The frigid wind that blew in off the tormented slate-gray waters felt like a dark omen as Jak made his way down the rocky shoreline.
It felt like he was always drawn back to this particular spot, as surely as the sun was drawn to the far horizon at the end of each day. This unassuming stretch of rock and earth, ever-changing beneath the eternal waves of the sea, tucked away on one corner of the island he now called home.
Jak paused in his determined strides down the shore as he reached a specific spot.
This was where it had all started for him.
His new life. His new self.
Though it had been a season since he’d awoken here, and it looked different than what his memory told him, he somehow knew that this was the spot where he had regained consciousness with a giant crow somewhere nearby.
A sharp caw drew his attention.
He looked up and ahead. The giant crow regarded him with a dark gaze from a tree branch that sagged under its weight.
Those eyes held warning.
In every other instance, he had heeded this warning.
But not today.
Jak resumed his walk, making his way towards the crow, preparing himself for the worst. He had no idea what would happen. It could be anything.
But he had to know.
Perhaps this was a bad time for it. The sun had risen and fallen fifteen times since he’d solidified his alliance with the elves of Ara Forest. And since he had murdered their leader. That was something he had grown to regret less as time had gone on.
Most dangers came from the outside. Creatures, rival tribes, bad weather, sickness.
But the worst dangers often came from within.
And the more he thought on it, the more Jak felt that a bad leader might be among the most lethal of all perils a tribe might face. It seemed to matter little if they were incompetent, lazy, greedy, or cruel, as it all amounted to the same thing.
A dying tribe.
After that, the war against the Tolvar had truly begun.
Jak had hardly been home to his village and his bond-mates since then. As a warrior, as the warrior on this island, as far as he knew, the responsibility to plan and personally lead assaults fell to him. And so he had fought, and battled, and bled, and killed.
From Ara Forest, over to Talon’s Hilltop, and down along the border between Avat’s Forest and the Barrens, he worked with every single ally he had gained so far to make the land safe, eliminate or drive off any hostile tribesmen, and then, more recently, stab out at the Tolvar. He’d led a dozen warparties over the last four days, assaulting any Tolvar they found, pushing the Tolvar’s territory back with a firm hand.
He didn’t like all the killing, but it was coming easier to him these days.
The crow let out another sharp caw, this one louder, and flapped its huge wings. Jak kept walking, making for the end of the coastline.
Something was there, something important, he was sure of it.
“I’m not stopping today,” Jak said as he approached the crow.
He expected it to attack him, and he didn’t want to kill it, the bird felt almost like a part of the tribe at this point.
But it did not attack.
It simply cawed again and then took to flight, flapping off in the direction he was headed.
Interesting.
Jak continued, picking up his pace, keeping an eye out for any threats even though he hadn’t actually run into anything living in this area save for the crow.
As interested as he was in what lay in the far corner of the island, he was more interested in what had initially pushed him out his village so soon after coming back.
The mysterious tall blue figure.
At this point, he was convinced she was real. He’d been asking around and several people had related seeing a tall blue-skinned figure, usually described as a woman, but often no more than a fleeting glimpse.
Somehow, in some way, the crow, the desolate corner of the island, and the blue woman were all connected.
Jak had never truly gone in search of her, and he was willing to leave it, but less so now. The situation on the island was moving inexorably towards some sort of end, things coming faster now, like a river during a heavy rain.
And that river was more dangerous.
Things that might not have caused problems before might do so under such conditions, and Jak was convinced he could no longer afford to put off the mystery.
Whatever this being was, they seemed very magical.
He wasn’t sure if this woman truly was a Spirit of the Forest, but that had started him down a path of thought that led him to where he was right now. When he had gone in search of the nymphs for the first time, that intentional investigation had drawn them out.
Perhaps something similar would happen with the blue woman.
As Jak neared the end of the rocky area, he saw that it reconnected with the curious trench that ran parallel to the shoreline. Coming into it, he looked back along its length. That trench had always bothered him, something about it seemed oddly unnatural. At times he’d wondered if it was the result of some very old spell gone wrong.
In his mind’s eye, he saw a massive fireball being released, an absolutely huge one, larger than a boulder, and racing down where the trench now was. He turned around, looking to where the trench ended. It was in the deader part of that corner of the island, and there was a rise in the land, almost as if it had been pushed up from underneath somehow.
Only a handful of skeletal trees lay scattered around.
He’d never been this close before.
Jak could feel something faint on the air, something magical that seemed to hum just beyond the edge of hearing.
What could it possibly be?
All of his thoughts were interrupted as he abruptly became aware of the fact that he was being watched. Spinning around, looking back across the trench to his forest, he caught a flash of blue among the trees.
He took off, sprinting across the trench and plunging into the forest.
Possibilities and potential outcomes raced through his mind as he dodged between the trees. So far, he hadn’t really run up against much that could outright kill him. Some had given him pause.
Some he hoped never to discover the answer to the question of: who would win? His nymph allies being a great example.
But this blue woman was a mystery. He didn’t actually know a thing about her, and what little he had gleaned wasn’t too useful.
He was learning things, though. Like the fact that she was either incredibly fast, incredible skilled at moving without being heard, or both. Beyond that initial glimpse, he saw nothing, heard nothing, and could find only the barest hints of a trail leading into the forest.
At one point he hesitated, looking around, uncertain of where to go, and he saw the briefest flash of blue to his left and took off again.
It quickly became obvious that this was not going to go the way he wanted it to, though as he picked up the pace, Jak thought he might be closing the gap. How fast was this...person? Spirit? Something else entirely?
He briefly saw the tall blue figure dash between two trees ahead of him, adjusted his course, and ran as fast as he could. As he kept going, he became aware of another sound: the heavy breathing and then the deep growl of a blade-toothed tiger.
It was somewhere farther off to his left. Something to keep track of, but for the moment he needed to stay focused on–
Jak skidded to a halt as he heard a shout of pain come from the direction of the blade-toothed tiger. Gritting his teeth, he was briefly torn. Though his recognition of the voice was very faint, he felt compelled to help, but he was catching up with the mysterious figure, or had been until he’d stopped. But even as he looked…
Directly ahead of him, partially obscured behind a tree and among some foliage, he caught sight of a very tall blue woman, staring at him, her single visible eye bright gray.
She had lured him he here, he realized at once.
Why?
To see what he would do? The choice was at least obvious: continue his pursuit of her, or go help whoever it was that was in peril.
With a short, irritated growl, Jak turned and began sprinting towards the sound of conflict, drawing his adze. He knew the tall blue woman would be gone by the time he tried to track her down again, but this had been a shaky prospect at best anyway.
Jak burst into a clearing a moment later and found a blade-toothed tiger looming over a familiar figure, who was lying on the ground, bleeding. Reacting on instinct, he hurled the adze towards the powerful beast. It flipped through the air, closing the distance between them in an instant, and buried itself in the huge tiger’s side.
The beast roared and reacted immediately, turning towards the thing that had hurt it.
Jak prepared himself for an intense battle, but the person he shared the clearing with surprised him by surging to her feet and leaping at the immense creature and burying a blade in its throat. She screamed as she yanked the blade sideways, opening up a huge wound on the tiger’s neck. It roared once again and managed to throw her off, but immediately began to weaken.
He moved forward to finish the job, if it needed doing, but as he got there the blade-toothed tiger took another few stumbling steps and then collapsed into a heap of fur and limbs, blood continually pouring from its torn neck.
Jak regarded the wounded woman who was repositioning herself so that she sat against a tree. One hand was over her thigh, which the tiger had cut open with its immense claws.
He recognized her, the embyr who had nearly killed him once.
“You’re hurt. We have some healers in my tribe,” he said as he crouched by the tiger and yanked his adze free.
“I can heal myself,” the embyr woman replied.
He saw a curiously dark flash of magic as she smoothed her hand out over her wound and when she pulled it back, the deep cuts had been sealed up.
For a long moment, the two of them remained motionless, staring at each other. Finally, her eyes dipped to the adze in his hand. Jak shook the blood from it, then slipped it back into his waistwrap. Stepping forward, he offered her a hand.
The embyr looked at it for another long moment, then reached up and took it. Her skin was hot and rough in several places, and as he helped her to her feet, he immediately got the sense that she was exceptionally agile. Something in the way she moved, in the way she articulated her body in regaining her feet.
He let go of her and took a step back, to give her some space.
She seemed less tense than their first meeting, but still very on guard.
“So,” Jak said, finally breaking the silence, “you came.”
“Yes,” she agreed, “I came. Though I’m not sure if it is to join your supposed tribe of exiles...I was more looking for a place of peace.” She pursed her lips in distaste as she looked down at the dead animal. “So much for that.”
“Avat’s Forest is probably one of the safest places on the island,” Jak said.
“I know,” she replied, returning her attention to him. “In truth, this was the first real opposition I’ve run into. I managed to avoid the rest. I’ve seen some of your people. Luckily they didn’t see me.”
Jak studied the woman as she fell silent again. She didn’t seem to want to leave, but she also seemed uncertain about how to proceed.
“We never learned each other’s names,” he said.
“You first,” she replied.
“Very well. I am Jak.”
“I am Keeza.”
“All right, what brought you to Avat’s Forest?”
He felt like he was in an awkward position. He had invited her here, and he would accept her into the tribe, but at the same time, he worried about what might happen if she was moving around the forest on her own.
He trusted his tribemates, but some had very bad thoughts about the embyr.
Then again, he’d been concerned about the Tolvar and the karn, and yet his home village now had half a dozen karn living among them.
“I spoke truth before: I seek peace. I want to live without being in constant battle,” she replied.
“Is that what living among your tribe was like?”
She lost any semblance of a smile. “In a manner of speaking, yes. Not all battles involve fists and clubs. Your offer sounded genuine, and from what I have overheard as I’ve hidden from...those less skilled at tracking than you or your karn companion, it seems that this forest is a place of peace and rest, at least compared to the rest of the island.”
“I would say that’s mostly accurate,” Jak replied.
“Mostly?”
He nodded at the tiger. “Beyond the beasts we share the forest with, there are the corrupted that come in from the Barrens, and the occasional Tolvar warparty that attacks. But if you leave my people and my allies in peace, they should return the favor.”
“I see.”
“So...are you an exile of your people?”
Behind her, he saw her tail shift, then begin to sway. “I thought we discussed that last time.”
“You didn’t give me a direct answer,” Jak replied.
She let out a small laugh. “I suppose not. And a direct answer is what you seek?”
“Yes.”
“Hmm.” She put her hands on her hips and fixed him with a strong look, an expression of mild amusement on her face now. Jak waited. She let out a short sigh. “Very well, that is twice you have had my life in your hands and given it back to me. The truth is: I walked away from my people, such as they are. I tire of their cruelty and their eternal war for dominance of this little island. They were not sorry to see me go. So I suppose I am an exile.”
“What do you intend?”
“I don’t know,” she admitted. “For now, I desire to live alone and be alone. I want to know who I am when I am around no others.”
“Will you leave my people in peace while you determine that?” he asked.
“Yes, if they do the same.”
“They should. I’ll let them know to leave you be. If there’s nothing else, I have other things to do,” Jak said.
“Wait...your offer to join your tribe, it is a truthful offer?” she asked.
“It is a truthful offer,” he confirmed.
She stared at him with her glowing red eyes. “I will think about it.”
He nodded and headed out of the clearing. For a moment, he considered trying to pick back up the trail of the blue woman, but he had already spent enough time out here as it was.
Jak headed north, towards his home, towards the women he loved.
