Chương 25: Memories

It was nearly daylight by the time Blick stopped experimenting with pulling from various things. Small animals were the easiest to pull from but they ran out fast and they became lethargic and slow afterwards. He decided to stick with the biggest plants as the standard until he discovered something more stable. With a drop in his core and more strength in his reinforced movements he took off toward the camp. Standing in the clearing he tilted his head in confusion. It was right here..

there are tracks and debris from the camp. Did they just leave without me? Having no concept of military tactics or battle plans, Blick had no frame of reference for a random movement. Just another thing in this world he would remain confused about until the situation presented itself. Knowing the goal was to follow the river down past the cliff he had previously climbed he shrugged and debated following the tracks left behind or blasting through the trees to make his own way.

There wasn't any real reason he needed to keep up with the camp. Other than having his meals provided. And it had already been month since he even made his own fire. Thinking to himself how this could even be better for him he shrugged and turned to head toward the river. Pausing a couple of steps in with a sudden realization… a loud upset grunt escaped his mouth. They took my bag with them. He realized he had been left without his lockbox and alligator cloak. Of course they took it.

Nobody in a rush to pack camp would have thought twice about a random backpack sitting in a wagon. We are going to the same place tho. I'll just get it when we meet next. Honestly he missed the adventure of traveling alone. And he could move so much faster while practicing his reinforcement now that he had a drop. More potent mana made everything it was used for stronger. This would be a fun trip. Sprinting off back the way he came, toward the river, Blick let loose.

Not worried about soldiers or any animals he was free to push himself and see how fast he could go. There was some error. Not practicing longer with his new strength was a silly choice. Not long after starting his full speed run he misjudged a step and it broke his rhythm of reinforcing the right muscles in the right order and he tumbled throughout the brush. Grumbling, he climbed to his feet he had to remove a vine from around his shoulder and reorient himself to keep going toward the river.

Facing the correct way he started again and focused a bit more on his rhythm. During this run he realized how much rhythm was a part of the world. Breathing, heartbeats, circulation, the pat of his feet, the daily routine. It all had a set rhythm. And sometimes finding the right rhythm made a huge difference in effort. That in and of itself was beautiful. Repeatable, simple patterns that changed something complex into smooth and easy to follow. How neat.

Later that evening before he dug the first hide hole in months, Blick sat down and practiced his circulation. The burn was still more painful than it used to be, but he was growing used to it. He began to worry that doing this specific action later, when he had more drops, would be too painful to even be useful. Thinking it best to push his meridian as far as he could before creating another drop he decided on a new routine. Circulation before sleep and starting the day. Push and pull while he traveled.

And quick easy foods like berries or small animals for meals he wouldn't need a lot of time to prepare. It was with this routine that he spent the next week traveling. He found the river on day 3, and turned to travel the bank downriver until he found the cliff at the end of the 6th day. It was so very much faster with his focused direction and powerful body. When he had landed here as a small Blick, he wondered very slowly and almost without direction. The only thing he did intentionally was stay near the river.

so he was surprised at how fast he reached the cliff he remembered. He decided to camp at the edge for the night and took some time to gather some of those fish. It had been so long and he missed them. Grabbing a fish with his clawed hand he was surprised to find he could carry one with a single hand now. It was still large, almost the length of one of his arms, but he could easily catch and carry several. He remembered the first fish. He had to hug it and drag himself to shore before dropping a rock on it.

Now he could carry probably four and he could end them with a claw pressed into the head. A simple pop and they just twitched. He smiled at the idea of finding his family now and seeing how much different his siblings would be. Looking forward to the next few weeks of travel and exploring in search of that one special tree, he prepared his large meal and relaxed by the waters edge. This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

Halfway through his meal three yellow and blue birds landed near him, and with a grunting chuckle he shared his food while pushing a little mana into each.

"We have lost contact with two scouts so far, one of ours reported a fight with a Versale scout that he beat. It seems they know we are near and have plans to fight. We have not located their main force or their objective in the region, but we don't have reason to believe they know ours either." The report came from the west flank scout sergeant. Scouts fighting was rare.

They were intended to be agile and stealthy, but when you had professionals on both sides, scattered inside a jungle, they were bound to be spotted and confronted. Capturing an enemy scout was a solid way to earn a promotion givin how much information scouts had to have to function successfully in their role.

"Have we started having them move in teams? This is clearly open conflict if they captured or killed two of ours." Captain Fitz was irritated but expected a similar report sooner or later. There was no good reason for Versale to have a force out this far if they werent attempting some kind of attack. Eventually one side would get a scout close enough to the enemy force to get a rough headcount and more solid battle plans would be formed.

"Yes sir, the shift change this morning went out as pairs with orders for capture if possible. I believe they are skirting the river in the same direction as us. Either they have a similar goal, which I believe is highly unlikely, or they have some sort of spy."

"Yes sergeant, the issue is we don't know if the spy is back home or in our ranks. I believed it was the Blick creature, but I don't see what it would have to gain. If the spy was in our formation the enemy would know our location and wouldn't need to skirt our side of the river. It's very likely they have someone in our capital who tipped them off to our goal. Actually without the specific location from Blick they wouldn't know where exactly to look either. Shit we shouldn't have let him wander.

If they capture him he would be able to show them the way and potentially beat us there." With a shake of his head, Captain Fitz issues new orders to the scouts to try and locate the creature and bring it back to camp. It had gone from barely a threat to be bothered with to a tactical disadvantage with this new information.

"We are almost at the first search location. Send a team ahead to make sure we aren't walking into a trap. Bring them in here to point the exact spot we are starting at on the map so they can do a scan and report back before we arrive. If we don't get word from them in three days time we will halt the formation and assume the area is contested already."

"Yes sir!"