Act I
"Wake up Dani, it's already morning." I heard a gentle voice, it was Chara, he was shaking me awake. I opened my eyes and saw that it was already dawn. Why did I sleep more than usual?
"Sniff* Something smells good." I said as I stood up with Chara's help and then I noticed something.
"Did you get shorter Chara?" I asked confused, he used to reach my chest, but now he was only reaching the top of my abbs.
"No, I think you just got taller Dani." He said as he craned his head to meet my eyes, I did? That was odd, but I guess it's normal for someone going through puberty. With a shrug I started walking towards the two girls, I sat down and joined them around the fire.
"So what's the plan for today?" I asked before eating a mouthful of the stew, from a bowl made of grass and clay. The soup tasted heavily of pork, which was normal for the meat used was salted smoked boar. I'm still not sure where Chara and Seraphina got the salt from.
"We keep moving south until we reach a river or see mountains." I nodded, it was a simple and good plan, hopefully we find something soon.
[15/100 Purified souls] I looked at the tattoo on my chest, I smiled atleast now I know I can survive being killed more than a dozen times. The smile quickly disappeared as I remembered how painful it was, every time I died.
I looked at my bow, it was a rough longbow made out of a large branch taller than me. Now I can see cracks appearing all over its spine, from my experience it might survive one or two battles at best, but after that it'll be either too weak to use, or too broken in half.
"We need to keep hunting." Seraphina started speaking again after a silence settled between the four of us, it made me look at her.
"For soul cores and corpses?" I asked the obvious answer to her words, it got me a nod.
"We need to get stronger, and we can't do that if we avoid hunting." I agree with her, but still I felt my shoulders lowered as I thought about how much fighting I will be doing in the coming days.
Act II
In an open field, a herd of six thick furred cattle with long pointed horns were feeding on the flowering weeds in between the orange grass. MOOAUH* Screams, an arrow came from nowhere as one screamed in panicked pain, the others noticed this and looked around.
MOOH* Another scream of pain, tump* tump* tump* The herd started running, those wounded hobbled as they tried running but more arrows came in the end they laid bleeding on the grassy ground.
"It actually worked. . ." I spoke out in disbelief, I was beside Chara as the girls cautiously made their way to the two iron rank Horrors. Within moments the two were slitting the horrors thick throats, after that I made my way towards them with Chara behind me.
"It worked, Sunshine!" I praised Eclipsa as she threw a soul core to me and I passed along to Chara, he accepted it.
"Of course it would! We already saw how skittish, the Heavy tusk boars were. Why would Longhorn Bisons be any different?" I gave her a look, but then shook my head, she was not a humble girl.
I didn't even answer the girl, as I took the corpse of the Horror she killed and started dragging it to the one Seraphina killed. As I reached the silvery blue haired girl I saw her sitting cross legged as she absorbed the soul core she had in between her hands.
Thump* I dropped the head of the Longhorn Bison I was dragging, after that I sat on top of the corpses waiting for Seraphina to finish absorbing her Soul core.
"Daniel, have you ever thought it would be dangerous for you to keep making sacrifices to the patrons of the Dreaming?" Seraphina spoke as she stood up, patting her grass skirt, it made me look away as I almost saw her garden.
"Yes? It's very dangerous but I have an aspect helping me." My words made her frown, as I can see thoughts swirling in her eyes.
She didn't say anything else which made me shrug as I thought of how to do my sacrifice, the Lady of the open sky had already told me to stop sacrificing to her. Which means, do I need to do another blind. . . I felt that wrongness again.
I cleared my head as I looked at the two corpses, who do I sacrifice to? That was when I remembered a name, the patron who gave me their brand. The Lightbringer, why didn't I think of them before? I gave it a moment, and I didn't feel that wrongness, with a smile I crouched down touching the corpse of the two iron rank horrors.
"Lightbringer, I the bearer of your mark, offer you this sacrifice." I spoke clearly as the flames quickly consumed the corpses.
[You have purified two souls.]
I stood there as I felt stronger, as the white smoke seeped into me but after that nothing. . . Did the Lightbringer not notice the sacrifice? I was confused, but then a smile appeared on my lips. Doesn't this mean I can keep sacrificing to them if I just want purified souls?
I almost laughed, but stopped as I saw Seraphina looking my way as a worried look was plain in her eyes. I walked to her, and the others who were waiting for me.
"Let's go, I'm done with my ritual." I told them, Eclipsa nodded and moved forward scouting using the shadows around us. Seraphina followed her but before she did, she gave me a complicated look that I did not understand, even with all my wisdom.
Act III
Eclipsa raised her hand, making us stop. I tried looking around but all I could see was the thick foliage around us. I pulled out my bow, quickly stringing it with a cord made out of vines.
"I see the river. . ." I smiled, but then I noticed Eclipsa's tone, she sounded scared.
"What else do you see?" Seraphina asked the question before I could.
"Horrors, hundreds. . . No, maybe thousands. . . They're mostly iron ranks but there are some bronze and silver ranked ones I recognize. . ." Her words made me stiff, as I felt immense weight on my chest.
"What. . . what are they doing?" Chara asked, his voice trembling.
"Drinking, they're drinking from the river." After Eclipsa's words there was a quiet between our party. It was broken as we heard Seraphina's cold words.
"We follow the river from here, hopefully we find a part of the river not infested with Horrors." I gave out a relieved breath, no one said anything to Seraphina's order, as we silently agreed with her.
"Sunshine, how far away are we from the river from here?" I asked curiously, it was probably pretty far as even with my enhanced senses I can't hear nor smell thousands of animals.
"A few hours of walking that way." Eclipsa pointed to. . . I looked towards the sun, it was in its last quarter which means it was falling towards the west.
"To the south east? Sunshine, do you see the flow of the river?" Seraphina asked as we gathered around Eclipsa as she focused looking through the shadows.
"The river is moving from east to west Sera." Eclipsa answered easily as she opened her eyes, I can see her looking towards Serphina.
I did the same, we need to make a choice either we go east going up the river or west towards the lake. Chara's vision was too vague, we don't know if the village he saw was down or up the river.
"We go west, it would be safer than us going towards the Death Mountains." I can see her shoulders were slack as she told us of the plan, I patted her head.
"I agree, atleast if we hit the lake we can just use the coast to travel to another region." I smiled as it was a good back up plan, from what I know the eastern grasslands border the black floodplains.
If we survive, the undead will eventually reach one of the six necropolises, and from what I know each undead city atleast has one temple.
Without any other words we continued walking, before we did I unstrung my bow letting it rest as we walked. Now that I think about it, didn't Chara say spirits?
"Hey Chara, can you tell me again, is the village filled with rankers like us or natives?" I asked, the Dreaming realm didn't only have Horrors, but people we call natives.
They're not that different from Horrors, the only difference was that some natives wouldn't immediately murder humans immediately, and they don't invade Terra through rifts atleast the ones who haven't turned into horrors.
I've read some journals, even described their team trading and sheltering inside native settlements. The necropolises, in the black floodplains were the best example of the native strongholds filled with sentient undead that constantly keep their feral cousins from entering their cities.
"I'm not sure, at first I thought they looked human. . . But I've been thinking of my visions, I saw spirits with them, they dressed like ancient shamans with feathers. . . But I'm sure I saw rankers, especially those you'll be drinking with Dani." I nodded, so feathers, shamans and spirits? I don't remember anything like that in the journals.
As I thought about what the natives could be, we stopped again. This time I can smell water, atleast the familiar smell of mud and algae. I saw Eclipsa frowning again, is it another horde? Are we surrounded?
"The river splits into six smaller rivers. . . which do we follow?" Her words were answered with silence, Seraphina was deep in thought, Chara was quiet and Eclipsa was once again scouting with her eyes closed. I looked up, we only have a few hours before sunset, I shook my head we won't make it today.
"Sunshine, look for somewhere defensible, a hill or ruins. We should camp now and then continue again tomorrow." My words shook them out of their daze, Eclipsa looked at me and then nodded.
"We won't make it today Sera, remember what the director said, we need to survive first and find a temple later." Seraphina didn't say anything as she avoided my eyes.
Act IV
Crackle* Crackle* Our campfire burned brightly, we were on top of a hill in between two deep sandy streams. Eclipsa found it quickly and because of that I had enough time to build a tent and foundation bed out of the shrubs and grass.
"Sera, we should wait." I spoke, breaking the silence as we ate stew. We were eating the last of the smoked lizard tail meat.
"For what Daniel?" She asked, as we met each other's eyes.
"For Chara to get another vision." She looked away as I answered her.
"If we pick a random river to follow we might end up missing the village Chara saw, and end up back tracking for some reason of fate." I tried thinking of a way of explaining how Chara's visions worked so far. I noticed all three looked at me as they heard the word fate.
"I'm not sure but, I've lived through enough of Chara's visions to understand they are accurate but he's bad at interpreting them. . . No offense Chara" I quickly added the last part as I looked at Chara, he was smiling mirthfully as he used his hands, to say it was true enough.
"Which means that yes will be reaching that village, but that doesn't mean it'll be tomorrow, this week or even this month. . . Tell me Chara when you saw Sera training alone by the river, was she wearing real clothes?" I asked as I looked at Sera, she was practically naked still, which means every time I looked at her I usually avoided looking below her neck. Especially after we fight anything, or move through a very shrubby area.
"I. . . I think she was wearing a long sleeved dress, with pants?" Chara said unsure, as he closed his eyes trying to remember his vision.
"Sigh* Fine, I agree. Will stay here until Chara gets a vision telling us which river to follow." Seraphina said after giving out a tired breath, I smiled at her as I patted her shoulder.
"You might be our leader Sera, but I'm the oldest and wisest among us right now." I told her which made her smile, but then her brows curved as she became thoughtful.
"I'm 17 Daniel." Seraphina said, which made my hand pause.
"I'm 18." Eclipsa spoke too, which made me look at her, very much doubting her words.
"I'm the same age as Sera." Chara spoke, which made me look away from them.
"16. . . But I'm still the wisest." I said in a lower voice, as I felt my cheeks redden from the embarrassment of being the youngest in the group, atleast biologically.
Now that I think about it, should I say I'm a reincarnate? No, I think it would just be petty if I mentioned it now, maybe later after we become bronze rank.
I laid down not meeting their eyes as I heard them chuckling, I was smiling too atleast they were laughing. It's been a few nights since I heard them laugh.