He didn’t know when it happened but Marduk fell asleep on the boat as he and the foreign tree woman along the Azul, they headed toward the Eastern pass of Ochre where a large canyon would lead them to the world outside The Great Basin in which the Saurian peoples occupied around the dormant Volcano of Duranki.
When he woke he was laying in the front of the Dhow that his steward and captain was sailing, he’d come to learn the name of the ship type after a short conversation with the woman sailing it near the end of the first day when they were idly drifting along the currents of the enormous river.
It would take a few days minimum before they would reach Ochre’s Pass, but Marduk managed to keep a high level of enthusiasm about the trip to it and beyond. The world outside the Basin excited him greatly and even parsed the cold blunt wiring of his lizard brain.
In any case after waking he turned himself and sat up as he slept on stomach, looking around he noticed the change in scenery from mostly grassland to dense forest along the sides of the river, the width of which had narrowed a fair amount down to about half its size.
“You’re finally awake, good, I was starting to wonder if I should push you in the river.” Adalgard spoke in a language he’d never heard before, but for some reason intrinsically understood every word as he stared at the woman with a confused expression. “Oh right-” she switched languages.
“Good thing you woke, we will be landing to hunt food shortly.” She changed what she’d said when speaking in Suran making the lizard man furrow his brow.
Or at least as best he could, his crocodilian features scrunched up in an awkward fashion when she turned away from him.
“When will we reach the next tribe?” he asked, choosing not to focus on how starved he suddenly felt.
“By midday.” The women responded offhandedly as she began guiding the boat toward the shoreline.
Turning his eyes back to the forest ahead of them Marduk was accosted by his mothers final words-
‘If I was told by killing you I could rid myself of this Curse, I would do it in an instant’
‘Damn it!’ He cursed internally ‘Why can’t she just stay dead!? LEAVE ME ALONE!’
His contorted scowl didn’t go unnoticed by the wooden woman as she moved past him to bring the sail down.
‘I wanted to move past her, I wanted to be free! ISN’T THAT WHAT THIS WAS ABOUT?!’ He might have screamed into the aether if he was alone, but being in the company of another he held back on the unnatural anger that roared through his mind trying to shunt, shove, push and drown out the memory of those last few weeks with his mother as she got the worst she had been.
But he was the fool who stayed when his siblings left so he had no one else to blame but himself.
‘How do I live a life unburdened by the strife accumulated until that point?’ He wondered almost desperately.
For reasons beyond him he had simply assumed all that had hurt him would simply disappear and leave him alone, that he was free to pursue what the world gave to him with his new change in life. Only to be haunted by what happened more than he ever remembered being in his previous life, as little of it as he remembered at least.
His past life had long since meant nothing to him any longer, he couldn’t change the outcome of it or the decisions made during it. So why should he worry for a man that was dead?
It was the same for this life he supposed, one of the good things about his new Suarian mindset at least. Why worry about things that have already happened? They had their time in the sun, now is the time to live a life in spite of or despite what choices were made.
But never without the love and approval of the Four Great beings of course…
‘No that wasn’t right’ He grimaced looking to the sky where Amna’s chariot sat around a quarter of the way up in the sky.
‘Maybe if I’d spent more time living with the gods instead of living under them I’d feel more like they were a part of the world? Even now saying calling the Sun Amna feels weird and not quite right, calling the sky Quetzal feels a little less so I suppose, wishing on the light of Zäna to guide us through the night as the moon felt off too. Damkina the earth mother though… that feels natural, maybe it was how often I heard the planet called Mother Earth before?’ His thoughts continued to spin and twine around the idea of the Four Great Beings as the boat landed and he was ordered to hitch it to one of the trees further up the bank than the first row.
Moving on instinct and not even bothering to comprehend what he was doing the world was drowned out by thoughts of gods and what they meant to him.
‘Does my lizard coding keep me from believing in other gods? Am I allowed to stop worshipping one set for another? Is there a singular god out there who rules all?’
‘It’s only been a few days since she died. Am I already questioning my religion?’ He laughed internally. ‘Is it really my religion if I didn’t choose it?’
“Remember, that we all are brothers,
All people, beasts and trees,
The stone and wind
That we all descend from the four great beings
Which were always there
Before the ancestors lived and named them
Before the first seeds sprouted” He repeated under his breath out loud.
He appreciated the concept that all were equal and that they all came from the same place so there was no need to lord yourself above another, it was why there wasn’t a proper governing system that lorded each tribe; it was mostly democracy unless there was a clear right choice.
As Maduk walked back to the boat he found Adalgard sitting on the grass of the back eating some kind of fruit he’d never seen before, it was a large red sphere with a white inside that spilled out some sort of sticky syrup. When he saw it the fruit completely dispersed his thoughts as he focused on it, the Saurian part of his mind made him drool at the sight and sickly sweet smell of the fruit.
“What is that?” He asked for wiping saliva from his lower jaw.
“Súmhar, they are on those trees over there-” She pointed a finger of a particularly colourful looking tree a short distance from them with many of the fruit dangling from its branches.
Taking one of the fruits in his large scaled hands Marduk overestimated how sturdy they were as his hand eclipsed it and accidentally crushed the sphere into juicy mush as it spilled out between his fingers.
‘It’s like a plum’ He mused as he ate the mess in his hand.
Enjoying the flavour of the sweet fruit he found that it left him feeling parched so he went to the water and drank from the river. Despite the sweetness he didn’t feel inclined to eat another, by nature Saurians were carnivorous but occasionally ate fruits though Marduk had never really been partial to them for the same reason as he had his face in the river now.
Before long he’d completely forgotten that he’d even been struggling with his thoughts, he charged himself with collecting a large meal for himself and Adalgard before they set off again.
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He couldn’t explain what, but as they approached the village at midday his nerves were telling him something wasn’t right. That things weren’t as they seemed, the village was a collection of somewhat box-y wooden buildings with rounded triangular thatch roofs with a small harbour that went barely three metres out onto the wide river with small dinghies hitched to the posts.
But it was unnaturally quiet, there were no birds singing in this woodland area, there were no animals making their way through the trees along the bank and there were no people. It was dead.
“Something isn’t right” He heard Adalgard speak in a foreign tongue again and again he understood it.
“We’re landing on the bank, something is wrong with the… tribe.” She cringed as she spoke clearly unsure what the word would be for village, town or settlement.
He could understand why, it wasn’t a common word and he himself hadn’t even used it when referring to the settlement earlier in the day.
The eerie feeling of the village got worse however when they landed and made their way to the gravel laid road that approached the clearing where it rested between the forest. The land around the village was tilled and churned to soon be sowed, but there were no farmers about to sow it, where animals ought to have been there were none.
Soon after setting foot on the path Marduk smelled something foul in the air mixed with the stench of blood.
“That smell is vile” He exclaimed in a disgusted tone the woman walking with him taking a moment to smell the air.
“It smells of…” Her voice trailed off unsure of what word to use.
When they came within a hundred or so metres of the villages buildings Marduk heard a shrill scream that cut through the dead silence-
“Aiiieeeaaahhhh! AAAHHHHHH!” The scream sounded female as a moment later a figure ran out from behind a building, their clothes in tatters and blood streaming down their left arm which was limp as the figure looked back.
Without really thinking Marduk kicked off the ground running toward the figure he realised was a young human woman, he’d not seen a human in this life, but this was the first. He caught sight of another figure this one was grey skinned bloody and came running out from behind the same building, they wore no clothes and their flesh was falling off the bone-
“HELP! HELP ME!!” The woman shouted in another tongue he didn’t know but somehow understood.
Her eyes locked onto the hulking form of the Saurian man going wide and desperately diving away from him as he came barreling past unsheathing the bone and obsidian sword from his hip and easily cleaving through the glowing red eyed humanoid chasing the woman.
The weapon tore through the grey monster with viscera and gore colouring the grass and gravel, the blood that sprayed was black and putrid purple as the heavy Snap and Thud! Of the top half of the body hit the ground.
When it hit the ground the light in its eyes slowly faded until it was gone.
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Marduk stared at the body as his mind caught up with his actions, looking behind him he saw the woman arrive at the feet of the black haired Adalgard who finished removing a small dagger from the throat of the human. The human woman grasped at her throat a scream cut off by the gurgling of red spilling from the wound.
He didn’t feel anything at the sight of the entrails of the grey skinned monster nor the woman who was murdered.
He stood silent and uncaring as the bark skinned woman approached him and spoke.
“She was cursed the same, death was the only help.” She explained turning her gaze to the corpse a few feet from the lizardman.
Turning his eyes to it he realised the being he had killed was… odd.
Its skin was grey with purple veins showing through, there were missing parts of flesh as though it had been ripped from the chest, right hip, with those of the left forearm and right hand missing completely. As well it was naked and appeared human as well with half its skull showing and no eyeballs despite the glowing sockets he had seen.
“What is it?” He asked, unsure of what he was looking at.
“There is no word for them in Suran,” She frowned before giving a name “Orcneas, they are dead who live?”
‘Zombie?’ The word came to his mind, it wasn’t something he’d ever thought about seeing let alone cutting in half.
“Is the village safe?” he asked and the woman shook her head.
“We need to burn the bodies and the buildings, they come from… Warlocks?” she gave up and used the name from whatever language it was she spoke.
“Can it spread?”
“Only the master of the spell can create more, but we must move quickly.”
The tree woman directed him to bring the bodies to the building they had emerged from where they came across a scene Marduk was sure he would have fainted or emptied his stomach or more likely both. A mound of rotting bloated bodies was the least of their worries when they were attacked by another Orcneas that leapt at the Saurian who thankfully had combat training drilled into him growing up allowed him to kill it as he had done with the other, but it wasn’t the final time they would be jumped at by the living dead.
Every home they entered was drenched in crimson with the remains of the occupants strewn about, with a little less grace than one might like Marduk pushed his way into the last home-
“Huurraah!” He grunted out loudly snapping the door from its hinges as he heard a loud scream followed by the sound of glass shattering and his vision being covered.
“AAARRGGHHH!” He growled out in pain stumbling backward from the doorway.
Clutching his face he heard more garish screams from inside the building before what he counted as four people running past him as he dealt with whatever had been thrown into his eyes. The substance was sticky and hard to remove causing him to stumble further backward and trip with a heavy thump as his rear hit the ground.
“Marduk! Are you okay?!” He could hear his travel companions' voices cut through the otherwise silent village.
“No.” He replied flatly, finally removing the gunk that had been thrown in his face as she rounded the corner to where he was.
When he could finally see again, by the door he’d knocked down was a ceramic splatter of what he assumed was a jar of some kind prior to it hitting him and on his hand was an amber substance that dripped and oozed. An exacerbated sigh came from his throat as he stood and winced when he felt something prick his skin, removing a small piece of the jar from his face.
“Wait! Calm down we aren’t here to hurt you!” Adalgard’s voice said a moment later in that foreign language again.
When the Saurian turned to face her he saw the tree woman holding out her hands showing she had no weapon as a few feet from her was a group of children led by a teen boy. The children were three boys and a girl all with lightly tanned skin and dark black hair and brown eyes, as well they dressed in long tunics that reached their knees with a rope of twine around their waists and no shoes on their feet.
“B-but tha- that monster!” The teen leader stuttered out eyes darting to Marduk as he wiped his face again.
“I agree he is, but he’s on your side, he’s with me Luka.” The wooden woman spoke in a soft tone with a gentle expression as she kneeled down in front of the children.
‘That’s rude. I’m not that scary am I?’ The Saurian man thought for a moment before remembering what he looked like. ‘Oh, right, doesn’t matter’
“Are you sure he’s safe? That he won’t attack us?” The teen Luka asked the woman and she nodded her head.
The boy stayed tense for a few moments longer before diving into the arms of the sailor with the rest of the children. He cried and so did the children as they recounted what happened to Adalgard, as they did Marduk said he would investigate more to see if anyone else was still alive- joking that he’d scream if he was hit again.
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“Ah!” The Saurian man let out a yelp as he was tackled by a pair of quadrupeds.
Two persons wrapped their arms around his midsection tightly, though not enough to put pressure on his scales, looking down at them he found his eyes following past the heads of blonde hair to the deer bodies they possessed.
‘Are they Centaurs?’ He asked himself as he lowered his arms which he’d raised when they leapt into his side and began clutching to him like an emotional support plushie.
“Are you okay?” He asked not expecting a response from either of them, but the one hugging his right side nodded their head and a moment after that the one on his left side nodded as well.
“Can you understand me?” They did the same thing in response so he figured they couldn’t and were just nodding their heads hoping he would help them anyway.
Which he would, they were trembling with fear so much he could feel their excited hearts pounding as they pressed into him.
Taking a breath he tried his best to make it clear he was going to start moving, with sufficient warning given he began walking the pair toward where he had left Adalgard calming the children down. As he walked he took stock of the pair's appearances, they were tall for a human, had the lower half of a deer, they seemed to be very young- so that would make them Fawn Centaurs? As well they shared similar features with long golden blonde hair, sharp blue eyes and fair skin. Over their human torsos they wore a sheet of white with a brown leather belt around their waists with a long light brown linen caparison.
It wasn’t until he turned the corner and saw the wooden woman sitting with the children speaking with them that he realised he forgot to actually check the home he’d been about to enter.
‘Oh well I’ll just do it after this.’
“Adalgard I found more.” I announced himself to the woman as he approached, she looked up from one of the boys she had been talking to.
Her eyes went bright when they caught sight of the twins holding onto his torso for dear life.
“Those are some interesting additions to your appearance.” She smiled with a soft laugh.
“You know these hatchlings? Do you know who these two are?” The woman shook her head at his question. “Who are they then…?” he pondered aloud.
“I haven’t stopped here in some time, they might have arrived recently?” She suggested with a shrug.
“Can you see to them while I continue my search?”
“Of course,” She nodded head. “Come little ones I will care for you, the lizardfolk needs to move freely to search for other survivors.” she added after in the language she’d been speaking to the children with.
Marduk felt as the par shook their heads and tightened their grasp around him, the one on the left speaking in a hushed tone-
“He’s safe, smells safe, feels safe, will keep us safe.” While the Saurian could understand the words she spoke he also got the feeling she was new the language with how the sentence was phrased, but also unsure how to feel about what she’d said.
‘I don’t think I’m that safe to be around am I? I suppose I don’t have much experience to know.’
“They say… hrmm…” The black haired woman's voice trailed off as she tried to find the words. “You are their guardian?”
‘I wish we didn’t have the barrier of language right now.’ Sighing internally he answered the woman out loud-
“I won’t continue then, we should take what we can and leave the village then?” He asked and she nodded before speaking to those at her side and encouraging them to stand.
As a large group they walked out of the village along the road past the corpse of the Orcneas and that of the woman, both of which startled the children further seeing a neighbour dead like that. It was a short walk to the boat from there which Adalgard said she would move into the small harbour of the village and that way the needn’t worry about moving things around out of the children's sight.
Within half an hour they had, with the help of Luka the teen, gathered what belongings were salvageable and set up the homes to become pyres for the dead. Marduk felt particularly grim about the whole thing as he was the one who moved all the bodies into the homes after Luka identified them so that the tree woman could make a sign with all their names on them for whomever came across what would remain of the village after they burned it.
When all the preparations were finished the hulking lizard man stood at the bow of the ship watching as the tree woman used some sort of magical flint and steel to light the first fire before she began walking back to the boat. Her expression was solemn as she did so and he could understand why, clearly she had spent enough time with the people to know their names, but as for him, he didn’t feel much more than a growing emptiness in his chest. The emptiness was for how he reacted to all the blood and death, he’d felt nothing, as though they were merely ants being squashed by a boot or some other inane analogy.
He was unsure if it was his own means by which he felt nothing for the tragic loss of life or if it was a side effect of his lizard coding making him cold and distant again.
But he wouldn’t find answers here, so he sat down and shortly after as the wall of intense heat hit his back as the flames gorged on the structures and they set out for Ochre Pass. There wasn’t another humanoid settlement until they left the Basin from now on so they would need to make good time to keep the new additions to the crew fed and healthy.
Closing his eyes Marduk felt the awkward pressure of the two Fawn-Centaurs lying against and on him their silence permeating the ride as he fell asleep hoping they would be in a better land when he woke next.