Beast Mage: A progression fantasy adventure (Mana Beasts Book 1) by Derek Alan Siddoway

Author:Derek Alan Siddoway [Siddoway, Derek Alan]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2023-08-21T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 23

Kellen

Tama’s prediction proved true: the mana storm and the accompanying stampede erased every sign of Ubira’s group’s passing. At least they ate well that first night—as much buffalo meat cooked over an open fire as any of them wanted. They might have nearly trampled him to death, but the meat of the pickup-truck sized animal was the most amazing thing Kellen had ever tasted. By the time they finished, Vex could do little more than roll over and groan. He felt stuffed for the first time in days and spent the evening waiting for Vex to throw up all over him.

Luckily it never came, but the storm horses weren’t as fortunate in their feast as the humans. With the grass trampled and burned, all they could do was snort and paw at the burned earth. They went without feed until the group made camp on the second day, south of the stampeding fire bison’s path of destruction.

After they’d cleared the miles of burnt prairie, he noticed a change in the landscape. Here and there, pine trees and oak brush took the place of cottonwoods and sagebrush. Night’s chill bit deeper, and the mornings held a tang of autumn before the sun fully awakened. The grasses grew less high, and the Tall Spears appeared less frequently, as if shirking away from the mountains. The Wakar range appeared as a long, jagged line like a cracked and notched knife blade sitting above the horizon. Even at a distance, he knew instinctively they were the tallest mountains he’d ever seen.

Thus began the ascent into the foothills, narrow, steep mountains in their own right that lay at the feet of the mighty Wakar like clawed toes. The horses labored hard, often only able to proceed at a walk. In some spots, they were forced to dismount and hike in a single file line on foot, while leading their mounts.

Once they crested the narrow, jagged foothills, they found another plateau scattered with chunks of rock. The landscape looked like some titan had chucked the boulders down from the mountain tops. Now that they’d drawn closer, the peaks were so high that Kellen had to crane his neck backward and squint into the heavens to see their snow-crowned summits.

To Kellen’s naked eye, the mountains looked like an impassable series of sheer cliffs. But both Tama and Nokom insisted there were trails scattered all throughout. Of course, if they didn’t follow Ubira close enough, finding him would be the ultimate needle in a haystack.

At these new heights, the aspens rattled in a slight morning breeze, leaves quaking as if they shivered in the morning cold. Splashes of yellow and orange were scattered among the green leaves. It wouldn’t be long before they blazed with their autumn mantle. High on the sheer rock above them, pine trees jutted out from the side of the cliff face, sometimes almost perpendicular as their roots waged war against gravity to reach for the life-giving sunlight.

As the mountain loomed ever higher

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