33 – A Slight Misunderstanding

The taste of ramen was still fresh on my tongue as Smoke and I continued on the road. “I don’t like admitting it,” I said, scratching my stomach through my tunic. “But damnation, that was really good. Made the detour worth it.”

“Agreed, Father.” Smoke grinned up at me. Which, on a feline, was an unsettling expression. “Perhaps we could raise hogs for their meat? And make noodles of our own?”

“It would be nice…” Though I really had no idea how ‘noodles’ were made. Maybe I’d ask that chef if we visited his inn on the way back. Though he had been taciturn, even by my standards. Still, it was worth a try.

I raised the map and took a moment to inspect it. We were taking a winding path, now flanked on either side by stretches of dense wilderness that had been labelled as the Grasta Woods. Once we cleared them, we’d be on a hilly stretch of plains that would lead us straight to Low Moon. Certainly, it was a trip that would have taken much longer at an entirely human pace.

“Alright… we’re getting close. I have to imagine the city watch may be wary about letting a hellcat into their city, but… I assume if you behave yourself, there won’t be a problem?”

Smoke grunted, managing a shrug as he padded along. “We shall see. I do not wish to part from you, either way, Father,” he said.

This behaviour of his could be a problem in the future, I knew. Loyalty was nice, valuable, but Smoke would need to get more independence on his side. I didn’t plan on having him follow me for every waking moment.

“Listen, I-”

There was a figure in the road, a few dozen meters ahead of us. A lean woman, perhaps in her twenties, her hair a dishevelled bird’s nest of dark hair. She wore a ragged cloak, framed from end to end with overlapping bird feathers. Streaks of dark purple paint ran down her cheeks, all the way to her jawline.

I sighed just at the sight of her.

Sometimes you can tell, just at a glance, that someone is about to do something very stupid.

I raised a hand to hail her. “Hel-”

The woman thrust her hands toward me, a swell of magicka rising at her command in an invisible shock wave that shook the nearest trees. And the world shook and wobbled around me, like a pool of stricken water.

Darkness engulfed the clear blue sky, and the trees in the wilderness stretched high until they reached far enough for the canopy to brush the clouds. Smoke had vanished, as if he had never been there at all. And all at once the air was filled with a chill.

“Oh,” I said, scanning my surroundings. “An illusion. This is an illusion…”

Many wizards had tried to trap me in them in the past, but it never worked. The boiling heat of my own magicka burned such things away easily enough. I let power bubble up inside of me, red hot heat surging through my veins until they glowed faintly under my skin. I focused, and breathed to release a small pulse of my power.

And just like that the illusion dissolved away, the rippling and distorted reality torn away like plumes of smoke from the small push of my power, revealing the reality beneath. The woman was at my side, eyes widening, a gleaming knife clutched in her hands. Smoke started, shaken to awareness when my power tore the illusion away from him.

She was shocked but still thrust forth, aiming to drive that blade into my neck. I caught it, felt the ground shudder and rumble at my feet. She was stronger than she looked, probably could have thrown Yamato aside without much trouble.

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To me, however, that meant little.

I snapped the blade, grunting in annoyance as I did so, and Smoke pounced on her. The hellcat snarled, aiming his fangs at her throat, and the weight of his pounce had the cloaked woman skidding back. She righted herself, spun on her heel, and launched Smoke far down the dirt track.

“I don’t know who you are, but-”

The woman leaped away before I could finish, crossing at least twenty meters in the blink of an eye. Her power swelled, an aura of violet light shining around her. She held her right hand aloft, the index and middle finger curled around each other.

“Rain of Arrows,” she hissed.