Sora Brontarion
I was trapped for twenty minutes in Mira's earthly confinement before I broke free. Looking up at the dark clouds, I couldn't help but wonder if my divination had failed me. As of now, Mira was not an ally; she was dead set on relying on herself for success. I found it honorable but stupid. At least she was kind enough to leave a singular goat behind.
Pulling my hair down to cover my face from the camera, I walked over to the dead animal. Annoyed, the camera decided to record from a different angle. It wasn't enough that I failed my first self-assigned task; having it broadcast was another thing altogether.
With the goat now in my dimensional storage, I returned to our base of operations. Jace was calmly lying on his cloud still. Despite his current state, he was busy. Faint currents of electricity were laid throughout our campsite.
A foolproof security system that relayed sensory information back to him. Most starbound wouldn't notice before it was too late. A Brontarion staple, the first technique we learned from our father.
"Jace, did we have any company while I was gone?"
No response… like usual. There were other ways to get his attention. I started bringing out the meat I secured from my dimensional storage. The sharp smell reached his nose, causing him to stir on top of his cloud. When his eyes finally opened, the slow and methodical movements of my brother were no more. He resembled a bumblebee harvesting pollen.
"Sora, where did you find all this?"
"Believe it or not, they were just lying in the open woods."
"That's a little strange. You sure it wasn't a trap?" My teeth ground against each other at the mention of the word trap.
"Don't worry, Jace, I was careful. But you never answered my question."
"Which was?"
"Come on now, I know you weren't sleeping. I could see the currents of electricity feeding into you. Don't bother lying, you know it won't work on me."
"Fine. Yes, we had company. No one came close to our area, but there were some lurkers. Hard to tell if it was one or many," my brother said as he ran sparks of electricity through the meat.
"Jace. Where exactly did you sense them?"
"Down the river."
"Down the river we go then," I said as I gestured for Jace to follow me
"Sparks Sora. I'm hungry. Maintaining all these currents takes a lot of energy. How about we go after?"
"No. We can eat after. We either gain a totem or a comrade."
Opening up my dimensional storage, I snatched the food away from Jace and threw it all in there, away from his grubby fingers. Leaving him no choice but to follow my demands.
Riding on his cloud, he led us down the path alongside the turbulent river. Back home, bodies of water were few and far between. We were from an inland region, raised to be wary of water because of its unpredictability.
I crashed into the back of Jace, snapping me out of my trance. I didn't need to sense emotions. His face said everything. His usual whimsical expression, gone. Instead, the eye of the storm began to form. His cloud darkened, shifting into metallic steel grey.
"Jace, what is it?"
"I don't know, but it's here again, and it's close."
Goosebumps manifested. My hair frizzed. I felt like prey.
"Sora, get away from the water now."
Electricity radiating from my legs, I dashed away from the riverbank. "What was it, Jace?"
"Look closely."
Focusing my gaze on the water, something was out of place. An invisible force was fighting against the current. There seemed to be a bulge peeking through the surface, water streaming down, giving it shape. "What do you think it could be?"
"No clue, but it freaks me out."
That made two of us. I wondered if it was the same creature that killed the goats. I began to follow the bulge. It paid my brother and I no mind. "It has to know we are following it. Why doesn't it lunge out and attack us?"
"Sora…."
"Don't worry, if it wanted to attack us, I think it would have by now."
Absorbing the electrical impulses from the bulge in the river, I gained new insight into our situation.
Fear hijacked my psyche; my heartbeat was like thunder trapped in a cage. Seconds felt like hours.
I thought it was a fish, but the emotions felt too sentient, too familiar. Then I realised– it was a student.
The student was running. Empathy flared; I couldn't ignore someone in need.
Channeling cosmic energy into my astral tattoo, I tried to use the ability of my second node. Electricity now jumping in my palm, I focused on pouring my intentions into the current, hoping to calm the student.
"Sora.. I think that might be too aggressive."
"Shut it, I'm concentrating right now."
Locking back onto the invisible force moving upstream, I aimed at where the target would be. Within a split second, everything ceased. Emotions muted. Water still, Jace holding his breath, we both stood paralyzed, waiting for an answer.
Then the river's surface began to bulge, rippling as something pushed through. First came the long seafoam green hair, drifting like kelp in a current.
Then skin, a polished chestnut, coupled with a pair of avoidant teal eyes that broke free to the surface.
The human was a short and slender young girl, unaffected by the water she emerged from. Hesitant, she took several steps onto the riverbank, cautiously watching our movements.
"Was that you?" she asked, pointing directly at me.
I paused. "Yes, it was."
"Invasive like the coral back home," the girl muttered to herself.
"You were in my head. It's annoying when things intrude on my thoughts." Then four ethereal tentacles sprouted from her spine.
My brother and I shared a faint glance.
"I didn't mean to intrude. You seemed in distress. I was trying to help. What were you running away from?"
The girl just stared, her ethereal tentacles flowing freely in the air. My attempt to change her emotion wore off quickly. Before we knew it, we were being attacked, large ethereal limbs racing towards us.
"And you said little Miss Squiddy wouldn't attack," Jace yelled, commanding his cloud to fly higher into the air.
Rolling away from the upcoming strike, "Sparks Jace, my bad. Are you gonna help?"
"No. I prefer not to waste my energy."
A deep sigh left my body as I narrowly dodged the sweep from her extended limbs. Cloaking myself in electricity, I charged at the girl with increased speed. Her tentacles lashed out like independent predators.
Attacks came from angles I never expected—a sweep at my feet from one, a stab to my shoulder from another. The angrier the girl got, the faster the tentacles moved.
Even with my enhanced reaction speed, I barely escaped the strikes. A slight lull in the tentacle's movements created an opening I needed. Planting hard on the soggy soil beneath me, I lunged toward her.
My flight path changed, as one of her ethereal arms tightened around my ankles.
"Jace, any help?" I asked, hanging upside down as another tentacle was going for me.
"You got it, Sor."
With no other options, I increased the voltage of the lighting coating my body. The tentacles loosened their grip and retreated to the girl. Gathering my breath, a faint smell of cooked meat loomed in the air, followed by obnoxious smacking. It was Jace, leaning over his cloud, eating fish.
The girl looked up at him, her face frowned, as her stomach let out a deep growl. I knew exactly what I needed to do.
Within seconds, I was in reach of the girl. Her eyes grew wide, the same sensation of fear leaking into my psyche again. Before her tentacles could race back to me, I placed my lightning-charged hands on her shoulders.
"Calm down," I whispered as the current spread all over her body. Her tentacles faded away. I reached into my dimensional storage and handed her a piece of meat I had cooked earlier.
The sensation of delight flooded into my psyche. The girl devoured multiple pieces before her body let her rest. Slumped on the ground, she was finally subdued.
It took her thirty minutes to wake back up. But she found herself in a cage made of lightning. Jace insisted.
"Sora, squiddy is up."
Shaking my head in annoyance, I walked over to the cage and sat right in front of her.
"My name is Sora. and Yours." Hesitant, the girl waited before answering, continuing to gather her bearings.
"Nerena."
"Nice to meet you, Nerena. Sorry about the cage, we are just being cautious." She nodded, scanning the environment.
"Care to tell me what you were running away from, and why it had you so frightened?"
"I ran into a group of about ten. They demanded I give them all my totems… I did. Knowing I couldn't fight them all. They noticed I could blend into the environment and offered me a chance to join their team. I denied them, something they didn't take well. So they tried to capture me so that I wouldn't get in their way in the future."
"Sparks. Do you remember what they looked like?"
"I remember one, he was tall, blonde hair, muscular build. green eyes."
"I know who he is," my brother said.
Looking back at him, I saw his calm demeanor resurface, but his cloud remained the color of cold steel. I knew who he was thinking about. It was Stravos.