Gauntlet (Old)

Part 2: Chapter 8

Corru slipped the pouch into one of her waist pockets. "Meddle in your own affairs," she said, walking away. I stayed behind her and kept quiet as we went back to the shop.

The cashier sat leaning forward with a smug grin on his face. Translated by the other, stocking the shelves as he did so, he said, "How'd it go with Fatv?"

Corru replied, "Don't mock me like that, Sodj." I wasn't sure if she intended to reveal it, but at least now I knew his name.

Sodj laughed, "Well, what state is the poor guy in?" Corru didn't give him a reply, which allowed for awkward silence to make an unwelcomed appearance.

The one to break it was the translator, "You must wanna buy something; you wouldn't have come back otherwise."

"How much for an adaptive notepad set and a 5mm sheet?" she replied. Sodj sat there, looking intently at the roof, as he worked it out.

"Four hundred and twenty-five," he started, finally, "but let's make it four hundred." Corru frowned.

"When did the prices go up so much?" she asked, "Last time I checked, four hundred was before the discount."

Sodj smiled. "Maybe it still is," he said, preceding a wink. Corru hesitantly pulled the pouch out and counted four hundred dorrals, before chucking them on the table.

As he had been doing throughout the conversation, the other person translated Sodj's words, "Oi, Namvo, get Corru her stuff alrea-" he paused, "Oh, wait, that's me!" He, whose name I now knew, hurriedly scanned the shelf and picked out the items requested by Corru. He placed them on the counter.

"Well, go ahead," Sodj started again, translated once more by Namvo, who had resumed organizing the shelves, "grab 'em with the same attitude you've been doing everything else with." He smiled, as if he had cornered a rabbit he'd been chasing. Corru slowly reached over and grabbed the items, sliding them toward her. She said nothing, for, from what I could tell, fear of blowing up.

Once she had at last taken her things, she turned around and left, just as slowly. The store's bell greeted her, before greeting me in the same way. I followed her back to the treehouse, but Corru stopped in front of the ladder. She turned to face me.

"Flick your fingers."

I was shaken by the suddenness of her command, and so stumbled over the amalgamation of replies my brain tried to verbalize at once. Giving up on that idea, I flicked my fingers. A layer of the green energy covered my whole body - excluding my head - originating from the Gauntlet. I chuckled involuntarily.

"This is your bodysuit," Corru began, "It serves to protect you from being bludgeoned or gored, bu-"

"Woah woah woah," I interrupted, "I didn't sign up for this. What the hell's gonna be doing the bludgeoning?"

"The main caveat being that it hasn't the durability of proper armor," she continued, ignoring my question, "If you flick your fingers twice, you will don your full set of armor. However, in the Gauntlet's current state, you will be unable to equip tools with the full set donned."

"Couldn't you have thought of a better solution than that?," I started, "Like, you know, making the armor something I just put on before the time?" Corru stood there, not ignoring my question, but not addressing it either.

"You will be grateful for what you receive."

"I mean, I'm just thinking. You know, you could fix it pretty quickly. I wanna be clear that I'm happy with the arm you gave me, but, counter-argument, armor and a glove are two different things. So, you know, it's just kinda-"

"You will be grateful for what you receive," she reiterated. Corru ran a strong argument. So good in fact that I decided not to continue it.

"We will now harvest the remaining resources for the telekinesis upgrade, have you any complaints?" Corru asked.

"Let's go with no on that one," I replied. Together, we walked into the forest beyond the treehouse. There was only one part of the forest not covered with trees; the path we were on. The leaves and grass were as blinding as ever, but their brightness was dwarfed by a yellow light. The object emitting it was obscured by a tree, but still extremely bright.

Corru also noticed it. She turned her head away from it and kept her eyes closed. "Don your full armor and refrain from looking at the light source," she commanded. I flicked my fingers twice, causing the Gauntlet's pouches to burst. The particles clung to every part of my body, forming a really nice set of armor. The helmet formed last. There was an almost y-shaped opening for me to see through.

I stared at the beautiful set of armor I had formed from almost nothing. I felt powerful. I felt like I could do anything right now.

"Press the button on the side of your neck," Corru said, breaking my train of thought. As I pushed it, the opening of my helmet was covered in the same energy as the bodysuit. Much like the checklist, there were areas void of the energy. In this case, it displayed a compass at the top. Along with a simple diagram of a person having 100 displayed on its arms, legs, head and body, on the top right of the visor. Finally, there was a central crosshair with a constantly-changing value above it, representing meters. The only problem was that the energy wasn't very easy to see through.

"You are harvesting a sunplant," Corru began, "the visor will protect you from its blinding light. Walk over to it and pluck its leaf." She paused. "With the gauntlet," she emphasized.

I began walking carefully over to the plant, but failed to notice or remember the presence of a tree in front of it. I bumped into it and recovered, trying my level best to pretend that didn't happen. The light of the plant overwhelmed the visor as I moved beyond the tree. Nothing other than a black spot in the shape of a leaf could be seen, surrounded by yellow. I was sweating, not from stress, but temperature.

I got almost unbearably hot by the time I got to it. I reached over and plucked the black spot I assumed was a leaf. The Gauntlet's finger segments felt ever-so-slightly softer as it held the leaf. The 100 on the diagram's left arm steadily decreased to 94.

"Now snap your other hand's fingers," I heard Corru say. I held up the leaf and snap. The leaf disintegrated from top to bottom, restoring my vision.

"Uh," I started, "what did I do? Did I do something wrong?"

Corru, who was facing me again, replied, "You have done nothing wrong. You did as I asked. The leaf has been transported back to a storage unit." I was relieved. Not because I hadn't done anything wrong, but because I could still see. That leaf was unbelievably bright.