I whirl around, the knife I’d been rinsing off now clutched in a firm grip. No attack comes; it takes me a moment to realise that I’m not the target this time.
Bastet is snarling and leaping towards the cubs, an urgent warning still emanating from her. Not directed at me; directed at Stormcloud who’s the one in immediate danger. I rush out of the water, my sodden clothes impeding my movement more than I’d like.
Still not having seen the enemy, I take a moment to pull my mace out of my Inventory even as I stride forwards. By the time I get to the scene of the action, Bastet is already facing off with the thing. A snake, I realise, suddenly. For once not a horrific hybrid of a snake and something else, this time it’s a legless reptile with long fangs that it’s currently baring at my Bound.
Although I’ve got Lay-on-hands, keeping my Bound uninjured is by far the most preferable option. Seeing as the snake seems completely engaged in its dangerous dance with the raptorcat, I quickly swing my mace at it. The snake dodges out of the way at the last moment and the blow which was intended for its head misses.
Misses the head, that is. The snake shrieks as instead the flint head thumps squarely on the end of its tail. As it lunges at me and is caught up short, I realise that it’s stuck. It’s still a threat, its head waving angrily in the air and its venom dripping from its fangs. However, it’s only a few feet long and so, when I let go of the handle of my mace and back up a little, it has nothing within range to strike.
I feel a bit like I’ve got the tail of the tiger here: although the snake is trapped, it’s in no way defanged. If I want my mace, I’m going to have to get closer and put myself in harm’s way. At least, that would be the case if I hadn’t had back-up weapons. As it is, even though I haven’t fixed my broken spear yet, I’ve still got the rudimentary one I sharpened a few days ago. A few pokes with a sharp stick would probably do the job.
Then again...I rub my chin as I consider my sudden thought. It’s not that long ago when I’d decided that having a small and stealthy scout could be a good thing… And this snake did attack us. Mind made up, I turn to Bastet who’s still crouching in front of the cubs and Lathani.
“I’m going to try to create a Bond with it. Watch my back?” She responds with a wary agreement. I get the sense that she has an inherent dislike for snakes. Not that I can blame her, of course. Briefly debating between Tame and Dominate, I settle on the latter – the snake has already attacked us; I wouldn’t be willing to risk it breaking the Bond while I slept and then attacking us again. Crouching down, I wait until the snake is facing me, its head swaying threateningly. Looking it in its poisonous-green eyes, I activate my Skill. “Dominate.”
Once more in the liminal space of the Battle of Wills, I quickly walk to the halfway point between us and then stop. The resistance offered by the snake is barely noticeable, but as always, I’m uninterested in forcing a Bond.
Close enough for the snake’s aura to touch me, I sense its anger, fear, and pain. Unsurprising. In return, I try to project calmness and peace. Slowly, I sense the creature calm down. If it were able to move, I would guess it would go from head raised and hood open, fangs bared fully, to hood lowered and mouth closed. There is still plenty of wariness in it, though.
“Instead of fighting us, would you like to join us?” I offer, gaining an immediate rejection. The snake gives the idea of hunting alone.
“You may have hunted alone until this point, but hunting together is far more successful. If you join us, we will grow stronger together.” Apparently that isn’t particularly tempting either. The snake gives off a sense of disbelief that a group of ‘inferior’ species without even any venom could in any way be more successful than themself.
“We have these,” I tell it, sending over a picture of the Energy-Hearts we harvested. For the first time, the snake seems interested. It inquires as to whether it would have access to unlimited numbers of such items if it deigned to join our group.
“We share and share alike,” I inform it firmly. “Whatever one of us finds is shared with those of the group who can make use of it.” I’ve lost the snake’s interest. It gives off a strong sense that it considers its prey belonging solely to it. The legless reptile is clearly uninterested in sharing in any sort of way.
I don’t bother trying to convince it further. Even if its small size and venom could be a good addition to the team, its attitude isn’t. At the moment we have a good team where everyone works for the good of everyone; even Sirocco seems to be coming around to that way of thinking. I have no interest in disrupting the team dynamics for a self-centred creature which is only going to put its own interests first. And that’s definitely the impression I get of the snake.
“Very well,” I concede. Then I eye it firmly and intensify the pressure on it through a force of Will, just to prove to it that I’m choosing to accept its rejection, not forced to. “We will let you go as long as you don’t make any threatening moves towards any in the party now or in the future. If you attack us again, we’ll kill you.”
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With that warning, I walk backwards until I’ve left the space. The weakness of failing the Battle of Wills hits me hard and I slump to the ground. Bastet sends me a feeling of concern mixed with a question.
I’m fine, I tell her, with disappointment tingeing my thoughts. It didn’t want to join us, and most likely wouldn’t have been a good fit even if it had. She sends acceptance down the link, even with a small bit of relief. Was she worried about me Dominating it? Seeing as we have a few seconds before my weakness will wear off, I quickly ask her.
She responds with several memories of losing cubs to snakes and their venom. Cubs snatched when playing and bitten while sleeping. Clearly there’s no love lost between snakes and raptorcats.
You know that you can object if I attempt to Bond with something you don’t feel would suit our team, right? I ask her seriously even as I feel strength returning to my limbs. Bastet responds with a mix of uncertainty and gratitude proving that, no, she hadn’t realised.
“Of course,” I tell her, briefly ignoring the still-trapped snake to go over and give her a little sideways hug. “You’ve been with me since almost the beginning of my time here; you and the cubs are my family. Newcomers have to earn your approval as much as mine.” She leans into me and my heart feels warm as we share a moment together.
An impatient hiss breaks it not long later – apparently the snake is not happy with being ignored. I scratch at Bastet’s neck a little before standing fully and walking over to the snake.
“Remember, attack us, and you die,” I tell it again warningly, hoping that if nothing else my tone of voice will make it remember what I said during the Battle of Wills. Laying flat on the ground, it doesn’t appear to be about to attack as soon as I lift the mace from its tail. On the other hand, appearances can be deceptive, so I stay on guard as I approach.
It doesn’t strike at my legs even once I’m within its range. So far so good. Wrapping my hand around the grip of my mace, I prepare to lift it. Here we go, I think to myself, staring at the snake with narrowed eyes. Once the mace is lifted sufficiently from the snake’s tail for it to move, it does so, quickly winding away from the group. As it noses its way under a large leaf, I relax, letting out a breath.
A squeal of pain suddenly fills the air. It takes me but a moment to realise what’s happened, and a film of red tints my vision. I bellow and take a step towards the sudden action, already swinging my mace down. The flint head pounds into the ground, missing the two-faced reptile which has just bitten Ninja. The cub is crying and I need to go to her, but first…
The moving leaves reveal where the snake is; it’s moving faster than even Bastet can catch up even with the furious raptorcat adult out for revenge. I force my anger down: I’ll only have one shot at this.
“Out the way!” I snap at her and she quickly follows my order as I throw my mace.
It’s not the most aerodynamic tool, but it’s directed by my cold fury and my increased Strength. Luck also plays a good part in what happens next: the head falls directly on top of the shifting ground. All goes still.
“Check it’s dead,” I order Bastet shortly as I hurriedly go to Ninja.
The cub is in a bad way, the venom running quickly through her system and destroying her tissues. Fortunately, I have magic for that.
Dropping into a healing trance, I direct magic into the cub’s small body, isolating the venom wreaking havoc in her system and healing the damage to her existing tissues while doing so. It takes a while and a lot of mana, but by the time I return to my own body, she’s as good as new.
My mana bar is down to only twenty-seven units, so it’s just as well I fixed my Core. I wouldn’t have been able to do it all in one go, otherwise. Bastet is sitting near me, her eyes fixed on Ninja.
“She’s OK,” I tell Ninja’s guardian, with tiredness clear in my voice. Grandmother. Aunt. Some relation anyway. I see the snake at Bastet’s feet. It’s bloody – clearly it wasn’t actually dead when Bastet got to it and she just finished the job. Either that or she took out her anger on the corpse. I’m not going to ask.
I’m disappointed with the snake’s choice to seek revenge – what else could it have been? Surely it wasn’t intending on taking the cub for food; its attack was just a malicious attempt to hurt us. Still, I’m grimly satisfied as I look at its corpse: I made it a promise, after all.
Ninja stirs not long later, either the bite or the healing having made her temporarily unconscious. As soon as she moves, Bastet grabs her and starts grooming her almost violently. The cub complains about the treatment, but Bastet just continues until she’s sure that every inch of her cub’s body is clean and tidy.
Are you well? I felt a disturbance. River’s voice entering my head makes me jump a little, but I’m happy to hear him. He must have got close enough for telepathy along the Bond to work.
A snake attacked Ninja, I explain quickly. The snake’s dead and Ninja’s fine. How was your hunting trip?
Well, perhaps you should see it first… he said, a little hint of the mischief which I’d seen when he teased Lathani present. Or I can tell you, he added, a little uncertainly.
No, it’s fine, I tell him, trying to send reassurance down the Bond. I want to encourage him to relax with all of us; at the moment, he’s still a bit too nervous around me in particular.
Not long after, I see the shapes of my other Bound approaching through the trees. Over River’s shoulders is a mass that has to be seen to be believed.