Chapter 142: Interlude: Ram’s Retirement 

Ram didn’t like cities. He didn’t like towns either, or villages for that matter. Sure, he’d spent much of his early, unintelligent life on the outskirts of northern settlements, but he had never grown to appreciate them. But watching one be built? Now that was interesting. 

“Uhhh, revered ancestor, sir. Are you sure about this?” 

“Absolutely. Have it done.” 

“But… Revered ancestor, not to be rude but…”

Ram hit his descendant, a younger man perhaps in his late twenties with his best ‘I am disappointed in you’ look. He stared down at the man from his perch atop a sleeping yak, the beast hadn’t realised he was there. The demikin shuffled from foot to foot, static occasionally arcing through his mane of white hair. 

“Revered ancestor who is very wise. I humbly suggest that he reconsider the order to build a home in this location.” 

“Why?”

“Because, honoured one, this is a vegetable field…” 

“Yes, I can see that.” Ram said, raising a bushy eyebrow. 

“So… if we built a home here, the elders in charge of agriculture would become upset.”

“Can you not move the field?”

“Umm, no? That would kill the crops.”

Ram didn’t reply to that, he just gave his descendant the silent treatment. It always worked, always. The demikin, true to his genetics, just stared up at him in silence. Five minutes passed, then ten, then twenty. The Yak woke up and started trotting over to where the rest of its herd were grazing. Ram didn’t move, he let the beast carry him away, never once breaking eye contact with his wide-eyed descendant. 

He reached into his tattered robes and withdrew his neverending bottle from his totally not a spatial item. He took a long, deep drink, then returned the bottle. Eventually Ram drifted far enough away that his descendant went back to work in his field. Ram sighed and elevated himself into the air with a brief effort of will. Then he kicked off and shot towards the nearby stream. 

The stream was a new addition to the slowly developing settlement, its existence was courtesy of the slowly melting ice elemental corpses up in the north. The water was crisp and fresh, its path having been slowly ground into the land over the past few months as the stream followed the path of least resistance. 

Ram kneels, scooping a handful of water and splashing his face. Laughter comes from further upstream, the old goat glances up to see a parade of children and animals stomping their way down the stream. There are yelps and giggles as they step in and out of the cool water. Despite himself Ram smiles, how could he not?

He still finds it surprising, even with all the time that has passed since his awakening. To see people, humans, who are related to him not just by bonds of companionship but by blood. Intellectually he understands it, but instincts from a life he can barely remember still make him hesitate on occasion. A bunch of juvenile hogs, their bodies still bearing the stripes of youth spot him and squeal in excitement.

They charge him through the shallow stream, splashing happily before clustering around his feet. “Well well, what do we have here?” Ram asked, raising a bushy eyebrow. “It seems lunch has come to me! How lucky!” 

“Grandpa no!” A cry comes from one of the children. “You can’t eat the little piggies!”

“Really now?” Ram said, plucking one of the tiny hogs up out of the water and lifting its wiggling body up to his face. The hog, completely oblivious to its impending doom, grunts happily. The awakened beast’s grin is feral as he turns away from the now outraged kids, then he tucks the hog into his patchwork coat all the while making loud, fake chewing sounds. Ram looks over his shoulder, his cheeks bulging comically as his tiny descendants stare at him with wide, horrified eyes. 

He snorts, and produces the hog like a magician performing a trick. The kids expressions shifted from traumatised to extremely amused in the span of a second, he laughs, and the laughter feels good. 

===

The pale tree with crimson leaves glints gold in the evening light, Ram slumps down beneath its canopy, watching as the demikin he calls family gather in the clearing they have created for communal events. The disconnected bluff had once been the place the clan had begun building their homes, but the walls kept sprouting leaves and the roots spreading beneath them disturbed the foundations of their structures. 

They are a hardy people, his family, and moving wasn’t a massive ordeal, if anything getting up and moving is more natural than staying still. But regardless of their natures, their experiences and their culture, Ram can tell that they enjoy having found a place for themselves. The bluff now stands mostly empty of buildings, sans several large stone structures and the dark crystalline obelisk that the old healer woman claims allows air boats to navigate. 

Ram lets out a long, content sigh. He feels alive, more whole and healthy than he has in decades. The tree and the aura it emits underwent a change several weeks back, the domain it projected gaining a hint of generosity, of benevolence. The tree lived, and because it did Ram felt no worry or concern for its creator. Leif was fine, probably, most likely. He had walked into the territory of humanity and hadn’t come running back screaming. That feat was worth drinking too. 

“You court death.” He said calmingly to the creature beside him, the bottle having been returned to its hiding place. “Yes, I am talking to you, fiend.”

The deer looked up at him with big, stupid eyes. 

“I am not giving you alcohol, not after what happened last time.”

Bam bit his sleeve. Ram flipped the insolent creature upside down with a burst of wind. It flailed, legs in the air. Her teleportation skill activated but Ram placed a calloused palm on her chest and suppressed the skill with little effort. 

“Are you familiar with the saying, ‘too stupid to live?’ He asked jovially. 

The deer didn’t respond. 

“Bam!” Came a call from where dinner was being prepared, the voice was high pitched and more than a little worried. “Bam where are you?”

“Our names are too similar.” Ram said, glaring down at the still struggling animal. “You will have to change yours.”

Bam stuck out her tongue. 

===

An ear splitting cry shook the morning air as a shadow passed over Far-reach. The griffon circled overhead, its predatory eyes seeking out prey. The large tree far below would make perfect materials for a nest, and the small creatures that lived around it would make for good eating. Those were the thoughts that passed through the griffon’s head as a fist wreathed in lightning crashed into its belly and launched it up through the closest bank of clouds. It fell from the sky, smoke trails spinning from its singed corpse. The griffon crashed down into a distant valley and disappeared from sight. 

Ram alighted on the roof of a house and took a bow, thunder from his blow still rolled across the nearby landscape. Several people clapped, one even cheered. 

“Ancestor!” Olav roared, running down the wooden stairs that flanked the bluff where the domain tree was located. “You should have waited for it to get lower!” 

“Why?”

“I wanted to fight it!”

“I see.” 

The young man skidded to a stop. “Can I fight the next one?”

“No.” 

Olav gaped at him. “W-why not?” 

Ram just stared at his descendant. 

Olav stared back. 

Over a minute passed.

“I’m not strong enough?” 

“About thirty levels too low.”

“Damn.”

===

Ram watched from his position atop a slowly moving cloud, a procession of just over forty people slowly trudged across a grassy hill. The goat in human form squinted down at the strangers, the humans. They didn’t carry weapons, nor did they wear armour. If anything, they looked even more rugged than he did. And that was a carefully cultivated appearance, or so he told himself. 

He had been offered a new coat as a gift, but he had been too proud to accept. He definitely hadn’t been embarrassed at the display of affection, not at all. One of the humans in the rear of the group stumbled and fell, the bundle in their arms going tumbling down the slope for several metres. The whole procession stopped, several backtracking to assist the one who had fallen. 

I don’t want to deal with this. Ram thought, static electricity crackling between his horns. I don’t want these people anywhere near my family. 

His thoughts turn dark, his muscles tense and his vision narrows. But it is an old reaction, a tired reaction, and judging by the weakness of those below him it is an unnecessary reaction. Ram’s sigh of defeat had enough force behind it to disperse the cloud he was standing on, and then he fell. 

===

The news homes are built, the new people are welcomed, and life goes on. There is something melancholy about the passage of time, of spending the long turbulent years alone, battling beast and monster in the frozen peaks of the northern mountains. It is during the early hours of the night when the presence of the domain tree ripples, its aura pulsing across the land, expanding, growing. 

It is a sudden, overbearing change, one that couldn’t be brought about by anything other than a large increase in power. “So you did it.” Ram muses aloud, looking up at the shadowy canopy that looms far above him. 

Under the night sky the crimson leaves twinkle as if reflecting gold. The two deer and the piles of hogs all stirred in their sleep, some waking at the disturbance, others letting out contented sighs at the change. Two pairs of eyes blink at him in confusion, the unspoken question apparent.

“Don’t look at me, I wasn’t the one who passed through a bottleneck.” He grumbled. 

Bam huffed and stood, wandering off to go find food, Lani kept looking at him as if wanting Ram to expand on his statement. 

“You’re the smart one, supposedly, figure it out.”

Lani looked up at the tree, her eyes twinkling in understanding. Then she closed her eyes and went back to sleep. 

Ram leaned back, his gaze distant. He could still sense the rumble of inevitable conflict coming from the south, a growing storm building towards the moment it would break. It was wider now, broader in ways he wasn’t sure how to describe. He only hoped the monster that made this new life for his family possible would return before the maelstrom swallowed everything in its path.