Thick clouds of smoke rolled over the meadows, blown far westward by the long winds. The fire raged as an intense wall of orange flame, traveling slow enough to walk away from but fast enough that its progress would catch a person off guard if they looked away for too long.
Dorragth charged forward, pushing another large, curving wall of dirt and rock across the ground to dig a trench between the rapidly spreading grass fire and the chimera's corpse. Though he clearly possessed a Thread of Matter and specialized in earth working, much like Autumn, his applications seemed drastically different than hers. While most might consider Autumn's manipulation of rock to be rough and crude, Dorragth made her look like an artisan. On the other hand, the raw power of his manipulation was vastly greater than anything Autumn could manage, and he exerted it with almost casual effort.
While Dorragth worked on the fire trench, Eli and Cameron took up defensive positions around the corpse, while Killup, Adan and Autumn got to work harvesting meat. The trio of chefs moved quickly, with Autumn dividing up the work. Killup was put in charge of skinning and removing undesirable organs, a task which he seemed completely unbothered by. Meanwhile, Autumn followed behind him and carefully cut the best cuts of meat she could, leaning on her experience butchering a variety of beasts in the field alongside Adan's analytical advice on the creature's anatomy which he somehow gleaned purely from observation.
"Dammit Eli," Autumn called out when she reached the chest of the creature where Eli's magic bolt had exploded within the flesh, "you ruined a whole cut of brisket!"
"I was trying to hit its heart!" Eli defended, taken aback by the sudden assault.
"Well you missed!"
"I think you did a great job, Eli," Cameron called out, the sarcasm in his voice faint but detectable.
"Hey, I didn't see you doing anything to help!" Eli retorted.
"If I'd helped," Cameron said casually, "there wouldn't be any good meat left to eat."
Iris and Victoria joined Misty in observing the fire from a safe distance -- though they could still feel the warmth it put off.
"Should we put that out?" Iris asked.
Misty shook her head, "I already convinced Dorragth to encircle the whole thing with a trench, it'll burn itself out. Wild fires sweep through the meadows from time to time anyway, the environment here is adapted to it. Whatever burns will grow back stronger next year. Good job with the ram, by the way, that's some scary strength for a wizard."
Iris shrugged, "my stick did most of the work."
"Did it?" Victoria asked, "because from where I was floating, it looked like you slapped the fuck out of it the second time."
"I mean, I gave it my all, but I'm not that strong yet."
Misty and Victoria gave her critical looks.
"I'm serious!" Iris said, "the stick really did do most of the work."
She leaned the walking stick forward to show it off in emphasis. By all means, it genuinely just looked like a conveniently straight stick she might have picked up from the woods while on a walk.
"Didn't you also just survive a horrific deadly wound?" Misty asked.
Iris's heart skipped, and her stomach twisted. Her expression tightened, but she tried to look normal, "it really wasn't that bad."
"If you say so," Misty said, unconvinced, before returning her attention to the fire.
Iris opened her mouth to argue further, and then paused to question what the point was. If people believed she was stronger than she really was, wasn't that a good thing? She decided to leave it be, even if she did feel slightly guilty for taking more credit than was due.
Iris felt a rustling at her waist, and looked down in time to see Littletooth slip out of the bottomless bag and drop to the ground. The nearly knee-high grass would have almost completely obscured him, were it not for the tell-tale wiggle of the blades as he sprinted through it. Iris started to swear, but let it go with a sigh when the saw the trail of wiggling grass heading straight for the chimera.
"Autumn, incoming," she called out with the indifference of a tired mother.
"Huh?" Autumn called back, quickly followed by a surprised shout, "Littletooth, no!"
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A truly enormous pile of meat emerged over the next few hours, placed atop a clean canvas tarp Autumn had placed in Iris's bag for just such a purpose. While carving, Autumn encountered three distinctly different consistencies of meat, seemingly coinciding with the three heads of the chimera. Her processing was crude and quick, and no small amount of usable meat was wasted in the process, but she managed to preserve most of the specific cuts she was hoping to and collect more than enough scrap meat to feed the crew a filling dinner. A comparatively small amount of meat was sacrificed to Littletooth to keep him out of Autumn’s way, but him it was an endless buffet to gorge himself on until he was too full to move. In the end, Iris had to pick him up and return him to the void.
Eventually the others joined in to wrap the meat once it had been cut, and once wrapped each piece was tossed towards Abby, who caught it with her tentacles and pulled it into the void. When the tired and thoroughly blood-splattered Autumn finally stood up and wiped her hands on her clothes as she inspected the finished job before her, the sun had crossed the sky and the warm afternoon was giving way to chilly evening winds.
"It'll get cold out here at night," Misty observed, "much colder than you think it would. We should move."
"I can live with the cold," Autumn said, "but the captain wants a platter of chimera in his hands before sun down and I don't know who he'll eat if we're late, so let's catch that boat."
They hiked back across the meadow until the river was visible to the north, but avoided entering or crossing the tall grass alongside it and instead continuing trekking east across the more traversable meadow. While their pace was impressive, it wasn't quite superhuman, merely matching the peak performance that could have been expected of non-magical humans. Where they really made up time was the lack of breaks, with each of them besides Iris being high enough level that the several hours of non-stop hiking was trivial to them. In Iris's case, she did as she always did, blip as much as possible to cut down the amount of walking she actually did to a small fraction of the total distance.
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The crew quarters were ablaze with activity as the crew celebrated their first fancy meal of the journey. Autumn had learned from Killup and a few other crew members that these meals were quite significant, as they offered a break from the repetitive, long shelf life ingredients which most of their meals consisted of. It was the difference between eating for sustenance and eating for joy, and was traditionally accompanied by gambling, drinking, and fighting.
While Adan and Killup served the crew their portions of ram stew, ground lion and fried drake, Autumn delivered the captain's meal to his quarters. It was a ridiculously large platter that took both her fully extended arms to hold, so she recruited Iris to come open the door for her.
The sky was growing darker, but she had arrived just before sunset with the meal. Atop the platter was an entire ram's leg, several lion steaks cooked rare, and a specially prepared fire sack -- an organ belonging to the fire drake, which she cooked similarly to a liver after draining the gooey flammable substance inside into bottles.
Iris waited outside while Autumn entered the cabin, gently closing the door behind her while avoiding being seen. She wasn't much afraid of the Shark Titan at this point, but still, she didn't want to be in the room if he didn't like his meal. Even through the thick walls of the ship, however, she could soon hear him shouting and laughing in excitement about the meal.
Iris decided there wasn't much point in waiting for Autumn, and blipped across the deck to find a nice place to sit. She settled for her newest favorite place, the small maintenance platform at the bow, and had Abby hold a lantern for her while she cracked open her journal. She had felt herself level up during the Chimera battle, so it was no surprise when the journal reflected that. She summarily dumped all 5 of her new stat points into Strength.
IRIS ORION
Hero Rank, Level 12
Experience Points: 1132 / 11,340
Progress to next level: 9.98%
Attribute Scores:
- Vitality : 40
- Strength : 56
- Speed : 35
- Intellect : 39
- Spirit : 50
Unspent attribute points : 0
Next, she flipped to what she really cared about -- a new journal entry from her mother.
Dear Iris,
I'm sorry for the gap in my entries, a lot has happened.
My companions and I were traveling across the plains beyond the Shining Peaks when something changed. I don't really know how to explain it, even now. One moment they were there, the air was warm and the sun was shining. Then they were gone. The grass was dry and drooping, the air was cold against my skin, and a storm was brewing in the distance.
There had been a singular landmark in the plains, and it still remained. A lone tree jutting up out of the grass in the distance, though now its branches were bare. I traveled to it, hoping my companions would meet me there, but they never came.
It's been a week since then. I've waited for the seasons to change back, for my companions to return, but I've had no choice but to keep traveling. I still possess the stone and the veiled catacombs still await. Darren made it clear from the beginning, if something were to happen to him or the others, I am to continue the quest.
The storm came and went in the distance, accompanied by great lightning that behaved in ways I've never seen before. It came in waves, dozens of bolts striking down in the same second. There was a fight in the storm, as well, against something quite large judging by the roars that rumbled across the plains not unlike the thunder. My curiosity still burns, but I can't afford the detour right now. My quest still remains.
I do not know if you hold any gods in high regard, Iris, but if you do, please pray to them for me.
Mary Orion, 969