“Yeah, I know. I’m getting used to hearing people say things aren’t possible,” Sean said after she trailed off.
With a distant look, Myna seemed to be thinking. Nodding, she turned back to Sean. “I was wrong. I apologize.”
“It’s fine,” Sean told her. “Can we keep this display just between us?”
“I will agree to that,” Myna said. “We shall go back to the training, but maybe with just light taps instead.”
“I’ll do my best to temper my strikes, but you’re quick, which makes it hard to connect without trying to get to you before you dodge.”
“Fair,” Myna conceded. “I will not dodge if you strike. I will concede the blow if you can get close to me.”
“Back to the hunt?” Sean asked.
“I will give you a minute to flee, and I will be vanishing even more, so be prepared for even less warning of my approach.”
“Less than when you pinned me to the tree, or less than when I snuck up on you? Because I never knew you were there when you pinned me to the tree.”
A faint smile touched her lips. “Less than the pinning, more than your sneaking. Now hurry, for your time is quickly running out.”
Bolting away, Sean grabbed at his energy and wrapped it around him. A small thrill of excitement ran through him as he did. Myna really did want to teach him, and she was ready to press the training further.
Myna proved to be hard to spot once she upped her camo Talent. During the next two hours, Sean only found her sneaking by once. She noticed him just as he closed the distance and dropped her cover, acknowledging his point without him having to attack. The rest of the two hours proved a valuable lesson in what someone who had trained their Talent could do. Myna found and attacked him over a dozen times in that span.
Shaking his head, Sean sighed as he rubbed his ribs where Myna had hit him. She hadn’t hit hard enough to bruise, but it still stung. “I don’t know if I’ll ever train to the degree you have, Myna, but I hope I haven’t been a complete disappointment.”
“No, you have been an apt pupil, and I do not think you will hinder the others in the least. We should move on to your ability to track prey,” Myna said, handing him a canteen. “I will leave a trail behind me, and I want you to follow it to where I hide.”
“Okay,” Sean said as he took a sip from the canteen. The warm water eased his dry throat. He hadn’t realized how thirsty he had gotten during their training. Handing back the canteen, he nodded. “How long do I give before I follow?”
“Count to three hundred,” Myna said, stepping into the woods, “then come for me.”
“Three hundred seconds is five minutes,” Sean muttered as he began to idly count. Once the time had passed, he looked at the forest floor and found distinct footprints. “She’s letting me start easy, that’s good,” Sean chuckled and began to trail after her.
After a few minutes of following the prints, he found a place where two sets diverged from each other. Kneeling down, he examined the tracks that appeared almost identical. Further examining them, he found two footprints atop each other, but not perfectly lined up, heading north.
“That’s the false trail she laid before she backed up to here and went the other way,” Sean muttered, wondering how he knew that. Another minute of following the tracks brought him to a fallen tree. No tracks appeared on the other side of the tree, though. “Think, Sean, think. She probably used the trunk to break her trail, but where could she have gone from here?”
He looked up at the limb above the fallen log, his eyes drawn to a fresh scuff, like something heavy had marked it. “She went up the tree, and not down the fallen log, so she probably came down on the other side of the tree.”
Circling the tree, he eventually found a deep set of prints where Myna had dropped out of the branches of the tree. He set off after the tracks, which slowly faded away as he went. “No, it’s not a trick, she’s just upping the difficulty again,” Sean told himself after pausing to check the prints. “There’s still tracks, just not so obvious now.”
Another few minutes brought him to another divergence in the tracks, and he instinctively knew which set to follow. He stopped, the trail having led to a hard packed smooth piece of ground that didn’t appear to have any tracks at all across it.
Kneeling next to where the last sign was, he could see very faint scuffs along the hard earth. It took him a couple of minutes to pick up the trail again, the tracks having faded even further, but he could see them clearly. Shaking his head, he knew he should thank Cernunnos for his gift. He came to a sudden stop as the tracks ended abruptly before him. Looking immediately up, he found Myna resting on a branch with her back to the tree.
“Not horrible,” Myna said as she dropped down. “I didn’t expect you to follow me so easily.” Lips pursed, she studied him intently, “Now we will flip it and I will track you. Do your best to keep me from finding you.”
“Well, fuck,” Sean said as he set off at a run, not waiting for her to tell him to go. After a hundred yards or so, he slowed and started walking carefully, even though he knew she would probably find him easily. Coming across the same log Myna ignored earlier, he walked gingerly down the length of it before gently stepping off and walking to the closest tree. It had a decently low branch of sufficient size that Sean thought might support him.
Crouching, he jumped for the limb and was surprised to go past it. He grabbed the branch above the one he had been aiming for and hauled himself up onto it. Blinking, he looked down to find himself fifteen feet up. “I really need to figure out what my baseline for physical abilities is,” Sean muttered. He got carefully to his feet and walked along the branch, mentally measuring the distance to the next tree. He backed up a couple of steps and took a running jump for a limb near the one he was on.
His feet found purchase, and he wavered for a moment before catching his balance. Once he was certain he was good, he walked along the branch to the trunk. Grabbing the large trunk, he shimmied around it to the far side then looked up and found another branch higher up. Springing up, he grabbed the limb and pulled himself up, putting him almost twenty-five feet above the ground. Settling onto the branch, he leaned against the trunk and pulled his energy out of his core. He covered himself and focused intently on becoming completely invisible. Breathing slowly, he waited for Myna, knowing she would eventually come.
Time seemed to crawl by as he waited. Eventually, he thought he saw a faint shimmer walk below him. It vanished in the same instant he thought he saw it. Gritting his teeth, he wished he had some way to beat Myna’s Talent. He continued to wait, and the thought of being able to see into objects when Shaping made him wonder if he could do something similar here. He focused on seeing into the tree he was sitting against in the same way he’d done with the logs and axes before.
It took a few minutes, but his normal sight was eventually overlaid with the energy imagery he’d gotten used to seeing when Shaping. Lifting his eyes from the branch he sat on, he looked out into the woods and his mouth dropped open. Stretching out before him was not the woods he’d seen all day, but a shimmering panorama of life of different colors and intensities, all glowing to his sight.
“Fucking beautiful,” Sean whispered.
In awe of the sight, he didn’t see Myna looking up at him, nor did he see the small stone that she flung. Snapped out of the moment by the rock hitting him in the chest, he looked down and his vision swam for a moment. He found a shimmer, shaped like a human and a vibrant black in color, staring up at him. He tossed his wooden sword down to her.
“You win,” Sean said before he started down the tree, after dismissing the overlay on his sight. He missed Myna’s shocked expression when he tossed her the sword, which she’d caught without thinking. When he dropped to the ground, he turned to find her inches away from him. “Err… hello?”
“How did you spot me?” Myna asked, staring into his eyes with an almost feral intensity.
“It was an experiment. How di
d you see me?”
“Your camouflage, when I went past originally, was better than I’d anticipated. When I turned around to examine the tree you were in from a different angle, your shimmer was noticeable. Now, how did you spot me?” Her tone was as intense as her eyes, boring into him.
“I was trying to adapt a Talent into something new, which is probably why my camo flickered, but it let me see your energy.”
Stepping back with pursed lips, Myna seemed to be deep in thought. “How do you manage it?”
Licking his lips, Sean’s head tilted slightly to the side as he took in her posture. She looked angry, and it was the first time Sean had seen her so aggressive. When she’d pinned him to the tree earlier, she had been upset, but not about to rip his head off. “What do you offer in trade?” he finally said, and hoped he wasn’t overplaying his hand.
Myna hissed, but took a step back. “I’ve already trained you as Whelan told me to. There isn’t much I can give, besides trying to train you further in the skills I’ve been showing you.”
Sean looked around before nodding. “I’ll offer a trade. I’ll try to explain what I did, and in return, you tell no one that I can do it or how it’s done. On top of that, I want to know if there’s a trick to how well and easily you’re able to camo.”
Her hands twitched, as if she was thinking of throttling him. Instead she exhaled loudly. “That would require explaining my family, something I’ve been loathe to do. I will agree to your terms, if you do the same for me. No telling others about what I say here.”
“Agreed,” Sean said, the weight of the agreement settling on him like a heavy cloak.
“You first,” Myna said as she took a seat on the ground, ready for his explanation.
Chapter Twenty
Taking a seat, Sean ordered his thoughts. “Okay, how do you reach the energy you harness to use your Talent?”
Myna frowned, “It’s just there. I wish it to happen and it does. It’s an innate Talent from my mother’s lineage.”
“Crap,” Sean sighed. “Well, here goes anyway. When I Shape, I can see into the wood, see the energy and all of the flaws. I decided to try that and lost focus on my camo, but I was able to see the underlying energy in the woods as well as the energy you’d wrapped yourself in. You looked like a bright shadow that stood out against the pale greens of the forest.
Lips pursed, Myna’s head tilted slightly and her eyes narrowed as she considered what he’d said. “You have Mage Sight,” Myna finally said softly. “That is a very rare Talent, which means I won’t be able to duplicate it.”
“I’m not sure about that,” Sean shrugged. “Fiona has learned a thing or two from me. Besides, there’s nobody saying I can’t try to help you learn it.”
Eyes focusing on him, Myna considered his offer. “What would your teaching cost?”
“I truly have no idea at the moment, but I’m not opposed to trying to teach it to you. We can come back to it in a bit. You were going to tell me about how you manage such excellent control over your camo.”
Looking away, Myna frowned and reached up to remove the leather cap covering her head. Sean frowned as two small, furred points came into view, mostly obscured by her hair. “My mother’s lineage. I told you my grandfather was an Outsider. He took an... unusual wife, one of the Feline Moonbonded. The Feline Moonbonded are known for their excellent hunting Talents, but to take one to wife is just not done. My grandfather was shunned for it. My mother had almost none of the physical traits of the Feline Moonbonded, but did inherit all of her mother’s Talents. I inherited those Talents as well, but was born with these ears. They proclaim my heritage, lowering any possible status I might ever hope to attain. Luckily for me, I have neither the tail nor fur, making it easier for me to hide my blood.”
“This village is full of people with interesting pasts,” Sean smiled.
“Two Shamed, a Life Bonded Lesser Naga, and me,” Myna nodded. “We have an unusual collection in such a small village.”
“There is no trick to better camo, then? It’s just your bloodline that has strengthened your Talent?”
“Correct,” Myna said. “If I could teach others, I might have been able to find a different path in life. Instead, I am here, under Whelan’s command.” The last few words were said in disdain, her lips twisting into a sneer.
“I see he’s popular with everyone,” Sean chuckled.
“He once tried to get me into a wager, with me bedding him as his reward. I have no such desire for that. When I turned him down, he attacked me and pulled my cap from my head. I’ve been shunned by the others since then. Moonbonded are considered barely above animals, after all.”
“Such an ass,” Sean sighed. “This world seems to have many prejudices, maybe even more than my last. Anyway, we should be getting back to town.”
“Wait, what about trying to teach me Mage Sight?” Myna said, stopping him from getting to his feet as she put her cap back in place.
“I have nothing to ask for in return,” Sean told her. “Unless you’re willing to give me a favor of equal value to be called in later?”
Myna sucked at her teeth for a moment. “That could be tantamount to giving over my life.” With a sad shake of her head, she got to her feet. “I can’t accept that trade at this time.”
“If I can think of something later, or if you do, I’ll be more than happy to see if we can come to an Agreement,” Sean told her as he stood.
Both of them turned to face the east, as the voices of the women could be heard singing in the distance. Exchanging glances, Myna seemed puzzled again, “You hear them?”
“Yeah,” Sean said.
“You truly are unique,” With another shake of her head, she vanished into the trees.
“You’re the first catgirl I’ve met, which makes you unique to me, too,” Sean muttered. Pulling his energy around him, he headed towards the sound of the song.
Sean came out on the trail well behind Taavi, who was following the women. Dropping his camo, Sean focused on bringing his Mage Sight back into being. Blinking against the sudden increase of input as everything took on soft glows of various colors, he looked around to find Myna. Ahead of the group, Myna’s outline was pressed against a tree, her head turned toward Sean. Making a motion from his eyes to her, he watched her head dip a fraction. Smile in place, he was about to drop Mage Sight when his eyes caught another darker black outline off to the right. The outline was a little over four foot in height, with a gently swaying tail stretched out behind it. Staring, he caught sight of another four silhouettes further back. Sean got the impression of bipedal cats, who seemed to be enjoying the music.
Glancing back to Myna, he stepped off the path and stopped next to her once he caught up. “Myna—the Moonbound, do they stand about four feet?”
“Those of feline blood do,” Myna replied softly. “They come to listen to the songs.”
“You know they’re there?”
“I met with them shortly after we arrived here; one of them sought me out. Darragh asked me to work out an Agreement with them. As long as we do not hunt them, they will leave the village alone.”
“Seems reasonable,” Sean said.
“Feline Moonbound are the best at remaining unseen. It is considered a great feat for a hunter to find one, and an even greater feat to kill it. Only those with Mage Sight can reliably find us, but most of those with Mage Sight don’t have the physical prowess to best one of us.”
Sean smiled at her use of the word ‘us’ when speaking of the Moonbound. As much as you try to downplay your heritage, you’re still proud of it, he chuckled internally. “I should just leave them alone, then?”
“Unless you wish to kill all of us,” Myna snorted.
“I’m fond of living, so I’ll pass.”
Myna dropped her camouflage. “Shall we follow the singers?”
“Sounds good,” Sean said as he followed Taavi, who had gotten further away during Sean’s brief conversation. The forest seeme
d almost drab when he dropped Mage Sight, his vision wavering. He blinked several times before it cleared.
“Comes with a downside?” Myna asked as she walked along beside him.
“When you push it away, it causes a bit of vertigo,” Sean said. “It stabilizes quickly though, so maybe that will fade in time.”
“That is good to know. Don’t release the sight until you are safe,” Myna nodded.
The sounds of the wives and husbands greeting each other was enough to bring Sean’s attention back to the path before him. “Cian, have you finished that tree yet?”
Cian laughed, “Of course we did.”
“Three trees again?” Tamaya asked. “We noticed the other two laid out next to Fiona’s home.”
“Sean is a bit of a madman, when it comes to knocking trees down,” Eagon said.
“Yeah, he’s a bit unique,” Ward said, hurriedly adding, “at least in that regard.”
“Are we carrying the tree back to town, or standing around talking?” Sean asked, eager to change the subject.
“The branches are gathered already, to make things easier for you, wife,” Cian said, motioning to the bundles that were neatly laid out.
“It’s only taken years, but it seems my training is finally paying off. Girls, there’s hope for your husbands as well,” Tamaya said, prompting laughter from the rest of the women. “Let’s show the men what it means to support them.”
Sean joined the guys at the fallen log. Hoisting it up, they followed along after the women, who were singing again. Sean chuckled when he realized the song was a back and forth between the women and men. The song was a comedy, about wives trying to get their husbands to work, and the husbands coming up with various excuses to avoid working. Their singing came to an end as they dropped the log at Fiona’s home.
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