Triple Strength

19. Secrets: Tabitha

I was looking forward to finding out Rock Brain’s secret about how he found me and tracked me. Sleeping in the back of a moving wagon was not exactly comfortable, but I was so exhausted I didn’t stir till mid afternoon. I stayed in the wagons and practised my three ‘secret’ Skills, Engulfing Shadows, Shadow’s Embrace and Distract. I managed to level Engulfing Shadows to 2.

After dinner while Kopje and Smeška were doing a gear inspection, Branik called Rock Brain and myself away from camp. I grabbed Warren to follow as well, and nobody objected. It would take me a while to be comfortable around Orcs. Some of the things you hear are really nasty. Anyway, Warren knew all my secrets. Well, not that boy secret, but all the others. OK, all the other relevant ones.

Branik was carrying a lantern, and I carried a second to help with my demonstration. I decided to take charge of the conversation.

“OK, Rock Brain, what is your secret? How did you find and track me the other night?” I demanded.

“Rock Brain?” he asked.

“Seriously, you are not that smart. A Quarry Worker, you only have rocks for brains.” I replied.

“I guess that makes sense,'' he said with a small smile. “I can be pretty hard headed.” He looked like it was some private joke that only he got.

Seriously, Rock Brain is an insult and he doesn’t even get it.

“So spill.” I demanded, again.

“Well,” he said, “the way I found and tracked you is not actually my secret.”

What the goblin shit is this?

“You were incredibly hard to see,” he continued, “but I didn’t use sight to find you. I used sound. I have Hearing Aid in the Journeyman levels.”

I just stood there stunned for a moment. “Then how come I couldn't see you?” I almost shouted. The night was my playground, my bitch.

“I thought you had, a couple of times,'' he confessed. “It was probably a combination of my stealth being only one step from the Master level and my use of Camouflage when I stopped.”

“How the hell do you have a higher stealth than me?” I asked. I was flailing here. This conversation was bringing me crashing down fast.

“A combination of using it a lot, and Hearing Aid and Pip,” he said. “Seriously Hearing Aid opened my eyes, or ears, to how much sound I actually made, and Pip opened me to smells.”

“Who is Pip?” I asked.

“Pip is my secret,” Rock Brain said as he reached for his shoulder. I saw movement on his shoulder and when I looked closer I could see the leather pauldron section of the armour had been altered to make a gap there.

“Fucking Troll shit!” I exclaimed as a snake slithered out from his armour and onto his arm. I took a step back. “I hope that thing is not poisonous,” I said.

“This is my bond Pip, and he is indeed poisonous. A bite would be fatal for those of low constitution and painful for everybody,” he replied.

“That is so cool,” my brother, Warren, entered the conversation. “Would he let me touch him?” he asked.

“No, no, no, no,” I said, taking another step back.

“Sure,” Rock Brain replied. I was sure he had Rocks for Brains now. No one else would bond with a poisonous snake. “Just put your hand near his head and let him taste you with his tongue first.”

Warren did that and then the snake moved onto his arm. I was waiting for him to get bitten, not knowing what I should do. I looked to Branik, who just stood there with an amused look on her face. Bloody Hell did nobody have any sense around here?

Hang on Rock Brain was talking again, “.... so if you want to level Stealth you need to focus on masking yourself from other senses and not just sight. Pip could have tracked you as well by tasting your scent in the air and on the ground.”

When I got my mind engaged again, I realised that was very good advice. After my Stealth hit Journeyman Level it had basically slowed right down.

“I am trying to level my Camouflage Skill because once it hits Apprentice level it should help mask smells and involuntary noises like my heart beat. I can only use it when I am stationary though.” Rock Brain sounded disappointed about that. Seriously, that is an awesome Skill and he is disappointed? Bloody rocks for brains.

“Tabitha?” That was Branik speaking. Right my turn.

“Right, so the reason you had trouble seeing me was I was using a Skill called Shadows Embrace which comes from my Shadow affinity.” Rock Brians looked up and seemed very interested. Yes, Rock Boy you had better be impressed. I have an affinity! “It is only low Novice levels but it is getting there,” I continued.

Rock Brains interrupted, “You should check it with your Identify Skill cause it may mask you from other senses as it levels.”

I gave Rock Boy a look that said, I wasn’t an idiot, while I checked the Skill with Identify. It has been a rough few days.

“Yes,” I replied, “it will, from apprentice level up, and I can move while it is active.” See, I thought, my affinity Skills are better than your normal Skills. I didn’t say that out loud did I? No, I am OK.

“What we are here for is actually my second Skill from my affinity, “ I continued. “Engulfing Shadows, which will blanket an area in shadows and when I combine it with my Distract Skill, it can be quite disorientating for people. Let me demonstrate.”

“Wait a minute, let me take Pip back,” said Rock Brains as he moved to get the damned snake from my brother.

“Sure, Rock Boy, I would not want him biting Warren.” I said.

He reached over to take the snake saying, “Rock boy? I thought I was Rock Brains?”

“I am impressed that you can tell the difference,” I snarked. He just smiled at me. He is bloody infuriating. “Maybe I will just shorten it to RB.”

Then I saw Warren wink at him. What the hell! My brother was supposed to be on my side. I activated the Skill to cut all that off.

The area went dark and the lanterns dimmed, throwing out very little light. Then there was a rustling of grass to the left and a low throaty growl, then the snapping of a branch on the other side. The sound of bats swooping past, followed by footprints getting closer. Then I let the skill go and the lanterns returned to normal.

“That is seriously awesome,” Rock Boy said in a tone that said he was very impressed. My ego perked up at that. It had taken a beating tonight.

Warren said, “You have certainly improved, Sis.”

Rock Boy added, “Your Distract Skill must be near Journeyman because even Hearing aid was having trouble working out what was real and what was not. I think it only worked it out because intellectually I knew none of it was real. We will have to work out some way to communicate while your Skill is active. How long can you keep it up?”

“It depends on the area and the amount of light I am fighting against.” I replied. “An area of this size and these lanterns, about 5 minutes. I can obviously use the Distract Skill without the Shadows, especially during the day.”

“Five minutes is easily long enough to deal with one or two attackers.” Branik said.

From there we worked out a system of small noises to communicate, like the noises I could make but these would be unique to each of us. Rock Boy had two pieces of sharpened rock on him and he tapped and scraped them together. Rock Boy was definitely the name for him. Everything he did seemed to be related to rock. Branik had a deep inhuman growl she used which was quite frankly frightening in the light. She said Kopje and Smeška could make the same noise and she would teach them the patterns. Warren used a piece of wood against his shield. I used two bones together so I had a real noise rather than my skill. We worked out a system of the number of people and rough area they were in. The real noises would identify where we were.

We talked through some scenarios. If we were attacked during the day the first attack would be against Rock Boy, to take out the scout and so they weren't sniped at by him. He was going to be riding for speed at the expense of stealth, and he wouldn’t range too far. If he needed stealth he could abandon the horse. Almost any attack during the day would heavily involve ranged weapons. Branik had a shield for every guard, including me. We would start practising with them in the morning. Even without the Shield Skill we could use them to protect against ranged attacks.

The normal strategy would be to disable the lead Wagon and stop the caravan, then pick off people from a distance. The plan for us was to circle the wagons for cover and take cover making them come into melee range, then fighting amongst the wagons to hinder the ranged attackers. Rock Boy said if we had to do that, then while we were waiting for them to come, to set traps in the spaces between the wagons and make them come through to get to you.

The more likely scenario was a night attack, initiated by stealth or an insider, and in the confusion a charge by a number of warriors. Rock Boy and I were to let the Warrior Guards deal with the warrior attackers. We were to deal with Stealth and treachery first. If there were ranged attackers, that was Rock Boys' job, but that was unlikely at night. A key defence against ranged attackers at night was to keep the camp dark. My skill could help with that. Almost all ranged attackers would have Far Sight rather than Dark Sight for the bonuses it gave to ranged weapons.

The typical scenario was a stealth attack to cause confusion and give the Warriors time to get to the camp, and then the Stealth people would backstab our guards. Branik had got the traps to give us early warning and cut down the numbers. Our enemy knew how many Guards we had. It was Rock Boy who changed it up. While he would have some traps outside the camp, he would have most of them set in the camp. The most likely and easiest confusion would come from stampeding the horses. The second would be sabotaging or setting fire to the wagons. They would not want to destroy the goods so this would be limited. We could set traps against both of those.

The worst scenario from our point of view is if they arrange an animal attack or stampede through the camp. These would be the purpose of the traps he would set outside the camp, in the most likely approaches. Getting the earliest warning possible is the only advantage we could get there. Stampeding herd beasts would be much easier for them than trying to get predators to attack, though that should not be discounted.

Branik would run the guards through different responses to these scenarios so they were prepared and cut down confusion. If I got into trouble my backup was to be Rock Boy. It was highly unlikely any of the warriors would be free to help. Rock Boy and I were basically on our own. I was the one with no lethal fighting skills. I was feeling quite vulnerable. It was obvious Rock Boy had more brains than I had given him credit for.