By: Omegon
Alpharius was hesitant of what was being both demonstrated and ordered to him. Iskara was up in the air immediately after they stepped outside without a word, just a quick tap on another huntress’ shoulder. He awaited what fancy trick was in store for him as the second huntress walked out into the field and stood there. The third and last huntress in their cohort then took to the wing and stayed low and in sight as Iskara swooped down and grabbed the second huntress by the shoulders and pulled up again, quickly depositing her on the third’s back. The entire maneuver was done in two seconds, positively at breakneck speeds and fast enough to make him back away a little. Jurikos pushed him back forward again as the huntresses landed. Swallowing his fears and accepting that he was probably about to embarrass himself, he gave them a thumbs up and a nod, “yes.”
Ketra barked out what sounded like orders by the cadence to her daughter and things got underway as the beating of Iskara’s wings caught him by surprise. A mere moment later, Alpharius was dragged up kicking in the air and screaming before being gently placed on the smallest of the huntresses. “Ehm, sorry, I almost lost my cool there,” the dragonettes didn’t understand a word he said but he didn’t care, as long as it made it less awkward.
Looking at the dragonette he was currently riding on, he tapped on her back like a young child to his parent. “Hello, I am Alpharius.”
The huntress twisted her long neck and looked back at him. She then quickly glanced at Iskara and back before her eyes flashed in a glow of green for a split second before speaking. “El…harius? Alharius. Eskoy.. eskoy Uldash. Alharius. Uldash.” Right, so her name is Uldash. Ain’t that something. He was then slightly distracted by the armor that was so annoying to hold onto. It wasn’t a big single piece carapace but rather it was hundreds of small chitinous chips held together by a woven stringy material. It actually looked quite nice, enough so that he wanted some for himself but painted blue.
Alpharius then whistled towards the last huntress, getting her and everyone else’s attention. “Helloooo. I am Alpharius.” He pointed at himself before waving at the huntress.
The dragonette stated that her name was Nizka almost tersely. He was flying with Iskara, Uldash, and Nizka. Hopefully he would be able to keep the names straight but the interruption of suddenly diving through the jungle canopy gave him bigger priorities, like swearing and yelling.
“Iskara, can you do a quick check for magic on our ugly passenger? I know you were chewing on jezzeran stems so just feel for that bit of energy.” Uldash gave another quick look at Alpharius, sensing the magical energies within him. She was good at it, able to detect far better than the magic sniffer at Huldigne Keep and sometimes even able to tell what that magic was able to do, but Alpharius had her stumped. She could sense Nizka’s magic being used to weave between trees with incredible agility, and Iskara’s use of jezzeran heightened her sensitivity to magic and enhanced her strength ability slightly. It was that jezzeran-caused sensitivity to magic that was needed for a second check because Alpharius’s innate magic was… there and not there. It was like it was disguised in a manner of speaking, but that quick glimpse of it told her it was strong. She couldn’t tell what the magic could do, far from actually, it was utterly indecipherable and she had never seen anything like it.
“It tingles my nose,” Iskara shouted back. “Maybe the magus should take a look at him so he does something other than fantasize about rituals for once. Or maybe not, we’ll see. Soft right, coverage formation. Let’s look around the lowlands of the jungle today.”
“Understood,” Uldash broke off and created distance between her and Iskara, then lowered to twenty feet above the ground. Then it was down to a dance between the tree trunks as the thicker foliage was below her and the tree canopies were above her, a perfect middle zone to look for interlopers in their paradise.
Her passenger was delightfully quiet as well, allowing her to focus on the sounds of the birds and small ground critters that were giveaways to the activity of others. A turox bird’s shrill whine was an alarm in the most literal sense regarding larger ground beasts. Other birds like astrapias will go silent around suspicious activity, and when they flee in the opposite direction, the long tail feathers are like a bright marker indicating where the source is. Flying squirrels won’t stay around when a huntress comes by, so seeing them clamor to reach the ground rather than go up the trees gives away spies and observers, but if the search target is like her passenger, the squirrels may actually go up despite the huntresses’ presence. So many things to keep in mind while trying to not slam into a tree, but that served to sharpen a huntress’ mind to match her body.
There was little luxury to mull over daily life though as Nizka on the opposite end of their group called out an alarm. A rumbling noise far to their right was coming from the jungle floor, something unusual enough to warrant investigation so the three of them turned and closed in until a loud bang echoed through the trees and silenced every animal for a mile around. “Agh! Fuck fuck fuck pull back! My wing just got hit by something!” Nizka was yelling out in panic, driving Iskara to pull up and loop back around and for Uldash to swoop down to gain enough speed to whip around a large tree. Her passenger didn’t get shaken though, not yelling in panic but instead pointing in the direction of the ruckus then diving off her back as she went low.
“Alpharius! Damn it, what the fuck is wrong with you!?” He paid her no heed though as he took off after a short roll on the ground. Uldash went back around the tree and went to chase after the ground bound weirdo; confusion setting in as he was waving his arms and yelling as if to be seen by everything including whatever struck Nizka. “No! No! Stop that, no!”
Uldash was stopped dead in her tracks though and landed as a loud blaring wail sounded out and a rumbling metallic box thing on wheels rolled forward under its own arcane power. The two occupants of the wheeled metal beast seemed elated, pointing at the huntresses and waving their hands at Alpharius, it seemed to be a reunion between kin as they all looked similar. She couldn’t help but to notice the overwhelming feeling of magical nonsense coming from within the thing, likely the force that moved the done up wagon forward. It was blinding nonetheless, the beacon of energy overtaking her sense of smell and even bleeding into her sight whenever she tried using her ability beyond a little taste.
“People! Haha, some people I can understand!” Alpharius dusted himself off after his rapid dismount, a stunt that was very poorly thought out but saved by the low gravity. “So… I’m not sure what to do now… wait, you’re all coming with us. We have food, shelter, and the master of this castle we’re at is expecting you.”
“Uh huh… and you are?” The driver of the heavily modified four wheeler inquired, raising an eyebrow at him.
“Uh yeah, I am Alpharius. These people here are the dragonettes as far as I’m concerned, they live in this world. The biggest one with the blue and yellow painted chest piece is Iskara, the boss of the other two and is the important one. And you are?”
The slightly larger man in the passenger seat stepped out and approached him with an outstretched hand. “I am Harry, the other guy is Peter, and the third guy in the back is Marcus. Did you just jump the portal yesterday?” When Alpharius nodded yes, Harry continued, “nice, anyways, while this little second contact is nice and all, we need to get Marcus somewhere where we can actually make a proper splint.”
“What? Why?” That had his interest piqued, along with the general commotion drawing the three huntresses closer to the point of him having to put a hand out to stop them.
Harry pointed a thumb over his shoulder towards the vehicle, “Marcus back there likely sprained his ankle after trying to get down from the cliffside he exited onto. I hope it isn’t worse because he’s trying to toughman it but it is what it is. Now tell me, what is this castle?” He wasn’t going to try to waltz into another place without invitation this time, not after his first minutes in the world. While these dragonettes looked a little different from the first ones he met, they acted like the polar opposite. Although annoyingly it seemed Alpharius was the one who got to bask in his luck of not needing to avoid getting stabbed to death on a pile of rubble.
“Big building with towers and arrow slits, some smaller sheds, led by a Lady, filled with armed warriors, just the usual castle stuff. Well, they call it a keep but it’s the same thing. Izniri Keep to put a name on it.”
“And despite it only having been a day, you and them have managed to communicate enough to the point where you’re just working or living with them or whatever already? Just like that?”
He smirked, “they have a few tricks worth staying around for. One would even call it magical. Besides, I told the Lady, Ketna, that there’s more people like me that are out and about now and she has the generosity to take in all of us, so come on, no time to waste starting a new life, eh?”
Harry shrugged before walking back and getting in the four wheeler, “fair.” Seeing Peter nod along, Harry motioned for every to get going, “alright, we need a guide then. We aren’t going to say no to a gift without anything to fall back on.”
After a few minutes of the strange fur headed people chatting like they had all day, they suddenly went into a rush of activity as the larger one got back in the armoured wagon and Alpharius climbed onto the back and hung off of it. He was pointing back at the direction they flew in from and yelling ‘yes’ so Uldash assumed they said yes to going to the keep. Iskara was of the same mind as well as expecting the wagon to move itself, so Nizka was ordered to get on the top and point them in the right direction.
Before they took to the wing though, Iskara pointed towards the keep with her arm all the way out, but when nothing happened, she barked an order to move forward which was also ignored. Alpharius got things going though when he readjusted Nizka’s hands to actually hold onto the top and then tapped the wagon twice. And then with a purr and a rumble, they saw what Iskara wanted to see. The wagon moved under its own power, turning and advancing at will. It was the biggest magical artifact Uldash had ever seen, much bigger than the tiny floating furnace object Iskara found near the granite spire.
“Take to the wing but stay slow and under the canopy, we’ll stay near these people and be ready to move in if something happens to Nizka.” Iskara gave the orders and Uldash followed them. And they were simple orders at that, just fly in a loop around the wagon, plus she’ll never lose track of them at this distance either with the amount of magic that she can taste and smell radiating from it.
With a kick into the air, Uldash was airborne. Routine magic tests kept her aware of how far she was from the wagon so she could loop back around accordingly; it was just like when she would check for any corruption in the jungle every ten days or so. Sometimes more whenever she puts it off until lady Ketna starts yelling at her. Such tiresome labors actually made the stories of unicorns and their unwavering purity and powerful magics interesting rather than some wishful thinking of far away lands. But with Ketna’s new favorite project of collecting these people like one collects interesting feathers, maybe the risky business of finding corruption may get a lot easier, and hopefully be something they can clear out themselves every time rather than trying to get Hatih to do it. Maybe that would be something to take up with Ketna when they return, and better yet, maybe Hykol and his friend at Heskanid Keep would stop with their silly idea of corruption detection enchantments.
Hunter or Huntress 
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