Midday’s sun shone golden across the woodlands. The clouds moved slowly across the sky as a westward breeze took their fluffy forms across the horizon. In a place between two mountains, a valley large enough to get lost within, the two of them hiked.

They had escaped the confines of the darkness below, a fate that neither of them wanted to dwell on. Now that they had the chance to live far from the horrors below, they could hardly wait to find what the surface held.

Ren saw the world for what it really was, alien. It was an alien world to him, it had taken him a while to understand that though his world and this one mirrored each other in many details and lifeforms, they truly were complete opposites.

The figure he had seen in the trees was gone now as he turned to look far in the distance nearly four miles away from where they had come to the surface. His eyes could see the figure gone, though at this distance even his eyes had trouble.

He felt a small shiver run down his back. He hurried them along faster, the two of them twice ascendant could move at speeds than no human could ever maintain. It had only been a third of an hour and they had already traveled miles.

They continued in their haste as the passed through the floor of the valley, eventually coming to the sloping side of the next mountain. The choice whether to continue along the side of the valley, or to summit another mountain played heavily on Ren’s mind.

“Stay low for cover, or pass the mountain to add distance?” Ren looked to Cella.

“Well, hiding is always good, but if that fails… it may be better to just get over this… mountain? You said.” She looked at him a tinged ashamed of not knowing the word.

“Yes, a mountain is… this. These big hills, oh right, so hills are small mountains, umm… you understand right?”

“I guess? Hills are small mountains, mountains are big hills, hills exist in the Underdark.” She smiled.

“Sorry, this is weird.” Ren turned and shook his head. Redness came to his face in embarrassment. At times like this, he wished for a mask.

They began the ascent up the slope of the mountainside. Ren doubted that many beasts in the area would pose a threat to them, though he did scan the area regardless. Several mountain goats leaped across the rocks ahead. Between several of the goats, a large scorched patch of earth and trees stood blackened. The rocks surrounding the area even had a section that seemed to have partially melted and cooled shortly after.

Ren wandered to himself if he was about to run his way into an active volcano.

“Cella, the land up there, some of it has been burned. It might be a volcano, let’s be careful.” He spoke as he leaped to pull himself up an edge of rock.

Cella spoke before doing the same. “I’ve seen lava before, but we never go close to it. I’d like to keep it that way.” She grunted and she reached the top of the rock face they were climbing.

Ren stood and looked down on her as she pulled herself up to the top of the ledge. His eyes caught a glimmer in the distance. Between trees, and many miles away, a wolf and woman ran towards them. Shit, they better not be after us.

He reached down and helped Cella up. “We need to run, someone’s coming, I don’t know if it was the one in the tree or not. I’d rather not find out.”

Cella nodded and they began to move even faster than before. Ren practically ran up the next cliff face they reached. He quickly realized it was a waste of energy as he had to wait for Cella, who was far less dexterous than him, to climb up regardless.

After she reached him, she gave Ren a funny look before they marched onwards. Together they continued climbing into the heights of the mountain. Their ground eating pace slowed by a heavy margin when they were continuously stopped by large sections of sheer rock walls. The cliffs were not much of a problem from Ren as his dexterity allowed his balance and sense of self to be far more intune than what Cella had to fight through.

Cella struggled, and so she experimented with the plants of the above world. She knew little of anything but fungi and the workings of her fellow humans. The internal networks of the goblins, she had known too. She tried playing with the seeds and roots of several plants as they walked. Now, she put into practice what she had learned.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

The massive root system of a tree burrowed down rapidly leaving ladder rungs for her to climb with. Quickly, she caught up to Ren who was leaping from one spot to another, quickly ascending the heights. He looked over to her and smiled as his ethereal eyes had caught the life affinity begin sprouting within the stone.

Together they climbed far faster than before. Ren was now hardly able to keep up with her pace. The cost of her work did slowly build on her, though her mana and ability to control it was her highest stats.

Ren began to wonder if he could find a way to analyze others the way Hollwin had back when they first met. The cleric had been blessed by his Goddess to do so. Could he learn such a thing by the grace of his undesirable patron?

His train of thought was interrupted as the burnt-out portion of land that was high above them was now suddenly before them. They had made progress far faster than he expected.

“The fire here, it was wrong.” Cella spoke, her eyes furrowed as she bit her lip.

“What do you mean?” Ren stared all around them as he tried to see what she was picking up on.

“Can’t you feel it? Cella shivered as she felt the wrongness that prevented life from regrowing in the torched area.

Ren allowed eldritch eyes to burn mana as his perception became more detailed. He activated analyze and his head began to thrum.

Draconic Charcoal (Mythical)

Ren’s head ached as he ended the combination of skills. His vision went blurry for a second as he picked up a piece of the charred wood. Picking up several more pieces he put them into his inventory.

“What are you doing with that? It’s tainted with whatever magic burned it.”

“Remember when I said my patron, the dead God, gave me many odd abilities? Well, one of them was to see what things are, to analyze them and determine their value. I could barely do it, and it hurt my head, but I managed to see what it was.” Ren sighed and touched his head.

“And? What was it?”

“It was burned by dragon’s fire. It was charred by a dragon killing whatever was here.” Ren sighed, dragons aren’t real, there for stories. If I have to fight a dragon I swear to Alkyri and the Silver Goddess both, I’ll burn this whole world down for sure.

“Dragon? I do not know what those are. It must be quite the vile thing if its fire can prevent life from growing though.”

“Yeah, I guess so. Well, it’s not like we can turn back now, right?”

“I doubt whatever is tracking us will be much more pleasant.” Cella began walking again.

Ren followed as he gave a glance over his shoulder. Three trails of silver mist curled through the woodlands below as they all converged on his tracks. Where the trails converged, a wolf and woman followed behind them. They had begun the climb over the mountain below them.

Ren looked into the sky above and sighed. Cella continued forwards without him for a moment as the figure below met his eyes as he dragged them from the clouds above. The two of them looked at one another for long moments before the wolf below became a trail of silver mist and reached into the air above the tree line. The other trails in the distance sped up as several people followed behind each of the silver mists.

Ren turned his back to his followers and ran to catch up to Cella. “There’s a lot more of them now. I don’t see how this will end up in our favor.”

“We’ll do what we must. We didn’t escape the darkness just to give into the first sign of trouble ahead.” She picked up her pace and began to run as Ren caught up to her.

They passed onwards, the slope lost its rocky edge and began to even out further. The two of them continued as the peak came into view closer and closer. Their bodies were far from tired, and their energy levels were far from depleted.

Several large canine beasts peaked their heads from a rocky overlook to their left. Several hundred feet away, and further up the mountain the predators slowly moved closer to the two.

Ren had no time for delays. His revolver pulled free, and he fire three shots into the largest of the cluster.

Den Matriarch Lvl 14

Den Patriarch Lvl 14

Den Hound Lvl 11

Den Hound Lvl 13

Den Hound Lvl 12

With no mercy, Ren allowed eldritch touch to finish off the nearly dead father of the pack. They began to charge towards the pair.

Cella called forth a spiked wall of thorns to catch two of the weaker wolves. The mother of the wolves charged at them, a still bloody maw open ready to kill its prey. Ren was no prey, and so his next three shots hit the wolf. The eldritch touch was unnecessary as the bullets alone killed the wolf.

The last remaining wolf came quickly after as Ren fired twin bolts of fire to slay it. The flames did not kill the beast, and in its panic it ran.

The two tangled wolves struggled free and retreated alongside their sibling.

Ren sighed. Killing such beautiful creatures gave him no joy. Guilt ate away at him. A part of him, one that was supposed to be sealed away, told him such animals deserved to live. They were beasts of bloodshed, yet they were special to him somehow. The brutality of killing the mother and father wolves caused an ache in his chest.

An unremembered part of who he was wept to kill them.

Cella saw the emotion in him and did not understand. The animals would ruthlessly slaughter the babies of others to feed themselves for a day. Why did he care if he had to kill them?