157 Tale of Tales (1/2)

\”You sure you want to know about that ghost story?\” he asked me again. \”Don't want to put too much pressure on your underdeveloped shoulders.\”

\”I… I need to know what all the fuss is about,\” I answered.

Luca, sitting next to me on the couch, had accepted a bowl of fruit from the pixie that had stood up from her chair to place elf tea on the table in front of us. I didn't touch it. My attention was focused entirely on the Lord of Star's amused face.

I've heard rumors about you, kiddo… unsubstantiated rumors about you wielding a sense gift,\” he said, his eyebrow arching. \”I guess those rumors are true if you're so desperate to hear about the old knights.\”

I nodded. There was no point hiding it. Being a wielder of a sense gift himself, Chris Pint could probably tell if I was lying.

He proved me right by sniffing the air in front of him and then saying, \”I smell the truth on you.\”

Chris Pint tapped on his nose with a finger.

\”My gift is called Starry Savvy. It's the power of the sense of smell,\” he revealed.

\”Last night, in the fight against those other two generals, you took a whiff of scents from your vials,\” I remembered.

Chris Pint nodded. Then he pulled out a vial from his pocket and showed it to me and Luca.

The tiny vial contained black powder inside it.

\”Ever heard of the influence of fragrance to the brain?\” he asked.

\”Fragrance can affect brain activity and cognitive function. What a person smells can affect mood, stress, and even physical capabilities,\” I answered quickly.

Chris Pint raised an eyebrow at me. \”Are you some kind of a nerd, Dean?\”

\”You have no idea,\” Luca answered between gulps of berries and grapes.

Chris Pint laughed while my face flushed red.

\”You're right,\” he answered after he was done laughing at my expense. \”Scents have the power to affect brain chemistry, and that is exactly how my gift works. Different scents have different effects on me.\”

He dangled the vial of black powder in front of me.

\”The scent of boom dust jumps my brain into overdrive, helping me to predict my enemy's actions like I can smell their intentions,\” he explained. \”Flight or fight responses give off their own scent… fear, anger, killing fervor, I can smell all of it.\”

He pulled out another vial from his pockets, and I recognized it as the red vial from last night's fight.

\”This is ogre's blood,\” he revealed. \”A whiff of this temporarily removes my physical limiter, giving me a hundred percent control over my body's physical strength.\”

\”How does that work?\” Luca asked.

\”The brain puts a natural limit on the body so we don't overstress it and it doesn't break down,\” I answered almost automatically.

\”Nerd,\” Luca said at the same time as Chris Pint replied with, \”Nerd!\”

\”Your gift doesn't function in the same way mine does,\” I said in an effort to change topics.

\”You have the gift of sight, don't you?\” he guessed.

\”How'd you figure that out?\” I wondered aloud.

He picked up the pipe on the table and lit it. Then he took a long puff before answering my question.

A blue-tinged smoke billowed out of his mouth when he said, \”Easy. I'm smell. That prude, Dany, is taste, and that bastard whose name I refuse to speak less he hears it is obviously hearing. And everyone knows that the boy who could touch is dead and gone. So it just makes sense that you'd be sight.\”

\”You've met the other sense wielders?\” I asked curiously.

\”Met them. Fought them. Sipped cups of friendship with them and then beat them up,\” he said with a guffaw. \”We tend to run each other a lot. You'll meet them soon enough so don't ask me about those idiots. I'd rather not spoil the surprise.\”

\”Why are we such a big deal, though?\” I pressed. \”Why do people speak about sense knights with such awe and reverence?\”

\”Besides the fact that we can trounce anyone who picks a fight with us, you mean?\” he reminded me.