“Welcome.”
Sophia turned her body to try to find the voice. It came from behind her. After a moment, she saw the man behind her. He was transparent and glowed a little, but for all that he looked a lot like the way Hollywood depicted ghosts, Sophia could tell he wasn’t one. Sophia could see where his feet disturbed the leaves covering the ground.
Just as importantly, there was no feel of Death mana from him. Ghosts always felt like Death.
image [https://i.imgur.com/GDzEaSP.jpeg]
A moment later, the man was completely visible, with the land behind him no longer showing through his body. Sophia frowned; that implied the translucent was either some sort of teleportation or, more likely, that he’d been invisible a moment earlier. Greeting someone from behind them while invisible was rude. “You did that deliberately, didn’t you?”
The man smiled, but he seemed almost surprised at Sophia’s reaction. Had he expected her to be frightened or something?
“Welcome to our camp,” he stated firmly, completely ignoring Sophia’s question. “Are you here for shelter for the night?”
Amy spoke up before Sophia could decide how to answer. “Yes, and we killed a spiked turtle yesterday evening. We’d like to trade the meat and shell.”
The man nodded and waved at one of the nearby tents. “Talk to Rhianne. She’s always happy to trade.”
By the time he finished speaking, he was already fading away. Sophia watched him vanish completely and tried to get a feel for the magic he was using. It was different from her own, because he didn’t seem to have to actively cast anything. It wasn’t an enchantment, either, because she’d be able to see it when it activated even if it otherwise hid and there was nothing to see.
It reminded her more of a monster’s ability than a spell, like it was something he could just do rather than something he’d learned. It was almost more like he had to use an Ability to appear instead of becoming invisible, which was truly annoying. She couldn’t even follow the mana he was using to stay invisible!
Sophia huffed to herself, annoyed, then realized that Amy was already off her horse and headed inside the tent. By the time she managed to dismount the torture device masquerading as living transportation and get inside the tent, Amy was already almost done explaining the trade they wanted to make.
Sophia took the time to get a good look at where they were. Rhianne was an older woman, probably in her sixties. She seemed human, but Sophia was beginning to think that everyone in the Broken Lands was probably at least a little Warped. She clearly wasn’t whatever the man outside was.
Amy had clearly interrupted Rhianne in the middle of doing something. Sophia couldn’t tell if she was cooking or performing alchemy. There were no obvious cooking pots, but there also weren’t any beakers. Whatever she was doing, it involved herbs and small gourds, since that was what seemed to fill the tent.
image [https://i.imgur.com/PscydcT.jpeg]
“Yes, we can do that,” Rhianne agreed. “Half of the meat seems fair. Our half will be dinner tomorrow night, I think; you may of course partake as well. Let me see the shell.”
Sophia pulled off her pack and extracted one of the shell fragments, as well as one of the spikes that pierced it. The spike was blunt but had clearly pushed the shell apart where it erupted.
Rhianne took a long moment to examine both pieces, then nodded firmly. “Ah, I see. Yes, this is from a Stoneshield Turtle. It’s too bad it’s not a steelback; those have excellent shells for making armor. Stoneshield turtles actually have very fragile shells, for giant turtles. They depend on their ability to grow stone around themselves instead. You must have caught it by surprise; that’s the only way to kill a Stoneshield.”
Sophia nodded. “We did. We all hit it at the same time and it died before it could react. It kept trying to fight us even after it lost its head, but it was all physical.”
“Turtles do that,” Rhianne agreed. “Are you three hunters or Called?”
Sophia blinked at that. For some reason, she’d assumed that hunters who hunted monsters would be Called, not Professionals. Sure, the primary hunter in Old Kestii was a Professional, but he only hunted things like giant snakes, and he prepared extensively for that.
Preparation would probably work on the giant turtles, too. Sophia guessed there was no reason that a hunter had to have Abilities designed to fight monsters. There must be Abilities designed to help with traps and killing game, too. Maybe that was the sort of Ability the man who welcomed them just outside had? Being unseen would be helpful in hunting.
“Called,” Amy answered absently. “We’re heading to Izel for one of the Challenges near there. I need it to upgrade into Night Owl.”
Rhianne’s eyebrows rose. “I didn’t take you three for Moon clan. Starfall, maybe.”
This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.
Amy shook her head. “I’m Aurora Clan. Dav and Sophia are from a long way away, far outside the Skylands.”
“Aaah.” Rhianne nodded as if Amy’s statement explained a lot more than she’d said. “Well, welcome to the Clans. We are Cloud Clan; this is one of our autumn hunting camps. You picked a good time to come through and ask to trade meat for smoking. You must be coming from one of the outlands, then.”
Outlands had to mean “another shard.” Sophia nodded. “Casterville, through a cave near the beach.”
“That’s where we met Amy,” Dav added with a gesture towards her. “It was still summer in Casterville when we left. Now, where did you say to take the meat?”
“I’ll show you,” Rhianne said before she stood with a groan. “We can talk to Hinraeth, as well; he’s been muttering about sending someone out to hunt a turtle, lately, so I suspect he’ll be interested in your shell fragments. Possibly also the Stoneshield spikes; I’m not sure he has any Stoneshield vials left.”
Hinraeth turned out to be the hunting camp’s alchemist and apothecary. He was interested enough in the bits and pieces that they’d taken off the Stoneshield turtle’s body that he took all of them in exchange for a pair of Stoneshield vials and a vial of shattershell oil.
Amy tried to get more of the shattershell oil instead of the Stoneshield vials, but he held firm and she eventually gave in to the argument that he only had a few and that turning the shell she was trading for it into more would take months. She did manage to pry a few heatstones out of him as well, but that was all.
They stayed at the hunting camp for three nights. The first two nights were necessary, because the turtle meat took more than a day to prepare and smoke, but they could have left midmorning on the third day. It was Dav’s fault that they didn’t.
Well, it was sort of Dav’s fault. Sophia was definitely going to blame him if anyone asked, not that anyone was likely to ask.
The Cloud Clan seemed welcoming, but it was always clear to Sophia that they were outsiders. She expected that would be true wherever they went in the Broken Lands, but she couldn’t quite get used to it. Dav, on the other hand, seemed comfortable with being a stranger.
That night was cool but not yet cold, a nice night for sitting around a fire and talking. Almost everyone was doing something while they talked, even if it was only whittling or spinning thread. Sophia was repairing her armor. It might not have been damaged by the turtle, but she hadn’t yet fixed everything that the Hungering Spark damaged. She wasn’t even sure she’d be able to, but she had to try.
The outfit she’d worn that day was scorched, but she’d thought her armor was okay. It wasn’t. She hadn’t realized the damage until she started looking, but not only were some of the scales brittle from the lightning, the leather they were attached to was also starting to flake in places. She could patch it up, but she couldn’t really fix it. She’d need some new leather pieces to attach the scales to. The good news about that was that she didn’t have to worry about finding dragonhide or something equally horrifying; the scales were attached to ordinary cow leather.
Sophia’s attention was on her armor when she heard Dav ask about the man who did the vanishing act when they found the camp.
“He appeared behind you and welcomed you?” Hinraeth was one of the rare exceptions who wasn’t actively working on anything that evening.
Dav nodded. “Completely caught me by surprise, I’d have sworn there wasn’t anyone there a moment earlier.”
“May not have been,” Hinraeth said with a grin. “That was probably Larryt. He loves his jokes. The other three probably wouldn’t have said anything at all; they prefer to let strangers think the camp’s unguarded. Larryt likes to watch people jump.”
It took Sophia a moment to decipher the smile and the tone of voice. He was amused, definitely, but there was also a hint of ruefulness. It made Sophia think that Larryt wasn’t above pulling jump scares on people in his own Clan.
Sophia knew people like that. They were often funny and annoying at the same time, and that was if they restricted their humor to appropriate times. If they didn’t, they could be downright hazardous.
“How did he do it? Is there a potion of invisibility or something?” Dav asked.
Sophia blinked. She hadn’t even considered potions. She’d dismissed enchantments, but she hadn’t thought about something that was used up as it worked. It seemed unlikely, since he was willing to appear and then disappear again, but she supposed she couldn’t rule it out. She wasn’t nearly as familiar with potion mana signatures. They did tend to be weaker, so it was possible she’d overlooked it.
“Not that’s worth anything,” Hinraeth said with amusement clear in his voice. “If someone tries to sell you one, buy from someone else unless they’re really clear about what it does and does not hide. Most invisibility potions aren’t worth the side effects; they make you harder to see but not impossible and they don’t hide your scent or presence or aura at all. No, what Larryt has is an Ability called Mistform. Can’t be seen or smelled and doesn’t affect the world more than a mist can. The only real way to find someone in Mistform is to feel for their aura. The only one of the three of you that I’d expect to be able to do that is her.”
Hinraeth pointed directly at Sophia. “You have your aura restrained; it’s not leaking your intentions or even your power. That takes skill, but why aren’t you using it to feel what’s around you?”
Sophia flushed as she set her armor down. “I should be. I just don’t think about it. It’s not polite to wave my aura in front of everyone like I’m trying to get their attention, and I’m so used to being around people that I just sort of forget when I’m outside.”
“The best solution for that is practice.” Hinraeth gave Sophia a look that she recognized all too well, the elder telling a youngster that she should already know what he was telling her.
She did, she really did. “It’s not easy.”
“Few things worth doing are,” Hinraeth agreed. He leaned back a little and seemed to contemplate Sophia for a moment before he added. “If you want, I think we can allow you the same training we give Clansmen with your issue.”
Sophia gave the man a dubious look. “I’m not in your Clan. What would you want in return?”
She wasn’t actually sure she wanted whatever he thought of as training. If it was what they gave people in their own Clan, it was probably both helpful and not at all fun. She couldn’t think of anything that would make training awareness of any sort quickly fun.
“A Challenge trade,” Hinraeth stated softly. “That seems fair.”