Kayel rubbed his head as he picked himself up off the floor. The floor was weird and rocky. Some sort of asteroid. Why was Kayel on an asteroid again? He wasn’t sure. But as he heard movement all around him, he quickly realised he wasn’t alone. Instinct made him grab his trusty dagger, but as his eyesight cleared, he remembered who the other people around him were. There were only three other people, and they were lying on the floor in a crumpled heap, the same way Kayel was.
“Ugh…” a hissed, female voice muttered as someone moved to Kayel’s side. “What… what just happened?”
Kayel shook his head, then sat up and tried to focus. There wasn’t much else around apart from Kayel and his team, but there had clearly been signs of some sort of conflict, and there was rubble and pieces of metal strewn around everywhere. About 20m away was their ship, but it didn’t look in great condition.
“No fucking idea, sis…” Kayel groaned as he tried to climb to his feet but failed. He felt wobbly and disorientated. “Did something attack us?”
Nyssi managed to stand herself up, but she was just as confused as Kayel was. Worryingly, Tenuk and Retvik both still seemed to be out cold.
“I mean, we came here to… kill something…”
“We were doing a Corruption purge. Just blasting off black goo…”
The conversation was interrupted by Retvik suddenly jolting upright, grabbing his nearby weapon and growling. It took a little too long for Retvik to realise he wasn’t in danger and settle down.
“We were attacked…” Retvik grunted, before spotting Tenuk. Nyssi managed to send Retvik a mental suggestion, telling him not to get too Defensive Stance-y, and that Tenuk was just asleep. Nonetheless, Retvik immediately got up and went over to check on his best friend.
Luckily, Tenuk was also quick to wake up. He’d sensed those familiar heavy footsteps and snapped back to consciousness.
“Oh, uh… what happened?” Tenuk exclaimed as he rubbed his eyes, then his head, then his side. He had a vague memory of something hurting him there, but there were no visible injuries, just a small amount of dried blood on his fur.
“Are you alright?” Retvik asked, looking concerned as he checked Tenuk over.
“Yeah, I feel… fine, I guess, just groggy. Like, I dunno what happened.”
“None of us do!” Nyssi shouted as she was also about to head over. Something distracted her though.
The mess all around them made no sense. While the pieces of metal strewn around did look like heavily burned shards of Voidborn armour, the way the ground had been disturbed suggested that two very large beings had been fighting. And one of them had clearly leaned on the side of the Thantir Three, as there was a big dent on its side.
“You seeing what I’m seeing?” Nyssi finally managed to speak properly.
“No?” Kayel shrugged as he got up and stood by Nyssi’s side. “Looks like a fight, I guess.”
“Do you remember a Voidborn attacking us?” Tenuk picked himself, then gave Retvik a small hug. “I vaguely recall us getting here and seeing a Voidborn that was trying to kill some Corruption but it was also infected or something. But I kinda… I don’t remember anything after it attacked us and knocked me and Retvik down.”
“I… just remember feeling angry…” Kayel admitted. “Like… a bubbly anger. A slowly boiling rage.”
Retvik blinked, then turned his attention to Kayel. “That sounds like going Defensive Stance. But I thought that was just a thing Rethans did?”
“I mean, theoretically, Skyans could do so as well?” Nyssi suggested. “I mean, your brains are wired similarly. But that doesn’t explain what happened here! Like, I know we confronted the Voidborn, but did it knock us out or something? Also, are you three hurt? Because I feel fine, just… mentally a bit wobbly. Confused, mostly…”
Nyssi trailed off, then looked down at the ground again, examining the dirt and how it had been disturbed. Footprints could somewhat be seen, but while one set of footprints looked like they belonged to the corrupted Voidborn they had initially confronted, but the other set of footprints were of a similar size. More confusingly though, they didn’t match any of the team’s footsteps at all.
“I am so confused…” Nyssi whispered, pointing at one clear footprint. “Like, that… that looks like a footprint… but… it’s not ours. None of us have footprints like that. Not even Tenuk if he shapeshifts into something big!”
“I mean, it looks kinda like a big Beh’evok footprint maybe?” Tenuk suggested.
“It has too many toes for a Beh’evok!” Nyssi exclaimed. “It has four! In a weird shape as well!”
“But… Beh’ens have four toes…” Kayel muttered. “Three on the front, one on the back, kinda the same way Rethans do.”
“This isn’t the same though! All four claw marks are the same size!” Nyssi glanced around some more. “Also, I don’t see where the footprints just… leave. There’s some near our ship but they… don’t go anywhere.”
“Maybe it wasn’t a Beh’en, but something similar?” Tenuk suggested. “I mean, those big elemental monster guys all have massive feet, and they’re about that big.”
“Still… it’s like they just… disappeared…”
Kayel, Retvik and Tenuk all glanced at each other. Eventually though, Kayel just shrugged.
“I think a random person saved us and just left. I mean, none of us were hurt, it probably saw our ship and the Voidborn, killed the Voidborn, made sure we were alive, then left when it realised we were fine.”
All off a sudden, a new ship touched down. It was a very small ship but a familiar one. Out of it stepped Vekeus, in his Voidborn form.
“Shit, are you four alright? No one’s been able to get in touch with you for two hours!” Vekeus exclaimed as he rushed over. However, he too paused and surveyed the area. “Huh. Looks like a Voidborn died here. And… smells like… someone else was here too, possibly a Life Goddess or something, but I don’t know who or what.
Tenuk dusted himself down. “We’re fine, but… we kinda don’t know what happened. Kayel thinks someone saved us, killed the Voidborn, stabilised us and left.”
“Maybe. Life Goddesses sometimes do that…” Vekeus grunted. “Anyway, let’s get you all checked over, get your ship fixed, then get you home. We’ll work out what happened later, making sure you four are safe is more important right now…”