Tale of Four

Staring at the mimic, Alice shook her head in disappointment and stepped back. ”I’m not too sure where I need to aim.” Mobilising the arcane, a small flame formed, but she quickly threw it to the side, not wishing to burn the mimic. Before she could attack again, Chesh moved, running behind the tree and vanishing. Looking around, Alice followed behind and frowned, seeing nothing behind the tree. Lifting a hand above her head, she twirled her finger around, rapid winds spinning around her.

With her other hand, she used it as a guide, circulating the wind to form a thin ring around her body. Continuously adding more power to the wind, she started a second spell with her other hand, no longer needing to guide the wind. ’Air works with everything. Water, frozen.’ Ice flew out of her lowered hand; the moment it hit the ring of wind around her, it shredded into tiny pieces, flying off around her.

Looking around and seeing no sign of her hitting the mimic, she clicked her tongue. Adding more ice, the wind weakened with every volley, damaging the nearby ground and trees. After five minutes with no sign of the mimic, the ring of wind around her grew too weak to sustain itself and collapsed, spreading out and blowing her robe up.

’Strange. How did it escape so easily? It isn’t just that it vanished from behind the tree, but also the fire in the forest. It wouldn’t be that easy to flee unless it... flew.’ Looking up at the tree line, Alice formed the shape of an ’L’ with her index finger and thumb. Using the thumb to aim, she randomly pointed at branches that weren’t damaged and used the arcane to create condensed balls of ice. When it was perfect, she formed a powerful gust of wind to propel them foward, firing at the random branches.

’Nothing. Did it really run away? But why? I didn’t even threaten it, and it already did so much to try and trick me. Do animals really run that easily after finding soemthing to eat?’ She knew of some Magi who focused solely on researching animals and their behaviour patterns. Trying to think of the lessons her teacher had forced her to attend, she couldn’t help but draw a blank. ’I should have listened if I knew it was actually useful.’

Stroking her chin to think, her ears twitched, picking up a sound in the silent forest. Quickly spinning, a large bird-like creature sat atop a branch, looking down at her, frozen, almost in disbelief that it had been spotted. It was a large creature, the size of a toddler, covered in grey and black feathers with patches of feathers removed. It had massive wings nearly double the size of its body and legs, white in colour, bent backwards, forming large talons at the bottom that curled around the branch, sharp as anything, looking like they could carve meat off the bone.

But its face was what confused Alice. Birds she had all seen had tiny beaks, good enough to only eat nuts and small insects, yet the thing before her face was made up entirely of a massive white beak, saliva oozing out of it, born from immense hunger, with two tiny black bead-like eyes set atop it.

”Ali....ce.” Its beak opened; deep inside, Alice could see four rows of razor rotten teeth circling the beak and in the center a thin but long tounge. Its voice tried to imitate Chesh, but the gargling sound destroyed the final layer of the mimicry.

”Fascinating.” Lifting a hand and creating the ’L’ shape again, a large icicle, sharpened to the limit she could form, solidified. Before the raging fire could melt it, a gust of wind propelled it towards the creature. Before the mimic could react, the icicle pierced its stomach, blue blood falling from the wound. Falling from the tree branch, Alice pointed at it again and shot another icicle towards it before it could run off again. Crouching down over its body, it twitched in its final attempts to run, its eyes staring at her with hunger, yet unable to capitalise on the feast.

Grabbing its head, Alice stared into its eyes as it slowly died, in utter confusion. ’There is arcnae power, but it feels weak. How did it do soemthing as complex as changing it body? No, actually, how did it even know how to become Chesh? I’ve never heard of anything that can read minds. It shouldn’t be possible.... No, that Tree Spirit said it could see souls. Is it similar to that?

Within the silence of the burning forest, Alice heard the crunching of a branch and jumped up, spinning around. Holding her hand out, she prepared to launch another spell but stopped when she heard the sound of a whistle similar to the one she had.

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”What has she done?” Randolf stared at the distant forest, seeing the black smoke rise out of it. Pinching the bridge of his nose, he let out a deep sigh, able to feel Elva’s stare penetrate his back.

”She is a danger, Randolf. Her kind is always a danger. Why is Lord Raven tolerating this thing even being here?” Slowly, his hand moved away from his nose. Taking a deep breath he looked back at Elva with a mixture of annoyance and agreement.

”We do not question Lord Raven’s motives, Elva. The Ravens have always been correct in the long run.”

”This is bullshit.”

”ELVA!” Randolf screamed in reply, making her take a step back at the pure fury radiating from him. Randolf took a deep breath to calm himself down. ”Forgive me. I’m just on edge with this mission. But you cannot disrespect him. Lord Raven has never placed our lands or people in danger, nor the ancestors who came before him.”

”Randfold. I know the Ravens have always protected us, but this is insanity. They have warned us for generations about the Magi. The danger they bring with them because of their unrestraint. Why is it different now?” Looking to the forest, she clicked her tongue. ”If it were a normal Magi, I could accept it, but her. She insane. I’m not even talking about the fact that she might have an imaginary friend, but also the fact that she doesn’t know our names.”

”Maybe it’s just how people are beyond the Divide. Although Lord Raven has never gone personally, his voice and a few others have gone south. We both know that, beyond the mountains, the world is completely different. Perhaps people are just like that. You don’t learn each other’s names, or you can simply be more self-centred.”

”No.” Elva shot the idea down. ”We’ve been to the Gateway when southerners have come up to trade. There was also that one woman a few years ago. The one who wanted to write about the culture of the Deadlands and travelled to a few settlements.”

”Who?” Randfolf looked to Elva in confusion. Closing her eyes, she tried to remember.

”I don’t remember too well; I only heard about her from others within A Child’s Present. Apparently she came to ask questions, not like the Magi, who want knowledge, but simply curious about the life of the people and things like that. Anyway, my point stands: those south aren’t like Alice. She is completely deranged and is a danger to us all.” Rubbing her scar, Elva’s eyes shone with a disgusted light as her fingers sank deeper into her neck. ”The way she looked at me. Like I was a... project to be studied.”

”Stop.” Gently grabbing her arm, Randolf slowly pulled it away and smiled. ”You’re going to aggravate it.” Sighing, he turned back to the forest and saw numerous silhouettes leaving. His eyes widened, and letting go of Elva’s hand, he grabbed his sword and took out his whistle. Blowing it, he waited, his body tense, as Elva rushed for her crossbow, loading a normal arrow into it.

After a minute, they eased up, hearing the faint sound of the whistle blown back. More silouteets came into isght followed non humans ones, wagons and horses, as the black smoke within the forest died down. Waiting, they arrived within ten minutes: Alice, with a proud smile, holding the corpse of a dead bird, numerous men and women surrounding her, all dressed in fine clothing, ornate but practical, layered with furs perfectly cut and numerous jewels. Black masks pulled over their faces, not to intimidate but to hide their appearance.

Scanning their eyes, Randolf could guess who they were, but asked anyway. ”Friends. What clan are you from?” Watching them, he looked into the eyes of each one, all of them violet, to different degrees, the one taking the lead with the most vibrant ones. He waited, his grip on his sword loosening ever so slightly but not fully.

”Krystal Clan.” With a deep breath, his grip on the sword finally relaxed completely. ”This... Magi.” The man spoke with utter disdain, looking at Alice as she began to study the corpse of the mimic. ”Why is she here?”

”Lord Raven’s orders.” The violet-eyed man nodded. Looking back at the forest, he clicked his tongue.

”Keep a better watch over your pet. She burned the forest. Although we are thankful for her dealing with this thing, the means were wrong.”

”Your clan never comes this far.” Looking down at the corpse, Randolf could take a guess at why they had come. ”I thought the mimics were hibernating.”

”One of our young accidentally disturbed a nest. Luckily, this is only a young mimic, likely hatched not too long ago. We are correcting the child’s mistake.”

”And the child?” Evla asked with a deep voice, the shattering in her voice matching her seriousness.

”Punished.” With an approving nod, she let out a deep breath. ”Watch your pet. If we had not arrived to deal with the forest, it would have disrupted many of the creatures’ cycles.”

”Forgive us.” Randolf looked down at Alice with annoyance. ”But we are trying our best, my friend.”

”I understand, but do better. Her damages are your fault, and if they are too great, you will be punished for them. I will not do it. We are not of the settlements and have no right to, but if Lord Raven is the one tasking you with this and learns, he will be forced to carry it out himself.” Both Randolf and Elva tensed up before lowering their heads and nodding.

”We know.”