The smell of blood from the Quake and the Twilight Stalker that this hunt had felled was potent in the air. The trip back to the camp in the early morning sun was peaceful with only the sound of the cart's wheels and Star's claws. Everyone else was silent and watching for any scavenger or predator that would try to take their kill following the scent. Axel worked the trial end of the group, trying to reduce the risk while Aria led the way.
Thankfully, nothing happened, and they arrived at the camp unhindered by a beast that was hungry this morning. After moving the cart with its heavy load off to the side to be cleaned and harvested for meat, core, and materials, they released Star from the harness. Roran led the Storm Drake over to another area to feed and give a good rub down. Lyra also moved over there to start working on the damage from the toxin she had been ingesting since young.
Axel walked over to Jareth, who was tending the breakfast pot as no one had eaten and they left early. As Jareth stirred in vegetables and meat, he looked over to Axel, saying, “I see that your first hunt here was successful.”
“Helps we had an ambush on a lone Quake,” Axel replied with a shrug. While dangerous, this was not a challenging hunt for him. “Following the plan, Sky will harvest, and you get the first core while the meat will be shared.”
“Yes, though I don’t recommend eating anything too much higher than you in potency,” Jareth said while keeping his attention on the stew he was making. “Always see young people trying to take more than their bodies can handle.”
Axel knew what Jareth was talking about as it would be hard to even eat the meat, and the body would take a while to digest, but you would get a higher content of materials, of a higher grade as a beast as they aged or were of a greater potency’s body would change the components to stronger types of materials.
“After breakfast, Aria and I will keep scouting,” Axel continued while looking at the novice cores that were cooking in a pan in the fire, likely from the Gir that were hunted yesterday. The meal seemed to be approaching completion, so he just sat down without saying anything else.
Sky wandered out of her tent only to see Aria and drag her off to what looked like an improvised stone forge where Sky then forced Aria to be the fire and bellows while working on several skins, removing scales from the leather hides. The heat solidified the metal in the scales Sky was working on while Sky put the hides to the side to be worked on with oils later.
Pearl and Larimar were conversing about something as they made a patrol around the perimeter. Until the kills were handled, there would be the threat of a beast looking for food. Depending on the beast, the twins would be an early warning or adding another beast to be harvested.
“Food is done,” Jareth called out while ladling out breakfast into bowls and handing it to people as they arrived.
Axel received his bowl, a Gir core, and some bread, then went to sit on the back of the wagon to eat. As Axel ate, he pulled up his health data, seeing minerals and other needed materials being added to his body. Most people focused on meat from beasts to help in their building phase of a cycle, but the Goddess gave gifts to everything, including the plants on the land, though they had less noticeable benefits.
After eating his meal, Lyra came over to get his help with Star’s treatment. Since he had agreed before, Axel cleaned his bowl and followed her over to what was becoming Star's area off to the side of the camp. Aria and Sky were already there looking over Star while waiting for Lyra to drag Axel over to help.
“So all any of you need to do is stay behind me, and when I hold out my hand, hold it so that I can use your energy for the cleansing,” Lyra instructed. “Please release my hand when you get down to about half your storage as we are still in the wilds and don’t want to leave anyone too weakened.”
“Is there anything else we can do to help?” Axel asked while checking his energy levels and shutting down the powers he could that were taking up his power pool, like regeneration, to have more energy to give.
“Nothing really,” Lyra shook her head in the negative. “The only ones with jobs after will be Roran to keep Star calm and Pearl to clean Star off.”
“Aria didn’t know that Pearl was helping with this,” Aria looked around, but Pearl was not there. “Why is she not here to help with energy?”
“Neither Pearl, Larimar, nor Jareth are contributing energy as they are the camp's protection, and it would not be responsible to ask them to do that,” Lyra said while placing a hand on Star’s foreleg and starting to concentrate. “She will just be helping clean up the mess that will be about to happen.”
Roran stayed silent while holding Star's attention, but Axel could tell that he was paying a lot of attention to everything said. Axel disagreed with Lyra’s opinion on this, but it was her choice as the healer, as an Adept would have a much deeper pool that regenerated much quicker. After a bit of silence, Lyra held out her hand while keeping her eyes closed.
Sky stepped forward first and put a manipulator in her hand, and Axel could feel the power leave Sky into Lyra and then Star in a steady stream. This lasted for about fifteen minutes when Sky released her manipulator and wobbled away. Axel could tell that she had given way more than fifty percent of her core power by the weak way she moved away from Lyra. Axel could feel Sky trying to connect with him, but nothing came through as she sagged on the ground in exhaustion.
Aria started to walk forward but looked Axel in the eye before then placing her hand into Lyra’s hand. Axel could tell by that look that he would need to hold off their scouting until after lunch as she was going to also drain herself into this. Axel could only sigh as his friends and loved ones were way too sacrificing, but that was one of their best traits in his opinion.
Time flew by, and another fifteen minutes passed. Then Aria’s hand was released, and she resisted wobbling, but Lyra was frowning with her eyes closed. Knowing her, she realized what Aria and Sky had done but did not have the time to reprimand them now. Axel moved in and took the still outstretched hand, but as he closed, a putrid scent was starting to come from Star, and Axel could see a black tar-like substance sweating out of her body.
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As Axel closed his hand in Lyra’s, he began to feel a pull on his core, her hand gripping his tightly. Then a prompt appeared in Axel’s vision:
Access to power reserves requested. Give access Y/N?
Access Granted
Then Axel saw a notification appear and accepted it right away. He could feel his energy flow out of his core, up his arm, and through his hand. It was the strangest sensation he had ever felt—almost like when his arm had fallen asleep and was tingly, but this tingle flowed from his core to Lyra. As Axel watched his core power flow out, he decided to follow the two others and give more than half, as he could tell that Lyra was struggling to cleanse the massive Storm Drake due to its sheer size.
As his core slowly drained, Axel noticed that Larimar had wandered over and was quietly talking to Aria in a whisper too low for him to hear. Axel watched for a moment but then turned his attention to Roran, who was speaking quietly to Star and stroking her snout. When Axel’s core was down to about fifteen percent, a hand touched his shoulder. Larimar was standing there. She put one finger in front of her lips and had Axel remove his hand from Lyra, only to place hers there.
Lyra jerked in surprise but kept her eyes closed in concentration as the flow of energy going into her stayed the same. Axel could tell that Larimar was sending about the same amount of energy as him, but he sensed that her pool was much deeper than he expected. This meant that she had taken the physical power to expand her storage and generation at some point in her path.
Time kept flowing with no one talking, and more than an hour later, Lyra removed her hand from Larimar’s and collapsed onto her butt. The rancid smell was so intense that Aria moved upwind and still looked like she was trying not to throw up. Axel felt queasy from the smell as well. Peal summoned water and started to wash off Star. After a thorough wash, Peal held the tainted water in the air, froze it, and then took it elsewhere to dispose of it.
Sky, having recovered from being drained, chased after the frozen chunk to bury it. Axel looked over to Larimar, who was only slightly pale, and walked over to her as Aria moved to Lyra.
“Thanks for your help,” Axel said, keeping an eye on a relaxed-looking Star. “I did not expect your help on this.”
“Well, after I asked Aria what was happening and why it smelled so bad, I had to help,” Larimar replied while stretching. “I don’t know why none of you asked me or Pearl to help with this.”
“I thought Lyra did ask,” Axel said, thinking about what Lyra had said before starting. “Well, thanks for helping, as this would likely have taken a lot more effort without your help.”
“It’s fine,” Larimar shook her head. “I am only down about a third of my energy right now anyway. There is nothing much to worry about.”
At this time, Lyra came over and bowed deeply to Larimar before saying, “I didn’t want to risk the camp for something that I thought could be done in chunks, but you saved me there.”
“What do you mean?” Axel asked Lyra, finding her statement odd.
“That toxin was much worse than I originally expected, and there seemed to be a power mixed in that activated it when I started to remove it,” Lyra explained. “It started to go wrong right after Sky began giving me energy, but it was taking everything I had to purge it.”
“We need to work on communication,” Aria said. “Aria thought something was off, but she didn’t want to ruin Lyra’s concentration.”
“Aria motioned me over when you started to give energy and explained that something was wrong. She asked me to help with my energy,” Larimar added, stretching. “Glad I could help, but I need to move around as I feel stiff.”
After Larimar left to join Pearl and Sky with the ball of ice, Lyra sat on the ground, looking listless before turning to Axel with tired eyes.
“Who in the crimson goes to this extreme on a Storm Drake?” Lyra asked the air.
“I know of five powers on the proscribed powers list that could act like that, each at least in the Adept tier, but this seems odd,” Axel agreed with Lyra. “Roran, how is Star?”
“She seems better than I have ever seen her,” Roran called back. “I think there is still a lot of work to help her recover from what I know of her kind, but she seems to not be in pain as she has relaxed.”
“We will work on that tomorrow,” Lyra said, slowly regaining her color. “I am completely tapped both mentally and physically.”
Roran nodded and began to feed Star from a storage bag while listening to the conversation. Axel looked at Lyra, unsure how to restart the conversation. Aria seemed to notice his struggle and asked Lyra, “Is there any way to figure out who did this?”
“Not definitely, but if we find someone with the ability to manipulate poisons and toxins, they would be a prime suspect. However, this was done so long ago that this person could be an Expert by now,” Lyra explained.
“Well, my uncle likely has some involvement, but I don’t think we will be able to do anything to him as he just passed the Master tier last year,” Roran said with a sad sigh.
“That will have to be a problem for the future,” Aria said, patting Roran on the shoulder. “All we can do is fix Star's problems and grow stronger.”
“On that note, Aria, we need to get to the hunt soon so that we can get the cores needed for our growth, along with finding more prey for the Adepts,” Axel said, stretching and beginning to move. “Roran, I know you want to help with these hunts, but the best thing you can do is help Star recover. She is in no shape to help after that cleansing.”
“I know,” Roran replied with slumped shoulders.
“For now, can you help Lyra and Sky with our other tasks?” Aria asked him.
“That would be great, as that Quake, even with Jareth's help, will take hours to clean properly without losing the potency of the meat or core,” Axel said before leaving the area and heading to Jareth.
Axel could hear Aria talking more to Roran, but there was nothing else he could think of to help with that situation, so he figured it was best to let Aria handle it. After a quick walk, Axel found Jareth at the Quake, arms deep into the body and pulling out a core that filled the palm of his hand. Jareth then placed the core in a cold box to slow down the loss of potency.
“Should I ask about the smell and what you all were doing with the Storm Drake?” Jareth asked as the blood on his arms removed itself and landed in a small pit nearby.
“Lyra found that someone had been poisoning Star and asked us to help with the removal of it,” Axel explained while looking at the massive Beast.
“Oh?” Jareth said, checking for blood stains on his clothing. “She can share energy? How rare for a Blessed Healer to have that skill.”
“We don’t like to advertise that, so please don’t spread it,” Axel asked, realizing that sharing energy was not the standard ability of a Blessed Healer and that Lyra likely gained this from the Goddess.
“Hahaha,” Jareth laughed after finishing his check. “Don’t worry about it, and I will ask my nieces not to share it either.”
“Thanks!” Axel then changed the topic. “Aria and I will be doing more scouting to see if we can find more novice beasts for their cores.”
“Well, take it easy, and I would recommend just scouting,” Jareth nodded toward the jungle. “This area has a lot of Adept beasts and could also draw in strong predator beasts.”
“I know but if I want to get to a point where I am not always worried about being taken out I need to get stronger.” Axel nodded but knew that some risks, even if they were small right now, needed to be taken on any path to power. Axel then gathered some trail food before gathering Aria and heading out into the jungle to get to work.
