The first step after Selly accepted was to put on a new set of clothes. The ones I had been wearing were torn in the back, and while I wasn’t a prude, I didn’t want to ruin them by doing something else and ruining the clothes I had gotten from Anna. So I changed inside the closet where I kept my clothes and got into my old clothes, which were a bit more rugged.

Then, with a little food in a pouch, a goodbye hug to Anna, a trusty shovel against one shoulder, and the Selly on the other, and we headed out.

I had already finished what I needed to. I didn’t need to cut the grass anymore, I didn’t need to cultivate the ground. Honestly, most of my job was now done by my skills. I had asked Anna if I could do some more, but I just didn’t have the skills for it, both literal ones with the brackets and the kind you learn.

“So, Selly, do you know where they took your queen?” I asked the little fluffy woman.

“Nay, and I’ve warned you about my name, at least use my first name, I do know what direction they took her through. They took her west, past the old road towards the mountain, and south through the forest.”

“If I got to the road, could you point me the right way, or is it up to me from there?”

“Up to you, but I can fly around to help, I just need to let my wings dry a little more.”

“Can’t you just dry them off on my tunic?”

“Only if I want to injure myself, your tunic is too rough, I could snap a wing.”

Well, that would be a shame. If I could fly, I would probably take care of my wings too though.

We headed down and out of the grove, down into the clearing, and headed to the old battered road. I took it back out of the clearing once I got to it, then took it about as far north as the Sprite Village.

“How long ago was your queen taken, Selliban?” I asked.

We had bickered a bit, but we had spent most of the time on the road, silent, looking for any obvious disturbances. Unfortunately, there were no big smoking craters and no signs reading ‘Kidnapped Sprite Queen this way’ with a big arrow pointing towards our direction. They hadn’t clear-cut a path through the woods, but there were enough shrubs and bushes that some damage should exist, even if it was going to be a pain to find it.

“Ten days ago.” She told me, speaking in a far-off tone.

Ten days wasn’t a long time, but for tracking it could be a bit difficult. It hadn’t rained, so that was a bonus. The lack of animals was also a bonus, some tracks were probably still around somewhere, and if not, then there would be small damage from whatever grabbed her.

But there wasn’t any to my eye, so I stood off to the side of the road and walked along the eastern side northward down the road, scanning and scanning until I happened upon something that looked like it could be tracked.

There were quite a lot of them, and they appeared to be in sets of two, which would make some sense with what the sprite had said.

The Queen, or I supposed the [Queen], hadn’t been stolen away by undead lambs or cows after all.

That intrusive thought conjured an image of a skeleton farmer milking their skeleton cow, which was not possible but got a chuckle out of me.

I decided to follow them back west to double-check, activating [Long Strider] and zipping through the woods in a bit of a thrilling jaunt that got Selly to cuss at me.

Sure enough, they did, so I followed them back west, over the old road, and followed their path and started looking for and found the tracks. So I started going through the woods as quickly as I could, getting sidetracked and following them back as they wound through the trees and bush.

The farther I got from the water, the thicker the woods. The normal tree cover became thick bushland with higher trees. Thicker and thicker canopies with denser, darker shadows, under which tracks turned to trails.

Trails that I could jog down much more easily and without getting lost.

Unfortunately, they also branched off, the packed earth, without the looseness of the normal soil, left no tracks, so I stayed on the most south-westerly path I could, hoping that whoever had done it had taken the easy road and not run off single file into the bush where I hadn’t noticed.

They kept branching and branching, though, until my chosen path broke off in a forest glade with some dear.

I walked in, blinking at the slightly brighter light of the less dense place. I could see the shorter brush and shrubby trees had been grazed to death, joining the forest floor as twigs. The grass was shorter, some patches coming up to my shin, but most barely over my toes.

It had a fairy tale feeling to it like I had stumbled onto a quiet other world, a place where you would find magic swords or a reclusive mentor figure. Like Anna, but older and temperamental, living in a shack instead of a cozy cottage.

Little critters ran and hid in burrows, but what caught my eye were not the myriad tiny eyes of little critters but the mounds scattered amongst the field.

White bonelike skin is hidden under vast swaths of plant, for a moment, it made me raise my hackles, made me take the shovel off my shoulder. But they weren’t skeletons, not constructs of bone.

One raised its head to me, and I could see eyes behind the bone. I could feel no Tenebra, no darkness in the glade, only mana flowing naturally, eddying up from the ground and into plants, then the little animals, and back out into the ground, slowly passing through where it would no doubt flow down into the valley, life turned to poison.

I rested my shovel and knew these for what they were, a twinge of memory, a forgotten idea given to me from who knows where a name. Or, more accurately, a lack of one.

Nameless.

They were living bones, living Kirin bones, somewhere between animal and person and voiceless.

They didn’t have names, like the [Guides], for what was a name with no voice to say it?

But luckily, they could communicate, at least, in a roundabout way.

“Land, are you willing to talk for me?”

“Yes”

It was an immediate, strong connection.

“Are you closer? You feel closer than normal.”

“Eyes and Whiskers…”

Eyes and whiskers?

I looked around the glade while the nameless took notice of me, trying to put it together.

There were eyes on me, but those were animal eyes, and to the best of my memory, the land was the land, not the animals, it was soil and plants, mountains and streams and clouds. The earth and waters, the sky and forest fires.

But it didn’t lie either, why would a forest lie? Why would a river? They simply did as they did.

Eyes that are not eyes…

A tree, a knotted old tree.

An Eye tree, a tree used to make rope, and had great big swells that looked like eyes.

And the moment that clicked, I looked to the grass, the short grass peaking between the longer ones, the little green blades that barely rose above my toes. Whisker grass.

“Eye tree and whisker grass?” I asked.

“Eyes and whiskers.” It said simply.

I suppose I can keep that tucked away for later, I’m on a quest.

Selly was yelling on my shoulder, “More bone, more foes, we are outnumbered, long leg be ready to fight!”

“Shut it, they’re not undead. Look, they have eyes, you idiot. Hold on, I’m trying to talk.”

She balked, “Talk? They're bone lass, what do you mean-”

“Shush, or I’ll call you Selly for the rest of your life.”

Love what you're reading? Discover and support the author on the platform they originally published on.

That shut her up really good.

“Can you ask the nameless if other things have been around? Things that walk on two legs like me?” I asked it.

“Yes, yes, will ask them,” it agreed.

The nameless got up on their four stumpy legs, little critters sat and crawled around on them, little squirrels and ferrets and all manner of fuzzy critters that lived in harmony on their backs amongst the vines and brush and lichen.

One of the nameless even had grape vines on its back, another a tiny oak tree.

They were one with nature, more so than even I was, I only lived in nature, I lived off the soil and water and air, I only used fire, they were one with it. They had soil on their backs and water in the moss, shell-like bodies hollow on the inside to give air to the critters who I could feel inside them.

None of them had a fire, but the heat was caught in them, bone and body and vegetation making their insides like a den.

They moved towards us, hulking masses slowly plodding towards us.

They were lovely things in my sight now that I could see them standing. Mana moved from the ground and the light to them and back out to the critters, spiralling out and out and back into the natural world. A circuit that encouraged life.

A microcosmic example of what the valley should have been like. Of what the world was supposed to be like. The world was a place for life to flourish.

They drew close, and I reached out and lay a hand on their head, and they nuzzled their head back into my hand.

None of them were young; I had no idea if they could even have young, but they weren’t immortal to my knowledge, just very, very old, kept living by the magic of stats, from their unending endurance.

“A great pool to the west.” It told me.

A great pool? Like a small lake? Or maybe a pond? There’s a river that comes from the west…

I checked my internal compass, checked before I ran like with the sprites, tracking the bends I had taken from the western road until I was sure of where I would be heading. I marked this place down on my mental map, the blurry constellation of my mental landscape that told me where things were in relation to one another.

“Thank you land. Can you thank the nameless, can you thank them for me?” I asked.

“Yes,” it said.

And that was that. I took my hand away from the nameless, the one with the berries on its back. I took a few, my family had grown them, so why not have a few bushes?

I gestured, bringing the berries to me, and it nodded, so it certainly didn’t seem to disagree when I placed them in my pouch and brought out some bread to feed the little critters. Ripping up little bits for them and a bigger bit for myself.

I checked, but the nameless did not want any. So I bowed to them and their little serine passengers and left the little grove and back to the branching paths.

“I know where to go, Selliban, there at a lake or something. I think we're just a bit too far north.” I told the little figure on my shoulder.

“And how do you know that? They didn’t say anything, not a peep. I saw a pigeon that made more noise than those things did.” She complained.

“Those things are our cousins Sprite. Just like you are my cousin and vice versa. Honestly, have you forgotten the old ways? Forgotten our people's histories? I’m the last Kobold, the youngest of the Kirin's descendants, those were the fourth born, the nameless. For a [Lady], you don’t seem to know all that much.”

“And you seem to know a whole lot for a random girl, who are you to know such ancient things?”

“A peasant who listened to kind old men and women, apparently, did you not listen to your elders?”

“Elder Sprites? Those don’t exist, you silly long-leg.”

That… was in line with sprites, they did have a tendency to get themselves killed off.

“Then you should have read a book.”

“A book? Talk folk letters are taller than I am, and I am a tall sprite. And before you ask about a sprite-sized book, don’t bother. We keep everything straight is hard and has to be worth it, history is just stories, and [Storytellers] can only remember so much. The [Grudge Bearer] knows the most, and they only remember grudges.”

“No [Historians] or [Remembrancers]? That… that seems a shame.”

“Then tell me a story, long leg.”

“Maybe I will.”

So, I told her a story while we walked through the ever-darkening paths. I kept track of our direction, first south, then west, quickly eating up land as I sprinted with [Long Strider] every step, taking me twice my normal distance.

The path went around, and eventually, we walked off into a side path, off the beaten trail and onto one that was more open.

The brush had been cut back a bit, but once we entered deeper, it was dark enough to not matter, it just became too dark for the brush to grow tall.

I could make out very little above the canopy, the thick branches too dense to see the sky, so I relied on my skills.

[Sense Composition], [Aura of Soil] and my [Natural Senses] let me feel the ground, and [Verdant Senses] let me sense the plants.

I wouldn’t go tripping, you couldn’t trip if you knew where you were and where you weren’t and could remove where you were from where you weren't.

I had finished my story, it wasn’t so long, only half an hourglass at most, but we had been silent since then, only talking sparsely in the dark.

“Selliban, can you fly yet?” I spoke up.

“Aye, I can. Dried off and ready, where am I going?”

“I need you to start pulling you're, all be it, minor weight and check if we are close to a body of water, so up and out of the canopy,” I told her.

“Sure, can do, and don’t call me light, I’m plenty hefty,” she said, her wings buzzing before she lifted off and floated up to the canopy, I couldn’t even feel her lift off of my shoulder.

Do sprites have, like, a reverse weight problem? Instead of being touchy at being heavy, were they touchy at being light? That’s… a bit odd, but I suppose it would be rude to keep calling her light.

Actually, that would be funny; I should call every other sprite heavy and her light around other sprites just to mess with her. She did charge us for no good reason, she deserves a little messing with for that, She spooked Anna and tried to stab us. We almost needed to mass murder her and her people in self-defence, which is an idea that should not exist.

My possibly mindless but genuinely helpful friend buzzed up before quickly zipping back down.

“Craven monsters!” she cried.

I immediately swung down my shovel, my head swiveling around to try and figure out what she was talking about.

“Beasts from above!” she shouted, diving down to me and tucking herself against my neck, hiding partially in my mane-like neck.

My eyes turned to above.

I could hear nothing, no noise.

My heart started to beat fast, I awaited some great beast, like a dragon or giant eagle or something, that could carry me off.

“It’ll be circling.” She said, fear lacing her tone, true fear.

It spread to me, and I took cover, crouching down next to a tree to hide.

A great shadow came down, rustling the canopy, and I beheld…

“A bird?” I asked, confused.

“Aye, the terror of the skies it is, they could doom a village without pikes.” She cried.

I breathed a sigh of relief.

“You made me scared there; did you find a lake.”

“Aye,” she whimpered, “It's to the left a smidge, keep me away from that thing.”

“Sure, I’ll keep you away from the bird,” I told her.

“Do not mock me, we have a history.”

“Sure you do,” I told her before heading towards the lake.

***

I headed deeper into the forest blindly, but soon enough, I didn’t need to wander. The forest began to have an ominous feeling, the closer I got, the more ominous the dark wood got until I started feeling like I was being watched, the hairs on my neck and arms standing on end.

I felt a visceral unease thanks to my [Tenebral Bane] skill because why not? It was only a skill to help me fight against the force that left me quaking in my sandals, however, could an overwhelming sense of fear and paranoia be a problem?

I had already started to try sneaking by the time I noticed things moving in the dark.

I could barely make them out in the low light.

They were patchy things, they looked like short and deceased things. They had rashes and lesions and shuffled through the dark in a hunched posture like their shoulders came to the base of their neck, clutching short blades.

Luckily, I saw no flames in their eyes.

They were just mortal creatures and did not seem to match the shamble of a corpse. But I also saw no light, which meant they could see well enough to not need it.

I would have to sneak up on them to get the drop on them. I was here to free a [Queen], if I could get through it without causing a ruckus, that would be optimal, although if there was an encampment, I doubted I could get in.

But sneaking as far as I could was all bonuses as far as I could tell.

In a moment of foretaught, I softened the soil and watched, only starting my approach once I had seen a few passes to begin my sneaky fighting.

Once the next set had moved past me, I began to move, coming forward after them, my senses leaving me with no sudden snapping of branches, and my control over the plants and soil left me with incredibly soft footfalls.

There are three of them, but they’re staggered, two in front and one behind. I snuck up behind it, all I had to do was get it dead.

A thought through my head, and I decided to test it. I reached out with my [Aura of Soil] and tried to [Displace dirt]. It was a stretch, like when I got [Tool handling] to work with my nails, but it worked, I pressed up against it, but what did I need to truly [Displace dirt]? I just needed a way to shovel, to scoop it.

And so the skill bent because it was a valid use, even if it was a new one. I could practically feel the experience from it. What I could feel was the very real weight of the thing as it fell back into me, and I wrapped my arms around it, my shovel arm over its chest and free arm around its head, and jerked my arms apart.

There was a far too light snapping pop noise, and I lay the body down without a drop of blood. Smoothly, it fell, and I moved to the next closest.

Either it heard the noise, or it was a predilection because the rightmost thing started to turn to me. I thrust my shovel out, moving from a one-handed grip and a crouch to a two-handed thrust up at its neck, just like Taanka had shown me with a bare stick.

I missed its neck, catching it instead in the jaw, spinning the creature and drawing first blood. It did not slice through like a razor, but cut it did, although I should probably sharpen it at some point if I were going to use it like a weapon.

The noise of the hit so close and the gasp caught the second's attention. It spun to face me, turning towards its partner, but I brought my spade back and thrust for the neck again. The spin had turned it, leaving its neck open and extended up to strike, and strike I did. There was another snap as my shovel blade met vertebrae and found its mark, and it fell forward.

I turned to the last one as it thrust back towards me in a panic and missed, unable to hit me, I wound up and brought the edge of the shovel down on it. A horizontal slash.

The little thing managed to deek out of the way of the shovel down and under, which wasn’t good. I was trying to sneak, but if the thing squeaked, I might end up a pincushion if others came running. It swung back at me, and I managed to catch the blade on the haft of my spade so it could only scratch me.

The cut stung, but it wouldn’t take me down.

I decided to stop messing around and took a few fast-hits short jabs to try and prevent it from getting out of the way. Three jabs met with three hits. The first caught it on the collarbone, and the second managed to cut off the screech of pain it was about to make when I hit it in the neck, not from a cut but sheer percussion; the third was overkill and just served to cause the body to topple over. Its windpipe was crushed more than cut, but a kill was a kill, and it was bloodless.

I took a few calming breaths and got to digging a hole to hide the bodies, loosening the earth further with my skills, I managed to dig a pit more rapidly than before, double digging with spade and aura together and burying them in record time, leaving behind only the tiny wispy flames, which I quickly scooped up.

They said something in an unfamiliar, skittery language and passed into the beyond with the final words never to be understood.

One set down, an unknown number to go.

I’m sure it will end up fine. Right?

“I have a feeling you just jinxed yourself,” Selly whispered, “knock on wood.”

I taped my shovel handle twice, though I doubted it would do anything.