Totem 12: The Escort Mission (Patreon)

This wasn't exactly the start of a new adventure I had imagined. For one thing, everybody was in a bad mood. Well, maybe not Annika. She sat in the cart looking a little bit like a Halloween ghost underneath all of her veils, so silent it was impossible to tell what she was thinking.

Walking beside the cart, her little brother Russel had a scowl on his face and looked constantly back over his shoulder in the direction of the village. He looked like he wanted to ditch us and bolt back home. Ash strode ahead of us, and he looked downright pissed off about taking this classic anime escort mission.

As for me... I didn't know what to think.

I had wanted this to be a grand adventure, and yes, a clean break from my village. A start to my new life as an adult. Now… with Annika along, I wouldn’t be able to conveniently ignore my great failure during the invasion.

The first few hours on the road, I strode by Ash. But the man wasn't in a talkative mood.

Eventually, I dropped back to the cart. It was being pulled by two stolid-looking ostriches. Annika sat in the only seat, and behind her were two sacks. I supposed those were their supplies or whatever.

"Annika," I said, and the cloaked figure shifted in my direction. "Are you... okay? Comfortable?"

"What business is it of yours?" Russell sneered.

"Not being an asshole is my business," I snapped back, getting the weirdest urge to beat him over the head with wing—I mean fust. I gestured to Annika. "She was just attacked less than a week ago. There's no way she's healed up all the way. And she's under that veil thing; it has to be stuffy. I'm worried."

"I'm fine," Annika's words were both slightly slurred and snuffly. I couldn't tell if that was because she wasn't feeling great or because she had been crying under all that fabric. Probably the latter.

"Why is your family sending you to the city?" I asked. "Trying to get her some medical help? Like a healer?"

Magical plastic surgery, hopefully?

Russell lost some of his belligerence and started to look uncomfortable.

Annika spoke up, and again, her words were both a little slurred and stuffy, as if she wasn't speaking out of her nose. "I'm to join the Sisters of Patience. It's an order of unmarried women who..." She paused for a moment, and I got the impression she was breathing deeply. "Who attends to the poor in the city. It's a good, honorable life. It's..." She trailed off and didn't continue.

So, Annika's family was basically sending her off to be a nun because she couldn't be married.

I swallowed. "Are you okay with that?"

Her answer came a lot more quickly, tinged with pride. "I wouldn't burden anyone else with me."

I wanted to tell her she wasn’t a burden, but it wasn't like I was lining up to marry her and solve her problems.

I glanced at Russell to see what his take was on the situation but found that he had stopped walking somewhere along the way. He now stood at least thirty feet behind the cart, facing toward the direction of the village. He looked on the verge of bolting.

"Hey Russell," I called, "you coming or not?"

Once again, the boy scowled and reluctantly jogged up to us.

"You weren't supposed to be talking with her, you know," he said. "She's unmarried. If you're not careful, I'm going to tell Mom that you were courting her."

"Or I could just shove you in front of the next Deformed that pops out of the bushes."

"You’re a liar! They don’t do that!" But he looked around nervously.

"Yes, they do," I said. "Then the Sisters of Patience will have two new initiates."

Yes, I was being mean, but Russell was a twerp.

"When we are attacked, I hope you intend to fight, boy," Ash's voice came from right behind me.

I spun around with a yelp that may have been a little high-pitched. I blame puberty.

Russell aimed his scowl over at Ash.

"I can't fight. I don't have a totem yet. I'm 13," he said, every word dripping with contempt.

Ash pretended not to hear him. "Girl," he said, looking at Annika, "what weapons do you have? Or are you as useless as your brother?"

She shook her head.

Even my eyebrows raised. He expected her to fight? "Ash, she's injured.”

Ash grumbled something under his breath and stepped to the edge of the road to grab a long stick and a rock. Then he thrust the rock at Annika. She slipped an arm out from under her veil and took it in a trembling hand. Two of her fingers were missing a fingernail.

Ash handed the stick to Russell. "For you. Try to do something with it when the time comes."

This was so messed up. I wanted to say something, to tell Ash to take pity on Annika at least. But if we were attacked by the Deformed, she might actually have to defend herself.

Poor girl, I thought for the dozenth time. I wish there was something I could do... other than marry her. That wasn't going to happen.

A life serving the poor could be worthwhile. Right?

Who was I kidding? Her family was throwing her away, and we all knew it. Even Russell.

He had turned once more towards the village, and I could practically see the gears turning in his mind as he thought about running back. Either he was getting homesick, or he was scared enough of the Deformed that he didn't want to come with us. Maybe a little of both.

"What about me?" I asked, hoping that Ash would have some awesome wisdom to impart. “You got a way for me to upgrade my fire goose attack?”

He glanced at me. "What you're doing right now is not a true attack. You are a child throwing dirt at babies.”

Excuse the hell out of you?

"And if you want to do any better," Ash continued, "you need to build a relationship with your Totem. It will advise you on your next steps. That is why you must get to know it."

I opened my mouth to complain, but at that moment, Ash turned away. Apparently, the conversation was done.

"I will go scout ahead," he announced.

And in the next second, he turned into his totem.

Just like that. One second he was human. And the next second there was a giant freaking sandy cat or something standing right in front of me. I think it was a mountain lion, or a puma. Don't quote me on that, because it's not like I've seen any of these things in real life. I only knew that much because there were a couple of people with mountain lion Totems that were in the village.

But those people had mountain lion features. They weren't entirely mountain lions.

I jumped back again, and this time I did shriek. That was okay. So did Russell. The ostriches weren't entirely happy, too, and Annika had to clumsily grab for their reins to keep them from sprinting off.

Ash paid us no mind, turned with liquid grace, and leaped away.

"Did he just..." Russell said, awed.

I nodded. I had no idea that was possible. Apparently, neither did Russel.

"Okay. I want to do that."

Canada geese flew. Suddenly, I was much more enthusiastic about cultivating.

Once the ostriches calmed down, we started down the road. In the back of my mind, I started gathering energy.

Grow, my new little best friend. Give me your secrets…

****

Ash returned a few hours later, popping out of the bushes without any warning on stealthy puma feet. Again, he scared the hell out of the ostriches, but at least nobody (me) screamed.

In an instant, Ash was human again, clothes and all. Thank goodness.

"You," he said, pointing two fingers at Annika and Russell. "There is a river a few hundred feet that way." He pointed back in the direction from which he'd come. There was a game trail, barely visible through the thick brush. "Water your ostriches and take a rest. You," this time the pointing was directly at me. "Come with me."

Well, my master called, and this might be the start of a quest. I tried not to feel too smug as I followed him.

"Will they be okay?" I asked when we were down the road a little bit. "Are there any Deformed around?"

"There are," Ash said, without pity and also without answering my first question. "I presume by asking that you haven't been cultivating?"

"No, I have. I... oh." I got it. I had noticed over the last few minutes that there was more energy in the air. But I hadn't connected that with the Deformed. "So wait, didn't you say that there was more natural energy when the Deformed die?"

"Yes. I'm taking you to a killing field."

"Uh… What? Also, can you teach me to turn into a goose? Like, all the way?"

But Ash only increased his pace to a jog—a human jog, luckily. Apparently, question and answer time was over. I followed him.

We turned up a side path, and shortly after that, we came upon a gruesome scene.

It looked like a trader's cart had been overturned, the beasts of burden—oxen, because this was a proper heavy cart with goods on board—had been slaughtered. Bodies, both human and Deformed, littered the area. From the looks of things, it had happened a day ago.

I covered my nose with the side of my arm. "Oh, crap.”

It looked like the traders that were attacked had fought to the last man and had taken a few Deformed down with them. But it hadn't mattered in the end.

"We got lucky," Ash said.

"What?" Then, I realized he was talking about the supplies in the cart. "Okay, but we have no way to pull the cart—and what are you doing?"

I’d been wrong. He didn’t want the stuff in the cart. Ash walked over to the first dead human, a man who had his throat ripped out. Standing over him, Ash made a slashing motion, and a trail of three white claw marks followed.

A second later, the man's stomach split open. Thankfully, the intestines didn't pop out, or else I would have lost my lunch right there.

Instead, a little glowing ball floated up as if it was not affected by the forces of gravity. It was pure white, beautiful, and as Ash bent down and grabbed it, it turned into... oh, shit. A pill. Exactly like one of those pills I had taken way back when I first came to this planet.

Ash turned to me. "This," he said, intoning gravely, "is what is commonly called a monster core."

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