NOVEL WEB Chapter 6: Nature
Dalwin Casawallow 701AF to 756AF
Male, 252 lbs (estimated after removal of growths)
While mining under the effect of a turtle shell-based endurance potion on a troll skin-based minor regeneration potion to treat an injury, tumorous growths rapidly began growing all over his body, quickly resulting in death. Examination of the scene suggests the reaction of the previously approved combination of potions was catalyzed by either the presence of coarse limestone dust or the shellfish his partner was eating on break. Attempts to replicate this effect on rodents have been inconclusive and this combination has been marked as inadvisable.
-Pains and Deaths Recorded, An Alchemist's Reference, 48th Ed
“I hate nature,” Kole said as he swatted at another fly.
“What was that?” Zale asked, turning back to him.
She was far ahead of him, walking next to Rakin and Doug while Amara and Kole lagged behind. Kole took some solace in the fact he was outperforming Amara, but that was tempered by the sympathy he felt for her obvious discomfort.
“Maybe we should eat here!” Kole shouted back.
For most of his life, “nature” was a few parks throughout the city and the narrow band that lay between the city and the dome. He thought he’d enjoyed nature. He’d even been amazed by it a few times since his arrival on the surface. And, if he was being honest, nature wasn’t the problem, hiking was.
They’d been walking for a few hours, making their way through the forest towards the mountain foothills. It seemed like the whole city was out in the forest that day, taking picnics wherever. But, as they traveled further, the sight of others became less and less frequent.
Zale almost said no, but then looked Amara up and down and let out a reluctant “Sure.”
The picnic Zale had packed wasn’t as elaborate as the breakfast, but it wasn’t too far off.
It was as Kole was about to take a bite of some overly garnished duck that the pleasant break to a not-so-pleasant hike came to a close.
Four figures came out of the path they’d just taken and to Kole’s surprise, he recognized them. That’s not to say he knew them, only that their faces were ones he’d seen before.
“Shalin?” Zale said, disbelieving at first, then shouted “You’re okay!”
The group noticed them then and stopped dead in their tracks. Kole now recognized the girl in the lead as Shalin, the Spatial primal they’d rescued from the spiders. He forgave himself the lapse, as the last time he’d seen her she’d looked near death while now she looked as if she’d never been kidnapped by Font connection stealing spiders led by an evil twin—which was a very specific look that tended to stick in one’s memory.
With her was a hulking girl of a similar age to them all, covered in tattoos with a shaved head marking her as a member of the Iron Vein Tribe, a dwarf wearing the tan robes of those Torc Blessed, and a gnome.
Kole had no idea how to judge the age of the last two, but he thought they seemed to be adolescents from their appearance, though what that meant in years he had no clue. And while he was fairly certain the dwarf was a Blessed of Torc by the outfit, the button-up shirt and crisply ironed pants of the gnome gave him no clue as to the gnome’s role in the group.
He looks sort of familiar, Kole though, knowing he knew him from PREVENT but couldn’t remember any specifics about him. I really need to make an effort to learn to differentiate gnomes.
“Zale?” Shalin said once she got over the surprise of being recognized.
She seemed happy at the revelation until her eyes fell on Amara, sitting beside her and her expression darkened.
“So it's true,” Shalin said, all levity gone.
“What’s true?” Zale asked, but then her mind caught up and realized what she must have meant. “This is Amara, not Amintha.”
Zale gestured at Amara, stopping herself from placing a reassuring hand on her shoulder at the last moment.
“How can you still be around her after all her sister did?” Shalin demanded, stepping forward.
“Because her sister didn’t,” Zale said, as if pointing out the obvious because she was doing just that. “Amara didn’t do anything—no. That’s not right. Amara never stopped looking for her sister and is the only reason you, Hawktalon, and Runt are alive.”
At the mention of Runt, the disapproving look on the Iron Vein girl’s face turned to anger.
“It does not matter,” the Iron Vein girl said in their characteristic deep and halting manner of speech. “They are twins. Bonded. She should have seen the evil in her sister's heart. The failing of one twin is the failing of the other.”
“That’s ridiculous!” Kole shouted before he could stop himself.
Public debates on moral responsibility were very low on the list of social interactions he was comfortable engaging in. So low in fact that it hadn’t even been on the list until that moment.
“Hawktalon said you were friends with her, but I didn’t think it was true,” Shalin repeated, ignoring Zale’s rebuttal. “I never believed what people said about you Zale. Even when you started spending time with the demonkin. But, now, defending her? Maybe I was wrong.”
A quick glance at Doug showed the demonkin boy’s head bowed, accepting this condemnation as he had many others without the desire for conflict.
“Take it back,” Rakin said sternly, jumping in for the first time.
Kole looked at the dwarf and crawled back in surprise at the barely contained rage he saw on his face. As Kole watched, smoke began to rise around Rakin’s hands as he fought to hold back his flames. Rakin didn’t seem as keen to let the comments stand as Doug.
Shalin looked Rakin up and down, her eyes growing wide in recognition.
“So that's true too! You are a Fire primal. How is that even possible? A voidling, a Fire primal, a demonkin, a crazy bug person, and...” Shalin trailed off as she examined Kole, looking for something nefarious about him to tie him in with the rest, but found nothing and continued on.
“Did you even rescue me?” she asked, voice dripping with accusation. “Or was it all just some plot to gain credibility? To pass PREVENT after being gone for months?”
Zale looked shocked, unable to find words at the sudden turn.
“Your performance at the final was terrible. Was that it? You knew you were going to fail, so the hive girls let you ‘rescue;’ me?”
Kole had interacted with people who lived in their own realities, blind and deaf to the truths of the world around them, but he’d never seen one spin up that reality on the fly and then latch onto it as truth as he was witnessing then.
“Apologize,” Rakin demanded. “Now!”
Shalin let out a laugh, and chaos ensued.