I lost my carrier sometime amidst this week. Some of my notes just vanished and it took me few days to live through my loss. Sorry for late update. I never set any time frame for releases, but it surely took me awhile. Let me know if you find mistakes.
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“Wake up, brat.” I opened my eyes and saw Korhal right above me. The skies were still dark with pink stray near the horizon and the only source of light and warmth was fire beside me.
“Already? It’s like six in the morning.” My legs were sore from yesterday exercises.
“Yeah. Something came up. Say hi to our visitor.”
“Hello?” I rubbed my eyes and focused on figure that stood just outside the lighted area. “”I’m Akillah”
“What does a child do near the borders?” He asked ignoring my introduction.
“My student. I spotted that camp few days ago and wanted to…educate her, if you know what I mean.”
“You should have reported it first, master. We spotted the scout by pure chance. Had to pretend to not see him. Humans get more skilled in hiding year by year,” he grumbled, “thirty miles north, right between Malokan and Log outposts. You may make it if you move now. I shall carry my own orders, though.” He stood up and disappeared in woods without saying anything else.
“Who was that?” I didn’t see neither his face, nor outfit. Just a silhouette.
“Scout. Messenger. Whatever. You have ten minutes to stuff your belly and get ready. I shall give you a ride just this time.” He took our flasks, turned 180 degrees and went into woods just like scout before.
“As if I could run at all.” Now, when I was fully awake, I felt how sore my legs really were. I massaged them with one hand while finishing the rabbit with another. Soreness lessened a little but ache only grew stronger. I should have expected this much, It’s not like I was used to marathons, let alone my actual age.
Ten minutes later my few belongings were packed and stomach filled. I was in the middle of stretching when Korhal returned.
“Catch!” He threw me a bottle and a stone at the same time. Throwing small stones at me was sort of his hobby, or something. While avoiding a stone I barely managed to catch my flask.
“What’s this?” The liquid inside was thick and sweet like honey.
“Juice of kamela tree. Couldn’t find a stream nearby. Also take this,” he threw a belt with a knife to the ground near my legs, “Don’t cut yourself.”
“Why didn’t you give it to me yesterday. Butchering a rabbit with a sword wasn’t comfy, you know?”
“Its edge is covered in strong and painful paralytic poison. We would drop dead for a week if you were to use it while cooking. It’s for your training purposes. While using, or learning to use weapons, all kind of unfortunate accidents tend to happen. Your next mistake will be unforgettable, I can promise you that,” he winked at me, while smiling viciously.
“What now?” I tightened the belt around my waist and put my bag on. Poison didn’t scare me all that much, I just have to either be careful or not use it at all. “Will you be alright? Thirty miles is a long distance.”
“Ahah, you better care for yourself, little rascal.” He took a stone and demonstratively aimed at me with one eye closed. I jumped to the side when he let it lose, but instead of lending I was picked midair. He grabbed me by my newly acquired belt and dumped me on his shoulder like a sack of potatoes.
“You don’t think carin-”
“Oh, yes I do. Relax and don’t raise your head, unless you wanna kiss a trunk with the back of your head.” He bent his legs and fired like an arrow through the brushwood.
Four hours later.
“Oh no….I don’t feel so good.” I stood on my knees with my hands on the ground and tears in my eyes. That was hell of a ride, I say. Imagine a muscle car driving without shock absorbers through wilderness. I wish I saved rabbit for later, since the rest of it tried to get outside right now. While Korhal’s speed was nothing I ever experienced and made me rather excited at starts, the rest of my ride got ugly. Whenever there was no clear path on the ground he jumped on branches and used them as stepstones to propel us further. While it sounds cool, the actual force of such jumps messed me up to the point I would rather ride a cannonball. I’ve been on my knees for five minutes, but nausea was yet to dissappear. Also, my ass hurt from hitting all that small branches on such speed.
I rolled on my back and sipped a bit of kamela juice. Keeping in mind patience, I refused to ask Korhal to demonstrate his martial arts until the time comes. I mean, we weren’t even training for real yet, why rush? This ride, be it comfortable or not, gave me a glimpse on abilities of a branch holder. I bet he held back quite a bit, since he always keeps it manageable for me. Even with a stones. He threw them so that I would be able to dodge just barely. If he was to use his full force, he could probably kill me with a grain of sand. I smiled inwardly at the look of my own prospects. The thought of being able to move like that one day brought a good feeling to me.
“Done spacing out yet?” Korhal jumped from the tree he climbed right after ducking me.
“No”
“Don’t lie, your face isn’t green anymore. I found us perfect seats in the first row, better be going before someone takes them.”
“Ugh. I thought we….ahh, nevermind.” Little wobbly, I dragged my feet after him. After short walk we climbed a hill covered with high grass. A majestic view opened before me when I reached the top. Usually you have to climb a tree to see forest’s crowns, but not now.
“See the tight passage down the cliff? It’s was chiseled by a stream that forms during monsoon.” He showed me a twenty foot wide canyon not too far from us. “A good place to hide, but even better for an ambush. Humans got very confident if they have chosen to go through here. Or hasty. Going through jungles could take twice as much time. See those trees near the exit? Our guys are already there, hiding in the leaves.”
“How long until-”
“Soon,” he interrupted, “be quiet now.” We both hid in the grass.
I saw few brawls in the village, while making my way to Shanahan’s hut, but that was the worse act of aggression I ever witnessed in this world. Seeing a battle must be whole another thing. I wasn’t sure if I was going to like what I’m about to see, but the more I waited, the faster my heart bumped. After fifteen minutes Korhal raised his finger and pointed at far side of the canyon.
I didn’t see anything at all at starts. I thought there were no figures or movements at all, until small waverings of the grass caught my attention. Something was there. If not for Korha’s pointer I could mistake it for a snake or a boar, but as it was making its way through canyon the silhouette of a figure in dark-green cloak got more distinct. The grass on the bottom wasn’t as high as on our hill, two feets or so. Yet the figure ducked so low that it was hard to spot him
from above, let alone from the ground. The man, or maybe woman, reached the middle of the passage and stopped to look around. After two minutes near the entrance appeared few more figures. I raised my head to count them but Korhal pressed me to the ground with his hand, then showed his bunch of five three times. Fifteen. Tough looking man, probably the boss, went ahead to the scout and started the conversation.
“Why did you stop?” Thanks to our species keen hearing I was able to catch what he told, albeit just barely.
“This is a good place for an ambush, sir. I can’t guarantee our safety.”
“Keep going. We don’t have much time. Luck is on our side,” he told and turned around while drivin his sword out. The rest of the group copied him immediately. Slowly they made their way through the canyon until scout reached the tree line. When he looked up two arrows pierced his shoulders and he fell like a log. At the same time five beastmen landed near the dead body and kicked dirt so hard the ground made a fountain like image. Eight more arrows flew to the main group, but none of them hit the target since humans ducked in all sides.
“Ambush!” the boss cried who knows what for. He didn’t even have time to make orders before first five beastmen with longswords jumped right to the centre of their already broken formation and divided the group in two. Another volley of arrows killed two men on the sides of attackers before archers dropped their bows and jumped from trees to join our brethren. With humans divided along two sides of the canyon they had not much place for maneuver and ended up stumbling on each other. While beastmen formed a round formation between humans and kept them occupied, two groups of two beastmen jumped on both sides of the cliff and used claws to fixate themselves upon humans. Their daggers, thrown from above, were harder to dodge and killed or injured another three men. While casualties on humans side grew, two humans tried to run and were pierced in their back with spears. The boss of the group put a good and desperate fight. Vicious sparks flew each time he hit a sword or a dagger. He wounded badly one beastman and injured another, but couldn’t finish him off before thrown dagger landed in his thigh. The boss fell on one knee and had his right arm sliced off by a lightning fast dush of swing beastmen.
“ARgh… please, my childr-” he couldn’t finish because a spear went through his throat from behind and buried deep into the ground. The man should have died right away, but I saw him raise his hand and put it on the spear, as if he wanted to lean on it. Still standing on one knee, with blood flowing like a river from both his arm and throat, he refused to let go even when his last man fell.
“Died standing, huh?” Korhal mused. “Get up, let’s go down and greet our warriors.”
I got up and followed Korhal, shaken and nauseous, but for another reason now. Being honest, I didn’t want to go down as the smell of blood was bad enough from afar. As we reached the trees where our men previously hide, I saw five more beastmen, sitting on the branch, eating and chatting happily.
“Why didn’t they join the fight, master?”
“To make odds even. Fifteen on fifteen. Besides, four of them seem to be just trainees.”
“But we sustained injuries! The fight could be so much easier.”
“We learn from injuries, child. Our men were injured because of their own sloppiness. And how are you supposed to learn if you swarm your enemies like ants a caterpillar.Thair ambush was good, but they’re lacking in more than few ways. If humans fought like their boss, half of our men would be dead.” As we neared the tree two of beastmen jumped down to greet us.
Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.
“Korhal, is that you, old fox? AHAHA. Long time no see. Finally found a stu….,” he glanced at me and shut down momentarily. While rising his brows he gave Korhal a look of surprise.
“Barlen, you’re with your own, as it seems?” Korhal continued nonchalantly.
“Hah! Guess who discovered intruders? Noone turned an ear until he told he feels like being watched. I pressed an ear to the ground and heard one single step. Thought it’s an animal at starts, but you know how it is, animals don’t disappear in thin air. Redl, this is master Korhal, a branch holder just like me.”
“It’s a honor, master,” the student beside Barlen gave short bow, than looked at me with a snicker. Is he looking down on me? Some people should not be praised too much since it’s getting to their head. Judging by his looks he could be twenty or even thirty. There are less then ten people I met in person, so I still found it hard to guess how old a person is, but something told me he is young. Looking down on a child isn’t the most mature behavior, after all.
“Akillah, I’ll chat here for awhile,” he bent down and took a flask of water from dead scout. “You go fetch us three more canteens, humans shall have some. You don’t mind if we take them, Barlen?”
“It’s fine, we have plenty.” He put his hands to his mouth and imitated khuru bird’s cry, than gave few signs to warriors in the canyon. With a light push to my back Korhal sent me forth. If you ask me, making a child scavenge bodies for water is by no means normal. Isn’t his “education” going too far?
The warriors at the battlefield were busy with treating wounds. Two beastmen chatted near wounded man and I came closer to hear their conversation.
“…toughest guy always have to scream he has children? They should think of their kids before crossing our borders, not after,” he stopped and looked at me without hiding his amusement.
“Is he going to be alright?” I asked while pointing at badly wounded man with dog ears, that was treated by another two warriors. One of them held bloodied bandage against huge gash on his chest.
“We sent for healer even before battle, so he shall be fine, child,” mouse eared warrior before me answered. We hadn’t had many of his kin in or village, so I found him interesting. Their tails were pretty. “He won’t stand up soon, though,” he added and turned away.
I went further and reached first body in a minute, bent down and took his flask. The man was rather old, with stripes of grey hair. If not for blood on his chest I could think he’s just sleeping. It’s not that the smell of blood is absolutely bad, it’s just too thick and very specific. A small amount of blood adds tasty scent to meat, but in this quantities it drove no appétit at all. To make things worse, the grass that reached my waist was also bloodied and I got dirty too.
“Got one, two more to g-.” Suddenly, something grabbed my ankle from behind and pulled down.
“AAhhh” I cried out loud from surprise still not understanding what’s going on. An arm covered my mouth and effortlessly raised me up.
“NONE OF YOU COME CLOSE!” The man behind me yelled while holding the knife near my face. My eyes ducked to deadman I scavenged a second ago, thinking that maybe he pretended to be dead, but his body lied right where it supposed to. It means that I didn’t see another human hiding in the grass. No one did.
“She’ll go with me….you hear that? One step and she’s dead….” His voice was full of terror and I got even more scared. It’s one thing to be captured by a human, but being captured by a man driven to the corner is so much worse. I swung my lags back and forth in attempt to get away from him, but with no result. He held me like a ragdoll. Korhal already leveled with the rest of our man, but didn’t dare to come any closer. The distance between us was too long to reach in time, even for him. With nothing much to do, I bite the hand that held me with all my might and felt my canines sink into the flesh.
“ARgh!” Thick blood filled my mouth and he let go of me for a bare second, but even before reaching the ground I was captured again. This time he grabbed me by throat.
“Try this again, and you won’t see with this eye of yours,” he turned me around and brought me so close to him I could smell his foul breath. His knife’s edge touched my brow while his grip tightened to the point I couldn’t breath at all. After looking into his sick rounded eyes I got scared for real. Figured something has to be done, or he’ll choke me here and now. While feeling adrenaline rush through me, I put my hand on the knife on my back, then drew it as fast as I could and put it into his stomach, down to the hilt. The fool was so scared and disoriented that he didn’t check if I’m armed. Or maybe he didn’t bother to since I was just a child. Not many children carry weapons after all. He tried to avoid my blade, but the distance was just too small. By reflex he dropped me and made two steps back.
“Ugh…,” was all he could mutter before a dozen of arrows turned him into hedgehod.
While turning to our men I felt something was wrong with me. My right eye didn’t see because liquid flooded it. I put my hand on it and saw the liquid to be red. Is it blood? Is it mine or his? After few moments I couldn’t distinguish the blood since the world changed color. No. It’s my vision that turned to all shades of red. I looked up and saw red colored Korhal running to me, leaving other warriors far behind. An arrow slowly made its way past my ear to the hedgehod behind me. It has got hard to breathe. I raised my hand to my throat, expecting to find another arm strangling me, but found nothing. The corners of my sight got dark.
“Akillah! Look at me!” Korhal screamed somewhere. His arms were on my shoulders.
“Hah….hah….hard….to breath…,” when did he get so close? My head hurt and I heard shrilling peep in my ears. A burning sensation quickly grew in my chest. When it grew to the peak, someone screamed right into my ears and I felt the rest of the oxygen leave my lungs. The world turned upside down. The last image I catched with my fading consciousness was that of red skies and Korhal’s head looking above me.
Korhal’s POV
Damn! I messed up badly. Galena is going to kill me when she learns I let her child be injured the very next day after leaving her house.
“Is she going to be alright? What’s with her eye?” Barlen stood beside me while I pressed a rag from my robe to stop bleeding.
“Her sight is not damaged. There’ll be a scar across her eye, though.” I used to say that scars are best teachers, but Akillah is just a child. It’s too early for her to get scars, let alone her special condition.
“I’m sorry Korhal, it was our fight we failed to finish. There was sixteen of them, after all.”
“We both know my student is my responsibility alone. She wasn’t supposed to be here in the first place.” It was stupid to leave her alone. She acts mature all the time, but a child is a child. Should have sent an escort with her.
“I think she’s poisoned” Barlen told after measuring her pulse. “She’s weak.”
“That’s because of kamela fruit’s poison. She scratched herself with her knife. I checked right after she fell.”
“Are you crazy? Kamela poison? That’s not a weapon for a child. She’ll be out for a week…and pain…she’ll regret waking up at all!”
“That poison is the only reason she’s not raging right now. That’s what you call blessing in disguise. You know red-eyed tribe’s curse, right?” More people gathered around us, including Redl. Two of them went to the scout to search him.
“Masters, I think you should look at this,” after a minute one of men brought me a bloodied cloak. I took it and understood what he meant right away. Unnatural warmth went through my fingers in waves. Without saying a word, I passed it to Barlen.
“Huh? It’s enchanted item. Maybe even an artifact!” Amused whispers were heard all around us. It’s the first time most of our men saw such an item. “No wonder he slipped past us. This things are rare.” Barlen concluded.
“I don’t understand, master. Why didn’t he either join the battle or run away by himself?” Redl asked.
“Good question. Did you see his eyes? The man was scared shitless. He probably feared to make a move, until Akillah practically stepped on him. If you ask me, he was just a coward.”
“Hmm,” Barlen’s words had reason, but something didn’t fit. Cowards don’t go to dungeons. No one gives such equipment to cowards either.
“Was that a battlecry she made right before falling?” A mouse eared warrior joined the conversation. “I felt little off for a second.” An approving murmur broke from various directions.
“HAH. A battlecry? I would rather call it a kittypurr. The effect was strange, though. Korhal, what did you do to her to teach it so early? There are five man in my group that can display battlecries, none of them younger than twenty five.” Barlen asked.
“I didn’t teach her a thing yet. It’s her bloodline alone,” I thought a little than added, “As for effect, it seems rather than buffing herself and those around her, it decreased the morale of those around, be it friend or foe.”
“Ain’t that useless? She won’t be able to fight in a group.” Redl snickered.
“She was never meant to fight in a group. A natural loner, so to say.” I clearly see flaws in this kid’s character. Hopefully Barlen knows how to fix it. I stayed to chat with them to have a good look at him in the first place.
People started to walk away to tend for their own business.
“What are you going to do next?” With only two of us left Barlen asked.
“Wait for the healer to patch her up. Then….,” an idea came to my head. If things went this way, might as well play my cards right. “Barlen? I need to find a region with thickest growth near the cliff. The thicker the better. In fact, I need it to be so tick I would find it hard to go through without dirtying my robes. Also, a pair of wolves. Did your man stumble on any nearby?”
“What are you going to do with wolves?” He drew his tongue out and made puzzled face.
“The more you know, the less you sleep, old rat.” This face of his reminded me of the day I saw it for the first time. That day, nearly forty years ago, I won his branch in a battle.
“You should take that cloak. Quite a trophy she earned, huh? It’s a shame we put so many holes in it. The effect might have decreased, but it’s worth a fortune anyway.” With that he stood up and went to his men to ask about wolves and stuff. I picked the cloak and looked at rays of light go through holes in it. Hopefully Akillah will be able to mend it to some extent. Also, I hope she won’t be too mad after what I’m going to do.