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  [colpse]Chapter One Hundred and y-Six - Matchmaking 101 With Momma

  I wiped my brow and g the message from Mister Menu about the wight. It wasn’t anything very iing, but it did firm that I’d won. Well, the wight turning to dust like all dead dungeoures did that, but it double-firmed it.

  “That was a workout,” I said.

  “I suppose so,” Momma said. “You did very well though.”

  “I have the impression that a lot of the buns in Hopsalot would be a lot strohan me,” I said.

  Momma nodded. “That would be a correct impression, but you ’t always judge yourself based oandards of others. Rather, you o be able to pare yourself to yourself first, to see the improvements you’re making, and strive for more, regardless of how others are improving faster or slower around you. Also, I suspect that Hopsalot is a very unique vilge.”

  I thought about what she said. That sounded like a very nice philosophy to live by. “Have you travelled a lot?” I asked.

  Momma smiled. “When I was a younger bun, yes. Now that I’m an old dy, I’ve found the desire to go out and explore has lessened somewhat.”

  “So, you had a bunch of adventures?” I asked.

  “Oh yes. Plenty. Though they were a little closer to home. I’ve been to the Tres, and through the Hoofbreaker woods, I traveled east and south too.” Momma stretched her back. “Should we tinue?” she asked.

  I nodded and stretched just like she did. It felt good to make my back pop-pop after moving so much. Most of the time though, there wasn’t... well, time, to stretch before a fight.

  “Momma?” I asked as I thought of something. “Do you think I bee strong too? Like you.”

  “Oh?” she asked. “Of course. It’s oo te to bee stronger. Is there a reason you want to improve yourself?”

  “Yeah, of course. I o help my friends. I ’t do that if I’m weak. Well, that’s irely true. You don’t o be strong to be a good friend. Hugs are hugs, after all, but if we’re going to be helping the World, and going on big advehen I o be able to watch out for them, right?”

  “That’s a good attitude to have,” Momma agreed. “And yes, I think you have plenty of ces to grow stronger. Just keep in mind that martial strength isn’t the greatest thing there is. I have a couple of more bat-orientated csses, but they’re not the ones I rely on the most.”

  “They’re not?” I asked.

  She shook her head. “hat’s my Mom css.”

  There was a Mom css? Wait, no, of course there was. “That sounds really nice,” I said.

  “It's a good css to have,” she agreed. “I’ve evolved it once or twice, so now it’s at Greater Grand Mom, but it started a little simpler than that. Knowing how to kiss boo boos better, and how to give good hugs is invaluable.”

  “I don’t think I want to be a mom just yet,” I said. “I couldn’t do that and adve the same time.”

  She ughed. “No, I would hope not. Give yourself a few years to find a nice beau with good ears.”

  Good ears? That was weird, but I chose not to ent. It was likely a bun thing.

  “Alright,” I said. “So, we o find this big sce thing, right?”

  Momma nodded. “That’s right. Do you feel up to taking the wight we run across?”

  “Sure,” I said. I probably needed a couple more mio rebuild my stamina, but as long as there ause between fights I’d likely be fine. “As long as you’re supervising, I think I should be okay.”

  We pushed deeper into the foggy forest, and did run into a wight. The problem was, it wasn’t alone.

  Momma hummed a discordant hat had me looking around until I spotted a wight croug irees above. Then, with a slight rustle, a sed appeared in a bush off to the side.

  “I thought they only attacked o a time,” I said.

  “Perhaps they’re irely aware of each other. Or they io each go after one of us,” Momma said.

  That made sense. “One each, then?” I asked.

  “Certainly. I’ll take that one.” She pointed up iree where the undead monster seemed ready to leap down. “You get the other one, alright?”

  I nodded and quickly dropped my pad set my spade, ready for a fight.

  The wight above jumped down with a hiss, shadows trailing after it like ghostly fmes and cwed hands spyed wide.

  Momma leapt up, spun around in mid-air, and puhe monster in the head with a fist that burned bright with r fmes.

  The wight sorta just exploded, and Momma nded a little ways away, shaking her hand to dispel the fmes. “Ah, I’m not so young anymore,” she pined.

  I think I had to disagree, and the wight, the very dead one, seemed to be on my side with that.

  The seonster scampered out of the underbrush and scurried towards me on all fours. I set my spade, tug it under my armpit and holding it in pce while I brought my left hand to the side and hid it behind me a little. The monster wouldn’t be able to see me f any spells.

  I started to form the spell I’d practiced the most, the fire-aspect mana warming up my palm as I twisted the magic this way and that.

  The moopped just out of spade-read spped the ground.

  Long, wriggling shadows formed in the air and shed out at me.

  I jumped to the side, kicked off a tree, thehat to jump back towards the wight while extending my arm out towards it with nine spinning fireballs h over it.

  The fireballs unched with sounds like a hose when you jammed your thumb into the opening.

  The wight tried to roll out of their path, but the spray was too wide. A pair of them caught the monster in the side, and g onto the tattered clothes it wore.

  The wight screeched, but instead of rolling to put off the fmes, it charged right at me, arms swinging like mad.

  I parried the first blow, then the sed with the haft of my spade, then, as it pulled back to strike again, I saening and bo on the head with the ft of my shovel.

  The wight wiggled a bit, stunned by the blow, and still very mu fire. “Sorry!” I said as I swung hard and fast.

  Ding! gratutions, you have bonked ‘Wight of Newbining’s Forest, level 14! Bonus Exp was granted for thumping a monster above your level!

  “Woo!” I cheered.

  gratutions! Through repeated as your Matchmaking skill has improved and is now eligible for rank up!Rank D is a free rank!

  “I got a rank up!” I cheered.

  Momma cpped. “Well done! Which skill improved?”

  I grinned over to her, a proud warmth in my tummy. “My Matchmaking skill.”

  The older bun blinked. “Matchmaking? Did you... fancy the wight?”

  “Huh?” I asked. “Matchmaking is for setting things on fire. Well, I guess you could use it for other things.”

  Momma nodded. “I use it for matg up my grandbunnies with cute boys and girls, and as an excuse to meddle in other people’s business.”

  I gave her a look.

  She crossed her arms. “There’s very little to actually do in Hopsalot, I’ll have you know. Meddling is a perfectly acceptable pastime.”

  “Hmph,” I said. “That doesn’t sound like a very hing to do.”

  “Now now, I’m hardly meddling that much. Just nudging things along. You don’t get great-great grand buns without helping your shy great-grand buns find someone good for them.”

  I shook my head. Momma had a bit of a mean side to her after all. Not that I could bme her that much, the little buns were very cute. “Should we keep going?” I asked.

  “Certainly,” she replied.

  We tihrough the forest at a nice, det clip. The brambles and bushes were hard to navigate around, and in some pces trees had fallen, creating big, branchy barriers that we had to find ways around.

  This forest was nothing like those in the movies I’d watched. The ground was all bumpy, and covered in roots and pits where you could easily twist an ankle. Fortunately, Momma and I were both pretty good at jumping over and around obstacles.

  It took a few minutes, but at long st, we ran into what I suspected was a sce.

  The thing was like a big bowl made of t or some sort of shaped sto was big enough around that I could have id down in it and still have some room to spare. That was handy, I was afraid that we were looking for a really small thing that would be easily hidden.

  “So, how do we light it?” I asked as I peeked over the top and looked in. There were some logs and su the inside, with a yer of dried leaves uhem and a few brambles here and there.

  Momma snapped her fingers and a ball of fire hovered over her index. “I suppose like this?”

  She flicked the tiny fireball into the stone basin and it smacked against the leaves and logs within. A momehe fire spread and a pilr of smoke rose out of the basin as the leaves all whooshed and burned.

  It wouldn’t take long for that to transfer over to the logs.

  “Nice!” I said. “Victory hug?”

  Momma chuckled and opened her arms wide a moment before I crashed into her. I led my head in the crook of her neck while she did the same. I wa to be a quick hug, but Momma was warm, and she felt a lot like... well, like a mom.

  I didn’t sniffle or anything, but Momma did tighten the hug and patted my back. “There, there, you’re a good bun, aren’t you?” she muttered.

  I nodded a little.

  Did it really have to take a hug for me to realize how much I missed my mom?

  Ding! For doing a Special A in lih your Css, you have unlocked the skill: Hugging!

  I ughed and pulled out of the hug, with only a bit of reluce. “Thanks, Momma,” I said.

  “No problem,” she replied easily. “Should we keep going?”

  “Yeah!” I said. I used a bit of ing magiy face, just to make sure it was nid . “Let’s find the brazier.”Hugging, Rank F - 04%The ability to hug. Your profid instincts fging have improved! Hug harder, hug better.

  I ughed and skipped ahead.

  We only ran across one more wight in the following minutes, ohat was tucked under a pile of leaves and who attacked us with shadow-y spears from every dire without ing out of hiding. Momma got tired of dug and weaving around, so she ended up flipping over to it and crushing it with a stomp that made the trees rattle.

  A minute or so ter the fog started to lift and the woods lightened.

  “It seems that our panions have lit the st of the fires,” Momma said.

  She led us over to the far wall, where the entrao the area was supposed to be, without so much as hesitating. Her sense of dire had to be really good.

  When I found my friends all gathering up he gate to the floor, I ran ahead and crashed into them with a happy hug.

  I had to get grinding, of course!

  “Get off me, you moron!” Amaryllis whined.

  “I’m just gettier!” I said.

  “That doesn’t make sense, you damned oaf!”

  ***

  RavensDagger

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