Chapter 35

A problems heart

Clara, Mountain tunnels

"I know that what I've done will seem unnecessary to you once you wake from this state, you'll probably ask why I had to expend all your aura rather than simply explain while you were captive," Azoth said. "I'm a good at gauging people, I doubted you would legitimately listen to me if you were forced to." Why did it continue to speak, does it not know I can't understand it? "So my answer to you is that I thought this was my only chance to explain." It was silent for a moment before speaking again. "We have to get to the heart quickly, something doesn't feel right."

Erik, Mountain tunnels

Stealth was one of the skills that, despite my mother's efforts, I never got very good at, I just seemed to have some inherent problem with moving silently. Because of this, I chose to stay in the back of the group with Liath, Carter, and Argus as we tailed these two. Dusty was in the lead, Ivory was close behind him and Isaac was in the middle of the group. I could just barely hear the two masked people up ahead talking, it sounded like a rather one-sided conversation. Dusty fell behind for a few moments to get to us.

"Hey, I have a game plan." Dusty started. "I snuck up close enough to overhear the end of their conversation, just a sentence of it."

"What'd they say?" Argus asked.

"They're in a rush to get to 'the heart', and that the lead one feels uneasy," Dusty explained. "And since they're moving so slowly and I'm growing impatient, I was thinking we should give them a scare to speed up the process."

"Done," Carter said, Aura suddenly burning around him as he jetted off. Dusty simply held out his hand and Carter tripped and fell from the golden chains on his legs.

"You're too brash kid, some things require at least a bit of forethought," Dusty said, a small smirk appearing on his face. "Just running at them solo only accomplishes part of what we need, for them to not know how many of us there are."

"Why's that important, seems scarier if they see all of us," Liath added.

"People aren't like Grimm Liath, they care about the number of people and what that number entails," Dusty explained. "If they see two or three of us they'll probably avoid a fight but keep going to this 'heart' and retaliate there, but if they see all of us they'll likely change course to escape and avoid leading a large group there."

"He makes a good point," I said.

"Of course I do, I'm the qualified one here," Dusty said. "I want Liath and Argus to be the chasers, threatening enough to flee from rather than fight but not so much as to make them abort the plan."

"When do you want us to go, sir?" Argus asked.

"Now, and try to act as though you stumbled across them instead of having followed them," Dusty ordered.

"Yes, sir." Argus sped up and Liath did as well, meanwhile, Carter looked a bit downtrodden for not being able to go with them.

Clara, Mountain tunnels

I could smell something again, the smell that made me think of annoyance. It was close by, I decided to turn and pursue it but found myself grabbed by the Azoth before I could get anywhere.

"I smell it too, but we have bigger things to handle," Azoth said. "It's probably one of ou-" Another voice suddenly cut over his and running footfalls became audible. The source was from two creatures, one shrouded in a shiny second skin and the other barely armoured. The shiny one pointed to us and shouted.

"There's some more of them, let's get them!" Shiny shouted.

"We don't have time for this, we're still going to the heart," Azoth said. "With the people there we'll subdue these two easily." The pace sped up immensely as we fled from the two creatures further into the twisting tunnels.

Isaac, Mountain tunnels

I was lagging behind, not so much that I would lose the group thankfully.

"You know, we might catch up if you set me down." Elith started.

"Not this again, I'm not setting you down while you're still injured," I said, I quickly shifted her a bit and jabbed her neck.

"What was that for, that's my thing!" She complained.

"If you get to do that to me when I'm evasive then I get to do it to you if you're being obstinate," I replied. "Among the few good things my dad taught me was that 'you shouldn't go into a deal where you get anything worth less than what the other person is getting'."

"Smart rule, you can have that right then." She conceded.

"So stop complaining, I'll have to set you down soon anyways," I said.

Elith, mountain tunnels

I'd never thought someone could get bored when in the midst of a chase, yet here I was being hurried along and twiddling my thumbs. I checked my wound again to gauge its progress, It was closed enough to where I feel I could probably move and fight slightly unhindered. Wouldn't be a good idea to sprint or fight solo though, need to keep that in mind. The chase continued for 5 minutes before Isaac slowed down, I looked up to see the problem and saw that everyone else had come to a stop.

"They've reached their destination it seems, I want Erik and Carter to rush in first to support Liath and Argus." Dusty whispered. "After that, Ivory and I will run in to provide cover and support."

"What about us?" I asked.

"Keep to the back, defend yourselves as necessary and try to avoid direct fighting," Dusty instructed. "Elith because she's injured and Isaac because we can't leave Elith to fend for herself."

"Hey, I too can fend for myself," I said defensively as Isaac set me down on my feet, I was immediately pained by my wound but managed to keep a straight face.

"I still don't like risks," Dusty said. "I don't want to know what kind of trouble I'll get in for having one of you die on my watch." With that, we proceeded forward in the specified order into the new room, and up ahead I heard Erik's voice sound out.

"Clara?"

Author's notes

Everyone talks about how fear can drive us to do awful things, but there's only a handful of sayings about good goals with bad requirements.