It was just another ordinary day in their trek. The sun above them, a melovai behind them, tree branches beneath their feet. Maintaining a pace that would keep them comfortably ahead of their pursuer without tiring them out. Nothing amiss, right up until a few minutes beforehand.
The first to twitch was Gloe, his head swiveling back and forth as if he were trying to localize a distant sound. “Something’s wrong” he said uncertainly. “Lot of sudden panic up ahead. A lot.” He’d discovered his more-developed ability could now detect even the slight emotions of animals.
They stopped and Oresus scurried to the top of the tallest tree in the area. He was only up there for a minute. “He’s r-right. Dust, fallen trees and clamor coming from the n-north. Whatever it is, it’s g-getting closer.”
“Well we khannot go backh bekhause of the melovai. We know now that it khan takhe down trees to get at us, and it may be even more dangerous if it has a khlear head. We will have to detour around the disturbance. Which heading would akkhomplish that most readily Oresus?”
“I…” he seemed uneasy. “I’m not sure we c-can. It stretches out as f-far as I can see, both east and west.”
“The melovai is speeding up. I think it can tell we’ve stopped. We don’t have much time.”
Her claws twitching Emokha weighed their options. “The last time we chanced the unknown it ended qhuite badly for us. Let us flee south east, at a high sustainable speed. Perhaps we khan evade the melovai and edge around whatever this is. I hate to lose the time, but we will never arrive if we perish here.”
“Works for me.” Oresus just nodded.
They reversed, south-east by east, diverting around the melovai, just barely sneaking past before it could cut across the angle of their flight. Then they shifted and took off south-east, the melovai in close pursuit. When they had a moment to breathe Oresus took another look from a treetop perch and reported the disturbance had been left far behind. They were faster than whatever it was.
Night brought an end to one of their problems, but only one. “The melovai has turned away for sure. They don’t seem to hunt during the night at all. I wonder why?”
Oresus dropped down next to them. “Whatever that is, it isn’t s-stopping.”
“How long would you estimate before it reaches our khurrent position?”
“H-hard to say. Three to f-five hours?”
“Ah. And it will be diffikhult to recheck once the light fades khompletely.”
“We still have a partial moon. If we couldn’t see it an hour out I’d be shocked. That would let ya’ll get at least a couple hours of sleep.”
“I do not likhe this.” She threw her hands up. “Yet none of our choices are especially enticing.”
“Sleep. I’ll try to find something we can eat without straying too far.”
“Thankh you.” The two laid themselves in the forks of branches and fell asleep with the ease of weariness and practice. Gloe went on the hunt, careful to stay within earshot of their resting place. That limited his options, but he made the best of it. A few simple traps yielded him two braces of shadow moles. Not much, but enough for a lean breakfast, especially when combined with the nearby edible roots he was able to dig out. They’d have to find lunch on the move. All they had left otherwise were preserved foodstuffs for emergency rations, and not a ton of those. Losing his pack to the fire had hurt.
Not being able to stop and smoke meat had hurt too. The deep wyld was just as dangerous as he remembered it, despite all the leveling up he’d done. Nothing for it though. As far as they could tell they were closer to their destination than anywhere else except demon territory. The only way out was through.
Every fifteen minutes or so he would shoot up a tree and take a careful look around. Visibility was low but his night vision was excellent, so he wasn’t too concerned. As long as he could see five miles or so they’d have time to make a break for it.
The other two needed rest badly. Cumulative strain was starting to tell. He had to be careful to always keep that in mind. It was getting a bit hard for him to remember what it felt like to be weary or low-energy. Even hanging on the wall energy and drive had been there if he needed to draw on them. He could be having the worst day of his life but he came into it feeling mentally and emotionally ready to go, despite the often less than optimal shape his body was in.
For a long time it had been very strange to go into every situation ready and willing to accept the challenge. Now it was starting to feel like a norm, which made it ever more important that he remember this wasn’t the case for others. Emokha was determined to make it home, and Oresus would back her until he dropped. It was perfectly possible they would push themselves beyond their limits, perhaps even likely given the circumstances.
So it was up to him to make certain it didn’t come to that. It was a good thing he’d gotten a whole lot smarter or it would have been really difficult. Aches and pains didn’t drain him in the same way anymore, so it was quite difficult to gauge things. He had to rely on meticulous observation, establishment of baselines and analysis of divergences. He certainly couldn’t rely on either of his subjects being honest with him about how tired or sore they were.
At the moment they were more or less okay, but stress was building up. It had been a long time since they’d slept safe and comfortable. The long night watches while he was incapacitated hadn’t helped much either. Put the strain of constant vigilance and physical hardship on top and their conditions were slowly but surely degrading. Still within tolerances, but it probably wouldn’t take many more emergencies to make things substantially worse. At least their starting positions were high enough that even now they probably could handle regular movement through the area without complications.
Speaking of complications, he checked the horizon again. Huh. That was odd. The disturbance was still out of sight but he could hear something odd. Something that somehow sounded vaguely familiar, and yet…different.
Zip squirrels. More than he’d ever seen in one place before. More than he’d ever seen period. They were fleeing en masse. He’d never seen anything quite like it.
They must have been running from the disturbance given the direction they were coming from, but that didn’t make sense. Zip squirrels were crazy fast. He’d only ever caught them with traps. Their natural predators utilized camouflage and stealth to hunt them, not speed. Even now he didn’t think he could run one down. Not only were they fast but extremely maneuverable. They should be able to evade almost anything as long as they detected it in time. So what could cause them to evacuate like this?
He rescanned the horizon, looking for any clues, any sign of what was going on. No sign of a disturbance to the north yet, but he had to assume it was getting closer, still out of sight. Nothing to the west. The south looked clear aside from the streaks left by the still fleeing zip squirrels. To the east…more streaks?
Hopping from tree to tree he triangulated, making certain he wasn’t misreading the angles given the distance. He couldn’t be sure at this distance, but those sure looked similar to the zip squirrels he made visual confirmation on. Whatever they were, they were fleeing southwest. Which meant…shit.
Should he wake them up? Whatever was coming, it wasn’t here yet. They needed all the sleep they could get, and if he woke them up they wouldn’t be able to go back to sleep. It was fine, as long as…hmm.
Nothing to the south except the still evacuating zip squirrels. What about the west though? Nothing visible, which given conditions didn’t mean that much. Perhaps if he had more altitude. He leapt into the air. Nothing.
Well, as long as the west stayed clear…he would just have to keep a close eye on everything. He stayed up in tree, keeping his full focus on surveying his surroundings with every sense he had. He had a real bad feeling about this, but honestly, when hadn’t that been the case? When had been the last time he’d actually been optimistic about the future, near or otherwise?
Too long. North…something was moving. He picked out a mauler ocelot. Ah. Creatures that were slower than zip squirrels but still relatively fast. Nothing big yet. Perhaps the larger monsters weren’t threatened by whatever was back there? The east was clear at least. West? Clear.
Another forty minutes or so elapsed, then he saw a second wave fleeing southwest from the east as well. Still well ahead of whatever was causing this though. They had time.
Ten minutes later one of his observation leaps allowed him to catch a blur of motion from the west. He jumped again, and a third time. No mistake. There was a wash of movement through the treetops. Too far away to make out the cause, but his guess was that it was zip squirrels.
Once again he triangulated. Their course was southeast. Well shit. Again.
Dropping down he began gently shaking the other two awake. “I’m sorry, but you’ll have to get up. We have a situation.”
“Khrisis?” Emokha bolted upright in alarm. Oresus was groggier, but he came up with a spear in hand.
“Whatever is happening isn’t just coming from the north. The monsters are fleeing before it. Not just from the north but from the east and west too. We have time, but we need to make a smart decision and move.”
“Very well. I will survey. Oresus, rouse yourself gently.” She flew straight up. Seconds later Gloe could feel her activating her ability.
Yawning and stretching Oresus tried to get the kinks out. “Is there w-water?”
Help support creative writers by finding and reading their stories on the original site.
“Stream, to the east. Close.”
“I’ll w-wash up. Be right b-back.” He half dropped out of the tree but caught himself nimbly on the way down. Even half-asleep he was still more agile than a regular person.
Faster too. He made it back before Emokha. Cleaner, colder and more alert. “The w-wind doesn’t smell right. But I can’t pick out w-why.”
“I can’t tell either. It’s faint.”
“Wind is from the n-northeast.” Oresus shivered. It was only partly from the cold water.
“We are in a perilous situation” Emokha announced from above. “Whatever is moving through the forest it is some sort of truly massive horde. I khannot estimate size or numbers, but although the main body is to the north there are forward elements to the east and west. The south remains khlear for now, but if either element drifts even slightly we khould be khut off. Despite that I do not believe we have a better option than moving south and trying to hookh around one of the arms encirkhling us.” She clicked disgustedly. “Although in the dark I khannot even ascertain how far south they stretch.”
“Okay. Let’s g-go.”
They ran. The moonlight lit their path and they forsook the safety of the forest canopy for the speed they could maintain on the ground. Predators stirred at their passing, but only a few actually elected to chase them. Perhaps something in the air was too foreboding, or maybe they just got lucky.
For a time. Once again the zip squirrels acted as a portent. Fleeing north this time. Wordlessly Emokha zoomed upward in response. She was not aloft long.
“We have been khut off. The arms have khonverged. We must now breakh through, but I admit I am khonflikhted khoncerning the direkhtion. The enemy are weakhest to the south, but that would leave us in front of them. The area to the north they have already passed through, so it would be safer, but there are the most foes in that direkhtion.”
“H-have you actually seen them?”
“No. This is all khonjekhture based on the size of their disturbances.” She tapped her fingers on her arm carapace. “Perhaps we should fly out. I have seen no foes in the air, and I khan kharry both of you if the distance is not too great. If we khould get behind them to the west it is possible they would khontinue on and leave us in peace.”
“If it w-won’t tire you out too much. We could run until the last second and j-jump, like before.”
“Truth be told I am uncertain. There are too many unknowns, and my faith in my own judgement has wavered slightly after our enkhounter with that strange monster. However we must choose something.”
“Hey, the worst that can happen is we all die in horrible agony, right?” Such was the gravity of the situation and the depth of their weariness that this barely earned him a glare.
They charged to the west, Emokha aloft and guiding them directly towards the thinnest portion of the enemy lines. Presuming they were enemies and had a line. Soon it was time. Gloe and Oresus leapt forward with all their strength, using different dead trees as launching pads. As their vectors converged Emokha swooped in from behind and above, snatching their upraised hands and blasting forward with all her might. They rocketed forward.
It was bugs. All of the same species it looked like, but of various sizes and sub-types. They all had vicious looking claws and segmented armor that covered most of their bodies. And they were everywhere.
In the trees clawing open nests. On the ground searching for prey. Even digging their way into burrows and dens. No wonder the zip squirrels had fled. There was very little room to run. Any possible escape route would just take you into more of these things. Flying had been the right call, even if it was going to drain Emokha.
“D-dodge!”
Not knowing the source of the threat Emokha rapidly dropped altitude while spinning around, trying to get a visual. The phlegmatic projectiles shot overhead as they corkscrewed down, but they just kept coming. There were a dozen bugs firing from the treetops. Their disproportionately oversized heads would have been comical if the barrage hadn’t been so relentless.
“I khannot…we must drop!” Burdened as she was Emokha couldn’t keep making them miss.
“Geronimo!” Gloe let go, pulling his pry bars loose as he fell. Luckily it wasn’t that far now. He landed on a tree branch, kicking the bug next to him loose and charging those nearby. At the same time he tried to keep track of his compatriots. They were still descending…he winced.
Dozens of bugs launched themselves into the air at the pair. Oresus had to drop so Emokha could draw her swords and cut herself a way out. After missing the first two tries Oresus caught a branch, then, finding it covered in bugs, continued down to the forest floor. Gloe dropped down to join him. A minute later Emokha was there and they fell into a time-test triangle defense. The bugs rushed forward.
“I khannot fly us out. There are too many.”
They weren’t that hard to kill. Their armor was reasonably strong and their claws sharp, but they had no shroud. You couldn’t flick simple blows at their vitals but all three were strong enough to punch armor if they put some force behind their attacks. Corpses began piling up.
“M-maybe we can cut our way out on foot?”
There seemed to be no end to them. Scurrying under the dead, dropping from the trees, leaping in from the ground. Three or four died for each one that managed a single relatively ineffectual blow, but they just kept coming.
“They seem to be swarming. It is possible they are releasing pheromones that are attrakhting more of their khin?”
Some were bigger. The power differential was such that they weren’t actually much more of a threat, but they did serve as a distraction. The smallest could scuttle in for a suicide stab concealed by their bulk. It didn’t seem a deliberate tactic, just something that happened as every bug in sight tried to swarm over them.
“We khannot stay here. If we tire we will die.”
“They’re all over us t-though. We’ll be cut to r-ribbons if we expose ourselves trying to run!”
There was no end to them. They seemed drawn by the fight. Before they could be seen everywhere you looked. Now they were so thick it was hard to see anything that wasn’t them.
“Do we have anything else? Special spears? Oil?”
“N-no.” Oresus drooped audibly. “I n-never had a chance to grow more after I lost them all at the huge monster. I j-just have this one.” Despite his despondency he never wavered in battering and skewering his foes.
The corpses were piling up, but they went over, under and through. Single-minded. Almost mindlessly aggressive. The trio began having to kick corpses away so they would have room to fight.
“It is what it is. You two are going to tire soon. We need to move now, while you still have the energy.”
“Agreed. But how? Our encirkhlement is khomplete.”
“Speed. Emokha if you fly below treetop level the canopy will give you some cover. Fly evasive and get out. Find us somewhere to go. I’ll make a path and Oresus will keep anything from lodging on my back.”
“That won’t w-work…”
“…but we do not have time to devise something more intrikhate. Already I tire.”
“M-me too.”
“Hey, worse case we die horribly. It’s been great. Now go Emokha!”
“Dubious. An honor then. See you shortly.” Her swords slashed upward, clearing a space she proceeded to leap into. The bugs were caught off-guard, overly focused on the point of combat. Many still attacked her, but an erratic course and flashing blades allowed her to move somewhat unhindered.
“At l-least she might make it” Oresus said gratefully. “G-good idea.”
“We still have to go buddy. If she doesn’t see us moving she’s going to come back for us. Ready?”
His spear never stopped moving, even as he took a long breath. “R-ready.”
Gloe almost dropped his pry bars, but finally decided to take the time and accept the incoming damage in order to actually shove them in his improvised harness. There was a tiny chance they might survive this. Then he seized the largest corpse he could find. He held it belly towards him, head to the left, so the strongest armor was facing away. He imbued the corpse and started to imbue the ground, then caught himself.
“I’ll imbue a path for myself. Make your own just to the left or right of me, okay? I’ll make mine narrow.”
“R-right.”
Close call. He ignored the claws slashing at his shroud. “Here we go, for real this time!” He charged.
With all his might and strength. The corpse served as a battering ram, knocking foes aside. Pushing through them was simple, if not easy.
Surviving was the hard part. Claws reached out for him as he passed. Bugs continued to drop on him from above. Oresus knocked loose any that actually tried to lodge on him but couldn’t do anything more to protect him. The swarm was right on their tail. Most of Oresus’ focus was on keeping them from overrunning them both.
Even ramming and fighting they were faster than their foes, but the latter’s ubiquitous presence more or less made this irrelevant. Everyone they outran was replaced by another who they approached at the same moment. They weren’t moving so fast that they could outpace a lunge or swipe. Every second they were taking a hit or two. Their shroud wouldn’t hold.
Still they kept going. Survival wasn’t really the objective. And they had enough experience to know you had to keep fighting until the very end. You never knew what could happen after all.
Gloe’s eyes darted to the left and he shook his head slightly, then smiled sadly. Oh well. Death wasn’t too bad after all. He altered course slightly. As he drew near he subtly changed his pace. That felt just about right.
There was a cracking noise, loud enough to cut through even the ominous scuttling and rustling of the horde. A massive forest giant up ahead began to topple, right in their path. He dropped the corpse. “We’re jumping!” Gloe seized Oresus and deed followed word. The toppling tree missed them by inches, crushing bugs by the dozen.
The duo’s course took them just barely over the fallen trunk, directly into the cloud of debris and dust it kicked up. Oresus didn’t need any additional instruction. They ran, Gloe in the lead.
Like magic large trees began to fall in their path. Each time the bugs swarmed over them another cloud of dust gave them an escape route. For a little while.
Again Gloe altered course, but this time their path came to an end. “Oh n-no!” Oresus rushed forward, his spear scattering the enemies swarming around his friend. “Emokha!”
She smiled weakly, her blades parrying even as she leaned on the adjacent tree trunk for support. “I thought I was strong enough to makhe a path. I was wrong. They khut through me while I chopped down the trees.”
Falling in on her left side and trying to keep the enemies back Oresus slumped back against the tree too. “I’m out of ki t-too.” The blood soaking his clothes demonstrated this was not a recent development.
“Where is Zekhow? Did he makhe it out?” Her swords were beginning to slow. The cause could easily be traced to the blood leaking from the holes and joints of her carapace.
“H-he was right with me.” Oresus smashed his head back against the trunk to try to clear it, then looked around again.
Gloe fell out of the tree right in front of them, the impact of the bug he was riding knocking the swarmers aside for a split second. There was no time for words. Wrapping an arm around each of their waists he ran.
The bugs were all over them. Despite their confusion, wounds and weariness his compatriots tried to keep them off. It was too much. Held like this they couldn’t move very well. Not that they had much fight left in them anyway.
All too soon he heard Emokha’s sabers clang as they bounced on the ground. She had nothing left. Oresus was no longer making sounds either. The bugs were latching on all three unopposed. All Gloe could do was spin to shake them off, but that didn’t keep them from getting their claws in first.
His shroud was long gone as well, the blanket he’d been given as a makeshift coat soaked through and through with his blood. He was barely staying conscious. He was using just enough regeneration to stay ambulatory and able to carry his friends, everything else was devoted to energy, trying to keep moving at maximum speed.
There was too much draw and not enough supply. The bugs had no strong emotions and seemed to feel very little pain. His friends were passed-out, so although there was pain coming from them in droves there was very little emotion. This wasn’t maximum sustainable speed, this was top speed. He couldn’t keep it up indefinitely. Not carrying a load. Not injured. Not regenerating. Not when his movement itself was exacerbating his injuries. Not without…
There! Panic, in the distance. A lot of it. Enough to keep him going. His body was still falling apart, but that was fine. As long as he could keep running. That was all that mattered. Just keep running. Just keep running. He focused his entire being on this one simple task. Hold on to his friends, and run.
There was the ground, and his footing, and his grip, and the bugs he had to shake loose. That was all. Ground, footing, grip, bugs. Ground, footing, grip, bugs. Ground, footing grip, bugs. Ground, footing, grip…where were the bugs?
Open country lay in front of him. He’d broken through. Somehow he’d broken through. They were still behind him, but there were none in front. He didn’t look back. He didn’t pause. He just kept running. That was all that mattered.