I knew what I wanted. Vengeance. To end the life of that piece of shit who killed Thomas and his group just because they were inconvenient. My heart burned with hatred, and I felt the pull to go into Larton and pay them back - a thousand fold if I could. Except, I knew that it would be a one way trip.
Mom - who I have no doubt was a much better combatant than I was - died fighting a group, simply because no matter how good you are you will eventually drown if there's enough foes.
"FUCK!" My fist impacted the dirt. Again, and again and again - until my knuckles were sore and the burning feeling of hate was replaced with frustration and a mix of self-loathing and utter emptiness.
----------------------------------------
It took some time - but I decided against heading back to Larton. I'd be back - eventually- but right now.. I had nothing. I had no evidence, and I wasn't strong enough to get what I wanted on my own. So - I left. With no supplies or money, or any other convenience. After all, I was in combat gear when the guard kicked the door down, so everything I own was left there.
I could have gone back to Stein, but... it didn't feel right. Just thinking about going back felt like I'd be giving up on everything Thomas and Mom meant to me and what they taught me - it felt like defeat. In my heart, the flames of vengeance were gone - replaced instead by a steady smolder. I've chosen a goal, and I'm going to see it through - even if the implication of it made my mind reel in all the possible ways this could go wrong.
'I'm going to have to become a hunter.'
----------------------------------------
I followed the road away from Larton for as long as I could, but there was a very obvious problem - and my stomach wasn't helping with its endless complaining.
The journeys between towns were long - and arduous. From what Stein told me, long time ago before the Torments became a commonly fought threat, there used to be many more villages and trading outposts that one could stop at, usually about a day away from the last stop. However, those smaller settlements had no real means of paying for protection of skilled mercenaries and thus soon fell. This in turn made travels even more dangerous.
Which meant that I had a good few days of travel before me before I got to the next town - alone and with no food. At least I had a small waterskin, and could with some effort collect morning dew. Another positive was that the further inland you head the denser the vegetation becomes - which naturally means that sources of water like rivers become more abundant.
That's about where the positives ended. I had no viable shelter, I knew for a fact that there was a reality warping THING constantly stalking me from somewhere - playing with me. I also had no easy way of getting food. The vast plains of my hometown were slowly being supplanted by forests - or at least, grouping of trees. I did hear birds chirping, but I had no idea how to catch them without a bow and arrow.
Bugs were theoretically viable option too... I think. I never ate them before, but meat is meat, right? I mean... I'm not happy about the idea, and even though it was almost 18 hours since I didn't quite feel hungry enough. 'Yet.' If nothing else, at least it was a good idea to remember that it's an option.
As for rats, or other smaller creatures or burrowing things? I had no idea how I'd even find them, much less how I'd catch them when they inevitably run into their burrows to hide.
Larger creatures like deer and whatnot were also not a great idea. They at least are heavy enough to where following the basic tracking methods Dave taught me would work - looking for broken branches, grass that has been recently stepped on and so on. On the other hand, odds are they'd run away from me, unless they were predators and had some advantage. Plus they have a very real chance of hurting me, and this time there will be nobody to patch me up if things go wrong.
The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.
I didn't like the obvious conclusion.
----------------------------------------
Luckily getting fire going wasn't too bad. I didn't have my flint and steel, but fundamentally flint is just a piece of a very hard rock with sharp edges, and steel... I had steel. May the blacksmith who forged Stein's sword forgive me. The sun was setting, and I was sitting in dead center of a road with a pile of branches and a small fire that's finally started burning.
Next to me was the result of my hunting efforts. A small pile of dead grasshoppers, caterpillars and snails.
As the night grew darker, and the fire became the only thing keeping me company I started to realize just how bad my situation was. I didn't really have any clue what I was doing, and I was moving in the exact opposite direction of everything I knew was because... because of my pride.
I reached over to my 'frying pan' - which in reality was nothing more than a somewhat flat and thin rock fitted to a stick so I didn't burn myself - and started to slowly roast the efforts of today's work.
The night progressed and not much of anything happened. Thankfully that meant no visit from my uninvited stalker. On the not so nice side of things, it meant that there was nothing to distract me from my thoughts until exhaustion took me.
----------------------------------------
Several days passed since I left Larton, and while my surroundings have clearly changed due to the road leading directly into a forest, my activities have not. It was becoming routine, walk and keep an eye out in case there's something I can catch. Be careful whenever something dangerous sounded nearby, and stay the hell away from anything that even remotely appeared supernatural. After my last battle with a Torment, I was positive that if I was alone against one I'd end up dead. Well.. Most likely.
Mom's power might change that, but I had no clue how to activate it whenever I wanted. Walking gives you a lot of time to be bored, so I used that time to think and to test things. Doing the thing with mom's dagger and the tattoo that the visitor did to activate it the first time did precisely nothing. At least I had the foresight to not use the sharp side of the dagger when trying to push it inside the triangular tattoo. Meditation was somewhat of a success - that statue room was still there somewhere inside my mind, but nothing happened no matter what I thought about, or visualized or did. That, and my time to do it was limited, as I could only really do it at night after setting up a fire - which meant I was tired and usually just lost focus and fell asleep.
'Whatever the trick is, I'll need to figure it out as soon as possible. It saved my life once, and I'd rather know that I can rely on it.'
A sigh escaped my lips as I kept on putting one leg in front of the other - though the monotony of my routine was soon disrupted. Not by anything surprising or loud, but by people - armed people - on the road far ahead of me coming in my direction.
An image flashed in my mind of the people Larton's guard slaughtered - and my eyes grew wide as a realization dawned upon me. 'The Veda!' I felt chills as horror ravaged through my body. 'Vedas are connected, Larton could have informed the next town over that I'm coming and lied to them to cover up everything!'
My mind raced as I considered my options.
Running away? They've already seen me, and even if I do run, where would I go? To Larton? No.
Into the forest? They know this area better than I do, not to mention I could always stumble into a Torment's territory and just end up dead. Not a good idea.
Maybe... Maybe I'm just panicking. It's possible they used the Veda like that... But it's also possible they didn't. I had no idea. Besides I was quite worn out from having to survive on my own. The images of events in Larton did not go away, instead my dreams became nightmares and kept reminding me every night. Furthermore... I was hungry. Yeah, I managed to scrounge up enough food to survive for now, but I knew I wasn't eating enough.
I shook my head to refocus and clear my thoughts as I've made my decision. The plan was simple - 'Just act natural' - and hope it was merely my paranoia. I took a stock of myself - I looked like shit, didn't smell much better and one of my pockets was full of dead bugs. I seriously needed to get back into civilization at least for a bit. And money. I'd also need money.
Thoughts about what I could sell, or if maybe the tavern in whatever the heck the nearby town is called could accept work for lodging came to soon occupy my mind. But not before too long I was brought out of my reverie brought upon by realization that taverns have food - actual food.
I didn't even quite realize when it happened, but it seems I walked straight into the group of... mercs? guards? I couldn't even tell. What I could tell is that things were about to go horribly wrong - especially when they fanned out and surrounded me.
"We've been informed of someone of your description coming this way. You are under arrest for murder of several people in Larton. Do not resist."
'Hopefully prison food is better than bugs' was my only hope as I slowly raised my hands into the air.