Lucius moved down the winding dirt driveway away from the cottage. In his mind was the best replica he could conjure of the system of roads between here and his destination. It had taken him a full day to reach this place from the farm, but that was when he was in the process of scouting and dealing with multiple distractions.
"We can probably make it back in a few hours if we move quickly and follow the roads."
Once he decided on the route, he set off at a light jog—not only to quicken their pace but also to attempt to train his stamina. With Maryanne providing some extra weight on his back and the cool autumn air making it easy to breathe, he decided to test his endurance. It had been a while since he had earned any attributes through his own efforts, aside from the Vitality that Whisper provided, and he guessed it would become more difficult to earn attributes naturally as they increased. That said, his stamina was only half as high as his strength, at fifteen points, so there was a good chance he could earn himself a point or two on the journey back. Thinking about his attributes caused a related question to pop into his mind.
"Hey, Whisper, if you are a part of me, why don't my other attributes besides Vitality reflect your abilities? You obviously have high Magic Power, but mine still says zero."
The little bat, currently looking through Maryanne's storybook to pass the time inside Lucius' storage ring, closed the book and began scratching his chin when he heard the question.
"My Vitality will always add to your attributes because my lifeforce is tied to yours. As for Magic Power, it will most likely be reflected in your attributes only when you actively use my power."
The first part of Whisper's explanation made sense, and Lucius nodded along as he heard it. However, the second part was confusing. Raising one eyebrow, he glanced down at his storage ring as he responded.
"What do you mean by 'when I use your power'? How am I supposed to do that?"
"I see, you didn't know. It is the very reason why binding a mythical being is a valuable and rare opportunity. I will show you when you get out of the sun—you cannot use my power while the light is on your skin."
"Okay. How do you know all this anyway, weren't you just born?"
"I... don't know how I know. Maybe it is the same reason I was born with the ability to communicate. Maybe it's just something mythical beings are capable of?"
"Works for me."
Lucius ended the conversation and focused his attention on the road ahead. His breath was starting to grow heavier from the strain of jogging, but he didn't feel anywhere near his limit. Looking back over his shoulder at the small girl riding on his back, he checked in on how she was holding up so far.
"How are you doing back there, Maryanne?"
"I'm okay," she answered softly, her eyes constantly moving through the colorful forest around them.
"If you get uncomfortable, let me know. We can take a break whenever you need to."
"Okay."
With Maryanne's reassurance that traveling in the backpack wasn't hurting her, Lucius kept up his pace. They moved swiftly down the dirt road, scanning the canopy of trees and gazing into the forest on both sides for any signs of danger, while staying alert for any signals from Sense Danger. The distance between them and their destination steadily decreased.
They traveled without issue for close to forty-five minutes, taking a break every fifteen minutes for Maryanne to stretch her legs and drink some water. However, as the group was nearing the one-hour mark, Lucius felt the first pulse of warning moving through his chest since they had started their journey. He stopped abruptly when the feeling arrived, his feet sliding across the ground and creating a large trail of dust behind him. Glancing around in all directions with narrowed eyes, he tried to get a better sense of where the danger was coming from.
"What do you sense, Father?"
"Cough— the dust is getting in my eyes," the child said, covering her face with the neckline of her clothing as the cloud of dust surrounded her.
Lucius walked a few steps into the clear air, continuing to focus his attention. However, as soon as he stopped moving and looked around, the danger disappeared.
"I'm... not sure. Maybe it's nothing."
With a shrug of his shoulders, Lucius turned back toward their destination and continued forward. A few minutes passed without incident, but as he turned a corner to follow the winding road, the same exact sensation of danger returned—this time slightly more intense than before. Lucius came to a stop, carefully lifting his feet to avoid kicking up the ground beneath him like he had done earlier. He tried to sense the direction of the danger, but once again it vanished the moment he stopped to focus on it.
Something is hunting us...
He kept the thought to himself to avoid scaring Maryanne, but he was quite sure of it. Sense Danger was not a simple on-or-off switch. The talent activated his senses in unique ways depending on the danger he was facing. Feeling the exact same sensation meant it came from the same threat—and it was getting closer. That alone wouldn't necessarily suggest something was hunting them, but the fact that it kept hiding from his senses whenever he stopped to look for it proved they were being watched. Putting it all together, Lucius deduced that something dangerous was following them, moving closer while carefully avoiding detection.
He slowly released a deep breath before, in a sudden blur of motion, he exploded into a dead sprint, Matriarch's Fury materializing in his hand as he hurled himself down the road, kicking up large clouds with every powerful step. Sense Danger started to pulse like a heartbeat in a constant rhythm as soon as Lucius began to sprint away at full speed. With an entire thirty points of Dexterity, he was incredibly swift, and he was betting that whatever was following them would be forced to reveal itself if it wanted to keep up. Seconds later his guess was confirmed, as the intense sound of shattering earth spread through the forest around.
"Eek!"
Maryanne cried out as the ground shook around them, and Lucius could feel the child's tiny body trembling against his back. Looking back over his shoulder as he continued to run, he tried to catch a glimpse of his foe, and succeeded. The color drained from Lucius' face as his eyes landed on what was chasing them. He had looked back just in time to see clumps of dirt falling from the sky above a large hole in the ground that the creature had exploded out from on the road behind them.
Hundreds of sharp, skittering legs lined the creature's body on each side, moving in hypnotic waves as they propelled it forward. A sleek, black, armored carapace covered its body in segmented plates, and a massive set of jagged pincers protruded from its flat, eyeless face.
The creature was incredibly fast—at least as fast as Lucius. The hundreds of legs it used to reach such speed were half as long as his entire body. The creature itself was the length of a city bus, from the tip of its pincers to the base of its body. The group could have eaten dinner off its massive flat head, and still had room to pull up a few more chairs.
He couldn't just keep running in a straight line, to have any chance of escaping he would need to get creative.
"Hold on tight, Maryanne!"