"Nope, nope, nope, absolutely not, go away!" Hajin scrambled up the pine as antlers ripped through the bark where his backside hung a heartbeat earlier.
Below, the deer snorted, two purple Shards spinning above its crown like a pair of smug halos.
"Deer are supposed to eat grass! Grass, you hear me? Green stuff, it's all over this mountain—"
The deer answered by baring a row of fangs no respectable deer should own.
"Okay, the fangs are new, nobody told me about fangs!" His voice cracked into a squeak halfway through.
'Two days without food, and my breakfast is trying to eat me first, how rude.'
The trunk shook when the deer rammed it, and Hajin hugged the bark like it owed him money.
"Stop that, I'm busy up here! Go headbutt a rock, rocks don't have feelings—"
The branch under his rear end cracked with a horribly final snap.
"Oh, shit."
He dropped through needles and branches, bounced off a root with his ribs, and rolled downhill cursing all the way. The scabbard smacked his spine on every turn, like his own sword wanted credit for coming along on this trip.
"Ow, ow, ow, fuck, ow, who put a mountain here—" Hooves thundered after him, way too fast for something that ought to munch clover.
'Fine, okay, plan B, the plan I always fail, so let's fail it faster.'
"Come on, come on," he wheezed, throwing out his palm and shoving every scrap of mana toward his wrist, "anything from the Veil, a dog, a cat, a really angry chicken!"
Mana slammed into something locked inside him and bounced back as a spike behind his eyes.
"Ghhk—!" He clutched his skull, nose wrinkling at the pain. "Nope, ow, why is it always my head? Why not my elbow, I barely use my elbow!"
'Three years of calling, three years of nothing, and I still keep knocking like an idiot.'
At sixteen, the awakening crystal named him a summoner, and the Flint family lined up to watch what he called. Nothing came, and then nothing came louder, until the elders moved their disappointment into a cellar with straps and needles.
'Nope, not thinking about the cellar, thinking about not becoming deer food, focus up.'
He slapped a hand over his mother's pendant, lips twitching into a crooked grin, "Don't look, mother, your son's about to do something stupid and extremely heroic!"
The deer skidded to a stop uphill, its throat puffing up like a frog with ambitions.
"...Huh? What's that, are you gonna sing for me or—"
The whistle hit him like a flying door, ripping him off his feet and slamming him straight into a boulder. Something in his ribs went crunch, and his mouth filled with blood before his brain finished catching up to him.
"Ghk... okay, okay, that's cheating, that is straight-up, no-good, dirty cheating!"
'Cracked ribs, two at least, and healers don't do charity for gutter thieves like me.'
The deer strolled back toward him, as if dinner already sat on its plate.
"You know what, fine, let's dance, you overgrown goat with a whistle problem!" He spat red into the moss and dragged his notched sword free.
A fallen log lay across the slope behind him, rotten and perfect for something stupid.
'Make it jump, make it trip, then stab it, genius, absolute genius, somebody pay me.'
He hopped behind the log, waggling his sword and his eyebrows, "Here, deer, deer, deer, come get your stupid little snack!"
The deer charged, cleared the log, and caught one foreleg on a knot, its antlers swinging wide of its throat. Hajin ducked under the swinging horns and slashed behind its back knee, feeling the tendon pop apart beneath his blade.
"Ha! Gotcha, you bastard!"
A hoof slammed his shoulder a heartbeat later and sent him tumbling ass over head.
"Okay, okay, ungotcha, I take it back, ow!" He rolled behind the log, clutching his shoulder and grinning like an idiot at the deer's dragging leg.
'It's limping now, so why does it still look so damn smug about it?'
The deer limped around the log and raised its snout again, throat swelling for round two.
"Oh, come on, again?" He rolled his eyes so hard his cracked ribs complained. "Do you just have infinite whistle in there?"
This time its tongue drew back from the fangs, and Hajin spotted the pink roof of its mouth.
'Armor everywhere, except right there, the one door it keeps opening for me.'
"...Heh, you dumb bastard, say ahhh." He clambered onto the log with both hands on the hilt, ribs screaming, and jumped.
"OPEN WIIIIDE!"
The blast caught him midair, but he tucked his knees and let it carry him straight into the rising jaw. His heels slammed the jaw open, and he drove the sword down between the fangs until the guard cracked teeth.
The deer lurched sideways, ripped the hilt from his hands, and flung him into the leaves.
"Ack—! Hey, give that back, that's my only sword!"
Downhill, the carcass slid against a root, twitched once, and went still.
Both Shards above its crown faded into mist and left the forest ordinary again.
He stared, blinked, then flopped onto his back with arms spread wide, "I won... holy shit, I actually won?!"
"Two Shards, and a one-Shard gutter rat just stabbed you in the face, how do you like that, huh?" He jabbed a finger at the corpse, smirking like a champion.
His laugh hit his ribs like a second whistle, and he curled up wheezing.
"Hehe, ow, no, no laughing, laughing is officially banned, ow, ow—"
'New plan, core, bandages, food, nap, and maybe not dying, in that exact order.'
He tore strips off his ruined shirt, tied his shoulder, and wrapped his aching ribs tight.
"Still alive, mother," he muttered, patting the pendant with a wince, "still annoying, the family's gonna be so disappointed."
He yanked his sword out of the skull, then grimaced at its brand-new notch.
"Great, another dent, at this rate it's gonna be more notch than sword."
The hide fought him behind the shoulder, but he sawed and dug until his fingers found something hard buried inside. One crystal glowed in the sinew, still pulsing, the deer's two Shards of power packed into something he could sell.
"Six silver, maybe more, that's a roof, that's soup, that's soup with actual meat in it!" He stuffed the wrapped core into his belt pouch, practically bouncing on his toes.
'Anybody tries stealing this, I'm biting them, I swear on my empty stomach.'
He sawed off a strip of venison, grabbed some twigs, and limped toward the nearest pine.
Then light exploded across his vision, and Hajin nearly threw his dinner into a bush.
"Gyaaah! What, what, what is that?!"
[ Conditions met | System activating ]
"Okay, either I'm dying of blood loss," he said, swiping at the floating letters until his fingers passed through, "or the blood loss learned to spell, which is worse."
[ Soul Energy | 0 ]
[ Scanning host | Hajin ]
"Hey, hey, don't scan me, I didn't agree to scanning, does scanning hurt?"
[ Lineage mark detected | Bond initiating ]
A warm pulse slid down his wrist, through the channels that refused every call for three years.
'Three years of silence, and it picks right now, while I'm covered in deer guts.'
He sank against the pine and held his arm to the light, squinting suspiciously, "Fine, take your time, but if you came with a healer, I'll forgive the dramatic entrance."
Beneath his skin, something asleep for three years finally stirred, and for once, it answered back.