novelraw Chapter 182: The Pieces are Set
Chapter 182: The Pieces are Set
The door flung open, revealing the silhouette of a long-haired woman with cat ears atop her head. She grunted as she was shoved into the building by an impatient Mesa, accompanied with Raz and a pair of soldiers with hands over the hilts of their sheathed swords as a cautionary measure. The blanket Emyri was wrapped around slipped and crumpled around her ankles on the floor, exposing her half naked body with a thin fabric covering around her breasts and the shredded remains of pants left as short shorts.
Emyri fell forward, a surge of pain radiating through her legs as she landed on her knees.
"Easy." Raz warned, stepping around Mesa and offering a hand to the cat mother. Emyri looked up through clenched teeth, her jade green eyes staring at his kind gesture with suspicion. Her tails curled up around her, her ears upright and her claws tempted to lash out. She glanced back at Mesa, watching the blonde tut and cross her arms with a look of annoyance. Reluctant, Emyri reached out and accepted Raz's hand, surprised as he helped her up on her feet before adjusting the blanket back over her shoulders.
"Softy." His sister remarked in a low breath, bumping his shoulder as she gradually strolled around the three beds laid out in the recovery room they were in.
Emyri looked around and gasped, her ears drawing back as she recognized the three wounded cat girls displayed on their beds. They were the same three Nekomata that found and attacked them in Janette's home. She had worried that they were lost after the bridge collapsed at the Mountain Pass, so seeing them gave her some relief. It was brief as they were clinging to life in this sickening appearance, each of them staring blankly at the ceiling with short breaths and glistening skin drenched in sweat.
She hurriedly ran up to the first bed where Mimi lay, her paws, fur and tails keeping that gray color to them. She wore the same brown rags around her body from before, and a brief touch on her forehead startled Emyri with how icy cold she felt.
"What did you do?" She asked, her voice trembling as she looked at the other two cat girls sharing the same fate.
Mesa scoffed, leaning against the wall. "Nothing of the sort. Daddy brought them back this way."
Raz felt his heart sink, his ears ringing of the sound of screams as he recalled the girls attacking Kershin Market several nights before. He stepped around to the third cat girl, his fingers tracing around the slash mark across the side of her belly. Those guards fought back, managing to wound of them. She had another puncture mark from taking an arrow to her thigh, which resulted in her being unable to assist in the attack at Janette's house. Her skin once held this beautiful tan complexion to her only to look sickly pale now, with purple discoloring around her wounds showing signs of internal bleeding.
Emyri sunk back on her knees feeling overwhelmed by this sight, clutching her breast as her heart ached for these poor girls. She blinked rapidly before catching on to the faint rose coloring in their eyes, recalling that they shared this pinkish red color when under Perdilius' control. It matched the same color as the rubies they wore around their collars.
"H-How long have you had them like this?" She asked, reaching out with her claws gently slipping them under the collar, taking great care not to cut at Mimi's skin.
One of the soldiers drew his blade and held it beside Emyri's cheek as she stood frozen, her eyes staring forward fearing the worst.
"And just what do you think you're doing?" Mesa interrogated, kneeling beside Emyri with her hand hovering over the cat mother's paw. "Tampering with their collars? How very naughty of you, Mother."
Emyri growled as she drew her arm back, turning her head to confront her. The soldier pressed the edge of his blade against her cheek to warn her, but she didn't care. She leaned in closer instead, causing the second man to ready his crossbow and take aim. Raz held out his hand to stop him, shaking his head.
"Whatever hypnosis you are using is making them sick!" She hissed, "They haven't had any sleep or rest since the day they've been under your control. You want my help, or do you want their death on your hands?"
Mesa leaned back, a subtle smirk emerging through. With a wave of her hand, the soldier slowly retracted his blade but kept a firm grip around it, refusing to sheath his weapon. Still, the act left a slick cut across Emyri's cheek as a trickle of blood dripped down. "Alright, do as you must. You're in charge of caring over these girls. We have herbs, remedies, and tonics at our disposal. You'll be under our watch. Try anything funny and it won't be you we'll be punishing."
Her smile grew as the ranged soldier took aim at one of the three girls, causing Emyri to hold her breath.
"Don't worry, you be a good Mommy and help them get better." Mesa giggled, standing up. She cocked her head, giving Emyri permission to go ahead. She went in and cut the collar off. In a few seconds, that faint rosy color began to fade, overwhelmed by the deep brown color of her pupils. Mimi gasped and lunged forward before collapsing to her side, coughing loudly and curling up into a ball.
Mesa snapped her fingers, ordering one of the men for a cup of water. Emyri offered it to her, staring as Mimi struggled to open her reddened dry eyes before squeezing them shut. Emyri kept it pressed against her lips, waiting patiently until Mimi's pink tongue darted out to lap at it, taking a few licks of water before covering her face with her gray paws.
"Cute." Mesa remarked, leaning back with her hands on her hips.
Just then, one of their men rushed in panting for air with a clutched note in hand. "Miss Mesa, Sir Raz. I bring you a message from the Boway Fort. Mesa grabbed the note, read it, and dismissed the man. She nudged Raz's arm for him to follow as the pair walked out, leaving the two soldiers to watch over Emyri and the three girls.
"I'm glad you listened." He said, keeping pace right behind her. "What was the message?"
Mesa scoffed, ignoring his question. "We need every resource we have if we are to find that brat."
"It's a large forest." He mentioned, following her down the road in the fort, passed the training camp where a few men went at each other with swords and shields, and entering the private earthly built dome where the large Golem stood idly by the doorway. Mesa patted his large cylinder arm to greet him, snagging a fistful of grayish residue from its forearm while Raz covered his nose and held his breath, breathing freely once they were inside as he shut the door.
Mesa took her seat around a large stony structure, some sort of table with a rounded carving at the center depicting images of the sun and three moons surrounding it. Raz grabbed a scroll off the shelf and displayed it below the carving, rolling it out to reveal a large map of Faehorn. The city and tower stood at the lower center, with the forest surrounding it shaped like an uppercase omega symbol, the opening penetrated by several mountains and a river coursing between them. He slid his finger past the mountains, tracing along a snaked path toward a drawn boxy structure at the east. She leaned her elbows against the stone, dragging her hands across her face and breathing an exasperated sigh.
"Finding two little kittens may not be easy," She admitted, clicking her tongue and rolling the ball of goop in her hands. She plopped the mess beside the map and stretched out a sticky clump from the pile, molding it around her gentle fingers. Raz watched as she stroked her fingers down the shaft and twirled them around the top, forming a crown and blowing softly to help it dry. She placed the fabricated chess piece over the tower illustrated on the map, modeled after the King piece.
Silence hung in the air momentarily while she got to work using the clay-like residue to create individual chess pieces, placing pawns around eight boxy forts scattered around the forest. Raz raised his brow as she raised her palm and dropped a few gummy pieces of clay down, using tiny specks of essence dancing around her fingers to help maintain its shape. Only they had no real design, just dried up clumps with a dome-shape to them. Then she turned around and used her fingernails to design tiny little legs to create three tiny spiders. Once finished, he held out a handkerchief for her to wipe her hands clean.
"Thanks," She muttered, turning her attention to the map.
"Here." He pointed at the southernmost path, his fingertip tapping at the southern fort. "We arrived here only to find the fort in ruins. No sign of smoke, only ash. Ergo, the attack was not recent. Arrows scattered around the walls. No corpses either, just bundles of armor."
Mesa narrowed her eyes, hunching forward resting her chin against her interlocked fingers. "Slimes must have enjoyed the feast."
"We must urge caution and rid of any slimes. Should they evolve, it would bring about confusion and calamity onto our men." Raz advised, standing upright and locking his hands behind him. "Hellfire would be most effective-"
"Can't use that." Mesa disrupted, fixated on the southern fort. "Hellfire flame is relentless. It puts the forest at risk and could backfire with wind changes."
"I see. Better to keep it stored away then."
"Not necessarily." She grinned, "Keep it in our hands, but exercise caution. Should the worst occur, hellfire can still prove to be a powerful weapon. If only we could direct the flames."
"Why not box it in?" Suggested Raz, sliding his finger over the forest. "Use some of your earthly magic to shape mud walls and isolate the forest."
"That would be beyond my capabilities. We would need an army of earth movers to even suggest such a plan." Mesa replied, "In your absence, we've lost the eastern bank, that makes three camps we've lost."
"To the Rangers?"
"Rangers and Monsters."
"Not including the Nekomata."
"Hardly, no sightings of any cat girl as of yet." She said, sliding a slime piece over the south fort. "Curious."
"How so?"
"We didn't have any Nekomata in the South entrance, that fort held a bear girl we had captured days prior."
"A bear?" Raz repeated, somewhat baffled.
Mesa nodded. "Would it be that the woodland elves are privy to her as well? We thought she was another stowaway residing within Faehorn. Did you spot a cage there when you came across the fort?"
Raz sat beside her. "It was busted open."
"They freed her." Mesa raised her brow, planting a clay model of a pawn piece near the south. "And you would later be ambushed at the wayside bridge. You lot were being followed."
"We figured. I fail to see the value of this."
"Short-sighted as ever." She muttered, placing the remaining two spider models over the east side of the forest. "We've had critters in the east for some time now, however they have since migrated south."
"Our run in with them in the Mountain Pass was brief, thankfully you've made work of them."
Mesa turned her head to look at him. "I merely closed the door so that they could not follow."
"Why not seal the path from both sides and let them starve?"
Mesa turned back around to oversee the map, hovering a pawn piece near the south fort. "Because spiders and slimes follow where the food migrates. You and Father know that I've lost the east bank and most recently the south fort. What you do not know is that I've been keeping track of these monsters through witness sightings and attacks. Have you seen any sign of large wildlife? Foe, racoons, squirrels?"
He shrugged. "No. But why would we when there were many of us crossing through?"
"A valid point, but still. You did not see any, meaning their food is running out. How does a forest supply these predators with an abundance of prey until this moment? We've been catching Nekomata and killing the Elves for months. I believe these Elves served as the natural predators to these monsters, keeping their numbers in check. Now that there are fewer elves, the spiders have been reproducing and growing in size. Slimes feeding on carrion. And we've reports of a new monster inhabiting the forest recently."
Raz sucked in his lower lip, dragging his hand over his hair in frustration. "So how do we go about to find this woman?"
"Something that comes to mind is that the elves attacked the southern fort but chose not to flee the forest when met with the opportunity. Rather they opted to lie in wait and set an ambush, succeeding in rescuing the youngest of the three sacrifices." Mesa explained, tapping her finger over the mountain pass. "Assuming that they are few in numbers, they instead persist on preventing Father from completing the ritual. What to do with her then, kill her? It would be the best way to prevent the ritual."
"Out of the question," Raz objected. "Rather than dropping the bridge they went out of their way to rescue the youngest instead. I saw it happen."
"And then there's the attack at the Bowey Fort." She revealed, passing the letter to him. Raz read it through wide eyes before looking to her in shock.
"They were attacked?"
"Yesterday evening. Seems our Rangers have kept busy." She muttered, placing another pawn piece by a third fort.
"They... didn't burn the fort down this time." Raz frowned, glancing between her and the note in his hand.
"It is to be expected, Bowey Fort is grander in size. A mining ground for our men, if I recall." Mesa snapped her fingers as a smile emerged from her face. "And the report lists that the Nekomata were taken from captivity. These elves are aiming to rescue, not flee."
"It says here that-" Raz paused, reading closely. "Sightings of a man and woman assisting the elves, but neither had pointed ears. The man was described with messy brown hair, the woman with a strange blue dye over her hair. Blue dye..."
Mesa eyed him as he seemed hesitant. "Something you want to share?"
"There was a woman amongst the group that had the cat girls with them at Kershin Market. One of them had blue hair. But it can't be her," He argued, tossing the note over to her. "She was a-a foreigner from the east lands, and she was cursed."
"Cursed?" Mesa leaned forward as her brother stuttered to explain.
"We watched her change into this beastly oversized wolf under the light of the first full moon."
"Why would woodland elves cooperate with a werewolf?" Mesa hummed, staring back at the map. Her eyes darted over toward the monthly clock inscribed over the map, narrowing her gaze with interest. "I see... Does this man sound familiar to you as well?"
"It's possible he was the one protecting the girls. I recall there being a man with brown hair amongst their group, he was the only male there."
"Interesting, Bowey Fort had been safely hidden within the forest. I saw to it myself that it stood away from the trees to prevent the elves from coming across it amidst their tree-hopping. The mines had been flowing for months. First the bear, now the girls."
"We should reinforce the others, have them alerted of the attacks-"
"Orrrr." She giggled, looking up at him. "We can use them as bait instead. Don't you see? The slime and spiders have migrated south where the elves have attacked. Assuming the elves use to hunt down these beasts, now they are unintentionally feeding them through these attacks. We may be unable to find the elves, but the monsters may clue us in to their whereabouts. Better yet, if Bowey Fort was attacked then the elves may be nearby."
"But how can we predict which fort they'll attack next?" Raz argued, "And with the migrating monsters, this means it's crucial to reinforce our men in case the beasts become a problem to us."
Mesa leaned back, slid a slime piece toward the forest near the Bowey Fort, and flashed a knowing smile to Raz.
"I think we can manage to let both issues solve themselves, don't you think?" She said, giggling gleefully as a plan began to form.