TASTKA POV
I never learned precisely how to tell direction in any way other than the sun and sometimes, the stars. By the river, the tree canopy didn’t have full coverage, but it still obscured the stars enough that I had trouble finding the right direction, and in the early barely-there light of dawn, the sun wasn’t visible. A little while later and I could have found my way with the shading of the sky as the sun burned away the inky blackness, but right now I was lost.
It was fortunate that Eyssa’s [Horizon Bearer] class gave her a perk that told her the exact direction she was going. We now knew we would need to cross the river, but the current looked dangerous, and it was clearly deep in the middle. Not all of us were great swimmers, either. We’d need to find a shallower spot to ford the river, somehow.
What was less fortunate was that places like the one we had camped at, where the river’s shore formed a gentle slope upward, were fewer and fewer as we progressed upriver. The river was set into a shallow gorge the further we went, making it ever more treacherous to attempt a crossing.
Eyssa and Solen both noticed some tracks leading up to the edge often, but that wasn’t strange… not until the river gorge formed. Then, it became much more confusing to see tracks leading to the river, since there was no way animals could drink. This was a reminder that the animals here were often strange, and we could not make assumptions.
Solen insisted the tracks were from a type of deer, similar to what we sometimes hunted, but heavier. I wasn’t so sure about that until we caught sight of some across the river, watching us. Tall, but powerfully-built, even the does. A majestic stag watched us warily for some time, keeping pace for a good half-day. The velvet on his antlers was still there, so I doubted he’d be a challenge to seven adult elves, but the caution was flattering.
They also made me uneasy because I could tell they had vast amounts of mana, mostly Flux and Vital mana. They looked like the deer we knew, only larger… and had some kind of power.
Talking with the others, we weren’t sure what to make of this behavior, especially as large animals seemed visually absent from our side of the river. We saw the tracks and some spoor, but no actual sightings of these strange deer.
On the second day following the river, Duvad moved up to walk beside me, though he didn’t keep his voice low. Everyone heard what he asked.
“Has your strange class given you any idea about this?”
I quelled my irritation, and was pretty sure none of it showed on tail or ears at least. I kept my voice level, I was pretty sure. “No, not really.” Last night I’d gotten nothing at all, actually, but I didn’t tell him that. “I’m pretty sure we’re headed the right way – and there’s another big change coming – but not sure about much else. Except… it might be a long and difficult journey.”
Duvad flicked ears and considered that silently, but I knew he wasn’t done. He was still matching my pace, and normally walked with Dashe. I didn’t want to mention the strange monster I’d seen the previous night… nor how the monster made me unreasonably… angry. Not afraid, just angry.
The anger wasn’t mine, but it sort of felt like mine. I got the distinct impression the furry, tentacled monster was real somehow, and that it was a threat to us in some way.
Probably best not to try explaining that.
“What’s it like? Speaking to… you know?” Duvad broke into my thoughts, his voice more hushed now.
This time I felt one ear twitch at the question, but it was the one opposite Duvad at least. Eyssa caught a glimpse of it when she glanced back, and gave me a sympathetic tail swish before looking ahead again. Me? I sighed, because this was the sort of question that was hard to answer, and more delicate than it sounded.
My clan had a special appreciation for the status menus we all gained access to. That was the only reason we were on this journey… they’d seen my class and flashes of insight combined with Eyssa’s new class as a sign that the clan couldn’t ignore. They thought the menus themselves had some will. To refuse this call would be disobedience.
I knew the reality was a little more complicated, even if I didn’t understand it fully. At least they got it right that someone wanted us to move. I wasn’t about to go against the beliefs of my entire people, though.
“I wouldn’t call it speaking to,” I eventually muttered, then raised my voice to normal speaking range. Duvad wasn’t being intentionally annoying. I kind of liked him, really, even if he was a bit too blunt sometimes for my liking.
“It’s more like vague thoughts, I guess.” I curled my tail around and scratched at my side. “Sometimes I see images, but they’re fuzzy and hard to remember, and most of the time they don’t make sense. One of the thoughts I get is that I’m not supposed to get these thoughts. I think my class is broken.”
Duvad looked thoughtful, and from behind me, Vedas joined the conversation. “Do you still trust it then?”
I made a dismissive tail flick. “It hasn’t led me the wrong way yet. And if I’m right, we’re headed to a place – or maybe a person – that can tell me why the name was so strange, maybe even what it means.”
Even though Duvad never struck me as much of a thinker, he once again had a distant look in his eyes, as if considering what I’d said. Maybe he had hidden depths or something. It was interesting to watch the expression on his face and ears, anyway.
“SCATTER!”
Solen’s outburst was sudden and shrill, moments before Eyssa also called for the same thing. Just as I was hurling myself to the side, skidding painfully in the slick grass, I heard the thundering hooves. How had I not heard that before this moment?
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Over two hands of deer burst from the forest nearby, leaving little room for us to dive away. The trees in this area sometimes grew right up next to the river gorge, but more often – like right now – a narrow strip of grass or dirt with a few shrubs at most made up the riverside. Now the strange deer had made an appearance on this side of the river, heading right for the gorge… without slowing down.
I heard Dashe let out a pained grunt as a doe clipped him, sending him sprawling, moments before Fisk yelled out, “Get behind a tree! Find one and stay there!”
I’d already been doing just that, rolling to prop up against a tree facing the river. I saw the deer thunder right to the edge… and leap across. Every leap created a flare of mana, my new sense showing me a complex network of Vital and Flux mana compressed and then released in a burst at the hooves, sending the deer hurtling across the gorge with ease.
The small stampede lasted only a few moments, leaving Dashe groaning and cradling his shoulder, back thudding heavily against the tree trunk. His eyes were slit in pain, and his arm twitched, but it didn’t appear to be bleeding. Broken, maybe.
“Run!” Solen yelled, breaking away from her tree cover and continuing up the path. Fisk looked annoyed for a moment before realization dawned, and he leapt into action as well.
“Vedas, help Dashe!” Fisk directed with a quick lash of his tail to point to the injured [Healer].
I was already moving, too. I’d caught on just as Fisk had. Those deer weren’t trying to trample us, they were running from something, and even now the crashing through the trees could still be heard. Without its chosen prey, there weren’t many options left but fresh elf.
Some distant part of me noticed that now that we were really pushing ourselves, I could sense mana – Vital, mostly – rushing through our limbs, especially legs and chest. It was subtle, following a distinct course, but it was definitely there. More to the point I could feel my own body force Vital mana into my legs and arms. It was instinctive, something I must have done all my life…
Now I could truly feel it.
My brief distraction was cut off by the appearance of the predator. Large, easily twice the size of an elf or more, it was covered in dark green and brown scales mottled for camouflage. It had a body low to the ground, with stubby legs that somehow carried it swiftly forward. The neck was long, with a lizard-like head, but the eyes were forward-facing rather than to the side, beneath an armored brow and a frill atop.
We’d already put some distance between us and the creature, so I had just enough time to wonder how even a fast lizard like this could catch the swift deer… but it answered that fast enough.
A slick, bright green tongue whipped out and caused a shriek from Vedas as it wrapped around his leg. Both Vedas and Dashe, whom he’d been helping, tumbled to the ground with cries of pain and confusion. I turned around and dug my claws in, skidding to a stop with deep furrows in the soft earth. My spear came around-
Duvad was already there. He had a stone knife with a shaped edge, and slashed at the tongue in a quick and deadly arc. It wasn’t a mana-powered strike, and the tongue had a strange sheath of mana around it for protection, but it was enough to make a painful, shallow slice and force the tongue to release its prey’s lower leg. I saw harsh welts where it had been wrapped around the leg.
I had a vest of cured, reinforced leather for protection – like most of the expedition – but it also had several pockets sewn in to carry things for ease of access. Things too vital to store in our heavy packs. For me, this included an array of sharpened throwing crystals. I took one out while the creature was shaking its head, then pulsed some of my mana in it to cast a spell.
“Tourness entara seethin!” I cried out, feeling the power surge through the words of the spell. I tucked the crystal between my fingers, sending more mana through them and-
The spell was working, but I almost lost my focus from sensing how the pattern was forming, the intricate web wrapping around the raging Flux that I had sent into the spell. I saw how the words twisted the flowing mana into that shape, constricting it and solidifying it.
I could always ‘feel’ the mana, like anyone with high affinity. That was how we made new spells, after all. Trial and error, finding the words to shape the mana properly… it was difficult.
Yet in that moment I saw exactly what each word did, and how it interplayed with my mana release.
I didn’t have time to think about it though. I could analyze it later. At that moment, I flung the shard and again got a strange view of how the mana structures crumpled upon contact, released the Flux, and tore through the beast’s scales to embed deeply. It wasn’t very big, but shove something like that in hard enough, and even a predator like this would give pause.
The monster had recovered from retracting its tongue and was starting to rush forward when my throwing shard embedded into its side, just past the first shoulder. It squealed in pain and writhed to the side, but I didn’t see what else it did. I was rushing to Vedas and Dashe, helping Duvad yank them to their feet so we could stagger after the other two.
It was Vedas who yanked me toward him and flung me to the side, right after. The creature flew past where I’d been, narrowly missing my head with snapping jaws. For an instant, I could feel the way its mana laced through its rear legs… a burst of mana similar to what the deer had done, used instead to pounce upon prey.
Prey like I would have been if Vedas had been an instant too slow.
Pain blossomed in my back and shoulder, then a more intense explosion of throbbing heat at the back of my head as I slammed into the nearby tree. I heard – distantly – my own voice crying out in pain. My vision swam and tilted wildly as I tumbled down, landing painfully upon a root and another pulse of fire coming as I sat on my tail.
My ears rang as I tried to see what was happening. The pounced had failed, but Fisk had caught a lashing tail and tumbled off the edge of the gorge. Solen had caught him, but that took both of them out of the immediate fight, leaving only Duvad and the injured Vedas and Dashe turning their spears toward the beast. It seemed wary now…
But I could once again feel the pattern forming in its legs.
It was going to pounce. At that range, it would tear through one of my friends. Maybe more.
It hurt to think.
My vision blurred, but that sense of how mana formed sharpened. I grasped at it, tried for form a spell, fumbled at my spear.
Words came out slurred, shaped wrong… but the mana shaped anyway. Easily, I formed a hollow shell of… Pure mana?
It was so simple.
I started to extend it toward the beast.
<
Vision still swam, but that thought pierced through my confusion. It shot through my mind like a stabbing icicle, somehow making the pain worse, even if I knew that voice. I knew those words.
They were mine.
I changed my ‘spell’ and somehow, so easily, sent the length of Pure mana into the back leg… then sent a surge of Entropic mana into that matrix of Vital-
What was a matrix?
Entropic mana cancelled out the sudden burst of Vital, leaving nowhere for the Flux to go. The monster’s leg spasmed and warped, snapping loudly with a shriek from the bestial throat!
My doubled vision fuzzed further just as I saw Fisk scrambling back up to safety… and Duvad’s legs pulsing with mana as he kicked the thrashing creature over, sending it tumbling into the river below.
Vision formed a tunnel, as a burst of light flooded my sight.
Blackness.
A Thousand Deaths
Discord, now!