Dark Body, Light Soul (Or the Tale of the Stalfos)

by Garino

9: Jack of All Trades

Chapter 9: Jack Of All Trades

Midnight. Or, I believed it was midnight. Being underground kinda messes with your sense of time when you've been used to the sun for so long. And, y'know, a clock to make it a lot easier on yourself. All the shops were closed until morning, most of the signs reading they'd reopen at nine o'clock sharp. Jack's Weapon Emporium was no exception. Of course, the dead don't sleep. I know this because just about everyone was out on the street having a good time. Was Jack among them?

Turns out he wasn't. I approached the shop just as Jack was putting away the last of his tools. He turned and caught sight of me. "Ah, Daniel. Why you here? Shouldn't match be now?"

"Got cancelled. It was a draw," I dismissed. "Mind if we talk?"

Jack nodded. "Yes. Jack on way home now. Honored to have Daniel join."

I looked around for any suspicious ones. Nope, none yet. I followed Jack carefully, constantly switching between him and for potential spies. Boringly enough, there were no such things. Jack reached his home (which was nothing more than a small, thatched roof cottage, which just brings up MORE questions!) and motioned for me to enter. I complied, shutting the door behind me out of habit.

The house was pretty nice. Everything seemed to be on ground level. There was a living room where we entered, a kitchen area to the right with a fireplace, and a table not too far from it. So I guess when the undead took over Necro City, they didn't bother to remodel. I honestly don't know, I just quit questioning their logic at this point.

Jack then let out a sigh of relief. "Thank goodness. I was getting tired of holding up that charade." Whoa! Did he just make a complete, grammatically correct sentence?!?

I removed my hat, asking, "Jack? Since when were you so...?"

"Cultured? Refined? Able to construct a sentence with all of the proper words? Probably as long as I've been dead," Jack replied. Though he kept the same gruff voice, his speech...just blew me away. Who knew?

I couldn't help but whistle. ...don't ask. "Pretty sneaky, good sir. You had me fooled into thinking you were a vocabulary-challenged blacksmith."

"That's always the goal," he nodded. "No one suspects a Diamond Dog to be so good with speech. Or anything, really."

I was about to ask a bit more, but he cut me off. "We both know you didn't come here to listen to me rattle on about it. So what do you need?"

At least he keeps his 'get to the point' attitude. I handed him the blade he had forged for me earlier that day. "Your blade has been acting strange. It's been...glowing...during some of my matches. What exactly is it?"

A smile danced across the dog's face. "I figured you'd be asking about that sooner or later." He held out his paw, asking for the blade. I sighed as I handed it over to him. I swear, this blade has changed hands more times than I've swung it. He then proceeded to go over the finer details of the blade, which I had already learned from Olman.

It was when he got to the hilt that he caught my attention. "A secret of mine is that I know everyone, living or dead, gryphon or manticore, has some kind of magic potential. Skeletons and Stalfos simply have...a difficult time channeling it. This right here," he pointed to a blue gem right at the cross, "helps them overcome that difficulty. It slowly charges the blade over time, but you can speed it up by focusing."

"So when the blade was glowing, it was a signal that it was charged up and ready to go," I stated. (Captain Obvious!) "How do I activate it?"

"With your thoughts," Jack stated. "It leaves your opponents guessing, and their only clue is the aura's color." He handed the my sword back to me. "Start by focusing your energy."

I took a breath as I blocked out the light. Give my sword strength, give my sword strength, give my sword strength, I chanted inwardly. After a minute of nonstop focus, the aura had finally appeared.

"Good, good," Jack smiled. "Now, the blade can't carry a huge charge, and is only good for one...let's call them 'spells' for now."

"Isn't that what they are, though?" I asked.

Jack shook his head. "No. A spell is spoken. A mute can use this same technique, as long as his or her mind can still work properly."

"So why not call it an 'enchantment?'" I offered.

We both put a hand to our chins, pondering if that was a proper idea. "It'll work, I guess," Jack shrugged. "Anyway, you said you destroyed a chupacabra when you slashed it and it exploded. I'd say you gave your blade an explosion enchantment."

Nice. A telefrag power, I chuckled to myself. "And against Wisp, I froze his wing. I guess that was an ice enchantment, if anything."

"Exactly," Jack said, taking the stance of a professor. "Now, how about learning a new enchantment? Think about an element. Any element."

Naturally, you say element, the first one that comes to my mind is water. As it came to mind, the white aura turned into an aqua blue.

Jack nodded. "Very good, a water enchantment, good for countering fire and such. With this sword, your greatest ally is your imagination. I have no doubt with this knowledge, you stand a chance of defeating Dracula."

"About how much, exactly?" I asked as I sheathed my sword (which still had the aqua glow).

"Probably about 38%," a small voice piped up.

I jumped out of my sk-erm...clothes at the surprise. Floating right behind me was Melody, grinning wildly.

"Damn it, Melody!" I yelled, hanging from the ceiling. "Don't do that!"

"But it was funny," Melody pouted. I've gotta admit, in spite of the fact she scared me out of my mind, she was super cute when she pouted. I dropped from the ceiling, scattering a few bones around the house. After I gathered them and placed my missing clothes back on, I returned my attention to our newest guest.

"What do you need, anyway, Melody? Shouldn't you be with your father?" I asked.

"Father's busy with work," Melody sighed. "Even though the shop's closed up for the night, his business has been booming ever since the crowd found out you got the clothes from us. Now everyone's crazy about the so-called 'Daniel' style!"

The 'Daniel' style? No, I thought. If the real Daniel Fortesque heard this was his 'style,' he'd be tossing and turning in his exhibit. "Jack appreciate company, but Melody trespassing," the zombie dog said.

Melody tilted her head. "Trespassing?"

"It means entering someone's property without permission," I cited off-handedly.

The ghost nodded. She then commented, "By the way, Jack, I was here long enough to know you know how to properly speak."

Jack groaned. "Of course you would be..."

I stretched my limbs. Even though I didn't need sleep, I couldn't help but want some. Probably a force of habit. "Hey, Jack, you have a bed? I think I'm ready to clock out."

I was met with two confused looks. Right...they don't know that kind of metaphor...is it a metaphor? I yawned as I corrected myself, "I mean I'd like to sleep."

Jack pointed to a door by the kitchen area. "Guest room is right over there. Although you know you don't need sleep, yes?"

I nodded. "Force of habit, I guess. I needed sleep when I was alive, and I haven't gotten out of the groove yet." Before I went to bed, I shook Jack's paw. "Thanks for forging my sword. It actually saved my bony ass."

Jack returned my shake and replied, "Like I said, I'm a great blacksmith. I just needed someone to prove it." Melody hugged me before saying good night. A lot was on my mind as I opened the door. Just in the past 24 hours, I became a Stalfos; stumbled across the land of the dead (heck, boy, ain't it grand?); participated in a tournament and advanced to the final 8 by slaying a cyclops, making chupacabra salsa, and making a ghost raise his white flag; and learned how to enchant a sword with my mind. I had more action and adventure in that whole time then I ever did back on Earth!

As I blocked what little light there was and tried to sleep, one question suddenly popped up and started gnawing at my thoughts.

Why exactly is a living gryphon leading the dead?

Comments

[MrTarven]

moar

[Wings of Chaos]

I love it!

[Forevermore]

A message from Skeleton Jack:

"He's alive?! Son of a - only I get to do that!"

[AppleTank]

The Janitor was here. He compliments are your decent fighting skills.

[Magical Trevor]

Please tell me that it isn't Melody... I wanna trust her, but I've got this feeling...

[Rhulain]

I'm the overlord of the underworld, cause I hold Horror's hand!

[sirraf]

3752711 aaaaand now that song is stuck in my head. thank you... oh well! might as well return the favor.

[Oro_tharr]

3766767 YOUU!!!!!!!
NEW CHAPTER!!!!!!!
NOOOOOOOOOW! D:!

[Spiderlock]

>>sirraf Dam you! You just had to tempt me with a YouTube video! It is now stuck in my head, so once again dam you!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

On the other hand great story and please MORE! I-if that's ok with you I mean.

[Black--Soul]

Damn nice twist!