Path of the Whisper Woman

I never appreciated the fish's single minded stupidity as I did when I was weaving among their ranks. There might have been smarter ones out in the Devouring Blue's whole horde, but none of those seemed to have gotten caught in Ambervale's shriek. If they communicated with each other or gave their surroundings more than a passing glance I would've been mobbed and taken down in minutes. Instead, I moved quick through their number and they didn't realize it wasn't another fish who jostled them out of place until I was too far forward and out of reach. In a way I felt like I was back in the Statue Garden but this time there was entirely too many scales and I didn't have to worry about losing my soul.

Still, some fish were too big or strong for me to shove my way past easily and sometimes I committed before I realized it. I drove forward, trying to slip into a whisper thin gap between two scaly sides, when suddenly my shoulder hit something and I rebounded back. I caught myself before I landed on my butt but one foot slipped and I was off balance as the fish I ran into looked at me. It let out some bubbling, throaty cry and backhanded me across with a fin. I went spinning off into another fish before landing in the sandy muck. Vision blurry, mouth tasting like blood, I flung myself to the side to avoid a kick to the gut.

Scrambling upright, I pulled my knife free and slashed in front of me. A fish let out a burbling cry of pain and stumbled away but all fish were packed so tight together as they tried to storm the walkway that it couldn't go far. More and more fish were already noticing the new disturbance in their midst and my short stint of luck was closing.

Glancing up, I figured I was about halfway to the walkway, so any direction was about as bad as the next choice. Those at the front of the horde were too busy trying to get their fins on the tribesfolk on the walkway to notice, but those I'd left behind and those to the sides had definitely shifted their focus.

Forward was where I wanted to go anyway. I dived forward to slip into another small gap and made it halfway before I stopped short again. The same fish who stopped me before had both its fins wrapped around my ankle. It heaved backwards and I latched onto the nearest thing. The fish I grabbed onto fell. The first fish had no trouble hauling us both backward, so I abandoned my hold and twisted to heel kick the monster in the face. I clipped its jaw and its grip loosened.

Surging upward, I knifed one, two times, in the vulnerable spot behind its jaw and then the temple. It crumbled. One enemy down, dozens to go. I shifted into a defensive stance, trying to keep an eye on every direction at once. Now that I had become the focus of the fish's single minded stupidity I didn't appreciate it nearly as much.

I dodged a fin coming from one direction, sliced another, and got hit in the side by a third. Rolled with the blow, slipped free of a fish trying to grab me thanks to the muck coating me, sliced at a smaller fish to create an opening, and nearly impaled myself as a fish drove into me from behind. I had to twist hard to avoid my own knife and my side twinged from old injuries. Gritting my teeth through it, I used what momentum and strength I had to shove the fish on me to the side only to find another piling on as I came up for air.

I took a punch to the chest and traded it by stabbing the fish who did it in the eye. It reeled backward so I took the moment and gave the fish who tackled me the same treatment. My breathing was heavy as I scrambled back to my feet.

I wasn't used to prolonged battles and with everything I kept putting my body through it was starting to protest quicker than I'd like. Still, I refused to give up and I comforted myself with the thought that I couldn't die and these storming, scaly bastards could. I had a mission, a way for a friend to gain a bit of confidence, and I wasn't about to let that go without a fight.

For every blow I took, I made sure I paid the fish back thrice fold. My knife was everywhere, stabbing and slicing into every vulnerable spot I could find. Popped my elbow into chests, jammed my thumbs into eyes, and ground my heel into flapping fins with a perverse kind of pleasure. All I needed was an opening. Something just big enough, just for a second or two, that I could slip into and away from the enemies focused on me. If I got far enough I'd be back among the idiots only focused on the walkway and that much closer to my goal.

I got my opening. But it was much bigger than anything I had anticipated. Cascade plowed through the fish ganging up on me and half circled around me with the front of her body. The snake was enormous, bigger than I'd ever seen, and she gulped three fish down without any seeming trouble. Her tongue brushed against me and Juniper shouted something from the walkway that I was too distracted to make out. Silver fire blazed in the snake's blue gaze as she stared me down. I stared back, not sure what was happening but not willing to give in or lose, and then the snake shifted and crushed more fish in a moment than I managed to kill the whole fight. Cascade's fronds fluttered and I could have sworn the snake smirked at me before she snapped her head to the side and ate another fish.

I shook my head, trying to clear all the questions trying to cloud my thinking, and decided to follow Ingrasia's example. I needed to get out of the horde's reach and I had a perfect path right in front of me if I dared to take it. Hoping Cascade was distracted or wouldn't care, I leapt while Cascade's head was still low and grabbed onto her fronds. For a moment we were eye to giant eye as I swung from her head and the snake stilled.

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

My limited experience with animals flashed through my mind before landing on Chirp and the tiny bird's gluttonous habit. One Cascade seemed to share, if with a more blood thirsty slant.

"Let me run on your back and I'll give you something you've never tasted before after the fight."

Cascade sucked down a fin that was still sticking out of her mouth as if to point out she had plenty to eat, right here. Then she scooped up another couple of fish while I was still attached to her head, just for good measure.

Fine. If bribery wasn't enough perhaps something else could motivate her.

"I bet I can run to the tip of your tail without falling off before you can eat that whole ball of fish trying to swarm the walkway."

Competition was always decent motivator.

Something in the distance splashed loudly and I figured that Cascade thought she had this one in the bag since I'd likely have to swim to find her tail end. Somewhere in the back of my mind part of me tried to rail at the absurdity of my current situation, but I shoved it deeper with a bone deep certainty I'd had similar conversations with Chirp before, even if those bits of bribery hadn't been surrounded by a battlefield of monstrous fish and a whisper woman turned abomination.

Cascade started the bet without warning as she surged forward. I braced against the sudden air pressure trying to push me into her frond and pretended that I was trying to scramble onto her head to run down her back. She went mouth wide open into a swarm of fish pressing too close for comfort to the bottom of the walkway and I used her head as a stepping stone to leap over the railing and onto the walkway. She went for a second mouthful before she realized I wasn't running down her back and then I found how uncomfortable it was to have a giant snake glare down at you while swallowing down a handful of fish.

The tribesfolk around us shifted away to focus on another part of the defense and I smiled back at Cascade. I wasn't about to give into her all the time like the little chirping fluff ball. She didn't need to know my weaknesses.

"Thanks for the help."

"She respects you and dislikes you in equal measure for that stunt you just pulled."

I started at the sound of Juniper's voice behind me. For a moment I thought that somehow Cascade had gained the ability to speak out loud. Cascade went back to eating her way through the enemy ranks as I turned to look at Juniper.

She also seemed frustrated and happy to see me in equal measure. I wasn't sure what to think about that, and I had already wasted time fighting through the horde, so I got right to business.

"We need your water sphere attack to take down Ambervale. Ready to get your revenge?"

Juniper's gaze shifted to the fight happening behind me but she only swallowed with apprehension when her focus shifted to the railing. Currently, she was carefully keeping herself in the middle of the walkway and a tribe member hurrying to help another part of the fight had to scoot awkwardly around her when Juniper didn't step back and out of the way. I could tell that part of her had wanted to, but she was having trouble bringing herself closer to the edge, the potential drop.

I filled the silence. "It can be just like after we joined Hundred Eyes. One quick drop to get us on the path we need to take."

Juniper licked her lips, apprehensive. "How'd you get Cascade to do what you wanted?"

"Bit of friendly competition."

The walkway groaned ominously and tilted. I glanced to the side to find way too many fish dangling off the side of it in a spot Cascade hadn't chomped her way through. The tribesfolk were doing everything they could to kill and knock the fish off but the horde's overwhelming numbers were pushing the momentum of the fight in their favor the longer it dragged on. If we had been at one of the tribe's kill zones they would have had the spacing and tools set up to better control the fight in their favor, but on a random walkway over a sand bar, they had little of the same maneuverability. Ambervale needed to go down sooner than later, so we could focus on our efforts on the fish.

Juniper seemed to come to a decision as she took in the same scene I did. "What about spite?"

I grinned. "That works too."

She drew in a ragged breath and rushed forward to leap off the railing, eyes squeezed shut even though I knew she'd told me more than once that didn't help. She screamed as she started to drop and I leapt after her.

The fight with Ambervale had moved toward the tip of the sandbar and the horde of fish blanketing the area in front of the walkway had grown so I had no chance of repeating my initial attack on her, but I did my best approximation to the fish I landed on. My heel crunched into its face and I tucked into a roll and popped to my feet a moment later. Juniper's landing had been less graceful, but somehow she managed to take three fish down to the ground with her. I dispatched one with my knife, she got the second with her spear, and the third took Cascade's fangs to its throat.

The snake had shrunk until she was about as thick as my leg and she slithered up and around Juniper until she was draped around her twice and Cascade's head rested on top of hers. There wasn't a single thing to indicate she had ate countless fish or why she suddenly left off her killing spree. Juniper absently reached up to scratch behind one of her fronds and Cascade leaned into the contact.

More fish were starting to notice us so I waved Juniper forward and she followed me surprisingly well despite the snake's weight. We had to fight our way through the back ranks of fish, but with Juniper and Cascade's help it was much easier to avoid getting overwhelmed. For all of Juniper's hesitancies and lack of personal experience fighting, she still had a strong understanding of battle tactics and strategy and it didn't take us long to get used to fighting together. Something I was grateful for since I was ready to put this fight behind me, stop thinking about Ambervale and see her punished, and get back to meeting the requirements I needed change the delta. We needed one last push and I could feel the potion's effects starting to wane once again.