A warm hand closed comfortingly on Sophia’s shoulder before Dav leaned close to her. “Do you want to take the lead or should I? I think Sia’s directions might be better than Larryt’s.”
“Especially for the first visit,” Sophia groused. How did they get stuck with a guide who’d failed his first visit so badly that he didn’t even get to finish it?
“Yeah,” Dav agreed. “That does seem to matter here, doesn’t it?”
Sophia turned a little to look at her boyfriend. He sounded positively annoyed at the fact that the first time mattered. She awkwardly patted his arm, but it didn’t really seem to help. Maybe he’d be happier if they got moving? “Go ahead, Dav. It sounds like you’ve got a question, I’m not sure what to ask her.”
The only question Sophia could think of was to ask what their first task in the Challenge would be, since Larryt repeatedly emphasized that they were supposed to complete tasks to move forward. Now that she knew just how little Larryt knew about the Challenge, though, she wasn’t so certain.
Dav gave her a tight grin and a nod before he looked up at the ghostly warrior. “Si’a? What should we know about the Challenge overall? Are there any rules we should follow?”
Sophia blinked and wondered why that question hadn’t occurred to her. Was she still putting too much weight on what Larryt told them?
Si’a gave a small nod before she spoke. “Touching a spirit in the Challenge counts against you. That is true no matter who the spirit is and whether it is deliberate or not. If you do something I do not like, I will touch you; that counts. I will not harm you otherwise, but you will be removed from the Challenge and I will not have to deal with you.”
Sophia blinked. “That’s why you don’t have a weapon! You don’t need one.”
Si’a laughed brightly. “True enough. My weapon is the Challenge itself. If you are wise, I won’t need it.”
“Is that it?” Dav frowned. “Or, no, you’re saying that you don’t need other rules because you can decide to have us removed if we do something wrong, whether or not there’s a specific rule. I see.”
Si’a nodded. “One watcher, five participants, two of whom are closer to spirits than most that I see. I look forward to seeing your choices. Does that mean you are ready?”
Dav glanced at Sophia. She nodded, her attention distracted by the strange fact that Si’a identified them as five people. One was clearly Taika, but who was the other? The only other person she could think of was Cliff.
Actually, now that she thought about it, calling Cliff a spirit probably wasn’t entirely wrong. He wasn’t dead, but Sophia guessed that wasn’t a requirement.
Calling Taika a spirit seemed odd, given his physical presence, but Sophia couldn’t think of anyone else it might be. It was true that he seemed to change a little every time she looked at him; was it possible that he was less physical than he pretended?
“Yes, we’re ready,” Dav confirmed. He must have gotten Amy’s agreement while Sophia wasn’t paying attention. Sophia wasn’t sure if he’d explained why Si’a said there were five of them or not.
“Then watch where you step; the first task is one of care, though speed is also required. Find the stream that fills this forest with life.” Si’a smiled as she finished, then inclined her head towards them.
Larryt spoke up with a warning. “Watch your step means that there may be hidden spirits. You can find them if you’re careful. Don’t step on them. Touching one won’t put you out of the Challenge, but enough can.”
Sophia saw Si’a nod at Larryt. She seemed to approve of the way he clarified the point of her directions, even though she didn’t say that out loud. It made Sophia think; was this the reason Hinraeth suggested the dungeon as practice with aura sensing? She ought to be able to feel spirits with her aura.
“Should we head forward or is there a better way to search?” Dav looked around the clearing. “There’s a huge tree behind us, but other than that I don’t see anything that really limits the area we have to check.”
“I can fly up and search,” Amy offered. “ If we’re looking for a stream, the plants ought to show where it is from the air.”
That made more sense than Sophia’s idea of trying to figure out which way was more downhill by walking for a while. If nothing else, Amy ought to be able to tell that from the sky as well. It was basically the same way they found the Cloud Clan hunting camp, though this time Amy would be looking for water instead of smoke.
Surely that was too easy, though? Both Sophia and Dav could fly. Now that she thought about it, Larryt probably could as well. Mistform wasn’t just invisibility; he could probably drift upwards. Even if a group didn’t have someone who could fly, though, climbing a tree might be enough. Maybe it wasn’t too easy; maybe that was how they were supposed to start.
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“Be careful when you’re flying,” Sophia offered. “I don’t know if there will be any spirits up there or not.”
“I will,” Amy said with a nod before she shimmered and reduced in height to her owl shape. A powerful flap of her wings ruffled the plants around them as she lifted into the air.
Sophia watched her as she rose into the sky. For the first ten feet, her flight was smooth and easy, but by the time she was fifteen feet in the air, Sophia was certain she’d seen bird-Amy sideslip to avoid something in the air. By the time she was as high as the tops of the trees, it was almost a dance, with Amy clearly moving around something. There clearly weren’t huge numbers of spirits up there, but any was enough that Amy had to be careful. She seemed to rise and fall slowly as she wheeled around and checked all directions, then floated to the ground.
The striped owl reached shoulder height and hovered for a moment, then shimmered and turned into Amy. Amy fell straight down. Her feet landed first, then she tipped forward. Her knees hit next, followed by her hands. “Closer to the ground next time,” she muttered as she picked herself up.
“You ok?” Sophia asked. She reached a hand out towards Amy, then pulled it back as Amy reached ehr feet without taking the help.
“I’m fine.” A blush covered Amy’s face as she spoke. “Nothing to it. So, uh, I think it’s that way.” She pointed forward and to the right, away from the tree that held the Challenge entrance.
“Saw you dancing up there,” Dav added. “What do the spirits look like?”
“Lots of little birds,” Amy answered. “They were transparent and a little hard to see, but not too bad as long as I paid attention. There were definitely more than I saw out in the real forest. They weren’t afraid of me either.”
Sophia nodded slowly. In a way, that made sense; this was the Spirits of the Woods Challenge. A lot of little bird ghosts would fit right in. “Do you think all of the mammals, maybe even all of the large animals in here will be spirits?”
That would explain so much of why Si’a told them to be careful where they stepped. There could be a lot of small animals in a forest. There had to be a minimum size, though; there was no way anyone would be able to avoid all of the ants, for example.
“Could be,” Dav agreed. “In which case, uh. I probably shouldn’t lead. I may be from the middle of nowhere, but I’m still a city kid. Amy, do you think you can tell us where to step?”
“I think flying may be easier,” Amy said with a frown. “But Dav can’t fly, so that won’t work. Um.”
“I can’t fly either,” Taika spoke up from within Dav’s pack. “If you can point out the spots to avoid, I can make them really obvious without touching them, would that help?”
“I don’t know if I can,” Amy admitted. “At least not very far ahead of myself.”
“I might be able to,” Sophia offered. She was now pretty sure this was exactly what Hinraeth was talking about for aura training. “It won’t be very precise, but I should be able to … sort of feel them with my aura?”
It took a few minutes to work out the details, but the pieces fit together well. Sophia felt ahead of them with her aura, then pointed out areas to avoid as she searched. Taika tagged the areas as well as he could with glowing balls of pale light that floated above the ground. Amy led the way, picking through the hedge of marked areas to find the easiest path and searching for the auras Sophia found as she went. Sophia served as her backup, feeling the area in case any of the spirits moved. They each also watched their own steps, even though they followed in Amy’s wake.
It took time, but they were able to feel their way towards the greenery Amy saw in the distance without disturbing any of the animal spirits. It became faster as Sophia realized that she didn’t have to carefully search for any possible hint of another aura; all she had to do was feel for the telltale tinge of Death magic that emanated weakly from the ghosts.
Even with that, Sophia thought it was slow. She grinned when she heard Larryt complain about how quickly they were moving. Her grin widened more when Si’a told him to stop talking about the task. Unfortunately, he did. It was too bad; if he’d kept talking, he might have said something useful.
Once she could finally see the stream, Amy paused and turned to look at Si’a. “Is this close enough?”
The ghost warrior smiled. “Now you must choose your direction, upstream or down. Do you seek the beginning or the end? Choose your way and follow it until you find your destination.”
“What does that mean?” Amy sounded annoyed. She glared at Si’a, but all the ghost did was shake her head.
Larryt cleared his throat. “I can’t tell you which way to go. I don’t know which way to go; this isn’t a puzzle I’ve seen. Ah, think about what the guide said; there’s always a clue. Don’t be too upset if you guess wrong, all it costs is time and you’re already moving quickly.”
Sophia shook her head, annoyed. That was probably supposed to help, but she hadn’t been listening for a subtle clue. “Si’a, which way should we go?”
The guide shook her head, but repeated her earlier instructions anyway. “Choose your direction, upstream or down. Do you seek the beginning or the end?”
“The beginning or the end,” Sophia echoed, then turned to the others. “Any ideas which way we should go? I’m betting the beginning is upstream.”
“Then watch where you step; the first task is one of care, though speed is also required. Find the stream that fills this forest with life,” Dav quoted. He had an oddly glassy look to his eyes, as if he were repeating words he saw in front of himself or maybe something he heard. He blinked and the look vanished, leaving Sophia to wonder if maybe he’d just had his eyes open for too long. “That’s how she described the first task. If this is the river of life, do we want the beginning or the end?”
Sophia glanced back along the wandering path they’d taken. “Upstream, I think. There are spirits at both ends, but all of the spirits here are ghosts. We’re supposed to avoid them, so that means we should avoid where they come from.”
“It’s a choice,” Amy muttered. Sophia was pretty sure she didn’t have an argument against the direction, but she certainly didn’t seem happy about it. “That means we need to turn left. What do I need to watch out for?”