Now that things were a little calmer, a little cleaner, and Myelome was acting like an actual member of the group... temporarily or not... Oskar sat down and inspected his prosthetic. He couldn’t tell much about what the Kobold had done. It was cleaned. Still felt solid.

  Touwon had taken the boot off though, that much was clear since it had been re-tied with a knot that Oskar wasn’t sure he could untie without a pair of scissors. A gritty, sap-like substance was used to repair the boot’s rubber sole; the Kobold let it dry and then expertly carved it back into shape with a blade. He’d seen Touwon do the same to Erik’s boots the night they’d spent in the glass cavern with Bastet, and took a few seconds to appreciate his crafty friend.

  He might be the most useful person in the Collective, overall. Who knows how many times he’s taken my stuff and repaired it. Sometimes, I don’t even realize it, and of course he doesn’t say anything.

  The rip in his backpack after falling down the dune day before yesterday? Blood on his shirt from their last fight? Goggles getting that gross sweat film and Oskar had not had time to stop at night and clean them? It all just got fixed, and Oskar was beginning to see that Touwon cared a great deal about them. His way of showing it was in those little acts of service. Oskar made a mental note to make sure he showed the Kobold gratitude more often.

  It’s easy to forget people show their feelings in different ways, and the quiet ones, despite sometimes not wanting attention, deserve to know they’re appreciated.

  // That was impressively insightful, PUBs. Nicely said. //

  Looking over at Erik, Oskar realized his brother was the one who’d taught that lesson to him in the first place. He remembered being eight or nine years old, crying to Erik after being sent to his room for getting upset at their dad for not ever spending time with them. The same dad, who, in retrospect, had been dealt a rough hand with the loss of their mother, having to work much more than full-time job and take care of two very active boys in a house that often felt like it was always falling apart around them.

  Winter was settling in, and they’d just moved again. Erik reminded him that even though their dad wasn’t even close to perfect, and maybe he didn’t know how to just say it outright, he did work hard to keep things going. Maybe that was the only way he knew how to show his feelings.

  They always had clothes and food. It was home and friends that Oskar wanted, though. And time with their dad. Time, he realized in retrospect, that their dad was in short supply of. But even Erik had gotten mad at their dad occasionally, and as they grew, Oskar always looked for chances to repay his brother for the lesson and comfort he’d received that day.

  And now I’m a druid in a desert. With a lazy cat and a cute Pangolor for companions.

  // Could be worse, you could be a cat or a Pangolor stuck with you. //

  Hilarious.

  Myelome behaved for the rest of the morning as they cleaned up camp and headed in the direction she indicated. Her fake smile turned saccharine as the day progressed however, and Oskar knew she had something up her sleeve. He didn’t know exactly what it was, but his mood was souring as hers seemed to improve.

  Touwon was Touwon, and Erik was focused on putting one foot in front of the other. The two Kobolds seemed to trust Myelome, or at least Fox did. Who knew what Touwon was thinking. So, Oskar ducked his head, shut his mouth, and worked on his Resonating Ward as he shuffled onward in the heat, swirling it around him and pushing it outward -but never far enough to touch Myelome. He didn’t think she’d try to hit him again, but he wasn’t going to intentionally antagonize her.

  The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

  // That would be more fun, though. I hate her, too. Just look at how shiny her Goggles are. Eat the rich. //

  I feel like you’re just trying words out to see what happens.”

  // We’ve been compromised! Abort Operation: Try Words Out To See What Happens. //

  Her goggles are really shiny.

  Oskar watched her, walking ahead of them with her head held high.

  As if Fox isn’t the only reason she was alive. Every hour we walk, it’s like she’s forgetting more and more about her debt to Fox and our… conversation.

  Behind the old Kobold, Fox was walking, her head low. Seeing her usual fire dimmed in the presence of Myelome was making Oskar irrationally angry, making it difficult to maintain his hold on the magic as he tried to smoothly shift between his Resonating Ward and his True Resonation.

  It might have been his imagination, but Myelome seemed even thinner with his True Resonation active. She was snacking on a live lizard, which was something he’d never seen either of the other two Kobolds do.

  Fox and Touwon seemed to avoid even looking at her, but a few hours into their walk, Oskar noticed Myelome smiling at Fox and this was enough that he felt the True Resonation slip from his grasp. Instead of letting it disperse, the magic flittering away, he shoved it all away from him in a moment of frustration.

  The magic did something unexpected, pulsing outward like sonar, and his ability to sense the world around him passively disappeared. The sudden blindness felt like a void to him, and he felt pressure build at the base of his skull.

  Just as quickly as the feeling appeared, it was gone.

  That wasn’t me. Something or someone stopped it.

  The PUB was doing something… doing a lot of something if the PUB’s strain was noticeable to Oskar.

  Please tell me you’re okay… when you can of course.

  No answer, but he could feel it working, an almost imperceptible hum now riding somewhere between the conscious and subconscious, and he hoped that was a good sign.

  Oskar tried instinctively to reach out and feel what was around him, but he felt too disconnected with the world. It was a sobering realization exactly how much closer he’d grown to this world. He was so used to the connection that he felt blind and vulnerable without it.

  For a moment, he was made starkly aware of how much he’d relied on his Aura to feed him information. In that blind moment, he felt the fringes of panic and anxiety spider its way back up his back into the base of his skull.

  The only thing he was sure of was what he could see with his eyes, as even his ears felt deafened. Afraid to blink, he froze in place and dropped to a knee, digging his fingers into the hot, loose sand, grasping at something to ground himself with. Talau was so close, but like the sand, it slipped through his fingers.

  In the distance, he could now see it. A ring of symbols and things that made no sense to him whatsoever was rushing back toward him. It was like it was encrypted and if he wasn’t ready, it might kill him. He was not ready.

  Distantly, he felt his PUB calling out to him. Something about a bridge.

  That doesn’t make sense.

  Suddenly, he was sure of one other thing.

  Eldrichard, that giant prick, is turning to watch me die.

  That, he could feel. Thankfully, the existential dread wasn’t as oppressive. It was like a sunburn to a man on fire; the pain of the impossible creature’s attention was an annoying buzz. Desperately, Oskar fought it back, knowing he should probably not call the thing names. It was hard to care at the moment, though.

  The world seemed to shift around him. He wasn’t sure if it was the ground shaking, or him, but Oskar felt the ground shaking beneath him as the ripple, the ring of too much information swept through the dune ahead of him, coming faster than he could blink.

  He watched, frozen, as it crashed into him, along with more information than he could possibly absorb. The hot sand hitting his face was another stimulation lost in an ocean of other things he couldn’t comprehend.

  Oskar finally blinked, but he couldn’t make his eyes open.

  You must open your eyes. They’re coming.

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