Nightsea Outlaw

Alex stood before the forest, looking out into the shadows ahead. Behind him was the mountain, with its zigzagging ramp that led down the side a short distance before following the long mountain spine of the range on the north side to a plateau. The forest stretched out in front of him on that plateau toward a shadowed grey tower in the distance. However, there was no path forward. Any roads were long since covered with heavy snow and were invisible.

Alex strode forward in the snow, the cold biting into his toes as he walked. He was warm enough, but he knew that he would feel the aches from this hike later. The only good news for him was that the snow was so compacted beneath his feet that he didn't have to worry about sinking in too deeply as he walked.

"Granted, this entire situation feels like a game," he said, letting out a gust of steam through his scarf as he made his way into the forest's shadows.

It bothered him that the setup was so elaborate. What kind of plan would require so much effort, not just the towers on the island but also the logbook and hiding Mari away on an island in the middle of Nowhere? He was starting to wonder if Roald was just a madman.

For the last three years, his life has been that of a wanderer. He has gone from island to island on the Fringes after escaping from August and the reaches of the Twelve Kingdoms. His primary goal was to find island cores and access hidden knowledge that implanted itself into his subconscious every time he used it. There, he had some hope of finding his way home.

However, island cores were hard to reach and find, and measuring his progress toward that goal was difficult, to say the least. Roald presented an alternative. He was a man who had apparently explored beyond the limits of the nightsea and found a new world. There might be other alternatives to finding island cores out there. There might even be a way for him to get home.

He thought about the ship at the bottom of the empty lake. Cables attached it to an island core. He thought about what that could be used for, but his subconscious came up with nothing. He hated that he didn't have direct access to information that was implanted by an island core, but it was just one of the drawbacks.

Crack.

In the dark forest around him, hidden in the shadows of the trees, a heavy foot stepped down, breaking a branch and disrupting the silence. Alex froze. He scanned the area around him, looking for any sign of movement. Yellow eyes glimmered in the darkness.

"Alright," Alex whispered, opening his gate.

An electric thrum shook through his body as electrical wires of power snaked out from his heart to the tips of his fingers and toes. Like crackling lighting, his heart sent out electric shocks through his limbs, and he opened his senses to the world around him. No metal was in the area, but he vaguely sensed the creature in the distance and several others hiding on his opposite side. They were all around him, and he felt they were watching him. They were waiting for him to make a move.

"Great," Alex whispered, clenching his fist tight in his gloves as he took in how many there were.

He couldn't see them but could at least keep track of them. He'd worry about what they were if they attacked, but they hadn't done anything but watch him so far. He pushed forward through the trees, indicating that there was less snow on the ground as he approached the tower.

Grawr.

A roar echoed through the trees as he walked, but the animals didn't move closer. They followed him through the trees as he continued deeper and deeper into the forest. As he walked, the path got easier, and he noticed remnants of the people who had once lived there. Rotten wooden fence lines marked an old dirt road, and several wooden carts that were mostly rotted to pieces occasionally lined it. Some of them were filled with logs that were mostly desiccated underneath the weight of the snow. The entire operation looked like it had been abandoned in a hurry.

Once he could see the road, he began to follow it, and the path became even easier. Still, the eyes watched him as the creatures followed. It set Alex a little on edge, but he was certain he could handle himself—mostly, anyway. It reminded him of the family cat, Reyes, and how he would hunt mice that liked to run around the house at night, stalking and watching for just the right moment to strike.

He took a deep breath as he approached a clearing. Several broken and dilapidated houses were in the area, and an old ruined sawmill lay open to the elements. The entire area was falling apart, but that wasn't what caught his attention. Instead, he focused on two things.

Firstly, the tower he had come to flip the switch on rose high behind the area, now almost fully visible through the falling snow. The height of its grey stone reached up into the clouds above until it disappeared. Secondly, he noticed a mass of broken machinery in the center of the ruined village. What had once probably been a round machine was broken into pieces and strewn across the ground. Long pieces of broken muzzles lay stretched out across the ground.

The guardian specializing in shooting that Firril described lay broken into pieces across the village.

The culprit was obvious. A large brown-furred creature lay sleeping in the center of the town, its bulk easily the height of a two-story building while lying down. At first, Alex thought it was a giant bear, but that wasn't right. While its body had the typical look of a brown bear, the face of the sleeping creature was noticeably almost feline. Though its large eyes were closed, two ears perked up from its head, and a long tail extended out and around its legs. Its fur was a light shade of brown, and its whiskers twitched as it growled softly.

The only word he could use to describe it was 'bearcat.' It was a massive bearcat that dwarfed anything he thought should be possible. It reminded him of visiting museums as a child and seeing the giant bones of fossilized dinosaurs that stretched to the ceiling of the displays. What was it about Erth and the giant creatures that seemed to be spawned there? Maybe it was a byproduct of aether, but he didn't know.

"What the hell have I walked into?" he whispered, and the giant creature's ear twitched toward him.

Green eyes opened as the creature awoke and stretched its long legs and arms in the snow. Long black claws extended out from its paws before it rolled onto its side to look at him. Under that gaze, Alex felt like he was being sized up for a meal. In his senses, he could feel the creatures watching him from the forest, stalking closer.

Bearcats. A bearcat the height of a mansion with its own small 'pride'—'pack?' Alex didn't know what he should call a group of bearcats.

He shook his head and imagined the flow of aether around his arms. He knew he was about to get into a fight. He'd probably win, but the creature in front of him reminded him of Maki 'the Beast,' from Glory Plateau. Taking that guy down had required a group effort.

"Junk Arms."

He held out both arms, and blue electric lights exploded around them in tiny balls. He called metal scraps into existence around his arms, forming two elongated metal arms made entirely of metal. The metal clung tightly to his coat as he held the construction together and waited for the attack to come.

'Why are you here, child?' The bearcat rolled over in the snow before rising on all fours and stretching its back up high.

The voice hadn't come from its mouth, as it had clearly yawned while it had stretched. Alex tilted his head and narrowed his eyes. It was like the creature had spoken directly into his mind. Alex debated how to proceed, but he figured he might as well try the obvious first.

"Do you understand me?"

'Does an elder understand a child's wants?' The giant bearcat licked its lips as it paced to the right. 'Of course, I understand you, child. Tell me why you have come to my land. This is my realm, and all who walk it need my leave.'

"I'm here for that tower behind you," Alex said, pointing toward it and keeping his eyes on the cat.

'The towers are to be protected,' the bearcat's voice dropped to a whisper. 'The secret must be kept until the time is right.'

"And who gets to determine that?" Alex clenched his mechanical fists. "We're here to find out what Roald discovered. Mari deserves to know what happened in the least."

'You come to learn the secrets of the master, child.' The bearcat crouched down low. 'He was a great man who took me when I was but a cub and brought me to strange lands. I owe the master much for the strength I gained then.'

Alex narrowed his eyes.

"Yet, you know he wanted his secret to be brought into the open eventually," Alex said. "You knew he had a plan."

'He did.' The bearcat stalked forward on its haunches as if ready to pounce at him with its black claws.

"What if it is time?" Alex said, keeping his arms down as his mind raced. "We've brought M.A.R.I here. She deserves to know what happened to Roald if no one else does."

Hesitation. The bearcat paused slightly as it stopped its approach. Alex stared at its large green eyes. He might have found what he needed. He just needed to push a little more, and maybe he could get out of the situation without a fight.

'The daughter is here?'

"She is," Alex said. "I can take you to see her after I flip the switch, so long as you promise not to hurt her and let us go down into the ship to find out what he wanted to keep so secret."

Purr.

The bearcat sat back on its haunches, letting out a pur as it looked down on him. It was no longer ready to pounce, and the tension broke in the air. Alex could sense the other creatures in the forest around them relaxing in his magnetic sphere.

'You are an odd one, child,' the bearcat said. 'Know I am called 'Scratches' by my old master. If you take me back to see M.A.R.I. again, I will welcome you to the tower to deactivate it.'

Crack. Crunch.

From the forest around them and into the small village, several smaller bearcats approached. Each was about the size of a brown bear and dwarfed by Scratches, but they were all the same build as the massive bearcat in front of him.

They didn't attack, and they didn't charge at him. Each one found its own place to sit in the snow around the massive bearcat, lounging out and relaxing now that the battle was over. Alex couldn't help but smile. He had been worried that there would be a fight. He would have won, but he wasn't the kind of guy to just go around hurting animals. Alex released his hold on his gate, and his metal arms disappeared in a flash of blue light.

A small cub, about as small as a baby bear, ran up to him, hitting his leg hard with its head and rubbing against him. Alex instinctively knelt and scratched at its head, the same way he would have when Reyes popped out of a random corner to greet him when he came home.

"If you wouldn't mind leading the way, I'd be happy to get out of this cold." Alex smiled as he looked up to Scratches.

Scratches nodded and started toward the tower in great loping strides through the snow. With a final pat on the head, Alex left the cub and the rest of the bearcat 'pride' behind. He had no idea what would happen, but he couldn't deny that Erth was full of surprises.