Closing her eyes, she leaned against the building in an attempt to suppress the itching heat she was feeling. It felt like there were thousands of ants trying to crawl around through her veins, and it was the worst around her eyes and lips. She clutched her mouth with her hands, feeling a small comfort by touching them, even as she wanted to scratch them off.

“My goodness child, are you okay?” She heard the kindhearted voice coming from her left, but she didn’t open her eyes or turn towards them. She didn’t want to scream and scare them to death, which she was half afraid she’d do if she let go right now. Was this pain and itching actually worth it? She didn’t think she’d even taken that much, and it already hurt this much.

It wasn’t until she felt a cool hand on her cheek that she realized she needed to respond. She was about to do so when she realized that even though her eyes were closed, she could see a little blue dot blinking at the side of her mind’s eye. Wait, I can just access this completely mentally? I don’t actually have to look at it? Flabbergasted once more, she spaced and the cool hand was trying to get her to turn.

Allowing her body to be shifted, she finally opened her eyes and let her hands drop. She wasn’t sure how long it had lasted, but the horrible burning and itching seemed to be dying down for the most part. In front of her was a plumper older woman who was looking at her with concern. Her heart shaped face held light crows feet on the honey colored skin, and her hair cut into a stylish silver bob with bangs. She was wearing a pretty purple dress and looking at Jade with concerned hazel eyes as she asked again, “There you are. Are you all right?”

Jade smiled a bit helplessly and said quietly, “I was feeling a bit dizzy before, but I think I’m okay now. Thank you though.” Dizziness was as good an explanation for her outer symptoms as anything else, she supposed. Plus, with her obviously weak constitution, most people wouldn’t think twice that just standing made her dizzy. However, the woman was obviously a kindhearted busybody who wasn’t convinced. She kept looking at Jade as if she was trying to figure out what the problem was.

Unable to pinpoint what was wrong, she finally seemed to come to a decision. “I see. Well, you’d better come with me just in case. My husband is a healer and I’ll have him take a look at you.” With that she picked up her bags, which Jade hadn’t realized she’d dropped to check up on her, and grabbed her hand, tugging her along. Bemusedly, Jade thought to herself, am I being kidnapped right now?

She let herself be led along like she had in the past, and it was almost a comforting feeling of home as she stared wide eyed at the people and stores they passed, occasionally brushing up against a few absently. She was fairly mesmerized by the brightness of the sun and the blue sky, feeling jittery with every wisp of the wind on her pale skin. She was OUTSIDE! For the first time that she could remember, she was actually in the open, staring up at the big blue sky and it wasn’t through glass! A myriad of different smells assaulted her nose, and she just breathed them in, unable to pinpoint what they were.

Completely absent minded, she looked around and realized that in the process of towing her towards wherever they were going, she now had absolutely no idea where she’d come from or how to get back. As nice as the lady looked however, she was going to start screaming the minute she thought something shady was going down. Maybe it would relieve the screams she hadn’t been able to let out earlier…

“Now then, here we are!”

Jade looked up and saw a little shop that had a sign proudly proclaiming she had arrived at Doctor Mike’s Clinic. Not the most creative name, but you at least knew exactly what you were looking at. Oh, and apparently she could still read here. Seeing as it was actually a doctor’s office, she let herself be towed inside without making a fuss, just with her natural wobbles that she finally noticed the nice lady had slowed down to accommodate.

“Elisa, you’re back! Hmmm, who do you have there?” A gentleman with gorgeous salt and pepper hair that George Clooney would envy had come out from the back at the tinkling of the bell above the door, giving her a once over as he came forward to hug who she assumed was his wife Elisa, given that she’d never introduced herself and Jade hadn’t yet looked at the options to steal her stats. Appearing hale and hearty for an older gentleman, his wide mouth was stretched in a smile, shining pearly whites at her.

“This is…child, what’s your name?” Elisa smiled a little sheepishly when she seemed to realize she’d towed Jade all the way over here without even asking for her name.

“Hi, I’m Jade. Mind if I sit down? I’m not super used to walking yet.” They both looked a little confused at her statement, but Mike--well at least she assumed his name was Mike, given the store name--ushered her to a chair at the side, which was a relief to her now aching legs. He sat down next to her, smiling softly. He looked like the model dad every kid wished they had, handsome, smart, kind…

“It’s lovely to meet you Jade, I’m Doctor Mike. Can you tell me what’s wrong with your legs?”

“And I’m Eliza. Mikey, I found her almost comatose against an alley wall, so of course I brought her here. She said she was dizzy!”

Jade smiled wanly, deciding that she might as well let the cat out of the bag. They were a nice couple and didn’t seem to mean her any harm as far as she could tell. It reminded her of an old story about a man and a woman who couldn’t have a child… Shaking herself out of her musings, she replied, “So... The thing is, I’m actually a traveler, and I just got here today, so I’m not really used to things yet?” They were staring at her like she’d just grown a third eye.

Mike seemed more on top of things, as he patiently questioned her. “You said you’re a traveler?” It seemed like he was trying to diagnose her, but he hadn’t tried to hook her up to any machines or take her pulse yet at least.

“Yeah… And uhm… I… The world I came from…” She stuttered, trying to organize her thoughts. How much was she supposed to tell them? With a sigh, she shook her head and said simply, “I was really sick there. So I’m kinda learning how to walk right now.”

“Do you mind if I check your health?” Doctor Mike was being very patient with her and not treating her like a crazy person, even though he still looked a little skeptical. She nodded and he reached out to take her hand. That was it, he just touched her hand and closed his eyes, and she tried to figure out what he was doing. “My goodness…” His exclamation was soft, but she still caught it. He opened his eyes, staring intently at her. “Well, the good news is you’re not sick. But your body…”

“Yes?” She asked a tiny bit impatiently. Why did people like cliffhangers so much!?

“It seems to be in an intense period of growth. What you’re experiencing are growing pains from your body going through an acute change. It’s rather remarkable, and I’ve only seen something similar once before.” He shook his head, this time seemingly in amazement. “It might hurt for now, but once your body settles, you’ll be just fine.”

Well okay. She already knew that… The bad news was that this was likely to be a constant problem. She began plotting out what she would need to do. Was it a one off thing? She clicked through the blue buttons in her brain until she got to the old boxes.

Assimilation of Kaylee Ivers underway...

There were five more notifications just like it and a bunch of blinking dots from the people she’d unknowingly brushed up against on the way over here. However, she wasn’t about to click anything until she had figured out what was going on with this current batch. It could wait!

“It really is remarkable though. I wonder what could be causing such an intense change…” Doctor Mike was muttering to himself as he seemed to be puzzling out her problem. Feeling a little guilty, she piped up.

“It’s probably my special ability.” Which was 100% the truth, there was no probably about it. Both Mike and Elisa looked incredibly interested the moment the words special ability came out of her mouth.

Elisa couldn’t seem to hold in her curiosity. “You have a special ability? What does it do?”

Oh right, she needed to lie now. I’ve gotta make this good… What would be believable for this growth? Oh, I’ve got it! She smiled and said quietly, “It’s literally called accelerated growth. It’s pretty straightforward too, it’s basically what it sounds like. I learn and adapt in an accelerated manner.” There, that’s believable, right? She tried to keep her face in a neutral smile, but Doctor Mike actually looked a little worried for her still. “Is there something wrong?”

Mike shook his head, patting her arm as he said quietly, “Not per say… It’s just that it means this probably won’t be the end of your growing pains.” Duh, I figured that out for myself already. She just smiled painfully and nodded in acknowledgement. With a sigh, he continued. “It also means there isn’t much I can do for you. I’m afraid anything I do would potentially stunt your growth.”

Welp, I guess that means no painkillers for me. It figures that whoever sent me here wouldn’t let it be easy… I think this is the prime example of that whole, no pain, no gain thing.

Shaking herself out of her musings, which she seemed to be doing a lot of today, she nodded and said simply, “I figured that would be the case, so don’t worry too much about it. It’ll be worth it to be healthy in the end.” She smiled and could almost see the workings in their brains as they classified her as a tragic heroine.

Figuring she should capitalize on their pity, she began phase 2 of pump everyone around her for information. “So, you used magic on me earlier, right? Is that normal here?”

Elisa laughed at this, pushing out her large chest proudly as she bragged about her husband. “Not at all! Of the twenty known magic types, healing is one of the rarest! Mike here is among the best of the best. Most people don’t even have the ability to learn magic because their magic stat is below 5, so they can only dream of accomplishing what he does!”

And I’m so stealing that, right now. “That’s amazing! I didn’t know it was such a rare thing. I thought everyone’s stats started around 10?” I’m just fishing, fishing for information… tralalalalalala…

“Most of them do. It’s really only Luck and Magic that are different.” And here she raised her brow. Wait a second, luck was also a rare stat?

“What’s the normal luck for a person?”

This time it was Mike who teasingly poked his wife in the side. “Most people have 8 or less. Elisa here has 11! Which is why she was lucky enough to find a catch like me.” He looked pretty smug as he said that, and Elisa blushed furiously as Jade couldn’t help but laugh. If it was that special…perhaps she ought to invest in getting more, even though hers was apparently already abnormally high. What did it even do? Luck was such an ambiguous thing…

Skipping the other windows in her head, she went straight to Mike’s and Elisa’s. She barely glanced over Mike’s, having already decided to take his Magic stat and Healing Magic skill, which was thankfully in the five presented. From Elisa’s she was going to take luck, but her skill…

You have touched Elisa Scribner, Siphon activated. Assessing stats and experience...

Choose a stat to siphon: Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, Intelligence, Magic, Charisma, or Luck.

Choose a skill to siphon: Alchemy, Diplomacy, Herbology, Insight, or Perception.

She tossed alchemy and herbology out the window straight off, but that did explain the herby smell that she’d vaguely whiffed from Elisa. It wasn’t what she needed right now, because again, she was still in the middle of the city. Plus, for alchemy she would need all the tools and ingredients. That left diplomacy, insight, and perception. She already had diplomacy and perception, but she figured Elisa probably had way more experience than the others she’d taken from. But insight… She hadn’t actually seen anyone with that yet.

With the opinion that the more tools she had, the better off she would be, she chose insight and then confirmed her decisions for the two of them mentally. She smiled at them and said cheerfully, “Maybe one day I’ll be just as lucky to find someone…” Two blue boxes had popped up on her mindscreen, and they were the last thing she saw before her vision went black and she felt herself falling.

She was out cold. So much for her conviction to wait until the last batch had finished...

Siphoning complete. Assimilation of Magic and Healing Magic from Mike Scribner underway.

Siphoning complete. Assimilation of Luck and Insight from Elisa Scribner underway.