"Everyone, time to awaken! We have landed and we are now in the province of Uhmaksar under the rule of Greater Vastusar. The nearest city is Harmiar. Bloodmist was last seen there. You can find your way there by following the railroad, but I'd recommend following the creek and going through the forests." Vakevata announced to everyone at the wheel when the ship had landed on the southern shore of Kemioe in a place with no pier or harbour anywhere near.
The morning was still new and birds chirped in the short and scarce trees with light green leaves that had started to grow recently. The air was cool and the land was moist as the travellers awoke in the ship. Or at least some of them.
"No need to shout. Ugh. Couldn't sleep worth a blink tonight. Not even that mushroom I ate after supper cooled me at all." Varma complained.
"Is there any better way than by going by the forest? I've had enough of forests lately." Yilka asked when he had risen.
"These forests are not home for branch hoppers. The types of forests where they live have been chopped down and burned, and smaller trees have been planted in their place. These forests are not dangerous, so worry not. By following the creek you can get to Harmiar. Me and my companion here will stay right here and wait for you to return with Bloodmist. Good luck. You may even meet other walkers of the Road of Blood along your way. Now get off my boat." Vakevata told them all.
"Got to respect someone who has high expectations." Nofa stated.
"Yilka, take your mount to drink in the creek." Venamo commanded.
"Of course." Yilka replied and went to to his mount.
The brothers untied their mounts from the mast and walked them out of the ship with the others following them. The mounts were taken to the creek that connects to the lake and there they drank, and so did everyone else. Varma drank more than the others, seemingly never getting enough.
"You're obviously not getting any cooler that way. Just eat another mushroom." Nofa told her.
"I ate one last night. I don't want to eat them all too quickly." Varma replied.
"But you clearly need one." Nofa insisted.
"I can tolerate this for a little longer." Varma said and splashed water on her own face.
Her face dried in seconds and the water turned into mist after touching her skin.
"I'll just... take a little bath." Varma said and rolled into the creek with her back first.
Mist rose from the creek as she was laying there on her back and she didn't even seem that much more comfortable.
"You need to eat another one. This is not good." Nofa said and took Varma's hand to pull her up from the creek.
She couldn't hold onto the hand for long because of how hot the hand was.
"Fine, but somebody better have more in that city that we're going in." Varma said and got up from the creek herself with her skin and clothes completely dry soon after.
She took another mushroom from her pouch and ate it.
"There. Now let's just get to that city already and find whoever we need to find." Varma said.
"She may not be easy to find. We saw how quickly she can disappear and fly away. Whatever we do, we must not let her think that we are her foes." Venamo said and mounted his steed.
Varma started climbing to the back of Venamo's mount, but as soon as she touched the animal, it screeched and leapt away from Varma. When the mount landed, Venamo dismounted and came to check on Varma.
"Is it really that bad?" He asked her.
"The mushroom isn't working at all anymore! We got scammed!" Varma complained and went back to lay down in the creek.
She ate all the remaining mushrooms and waited to feel better, but she simply wouldn't get any cooler. Mist only kept rising from her and her breathing got harder and louder. The others gathered around her and could only look at her with worry, since touching her was not an option.
"She needs help." Yilka stated.
"You think?" Varma complained with pain in her voice now.
"Is there anything the Holy magic can do about this?" Venamo asked Nofa.
"Wielders of Holy magic can remove diseases by touching the patient but I assume you've already tried that." Nofa said.
"Of course I have. Do I need to say some sort of spell to make it work?" Venamo further asked.
"I have the big book of Holy magic right here. I can't cast any of them but you should be able to. Let me find just the right one here in the section for cures and... there! Pronounce that one and look at Varma!" Nofa explained to Venamo.
"Meie ka'elle!" Venamo shouted as he looked at Varma.
Varma writhed in pain while laying down and couldn't be ignored anymore.
"It doesn't help a bit!" Varma complained.
"She ate all the mushrooms and she's still burning? What else can we do? Can Wicked magic cool the weather?" Yilka asked.
"One wielder of Wicked magic can't do that. It has to be a group effort." Nofa explained.
"Just try it!" Varma begged while in great pain.
"We're taking you to town." Venamo decided and grabbed Varma, only to learn himself how burning hot every bit of her is.
He gritted his teeth through the pain and slung Varma's over his shoulder. He could hear the leather of his armour sizzling in the shoulder area and the skin of his own shoulder frying as well, but he didn't let go. He could only take a few steps before it became too much. He dropped Varma on the ground and looked at the black bit on his armour. Varma was now on the grass, and the grass around her was burning slowly and turning gray as she screamed in pain and cried tears of pain that became mist as soon as they left her eyes.
The only idea anybody had was to fill bags of water from the creek and pour it on Varma, but all water that touched her became mist instantly.
Varma couldn't even beg anything with clear words anymore. All the noise that she made was only incomprehensible screaming and crying. She grabbed her metallic arrow and used it to scrape her back brutally and relentlessly, as if to let the heat out from inside her. Her arrow became bloody and her screams got even more horrific, and then everybody saw something curious happening to her. Something started growing from her back.
"Are those... feathers?" Yilka wondered.
They all began seeing more clearly what it was that was growing from the girl's back. Two black wings slowly emerged from her back as she screamed in agony and cried and ripped the charred grass from the ground. The black wings grew long enough to reach her heels, and once they stopped growing, Varma stopped moving and making noises.
Everybody looked at her stunned. They were trying to figure out what they just saw. There the girl was laying motionless on charred grass with long black wings on her back. Yilka was the first one who went to check on her. He knelt by her and touched her forehead.
"She's not hot anymore, but she's not moving either. No. Please don't say that..." Yilka began to say.
"Come on, girl. Get up from there! Your father wouldn't allow you to go out like this, screaming like a scared girl." Venamo added.
Nofa touched one of Varma's wings and pulled her hand away when she felt how hot the wing was.
"Ow! Her wings are still hot." Nofa said.
Yilka touched Varma's back to see if it was hot.
"Her back isn't. That's the part that she said was especially hot, but it isn't anymore." Yilka said.
Nofa went to examine Varma's face that rested on the ground with her right cheek touching the earth.
"She's breathing." Varma pointed out when she noticed.
"Whoever kills a Grand Beast inherits its power." Venamo said.
"Hm?" Yilka let out.
"That's what the record says. The killer of a Grand Beast is meant to be another newer Grand Beast as Leri intended, but the Fire Feather was killed by men. But we killed those men before they could inherit the power. Varma was there for the Fire Feather's last breath. She was laying in the bird's ashes when it went up in smoke." Venamo explained.
"Are you saying that it was Varma who inherited the Fire Feather?" Yilka asked.
"That's the only way I can explain this." Venamo answered.
"That's quite the responsibility for a young girl." Yilka stated.
"And bound draw attention to us. We can't go into city if one of us has wings." Venamo said.
"What if we put a cape on her?" Yilka suggested.
"Her wings are so burning hot, they'd just burn the cape." Nofa said and put a leaf of a tree on Varma's wing.
The leaf burned in seconds.
"If we can't take her to town, one of us should stay by her side outside of town." Yilka suggested.
"You are right. I reckon I'd be needed to get our matters handled in town. Yilka, you'll stay with Varma once we enter town." Venamo told the others.
"But shouldn't we be more worried about getting her to wake up?" Yilka asked.
"What can we do but wait? Watch over her when you're with her and don't take your eyes off her." Venamo replied.
"Hmph. Still doesn't trust me with her. And I rooted for him when he dove under the lake." Nofa murmured.
"Let's go with that." Yilka said.
Venamo picked up Varma from the ground and put her on the back of his beakmount.
"Our mounts have drank and they're eager to get on the move. We should too." Venamo told the others and mounted his own steed, with Varma behind him on its back.
Yilka went to mount his own, but couldn't quite get himself properly mounted. He fell a couple of times and on the third time Nofa gave him a little push upwards, which surprised him and made his eyes widen.
"Bold." Yilka commented when he had gotten on his steed's back.
"It looked like you needed some assistance." Nofa replied and shrugged.
Yilka then extended a hand to Nofa to offer assistance.
"Why, thank you." Nofa said and accepted the help.
Once everybody was mounted and Blueberry had Nofa's big sack, off they went to follow the creek.
21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJ3Ql7RvSo1
At evening the pleasant and safe forest came to an end, and ahead the travellers could see hilly landscape below them and the city that they were headed to. A raildoad led into the city past a gate, and beyond the city in the faraway hills the sky was oddly black even when the rest of the sky was a dark shade of blue. The creek that the travellers were following led to waterfall, and at the bottom of the waterfall the creek turned into a wider one that led into the city through a canal. The travellers carefully went down around the waterfall and followed the creek into the city walls. They all saw a curious detail about the walls of the city. Downward pointing spikes were at the top of the walls, as if to prevent anyone from climbing in. Before the travellers reached the gate, they stopped.
"Those aren't rain clouds over there, are they? Why are they so dark?" Yilka wondered as he looked at the black clouds far away.
"That's not our concern right now. Yilka, you hop off here and go somewhere with Varma where nobody will see her. Me and Nofa will go into the town and ask around for Bloodmist." Venamo commanded and dismounted.
"Understood." Yilka said and also dismounted.
He offered help in letting Nofa dismount as well, which she accepted. He then went to Venamo's mount and picked up Varma and slung her over his own shoulder. The heat from Varma's wing burned Yilka's ear but he didn't let it bother him too much. He then grabbed his steed Pfelo by the reins and walked it parallel to the city's wall.
"You wait with them too, alright?" Nofa said to Blueberry kindly.
Yilka stopped at a spot by the city's wall but far enough away from the gate that nobody should have any reason to come to them. In the distance he saw Venamo, his mount and Nofa walking to the gates. He waved goodbye to them and Nofa waved back before disappearing.
At his quiet place by the wall, he set Varma down on the ground belly first as to not crush her wings and then sat down next to her. Pfelo was smart enough to understand that this was a moment to stay put, so he also settled down on the ground. Yilka put the tip of his cudgel on the ground and leaned his chin on the other end of it.
"When will we start getting along?" Yilka asked Pfelo.
Pfelo let out some tired throat clicks in response.
"I thought so too." Yilka said.
He then looked at Varma's new wings. He pinched one feather of them and learned himself how hot the wings are.
"So you've got wings now then. The inheritor of the Fire Feather is you. Maybe you'll fly like her one day." Yilka said to Varma who was still passed out.
He was then startled when both of her wings suddenly flapped once. After the sudden flap the wings calmed down again. Yilka noticed that ants were crawling up Varma's face. Yilka raised Varma up to her knees and started wiping the ants off her face. Right then Yilka heard a plop. A large amount of saliva fell on Varma's head. Yilka looked up and saw something that he wished to never see again. It was a wallcrawl. Yilka sprung up and picked up the Beast Slayer that he had put on the ground. Varma flopped back on her belly and Yilka stood in front of her. He remained quiet and still with his weapon ready in case the creature detected him and pounced.
Unfortunately, it was Pfelo who didn't know how to stay quiet. He started screeching at the wallcrawl menacingly. The wallcrawl was alerted and jumped down. It charged at Pfelo, but Yilka hit the wallcrawl in the back. The wallcrawl screeched and turned its attention to Yilka. It attacked Yilka by opening its big mouth. Yilka protected himself with is weapon by holding it horizontally. The wallcrawl gnawed at the Beast Slayer while trying to get its teeth in Yilka's flesh. Right then Pfelo struck the horn of his hoof into the wallcrawl's ribs, once again redirecting its attention. Yilka took the opportunity to smash his cudgel into the wallcrawl's skull, making it stagger and stumble. In its confusion it hit Yilka with the back of its hand, making him fall on his back. The wallcrawl leapt high into the air and intended to land on Yilka with its long claws first. As it was coming down, it got a metallic shining arrow to its ribs, and the impact sent it flying to the side and crashing down away from Yilka. The arrow was then ripped away from the beast's flesh by the rope connected to it. The beast screeched in pain, but not for long, because Yilka smashed its skull with the Beast Slayer repeatedly until the beast's head was flat.
Yilka then hung his cudgel to his belt. And turned around to see where the arrow came from. Varma was standing upright and holding her bow and arrow while looking at the dead beast on the ground.
"Thank you." Yilka said.
"No worries." Varma calmly replied.
"Are you feeling any better?"
"I'm fine. Where's Vena and Nofa?"
"They went to town and I stayed to watch over you. Looks like I picked a bad spot to wait for them."
"What's happened? Where are we? Why am I not hot anymore?" Varma asked.
Yilka only looked at Varma's wings without saying anything.
"What are you looking at? Are you looking behind m... wh-what is this?" Varma said as she looked at her wings.
"Do you not feel them?" Yilka asked.
"I feel them now!" Varma said and flapped her wings.
She was frightened by the movement of the wings and the strange feeling of two new limbs she can control.
"D-did I get these while I was out? Why do I have wings now?" Varma asked confused and scared.
"We don't know for certain. But we guessed that since you were there for the Fire Feather's last breath, you inherited her power." Yilka explained.
"Whaaaaaat? I'm not worthy of that! I mean, I'm honoured but... it's not right at all. This is all so... much." Varma stuttered.
"I don't think you get to choose." Yilka reminded.
"So is it my job now to bring summer into the land and melt away the snow by flying over the continent? Am I even able to fly with these?" Varma wondered.
"Try." Yilka urged.
"All right. Watch this!" Varma said and started flapping her wings while standing on the ground.
She couldn't flap them really hard or fast since she wasn't used to using them, but she tried. The feathers of her wings whiffed as they sliced the air, but her heels didn't come off the ground a bit. Her face was getting red with how much effort she was putting into flapping her wings, but it was all for nothing.
"You know, some birds don't take to flight from a stationary position. They run for a bit or jump from somewhere." Yilka reminded while chuckling at Varma's pointless efforts.
Varma stopped what she was doing and looked serious.
"Of course I knew that. I was just training my wings. Warming up. Yeah, that's it. Warming up. Now watch this!" Varma said and spread her wings.
She ran further away from the city wall towards the waterfall that they passed earlier and once she had enough speed, she took her feet off the ground and jumped. She gracefully glided for the distance of a few arm's lengths and then crashed down with her face and belly, sliding a little as she landed. She spat grass out of her mouth and turned her head to look behind her when she heard Yilka, Pfelo and Blueberry with Nofa's massive sack coming towards her slowly.
"That was a good start." Yilka said once her was close.
"Don't give me your insulting compliments. I can do better." Varma defiantly swore.
"I believe in you." Yilka said calmly.
"As if I need your belief." Varma said as she stood up and got running again.
Her second attempt was no better than her first. She got herself standing and dusted herself off before Yilka could say anything to her.
"I'll keep trying!" Varma promised.
"Maybe you can jump from up that waterfall and see if that works better." Yilka suggested.
"That waterfall is about five times my height. Falling down would hurt. You're telling your little cousin to do dangerous things? Evil man." Varma replied.
"Good encouragement to succeed then. You don't want to fall down." Yilka counter argued.
"Hmm. I'll try. If I fall down I'm telling Vena that you tossed me down from there." Varma said and made her way to the waterfall.
At the top of the waterfall she looked down as the running water hit her heels. She had doubts in her mind, but when she looked at her wings and what they meant, she knew that she'd have to learn how to use them. She took a few steps back from the edge, spread her arms and wings and then ran. She leapt over the edge and focused her eyes forward. She was now gliding. When she realised that she was gliding, she got nervous and excited and didn't know what to do now.
"Flap your wings! Fly!" Yilka shouted from the ground.
Varma did as told and flapped her wings. She gained altitude and got even more excited.
"Turn your body!" Yilka then shouted from the ground.
Varma did as told and made a right turn. She flew a circle and when she lost altitude, she flapped her wings again. She got the hang of it quickly and flew circles around the practice area.
"I'm flying, Yia! I'm flying like the Fire Feather!" Varma shouted down to the ground in thrill.
"I see it! Way to go!" Yilka shouted back.
Varma got bold and decided to fly over the city. She looked down at the city and the infrastructure there that was unlike anything she had ever seen. When she noticed that some folk down there saw her and pointed at her, she turned back and decided that this was enough flying for now. When it was time to land, she stuck out her feet and prepared to touch the ground. When her feet did touch the ground, she lost her step and stumbled and then fell on her face. She was beyond proud of herself regardless.
Yilka rushed to her excited but when he saw that she wasn't getting up, he got a little worried. Then he heard that Varma was making sounds as if she was giddy and overjoyed.
"That was unbelievable!" Yilka exclaimed.
"If only you knew how it's like to be up there." Varma replied and stood up.
"Really shouldn't fly over the city like that, however." Yilka reminded.
"Yeah, I know. Sorry." Varma admitted.
"You can't exactly enter the town with those either. I'm here because somebody had to watch over you while you were out. Good that you're no longer hot either." Yilka said.
"The wings are really hot but it doesn't hurt me at all." Varma pointed out.
"Doesn't hurt?" Yilka asked.
"That's right. I can feel how hot they are but it's not painful at all. It's rather pleasant actually." Varma said and wrapped the wings around her body.
21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡl0DzW3VY0y
Inside the walls of the city Venamo and Nofa were walking through the city streets. Nofa especially was amazed looking at the architecture and the look of the cityscape. Streets were lit with posts where a glass ball contained electrically charged jewels, and a man made river ran through the streets with metallic barricades surrounding it and preventing anyone from falling in. A boat was moving in the man made river and the boat had a container of cave moss that it used as fuel. A railroad also ran through the city but unlike the river, it didn't go in multiple directions. The buildings were made from white stone with smooth surfaces with no wooden support pillars anywhere. Even the residential building had glass windows, at least in the part of the city that Venamo and Nofa were in. They came to a circular plaza where the man made river circled around it and in the middle was a statue of King Sibiseb, a past king of the big country. Armed guards with helmets and spears were keeping watch on all sides of the plaza as the folk walked past it. Standing on an ale barrel at the side of the plaza was a man with a big chin and expensive clothes. He cleared his throat and rolled open paper scroll.
"Heed all! Heed all! The day's updates are as follows. Our brave King Pushkrilleri has promised the mutiny of Haimana will come to an end! He promises that the treasonous Academic Haimana Society will not be ready for what is to come, but he would not reveal more than that! The notorious bandit known as Bloodmist is still at large. She was last spotted in a tavern in the lower quarter and everybody who was there that night has been arrested and interrogated. The common folk are still recommended to keep their heads up and their purses close to their chests! The building of the continent crossing railroad is advancing steadily. Guards have been doubled to keep watch for anyone trying to hinder the project, but volunteer funds will still be needed! The King assures that taxes will not be raised any more than they already have to fund the project! All common folk should also keep an eye on anyone that has a single vertical red stripe anywhere in their clothes." The man at the barrel announced.
All eyes on the plaza turned to a man who had a red stripe going along his chest. All the townsfolk pointed their fingers at the man, and he was soon taken in by guards with spears. Venamo and Nofa knew that interfering would end badly for them. Watching the man get dragged away while cursing in Uhmakian hurt Venamo inside, but he thought with reason and not with emotion.
Nofa was about to ask Venamo a question but before she could let the first word out, Venamo blocked her mouth with his hand. Nofa was confused at first.
"If you don't speak Vastusarian, don't speak at all." Venamo said quietly to her.
Guards and townsfolk alike noticed Nofa's red hair, which made her nervous. She wondered how welcome the Wicked folk were in these parts.
Venamo got an idea where to start. He approached a guard.
"Where is the nearest tavern?" Venamo asked the guard in the Vastusarian language.
"You want a lowly tavern, go to the lower quarters." The guard answered with snark.
"Where are the lower quarters?" Venamo asked.
"When you see streets where the water doesn't flow into, and where the rails don't go, you'll find the lowers quarters." The guard answered.
"Thank you." Venamo said and walked off.
Nofa gave the guard a polite smile and received a confused and disgusted sneer in return. She decided to just follow Venamo rather than start anything.
As they were following along the flow of water, they noticed that many folk were headed to the opposite direction of them suddenly. The folk were whispering something to each other but Nofa obviously didn't know what. Venamo understood what they were saying and stopped walking.
"Girl with wings in the sky. They saw Varma. Let's return." Venamo whispered to Nofa and headed back to the direction of the entrance.
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