Path of Dragons-Chapter 2Book 8: . Pillars in the Mist

Elijah circled outward from Hong Kong, careful not to attract the attention of the flying creatures that nested in the tallest buildings. They were undead: just like everything else in the city: and they responded to any disturbance with undiluted fury. Elijah had been on the receiving end of their kamikaze tactics on more than one occasion, and he had no interest in repeating the experience.

So, he kept his distance, slowly expanding his search for a proper location for his planned dolmen. With most of his circles, he’d been lucky enough to stumble upon powerful natural treasures. Sometimes, they were protected by guardians: like the kitsune he’d encountered near Forest Hills, but after meeting Wilhelm what felt like a lifetime ago, he knew that natural treasures and guardians weren’t really a requirement. Instead, the only thing necessary for him to build a dolmen was an intersection of ley lines, which were currents of energy that flowed through the Earth, acting as powerful conduits for ethera.

Elijah suspected that they were responsible for the planet’s ambient energy, but he wasn’t certain how it all fit together.

Whatever the case, his goal for the moment was clear enough: he needed to find a ley line intersection so he could build a dolmen close to Hong Kong. The reasoning for his decision to use one of his available slots was simple: Hong Kong was halfway across the world. It had taken Sadie and Dat nearly a year to reach Easton, which suggested a distance of thousands of miles stretching between the two locations. Building a dolmen in the area would extend his reach by quite a lot.

And it would give him access to the Primal Realm, which he knew had already begun to rebuild its strength. He wasn’t smart enough to calculate how long it would take before it once again started spilling powerful undead into the area, but he felt obligated to keep an eye on things. If not for the sake of the population of Hong Kong, then for Sadie.

With that in mind, he circled until he found a likely candidate. The area was interesting enough, with a small peninsula: maybe a couple miles long and half as wide: dominated by sheer cliffs on three sides. More importantly, he sensed a slight increase in the density of the ambient ethera.

He landed atop the cliff, where he was immediately beset by a flock of hummingbirds. They weren’t the tiny creatures he might have expected, though. Instead, the birds were the size of pigeons, which was a little disconcerting, considering they had no concept of personal space. Thankfully, they were curious rather than violent, so they didn’t pose any danger to him.

At first, he even found himself laughing at their antics as they zipped around, but after a few minutes of experiencing their inexhaustible and energetic behavior, he grew a little annoyed. It was incredibly difficult to concentrate when a huge hummingbird kept tickling his forehead, after all.

But he endured long enough to establish the source of the rise in ethereal density. Growing atop the cliff were small mushrooms: Elijah couldn’t identify the species, so he expected they had either experienced a forced evolution or were non-native to Earth: that exuded thick clouds of ethera. They were natural treasures, though only mid-grade at best. Biggle would have fallen upon them with a level of vigor only a mad scientist could exhibit, but Elijah left them where they were. He had no interest in upsetting the natural ecosystem.

The cliff wasn’t suitable for a dolmen, though, so he quickly transformed back into Shape of the Sky and took to the air. The hummingbirds scattered when they discovered a huge predator in their midst, which left Elijah feeling more than a little satisfied. That, in turn, elicited a bit of guilt: after all, the little birds hadn’t really done anything to him.

He pushed that side as he moved on. The next location he found was hundreds of miles away and in the center of an expansive marsh. Unlike the swamp where he’d met Konstantino and his brood of orphan children, these marshlands were completely devoid of trees. More interestingly, the swampy morass of brackish water was home to two unique features. First, there were dozens of flocks of noble cranes living there, many of which had reached levels that made Elijah a little uneasy. A couple had even ascended, though none were actual guardians. Instead, they were normal beasts that, one day, might develop enough to acquire that particular label.

Regardless, when they saw his flight form, they looked at him with a mixture of irritation, territoriality, and a little fear.

The second feature Elijah noticed: and the one that allowed him to identify the area: was the prevalence of bright, red grass. Given the geographic location and the uniqueness of it, he felt certain that he’d found what remained of Panjin: or China’s Red Beach.

Unfortunately, it was unsuitable for a dolmen. Not only was he loath to disturb the cranes and other wildlife, he didn’t feel like building a structure in the middle of a marsh. Even if he could stabilize it, the last thing he wanted was to teleport into waist-deep water. He’d gotten enough swamp life, after all.

So, despite being fairly certain he’d found a ley line intersection: a weak version, but still sufficiently powerful for his purposes: he found himself moving on. Still, he spent a few hours there just enjoying the natural beauty. He even managed to get close to a few of the cranes, which were far more amenable to his presence when he’d resumed his natural form.

Eventually, he left the area behind, but with the sun having already sunk toward the horizon, Elijah took shelter in a tugboat that had run ashore on the banks of the river that fed the marshlands. Thankfully, the vessel was abandoned, and due to the shallow water, most of it was dry.

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Elijah did wonder about what had happened to the former occupants. They were long since gone, leaving very little evidence behind. On the bridge, he found a couple of coffee cups emblazoned with Chinese characters, an old, mostly rotted jacket, and not much else.

But at least there were no skeletons.

He slept well that night, and for the first time since beginning his visit to Hong Kong. He hadn’t realized it at the time, but the constant submersion in the dense death-attuned ethera had taken its toll on him. It never went so far that it threatened his life, but it had definitely made him uncomfortable in a way that wasn’t really evident until he’d left it behind.

Now that he had, he felt more relaxed than at any time since leaving his grove.

But maybe it was more than that. He’d spent the entire day exploring nature, and despite the fact that he usually used his abilities for combat, he was still a Druid, just like any other. Communing with nature was a fundamental part of his soul.

He woke just before dawn, refreshed and ready for the day. After rising and using Blessing of the Grove to shower, he dressed and headed to the boat’s highest point. There, he watched the sun rise over the horizon, casting the red grass in an even more vibrant hue. He made a small fire using some tinder he’d gathered the day before, then boiled some water for a cup of coffee. After adding some honey, he took a sip.

It was probably the best cup of coffee he’d had in years, largely due to his surroundings. Often, it was easy to forget that, amidst the monsters and death, the world could still be a very beautiful and peaceful place. Elijah basked in that notion for a long while, drinking his coffee and simply enjoying the simple pleasure of existence within the bounds of nature.

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But eventually, after the sun had fully risen, he knew he needed to move on. So, after brushing his teeth, he resumed Shape of the Sky and did just that.

The second day of exploration was no less filled with wonder. Elijah saw jungles and isolated islands and even a few pockets of human habitation. The population of those settlements fled the second they saw him, taking shelter in their homes, but he didn’t stop to explain that he was just a guy with a few neat spells, rather than a huge, flying monster that looked very much like a dragon.

The third day saw him exploring a mostly abandoned city that once held a decent population. Probably a few hundred thousand. Maybe more, depending on the population density. It was difficult to tell because most of the buildings had been reduced to rubble. A few of the smaller structures remained standing, but they had been entirely abandoned.

Elijah spent a couple more days searching for survivors, but he found nothing. Neither did he discover any indication as to what had happened. All he knew was that something: maybe a powerful monster or natural disaster: had destroyed everything. It was with a little regret: mostly because he wanted to know more about what had occurred, but also because he felt obligated to save anyone in the ruined city who might need his help: that he moved on.

On and on he went for another week-and-a-half until, at last, he found what he hoped would be a suitable location.

He stood atop a mountain, looking down on an expansive valley populated by what looked like floating pillars of rock. Each one was covered in vines and other vegetation and surrounded by a dense layer of clouds. When he descended the mountain, he found that it was all just an illusion. The pillars were firmly rooted in the ground below, but the mist gave the illusion that they were suspended in mid-air.

Elijah was more interested in the fact that the fog seemed magical in nature, though. The ambient ethera wasn’t nearly as dense as it was on his island, and it felt like it had a different flavor, but it was stronger than just about anywhere else he’d visited.

It was obvious that the area featured a powerful ley line nexus, and what’s more, it seemed like an ideal location for a dolmen. Not only was it still within a few hundred miles of Hong Kong, but it also featured plenty of building materials. And finally, it was isolated enough that he didn’t have to worry about a bunch of strangers stumbling onto his circle of stones.

Predictably, the valley was populated by a wide variety of animals. Elijah was delighted to see troops of monkeys flitting through the trees. They weren’t overly strong: if he’d had to guess, they were probably in their mid-fifties in terms of levels: but there were so many of them that he expected that, if someone came to the area with violence in mind, that person would find a rude awakening.

On top of that, there were giant salamanders: even bigger than they had been before Earth’s transformation: lounging in the rivers and streams cutting through the valley. The things didn’t look particularly handsome, with short and stubby legs and fat bodies, but Elijah thought they were kind of cute, in an ugly-pet sort of way.

There were black bears, hundreds of species of birds, and even huge flocks of colorful butterflies in evidence. In short, the entire place was paradisical in a way that Elijah had rarely experienced.

There were plenty of signs of human development that marred the experience, though. More than once, he stumbled upon trash that could’ve only been left by careless tourists. Most of it was old and degraded, but there was plenty of plastic there that wouldn’t break down for centuries: if ever. But the worst offender was an enormous, metal monstrosity of an elevator that led to one of the peaks.

It looked so out of place that Elijah briefly considered embarking on a quest to tear the offensive thing to pieces. But that wouldn’t really do any good, and it certainly wouldn’t help with his frustrations. So, he turned away from it and continued to search for the ley line intersection that would enable his dolmen to reach its full potential.

Not long after, he nearly stumbled when he felt something curious.

He was being stalked.

And oddly enough, the creature hunting him almost completely evaded the sense granted by Soul of the Wild. That meant it was powerful and dangerous. The only reason Elijah knew it was there was because he could feel a slight disturbance in the ambient ethera. Otherwise, he’d never have detected the creature.

Once it got close, Elijah reached into his Ghoul-Hide Satchel and retrieved a hunk of dried pork. He didn’t have that much of the stuff left, but as he’d discovered with the bear: and confirmed with just about every other powerful beast he’d met: the route to a good relationship with an animal was through its stomach.

He tossed the pork on the ground behind him and waited.

It took almost five minutes before the creature showed itself, and Elijah was delighted to see that it was a clouded leopard. It was no larger than was typical before the World Tree touched Earth, but it held itself with far more confidence than Elijah would have expected.

What’s more, it was obviously a guardian. And Elijah suspected that, for the first time, he’d found one that had developed naturally. It was a great discovery, and one he wanted to investigate further. So, even as the leopard gobbled up the pork, Elijah retrieved more from his satchel and earnestly embraced the opportunity to make a new friend.