Description

Return to Remus

Beneath the Dragoneye Moons: Book Seven

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Selkie Myth

Beneath the Dragoneye Moons

Oathbound Healer

Adventures in the Argo Ranger’s Dawn

Beyond the Wall

Journey to the Center of Pallos

Immortal Moments

Return to Remus

New Horizons

The Gladiator Gauntlet

This is a work of fiction, and the views expressed herein are the sole responsibility of the author. Likewise, certain characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events or locales, is entirely coincidental.

Cover Art by Kart Studios. Cover Typesetting by MiblArt.

Return to Remus (Beneath the Dragoneye Moons, Book 7) Copyright © 2020 Selkie Myth

All rights reserved.

 

 

This story is dedicated to my wonderful wife, Lauren, without whom this wouldn’t be possible. Her endless love and support keeps me going.

This story is also dedicated to my beautiful daughter Flora, whose smiles light up my every day.

I would also like to acknowledge my beta readers, who put up with my endless typos, fix my mistakes, and help guide the story, so it can be the best story possible.

I’d like to thank all the other supportive authors and writing communities, and all the kind words they have.

Lastly, I’d like to thank Royal Road. My story and success wouldn’t be possible without their website. Thank you, to each and every one of you.

 

 

Chapter 1

Auri Anxiety I

 

I looked down at the little demanding hatchling, her voice much louder than her size would suggest.

“BRRPT! BRRPT!” She continued to demand, screaming for her needs to get met.

I smiled as I gently stroked her wet head, already feeling warm, loving emotions flow through me.

In this moment, it was all worth it. From Lun’Kat’s lair, through the wilderness with the elves, the shimagu, and now back at home, keeping the egg warm and safe had been worth every second, every hit I took while I chose to shield the egg – Auri – instead of me.

I had some minor alarm bells going off in the back of my head. Quite frankly, while the elves had been great at giving me an education on how to raise all sorts of creatures, I wasn’t prepared in the slightest. I didn’t have a home base arranged, I didn’t have a bed prepared – not for myself, let alone Auri! – I didn’t have a wide selection of foods.

Heck, the most important piece of the puzzle – knowing what I was hatching – was also missing! She [Long-Range Identify]‘d as a [Hatchling], pure white of course, which meant she was highly intelligent. I wouldn’t be able to harm her without triggering [Oath]’s penalty. She’d [Identify] as an [Artisan] or something when she grew up, and not as a monster.

Which, long term, was great! She wasn’t going to be a bird brain. I’d gotten strong evidence that companions could communicate on a deeper level with each other, and a smart bird would be a much better conversationalist.

“Brrrpt!”

… if she could ever figure out a word beside “brpt”.

Short term? I wasn’t thrilled. Not knowing what she was made figuring out what to feed her tricky.

The only thing that stopped panic from entirely overwhelming me was Wolfy. He was an expert on companions, and was on loan from Bossman. He’d mentioned going to get food, and the dude could move when he wanted to.

Moon – just the white wolf of the Moonmoon pair – came loping over a moment later, grinning the happy wolf grin with a basket in her mouth. I was suddenly reminded of Cordamo and Sasha.

Moonmoon were still wolves. They still had the instinct to hunt and kill, and it was woven into their very nature just as it was a part of Cordamo’s nature. I couldn’t blame them for that, anymore than I could blame myself for walking on two legs and devouring mangos whenever I saw them.

At the same time, I had to protect Auri. “Oops, I wasn’t careful enough and a wolf ate her” wouldn’t bring her back. I had insane healing, but that was predicated on my patient being alive enough to get healed. Chomp snap gulp was a dead bird, and my healing wouldn’t work there.

Not unless, like, she was eaten whole and surviving inside. Then I could slice Moonmoon up, grab Auri from the inside, then heal both of them up. Hurray for formative childhood trauma! Focus.

I wrapped Auri in [Mantle of the Stars], leaving holes for her to breathe. With the amount of noise the ugly grey hatchling was making, she needed the air.

“Good boy, Moony.” I petted the wolf in question as he arrived, dropping the basket at my feet. Moon looked happy at the scritches, his tongue lolling out.

“Can you scout around and guard?” I asked her, and she barked an affirmative. Or, at least, I assumed it was one.

I felt good. Managed to get Moon away from Auri – just in case – without viciously insulting her or anything. A small social win! There was no time to waste. Wolfy had mentioned that minutes were critical in the early stage.

I expanded the shield to a full half-dome with some air holes, then I flipped open the basket that Moon had brought.

I blinked at the two coins on top of a few handfuls of unshucked wheat. How had Wolfy managed to find unshucked wheat in town, and bought it so fast? And what was with the money?

Focus.

That wasn’t important.

I sat down cross-legged, holding Auri in one hand, and picking out a single grain of wheat with the other. I started to bring it to her head, then froze.

The grain was bigger than her eye, and babies weren’t known for their good judgement, or their ability to chew things and not choke.

Auri was oblivious to my musings, and she saw the seed near her head. She grabbed onto the wheat with her beak, trying to wrestle the food away from me.

It’d be adorable if it wasn’t so dangerous. Sure, with my System-enhanced body, Auri had no chance of success, but the seed could easily choke the life out of her, snuff her out before her life had even begun.

No, I needed some way of mashing the seeds into a –

The coins!

Bless Wolfy. I might’ve been able to do it with my fingers, thinking about it, but the coins made it easier.

I held Auri with one hand away from me. The poor hungry baby bird was trying to get the little grain I was holding, entirely oblivious to the dangers of choking.

“BRRPT! BRRRPT!” She objected to being pulled away from the grain, straining against my hand to try and escape. I could feel her tiny little wings beating frantically inside my hand. She was so small, it was hard to contain her properly. There wasn’t a way to make a choke – her entire body was tiny – and if I squeezed too hard?

POP went the Auri.

Working quickly, I put a few grains between the two coins, and ground them together, turning the wheat into a really shitty flour.

I loved the hideous little ball of mess I was holding, but I was not going to regurgitate food for her. Nope. Nuh-uhn. Only if all else failed.

The other Moon, dark as night, showed up with a basket. I gave him a glance, then refocused on what I was currently doing. I needed to pay attention to this. Any mistake here could spell disaster, either for Auri, or for our chance to bond.

I carefully tipped some of the “flour” into Auri’s open beak. It got all over, but importantly, some went down the hatch.

“Brrpt! BRRRPPT!!” She kept demanding more though. No surprise.

I flickered my shield, changing it from a half-dome – “full shield mode” – to an Auri-only holed sphere – “Auri protection bubble”. Moon trotted over with his basket, and put it down.

“Good boy.” I quickly gave him a scratch. Needed to pay attention to Auri, who was quite loudly demanding my tender care. “Can you find Wolfy and see if he needs you for anything else?”

I swear Moon tried to salute, then bounded off in that lupine way. The other Moon half-tackled him as he found his best friend, and the two tussled for half a second before remembering that, oops, they had jobs to do.

Heh. Goofballs.

I changed the shield back to full shield mode.

I flipped the basket open with my foot while I ground up a new set of wheat grains for Auri to eat.

“BRRRPT!”

I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. This would be so much easier if she wasn’t screaming in my ear non-stop like a broken klaxon.

I opened my eyes and checked on my loot.

My eyes widened as I saw holy mangos mixed in with a few other fruits, and a waterskin. I paused a moment, then refocused.

Baby bird. Needs food.

I dumped another mess of flour over Auri, wishing for a bowl. Then I could catch the spilled flour – it was in the majority – and retry it with Auri.

The baskets I had were no good for that. Too many nooks and crannies.

All the flour was incredibly dry though, and every living thing needed water.

“BRRPT!”

I hesitated a moment.

Right? I couldn’t think of anything that didn’t drink water. Even Lun’kat seemed to have a great big pool of bathing/drinking water, and while the System seemed to allow creatures to bypass some biological needs at times, everything started with the System locked. The only thing giving me a moment’s pause was the explosion of fire that’d erupted when Auri hatched, along with the huge amount of heat needed to hatch her.

Well, that’s what [Hatchling Rearing] was for I guess. I grabbed the waterskin and gently brought it near Auri’s demanding beak.

The skill didn’t twig one way or another, and I half-shrugged to myself, tipping the waterskin over to give Auri a small drink. My idea of a “small drink” was still a bit too much for the bird, who went silent as she tried to handle all the water. A disturbing gurgling noise came from her, as water splashed all around.

I frantically – carefully, if I made a mistake I could accidentally kill Auri, even before my System buffs came into play – held Auri upside down, helping the poor bird with her water woes.

Quickly enough she recovered.

“BRPT! BRPT! BRRRRRRRRRPT!” …and resumed demanding that I FEED HER! And flip her back up the right way.

I carefully rotated her back, and figured I’d try feeding her something else.

I grabbed a handful of blueberries – not the mango – and care- fully juggled it and Auri.

I was a bit of a mess. I needed one hand to hold the berries, one to catch the juice, and one to hold Auri. That was one hand too many.

Inspiration struck. I flickered my shield, and made a complicated construct.

The full shield dome was still up, but part of it snaked over to where Auri and I were sitting down. I formed the end into a little funnel, right over my hand where Auri was.

I moved Auri out of the way.

“Brrpt! Brrrpt!”

I could try to feed the blueberries directly to Auri, but that seemed like a bad idea in a million ways. She was a baby. She didn’t have anything resembling common sense, and was entirely reliant on me to keep her safe and fed.

Which included making sure everything she ate was safe, and had no way of accidentally killing her or something. Blueberries were a perfect choking-sized fruit, and I didn’t trust myself to heimlich a baby bird successfully. Nor did I want to risk trying to heal Auri through whatever trauma would be needed to save her.

Like. “Hi Auri! I ripped out your throat minutes into meeting you!” wouldn’t be conducive towards a long and fruitful relationship.

I didn’t have a good way of turning the berries into juice, be- sides just popping them with my fingers. I didn’t even need stats to mash blueberries into a paste! I did have a modest amount of strength, but… they were blueberries.

“Brrpt! Brrrpt!” Auri was hurrying me along. Her crying was grating. I had to remind myself that she was a new, starving baby, and didn’t know any better.

I mashed a bunch on the edge of the funnel I’d made with [Mantle], letting the juices collect and start trickling down. I examined them closely, occasionally picking out a particularly large piece of mush that represented potential choking hazards, and as the trickles came together, I put Auri underneath.

She took a little sip of the juices, then practically glued herself to the funnel.

I made a mental note. Fruit juice – specifically blueberry – was a success!

It was possible that it was only the sweetness she was after, and it was actually terrible for her. I had to make some assumptions, and take some risks here. Birds often liked fruits. Auri liked the fruit. It was likely that whatever Auri was ate fruits. My logic seemed sound.

I was quickly running out of blueberries though. Wolfy hadn’t sent a ton, opting for speed and a variety of things to send my way, versus quantity of any one thing. Like the wheat had been a bit of a bust.

Speaking of, didn’t birds need to eat rocks or something? For their gizzard?

I put that problem aside. I’d tackle it once I thought I could feed Auri successfully.

I looked at the fruit, and took a deep breath.

Time to make the Ultimate Sacrifice. Time to see if Auri and I were compatible on the deepest levels or not.

Time to see if Auri liked mangos.

A small part of me whispered that if Auri disliked mangos, there were more for me. I ruthlessly squashed that idea. If she didn’t like mangos, how close were we really? How well would we understand each other?

I grabbed the one mango, carefully positioned it over the funnel, and squeezed, putting all my strength into it, carefully con- trolling it with my dexterity.

The mango bulged and deformed as my fingers sank into it, precious, delicious ambrosia dripping down my fingers to the blueberry-stained funnel. It mixed with the first fruit, the blueberries tainting blessed perfection, before finishing its trip to Auri.

She went nuts.

“BRRPT! BRRPT! BRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRPT!” She called out, half-gargling the mango juice.

YES! She liked mangos! More than that, it looked like she LOVED mangos!

“Auri, I see us having a long, long friendship together.” I smiled at her.

“Brrrrrrpt!” She seemed to agree – although translating bird was hard – gargling more mango juice as she tried to talk and drink at the same time.

Hmmm. She needed some lessons. I thought back to mom, and did my best to channel her.

“Now, no talking with your mouth full.” I used my best ‘motherly’ voice, cracking a smile.

[*ding!* [Hatchling Rearing] has leveled up! 88 -> 89!]

I’d be able to introduce mom to Auri soon! I couldn’t wait!

Oooh, maybe I’d wind her up a bit. “Hey Mom! I’m back! I had a fling with a hot dude, and now I’ve got a daughter!”

She’d flip. It’d be hilarious.

“Elaine! How’s it going?” Wolfy jogged over, Moonmoon at his heels. He drew short at the edge of my shield.

“Wolfy! Great! Thank you so much! She’s loving the fruits!”

He knocked on my shield, hefting a bag and a closed hand. “Excellent! More supplies for you?” He somehow turned the statement into a question.

Also, he was looking at – oh damnit, I was still completely naked from when Auri hatched and burned everything.

“Tell me there’s a spare tunic in there.”

“Brrrrpt!”

Wolfy nodded furiously.

“Also a spare tent and other camping supplies. Caught a bunch of insects on my way over.”

Wolfy sat down next to me as I snapped my shield back up. With a few jerks of his head, Moonmoon went off to do something. Probably keep our campsite secure.

Bah. The reality of needing to camp again was just hitting me. It was extra-insulting that I was camping right next to the city walls – I was in the cleared area around them. Warm beds and real roofs were just a few meters away.

But nooo, Auri had to hatch in a baptism of fire, and it was too dangerous to let her in town. If she pulled that stunt off again, a large part of town would burn down.

My comfort wasn’t worth risking everyone’s lives. Downside of this whole Sentinel business.

The mango juice ran out, and I quickly changed, putting Auri down for the first time ever. In a [Mantle of the Stars] shield, but still.

“Brrpt?!” I ignored Auri’s complaint.

Insects were a good idea from Wolfy, although I wasn’t looking forward to mashing them up for Auri.

Oh right, the coins!

I juggled the insects, Auri, coins, and funnel while Wolfy got busy setting up a campsite. Bless having minions. How did I ever survive on my own without them?

I crushed up the bugs Wolfy had gotten. Spiders, flies, and other such nuisances, then pulling a face, poured them down the funnel. Auri happily ate them all.

I really, really hoped that she’d grow up quickly. I didn’t mind bugs too much – heck, I’d eaten extra-large spiders for months to survive – but there was something different about grinding them up, then pouring the guts around.

Auri gobbled up the last bits of food.

“Brrrrrrpt.” She said, seemingly content. She then had a poop explosion, and pitched forward in her soiled egg, basically passing out to sleep.

Wolfy and I looked down, and I cracked a grin while he chuckled.

“Poor bird.”

“Auri.” I said. “Her name’s Auri.”

“That’s a pretty name.”

 

Chapter 2

Auri Anxiety II

 

“Thanks! I think Auri’s a pretty name as well! Can you acquire nest supplies?”

Wolfy whistled, and Moonmoon went scampering off.

“Can I touch?” Wolfy asked, and I looked at Auri’s sleeping form.

“She’s had a rough hatching… when she wakes up, sure!”

Wolfy and I traded a few stories of our respective adventures. He’d gotten in a rough fight against a heavyweight Ash mage- warrior, who used ashen limbs like an octopus to punch people. She’d left the fight after declaring it boring, chowing down on soup of all things.

“Had to call in a Sentinel.”

“She left you all alive?” I asked, somewhat incredulously. Wolfy nodded.

“Seemed to be after good fights, and nothing else.”

Well, it took all sorts, and the normal people didn’t make it into our stories.

Meanwhile, I was able to expand on my elven adventures while Moonmoon brought us small sticks, the wolves practically tip-toeing to keep the delicate sticks and twigs from breaking. We soon assembled…

Well.

I wanted to call it a nest, but it was more of a gigantic mess. “Can you do a supply run in town?” I asked Wolfly. “More fruits, and some cheap fabrics?”

Wolfy grinned.

“Sure! Anything to stay busy.”

“So you don’t have to work the investigation?” I drily asked. “Exactly! You know me so well!”

I rolled my eyes, but Wolfy got the stuff, letting me tend to and protect – Auri.

“Let me grab a pinch of sand.” Wolfy said after his latest supply run.

“Yeah, birds need some, and sand seems harmless if we’re wrong.” I agreed.

Frankly, we only had a modest idea of what we were doing. For all I knew, birds didn’t need rocks for their gizzard until they were older, especially since we were doing the pre-digestion by mashing up Auri’s food for her.

It went alright, and Auri woke up again, brrrrrpting for more food.

I was pleased to see that mango seemed to be her favorite, but to be fair, we hadn’t exactly been able to provide her with a wide variety.

She woke up a few more times, but we were ready this time. Fruits were pre-squeezed into little pots, and bugs were already mashed. I kept offering water, and Auri managed to figure out how to drink.

She was inhaling food at a prodigious rate. Every hour or so she’d wake up, eat what seemed to be a quarter of her weight in food, then go back to sleep.

Night falling, and my own desire for sleep didn’t stop her in the slightest. Every time I started to drift off – “BRRRRRRPT!” came her demanding cries for food and attention.

Time started to blur weirdly. The sheer unchanging monotony of what I was doing, combined with the constantly interrupted sleep, and the never-ending vigilance quickly put me into a weird frame of mind.

“BRRRRRRPT!” Came Auri’s demanding cry in the middle of the night. I groaned as I rolled over, head pounding, and hit my- self with a dose of [Sunrise]. I immediately woke up, and half- cursed myself.

[Sunrise] was great, but it also meant I wasn’t going to get back to sleep anytime soon. I’d drift off right as Auri was inclined to wake up and want more.

Wolfy, curse him eight different ways, just rolled over in his bedroll and pulled the blankets over his head. Practically sleeping like a baby.

Except no. The baby in the tent was the one sleeping terribly, and waking everyone else up.

I blearily grabbed Auri, grabbed a pot of mango juice, and sleepily put the two of them together. She drank her fill, and I put the mango juice back in Auri’s nest, and put Auri back where the mango juice belonged.

“Brrpt?!”

Hang on.

The mango juice shouldn’t be chirping.

I blinked, realizing my mistake, and swapped the two.

“Brrrpt! Brrrpt!” She happily cheeped at me, flapping her proto-wings in delight. I couldn’t help but smile.

“Brrrrpt!” She tumbled right out of the nest, proto-wings flap- ping in a vain attempt to grab some air.

I wasn’t sure on the timeline of when birds left the nest, but Auri was way too young, and, I suspected, something of an idiot. My hand flashed out, and carefully, gently, caught her on the way down.

“Brrrpt!!” Auri seemed to think me catching her was great fun. “Now now. We’re trying to sleep. It’s sleep time.” I put Auri back in the nest, and she promptly flung herself right back out. “Bbbbbbbrrrpt!” She called out as she fell, wings flapping manically.

Of course I caught her, and gave her a half-evil eye.

She’s just a baby. She doesn’t know better. She’s not trying to be a pain. Don’t shake the baby. I repeated the mantra in my head.

I took the nest down from where we’d jerry-rigged a few sticks to make a small “tree”, and put it on the ground. If Auri was going to be jumping out of her nest, I was going to make it a little safer.

Intellectually, I knew that one day she’d need to be jumping out of the nest and practicing flying herself. However, I worried. I didn’t think now was the time.

Auri promptly hopped out, and tried to eat a small pebble.

“No! That’s not food!” I quickly swept the choking-sized rock out of her way.

“Brrrpt!” I swear Auri was making an annoyed noise at me, as she continued to chase down the choking hazard.

On one hand, I wanted to let Auri listen to her instincts. She might need real rocks for her gizzard after all, damn the sand we poured down her throat.

On the other? That rock was too big to go down her throat. She was a bird-brained baby. I didn’t expect intelligent choices, and the elven lessons on “don’t let the baby companion kill them- selves” was fresh on my mind. Auri was proving them correct once again.

I was feeling better about our chances as we successfully completed the first few days. However, Auri didn’t stop trying to kill herself. She started being able to walk around, and we’d let her, since keeping her permanently confined seemed like a poor choice for her development.

Naturally, she tried to throw herself under our feet when we walked around. At one point, she got to the edge of the water barrel, and threw herself in.

Fortunately I was constantly watching, and immediately rescued her as she flat-out sank.

“You have no talent for swimming do you?” I asked her rhetorically.

“BrRrRrRrRrRrrrrrrpt.” Auri shivered, her r’s rolling. I carefully, carefully applied some Radiance to dry her off and heat her up, all too aware that a tiny twitch, a minor loss of self control, and BLAP no more Auri.

She also tried to throw herself in the fire, brrrrrrrrpting pitifully when I snagged her and stopped her attempts at self- immolation.

She did snuggle nicely into my hand after I caught her.

“Brrrrrpppppptttttttt.” She contently chirped as I warmed her with Radiance after her latest attempt. I smiled at her.

I did get a pinch of campfire ashes for her, and she seemed to like playing with them, getting herself utterly filthy in the process. I could only laugh, roll my eyes, and clean her up after.

A week passed, and Auri grew. Molted downy feathers dried off, then slowly turned into colorful feathers. Her beak stayed thin, but it grew longer and longer, as her wings and tail filled in. She looked exactly like a hummingbird. If it wasn’t for her tag being [Fledgeling], I’d assume she was one.

Well. That, and being in a place of honor in Lun’Kat’s lair, and hatching in an inferno of flames. She hadn’t shown too many indications of fire since then, but something was up. She was more than just a hummingbird, but what was the big question.

The other suggestion that something was up was Auri wasn’t doing too well. Auri was slowing down. She wasn’t moving as much, or as energetically.

It came to a head one day when Auri decided that blueberry juice wasn’t tasty anymore.

“Auri’s dying.” I voiced my fears out loud. Wolfy frowned.

“Maybe? She’s not doing great.” He hedged.

“Look, I’m the healer here. This is almost classic failure to thrive. Happens in human babies.”

“Well, what’s the cure for human babies?”

I frowned.

“It’s either organic or non-organic.”

“That means nothing to me.”

I glared at Wolfy, who gave me his best wide-eyed innocent “oh me?” look. Moonmoon in the background giving the same look twisted my mouth into a wry smile.

“Ok. The simple version is: either it’s the wrong food or we’re feeding her wrong.”

“Well, you’re the boss, but could it be something else instead?” Wolfy asked.

I held my hand out flat in front of me and wiggled it.

“Maybe? I’m not going to discount anything, but let’s try a few different things first. Can you get some honey? And while you’re at it…”

I listed off a few more things for Wolfy to grab. He made him- self scarce, and for good measure, I blasted Auri with as much healing power as I could.

Honey could be bad for human babies, but the concerns were over infections. Right now, infection was waaaaaaaaaaaaay down on my list of potential problems, and I could always heal it.

No, with starvation being an issue I was going to throw everything I had at that problem, and handle secondary problems as they arose.

My efficiencies were terrible across the board, but Auri was tiny, and I had power and mana to spare. I healed a dragon for crying out loud, a slightly ill tiny bird was nothing.

Nothing happened though, so whatever was ailing the little grey bird wasn’t something my healing magic could tackle. I was more convinced that Auri’s problems were food and starvation related.

Wolfy was back in no time.

“Right, first thing. Auri looks like a hummingbird, so I’m going to try honey in water in various concentrations. Also going to try boiling off some of the water from the juices, then cooling them off to concentrate the sugar.” I explained to Wolfy as I started carefully measuring out honey and sugar.

“Makes sense. Oh! By the way. Another Ranger team’s in town. They caught up to us while we were on break.” Wolfy paused, looking uncharacteristically nervous.

I was a little focused on Auri and her issues.

“What is it? Spit it out.” I demanded.

“Bossman’s hoping you’ll raid their coin stash instead of ours!” Wolfy quickly belted out. I rolled my eyes.

“Yeah, sure, no problem. Let me know when and where.”

Wolfy looked relieved. Like I’d leave them hanging.

Bah.

I fed the various concentrations of honey to Auri, along with the concentrated fruit juice. To each of them, Auri only took a few sips, before giving me a sad “brpt.”

I persisted for two more days, Auri slowly fading.

“I wish I knew what was wrong!” I cried out in frustration, wanting to throw something but not wanting to disturb Auri. She was sleeping in my hands. I wanted to keep her close, in case being near me helped somehow. I was also constantly pushing healing through her.

“I mean, let me help.” Wolfy said. “Tell me what she is, and we’ll figure it out.”

“I don’t know!” I cried out in frustration.

“Well, where did you get her?”

“I can’t – can’t – tell you.” I gritted my teeth.

“Well… think about where you got her. What was it like?” Wolfly prompted me.

I was kinda mad, but at the same time, if it had been almost anyone else in the Ranger team, they wouldn’t feel free to prod me, and sometimes I needed prodding.

Where did I get her?

Easy. In a dragon’s lair. Part of her collection of eggs, from everywhere. Every creature under the sun.

She obviously wasn’t a dragon, and could be literally anything that Lun’Kat could get her hands on. Given that Lun’Kat was keeping fairies and angels as mood lighting, I didn’t think there were many creatures that could escape her.

Auri hatched from an egg, and was clearly related to birds, if not a bird herself. I’d been treating her like a bird. That train of thought seemed like a dead end.

Lun’kat had massive collections of everything. Almost everything was well laid-out. Could I figure out her organizational system for the eggs, and figure out what Auri was from there?

Well, the bulk of the organization was moot. Auri had been snatched from the place of honor, from the nine eggs front and center of the egg collection.

Except they hadn’t been nine eggs had they? There’d been a unicorn foal there.

And a tree pot.

I was getting stuck on the sapling and the foal. There hadn’t been any other baby animals stuck in suspension in the egg collection. What made those special?

Well. Unicorns were special, and I could see why Lun’Kat would want one. But were unicorns so super extra rainbow special that they were the only creatures to get non-eggs?

And the sapling. How the hell had a sapling made the cut?

How could unicorns be extra special? What made them different from everything else, that a foal made the cut into the extra- special segment when nothing else did?

Actually was that a question worth focusing on when I needed to fix Auri? Shouldn’t I be focusing on something else? Eh… I had time to puzzle stuff out. If I got too far off track I’d circle back to Auri and the eggs I found her with.

Unicorns. What did I know about unicorns?

Well, a whole lot of Earth mythology, and not a ton else. I’d seen Asura during the Guardian battle against Lun’Kat, and all the magic she’d cast. I’d also seen Etalix, the dinosaur we venerated in Remus, along with Galeru, Yarok-

Wait.

Yurok, the Plague.

A treant.

A baby treant would look just like a sapling, wouldn’t it?

The sapling for Yurok.

The unicorn foal for Asura.

Did it work for the rest of the Guardians?

Let’s see…

There was the nearly see-through egg, with a dinosaur inside. It had a long, crocodile-like jaw, and seemed to be a shoo-in for Etalix if I wanted to stretch things that way. It was a bit weird that the spinosaurus eggs Aegion had gotten and we’d eaten hadn’t looked like that, but then again, they’d been unfertilized eggs, and we’d eaten yolk and white, and not a nearly-born baby dinosaur. That could explain the difference.

I had no idea about the Celestial egg. It was in a place of glory even among the frontrunners, but none of the Guardians I’d seen had Celestial vibes. It also wasn’t Lun’Kat’s egg.

One strike against the Guardian theory. I suppose some of the Guardians might not have shown up though? Or hadn’t shown up by the time I left? It was a bit of a stretch, but not a huge one. I was willing to keep entertaining the theory.

Next was the leathery egg with green lightning, and I remembered that snakes tended to have leathery eggs. Galeru was a master of green lightning, and I was starting to feel kind of dumb here. How had I missed this!?

I skipped the aquarium. Whatever came out of that was aquatic, and I hadn’t seen any deep-sea creatures. We’d kinda been in a mountain range.

I wasn’t going to discount high level sea creatures being able to get up and walk on land, but I was willing to give it a pass.

Although! I had seen something open up a portal, and a ton of water and sealife had exploded through! Score one point for “Not all the guardians were there” – there’d been that aborted message – and one point for “There’d clearly been an aquatic guardian that tried to show up!”

Then, if I made the quick assumption that the egg that looked like a two-in-one was Hebai, the Xuan Wu with the turtle’s body, and the snake instead of a tail…

There was one guardian left. One red, flame-related bird. “You’re a phoenix.” I whispered in awe at Auri.

“What’s that?” Wolfy asked. I ignored him. I was busy, my mind racing.

I knew what she needed now. I stared at the campfire, and chewed my lip as I hesitated, deep in thought.

If I was wrong, I was going to commit the biggest [Oath] violation possible. “Yeah I tossed a baby into a bonfire and let it burn alive” was a recipe for a major, major violation. “I thought I was helping!” was a tiny defense, and even in my mind I didn’t believe I’d get let off the hook.

I didn’t think I should be let off the hook.

At the same time – Auri needed something more. Perhaps her attempts at jumping into the campfire was more than baby bird silliness, like her attempts at drowning herself in the water barrel was, or nearly getting stepped on, or jumping out of the nest. Perhaps there’d been some instincts at work, a primal part of her that demanded fire.

She’d needed considerable heat to hatch in the first place. She hatched in a blazing inferno. I still didn’t have my hair fixed again after that.

Focus.

Everything about her had revolved around fire until now. I eyed her.

Her coloring hadn’t changed a bit as she’d grown up. Even now she looked like ashes and soot.

If I was wrong, Auri would die. Either way.

If I kept her ‘safe’, she might die because she needed flames.

If I exposed her to fire, she could die because of it. She was so tiny. So fragile. I could believe her life getting snuffed out before I had a chance to save her.

I made my choice.

 

Chapter 3

Burning Brightly

 

Cupping the sleepy, dazed Auri in my hand, I moved her right next to the fire.

I was going to take this slowly. Carefully.

If I was right – if Auri was a phoenix – my biggest concern was that the fire wasn’t big or hot enough. A simple wood fire, in a campsite out of the walls felt wrong. It lacked pomp. It lacked ceremony.

For a phoenix, she should be given a grand entrance to the town, a full triumph thrown for her. Put her on the highest altar in the biggest temple, then use divine flames to ignite her or something.

Well, I had to work with what I had.

The flames crackled around my hand, my healing restoring me faster than blisters and burns could manifest. Nothing was quite happening yet.

I needed to be able to pull her out in an instant if things went poorly, or if she showed signs of distress.

Except, not much was happening. The flames were just licking at her wingtip.

But… they weren’t catching on fire either. Not in the way dry feathers should be. And Auri wasn’t showing signs of distress. So… maybe this was the right thing to do?

I moved Auri to the heart of the fire, opening my hand to better let the flames wash over her.

I frowned.

“Elaine, are you su-”

“Quiet.” I ordered Wolfy. I needed to focus.

The tips of Auri’s wings flickered, and caught. With a stiff breeze at all of our backs, the little bird’s body seemed to suck in and “inhale” the entire fireplace, all of the flames vanishing into her body.

“What the -“Wolfy swore.

I looked at Auri, still lying limply on my hand. Unmoving. But.

Deep within her sooty, ashen coat, I could see little embers. Tiny sparks, like a fire long burned out.

“More wood. More fire. Hurry!” I barked at Wolfy.

“This is the craziest shit.” He muttered as he sprang into action.

Good old Rangers. Throw weird stuff at us, and we’re still capable of acting.

Wolfy quickly built a second fire, Moonmoon helping by dragging sticks over. He was slowed down by needing the start from scratch, our old fire not having any burning embers to kickstart a second fire.

Puzzled, I felt the firepit.

Even the ashes were cold.

I looked down at Auri, thoughts racing.

On one hand, it seemed like she needed a lot of fire.

On the other, she seemed to be on the brink of death.

Speed or size.

Speed or size. Speed.

“Wolfy! After this fire, grab a few sticks, and start a bonfire. Large as you can manage.”

“Yes Ma’am!” He yelled back, carefully feeding his small fire, working it larger.

Black Moon started to kick smaller sticks and twigs into a pile- the bonfire’s start.

Before long, Wolfy had gotten a roaring fire going, and was busy building up the bonfire to epic proportions.

I didn’t hesitate this time. I thrust Auri into the heart of the fire. My breath caught as nothing happened.

Was I too late? Too slow? Did I screw something up? Did-

As panic was starting to set in, the flames wrapped around Auri, her tiny body absorbing them.

Almost immediately her wings caught on fire, but she wasn’t moving. The rest of her was still predominantly dull and grey, although there were more sparks and embers “deep” inside of her. “bbrrpt.” A weak noise came from Auri, and my heart leapt into my throat.

It was working! She was doing better!

Wolfly was building up the bonfire, and I refrained from pacing. Refrained from yelling at him to hurry up – he was going as fast as he could.

I did help with some careful applications of Radiance, heating up wood, and starting small fires that grew quickly in the dry environment.

I practically stood in the fire, my healing fixing me up as quickly as I burned. I ignored the sparks that showered me, and the embers that landed on me.

Finally, I judged the fire to be large enough. I tossed Auri into the heart of the flames, believing from what I’d seen that it was the right thing to do.

The inferno raged around her for a moment, before condensing down into her tiny body.

My stomach clenched in fear as she went up like a candle, her entire body engulfed in flames.

Then the flames changed. From the bright yellow with occasional flickering orange of the campfire, the fire wrapped around Auri turned into a dozen different colors. The top of her wings turned white, followed by a blue layer, then a green layer, then finally, her ‘feathers’ morphed into a brilliant, glorious golden yellow.

Igniting her. Lighting her primordial fire.

Auri woke up, and exploded up and out of the flames with a shriek of pure joy, a jubilant cry that pierced through us all.

“BRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRPTTTTT!”

She triumphantly exclaimed, and she was flying.

Three weeks old and already in the air. She’d been looking hummingbird-like before, but the flames had completed her transformation and look, her wings rapidly buzzing back and forth, embers and sparks getting thrown off with every movement.

She was fire incarnate, her entire body alight.

No – she was fire and flames, a blazing beacon.

Her beak was a soft yellow, the flames impossibly solid, while the bulk of her body was coated in a ruby-red blaze. Her belly was the exception, glowing a vivid green. Her tail was a whole multitude, a luminous spectrum, defying the natural order of things as the flames started off red, then turned orange, then white, then blue at the end.

“Gods.” Wolfy whispered, Moonmoon on either side of him, looking at Auri with interest, and more than a bit of fear.

“Is that Auri?”

“Yes.” I whispered back, holding out a tentative hand towards her.

My heart was racing. I’d looked after Auri. I’d hatched her, fed her, and protected her. I’d almost screwed it up, but here she was, looking better than ever.

I didn’t think she needed me anymore.

Would she choose to stick around? Would the legendary phoenix deign to stay with a little human, in the heart of the dead zone?

Or would she fly away? Would she leave me without even a feather to remember her by?

“Brrrpt!” Auri zipped past my outstretched hand, right to my shoulder. She landed on it, perfect, like it was designed for her. She was hot. She burned my shoulder.

I didn’t care in the slightest.

“Brrrpt! Brrrpt! Brrrrrrrrrrpt!” She nuzzled my ear and cheek from her perch, letting me know how happy she was to be there. My heart swelled three sizes that moment, which would normally be a medical emergency.

“Brrrpt!” I smiled.

“Love you too, you little troublemaker.”

The last part came out as I noticed my tunic was catching fire, and the distinct, noxious odor of burning hair was filling the air again. Wolfy was continuing to eye me, and coughed nervously. “Sentinel. You’re on fire.”

“Yeah, I’m trying to figure out what to do about it.” I calmly replied. “Tunic’s probably a bust already, annnnnnnnnnd I don’t see my hair making it all that long.”

“Brrrrpt?” Auri sounded a little concerned, a little sad.

“Shh, no, it’s ok. You couldn’t help it.” I stroked her head gently, her body strangely solid in spite of the flames.

She still felt like feathers.

“Brrrrpt…”

“No no, I like it! I’ve destroyed my own hair a bunch!” I tried to reassure the poor bird.

She was just a baby. Incredibly, ridiculously intelligent for a bird, apparently empathetic as hell, but still a baby. She could tell that I didn’t like my tunic and hair burning, but had no idea of the scale of the issue. She couldn’t tell if to her it was like being fed flour, a relatively minor annoyance, or like running out of mango juice, the Worst Thing Ever?

She didn’t exactly have a lot of life experience to understand the scale of, well, life.

I shucked off the burning tunic and tossed it to Wolfy, who stomped out the flames. The material was reusable, and there was little sense in letting it all burn.

“Brrpt!” Auri scolded Wolfy for his actions. Clearly, fire was sacred, and shouldn’t be extinguished.

“Now listen here you little troublemaker.” I put on my best ‘mom voice. “Some people don’t like their stuff burning.”

“Brrrpt?”

“Yes, really. Some people have nice things that they’d rather keep as they are.”

“Brrpt! Brrpt!”

“No, burning them doesn’t improve them.”

I wasn’t sure how I was understanding Auri – maybe I was making it all up? – but I felt like we were clicking. On the same wavelength.

It was good. It gave me a nice, warm, fuzzy feeling that had nothing to do with my crown of fire.

I wanted nice hair.

I gave up entirely on that dream for the foreseeable future. Auri would just burn it, and I wasn’t going to start yelling at her for wanting to cuddle with me. Not now, not when our relation- ship was so new and fresh.

I didn’t see a good way to put the fire out at this point, not without dunking my hair in water or something similar that could dislodge or harm Auri.

I knew nothing. I didn’t know if water was bad for her, I didn’t know if extinguishing the flames would kill her, heck, I didn’t even know if phoenixes died and were reborn, or if death was final.

… If they died and were reborn, White Dove//Black Crow was going to be so mad.

I shook my head and focused, back on the here and now. “Wolfy, can you get my Mistweave outfit from that bag? And a jar of mango juice?”

Wolfy, bless him, jumped right into action. I reminded myself that he was a full Ranger, having passed through the same training that I had, and not only that, but he’d done a round and a half, and managed to keep himself and Moonmoon alive.

I brought the jar of mango juice up, intended to make a little funnel like before. Auri had other ideas. With a high-pitch flurry of wings, that sounded like a crackling fire, she launched herself from my shoulder, and hovered in front of the pot, greedily sucking down the ambrosia.

She drank far more than I’d believe possible – like, half her body by volume, was she burning it all up or something – then stopped. Still hovering, she nuzzled at the jar, “pushing” it to- wards me with her feeble strength and tiny mass.

“For me?” I asked.

“Brrrrpt!” Auri agreed.

Watching her, I carefully brought the jar of mango juice up to my lips, and took a big, obvious sip.

“Mmm! Delicious!”

“Brrrpt!”

“Can I know what’s going on now?” Wolfy asked.

Auri zipped back to my shoulder, and nuzzled against my cheek. I gently nuzzled her back.

“Well, I figured out what Auri was, and what she was missing.” “No. Really?” Wolfy’s sarcasm was thick enough to spread on toast. Even Moonmoon looked unimpressed with him.

“I mean, what more do you want?”

“To know what she is, for starters. Then how you knew about her, and what she needed. Anything you can give me, really.”

Oh. Right.

Although I had said it earlier. Guess he hadn’t heard me properly. “She’s a phoenix. A creature made of fire, powerful, and supposedly unkillable.”

Wolfy looked between me and Auri. He sighed.

“Anyone else, I’d laugh, tell them the joke was funny, but no, really, what is she. You? Her?”

He shook his head.

“Damn. That is going to give me a crazy class at 256 that I’ll have to pass on. Never thought I’d see a phoenix. It’s like a story.” He shook his fist at the sky.

I snorted at his antics.

“Still… a phoenix. And I touched one. Wow.” Wolfy was looking a little nervous at Auri. I gave him a grin, letting him know everything was fine.

“I gotta admit, seeing you as Sentinel feels a bit weird or unfair at times.”

I nodded, not knowing where he was going with this.

“Like, we were in the same class together and everything. Then I see you standing there, on fire, and just not caring and it not affecting you at all, and I’m reminded why.”

Oh right. Yeah.

I was still somewhat on fire.

I shrugged, my hair still billowing smoke.

“Meh. This is nothing. Getting decapitated? That was a mess!” “You WHAT!?” Wolfy shouted.

“Brrrpt!”

I just gave him a manic grin.

 

Chapter 4

On the road to Arminium I

 

A few days after Auri ignited, I left Port Salona.

There wasn’t much of interest that happened, apart from Bossman and the rest of the Ranger team nearing the end of their investigation. Two squads of guards, with varying degrees of guilt, a single corrupt scribe, and a judge going senile seemed to be the score.

The scribe seemed to be the lynchpin of the operation. He was able to forge – well, forge was a bad word, since he was the one writing them out ‘for real’ anyways – documents that said a trial took place, and the verdict was whatever he decided it was. Generally harsh penalties for the loser.

The scheme was vaguely clever, in an evil way. The slaves were then often sold to a wealthy farmer, who needed extra farmhands or help around the house, keeping them away from the city and potential sources of justice. When the person being railroaded – always poor, and without connections or help to lean on-protested, the guards would cover each other.

If they made an appeal to the Rangers, and if the Rangers had enough time to investigate, they’d go to the courthouse. The paperwork – regardless of which scribe was looking things up – would always be in order. If, by some miracle, the Rangers went a step further and asked the judge about the case, the judge, not wanting to admit to the holes in his memory or declining faculties, would “remember” it happening.

At which point, why investigate further? Why hunt down the prosecutor in the case, who was harder to find than the judge at the jailhouse? Why look for any other collaborating evidence? Rangers were busy people, and multiple sources verifying that, yes, it was real?

It wasn’t like every single criminal ever claimed they were innocent, and appealed to the Rangers, hoping we’d screw up and let them go free. Our tolerance for looking into things depended on the team, how many complaints we got, and how busy we were.

Bossman and co’s problem at this point was unraveling just how long the scheme had been going on, trying to tease the fake trials from the real ones, and figure out how to “unwind” the dozens – hundreds? – of cases. How to resettle all the people back into lives and careers, and what compensation, if any, they could be given.

Selling the guilty into slavery could only generate so much coin, not nearly enough to cover all the costs.

The scribe was scheduled for public execution last I heard, which would reduce the pot of coins to cover the costs.

Their motive was, naturally, profit. The slaves were being sold “off the books” so to speak – in spite of them being on the books – and the guards and scribe were splitting the rather significant funds. Kind of like how the pirates were looking for slaves to sell. The flesh industry was lucrative.

The governor was happy with us, and Bossman had reluctantly concluded that he was in the clear. The guards were effectively stealing from his coffer, and the governor’s [Penny Pincher] was delighted. We’d found the hole in his accounts! Balance to the balance sheets! Or some other nonsense that had him throwing us a “feast”.

Leftovers from an extravaganza the governor had thrown the night before. Dude lived up to his class alright.

Honestly. Leftover fish.

I was glad to be out of the way of all that, and just as happy to be able to leave on my own timeline. Wolfy wasn’t happy that I was leaving before the investigation was completely finished – he was going to have to get back to it!

I had quickly stopped by the temple on my way out, thanking all the gods and goddesses for my safe return to Remus. I figured while I was there, I’d drop a whole wishlist of things I wanted, most of which were impossible. Eh. Might as well try, right?

Auri was a troublemaker and a half. I double-checked my gear one last time.

Oversized backpack filled with supplies – check.

Metal plating for said backpack – check. Fireproofing my stuff from Auri was a challenge!

Deception Ring – check. Set back to 200. It had given me trouble in the past, but so was displaying my true level. Heck, most levels came with a degree of trouble, and when push came to shove, I’d rather be under-estimated.

Three amphorae of clay corked fruit juice – check.

Mistweave – check. Auri would burn anything else, and think it was great fun.

Heavy-duty gloves intended for forge work – check. I could just grab Auri with my bare hands, but I didn’t like the smell of my own flesh cooking. Gave me horrible flashbacks.

“Ok Auri, we’re going to get going now. We’re going to my home! You’re going to meet my parents! And the other Sentinels! And Kallisto! And everyone else! It’s super exciting, right?”

“Brrrpt!” Auri agreed with me!

“If you let me carry you, we can be there SUPER FAST! Isn’t that cool?”

“Brrrrrpt.” Auri fluttered in front of me, wings beating so quickly they tried to blur, throwing multi-colored sparks every where. It was only due to my crazy vitality that I could see them at all, although she’d be a menace if she invested in speed.

“Ok, yes, flying is the best thing ever.”

“Brrrpt!” Auri zipped down to where I had a jug of mango juice at my waist, and tapped on it a few times.

“I just fed you!” “BRPT! BRPT!”

I held back a sigh, and refrained from rolling my eyes.

“Auri, if you do nothing but fly, of course you’ll be starving! That’s what I’m trying to say!”

“BRrrrrrrpt” Auri trailed off sadly.

I narrowed my eyes at her.

“Fine.” I uncorked the jug that not five minutes ago Auri had gotten a drink from, and tipped the bottle over just enough for the juice to be at the lip.

Auri hovered right next to it, embers landing on my hand as she drank her fill. After a few seconds, she stopped and zipped around me.

“Brrrpt! Brrrpt! BRUPT!”

That last one sounded like more of a burp than a cheep of joy. “Ok, you’ve had your drink, now come here! And we can get going!”

“Brrrpt!” Auri just kept zipping around me, excited to simply fly.

It did give me a chuckle. We were like two birds of a feather in that respect. I knew how much fun flying was, and I didn’t want to put a damper on her enthusiasm.

Instead, I took the moment to study her flight, hoping to improve [Scintillating Ascent]. I was torn if it was helping or not. On one hand, Auri was a low-level baby bird.

On the other, she was a phoenix. I couldn’t think of too many creatures that were better to study. I didn’t have a great grasp on how [Scintillating Ascent] evolved yet, but I couldn’t imagine constantly studying Auri was a bad idea.

We walked along for quite some time. I was going super slowly – compared to how quickly I could walk, let alone run, but I was letting Auri set the pace.

After an hour I was starting to get impatient though. At this rate, it would literally take me a year to finish getting back home. I decided to try and get a proper move on.

“You don’t want to fly on my shoulder? I can go super fast and super high!” I tried to cajole Auri.

“BrPT!” Auri fiercely denied me.

I frowned at her.

“Ok, now listen here young miss. We need to get a move on, and your antics are slowing us down!”

I got out The Gloves.

“Sorry Auri, but we do need to get moving.” I first caught her in my [Mantle], then closed the heavy-duty gloves around her. She struggled against the heavy gloves, not liking being trapped. Just like me…

I then took off, my wings interacting awkwardly and badly with the backpack I had on. I couldn’t properly flap them, which limited my speed.

Derp, right. I could just take it off, flip it around to make a front-pack, and go from there.

It was still a heck of a lot faster than nearly every other method of transportation I had available.

“Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrpttttt…                                                                                  br-

rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrpppppppppttttttttt….” Auri was crying pitifully from where I was holding onto her, and my heart wavered.

Three minutes of her crying her little heart out later, and I yielded. I wanted to get home fast, yes, but not at the cost of our potential bond and relationship. If we had to get home the slow way, the slow way it was.

“Well, let’s go then.”

“Brrpt!”

 

Chapter 4.5

Minor Interlude – Auri

 

6th day since Igniting.

Free! I was free! Freed from the crushing non-burning things.

The things sick-mom put on her not-wings!

Nasty not-burning things. Mom had many many not-burning things.

Poor mom! Poor Elaine! She was SUPER SICK! All of her feathers were GONE! She had pretty wings of light-fire! I liked. They weren’t as pretty as me, but mom tried.

Free!

Free to fly around! Free to flit and weave, duck and dive! Free to explore the grand world around me! All the way from the ground that Elaine spent too much time walking on, all the way up to where trees started to have leaves!

Would you believe it, it looked like there was more above there? That trees grew endless leaves just for me to burn??

I zoomed around mom! Zoom! Zip! Pew! I let her know how happy I was!

“Thank you! Thank you! More juice?”

Mom bared her teeth. It meant she was happy! Yay happy mom! Yay happy! See, letting me fly was good! Everyone happy!

I flew to the edge of the world! The great shiny stone desert! Mom was walking across it. Go mom!

I helped! Lots of not-fire on the side of this “road” thing. Lots of leaves and sticks and – OOH!

Flower!

Yummy flower!

I buzzed over to the beautiful yellow flower, and took a sip of the nectar inside.

Mmmmm. Tasty!

Poor flower though. So sad. So droopy.

I help!

BURN!

It burned! Bright yellow, like the color of the flower! It was all ok now.

“Look at me! Look at me! Mom, I did it! I burned it! FIRE!”

“Auri, if you burn the flowers, how do you expect to get more nectar from them?” Mom made that big breathing noise. She did that a lot. More proof that she was sick.

Bug! Food! Tasty food! Whooof! Flames! Burn the bug! Cook it! Zoof! Zap! Catch!

Yummy yummy in my tummy.

More things to burn! Whoosh! The flat green things burn! The long brown things are on fire.

Fire.

FIRE.

Glorious fire!

“Auri, stop burning everything. Come on, let’s go!” Mom said. Stop… burning everything?

What?

No way mom was ok.

My stomach felt unhappy. I flew to mom’s bath in a bottle and pecked at it. Peck! Peck! Mom said to be polite. I was polite! Tap! Peck!

“Please?”

“Ok, but you should find your own. We don’t have unlimited amounts, not at the rate you drink at.” Elaine grabbed the bath, and opened it up.

My eyes went as wide as a berry. Mom’s portable cave was end-less. An endless sea of delicious liquid! It tizzied! It tittered! It was the SECOND BEST THING EVER!

Mom was the best thing ever! She needed to get better! No sick! First though. Delicious liquid was tasty-yummy! Made my mouth happy! Stomach happy!

Drink with the mouth! Made the mouth happy!

Wait!!!

If I used my wings, would that make my wings happy? My feet? ALL OF ME!?

YES! It must!

I zipped into the cavern!

“No!” Mom cried out. I ignored her. Full-body happy time! Strange that mom kept it dark, and didn’t keep some fire in here. Everywhere should have fire!

JUICE!

I dove right in! Splish splash! Straight into the-

WET! WET! COLD! WET!

MY FIRE!

Mom grabbed me, and immediately heated me back up. My flames flickered. My flames caught.

I lived.

“Th-th-thank you.” I shivered out.

Mom was safe. I was going to stay with mom for a bit.

Elaine put me on the Podium of Adoration. All could see my beautiful flames from here! The reds! The oranges and blues, the greens and the whites, and best of all the purples and ulfires and jale!

The Podium wasn’t burnable today.

“Boo! BOO!” I let my displeasure be known.

“I know, you like that spot don’t you?” Mom answered back. Bah. Mom didn’t always get me.

Mom also didn’t have her head-feathers. I did her a great favor! I turned them into fire! Good Auri! Good work!

“Brrrpt!” I cheeped happily at the memory.

Then mom’s burning-hair-feathers went away. EXTINGUISHED! Mom was super-duper sick. Her head should always be burning. Everything should be burning!

Then there was A Voice. A mysterious voice, a powerful voice, the Voice of Everything.

“Congratulations! You’ve survived your early weeks, and the System is now fully unlocked for you!”

“Congratulations! You’ve unlocked a number of General Skills! [Phoenix’s Perfection], [Alarm Call], [Begging], [Brrretty], [Large Appetite], [Preening], [Cute], [Flame Body], [Flying], [Presentation], [Adoration], [Vanity], [Understanding Mom], [Tough Feathers], [Baby Bird], [Precocious], [Incandescence], [Far Seeing], [Hovering], [Cutie Power], [Pointy Beak], [Mimic Mom], [Ponder], [Promethean Insight], [Adorable], [Flower Fascination].”

“Congratulations! You’ve earned your first class – [Feather of Flame] – Inferno!”

“Feather of Flame – A starter class for a phoenix, hatched by humans and elves working together.”

“Your class – [Feather of Flame] – has advanced from level 1 to level 8!”

“What?” I asked the voice.

“You now have access to the System.” It repeated. “For reaching level 8, you now have the ability to class up!”

“Can you tell me another way?” I asked, confused. Strange mystery words coming out of the air? It was confusing.

Flames erupted in front of me! Fire burn!

Ooooh. Eternally burning! Burning nothing, burning forever, good flames!

The flames made sense. The flames spoke of power – my power. They told me how to get stronger. How to make my flames burn bigger, hotter. How to make more fire. How to build an inferno.

And-AND-I could make it different! I could add more flames! Little sparks! Colorful embers!

I wanted EVERYTHING!

I only had 1, 2, 3… 4…counting was hard… 5… 6!

AND MORE!

MORE THAN 6 SPACES! Wow! It was like I could get EVERYTHING!

“Congratulations! You’ve unlocked the General Skill [Counting Hard or Hardly Counting?]”

Wow! Even more!

Ok!

I wanted THAT skill! And that skill! And those skills! YES! Mom was the best! Flowers were the best!

I quickly filled in all the fires, making it the BIGGEST BESTEST FIRE EVER!

A glorious multi-colored flame was in the middle. I just knew what it did.

With some will, I went to the happy-fire-dreamland.

Flowers! Flowers everywhere! Glorious flowers stretching in front of me, almost all a blazing red color! The best color, the color of FIRE!

A few rare ones weren’t red. I buzzed over to them.

Zip! Zoop!

The after-burning color. Mom called it “grey”. It had a small red spot of nectar in the middle.

Fwish! Fwoop!

Mom-wing color. “Yellow”? Orange nectar!

Swish! Swoop!

Dark burning color, with little spots of brown. Not-red nectar. Buzzz!

Two flowers near each other. One evil water color. “Blue”? Almost-red nectar in the middle. Boo! Bad blue! Zoom to the other flower!

The other was the same color as the HUGE birds in the sky! The birds were weird! Always the same color, didn’t flap their wings.

Vroop! Vrisht!

Last weird flower! Charcoal color! Good color, color of burning things. Orange fire nectar spot.

Then a huge bird of flames came! Big wings! Huge beak! Great talons! Every color of fire!

I wanted to be just like her.

“Auri!” She said. “Hi! I’m your guide!”

I instantly knew what a guide was, and what she was for. The flower petals were the type of flames I’d get. The nectar inside was how strong the flames would be.

But why was red the weakest? Red should be the strongest! Although…

Although….

Thinking hurt.

I was every color of fire. Yup yup. That was good. All was right with the world.

The nectar was… also every color.

So… red wasn’t the best fire color. It was just a fire color, like the rest of them.

All fire colors were equally good! They all burned things! Hurray!

“Yay! Guide! What do I do?”

Knowledge flooded into me, information communicated by some arcane means.

“Whoaaaaaaaaaaaa.” I looked at my guide in awe. “Cool! Do it again!”

She gave me an evil black-burning eye.

“Pick what you want.” She said. “I can help you.”

“BURN EVERYTHING! Oh, and have the BEST COLORS. Lots of fire. Make everyone look at me on the Podium of Adoration! Flames! Make mom better. She’s sick.” I got sad thinking about that.

I then perked up.

“Wait! Mom’s awesome! She’ll totally figure out how to get better! Give me an INFERNO!”

I learned all the burning words quickly. I was very happy with myself.

Guide swished her great beautiful wings, and the field of flowers flew under us. A beautiful red fire poppy awaited me, with a single drop of yellow nectar.

I hovered in front of the flower, my wings giving off wonderful sparks of flame. Spread the joy! Spread the fire! Look at how pretty I am!

The petals were telling me things.

Zippiness: FWISH! SWOOP!

Fancy Flying: All the twirls!

Kindling: Lots and LOTS!

New Juice: Two mango’s worth.

Flame Size: HUGE!

Fire Control: Smol.

Eh, that wasn’t needed.

“This one!”

“Excellent choice. Light the flower on fire, and make your choice.”

“NO!” I protested. “I want to burn ALL of them!”

“Just one.”

I wasn’t going to let the guide tell ME what to do! I burned the first one, then quick as thinking, went to burn ALL THE FLOWERS!

They wanted to be burned! They needed to turn into beautiful flames, like me! They would go away when I was done!

No!

Bring me back!

BRING ME BACK!

-Elaine-

I was flying fast. Auri was finally somewhat cooperative – and by that she wasn’t actively resisting me – and I was taking the chance to haul. I figured at this point I could fly at high speeds while Auri was sleeping, and walk slowly while she was awake. Suboptimal, but it shouldn’t add too much time to my trip.

The colorful phoenix had, after much excitement, suddenly gotten the distinct glowing halo of colors that indicated that she was classing up.

I was a bit jealous. Roughly a month after hatching, and not only had the System unlocked for her, but she’d gotten to level 8? Lyra, after a whole 8 years, had only managed to get level 7! Level 8 in a month, when all Auri did was eat, sleep, and burn things, was absurd!

I felt Auri stirring, and I dropped back down to the road, landing heavily among some travelers. I glanced down at her, [Identify]ing her to see what happened.

“Brrrpt! Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrpt!!” Auri flew out of my hands, circling around me, all excited.

My jaw dropped, and with my vitality, I was able to pick out small details in her eyes.

“You’re an Inferno [Mage] now!?”

This must be my comeuppance for when I took a Fire mage class with the Rangers. Karma was biting me in the ass for the prank I pulled on Julius and the rest way back when.

I looked at Auri, happily blowing off jets of Inferno around her, reveling in her new abilities.

I looked at the travelers on the road, giving Auri and I wary looks. at least no sword was being unsheathed, not that I could blame them. I’d be doing the same if a tiny monster landed in front of me and started throwing around Lightning or something.

I thought about Auri’s inclination to burn everything. Oh boy. I was in for it now.

 

[Name: Aoife Auri Stentor]

[Race: Phoenix]

[Age:0]

[Mana: 720/720]

[Mana Regen: 667]

 

Stats

[Free Stats: 0]

[Pushing Power: 48]

[Fancy Flying: 32]

[Reactions and Reflexes: 41]

[Zippiness: 46]

[Kindling: 72]

[New Juice: 71]

[Flame Size: 76]

[Fire Control: 71]

 

[Class 1: [The Eternal Flame – Inferno: Lv 9]]

[Inferno Authority: 1]

[Phoenix Rebirth: 1]

[Inferno Manipulation: 1]

[Inferno Conjuration: 1]

[True Flames: 1]

[Burn Magic: 1]

[Domain of Fire: 1]

[Burning Quills: 1]

 

[Class 2: [Locked]]

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[Class 3: [Locked]]

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General Skills

[Phoenix’s Perfection: 1]

[Incandescence: 1]

[Adorable: 1]

[Precocious: 1]

[Flower Fascination: 1]

[Flying: 1]

[Preening: 1]

[Brrretty: 1]

 

Chapter 5

On the road to Arminium II

 

“Auri! NO!” I yelled, throwing up a [Mantle] to protect the poor farmer’s harvest from Auri’s attempts to ‘improve’ it.

I was fast enough. This time.

“Brrrpt! Brrrrrrrrrrrpt!!!” Auri complained at me, flitting around the protected cart.

“I’m so sorry.” I told the poor farmer, who just narrowed his eyes at Auri.

“[Pest begone]” He pointed a finger at Auri, and a high-speed jet of water sprayed out of his finger.

My reflexes were great. I flickered the shield, changing it from protecting the cart from Auri’s attempts at pyromancy, to protecting Auri and the cart.

I wasn’t going to be paying out for another farmer’s harvest.

I got the evil eye from the farmer, which, I suppose was fair. From his point of view, some creature had zipped in, and was trying to burn a chunk of his harvest that he was bringing to market. He was simply trying to get rid of the pest – he literally had a skill for it – and I was randomly barging in and saving said nuisance.

And Auri was a nuisance and a half. Still loved her though.

The farmer opened his mouth, probably to yell at me. I curtailed all that by speaking super-duper fast.

“Sorry! Super sorry! Won’t happen again! No harm, no foul, right? Auri, let’s goooooo!”

I wrapped a protesting Auri in [Mantle], and hauled ass before the farmer could get a good yelling in. I just didn’t feel like listening to the same “you need to be more careful” or “you need to keep that bird under control” lecture for the 8th or 14th time, respectively.

Worse was the “That menace should be put down!”

It’d only happened once, but Auri had been super upset over it. We’d needed to find a nice tree for her to entirely burn down be- fore she was happy again.

“Brrrpt! Brrrrrrrrrpt! BRPT!” Auri was protesting her treatment. She didn’t like being in the hamsterball.

“Aoife Auri Stentor.” I gave her full name. She seemed to realize that meant she was in trouble, and she shrunk down a bit. “You are in a lot of trouble, young miss. You can’t just go around burning everything!” I tried to explain for… at least the 30th time, I’d lost count a while ago.

“Brrrrrrrrrpt!”

“No.”

“Brpt!”

“No!”

“Brrrrpppt!”

I’d gotten over arguing with a bird a long time ago.

Hang on. My current methods weren’t working. I released Auri, and she flitted around me.

“Brpt! Brrrrpt!! Brpt!” She sang her song of joy, alighting on my shoulder and nuzzling my cheek.

“Yeah, you’re pretty awesome.” I brought one finger up to stroke her along the beak, then over her head and down her back. “BrRRRRRRRrrrPT!” Auri peeped in delight at the move, and I kept it up.

“Ok, you like burning things.” I stated.

“Brrrpt.” Auri was unimpressed with my amazing deductions. “You like burning everything.”

“Brpt!”

“How would you feel if I burned your flowers before you could?”

“BRRRRRRrrrrrrrRRRRRRRRRRPPPPPPPPPPTTT!!” Auri’s outraged shriek, right next to my ear, made me wince.

“Auri, that was very loud. I don’t like it when you’re very loud in my ear. It hurts me when you do that.” I slowly, patiently explained to her.

“Brrrrpt.” Auri gave me an apology.

“Right. You dislike it when other people burn your stuff. That farmer is using what he’s bringing to make money, and with money, he can buy things like firewood, so he can burn it. You burning his stuff, means that he can’t burn it himself. That makes him sad.”

“BRPT!” Auri sounded like Artemis had gotten ahold of her. I looked over at the bird sitting on my shoulder.

She was sitting there with a thousand-mile stare, eyes wide open as realizations crashed over her. Her mind was completely blown. I could practically see empathy developing as the idea of “other people want to and are allowed to burn things too” rocked her little world.

I walked in silence with her, getting further and further away from Deva. Nice to see the city again. Didn’t want to try taking a boat back to Ariminum, not after the pirate disaster last time.

Also. Auri, over a lot of water, with the only thing to burn being the BOAT?

Yeah. I could only see that ending in flames, screaming, a torrid romance, and a captain stoically going down with his boat. Or ship. Whatever.

Plus, I suspected I was faster, even with Auri slowing me down.

I was super pleased with Auri finally seeming to figure out “don’t burn other people’s stuff”, and I decided to play one of her favorite games.

I snagged a broken branch on the side of the road.

“Here! Burn this!” I suggested to Auri.

“Brpt!” She exclaimed as the wood went up in flames. I looked at the burning stick I was holding.

She’d gone for the “slow burn” this time, as opposed to the “incinerating pillar of fire”.

Well, whatever made her happy.

A few days later, I turned a corner on a road, deep inside a forest, and cursed.

“Oh not this again.” I complained at the numerous ‘fallen boulders’ on the road. “Honestly, every time I come back home from Deva, it’s [Pirates], [Thieves], or [Brigands]. Seriously!?” I threw my hands up in frustration. A voice chuckled from the woods, and the aforementioned [Brigands] emerged.

There were a lot of them. 26, all with the characteristic ex-military look to them. Right level range as well. Bunch of [Warriors] levels 160-230. Made me wonder if the Senate – or Emperor, I had no idea what the details of the current governorship was – had disbanded a number of armies, and some of the soldiers had decided to keep using violence to fill their stomachs.

“Well miss healer, if you’ve been robbed before, you know the drill.” One of them said. “Your money or your life!”

I rolled my eyes at the bandit.

“Fine, fine. Three coins, and you all move the boulders out of my way.” I proposed.

“Brpt!” Auri defiantly cheeped, flying off my shoulder and hovering protectively in front of me.

We all stared at the little bird. I facepalmed.

“Auri, yes, thank you for trying to protect me.”

“Brrrrrpt!” Auri was making the most adorable threatening

noises. She was trying to be fierce, but she was so SMALL AND CUTE!!

Oh no. Oh NO!

That’s how most people saw ME.

That’s why I’d been offered the [Kitty has Claws] skill back with the dwarves!

“I mean, yes, you can burn the bad guys, but it’s a bad idea. They’re much stronger than you! You need to-”

Auri completely disregarded me, and threw as much fire as she could manage at one of the [Brigands].

Which was, quite frankly, a pathetic amount. I’d be surprised if she had 1000 mana points total, and it wasn’t like she was swimming in magic power to make her flames particularly impressive.

They splashed over one of the bandits, and they seemed to stick.

The former soldiers responded the way they were trained. Overwhelming violence to “solve” the problem, in this case, a hos- tile monster.

They… weren’t exactly wrong in their assessments or actions. I wasn’t going to let anyone hurt Auri, and it was trivial to reasonably assume that they’d be attacking me next.

There was no contest between my power level, and theirs. I was faster and tougher, and that was my pseudo-dump stats against their primary stats.

That was before my magic, of course.

I was sick and tired of killing. I didn’t need to kill right now, the disparity in levels, stats, and training was so large. [Bullet Time] wasn’t even activating, which was more than a bit obnoxious.

At the same time, I wasn’t going to take any risks with Auri.

I threw my shield around her, and launched dozens of Radiance beams, flickering them in and out of existence as quickly as I could imagine them. I aimed for their knees, elbows, hips, shoulders, and hands.

They were all [Warriors], and as much as I was calling them [Bandits] and [Brigands], truthfully they probably all had [Soldier of Remus] or [Legionnaire] variants. Classes and skills from the Formorian war.

Two by two they dropped, screaming and spasming as I blew through their joints, as I crippled each one in rapid-fire succession. My sixth-biggest concern was blow-through. Shooting ban- dit #8’s shoulder out had my Radiance beam go through bandit #19’s lung, and I’d be pissed if any of them died after I tried so hard to keep them alive.

Bandit #20 flashed silvery as I tried to destroy his knees, and my Radiance beams angled off wildly. Each one burned through bandits that were already on the ground, drilling new holes through their torsos.

I quickly evaluated them. No heart shots. Nothing that couldn’t wait a minute or two.

I moved on, dropping the rest of the [Brigands] while bandit #20 charged me with a roar, sword out. I finished dealing with the rest of them before #20 got to me, then moved.

He only had a short sword. The standard [Legionnaire] equipment of shields, spears, and their heavy armor was entirely missing. He was wielding it like a soldier did.

Like Rangers did.

Like every single one of my sparring partners over the long years did.

I knew the moves. I was familiar with the motions. I’d seen them, done them, tens of thousands of times.

I drew my knife, and twisted out of the way of his thrust, slicing lightly along his bicep as I passed by him.

Damn my low strength. I’d wanted to slice clean through his muscle and disable his arm, but no luck. I noticed that my arm twitched sympathetically in the same spot.

A reflection skill? Maybe?

It didn’t matter, my healing was too good.

I got a second slash across his back, abusing my high speed be- fore he whirled on me, and thrust his sword at my belly.

I dodged this time, his arm going right past me. I brought my own hand and knife close.

I was in position for a textbook disarming, but part of the text-book disarming required a certain amount of strength relative to my opponent. I didn’t think I had that. I wasn’t quite so powerful that the stat I ignored entirely would be higher than a stat my opponent focused on.

Instead, I slashed at his wrist and delicate tendons, opening up his arm and forcing him to drop his sword. With one fluid motion, I continued the knife’s path upwards, to the brigand’s eye.

He stopped short as I held my blow, the tip of my knife touching his eyeball. The threat was clear, the result of the fight obvious.

I was so much better than him that I could afford mercy.

“Down.” I snarled.

Everything had happened fast.

“Brrrpt!” Auri made a noise of protest at being trapped in my shield again, the poor bird’s stats so low that she didn’t even start to process what was happening until now. The fight was over, and her reflexes were just kicking in now for the start of it!

The highwayman dropped to his knees, and at my light tapping – a scratch or two on his eyeball wouldn’t kill him – he laid down belly-first on the ground.

“Now, do you really want to make this a full fight?” I asked the Mirror bandit, in an oh-too-sweet voice.

Internally, I was sweating bullets. A physical Mirror classer was one of my worst nightmares. My magic was almost entirely useless against them, and if I couldn’t run, I’d have to fight them hand to hand. I was not a hand to hand fighter. I had some training, I was alright at it, I had [Sentinel’s Superiority] – ok, fine, maybe I was OK at it. As demonstrated by the fight we’d just had.

I felt like I’d gotten lucky though, but I couldn’t pinpoint why. Maybe it was the sheer tyranny of stats, and that I hadn’t encountered a Mirror classer that was too powerful?

Plus, I could always just go for “Let’s both stab each other” then just heal whatever they did to me.

Only if I dramatically overpowered them though. Too easy to imagine a Mirror classer utterly outclassing me to the point where I couldn’t manage that.

“No.” He squeaked out.

“Good!” I remained kneeling on him, looking around at the men who’d just tried to rob me. About a third were screaming and crying, and the rest were more sort of twitching, antipain skills stopping things from hurting. Didn’t mean they could use their arms with their shoulders and elbows burned through.

“Now, for the conversation I was hoping to have before this got ugly.” I said from my new throne. “You all look like you used to be soldiers, right?”

One of the brigands tried to spit at me, having no chance at actually hitting me. It was more about the message.

I expertly sniped it out of the air with a precision blast of Radiance, leaving him cross-eyes at a brand-new scorch mark in front of him.

“Yes.” One of them eventually admitted.

“It’s a sad day when soldiers have turned to banditry.” I shook my head somewhat dramatically. “Anyways. Let me introduce myself. Hi. Sentinel Dawn here.”

Loud groans and cries of dismay across all the robbers met my proclamation. They were soldiers. They were intimately familiar with Rangers, and by extension, Sentinels.

We were the best. Creatures more myth than reality, they’d probably only heard stories of us. Stories, where we grew bigger and stronger with each retelling, like the prize fish that got bigger every time the [Fisherman] described it.

My complete domination – seriously, one vs almost thirty? It was the sort of stuff from stories – made my announcement all the more believable. So did taking out my badge, and letting them all get a nice, long, good look at it.

“You can double check my level if you’d like.” I let some mischief enter my voice, as I edited my level to 600.

“This is your fault!” One of the bandits flopped over towards a second one, trying to headbutt him. It looked like – and was as effective as – a fish out of water. Kinda funny though.

“Now. I’m in a decent mood. I’m back in Remus. I’m almost home. I really, really do not want to either murder you all, nor leave you out here to become dinosaur food.”

I got some appreciative noises, and a few sycophantic ones. “Oh great Sentinel! I’ll serve you to the end of my days!” One cried out. I gave him a flat stare.

“And have you hanging around me all the time? Ew. No.”

Some of the other bandits – honestly there were too many to properly keep track – went with jeering and insulting the one bandit I’d insulted.

“Ha! Cadmus! You’re so ugly, even as a free slave you got rejected!”

Blah. Too many people trying to figure out how to get on my good side. I clapped my hands to get their attention.

“Ok! Thank you! Here’s what’s going to happen. I’m going to heal you all up. Then you’re all going to march back to Deva as quickly as you can, report to the local guard, and let them know that Sentinel Dawn has sentenced you all to three months of slavery. I’ll be checking back on you, to make sure you did it. You don’t want me to find out you haven’t. Any questions?”

Three months was the largest penalty I was willing to issue. Any longer, and the bandits would start to seriously consider their chances at just… running away, and taking their chances.

It wasn’t a great solution. It wasn’t even a good solution.

But nobody died today. The bandits would get off the road,

leaving it safe for travelers. The local guard would become aware of them, and know their names and faces.

If I was extra-lucky, the few months in slavery would also get them to know people, and a new profession, and they could move onto more honest work. I was dreaming a bit with that last one, but hey, a girl could hope.

One of the soldiers – the one who got his lung hit – coughed.

“How are we supposed to get there?” He cried. “I can’t even breathe.”

I rolled my eyes. He was being melodramatic.

“I’ll fix you up. I literally just said that. Did none of you see the [Healer] tag?”

Dumbass.

“What if we don’t all get there?”

Hmmm. The more questions I let them have, the less mysterious and scary I was, the higher the chance that this would all go sideways.

Time to do one of the [Drill Instructor]‘s favorite tricks! They were all ex-army, they’d totally understand me.

“I’m so glad there are no more questions! I expect you all to get to Deva by nightfall!” I put on a fake-cheery voice, which hopefully had them all going ‘oh shit she’s being WAY TOO NICE.’

It wasn’t one of the official Ranger Academy lessons, but we’d all learned how the army worked. I was pulling from my memories of when the instructors had been scariest.

I got up, and lightly kicked Mirror bandit.

“Up you go! Run soldier, RUN! Run like the Formorians are out to get you! Run like there’s a mad Sentinel behind you who’ll change her mind and catch you! Run!”

“Brpt!” Auri ‘helped’ the soldier along by scolding him herself. It was a good effort.

I had my best “tone of command” voice, and it worked. I hated calling him a soldier – he’d clearly left, and was a bit of a disgrace to the name – but doing so touched something deep inside, trig-