For the last hour and a half, Val hid behind a boulder, watching its shadow stretch as the sun journeyed across the sky. It was safe to say that aether creatures didn't come running to you as they had yesterday.
The pursuit of points was one they spent the last couple of days trying to fine-tune. After roughly twenty hours spent, the band of participants finally found the right roles to play to efficiently hunt the aether creatures of Thunderstone in a team of five.
Unfortunately, she scored the boring job: the net.
"Efron, it's coming your way!"
'About time.' Unsheathing her sword, Val peeked out of her cover. Little footfalls echoed, the repetitive sound beating in fast succession. She could make out a grey-coated rabbit, its fur a natural camouflage along the rocky expanse. Her eyes narrowed. 'A bit closer…'
It darted past her and she lashed out a hand. The rabbit jolted in her grasp, snapping its neck towards her and opening its maw wide. Val ducked and the whoosh of a wind blade tore through the air above. The next second her sword pierced the rabbit's head, a wet, slink sound filling her ears. The beast ceased to move. Not long after, golden patches decorated its exterior.
Val let out a breath, slumping back to lean against the boulder. She fingered the few strands that escaped her braid, the long hairs cut short, and gritted her teeth. 'Still too close.'
The last time she tried to go straight for the attack, she earned a deep gash across her forearms. The stained bandages wrapped around her arms were souvenirs of the event. The instance before that, she nearly lost her head. A one-starred Windsnap's defence mechanism was one to be wary of, so much so that she remembered it being noted in the CAU's guidebook. 'More offensive than anything, to be honest.'
"To think it took five of us for the stubborn little thing to finally meet its end." Val looked up to find the rest of the group behind her, Williams' grey eyes transfixed on the carcass. She squinted at them, a halo of light rounding her team as the sun settled behind the horizon. "I blame Hayes."
Caro made a face. "If you don't stop talking right now, I'll make you. Teammates or not."
The soft rumble of Williams' laugh tickled Val's ear as she cut off an ear from the slain Windsnapper. "I'd like to see you try. Worse comes to worst, the conductor will kick you out which, thinking about it now, is the better option."
"Son of a—"
"Okay, okay." Val got up, slipping her sixth point inside her pocket. "It's too late for you guys to be bickering."
"Or flirting," Jerel chirped with a sly smile.
The two gagged simultaneously as if tied by a string.
A groan resounded. "We've been at it the whole day, just as planned. We're all at six points now, just as planned. So can we please, for Saint's sake, head back now, just as planned?" It was the female archer, who they now know as Laura, that asked, a hand on her lined brow.
Val glanced above, the dark blanket of night racing towards the western sky. "It's now or never. We don't wanna be cornered by aether creatures, or worse, picked off by one of those hunter teams."
As predicted at the start by Jerel, teams have already been on the lookout for others. Luckily, most hunter teams were loud and obnoxious, alerting the competitors of their positions minutes before nearing them. It was how Val and her team have been avoiding them for the past day.
"Then," Jerel snapped his shield back into its buckles, "let's move."
Cutting a path through a series of caves scouted out and marked, they arrived at their home base: Blue Cave. When they first came across the opening of Blue Cave, Williams lit a mechanical torch found in their supply bag and led the way in.
Glowing veins thrummed inside the cracks of the stone walls, casting a teal glow throughout the underground chamber. Val had honed in on the mysterious, luminous rends, stumped at the fact no energy had been emanating from them.
"What the hell are these?" Caro squinted as she poked and prodded at the teal lines.
"I don't know and frankly, I don't care," Laura said. "Saves us the trouble of walking through the caves in the dark."
Today, Val hung by the entrance and watched the rest head in. It was her turn to guard their little cave entrance while they relaxed and patched up, Laura being the one who held the helm the night before.
She slid down the outer stone walls, exhaling as the adrenaline cooled off. She'd been on edge ever since the crack of dawn and to be fair, she still was. But the sight of stars glistening as the last brightness of day waned slowed her heartbeat to a soft lullaby. The silence was an unfamiliar but welcome presence and she soaked in what little starlight breached the weather ward, gaze lost to the vast night sky above.
A pebble landed near her and cracked the image.
Val jumped to her feet and turned towards the entrance, a hand on her hilt. She was met with a blinking Caro. She flinched, hands up. "Woah there. Just me."
Val sighed, sheathing her weapon and rubbing her neck. "Sorry."
"No, that was all me." Caro plopped to the ground and patted the space beside her with an expectant look on her face. "Wanted to give you company."
Val sat and leaned her sword against the wall. "You chose me over sleep? I'm truly touched."
"You should be." Caro grinned, her expression straightening as the second stretched. "You alright? I noticed you've been a bit… off."
"Off how?" Val asked, gaze veering upwards at the astral cover above.
"Hmm." Caro's nose scrunched up. "Six years. I spent six years convincing you, telling you stories of us dominating the University Games and diving into rifts, yet you said no every time. Then, randomly, you pick up some newspaper and run off, deciding to brave the trials the next day. But all that's fine with me. I've got my buddy with me and you've finally made a step."
"Okay…" Val's eyebrows pinched together. "I don't see what's wrong with that."
"Know that I'm glad you seem to be putting your all into it. Really glad, seriously. I just can't shake the feeling that this newfound drive has got nothing to do with becoming a mage and everything to do with your parents. Your mother, especially." Caro paused, her older brother's iron edge tinting her voice. "What happened yesterday?"
Val's eyes narrowed to slits and her friend returned the gesture, a steady battle of will. Caro relented with a sigh, pushing herself up. "Look, between you and I, you've got me beat on stubbornness. So if you don't want to open up, I can't make you. Just letting you know I'm always here to lend an ear."
Doc's warning rang in Val's mind. Tell no one else of her quest, right? The repercussion of her mother's condition getting out wasn't the solely worst—it could possibly be the end. She'd narrowly survived the death of one of her parents. To be quite frank, she wasn't sure she came out in one piece.
If she lost her mother too…
'But could I do this by myself?'
It was a question she frequently asked herself, an inquiry she often answered with a lie. All that said, as Caro gave her one last look and began the walk inside Blue Cave, she realized it was time to admit the truth. Clenching her fists together, Val sighed and caved in. "Wait."