Whispers of Winter's Flight - [Chapter 19] (Patreon)

"Listen," Virendel said harshly as Kali scrunched her eyes shut as she did her best to listen, "your hearing is leagues beyond my own so the only thing stopping you is your own mind."

"But I am," Kali grumbled, "I can hear the heartbeat of every single animal within half a kilometer and every single leaf brushing against the other."

"This is not a question of how much you hear," Virendel shook his head, "one can see the whole forest but be blind to the animals hiding beneath the canopy, you need to widen your perspective, hear what your mind disregards subconsciously."

"I wouldn't beat myself up over it," Selene leaned over as she chomped down on her dried jerky, "I've been trying to do what he is saying for decades and I can barely manage during meditation."

"Don't listen to her," the older elf huffed, "she has muscles for brains," he said with an entirely straight face, "you have a much greater chance of grasping what I'm trying to teach you."

"Okay," Kali said with a frown, she had barely managed to get her spatial hearing's range back to what it was originally during the day before Virendel decided that her enthusiasm in his tricky was enough of a reason to teach her one of his secret tricks. Kali was tempted to call it druidic magic but it didn't use any magic, it was a simple question of opening up her mind to take in the 'song of nature' as the alchemist called it.

"What exactly are you teaching her?" Vorgnar inquired with a touch of interest in his eyes as he watched over the young winter elf as her face once again scrunched up in intense focus.

"To listen and not just hear, there are things that we elves can hear from the moment we are born but our minds disregard them to keep us sane," said Virendel as he motioned with his hands around him, "everything has a sound, the air, the wind, the plants, the grass, the flames and the light, it only takes one to be able to listen to these sounds and a whole new world opens up before them."

"The grass?" Vorgnar raised an eyebrow as he moved his feet around on a patch of grass.

"Yes," Virendel smiled, "I can hear the grass scream in pain under your feet, I can hear that tree over there screech as maggots eat through its trunk and I can hear that mushroom over there wail as it hasn't gotten any nutrition in the last few weeks."

"And this is not magic?" the daemon asked with a touch of wonder in his tone.

"It is not," the elf shrugged, "these are the teachings of our ancestors who lived before the advent of magic."

"It is hard to imagine how society looked like without it," Vorgnar said with a far-off look in his eyes.

"My master believes magic was always present in the world and we were just incapable of harnessing it without Cores," the elf spoke almost reverently.

"Life must have been much simpler back then," Vorgnar sighed lightly.

"Life is life," Virendel shrugged, "there is nothing simple about it, if one complication is gone ten others would take its place."

Kali jumped up at that and strutted over to a patch of grass on the side of the clearing they stopped for a few minutes of rest, she squatted down and strained her ears as her fingers gently ran along its small leaves, its edges almost cutting her delicate skin as she did so. She listened and shut out all other sounds for the moment, Virendel somehow noticed dangers even before her so while she felt a bit useless she wouldn't have to worry about dangers sneaking up on them while she didn't pay attention.

She caught a single blade of grass between her fingers and started pulling on it, softly at first then she slowly ramped up her strength until she felt the poor plant give and tear under her brutish power. She blinked and she stopped halfway through as she could barely hear an extremely high-pitched sound, it was almost static in its frequency but she was certain that it came from the blade of grass she was abusing.

It wasn't as much a scream as an automatic response to pain but this must be what Virendel spoke of, a scream of pain. She never heard a sound so silent and so loud at the same time, it was hard to hear but once she knew what to listen to she heard the whole forest screaming, wailing, or singing in a myriad of different tones. no two plants gave off the same sound but there were similarities and Kali quickly understood what those similarities meant.

The same species of plants had similar tones, not tones, pitch, all of them are extremely high pitched but there is a difference still.

With that, she started walking around, tearing leaves off of different trees and plants as she memorized their 'voices'. Even the same species reacted differently to different stimuli, a single leaf torn off caused a scream but not as much as dehydration did, or sickness. It was all so magical to Kali but she now understood that it wasn't magic, she truly understood that she just wasn't paying attention to all these voices even though they were so evident now.

"I can hear them," she said as she came back to the clearing a few minutes later.

"Truly?" Virendel's eyes shone with excitement, "I told you I wasn't a bad teacher," he glared at his sister.

"The girl being a genius doesn't change that," Selene shot back as she chewed on some nuts which she shared with a tired Alexis.

"What is it like?" Vorgnar asked, "Do the trees really speak to you?"

"No," Kali shook her head, "I think it is more like an automatic response to stimuli like pain, starvation, dehydration, or damage."

"Hmm," the Daemon looked thoughtful, "and how is it that only you two can hear it?"

"I don't know but I think any elf should be able to hear it," Kali shrugged before a detail caught her attention, she couldn't hear any of the now familiar voices of the plants beyond her spatial hearing range, "Yes, I think this is an elven thing, something is weird with the sound they 'talk' in."

"Of course there is," Virendel nodded, "plants are so different from us, their voices are weak and hard to catch."

"But why?" Kali tilted her head.

"That I do not know," he shook his head, "I am not too knowledgeable outside of alchemy and herbology."

"Thanks anyway," Kali smiled, "this will surely come in handy."

"I'm sure it will," he nodded, "just try using it for something good, it never hurts to care for nature and those dwelling in it."

"Okay," Kali said with a smile, truly Virendel was like a druid out of an old adventure book, "I can do that," she nodded with a genuine smile.

It'd take a long time for her to fully understand all the little things the plant's variously pitched screams meant but she already knew it'd be a great boon, she casually stepped on soft patches of grass during sneaking around to soften her footfalls but to Virendel she must have sounded like a bumbling fool with said patch of grass making a shrill cry of pain as she stepped crushed it into the dirt under her boot.

Kali let out a soft groan as she massaged the sides of her skull, trying to soothe her mounting headache. Just as she was feeling rather proud at once again having her spatial hearing back on full range she realized she wasn't even doing it right, well if it was any consolation she didn't think 99% of Winter Elves did 'hearing' right with there being so few plants and them being more focused on martial pursuits but she still felt stifled by her pride being torn down a notch.

"Do not push yourself," Virendel said with a smile, as much out of kindness as out of pride for having taught another elf the way of old, Kali suspected, "With time you will get used to it and you'll barely have to focus on noticing the patterns, the only thing that'll help you now is time and experience."

"Experience?" Kali raised an eyebrow as her lips twitched in a grimace, how she wanted to stick her head into a pile of cold snow.

"Mhmmm," the man nodded, "there is nothing like a Shadow Panther sneaking up on you and almost eating you to teach you exactly how a sneaking Shadow Panther sounds."

"Speaking from experience?" asked Vorgnar as he watched the elves training with his arms crossed.

"Yes, unfortunately," Virendel shrugged, "never had a second one sneak up on me though."

"I'd rather avoid almost getting eaten," Kali said dryly.

"To each their own," he shook his head softly, "not like I wanted that to happen to me but I can't dismiss how beneficial it was in hindsight."

"We should continue," Kali motioned towards the edge of the clearing, the tree line to be more exact, "I'd really like to sleep in a bed tonight."

"Didn't you say you could go on for another week?" Vorgnar asked with a playful eyebrow raise.

"I could," Kali rolled her eyes, "but having a comfy bed makes it different."

"It should be only a handful of hours from here," Virendel said as he turned to stare at the sky, "we should reach it before sunfall."

"Let's go then," Kali forced on a smile despite feeling like there was a bit of smoldering iron in the back of her head, "If everyone's ready?"

She received a round of nods and then they were off, Kali had to cut back on her hearing range again to not aggravate her condition further but aside from that the last stretch of their journey was rather relaxing as the sibling pair assured Kali that she didn't have to worry about anything overly dangerous this close to the village and so she almost fully pulled in her spatial hearing, only leaving a few dozen meters of it out.

She just...was. She breathed in the husky scent of the forest, her overactive mind identified the distinctive smell of different plants and animal droppings which made her mouth twitch but she banished those thoughts. She was relaxing, she was good at relaxing, not even her own brain could stop her from relaxing. His eyes slowly swam around to take in the scenery unlike how they usually flickered around like some of those elves that ate the 'funny mushrooms' as her sister called them.

Her eyes strayed and caught an interesting tree with a bark the color of the night sky with stars flickering in a vantablack background, her eyes trembled as she felt the tree continuously pulse with magic as countless Runes activated every second. Why is a tree better than me at magic?

"What's that?" Kali asked as her gaze was fixated on the bark, she stared into the stellar abyss and... it didn't really care, the tree was just a tree even if it was magical in some way. That didn't discount from it being breathtakingly beautiful to both her eyes and her more arcane senses, the runes flowed together seamlessly and molded into some grand tapestry that she didn't have any hope of deciphering. No mortal mage could make casting seem so easy, even with the utmost control a convoluted Spell still needs a mage to control their runework with an iron grip while to the tree it was more like breathing.

"Oh?" Virendel glanced toward where she was staring, then he blinked dumbly, "...how did we miss this one for so long?"

"Oh!" Selene shouted with a wide grin, "The elders will be over the moon."

"Okay?" Kali was officially confused.

"Kal'Dinoriel," said Virendel with a strange tone as if saying the words felt alien to him.

"Star Keeper?" Kali asked as she quickly translated the words from ancient elvish to Common, she understood the words even the man who spoke them had horrendous pronunciation.

"Indeed," he nodded, "though I think the common name for them nowadays is Starguardians or Nightwardens."

Kali's eyes flew wide as her mind painfully spun a thousand miles a second, she read of these trees in her books about magical biology and plantlife but very little was known of them as they had a nearly impregnable arcane shield covering them according to the books which could only be broken through by those who stand at the apex of the world. It was also a recurring plot device in one of her favorite adventure books.

As for why that was? Well...Kali shuddered as she felt an ethereal wave of mana pass through every pore of her body, staring into the depths of her being as even her Core was laid bare before it. When she turned back she saw that both Selene and Alexis were also through, the prior with barely a shudder but the little pink munchkin was shivering on the woman's back from the intrusive experience.

Nightwardens were guardian trees that had some indecipherable favoritism towards elves and tended to sprout close to their dwellings, especially when said dwellings were either in danger or in need of obscuration. It wove together Spells even the brightest Archmages failed to understand to protect these dwellings, it used illusions, brutish barriers, or even mental effects in some odd cases.

A moment later Virendel stepped through with his hand on Vorgnar's shoulder and a soft glow emanating from where he touched the Daemon, Kali's mind came to a handful of conclusions in a second, some based on similar events happening in books and others on actual facts.

"Now you are my guest," the old elf spoke with seriousness Kali hadn't heard from him since their first conversation, "If you are found guilty of any crime inside the village I'll also suffer the same consequences so please keep that in mind."

"I will," the man nodded, his gaze matching the gravity of the situation, "I'd have been satisfied to know you returned but it seems my companion has other plans."

Kali shrieked back a bit under his gaze, "It wouldn't be too bad to rest for a few days here, right?"

"I suppose not," he nodded as he bit back a sigh, "but I'd like to be out of the country sooner rather than later and I assume you are the same?"

"Yes," Kali grimaced, "just a few days," she reiterated as she took a glance at Lexy staring at her with big watery eyes, this was going to be hard.

"We should go meet with Master," Virendel said when silence descended on the group.

"The Chief he means," Selene rolled her eyes, "she is the Village Chief."

"Alright," Kali nodded, equal amounts of excitement and nervousness roaring in her heart as she was about to step into the first settlement not made by Winter Elves in her life.

The elven siblings walked lazily ahead, uncaring of any dangers that might lurk behind the thick cover of nature all around them so Kali took that to mean that it should be safe inside the barrier, she felt a tug on her hand and saw Lexy holding onto her as she looked around the forest with eyes wide in childish excitement. Childish, Kali imagined her own gaze was not much different from a few minutes ago as she stared at the star-dotted tree.

"Let's go and catch up with them alright?" asked Kali with a smile and the pink-haired girl nodded demurely, her eyes wandering around as she started taking small but deliberate steps.

The forest was the same as before, trees looked the same, birds chirped the same and insects still crawled around on the ground. The barrier might have only obstructed beings with cores from entering, some magical monsters didn't have cores but the ones that'd pose a danger to an elven Village did.

Not long after as Kali followed vaguely behind the two locals her gaze snapped down, the earth was uncovered by foliage and unlike everywhere else it was stiff and dry. Was it an animal trail? Kali narrowed her eyes, they flickered about and noticed that bushes and branches were broken off in places just enough to give enough space for her to comfortably walk along the trail.

A dirt road then, a small one but still a road. The village must be somewhat close then.

She spotted a red spot hidden behind sharp leaves and a bunch of thorny branches and she reached in to grab at it, she had a hungry little elf to please after all, her hand stopped as she saw a strange growth of wood behind the bush and the two redheaded elves standing next to it.

"Oh," Kali blinked but her hand fingers still detached the berry as she pulled it to examine it. Doesn't look poisonous, I don't think I remember reading about it either. "What is it?"

"Hi," Selene waved as she noticed them waddling through the bush, "someone is insatiable," she noted as she saw Lexy stare at the berry in Kali's grasp.

"That she is," Kali smiled as she conjured up a bit of water and cleaned off the berry, "here," she placed it into the waiting hands of the girl before turning back and crossing her arms, "so?"

"Oh, this is the gate," she waved her off as she seemingly drank in the cuteness of the young elf.

"Alright, now that we are all here," Virendel spoke up even before Vorgnar too stepped out from behind the greenery, "in we go."

He placed his hand on the wooden frame extending from trunk to trunk, looking like a continuous wall of bark in every direction Kali looked, she was tempted to climb up and see how far up it went but she refrained for the moment. Virendel spoke some words that were obscured even with Kali's hearing, some more intricate magic than simple sound magic, she thought.

Then the wall devolved into a myriad of twisting roots and verdant vines, they pulled back and made a doorway in the wall. Kali's eyes shone with barely concealed excitement, it was one thing to control simple energies like heat, electricity and kinetic force then another was mimicking simple forms of matter like metals and such but to be controlling plants in such a way?

'Eladrin are a reclusive race of our kind who stand in direct opposition to the Eldar, one seeks only the companionship of nature and eternal stagnation they call 'balance' while the other thrives in large groups and technological advancement, seeking change to their last breaths. I might speak of my mother's kind negatively but do not think them weak, they incorporated the old ways of druidism into their unique way of magic, and there is none more dangerous than an Eladrin on their home as they weave their ritual circles into nature itself.'

Kali smiled as the memory of her grumpy teacher jumped to the forefront of her mind. This village might be even more interesting than I thought.