The week-long absence has somehow reset my resistance to the stomach-churning experience of stepping between worlds, and I nearly fall over when my feet touch solid ground. The gate that we stumble out of and into Efra was a small, waist-high one attached to a fence around a farmhouse.
We arrive beneath a shadow of a large tree. Its bark was a deep, dark brown, and its leaves were a dark green that caught the light and shimmered like silver. Similar trees litter the ground all around us and clustered together all around the hilltop we were on. I push myself up. In the distant, fog-shrouded horizon, the looming shadow of the walled city.
"What's the goal for this Door?"
I pull the shard from my pocket, but Monica was already in the process of asking her's which took the form of a ring on her pinky finger.
"Kill the corrupted god-beast."
"What's a god beast?" I ask.
"You'll know it when you see it." Came the reply.
I sigh. As useful as ever.
"What did it say?" Monica asks.
" ' You'll know it when you see it.'" I answer.
Monica chuckles.
"No, what did it really say?"
"Word for word."
"Really? Is your patron always like that?"
"Mostly, yeah."
"Now I'm even more curious about your story." She says with a twinkling in her eyes.
William rolls his eyes, and walks out of the shade of the tree toward the edge of the hill, only to quickly fall back up. He presses his finger to his mouth and hushes us quietly.
"There's a camp just ahead. Jackals. One was glancing up in our direction." He speaks in a hushed, hurried tone.
"How many?" I whisper back; assuming by, 'jackals,' he meant the Dogmen.
He shrugs.
"I'll check. I want to try something out, anyways."
"What do you mean? You know how observant they are, right? There were more than three, for sure, which means we'll be outnumbered."
"It'll be fine," I say as I tap the top of my head with my rod.
"How can you be so sure?" William grabs the cane and pulls it away from my head, "My sister's our only front-liner; I know she can easily take on two or three of them, but there were definitely more than that; far more. At least ten."
I realize that I was asking him to put his neck on the line for me; a complete stranger. Wasn't that what Shawn had done to me; not once, but twice? I curse myself in my head.
"I'm just scouting." I say to reassure him, "I can turn into a small animal and hide in the grass; we need more information."
William goes quiet for a second.
"What kind of animal?"
"A cat will be the best for this situation."
"You can't do anything smaller?"
I shake my head.
"I can only turn into animals that I've contracted with."
"Contracted with? What do you mean?"
Monica pipes up behind us.
"Do you know the concept of familiars?"
"Is Clio one? Is that why she can use magic? Ah, I wanted to ask you about that after this, but I'm just so curious..."
"Clio can use magic?"
"You didn't know? She was healing you the entire time you were out."
"Ah, that explains how nearly all my scars vanished."
"Okay." William broke up our conversation again. His monotonous tone had returned, "Take a peek, and then we'll formulate a plan to take them on."
I nod and raise my cane to tap my head again.
"Comrade of mine..." I stop.
Wait a minute...what if I lose my clothes when this happens? I've seen this play out in comics and anime all the time.
"What's wrong?" Monica asks.
I glance at the woman watching me closely. Nope. No way that I can do it.
"Uh, I think I'll try something else."
I point the cane at the base of the tree.
"O companion of mine, come to me," I whisper.
Brrow.
Shadow pops out of thin air into the shade beneath the grass. She looks around before glancing up at me with an annoyed look on her feline face.
Mister? Again? Why? You asked me to keep an eye on your things. I was so comfortable. So warm.
"Is this one of your familiar? Aww, she's so cute."
Monica moves forward to pet Shadow. The cat dodges her hand and hops into the branches of the tree before vanishing from sight.
"I know, but I need your help. Can you look down the hill for us and tell me what you see?"
"Where'd she go?" Monica whispered as she glanced around the tree branches. She glances back at me as I speak. "Can you talk to it?" I nod to her question.
... For a price.
"A price? What?"
I want some food. Not that dry stuff; something fresh. Get me that and I'll do it.
"Fine. Deal."
The leaves of the tree rustle as she hops from one branch to the next. From one tree to the next until it stops at a tree at the very edge of the hill.
There are dogs there. Cloth buildings all set up in a circle, and a fire in the middle.
Those, 'cloth buildings,' must be tents. A camp? For what reason would they set up a camp there? Were they sent here to watch the Door? That would mean that the enemy was now aware of humanity's interference, and if so, they'd have a way to inform their main force from this distance if anything were to happen.
"Are there any flags? Bells?"
"Hey, are you talking to the cat? That's so neat."
Flags? No. No bells. No buildings larger than the cloth ones.
Smoke signals? Mirrors? Telepathy? Honestly, anything was possible. I decide to abandon that line of questioning.
"Is there anything other than the dogs there?"
Cloth buildings and fire. I told you.
"How does it sound? Like a person?" Monica asks before going back to looking through the branches of the tree.
"Any big animals?"
No. I would have told you that, mister. Mister, some of the dogs are moving up the hill. Three; two with long sticks, and one with short sticks.
"A couple of the Dogmen are moving up the hill." I turn to Monica and William who were also searching the tree for the cat.
Monica nods and grabs hold of William's arm to drag him behind her in a protective manner.
"Including the three coming, how many of them are there, Shadow?"
Eleven? Twelve? Mister. I'm scared. I'm going to hide.
"Good, keep out of sight."
There was no return message from Shadow as the tree she had stopped on remained perfectly still. I point the cane in the direction of the top of the hill, and Monica silently draws her saber, and William pulls a pendant out of his pocket.
"There are at most twelve in total. Chances are that once we engage the others will likely respond as well. I'm sorry, William." I say, "There might be some danger for Monica after all, but to mitigate that..."
I point my cane at her and draw a circle — the symbol of Aether.
"What are you doing?" William reaches out to knock my cane away. I hold it
"You that bind the All, guard me against those that would cause me harm."
The air around Monica ripples.
"Oh, that feels weird. What is it?"
"A shield," I answer, as I also move toward the trunk of the tree, and kneel in the shadow near William. "Hopefully we can take them all out without having to use it," I whisper.
We wait there clustered in the shadow of the strange tree until the first of their heads poke out over the crest of the hill. I should do something to make sure that Monica doesn't have to deal with all three of them by herself.
I point the cane in the direction of the hilltop once again and draw a triangle.
"Bombard my enemies, O' thou servants of Gob, the magnanimous," I whisper.
William looks at me with his face painted in panic. Did he believe that I was going to give away our position by firing off a spell here? I try to reassure him with a glance, but it doesn't seem to work.
I feel the mana draw up my feet as I incant and then spread out into the ground. I manipulate the mana in the direction of the hilltop. I split the mana into three and spread it out to find a stone embedded in the ground. I find a couple of ones that feel about as large as my head and wrap the mana around them and wait for all three of the Dogmen to crest the hill.
As soon as the third Dogman — a pike wielder, I let loose the bombardment of stones. One rips out of the ground near the foot of the tree and barrels into the head of the nearest one; turning it into a red mush in the blink of an eye as the stone sailed into the sky. The second stone slams into the middle of the back of the Dogman that took up the rear; the sound of its spine snapping could be heard from our position. The third stone rips from the ground near the base of the fence that the Gate was attached to. It crashes into the sword arm of the Dogman in the middle. It dropped its weapon.
Before either of the crippled Dogmen could whimper and howl out a warning, Monica darts forward. One second she was beside me, and the next she was in front of the broken-armed Dogman with her blade up to the hilt in its throat, and in another blink of the eye, and before the now gurgling Dogman could collapse, she was above the one that had its back broken. With a quick, silvery flash, she separates its head from its body.
Incredible. She was incredible.