The Search.

Paula and the others came down the stairs into our hideout and we looked over the map.

The others had seen the message on the riverbank a few hours upstream so south and east of us was on the far side of the river above the waterfall.

“Did you leave a message in return?” Oleksiy asked his face still covered in yellow and black paint.

“Yes. We left a message, pointing to the rough location of the waterfall.” Abu provided, he had been avoiding me since we had smithed the blades. He was contemplative, as if he wanted to ask me something but didn’t know if he would like the answer.

“Good, if we can meet up with this group we can increase our chance of survival.” We had been doing well, but there were some very close calls, Abu nearly died right as we landed here.

“Is... This a cave?” As the days went along, my speech was slowly improving. Delia and Indaya would sit me down and help me practice.

I was pointing to a hollow divot on the 3d map, south of us down past the ravine. I had seen it on the map before but never asked Paula about it.

“I’m not sure, it is a large clear space in the trees. Elina saw it by climbing a tall tree overhanging the cliffs by the waterfall.” Paula said, she had a very high level [Navigation] skill, it would be impossible for her to mis-categorise a landmark.

“If this is an entrance to a cave system…” Tobias trailed off his finger moving north from the divot, along the topography of the tactile map.

“Back on Earth I was a geologist, I worked for mining companies.” That's what must have drawn him to Earth magic.

“The stone here is a mix of granite and sandstone, there could be a cave system all the way under this ravine... And if they are east of us…” He trailed off again. He must have been visualising the rock formations under us, and using the river as a guide to hypothesise a cave system.

I would say we look here, marking a spot with his finger. It was directly east of us along the elevated cliffs, headed away from the Lizardmen city.

“The cave entrance will be somewhere along the cliffs exposed by the change in elevation, unless there is a vertical shaft further upriver. Its the best place to start for now.”

“Indaya get me… a bird?” I asked Indaya and he smiled, nodding. Heading out with Elina.

“I will change Grubs to… Bird…” I would be able to see more of the jungle from above and maybe spot any cave openings.

Indaya and Elina came back after an hour with a bird each, Elina muscling for attention. They must have had a competition.

“He shot his out of the air, but mine is bigger!” Elina managed to get out first, looking to anyone in the group to impress. Holding a very large and very colourful parrot, looking fairly mangled by her javelin.

I turned to Indaya, ‘I don’t want a freaking parrot...’

Indaya held out a smaller warm brown bell-bird with a white head, it was impressive if he shot it on the wing. It was quite small only around a foot long beak to tail. It had two dark wattles that dangled at the corners of its mouth like a moustache.

I took the bell-bird and took out my new blade. Calling Grubs over and saying a fond farewell.

“Bye Grubs.” Dismissing him with a solemn nod.

I cast the ritual for [Find Familiar].

I made a cut on my finger as I cast the ritual and dribbled blood into the circle.

[Ritual Hook]

Boline.

Made with master-smithed Spirit-born Song-steel and a handle of expertly carved Spiritual Ironwood Gum

Growth Weapon

Deepens connection to Ethereal Sea

Increased Effect of Ritual Cast Spells.

My boline looked like a sickle. Curved like a fish hook, the blade about a hand in length. The steel was dark and ripples of etherial green were trapped in the metal. There were tiny runes around the handle and on the spine of the blade. Even though it was crescent shaped both sides of the blade had an edge.

I cast out the image of the bell-bird, picturing it slightly bigger but not making any major changes.

There was a puff of smoke making the room smell of incense, and my new familiar appeared in front of me. If it took me five minutes to summon Grubs it only took me four to summon the bell-bird. The bonus to ritual effects shaving off thirty seconds and the deepening of the connection to the Ethereal Sea doing the rest. I could place a totem in four seconds with the Ritual Hook in hand. Once I had ten thousand Cassa I would pay to soul-bind it immediately.

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I looked over the new familiar, it was around fifty percent larger than the bell-bird that Indaya had shot. Warm-brown feathers on the body with a white head from the neck up, two long black wattles drooping down like a moustache, it had tips of white on its wings and a triangle of white on the tips of its tail feathers. He was a handsome bloke.

“I think your name is Bruce… How about you?” The bird cocked his head.

“No no no! You can’t name him Bruce!” Elina slid along the ground, crashing into me. Gripping me tightly. “His name is clearly Calix!”

The familiar in the shape of a bell-bird cocked his head the other way.

“Konstantinos!”

Its head cocked back again. Hopping a little backwards.

“Ioannis!”

He turned his back not looking at Elina in disgust.

“How about Spiros!” He turned, peeking back with the corner of its eye his wattled moustache swaying.

“Yes Spiros is a name for a distinguished gentleman like you!” Elina closed her eyes and nodded, her finger pointing in the air.

Spiros fluttered up and sat on the top of my shaggy head.

“OK… Spiros can you… Go find a cave…” I explained what we were looking for and where by pointing on the map. He would be flying too far for me to control but that was one of the reasons I chose the bell-bird over the parrot.

‘It’s also not bright freaking red…’

Elina grabbed him off my head, and cradled him to her chest. Spiros mostly ignored her.

“If you find a cave along here... Make a call three times...” I instructed the gentlemanly Spiros.

Bell-birds had the loudest call of any bird, if one called next to your ear you would suffer permanent hearing loss. Mating bell-birds could hear each other over a few kilometres away.

Spiros would be able to range much further than I could communicate with him, and call out letting us know where to look.

I pulled him from Elina’s hands, and he flew off to scout the area with a chattering cry. Fluttering out the passage to the landing with my guidance.

“I love him.” Elina looked at me with a serious look on her face. I wandered outside to listen for Spiros.

I sat on the top of the waterfall for a while until it was getting dark. Not hearing Spiros call.

I used a part of the [Find Familiar] spell twice, and Spiros popped into my hands with a swirl of smoky incense. I had banished him to another plane, an empty pocket dimension the spell gave access to... And summoned him straight to me.

“See anything?” I asked the handsome bird scratching his head.

He shook his head, and pointed east down the raised cliffs with a wing. He would look again tomorrow.

I nodded and we went inside to get some food.

Elina was polishing her spear, she jumped up and started cooing over Spiros again. I raised my eyebrow.

“I had a pet bird back on Earth…” She almost whispered. I sent a mental prod to Spiros and he flew onto her shoulder grooming her hair with his wattled beak.

“Oh Spiros! You are so nice!”

“He likes fruit.” I told her. And she ran off.

We ate parrot for dinner, it was kind of oily and not that good. But we had plenty of greens and fruits so wash it down with.

Spiros and Elina were playing a game of catch the berry. Elina tossing a berry up and Spiros flying down to catch it mid air. She looked very happy.

We decided the night watch and turned in, it would be a big day tomorrow.

I hoped we found the other Secta.

----------------------------------------

We woke early, as always I was already up taking the last watch of the night. There was a feeling of excitement in the air, and we gathered our things and left. The plan was for the same groupings as yesterday. The four of us in the guerrilla team would continue to lay ambushes for Lizardmen, while the other six and Spiros would look for the cave system hiding the two Secta that had combined.

I had placed Spiros in Elina’s care. She couldn't communicate with him like I could, but he had a high intelligence. And would be able to operate with verbal instructions, and communicate back with gestures and chirps.

I prepared an extra Sentry ward on my necklace and I would place one regularly as the guerrillas travelled through the bush, I would be less aware of my surroundings without Grubs or Spiros watching my back.

The search team set off and Tobias closed off the stairs so nothing could explore our hideout.

The guerrillas dived into the plunge pool, swimming quickly with the current. As we reached the end of the ravine we ducked low in the water and carefully looked over the forest.

It was quiet, Jack made to move out and Indaya and Oleksiy grabbed her.

Indaya made a hand-sign pre-empting Jack’s spoken outburst. A closed fist with thumb hidden beneath the fingers, danger.

Oleksiy had drilled us in silent communication signals each night, making sure we could communicate without speaking aloud in a combat situation.

I was quickly and quietly making a stone floor under our feet out of the walls of the ravine, under the waterline. Giving us something to push off and protecting underneath us.

There was no sound in the trees around the ravine entrance. That was the problem… usually there would be birds and lizards and other creatures hooting and cawing. There was silence.

Indaya saw it first, stilling himself suddenly.

I followed his gaze and looked at the tree-line. I scanned the bank and then my eyes darted back to a spot I had passed over. There was a large feline, around twice the size of a tiger. I could only just make out its amber eyes and part of its black and burnt orange head in the low under-brush. We were being hunted.

I swam out slowly. Indaya grabbing for me under the water, and I shook his hand away. I swam over to the opposite bank, and never allowing the feline out of my peripheral vision pulled myself out of the water.

We had no chance of running away, it had us clean. Felines were the worst, merciless and heartless. They were smart, if we lingered or took too long it would know that we had spotted it. It would pounce, we were in range of its leap easily. It was a misconception that big cats hated water, a jungle cat like this would happily chase us into the stream.

We had to face it and either scare it away, or kill it.

I channelled a totem and armed myself, hoping the others would back me up. A jungle cat twice the size of a Terran tiger would be unbelievably strong, it would easily clear the river-mouth and try to crush my skull with a killing bite.

I would die without the use of magic and even then I was feeling super exposed, I was hoping to draw it to me and have the others bombard it from the ravine.

I popped two totems.

A [Carved Heart Totem] to guide away a single fatal wound, and an [Earth Manipulation] and [Survival] combination called.

[Earth Hold Totem]

Patient like the earth, held tight.

Any enemies touching the ground within radius will be slowed

Radius: 10 metres

Duration: 5 minutes

Durability: low

It was like a knotted, gnarled hand. I had made the radius extend over the whole river and cover a flat section of grass on the far bank. Hopefully the jungle cat would leap over the river at that point and be slowed, falling short and landing in the deep river water.

I turned to stare at the creature in the eyes and gave a cry. Drawing its full attention. I saw the glint of ivory... Massive killing teeth.

“Oiii!” My voice was higher than I expected, fraught with fear.

I was sweating hard. Out of the corner of my eye I saw the others readying weapons, just under the surface of the water.

It stared into my eyes, deep and calculating. Full of savage intelligence.

My knuckles ached as I gripped my maul in one hand and my boline in the other. Waiting.

My [Carved Heart Totem] faded into drifting motes. It had timed out.

My sweat intensified but I made no moves, silently staring.

It melted into the bush, Vanishing from sight. About to pounce?

I tensed further my arms now shaking with exertion. It had been a full two minutes of tense stand-off.

I dropped a [Sentry Ward Totem], nothing in range...

Another minute later, and the noise returned to the jungle.

I collapsed into a heap.

It had retreated. To hunt us again later.

Unseen.

Unheard.

‘As if we needed more problems.’