by Dixon, TJ
The smell of charred flesh and burning coal assaults my nose. The miko is wearing the red and white patterned spirit clothes normally worn to dance for the Kuroneko. She is now wearing them to spread out her spirit so it cannot be easily corrupted or broken, but that can only protect her spirit not her body.
Her arms and legs are each stretched out by unseen magic towards a different corner of this small grey room. She lies there suspended in mid-air at the centre of the room about a foot and a half above the ground. Her hair is long and white, her eyes are bright green and her skin is pale, just like both the other miko prisoners. Her body although covered to my eyes by the spirit clothes has been burnt many times with the hot iron that sits in the burning coals. I can’t see the burns on her body, but I know they are there.
“You’re late.” The black elf boy says with a grin. He is wearing only shorts and an open shirt. Both are naturally red but also completely soaked with blood. He doesn’t even bother with shoes. His short hair like his skin is black, and so are his eyes. If he were human he would be perhaps thirteen or fourteen. As an elf he is much older, but I have no idea how old.
“No, he’s just about on time.” The pale elf girl says.
“You really should let me eat his soul.” The boy says with a laugh.
“That would be boring.” The girl says with a giggle. She is wearing a short black skirt and a red leather top that covers her from just below her shoulders to an inch or so above her belly button. She looks about the same age as the boy, but her skin is very pale, her dark brown hair is down to her shoulders and her eyes are bright green. Although physically she may be a cute young girl, her soul is pure evil. The boy isn’t as bad as the girl, but that is like saying that a desert isn’t as hot as magical flames.
“Then hurry up and do your work.” The boy says yawning and then sits on the miko’s belly. She doesn’t sink because the magic doesn’t allow that. In fact he uses magic to raise her so his feet are now dangling in the air.
I close my eyes and begin the chant. It only takes a minute and the smell is gone. Her flesh is healed and the air is cleansed. It isn’t healing magic. That would be far too difficult for me. Instead I am simply invoking the natural healing power of this room to do its job. Anyone, even the elves could do this. Why they have me do it I have no idea. I can only assume they consider it below them, but they have plenty of elves to do their bidding.
“We’re going to continue playing with this one whilst you finish your work.” The boy tells me with a laugh as he swings his legs in the air and ports the hot iron into his hands. I suppress a wince as I leave the room and try not to hear the scream. If I was the only one who could keep on healing the miko I would kill myself in an instant.
(Nairon)
“Five more wind sisters have been lost.” Seraph tells me with a cruel laugh. There is no wind tonight so I can hear her perfectly as she sits on her spiderfly atop the next tree. “Not even their bodies were found. I wonder how the Kuroneko killed these ones.”
“They’re on our side.” I remind her.
“They’re easily replaced.” Seraph laughs. Then Ishki interrupts.
“The Kuroneko has been spotted near the river.” Ishki tells us.
“Then we almost have her!” Seraph laughs.
“I didn’t expect her to fall that far back so quickly.” I say with a frown. She was last seen not far from here and we are still some way from the river.
“We’d better hurry, or we’ll miss out on the fun.” Seraph tells me. I’m not sure about fun, but we had best hurry.
“Ishki, lead on.” I say and his spiderfly has leapt into the air and landed on the next tree before I have finished my last word. Seraph’s spiderfly jumps into the air too as I urge mine to follow. Jumping from tree to tree we move faster than if we simply flew through the air.
I hate spiderflies but I was at least used to the last one. This one I am still getting used to and so it takes a bit more concentration than normal to control. I am concerned about fighting the Kuroneko on this unfamiliar spiderfly, but it can’t be helped.
We are still some way from the river when the Kuroneko takes the form of a huge black cat standing on the other side of the river in the field of long grass. She is almost as big as the mountain where her temple sits, and towers over the trees. Her eyes are red and her fur is charged with powerful magic.
It is the first time she has fought in physical form and shows she is serious now. Perhaps this is why she left the forest. It would have been better to have cornered her inside the forest where we are at our best and she was unable to easily manifest her body. It is a forest she knows well though, and one we are unfamiliar with, so that was always unlikely.
I sense the huge bolt of lightning before I see it. There must be at least a hundred wind sisters to produce lightning on that scale, but the Kuroneko just laughs over the deafening thunder and ignores it. Then she strikes with one claw. It rips apart the air and sends countless trees flying. Undoubtedly many of the wind sisters were killed in just that first attack.
Other spiderfly riders have already reached the Kuroneko now and dot the sky above her. I sense a foolish one dive their spiderfly onto her. The result as expected is a quick incineration before even hitting the deadly fur. Its magic is strong enough to burn the rider and spiderfly from even further than I realised. The other riders have the sense to just spit venom and binding goo at the Kuroneko. Needless to say it is ineffective, but it is a distraction.
The Kuroneko is busy swatting my fellow spiderfly riders when our main force finally arrives. Thankfully that is before we arrive to get swatted. The river leaps up into a monstrous form at the command of our water mages. At the same time both behind and under the Kuroneko the earth forms giant hands. Both earth and water strike the Kuroneko and these are not attacks she can simply laugh off. Instead she leaps towards the forest and over the now dry river bed.
A huge wall of earth rises between her and the mages of our main force but she breaks through it with ease. I sense the many ports as our mages split up. Some are undoubtedly too slow, but from the sheer amount of ports most must have escaped her attack. We have almost reached the battle now.
I sense their port and then their presence. It is fifty drake riders now directly above the Kuroneko. They are not elves but human death mages. They use the foulest of death magic and before my eyes countless death feathers spread out below them. The Kuroneko obviously senses them too and in spirit form again she leaps back into the forest directly towards us. For a moment I fear she will kill us as she passes, but not sparing the time she is past us in an instant.
Now the hunt must begin anew. If the death mages hadn’t shown up and scared her off like that we may have managed to wear her down and kill her. At least the three of us survived though. I breathe a sigh of relief.
Chapter 14 (Peter)
It got dark hours ago but we decided to risk continuing because there don’t seem to be any monsters nearby and the elves were still close by. We can’t continue forever without rest though, and it is slower walking in the dark of night, because it is harder to dodge all the constant branches, shrubs, boulders and everything else that gets in the way. Not that the day is exactly bright, but it isn’t as dark as the night. So we will have to stop soon.
Suddenly I am plunged forward as the elf carrying me falls to the ground. I hit my head on a thick tree trunk and my face is scratched by a sharp tree root. I hear a loud screech and quickly jump to my feet. The elf is trying desperately to pull a small furry animal off her left foot. It has its teeth deep into her foot, which is bleeding badly.
“Stop struggling. Use ice magic to cool your foot.” Kai tells her. “It’s just a kari. You stepped in its burrow so it’s only natural it is angry. It doesn’t like the cold though, so it will give up quickly. See, it’s already backed off.”
Sure enough the small creature has backed away, looking a bit confused. Then it jumps back into its burrow. The elf looks at m
e fearfully with her gaze not meeting my eyes. The other elves look at her in obvious concern.
“Let’s stop here for the night.” I suggest but as I do so there is a great flash and a deafening roar. I feel lightning at the edge of the forest with my wind senses. Normally distant lightning only just registers, but this feels more like my wind senses are on fire. I gasp in shock and hold my breath for a few moments. Even though the lightning was only there a moment it takes that long to recover from the shock.
“Are you ok?” Hinata asks.
“Yes. The power of that though…” I say shaking my head in disbelief.
“It was combined magic.” Lucy tells me.
“Combined?” I ask confused.
“More than one mage used magic to form a single effect, and in this case a lot more than one mage. You have to be really attuned to each other to combine your magic, so it is really quite impressive for so many mages to do so. It’s not like two mages simply summoning fire in the same place, because that is still two separate effects even though the effects themselves merge.” Lucy explains.
“They must be fighting the Kuroneko. Do you think she will be alright?” I ask nervously. That was a really powerful blast and we haven’t seen or heard any more. Did it kill her?
“I doubt she’ll be beaten easily even if it is elves she is fighting.” Lucy says but she still looks worried. “There’s nothing we can do, so we may as well get some rest like you suggested. We should be ready to move at dawn though.”
“I’ll take first watch. Sor as well, since we were both carried. Dairon and Emi will take second watch.” I say. Sor looks at me in distaste but for once doesn’t complain. Instead she gets her bed out for Emi. As she does so we hear a faint thud in the distance. There are a few more thuds and then silence.
Everyone is tired so even though the ground is just as hard and uncomfortable as ever we are soon the only ones awake. I look at Sor but she remains silent and seems determined to ignore me. I don’t want to argue so I remain silent and look away. I don’t like arguing anyway, but especially whilst I am so tired. I am still a little queasy too.
I wish that I could see the stars but the forest canopy blocks them completely. At least an hour passes like this and having finally gotten used to it the silence feels quite comfortable. That’s when Sor breaks it.
“Was that the first time you met the Kuroneko?” Sor asks quietly.
“Yes.” I say and look at Sor confused. She is still looking away from me.
“She seemed to recognise you.” Sor says sounding suspicious.
“I got that impression too, but what makes you think that?” I ask. Sor looks at me oddly and remains silent. I don’t think she is going to answer me, but after a few minutes she does.
“Instincts.” Is all Sor says when she does finally answer. Another minute passes before she speaks again. “Why did you feel she recognised you?”
“It was in her aura, but I’ve never seen a god before so I can’t be sure.” I tell her.
“You can see auras?” She asks straight away.
“Yes.” I answer. She remains silent and I am sure the conversation is over.
“How well?” She asks after a few more minutes. I don’t know quite how to answer that so remain silent for a moment. I almost expect to be hurried despite her long pauses but she remains silent whilst I think.
“How well can you see anything?” I ask.
“What does that have to do with it?” She asks sounding annoyed.
“I can see auras just like I can see anything else.” I tell her.
“That’s impossible.” She says with a laugh.
“Impossible or not, it is true.” I say with a shrug.
“So what does my aura look like?” She asks.
“It is a slow turning swirl of black and bloody red mixed together like many clouds floating around in a large ring at different speeds.” I tell her.
“Is that what most auras look like?” She asks.
“No, most are just one colour and don’t move as much.”
“What does your aura look like?” She asks. I blink.
“I don’t know. I can’t see my own aura.” I admit.
“Doesn’t seeing auras get in the way of seeing everything else?” Sor asks.
“No. It is like a different sense. Hearing and smell don’t get in the way of seeing, right?”
“I suppose that is true, but you just described it with colours and shape. That sounds like seeing to me. You also described it as seeing earlier.” Sor reminds me.
“It is like seeing, but it isn’t.” I say, unable to explain it in a way that makes sense.
“Are you human?” Sor asks. I blink.
“Of course I am.” I answer a little indignantly.
“Humans can’t see auras though. Not without being trained. Who trained you?” Sor asks.
“I don’t know. I fought monsters in the arena at the capital. I have very few memories before that.” I tell her and I hear a small gasp. “Is something wrong?”
“No, nothing.” Sor says, but it doesn’t sound like nothing. Her tone is quite emotional and her aura spins furiously for a moment. Then she suppresses it and her aura returns to normal. “Have you ever killed?”
“Yes. I killed an elf above Minerva.” I tell her. I thought I mentioned that before but maybe I am misremembering.
“Is that the only time you have ever killed anyone?” She asks.
“No. I’ve killed humans too, and monsters of course.” I tell her. I’m not sure David really counts, but certainly Hermes’ mother does and the woman who attacked the Hoshi land and David’s followers after the Death Bird attacked me.
“In the arena?” Sor asks and I detect a tremor in both her voice and her aura. I killed Hermes mother in the academy arena.
“Yes.” I say. Sor seems to breathe a sigh of relief. A strange response. Is she misunderstanding something? “I killed Hermes’ mother in the academy arena.”
“What about the city arena?” Sor asks sounding angry.
“I only fought animals and monsters there.” I tell her.
“I see…” Sor says. Her aura is completely still now. I am not sure I have ever seen an aura completely still before. Most don’t move as much as hers, but there is always at least some movement. I consider for a moment before finally asking.
“Do you think I killed someone?” I ask. Sor doesn’t answer. I wait for a few minutes expecting another delayed answer, but eventually I realise she isn’t going to answer me.
“It’s time to change watches.” Sor finally says and she is right. “I’ll wake Emi and you can wake Dairon.”
“Ok.” I answer with a tired sigh. Once Dairon and Emi have taken over from us I quickly fall asleep. It feels like I have only just done so though, when I wake to the sound of Dairon’s voice. I don’t hear his words but I sit up tiredly and rub my eyes.
“It’s almost dawn.” Dairon says and this time I hear what he said. So another day begins. I soon find myself being carried by an elf. Sor resigns herself to being carried without protest today but insists an elf carry her.
I have my elven carrier walk just behind Dairon. Sor then insists that her elf walks behind the other elves. I have no idea why, but I see no reason to argue. Kai now walks at the front beside Dairon and Nico Na. Emi and Hinata walk at the very back with Lucy sitting on Hinata’s shoulder.
I feel a bit more comfortable today. I must be getting used to being carried. I eventually loosen my grip on the elf and simply rely on her to support me. I start to pay a bit more attention to my surroundings now. Even when I walked on my own feet I was much more focused on not tripping and on dodging the many obstacles that the forest put in my way.
The forest canopy seems thinner now. Perhaps before long I will be able to see the stars again. We will be much more vulnerable once the leaves are gone though. Every now and again there are now holes in the canopy that let in rays of light from the sun when it is up, so it may not be
long before we become more vulnerable.
Closer to me I notice that there are all sorts of mushrooms growing in this part of the forest. Some are long thin grey ones growing along branches. Others are small round green ones sticking out of tree trunks. There are tiny red ones barely the size of my fingertips growing on tree roots. There are large brown ones perhaps the size of both my feet. They are rare and always grow on their own. There are never other plants near them.
“They’re poisonous.” Dairon tells me as I look closer at one. He doesn’t even look back at me as he says it.
I haven’t noticed many shrubs recently and only the occasional boulder. There haven’t been any smaller stones for some time now. I smell something in the air, a bit like smoke but with hints of sweetness mixed in. It takes a minute or two to place it.
“Stop!” I whisper urgently.
“What is it?” Dairon asks turning towards me.
“That smell is the same as the drake blood, right?” I ask him. He considers for a moment and nods. Kai then surprises me by laughing.
“It isn’t drake blood. This is the smell of ore. There must be an entrance to the old mines here. They haven’t been used since the dwarves abandoned them.” Kai tells us.
“Would the mines allow us to reach the Heart of the Mountain?” I ask.
“Yes, and it should be a much more pleasant walk.” Kai tells me eagerly, but Dairon looks uncomfortable.
“Is there something wrong?” I ask Dairon.
“Elves hate walking through dark tunnels.” Dairon says apologetically.
“We shouldn’t meet too many enemies down there then.” I say thoughtfully.