Huh?
Wanwan wagged his tail in midair, standing on the thin, crystalline platform he had made. The other four pups hung at various heights on their own shards of frozen air.
Sol was still in freefall.
Wait. Huh? They can freeze the air? They can make platforms? What?
Wanwan broke his platform on purpose and dove, falling right beside Sol. He lolled his tongue, then licked Sol across the face.
"WAN!! WAN!!" Wanwan pointed with his snout and eyes toward his own feet, as if showing Sol what to do. Trails of freezing air spiraled behind the pups, and behind Sol, where Frostflame bled into the ravine.
"Feet… nose, no? Feet? Tail? I don't have a tail, though."
"BARK!!" Wanwan twisted in midair and made another platform instantly, stopping himself before he dropped any farther.
"FEET! OKAY! FEET!" Sol turned without meaning to, and now he was facing the thin branch of the Dalmas far below the cliff. There was barely any water down there, only stone.
Rough, jagged, edged stone.
Okay. Okay. Okay! He inhaled quick, exhaled, inhaled again, exhaled again. He forced himself into a fast, ugly rhythm, stoking panic into fuel, speeding up the surge of adrenaline.
It worked.
Good. Good. Goodgoodgood. Now… I just have to use my limbs to… huh? The trails of freezing air from his hands and feet began to converge when he focused.
So the amount of air I can freeze depends on how intense the Frostflame is. And to control that…
Even in freefall, the answer came to him almost at once. It felt like second nature. Like he had been taught this as a child, forgotten it, and only now remembered how to breathe it back into shape again.
He forced himself upright and closed his eyes. Light-blue flame burned against the ravine's darkness.
Did… did I do it? Did I stop falling?
Sol opened his eyes very, very slowly.
The river below was a thin excuse for a river, sliding over stone. It flowed right beneath him, less than ten centimeters from his feet. Crystalline frost had spread toward the water, freezing what it could reach.
He took a few seconds to stare at his hands, then his feet, then the patch of flame burning at the center of his chest. It was fading, feeding the blaze in his limbs. Frostflame licked outward, freezing air without mercy, splintering it into crystalline fractures that spread and held.
Wanwan dropped down and stopped himself again, then sat right in front of Sol, tongue lolling, grinning wide. His confidence had been paid in full.
He leaned in for another lick.
"Ow. I know. I know. We're not done yet." Sol looked up.
The massive Apideis Queen hovered in the ravine with her loyal retinue, barring the way back. Sol's eyes caught the phonolite cluster he had cut before he fell.
He scanned the walls around him, and smiled wide.
His theory had been right. Phonolites had to come from somewhere, and that somewhere was the vertical cliffs of the ravine. Clusters upon clusters of massive stone had formed naturally along the rock face. If he played his cards right, the music he made would carry all the way to Longrass Field.
"Heh. I'm going to finish this in one decisive strike." Sol sheathed both daggers. Neither had been lost in the panic. He caught a phonolite cluster with one hand. "And the bees won't even see what's coming."
"Wan!!" Wanwan barked a command. The four pups launched themselves into the air like it was the most natural thing in the world, stamping thin, nearly invisible platforms into existence at every touch. Each one crumbled the moment they left it.
Thousands of crystalline fragments rained down in a glittering fall.
Sol barely noticed.
He had a plan, and his plan would be loud.
The Apideis ignored the pups. They posed no threat. The Queen hovered lower, steady and sure. She would not let Sol pass without a decisive result.
She would protect her subjects. She would stop at nothing.
"I know what you're thinking, Big Bee. But here's the thing…" Sol jumped upward with everything he had and landed on a platform he formed with both feet. "…I have to get back soon."
He crouched and scanned, drawing lines with his eyes over the phonolite clusters until a pattern emerged. He remembered well enough what happened when they broke. Heavy ringing, and bursts of small, nonlethal shrapnel.
"Now…" He threw the cluster straight up as hard as he could.
The Queen evaded it easily. Her buzzing rose, louder now.
She halted midair, as if understanding something all at once.
Sol drew both daggers.
He jumped diagonally left and threw his left dagger into a large cluster on the wall.
Then he jumped hard to the right and threw his right dagger into one of the biggest clusters he could see.
The Queen's buzzing faltered. For the first time, her retinue tried to climb, scrambling upward with her.
"Too late." Sol jumped again and began to scale the air like it was a tree. Each platform formed instinctively beneath his feet, tuned to his weight, his pressure, his momentum. It felt like running on solid ground.
As long as he stayed focused, he would not fall.
The first explosion hit.
A massive ringing erupted from the cluster struck by the left dagger. It shattered into dozens of smaller clusters, tumbling, already trembling, ready to burst with the slightest touch.
Sol vanished beneath the Queen's body and reappeared near his left dagger, already spinning, already striking, hitting cluster after cluster before they could settle.
RING! RING! RING!! RINGRINGRINGRINGRINGRING!! RINGRINGRINGRINGRINGRINGRINGRINGRINGRINGRINGRING!!
The ravine became a bell tower.
Smaller Apideis lost control of their wings and pinwheeled through the air.
Sol was not finished.
He dashed toward his right dagger. It had just reached its mark.
The larger cluster exploded with the force of a makeshift bomb. Shrapnel shot outward in apple-sized chunks. Sol caught his right dagger and spun again, both blades flashing, triggering more breaks, more ringing, more collapse.
RING! RING! RING!! RINGRINGRINGRINGRINGRING!! RINGRINGRINGRINGRINGRINGRINGRINGRINGRINGRINGRING!! RING! RING! RING!! RINGRINGRINGRINGRINGRING!! RINGRINGRINGRINGRINGRINGRINGRINGRINGRINGRINGRING!!
The Queen shuddered under the pressure. The effect was obvious now. Her wings began to lose their tempo. Her balance slipped, slow at first, then worse, and she started to sink.
She shrieked, a violent, furious sound, and forced herself upward anyway, aiming straight into the exploding crystalline fireworks of the ravine.
A desperate attempt.
Sol dashed diagonally up toward another cluster and slashed. Then another. Then another.
Without realizing it, he had cut down more than a dozen massive clusters. They tumbled, and the shrapnel from earlier explosions struck them again and again, setting off a chain reaction that dwarfed the first two blasts.
RING! RING! RING!! RINGRINGRINGRINGRINGRING!! RINGRINGRINGRINGRINGRINGRINGRINGRINGRINGRINGRING!! RING! RING! RING!! RINGRINGRINGRINGRINGRING!! RINGRINGRINGRINGRINGRINGRINGRINGRINGRINGRINGRING!! RINGRINGRINGRINGRINGRING!! RINGRINGRINGRINGRINGRINGRINGRINGRINGRINGRINGRING!! RINGRINGRINGRINGRINGRING!! RINGRINGRINGRINGRINGRINGRINGRINGRINGRINGRINGRING!! RING! RING! RING!! RINGRINGRINGRINGRINGRING!! RINGRINGRINGRINGRINGRINGRINGRINGRINGRINGRINGRING!!
Not done yet!
Sol dashed upward, caught the first cluster he had cut when he entered the ravine, and held his position in midair, dead center.
The Apideis Queen could no longer climb. The constant ringing and the relentless shrapnel hit her from every direction. She shrieked again, but the assault did not slow.
"I told you…" Sol gripped the cluster with both hands and set his stance, shoulders turning into a throwing pose. "…YOU WEREN'T INVITED, BIG BEE!"
He spun in midair and hurled the cluster into the heart of the phonolite storm.
Time slowed.
Sol held his breath and watched the cluster drive downward toward the Queen's head, threading between dozens, then hundreds of near misses from exploding shards and ringing fragments.
It kept barreling forward.
It struck squarely between the Queen's ocelli.
RINGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG!!
The sound that followed was like the bell from Elm's village hall at morning, when it was time to open the gates and let the hunters out.
Then the cluster burst in front of the Queen's face, unleashing an unholy amount of ringing.
Sol could not feel it in his ears over the roar, but his mouth was split by a grin.
The Apideis Queen tumbled toward the river. She had lost, decisively. She almost hit the water, but managed one last violent beat of her wings and retreated.
The retreat was complete. No Apideis remained near the ravine. Sol knew none of them would come close again for a long while.
I… won…?
He climbed on Frostflame platforms toward the pups and rested against the cliff wall for a few seconds, breath shuddering. Then he moved up again, and in moments he was back at the edge of the cliff. Wanwan and the four pups were already waiting, tails wagging.
"WAN!!"
"BARK!! BARK!!"
"AWOOOO!!"
"AWOOOWOOWOO!!"
"RUFFFFFFAWRFFFF!! AWOOOOOOO!!"
"Hahahaha!! YEAH!!"
This was not his first win, yet it felt like it was.
The Nhiven had not been a fight. He had been prey to something stronger.
The avalanche had been a natural disaster. Losing to it had been inevitable.
The Csezul had been a strong beast, but with Wanwan and Nia beside him, he had sealed the deal and killed it decisively.
The water tunnel had been something else, and still, it had left him with the taste of failure.
The fight with his zhe'har had been a loss. He counted it that way because he had lost control of himself. He had let hunger run rampant. The White Hooded Man might have helped, might have made it worse. Sol still did not know. Either way, the truth remained.
It had been a loss.
The Helarzos had not been a fight either. It had been cut short by the Apideis Queen.
Sol dropped down and lay on his back, facing the orange sky. Exhaustion hit him all at once, heavy and immediate, but the smile stayed.
The Apideis Queen was the first time he felt like he had used everything he had. Everything he knew. Everything he understood. He had been helped by Haati, his zhe'har, and the five pups, but none of them had intervened.
It had been his win.
His first real triumph.
For the first time in his life, he did not feel powerless.
"AUNT HAATII!!!!! NIAAAA!!! TEACHER NAAMAAA!!!!"
He shot upright, hands raised high.
"I WOOOOOOOOOOOONNNNN!!!"
—
—
At Longrass Field, Nia, Grandpa Rahzgir, and Haati all heard the cacophony of ringing from the Frozen Ravine.
Nia sipped her tea. It no longer stung her tongue. She could taste the sweetness in full now, mild and soothing, and it pulled a smile from her face.
"Hm… hm! Hmhmhmhmhm!! It appears that he has won!" Grandpa Rahzgir took a massive sip from his cup, then sat facing the direction of the ringing.
"Yes. Yes, he did. Without taking even one life." Haati's flame softened. It felt like she finally allowed herself to relax after keeping watch over Sol through his first hunt.
"The ringing was beautiful! I can't believe rocks can produce such sounds!" Nia hopped forward toward the river, where the ringing still sent faint ripples across the surface.
Grandpa Rahzgir sprang to his feet and went back into the rubble of the house. He returned with a couple of bags and packs and set them down beside the tea cups.
"What's that, Grandpa?"
"Supplies, of course!"
Nia's face lit up.
"You two young'uns are going back to the village! And I'm going witcha!"