Lateral Movement

by Alzrius


667 - Freezer Burn

“VALOR!”

Shadow Star’s worried cry caused Woodheart to tense up, her pulse pounding as the black bear that their friend had become disappeared behind a wall of white fur, the shaggy humanoids moving to surround her. But as much as she wanted to run to Valor’s rescue the way Shadow was doing – the masked mare rushing to the transformed mare’s aid, disappearing from sight as she ducked under a wild swing from one of the monsters that had decided that the rest of their party was easier prey than a roaring bear – the druid knew better. Even if she hurried to Valor’s side, close combat wasn’t her specialty; at least, not without inviting an animal spirit to possess her first.

But just because she didn’t have enough time to summon a spirit into herself didn’t mean she couldn’t help.

Forcing herself to remain calm as she continued to chant her spell, Woodheart took slow steps back, trying to put as much distance between herself and the oncoming humanoids as she could. Fortunately, they were sauntering toward them, ugly grins on their hideous faces, clearly thinking that she – along with Mystaria and Spinner, both of whom were alongside her, similarly calling upon their magic – wouldn’t be able to put up much of a fight.

In front of her, Littleknight growled, lowering his horn and pointing it toward the brutes in a clear threatening gesture. The sight was enough to set them to hooting, apparently finding the small creature’s bravado hilarious. But the few seconds they wasted laughing at the almiraj cost them, as Mystaria finished her spell.

In an instant, the creature’s gibbering turned to screams of pain and fear as a sphere of flame five feet in diameter appeared out of nowhere.

The flaming globe manifested around the lower body of the leading humanoid, causing him to shriek as he flung himself out of the flames, his fur catching fire easily. Screaming, the creature lurched off to the side, flinging its body to the ground as it hurriedly shoveled snow onto itself in an effort to douse the flames. The other monsters made no move to help their burning companion, instead giving the burning sphere a wide berth as they paused, reevaluating how dangerous their chosen targets were.

“I think these things are yetis!” yelled Mystaria, brow furrowed in concentration as she raised one foreleg and swung it around, causing the fiery sphere to move accordingly, a hiss going up as its flames evaporated the snow instantly. But that was all it was able to burn, the monsters paying careful attention to its movements and dodging out of the way well in advance of its approach. “Use fire magic if you have it! And don’t look them in the eyes! Their gaze is supposed to be so fierce that that it makes you lose your nerve!”

The warning caused Spinner to strum her lute faster, a new verse to the battle hymn she’d been singing immediately spilling from her lips. “Against the yeti horde we stood, their ranks our fire broke! Their evil eyes were useless too, all blinded by the smoke!”

Her words, laced with magic, caused the flaming sphere that Mystaria had created to suddenly emit a series of crackling pops, as though it had rolled over a bundle of firewood. Immediately, thick black fumes began to waft out from it, despite the burning orb having produced no emissions when it had initially appeared. Oily and noxious, the smoke spread around in a wide area, spreading further as Mystaria directed the sphere to roll about in a wide pattern, causing the yetis to begin hacking and choking as they inadvertently inhaled the foul vapors, which rapidly thickened to the point of obscuring everything within range of them.

“I think that bought us some time,” murmured Mystaria. “We need to go help Shadow and Valor, and then fall back and regroup. If we can barricade ourselves-”

She didn’t have a chance to finish as two of the creatures hurtled out of the smoggy cloud in a rush. Coughing and gasping, they nevertheless kept their momentum, gazes locked onto Mystaria and Spinner, the two closest targets. Worse, both mares inadvertently made eye contact with the beasts, too surprised to avoid looking at them.

In an instant, Mystaria’s warning was proven true as both mares went rigid with fright, Mystaria’s mouth hanging open in mid-sentence while Spinner’s hooves locked up, her lute falling silent as she stared at the furious juggernaut closing in on her. Barely twenty feet away from them, both yetis gained momentum as they moved, reinvigorated by the sight of the two ponies’ guards having dropped. Clawed hands reared back, ready to slaughter the two…

“Kill the white furs!”

…only to find themselves suddenly being mauled by a flurry of claws and fangs.

Woodheart let out a sigh of relief as the arctic tiger she’d finally managed to finish summoning tore into the yetis, alarmed cries erupting from the pair as they fell back in confusion. Bringing a spirit into the living world was always difficult, and it never lasted very long, but it was a welcome reprieve in the heat of battle. “Are you two alright?”

Shaking off the sudden spike of terror that had gripped them, Mystaria and Spinner both nodded. “I hate to say it, but Mysty was right,” croaked the latter. “None of our spells are going to last much longer. If we don’t retreat now, we’ll be overrun.”

An agonized expression crossed Woodheart’s face at that. “But Valor and Shadow-”

“I’m in contact with Shadow right now,” murmured Mystaria, and Woodheart could tell by the distracted tone in her friend’s voice that she was using the telepathic blessing that her goddess, Luminace, had given her. Although she couldn’t use it very often, this was exactly the sort of situation where it was – sometimes literally – a lifesaver. “I’m telling her to get Valor and get back to the inn.”

Spinner grimaced. “Will they be able to make it on their own? They were surrounded by a bunch of those things!”

“If anyone can fight their way out, it’s those two,” answered Mystaria, glancing back at where the other yetis were still stumbling around in the thick black smoke, trying to find their way out without stumbling into the flaming sphere that was still inside the haze with them. “Come on, we have to go while there’s still time!”

Woodheart hesitated for a moment, but then fell in alongside Spinner as they followed Mystaria, scooping up Littleknight and hugging him close as they ran. As awful as it felt to run away without the rest of their friends with them, she knew that Mystaria was correct. Shadow Star was the single sneakiest pony she knew, and seemed to have a natural affinity for disappearing from sight, despite not being a spellcaster. And Valor was by far the toughest pony she’d ever met, even without turning into a bear.

That last part was enough to make a wry smile cross the druid’s lips, despite the seriousness of their situation. Valor’s ability to assume an animal form so easily was something she’d always been jealous of. Even after learning that it had been granted to her by some sort of minor divinity, she still felt envious of what Valor could do. After all, it was in search of that same power which had driven Woodheart to leave the forest where she’d grown up.

Changing into an animal – not with a spell, but by attuning one’s self to nature so closely as to become an extension of it – was one of the most sacred techniques of the Order of the Old Ways. To be able to “wild shape,” as they called it, was a necessary precondition for advancing beyond the rank of novitiate, since without the deeper connection to nature provided by living as an animal, there was no way to learn the advanced teachings of druidism.

But Woodheart had never, not once in years of trying, been able to change into an animal form.

She still didn’t know why that was. Having grown up in the Order, she’d studied its sacred rites all of her life, and they’d always come easily to her, except for that one. She spoke the sacred language, taught only to those who followed the Old Ways, fluently. She could identify the nutritional and medicinal properties of virtually any plant or mushroom. She was familiar with the behaviors and life cycles of myriad different animals. She could make use of the spellcasting traditions of the Order without any undue difficulty.

And those were just the standard teachings. Even beyond such basic instructions, she was keenly aware of the nature spirits that were always around her, to the point of being able to invite them into her body when she needed their help. That was something that no one else in the Order could do, and it had made her a rising star among her peers.

That had all come to an end when it had been time for them to demonstrate their ability to change into an animal form. One by one, each of her fellow students had showcased their mastery of the technique, becoming gazelles and falcons and boa constrictors and so many other animals. But not her.

After countless failed attempts, Woodheart had been too ashamed of her failures to stay in the Order any longer. With no better ideas than to try and find answers by experiencing a greater diversity of nature, she’d petitioned the hierophant who presided over their circle – the local branch of the Order – to allow her to leave the forest. Although reluctant to let her go, the hierophant had eventually agreed, not sure what else she could try to overcome whatever deficiency was holding her back. After bidding farewell to the only family she’d ever known, she’d set out, hoping that learning more about the world would teach her about herself.

It was fortunate that she’d found such good friends to help her with that.

Of course, when she’d left the forest, she hadn’t expected that she’d end up going on quite so many dangerous adventures. But so far, she and her friends had always managed to figure out a way to turn unexpected disasters into good fortune. Or at least, into less-serious disasters. And with any luck, this would end up being another-

Littleknight’s nose suddenly twitched, and he meeped in alarm. But before Woodheart could ask him what was wrong, a raspy voice cut through the air.

“Thinking I’ve seen enough.”

The words seemed to come from nowhere, sounding as though the speaker was barely a stone’s throw away despite no one being close to them. The tone was grating, sounding like a springtime warbler was trying to sing while someone wrung its neck, and the pitch was only barely recognizable as female. The lilt that the voice held suggested amusement, and through her surprise, Woodheart felt a chill fall over her that had nothing to do with the cold.

And then the street they’d been running down was blocked off by a wall of ice appearing right in front of them.

The trio skidded to a halt, a chorus of gasps and yells and curses spilling from their lips. Mystaria was the first one to get herself under control, whipping her head back and forth. “We’re trapped!”

Looking around, Woodheart could see that she was right. The wall blocked off the entire street ahead of them, folding around in a semicircle so that they couldn’t run around it either; the only way back was the way they’d come, with the cloud of smoke barely thirty feet behind them. And while the ice wall was only ten feet tall, that was more than any of them could have hoped to scale; the sheer surface of the barrier made it clear that any attempt to climb it was doomed from the outset.

“Woodheart!” blurted Spinner suddenly. “Your tiger! Call it back and tell it to bust through the wall!”

“It’s a tiger, not a rhino!” shot back the druid, trying not to panic. “It doesn’t have the strength to ram through something like this!”

“Maybe we can melt a hole through it,” ventured Mystaria, breathing faster as she tried to think up a plan. “If we hold our breath long enough, I can bring the globe of fire over here and have it make a path through. But the real problem is who put this here!”

“I heard a voice,” ventured Woodheart, looking around warily. “A female one, close by, just before this appeared. And Littleknight smelled something too.”

“You think there’s someone invisible following us?” Spinner’s head whipped around, looking at the untouched snow all around them. “If there is, they didn’t leave any tracks.”

“I’m not risking it,” answered Mystaria immediately. Rearing upright, she pointed one hoof toward the still-smoking flaming sphere, beckoning it closer, even as her other began to fish through her saddlebag. “I’ll use a scroll of ‘see invisibility’ and-”

“Don’t be bothering,” came the hideous voice again, this time with a malicious cackle. “Plenty happy to show myself.”

Then they were hit by a wave of cold so frigid that the three of them could do nothing but scream in pain.