they grew nearer, Morgan could see that the table held a short ru...

B3

Adrenaline and pain jerked Bronwyn out of a deep sleep as she was physically pulled out of her tent by her ankle. In the dim morning light, she could see a large, orange-furred, wolf-like creature. Her left foot was wholly engulfed inside of its jaw as it pulled. She lashed out with her right heel, trying to stomp it down on the creature's snout. Her kick connected, and it yelped out in pain, d...

B2

After about five minutes, Bronwyn had the leather armor equipped. It wasn’t anything too fancy, just a leather vest, pants, and boots. The leather was a dark brown, and the buckles were made of a sturdy grey-green metal she didn’t recognize. It fit her perfectly and was fairly light. She felt like she hadn’t lost any range of motion. “One slight issue,” she sighed as she tied her curl...

M7

The stonework around the spiral stone stairway was different from that in the tunnels or even the area where Morgan first came into the Crucible. The blocks were uniform and fit together closely, with no apparent mortar. The lanterns gave off enough light to see the steps clearly and quite a way up the stairwell. The stairwell itself was a pretty impressive feat of engineering. The steps were u...

M6

“It’s not really a big deal, Issa. I don’t know what kind of a person could leave someone to be eaten alive by some cannibalistic freaks.” Morgan smiled as he stood up, the red gemstone hanging from his wrist on the chain. Huh, did he wrap the chain around his wrist like that?

“That necklace has a strong aura, Morgan. Be careful with it until you learn more about it. Anyway, you...

M5

It dawned on Morgan that he had more points available than some of his total abilities. He should probably allocate those soon, but he wasn’t sure he knew the best way to do so. He was thinking about it when he realized his night vision was fading, and he was closing in on the lantern and Issa. “Morgan, are you all right?” Issa was leaning against the tunnel just as he’d left her, and h...

B1

The straw dummy burst into flame from Bronwyn’s spell. “Bleh, this is the shittiest tutorial I’ve ever had to do,” she grumbled to no one but herself. If it weren’t for the fact that this was real, that she was really wielding magic, she would have run out of patience long ago. No self-respecting VR developer would have allowed this unimaginative tutorial to go through publishing.

M4

The woman’s large, amber eyes widened in fear as Morgan pulled the cloth away, and she struggled to writhe away from him. He held his hands out and, keeping his voice low and calm, said, “Easy, I’m not going to hurt you. I just want to help you get out of those ropes.” Her eyes darted around, but she seemed to stop panicking as she nodded quickly. Morgan reached forward, “I’m going ...

M3

“What the fuck?” Morgan groaned as an unseen lock on the door clicked, and it silently swung open. There was evidently more light outside the room than in because Morgan could see a flickering amber glow outlining the gap between the door and the wall. He wanted to look through the opening and see what was beyond, but he also wanted to know just what the hell was going on with himself. Some...

M2

Morgan felt like he’d been on a week-long bender. His head was throbbing, and his stomach groaned like an angry abyss. Blearily, he pried open his dry, crusty eyelids and looked around. For a few moments, he was stricken with confusion - was he on the floor of his bathroom? Wait, that wasn’t right; he was on board the Pilgrim 9. No, that wasn’t right either - there weren’t tile...

M1

The massive ship shuddered from another blast of the Bussard drive as it steadily decelerated on its approach into the Tau Ceti system. Sifting through the long-range sensor array data, Noah-9 dedicated a tiny fraction of his processing power to simulate a nearly perfect approximation of a human frown. There had to be an error – physics generally wouldn’t allow for a non-gaseous planet this...