"Why are you following me?" Vapooliar asks. She comes to a stop with a dangerous glint in her eye. Stopping and backing up, my hairs shiver and I clutch the aelenvar seed tighter. Yet, terrified as I might be of the power she holds, its glow only goes so far.
With the moon's light above, she's not as gracious with her power. Still, this forest. It's better than it was back in the hive. However, I did not escape that place to be snatched back there in the darkness of night. I shuffle about, realising I am taking too long to answer.
"I feel safer with you..." I finally tell Vapooliar and my voice echoes with three human mutters. Vapooliar's head twitches up, and she narrows her gaze at the men. The oldest of the three takes charge and steps up to meet her gaze with an unwavering one of his own.
"She's right..." the soldier says before he stops himself. The man who's stared down war and conflict backs down over some unknown thought.
"Vapooliar is fine." she growls, understanding the issue more than I do. My ears lower, more than capable of understanding the warning made towards their trained formalities.
"She's right, Vapooliar. There's safety in numbers." he finishes with a nod. Words that mean all the more, given our recent efforts. Though none of us lose the irony. We're here for the strength of one so great she might as well be a thousand.
"The other group is larger..." Vapooliar reminds him. She reminds us all and my eyes waver, hiding behind their lids. Vapooliar hisses and leans more heavily against her blade. It's already easily getting into the earth, but this extra pressure makes it a fight to stop it going all the way in.
The aged soldier nods and keeps his attention on the sword. He seems to find comfort in the magic-rich steel. The fact it's so finely going deeper only seems to bolster his confidence in its power. If I were to speak, I'd admit to this feeling too. I've seen its power used on rock. I even was the one to do it, certainly a story for if I ever find my way home...
"You heard our disagreements with them. But, regardless of it, someone like you makes it all far safer," he explains as his finger wiggles at her sword. Her sword leans forwards slightly. She slips it out of the ground, stabbing it ahead with heavy thrusts.
Vapooliar presents her glaring ire directly before him. He shuffles back, the pressure of her magic too present for any of us to be comfortable. It dissipates steadily, and she looks away. My eyes open to the sight of her body shaking, the thin lime outline trailing in the pitch black.
She looks away, a gasping breath on her lips. Hastily, she distances herself like she's the one terrified of grand power. Something reflects the light near her eyes. It trails down her cheek, taking the reflection with it.
"Do not lie to me... I cannot protect anyone." she whimpers, stabbing away at the ground with her makeshift cane. She's desperate to get away. I watch her leave for only a second and my legs spring to life. I catch up to her, words building up in my throat.
"You've kept many of us safe." I quietly tell her, struggling to grasp the entire meaning of what she's said.
"The men are less than a fraction of what they once were. The battle that led to our imprisonment and my humiliation saw to that! Despite me being the soldier, the powerful witch of our group... Nin gave up his chance to escape for my sake. He did his part getting out of the hive, and then I failed him right after," she elaborates, her tone leaving me no room to offer even a reassuring nicety.
She leans on one of the trees, a quick hiss from her drawing out too much strength. The bark cracks, the trunk snaps. She switches between them, wobbling back and forth awkwardly as her stomach acts up. I offer to help, but she raises a hand. It becomes a pointing finger and we share a look at the aelenvar seed.
"That was his choice, Vapooliar." I say to her. It was his choice not to run. There's nothing to say on it...
Vapooliar shakes her head with a snort. I flinch at her narrowed eyes, and she leaves me behind once again. A tired sigh escapes me and the three soldiers catch up. My ears twitch, picking up more noise from the woman ahead than from them.
"Just like it was your choice to follow a failure like me and not the slavers..." Vapooliar mutters under her breath as the rattling of riveted rings becomes clearer. I force my attention away to the soldiers, not keen on hearing any hurtful remarks while I am shaky enough as is. I'm a tough girl, I know that, I've lived enough to know it. But... Not now.
"So, what ya have there?" the aged soldier asks as he tries to reach for the seed. Pulling it out of his reach, placing it far on my other side, I skirt around the soldiers. A sneer stays on my face the whole while.
"It's a seed." I explain as he retracts his thick-skinned hands. One of them goes towards his mess of a beard and knocks it. The filth's somehow visible, even in the dark. My nose crinkles and I can't help but sniff again. His body is rife with a strong smell far beyond that of the other two, or anyone else here, for that matter. It's not the smell of the hive, even!
Mostly...
It's something far more potent and bitter. I am reminded of the campfire and the smoke barrier, too. My nose twitches again, taking in a more controlled sniff. I look over his shoulders and see nothing in the dark, and shake my head.
"What's it grow, then?" one of the other two soldiers asks.
"A damn big tree." the last of the three jokes.
"It's an aelenvar seed..." I correct with a roll of my eyes.
"An odd sight, alright. Tis rare to see something like that not in the hands of its mother," the aged soldier points out as we walk out of the shadowy tree cover. Moonlight shines on us, revealing his sooty face and me.
"Can you keep your distance, Sootface?" I ask but more so demand, keeping my nose pointlessly covered. The other two soldiers chuckle and Sootface looks back at them bemusedly.
"This is how you treat your king?" he laughs back at them with an accusatory poke.
"One, not a battlefield. Two, you got no artillery." one says and his partner bursts into laughter with him. Hearing around with my ears, I try to pick up any other sounds, just in case. Something, anything, to keep my attention off of the smells this man is bringing with him.
"Oh, if I could change history, Envo." Sootface remarks and then he tuts.
"Yeah, you could have a bath!" Envo's partner laughs.
"Aarut, I'll cut and drop the tree from that seed onto you when it finishes growing. It'll be enormous!" Sootface warns as his filthy hand motions at the pair.
"You will not be dropping anything from this seed..." I hiss as I tenderly tighten my grip on the unborn child. Unsure, I stroke the seed to try and comfort it. Can unborn aelenvari even feel such comforts?
"A thousand pards, your Fluffiness. Allow me to apologise by wiping my gunpowder-stained face on your tail!" he goes. Hearing that, I hide my tail away from him and I take a leaping step away from the trio.
"You keep the stench of ignition away from my fur!" I growl, displaying my teeth to the aged man as they calm down with the laughter.
"Or?" he posits, much to the entertainment of his colleagues and my detriment.
"Do such a thing and I'll claw your eyes out!" I threaten as I show off my longer, sharper-than-normal nails. I might not be able to fill them with magic or do anything fancy, but they are weapons in their own right.
"Oooo, the pup's got teeth." Sootface laughs dramatically.
"Now, now, Rohlant, don't start doing your sapping duties now. We still need to get somewhere safe." Envo tells him as he adjusts his mail-covered tricorn.
"I'm just flicking the match by her candle!" he complains, as if it's not a big deal.
"You artillerymen and your slang... Matches light fuses!" Envo goes as he throws his free hand about. The other copies it, but with a gun in hand, it's slower and noisier.
"And a cannonball doesn't always break the walls it fires at," Sootface huffs. But all three of us struggle to see his point. A fired cannonball is still a rocketing killer ball!
"Thank the gods we don't have to be formal with you anymore, Battcomm Rohlant." Aarut sighs and his partner stares at him. Gently backhanding his nose, Envo moves his head away.
"To be honest," Sootface sighs as he rubs his eyes, "I'm just glad that I can finally retire. A little different from how I had planned. But, it's here."
"It's hard to believe your age sometimes, Battcomm." Aarut comments as Sootface looks ahead at Vapooliar. Matching his gaze, I frown as Vapooliar shows more and more signs of her struggle to walk. If I wasn't fearful about her state and the vulnerability that comes with it, I'd be curious. She's not been doing well since we left the destroyed mountain back when daylight was a thing.
She's only been getting worse, even with the young slaver's efforts back at the mountain...
"Mm, younger than the youngest Valkinvar right there. But I don't look the part at all," he chuckles.
"Should've taken the earned retirement a long time ago." Envo scoffs, shaking his head gently.
"War still needs fighting." Sootface tells him as his expression hardens.
"Then why did you come with us?" I ask him, as his reasoning for staying on doesn't match now...
"We were lucky to survive that battle. We might have been captured by 'sibins after, but I'll take what I can get. Now, I'm not going to argue the theology behind how we have survived this long... Especially not after seeing what I did before it all went into the shell craters. The battle may have been a moment, but escaping that event gave me pause. It still does," he explains solemnly.
"Artilleryman in his little bunker gets pause from being attacked..." Aarut bitterly remarks, sparking up an inferno of tension between the three. The opinions and memories of two against one.
"Those orbs came for us first." Sootface reminds him as the two step close to one another. Fists form and their faces remain set in their heated, determined glares.
"You survived in rubble. We survived running in the open valley." Aarut tells him as his eyes start to make me uncomfortable.
"That's enough, the pair of you!" Envo goes as he forcefully steps between them and pries them apart with his arms. Shoving him away, Aarut steps around and heads into the shadowy edge of the trees.
"We all survived that battle, that's all that matters," Sootface murmurs as he aggressively snaps his uniform into order.
"We're both... Were, formal troops, Battcomm. You might hear the screams as we go down. But it's a little different when the formation stops existing right next to you," Envo says to him before he breaks off to go after his friend.
"I am not belittling you two. Brave pikemen, forward marching pikemen." Sootface comments under his breath before he starts to recite what sounds like a war song.
"When did the osibindah get to you lot?" I ask Sootface as he sighs at all the darkened sights about us. Certainly feels all too easy to have our imaginations see bugs that are not there.
"It's hard to say." he shrugs as we come up on a cliff of some kind.
"Vapooliar?" I ask as I spot the injured woman as she rests against a tree. Seeing her remaining armour glint in the moonlight, I rush over to her. She's pointing at something and I follow the direction to see what it is she wants me to see. Though, I'm dreading it is something bad...
"Can you see them?" she asks weakly. At first, I don't spot anything in the dark, even with the unhindered moonlight. But then I hear the sounds of falling trees. From the forested valley down there at the far edge of the plains-surrounded lake comes light. Little, bright pairs that keep growing in quantity.
Smiling, I bounce the seed slightly as if it became solid gold, "Are they?"
"An aelenvari caravan... Yes." Vapooliar nods as her hand drops to her side. The hard edges of the seed suddenly feel all the harsher on my tender skin. I look down at the seed again, not feeling the same as I was before. I worry.
"W-What do we do?" I ask. We have a seed on us, but, well, that is the problem. The aelenvari treat their children with the utmost care, the unborn ones, anyway. If they see it, we might get an army at our throats. It'll only take one misinterpretation of our states for it to happen!
Emerald light fills Vapooliar's hand and she weakly tosses it into the night sky, "They'll come to us."
"It's nice to know we maybe have found somewhere safe..." I remark as I collapse to my knees. Bringing my tail around, I wrap up the seed and look out at the massive caravan. More and more of them are coming into view and the land down there lights up alongside them. So many different colours of varying purities.
Like the fields of flowers that give them their names on an Orbital-Halo blessed day!
And, like something divine, Vapooliar's magic outshines them all like a lure of hope. Finally, there is somewhere safe for us to be. We go down there when we can and I no longer have to worry about there maybe being bugs behind us. The monsters in the dark will stay away indefinitely!
"Can someone help me up? We should make use of our time and meet them in the middle." Vapooliar asks as she tries to stand up. Against her injury, however, it makes her stay down.
"You should rest, Vapooliar." I tell her as I uncomfortably look at the dried blood around her gut. The arcane burns make me feel even queasier. To think I nearly had a wound like that.
"I don't need rest, I need magic..." she explains as she gives it another go. Putting the seed down, I rush to help her up, seeing as she insists on overcoming the pain.
"One of you two, help her!" I bark as I watch the seed. Struggling with Vapooliar's strength and weight as the three bicker amongst themselves. Two of them shove one of them forward, and he takes over.
"Easy on my shoulders now... Vapooliar." Envo cautions as he struggles to adjust himself to the situation. Relieved it's not my back feeling the weight, I pick the seed up and start the walk down the ramp-like slope.
"Come on now, warm beds, full meals..." I say, getting a bit dreamy towards the end. And, looking at the waterfall-fed lake on our right, I smile a bit. I finally have an opportunity to clean my fur and tail!
"Look at it go," Aarut remarks bemusedly as he watches the latter swish from side to side.
"Try not to linger, you lot!" I nearly giggle as I pick up the pace. Going faster down the natural ramp.