Humans Don't Make Good Familiars- Part 61

Vindicta’s POV

Our tattered and tired group walked up the rocky path we had stumbled upon just a short distance from where we Von-Pac found the entrance to the cave. Jake was in the back, still feeling sluggish from the paralytic bite of that creature. Von-Pac was riding on my familiar, well… he was less riding on and more lying flat on my familiar’s saddle half passed out from mana exhaustion. “I still can’t believe it.” Jake mumbled.

“Believe what?” Suma asked from his shoulder saddle.

“That a perfectly safe,” he stopped talking and looked at several large rocks rolling down the side of the mountain and falling off of the side of a sheer cliff with a huge crack light a breaking branch as they hit the ground below, “well… mostly safe, path was just a few meters past the entrance of that cave.”

“Hnn hnn hn,” Von-Pac groaned. I couldn’t tell if he was agreeing or cursing, but he did whatever it was with what sounded like annoyance.

“How are you feeling Jake?” I asked.

“Barely.” He replied. I was confused by his response.

“What do you mean?” I wondered.

“Barely.. I can barely feel anything. Except for tingling, like pins and needles.” He said.

“Where is the tingling? Maybe I can heal you a bit more?” Suma offered.

“Just a few places… my hands, my arms, my legs, feet, chest, back, head, face, and oh yeah.. my tongue. Can’t forget that.” He said.

“I’m sorry for bringing you there Jake.” Suma said. Her head lowered regretfully.

“Don’t worry about it; you didn’t know that cave was filled with Chupacabra.” Jake reassured her.

“Hn hnnmmn hnnm nnmm hmn mnm nmmhn hnnmnn,” Von-Pac groaned unintelligibly, his face pressed firmly into the corner of Argosa’s saddle.

“What?” Suma asked.

Von-Pac raised his head and spoke louder and more clearly. “I thought you said they were called echoes?” He asked then lowered his head again.

“A Chupacabra is… well it’s like… oh forget it, I’m too out of it right now. Let’s just call them echoes.” Jake said downtrodden. We all walked in silence for a while, slowly following the twisting and turning hill.

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The POV of the Drill Instructor

I was perched in my room when my assistant yelled that another group was spotted coming up the path. I quickly made my way outside and confirmed it was in fact team 4, which consisted of Toman and recruits 7 and 8. They seemed happy upon their familiars backs, and I could see why. The named Neame called Toman had a silver band around his neck. They came striding into town, like they were hot stuff.

“Hello drill instructor,” Toman said, “here is our band sir.” The other two removed the band from his neck and one brought it to me.

“And only a few minutes till nightfall, not bad for third place.” I told him. “Team 4 should be proud.” He seemed taken back, like I had just pecked his head.

“Third sir? Are you telling me two other teams came before us?” He almost whined.

“Yes, teams 1 and 2 have both already arrived.” I explained.

“At least we aren’t last,” one of his team members said.

“Yeah, we don’t have to wake up early for more training.” The other agreed.

Toman looked at his comrades in disgust, “I… if you two hadn’t… if we had….” He stuttered. His head fell forward, “let’s just go get some sleep… I don’t care anymore.” They walked away, probably feeling defeated based on Toman’s response.

“I wonder what happened to them?” My assistant asked.

“Dragon’s Hoard is filled with any number of dangerous creatures, they most likely had a tough time with some of them.” I said and then flew back to my room to wait for the next, and final, group to arrive. “I wonder what is taking group 3 so long? They had a Viking after all.”

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POV of Jake

It took two hours, but the last of the paralysis had finally worn off… just in time too, because all three of my teammates were perched somewhere on my body as I climbed up a steep hill. All of their familiars were either too tired to continue, or couldn’t be summoned due to lack of mana. Night fell over an hour ago, and I was maintaining a fireball a few meters above us to light the way. Most of the creatures on this mountain were nocturnal apparently, so the giant ball of fire came in handy keeping them away. None of the beasts came close enough to see clearly… thankfully.

“How are you doing Jake?” Suma asked.

“I’m fine, can you guys see okay?” I asked; Neame didn’t have particularly good vision at night.

“Well enough,” Vindicta said sleepily. Von-Pac didn’t respond… because he was completely asleep. Our journey up the mountain continued for another thirty minutes before I finally saw what we had been looking for.. the top.

“Finally…” I said and collapsed to my knees exhausted. Von-Pac fell to the ground and woke up yelling.

“AHH! What’s going on?” He said and flapped around for a second before finally getting to a standing position.

“We’re at the top,” Vindicta said as she and Suma fluttered slowly to the ground.

“Oh… good, finally.” Von-Pac said settling his standing feathers back down to his body.

“You guys can start looking for those bands, I’m going to rest.” I said and laid down on the grass. The heat from my fireball was incredibly soothing, and it wasn’t long before I drifted off to sleep.

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Suma’s POV

Von-Pac, Vindicta, and I all flew in separate directions searching for the silver bands. Jake’s fire spell was bright, but I wasn’t enough by itself to illuminate an entire mountaintop, so we were literally searching in the dark as most of us were to tired or drained of mana to cast our own fire spells. I didn’t know how the others were doing but if they were having as hard a time as I was then we would be on this mountain for a while. In the darkness, the shadows all started to blend together, so much so that I nearly flew into boulders on two separate occasions. We searched for ten minutes before finally I heard Von-Pac’s voice call out.

“I found it!” He shouted. I flew over to his location to see for myself, and there it was.. a single band wrapped tightly around a metal pole in the ground. We couldn’t undo the band’s knot with magic, as you need mana for that, so we each carefully gabbed it with beaks and undid it. We crossed over and under one another like some kind of serpent twisting around in its death-throws. In the end however, we were able to undo it. Once it was free we looked at it for a moment, well we tried to anyway.

“Is it getting darker?” I asked.

“Your familiar must be running out of mana.” Von-Pac suggested. “We had better get back to him.” As he was saying that, suddenly it became bright again.

“What in Atmosia?” Vindicta wondered. Confused, we all flew back to Jake and saw him still lying on the ground. Above him was a fire spell, and it seemed to be slowly shifting in size, getting smaller and larger every few moment.

“Jake, what are you doing with that fire spell?” I asked, but he didn’t answer. However, there was a strange noise he was making. I flew over to beside his and realized… he was asleep. “He’s asleep.” I told the others quietly.

“But he is making noise, and his fire spell is still active.” Von-Pac pointed out.

“Huh… they are in rhythm,” Vindicta said.

“What are?” I asked.

“His breathing and the fire spell,” she said, “the spell in growing and shrinking in time with his breathing.” I stopped to watch the two for a moment, and she was right. As Jake breathed in, the spell got larger; when he breathed out, it shrunk.

“How is he doing that?” Von-Pac wondered.

“Which part?” I wondered.

“All of it, how is he maintaining a spell while asleep, and how is he making it keep in time with his breathing?” He wondered.

“Well, I didn’t call him Sentinel for nothing.” I said.

“We have the band now… should we wake him?” Vindicta asked. “I mean, I think we should let him sleep.”

“We will come in last and have to wake up early if we don’t hurry,” Von-Pac reminded us.

“I think we are already going to have to do that.” I said.

Von-Pac sighed, “You’re probably right, but we still can’t stay on Dragon’s Hoard of all places overnight.”

“Why not? Jake’s spell is producing enough heat to keep us warm, and enough light to keep any beast away.” Vindicta pointed out. “We could at least get a few hours of sleep before going al the way back down.”

“What if he runs out of mana before sunrise?” Von-Pac argued.

“Unlikely,” I said. “His mana capacity is huge, and even if he was constantly outputting mana, which he isn’t, he is just maintaining a spell he already cast, then it would still take over an hour for him to run out of mana.”

“Over an hour?” Vindicta asked stunned. “His life force density must be staggering, and I can’t even imagine his mana reservoir.”

“Have you ever had it measured?” Von-Pac asked.

“Actually, we have, his life force is five-hundred Kelma and about sixty Dalma. He also has a mana reservoir of nine-fifteen.” I told them. They both stood in stunned silence, probably deciding if they actually believed such staggering figures.

“How? Just… how?” Von-Pac wondered.

Vindicta stayed quiet for a moment longer, she seemed to be deep in thought. “Suma… I… I don’t mean to… it’s just… well-“ she stopped herself, like she regrated saying anything in the first place.

“What is it?” I asked.

“There are rumors… I didn’t believe them, not until you said… but I want you to know I don’t care about them, even if they are true.” She stuttered out.

“Rumors? What rumors?” I questioned.

“I don’t want.. and I don’t mean to be-“ she tried to say, but Von-Pac cut her off.

“She means the rumors about your familiar.. Jake… being a Viking.”