Chapter XCIV (94) - Shamans and Snow Caves

Kizu desperately clawed at the icy slope in an effort to slow his descent. If it accomplished anything more than peeling off one of his fingernails, Kizu couldn’t tell.

Both Anata and Mort clung to Kizu as they sped downwards, rapidly gaining speed. A second before they slammed into the ocean surface, Kizu closed his eyes and braced for the impact, hugging his companions close.

A wall of biting cold wind slammed into him, stealing his breath and knocking his head backwards into the ice. The sheer intensity nearly caused his eyes to freeze to his eyelids. When his vision finally cleared, he stared up at the aurora in the sky above. He lay on an ice sheet level with the ocean.

“Those chunks of metal on its back were enchanted,” Kumiho commented as Kizu sat up. “It was a trap designed as a last-ditch effort to kill the Harbinger if it managed to kill their guardian. But it didn’t die like they intended so there was a delay.”

“Clearly,” Kizu grumbled.

As she continued to speak, she flipped a shard of the crystal seal between her fingers. It appeared mundane at first glance, his spellsense told a different story. It radiated with magic. Her lightning had somehow dealt no permanent damage to the broken artifact.

Weirdly enough, the shard didn’t seem to be an enchantment like he’d first assumed. It was something else. He stared down at his hand and pulled out the thin bloody shard that had embedded itself into his palm earlier. While nowhere near as large as Kumiho’s shards, it still glimmered the same way to his spellsense. Examining it was like looking at a coin, where one side felt like no other magic he’d encountered. But the other seemed extremely familiar. He felt like he was on the edge of recognizing it.

“Kizu? Do you have a concussion?”

“Sorry,” he said, returning focus to the conversation. “My mind just wandered a little. What did you say?”

“Do you still need a guide back to your camp? I’d like to go to my children as soon as possible, but I can’t just abandon you and my cousin. Not after your help. We’re deeply in your debt.”

“Ah, can we figure it out after we’re no longer floating on an iceberg? And if you promise to keep the Kitsune peaceful, consider any debt paid.” He reached behind him and dropped the bloody shard into his pack along with the harvested brewing ingredients. He had to shake it to get it unstuck from his palm. Mort hissed at him from where he hid inside the bag. The monkey was not having a good day.

“Easy enough. Honestly, I doubt any of my people have any intention to go anywhere near human civilization. They hold a grudge, but we Kitsune tend to be the silent sulking type. They’ll think of themselves not returning to their position as peacekeepers as vengeance.”

That seemed good enough. So long as no other bad seals opened up. As much as Kizu loathed those beings in the aurora, he had no intention of opening up the seal to release Otochi. Or even worse, that seal nailing the dragons down. Unless every story he’d been told had been a grossly inflated lie, the world was definitely better off without those creatures terrorizing it. Breaking those seals out of spite would be the epitome of stupid.

As they stumbled away from the glacier and back onto the decimated ice flow, Kizu made a rude hand gesture up at the brilliant green and purple river of color in the sky. He was fatigued and bruised but had emerged victorious.

As they moved forward Kizu spotted a few polar bears in the distance on the ice, but none of them made any move to pursue them. Kizu almost felt bad for the animals. He’d killed their leader and destroyed their home. But their leader had been a building-sized monster designed to murder anyone who approached. So he didn’t feel too sorry.

Kizu’s exhaustion really caught up with him as he vaulted himself between the sheets of ice in the ice flow. The adrenaline faded from his system, leaving him stumbling and exhausted. After he slipped and nearly toppled into the ocean, they moved Anata over onto Kumiho’s back instead of his own. And even after, the Kitsune woman still had to stop and wait for him regularly until they finally reached the shore.

Kizu fell on his knees on the snowy beach and let out a sigh of relief. Finally, the worst of it all was over. All that was left now was to walk back to camp. While that still sounded miserable, it at least didn’t risk him drowning.

“Wait.” Kumiho raised a hand. She raised her nose into the air, as if smelling something. “There’s someone coming. Dogs. And Kemon. And…a moose?”

“Nanook?” Kizu asked hopefully.

“I don’t know who that is. Are you expecting someone? Wait, no. Of course the wisp can track you. I should have considered that. Sekai emits a haze that interferes with many divination spells. After so many years below, it’s easy to forget how exposed you are on the surface. Unless you’ve set up anti-divination measures?”

“We aren’t using any.” Not at the moment at least. He still felt hesitant to mention the necklace in his bag.

“You should consider finding some. I recommend tattoos. Regardless, this saves me the hassle of escorting you back to your camp.” Kumiho carefully set Anata on the ground before transforming into her fox form.

Kizu crouched next to Anata and took her hand. They faced the Kitsune for a final goodbye.

“Little cousin, it was wonderful meeting you. I’ll let Mae know you’re safe. She’ll likely want to see you again.” Kumiho started to walk away but turned around one more time. “Kizu. You have my word, the Kitsune will not harm any human or human adjacent race without provocation. But you should instead save your concerns for your own safety. And the safety of Anata. There is a reason I chose to remain in the dungeon for the last thirty years. Mind who you place your trust in. And beware of Harbinger Hunters.”

Without further explanation, Kumiho hopped over a snowbank and out of view.

The dogsled came to view a minute later. As expected, Nanook and Professor Grove rode on the sled. Or rather, Nanook did, Professor Grove simply floated along beside her.

Less expected was the huge bear-man who rode on a large moose. Kizu recognized the creature from an old bestiary of the crone’s, but the thing was far more massive in real life. Large antlers jutted from its head like gigantic, curled hands.

The rider smiled and waved extremely muscular arms at them. Not Allik, but a Kemon with darker fur, closer to black than brown. His fur layered thicker along his cheeks came down to a point at his chin, giving him a bearded appearance. He also wore a massive double-headed ax strapped to his back. The patterns etched in the ax glowed a slight green, obviously enchanted.

“I should have sent you both home,” Professor Grove launched into a lecture. “The moment I learned of your ward’s existence, I should have sent you back on the spot to watch her. Of course you land yourself in the worst sort of predicament and wander out into a blizzard to chase after her. You’re almost twenty kilometers from the cabin. I expected to recover frozen corpses. Especially when you decided to cast a spell to throw off my divination! How dare you!”

“I can ex-” Kizu started.

You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

“Oh, you can explain? You can explain the reason for popping up on the very edge of the known world? You can explain why the door to Nanook’s cabin is currently feeding a fire as scrap wood? Or perhaps you can explain why one of your classmates has no kneecap?”

“Calm yourself, Grove,” Nanook said. “The maimed boy never said Kizu had anything to do with his injuries. Before we sent him back to your academy, I recall him being incredibly mum about how he lost his kneecap. You can’t punish Kizu for something the victim never accused him of. And don’t drag my door into this. If anyone is to be upset about my door, it should be me.”

That seemed to only stoke the wisp’s anger as she continued to rebuke them and explain in great detail the dangers of blizzards.

Throughout Professor Grove’s tirade, the big Kemon stood to the side covering his mouth with a paw to poorly conceal a grin. When he caught Kizu looking, he rolled his eyes. But when Nanook sharply looked over her shoulder at him, the Kemon man was stoically nodding along to Professor Grove’s words with an exaggerated frown.

Kizu genuinely tried to focus on the lecture, but he wobbled unsteadily on his feet until his knees eventually buckled and he collapsed. He struggled in the snow, trying to get back on his feet.

“Jay, get a shelter set up,” Nanook said. With a wave, she heaped the nearby snow into a massive mound. “We’re staying here for a few hours.”

“Aye-aye.” The muscular man saluted her. Then he raised a furry fist and punched the snow heap. The snow collapsed inward at the impact, creating a shallow indent. He slammed his next fist into the same area. Again and again.

While he worked on their shelter, Nanook unhooked her dogs from the sled and started pulling out fatty meat for them to chew. While they ate, she cast different spells. With his head foggy, it took him a bit to understand what she was doing. She was purposefully creating an updraft instead of allowing the smell of the meat to be caught by the natural wind. She didn’t want the polar bears picking up on their scent. It was clever, and not something Kizu would ever have thought to do.

She noticed him watching and passed him and Anata both a stick of jerky. She looked like she wanted to say something, but after a glance at Professor Grove she just accepted his thanks with a silent nod.

It only took Jay a few minutes to complete the snow cave. He stood to the side, smiling smugly as he gestured at the shelter’s entrance.

“Here, let me help you,” Nanook said, lifting Kizu to his feet. “You’ve been through a lot. Rest now, you can fill us in later.”

Kizu noted that Professor Grove grumbled a protest, but it thankfully lacked the conviction of her earlier lecture.

After crawling forward a bit, Kizu collapsed on the snow. He fumbled around in his backpack for a warming potion.

“What’s that?” Nanook asked sharply. “Did Allik give it to you?”

“No. I made it. It keeps me warm.”

“Oh, is that all? No need for it. With four of us in here, we should be plenty warm. The snow keeps the heat inside. Nowhere for it to escape to.”

Technically, with Mort there were five of them. And he supposed she also wasn’t counting Professor Grove. But Kizu was too exhausted to protest or care about technicalities.

It seemed like only a minute, but when he blinked his eyes he awoke to Nanook’s loud, rhythmic snores. Just as she had promised, the snow cave was a cozy temperature. Almost hot. Likely a result of the half a dozen dogs crowded in the cave with him. And someone had dropped a blanket over him. He felt a sudden jolt of terror realizing Anata wasn’t there with him. But it eased as he felt his bond with Mort. They were together, just outside.

He pulled his leg, slightly damp from drool, out from under a dog’s jowls and crawled out of the snow cave. The large Kemon man, Jay, tended to a fire. At the beach nearby, Anata sat on a large driftwood log that protruded from the snow. She sipped a drink from a wooden cup while staring up at the aurora above her. The sky still swirled. Now more green than purple, the hues melded with one another. While Kizu still felt like cursing at it, Anata was utterly enamored by the colors as she gazed skyward. As he glared up at it, he did have to give it a bit of credit. It was an incredible sight. Especially backlit by the thousands of stars, dimmed but twinkling.

Mort sat perched on Anata’s shoulder. It looked as if she had forgiven him for biting her earlier. Relaxed, the monkey wrapped his tail around the back of Anata’s neck while he sucked on the stem of a green plant.

Kizu also spotted Professor Grove bobbing along the beach’s edge, further down. She illuminated the snow around her in a soft blue glow as she appeared to be looking out at the fractured glacier in the far distance. It was now cleaved in two. Professor Grove doubtlessly knew there was something odd about their timing and the glacier fracturing.

Not wanting another hour of lectures about responsibility, or worse, being questioned about the glacier, he slinked away from the wisp and took a seat next to Anata.

For a while they just sat there, gazing up at the stars and enjoying one another’s company.

“That one is called The Traitor’s Vine,” he told Anata, pointing up at a constellation. “Do you see how it curls across the sky and ends in a hook? There’s a story about why.”

Anata listened attentively as he told her about a monstrous plant that lured in prey with its wonderful scents before plunging its spear-like point into their hearts to feed on their blood. She sipped her drink and nodded as she looked up at the sky with awe.

After three more tales about the stars, Kizu took Anata’s empty cup and stepped over to the other side of the snow cave to investigate their camp’s progress. The large Kemon man, Jay, sat on a rock near the campfire. His moose lifted its head to look at Kizu from where it lounged and snorted a small puff of warm air, but it lost interest and returned to napping after only a few seconds.

“Oh, good morning!” Jay said, looking up from the fire. “Hope you don’t mind, I gave your monkey some fireweed. I brought some down on my last trip to Hon to give to my kids and some local monkeys stole it. Saw the monkeys the next day, fighting over an apple, looking as healthy as ever, so figured it was safe.”

“You’ve been to Hon?”

“Been there? My entire family lives there!” His face split into a joyful smile. He reached into a bag and pulled out an incredibly detailed small painting. It showed a boy and a girl. The boy only looked a few months old and the girl was looking down at him with a similar smile to her father’s. Only on a more human face. They lacked any of the Kemon fur.

“They’re your kids?” Kizu asked, slightly confused.

“You can see it in their eyes. Hold on.” He pulled out several more images of his children. And, sure enough, Kizu did spot similarities as he searched for them. Not just the smile and eyes, but he realized they had rounded bear-like ears instead of human ones.

“Um. Cute?”

“Aren’t they! That’s Jolene and the other one is Tomlin.” The names did not sound like the other Kemon. Jay must have noticed Kizu’s confused look because he laughed. “The names come from all over. My wife, Tori, is from Hon, but we actually met over in Edgeland. A whole diplomatic meeting. Super boring. But you know how it is. Got to do it as one of the tribe’s shamans.”

“You’re one of the shamans here?” Kizu asked. He’d heard Allik mention them before, but wasn’t sure exactly what the title entailed. “Is that like a mage?”

“A certain style. It’s more reliant on luck than other spellcrafts. Usually, most everyone has some affinity for everything involving magic. Sure, all people have different degrees of talent for specific spells, but almost everyone can learn how to throw a fireball with enough practice and dedication. Shamanism is more rare in that only a few are born with enough natural talent to get meaningful results. No matter the training.”

“But what does it actually do?”

“Details are a clan secret. But basically I use totems to align myself with certain aspects of nature.”

“Like a druid?”

“Again, no details. But it’s different from those dandelions. Our magic is way more linked to ancestry. It’s like if you mixed up enchantments, soul magic, summoning, and transmutation all into one nice roll of sushi.”

“Sushi?”

“Yeah. You know, rice and fish wrapped up in seaweed. You’re from Hon, right? Thought I’d compare it to something you’re familiar with. Jolene loves sushi. It’s her favorite.” Jay then pulled out another image of his daughter. This one showed her with bits of rice stuck to her cheeks while she grinned.

While Jay continued to fawn over more of his images, Kizu examined them with his spellsense. The enchantment used to maintain the image reminded him a bit of the device he used to copy those fliers for the school ball. But this was obviously permanent and designed to capture images not already on paper.

“How did you create the image?” Kizu asked, interrupting the man mid-ramble.

“It’s a dungeon artifact.” He pulled out another image, this one of his infant son. He looked like a grumpy old man stuffed in an oversized turquoise bonnet. “Hon keeps a massive storage vault of valuable ones. One of the perks to being married to an ambassador. Oh, you’ve got to see this! They’re adorable! It’s my absolute favorite! Or maybe, third favorite.”

Kizu sighed and settled in as Jay pulled out another four images from a pocket. He realized it might be a while before he managed to break himself free of the man. At least this was still a better alternative to the angry wisp.