Chapter Text
“Stupid cold, spooky forest with its stupid trees and stupid uneven ground,” Jiang bitterly griped as she dragged her claws along the bark of a tree, scattering the wood chips until she made a sizable dent in the wood she could recognize as something man-made.
She stepped back carefully over the roots and surveyed her handy work. It wasn’t identical to the other markers but her hands had ached even worse than ever before and it was just obvious enough to tell it was one of hers and tell her where she had been. Jiang sighed forlornly and turned on her heel to press on.
Her wide feet were blistered and cut from the long walk and she hadn’t helped to ease the soreness in her body with her lack of sleep. She was too frightened to when night came. The sounds of the forests seemed all the more louder with eerie yowls and screams coming from creatures hidden within the encompassing shadows. The mind’s tricks become all the more vivid and it was hard to tell what was a knot in a tree or a twisted face peering at her in the darkness.
Now she regretted not sleeping then. Exhaustion had chewed its way into the meat of her body and drained her like a vampire drinking away her very life. Every muscle would yelp painfully in protest as she pulled herself up over yet another incline in the endless ups and downs of the uneven terrain. It was tempting to just lie in a patch of particularly tempting ferns. Still she pressed on. She thought of home with warm bed with its big quilts to engulf her. She thought of a bowl of hot, hearty stew filled with savory beef and soft potatoes. She thought of her mother. Jiang’s heart ached worse than her teeth and muscles. Her poor mother must’ve been worrying her pelt off, pacing up and down the shop wondering when her daughter would be back.
“Mom probably has the whole street looking for me,” Jiang said to no one in particular. “Bet old Krieger’s called in all his connections to get a search party for me. He’d better or I’ll have some choice words for that featherbrain.”
She laughed to herself and it only made her feel a little better. Her stomach gnawed spine, protesting loudly with a grumble as it did so. Jiang had never been so hungry and she couldn’t even recall when the last time she ate was. Those ferns she was tempted to rest on were starting to look mighty tasty by now and she was getting to the point of being prepared to hunt and kill something with just her claws and teeth. But the way her teeth scraped against each other and grated in her skull was definitely not encouraging the primal instinct of the hunt.
It had become increasingly difficult to tolerate. Her teeth ached like she had just gotten a set of braces and just setting her jaw closed had made her stubborn migraine all the more unbearable. Had she been a touch more unstable, she’d probably rip them out herself and enjoy a diet of applesauce and mashed potatoes for the rest of her life. Unfortunately, Jiang was not at that point yet. But it definitely was tempting.
Jiang came to another fallen tree and looked up. The trail had become more erratic since she had become. Some of the fallen trees were further apart, others were entire clusters of the unfortunate flora that were bunched too close together. This one was one of the larger ones. Jiang couldn’t accurately guess the diameter of the trunks but her best estimate was around 6 feet across, give or take a few feet.
She reached out and touched the trunk, noting the way it had fallen. It had splintered in the middle and collapsed away from her. Come to think of it, all the trees had fallen in opposite directions of each other like something had crashed right through and spread the forest apart like slicing through bread. It had been deeply unnatural, almost artificial in its means; had an airship gone down at some point? Perhaps a poor sky eel whose longevity had finally come to an end?
Jiang studied the trunk once more and noted something particularly odd. Stripes. Stripes carved into the trunk in patterns of five that spread down word almost like… claws sweeping at the tree as whatever had struck it went by. She couldn’t even begin to think of something that could have clawed that big, more than five times the size of her hand.
No, Jiang corrected herself. Absolutely no way those are claws. There isn’t a creature big enough to even make marks like that so high up. Except sky eels and they don’t have hands. A stab of dread shot through her and she looked around anxiously. Unless I’m unlucky enough to be the one discovering a new species. Oh, I hope those stories of monsters are just meant to scare kids into behaving.
Jiang pushed on, a bit more alert now as she went. She snapped her head this way and that as she moved down a small slope and paused to carve another marker into the bark of an adolescent blackleaf sequoia. Her hands shook as she went and scattered the pieces of wood like forest made confetti. She pushed back and continued to the next fallen tree.
Her nerves buzzed with alarm as she could make out another marking in the wood of the fallen sequoia ahead. The same clawed marks had been carved into the bark with so much force, it splintered the surface. The tree had not been knocked down. It had been slashed cleanly through. Jiang’s dread squirmed through her skin and her heart began to thunder in her ears. Her legs trembled, knees knocking, as she carefully approached the tree.
Jiang stared up at the tree, another far too big to simply knock over by regular means of age or simple wind. Her mouth was dry as she inspected the roots, the trunk, and the top of the tree that had once reached to the sky and now had its head crushed to the ground. The dark leaves sprayed across the damp grass and within she could see the large pods containing the tree seeds and the straggling remains of a bird nest, its eggs long scavenged by predators.
Typically the sight of a desecrated nest with eggs long gone would be a sad sight worthy of a forlorn shake of her head and a passing remark of sympathy. With nothing to eat in who knew how long, the sight only made Jiang’s belly revolt in the lack of scraps with a growl and a writhing coil of nausea. She cringed and chastised herself, muttering to herself, “What are you, some slovenly fox? There’s got to be something nearby. Berries. I think I’ll settle for chewing on dandelions and pinecones at this rate.”
Jiang pressed on and forcefully shoved the presence of claw marks on the tree. Somewhere in the spiderwebs in her mind concealing the events of whatever lead her to the Black Forest, the dread that permeated her very scales rooted deep within. She tried to formulate a plan to forage but the deeper mystery beckoned to that empty place where the last few days should’ve been. She tried to think of berries, fish, and tree nuts but it all dragged and weaved its way back to the bigger mystery of the clawed trees and lostness.
She weaved along the uneven ground, her mind stubbornly trying to address the beast no doubt wandering the woods as her stomach demanded its attention on sustenance. Maybe my mind is just playing tricks on me. I’ve been alone for a while and I am really hungry. Yeah, that’s all there is to it.
She dreamed of a spicy curry on rice, of her mother’s fried shrimp and hearty stew of beef and carrots, and the fruity sweetness of Krieger’s Drucker’s Oasis. She thought of the grapes at the farmers market that pop between her teeth and the sweet bread rolls at the corner bakery fluffier than sheep wool. She counted all the things she would eat and how many long hours she would sleep when she got to her home, tucked in the big blankets her mother had gotten for her.
Mom is not gonna let me leave home until I’m 50, Jiang mumbled internally. Guess that wouldn’t be the worst. I don’t think I wanna leave the house until then.
A soft crack down the trail snapped her attention back to the present and all the thoughts of cozy home vanished. Comfort turned to dark clouds of gnashing teeth, wicked claws, and powerful muscles just right for tearing her apart. The songs of birds sounded more like shrieks now and echoed in her ears as she realized she was not alone.
She couldn’t see a beast in question from her place. Just another downed tree in a sea of trees spreading into the unknown and concealing dangers hungry for flesh and bone. Her anxious dark eyes scanned the undergrowth, the canopy above, the very trunks of trees for a dark figure just peeking around with hungry eyes of its own. Just by the nearest fallen tree, another in her search, something rustled the ferns just behind it.
Jiang’s blood roared in her ears, her heart rattling her whole ribcage. She frantically looked around for something to defend her self, settling on a sizable stone by her foot. Not magical like the one around her neck but it was better than nothing. She raised it above her head with a readiness to chuck or pummel at whatever threat lay in wait of her.
“Come out, you coward!” She shouted, her voice wavering. “I’ll rip you to bits!”
The ferns rustled violently and stopped all in a matter of seconds. They didn’t move and a sliver of courage found its way to Jiang’s heart. She side stepped to try and catch a view of the enemy ahead. A brown furry ear peaked out the side of the mighty fallen sequoia and disappeared in a quick bound of feet. Jiang caught sight of the end of its short fluffy tail as it weaved between the trees and off into the distance.
A gray doe.
Jiang’s legs wobbled in relief and she let out a breathless laugh. All that for a sweet little deer? She shook her head, half amused, and dropped the stone with a dull thud on the grass. Oh, Jiang, this forest is getting to you.
Her dread quelled for the moment and she moved towards the fallen tree, paying it no mind. She stepped fully around it to investigate, looking to see if she could find anything of interest. Maybe a smaller animal to hunt or, more for the delight of seeing one, a cute little fawn to admire. Unlike a squirrel to roast or a tiny fawn to ogle at, she came to the sight of a fairly large bush. Not just any bush.
Rested in the among the expanse of the roots of the fallen tree like a present just for her, a true-to-life answered prayer: a berry bush. The yellow, orange, and pink berries like multicolored jewels clustered the bush, some missing and half eaten but plenty still whole. Jiang grabbed a handful of the berries and ripped them from their stems. She took a sniff of one and popped it in her mouth. Her sore teeth protested with an ache but she didn’t care. The juicy berry popped in her mouth and its fairly tart flavor had never tasted sweeter.
She had no idea what these berries were but for now they were her new favorite food. She shoved handfuls into her mouth, devouring bite after bite like a feral creature. The tart juice dribbled down her chin and her pointed tongue flickered out to wipe it up and not waste a drop. She stuffed extra berries into her undamaged pockets and took a minute to sit back against the trunk of the damaged tree.
She sighed gratefully, patting a hand on her satisfied stomach. She could almost fall asleep right there. Her eyes were heavy and her body, though finally having some much needed fuel, definitely needed the rest. It wasn’t exactly cozy, her bum and tail would be numb from sitting up against the tree and it was a little too exposed for her liking. Still it was very tempting and she yawned widely. Sh rubbed her eyes on the back of her hand and considered sleep for a moment or two. Jiang reluctantly pushed the thought away and sighed.
She knew she would need water soon. Her stomach might’ve been full but berries could only do so much for hydration, especially with all those sugars. Eventually the stomach cramps and nausea would come and she could’n’t afford to wait for another rain shower. Rain did not care for how thirsty you were nor did it really abide by any schedule. A river or stream would be the best bet.
Jiang looked back down the trail of trees. From her position, she couldn’t see or hear anything to signify water, not the babble of brooks or the swaying of water splashed ferns. She made a mental note to mark some more trees to detail her way back to the bush in case of emergency and patted the ground to find a rock or something to give her tired claws a break.
She fumbled and settled on a something flat and smooth from beneath the clovers and between the grass. It felt unusually glossy and she raised it up to her tired eyes to inspect the strange rock. Her brows furrowed as she turned it over in her hands.
It was not a rock.
It was flat, shiny and dark red like a piece of garnet carved in the shape of a narrow oval. It was as long and wide as her palm and bent slightly as she turned it over.The shade was familiar and the shape even more so. That dread that rooted itself into her mind, anxious and cold, coiled its fingers around her neck and whispered in her ear.
I recognize this.
Her arms stung in response. Jiang’s fingers trembled as she turned her arms over and stared at the finely pressed scales. The dark red scales of her arms, significantly smaller were an exact match in shade. Light red, the raw skin still stinging slightly, Jiang found the gaps in the overlapping natural. The scales were missing.
The berries in her stomach soured and her mouth went dry. Her heartbeat tightened her throat and she dropped it. The scales plopped unceremoniously on the ground, disappearing into the dense clovers. Its subtle sound was louder than the rest of the forest.
No. No that can’t be mine. It can’t be. It’s more than three times the size of my scales. It can’t be mine. Jiang looked down at her hands. They ached so much worse now. Her claws were worn, one claw chipped down to the quick. Five fingers. Five claws. Jiang’s dread turned to terror. She planted her hands to turn her upper body and looked up.
Just like the last tree, the fallen tree she sat against had been knocked down. it splintered in the middle and just like the one before, five claws mark slashed the wood, deep and severe. Like a bloody glove and a sample of hair on a murder weapon, a large red scale had been loosened and sat lodged in the bark.
No… no no no no. I couldn’t. I couldn’t have done this! I-It doesn’t make sense.
Jiang’s breath hastened and she clasped a clammy hand over her chest. It was a poor attempt to quell her panic and truly did nothing. Her hand brushed her stone and the panic surged. Through the haze of terror and the tears that blurred her vision, Jiang raised the stone to her line of sight.
The stone. The stone isn’t working. I’m out here alone and the stone isn’t working! I messed up! I messed up and that’s why! Oh my gosh it’s all my fault!
Her mother had warned her. Countless times she had warned her about the threats of a stone. She trained her day in and day out on the best methods on using a stone and maintaining control. Ming was no expert but she had done her research if it meant protecting her daughter from the threat of the elf king’s wrathful claws. The book her mother taught her from, On Stone Power by some mysterious man named Silas Charnon, still lay beneath the floorboards under her mother’s bed. She would not let the elf king kill or steal her away. She would not allow the stone to steal her away.
“Beware talking stones and the call to power,” Ming had said. “We need nothing of that sort. That is for the ambitious and the foolhardy.”
Jiang had been young when her mother had told her stories of men becoming monsters. Their stones shoving crooked fingers into their skulls and squeezing until their brains were little more than ground, pulpy meat and making them monsters. They tore sinew from bone, twisted them, and reformed them into something mindless and cruel. Jiang had heard tales of the elf king and the event 30 years prior. He had once become a monster and returned somehow worse than before. Kanalis, even decades later, still feared the elven giants.
She had heard the stories of the girl around the dock yards, the bars, and her mother’s shop. It was mere whispers of her story: the human girl, a stonekeeper, that had appeared from nowhere and placed herself at the front of the Rebellion with the scorned prince of the elves and an old man from the days of Cielis. She had been spoken of with some odd reverence by drunks and the hopeful, like some folktale hero come to life. Now the drunks and the hopeful fretted and whispered away from the keen ears of elves about rumors of a great bird of fire somewhere to the east and the silence of the rebellion in recent days. Jiang had always thought the tales of a stonekeeper hero— a literal child nonetheless —turned into a giant beast of legend were little more than silly rumors than actual accounts. Now she wasn’t so sure.
If something like that could happen to leaders at the center of it all, who was to say it wouldn’t happen to her. She was not so arrogant to assume she was somehow immune to the tight hold of the stone
Richard would never do something like that! A small part of her argued, waving in the back of her mind. He’s too lazy! He warned me countless times on minding my power and strength! Why would that puff ball of smoke bother taking control of me now? Unless there’s someone else??
Jiang rubbed her arms and searched her mind. She scoured desperately for answers, tearing through the empty memories. Her eyes darted down to the scale peaking out against the greenery.
Then it flickered. A whisper of something in the annals of the past. A clench of grief and she was there. The door was broken down, the shop filled shouting and commands, the cold steel of a blade pressed to her cheek. She had been shoved to the floor and a boot in her back ensured she stayed there. She couldn’t breathe. She couldn’t see her mother.
Mom! Mom!
Jiang gasped for breath and clawed at her neck to try as if her own throat strangled the breath from her lungs as the memories kept coming. She couldn’t tell if the coppery stench of blood flooding her nostrils was happening now or then. The screams echoed through her skull. Her mother was screaming-
Mom! Momma! What have you done to her?!
Jiang could see her. Clear as day. The spear came down upon her mother’s head and crimson splattered. It was on the floor, it was on the spear, it was on her face, IT WAS ON HER FACE-
Jiang screamed with all the little air that remained in her lungs. She stood and through the swirl of memories, she stood up and ran. She stumbled over roots, slammed into the sides of trunks as she blindly sprinted through the woods. She bounded down, not caring where she was going. All she could see in the moment was getting away from her discarded scale and back to home.
I need to get home! I need to find my mom! She might still be alive! I can save her! I can save her!
Another wave of memory hit like a tidal wave. She had tried to save her. She had. Jiang had writhed under the boot of the soldier that had knocked down her door and threw her to the floor. She had squirmed to try and get to her mother as she lay feet away. She could still feel the rage and terror coursing through her veins when she had snapped.
She could recall using her stone. She remembered the magic blasting from the amulet and seizing the guard that had embedded her blade into her mother’s head. The power had burned even her. She could hear the sizzles and pops of flesh and the sweet gratification of the guards screaming in agony. “You deserve this,” she had shrieked. “You deserve all of this!”
She recalled the power that enveloped her hands in glowing yellow energy. She was a blur of swinging fists cloaked in magic and the burning meat flooded her nostrils as she descended on the guard that killed her mother. It was all a haze and her vision of the memory had grown hazy. Perhaps it was the her body, still sprinting through the woods in a hellish fury. But the sounds still rang in her ears. She could still hear it now.
“You’re doing too much,” Richard had spoken into her mind. “You need to stop.”
“No no never! They hurt my mother! They must pay! They must die!!!”
“I can’t stop what’s happening! You’re losing yourself! Don’t do something you’ll regret!”
She had ignored him then. She shoved his very voice aside like a whining mosquito in her ear. and now she wondered why. He had sounded so concerned. Worried even. He was even
Why didn’t I listen? What did I do?! WHAT DID I DO?!
The world spun as something caught Jiang foot, breaking her thoughts and making her yelp. Cold mud smashed against her face and the momentum sent her legs over her head. She rolled to a stop onto her back with a loud shmack and was met with the cold and startling discomfort of soggy ground. The shock was enough to silence the flood in her mind and the quiet babbles of water rushing by filled the frosty silence. Jiang squinted her eyes open and through her muddled vision, she could make out the vague scenery.
Splitting the woods like a border to heaven, a wide stream of cold water from Demon’s Head Mountain wound its way through the trees and rocks. Birds songs were even sweeter here and reeds waved under a gentle breeze. The sun shone proudly above and broke the eerie shade of the circumambient forest. The light was warm, the warmest it had been. Yet Jiang was still cold and the water was not to blame.
The sight of water and sun should’ve filled her with joy. She should’ve delighted it another sign of salvation. She had water, her pockets were lined with food, she finally could see the sky. Yet her chest felt hollow.
She tried to push herself onto her elbows but a bolt of pain seared into her bones. Every fiber ached worse than ever before. Running through the woods had taken the last of her strength and her body revolted. Her muscles spasmed and her heard fell back to the mud with a damp flop. Her feathers stuck to the wet ground unpleasantly and she numbly groaned.
Jiang stared up into te limitless sky, too weak to move or pull herself from her place in the mud. The sky above went on forever and ever, endless blue. The ache of her body echoed through her bones and mind. She lay on her back and let out a shuddering breath. She expected a new wave of memories to come soon now that the floodgates had opened. It was a creeping understanding that it would come, like watching a building slowly lean on its side and come crashing down with the knowledge that no matter which way you ran, you were going to be crushed.
Jiang’s eyes watered as she stared above and tears slipped down the corner of her eyes. Heavy with exhaustion and a throbbing pain that stretched from the top of her head to the tips of her toes. The muddy ground was frigid but at least it was soft. It was the softest she had felt since she woke up and she was so tired. She closed her eyes and waited for sleep to find her. She listened to the forest glow quiet as she drifted into troubled slumber and met her dreams head on.
Jiang didn’t think she would ever dream of memories but her memories found her in the grasp of rest. They tugged her through the faded moments of the morning when the door was suddenly burst down and a guard shouted for her to confess. She felt her face hit the floor all over again and her mother cry her name. It was worse than before now. Jiang watched as her mother pushed a guard away from her and grab a wrench to keep him at bay. Her fluffy bang that obscured her face were mussed to reveal her eyes. Those loving, tough eyes that watched Jiang grow were wide with terror and she swore for the elf to leave.
She swung the wrench and just as before in the haze of panic remembrance, Jiang watched an elf with a spear charge forward as his comrade stumble away from Ming’s reach. Jiang, both in the present and memory, watched in horror as the guard struck her mother down with the bladed side of his spear. Ming crumpled to the floor and the elf had the audacity to look surprised when blood poured out from the wound in her head. It pooled at his feet and stained her ginger fur. The elf watched with wide eyes as Ming’s blood soaked his boots.
“MOM!!!”
Jiang wailed in her dreams like as she had when she was awake. It all played out the same, right down to her pummeling guards and blasting holes into her home. She was a passenger and a participant, and she felt it all. The stone energy coursing through her veins was enticing and her rage pushed her on. Jiang felt something slip within her chest; her body felt hollow and she had tripped into a free fall all within her own skin. Her body felt bigger. Stronger. The fury was righteous and fierce. She drank up the new power greedily as she threw another guard aside and leaped upon another. She could see the face of a decorated officer she had not remembered before writhing beneath her. He looked smaller now and his hands were empty of a spear. His face bore scars worse than any she had seen like he had been blasted with flame and his skin healed too tight. His serpent eyes were stretched wide and is mouth moved silently, pleading for his life upon deaf ears. He was not the same one to strike her mother. That one had disappeared.
It did not matter. Jiang prepared to swipe him across the face. The one to do the deed or not, he would pay. He came into her home and now her mother lay in a pool of blood. For that he deserved to die, surely. Jiang waited for her memory to continue, to give her the satisfaction that the man that hurt her mother had paid dearly. Her hand— her hand was the size of his chest now and sharper than she remembered —gripped his armor and she lifted him up. Eye to eye, she glared hatefully into his face.
“Please, this wasn’t supposed to happen!” His words, though muffled, finally reached her ears. “I’m sorry-“
Tear him apart! Jiang goaded her memory. Make him pay!
She waited for the memory of her to open wide jaws and rip his face from his skull. To tear him asunder and ensure whoever dared to live would follow the same fate. But something caught her eye, a flicker of movement just on her left. Her head, heavier than she recalled, swiveled slowly to take in the sight.
Ming lay on her belly and her hand stretched out towards her baby. Jiang could see her mother’s eyes through the blood soaked fur, half lidded and pupils narrowed from the pain. Her mouth moved wordlessly, trembling and deliberate, but Jiang could not hear what she was saying. Her body gave out and she slumped back down.
Jiang tried to call out to her mother but her voice was not her own. A yowl tore from her lips instead and her body moved on its own accord. The guard in her claws cried out as he watched Ming go still but Jiang paid him no mind as she took a step towards her mother. Jiang’s gaze caught on something behind her mother and her gaze lifted to see her own reflection in the pictures of their small family of two that lined the walls of their shop.
The face in the glass was not the same as the young feathered reptile within. She was larger, head wide, and feathered hair looking more like a lion’s mane. Her teeth poked out from her lips and interlocked like a Venus flytrap, too big to fit within her own mouth.
Jiang shrieked and the beast in the reflection did so as well. She looked back to the elf in her grasp, who stared back in horror. He screwed his eyes shut and turned his face away, preparing to meet his fate but Jiang couldn’t move. She couldn’t finish him off no matter how much the rage within demanded to be appeased. Not when his eyes, wide and desperate, were filled with the same fear as her mother’s. Her eyes fixed on him and slowly, her grip on his breastplate loosened. The elf fell to the ground and memory warped from there.
Like the events were twisted in a kaleidoscope, Jiang found herself in her memory bounding through the nighttime streets, out of town and into the woods. She recalled screaming in her ears but she couldn’t tell if it was someone else’s or her own. Jiang crashed through the woods and swung at trees, knocking them down with mighty claws. She tumbled over a slope and grasped at her own face. Her spirit clawed for control over her own body as she spasmed and fell. She landed on their back and stared up at the empty sky above from beneath the familiar canopy.
Jiang’s throat burned with emotion as the memory faded to black and she was no longer beast or a passenger to her own memory. She sat in the void of black, weeping quietly to herself and reverberating through the emptiness. She pressed her hands over her eyes and wailed into the dead air.
With no one to hear her, she reached out to the only one who could hear her own mind’s voice.
“Kalios! Kalios, tell me she’s ok! Tell me momma’s ok! Tell me everything is ok!”
Kalios did not answer. Her cries bled out into the void. Jiang fell to her knees and held herself as sobs wracked her frame. She wept until her throat ached and her eyes felt heavy. She didn’t even know someone could feel like that during a dream and lamented she was to find it out for herself.
She grieved alone in her mind and alone in the forest.
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“You cannot hear me yet. But I am here. I hear you. I see you. I’m… I’m so sorry but I am not strong enough to reach you yet. Your anger has always been… taxing. I can’t blame you, though. If I had a mother like yours, I think I would’ve acted the same way you did.
….
I wish I could bring you good news. Tell you everything is ok and it’ll all go back to the way things were. You know how much I despise change… but I fear there’s more to come. I can feel it in the very fabric of the void. The tides are changing and the scales power is out of balance. Or maybe they’re finally balancing out. Ikol is losing his grip. A new way of life is coming and you need to be strong. Just wait a little more than Xiao Jiang. Just a little more.
Hold on.”