“You lured us into a trap! Prepare to die.” Elyndris was ready to kill the ogre. How dare he lead them into a trap? He wasn’t alone after all.
“Not me. Him.” He was shifting the blame. How cowardly. Yet, the feel to him was… sincere. Elyndris didn’t have the capability to see his face. But she could feel his heart, the quick, frightened thrashing heart of a rabbit caught in a trap. Unless the boy had some sort of advanced lying skill, she doubted he was hiding his emotions. Perhaps he wasn’t truly aware of the trap? Ridiculous, but… she would find out eventually.
For now, she needed to punish the one who shot Anath. The girl had kept her company, made her warm and safe. Whoever shot that arrow was going to DIE.
Elyndris activated burst of strength and pounced off of Anath’s shoulder in the direction of the attack.
Three more leaps later, she felt him. A human, no doubt about it. She pounced at him without hesitation; burst of strength only lasted so long. He noticed at the last second and ducked.
“What?” he murmured, caught off guard from the attack. She kicked off again as soon as she landed. She was flying straight for his throat. But before she could latch onto an artery and bleed the man dry, he slapped her out of the air with a gloved hand.
She bit reflexively, latching onto a leather-clad finger. “What the hell? Get off!” She tasted blood, and he shook the hand vigorously. Elyndris was mighty, but not mighty enough. Eventually, her grip gave way and she was thrown into the woods.
She pounced again, only leaping a foot or two forward. Her burst of strength had run out. She loathed relying on a once-per-day skill. But it was truly an effective technique in a pinch.
What were her options? She could climb a tree and drop from above, but he would move before then. She wasn’t nearly as mobile as Anath. She could go for the ankles. Not a strong contender. She could easily hide, but that was not in her nature.
While Elyndris was deciding, the hunter glanced around, confused. Then he shrugged and headed towards where Anath fell.
“Hey, human. Do you have any last words?” She called out to him to stall him. She hoped Anath could get away. She was pretty capable, considering what she had been through. The hunter stopped.
“I ain’t got any issues with you, uh, worm. Just got a job to do, is all.” He was trying to wriggle his way out of death! Doing what one could in times of trouble was commendable, so she couldn’t fault him. If she faced a dragon, she too would negotiate. Elyndris moved position.
“Why do you hunt me, Elyndris the mighty?” The man took a step back.
“The hell you talking about. Elyndris is dead. If you are going to steal a name to threaten me, at least make sure they are alive first. And are a worm.” Was he talking about her old form? He scanned the snow, searching. One advantage to being a worm was it was very easy to hi- to tactically place yourself out of view.
“What do you know of Elyndris’s death?!”
“Information for information, a trade. Tell me what you are and what’s going on and I’ll tell you what I know.” Bah, make a bargain with the likes of this man? Unthinkable. Yet, she did desperately wish to know about her previous life. She decided to postpone his death.
“Very well. I am a worm. You shot my steed, the girl. Now what do you know of Elyndris?”
“Now hold on, I knew all that already. How can you talk, and tell me about the spider.”
“I hatched with knowledge beyond your mortal comprehension! I contain the wisdom of the ages and the contents of great libraries. My companion is no spider, but a girl turned monster by a cruel trick of the angels. Now tell me about Elyndris.”
He scratched his head. “Well, damn. That’s a lot to take in. A promise is a promise. After Elyndris burned the great city, Varholm, the king of the Dwarves gathered an army to slay the dragon.” So, she was a dragon in a past life. As she expected. “As the stories go, he cashed in a lifetime of favors and promised land to another dragon and a demon, but can’t remember their names. Then they killed her. The land is still smoldering from her demon death.” So… she had three enemies then. The king of the dwarves and two others. “Look, I’m sorry I shot your steed. Why don’t you come out and we can have a civil discussion? Seems there may have been a misunderstanding.”
“You think I will reveal myself to you so easily?” He shrugged, wiped snow from a nearby stone, and sat.
“Suit yourself. No one is paying me to exterminate vermin. Now, this spider… how much do you know about it? It’s a girl? Y’see, I was paid to kill a monster, not a girl.”
“What will you tell me in return? Since we are trading information.”
“What do you want to know?”
“The ogre. What is his part in this.”
“Deal.” Just like that, they shared the stories of Anath and the ogre. Elyndri told the hunter of her variance and her fleeing her father. The very man who hired the hunter. In return, he told her of the ogre. He was not shy about explaining the manipulation and cruelty he showed the child. He told her of threatening the child’s life with the same tone that he would use to talk about dinner.
“See, blackmail can be worth more than a few hundred silvers if you use it right. That explains why I was hired for the job. He helped smuggle me here, you see, so I work… under the table, one might say. No paper trail.” He took a sip from his water flask. “But, this is all just hearsay. I need to check out the girl myself.”
“I forbid it!”
“Then just what do you expect me to do, miss worm? Would you rather I kill her?”
“The ogre is with her as we speak. Ask him.” He thought it over.
“Well, he has no reason to lie to me. So I suppose that would work.”
“Then you’ll leave us alone?”
“Sure. This is just to pass the time, after all. And I can’t use a bastard daughter as blackmail if she’s dead, can I? I’ll go at least. Don’t really have a use for the ogre anymore, so he has to choose his own path.”
“You are going to abandon a child?” The hunter leaned forward and looked in her direction. He finally spotted her.
“He won’t like where I’m going. Why do you care, do you want him?”
“It’s a person, not property.”
“That’s not what I… This is a waste of time. I’m gonna go check it out. He hasn’t come back so my thought is he ran off with the girl. Then I’m gone. It was nice chatting with you, worm. I’ll be honest if it wasn’t so novel an idea to talk to you, I would’ve just killed you. Lucky you.” Elyndris seethed at that comment. He was playing with her. Only bothering to talk because it would make a nice story. ‘That time I traded an ogre to a worm’ or something like that. It made her sick.
She followed the man as best she could. He had legs, so she was quickly left behind. When she finally caught up to him, he was walking towards her, laughing.
“What did you do?! They better not be hurt.”
“No, no. They’re fine. I just had a little fun with the kid before I left.” He tilted his hat towards her. “Be seeing you around, miss worm.” The entire conversation with him, even now, his heart hadn’t changed rhythm at all. Steady and calm the entire time. It made her shudder.
“Just… what are you? Why go through the trouble of tracking her down only to leave?”
“I’m just a hunter with poor people skills, is all. As I said, I’m only out here to pass the time. I’ve been hunting for a while, you want to know what I learned from it?”
“Not really.”
“A good story to tell is worth more than some coin. I’d rather tell the tale of an abandoned daughter and her pet worm I discovered. Not some hunter's tale of how clean a kill I got.” He walked away. Elyndris seethed. Pet? PET?! If she met him again, it wouldn’t end so well for him.
She found Anath a short time later, lying on the ground in pain. Next to her, with his legs curled into his chest, was the ogre. He didn’t notice her come in.
This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it
“Did you hurt her?” Her voice was low and threatening. He jumped.
“I… I’m sorry. It’s my fault. He used me-”
“DID YOU? What’s wrong with her?”
“No! She’s poisoned. It won’t kill her… but it hurts. A lot.” Elyndris crawled to the girl. The ogre looked embarrassed. That bastard hunter didn’t mention the poison at ALL!
“Girl… Anath. Listen to me. We can fix this. You have two growth points. Spend them on constitution to raise it to ten. You will have new skills unlocked. One of them is called purge poison. Get it, and use it as soon as you can.” She spoke clearly and slowly. There was no response.
Then Anath shuddered. Black poison dribbled out of her wound. She stopped shaking, and just laid there, recovering. The ogre sighed in relief.
“Anath? Are you ok?” The girl sat up, slowly. Her spider legs curled in tight.
“That hurt… what happened?” Then she noticed the ogre and skittered back to the wall. Her spider legs unsheathed themselves and pointed at him. He looked hurt and tired.
“You were being hunted. But, not anymore. A poisoned arrow knocked you out for a while. What do you remember?” Anath looked at the boy, then scooted away some more. She looked like a scared pup. Elyndris turned on the boy.
“You! What did you do to her?” His eyes went wide.
“N- nothing! I saved her! And convinced the hunter to go.” That’s what the hunter meant by having fun with the ogre.
“He… he didn’t do anything. Sorry, he just, startled me.”
“So what is your name, ogre?”
“I don’t have one… yet.”
“No, no?! Are you sure it’s not Girl? Or Spider? Or possibly Angry WORM?” The ogre had a distressed and hurt look on his face. Those eyebrows really exaggerated the emotion.
“Leave him alone, Elly.” Anath turned towards him but didn’t look at him in the eyes. “Umm… thank you. For… carrying me away.” She spoke meekly. The girl was embarrassed. Shy. Why? It was just an ogre. Then she remembered the story Anath told her. About her past. Aside from Elyndris herself, this boy was the first person she talked to in a while. With one exception. The boy who tried to murder her.
“I’m sorry for scaring you. It was the tusks, wasn’t it? They don’t quite fit right.” Anath giggled softly and gave him a small smile.
“I’m not done with you yet, boy. What’s your plan here? Why try to save her?” His eyebrows turned in confusion.
“She was hurt… so I tried to help her. Simple as that. My mum always said to be nice to girls.”
“Well, you did it. Good job. Not that it wasn’t your fault to begin with. What’s your plan now, then?”
“I… didn’t think that far ahead.” Resolve sharpened in his eyes. “But I have to stay here, or the hunter might come back.”
“He won’t come back… he was just toying with you.” The ogre looked stunned, then his features slowly tilted into an angry scowl.
“Stupid hunter…” he said softly.
“Yeah… stupid hunter.” Anath agreed while she held at her arrow wound. They both laughed.
Elyndris allowed the ogre to bandage her wound. It wasn’t as bad as it could have been, but it was still prudent to be careful. While he did so, he told them the hunter saved him from the cold. Then went on to complain about the hunter using him as bait. Elyndris noted he glossed over the reason WHY he was wandering the forest alone. Ogre children were never left alone.
“Get some firewood, ogre. It’s getting late. We should all sleep here tonight, and decide what to do in the morning.” He obediently left to do so.
“What was that about calling him a girl?” Anath perked up when he left.
“Oh, it’s an ogre thing. Ogres earn their name after their first successful hunt. That’s why they are named after animals or animal traits.” Anath nodded in understanding.
“What do you think we should do with him?”
“What do YOU think? You were the one he wronged.”
“It wasn’t his fault, I think. He seems nice. But… so did Hans.” The boy who tried to kill her. If he wasn’t already dead, Elyndris would be hunting him right now.
“For what it is worth, I don’t think he will try to hurt us. Not exactly a complicated fellow.”
“I’ll decide in the morning. I would feel bad if he died from the cold.”
Soon after, the boy limped back with an armful of firewood.
“What’s wrong with your leg?” He was obviously in pain.
“It’s a dead foot. I had something to reduce the pain… but it wore off.”
“You carried me through the woods on that foot?” He nodded.
“I didn’t have a choice.” Anath had a soft expression on her face.
“Will you be okay walking on it? If we let you come with us, IF, we can’t have you slowing us down.” He had a hopeful expression on his face, but then it darkened.
“Honestly, no. I won’t be okay. But I will do it anyway.” His stomach growled noticeably. “I would be better if I had food in me. I haven’t… been eating well.”
Anath gasped in delight, then threw open her coat. She withdrew dried strips of venison.
“It’s not much. But… here. As thanks.”
“Girl! That is all of your food.”
“Then I will just get more if I get hungry. It’s not hard.” The ogre began to tear up.
“What’s the matter with you now?”
“Sorry,” he wiped snot from his face. “It’s just… I was scared I would be hungry again. I don’t ever want to be hungry again.”
“What happened to you? I mean, why were you in the forest, alone?” Anath was warming up to the ogre. She was at least talking to him. Elyndris considered this. Ogres get big. Perhaps… she could use someone to protect her hoard, once she got one.
“I don’t want to talk about it.” He had a sad tone to his voice.
“Boy, If we are going to trust you, you have to tell us. We will do the same in turn. You have my word.” The ogre swallowed. Then began his story with a shaky voice.
“Do… you know about the ogre curse?” Anath shook her head. Elyndris knew, but she let him explain. “Sometimes. When an ogre gets really mad or sad, or if they get too scarred or hungry… they change. It’s called going feral.” Anath had a concerned look on her face. Elyndris had an idea of where this was going.
“My… my…” He took in a shuddering breath.
“You don’t have to-”
“Tell us your story, Ogre. Facing your future is impossible if you can’t face your past.” He nodded with resolve. Anath looked like she was about to cry as well. Too much empathy, Elyndris would need to work that out of her one day.
“My brothers disappeared one day. Stopped getting us food.” Elyndris froze. Didn’t she eat an ogre? She vowed right there to NEVER bring that up. She gave the ogre a silent apology. “Then my mum and sister got in a fight, and she ran away. That… I think that was what made Mum go feral.” Anath put a hand to her mouth and a tear ran down her cheek. The ogre was stoically holding back his emotions, but she could feel his heart rate rocket.
“I… I was the only one who got away. She took my boot. I ran away.” Finally, the damn broke. He began to cry into his knees. “I abandoned my mum.”
Anath and Elyndris waited in polite silence as he cried. Tears were not a weakness, so Elyndris did not intervene. Anath silently began to make a fire.
Anath and Elyndris shared their story as they ate.
“So… neither of us have a family. Or a home…” The ogre had a piece of dried meat stuck to a tusk. “What are we going to do?”
“Oh! We found a house that might be-”
“Girl! We haven’t decided if he could come with us yet.”
“But… we can’t just leave him. Not after what he went through. I don’t want to leave you behind, ogre.”
“Really?” Hope washed away the worry on his face.
“Ugh, fine! But, if you are coming with us, you are IN with us, do you understand?”
“No.”
“I mean, you have to join us on our quest.”
“A quest? What kind?”
“We are going to get wishes!”
“To steal power from the divine. This means that you have to be powerful too. Have you said the prayers? I’m not sure how ogres do it.” He shook his head.
“Only once our first hunt is successful. Then we get a name and say the prayers. Oh, but I did say one of them.”
“But, your hunt WAS successful,” Anath said with a mouth full of venison. She swallowed. “You went out to drive off the hunter, right?”
“Well, I suppose… but-”
“Perfect, now say your prayers if you are coming with us, ogre.”
“He just… went away! I didn’t drive him off.”
“Sending your foes running with their tails between their legs is a victory. Don’t dismiss it.” Elyndris did a double take. Anath WAS listening to her after all. The ogre blushed sheepishly.
“Well… Okay then! I did it! But… my family is supposed to give me a name. I… don’t have one.”
“Neither do we. So, we can be a family of orphans.” The ogre rubbed the back of his head.
“I guess that would be ok.” Then he let out a short laugh.
“This is all very sweet and touching, but what are we going to call him? Human? I think that could get confusing.” Elyndris tore a chunk from her own venison.
“What about… Hunter? It at least sounds like a real name.”
“Good enough. I dub thee Hunter. Now say your prayers!” Anath squealed and hugged the ogre, who looked utterly shocked. He began to cry again. Elyndris hoped that wouldn’t become a recurring issue with the boy.
Elyndris’s army had grown by one, that night. Her strength increasing. What she lacked in levels, she would make up with potential. Now she had two blank canvases to work with. Two weapons she could forge into her claws. She remembered what the hunter, not the ogre, said about her past life.
She had three great foes to slay.
Anath
True Name: Anathema
Soul: Monster/Mortal
Genseed: Human
Monster Level: 3
[Class] Level: 4
Attributes [0]:
Strength: 9
Dexterity: 8
Constitution: 10
Intelligence: 11
Will: 9
Charm: 8
Feats:
Encounter: True Angel
Knowledge: System Knowledge
Act: Vile Concoction
Act: Devotion [layered feats]
Skills[2]:
System Aptitude: 1
System Assistant: 1
Survival (Boosted): 1
Purge Poison: 1
Biotraits [1]:
Disease Resistance
Extra Limb (Arachnid), x4
Venomous Mandibles
Multi-eye (Magnified)
Hardened Chitin
Other:
Variant: Arachnid Traits
Elyndris
True Name: Elyndris
Soul: Monster
Genseed: Larva
Monster Level: 4
Attributes [0]:
Strength: 7
Dexterity: 5
Constitution: 5
Intelligence: 4
Will: 4
Charm: 4
Feats:
Encounter: True Angel
Knowledge: System Knowledge
Act: Devotion [layered feats]
Act: Blasphemy
Skills [0]:
Burst of Strength
Pounce
Biotraits [0]:
Base size: Miniscule
Jaws
Tremor Sense
Complex organs
Hunter
Ogre
True Name: Hunter
Soul: Mortal
Genseed: Ogre
[Class] Level: 4
Attributes [0]:
Strength: 8
Dexterity: 5
Constitution: 8
Intelligence: 7
Will: 6
Charm: 6
Feats:
Knowledge: System Knowledge
Act: Vile Concoction
Act: The Ever Hungry
Skills [3]:
System Aptitude: 1
Biotraits [0]:
Rot Resistance