Lament of the Slave

Not the worst breakfast I ever had. The lettuce moss just couldn’t beat the old, sometimes moldy bread and water I usually got in captivity - if I got anything at all. Not the best breakfast, either. Healthy, sure. And digesting the greens was no problem. I was an omnivore, and as strange as it may sound, so were the mossbears. My beef with the breakfast was the lack of meat.

Not what I required for a morning meal back on Earth. My crankiness was usually banished by a muffin or two and a cup of tea. Alas, not what the current Korra appreciated either. Whether I liked it or not, most of the beasts I was made of were carnivores, and my cravings matched that.

“I thought I knew all the ways to torture,” Sah remarked after long minutes of silence, when only the rustling of the forest, the chirping of the birds, and my chewing could be heard. “But - just watching you is an ordeal.”

The thought of him and the other Imperial agents torturing their captives by forcing them to eat lettuce made me chuckle. “If you tried something like that on me, I’d tell you everything you wanted to know right away.”

Not really true. I knew. He knew. After all, I had been voluntarily stuffing myself with the lettuce for a good half hour.

“Good to know. I sincerely hope it never comes to that, though.”

“You think it might?” I raised an eyebrow. Gone may be the days when I feared every shadow and trusted no one, but it would be foolish to think that there were not people in Sahal who would rather see me in chains. Given the chance, I bet Baron Egerton wouldn’t hesitate to put a collar around my neck.

“You never know. As we spoke, some things don’t change, others change all too quickly. Allies one day, enemies at each other’s throats, the next.”

“Are you serious? Experience?”

“Unfortunately,” Sah admitted, then waved it off. “Different times. Mind Wars and all that . . . don’t fret, Grey, and enjoy your meal.”

Bastard, the snark in his voice was dripping with sarcasm.

Not much I could do about it, though. So I stuffed another bite of lettuce into my mouth while growling my displeasure for the world to know.

“Korra’leigh!” Idleaf’s sudden appearance and yell nearly scared the shit out of me.

“Hi,” I stammered, coughing out the chewed greens stuck in my throat.

“You slept so long . . .” Idleaf whined, bouncing around energetically.

“A long night.” I was at a loss for what else to say. We arrived at Esulmor well after midnight, followed by a meeting with Esudein, a lesson from the Mother Mossbears, and my night flight with Idleaf. I didn’t get to sleep until an hour before dawn.

On the plus side, now that I think about it, I didn’t suffer through a hangover.

“Hmm . . .” the spirit murmured, considering what I had just said. “But I have so much to show you.”

“Didn’t you show me everything yesterday?”

Idleaf grinned and shook her head. “We were just flying around.”

Admittedly, that was true. Though if I remembered correctly, she showed me all sorts of nests in the treetops during that time, excited about every bird or creature in her woods.

Was it right to call Esulmor her woods? These were woods where mossbears had lived and tended the trees for centuries, but . . . they were there because of her. And Idleaf had no less influence on the trees than they did.

Speaking of . . . “You didn’t show me the dryad.” Or soon to be dryad. If I understood it right, they were trees that gained consciousness, like Idleaf, very much influenced by the World Tree in whose shadow they grew.

Idleaf’s eyes lit up, and ignoring the fact that I was still in the middle of my breakfast, she grabbed my hand. “Come, I will show you.”

For a spirit whose body was essentially nothing but magic, she had a hell of a lot of strength, and so before I knew it, I was running with her between her roots, Sah a respectful distance behind us. Moments later, we reached the lake between her roots, where what I would describe as a willow was growing on the shore.

“That’s him,” Idleaf said proudly, gently stroking the tree’s leaves. “He is still asleep, but I can hear him dreaming.”

That she could hear the tree dreaming . . . “Him?”

“Yup, it’s a male tree.”

Hearing her proud confirmation, I struggled to imagine what the dryad would actually look like. At first, I thought it would be a nymph-like young woman - basically as described in the books on Earth. Now I wondered if the local dryads might take the form of Ents. Something Mr. Sandoval could help me clarify. Although a proper apology was needed first, maybe even a gift for knocking him unconscious. But what could one give a librarian - besides a book? And if it should be a book, what kind of book? He had thousands of them in his library. With a heavy silent sigh, I put the matter aside for later and turned my attention back to Idleaf and her enthusiastic raving about this dryad.

“But how can he grow among your roots?” I asked, looking around. There was hardly a patch of earth to be found this close to the World Tree.

“What are you talking about? He’s rooted in my roots.”

Not the answer I was expecting. In fact, I had no idea what I expected her to say. Maybe that the roots of the willow tree had found gaps between hers or that dryad’s trees had no roots per se. But who was I to question the way things worked around here?

“Here, let me show you.” Idleaf took my hand again and pressed it against the trunk of the willow. “Close your eyes, feel him.”

A little lost as to what to do, I followed her instructions, clearing my mind, my senses focused on the willow. Nothing. Just the feeling of the bark on my palm. “Idleaf, I . . .”

‘Shit!’ I felt - well, I couldn’t describe it better than the heaviness of dreaming coming from the willow. What had seemed to me before like branches swaying in the breeze, I now saw as a stirring in slumber - something I was so familiar with. The tree was indeed alive and strangely familiar to Idleaf. The two were connected, and so was I to them.

I got it. Dryads. They did not come from old trees growing by themselves around the World Tree, gaining consciousness with age, but from young ones like this one, - I actually didn’t remember growing here the last time I was here - that had formed a bond with Idleaf since it first took root. It was the World Tree that gave him life and nourished him - hence, the saying that the abundance of dryads was an indicator of the vitality of the World Tree in whose shadow they grew.

“He’ll wake soon,” Idleaf said, proud of herself, as she should be.

“Seems so,” I smiled, ruffling her hair. “Then let’s not disturb his sleep any further. I believe you said you had other things to show me.”

“Oh, yes . . . this way.”

And so I ended up on excursions through her roots and the surrounding Esulmor woods, with her showing me all sorts of things she found interesting or exciting.

***

“Are you sure about this, Grey?”

“Don’t tell me you’re worried about me, Agent Sah?”

“I read the reports. So yes. This is a level 300 beast, and apparently you always end up thoroughly thrashed.”

“You’re exaggerating.”

He frowned. “All right, you want to be precise. You almost died several times, this is a level 295 beast, and you are a level 148 HUMAN woman.”

“See, that’s where you’re wrong,” I said with a grin, making my clothes disappear into the ring and shifting. “I’m a BEAST too.”

Sah shook his head. “Still half the level of that one and three times smaller.”

He was annoyingly right. Even though I had grown - in size - in my beast form - the Young Mossbear I was about to face was still quite a bit bigger.

»Growl!«

And also a lot more eager to fight.

Not so surprising. The day reached almost noon before I returned from my rounds with Idleaf. In my defense, when I arranged training for me and Deckard last night, we didn’t agree on a specific time. Besides, the mossbears found it disrespectful to brush Idleaf off, so when they saw her dragging me around, they just lowered their ears and waited patiently.

»Growl!«

Well, that patience was apparently gone now that she let me have my fun.

“Do not interfere, no matter what happens!” I warned Sah, nodding my head at the huge beast lying nearby. “Mother Mossbear will make sure her cub doesn’t go too far.”

“I’m not sure I share your confidence in her, Grey.”

“Well . . .” I stopped, not sure what to tell him. “I guess it’ll be up to you, then. But don’t count on me to get you out of the mess if they pounce on you.”

“If you end up dead, so should I.”

That stopped me in my tracks. “What do you mean?”

“I could kiss my career goodbye if I were to watch my charge get torn to shreds and do nothing. Even more so when it comes to you.”

“Oh, I didn’t realize . . .” Was I valuable to the Empire? A hybrid whose power stretched who knew how far, the Guardian of the only World Tree on this continent. Shit! “So you must die if I do?”

“Tits, no!”

“You too?”

“Blaine and Deckard aren’t the only ones working on their language, Grey.”

“But you may never see Traiana.”

“Still, it can’t hurt to be prepared. Regarding your possible death, though. It’s not a question of whether you die, but what I do to prevent that from happening.”

“Oh . . .”

“Don’t worry, I’m well aware of your unusual regeneration. But . . . as you well know, instincts are hard to kill.”

Yeah, I knew that all too well. Sah was an agent trained to protect Sahal; I was made into a wild beast.

»Growl!!!«

Young Mossbear’s patience was wearing thin. Judging that the intent in his growl was not enough to get my attention, the young male showed his frustration with my lingering by stomping his front paws.

“Sorry, but I really have to go.”

Sah sighed. “You’re no less crazy than your mentor.”

No longer paying attention to him, my eyes fixed on the moss-covered bear, I replied to the male in kind - with a growl. »I am ready.«

The Young Mossbear pounced.

The ferocity of the attack did not catch me off guard, however, and I easily moved out of the reach of his claws. Another swipe of his paws, and then another. Memories of my previous training here quickly rushed back to me. Of the two beasts, us, I was the quick and agile one, while he slowly lumbered around. It was I who had to be careful not to be crushed by his body as I struggled to wound him. The game was on, though. I danced around the beast, lunging here and there, biting into its fat body bit by bit.

In a way, it reminded me of my training with Vienlin and Geran. Only, in a fight with them, it was entirely up to them when they decided to wipe the floor with me, whereas here, with the mossbear, it was up to a mistake on my part.

And I was sure to make one at some point.

After all, I was getting more cocky with every breath I took.

I couldn’t help it. The way I was faring - so much better than my last training session here - thrilled me to no end. And so I hopped around the mossbear, wagging my tail in delight at my progress. Keeping my attention on the beast I was facing and the area we were fighting in was no longer a challenge, but something that came easily to me. After all, the battlefield was much vaster than this small patch between the roots. The same was true for anticipating beast attacks. What might have seemed like foretelling the future was just my instincts honed by fighting hundreds of beasts. It might have been Young Mossbear’s lack of experience, but reading his intent was remarkably easy. Certainly, the ancestral knowledge also played a significant role.

Yet when it came to knowing that I was getting too daring, my instincts failed me, urging me instead to play more with Young Mossbear. It was so much fun. The thrill of the hunt.

Even so, I wasn’t completely blind to how foolish my actions were. After all, it was the one dancing on the edge of danger in the face of this nearly three-hundred-level beast that made everything so much more exhilarating. But giving it up was so hard for my huntress side.

Just yesterday, I kicked Deckard’s ass. I was on a roll.

Admittedly, the win-not-win against my mentor was a bit cheesy.

The reason for my vow for a fair fight. No cheating in this one. No might. Just pure skills.

At least that was the plan.

»Growl!!!«

The fur on the back of my neck prickled, and I jumped just in time to avoid the moss shoots that threatened to wrap around my legs.

“Shit!” The human swear escaped my lips.

I had completely forgotten that mossbears, even this young one, had this ability. It might be a far cry from Esudein’s control of nature, where he could make trees move out of his way and get moss to eat a human a hundred levels stronger than me alive, but it was still dangerous.

I dodged, rolled, and jumped aside, gracefully avoiding both the shoots and the pounces of the mossbear. Once again I was reminded of the battlefield, and this time of the worms that threatened to drag Stella and me underground as we faced the octopus attacks.

Losing focus on your enemy or the environment around you could be fatal.

No restarting the cycle here, though.

The simple thought, the realization, hit me with the force of a train.

No restart!

No extra life - no waking up on a cliff above Castiana and Esulmor.

If I die, I stay dead.

While [Never-Dying] mentioned my ability to get out even if only my head remained, I wasn’t interested in testing those waters. Recent close encounters with death have been far from pleasant, and that was with my head still attached to my body. Regenerating the rest of me out of thin air - I just couldn’t imagine doing so.

“Son of a bitch!” Pain shot through my spine, forcing a howl from my throat. I slipped too deep into my thoughts about the consequences of dying here in the present, and the mossbear managed to wrap the shoots around my tail.

If it were my leg, I’d have the strength to rip it off, even if at the cost of being slowed down. Sage was a different story. When I pulled, I had the feeling that my tail would give way before the shoots.

With no choice but to turn around and slash the shoots with my claws before more of them wrapped around me, I did so fully aware of the edge I was giving the mossbear. All the young beast had to do was attack with full force at the right moment.

And it did.

The beast slammed into me just as I was about to jump free of the shoots. Pain shot through my body, bones creaking as the beast’s fangs sunk into my thigh. I retaliated in kind, clawing at its hide, biting off a piece of his ear. Nothing I did deterred the young male, and he pinned me to one of the roots, knocking the wind out of me.

There wasn’t much I could do with my strength. The weight advantage, the mass, and the brute strength were still on the mossbear’s side, despite all my growth. I couldn’t even control the moss like him.

What a loser, huh?

What I did have, however, was my magic, my core. Without a second’s thought, I pumped mana into my mane and the glands in my tail. One painful breath later, I was enveloped in a small orange cloud smelling of apples, and the mossbear had its snout and paws wrapped in the frosty hair.

• [Tail of Poison Empress] reaches lvl 28

I couldn’t help but grin as the notification chimed in my mind. This really reminded me too much of the good old days here in Esulmor, when I used to get beaten up trying to poison the locals in our bouts.

It made me wonder if the beasts saw it the same way.

Well, I guess not.

But unlike the old days, I still had a fighting chance.