Gifted

Today was the day. The first iteration of my obstacle course behind the outpost would finish being built around lunchtime. Or at least, that is what Griselda had promised me yesterday.

It had taken three weeks for the half-orc woman to build the obstacle course, which sounded like a long time, but in reality she had only been working on it a couple of days each week. I had watched her do parts of the task, including felling trees on the edge of the forest in the distance, then trimming off all the branches and leaves which were then piled off to the side.

Once the pile was large enough, Grandpa would come out, and I had gotten to personally watch him conjure flames from nothing before he torched the small pieces of wood and greenery like he was wielding a flamethrower that spewed red-hot flames starting at half a metre from his outstretched hand.

That scene alone was something I had been waiting to see for almost three years. Certainly, I had witnessed other acts of magic, but none had been so obvious and visceral. In some ways, I realised I was envious of the old man. My own magic, if I ever learned to use it beyond my Skills, was steeped in shadow and far more subtle. I doubted I would be flinging bolts of darkness around or any such thing in the near future. Possibly the far future too.

Still, I had other things to look forward to. While it may have taken Griselda three weeks to finish my obstacle course, I had not wasted that time on sitting on my three-year-old ass. Instead, I had pursued my Paths with the same dogged dedication I had applied since birth.

My work ethic continued to pay dividends, and I was flirting with being only one hundred steps off completing my Path of Stealth. The reward for doing so was almost certain to be decent, but the secondary reward of freeing up a Path slot meant I could take up the Path of Coordination again. That was one option, at least. The more likely choice I would make would be to talk with the old man about when my first tutors in weapons would be arriving and specifically which weapons they would be teaching me.

Stealth wasn’t my only Path to progress. Running, Balance, and Deception had gained a few steps but were still a long way off of their next Tier. Climbing was closer at four to five months away from completion by my estimate. On the other hand, Body Strengthening would likely progress to Tier five in another month or so. Then there was my crowning jewel, Aethersensing. I brought up the most recent notification.

You have advanced the Tier of your Path! Path of Aethersensing IV (128/100)

Reward: 1 Aether

I was still over a year, maybe even two, away from completing the Path, but just seeing my capabilities in magic progressing was a balm upon my soul. With those emotions buoying me, I threw off my covers and climbed out of bed. The crisp mountain air sent goosebumps crawling across my fair skin.

What followed was my normal morning routine. I performed my standard bodyweight workout in my room before getting dressed and rushing downstairs for breakfast. There was no bread today, but my mother made up for it with a couple of extra eggs which I now knew she got from Griselda every few days and stored in our own larder.

Then it was off to the old man’s office for my Aethersensing training. Over the two hours, I succeeded in identifying where he was producing aether three times, which was a pretty average result.

As I let myself out of his stuffy office, I darted for the back door off the kitchen instead of heading to the common room where I would normally have reading and writing lessons. As I burst out the door, I found my mother already working in her small garden, her hands covered in dirt as she pulled out weeds and turned the soil.

Beyond the small fenced off area and the couple of creepy looking scarecrows meant to ward off the birds, I spied Griselda’s hulking form hammering down the last log with a large wooden mallet. All of these sights I had expected. What I wasn’t prepared for was the form of Etta waiting near the garden fence and watching my obstacle course with wide eyes.

When she noticed me a moment later, she ran over. Her dark brown leather pants and jacket were so heavily padded that her run turned into a sort of weird waddle, like a duckling fresh out of the pond.

“Bastian! Bastian! Look what Griselda made for us!” she exclaimed in delight, her blue eyes alight with excitement.

What’s this ‘us’ business? I fumed mentally. This is my obstacle course! I fought my toddler tantrum instincts wanting nothing more than to pitch the ultimate fit.

Instead what I said was, “Yeah, it’s going to be fun.”

My mother shot me a knowing look, clearly hearing my lack of enthusiasm at the idea of sharing my new toy…I mean training facility, with a four year old girl. Still, I could be a little magnanimous. Maybe if I let her practise with me enough she might get the Path bug the way I had it and we could push each other to greater heights in friendly competition. I doubted it, but stranger things had happened.

“It’s done,” Griselda stated, walking around her work and pushing, shoving, or patting the wood to make sure it was sturdy.

I had to admit, the results were impressive. There were balance beams of various difficulties and shapes, rising in height until the tallest reached the top of Griselda’s shoulder which put them at almost two metres off the ground. Some were thinner than others, though I noted most of the thinner ones were closer to the ground. The half-orc woman had also created angled jumping boards, a zig zag hurdle, what I knew as monkey-bars but had no idea what they were called in the Helenian language, and three climbing walls. The only things it seemed to be missing were rope bridges and swings as far as I could tell.

Cornelius chose that moment to walk out the back to join us, no doubt the old man having been paying attention from inside.

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“Excellent work, Griselda,” he said, his tone complimentary as he walked up to survey the playground he was ostensibly paying for. “I have an order for quite a bit of rope, though it won’t be here for a month or so. Would you be available to help make some additions to the obstacle course once it arrives?”

“For a similar price, sure,” Griselda replied in agreement.

“I don’t think it would be as much work. How about the additions to the course and eggs for a month instead.”

I watched as Griselda tilted her head, dark brown eyes narrowing in thought as she did her own mental calculations. A grunt of agreement followed and I watched as the old codger handed over a fiery red aether coin. It still didn’t help me tell exactly how much the aether coin was worth though. Griselda had invested basically seven days on her own in building my obstacle course. The Adventurers that had passed through had been paid two aether coins between the four of them for three days’ work, though the time spent was vastly different. Griselda had slaved away basically from shortly after breakfast till the sun was setting each day, meanwhile the Adventurers between them had spent maybe twelve hours with me across the three days.

I couldn’t even use the two different tasks to figure out just how much more valuable the Adventurer’s time might have been. Since we were in the middle of nowhere having the aether coin to purchase from the traders that were passing through might have been more valuable to Griselda. My head was tying itself in knots, and I gave up trying to figure it out for now. Due to the distraction, I was too late to say goodbye to Griselda as she was already stomping off into the distance, lugging a bag of tools that probably weighed three to five times what I did.

“Bastian, let’s try it!” Etta suggested excitedly.

“I’m going first!” I yelled, running for one end of the obstacle course. I might have been willing to share my new play equipment, but that didn’t mean I was going to give up the inaugural run.

Climbing up onto the first circular stump was easy enough since it was only a little above my knee height. The balance beam ran directly across to another platform which then used slightly angled jumping boards to ascend to the next slightly higher platform. The obstacle course started out easy, getting progressively harder, and I wondered just how much of the design had been supplied by my grandpa.

I ran across the first balance beam, not even slowing down in the slightest and found myself surprised when I got steps in both my Path of Running and Balance. I threw my hands up in the air at the numbers going up.

My mother did not share my excitement.

“Bastian! Be careful and go slower until you get more used to the course!” she admonished with a worried look in her eyes.

Henrietta followed at a more sedate pace, made even more difficult by her thick clothes. I waited for her to join me on the next platform as they were big enough for the two of us. The moment she did I was off again, jumping from left to right on the angled boards. I completed them as easily as I did the first challenge. My mother settled down while Cornelius nodded his approval and headed back inside. Tomorrow, I would ask him about his plans to find me tutors. Today, though, would be for just me, my obstacle course, and I supposed a little interloper that I was sharing with under duress.

My intention was to complete the obstacle course once, getting a feel for each challenge. After that I would start tracking how long each run took with an aim to improve them with subsequent attempts. A surefire way to see my Paths progress, I figured.

After the fourth obstacle I got tired of waiting for Henrietta, who while completing each of them, was taking far longer than I was. Instead, I rushed ahead, completing challenge after challenge. I was about to cross a thin balance beam that was over a metre off the ground when my mother called out to me.

“I’m just going inside to get some more water, sweetheart. I will only be a moment okay?”

I nodded with a smile and started walking slowly across the wooden beam, keeping my focus on my feet as I put one in front of the other.

My left foot swung out as I took a careful step.

Suddenly the trees were facing sideways as my world flipped. My mind struggled with the change and the lurching of my stomach. I spun wildly, and something dark covered my vision.

My breath left my chest as I collided with the hard ground. Gasping for air I flailed, my mouth working like a fish as I gulped futilely for a breath that wouldn’t come. The first wisp of air brought the pain back to the forefront. My body hurt everywhere and darkness returned, blotting out my vision of the cloudy sky overhead along with a rush of wind.

I could hear Etta screaming bloody murder as my mind tried to make sense of what was happening through my haze of confusion.

A warm liquid carved a rivulet along my cheek which finally brought me back to my senses just as a shiny beak tried to slam down into my eye.

I was under attack. My first thought was the giant crow from before.

The viciously questing beak vanished and was replaced by hooked talons.

I rolled away, covering my face. The sharp talons found my hands instead of my eyes, ripping and tearing at them till they bled freely. I screamed as something raked across my skull, my hands moving up to shield the top of my head as I rolled again. The dark-feathered bird pursued me across the hard ground.

My rolling carried me over something sharp and solid, stabbing me in the back as I continued to roll, trying to evade my tormentor. Curling up in response to the new pain, I tried to protect anything vital as screaming continued to ring in my ears. It was my own cries, I realised.

Feathers brushed against my face as my hand snaked out, trying to dislodge whatever was stabbing me in the back. The bird’s claws raked incessantly across my arms as it tried to get at my face once more.

My questing hand found the object behind me and wrapped tightly around it. The rough surface against my bare skin helped bring everything back into focus, and I lashed out with the rock I had grasped.

The crow’s squawk was filled with surprise and pain. In that moment, I transformed from prey into predator. The giant crow, easily half the size of me, tried to gain some distance as it spread its wings to escape. I dived on it before it could, trapping it beneath my weight. Then, still screaming, I began bashing it with the rock in my hand. At some point, in my rage and pain-filled assault, I went from using one hand to two. A few strikes later I watched its black eyes turn dull as red blood leaked out of the remains of its cracked skull.

Filled with a mix of pain, fear, and rage, I felt something around the dead bird. Something I had only felt once before, a memory barely remembered. I reached out without thought, sucking the feeling into me like taking a gasping breath after emerging from beneath the water’s surface. A notification appeared in the corner of my vision. Then there were arms around me, lifting me up. Words were being said, lips moved, but I couldn’t make sense of any of them.

I tasted blood on my lips and realised I was about to faint from the pain. Or maybe it was blood loss. It was hard to tell. Looking up at my mother’s distressed face, I tried to smile, but it felt wrong, my lips not responding how they should. The notification was the last thing I saw before I succumbed to the aftermath of my adrenaline fueled battle.

Path of Soulstealing (2/10)