White Flower, Black Feather

Sensing Dread

That rain signified a miserable time for Miriam

An entire day of cold water falling on top of her, with the branches above her body helping very little considering the fake leaves, the water sapping her body heat the whole day… it reached the point where the trees gave her the fruits of the next five days, just so she didn’t starved due to Absorb…

She was mostly incapable of moving due to the cold, not even capable of attacking a brown feathered creature that took shelter under the tree she was at… until it noticed her and fled… leaving her stuck while trying to take an attack posture…

Unable to tell at what time of the night the rain stopped

‘Ugh…’ a night that she also had no idea of when arrived, nor if she had managed to sleep at all

Only her stiff body had her attention until a few hours after sunrise, with her trying to move anything with the help of the raising heat. There were some clouds remaining in the sky, but they lacked the threat of repeating the previous day

‘Morning… rain… often…?’ Miriam almost considered leaving if the answer was yes…

But for some reason the forest’s answer was vague

‘Sure…?’ her body twitched with hunger, not noticing how odd the message was before it went away ‘Ugh… can… food… first…?’

The trees around shook and made three fruits that soon hit the ground near her

-Hurry…-

Leaving Miriam to receive a few messages explaining the situation as she struggled to move her stiff body

/////

The camp was extremely basic-looking… no, calling that mess a camp would be an insult for the people that actually knew what to do…

Before the heavy rain started, the four of them had tied the small leather tent they had, to four different trees, hoping that with a “Roof” things would be better at night, or at least better than with the cramped space they had been sharing during their time in the forest…

It barely worked until sunset at the point where the wind started to chill all of them, just before one of the corners got untied, and all the accumulated water flowed under what remained tied…

Only the reason why any of them was there, stubbornly remained under the leather, ignoring how all his things got soaked and any potential illness that he might get from spending the night like that

The other three had moved under a tree, with the two remaining boys trying to keep the acolyte warm enough so she could get some sleep

“Ugh…” considering that the first thing she did once she woke up at mid morning, was using healing magic on herself, left the two of them wondering if they had helped at all

But choose to say nothing, other than a “Thank you” once she healed the tired archers after stretching and squeezing some water from her clothes

“We are leaving…” those were the first words she said, and the look on her eyes was enough to confirm to the two others, that this time, was the last time she would be saying those same words before leaving, alone, if it was required…

The archers looked at each other and nodded, not needing more convincing after the miserable night they had gone through, it was a fitting culmination for the weeks they had having their resistances to stupidity slowly getting destroyed. Not even sneaking out of one of the Shields to get inside the forest as winter was ending, was as bad as the night before had been to them

Both of them also were certain that the acolyte was praying every waking moment she had, just so none of them got into a fight in either side of the Line… both of them had different opinions about that, but neither had mentioned them to either of the other two

They just wanted to go back home, hoping that only the still sleeping guy was severely punished…

Just as she was going to say something else, loud coughing came from the tent, making her expression sour even more before she moved to the last member of the group and jabbed at his visible leg with the long stick she was using as a staff

“Ow!” she still healed him, but unlike with the other two, she refused to touch him directly, and the more time passed, her methods to heal his wounds became a bit more violent. Wounds that he got often… even if none of them had got into a single fight inside the forest… “Why-?!”

“Shut up. We are leaving now” the tone of her voice was obvious to the archers and had been like that for a while, but for some inane reason, the ‘Swordsman’ got the idea that she liked him…

Something that the other two agreed to not mention to the girl

After all, murder was a bad thing for a future priest to do…

“What?!” of course, if the guy struggling to stand up wanted to commit suicide, they wouldn't stop him… “We haven't kill anything yet!” their own feelings about the guy had soured quite a lot…

“Don't care. Food got wet last night due to your idea” she lied and pointed to the leather on the ground “We are leaving with, or without you”

“But we just need to kill once!” he tried to convince her like he had done it so far “With the amount of levels we’ll get, we are going to advance-!”

“Don't! Care!” she snapped immediately making him hesitate

Her hands were shaking, and she needed a lot of her self control to not just strike him right there and then. She was already sick of hearing the same… thing… over and over, to the point where she was considering being actively mean

“But I need this to awaken the hidden affinity that I know that I must have!” and mock the stupidity that he keep repeating…

“Then train like a normal person!” but she was sure that if she did that, then he was going to run even more deeper into the forest, away from the range of her prayers, and get killed “I can’t believe I let you convince me of this…” probably by tripping over nothing and down a cliff…

Again…

But… she knew his parents, and they were too nice and sweet to receive that kind of news…

The other two had started to put the tent away while the discussion was going on-

“Fine! I’ll go by myself!” but the next words from the… jerk… “This place isn't as dangerous anyway!” almost made them joint the pointless screaming match-

“Then go and meet an Omen of Violence!” those words surprised all three of the boys, the last time he had tried to use that line, she had hesitated and let herself get dragged into walking around the forest for longer…

The glare on her eyes showed that the girl had truly surpassed her limit. She wasn't going to change her mind this time, nor let anyone step over the limits that she set

Making him hesitate even more in the silence that followed-

Thunk!

Silence that an out of breath Miriam, ended by stabbing her sword against the ground-

‘That’s one… of my Titles…?’ she was glad to arrive on time, but she really wanted to scold them due to how noisy they were…

-Yes…-

Making all of the boys scream, while the brunette girl just froze. Utterly confused by the existence of a giant, winged, scarred snake holding a dirt and stone sword that towered above all of them…

“A priest…?” that was also one of the faithful. That word made Miriam hiss in annoyance, and all the humans flinched

“Fall back-?!” the boy with a sword tried to unsheathe it, but noticed how the girl tried to hit his head with the staff she had “What are-?!”

“Priestess! She is a priestess!” she desperately tried to get the two archers to not attack the… human turned creature…? “Sorry for what I said before!”

Miriam wanted to object, because she hadn't even gone to a temple… but just nodded to not get misgendered again

‘Need to stop hissing every time that… happens…’ unable to write on the ground due to the instructions given to her by the First Mother… ‘You know what? No. If I get misgendered again, they get hissed! I have been patient enough already…! Ah…’

She didn’t realized the uncomfortable silence that followed her nod, and with embarrassment, that she hoped didn’t showed on her face, Miriam pointed to them, and then to the north

“We will-!” the girl was happy that her goddess had sent a priestess to… get them out…?

“NO!!!” but the boy with a sword wasn't, and didn’t let the girl ponder the why… “I haven't got a single level!” nor, why at that time…?

Hiss…

Making Miriam angry at him, while she struggled to not release her aura, as per instructed. All of them looked younger than what she was before dying…

‘Crap…’ and seeing the trees subtle, yet quick, movements to give her more space for a fight, was making her worry about running out of time…

“I’m not leaving-! Ah?!” making her pull out her sword in a more intimidating posture without looking at him directly, trying to see the incoming threat before it got too close “Y-you don’t scare me!”

‘The smell says otherwise…’ she couldn’t see anything getting close ‘Imbue’ but still prepared, her unblinking eyes looking at every gap between the trees

The two archers noticed what she was doing at the same time, and joined her while readying their bows and arrows

“She is waiting for something!” one of them explained her presence there, with an alarmed whisper to the other two “We need to leave!”

“NO!!!” he pulled out his sword, and with a glance Miriam felt distraught to its obvious disrepair…

“We can help and finally level-!” barely missing a growing sound

“Aufiea sent her! And the trees are moving!” the acolyte screamed matching the volume of the stubborn boy, almost hiding the new sound “What can you do to help someone sent by a-?!”

[Sword Wave]

BOOM!!!

The words of the girl got cut short by Miriam’s attack, she knew that she was there due to a creature related to her, but she had been expecting Porkus, or another weird lizard

‘The bird?!’ which is why she didn’t noticed the ranged attack coming from above until it got uncomfortably close

Thankfully, the mid-air explosion just sent the screaming teenagers to the ground, and Miriam into a panic at the distance of the bird far into the sky…

The trees dropped the subtlety and actively moved out of the way, further scaring the teenagers

‘How can it see us?!’ Miriam still remembered the illusion on top of the forest, so it didn’t made any sense for the bird to-

“Shoot it!!!” the boy screamed while finally standing up, ignoring the struggling girl, that Miriam helped up to her feet with her tail

“Are you dumb?! Too far away!” the archer that spoke before chastised the loud boy, while the other did tried to aim to the creature for a moment, before shaking his head, reaching the same conclusion as the other

By then, the girl had moved to the retreating archers after mumbling her gratitude, leaving Miriam alone to deal with both the bird-

“Teach me how to do that with a sword-!”

Hiss!!!

‘Leave!!!’ and the stubborn boy-

[Sword Wave]

BOOM!!!

The bird was so far away, that she couldn’t see its color or its transparent projectiles. Only noticing them fully by the sound they made, she was glad that those could be intercepted before they got as close as the first

‘Could it be wind-?!!!’

[Sword Wave]

But…

SLAM!!!

SKREAAA!!!!

A bulky six legged lizard appeared behind a tree too, the yellowish-green scales of its frontal legs were hard enough to block Miriam’s attack, while lifting those legs and its torso further, taking an almost upright pose and roar at them

“We can deal with-!”

HISS!!!

‘LEAVE!!!’ making Miriam feel despair at the situation

The last two creatures she was asked to hunt, coming at her at the same time, while keeping four teenagers alive, and without her aura…

It didn’t sounded like fun…

Miriam was forced to carefully throw the boy with her tail, while using her [Sword Wave] to block another projectile, and her [Boundary Break] to stop the charge of the heavy lizard, by breaking her huge sword against it

“Agk!” he got the air knocked out of him as he landed, but that was not even close to the recoil that Miriam got from stopping the charging creature, barely pushing it back

“““MOVE!!!””” how out of their deep they were, was obvious to the other three

“W-we can-!”

“““NO!!!”””

She had to use [Boundary Break] to get some distance from the jaws of the closest creature, to make a couple of swords out of dirt. One to fire back at another projectile from the circling bird, and then use [Boundary Break] to slam against the lizard, that rolled from the impact, but didn’t looked particularly damaged by it

Its scales were comparable to the food thief after it-

‘Don't suddenly evolve like the last one!’ Miriam had to pull back from the lizard, avoiding its tail sweep, to use each sword to fire at two different projectiles coming at her, barely hearing the bird screeching after that happened ‘LEAVE ALREADY!!!’

Seeing how difficult was to attack the snake, the lizard turned its head to the teens and started to run-

‘DON'T!!!’ until Miriam sunk the wet ground under it, sadly she couldn’t bury it completely, or turn some of it into spikes, because she had to fire back at more projectiles

SKREAAA!!!!

Letting the lizard break free from the dirt and charge at her once more-

SLAM!!!

Making her break more swords against it, causing the acolyte to almost slip on the mud by the force of the impact. The girl still screamed even if she didn’t fell to the ground thanks to the archers, but her voice made Miriam look at them, and realize that the metal sword had fell to the ground at some point

‘Yes!’

Making her use her magic to pull it towards her

‘Imbue!!!’ making it glow with her magic, brightly tracing its path in the air towards the creature’s legs covering its head-

SKREAAA!!!!

‘…?!!!’ but what impacted the screaming creature was molten metal…

HISS!!!

‘How do you let your weapon reach this state?!!!’ Miriam hissed while moving away from the retreating creature, avoiding a projectile that she didn’t had time to block, leaving both ground combatants somewhat hidden from sight in a cloud of dirt. Their positions were still known, the lizard was still screaming and hitting the ground, while Miriam countered another projectile

Dispersing the cloud around her, revealing her current dirt sword and the melting handle on the ground near her

“MY SWORD!!!” it wasn't entirely his fault that Miriam’s ridiculous amount of magic, melted the metal of the old weapon, but his lack of knowledge about maintenance didn’t helped…

“Leaving now!!!” once she saw how the weaponless guy was about to complain she interrupted him “Drag him!” with an order to the archers-

Slam!!!

Before hitting him in the crotch with her stick, the two guys near her winced, but the danger in which they were made them react faster, and they started dragging the mutely screaming guy by each arm, following the girl to the north and away from the… also wincing, priestess, at the same time the reptile charged at her

‘Finally…’ but the retreating teens gave her a sense of calm, that neither of the two creatures could overwhelm

First, the bird had been firing only at her, meaning that it was easy for her to use [Boundary Break] and let the lizard-

BOOM!!! BOOM!!!

SKREAAA!!!!

Take the next two hits for her… still looking barely affected by those

‘Engrave…’ second, now that she didn’t needed to keep an eye on teenagers, or into a Porkus wannabe, she added a spiral pattern to the middle of her new long and wide weapon, with extra lines going to the tip ‘It’s the inside just as resistant…?’

The lizard screamed at the bird, at the same time Miriam heard the bird making another distant sound, and tried to move in the same direction the teens ran

But Miriam used her skill to get in the way and stab with her sword at its face, letting the lizard bite it

‘Heat Thief!’ just to have her magic turn the water in the weapon into ice, filling its mouth with sharp ice spikes

The creature made a pitiful sound of pain while Miriam broke the sword in half, right on the glowing spiral, to spin and counter another projectile, before hitting the ground with what remained

HISS!!!

SLAM!!!

And turn it into a heavy blunt slab, to shut the mouth of the lizard with an upward strike

-Dead…-

With that message she used her skill again, to avoid yet another projectile…

‘One left…’ and once the carcass of the lizard stopped moving from the explosion, landing somewhere to her left, she sunk it into the ground with her magic, while waiting for the next attack ‘…?’ noticing how it wasn't aimed perfectly at her

She still intercepted it… causing another angry sound…

‘It can’t be… right…?’ with the lizard underground and on her opposite side she made a glowing pillar rise. The next attack was aimed perfectly…

But the one after intercepting that, was slightly off…

‘It has the magic sense?!!!’ giving her an idea of what was going on with the long distance attacks, stopping that last attack at the same time she destroyed the pillar she made…

Miriam quickly pulled two rocks towards her, using her skill to get out of the way of more projectiles, and engraved them with the heating absorbing pattern she made, before making the ground take the shape of two winged snakes about her size…

‘I hope this works…’ before covering her body with ground too…

/////

The bird was about to give up and chase another prey, after seeing it dodge its last volley, when the glowing shape split into two other creatures… and its glow lessened

The glowing forest was of a different color compared to the annoying prey, but that was the first time the bird saw a magical creature giving birth to… what seemed to be things of roughly the same size…

Seeing the three creatures chase each other in a circle around the clearing was… unusual…

But with a screech the bird aimed again, now it had three targets… but due to the distance, and the blurry movements of the magic connecting the three of them, the bird didn’t knew which one was which anymore…

So, the circling bird fired at one of them, gauging where it was going to be at the speed of the projectile it used… a projectile that wasn't intercepted this time

It hit ground, the three creatures rushed to the middle of the clearing, avoiding the impact by getting on top of each other…

Before going back to run around the clearing…?

That behavior confused the bird… but once it measured its own magical reserves, it figured what happened: the mother ran out of magic

So, it aimed and attacked at random again, making another two wind projectiles one after the other. Both failed to hit, but… one of them moved slower once they split from the pile at the middle

Making it fly closer, expecting that with how fast the attacks were, not give enough time to the creatures to react

Boom!!!

And with the last of its magic, it struck true, vanishing one of those glows and making the other two stop moving…

But the bird didn’t got close yet due to that. It still circled the clearing waiting for the creatures to leave…

SCREECH!!!

Something that only happened when the bird got even closer and probably hurt them with its sound attack. One of the long creatures moved away immediately, while the other was moving at a slower pace…

That last one was probably a young one, while the fast one was the mother. Which to the bird meant that it could land on top of its prey and use more sound attacks to get more food

SCREE-?!!!

CRACK!!!

But the moment it landed the ground glowed from the direction of the young one and a spike impaled it…

Ding

‘Finally…!’ to Miriam’s great relief, as she dragged the remaining decoy back to her

The bird’s firsts attacks were still aimed at her, and her concentration started to slip the more she kept trying to maintain the disguise of there being three of her, making one of the decoys slow down

It was pure luck that the bird’s next attack hit that one. The surprise she felt was also the reason for her stopping when she did, happy that the decoy worked…

‘Blind…’ but only when she got close to the bird she noticed that detail

It lacked eyes, but it wasn't that it has lost them: instead of eye sockets, the red bird had a continuous strip of naked purple skin where its eyes should have been… and touching it revealed that behind it was bone, not an opening…

‘This is what let’s you sense magic…?’ Miriam started to feel dread… ‘Can you select what sense to sacrifice…?’

-Unknown…-

‘Because I have Absorb…?’ the message just closed and the other screen appeared… ‘I might, get it… all right then…’ she almost hissed ‘Absorb, I don’t want multiple heads… ever…’ the Item went away ‘If you can give me this…’ she gestured to the purple skin ‘Then let me choose what sense I lose… or just make it so I can use EP to recover it… that sounds better, if you can give it to me without losing anything, that’s also a good thing… ah…’

She slowly covered her face with a hand

‘Talking to yourself is a symptom of madness, or, that comment was just that bastard being an asshole…?’

‘Thanks… I guessed, but when is related to… this… I…’

Miriam started to pray for both of the creatures she killed before eating them

/////

It took her hours to open and get all the meat she could from under the hard scales of the lizard, it wasn't as hard as the previous one, but she didn’t wanted to risk a cut inside her

The extra work meant that she didn’t started to move from that place until the sun started to fall, not that she minded it

Ding

At least when she was doing that, she wasn't hearing the notifications

Ding

That she refused to look at…

Ding

Because the whispers started…

‘And I mentioned madness not long ago…’ she heard a whisper that sounded concerned…

‘Nothing… knowing this place, this is probably some creature’s attack…’

Ding

‘Ugh… can that sound be stopped some-?! UGH!!!’

HISS!!!

A sudden, and growing, pain hit her whole body at once, with her struggling to see the source of it, as her sight started to become blurry

‘AAAHHH?!!!’ with growing fear as the threat of losing her sight started to hound her pained mind

But…

The reason of her pain was different to what she expected…