The breeze through my feathers is amazing. I’ve been too hesitant to just spread my wings and fly lately. It’s mainly because of the threat of those giant birds that could be anywhere, but I really should have tried flying in proximity to Grímr’s huge form earlier.
My friend is keeping his word about finding me a magnesium deposit. I’m not sure exactly how he can tell where to look, but he says it’s like having a third eye; there are some colours he can see that his past bodies couldn’t.
After the obliteration of the Viisin, we faced no opposition as we moved to the vast hole. The centzon made short work of converting their machines into fortifications. Within a day, they already had their field of traps set up and that moving wall aligned over the ledge.
There were still several oil-wagons that survived the explosion. I’d watched the hunters repurpose the thing into one of their traps.
I’m not sure how I feel about them leaving bombs as strong as those lying around.
…I wonder if they’ll give me some of that oil if I ask?
The two of us soar along for a few hours until Grímr finds a deposit. I take the time to enjoy myself, knowing that the moment we enter the tunnels, I’ll be back to that constant stress.
I still need to tell Grímr that I’ve decided, but… there’s a difference between telling myself I’m ready, and actually saying it. Grímr has been kind enough not to push me. Even as much as he wants to go back, he considers my opinion before anything else. I have to tell him, but I want to extend the time I have just a little.
I suppress the pang of guilt that rises from my selfishness.
Grímr slows his descent and touches down with an ease he couldn’t have managed a month ago. He takes barely any time to slice his wings into the earth and dig. I could probably just melt my way down, but if I didn’t want to leave a pool of molten sludge, I’d have to eat all that rock. Not an appealing prospect.
Grímr tears through the earth. His metal feathers slam into stone and come back unmarred. As thin as they are, I’d assume they’d bend easily, but no, they stay straight and sharp.
A large chunk of our target clunks on the ground before me. It’s the good stuff! I quickly engulf the magnesium filled rock with my flames, enjoying the unique crackling as I peeled it away from the stone wrapping it. I leave a small chunk to swallow. As it reaches the inside of my body, I enjoy the burst of heat that ignites once it warms enough.
Grímr chomps through a slab of his own as he climbs out of the deep hole and lays at my side. We stay there for a while, simply relaxing before we have to return to our responsibilities. Grímr is quiet, but his presence is comforting.
“I think I’ll be fine now, Grímr. Let’s go back. Let’s go home.”
He turns to me, surprised, but soon it morphs to concern.
“Solvei… I appreciate it, but there’s no need to force yourself into this.”
“No. I can do it,” I say before he can continue. If he gives me a reason to back down, it might tempt me. I need to do this. If I don’t push myself through this challenge now, then what will happen next time? Will I cower and back away then? I don’t want that to be who I am.
Those I trust — those I care for — I don’t want to leave them in danger. I want to protect them. Even if that means I have to push myself.
“It will be hard… but this is something I need to do. I’ll never be able to return if I don’t force myself now.”
Grímr gives me an encouraging smile… or at least his eyes and body give off that impression. His metal beak isn’t exactly capable of facial expression.
“I’m proud of you, Solvei.”
It had been hardly a week, and yet the centzon’s fortress had grown far more than I’d expected. The defensive wall now completely encircles the massive hole in the earth. They’d hidden their trap field now, too.
Between the repurposed siege engines and a convoy of materials from the nearest regna, they’d put together an impressive defence. One that had been tested regularly by the mermineae still down inside the earth. None of their attacks were any more than probing strikes by the mermineae that didn’t even have decay eyes, so the centzon had no troubles warding them off.
Now is the time I’d been dreading for days. I’d agreed to challenge the depths again, and I will have Grímr by my side, but it’s still nerve-wracking as I stare down into the dark cavern that hides those massive arachnids and centipedes.
We’ll be making our way back through the alps, leading the centzon the entire way. Because of Grímr’s size, we’ll be travelling through the caverns, only digging down into the tunnels when we come across those massive cave walls.
I’ll have to go back to keeping my flames hidden, which isn’t something I’m looking forward to, but at least I’ll have more time to practice my spear.
“Here.” Atl hands me a canteen that appears no different from the containers they use to hold water.
I hold the thing far from my body and give him a conflicted glance. Why exactly is he handing me water? Is this a threat? No, I shouldn’t assume the worst; they’ve proven their trustworthiness enough by now.
“Oh, don’t give me that look,” Atl huffs. “Open it.”
My eyes linger on him a moment longer, looking for anything I should be concerned about, but see nothing. With hesitance, I twist the lid as slowly as I can and hold the bottle away from me. Once the cap separates from the container, I swoon at the scent.
He’s given me a canteen of that hyper flammable black oil. It smells incredible.
Atl chuckles. “You better portion it out. We won’t be able to take our war-machines with us, so we can’t carry any more.”
I take a deep breath of the fumes coming out of the bottle. Yeah, definitely better than the explosive jelly in the glow-bug traps.
“Thank you,” I say as I reluctantly replace the lid.
I wish they’d given me a different type of container, though; I’ll be nervous about a mix-up every time I open it.
Thunder rumbles in the distance. I look up, expecting to see an approaching storm… but there’s nothing. Not even a cloud in the sky.
Wait, Spenne?
I’m proven right when, in the distance, a branching flash of light spreads across the horizon. The thunder rolls over us seconds later, but by then I see more lightning bolts fork outward. The áinfean quickly appears, zipping across the earth in jagged motions.
Now able to see Spenne, I realise he’s not alone. Explosions of ash blow into the air each time he makes a jagged motion in his sprint. The distance closes incredibly quickly and the sirens of the fort ring out around me. I can see him clearly now. His white wraps are in tatters, exposing his electric body to the world.
He’s being chased by Viisin. Not one. There are four of them behind him, and Spenne’s leading them right to us.
I immediately rocket toward the nearest tower, burning an immense amount of energy to blast myself forward with a jet of physical flame. The centzon don’t know that Spenne is on our side. They’re just as likely to hit him with those massive explosions as they are the Viisin.
I slam into the tower and tumble onto the viewing platform. With how urgent this is, I care little for a stable flight.
“The lightning elemental is a friend,” I shout to Tzilac over the blaring alarm, using their own term for our races.
The hunter leader barely looks my way before pulling a lever amongst the tens at his side. “The way is open. Make sure he comes to our tower and our tower only,” he orders.
I assume he means the only safe path is directly to us, so I spread my flames, not to burn anything, but to show the áinfean that I’m here and guide him. My fire spreads wide so he couldn’t possibly miss it, before concentrating it on a thin line between him and myself.
Spenne turns in mid sprint and flings out a lightning bolt that chains between the four chasing him. Each of them stumbles and collapses, but it isn’t enough to kill them, just halt the chase until their legs regrow.
Fortunately, the áinfean understands my signal and stops dodging to the sides. He runs directly for us. The moment he’s within a dozen metres of the tower, Tzilac slams the lever back into place. Just in time too; the lead Viisin follows the path Spenne took, but runs right into the field of reactivated traps.
The Viisin has absolutely no time to react once the ground beneath it opens and snaps around it. Like the trap that originally pulled me into the earth, the teeth cut right through the Viisin. But unlike the one I experienced, it doesn’t drag the creature underground. It simply holds the Viisin still for a second.
And that is all that’s needed.
While the gifted mermineae is stuck, the earth opens to its side and a barrel of metal taller than I am flings toward the Viisin. The creature can do nothing but watch its incoming doom.
My body shakes from the explosion. Like the one a week ago, I can feel the tremors through the earth as a blast of air rushes past me. Once again, a shower of shrapnel rains down from above. I belatedly note pieces of metal wedged into the ceiling a short distance above my head. I’d completely missed those over the quaking explosion.
I jump as a hand lands on my shoulder. “Whoa, that’s quite the bomb you’ve got there.”
Spenne stands over me, somehow getting here in the few moments since I’d lost track of him.
“Thanks kid, I owe ya one.” He looks up at the centzon still looking out over the trap field. “And to this group too, it looks.”
There are barely any white straps around him anymore. The arcing electricity of his body continually flows out of his feet and tail, scorching the stone ground. Is he unable to stop it? Is that why he wore those straps?
It takes a while for the smoke to clear. We wait, ready for the last three Viisin to jump over the trap fields and attack us, but they don’t come. Eventually, it clears enough to see, but the trio just stand there, watching us.
“What are they doing?” I ask. I know that one of the other Viisin just died before their eyes, but I’ve seen them jump far distances before. Why don’t they just jump over the field of traps?
“If there’s one thing the cultists and yoe have learnt, it is to never attack our fortifications,” Tzilac says. His hands never leave a set of levers while his eyes stay locked on the Viisin. “They know how futile the attempt would be.”
The Viisin pace around the centzon’s walls for a while, obviously frustrated. After a tense half-hour, they turn on their heel and dash away.
Were these Viisin a part of the fleeing mermineae? Or the ones trying to stop them? If it’s the latter, then there shouldn’t be an issue with the centzon setting up here. But in that case, why were they chasing Spenne?
“What did you do?” I accuse.
“Hey! Nothing! They just came after me,” he says with arms raised in defence. “Unless they somehow realised I found out what they were up to.”
“What they were up to?”
“You’re not going to like this, but the Viisin have been hunting down other Beiths for months now. I think I’d just become their latest target.”
I’m not sure why he’d think I care. It’s his and the other Beith’s fault we’re in this mess. If they hadn’t opened the path through the Alps, none of this would have happened.
“We should get going. We were ready to leave before you showed up. Now that you’re being targeted, are you joining us?” I ask as I step on the rail of the tower.
Spenne breathes in deep, before letting it all out in a huff. “I hate running, but even I know when I’m outmatched. I could take one, not their whole fucking hit-squad. It was fun while it lasted.”
“Alright then.” I jump off the tower, ready to meet with Grímr, and finally face the Alps again.
Dropping into the enormous cavern again turned out to be easier than I’d anticipated. Sure, I am nervous to be under the earth, but actually being down here, and not experiencing any of those past horrors, is a relief.
I glance around. The glow-bugs are nowhere to be seen. We’ve travelled quite far now and yet they still don’t appear. Back in the cavern we dropped into, with the sunlight shining through the half-circle in the ceiling, it had seemed empty, but I’d assumed that would change as we follow the path of destruction I leftover a month ago.
It hasn’t.
No matter how far we lead the centzon through the cavern, the glow-bugs never appear. Unfortunate. I’d been hoping for another snack on our way through.
It’s not all bad though, the giant residents of this cavern seem to have left with the glow-bugs. I know this for sure, simply because Spenne seems completely unwilling to control his lightning. We keep him at the front where we won’t be hit when the arachnid monstrosities inevitably drop on him.
But miraculously, despite shining like a thousand glow-bugs, he remains unattacked.
The tunnels I exploded through on my way here are still as charred and dug up as I left them. No more of that explosive-jelly to play around with.
Well, whatever happened to all the creatures down here, it’s given us a clear path to follow and no need to creep around. Unfortunately, it is clear the mermineae use the lack of danger up here to their own advantage. With the centzon and Spenne, we have no trouble fending them off, but that I left them with such a clear path to our home is troubling.
After a while of travelling with the centzon, Tzilac confirms his ability to both follow the damage I left behind and track the passage of mermineae. We agree to meet them once he and his hundred centzon hunters make their way to the other side of the Alps.
So Grímr, Spenne and I take advantage of the concerning lack of monstrosities in these caves to cut our expected travel time to a mere fraction. I fly on Grímr’s back, while Spenne remains as bait ahead of us. Our áinfean’s not too happy about his role, but he did say he owed me one.
Hopefully, the mermineae haven’t caused too much damage by the time we return.
The breeze through my feathers is amazing. I’ve been too hesitant to just spread my wings and fly lately. It’s mainly because of the threat of those giant birds that could be anywhere, but I really should have tried flying in proximity to Grímr’s huge form earlier.
My friend is keeping his word about finding me a magnesium deposit. I’m not sure exactly how he can tell where to look, but he says it’s like having a third eye; there are some colours he can see that his past bodies couldn’t.
After the obliteration of the Viisin, we faced no opposition as we moved to the vast hole. The centzon made short work of converting their machines into fortifications. Within a day, they already had their field of traps set up and that moving wall aligned over the ledge.
There were still several oil-wagons that survived the explosion. I’d watched the hunters repurpose the thing into one of their traps.
I’m not sure how I feel about them leaving bombs as strong as those lying around.
…I wonder if they’ll give me some of that oil if I ask?
The two of us soar along for a few hours until Grímr finds a deposit. I take the time to enjoy myself, knowing that the moment we enter the tunnels, I’ll be back to that constant stress.
I still need to tell Grímr that I’ve decided, but… there’s a difference between telling myself I’m ready, and actually saying it. Grímr has been kind enough not to push me. Even as much as he wants to go back, he considers my opinion before anything else. I have to tell him, but I want to extend the time I have just a little.
I suppress the pang of guilt that rises from my selfishness.
Grímr slows his descent and touches down with an ease he couldn’t have managed a month ago. He takes barely any time to slice his wings into the earth and dig. I could probably just melt my way down, but if I didn’t want to leave a pool of molten sludge, I’d have to eat all that rock. Not an appealing prospect.
Grímr tears through the earth. His metal feathers slam into stone and come back unmarred. As thin as they are, I’d assume they’d bend easily, but no, they stay straight and sharp.
A large chunk of our target clunks on the ground before me. It’s the good stuff! I quickly engulf the magnesium filled rock with my flames, enjoying the unique crackling as I peeled it away from the stone wrapping it. I leave a small chunk to swallow. As it reaches the inside of my body, I enjoy the burst of heat that ignites once it warms enough.
Grímr chomps through a slab of his own as he climbs out of the deep hole and lays at my side. We stay there for a while, simply relaxing before we have to return to our responsibilities. Grímr is quiet, but his presence is comforting.
“I think I’ll be fine now, Grímr. Let’s go back. Let’s go home.”
He turns to me, surprised, but soon it morphs to concern.
“Solvei… I appreciate it, but there’s no need to force yourself into this.”
“No. I can do it,” I say before he can continue. If he gives me a reason to back down, it might tempt me. I need to do this. If I don’t push myself through this challenge now, then what will happen next time? Will I cower and back away then? I don’t want that to be who I am.
Those I trust — those I care for — I don’t want to leave them in danger. I want to protect them. Even if that means I have to push myself.
“It will be hard… but this is something I need to do. I’ll never be able to return if I don’t force myself now.”
Grímr gives me an encouraging smile… or at least his eyes and body give off that impression. His metal beak isn’t exactly capable of facial expression.
“I’m proud of you, Solvei.”
It had been hardly a week, and yet the centzon’s fortress had grown far more than I’d expected. The defensive wall now completely encircles the massive hole in the earth. They’d hidden their trap field now, too.
Between the repurposed siege engines and a convoy of materials from the nearest regna, they’d put together an impressive defence. One that had been tested regularly by the mermineae still down inside the earth. None of their attacks were any more than probing strikes by the mermineae that didn’t even have decay eyes, so the centzon had no troubles warding them off.
Now is the time I’d been dreading for days. I’d agreed to challenge the depths again, and I will have Grímr by my side, but it’s still nerve-wracking as I stare down into the dark cavern that hides those massive arachnids and centipedes.
We’ll be making our way back through the alps, leading the centzon the entire way. Because of Grímr’s size, we’ll be travelling through the caverns, only digging down into the tunnels when we come across those massive cave walls.
I’ll have to go back to keeping my flames hidden, which isn’t something I’m looking forward to, but at least I’ll have more time to practice my spear.
“Here.” Atl hands me a canteen that appears no different from the containers they use to hold water.
I hold the thing far from my body and give him a conflicted glance. Why exactly is he handing me water? Is this a threat? No, I shouldn’t assume the worst; they’ve proven their trustworthiness enough by now.
“Oh, don’t give me that look,” Atl huffs. “Open it.”
My eyes linger on him a moment longer, looking for anything I should be concerned about, but see nothing. With hesitance, I twist the lid as slowly as I can and hold the bottle away from me. Once the cap separates from the container, I swoon at the scent.
He’s given me a canteen of that hyper flammable black oil. It smells incredible.
Atl chuckles. “You better portion it out. We won’t be able to take our war-machines with us, so we can’t carry any more.”
I take a deep breath of the fumes coming out of the bottle. Yeah, definitely better than the explosive jelly in the glow-bug traps.
“Thank you,” I say as I reluctantly replace the lid.
I wish they’d given me a different type of container, though; I’ll be nervous about a mix-up every time I open it.
Thunder rumbles in the distance. I look up, expecting to see an approaching storm… but there’s nothing. Not even a cloud in the sky.
Wait, Spenne?
I’m proven right when, in the distance, a branching flash of light spreads across the horizon. The thunder rolls over us seconds later, but by then I see more lightning bolts fork outward. The áinfean quickly appears, zipping across the earth in jagged motions.
Now able to see Spenne, I realise he’s not alone. Explosions of ash blow into the air each time he makes a jagged motion in his sprint. The distance closes incredibly quickly and the sirens of the fort ring out around me. I can see him clearly now. His white wraps are in tatters, exposing his electric body to the world.
He’s being chased by Viisin. Not one. There are four of them behind him, and Spenne’s leading them right to us.
I immediately rocket toward the nearest tower, burning an immense amount of energy to blast myself forward with a jet of physical flame. The centzon don’t know that Spenne is on our side. They’re just as likely to hit him with those massive explosions as they are the Viisin.
I slam into the tower and tumble onto the viewing platform. With how urgent this is, I care little for a stable flight.
“The lightning elemental is a friend,” I shout to Tzilac over the blaring alarm, using their own term for our races.
The hunter leader barely looks my way before pulling a lever amongst the tens at his side. “The way is open. Make sure he comes to our tower and our tower only,” he orders.
I assume he means the only safe path is directly to us, so I spread my flames, not to burn anything, but to show the áinfean that I’m here and guide him. My fire spreads wide so he couldn’t possibly miss it, before concentrating it on a thin line between him and myself.
Spenne turns in mid sprint and flings out a lightning bolt that chains between the four chasing him. Each of them stumbles and collapses, but it isn’t enough to kill them, just halt the chase until their legs regrow.
Fortunately, the áinfean understands my signal and stops dodging to the sides. He runs directly for us. The moment he’s within a dozen metres of the tower, Tzilac slams the lever back into place. Just in time too; the lead Viisin follows the path Spenne took, but runs right into the field of reactivated traps.
The Viisin has absolutely no time to react once the ground beneath it opens and snaps around it. Like the trap that originally pulled me into the earth, the teeth cut right through the Viisin. But unlike the one I experienced, it doesn’t drag the creature underground. It simply holds the Viisin still for a second.
And that is all that’s needed.
While the gifted mermineae is stuck, the earth opens to its side and a barrel of metal taller than I am flings toward the Viisin. The creature can do nothing but watch its incoming doom.
My body shakes from the explosion. Like the one a week ago, I can feel the tremors through the earth as a blast of air rushes past me. Once again, a shower of shrapnel rains down from above. I belatedly note pieces of metal wedged into the ceiling a short distance above my head. I’d completely missed those over the quaking explosion.
I jump as a hand lands on my shoulder. “Whoa, that’s quite the bomb you’ve got there.”
Spenne stands over me, somehow getting here in the few moments since I’d lost track of him.
“Thanks kid, I owe ya one.” He looks up at the centzon still looking out over the trap field. “And to this group too, it looks.”
There are barely any white straps around him anymore. The arcing electricity of his body continually flows out of his feet and tail, scorching the stone ground. Is he unable to stop it? Is that why he wore those straps?
It takes a while for the smoke to clear. We wait, ready for the last three Viisin to jump over the trap fields and attack us, but they don’t come. Eventually, it clears enough to see, but the trio just stand there, watching us.
“What are they doing?” I ask. I know that one of the other Viisin just died before their eyes, but I’ve seen them jump far distances before. Why don’t they just jump over the field of traps?
“If there’s one thing the cultists and yoe have learnt, it is to never attack our fortifications,” Tzilac says. His hands never leave a set of levers while his eyes stay locked on the Viisin. “They know how futile the attempt would be.”
The Viisin pace around the centzon’s walls for a while, obviously frustrated. After a tense half-hour, they turn on their heel and dash away.
Were these Viisin a part of the fleeing mermineae? Or the ones trying to stop them? If it’s the latter, then there shouldn’t be an issue with the centzon setting up here. But in that case, why were they chasing Spenne?
“What did you do?” I accuse.
“Hey! Nothing! They just came after me,” he says with arms raised in defence. “Unless they somehow realised I found out what they were up to.”
“What they were up to?”
“You’re not going to like this, but the Viisin have been hunting down other Beiths for months now. I think I’d just become their latest target.”
I’m not sure why he’d think I care. It’s his and the other Beith’s fault we’re in this mess. If they hadn’t opened the path through the Alps, none of this would have happened.
“We should get going. We were ready to leave before you showed up. Now that you’re being targeted, are you joining us?” I ask as I step on the rail of the tower.
Spenne breathes in deep, before letting it all out in a huff. “I hate running, but even I know when I’m outmatched. I could take one, not their whole fucking hit-squad. It was fun while it lasted.”
“Alright then.” I jump off the tower, ready to meet with Grímr, and finally face the Alps again.
Dropping into the enormous cavern again turned out to be easier than I’d anticipated. Sure, I am nervous to be under the earth, but actually being down here, and not experiencing any of those past horrors, is a relief.
I glance around. The glow-bugs are nowhere to be seen. We’ve travelled quite far now and yet they still don’t appear. Back in the cavern we dropped into, with the sunlight shining through the half-circle in the ceiling, it had seemed empty, but I’d assumed that would change as we follow the path of destruction I leftover a month ago.
It hasn’t.
No matter how far we lead the centzon through the cavern, the glow-bugs never appear. Unfortunate. I’d been hoping for another snack on our way through.
It’s not all bad though, the giant residents of this cavern seem to have left with the glow-bugs. I know this for sure, simply because Spenne seems completely unwilling to control his lightning. We keep him at the front where we won’t be hit when the arachnid monstrosities inevitably drop on him.
But miraculously, despite shining like a thousand glow-bugs, he remains unattacked.
The tunnels I exploded through on my way here are still as charred and dug up as I left them. No more of that explosive-jelly to play around with.
Well, whatever happened to all the creatures down here, it’s given us a clear path to follow and no need to creep around. Unfortunately, it is clear the mermineae use the lack of danger up here to their own advantage. With the centzon and Spenne, we have no trouble fending them off, but that I left them with such a clear path to our home is troubling.
After a while of travelling with the centzon, Tzilac confirms his ability to both follow the damage I left behind and track the passage of mermineae. We agree to meet them once he and his hundred centzon hunters make their way to the other side of the Alps.
So Grímr, Spenne and I take advantage of the concerning lack of monstrosities in these caves to cut our expected travel time to a mere fraction. I fly on Grímr’s back, while Spenne remains as bait ahead of us. Our áinfean’s not too happy about his role, but he did say he owed me one.
Hopefully, the mermineae haven’t caused too much damage by the time we return.
