The idea of the L-ementals was originally collectively created by AxelGripp, Khalalat, juribelit, Bry-Guy-1996, and Syfyman2xxx.
The cover image belongs to AxelGripp on DeviantArt and is used with permission.
This story is co-written with dubb1.
Chapter Five
Ronnie Anne woke up, feeling less exhausted than she expected to feel. For the last month, she had gotten into the routine of waking up before Lincoln because she could hear Leslie fussing. They kept her crib in their room since baby monitors didn't exist in this world, and to Ronnie Anne, her daughter was not exactly quiet. Lincoln could sleep just fine, but he suspected that as a mother Ronnie Anne was just more aware of her child than he was, even in her sleep.
Groggy, Ronnie Anne got out of bed and walked to the crib, ready to comfort and feed her before taking care of herself. But when she got to the crib, she saw it was empty.
"Leslie?" She asked, more awake and in a bit of a panic now. She turned to the bed and saw that Lincoln was not in it, a detail she hadn't noticed earlier. Still concerned, but less panicked, she left the room and went to the kitchen, seeing Lincoln sitting there holding their daughter.
"Morning dear." Lincoln said, seeing her walk into view.
"Ahh!" Leslie cheered, reaching her hands out.
Ronnie Anne smiled and took her daughter out of his hands. "How did you wake up before me for once?"
"Just weird timing, I had to get up to use the outhouse and when I got back she was a little fussy. I thought I'd try and let you sleep in at least once."
"Thanks, though I think she's got other ideas."
There was a knock at the door. Lincoln got up to see who it was while Ronnie Anne maneuvered to nurse her child. At the door Lincoln saw Dr Pine.
"Hey Dr Pine, this is pretty early for you. Is something wrong?"
"Yeah, there's been an unexpected delay in production Lincoln. My ether converter's power source has lost power."
Lincoln blinked. "The power source?"
"Yes. My converter needs a specific type of ether to conduct power, which we don't have access to here."
"Special type? What, is there more than just the kind we have around here?" Lincoln asked, confused.
"Oh yes. You see, the ether we have access to is-"
"I don't need a science lesson Dr Pine, can you give me the laymen's version?"
Dr Pine sighed. "Alright, the pink ether you're used to, that's just the top layer. Like the crust on a loaf of bread. Underneath that is a different ether, a more… for lack of a better term, 'potent' one. That ether is the kind I need to power up my converter."
Lincoln nodded, imagining something akin to an oil drill.
"There's a town with a mine deep enough to reach this deeper ether. I'm going to send Erin there to barter for some. She should be back in a few days, but until then I can't create any new materials. Be it for the balloons or anything else we need."
"So are you asking me to go along with her or is this an FYI?" Lincoln asked.
"FYI?" Dr Pine repeated, confused.
"Meaning you're just letting me know."
"Oh, well considering your child is still young I won't ask you to leave your family right now. But if you wish to go along I wouldn't be opposed."
Lincoln shook his head. "Erin's a big girl, she can handle this."
"Alright. I'll let you know when my converter is back to work so we can resume production."
Dr Pine then left the premises, so Lincoln closed the door and went back to the kitchen.
"What was that?" Ronnie Anne asked.
"Oh nothing, just a minor delay in going home."
Ronnie Anne shrugged. "What's one more?"
A week went by with no news from Erin, and Dr Pine was getting worried. So were Erin's parents.
"I can't believe you sent my daughter out into the Frontier just to get some stupid ether for your gadget!" Mrs Chick tore into the scientist, who looked like he was expecting her to physically lash out any second.
"I don't know what's happened but I'm sure your daughter is-" Dr Pine started, only for the angry mother to indeed slap him. And she looked like she didn't want to stop at that.
"If my daughter is dead because you poisoned her mind, I'm going to kill you."
Dr Pine began to walk away, which Mrs Chick took offense at. However her husband put his hand on her arm to soothe her.
"Dr Pine, I hope you have a solution to this." The pastor said.
"That's where I'm heading." Dr Pine said, leaving his lab, followed by the parents.
After a few minutes, Dr Pine reached Lincoln and Ronnie Anne's house and knocked.
"You're going to ask them?" Mrs Chick asked, sounding like she did not approve.
"Do you have a better idea?" Dr Pine asked back.
Lincoln and Ronnie answered the door. "Dr Pine? Hi, is Erin back?"
"No, and it's because of you!" Mrs Chick shrieked. "You should have gone instead! My daughter could be dead because of you!"
Lincoln was surprised to hear this, but that soon gave way to anger. "I have a daughter now too! What stopped you from going with Erin if you were so worried about her?"
Mrs Chick sputtered and stepped back, as if Lincoln had just called her an unexpected slur she had no response for.
Ronnie Anne looked into the house then back at Mrs Chick, a frown on her face. "I just got her to take a nap. If she wakes up because of your screaming…"
"Lincoln, I know it's a lot to ask, but could you go check to at least be sure Erin's on her way home?" Dr Pine asked.
Lincoln looked to Ronnie Anne, who gave a light nod. "Alright, if I can be quick and don't have to take anything. Which way do I go?"
"Towards a mountain with the peak at an angle, like it's tilted. The mining village is there and about three days travel, but for you it could be shorter. If we're lucky, Erin was just unexpectedly held up and already close to home. If not, I don't know what could be taking her so long."
Lincoln sighed and gave Ronnie Anne a kiss. "I'll be as fast as I can."
"You're doing the dishes when you get back."
Lincoln nodded and turned into a cloud before dashing up into the sky.
"Erin will be fine." Mr Chick assured his wife.
"Maybe if these elementals actually did their job she would be." Mrs Chick commented.
Ronnie Anne rolled her eyes. "Sorry for not being the god you want me to be." She then closed the door.
Four years of flying had given Lincoln a good idea of the immediate area around Nowhere. So when he had to go to a mountain, he knew there were only three directions he could go. One led to the same area he had dealt with the nomads years ago, and another was covered in snow year round due to ice and snow elementals calling it home. A place he and Ronnie Anne went to play in several times over the years, but it wasn't shaped the way Dr Pine had described. That left the further away option that he had never actually gone to in all his time here.
So Lincoln flew towards the third option, keeping close to the ground but still above the average feral elemental. Roughly three times the height of a giraffe, or at least he was assuming it was that high. Thankfully as a wind elemental, he was very fast. Not as fast as a lightning or light elemental, but still fast. Going at the altitude he chose helped, as it kept him away from most other wind elementals that might have been territorial while allowing him to still have a good line of sight.
Flying for twenty minutes got him concerned. There was no sign of Erin or anyone out traveling around, which was odd. This realm didn't have too many towns, at least not within this particular part of it, so odds are you'd see at least one group hunting the elementals for resources or finding a new campground. He was certain that multiple people had seen the balloon trip over a month ago and had no idea what it was. So to see no one, he wasn't sure if that was normal or not.
"Maybe I need to go higher." Lincoln commented before doing just that. He doubled his altitude and looked around in all directions, hoping that Erin hadn't been going around him this whole time. He was far away enough from Nowhere that he could just barely see it anymore, but nothing else stood out. Except for a pillar of smoke.
"Please let that not be her." He said before rushing towards the smoke. Getting closer showed that the pillar was too thick to be a normal campfire, and so far didn't seem to be an elemental or created by an elemental either. The source appeared to be an overturned set of wagons that were smoldering with bags of food strewn about, their contents spilled. There were no signs of anything or anyone still present, not even small elementals foraging, and no signs of where the people driving went.
"Strange, but at least this wasn't Erin." Lincoln said, hovering over the sight for a closer look. When he got close though, he noticed a disturbing odor. One like a bathroom after the last person in it had a bad case of diarrhea. He looked for a source, and his nose (if he still had one as a cloud) brought him to several piles of some kind of slime. They were scattered around the area, with one clinging to the side of a wagon and dripping down.
"What is this?" He asked, afraid to touch it. "Hold on, this looks familiar. But it's not Ronnie Anne's slime. Did a wild poison elemental attack these people? Why does it smell so rancid? Ronnie Anne's slime is more… maybe I'm just used to it now, but it's not that bad."
Getting no answers, he resumed his search from the air and continued on towards the mountain. After a while he passed a pack of fire wolves surrounding a wood deer and Lincoln smelled that bad aroma again, making him pause to look. It was coming from the wood deer, which was wobbling as it tried to fend off the predators, but also dripping some gunk from its sides. As if it were sweating expired chocolate sauce, which must be the source of the smell.
'Weird.' He thought before moving on. However, the sight of the wood deer wouldn't leave his mind, along with an ominous feeling. He couldn't help but feel like something wasn't right, but he had no frame of reference for this. Despite living in this world for four years, very little about it actually made sense to him. Maybe wood deer were supposed to leak some kind of crude syrup? But then why was it in the crash site? Was there a hit-and-run? A really bad hit-and-run?
To take his mind off it, he went faster. Fast enough that when he did see some actual people coming his way, he flew right past them. Once he realized what he just did, he came to a stop in a way that resulted in him tumbling and essentially crashing into the ground like a downed plane.
"It's times like this I'm glad I'm made of air." He muttered, getting up and spitting out dirt ether. Once ready, he backtracked to the small group of people, none of which were on any mounts.
"Excuse me?" Lincoln called out, moving in front of them. The first thing he could tell was that none of them were Erin.
The people panicked and one of them threw some rocks at Lincoln, with them passing through.
"Relax, I'm not a threat." Lincoln assured them. "Have any of you seen a teenage girl with blonde hair and blue skin?"
"The plaguebringer?" One of them asked, looking scared. The others gathered more ether rocks.
"Plaguebringer?" Lincoln repeated, confused, but before he could say more the wanderers hurled more at him. Figuring he wasn't going to get an answer, he just flew past them.
"What the heck is going on?"
After a while, he got a clue to that. A village finally came into view at the base of the mountain, but parts of it were on fire. He came up and again smelled that putrid odor, made worse by all the smoke. Inside the village, he saw dozens of dead bodies laying around, like some kind of massacre had just occurred. All of them had some of that gunk on them.
"ERIN!" Lincoln called out, unintentionally making it sound like thunder.
The only response came from a curtain on a house moving. Taking a chance, he went to it and seeped inside through the gaps of the door.
"Is anyone here?"
"Someone there?" Someone called back, a man from the sound of it. He then heard some lumbering from the other side, like this person was having a lot of trouble walking right now. Lincoln sniffed the air, but all he got was the implication that whoever was here might not have bathed in a few days. Frankly that wasn't uncommon in this world, so that didn't mean anything.
Someone came around the corner, a man as expected, somewhere in his twenties, looking unwell. Lincoln immediately thought of the times his family got a flu and in his mind he had seen them as some sort of zombie looking to infect him too. This guy looked no different, he looked just as miserable as any of his sisters with a bug.
The sick man froze upon seeing the air elemental before stepping back. Before he could say anything, he began coughing aggressively, clutching his chest. Then he fell to his knees and vomited.
The vomit was the same brownish sludge that Lincoln had been seeing since he left Nowhere.
"Whoa, what did you eat?" Lincoln asked, floating away instinctively.
Groaning, the man looked up, brown sludge dripping from his mouth. He looked like every part of his face weighed ten pounds more than it should.
"What happened to you?" Lincoln asked.
"...r…" The sick man wheezed, coughing on more gunk coming out of his mouth. "...rah…"
Lincoln leaned in a little to hear better.
"...run…"
The sick man then passed out, lying in his own filth.
Hesitant to do more, Lincoln vacated the house. He floated through town, finding someone else huddled beside a shop looking just as sickly as the first man, only this person seemed to be covered in a thin film of brown slime. Almost as if they were sweating the stuff. Lincoln gagged and continued on.
"Wait, this stuff… it reminds me of that thing that came out of my world when the portal somewhat opened." Lincoln said to himself, pausing in horror. "Oh crap, did I unleash some sort of disease elemental on this world?"
He came up to the mines, seeing Erin's horse still tied up to a post and looking just as terrible. The horse was laying down, breathing heavily, and dripping with brown slime as well. He felt so sorry for the animal, knowing this would hurt Iris to discover, but also he worried for Erin. Whatever this crisis was, had it claimed her too?
"Erin?" He shouted when he got to the mouth of the mine. Fortunately there were lit torches on the walls and what looked like a barricade set up. Some slimy hand prints were on the outside portion, appearing as if someone had tried to pry through but given up. There were slimy footprints too, but they didn't turn around.
Worried, Lincoln flew past the barricade into the mine. All machines in the area were deactivated and other than torches there were no lights. But he could hear something.
"I told you this isn't my fault!"
"Erin." Lincoln said, recognizing that voice. He hurried deeper into the mine, finding a chamber filled with at most a dozen people who looked healthy, but angry. Along with Erin who was trapped in what looked like one of those medieval things that held prisoners by locking around their heads and hands.
"This plague didn't reach our town until you did, blue skin. You infected us all, you must be punished." A man that looked like a sheriff argued.
The other people hollered in agreement.
"STOP!" Lincoln roared, making everyone except Erin jump. He floated over to her, surprising her.
"Lincoln?"
The air elemental looked over the locks, wondering what he could do. An idea came to him, so he put his hand over the lock and let it seep into the internal mechanism, effectively picking the lock until it opened. He did this to the other and soon freed his friend from her binds.
"What is the meaning of this?" A townsperson asked, having no idea what was going on.
"Erin, what's going on?" Lincoln asked, ignoring the audience.
"I don't know. I came here to get the special ether Doc wants, then suddenly some guy starts vomiting all over anyone who gets too close. People get sick and it just spreads like fire. I tried to get away but they got my horse so I came in here and then these people found me saying that I brought this thing to their town."
Lincoln looked at the scared and angry townsfolk. "Does she look sick to any of you?"
"It didn't happen until she got here." One of them defended.
"The first guy was out of town too. He got here around the same time I got here. He could have gotten this from anywhere in the Frontier." Erin claimed.
"I think I know where this started." Lincoln noted, then turned to the townsfolk. "Everyone, I think there's a disease elemental out in the wild. It must have infected someone who brought it here. My friend's arrival at the same time is just coincidence."
"I don't know who or what you are, but I see no reason to trust you." The sheriff warned, holding a torch like he would burn Lincoln.
"I got the ether we need, we should get back home." Erin told her friend.
"That's all I needed to hear." Lincoln said before exhaling a powerful gust to push the townsfolk back, making them fall on their backs and drop their torches. With that, Lincoln and Erin ran out of the chamber and back the way they came until they reached the barricade. Lincoln blew through that too, allowing her to get out easily.
"My horse!" Erin exclaimed in horror, seeing her ride look like it was asking to be shot. "Oh lord, Iris is not going to like hearing this."
"We're going to need another ride." Lincoln said, looking around.
"Can't I ride you?" Erin asked.
"We tried that. Ronnie Anne can control her density, you can't."
"Right, sorry I forgot. C'mon, there's got to be other forms of transportation."
The two went around, looking for anything they could use to leave this place. They found some wagons filled with ore and ether, and by them a stable containing a couple of elemental animals. Lincoln wasn't sure exactly what they were, some kind of rhino maybe, except made out of mud, but they would have to do.
Seeing them too, Erin readied a cart and Lincoln prompted the mud rhinos to move into place. They resisted but he was persistent, but in doing so he regained the attention of the wandering infected people in town.
"We have to get out of here. Now!" Erin insisted.
Someone who looked like a normal person except half his body was covered in puss lumbered their way, reaching his uncovered hand out towards them. Whether to touch or to ask for help, they didn't know, but it didn't matter. Lincoln flew in and blew him back, knocking him over. Erin took the opportunity to harness the mud rhinos and grab the reins, prompting them to get moving. They did so, heading to the town entrance in a hurry.
As they raced through the town entrance, getting out of the town and into the prairie, a thought ran through both their minds. "How could this get any worse?"
Like many thoughts, this would be one they'd both regret asking.
Ronnie Anne was sitting outside humming some soothing melodies to Leslie when she was interrupted. Not by a person, but by a bell. The kind of bell that the town used to alert the inhabitants of approaching trouble.
Her maternal instincts kicked in, prompting her to take her newborn inside rather than see what the problem was. But she did get by a window so she could keep her eye out for anything that went wrong. She saw some people go to what was considered the main entrance of town, probably to see for themselves what the commotion was about. But she heard no screaming, so hopefully it would be something she wouldn't have to get involved in.
Things stayed quiet, so Ronnie Anne continued to take care of the house and her child.
'I was so worried that I wouldn't be able to handle being a mother right now, but every time I look at her cute little eyes I wonder why I didn't have her sooner.' She thought, having some soup while nursing her. 'I really hope I don't ever accidentally poison her. Maybe she could develop a tolerance when she's older? How do I do that without making her sick? And what if she becomes an elemental someday?'
So far the little girl had yet to turn into anything other than a messier version of herself. Ronnie Anne was grateful, but she had a gut feeling that Leslie wouldn't stay that way forever.
More time went by with it being around the time they would be eating dinner. Ronnie Anne was getting worried and kept checking the door, hoping Lincoln would show up. Sure she knew he would be gone for a while if Erin was in trouble, but she wasn't used to being alone like this anymore.
So when there was a knock, Ronnie Anne practically jumped and rushed to answer the door. Her anticipation was dashed when she saw a woman in red and orange instead of Lincoln. She recognized this woman as the one who ran the apothecary, making her the closest thing Nowhere had to a medical doctor.
"Hello, could you help me for a moment?"
"What's the problem?"
"Earlier someone saw a wagon and thought it was the girl who left days ago, but it was a family of travelers. They seemed kind of sick, so everyone was warned to be careful and came to my apothecary. I've been treating them but the condition just seems to be getting worse."
Ronnie Anne nodded in understanding. "So what do you need me for? I'm no doctor."
"Well, I was wondering if you could use your power to kind of pull the sickness out of them? You can do that with your powers, can you?"
Ronnie Anne blinked. "I'm a poison elemental. Unless they're poisoned I can't do anything."
"It wouldn't hurt to try, would it?" The apothecarist asked.
With a sigh, Ronnie Anne nodded. Leslie was brought along since Ronnie Anne wasn't going to leave her behind. But she stopped at Iris's ranch and explained the situation, asking the other girl to help watch Leslie during this. Iris agreed, and when they got to the apothecary Ronnie Anne had Iris hold onto Leslie, since she wasn't going to risk exposing her newborn to sick people.
Once inside, Ronnie Anne noticed a foul odor. It wasn't quite as bad as Leslie's dirty diapers, but it was up there. The various herbs and spices didn't exactly help with the aroma.
"The patients are in back. They look really unwell." The apothecary warned.
"You're not looking too good yourself." Ronnie Anne pointed out, seeing this woman sweating a bit and looking slightly pale. She had been the entire time.
"I'm just a little tired, I'm fine." She insisted, leading her guest into the back room.
Ronnie Anne saw a set of five people, four adults and one kid. Two of them looked like grandparents with the other two looking like what you'd expect from parents, and the kid was a boy who couldn't have been older than nine. They looked even paler and sweatier than the apothecarist, but more than that they were covered in sores and boils. One of the parents turned to their side and vomited into a bucket. Each one of them had a bucket by them, and Ronnie Anne could tell each of them had something in it.
"Are they poisoned?" The apothecarist asked.
"Only one way to find out." Ronnie Anne replied, turning into her slime form. The day after giving birth she had tested to see if she could still do this, and to her relief she could now that the pregnancy was over. As bad as it was to be a literal toxic person, four years had made this a true part of her and she felt uncomfortable without it.
Ready, she stepped up to the tables, specifically the young boy first. Being careful, she put her hand just over an open sore that was covered with some kind of pussy film. She then closed her eyes and inhaled, doing nothing visible for a moment before opening her eyes and pulling away.
"He's not poisoned. I don't think any of them are. They're just sick."
"How can you tell?" The apothecarist asked.
"I can't sense poison or acid or anything like that, it's not like I have some kind of radar that pings when that stuff is around. And I can't control any of that stuff unless I create it. So if you had a bottle of poison here, I would have to actually look for it and even if I found it I wouldn't be able to make it do anything."
The apothecarist just looked confused and a little disappointed.
"But there is one thing I can do. I can draw poison into me, sort of like a sponge, and absorb it to make it a part of me. Then I can push it out and control it. Lincoln does the same with air, he has to inhale it then exhale it in order to control it. What I was just doing was trying to absorb any poison this boy had in his body."
"But there was no poison there for you to absorb, was there?" The apothecarist asked, seeing what the Hispanic girl was getting at.
Ronnie Anne nodded. "Whatever's wrong with them, it's got to be a disease. I don't know what I can do to help."
"Thanks anyway."
Ronnie Anne then left after saying goodbye and reunited with Iris, back in human form.
"Did it work?" Iris asked, and Ronnie Anne shook her head, reclaiming her daughter. "Thanks for trying. I hope she can do something for them."
The trip back to Nowhere was taking a long time for Lincoln and Erin. Their transportation was steady but slow, as if the mud rhinos were used for long term use with no sense of hurry. Lincoln didn't like that, being as fast as the wind, but he couldn't risk something happening to Erin or the special ether she was bringing back.
"So you're telling me that when you and Iris tested the gizmo over a month ago, some weird kind of disease elemental came through? And that might be what infected everyone in the mining village?" Erin asked.
"Unless there's another disease elemental in this realm, then yes."
"Why didn't you mention this back then? You said you could talk to your sister but you couldn't get through. You never said that something came through from the other side." Erin asked.
"I thought the problem wasn't that bad. The disease guy fell from a high altitude, I assumed he wouldn't survive. Besides, I didn't want to cause a panic telling people that there were disease elementals in my world."
"Do you at least have any idea what disease this is?" Erin asked.
"I don't think it is a normal illness. Maybe some kind of super-virus that just makes people very very sick. Maybe if someone can get a chance to study it, they can find a cure. Or maybe there's a medicine elemental out there too."
The mud rhinos grunted in a loud way and turned around, like they were planning on going back where they came from. Lincoln got up and tried to prompt them to get back on track, but they refused. Lincoln even went so far as to actually push them, but the mud rhinos spat out dirt like Lana throwing clumps in the backyard.
"They're not responding. It's like there's some kind of border that they just won't go any further." Erin called, trying to rein them in but having just as effect as he was.
Lincoln sighed. "Then we have to release them."
"Are you crazy?!"
"Untie them, and I'll take it from here. Or do you have a better idea?"
Groaning, Erin dismissed the reins on her end while Lincoln did the same on the other. The mud rhinos went off without paying either of them a second thought.
"It's still at least a day, likely more, before we get back home at this rate. And we still have no food." Erin complained. When they left the mining town there was no food or water in the wagon, only the special ether Dr Pine needed.
"I got to you in less than a day, I'm sure I can get this thing fast enough to make up for it. And if we have to, I'm sure we can find a water elemental or edible plant one at some point." Lincoln insisted, though Erin didn't look convinced.
Off in the distance, they could hear something. They looked around, seeing nothing, but in a world where the environment itself is alive that literally meant nothing.
"That sound, that's what the first disease elemental sounded like." Lincoln commented.
Erin quickly pulled out a tarp, the kind that had been used to cover the cargo ether. Get the hoist, we can make a sail and get going much faster with you pushing the cart that way."
Lincoln nodded and did as told, moving the horizontal wooden pole vertical. Erin began to tie the tarp to it, trying to ignore the wails drawing closer. It was like a predator that wanted the prey to know it was coming. Nonetheless, they got the sail ready, and Erin got secure in her seat, Lincoln began to push against it, and the wagon began to pick up a lot of speed, prompting Erin to hold on tighter.
Up ahead through the gaps around the sail, Lincoln saw a couple of lumbering figures, and he was going too fast to stop or get around them. So he barreled through them, getting some splats on the front of the wagon. One climbed up, a wood deer like the one Lincoln had seen before showed up, but at least half of it was covered in that slime that looked like puss, vomit, and feces combined. Panicked, Erin grabbed a chunk of ether and threw it at the diseased deer, hitting it in the head. This just angered the animal and prompted it to thrash more, splattering its gunk around.
"Oh no you don't!" Lincoln shouted, moving away from the sail to tackle the wood deer. He knocked it off, resulting in them both rolling on the ground while inertia kept the wagon going forward. Lincoln got up, wanting to make sure this deer wouldn't get the idea to chase after them.
"There has to be a way to make sure this thing doesn't give us any more trouble."
At that, several other slime-covered wood deer came up to their brethren, forming an angry herd. Lincoln stepped back, trying to look unintimidated.
'I have to do something. Other than that first disease guy, I've never actually fought as an elemental. Maybe I can use the wind for offense instead of just defense.'
Lincoln threw back his fist and then jumped at the nearest deer, throwing a punch. To his surprise, his arm extended and made contact with his target sooner than expected. The wood deer was knocked back and fumbled to the ground, splintering but not dead. The other wood deer acted worried but none of them fled.
'Stretch punches, not too bad.' Lincoln noted, hovering a little now.
One of the angrier wood deer charged at Lincoln who reacted by swinging his arm to bat them off. However, this time his arm flattened and sharpened like a blade and cut right into the plant deer's head. Not enough to cleave it, but enough to leave a visible mark like someone drove an ax into a tree. The wood deer tripped and the wound was shown to bleed what looked like rotten sap.
'Wind blades too? Not bad, now I really fight back.'
As if reading his mind, the wood deer stepped back but didn't want to back down.
"Ignore them, let's just get out of here!" Erin shouted.
Taking a breath, Lincoln nodded and rushed to the wagon, pushing the sail. The wood deer herd tried to chase them but they couldn't keep up, though one did upchuck something that got onto one of the wheel rims.
"Lincoln, I don't know anything about this disease thing, but those elementals prove that this is spreading." Erin said to her companion.
"At least Nowhere is safe." He replied.
Ronnie Anne was sleeping comfortably, albeit lonely, in her house with Leslie in her crib in the same room, when she was abruptly awoken by the sound of screaming coming from outside.
"What the hell?" She asked, feeling her heart race. Her eyes went to Leslie who fidgeted but otherwise remained asleep, so that was a plus. But then who was screaming bloody murder, and why? She looked out her window and then got a good idea.
One of the buildings in town was apparently on fire.
Panicking, Ronnie Anne scooped up her daughter and fled outside, just in case the fire had started to spread to her house. It had not, thankfully. Leslie, now awake, cried and squirmed, so Ronnie Anne tried to soothe her.
"HELP!"
Ronnie Anne jumped back as someone ran past her. This person didn't look hurt or like they were going to get some water, rather they looked like they were running away from something. Maybe it was their house?
'Maybe I can smother the flames. It's better than letting them spread.' She thought, heading towards the burning house despite Leslie's protests.
Up ahead, Ronnie Anne saw someone in a shadow, making it hard for her to identify, knocked to the ground with someone on top pinning them down. It looked a lot like a rape scene, making her gasp and pick up the pace. The person on top then seemed to vomit all over the other person's face, smothering their screams.
"What the hell?" Ronnie Anne asked, briefly coming to a stop and gagging. Thankfully the trapped person managed to get their assailant off them and scramble away, coughing and hacking up whatever got in their mouth. While the assailant themselves got up and walked on as if nothing had happened.
Ronnie Anne tensed when this person seemed to notice her and come her way.
"Stay back!" She warned, holding her daughter closer. This made Leslie cry more and the figure in the shadows kept coming closer to her. Then from out of the shadows Ronnie Anne got a good look at them. It was one of the adults who the apothecarist had been looking over, possibly the father, except their condition was worse. His skin was covered in mucus, as if diarrhea was coming out of his sores and other orifices. He lumbered like a zombie, with an out-of-it look in their crusted eyes.
"Whoa, I don't know what you have but you can't get any closer to me." Ronnie Anne told them, stepping back and shielding Leslie more.
The sickly person ignored her and walked towards her, moaning something that only just barely sounded like an attempt at language. Not caring what they were trying to say, if anything, Ronnie Anne turned back and headed for her house.
To her shock and horror, she was tackled from behind. This sick man seemed to move faster for a split moment and knocked her down. Ronnie Anne turned to land on her back, making sure to protect her child from the impact. The thud hurt, but she ignored the pain completely to ensure Leslie was unharmed. To her relief, she wasn't, just scared. That relief was short-lived as the sick man attempted to pin her down, dripping their secretions onto her.
Ronnie Anne reacted by freeing one arm and pushing up against him, turning it into corrosive slime. The sick man pulled away, still able to feel pain, allowing Ronnie Anne to get up and back away, this time keeping her eyes on them.
"Stay away from me and my child!"
The sick man turned away and ran elsewhere into the village. Ronnie Anne thought for a moment about going after him, but Leslie was her top priority. At the same time, the only reason she was out in the first place was to stop the fire from spreading to people's houses, including but not limited to her own. Cautious, she proceeded to the burning building.
Along the way Ronnie Anne saw some people who didn't look well. Villagers who all looked like they were having a flu or something, not unlike the apothecarist had earlier. Thankfully none of them looked like they were starting to melt or anything, but the fact that people were getting sick was anything but a good sign.
'What kind of bug is this? Do we have to leave this village now?'
Ronnie Anne got to the burning apothecary, seeing it burned enough that the building was better off demolished and rebuilt rather than repaired. Two slime trails came out and broke off in separate directions, along with some footprints. She hoped no one was inside, but she couldn't take the chance to make sure. So Ronnie Anne turned one arm to slime and stretched it to part of the building, intending to smother the flames.
That was when someone jumped out of the building, the sick child from earlier judging from the size. Said child spat out some kind of projectile, prompting Ronnie Anne to swerve to avoid being hit. Then the sick child expelled some kind of brown mist from his mouth that Ronnie Anne really did not want Leslie to be exposed to. She pulled back her arm, and in doing so unintentionally smacked the sick child from behind, knocking him on his face.
"Help me!"
Ronnie Anne turned and saw someone running, only to be hit by some kind of slimeball from the sick woman from before. The other person stumbled and regained balance by leaning against a building, but the sick woman rushed up and pulled them around. Ronnie Anne saw the sick woman appear to vomit directly in the other person's face, almost as if trying to make their victim swallow it.
'I'm so glad Leslie will never remember this.' Ronnie Anne thought, brought out of her disgust by the sounds of feet rushing towards her. On reflex she turned her entire body into slime, the least corrosive and dangerous version she could, and the sick child impacted her with a splat. Her body on its own engulfed him, surprising the both of them. Ronnie Anne could feel the sick child squirm and try to break free, but moreso she could feel the mucus from his body seep into her sludge.
'What is this stuff? It's definitely bad for the body, but it almost seems alive. Like an elemental in it of itself. But at least it looks like my element overpowers it.' She thought, seeing how even her low setting was killing off the components of whatever was afflicting this young boy.
After a bit the sick child managed to get free and she stepped away. She saw them on their knees coughing off some dark brown goo, like chocolate syrup that went bad, and then he looked at her. For a moment she could see actual emotion in his eyes, and she saw worry, confusion, and maybe a little gratitude. His body even seemed to have less mucus covering it, though the open sores did look a little worse now.
"Kid, can you speak? What's happening to you and the others?" Ronnie Anne asked, trying to calm a screaming Leslie.
"It… it wants…" The boy said, sounding like he wanted to throw up.
That was when the sick woman came at Ronnie Anne who jumped up, her legs stretching to make it easier. The sick woman grabbed her leg and attempted to climb up it like a squirrel. Ronnie Anne reacted by lifting that leg up like she was going to kick, but then her leg moved like a tentacle and wrapped around her.
"What in the world?" Ronnie Anne asked, not expecting her leg to bend in a way it shouldn't, even if right now she had no bones in it. She threw the sick woman outside the town's boundaries, not seeing where it landed, and made her leg a leg again before she tipped over.
"I just turned my leg into another arm. Hmm.." She thought out loud, then concentrated and sprouted two extra arms out of her side. "Sweet, that will come in handy."
She got down and went to the boy, who was passed out on the ground unconscious.
"Ronnie Anne?"
She turned and saw Lincoln and Erin coming towards her, looking worried and concerned. She went up to him and pulled him into a hug. Leslie seemed to calm down, as if aware she had both parents there now.
"What's happening?" He asked.
"I don't know, these sick people were brought in and now… this."
Lincoln and Erin shared a look before looking back to her.
"We may need to evacuate."
