“Damn girl!” Karaz says as she moves her pawn forward two squares, “don’t you feel pain? That big ass bear just turns you into a skewer and you what? Jump on its back and start bashing in its head? You remind me of the berserkers back at the tribe.”
Tantra looks shamefaced down at the board as she moves her own pawn two squares, “I was just trying to survive.”
“And do it in the most brutal way possible,” Karaz cackles, moving her knight to up two and to the left, “honestly, who would’ve thought my sweet little junior would become such a brute.”
Tantra moves her own knight behind her pawn, “I’m no brute, I’m a proper lady! I just…had a moment.”
“What a moment it was!” Karaz moves a pawn within range of hers, “So much blood! So much gore! I wish I was actually there to have seen it.”
Tantra grunts as she eats her pawn, “I was heavily concussed for most of it so I didn’t really notice.”
Karaz takes out her pawn with the knight, “you’d be surprised, the brain is great at remembering traumatic events.”
“And you would know that how?” Tantra says as she moves a pawn forward.
Karaz sends her second knight diagonally behind her first, “Trust me ‘Tantan’, I know plenty about trauma.”
Tantra sighs as she moves her bishop one square to corner her knights, “of course you do, and only Ranya calls me Tantan.”
“How is she by the by,” She moves her bishop, “It’s been a while, I’m curious on how the gals have been”
“They’re okay,” Tantra shrugs as she moves her second knight, “weren’t doing so great after you died though. Ranya was…well I didn’t know at first honestly, she kinda kept to herself. Then she came up to me all ready to go on a crusade for vengeance. That kid really cared for you.”
Karaz gives a sad smile as she moves her second bishop, “Yeah, I know. She’s a good apple that one, has a tendency to be fucking annoying though.”
“Don’t let her hear you say that.” Tantra says as she swaps a rook and her king, “she’d come all the way here just to kick your ass.”
They both share a chuckle.
“And what about Sola?” Karaz asks.
“She avoided me for a bit, but not for long. She sprung back a lot faster than Ranya but I’m pretty sure that’s because she’s older,” Tantra says.
Karaz ‘hmms’ as she moves a pawn forward, “that idiots good at hiding her pain, hope she finds someone to talk to now that I’m gone”
Tantra raises a brow and moves her queen to corner Karaz’s first knight, “she has plenty of friends.”
“I meant someone close to talk to, about feelings and shit,” Karaz moves a bishop back “cultivators are all about being rough and tough, finding someone to vent your feelings on can be hard.”
“What about Ranya?” Tantra moves a pawn.
“Too young,” Karaz moves her bishop, “and checkmate”
Tantra looks stunned at the board, “how did I not see that?”
Karaz shrugs, “brain damage and profuse blood loss”
Tantra just keeps staring at the board,
“Hey Karaz?”
“Mhm?”
“Am I dead?”
Karaz chuckles, “silly Tantan, of course you’re not dead. Your brain’s still firing its little neurons to make this comfy dream for us to play a game of chess that makes no sense. I’m not not really Karaz and none of this is really real, all just a fabrication.”
Tantra blinks, “Really?”
This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.
“Really”
“But it feels so real,” Tantra says.
Karaz waves her off, “that's how all dreams feel.”
Tantra taps her chin, “guess I should wake up then.”
“Yes, you should,” Karaz nods, “tell your friends I said hi.”
-
The first thing she noticed when waking up was how floaty everything feels.
The second was how full of blood her lungs were.
She turns to her side and starts hacking out globs of blood, someone is talking, many someones are talking in fact, she doesn’t give them any attention as she keeps trying to get the blood out. Each cough shakes her whole body, aggravating so many wounds all at once that she might have whimpered if she could do anything other than cough. She gets to her hand (the left one is currently hanging limp) and knees, letting streams of blood fly it’s way out of her lungs.
“Still alive kid?” Says a voice she recognizes as Rakan.
She gives a thumps up in his general direction, which causes him to chuckle.
“Well good, thought you wouldn’t be waking up, even with your foundations you took a lot of damage.”
“Says the person who’s literally holding their guts in,” Etra says blandly.
“My roots are much deeper than hers, besides, gut wounds are easy to survive, just a pain to heal.”
Meanwhile Tantra is still coughing.
“We got some bear meat for you!” Yorin says happily, “It should help you heal.”
Bless his little heart.
“I don’t think she’ll be able to eat considering all the coughing,” Kisrin says.
Yorin, not at all considering the obvious complication, gives an affronted look that causes Tantra to chuckle-cough.
“Karaz…says…hi.” She manages before passing out again.
-
Once Tantra woke up and could walk, which was only after a few hours, they got on their way again. Despite the two fighters being very injured and very much out of Qi. Apparantle in their rush they headed too far west, missing the point they should have turned north, and are now in unknown territory because no one from the sect actually comes this deep to chart the waters as they say. Tantra’s pretty sure her body sustained itself fully on Qi while her lungs were leaking blood and air, how does she know this? Well, firstly it's the only possibility, sure foundation freaks can survive a lot, but a double puncture, at her depth? Yeah, no. Secondly, her skin is starting to turn grey, a clear sign of Qi poisoning. Her body is somehow breathing in more Qi to compensate for her lack of actual breathing, which is a horrifying thought, how does that work? She thought the amount was static.
Although combined with the impressive amount of damage she took, she’ll come out of this much more durable at least. She can feel it more than ever, the punctures to her body, her mangled arm, chest, and abdomen, all being filled with Qi. It’s harder to scar the deeper your roots, but she’s pretty sure she’s earned a few more after that fight.
Damn, she’s starting to become a canvas, isn’t she?
She doesn’t really like that thought, at least her robes will cover most of the damage, once they’ve repaired themselves, not all though. The linen masterpieces they received were of a sleeveless persuasion, probably to save on said linen. Which means when her pulped arm heals back it’ll be on display for all to see.
Just like her neck.
She goes to sigh, but instead she coughs.
This is starting to get annoying.
-
It’s only when she measures each claw mark under the moon's gaze does she realize something rather profound.
“Hey Etra, have I gotten taller?”
Etra looks at her from her spot in the river and scrunches her brow, “yeah, you haven’t noticed?”
“Well, no, I don’t normally measure myself.” Tantra replies.
Etra snorts, “what kind of self respecting cultivator doesn’t know their own height? I’m five four, if you were wondering.”
“I wasn't,” Tantra says blandly.
“Well fuck you too then.”
-
Tantra doubles over as she loses control of the threads again. She’s lasting longer though, just a little bit each time, though that might just be wishful thinking. Having little to nothing to do when it isn’t her turn on watch means she has a lot of time to train, a whole night in fact. Which is concerning because this is the fifth night in a row where she hasn’t needed sleep, not even Rakan can do that if he pushed himself, yet she feels perfectly refreshed.
Because of the Qi.
The rate at which she gathers has gone down, a bit, but it’s closer to the high than it is to the low. Her skins even started to turn grey in what she hopes is Qi poisoning and not a mutation. She didn’t know all it took to force her body to adapt was to get both lungs skewered. She would still never do it, but its interesting. It means that her mutation isn’t static, it can change, which is a good thing overall but not so much when she’s as close as she is to a foci. Luckily the density has started to lessen as they traveled north, but she’s still getting more than she was before the bear attack, which is miles away at this point.
It should only take another week of walking, much to her and Rakans chagrin.
They’d both rather run.
Neither of them can.