NOVEL NEXT Book Four: Expansion - Chapter Sixty-Seven: Strategy
The danaris had been Tier two and it had been difficult to beat. We’d attacked it in almost ideal conditions and it still almost killed several of my Bound one way or another. If this creature is actually Tier three already, it’s going to be a much more difficult opponent.
Of course, we have much more firepower on our side this time too. Three Pathwalkers, five Warriors, two other Tier twos in Bastet and Komodo, and a number of other fierce Bound – Honey and Thorn are definitely members I would have appreciated having in the fight against the danaris.
However, if the creature is already tucked away down in the depths of the earth, we won’t be able to bring our force to bear. While that might restrict the creature as well, there’s no guarantee that that’s the case. In fact, given the evidence that it might be capable of the same kind of Earth-shaping that Kalanthia can do, facing the creature down in the tunnels might actually give it more of an advantage.
My brain races and pieces fall into place.
“Right, we need to find out more about the situation. Demon, Marty, Woozle, would you be willing to go and scout down the tunnel?” The three take a moment to consider, then assent, scampering off. Marty is a small pine-marten-like creature and Woozle is kind of weasel-like. They’re both on Bastet’s team of scouts and are known for being stealthy. Demon isn’t so used to the scout role, but he’s small and very fast. It’s a bit cold-blooded of me, but if they get found out, I hope that Demon might be fast enough to bring us word where perhaps the others will be too slow.
“Sirocco,” I start, turning to my only airborne Bound, currently sitting on my shoulder. “Could you please keep an eye on our surroundings. Circle overhead at regular intervals and make sure we’re not surprised. We don’t know if the creature is below or not, after all.”
She sends a quick assent and then pushes off my shoulder to do her first scouting trip. I turn now to the rest of the group.
“Tarra, River, we don’t know what the creature is yet, so can’t make anything specifically for it, but can you make some potions to help us anyway?”
Healing potions are always useful, Tarra says thoughtfully.
And I think we have the ingredients for some stamina reducers, and some good multi-purpose poisons, adds River.
“If you need some more ingredients which are likely to be in the local area, we may be able to organise some trips to find them,” I suggest. At their agreement, I turn to the rest of my Bound thoughtfully. “Right, Shrieks. I would like you to choose two Warriors to stay here with you to guard, and two to each lead a small group of Bound to collect whatever ingredients the Pathwalkers need.”
As you command, Honoured Tamer, Shrieks intones. He eyes his Warriors. Murmurs-quietly, and Sleeps Peacefully, you stay with me. Eats-dirt and Leaps-from-fright, you are in charge of the resource parties. Each of you choose three…companions to go with you.
The Warriors lift their chins in acknowledgement of the order, then the two chosen to go into the forest quickly select their parties. I make the parties more formal by assigning the Manager role to the two samurans. They quickly move over to confer with the Pathwalkers over what they should collect. I turn towards Joy.
“I would like to make another net, much like the one which I used to capture your party, though with a much bigger mesh. That means it will use fewer resources but the silk should still be strong enough to hold even against a strong creature. I will create the thread, but I’d like you to actually weave the net – we can share the burden like that.”
Very well, Tamer, Joy acknowledges. We settle down to do that and I share more details of exactly what I’m envisioning even as the rest start their own activities.
*****
By the time the scouts come back, we’ve all made some good progress. Together, Joy and I have woven a large net which should be able to cover the opening of the tunnel. It’s used a lot of mana, of course, but with both of us working on it, less than previously.
Just becoming a factory which produces metre after metre of thread is easier than trying to shape it into a strong mesh at the same time. Equally, Joy’s own abilities to grow what she’s weaving mean that I didn’t need to put as much mana in as I would have anyway.
By this point, we’re pretty much done and I’m questioning whether to soak it in a poison of some sort. On the one hand, any edge will help. On the other, I don’t want to accidentally cause a friendly fire situation where my own allies are hurt more than the creature we’re trying to deal with. We don’t even know what it looks like, though perhaps the scouts will have some idea.
Seeing them approach, I find my gaze going over where River and Tarra are still working. There are multiple containers in front of them – some the wooden vials that they brought with them from the village; some the chitinous or bone containers which I created for River a while ago. They’re focussing, and it looks like Tarra is demonstrating something to River. Good – I’m glad she’s teaching her younger sister.
“What did you find?” I ask the three scouts as they stop in front of me. Given that none of them look too ruffled, I have to guess that they haven’t been in any sort of fight.
Three sets of images are abruptly shoved into my mind and I find myself struggling to make sense of them.
“One at a time, please,” I request as my brain hurts from the effort. “Marty, you first.”
She sends through an image again. To my relief, the previous three fade away. The image now in my mind is difficult enough to parse since apparently Marty has quite the different vision in the dark from me. In fact…does she have thermal imagery?
I inspect the image carefully as much as I can, then release it, asking for Demon to give me his. His image is actually less that and more of an impression of sounds and smells. It’s more like what Bastet sent me all that time ago when she scouted out the tunnel to the salt cave.
Finally Woozle delivers her report and I try to use it to fill in the blanks of the others. When I’ve finished, I thank the three of them and turn to the others. Summoning over the Bound who I feel would be the most use in a strategic discussion, I sit down on a large rock nearby and they gather around.
“Right,” I say to them. “This is what the scouts gave me.”
I send through the three images one by one to everyone before me – the samurans currently present, Bastet, and Lathani. Fenrir, bless him, isn’t yet ready to actually create strategies, and Sirocco isn’t interested. The rest of my Bound present either aren’t interested or aren’t capable – or both.
“What do you get from these?” I ask, wondering if their conclusions match mine. They take a little time to explore the memories. Finally, Shrieks is the first to give an opinion.
The creature is not there, he rumbles.
Agreed, says Murmur. There’s no indication of a heat signature present.
That doesn’t necessarily prove anything, points out Tarra. Some creatures can meld with the environment around well enough to be invisible to all but magical means.
That’s an interesting point. I wonder whether my own Fade would be capable of that – from its original description, I would guess that it is.
Few means of concealment are so absolute, disagrees Shrieks. The scouts each had different ways of revealing their environment. It would be more likely that at least one of them would detect something if the beast was there.
This is a beast that is likely past the third Evolution, though, argues Tarra. How often do we come across those? What do we know of what they are capable of?
“The question is,” I interrupt, “Shrieks, would you be willing to stake your life and the lives of everyone in this party on the supposition that the beast is not there?”
He hesitates for a moment.
I would be willing to stake my life on it, he rumbles after thought, and the lives of my Warriors. However, I would not be willing to stake the lives of my Pathwalkers upon it.
I nod slowly.
But, he continues, I would not take my Pathwalkers into the lair of such a beast as this unless I had already seen it slain – and any of its kin with it.
“I see,” I murmur. Which means that he's pretty certain about his conclusions, but isn’t keen on putting the females of the village at risk. I wonder if, different sex or not, that includes me.
I notice something else, River breaks in thoughtfully. We all turn to look at her. I remember that when we travelled through the tunnel, there was a section where it was difficult to continue without falling into the stream below.
“Yes, I remember that,” I agree slowly, looking for what has caught River’s interest in the scouts’ memories. That was the section where only Bastet was easily able to move, using her wings to help redirect her around the lip of rock that stuck out almost into the Pure Energy stream entirely. Now, in the images it is blocked by something. As River continues to speak, I think I understand her point.
Consider what it appears to be blocked by: three objects, surrounded by some substance. Three round objects. Is there any chance they could be –
“Eggs,” I breathe, meeting eyes with her. “What if this creature isn’t here to benefit itself directly? What if it’s a mother trying to help its eggs in some way?”
If it’s a mother, we will have to be even more careful, Joy speaks up for the first time in the meeting. Broodmothers are protective enough of the eggs we give into their charge; this creature is likely to be even more so.
“Very true,” I agree, looking at Lathani. “Consider what happened when you kidnapped a certain nunda cub,” I remark pointedly. Tarra and Joy both avoid my eyes.
I take a moment to think through the situation. We might be wrong in guessing that these are eggs, but I don’t think so. It would fit – a creature, probably an intelligent one if Kalanthia is anything to go by, has somehow detected a Pure Energy vein beneath the earth.
It would make sense that she dug her way down, hoping that being exposed to Pure Energy while in the egg would help her offspring from the start and improve their survivability. She blocked the Pure Energy stream to ensure that her eggs were exposed to as much as possible, though accidentally caused enough pressure to create an explosion which made the tunnel. Though how strong are these eggs if they can withstand that kind of force? Not to mention the Pure Energy itself. Or maybe they’re not eggs after all.
Anyway, we now have a choice to make. I suspect that solving the quest will mean dealing with the blockage, perhaps sealing off the Pure Energy entirely. But how should we do it?
“So, what do you think? Do we set a trap out here and fight, or go into the tunnel to investigate what these objects really are and try to deal with them before the creature returns?”