(Post Chapter Note from RR at bottom)

Cheep!?

Chapter 168

 

 

         It was a slow and rhythmic noise that stirred Niko from his deep slumber, as if coaxing him to wakefulness. He recognized the sound as flowing water, babbling and trickling as if from a stream, and couldn’t help but settle in just a little bit deeper. It’d been such a long time since he’d last relaxed and enjoyed a morning, and his home in the Evergreen was devoid of many troubles. The fact that it was located so close to the river was…

         ‘Wait a minute… I don’t live that close to the river…’ His mind churned sluggishly, before a milder jolt of a thought chased the last, ‘I don’t live there at all anymore.’

         Even with that realization, he did feel a calming sensation, not unlike what he’d had in the sigil in his home. That much kept him from panicking, and merely forced him the rest of the way awake, weary, wary, and with his stream of consciousness sprinting to catch up.

         He opened his eyes to a birch-planked room, with repeating, but long-stroked carvings cut into panels on the walls. A warm glow emanated from ensconced stones on the walls, casting diffuse lighting across the large space with its vaulted ceiling. It was dim, but not so much that he felt his night vision would be necessary to see.

         Niko breathed in a sigh of relief as he saw the beds in the room, some of which were simply large padded mats that had been heaved into position, giving the familiar occupants something more comfortable to lay upon. They were all there, his companions and friends, and judging by the fact that few of them were without bandages and other medical accoutrements to facilitate healing, Niko guessed they were in a hospital of a sort.

         He appreciated this particular hospital room immeasurably more than what he’d had to stay in when he was human, he did have to admit. The bedding he currently laid on was many times more comfortable than what he’d dealt with in his past life, and with the addition of sigils to help with rest and relaxation, he felt much calmer than he feared he’d be otherwise.

         Niko took his thoughts away from those memories, instead allowing the mental-influencing sigil to bathe his mind.

         Considering the pain that seemingly radiated throughout his body, Niko wasn’t eager to draw his mind away from the soothing sensations. Yet, as needs must, he knew he needed to check himself over and see how bad that damage was.

         ‘Alright, let's just… wow.’ Niko stopped short as he felt at his essence pathways, his pseudo-body aching fiercely at even the slightest increase in the movement of his essence. With a wince, he proceeded far more carefully, inspecting the sluggish flow of his energy as it coursed through his system.

         The channels were fine, that much he noticed immediately. Well, fine by a certain definition, anyways, as there were plenty of portions in which the pseudo-body was damaged just as much as his real body. If anything, the overlap between the two had shortened even more, though he had no idea why that might be the case. Clearly, it had caused some issues, as several of the channels had rebuilt themselves, but weren’t up to all that much. That seemed to be the main source of the pain he felt from his channels. Which was, unfortunately, only the tip of the iceberg.

Niko gently felt at his essence, refraining from activating his Aether Sight after feeling the threatening throb of his healing channels. The inspection was painstakingly slow, and what he saw left him with a concerned and thoughtful expression.

         ‘That spear shredded me. There’s healing tissue everywhere, but it’s still pretty rough…’ Niko swallowed gingerly at the sight of all of the damage. Flesh was mending, though, even if it did look like his lungs, heart, and every other major organ were made of patchwork parts and gnarled thread. Even as he watched, Niko could feel the healing in progress, aided in part by the sigils, and by his own native essence. Not so oddly, Niko couldn’t feel a trace of blood energy left in his system, given that it was what had probably kept him going until either his body or some healers could step in.

         He could feel the brand though, and knew that the power was still available to him, just as any other limb on his body. Niko didn’t know why that thought filled him with such petty glee, but it did.

         ‘Oh, who am I kidding? Of course, I do. Screw Bant! Thanks for the gift, sucker!’ Niko grinned, before feeling a muscle in his neck twinge in pain at him turning his head casually. He settled his head back down onto his pillow, closing his eyes as he continued sifting through the damage. ‘Well, wings and legs are mostly fine, just some cuts and bruises. Oh… my tail feathers…’ He felt a genuine sense of morose at the realization that half of them were still growing back, but sniffed back the tears, ‘I-It’ll be fine, they’ll grow back as good as new.’

         Still, there was only so much energy he could muster, and before he knew it, Niko’s introspection was drawn to further wanderings and distractions, until finally darkness subtly overtook him anew.

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         Niko awoke again every few hours, generally to the gentle ministrations of who he hoped was a nurse. They were a Voldt, which Niko best described as a wolf-rat-bear with porcupine quills that grew on their backs. She changed his bandages and placed essence rich meat with some kind of paste packed in it that Niko knew he didn’t like the taste of, but his body didn’t much seem to care in the face of the raw resources it desperately needed.

         She’d put the food in front of him with an appreciative, if gruff, grunt while saying, “Good. The body needs what it needs. Don’t be like all these stubborn oafs and eat up.”

         To be fair, the meat itself tasted divine and rich with essence, and the medicinal paste, while overly bitter, wasn’t actually so bad as to dissuade him from the bounty presented. Besides, he’d experienced some pretty foul flavors in his time.

         Still, each of his waking experiences tended to be short. A minute or so at a time, just enough to stuff food in his mouth and look at the others. Of the rest, only Stella, Skye, and Thokk had sustained injuries enough to be kept in bed, or at least by the time he was cognizant enough to register everything. Niko vaguely recognized the fugue state his mind was in, and just let things drift by without working himself up too much over it. It certainly wouldn’t do his body any good to be throwing himself out of bed, reopening old wounds.

         His dreams were equally feverish and nonsensical at times, but there were many that he appreciated. His siblings featured in them frequently, though what surprised him most was how… episodic they seemed. Niko followed their imagined journey out from Greenleaf, and farther northwards where they trained with some fierce looking fellows amidst twisting trees and titanic growth, different from the titanwoods in that much of the growth wasn’t so much tall as it was widespread. He couldn’t tell where one tree ended and another began, nor if that even mattered. 

After that, though, they were someplace else, a huge, fortress the size of a major city that was built into a mountain. He’d half expected dwarves to live there, and as it turned out, he was half right. Humanoids of all sorts lived there, but Niko saw Dwarves and Gnomes too, though he figured that was just as well given it was a dream.

         They met with someone that Niko could feel was powerful, the ruler of sorts within the fortress city. And he could tell that they were… negotiating something? He couldn’t quite parse everything out.

         Then things blurred once more, but he got the sense that they were having fun, and that they were achieving greatness of their own. Niko thought that was a pretty nice dream to have.

         He awoke fully once again, this time to the room being much more lit. The lights along the walls were dim, but skylights overhead cast in the soft glow of the sun in their place.

         “Good morning, sleepyhead,” Skye’s voice stirred Niko’s attention. He felt her proximity even before she’d spoken, their bond having apparently deepened. Niko wasn’t nearly as alarmed by that as he might once have been.

         “Good morning,” Niko said, before yawning, and then tentatively beginning to stretch out. When the only pain that greeted him was that of unused muscles, he rolled out his body and began a full-range stretch accompanied by a low warbling groan of relief.

         Skye chuckled, “Good stretch?”

         “Bessst.” Niko hissed out the sound with exaggerated pleasure, “I could barely move at all whenever I woke up earlier. How long have I been down for?”

         He fully regarded Skye, noting that she was completely free of bandages or splints. Likewise, the rest of the room was empty, and from what Niko could tell, had likely been so for some time of the fact that none of the bed mats were still around indicated.

         “Seven days or so. Thokk was the next longest at three, but Stella was only let out a little ahead of him. I was only out for a day, but I’d healed ridiculously fast. Camille was here, and I managed to talk her into cooking up a peace offering for… never mind, it’s not important.” Skye shrugged, before gesturing widely, “Anyways, apparently there’s some quality of the blood energy the Dawr used that interferes with the body's regular healing, but yours was worse.” Skye spoke casually, sitting back and observing Niko in turn, “How are you feeling?”

         Niko paused at that, lightly prodding at his pseudo-body for damage. His essence channels swirled with his attention, and whether by imagination or simply comparison, the essence within virtually leapt at his touch, ready to race through his body. He grinned at that, before pushing his awareness through his entire body, racing along the pathways, flesh, and blood. Almost all of the damage he’d inspected before was gone, though his heart still bore what felt like a scar. He didn’t feel anything wrong, though, and even beyond that, felt as if the scar of what had happened was something different from just flesh and bone.

         That aside, though, he appeared to have fully recovered, save for some very minor injuries not worth the mention.

         “I’m doing good,” Niko answered finally, nodding, “Really good, overall.”

         He felt a radiating contentment and relief through his bond with Skye even as she said, “Great! Then, let's get out of here. We should probably get some food in you before we go with the others to meet Sasha’s Dad again.”

         “Oh, sure.” Niko nodded, before sitting himself up and rising to his feet. He was halfway to following Skye out of the room when he finally caught up with the words, “Wait, Dad!? We’re meeting Riizen?”

         “Yeah,” Skye blinked in confusion, before seeming to catch onto the emotions coming from him, “Oh! You don’t need to worry, he’s quite nice, actually. A little… odd, but nice.”

         Skepticism radiated from Niko as asked, “What do you mean… odd?”

         “You’ll see,” Skye answered, “It’s nothing bad, though.”

         Niko shook his head, but followed nonetheless. He was more than happy to be getting on his feet and active again.

 

         An hour later, and with at least some food in his system, they’d reunited with the rest of the Wyldwalkers. Niko had gotten odd looks from some of the beasts around him as he’d consumed nearly half his own weight in food in short order, and showed no signs of stopping. If anything, Niko only felt barely satisfied by the quantities of essence and meat he’d eaten, but he also didn’t want to eat the cafeteria empty when he was leaving. Skye laughed at his bottomless ravine of a stomach, but Niko countered with his own barb at her own eating habits, having put away fully four plates of food stacked high on her own.

         Which led to her trying to give him the silent treatment, which lasted only long enough for Niko to start cawing obnoxiously in public that she wasn’t talking to him.

         The resulting embarrassment for Skye and the amused looks from those around was well worth it for Niko.

         “I’m glad you’re feeling better,” Sasha said after they’d exchanged initial and warm greetings. “We were worried that the Warlord had done something more permanent with how the healer’s were talking. I’m glad to see that you were more resilient than they’d expected.”

         “Can’t keep a good bird down,” Niko trilled, “Or something like that. How are all of you? Anything lingering?”

         “A few aches and pains, but nothing that a little massaging can’t fix,” Stella answered, giving Ronald a gentle nudge with her shoulder. The big man’s cheeks reddened slightly, but his wide grin showed he wasn’t uncomfortable with the comment.

         “Friends! Bombs!” Niko did a double take as he heard Charlotte shout, dancing a little as her fuzzy antennae gestured at herself and Mithel.

         Mithel smiled apologetically as Niko looked to her, “She, uh… picked up one of my words. We may have had a little too much fun.”

         “Bombs!” Charlotte shouted almost in affirmative, her entire front half bobbing as if nodding enthusiastically.

         Niko couldn’t help but caw in laughter at that.

         “I am well.” Thokk rumbled, “Scars are no demerit for my clan.”

         “Quite the opposite,” Sasha faux-whispered conspiratorially, “He has received many suitor requests. It is almost good that we leave soon, else we might lose him to a well-muscled sow.”

         Quickly, Thokk interjected, “It is of no matter, I am better than fine… Uh…” The big beast rumbled, before seemingly realizing what he’d said, “I am fine. Thank you for asking.”

         ‘There’s the stoicism,’ Niko smiled, as did the others. Seeing the big sloth-bear flustered was amusing, but Niko had other things that he needed to know.

         “Well, I’m glad to hear we’re doing alright. Skye tells me that we have to meet your dad?” Niko turned his attention to Sasha, who nodded.

         “Everyone else has, but he wants to meet you as well. He has given his blessings for my journey as a Wyldwalker already,” Sasha said, and Niko didn’t miss the pride in her voice as she said it, “So, I think he’s only really wanting to meet and perhaps thank you, given the way things had gone. We’ve all got stories circulating about us, now.”

         “Stories?” Niko raised his feathered brow and tilted his head, “What kind of stories?”

         “Oh, you know.” Skye said with no small amount of smugness, “The hero kind. Brave Az-Phorus capturing the attention of a divinely gifted Dawr Warlord to give the rest of the front time to stabilize. Soaring into the sky like a dark, bloody star, before plummeting down and delivering the final blow, with complete disregard for your own safety. There’s all kinds of talk about you.”

         “And about her,” Ronald broke in then, smirking, “They’re calling her The Dryad now, and you should hear the stories they have about her.”

         “About all of us, really,” Stella broke in before Skye could suffer for too long, looking chagrined, “It’s nice, but also so… embarrassing to hear about ourselves.”

         “Something to adjust to,” Sasha nodded, “It will come more quickly once you internalize that these tales have been earned by you. They are not empty words.” Sasha then grinned, her fangs bared just that bit more, “Even if the ones about myself and Dachna make us sound like demons.”

         Niko trilled at that with amusement, before pausing and looking around, “Where is Dachna right now, anyways?”

         “He’s just getting the rest of our stuff packed up,” Mithel gestured dismissively, “They finally got done with his custom order of knives and other items… Actually, he should have been done by now, let me go get him.”

         “You don’t need to on my account,” Niko chirped, “I was just curious anyways.”

         “Yeah, but we’re all going to be going with you for the visit to Riizen,” Mithel smiled, “It’ll be our first official meeting with him as the whole team, right?”

         He couldn’t find any fault with that logic, and nodded, even as he fell into the general topics the others brought up.

         ‘I’m glad we can all talk like this,’ Niko thought to himself, basking in the idle conversation with his friends, ‘That was even closer than with the hornets. Hopefully we can break this recent trend. A little less on the near-death side of things would be great…’

         Even as he thought it, he silently knocked on the wood under his talons, just in case…

 

 

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         Dachna held the kama tightly in his fist as he spun around in the darkness, his stance open, but taut, ready to move at a moment's notice. A lifetime of living on the knife’s edge honed his ability to react to the slightest of stimuli, but this was not something he was prepared for.

         Yet, oddly enough, the darkness did not feel threatening. If anything, it felt… inviting. A warm welcome, as much as it could ever be one. Dachna glared into the black, before noticing that darkness was far from the only thing here. Twinkling lights, imperceptible at first, began to materialize before his eyes. Or, perhaps, it was more accurate to say that he was piercing a haze in between.

         He wasn’t as expert as Ronald or Niko at utilizing essence, but Dachna did have awareness and willpower to spare. With his focus and concentration ramping up, he peered through the fog, trying to perceive what this space was, where, and if he was alone within it.

         It was like pushing against a wall, something flexible, but no less sturdy for it. Still, stubbornness pushed him, and a strange sense that he was about to achieve something nagged at him. So, Dachna bore down, dug in deep, and with a single-minded determination like that which had gotten him through his days in the orphanage, like what had protected him against the mind magus’ scheming and brainwashing, he managed to scratch, then poke through the wall and—

         Suddenly a vivid, glittering expanse of stars in all their colored cosmos exploded before him, the darkness slipping comfortably into the spaces between. Even lacking understanding, Dachna could feel how far they were, but at the same time, how they were just within his grasp.

         “Beautiful…” Dachna uttered, feeling a sense of serenity fall over him, one that he knew wasn’t any kind of magic, except what one might feel from within. It was the single most glorious thing he’d seen…

         “Mithel would love to see this place.” Was the second thing he said, and he did so with a lopsided grin on his face.

         Dachna flipped the kama up into the air, letting the weapon and chain catch the distant lights in a scintillating display, before he said, “So, who the hell are you, and why am I here?”

         For several long seconds, nothing moved, but Dachna’s gaze never left one spot.

         Finally, a laugh echoed out, light and airy at first, before turning into an almost maddened cacophony as it seemed to spread throughout the entire space. Dachna winced at the sound, and had to keep his focus so as to not be overwhelmed, but he didn’t look away. Every fiber of his being told him not to look away. Whether that was out of danger, or opportunity, he couldn’t say, but he’d never really been able to completely tell the two sensations in his gut apart.

         “Well, I must say, I didn’t expect one of the bird's companions to be so capable, or is it resilient? Hm? Perhaps you’re gifted in mental fortitude and perception both, that’s… intriguing.” The voice spoke, even as a figure seemingly stepped out of the firmament between stars and darkness, with swirling color and shapes that hurt Dachna’s eyes and sent ripples through his mind to observe.

         Still, even with the mounting pain in his head, he didn’t avert his gaze from the sight, never taking his eyes off of the being. “I’d say thanks for the compliment, but I don’t wanna.”

         The motion of the being stopped, though it was resolving to something more normal to his mind and sight by the moment. However, Dachna got the feeling that it was looking at him with something approaching… amusement?

         Then Dachna began to feel the full weight of the beings existence, and realized that he’d very unwittingly walked the tightrope between life and death with that flippant remark.

         “Oh, don’t worry, I won’t kill you. Madness might be a problem, but my dear boy, I’d say you’ve got just enough spunk in you to resist a little ol’ dip in the ocean of chaos.” The humanoid male figure materialized further, wearing something like a fine suit and white hair, “That’s where this is, by the way. A little, external emanation of my own domain. And I am known by many names, but you, my dear boy...”

         The figure dipped into a theatrical bow, before rising with a flourish, “You may call me Venris.”

 

 

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         There were many things that the tier six reptile felt satisfaction in. Oddly enough, that it had hit tier six was not one of them—it could have risen to tier six at any point in time that it desired in the many years it had been resting at tier five. That it hadn’t was strictly because of the resources that it’s dear mushroom home could provide. See, among all of the many denizens there, it alone was aware of how fragile the biome was in the grand scheme of things. Hidden amid the titanwoods feet, situated between not one, but two flood channels, the fungal-wood was always at risk of being swept away.

         The essence that drifted down through the boughs and sat heavily underneath fed the biome richly, but the axolotl-like beast could feel the tidal pull of the world's breath, dragging that essence ever forwards. Only so much would ever be available to the mushrooms of its home, at least without it stepping up and claiming a portion of the world's authority for its own.

         But it liked being lazy. It felt satisfied in the mushrooms. There were fewer things that brought it more pleasure than cultivating perfect, edible specimens, many of which were at the peak of tier five essence, and fewer still that it could actively pursue.

         So, given that it was one of its few pleasures in life, the axolotl had been understandably furious when it had discovered some snot-nosed intruders had stolen years of effort out from under its nose. Was it just one grove of twelve? Yes. Was it also the one it was just going to finally get to eat?

         Also, yes. A resounding yes.

         Pursuing the thieves did not go according to plan. The strange short things—it knew not the name for Dawr—had taken a small amount of his food, and it’d attacked their camp with all the bluster and bravado of a predator unchallenged. It had momentarily forgotten that outside of the mushroom biome, it was not, in fact, the only apex predator. The warlord had given it incredibly painful injuries, so much so that the axolotl had abandoned its pursuit of its original quarry. It couldn’t detect them any longer in the first place, but the smell of its mushrooms… that was possible.

         It was a rash decision to tier up, and it was certainly intelligent enough to know that. But it didn’t care, and when it had… a whole new world of sensation had opened up to it. Responsibilities to the world, yes, but also possibilities. It almost would have thanked the thieves for pushing it to do so, but alas, it would have to eat them for their transgressions first.

         And so when it smelled its mushrooms again, it had wasted no time in slipping through the paths of the world, moving in close for that abominable warlord and those that remained.

         But, it hadn’t bothered hunting them all down. There were just too many, and it knew that it was being played, a tool for others to be used to chase down designated targets. As much as it burned, the axolotl left the rest, knowing that its mushrooms were long gone by now.

         It would have to be wary of the city, its inhabitants clearly couldn’t be trusted. Perhaps it would have to begin hunting them as it expanded its territory, punish them for—

         The axolotl paused as it sensed one of the original thieves essences, only, it was… confusingly tangled within that of the forest. Not hidden, but as if it were intentionally being broadcast.

         ‘How odd…’ It thought, before slipping down into the mushrooms and between the tree roots. Its sinuous body wasn’t hindered in the slightest, and whereas before it stomped and thundered through the land, it was now a friend to it in a way that would have made stealing from it far, far more dangerous in the first place.

         It emerged into a familiar location, the sight of its poor ransacked mushroom grove. Anger settled over it at the thought that the thief might be taunting it, but that quickly gave way as the forest almost seemed to present the scent to him more insistently.

         ‘Go… inside?’ It tilted its head, feeling, more than hearing, the forest whisper to it. Doubtful, but now curious, the axolotl slid inside the hollow to find…

         Something wonderful.

         A banquet of food was laid out before it, some of which it realized smelled just like its mushrooms. More than that, a satchel full of tier five essence crystals lay open before it. The axolotl cared less about the essence though, and more about the smell of the food. It was…

         It paused… perhaps… Perhaps the city wasn’t so bad after all, if they could make things like this? The axolotl rumbled in appreciation, accepting the peace offering for what it surely was. Maybe it could trade some of its own goods in exchange for this kind of bounty.

         It dug into the meal, slowly, savoring every bite and engraving it in its memory. The mushroom forest around it hummed in resonance with its pleasure, even as the grove grew beyond its previous boundaries, empowered by the new resident tier six within…

 

Author Note: Woooooo~.... this has been an incredibly fatigueing few weeks. So, when I initially said that I'd be around more and able to post with greater frequency, I'd really thought I'd have the time. Apparently though, getting a new job and having a LOT of hours dumped on you really takes it out of you. Then, when things were finally settling, I get sick. It was... pretty bad. I slept more than I've ever slept before while sick, and I felt absolutely miserable during it. My bones are still aching, and I'm now like day five into what I'm calling recovery. Not sure what it was yet, but some my verdict was "rolled into carpet and beaten with steel baseball bats". It was not great. I would not recommend. 

As for the working, now I'm going to have to do a bit more to catch up, and with classes around the corner, that might eat into more time. Which is to say that I just won't be making any promises on my releases for a bit, but dems the breaks, I suppose. I have done some work, but a lot of it ended up being completely not what I wanted, and we decided to just not use them, so that was a few chapters worth of stuff that just never broke the surface. Finally did get one, though, and so we're hopefully going to just get the ball rolling now and try to keep momentum!

Now, as for another topic, there's not much time left until I have to take down book two, which is to say imminent. It'll begin formatting into an audiobook and also be on Amazon Kindle soon, and unlike the previous book, I won't be leaving any of the chapters up, to reduce the possible confusion people have in regards to what chapters are there. I'll try to keep updates coincidental with releases here, so keep tuned.

Thanks for the concern a few people have shown regarding my abscence, it means a lot to me that people noticed and took the time to reach out. That was uncommonly wholesome, thank you again!

Anyhoot! Here's the chapter! Enjoy!