by Sarah Lin
His offense was lagging behind, but that had always been the case for him and he could deal with it the next time he developed a new Lucore. The only thing that actually upset him about his portfolio was that his ether score had basically not increased and he was still on the same tier. Even if the agencies lagged, he felt as though getting his new job should have sent him shooting upward.
Rick shook it off and put his phone away, deciding that he had spent long enough on strength development. Now that he was better, he needed to get back to work. He couldn't afford to slack off if he wanted to meet his quotas, much less rank on the scoreboard.
Intentionally ignoring the scores, Rick instead just checked the announcements and the forums. There was a message to everyone allegedly just reminding them that they didn't carry GLA authority... probably a reprimand to those who had gotten involved in the fights. A few angry messages on the forums suggested that there was still conflict over the anomaly on the golf course. He checked the scores after all, trying not to dwell on them, and saw that only one person's score had increased and some had even decreased. Maybe a penalty for causing trouble.
Since that was still a mess, Rick decided to take an entirely different approach. If he headed north of the city he could potentially take care of two things at once, plus stay away from the conflict. After gathering his equipment, Rick headed out.
In his time off, he'd thought more about the half-starved dragon and the comments made by the Lucrim Authority employees. That had led him to research on local conservation efforts, which turned out to be a deeper rabbit hole than he'd expected. Most were concerned with simpler matters like prairie restoration, but one in particular seemed to have lucrim expertise that might be up to the challenge.
The Peakless Wildlife Refuge lay some distance north of Branton. He wasn't sure whether the name was a statement of strength or a dry joke about the area being flat, but either way they seemed best qualified to deal with such issues. It was so far away that he seriously considered not taking his bike, but in the end he decided to stick with it.
Along the way, he did his best to meditate while biking. It was challenging to maintain the aura flow necessary to accelerate the bike while simultaneously going through the exercises, but at least it was engaging. Between the familiar rhythms of meditation and the tricky new challenges, the time it took him to cross the city and reach the refuge melted away.
Once he arrived, however, he wasn't sure exactly where it began. There were a few fences and signs forbidding hunting, but otherwise they didn't seem big on boundaries. The Peakless Wildlife Refuge was a region of many acres, after all, and enforced only by local organizations instead of the government.
He'd checked satellite maps before going and the headquarters were definitely supposed to be in this direction. Unlike the other refuges, it didn't have an easily accessible office. He hadn't been able to look at the roads online and had assumed that they would be clearer in person. Yet after a while biking back and forth near the relevant area, not even seeing a sign about it, he decided that it must not be so simple to find.
Rick started by wandering from the highway onto a dirt road, then a gravel one where he had to put his bike away. From there he followed a trail deeper, becoming steadily more convinced that he was actually going the wrong way. Yet after having gone this far...
Getting frustrated, Rick closed his eyes and took several deep breaths. Those barely helped him calm down, but while he was focused, something tickled at the edge of his senses. Almost like the feeling he'd gotten when lucrim was in the air.
Suddenly motivated, Rick opened his eyes and looked around for any signs of an anomaly. None visible, so he raised his hands and began flowing the surveying technique between them. At first he was excited by the above average response, yet as he moved, the response didn't decrease or increase.
This entire region had just a bit of lucrim in the atmosphere. It didn't make any sense that it could be naturally falling, so he had to assume that it came from some other source. Perhaps if the Peakless Wildlife Refuge really did keep many plants and animals that used lucrim, they put just a bit of it back in the environment. Though he could have drained it from the air, he estimated it would only be a few dozen lucrim and decided against it. The animals needed it more anyway.
Even if he wasn't close to a particular source, Rick kept trying the surveying technique as he walked. If there was an anomaly here, it could easily have escaped notice due to the environment. Since he was going to end up wandering looking for the right place anyway, he might as well survey the area.
To his surprise, before he found the office, he actually got a stronger response from the technique. Rick began trying to feel out the exact location, though he spent less time staring at the aura and more looking around him. There was a chance that the source was a dangerous wild animal that used lucrim - he wasn't sure if it worked that way, but didn't want to take the risk.
Far from being threatened, he actually found himself relaxing. The trees were ancient and solid, the undergrowth was lush, and wildlife moved all around him. Though the birds stopped singing and flew away when he got close, there were enough of them that he was still surrounded by birdsong.
Though Rick was more comfortable in the city and for him "camping" was something rich people did, he had to admit that the forest was peaceful. Not just in the natural quiet compared to the city, but something that went deeper than that. It was just an impulse, yet he found himself thinking that this was the right place, despite getting a bit lost. He didn't know if they could catch a feral dragon and release it here in the refuge, but he thought they might know what to do with it.
He was getting closer to the source, or at least the aura between his hands was vibrating more strongly. Keeping up the technique while walking was starting to get inaccurate, though, because his control wasn't perfect. When he found an area of clean rock, he knelt down and focused fully on the technique, doing Emily's advanced version to get a better sense for the area.
There was more natural variation here, but that didn't remind him of a lucrim anomaly. He did think there was one, but wasn't sure if it was west or northwest. Otherwise the only lucrim... was an immensely powerful mass directly beside him.
"You shouldn't have come here." The voice spoke at the same time Rick realized that it was a Lucore.
Opening his eyes, he found himself staring at a shotgun aimed at his face.
Chapter 19: The Protector of the Earth
As many dangerous situations as he'd been in, Rick hadn't ever faced down a gun quite like this. That was good, because otherwise his instincts might have led him to strike back or jump away, and judging from the man holding the shotgun in his face, that would have been a bad move.
Though his face was lined, it had the well-preserved look of a lucrim master. His hair hung down his back in a jet black tail, but his eyes were darker yet. Rick got a brief sense of the man's jeans, plain shirt, and bolo tie, but his attention was mostly captured by the gun aimed at him. The relevant thing was that the man was hiding his lucrima soul with a shield that felt quite strong on its own.
"Okay, haven't seen you before." The old man stared down at him coldly. "So I'll just escort you out. But the next time you decide to trespass..."
"Wait, I wasn't trying to trespass." Rick raised his hands to either side of the head and kept his aura down. Not that it would matter much, if the shotgun was using lucrim rounds like he suspected. "Do you work for the Peakless Wildlife Refuge?"
"In a manner of speaking." Though the man pulled back and flipped his gun to rest on his shoulder, his aura of hostility didn't decrease. "I'm here to keep people like you out."
Rick licked his painfully dry lips and considered before replying. Though it was possible that the Refuge met all trespassers with threats, he doubted that. Perhaps the man thought he was there to poach endangered animals, but given the question of how he'd been tracked... "I'm guessing that you think I'm just here to find a lu
crim anomaly in the refuge."
"Are you telling me that's not what you were doing?"
"I won't claim that, but that's not the main reason I'm here." He wished that he'd brought some sort of proof, but what? A picture could easily have been faked and a piece of the animal would probably just make things worse for him. "I'm here because the CSLA told me that if I wanted to do anything about the local impact of our work, I needed to do it on my own time. Do you, uh, work in conservation?"
"Not exactly." That got a bit of a wry smile, though no lessening of the hostile aura. "What noble cause are you here to champion?"
Something about his tone was off, though Rick couldn't quite parse it. He decided to just be direct. "I don't even know, man. But the last time I found an anomaly, there was a half-starved dragon trying to feed off it. I was just wondering if there was a way I could do my work without doing any unnecessary harm."
The man simply stared at him. Though Rick wanted to remain silent and confident, he soon ended up speaking again.
"Is there any way I could capture lucrim-using creatures to be released out here? Or would that mess up the whole sanctuary's ecosystem? I don't really know what I'm doing, so I just wanted to ask some experts about it."
"Huh." Finally the man stopped toying with the handle of his shotgun and his eyes became less hostile. "That didn't sound like a lie."
"If you're not going to shoot me... are you saying that there have been other surveyors coming into the Peakless Wildlife Refuge to try to find the anomaly?"
"That's right."
"I won't lie - I want to get paid, so I'd like to find and report it. But if that's an offense worth shooting over, I can understand. What's your concern here? Wait, is the anomaly actually beneficial? Is there any way we could come to an agreement about this?"
Abruptly the man cracked a smile, though it seemed a slightly mocking one. "Well, you're earnest. I'm not promising you anything, but maybe we can talk. Come this way and tell me exactly what the CSLA is trying to do lately."
It was strange to run into someone who actually knew less about the subject than he did, so Rick didn't mind explaining. He followed the man off the trail in a random direction, resisting the urge to repeat the aura technique. Fortunately, Rick didn't actually know much information that wasn't public knowledge, so he was able to explain what he knew fairly quickly.
Before he finished, they drew near a small hill with a cabin set atop it. The building was remarkably rustic, but he took it as a good sign the man didn't plan to shoot him. Unless he had tools to dismember a body in the cabin.
"That's not the Peakless Wildlife Refuge office, is it?" Rick asked.
"Heh, no. I have family who actually manage the work of the shelter and I mostly leave their work alone. My job is to enforce the rules, stop poachers, and deal with any serious problems that come up. Except it isn't really a job, just a favor to family. I respect what they're doing here, you see."
"Sorry, but I don't think I've caught your name yet."
"I didn't say it."
"Uh... do you plan to?"
"Nah." They stood in silence for a while, sternness returning to the old man's eyes. "I'm not going to shoot you, but I think it might be easiest to just eject you from the Refuge. A name is not something a man merely hands out, but something that is earned."
"Suit yourself. I'm Rick."
A shadow of something passed over the old man's eyes, then his expression turned more severe. "Take this seriously, young man. You should know that if we come to any agreement, you are not simply signing some modern contract or working for some corporation. The Peakless Wildlife Refuge is run by our tribe, and we were ancient when your ancestors first set foot on this land."
Rick kept his mouth shut and just listened. He had suspected the man might have been Native, it just hadn't been relevant. That was hardly notable for the region and Rick had relatives who claimed they were 1/16th some tribe or another. It seemed like it was something the old man took very seriously.
"I would consider making an agreement with you, because dealing with your surveyors is becoming frustrating. But that agreement would be a sacred bond. Tell me, have you had any dealings with any tribes of our region? Any promises, blood oaths, or vendettas?"
"Uh, I hope not." When the stare got more murderous, Rick hastened to explain. "I don't know of anything like that, but I did fight in a tournament a few months ago. The Chayichita tribe was there and I must have fought some of them. I have no idea who they were, though, and I don't think I started anything." He decided to keep quiet about the encounter with Jack and his unknown cousin.
"The Chayichita." The man let out a loud snort. "Babbling fools, the lot of them. They have long ago lost their way. But if you are unencumbered by such ties, then perhaps we can forge a bond. Are you open to such, young one?"
"What are the terms of the deal?"
"This is no deal, but an oath. Do you swear to uphold the earth and all its creatures? Do you swear to honor the sky for a thousand generations? Do you swear to draw the memories of your ancestors into today and the day after?"
Rick stared at the man for a painfully long moment, out of his depth and trying to get back to the surface. The old man looked deadly serious, but Rick had no idea what he was talking about. Though he was clearly supposed to agree, he wasn't going to swear oaths in flowering language like that. So despite the increasing pressure from the old man, he swallowed and answered.
"I really don't know what any of that means."
"Impudent fool!" Without warning the old man crossed the distance between them, grabbing Rick by his neck and lifting him off his feet. Though Rick's defensive core protected his neck, he could tell that the man wasn't squeezing and could apply deadly pressure. "Are you mocking the oaths of the earth?"
"No! I just don't underst-"
"Such disrespect! Those words have been passed down for generations and you spurn them?"
Despite himself, Rick felt a flare of anger. He couldn't overpower his opponent, but he could grab his arm and push away to a safer distance. It would have been smarter to leave it at that, yet his mouth kept moving. "Are you seriously going to spout all of that at me and then just expect me to agree?"
"Yeah, that was the idea." To his shock, the old man shrugged. All the intensity in his expression was gone, replaced with a wry smile. "You'd be surprised what you can get people to agree with, if they think they can profit from it. I was planning to keep on going about painting with the colors of the wind and becoming blood brothers if you didn't stop me."
"Uh..." Rick stared, struggling to accept that the murderous glare had just been a joke. "You're telling me none of that was serious?"
"That was some Grade A bullshit, believe me. But that doesn't mean it wasn't serious." The man put the shotgun into a holster on his back and smiled. "I just wanted to get a better sense for who you were. Seems like you're alright, kid. Come on in and I'll give you a beer. We can talk this out like normal folk."
Though Rick understood what had happened on one level, he was still catching up. He simply followed the man silently as they hiked up to the cabin. Fortunately, the man seemed happy to keep talking, all the false intensity having vanished from his posture and voice.
"I wasn't just fucking with you for fun. Even if you're a bit inexperienced, something about you made me think that you might be good at lying. It feels like your lucrima soul has been through some rough fights, for example, the kind of thing people don't experience much in this age. I wanted to get a better sense for who you really were, and I find faux tribal bullshit is a good place to start."
"Have you done this before? Does it... work?"
"Oh, sure. Some agree out of terror, others get way too sincere, like they've been waiting their entire lives for an oath."
Rick hadn't thought through the subject in much detail, but he thought he could understand a little. "Well, you do have the oldest combat sects in the nation. People want some of that respectab
ility."
"Of course they do." The man rolled his eyes. At that moment they reached the door to the cabin and the man pulled it open, but Rick stayed back. "What, you're not coming in? No more shotguns in the face, I promise."
"I still don't even know your name."
"Right, of course. I am honored to bear the name Charging Buffalo."
Though the old man said it with complete sincerity, Rick found himself hesitating. He didn't want to make fun of anyone's name, but the way the other man's diction had become more formal struck him as wrong. "I... don't think that's true."
The man who was not called Charging Buffalo grinned. "Alright, you got me. My real name is Humping Turtle."
Rick narrowed his eyes.
"Too far? Would you believe Running Bear?"
"No. Isn't this offensive?"
With another grin, the man extended a hand to shake. "Delsin Lingering Ogre."
Though that one seemed strange, Rick thought that the mischievous spark in the old man's eyes was no longer at his expense. After a pause, he reached out and shook the man's hand. "Glad to meet you. As I said, I'm Rick. Assuming you're not still fucking with me, what do I call you?"
"Oh, just Delsin. Now come on in, I really do want to talk to you."
Delsin led them into the cabin, which was surprisingly well-appointed. After a mat for scraping off dirt, there was a thick carpet and nice furniture. A flat screen television covered most of one wall and there was a fridge in one corner. It sounded like it was running, yet they couldn't have electricity out here and there was no sound of a generator, so Rick had to assume there was some sort of lucrim power source.
"Now, I don't know if you drink, but I was sincere about offering you a beer." Delsin wandered over to the fridge and opened it, staring inside. "I didn't used to, but then my youngest nephew started this microbrewery. I gave him shit for it, but damn if it isn't good. You want one?"
"Uh, sure."
