As the day bore on for the trio of Marduk the giant Saurian, Minerva the buxom Lamia and Aodh the human, dusk had started to settle it was still more than bright enough for them to continue, even with the general shadow of the looming pines darkening their path.
Aodh pointed out that they were within a few hours of his home with surprise that they'd cut his estimate of their journey time in half with Minerva owing it to Marduk's impressive strength allowing them to otherwise move unimpeded through the woodlands.
Their travel conversation had been rather light with occasional questions from the Lamia spurred on by curiosity about the human village as she'd never heard of it in her time in Óðal.
“Sabine is a smol’ village I'd be surprised if ye ‘eard of it.” The green eyed man replied, turning his eyes the snake woman as she slithered in pace with him.
“Surely your renown with potions would have earned your people a title? From what I can tell it's all too common for villages- small ones especially to get larger than life reputations for their abilities.” The black haired snake woman was all too quick to say.
Aodh shrugged his shoulders.
“What can’I say? We're fine wit’ our lot s’long as da gods keep us in der’ graces.”
Changing the subject to something he'd been wondering about himself, Aodh asked a question.
“bein’ from da’ swamps ya'll’re familiar wit’ them Dragon Lords aren't ya? Hows'it one of them seven headed monsters ain't ne'er killed one an’ taken over?”
“you know what a Hydra is?” Marduk couldn't help but interject though he'd never heard of one with seven heads.
“if dats’ what ‘dere called, the aye. There's dis monarch that clashes wit’ King Garum every year- fightn’ to see who ought to be ruler.” His response drew silence over the other two.
Minerva’s silence was brought about by not having heard of the fight before feeling like it was too large of an event to go unheard of until now.
In Marduk's case it was a bout of fear spurred on by the image of a seven headed Hydra. The five headed monarch he encountered was otherwise considered a minor deity, the more heads a Hydra had the stronger they were- or so the story he'd he told went.
So for one to have seven and be match enough for the other scariest creature he'd learned of since waking in this world. He'd heard tales Kihtapactli the monarch his sister saw wipe out the Cahautl having six heads but he'd assumed it exaggeration on his sister's part after witnessing such an awful thing.
Now though, now that he knew of a seven headed Hydra there wasn't any doubt in his mind about the fear his sister had toward that monster on the day the Cahautl were wiped out.
“This… Hydra who fights dragons… we wouldn’t be passing through that way while we travel to the Lakar?” He asked the human man who shook his head in response.
“Not likely, roads to Lakar’re safe ‘sides the monsters” Aodh’s attitude was blasé, earning a raised eyebrow from the Lamia and a mental one from the Saurian.
Just as Marduk was about to ask the man a question he barely had a moment to react as an enormous black and grey patterned blur of fur barreled through the two in front of him without warning.
“AHHH!” A terror-filled scream of pain erupted as the mass stood over Minerva viciously ripping its head from side to side with gnarled teeth carving into her arm spraying crimson everywhere.
That all happened in barely a second, with Marduk’s attention drawn to the pack of six wolves as tall as Clydesdales, they bore their fangs and gnashed their maws leaping high at the lizardman as three of them took hold of his body. One to each of his arms and the last attempting to force him to the ground as its jaw snapped down on his thick neck.
An onlooker might have noted the slight stagger as the huge beasts pelted him with monstrous strength, however it would otherwise have seemed as if he barely noticed the attack standing still with a twitch of his right arm whipping outward and smashing into the head of the wolf that had been hanging off it with a crunch and squelch as it’s skull caved in under his might- with little more in the way of movement he flourished out his obsidian blade carving right through the pair still attached to him.
Thump thump thump thump
All the Saurian could hear after the initial attack was the sound of his blood pumping as his mind went into overdrive working on instinct to slaughter the beasts without thought.
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“Shit! Hurry- Argh! My chest!” Aodh cursed as he rushed the three hunters from his village to escort their troupe to a healer.
Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.
Marduk’s mind was running on empty as he barely registered what was happening after the fighting stopped and the human man had freaked out at Minerva being bitten. The Lamia woman now in a barely breathing unconscious state as he carried her through the ramshack village that reminded him a lot of his own, aesthetically at least.
Thankfully it wasn’t long before they arrived at the healer's hut where a lithe man who looked more like a butcher than a healer with a large leather apron over their front and a bonesaw in hand as they moved in.
“What in Terra’s fat ass did you bring me this time?!” The healer yelled as the snake woman's body was laid on a table in front of him with her tail long enough that it was out the flap of the hut.
Marduk barely had his head and arms in the building enough to place the Lamia before he was forced to pull himself out completely and wait idly outside being stared at by the many faces of the village. His heart became cold and his mind stilled as it clamped down on emotions that ran a little too wild, Lizard wiring shutting down any attempt at grief like it had done with his mother.
Att least this time he didn’t start walking aimlessly into the distance until he decided to travel the world like last time, but his mind was still awry with confusion as he tried to decipher what had happened again, but everytime he did something in his mind shut it down and sent him back to the present where he was sitting outside the healers home being watched by a large crowd of villagers.
Their stares felt like daggers, the passive aggressive distrust and malice of his home seeping back into his mind making him feel small under their gazes.
One thought he’d almost forgotten completely in his time living with Julia arose again.
‘I’m Cursed’
‘She was right…’
‘Damn it all’
His thoughts ate away at him and his mind slipped slowly until he fell asleep exhausted from the fight.
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Marduk’s eyes opened to a dark evening where the veil of Selene had slipped in and the stars Asteria had come out, he’d learned their names but not anything particularly notable about these gods the rest of the world seemed to have.
Bringing his eyes back down to the village in front of him, there was barely a sound beyond the rustling of wind through trees and the sound of breathing coming from the nearby hut.
Then he was reminded of why he was here.
“Minerva…” He spoke her name aloud as the memory of her being bitten and assaulted by the huge wolves arose.
He had been told once the beasts were killed that they secreted venom from their fangs like a snake to paralyse and destroy their target from the inside out. So when she was bitten it put her on a clock, Aodh told him she had less than an hour left to live if she wasn’t treated and that even if she lived she’d never be the same.
That was when he told the human that he had also been bitten but didn’t feel anything, this had surprised the man but they had little time to acknowledge it when a group of hunters from the village showed up and apologised for letting the pack get away from them then even more once they realised someone was bitten.
This was when they raced to the village.
The realisation set in that he still hadn’t been checked for this toxin but felt perfectly fine.
‘Am I immune to venoms?’ He wondered eyeing the marks where the wolves teeth had punctured his scales, they were already healing. ‘Another part of her blessing?’
It seemed obvious now that he pointed it out that Zäna’s blessing was the cause of his immunity to such a deadly venom. But that couldn’t protect others, he was ultimately worried for the Lamia’s safety and health with what he’d been told of the damage it could do.
Something in his mind complained, something deep and reverent for his Ahkula blood.
‘What good is this divinity if it can’t help those around me?’ That deep part of his psyche controlled his thoughts for a moment. ‘Contributions need to be made to the tribe, not just myself… What good is this blessing?’
“No. damn it!” He cursed under his breath as a sneer took ahold of his scaled crocodilian features.
‘I’m not an ant! This isn’t a hivemind! I’m a person! More than my contributions to a tribe that hates me for something I couldn’t do anything about!’ He yelled into his mind.
“Fuck” Marduk spat in disgust as his feelings of anger and irritation subside suddenly crushed under the weight of his lizard wiring keeping him from experiencing an emotional outburst.
He hated that he couldn't be as human as he once was, that his mind and body refused to let him have greater emotions than slight tippings one way or the other.
All but distracted from his initial worries his mind warred with itself flaring with great feeling and emotion before being swamped with dull aching snuffing it out stressing his mind into an exhausted state finally causing him to fall asleep after a short while.