Chapter 88

Deep deep in the forest, far away from any town or sign of civilization, Rain sat on a grassy hill overlooking an ocean of trees.

He watched carefully as a black dot flew across the distant treetops, a swooping gliding thing that dipped down amongst the leaves.

On one occasion, when it dipped below, a flurry of surprised birds took to the air. Squawking and flapping madly the flock rose up into the sky.

The black dot followed beneath, gliding across the treetops like a shark showing its fin above the waterline. The birds did not like this one bit and cawed angrily down at it for encroaching on their territory, one of them even going in for a swooping attack run, to bite and claw at the intruder.

That was a mistake. The bird came down, razor claws outstretched, and then the black dot rose up and the bird disappeared in an explosion of feathers.

More infuriated than ever the flock dove, a furious rush of feathers determined to crush this strange thing. The black dot suddenly changed direction and sprang up into the air shivering as it charged into the flock. The birds cawed with glee, the fool thing had just ended its own life! They fell on it with a fury.

That lasted all of thirty seconds as the black thing shredded through them, a shower of feathers and other bits falling to the forest below. The survivors of the flock realising it was hopeless turned and fled, their squawks of anger turning to ones of panic as the thing followed after, hot on their tails, coming in Rain’s direction.

The cluster of birds raced across the treetops and the black dot became clearer, it was one of the sets of wolf teeth, snapping hungrily at the air as it flew, like some kind of strange flying bear trap.

It bit and the stragglers dropped one by one, falling to pieces underneath the teeth, leaving a trail of falling gore in its wake. Then it was tearing through the middle of the pack and then it was almost upon the fastest, the last remaining. With an almost eager glee the teeth bit into it and the bird fell apart in a flurry of feathers, a trail of bloody bits splattering up the hill until the fang filled beak of the bird fell at Rain’s feet.

The wolf teeth swooped down and danced around Rain, giving the strange impression that the teeth were pleased with what they had done.

Rain glanced from the teeth to the spread out mess it had made.

“Well I’m not sure how I’m supposed to eat that, but I suppose it’s effective.”

Opal stood with a hand over her eyes, shading from the sun, peering out over the distance.

“Far. Real far. If you ask me that seems like a pretty big advantage don’t you think? You don’t even need to get near an enemy like this, you could just stand on a hill and send a pair of wolfy teeth down to bite them to bits.”

Rain nodded his agreement as the teeth pounced playfully against his leg. With a gesture the teeth returned to his mane, the form of it gasifying as it went before slipping into his fur out of sight.

“True, although I still need a view of what’s happening, and these teeth aren’t any good against armour.”

“Hmm. Well, what about anything else? Some other shadowy thing? You can make anything out of that stuff right?”

“Not ... exactly.”

Rain concentrated and a billow of darkness rose from the back of his paw before drifting down onto the grass. After a moment it started to form up, curling in on itself, becoming sleek and smooth, forming a body, head, legs, and a tail.

The shadow house cat shook its head and blinked up at them, its eyes like pinpricks of starlight. Then it turned and began washing its paw, licking the paw pad and then rubbing it over its ear exactly as a real cat would. It was remarkable how alike to the real thing it was, even its tail twitched as the breeze ruffled its shadow body.

Opal tilted her head to the side.

“So you can make a full shadow kitty? That’s something right? If you can do that you should be able to make anything.”

Rain shook his head.

“No, it’s not like that. Watch.”

Once more darkness slipped from his paw and curled down onto the grass before circling in on itself next to the cat. The darkness rose, forming, becoming solid. A miniature cow’s head began to appear, along with a miniature cow’s body. The shadows started to shudder as the cow took shape, and then, after a moment, the shadows collapsed in on themselves, the form disintegrating into a blob of misty shadow on the ground, already gasifying.

Opal frowned at it. “What was wrong with that? Why did you stop making it?”

“I didn’t, it fell apart without me doing anything, I just can’t make a cow, or any herbivore at all really. I can only create things that I understand as predators, or things that are tied to being a predator, teeth, claws. It’s like I can command something to happen, but only with my natural instinct as a predator, and my instinct understands ... well this kind of thing.”

The cat wandered over to him and rubbed its face against his leg affectionately. A low purr came from its body.

“That’s not very predatory.”

Rain shrugged. “Growing up in Lynthia I saw what stray cats were capable of, they ate better than me most days as they could hunt and kill any rat or bird they came across, they rarely let prey escape. It’s not really the size of the predator, just that they are predators.”

“Do a Gobbo.”

“Goblins ... aren’t predators, at least not really.”

“Not true, we hunt stuff!”

“Sure, but you also gather mushrooms and build things, that’s not very predatory.”

He petted the house cat and then noticed Opal glaring. He sighed.

“Fine, I can try.”

Rain lifted his other paw and once more darkness poured forth, pooling on the grass and then building up and up. A Goblin nearly the same height as Opal started to take shape, its limbs solidifying from shadow then detailing, fingers splitting from nubs, knife ears growing out from a blob head. The Goblin took shape, long hair spilling from the now clearly female Goblin’s scalp as she shook her head and seemed to look around with curiosity, her star filled eyes luminous.