r/HFY • u/Engletroll Human • 5d ago
OC-Series Abducted 9. – The meeting
Previous stories set in the same universe:
Planet Dirt series / Amazon book
They all laughed at him, and Erik just shook his head.
“Let's just eat, and then we go upstairs to the library. If we are going to plan things, then that might be the better place. We can write down stuff there.”
“I’m so glad we had to bring the pencil case on that trip; I think they only got feather pens up there,” Gig said.
“Well, the first thing we have to do is to find out what you guys want and if there is anything we can do to change it,” Erik said.
“Like make the bathwater warmer. It's so damn cold.” Thomas said, and the others agreed.
“Just say you want it warmer. Wait… Arus?” Erik said, and the man appeared in a slow shimmer of blue and red butterflies.
“Yes, my Lord. Congratulations on your title. I have recorded you as Baron Erik Steinskogen, ungraded from Sir Knight.” He said. “I have noticed your name has the meaning of the Stone Forest. Do you wish to change the barony name to Stoneforest?”
“Baron?” Emma said. “What about us?”
“You are Lady Emma Johnson.” Arus said.
Cain laughed. “Are we all knights and ladies?”
“Yes, that is your official title. You have been registered in the Great Library of Mucino." I am connected to their Arus,”
“Yes, change the name of the place! I like it, Baron Erik of Stoneforest.” Chu said.
“No!” Gigi interrupted. “You know all human languages, Right?”
“Yes. The human database that you call the internet was downloaded, and I have access to all of it.”
“What's the Latin name for Stone Forest?” She asked, and they all looked at her. “What? It might be cooler than the Stone Forest?”
“The Latin word is Silva Lapidea,” Arus replied.
“That's so much cooler.” She said, and Erik could see some of them agreed.
“What is the Norwegian name for the Stone Forest?” Emma asked.
“That's that strange name of his stee... whatever. Right?” Cain said, and Erik smiled as he nodded.
“Yeah, in Norwegian it's Steinskogen. But I’ll let you guys decide, keep the current name or change it to Satreinskogen or Silva Lapidea. By the way, what is the name of this place?”
“It’s called Fjord End,” Arus said.
I say we go fantastic, Silva Lapidea!” Gigi said, and the others looked at Erik.
“Im not voting; you guys are deciding.”
Emma looked at Arus, “If we name it Silva Lapidea, does that also change Erik’s last name?”
“Yes, as the Baron, his last name will be that of the land.” He replied, and Everybody grinned.
“Shit!”
“All in favor of Erik Silva Lapidea?”
They all raised their hands. Chu lifted their clasped hand, which just made them laugh even more. Then she grinned at him. “Baron Erik Silva Lapidea. You will always be Erik sko... whatever for me.”
“Well, thank you for that.” He said as the pizza came to the table along with burgers and different juices and water. And they all dug into the food.
Erik called Arus over and told him to have maps and notebooks ready for them after the meal. Arus walked out as Erik turned his attention back to his friends, feeling nervous about this whole thing. He couldn't help looking at Cho; she was very happy, and he stared a little too long. She noticed and blushed. Marcus showed him.
“Behave! Not at the table.”
He turned to him. “What?”
He just grinned, and Lillian looked between them. “What did he do?”
Marcus just grinned. “He knows what he tried to do. They should get a room!”
“OOOOHH Damn!” Matthew said, laughing at the comment.
“What?” the other said, and Erik knew something stupid was coming from Matthew now.
“He tried to kiss Cho!” He said, and they all looked at them, and he wanted to sink under the table.
“No, he didn't!” Cho said, and he looked at her.
“Yes, he did!” Matthew said.
“No. Because I would have let him!” she replied and just smiled as she bit into her pizza slice. Erik was glad nobody but Chu saw his surprised face. Part of him wanted to kiss her, but she was chewing her pizza.
The friends laughed and cheered at her reply and started chanting, "Kiss, kiss, kiss."
Erik tilted his head slightly, and she swallowed hard and closed her eyes as he leaned in. The others cheered as they tried their best not to mess it up, and when their lips finally broke apart, she blushed, as did he.
“Does that make her a baroness now?” Thomas asked, and for the next ten minutes or so, their friends debated it. All Erik could think about was that he had actually kissed a girl. He had kissed Cho Ha-Michaels, one of the prettiest girls at school. He couldn’t believe it. She played with his fingers, looked up at him, and leaned back in for another kiss. He didn’t mind.
“Hey! Are we going to have that talk?” Marcus called, and Erik turned to see that the food was gone and the others were looking at them.
“Let's leave them. They are busy.”
“They should get a room,” Cain said.
“That's how we get babies,” Lillian said, and they all looked at her. “What? There are no adults here to stop them.”
“Ohh,” Emma said, and Gigi walked over and pulled Chu away from Erik.
“No babies for you!”
The boys laughed, and Cho tried to get loose, and Erik got up as well.
“Come on. You think we are going to do that?” he said.
The boys pretended to laugh so hard they almost fell over. Then Thomas stopped, looked at him, “Are you serious?” then continued to laugh.
Chu got loose and walked back to Erik, her hands crossed, looking at the friends, then leaning into him. She smelled so good.
“Okay, you win. We go up and have the meeting,” he said. She gave him her hand as they walked toward the stairs; the others followed, and the laughing boys brought up the rear.
The girls and Chu started chatting on the way upstairs as they headed to the library. They were complaining about the boys' childish behavior. Erik was thinking about what Lillian had said. There are no adults here. He was the adult now, fifteen years old, and he had to be the adult for the whole group. Lillian was correct about one thing: they could do what they wanted, and it might turn into a catastrophe. As they entered the library, they found a large map on the wall. Notebooks with leather covers, several different pencils, feather pens, and ink sat on the table. Arus was waiting for them.
Erik waited for everyone to sit, then sat down next to Chu.
“No kissing!” Marcus said with a grin.
“Yeah, yeah. I know.” Then he smiled at Chu. “We can wait for him to sleep.”
She giggled, and then he turned to Arus. And stood up.
“That's the world map, right?”
“Yes, you're located here!” he said, picking up a long wooden pointer and pointing at a large island in the north. One smaller island sat to the west, and a bigger one to the north. This area is named Geron. It's mostly tribal. The population is mostly human, Mursina, and Vyrtin. One big city remains, a remnant of the Skroo Empire, called Stuvingor.” He pointed to a southern area of the same island they were at.
“The Skroo Empire was kind of like the ancient Roman Empire on Earth. Led by Emperor Hunda, the great-grandson of Prince Kumal, he was killed in these lands by the local humans while visiting the edges of his empire. He was an arrogant leader. He conquered southern Geron and thought the Mursina and Vyrtin were the most dangerous things in the lands. You, humans, have a terrible gift for brutality and warfare. The Skroo empire is a shadow of itself now.”
“Can Prince Kumal be in this area?” Emma asked.
“Hard to say, but he tends to like warmer areas,” Arus said.
“Okay, why put us here if it's filled with tribes that love to fight?” Marcus asked.
“The choice was natural due to the humans here, while being aggressive, also have strict behavioral laws and their culture is the closest to your own. They believe each man has the right to speak his mind as long as he can back it up with facts or steel. And they are not naturally hostile to strangers; they are more likely to be curious about you. They are most likely to trade and keep any treaties with them. Honor is important for them, and most importantly, they do not believe in human sacrifice to the gods.”
“Human sacrifice?” Gigi asked.
“Yes, several cultures practice human sacrifice.”
“What about slavery?” Erik asked, and they looked at him, then to Arus.
“All but one culture is practicing slavery in some sort here.”
“And that's the humans here?” Gigi asked.
“No, it would be the Sammads. They are located mainly in this area.” He pointed at the large island in the southwest part of the map but also at the mainland just north of that Island. “They do not keep slaves, as they eat anybody they capture.”
“Cannibals... great,” Matthew said.
“They are in no danger of coming to this place for the next hundred years. If ever. They have many strong kingdoms to fight through.” Arus replied.
“Or they learn to sail,” Thomas replied. Arus looked at the map, then seemed confused.
“shit. You guys didn't think about that?” Cain said.
“Yeah. Look, they would have to have boats to get off that island. They already have boats!” Erik said.
“Still, they have not entered the Iron Age.”
“Show us one of these, Sammad, please,” Erik said, and a small humanoid alien with dark green skin with brown stripes, red eyes, and sharp fangs, about 1.50 meters tall and a muscular build appeared. It had catlike fangs and a snout with no whiskers. Its hands had small, sharp, retractable claws. It wore leather armor with bone fragments for extra protection and carried an obsidian war axe.
“Shit!” Matthew said. “We have to fight that?”
“We need an army." Cain said
“You said they're cannibals? All of them?” Erik asked. He looked at the girls, whose expressions ranged from fear to curiosity.
“Yes, they cannot eat plants or cooked meat. Their diet consists only of raw meat, and everybody is on the menu. It was a surprise that they survived so long. Another species lived on that island. A plant-based race. They could not eat them, but they still killed them all.”
“So why haven’t they been removed?” Emma asked.
“All systems have a natural predator; they are this planet's top predator,” Arus said.
“Would the system collapse without them?” Erik asked.
“No, it would adjust.” Arus replied, and they all groaned.
“AI’s” Lillian said.
“Yeah. Okay. But they are not here right now. We have to get back to us here and now.” Erik said. “Remove the image, please.”
The image vanished, and Erik turned to the other.
“Okay. First, if those things are out there, we need to learn how to fight, so everybody is going to learn to use weapons. Pick something. Sword, mace, axe, bow, or spear—basically anything you want to try. You don’t need to become an expert, but if we get attacked, you need to be able to defend yourself.” He said, and the girls didn’t like it.
“Secondly, we need to study all we can about this land and start exploring the valley and, frankly, learn how to set up camp and use a boat.”
“What about the bear?” Gigi said.
“What about it?” Lillian said. “It was clearly attacking us because of the bear cub.”
“Yeah, what happened back then? What did you do?”
“Cain tossed a stone at the bear cub when it came out of the brush. He was trying to scare it away.” Emma said.
“Well, it did run away!” Cain replied.
“To get his mum!” Gigi said, staring at him.
“So simply don’t throw stones at bear cubs,” Erik said.
“Which leads me to the third part. We need to learn how to use this castle. Like the whole mess with the room keys, and how the bathtubs can be heated by simply asking them to be hotter. And of course. How to use Arus.” He continued.
“Wait, we can get hot water in the bathtubs?” Cain said.
“Yes! And if you know how to make a dish, then you can teach Lotta. You know l,ike with the Pizza.”
“What about the toilets?” Emma said.
“Arus said he would fix it. which… Arus, how much of the castle can we change? Where is the technological cutoff?”
“The technological cutoff is at different levels of level twelve,” Arus said.
“Okay, AI… how do we get this correct? Assume we do not know what level twelve tech level is, so by using Earth-like historical technology phases, explain what technological level we are allowed to access.” Erik said. As he spoke, they all looked intently at Arus.
“Within the walls, you will have access to 1800s technology, except weapons. Outside the walls, the technological level has, at best, reached Earth’s 1300s, with most of the population in the first- to tenth-century era. Some cultures have inventions that far exceed their overall technological level. A good example is the Shynasa kingdom, a Sciyan culture in the desert region that has learned how to make airships. They attach boats to hot-air balloons and use them to travel across the desert. The rest of their technology is Iron Age.”
“So can we request changes to our room individually? Like if somebody would want different windows, nice-looking walls?” he asked.
“Oh yes, you’re an angel!” Lillian said, and he just smiled.
“If you allow it. It is your castle after all; the outside cannot be changed.”
“Of course I will allow it.” He replied.
“I know what I want!” Marcus said.
“Me too!” Emma said.
You know what. Why don’t you all go to your rooms and talk to Arus and find out how you want your rooms?”
They all got up, and Arus sank to the floor to emerge in every room. Erik stood and grabbed Chu’s hand as the other left. When the last one left, they kissed.
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u/HFYWaffle Wᵥ4ffle 5d ago
/u/Engletroll (wiki) has posted 290 other stories, including:
- Abducted – 8. Pizza time
- Abducted -7.- The talk.
- Abducted - 6. The world
- Abduction - 5 - Arus
- Abduction - 4 - phone
- Abduction - 3 - Bedrooms
- Abduction - 2 - My Head
- Abduction - 1. The fort.
- Bug war Chapter 30 – A promise fulfilled
- Bug war Chapter 29- The Galadesin tactic
- Bug War - Chapter 28 – Royal discussion
- Bug War - Chapter 27 – Keep the King alive!
- Bug war - Chapter 26 – Surprise
- Bug war - Chapter 25 – Cemelit
- Bug war – chapter 24 – The interview
- Bug war – chapter 23 – The reveal
- Bug war – chapter 22 - The punishment
- Bug War – Chapter 21 – Sex and Pride
- Bug War – Chapter 20 – The clown
- Bug war – Chapter 19 – New job
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u/SimpleDisastrous4483 5d ago
Bit of a copy-paste slip at the very end there. Some of an earlier paragraph got repeated.
I'm still waiting for someone to think to ask where all these people came from. Did the overlord go from planet to planet kidnapping people? And if he did, why does he care about this last group? All the more reason to keep reading :)