Aida worked hard the rest of the day, sneaking bites of skewers that Natalie cooked up and Dev brought to her between patients. Dev had quietly observed her work, gently offering to supplement her mana when she ran low, but she firmly (and graciously) declined his offer, not wanting to be entangled in potential misunderstandings while she was still in an emotionally vulnerable state. I can’t afford to be naive again.
Finally, Myk came to collect Dev for their initial scouting trip. “Don’t overexert yourself,” Dev said quietly as he stood up. “You won’t be able to help the others if you get knocked out.”
“I know. Thanks for the reminder.” Aida waved her two classmates off as she took another gulp of tea, long since cooled. Natalie’s skewers weren’t amazing, but she had added something spicy to the skewers, making it easier for her to withstand the cold in the caves. She tossed her newly cleaned skewer stick into the fire she was next to, fueling its heat as she turned to the next person.
~ * ~ * ~ * ~
Aida was only able to treat five of the more “moderately” injured warriors before dinner time, due to her need to recover more mana between every patient. Despite her flagging stamina, the Peak dwellers didn’t seem to mind. Nonetheless, Aida couldn’t stop the guilt from interrupting what was supposed to be a celebratory mood as everyone made their way into the larger cavern below the cave that had become what Aida considered the small clinic.
Even though the remaining fifteen patients she hadn’t been able to treat were still mobile, able to climb down to the main cavern with some assistance (the Peak dwellers had an interesting system where healthy dwellers would create something like a human ladder, where one able-bodied dweller would cling to either side of the main handholds, and reach one free hand towards the main travel route to serve as support for the injured), she still berated herself internally for not being able to heal more. It takes fourteen people to help brace one person down the side of the mountain, and they all have to help fifteen people down…that’s so much inefficiency.
If she had everyone else’s mana pool size, she could at least have halved the remainder of the injured…or even if I had accepted Dev’s help, I could have at least healed five more…
She couldn’t help but wonder if she was allowing her pride to get in the way of her productivity. I thought it would be better to avoid any emotional entanglements, but that cuts into the cost of being efficient. Why didn’t she just suck it up, accept Dev’s offer of mana help, and heal more people?
“Your turn, girlie,” Dave said after the last patient had finally made her way down to the target ledge. Shaking her head to clear out her obtrusive thoughts, Aida turned her back on the terrifying drop, defaulting to her mana senses to scale down the rocky side of the mountain like a ladder.
“Maglica kids really are something else, huh?” Aida heard one of the warriors waiting on the sides of the path say to her.
“Don’t distract her,” another one said. “Even if she’s taking to it well doesn’t mean it’s second-nature for her yet.”
Becoming increasingly more self-conscious as the dwellers commented on her climbing technique, Aida felt her hands start sweating, despite being in the cold, dry air.
“Don’t rush,” a kind dweller said to her as she made it to the penultimate human guardrail. “Ignore what they’re all saying. Everyone’s just excited to have new blood in the village, so to speak.”
Aida laughed awkwardly as she clung to where she was, alternately wiping her hands on her makeshift fur skirt. “I can imagine.”
The dweller opened his mouth to say something else, but then thought better of it and nodded at Aida encouragingly, letting her proceed the final lengths down the mountain in peace.
It was a relief to finally crowd into the cavern, where Aida was able to hide among the socializing bodies. She noticed the villagers imperceptibly parted for her, despite not seeming to notice her approach. They really value their personal space.
Aida scooted along the edges of the cavern to where Natalie was sitting, Pritchard and Abedi on the other side of her. She smiled tiredly as Aida sat down next to her, her flaming hair looking somewhat wilted.
“You look tired. Had a productive day?”
“Pretty good. Your skewers were really helpful for keeping my fire pool up.”
“Thanks! It’s nice being appreciated,” Natalie said, throwing a dark look at Pritchard.
“I was just making some suggestions on how you could make the meat taste better,” Pritchard said defensively. “I didn’t say it was bad.”
“You basically did,” Natalie countered acerbically. “Why would you suggest alternative flavorings if you didn’t like the original flavor?”
Pritchard opened his mouth to argue back, but aborted his words when he saw Ruth and the rest of their classmates return. “Yo! How did your jobs go?”
“We scouted the area with Minnie, and the area looked safe enough to start setting up some growth. We laid out the defensive perimeter, and Shon and Bella started growing some trees. We can probably start chopping the wood tomorrow and rebuilding the infrastructure the day after,” Ruth said cheerfully. Now that she was back home and actively involved in repairing her home village, she was much more relaxed despite having seen the state of disrepair.
“Abedi and I helped clear out some of the caves of debris,” Pritchard offered up quickly. “We were also wondering if it would be a worthwhile use of mana to reshape the mountain a bit, maybe make it so that it’s easier to defend against monsters and travel among the villagers, but we didn’t want to propose any ideas without getting your input first…”
Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.
“If you have the mana for it,” Ruth replied brightly. She quickly fetched some more furs from one of the piles along the edge of the wall, laying them down on the ground and offering seats to the classmates who weren’t already sitting. “But let’s talk about it later tonight. Loded Peak village is about to do something that I think you’ll all like a lot.”
As Class 2 glanced inquisitively at Ruth, she smirked, holding a finger to her lips. “I’m going to go help lead it, but just watch for now.”
As Ruth slipped away, weaving between the villagers with familiar ease, Shon turned back towards Natalie. “Hey, do you happen to have any more of your skewers? They’re really good.”
With a triumphant smile on her face, along with a small scowl from Pritchard, Natalie headed towards a cooking fire where she had set an iron grate that dangled above a fire, in order to keep the contents on it warm.
“You look like you handled your mana well,” Dev said, sliding next to Aida.
“It could have been worse,” Aida allowed. “What was it like? Going down the mountain.”
Dev gave a half smile. “It was a hike for sure. It’s a good thing we had Tera and Corey; they helped smooth out the path for us.”
A drumbeat reverberated through the cavern, interrupting Aida’s question about the location they went to, capturing all of their attentions.
The villagers had assembled themselves in a line, and had begun doing some sort of war dance, their voices coming together to meld with the drumbeat. Instead of stomping on the hard cavern floor, the villagers were light on their feet, spinning in unison as their hands formed intricate shapes in the air.
Aida was fascinated, somehow able to interpret the stories the villagers were performing in their routine. The only instrumentals really came from the two drums, which Aida saw was in the center of the circle the villagers were surrounding, next to the central fire. The villagers had arranged themselves in several rings, somehow managing to fit everybody in the dance, with children at the edges carrying their own little drums as they added in lighter, somehow melodic chaos to the voices singing in unison, underpinned by the steady rhythm from the large drums.
The moves the villagers themselves performed seemed to be less of an expression of individual artistry, and more about the villagers all coming together to tell a cohesive story. They raised their arms above their heads as they spun, giving the impression of dancing under bright sunlight, joy on all their faces, before they clasped their neighbors’ hands and did some sort of chain skip, their leaps emulating the tidy footwork they had as they navigated their environment’s treacherous paths. This must be how they found unity, constructing their village through the power of community.
Aida felt her heart swell, touched for some reason by the performance. They live in such an unforgiving environment, and they came together to survive in such an unlikely place.
The circle opened near them, all the villagers looking expectantly at Class 2. Ruth was in the middle of the circle, holding a pair of solid and thick drumsticks. Without missing a beat, she passed off her drumsticks to Elder Cadmum with a flourish, who smiled and beat the drum with a vigor that shouldn’t have been possible for her age.
Ruth danced her way towards Class 2, in that narrow, decisive way that the rest of the Peak dwellers did that fit in the narrow box that didn’t disrupt any neighbors, each skip hitting the beat of the two Elders drumming in the middle. Aida began panicking, assuming the worst. She’s going to make us dance!
Natalie whooped, leaping off her seat to join Ruth, giving her body over to the reverberations, and looking very much like a dancing flame. Ruth laughed, gesturing at the rest of Class 2 to join them. Shon laughed as well, pulling Myk with him, and the two of them gave in to the beats, looking unexpectedly at ease with contorting their bodies. Bella and Tera joined after, and even Pritchard followed.
Soon, Aida was the only one left sitting, torn between wanting to join but terrified of looking like a fool. Surely they’ll let me sit out? Maybe I can say I’m too tired?
Ruth reached out, offering her hand to Aida as she danced in place, keeping the beat. All the other villagers’ eyes turned to Aida, urging her to accept.
Her heart fluttering in her throat like a hummingbird’s wings, Aida numbly reached towards Ruth, before shaking her head and hands vigorously, pulling back and gesturing for them to go on without her. I’m going to trip over my feet and knock everyone over!
Ruth gave her a stern, almost warning look, before reaching forward with both hands and hauling Aida towards the rest of Class 2, her classmates all whooping and clapping as they surrounded her.
Leading the rest of her classmates, Ruth danced back towards the center of the circle, while the path to being a wallflower closed behind them as the villagers took their places again; Aida was helplessly pressed forward by the bodies. Natalie took charge of Aida, grabbing her wrists and jerking them in the air so that she was fistpumping against her will.
When they got to the center, all Aida could feel and hear was the drums. With all of the dancing bodies around her, she felt trapped and claustrophobic…but also, interestingly enough, the thrumming of the drums seemed to reinvigorate her, with her heartbeat syncing to the drumbeats.
Her eye fell on Pritchard, who was looking incredibly silly as he flung his head about with his eyes closed, his normally slicked-back hair flapping in every direction with not a care in the world. Her self-consciousness faded as the more primal part of her pushed to the forefront, buoyed by the raw energy in the cavern. If he doesn’t care what he looks like, why do you care?
Finally abandoning all sense of self control, Aida gave herself over to the insistent drumming, throwing her head back and feeling herself laugh, her voice drowned out by the drums as she threw her limbs haphazardly about, trying to follow the beat without whacking anybody in the process.
Despite her objectively poor dance skills, this was fun - there were no mirrors around, no one was even watching her, as immersed as they were in their own movements - so she finally felt free enough to do whatever she wanted to do, without caring for decorum or worrying about hiding who she really was. Her random body movements were an expression of herself: her stress, anxiety, confusion, anger, even joy, as she partook in a group activity that nobody judged her for. She could just let go and move, and not worry about thinking.
She was dimly aware of a ping.
You have unlocked a new skill to learn:
1. Mana Siphon (Lv1) - Costs 150 RP to learn.
Total RP: 127
Mana Siphon: Drain a small amount of mana from another living being.