Wearing a mask was suffocating to Cobalt, who had grown accustomed to senses that stretched further and with keener clarity than any wild beast. The ancient, degraded plastic stuck uncomfortably to her scales and it was impossible to make use of her sense of smell entirely. Her vision, while still acute and functional, was clouded by hazy lens scratched by who knows how many years buried under dirt. Still, as they emerged from the tunnel and saw just how truly massive the forest they were in was she knew there was truly no alternative. Trees more broad than her father was, stretched in every direction, gnarled twisted things caked with the pitch black dried remnants of equally gargantuan fungal growths. Flaky white filaments like melting bone extended into the thin streams of sunlight that managed to escape into the lower layers. This place was nothing like the grove back home, it was immeasurably greater in every way. Even the least of the trees she could see, as they followed their apparently non-human guide deeper in, showed signs of at least a century of age, and the lingering spores from the last bloom of the Fruit of Life were still enough to form visible clouds in places. How Grr… Grk… Gorekin managed to breathe without a mask was beyond her, the rest of the forest at least seemed eerily quiet as expected of any place infested by the Fruit of Life. While vegetation indeed thrived under the influence of the toxins in the spores were deadly to almost every known form of animal life. And when a forest this old bloomed spores at their densest could become so thick they act more akin to a liquid than particles suspended in the air. It was fortunate that the toxin degrades rapidly when settled in soil and soaked by the natural forces of rain, or else she imagined the mere process of digging through dirt built up from centuries of such blooms would have killed both her and John, Which added to the mystery of Gorekin and his apparent people.
Eventually Gorekin stopped at what looked to be an empty clearing. He turned back and stared at the two humans with what looked to be momentary confusion before coming to a realisation. “Oh! You humans, no have trade runes! Cannot see beyond circle of shamans!”
John, who had up to this point been diligently scratching at the angry red skin where his relic met his mostly unaltered flesh, voiced Cobalt’s thoughts for her. “A formation then?”
“Formation? That your word for it? Local humans no say that!” Gorekin noted first with some befuddlement then with excitement. “Where you come from anyway!”
“We… came from the far south. At the border of the Empire, where the Golden Plains meets the fractured Warlord States…” Cobalt answered, fighting the pain of the memory of her loss.
“Interesting… never hear such names before! Much to learn!” The furred giant declared excitably before grabbing a nearby gnarled tree branch and snapping some hard fungal growths from them. Taking one at a time into his mouth he chewed some sort of pattern onto them and handed them to her and John. Evidently some sort of ‘key’ for whatever formation his tribe was using on their settlement, a fact she didn’t need to recognise the simple yet distinctive pattern of interlocking curves for.
And so, without anything really to lose, she took a deep breath of foul air through the mask and started to push her power through the piece of bark.
Immediately the air seemed to shimmer as… something was revealed. Initially it was not obvious what, if anything, changed but as Cobalt’s pushed through the haziness induced by her mask it became clear there were various holes dug into the earth, and from those holes emerged hosts of tall, furred people just like Gorekin. A couple of them looked in their direction with an expression rendered inscrutable by a combination of the scratched glass blurring her view and distance, but it was very clear they were far less enthused than Gorekin was.
Gorekin made a series of strange, growling and warbling noises in response to a similar sound from his apparent tribespeople, engaging in a conversation utterly incomprehensible to Cobalt and John’s ears.
“Hey uh… what do you think they are saying?” John asked Cobalt.
“I… why are you asking me? I have no idea.” She answered quite frankly.
Gorekin, apparently hearing them, decided to translate. “Thing… comp… compil… complicated… will take you to den for now. Talk with elders, then figure out from there.”
“I don’t take it they are big fans of humans.” Cobalt said, cautiously looking at the quite obviously tense group of furred giants.
“They always say, you destroy selves! Destroy world! But world still here, and you still here! Think it stupid!” Gorekin huffed. “Still, not seem very happy, but will let stay for now. You too far from tribe and territory, won’t last long in woods, like cub except… how old you are?”
“Seventeen summers.” Cobalt answered.
“Fifteen, nearing sixteenth.” John responded right behind.
Gorekin’s eyes widened further than usual exposing pitch black scarlea and bright brown irises, saying something in his gutteral native tongue before exclaiming. “You still cubs! Too small!”
“We are both over the age of majority.” Cobalt said awkwardly as Gorekin fussed about around them like they were made of dry straw.
“It no sense!” Gorekin muttered as he hurried them towards one of the nearby holes. “Discuss later! Small ones stay until I done talk with elders!”
“Hey, we aren’t that small!” John tried to defend. “How old are you anyway!”
Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.
“Six… six tens summers!” Gorekin grunted affirmatively.
They both shut up at that.
They were led down a surprisingly spacious and well maintained pit, lit by what looked to be glowing variants of the mushrooms emanating faint greenish-blue light from between black, gnarled coral growths. At one end of it was a bed made of what looked to be leaves, moss and fur clearly made to be easily disassembled and moved if necessary. A small stash of what looked to be important personal effects was stored next to it in large sacks of woven twigs and reeds. Around them lay various artefacts of clearly human origin displayed like less disturbing versions of Agamemnon’s trophies. A shockingly pristine pile of old books, what looked to be ancient plastic ritual artefacts depicting strange humanoids with odd colours and proportions, even a proper gun and most importantly for Cobalt’s eyes a large map of the continent with various points marked out conspicuously with large dots in red paint.
“Gorekin, where are we on this map?” She asked.
“Ah! Prize of collection! I find digging places near tribe migration site and mark them here! We right now closest to this one!” Gorekin answered proudly.
Gorekin pointed towards a small dot some distance over a truly titanic lake labelled “superior”, which she recognised as the Cunningham Sea. On the map the inland seas looked almost small, but she knew intellectually they were far larger than she could readily imagine, potentially the size of provinces in their own right. Other than knowing that the famed Capital was built on the far edge of one of the daughter lakes split off from these great masses of freshwater that was where her knowledge ended though. She had only seen them once before after all, the only time she had ever visited her mother’s Sect, on the shores of a lake that would annually get swamped by waves of toxic spores. It wasn’t much, and she couldn’t say she even remembered what her mother looked like let alone say with confidence that she knew her, but it was better than nothing.
Meanwhile John asked a far more practical question. “Hey… where do we sleep? And what can we eat?”
Gorekin hurriedly rushed to his sack and retrieved two large mats of fur and moss, whatever they were, almost certainly not having originally been intended for sleeping in or on. In another sack he extracted a few handfuls of strange looking berries, lare tree nuts and some mysterious dried meat.
“You know, I don’t know what I expected…” John muttered.
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With the humans settled for now in his den, Grrkkn could now deal with the important matters. It was odd, knowing how young they were. He knew the humans grew strangely, their cubs going from small and useless to being of the same size as their adults by the time their migrations returned to the trade routes. But they were so different from the other humans, clearly they were initiated into spiritual matters! He didn’t know humans could do such things at such a small age, but he heard their greatest Shamans could live even longer than their own greatest elders. Even the ones who embraced the most of the Flesh Change. How could this be? There was so much more he did not know, and he was as always just so eager to learn!
But first, he had to deal with the minor issue of the very disgruntled Elders. Gathered around a pit of glow-stones, as the spores were still too thick to light a fire, he was commanded to kneel in respect and submission to the gathered Elders. Dressed in gowns of woven tree-fibre and faces covered by expressionless masks of wood, ivory and stone even with the most obvious signs of the Flesh Change obscured the elders gave off a more than mortal presence. As fitting for those aged enough and exposed enough to the raw primeval powers that once ravaged the world to have gone beyond mere Shamanhood and passed halfway to the world of Spirits while still in mortal flesh. Leashed around them to the trunks of truly ancient trees were titanic Cousin Beats, far closer in mind and body to the ancient bestial ancestors of the Forest Kin and alert with eternally hungry, predatory eyes tempered only through years of fierce, hard earned loyalty.
“I do not desire to waste any time. Where did you find these humans Grrkkn? Speak now and in full honesty, and know that the Spirits watch your every word!” Elder Hnthkkn, almost as hairless as the humans herself and easily twice the size of Grrkkn, growled as she pointed at him with her law stick.
“I found them in an ancient human ruin, though I do not believe they have been down there for long. They didn’t know where they were nor how they got there, apparently they were taken in by an ancient human Relic and sent far from their home.” He answered.
“He speaks truth sister…” Elder Bghh grunted, his multicoloured fur rippling in prismatic patterns. “But how do you know these humans are safe? They seem well initiated in Spiritual powers, you know how ruinous humans can be when playing with such forces!”
“You must have felt their power upon arrival! They pose no true threat to you, and so they pose no true threat to us! They are but lost cubs, far from home! Before I gave them their masks they could not even breathe our air, as you all know they carry not the blessings of the forest! If anyone should be afraid in this situation it should be them, not us as we are!” He defended.
“Your human obsession will lead you to ruination!” Elder Xcnth hissed. “We have only escaped their attentions by hiding deep where they cannot pass! What would happen if these humans spread tales of us! We shall be hunted as our ancient ancestors once were before the great fires at the end of the old world!”
“Indeed, the humans are no true threat to us as they are. But we cannot be certain this will remain the case forever, especially if they are allowed free.” Elder Hnthkkn concurred.
His fur stood on its edge at the implications. “It would not be just to let them die! They have done nothing wrong!”
“Then what should we do Grrkkn? True they have given no reason to assume them a threat, but neither have they given reason to trust.” Elder Bghh noted.
“Then let them show their character to you by letting them stay! And when they are ready to return to the world of humans, if you cannot trust their silence, let me go with them!” Grrkkn offered.
“You would willingly accept exile from the tribe to accompany these humans wherever they may go?” Elder Hnthkkn gasped in surprise, something repeated by the other elders.
Heart racing, nearly tearing out of his chest, but with a certainty he had never felt before in his life he used a human expression by nodding and said simply. “I do.”
Silence for a long, eternal, moment. Then the Elders began to whisper among each other, debating at such speed he could not have kept up with it even if he could hear it all properly before they came up with a verdict.
“We shall ruminate on this, but for now consider your proposal… in consideration.” Elder Bghh told him. “In the meantime, as the one who found the humans, you shall take care of them and ensure they do not cause trouble. If they do, you would share in their punishment. Understood?”
“Yes Elders.” He said, more confidently than anything else he had said in his life.