Wandering far north Alicia found herself near the base of mountain alps with sparse vegetation and few trees.  ‘How did I end up here?’ Looking up, the summit was hidden from sight by gentle flowing clouds. Sun peeking from the side of it and the daunting scale contributed to its majesty. Destroying the momentary serenity, a shadowy flyer broke through the clouds. With a screeching cry it swooped down attacking at… something. In spite of her exceptional senses - sight included - enhanced by Presence detection she still couldn’t infer the exact details of what was happening due to vast distance. Stopping to decide what she should continue, she could swear that she heard screams…

‘Logic dictates that I should make a 180… But my conscience says otherwise… ughh I hope I won’t regret this.’

Giving in to her curiosity she decided to investigate, onwards and upwards. What started out as a gentle slope and middling hills were followed up by unstable crumbling footholds of stone, shale and gravel. Parts of the mountain were inaccessible due to treacherously steep cliff faces with more than ninety degrees inclination forming concave roofs and dead ends.

• ‘I’m not scaling that without proper equipment…’
• ‘why…?’

Alice’s quizzical question caused Alicia to go on an internal rant about mountaineering equipment and safety precautions. Her single minded paranoia about falling or having something fall on her was founded in her  nature of her death.

• ‘We’re going to need special boots, an axe, a picket, harness and rope, at the bare minimum and we don’t have a single one of them.’
• ‘can’t… climb…?’
• ‘Maybe you can but I- wait…’

While it is true a human and by extension Elf wouldn’t be suited for climbing, to a spider however…

• ‘Nevermind you’re right.’

Assuming her original form she cautiously ascended the mountain, searching for the source of the screaming. Winds became more and more colder. The miniature hooks at the tip of her legs proved to be quite effective at climbing, enough to the point of her being able to go directly to the top if she headed straight for it. Still she elected to take a safer more roundabout path and because Alicia couldn’t completely stamp out her irrational suspicions, she secured her footholds where she could with silk - including reinforcing some ceilings and a makeshift safety harness complete with a lifeline ‘rope’ -  thus her progress was slow comparatively; it was still much faster than what most others could achieve. ‘Come on now… climbing that oak tree was higher than this… relatively speaking… Well tree bark usually doesn't strip off… This, might… Let’s not think about it. Just don’t look down…’

Soon enough she started to hear distinct bleating and sounds of hooves, beating wings, loud bestial bellow and ruckus. ‘Goat…?’ Halting in her steps she focused on the sounds closely, the cry of the goats vaguely sounded like human screams… ‘I’ve been catfished by goats… goddamn it. Well since I’ve made it all the way up here might as well see what’s happening.’ More than halfway up to the peak Alicia decided to go all the way, not wanting to waste her efforts she pressed on. Climbing onto a somewhat flatter grassy terrain she could make out what was happening.

Sort of sheep-like ibex herd was being preyed on by dragonhawk. Dragonhawks were neither strong as wyverns in strength or swift as gryphons in flight. Close to wyverns in appearance but slimmer with torso and smaller size along with possessing feather owing to their hybrid heritage. Their elongated tail with plumage gives them much more control over flight than their similar counterparts making them appear as if they can swim in air. Despite their name, they weren’t directly related to either dragons or hawks. Considered to be a rare offspring between a wyvern - draconid - and a gryphon - hybrid of lion and an eagle, there is still an ongoing argument whether or not if they’re a hybrid or a chimera.

‘Dragonhawks preying on sheep? No, those are Thundergoats, I remember recalling something about their horns and lightning. Apparently they can’t just shoot lightning, as much as I hoped they would, since if they could this dragonhawk shouldn’t be that much of a problem to them…’

The dragonhawk was trying to disperse the herd by diving into the middle then attempting to catch any one of them that’s alone, separated from the herd. It knows enough to avoid their horns and instead of trying to grapple them down - where it would be vulnerable to the others of the herd - it is making an effort to drag them off the mountain and let gravity do the work for it after which it can feed.

Largest of the herd calmly walked out to the open on its own away from safety. ‘Is that the herd leader or something?’ Seeing the opportunity the dragonhawk attacked immediately. The goat, rather than fleeing it stood its ground and faced towards the aggressor, shifting its curved horns toward its direction. Bright sparks of lightning predominantly blue but sometimes purple and white in color, skid upwards in between its V shaped pair of horns showing its defiance. ‘Oooh that’s almost like a Jacob’s ladder… Tons of volts right there. You’ll definitely meet god if you climb this ladder. Well your image of god might be shattered but that’s the fine print no one tells you about. Should I even be here…?’ ¹Jacob's Ladder (Biblical) Jacob's Ladder (Electrical) Localizing Aurora Borealis entirely in my Kitchen

After failing to startle or drag its sole target, it decided to go after the much more skittish group targeting the smallest of the goats as much less effort is needed to snatch them. This meant their young kids were at danger.

Scrambling to protect each and every one of was impossible, as soon as it covers one another would be vulnerable to an attack. Eventually one kid was plucked away in its talons, yelling helplessly as none of the herd could save it.

‘I should do something… Can’t just hit it though… First have to make it land somehow. Webs? No good, nothing to anchor it to… wait I don’t have to capture it just have to make it stop from flying… Webbing up its wings should do the trick.’

⟨ Weaver ⟩

Singular strand of silk flew out and clung to the Dragonhawk’s wings. Panicking from being grabbed on suddenly it sped up, pulling on Alicia who held on from the other end.

• “Oh no you don’t!”

Putting effort in she yanked hard, pulling away bundles of feather out of its wings. Although it escaped from her grasp, thankfully it lost its balance and plummeted down rolling on the ground both of them stopping right before a cliff edge. From the impact when it hit the ground it seems to let go of the kid. Finally in its reach the large Goat charged at the still recovering Dragonhawk with all haste. Crashing its horns into it, a thunderous sound echoed all throughout the mountains as the electrical buildup was released solely on the creature and giving it the last push it needed to fall off. During its fall it recovered from the brief paralysis from the electricity and desperately beat its wings. Finally regaining its balance it stopped its descent, resounding a scornful cry as it flew away.

The kid seemed to be dazed from the fall but otherwise fine. Sniffing and licking the large goat examined its young before turning towards Alicia. Pawing the ground and charging at her.

• “No, not the horns, you ungrateful piece of s-”

⟨ Hyper-arousal ⟩²Also known as the fight or flight response. Get your mind out of the gutter.

Alicia was immediately put into a high alert state due to her unpleasant experience with other horned creatures.

⟨ Lithokinesis ⟩

Due to her unstable emotional state, her first reaction to protect herself exerted magical influence and formed a menhir ³Standing stone or long stone. out of nearby materials in the middle of the two. Goat came to a stop only after smashing head first into the stone fainting in the process. And when she got her cool back she noticed that the herd had surrounded her.

‘How? When? I think I lost my escape route uhm think, think…’

• “Uueeh! Wha-?”

A small kid was trying to play with one of her back legs.

• ‘Oh it's you from earlier. Don’t lick my legs, they're very sensitive.’

As she was trying to get the kid off her legs another one came close and started brushing their head against her. Instinctively petting it without thinking then looking at it what it was…

• “Whoa when did you get up? No! You were just trying to ram me to kingdom come. And I have experienced that once already stop trying to brush it off.”

>Notice. Subservient Kindred access requested.

⁴Caprinae Tornitua (Thunder Goat) they’re based on Siberian Ibex and the Barbary sheep

‘Huh never seen that before with how restrictive kindred is… What is the significance of making connections with kindred anyway?’

>Kindred connection places units under the Administrator's direct government. Units may continue to self govern.

1. Managed units will always prioritize Administrator’s commands.
   If units resist authority: under Fiat voluntas Dei⁵“By god’s will” Because deus vult has turned into too much of a meme. clause, Administrator may force compliance.
2. Process is irreversible and units cannot be released.
3. By Omnia cum Deo⁶“All with god” clause if possible Administrator will gain Soul development from subject and subject may receive soul development from Administrator.
4. Once necessary genomic information has been gathered, administrators may conjure units of the same species.

‘That’s quite extreme… I can understand why it's so hard to meet its requirements.’

Looking directly at the caprine:

• ‘You do realize the full implications of what you’re about to do right? Why did you attack me?’
• ‘…… …………’
• ‘Test my power? You daft?’
• ‘………, ……… ……’
• ‘Forget about that for a minute, You don’t ask for someone to help you by assaulting them.’

• ‘…………’

• ‘I have no obligations to assist you now do I?’

• ‘………’

• ‘Sounds desperate, gimme reason to care.’

• ‘…’
• ‘You can’t. Listen I’m not becoming you caretaker after you just tried to murder me.’

Looking around Alicia saw a cave opening near the summit, hoping to hide in it until the goats lose interest in her, she made her way to it. As she did the ovines followed along, bleating. Picking up the pace and trying her best to ignore the pack of goats following her she climbed further, at some point when she arrived at the cave entrance her followers had stopped somewhere along the path.

‘Good they got tired but I can still hear their Baahs. Now what’s in here…?’

Evidently it was dark inside however that was a minor inconvenience to Alicia who relied more on Pallesthesia than her sight. But because she could, using ⟨ Fire Aspect ⟩ she created herself an improvised torch out of a burning mass of flame to illuminate her path. Adjusting its size and intensity to her needs led to the discovering two more spells she didn’t have before ｢ Ember ｣ and ｢ Firebolt ｣. Alicia was intrigued that Flame wasn’t the smallest form of fire she could create as ember was even smaller than the lighter’s worth of fire of ｢ Flame ｣, at the size of grain of pollen and rice. ｢ Firebolt ｣ had the size of a golf ball to a clenched fist compared to ｢ Fireball ｣, whose size was around that of a basketball, at the minimum. As she explored the cave she examined the walls and the ceiling water dripping from stalactites would sometimes fall on her fire sizzling and crackling breaking the silence every now and then. Snaking cave system had multiple sudden drops and crevasses cliffs without access.

As she delved further the environment changed from the chaotic randomness of nature to patterns and repetitions consciously recreated by something intelligent. She would find strange crystals faintly glowing in cold light, slotted into walls from time to time. ‘Are these quartz? I thought they had blue or green glow not… purple? This isn’t radioactive is it?’ ‘These walls look like one of those Egyptian wall paintings… Can’t understand a thing though it seems to be related to some religion.’ Her exploration led to a grand arch weathered and covered by moss and lichen. Past it a spacious dome cavern illuminated by skylight the opening in the roof. Middle of it possessed by a Dragon cradling a cracked marble altar.

• ‘I knew you would come… Dead man…’

‘Just my luck… I had hoped nothing made this place into their den… but more importantly…’

Auratic

Been a while hasn't it? Truth be told last week was bit rough for me, that combined with the fact that I seem to struggle with chaining and connecting events together didn't really help with the speed of this chapter. Regardless I'm back and I'll try to make up for my lost time. I also burned my hands with hot oil trying to make fried eggs... twice. I should not be in the kitchen but I also need to eat.

As for 'used to be weekly' spider fact. Some spiders can be hand fed, if you're brave enough. Also jumping spiders don't have strength to hold down their larger prey and until the venom sets in their prey can walk around which can be quite entertaining to watch. Why am I telling you this? Well they'll be featured soon™ sooner™ than the twins.