ARC 5 - Oblivions Edge Part 2: Break of Dawn

Chapter 6

With a few hours of sleep, the group began packing their things.

Krewings men bustled about and were nearly packed, when Nasri let out a loud shout.

They rushed over and found Q'ten and Wo'ten lying dead, belly-up, their faces turned purple with veins popping out of their necks.

"Poisoned." Clavis discerned, kneeling over the bodies and tracing their veins with a finger.. 

"No doubt from the fish. Did anyone else eat the fish they ate?" 

The soldiers shook their heads. When they had been forced to split their catches, the two brothers volunteered to share one.

"Do you remember what color it was?" The soldiers scratched their heads. 

"Here, I found the skin next to their packs." Sumav picked it up bare handed by the back fin, and handed it to Clavis. 

"What?" He asked noticing the rest of his companions eyeing him weird."I was simply looking for a cause of death, not lootin' or anything."

The fish skin was a shiny, royal dark blue, with silver fins.

"Gathen." Clavis called to the boy, whom they had held back, not wanting him to see the dead bodies, "have you got one of your note pad with you?"

"I do." The boy replied.

"Mark it down. Blue with silver fins. Poisonous."

Clavis tossed the fish skin back into the mossy ground and went to wash off his hands.

The soldiers wrapped their poisoned friends in cloth from the packs and dug shallow graves quickly. 

No words were said for them, as they finished packing.

Kaet noticed how the ground where they had buried the bodies began to change shades of color then slowly merged itself back together with the undisturbed ground around it and glowed as it reconnected.

Within the next half hour, they were packed and ready to once more venture through the forests.

This time, Gathen walked with Vell and Elm, partially because he was amazed at Vell.

Clavis hung back with Mrax and Kaet. 

They discussed the different types of plants, and Clavis told them to steer clear of anything with spots on it, because that was a sign of poison.

They talked about where they came from, learning that Clavis came from a long line of advisors who had always aided the king or whomever was ruler at the time. Thus he told was his reason for suspicion when Krewing brought in outside advisors. 

He told them of various creatures, hitting briefly on the Bakragin that had taken Rachlax' arms, and of beasts with multiple heads. Tales of old dragons and myths of things that went bump in the night. Of creatures buried by the crash that ended the Bright Era.

After taking a few minutes to to enjoy the beauty of the glowing life around him Clavis came over to Kaet.

"I may not have been completely honest about what I know on the 'Breaking Dawn' man who came up to you in town."

Clavis dropped his head and absently kicked at a couple purple plants as they went by, sending spurts of glowing juice from them as he did.

He looked around himself slowly, noticing how the soldiers shifted about and a couple dropped back to bring up the rear.

He shook his head and raised a hand to Kaet. 

"Not now." Even without reading her mind, he could tell she thought this may be the soldiers executing a plan to kill them.