Fiction - From the Dungeon

[Cerulean_Wings]

Here's an update, in which a new character is introduced. This is not the Chekov's gun you're looking for, move along



---

“Rise, Lifegiver Cassandra,” the Harbinger of Light said to the woman kneeling in front of him. She was dressed in the customary sky-blue robes of her order, decorated with silver runes on the seams, and a large symbol drawn on the back and the front.

She followed his command, and stood straight, hands clasped in front of her. Her long fiery hair was brushed elegantly and kept mostly hidden beneath the hood of her robe, and her azure eyes sparkled against the light of the temple’s braziers around her. Her face betrayed no emotion.

“I have decided with the other Harbingers that to atone for your heresy against the Goddess Eleynu, you must travel the world and offer your help to those in need,” the Harbinger said, his voice firm. “Only after twenty years of journeying will you be allowed to return to this sacred temple, and be forgiven for your sin.” Four other Harbingers stood behind him, dressed in robes identical to Cassandra’s, except of golden color, observing her in silence.

Cassandra stood, unmoving, listening to the high priest’s words like a statue. Only when the Harbinger finished by saying, “As part of your exile, you will be shunned from all temples. The will of Eleynu be done, Lifegiver Cassandra.”

“Her will be done,” Cassandra and everyone else in the room echoed with a bow. She turned around, facing the line of other Lifegivers present. They had all known her very well for many years, and they were all doing their best to hide their emotions behind a stony façade, but their efforts paled to Cassandra‘s. One Lifegiver, a young woman of age close to Cassandra’s, had misty eyes, and was trying not to blink.

Cassandra walked past them without a word, and once she left silence filled the temple. “Harbinger,” the teary eyed Lifegiver asked hesitantly, looking back to the exit and then to the Harbinger of Light. He nodded quickly, and she made a quick gesture of thanks as she dashed outside into the night.

“We are adjourned,” the Harbinger of Light declared, and everyone present went back to their duties, with a significant but subtle weight on their movements.

Cassandra walked outside the temple grounds, seemingly aimless, illuminated by nothing more than the torches spread evenly on the temple’s walls. Her steps made little sound on the stone paths she walked on, and there were very few people outside besides her. She had made her way to a beautiful ivory fountain, which had a statue of the Goddess in the center with her hands reaching for the sky, when a voice called her name from behind.

“Abigail,” Cassandra responded simply, sitting by the fountain. The Lifegiver turned her run into a walk gradually as she approached, and stopped right in front of Cassandra. The tears were falling freely down her cheeks now.

“Oh, Cass, why is this happening?” Abigail said, looking at her feet, fists clenched. “It’s not fair - you were just trying to do the right thing!”

Cassandra looked at her with empty eyes. “It matters not what’s fair or unfair, Abigail. Only the Goddess’ will matters,” she said, as if it should make everything crystal clear and simple. Abigail stared at her friend in disbelief.

“How-how can you say that, Cass? After all you’ve done for the temple and so many people, you-” Abigail said, her voice lowering to almost a whisper. “It’s not your fault. It can’t be. The Harbinger wouldn’t listen to me when I tried to explain things, but I’ll keep trying, just you wait,” she said in a firmer tone, nodding to herself. “Just you wait, Cass, I’ll make him reconsider this exile, and then you won’t have to leave.”

Cassandra’s answer came after a long wait, her gaze focused on the heavens above. “Don’t. Please, Abi, just let it be,” she said. Abigail sighed and took a seat next to her. “Her will be done. You can’t change what has already been decided. No one can. This is my punishment, and I will follow it accordingly.”

Abigail only listened and rested her head on Cassandra’s shoulder, sobbing quietly. Cassandra placed a hand on her friend’s head absently, staring at nothing in particular in front of her. Time passed uneventfully, and soon the only witnesses to their words were the shining stars.

“I don’t want you to leave for such a long time. I might not even be here after you return,” Abigail said softly. Cassandra sighed, “The world is a dangerous place outside the walls of this abbey, Abi. There are no guarantees - the Goddess may be merciful, but she can’t protect everyone all the time.”

Abigail’s hand gripped her robes fiercely, “I wish I could be as courageous as you, Cass,” she said.

“I’m not,” Cassandra thought but didn’t say. Instead, she whispered, “You’ll be alright. I know it might sound selfish, but Abi…” she said, her words trailing off. Abigail lifted her head from her shoulder and looked at her expectantly.

“Wait for me. If there’s at least one person here that wants be back, I think I can make it here after my exile is over.” Cassandra looked back at Abigail’s eyes, waiting for an answer.

Abigail gave her one in the form of a tight hug, and nothing needed to be said. With the heavens as their sole witness, they made a wordless promise.

---

The cabin was inhabited, that much I could guess. My concern was who exactly lived in there - friend or foe? I’m not afraid of any human, but if the owner was strong enough, he could flee to other humans and give me away. And I didn’t want that. So I sneaked as best as I could to the cabin, and made it to one wall with a window seemingly undetected. Pressing my ear against it I tried to listen for signs of life, and heard none. Hm. That didn’t mean there wasn’t anyone in there. I slowly raised my head to peer through the window, and managed to look inside the cabin.

It was pretty barren, filled with basic furniture, like a table, chairs, and a bed, all dirty looking. For that matter, the place was unkempt, which made me hope that it was abandoned. But one look at the simple hearth that was against a wall showed me that someone had used it recently - fires don’t start on their own inside cabins. There were all sorts of ragged and old clothes lying around the place as well, and I was about to make my way to the door when one of the clothes moved.

I blinked. It wasn’t just a cloth - an old man was wearing it, and he came under a pile of sheets, getting up from the ground slowly; I guessed he had fallen down by accident. I watched him move around the room with familiarity, coughing every now and then, his back slightly bent, trying to tidy things up a bit. He missed out several big spots even I could notice, so his efforts didn’t do much.

I was tired of just watching, and decided to push for a first encounter. So I walked to the rickety wooden door (which wasn’t quite as tall as me), and knocked as gently as I could. The old man’s voice replied after a moment, “Who is this?” in between coughs, and I heard his steps nearing the door. I tensed as he opened it and poked his head out first, glancing around, seeing nothing but me.

He had thin hair the color of snow covering most of his head like a skinny mane, his face wrinkled all over. What really caught my attention were his eyes: they were almost completely white. The old man was blind. How ironic that his curse was my blessing.

“Eh? Who is this, now?” he asked me, somehow looking at where my head was, three feet over him. I cleared my throat and told him my name. Twice. He didn’t have good ears, either. “Aghemer, eh? I’m Dan. Old man Dan, that’s how everyone ‘round this parts knows me. But you can call me Dan,” he said. His face twisted in confusion, and rubbed at his chin as he stared at my face. “What brings a big fella’ like you to my house?”

I shrugged and looked away from his scrutinizing gaze - his white eyes somewhat disturbed me. “Eye… loook fforr hoouuussse tooo rressst,” I explained at length, struggling to find the right words and making sense with them. He nodded after a moment, and I think he got the message right, because he responded with, “I don’t think I’ve enough space for ye here, Aghemer, but what the hell, if ye don’t mind crouching all the time, I don’t mind it either.” He jerked a skinny thumb over his shoulder and nodded, “Come right in, come right in.”

I was starting to believe that excessive naiveté was a cultural trait around this region, or I had been lucky enough to find all these senseless humans. I followed Dan inside, crouching to reduce my height by half, and then I had some breathing room between my head and the wooden ceiling. Dan moved around the cabin without a problem despite his blindness, that’s how familiar he was with the place. He must have lived here for a decade or more.

Dan gestured to the ground between a wall and his bed and started to drag sheets and clothes to that area. “Here, ye will be sleepin’ here, next to me. I hope ye don’t mind snorin’ at night; I’m like a stone rollin’ down a mountain, when I snore. Or at least that’s what my wife used to say, bless her soul,” he said without waiting for me to agree or disagree, which was just as well for the sake of my use of the human tongue.

“I’m goin’ off to get some food, now. Ye must be hungry, I’m bettin’. Don’t ye worry, I’m good at settin’ traps for animals to fall in. Ye just relax here, and I‘ll return soon enough.”

And with that he was gone. Good riddance, he talked too much. I lay down on the improvised bed on the ground next to his actual one, and it wasn’t too bad. I placed my sack nearby within easy reach, and relaxed. The hearth was still burning, and the sound of the small fire helped me relax. I didn’t fall asleep completely, for I hadn’t spent all that much energy, even with running away from the peasants and crossing that cursed river, but I managed to lay there in a state of nothingness.

The wooden door opened, and I jumped up in surprise. That was a mistake, for my head hit the ceiling, cracking a small section open. Dan came in frowning, with a basket of fruits and food under his arm. “Hey now, what are ye up to? Was that my roof breaking?” he asked a bit annoyed. I crouched down, looked at the damage, and shook my head. Dan stared at me inquisitively for an eternity, and then he shrugged.

“Must have been my imagination, then.” He placed down the basked on the table, making it shake a bit on unsteady legs, and sat down to eat. “Are ye gonna come and eat or what?”

I crawled next to him and made sure not to bump against anything else in my way. Then I looked outside the window: judging by the amount of light, night was approaching. How long had I rested for? I pushed the thought from my mind afterward and started eating what Dan brought. The surface fruits looked weird, but they were pretty tasty. Same for the animal meat he brought, which was something I hadn’t tried yet. He didn’t eat much, only one fruit, and not because I had practically swallowed whole half the basket under a minute. And even then I wasn’t full.

“Better, eh? Don’t worry about me, I barely eat nowadays. Now, if ye’ll excuse me, I’m gonna go to bed. Old man has to sleep early,” Dan said, and then did just that. I didn’t want to disturb him, so I went back to my improvised floor bed, and lay down. Dan’s comment about his snoring proved to be true, but I didn’t care. Minutes went by, and I stared at the ceiling, thinking of what I would do now that I had a temporary home. Eventually my thoughts started to come by slower and slower, and I felt myself drifting asleep once more. Just as well; I had nothing more to do.

As I slipped into the oblivion of sleep, I idly wondered where the old man had gotten the basket from.

 

[Cerulean_Wings]

Here's an update, in which things complicate even more for our poor Aghemer. I'll admit that combat scenes aren't my strength, but I believe that the more I write 'em, the better I'll get with them. Please bear with me here...

---

Dan stopped faking his snores after a while and stayed quiet long enough to make sure the monster lay still. He hadn't been able to get enough poison from his buddy close to town, but apparently it was enough to make the big guy next to him pass out. For how long, only the Goddess knew, and Dan wasn't going to risk it, no sir, and he made it outside his cabin without making too much noise. It was midnight, but it made no difference to the blind man. He found his way just fine like he had done so in the past countless times, and reached the meeting place, a small clearing in the forest.

Six men armoured in studded leathers waited there, all strong and skilled in the use of the weapons they carried, blades of all kinds. One of them was taller than the rest, almost seven feet, and wore a distinctive helmet with two horns on top, along with a large two-handed morning star on his back.

They all shared one thing in common: red tattoos all over their skin, especially their faces, giving them a savage look.

"It was about damned time, Danny," one of the men said dryly, leaning against a tree, arms folded. "We were told to meet you here at midnight, and there you go making us wait. Us Blood Wolves don't like waiting, Danny, funny you'd forget that." The others shook their heads and "tsk"ed in feigned disappointment. They were all in their thirties, save for the tall one, who had an extra decade. Old man Dan's hands shook a bit, and he clasped them together.

"I-I needed to make sure it was asleep!" he protested lamely. "It would've killed me if it had noticed me leaving - I don't think it's that dumb."

"Neither are we, old man," the warrior with the horned helm spoke. "We're not gonna charge you a penny for this deal if the monster we heard about just happens to be sleeping in your home - we can probably sell the thing's corpse for enough money to retire early. But if it turns out you lied to us, or even worse, that the monster is ready to fight..." he said, letting the threat hang in the air. The other five gave deadly glances at the old man. Dan shivered, recalling stories of people who had crossed the Blood Wolves.

He raised his palms in an attempt to calm them. "No! No-no-no, nothing of the such will happen, I swear to you! The creature - whatever it is - should still be sleeping soundly with the poison I put in the food. If your band goes now, he'll be done for."

The Blood Wolves shared looks that revealed little of what they were thinking, and then five heads turned in unison to face their leader. He looked at his men in the eye, one by one, and then punched his open palm in front of him. "Let us hunt," he said, like he had always done before a fight.

---

The very first thing I did when I awoke was throw up, right on Dan‘s bed. I wanted to blame the food I had eaten, or possibly my stomach, which was unused to it, but my instincts told me otherwise. Old man Dan had given me a lot of food in a basket that he hadn’t had before, and barely ate any himself. And after a quick glance around the cabin, I could see no trace of him.

“Bastard,” I swore under my breath, wiping my mouth clean of vile, and stood up in a crouch. Or at least I tried, for a wave if nausea hit me hard and I almost fell on my behind. The cabin wasn’t quite spinning, but my vision blurred a bit. I could see from the window it was completely dark outside, so some hours had gone by. Since I had been poisoned (again, in less than a week), I could safely assume Dan would be back with reinforcements. Whether they would be enough to threaten me or not was besides the point - I didn’t need more battles.

The decision to flee from before things got any worse was taken from my hands when I heard the distinctive footsteps of four to seven humans coming towards the cabin.

Well. I wasn’t going to just run again; the more witnesses I left alive, the more chances I could be found again, or to have others alerted of my presence. The last thing I wanted right there and then was a bounty on my head. Hm. I wonder how much a big city would offer for someone like-damn it, I need to focus. There was little time, and if I wanted to pull off a counter-attack, I needed to think fast.

I looked around the room for ideas, and when my eyes found my sack, I smiled.

---

“Darius and Vikke, you two head inside,” the Blood Wolves’ leader said in a low voice without ceremony, and the mercenary pair did so without question. They were all positioned right outside the cabin without a single source of light - they didn’t need one, after all.

As the pair prepared to enter by the door, the rest of the band readied their weapons and entered battle stances. The burly Alpha Blood Wolf swung his heavy morning star around to warm up his muscles, the weapon’s head moving too fast for something that heavy.

After Darius had listened carefully against the door, and heard only deep breathing, he signalled to Vikke, who opened the door slowly and snuck a glance inside. The place looked fine, except for the thing covered in several sheets on the floor, next to the old man’s bed. There was also some foul-smelling stuff on the bed, but they didn’t care too much about it. The monster wasn’t moving, and that was good enough. Vikke made a hand gesture to the leader to indicate all was well, and he nodded for them to proceed.

The two men readied their axes to strike the creature down in one swift attack, and stepped closer and closer in complete silence, stalking their prey like their namesake. Once they got close enough, both men raised their axes and made them descend in unison over the creature’s head, splitting it nearly in half.

Or at least that’s what they had intended to do, for the creature had different plans.

---

I rose with a mighty roar that shook the cabin momentarily, swinging my fist at both warriors from right to left. To their credit, they jumped back in the nick of time, despite looking completely shocked at my sudden attack. I would be shocked by my reaction, too, if I hadn’t taken one of the antitoxins I brought with me, courtesy of Enizu. Only one more in my sack, now.

“It’s fighting back!” one of them shouted, and the other swung at me horizontally with the axe to cut at my ribcage. I sidestepped, nearly crashing against the wall on my right, only to notice that it had been a feint that allowed the pair to flee the cabin. So these men knew how to fight… this pleased me greatly. If I was going to fight, at least it would be a challenge. I heard faint sounds of multiple feet moving outside the cabin, and then nothing. I flexed my muscles, cracked my neck a couple of times, and headed outside, actually bothering to use the door.

The night was fresh and cool, the perfect weather for a fight. Much to my surprise, there wasn’t a single fire outside. Not that it bothered me and my darkvision, but it made me reconsider my earlier assessment of these human warriors; were they going to fight blindly? I had expected them to be in a semicircle right outside the door, and attack me all at once, but there wasn’t anyone in sight. Maybe they thought better of attacking a very much alive Aghemer, and fled.

I was quite surprised when a considerable weight fell on my shoulders from behind and nearly made me go down. The human’s arms went for my neck, attempting to strangle me, and partially succeeded. I tried shaking my body in quick, jerking movements, but he wasn’t letting go. So I reached for his skinny human arms with my own hands to throw him off. That’s when he let go of my neck and two of his companions rushed me from either side, weapons drawn and ready. Where the hell they had come from, I wasn’t sure. They were both fast and stealthy, something that I hadn’t expected humans to be able to master so well. It wasn’t anything on the level of Irmella or her followers, not by a mile, but it had caught me off-guard, and I was going to pay for it.

The flanking duo attacked me with practiced coordination, and I had to choose which of them would hit me - I couldn’t avoid both. I sidestepped while facing one, and the other’s blade bit into my back. It wasn’t a deep cut, thanks to my hide, but they could wound me. The third warrior, the one who had jumped on me, slashed at my leg, leaving a long and thin wound that made me grit my teeth. I was surrounded by a trio of experienced fighters, and there were more out there, waiting for their turn. I needed to change things, and quickly. The three surrounding me started moving sideways, circling me to find the best way to attack. So I leaped forward to the nearest one and broke into a run, turning my body to the side. The man didn’t see the bull-rush coming, and he went flying six feet horizontally before landing on the ground. My leg hurt from the movement, but I could manage.

“We need all of us!” one of the warriors cried out, not in fear, but in understanding. Nothing cowardly about realizing one is at a disadvantage, in my book. From the dark forest, two more figures appeared, armed similarly to the three I was fighting. Five, in total. This was going to be bad for them in the short term, bad for me in the long term. I couldn’t let them surround me again - I rushed to the nearest tree, gave it a hug, and lifted like I had never lifted before.

Uprooting a mature tree turned out to be harder than I had expected, but I managed to do it before the humans got close enough. Oh, the look on their faces, when they realized I was about to swing at them with more than ten feet of solid wood. It wasn’t the easiest thing to aim, but I didn’t need to; with one horizontal attack I knocked down two of them, and when the rest rushed me, thinking me unprotected, I swung back the other way, faster than they had expected, and smashed into the remaining trio.

What can I say, I’ve the strength of my mother and father.

The humans were down for the moment, hopefully more hurt than stunned, and all I could hear were groans of pain and curses thrown in my direction. I couldn’t really do the tree-swing trick all night, so I let my trusted weapon fall to the ground with a mighty thump. Time wasn’t on my side - if I let them recuperate from the attack, I would be back where I started. A short run took to me the nearest human, who was still prone, clutching his torso with both hands, breathing with great difficulty. His eyes went wide when he saw my foot descending on his face.

One down. There was another man nearby, getting to his feet. He wasn’t in fighting condition, I could tell after piercing his neck with my claw when I walked by. Three to go. One bastard came at me from a bush, hidden until that very moment, and managed to land his sword on my shoulder. That actually hurt, so I snatched his arm and flung him against a tree next to me, his yelling ending on the collision. There were two more humans out there, probably considering whether to fight or flee. I needed to find them quickly before they went for the latter and complicated my life any more.

“Die, monster!”

The war cry came from two opposite sides as the remaining warriors charged me. They looked better than the others, despite the hit they took from the tree, and well enough to give a good fight. And a good fight they gave me: a minute later they were both on the ground, one with his chest crushed, the other with his neck snapped. In exchange, my body sported five more cuts, each deep enough to slowly bleed. It wouldn’t be lethal if I found a place to rest and took care of them, so I went back to the cabin, satisfied by the night battle.

In front of the cabin was a man much bigger than the rest, wearing a horned helmet that set him apart. He carried a heavy morning star on one hand, the head resting atop his shoulder. On the other he had my sack. "Looking for this?" he asked, his voice surprisingly not condescending, but casual. I nodded slowly after a moment, and he dropped it two feet to his left. The man had the look of a seasoned veteran, someone who had fought for years, if not decades, and thrived in the field of battle. I respected that.

"You killed my men," he said, his voice even. I nodded once more. His eyes were analyzing me from foot to head, considering the extent of my wounds, my energy, and my combat prowess. "You don't seem as... hostile as other creatures I've slain in the past," he said, almost to himself. I shrugged - what was there for me to say? The veteran let his weapon’s head fall to the ground while holding on to the shaft.

"If taking your head back to the city wasn't worth a house and a half, I'd let you go. But it is. So now I need to finish what my men started. This is survival, I'm sure you can understand that."

I did. It was his survival versus mine. Only the stronger would make it, and the loser would become carrion food. No regrets for either. I really liked this human, but unfortunately it wasn't meant to be. He gripped his mace with both hands and entered a battle stance. "I'm Ulunay, the Alpha of the Blood Wolves."

"Aghemer," I said simply as I spread my legs wider and lowered my waist, hands to the sides. We stared at each other for ten seconds, and then we charged at exactly the same time. Ulunay swung his morning star as I threw a straight punch. My chest exploded with pain when the spiked head hit me with a sickening crunch, and my fist twisted his head to the right when it hit its side. There was a one-second pause for us to assess our respective injuries; one of his eyes was swollen shut, and his jaw didn't seem to be in place anymore. As for me, breathing became a conscious and very much painful affair - blunt weapons don't care a lot for my tough hide, and the bones inside caved in to the pressure.

And then we were at it again. Ulunay swung first, I blocked the attack with my arm, and countered with my other one to punch his stomach. He twisted his body so that I merely clipped his ribs, and spun in a tight circle, bringing the heavy morning star along with frightening speed. I reacted too slowly, and the weapon got me squarely in the shoulder, nearly dislocating it. I threw another punch at his face using my good arm, this time very sluggishly, which he dodged easily, and came at me once more with the morning star in a horizontal swing to my ribcage.

Ulunay had fallen for my feint. I changed my hand’s trajectory and gripped one of his arms, stopping his attack, and allowing me to step forward and head butt him on the face. He grunted, sounding distant, and stumbled back several steps. Good grief, this human was tough. Most beings I assaulted like that had their skulls break instantly. I stood my ground, observing Ulunay's unsteady movements; he seemed on the verge of collapse, but showed no interest in doing so. His one good eye told me the message his mouth wasn't able to give:

"It's not over, Aghemer."

This was it, the final round. I had one arm to end the battle with, and Ulunay had his face nearly crushed. We charged again, as if our injuries had been passing dreams, small pittances that bared no paying attention to, and exchanged blow after blow, grunting and growling like beasts. And as quickly as it had started, it ended, and Ulunay collapsed to the ground, unable to push his body anymore. I limped over to him and knelt down to reach his neck with my mouth, and bit hard, ending his life.

I wasn't sure how to feel, having just killed the one human who understood me. Now I had to find a place where to rest, so that my injuries would mend. Ulunay had managed to injure my leg, and moving with only one is harder than you think, and I made it to my sack after half a minute, even though it was barely ten feet away. With my sack in hand, I considered my next move, and found it difficult to concentrate thanks to the pain in my whole body. The cabin was out of the question; too many corpses in the area, and that damned old man was still around. Sigh. If I didn't find him soon, he would tell even more mercenaries to come after me. I needed to hide, and moved slowly but surely away from the cabin, feeling less stable and conscious with every passing second.

In my daze I didn't notice the abrupt hill in front of me. I went down, hard, and landed at the bottom some twenty feet later. Damn it all, I couldn't get up with one good arm and leg. My breath escaped me, and I couldn't get it back. Darkness began to claim my vision, and sensation faded from my body.

I almost died that night. But when I think of everything that happened to me in the surface world since that day, I almost wish I had.

 

[Cerulean_Wings]

During my first days in the surface I had already experienced anger, betrayal, and battle. It made me rethink my decision to abandon my home; weren’t all those things the reasons that had pushed me out of the underground, from the warring factions and constant survival of the fittest?

But in the next days I found reason enough to stay above, if at least to give this world a chance. I think humans call it “compassion.” It’s an interesting concept that I wanted to observe.

By “interesting” I mean “bat- crazy,” really.

Chapter 3

I came to consciousness in a sudden, painful rush. I was aware of every single inch of my body, and it all hurt too much to keep me sane for long. It was as if my senses had expanded by ten times, for I could hear the sounds of far away things, smell every single leaf of grass beneath me, and taste an overwhelming amount of blood in my mouth.

I hadn’t opened my eyes, thankfully, so I only saw blackness. But everything else was there, too vivid, too powerful, and my whole self was in excruciating amounts of pain, a feeling that made me convulse in every direction, and flail my limbs in a frenzy.

And then it was all gone. My sensations returned to normal, and my pain just faded. I dared to open my eyes to try to find what had caused it. The night was over, but the sun wasn’t up yet, so it didn’t hurt to look. I was still at the bottom of the hill that I had fallen in, and with my back resting flat on the ground. Sitting next to me with her legs tucked underneath was a woman wearing cerulean robes with runes on the seams, and a strange symbol on the front. A leather belt went around her waist, sporting several pouches of different sizes, and I could see the straps of a backpack hanging from her shoulders. Her long hair reminded me of fire, and her eyes were the color of the grass.

“How do you feel?” she asked quietly, noticing me stir. I stared at her for a moment to make sure I wasn’t hallucinating - had this human helped me with my wounds, and had stayed next to me all night?

“Fine,” I said at length. She looked very tired, giving me the impression she hadn’t slept in order to watch over me. “I closed your wounds and annulled the pain, but my work isn’t complete. You should try to rest, lest they re-open,” she told me with the confidence of someone who had said those words hundreds of times.

Something was odd here. I just couldn’t tell what.

I could’ve asked her for a name. Where she came from. How she had found me. What she was doing in this place. For that matter, I could’ve asked what “this place” was. Or how she had healed me this quickly. But I asked, “Why?” instead.

The woman blinked, and tilted her head to one side. “Why, what?” she replied, frowning a bit. I took a breath - it didn’t hurt to do that anymore - and said, “Why did you heal me?”

Her look told me that I had asked for what should’ve been obvious. “I am a Lifegiver of Eleynu, a healer,” she said. “My duty is to help all those in need.”

It still made no sense to me. “But I am…” I started to say, and lacked the strength to say the word aloud. A monster. I didn’t see myself as one, but humans did. Were they right, or was it a matter of perspective? Or had I become one through my actions in the surface, in barely two days?

The woman shook her head, “It matters not who you are - Lifegivers don’t judge when it comes to healing the wounded. We must act as merciful and compassionate as Eleynu, who cares for all equally.”

For some ridiculous reason I felt like protesting against that: why had she healed the murderer of six men? I felt like I didn’t deserve to be helped by her. It made no sense, of course. It was as if my survival instincts had taken the day off and some madness overtook me. Healing meant that I had survived, so why couldn’t I accept it?

But I didn’t say anything, and stayed where I was, resting for the time being. The sky’s colors were changing from dark to light blue and green, and then to yellow; the sun was close to rising. “Who are you?” I asked at length.

“My name is Cassandra Dymun,” she replied simply, her tone unchanged from before. “I am Aghemer,” I said after a pause where I had expected her to inquire. She merely nodded. She was looking at me from above, something I hadn’t experienced in a while with neither humans or non-humans, and it made me uncomfortable. Or maybe it was her unchanging look. Either way, it forced me out of my resting position, and I raised my upper body with the help of my arms. It wasn’t as hard as I had expected, and nothing ached too much. Heck, my right arm was perfectly in place, all the bones and joints together, as it should be.

“How did you heal me?” I asked.

Something was nagging me, in the back of my head, but I wasn’t sure what it was.

“I opened your Gate and poured in part of my own energy to help speed up the process of restoring your wounds.”

She said it as if it should explain everything. It didn’t. It sounded like magic, though. Seeing my look of “And what the hell does that mean?” she nodded and went on to explain.

“Every living thing has a Gate inside of them, in a place you can’t see, but you could call the soul. The Gate is closed unless forced open by two things: magic, and death.”

Cassandra paused to assess if I was keeping up, and seeing understanding in my eyes, she continued. “With magic, one can open the Gate of another living creature in order to take or place energy. In order to heal, I transferred part of my Gate’s energy to strengthen yours, and make your injuries go away faster. This leaves the giver of life drained, especially if one performs the transference for long enough, like I have done for you, Aghemer.”

“You gave part of your life to me?” I asked, frowning. Cassandra nodded without hesitation. “Just like that? You don’t even know who I am, or what I’ve done.” She shrugged.

“I’ve said it before: Eleynu doesn’t judge, and us Lifegivers, her followers, do likewise,” Cassandra said.

Something she said before caught my attention. “When you open this… Gate, inside someone, does it change how they feel?” I asked, and she nodded. “Having the Gate opened heightens the senses.” That explained the sensory overload I had felt before.

And then I realized what had been bothering me. I had been speaking fluently with Cassandra all this time, not because my mastery of the human tongue had somehow improved overnight, but due to her knowledge of the underground tongue. I had no idea humans would know my language, and asked her about it.

“Lifegivers and other scholars often choose to study additional languages, since our trade sometimes demands that we travel abroad, like I’m doing,” she said. Looks like there are some smart humans around, after all, but I fear they may be in the minority.

I couldn’t think of anything else to say for the time being, and I sat there next to her, staring at the tree-covered horizon. The sun would come up and blind me any time now. Cassandra stared at me with the intensity of a curious child.

“Where are you from?”

The question got me by surprise. “I came from my home. An underground cave, a day of walk away from here,” I said.

“Why did you come to the surface?” she said.

Damn this woman and her questions. I shrugged, “To go around eating humans who ask too many things,” I lied casually, glancing at her sideways to measure her reaction: none whatsoever. Was she fearless, or simply too tired to show panic?

“I’ll leave you to it, Aghemer. Seeing that you’re alright, I will continue my journey,” Cassandra said warily, and got up slowly, and brushed her robes to clear the grass and dirt, then put on her hood. She hadn’t walked more than ten feet when I turned around with a suddenness that surprised me.

“Wait.”

Blast it. I didn’t mean for it to sound so desperate. I even had my hand stretched out in her direction. Cassandra stopped and looked over her shoulder, frowning.

“What is it?”

“Uh,” I began, rather stupidly. I played with the grass near me while I formulated the words, “I, ah, wish to go with you.”

Cassandra’s eyebrows went up. “Why?” she asked after a pause.

“I don’t know,” I said honestly. I really had no idea what the hell I was doing. She stared at me for the longest time, as if making sure I wasn’t joking. In the end she turned around and resumed her walk.

“You may tag along if you wish, as long as you don’t hurt anyone while in my presence.”

Music to my ears, for reasons I couldn’t explain even to myself. I got up in a jump, got hit by a spell of dizziness, shook it off, and stomped over to her side, falling into pace with her. I’ll be damned, but this was going to take a while if she walked that slowly.

We climbed up the hill that I had fallen down from, and I could see part of the trail of blood I left on the way. At the top was the battlefield from the previous night, along with some of the corpses of the Blood Wolves. Old man Dan was no where to be seen, the traitorous bastard.

Cassandra’s eyes regarded the scene before her like a butcher considers meat - without care. She approached one of the corpses, looked at it for a moment, and then walked away from the cabin, in a direction I hadn’t headed before.

“Did you fight with the Blood Wolves?” she asked as we walked.

I really felt like lying, right there and then, but I forced the truth out of my throat, “Yes. They were sent by an old human called Dan that lives in that cabin.”

Cassandra nodded, “You must be pretty strong, to defeat such an infamous mercenary band. They were known even in the abbey were I had lived for most of my life, and that’s miles away. Rumour had it that they could fight in the dark as well as in daylight” To our left, the sun finally poked it’s upper rim, and light began to flood on the forest. I did my best to avoid glancing that way.

“What about Dan?” she asked, and I looked at her in confusion. “Is he dead as well?” she clarified, sounding non-judging. I shook my head and told her about the last time I had seen him.

Cassandra began to ask me another question, but she fell down on her face, and stayed prone. I stared at her motionless body in disbelief, not knowing what to do. Could humans die from one moment to the next? Maybe it was a defect of being a Lifegiver. What if healing me had killed her? I hoped it was something else, because I really couldn’t endure living with-wait, I think I heard something.

Kneeling down, I was able to make out the groaning sound coming from her. Hm. I think she was saying my name. Yes, that was my name alright, I got it after the fourth time she made the sound. It was difficult to make out the word, what with her face on the ground. Then she made another sound… “Kelp?” I asked, confused.

She repeated the sound. It sounded like “kelp.” I wasn’t sure how that was relevant to anything, and told her so. Yet Cassandra repeated herself, her voice muffled by the dirt. I frowned, rubbing my chin.

“Do you mean ‘help’?”

There was a pause, and she said “Yes.” Oh. That made sense, in hindsight. She wanted help. I still had no idea what she meant by that.

“Help with what?” I asked, then had an idea, and grabbed her by the collar of the robe, lifting her up from the ground. “There,” I said, “now you can talk.”

She had the exact same blank expression as before, expect her eyes had a hint of, hm, was it being unimpressed? “I’m tired. Healing you has drained me more than I thought. Could you carry me for now until I regain my energy?” she asked. I blinked, and then cradled her in my arms. She was pretty light, and I figured I could manage fine for even a day of traveling.

Cassandra struggled weakly in my arms, making me stop moving and look at her. Her cheeks looked redder - must have been from the fall. “I… would prefer if you carry me on your back, Aghemer,” she said, looking away. I shrugged, and did as she instructed. In fact, I used my sack as a support for her body, so that she could hang from by back without clinging to my neck.

So I travelled in the direction she told me to go, across the vast hilly forest (which I still think would be better known as “hilly tree herd”), with Cassandra on my back. I looked over my shoulder occasionally to ensure she was still there.

“Aghemer,” Cassandra called after some time. I grunted in response. She said something that wasn’t in my language, but the human tongue, and asked her for a translation. It sounded like ’fehn-kee-ooo’, and I couldn’t recall Durzil ever teaching me that one.

“It means that I value what you’re doing for me,” she said. Huh. What a strange concept. For the sake of practicing the language, I repeated her words, slowly, “Thank you.”

“For what?” she asked, her voice faint and tired.

“For healing me. I will repay my debt to you, and after that move on.”

There. Now that our contract was clear, she understood how things worked. A favour for a favour. It didn’t sound like she got the idea, though.

“Aghemer… I healed you because it’s my role in life, you don’t owe me anything,” she said with what was left of her energy. I shrugged, “No. you help me, I help you.”

She started contradicting me again and I shot her a glare over my shoulder. “Shut your mouth and rest,” I said in a low growl. Her eyes widened and her mouth froze half-open, but then she closed it, and nodded. That got her quiet.

“I hate the sound of your voice when it’s tired - it annoys me,” I added less severely, and nothing else was said. I kept walking and on and on, until the sun had moved between the horizon and the top of the sky, meaning it was… close to noon. Cassandra had slept all the way, and I hadn’t stopped once, not even for food, hungry as I was. I had to finally make a halt, however, when I reached the forest’s end and I saw the stone wall ahead.

Cassandra stirred on my back and finally awoke, looking drowsy to say the least. “Where… are we?” she asked with a yawn, rubbing her face with one hand. She leaned over my shoulder and looked at the tall walls in front of us, frowning in concentration. “This is Gynth, the closest town. The Blood Wolves most likely came from here,” she said.

That complicated things. “Could the old man be here, too?” I asked.

“Yes. Him, and thousands more. Gynth is relatively small, but it still houses many people,” she said without looking away from the walls. “If you’re afraid of him spotting you, or there being a bounty for your head, then I should go inside first, and then we’ll see what we can do.”

“Was this city your destination?” I asked out of curiosity. Cassandra shrugged, and brushed a stray hair from her face.

“I have no particular goal in mind. My exile forces me to travel around, so I need to make stops at cities every now and then to rest and replenish my resources,” she said absently.

Exile? She’s been exiled? What are the chances. I’ve been exiled, too. Self-imposed, yes, but an exile nonetheless. Now we had something in common. Too bad it was a horrible conversation topic. Hm. Maybe she hated water as much as I did? Cassandra was saying something to me, and by the sound of it it sounded like it wasn’t the first time. I needed to focus.

“… so I will be back in an hour or two. Hopefully no one will find you out here,” she was saying, and I just nodded obediently, as if I had understood the whole message instead of the last bit. Cassandra nodded back and headed for the city’s gates, leaving me by myself.
I have to say, for the first time in my life, I felt terribly alone, despite always being by myself.

 

[Cerulean_Wings]

Dear readers, I'm currently in the process of starting a PbP 4e game that demands a lot of attention from me. I won't be able to update in the near future, but I should be able to do so later on, in a week or so.

Sorry for the delay. I'll do my best so that this story continues.