Micro didn’t know where to begin with an explanation, so he took another sip of water. After enduring the awkward silence for a while, he then placed the half empty bucket of water on the ground next to him. He wiped his mouth and cleared his throat, then looked up at Barb, who stood between Micro and her husband, was still staring at his feet in the corner.

  “You really don’t need to be afraid of me,” he said slowly with some frustration in his voice. “I just want to find a way back to my world. I’m not here to cause trouble for you.”

  “Your… world?” Barb stuttered. “Then you’re a—”

  “Exactly,” Micro replied before she could finish. “So please, just relax. This body is pretty strong for a human, but I’m really starting to appreciate how important relaxing is. Emotions can be nice, of course, but there are too many to deal with in a single day.”

  “Strong, for a hu—” She repeated, but she was interrupted by the door swinging open.

  “I found the little rascal!” A young woman with bright orange hair and green eyes stomped through the door dragging a crying child by the arm. The child flailed and cried desperately in an exciting attempt to escape, but both the young woman and the child froze when they saw the clothing Micro was wearing. “What the—”

  “Hello there,” Micro called to her with a smile, but he wasn’t surprised by her reaction.

  “My apologies, young master,” the young woman began to mumble as she fell to her knees, dragging the startled child along with her, but before her head had reached the ground, Micro’s voice had silenced her.

  “Enough of that, please!” he shouted with a harsher tone than he had intended to use. “Why don’t you people just say ‘hello’ for once?!”

  The four mundane members of the family in the hut looked at each other in panic, unsure how to respond to Micro’s vague demand. Micro noticed their tension continuing to rise after hearing his complaint, and his frustration deflated.

  “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t be mad…” He said, bowing his head apologetically. “It’s been a long day. I guess this is what you call being annoyed. Or is it frustration? I’m not sure…”

  “What…” Barb whispered. “What are you…?”

  “I’m just Micro,” he replied with a tired smile, giving a thumbs up with his right hand.

  “Micro!” The child suddenly shouted. As the child succeeded in escaping the young woman’s firm grip, Micro noticed it was a young girl, similar in appearance to the young woman, but much smaller.

  “Hello—” Micro replied, but he was surprised to find the young girl suddenly run straight toward him, jumping right over the small fire on her way. She climbed up on his shoulders while her family watched in horror, laughing uncontrollably.

  “You foolish child!” Barb screamed. “Why would you do such a thing!?”

  “I don’t know!” the girl, no more than three years of age, shouted back. “I like Micro!”

  “Get down from there! You’ll get us all—” the young woman added in panic, but the girl’s laughter as she began hitting the top of Micro’s head like a drum drained the energy from her older sister’s voice.

  The three of them looked like they had given up on life as the scene unfolded, their mood so dark that it began to make Micro feel colder. He did his best to form a smile to comfort them, though the young girl was now pinching his cheeks.

  “It’s okay,” Micro attempted to reassure them. “This is actually how most people greet me where I’m from.”

  ~

  Micro’s four hosts gradually settled down after the child had fallen asleep on Micro’s shoulders, her head slumped over his own as if she were a large hat. He invited them to drink some water with him, and the elder daughter quickly fetched four metal cups.

  “This is Ember, by the way,” Barb tentatively introduced the young woman with a weary tone. “She’s our eldest. And Spark is the girl on your head…”

  “Those are wonderful names,” Micro replied as he accepted the cup from Ember. Their hands touched for a moment as she handed over the cup, causing her to flinch, but she bravely sat down across the fire from him next to her parents while Spark continued to sleep on Micro’s head.

  “Thank you,” Ember replied quietly, stealing a glimpse at Micro’s left eye.

  “Why did you think I was a magician, by the way?” Micro asked Barb after taking another sip of water. “I’m a cultivator now, kind of. I do need to make a new core, again…”

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  “Your eye…” Barb whispered, pointing to her own eye. “It’s red.”

  “Oh!” Micro slapped his knee as he realized it for himself, startling the three people across from him once again. “The chaos energy! It really stings actually.”

  “Chaos…?” Barb whispered in confusion.

  “Wait, you said it’s red?” Micro asked.

  “I tell the truth,” Barb answered with a nod. “Red as any I’ve seen on a magician.”

  “Huh…” Micro nodded slowly. “Are you friends with the magicians in the city?”

  “Tonight truly was a night of chaos,” Barb remarked with a sigh. Barb glanced over her shoulder at a pile of scrap metal against the wall. “No, we don’t associate with their kind. We live our lives in the traditional way.”

  “So you didn’t know what was happening tonight?” Micro asked. “It was a pretty big event. I wonder how they’re doing now.”

  “The moment that strange light appeared in the sky, cultivators poured through the city walls like rats from a burning building, pardon the comparison,” she said with her head bowed. “There was some noise afterwards, but it’s dead quiet now.”

  “There were whispers of something happening tonight, but I’ve never seen the whole city flee at once before,” Kern added, daring to look up at Micro for the first time in a while. “What in the world happened in there?”

  “The magicians used all the cultivators at the tournament as fuel to summon a hero,” Micro explained between sips of water. “It was a real mess. I managed to catch the soul Nora sent, so there’s that…”

  “They what?!” Ember gasped.

  “You what?!” Barb added.

  “The woman with the cerulean core—I think she was called an Imperial Envoy… She was friendly enough, but the rest of the audience was pretty upset after that.” Micro sighed. “Cultivators are complicated.”

  “They’re simple to me,” Ember stated with a frown. “They’re simply selfish and cruel.”

  Barb slapped Ember in the back of the head, shaking her own head angrily, but Ember only frowned and looked away.

  “Enough about me though.” Micro turned to face Kern, careful not to shake the girl sleeping on his head. “You aren’t a magician, and you aren’t a mechanic either. You do work with metal, right?”

  “That—That’s right,” Kern answered with a stiff mouth.

  “What do you make here?” Micro asked with some excitement returning to his voice.

  “I make whatever is needed, of course,” Kern replied. “Anything at all.”

  “Wow!” Micro shouted. “Could you make a truck?!”

  “A what?” Kern asked with an eyebrow slowly rising.

  “A truck,” Micro repeated. “It has four wheels, an engine… a radio…”

  “Apologies, young master…” Kern replied with the same look of confusion Kel often wore.

  “Never mind,” Micro continued, holding up the cup in his hand. “These are nice cups.”

  “I made those,” Ember interjected. “Father can’t make anything that small.”

  “Hey…!” Kern protested, but he looked to embarrassed to argue. “I could if I really wanted to.”

  “I see,” Micro said as Kern seemed to shrink in embarrassment. “It’s good craftsmanship, despite the impurities in the copper.”

  “What do you mean?” Ember suddenly sounded more defensive than scared.

  “There’s a bit of iron in it, among other things.” Micro pointed at a small discolouration on the side of the cup as Ember leaned closer to look. “It’s fine though. It’s good work. I’m sure it will last a long time if you care for it.”

  “You sound like you know a lot about metal, for a cultivator,” Ember scoffed as she sat back down, looking closely at her own cup.

  “I guess I do,” Micro replied. “I was made of metal not long ago.”

  “What, you think you can do better?” Ember snapped back at him. “Aren’t you more interested in smashing swords together?”

  “Ember!” her mother shouted. “Mind who you’re speaking to with such a tone!”

  “This guy comes into our house and starts spouting fairy tales, then lectures me on the quality of my work?!” Ember shouted back. “He doesn’t even look like a real cultivator! Look at him! He’s so…”

  “I’m Micro!” Micro added as she continued to glare at him.

  “If he wants to dress up like a cultivator, then he should go cultivate somewhere else. We don’t have time for this with so many orders coming in,” Ember continued to shout at her mother, causing Spark to stir in her sleep. Ember noticed, then pointed at her sister. “And what cultivator lets a stranger’s child sleep on their head?!”

  “We can ask Vale for more time!” Barb argued. “And he—”

  “And he’ll probably pay us less, like he always does!” Ember stood up as she continued to shout. “We already have to make an extra trip to the mines in the morning. We haven’t even started on the Dragon Sect’s orders, and who knows when all the other cultivators will come running back to town like the greedy little cockroaches they are?!”

  “You sound busy, I can go—” Micro tried to interject, but he was cut off by Ember before he could finish.

  “Just get out! Go play cultivator somewhere else!” she screamed at Micro, finally managing to wake Spark from her deep sleep atop his head.

  “Enough!” Kern roared, shaking the walls enough to cause dust to fall from the straw ceiling. “This isn’t your house, girl! It’s mine!”

  “You can’t just—” Ember argued, but her voice was overpowered.

  “He’ll rest here until he feels better!” Kern continued. “He’s been gracious enough to tell us a story and compliment you on your silly cups!”

  “But he—”

  “Goodnight!” Kern roared. “The sun will be up soon. Enough of your whining, daughter!”

  “He just—”

  “Goodnight!” Kern repeated, closing his eyes as if he meant to will his family to sleep in that instant. He stood up and poured his cup of water over the fire, then quickly stamped out the remaining flames.

  “Goodnight!” Micro said with a shrug that only Spark noticed. Giving into his fatigue almost the same instant the light faded from the room, he slouched down on his side and was asleep beneath Spark before he heard another word from his hosts.