A Journey Within the Realm

I woke up on the second couch. When I sat up, I saw Rin sitting next to me.

“Morning, Miki,” Rin said, smiling, “The spirit transfer went well… with a slight complication.”

“What’s wrong?” I asked.

“Well… there was a small side-effect,” Rin answered, “Why don’t you take a look at Randy’s head?”

I got up and walked over to where Randy was still out cold. Following Rin suggestion and looked at his head. Hmmm… everything seems the same. His face, eyes, nose, and mouth are the way they have always been. Wait a second… there is something different. His ears aren’t the same.

“Oh my God! Randy’s ears are pointed,” I exclaimed.

“It seems that your blood transformed Randy into a half elf,” Rin replied.

I took a closer look at his ears. Randy’s ears may have been pointed, but not like mine. My ears are twice as large and more pointed than his. Yep… he’s a half elf.

“Has Randy woken up yet?” I asked.

“Not yet,” Rin answered, “I only gave him part of your blood. He needs to gain the rest on his own. It takes time and you only were asleep for 12 hours.”

“How long will it take for Randy to gain back all his blood?” I asked.

“I guess it will probably take two days, three max,” Rin replied, “Miwa has made breakfast. Why don’t you go to the kitchen? I will watch Randy.”

“Okay,” I said, “Let me know if something changes.”

“Right,” Rin agreed.

I smiled as I walked into the kitchen. When I entered, I saw Miwa in her face inside a book. In front of her was a plate of eggs, bacon, and toast. Miwa looked up from her book and smiled.

“Morning, Miki,” Miwa said, “There’s your breakfast.”

“What are you reading, Miwa?” I asked, sitting down.

“It’s a field guide to magic mushrooms,” Miwa answered, “You guys may not have known this, but Randy ate an unknown mushroom before we got captured. I’m trying to find out if it was magical or not.”

“Any luck?” I asked, taking a bite of my eggs.

“Not yet,” Miwa replied, flipping through the pages.

I watched as Miwa flipped the pages, mumbling as she shook her head. After I was finished with my breakfast, I got up and placed my dishes in the sink. Just then, Miwa screamed for joy.

“Did you find it?” I asked.

“Yes! I don’t believe it,” Miwa answered, “Randy ate a Spirit Mushroom. It is the rarest of all rare magic shrooms. So, that’s how Randy stayed alive without blood.”

“What is a ‘Spirit Mushroom?’” I asked, sitting down.

“It’s a mushroom that keeps the heart and brain still working even if the person dies, thus saving the person’s life and bringing the person back to the living,” Miwa explained.

“So… Randy being alive was just luck for eating that mushroom?” I asked.

“Not luck, fate,” Miwa corrected.

I gave a weak laugh as I smiled. ‘Fate,’ huh? Never thought of that. Sounds like a joke to me, although I never expected to be on this adventure, meeting all these different people and going to all these places. It’s kind of strange how this adventure started. However, I should have expected it when I saw my first man. Everyone that Randy has met and had joined with are young enough not to figure out that he was a man. Kuri knew because she was pretty wise for her age and Kyoko knew because of the smell of his blood. I wonder how old Miwa was…

“Hey, Miwa? What’s your age?” I asked.

“Me? I’m 24,” Miwa answered without turning away from the book.

Hmmm… a year older than me. If I recall Randy was also 23, like me. Heh… all this time, being with Randy, doing everything with Randy, I ended up loving him. I can’t stop worrying about him. Getting envious when other women flirt with him. Maybe starting to even get red on the cheeks when he says sweet things to me. Now, Randy had some of my blood in him, changing him into a half elf. I guess I was thinking so hard that I didn’t noticed that Miwa was staring at me.

“What’s the matter?” I asked.

“What are you thinking that is making you blush so much?” Miwa asked back.

I fell out of my chair. When I lifted my head above the table, I looked at Miwa.

“Was I blushing?” I asked.

“Yes. Your whole face was red,” Miwa replied, “What were you thinking?”

“Nothing,” I exclaimed, “I’m going to take a bath right now.”

“Be sure to make it a cold one,” Miwa joked.

“Ha, ha, ha… very funny,” I replied, sarcastically.

I walked out of the kitchen and was about to go upstairs, when I saw Rin asleep on a chair next to Randy. She had a book titled The 101 Tips for Making Potions on her lap. I didn’t really like the sound of that, but at least she was trying to get better. Before I left, I checked on Randy. Still out cold. I smiled as I went upstairs to the bathroom. He was recovering little by little. I sighed. These past few days had been pretty hectic. I just wished things would slow down soon, but I really doubted that. When I entered the bathroom, I turned on the water for the tub. As I let the tub fill up, I walked over to the bathroom mirror and examined the cheek where Randy had slapped me. I carefully touched the cheek. Ouch! It was still a bit sore. After turning back to the tub, I shut the water off and started to undress. Once I was completely unclothed, I slowly got into the bathtub. I sighed as I began to relax. I was about to close my eyes, when I started to hear shouting downstairs. However, I couldn’t hear what they were saying. Suddenly, the bathroom door opened and Randy slowly entered. Wait a minute… Randy!?! I thought Rin say it took two or three days for Randy’s blood to fully replenish. Then, it just struck me. I totally forgot that elf blood replenishes three times quicker and he now had that kind, thanks to me. I pinched my nose in disbelief. I watch as Randy walked over to the toilet and started to pull down his pants to pee. I closed my eyes until I heard the toilet flush. When I opened my eyes again, I couldn’t believe what I saw! Randy was beginning to take off his clothes. I closed my eyes again. However, it didn’t help, when I noticed that Randy was getting into the bathtub… with me still in it! I opened my eyes as I covered up my body with my arms. I watched Randy as he relaxed in the tub. After a while, Randy started to come to his senses and opened his eyes. Once he did that, he stared at me for a second before blinking a couple of times. As soon as he was sure what he was seeing, Randy screamed. When he screamed, the shock of what had just happened made me scream as well. With both of us screaming, it didn’t take the rest of the girls long to come rushing in.

“What’s going on!?!” Kyoko exclaimed, “What’s wrong!?!”

Before I could reply, Rin figured it out.

“So that’s where Randy walked off to,” Rin said, out loud.

As soon as she said that, everyone looked at her and then to me and Randy. After soaking in the scene, they were left speechless. I quickly returned to my senses and grabbed my towel, covering myself with it.

“This is not what it looks like,” I explained, getting out of the bathtub, “I was here, by myself, when Randy suddenly appeared to go pee. Before I could say anything, Randy undressed and got in the tub. Isn’t that right, Randy?”

I looked at Randy. Sigh… he was still in shock.

“Snap out of it, Randy! Tell them what happened,” I yelled.

Randy blinked twice, shaking his head. Once he was back to our world, he saw everyone standing by the door, wide-eyed.

“Uhhh… I did something bad, didn’t I?” Randy asked.

I sighed, “I’m going to get dressed now. When everyone is ready, come downstairs to help me figure out what we should do next.”

I walked over to where my clothes were on the floor and picked them up. Before I left the bathroom, I turned towards Randy and gave him a smile.

“By the way, Randy, you’re now half-elf,” I said, walking out of the room.

I heard Randy exclaimed something as I dried myself and got dressed in Miwa’s bedroom. Once done, I went downstairs and entered the kitchen. There, I poured myself a strong cup of coffee and sat down. I took a long sip of the coffee. Oh boy, did I need that. I kept drinking my coffee as I waited for everyone to come downstairs. It took them a cup and a half to come downstairs. I waited for everyone to take a seat before I spoke.

“I take it a few of you have some questions,” I started to say, “First of all, I totally forgot that elf blood replenishes itself three times quicker than anybody else’s. This is why Randy woke up and started to move. However, I didn’t expect him to go the bathroom. If I had, I would have waited a bit to take my bath. Now that I took care of that, any other questions?”

“I have one,” Randy said, “Why am I a half-elf?”

“Well… after the battle with those two shadow commanders, you were completely drained of your blood,” I explained, “One of us had to give some of our blood in order for you to survive. We decided to use mine, since it had the least side-effects. However, it did give you some slightly pointed ears.”

“Wait… if I was ‘completely drained of my blood,’ as you said, then how can I still be alive?” Randy asked.

“I can answer that,” Miwa replied, “While you were recovering, I looked into that mushroom you just ate. It turns out that you ate a very rare magic mushroom called a Spirit Shroom. It keeps the heart and brain of the person who eats it going even if the person is considered dead. Doing so, will keep the person alive until the person can be saved.”

“Huh… how oddly convenient,” Randy said, “So, what should we do now?”

“We should start on our way to the next town, but what with everything that happened today, I recommend that we take it easy for the rest of the day,” I answered.

“Sounds good to me,” Randy replied, “and I suggest that we all go to bed early. And with that settled, I’m going upstairs and doing just that. Good-night, everyone.”

We said good-night to Randy. Miwa looked at the clock on the wall.

“Wow… I didn’t realize it was that late to begin with,” Miwa said, “I’m going to head to bed, too.”

I looked at the clock. It was pretty late. One by one, everyone went upstairs to bed. After a while, I also went upstairs to bed.