Chapter 4 - His Name Is Petulance
Ryan came to, draped over the shoulder of the man in the grey lightly padded armour. Ryan took a moment to look around, he was in a different spot from before, the river was still nearby, but no sign of a hydra or its rampage was in view. Ryan almost fell to calm, before he realised his indignity; Not that he was naked, but that he was being carried like a cartoon damsel. Ryan flailed and yelled.
“Let go of me! yah smoky twat!”
Charming as ever, Ryan swung his leg full force at the man who by all rights, was simply helping him. Predictably the man burst into smoke and Ryan fell to the ground with a meaty slap. Scrambling to his feet Ryan saw the man reform from the smoke an arms length away.
“Who the fuck are you? What the fuck was that? What the hell are you doing with me?” Ryan gestured with wide swings of his arms and raised his voice far beyond what was needed to communicate with the stranger.
“Chill out kid, you’re cursing like a schoolboy” The man interjected.
“Answer then!” Ryan shouted, pouting and throwing his arm in an ungraceful gesture towards the stranger.
The man donned a face of consternation, looking Ryan up and down. The man returned to a look of neutrality, shifting his weight away before replying mid-turn.
“My name’s Narthallan, you can call me Nate, that was a hydra and I was taking you to civilization.” Nate said in a single breath, letting some light annoyance eek through. “Are you coming with?” Nate said over his shoulder, still walking away.
After a short pause Ryan jogged up beside Nate keeping in step with him. They kept walking a long while before Ryan thought to ask.
“Do you have anything I can cover myself with?”
“Ah- right that’d make sense right?” Nate replied, sticking his hand into a smoky void and pulling from it a pair of grey shorts and a black sleeveless hoodie, passing them to Ryan. “You can keep these, I’ve got a bunch of them”
Ryan accepted the clothes and started dressing hastily. He noticed other than the mud smears from his little tantrum he was clean, a little mental poke led him to believe it was the Adept’s work, but he couldn’t tell how. Leaving a mental note to ask later he turned to Nate.
“Cheers, do you always carry these with you?”
“I do, their cheap backup clothes” Pulling at the more tattered parts of his armours pads Nate continued “Clothes don’t always outlast the fight”
Ryan frowned “Why would you do it then?”
“It needs doing, and not everyone can do it, I can”
“Fighting monsters you mean?”
“Aye, fighting monsters, protective detail, investigations, the whole bundle” Nate glanced at Ryan with an inquisitive brow, but returned to looking onwards. “No heart for it yourself?”
You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.
“Are you trying to be funny?” Ryan snapped defensively
“Naw kid, I-”
“I’m not a fucking kid” Ryan interrupted, storming ahead.
Nate followed pace and took a gentler tone “It's a turn of phrase ki- mate. Listen, I came from a caravan, we’re moving between 2 cities and I had to draw the Hydra off so the people and cargo in the caravan didn’t get bothered, we’re heading back to that caravan now. How’s about you tell me how you wound up in a nest of rocks in the middle of nowhere”
Ryan returned to a walking pace, a frown turning mild as he replied “I died, woke up in a river, got chased by monkeys and fell asleep.”
“A Carrier then, I’d guessed about right, been here long then?”
Ryan turned to Nate with a question on his brow. And Nate broke out in laughter.
“Weren’t expecting me to take it seriously? It's fine, not common, but not rare. This world is a favourite of Adepts, plenty of Carriers, Companions and Warlocks here”
Ryan's look of confusion didn’t move. “Do you mean adepts? Or is there other stuff reviving people?”
Nate was obviously delighted for the question “Nah, see, Adepts are quite common, you have Companions who are born with an Adept, Warlocks who ritualistically acquire an Adept, and Carriers who an Adept attaches themselves to, a lot of Carriers are folk who’d have died otherwise, typically world hoppers with a young Adept”
“That last one’s me, I was caught up in some trouble and got drowned for it. The Adept asked me if I wanted to try again, I said yes and woke up here… That was yesterday”
Nate smiled and patted Ryan on the shoulder “Not much magic in your world? You’re seeming a little out of your depth”
“Yeah, I’m a bit lost” Ryan let out, clearly uncomfortable for the friendly vibe the conversation was taking.
Nate caught on, patting Ryan’s shoulder once more and dropping his arm. “No worries, I’m a busy bloke, but I know some people who can help you find your feet.”
Ryan looked aside and scratched below his jaw nervously “sure” he said, letting an awkward silence hang.
As the silence drew out the pair sifted through a brush, and into an opening, looking like a dugout in the jungle, if he squinted, Ryan could have called it a road. In the middle of it was a train of metal and wood carriages with spatterings of people on and about them. Approaching from the nearest carriage was a short woman with scruffy cut black hair in draping dark robes and a blonde man in loose white clothing reminiscent of clothes Ryan had seen in martial arts movies.
“You took too long” The woman said to Nate in a cold tone. “Who’s the tagalong?”
“He’s not given me a name, but in my head, his name is Petulance” Nate replied with a grin.
Ryan kicked at Nate and he again burst into smoke.
“I can kind of see it” the blond man commented with a look of amused agreement.
“The fuck do you mean Petulance?” Ryan asked at the reforming Nate.
“You keep snapping and kicking at me, and what else should I call you?” Nate replied.
“My names Ryan, you could have just asked” Ryan raised his arms open in defeat.
“Hi Ryan, I’m Nate” Nate replied formally, “This is Aurelia” gesturing to the woman in black, “And this is Razz” gesturing to the man in white.
“Rude, what if I wanted to be anonymous, or use a pseudonym ”Razz said in affront “What if I was on a secret mission and my name was confidential?”
“That would be good, because we’d stop hearing complaints about you” Nate joked.
Disappointed Aurelia replied “We’d still hear them, just with descriptions instead of names”
The dynamic between the three seemed to Ryan like they’d worked together a long time, though it wasn’t clear if they were friends. Aurelia has a clear distaste for Nate and Razz’s behaviour, but whether this was disdain or just Aurelia being Aurelia wasn’t obvious from the short interaction. Razz approached Ryan with a hand reached out.
“You must be new, you're a Carrier?”
Ryan took the hand and shook gently “What gave it away?”
“You’re wearing Nate’s spares, meaning you’re fresh or something scandalous has happened, and I can’t smell enough shame for the latter” Razz smirked.
Aurelia put a hand on Razz’s shoulder and squeezed, the force was audible, but to Razz’s credit he barely winced. “You will join the caravan and stay with Team Storm, us.” Aurelia demanded.
“And If I don’t want to?” Ryan replied.
“Then you can wander into the next Hydra alone” Nate chided.
Ryan followed Team Storm to the centre of the caravan, passed awkward nods to the passengers, and sat on the roof of a carriage with Aurelia as Nate and Razz spread news spread amongst the caravan that the Hydra was dead and they could move along again. Aurelia was silent until it looked like Razz and Nate were returning, then before they could approach the carriage she turned to Ryan.
“You should know what Nate did was incredibly stupid, adventurers our grade facing a hydra die. You don’t just owe him your life, you owe him his own. His trick into the Hydra’s gut was a suicide attack.” She stared Ryan in the eyes with an intensity he recognized, it was like he was staring into the hydra’s maw again. Aurelia continued “You are going to stop kicking him, and you are going to thank him” Again she stared at Ryan.
Ryan couldn’t look away, and a threat hung in the silence. “Yeah, I’ll thank him”
Aurelia visibly relaxed and looked on to Nate and Razz’s approach. The light again was leaving the jungle, and the caravan in the distance was starting to move. Nate and Razz vaulted the carriage and Razz smacked its side twice.
“Nate, thanks. For the hydra.” Ryan let out awkwardly, sincere, but staggered.
“No worries kid, it's what we do”
Ryan thought to bark back at being called a kid, but stopped short. The grin on Nate’s face was genuine and beaming, that thanks looked like it had really made Nate’s day, and Ryan hadn’t the heart to damp that. It was awkward, off, even a little concerning, but Ryan replied with a wonky smile.