He gathered essence at the edge of his spear’s blade with the same motion he wanted to behead the Chimera with. Its bulbous head and body were monstrous to behold. It had numerous eyes at the top of its head like a spider; black sclera and red irises spliced between a predator’s and a prey’s turned to him. Jerome extended his perception, forcefully pushing away the fog so he could get a sense of what the Chimera looked like. It was like an alligator had an orgy with a goat, and a crab to give birth to such unholy monstrosity.
All of a sudden, Achilles did something he never in his wildest imagination, thought was even possible. The essence… transformed before his very eyes. Like a catalyst was added to it. The bright blue ambient energy turned black and pooled at the tip of his spear into a tiny orb the size of a pebble. The spear became almost unbearable to hold. Energy raced up his arm from the spear and back. It grew so heavy he almost dropped it. Light curved around the pebble-sized orb like that of a black hole.
Soon, Jerome felt like he was being pulled by a gravitational force thrice as intense as Terra Praeta’s. He flung the black void at the head of the Chimera at the same time a gigantic chitinous tail smacked him in the side. Jerome was flung sideways into the valley’s wall. He smacked into it with a grunt, debris falling all around him.
“Tara!” The Shifter jumped forward to catch a stray limb as the Chimera tried to attack anything near it. Its head was missing and a pale white sticky substance poured out of the joint where the head met the…
Is that a thorax, Achilles? Jerome extricated himself from the wall to join the Shifter. The headless Chimera still had a fight in it.
“It is a cross between a thorax and a set of lungs. The lungs inside it help it to keep the oxygen it absorbs through its exoskeleton for longer, warming it up so its insides don’t freeze.”
Freaky. The Chimera was extremely adaptable to most environments, no matter how harsh. Jerome sliced off an incoming limb that the Shifter jumped over. He watched her land on the thorax with the agility of a cat and began to shift. Jerome had to shake himself to action. He badly wanted to see this with his own eyes but he had to act, lest he loses Ms. Tara. And the fog quickly came in again, defying his very powerful mental energy, so he couldn’t even rely on that to watch the Shift.
Jerome sprang into action cutting in-between the Chimera’ abdomen and its thorax as the Shifter used her claws to try to rip the chitin at the top of the thorax away.
“Hey!” he called out, holding Ms. Tara in his arms, princess style. “She’s here.” Jerome marveled at the large Midnight Panther before. Golden eyes focused on him and she leaped off the carcass, transforming midair and landing naked in front of him. It was mesmerizing to watch.
“Tara!” The Shifter dived at him to take her away from him.
“Calm down. She’s hurt and you can’t help her.”
~~~
Sheela
The mummified man set Tara down, not even paying attention to her nakedness. She quickly took out another set of leathers from her storage ring to wear. Looking back at the mummy, she hesitated. There were tears in his eyes and a tenderness she had never seen in any man’s eyes. His eyes weren’t that of a long lost lover — Tara never talked, or wrote, about any lovers — they were the eyes of a family member.
“Who are you?” Sheela asked as she tried to hold herself back. Tara was missing two limbs already and her skin looked like it had been digesting inside that thing for quite some time. She couldn’t even make out her face. And all her hair was gone. But thankfully, she was still alive. Her voluptuous chest moved slowly to the rhythm of her breath. “I know a little of the healing arts. I can help her survive.”
He didn’t respond. His brows were drawn in concentration. She had no idea what he was doing though.
“Look here, you,” she snapped, uncaring of her fear of him. “That’s my best friend!”
“And she’s like a mother to me.” Golden eyes not unlike her own turned to her. But there was a huge difference. The fog was so thick down here that she couldn’t even see her fingers in front of her, yet she could see his eyes from three paces away! His eyes were as bright as twin suns.
Sheela almost fell forward as she gazed into them. She felt like she almost lost herself in it. She quickly regained herself as he looked away. She gulped and took a step back. Not that the distance between them was much to begin with.
“I can heal her myself. But not here,” the mummified man said and Tara vanished right before her senses. Her fear spiked immediately — fear for her friend.
“Don’t be so alarmed,” he said. “She’d make a full recovery in a day.”
By all that is under heaven, she had never heard of such wounds healing in a day. Sheela couldn’t help but stare up at him as he walked towards her, black robes billowing in the slight chill wind. Who was this man?
“Now tell me what happened. How did she end up here?” he said.
That didn’t feel like a question but a demand.
~~~
Ms Tara had washed up in a river in the western region of Vorthe where she was taken in by the Fangs. From there she was chosen to come on this expedition to Terra Praeta where she and her friend, Sheela, who was the leader of their group, were betrayed. All because she wasn’t a Shifter.
Jerome already knew the location of the rest of the Shifters. He wanted to go after them but not before Ms Tara woke up. He had sent her to Sanctum so Achilles could help her regenerate her limbs and skin.
Ms. Tara had been through a lot. She deserved to rest. From what Sheela said of her, she had made rapid improvements in character, becoming bolder and taking risks she never had the willpower to take before. Jerome was proud of her and her growth. And now that she was back in his life, he’d make sure she got the best of resources. He just wondered who he’d find next. Were the others here too? He didn’t want to get his hopes up but the heart was a complex thing; it couldn’t truly be tamed.
“So where do you go from here?” Jerome asked Sheela as they exited the valley. The cool breeze of the steppe blew over him calming his nerves. It felt good to be out in the open once again. “You could come with us. We’re going somewhere really dangerous. And danger in a place like this…”
“Means opportunity,” Sheela whispered. “Will you take Tara there too?”
Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings.
He nodded at her. “You too, if you would come.”
He could see the hesitation in her eyes. She didn’t know him but she didn’t want to offend him by rejecting his offer.
“You don’t have to worry about offending me,” he said. Achilles, there should be a way to transport her to us when we are ready? Can you prepare a Rei’ hsa like you did for me during my initiation?
“There’s no need to go to such extremes, Xerae. I have some transference stones stored in Sanctum. I can repurpose one for a one off use.”
Thanks, Achilles, Jerome replied. I can sense that they both have a bond with each other. Ms. Tara wouldn’t forgive me if lose her friend.
“I can always keep an eye on her. Here it comes.”
The air rippled in front of him and he caught the tiny stone that shot out of the void.
“You’re full of surprises, you know that?” Csala complained. But he just smiled at her — to which she cringed.
Urgh! I must really look hideous.
Achilles chuckled at that.
The black stone in his hand was as tiny as a pebble, and dormant for now. He could sense the power sleeping inside it.
“Take this,” he said to Sheela, tossing her the stone. “That’s a transference stone.”
She held it away from herself, as if it would grow teeth and take a bite of her. “What does it do?”
“Teleportation.” Her eyes bulged out in surprise. “It’s a one time use only. You break it when you sense the essence inside activate—”
“Huh?” she tilted her head at him, confused at the strange word.
“...err, quicken. That’s me alerting you that she’s awake.”
Sheela stored the stone in her storage ring, glanced over for a long moment, and nodded curtly before racing away from them.
“Don’t do anything stupid!” he called to her.
She stopped to give him one last look before disappearing into the foliage.
“You think she’d listen?” Csala asked. She stood out like a red prey in a sea of green grass.
“Most likely not,” he replied. “But I’ll be watching her. We best go.” He picked her up and shot into the sky, heading for Hedon.
~~~
“We’re coming up on Hedon and his team,” Achilles said. Jerome decreased his altitude and slowed down. He looked in a particular direction and flew off.
“What is it?” Csala asked. She didn’t like the look he had in his eyes now. He looked like he was out for blood.
“Old grudges,” was all Jerome responded with.
“Don’t get yourself killed,” Csala said. “Seems you’ve got a lot of enemies here. Just don’t die before you fulfill your promise.”
Jerome landed at the top of a tree seventy-five feet off the ground. He scanned to check for predators and other sacred artists from their world. There were quite a few predators, distributed inside the vast forest based on their territories. Many of which were felines dozing off in the trees. He took a deep breath and sat down on the branch to meditate.
The team of Sprouts Jerome was waiting for was still a few hundred steps away from his position. But he could hear their voices loud and clear as they talked about having just a little more than two moons left before everyone was transported out of Terra Praeta.
Hmm. Can’t believe I spent so long inside Sanctum, he thought. They had probably met up with the Royal Sprouts. Forester and his group would be the only team to be able to tell time from the moment they entered Terra Praeta since they were never delayed by the Children. Or they had other ways to do so. Before now he would have thought that wouldn’t be possible, but now… there was no way a Great Clan wouldn’t provide their prodigies with ways to measure time.
He watched as Hedon, and his men got closer. Counting their numbers, he found that there were a lot more people than he had thought. Some of the Sprouts in his group were very tall, way taller than average human youths. Jerome observed them and found their likeness very familiar.
House Baelor, house of the running bull. He snorted. Though they were still quite far away, Jerome could ‘see’ the crests on their armor. There were twenty people from house Baelor together with House Alvric. Every one of the Baelors was at least taller than the tallest Sprout in House Alvric. Berj Baelors was busy flirting with a girl from the Alvric side. The shy girl looked like she was totally smitten and was blushing continuously. Jerome opened his eyes.
“Is that…” he muttered absently. He recognized the blushing Sprout as Arkesha after observing her. “Who knew the Amazon warrior had a soft spot.”
“What?” Csala asked, looking frustrated.
“Nothing,” he said. “Stay here and don’t make a sound.”
Csala shrugged. “Don’t die,” she said.
Jerome vanished on the spot, startling her.
~~~
Hedon
“Brother Berj, perhaps we should focus on our journey for now,” Hedon said respectfully to the leader of team Baelor. Berj’s distraction could cost them at any moment. And Arkesha…Hedon snorted lightly. He had never seen this side of her before. Though cute, now wasn’t the time for such activities.
“Ahem. Yes, we should,” Berj Baelor said, a small smile lifting the edges of his lips.
They continued their journey southward towards the mountain hoping to reach it before the two moon deadline was up. Hedon was kind of worried though. He hadn’t seen any sign of a treasure that should call out to him as his father had described since he left Terra Praeta’s Night.
“We should hunker down,” Murray said beside Hedon. “The scouts will be here soon for their shift change.” He looked around to consider the best place to make camp.
“This is a good place, isn’t it?” Hedon replied, also looking around. Though the area was dotted with large trees that could prevent them from seeing an enemy get close, the trees would also provide cover for them during an attack.
“We rest here for a while,” Murray announced and the Alvrics sighed, some leaning on trees to support their weight. They had been walking for a very long time. Hopefully, they would be able to rest well enough so they could fly.
The dense foliage of the forest created a canopy above their heads giving them a small respite from the heat of the sun and the sounds of the forest were also a welcome distraction. Berj Baelor chuckled at something one of his teammates said which drew the Alvrics’ attention.
“What do you find funny, Brother Berj?” Hedon asked as he sat on the large root of a tree.
“Nothing much,” he chuckled again. “Just that you Alvrics tire quickly,” he said with a knowing smile. That got Arkesha to leave his side with a scoff. “Err…Arkesha I—”
“Good day, Young Lord,” Arkesha turned to him and said with a curtsy before leaving, not meeting his eyes.
Berj sighed and palmed his face.
“So much for being a smooth talker,” Murray whispered. His voice carried on the wind to all the Alvrics in the group and they all chortled loudly.
A glare from the Baelors shut them all up though. Hedon sneered at that. The Baelors were known to be some of the strongest warriors in Vorthe and although they became gentle as they grew older, their younglings were fierce and quick to anger. If a fight broke out, the Alvrics would definitely be at a disadvantage. But they lacked the art of the sway as his father called it; they were no smooth talkers. Hedon took pride in that. but it still grated on his nerves that a look from the Baelors would shut his teammates down.
Silence engulfed them afterward, which caused Murray to look around warily. The sounds of the forest should have replaced the stifling silence that was left as the Baelors shut the Alvrics up. Hedon extended his perception around him before Murray roared.
“Fuck, it’s an ambush!” Murray stood up with a start, as well as everyone.
All of a sudden, red metal strings shot out of the ground and wrapped around members of team Baelor, pinning them to the ground.