Hello and welcome! It has been awhile since I wrote something and shared it. Hopefully you enjoy the story that follows. Synopsis: If we believe other stories about being pulled to another world as either heroes or cannon fodder or slaves then there must be at least a select few wise and foolhardy enough to make a living by rescuing those individuals that were kidnapped to other worlds and return them home. This story follows one such man as he saves the heroes and the slaves, while making a modest profit. Genre: Adventure, Comedy, Fantasy Table of Contents Chapter 1 - He who wanders but is not lost Chapter 2 – Knowledge at a subscription price Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Chapter 3 - (Chapter title pending) Part 1 Part 2
Chapter 1 - He who wanders but is not lost The smell of the ocean permeated the air. I watch the boats rocking and tugging at their mooring lines like impatient cattle ready to wander off to new pastures. The pre-dawn light made the masts and furled sails cast a reflection of a distorted alternate world. The small cluster of wooden buildings leaned toward the harbor expectantly. It was early and the day was dawning, but no living thing moved. I looked around trying to spot even a single movement or sign of life. Nothing moved except the waves and the boats which rocked in their embrace. No sailors preparing nets. No dogs barking or cats prowling. No gulls coasting on morning air currents or pelicans standing stoically on the pilings of an unfinished pier. I was nonplussed. The lack of any signs of life was part of it, but there was an even more important question that came to my lips, "Where am I?" I felt like I should know, but my memories seemed vague. I could recall living in a small town, but it was inland not wherever I currently stood. It took far too much concentration to focus my thoughts. Observing my surroundings came easily enough in a detached sort of way, but I felt drunk and incredibly tired. I stumbled towards a bench and collapsed on it. The overwhelming fatigue driving me to close my eyes and sleep. I woke up feeling sore all over. Heaving my leaden body into a seated position I looked around me. It was deep into the morning and the heavy sunlight cast only small shadows. People were moving around me, at least I thought they were people. Ill-defined forms moving about as if recorded by an out of focus camera. I saw smaller blurs moving through the air. One of those smaller blurs landed near my feet. It only came up to my knee. The small blur seemed to hesitate as if it were watching me. I stared at the blur as it slowly became better defined as if someone were adjusting the focus. Eventually I was staring at a brown and white pelican. It cocked its head and stared at me for a moment before shuffling around and walking a bit away from me. It swung its head around and looked at me as if it wanted me to follow it. Not knowing what else to do I began to follow the pelican as it strode down the street. Eventually it stopped in front of a small stone home on the edge of the town. With a flap and a hop it mounted a hedge near the front door of the house. It tapped on the windowed and paused then tapped again. Shaking it head and ruffling its feathers it made a displeased sound and began to become blurry again. Panicking I tried to touch the bird and got whacked in the forearm by the big orange beak, before it slipped from my hand and became blurred. The door opened and a human sized blur came out. The human sized blur snapped into focus and an older gentleman stood in front of me wearing a somewhat old fashion grey suit with a red waistcoat. "Oh another one. Yes, yes, badly out of sync, though I can't fathom how that bird knew. I never know just what that pelican is thinking. Well, that's of no real importance. You there can you understand me. Do I have the right range?" “What? Range? Wait, yes! Yes, I understand you? Where am I? What do you mean range and out of sync?” I desperately spouted out answers and questions in my apparent confusion. “Calm down. Why don’t you come inside and have a seat. I’m sure you don’t feel well, so it’ll be easier to explain once you have a moment to settle down.” He turned and entered the house while beckoning me to follow. The interior of the house was filled with books. Books on the tables. Books on all the shelves. Books piled to the ceiling and in front of the windows. Two deep red upholstered wing backed chairs sat near a small table across from a fireplace were the only furniture not covered in leather bound books. “Oh my, excuse me for forgetting to introduce myself. My name is Abraham Stewart. Welcome to my home, please have a seat.” “I’m Calvin Kaiser.” The name sprung to my lips immediately. Actually it was not my name, at least not the one given by my parents. But it would do for now. The trance state I imposed on myself ended not long ago, so let’s see what this fellow has to say. “This might be a bit hard to believe, but you are in another world. Not sure how you folk keeping ending up here, but at least two or three of you show up around this town every week. A few, like you, have ended up not quite making it all the way. You are out of phase with the rest of the world, but I can fix that. Unfortunately I can’t get you back to where you came from myself but I know some fellows who can help you.” “How are you going to fix it?” I’m already tired of his charade. Two thirds of the books in the room are the same title. Ok granted I can’t read them right now, but the same characters are on the spines and they are the same thickness and size. Plus Abe was trying to hide some rather nasty scratches under that mottled grey beard of his. Those aren’t scratch marks you get from doing nice things for people, rather they resembled marks you get from doing particularly not nice things. “Well I happen to make necklaces that...” He says pulling out a steel choker and continuing on. I’ve already stopped listening. A slave choker. Yep, same old cliché. I’d had enough of this playacting it was time to shut this old liar up. A few minutes, a restraining move, and the spare kick or five later and “Abraham” is trussed up in the manacles and leg irons he had hidden under the armchair. In case you’re curious I had been synchronized with this particular world as soon as I entered the door of this cottage. The books were just a convenient method of blocking the windows so the targeted otherworlder would not notice that everyone outside was now in focus. They must not have curtains in this world or Abe is just stupid. At this point I am betting that it’s even odds between those options. In case you are wondering I was in a self-imposed state of confusion. It helps to play the part of innocent victim in some situations until I can be certain nobody is using mind reading skills or the like. What I really am, well we can get to that later. “So Abe.” I started, but he spit and glared at me. “Oh you don’t like being called Abe? Great then perhaps a nice tattoo on your forehead is in order once we’re done here. Nice big red letters, ‘Hi, my name is Abe!’ I think the dot on the exclamation point should be a smiley face don’t you Abe? Of course you do, but that’s not important. What is important is that you or some of your associates have been dragging people to this world. So you and I are going to have a little chat and now that you have that lovely necklace on I’m pretty sure you are going to tell me exactly what I want to know without all the clichéd bullshit you seem to prefer.” “First off, are you the one calling people here?” He glared at me with his mouth reticently closed. “OK, have it your way Abe. I order you to answer my questions with the truth. So was it you Abe? Are you the responsible party or are you just the slimy cog in a larger slimier machine?” Abe looked at me as the blood drained from his face. Pale white and shaking he opened his mouth. Then his head exploded. “Shit! Rookie mistake! Always check for curses or suicide switches first. Damn, damn, damn.” I cursed to punctuate each slap to my forehead. I know better than that. With a sigh and a shake of my head I leaned back into the armchair. “Well Abe, looks like the tattoo is a no go. I suppose it’s too much to hope you actually kept a journal or paperwork of some sort.” With a flap the pelican jumped up on back of the corpse’s armchair. It looked at me and clacked its bill. “What you know something bird?” With a nod the pelican hopped to the floor and tapped one of the less gaudy rings on Abe’s hand. With an expectant look the pelican looked back at me then waddled over to a cabinet. “OK, ok. Let me check something first.” I pulled out my tablet and booted up the Detection App. I scanned each ring on the indicated hand. There was one ring of translation and all the rest on the right hand were normal. The ring the pelican indicated is a simple silver ring with some numbers engraved inside the band. "One of the rings on the left hand is cursed, so Abe can keep that one, but the rest should be useful in trade. Oh it looks like Abe’s got some gold and silver in a hidden money belt." “Thank you Abe, these certainly will help me in my adjustment to this new world, yadda, yadda, yadda. You shouldn’t have gone to such trouble.” I took those items and stuffed them in my pocket with the exception of the translation ring and the silver ring. With a sigh I put on the translation ring. Frankly I hate those things they always give me double vision when reading. If I am going to have to hang around for an extended bit of time I’ll learn enough to get by and hock the thing. “OK, now you perspicacious fowl what exactly are you?” I turn the tablet sensor towards the pelican. “Ah so you are a poly-morphed otherworlder. Says here you are under a curse of poly-morph and servitude. What exactly did you do to make old Abe do that to you?” -Clack- went the bill and the pelican turned its head away as if embarrassed. “Well no matter. Let’s check out this cabinet shall we.” I read the numbers from the inscription in the ring. I examined the cabinet and sure enough it was a combination lock. Before opening it I disabled the poisoned dart trap hidden near the lock and pocketed the dart for future use. “Oh look! Apparently old Abe kept a diary and it’s in code. Probably didn’t want anyone finding out he was into the sex with goats or the like. Wonderful, simply wonderful. Well guess I’ll have to take some time and decipher this later, for now these sale contracts look pretty helpful.” I shoved the related paper into another pocket of my coat. “So Mr. Pelican…” - Whack- The pelican hit me with its beak. “OK, Ms. Pelican.” I pause to confirm no further beak attacks are forthcoming then proceed, “You are probably curious who and what I am. Well put simply I find lost people and help them get home. Along the way I divest those responsible for their disappearance of sufficient valuables to make up for my time and expenses. Though I do also accept paid commissions to locate specific individuals as well. I am here this time looking for a young lady who disappeared and her rather well connected father ‘requested’ somewhat forcefully that I locate her. First, while I feel sorry for the individuals listed on these sales documents I don’t want this to be one of those run around and find out the target was right next to me all the time situations. So let me ask, ‘You’re not Amber Lynn Fennel are you?’” The pelican clapped its beak and shook its head in denial. “Well I‘ll consider your help earlier finding the diary and receipts to be sufficient payment if you want to employ me to get rid of that curse and get home. Or have you grown fond of wings and a big chin?’ -Whack- “Yes, that’s what I figured. Let’s get out of here before Abe starts to smell.”
Once you do, please pm me where you're going to upload/post this story I find the storyline entertaining with a fresh new look to the transported/summoned genre
anthon41772, I will be continuing to update it here for the time being and will pm you with relevant updates. Legendary_Exor, I will make sure to PM you as well. Amaruna Myu, Please excuse my confusion, but is that good or bad? I'm going to assume you meant that as a positive until I hear otherwise. Thanks for reading!
Chapter 2 – Knowledge at a subscription price Part 1 After thoroughly searching the rest of the house and finding nothing else of value Ms. Pelican and I left through the back door. Don’t get me wrong paper and books are valuable, but the ones laying around all had Abe’s name as the author and appeared to be the products of a string of failed attempt at self-publishing. The old creep apparently thought he could make it as a romance author, but most of the titles suggested certain inclinations and very peculiar subset of the genre which made me shiver in dread at the thought of decoding his diary. Let’s just say my earlier supposition about goats may not be too far from the mark. I may just be a hero for the local livestock and just not know it. I turned my head to look at the waterfowl matching my pace along the side of the road. “So, Ms. Pelican where is the closest inn? I need someplace private to take care of you.” The pelican stopped cold and slowly began to back away from me looking as if it was contemplating taking flight. “No, you perverted birdbrain. Remove your curse. What the hell are you imagining?” I fumed. Sometimes I seriously wonder why I bother. Resuming our forward progress Ms. Pelican led me to a well-maintained brick building on the main road of the town. I noted that people did cast the occasional curious glance in our direction, but nobody questioned why a grown man was following a large sea fowl into an inn. Frankly it made me wonder just what people thought was normal in this world, but with some luck and a bit of effort I hoped to be done and gone before needing to find out. A burly rugged looking man in his late thirties greeted me once I entered, “Hello there. Name’s Malcolm. I am the owner. Welcome to my inn. Is that your familiar animal there?” He asked nodding dubiously towards Ms. Pelican and raising the broom in his hand in a slightly threatening manner as if preparing to evict said fowl depending on my answer. “No, just an acquaintance. How much for a room?” After some haggling I arranged to rent a room for the night and for meals in the common room in the evening and the next morning. As Malcolm led me to the room I popped some chewing gum in my mouth. Once in the room I started checking for insects and bugs. I differentiate on purpose. I don’t need lice or bedbugs thank you very much. Nor do I need anyone listening in or watching my activities and conversations. There were lice, roaches, and bedbugs. A perfect trifecta of insect nastiness. After rummaging through my coat, I pulled out some fast-acting insecticide and went to work cleaning up the place. While doing so I found a peephole in one wall. Taking out my well chewed gum I plugged the peephole. Ms. Pelican watched confused by my actions, but I just smiled at her. Satisfied with my preparations I pulled out my trusty tablet and switched to the Akashic Record Interface Application (ARIA). The application is always running in the background, but she often sleeps at home or hides in a nearby dimension until I call her out. “Aria you can come out now. All’s clear.” “There better not be any roaches or Ill charge you extra.” “You can’t charge me extra I have a subscription.” The Akashic Record Database and Information Service (ARDIS) exists as a standalone service providing otherworld travelers like myself with a convenient method of acquiring basic information and resources. Think of it as a cross between a massive search engine, online encyclopedia, and mail order service. The wiseass who created it was obsessed with 19th century occult and named it the Akhashic record. Let’s make something clear up front. It’s a paid service and it is NOT infallible, but it works really well for what I need and so far I have no complaints about the services. I have the lowest priced subscription and only I have a physical summonable interface because I did a favor one time for the old witch who made the damned thing. That interface is Aria. She’s either an android or a golem or some type of artificial being. All I know is she looks and acts too damn human too damn often for my sanity. I’d ask her for confirmation, but she’d just say my current subscription does not cover that level of detail. The air shimmers in front of me like a heat haze on a sunbaked road a visual distortion from which Aria appears. She was obviously nearby. Probably out of sync like I was earlier. Just out of tune enough to avoid any life forms. She’s short, about 145 cm with pearl white skin, long silver hair, and cobalt blue eyes. She looks around hesitantly reminding me of a rabbit worrying about wolves. “Don’t worry all the wolv…er bugs are gone Aria. You should be able to tell that.” “But I can’t! I’m limited by your subscription. You know I can’t access that level of detail!” “No complaining about my subscription. I can only afford the lowest level of service you know. Besides the bugs probably can’t hurt you anyway.” “But they’re so, so crawly and creepy!” She said looking up at me with those big blue eyes looking slightly teary. “I know that’s why I got rid of them, but I need information right now Aria, so can you help me please.” I ask placing my hand on her head with what I hope is a comforting smile. “OK.” She said wiping away the burgeoning tears with a weak smile. “Please provide me with the basic world profile for right now.” “Done.” She nods while tapping on the side of my tablet. Basic World Profile – subscription level Iron Name: Earth Basic description: Small variance in land masses and climate. 95.5% identical user’s origin Day length: 24 hours Year length: 365.25 Level of technology compared to user Origin: Renaissance European with strides towards Industrial development hindered by use of Magic. Chattel slavery, indenture, and Feudal peasant social structures still legal and practiced in most areas. Current location is an island nation that is like the medieval nation of England that existed in the user’s world of origin. Additional detail, acclimatization, and linguistics training available for higher tier subscriptions. Please ask Aria for more details. “Take a look at this Aria.” I say handing her the slave choker I removed from Abe’s corpse. “It looks like it has a unique ID and location function. Can you track the one’s listed in these documents.“ I hand her the slave contracts and receipts from my coat pocket. “One moment please.” She pulls out and wears a pair of round glasses with thin wire frames and begins to rapidly look through the documents. “Yes, I can trace these, but there are fifteen otherworlders listed here. Are you really looking for all of them?” “Not right now. Currently the most pressing is any females in late tens with black or dark hair and dark eyes. I doubt they recorded the name, but if a name matching Amber Lynn Fennel is in there than that is the specific rescue target.” “No, there are no names, but they do list physical descriptions four of the 15 match. Three are currently on this island, the fourth is on the nearby continent.” “Ok, please display the closest one on the map.” I switched to the map window on my tablet and confirmed that I had at least 30-kilometer trip ahead of me to reach the first girl. Of course, I know which one it’s going to be. It’s the one on the continent, because she’s the furthest away. That’s just how these things seem to work. -Whack- I looked down at Ms. Pelican who seems to want to ask me a question. Of course, there was no way she could ask me anything and her frustration level had built until she decided to whack me to get my attention. “Ah, yes hold on a moment and we’ll get you sorted out.” Unfortunately, it would be a bit longer than just a moment.
Chapter 2 Part 2 I stood up looking around slightly bewildered. Last thing I clearly remembered was turning to respond to Ms. Pelican. The few minutes that followed that are a bit of a blur. There was a high-pitched scream, a blinding flash of light, and an explosion of wood and acrid smoke. I rubbed my eyes and blinked at the smoking remains of the wall. Sunlight streamed in unabated making the rising white smoke from the cinders dance in whorls as the sea breeze blew through. There was no sign of Aria. A large roach climbed out of the splinters and ran for hiding under the bed. Looking up from below were the stunned inn keeper and a man wearing a bloodied apron, most likely a butcher. “Um, sorry. I wanted some air.” I yelled down to the two below. An hour and two gold coins later I decided it was time to leave town. I managed to calm down Malcolm the innkeeper and pay for the repairs. He was a surprisingly kind fellow and even offered to move me to a room with a window once I paid for the damages. Frankly I would have thrown me out on the spot, but then I’m not very nice nor understanding of others damaging my property. Ms. Pelican and I started walking along the road headed east towards the nearest enslaved girl. After about a kilometer or two I called out, “Aria, I think I know the answer, but care to explain?” “Ex- explain what?” She asked trying to play innocent while walking out from behind a nearby tree as if she’d been waiting there. “You really plan on pretending not to know?” I did my best to give her a stern look and she broke down immediately. Really am I that scary looking? “But it was a roach! It looked at me! It was going to fly at me and walk on me and touch me with its filthy little feet. So, I blew it up! It was self-defense! Self-defense!” She repeated herself there. Was she trying to convince herself too? I looked at the defiant defendant and with a sigh I shook my head. “Sure, fine it’s not like it’s the first time, but did you really need to use that much fire power for a roach? I mean it’s just a roach.” “I used a low setting.” She muttered. “A low setting, she says. At least he innkeeper this time was understanding. You do realize that one of the reasons I can only afford the lowest subscription is that I had to use most of my savings to pay for that hotel floor you destroyed last month?” “But that bee was huge!” “It was a nature program on the lifecycle of the honey bee!” I growled. I stopped took a deep breath and calmed myself. Aria looked cowed yet defiant. “But it looked so real.” “Of course, it looked real. it was a holographic projection.” I took another breath and then sighed. “Well enough of the recriminations. It makes no difference now. Just try to be more careful and use the lowest setting, or point out the bug and I’ll get rid of it.” “If you had done a better job getting rid of it in the first place…” She stopped speaking when she looked at my face. I guess I am that scary looking. Oh well. Moving on. “So, let’s take a rest for a few minutes.” Walking to the side of the road and into the shade of a large tree I dusted some leaves off a decent sized rock and took a seat. With a flap, Ms. Pelican hopped to a slightly smaller rock and stared at me. “Well I really do prefer a private room when working, but an empty roadside is going to have to do. Let’s see what we can do about this curse.” I bring up the curse analysis application on my tablet and point the camera/sensor array at Ms. Pelican. The application beeps and returns its findings. “Ouch. Looks like he used one nasty hex on you lady. Based on this analysis there are only three options and none of them can be done right here. The first way to remove the curse is to have the one who cursed you or his blood relative within two to three degrees of separation release you from it by willingly giving you a drop of their blood. The second is to have a high leveled priest or sage remove it, which tends to be expensive. The last is to use an elixir, that’s a kind of over the top cure-all potion in case you are unfamiliar with the term, also very expensive.” A large tear formed in Ms. Pelican’s eye and rolled down her beak. “Wait don’t give up hope just yet. Aria, can you find Abe’s closest blood relative and display it on the map.” “You know I need…” “Yes, something non-magical he wore on his person or some skin or blood, right? Here use this.” I said and tossed her the money belt he had worn. “Just as mercenary as ever I see. Did you check for gold teeth or fillings too?” She asked sarcastically. “No, his head exploded and it would have been too much work to search for those. Besides ‘Ms. Natural enemy of hotel rooms’ how do you expect me to upgrade my subscription if I don’t increase my earnings.” She paused in thought for a moment after hearing the magic word upgrade. “You know organs can sell for a good amount in certain markets.” “No, just, no. Sometimes you scare me Aria. Back to the task at hand. Show me his nearest blood relatives on my map.” “There are only three that fit the requirements. One half brother and two nephews living on the continent to the south-west of our current location.” Three pins dropped onto the map. All three were in the same general area. “Well looks like we’ll be taking a side trip to the continent no matter what. Does not surprise me though. If I were related to Abe, I’d want a decent sized body of water and land between us too.” I started looking through the apps on my tablet. “I am fairly certain I had, yes here it is. This should work. Familiar Contract Emulator free version. With this you should be able to communicate without bruising my thigh with that beak of yours.” I was getting rather tired of getting slapped by that beak. In the version of Earth in which we were located, to form the familiar contract, I should have had to learn the ceremony. Then I would have taken one of her flight feathers and several drops of my blood mixing them in a fire while chanting some ridiculous oath. In short, a complete waste of my time. The free app just needed both of us to tap the accept button and wait 30 seconds. Well there was also the ads, but the ad free costs money. I mean, there couldn’t be that many ads, right?
Thank you for Reading! I hope and intend to continue to keep it interesting. My plan is to continue to update and add to the story every Monday and Thursday. Thank you for reading also!
Since this guy doesn't seem to have much luck with the system why is he such a positivist? And why can the hologram use lethal force if it's just the basic service?
He can have a positive attitude if he wants. That's his personality. However, the system works just fine not once did he make a request in the story above that was not promptly and accurately provided within the bounds of the subscription. Aria is not a hologram. You seem to have misunderstood something. From chapter 2 part 1, "That interface is Aria. She’s either an android or a golem or some type of artificial being. " The haze when she appears is just physically arriving. I may re-work that to make that clearer. She used a self defense protocol to protect herself not a service covered by the subscription. She is autonomous and her personality is what is causing the issues not the system itself. Perhaps I can make that a little clearer. Thank you for reading.
Yes you should make it clearer. It seemed like Aria was an holographic AI or something. Add something like "Due to the favor I did to the creator of the system, she gracefully let me use Aria for free. However considering all the troubles she causes me it seems more like I am unpaid beta tester."
Thanks. I appreciate the input. I need to go back through tomorrow and tighten up the narrative and descriptions.
Also it might a good idea to reiterate that the MC is in a time limit or something. Or that the reason he takes shortcuts is because if he takes too long someone will beat him doing the rescue. Then add him cursing "Those expensive as hell A rank rescuers who have a golden spoon in their mouth and end being so expensive they bankrupt desperate people who just wants their loved ones back." Maybe for chapter 3?
Part3 I am ashamed to admit I underestimated the power of greed that is exemplified by “free” software. Within moments of when Ms. Pelican and I began our conversation I was cruelly and clearly reminded. “Ms. Pelican go ahead and try talking.” “Testing. Testing. Yes! Oh, and please stop calling me Ms. Pelican! My name is Eleanor.” A refined young lady’s voice exclaimed from the general direction of the pelican. “This statement brought to you by Zant’s brand bird feed. Try Zant’s!” Said a modulated baritone voice. “Who was that?” “This question brought to you by No Love Wars by Graxanax Games Incorporated. Come make War Not Love!” Announced the baritone voice. “Well that’s just great! Don’t say anything else Eleanor. Just hold on for a minute.” Quickly I looked through settings for the Familiar Contact Emulator application and found the ad free option. The option was greyed out and when I hovered over it the words, “Coming soon!” popped up in a taunting gaudy text. Frustrated I checked the paid version and it was marked as coming soon on the store. Based on the initial release date of the software coming soon mean longer than three years. I checked for competitors. There are always competitors. One of them must be ad free, right? Wrong. Every single one was either outrageously expensive or ad laden, but also carried negative reviews exceeding the number of positive reviews. “Ok Eleanor. I don’t know what level of technology you are familiar with, so I’m going to explain in a way that may seem overly simplistic if you are, in fact, familiar with the concepts. That voice before was an advertisement. I am using something called software on my tablet to make you my familiar so that we can talk to one another. The advertisements for other products are how the people that made the software earn money. Every time you complete a set of statements or questions the software will insert an advertisement. Now this is how were going to deal with this advertising issue. I’m going to ask you a batch of questions and I want you to answer them all at once and then ask any questions you have at the end of your answers. That way we can keep the number of interruptions to a minimum. After that I want you to only say something when you absolutely must. Just nod if you understand. Per the instructions, the software does not translate nonverbal communication.” Eleanor nodded her head in an exaggerated manner. “Ok, then here we go. Is it ok if I call you Elly? How did you get here? Why did Abe turn you into a Pelican?” “Elly is fine. I had a smart phone so you don’t need to explain advertising and software. I don’t know how I got here. A little over a week ago, I woke up on the beach in that town. Everything except the people were clear. But the blurred shapes of people were wandering all around. I thought I was dreaming. After some time passed Abe came up to me and led me back to the hut. There he tried to convince me that the slave collar would keep me tuned in to the right frequency. It sounded like a load of crap so I tried to run. He tried to stop me so I kicked him. Hard. I got out of the hut and tried to yell, but everything went dark. When I woke up I was a pelican. Abe said slavery was too good for me and kept going on about how expensive the treatments had been to fix what I smashed. Abe could order me and I had to obey. He taught me how to sync and de-sync myself with the world. Then the he started making me go find the people that showed up on the beach. They weren’t always human. One time it was this cat creature and I did not lead it some much as escape from it. Apparently, it considered pelicans a delicacy. There were about four people including the cat that came through before you.” “Threatened by cats? Buy Felix’s Cat Repellent and antiperspirant from your online retailer today and get free two-minute shipping.” touted the baritone voice. “Ok, Elly. Thanks for the summary. So here is what we’re going to do. I know you want to be back to normal ASAP, but I have a deadline to meet in regards to Ms. Fennel. We’re going to check out the matching individuals nearby as quickly as possible. At the next town, I am going to buy some method of transportation. I know it’s a pain, but I need to ask you to try not to talk unless absolutely necessary. When we get to the next town I’ll get a room and tell you more. I need to pay attention to our surroundings as we travel or I’d tell you more now.” After making sure she nodded in agreement I stood up. “Ok then let’s get going. Feel free to hitch a ride.” With a nod and a jump Elly landed on my shoulder. Thinking I’m likely to develop a sore shoulder I set off down the road again. Aria trailed along behind. Normally she goes into hiding when I am travelling even going so far as to return home and wait until I call for her, but today for some reason she decided to stick around even with the omnipresent danger of insects. “Aria are you ok? You don’t normally stick around.” “I was thinking, maybe I need to get used to being around bugs. I can’t keep causing problems or you’ll never upgrade.” “Well, I agree you need to get used to bugs, but you could take up beekeeping as a hobby and I still wouldn’t upgrade.” “You are so stubborn. And cheap.” “That’s me stubbornly cheap. By the way great job not freaking out over that ladybug on your shoulder.” Aria stopped walking and went rigidly still. She slowly dropped her gaze to the little insect on her shoulder. With a shrill scream, Aria disappeared into another dimension leaving behind her coat to crumple lightly to the ground. The offending ladybug lazily flying away. “Well at least she did not try to blow it away this time. It’s definitely an improvement.” I thought as I continued down the road.