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Chapter 57: Stalk the stalk
🕑 Added 2024-12-27 11:26:31 +0000 UTC“Ye’re absolutely sure?” the one-eyed former pirate asked for the third time.
“Yes, Nazyr, I’m sure,” Rylan repeated, smiling exasperatedly. “You deserve a night off. Besides, I’m not doing the dishes by myself; this was actually Tammi’s idea.”
Nazyr’s brows shot up, before a sly grin spread across his face. “Ah, say no more, m’lord. I shan’t keep ye any longer.”
Rylan eyed Nazyr suspiciously as the man clapped him on the shoulder and sauntered off, whistling off-key. Does he think we’re...? He let out a sigh, shaking his head. Well, as long as he suspects the wrong thing, I guess that works out.
When Rylan turned the corner around the no-longer-quite-as-slanted Soggy Shepherd, carrying a bamboo tub full of dishes, he found Tamina waiting for him, her dark hair neatly braided. She shot him a conspiratorial smile, then silently joined him.
Rylan waited until they were out of earshot before he started talking. “Soren’s been lying to us.”
Tamina stiffened, but didn’t lose her stride. “Explain,” she demanded in a low voice.
“I asked him about the search for the statue, and he got real nervous as he started talking about how slow it’s going. I think he’s already found it.”
Tamina’s brows drew together. “How sure are you about this?”
“I don’t have any proof,” Rylan admitted. “But I know him. I know when he’s trying to foghorn me. Plus, Stan said Soren’s heartbeat accelerated a lot after my question. He’s definitely hiding something.”
The spiritgear in question was still taking a well-deserved nap. From what Rylan sensed through their connection, it would take another hour or two for the chatty blade to wake—unless he accelerated the process by feeding Stan mana.
“Stan can sense that kinda thing?” Tamina asked, sounding a little perturbed. “Fog. He really is the perfect spy tool.”
Rylan spotted the fog condenser off in the distance, right at the edge of the bubble, and corrected their course towards it. “He really is, huh? Anyway... I don’t know what to do. Soren might crack if I confront him, but my gut is telling me he’d just double down and deny everything. I mean, he’s always so vague about what he’s up to during the day, always shrugging it off and saying it was boring. I kinda just want to follow them and see where they go, you know?”
Tamina mulled it over for a bit, before nodding slowly. “You’re right. They’re probably up to something. That doesn’t necessarily mean we should poke our noses in it, though. I mean, what happened to not antagonising our ticket out of here?”
“Well, I wasn’t planning to get caught.”
Tamina snorted. “Nobody plans to get caught, smartass.” She pursed her lips. “If you really want to do this... I’ll join you. But let me ask you this first: is Maris really worth all this trouble, all this risk?”
Rylan stopped in his tracks, and turned to face her. “I owe her,” he said simply. “For leading us here, for Stan... She’s been begging me for help for weeks now. I’m not walking away from my obligations.”
Tamina stared at him for a moment, then nodded. “Fair enough. First things first: let’s discuss how we’re going to ditch Yuel tomorrow...”
“So you see,” Rylan said, “with the prey this scarce, we keep having to go farther out. Soon we might have to forego the cover of the ruins altogether, and, well we just figured it might be better if, ehm—”
“What, if I don’t come with?” Yuel asked indignantly, with his hands on his waist. “Worried I’ll slow you two down by being too cautious? You know, the two of you aren’t untouchable either! Running off like you did yesterday; that’s asking for an accident!”
Rylan pinched his brow. “No, I know. That was the result of a series of bad decisions, I won’t deny that, it’s just...”
“What Ry here is trying to say,” Tamina continued smoothly. “Is that hunting is becoming more and more of a longshot. So if we want to make sure we get enough fresh food for tonight’s dinner, it might be better to split up, cover more ground, outside and inside the bubble.”
Yuel narrowed his eyes, his gaze flicking back and forth between them suspiciously.
“Exactly!” Rylan hurriedly continued. “You could go back to that bush of gilderberries we found a week ago, pick the ones which have ripened since. And maybe you could look around for some more of those spring onions or wild potatoes...”
“I don’t know...” Yuel drawled. “I feel like I should—”
“Come on, Yuel,” Tamina interrupted with a wink, as she slid an arm through the crook of Rylan’s elbow. “I think Rylan and I are old enough to be alone without a chaperone, don’t you? Hey, maybe you could bring Nazyr to pick the berries with you, make it a date...”
Rylan could feel the blood rush to his cheeks.
[Your bloodpump’s going nuts again, Boss; are you angry about something?!]
‘I need to concentrate, Stan, I’ll... I’ll explain later.’
Meanwhile, Yuel’s expression went through a complete journey, going from petulant and suspicious to shocked, before settling on a sly, knowing grin. “Oooh, you want some alone time! All you had to was ask, hon. Enjoy your ‘hunt,’ I’ll see if Naz and I actually bring back any berries—we might just eat all of them.”
Then he winked, turned around, and pranced off, practically skipping.
The sudden reversal in his attitude was almost enough to give Rylan emotional whiplash. “We do actually need food for today, you know?!” he shouted after the blond former pirate, who summarily ignored him.
Tamina gave his arm a little tug. “Shall we?” she asked coyly.
Rylan grumbled but allowed himself to be pulled along.
***
Captain Hammermore and Soren usually only left a little after the hunting party did, though Rylan wasn’t sure what it was exactly they did around camp after breakfast. He suspected the captain just wanted to go around her crew for updates on what they were doing or something.
Either way, it gave them some time to find a proper spot to hide, out of sight from the camp but close enough that they wouldn’t miss anyone heading towards the centre of the bubble from there.
They ended up picking a spot at the top of a nearby knoll that wasn’t too tall, where they lay side by side on their bellies in a little nest in the tall grass.
The lush vegetation blocked most of the breeze and noises in the bubble—with the notable exception of the hoppers chirping all around them—creating the illusion of a closed off space in the wide open area.
It reminded Rylan of simpler times, when he, Zahra, and Soren had hunted frogs between the reeds growing in the shallow fog around Thistlebloom, in the heat of Caloris.
Actually, we left in the middle of Solis, so it’s Caloris now, isn’t it?
There was scant evidence of the usually oppressive heat of the warm season down at the cloudbed, even in their bubble. It’s a good thing we’re not here during Tenebris or Nebulis; it’s cool enough as it is!
[There’s two people coming,] Stan warned after a while. [I think it’s them!]
Rylan lifted himself up a little, carefully parting some of the grass in front of him to peek through. From their elevated position, he caught a glimpse of a big hammer and a flash of blue hair.
“It’s Soren and the captain,” he whispered. “They seem to be heading past us on the right!”
Tamina pulled him back down. “Just let Stan do the tracking, you gullbrain,” she said, her affectionate tone taking the barb out of her words.
“All right all right,” he grumbled. “I just wanted a peek; I was being careful. Are they talking about anything, Stan?”
[I think so. They’re close enough now that I can make out their faces, but if you want me to listen in on them, you’d have to bring me a lot closer.]
For a moment, Rylan considered tossing Stan to somewhere near their path. Then he quickly put the risky notion out of his head.
“All right. Just let me know when they start getting blurry to your senses again. We don’t want to lose them.”
[You got it, Boss!]
It took several agonising minutes before Stan spoke again.
[I’m losing detail again, Boss; they’re off in that direction!]
Rylan gave Tamina a thumbs-up and carefully got to his knees, peeking out over the grass to make sure their quarries were out of sight. He didn’t spot them anywhere, the ruined buildings and piles of rubble littering the landscape doing a great job at blocking lines of sight.
“Let’s go!” Tamina whispered, clearly impatient, before she started crouch-walking off.
“Ehm... what are you doing?” Rylan asked, bemused, as he stood upright.
“Isn’t it obvious? I’m sneaking!”
“Yes. Yes, it’s very obvious,” Rylan stated dryly. “So obvious, in fact, that anyone who spots you will immediately wonder what kind of shady business you’re up to.”
Tamina stopped in her tracks, then straightened, and glanced back with an uncharacteristically sheepish expression. “That’s... a good point.”
“Come on,” Rylan said, patting her on the shoulder as he passed her by. “Pretend we’re on a stroll. If anyone spots us, we’ll just say we spotted some tracks and decided to follow them.”
Tamina quickly fell into step beside him, though she remained tense, and kept throwing furtive glances over her shoulder.
“Stop looking,” Rylan said after a moment. “Act like you normally would. In fact, try to look a little bored, like you’re performing a rote task. Looking busy is key. Trust me.”
Tamina let out a sigh, but her shoulders loosened a little, and her stride became more natural. “You’ve done this a lot, huh?”
“I’ve been known to get up to shenanigans,” Rylan admitted.
“I’m sure,” she drawled amusedly, her eyes seeming to linger on him for a bit longer than usual. “Where to next?”
Rylan flashed her a grin. “This way.”
With Stan’s help, they soon found the faint trail through the vegetation that Soren and the captain seemed to be following. It led Rylan to wonder if they walked there every day...
Either way, the twosome didn’t appear to be in any hurry, slowly moving through the ruins, deeper into the city centre, so Rylan and Tamina followed at a leisurely pace. At some point, as Rylan turned a corner, he caught sight of their quarries, and hurriedly grabbed Tamina’s right wrist to pull her back.
Her skin was soft and warm, and if he held on just a bit longer than strictly necessary, she didn’t seem to mind.
They waited for the twosome to turn the corner, then carried on after them before Stan lost track of their whereabouts.
The terrain slowly became less vegetated, as the ruins and piles of rubble grew taller, and Rylan was slowly starting to wonder if they were just wasting their time.
[Huh, that’s weird,] Stan suddenly said. [Boss, they’re moving down!]
“They’re moving down? Straight down?” Rylan repeated, in part for Tamina’s benefit.
[Kind of. They’re going down some kind of circular hole...]
Sharing a loaded glance, Rylan and Tamina hurried on. Finally, as they clambered over a pile of rocks, they reached what appeared to have once been a plaza of sorts, but was now a lush meadow. And in the centre of that lush meadow, stood a weathered green statue of a man riding a chariot.
Rylan stared at it for a long moment, hit by a swell of emotions, combined with a brief sense of vertigo from seeing the place from his foghorn memories from a human perspective. He shook himself out of it. “The hole is up there,” he said, indicating the top of a nearby slope of rubble.
[That’s right! Wait, how’d you know, Boss?!]
“I remember. What’s down there, Stan? What are they doing?”
[Ehm, well, that’s a good question, Boss. I’d love to tell you, but they’re actually getting kinda fuzzy.]
Rylan frowned. “So they’re moving away from us?”
[No, not blurry; fuzzy. It's ehm, because there’s so much rock and stuff. Things down in the ground are just very fuzzy to me.]
Along with his explanation, Stan sent a sense of two figures moving through a rather narrow space, but with a kind of staticky fuzz over the whole thing that made it rather difficult to make out any detail.
I can see why he would call it fuzzy. Interesting that his senses have this limitation. I wonder why...
Seeing Tamina’s raised eyebrow, Rylan cleared his throat. “Stan says he has trouble sensing things below ground, so he doesn’t know what they’re up to.”
“I see.”
“Yeah... So, now what?”
Tamina shrugged coolly. “We wait for them to come out and fog off. Then we go in to check it out ourselves.”
Though she was clearly trying to sound unaffected, Rylan heard the tightness in her voice. He understood how she felt. Despite how convinced he’d already been that Soren had lied to him, seeing the proof of his friend’s betrayal was like a kick to the gut.
They headed up to a nearby ruin that looked to be in good shape, and climbed through a window into one of the higher floors. There, they waited quietly.
Rylan wasn’t much in the mood to talk, but as the minutes dragged on, they would occasionally speak in low tones about mundane things. Something funny Yuel had said the other day. What they might make for dinner that night.
Finally, after quite some time, Stan spoke. [Oh! They’re coming back up!]
Rylan signalled at Tamina to be silent.
This time, it was Tamina who couldn’t resist peeking out through a crack in the stone. Rylan didn’t bother to admonish her. There was really no way she’d be spotted in their dimly lit hideout.
“They’re out of sight,” Tamina whispered a while later. “What is Stan saying, are we good to go?”
[They seem to be moving deeper into the ruins, Boss; I think you can come out now!]
Rylan nodded at Tamina, and they carefully climbed out, making sure not to dislodge any rocks as they clambered down to the plaza. Perhaps stalling a bit longer would have been wiser, but Rylan was sick of waiting.
His heart beat in his throat as they hurried over the grassy plaza, and made their way up to the hole on the other side. Climbing up the pile of rubble with his human hands and feet felt a little bizarre and impractical, as the memory of leaping up on hooves drifted to the forefront of his mind, but he made do.
Finally, they reached the top, and found the dimly lit hole the foghorn had fallen into, which turned out to actually be the open newel —the central void—of a slightly slanted, spiral staircase.
Rylan tied his glowband to his forehead, while Tamina brought her shield to bear, the white glow of her Skill dimly lighting the steps leading down.
Gravel and pebbles littered the stone steps. If there had still been any doubt left in Rylan’s mind, the clear bootprints leading up and down the dusty staircase would’ve put them to rest.
Rylan exchanged a glance with Tamina, took a deep breath, and started his descent.
Author's note:
Thanks for reading! ^^
Comments
im Panda
First comes love, then comes marriage... The come a baby in a baby carriage
JLG33
For the old folks out there, this might sound familiar. "Rylan and Tamina, standing by the sink. W. A. S. H. I. N. G. "
