"Are you sure it's the typhon beast?" Lori asked.
"Absolutely sure? No," Shanalorre said. "However, it is alive and by comparison is larger than anything that is not a tree, so either way I believe it is worthy of attention."
"Uh…" Mikon 'uh'-ed. Lori turned an annoyed look at her. "Should I get Rian, your Bindership? This sounds like something he needs to hear."
Lori considered it and nodded. "Go get him, if you please."
Mikon nodded, and for some reason exchanged a glance with Shanalorre before getting up and doing as ordered. Lori would have wanted to press Shanalorre further, but it was best if they didn't have to repeat the same exposition at Rian, so despite her inclination, she waited, turning towards the sunk board to consider her next turn. With Shanalorre watching intently, she reached out and made her move, then sat back to wait.
The weaver soon returned with Rian… as well as Umu and Riz in tow for some reason. "Your Bindership," Rian said, "Mikon said you needed me?"
"Shanalorre said the typhon beast might have somehow made its way into the boundaries of River's Fork Demesne," Lori summarized as Mikon glanced at Shanalorre, who nodded before the weaver sat back to study the sunk board.
"Ah. Well, that's terrible." Rian frowned. "But if it is the typhon beast, how is it inside? Shouldn't it have been deterred from entering the demesne at all?"
"It is not currently certain it is the typhon beast," Shanalorre said. "It is just as likely to be some sort of very large dragonborn abomination, and those have never seemed to experience pain from being within the confines of a demesne, nor have shown any wounds from irridiation that have been reported. It possible that the meaning which fleshcrafts their bodies into abominations repairs such damage, and the interval isn't long enough for any further irridiation to set in to such an extent."
"That's not any better," Rian sighed as he sat down on the bench opposite Lori, next to Mikon. "Actually, knowing our luck, it's a dragonborn abomination made from the typhon beast."
"That is not beyond possibility," Shanalorre said. "In fact, it is quite likely. If this is the typon beast, it was likely affected by the dragon with some sort of rampant life, or perhaps it encountered an insane thought that lead to it entering the demesne. Regardless, a very large living creature is currently within the confines of the demesne's boundaries."
"How is it we are only learning of this now?" Lori asked.
"I had been prioritizing using my awareness to examine the area near the central dome for abominations, Great Binder. However, recently I noticed that both abominations and beasts seemed to be moving away from the dome, and I expanded my attention to see if this was part of a trend or an isolated case. It was only just now that I identified the presence of the large beast or abomination," the other Dungeon Binder said.
Rian glanced towards Lori for some reason, then turned back to Shanalorre. "How far is it from the center of the demesne? Are they currently in any danger?"
Shanalorre shook her head. "Not at the moment. In fact, the presence is currently static and unmoving, but alive. I suspect it is currently asleep. There is also the expanse of the river between the creature and the dome."
"Then I think we should table this discussion for the moment," Rian said. "We need sleep, and probably confirmation that this is the typhon beast. For all we know, it's a chasmos or a hadon or some other large herbivore. Tomorrow we can send some of the hunters on one of the boats, and they can confirm whatever this thing is. Does that sound good to you, your Bindership?"
Lori nodded readily. After all, the danger was technically in another demesne that she couldn't affect at the moment. "Agreed. We will send the hunters and continue discussion when we have more concrete information. I will be going to River's Fork tomorrow in any case. They can accompany me."
"May I request that I accompany you as well, Great Binder?" Shanalorre asked. "From what I have gathered, it is safe to return the children back to their parents, and I will be better able to direct the hunters as to roughly where the beast is located from within the demesne."
Tilting her head thoughtfully, Lori considered the suggestion, than nodded. "Very well."
"And if it is the typhon beast, let's remember to bring the arrow this time," Rian said.
Lori twitched, and gave her lord a flat look. "Noted."
She won the game, of course.
----------------------------------------
"It's definitely the beast, your Bindership," the hunter reported to Lori, Rian and Yllian at mid-afternoon the next day. Lidzuga—Lori had checked for his name earlier—was also present in an advisory capacity. "I'd know those spines anywhere. We were lucky it was resting when we saw it, but it started moving when the wind shifted. Must have caught our scent."
"Rainbows," Lori said flatly.
The hunter who had spoken, as well as the other two hunters that had gone across the river with him, all nodded in agreement. "Rainbows with all the colors growing deep into the skin, your Bindership."
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Silently, Rian slid the stone-tipped arrow along the table and in front of her. Not looking down, Lori moved her hand along its length until she was touching the head, where a binding of lightningwisps was anchored. The binding was heavily imbued. Very heavily imbued. She began imbuing it with more magic.
"In what state did you find it?" Lori asked. She dared not hope, but… "Was it injured? Weighed down because it had a tree growing on its back?"
"Nothing like that, your Bindership. At worse, it had bark and maybe some lengths of branches fused onto parts of its skin, but it didn't seem weighed down or anything."
"Not even a little unbalanced? Tilting slightly to one side, perhaps?"
"Not even a little, your Bindership."
"So there are parts of it that are going to feel spears even less?" Rian said.
"I'm afraid so, Lord Rian."
He sighed, bowing his head as he closed his eyes. "Well… at least Shana…lorre can track it, so we know where it is now." He paused, then turned to the Dungeon Binder in question. "We do, right?"
"Yes, Lord Rian. Its size is distinctive. And at the moment, it appears to be moving closer to our location," Shanalorre said. "Either it is following the trail the hunters left behind, simply seeking the river for water, or is being drawn to the smell of people."
Lori frowned. "The river is in the way, so it shouldn't matter, but the fact that the typhon beast—"
"Typhon abomination," Rian corrected.
She gave him a flat look. He shrugged as Lidzuga nodded.
"The fact the typhon abomination," she continued, her face still flat, "is now within the confines of the demesne only reaffirms that we need to kill it, as it is still driving beasts away from this area. While it is not a physical danger—" Lori frowned at the hunter who had reported. "Why are you raising your hand?"
"Uh, pardon, your Bindership, but that's not true. The abomination not being a danger, I mean. It can easily cross the river and make its way here to where everyone lives."
Lori blinked. "But it's water. Beasts don't cross water. Even a simple water break can keep them out, as long as the water is moving."
"That's outside the demesne, your Bindership. Inside, beasts don't have to worry about how much it hurts when their colors wash away."
For a moment, Lori was quiet.
"Rainbows. Wait, but it still needs a way to cross all that water. It's not a fursh, surely it can't swim. It's not unnatural like Rian."
"Hey! First off, swimming isn't unnatural," Rian said. Of course he'd say that. "Secondly, it doesn't need to swim, it just needs to float from one side of the river to the other, and that's easy. Leaves float. Corpses float. If it has enough branches and things on it, it will be able to float just fine. After that, all it needs to do is move its tail and it will probably get to this side soon enough, unless we get very lucky and it gets swept downriver."
"I do not believe we will be that lucky, Lord Rian," Shanalorre said. "It is difficult to properly assess with Deadpseaking, but based upon where the lowest slugs, squids and graspers I can perceive in the river are, and where the top of the water seems to be, there might be points in the river that the typhon abomination can simply walk across, provided it raises its head high for air."
There was another moment of silence. No one said rainbows, but it was probably only a matter of time.
"Well," Rian said before anyone else had the opportunity to swear. "I suppose things could be better, but at least it's happening now and not, say, last year."
"And how is it any better now?" Lori asked.
"We have more boats now," Rian said, gesturing vaguely in the direction of Lidzuga. "While the Coldhold is still buried under the water—" He paused. "Uh, you did remember to maintain it, didn't you?"
"Of course I did, Rian, what kind of fool do you take me for?" She had been VERY lucky the ice had been heavily imbued, since by the time she had remembered the binding had been almost depleted.
"Right, right, silly me for asking… well, even without the Coldhold right now, we have enough boats to be able to move over a lot of people."
"I am not bringing people to my demesne and having them live in my dungeon. Their dragon shelter is still perfectly serviceable."
"…what about the children?"
"They are of course coming with us when we go back tonight."
"I will leave them in your care, Great Binder," Shanalorre said. "I believe it would be best if I remained here, as I can keep track of the typhon abomination's location without needing to endanger anyone. Given the circumstances, that should provide more than enough time to get everyone into the dragon shelter."
"They're going into the dragon shelter tonight regardless," Lori said. "Tomorrow, I will be testing ways to deal with it. The day after, we are killing this abomination."
"Um… by 'we' do you mean we spear-poke it to death, or by 'we' do you mean you throw a binding at it to make it explode?" Rian said. "Please say it's the second one. "
Lori rolled her eyes. "Yes, I will be using a binding on it to kill it. Possibly several."
Rian sighed, looking relieved. So did Yllian. "So… what will we be doing?" Rian asked.
"Delaying it should I miss so I can try again."
Rian nodded. Yllian just looked resigned. "Right, of course. Um… could you not miss? Please?"
"I don't intend to," Lori said, turning towards the hunters. "If the typhon abomination is heading towards here, where is it most likely to pass through?"
----------------------------------------
That night, after dinner, Lori sat at her stone table—she should probably get around to having the carpenters fashion a wooden tabletop for her at the very least, even if she was still going to support it with stone legs—starring at the blank surface of a bone tablet, a stylus in one hand.
The temptation to turn her attention to the samples she had gathered was strong, but she resisted. Instead, she began to make a flow diagram detailing her latest lightning ball binding. Lightningwisps, contained within a shell of airwisps and more lightningwisps, with spikes of lightningwisps radiating outwards to allow for the conduction of lightning so that it would pass through the body of the target rather than the lightning getting stuck and expending all of the binding's imbuement at once to explode the air…
She remembered always disliking having to plot a flow diagram when she had needed to do it in school. Now she found herself putting an inordinate amount of care into the illustration, because it was actually important, and the binding was going to be a bit too complicated to keep it completely in her head. Ugh, why hadn't they ever told her how actually useful this would be? If they had, she might have actually put more effort into it for her classes!
Stylus in hand, Lori began plotting out more variations on the lightningball binding, the stone-headed arrow with its heavily imbued lightningwisps on the table in front of her.
After all, at range, blowing something with airwisps was unreliable. A rock, however, always behave predictably when you threw it, as long as you actually knew how to throw.