Ecdysis Chapter 8. Things That Go Bump in the Forest

“This creature was slain by Aikerim herself,” Sulla spoke beside , “When she had done her border duty.”

I could see the gouges on the white carapace and tiny lines where the exoskeleton was cleaved apart, only to be glued back together at a later ti. The texture of the shell reminded about that white scale mail Aikerim wore during the Collectors’ attack.

So it wasn’t so unusual tal but shards of the carapace. Either chipped from a similar specin or harvested from smaller creatures. Maybe I should reevaluate my decision on incorporating sothing like that to my own scales, but it might work in my favour too, in case I needed to impress soone by the gear I carry. While it might attract so greedy eyes, it was not sothing that a thief could easily swipe from one of my storage rooms.

So might try to stab in the back to take it, but not wearing it at all would be even more foolish. I just had to make sure that I would wear so extra layers on top of it and avoid them being seen altogether.

“Nature truly loves certain designs,” I chuckled to myself and turned to Sulla, “what about fish?”

“What?”

I waved at the crustacean-like monstrosity in front of , “Well, there are trees of the Forest, a couple of which Domina permitted for to plant and study within the bounds of my estate. White bark and red pine needles. And now I see this body structure. I might not have a lot of experience with alien lifeforms but, from my knowledge on evolution within a single planet, Nature surely loves to invent trees, crabs, beetles, and fish.”

Sulla stared at unamused, “I am not here for a jest. If you see a creature like this in the Forest you are a dead man walking. Domina had tasked to oversee your training so that you will co back with your head on your shoulders and without your insides getting sucked out. You might have enhanced your strength and resilience but these monsters aren’t just big. They know Flow, they breathe Flow, and they use it better than most wermages ever could.”

“Right,” I awkwardly scratched my head, “I was just… Nevermind. I am sorry, this is not a ti for my musings right now.”

“The reason this corpse is hidden deep inside the Manor is so that the new generations of Kiytl can train while knowing what they would face out there,” He grumbled as he nodded at the suspended behemoth in the room, “So burn this view into your mory. So, when you see it next ti, you will run. Or hide behind a shield, hoping that a nearby wermage would be able to drive it off.”

I silently turned and looked at it again. Not at the remains of an alien lifeform, curious and mysterious, but at the body of a fearso beast, the likes of which the parents of Emanai used to scare their children into obedience.

And built huge walls on the borders and around major cities.

The carapace colour ant it would blend in well with the white trees of the Forest. A segnted body that kept all its soft targets hidden within and multiple appendages that could crawl, grab, stab, and even chew its prey. It definitely copied a chapter or two from the book of Arthropoda, resulting in huge segnted legs and a mouth that looked more like a horror show of protrusions rather than sothing that you put food into.

Especially if said food might be crunchy Erfs.

Four whip-like appendages were extrely long, flexible, yet fully covered by armour and were conveniently placed near that maw. It probably used them as arms to grab, hold, and pull in its prey. Multiple sets of what I assud to be eyes were spread across the front giving it a wide field of view. All but the single articulate pair in front were rather small, however.

Standing in front of it, I felt like I was thrown into a microscopic world on Earth so that I could et the true owners of the world. There was a reason why bugs were the dominant animal lifeform everywhere humans had managed to colonize. If these monsters had even a fraction of their strengths and abilities scaled to this size, I expected them not to be trifled with even without Flow.

There were space-wide laws against creating insectoid beasts, designed for direct warfare. While they heavily favoured the machine-leaning colonies, I still approved of them.

There had been incidents in the past.

My eyes slid onto the main body. While mostly white, it was nevertheless littered with small red lines of intricate patterns. They appeared to be a part of the body and were likely the product of evolutions over millions of years. But they weren’t just for camouflage.

These were runes.

Hundreds of them covered the main body and the legs. The ones I could decipher were basic. Strength, speed, toughness. But there were others that I haven’t seen in the book. These were probably either still unknown or weren’t allowed to be recorded. And either of these options didn’t promise anything good.

I frowned. It looked like a nearly impossible foe, both strong and resilient, sothing that should’ve overwheld Emanai a long ti ago. Yet they did not. They were killable. The trophy in front of was an undeniable proof of that, as well as the fact that Emanai still stood undefeated. Or even got a foothold to begin with when it got founded.

“Do they have any weakness?” I asked my guide, “Maybe they are rare? Migratory? How did Emanai even claim the land from them?”

“By the miracle of the Divine. Ask these questions to these, who would train you for battle. I have lived in Kiytl Manors all my life and the ones that faced them would tell you more. What I do know is that they are beasts true to the word. They might not know rcy but they do not seek revenge either. Nor do they understand the concept of a country. A tall border wall, staffed by murks is often enough for them to ignore it.”

“Murks specifically?”

“Yes. They have their own Sparks and feel Sparks of others just as wer and wermages can. Creatures will attack the walls if they feel the Spark behind it or if they otherwise spot any movent. Murk guard can observe them from afar without luring them in and, if one decides to co closer, they could sound an alarm to call mages over.”

I stepped a bit closer trying to gauge its eyesight. Twin eye stalks similar to a crab and a few tiny auxiliary eyes around. It could probably see a lot without moving the body but Sulla was right, the creature didn’t appear to have remarkable eyesight. Granted these were just my basic assumptions but I didn’t think Aikerim would allow to dissect and study her famous trophy.

“And what would a murk like should do in front of one?”

“The point is not to be there at all or run away before it sees you. If it does notice you or even ambushes you — running would be useless. All you can do is keep it away from your body as long as possible while trying to hurt it as much as you can. Hopefully, you will last long enough for a wermage to step in, or it would deem you too botherso to continue attacking. You might end up lucky and kill one too.”

His finger poked in the chest, “Your trainer will likely teach you all about this but I will still repeat it. Stay in a group. Don’t split up and venture into the Forest alone. Learn the spear so you can keep it at bay and the kattar to have one last chance if it gets too close. Keep your armour on at all tis as you travel and by Three Divine Horns - don’t ‘forget’ your shield and helt. No matter how annoying they might be. If you do — better you forget your dream of being a freedmurk at all, or maybe forget your head back at the house.”

I nodded, making sure he understood I was being serious about it. His words, while being sowhat crude, were said for my safety. And I could easily see the wisdom in them as well. Yes, they were ferocious beasts but humans had things that made us just as deadly. We had soft skin but we could forge armour, our claws were weak but our blades were sharp. We might be weak individually but we were the communal species. And we drew our true strength in numbers.

And when everything was on the table and the current bet was your own life — every card would co into play.

So be it. I would train and learn the skills that they honed over centuries but I also had my own set of tricks. So of which I already had and so I would need to start working on imdiately.

“What about the rest of my family?”

“Hmmm. Usually murks would take the duty personally and serve continuously, but they don’t have the ans to afford any breaks or support any dependants alongside them. You would likely be able to bring your sadaq with you or even have them fight by your side, while Domina is likely to expect your presence at this Manor at least occasionally.”

I nodded, “So I would visit Samat whenever they would let , most likely. How much ti do I have to prepare for this?”

Sulla shook his head, “The only one rushing is you. While you will start training as soon as possible, Domina had inford that you will be occupied by other duties for days to co. And when you will start training in earnest, you will prepare until Domina is sure you will survive your duty. Slack off or show too much weakness and you will find yourself training indefinitely or have the offer rescinded altogether.”

XXX

“Are you sure this place is off-limits?” I asked my companion as I looked around the barn.

Irje shrugged, “It will be if you want. All major work on the building is done. Builders made it to your specifications, apart from the ‘greenhouse’ side of this shed — we still need to rebuild the furnaces and start making the glass panes.”

Initially, I wanted all four of us to be here and leave the lamia to oversee the furnace reconstruction. Workers were still building the basic kilns she was already familiar with and thus was able to spot any mistakes without learning anything important in the process. Unfortunately, Anaise was still the Lady of the House and had other things to do while Yeva was uncomfortable leaving Shahin unsupervised. And I still needed a bodyguard.

So Irje had to sheepishly take Viter’s spot since he was still healing from their sparring. He was a wer and would recover quickly, but not instantly.

While Yeva chose to stay behind and keep an ear on the recently enslaved snake.

“Make it so. The weather is fine enough that we can start growing plants now without the glass. And by the ti winter cos we should have enough to cover all of them. Servants should be able to stock the water without entering too deep and I will probably have to do the rest myself.”

She scratched her head, “Is this really necessary right now? I know you have plans to rebuild your lab, as well as all these talks about a lathe with Wrena. And then you have brought these fancy ancient ores and keep ntioning that you want a forge too. How will you have ti for all of this?”

“Co here,” I sat on a nearby bench and patted on a spot beside . “I know what you are training for, by the way.”

Irje sighed and adjusted her position, putting her head in my lap. “I know you wish to get the title of freedmurk. Both for us, your family, and our future children. We all obviously approve but that doesn’t an that we don’t worry either. While I can’t stop you from going to the border, I will be coming with you. And you won’t stop either.”

I sighed and started to gently rub her ear, “Sulla showed what I could face out there. While I would prefer not to put any of us in danger I understand the benefit of working together. And I would have no one else but you to watch my back.”

She grinned and nuzzled in deeper, only to frown. “That ans you will be training soon. It would take even more of your ti.”

“It would. But this is exactly why I have to do it. I have no desire to walk into danger without as much protection as I could acquire. I wanted to build a forge so I could make tools and machines with tal bodies. I still do, but the weapons are tools as well. I might not know how to forge a sword but I know how to make better steel.

And steel is not the only material I am after. These greenhouses would provide with a different type of ingredients. Organic ones. Stuff that I would find nearly impossible to make with my own hands. And I would use them to keep us safe.”

My hand slid into a tiny opening on my stomach, nearly invisible to the untrained eye, and retrieved a large kernel from within. My nanites grew the abdominal pouch exactly for the things I wouldn’t dare to lose. Like bio-printer seeds.

“You’ve seen the scales on my body when I arrived,” I murmured as I stretched my arm in front of her. “I tasked the nanodendrites within my body to grow it in response to the Collector’s attack.”

I let her quietly watch as the black snakes of carbon muscles slid across my arm, covering it whole. “It would add power to my body and let grow stronger than an average wer.” The rustle changed its tone as the white scales erged on the surface, covering my arm in a pale-white sleeve, “It would also keep safe from most hits and stabs, better than a plated steel armour would.”

“This armour looks alive because it is. It is almost like a plant that grows around . That heals any damage without the need for a repair. My body nourishes it but also controls it like a limb I didn’t have before. Back where I ca from we called such type of technology the living tech. A bridge between a machine and living thing.”

My palm opened up, “While I am limited to what I can grow on my body, mostly because my nanites are not designed for any drastic improvents, I have these seeds that I talked to you about. They will grow into a plant that could make fancy silks for Domina but, at the sa ti, would make stronger, harder materials that I could use for us. Materials that I desperately need yet unable to obtain anywhere in Emanai.

“At the sa ti, These greenhouses would be the perfect cover for it. If anyone sneaks in, they would only see the lush gardens that would thrive through the winter and supply us with fresh delicious fruits year-round. What they won’t pay attention to is a weirdly shaped overgrown tree. One among many, yet without any obvious fruits.”

Her fingers traced the scales on my arm, “Well, I can’t stop you if you do it for that kind of reason. Just promise not to overwork yourself. It has been three days since you ca back and you had been busy ever since.”

My fingers pinched her ear, “Yeah? And who was the reason behind my last troubles? Leaving alone with Anaise like that? I know you felt her Spark approaching yet you even took Yeva with you!”

She squeaked and slapped my hand away, only to glomp harder in return, “She would’ve demanded for us to leave anyway possibly causing an argunt in the process, and it all worked out well in the end.” Her yellow eye glanced at from my lap, “But I will need to be punished for that. Perhaps tonight?”

“Minx,” I chuckled, kissing her, “I still need to plant this seed and I don’t have the proper tools of punishnt, yet. Perhaps we could visit that store again tomorrow.”

“Fine,” Irje tried her best to grumble despite the grin on her face, “And we also need a few more toys for you to carve the runes on. I have ideas.”

“As long as I don’t see flying dildoes around my bedroom, it should be fine.”

Her eyes got wide, her mouth open, “Oh!”

I rolled my eyes at her antics, “Behave, I need to concentrate here.”

“On planting a seed? Just stick it into the ground.”

“I wish. Despite it being alive I can’t just do that. In fact, it is designed not to germinate unless I program it first. If sothing like this could grow independently the consequences would be disastrous.”

Scales receded from my arm, quickly followed by the rest of the exoskeleton, and revealed a growing bulge on my wrist.

“Eugh,” Irje winced when Harald’s neuro-tendril broke the skin, “Is that the bug you want to put into Yeva?”

“No,” I was too focused on connecting it with the seed to get offended, “This is Harald, a separate ‘plant’ of sorts. It just grows within rather than outside as the skinsuit does. Not only it is very much optional to have, but I also do not have any spares right now to give. All that Yeva would get from is increased control over her body as well as the ability to grow a skinsuit similar to mine.”

“And what does this Harald plant do? Does it hurt?”

I gently pushed her curious fingers away from my ‘wound’ and the tendril in general, “No, and the skin would heal imdiately after, this is temporary. Harald’s main purpose is to allow to ‘talk’ to the other living tech. So of them require direct control just as I am doing right now. I am technically connecting my mind to the seed so I could send my thoughts into it, telling it how I want it to grow and what I would require from it in the future.”

I sighed and allowed myself to glance away for a second, “Most living tech is basic and usually depends on sothing like this to operate or listen to commands. Others — I could feel directly in my head. Sowhere far away Lif, my tree-ship, grows. Probably deep in the Forest. I can just barely feel her on the edge of my consciousness.”

“You sound like you are talking about a lover,” Irje harrumphed, “Are we not enough for you that you are already seeking fourth after just claiming your third?”

“She isn’t like that. While she is capable of independent thought and action, Organic Artificial intelligence, or O-AI for short, are still limited in terms of independent drive. She is more than a re machine or even assistant to . More than a friend but not a lover like you. You can even consider her as a part of as she takes on my emotions and my feelings as her own. So since I love you so does she. She is a part of : one Navigator - one Ship. We don’t exist apart from one another. Without her, I would be a re augnted murk. Without , she would be a re tree.”

I glanced down at her sowhat confused face and chuckled. “Perhaps I should tell you more of my history, but not right now. The rest of my sadaq deserves to know as well. But don’t worry about changing drastically anymore. I might grow with ti but the ti of major change is long past. That was back then, when a slave murk picked up the fruit of Lif and ate it. Joining together his flesh, the mories of a Navigator and the nanodendrites of the tree-ship.

“And when all these parts combined together, what you now know as Erf was really born.”