7 - Squeamish

[You have found [strength] essence. Would you like to absorb this [strength] essence? Warning, you may only absorb up to three essences. Once chosen, an essence cannot be replaced.]

No. No I did not want to take on a strength essence. I liked strong ladies, but that didn’t mean I wanted to be stronger myself. Ok, I liked strong men too, but usually only when it was combined with a himbo personality. Regular gym bros were kinda icky. Muscles were fun to look at, less so to create and maintain myself. All that to say, I was more than happy to hand this off to anyone else.

“It’s a strength essence. I don’t want it.” I told John.

His eyes lit up. “I do!”

“Yeah, well let’s wait for the others to see what they have to say. We all contributed toward the kill, so everyone has an equal claim to the essence. Fair?”

“Yeah,” John nodded his head reluctantly in agreement. “That’s fair. Do you think you could like clean it up first though?”

I rolled my eyes at him. I forgot how squeamish people could be. “Better get used to it. This is how we collect essence. And monster cores, which are probably valuable or something. Mara insists they are at least.” I muttered the last under my breath.

He still seemed pretty icked by my gore covered arm. I sighed, “I don’t have any way to wash anything off. My water is back in the car. Unless you brought some?” He dropped his eyes and shook his head. “Well, ok then.”

I picked up Ashley’s knife and stood up. We made our way back to the clearing the others were in. They hadn’t managed to make a very deep hole. They appeared to have used some sharp sticks and their hands. All of them were dirty and sweaty. It appeared to be deep enough though, because Ashley was pushing the bits from the driver into the hole as we walked into the clearing.

Mara and Oliver started scooping and pushing dirt back over the hole as soon as Ashley stepped back. Her hair was plastered to her forehead and face from sweat. I fought the urge to go over and swipe them away.

“Does anyone want a strength essence or can I have it?” John immediately asked. He was very singularly focused apparently.

“I don’t care,” Mara called back. Ashley and Oliver just shook their heads and waved him on.

John pumped his fist in the air. Then he caught sight of my bloody arm and went a little pale again. Because I’m not the nicest person, I held out the essence to him with a smirk on my face. “Here ya go,” I sing-songed.

“Ummmm…maybe I’ll wait until it’s a little uh cleaner.”

I let my arm fall to my side with a chuckle. I walked over to Ashley to return her knife with my thanks. I did not tell her how impressed I was with its sharpness and care.

“I see you were the one that had to get her hands dirty.” Ashley smirked at me, “It looks good on you.” Her eyes flicked up and down my figure.

I did not know how to take that. I’m not sure if she was flirting…it felt weird that it was about my blood covered body. I nodded at her and stepped away a little flustered.

Mara and Oliver finished covering the hole the driver had been placed in. Everyone stood up and brushed themselves off. Ashley left bloody handprints on her yoga pants. The juxtaposition was too much not to stare at for a few moments.

Without a word, we all headed back to the cars. Ashley once again took the lead, and John coated himself in metal. The return trip seemed much quicker than the original trip into the forest, and before long I was stepping out of the trees and onto the road.

Ashley rushed over to her truck and pulled out a large jug of water. She uncapped it and handed it to me when I got closer. “Here, I’ll help,” she offered.

I started slowly pouring water down my arm. A shock went through me at her touch, and I may have jumped a little. Ashley just smiled as she reached out and began scrubbing the blood from my skin under the water. Her hands rubbed down my arm, leaving a trail of goosebumps. I looked up from my bloody arm and caught her staring at my face. She quickly averted her gaze and I did my best to calm my racing heart. Because her staring at me shocked me. Anyone would be taken aback to look up and meet eyes they weren’t expecting. No other reason.

I washed the essence stone in my hand as well. When I finished it took Ashley another few moments to let go of my arm. It took much longer for my body to stop tingling from where she’d been touching me.

I handed John the cleaned strength essence, and he immediately set about absorbing it. I don’t know what I was expecting to happen. Maybe that he’d suddenly grow bulging muscles or something. But he finished a few seconds later looking exactly the same. Maybe his skin glowed a little more and there might have been fewer blemishes, but definitely no muscle growth.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

“Did it work?” Mara asked point blank.

John’s face split into a large grin. “Yeah.” He walked over to the front of his and Oliver’s car, leaned down and grabbed the bumper or whatever it’s called and lifted. At first nothing seemed to happen except for his straining. But ever so slowly the front of the car began to rise. After several seconds the wheels left the ground as John stood back up to his full height. He was breathing heavily and his face was a bright red with bulging veins from the exertion. But he had just lifted a car like it wasn’t that big of a deal.

“Ok, put it down before you hurt yourself,” Oliver chided him.

John grinned like an excited little boy as he dropped the car. It bounced a little before settling down.

Oliver patted John’s back and guided him to toward the car. They chatted excitedly together as they slipped into their seats. Mara shot me a smile before sliding into the backseat. I rolled my eyes and climbed into Ashley’s truck.

We drove off toward Sapphire Lake once again. It wasn’t much longer before we finally came to the first farms surrounding the little town. Ashley pulled over to the side of the road and I watched Oliver pull his car in behind us.

Looking down the drive cutting through the fields around us I noticed smoke beginning to curl up from deeper on the property. Getting out of the truck, I was assaulted by the smell of something burning. I looked at the others and we hopped over the gate in the drive.

Well, Ashley might as well have hopped over she was so fast and agile as she climbed up, swung her leg over and dropped down. The gate wasn’t that tall, it only came up to around my chest. It was the typical metal swing gate with the big bars going across horizontally.

I went up the gate just fine. But when it came time to swing my leg over, my ankle caught on the top edge of the gate, and I fell over the side. I landed with an oomph on my back. I was greeted with full throated laughter from Mara. Which I expected and would have done the same if she were in my shoes. Ashley surprised me when she knelt over me with a concerned look on her face. Upon seeing I was mostly ok, except for my poor dignity, she offered me a hand up.

I took it. Her hand was warm and soft. There were a few calluses on her palms and fingers. It only made her grip more reassuring. She pulled me up as I pulled myself up, and together we pulled too much. I popped up faster than expected and almost knocked her over as I landed nose to nose with her. I couldn’t help but notice her eyes dilate as she took me in.

Stumbling a step away from her, I brushed dust off of myself to cover the blush rapidly rising on my cheeks. Awkward…

“Are you alright?” Ashley asked.

“Everything but my pride,” I answered.

Mara continued to laugh behind me. She barely made it over the gate herself she was still laughing so hard. I’d get back at her eventually. Alas, I was the only one to fall climbing over though.

Once we were all on the other side, we quickly made our way toward the smoke coming from down the drive. John let the metal slide over his skin as we jogged toward the smoke. Ashley shouldered her purple army gun. Mara and Oliver just jogged down the drive. I summoned a new bone spear. I also was coming in dead last of our group, and if we had to go much further I was going to be huffing and puffing in a few minutes. Did I mention running was stupid?

We crested a small hill and a scene of carnage came into view no more than a hundred feet away. A family huddled behind a pair of trucks in the driveway in front of a house. The back of the house was engulfed in flames and was the source of the smoke we’d seen from the road. I could feel the heat coming off of it from here.

Coming out of the field were small little furry creatures running on two feet. They were too far away to make out their features, but they seemed bestial. Several of them were on the far side of the house flinging burning torches into the already burning house. Several more were hunkered down at the edges of the field at the edge of the drive, trying to move closer to the family. They were barely taller than the wheat or whatever when standing up, hunkered down they all but disappeared in it. They had primitive looking bows and were firing toward the family. There were already several arrows lodged in the tires, preventing the family from driving off. A few had managed to penetrate the sides of the bed near the family.

Ashley immediately brought her gun up and opened fire into the backs of the creatures. She moved forward at a steady, quick pace that allowed her to keep her gun steady as she walked and fired. John let out a loud roar of anger and went charging forward. I let out a sigh and followed behind him at a much slower, but still quick pace. Oliver hung back near Ashley. Mara started to rush forward, thought better of it and backtracked to walk near Oliver. She held a ball of fire in her hand, but seemed hesitant to fling it with the dry field so near.

The creatures turned toward us at the sound of Ashley and John. Several new creatures erupted out of the wheat beside us as we ran. Two of them tried to crash into John, but he swatted them with a backhand and sent them tumbling away. He continued running.

One of them jumped out at me and I nearly shat myself. It had a pair of stone axes in its hand and came out at me swinging away. It had a short muzzle full of sharp teeth. Dark spots dotted its fur except around its face. It wore a dirty red loin cloth that barely covered his bits. A thick ridge of fur ran down his neck and back. Round ears perched on top of his head and swiveled around to track our group as he lunged forward. He looked a little like a squished hyena that had learned to walk on two legs and grown apposable thumbs.

I jumped back and whatever spear training I had somehow downloaded with my skill kicked in. My body dipped to the side out of the way of his momentum and thrust at his exposed belly. My spearhead slid into his flesh with a wet squelch before punching out of his back.

I yanked the spear out of him, and he collapsed to the ground curled around his wound. I shoved my spear into his chest to be sure, and then rushed after John. I casually stabbed the creatures he’d left broken behind him as I ran past.

Ashley, Mara, and Oliver moved forward at a fast, but controlled pace behind me. Ashley continued firing into the monsters ahead of us, and I watched several drop before John reached the group at the edge of the field.