Day 18:
Trap
The three higher ups walked away leaving the door wide open.
“Ysle,” Tolnoran softly commanded. The Kret moved to the door and pushed it closed before laying down against the bottom.
Artemis looked to him. “I take it they’re not the best of company to be around?”
Tolnoran snorted. “Oh, Colonel Conner and Cass are great people to be around - some of the better, in fact - but it’s the other higher ups that aren’t all that great to be around. Leader Fox runs a tight ship but there something about him that’s always put me on edge. Madam Drev I don’t know well enough to have an opinion of but the way her Jaun behaves has many of us thinking there’s more broken about her than what we’re seeing.”
Artemis looked to Dlmor. “How did you know their names?”
He caught Tolnoran looking over sharply out of the corner of his eye as Dlmor finally let him go. “Vulren came by the first night you were here, curious no doubt, and happened to be a bit more chatty than was probably wise. Jaun are not known to be cocky but this one sure is.”
“Vulren is also very vicious.” Tolnoran put in, expression and tone serious. “Do not cross that Jaun. You will get torn to shreds faster than you could blink.”
Dlmor snorted at that. “I’d like to see an attempt at that.”
“Dlmor,” Tolnoran started but Dlmor waved him off.
“I will not encourage nor seek after that behavior. I am not that stupid nor that confident in my skills against a Jaun. However, a Jaun can still be taken down. A cocky one just makes that task easier.”
Artemis asked, “Is there a ranking then on which creatures are stronger or better fighters than others?”
Tolnoran let out a sigh. “Not necessarily.”
“No type is inherently stronger or a better fighter than the other,” Dlmor explained. “That is simply from my experience. But, then, I have only ever fought with Jaun that have had a human support so I’m not sure if that has had any impact on my experiences.”
“Do humans boost creature strengths?”
Tolnoran wobbled his hand in the air. “Kind of? Humans act more like points of reference and advice more than a source of power but I’ve seen some creatures bolstered by a human so there isn’t really a straight answer to that question. It also depends on the type and strength of the bond.”
“What of the creature to a human?”
Confusion flickered across both their faces as Tolnoran asked, “What do you mean?”
Artemis was fairly certain the answer was no if Tolnoran was asking for clarification but he elaborated anyways. “You’ve both have said that a creature can get aid of some kind from a human - be is simply a different perspective or some form of strength - but what about the human? Does the human gain the same thing?”
Tolnoran glanced at Dlmor before stating, “The human usually isn’t the one fighting. If they are, they’re fighting the other human or acting as support.”
“Do you remember how Lora crafted the bow and was firing arrows?” Dlmor spoke up, drawing his attention towards the foggy memories. “Most humans gain the ability to craft something out of their partnership but that’s the extent of anything the human gains.”
“Thus the need for an armory, then?”
Tolnoran nodded, passing him the bundle of fabric. “Less strain on the bond if we don’t have to craft.” He took the bundle and started to change into the outfit. “That and most that do go out onto the fields either had a partnership that isn’t a full bond or are Ylmra.”
He pulled the large shirt over his head. The entire thing was very squared. There was no curve in the arms, shoulder, or body of the shirt and he felt like was wearing a sheet quickly stitched into something vaguely shirt shaped. “Ylmra can’t craft?”
“They can,” Tolnoran offered, though the words were drawn out. “But most never figure out how. It’s easier when there’s a creature outside of you rather than try and figure it out from within.”
“No one can teach them?”
“It’s not something you can learn from someone else,” Dlmor pointed out. “There’s no simple way to describe it. It is truly an act that you either stumble upon, or you don’t.”
He thought of the object he had thrown, the things he had crafted from what Dlmor had left behind. Dlmor shot him a look and he knew even without the push from the creature that he was to keep that to himself. “What of Ylmra having a partner? Is that possible with what they are?”
Tolnoran frowned at him. “How much do you know of the Ylmra.”
“Very little.” He met the older man’s gaze. “And only what Elias told me. He said that Ylmra are rare; that they are two beings that have become one, in a sense.”
Tolnoran’s frowned eased a bit but it didn’t go away. “Well, that’s not inaccurate at least. But it is missing a lot of it.” Tolnoran placed a heavy hand on his shoulder, starting for the door. “Ylmra are able to create bonds but they are difficult to maintain so many don’t. Thus why the armory. But enough about this for now. We’ve got to stop by the main healer’s office and get you checked over before I walk you across the compound.”
Ysle got up and moved away from the door. Dlmor adjusted its shape to be the same shoulder height as a big dog, pressing in against his thigh so that his fingers could bury themselves easily into the long fur at the creature’s neck and shoulders.
The hallway wasn’t overly busy but it was full of noise. He followed Tolnoran’s direction down the left hallway past numerous rooms and many people all dressed in something that counted as scrubs. His eyes wandered as he took in the people and the creatures there. A large majority were the same creature - some long, fur covered creature with two sets of paws with thumbs and prehensile tails - that Dlmor informed him were Cyor. He spotted a few smaller Kret and a number of Belvren. He noted that not everyone had a creature companion. In fact, now that he was paying attention to the numbers, closer to only a quarter - a third at most - had some creature with them and there were a lot of people there. Two Jaun slipped through trailing a few personnel.
Dlmor was the only of its kind that he could see.
Dlmor passed him a bit of what Dlmor are capable of and he found he wasn’t surprised that invisibility was a trait that Dlmor were capable of. There was a curious note unintentionally attached to the small fact and he was surprised when Dlmor elaborated; there was a chance that he would be able to see even those Dlmor that were invisible, though not see them outright so much as see a distortion in the air where they were. If he was, it would take practice if he couldn’t see them now.
He was also shoved an equal parts amused and annoyed note to be patient. There weren’t any others around to practice with.
Tolnoran stopped at the large desk in the middle of a large room. He could see numerous hallways converging at the one point as Tolnoran leaned on the counter. “I apologize. I have orders from Captain Vex to get this patient cleared and up to the armory as soon as possible. Is there anyone available to check him over real quick and clear him?”
The nurse on the other side of the counter muttered something he couldn’t here and the apologetic look on Tolnoran’s face fell a bit.
It didn’t last long. Before the nurse on the other side of the counter could even utter a proper word to the man, other voices cried out his name. “Torra!”
Tolnoran’s head snapped up, eyes on the source before a massive grin eradicated the previous look. “Hey everyone!”
Ysle curled around Artemis and Dlmor as Tolnoran tucked him against the counter as he stepped towards the arriving group. The chatter was fast and rough but Artemis caught bits and pieces enough to know that the man was fielding an onslaught of questions in order to get one of them to bring him someone that could clear Artemis. It took a hot minute before a - well, they looked like a doctor to him but they were probably one of the healers - as a healer strode over and dismissed the group. Artemis had lost interest in the crowd at the top of that hot minute when chatter in the opposite direction drew his attention. The healer and Tolnoran talked for a moment but that was all Artemis was aware of as he watched a cluster of people rushed down a hallway he couldn’t see. Half a second later the cluster of people were scattering back into the hallway they had just vacated, the sound of shouts and cries drawing more than just his attention.
He didn’t realize he had moved until his stomach collided with Ysle’s side. He bent over the creature’s back arm instinctively wrapping around the neck but his attention didn’t waver. The calls for security could now be clearly understood and the frantic call for medical supplies a roll of background noise. There was the crash of metal underneath a scream that sent a chill down his spine.
He didn’t remember getting around Ysle.
The hallway was a wreck. There were people and objects scattered throughout the side hallway. He stared as a person wreaked havoc to the surrounding area. Two personnel were trying to get close, trying to sedate the person if he was understanding any of it. Not that he was able to really hear anything. He was fairly certain Dlmor was giving him the information from the hallway because there was an odd ringing in his ears. He watched as the person threw one of the personnel down the hallway with a scream of rage.
Adrenaline shot through Artemis’s body.
There was something on the person’s back- at the person’s back. It was large but lanky, and not fully there. It was mostly black or a dark gray with white eyes and teeth. The thing wasn’t solid, looking more like it was made of gas rather than something solid. The thing laughed and grinned as the person it was draped over and clinging to threw a chair at the other personnel.
Those white eyes drifted towards Artemis and their gazes met.
The grin on the thing’s face stretched far wider than what seemed naturally possible. Pain shot through Artemis’s head but he didn’t care. He knew the thing was trying to hurt him now but he didn’t care. He took off running with fury and adrenaline driving him towards the thing.
The thing reached out for him but Dlmor was there clamping down its own white teeth on the thing’s see-through wrist. The thing screamed as he vaulted over the person and collided with the thing’s chest. The thing wasn’t completely solid but it was solid enough for him to collide with and shove off of the person it clung to.
The three of them hit the ground hard but Artemis didn’t give it a chance to recover. He shifted his weight back and to the side, hand going out for balance and as a guide as Dlmor reshaped. The back of a hand that was mostly claws followed his palm, down his arm, and stabbed into the floor pinning the thing in place as it tried to shake Dlmor off its wrist to no avail. Dlmor’s hand clenched around the thing and it let out another scream. Artemis intercepted the other hand, catching the wrist under his arm. He pulled back on the hand and pinned it to his chest, leaning back so that it put serious strain on the weak appearing joint.
Another scream.
Voices suddenly bombarded him from all sides and for a moment he didn’t understand till he looked away from the thing he was helping pin. His gaze swept around the sea of new strangers and his gaze landed on Tolnoran. The man was holding the person Artemis had just freed and the only thing he made out over the new cacophony of voices was, “…a trap.”
“Ysle,” Tolnoran softly commanded. The Kret moved to the door and pushed it closed before laying down against the bottom.
Artemis looked to him. “I take it they’re not the best of company to be around?”
Tolnoran snorted. “Oh, Colonel Conner and Cass are great people to be around - some of the better, in fact - but it’s the other higher ups that aren’t all that great to be around. Leader Fox runs a tight ship but there something about him that’s always put me on edge. Madam Drev I don’t know well enough to have an opinion of but the way her Jaun behaves has many of us thinking there’s more broken about her than what we’re seeing.”
Artemis looked to Dlmor. “How did you know their names?”
He caught Tolnoran looking over sharply out of the corner of his eye as Dlmor finally let him go. “Vulren came by the first night you were here, curious no doubt, and happened to be a bit more chatty than was probably wise. Jaun are not known to be cocky but this one sure is.”
“Vulren is also very vicious.” Tolnoran put in, expression and tone serious. “Do not cross that Jaun. You will get torn to shreds faster than you could blink.”
Dlmor snorted at that. “I’d like to see an attempt at that.”
“Dlmor,” Tolnoran started but Dlmor waved him off.
“I will not encourage nor seek after that behavior. I am not that stupid nor that confident in my skills against a Jaun. However, a Jaun can still be taken down. A cocky one just makes that task easier.”
Artemis asked, “Is there a ranking then on which creatures are stronger or better fighters than others?”
Tolnoran let out a sigh. “Not necessarily.”
“No type is inherently stronger or a better fighter than the other,” Dlmor explained. “That is simply from my experience. But, then, I have only ever fought with Jaun that have had a human support so I’m not sure if that has had any impact on my experiences.”
“Do humans boost creature strengths?”
Tolnoran wobbled his hand in the air. “Kind of? Humans act more like points of reference and advice more than a source of power but I’ve seen some creatures bolstered by a human so there isn’t really a straight answer to that question. It also depends on the type and strength of the bond.”
“What of the creature to a human?”
Confusion flickered across both their faces as Tolnoran asked, “What do you mean?”
Artemis was fairly certain the answer was no if Tolnoran was asking for clarification but he elaborated anyways. “You’ve both have said that a creature can get aid of some kind from a human - be is simply a different perspective or some form of strength - but what about the human? Does the human gain the same thing?”
Tolnoran glanced at Dlmor before stating, “The human usually isn’t the one fighting. If they are, they’re fighting the other human or acting as support.”
“Do you remember how Lora crafted the bow and was firing arrows?” Dlmor spoke up, drawing his attention towards the foggy memories. “Most humans gain the ability to craft something out of their partnership but that’s the extent of anything the human gains.”
“Thus the need for an armory, then?”
Tolnoran nodded, passing him the bundle of fabric. “Less strain on the bond if we don’t have to craft.” He took the bundle and started to change into the outfit. “That and most that do go out onto the fields either had a partnership that isn’t a full bond or are Ylmra.”
He pulled the large shirt over his head. The entire thing was very squared. There was no curve in the arms, shoulder, or body of the shirt and he felt like was wearing a sheet quickly stitched into something vaguely shirt shaped. “Ylmra can’t craft?”
“They can,” Tolnoran offered, though the words were drawn out. “But most never figure out how. It’s easier when there’s a creature outside of you rather than try and figure it out from within.”
“No one can teach them?”
“It’s not something you can learn from someone else,” Dlmor pointed out. “There’s no simple way to describe it. It is truly an act that you either stumble upon, or you don’t.”
He thought of the object he had thrown, the things he had crafted from what Dlmor had left behind. Dlmor shot him a look and he knew even without the push from the creature that he was to keep that to himself. “What of Ylmra having a partner? Is that possible with what they are?”
Tolnoran frowned at him. “How much do you know of the Ylmra.”
“Very little.” He met the older man’s gaze. “And only what Elias told me. He said that Ylmra are rare; that they are two beings that have become one, in a sense.”
Tolnoran’s frowned eased a bit but it didn’t go away. “Well, that’s not inaccurate at least. But it is missing a lot of it.” Tolnoran placed a heavy hand on his shoulder, starting for the door. “Ylmra are able to create bonds but they are difficult to maintain so many don’t. Thus why the armory. But enough about this for now. We’ve got to stop by the main healer’s office and get you checked over before I walk you across the compound.”
Ysle got up and moved away from the door. Dlmor adjusted its shape to be the same shoulder height as a big dog, pressing in against his thigh so that his fingers could bury themselves easily into the long fur at the creature’s neck and shoulders.
The hallway wasn’t overly busy but it was full of noise. He followed Tolnoran’s direction down the left hallway past numerous rooms and many people all dressed in something that counted as scrubs. His eyes wandered as he took in the people and the creatures there. A large majority were the same creature - some long, fur covered creature with two sets of paws with thumbs and prehensile tails - that Dlmor informed him were Cyor. He spotted a few smaller Kret and a number of Belvren. He noted that not everyone had a creature companion. In fact, now that he was paying attention to the numbers, closer to only a quarter - a third at most - had some creature with them and there were a lot of people there. Two Jaun slipped through trailing a few personnel.
Dlmor was the only of its kind that he could see.
Dlmor passed him a bit of what Dlmor are capable of and he found he wasn’t surprised that invisibility was a trait that Dlmor were capable of. There was a curious note unintentionally attached to the small fact and he was surprised when Dlmor elaborated; there was a chance that he would be able to see even those Dlmor that were invisible, though not see them outright so much as see a distortion in the air where they were. If he was, it would take practice if he couldn’t see them now.
He was also shoved an equal parts amused and annoyed note to be patient. There weren’t any others around to practice with.
Tolnoran stopped at the large desk in the middle of a large room. He could see numerous hallways converging at the one point as Tolnoran leaned on the counter. “I apologize. I have orders from Captain Vex to get this patient cleared and up to the armory as soon as possible. Is there anyone available to check him over real quick and clear him?”
The nurse on the other side of the counter muttered something he couldn’t here and the apologetic look on Tolnoran’s face fell a bit.
It didn’t last long. Before the nurse on the other side of the counter could even utter a proper word to the man, other voices cried out his name. “Torra!”
Tolnoran’s head snapped up, eyes on the source before a massive grin eradicated the previous look. “Hey everyone!”
Ysle curled around Artemis and Dlmor as Tolnoran tucked him against the counter as he stepped towards the arriving group. The chatter was fast and rough but Artemis caught bits and pieces enough to know that the man was fielding an onslaught of questions in order to get one of them to bring him someone that could clear Artemis. It took a hot minute before a - well, they looked like a doctor to him but they were probably one of the healers - as a healer strode over and dismissed the group. Artemis had lost interest in the crowd at the top of that hot minute when chatter in the opposite direction drew his attention. The healer and Tolnoran talked for a moment but that was all Artemis was aware of as he watched a cluster of people rushed down a hallway he couldn’t see. Half a second later the cluster of people were scattering back into the hallway they had just vacated, the sound of shouts and cries drawing more than just his attention.
He didn’t realize he had moved until his stomach collided with Ysle’s side. He bent over the creature’s back arm instinctively wrapping around the neck but his attention didn’t waver. The calls for security could now be clearly understood and the frantic call for medical supplies a roll of background noise. There was the crash of metal underneath a scream that sent a chill down his spine.
He didn’t remember getting around Ysle.
The hallway was a wreck. There were people and objects scattered throughout the side hallway. He stared as a person wreaked havoc to the surrounding area. Two personnel were trying to get close, trying to sedate the person if he was understanding any of it. Not that he was able to really hear anything. He was fairly certain Dlmor was giving him the information from the hallway because there was an odd ringing in his ears. He watched as the person threw one of the personnel down the hallway with a scream of rage.
Adrenaline shot through Artemis’s body.
There was something on the person’s back- at the person’s back. It was large but lanky, and not fully there. It was mostly black or a dark gray with white eyes and teeth. The thing wasn’t solid, looking more like it was made of gas rather than something solid. The thing laughed and grinned as the person it was draped over and clinging to threw a chair at the other personnel.
Those white eyes drifted towards Artemis and their gazes met.
The grin on the thing’s face stretched far wider than what seemed naturally possible. Pain shot through Artemis’s head but he didn’t care. He knew the thing was trying to hurt him now but he didn’t care. He took off running with fury and adrenaline driving him towards the thing.
The thing reached out for him but Dlmor was there clamping down its own white teeth on the thing’s see-through wrist. The thing screamed as he vaulted over the person and collided with the thing’s chest. The thing wasn’t completely solid but it was solid enough for him to collide with and shove off of the person it clung to.
The three of them hit the ground hard but Artemis didn’t give it a chance to recover. He shifted his weight back and to the side, hand going out for balance and as a guide as Dlmor reshaped. The back of a hand that was mostly claws followed his palm, down his arm, and stabbed into the floor pinning the thing in place as it tried to shake Dlmor off its wrist to no avail. Dlmor’s hand clenched around the thing and it let out another scream. Artemis intercepted the other hand, catching the wrist under his arm. He pulled back on the hand and pinned it to his chest, leaning back so that it put serious strain on the weak appearing joint.
Another scream.
Voices suddenly bombarded him from all sides and for a moment he didn’t understand till he looked away from the thing he was helping pin. His gaze swept around the sea of new strangers and his gaze landed on Tolnoran. The man was holding the person Artemis had just freed and the only thing he made out over the new cacophony of voices was, “…a trap.”