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R A I S I N G ◦ A N ◦ N P C !

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▶ BOOK 1: M A K I N G ◦ A N ◦ N P C !
▶ CHAPTERS: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |

⊹˚₊·‧Chapter 6: What?!

Pierrosie squeaked as she held her head where she had fallen and tried to reorient herself. The sudden physical input and unexpected experience took a lot of processing power, and she could feel herself getting incredibly worn out. She wanted somebody to hold her so that she could sleep.

What had just happened? 

There was the portal. 

The Jax walked through it. 

Then the portal was gone, and Pierrosie had fallen on the ground.

It didn’t make sense.

Big tears welled up in the corners of her eyes as she looked around for the portal, nowhere to be seen. 

---

“What do you mean you can’t open it back up?!” Pomni yelled at Caine, who was nervously chewing on his walking stick, hiding behind Bubble.

“Look, I know how much you love your broken baby, but maybe this is the perfect opportunity to make a new—”

A medium-sized block hit his head.

Ragatha had thrown it. “Did you do this on purpose?!” She screamed.

“What? W-wait, ouch—of course not!” Caine responded while using Bubble as a cooling pouch.

“You’re acting suspicious, and you’re not making it easy for us to trust you.” Jax commented. His voice was calm, but Pomni could hear his nervousness. “Not that you even deserve any trust after all the BS you pulled.”

“No, please! I swear, this wasn’t my doing.”

“Okay, fine. It wasn’t you. So just snap or whatever and bring the kid back.” Zooble instructed, crossing their arms.

“I can’t do that either!”

“Caine…” Pomni began, and her voice sounded low and threatening, “...I neither have the time, nor the patience for guessing games. Explain. And then tell us what we can do.”

Caine’s eyes looked nervously back and forth between all of them. He was clearly sweating now. 

There was something he couldn’t say.

Or didn’t want to say.

After some seconds passed, Pomni decided to deal with him later and instead turned towards Kinger, taking his hands and looking for eye contact.

“Kinger… please… do you know something…?”

Ragatha was by her side straightaway, her face a reflection of pure worry.

“Sure, Pomni. I know a couple of things. Would you like me to tell you about the tides? Or Magic the Gathering? Both topics have quite a lot in common, you see.”

Pomni gently squeezed his hands, trying to ground him more.

“We just came back from an adventure, remember? We all walked through the portal. But Pierrosie didn’t get through. Instead the portal broke, or something?” Pomni explained.

Kinger seemed to think. He looked at the direction where the portal had been, so that was a good start. But then he asked, “Who didn’t get through?”

“Pierrosie! Our daughter! Our baby!” Ragatha shouted, her voice jittering like a bird in the snow.

“The little clown doll NPC,” Pomni added desperately.

“But we haven’t seen a single NPC for the whole day.” Kinger discounted.

Pomni gave a defeated sigh, but then Caine did something strange.

He appeared behind Kinger and put both of his hands over his mouth. 

Or well… where his mouth would be.

This immediately made everyone suspicious of him.

“I think Kinger wants to take a good long nap inside his… fort… thingy!” Caine announced.

“Oh, hello Caine,” Kinger answered, his voice absolutely not influenced by Caine’s hands, “Do I?”

“Yes, you do, old friend!”

None of the others were having it.

“Why are you trying to shut Kinger up, Caine?” Pomni asked, her voice growing even more dangerous as she walked around Kinger to come closer to Caine, who rotated in the opposite direction.

“Uh--- No reason? I mean-- I am not!”

He bumped against Jax, who had also come closer, his arms crossed.

In her head, Pomni went through everything Kinger had said. Tides, cardgame, confusion, not knowing who Pierrosie was…

No, wait.

That wasn’t what he said.

“You intervened… when Kinger said that we haven’t seen a single NPC for the whole day. Why?” Pomni asked him.

Caine looked around nervously. He apparently wasn’t fond of Jax and Pomni closing in on him like that, because he simply disappeared to reappear again at a safe distance and in the air.

“Caine, I swear to god. If you leave now…” Pomni began.

“Yes! Yes I heard you!” Caine answered, “Shiver me timbers, Pomni, you can be awfully unpleasant for a clown.”

“Answer already! What was that about?! Why did you try to distract from Kinger’s lie!?”

Caine gave a defeated sigh.

“Because he wasn’t lying.”

Ragatha threw her hands in front of her mouth. It was clear that she was beyond confused and overwhelmed.

“Explain!” Pomni yelled. “Pierrosie was with us the whole time, wasn’t she!?”

“Yes,” Caine affirmed, but then added, “But she’s… she’s not really an NPC.”

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