“Aha! This is dirt, and yeah, it's purple and yellow. Hold on…” The party heard Tesilim say in their minds, before silence rained as the elf was apparently focusing on something.

  “Is that a foot? Is that why I feel so heavy? WHO’S FOOT IS THAT!? It's a golden metal boot!? ROSE! MOVE YOUR FOOT!!” Tesilim yelled, causing everyone else to wince slightly as he shouted loudly in their minds.

  It took Rose a second to register Tesilim's words, but once she did, she took a step back, moving her left foot, and everyone else watched as she did so. The issue was that as they stared at the spot where her foot had just been, they couldn't see anything out of the ordinary. As one could expect, the ground of a forest was littered with sticks, leaves, small rocks, and general dirt. However, aside from the dirt being yellow and purple, there was nothing else there, unless Tesilim was a stick. Thankfully, their curiosity was soon resolved.

  “Wrong foot!” Tesilim told Rose, having noticed the movement by the shift in weight, but also because his sphere had reached its limit, allowing him to see a few feet from his location.

  This time around, Rose was able to react faster than she had previously, and her right foot swiftly changed position. With her foot no longer in the way, everyone could easily spot and stare at a very smooth, flat, and round rock. The rock, like the rest of the area, was colored yellow and purple, but since there was nothing else on the ground, they were easily able to distinguish it from the surrounding area.

  “Tesilim, are you a rock? Also, how are you able to see us now?” Their research questioned as he got ready to start writing down information, and everyone else listened intently.

  “I am indeed a rock. A pretty cool rock if I do say so myself. Granted, there are a number of downsides, even though I do have some spatial awareness sight thing,” Tesilim answered, still unbothered by the fact that he was a rock, and no, he did not feel any calming magic at work; he just saw no point to freaking out, he was a rock, for now, hopefully.

  “Please, for the love of the gods, explain things a little bit better,” Alyx told Tesilim, the words grinding out as the gnome tried not to lash out.

  “Alright, fine, so basically, I can see, but only a few feet from me, and only in a sphere, though it doesn’t go through the ground, or clothes, considering I couldn’t see Rose’s toes earlier. And yes, I can see color, but aside from that, I have a dull sense of touch, no hearing, and no smell, which is sad because I can’t smell what the rock is cooking!” Tesilim finished explaining, his last words sounding like some sort of joke that the others failed to recognize, and it only caused an awkward silence.

  As everyone stood there, staring at Tesilim the rock, their minds were still in disbelief. Only Alyx was active, as he wrote down everything he was learning. Eventually, after the silence had stretched for a few seconds, Lili finally moved. She walked over to Tesilim’s location and bent down to pick him up.

  “Oh, hey gorgeous. Hey! Be careful where you touch this rock; it's sensitive,” Tesilim told her, adding a “Just kidding.” When he saw her hesitate.

  “You really turned in a rock,” Lili stated as if the words would help her accept the fact. Honestly, every time she thought she was over the surprises this elf of hers could bring her, something even more ridiculous happened.

  “Yes, I am a rock. Why are we still on this? Also, why is everyone so quiet?”

  Hearing the elf turned rock’s words finally brought everyone out of the state of absolute madness their minds had been in as they questioned reality. However, right as they came out of this state, with Alyx even finishing up on a few notes, they were hit with yet another mental attack, as Arelion began to chuckle, the chuckle eventually turning into a full-on laugh. A laugh that the party had not expected, and was by far something they didn’t think they would ever see from the half-elf. Even Tesilim could feel the genuine enjoyment of the elf as his usually controlled mental energies flowed through their telepathic link.

  The shock of Arelion's laughter didn’t last long, and soon everyone else joined in as the twins' happiness spread through their link, pushing them over the edge from confusion and disbelief into the sheer stupidity of what they were experiencing.

  After laughing a little bit too hard, the party got themselves together, considering that they were still in the middle of the forest and were completely geared up. In fact, they could only imagine, and something that had made them laugh particularly hard was how weird it would be for anyone to see them as they were. They were a group of adventurers standing on top of a purple and yellow spot in the middle of a forest. However, that could be written off as some sort of spell or magical event they were investigating. Where things got really worrying was that they were all fully armored, and one of them was holding a purple-and-yellow rock, which they were all basically staring at while laughing their asses off.

  This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

  Anyway, after regaining control of their laughing session, the party returned to the matter at hand, which involved questioning and generally planning to annoy Tesilim.

  “Wait, so you can’t feel anything?” Lili asked as she rubbed Tesilim the rock with her hands.

  “Not really, no, which is making me sad right about now. I am going to see if I can do something about it, well, depending on how long I stay as a rock.”

  “So, if we drop you, then you won’t feel it?” Alyx questioned.

  “Uh, I don’t think so, but let's not do that, yeah?” Tesilim said, but heard no confirmation.

  “Tesilim, you know, now that I am looking at you properly, you would make a great rock for skipping,” Rose commented out of nowhere.

  “Maybe, but we won’t be doing that either, right?” Tesilim asked, and was once again met with mental silence, prompting him to ask again, his tone filled with worry, “Right???”

  “What about breathing? Do you need to breathe? What would happen if we put you inside a bag?” Arelion said, receiving an approving look from Alyx, only to be shut down by Lili just as quickly.

  “Uh, no, you will not be putting my boyfriend, even as a rock, into a spatial storage.”

  “Thanks, beautiful, I know I could count on you,” Tesilim told her, and received a pat of assurance, though he completely missed the glint in her eyes as he was still getting used to processing the information from his sphere.

  “Hey, Tesilim, can you use magic?” Alyx asked, getting closer to Tesilim to ensure he could see if there was a magical reaction, if or when the elf turned rock did something.

  “Hmm, hadn’t thought of that, hold on.”

  What followed was the party hearing as Tesilim grunted and chanted in their minds, supposedly trying to use magic. Thankfully, this was cut short when the resident scholar, seeing Tesilim not paying attention, slapped Lili’s hand, causing the rock to fall.

  “I saw that, you fucking small-handed bastaaaarrrrrddddd!” Tesilim yelled as he fell, the elf ensuring to slowly lower his voice as he fell, almost as if he was actually falling from a great height. Of course, he wasn’t, and a moment later, during which Lili could have totally caught him, Tesilim landed with a comical plop. And only a few seconds later, Lili began to bend over to pick him back up.

  “Don’t touch me with your filthy hands, woman!” Tesilim yelled with mocking indignation, and Lili immediately stopped and slowly reversed her movement.

  “Did you feel any pain?” Alyx said, uncaring about the elf's dramatics.

  “I am not telling you shit! Also, I was joking! Please pick me up, I love your hands!” Tesilim yelled, switching from anger to the tone of a boyfriend who was trying to atone for his sins. Dumb sins, but sins nonetheless.

  “Tesilim, now we can get you back for the dragon incident. What do you guys say, should we drop him into a pile of poop?” Arelion asked the group with an evil smirk.

  “I think we should, and then maybe we can skip him over a lake,” Rose added, agreeing with Arelion, but with rock skipping still on her mind.

  “Sounds good to me, we can even play catch on our way back to the city,” Alyx agreed, adding his own game to the mix.

  “Yeah, right! There is no way my beautiful, caring, lovely girlfriend would let you do all of that, right, darling?” Tesilim stated, really trying to sugar up his girl, hoping she would keep him safe.

  “Nah, that sounds like fun. Here catch!” Lili said as she threw Tesilim the rock over to Rose, who intentionally missed the catch.

  “I fucking hate you guys!” Tesilim screamed in their minds as he flew through the air, only to land a few feet behind Rose.

  “Oops, sorry about that, Tesilim,” The redhead told him without a shred of actual sincerity.

  “Tesilim, did that actually hurt or?” A certain gnome asked, still trying to get some information from the elf.

  “You will never know!” Tesilim told the researcher.

  “Alright, throw him to me,” Alyx said with a sigh as he put away his notes for the moment.

  And so began the great game of catch Tesilim the rock, while the party slowly made their way back to Wildwood City. Though naturally, they weren’t perfect, and sometimes they would “drop” the rock because someone threw it too fast, or people were just clumsy.

  “Ahhhhhhh! This sucks! I am getting dizzy!”

  “That’s alright, just let me know if you have to throw up,” Lili told him.

  “Actually, Tesilim, are you able to throw up?” Alyx queried, only for Tesilim to cuss him out, which turned out to be a meaningless thing as the elf gave up moments later, promising to answer any questions as long as they stopped throwing him around. A deal the party eventually took, after all, in a forest full of rocks and stones, it was only natural for another rock to go missing.

  “No! I am over here!”

  “Where is over here!?” Rose yelled at him mentally.

  “By the purple flower, right next to a pile of grass!”

  “Tesilim, shut up, you aren’t helping,” Arelion told him, a request the elf had quickly ignored.

  “For fucks sakes, I am a purple and yellow rock, how hard could this be!?”

  “Are you sure you didn’t bounce off a tree? Because I don’t see you over where I threw you,” Alyx asked for the third time.

  “Alyx, I swear to god, for the last time. I DID NOT BOUNCE OFF OF ANYTHING! I am still over here! It's not like I can grow legs and walk away! I am a god damn rock!”

  “Guys, stop messing with him; he is clearly right over there,” Lili stated, the confidence in her voice helping Tesilim to calm down, even if he didn’t know where she was.

  “Uh, guys, that squirrel is looking at me funny,” Tesilim told the group only moments after Lili had spoken. “Guys! It's touching me!”

  “Stop messing around, Tesilim,” Rose told him, even as she sat with her back to a tree, staring at the sky, enjoying a slight snack with the rest of the party, all of them knowing exactly where he was.

  “No! Seriously, I think… Guys! It has me! Help!”

  A few moments later, Lili, who had looked away for a little bit, turned her gaze back to where Tesilim the rock had been, only to see a rather large squirrel running up a tree. More importantly, it had a palm-sized Tesilim the rock wrapped with its tail.

  “Oh shit!” The white haired elf said out loud as she dropped her half-eaten sandwich and sprinted after the squirrel, the rest of the party following soon after.