NOVEL SIMPLE Ch.29: Loading….Loading….. Please wait…
After a while longer we collected enough herbs we began to make our way out of the dungeon, the sky above us was filled with winking stars of all sorts of colors. Some were red and others a plasma blue, each one had a different amount of points that stretched out and back in, almost trying to reach out to each other. Looking back at the soft sand, I noticed that it now glittered like the stars above. A red star would blink and the sand would glitter blue then red, the sand glittered red and the stars would blink blue twice. It was almost like the sky and earth were talking to each other, a mother and a child, laughing and singing together. Free from the blocking gaze of the sun and finally open to each other and maybe themselves.
Walking into the crevice that cut an entrance and exit to the dungeon, I looked up to the mountainous cliffs and saw between the silhouettes of tall palms, a huge almost neon blue orb sat in the sky. It had deep craters and…. Several chasms that scrapped across its surface. There seemed to be three or four chasms that followed each other for a certain distance and just stopped. Did a c- no that’s not possible.
After leaving the dungeon a bell rang out in an echo that seemed to come from nowhere and everywhere at once. It then rang out again, this time it seemed to come from Phoebe like she was a living bell.
“Ops! That’s me!” she said. “Menu open!” she called out. She then tapped the air, her eyes moving like she was reading something before she tapped the air again. “Pinepin, could you come over here please?” she asked while mothing with a free hand.
I wasn’t sure why but I guess she wanted to show me something on her menu, status screen? “Alright.” I said as I moved over to her. Once I was next to her, she tapped the screen again making a pink screen appear in front of us.
‘A message from Mr. Minnow’ said a familiar british accent.
‘Please return to class, it’s time to leave!” Mr. Minnow said in his loud voice.
With that the pink box vanished as Phoebe turned to me. “We better wave out to the loading room. Also can you give me your herbs?” she asked.
“Yeah sure thing…. Um how do I give you those coins?” I asked kinda lost. Phoebe then tapped at the air before nodding and doing one more tap. A white screen popped up to my right side, appearing as if someone unsheathed a sword.
| ‘Trade items; Kid deco shells, Sium leaves and increme leaves for Mystery Box?’ |
| YES/NO |
I was confused why she was giving me anything, the time walking around with people not really staring at me was more than enough. “You don’t need to give me anything. Being here was… more… than…” I tried to refuse Phoebe’s gift but she looked at me with big watery eyes. She looked almost like a crush who found out I wouldn’t be going to the dance with her. Lowering my head, I pressed on the yes prompt. “I guess I can’t refuse someone cute.” I said to myself.
Phoebe seemed to pause for a second before she looked over her shoulder with a big smile. “I know, no one can resist cuties like us!” she said with a cocky smirk.
“That’s right!” Maeve said in triumph. She had her back to Phoebe with crossed arms and looking with her head up and smug smile.
Not wanting to give them anymore hot air I decided to change the topic. “Soooo, how do I sign out of here?” I asked trying to look cool as a cucumber.
“Oh that’s simple, just call out, ‘Wave Out’, and make sure to press your heels together while raising your arm up to the sky.” Maeve said with a super serious face. She looked like life depended on it. I looked at Phoebe who also nodded with dead serious face.
I guess it couldn’t hurt to play along with them, I had fun the last time I did soooooo. I did the pose, pressing my heels together like a solder greeting a general and reached for the skies and calling out, “Wave Out!” Then my arm stretched forward, no my whole body shot forward like I engaged light speed! This was awesome! My body felt light as air while the world around me quickly shrank smaller and smaller until it disappeared. I zoomed into a white star, which turned the whole world white.
‘Returning, Returning, please wait’
Hearing the british girl again, I beamed my biggest smile and tried to wave at her.
‘…….’
‘Lo-uh RETURNING’
Did she stutter?
‘N-No! STOP LOOKING AT ME AND LET ME FINISH LOADING‘
She can hear my thoughts? And I thought I was returning?
‘ANNOYING’
Before I could respond to her, the white void disappeared, turning to darkness. Slowly opening my eyes I looked around and found that I was in the loading zone, people resting against several trees. Suddenly I felt something pressing into my arm and it radiated a good amount of heat. Looking to my left I found a black head of hair accompanied by two tall pointed ears with a white tannish fluff poking out of them. Those were Belle’s cat ears…the fluff looked really soft like fluffy cotton balls. I looked around before holding my breath, my and slowly inched closer to his ears, the thought of experiencing the fluffy soft bliss of his ears was all too tempting. My hand was a mere two or three inches away from the softness, was I really going to do this?
I released a small breath as I tried to swallow but Belle’s ears twitched, making me quickly pull back my hand in surprise. Belle slowly shifted his body, his weight seemed to nestle in closer into me like a warm blanket.
“Hmm…” He mumbled. He then turned his head, looking me straight in the eyes, his eyes were still drowsy. He tried to blink the drowsiness away but his stubborn body yawned instead, sounding almost like a cry of a small puppy. He then tried to look at me again, his sleepy eyes slowly widening into huge deep green orbs that captured my attention. His eyes sparkled and twinkled like a nebula, making the world blur out into unrecognizable smudges. He tilted his head and his mouth moved but I wasn’t sure if he was saying anything as I stared at him. My counselor never said what kind of shiny things I could collect…
“Oliver?” Belle called poking my nose with a finger. “Boop” he said with a chuckle. The poke snapped me out of my daze as I shook my head.
“Uh… huh?” I mumbled in confusion.
“Your eyes were thin lines like when my uncle spots a cricket.” Belle said with a small smile.
“Sorry! I didn’t realize my eyes zoomed in on you like that.” I said rubbing my neck. I felt super embarrassed I did something like that and more so that I let myself get lost in his eyes, I’ll have to watch out for my instincts.
“You could say your eyes got the zoomies?” He asked holding his chin with a smirk. I looked away with a chuckle no way is that going to get me.
“Well, we gotta head to class.” I said trying to seem chill. I wasn’t looking but I could tell he was smiling at me.
After a while, class finished up just as a bell for lunch rang out in the sound of an impatient ticking clock. This time around, Belle, Steph and Emily joined me to the cafeteria, though Emily was still a little skittish around me. She followed next to Steph holding her hand for support. I thought she was really hungry when I saw her drooling but the moment she locked eyes with me, I could tell what she was really after. Her eyes were on my wings, going up and down my wings fingers, down to the dark claws which made her drool just a little more….
I don’t know if I prefer to be seen as a scientific interest or as something to fear… and I rather focus on that then whatever the succubi seem to want from me. Maybe I’ll get lucky and only deal with the prior two. But that’s a little too hopeful…maybe I should be more confident in… m-my own body? No telling what, might uh make me more um crazed, like last time. I shuddered at the thought of my bubbly experience, I’m not sure if I’d like that.
Once at the cafeteria, we took our seats at a freshly vacated table, I would’ve searched for a free table but then my presence would make anyone nearby leave their table. I had the feeling some would even offer it to me if they could say more if not for being nervous. Hopefully I can figure out something to calm my instincts and keep my mana from releasing, finally getting some time to relax in public maybe.
“soooo, how’d you like your time with Belle? I bet you had lots of fun.” Steph asked me in a teasing tone. Was she implying that I did something weird? With Belle!? Why would I ev-
“Oh you know~ you had to be there to see it.” Belle said in a playful voice. He then waved for Steph to come closer. “Though I will say Oliver was a blushing mess after, hehehe.” He added while trying to hide his face from me.
“Oooooh! Belle you Mio you!” Steph said in a gleeful voice. Both she and Belle began to giggle with sinister smiles as if they were planning the down fall of their greatest foe. Wait no! Can’t we be more wholesome here? Not everyone is a horny tee-
“OH! Oliver! What’s it like for a dragoness? How crazy do you get when you see a-“ Emily paused before leaning closer and cupping her hand over her mouth so only I could hear. “piece of meat?” she asked giving me a very interested and innocent look.
I wasn’t sure if she was asking about finding someone attractive or literal meat. ”Uh…. I love a good piece of meat like anyone else…” I said trying to think of a way out of this. But both Belle and Steph stared at me with VERY INERSETED faces. Belle’s ears pointed straight up with his pupils turning to thin slits while Steph poked her lip and her tail coiled around her arm. Emily leaned closer with drool on her mouth and a huge smile. Uh, what did I get myself into!?
“Oh yeah! Steak with mushrooms is the greatest!” came a happy auto tuned voice from behind me. Everyone looked to the new comer to find Kathy and Mark with their lunch trays in Mark’s hands.
“I guess so? A good meal is more important in my opinion.” Mark said tilting his head with a shrug.
“Mark, Kathy! How are you guys.” I exclaimed. I was super happy they popped up, I could easily slide out of this conversation! Hell yeah!
“I’ve been pretty good.” Mark said in a relaxed tone.
“Hey Oliver, I’m pretty hungry actually.” Kathy said with a proud smile while moving her thumb at Mark. “By the way who’s your party?” She asked, giving Emily a curious look.
“They’re friends I made in my class. She’s Emily, she’s really into learning.” I said trying to warn Kathy and Mark. Mark only raised an eyebrow at this but kept a poker face as he observed Emily. “She’s Steph, she’s pretty cool. And that’s Belle, He’s really nice.” I said with a friendly smile.
Without missing a beat, Emily turned to both Mark and Kathy, she began to look at them while writing down on a note pad that came out of nowhere. “So what’s it like knowing Oliver before he converged? Have you noticed anything different since he changed physical genders? What’s it like to fly? Any idea how different Oliver’s instincts vary from your own? What’s it like to have a penis? Does your physical gender play a part in your identity like being male does for Oliver? What do you think about dra-“ Emily was asking questions as fast as she could shoot them out. I think she had a hundred more to ask if Kathy didn’t cut her off.
“Can I sit and eat first? My juicy steak is getting cold.” Kathy said giving Emily an annoyed face like an older sister would give their younger sibling. That made Emily stop before giving a, oh you’re right face. Kathy and Mark sat next to me, the moment Mark put Kathy’s tray in front of her, she gave a hungry smile.
Belle scooted closer to Mark, giving him a huge smile. “Hi! I’m Belle! It’s nice to meet you Mark.” Belle said greeting Mark, cutely tilting his head and smiling. This made Mark turn slightly red at Belle’s friendly assault.
“I-it’s n-nice to cute- uh meet you!” Mark said awkwardly stuttering at the feminine looking Belle.
“Hey Kathy, I’m Steph. You more a pork or a beef kind of girl?” Steph asked as she introduced herself to Kathy.
“I love BEEF but pork is pretty good if you glaze it in something sweet like honey. Though beef is super tasty with one or two seasonings, nothing too complex to cook, just flip every thirty seconds until I get it to a nice medium rare.” Kathy said with a thoughtful look before starting to drool at the thought of a juicy steak.
Emily sat close by to Mark for some reason, staring at him with great interest as if he had the cure for cancer and all she had to do was ask for it. The moment he made eye contact with her she drooled and her eyes sparkled. “H-hey, what’s your interests?” she asked him while almost jumping out of her seat.
Mark looked at her with a blank, confused face before something clicked for him. “I’m really into animation, right now I’m working on a few shorts for my WuuTube channel.” He said with a confident smile. The then reached into his backpack, his arm going deeper than a normal bag, it swallowed his arm up to his shoulder. Pulling himself out of his deeper bag, he pulled out his smart phone, typing in a password and opening a page to his channel.
Tapping on a video he turned his phone to her, showing Emily one of his animations, her eyes moved around following what I assumed was a character moving maybe jumping about the screen. Emily seemed to really enjoy it that seconds after the video ended she replayed it, studying the character’s movements or maybe how the screen transitions?
“How’d you do this fluid movement?!” She asked Mark with a curious look. She turned his phone showing him his animation and pointing at an anime looking swordsman running on top of and dodging missiles. The man was wall running on a nearby missile before jumping, twisting in the air and landing on a smaller missile tip. He then jumped off it, sending the small missile off course into a larger missile all while the man grabbed another small missile and used it to launch himself forward. The camera angle came close to his face in slow-mo before he zoomed off at mach 80.
“That wasn’t too hard.” He said taking his phone and replaying the video. “Here, I limit how many frames play, making the movement seem faster and more snappy while at the end and certain jumps, I use squash and stretch. That’s either to play with the camera angles or to make the movement carry more power and momentum.” He said in a super happy voice.
This is, well crazy. In my old world never did any animation, he always wanted to do something like that but never seemed to try. Maybe this Mark saved up money to get a good computer or something? It kinda made me proud that this Mark is actually chasing his dream….and he’s talking to a girl normally too! Without be-
“I did something similar in this video. See how her boobs bounce and jiggle?” Mark said, proudly showing a different animation. “Riiight here! The moment she jumps, her melons get pulled down by gravity and then at the height of her jump her boobs move up. It think it gives some good boob physics but I think I could do better, maybe if I had a good reference to study from.” He said playing with his hair. The moment he mentioned needing a reference, Emily’s eyes snapped to me….er well, more to my weighted chest. Mark’s head began to follow Emily’s line of sight but froze the moment icy cold mana was released behind me. Turning my eyes, I noticed Kathy giving Mark a deathly glare, her face had a small smile and calm looking eyes the bled threats of torture and possible death if he finished turning. Somehow I could even hear raging flames and screams coming off her along with the words, ‘try it and see’, she was waiting, no maybe hoping he risked it.
Mark’s body shuddered in fear for a few seconds before he tapped on his phone. “W-what about this one! I-I p-play with uh different angles more!” He said trying to get Emily’s focus on him again.
After that, Kathy’s mana changed and directed itself to me. It felt warm like a steamy bathroom after a hot shower and heard the sound of happy chirping birds with a word, ‘fine?’
I was happy she looked out for me and kept Mark from repeating his mistake. I don’t think I enjoy that aspect of being female….y- uh. I turned to her and gave her smile which she returned with a proud one before going back to her steak and her discussion about meat with Steph.
