High in the sky above a clearing devoid of trees, a man stood watch over the forest. It wasn’t practical to spend as much Breath as it took to stay airborne, but it was important the man had a good grasp on his surroundings. The man, of course, was Master Scalisth, the Altum man in charge of keeping his flock of half-breed humans alive.
The Altum master panned his gaze down toward the clearing where most of the humans had fallen asleep. A few had stayed awake to watch for threats, but it didn’t really matter. Whether it were three people or three hundred, none of them could see in the dark, let alone detect the predators capable of hiding themselves from sight. Well, there were some people who weren’t completely blind, but they weren’t trained enough to pick out a beast evolved for stealth.
Scalisth had spread his influence to encompass a 500m radius around the camp so that he could catch anything before it had time to get to the defenseless humans. He felt a minute prodding against the Will he had dispersed in the densely wooded forest and turned to look at the disruptor.
A lone beast was crouched low to the ground approximately 200m from the edge of the clearing. It had powerful legs that ended in a set of flexible hooked toes that dug into the earth with every step. Its spine was thin and wiry, allowing the beast to move is forward and rear halves somewhat separately from one another, making it unpredictable to an opponent.
Scalisth looked closer and saw that it was a Creosh, or an “assassin that kills the night” when translated directly to English. If the humans were awake to see it right now, they would think it somewhat resembles a puma, or mountain lion. Fortunately for the humans, they would hopefully never know this beast ever existed.
The Altum master concentrated on the will he dispersed throughout the area. Like a muscle contracting, Scalisth flexed his will to push the untamed Breath of the World to surround the creature.
To its credit, the stealthy beast noticed the change in the flow of the ambient energy surrounding it, but it was too late to stop what was happening.
“[ Cut ]” A single sound was uttered from the Altum’s lips. His word became law, and the world listened as the command travelled through the world between him and his target like a ripple in a body of water. The beast tried to contort its body to evade the attack, but the powerful master’s will guided his attack to strike true.
With the sound of splitting skin and tearing muscles, the beast was separated in half near the lower spine. With one last cry, the beast’s two halves fell to the floor with a dull thud, the sound consumed by the dense forest around it.
“That one was quite good,” Scalisth remarked. It had managed to get through the outer areas of his watch and halfway to the humans in the center. Scalisth distributed his will so that it was densest in the center and less dense in the outer perimeter of his senses, so it became exponentially harder to go undetected the closer the creature came. It had no chance from the start.
Scalisth didn’t spare another thought for the dead beast as he continued his watch over the clearing below. He would have time to rest later, but for now he needed to be on high alert for anything truly dangerous.
///
“Woah, what the hell was that?” I flinched as I heard a sound coming from the woods on my left.
“What’s what?” Amaya asked, concern evident in her voice.
“I thought I heard something, from over there.” I pointed in the direction of the noise, and we both stared at the tree line in complete silence. The woods were drowned in impenetrable darkness, and I couldn’t see even a meter past the brush line around the clearing.
In the dim light of the moon, I could see Amaya smile slightly. “Don’t worry, I’ve got a pretty good sense for situations like this, and I don’t think there’s anything to worry about.”
I looked back at her with a confused expression. “This isn’t really the place to rely on your gut. It might get us all killed if there’s something out there.”
“I’m not saying there’s nothing out there,” Amaya responded with a playful tone, “I’m just saying it’s not a threat, at least, not anymore.”
Her tone exuded confidence, and there was no shakiness or hesitation in her statement. Absolute confidence was hard to come by in an unknown environment.
I could tell she believed what she was saying that there wasn’t a threat, but that made me wonder. “How could she know that?” I thought to myself.
“How do you know?” I decided to ask out loud.
Her smile grew even wider as she said, “I know it sounds hard to believe, but I have always had good instincts for dangerous situations. It’s sort of inexplicable, and no one has believed me before.”
She paused, then added, “…But I know if anyone would understand, it’s you.”
“Me? Why would I understand?” I thought about what she said, and why she thinks I in particular would understand her. Suddenly, it clicked.
“It’s that blue energy, isn’t it?” I said with sudden realization. Amaya’s smile dimmed slightly, and she nodded gently.
“So, you can see it,” she said with a thoughtful tone of voice, “I had a good feeling about it, but it’s good you confirmed it yourself. I was starting to think I was wrong about that.” She stopped speaking, and I could hear her feet shuffling in the grass.
She continued, “I’ve never told anyone about this, at least, not about the important stuff. I’d like to keep it that way, but my gut is telling me that the more I learn about this, the better my chances of survival will become.”
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Amaya paused, then added, “It sounds silly to say, but can you keep a secret? I feel like things will go better for the two of us if no one else knows about this… at least, not yet.”
I silently listened, not moving a muscle as I thought about it. “Can I trust her?” Sure, we’ve had some nice conversation, but that doesn’t mean she’s trustworthy.
She was right about one thing: no one else should know about the energy yet. Any cards I can keep up my sleeve will greatly increase my chances of survival.
I realized I hadn’t even paid the notion of a hidden murder any attention despite how worrying it was. “If I want to survive, I’ll need to do whatever it takes to get an edge on the competition.”
Out loud, I answered, “We can share our insights into this energy. To make it fair, we should take turns asking and answering questions. If one of us asks a question we don’t want to answer, the other has no obligation to answer. Deal?”
Amaya hummed as she thought it over, likely considering the pros and cons of accepting. Eventually her hum got higher in pitch as she seemed to come to a conclusion.
She eventually said, “I’m down. When do we start?”
“We can start right now if that’s alright with you?”
She chuckled, “Lucky for you, I don’t have any plans for the next couple of hours, so I’m all yours.” I nodded, then realized she probably couldn’t see that, so I responded verbally to confirm.
“I’ll go first,” Amaya said energetically, “When’s the first time you saw it? The blue stuff, I mean.”
“Earlier today, right before I passed out,” I said sheepishly. She burst out laughing, then quieted down after she realized how loud she was being.
“Today? I can’t believe it! Is that why you passed out? From information overload and such?”
I nodded, but added verbally, “Yeah, it hurt like you wouldn’t believe. It was like a brain freeze and a migraine had a child, except the child was actually another migraine.”
“Yeah, you seemed pretty out of it, but I don’t think you passed out. Scalisth told you to go to sleep, didn’t you hear?” Amaya seemed amused by the situation, especially once she found out what caused it.
I thought for a moment and sheepishly added, “I think I heard him say something, but I was a little preoccupied in the moment to really think about it. My turn for a question: when did you see the… blue stuff?”
“Uhm, sometime when I was really young, maybe six?” Amaya seemed unsure about the accuracy of her answer.
“Six?!” I exclaimed, “You mean you’ve had this your entire life?”
She hummed in affirmation, “That’s technically two questions, but yes, since I was young. My turn: What does it look like to you? Is it all blue and swirly like this?” I heard the shuffling of clothing as she waved her arms around, but I couldn’t tell what she was doing.
“Uhm, I can’t see what gesture you’re making, but yeah it’s blue and swirly. It kind of reminds me of those aerodynamic chambers where they track how wind moves across and object’s surface.”
“I have no idea what that is, but it sounds about right. Your turn,” Amaya said energetically.
I got more serious for this next question. “You said earlier that your gut feeling is related to this energy. How?” Amay paused to think for a moment, seemingly finding my question complicated.
“Well, that’s a bit vague. It’s not an active thing where I’m trying to do anything. It’s like when you feel the wind on your skin and can tell where it’s blowing. And just to be clear, it’s not like I have premonition or anything, I just listen to the vibes of whatever is nearby.”
“Ok, my turn…”
///
We spent the next hour talking about what we’ve learned about this fluid energy in the air. Amaya knew surprisingly little about this despite how long she’s had the senses to detect it.
“Yeah, it kind of freaked me out as a kid, and I didn’t want people thinking I was crazy, so I left it alone for the most part.”
We both had a few things we thought were similar between our experiences: One, this energy is always present, but no one can see it. No one except us, that is.
Two, this is the same thing Scalisth uses to do his world speech. I wasn’t watching until recently, but Amaya said that the energy flows differently around him when he does magical stuff, which I agreed with. This was a good discovery because it meant that we were both theoretically capable of doing the things he can.
“Dude, I want to fly so badly,” Amaya said. “Just imagine being high in the sky, feeling the wind brush past your face as you soar above the ground. It would be magical.”
“Been there, not nearly as cool as it seems. A lot less thrilling and a lot more terrifying.”
Amaya harrumphed, “When have you ever done something like that? Did you skydive back on Earth? You don’t seem the type.”
“Long story, I’ll tell you some other time if I want,” I responded flatly. That wasn’t a good memory, and it was rather fresh in my mind considering how recent it was.
“We’ve got plenty of time,” Amaya said pleadingly.
“Later,” I said in a final tone.
The third thing we learned was that we are both able to see and interact with the energy in the body of others, which we have taken to calling Will. Interestingly enough, I’m more proficient in moving and manipulating Will than she is. We both pushed against each other, and I was able to move hers back, if only barely.
“That’s not fair, I haven’t been practicing like you have,” Amaya said with a pouting voice.
“Life’s not fair,” I said in response. “Plus, if you really want to play that game, Scalisth totally sucker punched me in the willpower earlier, so I’m running on fumes.”
“Whatever,” Amaya said, continuing to pout.
Out of all the questions asked and answers given throughout the night, only one question was left unanswered:
“Hey, so I told you about the dead bird and how I had to fight its remaining will to cut it, right?” I said with a hesitant voice.
“Yeah, that was pretty crazy to learn about. I thought I would’ve found out about it earlier, but then again I don’t mess with many dead animals like you do.” I chuckled a bit at her jab at me, hoping it would ease what I wanted to ask next.
“I heard from someone that it was you who found that body.” The second I said this, the mood instantly shifted from lighthearted to serious.
“Uh, yes, that was me,” Amaya said flatly.
“Well, there’s no good way to ask this, but did the dead body have any will in it?”
A few seconds of silence passed. Then ten, then twenty. A whole thirty seconds had passed before anyone made any noise. Eventually, Amaya spoke up.
“I… don’t want to answer that.” Her voice was cold, but I thought I detected a hint of a trembling in her tone. If it weren’t so dark out, I might’ve seen what facial expression she was making, but as it was now, it was impossible.
“I see,” I said slowly. “No pressure to answer, that’s the reason we added that rule, right?”
“Right.” She said softly.
I could hear a rustle of grass moving under her feet as she stood up. I looked up at her and saw that her head was nearly eclipsing the moon in front of me.
“It’s almost midnight, so we should probably let the others know that we’re ready to swap.”
I didn’t say anything, and Amaya didn’t wait for me to respond either.
“Let’s stay up with the new rotation for a few minutes before we go inside. That way they have a chance to wake up and stay awake.”
“Sure,” I said in a fake-cheerful voice. “I’ll head to my side I guess. See you in the morning?”
“Mhm,” Amaya said quickly. “Oh, and thanks for the talk, it really made the time fly.” With that, she walked away to talk to the other two watching the other side of the clearing. I sighed deeply and looked up, my eyes meeting the solid white sphere of the moon above me.
///