Gilriel separated from the group a few miles from Clayfaire heading west while Mitchell, the girls, Vras, and the yulops continued north towards the little town. They arrived at the forest just outside the settlement without issue and Lethelin went in to sell the yulops and use the additional coin to purchase three of their best jivis along with tack and bridle.
Allora got a little misty eyed as Marvin and Tammi were led away.
“They were good animals,” she said.
“They were,” Mitchell agreed as he hugged her. “Lethelin will make sure the stable owner knows to take care of them. They’ll be okay.”
She nodded but didn’t comment further.
Roughly two hours later Lethelin came back atop one of the horse-like creatures with two more in tow. Each wore a saddle that wasn’t all that different than what he would expect to find on horses back home. The bridle was somewhat of a shock though, now that he was up close to one.
Though quadrupeds similar in size to horses, the animals were slightly smaller and thinner and almost reptilian in appearance. Rather than long faces like their Earth analogues, they had stubbier heads with forward facing slitted eyes accented with orange-red irises which Mitchell found off-putting for reasons he couldn’t quite articulate. Their faces and heads were scaled with inset ears like a lizard and the scales continued down their necks until it transitioned into a fine short fur, the colors of which were light tan to dark brown on the three she’d brought back. Their limbs also transitioned from fur to scales not unlike chicken legs, and they had three-toed hooves that reminded him of ostrich feet albeit stubbier. They also had long incisors like a predator and their smaller teeth, while not quite sharp like a cat’s, were definitely angular.
But it was the bridle that really jumped out at him. Rather than a bit that was placed at the back of a horse’s mouth through which the reins were connected, holes had been punched through the thick, almost chitinous scales of each animal’s mouth and rings fitted through each. The animals didn’t seem to pay them any mind, and it’s not like Mitchell had any better ideas, so he didn’t mention it.
Once they stopped and Lethelin dismounted, all of the jivis started skittering about, their eyes going wide and fangs bared as they snorted and hissed.
“They did the same thing to me!” Lethelin yelled over the noise of stamping hooves and growls. “They smell Vras, no doubt. I almost couldn’t get them saddled.”
“Is this going to be a problem?” Mitchell called out as he reached for a set of reins to try and calm the beast down.
“They settled down for me eventually, but it took both me and the stable master nearly a half hour to do it.”
Allora rushed over and grabbed the reins for the third one from Lethelin as she was barely holding on while she wrestled with her own. Her krisa flashed and a look of intense concentration came over her face as she struggled with the bucking animal which started to calm almost immediately. The other two, seeing their companion ease, appeared to take that as a good sign and stopped trying to rear up but they still pulled at the reins and attempted to dance away. Lethelin was dragged nearly off her feet more than once but Mitchell had an easier time seeing that he had at least fifty pounds on her.
After fifteen or twenty seconds Allora let out a breath and dropped her spell.
“This one is calm, for now. I will see to the others.”
Using the spell on the other two was easier work than the first, and after a couple of minutes the little clearing where they’d been waiting was quiet once again.
“I’m suddenly very glad I asked Vras to hang back,” Mitchell said. “I was worried how the jivis would respond after seeing how upset the yulops were when they first met him.”
“Indeed,” Allora said.
“They’re calm for now, but what happens when we stop and Vras comes around again?” Lethelin wondered.
“Do you think I should try to talk to them?” Mitchell asked Allora. “The speak with animals spell should work for them, too, right?”
Allora agreed that it would probably be a good idea and Mitchell set about talking to each animal. He was surprised at how hard it was but then he remembered that he had the same difficulty with Vras in the beginning and it took time for their bond to grow.
After several painstaking minutes with each jivi – the spell had to be cast on each one separately – he thought he was able to get the point across that yes, there was a shadow cat nearby but that it was not a threat. All three animals eyed him warily at this information but the fact that he was able to speak to them directly and allay their fears went a long way. He did have to promise them that the animal would never be allowed into the camp when they slept which Mitchell knew Vras wouldn't like when he told him, but it would only be for a few days.
Given how annoyed the cat always was at how slow the ‘two-legs’ walked, the increase in speed should smooth over any annoyance at not being able to pester the jivis as he had the yulops in those early days.
He stepped away into the forest and waited for Vras to find him and informed the cat of the plan. He was annoyed, as Mitchell predicted, but the idea of being able to move at speed sent a wild light dancing through the gratha’s eyes. And, if Mitchell was being very honest, he was curious to see just how fast the shadow cat could travel.
Finally, they were ready to ride.
“Have either of you ever ridden before?” Allora asked them after watching the clumsy way both he and Lethelin got into the saddles.”
“Obviously, there are no jivis on Earth, but I’ve ridden a similar beast called a horse. But the last time I was on one was at summer camp at Camp Lakewood when I was about twelve high suns old. So it’s been awhile.”
Allora chose to ignore the English words mixed in with his Common as she understood the gist of what he was saying.
“My first time riding one was when I was leaving Awenor to cross over into Iletish a few months back,” Lethelin informed them. “I rode with a trade caravan and the woman in one of the wagons smelled like week-old fish guts. I traded with a jivi rider for my spot in the wagon. I didn’t walk right for three days after we arrived at whatever town that was.”
Allora smirked and Mitchell grimaced. He’d been afraid of that. The saddle was comfortable enough at the moment but he’d have to see how his ass felt after several hours of hard riding.
“I am on the lead animal, the other two will follow her without much issue. All you need to do is hold on. I will start slow until you get a feel for it, then increase our speed gradually.”
“Will the jivi need to stop and rest often?” he asked.
“Periodically, yes. I will let you know. But they are good runners. We should get several kilometers out of them before they tire.”
Mitchell nodded his understanding and Allora turned and started leading her jivi away.
Lethelin’s stepped in behind her and Mitchell’s animal pulled up the rear. The rocking motion was jarring, but after a while he started to get a feel for the rhythm of the creature’s gait and found he could sort of move his body with it to lessen the impact on his spine. Once Allora saw that they were adjusting she clicked her tongue and her mount picked up the tempo. Mitchell adjusted and the tempo increased again. It wasn’t quite a gallop. While the trees here were old and decently spaced apart, going full speed would be far too dangerous. Still, the ground was flying compared to the rate at which they moved on foot and Mitchell was exhilarated by the speed.
This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
A couple of times he spotted a black shape gliding over the ground alongside the three of them. If Mitchell had to guess, he would say that Vras wasn’t even exerting himself. The few glimpses he did catch left him in awe. The shadow cat seemed to flow over uneven surfaces, his long body undulating as his six legs propelled him forward. Not for the first time, Mitchell was glad Vras was on their side.
Around the time Mitchell was sure his ass was one giant bruise, Allora called a stop. They’d moved at a good pace and, if he had to guess, they’d covered at least triple the ground they could have made on foot.
“Let’s rest and walk the jivis for a while, eat something, and then we will push on.”
There was a very undignified amount of groaning from both Mitchell and Lethelin as they dismounted but Allora seemed only mildly saddle sore. She said she had plenty of experience riding and, even though she hadn’t been in the saddle for a good while, she knew better than them how to move with the animal to make it easier for herself.
After some light healing, they walked, eating as they went. Once Allora decided they were rested enough, they mounted back up and sped off again.The jivis chewed up the ground, even at the slower pace they were forced to travel at through the forest but he could feel the power in their lithe bodies and how they were eager to be let off the reins. Mitchell wished they’d had these animals from the beginning, but it had worked out in the end, he knew. He’d had the time he needed to learn how to use his magic and the sword. If they had covered this much ground when he first arrived, who knows where he’d be in his skill levels.
The rest of the day followed a similar pattern. Push ahead through the forest until Allora called a stop, then rest, then repeat. At one point, Mitchell asked if they would ever leave the shelter of the trees but she said that, seeing as they wouldn’t need to cross any rivers at the moment, there was no reason to take one of the roads and risk exposure. At least not yet. She suspected that by tomorrow they would need to hazard travel on some roads and the closer they got to Lorivin and the more settled the land became, the more dangerous that would become.
“We need to get to the Orna and cross it, then, follow it west downriver as it winds its way through the forest. At the speed the jivis move, we should be clear of the forest by the third day. It is narrower in this part of Awenor so the journey is not very arduous. But there are only a few bridges that cross it and we will have to chance it. Likely, there will be guard stations but we will have to wrestle that troll when we come to it.”
“Can’t we just cut through the middle of the forest away from the Orna?” he asked.
Allora wobbled her head.
“Remember, we have stayed on the edges of the forest for our time here. The deeper we go in, the more treacherous it becomes. The threats posed by the beasts that call the deep woods home would be greater than a guard patrol on the roads. I would not take that path unless I had no other choice.”
“Noted.”
They camped that first night a few miles past a small town that no one knew the name of. Everyone was exhausted and even Allora had bruises on her rear. Thankfully, everyone was able to get healed. Mitchell didn’t know how they would have handled the second day without it.
***
“There are several two-legs ahead,” Vras called down from a perch in one of the trees.
It was afternoon on the second day and they were walking the jivis after a long morning ride.
“How many?”
Vras hissed in frustration. Numbers were a difficult concept for him to grasp. In conversation, Mitchell had learned that Vras didn’t seem to think in terms of how much or how many of something. Just if he thought he could kill them all or if he was likely to be injured or killed in the attack. If he could not kill all of them on his own, then there were a lot. If he could, then there weren’t.
“Two paws,” he said after careful deliberation.
This was something Mitchell had worked out with him. He had four claws on each hand and a total of six paws equaling twenty four. Vras understood it in theory but appraising the world in those higher numbers still seemed to elude him. So even getting the answer of two paws — or eight people — was progress.
Mitchell passed the information along to the girls.
“Can he tell us anything else?” Lethelin asked.
Mitchell checked.
“They have blades and there are at least two magic users,” he reported. “On foot, no jivis or other pack animals.”
“Sounds like a patrol,” Allora said turning to Lethelin. “Can you get closer and find out more information?”
The thief snorted derisively, handed her reins to the knight and pulled up her cloak. Immediately her edges blurred and, by the time she passed the first tree in the direction Vras had indicated, Mitchell couldn’t see her at all, even in the bright daylight. Above him, Vras quietly followed her, the cloak’s enchantment having no effect on the shadow cat.
“I really want one of those,” Mitchell said quietly as he walked up to Allora.
“I, as well.”
About twenty minutes later, Lethelin materialized just beyond the trees in front of them and gave her report.
“Patrol,” she said, simply. “Milandris’s men, not rangers. A little bit unhappy that they’ve been sent to the forest to ‘chase ghosts’ as one put it, but from the chatter, it does sound like they’re looking for us. I saw a krisa with four stones and a sevith with three. Couldn’t make out which ones, though.”
Mitchell raised an eyebrow. Four stones was the highest number he’d come across since Dakath, who’d had five. He had seen several people at The Sleeping Giant that could use magic, but three had been the highest so far.
“Is the one with the krisa likely to know a lot of spells?”
Allora wasn’t sure.
“As you know, learning spells take time. It really depends on how diligent that particular caster is and what they chose to specialize in. They may know several offensive and defensive spells but only one or two utility spells for the other stones. Or they may know several of each.”
“I’ve noticed that I’ve seen the same few spells used several times,” Mitchell commented as he reflected back on the battles he’d been in. Is there some reason behind that?”
“You have been running into battle casters, mostly lower-ranked ones,” Allora explained. “Some spells have much more utility in combat than others. More powerful spells require more mana and thus do more damage to gemstones so they run out faster. Lower-level casters also may not have the mana reserves for using spells such as your blade burst. As you discovered, it can burn through mana very quickly if you need to sustain it. So, casters like to fall back on spells that are practical rather than going for mana-intensive spells, unless they have to.”
It always came back to using mana in the most efficient ways possible. Mitchell recalled Revos’s teachings about never using a higher-circle spell when a lower-circle spell would do. And, given how fast a caster would run out of mana without casting through a stone first, he supposed that made sense. Burn through stones without a ready supply of replacements and you were screwed.
Allora running out of stones had been ultimately what had cost Davrys his life. She burned through her mana too fast to heal him enough for them to escape. Mitchell supposed that, even with his exceptionally large mana reserves, he shouldn’t let that go to his head. He needed to be just as economical with his spells as every other caster.
“Okay, so,” he said, looking at the girls. “How do we want to do this?”
“We can take ‘em,” Lethelin said with a cocky grin. “Especially now that I have a bow.”
“May I remind you that there are eight of them and two casters?” Allora said levelly.
“May I remind you that I’m an assassin?”
“Part time,” Allora shot back.
Lethelin grinned and Allora gave her a reluctant grin back.
“Still, it’s a good point,“ Mitchell said. ”They do outnumber us more than two to one.”
“We have Vras, also,” Lethelin reminded them all. “He did amazing in the forest before.”
Vras made his appearance then, dropping lightly from a branch overhead. He then gave Mitchell his “I want to talk” look.
“Do you have thoughts?”
“I wish to try my illusions.”
Mitchell blinked.
“You said you didn’t know how to use them yet.”
Vras’s inability to cast proper illusions with his tentacles was a source of constant frustration for the gratha and Mitchell had long since stopped asking him about it. The few times he had tried around Mitchell it had taken him several attempts and the illusions were indistinct, at best.
“I have learned,” was all he said.
“Can you show us?” Mitchell asked after explaining to the girls what Vras had just said.
Vras sat down on his back two paws and his tentacles positioned themselves just above his head between his ears. They opened up to their full size and Mitchell saw small lights begin to flicker around the soft, pink flesh and the air just in front began to ripple. Then, about a meter in front of him, a shape began to form. It took a few seconds but as it took shape, Mitchell recognized himself, even down to the color of the gear he was wearing and the three-day old beard he was sporting.
“Oh, balls!” Lethelin said in amazement.
“He captured your likeness rather well,” Allora said.
Mitchell nodded as he studied this copy of himself. It was quite fuzzy around the edges, and the closer he looked, he could see that a lot of the smaller features, things on his clothing for example, or his eyes, were not actually shapes of things, but just patches of color. His eyes had no sclera or irises, they were just blue spots in the face. His hair also lacked any actual definition, just a patch of brown. But that didn’t detract from the impressiveness of what he was witnessing.
“Vras, that is incredible!” Mitchell said, praising the cat. “Have you been practicing?”
“Yes,” he said.
While his reply was curt, Mitchell could tell the cat was pleased with the praise as his tail flicked back and forth quickly over the ground.
“And how are you feeling? Very tired?”
“Not very much. I can create a similar illusion for a short time before I tire.”
Mitchell’s mind was racing at the possibility. After a few seconds he thought he had the workings of a plan.
“I think I know what we’re going to do. Are you guys ready to strike our first blow against Milandris?”
They all agreed.
“Okay, here’s what I’m thinking,” Mitchell told them and laid out his plan.
