The rhythmic sound of boots hitting dirt, and the rush of the air past her ears always felt simultaneously soothing and exhilarating to Andora. It felt like this was where she belonged. Not counting inventory, or updating spreadsheets, or covering the same patrols — her life was movement. It was experiencing something new every day. It was circling around a dangerous chimera until it revealed whatever qi power it had, and then figuring out a way to take it down. It was going on adventures to find hidden facilities and bunkers — pieces of the old world — and bring back whatever treasures laid within.
Life without adventure was boring. And Andora hated being bored.
As Ertia and Ravi came into her view again, she felt herself grinning like a maniac. Something about running through the forest, heart racing, alongside others toward the same singular goal just made her feel fulfilled. Circumstances notwithstanding, she wished for more days like this.
“What’s that?” Ravi called out.
The forest was substantially less dense as they moved closer to town, allowing them to see far ahead and easily spot anything that might otherwise slow them down. Some overturned trees, or the random pond here and there, might force them to creatively vault over such obstacles, but nothing actually slowed them down. In fact, there was a distinct lack of chimera that had been starting to make Andora restless. However, what laid ahead was no such thing — a thick cloud of purple gas.
“Eli, you miserable moron..!” Andora cursed under her breath. “We'll have to go around it. That gas will knock us out if we're in it too long, then we'll be some wandering chimera's unlucky meal.”
“Over here,” Ertia called as she began weaving around the left side of the slowly advancing cloud. Andora and Ravi both followed behind the wild girl, with the purple cloud in their periphery. Once more impressed, Andora wondered what actual limits these two girls had considering they wore such little protection. She had gotten a better look at what they were carrying, and it didn't appear either had any stopgaps or wards equipped.
In fact, Andora was convinced that there was very little extech in those utility packs they both had on. Maybe they had some handhelds or healing extech, but it appeared they didn't have any substantial weapons either. From Andora’s eyes, the weapons they had seemed simple, almost primitive. She wondered what kinds of hidden abilities Ravi and Ertia had.
“Another one,” Ertia called out as another wall of purple gas came into view.
Andora scoffed, “Really, Eli? Did you use all of them?”
“We'll have to keep circling along the left,” Ravi said. “Hopefully, nothing forces us too far off course.”
“There's nothing remarkable until we get to the river,” Andora stated. “Eli knows that and is just trying to buy himself time.”
“He must move slow,” Ertia said.
“You really scared him, you know,” Andora explained.
Ertia smiled over her shoulder, “Good.”
Andora couldn't help but laugh.
Once they got back to Amon’s Clearing, it wasn't going to be hard at all to explain what really happened. Everyone in town knew how much of a heartbreaker Eli was, and finding out that he pissed off a group of Seekers wouldn't be unbelievable by any stretch. Some folks might be worried if he started saying that Ertia and the girls were moored, but that idea could quickly be laid to rest just by talking to them. The only real problem would be if he convinced people not to let them in before they had a chance to explain themselves.
As much as Andora hated to admit it, Eli was really smart and clever. There was a reason he managed to woo foolish girls, and not get chased out of town. It didn't hurt that he was actually, ugh, kind of good looking. He knew how far he could push people before dialing it back just enough to not draw any dire consequences. Until today, it seemed.
If only he put that much effort into helping people around town. Well, people beyond the girls he would try to impress. It was like nothing was really worth his time unless it entirely benefited him. Would it really kill him to be a little selfless?
“How many of these gas things did he have?” Ravi's question broke Andora out of her reverie.
“At least ten,” Andora growled. “He might've actually used all of them. I can't believe it.”
“Can he convince the town that we should be killed?”
“No,” Andora immediately answered. “There's no way. At worst, he'd probably convince them not to let you in, but that's it.”
“What weapons do you have in town?” Ertia shouted to them from further ahead.
That… that was a frighteningly good question. But extech wouldn't target other humans. The most that could happen would be a potential misfire, but that was one in a million. Eli had to know that. He was smart.
“They wouldn't work on you guys,” Andora answered. “The only way an extech weapon can be used against another person is if…”
Oh, crap.
“What's wrong?” Ravi stopped beside Andora.
Ertia turned and skidded to a halt a short distance ahead.
“He's going to jailbreak something,” Andora just realized.
“What's that? How bad is that?” Ertia asked as she approached.
“He's going to tamper with an extech weapon so it actually can be used to target humans,” Andora explained.
“He wants a real fight, huh,” Ertia swung her spear over her shoulders.
“Uh, you don't understand,” Andora swallowed nervously. “He's going to get something that will kill you immediately. You don't even have any stopgaps equipped.”
“He can't kill what he can't see,” Ertia shrugged. “We'll just jump him in the night.”
Andora's eyes just about fell out of her head, “You won't be able to sneak up on him. He'll probably collect the entire arsenal to use against you!”
Ertia just shrugged again, “He's gotta sleep sometime. That's when we strike.”
“This won't be a problem,” Ravi cut in, “if we hurry. Andora, lead the way.”
They began dashing through the forest once more. Andora felt a growing sense of dread in her heart. Hopefully, they wouldn't be too late.
----------------------------------------
Those crazy bitches weren't going to set foot in Amon's Clearing.
First, Eligius had to get Grier to raise the alarm. It wouldn't be hard to convince him that Eligius had been separated due to the moored Seekers’ attack. That man always was overly cautious, and he was old enough to know what kind of pressing threat rogue Seekers were even without being moored.
Eligius tossed another poison bomb behind him as he ran through the wood. The immediate hiss letting him know it deployed successfully, unlike that first dud he had used earlier.
Second, he had to get his hands on as many stopgaps as possible. That hot bitch with the spear would run it through his heart in an instant once she got near. He'd need each stopgap at full charge because she'd burn through them one after another with every swing of that white spear. How the hell could anyone swing a spear that fast? Who trains with a fucking spear anyway?
Eligius still couldn't see the river. He dropped another poison bomb at his feet. Another hiss.
Third, he'd grab the gravity smasher. He knew that weapon better than any other, but it would still take him at least ten minutes to jailbreak it. With it, that crazy girl would become a pancake with one squeeze of the trigger. If she somehow got close, then he could just shoot at the floor. The stopgap would prevent it from flattening him, if it came down to that.
He thought he'd seen enough maniacs in his day to know one on sight, but he must've been thrown off by her body. He knew he couldn't trust women. The hotter they were, the crazier. Eligius bitterly laughed to himself. Though he was tempted, he knew it was better to be safe than sorry.
That feeling he had just before she jumped up to him — that overwhelming feeling of fear…
Eligius grit his teeth at the memory. She was definitely insane. She was going to kill him for sure. Eligius was just protecting himself. There was nothing cowardly about taking a proactive defense. That girl was an animal, and Eligius knew how to fight animals.
Another hiss. Eligius didn't accidentally drop a bomb, did he?
As he turned, movement to his right caught his eyes.
“Fucking shit!” Eligius immediately pulled out the spitter at his waist. He hastily chambered three coins into the gun, and armed it.
A loud, hoarse screech echoed in the wood as one of the saratan spotted him. Its three companions repeated the cry and began running in his direction. Though shaped like men, they looked nothing the part. Their distended jaws wobbled with their every step. Their naked bodies sloughing off pieces of flesh, leaving open wounds that mended over with new skin only to quickly transform back into that signature rotting meat.
Eligius immediately activated one of his three, and a wall of fire appeared. He looked around for a tree to climb before immediately scrapping that idea. The saratan had claws and would likely scamper up the tree faster than him, or just cut it down. The smoke, at least, could give him some cover. He ran the opposite direction of the saratan.
As he raced through the wood, he glanced back to see if he could spot which way the saratan took around his wall of fire. There was still no sign of them, so he just kept running.
He double checked the stopgap on his person was active, and cursed himself for not packing more than one. How the hell could he have such rotten luck? Saratan never came around here! This was fucking impossible!
Another hoarse screech echoed through the wood, and he turned to see them circling the wall of fire from the direction toward town, of course. Fuck, he'd have to run back to everyone else. They were bound to be close, weren't they? Andora and Petroc wouldn't let them kill him over saratan, right? Petroc said he'd protect him.
Eligius began running back toward camp.
The saratan were still too far to try taking a shot with the spitter, so Eligius just kept running. He could feel his clothes clinging to his body as he began to sweat more profusely. A cool breeze brought some of the stench of the saratan with it, and Eligius found himself coughing. How the hell had he not smelled them before? It was worse than rancid meat!
No matter how hard he ran, Eligius knew it was only a matter of time before they swarmed him. He still had two of his three, so he wasn't a dead man, but he knew that would only buy him time. Fuck! He should've brought some fire or frost bombs. Poison did fuck all against the saratan!
He could hear their wheezing breaths behind him.
As he turned to look, something flew just past his face. He saw another of the saratan open its jaw and a spike of bone shot out. His vision was momentarily obscured by the silvery shell of his stopgap before he saw another saratan launch another spike, once more blinding him as his stopgap activated a second time. Eligius threw himself to the side as another spike flew past where he once was.
“Fucking die!” Eligius shot the nearest one with his spitter.
The coilgun sidearm sheared tiny, razor sized chunks of metal off an internal block before accelerating it to supersonic speeds through the series of magnetic coils in its barrel. Though the impact of the shot was devastating, and blew apart the saratan's shoulder, it immediately regenerated and its torso grew in bulk.
Eligius knew that saratan mutated. Rationally, he knew that the only lasting damage someone could really do to them was either a death by a million cuts, overwhelming force, or extreme temperature. He knew all of this but still fired because he was afraid. Worse than the fear he felt from that crazy girl was the absolute certainty of pain and death that these creatures would bring him.
The other three closed the distance, and Eligius activated the second of his three. A sonic boom echoed in the wood, snapping branches off nearby trees, and scattering dirt and underbrush all around. The three saratan that had charged him were sent flying backward. They landed in a pile of bloody flesh, hurriedly pulling themselves off one another in a race to go after their prospective prey.
The still standing, freshly mutated saratan opened its jaw once more, and fired another spike of bone at Eligius.
It shattered against his stopgap, the last charge he had. Eligius screamed in panic, firing another shot at the creature.
It raised its arms to block, which were blown apart. However, new flesh and bone rapidly took shape in their place, revealing a fresh set of sharp, bony claws.
Eligius was transfixed by the creature’s eyes — bloodshot, where there should be white — with a pupil so wide that you could barely see the beautiful ring of navy blue that made up the iris. It seared into him a deep fear that branded itself on his soul. Death was preferable to whatever fate this thing had in store for him.
He looked at the gun in his hands. Only one shot left before he'd have to vent it. He only had one of his three remaining. Two options laid before him. Tears streaming down his face, Eligius had one final thought: it was better to be safe than sorry.
----------------------------------------
That alien scream came from somewhere far ahead.
“Oh, heavens no,” Andora whimpered.
“What is that?” Ertia slowed her pace so Andora and Ravi could catch up.
“It's saratan…”
That was a particularly gruesome opponent in the stories. They had regenerating flesh and endless diseases, which lead to a whole host of different forms they could take. Anyone who clashed with them would always use an autodoc after because the disease they carried was certain to rot the flesh of anyone infected, just like the saratan themselves. Allegedly, that very disease was what prevented them from infinitely multiplying, though Ertia wasn't so sure.
“Ertia,” Ravi unlimbered her bow and quiver, “cover us at range. I'll take point.”
Ertia frowned, but Ravi just shoved the gear in her face anyway.
“You know this is better,” Ravi gestured the weapon again. “You're hurt. I'm not.”
With a sigh, Ertia handed over her spear and took the bow and quiver. She let it remain unsaid the reason she was hurt to begin with, though that was mostly due to her fight with Petroc. Even so, Ravi underestimated her own strength. That slap nearly tore her jaw off!
“You're kidding,” Andora was in disbelief beside them. “You don't even have any stopgaps. Those things will kill you if you get close.”
“I'll be fine,” Ravi gripped her sword. “You haven't seen me fight. Let's go.”
Ravi immediately dashed forward, and Ertia followed.
“The saratan are insane!” Andora shouted. She looked scared, but at least she still followed, “They never run! They'll keep getting up until you completely destroy them!”
“It’ll be a mirror match, then,” Ertia laughed. Andora looked entirely bewildered. “Maybe the monsters can equal our fury, but they don't have our skill.”
“You're insane!” Andora repeated. “They'll really kill you guys! We need to regroup with the others!”
“Those things only screech when they see prey, right?” Ravi called back.
Another cry echoed in the wood, this one much closer than before.
“Well, that's convenient,” Ertia said.
“Oh, heavens, they're getting closer,” Andora whimpered.
“As are we,” Ertia added. Wasn't this girl a warrior? A hunter? Where was her pride for the hunt? For the upcoming fight?
“They probably found Eli,” Ravi shouted. “And it sounds like he decided to come back toward us.”
A dark satisfaction came bubbling to the surface. Ertia would own that man for as long as he lived. His immediate disrespect, then his cowardice, and now they save him? If he had any pride at all, then he'd be begging for the chance to make it up to them. She would have him as her personal footstool, at first, then maybe allow him the privilege of being a training dummy. Those stopgap things seemed like they could take a few hits, at least.
A loud pop rang out.
“He's shooting,” Andora said.
“Hurry,” Ravi ordered. Ertia followed close behind, with Andora bringing up the rear. The ground was pounded flat, with little underbrush to provide any real concern. Once again, Ertia thought that this forest was pathetically barren compared to the lush jungles of Ur. She wondered if this place was an exception on Samsara or more of the norm. What kind of death world had so few monsters trying to kill you? These saratan were almost a reprieve compared to the rest of their morning.
Ertia felt the ground reverberate beneath her feet before she heard the boom. It was an intoxicating rush that she'd never felt before. Unable to stop herself giggling, Ertia charged forward at a full sprint, eager to join the fight.
They were close. That weasely coward would be crying for her mercy after this battle. Ertia never had a pet before, but it must be easier to manage if the thing knew how to take care of itself.
Another pop rang out as a few bodies finally came into view.
She could see a tangle of limbs trying to stand — not particularly exciting as a target — before spotting a lone, misshapen humanoid charging forward. Taking a breath, Ertia focused her qi.
The arrow flew straight and true, impaling the creature in the face. It didn't sway or stumble or look the least bit disturbed. Ertia harrumphed in annoyance.
The creature struck at the person — undoubtedly the coward Eli — on the ground, but its claws only bounced off him harmlessly. He must've had more of those stopgap things. Good. Ertia needed him alive.
Ravi dashed past her, with Andora following. Ertia had half a mind to join them, but knew she would only be a liability. If she were in top form, then she'd run through those saratan like a bolt of lightning. Regardless, she knew her limits. Ravi had bestowed her bow upon Ertia to use in battle. The least she could do was honor it with the blood of these creatures.
----------------------------------------
Andora became momentarily confused as she started seeing two, three, four Ravis running in front of her. No, they were blurred forms. Holograms? Was that one of her three? That certainly explained a good deal of her confidence in taking the saratan in close combat.
“Protect Eli,” Ravi ordered. “Stay back.”
Andora looked over to see Eli in suspended animation. He must have used his stasis on himself. But how long ago was that? It only lasted ten minutes. Did he really hope they would catch up to him in time? He must have been terrified of the saratan. Glancing at the monstrous forms of those creatures, Andora didn't blame him.
“He’s safe in stasis,” Andora said. “Let me help you.”
“Stay behind me,” Ravi immediately answered. “Don’t break formation.”
“Understood,” Andora felt her heart racing. This was it. Her first real battle against something other than chimera, and with Seekers she’d only just met, too. Petroc said she was a capable fighter, but never let her go far beyond this forest. She’d never made any big mistakes in a fight before. She’d always followed his advice. Had he been keeping her safe from a world she wasn’t ready for, or was he just holding her back?
Ravi ran right up to the saratan still attacking Eli’s suspended form, and smashed her sword into its chest. The force of the blow staggered the creature back a step, and it refocused its attention on her. Its jaw distended into three separate pieces and it let out a horrid cry that was cut short as another arrow sank into its open mouth. Andora wasted no time. She lunged forward and slammed her gauntleted fist into the creature’s chest.
With a satisfying click, a shockwave passed through the creature’s body, causing more fleshy pieces to scatter along the forest floor. If that attack had landed on any chimera, it would normally start running, but the saratan simply looked at her with its horrid bloodshot eyes and curdled a bloody roar.
“Stay behind me,” Ravi’s several bodies blurred in front of her before coalescing into one.
The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
“R-right,” Andora took a step back, still troubled by the sight of the monster up close.
The rest of the saratan managed to finally stand upright, and all immediately rushed in a furor to their perceived prey. By contrast, Ravi was motionless. The first one struck her through the shoulder; the second raked its claws into her side; the third punched through her chest; the fourth tried to bite her neck. It was only then that Andora realized they had all missed — or, rather, they had been attacking her hologram.
Suddenly, Ravi was in three places at once, her blade rending flesh out of the sides of the three new combatants. All the Ravis jumped back and were whole once more, standing in front of Andora. All of the doubt Andora had felt was washed out and replaced with an overwhelming feeling of vigor and giddiness all at once.
Ravi’s blade dug into the chest of the first saratan, causing it to stumble half a step. Andora knew her cue, and roared as she planted her fist into its chest. Another click, and a shockwave separated flesh and bone as the saratan was blown apart.
“One down!” Andora hooted.
An arrow sunk into the face of another, marking their next target. Ravi stood in front of Andora once more, and the junior hunter took a step back to watch her senior at work.
If these were ordinary chimera, they’d be running, or at least learn from their last attack that they couldn’t harm Ravi. As it stood, saratan were insane. They would never stop trying to kill Ravi as long as they could see her. Three swings that would have hit a motionless target were followed by three more Ravis tearing chunks of flesh off each of the saratan. Andora followed up, aiming for the one with an arrow in its face, and landed a solid blow against its chest. Click. Boom.
As the saratan lurched from the force of the blow, Ravi hammered her curved blade against its skull — a resounding crack echoing from the strike. Another arrow soared past Andora, and sank into the creature’s eye. It tumbled to the ground. Andora moved behind Ravi, who once more stood at attention.
For a few moments, one of the creatures was strangely unmoving before its distended jaw stretched open and a river of brown-yellow bile poured out onto the forest floor. The smell alone stung her nose, but the bile itself rapidly dissolved the underbrush into brown goop. Andora had heard that saratan had an acid breath, but this was ridiculous!
“Go left!” Ravi called as she leapt to the side, with afterimages flowing in her wake. Just as Andora moved to follow — a bone spike shot past her, almost throwing her off balance, before she was able to scamper away from the growing pool of acid bile. Though she was able to escape the acid’s touch, its smell made her wonder if the air itself was poisoned, because it absolutely reeked! There had to be a way to get rid of it.
The two creatures looked perfectly content to stand in the filth, their bloodied feet seemed invulnerable to the acid, which meant they’d have to be forced out. Andora had just the thing, too.
“Fire in the hole!” Andora reached for the back of her utility belt, and felt the familiar spherical shape of a torchwick. In a single motion, she pressed the buttons on both sides and chucked it in between the two saratan. There was a flash of light as the bomb went off and the pool of acid the monsters were standing in transformed into a pool of fire. The heat was intense enough to make Andora flinch.
The saratan were insane, but not so insane as to stand in fire, and they began charging toward Ravi and Andora. Another arrow streaked into the neck of one of the monsters as they raced out of the pool of fire and acid. Andora took a step back as a wall of Ravis glided in to meet the creatures head on.
Claws raked through each illusory Ravi before all trace of her faded from sight, and she was suddenly shearing a chunk of flesh off one creature while simultaneously appearing to smash the other in the head with her blade. Another arrow whistled through the air and punched through the back of its skull — the saratan collapsed. With only one target left, Andora lunged forward, eager to feel that familiar sensation of concussive force ripping a monster asunder.
Though their appearance was monstrous, Andora had mostly fought chimera that moved their bodies in natural ways, and so had subconsciously thought the saratan would do the same. Her punch fell just shy of the saratan’s chest as it twisted its body at an unnatural angle, its bloodshot eyes staring with an unnerving focus into her own, back bent in a full arch.
Pure instinct made her activate the third of her three — her mind became a sponge and the world water.
Veins of blue and green stood in sharp contrast to the stark pale, shriveled flesh of the saratan. Portions of fatty tissue slowly dripped off its frame — the flesh with no tendons to keep it tied to the body. A pasty, near skeletal imitation of a human wrought with bloodied disease that afflicted everything it touched with death. Its eyes were black voids full of singular desire. Hunger.
Ravi was pulling her curved blade out of the dead and collapsing saratan. Her various afterimages had a certain peculiarity about them that Andora’s third eye could not name, but feel. This feeling couldn’t fully take root as more distractions absorbed her attention on the battlefield. The blue-white flames danced along the surface of the brown-yellow bile, boiling and desiccating the pool into an acrid sludge. The air tasted sharp and pungent, runny and metallic. Bile and blood and sweat and rot.
Andora refocused her attention on the saratan. While everything else was stillness — Andora was movement. She pushed off her heel, dragging her left fist forward, pushing through the air that fought to keep her still. Her muscles burned with exertion, and she could feel sweat crawl out of her skin. As her fist slid forward, she could feel time losing its resistance.
Movement.
Impossibly, the twisted creature hadn’t just bent backwards to dodge her first strike. It was actually dropping onto the ground. Andora already knew that her second punch would miss as the saratan sank to the forest floor. Its gaze fixed upon her with absolute focus. Time leapt back into place.
She spun on her right heel, feeling the rush of wind as it sprung just past her. Following through with her spin, Andora hammered its chest with a fist. The click brought a smile, and the boom made her laugh. Another hit!
Just as the shockwave cascaded through its body, Ravi was there, already tearing through its chest with another swing. An arrow followed the blade, impaling the creature where a normal person would have a heart. With wild abandon, the saratan tried to grab Ravi. As it moved forward, its head suddenly flew off its body as Ravi left the afterimages of her swing in her wake, and its body fell to the ground.
Still breathing heavily, Andora looked around for anything else that might be a threat. From the tops of the trees, to the distant wood, to the ground at her feet. She looked around for something else to fight, but slowly came to the realization that the fight was over. It had been so scary in the beginning, but now she wondered how it came to end so quickly.
“Looks like somebody found her calling,” Ertia said in a sing-song voice as she walked up.
Andora gulped down a breath of air, “Is that all of them?”
“Sadly,” Ertia put a hand on her shoulder and sighed, “yes. That’s all of them.”
“You did well, Andora,” Ravi’s form still blurred afterimages as she walked. “You can rest now.”
“Okay,” Andora still felt incredibly energized. “Yeah, I’ll do that. Rest.”
Heart still hammering at her chest, Andora took as deep a breath as she could before she held it. After counting to four in her head, she steadily exhaled, before starting again. She could feel a slight tingling in her hands, probably from the unrestrained punches she had just been throwing.
“Get up, worm,” Ertia kicked the suspended form of Eli.
Andora tapped her gauntlets together, and they receded back into their glove form, “He can’t do anything right now. He’s in stasis.”
Ertia frowned, “How long until he’s normal?”
Andora shrugged, “Only a few minutes. He must have activated it when the saratan closed the distance.”
Still frowning at Eli, Ertia asked, “Can he hear us?”
“No, for him, it’s just going to be an eyeblink.” Ertia just growled at that. Andora chuckled, “We’ll have plenty of time to knock some sense into him. I think he used his three trying to survive the saratan.”
At a tap on her shoulder, Andora turned to face Ravi, “Do we have to burn the bodies?”
“Well,” Andora looked down at the mangled corpses of the saratan. Monsters without reason and with terrible powers of regeneration. Only critical injuries seemed to trigger their rapid healing, but consistent attacks like they had levied out were one of the few ways to take them down without intense heat or cold — or explosive ordinance. Once the things of nightmares were now nothing more than an adrenaline rush to her, “I guess it’s better to be safe than sorry, huh.”
----------------------------------------
After helping treat and bandage his wound, Tao helped Petroc begin tearing down the camp. From deactivating and compacting the tent pole, to packing away the cooking utensils and rations, and ending with sharing the burden of all the bags and packs between them. She insisted that she could always carry more, but he couldn’t let her carry too much — he still had a sense of chivalry, after all, but also, he wasn’t sure how much he could really trust her.
Seekers normally found a clique and stuck with the same people for years. Learning to trust someone with your life was a hard thing. Even if he never would actually betray someone, Petroc knew that there were people out there who were only too happy to take advantage of every so-called “opportunity” that came their way. Though he felt like Ravi certainly wanted to work with them, he couldn’t expect the same promise from Ertia and Tao. As wild as Ertia had been, she was easy to read, and her intentions pure — even if they were hostile.
Tao, weighed down by the heavy backpack and various utility packs draped across her chest and waist, didn’t look particularly hostile. Petite in every way, she was basically the poster image for every young woman a man was supposed to protect. She carefully bent down and picked up her hooped artifact by its base. Small as she was, it was hard to perceive her as a Seeker at all, let alone a threat.
Petroc shook his head. Ertia had been more beautiful than any woman he’d seen, and she was a hurricane. There was no reason to make assumptions based solely on appearances, especially since she had yet to reveal any of her three. For all he knew, Tao was more lethal in ways unseen, whether it be stealth or deception. He hated the inherent mistrust that came from meeting strangers, but trusting the wrong person was enough to cost a life. Despite not having much stock in himself, Petroc had to survive for those who relied on him.
Tao and he ambled through the forest, following minutes after the rest of their collective party. Though she didn’t make a sound, Petroc had the feeling Tao was moving to the rhythm of a song unsung. There was a strange intimacy and apparent enthusiasm in her movement. It stirred up decades old memories in Petroc’s mind that he fought to keep down.
Walking in silence was out of the question, but Petroc didn’t know how to talk to girls so young. Normally there would be songbirds or roaming herbivorous chimera about to set a kind of calm ambience while roaming the forest. Though Petroc was comfortable with himself in silence, he felt an awkward pressure walking alongside a cute girl that was, at best, only half his size and age. “So, you’re traveling with your sisters, huh?”
Tao grinned up at him, radiating absolute positivity, “We’re more of a sisterhood, to be honest.”
Petroc couldn’t help but grin a little himself, “Friends, then?”
“We’re getting there,” she replied. “We actually had only recently completed the trial that marks us as hunters — or Seekers, if you’re so inclined.”
That wording still irked Petroc, “Right. Your older friend seemed to find the title of hunter much more important than y’all.”
Tao raised an eyebrow at him, “Older?”
“Yeah,” Petroc motioned with his hand, “the tall one? Isn’t she the oldest?”
With an adorable pout, Tao pointedly turned her face away from him, “Actually, I’m the oldest, thankyouverymuch.”
It was such a jarring reaction that Petroc laughed. Tao laughed with him, her bright brown eyes beaming with unfiltered joy. It helped raise the mood and eased some of the unspoken tension.
“It’s fine,” she waved away any concern. “I’m actually the youngest of my siblings anyway, so I’m used to being treated like the baby of the bunch.”
“Ah, well, I’m an only child.”
“Oh,” her mood visibly deflated, “I’m sorry to hear that. My condolences.”
“No, it’s not that we lost anyone,” Petroc corrected. “My parents only wanted one kid.”
She looked at him, confused, “Did they… were they just much more careful about being intimate then?”
“What?” Petroc cleared his throat. How the hell did they get onto this topic? “No, they just used birth control.”
The two walked in awkward silence broken only by the sound of their footfalls on the underbrush.
“Andorra mentioned she was used to fighting the chimera in this area,” Tao ventured. “There’s mostly ursa and canine and telluraves that roam around here?”
To hear one so young use the old names for everything was quite a bit jarring for Petroc. He had only seen them in old texts, and never referenced directly by a Seeker. Most people just used monikers and epithets to the common names, like a yellow-bellied rattlesnake or fiery lizard. He gave her a curious look, “We’ve got razor hawks, but not too many birds of prey. The most annoying are the different types of coyotes that are too curious for their own good. Otherwise, yeah the bears and wolves are a bit of a nuisance, but nothing we can’t handle. There’s plenty of other prey for them to eat besides a couple of humans.”
“Are they not your first choice of meat then?” She asked him. At his look of confusion, she added, “Since the coyotes are the ones that hang around you most often, I just wondered if you killed them for meat and parts.”
“I mean,” Petroc had never tried dog meat in his life, “if we were desperate, yeah. I can’t imagine that’d happen with us so close to Amon’s Clearing and having plenty of rations, though.”
“It’s not ideal, but it’s better than starving,” Tao sighed.
Nobody starved to death in the wilderness. There was always something close at hand to kill you when you weren’t paying attention. Just what kind of rough terrain did this girl grow up in to have such expectations? None of them had winterwear, so it couldn’t have been the tundra. Was it a desert? That would explain the tan skin and the diehard survival approach.
“We’re all sorry about what happened with Ertia,” Tao piped up. “She was raised to be a fighter, and doesn’t suffer fools very well.”
Petroc waved away her concern, “Half the things Eli says makes me want to punch him, so I understand. Besides, it could’ve gone a lot worse, believe me. I’ve seen people moor themselves for less, and eventually sink. A scuffle between Seekers isn’t too uncommon.”
“Is your arm okay?” she looked up at him, eyes full of concern. A look most women wore around him.
Petroc chuckled, “I’ll be fine. I may be old, but I’m not fragile. I’ve still got a few good years in me.”
Tao nodded along, “And Andora?”
This girl actually knew how to pry open a man’s heart, didn’t she? He’d met all kinds of folks in his life. Though he wasn’t always right, his instincts had been honed through hard earned experience to tell when someone was being genuine or not. Tao, stranger though she may be, was genuine. And that thought concerned Petroc like no other, because he thought that Ertia and Ravi were genuine, too.
Petroc had worried there would come a day when Andora would be on her own, whether it was due to her wanting to spread her wings or him finally meeting the reaper. Of course, he didn’t want her to be alone when she finally left to do her own thing, which made it hard to find just the right time to let her go. Petroc didn’t want to hold her back, but he...
He was comfortable, again. Things were nice as they were. He didn’t want it to change. But he knew he was deluding himself. Nothing could last forever.
Pulling out his flask, Petroc said, “She’s got a bright future, for sure.”
“You don’t have to say goodbye, you know,” Tao nudged him in the side with her shoulder. “She can always come back and visit you.”
Petroc smiled a hopeless grin, “Not always that easy, kid.”
As silence descended once more, Petroc took a few sips from his flask. The burn of the whiskey kept him warm, but also was about the only thing he felt. Andora would want to leave with these girls. It’d be the perfect chance. Petroc knew it, and now he felt cold and numb.
“This artifact,” Tao lifted it higher so he could get a better look at it, as nonsensical as it was, “is the only way we have to see our families again.”
Petroc did a double take.
“We met some people that can fix it,” Tao grinned at him, “but it won’t be easy, and it won’t be quick, and it won’t be free.”
“What happened?” Petroc asked.
Tao gave him a mischievous grin, “That’s something you’ll hear about after we share a few meals together.”
He couldn’t help but laugh at that. This girl really was something else. “How about a drink? Don’t worry, it’s not that strong.”
“I can’t,” Tao lifted the artifact again. “My hands are full. Can you…?”
He took the strange, hooped artifact from her arms and handed her the flask. It was remarkably light, if weirdly shaped, “Is this really that heavy to you?”
“It’s not heavy,” Tao immediately retorted. “It’s awkward. Cumbersome.”
Petroc hoisted it onto his shoulder, “How about you let me carry it?”
“Yeah, and I’ll handle this,” Tao took a sip from his flask and immediate regret blossomed on her face. “What the fuck — if that’s not strong to you, then what is??”
“Haha! You’re not the first to tell me that,” he took back the flask from her outstretched hand. “So, what’s your story? Andora said you all survived a cave-in?”
“It was caused by something we’d never seen before. It attacked by sending out these waves of dread, at first,” Tao explained. Just that detail alone gave Petroc goosebumps all up and down his arms. A memory that he thought he’d locked away was suddenly rattling the cage around his heart. “Then, there was this blue light, and it almost killed me.”
Sierra...
Tao looked up at him, “I’m sorry, did you say something?”
“No,” Petroc said more harshly than he intended. He cleared his throat, “Sorry, no. I was just distracted by something.”
Tao didn’t say anything after that for a few seconds. That was worse than her calling him out, because it let those thoughts, those memories, keep rattling the cage in his heart.
“I hope they made it in time,” she said. The mirth and bubbliness from earlier were absent from her voice.
“I hope so, too…” Petroc really didn’t know how to talk to anyone so young any more.
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The putrid stench was overbearing, and its bloodshot eyes only loomed closer. Worse than having his back to the wall, Eligius was on the floor of the forest with no one in sight. Once that monster got to him, he wouldn't be dying a quick death. He brought the gun to his head.
An arrow punctured the saratan’s face.
The only person close enough, and crazy enough, to use a bow and arrow against the saratan had to be those crazy girls from earlier. Andora and Petroc would be with them. He was saved!
Eligius activated his third of three. That uncomfortable spike of icy cold swept through his body, turning ten minutes into an eyeblink. Instead of looking into the eyes of a monster, Eligius found himself staring into the all black eyes of that crazy girl with the spear. She grinned at him.
He pointed the spitter at her, “Stay back!”
She was leaning forward on her spear, with her head resting on her arms, but looked entirely nonplussed, “Or what?”
“I’ll kill you!” He kept the spitter pointed at her head, “I swear it!”
“Eli!” Andora called from the side, “Calm down! We’re here to save you!”
Suddenly, his nostrils stung as the smell of burnt tar filled his lungs, “What the hell is that?” There was a bonfire, with smoke billowing up and out of the forest. The saratan weren’t anywhere in sight. It was just the crazy girl with the spear, Andora rushing up to him, and that girl with the bow approaching.
“Your friends didn’t like us,” the crazy girl said. “We killed them.”
“Ertia, that’s not helping,” Andora stepped in front of her. “Listen, Eli, these girls are our friends, okay? They’re going to help us.”
Help? Them? Eligius laughed, “Oh, please! You felt what I felt, Andora. That one is nothing more than a wild animal. She’ll happily kill me in my sleep if she can get away with it.”
“Oh, I won’t kill you,” Ertia stood up to her full height. “You’re going to serve penance for what you were going to do to us.”
Eligius was totally confused. What sort of nonsense was in this woman’s head? Did she hear what she was saying? “Are you insane? I did absolutely nothing — nothing! — and you tried to kill me!”
“How do you jailbreak extech?” the tall girl asked.
Eligius was entirely befuddled. Why would they ask something like that? Did they know?
“Look at the guilt on his face,” Ertia pointed at him. “He wanted to kill us.”
“I-nonono, don’t you try and turn this on me,” Eligius shifted between pointing the spitter between the tall girl and Ertia. “It was you all that attacked us. Seekers don’t attack other Seekers. You’re all moored. You’re insane. I was just going to defend myself. I wasn’t fooled by your lies.”
“Eli, are you even listening to yourself?” Andora asked.
Eligius laughed helplessly, “Yes! Oh, heavens, yes! I’m the only one who’s making any sense, Andora!”
“I’m tired of this,” Ertia said.
Before Eligius could react, he felt a violent snap in his hands, and the gun was gone. He looked down at his empty hands. How did she do that? The butt of the spear pressed down on his chest, forcing him prone. Ertia stood over him, her lips curled into a look of disgust.
“Apologize, worm,” Ertia commanded.
“Andora,” the tall one said, “remove any weapons he might have. We can’t risk our safety.”
Eligius tried to lift his head to get a better view, but Ertia thumped him on the chest. What the hell was happening? Where was Petroc? How did it come to this?
“Sorry, Eli, but you did point a gun at them,” Andora whispered as she plucked his pockets.
“If you have any sense at all, you’ll report them,” he told her. “And where’s Petroc? That one tore his arm open, remember?”
“He’s fine,” Andora brushed her hair back. “If you didn’t run off and drop poison bombs all over the forest, then he’d probably be with us already.”
“It wasn’t to hurt you, I promise,” he said. “Please, Andora, they’re deceiving you. You don’t have to do this.”
“Don’t you spend your free time being a lying lecher?” Ertia tapped the weapon against his cheek.
If only looks could kill, then Eligius would be out of this mess already, “At least I treat women better than you treat men.”
“Do you apologize to them?”
Eligius bitterly laughed, “Ha ha ha… Why the hell should I apologize to a crazy bitch like y—”
The world went white for a moment as pain consumed his senses. After a few seconds of disorientation, Eligius realized that he was still prone on the ground, looking up at the trees. As he tried to make sense of what was around him, Eligius saw the three girls arguing, but couldn’t focus on the words.
He felt his forehead, and it stung. As he withdrew his hand, Eligius could see blood. That was bad. He tried to get up, but then the world twisted so that down was sideways. Nothing made sense. He felt sick. As he turned to his side, burning bile came up from his throat, and he began coughing it out.
There was yelling, and pain, and soon, darkness.
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“What the hell is going on over there?” Petroc asked.
“Give me the artifact, you might have to fight,” Tao said.
He handed her the thing, and immediately conjured his hard-light shield. There was a blazing fire billowing out smoke like a chimney, and a whole lot of yelling. Neither was a good sign. Even before that, seeing the purple clouds of poison gas had put Petroc a bit on edge, but mostly served to annoy him. Seeing Andora looking so worried had him gritting his teeth.
“What’s wrong?” he saw Eli on the ground, with Ravi keeping him on his side with a hand.
“He’s got a concussion,” Andora wrung her hands as she always did when nervous, “or worse. We have to get him to an autodoc in Amon’s Clearing.”
“Is anyone else hurt?” Petroc saw Ertia standing to the side, her face a mix of gloom and contempt.
“We’re fine,” Ravi answered from the ground. “There were some saratan, but we killed them. Eli was fleeing them before we finally caught up to him.”
“Shit,” Petroc dispensed his shield, “he’s infected?”
“No,” Andora quickly answered. “He’s just unconscious.”
“If the saratan drew blood like that, then he’s infected, Andora.”
“It wasn’t…” Andora sighed.
Petroc looked back to Ertia, who immediately looked down at her feet. There was a reason Petroc didn’t play games like Eli. Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned.
“He pointed his spitter at her,” Andora said, “and kept running his mouth like usual. She really didn’t mean to hit him that hard.”
That woman had sliced a straight, shallow cut along his arm with the utmost precision. Petroc had no doubt that she could have killed him, or Eli, if she had wanted to. The fact that things would escalate so quickly again without him being there didn’t bode well for the future, but Petroc wouldn’t have to worry if he kept Eli and Ertia separated at all times. Regardless, he had more pressing problems than managing group relationships.
“We have to get him to Amon’s Clearing fast.” Petroc began pulling out coins, “The autodoc can work miracles, but I’d rather not take a risk with a head injury. Andora, we’re using a coffin.”
She nodded and moved behind him to fetch it from his pack. Petroc counted out twenty coins, and nodded to himself. It was a shame to spend so much on what was, ultimately, a pretty useless expedition but it was better than losing someone. As Andora helped him push the coins into the coffin and activate it, he only half paid any mind to it. The whole thing was similar to a tent, in a way — a lengthy metal pole that split vertically into a stretcher with an elastic bed. It had a button to activate its levitation device, and another to activate its hardlight shield.
What really tickled Petroc’s mind was the appearance of the saratan. He actually hadn’t taken any time to digest that little fact. These three had killed the saratan and put their corpses to a bonfire all on their own? Andora was pretty good in a fight, but not that good. He knew Ertia was great, but she looked like she didn’t have a scratch on her. Had she taken those blows in their exchange earlier just to prove she could? What kind of crazy power was she hiding? For that matter, what exactly was Ravi able to do that drove the other girls to abide her leadership?
Tao’s gentle voice interrupted his thoughts, “How much further until Amon’s Clearing?”
“Less than an hour,” Andora answered, “if we run like last time.”
“There won’t be any other surprises, like the saratan, on the way?”
“Unlikely,” Petroc cut in. “But, in the wilderness, who can really say?”
“Do you want to head back with Andora? Or is your age finally catching up with you?” Tao asked with a grin.
She really liked to play around, huh. Her grin was pretty infectious, “Maybe it is. How about this: Ravi, you and Andora take Eli back. If things go sideways, then drop an impasse; otherwise, toss a torchlight or two to scare whatever it is off. The rest of us will hold the equipment and keep as much of a pace behind you as we can manage.”
After exchanging some packs to lighten up Ravi and Andora, and bulk up Tao, Ertia, and himself, the party split once more — not something Petroc wanted to do unless absolutely necessary. This whole day was one surprise after another. Hopefully, there would be no more complications.