Beth couldn't help but feel exhilarated at riding the velociraptor. Not only were they moving so much faster than they would have walking, but there was the sense that she was riding something that was supposed to be extinct. Even though she knew it was an illusion, she couldn't shake that feeling.
She wasn't sure how long they'd been riding these for, and one nice thing about them being illusions was that they didn't tire out the way real raptors would have. She could see the sun was going down behind the mountain, not that it meant much given they were in the mountains, but it did indicate that it was late in the day.
Beth looked ahead of them and couldn't really see any real change. They were approaching the rise and there wasn't any sign that she could see of the captured pronghorn-kin yet, though Tim had assured her that the raptors were following the scent.
Beth had to trust Tim that that's what was happening, though, she wished they had an eye in the sky to let them know they were going the right way and how close they were to their target.
Especially since while she wasn't walking, she was still getting rather tired. She would have thought that riding something like this would be simple and easy, but keeping herself on the raptors back was taking more energy than she had expected.
Eventually, the raptors slowed to a stop just before the rise. Beth saw Tim dismount, so she did so as well. Which she quickly realized might have been a mistake, as her legs collapsed under her as soon as they tried to bear her weight. She didn't complain as their 'mounts' vanished, indicating Tim had stopped pulling on his magic to keep them around.
"Owwww," Beth complained softly.
"Takes a lot out of you, huh?" Amelia asked, dismounting with ease and no apparent sign of her legs turning traitor.
"How come you're not like this?" Beth complained.
Amelia laughed. "This isn't much different than riding horses," Amelia replied. "There are some differences, but mostly it's the same. Especially when riding bareback like we are, you hold on with your knees and keep yourself balanced. Though, once you get used to it, it won't be as painful as it looks like it is for you."
"Glad you're so amused," Beth replied dryly.
Amelia walked over to help Beth up. "Don't worry about it," she told her. "You'll be fine. Though, let's hope there's wagons with the group, otherwise we'll probably have to walk a ways before we can camp for the night."
"You think we'll find the deer-kin before we'll have to camp?" Beth asked, skeptical on the matter, since she had no idea how far they'd already traveled and no idea how much more they might need to go.
"Don't worry about that," Amelia said. "I think the raptors stopped because we'lre close."
"Why do you think that?" Beth asked, arching an eyebrow.
"Well, they didn't stop until now. Even when we had agreed we should have some dinner," Amelia answered.
Beth sat down on the ground and put her elbow on her knee so she could rest her head against her hand. "Remind me, why did we agree to do this?" she asked, wondering what the likelihood of her falling asleep like that, right then would be.
"Because you know it's the right thing to do," Amelia replied.
"Wouldn't we say that if we were more aligned with the deer-kin?" Beth asked. "I mean, wouldn't the deer-kin think what they're doing is the right thing to do?"
"Maybe," Amelia replied, "but at the same time, the pronghorn-kin were living peacefully and not trying to create problems, but the deer-kin came in and killed a lot of the pronghorn-kin. I mean, you saw how many bodies there were. Most of them were children and women who clearly didn't try to fight back."
Beth sighed. "Fine, you have a point there, but still. Why should we be the ones who do this?"
"I can't say where I heard this from, but it feels like it was from a movie or a book or something, but I think it's something like 'if you don't do what you know is right, who will?'" Amelia answered.
"Yeah, that definitely sounds like a line from somewhere," Beth acknowledged, laughing a little.
Amelia pulled Beth into a hug, surprising her. When Amelia let her go, Beth asked, "What was that for?"
"You just looked like you could use one," Amelia said a moment before she started yawning.
Beth yawned in response. "You know, if we're not in sight of the deer-kin when we go over that rise, maybe we should camp here?" she suggested. "That way we can be fresh when we find them then."
"No need to do that," Tim said as she approached them, Ralph, Wes, and Hannah following him.
"Why not?" Beth asked, guessing that they say the deer-kin they were after.
"Because they're at the bottom of that rise" Wes said.
"Only it's maybe a mile from where we'll be when he reach the top of the rise," Hannah added.
"They'll see us for sure if he head down now," Tim said.
"Is there anything we can do to avoid that?" Amelia asked.
"I could use my magic to make us invisible, but I'd have to have our mounts disappear as well," Tim said.
Beth sighed. If it wasn't one thing it was another, she complained in her mind.
"Uh, what if you don't use your magic to do that?" Ralph asked.
"Uh, then we'd be seen," Tim retorted, clearly tired himself, even though he'd reduced the number of raptors they had with them down to just one for each of them.
"No, I mean, what if one of use uses our magic to keep them from seeing us?" Ralph elaborated.
"Okay, go on," Tim urged, looking like he was ready to just take a nap.
"Well, we ride the raptors down the hill while either one of us uses our magic to make ourselves invisible or maybe Beth could make a fog come in over the area," Ralph said.
Beth shook her head. "If I make a fog by cooling the air enough, wouldn't that let them know something was coming?" she asked. "I mean, the weather already isn't like that and I'm quite sure these guys are idiots."
"Should one of us do the illusion magic?" Hannah asked. "I mean to make all of us invisible? Or should each of us take part in that?"
"Well, I think they're setting up camp for the night, so we probably could walk down, which would raise a cloud of dust after us," Tim said. "Plus then the raptors should last longer before I'm too tired to keep the illusions up."
"What dust?" Amelia asked, laughing. "We're not on a dirt road, or really any kind of dirt. There's grass growing all around us, so we wouldn't really be kicking up any dust. Though, walking does sound good to me. I'm sure Beth would be good with it."
"Ralph too," Hannah added. "I saw him nearly fall when he got off and had to limp for a few minutes as we walked up to see the deer-kin ahead of us."
"They didn't need to know that," Ralph commented, his irritation clear.
"Well, how far is it?" Beth asked.
"Maybe a mile?" Wes asked. "I think that's how far it is."
"Okay, how about we first get a bite to eat then head down," Ralph suggested, clearly eager to get onto a different topic than how he looked when he'd dismounted earlier.
"Would be good to eat something," Tim agreed.
"What is there?" Hannah asked.
"I think I have some granola bars," Beth said, taking her pack off of her back, before digging around in it to find a few that she then passed around.
"You know, I just realized we probably should try to find somewhere to refill our water every day," Tim said. "Just the idea of the granola bars is making me thirsty and we can only carry so much at once."
"Maybe we should discuss that when we meet up with Charlie," Amelia said, opening the wrapper of a granola bar she accepted from Beth.
"Well, regardless, don't forget to keep the wrappers," Wes said. "We don't want to be leaving litter on other worlds."
"Hey, we might be able to use our magic to do something useful with any trash we collect," Tim commented. "I mean, you remember the Harry Potter books, right? I bet you could transfigure any trash into something we could use, like maybe something we can trade in the event we come across a city or something on one of the worlds we'll be traveling in."
Hannah laughed. "That actually sounds like a good idea. How'd you come up with it?" she asked, earning a glare from Tim.
Beth couldn't help but chuckle as she ate her granola bar. Despite what they knew they were going to do and what they had seen at the village of the pronghorn-kin, she felt relaxed. Almost as if nothing had happened that day and they were just taking it easy before going to bed so they would have the energy to continue on in the morning.
However, as much as she was feeling comfortable where they were, their meal break didn't last very long. It felt like they'd barely started to relax when they'd finished their granola bars and had to head out.
"Oh, in answer to Hannah's question earlier, why don't all of us see if we can pool our magic together to make us invisible?" Wes said as they started towards the rise. "Uh, I mean, everyone except Tim. After all, he's been using his magic all day and we can all see how cranky he's getting from that."
"True," Hannah chimed in. "Plus, we need him to have as much strength as he can get when we send the velociraptors at the deer-kin."
"You know, I was thinking, I think they might be more 'mule deer-kin' than just 'deer-kin,'" Ralph commented. "I mean, you guys saw the deer-kin we captured, right? Their ears were like mule deer."
Amelia shook her head. "I'm not sure, but I guess you could be right. Though, would that mean you could separate 'bear-kin' in to maybe 'grizzly bear-kin', 'black bear-kin,' or even 'kodiak bear-kin?'"
"Well, we haven't been calling the pronghorn-kin 'antelope-kin' or 'american antelope-kin,'" Wes said as they reached the top of the rise and started walking down the slope, everyone pulling on their magic almost right away and using it to make it look like they weren't there. "Maybe we should just go with what the 'locals' call them?"
Beth couldn't help but feel a little weird at hearing her friends talk around her, but not able to see them. She could still sense them with her magic, but it still felt weird.
She looked over towards the deer-kin's encampment and saw a number of tents erected, though there were a number of carts. She wasn't sure what to make of the style of carts, as it didn't even look like the ones she remembered seeing in fantasy movies sometimes. The best she could figure out is that they were a type of handcart, which confused her, since she would have expected some draft animals of some sort to help pull the carts.
Although, she acknowledged to herself that they might have those there, but the animals might be inside a tent or something. She couldn't say for sure, since she really didn't know about their culture.
Beth was starting to wish that they'd brought Charlie along with them. As she could look into the minds of the deer-kin and find out whatever she wanted to know about any draft animals they might have. Even if they didn't have any with them. Yet, she couldn't complain about what had already been decided. Especially since everyone in their group had agreed to it.
"I agree," Hannah said, pulling Beth out of her thoughts. Beth was a little surprised that the conversation was still where it had been when she let herselff get lost in her thoughts. "After all, it might otherwise be like calling someone who's Welsh a 'mic' or something."
"Maybe, but I don't really get all of that," Ralph said. "Why can't things just be simpler?"
"Probably because we're not from their cultures and also, because magic is involved for us," Amelia answered. "My magic teacher said that in most problems, when magic gets involved, it just makes things more complicated. So, maybe it's more complicated for you because magic is what we used to get here."
Beth shook her head at the direction the conversation was going. At the moment she didn't think she should get involved, though she agreed with Wes. If they got into the fine details, then maybe it would just give them a big headache. Besides, only Ralph and Charlie could understand them. So, the name they might be using for themselves might actually be different than what it was coming across to them. After all, just because you slap a name on something doesn't necessarily mean that suddenly it has a different definition or something. Or that whatever you slapped the name on doesn't still think of itself as by another name.
When they got about halfway down, Beth suddenly wondered how far their voices carried. Especially since she doubted any of them had thought of that until this moment.
–Uh, guys, maybe we should start using our magic to talk to each other.– Beth said with her magic. –I'm not sure how far our voices carry, and it's kind of pointless to be invisible if you're going to talk a lot and give your location away anyway.–
–Good point.– Ralph said. –Though, maybe we should send the illusion raptors out before we get there. That way they'll have started on the attack before we get there, so we'll have less to do at that point.–
Tim somehow communicated a nod with his magic to the entire group and Beth couldn't help but feel impressed by it. –I could do that, but remember, the farther away from me they get, the more of a strain it'll have on me.– Tim commented.
Beth felt herself get engaged with the others as they discussed of how they should remove the deer-kin from the camp. Though, part of the argument was if they should let some escape or not.
–Why shouldn't we let them escape if they're fine not fighting?– Amelia asked.
–Because if they run, they could easily come back and create problems for us later.– Ralph replied.
–Actually, I'm with Ralph on this one.– Hannah said. –If they want to surrender, then that's one thing, but if they want to run, then we also don't know if they won't be able to get reinforcements.–
–You know, this would be so much easier if we could just teleport the pronghorn-kin away.– Wes lamented. –If we did that, we wouldn't need to attack the deer-kin.–
–That would be a lot easier, but at the dame time, when was the easiest thing been the best thing to do?– Beth asked. –I mean, we would first need to know where we'd be teleporting them, then we'd need to teleport there as well, otherwise how would we be able to lead them to where we need them to go? And lastly, what reason would they have to believe that we were the ones who teleported them out? I would expect they would want to return to their village, regardless of what happened to them today. Which would just mean it would be a matter of time they'd be like this again, only we wouldn't be here to help them.–
–You know, how about this?– Hannah suggested. –If they try to run, we use magic to knock them out. Any who surrender, we accept and tie them up. Any who try to harm the pronghorn-kin, we target first. Then after it's over, we keep the deer-kin we capture and once we have the pronghorn-kin safe, we let them go.–
–I can work with that.– Wes replied.
–That'd work for me, I guess.– Amelia replied, not sounding as enthusiastic about it as Hannah or Wes, but Beth had to admit, it was good to have that issue ironed out.
–So, everyone ready?– Tim asked as they were maybe a few hundred feet from the edge of the camp, some deer-kin standing evenly spaced apart, clearly posted as sentries.
–I'm ready.– Beth said.
–Same here.– Hannah and Amelia coursed before they started laughing quietly at how they both responded at the same time.
–Enough you two.– Beth snapped as the two nearest deer-kin sentries looked their way at the sudden noise.
–Sorry.– Amelia said.
–My bad.– Hannah said at the same time as Amelia.
–Well, if no one has any objections, lets release the raptors.– Beth said.
–Lame.– Ralph commented.
–Maybe, but it still works.– Beth retorted.
–I'll just create the same number we had when we first sent them into the pronghorn-kin village.– Tim said, sounding like he was just wanting to be done with this.
As soon as Beth heard Tim's statement twenty velociraptors appeared, with two wearing the same armor as before. The raptors let out the same cry that Beth remembered from the Jurassic Park and Jurassic World movies, and couldn't help but shudder at the sound.
Suddenly she heard music playing. It took her a moment before she recognized the tune. When she realized it was 'Meant to Live' by Swtichfoot, Beth sighed, rubbing her eyes briefly. She knew it had to be Wes who did that, and while she didn't mind so much, it felt like he was overdoing it. Besides, she doubted that the deer-kin or pronghorn-kin would understand the words. However, she didn't really feel like complaining to him about it.
At about the same moment the raptors saw the sentries, the sentries began to react to the raptors, sounding the alarm and lifting up a spear, ready to fight them.
However, one of the raptors jumped over the sentries, making one spin around, only to be taken down by one of the raptors that he had been facing.
As the raptors began running through the camp, deer-kin began coming out and started fighting the raptors.
Beth entered the camp, idly aware the invisibility that had shielded them from being seen was dropped, allowing others to see her. Though, it didn't take long before she saw some of the pronghorn-kin.
They were in a cart that was built as a cage. The bars were made of wood, but were so thick that it wasn't likely any of them could reasonable get through by sheer strength. Beth made her way quickly over to the cart and saw that in order to open the cage, she first needed to unlock a very shiny, sturdy lock.
Yet, she didn't bother leaving. She was sure it wasn't nearly as complicated of a lock as she was used to, and she'd even practiced a little on using her magic to unlock her locker. So, as she took the lock in her hands, she was about to unlock it when she was pulled from it.
A deer-kin man was about to swing a sword at her, but before he could swing it, a raptor bit into his head, it's claws tearing apart his gut, blood and intestines flowing to the ground like a a batch of overcooked red noodles. It happened in a matter of seconds and it took Beth a minute for her mind to process what exactly happened. When she was able to, she had to force herself to keep from throwing up right then.
When she was sure she wasn't going to lose her dinner, she let out a breath before looking away as she took a deep breath. "Good girl," she praised the raptor. Then noticing a deer-kin running around another cart, she told the raptor, pointing at the man," Go get your treat."
The raptor turned, let out a shriek and took off after him. Beth shook her head, trying to push the image of the intestines sliding out of the man out of her mind as she turned back to the lock. When she was able to settle into the familiar rhythm of working her magic to open the lock, the lock popped off easily and Beth was able to open the cage and help the pronghorn-kin out.
She was surprised at how many people were in that cage. It was clear that the deer-kin didn't care about how much room the pronghorn-kin had in there. What appalled her most was when she saw a little girl unable to stand, being carried by a woman Beth assumed was the girl's mother.
Beth instinctively reached for the girl to use the little healing magic she'd learned from Amelia, only to have the woman pull the girl away. Beth sighed, partly to calm herself and partly to let ot the frustration she was feeling at the moment, and calmly put her hand on the woman's shoulder.
The woman turned to Beth and Beth calmly put her hand on the girl's leg, which was clearly broken and looked rather painful. The woman sighed and didn't try to pull the girl away. The girl looked at Beth, curiosity clear in her eyes.
Beth felt herself suddenly aware of the position of the bone in the girl's leg, as both pieces started first to correct its own position in the leg and connect with each other before it started to mend.
As soon as she felt the leg was healed, she pulled her hand away from the girl. The girl looked at her leg in amazement while the woman looked at Beth in shock.
Beth thought that she was fine after that, but suddenly found herself looking up at the pronghorn-kin from the ground. Not only that, but she realized she was laying on her side in the blood and entrails of the deer-kin who had tried to kill her. She could feel the stickiness of the blood against the side of her face as well as the warmth that was still coming from it.
While she was grateful not to feel pain from collapsing, which is what she was certain had happened, she couldn't reconcile the smell or what she was laying in. So, she had her dinner come up, which was then followed by what she hadn't digested of her lunch. She wasn't sure how long she had been out, but she was vaguely aware that the song had stopped playing. Though, she could still hear sounds from the raptors as they continued the massacre of the deer-kin, since it was clear the deer-kin had no idea how to really fight the velociraptors.
Beth then thought she was floating for a minute after that until she realized that the pronghorn-kin were carrying her.
She didn't resist, not that she thought she had the strength to do so. Instead, she merely hoped that either the rest of the pronghorn-kin would be saved by her friends or that this was all there was.
Regardless, she was pretty sure she was at her limit. She could only assume that healing took more of her magic than it did for Amelia, though she was confident that she'd heal the girl's leg again if presented with the same choice. If she had waited for Amelia, she was sure Amelia would be very upset with her for not doing it herself.
Besides, the girl reminded her of her sister Lisa. There was no way she would let any of her siblings remain like that, even if she had to break her promise to not reveal magic to them without everyone's approval. Some things were more important than promises like that. Though, she would still let her friends know about it afterwards, as if they did the same thing, she'd accept that there wasn't anything any of them could do.
As she was carried away from the deer-kin's encampment, she noticed that there were other groups of pronghorn-kin leaving as well. Though, she couldn't see any of her friends, but didn't think much about it. As if they were being carried, she wouldn't be able to see them anyway, since she couldn't see over the pronghorn-kin surrounding her.
–Is everyone okay?– Beth asked, feeling her grip on her magic rather tenuous.
–I'm okay.– Beth heard Tim say. –Though, I'm still fighting the deer-kin. They're certainly obstinate, I'll give them that. None of them have tried to surrentder and I'm pretty sure none have tried to run away.–
–Good luck with that.– Hannah said. –I think I'm out of this operation. Not sure what happened, but my head hurts a lot and the pronghorn-kin I saved are carrying me out.–
–They're carrying me too.– Wes added. –I'm not sure how, but I think I twisted my ankle. I was even able to get three of those cages open.–
–I'll stay with Tim.– Ralph said. –Just in case he needs help getting out of here. I don't want to leave him in case he runs out of his magic before the deer-kin aren't a danger to us.–
–Good luck. I'm being carried out myself.– Beth said as she heard her friends voice similar sentiment. Beth started to relax when she suddenly realized she hadn't heard anything from Amelia. –Uh, anyone know where Amelia is?–
–I think I saw her being carried by some of the pronghorn-kin.– Ralph replied. –Not sure what happened, but her head looked like a bloody mess.–
Beth felt a sharp stab of fear in her heart. She hoped that Amelia would be okay, regardless of what happened to her. She also hoped that it wasn't Amelia's blood on her head, as that would at least mean she wasn't unconscious because of any injury to her.
As she felt herself being carried up the hill, the way they had come, her pack still on her back, she wondered if there was anything they could have done better on this rescue operation. At the very least, she would have liked to not have had anyone injured. Although, Wes twisting his ankle could easily have happened anyway, so she wasn't sure if she should count that as well.
In the end, she had to let the thought go. Not only was she tired from the day's events, but she felt her magic was rather drained. She wasn't sure how long the pronhorn-kin would be carrying them, but she was happy that they seemed to have succeeded in what they had set out to do.
Beth closed her eyes to rest them, not having planned on falling asleep, but before she thought to open her eyes, she was in a deep sleep. Her body overriding her desire to stay awake to see where they were carried to.