Young Flame

The entire cliff face slides down the mountain. A moment is all it takes for fractures to crack through it. The falling cliff crumbles into enormous boulders as the rock accelerates. Each boulder speeds down the slope, indiscriminate of what is below. As fast as my team is, there’s no way they can get away in time.

Grímr runs to the left, while Remus and Bunny try to escape to the right. Already, shrapnel rains down on their heads. It’s incredible to watch as they dodge the leading boulders rushing past them.

Their luck doesn’t last. With the massive amount of rock still falling on their heads, a single mistake is all it takes. Bunny stumbles, the ground collapses under her feet as she tries to dodge another rock the size of her body. Unable to react in time, the boulder collides against her back, slamming her into the ground.

She doesn’t move, even as a shower of debris falls on her. The worst has happened. Is she dead? She can’t possibly be. A rock like that couldn’t be enough to kill her, right?

She is only prone for a moment before Remus has her legs grasped in his tentacles. With a spin and a flick of his limbs, he throws Bunny far to the side. Out of the way of the rockslide. She crashes hard, but out of danger.

Remus lost all the momentum he’d gained by launching her to safety. He cannot regain his speed before the rock engulfs him. I lose sight of him in the immense landslide.

Grímr escapes out the other side… well, not safe, but in far better shape than the other two.

Despite Remus’ orders, I fly to the mountainside. I can’t just sit out while they are hurt. Bunny rises to her feet and I’m flooded with relief that she’s okay. She holds her chest and I’m sure the impact really hurt her, but she’s alive. That’s all that matters right now.

Bunny looks down at the rockslide as it slows into the devastated area of the glacier, then turns to me. I’m trying not to think what might have happened to Remus. There’s no way anyone could have survived that.

“Go find Remus. He should be fine; a bit of rock won’t hurt him as long as we deal with the dahu.” She turns her attention up the mountain, where the dome hiding the dahu sits right on the top ledge of a new vertical cliff-face. “I’m going to stop it causing any more damage.”

I look down over the fallen cliff. How exactly does she think he’ll be fine buried under millions of tonnes of rock? But if she has confidence in him surviving, then I guess I should be hopeful.

Bunny is already sprinting up the mountain again when I leave for the churned up sea of rock. I don’t have a clue where I should start my search.

As she rushes toward the fortified dahu, Bunny dances around the stone spikes piercing out from below. They aren’t as tall as they were before, but they jab at her with far more speed. She twists, jumps and slams her way through the rapid spikes as she closes in on the spiky dome.

Grímr is slowly making his way up to the dahu from the other side, but he doesn’t seem to face the same aggressive defence that Bunny does.

Both Grímr and Bunny reach the dome within a second of each other. The portian charges head first into the dome, leveraging his weight to smash through the defensive wall. Bunny does much the same on the other side, swinging her hammer into the stone before her.

Both breach their respective portions. The stone collapses under the immense impacts. The dahu bleats. Once more I hear it clearly despite the distance. The loss of parts of its defensive wall unnerves the creature. Neither of my teammates can react in time as the entire stone dome slams into them. The goat foregoing its defence to send them away.

The stone spikes knock them back. Bunny scrambles against the ground, her momentum dying just as her feet slide over the ledge of the cliff. The goat already has pillars of stone rising to wrap its body in a dome once more.

Both regain their footing and rush back toward the dahu. They won’t reach it in time before the dome is rebuilt.

Jav drops through the air. I realise I forgot about him until now. He glides right through the open space in the stone and falls out of sight behind the rising walls.

The spikes interweave and close the defence around the creature, locking Jav in with it. I can understand the others able to take some blows, but I’m pretty sure Jav doesn’t have the same thick skin as the others. I retain hope. If, as Bunny says, Remus is fine even with a mountain falling on him, then why wouldn’t Jav? I’ll have to trust Jav has some way to keep himself safe.

Movement below has me drop amongst the rock. He’s actually okay. I can’t help but be shocked. Remus climbs out through the rubble he’d been buried under. Deep purple discolourations cover his usually blue skin, but he’s alive!

I drop to his side to help him, but in my bird form there’s little I can do. He pulls himself through the gravel, pushing aside boulders as easily as the smaller stones.

A couple of bangs ring out, which drag my attention up to the dome at the top of the cliff. Bunny and Grímr have breached through. This time, there is no reaction. The dome doesn’t explode outward, nor do any more stone spikes emerge.

Remus laughs as he looks up. “I hope you like goat; it’s one of Jav’s favourites.”

So they killed it? Not a moment later, my question is answered. Bunny walks out with the head of the dahu and raises it above her head for us to see. Its eyes and teeth glow amber even in death.

“So, is that normal for the Middle Elevation?” I ask, shocked by the power put on display by the beast.

“The ground there is a touch more stable. Ignoring that, then yeah.” The amusement in his eyes is clear.

I hear a crack in the distance as a portion of the glacier fractures. Seriously, the collateral damage from that goat is insane.

❖❖❖

Jav takes the best cuts from the dahu and leaves the rest for the ritual. Despite the obvious power wielded by the creature, the team seems more interested in Jav’s cooking than taking in that strength for themselves.

It doesn’t take him long to get the steaks sizzling over a fire.

Turns out, when Jav dropped on the dahu, he’d been able to slice right through its neck with only a few spins. How something capable of so much damage could be so easily killed, I don’t know. Then again, the creature didn’t make it easy to get close.

After being left to watch them struggle, I feel frustrated. Frustrated that I’d been left out of the fight, but mostly because I know I couldn’t have helped, regardless. The head of the dahu sits there with the rest of its corpse, teeth glowing and waiting for the moment we use it as fuel for our growth. The others may be patient, but I want to get stronger sooner rather than later.

I’m tempted to just take the head for myself, hoard the energy I can burn out of it and enhance my flames. The thought runs through my head, but I can’t do that. Not after all the effort the others have put forward to welcome and help me. It’s the same as when I was with my tribe; I’m protected, but can never help when it truly matters.

I grab my spear from Bunny’s pack and walk off to practice while the others relax after their fight. With each thrust, I think about the force behind the dahu’s stone spikes. Each swing, Remus’ cratering whips overwhelm me. I look at the strength behind my own attacks and see nothing. When my flames don’t burn and my strength can’t compete, how will I ever stand by their side?

For now, my only use is the ritual I provide the team. I won’t say it, but after such an intense fight, the fact that they would rather put off the part that I can actually contribute… well, hurt isn’t the right word. It makes me feel unneeded; like the ritual isn’t as important as they’ve led me to believe until now.

Even as I swing my spear to unleash my frustrations, I know I’m overthinking things, but I can’t help but feel like nothing has changed in the two years since I’ve been without my tribe. Despite everything I’ve been through, I’m back in the same position of being protected by others and not able to contribute.

These thoughts cycling through my mind will do nothing but continue to frustrate me. So I channel the emotion into my movements and attempt to blank my mind.

❖❖❖

The next few days pass rather uneventfully. Well, as uneventfully as it can be now that creature encounters are increasing again. The glacier still passes through the valleys between mountains, but the Titan’s path continues straight, uncaring for the mountains it left half molten.

Now that it is a direct path once more, we no longer avoid the creatures that might have followed the tunnels in the ice. At least we know we didn’t miss some hidden biome under the glacier; the bats, centipedes and other creatures we are following have shown themselves again.

I keep up my spear training, dedicated to improving in any way I can while I can. Bunny is all too keen to help. This high, the snow seems to lack the same powdery feeling to it. Instead, it is nearly as hard as ice itself. I can walk along it without fear of sinking in. Even if I fall over, I’ll probably be fine.

It goes to show how much heavier Grímr and Bunny are; they fall through the hard snow to their knees. Jav, Remus and I walk along above the two with hardly an issue.

It looks like Grímr’s regenerative speed is unique to himself. After the fight, he’d had a few bumps and bruises that cleared up in a matter of hours, but Remus and Bunny are less fortunate. The purple colour has darkened into a red and spread over much of Remus’ body and Bunny fractured a rib being crushed by that boulder.

It’s hard to tell if they don’t feel pain from their injuries or if they’re just really good at hiding it from me. Even with the damage they’ve taken, we continue moving.

We have yet to face another mid tier beast, fortunately. Or, maybe that’s unfortunate. The dahu’s body was dense with compressed energy, the teeth were especially energising. As much as I want more of that empowering feeling I get while consuming those creatures, I shouldn’t wish another fight of that scale upon the others. Not until I can fight as well.

We are here to investigate the source of the new monsters, not to hunt. I should be grateful for the creatures I get to consume on the way and not hope for more from the Middle Elevation.

As we move further up the alps, I can’t help but notice that each mountain is far less… whole. If I look beyond the damage caused by the Titan, there are still sweeping regions where land just ceases. A series of deep gouges in a mountain appear to be terrifyingly large claw marks when viewed from far away. Craters hundreds of metres wide disfigure much of the landscape.

Plant life has also diminished, leaving only the most resilient to thrive in the cold, thin air. Air which has been doing a number on me. Even with my new snowsuit, the cold permeates everything. I’m able to push it off by eating beasts and the iron in Grímr’s pack, but every day I feel myself growing more exhausted. The thin air is difficult to breathe and leaves my flames weak.

“Hit me!” Bunny commands as she jogs backwards.

The landscape has become treacherous enough that the team has slowed to my speed. If they continue at their previous speed, they are apparently far more likely to fall prey to the ambush predators common in the Middle Elevation. We haven’t come across one yet, but Remus believes it is worth being careful.

I sprint toward her and swing with an overhead diagonal slash before jerking my arm back and thrusting forward with as much strength as I can manage. She falls for my feint, but I’m not fast enough to get the thrust through her guard before she reacts.

Her overwhelming strength knocks my spear to the side. Brushed away as if less threatening than a gust of wind.

“Your technique has improved by leaps and bounds,” Bunny says as she jumps over a protruding rock without turning around. “But your strength hasn’t improved since we started. Normally, strength is the easiest to improve; all you need to do is train, but it doesn’t seem to help you.”

I lower my grip on the spear and sweep at her legs with as much force as I can muster. Bunny simply lowers her body and catches the spear right below the blade, not showing the slightest of having felt the impact. She jerks her hand and I can do nothing as she pulls the spear from my grasp.

“Even with all the energy you’ve taken, your strength is not increasing. It feels like I’m being hit by a five-year-old.” She throws back my spear and turns to Remus. “Hey, you’ve dealt with her kind before. How do they improve their strength? I know they are supposed to be rather deadly once they’ve mastered their weapon, assuming those old tomes on southern weapons weren’t filled with misinformation.”

I glance his way as well, curious about anything he might know about my people.

He shakes his head. “No, I travelled with them for some time, but I was always an outsider. Anything they considered important, they kept to themselves. That includes everything about their growth and weapons.” He looks at me. “Sorry Solvei, you’ll have to figure it out yourself.”

I nod to him as I think about what I might have to do. I’d been following Bunny’s guidance until now because she said it was the best way, but if an áed’s strength comes from somewhere else than these flesh people, then it’s understandable she can’t help.

My first thought is covering my spear in flames to somehow enhance my strength. Even before the flames extend the weapon’s length, I realise it won’t work. Auntie Kay never engulfed her spear in flame when we trained, yet she still could manage far greater strength.

I try to think about what my elders had done in all the times I’d seen them fight. Nothing other than them wreathing their weapons in fire comes to mind. What else could they have done?

A stray thought comes to mind. What was it that my tribe emphasised training over all else?

Well, it was easy enough to try, I might as well see.

“Can you tell me if this is weaker than my previous strikes?” I ask Bunny before I prepare myself.

I lower the control I have on my body, letting it return to its natural unhidden flame. My body reaches closer to ethereal than the physical it usually is, not so far that I can’t hold my spear, but enough that I can tell for sure.

I step toward her and swing with all the strength I can manage. It’s hard to tell, because my strike is stopped just as easily as before, but I think it was weaker.

“Yeah, that one felt like an infant tapped me.”

I glare at Bunny for her comment, but it confirms what I need to do; it’s time to get back to training my control.

“Uh, guys? Did anyone see where that came from?” Jav says as he lowers from the sky.

At the edge of the Titan’s path is a centipede crawling over the ledge toward us.

“No?”

“Well, it wasn’t there two minutes ago.”