Chapter Ten
"You're saying you saw a Griffin fall 'round here?" A young but rough male voice.
"Yeah yeah. Injured and all. It was right over here." Another young voice, this one female. "Oh, I see it!"
Flint watched her rush over to the Griffin that lay several meters from him, her curls bouncing as she analyzed the corpse.
A small man rushed over to her, neither of them noticing him weakly standing several meters behind them.
"What do you see?"
The girl touched the wound on the neck, the blood still damp. "A single person managed to kill her… It's the same Griffin we hurt from earlier. Due to the injury on the wing."
He laughed. "Looks like they had quite the fight. Must be a lone Vessel." The man who looked only a year older than Flint leaned in. "How recent was the kill? Wait no… you see that blood on them talons? The Vessel who fought her is injured. Maybe even dead if the Griffin still had the blood of the poisoned meat we gave her. We don't gotta worry about him."
The girl nodded in agreement. "Can you drag the body? We could sell the body. To get ourselves better equipment." She sighed. "Hopefully by next month we'll become Vessels. Then finally see the real world." She spoke agonizingly slow, as if she were scrutinizing everything she said before she said it.
"You're not taking shit."
Sadly, those words were accompanied by Flint coughing up blood, which made it sound more like a plea than a demand.
The two of them wildly turned their heads around in shock, their eyes meeting his. A ridiculously large blade appeared in the boy's hand, and the girl moved her hands into a strange position, as if she were about to throw something.
Once they saw Flint's half-dead state, they started to calm down.
The girl moved towards him, a smile on her face. "Might you be the Vessel that killed this Griffin? Listen, we can make a—"
"Vessel?" Flint threw his head back and laughed, before choking on his blood. "I've not been a Hollow for even half a day, so what makes you think I'm going to let you drag away my kill?"
The two strangers looked at one another, confusion on their faces. The girl turned to look at his ruined outfit, her eyes widening. "You're... Thyran?"
The boy narrowed his eyes at him. "He don't talk like a Thyran."
"He can't be a nobody if he killed a Griffin on his first day." She paused. "Well… are you a Thyran?"
Flint considered what to say before nodding yes. The two of them wore a strange expression on their faces as they whispered to one another.
They turned back to him, having decided on what to do.
The boy called out to him. "Your name?"
Flint hesitated. The two of them appeared to either be commoners, or from a low Lineage. Most likely the former, at least for the short one. "Falintin. But the two of you can call me Flint."
"I'm Jason, and this," nodding his head to the girl, "is Tessa."
Tessa moved towards him, putting her hand on his bloodied chest, plumes of smoke rising from her fingers. He heard a distinct sizzle as she used her Skill on him. Flint's breathing and heart-rate steadied as he felt his wounds stitch themselves together as he inhaled the gray smoke.
Flint nodded his head to her as he started stretching his rejuvenated body. "Thanks."
He studied her figure, looking for any abnormalities. Most healers had a price to pay for their Skill.
The girl smiled at him despite her tired eyes. "Don't dwell on it," Tessa said, "the poison was our fault."
Tessa's voice started to pick up speed. "Unless you have other plans, would you be willing to join me and Jason? There's also one other member of our group, but Little Lightning has been a Vessel for a while now."
Flint smiled back as he thought about the offer. Also, Little Lightning? How do you get called little with Jason around?
Anyways, the two of them seemed strong enough to be at least semi-competent allies, plus he could use his claimed status as a Thyran to gain some benefits.
Making up his mind, he answered.
"No." Vance had done it solo.
Tessa and Jason glanced at one another. "No?"
"We'll split the cash we get from the Griffin, and after that we'll go our separate ways."
Jason clenched his sword.
Tessa gave Jason a look and responded.
"It's a two day trek to the nearest outpost to sell the Griffin parts." She held her breath. "If we were to accompany you there, could you put in a word for us to the Thyrans?"
A word? Flint resisted the urge to advise them to stay independent. But these two probably dreamt of getting recruited by one of the current great four lineages.
Flint tilted his head. "If you impress me, expect an interview after you become Vessels." Did he have that kind of power? Ehhh. He'd get Norvall to do it.
Just as he expected, their eyes gleamed with gratitude.
"Just one thing… would you happen to have any food?" Flint had knowledge of a technique that used Soul Essence to provide sustenance for the body, but it took time, was widely inefficient, and you needed some food to help replenish Essence so it was limited in use.
He was already low on Essence, and anyways, such techniques shouldn't be used in front of commoners.
Plus, maybe some food would take the horrid aftertaste of the Griffin fluids out of his mouth.
Jason grunted at him and summoned a small bag. He rummaged inside and pulled out some jerky, handing it over to Flint.
"Sorry, you probably used to some fancy steak, eh? This that bio-engineered stuff." A smile appeared on his lips.
"Actually, I am." Flint bit off a piece of the jerky, reminiscing about his old chefs. Even if they were Thyran spies, they made a good twelfth course dinner.
Glancing over to the dead Griffin, a question popped into Flint's head.
"How do you two intend on carrying that thing for a two day journey?"
They didn't seem to be rich enough to be in possession of any transport animals, and Flint doubted they could carry the body by themselves for more than several meters.
Jason hesitated and looked over to Tessa, who gave him a nod.
"My skill allows me to change the weight of things I touch. Make it heavier, lighter, shift the mass around, things like that."
Well that explained how he carried that greatsword with relative ease. Still, the Essence expenditure for such a Skill couldn't be light, so they'd have to take frequent stops for Jason to recover his Essence.
Tessa glanced up at the night sky — the rest of them following suit. The moon was abnormally large compared to one back in the real world. They all ogled at it, before Jason suggested that they wait till morning to move towards the outpost.
Tessa and Flint nodded in agreement, it would be far too dangerous to travel now. Soul Beasts that come out at nighttime were not to be meddled with.
With Jason also volunteering to be first watch, the two of them made their way to find somewhere to rest for the night.
Finding a decent nook to spend the night in, Flint watched Jason interact with the Griffin's body. He wasn't close enough to see any details, but Jason put his hand on the dead Griffin, and after a second's pause, started dragging it to hide under some boulders with ease,
As he looked into the Griffin's lifeless eyes, Flint felt a tinge of… pity?
Getting angry at himself for feeling such a thing towards a Soul Beast, he dusted off his rock bed and made himself comfortable.
Well, perhaps comfortable was a stretch. It was a far cry from his mattress at home, and made him miss even the Thyran cell they had kept him in.
Taking one final look at the barren, alien landscape, he knew the likelihood of him waking up inside a Soul Beast's stomach was low, but an uneasy feeling still nagged him.
And he still had something left to do…
Pulling up his Soul Inscription, Flint scrolled down to the contents of his Skill.