Legacy of the M'Zee Chapter 8

*** AUTHOR'S NOTE ***

So far, this week isn't going as well as I wanted, but it's not going horribly either. In 3 days, I've gotten one and a half chapters done, but today was my eldest's 9th birthday, so I only wrote for a couple of hours. Tuesday I spent entirely too long trying to fix a computer issue that didn't really matter. Hopefully I'll get two more chapters done this week. Either way, I hope you enjoy and have a great New Year!

*** AUTHOR'S NOTE ***

Walking through the portal felt like stepping into a vertical sheet of water. I moved through it, trying to sense the Aether and what happened when we were transported, but there wasn’t anything. One instant, we were on Monster Island, the next I was somewhere else. I’m not moving through space, I thought wide eyed, space was folded or connected at that location. It’s not the same as the Transport Formations the Ashkhas have. That’s so cool, but Light, how much power that must take.

“Are you okay, Aiden?” Vaya asked next to me.

“Huh, oh, yeah,” I said. “I got lost in thought for a second. Wait, where's Sia?” I turned around and saw the portal flashing, with Sia stuck in the middle. A ribbon of Aether shot out of him to me, and I mentally grabbed onto it and pulled. Sia screamed, and a massive amount of Aether pulled out of him, streaming into the stone of the archway the portal was anchored on on this end.

The string of Aether stretched for a second, and then Sia shot out of the entry into my arms. The portal flickered for a second, then became opaque. Sia’s impact knocked me down, and I cradled his shivering body. His aura, the feeling of his strength, had dropped significantly. “Sia, are you okay?” I asked worriedly.

“Yes,” he said, exhaustion evident in his mental voice. “But I do not want to do that ever again. It seems Librarian Narwan was right. I am now only level five, but it didn’t reduce my mental processes at all. I think it only reduced the total amount of Aether I can store and use, so I’m stronger than any other Zarorzel at my level of advancement. Other than the pain, that might make this worth it.”

“Is he okay?” Vaya asked, crowding in on my shoulder.

“Yes, didn’t you hear him?” I said. She shook her head. “Well, Sia, looks like you also lost the ability to communicate without me.”

“Oh, great. Me feel dumber already,” he said, “stuck only talk you.”

I bopped his head, still in his smallest size. “Alright, let’s look around, and figure out where we want to go next.”

The courtyard they were in was roughly the same size as the one they’d left, only the walls surrounding it were broken in numerous places. Where the gate had stood was only a hole, showing a broken up paved road that vanished into a forest ahead of us. On the wall nearest the gate, I saw what looked like writing. I jogged towards it, squinting for a second. I could not read the words at first, then the words shimmered into focus. Unfortunately, half the message was broken off, destroyed in the general decay of the rest of hte area.

“Welcome challengers to the, something,” I read aloud. “You have two weeks, uh, no two ten-days, something, Then the Tower of Trials will, something.”

“You can read that?” Vaya asked.

“Yeah. I guess Darkness’s gift just keeps on giving,” I said with a grin. “The time period must be why no one’s found whatever the Tower of Trials is, since they only ever had it open for a week. Does everyone have their tokens in an easily accessible location?”

“Yup, and after that weirdness with Sia, I am more confident at only having one will let both Zim and I escape if necessary,” Jon said, holding his up and then tucking it into a pocket in his sleeve. I had mine tucked into a slot in my belt, with the front lined with a piece of metal so it wouldn’t get hit and break.

“Do you notice that?” Bridget asked, walking slowly towards us.

“Notice what?”Vaya asked.

“I feel heavier, like something is pushing down on my shoulders,” she answered, grimacing slightly as she moved towards us.

I focused, stepping forward slightly. “Yeah, but it’s very light. Still, good call on feeling it. The tiny change might make a fight dangerous when it didn’t need to be.”

“Let us take a few minutes to get used to it,” Bridget said. “Kami is not liking it, it seems to be bothering her more than me.”

“Sia, are you feeling it too?” I asked him.

“No, but let me go. I will try to fly and see,” Sia answered. I lifted him up, and let him leap from my arm. He flapped a few times, gaining altitude. “Yes, I am feeling it now. Will mess with my endurance some, though not significantly. Come, Zim, we will fly together and explore just around the ruins.”

“Stay safe,” I said to him. He scoffed back, circling quickly before Zim joined him and they flew off to my left. I did some jumping jacks, running splits, and a simple martial form, getting used to the extra weight I had pulling down on me.

I also took some time to analyze the Aether flowing through the courtyard. The tiles in here are pristine, and keep the Aether balanced. Instead of Light and Dark, though, this one has Earth, Air, Fire, and Water in exactly equal amounts. It’s all flowing into the pillars. I wonder what that equal mix is making, and why they used Light and Dark back in the city. Do they make the same thing, or do you need different Elements for opening the way versus maintaining it? There’s so much I don’t know, but I wonder if even Sultah Aleahil knows why. These ruins are old, like that lighthouse or the ruins we found in the Zaboj Swamp. I wonder if they’re from before the gods died, if whatever caused deities to die also destroyed this civilization. Are they even from the same people?

Sia returned while I was lost in thought, landing on my shoulder. “There are a few Beasts nearby. A few Ice Affinity warthogs, a Night Panther, and a herd of (wood) Fuzhu. I could separate out a lower-level Fuzhu so we could have dinner, if you would like. The strongest of them is only level four.”

“Okay,” I sent back to him. “But later,” I said out loud. “Let’s decide what our goal is for the next few days.”

“What’s Sia asking about?” Vaya queried from beside me.

“He found a herd of Fuzhu, and he thinks he could bring us one to take down for dinner. Fresh meat would be good, save our supplies for later in the month.”

“I would like to spend the next few days scouting and looking for neat items out on the edges,” Bridget said. “We have two weeks before whatever the Tower of Trials is, and I would like to make some serious gains with minimal risk out here first.”

“Same,” Jon said, giving his girlfriend a hug, “though I am more interested in seeing how we perform in a lower risk area first. I do not want any of you to get hurt, and Samantha promised to make my life miserable if any of you ‘don’t come back’.” He made quote signs for the last few words, apparently having learned about them from Sam.

“Sounds fine to me,” I said. “Since this place is shaped like a circle, should we head sunwards or widdershins?”

“Lampart says she has never eaten Fuzhu before,” Vaya said.

“Ooh, me either,’ Jon said. “I want to try some.”

“Of course, you would mimic the panther and think about meat,” Bridget said with a laugh in her voice. “But either direction is fine with me, so using food as the deciding vote works.”

“Woo, special venison!” Jon said, doing a little dance where he stood.

“What do you think, Sia?” I asked. Rather than answer, he sent an image that my brain interpreted as a map. “Alright, let’s head down the trail a bit, then Sia showed me a picture of where the Fuzhu are. There is a large clearing with a small pond in the middle where they are watering.”

“You all should go to the edge and wait,” Sia said to me. “Zimnodlot can show you the way, and I will harry the Beasts to flee nearby. Take out a few of them as they run by.”

“Good plan,” I told him, repeating it for the sake of the others.

After a minute, we settled on a two wide column formation. Jon and Kami led, with Lampart and Bridget behind Kami and Vaya and I behind Jon in that order. Jon seemed to flinch as he stepped out of the ruins onto the remnants of the road. Vaya did as well, and I looked closer at the boundary. It seemed like there was a wall of Aether, thin but noticeable, where the gate would have been. Stepping through it, I noticed that the pressure pushing down on my shoulders increased slightly, but noticeably.

Huh, weird, I thought. I pushed some extra Aether into my Sight, trying to see what was different. After a moment, I realized, The Aether here feels different. More pure or more real, if only the slightest bit. Why? That doesn’t make sense. I looked down the road. The ancient street was pristine for about twenty meters, then a massive tree punctured through it. The forest swallowed the road after that, but I could see just a bit beyond, and whatever was making the Aether more was stronger in the trees. Just a bit, but enough that I could tell, superhuman senses helping of course. There’s something there, but I don’t know what it means. Maybe we’ll find something out about it here.

We moved slowly through the forest, stepping carefully to stay undetected. Just because Sia hadn’t seen any other Beasts didn’t mean they weren’t around. Zim fluttered ahead of us, flying silently and nearly invisibly, even though he was a brilliant white. Every minute or so, he’d deliberately flare his wings so Jon could see him and guide us in the correct direction.

It took about fifteen minutes before Zim landed on a bush in front of us. Jon listened intently to the owl then nodded. He pointed past the bush and mimicked a deer’s horns on his head. I nodded, and Bridget carefully cast a circle of stilled Air around us. “Zim says the clearing with the Fuzhu is beyond the next row of bushes. They are drinking from a pond near the center. Sia is going to attack them from above and drive them towards us,” Jon said.

“Okay. Jon, you and Zim take the rearmost Fuzhu, Vaya, you and Lampart the next one, and Bridget and I will take third rearmost. We won’t be able to preserve any more than that, so let’s not take anymore,” I said. “Simple attacks, don’t use too much Aether. We don’t know what else is around.” Bridget dismissed the silencing technique, and we carefully crept through the bush.

The clearing was easily thirty meters across, with the pond covering five of that. The clearing continued to our right for a few meters before merging into the forest, with a large gap in the bushes surrounding it. That’s where they should run to, I think. A small stream left the pond heading inward, but nothing fed into it. There were at least thirty Fuzhu drinking the water. They were a dappled brown and green, with short, wiry fur, deer like except for the four large horns sticking out of their heads. The horns were only ten to twenty centimeters long, but the twisting nature meant that a wound would hurt immensely. I caught a glimpse of flame over the trees on the far side of the clearing. “We’re ready, Sia.”

“Then we begin,” he replied, then screeched out. I saw a flare of Fire hit the ground as Sia enlarged himself to his biggest form. He was smaller than he had been, his lost power reducing his size too, but he still outclassed the terrified prey animals by a significant amount. Heh, he could probably take the whole herd himself, I thought, but this way we all feel like we contributed.

Sia’s attack crippled one of the Beasts, hitting an older herd member who had looked weak. The Fuzhu cried out, turning to stampede away from the terrifying Fire Beast. The three largest bellowed and sent a spike of Wood at Sia, who contemptuously burned it out of the sky. The adults of the herd formed a circle around the eight children, and they shimmered with Wood and Earth, a shield forming around them.

As the Beasts plunged passed us, I sent out two Metal Aether Blasts, focusing on the form to create something more like a Metal dagger that stabbed into the chest of my chosen Beast. Immediately after my attack hit, a blade of Air Aether sliced open its neck, and it collapsed. Vaya had entangled her target’s legs with vines, and the poor thing snapped all of them as it collapsed. Lampart pounced forward, her powerful jaws shattering its spine and putting it out of its misery. Jon and Zim had speared theirs with Icicles, freezing a good chunk of its chest and neck solid.

The rest of the Beasts flinched away from us, and a younger one ran headfirst into a tree and snapped its neck. The others fled, leaving their dead brethren behind. “Well, five is more than three, so we’ll have to do our best to preserve the meat,” I said.

“Lampart, Zimnodlot, Kami, and I will eat this one,” Sia said from the already parboiled Beast.

“Got it,” I said back. “Might need your help later with smoking the meat, but I’ll let you know.”

“Got it,” he replied, his voice sounding full even though he talked with his mind not his mouth.

“Gross!” I yelled at him. “Don’t talk with your mouth full.”

“Aiden, help me build a small hut here,” Vaya said, moving forward. “Bridget taught me how to make a smoker for the meat we get.” She guided me on setting up a smoking hut, where we could lay out strips of meat over a banked fire to preserve them. Bridget and Jon worked on skinning and carving the meat while disposing of the guts.  Lampart helped them eagerly, scarfing down the proffered organs quickly. They also collected two level one and two level two Beast Cores, which we would use to power the Formations included in our bags.

Bridget came over partway through us building the smokehouse and pointed out a few mistakes. “If we want to have only a single structure, you need to make the opening a bit smaller, and we need to have an exhaust area,” she said, pointing to where we had built a large cavity to put wood in. “How are we going to close it off?”

“I can make a simple wood door to cover the doorway,” Vaya said. “Aiden, while I work on that, can you make the grills to hold the meat?”

“Sure,” I said. I turned my Aether Sight to the ground, and focused on it. I saw several tiny spots of Metal Aether near the edge of the clearing, so I made my way over to one. Let’s try to make a metal grill rather than stone. See if I can adapt the Earth moving technique to move the Metal I’m sensing. I sat on the ground directly over the blob of Metal Aether closest to the surface, then extended my Aether down towards it. I tried to form the runes for the technique, replacing Earth with Metal, just above it, but my range didn’t quite reach. Eh, more power should make it work better, I thought, pulling the technique up as I pushed several times more Aether than it needed to work normally.

The technique fell apart explosively, showering me with dirt. “Are you okay?” Vaya called, looking at me.

“Yeah,” I yelled back. “Just lost control of a technique. I was trying to pull up Metal instead of dirt.”

“Okay,” Vaya said, and I heard Jon laughing from where he crouched.

Well, I can get closer now, I thought, looking at the ten centimeter deep crater I’d accidentally made. This time, I didn’t just send a surge of Aether. Rather, I slowly ramped up how much I put in while focusing on controlling the rune’s spacing and stability. Slowly, I saw the Metal Aether start to push itself upward, responding to my call.

A fist-sized chunk of copper ore ripped out of the dirt once it got close. I had forgotten to reduce the Aether in my technique as it rose, since the speed didn’t change until the last little bit. Once there was very little Earth holding it back, it shot upward into my hand. “Ow,” I shook my hand, dropping the copper. My hand stung. “Okay, now what?” I picked up the ore, seeing the orange-brown color of copper coming out of parts of the chunk.

“Oh hey, you found a chunk of native copper,” Bridget said, walking over. “My dad would occasionally find some hunting around. You just got to clean off the dirt and it should be useful.”

“Thanks,” I said, getting to my feet. I turned to head towards the pond when something slammed into my back, knocking me to the ground.

A massive Night Jaguar bit down on the back of my neck, but was unable to break through my upgraded circlet’s shield quickly enough to take me out. I tried to roll, but it was able to hold me still, at least until I flared Aether into the General Strengthening Technique and pushed myself up.

A blast of Aether flew over my head as the Beast leapt off me, blowing it backwards as Bridget sprinted the rest of the distance. A cry sounded, and Sia dove, talons ripping into the Beast. It twisted and seemed to sink into the shadows of the nearest trees, and Sia flew through the rest of its body like it was not there.

I sent a quick Lightning Blast at it, but it vanished from one spot and appeared in another nearby. A gout of Flame from Sia landed nearby, and the Jaguar growled before turning and vanishing into the forest. “Did it get through my armor?” I asked, having felt its rear claws scrambling on my back.

“No, but that shirt is done for,” Vaya said. “Are you hurt?”

I shook my head, “Just startled. It tried to bite me, but the circlet Captain Skipari gave me held it off. Uh, let’s stay away from the trees, just in case it comes back.”

Lampart looked at Vaya, who cocked her head. “Lampart says that it should stay away, now that we have proven not to be easy prey.”

“Thank you, Lampart,” I said, nodding to the (evolved type) Bond. “I’ll still feel better if we give ourselves some space.”

“I am sorry I did not sense it coming,” Sia said.

“Not your fault,” I told him. “How long had you been level six?”

“Almost ten years,” Sia said.

“So you will need more than a few hours to get used to not being that strong anymore. Don’t beat yourself up about it,” I said.

We got back to work, and had a smokehouse built and running with as much meat as we could stuff into it in less than an hour. Bridget and Jon cooked the rest over a fire, and we decided to set up camp and brought out the different Formations we’d been given. “We should explore the area for a few days, but keep coming back here at night,” Bridget said. “Use it as a home camp.”