Wunderken

[Wadeywade]

Day 759

In the beginning, things had been easy, almost too easy; now Wade wades through swampy ground to make his way to somewhere he could actually fight from and realized, he actually missed being tossed into an unknown abyss of mild strangeness. Climbing on to a tree, Wade pulls his spear from the mud, the tube clogged now with the thick decomposed plant matter he had squelched up. Raising it above his head he swipes it sideways to clear it but of course, it was only partially so. A tube of mud that looked like an inanimate brown snake splurted from the end and landed with a splash in the swamp.

Looking around he tried to get his bearing then suddenly, Wade teetered wildly, the tree beneath him suddenly moves then envelops him with thick, muck-covered branches that coil around him with serpent-like precision. "Fu-" a smaller one coils around his neck, choking the words from him, and then the lower branches began a slow, incremental tightening: every time he breathed out and then in again, he couldn't take in as much air the next breath. It would be a slow, painful death by millimeters.

Then, as if things couldn't get any worse he realized, the whole thing was sinking.

Wade tried to pull his arms in but lacked the physical strength to even come close, his weapons dangled uselessly in his hands his arms positioned in such a way that he could neither pull them to him or, push away. The murky water and slimy, sucking mud inched closer as he sank down into the mire, unable to act when finally, the mud and water closed over his head. a moment later a few large bubbles appeared, sending heavy ripples across the pool, then all was still.

_______________________
O
o
((w))
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Wade sat up with a stuttered breath, looking around at the dried, dessicated desert around him. His tent flapped lazily in the breeze as muffled pops filled the air; the people of this world were a strange one using weapons that, as best Wade could tell, launched metal balls at high speeds through some unknown means. Luckily, their science wasn't as strong as his magic, mostly: Wade had taken a hit to the arm and had to have the ball removed, (thankfully, the healers of this world know the body well even though he was species-divergent to what they were used to) and that lent to his knowledge.

Wade rubbed the bandage (that was yesterday after all) and listened. Both sides used the same weapons so, there was no real distinction; but from every other sound, it sounds like a party. Standing there under foreign stars and moons, Wade gazed above and wonders what star he would have to look for, to find home. to find, her. Wade closes his eyes a moment, the spark between them, LayTrayin and he, that unseverable bond vibrates across the universe as his eyes flit around beneath his lids then finally, he opens them to see a not very bright, but distinctly yellow star.

Wade smiles as he gazes at it. It had been too long since he saw LayTrayin. Two years, one month, give or take a day. But he has resigned himself to the fate that this, this was the only way left for him to grow. to learn. And maybe while he was at it, do something for someone without caring or desiring what they offer in return; Wade steps back in his tent and sits; his armor rattles as he kicks it by accident sending a small plume of dirt into the air before the wind pushed it away.

Wade had left the hammer on the last "battlefield" but had decided to.. take a day. For the past two days he had camped out on this world, because his mission had been simply mundane and it seemed like a good time to pause: to scour mounds of sand so that there was a border for two nation-states to fight over for the next half of his lifetime. Picking the highest point of the massive dunes, Wade camped there for his sabbatical, as his sand-storms moved waves of sand to form this border.

So from here Wade gazes down on one side or the other; this border had taken days to erect and already, he saw them trying to shift it. Shaking his head, Wade broke camp and put on his makeshift armor, taking up his weapons he heaved his gear and made his way down the eastern-most side of the dunes, finally he kicks off and floats towards his goal leaving a massive runnel of sand to cascade down in a great dusty wave in his wake. Landing beside his hammer Wade drops his pack a small pain shoots through his arm; being shot while trying to do a task that benefits the person who shot you, who just happened to be a little too high-strung for your good was yet another reason Wade was glad to be leaving.

The wind licks around Wade as he stands by Bromäker, contemplating a great many things as he walks a few steps and reaches it but before he touches it, his foot brushes something under the hammer, and buried in the sand. When Wades' foot hits it it moves causing the hammer to slide away from his fingers. "What the hell?" Reaching down Wade grabs the edge and lifts, sending the hammer skittering in the sand to reveal his Shadow Weave armor and a wet spot underneath and around it. "Because of course there is. Sea and Sky." Wade strips his makeshift armor off, but as he does he spots a paper taped to the inside of the Shadow Weave. Pulling it off the Vulpine opens it:

=Wade; Saw that mess you have been wearing, thought this would serve you better. Mithril is trickier; but stay tuned, and stay safe.
T=

around the T was a ring of Vulpine tails, nine in gold foil in fact, and that pursed Wades' lips with a small chuckle. When he flipped it over, a new set of letters appeared in the same gold foil and as soon as the last appeared, the first faded away until all of them were gone. Wade read, then lifted his eyes.

=PS, you should do more to protect that thick, obstinate head of yours. So, look up.=

Bromäker stood there (Wade swore he knocked down the hammer when he lifted the armor), and on it was perched his visored helm, or one exactly like it.. Wade laughs softly. "Thank you Trieste-Kama. wherever you are." Wade straps on the armor, abandoning his makeshift armor in the sand like an old cocoon, "everything old is new again." he says putting the helmet, and kneeling beside Bromäker, Wade grips the handle. A boom, a wall of multispectral light, and he is gone, off to the next adventure...