The Calamitous Bob

Chapter 76: A tale of many wings

There were plenty of camping spots along the old imperial road. Well, perhaps plenty was pushing it, Viv thought. There were a dozen that clung to the sides of the stone scar like huddling chicks. It was enough for the average slow caravan to travel from one end to another without having to clear space more than three times. The issue was that they had been selected for safety and convenience and Viv wanted hideouts selected for discretion. It would be pointless to have a base that any scout could find by looking in the wrong direction, and so the first step was to scout around to find suitable places. After a breakfast that included fresh fowl and Viv making a small crown of red feathers at Arthurs request, the group set out to find something promising.

//The Deadshield woods may appear flat to the eye of the uninitiated.

//They are not.

//We will soon come across hills and caverns.

//There are many such elevations in the forest.

Lets hope we find something suitable quickly, or we will have to go on without.

//You do not need an overabundance of supply caches, Your Grace.

//Although you need more than one in case some of our soldiers get captured and betray one of the locations.

You are thinking a bit far ahead.

//I am always thinking far ahead.

//You meatbags should try it too.

//Your Grace.

Yeah yeah.

Solfis was right of course. Viv found a minute of amusement when she realized that the trio of close quarter fighters had not even turned their heads at the exchange. They kept looking around with vigilance, even Marruk who was carrying Solfis on her massive back. Viv was getting roasted by a genocidal bone golem and had spent minutes creating a headdress for a dragonette and no one batted an eye. Really goes to show that if you were rich or powerful enough, weird turned into eccentric. That was nice. With more and more people considering Arthur their mascot, eccentric would soon become normal. Viv refrained from laughing maniacally and kept walking.

So far in the forest, the underbush lessened as tall trees blocked a lot of the light under lush canopies. Vines and other growths spread over old bark in a riot of color sometimes made brighter by an errant ray of sunlight. The forest kept the space under its boughs cool and comfy, so that the scouting had become a pleasant stroll to Viv. Her skinsuit helped regulate the temperature as well and when she felt a bit too hot, she would gulp some water from an enchanted canteen. She had paid money for a minor cooling enchantment, not much but it was enough. Between this and the minty toilet paper, all her orifices were clean and refreshed, haha.

Better not share that with the rest of the group. They would just become jealous.

But really, it was nice. Nice, tall trunks so large it would take four Vivs to embrace them alternated with small thickets of fruiting brambles. She saw mushrooms in small packs and picked a few Solfis recognized as safe for consumption. They found roots as well. Sometime in the mid-morning, Two-Six returned from her scouting in a rush and everybody grabbed their weapons.

No no, nothing urgent. Witch Bob, I mean witch Viv, can you shoot your spells from afar? And accurately?

Yes.

Good, follow me I found something! You lot cover our backs but dont clang on your shield or whatever it is you tin cans like doing.

Oi! Orkan protested, but they were already on their way.

Two-Six dragged them through more rugged terrain going directly north and away from the road. Viv had to jog for twenty minutes before they arrived at the edge of a clearing. Crumbled pieces of wood dotted the space, a sign that the opening to the sky had come from the fall of a giant. Her guide had this intense, focused demeanor that really showed her Hadal parentage. Most of the time, only her pallor and slightly stooped posture betrayed her but now she was predatorial, hunched forward, and moved sinuously over the terrain like a quiet shadow. The woman turned and her eyes flashed red under the brown of their normal appearance. Viv was sure that it was an illusion to mask scarlet iris and a slit pupil.

Two-Six had stopped. She was staring at something with laser-focus. Viv searched the clearing and could not quite detect what this was about. The place had a powerful brown and green mana presence but that was it.

Siege tortoise right ahead. Young one, male, recently shed his keratinous scutes.

His what? Marruk asked, confused.

The plates on its back. The small ones shed when the tortoise grows, Viv replied as she searched the ground, finding nothing. It was a mess of rotting wood, grass and small trees.

Right? she asked, now uncertain. It was a shit idea to make too many assumptions in a world with magic.

Right! Two-Six said with excitement. The siege tortoises find a place to huddle and shed all of them at once, then they eat the discarded scutes to recover the mana within and wait while it transfers to the new layer. That means that right now

Its vulnerable, Orkan finished.

And delicious! Two-Six finished. She grinned and licked her lips, revealing teeth that were a bit too sharp.

//Is this a scouting or a culinary expedition?

The food is only part of it. There is something you need to see beyond. The tortoise merely blocks the way. And also the best avenue of retreat if something unfortunate happens.

//Very well then.

//I assume that you want Her Grace to slay the beast from a distance?

Right. We dont have time to dance with the creature. If Viv kills it from range we can harvest it, and then

Make soup, Denerim says. It is considered a delicacy in all of Param. The brown and green mana refreshes the body and removes exhaustion. I have salt. We could preserve some of it as well

Alright, alright you gluttons! Im in! Viv complained. Just cant see the target.

Solfis snarled and unfolded himself from Marruks back. Fully deployed, he was more than half again as tall as her. He took one step to the side and picked a straight offshoot from a nearby stump, then one step back to kneel by Vivs side. He wordlessly flipped it horizontally, and Viv understood what he meant. Solfis had aligned the improvised arrow towards the tortoises body.

At first, she struggled to spot the beast in its surroundings, even knowing it was there. The identify ability had trouble focusing as well, perhaps because she could not spot anything specific. The monsters green mana merged it into its surroundings both visually and to her magical perception. It took a minute for her to identify its dorsal spiked ridge as not a branch.

Fuck I could have walked right by it.

//That is why human armies must employ scouts.

//Complimentary paths lead to the most effective groups.

//As you already surmised, Your Grace.

//Because of the limitations inherent to your fleshy forms.

How do I kill it? Its head is pulled in.

The group stopped.

Then Marruk sighed and banged her door-shield very loudly.

Squee?

Viv blocked her ears and cursed when a horrible and slightly flabbergasted head emerged from the shell. A sphere formed over her shoulder while glyphs popped quickly into existence. She overcharged the spell before the tortoise could find the source of the disturbance.

Blast.

The artillery spell crossed the clearing in eerie silence and passed through its targets neck, top to bottom.

The head fell off.

Soup time!

Squee!

Viv sat heavily on a piece of wood, playing with a feather. She had been sidelined once again because of her low physical stats and her lack of experience in processing tortoise carcasses. Arguably not her fault.

Hey Two-Six, how come youre so knowledgeable about wildlife?

The Hadal tossed a piece of ligament and shrugged.

Most first generations were trained to kill people. I managed to apprentice with hunters from Mornyr instead, providing cheap meat to every poor church around. They didnt mind my origins, only cared about how well I could stab things dead. Many of the Hadal survivors share a similar story by the way. The best hunters get commissions to hunt specific beasts and quite a bit of money as a result. Best part is that they dont try to kill you afterwards because youre not a loose end.

Is there a hunter organization?

Depends on where you are. Baran has a royal society, for example, but you go south and everyone in a village can hunt. I remember one time we were chasing this scalehound

Two-Six shared a few stories. So did Denerim, although the old knight had mostly hunted aberrants. Orkan had been trained as a duelist and only had a limited experience killing monsters. The discussion lasted until lunch where Viv got her promised soup and had to agree that it made her feel energetic. They decided to return to the cart to load it with meat before continuing their exploration. It was then time for Two-Six to show what she had discovered.

I found a cave that would be perfect for us, but it has strange creatures in it and Im not sure if it would be wise to clean it.

//I have a vast repository of knowledge at my disposal.

//Lead on.

They walked for only an hour in a mostly straight line this time. Their path snaked between smaller hills and elevations, following a dry riverbed of smooth stones.

Are there rivers here? Viv asked.

In the woods, yes, but no large ones close to here and the smaller streams change course all the time, Denerim said. Ah, I believe that we have found our destination?

The path ahead cleared a bit as they entered a secluded valley nestled between two elevations. Two-Six was right, it looked good. There was even a small pond to the side filled with clear water. A cave with a large entrance waited at the end of a gravelly way with only sparse trees. The problem came from the creatures currently living in and around those trees. Viv had never seen anything quite like it.

The trees were covered in a silky white substance with strands extending between trunks. Small white grubs traveled around those, tending colonies of clear-capped mushrooms and doing the gods knew what else. A dozen large worms as thick as a human torso crawled around surrounded by clumps of servants. Large creatures that obviously belonged to the same species glided gracefully around. They looked like butterflies if butterflies were the size of eagles.

Well, Viv said.

They studied the scene in silence. Viv carefully kneeled to inspect a nearby grub, clearly some sort of scout. It was slowly climbing over rocks. It was as long as her hand and rather thick.

Images of world-ending insectoid threats filled Vivs mind until she realized that the host trees the creatures used were still relatively hale. They didnt look particularly threatening.

[Pleiada grub: harmless, a worker drone.]

Arthur landed nearby and inspected the scene with curiosity. She didnt seem threatened by the gliding creatures.

//The coloring is slightly different, however this species matches the record for Pleiada worms with 97% accuracy.

//Pleiada worms are endemic to the Deadshield woods and produce valuable silk.

Viv watched Arthur go closer to the grub and lower her snout. She hoped the curious dragonling would not try to eat that? Were they full of protein? She hesitated. Meanwhile, Solfis was not done.

//Unfortunately, the silk cannot be harvested without wiping out the colony.

//Indeed, the flying specimens you see act as a deterrent and very mobile defensive force.

//They have a peculiar defense mechanism.

Squee!

Viv turned to see the grub writhing in Arthurs claw. The dragon was inspecting a yellowish liquid on her hand. The grub had thrown up on her.

Arthur nooooo!

//When threatened, members of the nest will mark the attackers with a pheromone.

It hit her then just as everyone grabbed their shields, including Viv though she was a bit late. A pungent, acrid smell invaded her nostrils. It was not exactly horrible but it was overwhelmingly strong, saturating her nose in mere moments.

//The defenders will converge upon the marked one.

One of the fliers emitted a high-pitched, keening sound, soon mirrored by another, then another, until the clearing sounded like an angry choir. They flocked towards the humans. Viv grabbed Arthur and started running. The others did exactly the same thing except Solfis who merely strolled. Denerim and Orkan each took Viv under an arm while Two-Six picked up Arthur herself. Marruk was at the end of the formation. They accelerated even more, and not a moment too soon because the droning mass of giga-butterflies was picking up speed.

//Following which they will detonate themselves in a powerful explosion.

Aw shit.

Squee!

Viv did not wait and started to throw purge nets at their pursuers. The thin black wires bit into the swarm but the creatures were simply too fast. Even with enhanced perception, many of them dove under or whirled around her assault. Pieces of wings and quivering bodies were left in their wake but it was not enough. She persisted. Purge net was the best tool she had against fast-movers.

The creatures gained on them. Denerim guided their flight into a narrow ridge and managed to stymie the flying worms by forcing them in the narrow corridor. Vivs spells simply didnt stop and the first rank got mowed down. The rest kept its distance after that. Viv immediately saw why. Some of the creatures had climbed up and were getting ready to dive-bomb them.

//Ah, excellent.

Viv watched the golem and noticed that it had picked an absolutely panicked harran, the rabbit-like creature. He briefly inspected it.

//Shields up please.

Viv did not think. She raised the largest mana shield she could and braced behind her steel buckler.

Her danger sense screamed and the reflex casting ability activated. The world slowed down to a crawl. She could see every hair of Denerims beard as the powerful knight gritted his teeth. She screamed her defiance and put everything she had in the defensive spell. Every ounce of mana she could muster went to thicken the half-sphere separating them from the suicide bombers. It could stop a tank round, she thought.

Solfis arm blurred and the world punched Viv left and right. Her mana was completely drained in an instant. Her head slapped back.

Her ears hurt.

She had trouble breathing. The sky was nice though, blue with nice white clouds and a surprising amount of dust. Pieces of debris, rocks and roots rained upon her. It was really quiet.

She was in quite a bit of pain.

Her ears whistled. She gulped air and it tasted hot.

Someone forced a bit of glass between her teeth and the soothing, familiar herbal taste of a flesh-mending potion chased away the metallic tang in her mouth. The concoction was bitter as hell and she could tell it was the good stuff because her hearing returned on the spot. People were swearing.

Neriads balls that was close.

Viv gingerly sat up to a glowing pair of yellow eyes and a series of massive craters as if the place had been shelled by the Americans. She was already okay, physically. It was not something that the combat medic could really get used to. It just went against everything she knew before before all of this.

Is everyone alright?

There were a few mumbles and curses but overall people seemed fine and more than a little annoyed. Viv could tell why. It was time for another lesson in parenting. Except

Hold on. Where is Arthur?

//She appears to have headed out, Your Grace.

//Towards this mountain to our side.

Viv cursed and for the first time perhaps ever, felt anger and disappointment towards the dragonette. The four other humans fell silent. She sighed deeply.

Ill go get her.

Well be following you.

Viv wanted to be alone to scold her adoptive kid but she recognized that they were not in a safe place. Splitting up now would be the height of stupidity.

Lead on.

The team checked themselves and their gear quickly. Nobody commented on the fact that they had been two fingers away from getting pureed. After a brief inspection, Solfis opened the way up. They were still in the ridge they had followed to escape the Pleiada swarm.

It had been uncomfortably close.

Viv reminded herself that it was not because a grub was harmless by itself according to her inspection skill that it was really harmless.

By the way, Marruk said with a careful tone, should we clear out the worms now that their defenders are gone?

No, I want the colony alive and well, Viv replied.

Hmm, you do?

Yes.

The others did not comment and she was in no mood to explain her idea right now. They climbed the sharp incline quickly and found a beast trail carving its way against the side of the mountain. Pines grew in thick clumps there and hid the way up. Their sap had replaced the scent of dust. Viv shivered at the memory of a giant spider and focused on the bone golem before her. They kept climbing.

How high could she have gone, Viv grumbled. It was not like Arthur to be gone like that, and certainly not like her to stay on foot. She preferred flying.

They were almost at the top when Viv heard an angry squeal. There was a footprint at the edge of the flat summit, just before her.

It was really, really big.

Viv heard a woosh like wind through giant sails and her heart skipped a beat for the second time in less than ten minutes. Mana imploded before her eyes. She was stunned again.

The witch faced a kaleidoscope of colors the likes of which she had never experienced. The sensations overwhelmed her in turn, even though her own sense of mana was still nascent. The riot of dyes was simply too much as it rolled and roared around her. Red for fire, for anger and passion. Black for destruction and change. Life for itself and for saving what was precious. Blue came with peace and immobility, then grey with movement and lightness. Brown and green spoke of growth and tenacity. There were other colors she had never seen in humans at the edge of her awareness as well, floating and whispering of things forbidden and pretty. A vivid phantasmagoria took her like a wave and washed her mind on a sandy shore of confusion. She was left blinking and disoriented, but there was one thing she knew. Arthur was there, where the mana came from, and that was where she was going.

A hand grabbed her shoulder as she took the next step forward.

//Your Grace, you must not.

I must.

The hand stayed. She turned her head. The other mortals were frozen just like she had been. Denerim had recovered enough to gently drag the others back. Their eyes met. She ignored the question within. She ignored the option to give Solfis a clear order to let her go.

I must.

The baleful yellow glare surveyed the track of the massive paw in front of them, assessing their chances and finding them risible, no doubt. Nevertheless, the answer was exactly what she expected.

//I am right behind you.

There was nothing left to say. She went over the edge.

They stood on a small plateau surrounded by the tips of towering pine trees. A large rock covered half of the area in front of them and on the face of that rock there was a cave entrance and in front of that cave entrance there was a dragon.

It was green.

It was also fuckhuge. Or at least it felt fuckhuge. It was certainly big enough.

More importantly, it held Arthurs squirming form under its paw.

Get the fuck off of her.

Viv realized she had spoken and came to regret it, as Solfis took his place by her side. She had never seen the golem look anything but detached, but now he was low to the ground with its legs flexed and his arms ready. It would have been threatening were it not for the fucking dragon.

A yellow iris narrowed on Viv. She decided that she was kind of fucked and might as well show some spine.

And yet, despite the tension, no violence occurred. The dragons gigantic head swiveled on its serpentine neck. The creature had to be at least as tall as a two-story building with the horns being in the attic, and that was sitting on its haunches. Its head matched Viv in height. The visible part of its eyes were as large as her entire head. Her inspection skill triggered and returned a headache. She vaguely got the impression that it was male and rather young. She also understood that only a hundred and fifty years old was young for a dragon.

As for the reptilian legend, he, she guessed, lowered its head to inspect her under every angle. Arthur was still struggling but she seemed unharmed under all those talons. It was a status quo that she was okay with for the moment.

The inspection went on. It lasted for a whole minute during which mana ebbed and flowed but the dragon made no move. It appeared to be beyond dumbfounded. Finally, a thought entered Vivs mind. The meaning was conveyed through the language of the world, the same runes she used for her spell. There were no sounds uttered.

HOW?

It was simple but also very, very loud and Vivs mind could not adequately be covered with her hands, so she dug a circle at her feet and hoped that the dragon would not mind. It did not. Perhaps he didnt think of her as a threat. Unfortunately, he was probably correct. With the minor protection in place, Viv addressed the living myth.

The gods played their games. Please release Arthur.

The dragon was still tilting his head here and there. He repeated the question though this time it was not as loud. She realized that he did not understand her, so she formed glyphs and tried to think them at him. It only worked because his mind was already touching hers.

God of Outlanders made it.

Please release tiny one.

The dragon looked at her fixedly. He blinked once and sniffed her. He was oven-hot from this close.

A human god?

She thought back yes, and the large creature finally realized that Arthur was still struggling to escape. She had her jaws around his thumb. For lack of a better word.

I was challenged.

For territory.

Viv wondered what the fuck he was on about, but not for long. The dragon sent a scene directly to her mind. In there, she was very tall and a bit sleepy. A child sprinted from behind the line of pines. She had felt her, of course. The child stopped and stood on her hind legs, wings deployed. The child was offering a territorial challenge. She was amused by the childs recklessness and grabbed her mid-lunge. There were others coming. Tool makers.

Viv was thrown back in her head. She reeled under the onslaught and felt a migraine forming, the kind that no flesh-mending potions could fix. The green dragon was looking down at Arthur who had stopped struggling. They were communicating, Viv was sure of it. Eventually, the green dragon turned back to Viv and she felt their minds connect.

Incomprehension.

Leaving.

The large creature smoothly turned with a grace that belied its large body and took off at a run. Viv hid her face against the powerful draft. When she opened them again, he was away.

Viv watched the dragon swerve and disappear behind a hilltop. He was as fast as a plane. She could still taste hints of grey mana where he had spread his wings.

She sat down where she was.

So yeah.

A dragon.

He existed incredibly strongly in her mana perception, and possessed all the dyes at levels she could only dream off. She thought that no spell of hers that could put a dent in him would reach him anyway. He was the most magical creature shed ever felt by several orders of magnitude. Before it, human casters were mud blocks playing gods.

And yet, for all its magical and physical might, the creature had been disappointingly stupid. Viv had felt it in the way he had struggled to accept her status as a draconic surrogate mommy. He had not known what to do. He had shown no real curiosity, not like Arthur who even now sniffed the grey mana and flapped her wings with eager interest. Viv had survived, yet she had learned nothing. However, it turned out that Arthur had.

My human.

Pain?

Arthurs mind was an eager, bubbly pot of instincts and desires. She conveyed her message as best she could, through the haze of her own inexperience. Viv tried to return a thought but failed. The connection was too fragile, for now.

I am not in pain. I am also not angry, but I am displeased. And disappointed.

Arthurs horned head drooped and Viv girded her heart to stop herself from rushing to the poor little ones rescue. It was an important teaching moment.

You put yourself and me in danger.

We are strong.

And smart.

We are not as strong and smart as you think. Maybe one day we will be, but it will take a long long time before we are as powerful as the one you challenged. Listen, it is good to be courageous but not good to be reckless. You are a smart girl and I thought you understood the difference but apparently you dont. You were in danger when the rathclaw attacked you and also when the flying worms pursued us just now. You attack first and think later.

I destroyed aberrant.

Mighty hunter!

The problem is not attacking, its attacking all the time. Sometimes you can win and sometimes you cant. We have been lucky so far. One day that luck will run out if you keep testing it.

Vivane strong.

Killed rathclaw.

Stopped worms.

I got hurt by the worms.

Squeeeeee!

Im fine now but the explosion got me. And you left. Look, I love you. You know that. I will always come when you are in danger. You just need to realize that Im not as strong as I wish I were. I get hurt. I get tired. We are still fairly small, the two of us. We wont get the chance to grow up unless you show as much cunning as you show courage. Attacking the aberrant from the sky where it couldnt hit you was smart but touching the worm when Solfis was explaining what it did was not, nor was challenging the older dragon.

Challenged to distract.

Protect my human.

Dragon too big.

You left by yourself without telling me. Of course I would follow and of course I would meet him as a result.

Arthur flopped down on the ground.

Feeling horrible.

Look, the most important thing is that we are alive and well. So long as we have that, we can learn and we can progress, yes?

And grow larger!

Of course, but until you are large, please be smarter, be more cautious, and coordinate with me. We will work together and get much gold and food, yes?

Gold and food!

So no more running around and putting yourself in danger okay? Be a smart dragon so you can be a big dragon.

Yes.

Smartest dragon.

Will not worry you.

Patient and deadly.

Thank you. Now come here, let me hug you.

Viv returned to the others. The mood was decidedly subdued. The idea of checking the dragons lair was not even considered. Everyone decided to return to the base camp and rest for the day, including Solfis. Just as they were climbing, Denerim went to walk by Vivs side.

So, does being an outlander come with strange and weird powers? Like attracting disasters and then surviving them?

Nope!

They eventually found another mountain cave that fit the bill and left markers for later. The trip through the deep woods went without further incidents. They came across a swarm of voracious rodents, a territorial large bird with feathers like blades and a particularly aggressive pack of scale hounds but nothing the group could not handle or deter. Two-Six found a total of three well-hidden natural caves that could be used as supply caches, all of them marked for the future. They also managed to bathe in a natural lake after Solfis fished a lone monster out of it. The golem had simply walked into the water and then walked out with his catch.

On the ninth day, the trees grew shorter and the sense of immensity abated. A few rain clouds hung low over the horizons. The wind had picked up when Two-Six returned to the group and signaled the presence of newcomers. Humans, this time.

The ones you were expecting, the Hadal said laconically.

The group stood still in the middle of the road, weapons sheathed. A large troop soon crossed a bend and came into view. They slowed down and deployed across the road. Viv waved at them and they kept going, though they kept their hands on their blades.

Viv had a gander at them and yep, no mistake, those were the people Neriad had announced. They were a weird bunch of armor-covered, scarred, overarmed grumpy men and women whose defining feature was that most of them were lacking one or more limbs. Only the youngest fighters looked whole and those were probably relatives. Viv spotted a wiry lad with a missing eye and a monocle on the other holding a massive longbow on his back, an old man with mutton chops with a missing leg, a missing arm, two prosthesis and a warhammer. A woman with a cut-off hand had a blade mounted on her armguard. They were led by an imposing fighter with his right arm cut off at the shoulder. He had a long, narrow sword strapped to his waist and didnt look scared at all.

The first of the wagons turned the bend then. Viv counted no less than three arrows planted into it. It looked like a normal cart that had been reinforced with planks and nails rather than the design she had previously seen.

Viv had never seen such an intimidating bunch, they radiated spite-fuelled expertise.

The leader stopped in front of her and bowed. She tried to inspect him. It just returned a vague sensation of danger. She had to admit that he looked good, like a romantic muscular hero from some old fantasy movie. Like a darker Brad Pitt with long wavy dark hair and a clean goatee.

Ok he was really hot.

Greetings, milady. Are you perhaps associated with Kazar?

That we are. We were told to escort you but looking at you, not sure you really needed it.

We can always use a war mage, milady. And, are you the one we heard about? Can you really regrow lost limbs?

Yes. Its worked so far.

Good. The lads and I have decided that if you help us with our handicap problem, well help you with your rat problems. We all really dislike rats, especially the crowned variety.

His voice was deep and surprisingly soft. It was also tinged with a deep melancholy and Viv got the impression that he really didnt believe things could get better. The others behind them were more communicative though. They eyed her with a mix of greed and hope. They also nodded while caressing an assortment of nasty-looking war implements.

Viv looked at centuries of collected scorn and military experience, just waiting to be cured before they could be unleashed.

Yeah, that will work just fine.