Once we were in the tree, we both realized that we really had nothing to fear, unless Jena’s teleport failed us. Then we would be in big trouble. Well, I would be in big trouble. Jena wasn’t really here, and I think if something happened to me, the system would just get someone else.
This reminded me, Matemai spoke of the priests of the three Gods. At the time my head was spinning and I couldn’t ask any questions, but it still nagged at me. Are the three Gods real or imagined? If so, who are they? How do the system and the Gods relate to each other? Are they one and the same thing?And now we have the spotted hyenas with mist-residue collars. Where do they fit in with all this?
From what I had seen of this world so far, it seemed very similar to my old world. If I was right, I would have placed this area we were in somewhere in the southern part of my old continent with its dry brush forest, granite outcrops and a very dry heat despite the good rains this land seemed to get. I thought the magic also made everything flourish more. This forest should have been completely dry, like the fields near the village, but after only six weeks it was almost back to what it looked like when I first got here.
The presence of spotted hyenas supported that theory of where we were. Though the number of spotted hyenas, was too high. Back home, brown hyenas were more common in places like this since the spotted hyenas were almost extinct. I wondered also about the lore of hyenas in this world, where they have seemed to flourish. In my world, we thought of them as cowardly scavengers. They were creatures, superstition was happy to assume were the mules of witchcraft. How a coward was clever enough to accomplish such a task was never discussed, though.
I adjusted my legs to hang on either side of the tree branch and leaned against the huge trunk. I had left my pack behind this time when I realized it would only hinder me with all the jumping around. If I needed food or water, we could just go back home. Being in a tree was a new experience for me. I had never climbed a tree before as an adult. If it weren’t for our waiting friends below, I think I might have enjoyed this moment.
I looked at Jena. Normally he behaves as if he has weight by the way he sits or walks like he is physically here. But right now he seemed to have forgotten that. He was just hovering. This had clearly thrown him for a loop and that worried me more than I cared to admit. I murmured, tilting my head toward the ground, “What do you make of this?”
“Hmm,” he said in a low rumble that still carried in the quiet stillness. “I am not sure, except to point out the obvious, that the mist residue is controlling them somehow.” His casualness belied his tension.
“Do you think this is what Matemai meant when he talked about strange attacks by wild animals?”
“Probably, but it’s hard to say when we have never seen the other strange animal attacks. It could very well be.”
We sat quietly, watching the hyenas. They just sat there. No growling. No pacing. No high, hyena-laughter that they usually make when they find prey. One of them shifted, and I saw the cubs pressed against her side. My fingers tightened on the bark.The image from that morning rose up unbidden. The small cub, snapping its teeth, suddenly too close. I hadn’t meant to kill it. It had lunged at me and I had reacted. And then...crack. It still felt so real.
“Jena,” I said, looking at him while keeping an eye on our friends below. “About this morning—”
He interrupted me, clearly distressed. “I said I am sorry. I really am. I understand now—”
I waved a hand to stop him. “No, no, no. Not that. I know you understand and how sorry you are. But do you suppose the cub was part of this pack? Or a different pack, but also collared by the mist residue? It did attack me unprovoked.”
“Then it’s a good thing you killed it.” He showed his teeth. This whole incident was putting Jena on edge. He wasn’t the only one.
“No, it wasn't. It wasn’t its fault that it was collared. Just like these ones, too. Just to be clear, we are not killing them.”
“Of course we are not killing them but only because we can’t, not for some sentimental reason. Give them half a chance and these animals will tear you from limb to limb and eat you. Their powerful jaws are strong enough to grind every last bone in your body. There won’t be anything left after they are done.”
Jena certainly painted a gruesome picture, but we still weren’t going to do anything about them because he was right. We simply couldn’t. Between us, we had my weird "awareness ability" and Jena's teleport. If I were inclined to be bloodthirsty, we could simply appear behind one, snap its neck, and vanish. Then the next. And the next.
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Ew. Gross, I thought. Now who is being gruesome?
By now, the direction the residue was coming from was very clear. We jumped quickly, this time, not giving the hyenas time to follow, and soon lost them.
By the time we reached what we assumed to be the source, the forest had thinned around a towering, dome-like mountain, its flanks rising abruptly as if it had been pushed out of the earth. The eastern face was smooth, weathered granite streaked with white and red lines carved by rain and rust. Here and there, balancing rocks dotted the curved surface. The rest of the mountain was choked with brush. It clung stubbornly to the slopes, thick and tangled, but its color had leached away as if the life had been sucked out.
The mountain was covered entirely in the residue, twisting and turning over the granite like smoke caught in slow motion. This time, the moment we landed, shapes detached themselves from the dying brush. Huge hyenas or what had once been hyenas emerged and headed straight for us. They were too large, probably double the size of the once we saw before. Every thing about their shape was unnatural. Their shoulders unnaturally high, their limbs elongated and slightly wrong. Their eyes did not search. They locked onto me instantly as soon as we appear. They wore collars of residue thicker than the others, pulsing faintly and I had the unsettling impression that they had not found me by scent or sound. They had simply known.
Quote:
Ding!
You have seen hyenas mutated by the smoke-that-thunders.
Your Awareness has gained +1 XP.
Awareness is now 10/10. Congratulations!
Awareness evolves
+1 Mental XP gained.
You have +3 unspent mental XP
Would you like to spend your XP?
I dismissed the prompt without reading it. I needed to focus. Maybe we could learn more while jumping.
The whole mountain was full of these strange hyenas. Everywhere we landed, they were already turning toward us. We couldn’t stop. Couldn’t think. Couldn’t pinpoint the source of the residue because the entire mountain felt like it was breathing residue. But there had to be a source - I was sure.
We tried jumping to the bare granite, but even there the hyenas appeared from the balancing rock outcroppings. How do they find us so quickly?
Deciding to regroup, Jena took us home. The only good this was that, at least now he knew exactly where this was. It would be easy for us to come back.
“Now you see why we have to kill? This world is full of creatures like that,” Jena said as we sat around the pool.
“But they are all slaves of the mist. Don’t blame the bow for what the bowman does, it’s not capable of choice.” I replied.
Jena just huffed. He knew what I meant, and I knew what he meant. And we both knew it wasn’t going to solve the problem of the mist residue enslaving animals. I sat up abruptly as something occurred to me.
“Jena, do you suppose the residue has enslaved the villagers? Or even Matemai and his men?” That sent a chill down my spine. The enslaved animals had been intent on killing me. The villagers had only ignored me but who knew what they would do when they saw me again?
Now I was even questioning Zuruvi and maNyoni’s story. It had seemed plausible in the morning, but now I wasn’t so sure. How far did this enslaving carry? Was that why Ishe couldn’t find his summoning? The Mist did reach Nyajena after all. I had thought maybe Matemai had used clever words and cunning. But now… it had the residue’s collar written all over it.
“That could be a bit of a bother, what with them being sentient and all. My solution is to kill them all.” I saw a tingle in Jena’s eyes, though he showed his teeth in a grimace. Yes, this was a problem. People, unlike hyenas, don’t have to wait. They can plan.
“Uhh!” I groaned in disbelief.
The Bira.
Matemai had been surprised that they had scheduled it for today. It wasn’t supposed to be today it had been moved up. A coincidence… or a lure? The most convincing traps are always coincidental. I had been so excited to go to the village, but now it felt like a well laid trap. How did they even know I would want to go to the bira. I facepalmed myself, of course anyone who has seen me knew that I really wanted to go to the village.
I sank back into my cushion.
One day, its seemed incredible, I thought. Just one day to interact with this world and I already had the whole place turned against me? Well, not the whole world, just the part that knew me. And even that wasn’t their fault. It was the residue’s. I consoled myself with the thought that it only seemed like everyone was against me. In truth, it was just one the smoke-that-thunders or was it the Grootslang?
How do you fight smoke? Something invisible and intangible. And mind control? I hated mind control. Mind control was a chain worse than enslavement. I wondered how my oath with Matemai affected things. At the moment, it didn’t feel like it would protect me much. He had encouraged me to go to the bira, after all.
We had to destroy this smoke — but I had no idea how. The part of me that wanted to retire and take life easy a big part, I might add — wondered if we could just ignore this and stay in the lair. But that would be imprisonment, not retirement.
There was no option. We had to deal with this.
“Jena, I think we are in more trouble than I realized.”
“Now you see it?” He sounded relieved but not exactly happy about it. No one is ever happy to be right about danger. He was probably more unhappy about the fact that he knew no killing was going to happen. I pointedly ignored that. We were not going back to this issue again. Old Jena was gone, and it was me who had been chosen to deal with this, my way.
“Jena, we have to find the residue’s source,” I said determinedly, the beginnings of a plan forming in my head.
“We just did.” Pause. I gave him time to figure it out as I did. “Oh! Oh! I like this plan.” Another pause. I smiled. He grinned.
“Not to be negative or anything,” Jena finally added, “but we have no power.”
“Really? If we didn’t have any power, the residue wouldn’t be trying this hard. Would it now?”
Jena just shock his head and said, “It’s worth a try.”