Ayuen

Tinkersong, The Grasping Isle

[https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/926707024362885130/1045841100604186624/Ayuen-WayX.png]“I yearn for the day that I’m able to walk into a village in a normal fashion again." Ayuen said with a grumbling tone. She was so tired of skulking around like this. Why couldn't she get a bloody warm bath and a nice bed for a night? "Without disingenuously slithering around the outskirts. Or being flung out of every establishment. Or having Trïeste throwing bloody bombs around the place.” She said, putting some frustrated emphasis on the last sentence. Rove rolled his eyes, wiping the sweat off his brow.

“I agree with you on that one. Let’s wait for Trïeste here. At least her plan seemed to work at least.”

It took a good fifteen minutes for Trïeste to finally show up from the undergrowth, panting heavily and with her clothes partly ripped. Her right eye was blue and drops of half-dried blood covered the left side of her face. Whatever she did to escape, it didn’t seem to have gone as planned.

“Damn it all. I better find those two…” Ayuen heard her muttering just before Trïeste spotted them. She gave them a guilt-ridden smile and a little wave. “Hey Ayuen, hey Rove. I… I might have used more than one. But in my defence, I had to.” The last sentence she blurted out fast as if that would make it all better.

“You had to, huh? You nearly blew our ears off too. What in Terraz the Destroyer’s name would more of that stuff do?” Walking to Trïeste, the Herhor smacked the girl up the side of her head. With a soft yelp, she clutched her help and looked away with a guilty look in her eyes. Before she could say anything though, Rove continued.

“Know what? I don’t even want to know. We need to get some distance between us and Tinkersong as soon as possible. You can tell me what happened while we walk. In detail.”

Trïeste flinched at the Herhor’s reprimand, but Ayuen agreed with Rove’s judgement. This had been way too flashy.

Ayuen sighed as she plucked an errant twig out of her wings. Standing up, she began following the road from the cover of the hills. On this side of the village, the Clasp was now reduced to a decently sized stream instead of a full river.

After a short moment of hesitation, both Trïeste and Rove followed as well. Once this was all over, a warm meal, a hot bath, and a soft bed would be high on her priority list.

As they got closer to the Clasp’s origin, the valley’s width gradually decreased until it was just about forty meters across. The road to the mine area had split off from the river fairly early, so they were forced to trudge along the shore of the river instead on their way to the origin. To make matters worse, the landscape in the valley itself was rapidly becoming more mountainous, forcing them to climb short. At one point though, they were climbing more than they were walking.

Well, at least Rove and Trïeste climb. With no small amount of satisfaction, Ayuen just flew from ledge to ledge. Under other circumstances, she would gloat, but making herself useful was a better use of her time. Being able to fly higher up meant she could already fasten ropes high up, making it substantially less dangerous and difficult for both Rove and Trïeste to clamber up to her level. With her help, her two companions had no issue following her, the three of them making good time.

As far as interruptions went, there weren’t many, although Ayuen swore she heard a shout and a wolf’s howl below in the direction of Tinkersong. Other than that, there was only the local wildlife that kept them company, the group being startled by a random deer more than once.

Higher and higher they climbed until Tinkersong was but a speck under them. The ground was almost entirely made of rock now, with only small groups of trees stubbornly carving a home for themselves in whatever small patches of dirt their roots could grab a hold off. The Clasp was trickling beside them, snaking its way over the rocks and falling in small waterfalls. There was no room for boats at this stage, the once proud river was reduced to a trickle. The three of them stayed mostly silent as the late morning changed into the afternoon, and then slowly turned into evening. The seemingly endless climbing and flying were taking their toll, tiredness creeping into their bones like a stealthy predator. The sun closed in on the horizon behind them when Ayuen finally saw their goal, flying up for the last time.

“Yes! Outstanding!” She called out enthusiastically, waving to her companions below while she let the rope down. “I can see the Clasp’s origin. It’s only a short way ahead.”

An affirmative grunt came from down below, soon followed by the head of Rove, red like a tomato from the effort. Trïeste emerged shortly after.

“Bloody… finally...” The Vysari said, panting and trying to catch her breath. “We’ve been going at this forever on this fuckin’ slope.”

“Heh.” Lips curled up in an amused smile, Rove walked over to Trïeste, giving her a couple of patronizing taps on her shoulder. “Having a little bit of trouble climbing this little hill?”

Trïeste tried to send Rove a death glare but was hindered by the fact that she was still heaving.

“Oh shut up, you overtrained sword ape.” Came her retort, making Rove laugh as he rested his hands on his knees.

“Oef, my feelings. Got me there.” Sniggering, he turned to Ayuen and nodded his head towards the girl, raising an eyebrow. She raised a playful eyebrow in response, shrugging while shaking her head.

“Don’t look at me, Rove. You started it.”

The Herhor shrugged and moved his arms in a circle to loosen up the muscles a bit, yawning while he did so. The exercise seemed to invigorate him, this was the best mood she’d seen him in for days.

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“Well, I guess both ladies are not too pleased with my behaviour.”

“I just don’t appreciate taking your side, Rove.” Ayuen quipped.

“Oh, come on Ayuen. Even after these two weeks? Didn’t we like… Create a bond or something?”

“The only bond I’d appreciate building is with you on a leash, with me holding the other end.”

“... Didn’t know you were into that kind of thing.”

Huffing, her cheeks reddened a fair bit as she shot a death glare towards Rove.

“Trïeste appears to be correct. I think you might just be a sword ape. Now sit down while I unpack my supplies.”

Rove barked a short merry laugh, sticking out his tongue to both her and Trïeste. With a big leap, lifted by her wings, Ayuen moved adjacent to Trïeste and helped her up. The eyes of the two women met and they both shrugged and smiled, after which they both burst out in laughter.

At the sound, Rove turned around, shooting them a questioning glance, to which both she and Trïeste just motioned for him to continue walking. The laughter felt refreshing, and Ayuen felt lighter and calmer. After a telling glance between her and the other female in their little band, she flew up and followed Rove, with Trïeste following suit at a calmer pace.

A couple of minutes later they stood next to the Clasp’s Spring. Their goal. And it was… Not quite what she expected. Rather anticlimactic. The Clasp bubbled up from the mountain from a big crevice in the mountain’s side, flowing over the rock down into the valley in a small trickle.

And that was it. Only a good hundred meters down would the surrounding glaciers add their water to the fledgling river, making it worthy of its name. But up here, there was only the small creek. No giant cogs in sight. Or anything else resembling a cog. Not what she had expected. But then again, she had no idea what she would’ve expected instead of this.

“Okay, we’ve arrived at our destination. Somehow, somewhere, I counted on there being more than a crevice.”

“What? Were you hoping on a giant burning cog to light your way?” Rove huffed.

“Maybe. I don’t know. I know it’s rather silly of me.” Ayuen sighed, rubbing the back of her head. “Guess we’ll have to succeed the hard way. Time to examine every square meter up here.”

She looked around. They were standing on a small plateau of sorts, not even halfway up the mountain that they had been climbing for a good number of hours. As far as she could see, there wasn’t anything of note except rubble and rock nearby. Yet, something was bothering her. Her senses picked up something, but she couldn’t put her finger on it. Like a whisper that was just too soft to make out.

“But where to start?” She murmured, at a loss. “I don’t see anything interesting here.”

“Mountains can hide a great many things,” Rove spoke up, hopping agilely on a massive rock to look behind it. “We’ll start searching until the light has left us.”

She joined Rove in the search, flying above them to spot anything out of the ordinary. Trïeste joined a few minutes later, having regained some of her energy. For a good hour, they searched, with Ayuen coordinating the search from the air. Two times, she thought they’d hit the bullseye when they found a cavern, only for it to turn out to be a shallow hollow instead, the floor covered with dirt and dust. No cogs, but plenty of grime. The sun slowly sank into the horizon behind her, covering the area in orange light and colouring the clouds above red as blood. Her enthusiasm had just begun to wane when she saw something that reignited her spirit. A small forest towards their east was cradled snuggly between two outcrops of the mountain, the tree’s leaves glittering in the orange light of the setting sun. If it wasn’t for the glittering, she might’ve missed it completely, even though it was a mere two hundred meters removed from them. Something was allowing those trees to take root here. And if you wanted to hide something, a forest would be appropriate.

“I spotted something! Forest to our east! Let’s check it out!” Without waiting for an answer, she flew towards her discovery, landing near the forest’s edge. Tapping her foot impatiently, she waited for her companions to catch up before heading into the forest. Strength in numbers and all of that.

“Make haste, make haste. We don’t have that much light left!” The Pyrn said with an annoyed tone of voice.

“You know, we could also stay the night in one of those caves we found earlier and try again tomorrow when we have light.” Rove put a couple of steps in the forest, peering through the trees with squinted eyes. “I can barely see anything.”

Ayuen shook her head violently, sending her red hair everywhere. She was so close to her goal and she wouldn’t condone any further delays.

“We can set a torch aflame and inspect the forest for a while longer still. We have some time before the sun leaves us for today.”

Her two companions wordlessly exchanged their doubts by way of raised brows and questioning looks but didn’t object further. Their plan set, they headed into the woods. However, as soon as they entered, Trïeste stopped again beside a tree, a weirded-out look on her face.

“Hold up. There’s somethin’ off with these trees. Take a look at the colour of their trunk and leaves.”

The colour of the trunk? Was that relevant? Sighing impatiently, Ayuen took a closer look anyway. Hold up a minute. Even in the light of the setting sun, it was clear something wasn’t completely right. The trunk and especially the leaves had an unnatural grey tinge about them. All the trees, shrubs and forests they’d come across on their climb didn’t have this particular colour. The leaves were covered with a fine layer of dust, gleaming softly in the setting sun. Not bright enough to stand out during the day, but just enough for the leaves to glow with that orange hue in the evening sun.

“This is indeed quite peculiar.” She remarked. “Have you seen any plants like this, Trïeste?” Maybe she would know more, being the alchemist. But Trïeste bit her lip, plucking one of the leaves and shaking her head.

“Can’t say I do. Never seen anything quite like this. This almost seems artificial. This would explain why I haven’t come across this in my studies of the local flora. Never heard of a tree that has the same colour as the rock near which it grows.” The girl was positively fascinated. At least until Rove snapped her out of it, rocking her shoulder and shoving her to go on.

“It does explain why it went unnoticed by me until the sun began setting,” Ayuen muttered while she followed Rove. “Smartly camouflaged with the same colours as the rock surrounding it. I need to remember that one for my stories for sure.”

“That’s all fine and dandy, but didn’t you say we were on a time limit?” Rove spoke out while he crushed some leaves under his boot with a big stomp, clearly trying to send a message. He was right though. They’d better hurry up. Ayuen nodded and tapped the tree one last time.

And then she froze.

“Wait. I hear something.”

She could hear a soft metallic cling behind her, intensifying as she listened more closely. A minute or so later, the two others turned around, able to hear it.

“What is that?” Trïeste asked, tilting her head. Ayuen listened more closely, then paled. That’s what her ears had picked up earlier. The faintest sound of metal on rock. Boots on rock. Clanking armour.

“It’s him.” She mouthed, turning to warn Trïeste and Rove to hide. And that was the moment their luck left them once again. A warning was shouted from down the slope, followed by the clanging intensifying as a group of four armed men moved into view, pointing at them with fiery torches in one hand and gleaming weapons in the other. They had no weapons but daggers and sticks. If they got caught, they were done for. Without a second more to lose, Ayuen rushed past Rove into the forest, speaking a single word as adrenaline began seizing her blood.

“Run.”

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