Company

There were hundreds of eyes in the trees, of various shapes and sizes, but for the most part they were simply staring. Occasionally a set of eyes would leave or arrive, but they all were turned in our direction. It was disquieting, and none of us were sure what to do.

“Can we break through?” Biarn asked, to receive unanimous shakes of the head from the other hunters.

“Doubtful. We’ll get swarmed, or we’ll get moderately lucky and a free-for-all’ll start and they’ll attack us and each other indiscriminately.” Byza predicted.

“If we fight them off here we might be able to rely on Danny and the Gloam Tree for support, at least for a while, so we might want to settle in.” Illose commented, and several eyes fell on me.

“The monsters might get healed as well.”

“Really? Damn, that sucks.” One of the other hunters commented.

“Then m-”

“One of them is coming.” Loali called, pointing ahead, and though it was hard to notice the head-sized creature she was right.

Emerging first from the trees, slowly, was a creature that floated just below my eye level. It was translucent like a specter with a faint lavender tint to its radial body, had over twenty arms, and was covered in spines that continued over its entire surface. It greatly resembled, aside from its translucency, a type of starfish I remembered from my childhood.

It hardly mattered whether I’d first encountered them in a book or in one of many documentaries I’d watched, but I distinctly remembered loving some “unusual” starfish for a decent stint of time when I was much younger, likely a year or more. I was enamored with them to the point that there existed many remaining trinkets and specimens, of them in my room up to my death, even though I hadn’t particularly thought much about them for a while.

Acanthaster starfish. I would be hard pressed to name the scientific names of any other starfish past this general genus name, and the wider Asteroidea class for all starfish, but Acanthaster had for such a time been an obsession of mine that the name was unforgettable even so many years later.

Around me I recognized the others were preparing themselves to fight, and though I hesitated momentarily to do so I held out my hand. Given this monster’s appearance, and the conversation I’d just had with the Gloam Tree, I had a strong hunch about it.

“Wait a minute.”

“What? If the other monsters follow this one out-” Biarn began to argue.

“I can’t say anything for sure about the rest, but I don’t think this one is going to hurt us.”

“Why?” Loali asked ahead of the others, who each seemed a bit agitated to be holding back. Before I could answer, however, she continued her question. “Did you summon them all here?”

“I’m not sure, but the Gloam Tree might have.” I answered honestly, continuing to examine the cautiously approaching monster. “It’s hard for me to explain exactly, but the Gloam Tree did talk to me a bit about monsters and I have reason to think this monster isn’t a threat to us.”

“The Gloam Tree spoke to you?” Illose’s tone was clearly shocked, and I responded to her and the particularly quiet murmurs around us with a nod.

“I think this monster is like Eir, maybe.”

The mention of her name had seemingly been a trigger, as my attention snapped directly to Eir herself, who had begun to playfully jump up from the ground at the monster. It seemed to just barely acknowledge her with a shake of its entire body, and it continued forward at the same pace as Eir continued to jump behind and follow it.

“It's not a plant monster.” Loali nervously replied, requesting further information as the monster came within a couple strides of us.

“It’s not.” I didn’t really have an answer for her or the others that I wanted to give, or could at all quickly give at that moment, so I left it there.

Looks shared between the corners of each of their eyes for a moment or so, and with a long sigh from Illose they slightly lowered their weapons. It was a sign that they trusted me. We were all at this point, only somewhat less tensely, watching the end of the monster’s approach and, to my surprise, it didn’t stop in front of me.

“Huh?” It had stopped in front of Loali, who was understandably confused, maintaining an arm’s length of distance from her. It hovered in place, seemingly waiting for something.

“It seems it wants you, not me.”

“But why? I’m not-” Her words were cut off by holographic light, which shone over the monster before it suddenly disappeared from sight.

“It’s gone! G-” Byza’s cautionary call was also cut off by the monster’s reappearance in exactly the same place it had vanished from a moment prior. Hardly a couple seconds had passed.

“It's alright,” I quickly reassured them, and watched the rainbow of color fade away to reveal again the pale purple ghost, whose body shook for a moment like a dog after a bath. “It was just demonstrating, I think.”

“It has strong space magic.” Loali added, and when I turned to her I confirmed that the strain in her voice was reflected in her awed expression.

“Stronger than yours?” I asked to confirm, but even before she nodded I figured the answer was yes. Loali had certainly never been able to teleport, but this monster had in an instant. Even given its size, that was impressive.

Another moment passed while I watched Loali’s face cycle through a few emotions, until eventually something seemed to strike her.

“It’s here for me because of my own space magic,” she suggested, “maybe the Gloam Tree wanted it to come specifically?”

“The Gloam Tree could have asked it to come here to meet her.” I backed her up with a certain measure of confidence myself, again recalling the fact that it and I had talked about my own memories and childhood, monsters, and even Loali herself.

“Can you ask it?”

At Illose’s question, I turned to see the trunk of the Gloam Tree again, and easily returned one of my hands to it. I felt no hesitation whatsoever about conversing with it again.

“You all must leave soon.” Its voice reached me with no delay, and a small note of concern followed their magic to me.

“Why? And what about this monster?”

“I sent for the quarzar to come to Loali, and it will be able to communicate with her in time and assist her with her goals, but all of the other monsters pose a threat to your companions.” I was still just lucid enough past my unusual calm to continue to register the moving eyes around us. “The monsters descended from my kin will not harm any of you unprovoked from now on, but I can only temporarily suppress those monsters surrounding you.”

“Why’re they here?”

“I used quite a bit of magic sending for the quarzar which rapidly drew them, and all of the nearby monsters, here. I have since then been pacifying them, and have managed to send a number of them away, but my ability to influence them is unfortunately limited, much as it is for people.”

“So what do we need to do?”

“Escape quickly. Now. They will not attack until the soothing of my magic leaves them.”

“I understand.” I replied, “Thank you. I’ll come back soon.”

“Be careful, and do not feel as if you must go out of your way to visit me. I enjoy your unique company, but I would be greatly distressed if you were to injure yourself for such an endeavor.”

“Goodbye.”

“Goodbye, Danny.”