NOVEL WEB Ch.25: Belle Takes the Lead!
The light around us rippled as we shot through the middle as a blue watery substance encased us into a bubble. We flew through the air for a few moments and my heart began racing, my wings opened halfway and my field of view grew as I saw more of my surroundings. There were huge almost red wood like trees making a forest to the left, each one looked as big as a skyscraper and I could easily see monsters flying in between the trees. Nearby to the giant forest was several lakes and ponds with hundreds of flowers growing nearby. Wait-that flower in the middle of the biggest lake moved like it was looking around?! At the right were several oddly shaped structures like the shoe from inside the building, some even had weird plants growing on them. One looked like a house sized pumpkin and other ones of different sizes and even a lizard statue pointing at something and caked in huge white blobs. they kinda looked like a spider's egg sac...and there's a lot of spider girls crawling all over it......
In the far distance I saw the huge mountain that towered over the school. A large mass of black and white stone, the base was littered with a minefield of shiny blade like rock. the giant trees that grew too close to the base were all cut into by the black rock, rotting stumps and fallen trees lay with dozens of these rocks growing out of it like a pincushion. above that, I could see several caves and large crevices that looked like the mountain itself tried to pull out of the ground.
But…. I ended up looking down. The bubble we were in was rapidly falling to the ground and that sight reminded me of a deathly nightmare I had. My wings failing to help me fly as I fell into jagged rock below, my body being ravaged into pieces. My body began to heat up and my scales started to itch and move. But before I do anything, Belle tightened his grip on my hand making me look at him, he just gave me his cheery smile. It distracted me enough to forget about the rapidly approaching ground and when the bubble hit the floor, it shook before popping on a wooden platform. Leaving us completely unaffected from the fall as if we only walked over here.
Without waiting a beat Belle pulled me off the platform. “Come on! We have loads to see and I know you’ll love it!” he said pulling me along. we passed several pure black plants that had red thorns growing from its sides that curled and waved at anything nearby almost like it was trying to grab passerby's.
He led me to a little stone pedestal and a black tree stump before he walked up to the stump and reached out with his hand but paused. “That’s right. You don’t have an incarnation!” he said turning back to me.
What! What does he mean?! “I’ve only ever been me.” I said tilting my head. At least I should be me but what does he mean by that?
“Of course you’re you, I wouldn’t be friends with just anyone. I have priorities!” he said standing up with his chest puffed out with a hand fixing his shirt collar, he looked almost like a noble. “What I mean is an incarnation! You know a little doll that represents you and you control to see a smaller world!” he said while spreading his arms out with a big grin.
“Oh! Yeah, I don’t recall having one. Would the majestic buff cat show me how it’s done?” I asked while holding my hands together like I was praying.
Belle hid his smile behind his hands. “Do not worry weary soul, this kindly spirit will aid you!” he said before taking my hands and placing them on the stone pedestal. “Since you have trouble with mana just think of grabbing a cookie with your thoughts.” He said trying to direct me. Remembering how Mr. Minnow reacted made doing this pretty nerve racking could I accidently turn things into bombs? Belle put his hand on my arm which was kinda weird for me, a guy touching another guy, former one but it seemed calming? Then the smell of watermelons and apples wafted into my nose further calming my head.
Taking it slow it tried to think of my mind reaching for a cookie like Belle said, closing my eyes. A sweet tasty cookie that has a crunchy edges and melted chocolate chip, hmmm….
POKE
Huh? What was-
POKE-POKE
I opened my eyes feeling something brush against my face and also heard the sound poke. Looking around I saw a light baby blue cylinder room, turning my head I saw a weird black and yellow circular shield that hovered in the air with a pair of wings. Its wings had six long feathers near the tip and were white with brown and gold feathers. The edges of the shield bordered in a bronze circle with black lines spiraling into a square. The middle was a black circle but suddenly a bronze person stepped into view from the right but was positioned to look at the left. It had a beard, thick curly hair with a writhe in its hair and wore a toga.
“Hello! New soul! Welcome the ‘Yī xiǎo kuài jiā’ or also known as ‘little piece of home’ incarnation creation and management system. I am Edmond a single feather of the greater IcMs.” The shield said as it raised its wings while the bronze man brought his fist to his chest. is he praying or worshiping this IcMs? Curious, I tried to mimic him but found my vision flipped sideways which surprised me into trying to flail my limbs only for my vision to begin spinning in circles, making me dizzy.
“Woah there New soul!” said Edmond. I felt his feathers brush against my sides pulling me back into an upright position. “Please be patient, I know you are eager to begin to creation of your incarnation but you must first start filing your SoUl data.” He said but paused. The man held his pointer finger to his nose. “How strange. Your SoUl data should have been registered when you began schooling. You have the genetic information of Oliver Roberts but not the same mana signature….. you’re not a shapeshifter are you?” He asked me as his shield body leaned forward. If he’s talking about souls then he might’ve noticed a difference? Have to be careful.
“I recently converged and my mana has been really different than it was before so it’s possible that my mana might be read differently.” I said with a serious face. I even made sure to come off as sounding factual to seem more believable and eyed the shield man. If it figured out that I was a different Oliver who’s to say life would ever go smoothly again.
Its wings folded in front of him the same way people put their fingers between each other. “Processing…..” he said, scratching his nose now. “Convergence confirmed. Mana is confirmed to be denser…..” he paused for a second. “All issues have been cleared up with admin! But due to the change of mana you are unable to use your prior incarnation. Please begin the creation process. Would you like some help or do it alone?” He asked as his wings rested at the shield’s sides.
“Yeah, I’d like some help Edmond.” I said looking at him. I’m glad that there wasn’t a bigger issue.
“Aright! Let’s begin with the naming process!” He said cheerfully. Without a second to wait a bar appeared in my vision that had the word, ‘NAME’, written in it. “Please type in a name you wish to be affiliated as. It can be a nickname, use runic language/characters or some joke. But keep in mind any foul language or humor will not be allowed.” He said, nodding to me.
After he finished talking, a keyboard appeared below the bar. Curious about this runic language I found a button labeled as 1/3, clicking on it I found your normal number and symbols, another click showed more symbols but nothing different. Well other than what looked like different symbols for money only recognizing the, $, symbol. I was confused but remembered it was a language which I promptly clicked on and found runic. The language looked like a several lines connecting at different angles while other looked like animals like a deer or a bird.
Going back to English I quickly decided on ‘Pinepen’, why? Because reasons. Pressing ENTER made a stone disc appear in front to me.
“Please select a body type and begin the incarnation’s creation.” Edmond said.
The body types looked like several beads in the shape of a humanoid, just that the beads came in different shapes. Ones to look more curvy, others to look buff and some looking somewhere in between. Deciding on one that was more lengthy, I began the carnation’s appearance. Clicking on the colors red for the arms and legs, blue for the body and a yellow head. This was because I mostly wanted to see if I could and found that I liked it a lot. Then came a few options like horns, extra arms, tails, ears and even hair. Out of all of the options I found one with a glass or crystal pin of a red thunderbolt which I really liked so I put on where its face should be like a mask. I was almost done, the last thing I wanted was three black feathers that shined like soapy bubbles, putting them on top of its head with the biggest in the middle.
“Done.” I said to Edmond, trying to give him a friendly nod which resulted in my vision going into super zoom. “Oh My God! I’m just trying to be kind!” I raged, which made Edmond laugh at my antics.
“I appreciate the kindness behind your actions Pinepen. Not many seek to befriend a construct.” He said before looking at my incarnation. “A little strange but everyone chooses to be different. I shall now begin the actualization process. Also remember that you can return here anytime to edit your incarnation” He said as he opened his wings wide. Tiny little orbs of light flew from his wings into my incarnation, making it slowly glow until I was blinded by the bright light.
“Wow! Your incarnation looks like a masked hero!” Belle cheered. The sound of his voice made me open my eyes, finding myself back in the real world. Belle was looking at the stone pedestal where a three inch figure was standing in the middle.
Looking it over I found the incarnation I made appeared on the pedestal, it even had that crystal thunderbolt on its face. “It’s simple but I liked how it looked, I think it kinda reminds me of childhood book I read a long time ago.” I said sounding very nostalgic. This made Belle nod in agreement.
“Yeah! It kinda looks like lil’ sami from those hidden books!” He said as he shook his finger in the air. Belle froze then turned to me with a huge smile. “You like the hidden books!” he asked, his face dripping with pure excitement.
“Yeah I do, I liked the tiny world the creator built out of toys and little houses. I think I even have a few books somewhere at home too.” I said holding my chin and looking up. That take me back, I found one of the books at a library and fell in love with creating a world of toys, building my own out of blocks and toy fronts… only to have my giant monster toy come to attack it.
“OH MY GODDESSES! I LOVE those books! I almost have all of them! WHATBOOKSDOYOUHAVE,WAITWHICHONESYOURFAVORITEAND-“ Belle blasted me with fast words. He was super excited to find someone else who enjoyed the books, it was one thing to talk to someone online but it was another thing to find someone in the wild. And the way Belle looked at me, it looked like he found a new species of Bigfoot.
“Whoa Whoa-WHOA. I can’t keep up with your barrage of questions.” I said which made Belle stop to consider mu situation. “And my favorite was the Haunted Mansion.” I added. Belle’s head snapped to look up at me, a huge smile grew on his face as his body excitedly vibrated in place.
“My favorite is the one based on Lord Brittney’s castle, ‘Once in Ages Past’!” Belle said as he suddenly grabbed my hands. I guess he was really happy to have someone share a niche interest, I mean so am I but I don’t think I’d turn into a rocket ship in front of him…maybe at home.
After a moment to talk about these books I found we both really liked seeing the world from a tiny perspective. Belle said that if that’s the case then I’d love the little town. He then reached into the stump, his hand disappearing into the surface, moving around he then pulled out his own incarnation. Which was a feminine humanoid with a clothes in a pastel baby blue and a transparent slivery cape. The clothes looked like a type of corset that tapered above the hips before flaring out and cutting out into a white skirt while the corset had small coattails in the front and longer coattails in the back. It had thigh high boots and arm gloves that ended bellow the shoulders with metal hoops. It kinda looked like a magical girl with short blonde hair, all it needed was a wand or a staff.
“Wow, it looks really nice, almost like it stepped out of an anime. How’d you get clothes that small?” I asked looking intently at it. The clothes were well made and looked like a professional made them, I bet my mother would like to trade tips with this master too.
Belle blushed, trying to hide his face behind his incarnation. “Umm, I made them…it took a long time to make them and I had to do a lot of things to learn…. Thank you.” He said, giving a small smile as he said his thanks. Seeing that he made this filled me with pride, my mind nodded in approval at his craftsmanship. “So let’s go see the little piece of home!” he said as he rushed towards a lifted platform near some pink and red trees.
As we got closer I saw that it really was a little town! Just like the buildings around us in the garden, there were little mini versions here, one looked like a bonsai tree with a little shack under its roots and another was a little pumpkin with white framed windows and tiny flowers and a little garden in the back. There was also another shoe…wait why a sports shoe this time, it looked like one of those expensive shoes athletes endorsed and signed. It had a little garage made of several normal sized flowers with a type of grass weaved together. A different building was a tower made of twigs, pebbles and leaves. It was leaning and poked out of some tall grass in the corner of the mini town.
There was even a little pond that probably looked like a lake for this town. At the pond was several tents made of sticks, leaves and grass, while under mushrooms and flowers were little folding chairs. Closer to the pond was a mini treehouse, it looked like a tree grew in the middle of a log cabin and took it up as it grew. Only this cabin had a string rope tied to a higher branch, probably to swing into the pond below. The pond itself was near the border of the town’s platform and had a transparent material which let you look into the pond as if you were underwater, which showed the pond as really deep! Under the water I could see small fish swimming in and out of little nooks and plants. There was even a super tall kelp and root forest growing in one area, there was small Lilly pads growing above it too. There was… coral houses? The coral houses were shaped like clouds, coiled snakes and one was just a person with a door where the groin was.
This was crazy! There were houses and even a town square with statues and even a single action figure planted in the ground. The only strange out of place spot was a little crater sitting in the far right, it looked like someone ripped out a ton of dirt. This was a super cool diorama, I wonder how long it took them to build it? Maybe I could learn a thing or two from them and add a house of my own?
“I’m happy you love this little town! I hope to see you add something like little Belle has!” came a prideful high pitched voice. Looking around I saw a little purple glowing fairy, fluttering above the town, now that I look at her it looks like this town might perfectly fit her height. The fairy flew over to Belle and proceeded to sit on his head between his two ears. “Hey Bells! How ya been!” said the fairy sweetly to his right ear which tilted to her slightly.
“I’m good. Just showing my friend the amazing town.” Belle said in a cheery almost singing tone.
The fairy laid on her belly holding her head with her hands and swaying her legs in the air. “My, you’re a pretty dragon! If I ever start a troop of my own, I hope they’re as cute and beautiful as you miss, Mighty Dragoness!” The fairy sang. Her voice was similar to Kathy’s own auto tune sounding voice.
“It’s ac-“ Right as I was going to correct her I was cut off as the fairy flew into the air disappearing into a flicker of light. I looked around while Belle just giggled to himself as he watched me look around wildly.
“Over here miss!” Called the fairy. Turning to my shoulder I found the fairy sitting there giving me a small wave. “I hope you don’t mind buuuuuuuuuut I haven’t seen a real dragon up close and well here’s a really cutie!” she said as she held her head like a fan girl.
from what I could make out, the purple glowing fairy wore a mainly green and red dress that looked to have a corset and frilled sleeves. Her hair was a dark purple and seemed to float as if gravity got lazy with it.
“Okay? But I’m a guy on the inside. So just call me Oliver.” I said giving her a small smile. The little fairy started giggling like her crush said a full sentence to her.
“You cheeky gal you! Putting the charm on lil old me. My heart almost came out to greet you!” she said as a puff of powder came from her chest and she fell over playing dead. “But you have this grand fairy’s word, sweet Olive cake, that I’ll try to see you as a male. Though it will be hard, you’re much tooooo pretty to see as just a boring man.” She said before flying off my shoulder. “Have fun in my little home!” she called as she took off.
What was that interaction? That fairy was definitely trying to flirt with me. But tough luck, being called cute or pretty isn’t going to get her a date with me. She would have to try a lot harder if…. W-wait no! I’m not actually considering-
“Heehehehe. She left you in smiles too I see.” Belle said pointing at my face. I touched my mouth to find a huge smile on my face… even my ears felt really hot. Oh no! Even girls are aggressive! How could I forget that!
Trying to clear my head I turned away. “So what do we do with this town.” I asked in the most robotic voice I could muster. Please let it be!
“Uh, oh! Follow me! There’s a spot you need to do this at.” He said while giving me sly grin. NOOOOOOOOO. He’s not going to let this go!
