Primal Dawn

Bleeding. Occo was bleeding.

And all Fira could do was watch as she continued to hurt herself.

Occo was laying on the ground, an arrow embedded in her side. Unlike the previous areas filled with ferals, this room posed a different kind of danger. 

The floor was tiled with large ceramic plates with intricate designs. The last one which Occo stepped on shot arrows out of slits hidden within the walls and struck her. She luckily fell to the floor in agony and rolled backwards onto a safe square before another volley was triggered. The room was filled with an assortment of traps, and she was being used as bait to trigger them, one by one, to identify a clear path for the group to walk towards the exit.

Fira huffed as she stepped toward Occo who was struggling to remove the projectile. She planted one foot on Occo, and the other on the ground, and tugged at the arrow. With a splatter and a howl, she stumbled backwards, arrow in hand.

“Thanks,” Occo sniffled. Fira could only nod. She couldn’t clear the path on her own. Flamethrower, Fire Wall, none of her abilities seemed to harm the room. It seemed you either must avoid the traps somehow or trigger them one by one to identify a safe path to walk.

Fira returned to the rest of the group, everyone casually watching Occo clear the way for them. Since Occo was a Goblin she had some natural regenerative ability, so she was waiting for her wounds to heal before continuing on. Some had already formed scars. Healing was not always perfect, and weaker healing could potentially lead to imperfections. But it seemed Jack didn’t care.

Out of everyone present, he had the most wicked expression while watching Occo. It was disgusting.

Fira watched Occo slowly stand up and begin stepping forward again. Occo hesitated as she was about to touch an unchecked tile.

“Get on with it,” Jack angrily said while raising his hand. With a glow, Occo finished her step. She carefully prodded the tile with her foot, but nothing happened. The other foot followed. A loud clunk. The tile disappeared from beneath Occo, and she began to fall. Her hands desperately flailed, and she barely managed to catch the side of the direction she had just come from. Jack began to laugh.

Fira took one step forward, but Jack’s outstretched hand blocked her from going further. “She can handle it.” She grimaced.

In the end, she was as bad as everyone else. Getting on the bad side of everyone would only further cause her problems. Rand wouldn’t hand over the payment for the quest, and she can’t get food without a license. Shantee felt rigged against her. No different than the rest of the world, though.

So she would watch. Occo finally managed to pull herself upwards to safety, her breaths ragged as she lay on her back.

Was there truly nothing she could do?

Based on the behavior of the other tamers, none of them seemed to care what Jack did with his primals. A few primals seemed to be uncomfortable, but none dared voice a complaint.

If Peter were here…

Would he say anything? She had spent the escort quest with him, but did she really know him all that well?

Self serving thoughts. No matter how short their time spent together, one thing was obvious. He would not have remained silent if he saw this. Peter might have let Jack tame Occo, but Jack hadn’t shown such behavior while they were traveling. He had tamed her fast, even before Rin, but then kept Occo desummoned outside of any fights. That was the only thing that might have been suspicious. But even then, some tamers opt to keep their primals hidden away all the time.

Whether Jack did this to hide his true feelings towards her, Fira was not sure. But if Peter had known that Occo would be treated this way, he likely would have had more reservations about her being tamed by Jack.

Peter. Her mind kept wandering back to him. The man who might be the most sympathetic to her situation in Shantee now hated her the most. What drew her towards him?

Maybe it was the favor she owed him. Curiosity kept her wondering what he might request of her now that the mood between them had soured. Was it only now though that she became interested?

She didn’t have any relationships. Those were left behind when she set out on this journey years ago. Primals normally became friends with other primals their tamer owned. Other tamers’ primals, you might be acquaintances with them if the tamers themselves are close, but the connection always felt temporary. Shallow.

And so she had nothing.

Occo’s head glanced between two plates, each one step away from the plate right before the exit. Finally, she gathered the courage to take the one to her right, and once both feet were firmly planted atop, she squirmed waiting for something to happen.

But nothing did. She let out a sigh of relief and stepped on the plate right in front of the exit, then stepped into the hallway. Occo turned and looked back towards the others, her expression worn with the barest hint of excitement. Was she anticipating being praised?

Jack motioned for Fira to go first, and she carefully stepped across the plates using the path Occo had secured for them, the rest following her closely behind. In the hallway, she gave Occo a slight nod before moving past her. If she didn’t move fast, Jack would stop her and send Occo headfirst into a room again to grab the attention of the ferals. 

Fira stepped into the entrance of the next room, her eyes quickly scanning the area. She spotted a few ferals bunched up in a corner, resting. One of them looked up at her as she opened her mouth. “Flamethrower!” A torrent of flame flew towards the now alerted ferals. Fira could barely make out their faces contorting, mouths wide open as they likely howled in pain.

But Fira could not hear them. For the roar of her flames… 

It drowned out their screams.