Chapter 87: Under the rain (First Part)

My eyes abruptly shot open as my whole body convulsed in a reflex movement I only knew too well. Like many times before, I woke up with a jolt, not really sure if I had gotten any real rest. My drowsy mind and heavy eyelids weren’t enough to hope that I would be able to claim any more sleep for quite some time.

The cold rain continuously falling on my face and the bite of the wind making my whole body shiver despite the thick blanket wrapped around me weren’t responsible for this sudden displeasing awakening.

A week has gone by since Alianelle’s last crisis and the confrontation that nearly spelled our doom.

I wasn’t able to claim much sleep ever since.

The image of this mysterious beast stalking us, ready to condemn us to a fate too horrible to describe was constantly on my mind.

I straightened my aching back and forced these thoughts out of my head before looking around me.

Oblivious to my fears, Paul, Alianelle, Seth, and Himara were bundled up together at the back of the opened-air wagon near the ominous, but for now empty, black cage to try to gather much-needed warmth. Himara and Seth's hair were strangely raised above their heads like a living beast to protect them from most of the rain. However, even with this trick born from their beastman heritage, it wasn’t enough to disperse the coldness of the wind viciously swirling, changing direction and making any kind of protection from it temporary at best.

Even a few meters away from them, I was able to see Himara's uncontrolled quivers despite the hug of her brother to warm her up.

It wasn’t surprising that young children had more trouble facing such weather several days in a row without any protection. It was previously possible to take shelter for a while inside the closed carriage where Alianelle slept, but this option was sadly taken away from us. It was also the first time since the start of our journey together that the weather stayed this bad for this long.

Jazor sitting on the opposite side, with his back against the same kind of aging wood, was just in front of me and also regretted our loss of this part of the carriage if his constant grumpy face was any indication.

I was the same and couldn’t repress a frown when I felt the now-familiar headache, I had more and more trouble bearing, coming back with a vengeance. A good night of dreamless sleep in a warm place was probably all I needed to get rid of it, but stopping to find a shelter was completely out of question with the threat of a possibly invisible opponent waiting to ambush us on the first occasion.

This creature wasn’t the first one I ran into inside the wilderness to give me nightmares. Our group had encountered a few of them already. However, of all the species too dangerous to be directly confronted we crossed paths along our journey, this one was the first to induce this kind of reaction from the Vrapy.

It was also the first to almost paralyze us from fear alongside them without even showing its shadow.

We immediately talked about it after what was left of our carriage resumed its course, but none of my more experienced companions had any idea if this ability was derived from a magic born of one of the four primordial elements, if it was a natural aptitude this species had or if this was a unique ability.

In short, whatever happened to make our whole bodies freeze and our mana almost unusable, stayed outside our understanding making it even more threatening.

For once, we had no way to know the limits of this ability or even if it was a real attack. For all I know, this could have simply been a way for this monster to probe us and the only reason it chose not to attack in the end wasn’t that we came free from its influence, but simply because Alianelle’s mana disappeared making a fight with us worthless.

That or it was simply waiting for a better opportunity to wipe us out.

Whatever the truth may be, we all quickly came to the same conclusion that the best thing to do in our situation was to simply put the most distance possible between us and this creature with unknown powers.

Because one thing was certain.

Inside the wilderness, there was nothing more frightening and dangerous than facing an unknown opponent with foreign abilities.

It was thus inevitable that the subject of the true nature of what we had run away from would come back.

Two days after our escape, Jazor chose to break the ice and discuss it with me once again under the attentive ears of Seth who tried to feign indifference while hugging his sister, and Paul who is the only one who missed this meeting although he came with us inside the devastated camp.

In retrospect, this discussion had me thinking for a long time afterward, which may explain why my sleep hasn’t improved since.

“Can you sense anything out there?” asked Jazor that day, for the hundredth time since the attack.

I was ready to simply shake my head in denial, as I had every time before, but the lack of sleep and the need to be constantly on alert, despite knowing that my usual sensory abilities were most likely worthless, made me snap at him.

“You know I don’t!”

Despite my harsh tone, Jazor didn’t seem offended and simply nodded.

I exhaled slowly to let my emotions calm down before resuming

“I couldn’t sense it when we were facing it and I can’t do it now either,” I repeated with a much more neutral voice.

“And that’s the first time something like that ever happened?” he asked while frowning.

“Not really. But the last time, it was a Durnïel and I’m pretty sure this is not what we are up against.”

“A Durnïel!?!” he exclaimed before I could add anything more. “Damn, even I have never encountered one, thank the gods. You have some rotten luck sissy, you know that?”

“Don’t tell me about it…” I sighed while remembering the creature that robbed me of my sight. “Anyway, it was the only time something like that ever happened, but it also felt different.”

“How so?”

“Well, I could see the Durnïel with my own eyes, but I couldn’t sense it. It was as if its very nature prevented me from feeling its mana. However, this time it felt more like some kind of ability to voluntarily hide. You don’t know any animal able to do that?”

“No, I don’t,” immediately answered Jazor without even taking the time to think. It was obviously a question he had already thought about. “However, it’s not necessarily an inborn ability of a peculiar species, it could also be a magic developed especially by this individual. I have no way to know.”

“A magic? From what kind of element would it be born to allow such a thing?” I asked dumbfounded, remembering that this idea had barely been mentioned the previous time with Ilan and Walmir.

“We wouldn’t be in such deep shit if I knew that, now would we? One of the concepts of the water element can create illusions and I think the fire element can do something similar, but there is clearly more to it than just this kind of magic, so I don’t know. Anyway, I have no way to be sure if magic is involved or not, but I would certainly prefer it if it wasn’t the case at all.”

I frowned at those words, not understanding his last words.

“Why would it be worse if it was magic instead of a natural ability?” I simply asked before getting the same look Jazor gave me when confronted with a particularly dumb child.

I felt my temples pulse as I restrained myself to stand up and smack this rude dwarf. I really didn’t like to be reminded that I was mostly uneducated by this world’s standards.

Fortunately, Jazor, who knew some of my circumstances, quickly hid his first reaction and answered patiently as he would to a child much smaller than me.

“When an animal becomes a deviant, it loses control for a while, until its core is completely formed. This transitory period, necessary for its evolution, led to the birth of many animals able to use magic and even more creatures unable to overcome this frenzied period with or without magical abilities. However, these newly born magic beasts that overcame this frenzied period are only able to use crude magic most of the time, based simply on their instincts or derived from the natural abilities they had like all the other members of the same species when they were still just normal animals.”

“I know that much,” I interrupted him, outraged.

“I certainly hoped you did, considering the number of deviants and magic beasts you already encountered,” he mocked. “So you also understand why having an animal that has developed the concept of an element is so much worse."

“I… do…” I answered awkwardly, not really sure how to put it into words.

“It’s because, like all the other races, the true power of magic is never gifted,” Jazor continued, apparently not convinced by my previous answer. “It has to be earned, to be developed. And only wisdom can accomplish that.”

I meditated on those words and finally realized where he was going with his explanation.

“Only time and experience can gift true wisdom to a magic beast. However, these two things are the most precious and the most difficult to acquire in such a savage and competitive environment where basic instinct is often more rewarded than pure cunning.”

“But it happens,” I added.

“Yes, it can happen, from time to time, that one of these awakened animals develops higher cognitive abilities. The true ability to think. From there, much more effort is still needed. The level of thinking necessary to develop new magic based on the most profound concepts of an element is not something easily acquired after all. However, when they do, these intelligent magic beasts become able to use powerful magic, often in relation to their nature. This, coupled with their generally strong bodies and sharpened instincts, make them especially dangerous.”

“But it’s rare, right?” added Seth who surprisingly chose to speak up. Apparently, this subject was more important to him than his usual distrust toward Jazor.

“Yes, fortunately for us. It’s also fortunate that with this growing wisdom, a personality also develops. So, instead of having unstoppable and insatiable intelligent killing machines answering their instincts and desires, we have wiser magic beasts with more tamed instincts and other kinds of desires. Some are simply extremely territorial, not accepting another intelligent lifeform near them while others become the guardian of their species or simply develop an ideal proper to themself.”

“Like the beast that saved us the day the sky decided to rain magic beams on us?”

“Exactly. This self-proclaimed beast of Harmony we encountered on that cliff that day is a good example of that. It didn’t use its power to join the general frenzy and kill every Human on sight. It used its abilities to preserve the little peace this land had left and saved us after judging us worthy enough. This kind of intelligent magic beast is probably the most powerful one can encounter inside the wilderness for there is no stronger opponent than someone with an ideal above their own existence. With this ideal in mind, created by who knows what or fueled by who knows what prior experience, it develops its own aspects of magic for this personal purpose.”

“So that’s what you think we are facing? A magic beast old enough to have acquired wisdom? ” I asked Jazor after his long explanation.

“I don’t know, but it is certainly the worst possible scenario. I spent many years inside the wilderness working as a mercenary, but I didn’t encounter many truly intelligent magic beasts. The few I encountered were simply territorial and warned us against going any further into their turf, something we were all too happy to comply with. The beast of Harmony was the only one with an ideal I ever encountered which probably made it the creature with the most potential in these lands and thus the most dangerous if we upset this ideal.”

“But we didn’t do anything to anger this one,” innocently added Himara, not rebuked by her brother this time.

“As far as we know, no we didn’t, so it shouldn’t be a creature with an ideal,” answered Jazor. “If I had to guess, it is a territorial magic beast. The expedition of the camp entered its territory and made a massacre on it, something it couldn’t tolerate. So it followed them back, and made them pay the price for it.”

“But why didn’t it simply kill them? Why did it have to make them suffer like that?” I couldn't help but ask while pushing away the nauseating images that have haunted my nights ever since.

“Any guess is as good as mine. Maybe, it has something to do with the aspect of magic it developed; maybe it lost a part of its herd with this attack and wanted revenge for that,” started to list Jazor.

“But you don’t think so, do you?”

For the first time since the beginning of his explanation, Jazor didn’t answer immediately. He turned his eyes toward the children, apparently internally debating if he wanted to tell what was on his mind in front of them. After a few more seconds of silent waiting only disturbed by the noise made by the rain drenching us since the day before, he finally resumed his explanation with a resigned look on his face.

“Not all animals are peaceful before they become deviants. Some are extremely bloodthirsty and violent, a habit that tends to calm down with their growing wisdom. However, sometimes this new intelligence is not enough to tame the strongest predatory instincts. So maybe, it’s simply in its nature. The battle drew its attention toward the camp where it just unleashed its most primal instincts.”

Jazor didn’t add anything more after that.

The conversation ended there and never resumed ever since, leaving each of us with our assumptions.

However, his words and the face he made while unraveling his theory were still engraved in my memory and fuelled the uneasiness plaguing my mind day and night ever since this encounter.

I wasn’t sure if all the people listening to him at this moment truly understood what his words meant.

However, I did.

If this was the true nature of this magic beast, then this creature, possibly still chasing after us, wasn’t just a powerful intelligent magic beast.

It was a true monster.

The kind that made our arrival in the first Advanced town as soon as possible even more vital.

That’s why, despite the boring and seemingly fruitless effort, I tirelessly continued to inspect our surroundings with my magic sense spread far and wide. Every suspicious noise not disguised by the sound of the incessant rain made my heart leap with dread and forced me to sharpen my senses more than ever.

Probably even more than when I was left alone and blind in this unforgiving land.

That's how strong an impression this beast made on me.

Long, anxious, and tiring days followed one another with questions about this beast constantly swirling in the back of my head.

How could you fight something you couldn’t see or sense?

How could you resist a magic leaving you almost defenseless?

How could you face this monster when an entire camp of veteran soldiers was so hopelessly outmatched?

The answers to these questions weren’t as elusive as before after a few days of constant thinking, but every fiber of my being hoped I would never have to put any of my ideas to the test.

Fortunately, it had been five days since that discussion, which was a week since our last encounter with that monster, and there was no indication that anything was still stalking us.

The absence of any sign of this monster made me more optimistic, although the apparent absence of any animal to hinder us wasn’t so reassuring to me. This sudden lack of confrontation with the local species could simply be because we were coming closer to the edge of the wilderness. A hypothesis Walmir admitted was possible.

Of course, none of us wanted to test our luck or needed a reminder about how fast the situation could change and take a turn for the worse.

That’s why, even with our growing expectations, we haven't stopped more than a couple of times ever since the attack, something possible thanks to the crate of food we brought back from the military camp despite our emergency escape.

However, even with their unworldly stamina and our moderate pace, the Vrapy were starting to reach their limits. Although the past days had been unusually calm, we had to respect their tiredness if we wanted them to keep any ability to accelerate in case of an emergency.

We already talked about it together and decided that we will stop tonight or tomorrow night at the latest. Judging by everyone’s face, this break would prove just as essential for us as for the Vrapy. It will also allow us to stock up on food and water — to replete the half empty crate — so that no more stops of this kind would be necessary for the rest of our journey.

According to Walmir, at this pace, the first Advanced town was less than two weeks away if we didn’t encounter any incidents and didn’t have to regularly stop to resupply.

If we could ration ourselves and avoid any unnecessary conflict, it should be possible to make a beeline for the first Advanced town by pushing the Vrapy to their limits.

As long as Alianelle’s mana stayed dormant, this hope wasn’t out of reach, but it also made everyone, me included, worried while looking at the now tranquil face of this sword of Damocles resting in the arms of her father.

Because there was another thing I was sure of.

Whether we were simply unlucky enough to cross paths with an extremely territorial magic beast that had just exacted its revenge, or whether we crossed paths with a more vicious species that was patiently following us, waiting for an opening to give us the same fate, we all shared a common certitude that even Paul could not deny.

Like all the other animals, especially since the ambient mana became so chaotic, this creature will be attracted by mana.

If Alianelle made another crisis it would not stay idle.

And neither Ilan nor Walmir would tolerate it this time.

Ilan’s attempt to kill her made it clear what he thought about her presence among our group of unfortunate refugees. He never apologized for what he tried to do and I never asked him to because, as hard as I wanted to disagree with him, I couldn’t deny the reality.

She was putting all of us in danger.

This was the hard cold truth.

The kind that I would never confess.

Because although I had apparently found a way to calm her crisis, there was no telling how long it would take the next time or even if it would be effective. Fortunately, she remained blissfully asleep ever since with no sign of another crisis, which helped Ilan relax somewhat.

Paul's heavy gaze locked on me made me realize that I had been staring at her for a long time while being lost in my thoughts.

After all I did to save him and his daughter, I had more and more trouble repressing the waves of annoyance and anger washing over me each time this kind of look landed on me.

His attitude toward us took a turn for the worse ever since the last incident, so much so that we almost had to lock him up. Instead, I made sure to properly explain to him what had happened, but even if he assured me that he understood, he clearly had trouble hiding his animosity even toward me.

Apparently, my choice to ally with slavers left a wound in the confidence he had in me even deeper than I thought it would.

However, now wasn’t the time to confront him.

And hopefully, we would reach the safety of the first Advanced town before this moment truly presented itself.

Therefore, once again, I buried these feelings deep in my heart and simply turned my eyes away from his daughter to return to my constant lookout.

My watch wasn't over yet after all and it would continue until we finally reached the safety of the first Advanced town.

Until then, my entire attention would have to be dedicated to this task.

However, no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't see beyond the veil of darkness created by the dense canopy of trees near us nor could I hope to know if any other untold horror was waiting for us beyond.