The Mother of Monsters

Teyva stood over the corpse of the wolf for a long time, it wasn’t like when she had killed the hunter back in the tomb. This had not been fear, a fight for survival, this had been an execution. She let her arm fall to her side and took a deep breath; trying to steady the twisting in her stomach. Everything sounded muffled, the wind, the barks of the wolves, the sound of Azrael’s voice. Azrael’s voice? Teyva blinked and tried to focus, turning her head towards the source of the sound. Confusion played across her face as she watched Azrael’s lips move mutely. The woman was pointing at something.

Teyva followed her gesture with her eyes, slowly panning her gaze up toward the top of the hill, past the felled trees. Then she froze, sound coming back to her in a rush as what she saw snapped her to reality. Standing at the peak of the hill were six wolves. Five of them were the same as the others. At the center of the pack, though, was a hulking beast at least three times the size of his kin. While the others were endowed with dark grey fur, this one bore a dark yellow coat; almost golden. The monster glared down at them from its perch; its huge eyes filled with intellect. It cast its focus across the bodies, lingering on Azrael and then on Teyva. Teyva focused on it, using her Journal ability.

Boss. A boss with an Aspect power. There was just no way.

She looked over at Azrael who had fixed her gaze on the mighty creature, her weapon at the ready. Teyva looked back, why did the prompt say neutral? She heard Azrael begin to mutter something under her breath and without thinking she held up a hand.

“Hold on a moment!” Teyva shouted.

“Excuse me?” Azrael demanded, shooting her a glare.

“Just… give me a second,” Teyva said, lowering her hand and taking a few steps forward. Azrael hissed her name a few times, trying to stop her. Teyva just swallowed hard, putting herself between Azrael and the mighty creature. She cleared her throat and called out to the beast, hoping with every ounce of hope that this would work. She didn’t know what condition Azrael was in, she hadn’t checked, but she knew that she wasn’t in any shape to fight this many at the same time. Let alone the big guy himself; “Mighty uh... Deshan!” She called out.

A stillness fell over the wolves as several of them turned to look at their leader. The great wolf narrowed its eyes, canting his head to the right and standing up a bit straighter. He didn’t speak, she wasn’t sure he was even capable of speech, but she had his attention now.

“Teyva what are you doing?” Azrael hissed, “Are you crazy?”

Teyva ignored her; “These are your kin, aren’t they?” Teyva called, gesturing around herself at the bodies, she tried not to look at the one she’d slain, nausea already stirring in her throat. “Hasn’t there been enough death? We did not want this fight to begin with! Let this be the end of it! Please!” Teyva called, holding out her arms in a placating gesture. She glanced down at her blade arm, blood dripping from it, and closed her eyes. She cast [Simple Shift] and it returned to the shape of her normal hand.

“Teyva!” Azrael shouted.

Teyva fixed the great creature with her gaze, clamping down on the rising terror building in her gut. She wasn’t sure if she could come back to life now that the tutorial was over. The protections it provided weren't in effect anymore, but even if she could she was sure as hell not interested in getting torn apart by wolves. She’d experienced enough trauma at the hands of the Tomb Guardian. More importantly, Azrael would not come back, that much Teyva was certain of. She grit her teeth behind pursed lips; please work. Please just back down. Please.

Deshan remained standing for a long time, unmoving, its eyes boring down at Teyva. It glanced at her freshly reshaped hand and then at Azrael who stood ready to fight. The great creature turned its head and with a single dip of its massive cranium, stalked away back into the woods.

Teyva felt her legs fall out from beneath her, all strength leaving her as the adrenaline wore off. She hit grass and undergrowth, twigs snapping beneath her knees. The pounding in her ears abated while Azrael rushed to her side, taking a knee and trying to hold her up. Teyva felt numb.

“You could have gotten yourself killed!” Azrael shouted at her, “Are you insane?”

Teyva looked in her direction; “Maybe? Probably. It worked, didn’t it?”

Azrael let out a world-weary sigh and sat down herself. Teyva took a moment to use her journal to check her status.

Between the two of them, there wasn’t a chance in hell they could have taken that thing on. Was Azrael really willing to throw down her life in a confrontation just like that? Teyva gave Azrael a gentle elbow and shook her head; “Come on, you’re exhausted too, aren’t you?”

Azrael frowned but nodded, resting her arms on her knees and staring up at the spot where Deshan had been standing not but a few seconds before. She glanced back at Teyva; “Deshan?” She asked pointedly.

Teyva called up her journal, the book floating in the air a foot from her face. “This thing lets me see details about creatures in my environment, name, how much strength they have left, that kind of thing,” She paused; “It’s sort of like a guide, I guess.”

Azrael narrowed her eyes; “You know how much strength I have left?”

Teyva looked away and tried to redirect; “That thing had an Aspect power, Az, it didn’t matter how much we had left in us,” she said; “But…” she sighed; “Yes, I checked you over to see how you were doing.”

“So it wasn’t a reckless decision but a calculated risk,” Azrael concluded, crossing her arms.

Teyva winced inwardly. She’d only checked Azrael’s status after the beast had left, not before. Now didn’t feel like a good time to tell her that. They’d come out alive and the explanation had, instead of offending Azrael, actually gained her approval. Relief flooded through Teyva and she slumped. “Yeah, something like that,” She said and ran her hands over her face. She was covered in sweat. Grimacing she dismissed her journal and called up her satchel, pulling out the linen trousers. They were cloth after all. She wiped herself down and tossed it to Azrael. Azrael accepted it and pressed the pale cloth to her face.

The two of them, catching their breath, took in their surroundings.

“Can we talk about these stumps?” Teyva asked.

“Someone has been logging here, this deep in the woods. Strange,” Azrael said.

The area that the felled trees covered had to be at least a few acres, if not more. The stumps were large, suggesting that the trees here had been heavy enough to demand more than just a few people working to cut them down and move them. Teyva scratched her nose thoughtfully and pulled herself to her feet. She glanced around trying to spot an opening in the treeline. There! Just along the trees further west from their position was a space between the trees with beaten dirt lining the path.

Teyva pointed it out to Azrael; “Settlers?”

“This deep in? Madness, suicidal at best,” Azrael grunted.

“They lasted long enough to cut all these trees down,” Teyva shot back with a raised eyebrow.

Azrael shrugged, squinting at the opening before glancing back at Teyva. There was a long pause as she seemed to think something over; “How do you want to do this?” She asked, gesturing to the treeline and the opened path.

Teyva blinked and looked in her direction; “Why are you asking me?” She asked, Azrael was obviously the one in a position to lead here. She knew the way back better and was far stronger than Teyva by several levels. It was obvious that Teyva should just follow the leader.

“You volunteered to help me, but I too am curious about these potential settlers. If we go straight for the trees we may very well miss them. If we follow the path, we may find them and who knows what might come of that. At the very least we would add time to our trip, I’d rather leave the decision to you, Teyva,” Azrael said, her expression sincere.

Teyva frowned, she hated being put on the spot like that. Even so, she couldn’t argue with Azrael’s logic. Azrael would be going this way regardless. Teyva scratched her head and thought it over. It was possible that if they found the settlers they might be able to get some shelter for the night. If the settlers had lasted this long then they must have had some way to defend themselves. Perhaps some better food than Ration Bars as well. The bars were filling but after a while, the taste left something to be desired.

Ultimately, they needed to rest at some point and the wolves had taken a lot out of their stamina.

“We check out the settlement,” Teyva said.

“Right then, collect your ‘children’ and let’s be off.”

Teyva called over her last five Mockeries, they scuttled away from their prey giving off a feeling that they had satisfied their hunger with the kill. Then she looked down at the bodies left behind by the battle, then back up at where the Deshan had been standing; “One moment,” she said; “It’d be disrespectful to leave these bodies here, wouldn’t it?”

Azrael looked up at the same spot, frowning, “I suppose you’re right. But do we have the time to burn or bury them?”

“I’ll loot them,” Teyva said.

Azrael raised her eyebrows and nodded, “There’s a thought.”

Teyva walked over and crouched next to the body of the wolf she had slain herself, a queasy feeling washing over her again. She ran her fingers through its fur and sighed before pressing her palm against its skin.

Teyva nodded and the creature was reduced to nothing more than a pile of white sand. She moved on to the second and third. When she finished she pulled out her satchel and checked her acquisitions.

Crafting materials and a Signet ring. She called the item up and it popped into her hand. She turned it over between her fingers curiously. It was made of silver, from the looks of it, and had an embossed symbol of what looked quite a bit like a lion. She glanced over to Azrael and gestured for her to come over. Azrael came to her side and peered down at the item as well.

“My journal says it’s an Orcish Signet Ring,” Teyva said.

“Could it belong to the settlers?” Azrael asked.

“Probably, let’s bring it with us.”

Teyva smiled ruefully and accepted the quest.