Shapeless Hero

44 - Excursion

The wind picks up once again, while we carefully follow the path snaking along the cliff-walls, hundreds of yards above the beach. While Kella and Liszka look unaffected by the cold breeze, I thank the morning sun for its warming rays. Shapeshifters might be resilient, but that doesn't mean, they can't freeze.

"Are we three enough for a delve?", I ask. Kella told me the basics of being a quest assistant, but not the exact procedure of today's field practice.

"Don't worry about it. Wee fox-girl here isn't your only company today." Kella points at the giant cliff protrusion ahead of us. "The entrance is behind this chunk of rock. Won't take long before you'll meet the rest."

"Yes, ma'am.", I respond. I turn to Liszka. She waves a hand to signify that I don't need to translate for her, what Kella said.

Truth in Kella's words, we arrive soon at a point where the path splits. One way continues along the cliff-side, while the other leads into an entrance blocked by a pile of smooth, cabbage-sized rocks.

Not seeing anyone but us three, I ask: "Where's the rest?"

"They're inside.", Kella responds.

"They... trapped?", Liszka tries to ask in the local language.

Kella tilts her head down to meet Liszka's gaze and shakes her head with a smile. She turns back to the pile of rocks. "Good morning, lads."

The fox-kin and I simultaneously raise a brow.

The piled up rocks start to move in place. One after another, bird heads appear and their mana lights up in my vision. The stony blockade is actually a bunch of stacked... "Rock partridges?", I ask, surprised I know the term. The birds are comically round, compared to their earthen counterparts.

"That we are. Good morning.", the biggest of the almost spherical birds in the pile responds with a smooth, baritone voice.

"Thanks for guarding the place.", Kella says, while throwing a sack towards the birds. "Any changes in the cave?"

"It has been much more quiet in the recent days. Not the work of adventurers, though.", the same partridge answers.

Kella crosses her arms. "I see. We'll keep that in mind. Thanks."

The gang of rock-alike birds moves aside in a practiced formation to make way for us. Kella steps forward into the revealed stone corridor. I make sure, Liszka stays out of sight from the birds, until she gets rid of her saliva. Her appetite for poultry finally suppressed, we follow Kella. The daylight vanishes behind us, as the partridges get back into their original formation to block the entrance, leaving us with the dim light of the occasional wall torch.

"I've never seen such a method of guarding.", I tell Kella, as we follow her down the corridor.

She chuckles. "It's pretty nifty, isn't it? Being a local species, they get their own food and don't need lodgings. That makes them cheaper to hire than humanoid guards, even with the usual partridge-premium."

"How... fight?", Liszka asks.

"Like all talking birds, they can cast some pretty powerful spells.", Kella answers.

"Can they hide their mana?", I ask this time. I couldn't detect the partridges, until Kella greeted them.

The guildmaster laughs. "I think I know why you ask. Yes, they can do that. Some creatures track scents, others track mana, so they learned to hide even that at some point."

"Not only birds.", Liszka adds in Tyllat's language. "Where I from... high rank hunters too. Very rare. I want it."

"Looking forward to the day you get it.", I say, hiding my growing concern behind a smile. How much did I miss by relying mostly on my mana vision to track stealth skills?

"Yes!", Liszka declares, raising her fist. Her eyes sparkle. "I will get. It."

"A nice goal to have.", Kella adds. "Alright, the delve can begin soon."

The corridor opens up to a round room with twenty yards in diameter. But that perception corrects itself, once I notice the lack of a floor. A short peek down lets me understand that our corridor is at the top of a vertical tunnel, reaching down about two hundred yards. The bottom is lit by a single campfire in the middle.

"Again, where's the rest?", I ask, watching Liszka crawl away from the edge.

Kella crosses her arms and closes her eyes in contemplation. "The campfire's on, but your companions are missing." She looks at us, grinning. "What will you do?"

The lesson had already started.

#

"Good luck!", Kella shouts to us, as Liszka and I carefully take the spiral stairs of tangible light down to the bottom. After about five minutes, our feet touch solid ground again. We both scan the area with our eyes.

"How rude. They didn't even wait for us.", Liszka comments in her native speech.

"Or they were forced to move?", I ask.

"Job description said, this was a safe way to learn about Tyllat's caves. I doubt they would send us to one, where we get chased the moment we enter." She narrows her eyes, trying to recall something. "At least I think, that's what it said..."

"I thought, you already knew your way around Tyllat's depths. You were in one piece when you brought the cartridges, no?"

Liszka rubs the back of her head. "I hate to admit it, but that was dumb luck. The dozens of close calls made me realize, that I need to study the caves here properly. Especially, after you told me about how lethal the cartridges can be." She ends her words with a weak laugh.

I nod. "Better admit it now than die later, right? Anyway..." I take another look around us. "Any clue on how to find the others?"

Liszka was about to speak, when we both freeze at the sound of an ethereal bell. Our eyes dart around to track any changes. The stairs slowly disappear, cutting us off from the exit. Three new cave entrances in the walls around us phase into existence, equally spaced from each other.

I look up. I see Kella's head pop out from where we entered the tunnel. "What are you waiting for?", she shouts. "I expect you to be back for dinner!"

"Are you fucking kidding me?!", I shout to her.

The guildmaster waves her hand and disappears from sight. Her laugh fades alongside her steps.

"That's an old lizard-kin for you.", Liszka says with a tint of annoyance. "Their kids must hit the ground running. Not much time to learn with rival clans around."

"We're not her kids though." I look at the arctic fox-kin. "...right?"

She chuckles and turns to one of the three entrances. "Shall we?"

I sigh and follow. "Right behind you."