My flight took me to a rough and uneven part of the Berwem, where raised blades of dustone stabbed skyward and bands of murky glass seemed the lake’s outjutting ribs. I landed there, after some beats of indecisive circling. Hinte was right; you couldn’t find crysts by flying.
rockwraith, should’ve had me less afraid. But I was alone. I had already nearly died, and what would have happened if I hadn’t escaped the ghastly glasscrabs?
ax with you?”
Nothing to fear. “I???—??okay.” I brought my forefoot to my cheek, about to scratch it, but flinched with a gasp as I touched the tender rawness.
I’ve come to like it.” They pat their breast with a foreleg. “This your first flight in the fires? You act a little fledgly.”
he let some streams flow.” They waved a wing behind them, pointing back the way they came. “I’m just here a-waiting.”
off and sourcerous. But I wondered, and picked this guy up”???—??he held up a necklace inlaid with a purple cryst, rough but also flat in places???—??“and sand it down sometimes. Once heard they ward off curses and fouls spirits, so I keep one or two around when I can manage it.”
Three crysts. I’ve gotten more than halfway there! The new cryst glowed weaker than the others. It didn’t look as drab as Sterk, but it wavered more than the crabstone.
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I risked two swallows of my canteen while I flew. As I brought the tall, cloth-wrapped glass to my mouth, my hold slipped on the wet dew coating it. The canteen didn’t fall out of my grasp, but I overcompensated and knocked it from my own claws.
bought that canteen and my money wouldn’t last forever.
slight. But I needed to take every lead. So my wings folded and I fanned my frills.
win!
touched a crabstone, the effect became a whisper or suggestion, the same subtle shifts that had hinted at the second crabstone.
useful. Could I regain Sterk’s detection ability? I could hide the crabstones somewhere and carry only Sterk. But then glasscrabs might find and damage the stones, I couldn’t risk that. I could place them high, on some cliff. But I didn’t know these cliffs very well. If I won, and then I???—??forgot where I hide the stones… I’d crumble. And I had no more room in my crab bag, so I couldn’t even keep them in separate bags. I coughed a sigh. At least, the effect had helped while it lasted. And some good things happened. I found my fourth stone!
So close.
suffused the air. My frills fanned. The crunches came from all around me. I looked. Glasscrabs crawled over the mounds.
fly. Eyestalks waved at the purple cryst in my foot.
forward. Why did they act so aggressive? They’re supposed to be flighty little prey. I flicked my tongue again, finding the urine scent on me. Oh.
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…Three crysts.
so close. I couldn’t lose now, when winning was right above me.
breathing and tried to untie that knot, to give me room to breathe on a more abstract level. When I pulled at the strings, tugged at the loops, the knot just grew tighter. I huffed frustration, and instead clawed and ripped at the knot. But the frayed strings twisted together, waxing to an awful cross-tied mess of thread that was even worse because you knew it was frayed so bad it couldn’t be untied normally because you ruined it.
dragged at mental exercises. They didn’t work for me. I just had to let go and fly forward anyway. Drop the knot. Lick the tart venom from my fangs.
think. Where were crysts most likely to be? Without knowing how crysts form, or how the glass flowed below the skin, I didn’t know where to hunt for crysts.
did taste good at any rate. Not good enough to justify stepping into the awful lake, but some sad creature had to live here, eating them anyway.
They might eat you.
eaten! More than I wanted to impress Hinte, more than I wanted not to pass out in the vog.
Tongueless. Stone-frills.
I don’t need your help.
friends. I… I was better than this, wasn’t I?
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