Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes

  Statler and Waldorf were so excited. They finally made it to Haven. They wandered past a few of the banded, the name the pair used to refer to other patreons in the dungeon. Easily identifiable by their identical bracelets.

  “Wonder which way Jake’s cabin is?” Waldorf asked. Statler shrugged. He had no idea. He had done a speedrun of the books so he could understand what the other kids were talking about. His mother had bought him a one month subscription.

  “Can’t be hard to find. There aren’t very many buildings yet.” Waldorf continued. Looking around he saw a couple high level bandeds heading their way. He tapped Statler to warn him.

  “Woah, they’re almost level 60, what the hell have they been doing?” Statler said. “I bet they’re pompous assholes that want to tell us what to do. Let’s go.” The two hurried on past the building that they assumed was Miranda’s office.

  “There’s the sign.” Waldorf said as they hurried down the trail to Jake’s cabin. Cresting the hill, they stopped. Sitting by his pond surrounded by book shelves, Jake was doing alchemy. They watched for a few seconds, then Waldorf screamed, “Enough filler. Do something cool Jake.”

  “Yeah. Go fight something. Show us your cool skills.” Statler added. Jake ignored them until he finished the batch he was working on. The boys kept yelling, “Filler.” and other nonsense the whole time he was crafting.

  Quickly rising to his feet, he faced the hecklers and put power into his voice, “STOP.”

  The boys looked at each other and smirked. “You can’t tell us what to do, we paid to be here. Do something…” Statler froze midsentence as Jake’s eyes lit up.

  “Now” Jake said and ninjapop’s swords cut the heads off the two critics. “Cleaner cut if you freeze them first.” Jake said and sat back down to do more alchemy as ninjapop cleaned the blood off his swords and removed the bodies.

  *****

  The stormsong hawk headed out for another hunt when the strange, but powerful green falcon flew up to him. “You’ve got to check this out. Jake’s got wings and is trying to fly.” Slyphie said.

  “How did the human get wings?” the stormsong hawk asked.

  “Oh, it’s a skill he got from his patron.” Slyphie explained. The two flew to where Jake was and landed on a branch for a while. Slyphie couldn’t stop laughing.

  “His patron was a bird?” the stormsong hawk asked.

  “Nah. He was a snake that evolved into a dragon.” Slyphie said.

  Not knowing what a dragon was, the hawk was not impressed. “I’ve eaten many snakes, but never seen one with wings. He does fly like what I imagine a snake would if it had wings.”

  Slyphie’s eyes went wide as he covered the hawks mouth with his wing, “Don’t say things like that. He’s watching and he’s definitely not a snake you could eat.” The hawk slapped the wing away and took off towards Jake where he immediately slapped him in the head with a wing.

  *****

  Josie and the group of Patreons returned from the treasure hunt and headed into the building where everybody put the loot they had received onto tables and Squish was having people who wanted specific items roll some die to determine who would get them.

  Suddenly the air changed and they felt a silent concussive blast and there was a strange sound like glass breaking. Brjenkins appeared. “My apologies, but we are out of time and you are not strong enough yet.” The room filled with shadows and bodies fell.

  *****

  Squish looked at his phone. Fifty-eight minutes. Their group had been by themselves in the theatre for the last eight minutes. ‘Come with me.” brjenkins appeared and motioned for everyone to go through the portal. When they stepped through the crazy old coot handed them each a bracelet and told them to put it on.

  Squish tried to ask why he killed them instead of just taking them back in time, but all that came out was, “REEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!” Bret looked at him and the man standing there in a bird costume and quickly switched their bands.

  “I said, why the hell did you kill us instead of just taking us back in time?” Squish asked.

  The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

  Bret smirked and said, “Because…” but he suddenly realized there was no reason he couldn’t just take them back in time and into the dungeon again. His face went through a variety of changes as he tried to come up with a good explanation. Finally, he shrugged. “Good question. Everybody makes mistakes. Lesson learned. Let’s get back to the dungeon.”

  “Hold up. You can’t just kill us for no reason and get off scott free!” Josie said. “We demand restitution.”

  Bret looked around at the angry faces and conceded. He pulled out a few equipment upgrades for each member of the group. “Jeez. I said I was sorry.”

  “No. You didn’t.” infernalrobot pointed out.

  *****

  The group was in the ready room at the dungeon again. Josie nodded, “Going back to the treasure hunt is a good idea. We can definitely do a better job of protecting the ones we want to and hunting down the members of the holy church on the list that Jacob gave the other patreon. And there is also the list of troublemakers Caleb suggested he wouldn’t mind losing.”

  “Everybody still have their invitations?” Lemonsquisher asked. Everybody nodded and the group went to the dungeon control panel and joined the event.

  Ninjapop leaned over and whispered to Travis. “I’m going to watch the duel again. I felt like I was close to an upgrade watching the sword saint.”

  Travis started singing, “It’s the eye of the tiger, it’s…” Ninjapop quickly placed his hand over Travis’s mouth before escaping the mental attack by jumping through the portal.

  ******

  Squish’s watch showed it had been fifty seven minutes. Bret appeared shaking his head. “Come on.” He handed out the bracelets.

  Atallchevy growled, “I told you we weren’t ready for the termite hive.”

  Josie looked a little disheartened, “That king was fast. How the hell does Jake beat it?”

  “Face it. None of us will ever be Jake Thane.” Ninjapop said.

  “Reee!”

  “You’re right. That doesn’t mean we can’t help.” Ninjapop agreed.

  *****

  “Why the hell would you want to do that?” Jake asked the group of people with odd names. He respected their work ethic. They were all nearly as highly leveled as him and felt even stronger than the other people at that level. But, he just could not see any reason for their latest scheme.

  They just stared at him. “I asked why…” Jake stopped talking as he saw the frustrated look on their faces. “Did…did you just try to share forbidden knowledge with me?” They all eagerly nodded.

  *****

  Josie had asked Chris to show their group the alter for Villy and to lead them in a prayer. “Malefic one. I apologize for not knowing how to do this or what to say, but these people wished for me to make a prayer of thanks and ask for you to devote a sliver of your awareness upon us because they have an important request that will benefit your chosen.”

  The entire group felt the eyes of the snake focus on them. Josie quickly spoke, “Villy. If we offend, know it is our fault not Chris’s. You know what is about to happen. Please tell Chris to come with us. As a favor to Jake. Thank you for listening, Malefic One. No matter what you decide.”

  “Yes.” A single word was said, but windows in Haven broke and the group's eardrums exploded. They quickly grabbed Chris and took him deep into the forest.

  *****

  All of the gods of the Malefic Order found avatars of themselves suddenly pulled into the private quarters of the Malefic One. They were all crushed to the ground by his aura until he was able to get his emotions under control.

  “My apologies. Please observe.” Villy said as he opened a projection showing his altar in Haven. When the group rushed Chris out of the temple, the projection closed and Villy turned to the group of gods and asked, “Does anyone know what those people are?”

  Duskleaf raised a hand like a student in a classroom, “Perhaps if master told us what events they were referring to…?”

  “The Chosen of Yip of Yore is about to invade my chosen’s world.” Villy explained.

  “But there is no way they could know that. What are they doing with the holder of the minor blessing?” Snappy asked.

  “They are hiding him and protecting him from the Chosen of Yip of Yore while also trying to reduce the damage his forces cause to my chosen’s homeworld.” Villy explained. The gods looked at each other confused. Nobody could come up with an explanation.

  *****

  Sylphie shot a blade of wind at the annoying bird. “I am Uncle Jake’s favorite.”

  “I met him first.” Slyphie countered.

  Sylphie surrounded the bird with her extra wooshy green wind, but the annoying bird broke her control. “Use your authority, Sylphie. I shouldn’t be able to take your control away.” Slyphie said disappointedly. Sylphie screeched and pushed her wind extra hard.

  “Watch the language. You’re much too young to use grown up words like that.” Slyphie said as she struggled to break out of the young hawk’s windstorm. Finally breaking out, she turned to Sylphie and said, “Better. But it’s more than pushing harder. The wind is yours. You are the wind. No one should be able to take it away from you.”

  *****

  “I seek to speak with the alabaster crinsomeye snake.” Jim Garrett shouted at every snake he saw. He had been wandering the swamp for hours and was getting frustrated. Suddenly a giant head rose from the water. It flicked its tongue in and out a few times before it disappeared underwater.

  A few minutes later a teenage girls voice asked, “Why do you seek the crimsoneye?”

  Letting out a sigh of relief, Jim spoke quickly, “Scarlet, thank Villy. The verdant witch that serves the chosen is in danger. I can show you approximately where she will enter your territory in the next few days.”

  “You are not blessed by the forefather. Why should I trust you?” the voice said from all around him.

  Jim placed his sword that he had forgotten he was holding into its sheath and held his arms out. “If I speak the truth and you don’t go, you will regret it. The witch will become a close friend of yours. If I lie, you can take your revenge now and kill me. But please, save Miranda.”

  “Your terms are acceptable.” the voice said. Show me where the witch will come. Jim projected the map that showed his groups estimate. “Thank you.” the voice said and Jim felt two large fangs penetrate his lower back and grimaced in anticipation of the pain about to come. After a second, he relaxed and opened his eyes. The fangs had barely penetrated his skin. Scarlet’s head moved to hover inches from his face.

  “You are a brave servant of the chosen. I shall find this witch you speak of.” Scarlet said and raised her head into the branches overhead before disappearing.

  Jim let out a long sigh. “Thank you, Villy.”

  *****

  “El Hawk Tuah. Cheetoh. Orange man bad. How many names did they have for me and how did they know I was coming? They couldn’t have placed this many signs since our arrival. Some of them look like they’ve been here for days.” El Hakan asked as he frustratedly burnt a sign that said, “To Cheesy to be a God.”

  “Celestial Child. The witch has taken shelter in a cabin nearby.” One of his generals informed the Chosen.

  “Do the beasts still struggle at achieving their objectives?” El Hakan asked.

  The general’s head lowered even more before he spoke. “Yes, Celestial Child. There seems to be an unusual amount of high level unaffiliated individuals among the earthlings.”

  Arriving at the cabin, El Hakan left the earthlings behind as he approached the shield protecting it. As he reached out to touch the barrier, the area that the earthling forces had stopped exploded in a giant ball of fire. Immediately on alert, he shielded himself and looked around for attackers.

  He couldn’t find them anywhere.