Putting the stones up for sale wasn't even that hard; it helped that Sam charged pennies for them. Literally, he did not need more money. he had enough market awareness, and he thinks someone taught him about this. "Man, I want my fucking memories back."
He knew the price would draw attention, good and bad; at least a few curious people would be drawn to try it, and then someone would find a use for the rocks. The minimal time frame of this was 6 months to a year.
As for the longer time period, apparently, Sam was 400 years old, so he could apparently wait for someone to figure something out or himself to figure something out. he wasn't that much of a research type witch. 'if worse comes to worst I can call my teacher... whose probably still alive.
'if not for her incredible magical and herb knowledge, then the fact she would fist fight them if given a choice.'
The harder task that followed was going back to school and feeling with people. Worse, the witch queen, 'Ugh, I've been on TV several times. I wonder how many of them are going to try to be my friend for a bit of fame. He didn't need more friends; he was content with Daniel. Plus, knowing his real age kind of hit Sam; he was probably going to outlive a lot of people on this island.
This thought might have plagued him a bit, but the helper was forcing some coping methods on him. Also, Sam reminded d himself that while his friend's body might wither, souls were much more durable.
Still, he was going to spend time with his slightly directly challenged friend; right now, they were walking through the city, letting Daniel's cursed sense of direction lead them through the town. Not only did they find it fun, but it brought them to a place they would never normally find.
Like a place where the ground gave into the sewer, where the slightly glowing fungus was shining out of the hole in many changing bright colors. which was being used for a club of small sewer creatures." Man, those rats can dance?" Sam commented before one rat noticed them and started speaking very fast.
"Slow down, my rat. Isn't that good," Sam replied, and the rat did slow down. Sam nodded before pulling his head out of the light that was coming down the hole." I was in their light," Sam stated.
"I'm not surprised that you can speak, rat, but why do you?" Sam paused for a moment, trying to see if he remembered that part... he did, "Rats live just about everywhere, and their language is usually the same despite local dialects. so it was a good language to learn when I was traveling. They are also easily bribed."
In response to his statement, a rat then a small cup at him; Sam let it hit him before squeaking way beyond what the average human should be capable of. Whatever he said to the rats, many of them took offense to that and started trying to climb out of the hole. Pausing when Sam growled. Daniel wasn't sure what it was, but it was very deep and made every hair on Daniel's body stand on end.
"You didn't have to move," Sam looked up to his friend, who had moved to the alley wall. A thought away from scrambling up it, "I'm sorry, what was that sound?"
"a predator, the predator!" he said like it answered everything, and to Sam, with his weird ass life, probably did. "right, you don't know what that is... frankly, I don't know what it is either, but nothing has ever hunted me as well as it did." daniel nodded and wondered how dangerous this thing was.
"I think I would win now," Sam said, but he didn't sound so sure, excited maybe. "I think there's is a good chance it's alive, or its descendants are, but I think my chances are a lot better than before. I could make a nice dagger out of its teeth."
"is that necessary?" Daniel asked, and Sam admitted probably not unless it attacked him again. "so what should we do now?"
"wanna hear more about the weird shit I've done?"
"no, I want lunch." they went and got lunch. It was tacos, frost tacos. The sauce was made with a special kind of herb that was so cold it burned. Daniel liked them more than some did,' Remind me of the time I had to walk through the Arctic?'
"what the fuck was I doing in the artic?" he tried to recall more, but nothing came up. He just remembered trudging through snow despite his bits freezing. "well, that explains a few things about me and the cold. I thought it was because of all the ghosts."
"speaking of ghosts, what did you do with the souls you mailed home? by the gods? What kind of sentence is that?"
"a strange one, but currently, I've started setting up things, but there are still a lot of materials that I need to wait to come in. Hopefully, customs don't stop them."
"If I ask more, am I going to be an answer," Sam assured him that jail wouldn't be that bad if they got caught. Not that the items Sam was getting were prison-worthy; at least he remembered them not being that way. The law wasn't his best area of expertise, "scratch that we might need lawyers."
"I have a lawyer, do you not?" Sam paused, trying to think; he thought he had hired someone to be his lawyer. But that had been when he was really physically young, just starting to travel. It's how he got his passport. But that guy was very probably bone now. "Okay, that's a problem," Daniel said after Sam explained this.
"I think you need to talk to my lawyer." Sam laughed before admitting that was a good way to go about it. Away from the serious topics, they continued walking with no real destination. Eventually, decided to get on the train and ride it to the beach.
Neither of them has spent too much time at the beach; Daniel put his shoes in a locker while Sam, who wasn't wearing shoes, just walked out onto the sand. He started a conversation with some crabs. "Oh, what is that about?" he wondered as he watched Sam kick a crab into the ocean. Before, a bunch of crabs worked together and controlled the sand beneath his feet.
"come on, can you do better than that?" Sam shouted, dancing around the attack, literally dancing, swaying his hips to some unheard toon. "I said I'd help you train, but this isn't even warm up." the sand slit into numerous small forms, and Sam still danced.
"Ugh," Daniel groaned, rubbing his neck as he saw how Sam moved his own to avoid a spear of sand to the face. He could have sworn he heard something break, but Sam's head went back in place. Finding a place to work as Sam kept playing with the crabs.
Slowly, Daniel dug out a trench in the sand, using the displaced sand to create the base of a rather large sandcastle. He had finished the first flow when Sam got down with the crabs, all of them having been kicked into the ocean.
Working together with a few runes, they built a scale model scale that was almost as tall as Daniel was. This was the point where Danel wanted to stop the castle," are you carving out houses?" Daniel asked as he watched Sam shape a roof in the sand before their castle." yes, the castle looks lonely." he started as a simple fact." Daniel laughed a bit before joining him.
'He making all kinds,' Daniel thought, watching his friend work. There were all kinds of housing from different countries, and he wasn't sure if they were from the same ear. Some looked like the kind you would find in a museum. The light of the sun danced gracefully on Sam's face as he worked, focused yet a distant look in his eyes. Fingers working delicately to change the sheep of the sand.
A rather spikey-looking house was being made, and Daniel paused in his own work to watch as Sam carved something new. "huh, what kind of house is that?" the question broke the peaceful look on Sam's face, turning to confusion as he turned down to the house. His face was quickly confronted with horror that was reduced to ash under the flames of rage.
Daniel didn't see Sam move, but he knew the house was gone and a fist-sized cart was sitting in the sand; as the sand settled back into the earth, Daniel moved closer to his panting friend. "bad memories?" he asked; Sam blinked focusing back on this time and not the memories that rushed up. Much too clear.
"one I wasn't aware I damaged-" Sitting down, he tried to regulate his heart, but it was still beating too fast that he felt lightheaded. His entire body was tense and ready for a danger that should no longer exist. "I'm guessing worse than that Antarctica thing." Sam nodded, " it can't even compare."
"Mmm, Daniel didn't speak anymore, offering silent comfort to his friend until Sam no longer felt slight-headed. He wouldn't faint if he stood up. "I can't believe I designed a house like that?"
"is a house such a horrible thing?" Daniel gently asked, watching as Sam twitched several times in response to the question. What the hell was the only thing he could think about that. "it's not the house itself; it's what it's a part of and what the house itself means." Daniel asked if he wanted to talk about it.
"that knowledge dies with me!"
"Alright, want to get ice cream or milkshakes?" Sam paused before looking at the work they've done so far," Let's work on this a bit more. Then we'll really have worked up an appetite." Daniel nodded and agreed as they worked to make more houses. Sam sticking to desert-type homes. None of those existed on that little hell on earth. 'no, that's an insult to hell.'
Daniel noticed that Sam viable calmed over the next hour, his shoulder loosening. While he was incredibly curious, he wasn't going to push; nothing small spooked Sam. especially nothing like a house; he cared too much to push right now, nor was there a need.
After leaving a castle and a small village, several animals were observing and commenting on two collected their things and looked for a place to get treats in the light of the setting sun. They found one near the train station that served decently good food. Their selling point was their frozen desserts.
After that, they headed home; Sam spent an hour pushing the lust in the air into some rocks that he had put in a box he had prepared. He made two dozen stones before quitting for the night, 'The power of the lust core is leaking pretty bad right now.' he rubbed the spoke the core and sat, seeing how his power had already affected his skin and everything else."
It diminished over the night, and he was able to do another set out rock that morning. "at this rate, I'll put a few dents in the gathered energy. But I'd rather not go beyond the stones at this point." he vividly remembered how the plants turned out." What about the mimic slimes." he knew they had been busy with the work he'd given them.
"Nah, let's let them keep doing that. Instead, let's play with rocks," he recalled a few things he could do with stone filled with energy. "or I could turn back to the statue." it was more or less done, and he just needed to prime the magic and energy for its purpose.
"at least I already know how well rocks hold lust energy." he thought as he formed runes of pure energy inside the start, focusing a good deal of lust energy into the start of its collection and fueling future absorption.
This action took almost an hour because Sam wanted to do it right. 'after I check in the morning, I'll know if it worked.' For now, he went inside for dinner with what tasted like chicken. Grilled and part of a large green and red salad.
"All right, it looks good," Sam said in the light of the rising sun. Looking at the runes and energy within the state, he could see they had settled nicely, but when he stepped back, looking at the maturity of the status, he noticed something had changed.
Something in the make-up of the sculpture and how it looked slightly. honestly, Sam wasn't that proud of it despite the days he put into it. Cause he put months, possibly years, into other artworks; just looking at it now, he could see several points he could have done better, made lines sharper or smoother. Added a bit more details.
"I'll do them," he decided, walking up to the sculpture with a bit of destructive demonic energy in his hands, using to fix the problems he saw. As he worked, he noticed an interesting thing about the lust energy trying to guide him; well, it wasn't as plain as that. It was more like the energy knew an image it wanted to present in a sense. It was like a cloud or fog instinct.
Sam didn't know how he was supposed to explain this; it was just a thing that was happening due to the nature of the energy and how it was interesting with the sculpture. In the end, not only did it look better from the creature's standpoint, but it also possessed an additional charm that Sam couldn't quite determine now.
He knew it had to do with the energy, what exactly he would have to figure out later. Some kind of lust, he wasn't sure which kind. But he would narrow it down. 'fact, I'll do it with the next sculpture.' he would have to organize for the next chunk of material to his doorstep. he was thinking of a different collar, maybe a few gems or quarts from some business. 'i think I have a business card for that.'
Going to look through all his stuff, he found half a business card that had been bitten in half. There were way too many fights that came to mind where he could have been bitten.