“Brome is stable, and can probably wait for the Rangers,” Heather said. “Miriel needs attention, but we’re not sure we have the mana to do it.”
“Did you ask everyone else yet?” Danielle asked, turning to look closer at Miriel’s wounds.
“I was about to,” Nathan said. “Did you tell everyone else to bring tokens, like you did us guys?”
“Yeah,” Danielle said, “I dunno how much anyone brought but I have ten in my bag.”
“All right,” Nathan said, and stood up and raised his voice. “Attention everyone! We’ve got one stable patient, and one that is definitely too injured for us to handle. However! We’ve also got one who needs 58 points of healing, not counting Skill activations!”
“That means the total is 64,” Heather added.
The wildcat yowled, perhaps in response to the louder voices. Danielle glared into the forest in that direction, and did her best to imitate the yowl back at it. That got her some more stares from group, but more importantly in her mind, it got the cat to poke its head out from behind a tree and look at her as well. “Noisy cat’s behind that tree,” she told the others, pointing. She squinted into the dimness, whispering to the System, “Sure would be nice to be able to see that thing better.” She could barely make out the outline of a long, low body – crouching? – and what looked like an arrow sticking out of its side. “Is that an arrow in it?” she asked, louder.
“Yeah, Miriel nailed it before it got her,” Martin answered.
“ANYway!” Nathan continued. “Miriel has agreed to pay back any mana donated, though obviously it will take a while for her to generate it. Can we get together enough to do the healing? We need 58 in tokens, and we have ten promised so far.”
“My room can put in 20,” Lauren said.
“I can do five,” Gonzo said reluctantly. “Don’t you have some in your kit?”
“I’ve got ten I’ll put in if we’re going to make it, yeah,” Nathan said.
“Me too,” Heather told him.
“How close is that?” The less-injured boy – Brome? – asked. “I can make a five right now, if that’ll tip the scales.”
“I think with your five, that’s enough,” Nathan said. “Make it.”
“While Nathan’s collecting mana, Heather, guess what?” Danielle said. “I just learned a new use for a self-sterilizing lancet.”
“Is this the time to bring that up?” Heather said grumpily.
“Maybe,” Danielle said, watching the wildcat watch her. It bared its fangs and hissed.
“Why won’t that thing go away?” Jennifer fretted. “It’s injured! It’s got an arrow in its side! Doesn’t it want to crawl back into its den and try to heal up?”
The memory of Harv in a pool of blood tried to take over Danielle’s sight again, but she blinked it away to focus on the cat, even as a cold weight sunk into the pit of her stomach. “It’s waiting for its mana,” she said grimly.
“You sure you needed a new use?” Heather half-asked, half accused.
“It came from Medic’s Diagnostics!” Danielle defended herself. “Test for responsiveness. I’m thinking of a second usage that’s only half new, now, though.”
“I’m not doing it,” Heather said. “Give us that mana token!”
“Use the pin first,” Danielle said. “Then lend yours to Nathan, and I’ll lend mine to – everyone else, I think.”
“What? How does that make sense?” Heather asked.
“What are you two talking about?” Martin demanded.
“I’m talking about making sure we don’t let that cat get a drop more mana than we absolutely have to,” Danielle said. “Think about it. It might have wanted to eat you, but at this point, it’s pretty obvious that’s not going to happen, right? But it doesn’t have to have – I’m sorry, I didn’t catch his name?” she gestured to the boy on the ground.
“Gerald,” Jennifer supplied uneasily.
“It doesn’t have to have Gerald in its mouth to benefit from the mana burst when he dies, and I don’t think anyone here can prevent him from dying,” Danielle said. “I know that’s grim, and as soon as we’re all safe there’s going to be grieving and stuff, but, right now I’m worried about maybe leveling up a wild animal with enough System benefits to be comfortable attacking groups of humans. Last time we came out to help heal for the Rangers, they taught Healer Orellana and me about using a lancet to inflict the tiniest possible wound on someone so if they die while you’re working on them, some of the mana comes to the Healer instead of all of it to the killer. I want us all to do it, so the wildcat won’t get all his mana and maybe level up or go berserk from the mana-high. I’ll go first, but – “
“If we do this, you go last,” Martin said angrily.
“I do not care enough to argue, just so as many people as possible do the thing,” Danielle said. “Here, let me get out the lancet. It’s self-sterilizing, like I said, so if the Rangers get here fast enough to prove me wrong – and I hope they do! – the pin-pricks from it won’t be making his condition any worse; no risk of infection or anything. You just need to draw a single drop of blood. Do you want to go first?” She held out the blooding pin to Martin.
Martin looked to Heather and Nathan. They both looked horrified, but Heather spoke up. “When we were healing for some guys that got in a fight in their room, the murderer did go berserk when he got a mana burst. Big bursts do things – I hate this. I hate it so much, but she has a point. If we all poke him, and it dilutes the mana burst enough to keep the cat from going crazy, it’ll be worth it.”
“This is for real?” Nathan asked.
“Yeah, like she said, the Rangers taught it to us,” Heather admitted. “I don’t exactly want to get mana from people dying, but I mean, don’t his friends and the people who came out to help him deserve it more than the cat that killed him?”
“He’s not dead yet!!” Jennifer screamed at them. “How can you talk like that?! He’s not even dead!”
The cat yowled again.
“Look, I get it, I do! Maybe he’ll survive and it’ll be pointless,” Danielle said. “If so, then good! My Skill says there’s nothing I can do for him, though – too close to death already, and the Rangers aren’t here yet. If we’re going to do this, we have to do it now; once he actually dies it’s too late, either the cat has the mana or we do. Martin, you going first or what?”
Martin looked at the pin she was holding out to him. “Why’s it got a red jewel?” he asked.
“It’s the enhancement crystal for the self-sterilizing thing,” Danielle answered shortly. “Heather, are you getting yours out yet?”
“Fine, I’ll trade you for the mana token,” Heather said.
“Yeah, sure,” Danielle said. “As soon as someone takes this.”
Martin snatched it out of her hand and knelt next to – his friend, Danielle supposed. He hesitated another long moment, then poked the pin into Gerald’s thigh, next to one of the long gashes. Danielle nodded and turned to Heather, who took her turn and then held out a hand for the promised mana tokens. Danielle got them out of her bag and handed them over. Martin, meanwhile, tried to pass the pin to Jennifer, who shook her head and backed away; Brome, however, reached for it and shifted over to draw a drop of blood from the hand Danielle had used, which was nearest him. Nathan borrowed Heather’s pin and did the same; then she put it back in her first aid kit.
The rest of the promised mana tokens were sitting in Miriel’s lap, so the healers started work while Danielle recovered her pin from Brome and mutely offered it to the nearest standing member of the hunting parties, which turned out be Cassy. She mutely took the pin, knelt, and put a new pin-prick next to the one Martin had made. Then she returned the pin and stepped back just a bit. Danielle turned to the others, who were forming a loose circle around the poncho-shelter.
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Sadie took it next, telling the others, “Danielle’s never steered me wrong when it counted, and anyway, I’ve heard the whole story about the last time.” She put her pin-prick on the same hand Brome, Danielle, and the Healers had used.
Akari went next. “Where should I - ?” she asked, gesturing vaguely with the pin.
“His friend went there,” Danielle pointed out Martin’s pin-prick. “Next to that shouldn’t be offensive.”
Akari nodded and drew her single drop of blood, then got back in the defensive circle.
Marc came in next. “You sure this won’t give us a tag?” he asked.
“What? Why – oh. Uh, surely the Rangers wouldn’t have recommended this as a procedure for Basic Healers if it did,” Danielle said, hoping she sounded more certain than she felt.
“It probably falls under the same exclusion as the needle for stitches and stuff like that,” Nathan said unexpectedly. “OK, that’s the side wound – disinfected, aligned, and Healed. How do you feel, Miriel?”
“Um, well, better but my leg still hurts like – um, a thing that hurts a lot,” Miriel said, laughing shakily.
“Right, well. You’re going to have to take your shirt off of it while we work, but we’ll do our best,” Nathan said reassuringly. “Ready Heather?”
“Ready,” Heather agreed.
“OK, on three, you lift and we activate our Skills,” Nathan said. “One, two, three.”
Marc distracted Danielle from the healing by giving back her blooding pin. “Here. Thanks. It’s a good call, I think, and Nathan showed me in that book about stitches and stuff not counting as hostile, so I guess we’ll trust the Rangers know what they’re talking about with the, what’d you call it, lancet?”
“Yeah,” Danielle said. “They have a creepy slang name for it, but Heather doesn’t like it so I don’t use it around her.”
“Yeah? Maybe if they make it here before we leave, I’ll ask them,” Marc said, and got back in the circle.
“You want to go next, Gonzo?” Danielle asked.
“No I do not! That plan stinks of conspiracy!” Gonzo declared.
“Um, yeah? It’s a conspiracy to steal murder-mana from a wildcat,” Danielle said exasperatedly. “Who else is in?”
Lauren sighed. “Do what it takes, right?” she said, and turned in toward the center of the circle. “Where do I do this?”
Danielle pointed out the row of pinholes on the boy’s thigh. Lauren nodded tensely and added another to the row.
“This is going a lot faster than Tom did,” Heather commented. “In fact – done! I think that confirms that Tom has a resistance Trait. I really need – ”
She cut off because the cat started yowling again, and this time it didn’t settle for one yowl, but kept going, hissing and caterwauling and pacing back and forth. Jennifer picked up the lantern and lifted it over her head, so it wasn’t blocked by the ring of defenders. The cat was keeping mostly behind the trees, though; much too far for swords or staves, and they couldn’t get a clear shot with bows.
“What’s gotten into it now?” Danielle asked, not expecting an answer. She pulled her bow off the clip on the quiver, and restrung it.
“It couldn’t possibly be able to sense the mana it thinks should be coming to it, right?” Heather asked nervously.
“I’ve never heard of that, but you never know with animals,” Cassy said. “Why do you ask?”
“Well, um, we just finished healing Miriel, and now she’s definitely not dying anymore,” Heather said.
“That is music to my ears,” Brome said with a grin.
“Wait, you’re thinking the cat’s mad because it can tell you Healed its mana-burst out from under it?” Marc asked.
“Well, I don’t know, it’s just the timing,” Heather admitted.
“I’m getting in the circle, there’s nothing I can do for first aid that would help here,” Danielle said. “The cat looks like it just dropped a loose screw, though.”
“Hey wait a minute!” Martin said. “We agreed, you go last!”
“What?” Danielle gave him an uncomprehending look.
“With the bloody pin!” Martin exclaimed over the cat’s yowling.
“Oh – right, you did say that,” Danielle said. Rather than argue with him, or waste minutes explaining that she had already done it as part of her Skill-based examination, she bent down and added another pin-prick to the line on Gerald’s thigh, then put away the pin in her first aid kit, and stuffed that in her bag. She was starting to worry they might need to be ready to run. She put the bag back on, and looped the lanyard on her staff around one wrist; if they did have to run, she wouldn’t be leaving her preferred weapon behind.
Martin seemed oddly satisfied with that. Danielle wasn’t sure why – maybe he was worried about inappropriate murder tags, like Marc? She put the concern out of her mind for the moment and stepped up to the circle on the side where the cat’s noise was currently coming from.
Behind her, Jennifer’s radio suddenly crackled to life. “This is Ranger Flo calling Sent Jennifer. We’re at the Rooms. Are you able to confirm your location? (Over.)”
“Oh!” Jennifer fumbled the radio, and dropped it if Danielle’s ears didn’t deceive her. The Ranger started repeating her message. “This is Ranger Flo calling – “
“I’m here!” Jennifer exclaimed. “We’re almost straight out from the end of building six that has the fire spot, and I’m holding up a lantern, so look for the light!”
“Ranger Flo confirming head out from the fire corner of building six and look for light,” came from the radio. “Are you able to put one of the Healers on for a status update?”
“Oh, um, sure. Here.” Jennifer held out her radio to Heather – and perhaps Nathan by extension, but Heather was closer, and took the radio.
“Hello? Um, this is Healer Orellana reporting,” Heather said.
“Oh my. Nice to see you’re still working hard, Healer,” Ranger Flo said. “What’s the status of your patients?”
“Well, we healed one – me and Healer, um, what’s your last name?” Heather turned to Nathan.
“Jansen,” Nathan said.
“Ranger patrol hears, one patient Healed,” Ranger Flo prompted on the radio.
“Yes, Healer Jansen and I worked together to heal one person. Another person had first aid in place, but it’s a tourniquet, so he definitely needs your help,” Heather reported. “The third one, um. Medic Falconer says her Skill says there’s nothing we can do for him. We used the, um, self-sterilizing lancet on him – not just me and her, a whole bunch of us, so the cat won’t get a big mana burst and go nuts. I’m worried, though, because it’s gotten pretty loud and stuff since we finished healing, um, our first patient.”
“Healer Orellana, please confirm, the wildcat that took down three Sent is within observation distance of the Healers?” Ranger Flo sounded worried.
“Yes, I’m surprised you can’t hear it in the background,” Heather said. “Oh! Um, don’t worry though, we have a dozen people here guarding us. Also, the cat’s already hurt, so I think it’s too scared to attack? Da- Medic Falconer thinks it’s hoping to be close enough for a mana burst.”
“Rot-stink. We’re on our way; tell your party to see if you can kill that thing before it disappears. It’s probably so close to the Rooms because it’s attracted to the easy prey from all the snares; if it goes to ground wounded, it’ll stick close for the food and quite possibly attack another person or party. If it’s tier 3 or below, we aren’t allowed to kill it for you, but we can heal any injuries you sustain and we’re almost there, so now’s the time!” Ranger Flo said urgently.
“O-OK,” Heather said. “Um, I’ll give you back to Jennifer now.” She handed the radio back to its owner. “You all heard that, right?”
“Yeah,” Danielle said. “Not sure how to go about it, though. I can’t see the thing properly.”
“You want night vision?” Sadie said. “Try shooting at it anyway. Might break an arrow, but if there’s any justice, we’ll be able to buy more from the Catalog Un-Fair.”
“That’s a good point. Two good points, actually,” Danielle admitted. “All right, next time I – there it is!” She whipped off a shot; it went wide, though, and the cat dodged back behind a tree, leaving the arrow stuck in the ground a pace beyond it. “Everyone with bows, pair up! When someone shoots, the people beside them shoot a second later, maybe we can catch it on the dodge that way!”
That convinced more people to actually draw their bows. From four (Sadie, Regina, Gonzo and Danielle) the number of bows rose to eight as Lauren, Cynthia, and Marc readied arrows, and the recently healed Miriel took up her bow and quiver again from where they’d been set behind her. Danielle noticed she joined the circle on the opposite side from the sound of the wildcat’s complaints, but she had to give the girl credit for bravery just for getting back in the defensive line at all.
The cat paced angrily around the circle, its complaints simmering down from mostly yowls to mostly growling and hissing. To Danielle’s left, almost a quarter of the way around the circle, Sadie took a shot, and the cat leapt closer to her again. The closest bowman to Danielle was now Lauren, who tensed. “Ready, steady,” she chanted.
Danielle readied her bow indeed, staring into the gloom, watching the space just beside the tree the cat had dodged behind after her last shot. Suddenly, a startled gasp echoed around the circle. Danielle saw a minimized notification symbol in the corner of her vision, but ignored it, all too certain she knew what it was. The cat yowled again.
“I just got a hundred mana,” Marc said. “Is everyone else seeing this?”
“I am,” Martin replied grimly.
“Me too,” Brome said weakly, a catch in his voice.
“I’ve only got 20?” Cynthia replied in confusion.
“It’ll just be those of us who used the pin – the lancet,” Heather said.
“A hundred is good – if everyone who used the lancet got a hundred, the cat can’t have gotten more than, what, two or three hundred, max?” Danielle said. “Stay focused, though, it was already mad, and – ”
“Firing!” Lauren cried.
Danielle barely hesitated, firing almost immediately at the spot where she had last seen the cat. Her plan worked; it had dodged Lauren’s shot in Danielle’s direction, and her arrow took off an ear as it appeared from behind the tree. The cat gave an entirely different sort of yowl, a screech of pain instead of a cry of anger. It wheeled back towards Lauren, who was already reloading, and sent another arrow towards the trees.
“YES!” Lauren shouted, triumphant – and then the mana burst hit. Danielle hissed at the tingling burn of it, though it wasn’t as bad as it had been with Arny.
- > Mana burst detected. 621 Mana has been added to your base level. Remaining cost to level, 849 mana.
- > Career Skill: Bow Apprentice (T1) added at level 1.
- > Trait: Silent Steps has leveled to T1-L2.
- > A mana crystal in your possession has gained an enhancement! Details are available.
“Ow, oh wow, ow wow, what do I do now?!” Lauren babbled in panic. On the other side of the circle, Miriel had gone down on one knee.
“Level up! If it’s saying you can level up, do it right away!” Danielle told her urgently. “The Rangers said the System has to process the mana; until you make your level-up choices it’s just sitting there attacking your body!”
“Did you level up again?!” Sadie asked.
“What? No, but I didn’t get the killing blow in, either,” Danielle said.
“I just got a Career Trait,” Miriel said in disbelief. “It says, Bleeding Resistance. That would’ve been nice to have half an hour ago!”
“That’s how the System works,” Brome joked. “I just got one too – Pain Resistance. It doesn’t make it stop hurting, it makes it so I can keep going through the pain. Thanks a lot, right?”
“That’s just acknowledging what you were already doing,” Martin said. “I got 100 mana and a Career Skill, myself.”
“Did everyone get something?” Dana asked.
Before they could try to confirm that, a shout came from the direction of the Rooms, and everyone turned (except Brome, his sight lines still blocked by the poncho lean-to) to see light approaching from that direction.
“Hello the light!” a voice called. “Is that you over there, Sent Jennifer and company?”
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