SFL 3 - Defiant Heart - Chapter 7

Chapter 7

Casey had grown used to the hum of the ship’s vibration over the last day. So, when the constant sensation ceased suddenly, it was enough to wake him from a dead sleep, even in the comfortable hammock he’d been sleeping in.

Lying still, Casey let his senses extend outwards to check and see if there was a problem before he moved, just in case acting would inform a potential enemy he was alert. It was a habit he’d built living in the orphanage all those years and had come back to help him while he was sleeping outside during his travels.

But the quiet shush of conversation that leaked through the decking over his head and the steady clunk of feet moving didn’t offer him any indications of potential problems.

Maude?

We landed. To water the animals and let those who cannot fly stretch their legs, is my bet. I’m surprised none of them have complained or made messes.

“Oh,” Casey muttered and blinked up at the decking overhead while he thought.

It was true that, considering the number of large spirit beasts on the ship, there should have been at least one of them that had an ‘accident’ that would require a shovel or a mop. But he didn’t remember hearing or seeing anything along those lines through the entirety of the previous day.

There was a latrine at the rear of the ship  for the humans on the crew which used jars and sawdust to keep the smell under control, but there was no way for the spirit beasts to relieve themselves.

Rolling about, Casey wiggled clear of the bedding to sit on the wooden rail beside the bed. After a bit of rubbing at his face to scrub the sleep away, he was quick to dress as the noises overhead grew louder and he could hear more people moving about.

When he tugged back the curtain that blocked his cubby in the under-deck, Casey wasn’t surprised at what he saw next.

Magnus was sprawled in an undignified heap on his section of the hull, for all the world looking like he was asleep. But Casey could see the elk’s brown eye glimmering as he watched the other spirit beasts filing past on their way up onto the deck. Most of the other nooks he could see either had drawn curtains, or were open and empty.

Looks like our good boy is keeping watch for you still, Maude suggested as Casey quickly stepped into his boots and buckled on his weapons-belt. Come on, Magnus. Let’s go stretch our legs so you can relieve yourself.

The elk was quick to scramble to his feet and didn’t question the weapon-woman’s suggestion—something that had bothered Casey to begin with, but he’d come to terms with the fact that Magnus liked Maude better and he couldn’t fault the animal for that.

The majority of the other animals on board the longship were the large bears, but the predators made no complaint when Magnus slipped out of his nook and joined their line while it passed. Several of them made low grunting noises to the elk that sounded like greetings if they were anything.

A whisper of moving fabric to Casey’s left as he emerged heralded Vibeke opening her curtain, too.

“Oh, a rest break? I could use the chance to stretch,” the lithe spearwoman said with a large yawn. “Want to spar again, Casey? Or did you need to keep an eye on Magnus?”

“I don’t know, do I need to keep an eye on you?” Casey glanced towards his elk companion and was treated to a roll of the eyes.

Wow, that is progress at least. Magnus normally would have farted on me if I said something like that while we were in the forest. Or maybe he just doesn’t want to ruin his image in front of Vibeke? Casey thought with a snort before shaking his head.

“Sure, I’d be up for some light sparring. Would be nice to get a chance to work out when I’m not afraid of going over the edge.”

“My thoughts exactly,” Vibeke said, pulling her spear off the hooks it hung from and following after. “Doing weapon forms the other day was nice, but sparring on the deck felt lackluster since both of us were concerned with the railing.”

“As you should be.”

Harald’s warning came from the deck above them, and the two looked up to meet the older drengr’s eyes in the early morning light.

“Harald, any idea how long we are going to be at rest?” Casey called in a low tone to not disrupt those still sleeping.

“Two hours. The ship’s cores need to be allowed to cool, and that will give us time for those on cooking duty to whip up some actual breakfast rather than the bread rations we ate yesterday.”

“I don’t know, I rather enjoyed those.” Casey shrugged.

The ‘bread rations’ that Harald had mentioned were loaves filled with a thick paste that tasted like a meaty stew but had a consistency closer to pie filling. They’d been good both warm and cold, and were satisfying enough to not leave his stomach grumbling.

“You say that, but wait until you have nothing else on a long riding patrol for weeks,” Harald grumbled, and Vibeke snickered at the older man’s complaints. She’d lost some of her reverence for the man during their flight from pursuit the previous week.

“I don’t know, I think it would be easy enough to supplement your supplies if you knew how to cook, Harald.”

“Knew that I never should have let any of you know about that,” Harald grumbled, but his eyes twinkled in amusement. “But it is an elder’s duty to be a proper role-model for the younger generation, and without at least one flaw then it would be far too daunting a task to see my greatness as attainable.”

Before either of the humans could respond, Magnus ‘voiced’ his opinion of Harald’s words. His ‘exclamation’ was silent, but it was impossible to miss the moment when the foul smell hit Harald. Seeing him gagging at the scent, Casey ducked to one side while pulling Vibeke with him to get quickly upwind of the gassy elk.

“Freyja’s sweet tits! What the hell have you been eating, Magnus?!” Harald gasped, his eyes watering. The older drengr didn’t wait for an answer, instead stumbling towards the railing to get out of the line of fire until the breeze carried the scent away.

“I have no idea, and I’m pretty sure it’s best I don’t know so it doesn’t give me nightmares,” Casey said with a laugh.

“Smells like the inside of a Fomori’s rotten asshole,” Harald protested.

“Not making the case to find out what causes that smell any more appealing,” Vibeke snickered. “Also, how do you know what that smells like?”

“You don’t want to know,” groaned Harald.

A bit more gagging from the rear of the ship told them all that Magnus’ ‘retort’ had reached the steering crew, and four of them hurried to get off the deck to avoid being blamed.

Harald’s feline companion was already on the ground, busily kneading at a patch of thick prairie grass with both paws and tearing up great handfuls of greenery.

“Shargra, stop that! If you want to make a mess, do it further from the ship.” Harald’s rebuke was met with the same icy indifference that cats gave the rest of the world, and the large feline continued to dig its claws into the greenery and soil.

Casey, meanwhile, was studying their surroundings.

During the previous day, the airship had cruised over top of several small forests, a collection of box canyons, expanses of open plains, and multiple large lakes and winding rivers. Large herds of deer, bison, and other herd animals had been beautiful to see as they sailed over, while watching small packs of predators trot back and forth through the landscape. The valley was alive with movement both above and below them, though the fliers avoided their ship and the large hawks that wheeled around it on guard.

Now, they had set down on the top of a hill off to one side of another large lake. This one was roughly triangular in shape, and the water gleamed a deep, dark blue against the stony bottom of the lake. A small stand of trees sat to one side of the water, their green limbs dotted with dark rounds of color.

“Oh, those look like plums,” Vibeke said when she spotted the trees by the lake.

“Have some, just try not to eat too many and make yourself sick,” Harald replied with a smile, kneeling next to his happily stretching feline companion. “They should be ripe right now, or just becoming so.”

At the mention of fruits, Magnus’ trajectory changed from the edge of the river to angle towards the stand of trees. Not wanting to leave the elk alone, since he was the only one making for the trees at the moment, Casey followed after with Vibeke in tow.

Their movement through the long grass scared up a covey of game birds, which had the appearance of softballs with wings. As the birds scattered, Casey made a note of their coloration. They had a faint green tinge to their feathers that would make it easy for them to blend in with the grasses.

Likely spirit beasts as well. I’d need a closer look at one, but they definitely felt like simple elemental beasts. Nothing that would be intelligent enough to want to bond with a drengr, but something that the other, larger beasts might eat for their qi content, Maude murmured thoughtfully in Casey’s mind as they approached the stand of trees.

Vibeke’s guess that the trees were plums turned out to be accurate as they got closer. The dense, black fruits were half the size of Casey’s fist, and the air was sweet with their scent.

Honeybees the size of Casey’s thumb buzzed back and forth through the grove, feasting on the fruits that had grown overripe and fallen from the trees. He would have normally called them bumblebees from the sheer size, but they didn’t have the chunky body and ungainly flight of the bumblebees he was used to.

One of the insects landed on the back of his hand, its long antennae bobbling inquisitively about while it toddled over his hand for a moment before its wings kicked up with a buzzing noise and it flitted away.

Be respectful of the grove, Maude warned. These are fae-blessed honey bees.

Not at all surprised, Casey thought as he watched the large insect flit away to land on one of the fallen fruits and begin lapping at its nectar. The air itself here feels thick with qi, so I was beginning to wonder if these little insects could become spirit beasts, too.

They can, but it takes a lot of qi, and normally only the queen becomes one in full, though the appearance of the bees will change if she does, Maude explained to him as he and Vibeke followed Magnus to the nearest tree.

The Gladewalker Elk extended his neck upwards and delicately plucked one of the ripe plums from the branch, crunching into the firm flesh with gusto and chewing for several long seconds before bending to drop the pit on the ground. Several more bees came over and landed on the stone to pick it clean of anything remaining while Magnus helped himself to another.

“Mmm, they smell wonderful. I wish we could take some with us,” Vibeke murmured happily, snagging a fruit of her own.

That statement reminded Casey of the last time he’d found a concentrated stand of fruit trees in this world. He didn’t need to even ask the question of Maude, though, as she was clearly thinking the same thing as him.

I don’t think this grove has an elemental or a dryad, but I might be wrong. They are skilled at hiding after all, and with this many drengr nearby it would be dangerous for them to be discovered.

Casey turned over Maude’s words for a long moment before shrugging with a smirk.

I think I’ll just repeat my previous promise then, better to be safe after all, he thought back before plucking a plum from the tree and biting into the crisp fruit. While Casey savored the taste, he could feel Maude’s amused approval at his plan.

It was sweet and tangy all at once, with the skin and flesh of the fruit giving his teeth just enough resistance to be satisfying. The sugars in the fruit flooded his body, making him feel even more alive than he had only moments before.

The three of them enjoyed their fruit before beginning to walk through the clearing. Casey was careful to collect the pits from his plums, while Magnus just spat his onto the ground. But Casey noted that the elk always aimed them onto open patches of ground where he guessed a tree had the best chances of growing.

“Why are you doing that?” Vibeke asked after noticing that Casey was collecting the plum pits.

The spear woman was gnawing on another treat while they walked, her spear over her shoulder and studying him carefully as Casey scrubbed the pit clean on some grass before tucking it into a spare pouch on his hip.

“Habit I picked up a while back. In thanks for this gift of fruit, I plan to plant as many of these pits as I can to spread this grove further across the land.”

A breeze raced through the trees then, making the leaves rustle and shake for several seconds, knocking more than a couple of the more ripe plums down, much to the bees’ approval. Casey didn’t need to look around, the sensation of curious eyes on him had answered his previous question.

“That is… somewhat sappy but also thoughtful. What made you start?” Vibeke asked, apparently not noticing that they weren’t alone anymore.

Casey paused and pulled down another ripe fruit, savoring a bite while he considered how to tell the story.

Maude had warned him that many elementals and spirits of the land hesitated to let drengr see them because their cores could be used to accelerate the growth of a drengr. It was a natural predator-prey style cycle, and there were groups of elementals that preyed upon drengr as well. But he didn’t want to encourage a fight or expose the presence of this spirit here. It seemed friendly enough at the moment, having not bothered them.

“While I was traveling, I camped in the mountains far to the south and west of here. It was a beautiful place with a lake much like this one, but there was a grove of cherry trees clinging to the mountainside there,” Casey began, gathering speed as he remembered how peaceful that time had been. “It was a wonderful place to center myself and train. And those cherries were delicious, so I decided then and there that I wanted there to be more of them when I returned. I dried many of the cherries to take with me, and collected the pits to plant alongside the road for myself and other travelers.”

Magnus made a grunt of approval, muffled somewhat by the plum in his mouth at the moment. That noise drew Vibeke’s gaze to the Gladewalker Elk and made her laugh. Despite his best efforts, Magnus had made a mess of himself and had plum juice staining the fur around his mouth and neck.

“That sounds like a wonderful thing to find, a road studded with cherry trees along its edges for travelers to enjoy. I like that idea. I think I’ll do the same, then. Now Magnus, you need to be more careful when you eat. What are you going to do if that doesn’t wash out and dyes your fur?” Vibeke proclaimed, carefully brushing off her most recent plum pit and tucking it into her belt pouch before walking towards Magnus.

A flash of movement from behind Vibeke drew Casey’s eye, and he saw a plump face peek out from behind a tree.

The shape was that of a full-figured woman, clad only in leaves and bark. Rounded, almost cherubic cheeks bracketed a tanned face, while leaves hung intertwined with her hair. She was watching Vibeke curiously, but twitched and locked eyes with Casey when he stared at her.

Her eyes, a dark purple-red to match the flesh of the plums on the trees, widened in surprise. Before she could dart back out of sight, Casey inclined his head respectfully to her and gestured with the plum in his hand while mouthing ‘thank you’ to her.

The spirit froze, not drawing back behind the tree but not looking away from Casey. As he enjoyed another bite of the fruit, a faint blush stained the spirit’s cheeks.

Tease, Maude said accusingly. Her words shook the spirit out of its staring, and the creature drew back into the trunk of the tree, vanishing from sight. She’s a shy one, but with this many drengr in the area I cannot fault her.

All the more reason to be respectful. I just hope my offer to spread the seeds of her trees more will be enough to thank her for these fruits, Casey replied, his left palm balancing on Maude’s hilt.

Oh, I think there are some other seeds you’d prefer to spread given the chance, Maude snickered in his mind. But you’ll just have to be patient for now. I promise to assist you with them when you have time to meditate again.

Being patient for you is never a burden, my goddess, Casey sent back to her, accompanying the message with his earnest affection. Rather than tease him more, Maude just sent him a loving kiss. That alone told him she was up to something, but whether it was anything to worry about or not, Casey was unsure.

Returning his attention to the small grove of fruit trees, Casey snickered when he saw Vibeke fussing over Magnus’ stained fur while the elk just placidly chewed on another plum, his little tail flapping happily.

Casey was about to join them and maybe suggest going to wash their sticky hands and faces at the lake when another motion tugged his attention to the side. The gesture was quick and furtive, and he only caught the barest flash of movement as a hand was withdrawn back into the trunk of a tree. But what it left behind was of far more interest.

Sitting on the root of one of the trees was a single large plum. Its flesh glimmered with moisture, and unlike the others which were a purple-black in color, this one shone like a ruby, bright and red.

Casey didn’t need Maude’s urging to cross the distance and pick it up. The second his hand touched the flesh of the fruit, Casey felt the surge of qi rolling beneath its taut skin. The fruit felt warm to the touch, but not as hot as if it had been cooked. Instead, it felt like it’d been warming in the sun for some time before being washed, with tiny cool beads of water still clinging to the flesh.

I guess she’s a fan of your plan, Casey. Why else would she give you a qi-fruit? Maude’s mental voice was full of amused pride. Eat up, but be sure to save that seed. Its fruit will be far more likely to be qi-infused.

Casey held the plum in his hand for a long moment before looking up to study the tree that it had been resting on. He hadn’t really seen anything different about this tree; it was just one of many amongst the grove of plum trees. But there was something about it now that felt odd. Not bad, but more… an emotion he could detect from it.

The tree felt shy for some reason.

Not breaking eye contact with the tree, Casey raised the fruit to his lips and took a bite. The flavor that exploded in his mouth was studded with qi that he felt his Soulforge race to process. Earth and fire qi combined in his center, warming the metallic sand that filled his pool as well as his body.

And before his eyes, the tree changed as the illusion faded while the tree’s qi joined with his own.

Plain green leaves turned a mossy silver instead, while the wooden branches took on a distinctly stony texture rather than the ruffled one they had moments earlier. The fruits that hung from the branches all changed as well from the plain plums to the richer, ruby colored variety.

And nestled in the branches high above, peeking between two of them, Casey spotted the shy face of the tree-spirit. When his eyes caught her plum-colored ones, she waved once before ducking back out of sight.

Casey finished the plum quickly, and as he swallowed the final bite and his Soulforge processed the last of the qi, the illusion protecting the qi-tree faded back into place. He knew that if he were to eat another fruit from the tree, it would fade for him again. But it didn’t feel right to him at the moment. The first fruit had been a gift from the spirit. To take more now would be rude.

So instead, Casey carefully nibbled at the pit in his hand, removing the last of the flesh. Each bit caused a spark or tremble in the illusion before him, but didn’t properly pierce the protective cover on the dryad’s home.

“Casey!” Vibeke called as he was tucking the cleaned pit into his pouch. It would be easy to pick out from the others. The normal plums had dark orange pits, while this one was as black as night. “Casey, come on. Let’s go to the lake and see if we can get these stains out of Magnus’ fur. He’s far too handsome to look like a mess.”

“Sure, let’s do that,” Casey agreed, looking past the spearwoman to his smug companion. He could tell that Magnus had seen the whole exchange between him and the dryad from the elk’s bearing and was happy to use him as an excuse to head off before they attracted other drengr here and risked the safety of the plum dryad and her little grove.