Jackson had just about given up hope of finding anything before noon and turned his thoughts to the sparse lunch in his backpack when Briggs held up a hand and spun around with a finger on his lips. He hunkered down a bit in the tall grass that grew in the fields along the river and pointed toward the water. At first, Jackson had no idea what he was pointing at and then he saw it — a blue-green log in the middle of the water — a Groggle. Its short but powerful tail swished back and forth, propelling it upstream in the direction the group had walked from.
“It hasn’t spotted us yet,” Briggs said. “Let’s get over to the edge of the water. That should get you in range. You won’t be able to get it while it’s in the water but I’m betting it will charge when it sees Asena. Groggles don’t normally attack humans, but they don’t stand for other Djinn on their turf.”
Jackson nodded. His breath was short and his insides shook and coursed with adrenaline. Briggs must have noticed because he gave Jackson a long stare. “Don’t be getting Djinn fever on me, now.”
“What’s Djinn fever?” Kay said in a harsh whisper. Jackson and Briggs both glared at her for being too loud and she rolled her eyes.
“It’s what happens when a young tamer finds a wild Djinn and gets excited,” Briggs said. “Usually means he blunders into things and the Djinn gets away.”
Jackson forced himself to take a deep breath, but he could still feel the excitement coursing through him. He followed right behind Briggs, so close that when the older tamer stopped on the edge of the river in the pebbles, Jackson ran into his back. Briggs cursed, and the Groggle — about ten yards away, almost straight across from them — spun in the water and fixed its eyes on the humans.
“Quick, get Asena up here!” Briggs said. Jackson whistled and Asena — who had been hanging back with Kay — came sprinting through the tall grass in a red-orange blur. As soon as the Groggle spotted the Lyote, it vented a hiss that sent water spraying and coursed toward them.
“Get ready!” Briggs shouted.
Jackson felt the warmth of the empty ring on his hand — the ring’s reaction to a wild, untamed Djinn approaching. The ring began to vibrate and glow with a bright white light. His heart caught in his throat, Jackson raised the ring out in front of him. Briggs shouted encouragement and Asena barked, pacing back and forth along the edge of the river. The beam of white light snaked out and hit the Djinn, causing the Groggle to roll and writhe in the water.
“Hey, over there!”
Jackson’s eyes jerked toward the far back, where three people stood watching them. As soon as his concentration left the ring, a sharp crack filled the air. The beam of light — what Briggs called the ring’s lasso — snapped and shattered. In the next instant, the Groggle dove under the water and disappeared.
Chapter Ten
Briggs swore and kicked at the rocks.
“What happened?” Jackson asked. “Where’d the Groggle go?”
“Gone!” Briggs said. “Gone, gone, gone! All because of those assholes on the other side of the bank!”
Enraged, Jackson looked across the water and spotted the Kaleos along with a third person; a woman in camouflage that Jackson didn’t recognize. Lei called out again and waved across the water, but Akamu and the woman just watched them.
“Hey, there!” Lei shouted. “Hold on — we’ll come over!”
The last thing Jackson wanted to do after missing out on his prized Djinn was talk to the Kaleos, but for some reason, Briggs seemed keen on it today. While the trio pulled kayaks out of the willows and prepared to cross, Kay ran up, wanting to know what had happened.
“It got away,” Jackson said, trying to hide the disappointment in his voice. “Lei surprised us and I lost concentration.”
Kay started to say what she thought about the Kaleos but cut herself short when their kayaks pulled up to the bank. Lei gave them a broad grin and a hearty wave. Akamu was wearing what Jackson was beginning to recognize, and loathe, as his characteristic smirk.
“Hey, there’s the mighty hunters!” Lei said. “How goes it? We saw you had a beam on that Groggle — too bad it slipped away, huh?”
“Yeah,” Briggs muttered. “A damn shame.”
Lei’s grin never faded, and if he had intentionally tried to distract Jackson, he didn’t show it at all. “We’ve been out this morning for a few hours. Just scouting things out — not sure exactly yet what we want to tame for Akamu, you know? Shellie here is one heck of a guide, though. We’ve already seen a dozen Djinn or more. Nothing worth taking a shot at — common Magglecaws and a bunch of other trash Djinn.”
Jackson saw Kay stiffen at the term “trash Djinn.” As someone going into the Djinn medical field, Kay didn’t look at Djinn the same way as tamers. That being said, Jackson could never imagine classifying any Djinn as “trash.” Sure, some were more powerful than others, but each had their unique strengths and powers. It seemed like a shallow, callous approach to take.
At any rate, nobody had much to say in response to Lei. Once again, he seemed not to notice their lack of interest or desire to carry on a conversation. “Say, I’ve got a great idea — why don’t we team up for a little while? More help means there’s less of a chance for a Djinn to get away — what do you say, Briggs?”
“Thanks, but we’re pretty good on our own,” Briggs said. “I’m sure your guide will find you plenty of Djinn.”
Lei shrugged like it didn’t really matter either way. “Suit yourselves! I take it you’ll be scouting out along the river? If so, we’ll head upstream — don’t want to ruin any chances for your young tamer here to catch the big one! According to Shellie, there’s a Tandile mixed in with these Groggles. You’d better keep an eye out — it’s probably more than your group could handle.”
“We appreciate the concern,” Briggs said. His tone suggested he would have found it more helpful if Lei had tipped his kayak upside down and attempted to drown himself.
The Kaleos and their guide pushed off the bank with their kayak paddles. “Good luck,” Akamu said. “You’re going to need it.”
Briggs waited until they passed around the bend upstream before unleashing another stream of curses. “That son of a bitch has always been too smug for his own good,” he said. “You mark my words, he’s just going out of sight, and then they’ll be heading back downstream following us.”
“Why would they do that when they have their own guide?” Kay asked. “I’m sure those outfitters aren’t cheap.”
“It doesn’t matter to Lei,” Briggs said. “His pretty boy face has netted him enough endorsements that he’s got more money than he knows what to do with. He doesn’t care about paying a guide all day to do nothing — he’d get more out of seeing if he can poach something off of us or mess up Jackson again.”
“So what are we going to do?” Jackson asked. The thought of the Kaleos trailing them the rest of the day drove him almost as nuts as it did Briggs.
“We’ll start moving quicker,” Briggs said. “Where there’s one Groggle there’s bound to be more — you saw all those slide marks and skins back there. “Let’s get one found, tamed and out of here.”
“Can’t we just go find another river?” Kay asked.
Briggs glared at her like it was the most ridiculous suggestion he’d ever heard. “I’m not backing down to that pretty boy and his snotty son.”
And that settled it. Once again, they set off a little ways from the riverbank, this time with Jackson and Asena out front, following Briggs’s instructions. The next time they found a Groggle skin, Briggs had Asena smell it for scent.
“Can you find one of these, girl?” Jackson asked her. “Find us a Groggle!”
Asena barked in understanding and set off at a hurried pace, her nose to the ground right on the edge of the water. It wasn’t too long before she barked, indicating she’d found something. Jackson and the others hurried to catch up.
“Man, that looks like a big one,” Jackson said. The slide mark and skin Asena had stopped a
t were almost twice as wide as the ones they’d seen before. In addition, the skin looked slightly different shaped than the others — a longer tail and faint red markings in with the blue-green.
Briggs gave a low whistle. “I think this might be that Tandile our pal Lei was talking about,” he said. “That’s what they’re after, I’ll bet. Tandile is the Intermediate-Form of Groggle — he wants to give his son an advantage with an evolved Djinn.”
“Well, that’s too bad for them,” Jackson said. “Because that’s the Djinn I want.” It was extremely rare for certain Djinn to evolve on their own in the wild and Intermediate and Advanced-Forms had all sorts of advantages over Basic-Form Djinn.
Briggs grinned. “It would be pretty sweet to snatch it right out from underneath Lei’s nose. These tracks are pretty fresh — if we get some luck and get a move on, I think there’s a good chance we can find this big boy tonight.”
The farther south they went along the river, the thicker the willows and cattails became. The shore also eroded from the rocks and pebbles they’d taken advantage of so far into open glades with ferns and boggy ground. A couple of wrong steps later and Jackson found himself sunk up to his knees in dark, black mud. When Asena ran to his aid she too sank and buried herself.
By the time Jackson managed to crawl out of the bog onto solid ground, his pants and shoes were soaked. Worse, he stank like wet, moldy compost. Asena came out completely covered in the dark mud from the tip of her nose to her tail. Unlike Jackson, who wanted to scream, she panted happily.
“Wait, girl — agh!”
Before Jackson could escape, Asena shook vigorously and covered him with flecks of the stinking mud and water. From a few feet away, on safe, dry ground, Kay burst out laughing. Completely oblivious to her tamer’s irritation, Asena wagged her tail and looked back and forth between Kay and Jackson, soaking up the attention.
“Will you quit screwing around?” Briggs shouted. He appeared to have run into a bog hole just like Jackson, except he’d only sank up to his ankles. Either way, he didn’t look very pleased with his predicament. “We’re getting close and —”
A cacophony of shrieks and caws cut him off. Jackson looked at a strand of dead trees along the river at the same time a cloud of black and grey shapes burst into the sky. Rather than flying away, the flying Djinn circled a small area, diving at something hidden from sight on the ground below.
“Come on,” Briggs shouted. With surprising speed for a late-middle-aged man with a limp, he took off through the swamp. Jackson followed suit, sloshing through the water and the mud as fast as he could while Asena streaked past him, her four legs and lighter weight keeping her afloat.
A few moments later, Briggs came to a stop and bent over with his hands on his knees. “I’m…fine,” he said between heaving breaths. Sweat poured down his face. “Keep…going…think it’s…Groggles.”
Jackson needed no encouragement. He shouted to Kay and took off again. In a few moments, his muddy, wet hiking boots hit dry land again and his trudging turned into a sprint. Asena looped ahead, staying within a dozen feet of Jackson as she’d been trained to do, but he could tell the excitement of the chase was trying her patience. She put on a burst of speed ahead and then stopped, barking and jumping until Jackson caught up and she could continue again.
Asena, be quiet, Jackson commanded. They couldn’t afford to have her scare away the Groggles with her barks.
The stand of dead trees loomed ahead. As Jackson drew closer, he could see that the Djinn were a group of Magglecaws — dozens and dozens of them. Their cackles and cries overwhelmed Jackson’s ears, but he couldn’t see what all the ruckus was about. The Magglecaws continued to dip and dive over an area hidden by a thick bunch of willows. Then an angry roar punctuated the Magglecaws’s din.
Heart pounding, Jackson called Asena back to him and they continued forward at a steady jog. The last thing he wanted to do was run right into a battle between a Groggle and a flock of Magglecaws. He’d been chased by the same type of angry Djinn back at Sato Breeders before. Although small, they proved to be more than a nuisance when they joined together to dive-bomb an enemy.
All at once, the scene of the battle came into view. What looked like one of the largest Groggles in the world struggled against a group of twenty or so of the flying Djinn. The Magglecaws circled the Groggle, swooping down and pecking at the Water-Elemental Djinn’s thick hide to little effect. At first, Jackson had no idea why the Magglecaws were even bothering to attack the much larger and stronger opponent. Then he saw what looked like the remains of a Deerun carcass half buried in the swamp mud and understood. The two sides were fighting for a meal.
Jackson didn’t know what to do. He didn’t want to let a Groggle of that size get away. But in the complete chaos of the Magglecaw attack, the last thing he wanted to do was send Asena into the mix. A few moments later, Briggs and Kay showed up, both of them liberally covered in dark black swamp mud.
“A Tandile!” Briggs said between huffs. “I’ll be damned!”
“That’s a Tandile?” Jackson took another look at what he thought had been the extra-large Groggle and his mouth fell open. Upon closer inspection, he could see the telltale golden line down the creature’s spine and the red ridges on its back that marked the Djinn as the evolved form of a Groggle. Somehow, his heart pounded even harder. He tried to steady his arm to raise his watch and scan the creature.
Djinn: Tandile
Element: Water
Tandile is an Intermediate-Form, Water-Elemental Djinn. Like its Basic-Form counterparts, Tandiles were once on the verge of extinction, and even today, it is especially rare to see them in the wild. Tandiles are exceptionally aggressive Djinn, but unlike Groggles, have a tendency to attack humans when provoked.
“Check its level,” Briggs said, seemingly more out of curiosity than out of a desire to help.
“How do I do that?” Jackson said. “I didn’t know you could check levels.”
“Only on wild Djinn,” Briggs said. “Tamed Djinn have those stats hidden — or at least most do — but for wild ones, just swipe to the right — there you go.”
The Tandile was Level 16. That was two levels higher than Asena!
“What do I do?” he asked Briggs, the words tumbling out in a stream. “I don’t want it to get away!”
“We’ve got a minute, kid,” Briggs said. He wiped his forehead and winced at the cacophony of Magglecaw cries. “Neither of them are going to leave that kill unless…”
As if to prove Briggs’s point, the Tandile lunged up in the air and caught one of the Magglecaws by the wing. It shook the unfortunate Djinn in its teeth before flinging it across the swamp field where it landed with a plop in the mud.
“If the Magglecaws lose enough of their flock, they’ll give up,” Briggs said. He motioned for them to take a few more steps backward into the cattails. “We better keep from interfering and let this run its course. The Magglecaws might even help you whittle down the Tandile’s health. Just stay calm and remember what we talked about.”
Asena let out a whine at Jackson’s side, clearly eager to get in on the battle. Jackson placed a calming hand on her head, ready to grab his Djinn by the loose fur on the nape of her neck if she tried to be a hero. Following Briggs’s instructions, they watched the battle play out as the Tandile felled a couple more Magglecaws with a sweep of its thick, muscular tail or a well-timed snap of its jaws. The Magglecaws stopped diving on the opposing Djinn as much and now settled for circling overhead as if their protests alone could drive the Tandile away from their easy meal.
“Now!” Briggs said, giving Jackson a slight push. “While it’s still distracted, get out there! Just keep Asena close — you don’t want her scrapping with that Tandile, it’s out of her league.”
Jackson felt like his legs were rubber as he ran out of the cattails toward the battle. The sight of the fallen Magglecaws made him sick, but he tried to push their battered forms out of his mind. He had a job to d
o.
When Jackson and Asena approached, the Magglecaws, unfortunately, took it as their cue to leave. As their raucous calls faded into the distance, the Tandile turned around slowly and stared at Jackson and Asena. The Djinn let out a low hiss and a rumble sounded from within its long, scaly snout. Although it was covered with nicks and cuts from the assault, it looked prepared to defend the carcass to the death.
“Careful there, newt! You’ve got a live one on your hands!”
The sound of Akamu Kaleo’s voice was the last thing Jackson expected to hear. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw the three kayaks paddle up a side stream that emptied into the river. They stopped about twice as far away as Jackson was and laid their paddles across their laps to watch.
“You might have bit off more than you can chew there, Briggs!” Lei shouted. “Are you sure you want your protégé messing with an Intermediate-Form Djinn?”
“He’ll be fine,” Briggs said. His gruff reply calmed Jackson’s frazzled nerves and Jackson turned his attention back to the Tandile. It was clear he’d need to weaken it further before attempting to throw the ring’s energy lasso.
“Asena,” Jackson began. His voice felt high with excitement and nerves.
Fire —
Jackson’s command was cut off by an angry caw. Out of the mud, one of the supposedly-dead Magglecaws— and one that was significantly bigger than the ones that had flown off — struggled into the air and shot at the Tandile again. Jackson didn’t know how the creature was alive — he was pretty sure it was one the Tandile had struck with its tail. Nevertheless, the Magglecaw swooped and pecked at its enemy, even without the help of its fellow carcass thieves.
Djinn Tamer - The Complete Bronze League Trilogy Page 32