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[Skill-Eater] Chapter 126: Travel
🕑 Added 2024-10-17 17:01:01 +0000 UTCEdge woke up before dawn, eager to resume his adventure.
Most of the crew was still asleep, so he rose from his bedroll, left the cave, and tiptoed over to where Trapper was standing watch on the hillcrest. She waved hello and he took a seat on a nearby boulder, stretching out his body while they waited for the sun to rise.
They passed the time in a companionable silence, letting the music of the plains wash over them. He cast his senses into the distance, listening to the hoots and howls of nocturnal creatures returning to their dens, and the ceaseless roar of the wind blowing across the prairie.
The magicytes flowing through the region glowed faintly in the dark. The swirling bands of living magic shimmered in every color of the rainbow, along with a few that he had no words to describe. Edge took a deep breath and let his mind go still, doing his best to listen for anything big headed their way.
He lost himself in the natural splendor of Ord, filled with the most exquisite sense of wonder. Of being alive, and excited to discover what the day would bring him next. It was such a marked contrast to his old existence on Earth, that his past felt more like a dream than a memory.
He was completely engaged, a little bit frightened, and utterly content. Even if he died tomorrow, his life was filled with the splendorous joy that only those who are living their dream can know.
A pleasantly uneventful half hour later, the other hunters began to rouse. They greeted each other as they packed up their bedding, then Riller lit a fire so that Violet could put on a pot of porridge sprinkled with fruit and nuts. Ten minutes later, she handed Edge a steaming bowl of mush that tasted a lot better than he was expecting, given its plain appearance.
After everyone had finished eating and checking their gear, Jumo helped Violet hitch Blue to the wagon. They erased all signs of their presence, so that nothing could follow their trail, then the crew walked down the hill and stepped back onto the trade road.
They were on their way by the time that color started seeping back into the world. Several miles later, the team stopped to watch the sunrise—radiant bands of pink and orange lighting up the clouds striating the azure sky. They resumed their journey a few minutes later, heading north on their hunt to eliminate the gigantic beast that was terrorizing the region.
They soon left the grasslands and crossed into a sub-biome covered in cracked red earth and patches of dense brush, similar to the spot where Edge had won his showdown with Warren two days prior.
His heart began to race, and adrenaline started pumping through his veins when they left the tall grass behind. In open terrain, they could only rely on Trapper’s sense life to detect the lizard’s presence while its stealth skill was up. Even Riller’s eagle eye wouldn’t be able to help. She thought that her power would be sufficient to pierce its camouflage, but she wasn’t certain how close the beast could come before that happened.
Since there was a chance that they would find themselves ambushed with only a few seconds of warning, the crew had to remain on guard against attack at all times. They proceeded in a combat formation, weapons drawn and ready to use their skills at a moment’s notice.
While the danger was growing thicker by the footfall, you wouldn’t know it by looking around. The Ivory Plains were never safe, even at the best of times, but Edge couldn’t spot anything out of the ordinary as they made their way along the road.
The sun came out from behind the clouds an hour later, and the temperature started to climb. He was glad for his sunhat, although the heat bothered him less and less the higher that his attributes climbed. It was worse for Riller and Violet, the crew’s uncored members. They rode inside the wagon’s bed during the hottest part of the day, so that they would be fresh if the team was ambushed along the way.
Sasha took a turn as lookout, scouting ahead while Riller was resting. Edge was worried about her, since the big lizard had ambushed her once already. But it wasn’t his call to make, and he trusted the crew’s judgement.
After all, Sasha was a hunter with far more experience than himself. A woman who had survived on her own for months before joining Trapper’s crew. All he could do was wish her luck and hope for the best. At least she had silent step to reduce her presence, and a flare that she could fire if she ran into trouble.
Later that afternoon, they discovered signs that the padamas had crossed through the region not long ago. The wagon rolled past a patch of earth that was deeply scarred and stained with blood. Trapper took a close look and determined that the giant reptile had taken on another sizable predator. Something that had given it more trouble than the stone lion, judging by the markings.
The other was a small grove where half the trees were snapped off near the base. The claw marks revealed that the padamas had forced its way past to devour something that had been hiding inside. In both cases, the trail signs were several days old. But it was proof that they were heading in the right direction, and served to remind Edge just how dangerous the beast they were planning to kill was.
Not long after, they entered a region where the ivory grass grew tall, letting everyone breathe a bit easier. They stepped out of combat formation and into something that was better suited for a prolonged march, although they didn’t lower their guard. While they didn’t have to worry about being ambushed by the padamas, they still had to watch out for the biome’s resident predators. Not to mention anything or anyone who might have crossed into the region after the anomaly reshuffled the surface of Ord.
On that note, every time that they encountered terrain that wasn’t originally part of the plains, they stopped to inspect it from a distance—updating the map Trapper had brought with them and adding as much information as they could.
They didn’t draw near any of the swapped parts, since it was beyond the scope of their mission. But several of them looked interesting, including what appeared to be a ruined tower jutting up from the middle of a swamp.
Edge decided that he would come back and check them out later, once he had a few more skills and cycles under his belt. There might be treasure to be found, along with beasts with unknown powers to steal. He felt Skill-Eater salivating at the thought. Easy, big guy. Let’s deal with the meal in front of us before we worry about dessert.
