I nodded, a grin on my face from his reference to an old movie lightening the mood a bit.
“And, hey—thank you for going to bat for me with Mother Nature.” Yohsuke reached out and offered me his fist.
“Don’t thank me, brother,” I said back. I had to lean over a little bit to bump his knuckles as his bone griffin freaked Thor out a little. “It would be the truth no matter how lame it sounds—you would do the same.”
He nodded quietly, and we let it go after that. No sense dwelling on it anymore. I trusted that over time, he would be able to work through this, and he knew I was there to help.
That night, Maebe and I discussed what would have happened if I had lost him and that I didn’t know confused her.
“You would be that distraught?” she asked curiously.
“I would,” I explained. “He’s been my best friend—like a brother to me—for years. He and I have helped each other through so many hard times. Losing him would break something in me. Make me less… me.”
“So, your experiences with him helped make you who you are.” Maebe’s head tilted to the side. “They have helped shape you, and if he were not there, you would lose your edge? Like a sword without a whetstone?”
I tried to think of a more suitable explanation. “More like a random spell cast into a tavern brawl. It could be okay. The effect could be small, or it could be disastrous and deadly. Having my friends makes me less likely to start killing people without reason.” An idea came to me, and I added, “Like if your mother or Winterheart were to be hurt. Or your people. How would that make you feel?”
“My people?” Her eyebrows raised in surprise. “I would be outraged that anyone thought themselves powerful enough to weather my wrath. My mother? She is stronger than I am, though my title lends me the strength I need to defend myself and others. If something were to harm her, I would be afraid. Winterheart.” She closed her eyes in confusion. “If someone were to take Winterheart from me, I would run through their line like a wraith, causing no end of death and destruction excruciatingly slowly.”
I patted her hand. “Exactly. I would lose my mind just like that. I would turn into a monster if any of my friends were to get hurt like that.”
“I see.” Her lips pursed slightly. “Thank you for bringing these thoughts to my attention. If you will excuse me, I must contact my people. It has been several days, and I would like to check in on them.”
She left the camp quietly. She returned an hour later, and we ate quietly. So far as I could gather, everyone was still hit hard about almost losing someone. Bokaj was taking it rough too, probably more so because he ate so little and hadn’t been as talkative since then.
“So, once we get stronger, we’re gonna be on our way to the Hells,” Muu stood and stretched a bit as he spoke. “We have to cleanse a forest, talk to a couple Dragons, then find a way to get into the Hells and get Balmur, then defeat the General there.”
“Yeah,” Jaken confirmed.
“Well, that’s not too bad.” Muu shrugged. “That’s only four things. Five if you count the Dragons individually.”
We all looked at him like he was crazy.
“It’s true,” he explained. “Look, we can sit here and think this is some huge quest that’s taking forever, and we can let it kill us slowly, or, and I’m leaning this way, we break it up into more manageable chunks. Give ourselves some small goals to reach and keep hauling ass.”
“Them’s pretty words, man,” James motioned to all of us, “but they don’t do anything to alleviate the fact that we almost got our asses handed to us. Yoh died! That’s pretty fucking rough no matter how you cut it. And Balmur is still in the Hells.”
“Yeah, he is,” Bokaj punched his fist, “and he doesn’t get anything from us moping. Yohsuke looks pretty fucking determined too, so let's get our heads out of our asses and get this shit done. Muu, good thinking.”
“Thanks, man.” He blinked in surprise. “Oh hey, I got a point in wisdom.”
Chapter Nineteen
It took us the whole next day to get out of the canyons that we had entered and began to see the outline of the jungle in the distance. A day later, we could make out the individual trees.
Each night, we made more of a point to work together and plan tactics with each other—different group fighting movements and “special team moves” as Muu had dubbed them.
Some of them were obvious, given our abilities meshed well in open settings like this. In a canopy like the jungle? There was no telling how much room we would have to fight. We were excited about a few of them, even naming them ridiculous names so no one could guess what they might be.
Daily life resumed a little quicker as time moved on. Hell, I’d even started to try and communicate more with Mother Nature. She was quiet at first, probably thought I was just trying to talk my way out of things, but eventually, as I began to ask her questions and wonder how I could help the world around me, she answered.
Her answers were never words, though. Not really. As our time on the trail wore on, I began picking up on subtle things here and there. After a while, we came across a lake that was in sore need of water, if not the whole area around it. There were clouds in the sky, but nothing that looked like it would even remotely provide any kind of precipitation.
After thinking while we had lunch and seeing several animals come over to the place to get what water they could, I decided to try something. The same kind of enchantment I had used in the Fae realm was out of the question. The amount of mana to keep this whole thing filled would be insane. So I took my water elemental form and cast the spell Gentle Rain.
Gentle Rain (Water Elemental) – Caster calls a small cloud that relinquishes water for one minute that will replenish a small amount of health to allies and harm foes in a sixty-foot radius. Range: 60 feet. Cost: 200 MP. Cooldown: 3 minutes.
The small amount of rain that fell as a result of my casting wasn’t enough to fill the water to the brim of the lake by any means. Kayda who stood nearby understood what I was trying to do and flew into the sky. She began to fly in a tight circle that slowly opened. As it did, clouds began to come closer and closer to where she was. She began to hum in her mind, and I could feel the melody build as the clouds closed closer on us.
The once-plain looking clouds began to swell, and I could feel the wind being swept up as a storm brewed. Droplets began to speckle the ground as all of us watched in awe of what we were witnessing. Soon, a fully-fledged downpour fell in that spot. The water level rose steadily until it breached the sides of the lake and began to run aground.
I tried to let Kayda know to stop, but from what I felt when I touched her mind—she was lost to this new ability.
I shifted back and called to her, “Kayda! That’s enough!”
Still nothing. She was lower now but still well out of a normal person’s reach.
“I’ll get her attention,” Muu spoke over the din of the growing storm. “You just be sure to heal me if shit hits the fan.”
I nodded and watched as he shook himself out before crouching low and leaping into the air at Kayda, yelling as loudly as he could to get her attention, “TWEEEEEEEEEEEEETYYYYYYYYYY!”
A flash of azure light and a screech of metal being hit filled the air. Muu was flung from her violently by a lightning bolt that had careened out of the clouds closest to him between the two of them.
“Jaken!” I grunted at the Paladin, and he was in motion before I could even blink.
I thought of the spell I wanted to cast and sent it at her in hopes it would garner her attention. The Winter Blade, a large shard of ice in the shape of a long sword flew at her, followed by one of Yohsuke’s Astral Bolts. His spell struck mine ten feet from her, and the blade erupted, as it normally would in a large burst of ice and pain. The burst spell sprinkled on to my familiar, but she continued to ignore it.
Mother Nature, if you’re listening—now’s the time to help us out, I prayed silently.
If she w
asn’t bothered by pain, and she didn’t care if a friend was hit—maybe she would respond to fear. I stepped closer to her, closing the gap between us by another ten feet. The wind and rain whipped at my clothes relentlessly.
I took a couple of breaths to prepare myself, then one last deep one before activating Predator’s Call. I bellowed a roar for all I was worth. It echoed over the wind and carried much farther than I thought it would have.
Kayda’s head whipped around, and she looked at me in confusion before diving away from the clouds toward us.
“What the hell was that?” Muu groaned as he limped toward us. There was a blackened scorch mark along the front of his armor that traveled down to his waist. I had to admit, though—it was dope as shit.
I looked over Kayda’s status screen and didn’t note anything out of the ordinary, but that didn’t mean something wasn’t up.
“She must go, child,” I heard Mother Nature’s voice and looked up to see Tmont with the tell-tale lavender and gold eyes.
“What do you mean?” Uncertainty crept into my heart.
“You cannot care for her in the way that she needs right now,” the Mother explained patiently. “I know that you try your hardest, but she was a rare beast before the Fae Realm tampered and offered her more power. She needs training. There is one such being who can offer her the sort that she needs, and he lives with the Kirin—far to the north of here.”
“Will she be okay?” Muu asked. Yohsuke was suddenly very close to me as well.
“I will see to it personally that she survives her time in transit.” Tmont’s head turned toward my familiar. “Little one, you must fly and find the one I speak of. I will be with you along the way. Take a moment, then go.”
I watched as the color bled from the great cat’s eyes. Then the cat looked around in confusion.
I looked over to find Yohsuke and Muu standing next to Kayda. Muu was hugging her and whispering, “I’m gonna miss you, you big, feathery asshole.”
Yohsuke reached into his inventory and whipped out a large piece of meat that looked to be seared to perfection.
“I was gonna save this for dinner, but you can’t fly that far on an empty stomach, bird.” He tossed it up to her, and she snapped it, bone and all, down her gullet. “Stay safe, and come back strong as fuck.”
She reached down and butted her head against each of them lovingly before turning her sights on me. She sent a flash of sadness and longing.
I smiled and summoned Coal. He bounded around all of us, and Kayda chirruped to him. He stopped and loped over to her slowly, then stopped and sniffed at her. She reached down and nuzzled his side with her cheek. Her goodbyes to her little brother said, she turned to me.
I tried to smile at her reassuringly, to let her know I had faith in her, but I couldn’t do it. I had already almost lost my brother. And now my familiar? Fuck, man.
I stepped closer to her and gave her a good hug, careful not to crush her wings. Then I smiled at her sadly. “You better come back to me, love. Go learn fast. Be safe. I love you.”
She looked at Maebe, her eyes narrowing slightly. Then she did the strangest thing I think I’d ever seen her do in our time together. She looked from Maebe, to me, then back and brought her wings around in front of her as if to hold something. Maebe nodded once, and it was over.
Love. She looked at me, then the others and repeated the thought. I passed the sentiment on to the others, and we waved her off into the first leg of her journey.
“Thank you, Mother Nature, for watching over my baby girl,” I whispered to no one in particular. Radiant warmth blossomed all over my back, and I turned to find that the clouds had broken over the lake, and the sun was staring brightly at us.
We decided to move on then. Nothing to really keep us there other than depression. Coal ran along with us for a little while before he got tired, then I took him back into myself, so he could rest.
It felt weird not having Kayda here. Granted, she had been able to get out a lot more lately because we weren’t in a confined space anymore. It was just a comfort to know that she was there, you know?
“She asked that I protect you,” Maebe said from my left. I looked over to her and found her sitting completely facing me on her mount.
“And you agreed.” I nodded.
“I did,” she began, “and that means that I need to tell you that your way of fighting is odd.”
“I’m aware that my skills would be better suited either focusing on spells or up close fighting,” I sighed, “but my abilities are more suited for a jack-of-all-trades kind of deal. That’s how my role works best with the party.”
“Not that.” She looked over at the others. “Jaken uses the spells and tools he has to great effect, taking the brunt of the damage and somehow managing to keep you all alive when he can. Bokaj allows his kitten to hunt for him, and he uses ensorcelled arrows to devastating effect. I’m sure when he begins using his bardic abilities, he will be a force to be feared.”
“Okay,” I narrowed my eyes at her, “I know my friends are good at what they do. Hell, James beat the shit out of me the other day when we were sparring.”
“Exactly, he uses his mobility to great effect.” She motioned to Yohsuke next. “The little shadow, he makes certain that while he is using his sword, he is casting several other spells and using his items with deadly accuracy. He is largely the reason that second giantling died as fast as it did. And Muu, he is a special one. I have never heard of his style of fighting, but I have seen that he is passionate about it, and it has worked well for him.”
“I’ll bite—how can I improve myself?”
“You are a Kitsune.” She motioned to me. “You have three tails. You have the ability—naturally—to shapeshift faster than any other Druid, and you can do so into any form you want. You can shapeshift several times in a moment, and it costs you nothing.”
“So you think I should shapeshift more?” I had to admit, the thought had occurred to me, but I didn’t think that was all that was coming my way.
“I think you should shapeshift more intuitively.” She pointed to herself. “If I know that an enemy has a certain reach that can go so far, what would I do?”
“You would stay out of their reach.” I shrugged. She made a go-on motion with her hand. “Or get in so close that their attacks can do nothing.”
“Exactly!” She clapped, and her radiant smile dazzled me. “You can go from fox-man, to bear, to fox, to any other number of creatures. You could have taken fox form, run, and turned into an owl, then attacked from any angle afar or dropped on him like the Dragon-kin.”
“Is that a shortened term for Dragon Beast-kin?” I was pissed I hadn’t thought of that before.
“Do not change the subject, my pet,” she purred. “You know this to be true. You need to be thinking of these things.”
“I do, don’t I?” And that did give me a thought. “Hey Muu!” The Dragon-kin looked over at me. “I got a thing I want to try later, just remind me!”
“‘Kay!” he hollered back.
Maebe’s victorious chin raise and regal demeanor at that moment were both annoying and super adorable.
“I’ll deal with you later, miss know-it-all,” I growled playfully.
She looked me dead in the eyes and asked, “Do you know what we call that in my culture?” I shook my head, interested in learning. “Queen.”
And her shadow lion mount put on an extra burst of speed. I watched her hold her hand up to her mouth as she laughed. I heard Bokaj, Jaken, and James start laughing as well.
“She fuckin’ punked you, boy,” Yohsuke teased.
“Great, isn’t it?” I grinned back. It was nice to be able to laugh again.
* * *
That night, Muu and I were set to spar, so we decided to have some fun. Well—I decided to have some fun.
He pulled out his short spear and adopted a good fighting stance. I walked up to him, sat Magus Bane aside and cracked my knuckles.
“Don’t worry about me, princess.” I loosened my limbs and relaxed a little.
“Fine by me.” He stilled, and for a moment, I didn’t think he would move until I felt the spear sliding against my right side.
I looked down and saw that, if he had been trying to stab me—he could’ve.
“Illusory Thrust,” Muu offered as an explanation.
“Very fucking well,” I grunted. “Kid gloves are off now. I’m gonna beat your ass with my bear hands.”
“I’d like to see you do that.” He smiled.
I promptly shifted into my Ursolon form and smacked him across his helmeted head, sending him sprawling. I growled a laugh at him and deftly dodged a slice at my chest. I bear danced to the right, then shifted into my fox form and danced beneath his legs.
“Hold still you piece o’ shit!” he spat at me as he tried to stab me. I beat feet away from him a little way, then took my owl form. I lifted into the air and looked down to see that he was right there with an arm outstretched.
Inwardly, I was cursing up a storm because that meant I would need a swifter take off time to make this a viable tactic.
So, instead of trying to get away, I gave him what he wanted. I dropped the panther on him.
“Ah!” he shouted as my six-hundred-pound bulk dropped on top of him. “Fuck. YOU!”
He tried to stab at me, but I batted at him with both paws and foiled his worst attempts. I took a good slice on the forearm and hissed at him angrily. I took my powerful back legs and shot them into the core of his body to rocket him away from me. Then I shifted into my owl form once more to help slow my descent.
Muu landed on his back with a grunt and a gasp. I touched down next to him and shifted to fox, then once more into my Ursolon form. I pressed my forepaw against his throat and growled threateningly.
Into the Dragon's Den (Axe Druid Book 2) Page 42
