Willow
Fleeing, Feather-branch Forest, Savriâ
A day’s worth of rest and recovery had done everyone good. Being caught off guard and swarmed by weak and stupid opponents was disheartening. Not only had they underestimated pop-hopper intellect, or at least their capacity for the animal cunning necessary to counter attack an unknown danger, they’d also almost been beaten by the weak creatures! The embarrassment of dying to pop-hoppers would surely have killed me.
It had been a good reminder that they didn’t know everything and were still in an unfamiliar world. Despite taking things slowly, learning about their environment and their opponents, they’d still almost ended up ending their “real world” experience way too soon. As if to drive the point home harder, the weather had changed and even the ever-present mist had dissipated! It was as if the entire planet was mocking their assumption that they’d gotten a handle on things.
The group had taken the reminders to heart. Which was why they were surprised, but not stunned, when the earth started pounding. The ground shook. At first the tremors were light, hardly noticed, but they quickly grew to the point that Jonah had to link everyone into the party chat to communicate. Thankfully, by that time they had their campsite packed up and they were all ready to make a break for it. The only issue was they had no idea which direction to head.
As if reading her mind, Jonah’s voice came through the party chat, “Something huge is coming from the north, I think. I can’t quite see it in my RTS view, yet, but I can see the trees swinging about like they’re in a storm and the ground seems to literally be rising and falling. I have no idea what it is, but we should go. I can’t tell how far away it is, but worse effects than some small earth-quakes are incoming. Only thing I can say for sure, the areas to the east or west appear slightly less violent.”
“South-east it is, then.” Naomi’s clipped decision came through the channel and they all turned to run.
“Think it’s a natural disaster of some kind?” Willow sent as she lead them through the forest, taking care not to outrun her friends. She took the extra time her higher speed allowed to check for danger as a kind of scout. Jonah was probably watching from above already, but the canopy could obscure his view if he was fully zoomed out.
A trembling “BOOM” drowned out everything for a moment. Her new skill, which she had named Back Into It in honor of Mr. Joseph’s straight-forward but effective pep talk, even kicked in for a moment to heal something. She had managed to set it up to automatically heal her if she was hurt, unless she was actually in a fight. In that case it wouldn’t heal her until she activated it.
Despite the continued cacophony of several trees falling in the distance behind them, she heard Jonah’s reply clearly through the channel, “I don’t think so. I’ve never heard of anything that would cause multiple mini earth quakes in an apparent line. Not to mention the swaying trees seem to indicate some kind of incredible wind-force. There’s not a cloud in the sky and the wind has been mild all day, I don’t think it is a hurricane. Do tornadoes make ‘booming’ sounds when they touch down? Could be a tornado bouncing in a line toward us?”
Picturing an 80s-style animated tornado bouncing along through the forest causing the “camera” to shake brought a slight smile to Willow’s lips despite the grim situation. They kept running for a bit before Jonah stopped them. “We should hunker down here. It looks like there’s-”
BOOM-BOOM.
Two of the explosion-like blasts of concussive noise struck almost on top of each-other. They seemed to be coming from either side of the team. The trees began to violently bend. The longer branches fell, some flying off into the distance as a sudden gust of wind swept through and slammed into them from the east and west. All three of them were lifted bodily from the earth and scattered at random, the conflicting gusts of powerful wind feeling like being the rope in a reverse tug-of-war.
Her body slamming hard enough into the ground to knock breath out, Willow gasped for air and only recovered a bit after several stunned seconds. BOO-BOOMM. The screaming wind came again from either side just a moment later but failed to pick her up this time, as she was still laying on her back. Then the earth bucked and tossed her several feet into the air. Twisting, she did her best to control her fall. Only to be tossed up and sent spinning by wind from either side again. Feeling her body hit a tree, Willow lost her just-regained breath again and hit the ground just as gracelessly as the first time. BO-BOOOMM. The explosions from either side were growing both more frequent and more in-sync with each other as whatever was happening was getting closer.
Finally, Willow managed to grab hold of the trunk of one of the feather-branch trees and clung for her life. She quickly sent a message asking if the others were okay. She couldn’t see or hear anything. The explosive wind was constant now, shoving all sound away as it kicked up dust and debris. Several branches struck Willow’s back and sides as she clung to her chosen trunk and groaned. She continued to let her Back Into It skill heal her, not sure how long this would go on but hoping the others weren’t getting battered quite so hard.
Both Jonah and Naomi responded curtly. Jonah with, “Alive.” And Naomi with a mental grunt, as if she’d just had her own breath knocked out of her. Still, alive and at least well enough to answer. It would have to do. From her position clinging desperately, Willow caught sight of something over the treetops in the distance. A massive pillar of some kind of white and grey stone descended from the sky. The next moment another pair of BOOMing concussions rocked the world. The earth seemed to buck and twist, doing its best to throw herself and her tree both into the air. The tenacious feather-frond held itself firmly to the ground, while Willow held herself to the tree in turn. I’m gonna figure out what trees like so I can give you a present after this! Who’s laughing? That’s disturbing, and… Oh, it’s me. Well yeah, this is as good a time for mad laughter as any.
The cylindrical mountain that she’d seen fall from the sky lifted and moved across the skyline. Holy Jesus, is that thing… What’s big enough to pick something like that up?! Is the wind throwing cliffs?!
Full of inane thoughts and fear, Willow clung to her tree. She checked in with Naomi and Jonah every few seconds, each of them confirming their continued aliveness. It felt as if the nightmare continued for either a million years, or a couple minutes. Given none of their bodies gave out and no one died of old age, the later was likely more accurate.
Once the huge sky-column moved across her view and continued onward in a southern direction, the earth’s insistence that it was actually a bouncy house calmed and the wind stopped attempting to play badminton with Willow’s body. She finally released her death-grip on the tree when she only heard the BOOMs of the giant pillars hitting the earth as distant thunder. She briefly wondered if her grip had left permanent dents in the trunk.
Giving her skill only a few moments to heal her, Willow forced herself to her feet and went in search of Jonah and Naomi. She was surprised to find them together. They had, apparently, managed to link hands and stay together somehow. They had also found a tree to hold themselves down with, their arms wrapped together around a trunk holding each-other fast by their wrists. Willow could see blood pooling around Naomi’s fingernails as they dug into Jonah’s skin. Bruises were already forming on Naomi’s skin from Jonah’s vice-grip.
Even so, seeing them both mostly unharmed brought a wave of relief through Willow’s system. She cheered, “We survived! I think you should be good to let go.”
After several silent seconds, they seemed to register her words and both let go at about the same time. Both of them sprawled out on their backs, on opposite sides of the tree, gasping for breath.
“That sucked.” Willow stated brightly as she flopped down on the ground herself.
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Madrick
Observing From Above, Feather-branch Forest, Savriâ
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The sight of behemoth giants running was somewhat impressive, in an academic kind of sense. He watched the several hundred meter tall creatures running with what appeared to be extreme concentration based on the tension in their body language. If Madrick were to proportionally measure, these creatures were ponderously slow. If they were scaled down to around human proportions, they’d barely even be walking. They moved as if in low gravity, slow and deliberate.
Although, given these titans were only humanoid in the very strictest of senses, judging by human standards was likely pointless. They each stood on two legs which made up two thirds of their entire bodies. They were quite slender, again - proportionally, with their arms and legs being about equal in width. Their arms, unlike their legs, were short. Odder still, they protruded from the creature’s hips. Where the legs and torso met, small arms tipped with slender hands with nine fingers each protruded awkwardly. To complete the odd, almost grotesque, composition: they creatures had no necks. Their heads sat atop the end of their torsos, though not shoulders given their arms were well below. He couldn’t make out any specific facial features and honestly wasn’t sure they had any. He’d have said the top of the creatures were literally just boulders, but for the fact that they seemed to turn and twist somehow to look and take in the world around themselves.
The reason the creatures were so ponderously slow, even while trying to run, was obvious. They were being very careful to maintain their balance and it was a struggle. They were horribly unbalanced creatures which Madrick had a hard time believing were natural. His Eyes of Conquest activated and confirmed the suspicion a moment later. It appeared they were rift creatures. Odd, I sense no rifts on this planet…
Watching from above for only a few minutes longer, Madrick sighed and turned back to his task of scouring the planet for his quarry. He was just about to continue the pattern-based search he’d begun the night before and continued through the morning, but stopped when he saw the back-side of one of the titan’s boulder heads. It had a symbol of some kind carved into it. Glancing at the creature’s sibling, he confirmed the symbol wasn’t normal for their kin. Someone had marked the giant deliberately. Given the being he was hunting had been performing odd experiments of some kind on Hesvāra, it was entirely possible this was another test of some kind. Alternatively, someone might have marked the giants like a ranger might mark a released creature after rehabilitating it so they could identify it in the future if needed.
In either case, it suggested the possibility that that particular giant might be a hint. It was unlikely to begin covering the traces of its passing. Each of the creatures steps left a swath of cleared forest, with small hills forming around in an almost uniform pattern. Suddenly, the odd topography of the planet made sense. The periodic clearings were clearly the path forged by these creatures, or similar ones, in the past. Even the strangely predictable hills made sense. The only features Madrick had noted on the planet that weren’t entirely predictable were rivers and streams. He’d seen a distinct lack of lakes or oceans, and the large but short trees which hid underneath the feather-like fronds of most common form of life here.
Turning, Madrick flew through the air above the trees, tracking the path of the marked giant back toward its origin. Using his domain and his aspect of fire to simultaneously twist the laws of physics and propel himself, he covered the entire distance the giants had traveled in less than twenty minutes. He guessed it would have taken those ungainly monsters several hours given how slowly they’d taken to take each ‘running’ step.
At the end, he finally found something of interest. One of the short trees had been ripped out of the earth. After some examination and careful thought, Madrick determined that it was likely the giants ate the roots of the trees. Taking the time to cut across the forest, Madrick found the second giant’s origin as well and confirmed a similar scene there. Whether they were eating the trees, or tearing them up for some other purpose, they were definitely interested in these trees. Recalling the next trees within the path the giants were taking, Madrick headed directly there, assuming he’d arrive first by a large margin.
The tree he approached was surrounded by the little creatures that his apprentice had been killing since he sent her here. Hmm… It seems her fun will be at an end shortly, too bad. Though, it might be amusing to watch her try to defeat the giants. He took a moment to consider as he stared out toward the slowly distant forms of the two titans. They clearly didn’t have any idea where the next nearest tree was, as they were meandering about at this point. They’d stopped their madly slow dash, for whatever reason, and now seemed to be trying to figure out where to go. Maybe. She could certainly outwit them, though that’s a low bar. She’d have to figure out how to harm them though, as I’m certain their defensive capability is much higher than their agility.
An hour later, Madrick’s wait finally came to an end. Not because the giants arrived, but because he felt several people enter the area of his domain. First, an unknown fae came from the east. This one had long deer horns, multi-colored scales which shimmered like a dragon fly’s, and pink fairy wings. Although the fae were, by nature, impossible to categorize easily by sight, Madrick could sense that this one wasn’t his equal in any way. It was weak. Only somewhere near rank four. He was also fairly certain it wasn’t much of a fighter. The way it walked was brusque, businesslike, and inattentive. It wasn’t the walk of someone who saw combat often.
Despite his weakness, Madrick was fairly certain he was the one who had created the teleportation circle in the tower. He also suspected he was the one who marked the giant. His reason for those suspicions? The miniaturized enchanting workstation strapped to him like a backpack. That can’t be comfortable on his wings. Madrick thought in amusement.
Just as he was about to go and take the fae back to Hesvāra to complete his contract, several more beings passed into his domain from the west. His disciple and her servants had arrived. His eyebrow’s raised and he rethought his plans. He’d let them meet first, it would be much more entertaining than him simply plucking the upstart fae up and dragging him back by an ear.
Actually… Maybe… After a few moments of thought, Madrick decided to finally give his little apprentice some direction.
Willow
Approaching the Pop-Hopper Village, Feather-branch Forest, Savriâ
Naomi had been the one to propose returning to the pop-hopper village before heading back to the kobolds. The rationale was simple. It had been several days since they’d been here, so they didn’t know how much had changed. They’d get a quick status update, then turn tail and hightail it over to their, well not friends but, maybe, allies. Employers? They were gonna teach us some stuff, after all… So barter partners?
Neither Willow nor Jonah had an objection after they confirmed with the crude map they’d kept on them that the camp wasn’t in the path of whatever those things had been. They’d been distant and the trees had blocked all of their views too much, so none of them were entirely certain. Naomi said she thought the things Willow thought were pillars of stone might have been massive legs. Though, given there was certainly not a foot at the end of what she’d seen, she wasn’t sure. Could there be a giant creature that had no foot at the end of its leg, just a kind of craggy rock-like stump? Maybe. The pop-hoppers didn’t make much sense in their combined form, either.
Having a solid plan, the trio set out to get a final update before reporting back to ‘turn in their quest’ as Jonah put it. The pop-hopper village was just coming into sight when Willow received the UICI alert.
MISSION ASSIGNED
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Your Master has assigned you a mission.
Requirements
Capture the fae man. The one with stupid pink wings and antlers almost as tall as he is. Can’t miss him. Just beat his face in and capture him. Or you can convince him to willingly accompany you. Or fool him into following you or something. Doesn’t matter to me, just bring him to the coordinates attached.
[Cordinates]
Reward: One Hour of Direct Training
Slowly, Willow raised her hand with her pointer and middle finger standing up and gave the signal they’d agreed on meant ‘Party Chat Please’: tracing a circle in the air. It was meant to represent a “speech bubble,” not that it mattered much. She stopped and crouched down, hopefully making it less likely for a pop-hopper on the edge of their camp to notice her. The others followed suit.
“What’s up?” Jonah’s popped into her mind, followed by an additional kind of mental nod which indicated Naomi was with them in the channel.
“Well… I think things got more complicated. If I do this, can you see…” Willow did her best to ‘send’ the image of her MISSION ASSIGNED screen through the party chat. It seemed to work, as both Naomi and Jonah went quiet for a minute.
“Stupid pink wings? Is this thing saying we’re going to catch a fairy?” Jonah’s voice seemed about as confused as Willow felt.