-From Cogitations: 1:4-5
Keshka had told Tok and Shashk that they would return to the Redscale’s abode after a short stint of practice.
The Redscale had been reading something, muttering about some ‘Iron-mantle’. Vivex wasn’t sure what a mantle was, but she was pretty sure Iron was a kind of earthbone, though she had never heard it used that as a prefix before. Tok had been scraping his thick hide with river stones, but had grunted his approval all the same.
They had then headed into the canopy, Keshka under her fabricated camouflage and Vivex using her innate ability. Doing a practice hunt with the Initiate’s bow.
Keshka had been pleased with much of the general knowledge that the Initiate had displayed. Tracking, being aware of the wind’s direction, using the moss to mask her scent so long as they weren’t in a pine forest, all of those things and more were tested and evaluated.
She had also shown Vivex other things, like the bow-vine plant, which could be used to quickly replace the string if hers ever broke.
“Cut it lengthwise, then stretch.” Her Tutor had said, demonstrating, showing how thin strands pulled free, and she twisted them by spinning the top and bottom as she pulled, winding them in on each other.
Keshka also demonstrated how, in some ways, the fabricated camouflage was superior to the natural.
“It requires forethought and preparation, but there have been times when I have sat amongst the smoothskins as a pile of refuse, or a pile of brambles, and listened in on their plans.” She said.
“Are they all this way?”
“Are all of your broodmates going to look up?”
Vivex grunted. There would be variance in effectiveness, and it wasn’t a foolproof idea, but it could be done.
And it all came down to the way that the garment broke up the form of the one wearing it, and studying the targets. A discussion that led, inevitably, to how to apply it in ways that would be useful against eighth genera.
“All sentient beings are creatures of habit. Knowing what they expect to see and copying it is the key to this skill.” Keshka hissed, “From what I hear from the Redscales and their entourage, many of the sentient parasites do the same things over and over again for months at a time. The majority don’t even hunt their own food, relying on others.”
“Permanent Providers? How does that work at all?” Smoothskins were bizarre.
“More that there is a part of their fodder caste that is required to work the land. It’s based on bloodline.”
Prey.
Yes, in some ways. Many prey fell into habits that repeated time and again. But so did the sun and moon.
Her Instinct grumbled. Not alive. Not the same.
I know my own thoughts. I am aware of the implications. Predators followed patterns too. She did understand what her Instinct had meant though. This was just the latest in a long line of descriptions she had heard about the smoothskins that left her unimpressed. She was more and more certain that they had never been predators.
The most damning evidence in her opinion was a combination of three things. The lack of eggs for the smoothskins, the need for them to parasitize their mothers for several years of their development directly, and then the extended amount of time they all had before each subgenera was considered an adult.
It’s second hand though, perhaps someone else will know better? She would have to inquire further at a later date. She pulled herself out of her musings and followed her Tutor farther into the wilds.
Vivex leaned forward, bow raised, arrow knocked, holding still and looking through some magebeard moss hanging down from the branch above. They had tracked down a skirnet.
She hadn’t drawn the arrow just yet, only knocking it, saving the effort of drawing the bow for when she was ready to loose her arrow.
“Lean more. Good.” Keshka hissed, almost too quiet to hear even though she was right behind Vivex, which made the Initiate incredibly uncomfortable. She didn’t like this new person being so close and unseen. Didn’t trust her to not lash out at some point.
She knew that the other female was there to coach, but it was hard to forget the past year of tension. To relinquish her ever necessary bubble of personal space.
“Distance.” Her tutor leaned closer as she whispered, pointing silently with a claw at the many legged reptile, the other hand adjusting the bow slightly, reaching around her to do so. Vivex growled before she could stop herself.
Keshka pressed against her instead of backing away. “Learn, pupil.” She growled back, making Vivex unavoidably aware of how much larger Keshka was. She didn’t grab Vivex, pin her, or anything else. Just force her to acknowledge the presence.
Idiot. Tutor, Teacher, Provider. Duty! Her Instinct hissed.
I hate this… closeness.
Not with the Provider. Learn.
She held a hiss back, not wanting to scare the prey.
“Wind.” Keshka whispered, pulling back slightly after Vivex didn’t respond.
Vivex waited, expecting her tutor to guide. When nothing happened she glanced at the other female, catching a bit of the shine of her eyes under the camouflage garment.
“Adjust for it on your own, Initiate.” She whispered.
Fine. Vivex let the tip of her tongue flicker out.
The wind was blowing left to right to the north, so Vivex aimed slightly into it as the mage-beard waved and rippled.
The thing was similar to that many flippered river beast that Tok had fought, but with a long thin body instead, and with a short neck and wide jaws like a half circle. Instead of flippers it had wings that folded up sort of like a bat’s. Long toes on each foot stretching out a membrane that formed into a wing, counting to a total of ten pairs.
She focused on the many legged reptile, keeping track of its head by following how the fin along its back moved. It snapped at something, probably a beetle, its little white teeth glinting for a moment in the moonlight.
That’s its head, so aim… there… She was targeting the center of the creature. Even if she missed any vitals, she might just pin it in place so she could rush over and kill it.
“When you are ready…”
Vivex watched her prey, was she aiming too far into the wind?
Her Instinct stared at the skirnet, liking the idea of a snack, but her forebrain liked the idea of all of that hide to better camouflage the smoothskin quiver she had at her back.
Kill!
She drew.
Adjusted slightly.
Loosed.
Twang! Thunk!
The arrow hit the branch below the little beast too far to the right.
Damn, not enough in either direction!
She snarled and rushed forward as the thing flapped off, the multitude of wings reminiscent of a centipede’s legs as they flapped. The pair of scaly tails snapping and popping. Even though she had expected it, they still made her jerk back, and before she overcame the innate response, it had vanished from sight.
It wailed mournfully in the night, and several others answered it.
Gone… She hissed loudly, frustrated, landing on the branch the little beast had perched on. She collected her arrow and returned it to the quiver, which would continue to be far too visible for proper use.
Damn. She had wanted the skin, sure that the hide would have enough material, especially with the wing membranes, to make something quite significant, despite the creature not being particularly large. About the size of a mid-sized rous, about two and a half feet long.
“It was not bad. Better than your previous shots.” Keshka hissed.
“I missed.”
The monopatterned female grunted, not denying the statement.
“Why do they have so many legs?” Vivex asked.
She had gotten the same sense of strangeness that she had from seeing the river beast. The same feeling of… wrongness.
“In part, it is the work of the Gods, Initiate.” Keshka held out her hand. “You will be given these in the lesson tomorrow. You must rest.”
Mine! She hissed pulling away.
“Now, pupil, or I will take them from you.” Keshka growled as she glared down at the subadult.
“I will rest,” and she would, after a bit more inspection on her part, one last hunt, “and these are mine-”
Thwack!
Keshka’s balled fist crossed the subadult’s jaw with enough force to stagger her, and she nearly fell out of the tree.
“I have been lenient, Pupil mine,” the adult hissed, “give me your bow and arrows. Now.”
“Lenient? How?” Her face throbbed, though she didn’t think she would have to regrow any teeth.
The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
“Ask Gekki.” Keshka growled.
Vivex glanced back to the clearing, then suddenly the closeness all made more sense. “You-”
“Yes, Initiate, though she was far more aggravating and self-absorbed at the time.” Keshka’s teeth glinted in the night before she pulled her lips back over them, giving a single reassuring grunt as she did. “Now she is a constant companion, though she reverts around this time every year.”
Vivex felt her jaw pulsing with pain and she rubbed it, her own mood still in darker shades of maroon.
I didn’t even see it coming!
It had been fast, with nothing to telegraph the strike. If she had used her claws, she would have blinded me! Images of One-eye returned to her mind again, and she felt her hackles rise.
Enclosed in the thorns. Bleeding. Being hunted. Going to be eaten!
Attack! Kill! Her Instinct wanted blood, irate that someone clearly less than her would be so idiotic as to strike her! To make her think of such things! To not leave them buried to die!
“You have a different issue.” Keshka continued, “You do not have a proper alignment with your Instinct. I can see it.”
Vivex didn’t know what to say to that, realizing suddenly she was panting, staring, and that her her Instinct had several things it wanted to do to the adult. Violent things.
How does she know?
“Take control of your hindbrain, neonate.” Keshka’s eyes narrowed further under the brush and leaves obscuring her form, her words rumbling as she growled louder. “And face the memories. They won’t die. It is something we all must do.”
Idiot… She had angered her tutor. Both of them. Need to reset, to try again.
She hated doing it, but she forced herself to display pale subservience for several seconds. She knew that wasn’t enough, and the truth was… well it fit her own reaction now that she thought on it.
“I… Struggle with that, tutor. The others… they-”
“Took everything from you, I am aware. It happens with all who are smaller of stature, or are handicapped in other ways.” Keshka moved aside the part of her outfit that covered her head, displaying her mono-pattern visage in the moonlight.
Vivex didn’t reply to that. There was nothing to say. She at least was a prodigy in that regard.
Idiot. Wrong lesson.
She wasn’t sure what her Instinct meant by that.
“They will be returned, my pupil.” She held out her clawed hand again.
Vivex handed them over, not without a struggle, but she managed it, flickering subservience before heading back to the Ambassador’s domicile.
She was surprised to find Shashk still awake, inspecting something in one hand as she fed a fire under an earthbone lattice. There was a strange object on the lattice, and she was already back out of cover by the time she recognized it. The same sort of thing that her Provider had used to make his pipe.
A teapot. She thought that was the name of it.
Shashk picked up a leaflike thing, covered in markings like the ones contained in the leather rectangle she had, though with no diagrams. The thing she was reading before. The thing about the Earthbone-thing.
Shashk was muttering out loud to herself, so Vivex slowed to listen, ever curious.
“Distribution is good. So, they’ll report to us.”
She hissed thoughtfully, moving to another sheet.
“Still can’t use the Yurtree… Damned parasites… Blocking the rootway…” she twirled the object, which glinted in the firelight for a moment, returning to the first ‘leaf’.
“The gold can… yes… and then they will be distracted…” She growled and looked back to the map.
Who? What? Where? She wanted to know! She was so curious!
Idiot. Wait.
Vivex was already under the roof of the shelter when she recognized the thing that the Redscale was twirling. The ax that Vivex had taken to go and help Arubra. Shashk slowly turned to regard the Initiate with turquoise eyes.
Caution!
Why? But she could see that the Ambassador was glaring at her.
Obvious you were listening.
“What is it, runt?” Shashk hissed, wiping the weapon clean and returning it to its place amongst her things, fingers lingering on it as if the Redscale was thinking of throwing it at Vivex.
She felt her jaw clench, but Vivex forced herself to use respectful prefixes, asking “Is there anything that we might study tonight, my teacher?”
Shashk’s eyes narrowed, and Vivex realized some of those prefixes were a bit too saccharine to be taken seriously. She flickered apology for just a moment to acknowledge her mistake.
Shashk remained quiet. Waiting. Punctuating the moment with her silence before she continued, “Good. You show initiative, but rest is what you need, Student Vivex.”
“But the dehk-zuir!” She had thought about it the whole time hunting with Keshka. It could have let them practice on more interesting prey, or try other sorts of tactics.
CRACK! The Redscale snapped her tail.
Shashk was having none of it. “Our lessons shall begin on the marrow. Go. Sleep.” She had taken the teapot off of the fire in the tips of her claws, pouring the dark steaming liquid into a ceramic mug, going to the maps, running a claw over them and muttering to herself once more.
She looked up again, tail undulating as her frill flapped once, “Go on! Sleep!”
“I… Yes, teacher.”
Shashk grunted, done with the interaction as she looked back to her fabricated leaves and their alien runes and markings.
Vivex tried to push aside the curiosity that reared up again inside her mind, wondering where Shashk was looking at on those maps. What is making her seem so distracted? What is she planning?
She turned and left, and was almost out of earshot when she heard Shashk say one last thing that changed her mind.
“Yes… So the Falsescaled… hmmm… What was the name? Bookkeepers…”
Falsescaled! Vivex couldn’t help herself.
I have to see…
She remained quiet, leaving but immediately doubling back, blending in with the background, finding the challenge of it almost… soothing. So many regular shapes, things that the ambassador knew intimately.
It would truly be an achievement to go unnoticed now.
She crept slowly to one side, examining her area thoroughly and matching the patterns, her skin straining. She looked at the map, paying attention to where the ambassador tapped it.
Shashk had poured herself a mug of tea, and held it under her snout, gripping the sides of the vessel with her claws. It had an interesting and earthy aroma.
“But then what is this Ironmantle doing..? Could he be figuring that out as well?” Shashk hissed, her frill flapping in irritation.
The way she says that… a title?
She blew on her drink before she took a slow sip. “Great… two of them…”
“Confirm first.” Vivex could tell when the other female’s Instinct spoke. Something about the rhythm of the words.
“Yes… and perhaps then…”
“Agree… acquire…” It was like a thumping drum, the first syllable held before the next followed.
“For the brood yes…”
Vivex crept closer. Matching the portrait of the orc female as she went, surprised it was now placed face up. Had the Ambassador moved it?
Focus!
North of the hatchery island… far north if the scale was accurate. Could it be..? Shashk looked up for a moment, then did a double take, turquoise eyes glaring. Clearly her Teacher wasn't that distracted, and was certainly jealous of her privacy.
“Runt?” She hissed, tail cracking loudly, making Vivex jump and hide behind a table, and the sound echoed into the night.
Shashk walked around the table, looking ready to pounce. “Impressive as your abilities are, that too is for tomorrow. Leave!” Shashk snarled, glaring.
“I was just-”
“I don’t care! I am not your Provider, I will make you do what I say. Sleep. Now!” Her tail cracked again next to Vivex’s head. The wind of it feeling like a slap and making her yelp. It hurt her ears it was so loud. Some of the tea splashed onto the floor. It was a dark purple.
Curiosity isn’t a crime!
Crack! Snap! “Out! Sleep! Now!”
Idiot. Retreat!
It only made the Initiate wonder even more about what was being hidden, but not enough to see.
Not yet. Her Instinct insisted.
Have questions for Tok anyway.
And first and foremost amongst them, what he thought was up with her knife and also what a ‘soulbound warrior’ was.
Vivex scrambled up onto the Blackscale sized seat, using it to leap into the canopy. She climbed higher still, head poking out of the branches, searching for her Provider.
Before Shashk decides she does want to start throwing weapons at me.
She clung to the trunk, searching the night, her tongue flickering. She could smell him on the breeze.
That way.
She headed east, and it wasn't long before she found him.
He sat, cross legged, eyes closed, in a small grotto. Flat stones were set into the earth, forming an octagon. Carved into darker stone, made to look squat despite their size, were eight statues.
The Initiate new what it was instantly.
An open air temple.
The one that she knew to represent Szez’tek Vooznal was drenched in blood, covered in the reeking skin of the runeslave. The head, absent its earthbone plates, rested in the cupped hands of the deity.
Tok hissed in a rhythm different from the ones she remembered him using when she was a fresh hatchling.
Do I interrupt?
Her Instinct hissed, unsure.
“Join your Provider, Juvenile of Scales!”
She blinked, had the impulse from her Instinct there been… the wrong hue? She shook her head. She did agree though.
She leapt down onto the head of the statue, toeclaws gripping the wood so that she didn’t slide off. The blood sticky and already cool to the touch.
Tok’s eyes opened and the rhythm faded, and they both stared at eachother for a moment.
“I have questions, Provider.” She said.
“In a moment.” He rumbled. Gesturing at the statue.
She grunted, hopping to his shoulder, then slid down his arm to kneel next to him, and he continued from where he left off.
He then turned and lifted one of the massive clear containers of aether from the ground, pulling out the stopper and pouring it into the statues cupped hands, murmuring.
“Wait, I thought all of those had been given back?”
“Arubra said she was pleased to donate to this sacrament.” He said with a slow hiss, still maintaining the rhythm.
That was what he spoke to her about.
He clapped his hands once. Twice. Thrice. Each report echoing out like Shashk’s tail had mere minutes before.
“Szez’tek is pleased with you.” He said, looking down at her. “I recommend you give an offering.”
She looked at him, and he pressed his foreclaw into his thumb, drawing spattering blood that he let drip onto the ground at the feet of the statue.
She watched, then drew her knife, using it to do the same. Just a small cut. She squeezed it to make her own blood well up.
Out on the river she heard a fish jump.
All was still, not silent, but calm. Full of familiar sounds.
Her droplet fell and hit the carven feet of the statue.
Verdant sparks bounced up from the ground!
She hissed in surprise pulling back, bumping into Tok’s hand. They were a green the color of light filtered through leaves. A hue she’d seen before! Paired with the color of the sunrise then, but now alone!
The temple!
The lines that gave the statue form and shape began to glow. Each feature now outlined in brightest green.
She thought she heard something. A growl? A hiss? Something mighty and ancient. Hatched in a time long forgotten. Mighty and old in the dimmest past that she could never hope to grasp!
She looked to her Provider, and he grunted.
“Be ready.” Tok said, closing his eyes, and spreading his arms.
She braced herself, unable to close her own eyes.
Spreading, lifting, reaching, growing!
All of life’s drives now were showing!
Earth and sky conjoined and flowing!
Truth and pride together glowing!
A familiar lance outflowing!
Into the sky with a resonant boom.
The light faded and she realized something else. When she had decided to listen to her Instinct, to join in. The thoughts had been the very same hue of green.
“I have more questions.” She hissed.
Her Instinct grunted with the hue it should have.
Great, got to keep an eye out for that too? Why hadn’t her Instinct noticed it?
She probed, but only got an echo of her own confusion from her hindbrain.
“Ask your questions quickly neonate.” Tok said.
She hissed, a little annoyed, but it was her Provider. She had hoped to have him call her by her name at least.
Ask!
She tried to remember all of her questions.
“I assume it is your blade?” He rumbled as she was still trying to organize her thoughts. He stood, slowly, walking even slower so she could keep up. Each step of his was ten of hers.
“Yes, that is one.” She told him of her observations, how the rootway didn’t effect it, and how it had sliced through the magical barrier, the writhing muscles of the runeslave. He listened, watching her with sanguine eyes.
“Zegoth mentioned runes on armor.”
Tok grunted.
“Could the blade cut through such armor?”
He rumbled thoughtfully, sloshing into the river and starting to ritually wash himself.
She joined him, though on the bank.
“My guess is that it would render such things mundane for as long as it touched them.” He hissed after a long moment.
“And armor is thick earthbone.”
He grunted again.
Damn. Still, it could be useful in other ways.
“That is a guess. A third genera would know best. But I would even then be weary of showing them that blade.”
“Why?”
“They will think it is theirs. They will think you have stolen it.”
Vivex hissed thoughtfully, struggling to remember the other questions she had. She did remember one though.
“What is the world outside the Belly like?”
He grunted, sloshing out of the river and clearing a space with his mighty tail, flattening the underbrush and pushing aside stones.
“Sparse. Bleak. But mostly different.”
“And the smoothskins?”
“Hateful. Greedy. Cowardly.”
“Should I leave the Belly?” She wasn’t sure she wanted to or not.
He was quiet for a long time as he laid flat, chin on the ground, facing the water. She climbed up onto his back like she had that first night as a hatchling, also curling up.
“Study hard, little Vivex.” He rumbled, his words reverberating through his back and into her. “That way if you do, you have plenty of sharp claws to use against the parasites.”
“Why do you hate them so much?”
She felt him breathe beneath her. The world rose and fell as he did.
A fish jumped.
A skirnet wailed.
“Go to sleep, Vivex. Then wake.” He rumbled.
Vivex curled up, glad that she was full, warm, and dry. She then realized she hadn’t asked what a Soulbound warrior was. But she was so comfortable…
I’ll ask him another time.
She shook her head after a moment, the vertebrae cracking. Tok did the same, though less forcefully so he didn’t knock her from his back. Then, together, both Provider and neonate drifted off into slumber.