After the fight, they had trekked back to the cave entrance with Zen and Ember hauling the body of the creature between them. Zalia had used her abilities to harvest a good amount of the new plant she had found on the way back. She assumed it was the herb that Glemp had told her about and it being an Iron rank herb she was able to identify it.
? - Iron rank - Use in a ritual to add an element of Air.
She called the new herb Zephyr and its description promptly changed to match her new name for it. They were now all gathered in Glemp’s workshop, sitting around a table watching as Zalia played with their new companion with a length of string she had. What Zalia thought of as a small kitten was actually probably more the size of a normal house cat. The reason she still thought of it as a kitten was its comically large paws, ones she knew it would grow into based on the size of the creature that had been this one's parent. She watched as the small kitten began wiggling, preparing to pounce. As it did, a light glow could be seen deep within the icy shards growing from its shoulders, back and tail. The kitten leapt, landing on the piece of string and releasing a small blast of icy magic that froze the piece of string solid,
“That is some strong magic,” Zalia said, praising the small kitten.
“You’re really planning to keep the little murderer?” Zen asked.
“You’re just upset it doesn't like you,” Ember said, watching as Zalia flicked the string around the kitten that was laying on its back, paws flailing for it.
“I don't see why not,” Zalia said.
“Maybe because it is going to grow into a giant creature built to hunt and kill,” Indis said matter-of-factly.
“I still don't see the issue,” Zalia replied.
“You won’t be able to just keep that thing as a pet in any city I know of,” Zen added.
Zalia only graced that point with a more pointed look.
“Yeah, yeah, I forgot you’re basically as wild as this thing,” Zen grumbled.
“I’ll train it,” Zalia said.
“You’ll train it,” Indis said disbelievingly.
“I will,” Zalia said.
“And how will you accomplish that, do tell,” Indis asked, still unconvinced.
“Mystic arts, generational knowledge, magic, skill and most importantly, food,” Zalia told her.
Ember snorted a laugh and Indis just shook her head, smiling despite herself.
“Oh you can't be considering this Lady Indis,” Zen said, seeing the woman's smile.
“I don't think we can stop her little Zen,” Indis said, giving in.
“Little Zen!” Zen asked in outrage.
“And look how cute it is!” Indis added, pointing at the furry kitten that was batting at the air as Zalia played with it.
“Its cuteness does speak for itself,” Zalia said.
“Whatever, not like I have a say in this anyways,” Zen said, finally giving in.
“That's the spirit!” Zalia said cheerfully.
The little creature was already Iron rank, most likely born like that. Zalia felt that if she did manage to train and raise the kitten, it could become a powerful ally for her.
“What should I name it?” she asked the group.
“I wouldn't even know where to begin with that,” Ember said.
“What about ‘Frosty’,” Zen said.
“Absolutely not,” Zalia told him.
“You should think of a name if you’re going to be training it Zalia, not one of us,” Indis said.
“Yeah alright, I’ll think about it. Do you all want to explore further up the mountain or go further north next?” Zalia asked the group.
“I think we could have a search further up the mountain,” Indis said.
“Sounds fine to me,” Zalia said.
The first bird creature they had killed had been given to Glemp at the cave entrance to the mountainside as a gift. The goblin had shown them the path to the mountain now so they could always go get one for themselves if they really wanted. What Zalia wanted to see was what was higher on the mountain, somewhere even the people who lived here avoided due to the danger.
“Let's go then,” she said as she stood up, grabbing the kitten.
⪼ ⪢ ℋ 𝒶𝓃𝒹 ℋ ⪡ ⪻
The next week was spent exploring and climbing up the mountainside, each day getting further up before returning, not quite feeling safe enough to stay the night there.
During the week, Zalia added another activity to her routine. She began trying to teach the kitten various different commands using fresh catches to feed the feline. Her teaching passive seemed to actually help in this regard, the kitten picking things up quite quickly. After Ember had called the kitten her “Boreal buddy”, Zalia had taken to the name, using it for her new friend. Boreal was an energetic little thing, bouncing around and barely sleeping a wink except for in the evenings where it passed out for a few hours each day. Zalia discovered that Boreal did indeed have some impressive natural magics that it could use, the first being its ice magic. It could control the cold and snow to a small degree much like how Zalia could with her Iron rank cold resistance, maybe even from the same source as her. It also left small icy footprints wherever it walked, the reason for which Zalia didn't understand until she saw it walking in the snow. The natural effect made its tracks almost vanish into the ice and snow underfoot as it walked. Boreal also seemed to have some natural stealth magic similar to Zalia's, able to blend in with the surroundings scarily well. Zalia did wonder if its currently somewhat limited control over the ability was what caused the large bird creature to dive down at it and its parent since it could be almost invisible even to Zalia when it was active. Zalia's study of the kitten allowed her team to properly react when they were first ambushed by one of the creatures, knowing of the icy magic it wielded and coming out on top of that fight.
Zalia experimented with the new herb she had found, finding many uses from providing a wind blocking barrier, to masking her scent, to creating mild wind effects. Mixing the Zephyr in with any Flame-root ritual helped amplify the effects, fanning the flames.
Everyone eventually got along with little Boreal, Zen the only one to get scratched by the kitten while Zalia was there. He wasn't very good with animals, Zalia surmised. Even Glemp didn't seem to mind having the murder kitten around, though he might not have even noticed with how focused he was on experimenting with the various bits and pieces of bird he cut out.
All of Zalia and her team's skills got good use while they were exploring the mountainside and Zalia had a feeling that Ember at least was getting closer to Bronze rank, Zen and Indis not far behind. Zalia was trying to keep up but it was bound to be harder since she reached Iron much later than the trio had. She checked her messages from the week over which they had hunted and caught quite a few of the bird and feline creatures,
Congratulations! Kill shot had gained two levels reaching Iron 7.
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Congratulations! Hunter’s mark had gained two levels reaching Iron 8.
Congratulations! Fight or Flight has gained two levels reaching Iron 9.
Congratulations! Hunter’s sight has gained three levels reaching Iron 8.
Congratulations! Survivalist and associated skills have gained three levels reaching Iron 12
Congratulations! Hunter class has gained two levels reaching Iron 7.
Congratulations! Flora Identification has gained three levels reaching Iron 6.
Congratulations! Preparation has gained three levels reaching Iron 8.
Congratulations! Stasis has gained two levels reaching Iron 6.
Congratulations! Harvester has gained three levels reaching Iron 9.
Congratulations! Herbal magic has gained three levels reaching Iron 10.
Congratulations! Herbalist class has gained three levels reaching Iron 6.
Congratulations! Nature’s wrath had gained two levels reaching Iron 5.
Congratulations! Protection of the Wilds has gained three levels reaching Iron 6.
Congratulations! Healing presence has gained three levels reaching Iron 9.
Congratulations! Druid class has gained two levels reaching Iron 5.
Congratulations! Aura observation has gained three levels reaching Tin 14.
Congratulations! Low light vision has gained five levels reaching Tin 15.
Congratulations! Poison resistance has gained two levels reaching Iron 7.
Congratulations! Mobility has gained three levels reaching Iron 13.
Congratulations! Teaching has gained four levels reaching Iron 5.
Congratulations! Bow - Weapon proficiency has gained four levels reaching Iron 14.
Congratulations! Sword - Weapon proficiency has gained three levels reaching Iron 5.
Congratulations! Throwing Knives - Weapon proficiency has gained four levels reaching Tin 11.
It was all in all some good progress, but definitely not enough to keep her caught up with the rest of the group. The constant hunting day in and day out was definitely an excellent way to quickly level all of her skills though, especially with the variety of prey she was hunting.
During each hunt, she brought little Boreal with her, the kitten managing to hide during the fights and Zalia keeping an eye on the small one but it was obviously wise enough not to interfere with such larger creatures fighting. Zalia also barely needed to sleep at this point with Survivalist at Iron twelve now. She spent most of the time that the others were asleep interacting with the tiny clawed menace.
Towards the end of the week, Zalia and her team made a discovery. Much further up the mountain they found a small cave and within was a familiar sight. It looked like a ritual, eerily familiar to the one that the expedition contract had found in the mines much further south. They walked in, looking around the blood soaked ritual on the ground. Luckily, there was no rip in space like they had found in the other one,
“Oh what the hell,” Zalia muttered.
“Yeah,” Zen said.
It was extremely similar to the previous one they had found, though the time they had spent investigating that one had been minor due to Gold rank elemental complications. This time around the cave entrance was right there but they still remained vigilant. Luckily, no tremors or extremely powerful elementals appeared out of nowhere. Indis got out a small notebook and started drawing sigils and runes, drawing out the ritual.
“What do we do?” Zalia asked.
“We’re going to have to go report this to the Morning’s shade,” Ember said.
“It appears so,” Indis agreed.
“Damn, I was really enjoying myself up here. We go immediately then?” Zalia asked.
The two of them nodded.
“Finally, back to the warmth of civilisation,” Zen said.
“Unfortunately,” Zalia added.
They finished up investigating the ritual site before beginning the journey back down the mountain once more. Zalia collected as much of the herb from the mountain as she could, able to hold much more weight in her bag now that her body could support it. The spatial pocket from her stasis ability was already stuffed with various herbs.
Upon reaching the cave entrance once more, Zalia informed Glemp of what they had found and how it might have something to do with the elemental attacks that their people had started coming under. This finally drew Glemp’s attention away from their experiments and caused the Born of Heat and Stone to move off further up the interior of the mountain to find their king, something Zalia was just learning now that they had. Zalia and her team however didn't wait for Glemp to come back, making their way out of the mountain and beginning the long journey back to Endelbyrn.
They travelled for three days before finally leaving the snow once more and as they travelled past the point Zalia had first encountered other humans she remembered something from that time. During the battle that had taken place a large earth elemental had risen and fought both armies. Zalia had intervened, saving many lives but wondered what had caused that one to rise up. She realised it might mean there was another ritual that had happened nearby.
“Guys, guys, we should explore to the west a little,” Zalia said, halting.
“Why?” Indis asked.
“I saw a Gold ranked elemental here once,” Zalia said.
“You did? Similar to the one we saw in the mine?” Zen asked.
“Quite similar now that I think about it. It was in the middle of a fight between two armies but one side was losing, bad. Maybe they caused the elemental to appear on purpose, I’m not certain of it but it's a possibility right?” Zalia explained.
“Might be worth a look,” Ember said.
The other two nodded slowly and Zalia led them to the west, where she remembered the rebel faction soldiers fleeing to after the battle. She eventually found the remnants of a war camp. It looked like it had been torn down quite some time ago, though still recently enough for debris and dug up earth to be visible. They searched through the dug up earth and ashes for a little bit, finding nothing of interest before Zalia pulled out her map, looking for the nearest town.
“Every place I have seen those Gold rank elementals, I have also seen one of the rituals. There must be one nearby somewhere,” Zalia said, pointing to a location on her map.
“There is a town just a half hours walk away, we might find something there,” Zalia added.
“It's a long shot Zalia but if you really think there is something to be found then we can go,” Indis said.
“It’s not very far out of our way, why not,” Zen said in agreement as well.
Ember simply gave a nod and they were on their way once more. Little Boreal was making the journey half wrapped around Zalia's neck and shoulders like a furry scarf. They made their way to the town quickly at a half run, though haste wouldn't necessarily help them. They arrived just as the sun was setting for the day, walking around town for a short time before deciding to head to the nearest tavern. They couldn't see anything extremely obvious as an army or ritual site and so decided to talk to some of the local people and see if they couldn't find something out.
_________________________________________________________________________
Zek's life hadn’t been going so well since he had decided to join the rebellion. They had recruited him citing their need for spies and the importance of what they were doing for the kingdom. He had foolishly believed them, being a young man with some ideals about the world that he now knew to be naivety. They had assigned him to this tiny out of the way town in the north end of the kingdom ever since, the only interesting thing to have ever happened was the big fight between the armies that had occurred and the follow up chase he had gone on. His commanding officer had told him to follow and find out who that woman was and if the information he got was important enough, he would be promoted out of this shit hole town. Well, she had caught him and sent him packing, now he was going to be in this place for the rest of his life. At least she hadn’t killed him.
He was sitting in the tavern having a drink by himself and listening to the many conversations happening around the room, a normal activity to occupy his nights. He saw the doors swing open and a group of four entered, making for the closest empty table. Normally he wouldn't care about the newcomers but the woman he saw with them made him freeze. It was the same cold eyed, sharp faced woman with the grey and white hair that he had been sent after that first time. The only large difference he saw now was the equipment, rank and most noticeable the wild cat she appeared to have slung around her neck. He stared for a moment before quickly turning away, putting his head down.
“Oh shit, oh shit, I gotta get out of here,” Zek thought to himself.
He sat for a few more minutes, trying his best not to bring any attention to himself and listening to the group of four as best he could from where he sat. Before long he stood and stretched, walking casually towards the door. The woman had been Tin rank when she had caught him, being Tin rank himself still. She was now Iron rank and he definitely did not want to be anywhere near her, he had no idea if the woman would recognise him or not. He had just reached the door, heart beating quickly, reaching for the handle when he heard a footstep behind him,
“You!,” the woman said loudly, grabbing his shoulder and spinning him around.
“You,” Zek said, scared.
_________________________________________________________________________
“You,” the spy said in a scared tone.
“It’s probably best you come sit down and we have a little chat,” Zalia said, pushing the man, gently, to her table where Ember, Indis and Zen all still sat.
“Zalia, who is this?” Indis asked between gritted teeth, obviously annoyed at Zalia's lack of tact in grabbing the man.
“This is an army spy and someone I once caught following me. I believe he owes me a favour,” Zalia said brightly.
“Oh of course,” Zen said, the sentence muffled by his hands as he held his face.