Chapter XCII (92) - Shamans and Snow Caves

Kizu scavenged the parts of the dire bear the best he could. He was never very talented at the harvesting materials part of brewing. At least, not from fauna. Plants, he knew effective methods on how to gather. But the crone always had become irate whenever he accidentally messed up harvesting animal corpses. She hated him wasting resources and usually took control. So, while he managed to slice some uncharred hair and clip off a bit of its nails from the massive bear, when he tried to gather some of its eyeball, the organ deflated and sprayed his face with a rank liquid. Gagging, he tried to wipe it off, but the fluid was sticky and all he managed to do was get it all over his arms. Mort found the scenario extremely amusing. At least, up until the monkey found out that Anata didn’t want him to ride on her. She still held a small grudge about him biting her during the fight. And Osaki remained distasteful of the familiar. Which left Mort with only stinking, sticky Kizu.

Unfortunately, while his enchanted gloves technically still worked, they were now stretched to the point of uselessness. He packed them up, though he didn’t expect to salvage much from them. At least he already finished midterms.

but didn’t hold out any hope of repairing them.

“Those chunks of metal on its back were enchanted,” Osaki commented as they walked through the glacier’s tunnels, seeking out the exit. “I suspect whoever put the seal here also left behind that monster to watch over it.”

Kizu flipped a shard of the crystal seal between his fingers. It appeared mundane at first glance, his spellsense told a different story. It radiated with magic. Weirdly enough, it didn’t seem to be an enchantment like he’d first assumed. It was something else. 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? The bear hit you in the head? 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 get out of here? And if you promise to keep the Kitsune peaceful, consider any debt paid.” He reached behind him and dropped the shard into his pack along with the other shards and 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.

“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 who spoke to him in the aurora, he had no intention of opening up the seal to release Kekkon. 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 without those creatures terrorizing it. Opening those up out of spite would just be the epitome of stupid.

As they walked out of a tunnel and resurfaced on top of the glacier, 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.

Thankfully, Osaki used her wind spell to help them descend from the glacier’s cliff safely before more bears showed up. They might not be as big and dangerous as the dire bear below, but the regular polar bears were still a pain to deal with.

Kizu’s exhaustion really caught up with him as he vaulted himself between the sheets of ice in the ice flow. Anata rode on Osaki’s back instead of his own this time. And even so, the Kitsune woman still had to stop and wait for him regularly until they finally reached the shore.

“Wait.” Osaki 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. Unless you’ve set up anti-divination enchantments.”

“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. Especially tattoos. Regardless, this saves me the hassle of escorting you back to your camp.” Osaki dropped Anata to the ground before transforming into her fox form.

Kizu went and took Anata’s hand.

“Little cousin, it was wonderful meeting you. I’ll let Mae know you’re safe. She’ll likely want to see you again.” Osaki started to walk away but turned around one more time. “Kizu. You have my word, the Kitsune will not harm any human or human adject race without provocation. But you should worry about your own safety. And the safety of Anata. There’s a reason I chose to remain in the dungeon for the last thirty years.”

Without further explanation, Osaki 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.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

“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 corpses. Especially when you decided to cast a spell to throw off my divination! How dare you!”

“I can ex-” Kizu started.

“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. “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 blizzard.

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 in the snow. 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 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. After only a minute, he’d created a 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 ask any more questions.

It seemed like only a minute, but when he blinked his eyes, he awoke to Nanook’s rhythmic loud snores. Just as she had promised, the snow cave was a cozy temperature. Almost hot. Likely also 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.

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 in a wooden cup while staring up at the aurora above her. The sky still swirled. Now more green than purple. While Kizu still felt like cursing at it, Anata appeared utterly enamored by the colors. As he glared up at it, he did have to give a bit of credit. It was an incredible sight. Especially backlit by the thousands of stars, dimmed but twinkling.

Mort sat perched on her shoulder. It looked as if Anata had forgiven him for biting him 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 glacier in the far distance. Not wanting another hour of lectures about responsibility, he slinked away, putting the snow cave between himself and her. It cut his vision of Anata as well, but that didn’t really matter since Mort sat with her.

Instead, Kizu sat on a rock near the campfire. Jay’s moose lifted its head to look at him 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 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 is 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 looked 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 birth 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 good enough to get meaningful results. No matter the training. Just roll of the dice luck.”

“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.” Jay then pulled out another image of his daughter, Jolene. 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 of valuable ones. One of the perks to being married to an ambassador. Oh, you’ve got to see this one!”

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.