ALL NOVEL Loop 24 - Andy
“I’ve got Melissa’s drones on the feed now. Can you all two hear me? Is Melissa okay?” Melissa’s skin was more pink than usual, and she leaned on Robert for support.
“I think so. We found this hot spring, and she tripped into it when trying to get a reading on what exactly it was. The probe did say it was just water, but she’s still feeling off.”
“Melissa, when you say off, how exactly do you feel?” Andy had a theory of just what kind of pool she had found and was worried.
“I don’t know how to explain it exactly. Almost like I ate too much, and there’s something just stuck at the back of my stomach.”
“Hrm, okay. Get her back here so Jen can check her over. I’m going to watch the playback.” Andy switched the live feed to the recordings. Once he saw the pool, he was sure of it. They had found a mana well; now Melissa had the spirit egg in her. This was a problem. He hoped she hadn’t found the only well.
Andy felt someone tap him on the shoulder and jumped slightly in surprise. He spun his head to see Stan.
“Everything okay?” The big man asked.
“No. Melissa fell into the only mana well we’ve found.”
“Well, shit. Is she okay, though?”
“Yeah, she and Robert are on their way back. No sign of Cal still, though.”
“Cal’s gotta be fine, though. We are all still here talking. Knowing him, he’s probably off getting us in way more trouble than we need to be.”
“Once Cal is back, I think we need to do a big exploration with the robots and stay out of the caves until we have more area mapped out. We can’t risk losing another magical source to someone outside the loop.” Andy had wanted to be the one to gain a mana spirit. Even if he hated the idea of something so non-scientific, he wanted magic, too.