Akira Dracorider's Arc

Chapter 4 of 12

The younger child tugged at his father's sleeve and pointed at Rebel, who'd been lying near the ice sculpture since the family arrived. The wolf's ears pricked forward, and Akira noticed her gaze fixed on a patch of frost-covered ground just beyond the sculpture's base. Rebel stood and walked to the spot, her nose dropping to the frozen earth. She began to dig. Akira started toward her, but the motion was slow and deliberate, not frantic. This wasn't hunting behavior. The wolf's paws scraped through frost and snow, then hit something harder. She kept going, methodical, until her claws caught on wood. The family shifted closer, their attention split between Cascade and whatever Rebel had found. Akira knelt beside the wolf and brushed away the loose dirt she'd kicked up. Beneath the snow was a wooden cover, old boards reinforced with stone at the edges. A pit trap, deliberately hidden. The father stepped back, pulling his children with him. "Is that safe?" he asked. Akira didn't answer right away. He ran his hand along the stone rim, feeling for inscriptions or marks that would tell him who'd built it and why. Nothing. Just a concealed pit in the middle of his sanctuary, near the gazebo where he wanted people to feel welcome. He looked at Rebel, who'd stopped digging and was now nosing at something wedged between two boards. Akira reached in and pulled it free. A crystal orb, no bigger than his palm, with light refracting through its facets. It warmed in his hand, and he felt a pulse of energy that wasn't his own. The mother took a step forward instead of back. "What is it?" she asked. Akira turned the orb over, watching colors shift across its surface. He didn't know. But someone had buried it here, under a trap meant to keep people away from it. Or maybe meant to catch whoever came looking. He stood, holding the orb where the family could see it, and made a decision. "I don't know yet," he said. "But I'm going to find out before anyone else visits this gazebo." The father nodded slowly, his hand still on his children's shoulders. The mother glanced at her daughter, who was watching Akira with the same curiosity she'd shown Cascade. "You're building something here," the mother said. It wasn't a question. Akira looked at the pit, at the orb, at the family that had come back despite their fear. "Yeah," he said. "And apparently I need to know what's already buried underneath it."