Chapter 231: At A Distance (bonus)

"That thing in the swamp is not going to stay there forever. I noticed it moving."

[Don’t lie, Host!]

’Shut up!’

[You shut up!]

[(っ’-’)╮=?????)`-’ )]

Tera ignored the system. She had no choice. She had to mix in some lies with the truth.

Even if that thing already moved, it could easily cross long distances within a short time.

"It would not be long until that thing meets us. And it isn’t just that. I care about you all. Not only for today, but also for the future. It matters to me what happens in the next year, and the one after that. I refuse to build a home for our clan when a disaster can happen at any moment. An even stronger flood can happen, and it is only a matter of time before bad things happen."

Ermin looked up. His expression hadn’t softened, but something behind his eyes had shifted.

"And beyond that—" Tera paused. The next words formed in her mouth before she had fully thought them through. "I want to do more than just survive here. I really want to help not just our clan, but other beasts and other territories. There are beasts out there struggling, and with the things I can do, it feels unfair not doing everything I can to help."

She paused, feeling a prickle of surprise at herself. She had expected to frame this in terms of necessity. After all, a very big motivator was the system task. However, it felt strange for Tera to realise that deep down, it had become personal.

This was something she truly wanted to do.

And aside from that, she wanted to see this world, and everything it had to offer.

She never got to travel a lot and go on all the vacations she had wanted to back on Earth.

Was she going to put that aside here too?

It was a strange feeling, realising that the thing driving her wasn’t obligation but genuine desire.

Ermin and Xavi were watching her with expressions that had shifted from frustration to something quieter. They looked more uncertain. They could hear the sincerity in her voice, but they still did not like this at all.

"We will go with you," Xavi said after a long pause. "The pack and clan and fight together."

"You can’t! You saw what that thing does, Xavi. Its whole body is acidic!"

"What does that mean? The burning?"

"Yes, it will burn your skin. You couldn’t even touch it to bury a part of its body back then. It secretes poison. You cannot bite it or use your claws, so how will you kill it? I don’t want anything to happen to any of you!"

[This system would like to suggest that Host could train her clan members in ranged combat techniques]

[Spear throwing, for instance, would allow—]

’No.’

[Host—]

’There isn’t enough time, and I’m not sending them into a fight they’re not ready for. Drop it.’

[(?•_•)]

"I can do this." Tera looked between her two mates. "Trust me. You have seen what I can do, and what I have done so far."

As if to explain and make it obvious the most useful thing she had, she opened the portal inside the shelter, startling them. Tera gently nudged Althea off her, and Xavi was already alarmed, getting up to stop Tera.

She had never opened two portals in one place before, but they simply didn’t understand the concept of how it fully worked, so they went stiff when Tera rolled into one and came out through the second one in that same room.

They looked very confused.

"Why—why are there two?"

She huffed. "When I open one here to go to the wolf pack, another one opens in that wolf pack. I never only open one."

’Unless I am cutting something.’

Tera further explained what she intended to do, enough for them to understand that she wasn’t walking in blind. That she had a way to attack from a distance without ever touching the beast, and that she had a way to escape if things went wrong.

She had spent weeks going through this and had accounted for every scenario she could imagine.

"What happened last time was because I wasn’t prepared. I didn’t know what I could do, but it’s different now."

The shelter was quiet.

Althea shifted on the floor, mumbling something in her sleep before settling again.

Xavi stared at the ground for a long time. Ermin stared at Tera.

"We’re coming with you," he said.

It was the first thing he had said since entering the shelter, and his voice left no room for negotiation.

Tera’s eyes widened. "Absolutely not—"

"Tera." Xavi’s voice cut through hers. Gentle, but firm. "Please, stop."

She looked at him.

"The way you are worried about us right now," he said slowly, "is the same way we are worried about you. Do you understand that? You are asking us to sit here and wait while you walk toward something that could kill you. You are asking us to trust that you will come back. And you cannot even see that you are asking us to do the exact thing you refuse to do yourself."

Tera opened her mouth before closing it.

He was right.

She hated that he was right.

The stubbornness drained out of her slowly, replaced by something heavier and sadder. She looked at her mates, then her cub, and felt the weight of what she was putting them through settle into her chest like a stone.

"Fine," she said quietly. "You can come."

Both of them straightened.

"But with an exception."

- ※ - ※ - ※ -

Tera leaned against one of the bamboo stakes she had driven into the dry ground, standing in the midst of the handwork she had done from a distance.

The swamp sat in front of her farther away, but she paused and stared back at the distant trees.

She could see her clan members and a number of wolves, their dark shapes perched in the branches and crouched behind trunks, trying and failing to be inconspicuous.

They were supposed to be far away.

The agreement had been for them to be far away so that she wouldn’t be able to see them unless she strained her eyes, but they were not that far away.

Tera’s eye twitched.

[This system calculates the current position of Host’s clan members at approximately four hundred metres]

She shook her head. ’I don’t like that. I really don’t.’

She had felt really sorry for Calis. He had been the most confused and distraught by the decision that had been made without his involvement.

Tera sighed. She was going to spend the following weeks placating them when she got out of this.

Before, she had been so confident about this. But now that the people she cared about were here, she felt a little bit of fear.

Nothing must happen.

Tera exhaled and turned back to face the swamp ahead.

For some reason, the air smelled nastier than before. The water was dark and still at the edges, but further in she could see the faint shimmer of movement beneath the surface.

It was there.

’Here we go.’

She needed to end things quickly, and she would.