Chapter 6

  Creatures Born Of Ember And Darkness

  Some emotions have a tendency of taking root; these emotions, once planted, are wont to let go. They can grow into rich and beautiful branches that, blossoming with life, stretch towards the bright and warm summer sky. Such is the case with hope. Others, however, may take the form of a twisting vine, taking hold of anything it can grasp onto, and having placed its icy cold tendrils, drain the life from its host. For the first time since leaving home, thoughts that were not his own filled his mind.

  They only ever left him with more questions, even if the intrusive thoughts always had a point. He knew the purpose they carried with them now. “When did this fear take root?” Nik asked himself, his head resting on whatever sticks and leaves had originally broken his fall.

  I’ve spent so much of my life on my own, so why is this feeling worse than the physical pain I’m in at this very moment? He couldn't find an answer good enough to satisfy any of the questions he found himself asking. Nor did he know how to make this fear leave his heart. It had set upon him now, like a stalking ghost, that had managed to close the distance to reach him. He had kept it at bay with his daily routines, force of will, and necessity for his own surviving sanity. He’d been left before. After all it isn’t as though he was born into the sunken castle, sole kobold among the goblin-kin. He had spent most of his life there, but there had once been a time long before, a family he could almost recall.

  Nik was saved from his thoughts, his ghosts pushed to distance, as the soft buzz of fluttering wings returned. Pearl moved with haste and purpose, using a stick to crush plant against rock, and forming a usable, if not ideal, poultice. She smoothed it over his wounds, leaving the frostberries in their place. She placed a collection of leaves covered in a thick and sticky substance over the poultice. Then, taking hold of a strip from his bedding cloths, she tore a length of it to wrap around his torso.

  Bandaged as well as he could be, given what Pearl had to work with, they went to work on removing the heavy beast from Nik’s pinned legs. Dragging over as large a fallen branch as she could manage, the sprite handed one end to him and shoved the other end under the chimpanther corpse. Together they heaved the thing, and rolled it off of Nik’s legs. With that he was free. It wouldn’t take long until scavengers came, and they were not in the best condition to fight. They needed to move.

  Continuing their trip through the forest, they kept their eyes moving, checking the trees above and behind for any threat. They had been too relaxed in their travels and just faced a harsh reminder of the dangers this world held. A mistake that could be fatal to repeat. It was almost fatal for Nik already. Pearl could have survived with her speedy and agile flight alone.

  Nik could stand to use some of the armor like adventurers wore. He wasn’t familiar with any armorers except the goblins who, to his knowledge, didn’t share with others. Not in his experience, at least.

  Hours passed slowly as they made even slower progress.

  “Are you getting tired of waiting for me to pick up my pace? You keep bursting ahead and then slowing down,” Nik said.

  “I am being patient, you’re just moving too slow,” Pearl said in defense of Nik’s accusations.

  “If I had wings, then I would use them. Since you haven’t offered to teach me, though, I assume there is no skill for that, and I wasn’t born with any,” he snipped at her.

  “Look, I know you’re injured, okay. I just don’t want us to get caught by evening’s fading light before we find somewhere more sheltered to rest,” she offered as a non-apology. She wasn’t wrong though and he knew it.

  They were in fact too slow, and the setting sun had dimmed, leaving the forest darkening as the horizon faded to pink and purple hues. It was a beautiful sight, that belied the lethal dangers of the night that it played herald to. In the vanishing fragments of twilight-ebbed night, Pearl had found it up ahead, and to the west.

  With her higher vantage point as she flew up to scope the path ahead, she could see a fallen giant of a redwood angled against both a boulder and one of its still standing brothers. Curving around to the other side they found it had formed a three walled alcove. This would be their home for the night. Needing the most rest between the two of them, Nik asked Pearl to take up first watch.

  When out of combat a person’s MP would recover on its own over time. She hadn’t recovered enough of her own for more than a single wind slice yet, and she really hoped she wouldn’t need to use it. She sat vigilant. Facing the open side of their place of respite, she reflected on their fight. They had worked well together, but it was very nearly not enough. Nik couldn’t take almost lethal damage every time they came across an enemy, or death would one day do its work to claim him. He needed more fortitude. She would tell him as much tomorrow. For now, though, she let him sleep. It looked like she was going to have to spend her time looking after him again, while he would be spending his time in recovery.

  * * *

  Sir BlackDagger’s party had accepted a quest from the local merchant to transport goods to one of the larger cities. The goods came in the form of a hand-cart they would have to take turns pushing, and that they had to set aside when they were completing other quests along their path. “This is going to be an XP earning chain of awesome,” he had told himself, his audience, and his party. They made their journey all the way to the edges of the Emberwood Forest. Called so for the red color of its trees, the Emberwood covered a vast swath of the first tier of the tower, and held a wide variety of creatures to slay under its canopies.

  One large beast with a kind of derpy head was tamed by GreenWarden in this region. After a few days, ‘Doggy’ had become an unofficial sixth member of their party. They could even see his little arrow on their mini-maps when they were within range of the brown-furred beast, just like they could see each other. The only person who had complained about him at all was ManaSniperBob, but that may have been more out of brotherly obligation to irritate than any real disliking on Bob’s part.

  Doggy was a natural tank. Even being a juvenile, he had a real habit of making sure his druid was always safe. Sir BlackDagger was sure their wild haired lightning user secretly appreciated it, though.

  LootLadDungeonDad, which the group had taken to calling, ‘Loot’ for short, was a solid defender with dual abilities from the Divinity Skill. He would shield or attack when necessary, blasting a single target with a beam of ‘Divine Judgment’, and step in to use his hands-on Divine Healing ability. His cousin was a whirlwind on the field of battle. StabithaKing took a liking to using a longsword in each hand, which made for an odd weapon to height ratio for the dwarf. She was terrifying to see in combat since she gained speed and dealt increased damage the lower her health sank. She would become a bloody raging tornado of hammering blades.

  They had already taken out a pack of gnolls in the forest’s transition to the Emberwood. The nasty bipedal half-hyenas were vicious and high in number, but that was good for developing teamwork. They needed challenges to hone their capabilities as a group.

  Almost as if in demonstration of their need to learn teamwork, Loot nearly had his silver hair cut short by a gnoll’s blade. He had tried to heal Stabitha without having any cover from another teammate. He was lucky that Doggy leapt in to take that hit for him.

  Having the party comprised of two pairs of people that already knew each other seemed to be beneficial for their cohesion and strategies. It didn’t mean that they would get along perfectly, but it was a strong base. They also thought it was fun to be a part of the adventures he was streaming to an audience. He had told them, with some mild embarrassment, about his first death with this character and the kobold that had inadvertently killed him. They also shared their own small adventures and misadventures on their ways to level 3.

  They were all getting to know each other while they walked the Emberwood. They kept their eyes out for any dangers from above or from the ground as they formed a loosely grouped hunting formation. They had picked up rumors of a fire based monster of some kind hiding out in the area. The system even popped up a quest to investigate the nature of the beast. It looked like it had been a broadcast area quest. They even formed a multi-party alliance with two other parties that had also unlocked the quest. Each group had split off on their own to search for any hints of the flame beast. Whoever found anything was supposed to announce it in the local region chat. There was no need for any one party to hog the XP since it could all be shared without any loss to the one sharing.

  Which was a good part of why they were surprised when their temporary allies turned on them to attack. A poison bomb was launched towards them from the right and a flaming arrow volley flew in from the left. The poison bomb had been a burst of quickly dissipating gas, but it had been enough to give them an even greater edge in numbers.

  Warden had been closest, along with her beast companion, and they both now lay unconscious. Sir BlackDagger and Bob rushed to aid them, but their path was cut off before they had made it halfway. Party members from each of the other teams moved into melee range, and BlackDagger’s unconscious party members were already being dragged away.

  Surrounded by enemies on the other side of the fight, Stabitha and Loot held off four of the attacking players. The one with the bow kept taking shots at the two of them at any sign of an opening. Stabitha didn’t mind one bit as she could feel her strength increasing temporarily. Loot held off on the healing. If he knew his cousin at all, then she wouldn’t want them yet anyways.

  They focused their efforts on counter attacking. After taking multiple hard slashes from Stabitha, the first of their targets stood little chance against Loot’s Divine Judgment ability. Radiant light crashed down from the sky like a lingering bolt of lightning. When the light faded all that was left of the opponent was a small bag of dropped items.

  They moved on to the next enemy, the arrows kept coming. Slashing at two enemies at once, the barbarian forced them back.

  A flaming arrow shot past her and into the gap in armor at Loot’s neck. It was a critical hit, but he could take it. That was when the arrow began spilling sparks, small flames licking up at his helmet from the site of the wound.

  His notification displayed a new condition, Bleeding Flame.

  He felt his temperature rising and his HP was dropping fast. He set his hand upon his chest and performed a Divine Healing as another arrow hit his arm. It smashed into him, knocking him to the side as it pierced his vambrace. The hit halted his healing ability, distracting him long enough for the first arrow's effect to drain his remaining health.

  This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

  Stabitha, not realizing her cousin had already been killed, shouted out to him, “Okay Loot, it might be time for some healing.” She looked in her cousin's direction when none came and he failed to respond.

  That was the distraction her opponents had waited for to activate their own weapon abilities.

  Eric watched his display as his party members’ health bars dropped one by one in short order. He and Bob stood back to back now the remaining members of the other parties circling the two of them. One member of their number he hadn't even noticed was missing reappeared then, with a large oval shape filling his backpack.

  The apparent leader of both parties spoke up, his voice deep and commanding, “Mission successful then. Head to the rendezvous point while we handle this.” Eric might have let this go, but there was no way Sir BlackDagger would let his audience see him give up and die without a fight. No, he turned his heels to the player swinging at him, ducking the blow, and leaping forward to slam his shield against that of their leader. A resounding bang echoed through the forest as the two leaders simultaneously activated their Shield Bash abilities.

  Sir BlackDagger followed up with a downward stab at his opponent's forward most leg. They lowered their shield to block. Too late. His blade dug into flesh and the other leader’s voice rang out in a pained cry of surprise.

  A bolt of white hot lightning lit him from behind as Bob fought the others at his rear, and the flash of light gave him another opening to attack. BlackDagger took advantage of that opening and cut into the shoulder of his enemy’s shield bearing arm. That was when he felt a heavy thud against his back.

  ManaSniperBob’s HP bar was down. He was encircled and outnumbered. Lashing out with a use of his Flurry of Slashes, Eric made sure his audience would see him give his all. A blade erupted out through his stomach, and he fell to his knees with it still lodged in his abdominals.The black pit of death was flooding his vision as he fell forward into its depths. With his consciousness fading, he heard the booming steps of a monstrously heavy beast, and a wave of heat rushed over his body. The next second he was gone, waiting for his respawn timer to count back to zero.

  * * *

  The next few days left Nik bored as he idled the hours of day, and spent his shift of the night’s watch looking out the same opening of the shelter that he had looked from all day. Pearl would venture out foraging, but always stayed near enough that he could hear the sound of her beating wings. He was banned from unnecessary movement, and was disallowed from helping to gather food. He would just sit, listening to the calls of unseen birds and the rustling of wind through the branches that held them.

  The musty smells of damp earth and the slowly rotting wood where they made their little camp were ever present, but while Pearl was out gathering edible plants and fungus for their lunch, he noticed another scent in the air. It was familiar. Even if not common to his day to day, he knew it was one that left its unique mark on the memory. Like a figure carved from stone, it made a permanence of itself in the mind of any creature that had at least once encountered its presence. Smoke grayed the air as Pearl fled back into their shelter, shouting, “We need to move.”

  Grabbing their supplies, Nik did just that. He was still injured, but he moved with as much haste as his wounds allowed. The wildfire was traveling towards them from the east and just south.

  They couldn’t see the flames yet, but the whole forest in that direction looked to be glowing with a deep red light. The smoke was rolling in fast and they needed to keep ahead of it. Nik was in danger of slowing them down, a problem they may need to find a solution for sooner than later.

  Outrunning the cloud of ash, and the pursuing inferno, would be a lot easier on flat and unobstructed terrain. That was not what they had to work with. They were forced to go around trees, past boulders, down dips, and climb inclines, none of which concerned their determined elemental predator. Fire is a consuming force, devouring without prejudice that which lies within the range of its fury. That furious hunger was gaining on them.

  Pearl was keeping her gentle breeze ability going as rapidly as she could, each burst of air followed within a breath by the next. She was able to minimize the smoke that surrounded them as they ran, but she couldn’t eliminate it in its entirety. As it grew thick, Nik kept his feet in motion, each step moving them towards the end of their attempted flight. Either he would outrun the flames or he would die, with Pearl a possible casualty to his slowed pace.

  “Stop!” she screamed and the kobold skidded to a halt as rocks and dirt fell into the crevice before them.

  Water flowed at the base of the cliff, and fire grew ever closer to their backs. It was already becoming hard to breathe through the smoke and Nik needed to make a decision. It was either the jump, or the smoke and flames.

  Nik took several steps back, faced the cliff, and ran. Leaping through open air, Nik closed his eyes. Falling at the water and hoping for his luck stat to kick in was his only chance. He heard her wings then in the moment before reaching the bottom and the whip sound of a wind slice hitting the river nearly the same time as he did.

  Pearl's ability was faster, breaking the tension of water in the heartbeat before Nik sank into its cold rushing currents. She followed over the water as he bobbed and sunk, his head vanishing and reappearing above the surface.

  For Nik, the river was an impossibly strong wall of elemental rage, which seemed to have a personal grudge against him for all the violence focused on his body. It tossed him about as it desired, like a cat toying with its helpless prey.

  Struggling for breath each time his head went under, it was all he could do to maintain consciousness. Nik had no control over his movement in any direction, but he strained every muscle he had to keep above water regardless. The river took him through a bend and he could see at the edge of the curve where the current swirled, it had also slowed. The river ran straight once more and Nik was pulled away from that path of potential escape. He needed to find a way to move towards the edges.

  When the next curve came, he moved his arms and legs fighting the current to move his body towards the outside edge of the rapids. No progress was made. Nik’s body was battered and beaten down, his muscles fatigued, and there was nothing he could do to change his outcome.

  Ahead of him the water was just ending. He could see its flow reach a point where it looked to just cut off. A great roar filled his ears as he approached whatever invisible mouth seemed to be devouring the water. He was close to its end now, but it wasn’t the end. Out and below the river continued, but here it dropped. As the water flowed over, Nik found himself falling again. He crashed into the water, pulled below as the undercurrent swallowed him whole.

  Pearl watched in horror as Nik went under. She waited for him to surface, and she waited. She searched the water where he had sunk into its stormy depths, and forward down the river. They had already gone through a lot together, becoming master and student, trusted allies, friends. When he had truly needed her to find a path to safety, she had led him to a cliff. She had failed him. He never came up.

  Nik was pushed into the swirling depths and trapped in a cycle of turning water at the base of the waterfall. His face smashed against rock and he was thrown from the turning of the water’s trap. It hurled him back and behind the curtain of the falls.

  The water was calmer where he surfaced, the sound of the water still crashed beyond the mouth of the cavern, deafening him. He took stock of himself and his surroundings. He was still recovering from his wounds, and some of the lines on his stomach were bleeding again. His lip was split open, and blood was dripping from his chin. His spear and shield were both gone, but his bag was still on his hip. One of the straps was nearly broken, but he still had his backpack as well. So all in all, his bed was gone, he had no weapons and no armor, and he was alone again. He still had some supplies. Supplies that were all as soaked through as he was.

  The cavern was deep and dark, and he would need to explore it for any dangers. His legs couldn’t move him any farther than the first few feet. After fighting against the stream his body had nothing left to give. He half collapsed to the floor, and without a pillow succumbed to slumber. He slept fitfully. His subconscious mind was filled with light blazing on the horizon. In deep hues of red and black, shadow filled flames flickered in pursuit.

  Creatures born of ember and darkness gave chase, their forms phasing in and out of existence. As they grew ever closer, trees fell all around him, blocking his path. The flames moved in, and even as he held out his hands to protect himself, he was consumed.

  Nik awoke in the dark to his own soundless screams as the echoes of his voice were drowned out by the crashing waters outside. He struggled as he tried to catch his panicked breath within the pitch black of his hidden prison. It only seemed to make it worse as his hands began to tremble. It’s like the world has it out for me in particular, and no matter what I survive there is always something else waiting at the next turn to bring me to the brink of death, he thought.

  I can't see. I can't hear. I’m alone, and I’m somewhere that my only friend can’t find me, where no one could find me.

  “Stop, you know you are panicking, so focus on something else.” He finally told himself in a voice that he still couldn't hear over the noise around him..

  Easy as it was to tell himself this, it isn't so easy to distract yourself from such thoughts. So he imagined the leaves falling one by one, attempting to hone in on every tilt and turn. He also counted each leaf as it made its way along the soft breeze to the non-existent grass below. With each leaf he tracked his breathing slowed. He said to himself against the din of the water’s roar, “Who would have thought that your days of torture learning the wind skill would ever help you like this.”

  The fears of being both trapped and alone kept themselves on the periphery of his mind, as much as he tried to keep them at bay, and then there was the fire. He wondered if it still raged outside and he hoped Pearl was ok. She was alone out there, too, and he needed to find a way to get to her.

  To one side of this cave was the crashing water, and to the other was an impenetrable darkness. It wouldn’t have made a difference if it was day or night. An idea formed in his mind. I need a light.

  He had learned an elemental skill before. It took days of preparation and effort, not to mention a teacher to guide him. It was possible, though. He could see the nightmare flame still fresh in his mind. The wind was like an unknowable thing, but it still had patterns to its flow. Fire was its opposite in a way, alive and untamed.

  Nik sat, focusing on the image of the fire, then shifting his thoughts from an image to the idea of fire itself. He took his time, knowing that he needed to break it down in his head. There was the heat. The hunger to spread and devour. The frantic way it latched onto anything nearby. The blinding light and pure elemental energy. He went through it all. Condensing all of it into the single mental image. The flame.

  He pushed mana through to his hand, and it sat there. Nothing. Nik kept at it. Attempting to force the mana out of his hand to no avail.

  As the hours wound on in the dark, flames sprang up around him threatening to swallow him. He had, at some point, fallen asleep. In his dreams the flames overwhelmed him. Awake, they would not come to this call. Frustrated, he commanded the flames to obey. They did not. Holding his palm outward into the flames, they licked and burned at his scales. He demanded they obey. They did not.

  His green scales blackened and burned still, remained in the flame as he commanded them to be extinguished. Nik pressed his mana into the flames, and with an echoing shout, he cried out, “Obey!”

  The flames vanished, within an instant all was darkness. Waking once more in the blackness, Nik reflected on his dream, the images, the feelings, and his own observations. Standing on still sore and aching legs, he sent a pulse of mana through his hand, focusing it down further to just the tip of his finger.

  “Control the chaos, Nik,” he whispered to himself. He sent the power trickling through his finger, searching for the ember and not the wildfire. Picturing the gentle flames of the mana torches in the sunken castle, a nearly imperceptible amount of mana flowed from his finger flooding the floor and nearby pool of water with a soft flickering blue light.

  Skill gained: Flame Level 1!

  Wow, you have a skill that is brighter than you now

  Flame ability gained: Candlelight!

  Mana Cost: 0