Dream II - Chapter 25 (Patreon)

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Race: Saurian

Bloodline Powers: Improved Strength, Rending, Firebreath
Greater Mysteries: Fire (Noble) 4, Wind (Noble) 3, Sound (Advanced) 2
Lesser Mysteries: Heat 4, Oxygen 4, Embers 4, Pressure 4, Current/Flow 4

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Samazzar’s side twinged slightly.  The climb out of Whistling Gorge hadn’t helped things, but ultimately his potion had done its work.  His shoulders and flank were still tender.  He hadn’t designed the potion to focus on minor injuries and aches, so they were only healing a little faster than normal, but after two days of travel they weren’t much more than a distraction.

Ahead of him Dussok pushed a tree branch upward, making room for Takkla to duck under it as the five of them continued down the game trail.  They had entered the forest around noon yesterday, and almost immediately their steady progress slowed to a crawl.  The knights’ horses moved slower than the saurians, and Meredith spent about as much time on foot clearing brush out of the way as she did on her horse walking through it.

Takkla raised a hand, stopping the five of them.  She closed her eyes, taking a half step forward as her nostrils flared, trying to scent something on the wind.  Her brow furrowed in concentration for a second before she remarked grimly.

“Smoke and ash.  It doesn’t smell fresh.  I’d say we’re near the logging camp, but I don’t hear any signs of activity.”

Sam reached out with his magic, testing first the wind and then the sounds lingering on it before shaking his head.

“Takkla is right,” he said.  “There’s a clearing about a thousand paces ahead but the buildings don’t look right.  I can’t see specific details, just outlines, but most of them don’t have tops and at least two of them have collapsed in on themselves.  Worse, I can’t hear anything other than scavengers.  There are a couple rats and coyotes nearby, but no human chatter or livestock.”

“That doesn’t sound promising,” Meredith remarked.  “Still, if you aren’t seeing or hearing people, it probably isn’t an ambush.  That has to count for something.”

Dussok shook his head, chuckling lightly as he spoke.

“I suppose that is a bright side.  There’s always room for optimism.”

Adam looked from his assistant to the saurian, mouth half open in shock.  “There were almost two hundred people in this camp. We can hope that they were taken prisoner, but I doubt we’ll be that lucky.”

Takkla sniffed again and her nose wrinkled slightly.  She cast a quick glance at Dussok before sighing.

“Given that I’m catching whiffs of rotting meat and carrion,” she said, “I doubt that we’re going to find anything pleasant.  It could be spoiled meat, but-“

“But that doesn’t seem likely given the other signs,” Adam interjected dourly.  He shifted in his saddle, armor gleaming silver in the light that filtered through the treetops.  After a moment of thought, he swung a leg over the side of his saddle, dismounting from his horse and taking hold of its reigns to tie it to a nearby tree.

“Ms. Lewtin,” he continued, nodding toward the other knight.  “I think that it’s time we dismount.  I’m going to need you to watch the horses.  It’s possible that there is trouble ahead and given the close confines of the forest, the mounts will be a hindrance rather than a help.  I will need to be able to fight freely if the time comes.”

“Come on Adam,” she hissed back.  “Let me help!  I’ve trained so much for this moment.  I’m ready!”

“Against training dummies,” Adam replied his voice softening slightly.  “Ms. Lewtin, you are almost ready, but I don’t want your first fight to be an ambush.  Many of the best warriors I know have frozen in their first clash.  Atop a horse, galloping toward an enemy?  Inertia will drive your lance home.  But here?  In a forest where you don’t know where you’re being attacked from?  I don’t want you to get hurt or get someone else hurt by freezing suddenly.  You’ll have your first fight, and sooner rather than later if I had to hazard a guess.  I just want to set you up for success and victory, not throw you to the wolves.”

“Someone will need to guard the horses,” Takkla said, patting Meredith on the shoulder.  “There are wild animals in this forest, and as Dussok said, an ambush is unlikely.  I would be more concerned about an attack on your transportation while we explored the lumber camp than an ambush on the four of us.”

Samazzar nodded absently, letting his senses trace over the camp.  He couldn’t tell fine details, but it was clear that it had been destroyed.  Lumps that were probably debris were scattered across the clearing next to the partially demolished buildings.  Crows hopped around the wreckage, pecking at things he couldn’t quite see.

He pushed his senses further.  Wind was a powerful ally to scout with, but it left much to be desired.  With heat Sam could see details of how hot or cold a substance was, but the wind could only tell him where it was and where it was not, almost drowning him in a world of outlines as he tried to make sense of the silhouettes of animals and buildings surrounding the large scavenger covered mound in the center of the work camp.

“Ready?” Adam asked quietly, his sword practically singing as he pulled it from its scabbard.

For a brief moment, Samazzar felt a pang of jealousy.  He had a knife.  A decent one too that he’d made for himself in the smithy.  It kept an edge just fine and it was useful for chopping ingredients and opening containers, but the blade was nowhere near as sharp as his claws, even before he infused them with the magic sleeping in his bloodline.

As much as he’d like something like Adam’s sword, a masterwork of smithing and magic twisted together into a gleaming, supernaturally sharp weapon, it wasn’t the weapon of a dragon.  It would make a good addition to a hoard, but a dragon fought with their breath, claws and body, disdaining the weapons and armor of men.

He shook the thoughts from his head and nodded back at the knight.  For now, his claws, magic and dagger would have to be enough.  Someday he’d be bigger, with muscles and scales that demanded respect in and of themselves.  A smile flickered across his muzzle.  Maybe someday soon.

Then Adam was creeping through the forest.  As soon as the human dropped into a crouch, the light around him dimmed to almost nothing, like a chunk of gloom had detached itself from one of the massive nearby pine trees and wrapped itself around the knight.  Takkla and Dussok followed him, weapons in hand and careful with their steps to avoid the noisy twigs and leaves that cluttered the forest floor.

Sam opened and closed his hands once, letting the muscles of his forearms strain against his scales before following his companions.  His eyes watched the narrow trail as his other senses stretched out in a sphere around them, watching for any possible attack despite the earlier signs that their party was more or less alone in the forest.

Their tension was all for nothing.  Maybe five minutes later, the four of them were standing in the center of the lumber camp.  The low wooden wall around the compound was still upright but its gate had been destroyed with heavy axes and the rest of the resource colony hadn’t fared much better.

The buildings had all been burned, and long enough ago that the ashes were cool.  Their remains were little more than shells, charred support beams reaching up to support the barest fragments of missing roofs.

A warehouse that clearly should have been full of the alchemical reagents and hardwood trees to be shipped back to Vereton’s hungry lumber mills was empty.  Same with the two-story building that doubled as the foreman’s house and general store for the lumberjacks.  It had clearly been stripped of whatever sundry goods it had possessed before being put to the torch as the four of them couldn’t find any hint of metal goods in the debris.

By far the worst was the central mound.  Samazzar had noticed it with his magical senses, but the pile of fresh dirt hadn’t stood out on their approach.  Now, as they stood around it, noses wrinkled at the faint smell of carrion while crows hopped around, pecking at the soil, there wasn’t much room to doubt that it was anything other than a mass grave.

“Two hundred souls,” Adam said quietly, shaking his head as he stared intently at the scene.  “Not harming anyone, just trying to earn an honest living.”

Dussok crouched next to the long pile of dirt, pressing his fingers into it before holding them up to the light and rubbing them together, letting a stream of brown soil filter to the ground.

“Fresh too,” he remarked.  “Ashes are cold but the earthworks haven’t settled yet.  I’d say we’re looking at between two and five days since this happened.”

Sam closed his eyes, reaching out with his senses to the wreckage of the buildings as Dussok stood up and addressed Adam again.

“Doubt these were real bandits.  Slaves are valuable commodities.  Likely worth more than anything they pulled out of this place.  An attack like this only makes sense if the purpose was to destroy a production facility without bogging your raiding party down with a baggage train of prisoners that would need food and shelter.”

“Three days,” Samazzar said, opening his eyes.  “The embers of the fires around here were started three days ago.  Given how tightly packed the forest around here is, whoever did this couldn’t have gotten that far.”

Takkla jerked her head toward the main road in and out of the compound.  It wasn’t much more than a packed dirt path opposite the game trail they’d taken in, barely wide enough to fit a wagon, but it showed obvious signs of recent use.

“Only one way in or out for a group the size of the one that took down this camp,” she said.  Her bow was still in her hands, arrow half drawn as she eyed the path suspiciously.  “only question is whether or not we go looking for them.  None of us are slouches, but I’m not sure we can take fifty or sixty warriors, especially if they have a practitioner or two in their midst.”

“We need to find them,” Adam replied through clenched teeth, fire burning in his eyes as the light around him exploded into a rainbow of riotous color.  “The bodies here will not enter the beyond alone.  It is one thing to fight a war between men and women standing shoulder to shoulder and fighting over treasure and territory, but an attack like this cowardice on a massive scale.  It cannot be tolerated.  I will not tolerate it.”

Dussok and Takkla shot Sam a worried look, their eyes flickering back and forth to the knight as the muscles of his neck bulged and the air around him shone in an aurora of unnatural color.

“Sure,” Samazzar said with a shrug.  “I don’t really know that this is productive or that its our fight, but Adam is a friend and he’s helped all three of us out.  If he needs help in turn, a dragon remembers its allies.”

The human closed his eyes, letting out a deep sigh.  The colors in the air behind him began to fade, returning to the dappled greens and browns of the forest even as he forcefully unclenched his jaw.

“Thank you.”  Adam spoke quietly, his eyes still closed.  “I know that I’m asking you to take an unacceptable risk.  These aren’t your people, and you have no reason to help me but-

“There’s nothing to thank us for,” Sam interrupted him.  “We will simply win whatever fight you find for us, or drag you out of the fire so that the City can send a full army in to clean up the mess.  There really isn’t much to it.”

Samazzar couldn’t see Takkla roll her eyes behind him, but he didn’t need to.  The tilt of her head and her exasperated sigh said everything he needed to hear.  Still, she nodded along as he said his piece.  He doubted she was excited about the Adam’s detour, but that didn’t mean that she disagreed with Sam’s reasoning.  Just his flippant attitude toward paying their debts.

Adam shot the three of them a weak smile as he opened his eyes.  Dussok grunted and hefted his axe over his shoulder, turning toward the road into the compound without comment.

Takkla scampered past the three of them, bow at ready as she took the lead.  Without comment, Dussok and Adam took their positions after her, filling most of the narrow road with their bulk as Samazzar brought up the rear.

They moved fairly slowly, Takkla occasionally calling a stop to check the forest on either side of the trail when she spotted broken branches or trampled foliage that could have marked where a warband joined or left the road.  Three times, they resumed their travel, but the fourth, about a half hour into their trek, she instead dropped to one knee, brushing aside wet leaves to reveal a scrap of leather with metal studs embedded in it.

She picked it up, and Adam shifted in behind her, lifting his sword until it was just over her shoulder.  A moment later, the tip of his blade erupted in the light of the noontime sun.  Takkla glanced up at him, startled for a second before nodding in appreciation and returning her gaze to the scrap.

“Armor,” she finally said.  “Likely a strip from an armored skirt to protect a lightly armored warrior’s thighs and knees while letting them move freely.”

“Then we are going the right way,” Adam replied, letting the light from his sword fade as he took a step back.  “It looks like we’re heading back into the forest then.  Time to find the bastards that did this and bury them.”

Samazzar didn’t say anything, instead he simply shrugged when Dussok tossed him another worried look.  The three of them were in too deep to abort their search now.  The best they could do is stop Adam from trying something suicidal if the bandit camp was clearly too much for them to handle.

Takkla led them into the woods, and the group’s speed slowed to a crawl.  Every ten to twenty paces they needed to pause to let her double check the footpath they were following to make sure that they were still on course.  Occasionally she would redirect them slightly, but before long the thin road through the woods was far out of sight.

Sam perked up, reaching out with his senses even as he tapped first Dussok and then Adam on the back.  They stopped, glancing toward him as Samazzar whispered to them, counting on Takkla’s enhanced hearing to pick up his words.

“Six shapes in the forest watching us.  Much bigger than a person or an orc and on all fours.  They’re moving as we move so I don’t think it’s an accident.  Whatever they are, they’re following us.”

“Bears?” Dussok asked, his eyes darting back and forth as he peered ineffectually into the forest.

“Too tall,” Sam replied with a quick shake of his head.  “They’re a bit higher than Dussok.  It might be some sort of rare bear with a bloodline, but I can’t think of anything that matches their-“

He stopped, eyes widening for a second before diving at Adam.

“Incoming!” The word barely left Samazzar’s throat before he drove his shoulder into the human’s waist, knocking him backward and out of the way of a grapefruit sized stone that zipped past them and shattered a nearby tree into a shower of woodchips.

A pair of glowing wings sprouted from Takkla’s back and she jumped, a single ethereal flap dropping her in the branches of a nearby tree even as she loosed her first arrow at one of the shadowy silhouettes barreling through the forest toward them.

Samazzar rolled off of Adam, springing to his feet just in time to see Dussok’s axe flash through the air, burying itself almost completely in the fur covered form of the creature he was fighting.

His senses tingled, and Sam lunged forward, letting a heavily muscled limb slam into the ground behind him with enough force to leave a small dent in the mud and leaves.

In front of him, a heavy furred shape rounded a maple tree, one massive arm reaching out to grip its waist thick trunk even as the other whirred through the air just above Samazzar’s head.

The trunk bent as the monster swung past, the protesting tree the center of a dangerous arc traced by its free arm just before it grabbed hold of another nearby oak, releasing the maple in order to spin around its new fulcrum.

It came to a stop gripping the tree, reddish brown fur covering its over developed upper body and simian face.  Its lips peeled backward, exposing a mouth full of dull yellow teeth before its chest expanded.

Some unknown instinct screamed a warning to Samazzar, and he threw himself to the side a half second before the massive ape bellowed.  That moment probably saved him.

A second or so later, Sam’s eyes blinked open.  There was blood trickling from his ears and nose, and the entire world was hazy, like he was looking at it through a dirty window.  Above him, one of the apes had reared up onto its hind legs, and a couple paces away, where he had been standing, a second monster stood next to a furrow in the dirt that very easily could have been him.

Without pausing to think, Samazzar exhaled.

Flames gushed out over the creature’s chest and face, almost immediately fanned into a furor by his magic.  The monster ignited.  Its fur burned like oil-soaked paper revealing gray skin covering tightly corded muscles beneath.

Another push of Sam’s mind and the rest of the animal’s body began to char.  He wobbled to his feet, staggering away from the creature as it flung its burning body ineffectually at the ground in an effort to put out the flames that clung to it.

The other ape’s chest expanded, but this time Samazzar was ready.  He could almost taste the cone of sound as it left the monster’s throat.  A twist of the wind thinned the air between him and the animal.  Not quite enough to create an actual void, but enough to deaden most of the sonic attack’s impact.

Sam could almost feel the way the wind and sound interacted.  The air was a medium, something shook by the sound.  By ripping the medium away the vibrations traveling toward him diminished from a physical attack to a below that shook him to his bones.

He pushed, taking the air that he had manipulated and compressing it into a fist sized ball that he launched into the ape’s throat.  Sam staggered backward a half step, shaking his head to clear the fog from the previous below, as the monster reached up with a massive arm gagging and clawing at its throat as it struggled to comprehend the unseen attack.

Nearby, a maple tree began to burn as the out of control fire jumped from the thrashing ape to its mottled bark.  Sam lunged forward, unable to care about the potential danger to his surroundings as the other animal swung a massive fist in his direction.

He grabbed the wind, imagining the air as a net that dragged backward on the oncoming arm, slowing it just enough that he could duck under the blow and slash upward with his claws, slicing through fur, skin, and muscle.

It yelped in pain, pulling its arm back in shock, surprised that such a small creature managed to wound it.

Samazzar jumped after it, snaring more wind from the air and directing a small gale into the creature’s face to distract it while he landed on its side.  His bloodline thrummed, and he felt his claws sharpen beyond reason a fraction of a second before they shredded their way through the ape’s tough hide.

It lashed out blindly, a blood-slick arm swinging in Sam’s general direction.  He dropped to the ground, dodging the clumsy blow before bringing his hands together and thrusting both of them upward like a spear, impaling the huge creature’s protruding stomach.

Before it could attack him again, Sam scampered backward, mad grin plastered across his face.  The blood on his ears and nose was dry now, baked in place by the unmoving and still burning animal on the forest floor.

The ape staggered a step forward only for Samazzar to wave a hand, summoning a streak of fire from its downed companion.  Before the monster could attack, the flames struck like a snake lunging toward the animal’s face.

It raised an arm to ward off the burning streamer only for a twist of Sam’s will to send it flowing around the creature’s wrist.  The magic darted into the ape’s face, drawing a bellow from the animal as it seared its eyes and forehead.

Samazzar ducked under its flailing limbs, slashing upward with his overly sharp claws, opening another major gash on the underside of the creature’s arms.  It stumbled again before toppling over backward and that was all the opening Sam needed.

He pounced on the monster’s chest, the claws on his feet digging into the top of its bloody stomach to keep him in place as his hands tore and ripped at the prone animal’s throat.  A half-hearted slap from the ape bruised his shoulder and sent Samazzar skidding to the side, his talons ripping long gashes in the ape’s flesh as he dug in tight.

It gurgled at him, searching sightlessly for Samazzar for a second before falling back and lying still

A wave of Sam’s hand killed the fire around him, a sigh welling up from his throat of its own accord.  He clambered off of the dying and unconscious animal, reaching up with his left arm to massage the growing bruise on his right shoulder.  The ape hadn’t hit him hard enough to break any bones due to its injuries and the bad angle it had for its punch, but suddenly Samazzar was grateful that none of its earlier strikes had connected.

An arrow thwipped past, followed momentarily by an angry bellow.  Dussok was slumped against a nearby tree, blood flowing freely from his ears and his eyes clouded from a sonic attack.  Adam stood in front of him.  At some point his gleaming metal armor had grown to cover the entirety of his body in a seamless whole that more closely resembled clothing than the rivets and joints of plate.

He was glowing, a field of soft white emanated from his metal skin, periodically flashing in quick blinding bursts toward the final ape.  The animal’s body was covered in arrows and singed patches of fur.  Blood flowed freely from a dozen or so wounds, but no individual injury looked critical.

Adam stabbed with his sword and the monster jerked backward only for the blade to grow almost another arm’s span in length as the knight thrust forward, punching yet another hole in the monster’s thick hide.

It looked down at the new wound in its shoulder, already burbling with dark blood, with an expression of disbelief before turning and digging its knuckles into the ground to run away.

The knight’s sword sang through the air a second time, surrounded by a nimbus of light that seemed to burn both hair and flesh.  Adam drew another deep line of blood from the monster’s back before it rumbled off into the forest, leaving half a trail of trampled underbrush and blood in its wake.