by Jay Boyce
“We’ve found their entry point into Basaigh. However, it seems they took to the trees from there. This is as far as we were able to track them.” The disembodied voice entered Jade’s hearing clearly, even though the man was talking quietly.
Marcelle looked thoughtful, then nodded. “Wait for us there, then. We’ll be there in a few hours and then your squads can return to the city.” Jade didn’t know what the man did, but the connection was cut and Marcelle turned to acknowledge her before projecting her voice to the ten men and women behind her. Jade was a little surprised at the small number, but figured they were there mostly to help her; it was she who’d be doing the heavy lifting. “We’ve got our direction. Let’s go.”
“I’m going to move to the middle.” Jade spoke into the quiet, maneuvering Daisy to the center of the group. She saw disappointment flash across a couple of faces as she took the ‘safe spot.’ Ignoring them, she concentrated as the group began to move forward, Daisy following the others obediently. Jade held tightly to the antlers, which were also used as the reins in this world. She’d taken the sparkles off of her babies, and they now flew above the group, spreading out and scouting for any possible dangers.
It took her about fifteen minutes of quiet travel before she finally managed to get the hang of pushing her aura out for more than a few inches. Another five minutes passed before she felt confident in controlling the size and shape of her sphere of influence. Or maybe she should call it a low dome? She was purposefully not affecting anything beneath the ground, because that would be a waste of energy.
Taking a deep breath, she fixed her magic in her mind’s eye and added the thought that it would only affect the twelve riders, their mounts, and her babies when they were in range. Satisfied that she’d thought of everything she could, she pushed her aura out, enveloping the company. There were a few startled cries as eyes turned to her.
Smiling innocently at them, she said cheerfully, “I finally got my aura to work. It only goes out about thirty feet in any direction from me, so try to stay in that range.” She glanced at Marcelle, who was smiling in approval. “Let’s pick up the pace, shall we?”
Marcelle laughed softly, “You heard the lady; let’s go.” Marcelle led by example, turning to the front and urging her mount on, with everyone following closely behind. Jade was observing the looks from the guards around her. They’d shifted from mild distrust and distaste to speculation. It was then that she noticed a younger guy in the back, and her grin turned up a few watts.
She met his hazel eyes and waved, and Sir Dalton grinned and prodded his mount forward until he was riding next to her. “Coming to save me again?” She’d never forget that he jumped in front of the first mesmer to save her.
He laughed, shaking his head. “I don’t think you need it these days. It seems you’ve got even more tricks up your sleeve than before. Did I hear right when someone said you flew on your trek through town?” She could tell some of the others perked up and were intently listening to their conversation, even if they were trying to appear nonchalant while they pounded down the path.
“I did. In my old world, in every hero story where people had magic powers, a ton of them tried to use it to figure out how to fly. So far, gravity and wind magic are the easiest ones for me to use, but I think you could use earth, metal, fire, and water as well.” Now that she thought about it, she’d already used water, just not on herself. She’d pulled Glen through the air at the obstacle course to heal him.
Dalton looked confused. “How would you use earth, metal, fire, or water to fly? That doesn’t make sense.”
She laughed softly. “It’s more thinking outside the box. For earth, metal, and water, you make a platform and then stand on it. I do that with wind, too, actually. Fire is a little trickier. It’s basically shooting fire from the soles of your feet and hands with enough propulsion to get you through the air. You could do that with wind too. You could also use metal on a suit of armor to make it fly, with you inside it.”
Several people turned to stare at her while she explained, and she smiled as she saw they were turning off the paved stone road to head straight to the woods. The path turned to packed dirt, indicating that it wasn’t used all that often. She figured the stone roads headed to the neighboring cities...though she couldn’t recall seeing any nearby cities on the map. Something to look into later. She nodded to the road, asking, “Do people go into the woods often?”
This drew their attention back to the road, and most of them adjusted so they could make the transition smoothly, unaware she’d pointed it out for that purpose. One of the others on her left spoke up before Dalton could. “Several squads are sent out at least once a week to help keep the monster population down and gather herbs that grow better beneath the Basaigh. I’m Garrik, by the way.”
“Nice to meet you, Garrik! Thank you for explaining.” She beamed brightly at the guard. He appeared to be in his thirties and bore several old scars that she could barely pick out on his arms and hands. His dark brown hair was cut short, which highlighted a prominent nose and mahogany eyes. A bow hung loosely attached to his saddle for easy access; a quiver on his back, a sword at his waist, and several daggers at various points completed his visible arsenal. His armor was a hardened leather with metal bars sewn into strategic panels. Now that she was looking, she could see similar armor on most of the men. It seemed the party she was with was composed of the agile fighters who preferred to pick off enemies from a distance, if possible.
She considered that a fairly sensible choice; the frontline fighters in games were always dying. Why would it be any different in real fighting? It was much safer to kill your enemies before they could get close to you.
There was a change in the general mood, now that they’d left the road. The men seemed to be more actively alert, searching for unseen enemies. She quietly recalled most of her fellacai for a rest, leaving only two to perform aerial reconnaissance. She figured she’d be depending on them more in the forest, so for now, she chose to have one pair on patrol, with a plan to switch them out frequently so they wouldn’t be too tired when she really needed them. She experimented with draining light around a specific limb, namely her hand. She constantly drained the sunlight, creating only a small cloud of darkness that she could hide from the others for the most part. It was helping her to maintain her aura. She’d gotten a few strange glances, but the other riders were primarily focusing their attention outward, not in.
“So, I’m guessing more monster attacks happen in these parts?” Her voice was almost jarring, the rest of the group having been silent, save for the pounding of hooves.
One of the men behind her spoke up, though just barely loud enough for her to hear, “This is tialon territory. Best to draw as little of their attention as possible.” Well, it did make sense to be quiet in enemy territory. But what was a tialon? Scanning the fields of grain around her, she realized it would be quite easy to hide very large animals in it, especially if they were slinking around or lying in wait.
“Thanks.” Her spoken gratitude barely reached the man behind her as she raised her own awareness accordingly. She thought the biggest danger would be once they reached the woods, but the lesson was being reinforced that this world was not safe...anywhere. There were simply different levels of likely-to-be-attacked. She didn’t know how to fix it, either. It’s not like she could be everywhere, or even use cameras to watch multiple places at once…
Or could she? She remembered Morpheus teaching her about illusion magic windows, which basically consisted of scrying a previously visited place, though it did have the limitation of being somewhere you were familiar with. She wondered...could she scry a person’s location, even if she hadn’t been there herself, but was familiar with the person? She’d have to try that when they stopped and she had time to experiment. She didn’t think trying new magic with potential backlash should be done on the back of a high speed animal during a dangerous journey.
It seemed the alertn
ess hadn’t been totally necessary, however. The Basaigh Woods towered in front of them several tension-filled, albeit uneventful, hours later. The grain eventually gave way to sparse trees which were slowly growing larger as they progressed. She finally spotted the advanced tracking group, who’d stopped in a clearing near where the truly giant trees started. The men made a perimeter surrounding a few tents, and it looked like they were taking turns patrolling.
Marcelle waved as they rode up, obviously expected. Jade watched as Marcelle dismounted and the men around her began to do the same. “We’ll rest and eat here for an hour before we continue.” Marcelle’s voice was firm as she started giving orders, and one of the men came and took Daisy away from her to care for the creature after she’d dismounted. She scanned the encampment, absently rubbing healing magic into her sore muscles. She’d been right that riding wouldn’t be the most comfortable experience. Thankfully, she had magic to cheat the first riding pain away.
Walking over to Marcelle, she found the woman talking to her scouts. Marcelle absentmindedly beckoned her to come closer as she listened to the scout’s report. “...so we tracked them to this point, and from what we can tell, they went into the trees. There are claw marks on the bark going up, but after that they must’ve been jumping from branch to branch, because we couldn’t find any further indications of their path. I’m sorry.” The man hung his head in apology as Marcelle put a hand on his shoulder.
“You did well. We’ll take it from here.” She turned to Jade, who was staring at the trees thoughtfully. “Jade, what do you think?”
She turned to smile at Marcelle, shrugging lightly. “I think it’s time I took a look at the treetops. If you’ll excuse me, I’m going to take a short flight.” She bowed her head slightly, walking over to the tree the scout indicated had claw marks.
With a thought, she lowered her gravity and used wind magic to take flight.
Chapter Three – Vantage
There were a few gasps behind her as she took flight. Her babies kept pace with her as if in encouragement, though they made sure never to get in front of her flight path, thankfully. She smiled lovingly at them, enjoying the feeling of going higher than she ever had before, even if it was for a grim reason. The people on the ground got further and further away, becoming tiny figures on a distant surface as she rose probably two hundred feet into the air in order to reach the first branch of the giant tree.
She confirmed the scout’s report; the scratches on the tree were a clear indication that this was a well-used travel path for the mesmer. Alighting gracefully on the branch, she took a moment to soak in the beauty of the world around her. The deep browns and greens of the forest were broken up by bright rays of sunshine and the occasional pops of color from other plants. Far below, she could see the activity of the group, and glanced away when she saw the area they were using as a latrine.
They were trying to be quiet, so she heard nothing from the camp in the near-silence of the canopy. In the far distance, she could barely hear the cry of birds, though the wind rustled gently through the leaves around her. She could feel the life of the forest all around her, and she breathed in the scent of greenery. Frowning, she sighed as she caught a whiff of something foul, realizing it was the leftover scent of the mesmer. As beautiful as the woods around her were, it was time to do what she came here for.
With a thought, she activated her mana sense. She could see traces of green mana all around her, realizing that the trees were full to the brim of the vibrant life force. It was only when she looked down that she finally saw the taint of the mesmer in the claw marks upon the trunk. What appeared to be older claw marks barely glowed at all, while those that were fresh seemed to roil with the sickly color. It looked like a sickness the tree was fighting to fend off.
Unfortunately, the taint ended at the branch, which made her realize they were no longer using their claws to climb up, but rather running across the huge branches. They were like Tarzan, using the trees as their path. She grumbled to herself, fighting the urge to pound her chest and mimic the apes. Sadly, without the claw marks, she was basically up a creek without a paddle.
Glaring at the forest stretching out before her, she walked out along the branch, noting that it practically created a roadway to the next tree. A short jump and she was on the next tree without any problems. She had no doubt the mesmer could accomplish it just as easily as she could. The memory of their strong legs coiled beneath them in preparation to jump was still vivid in her mind. It seemed quite a bit of their strength was concentrated in their legs, and if they adapted to living in the forest and using the trees as their roadway, it even made sense from a Darwinian point of view.
Unfortunately, there were many different branches she could easily jump to from there, each pointing a different direction, though three of them led naturally deeper into the forest. She figured those three were the main ones to pay attention to, though if she had to try and follow each branching path, she had no idea how long it would take her to pick up the trail. Especially if there was no taint for her to follow. The others on the ground couldn’t follow it, so that left it to her alone…
“I’m an idiot.” She palmed her face, slowly dragging her fingers down until she could see her little babies fluttering around her. She smiled at them and asked softly, “Can you scout ahead? Look for any claw marks on the trees like the ones on that last tree. And please, be careful.” She didn’t know what other predators or traps might be waiting in the wings, so it never hurt to be cautious. They spread out in front of her, flitting along the branches in search of a scrape.
She felt a tug of mana from her ring, and with a flick of her thoughts, she was holding a mirror. She looked down at it, seeing Marcelle’s face on the other end. “Have you found anything?”
Jade exhaled softly, shaking her head. “Not yet. The claw marks indicate that they climbed the trees, and it would be easy for them to travel along the branches here once they’re up. I have my fellacai searching for any traces of a path forward. However, it’s likely that I’ll need to remain up here to follow any tracks I find, while you follow from below.”
Marcelle frowned at her. “I don’t like separating the group.”
Nodding, Jade agreed. “I don’t either, but I’m the only one who can move easily up here. Just think of me as a scout. I’ve also got my fellacai, so I’m not alone. I think I need to stay up here though. I’m probably going to go up top and see if I can spot anything from above the canopy. It’s a vantage point I can’t give up at the moment. I don’t want to miss something vital.”
“Understood. Let me know when you have a direction.” When Jade nodded back to her, Marcelle cut the call. Stowing the mirror back into her ring, Jade lightened her gravity once more. She’d been keeping it at slightly lower than normal while she was in the trees so that even if she fell, it would be a much slower descent that she’d be able to regain control of. It also helped with jumping from branch to branch.
“Found a scratch!” Willow’s mental cry was enthusiastic as a picture of a scratch was conveyed to Jade’s mind. Orienting herself to where her baby was leading her, she started running along the second branch in front of her. Easily bounding to the next tree, she quickly jumped up a branch and started running along it further into the forest, concentrating on both her footsteps and her surroundings. Three trees later she stood next to her beautiful little Willow, staring at a scratch in the tree. To her mana sight, it gleamed with only the dullest of that poisonous color, meaning it was quite old.
“Good job, Willow, you did great.” She smiled down at her tiny preening baby, who understood and flew away to find more. The others moved forward as well, their bond communicating empty trees as they branched out from the newest starting point.
While they were checking the next trees, she started leaping up branches to the top, just to see if she could. It proved easier than she thought, though by the end she’d lowered her gravity quite a bit so that she could land on the f
eather-light branches at the very top without breaking them. She stood at the crown of the tree, a vantage point high above what she’d seen before. Sadly, it didn’t quite give her the view she wanted, because all she saw was a sea of trees.
Glancing behind, she gasped softly as she took in the sight. The golden plains of grain they’d passed through shone in the afternoon light, and behind them rose the grand walls of Caoi. Even then, she could see the castle and Dracona standing above the city like beacons. The magnificent buildings were dwarfed by the behemoth mountain that was their foundation, reaching high into the sky crowned with snow and clouds. She realized it was far taller than the mountains that formed the bowl valley before her. She nicknamed it Mt. Augg in her head, because it reminded her of a book series she’d loved in her old world with a similar mountain.
Pulling her attention away from the castle, she turned back to the forest, but green foliage was all she could see. If she wanted to get a better idea...she needed to go higher. She was honestly a bit nervous. Going higher would mean leaving the somewhat protective cover of the branches when she was already probably three hundred feet in the air.
Steeling her will, she lifted off from the branches, pulling a steady stream of wind from below to act as her shield in a protective bubble, sheltering her from the wind high above the trees. She felt the air currrents thrashing against her bubble, wanting to buffet her further away, but she held her course steady with her own wind as she rose higher, leaving the canopy behind.
Looking down, she realized the wind was still managing to push her slightly to the side, since it blew from the southeast. She’d have to do course corrections when she went back down. Higher and higher she went, suppressing her sense of vertigo from being so far above the ground. The sea of trees stretched out before her, but to the southeast she could see that the leafy tops rose higher, and a brief break revealed a cliff face, or maybe a sheer mountain. She wasn’t sure which it was, and decided she wasn’t keen to check. She could see birds playing on the face of the cliff...but she was pretty sure that if they looked like tiny birds to her at that distance…she was probably looking at the largest birds she could imagine. It reminded her more of the hippogriffs from fantasy stories. No, she wasn’t keen to go find the flying beasties. Though if she did run into one, she was tempted to try to make it a mount. As long as it wasn’t, you know, something like a dragon.
