Among the tales of truth and not,

One story lives a curious plot.

A simple one, without much care,

Of a certain creature, that’s not really there.

His name is Rid, and he loves rain,

But trouble is that he feels pain

Whenever water touches him.

To help this being, and on a whim,

A mighty wizard cast a mighty spell,

A bubble to Rid’s trouble quell.

With that, the wizard disappeared,

In smoke and fire Rid also feared.

The constant rain outside Rid’s house,

Kept him in fear, hiding like a mouse,

But with this magic, he went outside.

All water falling, fell to the side

Of where he stood. He rightly cheered,

The pain of rain no longer to be feared.

And yet, in time, as the spell remained,

Rid pondered, wondered what he’d gained.

The water, sure it caused him pain,

But the world was nothing without rain.

Whoa. I don’t know what that was, but it came out of nowhere. Weird. I wasn’t the one who put it there, just so you know. It had a point, but I don’t like the rhyming stuff. Let me just tell you a story.

So this wizard called Marv appeared in my house all of a sudden and popped a spell on me that made all rain keep away from me. In my world of constant rain that sort of spell was considered a godsend, yet I didn’t want this. Right after the spell, Marv just vanished. I should say this real quick. My name is Rid and I’m going to find Marv, possibly kill him. What he thought was a kindness, since water tends to hurt me, was actually unwanted attention. This bubble doesn’t seem to have a time limit, what we call a “sticky spell.” Oh, right. I should tell you before you freak out. I look a bit scary, but don’t EVER call me a monster. I will be mighty upset. So that’s my story, or it will be. Care to see more? Beware, my world is not like yours. Let’s begin.

&

Well, lookie, that’s me as I currently am. There should be a pic of me here, but if there isn’t, use your imagination. Sorry, the bubble of swirling air tends to distort me a bit. Four arms, you’re seeing correctly, and yes, two are on my back. The feet look strange, right? That’s ‘cause they split into five sorta-fingers. It’s like I’ve got hands on my feet and four arms, but hey, I’ve already told you that I look scary. We haven’t even gotten started with the story yet, but I guess you already know it, going to find a wizard and all. I meet some folks and face some challenges. All that fun stuff. For now, let’s finish defining how I look for these poor saps who can’t see me on the page.

So yeah, my skin is a very dark green, and furry, but the fur is white. Makes my back arms look like strange wings, but don’t call me an “angel.” I hate those guys, always flapping about the place like they aren’t weird-looking. They are WINGS on something that has no wings. Yes, we have angels here. It’s actually a disease that grows wings on your back. Seeing as it always rains here, they are sorry bastards, all cooped up in their little aviaries. I had angellium once, but they grew out on my butt, so I got it treated. Like I said, it’s a disease, but some don’t want treatment, so they live in communities of winged creatures. Enough about them. We haven’t even defined my face yet.

I have horns, and I am damn proud of ‘em. They are white, with dark green lines wrapping around. They stick out from a central spot on my head and curve backward while spreading apart. I’ve got three eyes, two in front and one hidden in the fur on the back of my head. I don’t have a nose. It’s more of two openings to breathe through. Mouth, no lips, just teeth. It’s a pain to keep the thing closed around them all. Eyes are black, helps me see in the dark. That’s all I think. Oh, and I have a short tail with a puff on the end, and I’m eight feet tall. I don’t think there are many of my kind left in this rainy world. It wasn’t always all wet like now, but that’s the lesson of magic in the hands of idiots.

Seeing as my kind has this aversion to water, enough of it would kill us, but I think most of my kind took the easy way out and buried themselves deep underground. The thing about water, it tends to sink into that ground, so I’m sure they are all trapped underneath to battle floods and cave-ins on a daily basis. Meanwhile, I just live on the surface, afraid that someone steals my enormous, ten-foot umbrella. That was before Marv, of course, the mighty wizard who stuck his nose where it didn’t belong. He was a human, by the way. Yes, we have humans here. They do ok in the rain, but not as well as Fischins. Those are like walking fish. When they go inside, they have to put these mouth things on to breathe. Enough about them.

It’s been a few months with the bubble already, and the positive aspects of it started to wear off. At first, I could venture out without my ridiculous umbrella. I went to places with heavy downpours to test the spell, with the giant water shield folded up on hand just in case, but the swirling layer of air did not budge. Other things passed through it easily, though seeing it nearby scared everyone, even more than seeing me. My kind used to have a name, but the rain had been around for hundreds of years. Nobody even remembered what that name was, and I stopped caring a long time ago. Now you might wonder why this life-saving bubble of mine was getting annoying. I’ll tell you, but first, how about I tell you how the story ends? You’re not used to that sort of method, are ya? Well, I can’t spend a lot of time on this short story. It’s pretty boring and I just want to relax wherever I am right now.

“Don’t do this, Rid,” Marv called out from within his pocket dimension. That’s right, it’s a dialogue plug. The current situation is a bit of a chaos so pay attention to every little bit. “I didn’t mean to harm her. You should have stayed away. If you value your friend’s life, get out of my home!” Yes, I had a friend, more than one actually, and then there was her, the only female Inros I’ve met. She was beautiful, living as a spectacle. Her name was Iri, and that wizard Marv killed her. The friend he captured was my best buddy of a few months now, a wiper by the name of Gionn the Eighth. I called him Gio for short. He’d actually broken a law of his job to find me and try to correct my story. At the time, I had no idea what he meant, but now I knew he was the only chance to save Iri from Marv’s knee-jerk reaction of killing her.

“You know I can’t!” I yelled into the room. “Gio’s the only one who can make this right! Let him go! He needs to wipe this story from existence!” Since you’re reading this, assume that didn’t happen, but maybe this was written before the story was wiped, so keep some hope for Iri.

Marv knew I was coming after him. I’ve been looking for him for a long time, not even trying to hide it. When she found this cowardly wizard, Marv thought it was me and… he… Well, you know what he did.

“I CANT GO BACK!” Marv called out. Poor man was homeless at the start of his story. He found an old magic book that other bums were using as toilet paper and it made him into a servant, channeling magic through him while limiting his freedoms. Anything was better to him than what he was back then, and thus he’d rather kill the Nth Goni in his possession than let that thing erase his progress. “I’ll kill him! I swear I will!”

“Relax!” I shouted back. “He won’t wipe your life out, just let him go! Gio, don’t do anything, alright? Marv, I just want to talk! I promise!” He was walking around in spectral-form, behind the cover of the real dimension. I could see him, but not reach him. Was my conversation a ruse to get him out of there? Yes and no. I really wanted to speak with him, but half of me just wanted to tear his human body apart. I curbed my anger and sat down, bowing my head in submission. “Don’t kill another one of my friends! PLEASE!”

An orb appeared in the room and split into an opening. Marv stepped out still holding tightly onto Gio’s neck. He struggled, but there was no escape. As a wiper, Gio’s skin was a yellowy-brown. He was like a little human, thinned out, with long ears like my horns, curving to the back. His eyes were pure gold, with glowing gemstone pupils. Other than a naked humanoid body, he had sharp claws on fingers and toes. One hole where the mouth would be served a variety of purposes, from breathing to reproduction. He was a strange little creature, but he told me that I was an Inros, a creature of the beginning. He didn’t say much more on that subject.

“I’m so sorry, Rid,” Marv said still holding onto Gio. “I didn’t mean to hurt her. I thought she was you! Everyone’s been talking about how you were coming to kill me!”

“You killed her!” I said making him skip from fear and let go of Gio. He did not get far as a spell made him float in the room. “Just making sure you know what you did there, Marv. I was upset about the bubble until I found Iri. That was such a happy time for us. We spent time together outside. I was the ultimate umbrella. What good am I now?! She’s gone! What use is your stupid magic if you can’t even bring one being back?!”

“Now, hold on there,” Marv said and reached into a pocket dimension to get the magic tome possessing him. “Maybe I can.” I could just tear that book apart right now, kill his future. With that, he’d have to allow Gio to reset. “Zibby? Suggestions?” A blob of blue appeared hovering over the book.

“Resurrection, hmm,” it spoke with a makeshift mouth. “Alatas spell of grave reach is your best bet. After that, I don’t know, Murri’s reconnection, or Karter’s uplift.”

“It won’t work,” Gio said rubbing his sore neck. “She was an Inros, like Rid. They don’t exist like normal creatures. She can’t be resurrected by means of magic. The only way to save her is to let me restart the story, but that comes at a price. You and me, Rid, we’d never meet, and though she’d be alive, she’d still be a part of that travelling freak show.”

“NO!” Marv yelled and had his hand around Gio’s neck again. “I will not take that chance! I’m somebody! I remember being nothing! I will NEVER GO BACK!”

…Aaaand let’s leave it there.