As Kalli staggered to her feet, I threw myself into her arms. We both toppled onto the bed when her legs gave out from under her. I tried to kiss her but she pushed me away. Eww, stop Mel. I have plague breath.

I don’t care. I missed you.

She continued to deny me access. Look, you can have my undivided attention after you save the villagers.

For the first time, I made my way out of the hut and into a new world.The first thing that caught my attention was not the pale green sky, but the massive ringed planet that filled it.

I wondered if Gaia was actually one of the moons of Saturn. The warm breeze that caressed my face told me that it couldn’t be. Deciding to get to work, I called out, “Take me to the sickest person.”

The men and women paid little attention to me as they raced back forth between flimsy-looking huts. The townsfolk that I saw wore little more than tattered rags that only seemed to cover the important stuff.

I was busy admiring the renaissance fair appearance of the village when Wendy called out to me. “Over here, Mel. This man is dying.”

Inside of the hut, I could tell that Wendy was correct. A stench that reminded me of feces mixed with death greeted me as I approached.

I knelt next to the bearded old man and placed my hand over his abdomen. With a kind of strength that didn’t seem possible, he grabbed my wrist and croaked, “No! Save the children first.”

Not having time to waste, I clambered to my feet and raced out of the hut, shouting, “Where are the children? Hurry. Someone tell me.”

Finally, one of the villagers answered my call, guiding me to a somewhat larger structure. I didn’t have time to admire how the flimsy material wasn’t collapsing in on itself when I saw around ten children sprawled out on the floor.

Picking one to start with, I immediately set to work. I gave each kid the immunity trait before DELETING the plague. Then I set to work on the damage, examining the core first.

Unlike Kalli, whose blazing core had been half-eaten by the plague, the tiny marble of the unawakened child was untouched. It turned out that when the plague couldn’t find a fountain of mana to feast on, it went for the major organs instead.

My mana set to work healing and replenishing the damaged organs. Thanks to my practice back on Earth, I was able to quickly move from child to child.

Once I had stabilized all of the children, I rushed back to the old man’s hut. A woman stood at the entrance when I arrived, sadly shaking her head.

Tears formed in my eyes as the two of us shared a silent conversation. There was no time to mourn, however, so I spun on my heels and rushed off to another hut. Inside, I found a couple huddling together, both drenched in sweat.

The man saw me and whimpered, “It’s too late for us. Save someone else.”

I couldn’t take it any longer and screamed at the top of my lungs. All of the rage and sadness from losing that kid back on Earth to the silent news that the old man had died finally getting the better of me.

Kneeling next to the now trembling couple, I barked, “You aren’t allowed to die.Not on my watch.”

It was well after dark by the time I collapsed on the ground in the middle of the village. I had made my way through every hut and managed to save the rest of the villagers. The only one to die had been that selfless old man. It turned out that he had been the village elder.

The rest of the group had been busy in the meantime. Joe had been working from hut to hut, improving the building stability and making a pump for the well to replace the current bucket system.

Kalli and Stefanie worked as a team to entertain the kids as they emerged from their sick room. Fire puppets danced and played while Stefanie sang songs that I recognized from cartoons back on Earth.

Kiki, Raverly, and Rundell had managed to catch some kind of monster that Wendy and some of the villagers cooked and were laying out on a long table.

The whole village looked pretty beat up but I was surprised to see how quickly they resumed their tasks mere hours after being at death’s door. From the looks of things, they didn’t have the luxury of resting in bed while there was work to be done.

Seeing that I had finished, Kalli stood up and made her way over to me. Are you ready for that kiss now?

Thinking about the death of the old man had reminded me of my fiasco with the little kid, so the last thing I was feeling was romantic.

How about a hug?

She smiled and came crashing down on top of me, wrapping her arms around my neck. I relished in the familiar feeling of her embrace and closed my eyes, taking all of her in.

Kalli started sobbing into my shoulder as she clung to me. You big dummy. I told you not to come. What would you have done if you had been unable to cure me? You could have died too.

Just being in Kalli’s arms made all of the self-doubt and frustration of the past couple of months fade away. It felt as though a huge weight had been lifted off of my chest.

Filled with a sudden affection, I began kissing her cheek and neck. Turning her tear-streaked face to me, Kalli’s lips met mine in a passionate kiss.

Wendy tapped Kalli’s shoulder and whispered, “Um, guys, the children are watching…”

We both stopped and looked up to see that not just the children, but pretty much everyone in the village had stopped to watch our display of affection.

Kalli blushed and climbed off of me, speaking to one of the women. “This is the boy I told you about.”

I struggled to get to my feet, while the villagers all gathered around me quietly. Wondering if they were just being protective of Kalli, I announced, “Hi, my name is Melvin. Melvin Murphy. It’s a pleasure to…”

The words died in my throat as, one by one, they all fell to their knees. The only people not on their knees were Kalli and the group.

What’s going on, Kalli?

Before she had a chance to reply, one of the villagers looked up at me and said, “Thank you for bestowing this miracle upon us, my lord. We, your humble servants, live at your beck and command.”

Remembering what I said at the hospital, and wanting to kiss Kalli some more, I announced, “That won’t be necessary. The price for my magic is just a kiss and a smile.”

I almost immediately regretted my words when dozens of very happy villagers planted kisses all over my face.The good thing was that everyone was smiling.

I still felt a twinge of regret that I couldn’t save the old man but the atmosphere around me was starting to rub off. A smile soon found its way back onto my face.

Dinner was unlike anything I had ever eaten before. The creature that Run and Rave had killed turned out to be a monster of some sort called a cockatrice. The birdlike creature produced a surprisingly small amount of meat for such a large monster.

I tore into a drumstick, marveling at how much it tasted like chicken. It wasn’t until I reached for the second piece that I noticed nobody else was eating.

The villagers all stood huddled around the other end of the table watching me intently. When I stopped, a woman who I had seen preparing the meat asked, “Is the food not to your liking, My Lord?”

Looking down at the plate, I suddenly realized that there wasn’t enough for everybody. Not nearly enough. I had been so hungry after a hard day’s work that I failed to notice. The rest of the group sat in silence, looking down at the food heaped on their plates.

The chef looked at me expectantly. I put the second piece back on the serving tray and said, “This was delicious. You guys should eat though. I can’t just sit here and pig out while everyone else goes hungry.”

“Yeah.”, Wendy echoed, sliding her plate toward the kids.

Another one of the adults said, “We are used to having little to eat. Thanks to you, we have all survived this horrid plague. A little belly rumbling is but a small price to pay.”

I pushed my chair back from the table and stood abruptly. “We have to do something about that. It can’t be a feast unless there’s enough for everyone.”

Shuffling through my bag, I regretted not having thought to pack the BUFF for the journey.

If only I can recreate it.

Kalli raised an eyebrow at the randomness of my thought. What is it, Mel?

I didn’t reply while I tried to recreate the BUFF. I ended up thinking out loud as I tried to remember the name.

What exactly was it called? Something about fast food. What did the B stand for? Buffet? No, wait, box. Box of, um, unlimited fast food?

ERROR. NO SUCH ITEM.

Wait. It was unending. Box of Unending Fast Food.

ERROR. CATALYST MISSING. PROVIDE MAGICAL COMPONENT TO CONTINUE.

Kalli moved over to me when I wasn’t paying attention and waved a hand in front of my face. Gaia to Melvin. Are you there?

I was failing to make a BUFF. I wanted to give them a way to feed themselves.

She paused for a moment, seeming to be deep in thought. Unlike me, Kalli didn’t broadcast her thoughts. When she was ready she said, Maybe we can do a special hunting party tomorrow and help them stock up on monster meat.

While I did like the idea, I was more interested in making sure that nobody went to bed hungry. They were all recovering from a terrible disease after all.

When the idea hit me, I couldn’t believe I didn’t come up with it in the first place. I walked over to the group of kids. They stood behind their parent’s staring longingly at the roast dodo on the table.

I knelt in front of a little boy and asked, “Tell me something. What is your favorite thing to eat?”

The kid looked down at the ground and muttered, “Gruel.”

Even though I had never tried gruel, I had heard of it before. “Doesn’t that taste terrible?”

He nodded weakly and replied, “At least it fills my belly.”

Kalli knelt beside me and offered the kid a plate of dodo when I failed to reply. It’s like that in a lot of places on Gaia. Sometimes there just isn’t enough food for everyone.

The little boy looked at the woman standing nearby, taking the plate when she nodded at him. Rather than digging in, he started to break the meat into bite-sized chunks to share with the other kids.

I picked up a rock and did a quick edit.

Item:

Chocolate Chip Cookie (Edited)

Components

Chocolate, Flour, Sugar, Eggs, Butter, Salt, Vanilla, Egg, Baking Soda

Item Rank:

C

Item Level:

1

Item Owner:

Murphy

Satisfied with my creation, I handed the kid the cookie. “Here, taste this.”

The kid sniffed my offering and gave me a look as if to ask, “What is this?”

I smiled at him and said, “This is a cookie. One of the tastiest things from my world.”

Then he slowly tried a bite. No sooner had the cookie entered his mouth than his eyes lit up. I watched in amusement as the boy chewed slowly, trying to savor every last bit of the cookie.

His friends watched the boy enjoy the cookie with jealous looks on their faces. I didn’t make them wait long for their own mouthful of bliss. I scooped up some more rocks and soon everybody had a cookie.

The adults crowded around us and I ended up making cookies for them too. When everyone was finally placated with cookies, I asked the crowd at large, “Somebody please tell me what kind of meat you guys like the most. I want to make this a proper feast but I don’t know what you eat here.”

When nobody answered right away, Kalli made a suggestion. Can you make them food from your world? I loved all of the different things you showed me back on Earth.

Realizing that she was right, I set to work. I went from plate to plate at the table, making cheeseburgers and french fries. I made sure there were plenty of extra burgers so that everyone could eat their fill.

Wendy made tea out of the water from the well and I edited some grape soda for the kids. Once the proper feast was laid out, we all sat down to eat.

I held hands with Kalli and one of the villagers as the new elder whispered a prayer. With my eyes closed out of respect, I was mildly curious about Gaian gods before he ended the prayer by saying, “We humble thank you, Lord Murphy, for providing us salvation in our darkest hour.”

At the sound of my name, my eyes flashed open. I found myself being stared down by the little boy, who quietly mouthed, “Can I have another cookie.”