About two miles south of the cave, the escarpment bulged. The layers of limestone stacked such that they rounded like a pregnant belly. The angle was gentle enough for me to pick my way down. Mostly I climbed, but a couple of times I had to ease down on my butt. From there, I traveled north, back in the direction of the stream feeding Ikfael Glen.

I passed through the kahlichi bear’s territory. My senses were open, at one with the land. There were several waterfalls along the way; the streams flowing downhill to the flatland to the east. All that water--the qi danced as it flowed. It must make for a powerful river somewhere out that way. The taste was clean-cold-delicious.

It was a good chance to heal up and wash up. I’d been a stinking mess for days now, covered in sticky blood and gore. Anything with a nose would smelled me coming from miles away. I’d been fortunate not to have attracted trouble before now.

My only other detour was to find the spot where the kahlichi bear encountered the batshu turkeys. It was risky, but my last arrow was lost just before the fight with Boscun and Kaad. I’d need more if I wanted a guerilla war against the bishkawi. That in turn meant needing turkey feathers for fletching. I could’ve scavenged the vanes from Kaad’s arrows, but then his arrows would’ve been ruined as trade goods.

“Focus, Ollie. One step at a time.”

The ground was torn up where the kahlichi bear drove off the turkeys. The small bushes and plants were broken and scattered. The trees wore scars--some burns were as straight as lasers, while others twisted like snakes. Traces of lightning qi lingered on the latter.

For the first time, I felt the uekisheile shiver in fear. The qi’s taste was familiar to them. Danger-threat-hide.

“You know this qi/food, little one?”

Not/food-danger-hide. The uekisheile’s qi swirled back and forth, anxious. Recognized-threat-danger. Threat-home-hide.

“I’m sorry. One more time. You had to hide from a kahlichi bear?”

Recognized-recognized-recognized.

All right. It wasn’t just any bear, it was this one. This kahlichi bear visited the Red Room.

Food-not/hurt-danger.

And somehow, the bear wasn’t hurt when he ate the eilesheile. “Is the bear a symbiote, like us?”

Eilesheile-food-not/family. Bear-eilesheile-not/family.

Ah, the uekisheile viewed the eilesheile as food. And so did the bear. He had an Iron Belly Talent--maybe that was the trick to foiling the eilesheile’s parasitism? Wait, if the kahlichi bear knew about the Red Room--

I shook my head in sorrow. It suddenly became clear exactly what happened to Woldec and his crew. Between the kahlichi bear and the chliapp lion, they ran into some very bad luck. I’d have to be careful to avoid that same luck.

There were turkey feathers everywhere--I gathered them up and fled north. I didn’t breathe easy until I was out of the bear’s territory.

As I walked, the landmarks became more familiar. To the east and down the hill was the Evil Golden Mushroom Glade. To the northwest and up the hill was the original entrance to the Zombie Caves. And up ahead, near the tall pine, was where I first encountered the Little Horrors. The deer thicket was another half mile past that.

I swung wide around. Hopefully, the bishkawi were sticking close to the glen--licking their wounds after their fight with the turkeys--but I wasn’t willing to risk running into them until I was ready. As I got close to the waterfall that fed Ikfael Glen downstream, I smelled mint in the air.

Licking my lips, I shrugged off the backpack and wiped my hands dry of sweat. After a slow breath to settle my nerves, I picked up my spear and crept closer. The scent led me at an angle away from the waterfall’s pool, slightly downstream and into an area thick with trees. Vines with familiar pink flowers hung from the branches.

I ducked down amid the greenery.

Chishiaxpe (Plant) Talents: Pretty

Nascent: ??? Chishiaxpe (Plant) Talents: Flowery

Nascent: ???, ??? Chishiaxpe (Plant) Talents: Minty

Nascent: ??? Chishiaxpe (Plant) Talents: Vicious Toxicity

Nascent: ???, ???

That was it. That was the one I wanted. The others didn’t fool me--all the chishiaxpe were poisonous, but I looked for the most poisonous among them. The willow it inhabited was right on the bank. The ground underneath was clear, perfect for an animal’s approach to drink from the stream.

Each tree in the area appeared to have a vine inhabiting it, except for a buffer of empty trees around Vicious Toxicity. It must not like its neighbors. If I came at the vine from the water side, none of the other chishiaxpe would be in a position to interfere or interrupt.

I watched the area for twenty minutes, just in case there were any other dangers hidden by the trees. When none appeared, I went back to my pack for a pouch and moved upstream to enter the water.

The waterfall’s source was the top of the escarpment, a thousand feet up. Its roar overwhelmed all other sounds nearby. The mist stuck to me as I waded into the water; the flow tugging on my legs. I didn’t enter too deep though. My goal was to be just outside the reach of the chishiaxpe between me and Vicious Toxicity.

The chishiaxpe didn’t react to me passing by. If I hadn’t fought them before, I would’ve thought they were just vines. I knew better though and made sure to stay out from under their trees’ branches.

When I reached the willow, I scanned along Vicious Toxicity’s length for the stinging bit, but the branches obscured my view. Well, it’s not like I didn’t know what would happen. I waded towards the stream’s bank.

Standing under the willow’s canopy, a flutter of nervousness ran through my belly. Any moment now it would--

The chishiaxpe dropped from the branch with a soft thump behind me. I swung my spear around, the haft sweeping parallel to the ground. I’d learned my lesson from before--trying to stab a swaying vine was too hard. Instead, I caught it on the haft and shoved the vine to the ground. I dragged the spearhead across its trapped body.

The smell of mint burst into the air, as a three-foot section of Vicious Toxicity was cut away. The vine darted back towards the willow, its length wrapping around the trunk to retreat up into the branches. The leaves of other trees rustled, as the other chishiaxpe followed suit.

My breathing was fast, but steady. I kept my eyes on the branches. On the ground. On the water. The only movement was the wriggling of the vine I’d cut away, and even that stilled after a few moments.

I placed my open pouch on the ground and used the spear to lift the cut vine into it. Holding it at arm’s length, I waded back into the water to return the way I’d come.

###

I found a spot well away from the waterfall to dissect the chishiaxpe. Ideally, I’d want gloves and goggles for something like this, but all I could do was to be extremely careful. Using the sharpest of my knives, I made an incision along the length of the vine; starting at the end farthest from the stinger and slowly opening up the interior as I went.

The uekisheile came out to eat. It’s only comment was food-bitter-bitter.

5 silverlight gathered. 4 absorbed

I didn’t see the core, but it might’ve been small and buried in the vine’s strange biology. The interior was similar to what you’d see in a snake, but all the organs were fibrous, not meaty. I’d never seen anything like it.

The most complicated part was near the mouth. There was space for the stingers to retract, which they apparently did once the prey was dead. They made room for the small mouth to open and eat.

Thin tubes connected the stingers to a nodule tucked under the other organs. There was a sheath around the nodule to protect it and--squeeze--yes, squeeze out the poison when necessary. I gently pressed it with a stick, and a drop of clear liquid oozed from the stingers’ tips.

Not hurrying--most definitely not hurrying--I gathered the poison into the empty medicine bottle found in Kaad’s first aid kit. It didn’t matter how precious the poison was, it wasn’t more precious than my life.

By the time I was done, there were two thimblefuls of poison in the bottle. I shook my head--that wouldn’t be enough. Not for a whole troop of bishkawi. Hiding the bottle in a safe place, I went back for more chishiaxpe.

This time, it didn’t matter if they were pretty, flowery, or minty. I hunted any of the vines I found in isolated positions. It was like a puzzle: looking at the board, how could I remove the pieces, one at a time, so that I maximized the number of isolated vines.

The process wasn’t that hard really; not once I knew how the chishiaxpe acted and reacted around prey. The only hassle was waiting for them to come back down from their trees after one of their neighbors was killed. The sun steadily traveled across the sky, as I killed five different chishiaxpe.

I was in danger only once, and that was when one of the vines ducked under my sweep. The little forker jabbed at me right after, but I managed to flip the spear around in time to knock it away with the butt. I flipped the spear again to cut it in half. It was a good reminder to never get complacent, even when things started to become routine.

The bottle was only half full, but I had to stop. Sundown was approaching in a couple of hours, and I wanted to leave enough daylight to scout the glen and hike back to the children I left behind.

###

A bishkawi sat among an oak tree’s limbs and kept watch on the surroundings. He was an ordinary enough fellow; nothing special compared to the others in his troop.

Bishkawi (Animal) Talents: Selfish

Nascent: ???, ???

To the east, past him were the falls feeding Ikfael Glen. There didn’t seem to be any other bishkawi nearby; just the lone scout. If I had arrows, he’d be dead already.

As I watched him scratch his ass, I wondered if a blowgun wouldn’t be better. An arrow was such an obvious attack, but a dart could be mistaken for an insect bite. Or they may not even feel it at all if I used Anesthetic.

The idea was tempting, but I put it aside for now. One, I didn’t know how to make or effectively use a blow gun. And two, I wasn’t sure how well a dart would penetrate the bishkawi’s fur. Wait, I was such a dunce--there was another obvious way to poison pests. I eased back from my hiding place to go get some jerky from my pack.

Using a stick, I applied two drops of the poison to a strip of jerky. It added a bitter tone to the otherwise meaty smell, so I made a cut on my forearm to drop blood on the jerky. Then I wrapped the whole thing in a frond leaf.

It took every bit of self-control I had to keep my fingers from trembling while I worked. Even so, I was covered in sweat by the time I was done. I just hoped my bloody little care package worked.

After sneaking back, I made sure the situation hadn’t changed before throwing the poison package at the base of the oak tree. The sound of it hitting was just loud enough to catch the bishkawi’s attention. He climbed down the trunk with ease, his head swiveling to scan the area. I ducked down and rooted myself into the land.

The bishkawi picked up the package. He didn’t pay attention to it at first. Instead, he walked around to check to make sure there wasn’t anything dangerous nearby. Only when the situation seemed safe did he take a closer look. He sniffed the package and tore away the frond to reveal the jerky inside.

Selfish took another look around; checking over his shoulder to make sure there wasn’t anyone with whom he had to share the meat. He hurriedly climbed the trunk, where I lost view of him. Five minutes later, he fell out of the tree with a thump.

I waited another five minutes, but nothing else came out of the trees. Sneaking closer, I found him with his eyes open in terror. His breath came in quick, short gasps. His jaw was locked tight.

This must’ve been what I looked like when I was stung by the chishiaxpe. Unfortunately for Selfish, I wasn’t an otter come to rescue him. Instead, I dragged him into the water and pulled him upstream, well away from his sentry post.

He still wasn’t dead by the time I reached my pack, so I stabbed him in the heart and pulled out his core.

11 silverlight gathered. 10 absorbed

The uekisheile didn’t even bother to comment. They ate Selfish’s qi and disappeared back inside me. Apparently, the bishkawi wasn’t as interesting as tinkering with my qi and looking for ways to condense it further. Not that I minded--it gave the uekisheile something to do, and I was looking forward to the results.

Done, I said a few words over his body and snuck back to the cliff overlooking Ikfael Glen.

###

The scene was a mess; just a bloody mess. Literally. Turkey and bishkawi carcasses were strewn about like the litter after Mardis Gras. I smelled the blood, decay, and defecation from forty feet up. What was left of the bodies was steadily being consumed by the bishkawi left alive.

I counted seven in view. There were probably another three posted as sentries. Maybe another two or three foraging? No, that was unlikely. The surviving troop members were listless and still recovering from the fight with the turkeys. So, ten. Unless there were some in the cave below? Better to assume so, just in case.

The alpha was still alive, although the fur along his left shoulder had burned away to leave a bright red, puckered wound. It stretched from the top of his chest, across the shoulder, and up onto the bottom half of the back of his skull. Served the forker right.

The alpha chuffed and snarled as he paced back and forth along the pool’s edge. He howled in rage and dived in. The other bishkawi barely glanced up.

I thought the alpha was cooling the wound, but no, instead he swam down to the bottom of the pool. He slammed at the stone with his right hand. It was the area with the spirit doorway--he pounded at it like he wanted to break it down.

A burst of bubbles broke the surface. Howling underwater wasn’t such a good idea, friend. Suddenly out of breath, the alpha swam for the surface. He pulled himself out of the pool and resumed his pacing.

Nothing else happened for the next half an hour. My main observations were:

There was no sign of Ikfael. Given the alpha’s behavior, I felt safe in assuming she was still behind the spirit door. The alpha badly wanted through the spirit door. About half the bishkawi were injured, including the alpha. The bishkawi practiced cannibalism; eating from all the carcasses. There was enough meat in the glen--rotting though it may be--to feed the troop for another day or two at least.

Also, while I couldn’t be sure, I strongly suspected that the cores of all the dead animals went to the alpha. There was just something about him--he felt stronger, even though he was wounded.

I’d seen enough and backed away from the cliff’s edge. Before leaving though, I prepared another care package for my bishkawi friends. One of them was eventually due to change shifts with the one I’d poisoned.