A Tale of One Deviant (Book One)

Chapter 5: Ugh...Next Time! For Sure!

"Fir! Fir, wake up! Please wake up! What's wrong, Baby?!" Mother wailed at my form tucked in tightly with the pillows as she struggled to wake me up.

     The suns were in a different position than when I first fell asleep, and I guessed that about an hour had passed. Only Mother was in front of me and she had tears streaming down her dirty face, wooden magician's staff carelessly thrown down beside her as she kneeled on the concrete.

     When she saw that I was awake, she let out a sigh in relief and lifted me up gently, pulling me close while being careful not to squeeze too much. I was feeling dazed and had this after burn feeling on my right forearm and on my sternum, below my collar bones. The pain slowly went away as I became lethargic.

     A pop up window appeared in front of my eyes that read:

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• HP has taken a dramatic decrease in a matter of seconds: 30 -> 5. It is suggested that rest and time are taken into consideration.

• Condition has become lethargic, exhausted, suffering severe burns, blood loss, and dazed.

• Blessing of and Curse have new inputs. Respectively, "Contract with a God" and "Deal with a Demon."

•New Skill gained: Rapid Healing from experience.

• Congratulations! You have leveled up to Level 6.

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     That's absolutely flipping fantastic. And that was some major flipping sarcasm.

     Mother pat my back as I started to take calming, securing breaths and let out a hopefully reassuring, "Aua."

     She opened her eyes and lifted her forehead off of mine, saying, "You don't have a fever, but your so hot...blood? Where's this blood coming from?!"

     She exclaimed while lifting my little right arm in her hand. The whole sleeve had a one inch line of dark red color going down it, contrasting with the bright pink clothes I was in. My sleeve was tugged up to reveal pink skin, as if a large cut had just healed. There was a thin scar there. And along that scar, I could see something else, but from here I couldn't make anything of it. Just that it was the darkest black I had ever seen.

     As her gaze traveled up my arm, she spotted the base of my throat, the other place there had been burning. Her face paled instantly as she undid the ribbon at the top and tugged the collar open.

     Mother froze as if she didn't know what to make of it. Her eyes were stuck on one spot, but I didn't know what was there. Her blue eyes turned to slits of pure intensity all of a sudden, which scared what little life I had left in me, and she squinted with a determined gaze. She looked troubled like she couldn't see whatever was bugging her, and eventually gave up with a sigh.

     After looking for a while, she stared into my eyes with regular human ones again, ruffled my hair, kissed my forehead, and buttoned my clothes up like nothing ever happened. She lifted her staff off the ground and cradled me in her left arm as she slung it across her back in a holster. With that, she walked back to the house as I watched a sort of timer broadcast behind my eyes tick by with an HP meter that was slowly rising. It said that there were five hours left until complete recovery.

     As we crossed through the field from the pavilion, I noticed that there was a smell of something burnt in the air. When I opened my eyes, I struggled slightly in her hold to look around. The formerly green and yellow grass was now black, the trees that had been standing in a sort of ring scorched with cut marks on it even worse than the ones from Terrence's and Frederick's spar. Two of the trees that were straight across from each other were knocked down with the top parts broken down completely into shards.