ushernet Chapter 101: The Wanderer
Chapter 101: The Wanderer
Chapter 101: The WandererCalen Calen scanned the dense undergrowth, automatically keeping an eye on the jungle and the obvious threats lurking just out of sight. The air was filled with shrieks, howls, and the crash of battling monsters that percolated through the tangled trees. It had not taken more than a few minutes of hiking through this jungle for them to run into the Radiant Brawlers.
“We need to be more careful,” he said, as everyone finished recovering their mana.
“Yes,” Malika said, nodding emphatically.
Calen was just grateful that Malika had a haste skill – even with his high dexterity and advanced perception, he had still struggled to even track the fight with the brawlers, let alone hit one of them consistently. Perhaps if his arrows were faster, he might have stood a better chance. His mind ran through options relentlessly. Pin them down somehow? Trap them? How best to use Ali’s barriers? Tease them out with an arrow up the snout? he thought, considering the featureless alien faces that contained nothing more than an oversized mouth with endless rows of teeth.
For the sheer volume and range of monster noises he could hear, he would have expected to pick up something a little closer to their resting point. They had just had a battle here – and a noisy one at that – and he would have expected that after their twenty-minute rest, at least some creatures would have returned. But it was as if they sat in the eye of the storm – dead quiet nearby, but beyond hearing range, chaos and violence reigned supreme. It was as if something was watching. The hair down the back of his neck and arms prickled uneasily.
He glanced about, but all he could see were more dense trees with heavily laden boughs stooping toward the ground under their load of moss and vines.
He scanned the trees intently, but he couldn’t shake the unease and the sense of something lurking just beyond his senses.
“Let’s continue,” Malika announced, getting up.
“I’m ready,” Ali said, gathering her minions into some semblance of a marching order.
Calen decided, dismissing his worries. Once they got moving, he would be back to scouting and he would easily be able to answer his questions. He stood. But as he did, something caught his attention, a flash of white seen from the corner of his eye.
He snapped his head to see. Deep among the trees, he caught a glimpse of a woman vanishing among the broad trunks. A broad-rimmed white hat was pulled low to conceal her face, and the ripple of a white cloak trailed in her wake, both contrasting with the practical leathers she wore on her tall, lean frame. She moved like the barest whisper of a breeze through the foliage, her skill and jungle-craft supreme.
His heart began to race in his excitement. He had read of the legends of the elusive realm-walker, the patron deity of trackers, and hunters. A being so rare, most people dismissed her as a myth – a story told and retold till people somehow began to believe it might be true.
he thought as he realized he hadn’t been quick enough with Explorer to identify her and make sure.
“Who was that?” Ali asked. “She had a very unusual mana signature.”
“You saw her too?” Calen had been half-convinced she was a figment of his imagination, conjured from tiredness after the battle, mixed in with a large helping of muggy humidity and wishful thinking.
“White cape, fancy hat,” Ali confirmed.
“I think that was the legendary Wanderer – uh, Demi-god and realm-walker. The patron deity of trackers and hunters. According to the stories, she is very selective about her followers, appearing to them at random, and setting a test to see if they are worthy of her patronage,” Calen said, quoting from the passages he had memorized in his youth.
“Really?” Ali asked, surprised.
“Yes, I used to dream of meeting her one day, but…” he trailed off as he recalled some of his more youthful dreams. He had read the story one day and spent the next several weeks