“Won’t you follow me?” An enchanting voiced woman spoke, she stood still holding a hand out but not stepping closer.
Scrambling backward in terror from the Dryad in front of him, Marduk felt his heart gripped with the same fear he had been wrought with when he looked into the eyes of the Hydra Monarch.
Song filled the air around him, the whispers of singing tickling his mind.
The longer he stared at the spirit in front of him the more he realised she looked familiar, the Dryad resembled Adalgard with the same skin made from bark and pointed ears, that was where most of the similarities stopped however with the dark green mossy leaf hair of the spirit.
“Don’t fret little lizard, come closer and join my embrace~” The woman’s voice spun a melodic tone as she opened her arms wide and any semblance of modesty was left on the forest floor literally as a veil of moss clothing parted from her and the naked flesh of the spirit filled his view.
He kept moving backwards and away from it, noticing how it didn’t follow after him and seemed dead set on getting him to go to her. That was when he frantically searched the surrounding trees for help and noticed large glowing magical runes carved into the trunks of several.
Breathing a sigh of relief the Saurian recognised what they were for.
‘A protective barrier, thank the gods’ He heaved another sigh keeping his golden eyes on the oak skinned woman whose bare torso appeared to be softer and more skin like than her arms and legs.
He didn’t want to think about the physiology of a spirit that was currently trying to take him away however and he found the confidence in himself to stand up at this full height of just a little over nine feet tall, he’d actually gotten taller over the course of his journey, only a few inches but it was interesting nonetheless seeing as Saurians stopped growing after eight years. But! That was for another time, he had to deal with this Dryad in one way or another before it got hold of one of the villagers.
Though the moment the thought crossed his mind he realised this could have been some kind of attack on the village with a bunch of the spirits taking their chances at different points in the barrier to be invited in. That being how most magical barriers worked, the outside force always needed verbal permission from whoever was inside to be allowed in. Though the ones back in Ahkula were simple as simple got seeing as his people were so susceptible to the Curse of Self.
“What do you want?” He managed to ask in a somewhat shaky but otherwise calm tone.
The eyes of the Dryad flickered with excitement that sent a shiver down his spine sparking that fear in him again.
“One thing my sweet son of Selene… your-” her voice stopped to let out a terror inducing howl of pain as she clutched her head screaming before plummeting to the ground and twitching and squirming violently thrashing.
The rustling of grass, pines and cloth behind Marduk told him someone had finally arrived to help, when he turned he met eyes that of a woman whose were solid purple, she dressed like some kind of shaman in a collection of loose fitting robes over her shoulders that left her midriff free and around her waist down to her knees. In her left hand was a two metre tall staff with metal caps on the ends decorated with tens of glyphs in an unfamiliar language.
“De-Nommus Era Uo!” The woman chanted rushing in front of the Saurian and swinging her staff downward with practised ease, there was a loud Crack and Crunch as the weapon caved the skull of the Dryad in killing it with a flair of magical light and spray of grey matter across the ground in the grove.
“Thank you for the help” He said the moment the body of the spirit disappeared into motes of magical light.
“I’d say yer’ welcome if not for the fact you’re the one who brought them ‘ere.” The woman said with a twitch of her brow. “Why didn’t ye’ say you were god touched? The whole village is under attack by those monsters” She spat the final word with a sneer of disgust.
Spinning the staff in her hand and planting the bloodied side in the ground she stared at him waiting for an answer.
“I- it wasn’t important?” Marduk was no wordsmith, but even he realised he should have worded it a different way when the woman, who was half his size, looked ready to attack him.
“Come. Now.” She demanded angrily as he walked him back to the centre of the village where all those who couldn’t or would be useless to fight were waiting with a guard of warriors surrounded them and the fire that was blazing in the middle to keep them warm.
As they approached the group he realised she wasn’t the only of the villagers with solid purple eyes, the only other person he’d seen with solid colour for their eyes was Augustus, but he assumed that was something to do with being Áes Sídhe.
It made him wonder what the cause for the people here having it was?
“Aodh!” The woman next to him shouted and without pause the dark haired man he had saved ran over to them.
He was dressed in brown clothes with his mangled armour over him and a sword in hand despite his shaky state from healing.
“Yes Ma’am?!” He answered standing at attention in the same way Marduk remembered soldiers doing.
“You failed to mention yer’ savour was a damn God-kin!” She yelled annoyed at the man.
“He is?” Aodh answered seeing as he’d not known, Marduk had never told the man.
“You didn’t know?” She asked and he shook his head at which point the woman deflated slightly before turning back to Marduk again. “You! You ought to have told us! We need to prepare for these sorts of things!” she barked.
“What happened? What’s the problem?” The Saurian asked.
“Oh- just pissing off the largest tribe of mushroom-kin in the forest! An’ that dam’ aura yer’ radiating is like a campfire in a pitch black field! They kno’ exactly where you are!” The purple eyed woman was fuming.
“I- I don’t know what to say…” His voice trailed off and the Saurian found himself in ‘time out’ per say for the rest of the night while the villagers dealt with the rest of the attack.
----------------------------------------
Grizel, the purple eyed woman who helped Marduk, let out a frustrated sigh as she dragged a hand down her pale face pinching the bridge of her nose. She, the Saurian and Aodh sat in the largest of the buildings in the village, this one being mostly a community meeting place with it basically being a large dining hall that had a fire pit in the middle for cooking over.
“In the three days you’ve been back you failed to mention that Aodh.” The woman complained after hearing the explanation given by the man about the events that actually transpired in the woods leading to the lizardfolk escorting him back home.
The details were news to Marduk of course and gave him a better idea for what the world was like outside the Basin.
Aodh had been looking for one of the young- otherwise referred to as juvenile Mushroom-kin/people, their blood was a core component in the potions Sabine produced and sold to the wolf hunters of Zaros who used them as anti-venoms. The reason for looking for a young mushroom-kin was they were far easier to capture, kill and drain of materials, this was because the adults were often like the one he had fought and stronger.
From the description given the adults were known to be capable of turning a human in mist with a single punch. In any case what he came across was an adult stomping Aodh out for attacking its young at an earlier point, however his arrival stopped that and even led to the village getting a month's worth of the blood from the one he killed.
So he’d done them a great service all the while pissing off the ‘tribe’ that the one he killed was from as they were apparently a hivemind of sorts and so the last thing it sent before he offed it was the way his soul looked or something like that. He didn’t really understand.
He also found out why the human man had been wearing the leather chaps and arm covers, it was to resist the bite of the wolves long enough for him to kill or maim one to get away.
“Alright.. Clearly just ‘cause you speak good Auran doesn’t mean yer’ any good wit’ our way of doin’ things- you are going to have a handler, I’ll probably get Blair for it and you-” Grizel pointed an annoyed finger at Aodh. “Are cleaning up the shit leftover from last night, we need to get ready for the Umbra festival.”
With that the woman dismissed the two sending for the aforementioned Blair so they could be informed of their new job.
Roughly an hour later Marduk found himself at the behest of his handler, once again.
“I’m Blair, it’s good to meet you.” The person in front of him was a tall blonde haired woman with golden irises and lightly tanned skin.
She was the first blonde he’d seen since leaving the Basin, he wondered why that was? He remembered blonde being fairly common before he died, but here it seemed people only had black and brown shades of hair.
Blair dressed in an oversized navy blue tunic that reached her knees and white cotton pants tucked into brown boots, around her waist was a studded leather belt with a smaller knife and a dagger hanging over her left thigh, lastly was a plaid cloak around her shoulders clipped with a bronze pin.
“Likewise, I am Marduk of the Ahkula.” The Saurian replied.
The woman gave him an appraising look.
“Griz said you were god touched as well?” She asked with a brow raised.
“As well?” He questioned.
“Yea can’t you tell?” The woman threw a long bang of hair out of the side. “Golden eyes are a dead give away, the hair too, but I suppose you don’t have that going for you.”
The woman scratched the side of her chin.
“C’mon follow me, don’t want to get in the way of the preparations-” The blonde motioned for him to follow her and he did.
The blonde woman guided him toward the training ground of the village where they watched a group of children spar with spears and swords, much like his own tribe they had no time for ‘practice’ weapons and trained with sharpened iron weapons.
“So what’s with the sword, is it special in some way or just a plain old blade?” Blair asked, eyeing the weapon on Marduk’s hip as they stopped next to the waist high fence around the arena.
Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.
Removing it from the sheath he handed it to her, the blonde woman eyed it meticulously scrutinising every inch of the sword.
“Where’d you get this metal from?” She asked a few minutes later as she handed it back.
He wasn’t sure if he should go around telling other people about the obsidian weapons of the Salamanders, plus his was only given to him because of his job as a Sukkal. Unsure what to say he eventually decided on something simple-
“What are you going to do if I tell you?” He asked back and the woman scoffed.
“I’m not going to invade your home for it if that’s what you think, I just wanted to know that’s all.” She shrugged nonchalantly, turning her attention back to the mock battle going on.
Debating with himself about it again he relented.
“My village acquired it from the Salamanders of Mt. Duranki.” He answered, Blair stared at him in confusion clearly not knowing anything about either the salamanders or the volcano they lived at the base of.
“Right, anyway, I wanted to see what good you are so we’re going to spar when the kids are done- you okay with that?” The golden eyed woman waited for his nod in agreement and then it was just time to wait.
----------------------------------------
“!” Marduk let out a surprised noise when Blair’s foot hit his gut so hard it sent him staggering backward.
They were in a brutal melee which the Saurian had no real expectations for when they started, they’d opted for no weapons, just their bodies. He thought it was going to be like his spars with Sophus’ children but instead he found himself on the backfoot at the start of the spar.
Sliding across the dirt of the arena he slammed his tail down stopping him stead and using it along with his legs to kick off the ground in a hurry, thundering along toward the much smaller woman like a freight train. Reaching back with his right fist he thrust it forward at the last possible second making his hand into point as he speared it toward the woman's torso-
“Crap!” The blonde shouted with wide eyes narrowly avoiding the lightning fast strike, barely having a second to dodge low under the same arm as it swept out to the side she had moved to.
Backpedalling in a cartwheel she further dodged a log sized tail that flew toward her at breakneck speed, a flash of a grin on her face in the excitement as an idea jumped into her mind. A flurry of swishes and swoops of the tail gave her a chance to catch the appendage just in time using it as a springboard sending her into the air with a dramatic flair of movement to reorient herself.
Blair became a golden meteor as the sun caught her hair as she sped back down toward Marduk.
The Saurian had genuinely not felt this much fun in a long-long time as he prepared for whatever the other demigod had in store for him, standing in a wide stance he moved his arms out to his side to clap the woman like a fly when she was close enough.
The resounding CLAP! And BOOM from his hands slamming together-
“Woa-” The word barely fell from his mouth as the golden eyed woman sailed straight past his attempt to catch her wrapping and arm around his bicep and swinging back up and around the Saurians neck.
Her thighs and calves wrapped around his neck tightly as she started choking him and holding his maw shut with supernatural strength as he thrashed about making to grab her.
“Ah!” Blair yelped in surprise as she was ripped off his neck and swung out by her right leg before being slammed into the ground head first by the giant.
Air blasted from her lungs as Marduk swung her again back over his shoulder into the ground on the other side of him before letting go so the now rattled woman could recover.
…
Silence filled the air as Blair laid in the dirt for a minute before finally huffing as she rolled over onto her back letting out a horrific bark of laughter that sounded like those of a madwoman. Muddy golden hair covered her somewhat pale face as she blew a sigh parting some of her fringe.
“I haven’t been thrown like that since my first Boar hunt!” The excited tone of the woman contrasted her defeated appearance.
Relaxing his body and breathing a long sigh of relief out before wincing and gripping his ribs dropping to one knee wheezing in pain.
“Gah!” He spat purple blood.
“Haha! Take that asshole!” The woman barked a laugh again, clearly happy about having managed to cause him harm before her eyes went wide and registered what was actually going on. “Oh! Shit! Sorry!” She raced over to the Saurian.
“M-my…” He sucked in a sharp breath “Ribs…” a long pained wheeze as he felt his cracked bones shift.
Purple blood leaked from his jaw.
“This isn’t going to make a good impression on Griz…” The blonde complained as she turned and called for a healer.
She didn’t get one, instead a man named Graeme came over quickly and handed over a vial much like the one he had seen on Aodh before it was poured down the man's throat. Lifting the green liquid filled vial to his mouth half of it was poured down Marduk’s throat and the other half downed by the blonde woman.
Both god touched individuals coughed harshly as the rancid tasting potion sped up the healing process in their bodies by ten times. Within ten minutes of resting any damage to the Saurians internals were mostly back to normal aside from the broken bones themselves which would still need time.
Not long after drinking the green liquid they moved out of the arena allowing those who wanted continuing training to get back to it, once out a crowd of children rushed up the pair and began hounding them about their ‘awesome’ and ‘epic’ display of combat.
While it was happening Marduk was distracted with his thoughts.
‘That was the first time I’ve ever broken a bone…’ His internal voice trailed off.
Releasing a long breath the Saurian caught sight of the golden haired woman's smile as she happily indulged the children.
‘She’s got that same smile as Alexandra…’ An image of his best friend overlapped with that of Blair for a few moments before he blinked it away with his double eyelids.
[if only you would set your mind to something even more amazing and grand, I’d love to see what expression you make when you see it for yourself.]
Her words returned to him once again.
The expression of the golden eyed woman with the same grin he’d seen a thousand times, it caused a pang of depression to course through his heart for a moment.
‘I hope I can live up to your expectations.’ What remnants of a smile he was capable of took hold of his face and he’d almost completely forgotten about the Lamia by the end of the day.
----------------------------------------
Aodh and Marduk sat next to each other watching a group of ten men and women, all dressed in varying coloured versions of what Blair wore, put together a pyre that they raised a tall statue of a deity onto it. While this was going on there were groups around the village putting up all sorts of colourful decorations and collecting all manner of items for the day of the festival.
“So what is the festival about?” Marduk asked the human man.
“Hm? Oh- its’ fer the goddess Umbra, shes’ the Lady Death, takes care of the dead- makes’sure they get to da’ god Kur safe.”
Nodding his head the Saurian noted the names of the gods for another time to further his education on the matter.
“‘Ave any od’der questions ‘bout tha gods?” The green eyed man asked while sipping from a wooden mug he’d gotten ahold of from a passing cupbearer a few minutes prior to the conversation.
Chewing on some dried meat he’d been given, Marduk swallowed before answering “What about Sol or Selene?” He wondered about the two he’d heard the most of in Logos.
“Well Sol is da’ light of day yea? He rides his chariot ‘cross tha sky. An’ Selene is tha dark of night.” Aodh answered, Marduk found the idea that the man was getting a clearer way of speaking the more he drank funny.
He supposed that Sol and Selene were like Amna and Zäna, he wondered how multiple gods existed in similar positions at once but assumed it was some kind of partnership or maybe they were all the same deity but with different names. He might have compared them to the Roman and Greek gods of his memory, but something told him that wasn’t quite how those gods worked.
Which he couldn’t help but think about now… He’d met a goddess.
Though he’d never really been in question of them since waking in this world, though maybe it was because he’d died and woken someplace else that he was open to it.
Marduk couldn’t even remember whether or not he had believed in gods beyond their names and iconography prior to his death, not that it mattered anymore, but it was still a point that caught his thoughts.
[Who cares if they’re real or not ___? Life’s more fun when you have them either way- don’t you want to cry out “Strike me down Zeus! You don’t have the balls?” when thunder is rolling in? Wouldn’t you rather feel that the planet is a living mother of all creation and taking care of it is just like caring for a sick relative? What about fairies who are the reason you lose things?] Alexandra’s words from another time in another place came to him.
‘She has a point doesn’t she?’ He huffed a laugh internally.
Marduk was brought from his thoughts when a couple of the festival preparers came over and asked if he could lend a hand with lifting something heavy for them.