The Dao of Magic

19 - Drill

Tess felt shitty. She felt really, seriously shitty. Her body ached in a weird way and her stomach was and still is doing acrobatic flips. Now with her eyes open, she feels even worse.

"Where am I?"

Softly mumbling to herself she takes in her surroundings. Soft grass underfoot, a peaceful looking pond with thriving plant life surrounding it and a massive tree. A massive glowing tree. This scene is further complemented by a spattering of small suns across the sky.

'At least the sky's still blue. Wait sky? I was in the dungeon right? Then there was that glowing white being. It must have been an angel of some kind, so cute. Am I in heaven? I must be right?'

While Tess is delving deeper into her own thoughts she starts to look further around herself. Behind her are are some wooden huts. A tall stone building made up of smooth rocks and mortar stands to the side. Smaller trees surround the field she is in. Just as she sees vague shapes laying on the grass around her she hear someone speaking.

"Wajoooow, what is going on here!"

A weirdly enthusiastic voice sounds from her left side. Snapping her head around she starts to notice other people waking up. Five other figures are sprawled around her, each of them showing signs of waking.

"LISTEN UP YOU FILTHY MAGGOTS"

A voice booms through the entire clearing, jolting the entire group from their half slumber. Tess blearily looks where to voice is coming from, slowly turning her pounding head. She is not having a good morning.

"YOU HAVE ALL BEEN SELECTED BY THE GREAT AND GLORIOUS ME. REJOICE FOR I SHALL TEACH YOU THE BEAUTY OF GROWING STRONG THROUGH SUFFERING *cough cough*. Was that too much? Maybe i'm overdoing it."

An imposing air wafts from the figure walking towards the group of bedraggled kidnapee's. The figure's simple form of dress only seems to add to the pressure the group suddenly feels. If you ignore the last few words he said, that is.

"I HAVE GRACIOUSLY INVITED YOU FUCKTWATS IN MY VERY OWN DOMICILE BECAUSE I SAW SOME SPARK OF HOPE IN YOU SAD SACKS OF SHIT. I WILL.. *COUGHCOUGH* "

As this weird shouting guy busily devolves into a coughing fit Tess is only further confused.

'We are dirty larvae? Why am I a bag filled with poop? Is he trying to insult us or something? His pronunciation is pretty bad, he needs to lilt his s'es more and his tonal inflection is horrible.'

Tess immediately concludes that he is a foreigner, not knowing how right and wrong at the same time her conclusion is.

Six people were looking at the figure with growing uncertainty in their eyes. A certain world hopper had not taken cultural differences in account it seems, insults heavily rely on the culture they are spoken in, after all. The group of displaced persons has woken up fully now. Although they are feeling apprehensive about this shouting madman, the entire scene he had been trying to paint was being ruthlessly smashed by the bunny he was carrying and gently petting.

Silence hangs thick in the air as the group studies one another. Tess takes another look around and sees a blonde haired, blonde eyes fatty, a short girl spacing out with blue fuzz for hair, a lanky guy with dark circles under his eyes to her left. To her right are two more people, and as she looks over the redhaired guy he studies her back. The last person should be a slave of some kind, Tess thinks, her body is covered with a smattering of brown hued fur. The vague feline slant to her face gives it away that she is from the far east's warring states.

The bunny guy stares at the first person to his left and continues shouting.

"YOU WILL NOW TELL ME YOUR NAME, AGE, RACE, SKILLS, AND WHATEVER ELSE IS INTERESTING ABOUT YOU."