Isak looked over the scroll Citlali had provided him, reading over the short description again as his brows furrowed and he thought over what might possibly lead him there. This was an introductory course and there had to be some relatively obvious hint that may have come up in the past week.
Somewhere behind him, Zyn groaned and leaned back to stare at the forest canopy while addressing the newest member of their group. “If Isak is having trouble with that one I don’t know what chance your group had…no offense.”
“None taken!” Citlali held up her hands. “I mean, I stayed in cabins before but I don’t really know much about locating them…hmmm.”
“OH!” Xoco raised a finger in triumph as her pink eyes sparkled with joy. “Of course! That’s easy! You look for all the chimney smoke! At least half a dozen for the main building itself and then plenty more for all the servant’s quarters!”
The lizardlass’ green eyes lit up in return as a sharp smile crossed her face, shortly before it fell and she slumped her shoulders. “No…no that wouldn’t work…it said it was an abandoned structure. None of the fireplaces would be lit…”
Zyn pinched the bridge of his nose while Ozzy stared at the girls now lamenting their idea already turning up nothing. “Okay, slow down. Whoa. Stop…..what is a fireplace?”
Isak peered over the scroll to share a long look of defeat with Tonauac as they both had no idea where to start with any of that. The lizardlad gave a small resigned nod as he took the lead. “We burn wood there for warming the house and often some cooking and-”
“You do what with it?” The dark green and black lizardlass had lost all disappointment and replaced it with an incredulous stare matched with Xoco’s expression.
The human cut in before anyone else could speak as he rolled up the scroll. “I have so many questions too, but we’ll be here until midnight. Put it on the ‘later revelations’ pile?”
They all murmured their agreement even as Zyn looked the most confused while Ozzy patted his shoulder. “Future generations will unearth that mound and ask themselves how it could ever get so huge…”
“We’ll inscribe on the foundations that we–” Isak’s eyes went wide as he tapped the rolled up scroll into his open palm. “Zyn! Help me out here, if this jungle is on school property then how old would this building we’re looking for be?”
Zyn’s mouth hung open for a moment before he shook his head and returned with a more pensive look and a hand on his chin. “Well whatever was here before The Empire came had barely anything left on the surface…nothing that could be recognized as a cabin or even the foundation of one…so it would be uh…probably before this became school grounds…hmm. So…old? But not old old.”
“So, given your expertise, where might we find such a building?” Isak waved his hand to encourage the drow to continue, flashing a smile as the drow pondered still.
“Uhhh well if it’s that old then it would be military so…outposts?” Zyn hummed to himself as he thought it over without any care as to everyone leaning in and waiting on his words. “Probably for observation.”
“Good!” Isak cheered and snapped his fingers. “I can work with that! Tonauac! Have Patli look for vantage points, tall trees, and anything else that might look like a good place to see everything!”
Tonauac nodded with a smile and stared off into the woods as his eyes narrowed and he focused on relaying the thought to the soaring vulture above. A moment later and his smile widened to fill with knives as his eyes shot open and he pointed off into the jungle. “Good news! He spied a stream over that way! And he always keeps an eye out for some place to roost when soaring so…well there’s a few high up places you might be interested in?”
The lizardlad relayed the information to the group as they all hurried over to where the stream was spied. As Isak thought over the locations, he urged his companions to not rush too much. This might not be the stream they need to follow and they still had another location to find after the first. And a slower pace did help them keep an eye out for any possible hazards, as he was quick to remind them.
Some of them first heard the sound of running water, and others first heard voices. Citlali witnessed the other four exchanging uncertain looks and silently debating what to do next with facial expressions and Xoco’s insistence that Nelli’s scouting didn’t identify them as a likely threat until she interrupted.
“Okay, really only Xoco and I have any other potential rivals out there. And none of them would be so bold to attack us!” The lizardlass offered a smile to the hesitant group. “Take it from the expert! Expert in…in failed attacks okay bad joke. But if anyone else does try to attack you, you have my word that I’m first going for their knees, and then melting them with my fire!”
“Master Isak has already insisted that I refrain from taking such measures unless his life or that of his companions is at risk.” Vidal’s attempts at a lowered voice were valiant, but Isak couldn’t help but cringe as he looked over to where he had heard the voices who had no doubt heard the rock man’s voice.
Citlali stared up at the rock man with her mouth hanging open and one eye narrowed. She leaned over to Isak and asked “So…is he a…a person? And if so how did you even make the ritual work?”
“There’s uh…a lot of questions with him.” The human said as he looked around, noticing a distinct absence of someone. “That can be answered later. Where’s Zyn?”
“Hey there!” Not-Zyn called out in a friendly tone from by the stream. A group of four students and accompanying familiars emerged from the brush and waved to the group of five minus one. Their leader, a broad chested red orc boy with close cropped black hair, appeared to be their leader and took the lead as his group approached. A welcoming smile inverted into a frown of concern as he and the eagle on his shoulder looked them over. “It’s been that rough for you so far?”
The five minus Zyn looked to each other in confusion, then realized that they did indeed show signs of having been in a struggle. Isak and Xoco alike had their hair in disarray, with Xoco’s braid having loosened from the action. Tonauac had a noticeable tear on the shoulder of his uniform, and like the rest of them Citlali had dirt and mud obscuring her uniform blues.
The human boy cleared his throat and looked down to the jungle floor with a nervous smile. “We had a…altercation with another group.”
“Which was resolved!” Tonauac helpfully added as he stepped to Isak’s side.
“With teamwork and cunning!” Xoco’s smile was especially sharp.
“And violence! Against superior numbers!” Citlali added to the sharp toothed group smiling effort that also had Isak there. “And soul searching! Which led to a very official change of loyalties so that I am now proudly a part of Isak’s group!”
The recently met group stared in bewilderment while listening to the summarized tale. A tonatecah girl with a black scaled rattlesnake around her arm pointed to Isak’s group and silently counted to four. Isak was far from experienced in reading the crow-like people’s expressions, but the familiar sounding girl’s voice was deadpan. “If she joined, where’s your fifth?”
“Carefully observing!” Zyn said as be casually strode out from behind a mass of ferns while all but Tonauac and the tonatecatl jolted back and yelped from the surprise. “After two groups of young maniacs team up to pick a fight with you in the jungle, you get a little paranoid.”
The svirfneblin girl’s own cave octopus patted her on the back with one tentacle as it waved to Ozzy with the other. As the gesture was met with a returning waving tentacle, the girl expressed her confusion. “So you just…automatically hide in plants ready to pounce like some kind of above ground hydra when you think there might be danger?”
“Not just danger, but yes.” Isak shrugged with a chuckle while Zyn rejoined the group with a pleased grin. “Anyways uh…you guys doing alright with finding where you need to go?”
The so far silent frost troll of their group smiled and gave a thumbs up in response, and the red orc took over from there while looking up at Vidal. “We were refilling on water, and resting. The last group we ran into had heard fighting, I guess we know where that came from. You sure you’re good to keep going?”
“I think we’re good. We probably only had the two groups after us.” Isak said as he put a hand to his chin, trying to think if he had forgotten any other overzealous rivals.
“Well…” Xoco and Citlali were nearly in sync as they corrected Isak and avoided all eye contact before finally meeting each other’s eyes and nervously laughing. They both debated who should go first while all looked on with increasingly worried stares.
“If they existed…they would be far more subtle!” The jungle troll insisted with a pained smile.
The lizardlass’ laugh was as painful as it was forced. “What’s a few shared enemies between friends? Everyone has enemies right? I mean, who doesn’t have mysterious foes with unknown plots against them?”
Tonauac, Zyn, and the entire newly met group of four raised their hands. A moment later, Zyn wavered and lowered his hand. “Does it count if mine are all at home?”
“Ahem.” The orc boy cleared his throat and ran a red hand through his hair while his group fidgeted in place. “We should get back to refilling our water supply. Best of luck in your assignments?”
The five bid the other group of students farewell and slinked off into the jungle in silence. Isak was starting to wonder what kind of very strange friends he had made. Tonauac’s eventual insistence that whenever they might visit they would help him with any possible nefarious rivals back home, however, did reassure Isak that he probably wasn’t facing this all alone. Or alone with Vidal.
He had only been here a week and things were going well for him, all things considered. He kept reminding himself of that shortly before he told himself to stop jinxing it into all falling apart. This was still his first week and things were already far stranger than he could have imagined. And not all in a good way.
The human pushed those thoughts aside and led his companions along the stream as Tonauac assured him that Patli saw a break in the jungle ahead. Xoco confirmed that Nelli had spotted a pool of water up ahead, and though she tried to insist it might not be the pool of water they needed, the eager team was quick to insist that it was still good news.
Under the canopy the afternoon sun was filtered into an ever fading jungle twilight. Even Isak found himself ignoring his own advice to watch one’s step, as they all quickened their pace to their presumed destination. The stream widened and with it grew the sound of flowing water notably different than that of the rock man running alongside them. Croaking frogs all leapt about in response to the students racing along the side of the stream, damp ground relenting underfoot to send footfalls echoing through the brush. Ahead the jungle thinned enough for the still brighter light of the afternoon sun to shine unopposed by any tall trees.
Their footsteps came to a halt as the much sought after pool at the edge of the jungle and base of the mountain stared back at them.
Isak’s elation was shorter lived than that of his companions, as he heard a final step and a snapping branch from somewhere behind him.
Too far back, too out of sync with all others that had just come to a halt. Though Isak’s heart also came to a halt and stumbled a few steps back as the realization that something was after him again hit. It took him a moment to realize that his companions had gone silent as well, all focusing on that errant step.
The one that should just be something he misheard, and was probably just another group of students with a misplaced vendetta against him come to try to shatter his bones once more. Someone’s hand on his shoulder and a tone of concern pulled him back into the present, where he needed to see for himself what lay behind him in the jungle.
“Careful now!” Isak said as he turned to face the group, holding up his arms to stop them from going further. He didn’t quite meet their eyes as he spoke and instead looked behind them into the jungle. “There might be traps! A final test by our professors!”
Their newest member was well aware that something was wrong from their reactions, but had no idea why by the look in her eyes. Isak cast a whispered illusion spell at Zyn first, showing him glowing illusory text confirming that yes he had in fact heard something from behind them.
“I dunno man, are you sure?” Zyn snuck a wink in there as he threw his hands up in exasperation. “You really think they would do something like that?”
“You know our luck. That is exactly what would happen.” Isak said with a solemn nod and another whispered illusion spell to Vidal, spelling out the situation and to be on guard but not react. The rock man remained unmoving, but Isak swore he saw the whirlpools of his eyes change ever so slightly. “Xoco, Tonauac? Can you have your familiars scan overhead? See if they see anything that looks like a trap?”
“Uhhh, Patli doesn’t see anything but…must be a good trap huh?” Tonauac’s nerves were already as apparent as his attempts at subterfuge while he rapidly flicked his tongue in and out. “I’ll have him circle closer and look for…um, things. Of a suspicious nature.”
Isak cast a quick illusion text into the blood mage’s eyes to tell him to relax and just be ready. Their newest member’s mouth was hanging open while her pupils narrowed down to nothing. “I– I’m sorry what’s going–”
“Citlali!” Xoco put a hand on the girl’s shoulder as she leaned down to speak to her. “It may seem absurd, but you must trust Isak here.”
Which the human took as an opportunity to cast another illusory text to the lizardlass to explain far too much in far too little. Her eyes read along and went wider as she read the text only visible to her that detailed how an they were being stalked either by rival students once more, or an invisible pursuer that had been after one or more of them for at least a few days now and the group did not want to reveal that they knew they were being watched yet.
“We don’t know what’s ahead.” Isak paused and pursed his lip, chewing on his tongue for a moment before continuing. “If you wanted this to be the last of our interactions, we’ll understand. You had no way of knowing when you joined us that-”
The dark green and black lizardlass gave a deep belly laugh while her tail flicked about behind her, with her small raptor chirping its equivalent of a chuckle. She brought a claw up to wipe a small tear from the corner of her eye. When finally she composed herself, she took a step forward to rest a hand on the human’s shoulder.
“Isak, you’re being absurd!” She rolled her eyes and flicked her tongue out. “Traps? Really? This is our first week! That illusory obstacle course was just a test to see our skill level! You’re just collapsing under the stress! Come on, you’re worrying too much, there are no traps out here in this jungle. ”
Citlali pulled Isak into a hug and whispered in his ear. “Except for the ones we’re going to set! I’ve known you for maybe an hour and you’re already worried about my wellbeing. I will fight for you, and kill for you.”
“That is a really low bar to kill for someone.” Isak whispered back while ignoring how his own bar for such matters was likely even lower somehow. He gave an awkward smile through the grit teeth as he pat her on the back.
“Isak.” Tonauac kept his voice low and asked the question everyone was thinking. “What’s the plan?”
“We still don’t know who’s out there so…follow my lead. Also sorry Citlali.” Isak whispered his final instructions before breaking the hug and pushing the lizardlass away. “So you don’t trust my expertise? Fine! I’ll just prove it! Vidal! Follow me, our credibility is on the line!”
The rock man took two one long stride to stand at Isak's side. “In lieu of your bones, your incorrect opinions shall be crushed and then disintegrated Citlali.”
Whether or not Vidal actually knew that this was a ruse, Isak worried about the rock man almost as much as he worried about his near complete lack of a plan.
Only a near lack, because the barely something he had kicking around in his head was almost certainly not going to be enough. But it was all he had to try and get a glimpse of some possible truth.
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