Hounds Rising

Leaf sat in the back of Ana’s cart, his horse tied to the front, with Ana at the reins. He was exhausted and didn’t want to study more, but he knew it had to be done. The evening had already come in, and he stared at the water as they traveled, lost in his thoughts.

The night came quickly, and the cold with it. Thankfully, the storms had passed in the afternoon, but autumn was on its way. Mr. Muffins had already spotted a place to make camp, and the party had already started working at setting up their spaces.

The fire was made quickly, and most of the party had already laid down, but Ana and Lyla stayed up with Leaf, who had been in a trance, staring into the flames. Small creatures had already started to scurry around, but they paid no mind to them. Ana was the first to break the silence.

“Leaf?”

“Yes?”

“How are you?”

He was confused by the question. They had all seen the lightning hit him and could see that the rest he had taken today had done well for his body. He realized they weren’t asking about physical ailments.

“I’m- I’m doing okay. Shocked, but better,” He chuckled at his joke.

“Just checking in on you,” Ana stated calmly.

“It has been a crazy few weeks. A lot has happened lately, and you haven’t had a chance to talk about it,” Lyla piped up.

“Yeah…” Leaf trailed off.

“I feel like this won’t be the last of things like this, being the Archmage and all,” Ana started.

“Don’t remind me,” Leaf smirked awkwardly.

Leaf felt awkward in the moment. He wasn’t used to being asked about these things. He pulled up his spellbook again, flipping absentmindedly. It took a few minutes, but then he spoke again.

“You know, this reminds me of the first time I ever performed magic. I had been locked out of my home for the night because I refused to accept the plans my family was trying to force on me.”

He paused, staring back into the fire.

“I had to have only been fifteen at the time, and I had wandered just outside the edge of town for hours. I had no money, was tired, and I found a clearing, somewhat like this one, and gathered the materials necessary to start a fire.”

Leaf paused again, the memories flowing in his mind. He looked around for a moment, then turned to Lyla.

“I couldn’t even get it to start!” He laughed. “I got so mad; everything was just too much, and I remember just… screaming and throwing my hands down. Then, the wood sparked black out of nowhere, and a green fire lit.”

Leaf stopped and stared into the distance, but it was like he was looking at that fire again.

“You know, from that moment, I was ravenous in my search for knowledge of the arcane, which led me to now,” He finished softly.

They sat silently, and Leaf was unsure if he said too much. Then, Lyla’s voice rose into the air. She stretched her arms out and placed them behind her head, staring at the sky.

“It’s been so long since we’ve roughed it in the wilderness.”

Leaf watched as she wiggled from her spot a moment, reaching down to pull a rock out from under her and tossing it to the side.

“I liked our caravan with the carnival, but nothing beats seeing all the stars this clearly!”

Ana and Leaf joined her in looking at the sky. The clouds had disappeared entirely, and the stars twinkled brightly. Myla stirred in her spot, then got up and sat next to her sister. Leaf noticed that they were speaking, but no words came from their mouth.

“Remember when Dad used to take us on those bonding trips?” She asked Myla, who nodded tiredly after a few minutes of silence. Lyla turned to Leaf and kept going.

“He would occasionally take us on his shipments since he always traveled as a merchant. Sometimes, he’d take just one of us, but we’d get to go with him every now and then. We’d lay on the ground at night and make our constellations. I made one, which was just a beautiful set of tits,” She laughed.

Leaf smiled, and he could hear Mr. Muffins snort, his back turned away from the party.

“I know who I was at a young age,” Lyla stated confidently. “But believe it or not, as much fun and trouble we’d get into together, Myla and I didn’t always get along. We got in a big fight one time on one of those trips, and I got lost for a bit after storming off.”

Lyla trailed off sadly, looking at her sister for a long moment, then turned her eyes to the stars. She closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and finished.

“I found the most beautiful waterfall I’d ever seen, and the stars there shined brighter than any festival. Very serene, probably the calmest I’ve ever felt, really… at least until I got hungry and panicked,” She smirked. “Luckily, I wasn’t too far from our camp. Just my luck that a pair of tits in the sky would lead me home.”

Leaf watched as Lyla looked over at Rhokhishi, who was also awake, resting on her bedroll. She blew a kiss to her, and they both smiled.

Myla flopped onto her stomach next to her sister and then jumped in.

“I miss him,” She said quietly, looking at the ground.

She started to absentmindedly pull at the grass, plucking up small sections and laying them in a pile together.

“I never quite got why he focused on teaching me how to pick locks instead of you,” She said to her sister. “Maybe it was because of how much I loved puzzles, like the ones he would bring with him when I couldn’t join. Or Hel, maybe he figured I needed to be a little more naughty and that you already had plenty of mischief to go around.”

Myla smiled, half rolling to bump into Lyla’s body playfully. Leaf smiled, too.

“I wonder how he’d feel to know that we ended up being travelers after all, nonetheless circus performers! Mom never liked Shaynth, probably because they were a stranger I encountered in the woods, but they helped me better manage my empathy.”

She trailed for a second, and Leaf could see a thought forming. It dawned on her quickly, her eyes opening wide.

“Didn’t Mr. Muffins make a document satchel? I could send a letter to Shaynth back at the circus! It would probably be kind of me to update them.”

Mr. Muffins turned in his bedroll, tossing the satchel over to Myla.

“It seems like none of us are going to get any sleep right now anyway. Paper, ink, and quill are in the front pocket.”

“Thank you, Mr. Muffins!”

Myla quickly pulled out the items and worked on her letter silently. Every now and then, Leaf saw Lyla lean over and read over her shoulder, but Myla didn’t seem to mind.

The night grew quiet as the party slowly started to get comfortable, then fell asleep. The following day, they woke, gathered their things, and started further down the path. They stopped around noon near a small stream. The party gathered water, fed their horses, and rested for a while. Lyla walked over to Leaf, leaned against her horse, and looked around to see if anyone was listening. Content, she spoke.

“When Myla saw Helena’s memories, something odd happened.”

“Yeah? What?”

“Normally, when she dives like that, she can see the person. She said there were gaps this time like someone had pulled pages from a book. The weirdest part is when she shared the memories with me, a name jumped out. Odin.”

“Odin? Deity, Odin?” Leaf asked.

“I’m worried about the ties Helena has with him. Was she on his side, or was she against him? What if they both come back? We barely handled one of them.”

Leaf thought momentarily, recollecting his studies at Berkton Academy and some of the books Orin had him read as an apprentice.

“I tend not to bother with Gods, so I don’t know. The Book of Io spoke about him, and it’s common enough knowledge that he existed and walked among people. What’s the likelihood that we encountered a deity yesterday?” He asked.

Lyla pulled at the strings of her satchel and pulled the book out. She handed it over to Leaf.

“Feel this.”

The book was warm to the touch as if it had been placed by a fire and left in the sun all day. Together, they opened the book and searched the pages. When they reached the empty pages of the back, Lyla gasped.

The last entry in the book, from what Leaf had found that night, was the information given by The Curator. This time, a new page had been written in. Little was on it, spread out, but he read it aloud.

“Augur’s Trust Members. Odin Borson, Alyk Tenison, and Helena Harkspell.”

Odin’s name was also crossed out, and it still felt hot to the touch. He wondered if there was a connection to Odin’s appearance, the memories, and the book.

“It seems like Helena is her real name and that she did work with Odin at some point, as well as with The Curator,” He stated.

“We could have asked her about him! If only we had known,” Lyla grunted, frustrated by the circumstances.

“Maybe that was Odin. Either way, we don’t have enough information yet to know much more. Let’s check the book regularly and see if more information pops up.”