PreCursive

  The mo was huge, taller than I was. Mostly regur with a fred and then tiered design at the top, it was resting on a set of circur stairs. It was set directly in the ter of the forest clearing that I had found, bathed in the peaceful m light. I stepped into the clearing in order to get a better look at it, entranced.

  As I got closer to the mo, I was able to make out more details on it. It was absolutely covered in moss, but I swear that I could see a glint of somethih the foliage. Climbing the stairs to stand in front of the mo, I tried to wipe the moss out of the way. It was really stu there though, so I used the bde of my spear to scrape it away, careful not to damage the stoh. When I succeeded in scraping away the moss, my breath caught in my throat.

  There was a rge, twisting design of a seven-armed spiral etched on the face of the mo. Eborately detailed, it looked to me like the design had beeched on some kind of turquoise crystal set into the stone. Furrowing my brow, I realized that the design was familiar.

  After all, I’d seen it just yesterday on the robe of the Preceptor.

  Below the spiral-etched crystal, I could see a line of text written in familiar-looking runes. Above the design though, there appeared to be a rge, blue gem of some kind, cut into the shape of a triangle. However, the stone was jagged and broken. Half of it looked like it had been ripped away.

  I stepped back to goggle at the surprisingly beautiful mo when it was fully revealed. What was this thing? It looked too beautiful, too eborate to have been deliberately abandoned like this in the middle of a random forest clearing. Furrowing my brow, I stepped closer to the writing oo was done in what looked like something simir to Enting ruhey weren’t a plete match, but it was like the differeween modern English and old English to my eyes. I thought I could puzzle out the meaning if I tried.

  “H-here…look-no…lies? The…d-” I tried to sound out the runes, but I was interrupted before I could get very far.

  “Here yeth the door to the stars,” I heard a familiar voice say from behiartled, I turned around as quickly as I could, instinctively readying my spear. I have bothered, though.

  It was Venix, the Antium I had sort of met yesterday.

  He had somehow snuto the clearing while I was absorbed in p the mo. He was still wearing the same hat and robe, and was standing maybe te from my position. Eyeing his four swords, I remembered how this hadn’t seemed to be my biggest faerday. My grip on my spear tightened.

  He tinued speaking while I was iing him. “Step forward, wayfarer, onto the celestial road. With opes, embrace yon brothers and sisters yet discovered.” He was silent for a moment, simply staring at the mo himself. “That’s what it says. This…is a broken portal stone.”

  Oh.

  I risked a gnce back over my shoulder at the mo. I remember Azarus telling me about these. Once upon a time, millennia ago, there had been a w portal work between a bunch of different ps. Then the ‘Gods’ had goo war with each other, and now they were nearly all broken in some way. Apparently, there was only one w portal sto on Vereden, and eve was limited. It could only access oher phe ohat the Orcs, Goblins, and Antium called home.

  Indiqua.

  Speaking of Antium…

  Turning around, I saw that Venix was fag me as well. Before I could say anything, he reached up to take his hat off. For the first time, I got to see the Antium man’s face.

  He…didn’t look as bug-like as I was expeg.

  His facial features were mostly remi of humanity. He had a mouth, a nose, and two eyes. None of them were quite like they were on me, for example, but they existed. He wasn’t very fleshy though, as his skin seemed to be made of a more inflexible copper-colored chitin. His head was pletely bald of any hair, with only his two long anteig out of his forehead. His nose was mostly ft and ent except for a slight rise with two vertical slits for nostrils. His mouth was simir to a human as well, if not wide and possessed of rather more…poieeth in a human, obsidian in c. The light glinting off of his eyes drew my attention as well, letting me see that while they weren’t pletely pound like an actual ant’s, they were still partially. He still had the normal white sclera, but he didn’t have either a visible pupil or iris. Instead, it looked like a pitch-bpound structure.

  Other than…all of that, his facial features seemed mostly human proportions, if not with a slightly wider jaw. The overall effect was…a little odd. It was almost uny.

  However, he wasn’t making a hostile move.

  Instead, Venix was bowing his head in my dire.

  “I’d like to apologize,” He told me, in his odd, ft tone of voice. “I leveled an accusation at you yesterday that was uncalled for.”

  I bli him, caught off guard. “Did you...track me all the way out here just to apologize?” I asked incredulously, rexing my grip on my spear.

  Venix gave a short, sharp shake of his head in the ive. “I did not. I was already in the viity when I perceived your presence.”

  We stood around in awkward silence for a moment. Well, at least I did. Venix gave no indication that he felt anything at all. I cleared my throat. “Well…apology accepted. I see how someone would have thought my Bond Breaker was a Ward Breaker.” I paused for a moment, before turning back around to look at the portal stone. “Broken, huh. Do you know much about the portal stones?”

  I heard Venix approach closer to the mo, but not step onto the stairs. “Not especially. However, I have entered them before. All members of the Hive that step foot on Vereden must pass through ohat is where I learhe inscription.”

  I turned around to face him anyway in my curiosity. “So you’ve been through one of the portals before? What was that like?”

  Venix was silent for a moment. With his upper right arm, he poio the rge green crystal spiral etched on the mo. “This is not true crystal. It is the portal itself, shrunken and solidified. Upon activation, in a w portal sto would expand outward into the portal itself, turning to pure energy as it did so. Then,” He moved his finger up to point at the broken blue gem. “Whatever that is, it would fire some form of…beam at the portal, setting the destination. O, you walk through the portal. It is an instantaneous transition. You ot sehe meism behind it. The only reason you are able to tell you have moved ps is due to the ge iher density.”

  I raised an eyebrow at him. “Does Indiqua have a weaker density or something?”

  Venix gave me a small, mirthless smile. “The opposite. The Aether density is strohan Vereden's. Thus, the monsters are stronger and appear more frequently. The jungle is…merciless.”

  Huh. If the Aether is denser over there, and so are the monsters…

  I’m guessing the people are generally strooo.

  I didn’t ask though. I just turned back to look at the broken portal stone. “I wonder how they really work.”

  Venix stepped up beside me. I could see him shake his head. “I do not know. Nobody truly does, which is why the other ps are lost to us. Their operation is fairly simple, however. Around the back, you will be able to see the trol meisms.”

  Curious, I stepped around to the back of the moo see what he was talking about. I retty surprised about what I found.

  Set into the back of the stone in a rge circle were six cemstohe size of my fist, surrounding a rge rune in the ter. Differently from the front of the mo, none of them were covered in moss. From the top in a clockwise motion, they were red, e, yellow, blue, a sort of blue-ish purple, and finally purple.

  That wasn’t what surprised me, however.

  Laying at the foot of the mo below me, what looked like a puppy was napping in the m sunlight. Croug down to get a better look, I discovered that this definitely wasn’t a young dog of some kind.

  It was a young wolf.

  It was lying on its side, snoozing without a care in the world. It was an almost steel grey in color, and holy pretty cute. The only thing was, I could it that it wasn’t a normal wolf. Growing on its forehead, just in front of its tiny pointed ears, were two small bumps on its forehead. I wonder if this was an infant monster or something? I’d never seen something like that before. Curious, I used Observe on it.

  Name:

  Level: 3

  Age: 2 months

  Species: Spirit Wolf

  I bli the small, snoozing wolf puppy. I…guess it wasn’t a monster, after all. Normally, a monster’s species was just listed with Observe as a monster. Not whatever a Spirit Wolf was. No ability listiher.

  Odd.

  Venix stepped around the mo, I guess because I’d been silent. He spotted the puppy as well. His hairless brow raised in surprise. “A Spirit Wolf?” He said incredulously, for onjeg emotion into his voice. I guess he had Observed it as well.

  The sound of Venix’s voice seemed to finally do the tri waking up the pup, as it yawned and stretched from its position ooairs. Blinking open a pair of startlingly greehe pup got to its feet and raised its head to look at me. It tilted its head to the side, almost as if it was studying me.

  For a wild animal, it was surprisingly unafraid of either of us.

  I raised my owo look at Venix from my croug position. “You know what it is?”

  “Only through stories.” He told me, still staring at the young wolf in surprise. “It is a type of Mystic Beast, rarely seen. In the past, they are said to act as guides and protectors for lost…wayfarers...” He trailed off, his eyes flig to the mo for a moment. With a small shake of his head, he tinued. “I had thought them a myth, in truth. I’ve never heard of one appearing as a pup, however…”

  Mystic Beast…

  Guess I have ahing to ask Grey about, when he has the time.

  Struck by a sudden urge, I stuck my hand out for the pup to smell. It leaned in and s a few times, causing it to sneeze. After that though, it licked my hand a few times before barking at me.

  Feeling a smile grow on my face, I put my hand on its head and started to pet the ‘Spirit Wolf’. It seemed to enjoy that, from its renewed panting. Suddenly looking up at me, I locked eyes with the pup.

  My green eyes met its own.

  I…felt something, then. I couldn’t put it into words accurately. Beyond Magic, or Cultivation, or even Statuses, it felt like I was somehow brushing my soul against the pups. It wasn’t scary at all, though. Somehow, I could feel the inquisitiveness of the young wolf under my hand. At the same time, I could feel that it wasn’t surprised at this tact at all. Slowly, formlessly, I could feel the creature pose a question to me.

  I blinked, breaking the tact. A little dizzy, I looked back up at Venix. “Has…anyone ever taken a Spirit Wolf as a…pet?”

  Venix bli me slowly. “No.” He said. “I don’t believe they have.”

  “Well,” I said, gazing back down at the patiently waiting pup. I opened up my arms. The young wolf jumped into them at the wordless gesture. He wasn’t very big right now, only about the size of a small dog bae, so it was easy for me to stand up under his full weight. The pup settled into my arms as if he belohere. “I guess I’ll be the first.”

  “Very well,” Venix said. I got the feeling he didn’t know how to react to the whole situation. He shook his head. “We should be returning to the encampment. They’re likely ready to leave by now.”

  I him, before making my way doweps of the broken portal stone. My new wolf watched the world curiously from his spa my arms. When I didn’t hear Venix following me, I turned around to see what was holding him up.

  Venix had folded his four arms bato his sleeves and was gazing at the stone pensively. I opened my mouth to ask him what , but he interrupted me before I could.

  “Mo now still,

  Entment’s touch fades away,

  Forest keeps its tale.”

  With a deep sigh, Venix turned away from the stone and walked dowairs. “I will gather your kill. You are…occupied.” With that, Venix walked over to the dead deer I had left over on the edge of the clearing and easily picked it up. I noticed he was careful not to get any of its blood on his white robe.

  I looked down at the pup in my arms, causing it to look up at me curiously. “Did he just haiku?” I asked, bemused. The pup barked at me in response.

  Flig my eyes back to the mo briefly, I thought about Venix’s spontaneous poem.

  Entment’s touch fades away…

  “How about Fade, huh?” I asked the Spirit Wolf in my arms.

  Fade barked at me again.

  I guess he liked it.