NOVEL NEXT Book Five: Diplomacy - Chapter Fourteen: Fenrir. Finally.
So far, I’ve had the most luck with Bastet out of all my Bound. Though nothing I’ve tried has fully worked and I haven’t managed to see her Energy channels yet, I get the feeling that I’m on the cusp of doing so. I tried so hard last night that I gave myself a migraine – one that I couldn’t even fully heal with Flesh-Shaping. But it gave me information that I hope will lead to a breakthrough tonight.
Bastet’s not back, though. She went out with Honey, Thorn, and Sirocco. Apparently she wanted to kill some powerful beast in the local area. I have to admit that I wasn’t paying as much attention as I probably should have been, my mind consumed with thoughts about getting the iron out of the ore. It turns out that having a much better memory doesn’t help much when I wasn’t paying enough attention to develop the memory in the first place.
I take a moment to look at the rank up of Inspect Environment.
Congratulations!
You have advanced a Skill past Beginner. Inspect Environment is now Novice 1. Due to focussing on specific elements you know are present while using this Skill, you are now able to attempt to find something you are not sure is present in your environment. Chances of discovering what you are searching for depends both on your proximity to the target in question (range expanded with the level of this Skill and Wisdom) and how strong your intentions are.
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I’m feeling rather pleased with myself: that makes it two Skills ranking up to Novice in one day. In this case, it was purely by accident. I got a bit bored of repeating the same actions with Earth-Shaping and the lumps of iron ore and decided to experiment a bit.
Apparently trying to find iron in the lumps with Inspect Environment was just what it needed to be pushed into the next rank since it was at Beginner level nine to begin with.
The new aspects of it sound pretty interesting, to be honest. Before, it just highlighted useful, safe, and dangerous; now it highlights something that I want. I’ve tested it since ranking up, of course. When focussing on iron ore, all the flecks of iron in the lumps of earth gleamed gold in the area immediately around me. It didn’t reach very far, though, perhaps only a metre or so in all directions.
But it isn’t just iron ore that I could detect. I tested it by dropping a couple of arrowheads on the ground with my eyes closed. Doing a few turns on the spot, I focussed on my arrowheads and cast Inspect Environment. When I opened them again, my arrowheads were gleaming gold – and the iron ore wasn’t.
If nothing else, it should make finding my arrows after a battle that much easier. I know that range is determined by the level of the Skill and Wisdom, but the last word in the description ‘intention’ makes me wonder whether Willpower is a less explicit factor in the Skill’s success.
Closing my screen, I notice that Fenrir has just arrived back, accompanying Catch and Pride. Spotting where I’m sitting, they come over to me, pulling over a carcass with them. It’s rather large, and if the feeling through Pride’s Bond is anything to go by, he’s currently rather well-named.
“Good kill,” I say nodding at the carcass which has rather nasty-looking claws and teeth. A llyrol, if Inspect Fauna is to be believed. “Do you need any healing?” I ask a moment later.
I am well, thank you, Honoured Markus, Catch says politely. He started trying to call me ‘Honoured Tamer’ when I returned back to the village after the whole thing with the alcaoris, but after I made my preferences known, he returned to the slightly better option. He still won’t drop the ‘honoured’ though. I think he likes using my name, even with the prefix – it sets him a little apart from the rest of the samurans; shows his connection to the new leader.
Pride indicates that he has a small wound on his shoulder where a lucky blow must have caught him, but that’s quickly fixed. He sends me an image of the downed beast, looking much more dangerous while alive and attacking him. A moment later, he shows it on the ground with its throat ripped out, accompanying the image with smugness. Apparently it was his kill.
Fenrir nudges at my knee, sending a plaintive request for aid to me. Placing my hand on his shoulder, I send mana into him. Immediately, I realise that he’s probably the most injured of the group. In fact, the level of damage he’s suffering surprises me a little – it’s all internal with very little obvious externally.
“Did the beast fall on you or something?” I ask absently even as I get to work healing the internal bleeding and bruised organs.
That’s exactly what happened, Catch replied ruefully. I hum curiously, most of my attention on healing Fenrir. It’s going quickly: his body is very happy to work with my healing mana, accepting it faster than any of my Bound apart from Bastet. Or maybe Lathani. Pride didn’t realise Fenrir was in the way when he let the carcass fall.
I open my eyes briefly to send Pride a reproachful look. The large sail-backed scalla stares back at me, sending a feeling over the Bond that I interpret as him saying ‘if he’d got out of the way, he wouldn’t have been hurt’.
Perhaps Catch has the same impression since I overhear him also reproaching Pride.
If we’re hunting with others, we must be aware of them at all times. Would you have been happy if he’d bitten your leg rather than the llyrol’s because he didn’t realise you were there?
Pride responds with feelings of sulky negation – I’d guess that he just doesn’t want to admit that he was wrong. I leave it up to them – Pride seems to be getting along pretty well with Catch.
His Bond still has a month’s timer on it, but I wonder if by the end of that, he'll be more interested in being with Catch than me. If so, it’s not a problem: I doubt Catch will want to break our Bond any time soon, so if Pride sticks with him, it’s almost as good as a direct Bond with the prideful predator.
Fenrir healed, I’m glad when he doesn’t move away immediately, instead choosing to slump against me, his head sitting on top of my knee. Although he’s not furry, it’s still pleasant to stroke his dry, scaly skin. Using the pleasure flowing down the Bond as an indication, I scratch him under the chin and between the eyes: those apparently are particularly nice spots for him.
If he’d been a dog, I bet his tail would be beating the ground by now; as it is, he simply relaxes more into me with a sigh. Around us settle more samurans, each around a carcass.
The division of the Pathwalkers, Warriors, and Unevolved is slowly being eaten away now that there are no ‘tokens’ indicating which of the piles of carcasses a samuran is allowed to eat at. Instead, there are a few caracasses which have been left by the designated hunters in the shady hut to the side of the village central area – a hut which previously would have housed hatchlings and is now being repurposed as a temporary larder. Samurans arriving either have a carcass with them like Catch, Pride, and Fenrir did, or go to grab one.
The Pathwalkers still seem to prefer sitting together, but I’ve noticed a few of the younger Warriors going to sit with other Unevolved – perhaps their yearmates from before they Evolved. Time will tell whether the rest of the divisions will disappear, though I suspect they will. Personally, I’ve spent one evening each with the Pathwalkers and Warriors, and then the last two evening meals have been with my Bound. I want to spend one with a group of Unevolved, but they looked too nervous last night when I approached them. Perhaps tomorrow night.
For now, though, Fenrir and I bask in each other’s company, finally being able to spend a bit of time together without anything else particularly pressing to get to. Much like being back in my alcove in Kalanthia’s cave while waiting for food to cook.
On that front, I’m hungry.
“Pass me a chunk of that meat, would you?” I ask Catch.
Of course, Honoured Markus, the samuran answers quickly and hands me several chunks. Taking my hand away from Fenrir earns me the Bond equivalent of puppy-dog eyes, but when I hand him a chunk of meat, his displeasure vanishes as he hurriedly scarfs it down.
Pulling a piece of bone out of my Inventory, I concentrate on filling it with mana, then lengthen and sharpen it until it looks like a kebab stick. Stabbing it into the chunks of meat Catch gave me, I ask Aingeal for some help.
Sure, I could do it myself, but the little fire elemental just loves burning things. Sometimes too much – I’ve had to be a little patient with trying to explain that the point isn’t to burn my meat to a crisp. It’s starting to get the hang of the idea by this point, though, and circles around my kebab stick, dipping to grab the dripping fat and blood drops when they fall, then circling above the stick. Who needs a rotating grill when you can have a rotating fire instead?
Here, Catch says, handing me the Core of the beast.
“Don’t you want to keep it?” I ask him. That’s another new change. With the Energy Hearts available, it’s not necessary to collect all the Cores for the use of the Tier twos. We are trying to keep track of who has received what, though – too many of either kind of Energy source can be a bad thing if Kalanthia is to be believed. Which she is. Plus, I don’t want some bully trying to grab all the Cores for himself even if he didn’t earn them. This way, there’s a bit more accountability.
Catch flicks his tail, negation coming over the link between us.
I think Fenrir ought to have it. He was more injured than he should have been. Pride makes a disgruntled noise, but the samuran sends him a Look and he subsides.
“Alright,” I respond with concealed amusement. “I’m sure Fenrir will appreciate it.” Especially since he is right on the cusp of Evolving. I’m surprised that he hasn’t done it already – he’s been hovering at ninety-nine percent for several days now. I’ve been worrying that his blockage is the fact that his Energy channels are still damaged.
He receives the Core happily and abandons his meat in favour of licking at it.
I return to my meat, sprinkling it with salt and some herbs I’ve found which are quite tasty – and edible, obviously. Aingeal keeps cooking it, and slowly a delicious scent starts filling the air.
Once it’s ready, I thank the little fire elemental and give it a gift of fire mana. The bobbing flame expands briefly, sending feelings of happiness down the Bond to me before returning to my shoulder.
Light fills the vision on my right side and I turn to ask Aingeal to reduce its brightness level only to see something else is the source.
Fenrir. Finally.