Draith
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Chapter 63 - Mountain of Meat
🕑 Added 2025-04-02 14:00:08 +0000 UTC"The Rift is a thunder lizard?" Nexxa asked even as I led her towards the Waygate for Mistvale.
"Uh. It's really more of a mist lizard, if I'm being honest. Roughly fifty feet tall with waves of mist rolling off it," I said before giving her a thorough description of everything we’d seen.
"Okay. Not a dragon, or even a drake. Shouldn't be too hard to take out," Nexxa said, pressing her hand into a fist and cracking her knuckles at the same time sparks crackled across her hand.
"Just wanna show it to you, for now," I said, stepping through the door into the quiet forest beyond. "Gonna need to get the village organized if I want to harvest… it…"
The forest had been absolutely wrecked by the storm. Even worse than the scaffolding around Tetherfall. It almost looked like something had crashed into it. When I turned to Nexxa, she had her neck craned back, her eyes fixed on something high above us.
Following her gaze, I realized the torn up area was even bigger than I’d thought. Whatever had crashed through had traveled at least half a mile, knocking over everything along the way. It almost looked like it hit the Waygate and bounced away.
"Well, that was easy," Nexxa said, brushing her hands off. "Guess I wasn't the only one to bump into that dragon."
I nodded, my eyes finally making sense of the destruction in front of me.
The mist-rex was sprawled on its side, the neck hanging at an unnatural angle, mist rolling off it even in death. All along its side were scorch marks, though they were barely visible, in the dancing shadows of the forest.
I swore softly before running back through the Waygate, Nexxa a few steps behind me.
"Hey, bro, it's fine," Nexxa said as she caught up to me in the Nets, not bothering to actually climb them, simply floating alongside.
I ignored her as I spotted Tanis lounging against a nearby rope, laughing to something one of the other three with him had said.
"Tanis! I need everyone who knows how to harvest meat. Hell, anyone who knows how to hold a blade," I said, even as I continued to think. There was a literal mountain of meat sitting there, waiting for scavengers to come along and claim it. I intended for Tetherfall to provide those scavengers. "And if anyone has an idea on how to store multiple tons of meat, let me know."
Tanis just stared at me blankly for a second, alongside the other villagers. The younger man at his side, someone I recognized but didn't remember the name of stepped forward. "I can handle a knife, Magus."
"Good. We're going to need… Rift, I don't know. Where's Calbern?" I asked, looking around. I saw lots of villagers staring at me, but there was no sign of his impeccably kept clothing.
"Think he's giving the Wood Rat lessons, boss," Tanis said, indicating our temporary home with his chin. "What's going on?"
"Something took out that giant lizard in Mistvale. We need to harvest it before something else can," I said, taking my first step away.
Tanis's eyes went wide, looking to the sky. Then he nodded sharply. "Got it, boss. I'll round everyone up."
"Good, you do that," I said as I started making my way towards Calbern, one rope at a time.
"Wow. You're really not good at that," Nexxa said as I climbed down a rope ladder.
"Like you can talk," I said, waving to where she was floating beside me.
"Hey. If you got it, fly it," Nexxa said with an unapologetic shrug.
“Pretty sure that’s not how that goes,” I shot back as I continued my way towards our home.
Making it inside, I found Bevel and Calbern had spread paper across most of the floor. A casual inspection revealed that it had mostly come from the same book, almost all of them sketches of monsters found in the Frigid Peaks.
There were pins and thread leading between all of them.
Calbern was the only one in the room at the moment, though I could hear Bevel moving around in the back.
"Ah, master Perth," Calbern said, nodding once. "Shall I inform Lady Bevel you're here?"
"Who?" Nexxa asked, turning around instantly. "Perry, you didn't tell me you had a lady friend."
"She's not that-"
"Ah, there's the young Lady now," Calbern said as Bevel came out from the back room with a stack of books that nearly reached her chin.
Nexxa blinked at her silently for half-a-second, before a giant grin stretched across her face.
"Whatcha doing?" Bevel asked Calbern as she set the books down. "We're only halfway… Who're you?"
"Master Perth has only just arrived," Calbern answered with his usual dignified air. "And this is master Perth's sister, Lady Nexxa."
Nexxa wiped the grin off her face, affecting a serious expression as she bowed to Bevel, "A pleasure to meet you, Lady Bevel."
Bevel, of course, tilted her head to the side then glanced in my direction. Then, in her most matter of fact voice, she said, "I think your sister's broken."
After I recovered from laughing at Nexxa's poleaxed expression, I was going to ask about what they were doing, but instead, I shook my head, refocusing. "Calbern, that giant mist lizard is dead. We need to harvest it."
"Ah, it seems we must continue this later, Lady Bevel," Calbern said, pushing to his feet.
"Bevel," I said, kneeling down next to her.
She narrowed her eyes at me, biting her lip. "Yeah?"
"Would you be okay with me taking folk through to Mistvale? I know you've got your-"
She was already shaking her head, and I couldn't help but clench my teeth. I wanted to respect her space, but I also knew we needed that meat. Taking a deep breath, I asked, "It'll help the village a lot. Are you sure there isn't anything I can do to change your mind?"
"I can show you some cool magic?" Nexxa offered, forming the little cloud dragon in her hands again.
Nexxa blinked at her, then turned to me. Then she looked over to Calbern, tapping her chin as she asked, "Will it help Keira?"
"Not directly," I said, rubbing my forehead as she frowned. "It'll mean I don't have to spend as much time guarding everyone as they hike to the valley. Which means I'll be able to get back to figuring out what's wrong earlier. Plus we’ll get a lot of meat for the village."
"I…" Bevel looked towards Calbern again, who inclined his head narrowly. "I suppose it's fine. But don't let anyone touch Mr Kandle," Bevel said, wagging her finger in my face.
"Right. I won't," I said, reaching forward and ruffling her hair. "Thank you."
"S'no problem," Bevel said, turning to the side while pressing her head against my hand.
I stood up, carefully peeling away one of the pages that'd stuck to my knee while I was kneeling. Handing it to Bevel, I said, "We're gonna be busy for a while. You're welcome to follow along, if you like."
"Kay," she said, taking the paper and throwing it to the ground before grabbing my hand and leading me outside. "Come on, old man."
She attempted to lead me towards the Waygate and, after a second of thought, I allowed it. "Calbern, can you help Tanis round folk up? I know a lot of them are working on the mats, but this is more time sensitive."
"Certainly, master Perth," Calbern said, immediately leaping up and away.
"And Nexxa, I'd love if you could go make sure there isn't anything else nasty waiting for us nearby," I said even as I started pulling Bevel's cover away from the Waygate, exposing it to the village.
"Sure. Would be a shame if you lost all your minions so soon," Nexxa said, slipping into the Ways Between before I could respond.
"Your sister's weird," Bevel said as she hung upside down from the net above the entrance.
"Yep," I agreed as I continued to remove the numerous pieces of debris Bevel had incorporated into the disguise. None of it would matter after having a dozen villagers go through.
"I like her," Bevel decided after tapping her chin for a moment.
"Yeah, me too," I agreed even as I saw Tanis returning with a group of ten people. "Don't suppose you want to guide people? Make sure they don't touch anything they're not supposed to?"
Bevel watched Tanis and the others approach. When the others saw her hanging there, several of them made a gesture, each of them touching two fingers to their foreheads.
"Fine,” she said with a sigh. Then she turned towards them, waving her finger. “But none of you better touch Mr Kandle.”
There were several exchanged glances but the villagers didn't say anything as Tanis led them through, keystone in hand.
While they were doing that, I needed to go prep a second storehouse. I climbed the nets, annoyed at every motion. It hadn't bothered me before Nexxa had shown up and simply flown around everywhere, but now I was really wishing I had flight.
Maybe it would be worth it to keep Dimension Step slotted just so I didn't have to climb the nets the hard way.
I shook my head. I already had plans for dealing with that. Nexxa had simply reminded me that there were even simpler ways, if you were a strong enough mage. Still, I had better uses for my mana than a little convenience.
Grunting, I pulled myself over the lip. Still didn't understand how the villagers were able to swing themselves over the edge. Pushing myself to me feet, I spotted Inertia near Fang, though she was actually working on a different project.
I waved to her as I moved over to the warehouse, regretting the fact I hadn't fixed it up when I had all the surplus storm mana to work with. Still, it wasn't like I needed it to be watertight, like the cistern.
Did need to deal with the rather large hole in the roof though.
"Inertia, can I borrow you?" I asked eying the massive slab of stone leaning against the old building. It had been slated to be lifted up by a team of villagers, though that had been before the storm wrecked most of the scaffolding.
She let off a trailing hiss of steam, which I wasn't able to interpret, but she did set her tools to the side and march over. It took some shuffling of other stone to support our efforts, but we did eventually get the slab into place along the roof. Then, with Inertia's continued assistance, and a whole lot of steam-whistles that somehow sounded like cursing, I completed the last stone-weld.
Just in time for the first batch of villagers to arrive. Not with meat, but with a netmaster.
"Kid, heard you need to preserve a mountain of meat," Myris said, the old netmaster's arm clutching the side of the warehouse as she spoke, her knees shaking like willows in the wind.
"Yeah, and I honestly know nothing about it."
"Salt would help," Myris said, "But I heard a little spirit mention you had an easy way up to the peak. Gets awfully cold up on them peaks."
I stared at Myris, then looked towards the top of Mount Aeternia.
She was right. And not only was it cold… there was no air. It was perfect for preserving… pretty much anything.
Turning back to her, I couldn't help but smile. "We're gonna need a lot of nets."
She humphed out a half snort, pushing away from the building on still wobbly legs. "Thought so."
