For the second time today Penny got to enjoy the exquisite taste of sand.
For the second time she pushed herself up from her position face first on the beach, shaking herself like a wet dog to try and get the sand off of her and spitting to get it out of her mouth. At least this time it hadn't got into her nose, and the face plant at least meant that her glasses hadn't gone flying off her face during the...
What was that? Some kind of sudden storm? She hadn't been paying much attention to the water. All she knew was that it had sudden't gotten dark and windy, the voice of god had shouted something soul rattling, then she'd been swept up in something. She'd read about rogue waves, sudden unexpected tsunamis that turned over whole ships but aside from the seas spray she didn't feel wet so that was out? Maybe a sudden tornado? Dust devils got that powerful, rarely.
But no, those hypothesis went right out the window the moment she looked up and saw jungle where their should be resort. Penny climbed to her feet and just stared out into the bush, her eyes trailing all the way up to the mountainous twin peaks she was sure hadn't been on the brochure. For a second she frantically turned her head left and right trying to spot the resort. To be fair to her she did spot the resort. Parts of it anyway. A few of those shops had been overturned in that sudden whirlwind. No, no, that wasn't right. That didn't make sense. If was more likely to think that they were dropped there by whatever had swept them here.
"So that's it, huh?" She said breathlessly. "We aren't in Kansas anymore?" She turned around and looked down the crescent curve of this new beach. That was the only explanation, wasn't it? Something had happened and now they were somewhere else. Somewhere that looked, from this side at least, deserted save for the people that had been flung here. As the magnitude of that started to set in she suddenly felt very naked.
Her bag? It was gone, or at least not around here. He new book, her stupid game, all her day supplies, it was all blown who knows where. That was fine, that was fine, she could probably find it if she had a few more pairs of eyes. That wouldn't be hard. At least it wouldn't be if she had her epithet.
Looking at the area around her feet, though, she was out of luck in that department too.
Her breath caught in her throat. She hit the dirt, frantically clawing up handfuls of sand and throwing it every which way but it just wasn't there. She stood back up again, bringing her hand up to cover her mouth and try and hide the worry her body language was broadcasting to anyone around.
"Hey!" She called out, turning in little circles. "Kid? Hey kid, where'ed you go? Jude? Mr. Aviators?"
You could change your own face. You could changes other peoples faces. You could steal other peoples faces. You could give things faces and then those things could talk to you about the stuff they'd seen. You could make faces grow out of things and bite people.
You could also go in another direction with this. You could turn yourself into a compass pointing at the nearest sign of trouble by "facing your problems" or make someone "face their fears."
Penny just nodded along as the girl gave her side of the story. If was simple, just like a kid, but it was the simple truth. It was hard to argue with a little kid, out of the mouths of babes and all that. Penny winced as the guard noted that he'd have to note this. That was great, now she'd have to be extra careful. She wondered if her parents were going to get notified about this, but then shook that dumb idea off. Why would they? It wasn't like this was school. And she certainty wasn't going to be using her epithet any more after this anyway. Actually, this wasn't that big of a problem at all.
That being the case, it was a little weird that hero boy looked so crestfallen over the whole thing. Geez, boy looked like he'd accidentally killed her dog or something. At least the explanation of his Epithet gave her some idea of what had put her on the ground. He'd probably done something to her sword. That Jude was able sort of thing would probably make her wary of him if she was the protagonist of some novel, but seeing as she was just a normal person it shouldn't matter. Only superheros and people really into fighting got bent out of shape over that sort of hard counter.
The other guy, who turned out to not be the star of hit television show Supernatural, also confirmed he had an epithet. She felt a little disappointed at that, but the dude managed to disappear again before she could think to much about that.
Finally it was her turn. She stood up straight. "My name is Penny Draconis, D-R-A-C-O-N-I-S. I'm in room 52." She got kind of a sour look on her face, and continued. She didn't like talking about her word, it always seemed to make peoples expectations go up. "My Epithet is Royal. It summons things." She walked over to where the sword lay on the ground and stepped on it. All of a sudden the Serfs all hopped back up. "If I'm not touching the sword these guys can't do anything. That's the only I was holding it."
She looked down at them, then back at the little girl. Well, she'd promised. She reached up to her head, pulled off her tiara, then knelt and slipped it onto the girls head. "Boys." She said, and the serfs immediately stood at attention. "You build whatever sand thing the Beach Duchess here tells you to build." That at least meant all she had to do was hang around while the Serfs did all the work. Her eyes flipped up to Jude. No, she didn't want to let him get away like the other two had. "Hey, Jude?" She asked, "Why don't you hang around and help out?"
Bak was busy, raking up the little space around the school gate while Ward handled another area and consolidating the fliers into a neat pile. She wasn't sure what they should do with them. Throwing all this away seemed like a waste, but she also didn't think bad guys were supposed to recycle things. Burning them was right out because the pile would be so big everyone would be able to see it. Maybe they could put them in a cannon and fire it back at St. Laural's?
She was considering if maybe Luigi had a cannon lying around when she looked up and noticed Clara and Clara. She let the rake clatter to the ground and stared at them for a long moment before lifting her arm and waving hesitantly at the Clara that was floating. The she brought her hands up to her eyes and rubbed them thoroughly before checking to see that the two of them were still there.
They were.
"TOVARISH!" She let out an earth shaking shout before stomping up to the two of them. Her face rapidly cycled through a bunch of emotions, relief, worry, slight anger, ecstatic happiness, pure confusion, shame, as each one tried to crowd all the others out. "I...we...what happened are you all right? Vittorio has run off, I do not know where, I have not seen Christine since tournament! There is boy here he says he will fight cult man. Luigi has problem he will not tell us about! "Yuuto is being punished by family for what happened. They know where we are, St' Laural's has attacked us once already." Bak plunged a hand into the flyer pile and pushed one of the invitations Lise's helicopter had dropped into her hands. It just all came out, every worry that Bak had accumulated since the end of the tournament dumped at the feet of the person she had built up in her head to be this pillar of strength. About the only thing she'd left out, the only thing though she had caught before it had passed her lips, was what Bak had done. Inducting new members, for one thing. Passing along her phone to Yuuto, for another.
After a moment she caught her breath, and finally paid attention to the floating, Clara looking elephant in the room. "I did not know you had younger sister."
"I agree with her the witch being the bait." Nas said. "I feel as though Andras is more likely to panic. A big open space isn't likely to be to our advantage. Remember, he doesn't want to fight. His objective is murder, you can do that just as easily from far away as up close."
"I'm calling King." Ria said at that, whipping out her phone and dialing his number. She prayed he picked up. "He can see the future. That should even up the odds, I think."
"So it's only all right if they get lucky?" Katherine considered. She had never thought of it like that before. Maybe if she could think a little bit more like Christine she wouldn't feel so reluctant to go all out. Though, in that case, the guy would have to be pretty unlucky, wouldn't he?
She looked up to see her sister blushing, and leaned in. "Oooooo, what were you just thinking about? Are you so sure you'd be able to handle a half-nude dude if one just suddenly landed right in front of you?"
As everyone started to split up Linkle was eager to get good and prepared, face the challenge of Galeem’s champion, and free another chunk of the world. Before that, though, there was something important she had to do. There was something that she’d have to be an absolute idiot to not notice.
“C’mon.” she said cheerfully, grabbing Din’s hand and practically pulling the other girl to the door. “Let’s go see what they’ve got for sale around here.”
However, as they cleared the door and went further up the street the pep in Linkles step seemed to lose a bit of its energy. She slowed down when they were away from the others, a slightly more serious look on her face. She looked at Din hesitantly, like she was trying to come up with something to say, before finally deciding to keep it simple. “Are you okay?”
The dancer looked more than a little embarrassed, given the recent history between the two, but her smile was genuine. “Yeah. I’m alright. It’s been...tumultuous. But I’m okay.”
“What happened?” Linkle asked. “Did somebody get you, or…?”
Din slowly shook her head. “No...it’s hard to really say what happened. It’s all fuzzy. But I was feeling really down, pretty near despair, and I just...let go. Like I was fighting to stay awake, but stopped resisting and fell asleep. And this world…” Her face hardening, Din looked up to the sky. She gazed across hill and dale, moor and mountain, to where the Lord of Light floated above it all. “It’s one big, fluffy bed. It’s his world. His earth, his sky, his sun...and we’re all fighting to stay awake.” After taking a deep breath, eyes closed, she turned to look at Linkle again. The faintest hint of tears welled up in the ducts of her eyes. “We must not lose hope,” she affirmed. “I’m sorry for letting you down...but it won’t happen again.”
When she looked at Linkle she saw, just for a moment, an emotion Linkle didn’t like showing anyone. It wasn’t panic, or the sort of jittery energy that Linkle showed when she was worried about someone. What crossed her face was cold fear at the process Din had just described. The whole world was one big fluffy bed. That thought, for the first time, made her afraid of Galeem. What it had done wasn’t something you could fight like a monster. “I think she tried to do the same thing to me.” she said slowly. She turned her head upward to look at the shining sun. “She showed me things, in my sleep and I…” she stopped, shaking her head. “I think I was this close to getting pulled into it.” She put her hands on Din's shoulder. “So you don’t have anything to apologize for. If you were feeling down and I didn’t notice I should be the one apologizing to you.”
She suddenly yelped, remembering last night. She pulled the wallet off her hip and presented it to Din. “I also mugged you!” she said, the typical jittery worry replacing the fear on her face. “I don’t know what I was thinking. I am so sorry.”
Din laughed. “No worries. You can use it better than me.” She pulled Linkle close in a hug, rubbing her head and ears like she might a little sister.. “And you have nothing to apologize for, either. We’re both just trying to make sense of this...this nonsense hand we’ve been dealt. And we’ve learned something important going forward.”
Linkle couldn't help but giggle a bit, a combination of relief and a tickle in her ears. Then she pulled away and patted both her cheeks a couple times to put her hero face back on. “Yosh!” she said, looking up and confident as ever. “What do you say we spend it together and get some stuff to really hurt Galeem! I was gonna go see that blacksmith first. We can probably get them to look at your staff while we’re at it.”
With that Linkle led her over to the blacksmith's building. “Heloooooo?” she called out as she stepped in.
A blonde-haired head leaned out from behind a corner. “Oh, hey!” At the sight of the heroines, Ramona stepped away from her forge to wave hello with a giant, thickly-padded mitt. “Wow, a sylvan? In our shop? Word must really be getting out!”
After another moment another of the Sisters of the Anvil made herself known, her manner not nearly as exuberant as Ramona’s. “What can we do for you?” asked Rena, her hands clasped in front of her.
“Oh, are you guys friends with Euden?” Linkle asked before anything else. “That’s what he called me. Sorry to disappoint you, I’m just a plain old Hylian.”
“Huh?” Exclaimed Ramona with raised eyebrows. “But then…?”
Rena quickly spoke up. “We beg your pardon. And, ah, yes, we know Prince Euden. Before this all got started, we served at his halidom.”
“Awesome! That’s really reassuring.” Linkle said, pulling out her crossbows and giving them a twirl. She had no idea what a Halidom was but as far as she was concerned it meant these girls came recommended by Euden himself. She flipped the bows around and handed them over by the hilts. “I was hoping you guys could look at these before we went to fight the G rank. Since we all got transported here they haven't had the ‘umph” they used too. I’m not sure what’s wrong.”
The smiths accepted the crossbows, taking one each. It did not take long to identify the problem. “Well, it looks like they’ve been takin’ tremendous wear,” Ramona remarked. “Stretchin’, warpin’, loosenin’. I’m havin’ trouble deciding if the wood’s been singed or frozen.”
“Both.” Linkle said quickly.
“We can replace the strings, repair the wood, and reinforce it. Should hold up better and for longer,” Rena said.
Linkle thought about it. “You’re incredible. No one back home could even take a guess about how they worked. Just be careful, I don’t know what part makes them shoot forever.”
“Probably an enchantment in the wood,” Rena remarked, more as an aside to Ramona than anything.
“And I’ll be able to hurt turtle shells and metal and stuff?” Linkle asked.
The question was a little confusing and not professionally-worded, but Rena took a stab at it. “What you can damage with them is mostly a function of the bolts you use. What do you shoot with them?”
Linkle took one of the crossbows back briefly, put her shield on the floor, and fired a bolt into it. It was honestly more of an arrow than a crossbow bolt, with a long wooden shaft and a broad metal tip with some blue feathers fletched into the back for balance. She yanked the arrow out of the shield and handed both it and the crossbow to Rena. “Those. I can make them come out with a bomb on the end too but those come out slower.”
Rena accepted the crossbow and, while she dealt with her incredulity at Linkle damaging her own equipment for a test, let Ramona respond. “Those aren’t really bolts. They’re shorter and don’t have broad tips. We could whip up some aluminum ones, with Light Metal heads that could pack more punch, but they wouldn’t be infinite and I got no clue how to change what the crossbows shoot.”
“I get it. Thanks anyway.” Linkle said, throwing the spider shield back onto her back. I looked like she’d need to find someone who could figure out how the crossbows worked if she wanted to improve their power. She added it to The List. “They’ll feel better when they’re good as new, at least. They probably haven't had a tune up in literally ages.”
Din stepped forward. “Could you look at this, too? Any way to make it better?” Instead of her staff, she offered her keyblade, the strange-looking club-wand supposedly crafted from her heart by the Master of Masters.
Rena narrowed her eyes, handling the weapon carefully. She turned it over and over, examining its structure. “Well...I must admit, I don’t know how it could hold up so well if you actually hit things with this, but with some of the ore brought back by Tora and Bowser we could make it a bit stronger.”
Pleased, Din gave a bright smile. “Sure, that sounds great!”
“You’re gonna use the thing the Master gave you?” Linkle asked, curious.
Din nodded. “It’s really useful. Plus, it came from my heart. I don’t know what that means, but it makes it seem important, right?”
Linkle nodded vigorously. “That makes sense. Maybe it gets stronger as you get stronger?” She turned back to the blacksmith girls. “So, what do we owe you?”
Ramona gave a shrug, addressing Linkle. “Well, according to your quest rewards, you get a free service in most shops in town. For you, though…” she looked at Din. “It’ll be eighty rupees. Or gold, or zenny. It’s tough keeping track of all the currencies, huh?”
After a semi-nervous chuckle Din glanced at Linkle. “Er...might need a little from that bag after all.”
“No problem!” Linkle said, whipping out the wallet. Eighty Zennies was no object, especially now. Linkle hadn’t realized that the free service thing counted for more than one shop, or even more than just one job. She laid down eighty of the weird golden coins on the shop counter. Giving up a little actually reminded her of something. “Actually, do you guys buy stuff too?” She said, taking out the Bwaa Blaster. “I don’t really use this anymore, but it was pretty useful for a bit. There’s something in it where if the shot hits somebody it makes them go bouncing around, but I can’t get it to work all the time.”
Ramona thought about that. “We could buy it, sure. Sounds like it’s an item that has a random chance to it. There’s a whole bunch of items and weapons that have a chance to do something or other, so using it’s like rolling the dice.” She took the Bwaa Blaster and looked it over, trying to figure out how it worked. “To better use...stuff like that...either improve your luck, get something that increases ‘status’, or just increase the fire rate. More shots means more chances, after all. But this is too...well, advanced for us to work with, really.” Aiming at a solid section of stone wall, she fired the blaster and noted the damage it did. Then she tried again, hammering the trigger until she got out a second shot. “Neat. The shot doesn’t drop off like an arrow, flying straight like some spells. But the fire rate’s really low and it’s not that strong.” She shrugged. “Basically, a better-than-nothing weapon, best for a novice. I’ll take twenty rupees off the price of your repairs for it.”
Linkle took back twenty of those gold Z coins. “Thank’s a lot.” She moved her hips around a little. That had freed up a little space. She turned back to Din. “You want anything else from here? If not I was gonna go look for a bag next.”
After a moment of trying Din couldn’t think of anything. “No, I think that’s all. I was thinking I’d do some more dancing before we set off again, though. See you in a bit?”
“Sure, see you in a bit.” Linkle said. She waved at the girl as she walked away. “There’s still stuff I’ve gotta do, can I come back for those in a couple of hours?” She asked the blacksmiths.
Ramona nodded, smiling. “Sure thing!”
“All right!” Linkle said, stepping out the door. “See you before we leave.”
Linkle wandered the streets for a while, looking around for something like the village's old general store, before finding herself in front of the Malo Mart. Figuring this looked like the place she stepped inside and gawked at how bright and colorful the inside of the place was. It seemed like a rich place, especially compared to the rustic decoration she used too.
She approached the counter, still looking in semi-shock around the room. “Hello?” she asked.
“Hey.”
A little voice came from behind the counter. When Linkle looked she found a young child, almost an infant, standing on a stool. He stared at her, emotionless, unwavering, almost unblinking.
“...Buy something.”
“Uhhhhh…,” Linkle went. This baby was very intimidating. “Yeah, I’d like a bag or maybe a couple of pouches I could strap to my belt and green potion if you have some annnnnd…” Linkle looked around the room, searching for anything else that seemed useful or would pique her interest.
Malo pointed at the various items where they lay on the shelves. There was a sturdy-looking greenish-brown sack, maybe made of hide, and two soft cases pouches. A small selection of potions, mostly health and mana pots of a variety of styles, sat on the left side of the main counter. “You can take them after you pay me.” He noted her continued searching, looking for anything unique. He pointed a little sausage finger at a shelf in the corner. On it rested a number of distinct items, like an iron branch, a feather crown, a beetle, and above them all, the Desolator. “For adventurers with extra money,” he explained succinctly.
Iron Branch - Targets the ground to plant a happy little tree that lasts 20 seconds
Feather Crown - A hair accessory adorned with beautiful plumage. 5 def, 2 str, 3 mnd
Beetle - A remote-controlled item shaped like a little bug, Link used this item in his adventures to collect far-off items
White Verona - Eating this flower will permanently increase your resistance to magic, but not by much
Carthus Milkring - Ring worn by the warriors of the sand kingdom, Carthus. Slightly boosts dexterity and obscures the wearer while rolling. The sword technique of Carthus allows for fluid movement with a curved sword. Masters of the technique are said to dazzle their opponents by moving as weightlessly as a grain of sand. They live for their High Lord Wolnir, conqueror of most kingdoms known to their people
Desolator - While possessing this, your attacks decrease enemy armor by 6 each for 7 seconds
Linkle looked up from the last label. This evil looking scythe was exactly what she needed, but it was also an incredible evil looking scythe. The Carthus ring tempted her slightly, what with all the diving she typically did, but she decided against it while keeping in mind that short history it came with in case they ever met these sand kingdom warriors. No, there were really only two things that caught her eye.
“If I got the pouches, the bag, two bottles of that green potion over there, the Feather and this Beetle how much would that cost?” She asked.
The baby did some quick maths. “Four hundred and thirty,” he said.
Linkle pulled out over half the Zennies she had left, counted them out, and gave them to the baby before setting out to collect her purchases. She took the pouches first, slotting them into her belt and doing some quick re-organizing. The pokeballs she had came out of her boots and went into one of them, her remaining arrows for the bow went into the other. The heavy boots she had went into the sack she’d picked up, along with the Feather Crown. The beetle, a relic of a legendary hero she’d never even heard of, latched snug as a bug onto her left wrist with its legs. She looked it over, being overtaken by a delighted little shutter.
Then she went over to the potions. She filled the bottle she’d gotten from the marauding kart with the green liquid and immediately downed it before filling the bottle again and adding it to the pokeball pouch. She could already feel it boiling in her chest, the pressure of an incredible power waiting to be unleashed. It felt filling. That monster wasn’t going to know what hit it!
“Thanks a lot.” She said, trying not to meet the boy's unblinking gaze. She took her leave of the bright shop and its scary baby, sack bouncing over her shoulder. She didn’t think she could carry this bag around everywhere, but luckily she had a friend that could probably do that for her.
She felt a rumble in her belly at that point. That reminded her, she hadn’t had breakfast. Well, so long as the facilities were free it wouldn't hurt to get a full stomach before going monster slaying. She headed for Mina’s, mostly because it was the only place in town she knew but also because she had a hunch the woman could tell her what Chochobo’s liked to eat. She’d have to stock up on that stuff too.
"Oh, uh...." Matthew rubbed the back of his head. He hadn't thought anybody would actually respond when he said that. He put his hand out to the dude. "Hey Zephyr, very wizard name. Mine's just plain old Matthew. We almost got eaten by some wall art very recently." He gestured to Mira and Jan. At any other time, in any other place, he would probably feel insane for talking about this. Now, though? It just felt like backroom talk, swapping stories about weird deliveries. "Big centipede, gnashing fangs filled with poison. It would have bitten my head off if I hadn't blown it up a little." Good lord, it sounded like he was describing a cartoon. Unreal, far away, so removed from the human experience as to be fanciful.
He felt good talking about it. It was much better thinking about his wrestling match with a fantasy creature than what had happened to the humans there that day.
"I don't know if it was another wizard or some kind of violet radiation doing weird things." he said. "You get any weird complications like that? Like, you know, weirder than what you expected?"
It was very difficult, Penny thought, to become this intimately familiar with sand. The course texture, the sea breeze/earthy scent, the salty taste you didn't get in your typical playground sandbox. It wasn't until every orifice in your face got stuffed with it that you could appreciate the subtle differences between normal sand and beach sand.
She could hear people talking, either gloating or asking questions she had no way to answer until she felt a great weight being lifted off her neck. She lifted herself up, hacking and coughing in between deep breaths. She rose to her knees, blocking each nostril in turn with her finger turn and blowing out what she thought must be a disgusting globule of sand snot onto the beach. She couldn't really see it, the world was too blurry. She felt around in front of her to try and find where her glasses had fallen off, let out a disgusted "Gylaaa" when she put her hand in the snot sand before finally finding something hard and bringing them up to her face.
The first thing she noticed when she put them back on was that they were crooked. She'd landed more on the right side of her face, and that that side was bent pretty thoroughly out of place to the point where it only covered half her eye. It was like those camera shots in the ocean where half the lens was submerged, but in reverse. Clear crisp picture below, murky water above. The second thing was the big tough security man glaring down at her.
This is what she got for engaging.
"Vigilante epithet use?" She said, having gotten her breath back. "The only thing I did with my epithet was that." She pointed at the sand castle and inadvertently the Peasant Serfs around it. They had flopped over like puppets with their strings cut the second the swords was no longer in contact with Penny's neck. She could also see the sword, but she refrained from going to pick it up while this security guy was around. That would probably get her shot and then thrown out of the resort.
She rose to her feet, brushing the sand from her stupid outfit. She pointed between at the guy that did, in fact, look exactly like the star of TVs Supernatural and the skinny guy she had just gotten a look at. "Then these knights in shining armor got the wrong idea and charged to the rescue. Like, seriously, am I wearing a gaudy yellow outfit? Do I look like Negative Plan Johnny? No, because I'm not some wannabe supervillain as-" She suddenly remembered there was a child present and clamped down on the string of foulness that was boiling up from her throat. "As heck jacknape jerkbag who flexes on little kids."
Wait, that was it. The child! She found her, kneeled down, and started brushing the sand out of her hair from the sand cloud that had been thrown up when Penny had left that perfect imprint of herself in the beach. "Sorry." she said. She needed this child. This child was the key to her salvation and not getting thrown out of the resort. "You saw everything that happened, though, right? You tell these nice men what really happened and I'll...hmmmm...I will help you build an entire sand kingdom, how'sabout that?"
Penny, for her part, hadn't notices the appearance of her sixth worker until she felt something get a death grip on her leg. She looked down and spotted the girl from before, smiling up at her and babbling thanks. Penny, not entirely comfortable with this kind of attention, rested her swords back on her shoulder where the child couldn't touch it and just kind of babbled back. "I...uhh...ghe...yeknew....
"She is the King!" One of her Serfs said helpfully, wandering up. "King of the beach!" Another added. "No, I am not-" Penny started, trying to nip what she knew was coming in the bud. She wasn't fast enough. "All hail the king!" another shouted. "Do not hail the-" "ALL HAIL THE KING, ALL HAIL THE KING..."
Great. They were just going to keep doing that until she got rid of them and found another job for them to do. To make an annoying situation actively bad she caught another sound under the chorus of "All HAIL THE KING" that brought her attention back to the bully, who had started whimpering like a kicked dog at some point. "Hey, you don't get to act like the victim here." She said. "All I did was fix something you broke."
The act was pretty convincing though, because it had already attracted a couple of knights in shining sun lotion. One guy who rocked up beside the bully and gave her a conspiratorial look just called Penny a dork, which was fair but screw him anyway. The other guy she couldn't see, but he'd come up behind and had clearly gotten the wrong impression here. He though she was the bully. She started to turn around to correct him but she didn't have to as he suddenly appeared behind the real bully, literally taking her corner. Penny eyed him warily. This guy was an adult, and either had an epithet or was one of those real life speed-runners that had just worked until they were super fast. "Look, you guys have got the wrong idea." She said, holding up a hand. "She's the-"
Penny didn't get to finish that thought on account of the sudden weight she felt laying across her shoulders. Her knees almost immediately buckled, and started shaking like leaves in the breeze as she struggled to remain standing. She could feel the sword, normally light as a feather for her, bearing down on her like an industrial press. If she were in any state of mind to think about it she'd wonder why the edge handing already split her in half. Someone asked her a question, but she couldn't answer. She could already feel herself tilting, falling toward...OH NO THE CHILD!
Penny sudden't pitched herself forward, away from the little girl clinging to her leg, and got to watch the beach rapidly approach as she fell toward it like a toppled pine tree. There was a dust cloud thrown up from the impact, and when it cleared Penny lay there with the sword pressing down on the back of her neck.
The Peasant Serfs stopped their chanting. Their minds were so small and laser focused that they could generally only hold one thought at a time so it took them a moment to register what had happened. One wandered up to her, poking her in the head, then turned solemnly to the others. "The King Is Dead!"
There was a collective gasp. "My Spirit Wanes!" one said. One just started weeping. Another punched the last one in the face because they were in a succession crisis now and that typically meant civil war. None of them seemed to notice the faint moaning that came from Penny, face buried in the sand, until she reached out and grabbed the closest one by its bulbous nose. "The King Lives! HUZZAH!" She dragged the Serf close, then desperately pointed to the sand around her face. "YES MY LIEGE!" He said, and got to digging her out before she suffocated.
Quick question: when you make something heavier does it stay the same size or can I spin this as the sword getting really big and crushing Penny beneath it?
Penny couldn't help but sign, caught between the sharptooth on the beach throwing a temper tantrum and the cyclops on the stairs getting all defensive over her Epithet. Your epithet was like your underwear, of course you don't go whipping it out all willy-nilly for every little thing that made you mad. Then there was this girl on the beach. She couln't hear what that teacher had said, but whatever it was it must have stung. How could anyone get that upset over a few words? Not even the actual kids here were as bad as these two absolute children. Maybe she should just head back to her room if these two were content to keep spoiling the atmosphere around here.
She stood up on the banister, content to take one last look at the ocean before hopping down when Sharptooth got done destroying the little girls castle and turned her attention on Penny.
It wasn't what she'd said about Chance Lords that stopped Penny in her tracks. She already thought it was a pretty stupid buy, this girl wasn't going to change her opinion on that. She didn't even think the girls misconception about what she'd been looking at was worth addressing. This wasn't what she came to this resort for, there were plenty of things she could be doing, she could just walk away and be done with it.
Instead she opened up her bag. "What about eyebrows?" she growled, pulling out her thermos and letting the bag drop to the ground below. "They're not that big. My glasses make them look bigger than they are!" She lied, spinning the cap on the thermos and letting it drop beside the bag. She leaned forward and turned the thermos over, the water pouring out and splattering into a puddle the sand was rapidly eating up. That was all right. She only needed the water to be there for a second. She jumped from the banister, landing on one knee as her hand plunged into the puddle and just kept going, slinking in up to the elbow. The puddle continued to shrink, closing around her arm, but as she rooted around the sand never moved like it would if her hand was just buried in it. Penny knew what it was though. This wasn't a puddle. It was a deep dark lake, and she felt something be thrust into her hand by the denizen of that lake.
She stood, ripping her soaking wet arm from the water and sending droplets fling from the the real ass sword she now gripped the pommel of. It didn't look like a real ass sword. In fact, no real ass sword probably ever looked like with. It had a hilt of gold, beset with jewels of all colors that would probably bounce out the first time it struck armor. The blade gleamed silver in the sunlight, bearing no nicks or scars at all. Certainly no real ass sword ever audibly went Shinnnnnng whenever it moved, and in her hand it seemed to have no real weight to it. It would honestly look more natural on a stage or in some video game, and yet there was so intangible realness to it.
There was a flash of light from it, and the water that remained on it seemed to be pushed from its body onto Penny where it grew into a title wave that washed over her. When it was done her old clothes had washed away, replaced with something unmistakable regal and unbearably ostentatious. Penny was going to hate herself later for how attention grabbing she was now, but that didn't matter. This girl had hurt her feelings, so she'd whipped out her Epithet.
She spun the sword once and slammed it blade first into the earth. There was a pulse of power, a disturbance in the sand, and then with a burst the earth birthed five little creatures. Short, fat little men with beards so big and bushy you could really only make out their beady little black eyes and big round noses through the lot of it. Their skin, what could be seen though the hair, the tunic, the boots, and the little overall trousers they wore, was tanned the deep leathery brown of men that labored outside for their daily bread since they could walk. On top of each was a floppy red hat, and in each of their hands was a simple tool. A pair a shovels, a pair of hoes, and one that just had a wooden bucket. They looked around in confusion for a few moments, until one of them noticed Penny. "Yes, my liege?"
This caught the others attention, as they turned as one and let out a chorus of shouts;
"My King!" "All Hail The King!" "More Work?" "My Lord?"
Penny pulled the sword from the ground and rested it on her shoulder, breathing slightly heavily. Then she extended her sword at Sharptooth, pointing it at her feet. "Rebuild."
The little men didn't take any time to register the command. One of them just went "For The King!" before the lot of them took off and started piling and shaping sand, the one with the bucket even sprinting down to the ocean to get a bucket of water so they could work with mud. In a few moments they had already gotten the basic foundation of a castle back up and were only shaping it faster from there.
While they worked Penny stepped over to sharptooth. Only when she got close did she really notice how much taller than this girl she was and it made her feel childish, but also powerful. "I am doing nothing with my life right now. All I wanted from the beach was quiet and relaxation, but now it seems like I have to build a spite castle for a little kid I don't even know." she said. "What about you Godzuki? What did you want from the beach? If I get it for you will you stop yelling on the beach?"
Lugubrious
Izurich
Yankee
rush99999
