IDWTBTHQ Chapter 82 - Wakey Wakey

It was pretty early in the morning when Marcus woke up. He lazily sat up in his bed and stretched his arms while letting out a long yawn before clicking his tongue and looking around. His room was pretty bare, with just a big armoire and a chest where he kept his clothes and belongings, and Cooper, his pet Hunter Drone, who was sleeping on the floor. Thick, dark curtains covered the only window, but through the eyes of his drones the Vex Queen could see that the sun was already high in the sky.  For a moment he wondered whether or not to stay in bed for another while, but then he decided otherwise —mostly because he was hungry— and slowly crawled out of the sheets. Luckily the inside of the inn was still quite warm thanks to Felix’s powers, to the point that he didn’t feel the slightest bit of cold even though his nightwear was nothing more than a sleeveless shirt and a pair of panties. So, without further ado, he headed straight for the kitchen, followed by Cooper who had instinctively awoken to stay with its master.

When he arrived at the main hall he found Hoggs and Klara already there, which was normal since the old man never slept much and the girl was a typical early bird. The two were talking with each other, but stopped and turned their heads when they heard Marcus descending the stairs.

“Oh, hi Marcus!” Klara greeted him. “Goodmorning.”

“Goodmorning, sir Marcus.” Hoggs also said, but then he frowned when he noticed his clothes, or rather lack thereof. “Uhm, don't you think that you should wear something a little more... appropriate?”

“Well, it's not as if I'm strolling around in the streets like this.” The Vex Queen shrugged. “And anyway we are all friends here, so I don’t see what’s the problem. We're basically roommates.”

“Roommates?” The telemancer repeated. “I do not know this word.”

“It means people who share the same house.” Marcus explained while walking to the kitchen. He then prepared a plate of raw vegetables and meat and poured himself a small mug of lukewarm coffee, the last of what remained in the pot, and walked back to the main hall, where he sat at the counter and started wolfing down on his breakfast with a voracious appetite, occasionally passing a scrap of food to Cooper, who had sat on the floor next to him.

The Vex Queen quickly ate his meal, watering it down with a small dose of coffee, and when he was done Klara approached him.

“Say, Marcus, can I ask you one thing?” She said.

“Sure.” The Vex Queen promptly replied. “Ask away.”

“I have been meaning to get back to Oakfell to grab some of my belongings for a while.” She explained. “And I was thinking of going today.”

“Well, you're free to go whenever you want.” Marcus said. “If you want I can even lend you one of the Wyvern Drones.”

That offer caught Klara by surprise, and she hesitated for a second.

“Ehr... that's very generous of you Marcus, but if you don't mind I'd rather go there in a more conventional way... with the cart, if I can take it.”

Marcus felt a hint of fear radiating from the girl, something which had happened everytime she was offered to ride one of the Wyvern Drones. The Vex Queen suspected that the young woman might be afraid of heights, but he refrained from teasing her about it.

“Sure, you can go however you like.” He said. “And feel free to take whatever you need to get there. The cart, food, anything.”

“Then do you mind if I take Felix?” Klara asked. “If he wants to come, of course.”

Marcus paused for a moment, raising an eyebrow.

“Well, it's not as if I'm Felix's master or anything, so he's free to come and go as he likes.” He replied. “If anything, you should ask Hoggs, since he’s Felix's actual master. Maybe he's got some training scheduled for him.”

“Oh, I already asked Hoggs, and he told me that Felix can take a break from training for a couple of days.” Kara replied. “I thought of asking you because Felix is the one who warms up everything in this house, so his absence could make you a bit uncomfortable.”

“Well, I've survived in a cave in the middle of the forest for months, so I think I'll survive for a day or two in an inn.” He shrugged. “If I need to warm anything, I'll just have my minions chop some wood from the forest or something.”

“That wouldn't work.” Klara corrected him. “Freshly chopped wood doesn't burn so well. But there is enough seasoned wood in the woodshed behind the inn to last for a couple of weeks.”

“Well, anyway, there is no problem. I'll just heat things the old fashioned way if I need to.”

“Good.” The girl nodded. “Then the only thing I need to know is if Felix wants to come.”

“You want to go ask him now?” The Vex Queen asked.

“Nah, I'll just wait for him to get up.” She replied. “I think I'll go prepare the cart for the trip for now. If Felix wakes up before I’m back, could you ask him to come meet me at the stables?”

“Sure thing.”

“Good. Then I'll be on my way.”

The girl then got out of the building, and as soon as she was gone Hoggs turned to Marcus and gave him a puzzled stare.

“Young Klara is certainly in a rather good mood today.” He said. “Say, do you have anything to do with that? I noticed that you two came back together from the bath.”

“I may have got a word or two with her.” The Vex Queen replied. “Helped her sort out her thoughts and things like that.”

“Oh, that explains it.” The old man nodded. “Well, better late than never. I hope that this means that the tensions between her and young Felix are gonna be sorted soon as well.”

“Probably.” Marcus shrugged. “That really depends on the two of them. Klara may be a bit more open, but it’s not as if her issues have disappeared over night… she’s just willing to face them now. And as for Felix, it depends on how he’ll react. I mean, he could be offended and decide to not accompany Klara out of spite, for all we know.”

“And turn down a trip together with a girl he’s got a crush on? Ah!” Hoggs sneered. “I thought you could read people’s emotions! Only a blind man couldn’t see that young Felix is completely smitten!”

“Well yeah, I know. I can sense Felix’s emotions, but it’s not as if I can tell exactly how he’ll react. If life taught me something, it’s that you must not take anything for granted.”

“That’s true.” The telemancer agreed. “But I still find it highly improbable that young Felix may react differently from what I expect.”

“Well, we’re going to have our answer pretty soon, don’t we?” Marcus replied with a smirk. “Let’s see what happens when he wakes up, shall we?”

“Very well, sir Marcus.” The old man nodded.

A ray of sunlight hit Felix's face, waking him up. He immediately turned around, burying his face in the pillow to avoid that pesky light, but sadly the damage was already done and he wasn't able to get back to sleep anymore. So, with a resigned sigh, he opened his eyes and gave a look out of the window to ascertain the time of the day. Judging by the position of the sun it was about mid morning, so he decided that he could get up.

After all, Klara was probably already gone to her usual hunting expedition by now.

While he was dressing himself, he pondered over the irony of the situation: the reason he was trying to avoid Klara was because he didn't want to see the girl trying to avoid him. It would have been funny if it didn't make him feel so hurt.

What was even worse was that he didn't know what he had done to warrant such a treatment. He only knew that Klara always gave him the cold shoulder when he tried to approach her, giving him absolutely no explanation why.

This was incredibly frustrating, but he had managed to put up with it somehow, mostly by focusing exclusively on his training and avoiding Klara as much as she avoided him. However, his thoughts always lingered on the girl every time he took a pause, and he would have immediately given up everything he had for being able to recover their friendship and be together once again.

He let out a sad sigh, finished dressing himself and headed down to the main hall to have breakfast.

As he descended the stairs, he saw Marcus and Hoggs talking to each other in front of the fireplace. The old man was turned away from him, but the Vex Queen was sitting cross legged on a sofa facing the stairs and saw him immediately.

“Hey there Felix!” She greeted him with a huge, amused smirk. “Nice of you to finally wake up!”

“Goodmorning, young Felix.” Hoggs greeted him as well, turning around.

“Good Morning to you Marcus. And good morning to you too Hoggs.” The young man replied, but he immediately averted his eyes from the Vex Queen, whose current posture combined with her lack of clothings was quite revealing, to say the least. Not that Felix saw her as anything but a friend, but still... well, he was still a male, and a half naked girl casually wandering around the house with absolutely no shame at all made him feel kinda uncomfortable.

Even... no, especially after she had revealed that she was a man in her past life.

However, he couldn't avoid looking at Marcus when she spoke to him, as that would have been terribly impolite. And sadly, it seemed that the bug girl had something to tell him.

“Hey Felix.” She said. “Before you have breakfast, I've got some news for you.”

“Really?” The young man asked, trying his best to look the Vex Queen only in the face. “What is it?”

“Well, Klara asked me to tell you that she's waiting for you at the stables.” The Vex Queen said with a smirk. “Apparently, she wants to pay a visit to her home in Oakfell today and she'd enjoy your company on the way there, if you want to go of course.”

“What!?!” Felix asked, completely taken by surprise. “Are you sure?”

“Yeah, I'm pretty sure.” Marcus confirmed. “She even asked Hoggs if you could take a pause from your training in order to go with her.”

The young man was completely flabbergasted. Klara had been avoiding him for the better part of their stay in Stonebarrow, and now she wanted to travel with him? He couldn't even begin to understand why she was behaving like this!

And yet... he didn't really care about the motivations. All he knew for sure was that he wanted nothing more than to stay with his friend, to talk to her, laugh with her and recover their relationship. Nothing else mattered.

“I'm going to talk with her then!” He said, his voice brimming with excitement.

“Wait, you're not going to have breakfast before you go?” Marcus said, with a little smug smirk and a hint of teasing in his voice. “It's not like Klara is going to run away, you know?”

“Uh... well... ehr... I... I'm not really hungry right now!” The young man muttered. “I prefer to go and talk with her!”

“Then go.” The Vex Queen said with a laugh. “Don't make a lady wait!”

“Sure.” Felix replied, although the way Marcus had phrased that concept somehow made him blush. “I'll see you later!”

And without further ado, he got to the door and got out of the inn, all but running towards the stable where Klara was waiting for him.

As soon as Felix got out of the door, Marcus finally cracked up and started giggling in pure delight.

“That was just too precious!” He laughed. “It was like watching a lovesick puppy! It's adorable!!”

“I see you're certainly enjoying this.” Hoggs observed from his sofa.

“I mean, how could I not!?!” Marcus replied. “Have you seen him? If he had a tail, I bet he would be wagging it like crazy!”

And he started giggling once again, and this time the telemancer started giggling as well.

“I guess you're right.” He conceded. “It is adorable. Or at least funny. For crusty old toads like me there is nothing more amusing than watching young people struggling for reasons we consider pretty futile, in hindsight.” He paused for a moment, as his eyes became remote. “I find it hard to believe that I was ever that young and foolish... and yet I still remember it. A time when I was still wet behind the ears and I followed my emotions no matter where they led me.” He shook his head in disbelief. “Heavens, it feels as if I was a different person back then.”

“Tell me about it.” Marcus said while rolling his eyes. “Though in my case, I literally was a different person. Kinda. The reincarnation thing is weird.”

He said that casually, as he had already revealed to both Hoggs and Felix that he had been a man in his previous life, though he decided to heed Klara's advice and avoided telling that he came from a different world as well. Nonetheless, as it always happened whenever this topic was brought up, Hoggs seemed weirdly interested.

“If you don't mind me saying so, I must confess that I still find this really peculiar.” The old man said. “I've asked a cleric friend of mine a few questions about reincarnations. And he told me that in most —if not all— cases those who kept their memories from their previous lives used to be... well, rather peculiar and important people. Usually powerful sorcerers or clerics, or great Aura Masters. And yet you said you were an ordinary clerk in your past life.”

“It was mostly a temporary occupation though.” Marcus corrected him. “I was actually studying to become a civil engineer...”

“No offense but that's still pretty mundane.” The telemancer continued. “Not to mention, reincarnating as another species is actually unheard of. Or at least, there are no records of it that my friend knew of.”

“Well, I do not know why or how it happened.” The Vex Queen replied. “It just happened. I died as a man and woke up as... well, this weird lizard bug girl thingy. I already told you this.” He shot Hoggs a suspicious glare. “By the way, why are you so obsessed with this? You're always asking questions about it.”

“Just curiosity, nothing else.” The telemancer replied. “After all it's pretty rare to meet people that have lived twice.”

“Ah!” Marcus sneered. “You've lived more than twice as long as me, for what matters. I died pretty young and I’ve lived in this world for just about one year, so in total I’m no older than 26 or 27 even counting my past life. Didn't I tell you that?”

“Yes, you did.” The old man conceded, and then he added with a smirk: “And I believe you. Actually, going by your behaviour, I would have believed you if you told me you were still a teenager.”

“What!?!” Marcus cried. “What do you mean by that?”

“Well, I do not know of many adults that wander around in their underwear in front of other people.”  Hoggs replied sarcastically.

The Vex Queen was about to protest, but then he looked down at his current outfit and the retort he was about to say died before it could get out.

“Touché.” Marcus conceded. “Is there a reason for this not-so-subtle criticism directed at my manners, by the way?”

“Well, for starters it’s fun.” Hoggs explained with a smirk. “But more seriously, it may cause you some problems in the long run. You may have not noticed, but you’re supposed to be a knight now, and there are certain expectations that come with that title.”

“Uff. I understand.” Marcus replied “I do not like it, but I do understand. Well, I guess I’ll try to behave a little better in the future. And for starters, I'm gonna go dress myself.”

“About that...” The telemancer interrupted him. “You may want to wear something light. After all, today's a perfect day for some training.”

“What? Training? Already?” Marcus asked. “Isn't it better to let my body rest for a day?”

“Not really.” Hoggs shook his head. “Besides, do you really feel the need to rest?”

For a moment, the Vex Queen felt tempted to answer yes. But sadly, he didn't feel tired at all... hell, he actually felt better than usual. So, cursing his own honesty, he answered truthfully.

“No. I'm not tired.”

“Thought so.” The telemancer said. “I've seen trainees who were actually too tired to go on. They could barely move because of the pain in their muscles, but you are clearly completely fine.” He stopped and then added: “Besides, the point of my training is not to train your body alone, but rather to improve the coordination between your body and your mind, and being exhausted is actually the first step to achieve that goal. So go prepare yourself. We've got a long day in front of us.”

Marcus groaned, but he didn't outright protest. Instead, he got up and headed towards his room, in order to change into his training clothes. He walked like a man headed towards his execution, causing Hoggs to stifle another laugh.

And yet, as bleak as the prospect of another training session under Hoggs seemed, he couldn't help but feel positive about the future. After all, his life was generally peaceful, Felix and Klara were about to solve their problems and maybe he had found a way to control his aura.

He really hoped that things could stay like this.