A Sinner's Eden

***Tirnanog, Hochberg***

***Astra***

The riverbank was downright teeming with life compared to the grassland westwards of the fortress city. It was impossible to walk ten metres without stumbling across some strange critter. Thankfully, most of the smaller creatures were relatively harmless.

Still, it didn't hurt to be careful when it came to Tirnanog's fauna and flora, so Magnus and I advanced very slowly while we dug acidroots out of the sandy riverbank. Thanks to the stubby, reddish stem which looked out from beneath the riverbank's sand, the plants were easy enough to find. At least once we knew what to look for.

I hated the roots’ slick and slimy appearance – a feature they shared with most of the things in this biome. The most tolerable creature I came across was some type of clamshell which glittered in all colours of the rainbow. It wasn't mentioned in any of the books about dangerous creatures, so I didn't know its name.

Which didn't stop me from collecting at least some of the pretty shells sans their slimy owners.

Maybe I could have a crafter make adornments for my armour with the material.

The only thing we had to be wary of was a type of sea slug, called a 'needlespitter'.

And of course, going into the deeper water was an absolute no-go. Though, we should be fine as long as we stayed on the shore.

Because I hadn’t been to the area before I looked up all the possible threats before we left.

The needlespitters were sought after for their cone-like shells – offering a desired material for tableware because of their ceramic properties.

On the flip side, needlespitters were dangerous to hunt because they could spit a poisoned dart from their trunk-like feeding organ. And unlike what someone would expect of a slug which lived in shallow river zones, they were capable of jumping long distances. Either to escape into the deeper water or to close the distance with their prey.

While I dug out another root, Magnus discovered a needlespitter mostly buried in the sand of the shore. A badly aimed snap of electricity was enough to startle the creature and have it flee. It burst out of its hiding place, shooting in a low arc towards the river where it bounced over the water twice before it disappeared beneath the waves.

Chasing off the needlespitters was downright anticlimactic compared to our first official hunting expedition as a partnered pair. The poisoned darts weren't of any concern as long as we kept on our armour. The darts didn't have enough power to penetrate, even if one of the needlespitters caught us off-guard.

Meanwhile, the drakes were following us at a sedate pace. They had found a liking to the young sprouts which came out of the coral-like plant dominating the centre of the riverbank. The corals had overtaken the bank with a thicket of sturdy, almost stone-like branches.

The hard shells protected the lower parts of the plants. Only at the top, seven or eight metres above the ground, they had tightly packet blooms of leaves which competed for sunlight.

As tough as the older parts of the plants were, they were no hindrance to a drake's claws and teeth. Cadence had no trouble breaking the older branches to get to the young sprouts. Loop preferred to lick the soft marrow out of the broken plants after the female was done with them. Meanwhile, Elegance had developed a taste for the leaves and was harvesting everything she could reach while standing on her hind legs.

Cadence suddenly stopped her foray and looked up, sniffing loudly before she sent out a warning.

'Careful, it smells of enemy!'

Magnus simply dropped the acidroot he was cleaning and had his spetum ready in a moment.

I also readied my spear while I eyed our surroundings carefully. The water was my best guess as a hiding place for our pursuer. It was some kind of sea star in its natural form, so it should prefer a water environment.

At least so went my reasoning until the monster we had been looking for and several of its smaller brethren burst out of the thicket behind me. They charged with a frenzied single-mindedness which would have left me stunned if we hadn't been anticipating something like this to happen.

Our plan to draw them out had finally worked – maybe a little too well.

The thing had created a little hit-squad of minions while we had been searching for it!

I wasted no time and greeted the closest minion with a plasma ball to the centre of its body.

Or was it the larger one's offspring?

Their relationship didn't truly matter if I was honest.

The creature shrieked and stumbled when the hot plasma explosively evaporated its outer layer. Compared to an old-fashioned lightning strike, the technique didn't have much penetrating power. But it had more range and there was a certain shock effect to having a part of your body fluids spontaneously evaporate while the flesh was instant-fried.

Meanwhile, my second hand went to my belt and shot forward, sending one of the flechettes through another monster. I didn't have to think too much about my movements as my sub-identities took over.

Then I had to flash step to the side, avoiding the larger creature as it charged after Magnus.

Seeing the monster in the light of day somehow took away the sense of danger it posed.

In my mind, I had made it out to be one of the feared night terrors. But under the sun and out in the open it looked like a giant squid crossed with a seastar. Its body moved on countless stubby legs while it tried to get to us with its main tentacles.

Oh, it was massive and undoubtedly powerful. Nothing to be taken lightly or to be brought down easily.

But it was also insanely slow and out here on the shore Magnus and I had more room to manoeuvre than we needed. Fighting the thing's tentacles within the confines of a narrow corridor had been the worst case scenario for us, robbing us of the chance to attack the thing's main body while allowing it to play to its strength.

I dashed behind a minion and speared one of the larger cores inside it before retreating quickly. Killing the smaller creatures wasn't easy with our equipment, but I hadn't aimed for a kill, only short-term distraction.

The annoyingly sturdy monster screeched, visibly pained by the loss of an organ, but it reoriented its trajectory nonetheless in an attempt to get to me – right before Loop's tail fell on it, the spikes on the drake's tail spearing the monster like kebab. I had just enough time to notice that Loop had already gathered two of the minions on his flail-like appendage.

I grinned. The drakes were experts at squashing things, and not even the stupid seastars could come back from that.

Then Elegance and Cadence fell on the larger monster’s back which had turned to hunt after Magnus.

Scythe-like claws tore into the soft flesh as the two female drakes double-teamed the oversized mollusc. But just like its offspring, the monster just refused to die.

It turned and began to wrestle with Cadence in an attempt to pull the drake towards its maw.

I flash stepped onto the creature's head and stabbed my spear into the largest and brightest cluster of cores.

As if he had read my mind, Magnus appeared and kicked the end of the spear, sending it in almost all the way before we discharged all our power into the monster.

We could have never mustered enough power to truly affect such a humongous body as a whole. But there was a difference between receiving a zap to your finger and having a needle stabbed into your brain which discharged electricity conflicting with the rest of the nerve system.

The monster shuddered while Cadence and Elegance dismantled its paralysed body piece by piece.

Loop was ruthlessly dealing with the smaller minions, hunting after them like a firehorn let loose in a pen of molerats.

He seemed perfectly satisfied with stomping the smaller ones and showed no interest in joining the females. Almost as if fighting above his weight class wasn't on the male's agenda today.

I gagged at the spreading smell but forced the stinging belly acid coming up my throat back down. The last few days I had made a habit of not eating breakfast, knowing about the peculiar defence mechanism of our enemy.

An empty belly was much easier to control when faced with the horrible stench.

And then it was done.

A whole host of the monsters lay slain before us. Well, their pieces. It wasn't exactly possible to kill these things without dismantling them completely – the perfect job for our mounts.

“If it wasn't for the horrible smell, I would celebrate our victory,” I commented while I jumped off the monster's head. Then I flash stepped, circling the battlefield to get upwind of the horrible stench. “Goddess, why must it stink so much!? At least the fight went down easier than expected.”

“Easy?” Magnus harrumphed and followed me. “You didn't have to flash step for your life while the big motherfucker tried to tentacle slap you with a dozen appendages simultaneously!”

“Aw,” I smirked at his exaggeration. “We are moving way faster when we are training against each other. Be a dear and retrieve my spear from its head? And clean it off in the water while you are at it.”

“And get that horrible muck all over me after I managed to stay clean?” He blanched. “No thanks! It's your spear.”

I winked at him and tried to look coy. “But you are the strong man with the big muscles! If you get it for me and wash it, you might get lucky tonight.”

He glared at me. “What kind of lucky? Really dance-lucky, or just lucky?”

I felt myself flush a little. “Fine. You will get really dance-lucky.”

I absolutely did not want to get more of that stink on me than necessary.

He hummed. “I still feel like a bird-brained guy, allowing myself to be bribed with sexual services.”

I blinked innocently. “But it still works like a charm, doesn't it?”

At least I wasn't the only one feeling a bit self-conscious about this trade.

Just what was it with him and dancing? It was a little embarrassing, but I didn't particularly mind striptease. At least his fetish was innocent enough compared to other things. Thalia had spun tales about way stranger stuff than doing some enticing dancing in front of your partner.

He grunted and went to the still-twitching corpse.

The drakes had done a wonderful job at eviscerating it, but they had also paid the price. They were covered in that stinky monster muck from head to toe. Judging by experience, the smell wouldn't come off for at least a day.

Elegance glared at me while she tried her best to clean her body by writhing around in the wet sand. It worked so well that I considered doing it myself.

'Price?'

I rolled my eyes. “Yes, you will get your price for helping.”

Going out for at least for an hour thrice a week for as long as we were away from the colony was a small price to pay for the help of two bombers and a fighter jet. Looking around, I had to admit they had also done most of the work.

The elders had been wise in keeping the drakes at our side. But seeing their power unleashed, I wondered whether it was the other way around.

Strangely enough, the drakes had asked for regular outings in exchange for their help with the 'enemy of the colony'. Their main goal was to find new tasty plants – and they knew that humans kept meticulous records of their surroundings.

Why they didn't just fly off on their own to search for food was beyond me. Back at Aerie, they were independent enough to need no attention. Maybe it was about having some of the older drakes around. Our three mounts were relatively young as far as I knew.

***Tirnanog, Hochberg***

***Vanya***

“I still don't think your new guard is a good idea,” Tianna argued while shooting a wary glare at Anajed.

I raised my eyebrows and regarded my new masked bodyguard for a moment before I returned my attention to my friend. “I am aware that you don't like my choice. Maybe you despise it even. Would you be happier if I ordered Anajed to kill herself? Right here, right now? You know as well as I do that this would have been her fate otherwise.”

“No. Not after what you have done to her. It wouldn't feel right.” Tianna pressed her lips together. “Still doesn't mean I have to like it.”

“Be assured that Anajed is loyal to us,” I sat down at the conference table while Anajed took her position behind me.

Tianna sat down too, but so that she could see Anajed. No matter my assurances, she didn't trust her – which hurt a little. It was akin to not trusting my abilities or me.

She pulled out a letter and opened it for me to see.

“About my reason for calling you: We have just received a message informing us that the Aerie air fleet has entered our territory. The messenger confirmed that all of the Aerie elders are with the fleet. They are on their way here and should arrive within a day, presumably to pick up their diplomats before moving on – with or without our help.”

“Doesn't sound like they are giving us much of a choice.” I whistled softly. “So, it's true.”

After a moment of silent contemplation, I asked another important question. “Is the Invincible Bitch with them too? Or any of their other old monsters?”

Tianna regarded the missive for a moment. “It wasn't mentioned. I don't believe so. If all of their elders moved out to join this campaign, then it would only be sensible for their ancestors to stay behind and protect the mountain.”

“Hmmm.” I nodded slowly, considering it. Throwing all their martial might onto the scales sounded a little bit too 'out there', considering what the Aerie delegation had shared with us. It would have left their non-combatants almost undefended. A single large monster incursion could end or seriously damage the clan.

“Then we will hold our ancestors back,” I concluded after a moment of consideration. “But when we meet, we do it with all of our regular powerhouses.”

We couldn't afford to look weak or indecisive in the face of such a showing of martial might. Thankfully, I had already ordered the mobilization of our forces or I would feel a bit anxious over having a sizeable part of the Aerie air fleet paying a visit to Hochberg. The next days would surely be busy.

***Tirnanog, Mount Aerie***

***Mary Frost***

I slowly lowered the book and tilted my head in an attempt to loosen the tense muscles in my neck. Then I looked around the room, just to make sure the reason for my unease wasn't of a more imminent nature.

Precognition was rearing its ugly head today, sending an unpleasant tingle down my spine.

Nowadays, there weren’t many things which could cause such a reaction. Either some powerful psychic had just turned his or her attention towards me, or there was a monster with psychic powers nearby.

It wasn’t unusual for Precognition to ring my alarm bells, but it was reason enough for caution. It happened from time to time, given the reputation I had among the clans. I had many enemies who would like to see me and my associates dead.

Was this worth investigating?

Probably not.

I waited a little for my filaments to settle down. When they didn’t act up again, I dismissed the incident as a little bit of over-sensitiveness. I hadn't reached my respectable age because I wasn't careful, but too much paranoia also wasn't healthy either.

Since I had left the leadership of the clan to others a long time ago, I was satisfied with doing administrative work, sitting at home, and reading books. At my age, I had learned that wishing to control every little detail of the world around me was a fool’s game.

There was no longer a need for complicated responsibilities in my life. Taking a guiding role from time to time was fine, but I preferred to steer the clan from the background with my peers.

A soft ‘crack’ drew my attention to the only social responsibility I had allowed myself to be talked into recently.

I put down the book and eyed the three eggs in their crib warily, then clicked my tongue when the crack on one of them widened as something pushed at the shell from within.

I clicked my tongue and Chitters came running – loyal to a fault.

“Get me Kiera and her staff as quickly as possible!”

Chitters clicked and dashed out of my quarters, going down on all fours to be even faster.

I sighed and mentally readied myself to do what had to be done.

Would what came out of those eggs be like Chitter’s people? Accepted, but nothing more than hunting dogs which had to be hidden away from the other clans?

Would they be normal?

Or would they deviate so much from anything acceptable that putting them down was the only option?

I sighed.

If the latter was true, then the young parents not being here was maybe a blessing.

Although, it would put me in a tough spot if they were like Chitters. In that case, taking the children away and telling the parents they died might be the kinder option. I had already seen too many couples struggle with the hope of integrating failed offspring into society.

I held my breath when the first shell broke and the face of a young toddler greeted me. He had the same luminescent markings as his parents but looked human otherwise.

Smiling, I tried to reassure his searching eyes, “Hello, little one.”

“Mom?”

My expression froze and I tilted my head in confusion. He could speak?

We made eye contact. “Mom!”

Oh, no no no. We certainly wouldn’t be going down that route! “C- call me grandma. Do you understand?”