Chapter 8: All things go South.

King Of The Forest

Chapter 8: All things go South.

Somewhere in the snow woodland…

"Fucking snow everywhere. They had to send that bitch to the talos region." A loud voice complains, a hoof stomping in annoyance.

"Relax Marrda. The queen is injured and it's obvious why Duke Storm sent us. It's well known that we centaurs are the best trackers on Hal. She'll turn up soon enough." A deep sounding voice belonging to a black centaur responds looking at the brown fur centaur with matching hair next to him. He continues, "She was in the village when the grinks attacked and we got her blood's scent. We just have to wait for the scouting team and we can…." He suddenly stops speaking, looking at a team of centaurs approaching. "Speak of the dead."

4 lean looking centaurs wearing leather armour and a green bow on their human back with the quiver strapped to the part that joins the horse and human torso approach the two lead by a black one wearing female armour.

Arriving in front of the two…

"Scout division reporting, sir." She announces, looking at the black centaur. The three others behind her, one male and the rest female, stand at attention while Marrda just stares waiting for them to speak.

"Mmm. Tell us what you found Vivi." asks the male black centaur.

"Yes Captain. The blood scent leads South, towards river Tiber. Also we've spotted human tracks coming from Arkshu heading to the village but they suddenly turn and head in the same direction as the blood scent. We suspect the human may have been injured but the tracks are a few days old so we don't have any more ideas for now." Vivi dutifully reports.

"Interesting. I don't think it's an escaped prisoner because Black Hand wouldn't allow survivors even if they used mindless grinks. It seems we may need to be careful, this human might be a helper of the queen with some tracking ability." Responded the captain.

"Tsk. Those humans should know better than to meddle in faefolk matters. Besides, even if the human is a skilled Pouvoir mage, he can't handle my vanguard division together." Marrda confidently interjected.

'Vanguard leader Marrda is so cool.' Thought the only male in the scout division.

"Marrda get your squad together and let's move. Vivi, you lead the way with your squad. Remember, even if the queen is injured she is still a major threat nearing Maître mage level."

""Sir"" responded both division leaders.

'It's a bit suspicious that black hand attacked right after the queen was sent to the talos village but maybe I'm thinking too hard. It seems our chase will be short lived, long live Queen Karra Storm.' thought the Captain.

****

"Achoo" I sneeze while walking in the dark now. Days have passed and I've learnt a few things along my journey.

First, I can't use magic while sleeping. Using magic requires a lot of focus and I have no idea why I thought I'd be able to do it while asleep. Anyway, the sun during the day is quite warm so I can sleep without freezing to death so that's a plus.

Secondly, water is an important resource while stranded in a foreign location. Sure I have snow but I don't think it's the best source of water. I'm not entirely sure it's even water.

Thirdly, navigational skills are most definitely necessary. While walking, it occurred to me that I might not be travelling in a straight line. This plausible idea and the thought of circling back to the prison was not pleasing. Luckily, I made a discovery during the day. On some trees in the woodland, there's moss-like vegetation that appears on the east side of the tree. Using memory to figure out the prison was in the east direction, I decided to go South because why not.

****

And now….

'I don't think having the best navigation skills could help me deal with this.' I think as I look up at the night sky. 'Two moons huh. The waves here are probably crazy.' "Wait. Waves." I say out loud stopping in my tracks and touching my hair and feeling a thick nappy afro I'd never even noticed until now.

"Of course I don't have waves in this universe." I sigh, continuing my journey. "Maybe they don't have the concept of waves here. Hmmmm. Maybe I could start it and make money off of it. That is if I find civilization first." I speak out loud trying to get used to my voice which hadn't gone through puberty yet. 'Why is my voice the only one left out? Or maybe it might be the magic that makes me taller and my body is still quite young on this earth. They did say I'm 14 sar or whatever. I need to learn more about this.' I begin thinking out loud again, filling this silent journey with sound….

****

Many steps later…

As I rest my legs, I'm marking a tree with my small knife like I recently thought to do so I don't get completely lost. An orange light catches my sight and I look towards it.

'Nap time.'

The sun slowly rises as I walk around looking for a tree with a thicker branch system I can sleep on. This is because sleeping in the snow is dangerous and cold, so sleeping in the trees is the best solution so far even though I've fallen a couple times in deep sleep. At least the falls made me realise I have quite a durable body.

I find a tall tree with good branches and plan my climb which I've gotten surprisingly better at. 'Uh-huh. Got it.'

The black bar in my mouth I clumsily climb the tree like a handicapped monkey with my only arm straining. The liquid mana moves out of the way for me to get a grip with my bare hand and chef shoes. 'Nope this is still hard. Climbing is really hard.'

Reaching the intended branch I let out a misty breath. Sitting upright on the branch with my back on the tree stem I try to get comfortable and wait for the sun to make things a little warmer.

"I think that's good enough." Feeling the temperature increase, I let the dark magic gauntlet, vest and boots disappear. Putting the bar in between the food sack and my back, I lay back onto the stem feeling the food left in the sack.

"Good thing I rationed. But I don't think it matters if I can't get more food. Maybe that moss is edible." Talking to myself as a habit when I'm tired I close my eyes to force myself to sleep.

****

My head bopping dazedly, about to enter the zone a sound jolts me awake. *Snap* My eyes quickly open to see a large piece of snow fall from a branch on a tree that's next to the one I'm sleeping on. As I watch it fall, something weird happens. A howl comes out of it. Immediately my nerves that are already on high alert go into overdrive and my hand unconsciously reaches for the bar on my back.

'Wtf. Wtf. Wtf!!!' I freak out internally because I've travelled for around 10 days and the only sounds I've heard were my own voice, snow getting mushed and my heart racing. That's it. No other animals, no birds, not even insects. So a howl that comes out of nowhere is terrifying after getting accustomed to silence.

'Holy shit. Is the snow sentient here.' I look around at the patches of snow on some of the trees around. 'Okay no that's stupid. Calm down.'

I look at where the howling snow fell. The first thing I notice is the difference in colour. The snow that fell is like a silver white compared to the pure white surrounding it. 'Maybe it's an animal. A bear? Another monster?'

Whilst in my head thinking about the possible animals that could inhabit this environment, painful whimpers that sounded crystal clear in the morning silence come from the possible animal. Prompting me out of my head.

'Maybe it's injured.' I observe the silver animal. Trying to make out its shape, suddenly, my stomach growls. 'Shit. Quiet dammit.' I yell internally, shushing my gut looking fearfully at the animal. 'Looks like it didn't hear me.'

Silence restored, I start to think, feeling the almost empty sack on my back. 'I only have one meat patty and 2 buns of bread. Enough for 4 days at least. Maybe.' I look at the possibly injured animal. 'Could this help from the gods? A fruitful encounter? Food? I can't be sure but…'

Right there I internally mark the animal as my prey. 'I don't think it's dying anytime soon but it's for sure weak. It had to hide in the trees. I might have to finish the job and deal the final blow.' I look around the area attentively to make sure there are no surprises and start my planning.

'My mana isn't full yet. I can wait. I don't think it's moving anytime soon.' …

A possible hour or so passes and with my mana full, I start my operation using an idea I had during my slow trek. I push out half of my mana and begin solidifying it. After the solid ball is formed, I mould it into a thin black disk and place it on my chest protecting my heart. 'Okay. First part done. Now the smoke screen.' Using the rest of my mana, I make the black smog appear and let it surround me like a thin black haze with quite a large area. 'This is the most I can do. Protect my heart and obstruct vision. Okay, maximum effort.'

I throw the bar down to the snow and grab the bigger knife from the sack. Sitting on one side of the branch, I push myself off and land like a trembling cat on my feet almost stumbling. Catching myself, I look at the animal and I see it flinch a little from the sound.

After remaining still for a while I decide it's safe to move and go to the bar.

Putting the knife in my mouth, I pick up the bar and approach the animal in a defensive stance looking like a one armed primitive hunter. The black haze around me was striking in the morning snow but that's all I had for now.

A few meters close and I can make out details like the silver white fur, thin but strong looking legs and a long fluffy tail.

'Holy shit is this a wolf. Why is it so huge? Everything is; big? I don't think I'll be able to harvest everything.' Looking at the big silver wolf through the black haze I'm a bit intimidated but it's unresponsiveness to me being this close gives me courage.

Close enough to poke the wolf with my bar, I do just that. The poke makes it flinch but that's it. I wait thinking something else might happen and a whimper is all that I get. 'It's definitely hurt.' I think excitedly. So I poke again, this time more confident and with more power. Only this time it all goes South.