Mind Your Step, Draft 1, CH 05

“Let me out of this thing!”

The branch over Tibs’s shoulder slid off as the squirrel ran against the bars of its cage, making it swing. He’d attached it there because carrying it in his hand had grown tiresome, even after making a handle for it.

“I don’t think it likes being in a cage,” Heather said.

“Not when there’s so many interesting smells out there,” it said.

“Not happening.” He replaced the branch over his shoulder. He was tempted to hold the cage still with essence, but he’d have to explain that to Heather.

“It seems well enough,” she said.

“I’m fine,” it snapped.

“I don’t see why you won’t release it.”

“Because he’s mean. I said I was sorry for all the people I killed. I said I would work at being better, and this is what I get. Barely any influence and unable to go see what smells so interesting. Why did you put me in this if you aren’t going to let me use it!”

“Because I don’t trust you.”

“I don’t see what you not trusting me,” she said, “has anything to do with it being in a cage.”

“I’m not going to do anything! I can’t even if I wanted to!”

He sighed. “Just leave it.”

The squirrel went back to shaking its cage.

*

“Gimme!” The squirrel reached through the bars for the dried meat Tibs cut, then handed it.

“I really thought you were crazy when you started feeding it meat,” Heather said, seated on the other side of the fire. “I thought all those things ate were leaves and stuff like that.”

Tibs shrugged. He didn’t know if the animal ate meat, but he’d counted on the core being able to absorb its essence once it was within its influence. What he hadn’t expected was how it went about it. He had counted on Heather’s lack of interest for her not to notice the meat just ceased to be.

The squirrel shoved the small piece into its mouth and moaned as it chewed. “This almost makes up for how little essence I get. How come you aren’t always eating if this is what this taste thing is like?”

It grabbed the next piece and almost had it in its mouth before it had swallowed. The first time, it had choked on the meat in its throat, and the core hadn’t understood why its body had trashed.

Tibs hadn’t either. In a person, or an animal, it would be because with the meat stuck in its throat, it wouldn’t be able to breathe. But the creature the squirrel had become by having a core inside it didn’t breathe. Possibly didn’t need to eat either, but that would have made Heather ask questions.

As best as he could work out, it was because of the body’s memories. Just like Sto had known how to work Serba’s body because part of her had remained, the squirrel might have choked on something in the past and had reacted to it now that same way.

Tibs telling it to chew after it shoved the hacked out piece back in its mouth had made Heather chuckle and the core ask what that was. Explaining it had had her rolling on the ground with laughter. Then staring when the squirrel followed his instruction.

He’d wondered if he could claim to always have been able to talk to animals. But, as far as he knew. That was something only bards sung about, so not real.

“I want another,” the squirrel demanded after the third piece.

“You’ve had enough.”

“No, I haven’t. I have plenty of space for more Fever, and definitely more for Corruption, Potentia, and Crystal.”

But it didn’t absorb the meat instantly, and the mass of it was large compared to its body. Almost as large as the core itself. He didn’t know if it could damage the body that way, but, again, Heather would ask questions.

He was glad she wasn’t all that inquisitive, but she picked up on details and asked about them if she didn’t dismiss them as being unimportant.

He set the cage aside and, with an ‘ohs’ of wonder, the squirrel reached through the bars to pull grass out and shove that in its mouth. “How about we focus on your training?”

“Oh? You’re going to finally tell me about the essence thing?”

“I told you. That’s something you—”

“Whatever. What do you expect me to train then?”

“What you can do with raw essence.”

“Which is nothing.”

“No. You can do things. They just aren’t as easy as with the other elements.” He picked up a stone. “I want you to focus on this.” He threw it up and caught it when it fell.

She rolled her eyes.

“Heather. I’m trying to help you.”

“Then how about you explain how—”

He sighed.

“—doing that helps me?”

He missed catching the rock in surprise. Not what he’d expected her question to be. He realized he’d expected her to simply accept his more knowledgeable stance because she didn’t question everything, the way he had when Alistair taught him.

“Force it more difficult to use, because there is little in items.”

“You said that already.”

“Which means that to use it, you need to find more of it.”

“Which isn’t in something larger,” she said impatiently.

“It doesn’t have to be in objects. If you bring more Force essence to what you’re doing.”

“Which I can’t because I don’t have all that much. Which probably has something to do with you not telling me about that essence thing.”

He smiled at the accusation in her tone. “Yes, once you work that out, you’ll find you have more essence than you have now. But until then, there’s something else you can do, and it starts with you, focusing on this rock and sensing for your element in it.” He threw it up, caught it, and did so again, and again.

He could tell she didn’t take him seriously for half a dozen throws. Then it was like she realized she had nothing better to do, and she started watching the stone. Then she narrowed her eyes, but he didn’t know if she was sensing anything until the frown formed.

A few times she opened her mouth, only to close it as her eyes followed the stone. He had an idea of her question. Force was odd because it was one of the few elements that clearly did something unexpected.

“How can the element in the rock change?” she finally asked.

“It doesn’t.”

“I’m the one sensing it, and I’m telling you, as you throw it up, it gets a little more and when you catch it, it goes away.”

Tibs threw the stone at her, and, as he’d expected, she caught it.

“What was that for?”

“What did you sense?”

“That you wanted to hurt me.”

He rolled his eyes and motioned for her to return the stone. She threw it harder, and he caught it.

“Keep sensing.”

“I’d rather focus on catching it.”

“Learn to do both. You’ll need it.” He lobbed the rock at her, and she caught it. She lobbed it back, and they went on for a while.

“Yes!” the core yelled, and by the time Tibs looked, the squirrel was exiting the cage through the missing branch.

“Come back here!” he ran after it.

“No! You aren’t catching me!”

“Watch me.” He grabbed its essence, and that resisted him. With a curse, he realized the core’s essence had turned the squirrel into something closer to dungeon-made things than an animal. Which meant it was its essence and it could hold on to it.

That didn’t mean it was escaping him.

He had the ground grow around it, but it was already past that.

“Ah!” it taunted him. “Can’t catch me!”

“You little abyss piece of—” he made a wall of water before it, but it went up a tree instead. “I’m the roof runner, not you!” With Heather still at the fire, he climbed after the squirrel.

He paused when he reached it, sitting on a branch, hurrying to devour an acorn. “You have to eat one,” it said. “It tastes even better than it smells.”

He grabbed it and dropped to the ground. “You aren’t getting out of your cage again.”

“But there is so much out there for me to eat.”

“You mean, like people?”

“I wouldn’t. I promised.”

“I don’t trust you,” he said, entering the fire’s light.

“It’s a squirrel,” Heather said, bouncing the rock in her hand. “I don’t think it cares about your trust.”

“I do,” the squirrel replied. “But I don’t know what I’m supposed to do to gain it.”

“You can stay in your cage.” He shoved it in, and grabbed the cage by the bars so his hand blocked the missing one while looking for a branch to put in its place.

“Don’t you think you’re being unreasonable?” Heather asked.

“It knows what it did to be in there, so stay out of it.”

“I’m sorry,” it whispered.

“You should be. I could have killed you. I could have let you die. And all you’re doing in return is making my life difficult when I have to deal with her.”

The rock hit the side of his head, and he glared at Heather.

“Fuck you,” she said, before going into her tent.

“See what you did?” he demanded.

“What did I do?” it asked fearfully.

If it couldn’t see, Tibs wasn’t bothering explaining. He sat and remade the bar, then added metal to it to ensure it didn’t escape again. He’d have to keep his attention on the essence so it would stay, but that was less of an annoyance than having to run after the squirrel again.

*

The following days were tense.

*

“I’m sorry,” Tibs said, as the rain stopped and the sun peeked through the canopy. “I shouldn’t have made this about you, Heather.”

“If I’m that much trouble, why didn’t you tell me to fuck off?”

“Would you have?”

“Not the point. You’re the one with a problem with me.”

“I don’t—”

“Does lying to yourself come with being a thief? Is that how you sleep at night? Telling yourself stories about how good you are?”

Not responding took effort. Then, choosing to tell her some of the truth took more. “I didn’t tell you to leave because I’m hoping to learn about your element from you.”

“Why would you want to learn about it?”

He shrugged. “I have a curious nature.”

“And your books aren’t enough?”

He chuckled. “They don’t have much about Force as an element. There aren’t a lot of adventurers with it, and those who have it don’t spend a lot of time talking with scholars. It’s mainly observations at a distance.” He grinned. “Once you learn more, and become skilled. You are going to make a lot of scholars happy if you’re willing to talk with them.”

“Do they have a lot of money?”

Tibs stared at her because of her tone. “Seriously? You’d only speak with those who can afford it?”

“I wouldn’t ask for too much.”

“Should I start charging you for my help then?”

“You mean the help you’re giving me in the hope I’ll accept you’re not someone who deserves to be thrown in a cell? Yes, charging me on top of that will go a long way toward making me believe that.”

“Okay. I get your point. But yes. One of my reasons is I’m hoping to learn something by helping you that wasn’t in the books.”

“Like what?”

“What was your audience like?” he asked without hesitation, then couldn’t leave it at that. “What is Force like?”

She stared at him. “Like an element?” she said hesitatingly.

“But how did you see them? Did they look like someone you knew?”

“No…. Should it have?”

“Well…. A lot of the adventurers who talked about them with scholars said the elements looked like people during the audience. Some even said they had the form of someone they knew.” A lot was an exaggeration. But some of those he’d managed to coax into talking about their audience had said that. Well, a few. At least Tibs wasn’t the only one who had experienced the elements that way.

“That wasn’t how it went. There was no one there. Just this voice while everything moved.”

“What did they say?”

She shrugged. “They spoke of a need to continue. That ahead never ends. That to build on that is meaningful.” She paused. “I don’t know. They were even more cryptic than you.”

He chuckled. “That’s a common comment.” He paused. “Did you see a shadow?”

“Shadow of what?”

He couldn’t think of working it in a way that wouldn’t give away more than he wanted. “It’s just something a few scholars reported being mentions and I’m curious what it might mean.”

“I didn’t see anything, really. It was all just silver….something. I want to tell you what it was, but I can’t find the right word. It’s just….”

“What’s the next best one?”

“There isn’t one. The only one I can think of has nothing to do with what it really is, but it’s all that’s coming to me.”

“What is it?”

She looked at him suspiciously. “Lines, is the only word I can think of.”

He nodded.

“You aren’t going to make fun of me?”

“Adventurers, having to approximate what they mean when talking about essence, is something every scholar who recorded what they spoke about mentions. Something about what the elements are and what we are doesn’t….” He chuckles. “Translate.”

“Sorry, I don’t have anything to satisfy your curiosity.”

“It’s okay. It’s not your job.”

“No, my job is to see you in a cell,” she said, but it lacked her usual sharpness.

“And I’m sorry for treating you like I did too.”

“Does that mean you’ll let me out?” the squirrel asked.

“You really need to name that thing if you’re going to talk to it. If only so I don’t think you’re talking to me.”

“I’m not letting you out yet.” The core had already indicated it had no interest in naming itself, so he considered names. Jackal was the first that came to him, and he dismissed it, then Kroseph and for the same reason. He considered Carina, but the core’s voice sounded more like a guy than a woman. Names came and went, people he’d known, but none of them felt like they fit the core. And none of the dungeons he’d met really had people’s names. Some sounded close, but weren’t. Sto had named himself for what made him and where he was.

This dungeon had been in the ground too, although its entrance was more like the ground had ruptured instead of cracked the way Sto’s cliff wall had.

“What do you think of Rupert?”

“Rupert the squirrel?” she asked.

“What does it mean?” it asked.

“I just like the sound of it,” he said with a shrug.

“At least it’s something you can address it as so I know you lost it, and not think you’re talking to me,” she said.

“I don’t care,” the squirrel said.

“Is that chittering it agreeing or refusing to be called that?”

“It’s Rupert saying they’ll go with it until they think of something better.”

“That isn’t what I said.”

“But if you do think of something better, we’ll change it.” He picked up a rock. “Catch,” he said, lobbing it at Heather, who did, rolled her eyes, and lobbed it back at him.

What I'm Working With

Start of actual training?

The core wants out of its cage.

Once on the trade road, come accross a village terrorized by bandits. Tibs goes to deal with them. Heather won’t let him do that alone. As part of the fight, Tibs will have to reveal he has and element. Then have to explain away his eyes.

Once this is resolved, proceed to a city.

Tibs’s anger was unexpected.

I knew the core was going to chew it’s way out of the cage and that Tibs would have to chase it. I expected annoyance to be the extent of his reaction.

The training advances, the plan is to get Heather to a level where she can focus enough essence to affect items. I thought it would happen here, but that got interrupted.