The Survival Of The Species

by Borderline Valley

Chapter 3: The Forest of Watchful Shade

Herbert Senthson

The forest that surrounds us was named by the first squad that was stuck out after nightfall. They told us horror stories, when they finally stumbled back into camp, about eyes in the shadows between the trees that they could feel but not see.

This forest strikes fear into all our hearts, but it is our life-blood, our food-source.

If it wasn't necessary we wouldn't be out here. I wouldn't be out here.

As it is, it’s hard to keep my hands steady on my bow when walking in the Forest of Watchful Shade.

I can’t shake the feeling that I shouldn't be here. Yes, I’m a good hunter. Yes, I volunteered when the guard started letting us ‘civilians’ help them on patrols. But I sincerely doubt I’ll be bagging any game when I can’t keep the arrow straight on the bowstring.

I shouldn't be acting like this.

This isn't right.

I used to hunt wolves for Goodness’s sake!

Something darts from one tree to another, and the entire hunting party freezes in place.

One of the guards slowly straightened from picking some herb off a knee-high bush, and drew his axe.

Unhindered by the chain-mail others wear, I silently creep around a tree to see what we've just stumbled upon.

It’s a… a wild chicken. No, it had a lizard’s body. And Bat wings. I’m glad it’s facing away from me; I don’t want to see what the abomination has for a face.

Silently, I thank the goddess of the hunt that can no longer hear me that I have the privilege of putting this crime against nature out of its misery.

My fingers are steady once more as I draw the bowstring and loose in a smooth motion I have practiced countless times.

At this range there is no missing.

I sound the all clear, and we bag the specimen for later. We don’t bother trying to skin it. We won’t know if it’s edible until Everblaze checks it out anyway.

My surge of confidence wanes as we move on.

Soon enough, I can feel the shadows watching me again.

---

Samuel Weathers

I stand next to Everblaze. The Healers finally let him out of bed, with a strict “Nothing strenuous” warning, or else they’ll “use the bad-tasting medicine next time.”

Rodin had looked shaken at that one.

I make a mental note never to piss off the Healers.

“So what did you learn from the forest?” I ask him. I don’t want to seem pushy, but I have been waiting two whole days for what should have taken twenty minutes.

He stands in front of the strange ornamental pedestal at the center of the gatehouse. So far it had resisted all attempts to be moved or destroyed, and Rodin had confirmed it was magically warded in passing.

Now it seemed he wanted a closer look at it.

“Oh. That. It’s really just a normal forest, except for a few complications.”

“Complications?” Every time I looked at the damn thing I could feel the fear worming its way into my head. I knew a magical effect when I felt it.

“Yes. It has an unusually high level of the naturally occurring background nature magic. Unusually high. I’ve been in druid groves before and they weren't half as strong.” He seemed almost dismissive of it, as if it was nothing special.

“Any side effects?” I manage to resist using sarcasm. Much.

He faces me, amusement in his eyes and voice. “Well, I have reason to believe it induces a fear effect.” He grins at his own joke. “But now that you mention it, everything should grow at exponential rates. You remember those trees I cut down?”

I nod. I tend not to forget when he nearly crushes the both of us.

“If you dig out their stumps I’ll bet you half my rations you’ll find saplings trying to replace them.”

“No bet. This is your area of expertise.”

“Hmf. Spoilsport.” He returns his attention to the stone piece.

I take a second look at the piece of work I had dismissed as ornamental. Its base was rectangular, and it rose to about waist height, before rising as a column to support a large stone sphere. Out from the column jutted five branches that sported depressions on the end. If I had to guess, five spheres used to rest there.

The first time I had seen it, it sported moss and vines, but the stone hadn't degraded at all. Now that it had been cleaned off, by someone, and it looked like it could have been installed yesterday.

Rodin absently ran a hand over a branch, small lightnings sparking between it and his fingers. I glance at his eyes. They shine red with his magic as he examines it.

“What do you see?”

It takes a moment, but he responds. “This is the best warded piece of the whole collection. It’s a different medium of magic; I can’t understand a sliver of it. But I can test it. Age spells, fire spells, shock, force, I can’t find a weakness in the wards. And the wards barely react. With the barracks I can at least see the shock-waves as I poke at it, but this is… stronger.”

I’m not going to even try to pretend I understood that. “Medium of magic?”

The glow in his eyes flickers out momentarily, as he glances at me. “Uh… yes. I…” He stops and frowns for a moment, then seems to arrive at a decision.

“Alright. If the guild still existed, I would be killed for telling you this, but at this point, I don’t care.”

I raise my eyebrows, but say nothing.

“Nobody understands magic.” I restrain the impulse to slap him silly. “Sure we can use it, mess with it, play with it, really. But truly understand it? Nope. What little we know is crafted for us by the gods like you craft a wooden sword for an infant to play with.”

“That… sounds… frustrating.”

Rodin just shrugs. “It’s why there are so many schools of magic. Different toy weapons, you could say. Fundamentally, all magic is the same. But only the gods can understand how it works on that fundamental level. Some used to theorize that understanding how magic really works was what made gods, well, gods.”

“So when you say this is a different medium of magic…”

Rodin nods, gesturing to the pedestal. “This is just a different wooden toy, but like a child, I can’t see how the bow works for being too focused on the sword.”

“So you can only learn one?”

“Well. No. You can learn several. I use a kind specified as Rune Calling, mostly. The Healers use Spirit Weaving, which I've dabbled in, and I've received training in Ritual Study,” he smiled wryly. “Ritual Study is useless here though. I've tried, it simply no longer works.”

Wait. Why is he telling me this? “Why are you telling me this?”

Rodin gives me a look I couldn't interpret. “As Captain of the Guard, our safety is your priority. You've received training in magical defense and combating mages like myself. You've learned all the rules on how magic works, and doesn't work.”

I nod. I have. I don’t like remembering that hellish month of training, but it proved exceedingly useful in my line of work.

He spreads his arms like an actor giving a line, a grin on his face. “Those rules are now garbage! Trash! Irrelevant! The rules have changed! This is a new world, it runs on new rules!”

The urge to smack him silly is rising.

Thankfully he calms down a bit. “Seriously though. Whatever we encounter is going to be so different from what we’re used to, it’s liable to spit in the face of everything we know. You need to be prepared for that, as well as understand why. Sometimes it’s the why that’s important.”

That… makes a measure of sense, I’ll admit. It’s certainly food for thought.

But, wait, “How did you know the forest will regrow its trees then?”

He just grinned. “It’s a common link. Don’t ask me why, but their version of nature magic is very similar to ours. All Gaia’s think alike I suppose.”

I laugh at his joke. A few of them are actually good.

“Ha. So,” I began, changing the subject, “What can you tell me about Rune Calling. Can anyone learn it?”

“Nope. Anyone can learn the other two, but the potential for Rune Calling is hereditary. It’s why the Guild was always into nepotism,” he paused. “I’m not sure how much I should share, really. The Guild kept its secrets for more than just selfish reasons; otherwise I would have been blabbing its secrets long before now.”

“I can understand that.” I don’t exactly share my mage-killing techniques with him, so I can’t be too upset. Not that they’ll be as useful now… Damn, I need time to think about this.

---

Sophia Everblaze

I sat on a stump that some adults had set by the bridge.

There were four guards standing nearby, and they wouldn't talk to me. It was very boring.

I know I asked for some way to help, but I’m just sitting around, not doing anything.

I take to idly drawing some runes in the dirt to make sure I've memorized them. Once, I drew the rune for Fire, and felt this sort of tug in my finger, and then there was a lot of fire. Daddy thought it was funny, but Sam was sort of angry I think.

After that daddy taught me how to avoid feeling that tug when I draw runes. And that was a long time ago anyway. It hasn't happened since.

After running through all of them for a third time, I groan and try looking at the forest again. It’s a scary forest. The trees get really tall, and there are all these really dark shadows.

I’m glad I got a job, but it’s a really boring job. I have to wait for something to happen before I get to do anything.

There’s a bit of rustling in the bushes. The guards all stand straighter, and mine shifts a little closer to me.

Out of the shadows come another group of guards, and a couple other adults. They’re carrying large bags, and many of them are soaked with red.

That’s great! Daddy says that means there will be lots to eat tonight.

The guards wave them onward, but mine stops them.

“Hold on, we need to screen everything first.”

They line up in front of me, and I get ready. I love this part! Closing my eyes, I concentrate on the runes, remembering daddy’s instructions. The center is Sight, enhance it with Magic, and then tack on a low-level limiter to screen out the background magic.

I imagine my magic flow into the runes, filling them all the way up! I know it worked because the runes disappear, as if I never imagined them.

Opening my eyes, everything looks grey, like someone poked a hole in the world and drained out all the color. Except for the forest, it’s glowing a nice bright yellow color, but daddy said I should ignore that. Everybody’s shadows were different too. They were all… different.

The guard opens his sack and shows me its contents, a bunch of fruits. I poke around with a stick, but don’t see anything.

“That one’s good.”

The next guard shows me his bag, it’s full of dead rabbits, but there’s no color in them.

“That’s good too.”

The fourth one’s bag was leaking a bright green light. I laughed a little bit, this was different!

“That one’s glowing green!” I exclaimed, pointing at it.

The man holding it looked surprised, I guess because I didn't even have to look inside.

I grabbed the bag and peeked inside.

There was this thing that reminded me of daddy’s stories about dragons.

“Is that a Dragon? It’s glowing green, that’s so cool!”

I didn't get to look anymore, because my guard took the bag and ran off to show it to daddy.

---

Rodin Everblaze

I stood in the basement of the Healer’s building. One of James Mender’s apprentices apparently had found a secret stairwell that ended in what could only be described as jail cells.

We’re here to do the summoning.

It’s been the better part of a week, and the Captain hasn't been able to get live captures. James is getting impatient too. Heh. Impatient.

“So it’s come to this” I observe, as I begin drawing the circle on the stone with my staff.

“Yep. Take every precaution.” James is outside the cell.

“You don’t need to be here, I keep telling you.”

He laughs, and tells me, “I requested it, I will be present to take part in the risk. And I’m here to watch you. Simply because I say you’re back up to speed again, doesn't mean I’m letting you kill yourself at the first opportunity.”

“Have you no faith in my self-restraint?”

“No.”

I finish drawing the circle and grin at him through the bars.

“Alright, fine. Got any advice on what to look for?”

“You know the rules, anything non-sentient.”

I wince. If I could guarantee that, they’d have made me an arch-mage. “I’m afraid that’s always a risk. Now hush, I need to think.”

The circle I drew in the stone shown a bright red, the signature of my personal aura. I began to trace out the runes with the crystal on the end of my staff.

Calling rune at five equal intervals. Temper each with Creature, chain it with Spirit, follow it with a paired Four and Leg, and end the chain with a paired Plant and Food.

“How’s a four-legged Herbivore sound?” I ask absently, as I painstakingly carve the runes.

“Should work. I can’t think of any sentient herbivores back home… Other than the Bovine Tribes.” He admitted.

“That’s right,” I mused. “But they’re quite large…”

I continue to add runes, limiting the Summoning to a creature that will fit in the rather small circle I've drawn.

I add a Limiter, but set the value at a ridiculously high value. Just a formality, really; nobody wants to accidentally summon the god of shrews.

“Alright. It’s ready.” I can feel the runes reaching out to me, such a powerful working already trying to drain me of the magic needed to complete it, but I hold it off for the moment. “Remember, If this blows up, you owe me twelve days of research into better tasting medicine.”

“If this blows up, I doubt you’ll live to see it.”

“You’re on.” I let the runes take ahold of my magic, and actually help them take it, by ramming it down their thirsty, little throats. Even unaided, my eyes can see the reddish flare of light from the diagrams on the floor.

The red light expands to fill the circle, and builds upwards in a sphere.

The sphere distorts, as if a string at a great distance tugged at it.

Oh, shit.

I turn and dive through the doorway of the jail cell, and the world is replaced with a bright white light.

---

Rainbow Dash

I was having such a nice nap. I was dreaming of flying, trying out a new trick I read about in a magazine.

Then there was this sort of acceleration, as if something ran-into me mid-flight. It was odd but it didn't hurt.

I looked down to see the culprit.

“Derpy! You ran into me!”

She untangled herself and we stabilized our respective flights. “Sorry Rainbow Dash, I didn't see you there.”

I just shrugged, and went back to trying out that trick. I almost had it right…

And then I woke up.

Waking up in a strange place is not new to me; living a life of pranks tends to result in ending up on the other end of them more often than one might like.

Waking up in the epicenter of a crater, unscathed, is a new one though.

“Pinkie? How’d you get me out of my house?”

The walls were even emitting little wisps of smoke, now that’s attention to detail. Wait, walls? Where am I exactly?

That’s when I noticed the bars.

One wall is dominated primarily by floor to ceiling bars of iron that were bent at awkward angles. Beyond them, I can see two blackened forms on the floor. It looked sort of like a jail cell, but the door had been torn off its hinges.

I got up and trotted out of the cell. The two forms smelled terrible, like burned flesh. “Great attention to detail, Pinkie…” I muttered.

I was in a hallway of some sort. Not entirely sure how I got here, but it’s not like I can get more lost, right?

I was about to head right, when I heard the sound of somepony descending the stairs.

“Hey, is that you Pinkie Pie?”

Two somethings turned the corner, wearing some kind of armor and carrying a net. Neither of them were Pinkie Pie.

---

Comments

[BronyZandermon]

hwa....? did you just do charector death this early?
... nah that wouldnt happen. Run Dashie!

[Lab]

I add a Limiter, but set the value at a ridiculously high value. Just a formality, really; nobody wants to accidentally summon the god of shrews.

Too true. Worst February I ever had.

[Rayberay]

“How’s a four-legged Herbivore sound?” I ask absently, as I painstakingly carve the runes.

AHHH

NUUUUUUUUU