Risha Chapter 58

“We are very interested in your crystals and surface materials. As such, we are willing to offer you some very fine deals…” 

Risha nodded along, completely lost as the merchant discussed numbers and trades she’d never heard of. He went on for another minute like that, glancing at her every once in a while to make sure she was listening, finally he stopped, looking at her expectantly.

“What do you think?”

Risha opened her mouth, but a knock on the door interrupted her before she could speak.

An Under Goblin peeked into the room, and looked at Risha. “Sun-Chaser is here, Grand Mother.”

Risha smiled as the five-tailed fox swept into the room. The kobold bowed to Risha, “Grand Mother, your daughter has arrived.”

“Who is this?” Emilios asked.

“I’m the Grand Mother’s advisor.” Sun-Chaser turned to the merchant, and nodded her head in greeting, “I apologize for my tardiness, I had to fetch one of my assistants.”

“Assistant?” Risha asked quietly. 

A human girl nervously stepped into the room. She looked back and forth between Risha, and the Dark Elf, her gaze finally landing on Sun-Chaser pleadingly. 

“Councilor Ryan has granted me one of his humans to assist with monetary matters. I had Truth-Seeker bring her here from the surface.”  

Risha looked at the disheveled girl who’d traveled so far in such a short time. Risha was suddenly struck by an image of the Grey Lupus throwing the girl over his shoulder and racing through the Spider-Warren and caves here.

Risha laughed. She looked over to Emilio and caught the cautious look on his face before he covered it.

Risha showed her teeth in a sharp smile, “Sun-Chaser speaks for Risha.” She turned to the nervous girl, and placed her hand on the girl’s arm. “Risha trusts you.” 

The girl blinked in surprise, then stood up a little straighter, nodding at Risha. 

Risha walked out of the room, leaving the merchant to whatever fate Sun-Chaser crafted for him. 

Several Under Goblins waiting outside straightened and bowed at the sight of Risha. 

Risha didn’t like the subservience, so she paused “Risha big important goblin! All goblins must shout in glee at the sight of Risha.”

The goblins looked confused until one of them snorted. Risha turned to the one that had snorted and they covered their mouth. 

She smiled happily, “Risha’s really just a silly Grand Mother. You don’t actually have to shout in glee.” 

That made more of them smile, and pretty shortly, they were all talking to her, asking questions, and laughing. 

Risha was happy to have gotten rid of the stuffy atmosphere. 

Her smile disappeared as she spotted an exhausted and lightly injured Gray Lupus running towards their way. “Grand Mother, there’s been an attack. Aliya’s gone, and Leaf-Watcher’s hurt.”

“Kliks!” The spider jumped out of her clothing, and she swung onto its back. 

They were off in a second, the spider skittering through the caves. Monsters jumped out of the way, but Risha didn’t have eyes for them. 

They made their way out of the caves, and eyes watched them from the spider-warren.

Risha’s mind raced as they burst out of the cyclone of webs and into the open air. All kinds of worst outcomes went through her mind until she forced them down. Ground disappeared underneath them as Kliks caught onto Risha’s urgency. They brushed past the camping groups. As they burst through the gates of the city, Risha came upon a scene that reminded her of a disturbed ant nest. Monsters were running everywhere, Glo’s warriors looking under every stone. 

Kliks climbed up onto one of the buildings, then hopped from building to building as they approached the stone house Risha lived in. The spider landed on the side of the building, next to a shuddered window. 

Risha channeled [Pack Leader: Black], and her body flowed with strength as she punched the shudders open, and stepped into the room, Kliks crawling back up Risha’s clothing..

Kobolds and goblins turned to her with weapons drawn, then lowered them. 

“Grand Mother,” a voice called Risha.

Risha found the bloodstained White Lupus with Tya busy over her. Risha walked over to Leaf-Watcher. She was messed up, with several cuts and stabs covering her. Her right arm lay on the floor a few feet away, the wound covered by a web-bandage.

“I’m sorry, I’ve failed you.” Leaf-Watcher deflated further in front of Risha.

Risha shook her head, as she leaned down and channeled [Mother’s Care] through the kobold, “No, I know you gave your everything. What happened?” 

“They came out of nowhere, surprising me. Their weapons were poisoned, and their first blade drew blood.” Leaf-Watcher looked over to the plants Aliya had been taking care of. “They hit her with a dart, and she collapsed. I tried to stay awake, but there were too many, and with every cut I grew weaker.” Her gaze looked down at her stump of an arm, then skipped over it, focusing back on Risha.

Risha placed her hand on the wolf’s fur, then gently ran her hands through the kobold’s fur in calm strokes. “What did they look like?”

“Their skin was made of bark, and their blood smelled of sap.” 

Risha looked around the room, lifting her nose to the air as she inhaled deep. Her skill [Pack Leader: Gray] activated and her senses were overrun by the many scents of the room. Blood, goblin, and kobold. It took her a second, but she managed to detect the faint scent of sap on the wind. 

[Tribal Hunter] activated, highlighting all of the signs of their passage. 

“Follow Risha.” She commanded the waiting kobolds. 

She ran through the room with the speed of a gray lupus, the warriors in the room struggling to follow her as she burst through doors. She found her way to a window, vines climbing up the wall. Disturbed leaves, ripped vines, all of them signs of the creatures that had climbed into her home. 

She jumped from the window, calling upon wind to catch her.

A small spirit of the wind answered her call, flying below her to gently lower her to the ground. 

She took off, through the backstreets of the city, passing run-down houses and startled monsters until she arrived at the wall of the city with those same vines climbing up it.

She leapt onto the vines, scaling them with the agility of [Tribal Hunter] and [Pack Leader: Gray] until she reached the top of the wall. 

By now, only the few Gray Lupus who’d been in the room were still with her, and even they had started to fall behind. 

Risha looked out, and saw into the dark forest, every sign leading there, away from the mountains.

Again, she jumped, and the spirit answered her call, landing her softly on the ground. Then she was off, gaining speed as she got used to her new power. Her spiderlings may have been faster, but already she could tell that they wouldn’t have been able to hold this speed for as long as she could. 

Was it wise to venture forth on her own. 

No.

But her daughter was in danger, and if her waiting one more moment cost Aliya her life, then Risha would never be able to live with herself. 

She entered the forest, the lupus kobolds following behind. An instinct rose inside her, and she howled. 

The pack behind her howled in response, spreading out as they began a hunt.

Her feet tore up ground, and she could tell that she was gaining on the kidnappers, but the forest was filled with dangers, and the deeper she went, the more scents she caught that she knew she would have to avoid or fight. 

She didn’t have her bow, but she was equipped with the swords she’d used in battle, so when a rampaging beast entered her way, she didn’t hesitate as she switched to [Pack Leader: Black].

A sword flew forward, puncturing the spine of the beast as she jumped over it. She pulled on the chain and flew towards the beast’s neck as she drew her second sword. 

The second sword cut through the beast, decapitating it.

Spirit moved through her chains, drawing her sword to her hand. 

A name. 

The twin spirits that traveled through her swords needed them. She didn’t have time for this, but the sense that had expanded with her evolution told her that they needed this.

Names.

Gritting her teeth and looking at the blood that flowed from the dead beast, she used the first names that came to mind.

Crimson. That was the left. Scarlet. That was the right. 

She sheathed Crimson and Scarlet, then switched back to [Pack Leader: Gray]. The chase continued just as the other Kobolds started to catch up to her. 

More creatures blocked her path, enraged beyond the normal. Scarlet and Crimson cut through them without stopping. 

These creatures had angered a force of nature beyond their knowledge, and she would not stop until their blood covered her swords. 

Finally, she saw where the kidnappers were leading her. A tree that reached above the others, its branches joining the clouds. Even from this distance, Risha sensed the majesty and power that rested within it. 

She could not let them reach it.

She ignored beasts as they blocked her path, using the spirit of the panther to shift through them and continue running. 

Finally she found them. They looked like plants and trees. The largest of them carried Aliya over its shoulder, its skin made of thick bark. 

Risha threw Crimson, the sword cutting through the arms of one of the plant creatures and burying itself in a tree.

She pulled herself towards Crimson, then pulled it from the tree to land in front of the strange creatures.

“Let go of my daughter.”

The words were a command, unavoidable, coming from the Hunter to its Prey.

The creatures staggered, then one of them raised a strange tube to its lips. Instinct made Risha duck as a dart went over her head into the tree behind her.

Scarlet left her hand, puncturing one of the plant-creatures, Crimson followed it a moment later, hitting the tree who held Aliya. 

She pulled herself to Crimson, and pulled Scarlet to her, cutting the tree in half and grabbing Aliya. 

Then she was off, back the way she came. 

She didn’t know where reinforcements were, or the strengths of these creatures, and all that mattered was Aliya’s safety.

So she ran back the way she came, dodging the darts that followed her as she held tight to the child in her arms. 

Moments later, she met the group of kobolds who followed her. They covered her retreat as she returned home.