Chapter 70 – Side Quest
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Chapter 70Side Quest.

It’s a Spirit Fox, and it’s so cute!” Fleur gave it a scritch under its chin. The cub seemed wary of Fleur, but was letting her give it some attention anyway.

What does that even mean?” Ueana asked. They were sitting at the edge of the tent, the dull light of the morning casting faint shadows around them through the open flap. The day was overcast, the norm for the passes through the Basat Line, but she was now able to look at the fox cub much better than she had the night before. She hadn’t been sure if it was the right thing to do with an unknown creature, but not wanting to leave the injured cub to the elements, she had taken it back into the tent with her, lying down with her back to Fleur and the cub cradled in her arms as best possible. The fox cub hadn’t complained any, waking briefly to make itself comfortable before it dozed off again, and Fleur had snuggled in close behind her, draping limbs over her. It was, all in all, quite a nice place to be. Callisto had said that he’d wake her if anything happened, be it caused by the fox or other, her familiar shifting so that it could see in through the flap.

She hadn’t been sure at all if the fox cub would still be there in the morning, though she had hoped that it would be. Nor did she know how Fleur would react. As to the others, she wasn’t worried at all, but yeah, Fleur was important.

Turned out though that she didn’t have to worry at all.

Fleur gave a half shrug, and petted the fox some more. “I think it means that they are connected to the land in some way, or to something. I’m rather vague on the specifics, and it certainly isn’t common knowledge. You only find some of these ‘unique’ species in very specific places in the Innerlands. Or so I was told.”

So you’re something very special then,” Ueana said, holding the fox up in front of her and looking at it more closely. “Definitely not a monster no matter what half awake senators say. Though why you’re here is still a mystery.” She could still see the cuts on it, but they didn’t seem as bad as earlier. She was surprised that the senator had managed to wound it at all. She didn’t hold his combat prowess very highly at all. At the least he was miles below riders. The cub looked at her with it’s big eyes, giving her a foxish smile, it’s tails wagging happily.

As to what she was going to do with it now, however, she had no clue.

It’s young. It must have a family somewhere near by. I doubt that they usually travel distances as far as we do.’ Callisto did have a point, her familiar watching the cub with interest.

“So, where is your family then?” Ueana asked the fox cub.

It looked at her with it’s big innocent eyes, and blinked, before it nuzzled into her hand.

It was definitely cute and adorable.


“Why haven’t you killed the monster already?” The Senator glared at her, trying to mask the fact that he was shifting backwards ever so slowly. In the daylight she could now make out four vertical scratches on his left cheek. Raised, but never having bleed by the looks of it. She shrugged. He deserved it.

So this is your monster then?” Lady Knight Asher chuckled as she looked at the fox sub in Ueana’s arms. The rest of the group was already up and consuming breakfast by the time they had finally joined them. Still at a loss as to what to do with the cub, and guiltily curious as to what the senators reaction was going to be to its presence, she had openly carried it with her. There was no point in trying to hide its presence.

However that is something that it certainly isn’t,” Asher continued, stepping close and looking it over. “It’s a Spirit Fox, I’ve seen a few of them in my time. They’re an aspected creature, and they tend to avoid people like the plague. Even more so than their natural counterparts.”

“This one seems friendly enough,” Ueana stated, keeping her eye on the senator, just in case he tried something stupid.

“I dispute that,” the senator stated, hand going up to the scratches on his face.

It is indeed unusual behaviour. Very unusual.” The Lady Knight shook her head. “But we are unlikely to learn why just by standing here. However, as much as you seem to like it, and it you, you can’t take it with us.”

While Ueana was well aware of that, she still gave a sad face anyway. Ignoring the whole family thing, pets did not belong in the world of the Dragon Riders. The why of that was rather obvious.

It’s must have come from somewhere in the vicinity of this mountain,” Asher continued, “and as such it won’t survive well outside of the Basat Line. Take it back to its home. Fleur and Coorie can go with you. I’ll continue on with Carlos and I expect you all back at Ezmer’s Nest in a week.

Fleur looked happy about that, Coorie looked surprised. Ueana just blinked. She hadn’t expected that. Not that she was displeased. She would happily take the opportunity to explore, though the secrets of the Basat Line were so for a reason. Perhaps Lady Knight Asher had more confidence in them than she’d previously thought.

“How are we meant to find it’s home? Especially given that we’ll be flying, and it’s a ground animal.” Even if the fox cub did know it’s way home, it’s be from the vantage point of a foot off the ground, not way above everything.

“That is part of the challenge.” Lady Knight Asher grinned. “There are enough peculiarities about all this that I’m sure you’ll be able to find a way.”

Coorie looked like she was about to say something, a flash of annoyance on her face, but instead she just shrugged. “Okay,” she stated, turning and walking to her dragon.

But be warned,” Lady Knight Asher added in a serious tone, “to some people, they are seen as a bad omen. As to if there is any substance to their beliefs I cannot tell you, but such superstitions aren’t born without some initial cause.”

Coorie screwed up her face. “Now you mention it.”

“It doesn’t change anything though,” Asher said with a wave of her hand.

Ueana gave the fox cub a pat. “I doubt you’re the bearer of any curse greater than being the bane of the senator,” she said quietly to it with amusement. Superstitions were usually just that, but with what they’d recently learnt, it would be unwise to completely dismiss them. But she doubted that it applied for this little one.

It didn’t take them long to dismantle and pack away the camp. Ueana wasn’t sure if it was a good thing or a bad thing that Asher didn’t expect them back at the temple complex for a week. The flight was three days at maximum, so that gave them a four day window to try and locate the cub’s family, but surely it wouldn’t have travelled anywhere near that far from it’s home? On the plus side, they did have just enough supplies in their individual saddle bags to last them that long, as long as they were sensible, and they should be able to forage for some additional food.

Perhaps that was part of it, and given her tendency to rough it, it may be that Lady Knight Asher saw this as a good opportunity for some training for them. They were after all, on the grand scheme of things, rather inexperienced riders, even if they could hold their own in a fight. One the other side, perhaps she really did think that there was something to the superstition around Spirit Animals and their ilk, whatever the ilk was.

Once Lady Knight Asher and the senator had left, it was just the three of them, and their familiars and the fox cub of course, remaining on the plateau. A gentle wind caressed them and rustled the leaves of the trees as Ueana knelt down and refilled her water skin in the stream. As best she could anyways with the fox cub still trying to bury itself in her arms. Apart from that, the plateau was rather quiet. The pass was definitely a strange place.

“Now what?” Coorie gave the two of them a look.

“You don’t have some secret insane tracking skills by any chance?” Ueana asked, on the highly improbable but still not impossible possibility. It was worth a shot given how little she actually knew about Coorie. Even if she was expecting a no answer.

Coorie gave her an ‘are you serious’ look, and shook her head.

“Or seeking magic?” Fleur chimed in.

Coorie rolled her eyes.

Ueana held the cub up at head level, looking into its eyes. “What about you? Any ideas on which way is home?” She then put it down on the ground, and took a few steps back. “Which way, little one?”

The fox cub just sat there, staring out at the trees with its tails wagging, before it scrambled back to Ueana, looking up at her with expectant eyes. Ueana sighed, and picked it up again.

“No luck there,” Fleur said with an amused grin, stating the obvious.

“How did you even find your way down here in the first place?” Ueana asked the cub as it made itself comfortable.

The fox cub gave her a yap in response.

“Surely if it is indeed somehow connected to somewhere, or something,” Ueana mused, “that somewhere or something must be rather significant and hence noticeable?”

At this point, we can only hope.” Coorie sighed. Let’s get started then, before we loose our entire day in contemplation.”

It seemed like the mountains surrounding the pass really did not want to be explored. No sooner had they left the plateau and headed up the side of the mountain, the winds started to pick up, icy and quickly strengthening. The brutal environment of the Basat Line was living up to its reputation, and the going was slow, even for their familiars. No wonder the vegetation looked so hardy. Ueana was certain that if anyone had actually delved into the secrets of the mountain range, it would have been riders, and yet if this is what they had faced, it was no wonder that the knowledge was mostly just stories. At least they had a chance here though, unlike with the Tempest Storms.

The fox cub didn’t seem too fond of the winds either, and while it had initially been keen to poke it’s head out of the saddlebag that Ueana had placed it in, it had quickly decided to bury itself within it instead, out of the cold. Not that she could fault it. If she’d actually wore some clothes other than the skin tight skeon and her bone armour, she could have kept it in her jacket or something, but that she did not. Most riders in fact did not, it was just the way that it was, and had always been so. She wasn’t that cold though, the enchantments on the skeon negating most of the chill.

Ueana found herself leading the group, Callisto sweeping low over the trees and then shrubs in an effort to negate some of the force of the wind, heading northwards around the mountain. Given that they were only part way in the pass, they reckoned that they’d be more likely to find what they were looking for deeper into the range than closer to the edge, even if that was a pure guess. But that was all that they had to go off for the moment. The winds didn’t let up as they made their way into the range proper, passing between two mountains and into a shallow valley that was nothing more than a stretch of frigid barren ground, completely devoid of anything. Briefly stopping, with even the familiars complaining about the cold, they then continued deeper in.

The next few valleys were more of the same, some barely larger than the temple complex, while others stretched on for miles. None though had anything more than a scattering of shrubs fighting for survival. At the least that one was somehow somewhat sheltered from the wind at one end, offering some respite when they next took a break a few hours later.

“Is Asher even aware of what it’s like in here?” Fleur moaned, hugging the back of Lily, her familiar closely.

“Her knowledge of the areas is pretty good,” Coorie stated, arms folded across her chest as she surveyed the mountains ahead. “That’s part of the reason she was chosen for the delegation mission after all.”

“The kingdoms are one thing. The Basat Line is another though.”

Coorie shrugged. “True. She has years on us though, and Bonebreaker is a lot larger and stronger.”

“Yeah, yeah.” Fleur sighed.

Ueana shook her head. Cold weather could make people grumpy, even if they weren’t actually feeling much of it, and Fleur seemed to be feeling it the worst. She located a small piece of dried meat, the fox cub devouring it hungrily when she offered it to it. She was certainly hoping that they’d find something a bit more hospitable before the end of the day. It couldn’t all be like this. Not to mention that they’d already travelled much farther than the fox cub would have been able to travel on it’s own. Something else was going on here.

“Are we continuing even deeper, or doubling back and canvassing parallel to the pass?” Coorie gave her a questioning look, probably having already come to the same conclusion that she had.

“Deeper,” Ueana replied after a pause. Even with circumstances pointing otherwise, she just had the feeling that that is what they had to do. A sense.

Coorie pursed her lips, looking contemplatively at her, before nodding. “We’re already committed to this course at the least.”

Ueana was pretty sure that the snow line was steadily shifting lower each time they exited a valley, and sure enough by mid afternoon they appeared to be fully stuck above it. Sure, they could have tried doubling back or taking a different direction, but the one they were on felt like the right one even given its issues, and doing so would have resulted in loss progress. Falling snow further complicated their journey, reducing visibility and coating the backs of the familiars each time they stopped. The valleys were more of the same, desolate and barren, albeit with a layer of snow, and she was starting to get somewhat suspicious about their nature. Surely, even in the mountains, there would be more to them than this.

By the time the light started to fail the snow had finally stopped falling. With their travels for the day quickly drawing to an end, Ueana was pleasantly surprised when she spotted a cave on the side of the mountain that they were flying along, seeming large enough that their familiars would be able to fit inside, though there wouldn’t be a lot of room for them to move around once they were all in there. She had no idea if it was already occupied, but there was no way that they were going to camp on the mountain side, and she had no idea when they’d hit the next valley, nor if it would be suitable for them to camp in. The idea of having to camp in a place that appeared devoid of life just wasn’t that appealing. For all she knew, there could be more to them than met the eye. The Basat Line was hiding its secrets well, perhaps even aggressively so. And if there was something already in the cave, it could either share or they’d stake their claim.

Callisto was the first to land in the cave, loose stones clattering against the walls of the cave from his impact. It smelled musty, and wasn’t any warmer than outside, though it was out of the wind, which was a big bonus. Moving in a little deeper, Lily and Coorie’s familiar landed in behind them as Ueana pulled a mana lamp out of the saddlebag, and sent some of her magic into it, enough to illuminate the walls of the cave. The back of the cave was covered in a rusty brown moss, rapidly narrowing till it formed a pair of tunnels that went deeper into the mountain, narrow enough that even she would have had difficulty going down. There were no signs of anything else having eaten or slept here, at least not recently, the floor clear apart from the loose stones, water marks showing that at most the snow only managed to creep about halfway into the main body of the cave.

“No tents tonight,” Fleur said, stating the obvious and hugging herself with her arms.

“We’ll just have to snuggle up together with our familiars,” Ueana mused. It’d be a first for them, and even if their familiars weren’t the size of Bonebreaker, she was sure it’d still work.

“Together being the important part,” Fleur stated, a sly grin on her face as she sidled up to Ueana grabbed her arm.

“True,” Coorie added, a serious expression on her face. “We’ll certainly keep a lot warmer that way, and there’s no telling how much the temperature will drop during the course of the night.”

Fleur looked as surprised as Ueana felt. She’d expected Coorie to outright reject Fleur’s amendment to her suggestion.

“What?” Coorie said, looking somewhat confused. “It’s all about survival, and we are all girls after all.”

Fleur rolled her eyes. “Yes, but... me and Ueana actually like girls!”

Coorie shrugged. “And?”

Ueana chuckled. “It’s fine. I still think it’s probably the best idea irrespective, and if you have no issues then that’s good.”

They consumed a small meal, and once the familiars had shifted themselves around as much as they could so that they were as close together as possible without squashing the riders, a feat in and of itself, they snuggled down. Ueana ended up in the middle up against Callisto, with Fleur on her left, draping over her, and Coorie on her right, facing away but close enough to be just touching. They had blankets both under them and draped over them, their armour dismissed as it would hinder rather than help them keep warm. Especially Coorie who had the most of them all.

While the others dozed off fairly quickly, Ueana found it hard to fall asleep. Even though their familiars were keeping watch, her senses were still on full alert for any strange noises, which was going to be difficult given the strong winds outside the cave that had developed just before they had settled themselves down. Fortunately it was blowing across the cave entrance rather than into it, so it wasn’t going to be making it much colder for them. Fleur was snoring happily, having pulled herself even closer, if that was even possible, and Coorie had actually turned herself over, limbs now draped over Ueana as she murmured something intelligible in her sleep. Ueana was feeling rather sandwiched between the pair, but she wasn’t going to complain. The fox cub was curled up on top of her chest, having managed to avoid the limbs of the others, and was happily sleeping with a cute little snore.

I doubt that anything will be moving in this weather, especially given the lack of any apparent life in the area so far. We’ll take turns keeping watch.’

‘Can you actually talk with the other familiars?’ Ueana thought back. She didn’t even know if that was possible.

Only on an instinctual level. They’ll get the intent when I wake them up.’

‘Does that mean that you’re much smarter and aware than most other familiars now?’

I don’t know. Maybe?’ There was a little bit of smug pride in his tone, but Ueana couldn’t fault him there. She would be and was too. ‘It’s somewhat hard to judge as my awareness and understanding of myself changed when the Ancient touched and changed you. I am after all a part of you, as they are of their riders.’

Callisto paused before more thoughts came through. ‘I wonder what it would be like if others hand the same understanding and ability to communicate as me? Would we be able to converse as well?’

That was certainly an interesting question, but not one that they’d ever be able to find answers for unless they came across another familiar like Callisto. Crystal and Rachael might be able to shed some light on that, as they seemed to be able to communicate somewhat with the familiars when they had been with them, in an animalistic language. Ueana was actually quite surprised that no one had ever thought to study if and how the familiars communicated with each other in the first place, especially since they’d been around for over a thousand years now. The better they understood their familiars, even if they were ‘just’ a part of their magic, they better they’d be able to work with them after all.

Perhaps Callisto would be able to communicate with the alpha-prime dragons? There was definitely a spark of intelligence in their eyes that the other familiars didn’t have, well except Callisto now of course. If she ever met with them again she’d make sure to find out.

Those familiars were something special. That much at the least I do recall.’

‘Do you have any idea what else changed within us?’ Ueana asked on the off chance that Callisto could sense something that she couldn’t.

No. I can sense the magic there within you, but not yet complete. It’s like it’s waiting for something. At least that’s the impression that I get, but I’m no more of an expert on it than you are.’

‘You can sense more than I can at least.’

The morbid sister, Kyril, seemed to sense something.’

Ueana looked at Callisto’s form with a start. ‘You think she sensed some of the changes?’

It appeared that way. Exactly what is anyone's guess.’

She hadn’t called them out on that though, besides saying that ‘they’re cute’, whatever that meant. Ueana relaxed back into Callisto, the fox cub wriggling around a little bit before it settled again, it’s breathing regular and soothing. What was up with all these sensitive sensing abilities that people had. Mind you, that is why a number of them had been chosen for the delegation mission in the first place, so it was to be expected she guessed.

There is definitely something special about that fox cub as well. More so than just it’s two tails.’

Ueana was definitely beginning to think so as well. It wasn’t just a mere lost cub, given the distance they had already travelled. But she wasn’t about to turn back, even if there was something else going on in the background with respect to it.

Ueana tried closing her eyes again, trying to relax and leave the surveying of the environment to the familiars. There was something comforting about listening to the wind rage outside while being sheltered from it, safe and warm.

“Mmm... Crystal.. your horns...” Coorie shifted a bit beside her as she murmured, pressing in closer to Ueana. Ueana couldn’t help but smile. That definitely confirmed that the deep dragons had had more of an impact on her than she’d been letting on.

She really needed to get some sleep though. Getting distracted at this point in time would not be a good idea.

A chuckle from Callisto echoed through her mind.

Things may not be as they seem. ^^ (in many different ways and areas too).

As always, thanks for reading. Comments are welcome - it's always nice to hear peoples thoughts.

The next chapter (71 - Icy Secrets) will be out in the next few days. Chapter 77 (hopefully the final chapter of the arc) is about 500 words done at this point, so progress is good there.

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