Chapter 165: Chase
The goggles changed everything.
Lightning had been flying survey routes between Border Town and the southern hills for two weeks — back and forth across the same terrain, sketching topography while Soraya waited at home to render the rough outlines into the precise painted maps that her magic pen produced. Alone, Lightning could cover the full range; with Soraya she couldn’t fly high enough over the forest. So she carried parchment and charcoal and came back with what she could.
After months of training her speed had built to something close to a hundred and twenty kilometers per hour at full extension. At that speed the wind was a physical problem: it pressed on her eyes until they ran, forced her to half-close them against the pressure, made precise observation impossible. She had started believing this was her limit.
Then Roland had given her a headband.
Two copper rings set in cowhide, the rings holding discs of clear glass. The leather was double-layered where it gripped the rings, so the fit was firm without cutting. A small buckle at the back adjusted for her head size. Pull the lenses down over her eyes and the wind was gone — or rather, she moved through it as if it existed for someone else.
He had called it windproof glasses, and said they were easy enough to make from melted glassware, and she should look like some person named Ezreal wearing them, whoever that was. She had put them on immediately and not taken them off since. She wore them pushed up on her forehead when she didn’t need them, like a second pair of eyes waiting. She had considered sleeping in them and decided she probably shouldn’t.
She was dropping toward Border Town on a delivery run — a roll of completed parchment tucked under one arm — when a shape crossed the edge of her vision.
A pigeon.
A large pigeon. A very large pigeon. Its wings were extended to a span that no pigeon in the bird’s long and unremarkable evolutionary history had ever achieved.
Lightning watched it bank toward the Longsong road.
She had eaten pigeon before. She had eaten pigeon often on the island — caught them with her hands, roasted them on sticks over driftwood fires. This one, given its size, would keep her full for the better part of a day. She reached for the salt and pepper packet at her waist and made a decision.
The moment she turned toward it, the pigeon saw her. It folded its wings and dropped, aiming for the tree cover.
Oh, Lightning thought, the grin spreading across her face. It’s smart. Smart prey was better prey.
She dove after it. The goggles sealed against the speed; she could see perfectly. The pigeon skimmed the treetops, trying to use the branches as cover, weaving between trunks in the lower canopy — a maneuver that would have shaken off any normal pursuer, but Lightning had spent three months learning the Concealing Forest at low altitude during the Months of Demons, and close-quarters flight through dense cover was something she did casually now.
The pigeon burst into a clearing.
Lightning hit maximum speed and wrapped both arms around it.
They tumbled. She kept her grip. The pigeon struggled — more strength in those wings than any normal bird, which she had expected — and she had her knife half-drawn when the thing opened its beak and said:
“Don’t, goo! Help me, goo!”
Lightning froze.
The pigeon didn’t move, which she appreciated, because her knife was still drawn and her reflexes were faster than her reason.
“Are you a witch?” she asked.
The pigeon nodded.
She put the knife away and sat back. “I thought I was finally going to eat something different.” A sigh. “My name is Lightning. What’s yours?”
The pigeon expanded — feathers into white light into white hair, the small shape resolving into a woman who looked considerably younger than she probably was, short and light and trailing hair that nearly touched the ground.
“Maggie.” She pointed at Lightning with considerable feeling. “You wanted to eat a bird!”
“I’ve eaten plenty of them,” Lightning said cheerfully. She reached down to help Maggie up, and something small and red skittered out from inside the woman’s collar and bounced twice across the ground before dropping into a divot in the earth.
Lightning picked it up.
A bead. Glass-like, dark red, with letters carved into it in a pattern she recognized before she understood why she recognized it. She was already reaching for the string around her own neck before the recognition finished forming — pulling out the pendant her father had given her years ago, holding both objects in her palm.
Same pattern. Exactly the same.
“What—” Maggie had gone very still.
“Why do you have a trace?” the witch asked.
“I don’t know what that is.”
“It responds to a magic stone — lets the holder of the stone locate whoever is carrying the trace.” Maggie stopped. “No. Why am I explaining this to someone who just tried to eat me?”
“Do you have the stone?”
“There are stones.” Carefully.
“Could you find me with it?”
“The stone has to match the specific trace. And only witches can use them.” Maggie’s eyes narrowed. “How did you get one if you didn’t know what it was?”
“My father gave it to me.” Lightning handed the bead back. “What about yours?”
“I’m not telling you.” But the wariness had faded somewhat. She looked at Lightning with something closer to curiosity. “You’re with the Witch Cooperation Association. Ashes says you won’t leave.”
“You’re with her?” Lightning’s expression shifted. “I thought you were a new witch, attracted by the rumor.” She considered. “We have a good life here. Why would we leave?”
“The Church.”
“An explorer doesn’t run from danger.” Lightning’s chin came up — and then, privately, she thought: the Stone Tower doesn’t count, that was tactical retreat, I’ll go back when I’m ready and I’ll be the first one into the basement. “And His Highness has things you’ve never seen. Weapons that can hit targets from a thousand meters.” She watched Maggie’s face. “Do you know how far a thousand meters is? Far enough that a person looks like a branch on a tree. One of those weapons makes a ball the size of your fist into something that tears people apart.”
Maggie’s eyes went wide.
“Can I see one?”
“Not unless you join the Witch Union.” Lightning hooked an arm around her shoulder, which required going up on her toes slightly. “But if you come back later, after your trip — there’s also the Concealing Forest. Honeycomb raiding. Mushrooms. Wild boar hunting.” She paused for effect. “You roast them over the fire and put salt and pepper on them and eat until you can’t move.”
Maggie was already licking her lips.
“Why would I lie to you,” Lightning said. “Come on. We might find a bird right now.”
The morning light came through the trees in broken angles, warm and gold, and the two of them walked into the forest, and Lightning had completely forgotten about the map.
Chapter 165 Chase
Lightning traveled back and forth between Border Town and the southern hills, while the parchments in her hands were slowly becoming all the more complete.
This was her newly received task, together with Soraya, she had to draw a map of the Western Border.
Flying together with Soraya, her flying height was significantly reduced, making it awfully difficult to fly over the forest. So she would first paint a rough outline of the topography, and later with Soraya, they would draw a more exact picture. By using her magic pen, the map would look like a view from up in the air, every detail seemingly totally lifelike.
After a parchment was filled, Lightning would then turn around, and fly back to Border Town. Today, after a few months of training, her flying speed had only become faster and faster. According to the calculation method taught by Prince Roland, her full-speed flight had almost reached close to one hundred and twenty kilometers per hour. At this speed, the incoming strong wind made it nearly impossible for her to open her eyes.
Because of this problem, Lightning thought that she had already reached her limit, but the day before yesterday, His Royal Highness had given her a gift. A headband made out of leather, with two copper ring wrapped into it. Embedded inside those copper rings was a pure and transparent glass, allowing her, for as long as she wore the headband, to be immune to the incoming wind.
His Royal Highness had said that this headband is called ‘windproof glasses’, and that it was actually quite easy to manufacture, by melting some glassware. He had also said, that with her wearing the headband she would look even more like a small Ezreal.
Lightning didn’t know who this Ezreal person was, but she realized that even though the headband was only made out of cowhide, copper rings, and glass lenses, it had still needed a lot of effort to put something like this together. The complete piece of leather had a double layered structure to it so that it could wrap itself tightly around the inset copper rings. And also, to keep her from worrying that the leather band would scratch her skin, the headband had something similar to the buckle of a belt on it, with which she could adjust its size. Looking at it, it didn’t give her the impression of something that had been just casually made.
She immediately fell in love with this gift, almost to the extent that she wanted to wear it even when she was sleeping. Now, she only had to had to pull down the glasses, and she could keep on flying faster and faster, no longer needing to take into account the impact from the whistling wind.
It wouldn’t take very long before Lighting would reach the town, she had planned to immediately head back to the castle and hand over the new map to Soraya, but at that very moment a pale figure suddenly swept past the corner of her eye.
Looking sideways, Lightning saw a pigeon with its wings extended gliding in the direction of Longsong Stronghold. Pigeons weren’t very rare birds, but this one was quite different, it was really too big to be like normal pigeon, just the wings alone would be enough to satisfy her stomach for the length of a whole day.
Lightning had to swallow down her saliva, she remembered the time when she had still lived on the island and caught some flying fish by hand later roasting them over the fire.
Now, living under the roof of His Highness, although the food was very rich, having to eat bread with butter and mushroom soup for months on end, the food had started to become somewhat tasteless to her, so if she could catch a pigeon for roasting…
Reaching out to the pack of salt and pepper fastened to her waist, her decision was made.
Turning around, Lightning flew straight toward the pigeon, and the pigeon quickly noticed the approach of the uninvited guest. It immediately folded its wings, diving downward and seemingly wanting to drill into the woods, to rid itself of this menacing hunter.
Seeing this scene unfolding in front of her, Lighting was shocked, she would never have thought a pigeon could be this smart. A few seconds later, a broad grin spread across her face, and with a sudden turn, she followed the pigeon as it dove downwards. Since the Months of Demons had already ended, the little girl had become confident that nothing could escape from beneath her gaze.
For a moment, the pigeon still skimmed over the treetops, but a moment later it lowered it altitude even further, entering the forest and flying extremely close to the ground. But the distance between itself and its hunter only became shorter and short, no matter how fast it beat its wings, it couldn’t throw off Lightning’s pursuit.
The dense forest receded, and the sun would occasionally shine through the branches, becoming alternatives patches of light and shade. Until they finally flew through an open area, and their surrounding suddenly became open and bright. Grabbing hold of this opportunity, Lightning brought her speed up to maximum, instantly hugging the pigeon from behind and tumbling to the ground.
The pigeon struggled heavily, trying to break free from its shackles. Lightning had already pulled out the knife from her waist, ready to finish off the game, but at this last moment, the dove opened its beak, “Don’t, goo! Help me, goo!”
The little girls shock was so heavy, that she almost tossed her knife away. But she quickly regained her rationality, and asked, “You, are you a witch?”
As an answer, the pigeon nodded.
“And I thought I could finally taste another type of flavor,” Lightning sighed in regret, putting her knife away. “My name is Lightning, what is your name?”
The other expanded into a ball, and then turned into its human form, “Maggie, you actually wanted to eat a bird!” the woman complained.
“I have already eaten a lot of them from before.” Lightning just shrugged her shoulder in response instead. She reached out her hand to pull Maggie up. All of a sudden, a bead rolled out from within Maggie’s bosom, bouncing on to the ground twice, only to fall into a small pit. When Lightning quickly went over to pick up the bead, wanting to hand it back to Maggie, but found that the glass-like red bead with some strange letters engraved on it, seeming very familiar to her.
After frowning for a moment, she grasped a string around her neck, and slowly pulled a dark red pendant from her chest. Placing both of it into her hands to compare them, she discovered that the pattern on them was exactly the same.
“What?” Shocking Maggie who was looking over her shoulder from the back. “Why do you have a trace?”
“A trace … What’s that?”
“You don’t know what it is? This thing can respond to a magic stone, allowing the holder of the stone to locate your position.” Maggie suddenly stopped, “No, why should I even tell this to you? Just now, you wanted to eat me!”
“Do you have such a magic stone?”
“There are,” Maggie nodded her head.
“So, can you find my position?” Lightning asked curiously.
“No, it must match the magic stone to be able to locate the corresponding mark.” She replied very agilely this time, “and only us witches can use this. If you don’t know this already, how were you even able to get one?”
“It was my dad who gave it to me,” Lightning returned the bead to Maggie. “What about you?
“I won’t tell you,” Maggie answered grudgingly, but then she stared curiously at the other girl. “You belong to the Witch Cooperation Association, and Ashes said, that you do not want to leave Border Town.”
“You belong to her side?” Lightning curled up her lips in disdain, “And I thought you were a new witch who was attracted by the rumor. Us witches here have a good life, why should we leave?”
“Because of the danger ah, the church may come here at any time, bringing their Army over with them.”
“An explorer will never shrink away from something because it is too dangerous,” When Lightning spoke out aloud, her face turned slightly red, well… the Stone Tower doesn’t count. It is only a matter of time before I visit the ruin again, and by then I must be the first to enter the basement.
“Furthermore, His Highness Roland Wimbledon has a lot of incredible invention, as long as you have seen them once, you will immediately become attracted to them. One can turn a fist-sized ball into a weapon, and when someone is hit by it, they are torn into pieces.”
“Really? Can you take me to see them?” Maggy exclaimed in admiration.
“That won’t do, unless you join the Witch Alliance, and become one of us.”
“But I have to go back with Ashes…” Maggie hesitated.
“Then you can come back later, ah,” Lightning continued her coaxing. “Here you can have a lot of fun. We have machines which move on their own using heated water, there are also weapons which are able to attack over a distance of a thousand meter, uh… are you asking yourself how far a thousand meters is? All in all, it is very far, if you look at people from one kilometer away, they will seem to be about the size of a tree branch.”
Making many gestures with her hands and feet, “and there are even many more possibilities to go play within the Concealing Forest. Things like poking honeycombs, gathering so many mushrooms that you couldn’t even count all of it, and hunting birds and the wild boars are all so very
interesting. Peeling off their fur and roasting them over the campfire. You only have to sprinkle a little salt and pepper on them, and you can relish and eat as much tasty meat as you would ever want.”
“Really?” Maggie couldn’t help but start licking her lips.
“Why should I lie to you,” Lightning hooked her arm around Maggie’s shoulder, “On the other hand, we might even go hunt a bird and roast it, right now!”
TN: I changed Izawa Riel into Ezreal. Also I really loved this chapter ????