Chapter 7
'Phew.'
I exhaled slowly, watching a thick cloud of mist billow from my lips before dissipating into the freezing air. Not helping myself, I placed two fingers on my mouth blowing more mist pretending that I was smoking, a dumb little thing I used to do in my past life in those really moments of the year when it got cold enough.
Seeing snowy weather was fun for a good bit, I made my first snowball, snow angel and snowman, and while it was still great it was still cold as hell, and we had to find shelter and found this cave yesterday.
Right now, I was floating a few feet off the rocky ground, my legs crossed in a classic meditative stance. For the past few days, I had been throwing far too much of our limited time into raw physical conditioning and grinding through Tinashe's brutal gravity amplification schedules. Today was a cheat day of sorts. I was stepping away from the heavy lifting to focus entirely on multitasking and fine motor control.
Normally, using my psychokinesis felt like having a massive, invisible pair of arms. It was fantastic for raw power, but terribly clumsy for delicate tasks—a lesson I learned the hard way when I nearly pulverized our salvaged supplies. Closing my eyes to lock in a focus buff, I altered my mental approach. I stopped thinking of my power as a blunt instrument and instead pictured thousands of glowing green threads unspooling from my mind, spreading across the damp cave walls.
Slowly, a hyper-detailed layout of our temporary shelter bloomed in my mind's eye. It was infinitely sharper than the blurry mental maps I had struggled to piece together during our desperate escape from the lab. Now, I could feel almost every structural nuance: the uneven cracks splitting the cavern ceiling, the heavy rocks anchoring the corners, the shifting snow piled thick outside the entrance, and even individual water droplets condensing and dripping from the stalactites.
I snapped my spiral green eyes open.
Around me, an intricate orbit of loose stones, packed snow, and frozen river water began to dance. The debris circled my body in a perfect, fluidly rotating sphere. Honestly, I looked exactly like Aang during his final avatar-state beatdown against Ozai, just minus the actual air bubble.
'Nice.' I smirked to myself but kept all these disparate objects moving at different speeds and also they highly visual map of the cave in my head to a lot of concentration, and I mean a lot. But at least I got better with my control and I can maybe delve into other areas of psychokinesis easier.
My focus faltered for a bit of a second and the green hue around the orbiting debris flickered.
Thwack!
An arrow hissed through the cave's dark air, flying straight at my face. Instinct took over; I snapped a localized telekinetic grip around the shaft, freezing it mid-air inches from my nose.
"Sylv, watch it!" I barked, dropping the orbiting stones and throwing the arrow to the dirt.
"S-Sorry!" she squeaked from the other side of the cave.She was standing near a makeshift target, nervously clutching one of the wooden bows I had looted from the akafula.
Every since we took those Akafula's stuff Sylvia had been drawn to there bows and had been practicing shooting arrows, and I got to say she was a natural at it, not a master marksman but she was still pretty good.
"Hey look I actually got it!" James's triumphant shout echoed in the cave so turned to see what he was talking about.
The dragon boy was standing tall, his chest puffed out. He lit the tips of his fingers with flickering teal sparks, and instead of unleashing his typical wide, destructive fireballs, and shot three concentrated, laser-thin streams of fire. They punched cleanly through the centers of three target circles I'd craved into a heavy log earlier.
"Hey did you see that!?" He cheered, making a genuine grin.
Sylvia clapped her hands happily, completely forgetting her near-miss with my face. "James won… Good job!"
"Tsk. Alright, fine, a deal is a deal," I sighed, letting out a defeated breath as I telekinetically gathered a couple of the spears we'd stolen from the little people.
James looked completely stunned. He blinked at me, utterly speechless.
I just rolled my eyes at him. "I told you that I'd catch you extra fish if you tightened up your sloppy output. Don't look so surprised. I'll be back—"
"Coming with you." Sylvia announced stepping up to my side. She adjusted the strap of her quiver.
"Um no you're not." I replied bluntly, floating the spears into the air beside me. "I'm going out on my own. It's just a quick trip to the river."
"Coming with…" She knitted her brows, clearly struggling to string the words together smoothly. "I'm g-going to protect you."
"Huh? Look I don't need you to protect me okay. I'm just going to…"
"NO!" She yelled stomping her bare foot on the ground causing cracks. "Come too… I have to protect you!"
"Just let the girl come to accompany you, Miracle." Tinashe murmured in my head, and from the sound of it the woman found this a little amusing. "It looks like she's not going to stop throwing her little tantrum until you say yes. Plus out there you never know when you might need an extra pair of eyes, episodically with her connection to the forest."
" 'Tsk' Fine you can come." I grumbled waving a dismissive hand
Sylvia let out a joyful squeal, jumping up and down in victory.
Clicking my tongue I turned into the dragon boy. "Alright James, you're on guard duty for the cave. Watch our stuff and for the love of God don't screw it up."
"That's so boring!" He whined.
"Relax man, we want to be gone for a long. Just stay put." I float out of the cave.
"Bye… Don't screw up." Sylvia innocently waved to James jogging to catch up with me.
A few minutes late
"Okay this is a good spot." I mumbled stopping at the snow-covered bank.
Seeing things like this in real life was completely out there compared to whenever I saw them on screen in my past life. The whole freaking surface of the water had been frozen solid, I get it
Sylvia needled next to me cautiously tapping on ice. "Miracle.. what happened?"
"Uh… you remember the time I told you how water turns into ice when it gets really cold right?" She nodded. "Well the same thing happened here. The weather got really cold, dropping the temperature and turning the top of the river into a giant ice floor."
"Fish frozen too?" She asked, looking up at me with wide worried eyes.
"Nah they're alright." I focused a bit using my psychokinesis to cut a circular hole to reveal rushing water. "See? It's all good. The ice only freezes on top. They can still move around and breath just fine down there."
"Wow. How?"
"Meh I don't know either." I shrugged, grubbing on one of the spears.
As I approached the ice hole, I noticed Sylvia had suddenly stopped. Her head tilted toward her pupils dilated, and had a distant look on her face.
"Let me guess the forest is telling you something." I asked, making her flinch a little bit. "What's it about?"
"I don't know…"
I really don't know how to feel about that. Normally I wouldn't tell her to go since it was too dangerous or trust whatever mystery entity had been communicating with her. But the 'forest' had helped us out a bunch before, guiding her to good animals to hunt and safe things to eat.
"Okay go see what it wants."
"No! Have to stay… Protect you!" She argued back.
" Eish knock it off already kid I'll be fine. Just go over there, see what the forest is trying to show you."
She hesitated, looking unsure while twisting her fingers on the fur wrap.
"Listen if I get into trouble I'll shoot my blast into the sky and it will be loud and green. If you need me, just leave a flower here and if you're in trouble make them all fall off, also I give you a time limit if you don't when the time reaches I'm coming to look for you got it? "
"Okay." She nodded brightening up. "I won't be late."
With that, she turned and sprinted into the snowy underbrush.
"Finally." I muttered, letting out a sigh of relief. Floating a few inches above the hole in the ice focused my psychokinetic radar down into the freezing water and began my version of ice fishing. It was a little peaceful.
"Despite your reasoning I'm surprised you let her go on her own. Do you trust this forest with her?" questioned Tinashe.
'God no.' I shook my head. 'But the 'forest' has helped us out a lot and if it did want to lure Sylvia away it would have done it when she was alone or when she was just hunting with James.'
The mental grid locked onto a healthy, medium-sized river fish, so I used my telekinesis to pull it out of the water and cleanly impaled it with the spear. But when I turned away to catch more I felt bit of a tingle making quickly turn back but the fish was gone.
"What the hell?" I whispered, staring blankly at the weapon. 'Uh Tinashe… did you see what the hell just happened?'
"I'm just as blind as you are on this one, Miracle. Either we are dealing with a remarkable fast animal or the spirits are playing a trick of you as a form of karma for being so blunt the girl" Tinashe teased.
"Man whatever." I muttered.
I locked onto two other fish signatures swimming beneath the ice hole. After pulling them to the surface and spearing them I switched to my sacred gear increasing their weight. When I turned back to pretend it was finished I heard a little thud and turned to catch the culprit.
"Gotcha asshole." I hissed pinning the creature to the snow increasing its weight.
"SQUEAK! SQUEAK!"
It was a pitch black raven, the same one with the same strange energy signature that had been stalking us for the past few days.
Without warning the bird's physical form destabilized, dissolving entirely into a harmless puff of dark swirling shadows.
"The fuck?" My eyes widened, my heart and paranoia began spiking up at what was going on.
"Miracle behind you!" Tinashe
Quickly switching back to my regular powers I felt a presence right behind me.
"Hello there little stray."
A smooth casual voice sounded right next to my ear.
"Ayi!" I let out a sharp yelp. I launched myself high into the air with a massive telekinetic burst to clear the distance.
"Hahaha!" A bombing mocking laugh echoed across the place really pissing me off.
Standing exactly where I had been fishing was a man who looked native American, maybe in his 30s, tall, long black hair and brown eyes. He was wearing heavy black coat that looked homemade, it sort of reminded me of ingenious ceremonial robes you see in history documentaries with a raven vibe with the black feathers, mixed with modern clothing.
(Looks like this)
I slowly drifted higher in the air to keep a good distance, throwing up a transparent psionic shield, bracing my legs ready for a fight.
"You know, it's terribly rude to fly away from a guest," the man said, tilting his head up to look at me, a massive trickster smirk pulling at his lips.
My chest felt tight. Tinashe wasn't speaking, but I could feel her presence within my mind space locked on the guy. The sheer weight of the divine energy rolling off this man was staggering; it didn't feel like the dirty, parasitic demonic aura that Gregory devil had back at the lab. It felt like the raven's but a hell tone more overwhelming.
"Usually, guests don't sneak up on people like a ghost while using birds to steal their breakfast," I said, keeping my tone clipped and guarded. If this guy was an ancient spirit or god I should really be careful with how unpredictable they are in the stories I read.
The man let out another low chuckle, resting his hands casually on his hips. "Fair point, little stray. But a raven has to eat, and watching you struggle with those primitive sticks was far too entertaining to pass up."
Oh man his one of those guys who speak in parables.
"I wasn't struggling." I grumbled, lowering myself just an inch but keeping my radar entirely focused on his movements. "Who are you or what are you? And what do you want with us?"
"Names have weight in these forests boy and I go by many." He took out some horn shaped bottle thing and drank from it. "But you may call me Yeil. As for what I want? I merely wished to meet the clever little rats who managed to blow up the devil's playpen, especially since one has the same signature as that accursed drifting dragon and a dryad from the Greek pantheon."
So he did know about the lab. That explained a lot why he was watching us than, but it didn't explain why he decided to show himself now. But what he referred to for James got the gears in my head turning but it was obvious for Sylvia's case but I thought dryads were more of a Celtic thing?
"Okay Mr. Yeil you've been watching us since like day four when we escaped, then why did you choose to meet with me now of all times ?"
Yéil chuckled, the dark shadows around his shoulders dancing as he tilted his head with an incredibly amused smirk. "Why now? Because, little stray, watching a half-starved child desperately play parent while running on zero sleep is only entertaining for so long. Eventually, the comedy turns tragic. You almost let those little purple-eyed runts turn you into a human pincement the other night, and watching you struggle to spear a simple fish today was just downright pitiful to behold. I stepped in before your stubbornness got you all frozen solid."
My eyes twitched a little bit at that jab. "We're handling it."
"Are you?" He raised a skeptical eyebrow, gesturing vaguely to the endless miles of freezing Alaskan wilderness surrounding us. "You are a child leading children, hiding in a damp cave, freezing your toes off, and running on little hours of sleep because your mind is a storm of nightmares. You won't survive the deep winter out here, stray."
'Fuck you too you werido, you're a grown ass man who was getting a kick at watching these said children struggle.' I resisted the urge to flip the bird at him.
He reached into his coat and pulled out a rolled piece of thick, weathered parchment, tossing it lightly into the air toward me.
I caught it with a localized pocket of telekinesis, letting it float in front of me before unrolling it with my mind. It was a map highly detailed, showing the layout of the mountains, the river, and a clear, traced path leading toward the edge of the forest where a established human town sat, which was soo far away.
I didn't let my guard down. I looked from the parchment back to him, my paranoia screaming that this was an elaborate trap.
"Okay, what's the catch?" I demanded, keeping my ringed green eyes narrowed. "Because gods don't just hand out free navigation apps to random kids. What do you want? My soul? A vague 'future favor' you're going to randomly show up and collect when I'm older? Or let me guess you want me to slay some ancient, high-level monster that's sitting on your lawn?"
Yéil threw his head back and let out a rich, booming laugh that echoed across the frozen river bank. "Hahaha! Oh, you truly are a delightful little creature. It is fascinating to see such cynical, weary thoughts come out of a mouth that still looks like it belongs on a toddler. But… since you insist on a bargain, there is a particular thing you will have to do for me ."
He extended a long, shadow-draped finger toward the floating parchment. As he pointed, a thin line of smoky black ink bled into the paper, actively tracing a highly specific path.
"You will deliver a specific message to the entity guarding that pass. Do not take a shortcut. Do not turn back. Follow my line exactly, deliver the word which will appear on the map, and your passage out of these woods will be guaranteed. Fail to do so… and well, the forest has plenty of room for three more frozen statues."
I grunted in annoyance. "Wait hold up if you're so powerful and supposedly want to help, why don't you just teleport us there? And I'll handle you earn later?"
The man's smirk widened, turning slightly cryptic. "Because, little stray, that place lies well outside my territory. The Tongass is a vast house, divided into strict rooms. Each room has its own master, its own ancient rules. We are currently under a very delicate, very tedious truce. I cannot simply wave my hands and perform works within another's jurisdiction without causing a massive, annoying headache."
He leaned closer, his voice dropping into a secretive whisper. "And traveling completely outside the boundaries of the Tongass? The other pantheons are incredibly legalistic about their borders. They have strict eyes on their territories, and I prefer not to invite their executioners to my door over a few runaway children."
I stared down at him, my ringed green eyes narrowed. While his explanation about divine territories and pantheons matched the messy lore I vaguely remembered about DxD, something about his delivery felt off as hell. He was heavily bending the truth to suit himself,, or lying his ass off. He could probably move us in a blink if he really wanted to, but he was choosing not to.
He didn't want to help us out of the goodness of his heart; he wanted to watch the show.
"Alright I get the gist bu…" I felt his signature suddenly disappear and the sound of raven echoed in the area. "And he batman'ed me."
'Miracle…' Tinashe's voice finally sounded in my mind, her tone incredibly heavy and laced with deep caution. 'Whoever that entity was, his power was massive. We were fortunate he only sought to amuse himself.'
'Yeah,' I thought, rubbing my aching temples as the familiar weight of my stress-headache returned. 'A god who plays with birds and likes to watch kids struggle. Just what my blood pressure needed.'
"Though I find it strange that he knew about the lab yet didn't attempt to stop it. I would have thought a deity would not take kindly with anyone conducting those kinds activities in his territory."
'Maybe he didn't want the smoke. The Khoas Brigade do have some powerful of this world backing them so I he was smart enough to keep away.'
Silence settled back over the river bank and I laid on the soft snow took in relaxed breaths. Looking at the trees I remembered that I was supposed to look for Sylvia if she took too long, but look at the flower it still had it's petals on.
"MIRACLE!"
Speak of the devil.
Sylvia ran at my side looking down t big smile on her face. It looked like she had brought some new stuff with her.
A little pouch and a custom designed bow with a quiver.
"What's inn the little bag?"
"Forest said… when hungry or scared I should use them." She opened it revealing literal golden seeds than took out a Moon-Sapped Pinecomb. "Forest said it will help you sleep better."
"Hmm?" I sat up looking at it a little suspiciously and in the distance I saw big plant lady looking right at us.
(looks like this)
The moment she noticed me looking, she looked surprised for a bit surprised but waved than disappeared into the ground.
"Yeah let's get back to the cave before Vincent burns it down."