Chapter 10 Survival Experience in the Wilds.
I’m the wind! I’m free! I see it all I hear it all!
I hold all of the world’s secrets in my palm!
The answer to every question resides in my heart!
Yet I’ll be nothing but a puff when a mortal takes a breath.
Mayan, the ocean fairy.
“Here, this is a good place, chief.”
At my request, Lezere found us a clearing to camp in. I’ve never camped in the wilds before, much less during winter, and now they’re all looking at me for orders. I can’t show incompetency… If I stubbornly try to act like I know how to do things when I don’t know a thing about it… I’ll end up showing a lot more incompetency than if I simply admit it… I should be honest…
“I’ll be straight, I’ve never camped outside during winter. In fact, I’ve never camped outside at all. If any of you has experience on the matter please feel free to pitch in with suggestions.” There, see? Not that hard to admit it…
“We need to construct the tents.” “We need fire first.” “We need to hunt some meat to chew on.” Sina, Kolag, and Lezere say at the same time.
“Ok, Lezere, can you take care of hunting?” She’s the one who suggested it and carries a bow around, I assume she knows how to hunt.
She snarls. “It’s getting dark chief, we should break for camp earlier tomorrow.” She takes the bow off her shoulders and disappears into the ticket.
“Noted. Kolag, see what you can do about starting a fire, Purson and Janara will help you. Once you three got the fire going, help me and Sina with the tents. Let’s get to work!”
We’ve brought two tents with us from the tower, bought them from the temple of Kilako for a single gem each. Constructing them is much harder than I expected it to be. The gnome doesn’t do anything other than explain what I should do.
I thought this would be physical work that I could solve with my ‘Minor Telekinesis’, ‘Repulse’, ‘Weight Reduction’, or ‘Weight Addition’ spells. However, driving in the stakes requires precision I don’t possess with my magic yet. “Ritsa.”
“You should hammer the peg lightly, with a hammer, not your magic. The ground is hard and cold, driving the peg too hard will cause damage we cannot fix without a forgemaster, or at least a blacksmith. You’re going to damage our equipment at this rate.” Sina’s nasal frustration speeches don’t make me feel any better.
“Go sit near the fire ladies, we don’t want our equipment ruined do we? We’ll take it from here.” Purson’s smug expression makes me feel a lot worse.
I shrug and join Janara near the fire. They already have a pot filled with snow on the fire.
I watch as Purson and Kolag take over constructing the tents. Sina tries to give them instructions and orders but they outright ignore her presence. I warm my hands near the fire, feeling utterly useless. After a short time, the first tent is already standing.
“We can’t be good at everything.” Janara tries to console me as she observes the pot.
“I know, I just hate feeling useless. You all know what to do out here in the winter, I never even cooked my own meal.”
“Are you a princess?” She asks, raising the corner of her mouth.
I raise an eyebrow. “What makes you think that?”
“You seem used to ordering people around.”
Yeah, I had to govern my father’s land for over two years… I wouldn’t be taken into slavery if I was a princess… or at least I’d be ransomed… “I wish. No, my father is Viscount zor Vodit.”
“You are a noble then, I wasn’t far off. Viscount’s daughter or a princess is all the same to us you know.” She shrugs, a hint of bitterness in her voice.
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“I grew up dreaming about your kind of life. Surrounded by servants who made sure you have everything you ever wanted. Anything you wanted to eat, a personal carriage to drive you wherever you wanted to go. All that…" She sits down on a smooth stone and stretches. "I used to be a maid for a baroness, I know how nobles live.”
“You make it sound like gold and roses. I had a witch of a stepmother who hated me with passion. She made half of the servants hate me and ruin my day. That’s before I had to take over the fief when my father left for his war, and I had to deal with a bunch of knights and two barons who thought I couldn’t handle it and…”
“Bu hu the servants and knights ruined your day. I had to work every day to make sure her ladyship’s day is perfect! Then go home to Purson and my little siblings, cook our meals wash our clothes. Have you ever thought about what your servants are going through? What their life is like? Actually don’t answer that! Have you ever even done your own laundry work?”
“I washed my robe at the tower, yeah.”
She snorts. “I’m not talking about that. I’m talking about a pile of dirty clothes that needs washing. Your fingers get all shriveled after that, and don’t even get me started about what it does to your back.”
“What’s your point?”
“Nobles live in a world of their own. I’m sure you had your problems in that world, but you’re not in that world anymore. Welcome to our world, if you want something done you do it yourself.” There's a mocking smile on her face. She obviously enjoys my predicament to a degree.
“Then teach me.”
She stares at me for a long quiet moment, her green eyes are wide as a pair of saucers.
“You want to learn? You’re not just saying that? You aren’t going to tell me how it’s all beneath you?”
My fingers glide on the faint scars the shackles left on my wrists. Five years ago? Maybe... Being a slave for so long took that out of me... “I won’t always have you guys taking care of everything I need, and I’ll feel better if I know I won’t have to worry about how to sew my clothes or cook my own meal.”
“Ok, tomorrow though, not now. And I want you to pay me for those lessons!”
“Sure, how much?”
She chuckles. "You're not so bad for a princess... one gem per lesson? You're going to enjoy my cooking lessons..."
Lezere enters the camp with three rabbits tied to her belt. She drops them near the fire and stretches cracking her neck. “I saw some goblins out there chief.” She cuts our conversation short.
“Think they’ll find us?”
She starts skinning the rabbits on a piece of flat stone. “Maybe. This fire is letting out too much smoke, but goblins don’t see above the treetops.”
As much as I want to help her with the rabbit, I’ve never skinned an animal before, nor cooked. “We’ll set up a watch during the night, pairs?”
“Sounds good chief.”
“Lezere, can you teach me how to skin a rabbit?” hunting them should be easy for me, I can just use the ‘Pull’ spell. In fact, I should go hunting with Lezere tomorrow, I’ll make her job easier.
“Here chief, watch.” She hands me a rabbit and a dagger as she picks the third rabbit and starts over from the beginning while slowing down her work pace. She points out how to skin and butcher the rabbit in her hand. “First chop off the legs, stick your fang in the joints.”
I try my best to copy her with the second rabbit. The next step is to cut off the pelt from the back of the animal, then peel the skin off the same way she does.
She takes a break from her rabbit, holds my wrist, and pulls out a bunch of disgusting inner organs. “You don’t want those to break and spoil your meat chief. They’re filled with burning water, and not the kind that gives you a good buzz.”
I nod and keep peeling off the skin. It’s harder than I expect, but I’d like to think I got most of it right. I pull the skin over the rabbit's head as she does, and only manage to chop its head off after the third try.
When I’m done with my rabbit, Lezere had already finished the other two. “It’s a good first try chief, you skin our rabbits tomorrow.” She lets out an amused snarl. She’s in her element here, I can tell she’s used to surviving in the wilds.
“How many times did you have to camp out like this Lezere?”
“As long as I remember, chief, my tribe moved around. We had a bigger camp with a wall to go back to, but I had to skin rabbits there too. Skinning goats and sheep is harder.”
“Mind taking over command while we’re in the wilds?”
She lets out a weird whiny hiss. “You’re the chief, I follow, I help. I can’t be chief.”
That doesn’t get me anywhere… “Fine, I’d at least like your input on matters of survival in the wilds. What about goblins? Fought them before?”
“I have.”
“Then an input on that would be appreciated.”
She nods and lifts the rabbit meat toward the boiling water. "Let me take over the cooking, Lezere. Trust me, it's going to be delicious!" Janara picks up the rabbits.
Metallic hand hold both their wrists. “If you don’t mind honored huntress, milady. I want to be the one who cooks this dish.” Kolag exclaims in his echoing voice. I notice that the second tent is already standing.
"I'm not a lady, just Janara." She blushes and sits down. Lezere shrugs and hands him the rabbits. I watch astonished at how he cuts the meat into small cubes and seasons the water using a small box with spices. Only Tukado knows where he got that thing. Probably bought from the temple of Kilako for a single gem… What a waste of a gem….
Everyone takes a seat around the fire, huddling against the cold. Purson hugs Janara's thin shoulders close to him. Lezere moves her nail between her sharp teeth, seemingly chewing on the tip of her finger. And Sina huddles alone in a large coat that's double her size, a deep frown etched on her flushed face.
At this rate, our morale will die out before we even start… I need to do something… provide some sort of entertainment… or at least a conversation… “I know we’ve been working together for the past three months, but we don’t really know each other that well.” I open up, heads rise toward me, even Kolag points his metallic visor in my direction.
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I continue, feeling their burning gaze on me. “Ahem… maybe it’s a little late for that, but if we’re going to work together maybe we should know a little more about each other.”
“What’s the point?” Sina asks sharply. “Maybe I don’t want you to know about me at all?”
“Does it hurt to know? If one of us dies, the others will remember who they were…” I explain. Lezere nods her head in agreement but the rest of the group seems even more depressed.
No. stupid! I’m trying to lift our morale, not kill it! Quick! Say something else! “And even more so if we all make it. We’ll need each other to survive, and knowing about each other can only benefit us more. I’m not asking you to share your biggest darkest secrets, just whatever you’re comfortable sharing.”
Janara averts her eyes a deep blush covering her face, she gets out from under Purson’s arm who seems disappointed.
What is she blushing about? A secret? None of my business, focus! “So I’ll go first.” I take a deep breath. This is awkward. “My name is Marisha Nuk Vodit, I hail from Nurio. My father was a viscount and when he went to war I had to manage the fief in his absence. When the war reached Nurio I was taken away along with the rest of my family… I…” How did it get there? “I really hope to find them after I manage to leave the Sapphire tower.” I hate the way my voice almost breaks. Why did I think it was a good idea?
“Though magic might end up as the only way to leave the tower…” I shake my head. Talk about nicer things! “I like chess if any of you play. I like to read, and I like mythical bard tales… mainly about the great fire sorceress Effrat.”
Silence falls on the camp when I finish. It seems like none of them wants to introduce themselves in the same manner. What was I thinking?
“Graa!” Lezere growls and stands up. “I am Lezere!” She declares proudly. “Daughter of Balgrum daughter of sheep! I hail from the Black Fang Tribe! I am wolf! I hunt prey! The bigger and stronger the better!” She sits down with a huff, as if the short introduction had taken a toll on her.
“Thank you Lezere of the Black Fang.” I say with a smile and look at the others.
“What does daughter of sheep mean?” Janara tilts her head, “your mother’s name is sheep?”
“My mother was a sheep. What you humans call a slave. She has no name, a human bitch who had been tamed by captivity,” Lezere says with disgust in her voice. “I will not be tamed by shackles!” She declares. “Bound or not I will hunt! I am wolf!”
“That’s horrible!” Janara exclaims.
“A sheep has no choice but to follow its guardian wolf or become prey,” Lezere says. “But every orc chooses whether they are sheep or wolf. Or dogs… most humans are dogs. Only a few become wolves…” She gives Kolag an appreciative glance.
“Oh yeah? And what about gnomes?” Sina asks with a sneer.
“Kittens.”
Purson and Janara snicker, I find myself smiling as well. Sina’s face turns beet red with anger. “I will have you know, we ‘kittens’ are smarter than all orc kind combined! I am the winner of the white steam award! Give me some metal scrap and some tools and I’ll be more useful than a thousand orcs!”
Lezere cackles “Pha! A thousand orcs will make you sheep, one orc will make you sheep. I would make you my sheep if you weren’t a part of the pack!”
“You can’t…”
“Friends!” Kolag’s voice echoes from behind his helmet. “We are to introduce ourselves, not insult one another.”
“Insults are a part of the introduction.” Purson snickers.
Sina looks at the two, her chest puffed with anger. “You buffoonish boorish morons! I’ll have you know that…”
“Purson and Kolag had constructed the tents when you just stood around giving them instructions!” Janara cut her off sharply. “We are all slaves in fancy clothes, get off your damned dragon and act like a normal person for once!”
Sina flushes red and shrinks on her seat.
“Friends. We mustn’t fight!” Kolag echoes. “We don’t want goblins to hear us. I will go next. My name is Kolag Zor Befar, I served as an acolyte of Noxi and a squire to Knight Eluaz who was a dear friend of my father. I have been anointed as a knight in the middle of the war five years ago. I’ve participated in many battles and had been taken as a prisoner. Both my father and Knight Eluaz had died, no one was there to pay the ransom. So I ended up here. I aim to become an honorable paladin to the Guardian of Light, I shall uphold justice and honor wherever I see it violated! But my deeds have not attracted my god’s attention yet. A question to you all my friends, which god do you worship?”
I don’t really worship a god…
“Tukado, the great patron of knowledge of course,” Sina replies in a matter-of-fact tone.
“The bone chieftess,” Lezere says and gets confused looks from everyone. “Ah… you humans call her Nuriss Goddess of War.” That gets a series of nods, it's hard to imagine someone like Lezere worshiping any other god.
“Koshavi…” Janara murmurs the goddess’ of love’s name, her face flushes with heat.
“I am a follower of Lokamesh,” Purson says. “When I earn my freedom again I’ll settle on a farm with Janara. We’ll have a family, a wheat field, some chicken, and maybe a cow?” He laughs mirthlessly. “It’s just a silly dream, I don’t even know where to begin or how to get our freedom… Janara and I come from Winemaker village. We used to work for baroness Nuk Talissa. Janara was her handmaiden, and I was the stable hand. We grew up together and we’ll stay together until death do us part!” He declares while looking lovingly at his girlfriend.
She’s giving him the same look that incites envy in my heart. I want what they have…
“What about you milady?” Kolag ask me.
I raise an eyebrow in his direction. “Me? I’ve already introduced myself.”
“Apologies, I asked which god do you worship?”
“I don’t worship a god. The gods never helped me when I needed, I don’t have a reason to follow them.”
“What about the afterlife?” Kolag asks me with a worried echo.
I shrug. “I don’t believe in the afterlife, when I die it’s over.”
He nods silently, the air is filled with a mouthwatering aroma that tells us all; the stew is ready.
I enjoy a meal that’s even better than the one we’ve had every day in the tower. That box of spices is worth the gem, it’s worth more than a single gem!
“I wish we had some vegetables, maybe some mushrooms, garlic, olive oil…” Kolag laments as he takes a break from drinking the soup through a straw.
"Ha! I'll pick some mushrooms for you tomorrow, metal man." Lezere wipes her mouth and dip her wooden bowl in the pot.
“This is really good! How does a nobleman learn how to cook?” I ask him as I hand him my wooden bowl for a refill. I expected Janara or Lezere to know how to cook, maybe even Purson, but not Kolag.
“Thank you milady. A nobleman can have hobbies, this is something I enjoy doing.”
And I enjoy reading and playing chess… I know how to play the harp but I hate it… regardless it’s all useless out here in the wilds. I keep eating the heavenly soup, it’s warm, and really nice in the current weather. Stop it, I’m not useless, and when it’ll come to fighting the goblins I’ll be very useful… in the meantime I’ll learn and absorb from them as much as I can…
I should think about how to split the watch in a way that will hold…
Janara and Purson can’t be paired or they’ll spend the night kissing each other rather than watching.
Purson can’t be paired with Sina, they’ll spend the night fighting…
Pairing Purson with me would look bad, and pairing Purson with Kolag or Lezere is a waste of both their talents…
Let’s approach it from a different angle. Kolag, Purson, and Lezere will be good at watching out for threats at night, they’re clearly experienced. Janara is a maybe, and Sina just puts on an air of experience but her knowledge is mostly theoretical in nature.
I need one experienced watcher to be paired with an inexperienced one.
Sina can only be paired with me and maybe Kolag, the others dislike her, and I don’t have the experience of watching threats from the dark… Sina will go with Kolag. Janara will go with Lezere, and I’ll go with Purson… Or I can go with Lezere and let Janara and Purson pair together… The problem is, pairing Purson and Janara will result in more kissing than watching…
Our lives depend on it, I can’t let how things look to put our lives at risk… Yet, Janara will most likely protest…
“We’ll split to three watches, each watch will be manned by two of us. Janara and Purson will take the first watch. Janara, I don’t want to pair Purson with someone else, but if goblins kill me in my sleep just because you two wanted to kiss I swear I’ll come back as a ghost and haunt you for the rest of your life!”
She nods, heat covering her face.
“Lezere and I will take the second watch, Kolag and Sina will take the third. Does it sound good to everyone?”
There are no arguments, and soon enough I find myself sharing the tent with Lezere and Sina. The half-orc falls asleep in an instant, and her snores are loud enough to wake the dead.
*
“Wake up! Goblins!” Janara’s screams wake me up from my slumber.
Lezere is already out of the tent, I let Sina exit before I do.
There are wild cackles and screams. The only source of light is the embers in the middle, I can’t spot the goblins, I have no idea how Janara or Purson saw them in this darkness. I don’t see them anywhere, only Lezere with her axe in hand and Kolag’s towering armor that glints in the feint light from the embers.
Kolag swings his sword around, and I hear a shrill scream.
“Fotyr.”
“Revissor.” Sina says. A bright white ball above the camp sheds light on the surrounding. Enough for me to see the child-like creatures in front of me. There are four of them, the ugliest things I’ve ever seen. One of them open a cackling mouth full of sharp teeth, his red bloodshot eyes reflect the light as he winces from the sudden radiance.
A painful groan escapes my lips when one of the crude spears pierces my ankle. The other one jump toward me with a spear aimed at my lower abdomen. “Latsa!”
Any spell can be altered with general patterns that fit into their weave. Amplifying patterns amplify the strength of a spell. In the case of 'Minor Telekinesis' it'll increase the weight I can lift from 20 to 30 kilograms.
“Reviss kas!” Sina calls out at my side, a short arc of electricity sparks from her hand toward the goblins aiming their spears at her. The arc catches one of them and the goblin spasms in place with Sina keeping her hands aimed at him.
Lezere hacks with her axe and bites the air toward the goblins who avoid her as if they’ve seen a monster.
Purson and Janara are surrounded by ten or more goblins. They’re standing back to back. Purson swings his sword around, parrying blows and chopping spearheads while Janara sprays acid at the goblins. They scream and jump back from the sizzling liquid. I watch as Purson misses a spear and Janara gets the back of her ankle stabbed.
Kolag is making his way toward the two, swinging around and kicking the goblins while ignoring their weapons. Spears break on his armored legs like toothpicks.
I focus on the two goblins I lift with my mind, they fumble in the air holding onto their spears. One of these spears is covered with blood, my blood. I weave my amplified mana patterns, “ritsa!”
I shift my attention to the last goblin who steps back from his electrocuted convulsing friend. "Latsa."
He struggles, desperately trying to push the black spear tip away. But the hold of my ‘Minor Telekinesis’ is stronger. The spear tips slowly enters the goblin’s torso and he slides down on the shaft. I let the spell go and he falls to the ground, the spear breaking under him with a loud crack.
More goblins show up around Purson and Janara. Kolag had joined them by now, he’s covering Janara’s side swinging his sword around. Janara turns to help Purson spraying her acid to keep the goblins away from him.
Cackles and screams come from the other side, a group of five more goblins charges into our camp. Lezere snarls at them with her axe lowered at her side.
“Revisor ak!” Sina scream in a panic and the world turns white.
*~*~*
A slice of lore: The word Latsa means: lift, defy, resist, oppose, object, rebel.
It also stands for the idea of defying the law, while respecting its spirit or maintaining honor. Just like how lifting an object rejects gravity, but the gravity is still there.
Imari’s Minor telekinesis.
Names: Imari’s minor telekinesis, minor telekinesis, invisible hand.
Element: gravity
Sub element: exception
Level: 0
Words: latsa
Translation: defy/lift
Quicken: X
Patterns: 1
Gestures: X
Offering: X
Range: 5 meters
Target: objects or creatures within range below a collective weight of 20kilograms.
Duration: channeled spell.
Effect: Allows the caster to move objects or creatures within range with their mind slowly. Objects weighing above 20 kilograms can only be lifted via amplifying patterns, or will result in an increased strained mana cost to the caster.
Cost: 1 gravity gem per object to cast, 1 gravity gem per five seconds to maintain. The cost is multiplied by extra weight or objects, aka the simplest alteration patterns for this spell.
Bound cost: X
Altered cost: 1 gem per five seconds for each alteration pattern.
Alteration patterns:
Amplify: For 1 additional alteration pattern, a cantrip may have an amplified power to it. A slight increase to its limit or damage at the rate of x1.5 of the original spell. To increase the power further, the caster needs to add as twice as many patterns.
For example: A Minor Telekinesis spell with a single amplifying pattern, will be capable of carrying 30 kg instead of 20 kg. If the caster wishes to amplify it further, he or she would have to add 2 more patterns for more power to the total of 3 alteration patterns, and the spell will be able to carry 40kg. If the caster wants to amplify it further again, they'd have to add 4 more patterns to the total of 7, increasing the weight to 50kg. An 8 patterns (1 for 'Minor Telekinesis cast + 7 for x3 amplify) 'Minor Telekinesis' cantrip can move 50 kilogram slowly.
Something like that would currently take all of Marisha's focus.
*~*~*
Power level: 1st stage apprentice.
Mana pools status:
Neck-Bridge: formed.
Fire: open.
Gravity: formed.
Cantrip known:
Fire: Nuriss’ flame.
Gravity: Lumina’s Kinetic Burst. Tukado’s Repulse. Tukado’s Lesser Shield. Imari’s Minor Telekinesis. Leo’s Pull. Leo’s Grounding. Alino’s Light Body. Alino’s Heavy Body.
Focus capability: 8 patterns
Social status: A neophyte evoker.
Wealth: 100 magical gems. 47 diamonds.
Items: 3 healing potions.
Companions:
Kolag of house Befar
Lezere of the black fang tribe
Janara of Winemaker village.
Purson of Winemaker village.
Sina
Injuries and scars: Missing two thirds of the right middle finger.