Chapter 38 — Scattered Roots
Rei hit wet leaf litter with a skid that scraped heat through the soles of his boots. Traction caught on the second step, and the jolt ran up his shins before settling into a steady ache. Cool air slid across his face, carrying bark-sap sweetness and the mineral tang of turned soil. Dense canopy broke the light into pale slats that drifted with the branches.
Jinx was already moving, a quick flash between trunks with her tail held high like a banner. She circled with her nose low, then cut wide, carving routes through the trees the way she carved space in a room—fast, curious, certain she could outrun consequences. Vesper stayed close, weight in Rei's hood, calm pressed to his pulse like a hand. Rei drew a slow breath into his belly and let it leave him in the same measured stream.
The space around him felt too wide for the moment, and his ribs tightened around that fact. Becca's voice didn't carry. Hoofbeats didn't thud. Nyx's pressure wasn't at his flank. Rei set the pull toward speed aside by choosing a task.
A low rise sat to his right, roots lifting the ground into a shallow hump. He climbed it carefully and took in the angles it offered, then marked a broken stone at the crest where old carving lines had softened into shallow grooves. He paced a small loop around that marker and returned to it, keeping his movement tight and deliberate. Jinx brushed his leg on a pass, impatience flicking through her tail, then darted off again.
Beyond the rise, a cut through the trees widened into something worn by frequent passage. The ground held firmer there, less tangled by fallen branches, and the undergrowth kept a cleaner edge. Rei kept to the side rather than the center and let his eyes live in the gaps between trunks. He flexed his hands once; leather and fitted plating of his clawed gloves creaked softly, and the familiar weight settled his fingers.
A small thing tried him before the next bend. It cut out low and fast from the brush, slick hide catching a shard of light as it lunged at his calf. Rei pivoted on the ball of his foot, let the creature commit, then snapped his gloved hand down in a short arc. The claws bit, tore, and stopped the rush with a clean rip that left the thing collapsing into leaves.
Jinx snapped toward it with eager energy, and Rei held her in place with posture alone. He backed out of the contact and kept his breathing steady until his pulse matched his pace again. Vesper's warmth pressed against the back of his neck, steadying the small shake that wanted to creep into his hands. Rei moved on, attention stretched ahead instead of dragged into brush.
Voices sharpened in the distance, thin at first and then clear enough to carry panic. Rei angled off the main cut and took a parallel line through ferns and saplings, using trunks to break sight and spacing his steps to keep sound small. Jinx ranged wider on that side, tail flicking, her body taut with the urge to sprint straight into the noise. Vesper stayed anchored in his hood, a quiet counterweight to Jinx's restless pull.
Three players stood near a mound of roots and exposed stone. One held a blade like a lifeline, grip clenched too tight, arms shaking from fatigue. Another crouched with a hand pressed to their ribs, blood slick across their fingers. The third kept snapping their gaze around, attention scattering into every dark pocket of brush. Rei watched without stepping into their circle, reading the loop that kept them pinned.
The nuisance moved like a repeated mistake. It darted close, provoked a swing, and slipped away when steel cut air. Each miss cost the group breath and control, and their fear turned their bodies clumsy. Rei waited long enough to catch the rhythm, then chose the smallest intervention that could change the outcome.
A fist-sized stone lay half-buried near his boot. Rei hooked it out of damp soil with the claws of his glove, grit scraping metal as he lifted it. He waited for the creature's forward feint, then sent the rock past the group's left flank into the brush where the thing liked to vanish. Leaves shuddered as the stone struck wood with a dull thunk.
"Left," Rei called, voice sharp and precise. "Now."
The blade-holder reacted as if the word yanked a string. Steel moved with purpose and caught the creature mid-turn, legs splayed for speed, balance thin. The strike landed messy and shallow, then the group piled in with frantic urgency, and the nuisance became a twitching heap in the leaves.
Rei stayed behind cover, eyes tracking the brush line for movement drawn by noise. Jinx's ears stayed forward, her body vibrating with contained excitement, and Rei kept her close with a low hand signal. Relief broke loose all at once from the group—ragged laughter, shaking hands, the sound of someone trying to breathe through pain.
"Oh—oh gods," the blade-holder said, laughing too loudly as his grip finally loosened. "You saw that, right? You saw—"
"Wait," the crouched one cut in, breath hitching as they tried to stand and failed. Pain flashed across their face, sharp and naked. "Please. Don't go yet."
Rei stayed half-hidden by the trunks, gaze set on the brush line instead of their faces.
"We can move," another voice said quickly. "We just—just together. Just for a bit. There's more like that out here, right?"
The injured player swallowed, fingers digging into the dirt. "I can walk. I just need a minute."
A pause stretched, filled with uneven breathing and the soft rasp of leaves shifting under nervous feet. Jinx took a half-step forward, eager to be the answer, and Rei stopped her with a small lift of his hand.
Rei spoke once, steady and flat. "Follow the rise."
"Where does it go?" someone asked.
"Out of the open," Rei said. "Keep moving."
A step scraped closer. "You're leaving us?"
Rei shifted his weight back and let the trunks close the gap between them. Vesper pressed closer in his hood, warmth turning firm. Behind him, a voice broke, thin and frightened.
"Please."
Rei kept walking.
A glint cut across his peripheral vision as he withdrew—metal under a root, the hilt of a clean weapon left where it begged to be taken. A pack lay nearby with a torn strap, bulging enough to promise value. Rei kept his stride steady and let the temptation fall behind him without touching his pace. Jinx's tail flicked once, irritation sharpened by the refusal, and then she moved with him.
Farther in, where stone met root, a dark shape sat half-cradled in earth. It didn't shine. It simply stood out, heavy enough that Rei noticed it before he understood why.
Jinx stopped so hard her paws slid.
Her ears pricked. Her nose lifted. The muscles along her shoulders tightened as if someone had drawn a cord through her spine. Vesper's weight in Rei's hood turned denser, and Rei's hand drifted down without thinking, palm hovering near his thigh.
"Jinx," he said.
She sprang anyway.
Leaf litter tore under her paws. She hit the relic with teeth and claws, hauled, and wrenched it free with a sharp jerk of her neck. Soil ripped loose in clumps. A root snapped with a dry crack. Jinx landed and spun back toward Rei like she'd stolen fire.
Rei reached for her out of reflex.
Something cold touched his skin.
Pressure dropped through him. It didn't spread; it settled. His breath caught and then he forced it smooth as the weight locked in behind his navel, dense as stone. His circulation snagged for an instant and then found a path around it on its own.
Jinx skidded to a halt at his feet and looked up, eyes bright, chest heaving with pride. Her mouth worked once as if she expected to taste something.
She tasted air.
Rei's gloved hand hovered near her muzzle, then shifted to his own abdomen, palm flattening through cloth. The weight stayed.
"Close," he said.
Jinx flicked her tail, offended, then edged nearer anyway. Vesper pressed into the hood seam, steadying him from above.
Small sounds continued for a while—leaf hiss, distant creak of wood, a thin birdcall that faded mid-note. A dull vibration rose through the ground into Rei's legs and settled into his joints. It came again, spaced wider than a run, heavier than a stumble, and leaf litter trembled at the edge of his vision.
Branches shifted somewhere behind the trees with slow force, followed by the soft grind of something pushing through brush that resisted and lost.
Jinx froze, head angled toward the sound. Her excitement sharpened into focus. Vesper stayed close, calm turning taut. Rei slid one step to the side and put a fallen log between his body and the direction of the noise, stance loose enough to move either way.
A shape took form between trunks—first shoulder, then the slope of a massive head. Fur carried old scars and bits of debris caught and dried into it. The bear stepped into the open with the patience of something used to arriving intact.
It stopped.
Its muzzle lifted. Air drew into it in a slow pull. Dark eyes held on Rei and the foxes without hurry.
Jinx sank into a crouch, teeth bared. Rei lifted two fingers, sharp and still. She quivered with the urge to launch, then held. Vesper's presence pressed along Rei's spine like a brace, keeping his shoulders loose while heat tried to climb his neck.
The bear shifted its weight forward, one step that pressed the ground down hard enough for Rei to feel it in his knees. Rei moved sideways at the same time, breaking the straight line and forcing a turn if it wanted to commit. He kept the log as a barrier, kept trunks as angles, and kept his breathing even.
Jinx flowed with him, low and fast, staying tight to his line. The bear followed a moment later, heavy and controlled, and its shadow widened across the leaf litter as it closed distance. Rei guided the geometry into a tighter corridor—log on one side, two close trunks on the other—space that punished a straight rush and rewarded timing.
He planted a gloved hand on rough bark for leverage, claws scraping wood as he pivoted through the gap. A short burst carried them beyond the tightest point, and he cut his pace cleanly as soon as footing stabilized. Jinx stayed beside him, bristling, and Vesper's steady warmth kept Rei's breath from turning ragged.
The bear surged into the space they'd left and slowed as the lanes tightened. Wood creaked under its weight. Leaf litter churned. Rei didn't wait for that corridor to become a fight. He led them into denser cover where trunks stood closer together and the ground rose, making long strides less clean.
Footfalls followed for a stretch, then eased. Sound changed as distance grew, heavy steps turning into muffled thuds that blended into the forest's constant whisper. Rei kept moving until his lungs asked for air with a sharper edge, then settled into a steadier pace without stopping.
Jinx drew closer, ears angled back toward the bear's last position. Pride and agitation fought across her face as she glanced up at Rei. Rei met her eyes once, calm and hard, then looked forward again, and the silence landed like a boundary she could feel.
A broken foundation of old stone appeared ahead, half-swallowed by roots and moss. Rei circled it once and chose the lee side where the stone blocked one angle of approach. He stepped up onto the collapsed edge to check sightlines between trunks, then stepped down and set his back near the stone, keeping his hands low and ready.
Breath settled into his body. The weight behind his navel stayed dense and cold, and his muscles adjusted around it as if they'd accepted a new center. Vesper stayed close, warmth and composure pressed against him. Jinx paced twice, then sat with a sharp flick of her tail, eyes still fixed on the direction they'd come from.
Rei fixed his gaze on a line between trees and picked a direction. He moved again, steady and deliberate, with his foxes tight to his line and old stone fading into the canopy's shifting light.