A Healing, A Rainbow, A Friend

“... Please… Help… Me...”

John froze. This woman was hurt. This woman was bleeding all over the forest floor. This woman might-

‘Cmon, John! We gotta go help!’

John shook himself out of it and quickly ran to her side, crouching down next to her. She was clad in what looked like some rather nice looking robes along with some very suggestive metal plating for armor, with none at her side where she was clutching a large gash. She looked up to John, her gaze weak as she whispered to him.

“Are… are you a cl-cleric?”

“N-no. But I can heal you. I just… Um… Give me… Give me one second.”

Okay, John was not internally freaking out. Okay, yeah, he was, but he couldn’t be! He had to help her, he had to save her. John tried to control his breathing, taking a moment to take a couple deep breaths.

‘First things first. I need to see how badly she is hurt.’

Observe
Talia Nevergreen
Lvl 5, Young Apprentice
149 Years Old
Status: BLEEDING Losing 0.5 HP per second
HP: 7/50
MP: 0/45

“Wow she looks... good for being over 100 years old. And also for dying,” John said under his breath. By the time he would have enough mana for another Ankh, she would be dead. He could tap into his own life, but if it was anything like last time, he wanted to ensure he was conscious when she was finished healing. How the hell would he be able to-

That’s when he recalled how he had learned the rune in the first place. One quick opening of his inventory and in no time at all the runestone was in his hand. The elf looked at the magically appearing stone quizzically, figuring she was just starting to hallucinate due to blood loss at this point.

John meanwhile set to work. He knew that last time he used a runestone, the spell was activated at a greatly reduced cost than what it normally cost to cast it. He was figuring it was around a 10th or so, and hoped losing 3hp would not be nearly as detrimental to his mind as spending nearly all of it to summon the power of Surtr.

‘Let's just hope this new god who’s about to access my head will be a bit nicer than the giant.’

John pressed the runestone against Talia’s skin, the rune already starting to feel warmer as the magic behind it begged to be released on the wounded person. John slowly released the breath he had not realized he was holding, softly saying the name of the rune “Ankh.” With that phrase, the runestone activated, pouring magical healing power into Talia’s body. Green energy spilled forth, jumping across her body like sparks of electricity. Any time they came in contact with a wound, no matter how small, they seemed to sew themselves into her skin, closing the wound and causing any scar made to fade away. However, the largest display of magic was the gash in her side. There, the wound glowed a soft green color, the symbol of the Ankh appearing in the glowing light. The symbol pulsed, light spilling from it as the wound slowly closed, the skin and torn muscle repairing itself and the lost blood being slowly replaced. Color returned to her cheeks slowly, and her breathing slowed down from erratic to calm and relaxed.

John, while watching all of this, heard something in his head softly speak. He was not transported to another world, not this time. Rather, just a voice softly spoke to him. It was a woman’s voice, one filled with the sound of youth but the wisdom of age. It was someone who was young but knew what she spoke of. In addition, while all others who would have looked at the healing would only see the green light, John saw rainbow wings unfurling from the Ankh, spreading out and enveloping Talia. The voice chuckled as his eyes grew wide at the sight of the wings.

“My, my, my… A new runic mage. And this one seems to be chosen by Gaia herself. Mmm, I have a feeling we will meet someday, mage. But until then, you are under the healing protection of Isis. Use my rune in good faith, and I shall aid you in good faith.”**

‘Isis? The Egyptian Goddess? Well, um, I am grateful for the use of your power and hope that-’

“No Osiris, you can’t… yes I am aware that healing is a bit of your part too. Well its my rune! Yes it is!.. Besides you have more of a necromancy vibe. Well yes, so does our nephew… Look you are interrupting my talk with the Gamer kid… Oh shit. Um, thank you John Newman… be in touch...”

The voice in his head slowly faded away, as if the goddess was either walking away from the conversation or losing her power to talk with John as the rune ended, leaving John sitting in a forest with a very beautiful girl. His rune had done wonders to heal her up, with not even a scar left on her. This left her as a very beautiful girl with pristine, flawless skin whose clothing was more akin to strips of cloth on her, and the twitching in Johns pants made him very, VERY aware of that fact.

Now, John would have loved to ride the high ground on this one and say he did not ogle her for a moment or two. However, John also was a red blooded male, sitting next to a girl who looked like she was right out of a fantasy artbook, specifically the pages designed to be jerked off to. So, John decided to get a good long look at her.

First off, she was pale. Not sickly pale, mind you, but more the color of alabaster, like someone who came from the northern parts of Europe. In addition, her skin and features were rather soft, like someone who did not take part in hard labor often or just happened to have the most perfect of epidermal creams. Her hair was pale blonde, almost white, and nearly covered up the fact that her ears were pointed on the ends.

’Did I seriously just find a real life elf? Seriously?’ John wondered, pushing her hair behind her ear to see if it was real. Just as he did, however, she started to awaken. Her warm hazel eyes met John’s brown ones, and a small smile and a slight bit of a blush seemed to creep across her face as she noted how close they were. John quickly backed up, giving her room to slowly sit up and stretch a bit.

“... Thank you, cleric” she said. Her voice was soft, with a hint of a north European accent behind it. “I thought I was done for.”

“N-No, no, you don’t understand. I’m not a, um… not a cleric.” John extended a hand and gave her a small smile, trying but failing to hide how nervous he was to be talking to her. “M-My name is Nohn Jewman. I mean, John Newman! Yep.”

She raised an eyebrow but offered her own hand. “Talia. Talia Hálfdanardóttir.” She looked at him quizzically. “I… Forgive me, but I must ask… you aren’t Ljósálfr, are you?”

“Gesundheit.”

“Oh, you’re German?”

“No, I just was saying bless you. You sneezed.”

“I didn’t sneeze. I just asked if you were a Ljósálfr.”

“Gesundheit. Again.”

Talia rolled her eyes and grumbled. “Ha. Ha. Very funny. I guess that’s a no.”

John chuckled to himself, before looking back up at her. “Um… Quick question. What even is a Ledge-O-sulfur?”

Talia rolled her eyes and let out a small groan, but gave a wry smile. “Le-djo-sal-fur, John Newman. It means “Light Elf.” That’s what I am. I’m a light elf.” She gestured to her ears, implying the pointed tips John had noticed earlier were indeed real. “You are, after all, in the homeland of the Ljósálfr.”

“Yeah, about that…” John rubbed the back of his neck nervously. “I… Actually don’t know where this is.”

Her jaw dropped a bit, and she leaned forward as if to examine John closely “You serious? You’re in Alfheim. How do you not… Ooooooh. You must have gotten lost on Yggdrasil. Did Ratatoskr chase you into here?”

Now, John would not say he was stupid. If anything, his 31 in Intellect showed that he was a pretty smart guy. But… there was only so many words that John could handle that he had no idea about before he lost the conversation. “Talia, I mean this in the nicest way possible. Did you stop speaking English there? Because I have… No idea what you said.”

Talia gave a small sigh. “Alright, look, how about you tell me how you got here and then we’ll work from there. Alright?.”

John nodded and started to tell his story.