View source for Hush - Part 1

This is the story of a foray into the prime roots I undertook with a few friends, a long time ago. Before the Kitin had come back to patrol these dark caverns or the arrival of the Marauders and their subsequent ambushes. Back then our only concern were the carnivorous animals and primitives down there. It was an adventure I still remember fondly and often gets me to wonder on the fate of the young Homins we had with us back then<br>
Enjoy.
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“Hush! Keep your head down and stay quiet!”<br>
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The order brooked no argument and was spoken with all the authority the Chancheys voice could muster. He held out a restraining hand behind him where we almost froze in mid-stride to obey his command. Then took a furtive peek over the small ridge they were climbing, hoping that the tall Zoraï hadn’t already been spotted by the huge lizard that crouched on its other side. It was ripping away at the carcass of a pale white Mektoub that now lay, peppered with bloodstains and steaming from a huge wound in its belly, before it.<br>
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“If we don’t want to end up as this Vorax’s dessert we should find another route around this gorge. He looks pretty occupied right now and shouldn’t spot us if we move slowly downwind to that lower ridge there.”
As I crouched down beside him, peering over the edge of the dark, moss-slicked bark, I pointed to the side, where I thought it would be safe to go. The Tryker nodded.<br>
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“He sure is a big one, and I don’t think the two of us could hold him for long, not with this bunch of rookies behind us.” The Tryker grinned at me. I grinned back, though he couldn’t see it beneath my helmet I was sure he sensed it.<br>
“Hey, we’re not rookies at all!” came the immediate—if not a tad quiet—protest and Chanchey was rudely shoved aside as Taniqa wriggled in right between us.<br>
“I told you to stay down and quiet,” Chanchey chastised her in a low growl that was more playful than threatening, but nonetheless held a hint of annoyance at the lively Trykers disobedience.<br>

“Hey, I’m the only really experienced healer you’ve got here,” she said. I turned my helmeted face towards her and she cringed a little. “Besides Lyl, of course … ” she moaned. Chanchey too just stared at her, his head slightly cocked.<br>
“And you. But she can’t do much healing stuck in her armor like that, can she? Besides, it’s true, Sal’s got only his pick and the others can’t even … hrmpf. ”<br>
A pale, nimble fingered, slightly dirt stained hand firmly clasped over her mouth from behind and Salazar leaned forward into our small huddle.<br>
“Do you mind if I remove this little, bleating Bodok calf from your vicinity before it summons the whole Roots down upon us?” he whispered, already lifting the struggling Trykette up and away from the edge of the ridge. We just shook our heads in amusement.<br>
“I did not think so.”, he said drily.<br>
The tall Matis carried the wriggling girl back down the slope a bit, before setting her back on the ground, where he began berating her in a low, irate whisper.<br>
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Chanchey and I turned our attention back to the beast on the other side of the ridge. Its huge, green body was turned away from us, but that did not matter much, as you know Vorax have a keen sense of smell and even sharper eyes. At the moment, though, its attention was focused completely on its meal and the stench of fresh blood would clog its nostrils for a while. Luckily for us the beasts hearing was not very good at all.<br>
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“All right, we’ll try and sneak around it at the mouth of this incline over there, downwind from it and hope that we won’t run into its mate or other monsters.” Chanchey pointed to the left and down the slope, where the ridge we were lying on vanished into the gloomy twilight of the Prime Roots. Its length obscured by dense growth of softly glowing, feathery ferns.<br>
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We had slowly made our way through the dark caves of the Prime Roots for some time now, looking for those precious materials that lay hidden in the dark, moist barkwood grounds. It was a demanding trip for every Homin and we had at first chosen one of the less dangerous regions, but had soon realized that most of the known deposits in the “safer” places had already been plundered. After some careful consideration, we had chosen to head further west, into the deeper caves. Where more dangerous animals roamed but where some less frequented spots lay too, to find precious amber. It had not been an easy decision. Our foraging party held two young Homins, less experienced in martial or magical skills. But they had wanted to learn more of the finesse needed to extract said materials from the damp grounds. For Taniqa and Tei-Jeng it was their first true trip through these dark caves and tunnels.<br>
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Nevertheless as the leader of the small expedition Chanchey had decided that it was well worth the risk and excitement that lay ahead of them, to get some rare materials. Those were essential to crafting highly sought after items, like Armor and weapons. He and I had lots of experience surviving down here, but we had young adepts in tow and this time I had opted to use my skill at swordplay to our advantage. I needed the practice and to be honest wasn’t even interested in a cut of the findings. This was in a time when I did not belong to the Guild of The Free Soul yet. Probably Chanchey would pay me despite that, some way or another. Eventually I'd need a new piece of armor he’d craft from some of the rare bark we hoped to find down here.<br>
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Taniqa had insisted on taking her magic amplifiers, as well as a new pick, on her first such expedition. She was very proud to be experienced in healing magic.
Salazar Caradini, her mentor in the Order Argo Navis, had grudgingly allowed her to accompany us, but had insisted on joining us too. Despite his intense dislike of “grubbing around in the dirt”, as he sometimes put it. An extra pair of able hands in good magic amplifiers was welcome, so neither Chanchey nor I had any objections.<br>
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Tei-Jeng the Zoraï had only joined the Order a few weeks prior, but he already possessed some skill at foraging and wanted to try his hand in these twilight realms. So we had organized this trip down into Atys’ dark and mysterious underground. Until now all we had found were a few scraps that had been left behind by other foragers. But hope to find something that would make this exhausting trip worthwhile drove us on.
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Almost silently Chanchey jogged into the gloom. I stayed at his side, my heavily booted feet making a slight squelching noise on the moist ground. Salazar brought up the rear, Taniqa and Tei-Jeng jogged along between us. Most of the time Chanchey was only discernible to me by the glow of his Magic amplifiers through the gloom and thick mist that wafted about. I held my long sword drawn at all times, ready should anything attack them from the surrounding darkness.<br>
We ran along the sharp ridge and down a narrow gully that was thick with slightly yellowish, glowing moss. It squashed underfoot and as Chanchey looked down he recognized the colour immediately.<br>
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“Whoa! Hold it guys! This is pure oil! Could be Irin!” He knelt down and scooped up a few of the fibers we’d stepped on to take a closer look. Rubbing them between his fingers before sniffing at the wet stuff.<br>
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“Yap, this is it. Pretty good for armour stuffing and can even be used as an explosive when dried and ground up real fine. Pretty volatile stuff. Ironic isn’t it?” He grinned at us. Taniqa stepped up to me, rapping a knuckle against my armour.<br>
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“Boom!” she exclaimed and earned a playful slap over the head from a gloved hand for it.
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I then turned her back to my friends while they were preparing their equipment to extract and store the oil from the plants. I took care to watch both ways into and out of the gully to ensure nothing crept up on us. Salazar handed out some small vials from his backpack he had agreed to carry, while Taniqa and Tei-Jeng waited for Chanchey to cause the oil to bubble forth from the deeper strands of the moss. In the Tryker’s hands Sap began to collect, glowing like small suns. He rubbed his hands in a circular motion, muttering under his breath, concentrating on the process of charging the magical fluid just right. With a sweeping motion he sprinkled it on the ground before him in a wide arc. Ten bubbling, glowing, green nodes erupted from the barkwood. He knelt down and began to extract the oil. Cutting away at the newly revealed deeper fibers, he let his two “apprentices” clean the magical source of any debris and dirt that would stain the oil. Thus ensuring a very good quality and a higher yield than if he would have done it all on his own. Both Homins would learn a good deal from the instructions he gave them in a low voice.<br>
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Salazar pulled on his amplifying gloves and slowly patrolled a small perimeter around the diggers, also trying to keep everything in his sight at once. For a few minutes the extraction went well and they got a good crop of oil; then something unexpected happened.<br>

I had noticed them a few minutes ago, coming out of the gloom, striding over a small hill a short distance away. “Watch out, here they come.”, I said. But despite no note of alarm in my voice, everyone looked up from their work and Salazar whipped around from where he’d been staring into the twilight at the other end of our hollow.<br>
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A group of pure white Gubani came trotting into the hollow. The large but harmless animals eyeing us curiously, without any fear, their eyes level with mine. There were about ten of them in all, some adults and some younglings. Their strong, bent legs carrying them in a loping gait down the gentle slope of the south entrance to the hollow. More were milling about above the rim of the gully, indicated by the chirping noises that echoed down the walls.<br>
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“Aww, how cute!” Taniqa exclaimed and immediately wanted to stand up, but Tei-Jeng quickly reached out with his left hand and stopped her. Indicating the source they were cleaning with the pick in his right.<br>
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“We’ll have to finish this before you can play, little flower.” he said in his melodic Zorai accent. Chanchey nodded at him and winked at his fellow Tryker.<br>
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“You may cuddle them all you want after we’ve got the last drop from this node, alright? Now put your thoughts back down here and carefully pop that big bubble there before it gets too big and blows us all to the canopy.”<br>
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Muttering under her breath Taniqa bent over the magically induced oil source and poked at the bubble that was forming at its lowest point. A sudden gust of gas hit her in the face and she wrinkled her nose at the unpleasant smell. If these gases were not dispersed before too much of them concentrated in one spot, a source could well explode with quite some force and harm the foragers.<br>
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With the Gubani acting as natural lookouts and early warning system Salazar and I were able to relaxed a little. I took off my helmet to take a deep breath. My hair was matted to my head with sweat but I didn’t care. I looked at the scenery and had to smile..<br>
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“Ah, I love the Prime Roots,” I said over the din of the chirping, cooing, and munching Gubanis, grazing only a few paces away.<br>
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“Should you not rather keep watch than admire the scenery?” Salazar inquired.<br>
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“Ah no, these guys are far better guards than us.”I told him. “If anything would attack, they would either be off to help their herd or would scatter in all directions, if it was too large to fight. We’re safe as long as nothing too big tries to eat us or one of them.”<br>
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Just as I spoke Taniqa gave a surprised yelp and nearly jumped over Chanchey in front of her in one leap, she turned around in a whirl, pressing her hands to her bottom. <br>
A Gubani cub looked at the surprised Homins with an almost equally surprised expression in its light blue eyes.<br>
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“Hey! That's cold! You sneaky little bugger!” Taniqa shouted at the stunned animal that was only a little smaller than herself.<br>
It chirped curiously and then bent its head to eat some of Taniqas discarded fibers.<br>
Apparently it had noticed the pile of torn and ripped, oily fibers that she had carelessly thrown behind herself. The cub had nibbled these for a few moments and then decided to nose around a bit further ...<br>
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We all had a good laugh at this. Luckily the oil node was already nearly done so there was no danger of it exploding.<br>
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--- End of part one ---
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