Fen lands in the lead. A Fenrir his appearance is similar to a giant wolf with a few disparities. His coat is a dull powdery black like fresh mined coal. His teeth, large and sharp as kitchen knifes, glisten like pieces of polished ivory. Blood falls from his jowls, the remnants of his morning meal. Larger than a horse he dwarfs the other Mana beasts following behind him.
Sandy lands on Fen’s left slinking forward in the graceful way tigers do. A Drought Tiger her fur is a light sandy brown much like that of the sand serpent but her stripes are a dark black. Where her paws touch the ground, the grass turns to sand.
On Fen’s other side Lin lands gently. The Blizzard Lynx moves silently, frost spreading out from the frozen paw prints she leaves on the ground. The size of a normal lynx her fur is like fresh fallen snow the only colour on her body the black of her nose and a black line running down each of the tufts of hair hanging from her jaw.
I feel bad when I call them by their names. I was 4 when I first form pacts with them and they had been so cute at the time. Now they are powerful mana beast capable of devastating entire countries. Yet they are still stuck with these cutesy names.
“release.” I say to myself while releasing the spell.
my legs return to their normal human tan appearance as I step forward. I don’t need to say anything to my partners. From the look in their eyes I can tell they know what is going on. Fen ducks his head allowing me to climb onto his back. I look at France and Lilly, they stand rooted in place staring at the beasts. They can handle the A rank beast fine, but the supressed aura of an S rank or higher still freezes them in their tracks.
Strangely enough their son Arthur is not startled. He seems to reach out to Fen cooing at him. Either his mana vasculature is too underdeveloped to react to Fen’s aura, or he is truly something special. Sadly, this is not the moment to look into it.
“the egg is hatching,” I call out to France and Lilly. “I am going to deal with it now.”
Fenrir takes off across the cliff, as he picks up speed, I reinforce my body with magic to avoid being ripped off his back or worse, crushed by the sudden increase in air pressure. The time across the cliff top is imperceptibly small, a moment later Fen is racing down the cliff face. His powerful legs carrying us towards the ground at speeds far beyond what gravity could hope to achieve. Bu seems bored on my shoulder idlily flapping her wings in the wind generated by Fenrir’s run.
As Fen races down the cliff I hear his voice rumble in my head, his words directed at Bu, “If you don’t like it you carry us there.” He reaches the bottom of the cliff before he can finish his sentence. We start bounding across the grasslands covering miles in mere seconds.
“Maybe I will,” Bu answers through my mind as she flaps her wings like she is going to take off.
“Enough!” I force into their minds.
“Sorry, but she started it.” Fen complains.
“I didn’t say anything.” Bu wines.
“ENOUGH!”
“Sorry” they say in unison.
I will never say this out loud but while Bu is much stronger, Fen is faster and right now we need speed. Lin and Sandy are doing their best to keep up but start to slowly fall behind.
“If you are having trouble keeping up fall back and meet us there,” I let my emotions quell their protests.
It isn’t being easy on them. We don’t know what has the mother in such distress, we need to conserve our strength in case we need to fight. Sandy and Lin slow a little and quickly disappear from sight. Still they will arrive at the mountain less than a minute after us.
It has only been ten minutes since I woke up when we reached the base of the mountain range that divides the continent of Adrich in half. Twice as tall as the beast wall, Fen did not slow as he starts to run up the Heavens Path Mountain range. Thick clouds hide the upper half of the mountain, I fear what we might find there.
As we approach the cloud layer the aura covering the mountain begins to grow more ominous. I feel panic, rage and bloodlust wash over me and taint the air and earth. I have stared down kings, S class adventures and S class mana beast. Yet, drawing in each breath is a labour as we approach the powerful presence waiting above the clouds. Fen begins to slow as we get closer to the source. I feed my mana into his body forcing the flow of mana through his mana vasculature removing the mana clusters that form as fast as I can break them down. The work is made harder by Fen unconsciously drawing in mana due to the high concentration in the air.
I tell Lin and Sandy to wait at the bottom of the hill till we can calm the mother. With the speed Mana clusters are forming in Fen if I am not there cycling their mana they may die before they reach the top. The only one unaffected is Bu sitting on my shoulder flapping her wings in protest to Fen slowing down.
I am tempted to tap into her power but if I do, I will have two beasts in need of nursing instead of one. As we enter the belt of clouds fear grips my chest pushing the little air left out of my lungs. If the aura is this strong here what will It be like in her presence. I force myself to take in a deep breath. I extend my mana outwards forming a bubble around Fen and I shielding our mana vasculature from her aura.
My shield seems to hold and once Fen catches his breath we push onwards. As we break through the clouds my mana shield shatters and I feel her aura first hand.
Fen falls to the ground covering his head with his paws. I slid off him my head spinning as I spewed bile onto the ground. Good thing I skipped breakfast. My head swims as I try to take in the mother. My eyes are unfocused but eventually I start to make out her form.
Infront of us is her tail wrapping around the mountain. Thick and taller than many keeps walls it is covered in a shimmering rainbow of snake like scales. A fin sits upon the tip of her tail, raised to full height it resembles the sail of a massive ship. The wind catches it as it rips across the mountain making the scales shimmer in the light creating a waterfall of rainbows.
Where the fin ends white spines begin moving up the center of the tail and across her back ending just before the neck. Her wings are folded back as she coils around the mountain the claws of each foot spanning an entire face.
“WHO GOES THERE!” her voice thunders in my head making it feel like my skull will split in two.
Even Bu shudder circling over Fen and I. The mother’s aura presses down on me making it feel like I am under water. Labouring for every breath in the thick soupy air my movement is sluggish and awkward as I struggle to my feet. I had thought her voice was powerful when I had visited last time with my father and uncles, how foolish. To take her voice in anger, that I am still in one piece comes as a surprise.
“Stop being so rude we are here to help.” Bu shouts through my mind.
I can feel the mothers anger swell as I fall to my knees under the weight of her aura, heaving again. Bu settled on my shoulder as I felt the shadow of her head loaming over us. never in my 16 years of life have I been more certain I am going to die.
I manage to lift my eyes from the ground to view the mother in all her glory. The only thought that enters my mind is magnificent.
My house could fit inside her mouth filled with serrated ivory teeth taller than me. her head is shaped like that of a lion but with shimmering scales that sparkle with the colours of the rainbow. Her ears, shaped like those of a wolf, angle back towards the crown of 9 different coloured spikes, each tall enough to serve as castle towers.
Her head dips down to look at us the scales on her snake like neck sending off a kaleidoscope of colours as they catch the light. Her eyes take us in and I try to look back at them. There is no iris only pupil, but not a black one, a constantly shifting one as colourful as her scales.
Our world has many races that can be called monsters. Powerful beasts that can play with the laws of our universe on a whim. Yet only three races have ever been considered Godly beings. The Divine Celestial Sky Dragon, master of both Time and Space, is one such race.
“Giean?” the voice asks, gentle this time, still it has enough force to shake me to my core.
Not trusting myself to speak and keep from heaving I simply nod my head.
“and Bu?” she said her eyes shifting slightly to take in the blue sparrow perched on my shoulder.
“of course, your majesty.” Bu says doing her best to bow as a sparrow.
Now that the mother knows who we are the atmosphere changes from menacing to warm and comforting. As Fen and I stand up my body feels light. Aches and pains, I had not been aware of fade away. In this warm protective atmosphere, it would be easy to expand one’s mana vasculature. I would try if I had not already reached the peak of human potential in that regard.
“Hurry,” the mother said.
I blink and we are no longer standing just above the clouds but near the summit on a small cliff. The only thing on the cliff is what had once been the entrance to a cave now filled with rubble. the wind whips at me and I turn around and find myself looking out over the cliff to an ocean of clouds below. My view only last for a second before the mother brings her face uncomfortably close to mine.
I could feel the heat from her breath as she speaks into my mind. “The nest is in there please hurry.”
I turn to face the collapse again. I can understand why the mother would have trouble. the area above the collapse looks ready to cave in again. Even if she shifted to a size capable of moving the rubble, she might just end up crushing her egg.
“BEAST MAGIC, THIRD FORM: DRAW: BEHEMOTH”
The gold mark on my right hip in the shape of a boar begins to glow. I feel the magic power of an S rank earth type mana beast flow into my body. With the earth affinity enhancing my senses I could tell the damage to the rock above was not as bad as it looked. Still I started by tapping into the earth essence flowing through the rock and casting a reinforcing spell along the entirety of the tunnel leading to the nest.
I place my hand on the rubble. “Move.” I command as my mana merges with the earth essence flowing through the rubble.
As I pull my hand away the rock comes with it. I kept moving it off the cliff and let it roll down the mountain side. once it was clear I rushed inside Fen and Bu hot on my heels. What I find scares me far more than a broken egg. The nest is empty.
“is everything all right,” the mothers voice pounds in my head.
I hide my thoughts as I look to Fen who is sniffing around the cave. There are three passages leading into the cave not including the one we came in through. Whether they were here or not when the mother made the nest, I am not sure. Fen looks at me and nods towards one of the tunnels. We bolt down Fen in the lead.
“The Egg is not here,” I say, “but it is alive and we are on its trail.”
We sprint down the steep narrow corridor with all our might hoping to avoid the lethal blast of rage that is coming.
We are knocked off our feet, I cover my ears as the mountain shakes. I would not be surprise if they had heard the mothers howl of rage, anguish and fear all the way back at the Beast Wall. even in the tunnel the air is thick with her aura but I can still move. I am alive, we made it far enough.
The mother’s voice thunders painfully in my head again. “I agreed to leave my child with you because you said you could protect them and guide them to adulthood. Bring my child back to me at once or I will take your world as recompense.”
I didn’t feel that pointing out that this happened while her child was under her own protection would help anything as I run with renewed drive.
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