“Right, you know what to do, then?” I ask the group of my Bound staying behind, my question aimed mostly at Hades and Persephone who I’m leaving in charge. Unfortunately, Persephone is within days of laying her eggs, the lumps in her belly now actually visible, so there’s no way I can bring her with me. And of course, where Persephone goes, so does her mate.
It’s not all bad: there are a few other Bound who I’m not comfortable taking on this particular expedition, so having two of my most intelligent companions stay with them is probably a good idea. Plus, I don’t want to take the danaris larvae with me, even if I did give in to creating a Dominate Bond with them to keep them out of trouble, so someone needs to keep them fed and under control. And it also means that, for once, the raptorcat cubs don’t need to accompany us into a situation with unforeseeable risk levels; Bastet seemed rather happy with that.
The other ones I didn’t want to bring with me are Cery and Neian, the two lizard-deer; Scooter, the tortoise-like herbivore; Rooter, the insectivorous almost-porcupig; and Sailor, the large lizard with a sail which is at least twice his height, sticking out of his back. Due to almost all of them being herbivorous, I judged that the risk of bringing them with me seemed to be higher than the possible benefits that they could bring to the team.
Of course, I couldn’t only leave the ones I didn’t want since they’re still going to have to be protected and Persephone is going to have to be fed while she’s guarding her eggs. So, after careful consideration, I’ve also left Artemis, a wolfish Bound a little smaller than Bastet; Bary; and Kanga.
I figured that the former two could protect whatever group is going out while Kanga can spot any threat before it has a chance to target them. Hopefully they will all still be present when I come back.
Hades and Persephone both confirm that they are prepared so I next look at Kalanthia, standing in the mouth of the cave. I struggled to find the right words; perhaps she realises that as she speaks first.
May your hunt be successful, Markus Wolfe, and take good care of my cub.
“I will,” I say. “I would appreciate if you would keep an eye out for my Bound too, if you don’t mind.”
I will ensure that the den and its immediate surroundings do not become part of any other predator’s territory, as always. They may bargain with me over other services with Cores that they find, as you do.
Good enough, I decide.
“Thanks. Goodbye, then – next time you see me, I’ll be the overlord of the lizard-folk’s village,” I say with more confidence than I really feel.
For their sake, I dearly hope so, Kalanthia says. Lathani looks at me for a moment, her eyes pleading. When I abruptly realise what she’s asking me, I nod at her and she bounds over for a quick nuzzle and final goodbye.
While she does that, I give the members of our pack who are staying a last message of good wishes. Then, with a last look over everything, checking for anything I might have forgotten, we depart down the hill.
We’re a cavalcade walking down the hill, and this isn’t even all of us: the new samurans along with River and Catch are still in their little camp in the forest. Still, even without them, our party numbers eighteen. When we get to the camp and add in the others, we will have a whopping thirty-four to travel down into the valley – it’ll feel like an army.
It does give me hope in our success, that’s for sure. For now, River will remain in charge of his Tier two brethren, and they continue to be in charge of the Unevolved samurans, though not as official ‘managers’, but just with their usual hierarchical bonds. I would rather have had all of them under one of my trusted Bound’s direct control, but unfortunately with Hades and Persephone staying back, I simply don’t have enough to cover everyone.
As soon as we hit the forest line, Bastet moves ahead with her own group of stealthy and predatory Bound, namely Honey, Woozle, Thorn, Marty, and Wolverine. The biggest of the lot is Bastet herself; the smallest, Marty – a shy creature rather similar to a scaled pine marten, hence the name.
Their job now, as it will be during the rest of our trip, is to scout the way ahead, checking for threats that might threaten the main part of our group. Sirocco, still the only flying Bound of our group, is charged with ranging further ahead and spotting both issues with our terrain and potential threats.
The rest of us are travelling together, though Theia is walking at the back as the rearguard, accompanied by Fenrir and Pride, the spinosaurus-like scalla, as protection.
That leaves Shakira, the okapi-like icehal, Demon, the small but vicious daemonosaurus, Louie, the vaguely orangutan-like omnivore, Spine, the kind-of-kentrosaurus carnivore, Lathani, and Trinity, the triceratops. They stick with me in the centre of it all, two of them the slowest of all of my Bound, and the ones who are going to set our pace.
You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.
I anticipate it taking at least two days to get down to the forest line, but don’t feel too worried about camping out under the stars: with this many creatures all moving together, I doubt that there will be many who choose to challenge us – and we still haven’t added almost our full number again in samurans.
It only takes us a few minutes of walking to find the samuran camp. I connect with River as soon as he comes into range, something that I’m pretty sure has extended just a little since completing the challenge last night.
Are you ready to go? I check with him, nervousness making butterflies flutter in my belly. We’re actually doing this.
Everything is prepared, River answers promptly. I see that for myself a couple of minutes later when we enter the clearing that they have made. The logs from the trees they cut down have become the roof of the underground shelter that they dug for themselves. Bones are piled in one small area; ashes in the other – River hasn’t wasted any time in communicating the knowledge about fire that I shared with him.
I mentally shrug – I knew that once shared, it wouldn’t be long before all of them would know. All I can hope is that I haven’t done the equivalent of teaching people previously only using spears and arrows how to create and use a firearm.
The samurans have arranged themselves with Joy and Lee at the front, the other three Warriors behind them, and then the Unevolved finishing up the group. It’s hard to read their expressions, but over the Bonds between me and the front five I can tell that they’re rather conflicted.
Understandable, perhaps, since I present both a threat and opportunity for their village. Even if those Bonded through Dominate don’t really have the choice of whether to follow me or not, they still have the freedom to feel as they will. And their feelings have changed a little since that first day.
Though I haven’t personally had a lot of contact with them, River has; knowing him, he’s been doing his best to get them to come around. That they seem to have given him, an Unevolved adult, their attention is evidence enough of how their attitudes have changed. I can only hope that we have as much success with the rest of the village.
This is probably the time when I should give some awesome inspirational speech, but I don’t have one to give.
“Let’s go and deal with the forest of vine-stranglers threatening your village,” I say simply instead.
*****
The first day of the journey goes surprisingly smoothly. By the time dark has fallen, we’ve found a nice spot to rest for the night. Creating a small shelter for the night for those Bound who would prefer it is simple enough with many hands working. Trees are cut down for the large teepee frame, branches and bushes are collected for the walls, earth is dug to make the floor.
Obviously, neither Trinity nor Shakira are going to stay inside with us. Spine is another one whose venom-laced spikes make poor bedfellows. Three are set on watch at all times, keeping an eye in all directions, the large number of us meaning that each only has to stay alert for a relatively short amount of time.
The rest all pack into the shelter, a fire at the centre warming the space, its smoke disappearing through the holes at the top where the brush doesn’t cover. With the amount of bodies present, I don’t think we’ll be getting cold.
Bastet’s team of predators spent the time the rest of us were building the shelter in hunting for dinner, and brought enough meat to satisfy the group. I even roasted a couple of haunches – I decided I might as well benefit from the Energy-laced dinner rather than just eating pre-prepared food. I left the hearts for those who had actually done the hunting.
Iandee asked to try some of my roasted meat, and surprisingly enjoyed it – neither Catch nor River had. After he’d shown evidence of liking it, the other samurans all tried. It seems to be a bit of a rare taste among them, though: only one other liked the meat cooked, and even then preferred it more bleu than well-done.
There was even a Core in one of the creatures: I let Bastet decide which of her team should get it and she chose Honey – apparently the honey-badger-like creature had been the most active in the hunt.
River and Fenrir are still absorbing the danaris Core: apparently they feel that it’s important to take their time over it. Since neither of them have any good means of storage, they keep giving it back to me to hold for them and then asking for it at convenient times. I noticed several of the samurans giving River envious looks as he spent some time doing that after supper. And then incredulous ones when he passed it over to the lizog.
It’s the new world order, I feel like saying to them, but don’t – it’s more something they’ll have to discover for themselves.
After tucking the remains of the carcasses in my Inventory and asking Trinity and Spine to help with digging over the blood-soaked earth, I join the mass of bodies in the shelter. Sure enough, it’s more than sufficiently warm – I end up pulling the fire apart a bit to reduce it. I could use magic, but in this case it’s actually quicker and easier to do it manually: if I’d been trying to make it grow, that would be another question.
Lying down with my eyes closed, I find my thoughts going to tomorrow.
I’m not heading for the tunnel which leads to the Pure Energy spring – even with Bonds in place I’m not sure I’d trust all of the samurans with that knowledge. Besides, I still don’t know what kind of situation the quest is going to make me deal with, so I’d rather avoid that just for now.
Dealing with the vine-stranglers is definitely the priority, especially with only twenty-two days still remaining before the quest becomes due. For that reason, we’re heading for an area which is thick with them. I decided not to go for the narrow bit of the ‘eye’ but to one of the bulbous bits, a place where it would take more than a day to walk through normally.
I’m still not entirely sure that my plan will work, and may need to adapt it. There’s little I can do in the way of preparation, not until I have more information. However, there is one thing which is bound to help me in my future endeavours: gaining more Willpower.
To that end, after briefly warning River about what I’m doing, since he’s one of those taking first watch, I sink into my soul space to work on pushing it outwards. As a well-known chain of shops put it: every little helps.