Chapter 8

  Chucky sat in a lotus position, eyes closed and face calm. The cool flow of liquid around him helping to temper his mind and soul. His body almost seemed as one with the undercurrent, and his hair seemed to dance with the grace of an eagle gliding on a southern wind.

  BADUMP. His heartbeat echoed loudly, and he followed the vibrations of his beating heart through his veins, internally cataloging his anatomical system within his minds eye. He knew every artery and vein, every organ and intestine, every bone, joint and piece of cartilage between them. BADUMP. The tubes of his heart pumped blood again. Chucky followed the blood vessels of his body back up as he traced the walls of this throat, following his eustachian tubes into his ears. Zooming in on the three ossicles, the malleus, incus, and stapes.

  The hammer, and anvil, and the stirrup. These three parts of the ear would work in unison to amplify and transmit soundwaves to the inner ear, where the waves would be converted to electrical signals that would be transmitted to the brain and converted to sound. This was a constant in the universe for all beings capable of sound, no matter the alteration of language or species, it was the same.

  BADUMP. Chucky’s eyes flew open. He stared at the anvil before him. Holding a hammer in one hand and tongs in the other he began working the glowing metal bar that lay on the anvil. A Chain ran over the bar, leading to a stirrup which his foot rested in, releasing pressure when he needed to flip or turn the ingot he worked on, and pulling down on the chain to secure the ingot when he began his strikes anew.

  Chucky’s master had always told him that the reason smiths used their ears as much as their eyes is because the ears could tell the brain things that the eyes failed to capture. “I’ve met many blind smiths, I’ve met many deaf smiths, but I have never met a blind, deaf smith” His teacher would say in his gravelly voice, and he would always follow up with “At least not ones worth their metal”. Chucky had heard many quotes and comparisons between the medical field and the metal working field, or as his master liked to say the ‘metical’ field.

  The young man thought about these things as he forged and shaped the metal ingot into the musculoskeletal structure of numerous races and species, the lava of the volcano flowing around him as he worked and studied and monitored the vibrations of everything around him while also monitoring his internal status.

  Chucky had always been the type of kid not to be able to focus on anything. He joked, pranked people, he disturbed the class and had a hard time concentrating on a single thing at a time. He’d always got perfect grades but would also get suspended for ditching class after finishing his work and becoming bored.

  He enjoyed learning and hated being still and had always felt that the people around him were slow. Not that they moved sluggishly or weren’t intelligent. Other people just didn’t get things. And for some odd reason that for all his attempts he couldn’t figure out, people thought he was the weird one. Him! Even his parents would feed him medication and send him to therapists and psychiatrists and have him analyzed and studied and none if it ever really changed anything. He felt…misunderstood, until he met Donny.

  Donny seemed to be able to sense the movements of the status quo, it was like he could know a person without having known them for longer than five minutes. He remembered the first time he’d met Donny. It was at Chucky’s third name-day ceremony.

  He’d grown tired of the stupid kid’s games and the dumb petting zoo that had a tiger cub that was obviously anemic and also had an ear infection and no one would listen to him when he said the poor cub needed a vet. So, Chucky had left the party and went to his secret spot, a massive white-needle pine that had been hollowed out by lightning. It had become the hive of a glow-worm colony and when one sat in the darkness of the hollow tree completely relaxed and breathed calmly, allowing the worms to feel safe and retreat from the darkness that protected them, the worms would dance. They would move along, feeding upon fungus and moss as they choreographed a kaleidoscope of colors and shapes in their uncoordinated way.

  “You know you’re supposed to be present at your own party, right?” Donny’s voice had cut into the silence, startling chucky out of his daze as he jumped, the glow-worms disappearing into darkness.

  “What…who…how did you find me?” Chucky fumbled his words as he tried to convey his annoyance in his tone but felt like he just sounded whiney.

  “I mean, there’s a giant dead tree with a slab of bark from the same tree conveniently placed over a hole in the trunk in the forest directly in the direction you walked off towards after sneaking out of your party” Donny said in an unimpressed tone.

  “B-b-b-but the bark was from this tree, how did you find it so easily?” Chucky gaped, not worried about being seen by other boy in the pitch black of the tree.

  “Bro, you glued the bark on vertically, the bark of this tree grows horizontally in an upward spiral, my blind uncle could tell it was a prop. And close your mouth, the glow worms are going to start hibernating in there.” Came the bemused reply, and chucky couldn’t help but feel he was being spoken to by someone much older than he.

  Chucky felt a sense of kinship with this person, a feeling he had never felt when interacting with other kids around his age, though he was older than Donny. Getting up he made his way towards the entrance, not needing sight to know where he was going.

  “How do you do that?” He asked as he carefully stepped in a way that wouldn’t disturb the endangered species beneath his feet.

  “Do what?”

  “How do you just…know things? Like how’d you know my mouth was open, you couldn’t see me.”

  “Look man, sometimes you just know when a person’s jaw is hanging loose.” Donny said smugly, his voice growing louder as Chucky got closer. “Also, you have a glow worm on your cheek, I wasn’t kidding when I said they were going to start hibernating in there.”

  Chucky brought his hand up to his face and found that he did indeed have a worm on his face. He delicately brought it to the wall and let it rejoin its colony as he shuddered, having not felt the intruder in his haze. “Is this kid just messing with me?” Chucky had never felt so thrown off before, but he was curious about this kid named Donny.

  Finally, making it to the makeshift door where Donny’s stood silhouetted in the light from outside, having moved the amalgamation of glue moss and tree bark, he squinted as his eyes adjusted to the bright light. Donny extended a hand to guide Chucky up and over the old root that crossed the lower portion of the entrance like a too-large threshold. He inhaled deeply of the crisp, fresh air, the smells of fungi and vegetation mixing with pine and damp earth as Donny cocked an eyebrow at him, a smile playing at the edges of his lips.

  “I get it” Donny said as he turned and began walking further into the woods.

  “Get what?” Chucky asked.

  “The feeling that no one can keep up. That even in this world where children are so much more advanced, more intelligent and conscious of the goings-on of the universe than the clueless, ignorant, innocently adorable beings they should be. That even with all that everyone just seems so…slow, y’know?” Donny walked into a clearing, sunrays shining through the canopy above as dust and mist danced within the light above the long grass and wildflowers.

  “See, you’re doing it again” Chucky cringed at the sound of his voice cracking as he stepped up to stand beside Donny, hands in his pockets as he looked out at the clearing while they stood in silence for a moment.

  “Can I ask you something?” Chucky asked when he couldn’t stand the silence anymore, his brain beginning to go into overdrive like it always did when he got nervous.

  “Shoot” Donny said, crouching down to rest his arms on his knees and pick up a stick that he used to dig into the damp soil.

  “What do you want?”

  “What do you mean?”

  “You know I mean. Come on, you didn’t come out here just to act all wise and mysterious. You want something from me, I know you’ve been befriending the scions of the pillars. It’s like you’re gathering a crew for some epic heist like in the movies my dad loves to watch” Chucky couldn’t stop the edge of annoyance from creeping into his words as his frustration reflected in the scowl on his face.

  “Hehe” Donny chuckled as he stood back up, pointing the stick in his hand at Chucky.

  “Let’s make a bet. See, I can predict the future. And hear me out before you go spouting on that not even the karmic seers of the sage’s temple can truly predict the future”

  Chucky shut his mouth; he had been about to say those exact words.

  “What’s the bet?”

  “If I win, you join my group of friends and come train with us next week. If you don’t feel that you fit in still, you can leave and that will be that” Donny said.

  “And if I win?” Chucky asked, unable to parse out what Donny was plotting.

  “I tell you what I’m up to”

  “Ok, I’ll play along. What do we do?” Chucky couldn’t deny that he was intrigued.

  “Its nothing complicated, I’m just going to ask you questions and you’re going to answer them as quickly as you can, fail to answer fast enough and I win.” Donny put one hand on his hip as he propped the stick on his shoulder in the other hand.

  Chucky scrunched his brow before nodding his head. There was no way this eccentric kid could beat him in a quiz, no matter the difficulty of the questions. This would be an easy win.

  “What’s two plus two?”

  “What? That’s the que-”

  “Less questions more answers, or do you want to lose at the front gate?” Donny interrupted Chucky, snapping his fingers repeatedly like an irritated parent.

  “Four”

  “And four times five?”

  “Twenty”

  “Twenty minus three”

  “Seventeen”

  “What color is the sky?”

  “Blue”

  “How man legs does a wolkish have?”

  “six”

  “Name a vegetable, quick, quick, quick” Donny urged Chucky along, fingers snapping with each quick.

  Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.

  “Uh, err…Carrot!”

  Donny turned and began walking back towards Chucky’s manor.

  “Hey, where are you going?” Chucky called after him, frozen in his confusion at the odd interaction.

  “We’re gathering next moonday, be there” Donny said, waving a hand up in the air as he left without looking back.

  “What just happened?” Donny muttered under his breath as he stood there dumfounded. Then his mouth dropped in stupefied amazement as he glanced down at the ground, where the word Carrot was scribbled into the dirt.

  Chucky enjoyed this exercise of forging and letting his mind wander as he went over the composition of different anatomies. His master had always urged him to embrace his quirks. To accept his mind for what it was and had pushed him to master it. To learn to control the ebbs and flows of his never-ending ideas and plans, to harness the chaos and transform it into an advantage, instead of diluting it with medicine and therapy.

  As Chucky worked, he sensed a fluctuation in the vibrations of the lave surrounding him, something was coming for him, though he continued on with his tasks as if none the wiser of the predator that stocked the viscous molten rock surrounding him. He calmed his mind, rejecting the sporadic thoughts that attempted to invade his consciousness. Continuing his work on the anvil, he shaped the ingot into a basic blade, red-hot metal forming a tip as his unwelcomed guest stalked closer and closer.

  Vmmmmmmfffffeeew, the dull vibration of movement reverberated through Chucky’s senses, providing haptic feedback in his mind’s eye. He watched as the serpentine creature’s scales blended with the magma around them as it approached stealthily. It’s maw, opening wide to expose rows of jagged teeth lining a jaw that stretched and expanded, four massive fangs jutting out, two from below, two above. Chucky could picture the quadrate bones and elastic tendons working to allow the jaw to consume prey much larger than should otherwise be possible as the magma drake suddenly shot forward, moving much faster than its previous stalking pace to consume Chucky in a single bite.

  A mischievous glint flashed through Chucky’s eyes as the magma-drake suddenly froze, held in place by the magma around it. Using his fine control of the magma he vivisected the creature. Chucky disassembled the creature, using the heat to separate scales, skin, tendons, organs and bones while keeping it alive as he healed many small injuries throughout its body.

  Chucky nodded to himself before putting the creature back together and healing it completely. Nodding to himself he released his hold on the magmatic reptile. The drake’s eyes went wide, and it turned and fled from Chucky many times faster than even the speed of its killing strike in a bid to get as far away from the terrifying red-haired monster that hadn’t even looked away from his forging, the metal ingot now resembling a long serpent’s fang.

  “You’ve done well, my disciple. But it is time to leave this volcano, come now, we must go.” A deep, rumbling voice echoed from above, and Chucky knew he had obtained all he could from this place.

  Standing up, Chucky waved his hand, and the anvil and tools, as well as the stool he’d been sitting on vanished, once again becoming sediment and metallic particles that melded and flowed within the magma. Looking up, Chucky projected himself through the magma as if he were a fish in water. Rocketing out of the volcano he landed next to his master, bowing deeply.

  “This one greets master. How were your travels?” Chucky asked respectfully.

  “You missed an abscess on the magma drake’s pancreas.” The large golem said in lieu of an answer, his body shrinking and morphing into an androgenous humanoid form that favored masculinity. Dark skin covered tightly compacted muscle, barely visible beneath the charcoal-gray suit that cloaked the man’s body, eyes that glowed molten yellow gazed down into the mouth of the volcano as bright red hair similar to Chucky’s own hair fell to the man’s shoulders, giving him a regal and gentlemanly appearance.

  “Magma-drakes process bacteria that forms builds up from the sulfuric properties of the magma they get their name from. They filter out these bacteria through their pancreas and expel it slowly to prevent infections. That abscess was not detrimental to its health, so I left it to be expelled naturally. My skills are for healing, not for altering the natural processes of evolution if they cause to harm to my clients.” Chucky said calmly, having expected this question.

  After changing into own obsidian-black button up shirt and matching pants, Donny draped a long ash-white coat over his shoulders, clasped around his neck by the tie on the collar and letting the sleeves drape freely. Both boy and master donned a bird mask that was bright red, exquisitely crafted in every detail with a long beak extending from it, resembling a phoenix.

  “Hmmm. Indeed, you are correct, a healer must not interfere with the organic functions of the natural world. Good see you’ve paid attention all these years. Now, let us be off,” said the humanoid golem. After all these years Chucky still had not gotten a name from stoic magma golem.

  As the two turned to leave, a low whining sounded from behind them. Both turned to see the very same magma drake Chucky had just healed, head peeking over the lip of the volcano, whining as if a dog begging for a treat. Chucky tilted his head in curiosity, stepping towards the serpent slowly as it shyly ducked its head back down from his approach.

  “Can I help you, little fellow?” Chucky said to the creature, which was so big even though its head was twice its size.

  “Careful, boy, you are not in the lava anymore. You have not the power to so effortlessly thwart the beast out here.” Said his master, though he did not move to stop him.

  “I need not assistance to understand my own abilities” Chucky responded, not sounding disrespectful in the least, simply stating a truth.

  Suddenly, the magma-drake heaved as if it were about to vomit. Or erupt a fiery assault upon the young child. Flames that glowed a pearlescent blue in their intensity formed around chucky, pulling from the high temperatures around the crater of the volcano as a barrier separated the space between him and the draconic maw or the drake. He did not attack though, simply preparing to defend himself should it attack in turn.

  As a large bulge formed from within the drake’s throat, Chucky dropped his barrier as he realized what was happening. He had seen the clutch of eggs within the womb of the mother drake, four large, black eggs and a single smaller and rounder white egg. He’d been curious about the foreign egg that had made its way into the mother drake’s clutch but had left it alone, not wanting to interfere with nature’s course. Draconic beasts were known to take pity on the eggs of their prey, protecting them within their bodies along with their own eggs, and raising them as their own without prejudice upon hatching.

  Sure enough, the drake rolled the head-sized round egg onto its long forked tongue and presented the egg to Chucky, holding it in the split fork at the tip of its tongue as it proffered the egg like a peace offering. Or maybe it was its way of thanking chucky for taking mercy and healing her instead of killing when she had attacked him. Then, Chucky realized the egg had a thin scar running along one side, not quite a break but definitely caused by damage from some external force.

  “You want me, to take the egg?” Chucky asked, shocked when the drake nodded in confirmation. This beast was at least partially sentient.

  Turning, Chucky looked to his master for confirmation. The golem shrugged its shoulders.

  “I am not your parents; you do not need my permission to adopt a lost pup.” He said in his ever emotionless tone.

  Nodding, Chucky turned and excepted the egg. Frowning at how incredibly heavy it was. With a thought, a basinet made of pure fire formed in the air beside him, and he placed the egg in the floating carrier before offering a bow to the mother drake.

  “I will do my best to make sure this hatchling survives and grows to be strong and healthy” he said. With another subtle nod, the drake slipped back down into the boiling magma, disappearing beneath the molten surface.

  Finally, the master and disciple duo departed for their journey, the basket of fire trailing along at waist height behind Chucky.

  “We are heading for the Phoenix corps?” Chucky asked after a while of walking along in silence.

  “We are” his master confirmed “Though we will stop and heal any who are in need along the way. You must cure a thousand ailments minimum before we reach the sacred gates.” Said his master without breaking stride or looking at Chucky.

  “What is the current record for acolytes?” Chucky asked while running through combat simulations in his mind.

  “The current prime acolyte cured two thousand four hundred sixty-seven ailments, one thousand being common ailments, nine hundred forty three were broken bones or torn muscle and tendon, three hundred ninety-nine genetic deficiencies, fifty organ transplants, thirty four tumor removals, twenty one poisons, nineteen grand ailments and developed a vaccination for a single plague. All without guidance nor assistance from their teacher. Placing them at rank two hundred forty on the school ladder and is the highest ranking ladder entry in the past thousand cycles of initiates.” Said his master.

  “And what was your ranking when you entered the academy?”

  “When I walked through the sacred gates, I was ranked as ninety-first on the school ladder, but I will not tell you my ailment score, no matter how much you try and get me to tell you. I told you; it is against tradition to influence you with a specific number. All cases are different, and the sacred gates measure more than just the number of ailments one cures” Chucky could hear the tinge of pride in the golem’s usually emotionless voice. All creatures had a measure of competition in them, after all.

  The Phoenix Corps was one of the universes three most prominent healer’s associations, along with the Alchemist Corps and the LifeTree universal healthcare association, or LUHA for short. Alchemists of the Alchemist Corps tended to function out of sanctioned shops, providing potions and concoctions such as health potions and spirit potions, but also provided pills and remedies such as the medication Chucky used to take for his ‘attention disorder’. Meanwhile LUHA tended to establish hospitals and treatment centers, functioning through corporate structures and insurance schemes to finance their operations.

  Both Alchemist Corps and LUHA were very powerful and prominent entities in their own rights. Alchemist’s worked closely with the merchant and adventurers guild and could move armies with their influence. Crossing an alchemist was never recommended and even kings would hand over their sons and daughters should they earn the ire of the Alchemist Corps.

  LUHA, on the other hand, directly employed powerful figures as well as local law enforcement to guard and protect their facilities. They had rich and powerful shareholders, many who were movers and shakers within the universe, that ensured that any who dared to attack one of their hospitals or clinics would receive swift reprisal. LUHA also supported and directly hired from the most accredited colleges and universities in the galaxies they operated in. It was common to see doctors and nurses of all races and species working for their medical facilities.

  The Phoenix Corps was much smaller than either the alchemists or the LifeTree association but held the most independent power of the three. One could only join by becoming a disciple of an arbiter within the corps and had to have both a powerful affinity with fire, as well as an excellent aptitude for healing, and conversely, killing. Every single member was an elite, and Phoenix Corps had raised more divinities than both of the other factions combined.

  That said, the Phoenix Corps were nomadic and independent, hiding their identities with their masks when working under their banner. They were not allowed to flaunt their association with the corps, and few knew the actual identity of the members of the Phoenix Corps. But when one saw the mask of the phoenix, they knew not to antagonize the wearers of these masks.

  There was an old story of a Phoenix corps acolyte who’d been unable to cure the cancer of a certain prince, resulting in the prince’s death. The king of the solar system had gone mad with grief, blaming and killing the acolyte in his fury. The acolyte’s master had been working with LUHA at a nearby hospital to aid with a pandemic that had stricken the area. When the acolyte’s master learned of his disciple’s death, he had wiped out the entire planet in his wrath, then went on to erase the king’s bloodline from the entire galaxy, eliminating even children and elderly in their retribution.

  Though the Arbiter eventually took his own life, unable to live with the guilt of killing so many innocents when they’d finally sobered from their anger, a precedence had been set. That was only a single member of the Phoenix Corps, and they had wrought such destruction, and it wasn’t even one of the peak figures of the order. One could only imagine the destructive prowess the corps could display should the leaders rally the corps in their entirety.

  But even more awe inspiring than the might of these mysterious figures was the medical prowess each and every member represented. When the phoenix mask appeared somewhere, it was said that all ailments would be healed. And what earned them the most respect was that they never charged a fee for their services, only accepting donations and even then, only after they had ensured the wellbeing of their charges.

  Chucky couldn’t help but run simulations in his mind on what his master’s ailment score would’ve been to reach the top one hundred on the acolyte ladder before officially attending the academy. But without knowing the matrix for the point allocation system he kept running into a wall. At the very least, he knew that one couldn’t enter the top one hundred without having healed an ailment in every category and must have created a cure, not just a vaccination, for at least one grand plague. To have cured a grand level plague as an acolyte… His master was a true monster indeed.

  “If you’re going to waste your energy simulating my score, you’re not going to make it very far. You should be going over the galactic pharmacopeia that you spent an entire year memorizing before you overcame your fear and finally dove into the lava” His master grumbled, somehow knowing what Chucky was up to.

  Chucky was glad that the mask prevented his master from seeing the furious blush that he felt burning his cheeks. He had indeed taken an entire year to overcome his fear and leap into the volcano. Even then, he’d only done it because his master had removed the final pages of the large tome and refused to give them to him until he’d overcome his phobia, needless to say his insatiable thirst to complete his knowledge had won out over his childhood fear.

  “Hey, where are we headed anyways?” Chucky asked as they came to a large road that was surprisingly busy. Vehicles of all kinds could be seen transporting goods and people alike. From beast-drawn wagons to motorized busses to small personal hover cars. It had been five years since Chucky had socialized with anyone but his master and the beasts within the volcano, and he couldn’t help but feel excited but also nervous at the sight of so many people.

  “We will simply travel and heal all who need it as we make our way towards…”

  A light cracking sound came from behind the two as they both turned to stare at the egg in unison, mouths agape as the egg in the basket began rocking, pieces of shell bulging out as whatever was inside slowly worked open a hole to poke it’s tiny head out, staring straight at Chucky with large, bright eyes.