Texan In Another World

Mike decided to take Cara down to the Throne Room, It was better than leaving her to stir up feelings in a crowded room of gamblers.

"I don"t understand!" Cara threw herself onto the bed and just cried. Mike and Cara had this conversation a few times. She wasn"t shy on her wants. An heir gave her a sense of permanence in Mike"s life, what Cara was most afraid of was abandonment.

"You"re going to raise a child, sometimes life takes your ability to have a baby and leaves you to appreciate the children of others. Maybe we can adopt a child in a few years or, maybe one of your sisters will have a baby and you can all share." Mike really didn"t know what to say on the matter.

In Texas his backyard would be on fire.

"I know, but... " Cara was going to wail again but she stopped herself.

They stayed in the cave for about an hour. Cara kept insisting she wanted a baby of her own, but in the end she calmed down.

"Lets get you back to the others, I promise we"ll think of something."

"I"ve got some studying and work to get to."

"You and me will be fine, Lets go see what the others are doing." Mike felt like he was lying a bit and it broke his heart some, He really wanted children but as time pa.s.sed he grew even more aware of the differences between their species.

Pa.s.sing one of the newly planted seedlings mike noticed a new color. The leaves were turning Blue.

Mike couldn"t help but take a closer look and saw that it contained a lot more of magic than the others.

"Wow." Mike looked at the unfurling leaves.

He had seen some vivid coloration on Cannabis, everything from yellow to green, to neon orange and purple like a Lakers logo. It was Mike"s first time ever seeing a Blue leafed plant. He wanted it to grow faster but He couldn"t think of anything that could speed it up, just light.

Mike cast another light spell on a few gold coins and scattered them near the blue plant, if nothing else it would get more light an perhaps grow faster. Mike understood most of the principles behind growth. Plants reach out to light and grew to expend energy. By putting the light so close to the plant he took the reaching part of the equation, and put it directly into his hands.

Mike would come back later to check on it and make sure its not burning or worse. Cara was still waiting for him by the Tunnel entrance. He gave an apology and the pair made it up the ladder and closed the doors behind them.

It was going to rain again. There had been storm clouds circling the city for a few hours.

Georgia was laughing and sitting near Harry"s shoulder outside of the Casino. As a Rabin she had excellent hearing but Harry was her guard for the afternoon of collecting.

Mike showed his appreciation and thanked her for her hard work with a gentle nod of approval and went on his way.

"LETS GO HARRY!" Georgia cried out in a teasing tone.

Harry grinned, picked Georgia up and walked toward the docks.

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Mike grabbed some books from his study in the house and went back down to the Throne Room. He had a lot of practicing to do, and a lot of reading to do.

Sitting on the bed and enjoying the sweet aroma of the grow, Mike felt like he was finally at peace.

When he took out the book on Alchemical Ingredients, he remembered his headache from the last time he tried to figure out what sorts of things were actually ingredients. Mike sank his t.i.tan Source power into the book, ignoring the spiritual sense entirely.

A bright light flashed across his eyes and Mike almost instantly knew all the ingredients, it did hurt his head. The information wasn"t just a little bit, It was the summary knowledge of Fourth t.i.tan re-emerging and manifesting.

"Whoa" Mike stopped himself from falling off the edge of the bed, he was a bit stunned by the sudden revelation happening inside his brain.

"I wonder if t.i.tan"s Source can help me learn all these subjects faster" Mike experimented with another book on Talismans. Sinking the t.i.tan"s Source into the book, another bright light flashed across his eyes. Mike instantly understood most of the Talismans described in the book, he would still need a lot of practice to get them to perfection.

If he drew the circles concentrically and then wrote the characters onto the sheet of paper Mike could make his Talismans work twice as hard as before. He only had experience with low level Talismans, but Third t.i.tan was very familiar with Talisman construction.

Mike understood the quality of paper was a driving reason for failure or success.

Putting the finished Talisman away, Mike walked over to the edge of the Alter and thought about trying to lift it. He had to dismiss it of course, the Alter was just too large and probably weighed as much as a house.

Thinking about his days in the boondocks Mike felt like he should try something. Mike dug out the corners of the base of the Alter, he had to dig another few feet down to get to its base.

When he was finally underneath it he started to tunnel toward the middle and found exactly what was laying underneath the Alter. A glowing green orb, much like the t.i.tan"s Source liquid that Mike had seen before was floating below the alter. He wanted to find out what it was, so he reached out his t.i.tan sense and looked into the Green t.i.tan Orb.

Mike could hear voices, trapped voices and screaming. He could feel the wind blow and the sun shine, he could feel the water cresting the waves on the sh.o.r.eline of the City. Mike was even feeling the warm temperatures that made up the storm clouds.

"Amazing" Mike withdrew his t.i.tan sense and used his spiritual sense instead.

A few images came into his head of the same things, mike could see the wind and sun, the water and the clouds. However, that was the majority of what he could see. The differences were just too great.

"Interesting." Mike put his hands on his head when the headache had intensified. He thought maybe he had overworked his nerves or body, So Mike got out from underneath the Alter and laid down on the bed. It didn"t take long for him to nod off, he was happy to relax now that his responsibility had taken such a sharp change.

He had a lot to think about, and Mike had always been a lucid dreamer. He could manipulate his dreams and enjoy them even if he couldn"t remember the details he could still do what he wanted. Mike"s dream this time was of him jumping from rooftop to rooftop. On Earth if your dreams are about jumping over things, It suppose to be good news and a positive thing.

Mike could just do this in real life now, the Irony wasn"t lost on him.

While dreaming about jumping across the City in a single bound, Mike noticed scrambled words above his city in a circular formation. The spell circle was multi-colored and enormous, the center cartography that resembled the old city started to change and morph. Mike couldn"t read the spell circle, but he could definitely observe its action.

Beams of sky-blue much like deep thunder came slamming into the city below.

Mike watched, but none of the people were harmed. The beams only looked menacing till they were touched. A curious Guard had made that mistake and it cost him his life. It was still a dream, but the feeling didn"t escape Mike"s imagination.

"d.a.m.n, that"s one way to go.. with a bang." Mike knew he was dreaming but it was still rather strange to see someone get zapped like a Hot Dog in a microwave.

"Where is all of this suppose to be coming from?" Mike looked around and jumped to the roof of the Casino. The Casino was in the center of the town, putting Mike directly underneath the churning formation.

He started to chant, Mike wasn"t sure if it was the right chant but It did start the casting. When he was nearing completion, he thrust his arms out toward the raging storm clouds above and the spell formation.

A bolt of golden lightning crashed into the rim of the spell circle and nothing happened.

Mike had thought about lightning strikes and heavenly tribulation and did his best to manifest it in his mind. Perhaps he should have paid more attention to Comic Books as a kid, or perhaps he just didn"t put enough energy into it. Mike wasn"t going to give up either. When he was about to cast a much stronger Lightning fall, Mike was suddenly awake.

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"f.u.c.k me running.. " Mike was startled, he was busy trying to save his dream but he had been woken up.

As a habit Mike looked around and didn"t see anyone else.

"Weirdo" A voice came from no where.

"Who"s there, show yourself" Mike pulled out the Frost Cannon and put it at the ready.

"That toy won"t harm me." The Green Orb from underneath the Alter made an appearance, It had been given the opportunity to leave its hole.

"If you say so." Mike kept the Cannon in his hand, he didn"t know if it was some sort of an Evil Orb.

Sitting down, Mike watched the Orb float around the Throne Room looking at the changes since the last time it had been out from underneath the Alter.

"Its nice to be free." The Orb didn"t seem like it had much of a personality at first but the more Mike talked to it, the more it started to really respond.

Mike knew he wouldn"t be rid of the Orb so he just dove right in, In this world Mike never seem to be rid of anything. He might be alarmed but it was not advisable for Mike to react even in the slightest.

"What should I call you?" Mike"s tone left an air of annoyance lingering.

"Call me Greensong" The Orb gave a designation, it didn"t seem like it had a gender and Mike wasn"t interested in knowing either.

"Okay. Greensong."

"What do you want to talk about" Mike wasn"t sure but this had his complete attention.

The Orb rushed over to the towering mother plants. "What are these? They absorb so much source energy that I feel slower than normal"

The Orb whizzed around the room a few times, Its movement looked no less fast than before. Mike couldn"t refute what the Orb was saying.

Mike thought about it but he felt that maybe it was just curious and overreacting.

Mike went over to the section with his herb collection and checked out the native plants he had picked up in the lowlands. They had grown to five times the original sizes and each of them was flowering in full light. Mike wasn"t sure what use each herb had before, but now whenever he looked at the herb itself he could immediately see what it was used for.

"Blinding powder base ingredients include purified sand, volcanic ash, spindlewart, Jillian toe, and high quality coated paper as its vessel." Mike stopped touching the Spindlewart.

He had a lot of minor herbs that had been growing like wildfire in their new environment, Much like the Cannabis beside them the colors of each plant were becoming more vivid and brilliant.

Another book materialized in Mike"s hand. It was the customs book that Prince Troeg had given him when he first arrived. Putting the t.i.tan source into the book Mike saw the history of the Poocha people in high definition.

They had lost a war, a terrible one. The other side had also lost, badly. After the War, the controlling members of the Army went their own ways. They had to listen to a long speech by the Ornians about how they just wanted to be left alone.

The Ornians were still a confused cult following, their magicians were great illusionists and after the war they used those abilities to hypnotize the people into slaves.

The Poocha, who had fought alongside the Ornians in the War were now at the mercy of their previous battle companions who wanted nothing more than to command the ma.s.ses into their bidding.

If it had not been for the Fourth t.i.tan, the Poocha would have long since been slaughtered in the name of genetic purity or public safety.

Mike pulled his t.i.tan sense from the book and sat there, sweating. If he used this in front of others they wouldn"t understand.

"What the f.u.c.k was that." Mike was still reeling from the sensationalism that had filled his mind. There were a lot of details that never made it onto the paper, Mike didn"t know if it was what others knew.

Greensong circled around Mike and looked at his perspiration. "You"re leaking"

"Its called sweat, it happens when we"re nervous, angry, tired or expended in some ways" Mike gave a mostly precise answer but felt stupid explaining things to an Orb that probably knew more than he did.

"You"re smarter than you look." Greensong flew around Mike in an orbit and didn"t bother to stop.

Mike thought about trying to grasp it, but it really didn"t seem like a good idea.

"I never claimed to be an idiot."