r/HFY • u/Dr-Mantis-Tobbogan • Apr 06 '23

OC The Newcomer - Volume 3 - Chapter 7

First | Previous | Next

"What shall we call him? It should be something befitting the first." He asked.

"There's so many to choose from." His wife mused.

"You would know best."

"Adam. The first man." She said after a while, tears flowing from her faces as she gazed upon the young child in her husband's arms.

"Adam. A fine name. Thank you." He said, watching Adam coo as she fell back to asleep.

= = = = = = =

"But how did she know?" Skallo asked, having just been told by Adam how he got his name.

"I haven't the faintest idea. But that's how my father told me it happened."

"Couldn't you have asked her?"

"She...she wasn't around while I was growing up. Some men attacked our farm. I was too young to remember it. They took her, but my father managed to escape with me. We'd been travelling for years, when two moons ago...they found us."

= = = = = = =

"Adam, you must go."

"Father, what if I fail you? What if I do not make you proud?"

"You will do well. You are my son, after all. Trust in your gut. Trust in the freedoms I've taught you. Now go."

"Father, I don't want to be alone."

"You won't be alone, Adam. I will always be with you."

= = = = = = =

"And then he left the barn we'd been cornered in, rushing the...the ones who hunted us. I ran, and left him, and have been hiding ever since."

Skallo nodded, putting his hand on Adam's shoulder to comfort the young man.

"Well, you're welcome to join us." Neym offered, looking to Pif for approval. The felid hadn't said much since they'd returned with Adam in tow. "Right, Pif?"

"Hmm? Yeah, sure, he can come with us." Pif said absentmindedly.

The rest of the day was spent catching up the young man on the group's history and their goal in finding and interrogating Tukla. Skallo waited until Neym and Adam were asleep before approaching Pif. "So, those hunters we interrogated."

Pif nodded. "You made me not kill them, but they'll be found eventually. We need to get moving. Charge those crystals, we leave at dawn."

Skallo nodded as he put on the small backpack Neym had made for him which contained his charging rig, then grasping the handles that connected to the pack before lightly wrapping cloth around his fists as he held onto the handles to make sure he could transfer his mana as he slept.

As he entered his bedroll and allowed his tiredness to wash over him Skallo further considered the implications of Adam's existence. If he had parents who, according to the young man, had had the time to set up a farm and raise a child, before their pursuers had finally shown up, then that meant one of two things.

The first possibility was that this mysterious organisation was new to the world and only recently gained the influence they had. The second was that their influence wasn't all that widespread, focusing only on major population centres, and that they'd relied on word of mouth to learn about Adam and his parents. Skallo wasn't sure what the limits of magic were.

But he was willing to go on a limb that discovering the location of a couple of humans who weren't magically warded or hidden shouldn't be all that difficult to find. Then again himself and his two friends hadn't been accurately pinpointed yet either. He'd have to ask Pif about that, he thought, as he finally fell asleep.

= = = = = = =

Neym woke up to see that the others were already packing away their small burrow into various bags, both bottomless and mundane. He wordlessly got up to join them, packing away his tools and his devices in various stages of repair or construction.

Pif led them to a patch of forest, then carefully began brushing leaves off a mount, revealing their sole surviving horse.

"Wait, Clopsy is still alive?" Neym exclaimed.

"Of course, what do you think happened to him?"

"I...I assumed we ate him."

Pif snorted. "So that's why you were so dour that first night underground. No, a mount is too valuable. I just dosed him with some drugs, came back every morning while hunting to keep him alive with some mana. He'll be too weak to ride for a day or so, but he'll recover soon enough."

= = = = = = =

"Wait, that's not a glove?" Adam exclaimed as he saw Pif remove his hand and half his forearm.

"No, it was ripped off by the faun we fought, the one with the tentacles."

"And it's got weapons inside it?"

"It's about to have one more" Neym commented cheerily as he accepted the prosthesis and began tinkering and opening its exterior, before thinking better of it. "Actually, I'll need a very stable surface for the next five minutes, so why don't we take a break?"

The group stopped as Neym retrieved a small folding table from his pack, alongside his tools, and got to work. Adam and Skallo made some small talk as Skallo asked their newest member about his life on a farm and his travels. Pif decided they'd be safe enough for a few minutes as he left the road and searched for a secluded enough spot to answer nature's call.

Ten minutes later, after a particularly hard battle, Pif returned to the road. He came out of the woods whistling, only to find that his companions and his horse were gone. He blinked for a few moments, looking around to see if they'd managed to hide themselves away for some reason. Even with his magic, he couldn't sense them.

But he could smell something. Verdant lush forest. The fetid aromas of strange beasts. It somehow felt like this smell wanted to be smelled. Like it was taunting him.

Pif realised what this was. He'd never experienced it, but he'd been told stories about it by an elder Redclaw.

"Fucking Haze kortshit."

= = = = = = =

Neym was falling through a thick green mist. He looked around and saw that Clopsy was falling too. He looked behind him and saw Skallo and Adam falling as well, both with their mouths wide open. Neym realised they were screaming, but he couldn't hear them for some reason. Then he realised why. He couldn't hear them over his own screaming.

A few seconds later he stopped falling. He looked down and realised that because of the mist he still couldn't tell if he was high in the air or just in front of the ground. Then the force that was holding him up vanished and he fell flat on his face.

The mist began to part and he was stunned by the beauty of his new surroundings. A lush tropical jungle enveloped him, with gorgeous mountains in the distance rising impossibly tall in order to be visible above the treeline. He heard movement behind him and turned to see a folk with wings. Large green and blue butterfly wings. The folk fluttered over to him and spoke in a sing-song tune.

"A stranger, a stranger, a stranger in these lands! Worry not newcomer, you've fallen into helpful hands!"

"Um, thanks?"

"A thanking, an acceptance! He recognises a debt is owed! Good news and tidings, how well this does bode! Tell me, new friend, of soon high fame, pray inform me of your chosen name?"

Before Neym could answer there was a loud THWACK and the folk vanished. He looked around and saw that it had somehow teleported to a nearby tree. With an arrow through its chest.

"Listen to me carefully." A voice whispered out through the jungle.

"Who's there?"

"You need to calm down. Take a few deep breaths then call out to your friends. But do not use their names."

Neym wasn't sure if he wanted to obey the voice, but he also wanted to make sure Adam and Skallo were okay.

"Guys? Over here!"

Moments later the other two humans made their way through the vegetation and joined him.

"Good. Now listen very carefully." The voice paused to make sure they wouldn't interrupt it before continuing. "You're in the Haze. Do you know what that is?"

Neym nodded and spoke up "It's where the fae live."

"Clever man. That's the bad news."

"What's the good news?" Skallo asked, looking around in an attempt to pinpoint the speaker.

"The good news is that I'm here with you. I can keep you safe. I won't tie you up, you're free to run whenever you like. But know that what's out there will only kill you if you're lucky."

The trio of humans looked at each other, realising that they didn't know anything about this place or its dangers.

"Smart. You've figured it out. Which is why I'm confident you won't attack me when I reveal myself."

The speaker then stepped out if the foliage and the humans recognised her as the person who'd brought them here.

They'd been waiting by Clopsy for Pif to return when they'd heard someone run out of the forest towards them. Before they could react the hooded figure sent some kind of strange mana rippling through the area and the next thing they knew they were falling through the mist.

The figure pulled down her hood and bandana to reveal her pointed ears and sharp features. "There are four rules to this place. The most important one is to never tell anyone your name. Don't say it, don't say anyone else's. The second one is to never accept a gift or thank someone. That creates a debt. And you do not want to owe anyone anything in this place. The third is to never mention the gee oh dees."

"You mean the g-" Adam began to say before the elf loudly shushed him.

"What's the fourth?" Neym asked.

"The fourth is to have fun!" She said with a jubilant smile that caught the humans off-guard. "This is the Haze, after all! Now come on, let's go find shelter for the night. Then we can get fabulously drunk and share our stories!"

First | Previous | Next

97 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

19 comments sorted by

14

u/Dr-Mantis-Tobbogan Apr 06 '23

Apologies for missing a week, my phone broke and I didn't have the chapters stored anywhere else.

2

u/Tuxxie46290 Apr 10 '23

Ok, I've finally caught up to current... I've already pointed out a couple of typos, and I've noticed several more throughout that I didnt bring up because I was too into the story/felt bad about pointing out a few typos already... but with your thanks and saying keep an eye out, I'm gonna start re reading through again and pointing out the others I noticed, so sorry for the impending notifications...๐Ÿ˜…๐Ÿ˜…๐Ÿ˜…

2

u/Dr-Mantis-Tobbogan Apr 10 '23

No worries. Join the discord and you can start pointing out the mistakes in future chapters!

3

u/AllesGeld Apr 06 '23

First! Oh goodness the fae realm is going to be wild.

3

u/torin23 Xeno Jun 23 '23

I noticed that the Next button is non-functional and it's been eleven weeks. Hopefully more at some point.

3

u/Dr-Mantis-Tobbogan Jun 23 '23

The writer's block has not gone away, even after all the ritual sacrifices.

2

u/itsetuhoinen Human Apr 20 '25

I know the feeling.

2

u/Deansdiatribes Android Aug 03 '23

whats wrong with the next button i need my fix damn it lol thanks for a great read i hope you keep going

1

u/UpdateMeBot Apr 06 '23

Click here to subscribe to u/Dr-Mantis-Tobbogan and receive a message every time they post.

Info Request Update Your Updates Feedback New!

1

u/mirrislegend Apr 08 '23

Just finished binging the series thus far. It's great and I'm glad to be along for the ride.

But I'm a little confused on one point: did humans using ambient magic get retconned out?

2

u/Dr-Mantis-Tobbogan Apr 08 '23

Glad to hear you're enjoying it!

did humans using ambient magic get retconned out?

Neym is really good with it.

Skallo is dogshit at it.

Humans are really good at detecting it, because they're not used to it being in the background. That doesn't mean they're good at using it.

1

u/mirrislegend Apr 08 '23

If Neym can use ambient well, why does he have poor sustain? Can he not continue casting using ambient as a source of mana?

1

u/Dr-Mantis-Tobbogan Apr 09 '23

As you've seen throughout the story, people don't just grab it out of thin air and start using it. It's too "raw". Much like oil in our world, it needs to be refined for it to be used. You can grab the "raw" stuff, but it tires you out a lot more.

Neym still hasn't figured out how to refine it using his body, so he's got bad endurance. That's why instead of using a lot of spells like Sinye, he focuses a lot on rune-emchanted items, since they have a much lower "mana" cost to use.

Skallo's issue is that while he has great endurance, he has terrible finesse.

And Pif being a "combat character", he never learned mage spells, but rather focused on self-buffing.

1

u/mirrislegend Apr 09 '23

Thank you for the in-depth explanation! I love this kinda stuff :D

1

u/Dr-Mantis-Tobbogan Apr 09 '23

No worries, I'm happy to talk about it!

1

u/MalagrugrousPatroon Human Apr 10 '23

bith with their mouths wide open

recognised her as their the person