"Always with the planning," Zen complained.

"Oh shut it you," Zalia told him.

They were sitting in their tent, Ember with the small booklet she had rescued from Zalia's grasp the first time she had tried to draw a map of the north. They had decided that hey, if they were going to be doing some more planning, may as well write it all out right?

"Ok, so here's what we've got so far," Ember started.

"Working for the Morning's Shade, we are trying to find the truth about the rituals by gaining what information we can from the rebellion. In coming here we've realised that not only can we not fully trust our own organisation leader but the rebellion might be truthfully founded after all. Now we are trying to get as much information out of the generals as we can and potentially assist them in any way we can through our connections to take down the king," Ember finished, reading off the page.

"Right, now add at the bottom, 'Gaining trust through helping with an issue in the camp but that has now turned into another complicated issue because of Zalia's druidic life and death balance powers'," Indis said.

Boreal meowed,

"And add that at the end," Zalia said.

Ember dutifully wrote meow on the page. She turned the book to show them and everything was written in summarised dot points.

"Right, so what now?" Zen asked.

"We catch out one of the creatures alone and Zalia somehow communicates with it?" Indis said questioningly.

Ember jotted down the idea.

"Could work. We catch one out as it tries to enter the camp, it might be a higher rank but if it was I can't see why it would be sneaking into the camp for food the way it does," Zalia added a little distractedly.

She was still working on manipulating the heat around her to make herself invisible to the heat sight. In a way the process felt similar to a type of training she had done previously. When she had first gained the ability to perform the Dodge-vine ritual, she had begun casting it constantly to make it a never fading power around her. She now cast the ritual subconsciously all the time on herself, her allies and even a couple of times accidentally on passers-by. The heat trick was similar, except performing it was much more complicated and would probably take much, much longer to be doing subconsciously.

"What are you doing?" Indis asked.

"Huh? Oh sorry, what was that?" Zalia asked.

She had completely missed what the woman had said as she focused on working her magic.

"I said, do you have any ideas with how to communicate with it once we do catch it out," Indis repeated.

"Um, not really no. I was just kind of hoping I'd be able to or something would come up. I want to ask if they will stop stealing and maybe we could solve our problem that way," Zalia said.

"Hoping isn't really a good plan," Indis pointed out.

"Yes…" Zalia said.

"And yet you think it will work?" Indis asked.

Zalia sighed,

"No, I don't know. All I know is I want to somehow resolve this in a peaceful manner. How do you normally communicate with an ethereal wolf creature?" Zalia asked back.

Back in Zalia's world, that might have seemed like an insane question. Here, her teammates just looked thoughtful,

"No clue, never seen them before and still haven't," Ember said.

"Boreal understands you a bit," Indis said hopefully.

"Took weeks for that to happen and I have no idea if that is because of our bond or her own intelligence," Zalia said

"Damn," Indis muttered.

"Yeah," Zalia agreed.

There was a few moments of silence as they all considered what to do.

"Maybe…," Zalia started, having an idea.

"Go on," Ember urged.

"Well they're coming here for food right? Or at least that is what they're taking. Why don't we just hunt something and give it to them as a sort of peace offering?" Zalia suggested.

"That could work," Ember said.

"We just don't know how they will react though. These could be aggressive beasts for all we know," Indis said, signing.

"We have to try," Zalia insisted.

"Because of your weird instincts, I know," Indis grumbled.

"What if it attacks us when we try?" Zen asked.

"We defend ourselves of course," Indis replied.

“Seems like we have a plan down then,” Zalia said.

“Finally, I’m hungry,” Zen said.

“Hungry? Again?” Indis asked incredulously.

“Yeah, so?” Zen asked defensively.

“You’re ridiculous, come on then,” Indis replied as she stood up and walked out of the tent.

Zen stood up and followed her.

“Get me something small as well!” Ember called after them.

Both Zalia and Ember sat in silence, the only sound being Boreal’s purr as Zalia petted her. Ember read through the notes again before dropping her arm to the ground.

“Did you always live in the north?” Ember asked.

Zalia didn't respond for a moment, trying to decide how to answer the question.

“No, not always,” Zalia replied.

Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

“I’ve been thinking about what to do once this is all over, where to go. I’m not sure I’ll stay with the Morning’s shade after all we’ve learnt. Why did you move to the north originally?” Ember asked.

That was a hard question.

“Where I come from, the human race was well on the way to destroying the world as it had been. Forests and ecosystems were destroyed, the very air around us turning to poison and the land turning into endless cities filled with millions of people. The north was one of the only places that hadn’t quite been tamed by our people yet and so I moved there. I moved to get away from everything, from the constant news of horrific accidents or disasters. Different nations were consistently at war, killing each other in a constant bid to claim what others had. I couldn't deal with it,” Zalia explained.

“It sounds horrible,” Ember said somberly.

“It was. When I came here, I thought maybe people here were different, maybe there wasn't so much death and disaster everywhere and so I came back to human civilization. Not that different so far,” Zalia continued, gesturing to the tent walls and the army surrounding them.

“You’ll go back once this is over?” Ember asked.

“Oh yeah. I plan to go much further north than I was before. As far as I know, no one has bothered to explore further so I may as well see what’s up there,” Zalia replied.

“Sounds exciting,” Ember said.

She didn't make it explicit but the meaning was clear. If Zalia wanted, Ember would come with her.

“I can’t wait. Back where I’m from I had no power whatsoever, no magic, no increased strength and so I left. I left because I felt there was nothing I could do to change the course of the world. Here, I might not be as strong as some but I have the power to actually have an impact on what happens next. Maybe, just maybe, I can help prevent a disaster. I would have left already otherwise,” Zalia said.

Ember nodded slowly, seeming to understand. At that moment, Indis and Zen pushed back into the tent, the former holding a platter of food and the latter almost stepping on her heels.

⪼ ⪢ ℋ 𝒶𝓃𝒹 ℋ ⪡ ⪻

After the other three had finished eating, the five of them left the camp once more for the forested area around. Neither Boreal or Zalia had eaten and neither would need to for the next two days or so after the hunt they had gone on that morning. One of the reasons Zalia didn't mind being in the human lands so much was because they had as of yet failed to tame the wilds. Despite the cities and towns around, much of the land was still covered in forests filled with hundreds of animals.

“You guys go ahead, I want to spend some time looking around,” Zalia said to the others.

“You sure?” Ember asked.

“Quite sure, I’ll be able to find you no worries,” Zalia said.

“Are you saying we aren’t stealthy?” Indis asked.

Zalia just looked pointedly at Zen.

“Fair point,” Indis conceded.

“Hey!” Zen said in protest.

“Oh shush, you’ll scare away everything within a kilometre,” Ember complained.

They moved off, continuing in that vein as they went. Zalia smiled as they left, amused at their bantering. Despite her early misgivings about working with anyone at all, they weren’t so bad, for humans. She began walking around, using her Flora identification on all manner of plants around her from trees, to bushes, to ground covers. She didn't find anything new that was identified as useful with her herbalism magic but had come to enjoy the simple process. She did find some Bitterbalm and Dodge-vine around, both of them very common in the forested areas of the north, though not so far north as the snow. She pulled out some Zephyr, the plant she had discovered on the high up slopes of the mountain that Glemp called home. She hadn’t yet really played around with what she could accomplish with the herb, having been too distracted by the current situation.

She could immediately feel how it could be used once she held it, in a general sense. It could be used to add the element of air to any ritual she performed and on it's own had a wide variety of uses. She was excited for a moment but after thinking about it was given the information that it wouldn't allow her to fly. Slightly disappointed but still hopeful, her ability informed her it could be used to fall slowly if needed. Thinking of her bow, she was given the information that it could be used to enhance the flight of an arrow, giving it an increased range and reducing the impact of wind. It had a variety of other uses as well, though one she was most interested in was mixing it with Dodge-vine would create a barrier of wind that would be quite effective on small projectiles. Using a combination of the barrier and the enhancement on her own arrows would mean she could shoot from relative safety while her own projectiles being unaffected by the barrier. In addition to the standard Dodge-vine ritual, she would be quite protected from any small projectiles of her own rank.

She played around for a while, using the slow fall ritual on Boreal. When she did, she realised it didn't just have a slow fall effect. Boreal bounced around, jumping from tree to tree as she was lightened by the magic, each of her jumps going much higher than usual. Zalia decided to try it herself and found she could jump almost twice as high as she previously could. It wasn't quite as good as flying but for now it would do.

Zalia and Boreal jumped through the boughs of the trees, her Hunter’s sight easily able to track where her team had walked even at a distance. Being able to semi-fly through the treetops was exhilarating, though she had miscalculated a few times early on, her increased dexterity and mental attributes allowed her to move quite speedily. She quickly caught up to her team, floating down from the treetops to land in front of them. Indis rolled her eyes at Zalia,

“You are absurd,” she said.

“Absurd and floaty,” Zalia countered.

The ritual wasn't so much slow fall as reduced weight and it meant a lot of good things for her. It wasn't so much reduced weight that it made it hard to run but she would leave lighter tracks and could move easier while it was active.

“That was kind of cool,” Ember admitted.

“Wanna join me?” Zalia asked, a little excited.

“As much as floating around seems fun, we are kind of out here for a reason,” Indis said, stopping them before it got too far.

“Oh, right,” Zalia replied, a little chagrined.

“Right, we found some fresh tracks of something smaller further back or do you want something larger?” Zen asked.

“Something medium?” Zalia suggested.

“Something medium,” Indis agreed.

It didn't take long, Zalia being able to easily find a medium sized creature that they hunted down with skill. The poor Tin rank creature didn't stand a chance as the four Iron rankers descended on it. Zalia felt bad about killing the poor thing, a medium sized four legged creature that looked something like a badger. The unfair fight left a sour taste in her mouth, it wasn't a hunt necessary for their survival but rather for something that might not even work.

It was only a few hours past midday so they still had quite a bit of time. They meandered through the forest to the side of the camp's wall where they knew the creatures to enter through. Following the hard to see tracks a little ways away from the wall, Zalia set down her tarp and put the poor hunted animal down on it. Now, it was just going to be a waiting game. The ethereal wolf might not even show up that night or the next but if it did they wanted to be ready.

⪼ ⪢ ℋ 𝒶𝓃𝒹 ℋ ⪡ ⪻

It was many hours of waiting later that something finally happened. Zalia and her team were hidden near the offering, hoping that the creature would arrive. As the sun set and nothing appeared they began to worry. Darkness overtook the world and still nothing. After about an hour after sunset, they saw a dim light moving slowly through the trees towards them. They all got ready, hoping the creature wouldn't just immediately attack or run away. This was the moment of truth.

Out of the trees came a starry wolf, it's body ethereal and translucent with small pin-point stars glittering within. As it got closer to the camp wall, which was still some few hundred metres away, the wolf was slowly dimming further. The creature finally arrived near to where they had laid down the offering and stopped. They all moved out of hiding, still some ten to fifteen metres away and the creature bared it's teeth at them as it noticed their appearance.

“Please, we mean you no harm,” Zalia said, trying to keep a friendly and calm tone.

It seemed to hesitate for a moment but still did not approach any further.

“We wish to make an offering,” Zalia added, gesturing to the body they had laid out on the tarp.

It was at that moment that Zalia had an idea. The ethereal wolf seemed to understand to some degree so she continued on.

“We would greatly appreciate it if you could stop taking the food that is stored within our camp,” Zalia continued, gesturing towards the camp behind her.

“I know that you still need to eat and certainly taking from us is easier than hunting for yourself so I suggest a compromise. Further to the east there are many more camps of soldiers that are guarded much worse and hold the people responsible for the imbalance in nature. We would ask you instead take food from them,” Zalia finished, really hoping the creature understood her and she wasn't being a complete fool.

The wolf just stared at her for a moment, sniffing at the air. Zalia looked back at the others and Indis just shrugged, gesturing for her to continue.

“Um, feel free to take this offering either way,” Zalia added.

She was really starting to doubt their whole plan now.

Boreal moved forwards and sat next to Zalia, giving the wolf one single meow.

The creature moved forwards slowly and bent down to pick up the body she had laid down for it, raising it's head and looking straight into her eyes. The thought came into her mind not in any language or words but rather the imprint of a concept. Acceptance.