Chapter 235: Supply Run

Watching Alruna pull the sledge was such a strange sight for Ann. The rest of the party had seemed to settle in and treat it like normal, but watching a single woman hauling them along at an alright pace, along with their supplies, armour, and weapons, was crazy. Her arms were much larger, showing use of her worms, but she was still just one woman! Ann had asked about a pack animal or the like to pull the sleigh, but they’d laughed her idea away. Apparently, they’d run themselves to death out of fear of Alruna and Tarnu sitting behind them. So Alruna was the pulling force for this part of their ride. Tarnu would switch off with her when she got tired, and then Kat and Ann would take over the task together. Ann was tall, but she wasn’t exactly strong in the same way Kat and Alruna were. She wasn’t looking forward to it.

“Can help,” Lucia offered. “Have stamina.”

“Aye. That’d work too. Give Alruna more time tae rest,” Kat shouted over the wind. The three who were bothered by the wind were bundled in blankets and their cloaks, while Rosalyn, Ann, and Tarnu relaxed in nothing more than their assorted armour.

“So what’s having mandibles like?” Rosalyn asked, abruptly changing the subject.

“Hmm, a bit strange. For a few years it was frustrating when they’d separate suddenly, but I learned to control that better. Made drinking a problem, let me tell ya,” Tarnu laughed. “Still, they’re easier to clean than my old mouth. You ever see a Thrundol with bad teeth? It was a craggy nightmare. My mum swore she’d use a rock pick rather than a wooden one to get pieces of food out.”

“Ah, tusks?” Lucia cocked her head.

“Sure was. Crooked ones that stuck up in my sight. Made getting around difficult, and I had to get them filed down. Well, they’re still there, but now they look like bug bits. If people weren’t so damn scared of me, I’d say it’s an improvement.”

Ann watched a herd of Bristlebarks let out their snuffly trumpeting and move in their direction far too slowly to catch Alruna. Once they were moving, apparently keeping the vehicle going wasn’t all that hard.

“But you’ve also got bear parts in you. Do your ears ever change? Never seen, well, rarely seen a warped that changes but can go back. Ann’s kinda the exception so far until we met you all, and now she’s a bit less unique, but the whole Goddess thing sets her apart, so I guess she’s still pretty special.”

“Hey!” Ann grouched back as Tarnu laughed.

“What? It’s true. We didn’t think anyone could stop the change! Common sense says to just give those stricken Nylir’s mercy and send them off before they can hurt the people they loved.”

“Still damn good advice. Even if we’re in control, it’s only barely,” Tarnu growled, his mandibles chattering in a strange dual tone. “Not all of us stay that way, either. Some of us get worse over the years, to the point they might as well be wild. I’ve had to put down some good friends. Seems like those of us who fight are more likely to sink into the madness.”

All eyes flicked toward Alruna.

“Her? No, probably the most stable of everyone, honestly. That’s not a high bar, mind you. She needs to avoid places that are too packed with people, but is fine on a busy street where she can create her own space. Think it’s her alchemy, honestly. That’s her passion, not the fighting. I wanted to be a big ol’ hunter for my tribe, but that didn’t turn out.”

“Now ye’re a big ol’ warrior fer yer people,” Kat pointed out. “Think that’s a bit o’ an upgrade, yeah?”

“Agreed. Not an easy job, but it’s fulfilling.”

“Lucia, Razorbeak on the right, diving,” Bren said calmly, patting the woman’s shoulder and pointing.

Lucia loaded Fillianore in one swift motion, fell into a crouch in the middle of the sledge, took aim, and fired.

The bird spun out of the way, keeping its mad dive towards them. Its beak glittered as Ann saw the shining metal beak that gave the raptor its name. Brilliant red-brown feathers rippled against its body as it cut through the air like the bullet it had dodged.

Cursing, Lucia fired off another shot.

The Razorbeak dodged again, but Lucia’s bullet bounced off nothing and slammed into its side. With a surprised squak and an explosion of feathers, the bird of prey was thrown out of its dive. One of its wings was broken, and it slowly drifted on the working one until it hit the snow a good distance behind them.

“Not dead,” Lucia grumbled.

“Taken care of. No need,” Bren assured her, patting her shoulder.

During the whole event, Alruna hadn’t slowed a step.

Ann looked at Bren with utter shock. He hadn’t been looking up to see the bird before he pivoted to stare at it, nor had the two spoken a word. She’d only barely heard the whisper of the wings as it dove. More strange bond magic?

“Yup, danger’s passed,” Rosalyn confirmed.

“Damn things, always hunting us,” Tarnu growled. “Swear it’d be nice to have one of these trips go smoothly without some group of Warped making it their mission to eat us. Gotta smell delicious.”

“Ye smell alright. Like a feckin’ wet dog on a bad day.”

“That’s rude of someone who stinks of dryscale.”

“I keep this shite maintained, matted beast. Ye know how good Ann’s claws are fer gettin’ inbetween them?”

“I was about to say, you maintain them? You asked me to dig through them a few mornings back because they were itchy. Lucky I’ve got skills that help.”

“We really do need to keep them, um, do we need to keep them moisturised? We don’t even know what kind of dragon you’re becoming,” Rosalyn asked.

“Well, if I’m a gem dragon, then water ain’t doin’ anythin, but if I’m water, then it’ll help a ton. Guess we can give that a go. Ann, let’s get some shite ordered in town.”

“Added to the list,” Bren sighed.

“Tarnu worse,” Lucia said, reigniting the friendly argument.

About an hour later, Alruna and Tarnu traded spots without slowing down. Alruna just ducked out of the way of the sliding sledge while Tarnu hopped down to grab the bar. Ann doubted the woman needed it, but Alruna accepted a helping hand from Kat and swung her way up.

“Pardon, I must needs catch my breath for a moment,” the pale woman panted. She had her hood back up, the artful blindfold covering her eyes, and gloves on her hands. Covered up all except her lower face.

“How long does that stuff take to put on?” Ann asked, lounging more freely since Alruna’s worms didn’t hate her as much. The things still wriggled under her clothes in an attempt to reach out for a touch.

After a few moments, Alruna’s posture straightened, and her breathing steadied. “It took quite a while when I began wearing it. The bodice took a while until I could get my worms to help. Now, though? About five minutes, give or take one minute for tangled threads, should I be exhausted and not properly stow things. Having thousands of extra ways to manipulate things helps immensely with complicated garb.”

“I’m jealous, truth be told,” Kat sighed, her armour clanking a little. “This is a pain in the arse tae get on, an’ I don’t have all those advantages.”

“Kat, you help me with my armour every day, and you always grumble about the laces,” Ann jabbed the princess with an elbow, bruising it against the hard shell. Rosalyn’s started doing it because you complain so much.”

“It’s just really basic weaving. We spend more time doing Kat’s hair than her armour,” Rosalyn pointed out. “You have so freaking much of it! You’d never know with all the braids you keep it in, but I swear if it was as fluffy as mine it’d be a few feet!”

“Ah, that brings us to a point I wished to discuss,” Alruna said, holding up a hand to interject. “You three must needs hide some of your traits.”

“Shit, right, people out here might not know about me yet, right?” Ann gasped.

“Not so much that, as Katlyn Farragher could excuse that, but moreso to prevent undue attention towards myself and Tarnu. We already pass as Human and Vulhardrin, but if we are seen with a scaled Alfhindur and a Vulhardrin with far too much fur, tail, paws, and ears, people are going to pay closer attention. Rosalyn cannot help her third trait much, as it is her eyes, but one oddity is easier to dismiss than three. So, Annita, please keep your hood up, and you as well, Katlyn. You will be passing as Vulhardrin both. Bren and Lucia can remain as they are.”

“Need to get you some shades, Lambchop,” Ann elbowed Rosalyn.

“Shades?”

“Sunglasses. Tinted glasses that hide your eyes and make things a bit darker? They have those here, right? Seems easy compared to what Wendyl did with your glasses.”

“Oh! Right, yeah, those. We can look into them, but I dunno. Make me seem more witchy and I don’t want that.”

“They could be prepared in colours other than black. I believe a nice green would suit you well,” Bren said, giving Rosalyn an appraising look.

Lucia laughed.

“Rude,” Bren grumbled.

“What did she say?”

“Red. Match bloody hands,” Lucia chortled. “When dissecting.”

Rosalyn pouted. “I clean up after that, thank you. So it wouldn’t match for long. No, no Xirali, I’m not doing a rainbow. That stands out too much.”

I like the idea of green. It matches your eyes, Waheela chuckled, giving her input.

“Well, that’s two for green, one for rainbow, one for black, and one for red. Kat, you and Dearc got anything?”

“It says tae gouge them out an’ feast on them like prized jewels, so that’s going into timeout. I like blue, but I’m biased as feck on that one. Alruna, what d’ya think?”

“You are already a mix of light and dark, as far as colours go. Perhaps accentuating that would not be a terrible idea. Are there obscuring white glasses?”

“It may be possible. Indelholm has an infinite supply of enchanting eagerness. I am certain I could find someone who would look into it.” Bren leaned back, tapping his chin. “Hm, yes, that might be a good thing, but it matches her hair too well.”

“An’ black gets lost in ‘er skin,” Kat argued.

“I’m going with green,” Rosalyn announced. “Only when I need to hide things, and only in public. I like these. Humf.”

“And that makes Waheela and Bren the winners. I’ll give her scritches later,” Ann laughed.

An annoyed but not discouraging rumble filled Ann’s chest. She liked it.

“Danger again!” Rosalyn said, eyes wide and scanning the surrounding area as Tarnu kept up his pace.

Everyone was on watch, but no one could see what the Druid had sensed.

“Still?” Lucia asked.

“Yeah. Getting stronger, something’s coming.”

The snow around them exploded, white clouds billowing into the sky as legs scrabbled out of their hiding places. The sledge banked hard as Tarnu yanked it to the right, sending Rosalyn tumbling and narrowly avoiding another burst. Kat’s gauntleted hand grabbed her by the back of her robe and hauled her in.

“Fly, Tarnu!” Alruna yelled to the front.

“Already on it!”

“Not again.” Kat’s whisper barely reached Ann’s ears.

Bren was not looking great either.

Artyom. Shit.

The snow was alive. White on white monsters were scuttling around them. They looked like.

“Snow crabs!” Rosalyn shouted with delight. “Oh my Gods, I’ve never seen one! Now there are so many, and look how they work together to catch up with us! Oop!” A blade of wind from her staff knocked a crab covered in white fur off the wall of the sledge where it’d grabbed on with claws that looked more like beaks than a crustacean limb. “Carnivorous Warped adept at hiding in snowy areas and ambushing their prey. Where you find one, you’ll find at least a dozen more!”

“Feck, ok, we can deal wit’ this. Just keep ‘em off the sledge! Rosalyn, how do we get ‘em tae bugger off?” Kat’s tooth sword hacked into a shell. The teeth hit further in than Ann expected. The things had fur!

“Get out of their territory! They like where they set up for a reason, and that’s for the deeper snow! Tarnu, head for the trees!”

“Rodger!” Tarnu hauled to the left, angling their dash toward the treeline. This section of the forest looked far more sparse than the ancient section they’d patrolled in, and would be easy enough to navigate through.

Six of the things latched onto the sides of the sledge and scuttled inward. Lucia, hampered by the close range, stowed Fillianore and drew her knife, stabbing at anything that moved. Bren was doing the same, knife in one hand, wand in the other.

Alruna didn’t even use Complacency for this fight. She just set about punching the creatures, or tearing them off the wood and throwing them as far as she could.

Ann had a trickier time of things. Her punches hurt, but they didn’t send things flying. Still putting smites behind those hits made them hurt like nothing else. One of the crabs got good enough footing to launch itself at her, scrabbling at her faceplate with its fingernails. It had fingers for legs. Fantastic. Not only that, but Ann got a far too close look at its mouth. Instead of the plates and mandibles, it had rows of razor-sharp teeth designed for shredding flesh off bones behind a pair of bony lips. Ann threw her full strength into a punch right where the thing’s legs met, and felt the satisfying crunch and squish, letting her know she’d found a weak spot. It didn’t kill the crab; it was a Warped after all, but it made it freak out enough that Ann could burn it with a smite, then chuck it overboard.

“Ye alright?” Kat asked as magical healing started fixing a couple of scrapes that got through Ann’s leather.

“These are disgusting!”

“Could be worse!”

“Could be better!”

“Shut up an’ fight,” Kat laughed, and got back to killing. The princess was a monster in defensive situations. They hadn’t had to hold a point, but it was clear Kat had experience. Where she stood, nothing even got to latch on to the side. Either the snow crabs tried to leap and were bashed away, or swatted away by her sword if they crawled up from below.

Rosalyn was doing her best to disrupt the creatures further away, using spikes of thorns for the most part to do area damage without expending her lightning. It wasn’t the most effective, but considering the limited room, she was doing great.

The first tree passed. Then the second. Soon, dozens of trees were flying by, dead pillars in the frozen world. The Snow Crabs kept coming.

“Rosalyn, not workin’!” Kat shouted back.

“I don’t know why! They should have given up by now! Maybe they’re really hungry?”

“Or Tarnu is correct, and we smell too good to forefeit,” Alruna called back, her throat rattling trying to make the loud noise. “Still, we must fight!”

So fight they did. They took a moment between assaults to reposition. Rosalyn and Lucia got up where the drivers would normally be, giving them far better vantage, while the front-line fighters split to the sides, with Kat in the back. Bren, as always, stationed himself at the centre.

It was exhausting work. Fighting was tiring enough just trying to stay in one piece, but having to fight a horde was a different thing entirely. Ann couldn’t let her guard down to catch her breath, because that meant another Snow Crab or four would be making their attempt at their meal. It didn’t help that these things blended in so well with the ground. Her eyes were starting to hurt from looking at so much white.

A smite killed another arctic crustacean, sending it smoking back into the churning pile.

Care. Danger is on the wind.

Yeah, I’m fighting it.

No, not the shelled ones. Worse.

You going to be cryptic or tell me what’s up? Ann stabbed her claws into the joint behind a claw, forcing the crab to let go, and shoved it back.

It feels… familiar.

Ann risked a moment to scan the trees.

She caught it.

A black shape moving between the trunks. Massive, multi-legged, and ridiculously fast. It was dragging something on one side.

A shredded wing.

“Fuck, Tarnu, RUN!” Ann screamed.

The beast had found them again.