Iah takes steps to deal with the aftermath of the previous battle while trying to help ensure the survival of those who remain. And then it comes time to make their next big step in the journey ahead.

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Chapter 10

The following morning was more worrisome than usual for Iah. Vel attempted to make more mana powder before resting for the night, as they had agreed to on the previous day. This time, she was more prepared for it, though, placing a small amount of the powder he had previously made in a tiny bag that she usually used to store a few coins that could be hidden within her clothing. When she placed Vel in the bag, the second he touched the powder, she marveled at the sight of more powder seemingly multiplying out of nowhere.

That marvel only lasted for so long as she watched Vel seem to go limp almost right away. By the time she was able to pull him out of the powder again, the powder had already stopped appearing. Whatever had happened, it was a fast process. Despite how tiny the human was, it was still easy to tell how weary he was, even though he weakly claimed that he was alright. When she was reasonably confident that he was not about to fall over dead, Iah had settled in for the night, finding what she thought was the softest part of her belly fur for him to rest on.

Vel was asleep practically the moment he hit her fur, and then he was still, so dreadfully still. Now, she was used to prisoners trying all sorts of tricks to try and fool her. Faking dead was one of the more common among them. But her senses were keen enough, and her ears may not have been the best of all predators, but she could still hear a heartbeat and the sound of breathing from a good distance, at least for a normal person. The problem with Vel was that he was just so tiny. Even with him lying right on her, she had to strain to hear his heart beating and his breathing was almost imperceptible to her.

It was also difficult to tell if he was inhaling and exhaling even while looking right at him. She was not sure if Vel was aware of it, but when she put a hand over him, it was not just to act as a blanket or keep him in place. It was so she could actually get some sort of feedback from her pads to tell if he was breathing. On most nights, that was just to make sure he did not try to pull some sort of trick, but this night, she had honestly been worried he would stop breathing.

That made it difficult to sleep that night. The creation of mana powder was certainly new to her and she did not know how it would affect Vel. Having to use him like this made her feel uncomfortable when she was supposed to be his protector. But, if they were going to be tangling with unicorns, they were going to need whatever advantages they could get. Being down to one managlass among her little group was not a situation she wanted to be in. Now that she at least had some powder of her own, she was able to give Hes her managlass back. Of course, her powder was vulnerable to the spells of others without the protection of a managlass, but that unicorn had already shown that a managlass was not the protection she had once thought it to be.

While Iah was eventually able to get to sleep, worries about Vel kept waking her up to check on him periodically. It always took a few tense moments to detect life in his small form and quite a bit more time to get back to sleep. Unsurprisingly, she found herself awake before Vel in the morning and was a bit tense as she waited for him to wake up. Hes and Ryrrg seemed to feel the same as herself. They usually found it a bit amusing that such a tiny creature slept in later than they did, but there was nothing amusing today as they all stared hard at him resting in Iah’s fur. Even though he was still breathing, there was no telling if he actually would wake up again. Iah just did not know enough about mana powder production to tell what toll that would take on Vel, and neither did anyone else for that matter, besides the elder races.

When Vel finally stirred and woke up with a yawn, he let out a cute little yelp of surprise as he immediately found himself being knocked around by the relieved tongues of Hes and Ryrrg. Iah did not give him much time to recover from that initial surprise as she immediately plucked him up to provide him with an appropriate amount of licking, too. As Vel was still trying to recover from the shocking level of attention, Iah said, “I hope you slept well.”

“Uh, yeah,” Vel stammered before yawning once more, “Don’t ever think I’ve slept that well. Between how exhausted that powder made me and how comfortable your fur is, it made for a great night’s sleep.”

“So nice to hear you slept so well,” Iah chuckled sardonically, “I was hoping making that powder wouldn’t cause any lasting harm.”

Vel looked himself over for a moment and shrugged his little shoulders, “Doesn’t feel like it. A bit hungrier than normal, but it feels more like I just skipped dinner after a hard day’s work yesterday.”

“I guess we should find you something to eat then.”

They were a bit shorter on supplies than Iah would have liked. After having burnt the herbivores to bones and ashes yesterday, that only left them with what was left of the kobolds and the vermin. Fortunately, the vermin were plentiful on this world. They were dumb beasts, but even they were smart enough to pick up that they had no predators on this world. So, they could afford to eat a morning meal of them and probably stock up on them in the surrounding area. The humans that remained in this area would be in great need of that service if they were to survive. They might even have some to spare for the humans. Looking at the condition of their city, if they had been storing any food, the herbivores had probably flattened it and they would not be able to recover much of it.

That was a secondary concern, though. Vel and her clanmates took priority at the moment. Fortunately, Vel was not much of a problem. Despite his claims of being famished, Iah could not even tell if he was eating more food than usual when she cut him a crumb of meat from one of her vermin, and he also ate from some of the supplies he had purchased. It was a bit of a marvel that he could survive off of so little food that she probably would have barely been able to taste his entire meal.

Seeing how little Vel ate, it did give Iah an idea. She decided to leave one of the vermin carcasses with the humans in the city. It would not inconvenience her all that much, and it seemed like it could last the humans for a while, especially with the preservation spell she had already cast on it. Before doing it, she wanted to see what Vel thought of that idea. She wanted to make sure the humans did not have some sort of strange tradition regarding such gifts.

When Vel heard her out, he snorted, “Are you sure you don’t want to be worshiped like a goddess?”

Iah could only cock her head at him quizzically as she asked, “What do you mean by that?”

“Iah, those things might be vermin to you, but they’re huge to us, and these people are desperate,” Vel explained, “At this point, that much meat is going to seem like a gift from the gods. You saying that the meat is preserved by magic will not convince them that it is not blessed either.”

Iah fidgeted uncomfortably as she said, “Can you do anything about that? I don’t plan to just leave them with nothing, but I would rather not leave them with that impression.”

“I’ll do what I can.”

While Iah was concerning herself with the humans, she had Ryrrg go vermin hunting and assigned Hes to bury the bones of the cultists. She doubted the humans would have appreciated them leaving those bones out in the open, and it would have taken more of them to deal with such a mess than they probably had available. Iah had hoped that she would be able to deal with the humans fast enough that she could come back and help the others.

But, as Vel had expected, gifting the humans with some food turned out to be an ordeal. Even the humans that had shown resentment towards her and the other gnolls were practically overflowing with gratitude for the gift. They had been even more worried about food than she had thought, but it did make sense. Even the humans in that fortified city had been concerned about supplies. The ones in this devasted city were even worse off, especially since they could not easily forge for more supplies with the vermin wandering about.

With all that considered, it was almost impossible to keep some of the humans who already viewed her as divine from bowing down around her paws. It took Vel quite a bit of effort to get them to stop and she could feel her cheeks and ears burning with embarrassment the entire time. Almost every effort she made to help only seemed to make things worse, too. Any movement she did was met with expressions of awe from the humans. She had to practically stand as still as a statue to let Vel make any progress.

It almost hurt Iah seeing how hopeless these tiny creatures were and how much they wanted the help of the divine. But she was not divine, and trying to pretend to be so was only asking for trouble. Yes, she was a matriarch and, with her youth and strength, she could probably go far when the gnolls and other predator tribes pulled together again after the convergence to reestablish their federation. Establishing her rule over these people would have been child’s play. But, for now, she was just a mercenary and had no interest in such things.

These humans did need some help, though, help she could not give. Her clan had already promised to help Vel’s people. She did think about what to do while Vel did his best to get her worshippers to back away from her. Even if her clan could not help, perhaps others could. Even though their federation had temporarily dissolved while the world was in too poor of a condition to support that many predators in such close proximity, they still maintained cordial relations with other clans. Perhaps one of the lion clans would be willing to take these humans under their protection. The felines were vain enough that they just might enjoy this sort of attention from the tiny humans.

It took over an hour for Vel to talk the other humans down, and even then, they seemed reluctant about not making an offering to Iah. When the humans backed a safe distance away from her, she tried to be careful about standing back up to her full height with Vel in hand. She wanted to try and avoid undoing the work that Vel had just made by seeming too grand in her movements, a problem she had certainly never expected to face in her lifetime. When she walked away from the crowd, she tried to avoid looking back at them, fearing they might misinterpret that in some way. If she did not fear stepping on somebody, she would not have even looked down.

When Iah made it back outside the city she could see that Hes was still trying to dig a hole deep enough to bury the bones of the cremated. She could not help but smile in amusement as she also spotted Ryrrg, trying to make his way back with a string of vermin carcasses hanging over his shoulders. He was having a bit of trouble as the humans had also spotted him and they were clearly impressed with his feat of vermin hunting. A grateful throng of humanity had gathered around his paws, making it difficult for him to walk. Not being able to communicate directly with them, he was gesturing pleadingly for them to let him pass while reinforcing those gestures with a few very soft-spoken words. He was doing his best not to scare them, which was probably working too well, as the humans would not leave him be. Ryrrg eventually noticed Iah, turning his eyes to her and pleading for help.

Once more, it was time to deploy Vel to help out. This time, he succeeded in getting the crowd to disburse much more quickly. It looked like Vel was getting better with practice, or perhaps they were starting to view him more as a high priest. She hoped that was not the case, but getting worshiped in secret would at least be better than having it going on in the open. As the humans walked away, looking more than a little reluctant about doing so, Iah sent one of her own silent prayers up to her gods, asking for forgiveness for becoming a false idol, very much against her will.

After that was cleared up, they were able to all head over to help Hes finish digging a hole. Iah thought about putting Vel away in his pocket for now, but she knew that had to be boring for him. They had already eliminated the most significant threats in the area, so there probably was not anyone she needed to concern herself with who could see the glow he was giving off. She warned him to stay out of the way while they finished digging. Iah thought he would just wander off for a bit after that, but he chose to stick around. She thought he might be afraid he was trying to escape, but she could catch the look on his face every once in a while as he looked at them work.

Then she realized how much dirt and rock they were moving compared to Vel. While this was a simple hole for Iah, this was a major project to him. Hundreds of humans working together probably could not do what she and the others were doing. She had wanted to go deep with the hole, too, to make sure that the humans would not easily run into them in the future. She could not imagine the tiny creatures having an easy time moving bones that were the size of buildings to them if they ever needed to. As a result, what was a simple, boring hole to her probably looked more like the beginnings of a major mining operation to him. Fortunately, none of the other humans approached for the show they were putting on, not when they were throwing around enough dirt to bury humans by the dozens. That made it easier to get the job done and the bones buried.

With that out of the way, it was time to consider departing the city. The humans there probably could have still used some help, but that would most likely be the case for weeks, if not months to come. Iah could not afford to just have her clan stick around for that long. Not only did she need to get paid by her client, but if her client was made to wait around for too long, they would definitely send someone after her. And if these humans were found to be the cause of a delay, she did not think they would treat the little creatures all that kindly.

So, they gathered their things, and Iah handed over Vel to Hes for the day, who made sure he was tucked away nice and safely in the pocket she had made for him. Then they were off, without saying anything to the humans of the city. Iah did not want to risk the humans trying to stop them. While it was unlikely that they could do such a thing, she did not want to risk harming anyone should they try. Her experience with how careful she had to be when handling Vel was enough to tell her how easily it would be to injure or kill a human without meaning to.

Some of the humans did indeed try to follow them, but Iah outpaced them even more easily than she thought they would have. Discovering how slowly humans moved was more surprising than it should have been, and it made her think about something. The humans that had been forced into fighting her could not have possibly made it the distance from this city to where they had been in the time they had. It would have been necessary to teleport them into their path. But why do something like that, thought Iah.

The herbivores had to have known that they could not have possibly won in a fight against her. While sending them to their deaths pointlessly was not out of the realm of something the Djallowuo cultists would do, they would have had to waste a lot of mana powder to teleport that many humans, no matter how small they were. Then again, she was also dealing with a unicorn. They could waste mana making themselves look pretty. Teleporting some humans into a pointless battle would have been a perfectly acceptable use of mana to them.

It was simply too bad she had not been able to deal with the cultists before they figured out Iah was there. How that happened was easier to figure out. She had thought there might be more kobolds present at that first battle she had with those herbivores. Now, it looked like the two who had been at the battle in the city were probably messengers from that first group. They would have practically needed to run all the way to the city to beat Iah, but it was possible. That would explain why there were so few kobolds in the city when they normally came in greater numbers.

Now that others knew about her presence on this world and that she had captured one of the gifted, it was probably time to leave. Fortunately, they were already close to the portal they had planned to use to return to their world anyway. She could tell they were only around half a day’s journey from their portal. Once through, they would be in their employer’s territory, and she doubted the cultist would be willing to mess with them there, not unless they were even crazier than usual and willing to start a major war when no one had the resources for it.

There was still a big concern for Iah, whether the unicorn that had escaped managed to gather some reinforcements and teleport back here before they could reach their portal. That was not something most people could do, but a unicorn would have the resources for something like that. Fortunately, unicorns were not good trackers. They probably had a general idea of where she was heading, but teleporting too closely to Iah and her group would be risky, and teleporting too far away would mean they could not catch up. Still, there was a possibility that they would at least try if they wanted Vel that badly.

There were fewer gifted on this world than there should have been. With as many humans as she had passed by, even the ones at a distance, she should have spotted one or two other gifted. There was a possibility that an abnormal amount of gifted clustered elsewhere on the planet, but that was unlikely. No, there were some creatures that were drawn to the gifted. A few creatures liked the taste of them, though gnolls were not one of the races that could taste the gifted. One of the elder races supposedly could, though. Really liked the taste of their livers from what she had heard.

She had never pictured the possibility of the vermin as having a taste for them. They were normally too small to be a major threat to her, and even the smallest of the races could handle them readily enough if they were prepared. But the humans were a different case. Even the vermin could swallow them whole without killing them and causing their mana to fade. For those with a taste for mana, humans would have to be like a gift from the heavens. It would help explain why that pack of vermin had been trying so hard to attack that settlement and its well-defended walls when she first encountered Vel, why they had even been willing to throw their lives away against her.

If the vermin were drawn to the gifted and their taste, they may have been killing off the gifted on this world, and the humans would have never known since it appeared they could not sense the gifted. Perhaps that had something to do with their peculiar white eyes. Iah had certainly never seen any races with eyes like that. The humans would never know they even needed to protect them. Chances were, the vermin had been snacking on the very humans everyone was looking for. It would take, well, however long it took a human to conceive and give birth to a newborn before more gifted would start showing up again. For all Iah knew, Vel might be one of a handful of gifted left on the world right now, possibly even the only one. It really was fortunate she had arrived when she did.

Iah thought about mentioning that to her employers. Vel may have been even more valuable than everyone thought. That was very unfortunate for him. Iah had been thinking of claiming that he died. Using him, she might have been able to make enough powder for all her clan’s needs, but that probably would have seemed suspicious to outsiders. It would have been risky, but she was getting attached to the tiny creature. But, if he was that valuable, it was doubtful that her employers would just believe tales of his death without a very thorough investigation, and there would be heavy scrutiny by others, too. No, it looked like poor little Vel’s fate was unavoidable.

When they made it to the portal they were supposed to use without further incident, that only seemed to reinforce Iah’s conclusion about Vel. Just on the other side of that portal were a few more of her clanmates. It was not all of the battle-ready ones as some had to stay behind and protect the young, sick, and elderly. But there were enough that most would be hesitant to attack them, which went even more for herbivores and most omnivores, considering how much weaker they tended to be in physical combat.

This portal was located in the middle of nowhere. All there was around it were some of the small trees that seemed to dominate this world, being little more than the size of bushes to Iah, the tallest of which were barely thigh height to her. That was the way it tended to be with them. It would have been dangerous otherwise. With the way a convergence worked, it was like parts of the new world were inserted into the already patchwork world. It was as if they were puzzle pieces that just forcefully made room for themselves rather than finding the right place to fit properly, and they expanded around the area of these portals. If they had shown up in or near a town, it would have been torn apart as the convergence occurred. It was enough to make Iah wonder if the hand of the gods was involved in this process.

Convergence was early enough that another step was required to make the portal usable for people of regular size. Hes stepped forward to do it using her managlass, but Iah stopped her, “No let me. There’s no need to waste the protected powder when I have this.”

Iah had taken out her little concealed pouch of mana powder and gave it a little shake. Hes nodded in acknowledgment and replied, “Yes, you’re right, sister.”

Then Hes sighed before continuing, “It’s too bad we have to leave this world so soon. Things may be a bit undersized, but it’s still a nice place.”

“Especially compared to how things are at home right now. But, I am anxious to check up on how our cub is doing,” Ryrrg said.

“As am I,” Hes said forlornly, “Best we get paid before doing that though. That would be of more help than anything else.”

Iah thought of her own cubs and replied, “Yes, the sooner we can collect our pay and get home, the better it will be for everyone.”

Just before Iah could start her spell, it looked like Hes was about to say something else, but she hesitated and looked down at her chest. She cocked her head quizzically and then reached into her shirt, explaining, “My little guest is really thrashing around in there. Hope nothing is wrong.”

That was enough to get Iah’s attention. If something had happened to Vel, there would be some tragically far-reaching consequences. It came as a great relief when it did not look like anything was wrong with him when Hes pulled him out of her pocket and stood in the center of her palm, looking a little bashful.

Hes asked, “Is something wrong, Vel?”

“No,” Vel responded, “I just overheard your conversation.”

“And?”

“Are we really about to go to another world?”

“Yes, in just a few moments, after I complete a quick spell,” Iah said.

“C-can I stay out for this,” Vel asked hesitantly, “I want to see this.”

Vel did not make that many requests. It was obvious that he was too intimidated by herself and the others to do so. This was a good sign that he was willing to ask such a thing as far as she was concerned. It was a little dangerous for him, though. Once they were through to their world, everything would be able to see him, especially when not beneath someone else’s clothing or armor. But it was her clan on the other side of the portal, and they would be in their client’s territory. It probably would not have mattered just who became aware of Vel’s presence at that point. Iah also wanted to encourage Vel to be more open with them. So, she shrugged her shoulders, “Very well.”

******

Vel honestly had not been expecting a yes out of Iah, so he was caught short on what to say next. Not hearing him say anything, Iah gave him a gentle smile and turned toward the portal they talked about using to travel to another world. He walked over to the edge of Hes’ padded palm, using one of her fingers to brace himself while under her watchful gaze. From there, Vel could see the portal they had been talking about.

He thought it would have seemed a bit grander if he were on the ground and not in the presence of titans like the gnolls. The thing was probably somewhere around the height of four men and half as narrow. It looked just large enough for the monsters that now plagued his world to squeeze through if they crawled. The portal itself was a goldish disk of dim light. Even if it were night, it would have given off so little light that it would barely be noticeable.

This was Vel’s first time seeing one of these things. It was amazing to think that these portals were what was allowing the monsters to come through to their world. He wondered how many of them there had to be to allow so many of the creatures through. Enough so that even the gnolls could hunt down enough of them to live off despite the monsters only being between the size of rats to rabbits to them. The fact that the gnolls had even been able to use such portals to travel here was also nothing short of stunning. The portal Vel was looking at did not even look wide enough for them to fit their paws through, needless to say, the rest of their ludicrously large bodies.

From the sound of it, magic could help with the portal’s size, and he was looking forward to seeing that. While he listened to Iah recite some strange words for her spell, there was something else he was curious about. So, to avoid distracting Iah, he quietly asked Hestrihz, “You and Ryrrg have children together?”

“Surprising, right,” Hestrihz responded with an amused smile, “He’s a little small, but he’s talented and determined. Little fellow has been working his way up the ranks for mating rights in the clan. He’s probably hoping that he’ll get a shot at Iah after all is said and done. Isn’t that right, Ryrrg?”

Ryrrg turned away and his ears folded down. It was almost as if he were trying to hide the fact he was blushing. Then Vel turned to look up at Hestrihz’s eyes and asked, “And you don’t mind that?”

“Don’t mind what?”

“That he’s trying to, uh, work his way up to another female.”

Hes cocked her head at Vel and said, “By that question, I’m guessing mating habits are different among humans. But this is how things are done amongst gnolls. Female hierarchy determines leadership among the clan. Male hierarchy determines access to females. Ryrrg is currently in the second tier amongst our males, but he may get access to the top tier after this. We only have one other male up there right now.”

“Huh,” Vel remarked, trying to take that social order in before joking, “I guess that would make someone like me at the bottom of your order then.”

Hes rubbed her chin and looked thoughtful for a moment, “I wouldn’t be so sure about that, Vel. Your ability to produce mana powder would make you an invaluable member of the clan, plus you have those little hands that could easily pull all the splinters out of our paws. I’d say you have a pretty good shot at me or Iah. Wouldn’t you agree, Iah?”

Iah was still finishing her spell, but she turned to look at Vel. There was a slight smile on her long muzzle. She only had one eye, so when she blinked, it was hard to tell if it was a wink or an actual blink. Still, it was enough to get Vel to blush, and he could not hide it as easily as Ryrrg, which seemed to amuse both Iah and Hestrihz.

Shortly after that, Iah completed her spell, and he watched in wonder as the portal suddenly expanded massively in size. Where it had once been so small that the gnolls could not fit a single paw through it, now it was nearly large enough to allow two of them to march through at once. And they did not hesitate to start going through. The only warning Vel received was a quick remark from Hestrihz, “We need to go through quickly. Burns through mana powder to keep the portal enlarged like this.”

Despite the apparent rush, Hestrihz closed her fingers more protectively around Vel as she hurriedly walked through the portal. Even with the smaller gap between her fingers, he could still see the portal clearly enough, even more now that he was being held so high above it. He could not see what was on the other side of the portal. It was just a disc of golden light to him, and there was no clue whatsoever that there was another world on the other side of it. If the gnolls had not told him what it was, he probably would have never worked up the nerve to touch it. Even now, he was a bit anxious about passing through the golden light, especially considering the fate that awaited him on that world.

Passing through the portal itself came with a slight tingling sensation on his skin and his hair felt like it stood on end. It was an almost anticlimactic experience for Vel. He had been expecting a bit more for traveling to a completely different world. There was something considerably more amusing about it, though. He was not the only one whose hair was made to stand on end after passing through the portal. All of the gnolls were looking especially poofy at the moment, something which took about a minute to fade.

But that was about the only amusing thing Vel saw on the other side of the portal. Once the tingling sensation faded, Vel felt something else. He could not figure out just what it was, but there was a general wrongness to the way the world felt. The air did not smell right. It was not that it smelled bad, either. It simply smelled like something was off with it, like you did not want to keep breathing it for longer than you had to. Then there was something muted about the colors, too, as if something was leaching them out of this world. It was a somewhat chilling effect that even made him miss the fact that he was staring at plant life that seemed more scaled to the gnolls. Massive trees were everywhere, making even the gnolls seem small. Grass that was ankle tall to the gnolls littered the ground, and Vel realized he could have lost himself in that grass like a forest. Despite the grand scale of this world, which should have been awe-inspiring, he could not shake the feeling that this was a dying world.