Chapter 40: Thirty eight

Breakfast was a lively event, with Killian and Bastian keeping the group entertained with their usual banter. Once the fruit Conrad set out had been eaten, everyone made their way to their tents, except for Roderick and Conrad who would take the first watch. 

Entering my tent, I bypassed the workbench in favor of the futon in the second room of the living quarters. Flopping down onto the soft mattress, I buried my head into the pillow, allowing sleep to claim me, though it did not do so for long. 

Jolting upright, I pressed a hand to my chest as a sense of wrongness filled me. 

Did I have a nightmare?

My stomach churned, and I felt as though a part of me was missing, like I’d lost something important. The feeling increased as I sat there, and an image of two crushed Scorcher bodies flashed through my mind. 

Sting, Scorch. 

Leaping up from the futon, I jammed my feet into the red slippers I’d left beside it and rushed out of the tent, hastily wrapping my kimono around me as I went. Running across the rocky ground towards the cluster of vegetation where I’d left my Scorchers, I ignored the questioning shout from Roderick and the suffocating heat, my focus solely on finding my two lizards. 

“Sting, Scorch.” I called out as I reached the thorny bush, sending out a wave of power alongside my verbal summons. 

I didn’t feel the responding tug of power from the two Scorchers, which I should feel when I reached for them in this way, only that continuing sense of emptiness. The only signs that my Scorchers had been present was the bush that was now smoking and smoldering. 

“Kadia, what’s going on? You shouldn’t be out here without protective clothing.” Roderick scolded, jogging towards me sword in hand. 

“My Scorchers, something's happened to them.” I told the Draekin, peering into the bushes searching for any signs of Sting and Scorch. 

“What do you mean?” 

“I left them out here so they could sun bake, and just now I woke feeling like something was wrong. I swear, for a moment I could see their bodies crushed into the dirt.” 

“They’re dead then.” Roderick concluded, and I jerked my head up with a gasp. 

“What?” 

“The feeling and vision you described happens when a bound creature dies.” The Draekin said, looking around the nearby area in confusion. 

“Whatever killed them should still be close by, writhing in pain from the venom.” 

“There’s nothing here though,” I observed, searching the area with my alchemic insight to check there was nothing in our proximity, as most creatures would have at the very least one use. 

“No, there isn’t.” He confirmed, shaking his head with a frown. 

“Lets get you back to the tents, you can’t stay out here dressed like that. You’ll end up redder than me.” The red scaled Draekin joked, pressing a hand to my shoulder to push me gently back in the direction of the tents. 

Once we reached the tents, I allowed Roderick to guide me to where several floor cushions were still laid out from breakfast. 

“Sit, I’ll bring you some water.” 

Lowering myself to one of the cushions, I reached down to my thigh, intending to get some of my cooling balm to soothe my already burning skin, when I recalled I’d not brought it or my belt with the other pouches with me. I’d run out of the tent with nothing, dressed only in pajamas, a kimono and silk slippers. Glancing around for the Draekin, I saw him leave the guild leader’s tent and groaned under my breath. 

“Tattle tale.” I hissed, scowling in the mans direction as he headed for the area where the horses were penned.

“I can already hear the lecture now.” I said with a sigh, staring down at my hands, which were covered in cuts from where I’d been pulling away branches of the thorny bush in my search for the Scorchers. 

“Then I guess we can skip it this time.” Darius quipped, appearing from behind me and holding out a water flask. 

“I didn’t mean to,” I sulked, taking the offered flask. 

“I know, Roderick informed me the Scorchers were killed. I’ve seen Yuki respond in much the same way when her bound creatures have been killed, however it is a response you need to control. Running off into the desert with no weapon, protective clothing or supplies is a fast way to die.” 

“I’ll be more careful in the future.” 

“That’s all I ask.” Darius said, inclining his head in the direction of the area my Scorchers had been. 

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“Roderick and Conrad are going to do a sweep of the area. It strikes me as strange that the Scorchers were killed, yet Roderick reports there were no signs of any people or animals in the area.” 

“I was thinking about that actually, the only thing I can think of is that they were preyed on by a bird.” 

“Perhaps, and if that were the case we should find its body somewhere nearby.” 

We didn’t talk much after that, and Darius left to walk the perimeter of our camp. I considered returning to my tent, but decided to stay until Roderick and Conrad returned to see if they found anything. Though I did return to the tent briefly to change my clothes and fetch my belt with my bag. 

A quick search of my bag revealed two slips of paper with an outline of a Scorcher on each. Relief surged through me as I saw the tokens which could be used to reform my lizards. Two medium sized mana stones later and my two Scorchers were safely tucked away inside my tent. 

When Roderick and Conrad returned an hour later, they brought back the bodies of five Raptors, but reported no signs of anything suffering the effects of Scorcher venom. The Raptors had attempted an ambush on the pair while they searched, which obviously didn’t end well for the reptiles. These Raptors were larger than the fully feathered Bambi Raptors I’d encountered in the forests surrounding Curran and instead were covered in light brown scales with a few feathers protruding from the elbow joint of their short upper arms. 

As Conrad skinned and rendered down the Raptors, I observed his actions closely, trying to identify which two parts of the raptor my insight ability was indicating on. I’d not had the chance to collect any of the Bambi Raptors, as by the time I remembered to do so, the bodies had disappeared, likely dragged off into the forest by their fellows to be eaten. 

“Raptor meat isn’t the tastiest, but in a stew with the right spices it’s edible.” Conrad informed me as he tossed chunks of Raptor meat into a pot. 

“Can I have the skin and fat?” I asked, pointing to the fatty bits of meat the High Elven mage was discarding into a bowl.

The Raptors didn’t have a lot of fat on them, but the portions the mage were cutting off appeared to be of some alchemical use. 

I can render the fat into tallow, which can be used as a base for salves. I wonder if using Raptor based tallow provides different benefits, will the type of animal used affect the product? These Raptors live in the desert, so under that theory they are better adapted to living in this climate. Would using Raptor tallow in the cooling balm be more beneficial than using beef tallow?

“You can have the fat. The skins you will need to ask Darius for, as they can be used to trade for supplies. So it will be for him to decide if you can have them.” Conrad said as he poured water into the pot and set it over the metal camp stove he’d set up.

“Thanks.” 

Taking the bowl of fat, I made my way into my tent to set up my own pot. I’d need to cook the fat over a low heat for several hours, before straining out the impurities. As I went to place the pot on the flat cooking surface of the furnace, I hesitated, staring down at the chunks of fat. 

Could I just skip the entire cooking process and just transmute the fat into tallow? The same way I transmuted sand into glass?

Eyes closed, I tried to picture what I wanted, imagining the fat melting into liquid and the impurities straining away. Excitement filled me as the amulet I wore began to pulse with power, and I opened my eyes to see the bowl was exactly as it had been when I closed them. Disappointment welled up within me, but I pushed it back down and focused on the pot again. I’d felt something when I was trying to change the unprocessed fat, and I knew I’d been close. 

After an hour of trying to transmute the fat into purified oil, I gave up and set the pot on the stove. Clearly I was doing something wrong, but I didn’t know what that something was. Leaving the fat to render over a low heat, I moved to the workbench where I’d left the jug of vodka and pain relieving tincture. 

 As I poured the vodka into a bowl, a tearing noise from the rear of the tent caught my attention. A quick search for the source of the noise, revealed a small rip in the canvas at the bottom of the rear wall. 

 How did this happen? I wondered as I knelt to inspect the tear. It looked to me like someone had stabbed a hole through the canvas with a small blade. 

The sound of something hitting the wooden floorboards behind me with a loud clatter, had me spinning around to see a reddish blur rush across the tent towards the living area, while the glass jar containing my Scorchers rolled across the floor. Lunging for the dagger I’d left on the nearby work bench, I held it out in front of me cautiously as I crouched to pick up the thankfully intact jar. A quick glance into the jar showed both Scorch and Sting to be okay, though I suspected the lizards were a little shaken from the fall. Placing the jar back on the work bench, I shifted my dagger into my left hand, and plucked an orange dart from my bracer. With the dart ready to be thrown at a moments notice, I crept towards the living area of my tent. 

After a glance under the table revealed nothing, I moved the second area where my futon sat, still rumpled from my earlier nap. Shifting my grip on the dagger, I slid the blade under the blanket and attempted to flip it up. The blanket didn’t flip back as I’d intended, but it was enough to send the creature hiding beneath it darting out. As the red creature appeared from beneath the blanket, I flung the orange feathered dart at it and missed. 

It’s some kind of lizard. I noted absentmindedly as I chased it back through the living area of the tent, throwing a second dart at it. 

This time the dart hit, imbedding itself into the red lizards side. To my shock, the creature didn’t immediately stop its frantic dash towards the low table. No sounds of pain could be heard, and as I approached the table, the lizard ran out from under it. As the lizard headed for the curtain that separated the living area from the lab, I could see the orange dart still lodge firmly in its side. 

The venom isn’t affecting it.

This observation spurred me into action, and I ran after the lizard, determined to catch this creature who didn’t seem to be bothered in the slightest by the fact I’d dosed it with the same Scorcher venom that would have a person screaming in agony.  

As the lizard bolted for the rip in the rear wall of the tent, I let instinct take over and my human form melted away into that of a small red fox. Bursting through the hole in the canvas, I dashed across the rocky ground, following after the fleeing lizard. In that moment, nothing mattered, not the heat, or the growing distance between myself and the camp. The only thing I cared about was catching my prey. 

We ran for what felt like miles, the lizard always keeping just out of reach. We darted through vegetation, in and around rocky outcroppings in a seemingly endless game of cat and mouse. The lizard was about half my size and was covered in a red scaled hide. At one point, the lizard had spun around in an attempt to attack or perhaps frighten me, as it hissed and revealed a frill that fanned out from its neck. I’d lunged at the lizard, undeterred by this display, and we’d gone rolling across the dirt, biting and clawing at each other. It was during this altercation, that I learnt that the lizard also had some rather sharp teeth, when it had bitten down on the side of my neck. As soon as I’d shaken the lizard off, the little creature was once more dashing across the rocky desert. 

Up ahead of me, the red lizard raced towards a large rock protruding from the ground, and I followed, reaching it just in time to see the lizard disappear into a crevice. Stalking closer, I could see the golden eyes of the lizard staring back at me, and I let out a low condescending yip as I saw it had trapped itself. Laying down in front of the crevices opening, I rested my head on my front paws, my sides heaving with exertion as I took advantage of the lizards predicament to recover some of my waning strength. 

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