Entering Penumbra

[nusse]

This Ergo fellow must have had it in for me, after all he had me walking miles underwater with a diving suit that just covered half my body, making the rest soaking wet, only to give me a couple of sunglasses and dump me into an arctic landscape. I was freezing, and while my eyes tried to adjust to the immense brightness of this area, my feet and the ground kind of decided to form a bond. That is to say, after I’d paused there for 30 seconds or so my feet had frozen to the ground. The good thing was that I could actually still move my arms, the drawback was that I didn’t have any use for them, as everything under my waist had frozen solid.

So there I was trying to think warm thoughts and pondering on what to do, when a fellow explorer came through the portal behind me. He was one of those Atrox types, big and clumsy, and the only reason I’m calling him a he, is the fact that he had a beard. Atroxes haven’t got any reproductive organs – so ‘it’ might cover things better. Anyways it was this huge Atrox with a slightly vacant look.

“What ho?” he said. Apparently wondering what was happening.
“I’m trying to freeze to death.” I answered. I admit that my tone might have been kind of testy as it should seem obvious to anyone that this was actually the case.
“Oh, good luck then.” he answered, “Any particular reason you want to do that by the way, doesn’t really seem like the way I’d choose to go myself….”
“Well, actually I’d like to avoid it, but as I’m more or less frozen solid from my waist down, I can see very few other options right now.”
“Hmm, I could set up a campfire if you’d like. And I could hit you with a couple of my nanos that at least heats the monsters up here more than a bit, if you catch my drift. Izgimmer’s Last Word for example, just hang on a second.”

He tosses up a campfire in a matter of minutes and then starts on one of those mumblings that those nano-tech guys are so famous for. My brain is operating very slowly, but there is an alarm going off somewhere and I think it’s related to something this guy’s just said. Before I can actually find out why the alarm is going off, my survival instinct has put my consciousness on hold, and taken over my body. “STOP!” I screamed. He stops mumbling and looks at me with a slightly worried sort of look. By this time my survival instinct has kindly filled in my consciousness of what is really going on and I can take over once again.

“Are you out of your mind??? I’ve seen that nano burn mobs to cinders without the mobs ever knowing they got hit!”, I tell him, “If that’s the help you can offer, I think freezing to death might actually give me the pleasure of life for a little while longer than what you’re offering.”
“Ah. Yes. Sorry. Didn’t think of that…. I’d probably need to cast something on you that will heat you up kind of like a candle or something. I’m kind of used to casting these things on the monsters that lurk around here – and you know that you want them to die as fast as possible. Hehe….. Hum, right, let’s see.” And he goes off to mumbling mode and waving his arms wildly. A second or so later a spray of fire is shot at my leg, and I can feel the ice melting away from the spot that it hit. This goes on for a while with a few accidents, one of them being me hit in the face with one of the sprays singing my hair off in the vicinity of where I got hit. Suffice to say that I’m grateful for this guy helping me, but I’m also more than a wee bit annoyed.

I was sitting by the fire getting my body and clothes dry, my newfound Atrox friend had taken out his lunchbox – or lunchbackpack rather and were enjoying his 5th sandwich. I’m using the term in a loose sense though, as each of the sandwiches in question was made from an entire piece of bread. He did seem to enjoy the goods though, and with him being quite silent, I almost started to like the fellow. This state of bliss didn’t last too long though – within seconds of him downing the last sandwich he opened his mouth to speak.

“So what’s your name then? I’m called Bernard Age, friends call me Slacky.” he gave me an anticipating look.
“I’m Elliot Age”, I said.
“Hey, we might be related you know - we got the same surname!”
“Don’t get your hopes up.”, I answer, well knowing that his mom and dad are nonexistent.
“What do your friends call you then?”
“Nusse”, I answered, not really knowing if I wanted this guy to call me that or not.
“Ok Nusse, what is your profession? I bet you’ve already guessed that I’m an NT.”
“I’m an adventurer, or guide if you’d like.”
“Hehe, some adventurer you are Nusse, that gets covered in ice not able to move.”, he was grinning more than I appreciated, and I was fairly certain that he hadn’t deserved to call me Nusse. “Did you use your Com-unit to try to contact anyone? We’ve been here for an hour now and nobody has come through the portal….” I almost hit myself on the forehead, I mean how stupid could I get? Of course I should’ve used the Com-unit the moment I noticed that I was in trouble, but the thought never crossed my mind. Now there’s a prime example of why you should keep your head cool when facing problems which could be fatal.
“My Com-unit is broken – might have been all the water.” I answered.
“Hmm, mine still works fine even after the water. You know it’s got self-repairing nano-bots - so it should work no matter what happened to it. I dropped mine from 100 feet above the ground once and when I picked it up it looked brand new. Let me have a look at it.”
“Hey, it’s broken, trust me on this one, ok? I know how it is supposed to work and it certainly wasn’t working when you got through the portal.” I didn’t like where this conversation was heading, knowing that you’ve made a mistake was indeed fine, but letting others know was something that should be avoided.
“Simmer down, mate! The nano-bots might have been a bit slow, it might be working perfectly now. Let me check.”, and he started to fiddle with his own Com-unit and less than a couple of seconds later I get his message on my Com-Unit. “Well it seems like it’s working now. That’s good, or else you’d probably have to go somewhere to get it serviced. You might as well attack a dragon unarmed and not wearing armor, as walking around without a working Com-unit. It’s suicidal you know.”
“Yeah I know – good thing it’s working now then.” I really wanted to change the topic of conversation, I was fed up with this one.
“Yeah. So, Nusse, where shall we start exploring?”
“We start exploring? Eh, yes, we should probably find a place to scan our bodies in case something attacks us or we fall off a cliff.” I needed a scan anyways, and I might find some way to get rid of this joker after the scan.
“Sounds like a good idea to me. Any chance of you knowing the general direction of a scanner?”
“Well, one of my fellow guides sent a map of this place to my Com-unit, it’s filled with black spots marking unknown territory, but it should be able to scan nearby territories and report if there are any life forms close by. “ I consulted my Com-unit for a few minutes. “It seems like the general direction for a scanner would be to go west. “
“Ok, then let’s move out before I need to break open my lunchbox.” The big Atrox rose and stretched.
“Your lunchbox? What was the meal you just had?” I admit that I was a bit curious.
“Ah, that. Well, at school, the kids always teased me when I had a light snack between breakfast and lunch, so quit teasing me as well, will you? A big body like mine needs some food you know.”
“Yeah, sure.” I said. I didn't really feel like wanting to be with him when he ate his lunch, the amount of food in his lunchbox could probably feed a family of twelve in the slums of Tir.

We set out west, enjoying the beautiful view as we ran in the snow. Within few minutes we saw monsters in the distance and slowed down to assess the situation. I was consulting my Com-unit and checking my map to see if we could find safe passage between the groups of monsters standing between us and the scanner, when Slacky once more found the urge to speak.

“Look at those rocks over there, strange that they’re not covered in snow, eh?” He started walking towards the edge where these rocks were scattered all over.
“Hang on a bit.” I answered. I consulted my Com-unit once more and found that it was indeed a life form. I backed up a bit and retrieved a camera from my backpack. “Ok. Let me take a picture of you standing beside it then.” I did a quick nano on myself increasing my run speed while he walked closer.
“Cool, it even feels warm to touch, might be why it’s not covered in snow.”
The look on his face when the Golem rose up and started attacking him was priceless and I’m glad I was able to get a picture just at the right time. Then I ran as fast as I could towards the scanner knowing that Slacky would be dead within a minute. The trip to the scanner went pretty good since I had the map over the area, and some minutes later I was resting in the garden of Cama. Shortly after arriving there my Com-unit lit up and told me I had a message. “Are you all right?” it read. I answered it with a short “Yeah”. Less than a minute later there was another message, “I’m on my way back there, meet me at the portal”. Sighing, I told my Com-unit to ignore any future messages from Slacky, and started packing my belongings. “It’s a beautiful place this,” I told myself, “but a bit cold perhaps. I think I’ll go and check out the place that’s rumoured to be up north, I’ve heard it’s supposed to be warmer up there.”

[Tussa]

[ Nice story, Nusse! Poor Slacky lost a friend even before he gained one. Got more stories? ]