A figure emerged from the ruined skeletal remains of a highway sign. A woman that is lean and tall, with weathered skin and eyes like flint was the one who appeared. Her dark hair was braided with leather cords, and a patchwork cloak covered her scavenged armor.
A hawk-beast perched at her side, its feathers were gleaming like folded steel and its amber eyes were burning with unnatural clarity looking directly at Kelvin.
Kelvin rose slowly to keep moving while he kept his spear low. "I'm just passing through," he said, hiding the pain in his voice. "I am not here for trouble."
The woman, whom he would later learn that her name was Mara made an explosive sound and looked at the crude bandage on his thigh and said, "Trouble follows you, boy, those wounds are not the wounds of a clean getaway."
The hawk-beast shrieked, and Kelvin felt it deep in his bones. The creature's gaze locked onto his sleeve at the sigil beneath the sleeve. He didn't dare look down.
"She senses me," the Xerion murmured but Kelvin ignored the voice. "I had found nothing but just a dead bunker and a collapsed ceiling."
"Liar," Mara said, her voice was low but with certainty. "That place stirred up the wastes like a wounded Rift, something old woke up down there, and you walked away with more than a limp."
Before Kelvin could respond, a strange sound filled the air, a high-pitched voice like a chorus of grinding blades. The ground beneath him trembled, although he knew that sound within him. "Down!" he shouted, diving as the earth cracked open in lines that are not consistent.
From the split earth, came a swarm of Rift-spawned locusts, each of them are of the size of a grown man's fist, their wings were vibrating with violet energy.
Their mandibles were clacked and an acid dripped from their barbed limbs. A cloud of them surged toward the ruins, drawn by Rift residue like moths to a flame.
Mara moved away without hesitation.
"Krynn, strike!" she commanded, and the hawk-beast launched into the air like a bullet with its wings slicing through the swarm, his talons were preventing the insects from flying.
Acid fessed as it splattered on rock and metals that were around. The beast twisted and turned with mysterious precision but only the beast is not enough to stop the movement of the locust, runes along its feathers were glowing faintly.
Kelvin had to brace up, he held his spear and swung it in wide arcs, the insects splintered, but more of them came out and immediately one landed on his shoulder and burned through his shirt. He screamed, stabbing it with his knife, then kicked another away, its wings shattering as it hit the truck.
The sigil flared as flame licked up through his arm as Xerion stirred, uncoiling himself.
"Unleash me," the End-Tyrant's voice thundered.
Kelvin ignored the voice, he rasped his teeth and fought to control the surge, he was not ready to respond to Xerion. The last time he had lost control and nearly wasted his life.
Mara was a blur of movement, her blade moved through the swarm with a dancer's grace, slashing insects from the air. Krynn shrieked again and summoned a gust of Rift-infused wind.
The shockwave hit the swarm like a tidal force, destroying dozens of insects and sending the rest of them scattered. Kelvin tried to dodge as the wave passed over him, his chest was beating so fast. His arm was been wounded by insects but he was still alive.
The swarm began to retreat, burrowing back into the earth and there was silence all over the place again which was broken only by the hum of Krynn's wings as she returned to Mara's side.
Mara said to Kelvin "You fight like someone used to running," having watched you closely.
Kelvin lowered his spear as he responded to Mara's comment. "Running kept me alive." Mara said to him "you cannot run for long." She stepped forward and pointed at his sleeve. "That sigil's is leaking through and you can't hide it forever."
Kelvin pulled his sleeve down immediately, but it was too late. "Don't lie to a tamer," Mara said.
"That is not a scavenger's mark. It is a beast sigil and not a small one at that. Guilds will hunt you. Iron Claw and resilient heart. They will all raze towns to get to something like that."
Kelvin's lips parted. The truth slipped out before he could stop it. "I didn't ask for it. It just... happened."
Mara's expression shifted. "It is not pity you need but understanding. "Nothing just happens in the wastes and there is a law to this world: Tame, or be Torn Apart. You're tied to something old, something dangerous. That sigil screams apocalypse."
Krynn tilted her head and emitted a low whine, like even the hawk-beast could feel Xerion's weight.
Mara continued, "You don't get to be afraid anymore, you are marked and that means power. If you don't master it, it will definitely devour you."
"What do I do?" he asked Mara.
Mara replied. "Survive and learn fast because out here, nobody waits for you to catch up." She turned, Krynn fluttering back onto her shoulder. "Head to Dusthaven's west in four days if your leg can hold you and keep your head low. If guild eyes catch wind of what you carry, there won't be a wasteland wide enough to hide you."
Kelvin nodded in agreement, the pain in his leg is now a weight beneath his chest. The wastes had changed. He wasn't a scavenger anymore, he was something more and the world was watching.