There weren’t many clues to find about their quarry’s whereabouts around the farmhouse. At this point, enough time had passed that most tracks had vanished, and those that Leon was able to find were rather inconclusive, pointing to the swamps where they disappeared.
However, there were just enough clues that things weren’t quite adding up in either Leon or Maia’s head.
“I don’t think any of my people would live out here willingly,” Maia said with a frown as she and Leon stood at the water’s edge. “Most of us live in cleaner water, and in places where there is easier access to men willing to reproduce.”
Leon nodded. That tracked with the place he’d met Maia—her river nymphs occupied a large river in a wild part of the Talfar Kingdom, but further down river there were small Talfar settlements. For a river nymph, it would’ve been the easiest thing to travel a day or two downstream, grab a victim, and then return almost before anyone even knew that their victim was missing. And that was assuming they had to kidnap anyone at all; Leon knew that there were plenty of people more than willing to go off and have sex with someone as beautiful as a river nymph without too much thought, and the men who fit that mold were exactly the kind that the nymphs preyed upon.
Out here in the Ilumerian Wetlands, where there were few people concentrated in pockets dense enough to know fairly quickly when people went missing or died, and in such a dirty environment… Leon couldn’t imagine anything as powerful as a Naiad or a Gorgon would choose this over somewhere nicer. In fact, if something intelligent wanted to hunt humans, then Leon assumed that being closer to human territory would not only give them more ready access to their prey, but also have the added bonus of less predators to compete with, since humans tended to kill predators off wherever they settled.
“There weren’t any missing family members, either,” Leon mentioned. Thanks to his initial research, he knew that the stone statues in the farmhouse represented all of the members of the family that lived here. The Gorgon clearly hadn’t been here trying to kidnap anyone… Although… “… Would any Gorgon want to kidnap someone?” Leon wondered aloud. “Your aunt clearly didn’t care that much, and with her acting as a precedent for living so far away from human civilization, is living out here in the Wetlands that surprising? I mean, a river nymph would want to live closer to humans, but what about a Gorgon?”
Maia nodded her head in concession. “I can’t say,” she answered. “Most of my people don’t become Gorgons—and since those that do only do so after more than a hundred years, that means there aren’t that many that can exist at any one time.”
“There are more groups of river nymphs than just your family, though, right?” Leon asked. He understood that to be true given that river nymphs were present not only in the Northern Vales, but also in Talfar, but he wanted more specifics.
“There are at least thirty… ‘tribes’, I guess they could be called?” Maia explained. “Thirty Pleiones, that is—Empresses of my people. That means a few hundred Naiads. One or two will Gorgonize with every tribe’s generation, meaning about twenty Gorgons will be alive at any one time on average.”
Leon nodded again.
Maia continued, “Gorgons become what they are because they refuse to reproduce. We require the magic power of a mate to not succumb to that disease, so those that do succumb are those who aren’t that positively predisposed toward humans. So I guess that those who Gorgonize will be the kind that live far away from mankind…”
“You say that like I’m ripping out your teeth,” Leon observed as he lightly bumped his elbow into hers.
Maia shrugged. “I could be wrong,” she stated.
Leon waited for a ‘but’, but when none came, he turned his attention back to the few tracks that were left in such a damp, muddy environment. In the somewhat drier dirt a little further inland was a track, long and winding, that he identified as being clearly serpentine, which further fit with his memories of a Gorgon trail, and yet, it also didn’t. From what he remembered of Maia’s aunt, a Gorgon’s tail had to be thicker than what had made this track.
He then glanced up and projected his magic senses in the direction that the tracks had been heading. He wasn’t expecting to find much given just how old the track was, but if there was anything seventh-tier or greater in that direction, he hoped that he’d be able to easily spot it.
Several monsters immediately stood out to him, including a sixth-tier reptile that was eerily similar to some of the jungle-dwelling creatures he saw in the Serpentine Isles, and a seventh-tier bat-like thing with a terrifyingly human face, but he saw neither Gorgon nor river nymph. He only had one example of a Gorgon to base his expectations on, but that Gorgon had subjugated the Forest of Black and White’s resident river nymphs, and he assumed that a Gorgon here would have a similar coterie.
“I can’t see any other signs of a Gorgon around here,” he stated.
Maia frowned, and Leon felt her project her magic senses. “Neither can I,” she said. “There aren’t any places around here that any self-respecting Naiad or Pleione would establish themselves. Leon… we’re not hunting a Gorgon…”
Leon’s expression morphed into a frown to match hers. He could feel Maia’s mild disappointment in not thinking she could save one of her kind from the curse of Gorgonism, but remembering the power of Maia’s aunt had a few currents of relief pass through him. He hadn’t exactly been looking forward to facing down another eighth-tier Gorgon. But that relief soon gave way to a kernel of anxiety as he landed upon the next obvious question.
“Then… what are we dealing with…?” Leon wondered.
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Leon and Maia returned to Attica, their initial enthusiasm for this bounty having been thoroughly crushed. However, it had still been accepted, and so it had to be fulfilled. With the monster responsible now in question, though, Leon decided that they had to do more research than simply relying entirely on their magic senses and experience dealing with Gorgons to see them through.
They were dealing with something that was truly unknown, and the only way they were going to find their prey now was by finding out what it was. It was almost embarrassing returning to the city having done nothing at all when they were so confident setting out, but Leon buried that embarrassment as best as he could by reading up on local wildlife and speaking with local hunters and the bounty manager in Attica’s branch of Heaven’s Eye.
This endeavor took the rest of the day, but with Maia finding some potentially useful books in the local library, they managed to prevent the day from being a total wash.
Firstly, Leon found out a little more information on their bounty, being reminded that the serpentine tracks were only found at the last farmstead to be attacked—which they had just visited and confirmed for themselves—and that the other farmers that had been attacked hadn’t been kidnapped following their petrification.
He then spent some time mapping out the locations of each attack, and cross-referenced with a map of other farmsteads, and information on any recent disappearances. He didn’t even need to invoke Heaven’s Eye’s authority to do so, with the local administrators being only too willing to help an eighth-tier mage who was taking on one of their most dangerous bounties.
What he found was that each of the farmsteads had been established within ten miles of each other, though not all at the same time. There were a few other disappearances in the past year that caught his eye, too, and all from farms in the same general area. He briefly wondered just how no one else had seen a pattern in this, but he was reminded by Elise during a short break that most Attican farms failed. Having a few deaths and disappearances was the norm, not something so unusual that people took much notice. The deaths associated with these bounties were just a few more in a long chain of failed farms that testified to Attica’s inability to tame their surroundings.
When he looked at the whole picture, though, Leon found that while there were deaths and disappearances all over Attica’s claimed territory, there was still a hot spot near the farms connected with his bounty.
But those others not listed on his bounty were just disappearances, not deaths, which he found quite curious.
‘Maybe those people were kidnapped?’ he contemplated. ‘Or maybe they were just attacked somewhere out in the swamps and never made it home?’
He couldn’t say, he’d have to look around those farms himself to be sure. Fortunately, all were within range of his magic senses, so he projected his power and did his best to inspect the sites from a distance. It took some time to locate each of the abandoned farms, but when he did, he found exactly what those sent to check up on the farmers found: nothing at all. No tracks, no signs of battle, just desolate farms quickly being reclaimed by the swamp.
All in all, he wasn’t able to find much investigating the deaths and disappearances on their own, but when he and Maia met back up and started looking into the local wildlife, he started to put some pieces together.
There were many vicious beasts in the Ilumerian Wetlands, even this close to the region’s edge. Some of them were almost destined to reach higher tiers, by human standards, just by virtue of their form. Leon and Maia started by researching those beasts, with a focus on beasts with innate earth magic. There were quite a few, but none with any references to petrification. Leon, however, took note of two particular creatures: Attican Snappers, which were huge reptilian things with ten pairs of eyes and a virtual guarantee to reach the fifth-tier if they weren’t killed young; and Blue Tailed Lizards, which were gecko-like lizards that were roughly the size of a large dog, and possessed not only powerful earth magic, but also potent venom that could kill a third-tier mage in seconds. There were a few other strong creatures with some command over earth magic, but as far as Leon could tell, these were the only two types of creatures that specialized in that kind of magic in the regions around Attica.
Perhaps there were other monsters in the area that wandered in from elsewhere, such as that basilisk from one of the other offered bounties, but Leon at least now had a place to start. And he felt like he could narrow it down even further…
“I’d say of these two, it’s probably more likely to be a Snapper,” Leon said to Maia.
[Why?] she asked, using her mental communication now that they were back in Attica and not in private.
“Behavior,” Leon explained as he scanned the open book in front of him, which detailed the behavior of the Snappers fairly extensively. “They’re not ambush predators, and engage in determined hunting. They also use their magic to get around rather than legs when on the hunt, which would explain why we didn’t see any tracks. And they’re also territorial, which might explain why one might attack the farms around this area. They don’t want to be competing for land with humans.”
Maia nodded in understanding. [Makes sense,] she whispered.
“What’s your opinion?” Leon asked.
[I agree with you,] she answered. [Honestly, it makes a lot more sense to me that it would be some local wildlife rather than one of my people doing this.]
Leon reached out to take one of her hands in his. She was staring out at nothing in particular, and he could feel her hand subtly shaking.
“How are you doing?” he inquired, concern and love radiating from him.
Maia took a long moment to answer, and when she did, she spoke slowly. [I… feel kind of… useless,] she whispered into his mind. [This felt like an opportunity to prove that I wasn’t, to save one of my people from our curse… but instead, it looks like it’s turning into nothing. There was a part of me hoping that this was one of my people, even if it meant that one of my people was suffering. I wanted to be able to show that I could at least do something useful, especially after all of my failures dealing with those pirates, who should’ve been nothing to me…]
Leon pulled Maia closer and wrapped her up in his arms.
[You’re not useless,] he whispered into her mind.
Maia didn’t seem reassured, but she took a deep breath, and any traces of vulnerability in her demeanor vanished.
[Let’s find this thing, and kill it,] she said to him.
Leon frowned slightly, but nodded, and they separated. Together, the two set back out onto the lake, and then delved into the swamps.
Their first destination was one of the other farmsteads that had been attacked. Like the first farm they visited, it was overgrown, but much more so, having been hit earlier. The family inside had been rendered into five stone statues, which were already being covered in some kind of swamp fungus. If there had been any clues to find there following the attack, they’d disappeared by now, and they set back out soon after.
The next few farmsteads they visited were much the same, with the only difference being whether or not the family had vanished or been petrified. No clues were found anywhere else, but at the very least, Leon and Maia were getting a better feel for their environment, being able to move quicker as they adapted to the swamps.
Throughout their journey, Leon not only kept an eye on their environment, but also on another map he’d acquired that listed the locations of all farms that were currently operating within fifty miles of Attica. There were quite a few, and some were still in the area that he was concerned with. He fully planned to visit some of those just in case, but as they first visited the destroyed farms, he noticed something in the growing darkness of the late afternoon: there were quite a few animals, from birds to small rodents up in the trees, fleeing from the area, as if something were coming.
Narrowing his eyes, Leon projected his magic senses once more, concentrating his attention in the direction that the animals were fleeing from. Tuning his senses as best as he could, he soon noticed a circle of swamp about half a mile wide and rapidly expanding that was becoming deserted of all life that could flee.
“Hang on…” he murmured, and Maia slowed the rate at which she was moving their boat through the swamp. “Head a little further south,” Leon continued, directing Maia’s attention toward what he’d noticed. He didn’t have to wait long before she noticed what he’d had, as well.
They meandered through the swamp, moving through the thick tree trunks that jutted out of the swamp water, both of them concentrating on what might lay ahead of them.
And then Leon felt it—something woke up. It was a pulse of magic that seemed to resonate through the swamp, which he recognized as something akin to magic senses. A moment later, he felt a magical aura suddenly light up the swamp about a quarter mile away, drawing his focus.
When his magic senses landed upon the source of that aura, he saw a long reptilian head poking out of a fairly clear part of the swamp, the head larger than their boat and filled with many rows of large, jagged teeth. The creature’s long head was shaped like rather like a thin arrowhead, and covered in ten pairs of bulbous eyes.
The head rose up out of the water, propped up on a short, stubby neck attached to a massive, muscled body covered in dark green scales that blended in almost perfectly with the darkening swamp. Its body was shaped roughly like that of a large ape, being primarily quadrupedal, but with a long, thick tail that countered the weight of its elongated head enough that it could probably use its massive forelegs as arms, if need be. It also had a long ridge of porcupine-esque needles running down its spine. Most notable of all, though was the fact that it had the aura of a seventh-tier equivalent human.
If the descriptions he’d read were accurate, this was a mature Attican Snapper, but one that was even stronger than the heights they usually climbed to.
“There…” Leon murmured, though he didn’t have to, for Maia’s head had already snapped in the creature’s direction as soon as its head pushed itself out of the swamp water. With only a look of confirmation to Leon, she waved her hand, and her water magic began to push their small boat in the snapper’s direction.
The creature didn’t move quickly, seemingly needing some time to fully wake itself up. As a result, in the five minutes or so it took them to maneuver through the swamp, it didn’t realize they were approaching until they were practically on top of it. And when it did, it turned in their direction, it roared in challenge, the sound echoing throughout the swamp. As soon as they passed into visual range, it made the strongest case yet that it was their quarry, for six of its ten pairs of eyes flashed with grey light, and the front of their boat began to petrify.
Leon wasted not a moment in rising from his seat, conjuring a bolt of silver-blue lightning, and hurling it at the monster. The bolt crossed the few hundred feet between them with deadly accuracy, splashing across the snapper’s face only a moment later.
The monster screamed in pain as scales were torn from its head and three of its eyes were instantly vaporized. From the way blood leaked from some of the others, Leon guessed he’d done severe damage to more of its eyes, as well.
He was about to conjure another bolt, but Maia hadn’t been idle, either, and only a second after his lightning bolt hit the snapper, a water dragon erupted from the surface of the water, wrapped itself around the snapper, and dragged it back down into the swamp water.
Leon couldn’t follow it as well after that, but the snapper flailed enough that the water was greatly disturbed. Occasionally, a scaled leg or its tail managed to break the water’s surface, but as their boat entered the clear area of the swamp that seemed to be its home, the snapper went still.
Just in case, Leon had been reaching out to the magic in their environment, gathering clouds above them for a powerful lightning strike, but when Maia smiled at him and said that the snapper was dead, he relaxed, and the magic he’d gathered dissipated back into the environment.
A moment later, the water dragon lifted itself up, and clutched within its massive jaws was the bloated corpse of the Attican Snapper. It wasn’t that bloody, with only a few small holes puncturing its hide, but those holes had been enough for Maia to invade its body with her magic, killing it from the within.
“There’s more…” Maia said out loud, her voice dripping with disgust. She waved her hand, and out of the water rose a clutch of about ten eggs, resting on a bed of pulverized stone. Leon marveled at the massive eggs, each one larger than his head, and it took him a moment to realize that the stone bed that they’d been secured within had a few recognizable characteristics—a disembodied stone arm here, the upper half of a human face there.
“I guess we found the missing farmers…” Leon whispered. He took only another moment to gather up the snapper’s corpse, the eggs, and the petrified human remains, stored them all in his soul realm, and then said, “Let’s head back. I’d say our job is complete.”
Maia nodded, a smile of satisfaction on her face as she shifted her seat until she could lean herself back into Leon’s arms, her power at least somewhat affirmed with the slaughter of this seventh-tier monster. Their boat began to turn at a more leisurely pace than before, and they began their short journey back to Attica.
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