Tala and Rane left a... blackened plain in their wake as they headed north, moving through the air in their unique ways.
Terry stuck around for a bit, flickering around the edges of the area that Tala had devastated... No, devastated was too gentle a term.
Her third and fourth blasts had been done as sweeping strikes across larger areas of land.
Those had obliterated everything down to the soil—and from what the Talons could tell, an inch or two of soil as well—but the attacks hadn’t reshaped the terrain as much as the first two breaths had, understandably.
Those—overlaid one atop the other—had made a decidedly significant alteration to the hills that had been at the center of her area of effect.
Terry had stayed behind because he seemed to think that some things could have survived the sweeping devastation of her third and fourth strikes, and some of those lesser prey animals might be fleeing the area when they had cause to believe that the devastator—Tala—was gone.
He was apparently hankering after a snack, or at least a different type of hunting.
Tala was... surprisingly okay with that. As she considered, she realized that she’d likely killed millions of insects, along with anything else that had been a part of the local ecosystem within the area affected—though, some hole dwelling critters might have survived... if they'd been deep enough, or if they'd had a means of sealing their tunnels.
Regardless, Tala had left the dark, rich soil behind.
One of the Talon researchers who had been a farmer before his rebirth—and who still worked with the farmers of Irondale—had commented that that dark, rich aftermath was actually likely an incredibly rich soil for planting. Apparently, fire was often one of the tools used to refresh areas of land to help maintain crop health and harvest nutritional content. The additional destruction of most of the rocks in the soil would make it even more ideal for large scale farming.
It was almost a shame that it would never be of use to anyone.
Imagine the boom in productivity and population if the average citizen could have even a modicum of safety in the Wilds.
-And if they could build something that was really theirs, something that they could pass on to their...- Alat hesitated at the charged topic.
Tala decided to leave the topic entirely.
Lyn was apparently currently in discussions with Irondale farmers—of which there were a surprising number, which added weight to her previous contemplations—on incorporating dissolution magic cycling into the field rotations for the best harvest results.
They were also discussing what, if anything, to charge for the service, to ensure it wasn't abused or taken for granted.
-Your mind keeps going back to your breath.-
Well, yeah. That was amazing. I love it when a plan comes together.
-And this time it didn’t even take a team to clean up after your experiments.-
After a long moment of irritated silence, during which she continued to run through the air with great leaping strides, Tala sighed. ...I have nothing meaningful with which to threaten you. ŘäΝОBÊs
-Nothing that you’d actually do. And I thank you for that.-
Tala groused in her own mind as the mountains scrolled by on her left, the sun dipping down behind them.
-Oh, Rane is wondering if you want to set up for the night on a mountainside? He’s found a nice little ledge that should have a commanding view of the surrounding vistas.-
She considered for only a moment. Sure, that sounds wonderful.
* * *
It only took them another day or so to reach the edge of the forest, and it only took even that long because they weren’t pushing that hard.
Tala, Terry, and Rane landed and symbolically came together on the plains just outside the southern edge of this northern portion of the encircling forest.
There were some individual trees farther out, and it could be argued that the forest really started at the far edge of the great, interlacing root-system that Tala could see with her threefold sight, but the three weren’t concerned with exactness. Again, it was symbolic.
“Shall we?” Rane gestured for them to move forward.
Tala grinned. “Into the woods we go.”
-You two are ridiculous. You were just here with Terry a little bit ago. This isn’t a ‘first’ of anything.-
Terry trumpeted toward the sky, adding his opinion to the mix.
-You too?- Alat was clearly purposely speaking into Terry and Tala's minds at the same time.
The terror bird looked toward Tala and let out a decisive chirp while bobbing an affirmative.
-I’m surrounded by crazy people.-
And avians.
-...Crazy. People.-
Tala huffed a laugh but didn’t respond further.
The three moved forward, passing under the trees.
There was no ringing pronouncement, nor any swelling melody, but they all felt something shift, something that hadn’t been present the last time that they’d come this way.
-Oh, come on. You couldn’t have known that this would happen.-
True, but it felt weighty, like something was awaiting us here. So we treated it with the gravitas that seemed appropriate given the feeling.
Alat harrumphed just as a small—actually normal sized—wolf came from deeper in the woods.
Rane didn’t dodge, instead stretching forward—using incredible dexterity and precision—to touch the deer between the antlers.
There was an odd disjointment of motion, the head jerked to the side with all the speed it had previously possessed forward, even as the body continued in the same charge.
The result was a loud snap, and the deer tumbling to the forest floor in a rather unhealthy heap.
Tala’s threefold sight had a perfect view of what Rane had done, and she felt herself grin broadly at his achievement.
Rane’s aura had been rebuffed entirely by the deer—which had somehow had the aura resistance to stave off even the influence of a Refined, despite seemingly being mundane—but he hadn’t let that deter him.
He’d been practicing utilizing his own magics through his authority for months now, just as Tala had proven was possible.
He was far behind her, as made sense for a myriad of reasons, but he had gotten to the point that anything he touched would come under his authority enough for him to enact his magics upon it, regardless of aura supremacy... in theory.
As limited as that seemed on first consideration, he’d utilized it to incredible effect already, but it was hardly time for Tala to be focusing on that.
All the other hunters stopped mid motion as a wave of something rippled over them all. The wolf, in particular, seemed incredibly affected.
Tala felt the almost uncontrollable urge to look upward, and she didn’t fight it, allowing her focus to shift that direction.
In the sky above was a full moon, hanging far too close to be natural, even though she couldn’t see anything wrong even with her threefold sight.
The wolf howled, even as a deep laugh rumbled through the forest.
The sound was very, very clearly from some predatory source, though it also carried a ringing note of amusement. “The intention was to only allow the use of physical enhancements and pack tactics.”
Lupin was suddenly there, but the voice hadn’t been his. He was laying on the ground, head tilted to the side to expose his throat.
“Rise, the fault was not yours. This male human sireling has capacity beyond what even I realized. The fault is mine.”
Tala shivered at the pronouncement, feeling the power within the claim. Did he just take ownership of a mistake? Is that even possible?
-I... I think he did. Is there really power in that?-
...Huh... You know what? I think there is, at a conceptual level. So, if that’s the case, why not at an Existence level too?
Lupin rose up once again and let out a growling whine before bowing to Tala. “I take my leave. Welcome to the Lunar Hunt.”
Before Tala, Rane, or Terry responded, Lupin was gone, this time even from her still nascent sense of her own authority.
The mundane wolf had vanished at some point without Tala noticing. Even when she went back in her memory, she couldn’t pin down when the wolf had departed, the memory of the wolf now seeming somehow fuzzy.
“Now, welcome to my domain, the forest behind the forest you humans know passing well.”
They looked around, not seeing anyone. “Am I to assume that you are everywhere?”
Tala had taken the lead, and Rane seemed to have no objections.
Anatalis chuckled again, causing a deep-seated, instinctual response within Tala. She knew that a predator was watching her, and she didn’t particularly like the sensation. “No, and yes. I am not everywhere, but I can be anywhere. I think you understand that well enough.”
Her soulbound space—Kit; Tala could move herself to anywhere within it with utter ease. “You have bound yourself to a voidling?”
There was an almost stunned silence before a wolf, barely taller than Rane at the shoulders, appeared before them, regarding Tala with obvious interest.
His coat was somehow as black as midnight and as white as new-fallen snow. It seemed both fluffy like a winter rabbit and like each hair could pierce more effectively than the lance of a charging Guard.
His mouth didn’t open as he spoke, but the voice was somehow obviously his, “You two are even more fascinating in person than news of you led me to expect.”
Terry flickered to Tala’s shoulder, regarding Anatalis.
“And Terry, avian cousin of my Pack. Be welcome, one who is of a kind with my kin.”
Terry trilled a subdued response—even though he kept the god-beast’s gaze—which Tala took as thanks for the welcome.
Tala herself was taking deep slow breaths, trying to keep calm in a situation in which she realized she had virtually no power. She had finally noticed the subtler change which had accompanied the swelling moon overhead and the final, full darkening of the sky which indicated the falling of night all around.
The change was both subtle and infinitely important; her authority felt as if it sat in the palm of another, cradled and caressed but not crushed or violated.
Not yet.
She was still in command of all that was hers, but all that was hers now lay within the authority of another, one far, far beyond her.
Is this what Walden feels?
-It can’t be. We aren’t beyond him, and we don’t actually have any authority over that which is his. I think that this is different.-
That was true. Here, though, rather than her host obviously owning the plate off of which she ate, she felt as if she had been given leave to take fruit from an orchard. It was all the property of the owner, and he could stop her at a moment’s notice, but she had leave to take some of the harvest—at least for the moment.
In light of that revelation, the growing lupine grin on Anatalis’ face sent a shiver down her spine. “We have much to discuss.”
The large wolf turned and began to walk through the woods, heading north, clearly expecting them to follow.
They shared a look, then did so without question.