The Core's Origin

Hild actually felt slightly thankful for Harold’s presence on the team, even if the old man was a stick in the mud and completely infuriating. His presence was aggravating enough that she was able to overcome her nervousness and actually speak to the intimidating soldiers.

Two of them were just so big! Theo and Ackley were each at least twice as wide as Hild, and she felt like they were nearly twice as tall as well, given how much she had to crane her neck just to see their faces.

Edgar and Burt were both a bit easier. Edgar barely spoke, while Burt was so simple and polite that he was quite easy for Hild to speak with. She felt as though she was interacting with one of Yur’s more destitute supplicants from a rural community.

As for Hild herself, she might be small and inexperienced, but she was still the king’s niece, and even if her father had been removed from the family tree, there was still a reputation to uphold.

Hild had needed to prove herself for years, as her familial connections were actually more of a hindrance than a help. She had needed to put forth at least double the efforts of any of the other acolytes in training at the temple just to not be driven out.

Her efforts had paid off in the end, and High Priestess Elan herself had recommended Hild for this mission.

Aside from her intimidating colleagues, Hild was also very nervous about their situation. An entire forest growing underground, illuminated by brightly glowing mushrooms, was clearly not natural. Besides the visual oddity of such a thing, Hild was a mage, and she could feel the absolute ocean of mana that filled the cavern with the forest.

She had felt a shocking amount of life affinity mana, and while her mana sense was not particularly developed due to her young age, she was able to detect the presence of at least four other affinities as well, even if she had no idea what they were. Earth maybe? Though she had no ideas at all of the others she had sensed.

She watched as Burt stepped forward into the forest. Hild actually had no idea at all of what she was supposed to do, so she had been basing all of her actions on what Harold and the soldiers did. Since the four men all stopped to wait for something from Burt, Hild simply waited as well, pretending like she had some idea of what was happening and what they were waiting for.

The five minutes it took for Burt to return stretched out into an eternity that tortured Hild worse than any of her punishments suffered as an acolyte. The soldiers were all just so stiff and focused, while Harold had his eyes closed and she could tell that he was using his mana in some manner. He was likely just sensing their surroundings, as there was no active usage that Hild could detect.

It took all of her self control not to knead her hands or tap her foot as they waited. Each minute stretched out longer and longer. How long was Burt going to-

There he was.

Hild was unable to stop herself from letting out a sigh of relief, but fortunately, no one seemed to notice. In fact, she noticed a bit of tension leave both Theo and Ackley, and their wide shoulders dropped just a bit.

Burt hurried over, though Hild noticed that the scout’s eyes never lingered on anything for more than a moment. He was constantly scanning his entire surroundings, though only his eyes moved in an obvious manner.

“Found a trail. Not entirely sure what uses it, so we’ll have to be on guard, but it’ll give us a better path to get through. There’s no way we’re gettin’ close to the walls o’ the cave without makin’ bunch o’ noise, so we should just keep to the game trails for now. Saw a bit of small game, but there’s bigger stuff still hidin’. Also, I don’t recognize most of the tracks I saw.”

The soldiers seemed to be ignoring Burt as he spoke, as they continued staring into the forest or into the dark cave behind them, but all three heads spun around to stare at Burt at his last words.

What was wrong? Hild could not recognize any tracks at all, and that was in the event that she even noticed them.

Wait a moment…

Hild quickly realized the startling issue. Burt was a scout and a woodsman, and he was not some amateur, but one of the best in the kingdom, if he was the chief scout for the Shadow Guard. If he could not recognize any of the tracks, just what was waiting for them?

“Do you have any ideas what might be waiting for us, given the tracks you saw? Even if you don’t recognize them, you should at least have some idea, no?” Harold asked.

Burt scratched his head. It was quite clear that he was uncomfortable making guesses, and was also irritated at not being able to provide information, as that was his primary job. “There’s what look t’ be fox tracks, but they’re spaced too far apart, they disappear sometimes, they’re too big, and too deep. If it’s a fox, then it’s at least double the size o’ any fox I’ve ever seen.

“On top o’ that, I saw what seem to be a buck’s tracks, but that’s got to be a buck the size of a bloody cow. Ain’t never seen somethin’ like that before.

“All o’ the other tracks are the same. They’re familiar, but just… just wrong.”

Hild could see Theo, Ackley, and Edgar all slightly shifting their weapons in their hands, and even Harold grimaced.

Suddenly, Hild remembered something. “Um, I know I wasn’t there, but, Burt, could this be like the giants ants that were found last time? I remember you were part of that excursion, and supposedly the bugs were bigger than a cat. Could this be something similar?”

Burt actually blinked at the question, and then slowly nodded. “If ants could be grown to that size, we actually might be lookin’ at foxes ‘n deer that’re overgrown, too. That’d fit what I was seein’ and what we saw last time.”

Surprisingly, Edgar asked a question. “I heard that the ants were just large, but some of the other creatures—such as beetles, I believe—seemed to have been changed or altered. Is that correct? If we’re facing similar ideas to what you faced before, but with different creatures, it might be wise to prepare for other such possibilities.”

Once again, Hild noticed Theo and Ackley shift their attention a bit from the forest and glance back at Burt. The woodsman took a moment to consider Edgar’s question. “The beetles back then were tough buggers. Only Aaron could deal with ‘em, as none o’ our weapons could hurt ‘em. Also, we noticed that the cen’ipedes had some weird fangs on ‘em, but since we never let ‘em touch us, we never found out if there was anythin’ special ‘bout ‘em.

“What your sayin’ makes sense, so we should treat each critter we find like it’s a monster, as they just might be.”

Theo and Ackly nodded and looked back at the forest, far more somber than before.

Hild took a deep breath, and then asked, “Are we ready to proceed? Is there anything else that we should see to before continuing on?”

Burt and Harold shook their heads, and Theo and Ackley stepped forward, finally leaving the cave and entering the illuminated cavern. Burt moved back to the front, never glancing back, and yet somehow managing to stay just in sight of the rest of the team.

As they stepped into the undergrowth and onto the game trail that Burt had found, Hild struggled not to be distracted by the beauty around her. Many of the plants were flowering, and the blossoms’ fragrance was both lovely and powerful. It felt like she could just relax and drift off surrounded by the beauty of nature…

Hild abruptly snapped awake, and she saw Ackley and Theo both reaching out to touch leaves and flowers, clearly as much in a daze as she had just been. “Holy Yur, mother of earth, grant thy children thy protection and shield them from harm and sickness.”

A ripple of light swept away from Hild as she finished her chant in the sacred language of the gods. As the light passed over her, Theo, Ackley, and Edgar, there was a brief flash of light, and a small puff of dust.

Harold reacted faster than anyone else, but the three soldiers stumbled briefly before recovering and glancing around. Harold stared at Hild while his mana rose, ready to be unleashed in an instant.

Hild quickly explained, “These blossoms are affecting some of us. I caught myself wanting to lie down and sleep, and I believe Theo and Ackley were suffering from something similar. It seems to be the scent of these flowers.”

All four men took a step back from the nearest flower, warily eyeing all of the blossoms as they moved.

Right as they were about to continue moving, the first beast attacked the team.

There was a soft shout from Burt, who was about twenty paces up ahead of the rest of the team. He had stopped when Hild had started her chant, and as he had been waiting to see if they needed to stop or were ready to continue, three of the oddest foxes Hild had ever seen leaped out to attack Burt.

The foxes were green rather than red, which allowed them to perfectly blend in with the undergrowth. On top of that, the foxes were more than twice as large as any Hild had ever seen before, rising up above Burt’s knees.

Yet the oddest thing about the foxes was not their color or size, but the fact that each of them had two tails.

They leaped about, snapping and swiping at Burt as he tried to either attack the beasts with his knives, or drive them back when they approached too close.

Theo and Ackley reacted almost instantly, and they charged forward.

Edgar was even faster, as his spear was lofted through the air, and it pinned one of the three foxes to the ground.

The fox disappeared.

Burt did not notice, as he was busy with the other two beasts, but everyone else saw that spear pass right through the fox’s chest, and then watched as the fox simply ceased to exist.

By that time, Theo and Ackly had arrived, and a shield held back one fox while the other was targeted with swords. After just two feints and a quick thrust, Theo had one of the foxes skewered with his short sword. The fox whimpered and died, and as it did, the third fox that Ackley had been holding back vanished as well.

All four of the soldiers were instantly on high alert, and Burt replaced his knives with his bow as he spun in place and surveyed their surroundings.

Finally, Harold and Hild arrived, and Edgar reclaimed his spear.

Harold quickly explained, “There was mana being used while the beasts were attacking, and if I’m not wrong, two of those foxes weren’t real.”

Burt and Edgar both stared at the high priest, clearly confused, so Harold continued, “There have been powerful beasts encountered before, such as dragons, that can use mana much like mages. However, while such beasts are extremely rare, they also are able to instinctively and instantly use magic. There’s no preparation or chant, just an instant result. I am quite certain that fox created two illusions with magic.”

“Illusion? Like a hallucination? So, you’re sayin’ that two o’ those three foxes weren’t even real?”

Burt quickly crouched down and started checking the ground around him. “Well I’ll be… There and there… Jumps o’er there. Skips to here- no, shifts to here…”

The man muttered to himself for a moment before straightening back up. “Master Harold, you seem to have gotten the right o’ things, but not quite all o’ it. From what the tracks are sayin’, the real fox shifted between the… illusions? Look, the tracks stop here, and then instantly there’s track o’er here, but there’s nothin’ in between. It’s as though the fox was jumpin’ between bodies.”

Harold opened his mouth to argue that such a thing was impossible, but then shut it. How did they know what was possible or not? They were in a unique, never before seen environment, facing creatures that no one had ever even seen before.

Before standing back up, Burt moved over to check the corpse of the fox. He picked it up and turned it around a bit. “Huh, so that weren’t no illusion. Thing really does have two tails.”

Burt quickly moved back to the front, and the team continued deeper into the forest. The wall of the cavern had already disappeared from sight, and between the tree coverage and the undergrowth, there was no way to tell that they were in a cavern deep underground.

They continued along, and soon encountered a brook trickling between the trees. It happily babbled away, small fish flitting about beneath the surface, but Hild also caught a very brief sight of some scales slithering out of sight. She pointed, worried about a hidden creature, but Ackley just nodded and gave her a small smile while continuing forward.

Apparently a snake did not deserve to be attacked.

After half an hour, the team had been attacked no less than five times. There had been two more foxes that had worked together, as well as an enormous black centipede with hot red fangs, a large owl that had silently appeared and disappeared, leaving only some gaping wounds on Theo’s arm. Finally, they had also been attacked by an enormous coyote which had been the size of a wolf. The coyote had used sound to somehow leave people feeling dizzy, and Hild and Harold had actually fallen over.

It was clear that the beasts were becoming larger and more difficult to deal with as they moved deeper. It felt quite deliberate to Hild, though she had already learned not to speak except when it was necessary. Any unnecessary noise was instantly shut down, and both Hild and Harold had been silenced more than once.

They continued along, and then after one bend in the narrow trail, they were suddenly in a small clearing. There were some trees on the other side, but through them, Hild could make out the wall of the cavern once again. Given the twists and turns they had taken, she had no idea if they were on the far side of the cavern, or if they had circled back and were close to where they had entered the forest. She could only trust that Burt knew where he was taking them.

As Edgar brought up the rear and stepped into the clearing, a small hill on the far side of the clearing rose up. It was an enormous deer, easily twice as tall as any of them. Vines and leaves covered the enormous antlers, and grass appeared to be growing from the creature’s hide. It was thick enough that Hild could not tell if the grass was covering the fur, or if the grass was the fur. The antlers had at least ten tines on each side, each clearly sharp and deadly.

Burt dropped back without a word, and nocked an arrow on his bow string. Theo and Ackly stepped forward, smacking their swords on their shields to get the deer’s attention. Edgar circled to the side to flank the deer, and Harold started chanting in a language that none present but Hild recognized.

The deer snorted and shook its head. Hild was unsure if the beast was trying to intimidate them or not, but it was certainly working.

The beast took a step towards Theo and Ackley, clearly focused on the two noisiest humans. It pawed at the ground and let out a loud bellow that was suddenly cut off. Burt’s arrow was lodged in the deer’s neck, and crimson blood dripped off the fletching and onto the ground.

There was a frozen moment where no one moved. Then, the deer charged.

Hild stayed back and out of the way, as she knew there was nothing she could contribute in a fight. She was there to put the men back together afterwards, nothing more.

Theo and Ackley moved to either side as the deer charged. It was too large for them to be able to stop. The head flicked to the left, and scored a gouge in Ackley’s hip. The man grimaced, and his mouth opened to let out a shout, but no sound was heard.

By that time, Burt had loosed another arrow, landing a hit in the deer’s ribs.

Edgar came in from the right, just a bit further back than Theo, and both men attacked the deer’s side.

From there, things were quickly finished, as while the deer was large and fast, it was no match for the four warriors.

With a thrust of the spear into the beast’s heart, the battle was over.

As the massive antlered head drooped, Harold finally finished chanting. He had spent the entire battle keeping the ground soft for the deer, slowing its steps, while it remained firm for the three soldiers. Dividing his attention four different ways with a single spell was an impressive bit of work, and Hild felt quite impressed.

At the same time that Harold stopped chanting, Hild rushed for Ackley, and Theo and Burt started scanning the edge of the clearing, but nothing appeared.

A short chant and flash of light left Ackley almost as good as new. Magic could not create matter, so any blood that had been lost remained missing, which meant that Ackley would need several days to recover the blood he had lost.

Everyone gathered back together, and without another word. They had already grown accustomed to their pace through the forest, so they quickly moved behind Burt and left the clearing.

However, they stopped again almost immediately. The wall of the cavern was right in front of them, as well as another dark tunnel. In front of the tunnel was a small pillar, and there was a bit of writing carved into the stone beside the exit:

A reward to those who’ve passed thus far.

Beware, for whilst success you’ve seen,

Danger will grow, and death may appear.

Wilt thou be sated now, or wilt thou proceed?

Burt hesitantly approached the pillar beneath the crude writing. He found a bowl had been carved into the top of the pillar, and some shiny, colored stones lay within. He looked around, and carefully examined the pillar, but nothing seemed strange about it, so he waved the other five people over.

They all looked into the bowl and saw the colored stones, and Hild and Harold both went bug-eyed.

The soldiers might not recognize the stones for what they were, but Harold and Hild both knew gemstones when they saw them. There were uncut sapphires and emeralds the size of a thumb, and even a ruby the size of a child’s fist. There were only about half a dozen stones, yet each one was larger and more precious than any that either of the clergy had ever seen in person.

Hild swallowed, but before she could say anything, Harold spoke up, “These are virtually priceless, and while we will have to turn them in when we deliver our report, we should be well rewarded for these alone.”

The soldiers gave the high priest odd looks, but just shrugged and went with what he was saying. The gemstones were carefully placed in a satchel that Harold tied at his waist.

Once the gems had been secured, they were faced with a decision: onwards, or outwards?