Cheep!? 35 (Patreon)

The silent pursuit lasted hours, the group of people either unaware of Charles’ presence or very good at pretending otherwise. All the while, he kept thinking over and over about what he needed to do, and what he wanted to do. More than once, he had to hunker down in the undergrowth, whether to have a quiet minor panic attack blended with murderous urges as he remembered the feeling of the collar stacked on top of the events of the last few days. Knowing that this was a trauma issue didn’t help him all that much; he’d had plenty of therapists on Earth, and while it did help to get the issue out, he’d discovered a simple truth.

In the end, the only one who could really help you was yourself.

Not in the jaded kind of sense, but truly, the only one who could really understand what you were going through was yourself. For Charles, that was his truth, and he employed it fully as he worked to smooth out the rough edges. He could work through it more fully later, but for now this was the best he could do. Beyond that, he’d have to improvise.

‘I wonder if there are any therapists that specialize in birds here.’ Charles joked to himself, ‘Ah, I need to find a pile of little chickies to cuddle up into.’ He warmly remembered being buried under a pile of his siblings. That really had been among the best sleep he’d ever gotten in his life, honestly.

‘Are farms a thing? Surely there would be? Maybe I can sneak into one with chicks.’ He snorted at the thought, before realizing another thing, ‘Wait… If I follow some group, am I going to have to wait in the stables in town?’ The absurd jump in logic almost left him laughing in the stress-relief sense. It was just so bizarre to have that thought, when all he really wanted was to be buried in a pile of his siblings and call it a month.

Oddly enough, thought Charles sarcastically, the idea of being left behind in some stable also did not sit well with him. He imagined having to be cooped up for hours on end, next to a horse or something, bored out of his mind and waiting for everyone to be done with things in town. Hopefully they wouldn’t be long stays over days, or weeks. But, surely, beasts could find other things to entertain themselves with!...

Charles was reasonably certain that he’d break out and wreak havoc in a not-so-peaceful protest in record time if that ever did happen.

‘By Alterra, if they try to feed me chicken feed, there will be plucking war!’ Charles decided right then and there that he would have minimum treatment requirements. Maybe some more of that snake–

He sighed, the flavor of snake tainted by poison. In the moment, it was delicious in ways he never knew food could be delicious in, but the memory of dismally negative thoughts and unresponsive limbs polluted any positive thoughts he could have for it. Someday he’d have to have to overwrite that memory.

‘At least that explains why I haven’t seen a single snake around here if they’re that tasty.’ He distracted himself, still a hundred meters off from the adventuring party. Vaguely, he could hear them stomp around,but it was mostly the occasional voices that spoke out that tipped him off. They weren’t trying to be stealthy, but he understood that they were looking for someone. Probably any survivors from the debacle that had been the poachers' entire foray into the woodlands.

Charles moved in closer, essence flowing through the pattern in his legs that made him silent and increased his speed. It almost felt like it was getting better over time, but he couldn’t decide if that was just his imagination or not. Perhaps this pattern was gradually growing with use? He wasn’t certain, but it seemed as likely as any explanation if it was actually happening.

‘That’d be a game changer,’ he considered the possibilities, before frowning, ‘Actually, that’d be awful. Everyone on this planet has definitely been at it longer than I have, so hopefully it doesn’t really do that much.’ The image of crazily powerful people who could move unseen and unheard through the forest at speeds he couldn’t hope to match briefly filled his head.

Charles slowed his approach, partly glad to be drawn from his inner musings.

“...is as far as I can track. He must have gone through the river.” Skye spoke up, “It’s not deep through here, though, but it’s almost the exact opposite direction from town.”

“He must have gotten turned around.” The wide shouldered man said. Charles didn’t remember if he’d ever heard his name, or if he’d just forgotten it, but he reminded him of a barfighter type.

The lithe man, Dachna, he remembered, spoke up after, “I could believe that for when he just started running, but he’s been going at damn near a straight line the whole time.”

“He’s committed?” The other man offered.

“Is there some other possibility?” Mithel asked, and Charles realized that she’d been the one who was responsible for the drugs. That deserved some reprisal, but not nearly as much as the paladin. He was still considering if he could find a way to quietly murder that one.

Skye said, “A few. Could it be that he didn’t want to go back to town?”

A thoughtful silence followed that, before the paladin spoke up, “Wary of who might intercept him, perhaps?”

“Or… He couldn’t come straight back?” Mithel put forth, “Maybe something to do with the Oath being all… warped?”

The paladin said something too quiet to pick out, but Charles imagined it was an agreement of some sort.

“Alright, let's check the other side of the river, then.” The elf said, “Fill up your canteens and waterskins here, also. The water’s clear.”

“Good. Honestly, it’s refreshing to have a good source of water so available. Up in Wyrmwood, there are only springs out in the woods, and they’re generally contested.” The paladin moved forward. Charles shifted closer to them, eager not to miss any information he could get on the world.

“Ah, right, that's old growth, yeah? I heard that most of the forest is low essence tier three.” Dachna spoke, disappearing under Charles’ sight-line between the trees and undergrowth as he presumably refilled his waterskin.

“Mostly. The Evergreen proper sees higher stuff, but on the outskirts there, the Wyrmwood tends to be pretty stable. But it makes up for that in sheer numbers of aggressive species.”

Mithel’s words thoughtfully sounded out, “Which would you say is the worst; the Elderwood, Wyrmwood or Daurghast?”

“Daurghast, no contest,” the paladin said almost instantly, “The Daurghast is a death trap. We should have burned it when we had the chance.”

“Is it really that bad?” Mithel asked, “I’ve heard people saying that it’s got a lot of great herbs and useful essence beasts.”

“It… does have that,” the paladin answered with a careful tone, “But it also has the highest concentration of mind-affecting beasts and plants in the Kingdom and most of the Empire. It also has some genuine monsters that have habitats there, with the aforementioned ability to influence the mind.”

“That’s why the guild forbids rookies from even approaching the Daurghast. Even being where we are now is… technically frowned upon. We’d ordinarily be cautioned from approaching the northern flank of that forest, due to certain issues of encroachment being so irregular,” Barfighter answered self assuredly, “It’s temperamental on the best of days, so even the people going in for harvesting generally do it with a lot of gear supporting them, or they get lucky and find something on the outskirts before they go too deep.”

They talked about a few of the minor points of the Daurghast as they took a quick break. Charles waited and watched, eagerly drinking up the information they provided. There wasn’t much about the world that he could use, some parts more important than others. Of course, he wasn’t going anywhere near the Daurghast again for the time being, that place had been terrifying the first time around, but it was useful to hear about the Wyrmwood, the Eldergreen. Apparently his entire stretch of the woods was generally considered at risk land for encroachment by the Daurghast and wasn’t checked often. That explained why he hadn’t seen hardly any people in all the time he’d been there. As they spoke more, he learned that apparently the mountains to the north east were a range of higher essence tier areas. Past them, and a little more eastward, you’d eventually run into the Republic, which he gathered was something of what once was a collection of city-states that had unified sometime in the recent past.

He didn’t know how recent, as that didn’t come up, but apparently they were a major trading partner. And, it turned out, directly adjacent to an ocean, which he wanted to hear more about, but nothing more came of it. He did discover that they neighbored an Empire, but didn’t find out where they were from that. It was useful stuff, just not as useful as he’d hoped to glean.

Charles was deep in thought when he realized that the elf and paladin had split off from the group, not far, but much, much closer to him than they were before. For a hot second, Charles’ hackles rose up and he almost bolted, but before he could move, the pair stopped and stood, an awkward and tense air between them.

“I wish to apologize to your team, but you specifically,” the paladin began, “the… situation with the Phorus was not one that I would have chosen under normal circumstances. Still, I got impatient, and I should have communicated to you all about the existence of the collar before I used it.” She then said straight out, “Skye, I’m sorry. I won’t make excuses for myself, it was a mistake.”

Whatever she’d expected, Skye obviously hadn’t expected the absence of even a hint of scorn. She shifted her weight on awkward feet, a few seconds of silence hanging in the air with a complicated look on her face.

Finally, she nodded, “We spoke as a team, and I would like to apologize as well. Hitting you was nowhere near at all the right thing to do in that situation. I can’t say that I don’t have hard feelings about what happened, but…  I accept your apology, Reese. And while I personally think the collar was–” Skye stopped suppressing perhaps a more vitriolic response in favor of saying, “– a less than ideal option, the others believe you were well within your rights to restraining him for everyone’s safety. I’d like to say none of you can possibly understand just how much we hurt him by doing that, but that’d be unfair and childish,” she spoke while remaining clearly uncomfortable, her eyes not on the paladin’s face. If she did, Charles wondered what she’d think of the bittersweet expression Reese showed for just a moment. It was gone when Skye looked up and continued speaking, “I… understand why you felt you had to do that. I’m far from flawless, too.” She then chuckled in a self-deprecating fashion, “It’s probably impossible, but I still want to at least try to get him moved out of the area, even if I can’t earn forgiveness. He deserves at least some measure of peace. We at least want him to know that his siblings are okay.”

Charles felt incredibly uncomfortable and somewhat moved at the same time, all the way up until the last statement. He felt his body go even more still as he processed that, feeling waves of relief washing through him. Of course, even just hearing all of that, he couldn’t just take that for granted, but even everything else seemed… better. Not enough to forgive them, but they at least weren’t going to try to tame him again. That, Charles realized, would probably never be something he’d be interested in considering even after he well and truly felt like he’d forgiven them. That forgiveness might never happen, but Charles would reserve his judgment of them somewhat. ‘And I guess I’m not murdering the paladin yet. Maybe?... Hard maybe.’

Reese spoke with a small smile, “So long as he doesn’t kill someone, I’m willing to help. Though, I honestly don’t know how much help I’ll be–if I was him, I’d stay as far from me as possible.”

The woman looked sad at that, and Charles felt annoyed more than anything at the words and sight of her. Perhaps some part of him should have been empathe–

‘Nah, cluck that, you’re both on my to-be pecked list.’ Charles had no sympathy for her, and Skye had added herself to his peck list by having the gall to look even the slightest bit of sympathetic towards her. He was still vetting them as a potential a host group for his movements, but that didn’t mean he had to be upbeat and chipper about things. Too many people on Earth had been a little too forgiving for slights against them. While he didn’t want to be a bitter and jaded bird…

‘Well, I’m a jaded and bitter bird now, the feathering peck do you want from me!?’

He listened as they moved back to the group, where Reese made a smaller, official apology to the rest of the group. The response was mostly positive, and as an upside, Charles actually learned the big guy's name!

Now he just needed to stop making Ronald McDonald jokes every time he saw him.

“Alright, I think we’re more than rested enough,” Ronald said, “If we’re lucky, they camped out somewhere nearby and we can get back to town by nightfall.”

Mithel groaned, “You jinxed us.”

Charles quickly chittered amusedly at that. Dachna shook his head, “You’ve got weird superstitions, Mithey.”

A glare shot his way, but Mithel pointedly didn’t respond. Dachna only grinned at that, a little more pep in his step, Charles noted.

‘Right, that’s the team’s troll, then.’ Charles nodded to himself, waiting until they were out of sight across the river before he crossed the water himself. It wasn’t much effort to find them again, after all, so it was better to be safe and ensure they wouldn’t spot him.

Hours passed as they navigated the forest, becoming hillier and denser as they pushed on. Several times, they expressed surprise that they hadn’t found the man yet, but they did stumble upon what seemed to have been a campsite of sorts. Skye reported that he must have spent the night under a tree, but didn’t start a fire.

As Charles moved through the area behind them, he confirmed that, but beyond that he also smelled a minute scent like copper. If it was blood, Charles couldn’t tell, it was just too faint after time, rain, and the breeze had carried much of it off. After Charles picked over the area, he couldn’t help but be confused. Why didn't they start a fire? The forest was thick enough that starting a fire wouldn’t be much of a risk for discovery. Did their quarry not know how to start one? Charles did, but couldn’t because his hands weren’t exactly conducive to the effort.

‘That must have been a cold night.’ Charles warbled uncertainly before he pushed onwards after the team ahead. This time, something had changed, the trail wasn’t just a straight line any longer, instead it veered off, seemingly wildly, left and right, but never able to fully reverse. Charles wasn’t the only one to notice this, and when Skye voiced it, the team suddenly became more concerned.

“Maybe he couldn’t go towards town at all?” Mithel voiced what Charles was thinking, “That’s pretty messed up, though. Should that even be possible?”

“Oath magic has always been an odd type,” Reese said, “I would guess that something like that could be possible, though not under normal circumstances.”

Dachna spat off to the side, “Whoever set that up deserves to hang.”

The others wordlessly nodded, but carried on. The casual mention of execution noted to be a reality in this world aside, Charles agreed that whoever was responsible needed to be held accountable. He wasn’t sure how big of a deal the Oath Sworn thing was exactly, but as far as he was concerned, he didn’t need to. What happened with the poachers would have been more than enough for him to never subject himself to whatever Oath system they might have had in place. Dying in an accident was one thing, but literally being able to be used as fodder if someone could order you to do so? That was too far. From what he’d felt of the tame bond, even that wasn’t so insidious as to force their will on you.

As the sun began to set, the team realized that they weren’t going to be finding anyone that night, and called a halt to their search.

“Alright, we’re a little closer to the mountains than I’d like, but hopefully we can find the survivor tomorrow.” Skye called out, “We’re not going to find anything in this darkness, and sometimes the nocturnal predators of the mountains prowl into the forest, so I’d rather we camp here for now.”

Charles watched momentarily as they started to set out stakes, marking out an area to camp in. He slipped off into the underbrush and further away, soundlessly. It was probably safe to range a bit further and get water and food himself now without the risk of missing them if they moved out.

And, it just so happened, he happened to sniff out a pretty delicious plant and maybe some other foods across game trails.

It vaguely occurred to him that he could try to track down the Oath Sworn, but he didn’t feel it necessary just yet. There should be plenty of accessible foods in the forest that he could eat, and water was plentiful enough. There weren’t that many things out here that were dangerous if you avoided them. Ironback Badgers were one, perhaps some of the rare creatures that had passed through from time to time, but Charles’ neck of the woods was fairly tame.

‘Don’t go anywhere now,’ Charles shot a glance back at their camp, ‘I have to stalk you all more!’ He trilled out a macabre little tune as he moved, feeling a little bit better than he did before.