Chapter Eight

When the carriage rolled to a stop at the end of the first day Harmony had a growing headache that added to her grumbly annoyance. Apparently, everyone in Adric’s family was so good to him, that he found the lack of contact disturbing. Probing for information she could use was like hunting garden gnomes at night, difficulty annoying, verging on impossible. She had the whole trip to work on her adorably dim pet, easing his burdens and noticing issues he missed.

A fast mount could get you to the capitol in a day, though that was reserved for emergency trips. Two days was average. A caravan this slow would take three. Stepping out to the roadside campsite she could still see the hints of death in the landscape, indicating they weren’t too far from Hazeldown and its dungeon. Black poisonous weeds and scrubby white trees looking like bones growing out of the earth mixed in with more neutral shrubbage.

“Smooth trip, my lady?” The driver asked.

“Please call me Harmony.” She told the white-haired old man as he twirled the blue fabric around his neck.

“Kweh!” Cried the giant yellow bird at the front of the carriage.

“That would be improper, Lady White. “

“Fine, Hoop.” When she’d heard that the blue faction had been contracted for the trip she hadn’t imagined her old driver from her wild ride to the House of the Dead would be leading the way. He knew, of course, everyone did. A reporter had connected the dots for that day in the weeks following the chaos at the Colosseum.

The blue faction had even used it as advertising and cut such a deal for this trip that Harmony was sure they’d market themselves as her official transport service. The truth was she needed every scrap of iron coin for this trip. She doubted there would be such discounts in Naewauld, even the cost of the dungeon would have been unfeasible without that membership gifted by Hemlock.

“Cgrraaack.” Hyacinth yawned from his pet cart full of pillows. One of the things that had taken so long was that he insisted on bringing all the ones from his bed with him. Bowe’s cart was more sparse with a rug covering the wooden floor. Rather than sleeping the whole journey like the shadow toad, the coatl rode with his head over the edge catching the breeze from the ride with his tongue lolling out of his dragon-like mouth. With baggage, supplies, and familiars the whole wagon train totaled six.

The toad projected his hunger through their [Familiar Bond].

“Hoop, any restrictions against my familiar hunting up a meal?”

“The traffic usually scares wildlife a good distance away.” He eyed the giant armored toad. “Just make sure he stays away from farms or any domesticated treats. No one wants to see their livestock eaten.”

Prince Adric, who’d exited the carriage after her, was already helping Bowe with a bag of his specialty food. When she’d planned on raising the coatl, food hadn’t gone into the equation. An undead pet wouldn’t need to eat? Adric’s accidental revival proved that was a misplaced assumption, not that he seemed dead in any way, the man ate plenty.

She approached the prince. “I’m going to take my partner for a walk if you’re good.”

Adric waved her off. “Simply call through our bond if you run into any trouble. The main road is pretty safe.”

Was that a pet thing or a part of his new class? He could probably spin around freeze and point in her direction.

Letting the toad lead the way Harmony followed him off the camp grounds. “There’s something I want to try.” The necromancer explained to her familiar.

Signs of animals were light. Hyacinth led her to a pile of high-sulfur goblin scat, even half dry, the stench was offensive enough for her to use [Dust] to clear away some of the smell. She’d done the same trick when she had to clean out one of the outhouses at the social garden. The goblin pests would also clear out most other wildlife.

“Is that what you want to hunt?”

"Gleck." Disgust flared. He wanted to hunt through the shadows. It was still best if he visited a particular shadow before leaping through. But since he was growing with her he’d been able to jump to shadows he could see in the distance. Now was a time to practice.

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“Fine but can you take a copy of me with you? I want to see how that works.” It felt wrong to say copy, as when she used [Stride] it was her.

[Stride Before the Fall], the chill of the evening air coated her whole body, now there were two, and one stood naked without travel clothes. Night, snapped into place over her nudity. Of course, objects wouldn’t be duplicated. The last few times she’d used the skills Night had already been on her body and paired as it was there was no issue with that outfit. More and more it was looking like she’d need to always wear that outfit to get full use of her skills.

“Come on.” Armored up, she put a hand on the toad and the surrealness settled in as part of her left and part stayed.

If she chose to stay with Hyacinth, would her travel clothes be left in a pile in the middle of the woods? It wasn’t like she had that many outfits; bones if that happens. Camp in the distance she started to jog.

Harmony flickered from one shadow to the next, glad to see distance wasn’t affecting her new skill. [Recall] let her get that better glimpse of the world they stepped through before they were forced out again.

Joy sparked through their bond at this new location. Trees scratched with claw marks and singed bark and lower tree limbs. “A fire tiger? What do you have against cats?”

Of course, a fire tiger was to a cat what a dire wolf was to a dog.

“Tasty.” Hyacinth croaked out. “Bait?” He inquired.

The pressure of [Stride Before the Fall] was slight. She was also nearly back to camp. “Sure.”

The toad slipped away into the coming dark of the evening so quickly Harmony was amazed that such a large creature could do that. When he was smaller it made more sense.

She marched into the fire tiger’s territory allowing her steps to noisily crack branches. The territorial beast would soon be watching from whatever hidden vantage point it could find to evaluate the new intruder.

Sharpening her nail with [Manipulate Dead] she cut a small line on her hand, enough to palm some blood before using [Mend] to seal the wound back up. A synergized [Dust] and [Manipulate Dead] spread the scent on the wind making it seem she was bleeding heavily.

It wasn’t a strong man walking the woods alone, but a tiny woman who smelled like death and magic, not steel and combat. The feeling of death her necromancer class provided often caused the misinformed reaction that she was sick or ill. Even Healers couldn’t tell the nuance between the two sometimes. On the streets or at the market she’d be approached a few times. With the scent of blood, she doubted the fire tiger could tell as well.

Hyacinth wanted bait, for him, she’d be the wounded animal to draw the predator out. The pressure to choose where she wanted to be mounted. If she wanted to return to camp rather than stick around she needed to speed this up. Rather than avoid the convenient root in front of her, she hooked her foot into it and stumbled forward, letting her armor take the impact at the knee. With a fresh burst, she blew off the last bit of blood she’d gathered earlier.

[Cold Touch] was almost repulsed by the flash of heat behind her and she held the skill at ready. A boom of impact with a loud “Yawrl.” of a screaming cat came first.

In the dark she saw the Hyachth tumble with the fire tiger, rolling onto it like a boulder as his strong jaw crushed down repeatedly on the beast's leg. It flared with fire, lighting the dark, while her familiar ignored the heat in its bloodlust and hunger.

Harmony pushed [Could Touch] out a distance. While actually touching the target was where the full effect was, she’d played with how far and strong she could project the skill. The flames flickered and retreated briefly. Her familiar had this taken care of.

Three more orange flickers of light burst forth in the distance approaching as quickly as four legs could take them. “Goblin scat.” Harmony cursed.

At the camp, the other Harmony approached Bates. “Please take care of my clothes.”

She made her choice. Sure, it would be safer to let Hyanich handle this, but she could never leave her partner alone when there might be trouble.

The fire tiger had enough damage that she empowered [Manipulate Dead] with [Mana Rotation] for a strengthened burst to aggravate the wounds it had already received.

Hyacinth had half the beast in his gullet, even though it was nearly his size. Scratches and burns were lightly traced on his body. Yet the damn thing fought on. Harmony approached, [Cold Touch] At her fingertips. Through the flames, she poked the beast and sent the chill of death to extinguish what false hope it had left.

Crack! A sickening crunch ended its life. Then the toad slurped the whole thing into him, growing in size from stuffing itself.

“More are coming.”

Hyacinth returned an eager desire to fight.

“I doubt you can fit three more into yourself, never mind the task of tangling with three you didn’t sucker-punch mid-leap. I don’t doubt that you’d win, but I’m not delaying our trip to patch you up at camp after.”

[Familiar Bond] picked up guilt. Guilt his predatory desires rose over his logic. Her lack of control bled into him as he carried her burden. We'll fix this, we have to.

“We all slip, but let’s go now.”

Three fire tigers, now close enough to show their angry flaming forms roared ahead, as she placed her hand on his back. They leaped into the shadows to head back to camp.