Hope at last

Hope nebud hope of saving MUSA won't end in hopelessness sha...............ghost mode deactivated

Christian1ioi:
Very legit

If you don't GTFOH...

Interesting...

Musa can't die na I feel for Nebud
glad the story made FP

FP yo!!!!!!

sanyaonbudie195:

TF is wrong with you...

Lovely!!! Now Nebud must choose between saving Musa or having his revenge immediately.... Seems he has already made his choice....

Thanks for the update so nehud is not going to explore the other trail abi

@phoenixchap Yes, I hope Nebud is able to restore Musa too

@spixytinxy at last...hopefully it lasts...

@Boludammie welcome to the comments section, I hope it wouldn't end hopelessly too

@CasNova thank you, glad you're enjoying it

@Omittesb Can't it...well, I guess we will see

@cassbeat yes yo!!!

@Smooth278 Thank you, lol, you're right Nebud seems to have made its choice already

@ayshow6102 hahaha, you still remember that trail? Well, I guess there are more pressing things on its mind now

Part 6
--------

I felt a hollowness which I could not describe. It was as if someone had stolen something vital from me, an important lifeforce which I could not name, but felt its loss. There is an animation that accompanies life, a special rhythm associated with the pumping of the heart. As I took my first step into Nefastu, I felt this animation leave me. I was alive, each part of me working as it ought, yet there was something off, something vital which I could not quite name. It was as if I had lost this piece of me simply by stepping into the cursed road. It was an oddly chilling premonition.

I pulled the heated cloak tighter around the portion of the imp left in my arms, as I continued along, trudging on. The hail here was uncouth. I did not realize till that moment what it truly meant to be subjected to the pelting of uncouth hail. The hard globs of hail fell on me as I walked. I could only liken the feeling to being subjected to a stoning. These hail stones were much smaller and thus their stings milder, but accumulated, the continuous fall was more than bothersome. I forged ahead, grateful for the thick coat I wore. The coat did not cover my ailerons and my head, but it did much for the rest of my body.

Each step I took seemed more arduous on the hail covered grounds. Luckily the footwear I wore was made for canvassing weather such as this. I took a few more steps deeper into the road and found myself suddenly blinded. Red stained my vision. For as far as I could see, there was nothing but unending swirls of fast-spinning red fog. I forged ahead, stubbornly moving through lands I could not see, as my mind reminded me that each moment was one I could not waste. I did not know how much longer Musa had before it was fully sapped.

The further along I walked, the more aware I became of the cold. It was like nothing I could have imagined. I scolded myself then for not buying the headguard I had seen at the coat shop. I had only thought of how foolish I would look wearing such. Now, with my ears stinging from a pain I could only attribute to the chill, I wished that I had been smarter. My mind chose that moment to remind me of uspecs who had frozen to death in mejo ports. I shivered, the chill from my face spreading down into the parts of me that were clothed.

The swirling fog did not fade. It continued as it was, blinding me to my surroundings. I could be walking in the middle of a war zone and not know it. A particularly large piece of hail fell on my scalp and then rolled off me. My shivers increased.

The heated cloak filled my arms with a pleasing warmth. At least, I thought, Musa would not have to suffer the same chill I did.

“Live.” I whispered with chattering teeth to the imp in my arms. “Please live.”

I was starting to lose feeling in my ears. I tried to move them, wondering then if I had ever been able to move my ears. How much I had taken these ears for granted. I lifted the cloak, and the imp wrapped in it, to my head. Then I took turns placing the bundle by each ear. I tried unsuccessfully to remember what the cloak seller had said about keeping the cloak heated. A few more seconds and I could feel my ears again. I brought my arms down.

Still, the fog surrounded me, preventing me from seeing the path. I wondered how far along Nefastu the detour route was, and how I would know it when I reached it. If I continued along the straight path, I would be led to the isle of shuns.

A blast of fog drifted past me.

I had never felt anything like it. It was as if the fog carried hail in it, travelling faster than I had ever seen fog drift. It moved so fast that my heavy cloak flapped. My shivers doubled after the fast fog left. There was one benefit to that fog though, it seemed to have chased away the swirling fog around me. The path in front of me was clearer now. There was still patches of red fog and falling hail to blind my vision, but I had enough clarity to see that I was not surrounded by uspecs in the throes of war.

I kept going. As I moved, I jerked my head, moving my gaze about for signs of a road that led off this path. I don’t know what I expected, but whatever it was, I did not find it.

I registered a lighter weight in my arm. Surely the sapping could not have happened fast enough for Musa’s weight to change so drastically in so little time. I felt fear. Frowning, I realized that my emotions were not as they had been outside Nefastu. The panic I had felt over Musa’s state had greatly reduced. My anxiety was lower. There was something unsettling about the change in my emotions. I could not quite put my finger on it, but I knew that something had happened to it.

Curiously, I reached for the lifeforce in my pain and felt no reply. No, I shook my head as I pondered on the feeling. It was not a lack of reply, it felt more like a block in the reply. This was not similar to the equipoise where the magic had simply gone away. Here I still felt its presence, but it was as if there was something blocking it, something keeping me from reaching it. This realization sent tingles across my skin, an odd addition to the cold which already coursed through me. I would need to warm my ears soon.

I tried not to focus on things that were troubling.

I walked for the rest of the day. Although the fogs and hail made it hard to see the exact coloring of the lighting, I could tell when the orange light of day gave way to the red of night. The orange had made itself known in the slight tinting of the fogs. Now, the redness of the fogs felt deepened. I ignored the change in timing, forging ahead on my path. I did not have time to stop and rest.

As the peak of the night approached and the red of the fogs deepened, it became impossible to see through the path. It was at this point that I knew I had to find a shelter for the night. But where?

I cannot say how much further I walked before I found a hail structure. It stood out because it was covered in white, the sole un-red thing in a crimson landscape. When I got closer to this structure, I realized that it was nothing but a tree, a tree which was covered in hail. I recalled reading something about hail trees then. I read somewhere that they were the tallest trees in the existence, and that the fruits from them were the sweetest.

I placed Musa on the ground, and sat by it, underneath branches so far up that I could not see them. I leaned my back against the stem of the tree, pulling my coat tighter around me. I do not know what I had expected from a hail tree, but it was certainly not heat. In that regard, the tree did not disappoint me. It was as miserably cold as everything else on this cursed road. I closed my eyes, but after moments of shivering, with hard hail falling on me, chilled fogs drifting by me, and a hail tree stealing my warmth, it became obvious that I could not sleep. It took several more minutes of teeth-chattering shaking for me to come to the conclusion that this amount of cold was in fact lethal. At least walking I generated heat myself. Sitting on a bed of hail with hail behind me, all I felt was cold.

I picked Musa up and continued walking. The further away I got from the white hail tree, the more impossible it became to see anything. If I had to guess, I would say that we were in the latest hours of night. The red was deeper than it had been before. I saw nothing. I found it odd that there could be so much red that I could not even see the green of my skin, or the black of the cloaks around us. I clung to Musa’s weight in my arms, visions flashing in my head of what the sapped imp had looked like the last time I’d seen it. I could not help but recall what remained of its arm. It had been nothing more than a stump at the elbow. There was nothing left of the face that I had grown so used to seeing, nothing of the legs that had supported the imp for so long.

A stunted sadness rose in me. It was sorrow, but it was not. Again, I realized how strange the emotions I felt were. I registered sorrow, and for moments I could feel it, but it never lasted. It was as if a fog drifted within me, carrying my emotions with it.

I walked through roads I could not see, but I had reason to be grateful for the smooth terrain. I did not trip over rocks, or walk into trees or shrubs. There did not seem to be any other sign of life on this road, just me and my imp. The more I walked the higher the chances that I was approaching the bend in the road. It was a bend which would have been difficult to see when the orange dots provided some contrast during the day. Now at night, surrounded by nothing but red, that road would be impossible to see. I knew that I could miss it, but I had no choice, I had to walk. Staying still was not an option.

It took me a while to realize that the terrain I walked on had changed. The previously smooth hail filled floor was now covered with mixtures of sharp hail and hard rocks. I found myself tripping, more than once, on things that I could only describe as tree roots. Not a hail tree, not without the white hue. I slowed down, growing more careful with my steps.

When at long last night shifted to day and slight orange hues began to tint the red fogs, I caught glimpses of the trees that I had guessed at. They were short trees, with varying colored stems. I saw purple vegetation around some of the trees. There was a modest blue stemmed tree with thick bark and large fronds on its branches. It was a parasol tree. It bore no fruit, but it was so named for the fronds that grew off it. There were mejo slums were houses were erected underneath the shade of parasol trees. When fully grown, the frond branches would touch the grounds, completely protecting a perimeter around the stem of the tree. I remembered reading about the herbs that grew around parasol trees.

The parasol tree I saw was not fully grown, but it was mature enough that some of its fronds had started to curve downwards. The fronds above seemed to protect the area around the base from the hail, because there was a patch of rocky sludge ground underneath it. There was no hail on this sludge.

I heaved a sigh of relief when I walked underneath the parasol tree and found that its bent fronds kept a large amount of chilled drifting fogs away. It was with gratitude to the tree, that I sunk down by its base, exhausted. I carried Musa in my arms, glad for the warmth of the coat. The spot underneath the tree was far from being warm, but it was a great deal better than anywhere else on this road.

It was not until I sat, my mind freed from the worries of a frosty death, that I allowed my body to feel the strain of walking throughout the night. I noted then the aches in my feet and soreness in my limbs. My stomach rumbled for food and my dry throat pleaded for drink. Food I could give, drink I could not. How had I not thought to pack okun? I did not know that a place existed in the spectral existence where there was not okun. Okun was everywhere, or so I had thought. I could see no okun around me now.

What I did see though, was beautiful.

The vegetation clung to the sides of the road. I could not see those further away, but there were shrubs close to me, purple and yellow stems twinning, with pink fruits budding from them. Green fought with red along some leaves. I thought, if I focused really hard on them, I could recall what these herbs were. My mind darted to the food I had thought to pack as my growling stomach pleaded its necessity. My hands had thoughts of their own though, and at that moment, they were too tired to move to my belt. Food would have to wait then, I thought as my weary eyes began to close.

I could not say what exactly it was that woke me. A feeling perhaps, I could not say with any certainty. But I woke with a start. My eyes searched around me, and my body prepared for danger. I pulled Musa closer to me.

I heard the growl first.

Then there was a howl, a loud guttural sound, followed by answering howls. I pulled Musa closer with my left arm, and reached for the hilt of my cutlass with my right. I stood slowly, careful not to drop the imp.

I had just risen to my feet when I saw the first one. It was the black eyes I noticed first. The black eyes stood out, like two glaring signs, in a mist of red. Two more black eyes appeared beside the first, and then two more. Before long, I was staring at, at least, ten pairs of eyes. The one that appeared first was directly in my line of sight. It moved forward first. The others moved behind it.

As the creature emerged from the fogs, its porcelain body became visible. I’d read somewhere that these animals looked like they’d been molded out of hail. I’d found it ludicrous at the time, but now, staring at them, I could understand why. I realized, with a rising feeling of dread, that I had stumbled onto a pack of snow jackals. Or rather, they had stumbled onto me.

I kept my hand on the hilt of my cutlass.

The one in the middle, which I assumed was the leader, growled at me. It kept coming closer, one giant paw after the other, until it stood so close that I could smell it. It was a large animal. Standing on both legs, the top of its pointed white ears reached just below my waist. The others were not as big as the one in front. Those black eyes continued to stare into mine.

Then, suddenly, the jackal leaned back on its hindlegs, raising its front legs up. Those clawed paws reached for the bundle in my arm, swiping down hard, almost pulling Musa from my grasp. Instead, the jackal returned with bits of my heavy cloak. It growled, revealing its canines for the first time, as it reached again for the imp. I remembered then what snow jackals were most known for. They were hunters, and their meat of choice was imp flesh. It was for this reason that many mejo nobles kept snow jackals as pets. It was said that the creatures were loyal to uspecs to a fault. A hungry jackal would eat its own leg before it attacked an uspec. But they craved nothing more than imp flesh.

This jackal appeared to be the exception. While it did not seem interested in feasting on me, it did not seem to mind tearing through me, if it could reach the reward of the imp wrapped in my cloak.

I pulled out my cutlass and plunged it into the jackal’s chest. The jackal skin was so like porcelain that I almost expected it to shatter, like fine glass upon impact with a hard surface. The jackal proved to be a living thing then, because it bled. It fell back, its mouth hanging open as it died.

There was a rabidity in these jackals which I had not previously noticed. They were wild snow jackals. I could sense it now, as they approached, all nine of the fearsome beasts running towards me. If the domesticated snow jackals did not eat uspec flesh, I had a dreadful feeling that these rabid ones did.

I felt for my pain, and the magic of the okun that came with it. I felt around and I felt the magic. I could feel the power in me, but again, I felt a disconnect, a difficulty in reaching it. It could be reached, I knew that, but as the animals attacked, I also knew that I did not have the time. I swiped with my cutlass, determined to take as many of them down as I could. Several stood on hindlegs, swiping with their paws at Musa’s sapped form. I tried to cut those first. It did not take long for the swiping paws to shred parts of my coat. I felt the paws sinking into my flesh as I continued to swipe at the animals. I did not know how many I had killed. Who would have known that these creatures would be so hard to kill?

I felt the sharp pain of fangs sinking into my flesh. The bite was at my back. I sent my cutlass behind me, before the jackal could tear out a piece of my flesh. That action left me open for more attacks from the jackals in the front. I continued to fight, swinging my cutlass at the creatures. A dying jackal bit into my thigh before it succumbed to the wound I’d inflicted.

There were four of them left. They did not seem to register the deaths of the rest of their pack. Their sole focus remained on reaching the imp meat in my arms. And so I continued to fight, even though I felt the blood dripping from the scratches and bites.

The sound of a trumpet filled the air.

The jackals froze.

I saw a figure in the fog, a red mirage that seemed to have been born from the fog itself. It trumpeted as it approached. The jackals backed away. A long red trunk came tearing out of the drifting fogs. The jackals howled, then they ran away, leaving in the face of a bigger threat. I only had a second to worry about the snow jackals’ bites and how infectious they were, before the rest of the animal appeared.

I realized then why the snow jackals had left.

It was a smoke bear. I had never seen anything like it. The bear walked in on two legs, its trunk swinging in front of it, and its curved tusks pointing outwards. It stopped in front of me, dropping to all fours. I felt the ground tremble. The bear’s eyes were a light shade of green. Those green eyes studied me.

I kept the hilt of my cutlass in my hand as I continued to observe. I did not know much about smoke bears. All I knew about them was that they followed fog. They were common where fog was. I also knew that some crazy uspecs chose to ride them.

The bear turned around and headed towards the vegetation.

I let out a breath I hadn’t realized I’d been holding. I didn’t let my guard down until the bear disappeared, hidden behind shrubs and drifting fog. Without the heat of battle to warm me, I felt the effects of the snow jackals’ attack. The ground around me was filled with blood and the bodies of white creatures. I looked down at myself. My previously thick cloak was shredded in several parts. The grey of the coat was stained with red in the places that the jackals bit me.

The trumpet.

I jumped, the bear’s sudden appearance catching me by surprise. The red creature continued to walk towards me. It did not stop until it was beside me, and then it sat.

I stared at it.

Green eyes met mine.

I placed my cutlass back into my sheath and approached the bear cautiously. It did not move. Not even when I drew out my arm, and ran my hand over its skin. It allowed me to pet it. Then its trunk rose and for a second I feared it meant to pierce me with its tusks. All it did was let out a mellow trumpet sound through its trunk. I interpreted that sound as meaning the animal was pleased.

I sat beside it, mindful of my wounds. For a creature who’d been around so much snow, the bear was surprisingly warm. It gave off more heat than the heated cloak I’d bought. I found myself falling asleep by its side.

“Do you think it’s alive pater?” I felt a push on my leg.

“Of course it’s alive. Can’t you feel its pulse?”

My eyes were slow to open. I tried to rise but found myself chained to a tree behind me. Where was I? The last thing I remembered was falling asleep next to the bear, with Musa in my lap.

Musa.

The imp was not on me.

I opened my eyes with a start then.

One thing was clear, it was no longer day. How long had I been asleep for? I felt a burning sensation in my back and on my thigh. It did not take me long to remember that I had been bitten in those places. Had the bites truly been infectious then? I felt a chill around me.

Again I tried to rise, and again I was stopped by the manacles. My wrists had been tied to my ankles, a very uncomfortable form of restraint.

“It is awake pater!”

I looked around. Luckily my outer eyes could take in more of the scene than my center one. I noticed that I was in some sort of living area. No, I shook my head, registering the blue fronds of parasol trees. I counted at least three stems that my eyes could see. There was a cart too, not too far off from where my manacles were tied to a tree. Over ten imps sat frozen in that cart. They too appeared to be tied. I looked around trying to find my imp, but no matter how much I searched, I could not locate it.

A twisted fear filled me. It was fear, but it was somehow changed and less than what I truly felt.

The sounds of howling drew my attention back to the cart. Three snow jackals walked in through the bended fronds of the parasol tree. They had collars on their necks, collars which were attached to leashes. An uspec held those leashes.

One glance at it told me that it was shunned. It had a single imp eye on the outer perimeter of its face. The uspec’s face was filled with ugly scars. Knife scars, I guessed. Its eyes met mine.

“Welcome back noble.” Its voice was filled with emotions I could not place. I sensed anger, probably hatred too. It approached me, bringing the snow jackals with it. When it bent to a squat in front of me, I became aware of the fact that my belt was missing from my waist. Not that I could reach the weapons in my current state, but I still felt their loss.

“Hope you have a line that will pay for you. A hundred pieces of merit, we’ll be asking.” The uspec said. Its words alone told me that it was a fool. If it was smart, it would have searched my belt and found that in a single pouch, I had much more than it was asking for. “Till they pay, you’ll be our guest. If you don’t give us any trouble, we won’t give you none either, noble.”

masterpiece

ObehiD your truly amazing.
I know Nebud would met a friend there, who would help it

Thanks for the update obehid I thought we were having a snow bear as a frosted beast though

A shun holding Nebud captive. Marcinus comes to mind .Great work Obehid

Hmm what will now happen to musa?

still, masterly presented. Well done ObeHiD

@Omittesb Thank you, I'm glad you enjoyed it! Will it meet a friend...I guess we'll see

@ayshow6102 Thank you for reading, not a snow bear frosted beast, but maybe another

@Madosky112 I like the way you're thinking, but are you right?

@cassbeat what indeed

@HotB thank you I'm glad you enjoyed it!

Part 7
-------

I still could not find Musa. I’d scoured through every inch of the land and there was no trace of my imp. The only imps here, were the ones in the cart. The three leashed jackals growled at the imps. They yapped with glaring canines at the cart, thrashing so forcefully that the shunned uspecs had hit them in the head a few times, just to shut them up.

The younger of the uspecs approached me. It, like its progenitor, had only one imp eye on its face. It was this uspec who had changed my position. Now, I sat more comfortably, with my hands bound by the manacles behind me. But my legs were free. That was an improvement on the chaining that I had awoken to.

The uspecs were soarus. I tried not to think of how the short tentacle stubs reminded me of longer and greater tentacles. Each time I thought of soaru, my mind darted to Katsoaru and the imperial who had called me friend. Now that imperial’s center eye was on my face, and it was shun, just like this one.

“Will you not tell me your name, noble?” the uspec asked. “If you tell me your name, pater will share the meat that it brings back from its hunt.”

The uspec stared hopefully at me. It wanted my name so that it could reach out to my line and ransom me. Fools. I continued to ignore the uspec, choosing instead to search for my imp. It sighed heavily. “The meat pater hunts is juicy…” it broke off and started mumbling, “how do I say juicy in the kute tongue?”

“Hungry?” it managed to say the single word in the kute tongue. Its progenitor was slightly more adept at speaking kute, but neither of them could form a complete sentence. I saw no need to make them aware of the fact that I could speak their tongue better than they could. My silence bought me time to search for my imp and formulate a way out of my chains.

I pulled at the chains then, feeling their restriction as the metal grated against my skin. The pain in my wrist served to remind me of those all around my body. I felt the wounds from the jackals’ scratches and their bites. Although the bite sites burned and stung, they did not bear undue discomfort. I just needed to figure out a way out of these manacles. I thought the uspecs were dumb enough to be tricked into releasing me, but if I attempted and I was wrong, I would be forgoing my biggest advantage, which was the fact that they did not know that I could speak their tongue.

A loud whistle sounded in the air. This sound was followed by the separation of fronds dangling from the parasol tree. Chilled fogs drifted in through the opening in the fronds. I shivered a little. The older uspec entered, letting the fronds fall back into place. I did not know where I was on the cursed road, but wherever it was, it was an area where the parasol trees were mature. The fronds had grown low enough to sweep the floor. It provided covering from the fogs and the pelting of the uncouth hail.

There was a light source on the furthest end of the secluded area, by the carts with the imps in it. That light source was the rarest I had ever seen, it was a crimson inferno, trapped in what looked like transparent metal. Whenever the inferno was burning low, the younger uspec would feed it with uncouth hail, and that hail would grow the inferno.

The older uspec dropped a creature onto the sludge ground. I could tell from the horns on its head that it was a kare. The sight of it reminded me of the hounds that I had killed using lit okun in Katsoaru. Those hounds and their cages. The memory took me back again to Katsoaru and the imperial one that had come to save me from the swan body I was trapped in.

The younger uspec stood up. It walked eagerly to the meat that its progenitor brought. Both uspecs conversed in hushed tones. The older one jerked its head at me, the younger looked at me, then back at its progenitor, before shaking its head. The older one glared at me, but it said nothing.

Both sat on the sludge ground on opposite sides of the dead hound. The older uspec cut off a chunk of the hound’s flesh with a dagger, and gave it to the young. Bile rose up my throat as I watched the younger uspec eat the raw meat. Blood trailed down the sides of its mouth as it bit into the meat, tearing off a smaller bite, which it then chewed and swallowed.

I looked away.

Something about the cart drew my attention.

The imps seated in it sat still. It was the first thing I’d noticed when I came in here. The stillness in their form was unsettling. It was as if they were afraid to move, as if any sudden movement could mean their death. But what would the imps have to fear that much? The cart appeared to be made out of wood. It was walled in on all sides with bars of wood. There was no lock, no door to unload the imps. The wooden bars would have to be broken for the imps to be released. That seemed like a particularly foolish design.

A shadow caught my attention.

I frowned, squinting my eyes at the imp’s feet. The shadow did not reappear. My gaze turned from the spot on the wooden floor where I had seen the shadow, to the imp standing by it. The imp was dressed in a rather fine green tunic. It had long hair which fell in braided locks down its back. The imp’s empty eye sockets turned to me. We stared at each other for a long time, before finally, the shadow reappeared.

Only this time, it stayed long enough for me to see that it was not a shadow.

It was samu, kin to the creature that had stolen my imp from me. Now I understood why the imps sat so still.

The clearing of a throat pulled my attention from the cart, back to the uspecs feasting on raw animal carcass. It appeared that they had concluded their feast, because the younger uspec dragged the remainder of the hound over to the jackals. Those rabid beasts thrust their bloodthirsty canines into what was left of the hound.

The older uspec approached me, wiping the blood off its face with the sleeve of its jacket.

I froze.

Slowly, my eyes went back to that jacket. I noted the rich black coloring, and examined the way it fell around the uspec’s body. Its skinny arms swam in the much larger arms of the jacket, and the bottom of the coat swept across the sludge ground. It was obvious that the jacket had been made for a much taller and bulkier uspec.

It had been made for me.

This was my jacket that the uspec wore. It was my heated jacket, the one that I had wrapped around my imp. There was something so unbelievably final about seeing the uspec wearing that jacket. My gaze darted to the jackals and my mind rushed to fill in the details. How had the uspecs found us? Probably the same way the pack of jackals had. Their jackals had been following the smell of imp flesh. Now my jacket, the jacket that I had wrapped around my imp to ward off the chill, was on the back of another, and my imp was nowhere to be found.

A mixture of fear and anger darted through me. The emotions were so strong that they broke through the block that I had felt since I walked into the cursed road. I felt that animation which had been missing since I stepped into Nefastu, I felt myself brimming with the power I’d drained from the pious ones in the room-vault. For the first time since I came onto this cursed road, I felt alive.

Swirling fog formed in the air in front of me. That fog surrounded the uspec wearing the coat I had cradled my imp in.

“No!” the shunned uspec cried.

“Pater?” The younger uspec ran towards me.

The older uspec was dead before the younger one arrived, killed by the magic in the fogs, the magic of the boga eyes, magic that I had wielded. I barely had enough time to enjoy it, before I found myself howling with pain. My thigh was on fire. It took me a while to realize that the jackal bite was the source of the burning pain I’d felt. My mind cleared of the haze of emotions, long enough for me to see the younger uspec shaking in front of me.

My eyes rose from the dagger it had stabbed into my flesh, to the uspec itself. The uspec stared at me with eyes filled with hate. One glance at the dead body of its progenitor was enough to tell me why it was so angry. It took longer for me to realize what it planned to do with its anger.

The uspec ran away from me.

I frowned.

The uspec ran to the cart. I heard the familiar sound of a sword being pulled out of its sheath, just before I saw the uspec running back towards me, armed with my own cutlass.

I tried to move my left thigh, but the slightest twitch led to a burst of pain. The uspec ran towards me like a maddened thing. I heard the howling of jackals as I tried to put all of my weight onto my right leg. Somehow, I managed to push myself to my feet. A mixture of red and blue liquid seeped out of the wound in my thigh. How clever of the uspec to stab me right were the jackals had bitten me. I had not thought the uspec was that smart.

It reached me then. It swung my cutlass wildly. I ducked, hopping on one foot as I managed to evade the blade.

“Wait!” I screamed in soaru.

In its rage, the uspec did not even seem to register my use of its tongue. It took another wild swing at me. This one I managed to duck, but just barely. The sharp end of the blade chipped away at the stem just by my throat. My eyes stared at the chipped stem.

“I will pay you in worth!” I screamed. “Ten pieces of worth.”

“Die!” the uspec yelled back at me. “Die! Die! Die!” It swung at me again, sending the cutlass on another wild arch. I did not know how many more blows I could dodge. The uspec was inept with the sword, but even the ineptest uspec could hit a chained target.

Trumpets blared.

In the uspec’s rage, it did not seem to register the loud sound, or the chill that followed as a sleuth of smoke bears burst into our little encampment, ripping down fronds of the parasol trees.

It swung at me again. This swing was lower, aimed at my midsection, I made to move, but my movements, while painful, proved to be pointless. A smoke bear stuck its tusk into the uspec’s back. It lifted the uspec in the air, trumpeting as it stood on its hind legs. Blood flowed from the uspec’s back, onto the tusk of the bear. The uspec let out a pained cry as my cutlass slipped from its hand.

When the bear brought the uspec back to the ground, other bears huddled around it. I watched with a dreadful mix of relief and horror as the bears ripped the uspec apart with their tusks and trunks. Smoke bears are omnivorous, so I was not surprised when none of them tried to eat the uspec. I was surprised by the carnage when the bears stepped back, revealing green limbs scattered about.

There were four of them, four bears, but even that seemed too much for the space.

The bear that had stuck its tusk into the uspec approached me.

Another bear behind it rumbled.

The bear backed away.

I watched as the one that had rumbled came towards me. Its green eyes met mine, and its warmth surrounded me. This was the bear that I had fallen asleep next to, under the parasol tree. I could not say with certainty how I knew, as all the bears appeared much the same. They had the same size tusks, the same length trunks, and the same red fur around their bodies. But there was something in the bear’s eyes, something familiar.

It moved around me.

A calm descended on me. Standing, on its hindlegs, the bear was much taller than I was. On both legs the bear was just a little taller. It was standing on those hindlegs as it walked to the other side of the tree. Every self-preservative instinct nudged at worry. There was a large beast at my back after all, it only made sense that I should fear for my life. I glanced down at the ground, my eyes immediately rivetted on the dead uspec that the one bear had stabbed with its tusk. The bear in question, standing on both legs in front of me, shifted, as if sensing the direction of my thoughts. It threw its head back, sending its trunk in the air as it trumpeted. Answering trumpets sound came from the other smoke bears.

I felt a pull on the chains and jerked. My eyes darted to the back of the tree just in time to catch the large animal’s tusk making a determined path for my hands.

I froze.

The sharp end of the tusk slammed into the connecting link binding the manacles around my hands, and the chain broke. Metal links fell from my hands to the sludge ground.

I was free. The bear had freed me.

I took a step forward and howled.

In the chaos of the arrival of the sleuth, I had forgotten the knife the uspec had jabbed into my wounded thigh. I looked down at it now. Fabric mixed with red and blue on the injury site. I pulled a layer of torn fabric off, to better expose the afflicted area. Even the slight jerk of my skin, caused by moving the fabric, rose a dull pain in me. I ripped the shred of cloth off and threw it onto the ground. Blue and red liquid stained my green skin. I knew what the dark blue drops meant, but I decided not to dwell on that. Instead, I reached for the handle of the dagger, intending to pull it out.

“Stop!”

The voice startled me. I twisted my neck, turning just far enough to make out the face of the imp who’d spoken. I recognized it. It was the same imp that I’d seen the samu crawling around.

I walked to the imp instead. The first step I took was pure torture. My thigh burned as the hard ground exerted pressure onto the sole of my foot. I found that I could not stand on the infected leg. I had to limp instead, shuffling my right leg so that my left was never solely responsible for bearing the entirety of my bulk. It took much longer for me to walk to the other side of the encampment, but when I made it, I was rewarded with the sight of my belt.

Leaning heavily on the wooden rails of the cart, I picked my silver belt up, and strapped it around my waist. My cutlass was missing. It was still on the sludge ground, by the body of the uspec who’d tried to kill me. Three bears surrounded that corpse. The fourth, my bear, stood alone, its eyes trained on me from behind the parasol tree that I’d been tied to.

....ran into issues posting this, so it is continued on page 30, Ignore StLukesLAG's post that's just me trying to post with a different account

Part 7
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I still could not find Musa. I’d scoured through every inch of the land and there was no trace of my imp. The only imps here, were the ones in the cart. The three leashed jackals growled at the imps. They yapped with glaring canines at the cart, thrashing so forcefully that the shunned uspecs had hit them in the head a few times, just to shut them up.

The younger of the uspecs approached me. It, like its progenitor, had only one imp eye on its face. It was this uspec who had changed my position. Now, I sat more comfortably, with my hands bound by the manacles behind me. But my legs were free. That was an improvement on the chaining that I had awoken to.

The uspecs were soarus. I tried not to think of how the short tentacle stubs reminded me of longer and greater tentacles. Each time I thought of soaru, my mind darted to Katsoaru and the imperial who had called me friend. Now that imperial’s center eye was on my face, and it was shun, just like this one.

“Will you not tell me your name, noble?” the uspec asked. “If you tell me your name, pater will share the meat that it brings back from its hunt.”

The uspec stared hopefully at me. It wanted my name so that it could reach out to my line and ransom me. Fools. I continued to ignore the uspec, choosing instead to search for my imp. It sighed heavily. “The meat pater hunts is juicy…” it broke off and started mumbling, “how do I say juicy in the kute tongue?”

“Hungry?” it managed to say the single word in the kute tongue. Its progenitor was slightly more adept at speaking kute, but neither of them could form a complete sentence. I saw no need to make them aware of the fact that I could speak their tongue better than they could. My silence bought me time to search for my imp and formulate a way out of my chains.

I pulled at the chains then, feeling their restriction as the metal grated against my skin. The pain in my wrist served to remind me of those all around my body. I felt the wounds from the jackals’ scratches and their bites. Although the bite sites burned and stung, they did not bear undue discomfort. I just needed to figure out a way out of these manacles. I thought the uspecs were dumb enough to be tricked into releasing me, but if I attempted and I was wrong, I would be forgoing my biggest advantage, which was the fact that they did not know that I could speak their tongue.

I'm having posting issues, so I guess my update will have to wait for another time. I'll reach out to the mods to see what the issue is. Sorry about the inconvenience and I hope you all have a great day!

Part 7
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I still could not find Musa. I’d scoured through every inch of the land and there was no trace of my imp.
WHO ARE YOU PLEASE

StLukesLAG:
Part 7
-------

I still could not find Musa. I’d scoured through every inch of the land and there was no trace of my imp. The only imps here, were the ones in the cart. The three leashed jackals growled at the imps. They yapped with glaring canines at the cart, thrashing so forcefully that the shunned uspecs had hit them in the head a few times, just to shut them up.

The younger of the uspecs approached me. It, like its progenitor, had only one imp eye on its face. It was this uspec who had changed my position. Now, I sat more comfortably, with my hands bound by the manacles behind me. But my legs were free. That was an improvement on the chaining that I had awoken to.

The uspecs were soarus. I tried not to think of how the short tentacle stubs reminded me of longer and greater tentacles. Each time I thought of soaru, my mind darted to Katsoaru and the imperial who had called me friend. Now that imperial’s center eye was on my face, and it was shun, just like this one.

“Will you not tell me your name, noble?” the uspec asked. “If you tell me your name, pater will share the meat that it brings back from its hunt.”

The uspec stared hopefully at me. It wanted my name so that it could reach out to my line and ransom me. Fools. I continued to ignore the uspec, choosing instead to search for my imp. It sighed heavily. “The meat pater hunts is juicy…” it broke off and started mumbling, “how do I say juicy in the kute tongue?”

“Hungry?” it managed to say the single word in the kute tongue. Its progenitor was slightly more adept at speaking kute, but neither of them could form a complete sentence. I saw no need to make them aware of the fact that I could speak their tongue better than they could. My silence bought me time to search for my imp and formulate a way out of my chains.

I pulled at the chains then, feeling their restriction as the metal grated against my skin. The pain in my wrist served to remind me of those all around my body. I felt the wounds from the jackals’ scratches and their bites. Although the bite sites burned and stung, they did not bear undue discomfort. I just needed to figure out a way out of these manacles. I thought the uspecs were dumb enough to be tricked into releasing me, but if I attempted and I was wrong, I would be forgoing my biggest advantage, which was the fact that they did not know that I could speak their tongue.

Pls what's happening here,who I'd this and why is the author finding difficult to make her posts,pls the mods should do somthing about what is happening to enable her make her posts.

today wer i been wan read dy update with rice and stew 4 dis christmas, na im na im .....MERRY CHRISTMAS OBEHID.