Chapter 2: [002] [Road]

Rick Cross sat next to the campfire, looking down at the poorly drawn scribbles that, to anyone who’d grown up without the wonders of GPS technology, might have passed for something that was good enough. It had the names of the larger settlements and some text pointing at landmarks that made for useful reference points.

Unfortunately, the thing was clearly out of proportion. Wildly so. The map maker had prioritized putting down the landmarks and not bothering to show the distances. Or even whether there were roads.

To Rick, the map looked no different to the map you’d quickly put on a napkin to give someone directions. That thought brought him an odd sense of nostalgia, of restaurants and cars and fast food.

To a world he had no plans to return to.

“You still looking at that thing?” Kiara asked. The Succubus hovered to look over his shoulder, pressing her warm body against his back.

“We have nothing better to guide us.” He shooed her off, eyeing her suspiciously as she smirked. “You know something.”

“I know a lot of things.”

“That happens when you’re a two-hundred-year-old hag.” Dia pipped up, not looking away from carefully counting the rations and checking the inventory. It was the Rapha’s self-assigned job to ensure everyone ate healthily. Or at least Rick, what with two of the four maidens in the group having a more… exotic list of nutritional needs.

The Succubus didn’t even react to the jab, shrugging her shoulders, blue hair swinging in the hot summer breeze. “I was going to comment that I’d gathered some information at our last stop, but maybe my wisdom is not wanted.”

“We spent three hours in that village before they kicked us out. We spent two of those hunting bandits.” Rick looked at her, incredulous. “You were with us almost all of that time. How did you get anything from them?”

“A maiden has her secrets.” Kiara replied, idly twirling a lock of hair. “So are you interested, or…?”

Folding and pocketing the map, Rick let out a sigh, ignoring the little bundle of annoyance that was forming at the base of his neck. “Let’s have it.”

“The feral rush started from the east and started moving south shortly before reaching here. What hit these parts was only the stragglers.”

And yet, they’d passed several villages that had been reduced to rubble and corpses.

Rick pondered on this.

Two feral rushes had hit the southern parts of the kingdom within the past six months. A storm had triggered the first shortly after he’d arrived in this world. Intense storms had caused the massive landslides down the foot of the mountains at the eastern edge of the kingdom, and the feral maidens had been displaced, triggering a domino effect.

“Wait, from the east?” He frowned again, using a stick to draw a crude vertical squiggly line on the dry dirt. They represented the Snowy Peaks mountain-range, the small circle he drew in the middle being the village of Astunes. It was roughly the spot he and the others from his world landed on. He then drew a horizontal line to the left, west, to the city of Balet, and then south to their relative current location. “This means there’s been two feral rushes coming from the same place.”

“It’s not uncommon.” Dia answered. “After a rush, the ferals often start killing one another once the resources are depleted. Those that remain are usually highly aggressive and powerful, and they start violently hunting in larger territories. This can trigger a second, bigger rush as the weaker ferals run away.”

“If you want to know more about violent predators, ask the cat.” Kiara said with a snort, rolling her eyes and pointing over her shoulder at Monica.

The Sabertooth was currently preoccupied in sharpening her claws, ears perked at the pointed thumb. She glared at Kiara. “Fat-bat-butt lies.”

Rick didn’t hold back the grin. “She was saying you were strong.”

She blinked, then returned the grin. “Monica strong, but fat-bat-butt still liar.”

“Are you done with your little game?” Kiara kicked the dirt, erasing the drawings Rick had made. “If you want to reach Sinco, then we’d have to hurry before the ferals run out of the easy food and they turn on each other. I doubt even the damn brute would be of much use then.”

“There might be nothing left if the rush is bad enough. It would be better to head west.” Eva spoke for the first time since leaving the village.

The Fledgling had been pretending to nap under the shade of a nearby tree. Rick was slightly impressed. He hadn’t felt her attention on him through the bond. Though maybe it was to be expected. He'd broken her out of the feral state only a week ago. The bond was likely still weak.

“And it’s just pure coincidence that heading west gets us to the dead lands, right? The place where there are rumors of Vampire lords?” Dia declared, crossing her arms and glaring. “Sinco is the better place. They are fortified and have stood for hundreds of years against the feral onslaught with barely any help from the kingdom.”

“I’ll admit she has the right of it,” the Succubus said.

Rick blinked with a bit of surprise. Even Dia was shocked at the proclamation. “What’s in it for you in Sinco?” He asked.

“You seek Sinco as a place to set roots, no? It’s to my understanding they are a small mining city. They are in the middle of a feral rush, with the kingdom unable to send reinforcements.” Kiara yawned, rolling her eyes. “It would be a perfect opportunity to garner fame, maybe even a position of influence.” She shot a glare at Eva. “Besides, there would be plenty of… meals for our cute little blood-sucker.”

“Creatures like you are not welcome in our kingdom.” The Fledgling spoke with acid in her words. “And the moment you try anything, I will see to your execution.”

Dia quickly raised her arm. “I volunteer to help with that.”

Monica glanced at the pink-haired Rapha for a moment before raising her own paw. “Food time?”

With a dramatic snap of her fingers, Kiara’s bat-like wings and horns grew. “All you weaklings can do is bark.” With those parting words, she took to the sky.

Rick put bets she’d gone to scout the area before it got too dark. Then again, it was also likely she’d gone to find some ferals to make a snack out of. With the rush this close to them, the Succubus couldn’t really take her meals out of them. Or, to be more accurate, he doubted they could risk either Monica or Dia not being at their best.

“I still think it’s best to go to Sinco. Though I am definitely not going to play politics.” He finally commented once he’d sensed the maiden was no longer within hearing-range.

“We could kill her in her sleep and claim the bounty.” Eva said.

“And you don’t get a say in things.” Rick added, pointedly glaring at the Fledgling. “As far as you’re concerned, the moment we get to Sinco, we drop you off on the hands of the first willing humans and our business is over.”

Eva looked like she might answer, but shook her head and looked away.

“Speaking of Succubus murder.” Dia broke the silence. “As the resident medical expert, I can confirm that there is no such thing as a maiden wholly devoid of the need for sleep. Even the extreme cases sleep at least an hour a day.” She pointed at the sky and drew circles over her head. “It’s likely why some of her little scouting missions take so long.”

“You’re claiming she’d rather sleep where there could be ferals?”

“I doubt anything short of Monica would be able to both catch her by surprise and harm her. I’ve been trying to figure out some way to get around her durability, I might if-.”

“I’m not sure if I should be concerned.”

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“It is purely to be able to heal her. Of course, if she ever got seriously hurt, I might need to make incisions.” The innocent little smile Dia put out was slightly chilling. Rick just shook his head. “Maybe repeatedly, in the heart and kidneys. It’s preventative medicine to protect my human from developing back-stabbed-itis.”

Rick had to groan inwardly. He understood her concern. Kiara was no angel, but it was also clear the Rapha was still working under several very powerful cultural preconceptions. The same Eva appeared to share.

“I didn’t miss that bit where you jumped the bandit leader.” He changed the subject, watching her immediately shrink and turn her gaze down at the food she was heating over the fire.

“She hurt you.” She was petulant.

“And had you gotten hurt, who would’ve put me back together?”

She didn’t contest the point. “At least it wasn’t as much of a fuckup as Monica.”

“Monica do good, Kiara cheat and lie and take Monica prey.”

The feline hadn’t even bothered to look up from her claws. The words caught Dia by surprise, but it made Rick frown. Nowadays, it was hard to measure how much she could understand. “I think we’ve been putting off your reading lessons for too long.”

“You intend to teach the feralborn mutt how to read?” Eva spoke with disbelief, sneering.

The tone was caught instantly by Monica. The Sabertooth snapped the totality of her blue-eyed focus upon the Fledgling, letting out a bloodcurdling growl, hackles rising and claws glinting menacingly under the evening sun.

And the only thing Eva could do was turn several shades paler than she already was. She froze on the spot and flattened herself against the tree trunk as Monica approached, one step at a time, the growling sound intensifying.

“Stop her!” Eva declared in a shrill voice.

“I think you should apologize.” Was all he’d replied, shrugging nonchalantly.

He knew Monica was mostly just making a point of asserting dominance. Despite how much bloodthirst she was projecting, he could feel through the bond the Sabertooth wasn’t really interested in doing much more than just scaring someone she deemed too weak to pose any serious threat.

It was the exact reason Monica tolerated jabs from Kiara; she saw the Succubus as someone strong enough to merit a moment of pause and consideration. A bully’s perspective, but not something he was going to stop when it was convenient. He’d learnt the hard way that he who has the biggest stick makes the rules, out here in the wilderness more than anywhere else. This was not the world he’d been born into, and that gap in perspective had nearly cost him Monica.

So he watched carefully as Eva went from stiff to shaking, shrinking further and further as Monica stepped closer and closer. Wide red eyes looked up in growing concern, her focus darting at Rick and then back at the Sabertooth, until…

“I’m sorry!” She winced, raising her arms over her head and practically curling into a ball.

Monica leaned closer, fangs large, and the snarl plastered over her face. “Why. Sorry?” She declared with the same tone Rick used when admonishing her. Though with several extra layers of deadly threat weaved into it.

“For… for…”

“For implying she’s stupid.” Rick provided.

“That! That!” Eva nodded enthusiastically. “Sorry! You’re not stupid!”

After a moment of pause, Monica stopped the growling, looking over the Fledgling.

“Good Eva.”

She patted the maiden’s head; the threat evaporating like it was never there. The feline just turned away from the sweating young woman and approached Rick, ignoring the anger that boiled through those ruby red eyes and landing her well toned posterior firmly on the ground next to him.

Without missing a beat, she raised him from the spot and plopped him onto her lap, wrapping her arms around him and laying her head against his shoulder. “Teach time.” She proclaimed, rubbing her cheek against his own. “Then food.”

“And then more teaching.” She pouted at his proclamation, but it was nothing a little ear scratching couldn’t solve.

Inwardly, Rick was weighing the options the future held. On the one hand, there was the road to Sinco and the dangers that would imply. But there were other pressing concerns. The performance against the bandits, though successful, had highlighted several flaws in how the team operated.

Mainly, that they didn’t operate as a team.

Eva’s case was understandable. He was aware she’d been human prior to being turned, likely by Vampires if Dia’s comment was anything to go by, and then forced to go feral. And there was very little else he knew about her past, not that she looked interested in sharing, nor him in prying.

Once he loaded her off to someone else, that’d be that.

But the genuine concern was Kiara and Monica. They were the powerhouses of the group, and he couldn’t let their egos crash again the way they had during the last fight. And he’d taken several needless, stupid risks as well, ones he'd have to learn from.

Yesterday he nearly got killed. He couldn’t trust their luck would hold next time.

He was no fighter, but he needed to think like one.

“Yeah, we’ll go to Sinco.” He reaffirmed, drawing some words for Monica to read out.

“Why? Why Sinco?”

Eva spoke the word cautiously. The glare had been studiously repressed, leaving behind the impassive look of someone who’d practiced the stony expression their whole life. But Rick could still sense it, vaguely, that underlying anger at the humiliation she’d just experienced at the hands of Monica.

“Because they have shiny rocks.” He chuckled.

The chemist in him had marveled at the elemental stones and their ability to hold the strange supernatural energies maidens wielded. Sinco was a source of such rocks, and as good a place as any to settle.

What went unsaid was that, if it was a place at the very edge of where the kingdom’s arm could reach, it would mean Monica and Kiara would be among the biggest sticks around.

And as the guy with one enormous stick, he had one rule he intended to enforce: He would not put up with anyone else’s bullshit.

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