I was in so much pain. I felt nothing but pain. Everything was darkening before my eyes, and my throat was drying up. I could no longer scream, I no longer had the strength to do so. I was dying. I'm so scared. Where are my mom and dad? Where are they? I want to be with them. I don't want to be alone. I don't want to go to Sod. Not now. Aaaay! Flowing...
The wound on my stomach was bleeding heavily. Blood spilled over the stone in the dark cave and seemed to burn my skin as it flowed out. My chest heaved with my weak breathing. It hurt to breathe. Every inhalation and every exhalation seemed to be tearing me apart from the inside.
The eyes are full of tears of fear, horror and despair. I want to go home, I really want to go home. Why did they hurt me? Why did that man kill them? Oh Sod, please don't take me away. I want to see my mother... for the last time. I want to tell her that I love her, just don’t take me, not now... please.
No one will see my tears in this cave, the boundless darkness that envelops me, there is no strength to rise to my feet. I just can not. How pathetic I am. Sod, I'm so scared. My heart just wants to run away from me, beating hard in my chest.
«Solved.»
My eyes widened when I heard a woman's voice in my head. Who was that? I ask you to show yourself, help me. Where are you?
«Not good. The body is very weak, but I’m not going to wait another hundred years for someone else to show up here. I have no other way.»
Hundreds of years? W-what? What are you talking about? And I thought that I heard someone’s voice like me, turning my head I saw a strange green snake. He had no head, and he himself barely glowed dimly, illuminating the damp, sharp corners of the cave, getting closer and closer to me.
A hot snake crawled onto my stomach. It hurt me to have this thing crawling around my wound, and then I yelped in pain when this snake began to crawl right into my stomach. NO! HURT! Shoot! Aaaaaaa~!
My body trembled in pain as the snake crawled inside me. I clenched my teeth, enduring severe pain, I was shaking all over, crooked, and tears splashed all over. An incredible heat filled my body, and I’m about to burn! It seemed as if the wound was sucking in all my strength, as if not all the blood had left my small tummy, as if something was devouring me from the inside.
«Recovery is going well. What's your name?»
Are you telling me this? You are a woman?
«Our merger is not completed yet. I only vaguely understand your thoughts. Wait a little.»
The voice that I hear seems so peaceful and soothing, but at the same time so serious and indifferent. Only a mother has such a voice, but only this voice has no care at all, no love, but because of the similarity of her voice with my mother’s, I was drawn to her because I wanted to live as I had never wanted to live before.
And why was I so indifferent to death before? Was it because I thought I wouldn't die? How stupid I am. Now I understand that death awaits each of us, but... I didn’t want to die, not this time.
«Camelia.»
Hurt. I'm in pain.
«Be patient. The pain will soon be gone.»
Please stop. Who are you?
«A child of old nature like you is not supposed to know this. Just listen to me. Your body will regenerate and this process is not pleasant for people. I'm using my last strength to heal you.»
Thank you... but... why are you doing this? Aren't you that strange snake?
«Obviously not out of concern for you. A long time ago, I made a huge mistake, misjudged the situation and paid for it with my perfect body in every sense. I clung to living fragments to fulfill my mission on this backward planet. I was looking for a body and I finally found this body.»
I don't quite understand you. You say strange things. Body? What are you going to do?
«I will become you.»
I was suddenly overcome with horror when I realized this. She wants to become me. I did not want this. I didn't want to die. She was taking my life! What will happen to me? Am I going to die? I don't want to die!
«You were doomed from the very beginning, Camellia. So serve at the last moment in the name of the Great Pantora.»
Mother!
***
«Where did that girl go? I won't see any gold until I bring her head.»
I thought, while simultaneously exploring a deep cave, lighting it with a torch in my left hand and holding a bloody knife in my right.
It was becoming more difficult to breathe here because of the stuffiness, probably. I illuminated the narrow passages with a torch and carefully went down deep into the darkness. It’s dangerous to be here; at any moment you can fall into some deep hole and never get out of here again. If this girl has fallen through here somewhere, then it will be difficult to get her.
My parents, if they were alive, and whoever they were, would be proud of me. Since they abandoned me, I have been forced to survive in the forest. I ended up becoming a lone hunter, getting stronger at hunting animals and attacking foolish travelers that crossed my path.
From one of them I even got some kind of piece of paper, according to which the guards let me into the cities and there I continued to be a hunter, penetrated houses, killed people, and if I was lucky, raped unlucky girls at night. Life has become a little more beautiful and fun.
But I hate children. During the day I tolerated their presence, and at night I killed them all when I saw them. So happy, they think that they will always live so carefree and joyfully. Little bastards, they don’t understand what I went through to become stronger, to become a lone hunter. While they were beating branches with sticks while running through the forests, I was fighting with wolves for a piece of hard-earned deer meat.
Exactly, this is my calling to be a hunter, and not to bend over with sticks in the fields like some stupid useless peasant. I will not stoop as low as these animals, I am a hunter and I may live in the shadows, but I am not some kind of nonentity.
«Mm? Blood?»
I saw red spots below that lined the path into the darkness, and seeing this, I licked my lips with a grin.
Finally a clue, otherwise I thought I would be looking for it for a long time in this damned cave. I’ll find her cold corpse and carefully cut off her head at the same time and fuck her. What's so bad about that? She won’t scream, she won’t have a head. Although it would be better if she screamed as loudly as possible.
The squeal of this bitch would be a delight for the ears, and her bitter tears would be a pleasant juice for my eyes. Such a nonentity like her is simply unworthy of living, that’s why she’s too weak. It was not difficult to ambush the carriage. The girl was heading from a country estate to the village to meet her daddy, some lord, probably, or a rich merchant. What a pity that these idiot nobles will never see each other, either alive or dead.
I was able to kill the coachman and the guard, but the girl herself ran away. I only managed to wound her with a swing of a knife in the stomach, but even with the wound she managed to run away into the forest, and then into this cave. I don’t care whether someone finds a couple of dead bodies or not, the main thing is to bring the head of this girl to my customer to confirm the murder.
Some children live happily with their parents, and I hate them, but for her I just feel a huge hatred. Besides the fact that she dares to live better than me, to rejoice in the silver spoon in her mouth, she is also loved by her insignificant rich family. Little bastard! I'll just destroy you!
"Ay~!"
I heard a cute little voice echoing in the distance of the winding cave.
I quickly guessed who such a voice could belong to. She clearly heard me approaching her and apparently tripped and fell, hastening to flee. I can imagine the desperate look on her face now. My grin touches my ears from edge to edge, so anticipating her pain.
“Come on, come out, bitch!”
I shouted, causing the girl to trip over something and hold her breath judging by the sounds.
The trail of blood told me where she was. She didn't have much time left. A hunter like me simply could not help but take the chance to play with her, and there are too few entertainments in life besides killing. I will gut her tiny carcass and hang her intestines on the branches to the delight of the crows and flies, and maybe some ghost will notice her and devour her. I'd watch this.
This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
While I was looking forward to playing with her, I came out to a fairly large area of the cave, in the middle of which I saw a whole puddle of blood. As I came closer, I saw the girl curled up into a ball a little further in the corner and whimpering, wrapped in her green dress. She was scared, and she couldn’t run away, there was simply nowhere. I didn't need to rush to finish her off. The bitch will die anyway.
"There you are."
I joyfully voiced, preparing my bloody, slightly dull knife and simultaneously placing a burning torch on the stone.
After today’s hunt, the knife should be sharpened, but before that, I licked fresh, still warm blood from the cold steel so that the blade would cut this girl’s flesh well in the future. First of all, I'll cut off her tendons so that she can't escape, and then I'll make an incision on her stomach, pulling out her intestines while she screams heart-rendingly.
Yes, I will do so, I will do it because you bitch deserves it. Do you dare to live so happily, so carefree, I did not live the same way as you now and instead I survived, fought with the entire forest and earned the right to be called strong, and you are a nonentity worthy only of death! And how do you dare to live so well after this? I don't understand! Fucking world, it's so unfair.
"P-please... d-don't n-need..."
The girl sobbed, shuddering, covering herself with her arms and huddling even tighter into a ball, and meanwhile I was hanging over her, over this little mouse that couldn’t even run away. She has nowhere to run, and if she tries, it won’t be difficult for me to simply crush her. Too fragile, insignificant creature.
"I am surprised."
I grinned, squatting down and simultaneously throwing the knife from one palm to the other.
“You’re still alive, but you’ve lost so much blood.
“I-I d-don’t w-want...to die...”
"I do not want either."
I laughed at her stupid, desperate words.
“Nobody wants to, but that’s Sod’s will. He does not like the weak, He loves the strong, like Me, and He does not tolerate dirt under our feet like you. You are just food, YOU ARE MY FOOD.”
My voice became much more serious than a little earlier.
“Do you even know what I went through? Of course you don't know. You didn’t have to live in the forest, run away from animals, fight for water and defend your food. No, instead you were born into a rich family, had servants, slaves and barely knew what the fear of death was. What now? You're scared?"
She only remained silent in response and continued to whine, which is why I leaned closer to her and repeated loudly at the top of my voice:
“I fucking asked: ARE YOU SCARED,BITCH?!»
She curled up into a ball even more, which made me want to plunge a knife into her head so that she would finally listen to me. Of course she would die like that, so I grabbed her little white hair instead and raised her gaze straight to me.
“SAY IT! YOU'RE SCARed?"
What I saw in her eyes was not at all what I expected. Instead of a face full of tears, fear and horror, there is only an indifferent, stern, almost empty look. She didn’t tremble, she didn’t cry, she just looked at me indifferently, as if I were the very last insect in this world, not deserving of any attention or fear.
«How dare you?!»
I got angry and raised her to her feet, raising the knife to hit her in the face, but then.
"Ay~!"
I screamed because something heavy flew into my face. I haven't felt such pain for a long time. I was so madly angry at that moment that I didn’t notice how this little bitch escaped my grip and slid under my feet. She threw a stone aside and rushed towards the exit, simultaneously trampling the torch that I had left behind me.
"BITCH!"
I cursed as everything around me suddenly went dark.
“Little rubbish! I'll get... to you."
It was very dark around. I saw absolutely nothing. The cold air touched my skin making me shiver slightly. I could only move in the direction from where the fading echo of this bitch’s running could be heard.
“Oh fuck!”
I screamed when I tripped over something and nearly broke my knee.
I almost fell through somewhere, and I didn’t see that it was either a shallow hole or an abyss. I crawled on my knees, fearing that I might inadvertently fall. I continued to crawl and was already beginning to shiver from the cold.
“Little whore! I'll get you!"
I shouted while continuing to crawl until I suddenly realized that everything around had plunged into absolute silence.
All I could hear was my own breathing and my heartbeat. In the distance I also heard the sound of drops, but were they in the opposite direction or in the direction where she ran away? I did not know it. If I were a magician, I would light a spark to set fire to a piece of fabric on myself, but alas, I am not special, I am much more, I am a hunter, and not some weakling who wields magic.
I crawled to the extinguished torch, feeling the warmth of the oily rag at its tip with my palms. I could have set it on fire again, but I didn’t have any stones or even magic. Out of anger and hopelessness, I simply threw the extinguished torch somewhere and decided to crawl somewhere in the hope that I could find a way out.
«I won't die here!»
***
A shiver ran through my body and was immediately enveloped in a pleasant warmth. Coming out of the cave, I saw a large green forest in front of me, birds were chirping around, leaves on the treetops rustled in the wind and insects were heard, and clouds floated peacefully under a clear sky.
«Finally.»
I thought, enjoying the long-awaited freedom, breathing in the air deeply.
It’s been so long since I felt my body, I didn’t feel life, I even forgot how to breathe. Days in this impenetrable darkness, if I were a person, would be a nightmare for me, I would say so, but I am not a person, emotions like fear and joy are alien to me. Instead, I was simply bored, I lost the meaning of my existence, I clung to the fragments of my essence in order to survive and continue to serve the Eternal, the daughter of the Great Master, the last hope.
«I hope she's okay. Otherwise, Ulak will face punishment, but I don’t think he could have taken his task so irresponsibly; protecting the soul of the Eternal should not have been difficult. What a pity that this planet is still as boring.»
While I was running from the cave and while I am now walking deep into the forest, I am thinking about how weak my new body is now. The girl is very emotional, trembles from the cold, twitches from burns, has poor hearing, weak sense of smell, extremely low intelligence, unable to process the minimum necessary layer of information. If it weren’t for the Mekhanites, I would have died from the wound that that bandit left on my new body. From now on I need to be more careful.
Moving through the thickets in the forest, listening to the birds singing, I think about the girl’s memories. The growing consciousness to absorb cost practically nothing to me. Her memories became mine, her fears and experiences too, but mixed with my consciousness they only turned out to be a drop in the ocean of my essence. They did not influence me in any way, they just gave me more information that I will use. Roughly speaking, I devoured the girl’s soul, but I don’t believe in the idealistic concept of the soul, I believe in a great order that will come sooner or later.
I should now take care of my safety, and only then continue to fulfill the task of the Great Master. Eternal is our last chance to regain what was lost and achieve our goal: great order. These pathetic people will pay for their insolence, for their insignificance in the face of the inevitable, but before that me need to contact someone.
“One-one, two-two... what a terrible voice.”
I said out loud in a high-pitched childish voice, checking the girl’s body, squeezing my palms, inhaling the air with my entire chest.
“It seems that Camelia ate only sweets; there is an excess of sugar in the body. It’s strange that she didn’t develop diabetes.”
Although if you look at her memories, Camellia was often subjected to the use of certain energy. Some magician often came to her and absorbed some energy into her body, and then used it inside the body to do something.
"Magic."
I said it out loud and stopped when I heard someone rustling behind the bushes.
«The weak body of this girl did not feel the danger, there was no sound, there was nothing. Only now did I realize that there was someone behind the bushes. But who is it? Human or predator? Or maybe a harmless rabbit? I can't understand it. Either this creature is hiding from me or preparing to attack me... this girl's weak brain is causing me a lot of inconvenience. I think too slow!»
I hid behind a tree trunk and tried to hold my breath. I suddenly remembered the magic I wanted to think about. Of course, on this planet, many creatures can use this strange energy, and apparently it is divided into states of aggregation, energy itself as such, and the space-time continuum. Could this magic be someone's technology to influence entire matter? And if this is so, then why does this technology only work here on this planet? Or maybe the so-called Gods are involved in this?
Hundreds of years ago, when we encountered these magicians, we were simply swept away. The Great Army of Pantora, crushing space civilizations on its way, could not resist the so-called magic. The sages simply did not have time to come up with a way to combat it. This is our oversight, we should have hidden from the inhabitants of this planet from the very beginning, but we did the opposite.
I looked at my small, frail hand.
«It seems that inside this body there are reagents that allow me to use so-called magic, and since this magic can influence states of aggregation...»
It was as if there was a second blood flowing inside this body, invisible to the eye. It's hard to explain, it's too irrational. This second blood is connected with the entire environment, no, more precisely, only with one of them by fire, judging by the girl’s memories. To use magic you need fire, but where is the fire? And while I was thinking about this, someone’s hand suddenly grabbed me by the shoulder, causing me to jerk.
«Predator?»
"A? Child?"
Said an old man who suddenly appeared and scratched the back of his head, looking down at me.
“I thought I saw a wild boar. What are you doing here?"
«I didn’t expect to meet a person here. I need to play along with him.»
I looked at the old man with fear in my eyes. He was dressed in a green and brown robe, and in his other hand he held a wooden staff with a bulge on the top. It looks like he was a traveler or a hunter, or maybe he was just picking mushrooms here. Nevertheless, I decided to play the innocent lost girl in front of him.
"I... I... I'm lost."
I said with a bit of fear, lowering my head down.
"I want to go home."
The old man looked at me with a bit of pity. In response, he simply removed his hand from my shoulder and sighed sadly.
“Poor thing. I guess I decided to go for a walk and got lost. Didn’t your parents tell you that walking in the forest is dangerous?”
"Yes."
“What did you do? She took it and didn’t listen.”
The old man shook his head and then asked.
“How long have you been here?”
"A very long time."
“You’re hungry, maybe you want a drink?”
The old man took out a leather flask from under his robe and handed it to me. Immediately I remembered that my mouth was very dry. That's why the voice seemed so terrible. The girl lost a lot of blood, she probably looked like a walking corpse now. The old man supported the flask while I drank the sour water, and then, after drinking a little, he took my palm.
"Where do you live?"
Asked the old man.
"Don't know."
I said sadly. The old man sighed, looking around.
“We can’t leave you here.”
Said the old man.
“Then let’s go to my house. From there we will look for your village. By the way what is your name?"
"Ca-Camellia."
«Camellia, your life is now mine, which means both your family and your name have become mine, which means I can use it as I please. All for the great goal of our people.»
"Beautiful name."
The old man smiled.
“And I'm Sarg. I am a Druid."
"Druid?"