Young Flame

It took Jav a full fifteen minutes to return from his flight ahead. The volan lands on Remus’ head as per usual, so I lower my altitude to hear what he found.

“I couldn’t find them anywhere. Except for their camp equipment, there is no sign of them anywhere. The camp doesn’t seem to have been used in days either. No sign of battle. No beast presence. Unless they dug their own grave…” Jav looks my way. “Uh, sorry.” He turns back to Remus. “I have no idea where they’ve gone.”

“Alright then, we best have a look at their camp first.”

I follow above the others as they run along a ten metre depression at the bottom of the V-shaped valley. The smooth walls of rock that surround them have strange lines running across it that make the land look almost like it has layers. I wonder what causes it to look like that?

Soon we reach the scouting party’s campsite. It sits up the slope of the valley, away from the depression at the bottom. There are a few tents abandoned and a burnt out fireplace that hasn’t been lit for a week.

“It definitely looks like it’s been unused for a while. All their hunting gear is gone, but their rations are untouched, so we can assume they at least left the camp without issue. But the problem is they shouldn’t have gone far from their camp in the first place.” Remus brings a tentacle up to scratch the side of his head. “For now, we search individually for any signs of a fight. Solvei, I want you to stick with Bunny.”

With his orders given, Remus throws Jav and rushes further along the valley toward the Alps. I fly over Tetsu as she climbs the slope to the left and Grímr takes the opposite side.

“So… what are we looking for?”

“Bodies, blood, broken trees or branches. Anything that might result from a fight. Even creatures known to eat people whole leave signs of their presence behind.”

There is sparse tree cover through this valley, so it’s unlikely we’ll miss something should we come across it. It’s strange that Jav hasn’t seen anything. Where could they have gone? What might have happened that nothing is left behind?

Maybe they’re not dead and instead trapped somewhere, waiting for help. I shiver at the thought. Not much could be worse than that.

Tetsu reaches the ridge overlooking the entire valley and I rise only so high that I can still see the ground below in detail. I don’t know where to look. Everywhere just looks the same to me, but I keep at it.

A series of shrill whistles echo over the hills, making me look back to the gulch, trying to find the source.

“Solvei,” Tetsu shouts from far below. “They found something, lets head back.”

I drop to her side again as she descends the slope. I hope they haven’t found anything too horrible. It would be nice to find the scout team unharmed, but I know how unlikely of a scenario that is. Really, we can only hope to find that they didn’t suffer when they died, or at least determine what caused their death.

We meet back with Grímr at the depression. Without a word, the three of us rush after Jav and Remus. Even speeding through the flat-bottomed gulch, we take a good half an hour to catch up.

The two stand off to the side, waiting for us. In the middle of the depression is another old campfire. There are no tents to accompany this one, but the leftover bones of some roasted creature are piled in the cold ashes.

“As you can see, our scouts have pushed quite a bit further than they should. The fire is cold, but considering their report was due four days ago, I’d say they were here at least a week ago,” Jav says.

“Five days,” I interject.

“What?” he asks, everyone’s eyes falling on me.

“The fire. It died five days ago.”

“Really?” Remus asks. “But that would mean they were pushing up the mountains with only a day until their deadline. The shortest time a Fearn team could cross that distance would be two days. A young Fearn team? Closer to four. Were they late coming back from pushing up the mountain? Then what happened to them between here and their camp?”

That can’t be right. “The fire back at the camp went out seven days ago.” It’s more likely they were heading up the Alps.

“That doesn’t make sense.” Jav crosses his tiny arms and furrows his brow. “I can see a bunch of arrogant kids pushing above their rank, but complete negligence of their duty? Something isn’t right.”

“Well, there’s no point pondering it here. We’ll move forward, see if we can find anything else.”

Four hours later, deep in the snow wrapped mountains, we still haven’t come across any sign of the missing team. Jav is constantly in the air, coming back every five minutes for a boost through the air. I can only imagine how much ground he’s covering with the speed he moves.

Do we even have a chance of finding them if Jav hasn’t spotted anything yet?

“Alright, this is far enough.” Remus seems to agree with my thought. “We should have seen something by now.”

Tetsu casts her gaze over the surrounding horizon. “There’s something that’s been bugging me. Where are the fauna? This is supposed to be a hotspot, so where are all the descending beasts? Where are all the creatures that inhabit these mountains?”

I look around. She’s right. Even in that hunting trip, there was plenty of small time wildlife that lived in the areas alongside the more dangerous beasts. Now? The area feels dead. If there were any in the area, they are long gone. That, or they’re hiding.

“Yes, I noticed that as well.” Remus’ eyes flick to the Titan’s path on the Alps above. “I think, for now, we should head to the Titan’s trail. If we’re to find anything, I’ll bet it’s there.”

I’m tired from hours of flying at my top speed, but it doesn’t look like we’ll be taking a break any time soon.

“Tetsu, do you mind if I rest my wings a bit?” I refuse to go to Grímr. I’m still annoyed at his horrifying treatment of the dead. At least for now, it’s only words, but I don’t know how I could stand it if he tried to bury a body in my presence. I hope we don’t find that team, simply to avoid the possibility they’ll have their bodies prevented from reentering the cycle.

“Sure.” She lifts her arm for me to land.

Her thick biceps don’t budge as I drop my entire weight on her. I know I don’t weigh much, but still, it must be uncomfortable to run with your arm extended out like that. I scoot onto her shoulder so she can drop her arm again.

“What could make the area as bare as it is?” I ask once I’m settled in the nook of her neck.

“Strong beasts. For an area as large as we’ve experienced, we’re probably facing one from the Middle Elevation. For everything to be in hiding means that whatever it is, hasn’t been hiding its presence. Which makes it all the more strange that we can’t feel it.”

“Could it already be gone?”

Tetsu frowns. “I don’t know what would be worse. If, as you say, it has already moved on somewhere it might cause irreparable damage. Or it is hiding its presence only from us.”

“You think it might ambush us?” I twist my head, looking for something that might be hidden.

“That might be a possibility, but it’s not what we are most concerned about. A creature that has enough strength to confidently exude a presence, but stop itself around us, means it isn’t some stealth focused ambush predator. No, it shows the most dangerous quality you can find in a beast; intelligence.”

“I thought you liked a hard fight?” From what I know of Tetsu so far is that the more challenging the fight, the better.

She glances at me out of the corner of her eye. “Of course, but when a beast avoids the fight because it believes there is a chance it might not win, that makes them annoying. The smartest can hold grudges. My father used to tell me of a time he was hunting one particularly intelligent creature, only to find it had skirted him and left the city behind him in rubble.”

So there’s a creature like that around here? Once more, I involuntarily cast my gaze around the area.

“If there is a creature in the area, the best scenario is that it does attack us. We are far better equipped to deal with a Mid Elevation beast than most other teams down below. No need to be worried.”

I’m not worried. But as I go to tell her as such, I realise how childish they might seem. Instead, I jump off her shoulder and take flight.

It’ll probably take up to an hour to reach the Titan’s path from here. Maybe we’ll get lucky and find a proper explanation for what’s going on.

As we near the path of the Titan, the quantity of beasts does a full reversal. Instead of none as far as we can see, we struggle to move for more than a few minutes before stumbling upon some new creature.

Each beast is quickly dealt with and I’m surprised we don’t stop to use the ritual on their bodies as we pass. Instead, we barely even slow to confirm the kills.

The most common creatures we brush through are wolves. Identical to the ones I struggled against in the Wailing Woodland. Many of them are larger than the biggest of those I faced, but somehow seem far less intelligent. They throw themselves at us, regardless of how many of their brethren we cut through before them. At least the wolves from that woodland were smart enough to cut their losses.

Is that what Tetsu meant about the more intelligent beasts? They could have attacked me at any time after they retreated into the woodland, but they’d learnt to avoid me rather than attack. I couldn’t imagine if creatures like the roaches had that sort of intelligence. They may not have much individual strength, but they could cause immense damage if they coordinated their numbers.

The devastation that is the Titan’s path comes into view before us. It’s almost unthinkable how much rock and earth has been gouged away from the being’s passing. What must it be like to be so large, so heavy, that you leave trenches in the land hundreds of metres deep anywhere you go? Does it even notice the ground caving in under its immense feet?

I peer down into the wide expanse of black rock. While there are a lot of creatures down there, I would hesitate to say it’s a horde. The beasts keep their distance from other creatures, growling or screeching at those who get too close. They seem content to remain in proximity while they follow the long, descending path.

“Why do they only go down?” I ask. Most don’t even attempt to climb the edge of the path, they stick to the easy road down the mountains.

Remus steps to the ledge overlooking the path. “These are the common residents from the Lower Elevation. It’s instinctual for them to strive to reach for lower altitudes. They know — even if not intellectually — that it is safer down here. The predators of the Alps are not something they can protect themselves from. The barrier between the Stepps and the Lower Elevation is usually too much for them to breach, but now they have a way.”

“Unfortunately for these creatures, they need to be culled,” Tetsu says. “They will destabilise the ecosystem if they create too much of a presence in the Stepps.” She steps forward and falls down into the deep recession of the path.

Remus sighs but nods and falls after her.

“Solvei, wait.” Grímr approaches behind me.

I angle myself so I can hover in the wind with only a few quick beats. I don’t want to land on his back at the moment.

“Solvei, I’m sorry for my aggression earlier and I’ve thought about our… conversation. I can somewhat understand your reasoning to refuse burials, but for my people, using the body of sapients is the worst taboo.” Grímr turns his head toward the others already rushing through the extermination. “I hope it doesn’t come to this, but should we ever have to deal with the remains of a person, would it be fine to cremate them without you consuming them? Just let a natural fire take them.”

I still feel like that’s a bit of a waste, but I can agree to that. With a nod toward him, I drop down into the path to help the others.

As long as he won’t go burying people around me, I think everything will be fine.