NOVEL WEB Ch.30: Somewhere Beyond yet Near
‘Heheehe. I bet you like that little man’
A blobby shadow moved over another blurry blob, coming together and mashing together like mashed potatoes, the sound of wet slapping reverberated across the murky brown and black world. Making the world shake and tremble.
‘You bet I did, who would’ve thought you’d feel so good….. Do it………again’
The sound of crackling rice, sizzling and the sensation of pressing pressure as if a spatula was holding down a patty.
‘Only if you swallow this time sweetie….go….m.k…..tu… become pretty’
The pressing pressure pulled away and the sizzling stopped suddenly.
‘…it….all….th…..yeah’
Something started to pull away as if hundreds of knotted strings came undone, some being ripped apart. The knots that didn’t pull away began pulsing like a caffeinated heart, with each pulse these knots grew bigger and bigger. I heard clicking and popping like someone was snapping together an action figure’s joints together. The blurry world began to shake and twist together, blocking my vision, I couldn’t see anything else but a massive dark wriggling mass of….jello? the jello monster grew and grew until the everything was writhing blob.
Suddenly the world encompassing blob shook and began to be squeezed and I was pushed out into the void of space. I spun in circles until I fell into a mug of super-heated water, slowly pulling me deeper until I became the dark.
“Mmmmnnnmnmn.” I Grumbled. It’s mu…..
“Oliver, I got the squirt bottle, fresh from the fridge~” Called a sweet voice, honey?
“Bear….” I said while grabbing my teddy bear and pulling it into a hug.
“Oly! Wha- mph!” shouted the honey voice before I turned over with my teddy bear
“warm.” I mumbled before nuzzling my bear which stopped struggling for a moment, a century or was it a millennium? Life is hard when you’re a cup.
Then something cold hit my face, the dreaded cold thing sunk into my neck! My eyes instantly shot open the coldness went lower i-in between my chest! “Oh NO! That doe-water!” I shouted as my body shuddered at the sensation of something worming its way down there, that wetness defiantly doesn’t belong there!
“Hey Oly.” Said a sweet voice. I looked over to see my mother wrapped up in my arms and wings, she gave me a cheery smile. “Teddy wants tho sit up pweashe.” She said in a cute voice, almost sounding like a four year old.
I let her go from my grasp and let her get off my bed. “Sorry about that, I had a really relaxing dream.” I said rubbing the back of my head.
“It must have been if you’re willing to sleep past your alarm and let time slowly slip past you. The minutes ticking away before you miss breakfast and get to school late.” Mom said with haunting voice as she stared at me. Her face told me to hurry up or else I’m in for a free ticket to one of her lectures, the kind ending with some restriction. That look was enough to make me get up and run to get changed and ready for the day. Last time I didn’t listen she made my food taste off, turns out she didn’t put as much if any seasonings in my food. She knows how to get you and well, there’s no telling what she might do next time.
Rushing to my closet I pulled the door open in a rush that I heard the hinges loudly creak. Moving to the closet shirt hanging, I quickly tossed it on and found a pair of light blue jeans. These pants took a little effort to put on, for some reason they were a bit tighter than the last time I put them on. I had to hop around just to get them on, once they were on I took off to the dining room, I was in too much of a rush to realize how some similar these pants felt.
“Hey honey! I turned your breakfast into a sandwich!” My mom called from the front door. She held up a baggie with a big smile as I approached in my rush. “Whoa! I didn’t notice but do your scales seem a little glittery?” She asked raising an eyebrow.
“Uh…maybe it’s fairy dust? I did go to the small town at the garden yesterday.” I said without much thought. I quickly ran up to her and got the bag without much thought to anything.
“Aww! Making fairy friends! You’re so lucky! I couldn’t get one to give me a blessing at all and here you are after day one of meeting several fairies and have a big blessing!” my mother said in a mock jealous voice as we got into the car.
“Blessings? I got blessed?” I asked with a really confused face. The way I saw blessings was when Maeve kissed Phoebe all over her face but Belle didn’t glow or look shiny when we left the town. So how did I get a blessing?
“Yup, it looks like one but I’m not too sure which one though. Fairies like to give all sorts of blessings that influence fate, chance and other random things. Maybe you got a blessing to look even more beautiful.” My mother said with an excited grin. More pretty-m-more b-beautiful! No way that’s possible, it’s not like I enjoy the idea of looking super pretty I just uh I don’t want all the attention! Yup.
“You said you wanted a blessing?” I asked trying to change the subject. Just focus on figuring out yourself and then I can aim for something better in my life.
“Oh…..um yeah, in my teens I kindly asked this purple fairy and her friends to give me a blessing of strength…they just didn’t want to.” She said looking away from me as she drove me to school.
“MoooooMM. What did you do?” I asked her with a raised eyebrow. Her posture stiffened as we drove but she didn’t want to say. I leaned in closer, giving her a shadowy leer, I knew my mother was a type of person that got ‘determined’ when she wanted something important and how she worded that sounded like she did something.
“Um” She quickly looked at me before slightly shrinking back. “Ok ok, I pestered the group. I really needed that blessing to get me ahead of my rival Amanda.” She said in a defeated and embarrassed voice. “I was dumb back then and I was more than willing to try almost anything to show off or improve my ability.” She said with some annoyance before looking at my stern face. I was pretty sure there was more to this story, no way was I going to let it slip away. “Yes! It was mostly to show off back then and Amanda had won the last Hydra competition with three high scores like it was a cake walk! I knew she was starting to grow into her prime but I couldn’t accept that she was going to just keep getting stronger than me. I wanted any boost I could get using enhanced workouts, I even got grandma to enchant my shoes to weigh more than a bag full of bricks! But she was still faster than me and more agile too! It was like my awesome mountain climb became a slippery slope with extra magus grease and that’s how I came to ask fairies for a blessing.” She said shaking her head.
I could tell it was a stupid teen moment in her life so I decided to let it go. “I understand, I’ve made dumb mistakes too, it doesn’t matter too much anyway. You’ve grown into a great woman in the end and an even greater mother.” I said with a sweet voice. I can learn more about my alternate mother some other time after all.
“Aww Oly! You’re really sweet! I didn’t think your convergence would make you more grown up! It’s a lot better than the time you punched the wall when a bug kept annoying you.” She said with a giggle. “You got half your arm stuck in the wall and started doing your homework right there! I still have the picture!” she laughed at the reminder. Uh….. what? I never punched a wall maybe almost hit one but…I guess the safe the assumption was alternate world me? But then-
“Where here! Hurry up to class before you’re marked late and I get a call about it! Go – go - go!” my mother said in a rushed voice. She was already shooing out of the car with her hand.
Getting out I grabbed my bag and run for class, not even realizing my clawed dino feet were slicing through the cornet floor. Pushing my foot into the floor I bent my leg, muscles building up energy before I pushed off the floor, my leg acting like a spring. It launched me forward like a speeding car, my legs felt like elastic bands filled with electricity as I ran with huge strides. It looked more like I was long jumping across the courtyard to the front entrance. As I bolted into the school I saw a purple girl walk into my path, I couldn’t stop my forward momentum as my body race forward. So I rammed both my feet into the floor, my leg muscles tightening into thick bunches before I shot over the girl. I only just missed her horns by an inch or two.
“Sorry!” I called to her as I continued to run like a maniac. That was crazy! I could’ve hurt her but, I didn’t know I could do that! My body is zapping my muscles and my heart raced wildly as I ran, I couldn’t tell why but I felt amazing! If I ru-uh I mean, meet her again I’ll have to apologize more properly.
Wait…how do I stop this body? Because right now I felt like a boulder rocketing fast down a mountain and I think I could go even faster too! Thinking fast I tried to pull back in my legs and reduce the strength I was using. Slowly almost unnoticeably I slowed, did dragons just keep going until they hit something! Suddenly my wings opened up, collecting the air which pulled my wings back, slowing my speed far more until I planted my claws into the floor. I came to a complete stop after sliding across the floor like a drifting car and making a horrid screeching sound as my claws cut through the floor like melted butter. Looking behind me, I saw claw marks steaking down the hall followed by smaller claw marks farther down the hall.
Uh oh.
I quickly waltzed into class like nothing happened, making my way to Mr. Minnow who was reading another book with a short purple haired girl (?) that had horns that curved backward with some title called “incubus, I can’t be!”
“Um, Mr. Minnow?” I whispered to him while waving to get his attention.
He eyed me from the side of his book. “Yes?” he said lazily.
I leaned in. “I made a claw related accident in the hallways.” I whispered to him in a sorrowful voice. His eyebrow slowly raised at this.
“You were almost late….” He said before looking down at my clawed feet. His eyes narrowed, staring at them for a second before shaking his head and getting up to walk over to the door. I slowly followed behind him slightly embarrassed at the destruction I caused. He looked down the hallway before mumbling or grumbling something to himself.
“They ought to make some sort of mittens for clawed students, ones with a pocket dimension maybe.” he said to himself before shrugging. “Not to worry, schools like this one have construction weavers to sew the damages closed.” He said in a relaxed tone. “Just don’t go running down the halls too often.” He said while stretching his back.
“I’d thought you’d be mad or a little pissed?” I asked with a confused face. I was half expecting him to confirm his anger now.
“I can’t control if a student starts running because they’d be late. Besides it creates a job for weavers, they work so good they practically put themselves out of a job. Plus students like yourself come with claws and the like, you couldn’t control what you converged into. But like I said, pay attention and don’t run too much, if at all.” He said with a chuckle.
“I’m still sorry though.” I said firmly to him.
“Don’t get me wrong you’ll still have to write me an apology letter, due by the end of the week. But because you admitted to it, you’ll only do a page.” He said flashing me smile. “Can’t control if another person comes into your path either, hopeful you didn’t flatten anyone on your way here.” He added while trying to stare a hole into my body.
“I jumped over a student…” I said looking him straight in the eyes.
He stared sternly before. “Don’t do that again, you could’ve landed on them or kicked them. Your letter is two pages by the way.” He said in a slightly more grumpy voice.
I gave him a nod before we walked back into the classroom. Mr. Minnow walked over his desk and pulled out a tablet that had silly looking frog stickers on it. He tapped at the screen while I made my way back to my seat, my muscles still felt ready to jump again and my mind want to shoot through the ceiling. So I looked at my shiny table in hopes to control myself, it was nice and glossy looking, almost like a gem. My mind seemed to relax after I noticed how the table changed to a reddish color when moving my head side to side. It kinda reminded me rupees, maybe I could find one in sitting in an old pot somewhere?
“Aright class! Today we will be visiting our school library! Or as I like to call it, the hall of secrets!” Mr. Minnow said in a deep voice. I noticed he already had several books under his arm and he seemed cheery or jittery, like he was about to skip out the door any second. “Well!? Are you getting up or do I call Jaque to give you guys another few laps?” Called Mr. Minnow with an annoyed voice. At this everyone got up and rushed to door as if they found a skunk in the back. It was kinda funny how Jaque became the best disciplinary teacher even though he was genuine in his training.
Walking down the hallway I saw a short man in a tan hard hat who was waving a wand around and creating runes in the air before pointing his wand at the claw marks my feet left behind. As if the floor was alive, it began to close from the bottom to top, it looked like a time lapse of someone’s scar healing closing up just with glowing magical lights. He was like a doctor for damaged buildings!
“Wow.” I muttered as I watched.
“Yup. It’s pretty crazy how they just sew the damages like it was nothing.” Steph said watching the guy work his magic. “Too bad that most buildings are made of crazy hard stuff.” She said shaking her head before turning to me. “But I guess a dragon can probably cut through most of them.” She said with a wink.
Great…. I can give myself away regardless if I hide it or not.
“Oh yeah! Your outfit looks pretty good today. Trying out the cute boss side huh?” Steph said with an approving nod before slithering over to Emily. “Doesn’t Oliver look cute dressed up like that?” she asked Emily who stared at me with an intense gaze. I thought she could somehow see my bones by the way she looked at me, she even began to smirk and nodded in vigorous agreement.
Looking down at myself I wondered if this collared white button down was actually cute? Sure it was sleeveless but I thought bosses would look more in charge or had an air of intimidation? That’s when I noticed my clawed hand, closing my hand and rubbing my claws together. It felt like several sharpened metal blades rubbing against each other and I found the sensation oddly appealing as it made a soft grinding noise too.
“More like a scary boss pretending to be an employee.” Retorted Emily after seeing me rub my claws together. I looked up at her almost offended and she quickly stepped back. “Yup definitely a boss that would skewer you.” She said turning to Steph trying to avoid eye contact with me.
