Chapter 1.
A young girl leaned out of an open-topped floater as it blazed low above the parched grassland. The fierce wind whipped her loose black hair and beat against her pointy, fox-like ears, but her eyes stayed fixed on the fast-moving ground, searching for a flash of blue among a sea of red.
“Look, Myrine! So much blood thyme!”
“You are right, Lady Rimenari. I wonder, what else might grow here?”
“I was thinking exactly that. Halloa, Damias! Stop the floater!”
Before the cabriolet could stop, Rimenari jumped out, gracefully landed on a hot patch of sand, and dashed to the large group of red flowers. The buzzing bees scattered as she began to comb through them, careful that her bushy tail did not touch the flowers behind. They were here to complete a university assignment, but Rimenari personally hoped to find a few rare herbs that did not grow in her homeland. Like thaumos. It preferred mana-poor soil, and often grew among blood thyme.
Soon a familiar pair of feet decorated only with a simple cord anklet tiptoed into the edge of her vision — it was naturally Myrine trying not to disturb any flower. Tymeia, predictably, lacked such care.
“Why must these plants be so hard and uncomfortable to walk on?” she complained. The rustling of dry vegetation was so loud that it was impressive in itself. “They are scratching my feet! And there are insects everywhere! Besides, are we not here to collect a water sample from the brook?”
Rimenari smiled to herself. It was a miracle her friend had agreed to join them after their previous expedition, when she had had a rather unpleasant encounter with a certain fey-plant whose thorns were vicious enough to pierce both aura and skin. Perhaps she liked it more than she said?
“You could have waited in the floater, you know.”
“And be left behind afterwards? No, thank you very much!”
“Lady Rimenari, here!”
Rimenari rushed to Myrine. Between her hands was a small, dark blue flower with a pastel pink centre — exactly what she hoped to see.
“Perfect, Myrine! <Storage.>”
Scissors and mana-blocking gloves materialised in Rimenari’s hand. She leaned over the flower just as a long plait struck her in the head.
“Ah, sorry,” said Tymeia, who also leaned over the flower. “Oh, is that thaumos? The dried ones don’t have such a pretty colour.”
Rimenari shook her head and placed the flower in the bag.
“Tymeia, help us search for more. If luck is on our side, there will be one for everyone.”
Otherwise, Myrine would never accept the flower as her own but insist Rimenari should take it, and then, Rimenari would need to spend the next ten minutes insisting it belonged to Myrine, for she was the one who had found it.
Thankfully, there were two more.
“What do you think of walking from here?” asked Rimenari, glancing at Tymeia. “I have had enough sitting for one day, and perhaps we will find some other rare plants.”
“You think so?” Tymeia looked around. “If you insist…”
Rimenari instructed Damias to look after the floater and the trio set off towards the forest. Soon the grassland began to give way to the woodland, with sparse, young pines pioneering their advance into the new territory, and after finding the path, they passed beneath a canopy of green shade.
Rimenari savoured the forest air carrying the scent of pine and the chirping of birds. Almost like at her home. Now if only some foolish fey-beast blocked their path!
“There!” Tymeia cried. “Something moved!”
A red squirrel bolted onto a trunk and into the canopy. Rimenari laughed.
“What did you think it was — an oxyprikekos? Damias said one was sighted recently. Perhaps it is waiting for us?”
Myrine’s hand shot towards her sword. Was she still afraid of them?
“A fey-beast parents scare their children with?” Tymeia’s voice suggested she did not believe in the stories at all.
“Well, they are extremely dangerous to children. An oxyprikekos's claws can cut through aura with ease, so perhaps you should come closer to me. Who knows, one may drop on us at any moment.”
“You really know how to scare people! Look at Myrine; she is trembling!”
Myrine’s fingers whitened from gripping the hilt, and her eyes were fixed on the canopy above. Her tail, too, was frozen in place.
“I am sorry, Myrine. I only wanted to put some common sense into Tymeia’s head. I shall kill any before it can lay a scratch on either of you; I killed plenty when I was younger.”
“Haven’t you just said they are dangerous to children?”
“Lady Rimenari is elenia!”
“You could say so. My aura was much thicker than that of a normal child, so it was not in particular dangerous, and besides, they rarely attack adults and are troublesome to track down. It was more efficient to let them come to me.”
She had also been thoroughly scolded once her mothers found out she had been doing it alone, but her friends did not need to know this detail.
“Ugh,” Tymeia grumbled, “as if cones were not enough, there are now fallen sticks everywhere! I am sure I already have resin all over my feet!”
Rimenari paused, examining the forest floor. As expected, there were plenty of old branches broken by the wind, but there was also one that attracted her attention. It was cleanly cut.
“The oxyprikekos may not be just a rumour, after all,” she said, picking it up. It could have been cut by an elenkyri, not a beast, but why would anyone cut a branch and then leave it? “Stay close to me. It is unlikely to attack our group, but if one of you strays too far, it may dare.”
Her mana sense was useless against oxyprikekos, so she focused on her hearing and watched the canopy. This slowed their pace a little, and even Tymeia’s complaints had stopped.
“Rimi!” said Tymeia. “Look, someone is lying there!”
About a hundred tails from where they stood, a pair of legs lay on the path, with the rest of the body obscured by young trees and bushes. Rimenari doubted the person just took a nap.
“Keep a few steps behind me.”
She unsheathed her mithril sword. While surveying the area, she carefully approached the body.
She halted a step away from it. There were dark stains on the ground, but she did not see any other signs of a fight. The immediate question was: was the beast still about? Her mana sense detected only her two friends, but it was hardly conclusive. Many fey-beasts excel at masking their auras — or are still dangerous despite having little mana, like oxyprikekos — and why would a predator leave its dinner? She perked her ears but heard only the distant song of birds and her own quickened heartbeat.
Finally, she stepped forward and moved aside the arching brambles. His clothes were red from all the blood, but at least she had not found a half-eaten corpse. Three parallel gashes started at the neck and continued to the back, with another set, though shallower, marking his side. The spacing was what she would expect from oxyprikekos claws, though this alone should not be enough to kill an adult, even if he was drenkyri. And his tail— his tail!
The tail was severed.
Rimenari averted her gaze from the bloodied stump. She closed her eyes for a moment and took a deep breath to compose herself.
“It is too late to help this drenkyri. Judging from the wounds, it looks as though an oxyprikekos attacked him and scurried away with his tail — though how it managed to do so, I cannot imagine. You may come closer, if you wish.”
“Thank you, but I believe I shall remain here,” replied Tymeia. “So it is not only children who must beware of oxyprikekos…”
“I wonder…” She heard of this happening, but the beast would need to be desperate to risk attacking an adult. Moreover, something here was not quite right. “The man is holding a short sword, yet there is no blood on it. His wounds, too, look a little suspicious — his aura and clothes should have absorbed much of the impact, but the gashes are deep. And severing the tail of a living elenkyri is no simple task.”
Rimenari gently turned his face. The sight made her pause. “Halloa! I have seen him somewhere!”
This was enough to move even the reluctant Tymeia. She turned pale upon seeing the dead body.
“By Kebe, it’s Hepatos!”
“Hepatos?”
“A gardener employed by my family. He approached me yesterday, asking if I would be so kind as to bloom a branch of Nymph’s Chime if he were to bring one back. He wanted to give it to his sweetheart — oh, how could it end like this?”
So this must have been his goal. The only place around where that tree grew was further north.
Rimenari returned to the path and examined the ground. She found only traces of blood.
“I do not like the look of this. Let us investigate further.”
“Umm, the water sample…” Myrine muttered.
“We can do both. What do you think about having Damias send word to the police, while we investigate the area and collect the water sample before they arrive? There should be sufficient time.”
“Yes, let us do that!” exclaimed Tymeia. “We must avenge Hepatos, for the sake of his sweetheart!”