…..:::::|. Rahielle Floral Falls .|:::::…..
Two of Siin's fingers reached up to receive the kiss he had ready for them. Those fingers then turned downward to lay gifted love upon three soft eggs, neat in their nest next to their sleeping mother. The kissed fingertips burst a glow and a dome enveloped the reptilian family in his spell’s protection.
The two wolven wolaenki, crouched low under the tree boughs, made questioning faces at him as they all continued downhill behind their adept formers.
They could certainly tell why the Town of Rahielle called these the Floral Falls, for there were more buds and blossoms spilling down these long slopes than waterfalls. The wilderness was being far more tame with them than they'd expected but it was a welcome state of nothing compared to the eventfulness of having been in The Ladi.
It was early-evening again before anyone spoke and the speaking came in the form of a command from their Exemplariat.
“Silence.”
“No one's said anything.” Siin quipped following the crouching movements of his Agent in lead.
“He’s probably hearing the clank of his head against these things.” Kodlaa joked.
Where there would have been laughter, there was none. The moment seemed too tense. Halycind tapped one of the Grui as they continued downhill behind Percival's veering lead.
“Why can’t you just explode one?” She addressed to Siin.
He gripped one in hand, they watched it burst to smithereens, then reform itself once more. “They rewrite.”
“Oh, ok. That’s not ok.” Kodlaa blurted.
“No, it isn't…” Siin’s eyes squinted as he answered her, yet were carefully watching for whatever Percival was watching for.
“I thought a theriomancer put them here.” Halycind whispered.
“That’s what everyone thinks.” Siin added. “We think it’s zerocraft.”
“The pehn’s that?” Halycind said astounded.
“Creation magic.”
“What?” Kodlaa said.
“There’s such a thing?” Halycind added.
“Why would someone use that for something so small?”
“And annoying.”
“We don’t know.” Percival entered.
“You know everything, Percival.”
“Shhh. Something is near.” Percival instructed as he veered hard to the left.
“Not another adder, hopefully.”
“Oh, he would have hushed it no worries.” Veygornne closed, pointing toward Siin and peeling off himself.
The two girls looked at Siin not minding their confusion and watched as he seemed to catch what had been the trouble.
After a moment, Veygornne gave them signal to stalk low on his flank.
They took earnestly to this prowl of something neither Kodlaa nor Halycind had sniffed out. But the seriousness of their formers lead them to not altogether question the stalk. Although, Halycind's face had swollen a fair amount so she could not have been sure of anything she was following.
To their knowledge Percival was just a fair-haired walker, neither fox-folk nor wolvkin, so his nose wouldn't have been sharp enough to pick up what the girl's hadn't already smelled.
Then Siin, as if he could hear them pondering, fanned to the right of the girls and flashed a ball of blue energy in his left palm to show them, then extinguished it. With that one smooth motion they abruptly understood.
He was relaying to them what Percival had sniffed out was not meat, but magery. If there had been time to be impressed with this man once more, they would have been but now they needed to pay attention; especially not being craft users themselves.
They followed their Exemplariat down the floral slopes threw sparse Ashwood trees and thick spirely brush.
Dureyr held many untamed dangers and between her walled cities and fortified keeps beat the heart of a vicious wilderness. If anything survived out here, it would have been more beast than man.
Troll gallstones hung in the air as they moved silently down the aromatic decline. Percival seemed to be reading something of them, for he was changing the trajectory of his stalk in calculated but erratic lines. It was, then, not too long before Percival sighted it. A large thing draped in more sod and twigs than robes, with a crown of antlers, and raising high gnarly fingers to the sky then swirling them over cauldron and green fire. He motioned to his group in near desperate haste to seal down their gear.
The lot did so, immediately.
Wildergear had been one of those inventions born from necessity. Travelling Dureyr was considered by most to be either murder or suicide depending on who did the dictating. If the massive storms didn't kill a traveller, then the massive beasts did. Scholars mused that the planet was still young and full of angst. But none of those musings were laughable when one found themselves pounded by sharp formed hail or mauled by huge Angletail reptiles. The group, stalking, needed to now seem silent and so each of them tightened their lanyards and pulled at clasps to string tight all the edges of their wildergear.
For as long as anyone could remember the gear was essential attire for any traveller who left the safety of city walls. Gear was expensive but not as costly as all its rigs and leathers would suggest. When kept in good order one could have the same gear for a whole cycle. It was almost always made of Mutti leather, which was large and took to dye well. It could be easily sewn and the huge animals had a more than healthy population in the north. Other leathers like that of more scaly beasts and some ocean creatures were added for further resistances and protection.
The hunters now drew down a visor of meshed threads from the hoods of their suits. It did little to obscure their view but more to obscure them from view.
The Agency loved the gear and so they adopted it as standard armour, with significant advancements. As was true with Percival and Veygornne who walked around in much more extensive gear in the form of Agency armour. As the cycles had gone on, hunters started adding gadgets and clips and closures for both ease of release and temperature control; as many a wildergear-wearer passed out from the exhaustion of heat. Leathers with newer and better components, added by either Agency research or Buraam engineering each cycle, offered easier quarry seizure.
In synchronous motion, Percival and his hunters pulled at four cords tethered to small vial corks in the shoulders and sides of their jerkins to release the vials contents and flood their armour with colours of the thin forest terrain.
Halycind's camouflager failed to uncork and she cursed the cut girl for having snapped her rigs. Halycind thought quickly and lowered into a slow roll as she globbed up sod and soil to drag onto her suit. It would slow her down but she could at least move without being seen. They proceeded passed the crafting thing, sidling through trees and brush to stay hidden.
Then Percival cursed.
And Veygornne shot in front of the girls to impose and defend before green flame hit the group.
Siin had shielded the crouched hunters, who had nearly cleared the casting creature, from its wrath of beings too close to its cauldron. Another shot of green flame crashed into the mage’s shield and he took off running toward it.
Percival cried to him knowing if Siin cast too much magic he'd be thrown into vomits by the Function. But the warmage was gone too fast to be stopped.
Kodlaa and Halycind fought against Veygornne’s protective stance but the old wolf was too strong for their desperate measures.
Halycind could only watch as her best friend went dashing toward the heart of trouble. And she watched him deftly dodge green fireballs and thrown tree limbs, fearful, though, of what that thing was going to toss at him next but, suddenly, there wasn't a next.
As quickly as he'd run toward the raggedy casting lummox, he'd snatched out two daggers, leapt, and silently slit the creature’s throat with a spinning tackle sheathed in bursts of blueish-purple hazes.
Landing gracefully into another low crouch and looking around for more of its kind or anything else, they watched the rogue-mage survey the area, make a sign toward Percival, and stand fully to height.
Veygornne released the fighting girls and they bolted toward their friend, while Percival walked easy, shaking his head.
Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
“aBn Ynggr.” The fair-haired mage began.
Siin accepted hugs from the girls who thought him sure to have been dead in that moment’s nera-silent intensity. “Before you scold me, Percival, I know it was a Haggius but I didn't care the type. She saw us and that was all I needed to know.”
“I was certain you'd try to do something stupid like set it ablaze or freeze it...but you chose a dyne-strike. Slit its throat with a measure of magic directly opposite its own.”
“I told you he was smart.” Halycind defended, having not the slightest clue what the Exemplariat meant by his words but knowing he’d been impressed by Siin’s forethought.
“Oh, I know he's smart...just good to know he's also not a showboat.”
Siin sauntered up to his former with long daggers still in hand. “Heh, I'm saving all my showing off for getting one of these.” He smiled as he tapped twice on the ring around Percival's wrist with one of the blades.
“Good boy.” Percival chuckled and Veygornne pat him on the back twice.
“Now that that's done. Let's search the area. We'll make camp here and start off early.”
“Aren't we just outside of Rahielle?”
“Yes but, I, uh…” Percival stalled.
“He's an old feather in Rahielle he sorely needs to avoid.” Veygornne admitted.
“So we get to sleep in the leaves with this thing ‘cause you broke some maiden’s heart?” Kodlaa pursed, as she kicked the dead smelly lump of hag on the ground.
“Ok, so it's a long story.”
Halycind rolled eyes, chuckling, as they all spread out to survey their area.
Finding the ground suitable for a night’s rest, they cozied up the camp beside the still bubbling cauldron fire as everyone neatly set up their bedrolls.
Veygornne had stripped to skivvies, as most wolven folk did, and set down to his knees to rest in his trance. Before closing his eyes all his skin lit to a bright golden glow and many runes slapped themselves from his body toward the tree trunks all around. The glow of that sudden cast died down to near nothing but the girls looked closely to see tiny strings, like filament, stretching from his skin in all directions; creating what looked to be a web of nearly invisible wires extended toward the trees.
Both Halycind and Kodlaa had halted their tasks of changing into their sleeping gear as they watched him curiously.
Percival tapped them both on the shoulders, "You'll find being in the Agency affords you access to certain...Gifts. His, happens to be Leather.”
"Leather?" Kodlaa questioned
"How can you be gifted with a material?" Halycind wondered.
"Think of all it is and all it was before it was a mere material...".
He grinned and left the two to their questions.
It was a long while before they finally sat to take rest in. Percival had already gone into a trance facing opposite Veygornne there on their knees. Kodlaa had turned away from them both having been sorely freaked out by the whole spectacle. And Halycind watched Siin take more of that poison and settle himself into meditation.
After a time, his chin slowly turned back toward her as he felt her stare on his back.
“Curious?”
She had no idea she hadn’t been invisible the whole time and his address shocked her to the reality she was in fact, not invisible; and was staring at him. She collected her embarrassment and opened to speak.
“What were those eggs you kissed back there?”
“Adder eggs.”
“Oh, right, yeah. Snakes. I forget.” Again embarrassed, she’d been abruptly reminded of his serpentine blood.
“It's alright. It's common for others to forget...until we bite.”
Halycind's middle crowded in on herself as she wasn't expecting such deep flirtatious words from someone so serious seeming at the moment. This was not the Siin she grew up with. This was trouble.
“I'll tell you anything you want to know, Cash.”
His voice was smooth and inviting. Was he inviting her into his space? His world? His mind? There was so much she wanted to know. So much she realized she didn't know.
“Do you...feel ill?”
He sagged a bit. Care for his well-being was not what he was expecting to hear again and it warmed him.
“Not at the moment.”
“But you cast something to kill that thing. The Haggius?”
“The magic I used to kill it was only in concert with the strike I slashed it with. It looked like more than what it was, but it was only a thought more-so than a cast.”
He looked to her, fully seeing she hadn’t quite understood his explanation. He scooted himself around, smiled to her, and folded over his left hand. In it, burned a black ugly fire full of hissing cracks and vile smells. She winced and pinched her nose.
His right hand began unfolding and bluish-purple and white kisses of flame burned just as the other hand did. Halycind un-pinched her nose and from it she smelled florals, sweet scents like treats and citrus. The two aromas fought in her nostrils even as she tried to give his lips the attention they were beckoning from her.
"These are the same spell." His left fingers jostled the belly of the black flame a bit. "This was born from some of the dark feelings, thoughts, memories I have." Then he jostled the right. "This was born of what I hold dear, what makes me smile, what gives me hope."
Halycind's eyebrows did a few dances he read as the beginning of her understanding.
"Magecraft isn't good or malicious by its own nature. The intent behind it...colours...flavours a spell and a mage can tell by the flavour of the spell the intent of the caster.”
“Oh, so like when you know a pack-mate is about to betray you. Hackles raise.”
“Exactly that.“
“I used a measure of the exact same spell the Haggius threw at us to slice through its natural wards and slit her throat.” He extinguished the black flame and only held the blue. “But I did it using these thoughts...this intent.”
Halycind looked up to his eyes gleaming in the fires glow for a while. They were sparkling again, like they did when they were in the pools together. “And what was that?” She asked, hopefully.
“Love.”
Halycind didn't know a grin was pushing at her cheeks and even as the warmage extinguished the other, brighter, flame, she started fiddling with the hem of her night clothes.
“It's wise to cast judgement slowly on a mage, Cash.”
His words brought her gaze into his eyes again and she was smiling warmly. “One day they can craft a bad spell from a sour event and the next, they can cast a blossoming spell from good intent. It's what they cast mostly that determines their character. Consistency speaks louder than spontaneous beneficence.”
“That's very Ashok.”
“What you consistently do is who you are.” They uttered together with a soft chuckle.
“Yes. That.”
His voice was so soft and warm and friendly she was compelled to hug him. He'd indeed grown into something nice to nestle into. Something warm and aromatic like his flame; floral with a kiss of...citrus.
Siin smelled like citrus.
Like he was a good man with good intent.
Urges hit her adrenaline and mixed all about in her pain receptors, as she held him, and she suddenly realized she'd been in a real fight earlier. She pulled back from the hug and clutched her side and then her cheeks and then her inner thigh. She cursed the cut girl openly, again.
“You alright?” Both Siin’s hands went to her shoulders as he attempted to examine her bruises.
“Oh, that was not a good fight.”
“You mean the one that put that shiner on your eye?”
“I dunno who the heck that was. I’d never had anybody match mah own moves with mahself. I'm just glad she ended up unconscious.”
Siin turned around, gathered up a different shirt of his, folded it, and lay an icy blue glowing palm upon it. Then pressed the cold shirt gently against her sore face. The refreshing relief was so incredibly welcome, Halycind folded backward to lie down.
“Oh. Oh. Ooh, ever your heart, warmage.”
He smiled again and covered her with blankets for her to rest. And when she was asleep, he kissed two of his fingers and lay them upon her cheek. A soft glow enveloped her body and he watched all her tense limbs and ribs relax out of their painful rigidity.
...
It was a long trek to travel down these Gaennish slopes and over flower-laden forest hills, on high alert of whatever else may come bursting out from the woods. The hearts in each hunter beat on a rushed pace. Halycind's earlier scuffle hindered movement in her still swollen joints and pinching bruises. She hadn’t woken up poorly but she was sore, so she wished for solace in the form of a port city. This was the only time now her slink through and over the terrain of Gaen a Nce seemed to almost defeat her will. At least there was no rain to also frustrate her travel.
"A skin-smith!" Halycind shouted, a sistering thought having shot through her mind. "You understand what things are made of, well what skin a thing’s made out of anyway.”
The rest of them eyed her as if she’d burst outloud during a test in school. She quieted her assessments and continued. “What the thing’s eaten for its whole life, where its origins were, what it does now. You can likely even smell the truth of a creatures tales. If it's lying about where it's been or not."
"Precisely." Veygornne congratulated in a dry tone.
"You got all that from him saying he got leather as a gift?" Kodlaa whispered.
"Well...it just made sense given primitive uses for the material. I mean the skin of a thing can protect you, sure like the Mutti we wear now. But there’s a whole world of things an animal’s skin can tell you. Like what it eats the most, where it lives, and if it was ever mortally ill the leather you make from its skin wouldn't be good. Wait. So those were runes to protect us weren’t they. You...extended your skin so if anything came close...you'd feel it first."
“Ew.” Kodlaa groaned now heading up ahead of the group to escape earshot of this topic.
"This pup is not dumb." Percival mused.
"She's Gyza's daughter and Taphsel's student. She's definitely not dumb." Veygornne grinned behind his visor.
Siin grinned soundly, hoping Halycind would find confidence in their words like he’d also tried to offer her.
"But she looks horrible. Let's get into the port city. Fix that face of hers." Kodlaa sneered backward.
"Hump a cull, Kodi." Halycind shot.
Chuckling, Siin pulled out a palm-sized copper device, read it, then shoved it back into one of the rigs on his gear. He fingered a number to Percival. With just the thumb up, the girls read it as ‘six’. This traverse was a near normal way most hunters travelled through the wilder though it hadn't seemed they'd been travelling in crouch for six hours already this morning. The port city was five days travel on foot from Ladi Gru Has, but they seemed to manage the traverse in only two and a half.
Coming to a finely cobbled orange and sand road, they breached the thick of the treeline one by one. Percival was the first to check his rear, sides and overhead before rising to full height. The others, seeing his up-stretching wad of cloaks followed in suit. Veygornne and Halycind both shared grunts as they ranked up with the tall Agent.
There were others entering the high white walls through the city gates. And without many words they walked with a languid slink toward the port city of Aoustueilless.