Chapter Text
The forest was quiet. Oddly quiet, for this time of night. In most places, you could hear the bugs, and the soft scuttling of mice and other rodents below. The soft hoot of an owl, the singing of frogs. But nothing tonight, beyond the faintest wind through the leaves, scratching the branches together and causing his perch to shift. The constant shifting caused moonlight to dapple the ground in confusing patterns. Eyes less sensitive then his own would have been left discombobulated. But none of that was important – most important was that the forest was quiet.
Falst knew damn well that the forest wouldn’t stay quiet – not this section at least. The roads around Hilltop were under threat, a plague of chimeras that had sprung from nowhere, turned on the the travelers and the weary. Trade had trickled for the caravans who knew, and for those people who hadn’t heard that Hilltop was no longer a safe spot, well – the quiet would have been comforting to them.
But silence in a forest always meant something unnatural was afoot.
Falst shifted on his perch, his tail twitching as he watched the road below. No one had passed through tonight. Not yet, at least. The long stretch and silence had his mind sapped with boredom, but the uncomfortable press of his armor prevented him from nodding off. Besides, Falst never nodded off. Not on watch.
Nodding off was something only the stupid and inept were allowed too.
Either way, this particular stretch was mind numbing. Falst yawned, and ran his fingers absentmindedly over his belt, counting each full pouch tied too it. He himself couldn’t feel the hum of the lacrima’s beneath his touch, but he knew their positions anyway. Falst had packed his bags carefully before he left for his mission. He knew which ones he carried, where they were placed, and how quickly he could activate them.
The wind lacrima’s may be useful in the case of a report, but the others are crutches. Only the weak would resort to them. I know you are not weak, Falst.
Falst’s tail smacked against the tree. He stood suddenly, in one smooth motion, and bounded too another branch. The silence was too strong. There had to be something out here, another chimera waiting in the wings, and Falst was tired of sitting and waiting. He’d scout the sides of the road, and see what he could find.
That was why he was here after all. To find the chimeras. To take care of them, and then take care of whoever had made them. Chimera’s weren’t technically in the jurisdiction of the Paladins, as most of their focus – or at least their Champion’s focus – was relegated to cave crawlers and their ilk. Chimera’s weren’t cave crawlers, but they were still a monster that could hurt many, and in Hilltop, that was true.
So here Falst was, his paladin silver and blue covered up in a cloak, his feet padding on branches as he jumped from one to another. Another paladin might have used a bit of the Lady’s blessing to see by. Falst didn’t need it. The moon lit his way easy enough, and the soft sway of branches beneath his feet was disguised by the wind. His ears stayed pricked, for any sign of sound, of commotion -
But Falst didn’t need sensitive hearing when the roar came. When the shouting started up and green light filtered through the trees.
It came – not from the road. A little bit off the main path, but in the direction that Falst was headed. He threw himself forwards, claws digging into branches, tossing himself from tree to tree. The movement was familiar, and within seconds, Falst was pausing at the edge of a clearing a bit from the road, a half set up camp. There were three people, and a massive chimera, something that might have been a bear at one point in time.
One of the humans, almost oddly tall, with a mane of blond hair, was fighting the bear to some decent effect. Another – smaller, wimpy, most certainly a mage – was trying to calm down the third of their party. She was a cloud elf. It was from her the green glow spilled, a life mage of some sort, and Falst could see her lips moving, but couldn’t make out what she was saying, not with the sounds of the chimera’s roars and the man’s grunts.
Well – They were at least taking care of the chimera, though Falst didn’t know how long ‘taking care of’ would last. So Falst pulled himself up onto his branch, and threw himself down at the bear. It was a tug in his chest, a push in his mind – the Lady’s gifts had always been about willpower. It was why Ferrin like him could use her blessing.
Falst’s will was always strong enough. All he needed to do was think about the one time it hadn’t been enough, with determination to never fail again.
Now, the Lady’s gift poured from his claws, the sharp, scything cuts that split open the night and deep furrows across the bears back. The chimera roared, paws smacking away the blond human – something that would have broken bones of a normal man, but seemed to only slow this one down. It didn’t matter, though, because Falst was on the chimera’s back, digging his claws into the open wounds the Lady’s blessing had caused. He dug in, tore, as the bear reared back, paws lashing as it tried to catch Falst and toss him off.
The cloud elf had pulled away from the mage. Her hand fell on the blond man’s shoulders – Falst heard her speak this time, and there was something wrong in her voice, a double reverberation he could barely catch as he dug his claws in and gripped tight into the chimera, back feet kicking and tearing away chunks of flesh and blood.
“It’s just a puppet. Save your anger for its master.”
Well, didn’t take a genius to figure out what that meant. Falst growled as the chimera fell onto it’s front paws, and he started clambering forwards up its back, loping along towards it’s neck. Close now. All he needed to do was twist, and call upon the Lady’s blessing again -
The world exploded into green. A thousand vines and roots tore from the ground. They wrapped up the chimera’s legs, dragging and trapping it down. More lashed across it’s body. Falst knew tanglecraft when he saw it – he didn’t wait around to get stuck. He tossed himself off the bear and back into the trees, swinging himself up and back to his feet, claws pulled back to unleash another attack.
He couldn’t.
The life mage was in the way. She’d knelt before the massive chimera, her hand coming to rest upon it’s head. “You weren’t built to carry so much power,” she said, and the odd, almost double intonation made Falst’s ears hurt, “It’s twisted you so much, you’ve forgotten what you were supposed to be.
Falst’s attack stayed aborted, his motion forgotten. He stared as the life mage began to pull the energy out of the chimera, and pour it back into the ground. “I’m sorry,” she said, “I don’t know how to give that back. I can only take this away.”
The chimera’s glowing eyes dulled, closed. It no longer fought the vines nor its wounds, instead sinking into the ground. It was no longer breathing. Falst couldn’t hear it’s rasping breath, nor the billow of it’s lungs. The cloud elf leaned harder against it’s forehead, pressing her own to it, and Falst stood – staring.
He knew plenty of life mages. There were many in the Paladin’s ranks. He’d never seen anything like this before.
Clearly, the others hadn’t seen such a thing either. The blond haired man and the mage were looking at her with wide eyes. The mage made a sharp gesture with his hands. “Wha – How – no, not the time.” he cut the air, turned, and pointed at the tree. “Who are you?!”
Ah. Falst supposed he wasn’t going to leave these three alone to their night, then. Both the blond man and the life elf had turned their gaze in their direction. The blond man seemed – intent. Focused, for lack of a better word, on Falst’s position. “You helped us during this fight,” he said, and his voice was much quieter than what Falst would have predicted from such a tall man. “Thank you.”
Falst clicked his teeth. “Don’t mention it,” he muttered. For a second, he weighed the pros and cons of leaving. It wasn’t like these people needed his help. Between the mage, the swordsman, and the cloud elf now pushing to her feet, one hand remaining on the chimera’s head, they could clearly take care of themselves.
But there was – Falst didn’t know. An odd smell in the air, faint and distant. Something off about these people. So sue him, he was curious. And if they ended up being terrible, he could just leave them to find the village by himself.
So Falst jumped down from the tree, rocking easily to distribute the weight from his fall. The life mage jerked forwards, then still slightly, lowering her hands as she saw him clearly. Falst knew what she’d see – all three of them. The Ferrin, in the silver armor bits and the blue-white clothing of a paladin. The man and the life mage looked clueless.
Oddly enough, the mage looked suddenly pale.
“I’m Falst,” he said, gruff and short. “I don’t know what you did to this chimera, but eventually the body is going to start drawing in other animals. You should change camp sites.”
“Do you know any other good ones?” The life mage asked, “Kendal and I are new to town, and Erin – well, he’s never really traveled by road like this.”
“Untrue,” Erin, the mage, muttered under his breath.
The other two ignored him. Falst decided to ignore him too, and nodded, tipping his head towards the trees. “There’s another clearing a little east of here,” he said. “Follow me.”
The new clearing wasn’t as large as the initial one the three had attempted to set up in, but by Falst’s standards, it was far more defensible. The mage, Erin, set forth to building a shelter almost immediately. Falst caught glimpses of tattoos up his arms, complex and intricate. Familiar – Falst had seen tattoos like that before, but not for so many elements at once.
Erin. Erin, who wielded stone and life and fire. Erin, who shared a name with Erin Ruunaser, the elemental mage. Suddenly, the mage was starting to make a lot more sense.
The paladins kept track of every elemental mage. Falst himself had seen the record books, the names listed back centuries of those who had wielded all six powers. He’d seen the name Erin Ruunaser there as well, though no description had been placed upon it. It made sense. If the Void dragon was to come through this life, then an elemental mage was likely the one who would be the cause.
The other two, however, Falst had never heard of. Alinua herself was the life mage, who didn’t have answers for how she was able to take the power out of the chimera. She offered Falst a chance to bed down with them for the night, despite the fact he was Ferrin, and though Falst had denied, she’d managed to wheedle out an agreement to stay for dinner. Now she was busy growing various plants and berries, life magic spilling from her fingers in an uncontrolled, artful mess.
The human looking man with the sword was Kendal. Falst knew he couldn’t be truly human – he’d taken hits in that fight no human could shake off, and his smell was… weird. Vaguely metallic, not as fleshy or sweaty or musty as most people were. He lacked the BO, and his heart beat at a pace far too slow to be normal. Falst hadn’t asked what his deal was. Kendal hadn’t offered any information.
Instead, as Kendal got a pot and a fire set up for Alinua’s plants, they sat across from each other. “Thank you,” Kendal said again, “we did appreciate your help with the fight back there. It was … timely.”
Kendal had an odd way of speaking. Slow and reserved, as if he was considering each word before he spoke it. It was oddly comforting. Falst didn’t like it when things were comforting. “Sure,” he said instead, tail tapping. “I was just doing my duty.”
“Your duty?” Kendal asked, looking at Falst again. Alinua had looked up as well, her eyes bright and curious.
Before Falst could speak up, Erin did so. His back was to them, but Falst’s ears still picked up the derision in Erin’s voice. “He’s a Paladin,” he said, “they run around dealing with cave crawlers and other monsters. Chimera’s sometimes get lumped into that.”
“A Paladin?” Kendal asked, turning to Erin. Clearly, he was used to the man interrupting conversations to explain things.
Falst narrowed his eyes at Erin’s back, waiting. Erin himself seemed to hesitate for a moment, before he waved his hand and finished building the hut of stone and wood. He turned, face carefully composed, hands falling behind his back. “A Paladin, worshiper of the Light Dragon. They’re a … religion.”
Falst knew damn well what mages thought about the religion. How it was a cult. Every scrap of history they had, every experience taken and work put in to keep their world safe – mocked and laughed at by the academics in their ivory towers. It was clear that Erin thought similarly. But he wasn’t explaining it now, face pinched, eyes glancing away.
Nervous. Perhaps he didn’t like the idea of a Ferrin Paladin.
“Is that how you made those claws of light?” Alinua asked. She’d finished growing her berries and plants, and was busy harvesting them. Erin came to stand over the pot, one hand extended as he formed water for the soup. The two of them moved in tandem – they’d at least done this a few times before tonight.
Falst’s tail gave a brief twitch. “The lady has many blessings for those devoted enough to get them,” he said. It was all he would say. Spilling secrets to strangers was hardly accepted. Falst’s tail gave another flick. “I was stationed here because of the chimera’s – they’ve been attacking people on the roads from here to Hilltop. Someone’s been making them, but I haven’t been able to locate a workshop or the mage yet.” He leaned back on one hand, watching the group closely.
Their reactions were telling. Erin himself didn’t seem to care one way or another about the potential life mage making chimeras. The other two … well, Kendal’s face was dark and withdrawn, as if remembering bad memories. Alinua’s lips were tight, her ears drooping. Clearly, the two of them had a history with chimeras that Erin didn’t share.
“Do you think,” Kendal said, slowly, “that the person making chimeras is in town, or are they in the woods?”
“Probably not the town,” Erin said, absentmindedly, “such an action would draw attention. They must have a workshop outside of the woods. Of course,” an adjustment of his collar, “you wouldn’t be able to sense that, would you? Not being a proper mage and all.”
Falst’s tail flicked sharply against the ground. He scowled, hard. “No.” He said, shortly, “I’ve been covering the woods by foot. Keeping the roads clear and safe has been slowing me down.” He let the implication hang.
Alinua was glancing frantically between Erin and Falst now. Kendal frowned. “Perhaps,” he said, slowly, “we can find more in town. I have given my word to the God of these woods that I would do my best to find the cause of this problem. We could work together.”
Erin opened his mouth. Alinua clapped her hands together, sharp. “Soup's done!”
Falst, frankly, wanted to leave before eating now. Erin was pissing him off. It was the stench of him, something sour and unhappy. Falst had smelled it plenty of times off people before. It was his mere presence that caused it – a paladin, a ferrin. No doubt Erin’s mind was spinning with dislike on two different fronts. There was no reason for Falst to stay.
But a bowl was deposited in his hands anyway, the stone warm against his palms. He sniffed it, nose wrinkling. Too much plants, not enough meat – but it had been a long time since someone had handed him a warm bowl, made in such a small group. He was used to eating in the training halls of the paladins. The last time he’d had a meal like this -
No. He wasn’t going to think about that. Not right now.
So he ate, silent, ears pressed back against his skull. Alinua started up a conversation, asking about Hilltop, the people that called it home. Apparently, from what Falst could pick up, Alinua herself hadn’t been in the depths of many villages. Falst gave her what short answers he could, and eventually she got the hint that he didn’t want to talk. Erin too was silent. From the glances Alinua and Kendal sent him, that likely wasn’t normal.
Falst didn’t care. His tail twitched harder. He set the empty bowl down, and pushed himself to his feet. “You three seem like you’ll be able to take care of yourselves,” he said, gruff, “So I’ll leave you all for the night.”
“And my offer?” Kendal asked, looking up at Falst with an expression that couldn’t quite be considered hopeful. More … determined. Falst had a feeling Kendal would be asking people, whether Falst agreed or not.
He clicked his tongue sharp. “I haven’t been able to get too close to the village,” he said, slowly. Paladin or not, bad feelings about Ferrin tended to stick around. He wasn’t inclined to see if his status as a Paladin could outweigh the bigotry found in this town. “If you’re able to find anything worthwhile, then sure. We can talk about it. Just come into the woods, I’ll find you.”
Kendal relaxed, a touch. “I’ll do that.”
“Good,” Falst said, “Great. Good night.”
He was out of there before anyone could say anything else. He heard briefly Alinua’s call of goodnight, Kendal’s own joining her. If Erin said anything else, it was lost beneath their words. Then, even distantly as Falst widened the distance, Erin? As if worried. As if there had been something off with him the whole time.
Then Falst was too far, and even his ears couldn’t catch their conversation. He let out a breath, sharp and hard, and stared out into the quiet night once more.