Bonded Summoner

Tanda’s mind returned to her body, and found she was wrapped in vines. Only a few moments had passed since her mind entered the clearing, yet she already felt her body filled with vigor. The Stag’s auril was healing her, and her spirit connected with the world, as her newly enhanced heart beat heavily.

She could hear the songs of her new allies even more sure than before, as they courageously fought against the powerful foe. She took deep breaths, trying to find her rhythm as she moved auril around her body, aiding herself in healing.

Tanda found her energy moved even better than before, her spirit’s new weight on the world having an impact.

She could hear the hymn of the boar’s strength and ferocity. The lion’s bravery and skill. The hound’s nobility and righteousness. The stag’s heart sung a joyful song of life and abundance.

She willed her heart to beat the song of the funeral dirge, matching the play of her ancestors. Her heart slowly took on the right cadence, and a bright energy was borne in her body, filling it with even more power than ever before.

For now, that golden energy was just a spark.

The vines released her, having brought her away from death’s door. She leaped and flew for her spear and grabbed it, then she moved to rejoin the fray, empowered by her resonance, and her improved power from her new heart.

Only a few moments had passed since her godly visit, yet the battle had changed significantly. Nearly all the animals had wounds on them except the stag, and the evil champion was emboldened even further.

Moving even faster than before, he blurred around the battlefield, attempting to score more vicious blows. From what Tanda could tell, if the enemy champion could keep wounding the heroic beasts, he would never be stopped.

But the vines had a mind of their own, and even where cut, they regrew and rejoined themselves to rise up and form a shield. The lion and hound used the vines to obscure themselves, and where the champion thought there’d be flesh waiting for his bone blade, a powerful claw or maw was instead.

The vines twisted into spears and burrowed into his flesh, but the sickly red energy of his own healed his wounds as he cut them away as well. Tanda charged, and she created her scythe out of her deathly auril, aiming for the moment that the champion attacked once again.

The champion was ready for her attack and aimed to meet her blade, only for it to be a feint. She twisted her halberd closer to her as it was swung down in an arc as she stepped forward, the enemy’s blade missing her face by mere inches. She then extended her spearhead with her black auril instead of the scythe, and stabbed forward at the champion’s abdomen.

The champion twisted his large body, but she scored a slash across it. Her manifestation then tore a chunk out of his stomach, nearly exposing his guts. But his body was more durable and thicker than she had thought, the blow not reaching deep enough.

He attempted to counter her attack, but was met with vines as she retreated with a leap and a flash of her wings, positioning herself away for her comrades to have areas to strike blows from behind. He chased, and she countered his furious return assault, her movements minimal, just like Ophelia.

Where she wasn’t fast or strong enough to counter in time, the enemy’s blades were met with balls of flame or shards of ice, or beams of light.

The champion roared in frustration, as this rapid assault was met with both skill and technique, and her allies joining her in her song and dance. But the champion was still stronger, and eventually her spear was blasted away from her body, nearly out of her hands.

He gave a vicious smile as he was about to go for the kill with his large maw, but he was rammed into the side by a giant, angry red boar. The hymn of spring filled her heart, her heart joining it in its rhythm for a moment, as her spark of resonance grew, both being enhanced by the cycle. The boar’s fertility and abundance of life filled the area, healing and empowering their brethren.

Spring was a time of rebirth and renewal, the struggle of winter over. All creatures sung the song of abundance, of happiness and survival of the winter.

Even outside the battle with the champion, her brethren in the area were effected by the heroic beast’s efforts and resonance. Her flock were emboldened by the boar’s auril, and the dinosaurs on their side raised up from the ground, their wounds being healed, allowing them to fight once more.

The tusk was filled with the abundance of life and flames as it entered the Dreadbeast champion’s shoulder, burning the wounds shut as the tusk entered and exited, and Tanda went for another powerful thrust of her spear. The vines moved to build a shield around the stag, and the hound went for attacking the champion.

A malevolent energy exploded away from the champion, rebuffing the hound, boar and Tanda, for the champion to once again leap towards the stag. But the skillful lion was waiting, the hymn of summer entering her heart, growing the spark once more, the resonance in the area increasing.

Summer was a time of abundance, the peak of life. Plants and trees flower and bear fruit, and animals breed and feed.

A larger beam of light from the lion blasted him in the chest, and he was met with a whirlwind of deadly lit vines, having expected his arrival. The champion slashed and cut towards the lion with his claws and blades, but the lion matched him with its own deadly claws, filled with ferocity and skill.

Plants grew even further around the battlefield, vines, and saplings providing aid to her flock. Her people were now pushing the enemy further back now, the werewolves in retreat.

Tanda continued to feel the passionate songs of her brethren as she charged at the enemy once more, as the Stag sung the song of fall.

All life must slow and prepare for winter’s embrace, the stag adding its vines as they darkened and hardened, and were filled with thorns. Where they didn’t pierce the champion, they built a deadly shield that could not be traversed.

These thorns grew across the battlefield, aiding her people further. Her people were now protected, able to attack the werewolves with nearly no fear of reprisal.

The hound sang the song of winter, where much life comes to an end. Tanda’s funeral dirge beat in cadence with this, as a giant icicle was created by it and fired at the enemy champion. The spark grew once more, the cycle completed.

All hearts grew in resonance, as their rhythm and songs synced together. The light in her chest grew, as she joined the attack, the heroic beast’s energies rising as well. Her spear and blade harried the enemy, as both she and her heroic brethren moved for the kill. The cycle began once more, the stag and the boar beginning the cycle of life and death with rebirth and renewal, spring coming once more.

Her power soared, as her heart sung in cadence with her allies. She scored another piercing stab into the champion’s back, as the hound managed to bite the champion’s hand, holding onto it.

But a sickly red energy met her stab, her attack being mostly ineffectual. He slashed at the incoming lion, meeting its claw. The boar charged from the front, but the champion kicked its face and leaped back, wrenching his hand from the hound.

His wounds healed, and Tanda gave chase.

The champion realized something needed to change, and he withdrew two ring blades. He filled them full of sickly red energy, and threw them in a wide arc. These two weapons had a mind of their own, and arced and bounced off trees as they came at the beast leaders from odd angles.

The two blades disturbed her brethren’s rhythm, but they were quick to adapt. Their own vines blocked the blows, as they returned to their attack. The blades did not lose their momentum, and they would return to hunt her allies as they each blocked and attacked the champion.

As one of her brethren blocked the blow, he leaped to meet an opening presented, slashing the lion across the chest.

This emboldened him further, as he leapt towards the hound, where two blades arrived at the same time. But Tanda was where he aimed, meeting both a blade and his claw in a powerful arc. He growled in frustration, as she continued her assault with powerful thrusts, her heart thundering in her chest.

Her heart continued to grow in tune with her brethren, as they surrounded the enemy champion, dealing with his ring blades. Her auril built, and her spear and blade sharpened and lengthened. She drew in the life force and will from her allies, her enhanced heart beating in cadence with them.

The stag and the boar represented the creation and protection of life, and the hound and lion took it with predation. Tanda sung the song of the funeral dirge, her fallen brethren’s spirits joining her in the never ending battle against evil.

Her spear and her scythe became the inevitable end to the wicked’s life, the cycle of life and death building her resonance.

Her resonance increased, to the point where the gold light in her chest was visible. Tanda’s body was filled with power, as the energy grew and built. The coordination of her allies reached its peak, and wounds were scored against the champion instead.

Her blade deflected his spike, and she pierced the right side of his chest, exploding a larger hole in it. He howled with rage, but his attacks were met with her spear, or he was forced to withdraw once more by her allies’ attacks.

Death drew near for the champion, but he scored a vicious attack against one wing of hers as she blocked, followed by the other, as she took the wounds on in trade for going for his heart. They both hung limply, as she countered and landed a blow on his shoulder, his body twisting out of the way of the attack.

Vines grabbed onto him, and the four heroic beast’s auril built into pillars of light, their resonance with her finally reaching their peak. They pulled auril from the surrounding area, the abundance of the energy in the jungle abundant.

Their colored energy converged onto Tanda, her heart building a bright golden light by coalescing them into great power.

She prepared her powerful blow a distance away from the champion, crouching down with her body filled with power. The final cycle was now nearly complete, and the energy needed to be released at the precise moment it reached its peak. The evil champion smiled viciously, and his sickly red energy went off into the distance.

“From the beginning, you thought you were hunting me. But I am not the hunted, I am the one who hunts!”

The two ring blades came from her left and right, rapidly and full of vicious power, and she was in a bad predicament. Both her wings were wounded, and her body was stuck performing the powerful blow; she could not cancel what she was doing now.

The four heroic beasts were busy holding the enemy back, as well as sending their energy to her. Her body and armor were now covered in golden light, and as she looked down at it, she noticed something strange.

The blades drew near, the evil champion laughing, his crocodile mouth reaching closer to Tanda as he pulled against his bindings.

But Tanda smiled, as she willed her strength and manifestation into her two flaps– her cape. The symbol of the wolves lit up, and the two formed into golden creatures of the same. They bit into the ring blades, stopping them, a moment before the cycle was complete.

She thrust her everything towards the champion’s chest, and a beam of piercing light blasted through the air and through the chest of the champion, his expression changing to disbelief as it easily pierced his defenses.

His entire chest evaporated as the beam expanded and erased his torso, and continued through trees and into the sky. The clouds parted where the beam of light entered, and Tanda knew that her powerful blow could be seen for many miles.

The enemy champion’s neck and head hit the ground, his crocodile face shifting to that of a werewolf. The face forever having the expression of disbelief and terror. A spark of evil light left it, and entered the stag.

Tanda received a notification that her Trial was completed, and her crescent moon spear was filled with light and began to transform. Before, it was merely a dark metal for the spear tip and the crescent, along with a dark wood going along the shaft.

It grew a vine snaking up the shaft, and the metal became more lustrous. It had been dark, but the light and life inside it had become dull. Now, she could feel the deathly energies coming from it, and even life from the vines that grew on it.

[Mythic Champion’s Transformative Crescent Moon Spear of Cernunnos]

[Cernunnos represents transformation and rebirth, the cycle of life and death. This weapon has the form of Crescent Moon Spear, as well as a powerful Recurve Bow. Punish the wicked and protect the cycle of life and death in nature. Represents Cernunnos’ authority.]

Tanda found that she still couldn’t call on Cernunnos until she reached Tier 1, and she was completely exhausted. It appeared the heroic beasts were, too. She took one of the lower level pills that Fhesiah had supplied her, feeling only slightly better as the life energy entered her body.

Despite the massive amount of latent will that entered her as a reward from defeating the extremely difficult enemy, she did not yet level. Her body likely needed to be revitalized and her heart to grow using the life energy before she did.

She spent a few minutes recovering, the heroic beasts also tired. She looked over to the fight with her people, and it appeared they were doing well. Her resonance, along with the leader’s death, changed the tide of battle significantly.

Avina and Rikka arrived at her side, after a few minutes. Avina said, “We managed to route the enemy, but there’s a problem. The undead have spawned, and they are heading for the heart!”

Tanda tried to stand up, but found she could hardly move. The stag walked over, and the creature looked at her with a lot more intelligence in its eyes than she would expect. It smiled at her with a mouth full of teeth that looked eerily similar to Cernunnos’, and then a wave of auril filled with the abundance of life washed over her. It filled her with a little more strength, and healed the wounds on her wings.

The stag spoke. “Go, child. Buy some more time. Luck is still with you. We will watch over the wounded, along with the corpses of your brethren. No undead shall sully them.”

The three of them bowed at the creature, as the three of them took flight. As she flew over towards Harmony Peaks, she saw all the death. Countless corpses of her brethren and beasts alike. She wanted to bury their bodies, but the war still continued.

Thousands of her people died to eventually win against the werewolves, and their battle was still not yet won. Still, if she had not succeeded against the enemy champion, he could have been at the heart’s cave entry within minutes from then.

The three of them gave their calls, rallying any warriors that could still stand and fight. She saw that most of the animals that could still move gathered towards the stag, leaving the corpses of her brethren alone. Some were even helping those that were alive: dragging corpses off those still moving, and she even witnessed a younger stag and boar healing her people.

They flew to their peak, returning to the alliance node. Tanda was able to replenish her arrows, and even add many more. Despite it only having been another hour or two, there was plenty more equipment available. Her allies stocked up on more, able to get some more quivers of bows and javelins. It appeared her new tribe…she froze.

Tanda was surprised, as she had never aligned it in her mind that she was truly a part of Hearthtribe, until now. It was always Jake’s tribe, or just a temporary thing in her mind. That she would win the war, and she would be dismissed from her duty, her task. Cernunnos’ words carried a lot of weight in her mind. Perhaps, his words alone were enough for her song to change.

She also heard Rookard witnessing the good the changes were having on her people, along with how much Hearthtribe was transforming the area around Kenwodi for the better, with inventions like the gondolas. The healing they did, to save his many people from the brink of death. Countless songs were appearing about the saviors that not only were about them closing rifts, but going out of their way to save and enrich her people’s lives.

She was starting to see Hearthtribe as good for her people and the balance itself. Tanda had seen how the equipment they were producing was already changing the tide of battle, and that their actions had a profound impact on her people overall. Her people were even building with stone and special equipment. She knew that new types of clans or specializations would soon appear, and her people were becoming united in ways previously impossible.

While her flock did a good job of keeping her people connected, the nodes accomplished this in a more direct way. Her people would no longer need to be apart, not just because of distance, but because families could now grow within the cities they established. Their plateaus would be able to support many more people, and thus the need or desire to break away and enter the wilderness, to maintain the balance, would be less. They could choose to leave not by necessity, but by desire alone.

Rikka interrupted her thoughts. “Tanda, what happened to your communicator? It appears Jake is looking for you.”

Tanda started. She checked her ear, and sure enough, it appeared the communicator had gotten knocked out of it at some point. She motioned for Rikka to hand hers over, and she placed it in her ear.

“Can you hear me, Jake?”

[I can hear you, Tanda. I’m getting near, but I was worried when you didn’t answer. Someone did, but they weren’t sure where you were. What’s the situation?]

Tanda gave a tired smile, as she replied, “We’re mostly holding in here, but we could really use some help. The undead are coming for the heart of the world, and we are on our last legs. We’ll do our best to slow them down.”

[Is it just undead? Nothing else?]

Tanda frowned, as Jake said those words in a hurry.

“That’s all we’re aware of, for now. All other enemies have been defeated…”

[Alright. Do your best to hold out as long as you can, we will be there as fast as possible.]

Tanda received a tone that indicated the communication was over. She was almost mad at the sudden end to the conversation, but from the tone of his voice, he definitely sounded like he was in a hurry. He sounded relieved as well, for some reason.

She didn’t even get to tell him that there was already a champion, and he was defeated! She realized it hardly mattered, he was rushing here, and he would find out soon enough.

Tanda rallied her warriors, who were also equipped with as much of the Hearthtribe arrows and javelins as they could obtain. Tanda looked over her people sadly. There were so many before, and they were truly down to just a few hundred.

Most were awakened, but the idea that thousands of her flock had died today weighed down on her. That they would be coming back warmed her heart, but that they experienced the hunters rending their flesh worried her. Many of her people felt true terror, would they genuinely be the same again?

Her people gathered at the cave exits, and took to the air. To the south, she saw the enemy: a giant…slime? It was moving at a near jogging pace towards their caves.

It was black, and she could see bones inside of it, as far away as she was. Still, the creature would arrive at the heart in just a few minutes, if they didn’t slow it down. Following the slime was another necromancer and many skeletal mages.

She gave her screeching cry that signalled the attack, and another for the more elite members of those remaining to join her in her own assault.

As her people neared to rain attacks down on the slime, the necromancer surrounded the slime in a black barrier. Her people began to rain auril-filled attacks down onto it, but they were ineffectual.

Tanda triggered the transformation of her spear with a thought, switching it to the bow. Vines grew up and down it from the center, as it curved and bowed. The vines hardened until they were more like tree branches, the top, and bottom of the bow looking like the antlers of a stag. The string was made out of a powerful, taut vine, and Tanda was happy with the weight and balance of the bow.

She drew the vine back, targeting one of the skeletal mages with her auril arrow. The resistance was high, but she had filled her muscles with her strength. The bow itself was empowered by her auril, feeling like it was an extension of her own body. She added it to the arrow as well, just a tiny amount of it, an amount that she could maintain firing rapidly, and released.

As densely packed as the skeletal mages were, she knew that even if she missed the one she was targeting, she would hit something. Her shot was slightly off target, but hit the same mage that she was aiming for. The arrow shattered it, and she was satisfied with the power of the bow.

Her allies’ attacks landed on other skeletal mages, but many surrounded themselves with personal shields or countered with sending back balls of fire or shards of ice at her people. Her brethren took evasive action, as they weaved through the air and returned fire.

Thankfully, the necromancer was busy with shielding the slime creature, and wasn’t able to counter. Hundreds of her allies rained attacks down onto it, as it continued to move towards the heart. The slime periodically created spikes of bone or slime, attempting to pierce her people in the air. But her people were fast to move, dodging its attacks.

Tanda began aiming at the necromancer, finding her shots to be blocked with the same black shield that was protecting the slime. She tried to find resonance with her brethren, as she sang the song of battle. But she could feel that it was simply too soon, her body too exhausted.

She also felt that her brethren near her might be too weak. Perhaps, it would take a much larger number of her flock to cause even a small resonance compared to those four heroic beasts.

She continued to fire as powerful of shots she could manage at the necromancer, until the shield on it shattered, the rest of the necromancer’s allies defeated by her brethren. The shield on the slime rescinded, her flock finally landing attacks on the slime, as it continued to move towards their caves.

Their attacks appeared to be mostly ineffectual, but the eagle’s and hawk’s attacks seemed particularly effective. There was an eagle whose manifestation resulted in a golden javelin filled with the power of life, that truly cut into the creature. Many others were being blocked as they struck skeletons being moved around inside the creature’s body.

When the shield dropped, the necromancer was covered in a large green hazy skull, that rebuffed their next attacks, before it flew at her and her people. They scattered along with her, continuing to fire at the necromancer, but the skull chased at her. She shot at it as it flew at her, to some effect, but the skull continued to pursue her.

She willed her bow to transform back into her crescent moon spear as she fled, and built up her auril into as fierce of an attack she could accomplish. Her muscles were filled with weakness, but she still used her mortal strike once more, along with her auril as she sliced through the skull vertically.

She grimaced as her body was wounded or weakened even further, the remains of the hazy skull washing over her auril-clad body. She felt the remains of the sickly energy enter her, but it was rebuffed by her auril as she dove towards the necromancer.

It had been struck by several javelins and arrows, but the creature still stood. It was now casting beams of necrotic energy at her allies, numerous having been struck and starting to fall out of the sky, their auril doing its best to restore their body from the damage.

She swooped in and slashed the necromancer in half from the side, finishing it off. She crushed the skull, knowing that this was sometimes necessary to keep others from being able to raise them once more. Tanda took to the sky again weakly, trying to move towards the slime.

It was getting relatively close to the target of their defense now, and Tanda felt like they had barely slowed it down. Some chunks of it had been blown off, but pieces of it crawled towards its main body. What alarmed Tanda however, was that it rolled over some corpses of both her brethren and the fallen werewolves, and it added them to its bulk.

Tanda was worried, but her people were not without means. She was glad that the enemy champion followed her into the forest, as it was the will of the world that drew her there. But her people had a plan from the beginning, to at least slow down the enemy champion if he went towards the heart.

She screeched her signal cry, and many from the flock assailing the creature departed. She switched back to the bow to land a few more blows onto the creature, but the creature was not slowing down. The extra mass added from the additional corpses of those that were killed appeared to heal any damage done to it, the bodies dissolving inside the creature.

Her people kept doing their best, and she called her warriors to drag bodies out of its path; many of them out of effective ammo already. Some of her people even grabbed some dead werewolf hunter’s arrows, their arrowheads being powerful despite not accepting their auril.

This had a minimal effect, with how much it had already consumed. They trailed it for several more minutes as it got near, until it began to happen: an avalanche.

Rocks tumbled down the mountain, dislodging other rocks and gravel, moving stones. It built up as the ground shook, until the entrance to the heart was completely covered. A small mountain of dirt, rock, and gravel now covered the entrance, dozens of feet deep.

The slime warbled in anger as some of its body was crushed, and began trying to dislodge rocks. There was plenty of gravel and dirt to fill in the gaps, and even though it was funneling rocks through its body and spitting them out at her people, it wasn’t moving through very fast. Tanda switched to her crescent moon spear, and started attempting to land blows on the creature.

Her people joined her, and she ordered people to remove the corpses and bones where they could. The creature was close to entering the cave, when she heard one of her warriors shout in alarm.

“What is that? It’s like a shooting star?”

Tanda turned to look, and found that there was a beam of light streaking across the sky, with a tail of flames.

The slime seemed to sense trouble was near and hurried its actions, but it was too late. The shooting star was now close, and Tanda saw…it was Ophelia, with Jake…strapped to her? His staff was facing the other direction, spewing flames out.

Tanda called her warriors to retreat, and the shooting star arrived just a moment later. The speed of it was shocking, likely faster than any of her warriors could dive.

Ophelia and Jake landed next to Tanda, flat on their bellies, with Ophelia’s wings aside. Now that they were close, she could see they both looked…quite sick.

Tanda began to worry that perhaps they were not really saved from their dilemma, when Bloodberri appeared, armored and with weapon ready. The only thing Tanda could see of her face was the area around her eyes.

Her eyes held a look of utter hatred, as she shifted her view towards the undead slime.

“You!”

The snake woman’s body lit with runes from head to tail, along with her giant maul. She sprung forward in a surge of speed, as her maul lit up even further, both white and black colored light near blinding. She smashed into the creature, releasing a blast of both lights cascading over the creature.

A large chunk of it was blown away, and Tanda thought the creature was quite afraid. It formed spears out of its body and bones alike, and tried to attack her.

“Made!”

Her maul filled with flames from Jake’s heavenly aura, as it smashed into the creature once more, and her body snaked and wrapped around a portion of the creature, shredding it with her blades and spikes.

“Jake!”

The maul smashed into the creature again and again, as she reached near the center of the creature. Her tail spiraled and danced, as it cut through all the slime’s attempts to attack her with the bones. She filled with holy might once more, smashing into what Tanda thought was the center of the creature.

“Sick!”

A wave of white light went over the creature, and Tanda could tell it was in its death throes. It warbled as it lost whatever was holding the strange creature together, and the black seeped into the ground, releasing all the corpses and bones onto the ground.

On some level, Tanda was amazed. The creature was defeated so easily by her. On another, it depressed her. She had met auril heroes before, and she knew that only her father would have any sort of chance at standing against this woman. She had doubts that even he could defeat her. The champion Tanda just faced… She wasn’t sure who would win there, but she wouldn’t bet against Bloodberri.

Tanda looked over to Jake and Ophelia, and he was now no longer strapped to her. He looked like he was about to throw up, and Ophelia wasn’t much better. Tanda was speechless. She was happy to see them, but…what happened?

Ophelia gave a tired smile to Tanda. “It was a rough flight? We drank too many mana potions and drank too much mana water, to increase our speed. Your body is not meant to consume too much of that per day, but we really had to rush it.”

Bloodberri interjected, before Tanda could even think of how to respond to that, “Are there any other enemies remaining, or should I start healing?”

Tanda replied, “That should be the last, though I will have my people scout the area and make sure.”

She had Avina and Rikka direct some scouts into the sky, forming several parties.

Bloodberri immediately went to find some wounded, leaving Tanda, Jake, and Ophelia.

Jake gave Tanda a tired smile. “Well, I’m glad we made it in time to help.”

He looked around at the corpses, of which they were many, and he grimaced. “I’m sorry we couldn’t get here sooner. We left as soon as we realized the implications of the reptile beastkin underground. As soon as we’ve rested enough, we’ll need to go check out that rift.”

Tanda nodded. “It should be closed now, though, we defeated the challenge. It would be good to check for the reptile beastkin though, as they never showed…”

Jake sighed. “It’s a good thing they didn’t. They are stronger, or at least, the Tribe of the Sleeping God are. They had 3 auril heroes underground. Still, the implications of them not showing is concerning. The heart of the world seems like a major target, so just what could have been more important? We’ll need to learn more.”

That worried Tanda, but she still hadn’t had time to really think about the reptile beastkin. They had been a part of what caused the world to be wounded and cursed, and killed and enslaved the beastkin. At the same time, that was over a thousand years ago. Those alive could not be responsible for that.

Ophelia asked, “What’s with your spear, Tanda? It looks totally different now?”

Jake added, “Hmm, yeah. And your…presence feels different?”

Tanda was more than a little proud. She was sure her tail was betraying her emotions right now. She smiled.

“Well, it was a reward for completing my Trial Task. I fought like my ancestor with the four great heroic beasts, and became Champion of Cernunnos, by killing the Dreadbeast Champion!”

Ophelia and Jake were shocked, and they perked up despite clearly being sick and tired a moment before.

Ophelia spoke first, “Wow! A champion? That’s a huge deal!”

Jake asked, “That’s odd, there isn’t any details about him. How did you meet Cernunnos?” Tanda could tell that he was interested.

Tanda then described the series of events leading up to her arrival here at Harmony Peaks. She then talked about how she won over the elders to allow others to join the Framework. Then their retreat, and meeting of the heroic beasts.

Jake was awed. “Some kind of heroic beasts like the play?”

He looked towards the forest. “Do you think they’re still there?”

Tanda thought it was a little weird that he was so excited. “Um, maybe? Why are you so excited?”

Jake laughed a little awkwardly. “I… Just really find beasts interesting, is all. Their diversity and strengths, their weaknesses and everything, I guess? Even on Earth, I liked reading about special animals. From spiders that dance, to fish that spit water to catch bugs, nature always had a way to surprise me.”

He gave a far away look, perhaps was having a conversation over this bond she heard about. His look was filled with indignation.

Ophelia laughed. “We’re just messing with Jake, don’t worry about it, Tanda. Keep telling your story.”

Tanda continued, telling them about how the will of the world brought them to the fight in the forest, where the heroic beasts like the play showed up. How she got defeated by an almost casual attack by the champion, and prayed to the idol on her dead ally’s adornment, where Cernunnos appeared. She did her best to paraphrase the discussion she had with him.

“So he was really almost dead, there were no details on him. Ophelia was pretty close to choosing Brigid for her oath, too. We just didn’t feel like she truly resonated with her on an individual level, at least not as much as Hestia and how she purported herself across the multiverse, anyway.”

Tanda responded, “Well, Cernunnos said that he was at least part of the reason that Hestia might have sent you here. To save her friend. After I accepted being his champion, he gave me a Trial Task, to land the killing blow on the enemy champion. If I didn’t, I’d fail the trial, and if I died against him, I’d die forever. My song built up resonance with the beasts, until I released a large blast of golden auril right through him.”

She grabbed her flaps. “But what really saved me was these, I’ll have to thank Berri for them.”

Berri arrived, having healed a good number of people already.

“I told you! Heroes really should wear capes! They look so cool. I like them because Jake put the little doggies and birdies I wanted on there.”

Jake chuckled. “Well, it sounds like we were lucky that they meant something, huh? Well, I made sure using the dictionary first, anyway. Well, we’re glad you won and you’re okay, Tanda. That was an amazing accomplishment.”

Tanda looked at Jake significantly. Before, she felt like she was the most eligible bachelorette. That men from all over Highlands would clamor to sing their song, and challenge her in the hopes of dominance.

She thought that Jake should be no different. But now, she felt nothing but silly. He had fought day and night for her people, and even flew a thousand miles to protect them. He was changing her entire world.

Having faced the enemy champion and only won with the help of the heroic beasts, when one of his mates could have probably defeated him with ease, she understood they were on another level.

Could she be good enough? Would he even want her? Suddenly, she was afraid to ask. Still, she was determined. She’d wanted nothing more in her life. She would do as Ophelia said, and try to meet him half way.

“During my talk with Cernunnos, I realized something. That I had misunderstood what I’ve always wanted. Because of that, I now know that I want to know for sure, if you and I can find harmony– That I can join a strong clan with goals I resonate with. I want to hear your song, Jake, so when we’re done with wrapping this up, I want to let you hear mine first. If… If you won’t sing a song, just telling me about your goals and dreams in our language is enough for me… Would you do that for me?”

Jake smiled at her. Ophelia beamed, and Berri smiled as well.

“I’m glad you decided you wanted to see if we could find harmony, Tanda. I’ll see if I can make you satisfied, as I don’t mind taking part in your customs. Still, we should get moving, shouldn’t we? You have wounded in the forest as well, don’t you? Also, Bloodberri can resurrect people. She might be limited in how many she can handle in a few hours time, but any of those that are clan heads and otherwise would be a good idea, right?”

Tanda nodded. She looked over to Ophelia and Bloodberri, and both of them had smiles on their faces, though the former certainly looked tired.

Jake hopped into a basket that Bloodberri produced out of nowhere, and she began to head in the direction Tanda had previously indicated. Tanda felt strange about their relationship being in an odd place, but for her, this was a strange clan, but she was already starting to feel quite welcome.