Roy Malloy - not quite on Earth

  I dated a hippy chick once. It was a lot of fun while it lasted. Ended when she stabbed me with a fork. I probably deserved it. Not important now. But I do remember her long lectures on astral projecting and power crystals. I wish I had payed more attention. She probably wouldn't have stabbed me back then. I am fairly certain that was what was happening now. Either that, or I really was floating both inside and outside of every location within a mile of my body completely naked. I’m hoping this is taking place in my head. I'm flashing a lot of squirrels if it isn't. Its not too bad in the meantime. Everything is grooOoovy.

  I can feel the crystal before me. It's a lot bigger than me, mentally I mean. Its trying to connect to my mind. That doesn’t seem like a scary thing at the moment. Merging with an alien rock, seems like a grade a plan. The stone thinks so. Am I on drugs? Nah.

  Let’s do it.

  “Accept merge” I attempt to say. The lack of a functional mouth makes it hard, but the crystal gets the idea.

  And we did. All at once back into a single location, just above my own body. Whiplash doesn't even begin to cover it. If my eyes were real they'd be orbiting my head right now.

  I got a chance to look down at regular me. I had face planted into the dirt next to Buddy. He didn't look too good. He had definitely passed out after... whatever it was that he did. A cloth plug and an armature tourniquet may have slowed the bleed, but it hadn't stopped it.

  After the merge I knew what 'it' was. Roughly. It was more of a feeling than true knowledge. Overheard conversations from several years ago kind of knowledge.

  It knew me too. It knew how out of my element I was as a non magical being from a non magical world. The emotion I was getting back tasted a lot like pity. And it decided to help. It prompted me that there was a basic interface that could pop up at my request.

  “Core information” I thought/spoke again

  This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  Well that feels like an understatement of abilities. Probably a lot to unpack there. I'm no physicist, but I feel like some laws are being broken. Learning more is gonna be a task for later.

  “Core, can you help Buddy, I mean the alien. The thing beside me out there.”

  “Core, how can you gain more power quickly”

  “Enough. I have what I need. Converting matter to energy, how much matter do you need and what kind”

  Two birds, meet one stone. I almost wish I hadn’t carted away the other two loads. “core, absorb the pile of garbage, make a low grade health potion and let me out.”

  “Time is passing, this needs to happen now or he’s gonna die”

  I get what could be considered a nod of approval from a thing with out a head... or a body

  Roy Malloy – back in the flesh

  Coming back into my body was weird. It didn’t feel like I was moving fast in the astral plane, but I must have been. My body flew back a few feet when I went in. The worst was the perspective shift. One second I’m facing one way, towards my face. The next second I am facing the other way, looking out my own eyes. And also flying backwards. Not fun.

  Buddy was laying there still, and the crystal was not. I looked over to the garbage pile to see the detritus starting to orbit towards a lightly glowing center. It was going pretty fast too. It should be done with the pile in a minute or two.

  I had a minute to burn, so I took it. Get used to having to breath again was not fun, but just like riding a bike I was able to pick the skill back up quickly.

  I crawled back over to the alien. I knew he was a ‘he’ now. Couldn’t tell you how I knew, but I was fairly confident.

  “Hang in there buddy, I’m working on getting you a health potion. That is the sort of magical bullshit you're used to right? Just another minute or two and it will all be a okay.”

  He didn’t respond. Shock or blood loss had taken him out of the game. I hope this works.

  A short time later the core floated back over to me when it was done with the trash pile. As it hovered over my hand it dropped a small glass bottle, maybe the size of a 5 hour energy shot, into my outstretched palm. That's a lot of stuff for such a tiny bottle. Buddy’s breathing was slowing down. No time for thinking, just doing.

  I pulled the cork, opened his mouth and tilted his head back. When I poured the light green concoction in he choked a little, but got most of it down instead of on his shirt.

  Low grade health potions take time to work… I think… but they will keep him alive and healing. For now. And that’s better than where we were a few minutes ago. I can see the bleeding slow as the worst of the wounds close up with ugly scabs.

  The worst seems to be over. Now I can take a breath and think about how I am going to get off this mountain.