Dream II - Chapter 26

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Race: Saurian

Bloodline Powers: Improved Strength, Rending, Firebreath
Greater Mysteries: Fire (Noble) 4, Wind (Noble) 3, Sound (Advanced) 2
Lesser Mysteries: Heat 4, Oxygen 4, Embers 4, Pressure 4, Current/Flow 4

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Dussok remained slumped, his eyes clouded and distant and arms limp by his side as his back was pressed against a nearby tree.  Around Takkla, Adam, Dussok and Samazzar, the undergrowth was torn to shreds.  Most of the brambles and vegetation were trampled by the apes, but more than one tree was broken, burned or slashed in the ambush.

Adam’s helmet and face-covering receded into his armor as he dropped to one knee next to Dussok, concern tightening his expression.  A second later, Takkla landed on the ground, bow still in hand.  She ran over to her mate, but lost some of her urgency as Dussok shook his head, blinking repeatedly.

“Sswha tha,” the big saurian slurred, trying to stand up only to wobble a bit and fall back to the ground.

Samazzar opened his pouch, wincing at some of the broken vials from where he had fallen during his fight while he looked for the appropriate remedy.  A dozen paces away Takkla put her hand on Dussok’s chest, whispering urgently at him as she prevented him from trying to move again before he was ready.

“Sonic damage,” Sam said, handing a small pouch filled with spices and powder to Takkla.  “It does some damage to the soft tissue in the head, but mostly it causes disorientation and potentially unconsciousness.  I don’t have anything on me for the injury because its a fairly rare mode of attack, but this powder should clean up the confusion and fuzzy headedness if he snorts it.”

Takkla looked dubiously at the small leather bag in her hand.  Samazzar reached forward, pressing her wrist downward toward where Dussok was shaking his head and blinking his eyes.  She sighed, pouring some of the powder out into her palm before cupping the back of Dussok’s skull and pulling him toward her.

Adam walked over to one of the dead apes, dropping to one knee next to it and rolling the animal’s massive bulk over with surprising ease.  Elixirs made it hard to know exactly how strong or fast a human was based solely upon their physical appearance, but still, given the lack of strain on the knight’s face as he shifted a corpse that an ox would have struggled with, it helped put the power of the alchemical compounds in perspective.

Samazzar approached as the human pushed back the animal’s fur, leaning close to inspect the dead ape’s ears.  He looked up as Sam stopped next to him, pursing his lips.

“I think these were ruby streaked lemurs Sam,” Adam remarked quietly, his lips pursed.

Samazzar leaned over the human’s shoulder, chewing on his lower lip as he looked at the uncharacteristically rounded ears and distinctive mottled flesh buried under the ape’s fur.

“It must be some sort of bloodline evolution, but that should be impossible,” Samazzar replied.  “I know that the lemurs carried the bloodline of scarlet behemoths, but most scholars thought that higher tiers of the bloodline died out during the Godfall, hunted into extinction by an alliance of humans and dragons.”

“Impossible or not,” Adam said, grunting as he stood up, “that sound attack of theirs sure seems to be the upgraded version of the ruby streaked lemurs’ echo location and cacophony abilities.  More than that, the markings are too similar for this to be a coincidence.”

“Maybe there was a lost tribe somewhere nearby?”  Sam mused uncertainly.  “I know the wilds north of Vereton haven’t been explored fully so it’s possible that something survived out here.”

“It’s possible,” Adam agreed.

He didn’t look satisfied with the answer, but then again, Samazzar didn’t feel satisfied with it either.  Scarlet behemoths, rampaging gorillas that towered over city walls, were wild and bestial creatures known for leaving devestation in their wakes.  During the Godfall, various divine forces used them as living weapons, but they rapidly fell out of favor due to their territorial and warlike nature.  After a number of settlements were destroyed, they were hunted almost to extinction with only the smallest and weakest elements of their bloodline surviving the purge.

There hadn’t been any reports of an evolved member of the bloodline in over three hundred years.  Either they had remained hidden in one of the dark corners of the world without interacting with human scholars for countless years, only to emerge now in a time of strife and chaos, or something more sinister was at work.

“One of them escaped,” the human said with a sigh, resting a hand on his scabbard.  “Takkla filled it full of arrows, so I doubt that it will make it too far, but we only managed to kill five of them.  I think we need to track it.”

“Unfortunately,” Sam replied, “I don’t think I can disagree.  Our five attackers here all appear to be males.  If there is a family group of apes descended from a scarlet behemoth, there should be females and young as well.  Given the danger posed by the bloodline-”

“We need to make sure there are just apes,” Adam finished for him.  “If these things are the extent of the bloodline, it will be difficult for anyone to purify their line so that they can evolve.  I’m not sure where our ambushers fit on the behemoth’s evolutionary tree, but they have to be at least a couple steps shy of anything truly dangerous.  Still, the Patrician will want to know if anyone is experimenting with them.  Scarlet behemoths weren’t impossible to stop, but it did take the better part of an army, something we really don’t have to spare right now.”

Samazzar opened his mouth to respond, only to catch himself.  He cocked his head to the side for a second before interrogating the human.

“What do you mean ‘purify their line?’  It should be impossible to trigger an evolution without heartsblood from something higher up the evolutionary chain.”

“Well,” Adam said, chuckling nervously, “it’s certainly not easy, but given the need for pure bloodlines amongst higher level warriors, some scholars have managed it.  Practitioners of the royal mystery of life in particular are fairly adept at the process, but from what I’ve heard, it involves a tremendous waste of life.  Hundreds if not thousands of creatures with a lower tier of the bloodline need to be sacrificed and alchemically refined in order to produce enough essence for one infusion.”

“Why would there be a demand for bloodlines amongst human warriors?” Sam asked, glancing back to where Dussok was shaking his head to clear the mental cobwebs and fog left behind by the ape’s sonic attack.  “Your race uses elixirs to gain power.  You can’t even utilize a bloodline without it attacking your circulatory system and burning your heart out.”

“That’s… not entirely true,” the human responded slowly, picking his words carefully as he avoided eye contact with Samazzar.  “For elves and other sapient races, you’re right.  Same for unaltered humans, but a human that has maxed out an elixir can absorb a fraction of a bloodline’s power.”

“I haven’t heard anything about this before now,” Samazzar replied, shock in his voice.  “I’m surprised that no one mentioned it at the Academy.”

“It’s not a terribly common procedure,” Adam said, still not really meeting Sam’s eyes.  “Every human is only limited to a fraction of one bloodline, and if the bloodline is too strong it absolutely will kill you.  It’s like an elixir that way.  Most humans wait until they’ve hit their peak to adopt a bloodline in order to maximize their chance of surviving the procedure.  Even then, most won’t even try it without an alchemist and a healing magus on hand.  Still, pretty much every major hero or champion has some sort of bloodline implanted to give them a little bit of an extra edge in life or death combat.”

“Dussok’s up and can walk!”  Takkla’s shout distracted Sam before he could think of another question for Adam.  His mind whirred a minute a second as he went over the man’s words.  It wasn’t terribly surprising that Pothas and Rose hadn’t bothered to tell him about all of the intricacies and nuances of the training and elixirs used by human warriors.  Both of them were alchemists, almost every practitioner was past a certain point, but neither of Samazzar’s mentors worried themselves much with the more physical side of the discipline.

“We should hurry then,” Adam said hopefully, shifting his weight slightly.  “I know Takkla injured the ape, but we have no idea how smart their species is.  For all we know it's rousing the rest of its tribe right now.”

“Sure,” Sam replied, drawing a grateful smile from the human as he stepped past the contemplative saurian.  “You’ve given me a lot to think about, but you’re right.  Six of the monsters tested us.  Especially with Dussok injured, I’m not exactly thrilled by the idea of getting ambushed again by their vengeful mates.”

The two of them walked over to Dussok and Takkla.  The larger of the two saurians was still bleeding slightly, little more than a trickle from his left nostril, but the powder Sam had given to Takkla had done its job.  There was a minute tremor to his hands, an unfortunate side effect of the drug he had taken, but other than that Dussok’s eyes were clear and alert.

Adam nodded at Sam’s siblings as he kept walking past, his eyes trained on the trail of wreckage and blood left by the fleeing ape.  Dussok gave Sam a slightly shaky thumbs up, and that was all the permission that was needed.

They set off after the knight.  At first Takkla stuck close to Dussok, but before long his bleeding stopped and the tremors faded.  Once she was sure that her mate was fine, Takkla pushed past Adam and took the lead.

Barely fifteen minutes later, Samazzar’s magic detected another clearing.  He cast his awareness ahead, and almost immediately pursed his lips.

“We’re nearing our quarry,” he said softly.  “Doesn’t look like there will be any more of the apes.  Or anything to fight, really.  Just bad news.”

“Always plenty of that,” Dussok rumbled behind him.

Then Takkla led the way into the opening in the forest.  At some point in the last couple of years, a wind storm had knocked down a handful of old growth trees.  In falling, they had pummeled their younger brethren to the ground, creating a break in the foliage next to a narrow burbling creek.

The second Takkla stepped into the clearing, almost fifty crows took off, cawing noisily as they filled the sky.  In their wake, the birds left absolute devastation.  Up and down the creek were tents made from cheap cloth and patched with leather.  Most of them were trampled and destroyed, but a handful of structures including at least one larger tent wedged at the far end of the camp still stood.

That didn’t mean much for the tents occupants.  Bodies, torn and pulped under the blows of massive fists covered the ground. The bodies were still clad in the mismatching armor and weapons that Sam had come to associate with the ‘bandits,’ but it was clear that they had suffered a grisly and not entirely recent end.  Many of them were missing bits and pieces, likely carried off in the beaks of the crows. Barely noticeable amids the ruined campsite were a set of six steel cages next to the larger intact tent, each large enough to house an ox and pried open from the inside.

The smell from the broken and twisted bodies made Samazzar’s eyes water, but it was harder on Takkla’s keen senses,  She turned aside almost immediately retching into a thorny berry bush.  Dussok slapped one hand to his muzzle to avoid joining her even as he rubbed her back with the other.

Adam elbowed Samazzar, drawing his attention.  A curt nod toward the cages confirmed Sam’s guesses.  The last remaining ape was slumped over in one of them, face down with its back covered in Takkla’s arrows.  A quick touch of Samazzar’s senses confirmed that there was no heat in its body or breath coming from its face.

“Dead,” he remarked before gagging as the pungent smell of the rotting clearing attacked him once again.

“Are you all right?” Adam asked, a note of worry to his voice as he glanced back at Samazzar.  “It doesn’t smell that great for me, but I can manage.  I don’t want the three of you to go through an ordeal if we have an alternative.”

“Thank you,” Sam replied gratefully as he shuffled away from the clearing and into the cool shadows of the forest.  “It looks like we won’t have to deal with this branch of our ‘bandit’ problem, but I’m not entirely sure that’s a good thing.  I’d almost prefer a fight where we could question someone at the end of it in order to get some answers.”

“I know,” Adam agreed, drawing his sword as he eyed the devastation.  The metal neck guard of his armor expanded, growing upward into a mask that covered and shielded the entirety of his face.  “Finding the spawn of a scarlet behemoth out here was bad enough.  Now we know that the ‘bandits’ dragged them out here.  If I had to bet, I’d say that they were going to use the apes as terror weapons once they moved on.  The things were aggressive and dangerous enough to deny a large area of the forest to travel or exploitation.

“I don’t know what nation or faction is behind what we’re seeing right now,” he continued, his voice distant and plagued with a faint echo behind the steel faceplate, “but whoever it is has reach and power.  Keeping an army equipped and hidden was worrying enough, but if they can start fielding creatures like this, I can basically guarantee that there are some major practitioners backing this move.  The Patrician needs to know what’s happening, but even then I’m not sure that we have a winning hand.”

“If all else fails you can live in the mountain caves with us,” Samazzar said with a half-smile.  “The tunnels might be a bit cramped and cold, but they have a certain nostalgic charm to them.”

“I’d like to avoid that,” Adam replied, stepping onto the battlefield.  “I’m going to poke around a little bit to see if there’s anything we can work with here.  It sure looks like the apes killed all of the ‘bandits,’ but I’d be grateful if you could watch over me from the tree line.”

“Got it,” Samazzar responded, flashing the knight a thumbs up.  “It’s basically trivial for me to track everything in a ten or so pace circle around you.  If anything moves, I’ll just roast it.”

“So long as you don’t cook me,” the humans responded with a chuckle as he began walking into the destroyed campsite.  “I have some padding underneath, but metal armor isn’t exactly known for its heat resistance.”

“Just a quick bake,” Sam quipped back.  “Enough to add a little pink to your skin.  You do realize that you’re distressingly pale right?  I’m worried that there isn’t enough red meat in your diet.”

He waved a gauntleted hand dismissively over his head as he waded into the tangle of bodies and destroyed tents.  Samazzar grinned one final time at the knight’s back before he stretched out with his mind and began monitoring the area around his friend.

Once he was sure that his magic was tracking Adam, Sam turned to his siblings.  Takkla was done vomiting, but she looked far from her usual self.  It was almost like some of the red had been blanched from her scales as she leaned against a nearby tree.  Dussok stood by her side, his axe leaning against the back of the tree as he fretted over the smaller saurian.

“Is she doing all right?” Sam asked, walking over to the two of them.

“I think so, but-” Dussok began, only for Takkla to cut him off.

“I’m fine, just a bit winded.  The smell over there is something else.”

“I’d say two days out in the sun given how much the rot has already set in,” Samazzar agreed.  “I wouldn’t be surprised if the monkeys escaped and killed everyone just after they were done with their attack on the lumber camp.”

“I know you were joking about it,” Takkla began slowly, her sharp eyes following Adam’s gleaming figure as the human pulled the leather flap on the large tent up and stepped inside, “but have you ever thought of going back to the mountains?  I like some of the people here, but at the same time, it feels like we don’t belong.  Like no matter what we do, we’ll never fit in.”

“Etanne, your master, Adam, and Matthus are all good people,” Dussok agreed, “but the rest of the humans treat us as potential threats at best.  Many of them glare at us and pull their children away as we walk by.  If it weren’t for our size, I suspect some of the common workers would have tried to start fights with us by now.  It isn’t a place for us.”

“Then again,” he continued, voice growing contemplative, “neither were the caves. Most of the other kobods treated us like we were two headed monsters too.”

Samazzar sighed, reaching up to scratch the scales at the back of his neck.  He double checked.  Adam was still rustling around in the tent, too far away to overhear him.  Still, he didn’t want to hurt his friend’s feelings.

“I think it would be foolish to feel any loyalty to Vereton,” he said, keeping his volume down.  “I feel some kinship with a number of people that live in Vereton itself, but the actual City feels like a predator that’s just waiting for one of us to slip up so it can chew us up and spit us out.  By the mysteries, we’ve tried to fit in, but at the end of the day we have scales and humans have skin.  For a lot of people, that will be enough of a reason to hate.”

“So are we going back?  Takkla asked, a hint of wistfulness touching her voice.  “I don’t want to get stuck in whatever conflict is bubbling under the surface.”

“Not yet,” Sam replied, shaking his head.  “We still need a fair amount of time before we make that sort of decision.  If we go back to the mountains, we won’t have anything but the knowledge in our heads.  We need to learn everything we can in Vereton before we leave.  Enough to establish ourselves.  Already Dussok is a pretty decent smith, and I can make a dagger or a horseshoe without hurting myself.  We just need to learn what we can at the Academy and pick up a couple more trades.  If I’m stuck living in a cave again, I plan to do it as a civilized being, not a frightened scavenger.”

Dussok nodded slowly, his face covered in blood and a troubled expression, but it was clear that Samazzar’s reasoning was making an impact.

“Plus,” he continued slyly.  “When I was at the bottom of Whistling Gorge I saw some markings on the wall.   Unless I miss my guess, there’s a nest of cliff drakes down there.  Exactly what the three of us will need to trigger our next evolution.”

Takkla glanced at Dussok.  He held her gaze for a second and then nodded.

“Fine,” she said, bobbing her head in turn.  “It makes sense for us to stay and learn.  I just hope you’re paying attention to the situation in Vereton.  I trust you, but if things don’t get better, it won’t be a true home for us.”

Samazzar reached out, taking his sister’s hand in one of his own while clapping another on Dussok’s shoulder.

“Not every human has rejected us,” he replied.  “There are plenty who have accepted us with open arms.  It might take some doing, but the City is not a lost cause.  Of course, if things do fall apart, you are absolutely right.  I would rather live in a cave than outstay my welcome, especially amongst the monsters hiding in the academy.  I have seen too much of power of men to feel safe if they decide to become our enemies.”

Both Takkla and Sam’s heads jerked up.  A second later, Adam pushed up the flap of the tent, a sheaf of papers in his hand. His gleaming metal face searched the treeline until he saw the three saurians and then he began moving across the clearing at a fast walk, careful to avoid the twisted and broken bodies covering every surface.

When he reached about the halfway point, he called out, his voice trembling with worry and excitement.

“I found their orders.  They are an army!  This was just a small detachment, but they had directions to a rendezvous point.  This is it, Sam.  We finally have a target.  We can finally bring the battle to our enemy!”