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AR Chapter 296
🕑 Added 2025-01-08 04:41:00 +0000 UTCContrary to any of my expectations, the excited Arwa who’d left returned despondent. She curled up at my feet and quietly whimpered as the dozens of wolfstags, new and old alike, gathered around her. Before, a mere nine Voltaic Wolfstags resided within my swarm, but now more than three dozen surrounded me while the Wave Wolfstags came to investigate the newest “recruits”.
My initial thought was that these new thirty or so wolfstags were also Voltaic, but it didn’t take too long for me to realize the subservience that the newcomers displayed to Arwa and every one of her pups. Mistral, then. I looked up at Joral, and he flicked his tail before he responded.
“She was looking for them, seemed to recognize the scent or something. Then, once she found them, she pretty quickly realized that what she was looking for wasn’t there. Once she realized that, she didn’t want to keep going and led us all back to the swarm. Nothing else noteworthy in the trip itself, but when we got near the peak of the mountain, I could see a lot further. It looks like there’s a pass between mountains just a couple miles north.”
I flared my frills appreciatively. Joral nodded in acceptance before walking off. His steps invariably carried him towards the herds, and, remembering Basit, I noted his dedication as he did so.
“Thank you, Joral. For keeping an eye on the wolfstags, and for so willingly stepping into your role as the leader of the Kou’Tal. I appreciate it.”
The scales along his neck jittered slightly at the praise, and he, without turning around, replied, “Of course, Alpha.”
Before long, every member of the swarm still beyond the immediate sight of the rest returned. A strangely furred deer as well as a large hog were all that were brought back, but most of the swarm lived by my own way by now–a single meal a day was sufficient to keep alive. Thus, those who hadn’t yet eaten, or those unwilling to go a day without, were able to eat a meal. I personally indulged in [Fanatic’s Fortitude], relishing the faint sense of closeness to Nievtala that was strengthened by using the [Skill].
When I’d first gained it, [Fanatic’s Fortitude] was a literal godsend, allowing the swarm to continue on our flight from the Veratocracy’s lands. Those of us who had gained the [Skill], Foire, Sybil, Took, and Vefir, didn’t require so much food as most of the rest of the swarm, and for the first time in quite a while, I returned to look at the [Skill’s] description once more.
[Fanatic’s Fortitude; a Skill with passive and active properties. When passive, Fanatic’s Fortitude facilitates and reinforces the Skill holder’s rate of recovery while giving a 10% reduction to the cost of using Skills. When active, Fanatic’s Fortitude blesses the Skill holder with a feeling of satiety and a nearly bottomless well of stamina. The duration and profundity of the Skill’s active effects are directly correlated to the depth of the connection between the Skill holder and the object of their devotion. As the Skill Holder is the sole Disciple of Nievtala in the world and is the most highly ranked of all of Nievtala’s followers currently alive, there is a static 50% boost to the Skill’s effects. In addition, if there are five or more Skill holders in the same area who are using the Skill’s effects at the same time, the Skill’s effects will become an aura whose area of effect is directly correlated to the depth of the connection between the Skill holder and the object of their devotion. As the Skill Holder is the sole Disciples of Nievtala in the world and is the most highly ranked of all of Nievtala’s followers currently alive, and those around the user are the most highly ranked devotees of Nievtala, the aura that the user projects when using the active effects of the Skill in tandem with those devotees around the user is: 84 ft. This Skill can evolve. Evolutionary requirements hidden.]
I’d long since considered the [Skill] merely one that would help me to feel less hungry, but, disregarding the increase on the active aura’s range’s increase, I now recalled the other effects. This [Skill] was sure to be a large part of the reason for why I was able to continue practicing [Spear of the Many] so frequently without permanently damaging myself, or why my sonilphon was able to replenish itself so quickly.
Sybil’s nuzzling at the base of my neck startled me from my musing reverie. I whirled to look her in the face, and she grinned up at me. I sighed and, after walking to where they’d been unceremoniously dumped, settled onto the furs that we’d gradually gathered throughout our journey. My scales itched for a good sand bath, but there wasn’t any true sand to be found, at least not yet. Even so, I didn’t doubt we’d find some eventually.
“Do you believe that we are close to our home?” Sybil murmured as we lay to sleep. “I do not know how much longer we can keep the most excited in check.”
I bristled at the suggestion of disobedience. “We will ensure they follow their betters.”
My mate merely bit at my nose in protest of my extreme reaction. I toned my rage down and gave a more complete answer.
“We’re in the general area. Hopefully, we’ll find the city’s ruins before too long, but I can’t say for sure. Ideally, Nievtala would tell us exactly where to go from here, but I feel like she isn’t allowed to.” I’d long since explained the idea of limits placed on the Administrator and Nievtala to Sybil.
“Then I suppose we will be forced to continue to search. I’m sure Ytte especially will rejoice once our home is located and she can cease dragging that stone with her every step of the way.”
“She has been remarkably dedicated to it.” I agreed. “It’s almost hard to picture her without it at this point.”
Sybil and I spoke for a short time after, though both of us quickly succumbed to sleep.
For the first time in a while, I dreamed vivid dreams. Though I’d never scaled these mountains, I could see the Shandise from above. Their peaks glistened white in the light, shiny and strange. The clouds impeded my view, but only for a time. The suns seemed to purposefully flare and burn the cover away, giving me a clear view. Though I couldn’t say where my swarm could be at the moment, I felt I knew the small valley we were currently resting in. Then, without thinking of anything specific, I began soaring. The clouds wet my face, and moisture collected on my scales before dripping down my body and off my tail.
Faster and faster my body flew what I somehow knew to be north. Peak after peak passed me, and I weaved between them again and again as I followed my instincts. Finally, after what felt to be a lifetime, I saw a single towering structure halfway up a mountain. Crumbling walls surrounded it, and then–
I woke. The barest hint of what I believed to be the ruins of Nievtra, then they were taken from me. Overhead, the sky glittered with only the light of the stars. There was no hint of sunsrise or even the moon. Just the night and me. I fought to reclaim sleep or my vision, but nothing came to me. Instead, I closed my eyes and tried to reexperience the joys of flight.
