Author note:
Hey sorry for the late update, I was just regoing through my plans of all my stories and reading them for me to get re-acquainted with them since I've been gone for so long. Anyway enjoy the chapter and like usual don't be afraid to comment, saying what you like or dislike of the story so far, you criticisms and ideas, and leave a review if you can.
--XX--
Miracle's Pov
"Okay from the top." I yawned a bit as I lazily floated in the air and controlled a sharp stick stabbing to the ground. "So if you have five apples and I give you six more, how many do you have?"
Sylvia sat cross-legged on a stump looking down at the numbers with her little hands clenching as her gaze intensified and her eyes glowed a bit. But then she started with good old reliable… Counting using her fingers.
It's been eight days since we found the river and started basing our little journey to get out of this forest, and so far it wasn't really going so well. I honestly thought we would find someone by now. But that was the least of our problems.
I've recently begun hearing some weird voices all around me, especially at night. At first I thought the paranoia and lack of sleep was starting to get to me but I also began seeing weird stuff here and there. And Tinashe told me that it was likely that my radar was catching glimpses of spirits in the forest.
At first that didn't make sense to me because Tatsumaki was. But with how my radar works and the supernatural shenanigans of this world it would make sense that I would pick up that.
It was a good thing Sylvia also said she heard voices from the forest which advised her on stuff like what fruits are edible. And there are times James shows super senses picked up on some weird animal sounds near us sometimes.
A groan from the ground switched my attention and James was just laying face flat on it.
Earlier that day Sylvia and I had left James alone with some of the supplies because the forest told her that there were some great big fruits that it allowed her to get. I thought James could handle it because he had dragon DNA running through him, so he could hold his own. However when we came back all our food was gone and James came out of the water.
So I asked him what happened and he just said that he heard something in the water so he went to check it out. Yeah I was pissed I wasn't in the mood to go hunting today and was just planning on focusing on training and resting up. I demanded more answers as even if he did hear something done there he would have heard the raiding of our food, so he got heated rather than roughly shaved me and yelled that he thought he heard Juliet in the water so he didn't see a problem with what he did.
Now I was sure James was stronger than me raw power wise plus from what I remember he went through a lot of combat tests at the lab, so I simply deceptively placed a hand on his shoulder like I wanted to tell him something than activated my sacred gear placing 4gs on him sending him to the ground.
"How's it going, their tough guy?" I asked floated near him.
"I'm going to burn to a crisp…" He glared at me and tried to get back up only to face-plant to the ground again cracking it a bit.
It was still impressive that he could withstand that. Here I am struggling right now with 1.7Gs but hey I wasn't given dragon DNA.
"Yeah sure you will. Try that bullshit to me again and keep you like that till you're old and grey or till an animal eats you." I poked his head.
Thinking he had had enough I snapped my fingers releasing him from my ability.
He springs back to his feet rotating his arm looking at me all pissed with fire foaming from his mouth and a shaved slice of an apple in his mouth shutting him up and calming him down.
My head began to ache and my floating got shaky and I fell to the ground landing like a cat.
"Mira!" Sylvia ran over and for some began rubbing my head.
"Okay chill with that." I lightly made her float a few feet away from me. "Now since James lost our food for today looks like we're going to have to hunt again to stock up."
Slyvia tugged on my sleeves. "No. You too tired… James and I hunt. You rest."
"Huh? Yeah no that's not a good idea." My answer made her rapidly shake her head then stretched her hand and the grass grew near me, with flowers, moss etc. "What the hell?"
"For you. Please rest." She looked at me with big sad eyes.
"We can handle ourselves. We don't need you watching all the time. And I'm really hungry." James flexed his arm, lighting it on fire.
Now I wasn't against someone else handling the hard work but these two I don't know.
"I think it would be best if you let them handle this Miracle." Tinashe spoke in a more stern voice. "You can barely float right now and even keep your radar active. I told you your abilities are heavily mentally reliant."
"Alright, fine." I made a dagger float to each of them and walked over to the makeshift bed.
"Um… Where go?" Sylvia looked at James confused.
"Easy we should go uh we should go…" James began looking around just as confused.
"Eh koma ada. Keep going that way, when Sylvia and I went to collect those apples I did see some moose nearby. Also Sylivs leave a trail with your powers to make sure you don't get lost, it can be pretty flowers or moss taking your pick." I pointed to the left.
"Okay let's go Sylvia!" James said to Syliva and the two began running the direction I pointed but I stopped them and made them and suspended them a bit in the air.
"One more thing if you hear or see anything weird don't be dumbasses and turn away. And if you get lost or end up facing something which will kill you, you're on your own. Got it?" They both nodded and I put them down "Cool go luck."
They ran off and I enjoyed the vegetated bed Sylvia made, and damn did it feel really comfortable, letting out a yawn.
"At least now you can get proper rest. But I thought you would put up more of a fight than that. So what changed your mind?" asked Tinashe.
"I'm tired as hell and I wasn't in the mood for hunting today. Besides those two can handle it, they've helped out a bunch in hunts and caught some good catches on their own."
She just mused. "Oh that's surprising. With the way you were treating that dragon boy just now I doubted you would trust him with tasks."
"Like you told me someone like James needs to be handled in a rougher way for them to properly listen. But I'm sure he'll be cool with jobs which need more brute force."
The fog around me began to thicken and I used my powers to blow some of it away. My radar flickered a bit so I switched it off for now as it still took a good amount of concentration to keep on which had been for 6 hours now, and I was super tired.
"Wake me up in 15 minutes though or when something is happening outside, I don't want anything jumping me while I am asleep."
"I understand my weirder. Now chonda just rest for now." She said softly.
So I closed my eyes and was instantly knocked out.
A few minutes later
SPLASH!
SPLASH!
My eyes immediately shot open at the sound of something splashing around in the river. But I couldn't see Jack because all this fog had gotten worse.
"Miracle… Need help!" I heard Sylvia's voice and she was panicking.
"Sylvia!?" I called out not to make sure I wasn't hearing things.
"Miracle… Help… hurt… cold!" She continued screaming and the splashes grew more frantic but something was off.
"Where's James!?" I questioned.
"Monsters… chase… hurt us… please help." She sounded more desperate.
All this just screamed suspicious as hell, so I concentrated more on my radar. Even though it was acting a bit iffy over the past week I have grown more familiar with Sylvia and James signatures when using my radar and whatever was out there was not Sylvia.
"Any ideas Tinashe?"
"While I don't exactly know what it is I recognize the method it's using. Some supernatural beings in forests use the sounds of loved ones or children in an attempt to lower your guard in order to stray you further from your path and get you in a position where they have the most advantage." Her explanation tracked with what James said about hearing the voice of his friend Juliet. So I guess it tried to lure him too.
Great now I oh him an apology.
But this reminded me of my grandma's stories about a hyena who could do that to keep me from wandering off into the forest.Guess some things are the same, despite the culture.
"Don't worry I'm coming!" I made one of the daggers float to my hand and the other one in my pants.
"You're still willing to go there knowing it's a trap. I wouldn't recommend that."
'Don't worry I thought about that.' Using my psychokinesis I quickly made the mud around me to make a human shape close to my own, slapped some of those lav clothes on it and some green moss on its head. 'And zatheka.'
"A decoy I see. Smart move but I don't think you should work on your sculpting skills a bit more."
Hmph everybody is a critic.' I dismissed her comment and made the decoy float to the source of the sounds.
"Syliva! I'm com…" I didn't even finish my statement as something quickly shot out of the water and grabbed the decoy.
Gotcha.
I shot the dagger fast straight into its body causing it to let out an unsettling scream especially since it was mixed with Sylvia's voice, but I continued the attack by hitting with a strong psychokinesis pulse sending it out of the river and smashing past five trees.
After all that was over I floated to the culprit to get a clear view but still kept a good distance just in case.
It was an otter man thing, I guess 6 feet tall in height, long Otto body like body but still fit, brown fur, and its face.. it's face just wasn't right as it was a bit more human than the otter, making it more disturbing. Kind of reminds me of the monsters from Grim.
"What the heck are you? Some kind of supernatural creature or some kind of experiment gone wrong." I wondered and it just grunted.
The thing just clutched its wound looking amused?
"You…how?" It continued to use Sylvia's voice.
"All right enough of that nonsense freak show!" I shot the knife to its head for the killing blow but it disappeared in the fog.
"Oh come on!"
Sucking my teeth in frustration I used my radar to track it, but like before I still couldn't get a proper reading. It was like it became the fog itself.
A slight crunch sound made me quickly turn a blasted psionic pulse in the direction but I just did nothing but the ground.
"Miracle look out!" I heard James' voice yell making a turn in its direction.
Shit I can't believe that I fell that.
I reacted on instinct, throwing myself upward with telekinesis just as claws tore through the space where my stomach had been. If I'd been half a second slower, I would've been gutted.
While floating it disappeared in the fog. I quickly put up my shield as it can strike anywhere so better safe than sorry.
"That won't help you, child." A voice of a man came from above and the Otter hit my shield, sending me to the ground.
The shield easily took the hit, but it flickered, sputtered, and shut off completely. I slammed into the muddy ground.
"W-What the hell?" I muttered, pushing myself up. Yeah, I was tired but not this tired. My control shouldn't be slipping like this. And to make this situation even more shitty, the fatigue was getting worse by the second. Like something was pressing down on me from the inside.
"MIRACLE, MOVE!"
Tinashe shifted the gravity vector beneath my feet and I shot backward just as claws tore through the space where my head had been. I landed roughly, skidding across damp leaves, and immediately thrust both hands out.
A telekinetic pulse detonated outward in a ten-meter radius. Trees bent. Loose stones and branches blasted away. The fog shredded apart and then reformed.
The mist slithered back together like it was alive, swallowing the clearing whole. The otter-thing vanished into it again, nothing but a warped silhouette before it dissolved completely.
"HELP!"
"MOMMY!"
"GET AWAY!"
"MIRACLE!"
"Give in, Miracle. You have no chance of winning."
The voices came from everywhere at once behind me, above me, right next to my ear. My heart stuttered despite myself. It was using random voices now. Not just James and Sylvia. Not anyone specific. Just chaos. Just noise. And damn it, it was working.
Cold fingers brushed the back of my neck.
I spun and hurled a telekinetic pulse through the mist, hitting nothing.
Tinashe's voice cut through the noise. Calm. Steady.
"Miracle, relax. It is just trying to disorient you with its tricks. Be strong. Stay focused. Do not let it get to you."
Easy for you to say.
A blur burst out of the fog.
Too fast.
Claws slammed into my ribs before I could fully raise my guard. The impact sent me flying sideways, my body rolled on the ground.
"Hmph that's all. You're pathetically weaker than I thought but at least you were an easy catch. I'm glad I chose you over the other two lab rats, especially the dragon boy." It was mixing both James and Sylvia's voices but I could at least tell where it was at so I continued to play defeated to lower its guard but its comment really pissed me off.
Wait how long has it been stalking us. And how many more are doing the same!
"You shall tas… Argh!"
Its little speech was interpreted by mud being flung to its eyes and mouth and the two daggers piercing the back and making sure I at least same what reached its neck and lower back.
Not giving it a proper chance I quickly got up switching to activated by my scared gear giving it 4Gs pinning it to the good .
"W-What i-is t-this." It gritted and tried getting back on its feet and looked up at me.
"Looks like you chose the wrong one, asshole."I just smirked and flipped the bird at it.
I put an extra 3Gs on my leg and stomped its neck making a sickening cracking sound. It let out squires in Sylvia's voice as blood gushed out of it on my clothes.
"No… Miracle… No hurt… Ple…" I switched to my psychokinesis to control the knives slicing its throat and stabbing its heart, killing it.
After that was done I let out a relieved sigh and looked at the greystone sight of the dead supernatural creature as the fog began to disappear.
"Are you okay Miracle? I know your yet used to taking lives yet."
"Yeah I'm cool, don't worry, it was just like killing a cattle so it's nothing new." I telekinetically got the mud and blood off me. Though the mix of otter and human features made the scene a bit for fucked up.
After that I floated back and laid on the natural bed and spotted a black raven just watching me and it took off.
Now I know ravens are very smart birds but there was something off about that one.
"Mavuto mavuto."