Nathaniel, over the course of the past few minutes, had done a couple things.
He had finally completed a route.
He had drunk from a river that allegedly had been used.
He had just denied Jay's invitation for three distractions that had names.
Nathaniel shook his canteen dry before sealing it back and clipping it to his belt. He scanned the three Therians in the river as he walked towards them. Taking off his glasses, he addressed the group while cleaning them.
"Bree-"
"Cree," she corrected.
"Cree. Cuvio, right?"
"Capridae," she corrected again.
"Regardless, you're on a musical journey, I'd advise completing it elsewhere. Jay is the only tag along that we have authorized to have with us."
"You're fun," she said, raising an eyebrow. "Your wife must love your sense of humor."
It was Nathaniel's turn to raise an eyebrow.
"Wife? What are you talking about-"
"Your hat. Reeks of a woman. Faintly, but it reeks."
"I'm not even going to respond to that," he turned towards Alex next. "You, Yervite boy, I've known you for five minutes and it's five minutes more than I chose. Whatever knocked off your horn, I don't want it here."
Alex waded upstream, shaking his body free of water.
"It didn't knock it off fairly. They cheated, so that doesn't count. Here I come, Hoga!"
Alex charged again, but his speed suffered as he was going against the stream. Without looking, Hoga grabbed him by his good horn and threw him further upstream. The splash from the water landed onto Nathaniel's glasses. After wiping them dry he turned to address Hoga.
"Now you-"
Nathaniel stared long and hard at Hoga. He took off his glasses again just to lean closer as he stared. Putting them back on, he sighed in annoyance.
"I have no idea what you could have been before becoming a quail. But you're an alpha, so you'll understand where I'm coming from. You have a mission, and I have a duty. Forcing our paths to merge benefits no one."
"Hmm", Hoga was stroking his beard of feathers. "What is your name?"
"Nathaniel Bosh."
"Bosh. Hmm."
Hoga met Nathaniel's eyes. Neither of the men blinked as Hoga tapped his drum.
Thrm.
Thrm.
Thrm.
Thrm.
Nathaniel could feel the pulse of the drum through his chest. With only the tap of two fingers, Hoga had commanded the attention of everyone.
Thrm.
Thrm.
Thrm.
Thrm.
Nathaniel blinked first.
Hoga spoke.
"Jayce, how many are in your party?
"A total of five but we're two down. JJ was actually on their trail before we came here, a flock of shot quail residue made him lose the trail."
Thrm.
Thrm.
Thrm.
Thrm.
"Maybe you will do well with the protection of a prime, considering my kin has thinned your number. At least until they return safely, does that sound reasonable?"
Nathaniel chewed his tongue. He looked at Ava, who was swaying her head to Cree's playing. Should he accept Hoga's offer, his party would grow to:
Two capridae shifters, one more annoying than the other.
A Zenith prize winner who is a fan of his father.
A one horned child.
An overgrown capridae.
An overgrown serpifeli.
And a prime Therian of beam firing poultry.
Nathaniel spoke no words as he bent down in the river, refilling his canteen. Alex floated on by, now relaxed due to Hoga's lessons.
"You win this time, Hoga," sighed Alex. "But not the next."
"My thoughts exactly," muttered Nathaniel, taking a sip.
Hoga tilted his head slightly in an effort to hear.
Thrm.
Thrm.
Thrm.
Thrm.
The water in front of Nathaniel rippled from his drum beat. He stood and met Hoga's eyes, closing his canteen.
"Just until they return. Past that, we have no authorization nor paperwork for your accompaniment. Should the kid succumb to his own foolishness, I don't feel like filing the report for an extended journey."
Alex stood in the water, eagerly ready to protest before Hoga raised a hand.
"A wise decision, Nathaniel. Jayce, let us deliberate. Cree, you're in charge until we get back."
Nathaniel furrowed his brow, trying to find words, but Hoga punctuated his decision.
Thrm.
That's all that was said before he and Jay walked into the forest, leaving the rest of the group by the river.
Nathaniel walked back over to the stump his map lay spread on, and continued work. Shortly after, he could hear the melody of a guitar play.
A minute later, he heard a counter melody. However, there remained only one guitar in use. He turned to see Cree's fingers moving at an unnatural speed. Nathaniel wanted to look away, but he could not take his eyes off her fingers.
The precision.
The rapidness.
The flow of the harmony.
The-
"What are you staring at?"
Nathaniel blinked and looked up to Cree, she had stopped playing. Standing before Nathaniel was a much hairier version of the teenager. She had pinned the front of her hair back, staring back at Nathaniel with pink irises.
"Hey," she continued. "The staring. You wanna stop?"
"I thought Therians couldn't RIG," he questioned. "But there's no way your hands move that fast without having to."
"You've never heard of micro RIG-ing?" Cree replied. "I'm just focusing the resonance onto my fingers."
Ava chimed in, leaning forward towards Cree as she spoke.
"I haven't. What's the difference between them?"
"Well," Cree strummed, "Therians have two shapes in our soul: the animal and the person. Everyone else just has one."
She began to play a repeating melody as she explained.
"You're right, Therians can't RIG. Forcing two shapes to burn at the same time is not fun. But…"
The melody grew faster.
"I don't need to ignite my entire soul shape. Just the edges, the curves, the outline…"
The notes now layered upon themselves, then she stopped.
"So now the furthest parts of me get just enough power to do that."
Alex walked past Nathaniel, shaking himself dry. Nathaniel glared at him, cleaning his glasses once again before slipping them back on. Avery walked past him, avoiding eye contact as he spoke.
"It also makes her hairy," he teased.
Cree grumbled as she lost all attributes of her transformation and played again. Alex wandered over near Nathaniel's map spread on a stump. Just as he reached to touch it, Nathaniel called a warning.
"Child. Do not. Touch. The map."
"Hoga said Cree is in charge," Alex stated. "Not you."
"Alex," Cree said without looking up. "Don't be annoying or Hoga and I will abandon you."
Alex scoffed and theatrically put his hands behind his back. He bent over to view the map, swiveling around the stump to observe all angles. Nathaniel crossed his arms, waiting to reprimand him.
"This is where we are," Alex muttered, "This is where I met Hoga, and…"
Alex's eyes widened as he jammed a finger into a section of the map.
"This is where I lost my horn!"
Nathaniel marched over and removed the map from the stump, straightening where Alex's finger had stabbed. He huffed, straightening the map and looked to Alex.
"No touching the-"
Nathaniel froze. Where Alex had dented the map was a section Nathaniel had marked in bold lines.
Mantis Territory.
Nathaniel turned back towards Alex with a concerned look. Then he looked at the map before turning to Alex again. The child blinked once.
"What?" Alex asked.
"What? What were you doing in mantis territory?" said Nathaniel, horrified. "You're a child! You're lucky you left with just a broken horn!"
"The mantises didn't do that," said Alex. "Some guy who scared my friend did."
"Some guy?" Nathaniel's eyes flickered between Alex and the map. "What guy cuts off the horn of a child?"
"The kind that defends himself from a two horned terror," Cree called from the river. "Tell him the actual story."
Nathaniel slowly turned his head towards Alex, who was looking away. For a moment, Alex's eyes made contact with Nathaniel's before moving away again.
Nathaniel spoke, "Did you attack a random man?"
"No!" shouted Alex. "He scared my friend and I wanted him to apologize."
Sitting down as Alex responded, Nathaniel's face held no sign of sympathy.
"Sure. Scared your friend, how?"
Alex took a deep breath before answering.
"Mantis territory has hoca fruit, Jubi and I wanted some. We were in the trees when three guys were walking through - they weren't from here, that's for sure. I don't remember the other two, but there was a grey man with a bunch of scars. A lot of them, everywhere. We watched them but the scar guy looked our way, and Jubi ran. And then-"
Nathaniel held up a hand to silence Alex.
"Did you attack someone because your friend Jubi got scared?"
"No. I fought the scar guy because he pulled a knife! He pulled the knife and I dropped down."
Nathaniel exhaled, rubbing his temples.
"So you made yourself known to the scar guy after he drew a knife?"
"Yes. He scared Jubi, so I was protecting him."
Alex blinked once before looking at Ava and Cree. Nathaniel shook his head and continued his questioning.
"And then?"
"And then I charged him! He must have been really strong because he grabbed my horn and cut it!"
Alex displayed the severed horn and shook it. It had been filled with beads and sealed to complete his new instrument.
"Hoga was right. You are stupid."
Alex's expression flattened.
"You should have seen what happened to him," he muttered. "A mantis hurt his friends, and when he turned around I kicked him into the mantis! So we're even. The next time I see him, I'll win."
"You were lucky to live the first time."
It was Hoga, with Jay in tow. Their footsteps had been silent as he approached Nathaniel and Alex from behind. In each of Hoga's hands were the lifeless bodies of a shot quail. Nathaniel tilted his head, trying to find words for what he was witnessing.
"You…you eat quails?" he stammered. "But you're the…"
"Yes," Hoga stated without hesitation. "I know what I am. But I require sustenance. We will take no more than necessary, and waste nothing. That is the agreement I made."
Nathaniel nodded his head slowly, curling his lips.
"Agreement - did you negotiate lunch?"
"Yes. They were quite reasonable."
Nathaniel stared at him. He blinked in disbelief, taking off his glasses to stare further.
"It is a joke, Nathaniel," smiled Hoga.
Everyone but Nathaniel laughed as Hoga laid the birds out delicately. Nathaniel sat against the base of a tree, opting to work on the map as everyone idled by the river. Everyone else spent the rest of their morning conversing about the world where the others came from. Nathaniel would look up every so often, eyeing Ava as she effortlessly made conversation with the pack of Therians. After watching for a while he would return his efforts to the map.
Rather, he would have.
Vae had stumbled by, looking for a place to lay down. The spot she desired happened to be on the lap of Nathaniel, who held up his map as Vae wandered through. She had shrunk just a tad from her overfeeding, but was still enough of a burden that Nathaniel could not move her.
But Nathaniel made no effort to move her.
He placed a hand right under Vae's jaw and moved just a hair to the right.
That's the spot.
Vae purred in delight, coiling the rest of her tail around Nathaniel's petting arm. She sank the rest of her weight on his lap, content with her new spot.
"Yeah… that's the spot Yoli liked too," said Nathaniel. "Just make sure you don't repeat the same mistake."
Vae looked up before Nathaniel did, Ava was standing in front of him.
"She doesn't normally cuddle strangers," marveled Ava. "You have your father's affinity, Mr. Bosh."
Nathaniel slowly nodded, hiding his eyes with the brim of his safari hat. He kept his focus on scratching Vae while formulating a response.
"I did my own work in the field as well, Miss Sinclair. Not everything was taught to me by my father."
"Oh- speaking of, I have a book of his…"
Ava rummaged through her back and brought out a book. It was worn, dog-eared, and faded on the back cover. Nathaniel put his tongue in his cheek as he awaited to see which adventure Ava would remind him of. Nathaniel's face hardened as he could do all but contain his excitement.
"Dangers in the Desolate Dunes? The Slippery Swamps of South Zaster? The Frigid Peak of-"
Nathaniel's breath left his lungs. Every tree in the forest blurred to a mess of green and brown as he started to hear his heartbeat. Ava proudly presented the cover of the book to Nathaniel, her smile beaming as she gripped its weathered exterior.
The Great Tree.
His father's best selling adventure.
Vae felt heavier. Her gentle grasp of Nathaniel's arm now felt like a coil of strangulation. The only thing that he could make out in front of him were the words of the title, and his father's name underneath.
Suddenly, a touch on his shoulder.
"Mr. Bosh? Mr. Bosh are you alright?" inquired Ava. "I said, was the tree in the book just as mystical as your father said? I know that resonance and plants can be intertwined but I wanted to ask for your-"
Nathaniel gently brushed Vae off of him and stood up without a sound. He folded his map in half four times and slid it into his vest pocket before walking away. Nathaniel heard Ava call his name twice more, but he kept walking in his chosen direction. A minute later he stopped, opting to lean onto a tree. With one hand he tossed his hat onto the ground, and with the other he began to scratch his head.
Then his neck. His breathing strained as he scratched, his veins pulsated as he choked on the air. One breath lodged in his throat, forcing him to cough violently.
His chest tightened, and he could now hear his heartbeat pounding between his ears.
Nathaniel moved onto his body, tearing the cloth of his shirt. One tear turned into two. Two turned into three. Minutes later his chest was exposed, the scratch marks started to bleed down his torso.
Finally, he used one hand to scratch at the forearm of the other, digging his nails into his deep blue skin. The pounding in his ears had grown too much to bear. Nathaniel fervently kept scratching and scratching and scratching and scratching and-
He stopped.
The red droplets formed in response to the tearing of his skin. The world came back into focus as Nathaniel touched his neck before holding a finger to his face.
More blood.
He wiped the residue on his pants and assessed his scalp.
His fingers were wet with more blood.
The world came into focus once more. Nathaniel blinked rapidly as the sensations of blood dribbled down his head and past his ears. A small stream formed, joining the scratches from his neck down into his shirt and chest.
He stood in silence for minutes before taking a deep breath.
"They're not in your skin they're not in your skin," chanted Nathaniel.
"They're not in your skin."
"They're not in your sk- ah!"
A buzzing noise had disturbed his mantra. Nathaniel's hand clapped onto his neck, expecting to land onto an insect.
He had lost the sensation of touch on that section of his neck. When he lowered his hand to inspect, it had been dyed red.
Why was more blood rushing o-
Another buzz. Nathaniel reflexively went to swat the noise but his hands brushed against a feather.
A feather?
Numbness in the neck?
Blood refusing to coagulate?
It clicked.
Nathaniel began running back where he had come from. He realized what his presence had been attracting.
What his blood had been attracting.