Chapter 5: Complete

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Branches cracked underfoot as the company of knights trudged  through the underbrush away from the battle and into the Eternal Wood. Their numbers had shrunk despite Betsol's protection, but they marched on. Natal was creeping along to the left of their column urging their stragglers on. Oran stumbled on, hidden brambles catching her feet and forcing her to rip free every few steps, their progress had slowed significantly but Natal had reported that they were not being followed. The lines they had broken through had been too entangled with Jhev's army to be bothered chasing them. Alaen lead the way still humming an unfamiliar hymn, plowing through the ancient wood with little of the grace he'd displayed while fighting. Oran kept close behind him, the limbs of trees tended break on him and made it easier for her to keep up. Betsol had seen her through, seen most of them through, but they still had the rear guard ahead of them and no army to assist them.

She caught a glimpse of the sun peaking through the canopy, and drew her Divining Stones out her thumb finding the familiar groove in the Betsol stone. Radiance enlighten me. You've seen us through thus far, guide us on your quest and protect us from your foes. I fear Klanae's influence in this wood.
As if in response an unyielding bow snapped free of Alaen's advance and back into face of Oran, filling her mouth with needles and nostrils with pines. She sputtered as she advanced, her face flaring pain and came to a halt while wiping her face clean. She could hear the thudding steps of Alaen as he continued on leaving her behind, and the rustle of branches as other knights passed. She heard Natal chuckling before the Captain's feet came into her blurred view.

Seems this wood has delivered you a worse blow than the Vulk back there. You're covered in blood. She felt Natal's firm hands on her head again, one against the back lifting her up and another pressing some voluminous soft cloth to her nose. She opened her eyes to find Natal shaking her grin on her face. Oran couldn't understand how Natal could still be smiling, they'd lost knights, they'd each suffered wounds, and they faced a task that seemed increasingly insurmountable. Yet seeing the smile made her feel better, just a small bit of her, but it was enough to continue on. She wouldn't fail these knights, she wouldn't fail her Divinity.

Oran nodded then started walking again, picking up her pace to try and cover the distance their company had earned on them while they'd stopped. "We're falling behind" she said through bloody fabric.

Natal caught up in a few strides, she seemed to have no problem with the under brush, powerful strides ripping through weeds and vines threatening to catch feet. She went before the two of them and began to sweep branches out of there way with circular motions, behind widely more effective than simply following in Alaen's wake. It wasn't until they'd caught up to the rest of the knights that Oran placed the familiar movements, they were parts of the Rising Sol, ones Oran had used just previously in the battle. It seemed almost blasphemous, but it was it? She found herself repeating the motions herself, gently guiding the flexible arms of the Eternal Wood away and around her, and within a few minutes she'd found a rhythm and was making good headway through the forest catching up to Alaen at the head of the company once again. He had stopped and she almost passed him before realizing why he had stopped. Before her the trees thinned out and beyond that was a flurry of movement. Vulk dashed across a wide clearing in the forest among tall tents of hide, and quenched camp fires. Few among them had visible weapons and most of them had fur of gray.

Natal came up beside them and grunted, stalking back off towards the company and giving orders for stealth. A bit late she thought, how had they managed to reach her without coming across any scouts or at least a guard? She scanned the woods around them then the clearing for any sign that their approach had been noticed. There weren't many Vulk in the clearing, and even fewer seemed likely to put up much of a fight. Where were the rest of their soldiers, the rest of their civilians?

"There are not many warriors here Chaplain." The words vibrated in her chest as Alaen spoke. "Perhaps ten, and they're focused around that larger structure in the center of the village."

It took her a moment but she spotted the structure, a tent almost twice as big as the next largest. It did appear to be towards the center of the tents and placing it there she could imagine them being placed out in rings forming a small village in the midst of the Eternal Woods. Outside the front flap of the tent was a ring of Vulk with rich colored fur and bearing spears.

"Where are the rest of them?" She wondered aloud.

"Perhaps there are a number of similar villages, or perhaps Lord Marshall's Crusade as been more successful than we've thought." Alaen replied.

That was a comforting thought, but Betsol had quested them with retrieving a child and had guided them here. "If the Vulk of hinted at the child's value then she's likely the thing being defended. We'll make our way there."

Alaen nodded then lifted the sword off his shoulder, eyes growing dark as they settled on the ring of guards.

"Remember Alaen, the Bloodfurry, and that we cannot win the child by fighting. We'll have to try and secure her without violence." she questioned the words as soon as she'd spoke them. How were they to take hostage a child of import from the Vulk in the midst of their camp without using violence?

Alaen merely nodded again before begin to stalk into the clearing. Natal arrived just to see him go and looked into the camp. waving a hand for the knights to form ranks along the edge of the clearing with their rifles. "Nothing to do now but see it through, we'll keep your retreat open." Natal said as Oran started after Alaen.

The two of them stalked quietly through the near abandoned camp, the flurry of motion suddenly still. Had they been seen, was this an ambush? A howl seemed to confirm her suspicion, as they made ready to be attacked. Yet none came. Oran spotted a few of the gray haired Vulk walking in another direction towards a larger tent arrange in mirror to the one Alaen had spotted. This one had been hidden from them by other tents but stood even larger, nearly as massive as some of the barracks Oran had seen. It was held up with more wooden poles than the others, and smoke poured from holes in its roof. At its entrance gathered a group of armed Vulk at their head was death itself. Vrocinerex stood arguing with a gray haired Vulk, his stubbed arm and single red eye stood out clear in Oran's memory. They could finish the crusade just here, but the Quest said it couldn't be won fighting. Alaen waited, his blade resting against his shoulder looking to Oran for orders.

Oran looked down the row of tents to the gathered Vulk warriors, Vorcinerex at their head, some twenty paces from the tent being guarded. Alaen was humming again, a rousing tune which seemed familiar to her.

He caught her looking to him and smiled. "I will handle them, you handle the child."

He was off in smooth long strides before his words made sense to her. She caught her self before calling out, watching as the tall lanky figure picked up speed and entered a sprint headed straight towards Vorcinerex. He was noticed by the guards about halfway to Vorcinerex who howled in what sounded like a challenge, they left their posts around the tent and started loping after him. Vorcinerex had noticed Alaen as well, he roared a challenge and then tore loose the vestments he'd been wearing. The Vulk grew thrice, his body twisting and twitching in a bone breaking and grotesque way.  His muscles bulged and stretched, his snout widened and canines grew in length, his arms, legs, and torso elongated as he stretched towards the sky. He towered over his now cowering warriors as well as Alaen as the Pillar of the World dwarfed mountains.

The opening was made, the tent unguarded and she lurched to action sprinting through the empty tents towards it. Her plate rang in her ears as did the howls of Vulk as they fought. Alaen had reached them. She came to the clearing in the tents around the two large structures, the one that had been guarded and the one the warriors had come out of. She could see Alaen now, he was dancing around the frenzied blows of the hulking Vorcinerex, scattered around them were the remains of the warriors and guards dead, dying, or wounded. Alaen's sword seemed to find the flesh of Vorcinerex with every cut, but none of them slowed the monster. Bloodfury.

Oran returned to her task, finding the flap in the tent and parting it as she entered. The tent was brighter and larger than she had imagined. A large open circular space with throws and pillows arranged in spirals. Slits near the steepled top of the tent let in cascading light. At the center of the spiral was a small desk of sorts, ornamented with flowers, flasks, and boxes of metal, offerings to their goddess? It certainly did have an air of divinity, perhaps this was their place of worship. Sitting behind the desk was her quest. A pup with fur of snow and eyes of the deepest ice, it's features bearing none of the violence of its kind. It's youth lending it an abundance of fur that reminded Oran of plush blankets. The pup stared up at her with uncaring eyes, tilting its head as she approached its narrow snout ending in a black nose. This nose sniffed then, then again, before losing it's friendly demeanor and beginning to growl. She froze, raising her arms before her in a placating gesture.

The pup stood from its kneeling position and began to stalk around around the desk towards Oran, its soft growling coming from its throat. The softness of this creature had been replaced by the violence of its kind, its deep blue eyes running to purple its maw displaying teeth, its haunches raised. Still the nose sniffed between growls.

"I do not mean you harm... I've been sent from the Divinities." She said in what she hoped was her soothing voice she used when administrating the soldiers after battles.

The eyes! They changed, returning, cooling, to blue before deepening to purple once more. Was it her or was it taller than she had thought it to be. It approached her in determined steps, its eyes holding hers while it loomed over her. She could feel heat radiating from it, feel the air move from its tempered sniffs. She was going to die she was sure of it, what a fool she had been! What had she known of this child.

Just then there was movement behind her and she felt a sudden calmness. Alaen, come to save me, bless you Radiance.

"Anae!" A Vulk voice spoke sharply, causing Oran to spin.

A Vulk with fur of gray, its eyes a brilliant purple, stalked into the room. It paid no attention to her instead focusing on the hulking creature before her. The beast turned its attention to the speaker, visibly shrinking before them. She watched as the muscles of the white Vulk relaxed, it's shoulders lowering and its face soften. The pups ice blue eyes returned and it whimpered looking between the Gray Vulk and Oran.

The Gray motioned and the Snow knelt before her its tail curled up underneath it. Oran took a few cautionary steps away from the pair, hand hovering above the hilt of her blade before thinking better of it. The Grays stark eyes took her in, where typically Vulk were hostile from the moment of acquaintance this one appeared to be collected. Oran felt herself being regarded as a Lord Marshall might review her and stood taller, meeting the eyes of the Gray.

It patted the Snow on the top of its head between it's pointed ears, then moved to the table in the center of the room and took up a peace of white cloth before returning. Oran could hear Alaen still fighting just outside the tent, that must have meant Vorcinerex still stood. She regarded the flap but remembered her quest and stood her ground.

"I have come for the child." She said in a firm voice.

"I'm aware of who you came for, and why. I shall let you take her." The Gray's voice was gruff and there was an airiness too the way it pronounced its Ws, but it wasn't the fact that it spoke the language of the Divinities that concerned her, all races did, it was its calm demeanor that was offsetting.

The Gray approached her calmly, offering the piece of cloth to Oran. "Your blood, it entices her. I'd suggest washing, but for now this should do."

Oran hesitated, this was against everything she had learned, it went against who she had built her self around. The Vulk were savages, they didn't talk they killed. However, traps were not a thing of their society so she accepted the cloth. Working at her lower face where her nose and lip had bled. The cloth was smooth in her hand unlike anything she'd felt before and the dried blood did not cake onto it like she'd expected. She held the cloth before her and wondered at it, feeling the the softness of it.

"We call it silk, we sometimes use it in bandages but it is often ornamental. It should suit that wound just fine. I assume you took it while cutting a path through our lines." The Gray's tone remained calm, collected, and there was a hint of something underneath it. Something that gave Oran pause, like how she felt under the Lord Marshall.

"A branch actually..." She murmured under the cloth and wondered why she'd shared it, she felt inclined to answer this Vulk, as if it was expected of her. That was it, it was the assuradness of this Vulk, it's command of the situation as if it knew exactly how it would play out.

Oran glanced to the tent flap again, then back to the Snow. Her left hand found the rope of the divining stones and fingered it absently.

"I will not leave without the child, It has been divined. The Immortal with me will finish with your leader and be with me soon. You should flee." She put effort into her voice, forcing the words out clear and sharp.

The Vulk's eyes took her in calming, as if she were a bird threatening to steal away lunch. "Then you shall have her. Though I suggest you keep the Immortal away from her unless you wish to see her fury."

The Snow started. "Fella you can't!"

"I will, Anae, and you must. You heard... her, it was Divined." The Gray, Fella, turned to regard the pup. It had shrunk entirely, returning to the harmless looking  presence it had first had when Oran found it.

"I won't! I don't care if it was divined our not! They have no sway over me mother!"
The Snows voice came in a whine that was distinctly familiar in tone.

"Hush child. You'll offend The Mother and no favor of hers will protect you then. You will go with this... one. They will not harm you for they would not have daughter you sought if they had intended to. You must be strong for our people Anae, perhaps you will learn to respect The Divinities while you're away." The Gray, Fella, spoke to the pup, but her eyes never left Oran.

"You will let me take her?" Oran asked cautiously.

"I don't see that you've left me a choice, besides it would be a shame for Anae to have to kill you. I fear that the beast may consume her. Perhaps with you... She will be free. Free from the death you mean us all." Fella glanced to the pup who stilled under its mother's gaze.

"You should go now, before Vorcinerex checks on her." Fella spoke as if it was aatyer of divining that Vorcinerex would be the victor outside which caused Oran pause.

"How..."

"He is the Favored of The Mother, your champion will fall to him. Now Go!" Fella spoke in a way that brokered no argument. She could feel the Gray guiding her out with a hand on her back.

There was a whimper but the child soon followed Oran out for tent, Fella did not. She looked for sign of Alaen but they had left the clearing between the structures. Oran glance at the child, so small and soft once again. The pup looked up at her with big blue eyes, it's head cocked as she waited. No hostility, none of the aggression it had displayed at first.

"You will follow me." Oran meant to phrase it as a statement but her tone was flat.

"Mother commands it, I will follow." Th pup said, it's head still looking back at her at an odd angle.

Oran nodded and set off through the empty tent village, making her way back to where she'd left Natal with the rest of the knights.

Would you like to read the next chapter? Find Chapter 6 here.