Chapter 4 inbound! Sorry for the major delay - I was having some computer issues. This one's more about some of the backstory of Tlopfest and how he came to be. I hope you guys find it interesting still!

Chapter 4: Aftermath and Backstory

After the duel, Louise and Tlopfest were taken to the headmaster's office for questioning on what had just transpired.

"So, this is the famous familiar huh?" Sitting across from the duo was headmaster Osmond, an old man with a rather lengthy beard. Said beard was currently being stroked by his hand in a thoughtful manner. Standing next to him was Prof. Colbert, holding a book in his arms and looking curiously at the duo.

"The name is Tlopfest sir. And may I ask for your name as well? I do not believe we have met yet."

"Ah, yes of course. I am Headmaster Osmond, the principal of this academy. Now, what exactly happened down there in the courtyard?"

Tlopfest recounted the events that had transpired, from Guiche getting mad at him for "making nobles cry" (even though it really was just Guiche's fault in the first place) to the duel between the two. Louise could just stand and listen, not really able to fill in any gaps within the story and still somewhat stunned from what she had just witnessed.

"I see. Well given the fact that no one got killed, and the rule does say that only duels between nobles are forbidden, I suppose no harm was really done." Osmond seemed rather level headed about the whole thing, given that one of his students had gotten in a fight.

"So...we all good then?"

"Yes, I beli-"
"Actually," Colbert interrupted, "before you two return to your dorms, would you mind allowing me to see those runes on your hand again Mr...uh.."

"Tlopfest. Tlop for short. And yeah, sure, I don't mind. Still honestly curious why they got on my hand when I first got here."

Nodding his head in appreciation, Colbert took a look at Tlopfest's hand when he removed his glove. The runes were still there on his partially rotted hand, and still confusing Tlop as to their meaning.

"Ah, so this does really correlate to Gan-'' Colbert quickly stopped talking when he realized what he was about to say. "Thank you Tlopfest. This should help me in my studies later on."
"Studies huh?" Tlopfest put his glove back on his hand. "What all do you study, sir?"

"Oh, various pieces of history, as well as research into new machinery."

"Machinery?!" Tlopfest practically bounced with joy when he heard Colbert say that. "So you're a fellow inventor huh?"

"Ah-yes, yes I am."
"Haha! Oh Professor Colbert, you have got to let me see your research later on! Who knows, I may be able to help you out in making something new."

"That would be great to have honestly. I shall keep that in mind Tlopfest."

With that said, Osmond dismissed Louise and Tlopfest from his office, although Colbert continued to stay with Osmond for a bit longer to discuss some of his findings.

Getting back to Louise's dorm, Louise sat down on the bed in a huff. "So, care to explain where you learned all of that?"

"All of what exactly?"

"You know exactly what I mean! The fighting, the way you used that frying pan of all things to kill a Valkyrie, jumping and -" Louise paused for a moment. "You...you jumped in the middle of the air. How the hell did you manage that?!"
"Whoa, ok, slow down there Louise. Let's take this one thing at a time, alright?" Tlopfest slid over a chair so he would sit in front of Louise. "So, first things first, if I'm gonna start blabbing about my life to you, can you at least acknowledge me as something other than a slave or pet?"

Louise hesitated, but nodded, albeit reluctantly.

"I don't mind doing a few things here and there, but I'd rather be treated like a typical person and not a slave alright? Things work way differently back home than here."

"...So, what exactly was home for you?"

"Oh, where do I begin…? I suppose I should ask, do you want the long version, or the short one?"

"The long one." Louise couldn't help but be curious as to where her familiar came from.

"Alright then. Might as well get comfortable, because it's been a bit of a ride for me honestly."

Many years ago, I was just one of the members of my original pack of pigmen-

'Wait, so that's what you're called?'

'Yes, a zombie pigman to be precise. You didn't really think I was human or something, did you?'

'Well….no.'

'Anyhow…'

My pack of pigmen, the Festivians, had just spawned in a patch of soul sand-

'Soul sand?'

'Sigh Are you gonna keep interrupting, or are you actually wanting to listen to my life story?'

'..sorry.'

So, yes, we spawned in a patch of soul sand, a soul sand valley to be precise. A place full of the stuff, as well as the cubic bones of long-dead ancient creatures. Ah, yes, speaking of, everything there was cubic actually – the people, terrain, everything. 'Wh-' Even though we were a group, we didn't really have any kind of structure for who was leader or whatever. Really, all of us were just wanderers, too unintelligent to even communicate besides grunt at one another. Though we all shared one idea – if someone was attacked, everyone was to attack said attacker until they died or left.

So there we were, just wandering about in the valley, some going to the wastes, others just taking a dip in the lava oceans nearby. That is, until someone, I think it was a human, hit one of our kind. I'm unsure if it was on accident or purposeful, but either way, the entire hoard was after them. We got to them before they could leave and killed them.

'That's...that's horrible!'

'It was our way of life. As I said, we couldn't even really talk to one another properly. Probably why we were set to spawn in the Nether in the first place.'

'The...Nether?'

'I'll get to that soon enough.'

Having killed that human, they happened to drop an odd item, of which I later came to realize was a bottle of memories, something that is extremely rare. Why he had it in his inventory and not in his base or something is beyond me, but if it wasn't for him, I wouldn't be here now. Curious, I had decided to drink that bottle, after which I had, essentially, 'awoken' from my original state. I could think, communicate, and even understood how to manipulate the world around me, to an extent at least.

Within those memories was also the portal that they had come from, leading to the overworld. Heading there, I was able to slip past them to get into their-

'Wait, I thought you said you killed him.'

'We did. Back in my world, there's basically a way to "cheat death" so to speak for every human there, although that now includes me. Should you die, you just re-spawn in the last bed you slept in.'

Slipping past that human, I was able to make it out of their base and to the overworld. For the first time in my life, I was able to breathe air that was not sulfur-induced, not always having to see seas of lava around, and the greenery, so much greenery! From there, I had gone out to start making a new life for myself – building a shelter of my own and living off of the land itself.

Later on, I eventually met other humans, or even demi-humans, that became my friends. Sorcerer, Sorce for short, is a magician who is also engaged with one of the legends of the world. Nic, a bit of a crazy man who liked to cosplay as 'batman,' whoever that is, was a bit of an inventor like I am now. Both of them helped me become who I am today – an inventor who likes to adventure, fight, and go crazy with magic sometimes.

'Go crazy with magic?! So you're a mage then!'

'I suppose, in a sense. Although I'm not like the mages here.'

Moving on from that, I eventually was able to help my friends discover more places to explore – new biomes, dungeons that no one had even heard of before, or even lost dimensions. The Betweenlands, the Nether, the End, the Atum, and so, so many others that had wonderful adventures for us to go on.

'Ok, look, what exactly are you talking about with these 'dimensions?' More specifically, what did you mean by 'overworld' and 'nether?''

'Where I'm from, the world is split between different planes of existence, so to speak. The Overworld is essentially earth, similar to where we are now. The Nether, where I started, is similar to the underworld, or hell-'

'Hell?! You mean you're a demon!?'

'No, I'm not a demon. I told you, I'm a zombie pigman. Big difference. We may share the same origin, but we could not be any different. Now, where was I…'

After a while though, my friends eventually went off on their own lives, either dealing with random attacks on their bases, or just doing their own thing. Either way, they ended up not wanting to go on nearly as many adventures as we used to. But I couldn't just stop – the original memories I had gotten from that bottle of memories had one flaw to them I suppose, or really just a rather major passion. The lust for adventure. After a while, it became too much to bear, so for the next five years, I dedicated myself to find a new dimension, or something at least, to keep this lust for adventure sated.

"And that leaves us here. I made my invention, yet somehow got here when you 'summoned' me." Tlopfest put the summoning in air quotes to note his skepticism.

"But I did summon you here! Those runes on your hand prove it!"

"Sigh Well, however I ended up here, I'm here now. Unfortunately, it seems that it was a one-way trip, since I have yet to see any way back home that I thought would have appeared when I made my way through."

Really, Louise was just surprised by Tlopfest's backstory. "A world made of blocks? Dimensions? And yet, he also claims to have done magic. I wonder…"

"So, how exactly did you manage to jump in the middle of the air above those Valkyries?" Lousie asked.

"Oh, that? That was thanks to this little trinket of mine." Tlopfest pulled off a sky-blue ring from his boney finger. "This is a cloud-stepper ring, one of the first magical trinkets I really ended up making for myself."

"Wait, you made that?! How?!"

"Woah, easy there Louise, I'm getting there. It's basically a brass ring infused with the essence of air. That, and a chicken's feather. But before you ask, no, I can't exactly teach you how to do this kind of thing, namely because I'm not even entirely sure if it's possible here."

Louise deflated a little at the mention of that. She really wanted to prove herself with magic, no matter the form that it took.

"Hey, I said I'm not entirely sure if it's possible here, not that it couldn't happen. Maybe after a while I can figure out how to make it here and teach you. How's that sound?"

Louise perked up at this. "You promise?"

"If I can ever figure out how to put it together here, yes. I promise to help you learn some Thaumaturgy."

"Thauma-what now?"

"It's a branch of magic back from home. There were a few branches of magic that could be utilized. Thaumcraft is a powerful branch of magic, but it can be rather dangerous." Tlopfest had a rather serious face on, his eye glowing brighter. "So if I do teach you some of it, given I even can here, you have to promise me to be very careful, alright?"

Louise couldn't help but flinch at that. "It certainly sounds dangerous...but what have I got to lose? I could really do some magic finally! Very well then fami-Tlopfest. I will hold caution when you teach me Thaumaturgy."

Tlopfest loosened up some at that. "Good. Now, it's getting rather late, so why don't we go ahead and sleep and we can continue this at a later time, alright?"

Louise nodded, feeling the events of the catch up to her and reminding her of her exhaustion. A quick change later, and Louise was laying on her bed, sound asleep. Tlopfest in the meantime made himself comfortable, or at least as comfortable as he could, on the hay nearby.

"Man, what a crazy couple of days. First I get 'summoned' here by her, and then I duel another one of her classmates. Maybe...maybe this was a good thing after all. Even if I can't get back, I suppose I could.." Tlopfest winced at that thought. "Oh who am I kidding, I'm gonna miss talking with Sorce and Nic back home. I suppose I can only hope to find inspiration someday to figure out a way back home to see them and brag about this adventure as well." With that thought, Tlopfest turned in his spot, quickly going to sleep.

Alright, hope you guys enjoyed that. I'll try to get the next chapter out more on schedule than this one was - no promises though (moving pretty soon)!

See some issues in the story? Character not acting right or something doesn't make sense? Leave a Review or PM me! Can't fix it if I don't know about it, right?