Chapter Four-Hundred Thirty-Six (Patreon)

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Mlynda

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The halfling druid gazes at the huge tree through a gap in the canopy.  She and her friends are probably the only ones in the entire guild out in the wilderness right now, instead of delving or commissioning gear.  She and her friends are preparing for the raid, of course, and there’s something she should have done a long time ago.

“Are you sure about this?” asks Vnarl, the troll leader of their trio sounding worried for the first time since… well, since Thedeim captured them, so long ago.  Hark, the forest elf, nods his concern as well, but Mlynda is certain.

“I am.  I didn’t do it right last time.  But now… now I want to do it for real.”

Her friends exchange a look before smiling, with Hark speaking up first.  “Dibs on your stuff if Leo eats you!”

Mlynda rolls her eyes and smacks him in the shin with her staff.  Before they were captured, he might have meant those words, but now, it’s a reminder of what they used to be, and how far they’ve come.

“You know where to get something big enough that one of the winter wolves will want it?” asks Vnarl.

“Yes.  I haven’t done Ranger work in a while, but I still remember how to follow stagnation.  The hard part will be subduing something big enough without killing it.”

“And carrying it back,” points out Hark, his keen eyes scanning the trees as they take a small break.  “Are we in the right area yet?”

“Not yet, but we’re close.  I doubt there’ll be a snarl within sight of the tree, but I can definitely feel something interfering with mana.  We’ll need to capture it and drag it back… and hope Leo doesn’t simply take it and leave, instead of letting one of the winter wolves have it so I can tame it.”

The other two nod at the plan, aware of what she wants, but it’s still good to repeat it so they know how important it is for things to go smoothly.  Good to remind her of a mistake she still hasn’t corrected.

She tries to put it out of her mind as they resume walking, but the stagnation is so glaringly obvious that she could follow it with her eyes closed.  With Vnarl and Hark at her side, she can’t help but think of the last wolf she claimed.

She shudders at herself, unable to even pretend she tamed the wolf denizen that would eventually become one of Thedeim’s scions.  Domination is supposed to be a temporary spell, something that only lasts a couple battles, but she and her friends had gotten too proud.  She could keep it going, so why shouldn’t she?  Make sure the other adventurers knew what the gap was between her and them.

They strolled into Fourdock, convinced they were the most power delvers the town had ever seen, would ever see, and challenged one of Thedeim’s scions.

The only ones who couldn’t see they were doomed were themselves.  By all rights, he should have killed them.  But instead, he imprisoned them.  Her wolf was freed, and adopted.  And promoted.  And they were forced to climb and puzzle their way through a gauntlet of traps and hazards, reminded in no uncertain terms that they were not nearly as impressive as they thought they were.

Being humbled stings, and sometimes she still resents it, but better to be able to learn her lesson than to be dead.  Her friends needed sense knocked into them, too, and by the time they finally got through the gauntlet, they were working together like they used to… back when they needed to if they wanted to survive.

She smiles as her mind returns to the present, glad she’s in front and the other two can’t see her looking like that.  They’d tease her forever, as she would to them.  That’s just what friends do.

She wipes the smile from her face as she feels the stagnation move, shifting seamlessly into seriousness.  “It knows we’re here.”

Hark draws his best bladed boomerang as Vnarl draws his swords, both waiting for Mlynda’s signal.  In a dungeon, Vnarl is the one to call the shots.  But out in the wilds is her territory, and they’ll follow her expertise.

The halfling closes her eyes and raises her staff, focusing to follow the ripples in the ambient mana.  Her staff moves, pointing at the monster even as the greenery keeps it obscured.

“Forty yards,” she says, and Hark throws his weapon.  It slices through the vegetation as it’s designed, and the roar of pain indicates it does the same to the stagnation beast.  Mlynda uses a trickle of her mana to part the underbrush for her and her friends, and Vnarl sprints ahead of the group to engage the monster, Mlynda and Hark on his heels.

“Corrupted bear,” murmurs Mlynda as it comes into view, the subtle wrongness standing out as a beacon to her senses.  Hark retrieves and stows his bladed boomerang and selects two of his larger ones.

“Knock it out?”

“Distract it,” she corrects.  “We’ll need to tire it out.”

He nods and bounces on his feet, getting into Vnarl’s rhythm as the troll ducks and slashes at the bear.  He’s not doing much damage to it, but he’s also not letting it get away.

“Grasping thorns!” casts Mlynda, spiked vines curling from the earth to wind around the bear's limbs.  It pulls them free and tears them apart, but that’s more energy expended without any serious threat to her friends.

Hark throws his two large boomerangs, and several more besides, his expertise letting him strike from impossible angles, hitting exposed joints.  He also doesn’t do much damage, but even a corrupted bear feels the pain of the blunt impacts, jerking away and roaring in pain and indignation.

The trio dance around the beast, slowly whittling it down.  If it were an ordinary bear, it might try to flee, but the stagnation monsters never do.  Even once it collapses, it still struggles to attack, weakly biting at the vines that Mlynda summons to restrain it.

“Stagnation monsters are weird,” comments Vnarl, wiping the sweat from his brow.  “They just don’t know when to quit.”

“They’re mad,” says Mlynda with a shrug.  She could go into the details, but Vnarl’s no Ranger.

“Will it be enough?” asks Hark, settling his boomerangs back into their straps.

“Ordinarily, I’d say absolutely.  But this is as much a peace offering and apology as it is an attempt to tame something, so I don’t really know.”  Mlynda pokes the bear and nods to herself when it only weakly shifts and strains against the binding.  “The vines’ll hold, though.”

It takes them a few minutes to figure out the best way to carry it, and eventually have to settle on Vnarl and Hark getting it up onto their shoulders.  If she were taller, Mlynda would help with carrying the middle, but they have to settle with one at the bear’s shoulders and the other at the hip.  It does let her focus on finding a smooth trail back.  And if she can’t find a smooth trail, she’s not above using her magic to make one.

It’s only an hour back, but her friends are exhausted by the time they finally enter the winter territory, where they drop the bear without ceremony.

“Hah… if you… need more… you’re... carrying it,” pants Vnarl, with Hark too winded to even nod his agreement.

Mlynda gives them a sympathetic look, unsure how to break to the new news that they still need to find a wolf to give it to, before her instincts start screaming at her in warning.  She does her best to keep her dignity as she slowly turns, her friends’ gazes following her own as a large wolf steps out from behind a tree that should not be able to conceal him.

“Leo,” she starts, but realizes she doesn’t know what to say.  Sorry seemed like a good start, but seeing the look in his eyes as he glares at her, hackles raised, lips curled… it doesn’t come remotely close to what she should say.

Her friends start to move, but she holds up a hand to stop them.  “Don’t.  Just… I’ll handle this.”  They don’t look comfortable, but they listen, even as she slowly lays down her staff and steps forward, eyeing the wolf that used to be so much smaller.

“You… It…” she tries a few times before slumping.  “I’m trying to do it right this time.”

She can still feel the snarl on his face without even looking.  “I was wrong.  I was so caught up in the power.  We all were… it’s not an excuse, but it’s still the truth.  After we escaped, I thought I should try to apologize?  But I also thought maybe it’d be better if I just avoided you.  Why bring up something that hurts, right?”

She sighs and closes her eyes as she slowly lays down on her back.  “But that’s just trying to avoid accountability.  Again.  So… here’s my belly.  And there’s a peace offering.  If you want it, it’s yours.  If you want more, I’ll get it.  I’ll even ask Vnarl and Hark to stay behind and drag it back all on my own.  I’m sorry for what I did to you.”

She does her best to not curl up as she hears the crunch of snow signalling his approach, tries not to flinch when the pawsteps stop.  After a minute, she cautiously opens her eyes, and sees him looking directly into hers.

He exhales in her face before turning and leaving.  He pauses at the tree he came out from behind, eyeing the group for a few more moments before giving a howl, then he vanishes.

Mlynda simply stares at the tree, the scene playing in her mind, over and over.

“Is that… good?” asks Hark, only to crouch and draw a boomerang as a twig snaps in the distance.

Mlynda slowly gets to her feet and takes up her staff, and nods as a winter wolf comes into view, nose in the air and sniffing.

“Yeah.  I’m not forgiven.  I don’t know if he’ll ever forgive me.  But… I think he accepts me now.”  She gently smiles at the wolf, waving her friends away as she loosens the vines around the bear slightly.

“Heeey… I got a treat for you, and even more, if you want to stay with me.  I can’t promise to be perfect, but I’ve made a lot of mistakes to learn from.  Hopefully enough to handle the responsibility right this time.”

She holds out the back of her hand to the winter wolf, letting it sniff her before it moves over to the bear.  The temperature starts dropping, and Mlynda smiles as frost starts building on the invader.  “That’s it.  There’ll be tough times, even with all the tough times we’ve already been through, but we’ve learned the hard way what works, and what doesn’t.  I can’t promise we’ll be the best, but we’ll be better, every day, together.”

The bear’s breathing grows labored as the taming bar starts to fill over the wolf, and Mlynda catches a bit of movement from behind the tree, though she does her best to not look directly.  Better every day, slowly.  Leo heard that.  He’ll keep her to that promise, she knows.

He’ll be a harsh judge of that promise, but not harsher than the one she sees in the mirror every day.