NOVEL NEXT Sacrifice – Chapter 8: Friend or Foe?
Gliding over the treetops in search for a suitable spot to land, Aperio mulled over her course of action. She needed to figure out how to get inside the village without drawing attention, something she did not think she could do. She could hide her wings, even if it was rather painful, but that would probably not help with the wards. Nor would it hide her rather tattered clothes, or the fact that she was an Elf. That alone would probably draw a good bit of attention to her as she had not seen a single one of her kin during her admittedly short observation.
There was also the ever-present issue of communication. Maybe write something? Perhaps that plan was worth a try, but it had the potential of being just as unsuccessful as talking had been. It was so infuriating to be unable to talk, reduced to just standing there and staring at people who could, potentially, answer her questions. Writing is worth a try. But with what? Drawing in the dirt? The attempt, however, would require that they refrain from attacking her like the previous group had.
Her thoughts were interrupted when something hit one of her wings, throwing her off balance. Before she had time to stabilize herself, she had already dipped into the crown of a tree, and her other wing caught on a particularly sturdy branch. The two-pronged attack was too difficult to recover from in mid-air, and she crashed ungracefully into the green sea below.
Her vision was filled with greens and browns as she ploughed through the woods, leaving behind a path of devastation. The assorted bits of tree colliding with her certainly hurt, but she could not hear – or feel – any bones breaking. Not that it should have happened – if a stone wall could not break her, how could a bit of wood? There was no time to question why the branches hurt while the stone did not, as she hit the ground hard and her forward momentum finally ceased.
Aperio groaned as she sat back up. What was that?! Looking around, she couldn’t find what had knocked her out of the air, only seeing the path of devastation her involuntary landing had caused. A quick check caused her to freeze; a few of her feathers had were missing.
Though she had experienced a bit of pain on her trip through the thick of the trees, none of it had been on her wings. In fact, there still wasn’t any pain, instead she felt a tingling run up her spine that spread into her newest appendages. Before her eyes, the broken parts mended themselves, and what was beyond repair got pushed away by a new feather that grew underneath. Not quite believing her eyes, she brushed her hand over the newly formed feathers. They felt just as smooth as they did when she had first gained her wings in the Void.
What happens if I lose an arm? Will I get that back as well? Filing away the idea to test that theory until 'never', she looked over the rest of her body. Luckily she could not find any more damage; either it had already healed like her wings or there was none to begin with.
Her clothes had, admittedly, been in a poor state before, but now they were nothing more than tattered rags that barely fulfilled their purpose. None of that would, however, tell her what had actually hit her. Something had knocked her out of the air, made her feel pain – even if it was only a little. That was something she would not stand for; not when she could do something about it.
Unable to spot the thing that had brought her down she strained her ears, trying to focus on even the smallest sounds. She could hear the rustling of the leaves, the faint buzzing of insects and the chirping of birds. There was even something that sounded a lot like screaming or shrieking – she wasn't quite sure which label fit the noise better.
As soon as she found someone that could teach her, she would have to invest the time to learn [Sense Presence] or something similar. That is, if she could learn it. Though magic was most certainly something she could do now, it didn’t mean that she was able to practice all its different forms. Even if she was unable to, the effort of trying would likely be helpful in the long run; she simply didn't know what to focus on when using nothing but her bare senses.
She was about to give up when she felt something coming closer. It wasn’t something she saw or heard; it was a subtle feeling, almost instinctual feeling. Turning around, she saw a eight-legged creature that shifted between being nothing more than a foggy shadow and a pulsing, fleshy thing.
It was as if nature had tried to cross a bear with a spider, but had given up halfway in disgust at its own creation. Little hairs protruded from the seven-jointed limbs that held the big, furred body. Some parts were bare, revealing a mess of flesh that pulsed rhythmically and instead of a head it just seemed to have a cluster of eyes with no mouth – or nose – that she could see. As if all of that wasn’t bad enough, the thing was bigger than any creature she had previously seen, except maybe the two-headed dog on the bottom floor of the ruins. That one had been truly massive.
Her inspection came to an end as the bear-spider-thing let out a piercing wail and charged at her. How it was able to produce sound was something she would have to figure out later; for now she had to fight. Flying away might have been an option, but if something had taken her down before it could probably do so again.
Not wanting to face the monster head on, Aperio took a chance and flapped her wings, remaining low to the ground but out of reach. Her opponent was clearly less than pleased at her retreat, as it shrieked shrilly before shooting tendrils of foggy darkness at her direction. This, like her previous encounter with [Fireball], seemed to swim slowly through the air. Darkness spells had been outlawed in the Empire though; even the more unscrupulous mages didn’t dare to use it. For all she knew this might be the normal speed of the bear-spider's attack.
It was a trivial matter to dodge an attack that approached at a snail's pace, and a casual flap of her wings brought her out of harm's way. The tendrils bent and stretched, reaching for her new position, but soon she was simply too far away for the beast's shadowy appendages to follow her. The fleshy spider, clearly dismayed that its prey had escaped its grasp, let out another high-pitched screech before it rushed in a flurry of footwork after the flying Elf.
It bounded from tree to tree, using the flexible wooden trunks as a sort of springboard to propel it forwards more swiftly than using muscle alone, but Aperio always managed to stay out of reach. She considered using her own magic against the creature but quickly discarded the idea. She had no real idea how to wield such powers, her knowledge limited to barely-understood texts and the rare use of a simple skill-based spell like [Reality Check]. Since coming out from the Void she had only been successful in a single attempt of magic use. Though her latest unconscious use of magic had literally sicked the life out of her surroundings, she had no idea how to consciously use such an ability. Not to mention that she hardly knew her own strength anymore. How far would her determination spread the circle of death? All the way to the village? She didn't want to accidentally turn potential allies to enemies. Or corpses.
The next time the monster leaped in her direction, she reached out to grab one of its legs. With a spin in place, and a release, she helped it fly on its own. To Aperio's surprise, the tendrils it had previously used to attack her pulled closer to the thing's main body, forming big bat-like wings, and for a moment she experienced the terror of watching a flying bear-spider. That thought, however, turned to amusement, as despite the frantic way it flapped it wings it didn't so much fly as plummet.
The creature followed the arc in which she had thrown it, its shrieking growing ever more distant as it fell out of the sky. A higher squeak of distress and a cloud of dust indicated when it landed again, and out of curiosity Aperio swooped over and set down next to the fallen beast. Her own landing wasn't anything close to graceful, as she simply stopped beating her wings when she was close to the ground and let gravity take over the rest. Unmindful of the dirt her own landing had thrown into the air, she examined her foe.
The beast lay in complete disarray, and if it hadn’t attacked her she might have felt bad for it. Half of its legs had been crushed under its considerable bulk, and the other half flopped wearily in whatever direction they had happened to land. Even its high-pitched screeching had been reduced to nothing more than quiet snarls, ones that seemed to be as close to a whimper as the creature could manage to make.
She still had no idea if this thing was considered strong or not, but if her ‘fight’ with it was any indication... Probably something you send new adventurers to kill, she thought while nodding to herself. Maybe learn that not all evil-looking monsters are strong? Though if they were to have a thorough education they would also have to point out the monsters that live inside gilded halls.
But even if it was something weak, she still did not know how to actually kill it. It would probably die if she left it as is, but she wanted to be sure it was dead. Anything that attacked her would die. Preferably by her own hand.
Even lying on its side battered and broken, it was still larger than most living things. While its size might be intimidating at first glance, with every step she took the beast shuddered and tried to scuttle away. It seemed to be more scared of her than she was of it. Unfortunately, its remaining legs weren't strong enough to allow escape.
Aperio took little note of the monster’s antics, she had found something far more interesting. Something called to her from within what she would guess to be the beast's chest. Whatever it was felt similar to both the crystal she had destroyed and the little stone-things she had collected. It fell somewhere in between the two, not quite feeling as familiar as the crystal but definitely more so than the stones.
Once she stood directly in front of the thing’s presumed chest, she ran her hand over the spot behind which she felt the strange presence. Without a shred of hesitation she plunged her hand inside the beast – a bit more blood wouldn’t really change anything – feeling around for the thing that had piqued her interest.
Soon her hand closed around something round and smooth. Extracting it from the beast’s chest revealed a small orb, one that looked strikingly similar to the little lights she had seen in the Void. The same spotless surface and the same unruly mist were contained within. Just when she wanted to get a better look at it, the little marble cracked open. Not wanting to be touched by mist that flowed from it, she dropped it on the dirt and took a few hurried steps back.
It wasn’t long before the mist took the form of a small bear cub that briefly looked at Aperio as if to confirm something before inclining its head. Is it ...bowing? She had no idea why a bear spirit had emerged, nor how she was able to see it in the first place, neither did she know why it was bowing to her. Both parties remained in their respective positions until the mist that formed the bear started to drift towards the sky, fading from view.
What was that? A ghost?
The corpse shifted, and Apero's eyes snapped towards the motion. As black mist – the same substance that had previously formed tendrils of attack, and useless wings – seeped from every wound on the bear-spider, the corpse moved again. It dragged itself towards her, and Aperio couldn't help but take an involuntary step backwards from the unnatural thing.
The harder it struggled to move forwards, the more fog would flow from its body. After a few paces the mist ceased flowing, as did the corpse's movement. The body deflated, finally lifeless, until it looked like an empty waterskin. A hairy, disgusting waterskin.
Not quite convinced that the thing had died, Aperio gave it tap with her foot. The corpse skittered across the earth until it collided with a tree, sending tiny splinters of wood flying every which way. Clearly, she still didn't have a firm grasp of the extent of her own strength. A tap was still not light enough, and she vowed to keep this in mind when interacting with new, potentially friendly, people.
As she had survived her, arguably rather one-sided, fight and the corpse did not so much as twitch any more, she returned to her original intent. Finding a way into the village without being discovered.
Though that might already be a moot point; her crash was not exactly subtle and neither was the monster screeching. Or the ensuing fight, even if it was fairly short. She also did not know where she ended up as she had not exactly paid attention to where she had thrown the monster. The haze that had she had spotted from up high was nowhere to be found, maybe she went to far away from the village to see it. Or, perhaps, it was hiding behind the impossibly thick greenery right in front of her.
She was about to take flight again when something flew past her and embedded itself in the corpse and the earth behind it. Aperio spun around, wings flared, and glared in the direction the projectile came from. What she saw was a suit of armour not unlike the hunk of metal she had seen before, though this one was a head shorter and a little thinner.
Behind the armoured figure stood an old man that leaned heavily on a wooden staff. Before Aperio had a chance to speak the man opened his mouth.
“Calm, we mean you no harm.”
