Not too long ago..

The carriage complained loudly as it sped across the cobblestone. Outside ancient buildings aligned to the road on both sides could be seen. They looked to be mostly in ruins but many of them had been rebuilt using basic materials. A tall white tower loomed in the distance completely overshadowing the rest of the town.

-”Lady Ghaela won’t like you sniffing around her town Ms. Reiss.. She can be very particular about appearances and she would at least expect a visit.” A large man said from across a woman in the carriage.

Ms. Reiss looked at the buffoon in front of her. “Well.. No need to tell her I’m in town. My business here will be handled discreetly and quietly.”

-”But.. The lady will know.. She always knows” The man hissed. Preposterous, this buffoon obviously already told her. No loyalty these days. Reiss gave a heavy sigh.

-“So she is already expecting me you say? How is that even remotely possible? I’ve only been in contact with one person in this town and that person is you Oswald. So if you’re saying what I think you’re saying you know how I deal with betrayers.”

Oswald covered his face and tried hiding behind his obscenely large jacket. “I told no one I swear to you Reiss. it-it’s Ghaela she’s a mutant you see, blessed by the gods.” Oswald said nodding hurriedly.

Lady Ghaela, a mutant.. I know it’s a popular theory among the less fortunate but there is no evidence. Reiss thought. -”Just a stupid rumour but I will give you one more chance for redemption. Listen carefully..”

Back in the now..

Standing above the dying drifter scout Reiss was growing worried. She was no doctor but with the approaching drifters she was not about to let the man die.

She remembered the words of Graz regarding Orana. The terms “monster” and “boundless strength” were tossed around. How did he know of this warrior but she did not? Well he had met her in single combat.. “Not much of a combat, mostly me running away” Graz had said..

If Graz feared her to such an extent she wouldn't engage in a futile endeavor. No.. a more.. diplomatic touch was needed.

-”Right, Voss they will kill me on sight if they see you. These drifters hate technology so go and hide but stay within earshot.” Reiss told the little creature. It turned to her appearing to consider something but after a second or two it leapt off her arm diving into the snow and disappeared.

They appeared one by one from the bushes and trees circling her with their bows drawn. Raising her hands slowly she said “You’re late, I expected you about five minutes ago..” Not even a smile.. I guess drifters aren’t known for their humour.

Syde stepped out with his dagger drawn and whistled loudly, another whistle answered him from the forest.

-”Your man here needs medical attention.. uhh.. He attacked me first..” She said while stepping away from the bleeding man. Syde scowled at her but slowly walked up to the man checking his wounds.

Another group emerged in between the scouts wielding sword and shield with javelins on their backs. A large blonde woman stepped forward with a large two-handed axe clearly ready for battle. Reiss assumed her to be Orana merely based on her presence alone.

She pointed to the wounded man saying some words in their language and two of their warriors started carrying him away. The “monster” observed her for a moment before she spoke in the common tongue.

-”Why are you here?” A simple question but Reiss still shuddered at the weight behind it. For a moment Reiss reconsidered name dropping her employer here. These people are unpredictable, there’s no telling how they’ll react.

-”I mean you no harm, I am.. Searching for someone.” Reiss said not willing to back down.

-”Say that to the scout.. If it is as you say, that he struck first. You will find no enemies here.. But if he tells a different tale the gods will be swift in their judgement” Orana said her accent flawless.

-”Please.. Your weapons. You have my word that no harm will come to you under my care.”

Reiss dropped her sword and started pulling daggers out of every spot possible. She hoped that her outfit would not incite them as it was quite high tech but Orana seemed practical enough that it wouldn’t bother her.

-”I hope you have a stew going I’m famished, you see I had to leave my supplies for the numerous bandits that snoop around between here and Travosk.” Reiss said on a whim.

-”You do not strike me as someone who would get surprised by mere bandits” Orana said completely disregarding her.

-”They grow more bold every year and with a starshroud year they will be even more daring. The road to Travosk will not be easy”

-”For all I know you could be a bandit scout yerself” Orana said with a cold face.

Reiss decided to hold her tongue until she was hopefully proven innocent..

-”So.. What do you do for fun here..?”

Vyla silently peered through the tree line from her newly acquired hiding place. She was sitting quite safely up in a tree betting on that the pygmies weren’t the most able climbers. No snow here and full of strange trees. I think the elder called them leaf trees? Well I can’t be sitting around any longer those things look like they don’t give up that easily.

She had run until her legs went out beneath, her longer legs gave her at least some advantage. She did not know how far they would venture from their caves but it never hurt to be careful.

Only one day had passed and she hadn’t slept at all so first on the agenda was finding shelter. The mountains were out of the question, she didn’t know how far their tunnels reached.

Looking upwards she had been relieved to find that there were no Girons in the valley. A strange thing as the valley seemed to be the perfect hunting grounds for a Giron.

If you did not count the indigenous population the valley was like a paradise. Streams flowed down from the mountains with beautiful waterfalls. The grass, the trees, the easy prey even the sky was clear but it showed no stars and no sun. A magical place. A place made by the gods..

Vyla sighed and climbed down the tree as she reached the ground a faint singing could be heard. Those pygmies really like their singing don’t they. But the mountains are far off did they follow me here?

An obsidian spear formed out of her hands and she stalked towards the sound. She wasn’t used to moving through well anything that wasn’t snow. The singing grew stronger and soon she came upon a large pit. It looked to be about ten feet deep, five wagons across and strangely circular. A single cave passage was the only entrance.

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Down in the pit stood a lone pygmy singing a somber tune. It looked quite pitiful and lonely as it stood there wearing a sorrowful expression. Was it in mourning? Lost its mate perhaps. She thought.

She had come ready to kill but could not bring herself to attack the creature. It suddenly stopped and turned in her direction she gripped her spear tightly in response, ready to either fight or flee.

A squeaky voice interrupted their stare off and three larger pygmies approached the singer. Surrounding the lone pygmy they proceeded to communicate in their strange language. Their squeaks turned from playful to hostile as one of them slapped the poor creature over the head.

I almost feel sorry for the poor critter. They do look kinda cute if you were to disregard their sharp teeth and violent tendencies. The pygmy fell down on its side covering its head as the three held back no longer. The beating went on for about a minute and she could hear the cries of pain, it was brutal.

The small pygmy screamed and screamed and their eyes locked again as it called out while grabbing in the air towards her. The beatings didn’t cease as they continued to ignore the wailing and by this point the largest among them had armed itself with a branch.

She could look on no longer and while every survivor instinct complained in her she made her choice.

The spear took one of them straight in the back killing it almost instantly. Going down on its knees it gave off a gurgling sound as blood dripped from its mouth gasping for a last breath. The two others turned to see a small girl in light clothing landing gracefully she raised her hand towards their dead comrade.

-”Spear! Return!!” She shouted. The pygmies cowed in fear and backed away at her sudden outburst. Several seconds went by and nothing happened. Great. NOW it decides to misbehave.

The two pygmies shared a glance before they approached snickering lightly to themselves. Arming itself with the branch the pygmy made a lunge but something caught its foot and it fell face forward with a yelp.

Looking behind it she could see the wounded pygmy grasping the ankle wearing a slight victorious smile.

Taking advantage of the confusion she quickly tried the spear again. It vanished in a cloud of black smoke flowing towards her and reforming in her hands. The pygmy looked bewildered for a moment before regaining its senses and renewed its approach.

Vyla lunged forward but the creature nimbly leapt out of reach as its companion came forward in turn. Sharp teeth closed around her left arm causing her to drop the spear but it merely reverted to its cube form and vanished.

She shook her arm wildly trying to shake the creature off. She formed a dagger in her other hand and stabbed wildly catching her assailant in the side. The pygmy screamed taking a chunk out off her arm with it as it sprawled down on the ground.

The last pygmy circled her cautiously as it licked its teeth in excitement. The flesh ripping apart had caused her to lose her weapon again and the pain interfered when she tried to summon it.

The pygmy had seen her strange weapon twice in action now and it seemed to be waiting for her to pass out only making some casual feints. Vyla clutched her arm trying to stem the tide of blood as she looked at the pygmy she just stabbed. It wasn’t dead yet but it was in no condition to move.

The small one seemed emotional so maybe I can use the wounded one against it. She thought while circling towards the bleeding pygmy. The last one showed no emotion as she neared and it looked like it wouldn’t care for its fallen comrade.

By the fires of Agryr She cursed inwardly. I managed to avoid brushing too closely with death for two weeks and I’m about to get done in by some midgets..

One last idea came to her mind, closing her eyes she fell backwards. The pygmy leapt at her taking a bite out of her shoulder squeaking in triumph it went in for a second bite. Going for her throat a obsidian blade suddenly materialized seemingly out of her throat piercing the pygmy’s head straight through its mouth.

Vyla stood up only to collapse again, she tried again but fell over next to the beat pygmy. Their eyes locked again and both could see death in each other's eyes. Sensing the cube within her, This thing healed me before come on… Maybe I can heal this other fella? She reached her hand over and placed it across the pygmy’s face.

She could feel a strange sensation emanating from the cube and it seemed to be guiding her. It’s telling me how to heal? Maybe it's acting in self defense but I guess the other fellow will die anyway..

-”Zorf” The pygmy said and pointed to itself. “You’re Zorf?.. Vyla” she responded pointing to her.

-”Rylah?” ..Close enough she thought.

She hesitated and finally removed her hand from Zorf’s face.. I’ll try it on the one I stabbed in the stomach first.. She crawled over and placed her hand on its face. The same feeling arose from the cube and she let herself be drawn in.

Five black tubes erupted from her fingers and pierced the pygmy’s head causing it to make a sound Vyla would never forget. She had little time to care for its plight as her vision went black but she was soon joined by images flickering past too quickly to make sense of.

Memories, emotions they flooded her mind causing incredible pain. The cube was devouring everything and with every pulse she felt her head explode into thousands of tiny parts but each time they rebuilt themselves.

Her mental power was draining but with one last effort she forced herself to detach from the pygmy. She opened her eyes only to see that the pygmy had been replaced by a corpse of skin and bones. Alien memories mostly of tunnels and eating appeared but she pushed them inside the cube calming her mind. She had become good at that lately..

Her wounds were deep and she would not live for long unless she could stop the bleeding.. What if? She felt stupid for not thinking about this earlier. She couldn’t command the cube to heal her but maybe it could stop the bleeding.

Suddenly it came easier now, commanding the cube, her strength surged as she fully wrapped herself in black smoke. They power was exhilarating.. She felt like she was stretching her mind for the first time in a thousand years.

She willed a sword out of the smoke and then another and another continuing until countless blades surrounded her. I wonder how many of those pygmies I could strike down with this power… She started with wrapping her wounds but as soon as she finished it slipped away. All that power.. gone as quickly as it had come..

Vyla felt nothing. All that power had left some sort of void inside her. A void she wished to fill at any cost..In fact she hungered for it. The feeling she had.. She had to feel it again. Her gaze fell upon Zorf. The poor creature had crawled backwards all the way to the wall of the pit and even some of his wounds had strangely healed.

Zorf had a look of sheer terror written across his face and he wanted dearly to run but his legs would not carry him. The visage of the human girl wrought in shadow and smoke had left him without words. She had saved him.. But the look in her eyes told him she was not his friend.

Rylah or whatever the human’s name was walked slowly towards him wearing a hungry look. Zorf scrambled for the branch holding it meekly up towards her. A silent prayer escaped his mouth the human coming closer and closer. He closed his eyes..

Vyla stood above the poor creature known as Zorf. Now she only needed to stretch out her arm and let the cube guide her. She would never feel afraid again. She may have been raised as a drifter but she was always afraid, every hunt, every spar with her mother, the facility and almost every aspect of her life, wrought with fear.

She made her decision.. Concentrating on the cube she found that it was gone.. She instinctively reached for her wounds but found them still wrapped by the cube’s power.

No! Damn it! My cube!! She fell to her knees clutching her face as tears started to well up. But with the cube’s absence her mind cleared ever so slightly. Wait.. What was I about to do? She looked down at Zorf still holding up the branch at her with his eyes closed.

It dawned on her. What WAS I about to do? Kill an innocent creature for.. For what? But he might not be innocent.. He IS a pygmy after all and I could… She shook her head. No I’m not that person am I? She wasn’t sure. She felt confused and worse she felt scared.

Not knowing what else to do she kneeled down beside him and took his hands into hers.

-”I don’t know if you can understand me but.. I’m sorry. I-I don’t know what came over me.” Vyla whispered through the tears.

Zorf had opened his eyes when he felt her hands on his and now saw Vyla again. No hungry eyes.. She is sorry? Humans never sorry.. He squeezed her hands and tried to stand up but his wounds were still too severe.

He still felt frightened of her but that other human seemed long gone replaced by this crying girl in front of him. Zorf concluded that maybe she had eaten a berserker mushrom of sorts, like the northern pygmie tribes liked to do.

He spoke -”Rylah.” She looked at him as he pointed towards his now open mouth in quick succession.

-”You’re hungry? Now!?” She stared incredulously at him and after a few seconds she started laughing. She couldn’t remember last time she had laughed this hard..  

Zorf stared back at her seemingly annoyed. Stupid human..