Hopping Celestial Fox

After Casey laid out her plans on how to handle saving her world, there was a bit of an argument about how dangerous it would be and what we should do instead.

And then Wi spoke for the first time since the meeting had started.

“You’re just going to let my world be destroyed?! Just because it’s too dangerous to get involved?!” she asked, her voice cold, her eyes glaring at my mom who kept insisting on talking Casey out of getting involved.

Mom froze at the sudden venom aimed her way from someone who had been so quiet so far.

“That’s not… Sorry, I’m just concerned. I just don't want any of you to get hurt. Kids shouldn’t get themselves involved in wars in another world.”

“Well, too late! I know this is all just a little game for you all, but I’m already involved! And if she–” Wi glanced at the gobsmacked Casey. “–is to be believed, I’m perfectly capable of doing it without your help. So if you don’t want to get involved, then let me go back, close the stupid portal, and never open it again!”

Everyone stared at her outburst, mouths agape. Her reaction seemed to have immediately caught up to her as she looked awkwardly to the side, pursed her lips, and frowned.

What the heck? What had happened in those few days I hadn’t seen her? Where had the timid girl of yesterday gone? No, well, it made sense that she would be strong-willed if she were to accomplish everything the story had said she would, but I hadn’t expected her attitude to change this quickly.

“I’m not going to do that!” Casey exclaimed, offended. “Even if it’s dangerous, I’m still going to help in any way I can!”

“Yeah, I’ll help too,” I found myself saying. And I meant it too. Sure, I’d almost died saving Wi and was scared of a repeat, but that didn’t mean I wanted to hide in a corner now.

“The three of us are a package!” Frank declared while pumping his fist.

“I will provide any help I’m capable of,” Elyssa added.

Mom… hesitated for a second before letting out a sigh.

“Alright… I will help too, but we’re going to be smart about this! No jumping into danger head first as your plan A, okay? None of us are going to die saving the world.”

“Of course.” Wi nodded.

Not too long after that, the meeting adjourned and everyone went back, leaving me and Mom alone.

I had belatedly realized that Wi had just… Guilted us into working together. Was that something she would have done in the story to unite humans and elves…? It felt a little manipulative, but… Well, I was always going to help her anyway.

For the rest of the day, Mom and I spent some more time together, unwinding with more board games and movies… as well as discussing what the portals might or might not be capable of.

And then, right around dinner, Mom’s headaches returned once more.

I panicked, thinking that the healing potion hadn’t actually helped at all, but Mom assured me that she just needed to rest a bit.

When Sunday morning came, her headaches hadn’t gotten much better.

“It’s okay, Renee. I just need more rest…” she croaked.

“What if it doesn’t help…? What if… the healing potion was actually bad for you in the long run…?”

She sighed and patted me on the head.

“Then I won’t drink anymore healing potions. It’s alright, Renee, you couldn’t have known.”

She was right, but I still didn’t like that her headaches getting worse might have been my fault.

Then I remembered our illness discussion from the other day.

“There’s… a more specialized potion in the game. A miracle cure that can cure any illness. It’s an untradable quest item, but if I go through the quest again, I can get another one. It shouldn’t have any side effects or anything.”

“That’s…” Mom thought about it for a second before sighing. “You don’t need to do that for me, Renee. I’ll just rest for a bit and everything will be fine.”

Reluctantly, I nodded and went to make breakfast for us.

After breakfast, I decided to get the miracle cure quest item anyway. Just in case. Not here in our home, but at least on my game character.

When I turned on my computer and logged in, I was still standing right in front of the bubble, which reminded me of another quest I wanted to do. The one for water-breathing tools.

I put that thought on hold, though, before teleporting back to the inn room, gearing up for the miracle cure quest, and looking up a quick guide on the internet in another window.

It took about an hour of following a quest guide and retracing the steps of the quest, before I finally got it.

I didn’t mind the time sink though. In fact, I got into the game so much that I went straight into doing the quest for the water-breathing potions, and then right away into the sequel quest for the enchanted water-breathing jewelry.

By then, it was time to make lunch, so I logged out, and made us some stir fry. I wasn’t the greatest of cooks, but Mom often showed me how she did things so I’d picked up some tricks here and there.

“Are you feeling better?” I asked during the lunch, noticing that the tiredness in her eyes had lessened since the morning.

“I am, actually.” She smiled. “See? I told you that I just need to rest a bit.”

I returned the smile and let out an internal sigh of relief.

It wasn’t until we were done with lunch and Mom turned around to go back to her room that I spotted it and my eyes went wide.

“Wait, Mom!”

She startled and turned around.

“What’s wrong…?”

I ran to her and tried to take a better look at what I was seeing.

“There’s… something on the back of your neck. It’s kind of dark greenish blue… You didn’t bruise yourself, did you?”

“... No?” she slowly said as a frown settled on her face. She then reached around to the back of her neck and rubbed it with her fingers before flinching.

“What the… It’s… slimy…? What is this…?”

Slimy?

She began to scratch it and it quickly peeled off and stuck to her fingers. When she brought it around to look at it, my bad feeling magnified. Something about it looked vaguely familiar, but I couldn’t put my finger on it.

“Where did this come from…? Weird.” She walked over to the trash bin and tossed the thing inside before turning back to me. “Renee…?”

“There’s a red spot on your neck where it was…” I said, my eyes fixated on said spot. “It wasn’t just some random piece of rubbish.”

Mom’s eyebrows furrowed.

“Oh… Some kind of eczema then? I should probably go visit a doctor again then…” she said as she checked her skin on her arms for more of the things but failed to find any.

“... or I can give you the cure I told you about,” I suggested. ”It should work no matter what this is.”

She blinked at me in surprise before giving me a wry smile.

“I told you you didn’t need to…”

“It’s fine. I’ll go get it real quick. Just for a few minutes.”

Her frown deepened.

“What’s gotten into you? Why are you in such a rush now? Why don’t you want me to go to a doctor?”

“I…”

I paused. I couldn’t quite put it into words, but there was just something in the back of my mind insisting that this was very bad news.

“I don’t know… Just a bad feeling, I guess.”

“I… Alright. I’ll try this miracle cure then,” Mom relented, although the skepticism didn’t leave her.

I nodded and we headed back to my room.