The Power of Painting in Year 3,000 Part 5

After a stupendous battle like THAT we all had to take some time to breathe and absorb our surroundings. We hiked a big trek through the Foggy forest and found ourselves half way there to Mrs. Hardware’s shop, where we would find Augusto and another elder from the village. I kept thinking about grandma Italia and her button statement as the awkward silence blew through the emptiness in my noggin.

3.14 looks at me as if I’m stupid and interjects my thoughts with, “Okay neanderthal, it means that he has powerful magic contained in his buttons. He’s the one of the greatest protectors of our village, he writes spell incantations on his buttons and can practically give any button any function that he wants. He also likes to make button sculptures in his spare time.”

Wow the similarities! He must be related to Andrew, I thought.

Ignoring the annoying tone and belittling words from a certain flat mechanical cartoon; I asked, "That's interesting so his buttons can do anything?"

"Why, yes you halfwit. He creates booby traps for Trolls and other mutated beings that decide to make their way to our village. He also is currently working with Mrs. Hardware, our Queen Bee with a project that could possibly help us fight the Cona Vights with his buttons," said the pessimistic Cogbit.

I replied, “Alright. So who is Mrs. Hardware?”

“She is one of our most creative and energetic elders. She has every tool known to mankind, can produce tools or hardware within a matter of seconds and is a queen when it comes to organizing. Although, if I’m being completely honest, she moves like a worker bee and buzzes around so much that you will experience the after effects of a hurricane when you leave her place,” said the informative Cogbit.

I ask yet another question, “I’m guessing she also got a super boost due to the spell. So what's her abilities?”

A tired battle champion interrupted me, “Slow down there, pops. It’ll be easier for her to explain to you herself. We’ve got another half-day trek before we reach Mrs. Hardwares shop and it’s getting late. We should set up camp.”

CJ plants his roots into the ground and within half a second he formed a deluxe-sized tent made out of interwoven branches and leaves. He then sprouted a barricade around the tent and spat out logs for a campfire.

Italia flaps her wings rapidly and asks, “Ohhh CJ~ Could you be a dear?”

CJ responds after planting his arms in the ground, “Sure thing, ma.”

Multitudes of broccoli, cabbages, cauliflower, carrot and corn stalks grow from the ground. Italia’s healing tentacles extend in a blink of an eye and harvest all of the vegetables. 3.14 snapped her fingers and the logs for the pit caught fire from the aftersnap spark. Everybody gathered around the fire and then 3.14 pulled out a flat square with a button. The Cogbit presses the button and the square turns 3-dimensional. She pulls out all sorts of cooking wares and hands them to Italia. After 2 minutes passed Italia had prepared and cut all the vegetables, transitioning into cooking mode. A total of 10 minutes pass by through this entire experience, and before me are plates full of veggie stir fry with more than enough for leftovers.

We ate at the campfire and CJ spoke about an experience he shared with 3.14 as a story. 3.14 gets all red again and turns quiet.

The night was filled with hearty laughter until Granny Italia squealed out a sympathetic yawn.

“Okay kiddos. Let’s get some shut eye and move on an early start tomorrow,” Italia said.

CJ formed beds with mattresses made out of spongy leaves for everyone in the tent and said, “I agree, ma. An early root gets the best soil.”

Everyone started to go to bed, when all of a sudden I was struck by Nature's call. Oh shoot I hope it's okay for me to pee on a tree, I thought.

Concurrently… a certain one-fifth of Corvak was stomping and storming through Foggy Forest, sucking the life away from everything that came close to its body.

The belligerent portion of Corvak yells out a war-cry , “BAH!! AUSTRALIA SURE FEELS LIKE A HOT-SPOT! I CAN JUST SMELL THE RANCID JOY ON A COUPLE OF COCKROACHES CLOSEBY!!!”

The berserker begins to run full speed ahead leaving behind a trail of death in every foot-step.

Meanwhile… I acquired some distance from the campsite in case my number 1 turned into a number 2. I found a nice bushy spot that doesn’t look too cognizant.

*A piddly-diddly sound leaks out*

Ahhh… This might be Year 3,000 but it seems the world is still my toilet, I thought. Immediately after I put my junk away; I felt a chill run down my spine and a threatening shout, “RAHHHH!!!!!”

A shadowy, amoebic figure yelled out, “I THOUGHT I SMELLED A RAT!!! BAHAHAHAHA GET READY TO BE MY PLAYTHING, YOU DIAPER RASH!!!!”

“Oh dear god is that what I think it is? I’m not ready for this, what am I-” I said before falling on my knees and choking on whatever air I could grasp.

Creeping death gets closer and blurts out a horrid statement, “BOO HOO HOO WHAT A STINKY PIECE OF FODDER. YOU’RE ONLY EXPERIENCING ONE-FIFTH OF MY POWER AND THIS IS ALL YOU GOT!?!?”

Trying to catch a sliver of my breath; in the spur of the moment I remembered that Italia gave me some of that healing cake to-go. If I can recover my breath then I can at least try to run away, I thought. I tried to grasp the cake in the pocket of my bag but it was for null.

“AH-HA TRASH!! WHAT ARE YOU REACHING FOR,” Corvak hollers as he shoots out a piece of himself towards me. That piece transformed into a bat, grabbed the cake from my bag and returned it, to the bigger portion of Corvak. “

The pugnacious Corvak said,“TRYING TO GET THE RUN ON ME, HUH? WHAT, IS THIS CAKE GOING TO GIVE YOU SUPER POWERS?”

The hostile being before me swallowed my only hope in one gulp.

Corvak yells gleefully, BAHAHAHAHAHA!!! THERE’S NO HOPE FOR YOU NOW!!!”

The Cona Vight gets so close to me that my lungs start feeling like they’re getting wringed out from the inside. The berserker stops for a moment and starts touching their stomach.

A questionable sound blurts out, “...Oh?”

The antagonistic figure starts bubbling like boiling lava and starts shrieking out, “WHAT?!? WHY YOU?! YOU TRICKED ME, YOU PIECE OF-”

Radiant light starts streaking out like cracks and Corvak implodes, disintegrating every shred of darkness that held his being together.

I started coughing like crazy and finally caught my breath. It took me a moment to recollect myself but I finally got back on my feet. As I start to make way towards camp, Ako approaches me.

Bombarding me with questions; he asks me, “Are you okay my beloved God-son? I realized you were gonna for a while, did you happen to eat too much food? Or did it run through you faster than you thought it would?”

“ Ugh. You don’t even want to know what I just experienced. I’ll talk about it later,” I replied.

“Okay that sounds great brother,” Ako said while guiding us to the campsite.

Completely disregarding my previous encounter, we went to bed and peacefully counted sheep until sleep fell.

A tranquil half a day passes after we enjoyed a serene breakfast cooked by Italia. Throughout the whole trek; Ako, 3.14, and CJ share their life experiences and we all bonded like a family.

We finally made it to Mrs. Hardwares workshop and it looked like… a giant wooden bee?

A field of Marigold flowers surrounded her domain and a thought popped up.

Oh sweet! I’m supposed to get some for Charlie. I walked up to grab some and a flat Cogbit arm extended in front of me.

“Hold on imbecile,” 3.14 annoyingly said.

Her hand starts to spin like a rotating blade and chops a whole segment of the field at the base. She pulls out her flat box with her other hand. She collects all of the flowers with one hand and with the other she opens her flat box. 3.15 put all of the cut flowers into the box and then closed it.

...How did all of those flowers fit into such a tiny container?

Reading my thoughts; 3.14 said, “Don’t worry, I know exactly what you’re thinking of. This box of mine has the power to turn anything I put into it 2-dimensional. Whenever something enters the realm of 2-D, time will not affect it. These flowers and our leftovers will never go bad. As for why I cut so many of them for you… Let's just say that the predictions in my calculations are telling me that we’re going to need more than you think”

A delicious cinnamony, cacao mixed scent wafted by our sniffers right after that statement and the smell was getting closer.

A kind voice greeted us,“Hello, would you like some coffee?”

He was fully dressed in...button armor?

“Why hello, sweetie pie! Everybody; this is my beloved grandson, Augusto. Not only is he talented when it comes to buttons, but he makes the best coffee! And would you look at that? He’s right on time with freshly made coffee,” Italia affectionately said.

“Thank you for the sweet introduction grandma. I’ve been working on creating gear that can hold the Okuutuu Imola’s power with our queen bee. The only thing is that we don’t know if it will do anything until we face a Cona Vight and unfortunately that would put everyone at risk, so… I don’t know if what we’re working on is even worth it. You must be Patrick, or at least you fit the description that Ako made,” Augusto said.

I asked, “So what does being talented with buttons mean? I see that you have a plethora of buttons but what exactly are these talents/magic that Italia and 3.14 speak about?”

Augusto let out an enthusiastic chuckle that felt contagious and stated, “I know when people talk about buttons seriously that it sounds silly, but these buttons of mine are no joke. I’m a button alchemist and I have the power to grant any kind of ability I want to a button. It does require energy to hold onto the intention and transmute it onto the button of my desire; but with the help of a spell insignia it cuts energy costs in half and amplifies the button's powers. I’ve turned plenty of buttons into booby traps for trolls and other mutant hostile beings.

Italia spent a minute showing off her grandson up until the last moment that she was interrupted “My sweet grandson can be very protective of us which is good for us and bad for treacherous beings! He’s nicer than a chocolate chip cookie but when push comes to shove he’ll show his teeth. Whatever you do, don’t your dare pu-”

Augusto interrupts and wags his finger, “Ah-ah-ah. No grandma, I'm the only one who can say that. Whatever you do, don’t push my buttons.”

A slight moment of fear prickled through the goosebumps on my skin; but like the dog that I am, I shook it off. In that same moment, so did Ranger.

“Ah that reminds me I think I saw a Cona Vight in the woods and I almost died but when he digested Italia’s chocolate cake, he imploded. Do you think this information would be helpful in your research?”

“You said what? My God-son; I didn’t know that this happened to you, I just thought you had to do a number 2,” Ako idiotically said.

Irked by Ako’s statement; I replied, “No. I was just too tired to talk about it.”