The Grassbreaker popped its head out of the ground and scanned the area. It let out a breath of relief, then pulled itself out fully. The Demon had moved on. Good. The bird silently lamented its foul luck. When the Big Boss had started gathering others of his kind, Eyepoky, as he liked to call himself, rejoiced. After all, he was a smart penguin. He always had been. His big brain was why he’d risen to flock leader so young. Yet Eyepokey had grown tired of his kin. They were so stupid, so hard to control! They could only follow the most basic instructions, and even then, they would let their prey escape half the time.
But then the Big Boss appeared. Eyepokey had jumped aboard without hesitation. After all, he was a smart penguin. He could see the tides of change coming, and he knew he could ride that wave to greatness. Of course, one day, it would be he whom the others called Big Boss, but until then, he’d do what he was told, slowly gaining strength. The recent hunts had only strengthened Eyepoky’s conviction; they’d even killed a flock of the Kineaters!
This last hunt, though…
The hunt had been going smoothly. Humans were stronger than kin, individually, but they were tired and injured. The Big Boss planned to chip away at them like a hatchling chips away at a bone to get at the sweet marrow. Poke and prod them until they had no power left to fight back.
Brilliant.
But the humans were tricky as well. Every time one fell behind, they had some last trick to play. Sometimes, it was just a hidden pointy thing. Other times, it was one of the hated traps. One human even blew themselves up! That one had taken out many of his kin, though the Big Boss didn’t seem to mind too much.
Everything had been going fine until the Big Boss stayed behind to play with some humans while Eyepoky was left in charge of the frontrunners. They’d chased down the fleeing humans and their moving box for miles, harassing them all the way. The Big Boss had said to keep them alive until he returned; he wanted to see each one’s end. That was the simple part; the hard part had been keeping his own kin alive.
Without being able to finish the humans, they were picking the kin off one by one with their smelly tricks.
Such as the tiny female who’d blocked their path while the other humans ran away. Eyepokey had to admit leaving one of their own to act as bait and slow his kin down had been smart. The temptation of such a small, helpless prey had been too much, and before Eyepokey could stop them, several of his kin had launched themselves at the tiny female.
That had been a mistake…
The vines of death that erupted from her chest had skewered his kin, while the rotting miasma they produced blocked their way. The flock had to dive deep to avoid its sickening touch, costing them precious time.
By far, though, the worst had been the Demon.
It had appeared shortly after the small female, leaping from the human’s moving box with one of those sharp, pointy metal bits the human warriors use. The miles of prairie behind them were stained by blood as the Demon cut down kin after kin with a reckless abandon that had scared much of the flock. Not him, of course. He slipped to the back to, uhhhh… watch their flank? Ya, that.
Worse of all, the thing never stopped screaming the entire time. Eyepoky didn’t know what the words meant, but he could at least recognize them as words. After all, he was a smart penguin.
Even the last remaining human warrior had seemed shocked at the much smaller Demon’s ferocity, as it took both it and another human to drag the Demon back into its box. Eyepoky decided that the Big Boss might want to know about the Demon, so he stayed behind… far behind… the group. The Big Boss was sure to reward him for his forethought and planning. After all, he was a sm—SPLAT!
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“Woot! That was a big one! Ten points!”
Alpha cheered, arms raised in triumph, even as the nanites got to work removing the bits of pulped penguin from his treads. The continuous track system built into the TAWP’s legs was great for speedy, all-terrain travel, but it accumulated grime and filth much quicker than just walking. Then again, it would accumulate less if he stopped running over penguin bodies.
But it seemed whoever they were chasing wasn’t as defenseless as Alpha had believed. The group had left an easy-to-follow trail of dead penguins in their wake—well, most were dead, but a few stragglers popped up now and again. Snowball and Alpha had turned it into a game of sorts, even.
The whale-puppy popped up from the ground nearby and sprinted alongside the TAWP, chirping angrily—Alpha assumed—at him.
That one was hers! She saw them first! Alpha was a kill-stealer!
Alpha laughed in response.
“HA! You snooze, you lose! Gotta be quicker than that! I didn’t even use a bullet that time!”
Snowball turned away, and Alpha could have sworn she tsked at him before diving back into the ground. Alpha wasn’t sure if the whale-puppy was getting smarter or if he was just getting better at reading the creature’s body language, but it pulled another laugh out of him all the same before he turned his attention back to the trail.
The [Wasps] scouting ahead had yet to find the group they were pursuing, but the farther they got, the fresher the penguin bodies became. No sign of the giant penguin yet, either, and Alpha wasn’t sure if that was a good or bad sign. He doubted the injuries it had sustained — from both Alpha and the spatial anomaly — made travel easy, but Alpha had stopped underestimating this strange place.
Alpha only took the time to slow down when they came across the first human body.
The small clearing they’d stumbled on had likely formed over countless years as both man and beast used the area to stop and rest. A dozen small trails radiated outward, marking the various directions the clearing’s potential occupants might go rather than force themselves through the thick, cumbersome grasses surrounding them.
Near the entrance of one such trail, as if blocking the way, lay the small body of a young woman. The soft smile on the woman’s face almost gave Alpha the impression that she was taking a pleasant nap. Or it would, if not for her gruesome surroundings.
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She clutched a gourd bottle in her hands, and from her chest sprouted a small bush with bright blue flowers and leaves as black as night. The bush’s dark purple roots spread for several meters, weaving through flesh and soil.
The grass withered and died where the roots spread, while the ground beneath turned gray and lifeless as ash. Two dozen penguin corpses surrounded the girl’s body, and the roots of the strange bush wiggled and writhed through them like hungry worms. Stranger still, each of the corpses appeared shriveled and decayed, as if they’d been left to rot for weeks rather than what couldn’t have been more than a few hours.
When Alpha first broke into the clearing, the larger, awake human had leapt from his seat, forcing Alpha to stop. The young man slowly walked closer to the edge of the gray soil, his missing leg replaced with a crude replica made of what appeared to be melted wood, as ridiculous as that sounded.
In silence, the three of them stood beside the patch of poisoned earth. A young man, battered and broken, a child separated from the only ones she’d ever known, and a giant war machine from beyond the stars. None said a word as they contemplated the story being told here. So lost was he in his own thoughts, Alpha almost missed when the young man slowly raised his hand toward the bush.
At first, nothing happened, then slowly, as if swaying on some unseen wind, the surrounding grass bent and stretched toward the bush. As soon as the grass passed through the space above the roots, they began to smoke and shrivel, emitting a foul purple vapor. The young man frowned, but strained his arm further, and the grass pushed forward with renewed strength.
Much of it decayed long before reaching the woman’s body, but a few blades of grass, shielded by those surrounding them, managed to get close. As if they were true blades, the grass sliced upward and cut off one of the woman’s long, flowing braids. The grass blades then wrapped themselves around the braid and quickly retreated.
The young man made his way around the poisoned earth to the patch of grass that had retrieved the braid of hair and stared down at it with a frown. He plucked a long strand of grass and gently poked at the braid, and seeing it come away clean and whole, sighed in relief. He then knelt down, gently wrapped the braid in a length of cloth, and placed it into the pouch at his side before standing and limping his way back to Alpha.
Alpha remained silent throughout the process, no words needing to be said, though Snowball gently nuzzled the man as he walked by. The young man smiled down at the small whale-puppy, scratched her behind the ear, and bowed to Alpha. The AI then grabbed hold of the human and lifted him back onto the platform.
Thankfully, the TAWP was large enough that it could easily cut through the thick grass, allowing them to continue on the pathway without passing by the bush. He doubted whatever it was could do much to him, but by how both Snowball and the young man avoided it, Alpha didn’t want to take the chance that its effects could reach his passengers.
For a moment, he contemplated incinerating the remains, but decided against it. The penguins seemed stupid enough that more might try their luck at an easy snack in the future. Who knew? Who was he to deny whoever that had been their last bit of petty vengeance?
That was Alpha’s favorite kind!
Shifting his attention from the dead to the living, Alpha checked up on his other passenger. The wounded young man lay at the bottom of the carrier platform, nestled on a bed of bloody penguin pelts. He was doing better than before, but Alpha knew the human’s chances were slim, even with the help of the medical nanites and sealing foam. He wasn’t a miracle worker, after all.
The damage had been severe: his left clavicle was shattered, and his right lung was torn open. While the angle had been just right to miss his heart, several ribs and his sternum were in fragments. Thankfully, the sealing foam not only kept him from bleeding out, but also held the bone fragments in place, keeping them from doing more damage. His liver and left kidney were demolished, though.
The nanobots could repair the liver damage easily enough, but the kidney would take a long time to regrow. The biggest issue, however, was the severe lack of blood. Alpha didn’t know how the young man hadn’t already bled out, but he was still in a critical state. He’d ‘borrowed’ the larger young man’s water flask to replenish their fluids, but it was far from enough. With any luck, the group they were closing in on would have more, or Alpha would have to print an atmospheric collector or filter water from penguin blood. Both were costly and time-consuming projects with little value to him, personally.
He’d do it, of course, if for no other reason than to collect on his investment in the medical nanites. But he would only do it as a last resort. The TAWP was only stocked with a small supply of medical nanites, intended for emergency use during joint operations with biological ground forces and support staff, but they were expensive to make, and he could only synthesize more once he set up shop. In a pinch, non-medical nanites could seal a wound or stabilize someone, but that was brute forcing an issue and could cause just as much damage as it could help.
They just had to hope they made it in time to rescue the rest of the group, for both parties’ sake.
—————————————————————
Ganbaatar was amazed at their progress in catching up with the others. The Lord Protector’s ability to ‘slide’ along the ground made for a far smoother and quicker trip than he had expected. That was great for Yutu’s condition.
Ganaa could tell his friend wasn’t out of the woods yet, but the young man looked far more stable than he had only a short while ago. He wasn’t sure what the Lord Protector had done. It wasn’t like any Spirit healing or Magic spell he’d ever seen. It was closer to alchemy than anything — not that Ganaa had ever heard of alchemy like this.
Alchemy was an esoteric art typically reserved for Grassreaders. The Jadewalkers were famous for the practice, and the human clan’s skills in alchemy were one reason the Akh’lut tolerated the Wandering Cities in their territory, as few Awakened Beasts had such talents. Akh’lut were warriors and hunters, not farmers and artisans. The Radiant Sea prairies were rich in natural treasures and Spirit Energy, but that energy’s chaotic, shifting nature made it extremely unsuitable for typical habitation.
The first few times one of the larger sects or clans had tried to establish a foothold, they had been wholly unprepared for the Sea’s dangers and tribulations. Most had learned their lesson and only set up outposts along the edge. Yet you sometimes heard tales of this or that sect trying to build a fort with predictable results.
The Wandering Cities, however, took a different approach. There was no point in fighting against the relentless, ruthless assault of nature. So, instead, they became nomads. Entire cities, thousands of buildings, and hundreds of thousands of people, traveled the prairies on top of specially designed carts.
Their secret was in the Seven-Radiance Spirit Grass. This hearty grass dominated the Radiant Sea, thanks to its rapid adaptability to changing Spirit climates. Much like how a navigator could read the patterns in the clouds and waves to ensure safe passage for their ships, Grassreaders could see the ebbs and flows of Spirit Energy by reading the grass. It was an ability that should have been only possible with the most powerful and refined of [Spirit Sight]. Yet the Grassreaders had perfected it into an art.
As much as he was interested in the Lord Protector’s alchemy, Ganaa knew now wasn’t the time to ask questions.
Thinking back to the ‘grave’ they had just left, Ganbaatar clutched the small pouch at his side, though his eyes never left the trail in front of them. When he first saw the bush, he had recognized it instantly as Zolzaya’s graduation ‘project.’ His heart had nearly stopped at the sight, and he feared the worst. Part of him was ashamed at the relief he’d felt when he realized the corpse under the bush wasn’t Zolzaya, but another girl.
Ganaa couldn’t recall her name, though he knew she and Zolzaya had grown quite close since their group had started preparing for the graduation trip. Zolzaya could sometimes be… abrasive, and rarely made friends with girls her age. To see her laughing, smiling, and whispering with the young woman as they traveled during the trip had made him genuinely smile.
To see that same young woman in such a state had felt like taking a shard of ice to the heart. Ganaa’s concern for the rest of the group had instantly doubled. Despite their need to hurry, Ganaa took a moment to collect the young woman’s braid. He’d often seen the women braiding each other’s hair during the trip, and he could recognize Zolzaya’s work.
They’d lost so many after things went wrong. The least he could do for the young woman whose name he didn’t know, was bring a small part of her home. For her family… for Zolzaya… for everyone they had to leave behind.