"Soooo, how did you die, my dude?" Steve gurgled
"That's kind of a personal question, don't you think?" Puck was a little taken aback
"Ahhh cmon man, it's not like it matters anymore anyway now that you're in Magna" Steve lamented
"Ehh.. I guess you're right, it was dumb though. I was having some pain in my hip, so the doc prescribed some new meds to help with that, I pop one as soon as I'm home sitting back in my chair, who knew I had a serious allergy to the stuff. Wife got emergency services out pretty quick.." Pucks words caught in his throat. His wife, his beautiful, perfect, soul mate. Somehow in all the excitement he'd not thought of home since he'd died. Heartache washed over him. He missed his family. But what could he do now? Suddenly his heart jumped. Would his family come here when they died too?
"Hey uh, Steve? Does everyone come here when they die?" Puck asked, unable to mask the sad hopefulness in his voice
"Ah, everyone always asks that at some point.." Steve said, bracing himself "Well, no man. The odds of getting here after death are actually pretty slim from what I've heard. I only know of one person that found someone they knew in their past life, if that's what you're asking for anyway" Steve raised two tendrils in the air in a 'what can ya do' gesture.
"Oh, well, I guess that answers that.." Puck sounded slightly defeated
"Hey man, cheer up, you're gonna be too busy to dwell on the past soon anyway. This place is like some kind of magic academy shiz, you're gonna love it" Steve gurgled gently, he hated for people to be sad
"Yeah I sort of got that vibe, what sort of powers do you have anyway? In rpgs the gelatinous dudes were usually sort of tanky" Puck had calmed down mostly
Steve got excited "Well I *am* a gelatinous dude as you so excellently put it, not very tanky though, so conventional fighting isn't my bag, but I'm good with water and poison magics! I can also dissolve pretty much anything I put inside my body" Steve suddenly snapped into an upright blanket shape, he was 3 meters tall and 4 meters across. He went to wrap Puck up inside the folds of his now massive body, but stopped just short of touching him "That's one of my favorite tricks haha, works every time.. well except with that one time.. and then that other time..." Steve trailed off, slowly returning to his previous size and general shape
"Heyyy that's neat. Terrifying, don't ever do that again, but neat still" Puck said with a nervous laugh
"Ahhh I wouldn't hurt you dude! Anyway, here we are, De Casa del Steve, and now Puck!" Steve gurgled loudly. They'd been walking for a while down a massive hallway. There were doors on either side every 100 feet, lit torches were spaced perfectly between each set of doors. They had reached the second from the last door on the left, Steve reached a tendril up and pushed the door open, gesturing for Puck to come in, and he did.
"Heyyy! Nice digs!" Puck exclaimed. The room was huge, stone, and decorated ornately in reds, browns, and muted golds. On each side there was a massive bed, fully made with very fancy looking blankets and pillows. In the center of the room there was a large fireplace, it had a tubular vent that climbed up and through the ceiling. There was a grill over one side of the fire, the other had a large pot sitting off to the side. Around the fireplace was a large semi circle couch, dressed in leather.
"So where's the bathroom? I don't have to go or anything, but I'd like to know where I can when I do, ya know" Puck asked
"Haha! Well the bathhouse is north of the courtyard, but you'll never *go* again. Everything you eat or drink here either helps you get stronger or turns into energy in your body. I dunno if it's just that this place is magic, or that our new bodies just use things more efficiently, but yeah." Steve laughed a little and sighed "Man it's been so long, and I've never had to tell anyone that part, now I'm kind of missing sitting on the pot" Steve said longingly
"Man! It's just one thing after another with this place, but I guess that's actually pretty cool" Puck loved to use his time as efficiently as possible, and cutting out bathroom breaks freed up a lot of time. He also wasn't sure how to take his armor off yet either, that would've definitely made things a lot more complicated if something he ate didn't agree with him.
"Yeah.. I used to think so too" Steve missed his toilet
"You ok man? Should we head back for dinner?" Puck could feel a twinge of heat in his belly, he was starting to get hungry
"Oh! Yeah man, sorry to get spacey, you made me want to poop again" Steve said, nodding his head blob a few times
"What a weird thing to say... but I guess I get it in a way" Puck chuckled. Steve was a dweeb he thought, but he kind of liked him
"You're alright man" Steve gave a thumbs up "Let's roll, there oughta be a good spread tonight, the seniors had a crazy successful hunt yesterday."
"Seniors? I guess they're like a level above us if we're juniors? What is there to hunt here?" Puck asked excitedly
"Oh yeahhhh man. These guys are the top ten strongest here. Whenever one of them finishes their training, they leave this planet to start their journey through the rest of the world. And then one of us juniors get to take their place among the seniors, and when that happens you go hunting. As for what they hunt, I don't *reallly* know, but I've seen all sorts of crap on the dinner table." Steve explained
"Roger roger" Puck nodded his head quietly as he thought on everything he'd learned so far "Well, lead the way" he waved out his arm towards the door, Steve sort of rolled out, and they made their way towards the courtyard.
As they neared the steps leading to the courtyard lawn, they saw everyone gathered around an open fighting ring, in the center of the ring stood the red hawk man from earlier. When the hawk man saw Puck making his way toward the ring he put his hand up and said "Fight me! It's been a while since anyone human shaped joined our ranks, and none of the other juniors can entertain me anymore. Show me what you've got"
Puck thought this guy was such a cheeseball. But he liked fighting in situations like this, recreationally, so he stepped into the ring "Yeah, ok sure. But I gotta warn you, I don't know my own strength, I've almost killed myself a few times on accident already."
"Haha!" The hawk man laughed "Master said your name is Puck, I am Rake, thank you for agreeing to this. And don't worry, all of us had to figure out how to use our new bodies when we came here too. I won't try to kill you, let's just have a friendly spar, sound good?"
"Yeah let's go, you start" Puck said, squaring up in a defensive stance
"I'm afraid this won't last long then!" Rake screeched as he leapt into the air. He soared ten feet above Pucks head, and dove straight down, doing several front flips and extending his leg out into some extreme axe kick aimed at Pucks neck.
Puck was able to watch everything Rake was doing and quickly leapt back a few feet to dodge the massive blow. Rakes heel cracked into the ground with incredible force, throwing dirt up explosively upon impact. He quickly kicked up off of his heel in a backflip, landing directly behind Puck, without missing a beat he threw a flurry of punches at Pucks back. "Sccrawww!" Rake screeched as his fists rained down on his foe
Puck watched Rake fly over his head, and he wasn't able to dodge the incoming attack, so he braced himself as best he could for the furious blows, but when they hit him he almost laughed out loud. This guy was obviously trying to beat him into the ground, but to Puck, those mighty punches seemed like a lovely massage, getting all of his knots out wonderfully. He slowly stood up from his defensive stance and turned around.
Rake was on cloud nine, he loved to fight, and he loved to win, and this was looking like a good fight to him. But when Puck barely moved from his hits, and then stopped defending, and *then* turned around to face him, he suddenly felt cold. His fists stopped mid-swing.
"Ok ok, I think we should stop now, I'm getting hungry" Puck stifled a chuckle
"What are you??" Rake said, he couldn't believe that his punches hadn't affected him. He was next in line to become a senior when Andre left, and everyone expected him to be strong enough to leave any day now. But with this defeat, Rake had lost all confidence. None of the other juniors were a match for his talents, what made this guy so special?
"I'm just an old man, at least I was. Now, I guess I don't know what I am. Thanks for the massage, I feel all loosened up, but I really am getting hungry, can we eat?" Puck said evenly
CLOPCLOPCLOPCLOPCLOP
Everyone looked over to see Master Gahorem sitting awkwardly cross legged on the lawn, 'clapping' his hooves
"Nice guys! Rake, thanks for welcoming Puck into the ranks. Puck, I hope you liked your room, let's go have dinner" Gahorem said grandly with a smile
As they all walked towards the dining hall an intoxicating aroma wafted over them, Puck started to drool it smelled so good. His stomach was really starting to heat up, he knew he'd need to eat soon or he might start burning up like last time.
Finally they reached a set of big double doors made of heavy wood and wrought iron, they swung inward seemingly automatically, opening up to a huge dining room with 4 long tables that were all covered in different kinds of steaming food. There were gorgeous, perfectly ripe fruits and berries, massive pies of both sweet and savory varieties, a gigantic roasted bird of some kind, crispy fried legs that appeared to be from some type of monstrous frogs. There was also a big pot of soup, and lots of roasted veggies piled throughout. Puck didn't know what any of this food was, but he was starving and didn't care, he was just ready to dive in and quell the hungry heat that was growing inside of him.
He didn't have to wait long though, everyone promptly when straight to making plates and finding seats. Puck followed suit, stacking his plate 3 feet high with everything he could fit, he even tore a massive leg off of the beastly bird and carried it back in his free hand. He found Steve at the end of a table near a wall, so he went and sat next to him and started demolishing his food like a mad man.
"It's so good" Puck said with tears in his eyes "Oh man this is amazing, thank you so much, hats off to the chef 'crunch crunch crunch' a thousand times" he chomped a huge chunk out of the bird leg.
"Yer compliments are well received, Puck. Others usually enjoy me cooking, but I have to say, no ones ever dug in quite like this!" A voice sounded heartily from the kitchen doorway, it was a 7 foot tall, big, bearded, burly man with a very large belly. Below that belly he had a bear-like body with 6 legs, 4 of the legs supported him, while the other two were crossed below his waist like a second set of huge, clawed arms. "I'm Andre, it's good to have a new soul joining us, especially one with such a big appetite!" The big man laughed merrily
Puck stared at the impressive looking chef, raised his bird leg, and yelled "This is the best food I've ever had! Thanks for the meal!"
"BAHAHA" boomed the bear-man "This guy is great, where did you find him again Master?"
"He crashed through the mountain and walked across the gravity prison, I found him resting on the guard bench." Gahorem said matter of factly
Suddenly the room went quiet, everyone stopped eating and stared with open mouths at Puck, someone choked and spit out their drink.
"No way. Does he have some kind of power that cancels your suppression?" Andre asked mistily
"Nope, the gravity spell worked on him, he just muscled through it, from the farthest end of the room too." Gahorem said with a devious smile
"By My Beard..." Andre gasped "No wonder you're so hungry, I can't even do that. Does he know what he did, Master?" Andre looked at Puck in amazement
"He'd just gotten here, so I haven't explained the spell on that floor to him yet, why don't you enlighten him" Gahorem said
"Sure. So Puck, that floor has a sort of curse placed on it. Every time your foot touches the floor, the gravity on your body is increased by a fraction. 10 steps is around double the normal gravity, you would've had to take at least 600 steps to cross the entire floor, by the end you'd be under more than 50 times the pressure... to not be crushed by that... how strong are you? What are you made of?"
"He doesn't know yet Andre, this is his first day here. I actually had to put a seal on him to help him keep his feet on the ground, him crashing through the mountain was a complete accident. Tomorrow you can start training him, I think a Senior will be a better sparring partner for him right now, seeing as Rake couldn't put a scratch on him in their little match" Gahorem chuckled
"Well, I was planning to leave here soon, but I guess I'll stay to work with this guy for a bit. I hit harder than the bird-man Puck, hope you're up to the task!" Andre said, grinning at Puck
Puck was a little scared at the thought of fighting this giant bear guy, but after what he'd been through so far he didn't think he'd be dying again so easily. "Hell yeah!" He shouted, taking another chunk out of his giant drumstick
"Baha! I love this guy!" The bear-man bellowed, clapping his 4 arms loudly
They all ate and drank well into the evening. After dinner everyone returned to their rooms for the night. Puck realized he'd not yet tried to take his new armor off, so he reached awkwardly across his body, trying to find a way to start removing it.
"What are you doing dude?" Steve giggled from his bed
"Uhh, trying to take this armor off so I can get some rest, but I'm not sure how. When I try to pull my gauntlets off they don't budge, there's gotta be a clasp or something somewhere..." Puck said grabbing all over his back
"Didn't you come here with that on? It's probably part of your body now man. Others reborn with armor or clothes can usually just sort of *will* it off. Try thinking really hard and imagine your armor coming off, that may work." Steve said
"Really?" Puck focused and tried visualizing his armor falling off of his body, when he did this he suddenly felt a cool breeze on his body, he looked down to see himself fully nude "it worked!" Puck said excitedly
"Yeah yeah, quit showing off and get some rest haha. Training with Andre, you're going to need it, that guys a beast, no pun intended" Steve chuckled
Puck tucked into his new bed, and quickly he drifted into a comfortable, dreamless sleep.
Thousands of miles away, in the black of space, 2 beings sat in a large room in the highest tower of a great, obsidian castle, situated on a small, barren moon. The room was mostly undecorated, except for 2 ornate thrones carved from pale pink stone, they were facing each other, and between them was a circular table, the top of which gave a sort of mirrored appearance.
"This one is very ssstrong" one of the beings hissed. It had the head of a snake, but it's body was humanoid except for a very long tail, it's entire body was covered in shimmering yellow scales. It had blood red eyes, and a golden, diamond shaped marking on its forehead
"Yes. He will be troublesome." A grating, unearthly voice said from the other chair. It was fully human shaped, but it's form was a constantly flowing, deep, black smoke. It had no discernible face, but it gave the feeling that it was scowling with an intense hatred.
The two beings sat across from each other, staring intently at the mirror topped table. In the mirror was the image of Puck sleeping peacefully in his bed.