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elleonmybeloved · 4 years ago

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Fondly Dreamed

TERA (The Exiled Realm of Arborea) | Gen/Multi Words: 9623 Chapter 1 Read on AO3: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29024796/chapters/71238090

Summary: The titans Arun and Shara dream of a world they call Arborea. Arborea was never a peaceful world, but it was always beautiful and full of magical creatures. When one of their first and most powerful creations turned on them, they banished him to the underworld, Agaia. But the barrier between worlds is weakening, and corruption is beginning to invade Arborea, unmaking it's very essence and turning the world into a wasteland of Argon blue. Lest their sleeping forms and their precious world be destroyed, the sleeping titans dream of brave, strong heroes who can go against the very gods, and banish the corruption once and for all, before it is too late.

Yeriss dreams of glory in a world full of meaningless death. Sahlin dreams of freedom. Elleon dreams of acceptance. Jelena dreams of a world of smiles and laughter instead of blood and tears.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The early morning eye of Balder casts long shadows along the golden sand on the beach of Cutthroat Harbor. A ways away from the boats and boardwalks stands a young castanic woman. Water occasionally washes over her sandaled feet as the little waves lap forward, then pull back. A conflicted expression twists her beautiful face despite the tranquility of her vacation-worthy surroundings.

A shiny silver badge identifies her as “Yeriss.” Engraved into the metal is the sword of Kaia, and a number. Yeriss thumbs the badge. Then rears back and chucks the thing as far as she can with a frustrated scream. The badge lands too far away in the water to hear the plunk of it’s submersion.

“I’m afraid that shiny thing is much too big to lure you any fish.” The graying human man in the wooden chair had been sitting so still, Yeriss had scarcely noticed his presence. She’d been too caught up in her inner turmoil to pay much attention to her surroundings. Still, it’s as much of a surprise to see a fisherman in Cutthroat as it is to see a pirate ship on the Jagged Coast. So, not at all.

“Ahahah. It’s just trash to me now.” She says dismissively, feeling a bit self conscious at someone witnessing her... passionate disposal of the badge.

“Looked a bit too shiny to me to be garbage. You sure?”

“Yes.”

“Hmph.” The man makes an amused sound and raises a brow. “Whatever did it do to deserve a fate with the fishes?”

“Promise me glory and adventure.” She raises her head in contempt. “And give me literally worse than nothing.”

The fisherman eyes her for a moment. “With so many of you stationed here, I’d recognize the symbol of the Kaia’s Swords anywhere. Did something happen within the order?”

Yeriss blinks and frantically shakes her head. “Oh no, nothing like that. There’s nothing to be concerned about, don’t worry. I’m not a Sword anymore actually I.... quit.” At his wary glance, she clarifies. “Recently.”

“Oh.” The man relaxes. “Well if you’re stressed about coin, you should consider taking up the pole.” He lifts his fishing rod in a way that indicates he is talking about fishing. Which is good for him, because otherwise, Yeriss was about to think yet another middle-aged human man saw her reddish skin and silver castanic markings and wanted to see the rest of them. In a setting with some other pole.

It wasn’t the first time she’d heard a comment like that. The last man to compare her to someone working at The Rose had gotten an elbow to the kidneys.

“Uhh thanks.” Yeriss squelches a grin at the man. “But I’m not that desperate. And I can’t stand seafood.”

“Suit yourself.” He shrugs, adjusting his hat to cover more of his face from the strengthening rays of Balder’s radiant eye. “It’s big money these days, you know.”

She’s heard the rumors. “Big Ass Fish,” and all that. The idea is repulsive to her. It’s her opinion that anything bigger than you isn’t food, and thinks that if more people went to Serpentis Isle outside of the Festival of the Sun season, they might agree with her. If she concentrates hard enough she can almost smell the stink of giant crustaceans in the sun.

“Yeah I know. I’m not really the patient type though so I’ll have to pass. But good luck to you.”

“Goddess Velik go with you.” He says, a very Southern Arun goodbye. He raises his fishing pole in a gesture of parting.

Walking north up the beach towards home, her perpetual stewing thoughts have her nearly tripping over a hard obstruction poking out the sand. Were it not for her quick reflexes, she would have face-planted. Embarrassed, she turns to see if anyone witnessed that. Doesn’t seem like it.

Angrily, she kicks the thing. As retribution for tripping her. Maybe a little too hard though, because doing so dislodges it from the sand and sends it tumbling a ways across the beach. Walking up to it, Yeriss sees it is actually a wooden box, bleached a pale yellow from the ocean water, but hints of a dark mahogany at the seams suggest it was beautiful before it met the waves. Curiously, it is still shut. Quite tightly in fact.

It takes a bit of wiggling but with nimble fingers she pries up the metal latch, and with some effort, pulls open the lid.

Inside, there are several folded pieces of paper. The edges are crinkled in the way that previously wet paper dries, but for the most part they are unscathed by the ocean. Curiously, Yeriss sits down on the sand, places the box in her lap, and begins to unfold the papers. The first appears to be a letter of some kind. It’s addressed to a name she doesn’t recognize, but the sender addresses them as “Captain” several times, and as she begins to read it becomes clear that both the sender and the receiver are sailors. Pirates, actually.

“... failed to locate the Pearl of Gluda… mixed up a cargo manifest… some got scurvy… heard the Sea Dogs made a deal with Jax’s Trust… big money… suggests a considerable amount of valuable goods, or just one…” Bored, Yeriss skips down a couple paragraphs and continues reading.

“Hmmm... won’t have enough gold to make another search for the Pearl… could sell some info… some old sailors been seeing Valkyon Federation boats heading towards the northeast Arun Sea… through the pass above Baldera… our nautical mapping suggests the rumors of an island full of monsters as their location is true?”

Yeriss pauses, holding the paper up closer to her face. “Getting as close as we dared to their ships, we saw several uniformed troops on board. Too many to risk to the sea if they were headed for Southern Shara. Not with the Federation’s discount on pegasus travel. Where else could they be headed, other than an island?”

Intrigued, she looks through the other folded papers, but they appear to simply be maps, with some markings and writing on them. She doesn’t recognize any of the names that label locations on the map, but from the shape of the landmass on two of them, she thinks it might be southern Ostgarath. This far down however, should be Red Lash Pirate territory… how odd. It would be too good to be true if this is the location of a pirate treasure stash.

More interested in the island full of monsters the Federation is apparently keeping under a tight lid, she returns to the letter. Seems to her like they could use some help, if they need that many troops. What if she shows up and kills all the monsters for them? Joining the Federation… she’s considered it before, of course, to become one of the great heroes. Seir in his youth, the legendary Kaia’s Champion who not once throughout their valiant service allowed themselves to be unmasked, Delsha of the Golden Lance, Aldager the Spell-slinger, and of course, most recently, Elleon Kubel of the Argon War.

The thought of being like them, known and loved everywhere is her greatest dream. But the ranks of the Federation army wouldn’t treat her any different from her extremely disappointing two-year experience with the Kaia’s Swords. Yeriss has heard enough to be sure of that.

It’s then that her eyes catch on a phrase within the letter, ‘found a few stowaways, saw them over the plank.’

“Stowaway…” She murmurs to herself thoughtfully, mind suddenly whirling. Who said she had to join the Federation to help them? Quickly tracing back up, she finds the part about the ship sightings again.

“--Were close enough to read only the vessel’s name through the spyglass, and that’s because it was rather boldly emblazoned across her side in glowing letters shaped from cobala ore. The Pride.”

Violent and lacking scruples as they may be, Yeriss has to thank these pirates for their information. Now all she needs to do is find out where and when The Pride is to set sail… and sneak herself aboard.

~~~

Castanics get a lot of credit for their agility. There’s a saying Yeriss has heard, not even one made by her own people, that a castanic will always land on their feet regardless of how high a drop they fall from. The biggest testament to her castanic agility right now, however, is how she’s managed to fold herself into such a shape as to fit within this wooden barrel. It smells like sarberries, which is an intentional choice on Yeriss’s part. Like everything else being loaded onto The Pride, it is marked with the four-pointed circular compass symbol that represents the Valkyon Federation.

Her hips and lower back are starting to hurt by the time she has been picked up and carried onto the ship. There weren’t any reasons why someone would lift the lid to check the cargo, but she holds as still as possible regardless.

Whoever is carrying her is lucky she’ll never see their face. The way they swing down and toss her barrel to thunk against the floor like nothing more than a sack of mudroots has her silently seething to Mother Shara to please give them holy retribution in the form of sea sicknesses.

“No need to be so rough with that.” Someone remarks, and she can hear the sounds of three or four sets of footsteps. “I think these have the fruits and vegetables in them. The recruits from Poporia won’t be happy with you if their fruit is covered in bruises.”

Yeriss silently agrees with them, though she supposed she should actually be the guilty one here. It’s a shame about the sarberries she had to dump into the ocean. But she wasn’t about to spend an extended amount of time in a cramped space with an unpleasant smell.

Her hips are really starting to complain by the time she no longer hears the sounds of people loading barrels into the cargo hold. The slight rock of the ship is making it worse, because it makes the rough wood dig into her side. Originally, she was going to wait until she was sure the ship had set sail before coming out of hiding, but now, she lifts the lid and cautiously pokes a head out as soon as the sounds of loading cargo have quieted.

The dimly lit hold is full of crates that surround her, but free of people. Yeriss carefully clambers out of the barrel and does her best job to silently arrange herself in a spot between them, hidden from sight. Distantly, she hears the bell ringing, signaling their departure. The steady sway of the vessel turns into a repeating bob up and down, and she guesses that means they are picking up speed.

Well… now comes the waiting part. Yeriss thinks wearily. She is not the patient type.

She makes it less than an hour before she’s inching down the hall, much too far from the crates and barrels than she should be. Hidden underneath a covered latch, she can hear some sailors or soldiers chatting above her.

“... second station with the Federation…”

“...heard about the First Expedition and applied to be a part of the second, but-... and Leander left in such a hurry I missed my chance to-”

“-yes, we served together on our previous post and,”

“Pleasure to make your acquaintance, I’m the-”

From what she can hear, it sounds like people are introducing themselves to each other. It’s odd because she'd assumed that the troops on this… third “Expedition”? to all be part of the same regiment. It’s sounding like they just accepted anyone within the Federation who wasn’t essential on their post to apply.

Eyeing the empty underdeck, she weighs the risks of getting closer. She’s not the best actor but if most of the sailors and soldiers weren’t even already acquainted with another, maybe she could pretend to be a recruit? Wait no, there was certainly a consul on deck for this many troops, and if she ran into them, they might know she wasn’t a Federation soldier. Or would they?

A creaking sound nearby startles her out of her risky mental debate, and she darts back down the hall. Adrenaline surges in her veins as she tries to scramble back into her hiding spot between the crates as quietly as possible while heavy footsteps approach down the hall. Clapping a hand over her mouth to quiet her breathing, Yeriss holds very still as the person stops in front of the cargo pile. There’s a quiet pause before she hears the sound of shuffling as whoever it is starts moving the barrels aside.

Wood creaks as the person opens the lid of a crate. From the light of a carried lantern, a large shadow is cast on the wall of the ship, and from the size, shape, and the horns and long pointy shapes coming from their head, she thinks it may actually be… an amani? An odd popping noise has her raising a brow. Did someone just… uncork a bottle?

“Can’t say I anticipated having weevils in my hardtack on a job like this.” The rich, feminine voice rings out clear and sharp, and were Yeriss the jumpier sort, she would’ve certainly flinched at it’s suddenness. “You’d better get out here and explain yourself before I deal with you the way I’ve always dealt with rats on my ship.”

“...” Maybe she’s bluffing?

“There’s no point in hiding, I can see your horns. We amani have much better eyesight in the dark, you know.”

Damn.

Cautiously, Yeriss climbs out from her hiding spot. To her surprise, there’s no weapon pointed at her. Instead, a tall amani woman in gray and black leans against the wall, sipping a bottle of spiced rum like it’s water. She sees no identification pin on her, so maybe this is one of the sailors? Or the help? There’s no way this is the captain… she’s never even heard of an amani owning a ship, or even being interested in something other than the honor of glorious battle.

“Who are you?” She asks, genuinely curious.

The amani raises an eyebrow and lowers her bottle. “You’ve got some nerve. Who am I? Who are you, and what are you doing stowing away on my ship?”

“Your ship? So you actually are the Captain?”

“Yes. They call me Mahera the Sealion, and I bought this vessel, The Pride, and all her deadly upgrades with no small amount of gold. So if you don’t tell me who you are, you slippery little castanic, I have the authority to dump you in the sea this very second. You should get talking.”

“Sorry, I was just… in shock. I’m Yeriss. I’m a swordswoman. I heard the Federation was sending troops to the Island of Dawn on this ship and that there’s a bunch of monsters there… I uh, recently quit the Kaia’s Swords and I haven’t seen much action recently so I wanted to come help.” She hastily explains.

“Uh huh. Why not enlist and just board the official way?”

“... I heard they are only letting veteran soldiers come here. If I joined today I would probably end up on the Island in three years or something. So I figured I’d skip the waiting line.”

“Oh really. And how did you ‘hear’ about the Expeditions when the Valkyon Federation has been very particular with myself and anyone else involved that the island needs to remain secret until they have the situation under control?”

“You probably won’t believe me, but I read it in a letter I found in a box washed up on the beach.”

“You’re right. I don’t believe you. I think it’s much more likely you’re a spy or an enemy of the Federation waiting to sabotage the vessel.”

“It’s the truth, I swear to Kaia!” Yeriss insists, putting her hand over her heart.

Before Mahera can reply, there’s a bit of a commotion above deck, and suddenly a gush of water falls through the grate above them, spraying them with salty water from what must have been a ridiculously sized wave.

“Ow! What the-?” Something hard and wet hits Yeriss in the face before bouncing off and clattering to the floor. Rubbing her forehead, she bends down to pick it up.

“No way.” Yeriss stares at it in disbelief.

“What?”

“It’s… my Kaia’s Sword badge. That I threw in the ocean.” Yeriss says incredulously, shaking her head. She hands it to Mahera. “You wanted proof, here you go.”

Mahera’s expression cycles through doubt, to surprise, to amusement as she examines the badge. “Looks like the titans dream fondly of you today. This is beyond lucky.” She raises the rum bottle to her lips and takes a swig. “But just reaching the island won’t help you, Yeriss. The Federation’s got the Island strictly barricaded the further in you go, and the bankers and merchants on board aren’t allowed past the first one. You’d have to pass for a soldier if you wanted a hope of getting anywhere near a monster.”

“I could just-”

“Sneak past and fight alone?” Mahera interrupts her. “Not a chance. There’s a reason they chose one of the fastest ships on this side of Arun to transport this many troops after there’s already been two previous expeditions. The monsters on this island are enormous, and fight with a ferociousness we’ve never seen before.”

Yeriss wants to reply that unless they’re bigger than a vulcan, she’s got a one on one fight in the bag, but Mahera sees the defiance in her eyes and scowls before she can say so. “I’m serious. Don’t be stupid.”

“... I’ll figure it out.”

“Not if I tell the consul you’re here.”

“Or could you just keep quiet and pretend you never saw me?” Yeriss suggests hopefully. “It’s not like you’re part of the Federation.”

“You don’t have the coin to buy my silence.”

Yeriss wants to refute her statement, but the meager pouch of gold, silver, and bronze coins in her pack probably weighed less than the liquor bottle Mahera is rapidly going through. But wait…

“I could give you these!” Yeriss takes the maps she found the day prior out of her pack, unfolding them hastily and smoothing them out before holding them out to Mahera.

The amani captain hesitates, giving the papers a disdainful look before sighing and setting down her liquor and taking the papers. “What am I looking at, exactly?”

Yeriss has no idea, so she just shrugs. “Seems valuable, so…? You can have them if you keep my secret.”

After a minute of scrutiny, Mahera’s open expression closes off and she stares intensely at the maps. It’s hard to tell with her thick grey skin, but it seems like her face flushes. Yeriss looks on impatiently, wondering why she isn’t saying anything. Mahera lifts a hand to cover her mouth, and finally she can’t stand it anymore.

“Well? Do we have a deal?”

“...” Mahera lifts her hand, revealing a very satisfied, sharp-toothed grin. “We do.” She extends her four-fingered hand for a shake, and Yeriss eagerly grips it, ready to have this obstacle out of her way.

Relaxing, Yeriss sidles up next to her to look at the maps. “So what are they? Guessing you know since you accepted them.”

“You can’t go back on our deal if I tell you.”

Yeriss balks. “Why would I go back on our deal? What, cause I’m castanic? That’s low. I won’t, I promise, just tell me!”

“No, not that.” Mahera looks like the cat that ate the canary. “It’s because this is the location of the secret hideout of the Red Lash Pirate captain… the fearsome, and also filthy rich naga pirate Nakarash. Unlike his better known grotto in southern Ostgarath, this shows a different location entirely. I bet it’s where he’s keeping the motherlode.”

“You’ve gotta be yanking Saleron’s chains. I just gave you the keys to a fortune?”

“According to hearsay, more than five hundred thousand gold worth. And well, it could be fake, but it’s very difficult to imitate naga. They write with their tails, not their hands, after all. I’m willing to take the chance. I’ve been itching to update my cannons and plating with some of that fancy new stuff the Unified Theory Institute discovered. With this, I’ll finally be able to afford it. And install a new prow, one with a lancet that doesn’t break off so easily this time.”

Yeriss visibly deflates. She’s not much of a money chaser but she just unwittingly gave over an actual treasure map! So much for being lucky.

“Eh, don’t look so glum.” Mahera cajoles her, slapping her shoulder as she takes a merry gulp from her rum. “You’d’ve needed a boat to get there anyways.”

“All that gold…”

Mahera laughs, and tips her bottle at the pouting castanic woman. “Tell you what. As thanks for this, I’ll solve your problem.”

Yeriss watches curiously as Mahera lifts crates out the way one-handed. Must be nice having claws. The amani opens a crate at the back, and after periodically lifting a few things up to look at them, finds whatever she’s searching for.

“Your luck hasn’t run out just yet. Turns out my crew forgot to unload the crate full of the belongings of Federation soldiers from the First Expedition deceased or missing in action. Which means I can give you what you need: the identity of a federation soldier.” The amani holds out a silver badge engraved with the four pointed circle of the Valkyon Federation.

Yeriss takes it and holds it close to the light of the lantern. “Yerenica.” She reads aloud.

“Figured it would be easier for you if the name was similar. She was a castanic too, I think. Give me a minute and I’ll find her papers. Should be good enough to get you through if any of the officers notice something amiss about how you look.”

Mahera gives her a once over, glowing reptilian eyes lingering on the light luriafiber fabric of Yeriss’s crop top. “Speaking of which, you’ll need some armor.”

~~~

Minutes later, Yeriss is suited up and equipped with everything she needs to pass as Yerenica. Mahera retreats to her cabin with a new bottle of rum -celebratory this time no doubt- and Yeriss makes haste for above deck, ready to be anywhere but the dreary cargo hold. Sailors mill about tending the vessel, and there’s a large circle of upturned barrels serving as seats for a group of what looks to be twenty to thirty federation soldiers.

Yeriss makes a beeline right for them. Picking a dry spot of deck between a few people sitting on barrels, she sits cross-legged on the floor, making sure her federation badge is clearly visible where it glints clipped to her collar. There are several conversations ongoing, and she tunes in to the one of the people sitting closest to her.

“Actually, I heard that we’ll be arriving just three days after the Second Expedition gets there. I wonder if Leander will have found Elleon by then.” A talkative human woman with fashionably styled hair is saying animatedly.

“So Elleon is still missing?” A bearded human man asks, looking worried.

“Yeah, I’m afraid so.” Another, more muscular human man says, and Yeriss notices he is wearing fancy white and silver armor that sets him apart from the rest of the recruits. Although, the way he’s casually slouched as comfortably as possible over the barrel conflicts with that image. “But don’t worry, if anyone can find him it’ll be Leander. For Elleon’s sake, I actually hope he doesn’t find him too fast.”

A female castanic with choppy shoulder length gray hair and light blue eyes sitting next to the man laughs. “I’m sure my sister would say the same, Consul Dougal.”

“I know I’m not gonna have to remind you again that I don’t want any of you all calling me Consul, Davina. If just Dougal is too hard, sir is fine. We’re out of Velika now and unless Aide Vene is hanging around there’s no need for it.”

“Wow, really? I’ve never met someone so high ranked who didn’t act like all that and a bag of mudroot crisps.” The stylish human woman remarks.

Dougal waves a hand. “We’re all friends in the Valkyon Federation, I’d like to think. If you want to stand on ceremony, save it for Tribune Adria when we’re on the island. She’ll be more in charge of you than I am. Or Vene, if you want, but be careful. His head is already big enough you might fool him into thinking he is the Vanarch.”

Yeriss knows who Elleon is of course, and knew of Dougal, Commander Seir’s right hand man before, but otherwise she’s pretty lost in this conversation. As the others continue to chat, the baraka perched politely on the barrel beside her turns to her. He is a bit smaller than most baraka she’s seen, and doesn’t have much ‘facial hair’ present in the soft stone of his face.

“Hello there. I haven’t seen you around yet, my name is Heqim. It is my pleasure to make your acquaintance.”

Surprised but happy to be included, she returns his friendliness. “Hey, I’m Yeri- Yerenica.” She quickly corrects herself. Oops! “And yeah I wasn’t feeling so great earlier so I was resting below deck. Looks like I missed out on the important details of the fishwife gossip, huh?”

“You certainly have, though I do remember it all if you truly wish to be caught up on it.” Heqim says. Like most baraka, his face and tone are unreadable… but after a moment of scrutiny, he cracks a perceptible small grin. That was a joke? Yeriss can’t help the surprised laughter.

“I’m only kidding of course.” He says, looking pleased at having amused her. “At some point I started recalling a very interesting tale I heard during my previous post in Bastion and got a bit lost in thought.”

“Oh really? I’ve actually never been to Bastion, and not because I’m a castanic, just haven’t had the chance. I don’t think Balder would really mind anyway, since he was so kind and uh, I’m such a garbage artisan. I’ve heard it’s beautiful and wild and full of historical discoveries just waiting to happen.”

“Indeed it is!” Heqim agrees, looking as excited as a baraka can. “The tale is actually about Balder’s friend, Shakan, the lord of the beasts. A researcher group from the Mysterium that my squad and I were guarding uncovered a new repository of knowledge from before the age of the Divine War. On it was recorded a collection of recordings from one of the temple servants at the time. Quite scandalously, they regale the listener with tales of just how much fur they have to clean off the temple floors every time Shakan came to visit his friend and rumors that since none of them have seen him directly… well.”

Heqim casts a furtive gaze among the soldiers to see if anyone is really listening to him. “They basically insinuated that Shakan in reality was just Balder’s large hound, and that he wanted his pet to feel special and loved and so gave him his title as the Beastlord. They said they heard him speaking to Shakan in a tone not unsimilar to one used to coo at one’s pooch.”

“No way.” Yeriss says. “Shakan, the god? The great lord of all beasts, rumored to have foot-long claws... a dog?”

“It’s more plausible if you consider it carefully. All the fabled descriptions could be exaggerations encouraged by Balder to make his loyal pet happy. Would it not be common for a temple servant to bemoan the claw marks of a hyper dog amongst themselves, and call him a beast with the largest of claws?”

Yeriss stares. “Uuuuuum...you know what, I think you’re right. But if anybody from southeastern Shara, especially a high elf, heard you right now you’d be fighting for your life. Or your credibility I guess, which among those academic types is their life.”

The stylish human woman overhears this, and makes a statement about high elves and academia that has the group of varied races in something weapons short of an argument. Over the next couple days at sea, Yeriss learns that a boat is a very small place to be with so many troops. Though the Valkyon Federation was revolutionary for its unification of the seven races, expecting them to get along all the time was another matter entirely.

~~~

Three days later, they arrive at the Island of Dawn. For an island that is supposedly overrun with huge monsters, it’s absolutely gorgeous. If you ignore the ring of shipwrecks around it of course. Clear sky, nestled a few miles down in the ocean in a way that makes it look like it’s surrounded by perpetual waterfall on all sides, double rainbows made from the mist of the falling seawater, and the biggest pinkest… tree? which is a strange combination of wood and stone carved entirely with glowing turquoise runes. What a view.

They can’t actually approach the island by boat of course, so they dock on a small wooden platform and reach the island by pegasus, in groups of 8 since that’s how many they have to share. The crew of The Pride begins loading the Federation’s cargo onto three airships like the ones they have in Velika.

Yeriss and the rest of the soldiers are filtered through several tents, getting assigned squads and locations, debriefed on the situation at the island, and given maps, issued weapons, and today’s supper. By the time all that business is over, the sun has set. Tribune Adria, who Dougal was right in saying is the main person in charge of all the troops here, announces that the Island is too dangerous at night, and the majority of the battle force on the island will convene tomorrow at first light and resume their fight at the bridge that crosses to the area the monsters come from. They call it the Tainted Gorge, because unlike the rest of the gorgeous, lush island filled with magic and nature, the Gorge is withered and gray, with little to no flora surviving in the place.

While the others retire to their tents for the night, Yeriss decides a closer look is in order. Unfortunately there’s no way to the southern part of the island from the Tower Base where the Federation main camp is other than the bridge east of the Shrine of Yurian. Approaching the area as if she’s just out for a night time stroll, she sees that it’s too well guarded for her to sneak past. There’s two guards on each side of the bridge, and subterfuge has never been her strong suit.

Walking around the camp as confidently as the rest of the soldiers out on patrol, she wracks her brain for a solution to her problem. Passing by the airship dock, covered pavilion, and makeshift debriefing area with barely tidied scrolls and tactical maps, she eventually finds herself at the partially roofed enclosure housing the winged horses. Most of the steeds are resting in the area beneath the roof, but one of them is leaning out as far from the fence as possible. It is a beautiful, deep brown with tawny wings, and seems to be trying very hard to reach an open barrel of gold and purple apples nearby.

“Why not just… fly over?” Yeriss wonders aloud.

The winged horse’s ear twitches and it turns it’s head briefly to look in her direction. Suddenly, it lifts and extends its wings out from it’s side and a very obnoxious sound like a tinkling bell interrupts the island’s nighttime ambience.

“Oh.” Many creatures on Arborea are capable of understanding some of the common tongue, but she didn’t actually intend to speak to the horse. She’s not embarrassed though, it’s not like she would know that the Federation put such a spell on their steeds. “Afraid you’ll get caught? Me too.”

Yeriss tucks a piece of her copper hair behind her ear and furtively checks if anyone around is looking at them. “Maybe we can help each other out.” She says impishly, and picks up the barrel and puts it within the winged horse’s reach. Ducking under the shadow of the roof’s overhang as much as possible, she watches as the horse tucks into the apple barrel with the reckless abandon of a man starved. So much for it not wanting to get caught- there way the seeds are flying, it will be clear as day to whoever approaches next just what happened to the apples in the barrel. Maybe it just didn’t want to get caught in the act before it could eat all the apples.

“What kind of apples are these? The way you’re eating them makes me think I should be eating them too.” Yeriss remarks. The winged horse stops it’s chewing for a brief moment to send her what is clearly a warning glare. “Just kidding! But if you tell me, maybe I can find you more of them, so…”

Instead of answering her, which considering it can’t speak and therefore she really shouldn’t have expected such, the horse finishes it’s frenzied feast. “Hey, horse. Wanna return the favor?”

The horse does not look like it wants to return the favor.

“Okay… hey horse, wanna escape the scene of the crime?”

The horse does not look like it gives a care in the world about escaping the scene of the crime.

“...Wanna go look for more apples on the other side of the island?”

That earns her an interested whicker.

“Great! So, how do I go about turning off that annoying bell sound?... Hey, don’t look at me like that, I just got here with the Third Expedition, I’m not suspicious at all.” Yeriss complains, following the horse over to the other side of the enclosure. There’s a box on a table near the door. “This?”

Opening the box, she sees a book inside. Riding Skill: Tulpar, Bay, Raju, Ash, Basil is written on the book cover. Before she can even try to open it and look inside, the horse snatches it up in it’s mouth and shakes vigorously until it tears apart.

“...Um.”

The horse lifts its wings in a glorious skyward stretch and aside from the faint rustle of it’s deep brown feathers in the wind, it is soundless. Clearly, the issue is solved. Yeriss easily vaults over the fence and hauls herself up on the horse. Despite it’s perceivable attitude, it doesn’t shake her off. Her added weight is no hindrance to the steed, and with the ease of a bird, it takes flight.

Being atop a flying horse isn’t a new experience entirely - Yeriss has been on her fair share of pegasus flights. But this is a living, breathing being who isn’t confined to the predetermined path of it’s creators. This is much more exciting, and though it takes some gentle tugs to the mane of the beast, she eventually convinces it to fly in the direction of the Tainted Gorge.

“By the titans… that’s a lot of big ass monsters.” She says aloud. Ahead of them, many miles below, is the Gorge. There’s hardly any grass, certainly no flowers - in fact, the only surviving vegetation is the winding thorns of some kind of bush. More than that however, it’s crawling with monsters that appear to have previously been fey inhabiting the island. Blown up twice their normal size, she recognizes some of the monsters as fangspawn, a common corrupted form of earth spirit, as well as several teraliths that are going berserk and hurling rocks amongst themselves.

There are some she doesn’t recognize, that look almost demonic in nature - some sick, twisted thing that appears to have several long appendages that come out from a common base which appears to have the torsos of two… human looking figures on top of each other. Nearest to the bridge are some humongous nagas, whom she can guess arrived on the Island of Dawn via one of the crashed pirate ships in the graveyard of vessels that encircles the entire island.

Yeriss has to admit the monsters are bigger than she thought they would be. No wonder the Federation wants to keep this under wraps. She heaves a very disappointed sigh. There’d be no overnight heroics… yet.

She could probably still take the ones made of flesh and bone out in a one on one fight, but creatures of living rock and metal are always a pain in the ass without a magic user to help enhance your weapons. When it came to the vulcans and gulas she has experience fighting, the bigger they were the harder they fell. Maybe these would be the same. She’s seeing a disturbing lack of legs however.

“Let’s go back.” Yeriss sighs again, patting the winged horse’s neck. “Oh wait, wait- let’s check the Timeless Woods for some of those apples you love first. Then they won’t wonder where you’ve gone, if you show up with one in your mouth.”

~~~

The next morning at dawn, Yeriss and all twenty-something new arrivals stand gathered around a raised platform on the outskirts of camp, weapons glinting in the early light of the sun. Tribune Adria stands atop the platform, in full armor just like the rest of them. Despite Adria’s friendly demeanor and pretty face, there’s a seriousness to her that makes her commanding of respect. The large double-bladed greataxe that rests on her back is a physical reminder of that.

“Our reports list either direct contact with or sightings of the following creatures, which though you will be assigned to particular spots, it is important that you are aware that you may be attacked by these at any time: orisks, basilisks, ovoliths, teraliths, fimbrilisks, fangspawn, nagas, and hydraths.” Adria observes the reactions of the crowd as she speaks, and as if seeing something she expected, she continues. “These ovoliths are likely much bigger than the kinds one can find in the north of Poporia in vampir territory, and prefer to use their front legs as claws. Be wary of their eyes, because they will glint when enraged and often follow with a frenzied, devastating flurry of attacks.”

Adria looks for something among the container of scrolls she brought up with her on the platform. Unrolling one, it reveals an image of the twisted, metal-like thing Yeriss saw last night with the two humanoid bodies coming from either side of it.

“This is a hydrath.” Adria says. “I’m not surprised that many of you haven’t seen one, as they are quite rare. Rather than a creature that exists in nature, the hydrath is made when two individuals either succumb to or make a pledge with a powerful demon, who then severs both sacrifices at the torso and builds a hydrath using the two as well as the heads of several living stone serpents. Out of everything on this island, the hydrath is by far the most dangerous monster we have yet to encounter. If you see one, you are to fall back immediately and report to me or the consul of its location as soon as possible.”

Some of the soldiers ask a few questions, and aside from a useful warning from Adria that the range of a hydrath is quite large, Yeriss doesn’t hear anything else worth noting before the tribune is organizing everyone into balanced squads of five.

Moving to stand where directed, it’s less than a minute before four others have moved to join her. A male aman carrying a large shield and lance, the stylish human woman she saw before, carrying a greatsword on her back like Yeriss’s own, a male high elf with a large, graceful looking bow and quiver, and to her great pleasure and surprise, her baraka friend from the boat whose mysterious looking sorcerer’s focus swirls and collapses in on itself in a beautiful dance.

“Heqim!” Yeriss greets him in delight. “I should have known you were more dangerous than you looked.”

“I do believe there is a wise saying in there somewhere about not judging the contents of a book by the cover alone.” Heqim says, in a mock sage tone. “It’s a pleasure to serve with you, my friend.”

Yeriss flashes him a wide grin. “Same. I can’t stand boring battles.”

“Looks like the two of you are already friends.” The male aman’s voice is deep and soothing, unlike some she’s heard before that more resemble gravel. “That’s good. The better we know each other, the more effectively we will fight together.”

Making a fist over his heavily armored chest, the aman nods at the group. “I am Kagaran.”

“Oh you better hope we do, because I didn’t come all the way here to lose.” The stylish woman says, tossing her hair over her shoulder despite it being in a braid. “I’m Winra.”

“...Sein.” The high elf man says simply, and turns to the baraka beside him.

“As my friend Yerenica here mentioned, I am Heqim. Let us be smarter than our enemies in the Gorge, and our victory will no doubt follow.”

It is a very good thing that Heqim mentioned her name, because Yeriss had completely forgotten she was supposed to be someone else up until this point. She had been fully intending on introducing herself as Yeriss. By the titans, that was a close one.

“I’m Yerenica. Let’s send these overgrown monsters back to the dream, yeah?”

Tribune Adria comes back around then, with orders of where they are headed. There’s a north eastern entrance to the Gorge, but only the most experienced soldiers, and almost all users of the arcane at that, are sent there to hold the perimeter. Simply because it’s the area with the hydraths.

Most of all the other troops are going with Yeriss’s squad southwest to get to the gorge by going up the hill, and the few left are to be stationed at the guard camps to hold the road and make sure no monsters sneak by and endanger the Tower Base. As they follow the path south accompanied by several other squads, with Adria at the helm, the beautiful scenery around them melts away into barren land. Yeriss wishes they would all walk just a little faster. Isn’t this kind of an emergency?

A heaviness in the air begins to settle on her skin the closer they get, and Yeriss recognizes the presence of evil mana. A human man called “Jarius” is a researcher responsible for the three barrier shields they’ve put up on the island. Twice now he has gone ahead of them to temporarily disable the shields they have set up along the path, and as they crest the hill above the Gorge, he takes the utmost care in signaling them the okay to go through. The shield is invisible, but she can imagine it sealing the path behind them as Jarius places the focus stone back on the pedestal.

Yeriss isn’t scared. Below them are monsters. Her excitement has her struggling to reign in the urge to just run down the hill and jump for a leaping strike at the temptingly exposed eye of a fangspawn dragging itself around on the dirt. Finally the soldiers move, unsheathing their weapons, and she and the rest of her squad run after Kagaran to the east, where they were instructed to go, while the other squads charge down the hill.

Hauling themselves across the dirt on large, red hands, are five fangspawns. The closest to them sees them approaching, and lets out a high pitched gurgling screech. Heqim chants in an ancient tongue, and their weapons start to glow a faint blue. Yeriss knows this spell, it makes an edge twice as sharp, and a shield twice as durable. Sein kneels and launches a volley of arrows into the sky, and Yeriss and the others charge under the cover fire he’s providing.

Kagaran drives his lance towards the great snaggle-toothed maw of the beast, but it merely chips the side of the teeth as the beast snaps its mouth shut. Winra closes in to try and slash the flesh of its side, while Yeriss takes the other. They barely draw blood before the beast is rolling backward out of the way. Some of Sein’s arrows find their mark in a few of the fangspawn’s many smaller eyes, but this just serves to make it angrier rather than slow it down. Rearing back, it opens its maw wide and blasts a spew of liquid fire in front of it. Yeriss quickly ducks behind Kagaran as he raises his shield, and Heqim has a shimmering barrier covering Winra’s retreating form. Yeriss can feel the heat in the air around them. This is taking too long.

Of course the two most vulnerable points of a fangspawn are it’s largest eye, and the inside of its mouth, since a lucky stab upward through either would pierce both its brain and it’s heart, killing it instantly. But every time Sein fires an arrow towards the eye, the fangspawn just tips forward and catches it between the large curled horns at the top of its head instead. Despite the length of his lance, the beast is simply too much taller than Kagaran for spearing it through the mouth to be an option unless it is wide open.

Dashing in and rolling aside, half the time getting knocked away by swipes of the beast's large hands, Winra and Yeriss manage to land enough slashes to the sides of the fangspawn. The beast stumbles, losing strength and it opens its mouth once again to spew some defensive fire. Kagaran is upon it before it can gather enough of its ignitable liquid, and spears the thing through the roof of the mouth.

With a last shriek and shake, it rolls over dead. The three melee are breathing hard. Harder than they should be, in Yeriss’s opinion, from only felling a single one. The other fangspawn haven’t noticed them yet. Though spawns have many eyes, they are all located on the front of their body, and have no ears to speak of. Nor a nose, for that matter.

“That thing wasn’t so tough.” Winra says, pretending like she isn’t winded as she twirls her sword in self-satisfaction.

“Can you lure one to us, Heqim?” Kagaran asks, tapping his lance against the ground to get the gore off. “We can take them on one at a time.”

“I know just the spell.” Heqim answers readily, and raises his focus to do just that.

Yeriss isn’t happy with this answer though. Not only are there four more, who knows what other monsters could show up in the time it takes to defeat them. No, she wants to report to Tribune Adria that they cleared this area, easily, and can advance further within the Gorge. The next fangspawn approaches, following the twinkling golden orb of light Heqim summoned like a cat to a light reflector. It’s honestly funny, and Yeriss can’t help a breathless laugh.

Sein glares at her. “Keep your wits about you, Yerenica. This fight is far from over.”

“Oh come on, just look at it! You gotta admit that’s funny.”

Sein doesn’t look like he agrees with her, but the fangspawn is close enough to notice them now, and abandons Heqim’s light lure to charge at them. The party springs apart, and they start again in earnest. But in five minutes of attempting to stun it, spear it, and slash it, the fangspawn just continuously launches itself into the air to dodge and slams down, the shock of the impact sending them all tumbling backward several times. Yeriss’s legs are starting to bruise.

More annoyingly than all that, the fangspawn keeps ignoring Kagaran’s attempts to draw it’s attention and instead chases after Heqim. Though Heqim is able to dodge each time, it’s getting increasingly harder for him to focus on keeping up the enhancement spell on their weapons. Kagaran’s shield has a large dent in it.

Sein actually lands an arrow in its largest eye, and for a minute Yeriss thinks they’ve killed it. She approaches it to inspect whether or not it’s still breathing, greatsword out in front of her cautiously. Suddenly, it launches itself forward, the smaller eyes flashing red as it rolls straight towards at top speed.

“Yerenica watch out!!” She hears Heqim call out in warning.

There’s no time to roll out of the way. On pure instinct, she charges towards it instead of away, and just before impact she turns to the side and puts all her weight and moventum onto her sword, in the hardest slice she can muster. If she can’t go around, she will go through! Briefly blinded by a flash of blue, it’s a moment before she can regain her balance. The fangspawn lies in two halves on either side of her.

“Wow.” Yeriss says breathlessly. “I wasn’t sure that would work!” She smiles at Heqim. “Thanks for the shield.”

“You’re… welcome. Of course.” Heqim says, looking surprised despite clearly having caught on to her idea quickly enough to amplify her weapon’s edge and shield her from the gore. Her other companions are staring at the fangspawn’s halved remains.

“Well done.” Kagaran says, sounding half impressed and half like he’s not sure he should be complimenting her. “Are you hurt?”

“Nah, I’m fine.”

Sein is staring at her now, like she’s the one with twenty eyes. “That was incredibly risky.”

Yeriss shrugs. “It was too late to-”

“I think the rest of them noticed us.” Winra interrupts her.

Indeed, the other three are dragging themselves towards them, albeit slowly. Perhaps the sight of one of their own cleaved in half was making them cautious? Despite their large size, fangspawn brains are actually quite small, which is why you can’t just impale them at any spot in their main body and hope to pierce their vital organ.

Kagaran stands firm, but looks a bit nervous. “I suggest we fall back and look for a way to separate them. We haven’t proven adept at neutralizing these beasts fast enough to take on all three at once.”

“Fall back?” Winra repeats, looking offended. “We can handle this. The Federation didn’t send us here to take a year and a half just to kill some monsters.”

Yeriss actually totally agrees with the essence of what she’s saying, but not the way she said it. She got a bit winded earlier sure, but now she’s all warmed up and ready to kick some ass.

“Whatever we do, we can’t allow them to leave this place. I’m sure the other squads are clearing their areas, therefore so should we be.” Sein sniffs.

“Very well. Don’t make any risky maneuvers.” Kagaran acquiesces, seeing no other choice as the fangspawn close in on them. Raising his shield, he lets out a roar worthy of an aman to attract the attention of the fangspawn.

Winra and Sein break off to try and get behind the group, and behind her Heqim brings out a different focus - a large spell tome this time. Instead of following Winra however, Yeriss approaches the front of the spawns from behind Kagaran, and waits for him to block as the fangspawn swing their large hands at him. Each blow glances off his shield, a testament to his strong grip. As he lands a goring pierce through the hand of one who didn’t retract it fast enough, Yeriss irately thinks there must be a faster way to take these things down before the triple tag-team of monsters can wear out the strength of Kagaran’s shield arm.

Sein’s arrows hit the smaller eyes of the fangspawns and the area around it one by one, but with three of them it’s much harder to get a straight shot towards the big eye on their front. Especially since, although not the brightest on this Arborea, they’re naturally protective of their weak spot. Winra crows with victory as she lands a lucky blow that cuts up from the side of one of the fangspawns mouths up to right below it’s eye. Bleeding heavily, the thing can’t dodge the enchanted arrow Sein sends straight up through its main eye, piercing its brain.

Before they can celebrate the victory, one of the fangspawns darts forward to take a bite at Kagaran’s right side, but Yeriss springs out from behind him and raises her greatsword diagonally, supporting the top on the flat of the blade with her hand to block, and angrily shoves it backward.

Across from her, Winra is muttering to herself as she swings repeatedly at the other fangspawn. “Stupid, overgrown, one-eyed, kumas sucking piece of filth-!”

Automatically, the image of a kumas comes to mind. To kill a Kumas is actually pretty hard because you have to cut off the arms, which are made of living stone. ...Wait. Gods curse it… forget the eye, forget the mouth!

Yeriss looks upon the monsters with new eyes. Native to this island, these fangspawn here have had limited contact with civilization and technology. The armor fangspawn usually wear on their arms is limited on these to whatever they could find among the shipwrecks nearest the gorge. Unlike other fangspawn, like the kind in Fyrmount, their armor only extends halfway up their arms, leaving the upper part bare. There’s not much space between the bulbous main body of the fangspawn and it’s arm, but it’s a big ass monster, and Yeriss is a castanic. She’ll fit.

She waits for Kagaran to block another blow before jumping up to push off his shield with her feet, riding the momentum and using it to give her speed as she darts through the space between the fangspawn’s body and forearm, slashing upward hard before rolling to soften the blow as she hits the ground. Using her sword and the force from her roll, she pushes herself back to her feet and looks back at the fangspawn. Blood gushes from the slice, the arm a bit more than halfway cut through. Yeriss frowns as the monster screams and spews enraged fire at everything in front of it. She’d meant to cut it off.

“Heqim!” She calls out as she moves behind the fangspawn towards the other arm. “How sharp can you truly make my blade? I just need a second or two.”

Erecting a shield to help Winra block a rather hefty looking punch from the fangspawn Kagaran isn’t distracting, it’s a moment before Heqim answers her. “I see your plan my friend! But make it truly only two seconds, lest my mana deplete entirely maintaining your enhancement.”

Holding her blade high above her head, she runs forward as fast as she can towards the other arm of the fangspawn. “Now!” This time, her blade flashes a bright gold as Heqim pours all his magic into her greatsword. The sharp spikes on the side of the fangspawn’s body scratch painfully along her side, splitting the boscleather of her armor and drawing blood, but Yeriss doesn’t slow down, yanking her sword through the flesh of the fangspawn’s upper arm as hard as she can. It comes clean off behind her, making the fangspawns body fall over sideways. Kagaran extends the inner side of his shield arm out to catch her as she tumbles forward, and spears the dis-armed fangspawn through the eye with his lance in the same motion.

Recovering her balance with his help, she regains a steady grip on her blade and rushes to help Winra with the last fangspawn. The two slayers close in on the beast from either side. Unable to decide which way to dodge, the fangspawn doesn’t move, and dies impaled from both swords on either side.

After double checking the corpses to make sure the monsters are dead, Heqim is by Yeriss’s side, pressing a small bottle into her hand.

“For me? Thanks! You’re so well prepared.” Healing potions are expensive, because they take a while to make as well as a certain level of alchemical skill to refine, so she typically just uses bandages until she can be tended to by a priest. The scratch is painful, but by no stretch is it serious. She won’t refuse his kindness, though. Yeriss takes a swig and hands it back. “Nothing like the taste of crimson essence.”

A survey of the area reassures her squad that the space is clear and secure. Those who were fighting relatively nearby are nowhere to be seen, but the corpses of several orisks and their green goo seep into the ground. Kagaran leads them back up the hill to rendezvous with the Tribune. They are not the only ones arriving there, and Adria quickly congratulates them on their victory and sends them and the other squad to aid one of the squads to the south struggling with a set of fimbrilisks. By the time the sun is high in the sky, Yeriss and her team have aided in taking down six more big ass monsters than their original five, but every time they clear an area a few more monsters seem to trickle in to fill their place. When they retreat behind the shield stone for a quick lunch, several soldiers seem to be complaining that there are much more monsters on this island than they thought.

Without a doubt this is true. But Yeriss doesn’t mind in the slightest.

#tera #tera online #lore #longfic #the way i was like O_O when i realized i hadn't posted this here lmao #for all my followers where tf i've been yeah um this is what i've been doing!

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