Walking through the trees, the woman’s face grew more and more frustrated at every kicked rock and broken twig until finally she whipped around and jabbed a finger at the skeleton. “Can’t you be any quieter?” The skeleton didn’t respond. The woman turned again and started walking and not hearing the skeleton she looked over her shoulder to see the skeleton slowly making its way toward her, taking excess care to step on flat ground only. Her face flashed in irritation. “That’s too slow! Just... keep my pace and stay as quiet as you can.” The skeleton, who had stopped, nodded slowly.
With that the two of them continued through the trees following an overgrown footpath. A few times the woman would glance over her shoulder, but seeing the skeleton following and hearing only the occasional sound, gave no other sign that she knew it was there.
Eventually, the sun started to sink in the sky and the woman turned off the path. Her eyes scanning the trees as she walked, she spotted a small clearing and headed toward it. Once there, she pulled off her pack and began to pull out various supplies, the skeleton in her peripheral not moving. “Go get some sticks for a fire.” She told it, and after watching it walk off slightly, began to set up a fire pit. A few mutter spells had a small hole surrounded by rocks. Right around this time, the skeleton returned with a pile of sticks being held by one of its arms. The sticks were the perfect size and length for a fire.
“How did you know... Wait. No. Nevermind. I don’t want want to know.” She took the sticks, noticing the skeleton's second arm continuing to clutch the box under the cloak. Clicking her tongue in irritation, she turned and built a stick tower. Another muttered spell and the fire started. The woman pulled a pot and some dried meat closer and began to prepare a small stew for herself. She glanced once at the skeleton in thought but shook her head and continued. The skeleton was only a few feet from her and just stood there staring blankly into the tree line.
“Fuck!” She screeched as the skeleton suddenly darted toward and past her, her grip changing on the blade to one meant for attacking. She turned and found the skeleton pulling a snake up from the grass. A venomous snake at that. A snake that had been just a few feet from her. The skeleton held it, even as the snake tried to squirm away. “Can you kill it?” She asked, honestly curious about how a skeleton would, as normally they weren’t dextrous enough to do anything more than pile on top of a target.
The skeleton nodded. She watched as it lifted the snake and put its head in between its teeth. Her eyes widened as it bit down and severed the head in one go. With blood and venom dripping over its teeth, it dropped the snake and turned to look at her. “Well, I just found another way you are different. You don’t have muscles, you shouldn’t be able to bite through anything.” She let out a sigh and went back to her stew. “I’m starting to think that I didn’t mess up my spell, I think there’s something wrong with you. Were you always this peculiar?” She looked up and the skeleton didn’t react.
She frowned at it before turning back again. “Fine. I honestly don’t know if you just don’t know the answers, or have somehow developed the ability to act like you don’t. Well, regardless. We’ll be seeing other people in a day or two, we’ll have to find you a better disguise before then. I’d rather not be thrown in a dungeon because of you. I’d give you spare clothes, if I had any. More to the point, I’d spell you invisible, if the last two spells hadn’t gone absolutely haywire. All my other spells have worked just fine. So it’s definitely a you thing.”
With her pot over the fire, the woman began to pull out a small tent, pitching it in silence. When she finished, she turned to the skeleton once more. “I assume because you are undead you don’t need sleep or anything. Right?” The skeleton nodded. “The snake means that you are still bound to protect me, right?” The skeleton nodded again. “Good. I’m going to sleep. You guard. If people come, wake me and hide. If monsters come...” She paused. “Wait. I need to give you a way to wake me.” She dug through her bag once more before pulling out a metal bowl. Then glancing around she picked up a big rock. “Try hitting these two things together.”
The skeleton reached forward with only one arm. The woman groaned. “You aren’t going to let go of that thing, are you?” The skeleton remained still. Muttering, the woman dug through her pack once more before pulling out a sack from the bottom. “Take off the cloak.” The Skeleton did it with surprising ease. Like it knew how to do that. She glared at it again, but didn’t comment. Looking over the skeleton for a moment she nodded. “Ok, what about this? We put the box in the sack, and then I tie the sack to your neck and let it hang inside your ribcage. Then you have 2 hands, and it’s safe.”
The skeleton nodded, and for the first time let her take the box from its grasp. She was tempted to quickly open it and look, but with a sigh, she slipped it into the sack and tied it around the skeleton’s neck. “There. Now. Hit these 2 things together.” The skeleton took the bowl and rock and hit them together and it made a loud hollow sound. “Perfect! If you see people, or monsters, hit these together. I’m a light sleeper so it should wake me no problem. All else fails, grab me and run. Got it?” The skeleton nodded. “Good.” She grabbed the cloak from the ground and slid it over the skeleton’s shoulders again. “Night.” The woman grabbed her stew from the fire and slid into her tent.
The skeleton stood still for a moment before walking toward the tent and sat near it. It pulled one of its rib bones off and reached through the gap to open the sack and pulled out the box. Opening it, it pulled out a piece of paper and opened it, revealing a letter in very flowery handwriting. For the rest of the night, the skeleton stared unseeing at the letter. Even as the fire died, leaving the skeleton sitting in the very dim light of the stars, it sat there.
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When the sun began to rise, and the woman inside the tent began to move, the skeleton folded the paper, put it back into the box and then the bag. Finally it fit its rib back into its spot, and the black inky magic wrapped around the bone once more holding it firmly in place. The woman popped her head out of her tent, frowned at the skeleton before emerging fully.
“Can you pack up a tent?” The skeleton nodded. “Good. Do that.” She took her pot from the night before to the tree line and shook out the dried flakes of food. She kicked at the firepit, checking if there were any more embers, which there were none, and helped the skeleton fit the tent and sleeping bag back into her pack.
“Let’s go. I have an idea for how to disguise you.” The woman didn’t offer any more information as they walked back to the trail, but rather than walking quickly, the woman was looking around the road as they walked. Eventually, she let out a “aha” and turned on a barely visible path under dead leaves. But as they walked, the blackened stone was revealed and they eventually arrived a white stone building. The woman paused and the two of them stood in silence only the wind whistling through the empty windows filled the void.
The woman gulped, seemed to convince herself of something and walked into the building. The interior was lit from the windows and the roofless sky above. Stone pews remained in their arrangement. 2 rows of three ending at a stone slab. The walls were covered with various imagery of the faces of a death. At the back of the room were two doors. One of the doors was made of rotten wood then other of the black stone of the path. Walking to the wooden door, she kicked it until it broke apart and walked into the small room. Rotted shelves were covered in remnants of some kind of storage.
The woman walked to a wooden cabinet that showed none of the rot from the room. The woman opened the doors. On shelves were robes of the deepest black, elaborate white ropes in piles, and blank white masks. With caution, the woman pulled one of each of the items and closed the doors.
The skeleton stood in the corner, its skull turned toward her. “You will be dressed as a Death Monk.” The skeleton didn’t respond. “Do you know what a Death Monk is?” the Skeleton nodded. She glared at him slightly. “Can you act like one? Without me telling you every step?” The nod was much slower. She sighed. “Just. Keep the mask on. As long as you keep your chin down, no one will notice you don’t have eyes. We’ll... figure things out as we go. Take off the cloak.” After the skeleton had done so, she pulled the robe over its head, and wrapped the rope around its waist. Except, it wouldn’t stay due to a lack of body. She stood there for a moment. Frustration and a bit of despair in her eyes. The skeleton took the rope from her.
Surprised, she watched as it slowly wrapped it from one shoulder to the opposite rib. She watched as it struggled to pull the rope back. She snagged it and watched as the bony hand took it so that the two ends were in the center of his chest. It then slowly knotted it before looking up at her. “That won’t work, that’s not how the monks wear them.” She explained in frustration. The skeleton turned and left the room. Heaving a sigh, she followed with the mask in her hand.
The skeleton led her to the stone door, which it pushed open with apparent ease. A damp dark smell washed over the woman and she shivered. The skeleton went into the room and down the stairs it had revealed. She didn’t step forward. After a moment the skeleton returned and watched her. “I can’t go down there.” The skeleton did not respond. “The steps of death are for the dead,” she gestured to the skeleton “and the Monks of the dead only.” The skeleton just watched her for a moment before going down the stairs again. The further it went, the more the woman clutched at her chest, with pain visible on her face. She took reluctant steps toward the door, but shook her head and put her feet down. Eventually her face started to relax, and the skeleton could be heard walking back up the stairs. When it came to the top with a corpse bag over its shoulder, she gagged and backed up until she hit a wall.
“What the fuck are you doing?” She screeched at the skeleton quietly. The skeleton simply put the body on the ground and pointed to it. From where she stood, she could only see the black and white of a Death Monk. Reluctantly, as the skeleton stood there waiting, she walked over and saw the rope tied in the same way as her skeleton.
She looked up at the skeleton blakely. The skeleton looked back at her before turning and pointing to one of the images of death. She looked and found a familiar design, a Death Monk following death to its door. Then she noticed that the monk in the image also had the same knot. It was the image of the Death Monk's final walk.
“You want to claim to be on death’s path?” The skeleton nodded. She let out a breath. “Fine, but put that body back where you got it. Don’t disturb the dead.” As the skeleton did what she asked she laughed at herself. “I’m a fucking hypocrite.”
When the skeleton returned, it closed the door behind it and walked toward her. She had sat on a bench and looked up at it. Her eyes narrowed and she stood. Reaching for the skull, the skeleton leaned forward for her to easily reach it. Her hand hesitated at the movement, before using her gloved fingers to brush the dried blood and poison off the exposed bones. “Alright.” She stood, placed the white mask on the front of the skull and tied the strings in the back. Old magic flared and the mask secured itself into place.
Pushing at the edge, and finding it unwilling to budge she nodded and pulled the hood up to cover the rest of the skull. “It will work.” She looked at the face in the mask for a moment before sighing. “Let’s get going. I want to sleep in a bed tonight if possible.” Without waiting, she turned and walked from the small building, the skeleton following behind her, long robed arms hiding his bony hands, the only indication something was wrong, was the impression that the robes themselves were empty.