Tension thundered through my legs with each beating of the earth. Afterthoughts sieved and merged together, and dance and chorus echoed through my veins, even as they fell on deaf ears. Practice and discipline streamlined my movement, picking off the greatest outcome, and molding those feelings. Compressing every fiber of my being down until it was me, my will, my mark.
A ledge fell away onto empty air. The ground fell away. My feet snagged on branches mid-flight, and rather than follow the ground I rose into the canopy. Twigs and leaves wrapped around my peripherals. Beams of light pierced through the canopy. My eyes gathered them by the tens, noting every color and shape. Marking them out as they changed, and putting aside those that didn’t.
Heat rose through my collar. Numbness grazed my tongue, and my heartbeat pecked at my collar. For a moment, I almost lost my way under the pressure. I drifted, stunned, autonomous, mindless, indecisive. Wondering whether I would lose myself.
Then something moved. A cluster of one, two, five beams tripped, and my emotions rounded on my heartbeat.
There.
The brush caught and tore on their ankles, leaving a trail. They were fast though. The ground passed in a blur, and the middle distance wasn’t far off. Air swept across my arms and torso, muttering its frustration through my ears. The thrashing leaves barely registered when my attention was spared for them.
Good. They won’t hear what’s coming.
They didn’t stop. They never stopped. When couriers were sent into these woods, it was because caravans weren’t cutting it. Unreliable. Some would make it through, but that didn’t stay the money-grubber's greed. Secret compartments, false packaging, mixed supply. Even the governor’s seals weren’t sacred anymore.
We passed our condolences, but it wasn’t our battlefield. It was a bitter pill to swallow. How much are words worth these days?
My legs pulsed. My gut coiled. My hackles raised and a wave of tuft followed. My footing shifted and rather than risk another stride I dropped a few feet and caught the next available branch in my hands.
Bark and impact split my palms, yet I drew my waist against the tree. My excitement waned. This wouldn’t do. I shifted my legs, my weight. I drew the vilest substance to mind, and the ransom of those dear to me.
The forest fell away. Peeling back as my field of view narrowed. My shoulder blades twisted. My pecks and ribcage knotted over each other. Sinew tugged my nerves, sending arcs of tension and pain through my chest. My tailbone shivered as tissue saddled around it, abandoned by my hips as vertebrae by vertebrae they climbed.
My vision narrowed further, pinpricks of detail swimming out of the wood. My legs imploded in the back of my mind, scattering muscles and tendon hither and yon. I took a deep breath. I could hear the blood churning in my stomach. I walked myself through lines of reason. I would need that substance later.
My legs prickled, webs of flesh flexing, brushing the bone as soon as naked air. I spread them wide. Rows of feathers layered on top of one another. Shifting and ruffling in a pattern dance. Oh, but it wasn’t over.
The joints of my feet twisted, trading length for width. My nails shrank and multiplied, dotting the surface like stars in the night. From them, the delicate hairs and even finer membrane formed a deft framework. The fine motor skills are needed for flight. I turned my head, mouth narrowing and nose projecting like an armored tooth.
Will It ever stop itching when I do this?
My weight had barely settled in the tree, and then I exploded forth into the sky. I barely reached the canopy before my predatorial thirst locked onto the duo sprinting through the woods. I stomached my ego as gentle rhythmic motions carried me further and further into the air.
I felt something migrating through the back of my mind settle into place. It felt like so long, the concerns of man could just slip away, but the angle of attack was just too good to pass up. The Horizon spun as I reversed course. Taunting the air as it split and spread, complicit with this body like a private army.
I extended my hands as I reached the canopy. Grabbing the hood of one and lunging into the space between his arms. He screamed, and the other swore. The latter launched a throwing dagger squarely at my torso.
He registered the smug look - even on this face - as his blade parried that of his partner. Completing one orbit, the tempered steel buried in the wood next to me, and I proceeded to put the first down like a switchboard. Laying him flat on the ground, I gripped the dagger with a reforming arm, “I bet it’ll take a few more rounds, but I highly recommend a different employer. Save yourself some reputation, or keep at it until I have the paperwork. It’s up to you.”
The man recoiled and wound back. His blade back soundly by a warrior’s pride, “You arrog- guh-” He never finished. A squall swept in with the blade as I raised it while a vacuum tethered him to the ground like a steel cable and four times his mass.
You know we’re only here for the goods, right? Everything hinges on that. The blade came down as more of a gesture than anything. The courier fell like a puppet with his strings cut. Limp haggard, yet composed. Breathing, and all too imminently conscious.
The urn lurched free with a flick of his wrist, and Jack knelt to examine the jar, “He still fancies himself a man of good taste. Got an artist in his pocket.” A second vase slung over his shoulder, and pouches clipped at his waist, “When will you people learn?”
Back at camp, the jars exploded. A trick mechanism that kept the material evidence out of the wrong hands. Or so it was intended. It was a dangerous job, but Jack had people who could bypass the shell. He also had a few people that wanted to try their hands at transmutation, as was the case with the giant smoldering ritual.
“Are you sure this is a good idea? That colored smoke can’t be healthy.”
Jack answered, “It’s not. Our local druid will probably take an arm for having it sorted, but their improving the process. We learn where it comes from, how it’s made, we can start breaking it down the moment it enters the forest. Nullify it completely and we can put our manpower to better use.”
“You know he’ll just come up with something else.”
“And we’ll just keep taking away his options.” The flames reflected in the mayor’s eyes, “One bust job at a time.”
