RAVHEN
Plume didn’t lead the elves straight to the tower. The rooken took a winding path, pausing frequently and holding up one wing at times. It didn’t take long for Ravhen and the others to recognize this as a sign for silence, and in the brief periods where they could speak, Achen confirmed that Plume was avoiding monsters.
Ravhen couldn’t help but notice that the brief moments of silence and stillness were becoming more and more frequent as they neared their objective. Plume had mentioned that the monster that had injured him had come from the tower, but as the population grew thicker the closer they got, Ravhen began to wonder if the monsters were clustering around it… or perhaps coming from it.
The entire structure was strange. It didn’t look elven, and it was certainly beyond the capability of Plume’s people. Ravhen also wasn’t sure what to think of Plume himself. The last time his tribe had passed through an Aravel city, it had been awash with rumors and stories of a new kind of people – short, heavyset folk who lived underground their entire lives. Could this tower be the work of that species? From the stories, they were said to live far Duskward, and this was the opposite direction.
He couldn’t think of who else it might be, but now that he had met yet another creature capable of thought and craftsmanship, he wondered if there were others still waiting to be discovered. The three elven peoples had been the sole intelligent inhabitants of the world for as long as he or his ancestors had known… and now within the span of a single lifetime, two more had been found.
Was the world even bigger than he imagined? None had ever reached a barrier like the one Duskward when going Dawnward. Did that mean the world went on… or was there something past the barrier?
He shook those thoughts away when he heard the soft chirp of Plume ahead of him.
“Here!” The avian called out. It was surprising how quickly he’d picked up a few of their words, and was rapidly learning more. Ravhen couldn’t even begin to distinguish the chirps and trills and noises of Plume’s language, but Plume had already picked up on the subtle vocal stresses and drawn out sounds that made elven language work.
Threading through the trees, the foliage ended abruptly. Ravhen had caught glimpses of the tower through the vegetation several times, but stepping past the treeline revealed just how strange the structure was.
The tower was still a short sprint away, but now close enough to see how large it was. The base was wide enough to rival some of the temples and gathering halls he’d seen in the cities he’d passed through, but much taller. It was made of some unpainted brown stone, but while it looked smooth from afar, he could now tell that it had subtle ridges along the sides, and it didn’t taper upward smoothly. Instead, it loomed above farther than he could jump, then suddenly narrowed, like smaller blocks stacked atop one another. Ravhen counted three of these layers.
He’d assumed it was rounded by the glimpses and description, but now Ravhen could see that it was more like a rounded square, the corners curved instead of sharp, but the walls themselves flat. The entrance yawned in front – they’d come from the correct direction for that – and was three times the height of an elf and half that in width, but had no door or curtain. An inner wall kept him from seeing too far inside, forcing any who entered to turn left or right immediately.
The area around the tower was the strangest part. In a radius of thirty or more tail-lengths, the ground was barren of any vegetation. Instead, it was a pale cream-colored surface that at first looked smooth, but as Ravhen and the others stepped closer, he could see a rough texture to it. He’d seen false-stone like this in some of the Aravel cities, though nothing quite like this.
Plume stepped onto the surface gingerly, before gesturing for the others to follow. “Danger.” His wing pointed to the tower itself, and his voice was not stressed as far as Ravhen could tell. He followed the example and placed his foot on the hard, pale surface… only to stop short at the notification it brought.
Ravhen looked at the others, who were also showing puzzled looks. All but Plume, and Ravhen couldn’t read the bird’s expression anyway. He wasn’t even sure the rooken could read or even knew what reading was.
“This is almost like a Quest.” Fisska’s comment broke into Ravhen’s thoughts. “The System is asking for this to be resolved, but it isn’t something we’re told to do directly. Do you think we should try?”
Veysen grunted irritably. “Even if Ravhen wants, I’m going to object.” He looked around the cleared area, then gestured with the gleaming crystalline point of his spear toward the tower entrance. “I am the only one suited for extended direct confrontation. Inside, our mobility advantage would be lost, and Plume is both injured and lacks a suitable weapon. Inside, he wouldn’t be able to fly even if he weren’t injured.”
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Ravhen flicked his ears back in annoyance. His nature wanted to get more information, but Veysen was right. They were a group meant to move fast and avoid conflict. All of them could fight to some degree, but that was meant to drive off predators and to help Achen hunt, or substitute in case she was injured or killed. This didn’t call for four generalists, it needed a more focused team.
Perhaps they could do it themselves, but Ravhen, like most elves, preferred to weigh the odds. Sylen were far more likely to take a risk than others, but that didn’t mean they liked rushing in blindly.
“I agree,” Ravhen said with ears still twitching. The reluctance was obvious in how he shifted his weight back and forth, tail swaying. “I’d like to, but it’s far too dangerous. We stay with the original plan. We only wanted to see this, and now we have. Fisska, learn what you can while we keep watch for monsters.”
Fisska gave a quick flick of one ear to let Ravhen know he’d heard, then the caster stared at the tower. Soft murmurings rose from him, and his fingers twitched as he mentally wove a new spell out of threads of mana. The natural senses of a caster were already good – though Ravhen himself had some specialized ones that could outperform them in certain situations – but Fisska had chosen his spells around discovery and survival. One of the many reasons he’d been put on this team.
To the side, Plume fidgeted and twitched in agitation. The rooken kept darting his head about, and had stepped back so that he no longer stood on the textured, pale surface of false rock. Ravhen couldn’t blame the poor thing. He’d nearly died as a result of this place, so being skittish around it was natural. He idly wondered if the rooken worshipped the same gods… but that would have to wait for when they met the nest.
Reminded of his own faith, Ravhen whispered a quick, silent prayer to Eyssa, his own goddess. He had never been a particularly public person about his piety, but he hadn’t been chosen for this by Eyssa herself by shunning the beliefs. His prayer was a prayer of thanks, not of watching over. Ravhen was of the school of thought that those who followed Eyssa should be independent and prove themselves, not rely upon her.
“I think… this entire structure was shaped by mana,” Fisska said, breaking into the idle thoughts. “The tower itself is rock native to the region, just gathered and shaped. That’s a lot more mana than a single elf could ever use, not to mention the style is something I’ve never seen before. This ground surface was mixed by magic as well, but not any spell I know.”
Achen tilted her head, tail swaying so low it almost brushed the ground with furred tip. “Do you think an Elder Dragon could do it?”
Fisska folded ears down in a negative. “No. Maybe they’d have the power over time, but all the dragon enchantments I’ve seen are very thorough and careful. This looks more like pure brute force. Someone just gathered everything together and sculpted it. From the message, maybe it’s something the System manifested?”
That got a soft grunt from Ravhen. “Maybe, but I’ve never heard of the System creating buildings. Maybe we should ask a [Dream Walker] if it’s possible. It’s not something I think any of us can figure out.”
Achen stiffened, tail stilling and her ears splaying out. A moment later she hissed, “I hope you’re done, Fisska! Something is coming from inside. Do we stand and fight or do we hide?”
An easy question. Plume was already skittering into the foliage of the forest, and Ravhen thought the rooken had the right idea. “We don’t know anything about these creatures. We hide in the canopy and watch. Move, quickly!”
The veteran explorers melted away in an instant, darting back to the forest in a scattered pattern to scamper up the trees. Within moments, none were left on the ground, the leaves rustling as the only hint of their passage. Another few heartbeats, and the swaying leaves stilled as well.
Ravhen tucked himself up in the crook of a branch, the huddled shape of Plume nearby on another branch. He’d chosen the same tree as Plume on purpose, hoping that he could get some insight into what the creatures were like, but the rooken was huddled up into a ball of feathers. Just a lump on the branch, probably quaking in fear.
No, that wasn’t right. As Ravhen took another look, he saw that the bird’s wings were folded over, but one eye was peeking out at the entrance to the tower. The colorful feathers were also subtly more dull than before… and Ravhen’s Mana Sense tingled with the tickling of Flux mana again. There were probably other kinds he was less sensitive to coursing through the rooken, but Ravhen wasn’t sure. He was sure that the feathers were taking on the shade of the pale bark of the tree, in some kind of camouflage ability.
It was easy to dismiss Plume as childish, but this reminded Ravhen that the bird-creature was a solo explorer for an entire people. Primitive or not, he was a survivor, and he mentally rebuked himself for underestimating the rooken just because they’d found him so injured. This was good, though. It meant he wouldn’t get in the way even if he was useless.
At last the monster Achen had detected came into view. First as a looming shadow, then as a large, slow-moving beast wandering out of the tower archway. It had some resemblance to the dead one they’d found… but it was much larger.
Much, much larger.
The other had been perhaps half the size of an elf, but this one stood half again as tall as an elf at the shoulder. It was stocky and muscular, thumping forward on four rounded legs that lacked the claws of the other one, despite the similar shape. Long tusks jutted out from either side of its snout, replacing the claws for attack, but the head otherwise looked much like a viswolf, lupine and predatory. The body was just slower and stockier.
It was also heavily armored. Thick, leathery sections covered back, sides, and upper legs, along with some of the head. Bone thorns erupted down the spine and along the side, making any attempt to grapple with it dangerous, and the tail was thick and heavy, with a club-like end that Ravhen knew would shatter bones if it landed.
He was glad they’d hidden. Even if they wanted to fight this thing, they’d need careful coordination and to wear it down over time. He knew that would be a waste of resources without any kind of incentive, and prepared to signal for everyone to retreat and regroup.
Too bad life had to tempt him with something else.
Opening Move
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