Chapter 12 – Chasing Wind

  Zephyr flew from the tent as fast as she could move. Behind her, she felt something cutting through the air rushing after her, and she instinctively dodged letting the wind guide her movements.

  A dagger went flying by. Had she not dodged in time, it would’ve gone straight through her. She didn’t expect that kind of accuracy. She remained invisible the whole time and wasn’t sure how she was found out. The last thing she recalled was seeing Clayton’s eye shine for a second right before she felt a dangerous level of bloodlust focused on her. It was the same glow that Jack’s eyes sometimes did, and she ran immediately.

  Now Zephyr watched the dagger fly past, getting a vague sense of corruption emanating from the weapon. If it was a normal dagger, while still dangerous, she might’ve been able to recover from it, but that thing sent a shiver through her. She didn’t know what would’ve happened if that had touched her. But Zephyr didn’t stop to ponder it. She was already soaring through the air far above the camp, but she doubted that Clayton would give up that easily.

  The sky started to fill with rocks thrown by the Wenduags. At this point, she was too far away to pinpoint accurately, but she could still feel Clayton’s eyes trying to locate her, directing them. The Wenduags didn’t have Clayton’s sight and looked like they were trying to hit her with a lucky throw by filling the sky. But these were easy for her to avoid. Clayton might have had a vague idea of where she was, but he didn’t have a lock on her yet. She couldn’t let him find her.

  Zephyr soared down into the jungle, trying to disappear into the maze of bamboo and trees. The Wenduags gave chase after her, their speed almost as fast as hers, the terrain not slowing them down, but how were they seeing her?

  Zephyr zipped through the trees, trusting in the guidance of the wind to direct her. The Wenduags were fast, but they couldn’t fit through the openings that she could. They had to constantly break through or navigate around them to keep up. Still, no matter how far she ran, they wouldn’t give up. Soon, she wasn’t even sure how far she had gone.

  The only means she had to track such things was the bond between her and Daniel. The tether that linked them had increased recently, but she was still pushing the limits of their connection.

  Zephyr tried circling back several times, but every time she thought she slipped away, the Wenduags were right back on her tail a moment later. She led them through the jungle, down the cliff, up a mountain, and across rivers, but they never stopped their chase.

  She tried to lead them into a nest of other beasts and use the distraction to escape. But every time she found some, the beasts would flee instead of engaging the Wenduags. Zephyr was still trying to think of a way out of this, when the winds practically screamed at her to dodge.

  She obeyed, trusting in the wind, dodging down close to the ground. She was flying just above a river now and the moment she had ducked, a large, black streak flew past her coming from the opposite direction. The streak ignored her, instead moving to intercept the Wenduags.

  In an instant too fast for the Wenduags to respond to, a large Chualtala wrapped itself around the lead Wenduag, knocking another away and biting down into a third. It dragged both, the one it grabbed and the one that was still in its mouth, down into the river, disappearing into it. The remaining Wenduags stopped their pursuit to deal with the new threat, and Zephyr finally had her chance to escape.

  She disappeared into the jungle, trying to put as much distance between herself and the two creatures fighting. She almost wanted to hang back and see the fight, but it was too risky right now. She needed to get back to the others to tell them what she found, but she wasn’t entirely sure where she was now.

  The link between Zephyr and Daniel gave her a vague idea. She knew she would be able to find her way back eventually, but she needed to make sure that the Wenduags weren’t pursuing her anymore.

  Zephyr continued to run for another hour before letting herself take a break. She came to rest, hidden on a high branch of a tree, no longer trusting her invisibility to hide her. She was there for what felt like just a moment, when she heard something moving below her.

  Zephyr was about to start flying again, afraid that the Wenduags had managed to catch up to her, but she stopped herself. It didn’t sound like a Wenduag, and the winds didn’t reach out to her letting her know there was a danger nearby.

  Instead, Zephyr moved along the tree’s branches, using the leaves to keep her concealed. She wanted to see what was moving around below. It might be something interesting, maybe even a new friend, but best to be careful.

  Zephyr crept closer to the creature as it moved across the ground. Whatever it was, it wasn’t trying to conceal its presence at all. Zephyr was able to track the creature easily and it wasn’t long before she was able to see it.

  She was expecting maybe a large predator. Something that was strong enough to not care about hiding. It would be a rather arrogant beast if that was the case, but there was no telling what kind of beasts lived in the Jungle of the Four Lords. If it was strong enough to survive here and not have to rely on stealth, then perhaps it deserved to be a little arrogant.

  However, what Zephyr saw wasn’t a beast, and it certainly wasn’t strong. It was another human, but not one that Zephyr recognized. It was a male human, not as tall or dark as Victor or Teresa, but not as short as Jack was. It stood there in the middle of the underbrush, confused and looking everywhere as though searching for something. Zephyr took the opportunity to inspect the human.

  *Human – Bryant Reed*

  Level 1 Class ? Path ?

  There wasn’t a lot of information available for Zephyr to gather. He continued to move around the jungle oblivious to anyone watching him. Zephyr followed along but made sure to stay out of the person’s view. She wasn’t sure how much she trusted this new human. She hoped he would be like the others in their group, but what if he was another Clayton?

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  It was best if she just waited and watched for now. She didn’t have to watch for long though. The human started getting frustrated in his search and eventually started yelling.

  “Yo, Jack,” Bryant called out as loud as he could. “Where are you?”

  *~*

  Bryant appeared in the new world completely naked. That last part surprised him. The least that P.A.T.C.H. thing could have done was to give him some clothes. Sure, he couldn’t take anything with him, but surely it could have given him something to start with. What was more, instead of starting in a town or village, he had appeared in the middle of a jungle, of all places.

  So, Bryant stood there naked and alone with nothing but the hot humid air for company. The only small piece of comfort was that the System started him out in what looked like a basic camp. Very basic. There wasn’t even a tent.

  Instead, there was a hovel made of stone and twigs. Bryant didn’t trust going in there. Probably had snakes or spiders living in it right now. Other than that, there was an abandoned campfire and a few half-dozen unfinished projects left about the area. The whole camp looked to be abandoned a while ago.

  Alongside the unfinished projects, there were also several spears placed around the camp. So many spears. Not nice ones either. These were more tribal in style, but they held together better than they looked. At least that was nice. No food, but there was a river nearby, so Bryant should be able to do some fishing for food. He never fished before, but it shouldn’t be too hard to do.

  At least, that is what he thought when he started, but after the twentieth failed attempt of trying to use the spear to catch fish, he quickly gave that up. Instead, Bryant went foraging. It didn’t take him long to find some fruits growing nearby. That at least served as a food source, something he desperately needed right now.

  It also served to accomplish a quest he didn’t know he had. It appeared, blocking his sight and nearly making him jump back in surprise. If he hadn’t seen some of these already when he was with P.A.T.C.H. then it would have freaked him out.

  Now, he stared at the message and the pile of clothes that had appeared before him. It took some work, but he eventually figured out how to get the message to go away, and he quickly pulled on the clothes.

  It was a nice change and learning that the System calling itself ‘The Great Game’ was more accurate than he thought and it helped him start to look at things a little differently. But he was still confused about two things. Bryant asked the System to send him where Jack was, but Jack was nowhere in sight upon arrival. He thought that the camp might have been something that Jack made, so he had stayed around the area waiting to see if Jack came back to it, but now a couple of days had passed and there was still no sign of Jack anywhere.

  The second part that confused him about the situation was why would the System send him to start in a jungle if Jack wasn’t there? Even if the System couldn’t send him directly to Jack for whatever reason or if it had sent him to a different Jack, why a jungle? It was not his first choice in starting locations and he couldn’t imagine Jack, or anyone, choosing such a location.

  At least he had water, shade, and now clothes to wear, but this wouldn’t last long. He was getting his first real experience with exposure and knew that he would have to do something soon. But the System ignored him when he called out to it, and now he was here, alone, not sure what to do. On the third day, Bryant decided to act.

  Bryant left the camp carrying one of the better spears as he searched the nearby area for any signs of Jack or other people. He asked to be sent to him, and all he could do now was assume that he had been. Optimism was free right? So, he went looking for anything that might give him an idea of where Jack might have gone off to.

  Bryant knew nothing about hiking or tracking. He grew up in mostly urban areas his whole life, and he wasn’t much of a fan of the outdoors. Too many bugs. But there was nothing for it now.

  So, Bryant walked around. He was just trying to see what he could find nearby, but he quickly found himself lost among the trees. The vegetation was difficult to navigate and hard to keep track of after a while. He wasn’t even sure if he would be able to find his way back to the camp. Resulting in him searching not just for Jack, but also a way back.

  He must have spent most of the day searching with nothing to show for it when he decided to just do what he had been wanting to do since he arrived.

  Taking a deep breath, Bryant called out as loud as he could, “Yo, Jack. Where are you?”

  It was a stupid thing to do. Every predator in the area must have heard him. He hadn’t seen any since he arrived, but it was a jungle. There were probably a ton of predators everywhere that he couldn’t see.

  Bryant waited for some kind of response. Maybe a crack of a twig, a rustle of leaves, or Jack calling back to him, but nothing came. The ambient noise of the jungle was never particularly loud, but after Bryant’s call, all sounds came to a stop.

  Admittedly, that was eerie, but what else was there to do? So, he decided to try again. He took another deep breath but was stopped by something small and invisible grabbing his mouth and forcing it closed.

  Bryant immediately freaked out, trying to get away from whatever had grabbed him, but it held him tight.

  “Quiet!” came a hushed but insistent voice in his ear. “They’ll hear you.”

  Bryant stopped his struggling at that. What would hear me? As though in answer, Bryant heard movement coming towards him and it was coming fast.

  “Quick! Hide now!” the voice whispered in his ear and pulled him into the a nearby bush.

  Bryant obeyed, not thinking twice about it. All he knew was that he didn’t want to meet whatever was coming. He quickly hid himself in the underbrush, making himself as small as possible. He barely had enough time to do that before there was a loud thump of a creature landing on the ground nearby.

  From Bryant’s position, he couldn’t see much. What he could see was a pair of large hairy feet that made him believe in big foot. It moved around the area quickly, making circles. It clearly knew that this was where the sound came from, but so far had not spotted Bryant.

  For his part, Bryant barely even breathed. He watched it all in frozen terror as the large creature got low to the ground and Bryant got his first real view of it. Like a gorilla, except it had brownish-green fur with three eyes and four arms! The thing looked more like a monster than an animal and it only caused Bryant to freeze up more. He wasn’t even sure if he was breathing at all now.

  It placed a large club down as it focused on sniffing the ground, and Bryant felt his heart sink. There was no way a creature like this wouldn’t be able to sniff him out. It was over. The only thing he might be able to do is to try and make his death a difficult one. Bryant gripped the spear trying to build up the courage to attack the thing.

  Who knows? Maybe he could shock it with his clearly stupid decision to attack it, that he might be able to hurt it enough to get away. Yeah, that was possible right? He was just about to make his move when something strange happened.

  The creature sniffed a few more times and then looked away, but not in Bryant’s direction. The sound of laughter echoed from far away and the creature went running off into the jungle once again.

  “We need to move now,” the voice whispered to him again. “I was able to shift the wind and distract it, but that won’t last for long. We shouldn’t be here when it comes back.”

  “Where can I go?” Bryant asked softly. “Is any place safe from that thing?”

  “There is. Come follow me,” The voice said. “My name is Zephyr by the way. A friend of Jack’s.”