Derped plans

John and Ellie arrived at the bus stop. Luckily it was empty. “Want to see something cool?” John asked with a smug grin.

Ellie gave him a curious glance. “Is it another power?” she asked, a little excited.

“Watch.” John smiled as he tapped on the bus sign.

Fast travel locations will now be displayed from closest to furthest.

Fast Travel Locations:

• Ashcroft Academy
• Umber Park
• Meander Alley
• Lower Eastside
• Old Spring Forest

John clicked on Old Spring Forest.

Travel from your location to Old Spring Forest costs $50 per person.
Do you wish to fast travel to this location? Yes | No

“Ah, shit. I don’t think that’s actually worth it… We would save almost an hour but that seems like a lot of money right now,” John complained.

Ellie looked at him with a confused expression. “Sorry?”

“Oh right, well I have fast travel now, but it costs money to do. I was gonna teleport us to the forest bus stop but it would be like a hundred dollars and I’m not sure if it’s really worth that, especially since Ubering there would probably be around a third of that,” John sighed, wanting to show off again.

Ellie moved over to him, cuddling into his side, and gave him a loving kiss on the cheek. “Maybe some other time then. I’ll get us an Uber so we don’t have to wait for the bus.”

A short wait and a car ride later the two hopped out of their Uber and headed to the nature trail they needed to get to the Cullis Gate.

The two walked through the peaceful forest, holding hands and talking about nothing in particular. Several times Ellie stopped to lean into John and give him a soft peck on the lips before continuing their walk.

The two entered the stone ring, knocking over a stick that had been stuck into the ground. Still holding Ellie’s hand tightly, John pulled out the anchor he’d gotten before and held it in his grasp, focusing on it and the pull of magic he felt when trying to create a barrier before.

His vision going dark and the feeling of getting dizzy was overshadowed as John heard something he didn’t expect.

“Yaya! Quick, get them! They are doing something weird with our new secret hideout,” the sound of a young girl called out.

Still unable to see he felt something impact against his chest and heard Ellie grunt too.

Ellie and John both tumbled backwards as their vision slowly returned; John didn’t feel as disoriented as the first time but still felt a little queasy.

John found himself lying on a comfortable mossy carpet, with a weight on his stomach. Opening his eyes, he was face to face with a young, maybe seven-year-old girl. Her unnatural lime-green eyes intently stared back at him. She was lightly tanned with pinkish red hair and… two horns jutting from the top of her head.

“Uh… what?” John thought out loud.

The girl’s hand extended to John’s face and her fingers clamped around his lips. “I’m asking the questions here. No talking, just answer...” She looked like she was thinking for a second before turning towards Ellie. “Uh, Mimi, what are we asking them?”

John’s eyes followed, and he saw a similarly aged girl, though her appearance was even more strange than the horned girl sat on his belly. Her skin was a light natural green and she had several darker green large freckles on her face. Her skin was bizarre enough but her hair was made up of three snakes, two large snakes that were thicker than her arms and reached down resting on the floor while a much smaller snake peeked at him from the top of her head. She was looking down intently at Ellie and answered without looking away, "Dunno. We never got to this point before! Hmm. Uh, oh, oh! Why did you hurt our super-secret hideout!?" She asked.

The horned girl moved so her forehead touched John’s and she looked him directly in the eyes. “Yeah, why did you… uh… yeah!” she half snarled, half questioned.

John wasn’t really scared, he could tell they were only kids and he didn’t think they’d actually be dangerous, but he was caught off guard, confused and wondering where the hell they had come from. He heard them just as the spell started so they had to have come from the forest in Springfield, but what were a horned girl and a… medusa? Doing in the woods.

Ellie spoke up, “Aww, we’re sorry, we didn’t mean to hurt your hideout. And if we’d have known such cute little girls were the owners of such an amazing hideout, we would definitely have asked permission before playing here ourselves. I love your hair by the way.”

The girl’s cheeks began turning a deeper shade of green, and she began stroking one of the snakes. “Oh, well… I guess we can forgive you… And you can play here again if you want to… Their names are Ssssshantel, Sssssam and Bob,” the girl said as the large snake she wasn’t stroking moved in closer to Ellie’s face, its tongue flicking out against her cheek. “Ssssshantel likes you.”

Ellie laughed, “I see that. I’m Ellie by the way, and this is my boyfriend John.”

The two girls both piped up, “Boyfriend, bleh! Boys are yucky!”

This caused John to laugh and his train of thought cut short. “I’m sure we are. It’s nice to meet you anyway. And you are?” He looked up to the green-eyed girl whose face was now half a foot away from his.

She shot up, puffing her chest out. “I am none other than the mightiest of derp dragons, you may call me Yatina the mighty!”

“And I am the… uh… Spectacularest derp gorgon, you may call me… Princess Mimi,” Mimi proclaimed.

“What? How come you get to be a princess? I want to be one too! I’m Princess Yatina the mighty!” the horned girl boasted.

Mimi puffed her cheeks out. “Hey! That’s cheating, you already made your special name up, you can’t change it!”

“Girls, you shouldn’t fight,” Ellie called their attention.

Both girls huffed, “Sorry.”

Mimi looked down at Ellie and John saw panic suddenly appearing on the young gorgon’s face. “Nononononono, go back, no!” she cried, tears beginning to stream down her face.

John lept up, causing the horned girl to land on her butt. John’s face turned to horror when he saw that Ellie was turning to stone, her head had already become petrified and the stone continued to spread.

“I, what happened? How do we turn her back? I can’t lose her again, I-I-I- fuck!” He panicked.

Mimi was openly bawling, “I don’t know what to do; I didn’t mean to. Make her go back!”

Yatina was fast; she hugged Mimi from behind, which was when John noticed the thick purple tail swinging behind her and the small purple wings folded close to her back. “Mimi, we need to fix it. If we do, they might give us cookies…” Drool began to seep out of the corner of the dragon girl’s mouth. “Delicious, delicious cookies, filled with all kinds of chocolate chips and no raisins because they are evil pretend chocolate chips.”

Before John had the time to chastise the girl for getting off track, Mimi’s mouth had also begun watering, though this was less a small line of drool and more like she’d got a mouth full of water. The drool poured out and onto Ellie’s chest, and John noticed the grey stone immediately beginning to recede. As quickly as it had started, Ellie was almost back to normal.

Ellie looked up at the three of them all leaning over her. “Uh, what happened?”

Mimi wrapped her arms around Ellie’s body. “I’m really, really, really, really sorry, I didn’t mean to, please don’t be mad at me,” she continued to cry.

Ellie stroked the girl’s head, then looked at John who still felt a lot of different things but more than anything he just felt helpless again. “I… uh, she accidentally turned you to stone and forgot how to turn you back, I think? Then Yatina came to the rescue knowing that Mimi’s drool would turn you back.”

Yatina looked back at John with a slightly confused look. “I did? I mean, ‘course I did, now I believe there was mention of us getting cookies for fixing Ellie?”

“C-cookies?” Mimi blubbered as her tears slowed to a stop.

Both girls looked at John. “Sorry, I don’t have… actually, I do,” he said remembering the ‘derp treat’ item he’d gotten.

He pulled out a small brown bag and opened it up to see it full of tiny white chocolate chip cookies. He didn’t have a chance to hand it over to the girls as it was suddenly not in his hand and the two girls were squatting down over the bag, digging into it.

John’s heart was still racing as he collapsed next to Ellie. He pulled her close and kissed her several times, though he could feel a slight wet patch on his stomach. As he looked down, he saw that now, the both of them had a large pool of drool on their clothes. John didn’t care right now. “I broke my promise to make sure nothing would happen to you while I was around.”

“John, calm down. I’m fine, a little stiff but fine,” she reassured him.

“It’s not fine. Seriously, since we met, you’ve been in trouble way more than I would ever want. First that homeless guy, then the headless woman, then those Last of Us zombie things and the mushroom tentacles, and now you’ve been turned into stone. How are you okay with this, seriously?” John questioned. “And how are you taking all this magic stuff without freaking out about it?”

Ellie looked into his eyes before kissing his lips. “I don’t know. I mean, I’m definitely scared of everything that happened, but I don’t see a reason to dwell on it, and I’m still fine. Not only that, but magic is real and so are so many other things and I just find it completely exciting. Aren’t you excited to learn about all this stuff? Even if it means we might be in a little danger from time to time?”

’I don’t really get it… does she just keep repressing stuff or is she really that carefree? Either way, I’ll simply have to try that much harder to keep her safe,’ John vowed internally before kissing her back.

In no time at all the two girls had finished the bag of cookies; John and Ellie were alerted to this as both of them let out an, “EW!”

Ellie laughed and stood up, extending a hand to John. “You girls will understand someday, boys can be really sweet and very cuddly.”

“Uhm, where are we?” Mimi asked looking around.

“Yeah, where is the forest?” Yatina agreed.

“Oh, well, we aren’t in Springfield anymore. We should actually take you home… but I don’t have enough mana right now,” John sighed.

“Well, we’re stuck here, so how about, we go for a walk up the lakeshore before heading to the Silverwood to see Lani again?” Ellie suggested.

“That sounds pretty good, to be honest,” John nodded.

The four of them began walking towards the lake. The view was breathtaking and the mountains that reached up into the sky reminded John just how small he was.

“Hmm, you know, I think that mountain with the smoke coming from it is a volcano,” John thought out loud.

“Volcano?” Mimi echoed.

The two girls looked at each other, they both almost bounced with excitement and their smiles stretched across their faces. “VOLCANO QUEST!” the two yelled before they rushed in that direction. And before John or Ellie knew it, Yatina hooked her arms under Mimi’s, unfolded her wings and flew off.

“Girls, wait!” John yelled after them, but they were already too far away.

As always if you enjoyed the chapter please do leave a like, it is a nice motivator and also lets me know what chapters are received well.

Also little update (that I'm sure some of you may have already noticed) I have gotten rid of my Patreon in favour of buy me a coffee. If you want to show more support than just a simple Like, I more than appreciate it. Furthermore, if you would like to become a member you will gain access to my private discord and early chapters.