#also yes I do realize the hands and claws are a bit inaccurate.

[zombiethethinker]

australovenator

[comicgeekscomicgeek]

Their Hero Academia -- Chapter 79: Drop the Bomb

Presenting the next installment of my on-going, nextgen, MHA fic! Earlier chapters can be found here

A snout pressed to the ground along the side of the road, where the highway gave way to more densely wooded country. Yes, that was the scent they were after, no mistaking it. Less than another day’s travel ahead. Lips curled back past sharp teeth, releasing a low growl of satisfaction. They had missed the departure of the students, all nestled into their transport and none the wiser that something was just behind them. It wasn’t a short journey from the school to their destination, but traveling cross country, a nearly straight line whenever they didn’t have to stop to find the scent again, made up considerable time. They did not tire. This terrain was what they were bred to cross. They moved back into the cover of the trees as they followed the smaller road, claws digging into the dirt as they pushed forward.

They’d be at the camp soon.

***

“Ooooh, that had to hurt,” Isamu winced.  

“I’ve told him he relies on his Quirk too much,” Midoriya replied, gazing at the scene before them through his fingers.  “Tell me he’s still breathing?”

“He’s groaning, Toshi,” Tokoyami said.  “He’ll be fine.”  She chirped a few times.  “I think.”

“She really hit him hard!” Frog-Shadow said, adding her own opinion from Tokoyami’s shoulder.

“Poor Shota,” Izumi said. “Still, he lasted longer than I expected him to.”

“Well… that was definitely something,” Boost-Rush said.  “Where’d you learn a move like that, Kaniyashiki?”

Kaniyashiki was busy helping Shinso back to his feet, but she looked over in the Rookie’s direction. “My Aunt Monika’s a police officer, sir,” she said, tossing off a salute with her free hand, before turning it into a crab-claw V.  “She taught me a lot of self-defense stuff.”

“Well, tell her she did a good job,” Boost-Rush said.  He looked to the larger group of U.A. and Shiketsu students.  “And I think that’s our best example so far of why being able to fight without your Quirk is important.  Shinso here has one of the most powerful Quirks in either class, and Kaniyashiki laid him out in two moves.”

The morning’s instruction had largely been focused on Quirkless exercises, directed by Boost-Rush. The powerfully-built Rookie was an extremely good hand-to-hand combatant, though he’d admitted that Doc Clock was even better than he was, something which had gotten Aizawa beaming with pride for all of about three seconds before his natural resting grump face had taken back over.  Boost-Rush had put them through a number of exercises, before he’d set them up sparring. Eventually, they’d break off into pairs, but for now, they were also getting a bit of a show out of it, as he called different combinations to spar against each other and demonstrate what they’d learned so far.  

A few students, mostly those with heavy mutation-type Quirks like Shoji and Bondo, had largely been exempted, and would get some other specialized instruction, since their Quirks were more innate Mutant types.  Ground Zero, Aizawa, and a couple of the other Rookies were with them.  Some of the others had also been peeled off for other types of training with some of the other Rookies.

He had to admit, though, it had been especially exciting when Boost-Rush had opened it with Kana against Kimiko Ojiro.  As the two best martial arts in any of the classes, it had made sense.  It hadn’t been one hundred percent Quirkless, since Ojiro couldn’t turn off her invisibility, but she’d wrapped her arms and legs, donned gloves, and wore the visor from her costume so that Kana would have a decent idea of where her limbs and face were.

It had been, in a word, spectacular.  And not in a “two attractive girls fighting” sort of way (Though he’d be lying if he completely denied that part.  His girlfriend was very hot.  And also very scary when she went full out like that.  He was starting to realize the comparisons to Kirishima-Bakugo weren’t entirely inaccurate.), but also in a “two incredibly skilled people giving it their all” sort of way.  Kana’s style was more aggressive than Ojiro’s, focusing on powerful strikes and kicks, while Ojiro focused on speed and repeated strikes to confuse and disorient. Both of them were absolutely on the top of their game and on a completely different level than just about anyone else.  Shiro Monoma had watched the whole thing with rapt attention.

“That,” Shinso said, “was so cool!  She just grabbed my wrist, and the next thing you know, bam!  I’m on the ground!”   He stared at the 1-B girl with wide eyes.  “You’ve got to teach me how to do that!”

That got a groan from Isamu, Midoriya, and Tokoyami.  That would be Shinso all over.  The kid was trying really hard lately, had been ever since the end of their Internships, but at that end of the day, he was still a ray of sunshine fanboy.  Somethings just never changed.  

Kaniyashiki threw back her head and let out a laugh.  “Sure thing, shorty.”

“Hey!” Shinso said, crossing his arms as a grumpy look spread across his face.  “I’m not that short!”  Of course, he was the shortest one in the class, but he was also several months younger than most of them too…

“Anyway,” Boost-Rush went on, “next up, we’ve got… Haimawari against Awase!”

“Oh boy…”

***

Since he was dating their Class Representative, Isamu had gotten to know several of the members of Class 1-B reasonable well, and several more of them in passing.  Bondo, Kaniyashiki, and Fukidashi were some of Kana’s best friends. The first two were a terrible twosome, usually cracking jokes and up to some small measure of no good, and both of them really loved antagonizing Monoma.  And he had yet to determine whether or not Fukidashi was legitimately crazy or just extremely differently wired. He’d been surprised, though, to learn her mother was the support equipment designer, Bibimi Kenranzaki. Though honestly, that may have explained some of her more extreme tendencies.

He’d had several pleasant and lengthy conversations with the bat-like Koumori about music.  Koumori’s musical choices tended themselves more to rock than pop, but they’d found some common ground in that both of them had an appreciate for the horse-headed American rock duo, Wild Stallions.  And the giant Fukui seemed to be able to get along well with anyone.  He’d even managed to make sure there were no hard feelings with the force field generating Kido, even after he’d bested him at the Sports Festival.

Hell, he’d even managed to have a couple civil conversations with Monoma.  Even if the blond also did a lot of “I’m watching you” gestures at him when he thought no one else was looking.

Awase, on the other hand, he didn’t really know.  The Vice Class Representative was studious and not particularly talkative.  He’d probably said hello to him in passing, but beyond that, he didn’t know him.  Awase was dark-haired and athletically built and, if Isamu remembered right, his Quirk had something to do with being able to fuse his molecules with other substances, taking on their properties.  Not that that would matter much in a Quirkless spar.

He stepped into the circle that had been set up for sparring, watching Awase as he did the same.

“You can do it!” he heard Shinso call out, bringing a smile to his face.

“Show them what 1-B’s made of, Awase!” And that would be Monoma, as expected.

“You’ve got this, Isamu!” He heard Kana call out.  Followed by, “What?  He’s my boyfriend.  I’ve got to support him.”  Which was probably her defending herself against Monoma.

Awase dropped into a fighting stance, hands up, bouncing lightly on the balls of his feet.   Isamu on the other hand, dropped lower, legs spread wide, arms flared out to his sides.  Even without his Quirk, his style was never going to be about all out brawling. Keep it fast and loose.  He didn’t have the raw strength to do otherwise.

“Are you both ready?” Boost-Rush asked.

“Yes, Sensei,” Awase said simply.

“I’m ready,” he agreed.

“Then begin!”

Awase didn’t make any sounds as he charged forward, but he was telegraphing his right hook pretty badly. Isamu dropped all the way to the ground, like he would when using his Quirk and pivoted, swinging his leg out. It connected solidly with Awase’s leg, tripping him up and knocking him down.

But Awase was just as quick to spring back up, and Isamu got back to his feet, back-peddling away from a flurry of punches.  “Oooffff!” All the air got knocked out of him as one of Awase’s punches connected with his stomach.  Guy definitely had a lot of power behind him, even without his Quirk.

Isamu wasn’t completely helpless though, and he managed to get his hands up and ward off the next punch, just like Midoriya had taught him before the Sports Festival.  He managed to fire off a few rapid fire punches of his own, putting Awase back on the defensive.  Isamu had a few inches on the other boy and his arms and legs were longer too.  It gave him a reach advantage that he pressed, throwing a couple more strikes to unbalance him.

Unfortunately, Awase was quicker on the recovery than he expected, delivering a punch that set his head spinning back around.  He blinked rapidly, trying to clear his blurring vision as Awase came in for another round of strikes.  

This time, Isamu was able to dodge, bobbing this way and that, leaning and ducking out of reach of Awase’s blows.  When he was fighting with his Quirk, he relied on movement, keeping out of the way, and staying just long enough to get a couple of hits in.  There was no reason not to apply the same principle to Quirkless fighting.

“Stand still, dang it!” Awase shouted, after he’d missed with yet another blow.

“Ah,” Isamu said, “how about no?”  He dodged again, ducking under another blow.  His picked up his speed a little, so that he continued to circle Awase, letting him wear himself out trying to keep up and throwing blows.  The other boy should have been aiming for where he was going to be, but instead kept trying to catch him, which resulted in most of his blows being too slow to hit anything or only scoring a glancing hit.

So he kept it up, dodging several more blows that way.  Awase was definitely slowing down, starting to tire.  So when he launched his next blow, Isamu moved as though to duck and dodge to the left, but instead came up with an uppercut, knocking Awase down once more (And ow, ow, ow, boy did that leave his hand smarting!).

“He did it!  He did it!”  Isamu heard Shinso shout, before hearing Tokoyami try to quiet him.

Awase let out a groan, before slowly getting back up to his feet.  “Dang,” he grunted.  “You’re fast as heck even without your Quirk.”  Isamu could already see a bruise forming where he’d punched him.  For a moment, things seemed like they were going to get tense, but Awase nodded decisively.  “Good job.  Easy to see why you won the Sports Festival.”

He offered a hand, and Isamu took and shook it, trying very hard to take the praise.  He still had a lot of trouble believing his own win, even months out.  But he was getting that self-confidence up.  “Thanks,” he said.

The sound of applause broke the moment.  “Good job, both of you,” Boost-Rush said.  “Go see Bioshock if you feel like you need it.”

The Hero looked down at his clipboard.  “Okay, next… Let’s have Kirishima-Bakugo and Tatsuma.”

***

Katsumi may not have had Papa’s shark-teeth, but she’d been told that her grin was very frightening indeed. Right now, her grin seemed to be so scary that several of her classmates and 1-B students were actively backing away from her.  Sero had, in fact, let out a rather high-pitched shriek and leaped into Tensei Iida’s arms.   At least Izzy had stayed by her side.

“You’re being deliberately frightening again,” Izzy said.  There was a disapproving tone in her voice and Katsumi did feel a little bad about that.  Disappointing Izzy was not something she liked doing.  Maybe she could live with it for this the chance to teach the Shiketsu girl a lesson.

The giant girl was giving her a look that seemed to match her own.  She stepped into the ring and for the smallest of moments, Katsumi wondered if she wasn’t biting off more than she could chew.  Tatsuma’s overall build was comparable to her own.  Both of them were muscular, especially for women, though Katsumi’s build was the result of rigorous training and hard work.  She couldn’t tell it that was the case for Tatsuma or if it was related to her Quirk, not that she knew what that was. But Tatsuma had considerable height, reach, and weight on her.  Katsumi was the second shortest person in the class, only barely taller than the Loud Kid. But it wouldn’t be Womanly to step away from a fight, no matter how big the other person was.

She didn’t know what Tatsuma’s deal was, why she thought she was so much better than U.A. students. Izzy had said something about Tatsuma having a good reason, but she also didn’t especially care.  You disrespect her, you disrespect her friends, her school, she’d kick your ass, plain and simple.

“I look forward to educating you,” Tatsuma said.  She cracked her knuckles.  It was noisy. Definitely a show of intimidation. Katsumi approved of the strategy. If she was anyone else, it might have worked.  But she was too damn tough to be scared by some wannabe from some pretentious school like Shiketsu.  

“You can try,” Katsumi shot back. She rolled her neck casually, tensing the muscles in her arms. No backing down.  Never let them think they can intimidate you.  And give back as good as you got.  She shot back with a glare of her own.  It’d be a lot more satisfying to unleash some explosive hell on her, but punching would do pretty nicely.

“Oh hell no, this isn’t happening.”

Katsumi spun around, realizing it was Vanish Veil who had spoken.  What the hell?  This was like the time Toshi had tried to tell her that picking her battles didn’t mean she could pick all of them.  Why were people so opposed to her using violence on the deserving?

“You two’ll kill each other and nobody’ll learn anything,” Vanish Veil said, crossing her arms.  She sounded more annoyed than anything, but there was a little of what sounded like concern in her voice too.

“Don’t think I can take her, Old Lady?” Katsumi snapped.

“I told your dad I wouldn’t let you cause a scene, Brat,” Vanish Veil snapped back.  Katsumi’s usually ability to wind Mahoro up was failing her here, it seemed.  Damn it.

“You have a problem with my teaching choices?” Boost-Rush asked, approaching Vanish Veil. Katsumi could nearly hear the sneer in his voice. If she didn’t already know he was a Monoma, that would have confirmed it.

“Only when you don’t get the memo,” Vanish Veil told him flatly.  She walked over and poked him hard in the chest with a finger.  Her twintails swayed with the motion.  “Pick somebody else, you sanctimonious ass.”

Boost-Rush just laughed at that.  He was wearing his helmet, but Katsumi could hear the smugness in his voice.  “Oh, if you insist,” he said, sounding as though he was the one doing Vanish Veil a favor.  “Still… how about Park?”

Vanish Veil seemed to be weighing her options there, her mouth set in a frown.  “Yeah, okay… that’ll probably be all right…”

***

Well, at least she’d get to show up one of those Shiketsu kids, Katsumi thought.  Windbag was all right in extremely small doses, but the rest of them could go hang. Definitely time someone knocked one of them down a peg and she was very good at knocking.  Didn’t really matter which.   Could have just as easily been the pretty boy cat guy.  He’d have probably been real satisfying to punch.

Park…  Hmm.   Katsumi considered herself pretty decent at reading people.  Tatsuma was simmering fury, waiting to erupt, buried just barely below the surface.  A lot like herself, really.  Not that she’d admit that to anyone.  She went from zero to one hundred in no time, even when the situation didn’t really call for it.  It was pretty much a family trait.  She had it, Dad had it, the Hag had it.

Park, though, Park was a quieter kind of angry.  A cold one. As Katsumi began sizing her up, she wondered, possibly for the first time in her life, if she hadn’t bitten off more than she could chew.

“And begin!” Boost-Rush called out.

Katsumi got her hands up and she and Park circled each other cautiously, both looking for an opening. She’d taken some different martial arts classes as a kid and she had had plenty of instruction from Dad and Papa, Uncle Deku, and even Ojiro’s dad.  But overall, her style mostly focused on single, powerful moves, putting someone down with just a punch or two.  It was best to take them out before they had a chance to be a threat.  

“DIE!” she bellowed, throwing the first punch, a powerful left handed strike that had a lot of her weight behind it.  

Park sidestepped her blow and came in close.  Her hand snapped out and grabbed into the shirt of Katsumi’s gym uniform.  Before she could even react, Park’s leg shot up, slamming into her side several times in rapid succession.  Katsumi let out a growl and managed to shove her away, buying herself a little space.

“Okay,” she snarled.  Her side was protesting furiously as she kept moving. “You got one in. Congratulations.  But that’s all you’re going to get.”

Park’s expression didn’t change much, but one eyebrow raised slightly, as if to say I disagree.  She calmly took a couple side steps, her eyes maintaining that cold indifference. “Angry already? If being struck upsets you, then you’re aspiring to the wrong profession.”

Katsumi knew the other girl was trying to get in her head.  But knowing that didn’t make her any less angry about it.  “I don’t know about you,” she growled, “but I was born to fight.”  She shouldn’t have been talking either, she knew.  Wasted breath.  Maybe it worked for some people, like Horse Girl.  Katsumi would, under duress, admit that Mineta had made provocation a weapon she could use.  But that wasn’t her.

She charged, throwing a right hook at Park’s head.  Park’s head shot to the left, her hand coming up and grabbing Katsumi’s wrist. In a single fluid motion, she bent and twisted it. Pain shot up her arm light a bolt of lightning, overriding her rage, overriding everything except for the white-hot sensation of pain.  It felt like her wrist was one small increment of pressure away from snapping like a twig.

“I’m aware this would likely not work if you could use your Quirk, but since our esteemed instructors insist on this human cockfighting, I might as well emphasize their point. Though I suppose with your Sports Festival, you’re used to bread and circuses.” She twisted it more. “Perhaps if they bothered with a more extensive self-defense course this wouldn’t be necessary.”

Pain shot up Katsumi’s arm so intensely that she had to grind her teeth hard to keep from crying out. No way she’d give Park the satisfaction of hearing her scream.  What the hell kind of fighting style was this?  Aunt Ochaco had done a lot of the grab and flip stuff, but…

At least she still had her other hand free.  With Park’s attention on her other arm, Katsumi brought her left hand in low for a body blow.

Park saw the blow coming and released the hold, but she wasn’t not fast enough to dodge all of it. She let out a small growl as Katsumi’s strike connected, though it was more of a solid graze than a full hit. She moved with the dodge, twisting and sending a kick up at Katsumi’s head.

Even if she wasn’t using a Quirk, Katsumi had to admit that Park was fast.  Deceptively powerful too.  She might have been impressed, if she wasn’t so damned angry.  She saw the blow coming, fortunately, moving out of the way.  Her right arm still hurt from the wrist grab, meaning her options were limited, but she knew how to play through the pain.  She faked left, throwing a couple blows to try and get Park moving the way she wanted, then followed up with a roundhouse kick from the right.

Park had obviously been expecting punches, and hadn’t expected Katsumi to throw a proper kick. As she made to defend against the punches, the kick sent her down. She gathered herself quickly and rolled so that she came to be resting on the soles of her feet.

“That had to have been learned outside class.”  Her look was harsh, judgmental somehow. “Makes sense with the amount of enemies the child of a pro hero has.”

Park got up, her eyes narrowing. “But how will that do against someone who’s had enemies the moment they were born?” She darted toward Katsumi, looking to launch a kick, but instead threw a straight-forward punch like something out of a street fight.

Okay, what the hell was that supposed to mean?!  And sure, they’d all had some basic self-defense lessons, some of them more than others.  You heard horror stories about the kids of Pro-Heroes being threatened or kidnapped. A few of them had even come damn close to it.

The punch hurt, leaving Katsumi seeing stars, her vision swimming.  “You haven’t rung my bell yet,” she growled in the direction of what she hoped was the actual Park.  The world was spinning and it felt like a struggle to stay upright, but she forced herself to keep fighting.

She moved quickly this time, throwing one punch after another.  Not too much style, but plenty of power.  Park was good and, as much as it pained her to admit it, more technically proficient than she was.  But she had more raw power than the other girl.  She just needed one really good punch to make an end of it.

Park dodged the punches, attempting to once more grab and twist Katsumi’s arms. This time, she was ready for that crap and kept herself moving too quickly to be caught. Katsumi’s style may have been straightforward, but the speed was forcing Park to stay on the defensive.

***

‘This is stupid. Beating each other for the sake of some trite lesson that could easily be fixed with a proper martial training program. Look at them: So self-important while others are thrown aside.’ Park’s thoughts raged through her mind. She cast a glimpse once more at Boost-Rush. ‘Alright you son of a bitch. You put a child in this situation.  Don’t whine at me when the expected happens.’

***

Park darted as if dodging again, but grabbed the waistband of Katsumi’s pants, using the leverage to throw her down. It was a hard, bone rattling impact that knocked her senseless for a moment.  Katsumi’s first instinct, drilled into her, is to protect her head, but Park snarled and instead threw a kick at her back.

The kick hurts, Katsumi’s damn sure that was one of her kidneys.  The pain kept her down even as she tried to get herself back up.  There wasno way she’s going to let herself be beaten like this.  She’s one of the toughest damn U.A. students there is.  Daughter of two Top Ten Heroes.  Practitioner of the Art of Womanly Living.  And when it comes to a fight, she doesn’t quit.  Ever.

“You’re going down!” she screams, forcing herself back to her feet, swinging wildly.

“That’s my line.” Park dodged to the side again.  Her arm shot out like a stone from a sling and grabbed Katsumi’s arm, wrapping her fingers around it in an iron grip.  She twisted it, and used the momentum to drive Katsumi into the ground. Park hung onto her arm this time, pulling it back and locking in her grip behind Katsumi’s back.

***

A little more torque and she could easily break it. For a moment she felt herself wanting to. To share even a small ounce of the suffering. She looked into the crowd, and saw the kind rock girl who shared her faith. Akaya. She looked concerned and scared for her classmate.

“I’m not as good a Christian as I’d like to be.” She had told Akaya that. She turned away from her, looked at Katsumi’s struggling face, then looked back at the U.A. students and Rookies. She let go of Katsumi.

***

“This is stupid. Find another pawn.” Park then got up and walked toward her classmates, then past them entirely.   Tatsuma tried to stop her, but she brushed her off.

Katsumi forced herself to her feet, her limbs absolutely aching.  “Get… get back here,” she started to growl, eyes locked on Park’s retreating form.  “I… I can do this… all day…”

She couldn’t lose to some pretentious Shiketsu brat.  And she definitely wasn’t losing to someone who wouldn’t even stick around to assure their victory.  Who just gave up in the middle of a fight like that?  Especially one they were winning?  None of it added up.

Wasn’t she worthy of fighting?  Or finishing off?  

What the hell was wrong with Park?!

Someone helped her to her feet.  It was the Old Lady.  Of course. “I’m fine,” she grunted.  A lie.  She was not fine.  She didn’t think anything was broken, but she could practically feel the bruises growing in all kinds of uncomfortable places.  There was still pain radiating from where she’d been kicked and she was still seeing double.  

“You’re not fine,” Vanish-Veil said, sounding guilty.  “C’mon. We’ll get you to my brother. Hopefully before your dad finds out about this…”

***

“She… she lost,” Toshi said, the words tumbling out of his mouth before he could stop them.  The fight had been incredibly short, but incredibly brutal. It’d been deeply uncomfortable, even unsettling to watch. He’d wanted to intervene, no matter how much Katsumi would have yelled at him for it, but the sheer brutality had left him paralyzed where he stood.  He was sure if it hadn’t been so quick, the Rookies surely would have intervened…/

It was only then that he realized that his arm was hurting and had been for some time. “Izumi…?”

“What?  Oh!  Oh my…!” Izumi quickly released her death grip on his arm and he could feel the circulation returning to it. Izumi was willowy and often looked like she’d blow over in a strong breeze, but she apparently had ferocious grip strength.  “I’m so sorry, Toshi…”

He shook his head. “It’s okay.  I think we were all a little shellshocked.”

“I don’t believe it,” Haimawari said.  He was shivering, Toshi realized, and then realized he was too.  Izumi must have been drawing in heat as she’d grown more and more frightened for Katsumi.  “I saw it, but I still don’t believe it.”

Toshi never would have thought it possible either.  He’d seen Katsumi lose, of course.  The two of them were about evenly matched when they’d sparred in the past and he’d won about as many as he lost.  And, of course, Katsumi had lost against Izumi during the Sports Festival.  But those had been friendly competitions, between people who had known each other for years.  This had been different.  This had been a beating.

Both Katsumi and Park had been looking to prove something, even if he wasn’t entirely sure what it was for Park.  He knew already, that Tatsuma didn’t think especially high of them.  But it didn’t look like Park did either.  He’d spent of a lot of time thinking over Tatsuma’s reasons for disliking the Hero System and what this class represented, and was still grappling with those.  But he didn’t know what drove Park, not yet.  

Katsumi, he knew, just wanted to prove she was better than the Shiketsu students. They’d gone after her pride and she really wasn’t the best decision maker where that was concerned.

He was also fairly certain this wasn’t something he could fix, wasn’t something he could make right. That was a hard admission for him to make.  Dad had always said you couldn’t save everyone but that you still had to try. He’d thought maybe he could still try here, but after this…

Katsumi was his friend. And she was confident and powerful. She was one of the best fighters in the class, with a strong Quirk and an iron will.  Even in friendly sparring with him, she just took every loss as a way to get stronger still.  To see her humbled like that…

“Is it over?”  Shota asked.  Toshi looked over and jerked with surprise as he saw that Shota had his eyes scrunched up tight, with his hands over his ears.

Asuka put a reassuring arm around his shoulders.  “It’s all right,” she told Shota, gently removing his hand from over his right ear with her other hand.  “You can look now.”

“She didn’t win, did she?”

“I am afraid not,” Asuka replied.  

“This will not be good,” Izumi said, worry filling her soft voice.  “Even though her injuries can be treated, Katsumi will treat this as a grievous wound to her pride and a personal insult besides.  She won’t let that go any time soon.  And I fear what she may try in retaliation.”

“She’s right,” Asuka said. She chirped softly and worriedly. “Izumi, Toshi, you know her the best. What do we do?”

Toshi frowned. Tatsuma and Katsumi had been ready to tear each other apart, before Aunt Mahoro had intervened.  She hadn’t objected to Park, but…

If they didn’t do something to try and buy a little peace with the Shiketsu students, then someone was just going to get hurt worse.  

Looking around, he could see, not just the concern, but the anger, on so many of his classmates’ faces. Even many of the 1-B students looked disturbed by it, especially Monoma and Kana.  

Of the Shiketsu students, only Tatsuma and Yoarashi were there.  Park had walked off somewhere, and Tsuchikawa and the spider-girl were with one of the other training groups.  Tatsuma was looking vaguely smug and satisfied, though Toshi couldn’t help but notice that she was also looking off in the direction Park had left. Yoarashi had gone pale and oddly quiet. Toshi didn’t know him as well as some of his friends, but he’d still known him for years.  Yoarashi didn’t do quiet.

If they didn’t do something to try and make peace with the Shiketsu students, someone was going to get hurt.

Get hurt worse, he realized, as Aunt Mahoro led Katsumi away.

“Oookay,” Boost-Rush said, much of his earliest bravado gone.  “That’s… that’s enough direct sparring for today.  Why don’t we break into small groups to work on what’ve learned so far.”

A stupid, desperate plan dropped into his mind.  He couldn’t exactly slip away, but… “I hate to ask you to lie,” Toshi whispered to Izumi, “but…”

Izumi nodded.  She grasped his plan without him having to even say it.  They’d been friends a long time.  He wasn’t as close to her as Katsumi was, he wasn’t sure anyone could be as close as the two of them were, but Izumi was still one of his best friends.  Hell, after a hopeless childhood crush on Nejire Togata, he’d had a crush on Izumi for a little while too, though he’d never worked up the courage to ask her out or anything.  If nothing else, Katsumi’s looming presence in both their lives had made it clear if anyone really loved Izumi, it was her.

“I do believe I’m feeling a bit of a flare up,” she said, stretching exaggeratedly.  I should probably go get checked out.”

***

Izumi arrived at the first aid station that Bioshock had set up.  The Metabolic Hero was laying hands on Katsumi as she approached and she could see her friend’s bruises start to fade already and a bit of her color return. Bioshock’s Quirk was not quite the cure-all that Doctor Izumi’s was, but it was still very effective.  She knew now, from what she had read, that he had run himself ragged during Plague’s assault on Japan, pushing himself nearly to death’s door until Uncle Izuku and his sister had literally had to drag him away from the hospital wards.  

“Okay,” Bioshock told Katsumi, “I think that should be good.  Nothing broken, thank goodness.”  His features darkened.  “What the hell was Boost-Rush thinking?  Dammit…”

He shook his head, his eyes going wide as he realized he’d spoken out loud.  “My apologies.  That was unprofessional.”

Katsumi waved him off. “Eh, you said what you said, Doc. Own it.”  Her red eyes had locked with Izumi’s.  For all the fierceness and bravado Katsumi put on for the rest of the world, Izumi could easily tell when she was faking it.  Such as now.

“Oh, hey, Todoroki,” Bioshock said when he noticed her.  “Everything all right?”

“I’m feeling a bit fatigued,” Izumi told him.  She spoke each word carefully, trying to project some measure of exhaustion into her voice.  She was tired, but not that tired.  “I fear this new schedule is playing havoc with my body.”

Bioshock looked between her and Katsumi for a moment, then his expression changed ever so slightly. “Oh, sure,” he said.  “Let me go check the coolers, see if we’ve got anything with some electrolytes for you.  Why don’t you keep Kirishima-Bakugo company while I’m gone?”  He gave them a little wave as he walked off.

Katsumi just gave her a look as she took a seat next to her, in one of the small folding chairs.  It wasn’t especially comfortable, but that was of little importance.  “You are the worst liar I have ever met, Iz.”

“What?” Izumi asked. “But Bioshock…”

“He was humoring you, Iz.”

Oh.  Well.  She supposed that was all right.  She was still able to achieve her goal of getting to talk to Katsumi.  Though perhaps she could work on the lying? Heroes did need to sometimes, well, not exactly lie, but certainly project more hope and certainty than they might have been otherwise feeling.

“Are you all right?” she asked instead.  “Not physically,” she added quickly.  “That much I could see.”

Katsumi looked down at the dirt.  “That wasn’t a fight, Iz.”  The words were said so quietly that Izumi could barely hear her.  

“That level of brutality was well outside the bounds of a friendly spar,” she agreed.  “Though you too were quite ready to rise to violence.”

Katsumi’s head snapped up, a snarl starting to pull at her lips.  “Damn right I was.  Did you see the way that giant was looking down her nose at us?  She disrespected me and she disrespected the school.  I had to teach one of them a lesson.”

“Did you?” Izumi asked, when she was certain Katsumi’s rant had finished.  “Or were you just seeking conflict?”

“So I like a good fight,” Katsumi replied, looking rather annoyed still.  “Is that a crime?”

“How badly would you have hurt one of them?” Izumi asked instead.  Answering Katsumi’s question would do no good to anyone, and likely lead to a very circular conversation.  Sometimes you had to point Katsumi in the direction you wanted her to go. Even if you usually had to make her think it was her idea.

“Broken nose, maybe,” Katsumi said, shrugging.  “I just really wanted to punch one of them.”

She sighed.  “But that wasn’t a fight, Iz.  That was a damned beatdown.  She was toying with me.  Whatever damn style she was practicing, it’s damn good at causing a lot of pain.  And… she’s better than me.”

Katsumi trailed off. She’d said something, but so softly that Izumi couldn’t hear it.  “I’m sorry,” she said, “what?”

“I said she’s better than me!” Katsumi snapped.  “She could have kicked my ass from here back to U.A., up and down both sides of the street, easy.  But she wanted to make it hurt and she wanted to make sure everybody saw it.”  Her fists were clenched hard, her knuckles going white.  “This wasn’t even about putting me in my place.  She was making a damned statement.  Hell if I know what it was though…”

Katsumi bolted up out of her chair suddenly, grabbing it and spinning around sharply, letting it go flying through the air.  It landed several feet away, bouncing a few times before it finally stopped.   Izumi would give her friend credit: she’d expected it to explode.

Katsumi was visibly shaking and Izumi rose to embrace her.  Katsumi’s strong arms soon found their way around her and Katsumi’s head came to rest against her.  As Izumi held her, Katsumi’s shaking began to subside.  

“I’m supposed to be the toughest woman around here, Iz,” Katsumi said quietly, but there was a growing fire to her words.  “This isn’t over.”

Katsumi was right. For more reasons than she thought. If they didn’t do something soon, to try and bridge the gap between the two schools, things could very likely explode, in more ways than one.

[dragon-moms]

Entry 200 - Gloria

Today my son came back.

I’m sure I’ll probably write how ridiculous it is to wake up next to the Queen every day for a few more weeks still, because I still can’t believe it. I’m also just not used to being held. I do the holding, usually. But with our sizes, it just makes more sense like this.

She’s also way more in control now, than before. I suppose I shouldn’t find that a surprise. With anyone else, it would probably annoy me. But honestly, it’s kind of relaxing, after everything that’s happened, to know she wants me. Besides, I have confidence I’ll figure out how to turn the tables back at some point.

“You do not have to get up with me,” the Queen said, stirring. “We had thought that obvious by now.”

“Too much to do,” I said.

“The lich is gone, and you have no major projects at this time,” the Queen said.

“Sure, you may think that, but you told me to take this stuff off of you, so I am. I still have a bunch of groups of your aides to get on board,” I said, yawning. “Fitz, over in your commerce bureau, he looks like he wants to claw me to death every time we talk.”

“Yes, we suppose he would be like that,” the Queen said. “But he knows what he is doing.”

“Yeah, you have good people picked. Anyone would be frustrated about me being just pushed into the system like that.”

“They will see reason,” the Queen said. “You will show them.”

“I still think it would be easier if we got everyone together at once and had you explain I have your trust,” I said. “It’s easy for them to dispute it when it’s just me talking to them.”

“We have said as such to everyone who asked,” the Queen said.

“Still,” I said.

The Queen got out of the bedding, much to my sadness. “It’s not a bad idea. Perhaps a dinner. It will help everyone to adjust,” the Queen said. “We have been busy adapting to this new form of existence as well.” She turned back to me and smiled. “Of course, organizing it should likely fall to you, Gloria.”

“I’m starting to think you like giving me work,” I said.

“It is still liberating for us, giving tasks away and knowing we need not check in and intervene,” the Queen said. “That said, you may always refer to us if you need assistance.”

“Yeah, I will,” I said.

We both got cleaned up and ready for the day, and soon I was tending to the Egg while the Queen went over her morning correspondence. The Egg was glowing happily as I rocked it. It had seem happier since we moved in here. Or maybe it was just responding to me. Maybe I was the happy one.

Eventually I realized the Queen was just watching me.

“What?” I asked.

“You are good at that,” she said.

“You doubted me?”

“You… never struck us as a mothering type. Your first son was somewhat of a surprise to us.”

“Well, I wouldn’t really think of me that way either, but I guess I grew into it,” I said. “Do you want to hold it?”

A bit of fear flashed across the Queen’s face. “Perhaps not.”

“Come on, it’s your Egg too,” I said.

“We are too big, and it is very small,” she said.

I frowned. “Your highness. Come on.”

The Queen reached down gently and took the Egg from me. She could hold it easily in a claw, and did so, cradling it gently.

“It does not like us,” the Queen said, looking at the Egg, whose glow had dimmed.

“It doesn’t know you yet,” I said. “But it will.”

“Hello,” the Queen said to the Egg. “We… are going to be your other mother. If that’s alright.”

The Egg glowed a little, cautiously.

“See? There you go,” I said, grinning.

She’d just started to calm down while holding it when there was a knock at the chamber door.

“Yes?” the Queen said, handing the Egg back to me.

“Your highness, I have some news you will want to hear!” said the adjudicator at the door.

“Come in,” the Queen said.

The adjudicator opened the door, and seemed shocked to see me there.

“Something wrong?” I asked.

“S-sorry, ma’am, still not used to… anyway, your highness,” they said with a bow. “The diplomats you sent to human lands have returned.”

“Thank you. We shall make arrangements to meet. Ensure they are given quarters and whatever they need, and inform them we will send an aide with information on when we have time to meet,” the Queen said.

“Yes, your highness. And, uh, sorry again, ma’am,” they said, bowing to me too.

I would really prefer they didn’t do that, but there I was. “It’s fine, as long as you don’t have a problem with the Queen being my wife. I know it’s a big change.”

I could tell on their face they were somewhat shocked by my word choice, claiming the Queen instead of her claiming me. But that’s a good shock, likely. “Of course not, ma’am,” they said, and then bowed again before heading out.

“We are your wife, hm?” the Queen said.

“Something inaccurate about that?” I asked.

She leaned down and licked me. “Not at all. But we must go. Look at our schedule and make a time to meet with your son and Nobody. During a meal if you have to. It is a matter of urgency.”

“I’ll get on it just as soon as I get the Egg to the nursery,” I said.

The Queen nodded. “We shall see you later.”

After most of a morning running around and attempting to push things on the Queen’s schedule here and there, an exhausting time, I had managed to free up a decent chunk of time before dinner, that could bleed into dinner if needed. I didn’t know how much there would be to say. I couldn’t imagine Flare would be involved in any sort of deal or negotiation that was complicated.

I got to the Council chamber, where we were meeting to talk, early. Turned out to be a bad decision, because then I had some time to worry. Whatever they said would affect Merry and her family. But I had to trust them.

“Mommy!” Flare said as he entered the room, and then stopped, seeing my wing. “Oh no, Mommy, are you okay?”

“You knew I was hurt, terror,” I said.

“Well, yeah, but you weren’t supposed to be that hurt…” he said.

“That’s what fighting is,” Ivana said. “Not all games like you seem to fucking think.” Then she saw me. “Fuck, though, a whole wing, huh?”

“Yeah,” I said.

“...sorry,” she said.

“Not your fault,” I said. “Terror, come here and hug me already.”

Flare came over and gave me a big hug. And with that, I relaxed a bit.

“So?” Ivana said.

“What, you want a hug too?” I said.

“Fuck! No!” Ivana said. “I mean, where’s the Queen?”

“She’s coming. I had to reschedule a lot of things on the fly. I’m sure she’s running a bit behind,” I said.

“YOU had to reschedule?” Ivana asked.

“Yeah,” I said.

“Oh, Mommy, did you hear? One of the adjudicators told me the Queen got married!” Flare asked.

“She might have,” I said, chuckling.

“Fuck, seriously?” Ivana said.

“Yeah,” I said.

“What?” Flare asked.

“The Queen and I got married while you were gone,” I said.

“What!” Flare yelled. “I missed the wedding!”

I chuckled. “Oh, now you want to be around for things.”

“Yeah, I want to be there for you and stuff!” Flare said.

“Well, we haven’t really done any official celebrating yet. When we do I’ll let you know,” I said.

“Oh dang, that makes the Queen my Mommy too!” Flare said.

“No,” Ivana said. “I will not allow that.”

“But she’s married to my Mommy!” Flare said. “That’s just facts and stuff!”

“No, that is too creepy no!” Ivana said.

And then the Queen walked in.

“What is too creepy?” she asked.

“You being my new Mommy,” Flare said.

The Queen looked taken aback by this. “We had… assumed you and your brother had no interest in us actively being a stepmother… but if that is what everyone desires…”

“Just ignore that for now, your highness,” I said to her. “We can discuss it later.”

The Queen nodded. “Yes, perhaps it’s best to handle the matter at claw first. Please, tell us about your mission.”

Flare started to speak, but Ivana put out a claw. “Please let me handle this?” she said.

“Fine,” Flare said, pouting a little.

Ivana took a breath. “So I think we’re okay, but for odd reasons,” she said.

“Such as?” the Queen said.

“Well, the human Queen is apparently a little kid,” Ivana said. “Like, not even a year old, from what they told us.”

“What?” I said. “Terror, what’s going on?”

“She was an older lady when I left!” Flare said. “I don’t know!”

“Why would the humans pick a child that young to rule?” the Queen asked.

“According to what I gleaned from our conversations and from what Flare told me, they rule via family bloodlines, like we did back before the Unification,” Ivana said. “This Bulle was essentially serving as Queen until the actual Queen could come of age.”

“That all makes some sort of sense and stuff. Bulle said that the little Queen’s mom died in childbirth?” Flare said. “But they kept introducing the baby as Philomena Ivalice the Second, and that was the last Queen!”

“Didn’t Philly say she was the Fifth?” I said, thinking.

“Yeah! That’s why she fit the prophecy and stuff about the Fifth running underground!” Flare said.

“It seemed a silly lie to call them on for no gain, so I made Flare keep his mouth shut, but it does seem odd,” Ivana said.

“Yes…” the Queen said, thinking. “We are unsure what could be gained by this.”

“Maybe it’s something we should ask Philly about,” I suggested. “I hate to bring that stuff up, because I know it was a really bad situation, but maybe she’d be more comfortable talking about it now that she’s a dragon and not in any danger of having to go back to it.”

The Queen nodded. “We shall leave you to that in the coming weeks. Please, Nobody, continue with your explanation.”

“After getting past all that, we sat down to talk about Philly,” Ivana said. “When we said we could not return Philly, we were told it was too late, and not a problem as long as she was dead, and would not be returning to claim the title of Queen.”

“I tried to explain she wasn’t dead but Nobody stopped me,” Flare said.

“If they want her dead it’s easier just to say that than to explain all the shit that happened,” Ivana said. “Safer for Philly too. She doesn’t want to be human Queen, from what I’ve gathered, but someone might assume she does, if they know she’s alive.”

I nodded. “Don’t want them coming for her. That’s the whole point.”

“Right,” Ivana said. “Anyway, after that, I figured I should try to actually get something done instead of just this vague ��I’m not interested in war’ I got, so we worked to draw up a peace treaty like we should have after the war. It was a huge fucking pain. I started with the most bare-bones thing and he kept saying no and by the end of it we got back to my original fucking offer!”

“It was a lot of building up support,” Flare said. “I ran a lot of ceremonies and did things in Forward at the temple while I was down there! I missed it. And I got a lot of people on board with wanting a secure peace, as I talked to followers of Progress and told them what was up with the dragons and stuff, and I think they talked to this Bulle guy!”

“Yeah,” Ivana said. “It was Flare that did it, really. I kept getting angry and having to step out. He eventually got the agreement together.”

“I had help!” Flare said, smiling. “Clearly, this is what Progress wanted, and guided me in the deal-making!”

“Sure, terror,” I said. “But good job. I knew you could do it.”

Flare grinned.

“Anyway, here,” Ivana said, pulling a piece of parchment out of one of her pouches and unfolding it. “In theory they signed this. It’s so fucking small I can’t really tell. But here is a peace treaty, your highness.”

The Queen took it, and put on her lenses to read it. “This is very simple.”

“I’m not a diplomat, really,” Ivana said. “I just tried to get something in writing.”

“No, we can work with this,” the Queen said. “Though we will have to get a lens powerful enough to confirm the humans have signed off on it.”

“I’ll get someone on that,” I said.

“Thank you, Gloria,” the Queen said.

“They have a copy too,” Ivana said. “Fuck if I know what they’re going to do with parchment so much bigger than them, but I wasn’t going to sign something I couldn’t read.”

“We shall have to remember to send appropriate lenses if future negotiations are required,” the Queen said.

“Yeah. Anyway…” Ivana said. “I hope we helped or whatever.”

The Queen nodded. “Yes, we believe you did. Thank you.”

“It’s about dinner time. Would you like to join us?” I asked.

“Yeah!” Flare said.

“I should go see the kid. Haven’t had time yet,” Ivana said.

“Go get Plato and bring him, then,” I said.

Ivana hesitated. “Okay, sure, fuck, why not, I guess…” she said. “I’ll be back.”

Ivana left, and I made sure enough food was going to be brought. And then it was just me, the Queen, and Flare.

“Do you truly desire us to act as stepmother?” the Queen asked as I came back into the room.

“Yeah!” Flare said. “Though I guess I don’t know what that involves and stuff, but if you’re with Mommy, you’re important, right? Just like Maumau!”

“Maumau?” The Queen asked.

“You know, Mommy’s friend, Maude?”

“I see,” the Queen said.

“Don’t pester the Queen, terror,” I said, sitting back down.

“I’m not pestering… she’s just family now, right?” he asked.

I wanted to say yes, but I knew what kind of pressure the Queen had on her. I’d seen how hard she was trying to make time for me, now that I was around her so often. I hadn’t put much actual thought into what relationship I wanted her to have with my sons, honestly. Too much had been going on.

But the Queen spoke before me. “Yes, we are.”

“I’ve made a lot of mistakes with family and stuff,” Flare said. “Going back to Ivalice, and Forward, just kind of reminded me of that more. Like, I have good memories there, with the humans and stuff, learning about Progress. It’s all important to me. But I know I lost sight of those who care about me. I’m not going to do that again. So if you’re part of the family, then I want to welcome you! Even if you are the Queen and stuff.”

The Queen smiled. “Thank you, Flare. We appreciate that.”

Soon, food was brought in. Ivana returned with Plato.

“Oh, your highness! Miss Gloria! Congratulations on your marriage!” he said, giving a little bow.

“Thanks, Plato,” I said.

“When you left the hospital, I was a bit confused as to what was happening, but I was pleased when I learned the answer from Miss Maude,” Plato said, smiling.

“Hi again, Plato!” Flare said.

“H-hello, Mister Flare,” Plato said, expression turning a bit nervous.

“It’s good to see you again,” Flare said, smiling.

“Are you going to hug me again, sir…?” Plato asked.

“No… you didn’t want me to, right?” Flare said. “I’m sorry, I got excited last time… Nobody had told me so much about you! And there’s something about you that I can’t quite...”

Ivana made a loud cough to cut Flare off. “Look, the food is getting cold, let’s eat.”

“Oh, right, good idea!” Flare said, nodding.

We chatted and had a wonderful meal. Then the Queen needed to attend to other things, and we all went our separate ways. It wasn’t until late that evening, when I saw the Queen again, that we could talk about the repercussions.

“We believe it would be safe for your friends to return home to Orin,” the Queen said. “We shall ensure the treaty is processed and approved by the Council soon, and then they can leave.”

“They’ll be happy to hear that,” I said. “I’ll let them know to get ready.”

“...we hope to continue to do right by your family, Gloria,” the Queen said. “In this current incarnation, we were a bit of a hermit, as you are aware… we are not sure how much is necessary.”

“You’re doing more than I could ask for, honestly,” I told her, and stretched my neck to the limit to lick her cheek. “Thank you.”

“Mm…” the Queen said. “Let us finish up our evening business and get to our bedding.”

And now I’ve written this, and I think I’ll do just that.

[aarlone]

I wrote some fanfic

I haven’t done this since before 2005, so I’m pretty clueless about what to do with it, so I’m going to post it here. 

Magnus and the Three Bears (a working title)

I’m one of those idiots that, upon hearing a bear roar, I run towards the bear.

She crashed through the forest past me, obviously intent on something else and so, more fool I, I raced after her. It wasn’t long before I understood the reason for her agitation, however: the anxious bleat of a bear cub who had lost its mother and was face to face with something much larger.

A pattern arises…

I sped up, tapping into skills taught to me as a child - I scarcely even noticed anymore as my shape flowed into that of one faster, sleeker, and much more suited to the terrain. I overtook the mother bear, and now that I had access to better senses than in my normal form, I almost immediately knew where the baby bear was. There was a human with him and, yes, a lot of metal.

Shit.

He whipped around as I ran up, almost instinctively reaching for the massive battle axe strapped to his back, but before he could draw it, I had shifted back into my normal form. “Don’t touch him!” I gasped. “His mother is coming, and she is pissed!”

She wasn’t that far behind me - I saw him focus on her, running through the trees, and an expression I couldn’t quite read flashed across his scarred face: anger? frustration? blood lust? I couldn’t be sure, but I didn’t want anybody to die today, if I could help it. First things first.

My hands whipped out and I concentrated on the earth the bear would soon run over; thick vines whipped out of the soil and wrapped around her limbs and body. As quickly as the vines sprouted, her sheer speed and fury brought her fifteen feet closer to us before the terrain became too troublesome to navigate, and she slowed to a halt.

She was furious with me, now, too.

“I’m so sorry!” the man shouted. “I didn’t mean to scare him! He looked lost!”

I sighed and focused on keeping the vines thick and strong. “Move away from him, please, and get behind me.”

“You’re gonna protect me from her?” He sounded amused. I shot him an irritated glare, and recognized him in that instant. The scar down one eye. The battle axe. The sideburns.

It was hard to tell exactly what happened next. My concentration broke. Mama Bear tore her way out of the vines. Baby Bear started running in a circle around the clearing. Magnus Burnsides, one of the Planar Heroes, went into a defensive crouch, spreading his arms wide and waving his hands frantically to draw Mama Bear’s attention away from me.

I mean, he probably didn’t need me to protect him from her, after all. All things considered.

Mama Bear charged at him, but he was ready for her and caught her up in, well… I can only call it a bear hug, and they tumbled to the ground together. Unfortunately, as they fell, a patch of earth gave way, and they also tumbled down a steep hill within the forest. “Shiiiiiiiiiiiiiii--” Magnus’s oath was cut off, punctuated by a series of grunts and what sounded like more pained curses.

I allowed myself a few gasps to catch my breath, then called out a prayer to Silvanus before I dashed forward, scooped up the bear cub in my arms, and raced down the hill after the grappling pair. Was it my imagination, or did the oak leaf tattoo over my heart grow warm? It could have been a sign that my god had heard me! That had never happened before - not in any way that I’d been able to recognize. I slipped and skidded my way down the steep hill, with a squirming, bleating cub in my arms, but whether it was my own luck, or the blessing of Silvanus, we both made it to the bottom of the hill in one piece.

Magnus and the bear were both picking themselves off the ground, both a little dazed. I let the cub spill out of my hands and run to his mother and dropped to my knees in front of her. As clearly as I could manage, I rattled out the words my grandmother had taught me years ago. I made the proper signs with one hand and dragged out something - anything edible - from the pouch at my side. The spell took hold after a few seconds, but I wasn’t sure of it until she eyed me doubtfully, nuzzled her cub, and lumbered off down towards the distant river.

I heard Magnus groan off to one side. “That… could have gone better,” he muttered.

“Could have gone much, much worse.”

“Yes.” He looked at me then. “Thank you. That was some quick thinking.”

I sagged as the adrenaline drained out of me, then realized I’d just been thanked and complemented by Magnus “The Hammer” Burnsides, and couldn’t help but grin. “Sir? It was my genuine pleasure.”

He blushed visibly. “What kind of magic was that?” he asked, obviously keen to change the subject. I felt myself blush, as well. It was probably rude of me to refer to his fame.

“A little conjuration, a little enchantment.”

“And the changing into a wolf? That’s a druid thing, isn’t it?”

“Yes.” He hauled himself to his feet, and I saw that the bear had gotten in at least one swipe of the claw, for there was a group of long scores down his left side. They weren’t deep, but he was still bleeding. “I can heal that for you, as a matter of fact.”

He gave me a look, as though the thought had never occurred to him. “Oh. Uh, sure. If it’s no trouble.”

“It’s the least I can do for you.” Damn. I brought it up again. I almost stammered out an apology, but he gave me a warm grin.

“Well, thanks for this, too.” I stood and approached him, and he twisted to one side so I could reach the wounds more easily. “What’s your name?”

“Saro.” It didn’t look like he was severely hurt (from the stories they told, he could take quite a beating anyway), but I spoke the words for one of my stronger healing spells, just in case there was damage I couldn’t see. He took a deep breath as the spell began, sighed as the shallow gashes closed with no hint of what had been there before.

“Nice to meet you. What brings you out here?”

“I’m a druid?” I stepped back as he chuckled. “I could ask you the same thing. You’re out here all on your own?”

“Oh, I can take care of myself.” Absently, he patted various implements around his body, as though to ensure that everything was intact. Happily, nothing else appeared to have taken too much damage, but he did suddenly cast about, looking for something that had clearly gone missing. “Do you see a kind of globe? Full of water? Small enough to hold in your hand?”

I looked, too, and spotted the item, nestled in a bed of moss at the base of a tree a few feet away. “Here!” I plucked it from the earth; inside, a goldfish darted about. Magnus took it gently from my hands and peered inside.

“Sorry about that, Steven,” he murmured, then flashed me a grin as he fixed the globe back to his belt. “Thanks, again. Again. I came out here because I heard there was a grove of Heartswood trees in this forest, and I wanted to get some wood for a gift. I want it to be a surprise.”

I stepped back in alarm. “You’re going to chop down a Heartswood tree? For a gift?”

“No, no, no. Just… see if there were any fallen trees or branches. Or at most, cut off a good sized branch. I’m hoping I can get enough for a nice set of serving bowls, or something.”

I breathed a sigh of relief. “Okay. Thank you. Um… you know how to remove a branch without harming the tree, right?”

His expression was blank. “You can’t just chop it off?”

I sighed again. “I know where the grove is. I’d better come with you.”

There was a moment’s hesitation, but he brightened up quickly. “Okay! I haven’t met a lot of druids! Can you tell me what it’s like?” He dropped his voice, suddenly very serious. “Can you talk to dogs?”

“Y-yes... “

Magnus’s eyes gleamed. “Can you teach me?”

“Do you know any other magic?”

“No. Is that a problem?”

“It might be.”

“Damn.” He scowled, then asked me, quite seriously, “Can you do me a favor? Can you please tell the next dog you meet that he or she is very good?”

I laughed. “As if I don’t already do that to every dog I meet!”

#

That was all it took, it seemed, for us to become fast friends. We tromped through the forest together. Magnus told stories of both valor and practical jokes. I told him of my grandmother, and how for most of my childhood I remembered her as a mountain lion who could hold me to the ground with one paw.

Magnus’s information about the location of the grove was a little inaccurate - something had been lost in translation, perhaps - and he’d been dropped about twenty miles south of a river that should have been a small forest village that marked the southern-eastern edge of the valley. All told, he was about thirty miles off course, although part of it was through some rough, uneven terrain, which would complicate the journey. Magnus harrumphed a little at this, but made the decision to not turn back. “It’s such a nice day, and I’ve already made it this far. Plus, I’ve already gotten to tussle with a mother bear, and I met my first druid. Who knows what else could happen?” He cheerfully turned his face toward the sun. “This is what it’s all about.”

It was already late in the afternoon, and so after walking for a few hours and covering a good amount of ground, I raised the subject of finding a place to make camp for the night. “We could walk through the night and still get there, I’m sure,” I explained, “but we’d be going much more slowly.”

“You’d be okay with walking all night?”

I hitched a shoulder. “I’m partly elven - I don’t need to sleep all that much.”

“It would still be better to camp for the night, I think. We can start early in the morning, and probably get there with plenty of time left in the day.”

“In that case, I believe there are some caves to the east a bit that will make for some

good shelter for the night. Smells like it’s going to rain.”

Magnus raised his gaze to the sky once again, peering through the treetops. The light had changed, not as it usually erupts in vibrant shades of red-orange as the sun set, but with a sickly yellow-grey. “You’re probably right. Let’s get moving.”

We heard the first rumble of thunder not long after Magnus spotted the caves ahead of us. We picked our way up the side of the bluff to where a sizeable cave could be easily reached, and even had enough time to gather some firewood before rain began to fall. Magnus built the fire while I used my own skills to clean the fox spoor out of our camping area. As we worked, I learned that not only had he been misinformed regarding the location of the grove, but the legend about it had also warped a little over the years.

“The full story,” I told him as we watched the rain fall through the trees from the safety and warmth of our little cave mouth, “is much better. A young woman who grew up in the village found herself called to worship Nusemnee; she had been quite cruel to certain others, but when her acts lead to a pair of deaths, her eyes were opened, and she realized she needed to atone for the evil she had put into the world.”

“Who is Nusemnee?” he asked. “I haven’t heard of her.”

“She is a long-dead god, sadly, but in her godhood sought to elevate those who lived within evil but chose to reject it in favor of good and redemption.”

“Wow…”

I smiled and rested my head against the cave wall. “My mother had learned of her, at some point in her life, and became fascinated with the story. Likely the reason I’m here today is because she learned that my father’s Circle is based in this very valley, where one can still find one of the goddess’s abandoned shrines.”

“She fell in love with him just over that?”

“Oh, the way Pop always talked, that was what started the fire. Which was lucky for him, because he’d already had a crush on her for months.”

“I love a good love story,” Magnus murmured. He turned to look at me. “It seems like a good sign.”

“Who can say? Anyway, the young woman left the village and spent many years adventuring, trying to live her life according to the principles of her new god. She saved many lives, and lifted still more from despair and loss. She returned to the village, not expecting to be forgiven for her actions, but to beg for the chance to at least be buried near the city at the end of her life. Her reception was chilly, but as she was meeting with the elders of the village, a great cry rang out through the village. Sometime in the night, a man had been killed by an owlbear, dragged off to the monster’s den. The young woman bade the elders to not worry, and swore to destroy this menace to the village. By nightfall she had returned, ragged and bloody, but clutching the head of the beast in her arms.”

“That’s badass!”

“It is! She fell to her knees in the town center and refused any that tried to heal her, until very near to her last moments. A cleric came to her aid, but too late to help, only to hear her final words. With her last breath, she swore to her god that if she should allow her to live on as a spirit, she would continue to atone in her afterlife, and spent eternity protecting the people of this small village that she had once harmed so deeply.”

“So how did she become associated with the Heartswood tree?”

“She earned her burial, and Nusemnee heard her prayer, and answered it. The townsfolk buried her, not within the city, because in spite of her heroism, there were still the scars of her hurt. They found an assortment of seeds that she’d collected in her travels, and planted them over her grave. The tree took root and grew strong, and it became the Heartswood tree. As time passed, it became a custom of the village to tie a ribbon on a branch before apologizing to a friend or loved one. The young woman’s spirit inhabited that tree, and could sometimes be seen patrolling the surrounding forest. No beast attacked a resident of the village, or its environs, ever again - it wasn’t until Nusemnee herself was killed that her power granting the young woman’s last wish finally faded, and the village lost its spectral protector. Traditions around the Heartswood tree evolved, and so it came to pass that gifting a seed from the tree to one’s love came to mean what it does today - it is a promise of devotion and hope.”

Magnus had grown still and silent. There was no more thunder, though the rain fell gently through the trees. “That is a better story,” he said at last.

“Serving bowls from reclaimed wood will make a lovely gift. Whoever receives them will be blessed whenever they are used with love and an open heart.”

“That’s the important part. I’m glad that that, at least, is true.”

I chuckled. “It’s not quite as salacious as the current legend, but yes, the important part has thankfully survived.”

He gazed into the fire, idly scratching the line of his chin with a thumbnail. “Do people ever take seeds? To use as proposal gifts, or anything like that?”

“My Circle has met travelers seeking just that, yes. Just as I have met you.”

“You’ve referred to a circle twice now. What is it?”

“It’s a druid thing. It can be as small as a group of druid families with a shared home and ideals, and as large as all who follow a certain tradition of our people. The Circle of which I have spoken is the former. They’re other druids I have met and learned from, though they range all through this valley and the forests beyond.”

“So spread out?” He was looking at me directly now, the shade of whatever had been on his mind now passed.

“It’s our way. A life in the wilds is often a lonely one, but I have been fortunate. Not to mention that, once you spend enough time out here, the wildlife becomes easier to speak to. Not so lonely, then!”

“And so that’s how you knew how to handle the bear, huh?”

“More or less.” I knelt down to retrieve my travel pack and rummaged around in it. “I have a little pemmican and dried mushrooms, if you’re hungry. I’m sure you didn’t plan on being this far off course.”

“I did, actually!” He reached for his own backpack and peered inside. “I got some salami, and a bottle of something… Mead?” He held it up, inspecting it. “Ah, well. It’ll be a surprise. And a nice block of cheese.”

“Cheese?” I felt myself begin to salivate. I hadn’t had cheese in months.

He tossed me the salami. “I just kind of grabbed a bunch of things and threw it all in the bag. I didn’t have a lot of time to lurk about in the kitchen.”

Not for the first time, I wondered about the everyday life of the hero who stood across the fire from me, and his powerful friends. The stories he’d shared during the afternoon had been fascinating, but I spent my life around dangerous creatures. I so seldom spent any time at all around other people, and almost never got to see people going about their daily routine. What was it like to spend your life in a city full of strangers? What did that life do to you? Were you constantly busy, or did all the bustle and activity become meaningless and boring? And however that life was like for your average person on the street, how different was it for you if you were famous? If everyone in the city knew your face, and your history?

I tried to distract myself by drawing my belt knife; I began to cut the salami into precise discs of meat and stacked them neatly on a polished stone near the fire. Magnus came around to sit next to me, setting the bottle down between us. He snatched a slice of salami out of my hand as I started to put it down, and cackled gleefully. “Gotta watch yourself! I’m sneaky!”

“Don’t be too sneaky, or I won’t share any of my good mushrooms,” I said as he popped the salami into his mouth.

“Good mushrooms?”

“Trippy ones. They make you see giant pink bunnies.” I hesitated. “They make me see giant pink bunnies. You might see something else. But they’re still fun.”

His eyes gleamed a moment. “I could prank Killian so good with some of those…” he whispered.

I finished slicing the meat and pulled my own provisions out of my pack. Everything was wrapped separately in squares of muslin. I opened one of the smaller packets and held it out to him, offering up a handful of lovely orange chanterelles. I laughed when he hesitated. “These are normal mushrooms,” I assured him. “Normal, but delicious. No pink bunnies here.”

He took one, and took a cautious nibble. When oversized rodents failed to materialize, Magnus happily ate the whole piece in one bite, and a huge grin broke out on his face. “These are really good!”

“I sell them sometimes in the city. There’s a chef I know that always loses his shit whenever I bring some by. He tells me if he ever catches me selling them to anyone else, he’ll never forgive me, which would mean no more of his special pan-fried goat cheese.” I sighed. “That would be a tragedy.”

“That sounds good.” He took the hint and broke off a piece of cheese and passed it to me. It was mostly firm, only a little crumbly, and it smelled nutty. I closed my eyes and savored the feel of it on my tongue, and then the flavor filled my mouth. Every time I went into the wilds, I always missed cheese.

Magnus pried the cork from the bottle and took a cautious sniff. “It’s not mead. Something pretty strong, though.” With his spare hand, he fished a polished wooden cup from his backpack and poured out a measure of something clear with strong alcoholic odor.  

I heard the calls of a group of ravens in the night; two of them swept past the cave mouth. They alit in a nearby tree and one called out. As I turned my attention away, the other opened its beak and my name came croaking out.

I snapped back to stare at it - even Magnus noticed, for I could hear him behind me, very carefully put his cup down and get to his feet. “Did the raven just talk?”

“Yes. They can.”

“So this isn’t… weird?”

I shook my head. “No. This is quite weird.”

“Okay,” he said quietly.

For the second time in twelve hours, my oak leaf tattoo grew warm. Alarmed, I grazed it with my fingertips - it was hot to the touch. For a mad moment, I wondered if I’d accidentally picked some very bad mushrooms indeed, when the heat in my chest washed away, just shy of becoming painful. I took a deep breath and held the cool night air in my lungs for a moment. As I exhaled, I began to notice eyes reflecting my firelights, out in the dark of the woods.

I got to my feet and turned to face Magnus. He was scowling, eyeing the growing group of watchers beyond me. “Something may be wrong with the forest,” I explained. “Let me talk to the creatures out there. I may have to go.”

“If you’re going anywhere, I’m coming with.”

“No. There could be quite a lot of danger.” He gave me a wan smile, and I stopped myself.

“Whatever it is,” Magnus told me, “it can’t be as dangerous to the both of us.”

I nodded. I couldn’t say no to him. Not about this. He was also entirely right. “Can you clear the camp while I talk to our visitors, then, please?”

“You got it!”

I felt a moment of regret over the loss of more cheese this evening, but I rolled my shoulders, marched to the edge of the cave, and crouched down to say hello.

#

It was a cacophony. I was assaulted in every way in which I know how to communicate. It was too much to make sense of, so I called out to one of the ravens. Blissful silence rolled over the beasts before me. After a few tense breaths, the raven started cawing its head off. It took some time, but I was eventually able to make sense of what he was telling me, and what had roused all of the local animals.

“How’s it coming, Magnus?” I asked at last.

“Almost done. Just need to put out the fire.”

“I can do that. Do you have any rope?”

“Yep. Are we going to need to climb?”

“No. We’re going deeper into the forest, and we need to move very quickly.” I turned to face him. “Ever wanted to ride a bear into a fight?”

#

It was probably a little cruel of me: he was immediately torn between what I had just suggested, and wanting to know what was going on. I relented before indecision killed him - as I helped him fashion a rough harness, I explained what the raven had told me.

“Three human-shaped creatures have been making their way through the forest. They had bones and matted fur all over them. A few ravens thought they were dead things, but they got too close and were killed - some kind of magic. Any place where they stop for a longer period of time, things die.”

“Oh, shit. That sounds bad.”

“They also seem to be heading for the Heartswood grove.”

His expression grew quite grim. “Let’s get going.”

#

We wasted no more time. In another few moments, I had cast a spell on Magnus to allow him to see in the dark, shifted into a grizzly bear form, and was kneeling down so he could rig the harness and climb onto my back. I’d never carried another person before, but there was no better way to intercept the intruders. I could smell them immediately: it was a reek of death and rot.

The rope that was looped around me grew tight, and I felt Magnus settle himself on my back. “Ready to go,” he grunted, and then we were off.

You would think that anything the size of a bear would have a hard time getting up to any kind of a significant speed, but fortunately bears don’t care what you think. Carrying Magnus on my back slowed me down a little, but his weight wasn’t an issue as much as the harness pulling and chafing. I did my best to ignore it and focused on running.

It took a little while, but I found a comfortable stride. The forest floor evened out, and I was able to hold the pace easily for the fifteen minutes it took to get near enough to see the glow of an open fire. I could hear the three figures cackle wildly at one another. Magnus shifted his weight on my back; I suddenly felt a lot more pull from the harness as he used it to help balance himself.

Like your opinions, bears also don’t care much for stealth. Taking these creatures by surprise was never going to be an option, but I think we got lucky, somehow. They didn’t notice me charging at them until Magnus leapt from my back with a roar at one of them. His battleaxe flashed in the firelight, I crashed into one of the other creatures, and a searing crackle of electricity scored a line of pain along my side. I was at least rewarded with the satisfying crack of bones that weren’t mine as we hit the ground. Foul talons tangled in the thick fur around my neck; I tried to bite at something - anything - but couldn’t get a good angle and my jaws snapped on air. There were screams around me.

I roared in return and raised myself up to try to swipe one of my massive paws at this thing’s head. It looked like a human woman’s, but was covered in open, festering sores, and even pierced in places with bones that still had sinew and meat hanging from them.

“Saro!”

I couldn’t look away, not with that monster’s claws still at my throat. Instead of smashing that hideous skull, I put everything I had into a leap forward, off of and away from the hag. I shifted as I hit the ground, rolled, and came up to my feet in my normal form. For a moment, everything was awash in a gold-red glow, but I could still clearly see Magnus, holding off the attacks of the other two creatures.

One of them tried to dart around to his flank, but recoiled when he lashed out with his axe, narrowly avoiding having one of her hands cut off. As he did so, the other clutched at his shield, trying to wrench it from his grasp. She nearly managed - he stumbled a bit but recovered and bashed the thing in the chest with the shield. I’d have never guessed these things would have been so strong!

Without thinking, I reached into one of my pouches and closed my hand around everything inside. There was a burst of heat in my palm, and then a pillar of silver light erupted over the hag between Magnus and me. She shrieked as her flesh was engulfed in pale flames, and I sagged from the effort casting the spell had cost me.

Another crackle of lightning slammed into me, this time hitting me in the chest. The pain was incredible, but I managed to maintain the searing beam of moonlight. Magnus whirled his axe around him as though it were a child’s toy sword. He spun and cut, attacking again and again from any angle he could manage. His onslaught was too much for the monster before him - she howled as his weapon struck her full in the chest and collapsed to the forest floor.

I couldn’t help but cheer as he wrenched the axe back, and turned to face the hag who’d only previously been held off by his shield. Instead, she turned and leaped at me, her filthy claws reaching for my face. Having nothing else at hand, I steeled myself, lowered my head, and slammed it into her face as she came at me. The creature’s talons raked into my hair and gouged a part of my cheekbone, but I heard Magnus roar in approval as I straightened up; I couldn’t help but feel a bit of pride at that.

It was short-lived, though. There was still one hag on her feet - the one who’d been throwing spells at me, but she’d saved one good one - I wish I’d have thought of it. In an instant, every muscle in my body seized up and I froze in place. I knew the spell and tried to shake it off, but failed in the face of the creature’s will and fury, and so was held so tightly, I couldn’t even move my eyes.

“I’ve got your friend,” the monster cooed at Magnus as she staggered towards me. I say ‘cooed’, but it’s difficult to coo with a voice like a hungover vomit and breath like the putrid corpse of a diseased boar. Still, she made the effort.

The other hag got to her feet - I hadn’t quite gotten the job done. Damn. “Maybe this one isn’t a friend after all,” she remarked. Her eyes gleamed in mad delight. “Do you see what this one is? Do you see the blood of the fiend?” She seized my hand and dragged me to my knees, forcing my head to one side so she could tear out a handful of my hair to reveal a tight, curled horn that arced back over my head. I couldn’t even scream in pain.

I stared at the ground, my heart in my throat. I ached from the lightning blasts, I could scarcely breathe, and I had no idea what would happen next.

“Saro, you’re a tiefling?”

“A fiend called Sorrow!” cackled the creature nearest me. Her tone grew sharp and cold. “Fiends belong in the hells,” she snarled. “Maybe we do you a favor? We remove this thing for you, yes?”

“Saro is not a thing,” Magnus growled. I raged against the spell holding me, but could not break free.

“Can’t make friends with a fiend,” wheedled the other hag. “A fiend knows only betrayal and torment.” I’d have gritted my teeth if I could. These monsters certainly knew what betrayal and torment looked like, of that I was sure.

“Saro is my friend. No matter what.”

“Fine, then!” In a flurry, the hag nearest me had her hands wrapped around my throat, claws just shy of cutting me open. “Such a good friend you are to a fiend! You do as we say, you can keep having your friendly fiend!”

“Or else…” The silence hung in the air. My vision started to get blurry. I couldn’t even blink. “What do you want me to do?”

“Take your axe,” snapped one. It was getting hard to tell which of the two was speaking. “Go to the grove ahead and destroy the trees. Set it on fire. Then you save your fiend friend.” The two hags erupted in delighted laughter.

“Saro,” Magnus said quietly, “I’m hoping this is what you want.” In my peripheral vision, I saw his axe come gently down.

I fell to the ground and lay there a moment, stunned. There was pain. Then came screams. Then I caught a flash of silver as the axe flashed out of my field of vision.

That’s almost certainly not the correct order in which things happened, but I was pretty close to blacking out.

I made it to my knees on my own. I had to lean against a tree to strand. The hags had unleashed a barrage of vicious attacks on Magnus - he was holding them off, but they weren’t giving him much of an opportunity to return them in kind. I took a deep breath and threw out a hand. I knew this spell, but had never had to use it; I’d only even even seen it cast once, but I always kept it in my back pocket, in case I ran into something truly dangerous. I shouted the command words, and once again the night glowed red-gold as my fel blood flared. A roiling wave of darkness flowed out over my arms and engulfed the hag who had nearly torn open my throat. She began to shriek and flail, and the flesh on her arms and face withered like a worm too close to a fire.  

No longer forced to divide his attention, Magnus raised the axe above his head and brought it crashing down on the skull of the last creature. We stood there, panting and wild-eyed, waiting for one of them, any of them, to show any signs of life. At last, he took a deep breath and asked, “What next?”

“We need to burn them. They’re nothing but corruption, and they will poison this place.” I saw his gaze flicker up to the trees that surrounded us. “I can see to it that we don’t burn the rest of the forest around us.”

“Ok.”

“We won’t need kindling. We can just pile them up.”

He looked a bit queasy for a moment, then straightened sharply. “Saro, you’re bleeding, like, a lot.”

I grunted. I hadn’t wanted to think about that. I fell back against the tree. “Shit.”

“Shit!” I heard him start to rummage in his pack. It was getting hard to see. “I think I’ve got a health potion in here!”

“I can heal myself. I’ve got a few more spells in me.” I swallowed, took a moment to steady myself, and tapped into that rejuvenating essence within me. Energy washed through me, the pain dropped back, and I found myself able to stand, and focus. The demon blood within me still pulsed, and danced, and I realized I was looking forward to this far more than I should have been, but I did not care. “Right. Let’s light these things up.”

#

As the flames burned the corpses of our foes, Magnus and I managed to clean off most of the filth that covered us. We rested and watched the fire. I gave him chanterelles, he gave me cheese. Once I felt confident that the monsters had been fully consumed and were no longer a danger to the forest, I looked over at Magnus, who hadn’t spoken much. “We can keep resting here, or we can go to the grove. It’s only another mile or two away, now. Either way, I believe we’ll be quite safe for the night, wherever we stop.”

He didn’t look at me. “I don’t want to spend the night here.”

I nodded. “I’ll put out the fire.”

#

We walked away from the scene of battle, and after about ten minutes of silence, Magnus finally asked me, “You mentioned earlier you were partly elvish, right?”

“I did. I am.”

“Is that why your eyes don’t always do the tiefling thing?”

I chuckled.  “As far as we could tell, yes. From what I understand, most tieflings are from human lines. The fey blood and the fiend blood mix a little differently, it seems.”

He mulled over this. “Doesn’t sound…”

“Hm?”

“Oh. Um.” He rubbed the back of his neck. “Just seems like you haven’t been around a lot of other tieflings. From the way you talk.”

“No. I came to the wilds to live with the druids of my father’s Circle at a pretty young age.”

“Have you ever wanted to? Hang out with other tieflings, I mean?”

“Nah,” I lied. “Most tieflings end up going evil, so they say, so I don’t think it’d be much fun.” I thought a moment. “Or too much fun.”

“Well, if you ever get tired of hanging out in the wilds, you should come and visit me in Raven’s Roost.”

“Raven’s Roost? Really? Did they rebuild it?”

He smiled grimly. “I’m workin’ on it.”

“I look forward to seeing it.”

#

We soon started to see the glow of fireflies darting through the trees, and I felt a rare level of relaxation. We had reached the grove. Heartswood trees filled the area, mixed with some oak, aspen, and birch. Something about the grove put off an aura of calm. I glanced over, and saw a delighted grin spreading across Magnus’s face. He felt it, too. “I’m really glad we ended up coming here tonight.”

I was, too.

I found a place where we could sleep comfortably, nestled in a bed of spongy moss growing over a tangle of oak roots. The night was a little cool, but hardly uncomfortable - Magnus was snoring away before I’d even gotten a chance to settle in. I opted to not start a fire for the night. It didn’t feel necessary for safety, and I didn’t like the idea of letting a fire go while I slept - not after the evening I’d had already.

As I wrapped my coat around me more tightly and leaned against the tree trunk that was my pillow, I murmured a prayer to Silvanus one last time. I’d been blessed with his guidance, and possibly also his protection. With his name on my lips, I fell into slumber.

#

I woke to dawn’s light turning the canopy of red leaves over me into a ceiling of gleaming rubies. There was an odd weight on my chest, and when I raised my head to find out why, I got a face full of badger fart.

I swatted at its butt and it shuffled off my chest with a low grumble. Other woodland creatures were cuddled up around me, sleeping peacefully. I dislodged several as I sat up - they all scampered away as the temporary peace was broken. Magnus, somehow, had rolled onto the back of a cow moose that had laid down beside him - he was sprawled across her with his face nestled against her neck. She gave me a look that only a moose is capable of and got to her feet. Magnus slid off her back to the ground in a heap; he sat up with wide eyes and an expression that perfectly matched that of the squirrel that popped up from the tangle of hair on his head. It chittered angrily at me before making a flying leap to the nearest tree, and then it was gone.

“What was that about?”

I got to my feet and brushed clinging moss and a few downy quail feathers from my coat. “I didn’t think to ask. It felt like a ‘thank you’ from the forest, though.”

“Was I spooning a moose?”

“I’ll never tell a soul,” I lied.

#

Together we broke our fast on a bit of the food we hadn’t finished from the night before, and took care of other morning things privately. I took a few moments to mentally prepare myself for the day as I always did, and let my mind sink into the soul of the forest, exploring it with my senses and seeking out the reason for our journey there.

Magnus touched me gently on the shoulder, bringing me out of my meditation and back to myself. I blinked at him a few times as my awareness returned. “There’s a tree on the eastern edge of the grove that should work very well for you. There was a rockslide in the storm last night. It made a mess of things. And it’s only a couple miles away.”

#

It only took half an hour at an easy stroll through the grove before we began to see glimpses of the bluffs through breaks in the canopy. Magnus spotted the place where an outcropping on the bluffs above had slipped away, and so we angled towards it. When we finally came upon the dying Heartswood tree, almost completely uprooted by boulders that had careened into it, I felt a twinge of sadness at the sight. Other trees had been felled, and several lay splintered and crushed beneath the weight of the earth that had fallen in the night. This one had taken too much damage, and all that was left was for it to wither and rot. Magnus looked to me for confirmation, and when I nodded, he took his battle axe in hand.

“Wait a moment, please,” I said as he approached the tree. I could see a mother cardinal flying around the tree in great, arcing swoops, calling out in what sounded to be distress, and in another moment, I saw why. The tree, already so close to losing its grip on the earth, was home to her nest, and it was about the right time for there to be eggs or hatchlings inside it.

“What’s up?”

“Gonna maybe save some baby birds,” I replied, pointing.

“How are you going to do that?”

“Carefully.” I spread my arms wide as my body morphed into a form I loved, but seldom took. I leaped into the air as a falcon, which surely terrified the poor mother cardinal as I flew directly towards the branch supporting her nest and little family. Even as light as I was in that form, the tree shifted and groaned when I alit on the branch near the nest. There was one egg within it - I could see another had slipped and fallen to the ground. The nest, too, was in a precarious position.

There was no easy way to do this. I took to the air once more, took a few loops around and through the tree branches to make sure I could get the angle I’d need, and then dove for the nest, snatching at it with both of my feet. The nest came away easily - I prayed that the little speckled egg within wasn’t lost. It was awkward flying with it, but I managed, and found a sturdy oak tree farther into the grove in which I could deposit my cargo. A hawk’s talons are not made for gentleness, and so as I attempted to set down the little nest in a sturdy U-shaped fork in a branch, I wished I’d have come up with a form capable of more delicacy.

I hopped back on the branch a bit and examined the nest. The little speckled egg was still there, tucked underneath a pair of twigs. The mother cardinal was perched above me, tittering anxiously. I leapt off the branch and let the hawk form drop away as I touched the ground. Magnus stood there at the base of the tree, patiently, his arms crossed over the handle of his axe. “Did you save them?”

“Yep. The tree is all yours, now.”

He grinned and, in one smooth action, snatched up his axe and raised it high. He seemed to study the tree a moment, as if deciding the best place to strike, and the axe came down in a crisp arc, and instead of the sharp and heavy thunk sound I’d expected, there came a vicious crack. I jumped back, and the tree smashed to the ground.

I didn’t carry much more than a hand axe at the time, so I couldn’t help to reduce the tree into more manageable bits, but, once a sizeable section of trunk had been separated from the crown of the tree, I cleared away everything that would be a hindrance. The smaller bits that had broken off in the fall were the easiest, and so I dragged those off into the grove first, and tried to arrange them to form little shelters for the smaller beasts of the forest. With each trip I made, I collected more seeds from the tree, shaken loose from all this activity.

Magnus worked tirelessly, but with clean efficiency, so that he soon had a neat stack of logs even before I finished clearing the area. He helped me with the heaviest remaining portions of the tree, and when we agreed that our task was complete, Magnus brought out the bottle of mystery alcohol. As we passed the bottle back and forth, I found a few spare scraps of cloth, and bundled up a handful of the seeds, as well as my remaining chanterelle mushrooms. “If you want a good place to eat before you head on back to Raven’s Roost,” I told him as I handed the little bag over, “there’s a little town called Divrin at the top of the bluffs, up there.” I pointed; from where we stood at the edge of the grove, you could just see the top of a watchtower. “It’s about an hour and a half’s hike. The Bearhugger Inn is the finest building in town, and if you tell them I sent you, Goldy will make you some of his fried goat cheese. It’s amazing. And then you can probably talk Old Mean Fred into letting you come by his kennel. He breeds and trains hunting dogs. You’ll love it.”

“Why do they call him Old Mean Fred?”

I shrugged. “Small town humor, I guess. He’s only twenty-five, and he’ll laugh at any joke you tell him.”

Magnus gave me a sidelong glance, offering me the bottle again, but I waved it off. “You don’t want to come with me? You said it’s only an hour and a half hike.”

I glanced up at the top of the bluff again, and felt a bit of wind ruffle my hair enough that I felt a sudden chill on my exposed horn. Something tightened, just a bit, in my chest. I shook my head, rubbing my palms together restively. “I’m not used to being around a lot of people,” I said at last. “And you’re going to draw quite a crowd. I’m not ready to go back into civilization again quite yet.”

“Oh.” He seemed to take a moment to consider this, then shrugged diffidently. “Well, whenever you do feel ready to come back to civilization, I meant what I said about coming to visit in Raven’s Roost. You’ll always be welcome.”

“Thank you. I promise I’ll take you up on it.” We shook hands, then, and it felt like as solid a binding as I’d ever known. Raven’s Roost was a long way away, but distance never feels like a problem when you can fly. I helped Magnus pack each of his logs into a bag that swallowed them as though they were pebbles - a bag of Holding, he explained to me - and then directed him to the best spot at which to start hiking up the bluffs.

He looked back once, and gave me a wave. I turned away as he did, heading back into the crimson grove where everything felt calm and peaceful. I let the aura of the grove wash over me, seep into my being and my soul; once I reached a moment of perfect serenity, I leaped up from the ground and shot into the air as a streak of red-gold feathers.

I’m one of those idiot druids that doesn’t take advantage of the ability to fly whenever they want.

But that’s going to change.