Lucky Rabbit

Keros was chained to a rock. That was an odd thing to happen to anyone, and especially a god, but Keros was an odd god, at least in Pandy’s admittedly very limited experience. He didn’t seem to be in danger – there were no eagles slurping down his liver, for instance – so Pandy would have noped out of there, if she had any idea where ‘there’ was, and how to get back home.

It was that thought, that realization that at some point her brain had come to see this world – or at least wherever Thaniel was – as ‘home’ that made her hesitate long enough to see Keros look up, his dingy toga slipping from one less-muscular-but-still-defined shoulder. He frowned, and his lips moved, but no sound reached her ears. Nothing, at least, until she heard a rushing sound like someone had just chucked her over Niagara Falls in a barrel, and darkness engulfed her again.

She floated in a void, a place of cold and darkness that wasn’t, because she had no eyes to see and no body with which to feel. Where was she? Where had she just been? Was that real, or something created by her imagination? Pandy had been trying to avoid thinking about it, but she had a vague, niggling sense of guilty worry about Keros. He was a pretty pathetic excuse for a god, but he had tried to help her, at least a little, and the last time she’d talked to him, he sounded-

Pandy gasped, jerking so hard that she heard something in her back crack. It wasn’t the good kind of crack, either, but a wet sort of sound, and red numbers floated off in the corner of her vision. She tried to focus on them, but couldn’t. It felt like her eyes were rolling around independently, and the thought that that might be literally true made her shudder. Had she exploded after all? It couldn’t be that bad, could it? She could see and hear this time, at least.

Focusing on a single paw, Pandy tried to raise it to her face. She felt nothing from the paw itself, but finally, there came a slight pressure on the end of her nose. So her arm was still attached and at least somewhat under her control. That was promising.

One by one, Pandy checked on her other bits. Both front paws worked, but the back ones were unresponsive. She could feel her ears and nose twitch, though of course she couldn’t see them. Which was a relief, because it meant her eyeballs were probably still where they were supposed to be. In fact, everything seemed to be where it was supposed to be, which meant she hadn’t actually burst.

Pandy thought. There was a delay. There was never a delay, but this time there was, like the System was trying to decide what to do with her request. Finally, almost reluctantly, words formed in front of her, and since they remained in place, rather than floating away, she was finally able to read them.

You have no Mana. Using Life Force instead.

Healed Pandora for 20 LF.

What? She hadn’t used Mana since she cast Spark. It should be full by now! she thought, feeling a bit frantic.

Name: Pandy

Race: Rabbit? (Deceased)

Age: 24

LF: -62/2

Mana: 0/82

Stats▾

Strength: 18 Intelligence: 12 Agility: 20 Pain Tolerance: 1Skills▾

Hop: Lv. 20 (5/190) Bite: Lv. 19 (44/100) Scratch: Lv. 11 (2/28) Minor Heal: Lv. 22 (255/370) Wings of Glory: Lv. 1 (1/2) Verdant Surge: Lv. 1 (1/2) Vita Herbalis: Lv. 1 Spark: Lv. 1 (1/2) Shifting Faces: Lv. 2     00:00:02 Graceful Presence: Lv. 1 Innate Magic: Lv. 1 Dance: Lv. 1 Dual Wielding: Lv. 1 Shield of Darkness: Lv. 1Boons▾

Ismara’s Blessing IMark of KerosCorruption Points: 2

Pandy’s unfocused gaze landed on her Life Force first. She was down sixty-two points now, which meant she’d started at negative seventy-two. That…wasn’t good. That was, in fact, dangerously close to the negative ninety-nine she’d had after praying to Ismara and getting her inventory.

The next thing she noticed, however, was that she now had two positive Life Force available. That was double what she’d had before, and though she didn’t know what they did, if anything, she liked to see numbers going up, and these ones in particular made her happy, even though they didn’t actually seem to matter. Still, that meant she’d just lost seventy-four LF to whatever had happened.

The System had also been correct when it said she was out of Mana. But where had eighty-two points of Mana gone? Buying new spells and skills cost Corruption Points, not Mana – or at least it had every time before. If she could use Mana to buy spells, she would. Mana refilled on its own, after all, no ‘drinking of blood’ or ‘bathing in tears’ necessary.

That thought brought her gaze down to her Corruption Points, and Pandy felt suddenly, deeply nauseous. She only had two CP remaining. Not thirty-four. Two. Two points were all that kept Pandy from being sucked down to Hell, whatever that actually meant, and while Thaniel could probably save her, he was fast asleep in bed. The five feet between them was suddenly more like a thousand, and Pandy thought,  

You have no Mana. Using Life Force instead.

Healed Pandora for 20 LF.

You have no Mana. Using Life Force instead.

Healed Pandora for 20 LF.

…

When Pandy was done, her health sat at exactly zero points, but she had regained the use of her limbs. She’d also felt some distinctly icky things going on below her chest, but whatever had come apart apparently didn’t make up more than 15 percent of her body mass, because Minor Heal took care of it. When she did finally dare to look down at herself, she couldn’t even tell anything had happened. Her paws were definitely shaky as she stood, though.

The room was still silent, and without Pandy’s Spark, the only light was the faint, orange illumination cast by the lamp. It was just enough to allow a sleepy child to make it to the door without stubbing his toes, and definitely not enough to read or write by, which was why Pandy had used Spark. Besides, it had been another opportunity to use one of her spells.

Hopping over to each boy’s bed, Pandy checked on them. Thaniel was definitely fast asleep – mouth open, and drool darkening his pillow. It was harder to tell if Isidor was sleeping or just pretending to do so. His breathing was slow, but not deep, and his eyes didn’t flicker beneath his eyelids, the way Thaniel’s did. He never seemed to sleep very deeply, though, waking at the slightest sound, so she thought the odds were good that he was just pretending.

He obviously didn’t want to interact with her, however, so Pandy just spent a few extra seconds staring at him, hoping to see a tell-tale twitch of discomfort. Nothing happened, so she jumped down off of Tempest’s box, which she’d used as a step-ladder, completely ignoring the baleful gaze of the turtle and the no-doubt entirely coincidental pop of static electricity that shocked her paws as she landed.

Having done her due diligence, Pandy slid back under Thaniel’s bed, taking her chicken-scratch sheet of paper with her. She stuffed it against the back wall, then decided that was a little too obvious, and stood up on her hind paws to tuck it between the mattress and the bed slats. She was a little worried she’d wake Thaniel as his bed shifted beneath him, but as far as she could tell, his breathing never even changed rhythm.

Settling back down, Pandy pulled up her stats again, examining them more carefully. Something was bothering her about it, and it only took a moment to realize what it was. Rather than Shield of Light, she had a spell called Shield of Darkness. That probably explained the glitch when she was gaining the spell. So, apparently she really couldn’t have Light spells, but instead of just telling her that, the System had converted the one she tried to get to its Dark equivalent.

The question was, what did Shield of Darkness do? In Gacha Love, a first-level Shield of Light absorbed up to ten percent of the user’s health in damage, and could deal a small amount of damage to any Dark or Undead monsters who got too close to it. That was the part that had made Pandy hesitant to take it, since it might well hurt her or Thaniel, since they were both Dark. Pandy had planned to try it on herself first, figuring that even if it injured her, it might have worked to protect the other children.

Whatever this new spell did, Pandy wasn’t going to find out tonight. She’d thought she had this figured out. Gaining a few more skills should have been safe. By the end of the night, she should have known what each one would do for her, how much Mana it took – if any – and still had more than thirty Corruption Points left over just in case she needed them. Now she was back to almost nothing, and the first feeble growth of her self-confidence in….well, ever, had been cut off at the root.

And what was that with Keros? He’d definitely been chained to that rock, hadn’t he? He hadn’t, say, been sunbathing, sprawled out on a particularly uncomfortable-looking piece of local scenery? But there had definitely been chains, and while Pandy did have an active imagination, she didn’t have that kind of imagination.

And he’d seen her, too, hadn’t he? There was no pretending she didn’t know he was in trouble, because he’d said her name. Well, mouthed it, at least. Which meant that if she didn’t at least try to do something, she was…she was…what? Mortal? Only human? What could she possibly do to help a god, if Keros even needed help? That idiot god might even deserve whatever had happened to him.

But she didn’t think so. In fact, Pandy had a terrible suspicion that she was the cause of his current predicament. Or if not the cause, then at least a contributing factor. And that was bad, because Pandy wasn’t used to taking other people down with her. Yes, things happened, but they happened to her, and, if anything, the people around her tended to look better in comparison. But here was Keros, in trouble. Maybe. If she hadn’t just imagined it all. And Pandy could only think of one way to check.

Clearing her throat, she thought, There was no response, so she tried again, a little louder. Still nothing. She didn’t even have that feeling that told her something, somewhere was starting to pay attention. Gathering her courage, Pandy shouted,

And this time, something heard her, but Pandy didn’t like the feeling one bit. It was a little like the nightmares she had where she had to give a report in front of the whole class and everyone was naked except for her, and a little like being an ant beneath a magnifying glass on a very sunny day. And whatever was looking through that magnifying glass was very definitely not Keros.

Pandy shrank down, flattening herself against the floor as if hiding beneath a bed in a dark room wasn’t already enough. Because it wasn’t. And she had brought this on herself. She wished she could whimper, but she couldn’t, so instead she mentally whispered, and then, very, very timidly,

“Oh,” a mellifluous voice said, as the sweet scent of flowers and honey filled the space beneath the bed. “There you are.”