[Mkguild] A Cursed Kit (Part 1)

[Kit]

Well, here's my very first story for MK, please don't be too harsh. Thanks
in advance for anyone who sends useful advice.

A Cursed Kit


"LOOK OUT!" I looked in the direction of the shout just in time to see
something large and round collide with my face. As it bounced off onto the
ground I was able to identify it as a rubber ball. I blinked and realized
that I can completely zoned out. I should have seen that ball coming or felt
it at the very least. For most people it would be the other way around, but
my sense of touch was odd and extended to the air around me. I'm pretty sure
that it's because I'm a mage that specializes so much with the element air,
but I could always do it, even back when I was a kid. Based off of that I
could do some other stuff, such as lift objects without touching them or
moving air around. Unless fueled by magic I couldn't lift anything I
couldn't pick up on my own anyway or make more than a slightly strong gust
of wind.

A small pair of hands picked up the ball that had hit me and the kid that
had thrown it looked up at me and said in a subdued voice, "I'm sorry..."
while looking down, obviously scared that I would punish him. In retrospect,
my reply could have been a bit more considerate... "Oh don't apologize, then
I can't get revenge!" The kid flinched and looked up with a terrified look
as I threw a snowball into his face. He sputtered a moment in shock as he
processed the information that all I'd done was hit him with a snowball. He
then looked at the snow dripping from his face with a puzzled look and then
back to me. I answered his unspoken question with a smile, "Mage."

I left it at that and let him think I had created the snowball out of this
air because what I had actually done was too complicated to explain to
someone under the age of ten. It was another strange thing I could do since
as long as I could remember, connecting two points together. It made what
looked like a hole in thin air which led to where the other point was and I
could put things through it. It wasn't a very big hole and it normally
required a lot of concentration, but I had made a room several years back
with all sorts of spells built into it to make it easier to connect to. I
could connect to it from just about anywhere and it actually took less
effort than the short range connections that didn't involve that room.

So that's how I pulled a snowball out of nowhere. However it was still fall
and the first snow wouldn't come for quite some time. The snowball was
actually from last winter. Among the spells to make it easier for me to
connect were also lots of anti scrying spell and conservation spells. I kept
just about everything of mine in that room so I could travel light and I
didn't want any of it getting stolen or going bad. As for why I had
snowballs in there... I just liked being able to give someone a face full of
snow in the middle of summer.

I pulled out another snowball to illustrate my point and made it 'disappear'
again to the kid's awe. I looked over to where the other kids were waiting
for him and asked, "Mind if I join you guys?" His face lit up and he said,
"Sure!" before running back to the group and babbling all about me. We
invented a new game where I sat still in the middle of a field while they
tried to tag me as I chased them down with the rubber ball. If I got one of
them, they had to go to the tree at the other side and count to ten before
continuing and if they got me I had to do a magic trick for them. After an
hour they were completely worn out and I needed to continue to the town
anyway. They had only managed to catch me three times, but we had all had a
blast anyway. I sighed, kids were always so much fun...

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I arrived in town with the kids in tow and they went back to their
respective houses as I continued to the market. Mothers scolded their kids
for associating with a stranger, but then adults were always a lot stiffer
than their children anyway, so I ignored them. I wasn't going to be talking
to them anyway, MY goal lay in the market where I would hopefully find a
quartet of books that I had been tracking for some time. As I walked I
listened to the local voices.

That was another talent, but one I tended to keep secret. I could hear
voices that no one else could. They tended to attach themselves to things,
places, or people and follow them around until the thing they followed died
or was destroyed. They were also incredible gossips and when I revealed
information I wasn't supposed to know, people tended to get really
suspicious. When I told them the voices told me they tended to get hostile.
I had been run out of town more than once by an angry mob convinced that I
dealt with the devil.

However, it was still useful stuff to know, what little of it made sense
anyway. Some voices weren't attached to anything and would comment on things
that had nothing to do with anything nearby. Also since the voices 'lived'
so long, they tended to be eccentric if not outright insane. I suspect that
they're not entirely in our world either as they tend to sometimes talk
about things that make no sense what-so-ever. I once had one voice follow me
around all day talking about politics in a place that didn't even exist. One
in particular seemed smarter than the rest and like to follow ME around.
Voices in general didn't really have a gender, but it was hard thinking of
this one that way. So I pretended it was a he and called him Bora. He didn't
talk often, but when he did it was usually insightful and useful information
although he was also a real prankster.

Most of the nearby voices seemed pretty sane and trustworthy, although most
of them seemed to be gossiping about one particular person. The entire town
thought he was a virtuous person, but he was having four affairs on his
wife, one of which was actually male. He swindled everyone and then arranged
for his customers to be ambushed just out of town to take back what they had
bought and even more of their money besides. He also apparently wore a
bright purple and foppish hat.

As I continued around the stalls, trying to look absently interested in
whatever came by but not actually buying anything, I came across one vendor
with a shelve full of books. Looking through the titles, I had to squash my
excitement when I found the books. All four were there next to each other
and my search was over. I still tried to look uninterested as I pulled them
off the shelf and asked how much they were worth. Apparently it didn't work
as the merchant went into a spiel on how valuable they were. "Ah yes, I see
you have a good eye there. Those books are probably the best value in this
shop! It cost me a fortune  to get those and I'm afraid that I couldn't sell
them for anything less than ten gold coins."

I winced and turned around, that was an amazingly high price but I was
desperate and actually willing to pay. However a voice spoke before I could
say anything. <Ha! Foppish hat man only pay ONE gold for books!> I blinked
as I looked at the merchant again. He was indeed wearing a bright purple and
foppish hat which gave me an idea. It was a very evil idea, but I figured
that this man deserved it if anyone and I'd be out of town before word got
around that I knew too much anyway. I just couldn't resist. "No they didn't,
you only got these for a tenth that. And if you try your usual robbing
tricks after I buy them I will tell Melissa about Jessica, Jessica about
Dana, Dana about Melissa, your wife about all three, and the entire town
about Edward."

The merchant stared at me with an open mouth, no doubt trying to figure out
how I found out so much and whether I'd actually go through with my threat.
After a moment or two of blinking at me, he closed his mouth, shook his
head, and considered me for a moment. "Have I mentioned you're my one
hundredth customer?"

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<Well that went well. Almost too well.> Bora commented. It was supposed to
be sarcastic, but somehow it fell short. I'd gotten the books for free and
I'd be long gone by the time the merchant might think to get rid of me to
ensure my silence and get his money AND merchandise back. All in all, it HAD
gone well. I finally had the books I had been searching for and without any
trouble either. Which in itself was rather suspicious as Bora had pointed
out, seeing as it was a Monday and all. I have always suffered from chronic
bad luck, but it was always worst on Mondays for some reason. I blame it on
Murphy for the most part, and most of the time I'm right. Not that he did it
intentionally, he had actually cursed my mom a bit before I was born, but I
was the one whose luck went all wonky because of it, go figure.

Which brought me back to today. It didn't happen too often, but not every
Monday was full of bad luck. Murphy's curse really can't do anything to mess
up things around me unless there's a random factor to mess up. However it
really did look like I had lucked out this time (in a manner of speaking).
With that determined I returned my focus to the books I had obtained. They
were originally made as a quartet, each focusing on one of the four elements
that supposedly made up all of existence; earth, air, fire, and water. I
looked at the Book of Air first because it was the element that I primarily
used. I didn't really find much new, but there were some pretty nifty tricks
that I would have to try out in the future, primarily making an explosion
out of compressed air to use later.

I scanned the other three briefly for now as well, as I wouldn't be able to
actually learn much from them in the short time I had before I wanted to
leave. Again I was looking mostly for minor spells to try out, particularly
in the Books of Fire and Water. I actually had passable skill in those
elements although I was nearly hopeless with earth. Which was hardly
surprising if what the books hinted at were true. The elements seemed to be
not some sort of individual energy unique to each one, but rather a state of
stability that something could be in. I suppose it made sense in a way, as
water could become solid or gaseous at times, and metal when heated melted
into a liquid. According to this, earth was solid, water was liquid, air was
gas, and fire was a type of plasma or pure energy. Since gas is in between
liquid and plasma in stability, I have a moderate amount of skill with them,
but the thing that intrigued me most was the continued reference to water as
the median state.

While water is known as a good median, the books seemed to be talking about
something else. As if it were the middle state. By that idea, earth would
balance air, but what would balance fire? Was there a fifth element,
opposite of fire, some sort of pure matter? As bad as I was with earth, I'd
probably be even worse with this other element, but I still would want to
know about it. If it was true, that would mean there was a fifth book to
this series that had been lost to the memories of time and if I wanted it
I'd have to find it myself. I focused on the books and asked, <What is the
earliest thing you can remember?> Hopefully there was a voice attached to
these book that could answer his question. Thankfully, Murphy's curse
couldn't do anything about things older than I was, so this was actually
random chance and I seemed to be in luck. <A LONG, long time ago everything
was really dark. Then there was this big light and suddenly stuff
existed...> I sighed and amended my question. <Not that far back, only since
you attached yourself to these books.> <Oh. Well there was this old scribe
dude who made us, and a lot of wizards who read us. We were with a lot of
other books all together in a big building but then it burned down. The
books were saved, but one of us was away with a wizard person at the time
and we've been in two pieces ever since.>

It was true then, there was a fifth element and a fifth book. The library
they mentioned must have been the Library of Alexandras that they had
originally come from. It had burned down centuries ago and was never
rebuilt, but all the books were moved to other places. The one place where
the majority of books had gone, almost a third of them, was Metamor Keep up
north. It's where I had started my search for these four books too. And if
the fifth wasn't there then I would probably be able to find out where it
was anyway. On to Metamor then, I'd been meaning to go north for a while now
anyway, it was just far too hot this far south. I put the four books I had
acquired in my room and pulled my staff out for the teleportation spell. I
had started the circle when Bora suddenly spoke up again. <You're going to
Metamor aren't you?> "Mm-hmm..." I replied absently, focusing on the spell.
<Just checking. I'm going to go do some things of my own for a bit, I'll
find you later.> I nodded, placing more runes on the floor. I really had no
idea what he meant when he said that as voices can't really do things
persay. Technically they didn't even have a gender either, but I called Bora
a 'he' anyway. I figure Bora got bored when I wasn't doing interesting
things and went off to watch people that were. He liked sticking around me
though since I could actually hear him, but I wasn't much fun when I was
researching stuff.

<Oh, and Kit?> "Yeah?" I asked, still focused on the spell. <Just remember
what happened last time you tried to teleport on a Monday.> I paused a
moment considering this. He had quite a point there, too many things could
go wrong with teleportations. Sometimes only part of you teleported, or you
teleported into somewhere unhealthy, such as underground or hundreds of feet
in the air. I then realized a moment later that most things that went wrong
happened because the mage messed up the spell or stopped halfway through,
which come to think of it I had just done. I had enough time to say, "Oh
crap." before the world around me began to swirl and change.

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When the world around me stopped moving I opened my eyes and found myself on
a plain. Blast that Murphy, and my day had been going so well too (although
to be fair, I think this one was actually Bora's fault)... I looked back
around me at the plain. It seemed to go on for miles with absolutely nothing
around. 'Well this is almost pleasant.' I thought warily. It was certainly
better than the previous three times this had happened when I kept finding
myself next to a bunch of small green things that would attack me on sight.
I found out later that they were lutins, but at the time I had panicked. But
not this time it seemed, this time I had the whole place to myself. Just
then I heard something fall behind me and curiously, I turned around to see
what it was. I really should have expected the rather large group of lutins
there, but then I should have known not to stop my teleport spell either.
They hadn't attacked me yet and were so far just staring at me as if trying
to decide if I was prey or a threat. That didn't bode so well for me and
what I said next pretty much made up their minds.

"Oh, come ON, not AGAIN!" I cried out in despair, turned back around, and
ran as fast as I could away from them. Almost all of the creatures chased me
of course. They always did even when I didn't practically shout in their
ears that I was helpless. 'Why do Mondays always have to suck?' I thought to
myself in anguish as I continued to run looking for a way to ditch the
pursuit. Unfortunately, this time I found no cliff to jump off or cave to
provide a handy escape. On the bright side however, I didn't get himself
trapped in a dead end either. That had been quite a close call. The only
thing that had saved me was my scream of frustration, which was loud enough
to somehow cause an avalanche that cut off the chasing party. It bought me
enough time to set up my escape spell and I had promised not to let it
happen again. Reflecting on the recent past, I don't think that went so
well...

A thrown axe that just missed my leg jolted me back into the current and
unpleasant reality. I decided it would be more prudent to figure out how to
escape than to remember how I had escaped previously, but as I ran I
couldn't find anything. There was no shelter, no where to hide, just a large
open field that stretched on for miles. The very first time I had eventually
been able to get away by flying, a complicated skill of mine based on
manipulating the air around me, making myself lighter, and lifting myself,
but that 'spell' required a certain state of mind which while easy to
maintain, was nearly impossible to get into while being chased. I could
probably turn around and take them out with a bunch of spells, but I didn't
like killing others too much so I continued to run for a mile or two anyway,
hoping beyond reason to find some escape or at least a way to stall for
enough time to teleport back south. When nothing presented itself after
another mile, I started to get really annoyed. It really just wasn't FAIR
that my luck shoots me into the middle of this forsaken place every chance
it was given and now won't even give me a proper chance to get away! And
EVERY time I was put here, I ended up on the bad side of an increasingly
larger number of angry, weapon wielding lutins.

Well this time I wasn't going to just wait for an escape to present itself,
I was going to take a stand and MAKE the time to get away! So, as I ran, I
also gathered the winds around me, swirling them into an upward spiraling
circle around and around until I stood in the center of a raging tornado
which I directed back in the direction of the chasing lutins with the
childish glee of one who knows he suddenly has the upper hand. At this point
of course more than a few pursuing lutins had realized their sudden impeding
plight and had turned the other way and were now running away from ME, but
by now it was too late for them. I was well and truly annoyed at the world
and everything in it and instead of letting them flee like I would have, and
wished they would have done for me, I chased them down one by one, picking
them up with the wind and flinging them into the air to land who knew where.
They probably wouldn't die anymore than did the lutins chasing me the first
three times I'd ended up here. After all, the ground was pretty soft, and I
didn't really want to kill any of them anyway. I'm not a particularly
violent person, but I did feel much better for the venting of my anger and
frustration.

After a minute or two of continuing to blow for the heck of it and from pure
momentum, I wound down my tornado and let it die out, staggering slightly as
I felt the after affects of my little temper tantrum. I was still full of
energy and could probably use any physical or magical spells I needed to,
but I would definitely have a migraine for the rest of the day, if not
longer. "No more mental spells today I think..." I muttered to himself,
wincing as his moving jaw jolted his head and continuing his thoughts
silently. 'Ok, since I was attacked by lutins again, I'm probably in the far
north... again.' I sighed, 'So the usual course of action then. Teleport
south ten miles or so and find out where I am from there.' I winced again
when my headache throbbed once more as I drew the teleportation pattern in
the air around me with the staff I had never actually dropped. 'Ugh. This
time I wait a day first after getting there. Stupid headache...' I thought
as I finished the spell, correctly this time, and found myself in a forest
where I leaned against a tree, set up a basic ward, and went to sleep.

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Far away, a wizard named Nasoj beat his fists on the table on either side of
his scrying bowl. 'Him again?!?' he thought angrily. 'This is the fourth
time he's popped out of nowhere and caused ensuing chaos.' Somehow this
upstart mage always knew just exactly where to appear and how to act to
cause entire troops of lutins to chase after him and fall into his traps.
The most annoying part was that he only ever interfered with the parts of
the Giantdowns that he held sway over, ignoring those that had stopped
following his lead after the disaster two years ago. The first time this
mage had appeared had been three years ago. He'd let out a scream with a
terrified expression so genuine seeming that Nasoj himself thought it was
real until he led about 20 chasing lutins off the side of a cliff leaving
the mage hovering above them all, facing away, as if deigning not to notice
the plummeting lutins behind him. Nasoj knew from that point that the mage's
act had been just that, an act. After all, if the mage had the ability to
fly and had truly been terrified, he would have just flown into the air
immediately where the lutins couldn't attack him.

It would hardly be a problem if it had just been the once, but he had
appeared twice more each time leading a sizeable group of lutins on a merry
chase to their death. His second visit ended with another 30 lutins
wandering lost in an underground labyrinth before they died of starvation
one by one. The mage himself had somehow managed to find his way around
perfectly and come out unscathed. After that incident, lutins had begun to
refer to him as the "Monday Demon" because he only ever appeared on Mondays,
and always left before the end of the day, but not before leaving chaos and
death strewn behind him. The previous time he'd visited, he had managed to
lead them into a dead end canyon. Nasoj sighed, as he remembered the
avalanche triggered by the mage's shout that had torn down the sides of the
canyon crushing the 35 lutins that had followed him that time. The only real
consolation of the situation was the fact that from everything Nasoj had
been able to gather, this mage had no connection with his enemies at
Metamor. Looking back into the scrying bowl, Nasoj saw that the mage this
time had taken a far more direct approach to his previous efforts. He
watched in disgust as the 45 lutins landed in various locations, all somehow
managing to kill themselves in the process. Most impaled themselves on their
own weapons as they landed but some broke their necks and one managed to
find the only rock for miles around and land on it head first. Shaking in
rage, Nasoj cut the flow of information, stalking off to destroy something
large and explosive. This so called 'Monday Demon' would pay dearly for the
chaos he sowed when Nasoj finally caught up to him.

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In the end I slept through Tuesday and half of Wednesday before I felt good
enough to do anything productive. When I finally did wake up, my first order
of business was to make the area a bit more hospitable and get something to
eat. I was a bit too weak to go hunting, and I didn't want to wait for a
snare to catch something, so I pulled some jerky from my room and ate that
while I figured out what to do. I developed a few plans that would hopefully
get me back home. The first plan was to use the stars to orient myself and
find my way from there. It was almost dark, so it seemed best to try this
plan first. However, my hopes were dashed almost before they could form as
it started to rain an hour later. I took shelter under a tree and decided to
just go to sleep, setting up an extra spell to keep out the rain. There was
nothing worse than being stuck in wet clothing.

I woke up the next morning to try Plan B. I would talk to the voices and see
what they knew. I really should have known better. <You are in the forest of
the beasts!> Well that seemed obvious, although maybe these beasts were
particularly vicious. <You are north of south and south of north!> Again, an
obvious statement, but this one seemed cryptic and might have another
meaning. <You were there but now you're here!> That one was just stupid.
<No, I am here and you are there!> And that one wasn't even on target. <You
are standing in deer poo!> I looked down and saw I was indeed standing in
deer poo, a situation which I quickly remedied by moving and scraping my
boot off on a nearby fallen log. <If you're lost, click your heels three
times and wish for home!> That one didn't even make sense at all, although I
did try it just in case. All that happened was me feeling silly.

I sighed. None of these answers were helping me at all. The voices kept
going but didn't get any more helpful, and I decided to tune them out for a
bit, trying to think of more specific or helpful questions. The rest of the
day passed similarly as I tried to pry useful information from them and
following any leads I could. I learned that the 'beasts of the forest' lived
north of where I was so I decided to avoid that direction, but I must have
wandered in every other direction there was. I also learned that the local
strawberries were supposedly quite good and that a General Selint once
marched an army through here long ago, but in the end I gave up defeated. It
rained again that night.

Plan C involved dousing the location of the nearest person and asking for
directions. I floated a small pebble into the air in front of me and cast my
spell. The pebble started spinning and drifting off in a certain direction
which I followed. The going was slow as the pebble didn't move very fast and
would periodically stop as if changing targets, and also I was trying to
make my way through the forest without making any noises. With my luck the
first thing to find me would be an ambush. Eventually the pebble led me to a
clearing and pointed directly at a deer. I looked at the pebble again to be
sure, but it was still pointing. Maybe the person was behind the deer? I
circled the clearing just in case being careful not to alert the deer and
possibly mess up the spell I had, but the pebble still pointed insistently
at the deer. As if to scorn me the deer chose that moment to walk away. I
glared at the pebble and tossed it into the woods. 'So much for that spell,
guess it doesn't work as well as it's supposed to.' I thought, and sat down.
It was getting dark and I wouldn't have much more success that day, so I
decided to stay where I was. That night there was no rain, but the clouds
still covered the sky.

Plan D was picking random directions and scrying for a long time. I needed a
clear line of sight for the best results as well as something to warn me if
anything got too close since while scrying this way I was completely blind
to the world around me. So climbing to the top of a tree, I set wards of
warning and protection and looked into the distance. All I really did was
alter the spell already in place for my eyesight, so it was faster than
actually setting up another spell, but the spell itself relied on my
direction. I needn't have bothered though. As I searched, I found mountains
and forests galore, but hardly anything useful. On the plus side the clouds
had cleared somewhat so I was able to see the stars that night. I figured
out that I was north of where I had started from, but south of where I had
ended up, and a few other things. I suppose that's what the one voice had
meant about 'north of south and south of north', but I couldn't tell much
else from that. The clouds expanded again and no matter how much I waited,
they didn't go away this time. Instead I eventually fell asleep.
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