She cast a worried glance at Medi but the woman seemed content at least to keep up the ruse. The two men sat and talked with her as they partook in their own rations. Although Talla was young and eager to emulate Centurion Lyva both men were on par with their horribleness. Their casual discussion of murdering the grath they came across as well as other tribal humanoids they called ‘Piglins’, which she hadn’t heard of, made her ill.
As the two men were looking sleepy and full she offered, “You two just scouting, or hunting as well?”
Talla chimed in with eagerness, “Both, Miss! With how stretched things are, everyone needs to pull double duty.”
Maria nodded and studied the men before saying, “I saw a lot of animal sign in the foothills north of here yesterday. Big and hooved. Just one of them could probably feed quite a few people. That is where I found her.”
Lyva gave her a wide-eyed look and then smiled, “Thank you much Angelus! If we get a big enough kill the First Spear won’t gripe too loudly about us coming back a bit early.”
She smiled and said, “We are all in this together.”
She let the men sleep first and stayed up to take the first watch. After some time had passed and she was sure the two men were asleep she made her way to Medi. She whispered to her, “They will be gone first thing.”
She handed her some of the food she had saved and the warrior woman glared at her.
“Ok, I deserve that look.”
“You do.”
Maria looked toward the two men who were huddled together at the edge of camp and said, “Well, now we have someone to run interference.”
Medi blinked in confusion and said, “What?”
“Shh, you’ll see,” with that she leaned forward and pressed her lips against hers grinning at the look of frustrated anger on Medi’s face.
The next morning the two men were up and preparing to go early while she was still on watch. She listened in as they discussed their days activities which did seem to involve heading north to look for game. Lyva in particular was pretty excited to get back to camp. The two men had been out on the trail for more than a month.
When both men were prepared to leave, Lyva looked down at her and pulled at the edge of his cowl. He nodded toward Medi, “Good luck with that monster Angelus. Bless your quest and we will see you on your return to the camp.”
Talla gave her a small wave, “Thank you for the fire Angelus. Bless you!”
She watched them prepare to leave and offered, “Fairwell, and good hunting.”
When they were gone Medi got up and stretched from her long night against the tree. The two of them hurried to clear the camp. Maria channeled Build and heaved a wave of dirt over the fire quenching it.
With that, they set off on the trail of the two hunters. They doubled their pace, occasionally finding clear tracks or broken branches left by the passage of their quarry. An hour later Medi raised a hand to stop her.
The two of them knelt and the warrior whispered, “We are very close to the hunting grounds of The Pack now. Do you have an idea of how you wish to face them?”
Maria peaked around the tree in the direction of Pack’s hunting domain and said, “I want to do it by making as little noise as possible on the way in. I figure we might have a window if those two idiots get chased out of here. My magic muscle isn’t too strong yet, but I figure with good old fashioned stealth, the Camo rune, and that distraction I might be able to get to the cave without getting noticed.”
Medi nodded along and said, “That may be best. The more of the pod's drones are burned the more likely it will notice and react, so avoid it if you can. They grow more cunning and strong with size.”
“Great, that is just great.”
Medi gestured toward a rocky scree to their right and said, “I will approach from the east.”
Maria looked in that direction and raised her eyebrows as she said in a joking tone, “Looking for a good vantage to finally kill me as you planned all along?”
The warrior shook her head and repacked her bag, her voice distant and unconcerned, “If I wanted to kill you I would have done so a thousand times so far, including right now.”
Medi shouldered her rough bag and gave her a flat look, “You are lucky I have become fond of you.”
She blinked and whispered playfully, “You are worried about me?”
Medi locked eyes with her and nodded, “Of course. I told you that I was interested in you becoming one of my mates.”
Maria blushed and stuttered, “Yeah, I think we need to talk about that some more.”
“So, you agree to discuss it?”
Maria could not tell if she was being serious, “This is all happening really fast.”
Medi studied her for several long moments and said, “Consider it. I am prized amongst our village as a mate and partner. You are well aware of at least the former.”
She could not control the blush that was likely turning what little exposed skin she had a bright shade of crimson, “I… I mean… I have… How…?”
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With that the warrior grath turned to hike toward the small rocky slope. She called over her shoulder without looking back, “Good luck.”
Maria turned and headed up the path with her mind swirling with thoughts. She should not be surprised by such a blatant admission. Love and mating were wildly different concepts and cultural structures throughout human… Earth society. She hadn’t even considered the fact that she was toying with such a completely different society. Maybe Medi actually was just fucking with her? The warrior’s demeanor was a stone wall. Up until now she had been sure the young grath did not have a sense of humor. Probably should have mentioned that if this all works she was going to be going home.
She shook off the errant thought and continued north moving from tree to tree. She pulled her bow and one of the arrows that she had tied dried grass and leaves to the head of. Ten minutes later she heard the crack of nearby twigs and leaves and stopped, listening for the movement. The sound was consistent and she thought it must be moving east to west across her path.
She remained in place as the leaves and rocks were disturbed. Whatever it was passed at a lethargic pace and made no other noise at all. After it had passed she hazarded a glance and saw a similar four legged antlered creature to the ones that had chased her at the ruin plodding through the leaves with sluggish and jerky movements. She ducked back when she saw an eye open in the viscous body of the Noctis peaking through the rotting hide. When there was no reaction she waited for it to fully depart and then continued on.
She could not believe that Lyva and Talla had not set off a full blown alarm at this point.
The frequency of rock and slope increased as she traveled. A short time later a sound reached her ears through the pervasive silence. A shifting or slight movement. She halted in mid stride and hunkered low. She extended one of her fingers and let some of her energy flood out causing her body and armor to blend in with the surrounding leaves and stone.
She scanned the area around her and saw nothing. Another shifting movement… a flap of wings. Looking up she saw the source of the sound. A rotting bird sitting on a high limb, only three of its red eyes lit with life and the fourth an empty socket. It was regarding the place where she had shifted into the environment with a cocked head.
Fuck.
She kept her finger extended to maintain the camo and thrust out another to activate Coat. A thin sheen of dark gray stone emerged from her skin and fur and formed a thin sheen around her index and middle fingers. Snapping them over the arrow sent a blossom of sparks flying onto the dry grass and dispelled her camouflage in the same movement.
The bird rustled and started to move at her appearance. The sparks ignited the arrow and with one smooth motion compensating for the abnormal head of the arrow she sent it flying toward the roused Noctis. It hit with a thunk and the bird burst into brilliant orange flame in a flash as it was just about to screech in alarm.
She staggered to the side a step as a brief chill washed up her neck from the quick expenditure of Coat. She shook off the brief feeling and blinked her eyes to readjust them. The chill was gone and she reached into a pouch to retrieve a leaf wrapped slice of the restorative yellow fruit she had prepared that morning. She jammed it into her mouth and bit down close to the rind. The juice shot into her mouth and her eyes shot open wide at the rush of energy.
She remained crouched and shivering with the new pent up energy. After allowing herself to calm and waiting for the sound of any other approaching Noctis for a full minute she continued onward. This time she made an effort to include the upper boughs of the trees in her scouting.
The trees became thinner and more spaced as she started having to find paths around large boulders and stones. Despite the more stoney terrain she still caught occasional signs of the two hunters. A boot print here. A small broken branch. Where one of them had stopped to relieve himself.
She was squeezing between a pair of boulders when she heard one of the two men scream. She was sure it was Talla. A moment later Lyva called out, “Run you blasted idiot! Run!”
Their screams of terror were coming from the west. Seconds later there was the tumult that sounded like many creatures clattering across the stones above her on the slope. They were in a full on stampede toward the two hunters. This time she chose to avoid looking and just hunkered down against the rock beside her. When she realized that the clattering hooves and skittering rocks were headed right over her boulder hideaway she waited until they were close and activated her Camo rune. Her skin and equipment took on a dull gray appearance and she once again blended into the environment.
Moments later a host of creatures, some large and others as small as a housecat jumped across the gap in the stone above her. The smell of rot was intense and she nearly choked, clapping a hand over her mouth and closing her eyes tight.
It seemed like ages before the terrible odor and the clamor of the creatures had passed. She was feeling a dull ache from maintaining the Camo and let it fade. She jammed another slice of fruit into her mouth and munched on it with gusto. Taking a moment to inhale an untainted breath she glanced around her boulder to the west with juice pouring down her chin. She could faintly see the creatures and the cloud of dust they had left in their wake but there was no sight or sound of the hunters they pursued. With that distraction she hurried onward.
A short time later the slope of rocks and outcroppings opened into a flat area and she was taken aback by what she saw before her. It looked as if her friends at the ice shelf camp had reached this area before. There was an abandoned wagon that looked as if it hadn’t been used in months only fifty feet away left between her and the gaping mouth of a cave. There were several humanoid figures stumbling around the area. They wore the armor and insignias that she had seen on the Legion soldiers when she had arrived. They were also long dead and infected. Noctis writhed under their skin and appeared under open and rotted wounds in their bodies. Other infected animals wandered amongst them.
Most of them appeared to be what Maria guessed were the Vogel. For the most part they looked a lot like four eyed wolves save their legs were much longer and their backs arched sharply. Dark green and black drool poured from beneath their rotting jaws and the pupils of their reddish eyes moved independently to scan the area surrounding the entrance to the cave.
There were too many of them for her to face alone.
She was sitting and considering her options for several minutes when there was a violent crash of rocks somewhere to the west and then the faint but audible scream of a man. The creatures snapped their attention in that direction as one. With only a small pause they all set off at a sprint. Occasionally one of them would tumble to the ground only to regain their feet and rush off toward the disturbance. The entire group seemed clumsy and disorganize. They were reactive mindless hunters.
Two of the creatures remained to guard the entrance. She quickly pulled two more of her grass arrows and took a deep breath. Summoning up her flint fingers again she snapped over the first and then the second. With a quick pull and arced upward aim she let it fly. The second arrow was already pulled when the first hit the humanoid Noctis near the entrance, sending it up into a twisting fire pillar. The second creature turned and bolted and she knew that her second arrow, already cutting a fiery arc through the sky, would miss.
She tried to ignore the chill spreading over her neck and head and cursed. She lit a third arrow at her feet. She pulled it to the string and tried to get a bead on the moving target. The way it tumbled left and right and still managed to sprint over the rocky ground made it difficult. She let the arrow fly and saw it tumble harmlessly in a fan of sparks on the rough stone ground. The monster was only fifty feet away. She quickly pulled another grass arrow and snapped her fingers over it twice before it caught fire. It was nearly on top of her before she let it fly into its chest and sent it screeching and tumbling away from her in flames.
Hopping up and keeping the flint on her fingers activated she started running toward the tunnel.
Monsters were howling to the west and she got the sense that at least some of them were hurrying back to stop her. When she was halfway across the grounds she spotted a shape moving in the darkness of the cavern. Something the size of a passenger van. There were more screeches to the east threatening to flank her. Taking a deep breath she pulled out another slice of the strange energy drink fruit and jammed it into her mouth.
