[One hour earlier]

In what was quickly becoming routine, Scalisth looked off into the distance as he dispersed his sense throughout the surrounding area. Due to his immense mastery over what Olivia calls Will, Scalisth was able to glean a lot of information about those who entered his area of perception. One such example was the Creosh, or Night Hunter, from the night before. Despite its excellent stealth skills, once the Altum was aware of it, he could observe its Will and gain valuable insights on his opponent.

It is because of his excellent perceptive abilities that he was becoming more and more distracted as the days went on. The reason was simple: he was becoming increasingly frustrated with the human, Olivia, and her antics.

Every time Scalisth would be watching for predators, a spike of energy, what Olivia would call spirit, would disrupt his delicate web of will. The Altum was local, so he knew how precise the endemic life was at controlling spirit. This meant he had to lay out a thin web of spirit small enough to go undetected while still giving him insights on whatever was inside of it. It was a delicate balance between potency and efficiency.

Unfortunately for Scalisth, the human kept blasting out will that disrupted that balance. He even had to partially shield the energy bursts, since they would act as a flare to draw in curious wildlife.

Another burst caught his attention, and his perception once again snapped onto Olivia’s position. She was walking at an awkward pace, likely splitting her attention between controlling her spirit and moving forward. He looked deeper and saw that she was attempting to crudely move her energy throughout her body.

“What a fool, she’ll never progress at that rate,” Scalisth thought as he looked to the woman. What irritated him most about the woman was not her carelessness, but her skill. Yes, it was true, but Scalisth would be lying to himself if he didn’t acknowledge the truth: the girl had talent.

“No! No, not that way, you have to be more precise! Stop flooding the muscle with your will if you don’t intend to use any of it!” Scalisth winced at the sight. The woman was making fast progress for a beginner, but it was still painful to see the simple mistakes she was making. Scalisth was a perfectionist, and he couldn’t stand to see someone gloss over all of the beautiful nuance of will control, let alone World Speech.

Of course, Scalisth would never train the woman. It was much too far below his rank to tutor any child, let alone one with an impure bloodline and no noble heritage. No, Scalisth only took on the most talented individuals from esteemed backgrounds, all of which becoming prominent figures in their generation. There was no need to waste his time training the woman, especially when she didn’t have much of a future to speak of.

Another flash of will caught his attention, but it wasn’t Olivia this time, as it was much more delicate. He focused his awareness to see who it was. “Oh, it’s this one again.” Scalisth smirked as he watched a rather impressive display of will control move around the person’s body. Instead of blunt waves of force like Olivia, this one was much more precise, forging thin strands of spirit no wider than a finger.

“I see you’re finally back in business. Took you long enough.” Scalisth grinned wildly as he imagined how they would go about their plans but didn’t think about it too much. “It doesn’t matter, I’ll find out how they do it when I watch later tonight.” Outwardly, Scalisth was walking with his hands behind his back, a regal expression of focus displayed on his face. Inwardly, though, he was like a child getting ready to watch his favorite tv show, shaking in anticipation.

///

I was so engrossed in my training that I didn’t notice when everyone gathered again to continue travelling. It wasn’t until a hand grabbed my shoulder that I looked up, jumping in surprise. I saw Luca, who was looking at me with his standard indifferent face.

Once he saw that I was aware of him, he spoke quietly, “We’re leaving now.” That was all he said before standing up and walking back over to the group of people.

“T-Thanks,” I said as he turned around. He either didn’t hear me, or chose not to respond, but I decided not to take it personally. I stood up and stretched, feeling my muscles relax as I pulled my arms high above my head. The relaxation hit me like a wave, and I stumbled for a second before regaining my footing.

Despite the weird greeting from Luca, I was in a very good mood. Mainly, it was because we got more water and I was no longer thirsty, but I had also made a lot of progress in controlling the flow of spirit. At least, I thought I had.

“I guess I’ll never know how good I am until we meet someone else who’s better, right?” The thought prompted me to look around the crowd of people gathered ten meters away from where I was standing. Looking closely, none of them, me included, looked very special. Internally, I still found it hard to believe that we all had half Altum genes, since none of us showed it in the slightest.

I looked over and a two-meter-tall giant caught my attention, his head towering over all of the other peoples’. “Well, maybe he got some genes, but I don’t know about the rest of us,” I thought with a chuckle. While Carlos was tall, he wasn’t Altum tall, so I could always chalk up his height to good genetics. Other than him, everyone else looked incredibly normal, even mundane.

The only reason I even entertained the idea was that there was really no other explanation that made sense. We were kidnapped by a powerful organization, likely the local government, teleported by an alien to another planet, and then escorted by that alien across the foreign world. What would happen after we reached our destination? Would we be free to go, or be forced to carve out a new life on Altus?

Deciding to focus on the here and now before worrying about the future, I walked over to Luca and prepared to leave. Without focusing on practicing with my will, I noticed how awkward the air between us was. Sure, I assumed the guy liked silence, but wasn’t I being rude by basically ignoring him for the past four hours?

Deciding to strike up a conversation, I started with, “Man, it kind of sucks to be leaving the water behind. I’d prefer to make camp here and call it a day, wouldn’t you?” Luca looked over at me through his peripheral vision before turning his head to look me in the eyes. He was a pretty plain-looking man, with light skin, medium length blonder hair, and a round face. The most notable thing about him were his eyes, which sparkled with color and energy despite his tired and sagging eyelids.

Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.

His intriguing eyes locked onto mine as he answered, “Yes.” I waited for a moment to see if he would say anything else, but he turned forward again, looking off into the imaginary horizon.

“What? I say all of that and all you have to say is ‘yes’? What the hell?” I felt a bit snubbed by his response, so I decided to ask another question.

“Do you know when we’ll be getting more food? Do you think we’ll have to go out and hunt it ourselves, or do you think Scalisth will bring some to us?” He looked at me again, and I knew I had him. I strategically asked a question that wasn’t yes or no, so he had to give me at least a couple of words in response.

My masterful wordplay got me a, “I’m not that hungry,” in response. I stood there, flabbergasted for a moment at his answer. He didn’t even answer the question, dodging giving an answer entirely! Feeling irritated, I tried one last time to get him to speak.

Before I could open my mouth, though, he decided to initiate first. “You don’t have to try so hard to make conversation. I like it when it’s quiet.” He didn’t look at me this time, opting to continue looking straight ahead into the dense woods.

“Message received, I guess,” I thought as I frowned at his response. When I thought about it some more, I decided to leave it alone. “All things considered, I’m taking things on this planet way too well. There are bound to be others who take it harder.”

We got moving a minute later, and my thoughts drifted away with every step. After another hour or two of walking, Quentin finally decided to call it for the night. With everyone exhausted from the travel, we took an hour to rest and recuperate. Looking up to the sun, I could see that it was some time in the afternoon, which was unnerving considering how long we had travelled.

When it came time to separate into our duties, I saw Levi gesturing for me to come forward. She didn’t have a serious expression on her face, so I hoped there hadn’t been anymore missing people. I approached her, and she gave me a tired smile.

“Hey Olivia, something just came up I’d like you to help with,” the woman said with a complicated expression.

I frowned, “Is something wrong?” Something seemed to be bothering the woman, but I couldn’t tell if it was a serious issue or not.

“Well, nothing is immediately going wrong, but I will need your help. Come with me for a second.” She gestured for me to follow, and we walked out of the clearing and into the woods. Our current campsite was much smaller than the clearing from the first night, but part of it overlooked a cliff, so it was decided it was a good, defensible location.

I walked up a slight incline and saw the trees let out as the ground dropped off a few meters ahead of me. When we left the tree line, I could see Scalisth and two people gathered around a mass on the ground. The two men standing next to him were the two who had gathered meat from the bird, so I could guess where this was going.

As expected, I saw that the shape on the ground was indeed a dead animal, beheaded in the same way as the bird. Once we got closer, I could see that the animals had thick brown fur and long, spindly legs that ended in hooked feet. It had no head, but I could tell from the neck that it likely had a large one, as the neck was thick and ringed in muscle.

Scalisth spoke up first, “Good, you are here. This should keep the group fed for a while.” He gestured down at the corpse.” Don’t try to harvest any of the organs, since they explode when punctured.” Everyone took a slight step back upon hearing this, now wary of the creature.

Levi spoke up, asking, “It won’t blow up if we try to move it, right?” Scalisth looked at her, clearly annoyed by the question.

“If they exploded easily, it would’ve imploded the first time it fell down or got hurt at all. It should be fine so long as you don’t disturb them, physically or… otherwise.” His eyes, as per usual, were impossible to follow, but I could feel his gaze shift to me.

“Is he telling me not to play around with the remnant will in the body?” I didn’t say anything, ignoring the comment. Without another word, the alien man walked off of the clearing, but instead of falling, he walked as if there was an invisible path leading off of the fifteen meter fall. Instead of leaving immediately, I focused will into my eyes to try and see how he was doing that.

“It would be so cool if I could learn to fly or walk on air.” He was nearly too far away, but I was just close enough to see what was happening. “It looks like he’s condensing the ambient energy somehow. Maybe he’s-“ My thought was cut abruptly short as a wave of will crashed into me, dispersing the energy within my eyes.

“OW! Damn it, that hurt!” I flinched and grabbed at my eyes, which were throbbing in pain. I had my eyes closed, but I just knew that alien bastard had a smug look plastered across his face. Slowly blinking tears away, I looked at the dead animal. Levi, oblivious to my pain, was already barking orders.

“Let’s get this thing moving! I don’t care what he says, we’re going to be gentle, so move carefully!” She had called a few people behind us to follow and help move the body, as it looked like it weighed over 300kg. My eyes still burning slightly, I looked Levi in the eyes.

“Woah, are you alright?” she asked, concern in her voice. I nodded and gave her a thumbs up.

“Yep, just… accidentally poked myself in the eye.” I said, with a small smile. She shrugged and walked closer to me. She leaned in close before she spoke again.

“Hey, Olivia? I heard that these animals are hard to work with from the two over there. They told me that you found out some trick to soften them up?” she asked, seeking confirmation. Seeing where this was going, I reluctantly nodded. I couldn’t afford to shy away from work when everyone was working so hard towards our collective survival.

“Good, I’ll need you to join those two in preparing the meat. I know this goes without saying, but don’t puncture the organs, okay?” I nodded, and she patted me on the shoulder twice. “Good work, I’ll see you later.” She then made her way back into the woods as I walked over to the animal.

Up close, it smelled horrible, like stale garbage or sewer water. I hid my nose in my shirt and walked over to a group of men, all of them pinching their noses shut.

In a nasally voice I asked, “Well, how about we get started?” With great hesitation, the group of men nodded in unison. They all handed out large grey patches of material to each of us. When I got it in my hand, I realized it felt like an enormous leaf.

“Where did they get a leaf when there’re no trees that have them?” I wondered to myself. I watched as the men wrapped them around the legs at the ankle and pulled upwards. The beast seemed incredibly heavy, but there were five people helping out. Deciding to also lend a hand, I searched for a place to grab the beast. All four legs were occupied, which left only one major handhold left.

With great hesitation, I took the leaf, wrapped it around the neck stump, and helped support the weight. I leaned far away from the separated neck, careful to avoid getting anything remotely near me and my body. It smelled even worse up close, and I gagged even with my shirt acting as a smell barrier.

“Woah! That’s disgusting!” one of the men said as he started laughing at me holding the neck. I shot him a look fueled by my revulsion at holding the head. His laughing died out, and he cleared his throat as we made our way back to camp. Miraculously, not a single drop of blood fell from the creature the entire trip back. Granted, it was only fifty or so meters, but the animal was heavy, so we were travelling slowly.

We got to the edge of the camp, and the group decided to set the beast down away from the group, so that the smell didn’t disrupt their work. I resisted the urge to throw the beast to the ground, as my muscles were screaming at me after lifting it the whole way back. With our remaining strength, the group sat the animal to the ground, trying hard not to disrupt the internal organs. Once it was down, we all stepped backwards quickly just in case we made anything break inside.

Two of the men left to do other things while the two boy scouts and I stayed to watch the dead beast. After confirming it wasn’t immediately going to explode, we all looked between the three of us, all of us thinking the same thing. I was the first to vocalize our shared concern.

“So, who’s going first?”

///