Silent Running

“I ‘hink I’m ‘egaining ‘eeling,” John sputtered, still not completely able to move his lips. His leg twitched as he tried with all his might to lift it. It had only been an hour and a half, but through intense effort he had been able to move parts of his body.

What? he had interrupted their game of I Spy, not that he knew. He had tuned them out long ago.

“I” think “I’m” regaining feeling the communication was a hybrid of thoughts and words, but it was a start nonetheless. He could barely move the fingers on his right hand, and kicked Lucille from the party with this limited movement.

The helpless feeling of not being able to move a muscle was pure ****, and he fought desperately through it. He whispered Lucille’s name and used Stellar Witness for the upteenth time, checking on her whereabouts. He was given a bird’s eye view of her shooting and possibly killing the white-haired archer that had taken Grace hostage. Filaurel, if he remembered the name correctly. He didn’t see Valencia anywhere, and suddenly wished he had been using this ability the whole time for context’s sake.

What are you doing right now? It’s like you have a bunch of stars in your sockets instead of eyes. It’s kinda hard to look at, the Brit’s voice took the edge off his worries, and he cancelled his rarely used scrying spell.

“Then look away,” John joked, blinking the stars out of his eyes. He didn’t want to watch Lucille any further, he had seen her do quite enough. He turned to look at Grace, and heard a gasp in her thoughts.

You can move your head and talk! That’s amazing. The Brit still lay lifeless, unable to willingly move a single muscle.

“You’re totally paralyzed, Abigail can only move in flame form, we need to make it to that light within two and a half hours - an hour’s travel on its own - our teammate betrayed us, so it’s your stickers, my limited movement, and her flames, and I’m supposed to be happy with a head shake?” He couldn’t keep it in any more, he had been so patient for so long, but their situation just seemed so hopeless.

Hold on, I think I can move a little bit too… Abigail turned to flames, walking around and constantly switching forms. It was confusing to watch, but she was clearly gaining strength again.

“If you give Grace your clothes, would you be able to carry her in your flame form?” John was trying to formulate a plan as he started to regain feeling in his body. Grace still couldn’t move at all. I guess she has the whole three hours. Is it because she’s less physically fit than the two of us? I don’t really have time to focus on the why, we need to get moving.

But fire isn’t solid! The Brit had a point; John looked toward the mass of humanoid flame that was Abigail and used Move on a steel leaf from his inventory to make it rest on her shoulder.

“She makes a lot of sense, how are you able to hold and punch things when you’re made entirely of fire?” John had the feeling that she didn’t quite know herself.

"My sister taught me how to do it, but I don't really get how it works," she explained, looking at her own fiery form.

"So you learned how to do it without learning how it's done?" That sounded like a confusing mess, and he hadn't known any magic to be like that before.

The brunette opened her mouth to reply, but was interrupted by David slamming into the tree trunk behind John, trapping something in his talons.

Turning his head to look, John saw what looked to be a lizard pinned underneath his bird’s claws. Inspecting it closer, he realized it had wings. He used Advanced Spy on the critter to see what it was.

“David, let him go!” John ordered, though the little guy didn’t look nearly as distressed as he should have under a deadly hawk’s talons. Weird that it has the character sheet of something sapient.

“Thank you,” a voice said, and it took John a few moments to realize it was coming from the dragon… or dargon in question. “Can I have pats?”

Ooookay, the Gamer was more than a little weirded out by this creature’s request, but gently pat its head.

“I judge these pats to be… adequate,” the dargon replied, crawling over to Abigail. She leaned down to have a look at the cute lizard, and picked him up with one hand, patting him with the other.

“I judge these pats to be… spicy, but adequate,” the lizard leapt from her hands, gliding down to be next to Grace, who looked nervous given her lack of movement. David watched the scene confused, all his instincts telling him to pounce on the creature despite his master’s orders.

John used Move on the Brit’s left hand, which was closer to the creature. With finesse he had rarely used the spell with before, he patted the creature with her hand. “You have the softest hands! Your pats are the best. You get this!” With a loud pop! a jar emerged into reality. “It is a jar of pats. You’re welcome.”

The creature scurried away before any of them could say anything else. The mason jar he had left behind swirled with a vortex of rainbow power. I hope those berries didn’t make us hallucinate. John recalled that one of his friend’s tasks was to befriend the Dargon, but… that was far from what he was expecting.

“Alright, we better get moving after that. Something tells me he was probably the nicest creature in the forest, and I don’t want to meet any of the others,” John explained, using all of his strength to stand up. He tried to bring his arms up to stretch after sitting in the same position for so long, but they weren’t listening to him as much as his legs were.

“Fine… but how are you going to carry my jacket? It has a pocket dimension in it, so it can’t go into yours,” Grace asked, fingertips beginning to twitch with life again.

“I’ll just sling it over my shoulder. It’s not a big deal,” John answered, realizing that he’d have to undress her, since she couldn’t move and Abigail only barely could outside of her flame form.

“Hold on,” the Brit interrupted, realizing the same thing, “this is all just a ploy to get your hands on my body, innit? You thought you could pull one over on me!”

“You know how bad our situation is, Grace, and you know I’m not like that,” John replied as he took a shaky step toward her, “do you trust me?”

Though she often teased and joked, Grace had started to see John as a friend, and despite being generally wary when it came to matters of the flesh, she had to admit that she did trust him to undress her without doing anything uncouth. “Alright, fine, but I’m keeping me bra and panties on, I just need her pants and shirt after all.”

“Abigail, you can move, so you can take care of yourself, right?” John looked back to the brunette leaning against a stump in her human form. As she unbuttoned her blouse, he remembered that she didn’t have anything underneath it and quickly turned away, back to the task at hand.

The Gamer carefully removed his British friend’s jean jacket, revealing that she wore nothing underneath it but a bra. Not that this was news to him as she wore it open. Next he moved on to her shoes, undoing the straps on her boots and slipping them off her.

The trousers she wore contributed to the diversity of the over-the-top outfit that somehow still worked, and he gently worked them off, revealing the plain white cotton panties underneath. This close, it was hard not to be a little aroused by the slender, smooth legs of the woman beneath him.

Abigail watched with curiosity and a hint of jealousy as John undressed her partner, and cleared her throat as she stood behind them, holding out her clothes. Turning, John was relieved to see that, though she didn’t typically wear a bra, she did have panties. He quickly dressed the Brit in the much looser clothes, and Abigail picked the white-haired girl up. Though the fiery brunette could move in her other form, she was at full strength in her fire form. Meanwhile, John put all the clothes he could (and the jar of pats) into his inventory.

Looking more ragged as a group than ever, they slowly made their way through the forest toward the shining beacon of light that served as their goal.