I drifted through the night clouds, my heart thudding with excitement, my smile broad. I have ridden a dragon, I have called forth thunder and lightning, but this—this was the first time I felt truly happy. The thick, slow-moving clouds curled around me, their edges tinged with starlight. The moon had a soft glow over the rolling hills and trees below. There was no hurry, no destination--only the gentle thrill of floating.
After a few playful spins, I dove toward the forest, skimming the tops of old oaks before gliding toward our camp. I spotted Ophelia and eased myself gently to the ground.
She acknowledged my return but seemed more interested in the deer she had hunted that was now roasting over the open flames. She had also insisted we buy drinks from the first village we flew past.
I settled on a tree stump on my side of the fire, cast a detection spell, and summoned by Grimoire. I don't know how far we are from Estonia but we've traveled for two days through unconventional paths, by the help of a map. It wouldn't have been possible with a horse. A horse ridden by two people and controlled by a one-armed woman, stands out too much and would have led to troubles, especially if she will be with me. So I had her dispose of the horse and I carried her instead, and we flew the rest of the way, through the clouds.
It wasn't that much faster than a horse but it was fast enough. At first I was worried about my limits but after the first hour or so I got more relaxed.
I glanced up as Ophelia sliced a chunk from the deer. Of course I didn't expect to be served—she would have if I'd asked—but I didn't particularly care for it.
<Ἐκ ἐμοῦ, πνεύματα πέραν, ἀνάγετε δεσμὰ πολεμούντα>
"Πρόσελθε!"
Two vertebra like tentacle metal chains, coated with ethereal purple smoke, with a sharp spearhead end, popped out from my back. I could feel them hover about an inch above my skin. They stretched towards the roasting meat as I went back to finishing up the page I was reading. It was alive enough to know what I wanted, and doing it without a direct input from me.
One of the blades stabbed into the meat, and the other started cutting around it.
They brought the meat back to me, but I ignored it until I finished reading the page.
I plucked the meat from the blades, and the chains instantly dissipated, just after the tome. A gentle bite into the meat and it came in almost bland.
Ophelia didn't care. She was either incredibly famished, or she was truly enjoying herself. It's been weeks and there hasn't been any noticeable difference or improvement in her physical looks. Her eyes stayed hollow, stark against a face where sharp cheekbones jutted beneath gaunt, scarred skin.
I needed the sustenance so I tried and finished the meat I got, albeit slowly. As I instructed, we both had our hoods on through out, but I think if anyone was paying attention, Grimoire reading would have given me away. I couldn't compromise on that. I am already wasting [Copy] time for this mission, I couldn't give up my reading too. Besides, I would be bored.
I stood up and stretched a bit. At least I sacrificed my speech in its place.
Ophelia looked up, towards the direction where my detection spell had alerted me to a presence. She stood up and went there to check. I didn't try to stop her because even though my spell didn't see it as a threat, I don't know how sophisticated the spell is. She might identify something that escaped my spell.
She disappeared into that direction, and almost immediately came back, casually biting off a chunk of meat. She didn't give me a report. She doesn't like to talk unless it's necessary.
I approached her as she was getting the second wineskin, which I had assumed was for me. She naturally stood and faced me. I reached out for her chin, lifting it gently. Her breath hitched. Her body tensed and I thought I heard her plead, "please", but it was too low and almost inaudible.
I let her go.
"When was the last time you slept?" I asked in a low, casual voice.
"I'm fine" she said in subtle heaves.
"Sleep" I said, turning back to my stump. "We have a few hours to spare. I'll keep watch"
"It is fine" she said, returning to where she sat.
I sat down, conjured my grimoire. "You are useless to me weak" I said flatly, then added sternly, "Sleep."
She stared at me for awhile, apparently reluctant. She went back devouring her meat and I thought she intend to disregard a clear order but soon she was done with the meat, she came down from the rock, sat on the ground and leaned against the rock.
I kept looking at her. I think she expected me to be satisfied with this, but when she saw I wasn't yielding, she took a subtle breath in and out, then turned away, eyes closed.
She was still, and I didn't go to confirm if she was actually sleeping. I went back to reading my grimoire. I didn't mind the rejection. Her ability to detect shadows is something I desperately need, but it is not classified as a skill and I risked losing her and jeopardizing the mission.
I went on reading for about an hour, with little or no disturbance, but Ophelia suddenly jerked. I looked up. She was relatively calm. As I was about to go back to my reading, she started up again, but this time more animated. She was squirming terribly, and muttering, her head animated, like someone having a traumatic nightmare.
She bolted upright, panting, eyes darting to confirm where she was. Her eyes met mine, too terrified to be embarrassed.
She moved up to comfortably lean against the rock. She was still breathing hard, but calmly. It was clear she had no intentions of going back to sleep.
We remain in somewhat comfortable silence as she slowly regain her composure. Even from where I sat, with occasional glimpses at her from my reading, I could see she was still trembling, albeit subtly. Was it a mistake to force her to sleep? She needs the rest to heal, but it looked like her demons would consume her.
I had no intentions to pry, I don't really care so far as she is useful, but to be useful, both issues have to be resolved somehow.
I gave her a few more moments to collect herself, then I told her to get ready to leave. I watch her move around, gathering things like nothing had happened. I understand that I have nothing to worry about in this particular mission, but today just showed that she is not in control of her trauma like I thought. She is hiding from it, and been the one closest to her at all times, that puts me in harm's way. She is dangerous.
┌─────── ♕ ───────┐
The hole was at least 35 feet deep, barely wide enough for him to sit with his legs outstretched. In the evenings General Eder sometimes came to peer down at him through the stick grate. Shortly after each dawn they removed the grate and hoisted him up to start their routine.
The 5 leagues they made him run before eating in the morning, the leagues of running after eating, heaving up the meal as he ran but careful not to break ranks because the penalty was 3 extra leagues. Climbing high hills, leaping, legs together, feet braced, elbows tucked in, yelling what he considered irrelevant words as he dropped, stomach rising to his throat, the taut rope lashed to an old tree jerking him up just before the ground.
There's a thing he called pushups. You do fifty pushups for every lapse in the routine, and a "For the king!" at the end of the last one. Another fifty pushups if the shout was weak, plus another "For the king!"
Day-jumps into forests. Night-jumps into swamps, week in week out , their only equipment a small knife, while wearing the collars as insisted by the human king. Training in weapons, stealth, and hand-to-hand fight. A field of low beasts, he and the others holding knives. Bowels and stomachs strewn across the field, beasts still alive and screeching. Hollowed carcasses and the order to crawl in, to wrap the carcass around him, to wash himself in blood.
He thought he could endure anything. But each day in the "Death Camp" he grew weaker, and at last he was afraid that his body could not keep on. More work, more heavy work, less food, less sleep. He could not stand, his legs were trembling too much. Because he was trembling, he trembled even more: the training should not have affected him so. With the humans he had been through treatment far worse than this, and had come out of it badly shaken, but never so extreme that he could not make his body work. His skin was clammy, and he really needed to drink, but the pool among the bushes was green and stagnant, and it would make him sicker than he was.
At first he was not sure he heard correctly: a wind blew up and dispersed the sound. Then the air was still and he definitely heard them, the first dim echoes of wolves howling behind him down at the wide end of the draw. A new tremor swept through his legs. He swung to his right where the grass sloped up to rocks and scattered trees and after that a cliff, and bracing his leg muscles, he knew he should have run away. Not that it would have mattered. Not against that.
┌─────── ♕ ───────┐
Thalia's Other stood on a top branch of a great tree, careful not to be seen as she watched those far down on the ground. It was their mother and two others. They were gathered around someone who had been killed many hours ago. Most of his upper body had been roughly eaten out.
Thalia's Other watched, but mostly her mother. Few days ago was the first time she saw her with her own eyes. It still feels like the first time even now.
"Shut up!" she snapped harshly at herself, but in a very low voice. "I will go to her when I want to!"
She turned back to the group below, only to whip her head aside again, "shut up!", she scolded, only this time a bit louder that it got the attention of those on the ground. They scanned the trees. They found nothing but swaying branches.
Kaitlin was the last to look away. She couldn't trust that it was nothing, but she didn't see anything either, and maybe it was their frayed nerves playing tricks.
"This is the fourth one already" she heard Eder say. "Second one this evening"
Kaitlin scanned some more, then turned back to them. "It is no longer safe here" she said.
"It was never safe here" Satori, a demi-tiger quiped.
"Yes, but more so now" she chided, her tone edged with frustration.
A rustle stirred the forest, and they all froze, heads swiveling toward the sound. They saw nothing. They swept their gazes across the trees—still nothing. Tension coiled tighter, though none would admit it. Eder was the only one without a collar, and as great as he was, they weren't reassured.
"We--"
Kaitlin was interrupted by a sudden gush of wind, like something big moved past her with violent speed, and she heard a crash behind her.
They spun around. It was dark, and the trees blocked most of the moon's light, but they have spent countless time in dangerous forests to be able to make out it's shape. Yet they doubt its reality.
It was a wrakoth. A grotesque predator born from the deepest nightmares.
It had collided with a tree, snapping it in half.
The beast staggered upright, shaking its warped head as if shrugging off the crash. Then it began to circle them slowly, snarling terribly. A sliver of moonlight slipped through the trees, illuminating its bloated, pulsating snout—a twisted mass that pulsed as it scented their fear and blood. Beneath this hideous mask, luminous, unblinking eyes burned at them. Its maw gaped wide, an abyss of jagged teeth, built to pulverize bone and tear through anything in a single, merciless bite.
From that ghastly mouth writhed fleshy tendrils, twitching and probing the air. Its clawed, skeletal forelegs are long and spindly, capable of flaying flesh, burrowing through stone, or latching onto victims with an iron grip. Its body, a mass of wrinkled, rubbery flesh, grotesque and nearly impervious to weapons, twisting and contorting in ways that defy natural movement with powerful, hunched legs that propels it forward in sudden bursts of terrifying speed, its taloned feet crushing skulls with effortless force.
They pivoted with it, breaths shallow, hearts pounding, eyes locked on the circling horror. The air grew heavy with the certainty of death. Even without the collars they would struggle against it, and now unarmed, and sealed...
"Eder..." Kaitlin called quietly, but the general's silence confirmed their hopelessness.
All of a sudden, another gust of wind slammed against the beast, sending it crashing through the forest again.
They spun to see a red-haired girl diving from the trees towards them. The wrakoth was already coming back, and the girl, an elf, as a quick glimpse through her bright red hair showed, still midair, drew her hand, drawing every blood from the corpse to her, which immediately turned into a solid intimidating spear in her hand. She glided fast towards the quick approaching infuriated beast, her spear in ready and she swung against it, meeting it in it's hard to see burst of speed. It was a deadly collide and it resulted in quick exchanges.
The young girl was terrifying with the spear and was matching and dodging the beast's quick attacks. She did a number of tears on the tough skin of the beast, but she was either an ineffective fighter, or she was buying time, and the reason for that could not be understood.
She sent it crashing through the forest again with a wave of a hand, and quickly disappeared, appearing where it would stop, and slammed it with the spear, creating a terrible tear by its side. The wrakoth's guttural snarl reverberated through the forest and it lunged again, enraged, its skeletal claws slashing through the air where the red-haired elf had been a heartbeat before. Another slash from her produced another tear—none as deep as it should have been—and were instantly sealing as the wrakoth's rubbery flesh knit itself back together.
The beast roared, its tendrils lashing out, but she spun low, slicing through one of the writhing appendages with a wet snap. Black blood sprayed across the forest floor. It tried to attack again but a wave of her hand yanked it down hard, throwing it off balance mid-lunge. It crashed into the dirt, its bloated snout plowing a trench through the undergrowth. Before it could recover, the elf vaulted into the air, her red hair trailing like a comet's tail. She raised the spear high, its tip pulsing with a faint glow, and plunged downward. It pierced through the pulsating snout, but if it was an ordinary beast it would have drove deep through into its skull.
The beast convulsed, its cry of pain splitting the night. She snapped her hand open with a flick, and a better part of its head blew away, and slowly light faded from it's eye as streaks of blood run over it.
She stared at the corpse, breathing hard. She stretched her hand to control the blood and it barely reacted. Just like she thought. Father.
She heard them approach, and turned to meet them. The blood spear splashed on the wrakoth's head and to the forest floor.
"We owe you great thanks" the faun bowed a little.
Thalia's other and her mother stood apart, locked in a silent gaze. It was like the rest were not there. Thalia's other was trembling faintly, her chest heaving.
Kaitlin didn't know she was moving closer. She searched the face, attempting to reconcile the elf before her with the image she held in her mind. It lacked the timid purity and fragility, but even in the low moonlight, she thought she recognize something.
"Thalia...? " she asked in a low, hesitant whisper.
A soft laugh escaped the elf's lips, tears welling in her eyes. Relief washed over her, a fragile smile blooming.
"No, I'm..." she began, laughing nervously in a low voice. She seem to give it a thought. "I'm her other"
Kaitlin was confused.
"These are his favorite hunting dogs" Eder's voice casually broke the moment.
She looked and found him crouched over the wrakoth. He moved it, checking around it's belly.
"Young too" he added. "There's no way it came through like us"
What that implied made the air tensed.
"Someone brought it here"
Eder nodded to support Satori's assertion.
He stood back up.
"And they wouldn't have brought it alone" he stated something obvious. He looked out to the forest. He exhaled. "It is happening. He is already coming"
There was dread in the air, and none moved, as if not moving would stop the flow of time. This day was coming, they all knew it, but never this soon.
"What I don't understand is, why are they hiding out here" Satori said. "It is not like them to hide"
"That is because they are not here yet." Eder said "We would know. Someone is working to bring them here. Someone from this world, and we might already be too late"