Chapter 236: A Mad Dash
Snow flew behind them as the Snow Crabs kept up their assault. Ann’s hair was a complete mess, but she didn’t have time to tame it while also keeping the unrelenting Warped at bay. She tried to keep an eye on the thing racing through the trees, but she had to drop line of sight to fight.
Rosalyn, thankfully, was keeping up with that. “Still keeping its distance!” the Druid shouted as she spiked another couple of crabs. “Doesn’t look like it’s changing direction!”
Kat had stopped barking orders. Ann had been hearing her mumbling, “not again,” over and over between grunts of exertion. She was focused, but she was scared. That scared Ann.
“If it is so large, why keep its distance?” Alruna shouted, throwing a crab like a discus into a tree, the creature’s shell shattering in a splash of black gore. “Could it not easily capsize us?”
“Don’t tempt it, please!” Bren’s plea was a groan. The man was doing what he could, but without some sort of projectiles, he was reduced to just healing what damage got through.
Tarnu hauled them further towards the south, angling through a brace of trees with barely enough room for the vehicle’s bulk. He was sweating heavily, the bear fur long since fully risen, his form growing larger as he exerted himself. Still, he pushed on.
Noticing their driver’s exertion, Bren tossed a book down toward the front of the sledge and activated his stamina beacon. It wouldn’t do much, but it would give them more time.
Seconds blurred into minutes as they kept fighting. Ann had used up what she had left of her revolver ammo just trying to save some energy. She was running low on smites as well. Alruna was still doing her thing and didn’t seem overly concerned, while Kat was starting to flag. The princess was breathing heavily, and her movements were slowing. Ann could feel her arms aching as well. She had better stamina than Kat did, but it didn’t mean much with how much they were all handling.
At least their health wasn’t doing too badly. Bren must have been recycling his Absorption back into his Mind to keep up.
As they fought, Ann watched the monster. It got closer and closer. A tree flew by, and Ann lost it for a split second, then it was five feet closer, still running parallel to the sledge. Over and over, it pulled the same trick with its dead wing bouncing on the ground. It got close enough that Ann could see the black glow in its dead eyes, the chattering skulls with their macabre grins mocking them. There were a couple of new ones. Rodent-like with two large fangs, but she couldn’t tell what.
“Brace!” Rosalyn cried, raising her staff. Lightning struck behind them, charring the white fur of many crabs black, dazing some and outright killing others.
The crabs rallied and surged forward, prompting a desperate defence, but it was short-lived. The white-furred Warped suddenly stopped, letting go of their holds, and tumbling over each other as the front ranks halted and those in the back didn’t notice.
Silence besides the ragged breathing of Tarnu up front and the shifting of armour as the rest looked around.
Ann couldn’t find it. That shape. The creature who’d been right there! It was gone.
“Feck, where is it?” Kat whined, craning her neck. “Can’t ‘ave given up that easy.”
“Waheela, you smell it?”
No, pup. It is gone. For now. I don’t know for how long.
“It’s gone. What the actual fuck was that?”
Kat and Bren collapsed onto the bed of the sledge, both shaking something fierce. Kat’s armour rattled from how violently she shook. Lucia was already moving to hold on to Bren, and Ann shucked her gauntlets to do the same for Kat while Rosalyn kept watch.
“Tarnu, you can slow down,” the Druid called up.
“Thank the Gods!” came a far more bestial growl than the man usually had.
“I take it you spotted a particular creature?” Alruna asked, sitting primly on a bench. She hardly looked tired. Maybe their transformation allowed them work longer than normal people? Or maybe it was just Alruna, since Tarnu was clearly exhausted. Once Tarnu slowed to a relaxed jog, the alchemist tossed him a yellow vial along with a pouch of water, both of which he quaffed immediately.
Ann nodded. “Yeah. I’ve only seen it once before this, but it almost killed Kat and Bren a few months back. Back when we first met.”
“Strange for such a persistent creature to have given up the hunt without attempting a strike. Dare I say suspicious?”
“Oh totally. That thing should be making a bee-line for us right now, but it’s gone and just disappeared? I don’t like it.” Rosalyn sat next to Kat, leaning her horns against her lover’s plate.
“Tarnu, slow us down. Take a break.”
The sledge gently slowed down until they stopped next to a tree, giving the man something to sit against as he slumped over in exhaustion. Bits of white foam were at the corners of his mouth, and looked terrible, even if half his face was a bug. Alruna leapt from the vehicle and started checking on him.
“Kat, why is it back?”
“Ye think I know? Has it been huntin’ us since Arty?”
“Ann said it was, but us specifically. It just went around a whole Seed, or through one, and kept hunting us. It was completely off our trail! I don’t care how good its senses are, that’s too much.”
“An’ runnin intae it after spendin a couple months in Korvas wasn’t already too bloody perfect? It was so soon after.”
Bren and Kat hung their heads. Neither wanted to say what Ann was thinking. It had to be said.
“I think that confirmed it, then,” the Chosen said, keeping her voice low. “That wasn’t random. That was trying to get to me. Or to stop you from getting to me. Now something’s pushing it towards us.”
Rosalyn looked up. “Your evil as sin Goddess?”
“Or crazy. Still, if that’s the case, why the fuck did it run off?”
There was a moment of silence between them. The kind of silence where everyone is trying to think, but can’t figure out the answer.
“Just makes no sense. Warped hunt nearly fanatically, true, but you can run away from them. Once they catch your trail, though, it’s kill or be killed,” Rosalyn muttered.
“Unless that thing is smarter. We already know they can be. Even mostly non-hostile if there’s a trial or event happening. Kat, you said there were some Seeds that were even friendly at some point?”
“Not friendly, just weren’t gonna kill ye on the spot. Get ye further in an’ then put ye through tests or trials an’ kill ye if that fails. Big gap between rabidly chompin’ at yer bits an’ the temptin’ treat that’ll poison ye.”
“Right, so not openly angry. So, ugh, this sounds stupid. Was it scouting us?”
“I… really don’t want tae believe that, but I do,” Kat shuddered. “Ye saw it, right? What was it doin’?”
“Just watching? It got close enough I could see new skulls. I… it didn’t get closer than that. Rosalyn did the lightning and I had to look away, and it was gone.”
“How is it so fast? It makes no sense,” Bren groaned, leaning back to knock his head against the wood behind him. “Something that large would require a massive amount of muscle to get it moving that quickly, and then it displays more agility than it should. It still skids to change directions, as you described before, but I would imagine it would tumble at that speed.”
“And magic. Didn’t have. What gave?”
“It’s collecting skulls. What if it’s taking things for itself?”
Rosalyn cringed as everyone looked at her.
“It makes sense, right? It didn’t have magic before, and might have lost some skulls when it went off that cliff. If it takes skulls and adds them, then maybe it gets more than that when it does? I wonder if it’s just skulls, as well. If it’s bones in general, then that’s crazy, but skulls could do it. Or maybe arms. It’s got a lot of those. More legs, more skulls, more abilities?”
“Like bein’ able tae shift momentum better. I could use Stand Your Ground like that if I wanted.”
“If we are dealing with something that can modify itself infinitely as long as it is not killed, then we are truly going to be unprepared every time we run into it,” Bren said, his eyes closed and head still resting back.
“And if it’s smart enough to watch and not engage, then it’s going to be tough to kill.” Ann looked down, flexing her hands as her claws came out. “Especially if it’s sent after me.”
Alruna lifted her veiled face over the edge of the sleigh. “Tarnu will recover shortly. Enough, at least, to ride again. I believe it is Lucia, Katlyn, and Annita’s turns, correct?”
Ann groaned inwardly at the thought of pushing the sledge after all of that, but she’d do it. Otherwise, they were stuck here, and making Alruna pull again didn’t seem fair. Her arms and legs were getting back to normal with the help of Bren’s stamina spell, but she wasn’t all the way back. “A couple more minutes? Still tired.”
Alruna cast her gaze skyward, judging the light. “We can spare that. We are off course, so I will guide you three back to our path.”
“Hot nun lady about to drive me like a horse? Kat, I’m dreaming,” Ann said under her breath.
Kat nearly choked on her own laugh.
It took a little longer than Alruna was happy with to get everyone recovered, but eventually Ann, Kat and Lucia were lined up at the bar for the sledge, pushing along as it glided over the snow. Kat had shucked her armour, not wanting more weight while she did this, and was huffing along.
“Your back looks so hot when you do that!” Rosalyn called helpfully from the driver’s seat. “The scales ripple, and it’s super pretty how shiny it is when they catch the sun! Love you!”
Ann wished she could steal a look, but she and Lucia were tasked with the left and right positions, which meant they were more for steering the vehicle in addition to pushing it along. It was hard, exhausting work, and would earn them a sound rest that night.
“Take us more to the left!” Alruna called. “Just past those trees, and we will be back in open plains. Travel will be far easier there.”
“Alruna, surely we could have my ox of a sister go through the woods a bit longer. She seems to enjoy it.”
“Hm, perhaps.”
“Don’t ye listen’ tae him!” Kat bellowed.
“Are beasts of burden not happy to pull their weight?”
“I’ll chuck ye intae the next snowdrift I find if ye keep it up.”
“Better save some strength for that, then. It may be that you cannot lift a finger by nightfall.”
Bren was having way too much fun with this.
“I’ll find a feckin’ way!”
“Oh so scary.”
Rosalyn laughed along with, surprisingly, Tarnu. Ann knew Kat and the bear bug man had bonded a little over their duel; Kat had a way of doing that, but he was acting like an old friend at this point. It was good to see the secret princess making friends again. Being in a place where no one, besides Alruna, knew who she was let the warrior relax and start really interacting with people. Ann would be surprised if Kat wasn’t friends with most of those tasked with guarding the conclave by the end of their stay. Whenever that would be.
“Tarnu, that is unbecoming of you.” Ann couldn’t turn to see it, but she imagined a frown on those porcelain lips.
Something shifted in the sledge, making the drivers adjust slightly. “Oh, lay off it, you bug-infested corpse. She knows it’s in good fun.”
“I am still very much alive,” came the indignant huff. “Though I suppose I am bug-infested. You, sir, are a chitinous wet rug. Perhaps I should force you to bathe again?”
The weight that Ann had guessed was Tarnu moved back to where he was before. “No, no, I’m good. One trip to the bottom of a lake is more than enough for me!”
“You dunked him in a lake?” Rosalyn gasped.
“He smelled horrendous. We were just finishing fighting a large group of Warped, and he’d taken some serious wounds.”
“They were scratches,” Tarnu chittered. He seemed to do that when uncomfortable.
“He was recovering, but was also covered in blood. The fur rug decided he would walk back home without cleaning up.”
“We had to get moving! It was getting dark!”
“I, personally, had no intention of walking with, behind, ahead, or nearby something that reeked of dead Warped. He disagreed.”
“I already apologised.”
“He disagreed, so there was a slight scuffle, and I tossed him into a lake before cleaning myself up.”
“Scuffle? You damn near broke my arm, Worm.”
“Oh? I wasn’t aware you were so fragile, Beast.”
“And you sank all the way to the bottom of the lake? Are you that heavy? Did the fur weigh you down or are you denser than normal like some Warped are? Does that mean you have more internal organs or maybe the chitin is heavier?”
“Easy, miss,” the man laughed. “It was a bit of the first two. I’m a big guy, and the fur is really heavy when I get wet. Combine that with the… tussle… getting me real worked up, and I was not in great shape for a swim.”
“Eyes had to fish him out.”
“I’m never going to live this one down, am I?”
“Only when I can stop smelling your… musk.”
“I can’t help that I smell like a damn bear any more than you can help your worms wiggling in your arms. Lay off,” Tarnu sighed with a chuckle.
Alruna’s harsh throat laughed as well. “Gods, that was back when Horns of Wheat was still with us. A shame we lost them.”
“Lost?” Bren asked, joining the conversation.
“Yes. They did not die, as you might assume, but succumbed to the madness. We were out on a patrol when it happened. There wasn’t even a trigger to forewarn of their change. One moment, they were a friend, the next, they were trying to tear my throat out.”
“Does the surprise turn happen often?” Ann heard the pages of Bren’s journal shuffling as he opened to a blank spot.
Tarnu answered this time. “Usually there’re signs. You’ve got the normal things you expect of someone going Warped, but with a body way stronger than normal. Anger, irrational thinking, and sometimes secluding themselves. It comes in all different types. Some can start fights with friends that just make no sense, or you just won’t see them for a few days, and either you never do again, or you wish you hadn’t.”
“Eldest of All implemented the cloth houses for such a reason. We try to keep track of everyone and have everyone with someone who will check on them. Fewer places to hide makes it easier to tell when a person is deteriorating.”
“Who, pardon, but who deals with those who turn?”
“Eldest of All does.” Alruna’s voice was sad. It was once again like a rusty violin playing her sigh. “We subdue the Warped, our former friend, and bring them to him. If we can, at least. They deserve to pass by the claw of the one who kept them safe. Should they turn on the surface, we do our best, but safety is more of a concern up here. Horns of Wheat was one such circumstance where we could not risk subduing them.”
“I can’t imagine how awful that must be for Eldest of All. Having to kill so many of his friends!” Rosalyn was sombre, and Ann had an image of her with her head down, hair falling over her eyes as she fidgeted with her hands.
“It is a grim duty, to be sure, but one he refuses to abnegate.”
“Think the old boulder sees it as his final goodbyes to the people he’s cared for. Makes my heart ache thinking of how that must weigh on him. I couldn’t do it like he does and keep living that long.” Tarnu’s weight shifted, and Ann shoved the bar to adjust for the difference.
“Do you remember Skin of Glass?” Alruna asked.
“Ugh, yeah. Hated when she went.”
“She was an oddly beautiful Warped. Her skin was literally glass and able to move. You could see everything inside her as she walked and spoke. She even kept her Bultrong shape. Still, she had the same malady we all possess. More of her organs began turning over time. We knew it was happening. When her brain changed, well, she was gone. Hearing the shattering from outside Eldest’s door will haunt me.”
Ann was grateful she had steering the sledge to distract her. Thinking about all of that was going to haunt her. Would little Abigail wind up like that? Would all of them? The problem that no one knew was terrifying.