ALL NOVEL Loop 254 - Part 120
The landscape was virtually unchanged from the last time he had been here. Even though he had been here once before, the existence of a giant tropical swamp on Titan still seemed fantastical. Cal considered the feeling and strangeness it presented, considering everything he had seen so far. This swamp shouldn’t be that level of awe-inspiring.
That thought was apparently enough to break the effects of whatever it was influencing him. Everything still looked the same, but the feeling of greatness had vanished. It had to have been some sort of mental effect that Glurm used on visitors. Cal made a note to remember it for the next loop. It might help keep them on balance during the test.
Cal walked past the fence and down the path to the door, knocking loudly once he reached it. “Hello, are you home?” He called out after the knocks.
The door opened, revealing the same annoyed frog Cal had seen the last time he knocked. He was dressed a bit differently this time, in armor instead of robes, but beyond that, he looked identical to before. Cal glanced over his head to see what he could spot in the dwelling. The air in the building seemed almost hazy, and he had trouble focusing on anything within.
“If you are done attempting to spy on my home, perhaps we could discuss why you are here decades earlier than I told you. I understand you mammals may not understand the concept of politeness, but in the more evolved species, it’s considered extremely rude to intrude on another’s domicile,” Glurm said, sliding his eyes lid down over the top of his eyes to better glare at Cal.
“Sorry, I was just curious about what an ancient magical frog warrior’s house would be like. I’m actually here to ask a few questions. I don’t know how much you have noticed about the solar system or your old home planet, but things are getting bleak, and I needed to pick the brain of the only other ancient being I know,” Cal explained, hoping he baited Glurm in with that last line.
“Other ancient being? Who else do you know? I don’t believe Merlin has set foot on any planet in this galaxy in centuries, and while there is a strangely powerful bit of mana in your core, you aren’t old enough to have met him the last time he was here. Curious, who has returned to Earth without me knowing?” It had worked. The frog was very interested.
Cal smiled before continuing. “I’ll tell you that if you promise to answer a few of my questions honestly. If it makes it any more tantalizing of a piece of information, I promise you know them.”
“Fine mammal, you have attention. I will answer three of your questions. You get the first one, then I get the identity, and you get your last two. Sound fair?” Glurm pushed past Cal, pulling the door shut behind him as he walked into his yard.
“You know you can call me Cal, right? It won’t hurt,” Cal replied. Despite the snark in his words, he was happy with the terms.
“I will do that if and when you earn it. For now, you remain another mammal to me. Now, what is your first question?” Glurm asked sternly. He stopped walking following the question and plopped down under the shade of a tree in one of the drier areas of his yard. His tongue shot out into the tree and pulled down a strange fruit into his waiting hand. He then passed it to Cal. “First, ask your question, then you may try the fruit. I promise you’ve never had it’s like.”
His glare had turned into a comical grin, and Cal once again wondered how much of the act was for show. “Are you aware of the Gryalth?” Cal honestly had no idea if the frog was, but the answer would dictate his next two questions.
“Are those the aliens that left Pluto? If so, only in passing. I know they exist, but not much else. Now tell me, who has returned to Earth?” Cal assumed Glurm only cared about the answer to the second question.
“Excalibur, he said you were one of his previous rulers.” Cal saw the frog’s eye twitch when he said the name. It looked like he hadn’t been expecting to hear that name, and Cal was very curious to know just who he had expected to hear.
“Now that is interesting news, actually worthy of the additional two questions. Perhaps after the games, I will seek him out. But it is time for you to try your fruit mammal, and let us finish the conversation. I have far more important training to return to,” Glurm said.
Cal bit into his fruit, and it was delicious. It reminded him of the high he felt the first time he tasted a mana fruit. This was something on a whole other level. As he devoured it, he felt the juice flow across his mana channels, infusing them and reinforcing them. He would need to try more in future loops.
Wiping his face on his shirt sleeve, Cal finally asked his second question. “My friends and I are stuck in a time-loop that terminates and restarts with my death, and the main cause of it is the Gryalth and their invasion of the universe. Any chance you want to skip your games and help us stop them?" He hadn’t been sure he was going to tell the frog about the time loop, but he couldn’t think of another way to make it understood how he knew how bad the Gryalth problem really was.
“No, and not because I don’t believe you, I in fact do. It explains a lot of the mammal channel questions I had been pondering, but in no world do I want to be in a time-loop determined on your life against an enemy apparently so great that the idea of infinite time still hasn’t beaten them. I’d rather not be stuck in some sort of endless hell. That all said, you’re welcome to try to convince me in future loops, though I doubt I will ever be very receptive,” Glurm’s answer was not at all what Cal had been expecting. He had assumed either disbelief or possibly anger, not total indifference.