Ril jerked. Struggling with the irrational urge to charge mindlessly towards the source of the roar. After only a single step, he managed to suppress the alien emotion and calm himself once more.
[Already improving.] Sin hissed.
RIl rubbed his arm, a grimace on his face. “Hate this crap. How many more times before we can ignore it completely?”
[A dozen. Perhaps more. Although it is unlikely that you will ever be able to completely eradicate the feeling. Even I am slightly swayed by the ability.]
“Really now, and why are you not rushing over to cuddly over there and mauling his face?” Ril gestured towards the general direction of the campsite.
Sin swiped the back of Ril’s head, [Such a paltry ability could not begin to sway my actions. Perhaps one day you will become as resistant as I.]
“Right, ‘cause you’re a cat. Any chance there is a metamorphosis ability out there.” Ril said, beginning the trek back to the campsite. He quickly checked on the bear who was more than a hundred meters away, but other than a brief head tilt, the bear had ignored the sound.
[There is indeed. I await anxiously for your ascension.]
“You know? The irony is that we don’t know if the bear ignored the roar because he was too far away or because I asked it to leave.”
Sin flicked his tail into Ril’s face. [Perhaps another test is in order.]
“Oi,” Ril sputtered, waving ineffectually at the elusive tail, “stop doing that.”
Sin didn’t deign that with a response.
Ril shook his head and summoned his clone to his side, and stepped into camp.
They had made good progress in setting up the temporary camp, with several rocks and logs as chairs arrayed around a cheery campfire. Liam was roasting one of the geese over the fire, but it looked more char than meat by this point.
“Hey Ril! Welcome back!” Liam exclaimed, “How was the scouting trip?”
“It went well, nothing dangerous in the immediate surroundings, and I even managed to collect some herbs that will help if any of us get injured. I see you guys set up the campsite without issues.” RIl replied, taking a seat on a lopsided log.
“We fabricobbled it right up.” Liam said, proudly.
“What did you find?” Gael asked.
“Ahuh,” Ril said slowly, “Well, only some minor painkillers, but it is better than nothing.”
Ril leaned forwards looking between the burnt duck and Liam. “So, Liam? What’s for lunch?”
Liam’s happy expression immediately plummeted and he looked sadly towards the black mess the fire had made of the succulent meat.
“Disappointment.” he intoned sadly.
“That’s uhm. sorry?” Ril said awkwardly. He reached into his pack and pulled out some dried rations that he began to munch on. “Want some?”
Liam took a ration and began to chew on it morosely. There was a moment of pregnant silence where no one seemed to have anything to say until Liam swallowed and disrupted the quiet.
“Anyway! Like I was saying, Anduin, the tournament. It’s going to be awesome. I can’t wait. I heard they are going to get a bunch a’ bards to entertain us! Music, ladies, beer! What’s not to love?”
“It’s going to be hella crowded.” Delilah grouched.
“Don’t worry we can find you an upscale inn and I’ll clear the way for you on the streets. You know that I will, baby doll.” Liam reassured.
“I for one think the crowds are going to be exciting. All that noise and movement. I think it’ll be great.” Orion added.
Ril leaned over to Zed and surreptitiously whispered to him. “What?”
Zed leaned back, “they are talking about what they are going to spend the money of this mission on. They are planning on heading to Anduin after in order to watch the tournament.”
“Right, the tournament. It is happening sometime in spring right?” Ril asked.
“Early spring yeah. I am actually considering going, if we can convince the boss somehow.”
Ril nodded and turned back to the conversation.
Liam was in the process of hesitantly snapping off a charred limb from his overcooked fowl testing it for edibility. He put it in his mouth and crunched. A small puff of black ash swirled down from his lips to rest on his lap. Liam grimaced then carefully extricated the inedible lump and threw it into the fire.
“Blech. The princess’ll be there too. Which’ll be awesome.” Liam said, after tossing what remained of the burnt bird into the flames with a morose expression. A rush of glowing sparks erupted from the campfire and floated upwards, fading to obscurity within moments.
Orion rolled her eyes. “You and the princess, what’s so great about her anyway.”
“She’s awesome! She’s got super strong ice powers, and she’s pretty to boot. What isn’t great about her?” Liam retorted.
“Her frigid personality,” Orion muttered before raising her voice once more. “She’s getting married anyway, so you should find some other girl to cheer for.”
Ril blinked.
“I don’t like her like that! Get your mind outta the-”
“Wait, the princess is getting married? Which princess?” Ril interrupted.
“The princess. Evelyn Von Artorius, the Frigid Doom.” Orion replied,
“No one calls her that! You made that up!” Liam groaned as he chucked a lump of snow at the smaller woman.
Orion ducked back, dodging the errant projectile “Did not! I heard it in a bar in Sela. I swear, that’s what they’ve been calling her.”
“Wait a second here.” Ril said, “Who is she getting married to and when? Why haven’t I heard of this?”
Ril tossed Zed a questioning glance but the other guy only shrugged, as unaware of this development as Ril himself.
“Dunno,” Orion shrugged, “Some noble by the name of Oren Von Seamen.”
“That’s not right, the lucky groom is Orden, not Orlen. Orden Von Seamen.” Liam corrected.
Ril frowned, “You mean Orden Von Seidel?”
“That’s the one!” Liam crowed.
“I think I like Seamen better.” Orion said, reclining back on her log as she checked her daggers for blemishes of any kind. After a cursory inspection she pulled out a whetstone, and began sharpening them.
“Huh,” Ril huffed, slumping back on his lumpy chair.
“Supposedly they got betrothed like a month ago or something, and are planning the wedding to be after the tournament sometime.” Gael spoke from the sidelines. He was reclined on the wagon while chewing on some jerky.
“Right, well,” Ril said as he got up, taking a couple steps away. “I’m going to scout the perimeter again.”
“You just did that!” Liam exclaimed, “There’s no danger, my roar made sure of that.”
“That wasn’t a roar. At most it was a glorified shout.” Orion poked Liam in the belly.
“Was not. I roar.” he retorted. “Wait, Ril, join us.”
“Nah that’s ok, I’m good.” Ril said, stepping away from the group and splintering away from his clone.
He found a spot several dozen meters away from the central campfire and settled down to watch. Watching two unchanging panoramas of nature rather than one didn’t make it significantly more interesting, but it did cut down on the amount of rubbernecking required.
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[She is a princess. It was bound to happen eventually.] Sin whispered eventually.
“Sure,” Ril replied sullenly. “Doesn’t mean I have to like it. Orden’s a git.”
[Good thing you aren’t stuck with him for the rest of your life.] Sin rolled over, letting out a content sigh.
Ril froze as a wave of pungent air humidified his hood. “Did you just fart in my hood?”
[Aren’t you glad that you are stuck with me instead?] Sin replied innocently.
Ril growled, dropping his hood to air it out a little. The frigid winter air didn’t do anything to improve his mood.
* * *
Some time later Ril heard footsteps crunching on the snow behind him. He turned around subtly only to notice Orion trudging through the snow. Ril turned back and resumed his watch of the plains and the sparse forest in the distance.
Orion stepped up beside him and pulled out a stick of jerky and held it up to the sun.
“I brought jerky.” she declared proudly.
“I don’t want jerky, but thanks for offering.” Ril replied quietly.
“I did not bring this jerky for you. This is my jerky.” Orion stated, before chomping on the far end of the meat with fervor.
Ril hesitated briefly, “Then why are you telling me that you brought it?”
Orion shrugged, “It’s a conversation starter.”
Ril frowned, “That’s a lousy conversation starter.”
“Oh yeah? Well we are conversing, so checkmate.” Orion said, jabbing the half eaten meat towards Ril.
[Orion, one. Ril zero.] Sin chuckled into Ril’s mind.
Ril’s eye twitched before he sighed in defeat, “Wonderful. Alright, what do you want.”
“Oh, we’re leaving. Thought you’d like to know, so you could, you know, join us.”
“Right,” Ril got up and immediately began walking over the snow with his shadow snowshoes.
Orion stumbled, then hurried to try and catch up to him. “Hey nifty trick, can you share it.”
“No.”
The group reconvened and broke camp in record time. It wasn’t a particularly involved process considering that all they did was drag a few logs and rocks in a rough semicircle and get a fire going, but they still did their due diligence to bank the fire and return the site, at least partially, to nature.
They continued on for several more hours, and it was around when the sun was reaching the horizon that they came upon a burned out caravan lying desolately at the side of the road. The caravan was a large four-wheeler that could theoretically be covered by a canvas tarp to protect the contents from the sun and the elements, however nature and flame had long since destroyed any functionality that the caravan might have had.
What remained was a rotten husk that lay off kilter and half submerged in the knee high snow. Only one wheel remained attached to the main body which left the structure leaning haphazardly, though it was unlikely to still retain its original function.
“We have at least another hour or so of daylight left, but this seems like a good enough place to camp for the night. What do you say?” Gael said.
The rest of the group nodded, and set off with the preparations.
“Wanna try out the powder beast detector?” Ril asked Liam.
“Sure! One second.” Liam nodded then adopted a mildly constipated expression as he centered his stance then unleashed a mighty blast of sound that reverberated unnaturally across the countryside.
Ril flinched, trembling mightily as he fought against the compulsion. The rest of the members turned towards the surrounding plains, their hands over their weapons and their stances tense.
A minute passed, then another, and only then when nothing came rampaging towards them did the group relax.
“God, I love travelling during winter.” Gael murmured, while dumping his pack onto the ground and beginning to rummage through it.
“Why’s that?” Zed asked.
“All the predators are asleep. That shout would have drawn a veritable army to this position during spring.” Gael paused for a moment, then added, “probably.”
Ril for his part, started looking around. It seemed like a worthy task for the scout of the group and quickly he found himself climbing into the wreckage of the caravan to search for who knows what.
Zed joined him a moment later, and looked into the damaged interior with mild disinterest.
“Think there is still something left of value in there?” Zed asked, leaning idly against the aged wood.
“Couldn’t hurt to check.” Ril replied, although he was unsure how to go about the process.
“Oh sure, I’ll go check the perimeter. It is possible that Liam’s shout attracted something that was too far away to attack before the compulsion faded. Maybe I can convince it to remain away.”
“Sounds good. How are you holding up?” Ril gave Zed a pointed glance, trying to convey that he was interested in how the other man was handling Liam’s ability rather than the general situation that they were in.
“I’m getting used to it much faster than I expected.” Zed replied, seemingly understanding what Ril was getting at. “I’d say that in a couple of days this won’t even be uncomfortable. You?”
Ril nodded, glad that his friend understood him so easily. “It is certainly an interesting assignment.”
Zed grinned then waved and headed out, walking in ever expanding spirals around the campsite in search of anything of interest.
Ril turned his attention towards the ruined cart. He carefully crouched down, and focused on Discern. The ability was at a constant low buzz in the background, but Ril generally didn’t focus on it since the information that it provided was often confusing or not helpful. At least outside of combat.
Now however, it would allow him to search under all the nooks and crannies of the cart without significantly less effort. Of course it did nothing for the snow covering the ground, but Ril had an idea for that as well.
A quick search with Discern didn’t reveal anything of interest above the snow so Ril went on to the second part of his plan. He gently placed an open palm onto the pristine surface of the snow. Then with the precision gained through long practice he extended his awareness into the snow. With a trick of his mind, he pretended that the snow itself was actually snow that he had conjured up with his Ice ability.
It took a second, and several iterations where he actually summoned some evenly spread snow but eventually Ril managed to obtain a vague control over the snow within a meter or so around him.
Grinning, Ril tugged on the snow. He didn’t have nearly the power to shift such a large amount of snow without Telekinesis, but what he was hoping for was to sense if there was any place where the snow didn’t shift. That would indicate that there was something not made of snow hidden under the fluffy surface.
The snow trembled, shifting a little, before settling.
Nothing, Ril thought and moved forwards a couple steps to repeat the process.
This time he found something. It felt long, and vaguely rectangular in the negative imprint that it left in the shifting snow. Ril grinned, and placed his other hand on the snow, conjuring up tendrils of shadow that dug into the white material to encircle the object he found.
Ril clenched his fist, and the inky tendrils constricted, dragging the object to the surface.
A...plank?
Ril looked over the piece of aged lumber in his hand and realized the flaw in his plan. There was plenty of debris littered under the surface of the snow. He was more likely to find garbage than anything useful.
Ril looked back at the campsite and saw that there wasn’t anything that he could really help with. Orion had commandeered the campfire away from Liam and was preparing food, while Liam was returning with the driest pieces of wood that he could scavenge from the surrounding area. Delilah sat primly on the cart while Gael cared for whatever needs she had and Zed was visibly still scouting in the distance.
Ril shrugged, not much else for him to do.
Ril returned to his search. He found plenty of aged and rotten planks, several scraps of cloth as well as what looked like a metal flask that may have contained alcohol of some kind but now was only full of mud. It took several minutes and dozens of attempts before he hit upon a jackpot. Underneath the snow he felt a perfectly smooth hemisphere peeking out of the dirt and into the snow. At first he dismissed the feeling, simply assuming that it was a rock, but the unnatural smoothness of the object brought him up short.
Ril sent his shadowy tendrils deep into the snow to retrieve the object, and when it surfaced he was pleasantly surprised.
Held in his hand was a divine sphere. A small one, but still an orb made of silvery bright metal used to introduce the interface to children who have come of age.
Ril turned the object in his hands, inspecting the impeccable surface for any blemish. Of which he found none.
[A strange object. What use does it serve?] Sin whispered.
“It’s a divine sphere. We give them to children and it allows them to see their stats and abilities.” Ril replied.
[Divine? May I?] Sin prowled out of Ril’s deep hood and poked his nose towards the object. Ril moved the divine sphere closer and allowed the cat to sniff it.
[Fascinating, and how...childish.] Sin replied before retreating back to the darkness of the hood.
“What do you mean?” Ril replied before looking around. He had managed to search nearly the entire space and he thought it unlikely that he would find anything worthwhile by continued searching.
[Childish that you humans require such confirmation of your own abilities. Are you so unaware of your own limits that you require them spelled out in front of you?]
“Well it is nice to have a list of all my capabilities organized.” Ril replied, as he got up from his crouch and began to head towards the cheery fire.
[And yet, it does not feature the full breadth of your capabilities does it? You can jump can you not. Chewing was within your capabilities last time I checked. Does your little interface highlight those aspects of your character?]
Ril paused, “Well no. But that’s basic. Everyone can jump, but not everyone can spawn a clone of themselves at will.”
[But you would know if you could do that with or without the interface.]
“Would I? I’m not so sure.” Ril replied.
At that Sin hesitated, [Perhaps I have overestimated your species once more. My apologies.]
Ril snorted, by now used to Sin’s low opinion of people. He climbed out of the remains of the old caravan and joined the others around the campfire.
“Look what I found.” Ril said, and tossed the divine sphere to Orion who caught it deftly.
“Oh! You found one of my...balls.” Orion chuckled awkwardly. “Where’s the other one?”
“Your secret is safe with me,” Ril snorted, and pointed towards the decaying caravan. “It was buried under all the snow over there. Think that this caravan used to shuttle those things around?”
“Could be,” Gael nodded to Orion who gave the sphere one more cursory look before tossing it to him. “It is also possible that someone was bringing this to their kid.”
Ril and the others collectively winced.
“What?” Gael asked defensively, “it could have happened like that.”
“Well whatever happened back then, let’s hope we don’t get a repeat showing. Hmm?” Orion muttered, then she turned to Liam who was fiddling with an oblong box which he had been lugging around all day. “Oi! Liam, when are you going to get the tent up?”