CHAPTER 5: APTITUDES

I turned my head slowly to glance at who or what made the noise, and my eyes went wide. A large white bear sauntered towards us. It knows we’re here, and it’s where it doesn’t belong. “Quiet. There is an icebear headed our way,” I whispered harshly as I stood up, placing my pack on the ground. The bear drifted to the side, and a second bear became visible after the first. Two? That’s just inconvenient.

“What is an icebear?” Daric asked as he looked around.

I pointed to the two bears. “That.”

“What do we do? There’s two of them.” Anna placed a hand on my arm.

I shrugged Anna’s hand off my arm. “You all can run if you want. But I need to deal with them.” I crouched forward. “I will find you after I greet these unwanted guests.” I lunged forward.

“We can help!” Mark’s shout almost caused me to trip.

“You want to help? Fine, be my guest. Take care of the one in the back.” I pointed a finger at Penny. “Keep your fire to a minimum. If a fire breaks out, I can’t put it out.”

“Who do you want to help you?” Penny glared daggers at me.

The two bears were running at us as I turned back towards them. “I won’t need any help.” I slipped into my focused state, allowing my vision to turn red.

The world around me slowed as I sprinted straight for my target. I ignored whatever the others were saying as they got ready to fight. The bear in front stopped running and raised itself on its hind legs. So if this one is a male bear, I'm willing to bet a hundred coins that the other bear is female. The bear stood twice my height as it released a painful roar. I clenched my jaw and focused on his giant paws.

As I got closer to the bear, he brought his right paw down to slash at me with his claws. I shoved my claws into his paw, just below the largest pad. I continued to run towards the bear’s armpit, pulling his foreleg along with me. The bear tried to shuffle its hind legs and turn so that he could keep his balance and snap at me with his massive jaws. I followed his moment, making his attempt at biting pointless.

Once I had his front leg pulled back, I bit down on it and brought my other arm up to break the bone. A deafening roar bellowed from the bear as he pulled away from me. I bit down harder, cutting through all the fat, hair, and muscles. Before the bear could pull his leg back, I dug my claws into the wound I created with my jaws. With two deep cuts, the leg was dangling from less than half the flesh it normally did. The bear continued to pull away from me, and I from him, until the flesh ripped and we both landed backwards.

Pained whimpers were the only sounds that came out of the bear now. You picked the wrong territory. This isn’t my fault.. I threw the severed paw to the ground and charged the bear as it bled heavily from the stump. It tried to limp away from me, but I rammed him and knocked him to his side.

I leaped on his throat, digging my claws in. He attempted to swat at me with his other paw, but I just kicked it away, leaving a deep gash with my toe claws. Slashing furiously, I continued to dig through his neck until I made my way to his spine. I watched as the bear stopped moving but continued to stare at me with terror-filled eyes. The bear’s once beautiful white fur was now marred by the crimson blood that flowed from its wounds. That was almost too easy.

I took a deep breath and returned my vision to normal before I checked on the others. I turned and saw Daric drive his sword into the bear’s hind leg. His sword stopped moving, and the sword slipped from his grasp as the bear spun around and swiped a claw at him. All Daric had time to do was cross his arms to protect himself. I gasped as I watched the paw collide with the human. His body tumbled at least an arc, maybe two, before stopping.

No! My bed!

Silver jumped up and slammed his mace into the top of the bear’s skull. The bear swayed and wandered forward on all fours as I sprinted towards it and plunged my arm through its eye socket until half of my bicep was inside the animal’s skull. I growled as I swirled my arm around in its brain. Once the bear began to convulse, I pulled my arm out and took a few steps back to watch it flail around in its death throes.

As everything went silent, I turned to look at Daric’s corpse. “You stupid idiot, why didn’t you dodge? Now, I won’t get my new bed. This has been an entire waste of time.” I paced around in circles.

“Ow. Okay, I admit, that hurt a bit.” Did that corpse just talk? I stopped my pacing and turned to see Daric unfold himself and sit up. “Those are much stronger than I thought they would be.”

“How are you alive?” I place my hands on top of my head.

“Are you okay?” Golditress jogged up to me. “Is your arm bleeding? Did you get hit in the face?” She dropped her bow as she grabbed my arm to pull it down.

I jerked my arm away from her and pointed at Daric. “Did you not see him get slapped by that bear and fly almost two arcs? Why are you worried about me?”

Golditress didn’t look towards Daric. Instead, she reached for my arm again. “He’ll be fine. It is almost impossible for him to die. If he does get hurt, he will just heal it in a day or two. Tell me where you are bleeding and I will make it all better.”

I shoved the insistent girl away. “I'm not hurt. This isn’t my blood.”

Golditress flinched away from me. “Oh, sorry. I guess I will just retrieve my arrows then.”

I watched Golditress slowly walk away from me towards the bear. Her gaze was fixed on the ground. I know she means well. She reminds me of how Zenny acted when I first met her.

Stolen novel; please report.

Silver’s footsteps caught my attention. “It seems that you have some explaining to do.” He pointed to the severed bear’s arm. “How did you cut off a bear’s arm and kill it faster than us?”

I rolled my eyes. This is going to be a really, really long mission. I took a deep breath and closed my eyes. “I'm strong. Okay? Also, I do this for a living.” I opened my eyes and looked at the two bear corpses. “Now I have to do something about the bodies.” That is a lot of meat and hide to deal with.

“Just burn them.” I snapped my attention to Penny as she gave her suggestion.

I bared my fangs. “Don’t you dare. They’re my kills, I decide what to do with them.”

Dinar poked out from behind one of the corpses. “Do you plan on taking them with us?”

I shook my head. “We can’t. There is too much to carry. If we had a cart, maybe. But then it would be much harder to navigate a cart through these woods.” We’re still close to town. “Maybe I can at least remove their hides and take them back home really quickly. That is a lot of money. But if I do that, then it will probably still take the rest of the day and make this mission take even longer.“ I paced as I thought out loud.

“If it is that important to you, then we will camp here and watch them for you.” Silver said as he took a few steps towards me. “You also look like you need to get cleaned up. That is a lot of blood.”

“Yeah, I'm not in any hurry.” Daric rejoined the group. “This is the start of my epic quest. A small delay like this won’t hurt. And while you work, we can have that talk you mentioned. “ He walked towards all of our packs. “I have lots of questions I want to ask you.”

Oh, I bet you do. I flattened my ears as I moved to the bear that I nearly decapitated to begin skinning it. “For every question you ask, I get to ask two questions.”

“What kind of exchange rate is that?” Penny blurted.

I turned my head and growled. “There are more of you than me.”

Silver stood between Penny and me. “That is more than fair. Right, Penny?“ Penny crossed her arms and looked away from us. Silver extended his hand towards me. “Is there anything we can help you with?”

“You can stay out of the way.” I said as I dragged a claw around the bear’s neck. “First question: how did the wannabe hero survive? What are his aptitudes?” I continued cutting the hide with my claw down the animal’s sternum.

“We didn’t ask a question yet.” Penny stomped her foot as she nearly shrieked.

I twitched my ear. “Yes, Silver did.” I paused for a moment. “And this is my warning to you. Stop yelling.”

“So, you want to play it like that, do you?” Penny clenched her jaw as she whispered.

“I can still hear you.” I growled as I started to peel the hide away from the muscles and used my claws to sever anything that was stuck.

Penny’s heavy footsteps moved towards me. “Penny, please be reasonable.” Dinar shuffled in front of Penny and halted her movement.

“But, she...” Penny started to say.

“Has agreed to help us and is capable of killing a bear. I don’t want to be on her bad side.“ Dinar interrupted.

Golditress walked up behind me. “Daric has two aptitudes: durability and recovery. The durability aptitude makes his skin harder to pierce and his bones harder to break.” Her voice was barely more than a whisper.

I laughed. “So, he is a living punching bag.”

“I'm not! I'm a hero!“ Daric ran towards me, carrying all the packs.

“You have had your two questions. Now we have ours.” Penny spat as she grabbed her pack from Daric. “What is your aptitude?”

“Physical.” I said without turning away from my work. No, I shouldn’t hide it from them. “And recovery.”

“Wait, you are a hero too?” Daric dropped the rest of the packs he was carrying.

Evalana’s face flashed in my mind. “To some people, yes.” I slumped my shoulders as I answered. “But I'm not a very good one.”

“That would explain the strength.” Silver mused to nobody.

I finished pulling away most of the hide from the first bear. I cut off a large chunk of meat from the back and held it out for someone to grab. “Here, you can eat this today. Just cook it slowly and take small bites. Mom says it is really tough meat.“ Golditress reached out for the meat. She looked half terrified and half amazed.

As I released the meat, Golditress nearly fell forward as the weight was more than she was expecting. But she managed to keep it from touching the ground. Dinar moved to help her. “Silver, would you mind starting a campfire with Penny, please? I’ll get this ready to be put on a spit.”

“Now, what are the rest of your aptitudes?” I grabbed Daric’s sword and threw it at his feet. “Don’t lose that.”

Daric blushed as he knelt down to pick his sword up. “Dinar’s is dexterity.” He pointed to the elf girl he talked about before he moved to point to Golditress. “She is a bowyer and our resident healer since she can use healing magic.” Healing magic? I really hope we never need to use that. I don’t want to lose years from my life. I followed the finger as it moved to point at Mark. “Numbers.” Daric then pointed to Penny. “Pyromania, also known as fire manipulation.”

“I heard that!” Penny gave Daric a threatening glare.

I arched an eyebrow. Yeah, she is a fiery one, alright. “And Silver?”

Daric grinned. “Basket weaving.”

“I haven’t lied or played any jokes. Take this seriously.” I glared at the jester.

“He is telling the truth,” Silver said as he hung his head.

I laid the hide flat before walking towards the bear that I killed by myself. Now I feel bad for the guy. Basket weaving? And he follows the wannabe hero. How much worse can his luck get? “How far away can you use magic, Penny?” I asked as I started to work on the next hide.

“Ten arcs.” Penny answered curtly. Wow! Noted.

“You have changed, Lucia.” Anna’s voice nearly made me jump. I forgot that she was here. “I feel like I don’t know you anymore. There is nothing shy about you. But what I want to know is, how did you get your title?”

I chuckled. “Which part?”

“All, please.” Anna replied as she walked towards me with even and confident steps.

“The short version is that while I was still at the orphanage and would go on my runs, I would run so fast that people would feel a breeze and describe me as a streak of silver. And then King Ramos gave me the title because I saved Evalana’s life and spared Aurtour’s life during the tournament.”

“You’re the one that saved my cousin's life?” Daric froze while he was unpacking a simple tent.

“And what do you mean, spared Aurtour’s life?” Anna narrowed her eyes on me.

“It is a long story. One I wish I could forget and don't want to tell.” I flattened my ears. “No more questions.”