Scene 2

Time: 3 hours later 

Josh passed a bundle of crafting materials up to the treehouse via their basket elevator operated by Cleo. As she got it up, she emptied the basket and set it to be easily lowered back down, then climbed down herself saying to Josh as she reached the ground, "So what are we gathering now?"

Josh handed her backpack over to her and readied his spear, "This is a fantasy world with magic and monsters right? So there has to be some kind of special crafting materials that might be worth something to us somehow. We should make a habit of searching and gathering things and trying to keep crafting stuff since that works to let us gain skills more safely than fighting does." He stepped over towards the firepit and started trying to light a small stick on fire by laying it against a coal. As he waited he retrieved a joint he'd rolled in the treehouse after they finished building it.

Cleo laughs, "You don't need to use a stick, just go to take a hit and I'll light it."

Josh's eyebrow arches, "Why didn't you tell me you had a lighter? Here," he says as he brings the joint to his lips.

Cleo speaks a magical word as she moves her hand in a pattern and touches the end of the joint with her fingertip on her index finger as a small flame appears from it. The joint lights as Joshes eyes go wide, she shakes her fingertip and the flame winks out as she smiles at him, "Didn't say I had a lighter."

"YOU Have to teach me how you did that!" Josh says excitedly as he takes another hit of the joint and passes it to her.

"Deal, I know something else too. Got any of those seeds I mentioned?" Cleo asked.

Josh pulled his cigarette pack out and opened it, rotating it to roll seeds out onto his palm. "Only 5 so far, but they all look pretty healthy to me." He offered them as he said, "Here you go."

Cleo picked them up one at a time and smiled, "Thanks, now watch." She took one of the seeds and placed it into the dirt near the grassy plains edge. She pulled her canteen from her backpack, took a drink, and then spit it on the area she put the seed into. Then said another magical word and moved her hands in a strange pattern. Josh was startled since his Aether Sensitivity Perk was revealing the way that her spell was charging the ambient mana in the land around the area of the seed. He stared in wonder at the strange overlay of light patterns as he watched her focus her magic and work it into the seed for many minutes.

Cleo looked over at him as she finished, "Well, I thought the seed would grow really quickly. I guess I need to keep trying. But that's enough for right now I think. Don't want to get too low on Mana. I'll try again with these other seeds before we climb into the treehouse for the night I think."

"Cool, lets see if we can find something neat while Matt wraps up the traps around our treehouse. Looks like we have about an hour or so until sunset." Josh said reassuringly.

The duo wandered a little further along the tree-line the other direction from Josh's earlier adventure, trying to spy something interesting without getting lost traveling inside the trees. They walked for a half hour before finding something worth being out there to find. They saw a river far off in the distance, and found some flowers, berries, and mushrooms growing within visibility of the edge of the forest. They quickly collected as much as they could in a few minutes into Cleo's magic backpack. Then jogged back to make sure they didn't get stuck away from the treehouse after dark.

Matthias was hauling up branches into the treehouse as they made it back. The sunlight growing dimmer with each passing minute as they arrived. Matt looked over at them and said, "Glad you made it back. Find anything useful?"

"Maybe, not sure yet. Do we still need to collect all the meat racks upstairs?" Josh asked.

"No I did those first when I finished with the traps I had made," Matthias replied.

Cleo spoke up, "That's why you are awesome Matt!"

Josh chimed in, "Can Confirm This, you sir are Awesome."

Matt blushed and smiled, "Today has been super weird, we should get in the treehouse and get ready to make it through the night."

"Bet, and when we get up there, Cleo can tell us how magic works, since she can do magic now." Josh said as he climbed the rope up to the treehouse.

Matt sounded surprised as he said, "Wait, you can do magic now Cleo?"

"Yeah, it seems like Ari taught me magic. So now I can teach you guys." Cleo replied, sounding guilty as she looked at Matthias somewhat fearfully.

Matt smiled at her, "Oh, that's good. That will really help us Cleo. Good Job."

Donnie thought to Matthias, 'She's not going to eat me for my power is she? Will eat her first.'

Matt looked at him crossly, 'Leave her be, she feels bad enough already. She won't eat you buddy.'

Then he picked Donnie up and put him in the basket elevator, and Josh started lifting him up to the treehouse as Matthias followed Cleo up the rope ladder they had. He pulled it up behind him after reaching the top and they all stood on the deck to watch the sun set over the mountains to the west. They luckily had a small lantern in Cleo's Survivor's Backpack and enough oil in it to keep it going for half the night if they didn't keep it turned up too bright. When the sun went down, it got pretty dark pretty fast.

They ate more smoked meat for dinner and Cleo spent a while trying to explain magic as she understood it.

Neither of the guys picked it up that night.

They took turns sleeping through the night. Getting lucky nothing came searching for the smell of meat coming from what they hadn't eaten before going to sleep. Matthias had been sure he'd heard something sniffing around at one point last night, but it was too dark to tell at the time. He also noted both Cleo and Josh seemed to be having bad dreams throughout the night. Other than that, he noticed nothing odd, which he let each know as they woke in the morning.

They ate more smoked meat for breakfast as they waited for sunrise to clear the twilight shadows and fog. Matt asked, "Do you guys smell that skunky smell?"

"That's not Skunk, that's Weed I think," Josh said, sniffing the air and standing up to look outside. His voice rose, "OH Wow, Cleo you did it!"

She scrambled out to the deck to look where he was, only to find a massive flowering pot plant outside their treehouse, nearly 12 feet tall it had grown overnight and was now covered in fat buds all over it. Her excitement was completely unhidden in her tone, "Oh SNAP, gimme more seeds."

Josh chuckled, "I will, but first use the other four I gave you and I'll harvest this one when we get down there and we'll see if it's any good when it finishes curing."

She looked like she wanted to argue, "Well, that makes sense I guess."

Matt injects, "We should probably do more exploring today too, see if we can find more natural food sources and then you can try growing those too. I'm with Josh though, I definitely want to keep trying to learn how magic works. I got that Mana Bolt skill now, but haven't tried it yet. Saving it for a hunt or combat from range I think."

Cleo smiles, "Okay, gimme a few minutes to go behind a tree, and then go plant these other seeds."

The guys grumbled agreement about relieving themselves as well. Everyone climbed down the treehouse's rope ladder and slipped out of view to use the bathroom.

Within fifteen minutes, the guys were watching Cleo work as Josh finished hanging the harvested pot plant from the treehouse. Cleo planted the four seeds she'd gotten from Josh the night before near the tree. She looked at them as she stood up from pushing the last seed into the dirt and covering it. "Are you guys going to give this a try? I'll try to walk you through it. It's actually two different spells to make this work."

"Wow, that complex?" Matt asked.

"Yeah, one to find the seed, on my character sheet it calls the first one seek plant. Then the second one is called Plant Growth. Which does what you'd think it does. Just not instantly like I thought. Makes sense why there's a Fast Plant Growth spell too. I'll figure it out." Cleo rattled off in response, saying that last part more to herself than her friends.

The two guys stepped over to the area she planted the seeds in. Cleo blinked, looked at where they were standing and pointed to a spot for a single seed and assigned one to each of the guys. "That's yours, and that one is yours. You will focus there for this first spell, seeking the pot seed laying in the ground waiting to grow."

"Okay, I'm seeking the seed, seeking the seed, seeeeking the seed," Josh said in an affected tone with his finger pointing at his temple using one hand and the other pointing at the ground in a theatric pose.

Matt glanced at him and chuckled, copying his motions, "Me too, what's next?"

Cleo shook her head. "I don't think either of you understands the words as I mean them. Whatever, okay next we look within ourselves to our mana core, and draw a line of mana out and into the seed, feeding it mana as we say the phrase 'Auksa Creskia' with mana-filled intent. Do that and it should just work, as long as you can see or feel that mana link to the seed and channel mana into the spell invocation."

"Who the hell are you Cleo? Like since when do you talk like this or know all this?" Josh asked incredulously as he stared at his friend like she were a body-snatcher.

She frowned, her cheek quivering a moment like she were going to cry before she tightened her control, "Whatever happened with Ari, Matt's spirit companion from the System, seems to have left me with a bunch of memories, incomplete memories mostly, but a lot of them from Ari's life before being enslaved to the System and not even death allowing him out of his contract with it. The System is not our friend, it's not here to help us because it loves us and wants us to be stronger. It's a war machine, churning out ever escalating conflict in every world and dimension it invades." Her look was far away as she finished speaking.

There was a long silence as the three friends just looked at each other.

Then Josh broke the silence, "I heard we can get superpowers and help everyone we love if we work hard. Sounds good enough. Better than clocking in at some day job."

"Here here!" Matt said to that as he wrapped an arm around Cleo and gave her a side hug before releasing her.

"Thanks guys, these dreams I'm having are sometimes really cool. But a lot of Ari's life is kind of a nightmare. Well, was a nightmare. Now my nightmare." Cleo trailed off at the end.

Josh said, "Snap out of it you morose motherfucker! Being this emo is my job, or maybe Matt's depending on the week. You are a bright ball of bubbles and rainbows, no matter how bad things get. Remember?" He tapped her forehead with his finger, a touch of mana instinctively passing to her as he did.

Cleo blinked, pulled her head back and scrunched her face up at him, "Hey! Cut that out! Just because I'm short doesn't mean you can poke my forehead. I'll mess you up for that!"

Josh laughed, "Bring it small fries."

She smacked him in the balls so fast he didn't have time to blink, "OOOF," came from his lips before a retching sound followed it as his breakfast spewed onto the ground about the same time he did.

"Holy Shit Cleo!" Matt said. She glared his way, "Say something else about it."

Josh choked out from the ground, between spitting chunks out of his mouth, "No.. No.. It's my fault, clearly." He struggled to his feet as he said, "I totally asked for that, can't get mad for not being able to carry the load I requested."

"Okay, as long as we all remember we're friends," Matt said, looking a little worriedly between the other two.

"We're fine as long as he doesn't make any more short jokes. I'm not in the mood for it right now. Lets do this magic lesson and get out of here." Cleo said, as she went back to the seeds, and started narrating her actions as she did them. Neither of them got it at first. Josh finally got it right, but that was long after Cleo had done the first two, Matt gave up and let Cleo do his as well. And then Josh got his spells cast correctly and they started exploring the edge of the forest and grassy plains again.

A while later Josh and Cleo were looking at a set of bushes with berries in tiny clusters while Matt scouted around the area nearby. Cleo was showing Josh another spell, "Agnosce Naturam," she said and stared at the berries she was touching for a moment before continuing, "It's not safe to eat these berries. But the seed inside each one is edible and medicinal, if you get constipated. Their local name is Noxum Berries. The poison isn't effective unless ingested, and needs a decent amount to kill you. Less and you just get a bleeding gut and pass out for a while, wake up with a killer hangover."

"Wow, Cleo that spell told you all that information?" Josh asked her.

"No, it told me the name and that the berries are poisonous and seeds are potentially medicinal, the rest was Ari's memories filling in details. Super weird if I think about it too much though." Cleo told him.

"So I just say the magic password, after connecting my mana core to the plant and feeding it some mana to cast it?" Josh looked at her trying to read her reaction to his understanding of magic spells and how they work.

She smiled, "Basically yeah, at least for that spell. Then just be open to what it shows you. How long do you think it will take that new weed that grew to dry?"

"It's normally a couple days at least, I hope it works okay just hanging from the treehouse instead of inside somewhere. That's how the pot farms do it, they have indoor curing areas with humidity and temperature control," explained Josh.

Matt approached around this moment, "Hey, I found a river that direction a little ways. You guys want to check it out?"

Cleo looked at Josh, then back at Matt and shrugged, "Sure, these Noxum berries aren't edible anyways."

With that, Matt turned around and started leading the way. The other two had noticed already that he was moving a little faster than a comfortable walking speed for either one of them. He heard them both whisper curses for his long legs as they trekked back towards the river he'd spotted.

Josh finished emptying his pants pockets onto the bank of the river and kicked his shoes off. He turned and followed his friends into the river, having decided he wanted to get his clothes wet, to help cool him off when they got out of the water. They laughed and played a while in the river that morning. At least until near noon, when the sun was over head and there was no shade near the river left. That's the point they all decided that was enough fun in the sun and exited the water. Josh turned to the others, "We should carry our stuff over to the other side and explore over there for an hour or two before making our way back to camp."

"Sounds good to me, Cleo?" Matt looked her way.

"As good as anything else, at least we haven't been that direction yet," She mused.

Josh grabbed his stuff from the ground, lifted it all above his head, and ran back into the river and through it, calling out over his shoulder, "And they call me old while you two slow-pokes are still standing around. Lets Fucking GO kids!" He laughed as they called back their disagreements.

And in a couple minutes they were exploring the other side of the river. Daring to go deeper into the woods and somewhat loosely following the river as they explore the area. Josh called out excitedly as he ran towards a tree with a bright green colored large oblong fruit on it, "I found something I think." He came to a stop and reached for one of the fruits as he cast his awareness inside himself to feel for his mana core as Cleo called it, drawing a string of mana out of it and towards the fruit in his hand as he said the spell's words, "Agnosce Naturam." He waited as he felt the mana string vibrate and pull mana into the fruit, then gasped as the sensation of the information just appearing in his mind like he were remembering what it was.

Matt and Cleo stopped beside him, with Cleo speaking up first, "Is it edible?"

Josh smiled, "Says it's called a 'Yum Pum' and it's edible. Watch out for the big seed in the center" and tossed the one in his hand to Cleo as Matt reached out to the tree and picked one for himself. Josh grabbed one too as Matt cut into his and took a bite of the fruit inside. Josh asked, "What's it taste like?"

Matt grinned widely, "Oh man, it's wild—you've got to try one. It’s like… if a banana and mango had a baby, but then that baby went and married a super juicy pear. The texture’s creamy, almost custard-like, but the flavor hits you in waves. First it's sweet and tropical—like pawpaw with hints of melon—but then there's this floral, crisp pear finish that cuts through it, super refreshing. Honestly, it’s like nature made its own smoothie."

Cleo laughed, "Tell us how you really feel about it Matt."

Her and Josh took a bite of their own fruits now, and the three fell silent for a few minutes. Before Donnie whined beside Matthias and Matt grabbed him a fruit too, "Sorry buddy, I forgot all about that hole in your gut that keeps you hungry at all times."

Donnie looked at him, 'Hey! I'm smaller than you and move just as fast.'

Matt thought, 'That's fair, have another Yum Pum buddy,' and then started picking the rest of the ripe fruits from the tree and stashing them in Cleo's backpack.

Josh joined him with gathering the fruits after a moment and mentioned, "The seeds are edible too, fairly packed with nutrients. But it might not be good to eat a lot of them. Not sure exactly what all of the feedback information the spell gives means. Might be fine, might need to be cooked for all I know. I do know we can eat them raw without getting poisoned and dying. I just get a sense there's more information than what I'm understanding from the spell."

Cleo remarked, "Probably means you need to level up the spell more."

"Either way, good find Josh! These will be a good break from all smoked turkey meat meals," Matt said while he worked on gathering all the ripe fruits he could reach.

Cleo cast the spell again holding a fruit of her own and looked at it thoughtfully a moment before adding in, "The seeds need to be boiled until soft to be fully safe to eat. A few raw won't harm you, but will build up and begin to cause irritable bowel syndrome like effects in time, which incidentally leads to inefficiency in digesting complex carbohydrates."

"It's still going to take some time to get used to you talking like that," Josh said looking at Cleo.

She looks offended as she glances his way, "What? Like I'm not smart enough to know big words or something?"

"No, just that you don't usually use them in conversations," Josh smiled.

She threw a seed at Josh's face at that statement and the three laughed as they helped Matt finish picking the ripe fruits for the next few minutes. Just before finishing off all the ripe fruit in reach from the ground, a rustling in the branches behind them was their only warning to the onslaught of fur, claws, and fury that descended on them in the next moment.

Three bundles of fur and claws just slightly heavier than a common house cat leapt onto the trio, one on each, gripping deep with claws as they bit and moved around the torso of the screaming friends. Donnie screams into Matt's mind, 'STAY STILL' and without waiting, he launched himself horn first into the giant squirrel cutting up Matthias. It screeched in pain as the horn impacted it's chest, then the sound began to bubble as it lost volume. The creature's grip on Matt's torso fell away as it dropped to the ground, Donnie pulling his horn out of the creature with a shake on the way to the ground. Matt reached out to the one with claws ripping into Cleo's neck and snapped it with his increasing strength fueled by adrenaline and a healthy stamina expenditure. At which point he heard Donnie saying, 'More above us, watch out!' And he dodged to the right as soon as he heard that, quickly throwing a look around to count the beasts coming his way. Cleo yelling at him is the only thing that snapped his attention back to her, "Matt hold still, your hands are bleeding bad!"

"What?" Matt asked confused, looking down and seeing both hands had rivers of blood flowing from his palms.

Donnie was racing around the group, attacking any that approached as Cleo cast another new spell. Her hands started glowing blue and she touched Matt's hands with them, the blue light flowing out her fingertips and into Matt's still gushing hands, and the flow of blood immediately slowed then stopped. She blinked. "Did not know I could do that one," She said surprised.

Matt grabbed her with his newly healing hands, "Glad you can, this way now," and pulled her into a spin away from some more of the large squirrels that were attacking them, kicking out as one dropped where she had just been standing and sending it flying into a nearby tree trunk. "Take that you little shits!"

Josh had started swiping at the squirrel climbing around his midsection, stopping quickly after feeling it's razor quills on its back and tail slicing into his hand. With a curse he smashed a fruit from his other hand into the critter as he dropped his body on the little creature trying to crush it with his weight. He felt a sharp series of stings on his ribs, screaming his disapproval in the process, "Fuck that hurt!" He rolled off the little beast to see it was still twitching, but had clearly taken a broken bone or two from the fall as well. It looked his direction and snarled at him angrily. Josh rolled around looking for the knife he'd been using from where he dropped it when he first got attacked. His hands wrapped around the grip and he twisted towards the injured creature, sinking the blade into it's brain stem, severing it and ending the twitching of it's body as if a light switch were turned off.

Josh sat up just in time to spot another of the squirrels leaping from a nearby tree in his direction. He rolled quickly to the side and to his feet with a quick push of his palms on the ground. 'Whoa! I haven't been that strong since my early twenties, more than two decades ago at least. Not the right time for this train of thought, where'd that little fucker go?' He thought to himself as a slicing sensation seared pain across his inner thigh at that moment, he had found exactly where that little fucker had gone. Behind him then climbing up his legs and slapping his thighs with that razor quill covered tail.

His first instinct was to ask for help, but as he looked to his friends he saw they were being swarmed as well, "We need to run, we're outnumbered!" Josh called to Matt and Cleo. Then threw himself into a tree trunk right where he could feel the creature. It's quills stuck into the wood pretty deeply and he slipped it's clawed grip with a little more blood and skin sacrificed.

"Sounds like a plan," Matt said as he grabbed his spear and began sweeping the tip at more approaching squirrels.

Cleo swiped her backpack's strap and slung it onto her shoulders as she called out, "Let's fucking GO then!" Her feet already picking up pace back the way they had come from. Josh grabbed his spear and followed, with Matt positioning himself between the mass of squirrels and his retreating friends. Matt stared intently at the creatures, and got a new notification.

"Fitting name you nightmare fuel tree rats!" Matt said to the half dozen vicious predators still edging towards him and his friends. He heard Josh saying something to Cleo, "What are you doing Cleo?" then felt a heat pass by him and saw a glowing ball of orange and yellow light flying towards the squirrels. As it hit the ground in the center of their leading line, a small explosion was triggered from it, flashing outward a good twenty feet from the point of impact. The fire flashing out from the explosion stopping just short of reaching Matt's surprised face as he scrambled backwards away from it.

Cleo replied, "Fireball!" The swarm of squirrels shrieked as their fur caught fire, and the three friends turned and ran away.

They ran for at least 10 minutes, each of them gaining at least a level in a movement related skill as they did so. Cleo had been in the lead, and the other two let her keep guiding them and setting the pace, until she looked over her shoulder at them, "I have no idea where we are or how to find our way back to the treehouse, I hope one of you does."

Josh looked sheepish as he shrugged, "I'm just running, no clue where. We'll spot something we know eventually, I hope."

Matt shook his head as he took the lead. "Follow me, I can get us back from here, if you can keep up," he challenged, jogging ahead of them with a grin on his face.

Cleo scrambled to keep up as she yelled after him, "Friends don't leave short friends behind!"