I sat on the ground, letting the cool night air rest on my skin. The smell of the remnant smoke lingering in the air kept me awake, the harsh smell coating my skin. I knew I needed to sleep but couldn’t bring myself to. I had been given a lot of extra attention over the past day, and I was beginning to miss my days living in anonymity.
Right before night fell, Quentin organized a meeting with the remaining people. To him, it seemed like everyone was accounted for, but I knew better. We had started with twenty-three people and were now down to nineteen since Amaya disappeared. As he did before, they discussed important events from the day and permanently cemented everyone’s roles in the group.
After my interrogation, I went to work on gathering meat from the newest kill Scalisth left us. It was a comparatively small creature, around the size of a deer, with a lizard face and the body of a badger. I dissipated the remnant will within the creature and the butchering went smoothly. Apparently, Quentin saw this and decided that I was going to be in charge of handling every creature Scalisth leaves for us.
Occasionally, I would chime in with ideas we used in the past that the group was no longer aware of. It might’ve given off the wrong impression, though, since everyone seemed to think I was some tactical genius. It felt a little cheap to take credit for the mental work of over twenty people, but I was willing to do whatever it took to ensure our survival.
Most other people were still unskilled in wilderness survival, so they were assigned foraging jobs that were monotonous but helpful. We went through the same process of establishing travelling partners, nighttime lookouts, and a leadership structure.
Instead of Quentin becoming a unanimous leader, he and Levi were both chosen with nearly equal numbers. Levi was popular because of her showing during my interrogation where she was very protective of the group and its interests. When times were tough, people clung to those with strong wills. Levi had proven herself to have guts when she took a spiritual hit from me after seeing me take down four fully grown men.
At the end of the day, Quentin had more votes. When there were nineteen people present, though, having half of them unsatisfied with the leadership was a recipe for disaster. Thus, it was decided that both Levi and Quentin would be in charge, taking on a joint leadership role. I was pretty happy with it, considering that the two worked well together in the past.
///
All in all, the night went very similarly to the first night, almost eerily so. The uncanniness reached critical levels when Scalisth repeated his intimidation routine from a few days prior. Just like before, he appeared from the woods and “attacked” the group. Almost everyone responded as before, with one key difference: me.
Everyone leapt back from the semi-circular arc carved into the dirt by the Altum Master. A few fell to the ground, leaving themselves woefully exposed to a follow up attack, while others turned around to face the perceived threat. Quentin sprinted to the front of the group to confront the Altum directly while Levi surprisingly turned to face me.
She yelled with nervous anticipation, “Olivia! We need you up front!”
Confused, I yelled back, “What? Why?” The woman grabbed my arm and lead me to the front. We were a good distance from where Scalisth had emerged, and she kept talking as we were moving.
“I know we’ve had our differences, but we need you now. The Altum is attacking, and we don’t know why.” Having lived through this before, I thought of a way to disarm the woman’s fears without coming across as suspicious.
Before I could think of a way to calm Levi down, the woman asked quietly, “If we get a few people to pin him down for a moment, do you think you could get in a good hit on him?” Her eyes were locked onto mine, pleading for me to help defend the group. I was momentarily taken aback by her conviction before remembering that this was all new to her and that she didn’t know that the Altum wasn’t directly a threat.
Gathering my thoughts, I responded, “What, are you crazy? That’s an easy way to get us all killed! The smart thing to do would be to calm everyone down and to not act rashly.”
Levi looked at me with a hurt expression, as if she weren’t expecting me to give up so easily. Still, she seemed to take my words seriously, as she slowed down upon approaching the gathering of people. The second we broke through the crowd, Scalisth’s eyes snapped to me, ignoring the yelling Quentin in front of him.
I hadn’t seen Scalisth since improving my abilities, and I became excited at seeing how I compared. He always stopped me from inspecting actively, but what if I was more subtle in my approach? Using my passive perception, I felt the flow of energy around the Altum. I was still getting used to feeling the flow of the ambient spirit, but it felt like the energy was circulating around him, like a whirlpool.
“Does that mean he is always exerting control on his environment, or is he using the ambient spirit somehow?” This simple discovery was already giving me new ideas on how to improve my own abilities, and I was hungry to learn more. Scalisth, however, seemed unwilling to share any more than he already had, as the energy circulating around him disappeared.
I gave the Altum an annoyed look, which he ignored. He then opted to turn his attention back to Quentin, likely seeing all he wanted to see from me. “Am I improving quickly, or slowly?” I wondered as I watched his indifferent expression move away from me.
From then on, Scalisth gave his lesson on expecting the unexpected and to be prepared for anything. While I was sure the group was taking it very seriously, I nearly laughed a couple of times at the irony of the situation. It was hard to take Scalisth’s lessons on unexpected situations seriously when I had completely expected this situation to happen.
Scalisth left and everyone sat there, dazed and confused by the weight of their situation. Once all was said and done, everyone sort of stayed where they were, opting to lie down on the ground right below their feet. Some people even slept right along the line that Scalisth cut into the dirt with his world speech. I opted to move a little further away before sitting down under the trunk of a tree.
The tree’s black trunk absorbed the dying light of the sun, making the woods look like an infinite black void. As I was getting comfortable, I noticed someone walking towards me. It was Levi, who was looking at me with a complicated expression. I didn’t say anything, opting to just look her in the eyes as she stood over me.
Without saying a word, she moved to my side and took a seat on the ground. I waited for her to say something, but I didn’t want to pressure her. I had already been through a few stressful situations, but this was likely the most difficult situation she had ever been in. I didn’t know much about her life before Altus, but she seemed like a desk jockey, not a hardened survivor.
After a minute of silence, she finally spoke, her voice quiet enough that it was nearly consumed by the rustling of the trees. “Is it true, what he said?” She was leaning back against a smaller tree, her arms hanging down at her side while she looked at the falling sun.
“Is what true?” I asked her, knowing what she meant but wanting her to come out and say it herself.
“Are we really that insignificant? I mean, humanity has all but dominated Earth, for better or for worse. I find it hard to believe that we’re completely helpless here.” Her voice was resigned, but I could feel through her source that she wanted something.
I wasn’t good enough to decipher the complex energy fluctuations of the source, but I didn’t have to be to know what she was feeling. Every time I looked deeply into someone, I felt my own body reflecting the emotions I was observing. From the feeling I was getting, along with context, I felt like she was trying to find reassurance from me. Sadly, I didn’t have much to give.
I finally answered, “The part of us being at the bottom of the food chain is true.” I thought back to the unbelievable monster that caused this mind-wiping mess to begin with. It’s image was burned into my mind as I continued, “I’m not even sure if the Altum are at the top here, let alone us.”
Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
I let the words hang in the air for a while before I added, “But being at the bottom doesn’t mean we’re helpless. Humanity has never been the fastest, strongest, or best at hiding, but we didn’t need those things to survive. It’s always been our adaptability and tenacity that kept us at the top.”
Levi puffed air from her nose, seemingly unimpressed by my speech. “Alright genius, if it’s so simple, why don’t you help us all adapt?” Confused, I looked at her to elaborate. She sighed in annoyance, saying, “Geez, do I have to spell it out for you? I want you to help us get magic powers.”
She then looked away into the woods. I couldn’t tell if her face flushing red was from embarrassment or from the sun going down on the horizon. Either way, I thought it was kind of funny how flustered she was getting, so I began chuckling under my breath.
She didn’t turn around, saying, “Damn, do you know how hard it was for me to seriously ask that? Now you’re laughing because you think it’s ridiculous, right?” She crossed her arms in front of her, which made me chuckle even harder. After a few seconds of laughing, I got my amusement under control, trying my best to wipe the smile from my face.
Hearing her ask that reminded me of the children I would babysit as a teenager. All of them believed with full sincerity that they could one day become like their favorite superheroes if they believed hard enough. Back then, I felt the need to destroy their childlike wonder with facts and logic about how the real world works.
Looking back on it now, I regretted treating them like that, and wished I could go back and do things differently. Would my life have turned out differently if I wasn’t so blindly accepting of what was and wasn’t possible? What would the old me say if they saw me now, seriously discussing alien magic with a complete stranger?
Taking the situation a little more seriously, I responded, “No, no, I wasn’t laughing at you directly. This whole situation is just so impossible that I found it a little funny is all.” Levi didn’t turn around, but I saw her posture visible relax slightly.
I continued, “I’ve really only discovered these abilities recently, and am not exactly sure how I got them. I’m trying my best right now, but I’m definitely not in a position to teach anyone else.” I paused, then added, “That doesn’t mean I won’t try, though. I can start with you and Quentin, and then eventually get everyone else on board once you’ve picked it up properly.”
A small silence entered the area as my words hung in the air. I was going to say more but was cut short when I felt something shift in the air around me. No, it wasn’t the air, but the ambient spirit around me. I heard Levi ask me a question but tuned it out as I stood up to look around.
The clearing looked normal, but I could feel a small movement causing ripples through the currents of ambient energy. Closing my eyes, I focused on my supernatural perception to try and locate where they were coming from. It took a second of testing, but I felt the vibrations emerging from generally the opposite direction of the clearing.
Ignoring all other stimuli, I walked forward slowly, cautious to not alert anyone to my presence. I passed silently through the people grouped up along the ground as I made my way toward the fluctuations. The sun was nearly gone, but streams of sunlight beamed through the trees and into my eyes, obscuring my vision.
As I got closer, I felt the vibrations speed up as the distance between me and the source shrank. Along the way, I grabbed a stick lying along the ground that had been fashioned into a spear. It wouldn’t do much against something like the Tusk, but I would rather have it than not. Once I was ten meters away, I began to circulate the spirit within my body, getting ready to spring into action.
I let a trickle of energy flow into my eyes, which would hopefully allow me to identify the source of the disturbance. I felt the burn from directing the flow of spirit to my eyes, but it was much more subdued than before. “I won’t have a lot of time, but at this distance it won’t matter.” Life or death would be decided in moments, and I could cross the distance very quickly if needed.
At five meters, I squinted through the sunlight and saw someone crouched down beside a tree. At the same time, I felt the disturbances grow stronger with every step I took towards the small figure. I was still undetected, and I slowed down as I got closer. My breathing slowed and my heart raced in my chest as I prepared to meet the potential threat.
Observing through my spirit sight, I saw a thin trail of spirit fluttering in the air. I stopped upon seeing it, finding the object memorable but not knowing where I had seen it before. Like a spiderweb in the wind, the thing glowing string moved aimlessly through an invisible wind.
“No, it’s not moving aimlessly,” I thought as I watched the thin thread of energy twist in a specific direction, an intent guiding its movement. It was at that moment while I was transfixed by the ethereal motion of the string, that I remembered where I had seen it.
Suddenly, I felt like things were very wrong, so I decided to act. Pushing spirit to my legs, I felt my muscles contract before exploding with power. For the second time that day, I felt every muscle in my legs, from my hamstrings and quads to my calves explode into motion. With almost uncontrollable speed, I shot toward the string, my spear poised to strike.
The figure I was approaching didn’t have time to react to my appearance. Fortunately for them, they were not my target. I cleared the distance in impressive time, swinging down with the shaft of the spear at the thin glowing string. My swing was not enhanced, but carried some of the momentum of my dash, so it held tremendous force. It was because of its force that I was so surprised to see it pass straight through the string, no disturbances in sight.
My momentum carried me forward, and I fumbled under my speed, grabbing at the ground to slow down. My body fell as I lost my balance, my head travelling centimeters below the ethereal string. My feet skipped along the ground like stones along a lake, unable to get any traction. With great exertion, I dug my right heel into the ground, slowing me down enough to regain my balance. By the time I came to a stop, I was already four or five meters past the string.
Once I regained my composure, I almost jumped forward again before I stopped myself. I kept the tension in my legs, ready to burst forward at the slightest movement. Feeling that something was wrong, I waited and observed my surroundings, keeping the string in my line of sight.
Before I could react, I felt a gentle tingling on my nose as something incredibly light fell upon it. I focused my eyes and saw a few strands of thin golden hair falling in front of my face. Raising my hand to my hair, I pulled it in front of my face and saw that a sizable chunk had been removed in a curved line starting from the bottom of my hair.
“That string passed effortlessly through my spear but was able to cut my hair? It must be a property of spirit formed outside of the body.” Vowing to never remove my eyes from the string, I was surprised to see that it was gone. I searched around for a second before I felt a pressure near my right foot. I looked down to see that the string had wrapped around my foot, ready to be drawn taut.
On instinct, I released the tension in my legs, this time jumping high into the air. On Earth, my jump would’ve earned me an Olympic medal, but it was barely fast enough to prevent the string from cutting into my leg. As I travelled into the air, the string reoriented itself and then followed me upwards, like a bird hunting its prey.
Once I was around two meters off of the ground, I was able to grab onto the lower branches of the tree nearest me. Redirecting the energy to my arms, I enhanced my strength to allow me to pull my body onto the relatively thin branch. I didn’t have time to be astounded by my strength as I could feel the string still closing the distance.
Redirecting the energy again, I pushed with my legs back into the direction where I started. As I moved through the air, I saw that the string was moving in an upward arc towards my position, increasing exponentially in speed as it moved. The end of the string passed through the tree branch, slowing as it entered the wood.
Instead of passing through with no damage, I heard the snapping of wood as the end of the branch began to fall, a clean line severing it from the main tree. “So it passed through my spear but went straight through the tree! It can sever certain things selectively!”
Surprised by the display, I lost focus and barely had time to turn forward before crashing into the ground. With zero hesitation, I sacrificed my left shoulder and used my momentum to roll along the ground rather than striking the dirt directly.
Remembering my fight from earlier that day, I focused on maintaining my composure and not flailing aimlessly along the ground. Tucking my arms in, my shoulder absorbed a majority of the impact while I converted the fall into a roll. I slid for only a meter before I was facing the sky, the sun turning the clouds into pools of scarlet blood.
Getting up from my tumble, I yelled out, “Everyone get back! We’re under attack!” It had only been a few moments, and I saw that the figure crouching by the tree had only just begun to move. “Too slow! You’re going to get caught if you don’t hurry up!” I thought as I watched them clamber to their feet before running.
My eyes were beginning to burn from my focused use of spirit sight, but I ignored the pain and searched for the string. I locked onto it, hovering in the air five meters from my position. It hadn’t moved after cleaving the branch in two, which put me on edge.
The small figure, a woman with long dark hair, finally broke into a run. I breathed out a sigh of relief as I saw her moving to the side, away from the threat. “I need to take this time to reevaluate my options. What do I have to counteract this-“
My train of thought was cut short when I felt another disturbance on the side where the woman was. My eyes whipped over from the hanging thread to the woman running, my vision blurring as I processed what I was seeing. Low to the ground, a second thread traced a path towards the woman’s figure. Internally, I screamed as I urged my body to move, but even I was unable to move fast enough to react in time.
In a flash, the string closed the distance between it and the woman. It shot up from the ground and twisted with incredible speed. The string became a blur as it passed straight through the woman’s neck, piercing through the skin with frightening ease. By the time I was able to conjure up the strength to move, the woman’s head was already flying through the air, trailing streams of blood behind it.