Of Ice, Death & Monsters

Rook ran and ran throughout the night in the endless black forest. Luckily, thanks to his quality as a semi-lizard person, his night vision was excellent, allowing him to properly navigate through the woods. It was especially useful since he could sense the growing dangers that had begun to rear their ugly heads at this hour.

Every so often, they would spot a monster, some creature of the darkened night devouring some poor survivor, their screams echoing into the night. Immediately, they would head the other way or hide, distracting them with the limited flares they would have.

The professor was always making sure that the others followed right beside him as they used the Vocalization of Illumination to create a small ball of light above their heads, but that was only for when they could somewhat tell it was safe, otherwise they would dispel it and rely on Rook’s sight, with the Contract in place, it was like an invisible rope was around them, connecting each one to him which helped immensely.

He knew deep down that there should be other living survivors, and he needed to find them before those fools from the Choir did.

Especially if they were all like Jane. He rolled his eyes at the thought of her. What did she want with him anyway? He never was her handler; he was simply doing his job. It’s not his fault that she ended up serving them.

He was glad, at least, that others knew their place, and most importantly, that the Contracts still applied even in this land. But that spell from before… that wasn’t the same spell he had before he came into this land.

His mind wandered back to that encounter where Jane almost fried him with her fireball. He used the Vocalization of Negentropy, the spell to reverse entropy so that energy wouldn’t be dispersed into him… but the words that came out of his mouth weren't the usual activation phrase.

‘I Shall Put All Things Back Together Again!’

That was supposed to be the phrase, but that wasn’t what he said; instead, it was:

‘The Spirits Of Creation Shall Rebuild The World.’

Rook didn’t intend to say that; he simply did it without any thought. The conversion he went under must have affected his very existence, changing the activation mechanism as well as the effect, but they produced nearly identical results!

How fascinating indeed. He knew that other lands had Names nearly identical to each other, all of them produced effects that could be argued as being the same in practice, yet different in principle. He would have to study this in some other area, preferably with another Magi to get the best results.

But, it was starting to look grim. He looked at his workers; he was lucky he managed to find them. They weren’t full-fledged Magi, of course, but throwing bodies at the problem can only get you so far here, especially with the Magick available.

“Tch, I should have invested in the Acting of Flight! Bah, curse me for thinking it would be foolish to always carry a pack of wings around.” He grumbled for a bit more to himself before he suddenly heard a loud ringing noise in his ear.

“Ah, do you all hear that as well?” Rook turned to the workers, all of whom had the backs of their ears glowing, confirming his suspicions. “Maintain formation, stick close by, dispel the lights. We investigate this disturbance now.”

They nodded, dispelling their Vocalization of Illumination, sticking by a few paces to his side as he spoke out a Vocalization to increase his chance of success ever so slightly.

"The Spirits Bring The Hope I Require!"

All around Rook’s body, several yellowish sprites began to wrap around his form, making him feel, for lack of a better term, lucky. Once more, he noted how what he wanted to say and what he did say were different.

He dropped down to the ground, crouching as he narrowed his eyes, walking towards the source of Magick until he and the others made it to a rock. One of the workers, he believed his Name to be Henry, the tall male, stood by a tree and was the bravest of the bunch to stick his head out and watch for danger with his binoculars.

“Is that… oh! It’s Professor Marian!” He softly exclaimed to the rest of us with a smile on his face. Immediately, the rest of the workers all sighed in relief. One of them, he believed her Name to be Mollie, let out a deep breath.

“Holy shit, we’re saved!” The rest nodded, agreeing with her wholeheartedly while Rook rolled his eyes at their joy. Of course, they loved her; she was the best after all, a top Magi in her field and blah blah blah. She was probably showing off right now or something similar to that.

Rook peeked out of the cover and sure enough, there she was: a tall black haired woman with both wolf ears and tail, and on her back were handmade wings with ebony feathers; they fluttered ever so slightly as she flew across the air with as much grace as a hummingbird, surveying the surroundings.

“Is she alone?”

Topher and Derek both peeked out with their own binoculars. “Well, she’s certainly single.” They said in unison, both grinning and pointing at each other, giggling like middle school boys.

Mollie quickly answered for them both so that they wouldn’t get into trouble. “Yeah, she’s alone. That’s weird. I would have thought that someone like her would have gathered at least a few survivors by her side.”

Derek grinned like a madman, seeing his chance. “Guess you can call her…”

“A lone wolf.” Topher finished before Henry hit them both at the back of the head and sighed.

While annoying and immature, Rook was curious as to why there was no one with her. Was this a trap? Was this some sort of fae in disguise? He himself peeked out to watch her, but it was not necessary, it seemed, as the wolf-lady already noticed their presence and turned around, rushing towards them.

”Reveal yourselves now, state your identity at this moment or forever hold your peace…” Her eyes widened as she found Rook and his volunteers behind some of the natural barriers.

A sigh of relief escaped her lips as she hugged the scaly man. “Haha, Jameson! You’re alive! Good, so you took the deal as well, I presume?” She turned to the rest of the group, who waved to her.

“And you brought proper recruits as well, good. I was worried it was going to be more of the Choir.” She bore her fangs at the last word, almost as if she was cursing somebody; there was so much malice in her voice that a shiver went up everyone’s spines, even Rook, who was never used to such hatred.

“More? Of the Choir?” He inquired, narrowing his eyes.

Marian raised her hands up, showing blood running down her claws. “I ran into a few of them… Tch, for some reason, this land burned away their Contracts. They were of no use to us, so I did what I had to do~”

Rook swallowed his distaste for such actions as the rest of the workers looked away. Henry shifted uneasily while Mollie watched on with morbid curiosity, meanwhile Derek and Topher both whistled aimlessly.

She retracted her claws. “So it’s quite wonderful that you managed to gather yourself a proper troupe. Have you seen any others? It appears most of the locals here are wildlife, monstrous creatures, really, quite durable too.” A smile grew on her face as her tail wagged.

“I would love to capture a few and see how their physiology works… It’s truly wondrous.”

Rook faked a cough and snapped his fingers. “We need to get to safety right now, otherwise the monsters will be hunting us next, and we can’t take them down at all!”

They were no match for them, and in the darkness, he knew only more would come. They only avoided it out of sheer luck and with the use of the Vocalization of Chance every so often.

“You’re right, luckily I found a nearby cave, I was hoping I could have found anyone else before the true nightfall came.”

“T-true nightfall?” Henry asked in shock.

“Correct, it’s actually just late afternoon if I’m correct. I caught a glimpse of the sun at noon, around a few hours ago, if I’m not mistaken. Of course, it’s a different land, so its Ark might affect how they view the sun here. But it means we’re not truly in the dead of night for now.”

Rook shivered once more. If that was true, then this land truly was more monstrous than he could ever hope for. “Then let us not waste what precious moments we have left! Let us make haste at once.”

He turned to Marian, who had already beckoned him and everyone else with her tail to follow her to a nearby cave. In the middle of it was the Drawing of Heat, which was made from several pieces of charcoal underneath a piece of iron like a stove. Meanwhile, there seemed to be makeshift woven blankets from leaves deeper in the cave.

Marian sat down by the Drawing of Heat, fanning her face as she leaned against the cave wall.

The rest followed suit, sitting by the heat source as they all sighed in relief. Henry did so at the further end of the cave wall and reactivated the Voice of Illumination, creating a small ball of light above his head.

For a few moments, silence was all that was heard as the group stared at one another, contemplating what to say next, before Derek broke the silence. “This whole place seems kinda unwinnable. It’s just full of monsters and crazy cultists running around.”

“Crazy cultists?” Marian asked as she raised her ears in confusion.

“Apparently, there’s a group of people running around who desire to free everyone by making them into one being, some kind of ultra divine hive mind.”

“A Godhead essentially?”

“I guess, in this context, you would be correct. They believe that it will grant them true freedom. Other than that, they didn’t seem violent; they even offered to help, but they were quite attached to one of the members of the Choir… Jane, I believe her Name was.”

Marian visibly snarled at that Name, almost growling like an actual wolf. “That whore? Tch, why would they need her?”

“Apparently, she was chosen by their divine entity to help them. She tried to kill me, of course, but I got away in time.”

“Lucky her, she probably thinks she’s so mighty and powerful now, but as they say… twice the pride, double the fall. We need to be rid of them before they get any bright ideas to take us out.”

“While I would agree.” Rook began. “I think we need to gather our forces first. We need as many people as possible, then we escape.”

”Hah? Escape?” Marian laughed as if Rook had told a joke. She crossed her legs and gave a little grin.

“All we need to do to escape is simply find our ships. Which might still be back south. However, when we do find them, that's not what we should do."

She faced the exit as a mad grin grew on her face. “It's quite simple, really..."

"We should find a way to tame and master this place for the future of the world!”