Cheep!? 172

Sunlight glinted off of the snow in a scintillating display as the Wyldwalkers traveled through it. They’d passed through this winterscape on their first ascent to Riizen, but Niko still couldn’t help but marvel at the oddness of the varying environments here. The fact that the mountain itself was larger than it should have been still sat in his subconscious, but that wasn’t as apparent as the cold terrain that rested beneath what was otherwise a fairly temperate woodlands, granted one consisting with titanwoods. Niko lifted his eyes from the snow, looking upwards at yet another vivid display of color.

Similar to an aurora borealis, shimmering colors writhed in the upper atmosphere here. He stared at the gently moving colors, almost like a constantly shifting tapestry of silk drifting in the breeze.

Sasha spoke up then, catching his attention, “Riizen is subsuming Sliver Peak. There’s going to be a lot of essence shifting about for a while.”

“Subsuming?” Niko blinked in confusion, “What does that mean?”

Sasha began, “With the death of Keranthun, specifically to my father, the current head of this mountain, both Sliver Peak and Riizen are merging. This will result in an overall increase in the available essence, new environments, natural treasures, and other such things.”

“But… how? Do the mountains physically move together? Or is this a kind of spiritual thing?” Niko glanced up, looking around at his companions to see if he was the only one having trouble picturing such a thing. Fortunately, he wasn’t alone, as his humanoid companions looked equally confused by what Sasha was describing. Especially Mithel, who looked absolutely flabbergasted.

“They will, in time. It will be perhaps a year or so for the full transformation. There should be some inroads between the two that have already formed, which is a good thing, considering we will be disembarking from Sliver Peak to get to Ar’Klaadi faster.” Sasha continued, unaffected by the strangeness of the situation, “Unfortunately, once Sliver Peak is fully conjoined, we won’t have such a convenient area to return to.”

Niko’s head spun at the implications of what Sasha was saying. “So… it’s like a portal or something?”

“A portal?” Sasha hummed thoughtfully, “Yes, I think that’s a pretty good way to describe it.”

“What about, like, tectonic activity? Earthquakes? What even…” Mithel’s expression plainly showed the dismay she felt, something the others could relate with.

“Hmm? No, no, the mountain will just… move one day.” Sasha shrugged, “It’s happened before. Riizen, being the victor, won’t be moving. Sliver Peak will vanish when all of its territory and essence has been subsumed. There won’t be any earthquakes, otherwise nobody would risk merging mountains.”

Niko looked at Sasha, wondering if maybe she was joking with them. But, the fact that she seemed genuinely confident in what she was saying, and with how Thokk was nodding along, made the possibility seem less and less likely.

“So… Does this mountain merging business happen often?” Dachna asked, now looking askance at the snow and then sky.

“Not at all.” Sasha assured them, “This is the first one to happen since my birth, even in the neighboring region. Mom’s going to have her hands full sending messengers to other mountains to assure them that we were the ones attacked, and not the aggressors. Such an occurrence makes other beast tribes nervous, and for good reason. No one wants a power hungry neighbor—a successful one, at that.”

“Much of what will happen will be gradual expansions, or spaces appearing where they weren’t before. We’ll have to remake the maps for Riizen and the mountain proper as time goes on.” Thokk added in, grunting as he trudged through more snow. “Hopefully, we won’t end up with more iced over lands.”

“Don’t appreciate the cold?” Ronald asked from atop Thokk’s back.

“The snow, more like.” The sloth bear responded, gesturing to his legs, “It gets stuck into my fur and melts there. Getting dry after this will take quite some time.”

Niko smiled with amusement at that, as he imagined Thokk wetted down like a dog in the rain. Then he remembered what bears were supposed to look like without fur, and the amusement vanished. He doubted Thokk would let himself get that saturated without using his earth patterns, though. Hopefully.

The trek through the thick snowdrifts continued for more than an hour.. Thokk led the way after Sasha had provided the direction the group would be headed in. With the humanoid members of the team riding atop the beast members, navigating the snow was less of an issue. The only one of their number that had shown any difficulty was Charlotte, who rectified the issue with Mithel’s help, stringing together wide, wooden equipment akin to snow-shoes. While it did make Charlotte have to walk in clumsy, wide steps, she no longer sank through the snow. Still, Niko could tell that the spider was in no way a fan of the cold and snow, though the moisture didn’t seem to bother her overmuch.

Niko felt their destination before he saw it, with the essence in the air seeming to concentrate into something more substantial. He followed the trails of energy with fascination, feeling that it was rapidly growing in overall tier. From a healthy tier three, to four, and then five, the group advanced steadily in the direction of the higher concentration. Looking around more, he realized that it was akin to a cone, or siphon.

Ahead of them, Niko saw the tides of essence as they appeared to be crystallizing, rising fully to tier six, even seven potency. He felt it on his skin like warm sunlight, his body drinking in the power slowly, but steadily. Niko enjoyed the sensation, up until he felt a distant, almost painful, prick in his subconscious. Alarmed, he turned his attention to the source, before realizing that it came from the mental connection he shared with Skye.

‘Ah, I forgot,’ Niko, chagrined, remembered that his tolerance for essence was far higher. What felt pleasant to him felt like needles pokes all over Skye’s skin.

“Let us be through swiftly,” Sasha said aloud, voice tight, “We are too low tier to be around portals for long. Do not delay in moving forward, the quicker you are, the less essence sickness you may experience. Thokk, if you would proceed first?”

The sloth bear grunted, but before Niko could question what Sasha meant, the large beast had begun to run. He built speed quickly, less like a beast of flesh and blood, and more like a living freight train. Ahead of them, the fractal, crystallized essence swirled around a rippling portal, on the other side of which looked to be a grassland, rather than a snowy tundra. As the sloth bear approached with Ronald and Stella atop his back, the essence seemed to shiver and shift, seemingly accommodating the bear’s passage. In seconds, he was through, and Niko could see him on the other side of the image, continuing to run.

“Simply do as Thokk has done, and what I will do. Run through, do not stop. You may feel odd sensations in passing, but they are tricks of the mind, trying to make sense of the passage of the tunnel. Ignore them, remember the direction your legs carry you, and continue until you do not feel the prickle of essence attacking your skin.” Sasha said, though to Niko it sounded almost as if she were convincing herself of her words, too.

Charlotte immediately took off at a run, eliciting a yelp from Mithel followed by panicked shouting, “Waaait! I’m not ready!”

“Friends! Bombs!” Charlotte cried out in response, and Niko thought perhaps the spider was cackling with her pedipalps flailing as they were.

Niko shook his head as the spider moved through the portal, and seemingly out the other side, before the image grew too grainy to see beyond.

“Time to go,” Niko said, turning his gaze to Sasha and Dachna, “We’ll be right behind you to make sure everyone gets through.”

Sasha looked to him with what seemed to be a ready denial, before seemingly reconsidering it after noting he was unbothered by the essence in the air.

“Alright, we’ll see you on the other side.” Sasha replied, with Dachna gripping tightly onto her back. Without further adieu, she bounded off through the snow, following the path laid by Thokk and Charlotte. Niko saw her go into the tunnel, and once more her distorted form appeared on the other side, before vanishing from view.

Niko felt at Skye through their connection while bringing up his wings protectively. Surprisingly, he felt her discomfort drop, the essence radiating all around them seemingly hitting his wings and mostly being absorbed therein. Skye breathed a little sigh of relief, before patting Niko on the neck.

“Alright, ready when you are.” Skye said, gripping onto the saddle, “Let’s be quick.”

“Can do. Don’t fall off,” He joked lightly, catching her internal eye-roll through his mind and snickering. Then, he leaned down, muscles taught, and threw himself forward in a sprint. He used his Wyldstrider pattern to give greater power, but refrained from using his Particle Wing, uncertain how external essence might affect the portal.

As they approached, he felt as if the distance between them and the aperture was growing, and time seemed somehow sluggish. He pushed on, keeping in mind Sasha’s advice to keep running forwards, regardless of what his mind was telling him. In seconds, he felt like he hadn’t moved, before suddenly feeling as though he’d lurched several meters upwards. Niko suppressed a squawk of surprise and refrained from trying to open his wings through sheer will. Legs still pumping, he ignored his sense of balance telling him he was sideways, and when his eyes began to see a prismatic display of several tunnels, he simply closed them. Even his Aether Sight was playing tricks on him, coils of essence running around every which way in a dazzling, chaotic display that had no end or beginning.

Then, the sensations fell away, leaving his mind reeling and body brimming with essence. Atop his back, Skye felt nauseous and was aching all over, Niko’s wings had been unable to protect her from the essence within the portal's tunnel. Whatever tier it was within, he didn’t know, but it was certainly far above their level.

Still, he now found his talons digging into dirt, with tall grasses grazing his chest as he kept running forwards, putting more distance between him and the essence phenomena behind them.

Niko and Skye moved forward, eventually coming to a stop with the others. Niko paused to let Skye down from his back, her steps carryied her down to a small clearing that had been crushed by Thokk as he rolled across it. Said sloth bear was groaning, alongside a much-miserable Sasha and Charlotte. Ronald, Dachna, Stella, Mithel, and Skye were likewise groaning, holding their heads or stomachs, or in Ronald’s case, both.

Seeing them indisposed made Niko that much more grateful for his blessings. He quietly informed Skye of what he was going to do, getting a weak response in return, before he took to the sky overhead. Niko fanned hot air beneath his wings to help get greater lift, enjoying the feeling of the rushing wind through his feathers.

He could appreciate the wind while still doing his job, though. From so high up, the group beneath him looked like marbles against a golden grassland. With his keen eyesight, Niko inspected the area immediate to them. Sparse shrublands and the occasional scattering of trees were the only breakup to the grasslands immediate to them. Farther away, Niko spotted what appeared to be other beasts on the prowl, but they were giving the portal area a wide-berth. He took mental note of their locations, before spotting what looked to be a general decline in the terrain.

Soaring a little higher, Niko confirmed that to the west of them was what appeared to be a way down, the elevation dropping down out of his sight range. Given the spatial shenanigans that happened on these mountains, he couldn’t be completely sure that it would stick to any kind of geological sense, but Ar’Klaadi was west of Sliver Peak, roughly, in the first place.

Niko descended, finding the Wyldwalkers much more put together, but not nearly at a hundred percent. Still, they had a lot of walking to do, and he figured the more distance they could put between them and the portal before resting, the better.

“Looks like we can go west from here towards a natural incline, so hopefully we won’t have to do any rock climbing.” Niko said, coming to a stop beside Skye.

“Did you see anything else around us?” Ronald asked before he took out a flask and drank from it heavily. He must have downed a quarter of it before Stella lifted it out of his hands with a playful, if strained, smile. Before he could say anything, she drained another quarter of it, likewise holding a hand to her temple in an effort to massage the headache out. She handed it back to Ronald with murmured words, and Ronald gave a light chuckle before putting the cap back on and stuffing it back into his shirt.

Niko realized he was just staring, before he answered the question, “Some shrubs, a few trees far away. Some other beasts, but we should be fine to avoid them.”

“Are they awakened?” Mithel asked, looking much recovered as she handed Dachna a potion, who appeared significantly less so.

With a shrug, Niko answered, “No idea. I didn’t see them all that well, and unless they’re wearing armor or some such, I don’t think I’d be able to tell.”

“Even then, not all awakened wear armor, nor are all unawakened blind to the use of it.” Sasha grunted, before shaking her head, “Ugh… I understand why mother disdains portals, now.”

“Was that your first one?” Skye asked, rubbing her eyes.

Sasha nodded, “Yes, and my last, if I can help it. Were we tier two, we would likely be even worse off, but from what I hear, tier three is the sweet spot.”

“Why is that?” Curiously, Niko asked.

“Not sure, but the higher tier you are, the more it takes out of you to get through.” She shrugged, “Tier fours have it the roughest overall, getting the bad end of both sides, but a tier five will still be significantly weakened in essence going through. No one really understands what happens though, since one's senses are so… odd, during the transport.”

Niko nodded at that, finding the description to be more than accurate. It was very strange that it operated that way.

After getting through the worst of the portal’s after effects the group got underway once more, with Niko taking flight occasionally to ensure their path was a safe one. The grassland seemed to be significantly larger than the tundra they’d come from, and only after six hours did they finally reach what appeared to be the edge of it. A gradual, shifting slope emerged, dropping them to another environment where Niko recognized rich, green growth and twisting trees, the likes of which were quite different from the tall, straight titanwoods with their immense boughs that linked together.

The ground here was rougher with gnarled woods, the trees bent and twisted, as though fighting one another for purchase on open terrain and the ability to punch through the canopy. While the largest of the trees rivaled the titanwoods, the bulk of them were smaller, at least comparatively. Dark brown bark, the constant trill of bug noise and birdsong, shafts of light that pierced through in places, and an ambient moisture in the air that matched the environment around the titanwoods bases, the environment of the Eldergreen was a mix of familiar and unfamiliar to the Wyldwalkers.

“Looks like we’re in the Eldergreen, now.” Skye said, feeling much improved after the time it took to get where they were, “We should start looking for a good spot to camp. The Eldergreen doesn’t have as tight of a division in essence tiers as the titanwoods had, and I’m not in the mood for fighting overmuch.”

The others echoed the sentiment, and before long, the group found a decent enough tree with a deep depression at its base, where the roots formed almost a half sphere with the trunk twisting overtop it. The resulting space was almost like a bowl in the wood, and would keep much of any inclement weather off of them, and do well to obscure their cooking fire.

Niko and Sasha stretched out as they watched Ronald and Dachna start up some cooking, while Thokk, Mithel, and Skye worked out the camp in general. It wasn’t as if the two were taking it entirely easy, but the others were better suited to those tasks. Their “chore” of choice would be of a different nature.

“Hunt?” Niko looked over to Sasha with a glimmer in his eyes and an eyebrow quirked.

Sasha grinned her sabre-toothed smile, “Hunt.”