Tsaimath

Chapter 180

During the evening all of us kept relatively quiet, occupied with our own thoughts. What I did, however, was asking Drega for the blessing she had used the last time, which she spoke over me, increasing my Astral Power regeneration by quite a bit. In exchange, I answered her question about my condition, explaining that my hair stored power, that it had been burned in a fight and was now draining a massive amount of power while regrowing.

After our talk, I wondered why I had...

Scarlet - Chapter 35

Scarlet relaxed, stretched out on her bunk, watching the other two women in the room through Crysna’s eyes. She suppressed a smile, seeing them almost petrified, like mouses before a, well, snake. Neither of them moved or talked, they just sat there, almost too terrified to breathe. For a moment, Scarlet wondered if they would pass out from lack of oxygen but decided to help them out.

“Relax, everything is fine.” Scarlet said, without even looking at them, again, acco...

Scarlet - Chapter 34

Upon entering Albertina, Scarlet instantly felt a familiar feeling settle between her shoulders, almost like an itch that she couldn’t scratch or shake. That itch that prodded her to keep her eyes open, her back covered and an escape-route prepared, the feeling she got when she was around other humans.

For a moment, she closed her eyes, making sure that her mental shields were in place and strong before continuing onwards, into town. There were a few things she had on her...

Scarlet - Chapter 33

A low moan sounded in the forest, with nobody around to hear. What was it that made those horrifying sounds, was it a tortured ghost, was it a tortured soul? Or was it a young woman, slowly struggling back to wakefulness, after a night, spent in blessed unconsciousness?

Obviously, it was Scarlet, waking up in the late morning, after her experience with the earthen mound.  Her body felt as if it her body had been used as a piñata beaten with sticks, but what made her g...

Scarlet - Chapter 32

Three days after leaving the Sparkle behind, Scarlet was wondering if she had chosen the right path. Navigating had been a little challenging, but on the other hand, she had managed to find even more Crystal Monsters, hunting down eleven of them over those three days. She didn’t happen upon new types, only fighting two rockdogs, four rats, three birds and two nutty squirrels, but, she had managed to gain some more understanding. With a little trial and error, she had ascertaine...

Chapter 179

We managed to get back to Kolyug in the early evening, just as dusk was settling in. During the day, I had given a rough explanation of my weakness but I didn’t go into detail. Adra was still sceptical about my actions, but seemed to have decided that I was simply cautious, which was a good trait, if you wanted to survive. Rai on the other hand seemed a lot less conflicted, to him, he had obeyed his teacher and that was simply what a disciple had to do. Personally, I think that his dislike ...

Scarlet - Chapter 31

Once again, Scarlet woke due to the light filtering through the leaves of the tree she had been sleeping in. During the night, she had been awake for quite some time, looking up, into the starry sky and thinking about life, the universe and everything. Sadly, there had been no light, shining down onto her, enlightening her, thus, her questions remained. For example, the question why the strange rockdog had been able to dominate Cyca and shake off her attacks, whereas it had been ...

Scarlet - Chapter 30

Over the next two days, Scarlet followed the small stream she had decided to call Sparkle, after realising that Crystal might cause misunderstandings, considering the monsters were called Crystal Monsters. She quickly noticed that her path was slowly ascending, despite the huge distance to the mountains. It shouldn’t have surprised her, after all, she was following a waterflow and water was flowing downhill. 

Walking along the Sparkle, she had taken her time, not hur...

Scarlet - Chapter 29

Scarlet was startled back to wakefulness, not quite knowing where, who or why she was. Even just the concept of thinking needed a moment to emerge in her head but the process of waking was greatly sped up when there was a snuffling sound below her, combined with some scuffing.

Keeping very still, she let her awareness out, covertly feeling out her surroundings. Below her, on the ground, were animals, she couldn’t quite tell what kind of animal, only that they were moving ...

Chapter 178

It was late morning, we had been travelling for maybe two hours after breakfast and according to our plans, we should reach Kolyug some time in the late afternoon, unless something unexpected happened. Over the few days it had been since we fought the infernal bear, my hair had grown quite a bit, about eight centimeters. I had noticed that it was growing faster during the night, when Lenore was staying in her Hallow, but that was to be expected- After all, one part of our bond in...

Scarlet - Chapter 28

Scarlet had been walking for some time, maybe half an hour, when she felt comfortable stopping and orienting herself. She hadn’t felt the pulses for ten minutes and felt them go past her even earlier. Now, she just needed to know where she was. The pulses and the sun had helped her to roughly keep her direction, but that only meant that she had the vaguest idea where she was, not where to go or how to get there.

After a few minutes remembering the map she had seen, she de...

Chapter 177

When I woke up the next morning and let my hand roam over my head, I noticed that I had started to regrow my hair, maybe a centimeter or two, over the night. My first reaction was gleeful surprise, knowing that in the real world, the same length would have taken a few weeks, maybe even a month. But then I considered what it meant for my magic, if I assumed that I would be unable to keep magic in my system until my hair was back at full length, that glee vanished as fast as it had...

Scarlet - Chapter 27

Walking off, Scarlet heard a soft snicker behind her, coming from one of the people washing in the river. She ignored it, knowing that there was no point, she had ground to cover before it got dark. Staying too close to town was not on her list to do. Before she entered the forest, she noticed that there were two males standing guard, looking outwards to the forest and having their hands on belt-pouches. Once she was on the clear area between the fields and the forest, she pulled...

Scarlet - Chapter 26

Outside, back in the sun, Scarlet felt herself calm some more, as if she had just left the den of a vicious beast. She wasn’t quite sure why she had been so disturbed by the Doctor’s talk, it wasn’t as if he was the first who wanted her in a specific role, maybe gaining his patronage and protection would even be the best for her. But it disturbed her and if there was one thing she had learned on the streets, it was to trust her instincts.

Looking around, she noticed K...

Scarlet - Chapter 25

The Doctor and Scarlet came back into the main-room, where the other three newcomers an Aida were waiting for them. Aida handed the Doctor a folded-up paper and stepped back, out of the way. The Doctor moved to the nearby table and spread the map out, gesturing for everyone to gather around. 

The map was clearly made from orbital images, with some guesswork thrown in when necessary but it gave a great overview of the region. 

“This here, is Albertina.” t...

Chapter 176

We were fleeing. Not that the others would have called it that, but to me, it was flight, plain and simple. After telling Sigmir that we needed to get away, she had, once again, simply picked me up, called out to the others and started running. I felt her use her own abilities to boost herself, moving fast enough to outrun most horses. In my weakened and drained state, I wouldn’t have been able to keep up, not even the five minutes she kept that pace before slowing down for the...

Chapter 175

“Morgana?... Morgana?!” I heard Adra call from outside, so Sigmir and I quickly left the bear’s cave and joined her.

“What’s wrong?” I asked, curious. She had wanted to dig around in the bear and while I had taken some time before going into the cave, it hadn’t been that long.

“We found something. You will want to look at that I’m sure of it.” Adra told me, before turning and walking back towards the carcass.

Doing my best to ignore the unple...

Scarlet - Chapter 24

Scarlet took the list from the Doctor and started reading. The entries started simple, with a ten-day box of ration bars for two credits, continued with survival gear, a tent for twenty credits or cookware for five and so on. But there were also more interesting things, like a map for ten and even training from more experienced harvesters that would show you the ropes.

What she didn’t know was what her two crystals would be worth, or if Keera would add her crystal to her ...

Chapter 174

When Sigmir grabbed me, she frantically started to pat and lightly slap my head, before carrying me over to a patch of snow that had yet to be molten, and throwing me into the snow head-first.

It had taken a second to understand her actions but by the second or third pat to my head, I realised what had happened. Apparently, my hood had slipped during the fighting and one of the hot, burning splinters had landed in my hair, sticking there and finally managing to set it on fi...

Scarlet - Chapter 23

Somehow, seeing Albertina again was both uplifting and depressing to Scarlet. Last night, the two of them had camped on another clearing, before continuing their way south, keeping the river nearby while looking for crystal monster that they could hunt and looking at the scanner every now and then. About an hour after they left in the morning, the radiation-level went down to green, signaling that only few and weak crystal monsters would live here. 

They had paced them...

Chapter 173

After the fiery explosion caused by the bear had lit up the area behind me, I turned just in time to see Adra step out of the forest behind the bear and, while the bear was starting to trundle towards me, she let an arrow fly. Her shot was obviously magical, with streamers of colour radiating from the arrow and trailing behind it and her strike was better than mine had been. Her arrow punched deeply into the bear’s left hind-leg, before the magic that was focused on it burst ou...

Scarlet - Chapter 22

The two women continued on their way, Scarlet looking for trouble and ways to improve her power. For an hour and a half, they used the sun to keep their direction, adjusting for passing time on the fly. After about an three hours, Scarlet made Keera take over protection again and took the lead in turn, claiming that Keera needed to exercise herself but in truth, Scarlet was feeling a little pressure keeping a monster active and out and the second crystal dormant. She could likely...

Scarlet - Chapter 21

It was morning when Scarlet decided to wake Keera, after her own watch had passed without anything happening. She had taken the time to probe her abilities a little more, getting a better feeling how much it would take out of her to keep Cyca active and Crysna suppressed. Even after a good sleep, she had a feeling that she wouldn’t be able to keep Cyca going as she had before hand, at least not until she got more powerful. But keeping Cyca active was pushing boundaries and some...

Chapter 172

Adra and Kelgorn looked around the burned-out area, soon finding bear-tracks leading towards and into it, making them agree that the power Adra and I were feeling from the cave was our target. And that attacking the bear in its cave was suicide, they had seen the size of its tracks, giving them an idea just how big our foe was. Fighting such a monster in a confined space was just a suicidally bad idea so we settled in to wait until it came out, quietly discussing how to fight it ...

Scarlet - Chapter 20

 AN: Hey guys and gals. I'd love it if you could give me some feedback for Scarlet, both the fiction and the Character. 

Knowing that she had been handed an opportunity to greatly advance her control over Keera, Scarlet forced herself to stand tall - well, as tall as she could with her petite frame - and project an air of strength and confidence, as if the fight had happened exactly as she wanted and everything had been under complete control. That meant ignoring her ...

Scarlet - Chapter 19

Once Scarlet had herself back under control and the monstrous bird had vanished into the distance, she looked over to Keera, realising that the other had taken the influence better than she had. Maybe her higher sensitivity was not just an advantage.

“That was… sporting. The Doctor told us that there were huge crystal monsters, but I never expected to see one just yet. Or maybe at all.” Scarlet said, while carefully scanning their surroundings for enemies, just in cas...

Scarlet - Chapter 18

‘Ultimately,’ Scarlet thought in the evening, ‘it was the right call to stay here, in the area.’

The day had been unpleasant for Keera and her, the reality of Verdun fully hitting home. 

After breakfast, Keera had been easy to convince that staying in the area for the day was the right call, even if she hadn’t looked too convinced that travelling further up the river the next day would be wise.

They had spent the day training to move silently thro...

Chapter 171

Hunting in the woods around Kolyug was not as interesting as I would have hoped. The game was basically the same we had hunted further north, with levels mostly between thirty and fifty making it almost no challenge at all. We spent the most of the second day after leaving Kolyug hunting what I could only consider as critters, spending far more time following their tracks than actually fighting them. 

There was one quest that would hopefully be interesting, the hunt fo...

Scarlet - Chapter 17

When Scarlet first woke, grumbled and stumbled off, Keera felt it was funny, the previously highly competent and controlled pixie had been turned into a coffee-zombie. Just what would it look like when she realised that there would be no coffee forthcoming? That thought turned serious, quickly, when she noticed that there was a convenient target for Scarlet to vent her frustrations on, if she chose to. After a moment of thought, she decided that discretion was the better part of ...

Scarlet - Chapter 16

Keera had little fun during her night watch. Sleeping on the hard ground had not been restful, her body was sore and aching all over and her mind was calling for a real bed in which she could rest. Somewhere far away, far away from insane, technology hating planets, strange monsters and mocking pixies. Her dreams had not helped her state of mind, nightmares haunting her in her sleep. Images of Scarlet with her bloody knife hunting her, of a crystal monster feasting on her body an...