Alan, a tall, lean man soon to be 20 years old, his newest hobbies include training archery, not starving, and being stupid out in the woods at night.
'Okay Alan, you can do this, you are an idiot, but you can do this' Reassuring himself, he started dragging the doe's corpse toward the village. The sun has already begun to set, so hurrying was not an option, but a must. A forest is not forgiving at night.
Leaving the arrows in the carcass may have been a bad idea, since he can't even defend himself if the need arises, but letting the blood flow out more freely could attract some creatures with sensitive noses. Not like there won't be a trail of blood anyway.
'Not like the bow would be much use in a direct fight while dragging something.' With that he gave upon the idea of taking them out.
Time was running, it was already night, though the full moon's light helped him not to trip and fall too many times. Pulling this weight left him panting quickly so he almost couldn't hear the horse hooves.
'I must be close to the road' Catching his breath he started dragging the doe toward the noise. The logs, uneven footing and his bow getting stuck on branches didn't help the hauling.
He heard the horses getting louder and louder, and he was pretty sure they were running at a faster than usual pace.When he finally emerged from the forest to the road, he could see the wagon being close to him already. He wondered if they would help him, but quickly abandoned the idea when he saw the dozen of shapes that were following them, quickly gaining on the wagon. The moonlit night helped him see a little, he could see they were bargs, the wolf-like creatures, only without a single hair on their body.
'If those things notice me, or smell the blood, I won't have any chance of getting away' With that he began pulling the arrows out of the corpse. He already lost two, but one more came out broken, that left him with four . Then turned back to the forest but stopped after hearing a scream.
"Jonathan, no!" It was a woman's voice, coming from the roads. He turned back to see someone tumbling on the road, two of the bargs upon him. Another two shapes hopped out of the wagon, while it drove away. The other two's landing was much better than the first one's, they quickly regained their footing and sprang to action, rushing toward the person lying on the road while cutting and stabbing at a gracious pace. Still, he could see the man on the road,screaming while getting clawed up by two of the animals, help is not near enough.
Taking his bow out, nocking an arrow he took aim. He didn't release it.
He may actually be the one who kills the man, if he misses.
Gritting his teeth, he took aim again, but he still hesitated. After a long moment the man's scream became worse, he finally released.
The man was still screaming and moving, but one of his attacker fell to the ground. Though not feeling any better about it, he still nocked another one, this time not hesitating as much.
He glanced at the other two, but was met with something crashing into him. One of them took notice of him and attacked.
He could feel as the sharp fangs sinked into his left shoulder, making him scream. Trying to wrestle with it, punching it, anything to get it away from him. One of the punches pushed him back enough to take a glance at it. Its hideous bare body gave him the creeps while its pure black eye was staring at him. Taking a step back he picked up his bow and started swinging with it hoping to keep it away. It rushed forward, but the bow hit its head, making it flop to the ground. Not wasting any second, he rushed forward stomping on it, kicking it, anything just to kill it. Though the creature was more agile, and got up as soon as it went down, repeated kicking did it's job.
After a couple more strained kicks, the struggle was over, letting him collapse to the ground, shivering and shaking.
The others were finishing up on their share as well, seeing that one of the man, bald and tall with a stylish moustache, in heavy plate mail armor approaching him.
"Max, stop!" Yelled one of the man, but the one was still approaching.
"I said, stop!" The other, no helmet on him either,showing his dark hair, in a fine leather armor, rushed forward, tackling Max to the ground, but from the sounds Max wasn't one not to retaliate with elbows.
"What the hell are you doing?"
"He almost killed the Lord, get off me!" Max was shouting and thrashing to get the other man off of him. Alan saw the moonlight reflecting from his sword in his hand.
'Killed him? I saved him!' He was waiting for some gratitude, so he never imagined he would be faced with menace instead.
"I'll deal with this, you go and help your lord, if he bleeds to death you'll have noone to protect!"
When the moments of quarell ended Max rushed back to the man still lying on the ground, he could see the wagon has came back already too.
Letting out some pained groans and massaging his ribs, the man finally crouched down in front of Alan. "Your shoulder is pretty messed up. Do you have it in you to move?" He asked while examining his injuries.
Alan quickly scooped backward until he hit a tree with his back. Searching for his bow he sat it was lying at the man's leg. He had no means to defend himself if man really wanted to 'take care of him'.
He got a puzzled look in return, but something dawned on the man and asked with a smile "Oh. First time seeing a barg? They can be quite the experience. Come, we need to hurry back." He paused for a second "Oh, don't worry, Max will not kill you. Probably."
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'That wasn't reassuring.. ' Before he had a chance to answer, the man took a step infront of him, bow in hands, took his arm, gladly the one which wasn't a furless dog's plaything, then pulled him to his feet. Now standing, he noticed that his legs were shaking. He almost collapsed on the spot. Fortunately, the man was helpful and tossed his arms over his shoulders, and they started toward the wagon.
"My name is Eric, whats yours?" He asked with the brightes smile he ever saw.
'Friendly... too friendly.'
"A..Alan"
Making their way to the wagon on the corpse littered road, he saw that there were way more than a dozen barg. 'Did only the two of them did this? They only got some scratches.'
"Eric hurry up please, we don't have time!" Another woman's voice rang out, but it was different from the first one. Eric hastened his steps, Alan in tow.
When they reached the wagon he could see Max glaring at him, and now with some light from a candle, his clean shaven head and face with sharp eyes fit the image of someone who would start a fight over a single thread of hair falling in the wrong way. Further back in, there were the two women he heard before. One, as old as Alan himself probably, with straight black hair falling down over her shoulders and a pretty face, in a simple light colored robe, occasionally tainted with a dark smudge. She was holding a candle above the man lying on the floor. The other woman trying to patch up the poor fellow. Her face was adorned by wrinkles here and there, but there was no other sign of old-age, like grey in her hair that was tied up into a bun.
"I am in immediate need of some good alcohol. Or not good alcohol. But would prefer the first one." Groaned the man who was currently examined for wounds. The poor fellow had scratches all over his face, half his mustache was gone, a cut over his eye, though Alan couldn't see if he actually lost it, or was just flesh wound. At least he was in still a good mood, or so he seemed.
"One more word..." Was mumbling the woman doing the work, but she cut off the last words.
"Is he alright?" Asked Eric, addressing the older woman.
"He lost a good deal of blood from all these openings, but none of them are too deep or too wide, except for one, that went through his shoulder." As she was saying the last words, Max's glare intensified.
"Right, right." He nodded knowingly. "Anyway, I got a helping hand for you. Make some space for him and we can get going at once."
"You want to bring him with us, after he put a hole in the Lord? He deserves to be the dinner for those disgusting creatures, not a fine ride." Max finally snapped, but he still didn't make a move. Eric just smiled. Would he be the target of violence if things turned bad, or Alan? If it was a former, he looked like he didn't care the slightest.
"Please stop this, just let's go already." The girl's voice was tired, like she was listening to his parent's nagging for hours and hours. She didn't even look up, just stared at the candle.
Several long moments passed when Max finally closed his mouth went back to his single sided staring contest.
Eric turned toward Alan "Now, seeing that you came from the forest I suppose you are around from here. Is Keltan the closest safe space, or is there a closer hunting lodge or something?"
"Uh," He was trying to recall anything that resembles a house, or at least something that has a roof and/or a door. "I don't think so, I've been here for a week only."
'Wait, they have an injured member, he needs a medic.' He wanted to speak up but Eric swatted it away.
"Well, Keltan it is. You know the way there at least, right?"
"Ah, yes, you just need to go straight on this road and take the first left and follow the road again."
"Good, ladies, if you would patch him up so he doesn't bleed to death, I would appreciate it." With that he pushed him up to the back of the wagon, and headed for driver's side.
"Ahh David, you still breath, what a fortune for ...." Was heard from the front, but the end wasn't audible.
Sitting with three strangers, one of them with eyes as daggers, after getting attacked by something scary and disgusting was not how he planned his evening. He wanted to simply hunt for some money, get back to the inn and get a good sleep.
'Oh, the doe' He almost forgot about it, but he didn't dare to utter a single word. The horses started moving too, so the fate of his money was already sealed.
Silence befell upon them, which was only broken by painful groans, and some commands from the older woman.
With each moment passing by, Alan's wound started to hurt more and more, but he did not dare to utter a single word. Maybe they remembered Eric's word about patching him up, just didn't care?
The woman was finishing up on her job, giving the man a stern look, then turned to Alan.
"Come here." They didn't forget nor ignore him. That was a good sign.
With not a moment wasted he hopped up, wincing at the pain of his shoulder, but went to her and sat down. She cut down the remaining clothes from his shoulder with a surprisingly decorated knife, then started examining his wound. She started frowning, even though she looked calmly at the other man's injuries.
' That's never a good sign.' He hoped it's not as serious as the woman's gaze told her.
He turned over to another gaze, the young woman's. Hers was a little worse. The older one's was at least lively, full of life. Hers was just.. tired. She wasn't even looking at him, even though her eyes were on him. She was just staring into nothingness through him.
He would try to look at Max, but he already knew his eyes would just try to kill him. Without a doubt.
As he was thinking if he should finally introduce himself and know the others name at least, a strange light caught his attention. It wasn't the candle, the candle's light changed, flickered it never stayed. This light however was static and subtle, and for some reason, at the same time he felt his shoulder ease up. He tried looking for the light, and he quickly found it. On his shoulder. Where the flesh was knitting itself together.
"Magic!" He exclaimed with brightly. He was looking for it for the past months, and he found it in the least expected place, in a wagon with a depressed girl, a soldier that wants to kill him, a man that he shot accidentally, and a middle-aged woman.
"Yes, yes, magic, now shut up and sit still." Her voice was strained and anxious. The wound she was working on was slowly and surely getting itself repaired. 'Amazing. She doesn't do anything but it works! No stitches and no pain! Amaaazing! Grandpa was right!' He almost couldn't keep amazement from being vocalized. The thing he was looking for for months was finally here.
The cover to the front flipped open to Eric's face appeared, his smile brighter than the light from the long dreamed magic. "Hey, I heard you want to learn magic, what about a deal?" He said.
"He should be grateful I didn't slice him up, no way he's coming!" Max shouted. He seemed like he was on the edge to saying something for a good time already and it seems he snapped.
"Max, stop at once" The woman, not even glancing at him, spoke up.
"Thanks Theresa," Eric winked at her. " So Alan, what about a deal?"
"Yes-yes-yes what do I need to do?" He was eager to walk the path of the ones his grandfather always told tales about. People controlling mana like its their own limbs. Artists that played with their casts like dance partners. Of duels between these benders of power, their show of power and grace. He wanted to be like them, and it was in front of him. What could be the cost? He already lost his parents' grace because of his dreams, his friends were taken away to be one of these powerhouses. He didn't even have a place to stay and he was already deep in this.... something.
"Overly enthusiastic. I like it. So have you ever wanted to travel foreign lands?" Another lopsided grin. He was getting suspiciously friendly.
"Yes I will.... wait, foreign? Why do you ask?" He didn't understand why would foreign countries come up out of the blue. Could it be that he had to go out of the country like it was originally planned? He really didn't like that idea.
"Well, we need some manpower here you see. We are on a long journey with the ladies and gentlemen here and seeing that you were out in the woods so late tells me you don't have anywhere else better to be at. So how about joining us?"