Feral Mage Book 2: Chapter 36

Bryce stood in a dark forest, the smell of damp earth and vegetation around him. What little light there was shone on a grizzled man wearing clothing made of animal hides. By his feet was a fifteen-foot-long boneweaver centipede, which appeared dead. The man’s spear lay broken on the ground not far from him, but he held a large stone in his hands, slamming it down repeatedly on the unmoving monster. On the fifth blow, the bone-like exoskeleton that gave the centipede its name crumbled, and on the sixth, green blood splattered with chunks of what passed for the creature's brain.

“Never again!” the grizzled man sobbed. “Please give me the strength to never let this happen again!”

The man’s hand went to a twine necklace around his neck, touching the wedding band that hung from it.

Bryce watched the bitter weeping of the man until a wisp of black smoke drew his attention. An elven woman silently stepped from the darkness behind the man, wisps of black smoke wafting off her ashen-gray skin. Four black eyes gave the barest glance at Bryce as the woman stepped behind the weeping man.

“Cain…” she said softly. “I hear your plea…”

She gently placed a hand on the man’s shoulder and leaned in to whisper into his ear.

“Consume and become…” she whispered.

The man stopped crying and stared into the darkness before him. When the woman released her hand from his shoulder, Cain dropped to his knees and plunged his hand into the centipede’s corpse. He started to devour handfuls of the yellow and green flesh of the monster, all while the woman watched with the faintest of smiles.

“Bryce!” Vex’s voice yelled.

He awoke with a gasp, feeling the sweat that clung to his body. Vex lay on top of him, staring with a concerned look. Bryce quickly took in his surroundings and calmed when he realized he was still in the camp. His hand went up and patted Vex’s head.

“Just a dream, Vex,” Bryce said. “A very strange dream.”

He heard rushed steps and turned to see Janna hurrying toward him. She patted a wet rag across his head as she knelt down.

“Good, he’s awake,” Janna said, breathing a sigh of relief. “Did his fever finally break?”

Bryce frowned.

“Fever?” he asked.

Vex placed her forehead against his, holding it for a moment. She kissed his forehead when she broke away from him.

“No fever,” she said.

Bryce tried to set up from his bedroll, only for Vex to wrap herself around him instead of moving off. He stood with the wolfgirl clinging to him.

“I’m not sick, it was just a dream,” he said.

Janna stared at him with a worried look that said she didn’t quite believe him, but said nothing.

Bryce put his arm around the wolfgirl, clinging to his chest, and made his way to the campfire where Bellamy and Callie were cooking. Vex finally released her hold on him once they got there to run over and snag a piece of bacon from a plate.

“Drink this,” Bellamy said, handing him a cup.

Bryce smelled it as he took a seat by the fire.

“A remedy?” He said, picking up notes of various herbs with healing properties.

Bellamy nodded.

“I feel fine,” he told her, though he still downed the cup.

Callie huffed.

“You were drenched in sweat and we couldn’t wake you,” she said.

Then she slid a few slices of cooked bacon onto a plate and passed them to him. He gave one to Vex as she came to sit by him, mainly to avoid her trying to steal a piece. A few seconds later, Janna joined him on his other side.

He took a bite of the bacon as he recalled the strange dream. A lot of it was hazy now, but he remembered a name.

“Cain,” Bryce said, chewing. “That was the name of the first Feral Mage, right?”

“The first Feral Mage and first chimera,” Bellamy answered. “Why? Was that what your dream was about?”

Bryce shrugged.

“Don’t really recall enough of it to say, but I remember the name,” he answered.

Bellamy poked the coals in the fire before setting down her kettle on the embers to make coffee. Since their talk last night, a great tension between them had lifted. She had made eye contact more with him this morning than in the past few days, and when Bryce looked at her, he no longer had the twinge of sorrow and regret.

“That old legend could be on your mind since we’re going after Thea. I know I’ve been wanting to ask you what it was like to become a chimera,” Bellamy said. “Perhaps it will give us clues on how to help Thea.”

“When I used both of my Aspects, I could feel the monsters tearing away at the edges of my very being, like I was a piece of cloth and they were pulling threads out one by one. Then I was knocked unconscious, and I’m pretty sure I ended up in my soul.”

He saw steam rising from the kettle and held out his cup to Bellamy, which she quickly filled with the black liquid. He took a swig of the bitter drink before continuing.

“I found myself in a pitch black room, no door or windows, but I could clearly see myself. Then both the Manticore and Primal Troll appeared and attacked me. I fought against the monsters, some how far stronger than I had any reason to be. When they died, the room became white, and I woke up, able to cancel my Aspects.”

He felt Vex and Janna lean against him. Both had already heard what had happened when he turned.

Bellamy sipped her cup of coffee in thought. Even Callie seemed to be considering things.

“It sounds like you just had to beat them back into submission,” Callie stated.

Bellamy nodded.

“Bryce killed both his monsters. Perhaps they were so weak because they feared you; you weren’t fighting their actual bodies, just their souls,” Bellamy said, then frowned. “Which is more of a problem for Thea since she had others defeat her monsters.”

Bryce’s lips thinned, but he didn’t say anything.

“Then what about this Cain? I’m sure the first Feral Mage had to kill his own monsters. Why didn’t he beat his and return from becoming a chimera?” Callie asked as she took a sip of her coffee and made a face at the bitterness.

“Numbers, perhaps. According to the legends, Cain had been a Feral Mage for three decades before becoming a chimera. He would have amassed several Aspects by then, and if what Bryce said happened to him as well, he could have been swarmed.” Bellamy reasoned.

She sighed and shook her head.

“All we have to go on are theories,” Bryce added, words to what he guessed his former master was thinking.

Bellamy bit her lip in thought.

“Maybe we can find a priest skilled in Soul Magic,” she suggested. “Or perhaps there’s some way we can use the method we create Aspects with to help her. Draw one of her Aspects out of her or something.”

Callie frowned.

“I think that’s called cannibalism,” she deadpanned.

Bellamy glared at her.

“We’re discussing possible solutions,” she growled at the snow elf.

Bryce sipped his coffee as the two women stared each other down. Before a fight could break out, Janna cleared her throat, drawing the attention of everyone.

“Whatever we come up with won’t matter if we don’t find Thea first,” Janna said.

Nods of agreement went up from all of them, and not long after breakfast, they started packing up and hit the road once more. Bryce figured they would reach the stonewall town by the evening, depending on how the scouting trip went where Levi died. Bryce doubted they would find much there, but Bellamy wanted to check it out.

Janna took the reins first and followed Bellamy, who led the way on her horse. Bryce relaxed in the back of the wagon with Vex, Callie, and Omelet. He pulled out the hidden book on beastkin culture and language to try to get some reading done during the trip.

“You’re a true degenerate,” Callie said as she arched an eyebrow at the cover.

It took Bryce a second to recall the very provocative cover he had the binders place on the book.

He sighed and shook his head at Callie.

“You keep saying I have a thing for tails, so I thought I should learn how to care for them. It would be like you reading a book on constantly being grumpy,” Bryce retorted.

Callie frowned, only for it to quickly shift to a smirk. A smirk that made Bryce’s blood run cold.

“Vex,” Callie said to the wolfkin. “I just had a thought. You have one tail, while Janna has four. Doesn’t that mean Bryce needs to brush your tail four times for every time he does Janna’s? I mean it’s only fair, right?”

Bryce looked up from his book to see Vex’s eyes widen as the wolfgirl processed what Callie had said.

Oh no…

A massive smile formed on Vex’s face as her tail started to wag. She nodded in agreement at Callie before turning toward him, grinning. He already knew what he was doing tonight.

“Happy brushing,” Callie said with a smirk.

He glared at her. Only to see Vex start digging in the supply bags out of the corner of his eye. She pulled out the brush from one of the bags, then held it in her teeth as she crawled across the wagon toward him. Bryce sighed as he took the brush from her before she lay on his lap with a happy little growl, her tail wagging. It seemed like tonight was too long a wait for Vex.