82. At the Edge of the Lake (Patreon)

Loup stopped at last. She sniffed the ground, then looked at Ike. Abruptly, she sat.

“Here?” Ike asked. He kneeled, looking for tracks, scat, or some other indication a beast had passed through. The reeds were trampled, and the undergrowth had been torn up. He stepped deeper into the forest. The bark had been scraped off the trees at about shoulder height. A small tree laid on the ground, trampled.

Ike followed the trail through the forest. Trampled trees and torn undergrowth, all the way back.

He pursed his lips and turned to Loup. “I think we found it, girl.”

Loup’s ears perked up. She half-reared, her mouth open in excitement.

Time to figure these things out. Ike fumbled with the box, flipping the lid open. This time, he had the presence of mind to point it away from him, so the blast of aura didn’t smack him in the face. Keeping it pointed away, he fumbled around until he found one of the scrolls. Ike closed the box and stuck it back in his small day bag. Pinching it between two fingers, he sent a jolt of electricity into it with Lightning Grasp. The dry paper lit. Smoke wafted up from the bottom of the scroll.

Still delicately pinching it, Ike looked around. So… what now? Wisp said there’d be light, but I haven’t—

With a roar and a blast, the scroll rocketed up into the sky. A trail of white smoke chased after it. At the bottom, Ike coughed and waved his hand, backing away from the cloud of smoke. There’s my answer.

High overhead, the red-painted scroll burst in a rain of red sparks. Red light rained down on Ike’s position. He lifted his hand to watch it, blocking out the sun to see it better. Wisp was right. It is red light. I pictured more of a beam… but then, she did say the person she found it on used one, so unless she was there…

A few things suddenly clicked in his head. An underling of a distant city. A young Wisp. The underling dead, with one beacon used. Abandoned by their city lord. And a Wisp, who knew that the light would be red.

Ike opened his mouth. He shut it, putting a hand on his chin. Hmm. Hmmmmm. Well. Let’s not think too hard about how Wisp found these things, and carry on.

A white thread shot past his face and connected to a sturdy tree beside him. Ike blinked, startled, then backed away. A moment later, Wisp appeared, hurtling across the lake at a run. The thread thrummed, and then she stood beside him, balancing on the delicate white silk as though it were the most natural thing. Wisp looked down at him, tilting her head. “Found it?”

“Yeah, I think so.” Ike gestured her past the dense undergrowth at the water’s edge.

Wisp hopped down from her thread. She walked past Ike. For a moment, Ike stared. That’s right. She’s shorter than me. I forgot, because she’s always looking down at me.

Wisp paused. She turned, squinting at him. “I feel like you just thought something naughty.”

“What, me? Don’t be ridiculous. Look. Something big came through here, right? And Loup alerted. What does your nose say?” Ike asked, quickly putting an end to that conversation.

She gave him a look, but turned, lifting her nose. Wisp breathed deeply, then nodded. “That’s the scent. You’ve got a good wolf.”

Ike patted Loup’s head. “You hear that? High praise, right there.”

Loup looked up at him, then licked his hand.

Ike chuckled. He turned to Wisp. “Do we follow the trail, or sit here and wait for it to return? It’s so big, it can’t just come to the water anywhere. And this path looks well-used.”

Wisp gave him a look. “I’m not a wolf spider. What do you think?”

“Oh. Right. Webs.” Ike gestured for her to take the lead, stepping back to give her room.

He half expected Wisp to transform into her true form, but instead, she stepped out into the open space in human form. She looked around, eyeing the largest trees. With a slow spin, she fully surveyed the space. Ike waited, curious. What’s she doing?

From utter stillness, Wisp burst into motion. She pointed, and web shot from her fingertips. Whirling left, right, center, she twisted a web around her. As the web took form, she naturally climbed up into it. At last, she hopped down. She gave her work an admiring glance. “So? What do you think?”

A nearly transparent web stretched across the expanse. He knew where it was, and he still struggled to see it. The web drifted on the wind, gently wafting as the air swirled. Ike stared, honestly impressed. “That’s awesome.”

“Just another way in which spiders have the upper hand,” Wisp said, tossing her hair.

Ike shook his head at her. “How many people have you caught in your webs?”

“Do you want to know?” Wisp asked, cocking her brow.

He opened his mouth, then closed it again. He shook his head.

“Smart. People taste bad, anyways. I don’t like eating them,” Wisp said.

“You know? That’s really reassuring. I also find spiders un-tasty,” Ike told her.

“Yeah? See? We can find agreement,” Wisp said.

Ike paused. He glanced at Wisp. “You have a reputation as a big bad man-eater, you know? I had someone scared you were going to eat me if I so much as saw you again.”

“Really? That’s amusing,” Wisp muttered. She shook her head. “Humans. I kill one, two people who were actively trying to kill me, maybe even a whole party of ten, and suddenly I’m a man eater. I didn’t even eat them.”

Ike chuckled. “I probably shouldn’t laugh, but…”

“Humans kill spiders all the time. Humans kill people all the time! So why am I in trouble for killing like, fifteen people?” Wisp asked, shaking her head.

Ike squinted at her. “That number keeps going up.”

“Well, I’ve had a long career, you know? Every now and again, a human ends up in my web, and sometimes I eat them. But not usually.” She waved her hand. “Any of those humans in Abyssal have killed more humans than me.”

“They are all outcasts, after all,” Ike commented.

Wisp gave him a look. “You think they got cast out for killing?”

Ike grimaced. Yeah. The mages are pretty cutthroat. The city lord enforced law and order for us ordinary citizens, but… then again, he didn’t have a single problem with that purple-robed guy cutting people down left and right for picking up skills. And from Rosamund’s attitude? I get the feeling that he’s more about lip service and appearances than actually preventing mages from killing. “That’s fair.”

Wisp hopped up. She grabbed a branch and climbed up into the tree. “Wake me when I catch something.”

“See you in a bit,” Ike said. He looked around, searching for a cozy spot to rest until Wisp caught something. Nothing stuck out to him. His feet sunk into the marshy ground, and no convenient stones pushed out of the dirt. He turned his eyes to the sky. Aside from the tree Wisp occupied, there were a few other trees with comfortable-looking, sturdy branches. Ike hauled himself up into a nearby tree and settled in to wait. Loup wandered the ground until she, too, found a comfy spot, then laid down with a huff.

Now, for the best part of hunting… lazing around and waiting for a bite!