The sun was rising over the horizon as two teenagers and an older cultivator flew through the sky on what seemed to be a long snake-like water dragon.
Gregor, being a cultivator of the Stream Realm, could conjure such a beast using their innate techniques. They had been shunned from their original clan because they were different but their bloodline couldn't be erased. The cultivating clan Gregor came from had the power to conjure and command beasts with similar cultivations as the users.
Raider was standing on the head of the dragon, near the tip of the nose, feeling the push of the wind against his body. The only thing keeping him from flying away was the pulsing left radius he was holding tightly in his left hand.
The two other Clan members were sitting crosslegged further back towards the base of the neck of the soaring dragon. Gregor was the second strongest cultivator of the Settlement and Bee, their disciple, had just broken through to the Pond Realm at the age of fourteen. This made them a genius of the same caliber as Soho and his sons.
Gregor and Bee had a close bond. From a young age, Bee had been gender ambivalent and Gregor had been a great help in their family life. At age 8, Bee showed some talent by breaking into the Puddle Realm and became Gregor's disciple and ward. Bee had rarely left Gregor's side since and had made great progress in their cultivation.
The three had been travelling for a short while in silence, Raider looking to the horizon and the other two cultivating next to each other.
The feeling of the air against his face made Raider feel a way he had never felt before. The vast expanse of land coursing below seemed to never end despite the speed they were travelling at. The rocky desert stretched out as far as the eye could see. The rise and fall of the rock formations passing by at high velocity made it seem like they were flying over an orange and red sea with gigantic waves.
Here and there, some caves could be seen decorating the cliffs they were skimming over. These were the dwellings of various beasts inhabiting this part of the world.
Raider felt light and full of butterflies, nervous but excited and most of all, he was thirsty to discover the world beyond the confines of the Settlement.
...
On the other hand, back in the underground hiding place, Soho and the other Stream Realm cultivators had joined with the rest of the clanspeople and explained the situation to everyone. The Clan was now plunged into chaos, clan members arguing with the ones next to them. Was this really true? What was Raider going to do? What would happen to the Clan? These were all questions that plagued the 200 or so cultivators huddled underground together.
"Everyone quiet!" shouted Soho in a futile attempt to calm the crowd. After a moment of thought, Soho gathered a bit of power from his cultivation and gathered it in his lungs and throat.
"QUIET!!" he repeated in a booming voice.
...
The crowd finally fell silent.
"At the moment Raider is gone and hasn't shown any hostile desires, let us focus on what's impor-" Soho started before being interrupted.
"Clan Chief, what if his intentions change in the future? We don't know what kind of resentment he might hold for being a slave for his whole life. What if he-" a random member of the Clan started until a cold glare and wave of Soho's hand followed by a droplet of water that zoomed at high speed towards the man before hitting him in the chest and knocking him to the ground.
"You will NOT interrupt me." stated Soho slowly and menacingly after a considerable pause.
At this moment Serena shot a glance at Soho, which he caught sight of and seemed to remember something.
"Now is not the time to think about Raider." declared Soho. "Now is the time to rebuild."
After these few words, the Clanspeople made their way out of the underground hiding place and bit by bit started to repair the damages done to their Clan. A lot of people and especially the children were shocked by the extent of the destruction and found it hard to believe Raider, their cultivationless slave, was the person responsible for such devastation.
...
Back in the air above the East Canyons Raider was completely oblivious to the feelings he had given rise to in the hearts of the Clanmembers. More accurately, his heart and mind were too overwhelmed with new sights and emotions of his own to process anything else.
"This place is called the East Canyons." volunteered Bee from further back down the water dragon.
"The whole east of the continent is like this," they continued. "Canyon after canyon after canyon, further than anyone has bothered to count. All the way to the Cliffs."
"The Cliffs?" repeated Raider, tilting his head.
"You'll see." said Bee with a mysterious smile, clearly enjoying knowing things that Raider didn't.
Raider's eyes widened as he took in the vastness of the East Canyons. Everywhere he looked, the massive rock formations seemed to tell tales of eons gone by. He could see herds of strange creatures, some resembling winged goats, grazing on scant vegetation, while predatory birds circled overhead. As the water dragon soared past, some of these beasts would look up in curiosity, seemingly puzzled by the odd creature streaking across their skies.
"I've never seen anything like this," Raider muttered, his voice betraying a mix of wonder and exhilaration.
Bee, hearing him, chuckled. "There's a lot more to the world than the Settlement, you know. You've been missing out."
Raider turned to Bee, taking in the youthful features of the Pond Realm cultivator. "I guess I have," he replied, a smile tugging at the corner of his lips.
Gregor cleared their throat, drawing Raider's attention. "These canyons have stood here for countless millennia. They have witnessed the rise and fall of many empires. The world we know now is just a mere shadow of its former glory."
"Then what happened?" Raider inquired, genuinely curious.
Gregor sighed, looking into the distance. "A great war, between clans far more powerful than our own. Their conflict devastated the land. Cities turned to ruins, and over time, nature reclaimed its own. Only some remnants of their civilizations remain, like the East Cliff City."
Bee piped up, "East Cliff City is one of the few cities that managed to survive the chaos. It's built right on the edge of the cliff, overlooking the vast expanse of the desert below. Traders from all over come there. It's amazing!"
Raider nodded thoughtfully, "Sounds like a place worth visiting."
As they continued their journey, Raider and Bee started sharing personal stories. Raider spoke of his years of servitude and the joy of newfound freedom, only alluding to a fortuitous encounter that changed his life. Bee, in turn, explained their gender ambivalence, making Raider realize the vastness of human experience beyond the confines of his old life.
It was around midday that Raider saw death for the first time since leaving the Settlement.
A herd of winged goats had gathered around a shallow basin where rainwater had pooled between the rocks. There must have been a hundred of them drinking peacefully, their grey and white wings folded neatly against their backs.
Then, some of the rocks around the basin moved.
In actuality, they were no rocks at all. Half a dozen lean, six-legged beasts the colour of rust had been lying flat against the canyon floor, indistinguishable from the stone around them. They sprang up all at once and the basin erupted into chaos.
Wings unfolded, goats scattered in every direction, and a cloud of dust swallowed the scene whole. When it settled a few breaths later, the herd was gone. Only one goat remained, pinned beneath two of the rust-coloured hunters, its wings beating weakly against the ground until they stopped.
Raider watched it all in silence from the head of the dragon.
He had seen cruelty before. He had lived it. But there was something different about this. The hunters had not done it out of pride, or spite, or boredom. They were simply hungry.
"Wild beasts," said Gregor, slowing the dragon ever so slightly. "The weakest of the three kinds, though the word weak hardly does them justice. Out in the wider world, the lowest wild beast can already tear apart most common cultivators."
"There are stronger kinds?" asked Raider.
"Savage beasts," said Bee, raising a second finger. "And above those, monstrous beasts." A third finger came up, and then Bee shivered dramatically. "Master says a top level savage beast can fight a River Realm expert. I've never seen a monstrous beast. I hope I never do."
"With some luck, you never will." said Gregor.
As if the world itself wished to mock these words, the water dragon suddenly jerked to the side.
From a cave in the cliff face ahead, something was emerging. It looked like a bear, if a bear could be the size of a small hill, with slabs of dark stone growing along its spine like a second skeleton worn on the outside.
It did not roar. It did not charge. It simply raised its head and looked at them, and that look alone made the air feel heavier.
Raider's hand had wrapped tightly around the radius before he even realised it. The bone was pulsing, not with fear, but with something that almost felt like... interest.
Gregor guided the dragon in a wide, unhurried arc around the creature's territory, never once looking away from it. The beast watched them pass. Then, deciding they were not worth the climb down, it lumbered back into the dark.
Only when the cave had disappeared far behind them did Bee let out a long breath.
"A savage beast," said Gregor plainly. "Mid level, most likely. Had it wished to, it could have brought us down."
"You can let go of the bone now," teased Bee. "It stopped being fun watching you strangle it a while ago."
Raider loosened his grip one finger at a time.
Out here, it seemed, strength decided everything. What could be taken was taken, and whatever could not defend itself did not get to keep anything for long, not even its life.
It had to be said that the Settlement had worked no differently. The only difference was that out here, nothing pretended otherwise.
Raider stared at the horizon for a long time after that, holding on to questions he did not yet have the words for.
...
As the sun began to sink and the canyons turned from orange to deep red, Gregor brought the water dragon down onto a wide stone shelf overlooking a dry riverbed.
"We rest here tonight," they announced. "The beasts in this stretch are timid, and I would rather not fly through the dark."
Bee hopped down with practiced ease and began producing things from their pack: dried meat, flatbread, a small battered pot. In no time a fire was crackling between three stones and the smell of stew filled the campsite.
When Bee handed him a full bowl, Raider hesitated for the length of a breath before accepting it.
He had eaten every day of his life. The Clan had made sure of that, the way one makes sure a tool stays oiled. But this was the first time somebody had cooked something and simply handed it to him, as if it were nothing, as if he were anybody else.
It was the best meal he had ever had. He said nothing about it and ate slowly.
It was Gregor who eventually broke the silence.
"Go on," they said without looking up from their bowl. "Ask. You have been circling it all day like a bird that cannot decide where to land."
Raider lowered his bowl.
"...What was it like? The day you found me."
Bee suddenly became very interested in the stew pot.
Gregor set their bowl down and gazed into the fire for a while before speaking.
"It was during a hunt, twelve years ago. Three of us had chased a wounded beast further south than we had ever gone, into canyons that have no names. We lost it. On the way back, in the middle of the night, we heard something."
"Crying?" asked Raider.
"No. That is the strange part." Gregor shook their head slowly. "We heard nothing. A silence so complete it felt wrong. No wind, no insects, no beasts. We went looking for the source of that silence, and at the very centre of it, on a flat shelf of bare rock, there was a baby."
The fire cracked and popped between them.
"You were not crying. You were not asleep either. You were lying on the bare stone, watching the sky, as if you were listening to something none of us could hear. There were no footprints around you. No wagon tracks, no beast trails, no lingering traces of cultivation, nothing, for days of travel in every direction. It was as if the sky itself had set you down there and walked away."
Raider had been told pieces of this story before, always as a taunt. Trash found on the rocks. Even the sky didn't want you. Somehow, told by the person who had actually been there, in a quiet voice by a fire, the same facts felt entirely different.
"I searched," continued Gregor. "Every time a hunt took me south, I searched. Every trader, every tribe, every wanderer I crossed paths with, I asked about a lost child. For years." They paused. "I never found so much as a rumour. I am sorry."
"You looked?" asked Raider quietly. Of everything he had just heard, that was the part he could not get past. "Nobody ever told me that."
"Nobody knew," said Gregor simply. "I have asked myself many times whether I truly did you a kindness that day, bringing you back to us. I watched what your life became, and I did nothing about it. I will not insult you with excuses."
The fire cracked again.
"You did one today," said Raider at last. "A kindness. So let's call it even."
Gregor looked up at that, and behind them, Bee smiled into the stew pot.
Nobody said anything else for a long while, and for once, the silence was a comfortable one.
Much later, when the fire had burned down to embers and the other two had settled into their nightly cultivation, Raider lay awake on the smooth stone, the radius resting on his chest, rising and falling with his breathing.
Somewhere out there, to the south, was a shelf of bare rock with nothing around it. Somewhere beyond that, perhaps, an answer.
But first, the east.
"Hey," he whispered in Bee's direction, unsure whether they were truly meditating or only pretending to. "This East Cliff City. How much further?"
"Three days. Maybe four." mumbled Bee, eyes still closed. "Why?"
Raider turned his gaze back up to the stars.
"Just wondering what a city full of free people looks like."
...
Back at the Settlement, the weight of recent events bore heavily upon its residents. The once-mighty flame that stood at the village's center was now extinguished — snuffed out in passing by the same wind that had razed a tenth of the settlement, succeeding where torrential rain and even the absence of air had failed. The sight left the clanspeople dispirited. Whispers filled the air, with many struggling to reconcile the submissive Raider they knew with the powerful entity he had become.
"For years, he fetched us water and swept our floors," one elder whispered. "Who would've thought he had such potential?"
Soho, hearing the whispers, gritted his teeth. His pride had been wounded, not just by the unexpected emergence of Raider's power, but also by the admiration some in the clan now held for the boy. His face taut with frustration, Soho turned away from the crowd, his thoughts growing darker with each passing moment.
Alexander, always eager to please his father and further his own ambitions, approached Soho with a sneer. "They're all fools, father. Just because he showed some strength doesn't mean Raider is fit to lead."
Soho sighed, his voice heavy with a mix of anger and despair. "This boy... he's disrupted everything. The balance, the power structure. I don't know if things will ever be the same."
Alexander nodded in agreement, his eyes cold. "If Raider becomes a threat to our leadership, we'll just have to eliminate him."
Soho's eyes met his son's. There was a moment of understanding between them, an unspoken pact forming in the midst of the chaos. As the sun set on the horizon, casting long shadows over the ravaged Settlement, a dangerous game of power and ambition began to unfold.