While 'lively' isn't exactly an appropriate term for this place, for obvious reasons, things did become increasingly so. We encountered another two groups of wandering soldiers, both significantly smaller than the first we had met, and were dispatched just as easily. Even aside from that, where the road was dead silent not so long ago, now noises could be heard from all directions, mostly the distant clamor of battle and the clashing of weapons. Carrie insisted that I not go to investigate them, not that she needed to. I had a pretty good idea of their causes. There were no war-cries or screams of pain, just the mechanical, metallic clangs of weapons against one another. While we had encountered multiple groups of undead soldiers who traveled together, contrary to what one might expect from monsters, they clearly didn't all see one another as allies. Not even close, in fact.
Our journey grew increasingly tense as a result. I have no idea just how far these cursed lands spread, but it's obvious that they're filled with hostile entities, and the fear of stumbling upon a group much larger than we can hope to manage isn't an unreasonable one. Carrie has been rather surprised by the fact that the undead fighters had attacked us at all, seemingly expecting them to ignore our presence. That didn't happen, of course. The only reason that they didn't hurt myself or anyone else in my group was due to the fact that my divine strike out-ranged them, and while quite mobile for corpses, they were still fairly slow. Their hostile intent was immediately apparent, however.
Without warning, Slave stops in her tracks, as Vile rises up upon the back of the cat, staring forward with wide eyes. I don't notice anything unusual, but my first assumption is that she has spotted another group of soldiers up ahead. It comes as quite a shock when she, instead, hops off of her loyal follower and rushes on all fours to the side of the road, cutting through a narrow field. It's clear that Slave has no idea what was going on, either, having simply followed the order to stop.
"It's perfect!" Vile calls back, not alarmed, quite the contrary, sounding downright overjoyed. The three of us remaining look to one another, confused, but make a point to quickly follow.
Finding the rat proves to be simple enough, but it does very little to ease our confusion. There's nothing even remotely 'perfect' about the sight which greets us. Just a few hours ago, it would have been gruesome and depressing, but by now, after traveling so long down this road, it was absolutely nothing new. More animated dead, but thankfully, the non-aggressive variety. There's a former human tilling the fields, although their attentions seemed entirely focused on a very small patch of land which has been dug down into a trench due to the ceaseless efforts, with a ramshackle barn half-standing in the distance. As for Vile, she stands atop a wooden fence post, or at least what used to be a fence post. Now, I suppose it's just a regular post, the skeletal cattle within free to escape if they so desired, but clearly they do not, their bony heads lowered to nibble at the bare dirt which surely housed tall, green grass back when the animals were still alive.
"Uh... what exactly are we looking at, here?" Carrie asks.
As for Vile, she stands upright, smiles proudly and extends a paw to the nearest former farm animal. "Our fifth party member!" she says with a note of uncharacteristic excitement in her voice.
"No. Seriously." The crow replies, "What are we doing here?"
I can only nod in agreement with the black bird.
"I always dreamed of having my own undead minion..." The rat sighs, looking to the clean, white bones of the cow, or bull... it's hard to tell. "This is perfect! It's clearly physically strong, but also quiet and obedient!" she pauses, looking between the hind-legs of it, "Admittedly, I was initially hoping for something a little more... fleshy." she emphasizes the word in a way that makes it sound kind of dirty, but then again, she has a way of making most things sound dirty, "But hey, beggars can't be choosers! I'll call him 'Bully', because that's what he'll do to my many enemies!"
"Bullying is wrong..." I say. That is not, of course, my only objection to the matter at hand, but it's certainly one of them.
"It's just a name, because, you know... he's a bull!" Vile says, frowning back at me, her joyful mood quickly restored, "Anyways, that's not important. Come on, help me lead him back to the road! Oh, I can't remember the last time I've been so excited!"
"No, we can't have a re-animated corpse in our group!" I say, "It's just... it's just wrong! On so many levels!"
"Oh, sure we can." Vile says with a dismissive wave of her bald paw, "Sure, it might take a little getting used to, but once we get a few adventures under our belt, he'll be like family!"
I sigh in response, looking to both Slave and Carrie-Anne, and say, "You two agree with me, right?"
I don't know why I expected that. For Slave, I can tell that she's a little bit uncomfortable with the idea, but her priorities are far more centralized on making her mistress happy than the good of the group,. The fact that she had managed to veto getting a bear into the party was about the maximum amount of defiance I could expect from her. The fact that Vile is so visibly excited, a rare thing for the rat, makes stating even the most mild of objections an impossible task for the black cat.
"Um... maybe it wouldn't be so bad?" Slave says. I had hoped that her jealousy over Vile's instant attachment to the bare bones would flare up and lead her to objecting, but in the end, she's loyal to a fault.
I then turn to Carrie in hopes of some support. Instead, she just wears a bemused grin and shrugs her wings, "I'm just the hired help. If she wants to drag a rotting corpse along, that's none of my business."
I frown and lower my head in defeat... but then again, I'm not really defeated, am I? While I hold all three of my allies in high regard, this is ultimately my journey that they have chosen to join. Obviously, I should have a significant say in the matter.
"No." I say, forcefully, standing tall.
"What's that?" Vile asks, casting a wicked looking side-eye in my direction, not looking angry, instead oddly amused by my refusal.
"You heard me. I... I'm asserting myself!" I say with a nod. This has been long overdue, after all. I have no intention or lording over Vile or anyone else for that matter, of course, and am more than willing to aid or follow them should they have a task that the need to accomplish, but there are limits, and this is pretty much it.
"Oh, really now?" The rat grins wider, turning to me with an expression of unwavering confidence.
Argument Start! Squire Versus Vile!
Squire attacks!
"Look, I'm sorry, and I get that this means a lot to you, but it's just not practical. It's too big, and even if it were still alive, it doesn't belong to us! We don't even know if it could survive outside the boundary to this region, and even if it could, we certainly couldn't bring it into any towns. I don't know if it wants anything, or is even capable of wanting anything, but even if it can, it would clearly rather just stay here, where it belongs. Plus, even putting morality aside, I can't imagine that it's capable of fighting or contributing in any sort of way, so we should just... leave it be."
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Squire's Morale has increased!
Good! I feel like I've made a very effective argument in a concise and respectful way! I'm guaranteed to win this argument!
As for Vile, she sighs and shakes her head, wearing a soft smile.
"You make some good points... you really do." she says, "...and in the end, I'm just a pathetic little rat. It's not as though what I want really matters..."
Vile attacks!
Squire's Morale has fallen!
Vile attacks! Squire's Morale has fallen!
I'm about to object, and tell her than of course she's important, and not the least bit pathetic, but she's not finished yet.
"And sure, having an undead minion might have been a lifelong dream of mine, and, well... we rats don't live all that long, either. Who knows just how much life is left in these poor, old bones of mine..."
No... no, I won't let myself be manipulated!
Vile attacks!
Squire has been manipulated!
Squire's Morale has fallen further!
Darn it, that's the exact opposite of what I wanted to happen!
"But, in the end, this is your journey, and you deserve to have the final say in who you travel with." the rat says before sighing, "I mean, I thought that we were friends and that you trusted my judgement. I was happy to let you go off and waste as much time as you needed to questing and didn't say a word of complaint. I helped you fight the alpha wolf, I helped to train you to become stronger, I even protected you from Slave, and never asked you for anything in return."
Vile attacks! Critical hit!
Squire's Morale has fallen further!
I fidget a little, stepping back. I look over my shoulder at Carrie-Anne who simple wears a smug and amused expression. As for Slave, she's staring daggers at me, a not unfamiliar look, but one which I hadn't seen from her for quite some time. As much as she also seemed to dislike the idea of having a dead cow follow us around, she seems to have forgotten that entirely, looking at me as though I'd sort of traitor for daring to hurt the feelings of her mistress.
"Look," I sigh, scrambling to think of a brilliant argument, "You know how much I respect you, it's just that... it's just that... well, having an undead bull follow us around... it's just not practical."
Squire attacks! Poorly!
Squire's morale has fallen further!
Seriously? Okay, maybe it wasn't the most articulate counter, but I don't think that it actually hurt my argument. Frankly, I'm starting to question the validity of this whole system.
Vile casts a warm smile in my direction. Sure, she's still spiky and snaggle-toothed and terrifying, but she's never looked so small, so... innocent. "Yes. I understand. Clearly, you think the practical good is much more important than my own happiness. I can't deny the reasoning there, even if it does disappoint me a little..."
Vile attacks!
Squire's Morale has fallen further!
Uh oh... I've got a bad feeling about this...
"It's just that if the situation were reversed, I would do absolutely anything that I could to make you happy. But then again, I am just a rat. It's hardly a surprise that you don't feel the same way about me."
Vile attacks! Super-critical hit!
Squire's Morale has died!
Vile has won the argument! Vile earns 2000 points of experience and 450 Gold(s)!
"I'm so sorry!" I whine, tears streaming down my snout, "You've been such a good friend to me and I... I..." I sniffle, "If it means that much to you, then they can join the group!"
"Great!" Vile grins, her demeanor one more confident and strong, looking twice the size that she had before, "Come along, Bully! We're off on an exciting adventure!"
I'm still sniffling as I slowly walk back to my other allies, completely defeated. Slave simply shakes her head in disappointment at me, even though just moments before, she was clearly more influenced by the rat's behavior than I was, and angry at me for seeming to oppose her. As for Carrie, she just chuckles softly to herself.
"Don't worry about it." The black bird grins, "I have a feeling that things are going to work themselves out pretty soon."
She looks back over my shoulder, and I also turn back to the rat, looking to her with surprise as she still stands atop the fence post, trying to muster every bit of strength she can (which isn't very much) to push the undead head of cattle forward. "Come on!" She growls at it, "Move it, you stupid corpse!"
Of course it doesn't move. Based on how deep the hooves are sunken into the earth, while still standing and not technically frozen, it hasn't actually moved from this place for a very, very long time. If the undead beast can even hear or understand the rat, it shows no signs of it, even as her exclamations grow significantly more profane, ending with a hard kick to the bony thigh with her bald foot which it, predictably, ignores.
I quickly turn away, doing my best to hide my smile as she grumbling rat returns to us. "It looks like... maybe... Bully won't be traveling with us after all. He wanted to, of course, but I decided that he'd just miss this place too much." she says, looking away, clearly visibly embarrassed.
"I'm sorry. I know that he meant a lot to you." I say, and I do genuinely mean it, even if I am more than a little bit relieved that we won't have to babysit a reanimated corpse for the remainder of our journey. Still, while I do question her tastes, it's clear that this mattered to her, and I'm still a little saddened. It was sort of nice seeing her so enthusiastic about something. I frown a little as I look down to her raised hind-foot, which she's clearly avoiding putting her weight on. "Do you need some healing?" I ask her.
"No!" She scoffs, looking away before frowning a little. "Well... maybe... you know, if you don't mind."
I just smile as I rest my paw upon her head, between her ears, flooding her tiny body with healing light, which appears to immediately resolve the situation.
"You're too good for him anyways, Mistress." Slave scoffs as the dead cattle. I don't get why everyone assumes that they're male. "Someday you'll learn necromatic magic on your own, and then you can make your own minions!"
"Heh. Yeah, you're right!" Vile responds as she hops back up onto the cat's back, showing no signs of injury, "Who needs some second-hand undead, when I can just create my own?" she looks one again to me, "Well, what's everyone standing around for? This place is boring, and full of ingrates who have no idea of what they're missing out on. Let's get out of here."
I don't feel the need to point out that the only reason that we were delayed was because of her. After all, she wasn't entirely wrong, earlier: She had indulged in my own desires plenty in the past, even when it slowed us down. It's nice to be able to stop and let her indulge a little as well, and it all worked out in the end... even if I am a little bit worried about the future, should the rat eventually master such magics on her own.
"It's a shame though..." the rodent sighs as she looks back to the undead farmer and their beasts, "I'll bet they would have had a super high strength stat."
"Look, about that..." Carrie-Anne says, "I've been letting this slide for a while now, but it's just killing me: What do you mean when you say 'strength stat'?"
Vile looks to the bird strangely, "You know... the number on your character sheet which denotes how much physical strength that you have, and how much it increases with every experience level."
The crow blinks, "What? Character sheet? Experience levels? What on earth are you talking about?"
Vile isn't the only one who stares in response. We all do. As for Carrie, she just looks uncharacteristically uncomfortable.
---
Vile: "Damn... that would have been really nice having a proper minion."
Slave: "They sound more fun than they turn out being. In the end, undead and summons do little damage yet still require a full combat round. They have minimal impact, and make the fights take forever."
Carrie-Anne: "Combat round?"
Vile: "Ugh, save it for the next chapter."