Zalia awoke with a start, heart beating as adrenaline pumped through her body. She looked around quickly, thankfully seeing no immediate danger. She did notice that there was sun shining brightly onto the tent walls, lighting up the inside somewhat. She also noticed that none of her team were present, though Boreal was still curled up only now blinking blearily at her.
“Did I sleep in?” she wondered.
Ever since her passive, Survivalist, had reached Iron rank she had needed less and less sleep and she didn't remember the last time she had slept past sunrise.
“Meow,” complained Boreal.
“Oh don't be a sook,” Zalia said, stretching luxuriantly.
Boreal uncurled, stretching in a way that seemed intended to mock her own. Zalia gave her a light push, throwing her off balance for only a second before Boreal dipped down, getting ready to pounce.
“Oh no please, not this early,” Zalia complained.
Boreal, of course, didn't listen. She jumped at her and Zalia caught her mid jump, rolling over as she laughed. She held Boreal up over herself, the feline giving a small sound of outrage as she struggled to get free.
“No attacking first thing in the morning,” Zalia scolded, the smile on her face contradictory to her faked tone.
Boreal meowed at her.
“You have to promise!” Zalia insisted.
There was silence for a moment, Boreal and Zalia holding eye contact. Soon enough, she felt a sensation of acceptance sent from Boreal.
“Wonderful,” Zalia said, putting down Boreal and standing up.
She looked around, wondering if her team had left some sort of message but found nothing. It felt weird to wake up after they had, though it was good to know it was actually possible to sleep longer despite not needing to.
“I guess I woke up so suddenly because my body realised I had slept much longer than needed,” Zalia theorised.
She walked out of the tent, Boreal quickly following, and looked around. It didn't seem like there was any kind of emergency going on so she accepted her theory and set out to find her team. Her first thought was that they might be out hunting, then she realised they probably wouldn't have bothered and made her way towards the outdoor pavilion kitchen area.
She found them there, eating at a table near to a long line of soldiers waiting to be served. She sat down on the bench next to Zen and looked over at them. Each of them looked at her with various expressions of amusement.
“What?” she asked.
“Good morning,” Indis said.
“Good to see you up and about,” Zen added.
“I will wake you up early every single day,” she threatened.
“Please no,” Zen said apologetically, actually looking scared.
The others all returned to their meals, variations of the same thing, the food looking actually quite nice for what was mass produced army food.
“Magic chef’s,” Zalia murmured, deep in thought.
“What?” Zen asked.
“Do armies have standardised classes?” Zalia asked, ignoring Zen.
“I believe so, yes. Though only those who are permanent members will have such classes and even of those only the ones who join from a young age but yes, they do try,” Indis said.
“How do people usually get their classes, is it just up to the person?” Zalia asked.
She hadn’t really thought about many things like that but now she had been in this world for a while she had come to accept that it was now her home and she may as well learn about it.
“Varies by person. Obviously any given person must accept a class before it is applied and the requirements for the class must be met but how and when they go about receiving one is entirely up to them. Or it is pressured on them by their parents,” Indis explained, adding the last bit with a little bit of resentment in her tone.
“What is considered a normal age?” Zalia asked.
“I only got mine when I was seventeen, which is considered late,” Zen said.
“Eleven for me,” Ember added.
“That is quite early for most,” Indis said, a little surprise in her voice.
“Had no choice about it really,” Ember said.
Her tone suggested that was the end of the conversation in this direction.
Zalia knew a little about Ember's past, some tragedy had happened early in her life and she still bore the trauma to this day. Ember hadn’t told her exactly what had happened but she had inferred it had to do with her parents.
“So, no thefts last night?” Zalia asked, changing topics.
“None that we heard of or the Huntmaster knows of so, probably not,” Zen said.
“Well, that’s good news. Shall we explain what happened to them or wait another night?” she asked.
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
“Might as well tell him now, the other general is scheduled to arrive sometime tomorrow if I remember correctly so no point dallying,” Indis said.
They had all sensed the distress broaching the topic of Ember’s past had caused but the quick change of subject did seem to relieve some of the tenseness from her posture.
“Right, let’s go then” Zalia said, standing up.
Each of them looked at her, Zen’s face even holding an expression of disbelief.
“We haven't even finished eating yet!” he exclaimed.
“Oh, right. Forgot about that,” Zalia said, sitting back down again.
Zalia’s enthusiasm to be on the move immediately having been dampened, the others were able to finish their meal in peace before they moved to find the Huntmaster. In the time it had taken them to eat, the line of soldiers had been served and for the first time she had seen, the kitchen area was at peace. She assumed the chaos would soon begin again when cleanup needed to be done but for now they passed easily through the space.
“Huntmaster!” Zalia called as they approached.
“Ah, shades, how may I help you today?” he asked.
“We’re here to help you actually,” Indis started, trying to be diplomatic.
“We took care of the problem by ritual sacrifice of an animal to the ethereal beings that haunt these woods,” Zalia said.
Both the Huntmaster and Indis stared at Zalia for a moment, the former in amusement and the latter in disbelief.
“What she means to say,” Indis said, turning back to the Huntmaster, “is that we have indeed dealt with the problem.”
She went on to explain how they had hunted the ethereal beings to where they lived and how they had dealt with the creatures. The Huntmaster looked sceptical.
“Are you sure this will work to keep them from coming here again?” he asked dubiously.
“Not entirely,” Zalia said, “for my own reasons I would like to resolve the situation peacefully with the creatures and they may yet harass your enemies. This way might work out better for the both of you.”
“I do like the idea of them dealing with what we have had to for these past weeks,” he admitted.
“Exactly, if they do come back however we will help you find another resolution to the problem. We know where to find them now, assuming they have not relocated, but would prefer to avoid eradicating them,” Indis added.
“Alright, I’ll accept it for now. I will let General Faian know of your possible success. Thank you for your assistance, I have a feeling we might be on course to recruit some proper trackers after this if possible,” he said.
“It is a very useful skill, though my opinion on that might be a little biased,” Zalia said.
"Your apparent success is evidence enough to put at least a little truth to your opinion," the Huntmaster replied.
They left the man there, leaving him to some of the only time he has to relax. As they moved away from the kitchen area, Eztari once more appeared from the shadows.
"Well done," he said.
Zen nearly jumped out of his own boots, obviously not having seen the man appear.
"Have you been following us?" Zalia asked, narrowing her eyes at the man.
"I've kept an eye out," Eztari replied.
"That isn't a no," Zalia pointed out.
Zalia really did not like how sneaky this man was. Despite how good her vision was she just was not able to see him. An idea occurred to her. She used her heat vision and saw that while his form appeared less apparent than those of her allies but was still visible. She smiled, tucking away the little piece of knowledge in the back of her mind.
"But it isn't a yes either," he countered.
"Do you bring a message or are you just here to congratulate us?" Indis asked.
Sometimes Zalia thought the woman was too good at keeping conversations on track.
"Just to congratulate you," he replied.
"Got anything else for us to do? we still have the rest of today and no plans," Indis asked.
"No, things are quite well taken care of now," Eztari said.
"Right, nice talking with you. I'm going to go walk around in the forest now," Zalia said.
She looked at her team and saw no annoyance or recrimination at the idea and so she left. They knew her well enough to know she would be alright. For some reason, the beautiful pond was stuck in her mind and she wanted to go there again.
She left the camp, travelling through the forest with Boreal at her side, arriving at the little pond in the woods once more. She looked around the clearing, trying to figure out why she couldn't stop thinking about this place. She vaguely remembered a dream that had taken place here the night before.
Walking around the pond, she looked into it but saw nothing in the somewhat murky water. She was about to turn away to inspect the rest of the area when the beam of light from the sun coming over the trees hit the water. Where the sun landed, a few thin tendrils of a plant rose to the surface, each unfurling to reveal a small pink flower on a green pad on the water's surface. She looked suspiciously at the plant, thinking it similar to a water lily but didn't approach just yet. While it had the possibility of being usable with her magic, it also had the possibility of being some kind of plant monster. She slowly walked backwards, looking around to find a long stick, before approaching once more.
She poked it. The plant didn't seem to react at all to the touch and she withdrew for a moment.
"It's light sensitive, why not heat sensitive too?" She thought.
Approaching once more, she used heat manipulation to warm up the stick until it appeared the same as her skin temperature in her heat vision. She once again approached the plant and poked it. Nothing happened.
She felt a little foolish for her unnecessary caution but she would have felt more so if she had died to some plant monster and so didn't feel too bad about it. She threw her stick away and walked up to it, poking the flower with her hand and jumping back just in case. Still nothing happened so she began to approach once more before realising she was being a little stupid. With a sigh, she used preparation to harvest one of the floating flower buds. Paired with stasis, she was able to immediately store the plant in the abilities spatial storage. She walked away from the pond and pulled it out once more.
Her ability had harvested the stem and petals separately, the stem being of Iron rank and the petals of Bronze rank. She used Flora identification on both plants and found the petal to be poisonous and helpful while the stem was helpful and nutritious. Trusting her ability, she made the decision to immediately eat a piece of stem. It had a sweet almost fruit-like flavour and she savoured the delicious, crunchy stem. Looking back down at the rest of the stem it now had a little more information available,
Water Lily Stem (Potent)(Nutritious)(Helpful) - Iron rank - extremely hydrating and slightly nutritious.
She realised that her ability was spot on with the description. She could feel something like a cool wave passing through her body as it's magic was absorbed. She looked at the petals next and made the smart decision not to eat it,
Water Lily Petal (Poisonous)(Helpful) - Bronze rank - can be used in a ritual to provide an element of Water.
"That could be really useful," Zalia thought.
She had a herb to give her the elements of fire, water and air so far, amongst others. She just needed to find earth now to be all powerful.
She quietly chuckled at the thought and stored the herb, looking at the other lily's in the pond. She didn't want to destroy the entire ecosystem of lily's but definitely wanted more of it.
"I'll have to plant some when I get back to Endelbyrn," she thought.
With that thought, she began carefully harvesting more.