by Unknown
“They’ll talk to us! They may tell us to leave, but they’ll talk,” the attendant assured him, smiling broadly as she added, “And we’re taking it seriously, promise!”
That didn’t seem to reassure the man, as he sighed and looked at Brianna, Cora, and Stella, asking, “What about you three? I don’t want to have the deaths of another group of adventurers who didn’t listen on my conscience.”
Cora laughed, shaking her head as she replied. “Master Drake, believe me when I say that they are being serious. Apis have an… odd view of the world, from our perspective. Don’t take their attitude as them blowing off your concerns; they’ll do exactly what you say once we’re in the forest. As for us, we’ve no intentions of getting ourselves killed. I’ve done that one too many times as it is, and I don’t care to repeat it.”
“Agreed, though fortunately I’ve avoided any deaths so far,” Stella said, pausing to kiss her holy symbol again, then continued. “I’ll follow your directions.”
Brianna nodded, adjusting her pack. “We’re ready whenever you are.”
“Good. And it’s just Drake, no need for any Master or such. Calling me that puts my teeth on edge,” Drake said, nodding toward the gate. “We’ve got about a half-hour walk to the edge of the forest, and even if it goes well we’re going to have a rough time getting back before dark, so let’s get moving. I don’t like being in the Shimmerwood after dark.”
“Okay!” Joy said, her smile broadening as she and the other apis almost instantly fell into order for the march, prompting him to pause, looking between them suspiciously, then he shrugged.
“Huh. The strangest things, I swear…” Drake muttered, and began leading the way toward the gates.
“If he thinks that’s strange, I wonder how he’d react to all the other things we’ve seen you do,” Brianna commented quietly, prompting a giggle from Joy, but she followed alongside Cora, their adventuring group behind the apis, who Joy had noticed had already taken positions to protect the drones and the attendant from attackers.
They drew a lot of attention as they made their way out of the city, enough that a few guards approached Drake, and he spoke quietly enough she couldn’t hear him, though she smelled the amusement from the apis ahead of her. Then they were out the gate, and Joy’s eyes brightened, since this time they were facing east instead of north, with the sun shining down on them. A breeze brought the scents of vegetation to her, and Joy raised her antennae again, tasting the wind. She opened her mouth, then shut it again, deciding to enjoy the open air in silence. Air that didn’t smell of oil, smoke, and unwashed humans.
“You like it out of the cities, don’t you?” Stella asked, and Joy looked back at her in a little surprise. The human smiled warmly as she shrugged. “It’s your back and wings. You fluttered them a bit, and I could see how you relaxed.”
“Oh! I didn’t know that,” Joy said, twitching her wings deliberately, then trying to flex her back, trying to figure out what Stella meant by relaxing it. She wasn’t sure she could tell, but she looked forward again as she replied. “I don’t like smoke. I like flowers, vegetation… it’s where apis belong. Out in the world, where we can find food. Stone isn’t as interesting.”
“I suppose. For most people, a city is a place of safety… but at the same time, there are plenty of people who feel more like you. Elves like to build smaller villages, from what I’ve seen,” Brianna said. Cora snorted, shaking her head as she spoke up.
“There you go generalizing again. Elves don’t only build small villages, and there are varieties of elves, too. There are big cities, stone cities, and more among the elven nations,” Cora explained. “Back home, the larger cities aren’t as cramped as human ones, and there’s more vegetation in them as well. The problem is that they’re harder to defend, so the army tends to be filled with people who attack from the shadows, then retreat. It constantly keeps attackers on edge, and it allows them to wear down opponents. But if the enemy can keep going through that and reach the city…”
Cora’s voice trailed off, and Joy nodded in understanding. “Then the city won’t be defended well enough.”
“Exactly. I think the cities are nicer, but… there are lots of problems with having the sort of cities I prefer,” Cora said, letting out a sigh. “I swear it’s why goblins and elves have such an enormous vendetta against one another. When they reach our cities, they devastate them, where most human cities can wait them out or drive them off.”
Joy nodded, considering what to say, only to be distracted first as she saw the Shimmerwood and instantly understood the reason for its name.
The pastel colors of the forest were incredibly pleasing, the sort of shades that instantly made Joy think of nectar-laden flowers, and her mouth started watering almost involuntarily. At the same time, she could see colors swirling on the wind above it, as well as the bright arch of a rainbow extending almost from one horizon to the other. To her, it looked almost like an apis paradise. Though if the others were right, it was anything but a paradise, which was a little disheartening.
“It’s beautiful,” Joy said, and heard Drake snort from the head of the line.
“I’d like to hear you say that after that ‘beautiful’ place tries to kill you,” the man said bluntly, prompting a laugh from Joy.
“Of course it’ll try to kill me! Most bright-colored plants are either full of lovely nectar or poisonous. Sometimes both!” Joy replied happily. She also saw the guide almost trip as he looked back at her in surprise.
“Try not to tease the man, Joy? He’s supposed to be guiding us, and I’d rather he didn’t make a mistake because you distracted him,” Brianna said, sounding almost as amused as Joy felt.
Joy smiled back at Brianna, shrugging as she said, “I’ll try! I wasn’t teasing him, though. It’s really true. If something is brightly colored, it’s often deadly! Except for flowers, which usually want bees to come over.”
“If you say so,” Brianna said, laughing softly, but then they had to speed up, as Drake picked up the pace.
It was while they were approaching that Joy first noticed how the air seemed to shift and move ahead of her. Drake had warned them about it early on, and Joy couldn’t help her fascination as she watched it, and it only took her a few seconds to realize that, despite what he might have said, there was a pattern to the shifting. When she paused for a moment, holding completely still, the view didn’t shift at all, which meant that the shift occurred as she moved.
Joy considered that as she moved, and she came to a snap decision while they approached. Navigating the Flower Forest as a bee had been simple enough, and not because she’d known directions or anything like that, and it wasn’t like she followed a trail like ants did. No, what she’d done as a bee was keep track of what things were in particular places along her route, and that allowed her to retrace her steps.
It was possible that the Shimmerwood would change things enough that wouldn’t work inside it, but if Joy was right, she’d be able to retrace her steps perfectly. It would also explain why the local apis didn’t have any problems in the forest at all, a thought which made Joy smile.
She couldn’t wait to meet the other apis.
“Wolf!” one of the drones called out an hour later, pointing to his left, and Joy pounced without even thinking, ignoring the four wolves that Brianna, Stella, and the other apis were dealing with, while four of the apis swiveled without a word to help her, just as Cora and Drake turned as well.
Drake swore as he turned to face the pair of wolves that seemed to materialize from nowhere, swinging his kukri with almost perfect timing to hit the first of them, leaving a deep gash in its side. A moment later two apis descended on the wolf, stabbing it viciously, while Joy and the others intercepted the other… not before Cora responded, though.
“Ice Blast!” Cora exclaimed, launching an icicle into the wolf’s side. The wolf staggered, its legs not working quite right, and Joy coordinated with the other apis silently, the two of them
flanking its front, one blocking the wolf’s view of Joy as she circled around its side.
Joy rolled forward, pleasant scents surrounding her as she crushed clover beneath her, then bounded to her feet and called out, “Penetrating Strike!”
Her rapier lanced toward the base of the wolf’s ribcage, and while it tried to react, it was just a little too slow. The blade pierced deep into it, and Joy winced at the feeling, twisting her blade inside it before pulling back, dancing a couple of steps away, glancing around as the wolf collapsed.
Joy didn’t see or hear any more of the wolves, but that didn’t mean they weren’t there. She was mostly impressed that the drone had managed to tell they were circling around in time, so she glanced around again and started toward the one Drake and the apis were fighting, just in time for it to drop to the ground, bleeding out profusely. Behind her she heard several yelps and a howl as the other wolves began retreating, leaving half their number on the ground, dying.
“Damn it, I hate it when I run into ghost wolves,” Drake said, scowling. “Normally they know better than to attack me, but I guess they found you lot a bit too tempting.”
“Oh! Maybe they think apis are tasty? That’s different than the flower minks… but I guess that’s normal,” Joy wondered aloud, and another apis nodded.
“Yep. They were sniffing and focusing on us a lot. I think they were after the drones,” the worker said, looking at the apis in question, which made the pair of males give them a sheepish look.
“We are the lowest level,” one admitted. “We couldn’t contribute much.”
“No, but it explains things. Wolves tend to try to pick off the weakest members of a herd,” Drake said, scowling and shaking his head. “We’d best get moving, though. There are plenty of scavengers in the forest, and I’d rather not have them try to eat us as well. Is anyone hurt?”
“Not anymore,” Cora replied, looking down at her arm as she added, “I’m really glad we upgraded our armor. That bite might have crushed my arm if I hadn’t.”
“It probably would have. Our armor before this was appropriate for level ten, so…” Brianna began, her voice trailing off, then shrugged. “Anyway, Drake’s right. I don’t know what types of scavengers he’s talking about, but I’d rather not run into them.”
“Bears, coyotes, vultures, other wolves, insects… I can’t begin to count them all,” Drake said, nodding off to the right. “That way. It should take us to a stream where we can wash off the blood and keep going. I don’t want to leave a clear scent.”
“Okay!” Joy said, wiping off her rapier on the nearest wolf, then sheathed it again. The blade glittered as it came clean, still a narrow, razor-sharp blade, but she liked how the chitin and titansteel complemented each other, forming a pretty spiral of black and glowing white.
She quickly followed as Drake led them to the side, and Joy couldn’t help a smile at how he seemed to blur and almost disappear as soon as he got very far. The other apis were close enough to see easily, though, so she quickly followed them, ducking under the branch of the tree they were passing, trying not to scuff its bark or leaves.
Joy also thought she could smell other apis, ones that weren’t from the Shadebough Hive, but the scents were older, as if they hadn’t come through the area recently. She kept sniffing as she moved, but wasn’t able to localize anything.
Winding their way through the trees, Joy habitually extended a hand as Cora stumbled, catching her without even looking directly at her. The blonde smiled wryly at Joy, nodding as she whispered. “Thanks, I should watch where I’m going better.”
“It isn’t your fault. The air shifts even if you’re looking at your feet, it’s just not much of a shift,” Joy said, grinning in return. “It took me a bit to notice!”
“Wait, you can tell that? How?” Brianna asked incredulously, though she kept her voice down as well. “I didn’t think your eyes are that much better than mine!”
“Oh, I just watch specific things,” Joy explained, and nodded at a rock. “Just… where the position of the rock shifts as I move. I know how I move, so I can tell how things shift based on that.”
The others fell silent again, and after about ten steps, Stella spoke up quietly. “Nope, I can’t keep track of it, not in that amount of detail. I can tell that my line of sight isn’t quite right, but nothing more.”
“I can’t, either,” Cora admitted, shaking her head. “Elves have keen senses, but I’ve never focused on training it to that degree.”
“Heh, whereas I can catch the edges of it. I might not be up to Joy’s standards, but I think I could figure it out with practice,” Brianna gloated softly. “Thanks, Joy. I never thought to look at the world that way.”
“You’re welcome! It’s just how I navigated as a bee. I kept track of all the plants and flowers around me, and used them as landmarks,” Joy explained happily, her wings buzzing. “I just—”
She fell silent as she realized that the others had stopped ahead of them, and Joy frowned, looking at one of the apis ahead of her. The woman shrugged and said, “I don’t know what’s going on! Mister Drake is stopped, looking at something.”
“Oh! What’s he looking at?” Joy asked, trying to peer past them, but with the way the air blurred, she couldn’t see anything more than the fact Drake was crouching ahead of them, though she could hear a burbling stream just beyond him.
“I don’t know!” the apis replied, and looked at the drone ahead of her. “What about you?”
“I can see some… footprints?” the man replied hesitantly, reaching up to rub his chin. “I’m not sure.”
“You all can come forward,” Drake called out, his voice low. “It looks like this spot is relatively safe… even if it looks like someone came through here recently.”
Joy quickly moved forward as the other apis approached as well, and the area came into better focus as she did so. The apis were approaching the small brook with numerous river stones in it, trees on either side of the water, while Drake was crouched over several tracks in the mud next to the river, and the man was frowning deeply.
“What’s wrong?” Brianna asked him, stepping around Joy to look at the tracks. “Don’t other adventurers come into the Shimmerwood? Or hunters?”
“Yes, but these tracks… they aren’t those of hunters, and I’d have heard of a group of at least six adventurers coming out here,” Drake said, gesturing at the tracks unhappily. “These were left yesterday, and no adventurers have come out here about that time. The last people who did are the soldiers sent by Captain Wilbert, and they shouldn’t be wandering around. I’m not sure what’s going on, but it makes me suspicious.”
“Do we need to worry?” Joy asked, tilting her head curiously as she looked at the tracks. Her mind immediately turned to the Skyfishers, since they were in the region, and the entire reason for her coming along with was to forge an alliance to defeat them. Unfortunately, she could tell that there were tracks, but she couldn’t say much more than that they were shaped like a boot sole.
“No, I don’t think so. They aren’t anywhere near us, and we aren’t going in the same direction,” Drake said, standing and looking around, frowning for a moment more, then shrugged. “It isn’t like I like seeing unknown tracks in the Shimmerwood, but they’ll likely just get themselves killed and have learned a lesson about biting off more than they can chew.”
“If you say so,” Cora said, circling Joy with a wry smile as she added, “Personally, I’d like to wash off after fighting those wolves. I don’t like having blood or slobber on me.”
“It also helps us not draw anything nasty down on our heads. If I never encounter another rainbow serpent again, it’ll be too soon,” Drake said, shuddering visibly as Joy stepped past him, pulling out her rapier to wash it off, but he roused her curiosity in the process.
“What’s a rainbow serpent?” Joy asked, crouching next to the stream and getting to work.
“A nasty piece of work, is what it is,” Drake repl
ied grimly. “It’s a flying snake about twenty feet long, with scales that change colors like the rainbow, at least when it isn’t turning invisible to try to bite your head off. They can control elemental powers, and the damnable things change their strengths and weaknesses as they use different ones. So if they use an ice power, they become vulnerable to fire briefly, and vice versa. Even then, they can also use illusions that make them incredibly hard to hit, which makes them one of the nastiest things to run into in the Shimmerwood.”
“That sounds terrible,” Stella said, shuddering visibly. “I’ve never run into a monster with more than one or two special abilities, never anything like that.”
“With any luck, you won’t this time, either. They’re mostly nocturnal hunters, so I stay the hell out of here at night,” Drake told her. “It’s an unusual one … but if you see something scaly in a pond or clearing, make certain it isn’t a napping rainbow serpent before attacking. You’ll probably die if that happens, and I’ll be busy running away as fast as I can move.”
“They’re that mean?” Joy asked, standing up and flicking the water off her rapier’s blade, then ran a finger along its length to check for any burrs. There weren’t any she could detect, prompting her to smile.
“Yep. Some people think they’re related to dragons, but I think they’re wrong. Most dragons are vicious, but they aren’t that damned mean,” Drake said, shuddering. “I’ve heard of rainbow serpents toying with someone they’re hunting for days before finally closing for the kill.”
“Lovely, another monster I don’t care to encounter, though I think most high-level monsters probably would be on the list,” Cora murmured, prompting a giggle from Joy.
“The higher level they are, the more dangerous, right?” Joy said, grinning broadly at Cora. “If we’re going to level, we’re going to run into things like that, right?”