Terra and the Waters of Life and Death - Path to the Darkstar

(Originally written on November 30, 2017)

Terra was bored. Sadly, this sensation of listlessness had defined most of the past year or so of her life. She had hoped that living a life free of the oversight of her family would be exciting and rewarding, but so far that hadn't happened yet.

Terra had lived the past year as a vagabond, roaming the world in search of a place to belong. Everytime she thought she found that place, she invariably pissed off someone influencial or ended up robbing someone, with the end result being that she had to flee to somewhere else.

Just recently, Terra had robbed a family of refugees she had encountered on the road by convincing them that she was a powerful mage that could murder them all with ease (she wasn't). Unfortunately, the refugees hadn't had much in the way of valuables, but what little food, money, and water they'd been travelling with was now her's. Terra had then changed routes and rode off the beaten path and into the countryside, where she came across the tracks of a large army of Enderkin. Since she was doing fairly well from a supply standpoint, Terra decided to follow the Enderkin army and see what they were up to... from a safe distance, of course. Perhaps they would leave some valuables in their wake, for Enderkin didn't value gems, gold, and coins the way most sentients did.

And so Terra stalked the Enderkin horde for the next several days, sleeping from around 2:00 AM to 10:00 AM each day, then covering any lost ground during the day so that she could catch up to the army by nightfall, when she would then spy on them with her night-vision scope.

It had been fun at first, but this too quickly became boring. And then...

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A little before noon on the forth day since she began tracking the Enderkin, she caught sight of the army entering a forest. An unusual energy seemed to have come over the army, with the Enderkin rushing into the forest in some kind of a frenzy. Curious, Terra rode into the forest behind them, getting a little closer to the army than was advisable, but the Enderkin seemed very absorbed with another target at the moment.

The poor lighting caused by the somewhat dense canopy made visibility something of an issue. Not wanting to accidentally bump into any of the vile Ender-creatures by mistake, Terra decided to break off direct pursuit and see what she could see from the top of a nearby hill. At first, she could see nothing, although she could faintly hear the sounds of fighting in the distance. However, through her night-vision scope, she was able to get a glimpse of the action. The Enderkin army seemed to be attacking a small band of travellers, who, to their credit, seemed to be faring surprisingly well. Although Enderkin were not the most fearsome nor intelligent warriors, these travellers were still most certainly doomed, for that army was quite large.

As Terra was watching the fight, she began to feel a sense of dread come over her for no readily apparent reason. She felt as if she was in danger, although a quick scan of the area revealed no Enderkin coming her way. Regardless, Terra had learned to trust her instincts a long time a go, and her instincts were now telling her to GTFO. She got back onto her horse, Sexy Beast (yes, that actually is the horse's name), and rode away from the scene. Terra tried to make a note of which direction she was going in comparison to where the fight was happening so that she could hopefully find the scene of the battle at a later time, with the hope being that maybe the Enderkin would leave some of those traveller's rather intriguing armor and weaponry behind. She wouldn't have minded getting to try that stuff out given the chance.

Suddenly, surge of water came out of nowhere, barely missing Terra and Sexy Beast as the river gushed toward the battle. Terra stared dumbfounded at the newly created river, struggling to process what had just happened. This... isn't natural. Someone created this river, someone very powerful. This... this warrants an investigation.

Terra began to follow the stream back toward where the battle had taken place, for surely the person(s) responsible for that amazing feat was/were with those travellers. Why else would the river suddenly come into existance when those travellers came under attack? It couldn't be a coincidence.

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The river disappeared as quickly as it had come, leaving a great muddy path filled with uprooted vegetation and quite a few bloated Enderkin corpses (carcasses?) in its wake. As Terra continued to follow the stream, she heard multiple claps of thunder, and eventually, it began to rain. Terra was both happy and upset by the change in the weather, for the rain would eventually make the ground muddy, which would cause the traveller's to leave very noticable tracks, but she would also get wet and uncomfortable as well.

Eventually, Terra stumbled upon the site of the battle, which was still recognizable due to the mutilated Enderkin corpses lying about. A quick scan of the site through her scope revealed some footprints leading away from the scene. Pocketing the scope, Terra rode Sexy Beast onto the path the travellers were following. Soon she brought Sexy Beast to a reletively quiet trot, for she did not want to reveal herself to these travellers yet. They would doubtlessly be suspicious of her if she showed up so soon after their victory, and she really knew nothing about these travellers. That was something Terra intended remedy soon. Hopefully she would be able to spy on the party without being noticed and learn something about them before she introduced herself, if it needed to come to that.

Terra then thought she heard a voice not too far ahead. She brought Sexy Beast to a halt and pulled out her scope once again. Through the gloom, she spotted a kid supporting a scantily clad woman who appeared to be injured or something about a mile (1.6 km) ahead. A few other people were a little farther ahead of them.

Terra waited until the group was out of sight before she continued after them, hugging her damp black riding cloak against herself in a futile attempt to warm-up. I hate this @#%#!&% rain.