Role

Chapter 5

Nalaea stepped swiftly through the sparse forest, making not a sound,
following the trail of a rabbit. It was a moonless night, and a vast expanse
of stars stretched from horizon to horizon. The veil was very thin, and Nalaea
could almost see it, rippling just beneath the surface, crackling with energy.
Ardreth followed at her heels in the form of a fox, glowing with an eldritch
light visible only to Nalaea's senses.

"I have a thought on the nature of the storm," Ardreth said-thought to Nalaea
as she stalked quickly through the tall grasses.

"I am listening," Nalaea responded, as she drew her spear back. The rabbit
twitched its whiskers, nibbling some kind of root only feet away, its ears
rotating this way and that. The spear sailed through the air, skewering the
creature. Nalaea watched as the small beast's spirit drifted up and away,
hopping through the air as its energy dissipated back into nature. She bowed
her head reverently, thanking the spirit for the sacrifice of its flesh for
hers.

"You always wish to embody the storm," Ardreth said-thought as Nalaea began to
skin and clean the carcass. "And that is well, and that is good. You are
becoming a force, striking like lightning, bringing force like the tornado."

"Yes," said Nalaea, unconsciously wiping a streak of blood across her cheek as
she brushed away a stray lock of hair that had gotten in her eyes.

"But maybe to truly comprehend the storm, it is not enough to embody it,"
Ardreth continued. "Perhaps one must be taken by the storm to truly know the
storm. To be helpless to it, to fall even. To be one."

Nalaea did not respond. She knew from experience that Ardreth was good with
questions and riddles, but rarely with answers. But it was a good question
this time, one she would have to consider. What would it mean to her to be
taken by the storm?