After the titular word was spoken,My eyes opened again to see that the lizardman had taken the bag of food over to the other side of the fire again and was rummaging through it. Rubbing my bloodied but healed neck to try and get rid of some of the lingering pain, I sat up. The lizardman had their back turned to me. Perhaps that was just a coincidence or maybe they might have felt guilty about ripping out my throat and couldn’t look at me. Unlikely.
I sucked in a little air in preparation to begin speaking. “You know...” The lizardman spun around so fast that they tripped and fell on their tail. “It’s generally considered rude to kill someone who’s helping you.”
“Drok fas solnent!” They shouted out in a very throaty voice.
“Oh, so you can talk.” Not that I could understand them, but still. “And here I thought I was just bad at making conversation.” I got up and walked around the fire towards them. They started crawling away from me until their back hit another tree.
“Honestly, what the fuck! I go out of my way and take an unnecessary risk to save you from being beaten and or worked to death, then you rip out my throat the minute I fall asleep! No fucking gratitude around here! Why do I keep trying to be nice when everything and everyone just wants to kill me! I must still be fucking insane because I do the same shit over and over again expecting something different! Fuck!” I was looming over them while my frustrations were vented.
They averted their gaze and started protecting their head. “Aut logren, aut logren, aut logren, aut logren...”
They kept muttering that phrase repeatedly while cowering from me. My hands were thrown in the air as I stalked around the fire, examining the stains in my shirt. “I don’t have another shirt you know! Now I have to buy one in the next town, that’s money that could have been used on supplies!” In an attempt to salvage it, the shirt was removed an wrung to try and get the blood out.
There was a ringing in my ears that I tried my best to ignore while working on the shirt. After a moment, the ringing faded, and the sound of actual words started. “I’m sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry...” The lizardman's incomprehensible language was now understandable.
“What the hell? I can understand you now?”
Their head poked up from their huddled position. “Y... you speak river tongue?”
My whole head rolled back in exasperation. “No, I just have some curse on me that’s doing all kinds of weird shit. Really?” I said speaking to the sky. “They have to talk to me before I can understand them and talk back? What the hell kind of half assed rule is that? Why can’t I just speak to everyone immediately? Fuck you and your convoluted magical bullshit!” I threw a pair of middle fingers up as I cursed the bitch of a goddess who had put me here.
The lizardman was looking at me like I had two heads. My attention turned back to them with an accusatory finger. “Don’t think I've forgotten about you tearing out my throat, I'm still pissed!”
They had sunk into themselves again as the conversation was brought back onto them. “I’m sorry, I just... I didn’t... I’m sorry.”
“Apologies don’t mean much to someone who would be dead. Really, why the hell would you do that after I got you out of the city and away from that asshole who planned on killing you?”
“I don’t trust any Thrainian, you’re all greedy and murderers. I thought you were just going to sell me back to more slavers to line your own pockets.” Having had a chance to listen to their voice in an understandable language, I noted that it sounded feminine. Their gaunt form was reavaluated as their slender nature may not be entirely from starvation. Another feature which was absent mindedly noticed was that their eyes were very blue.
“I’m not a fucking elf, or Thrainian, or whatever you want to call them. I’m a human, and I'm not even from this world.”
She cocked her head slightly and looked skeptical. “What’s the difference?”
“For one, I’m not a complete piece of shit, two, my ears are different, and three, I don’t do any of that magic stuff they do.”
The skepticism only deepened. “If you can’t do magic, then how did you survive and recover completely?”
“Long story short, some bitch called the Eternal Goddess or whatnot decided she was going to abduct me from my world, plop me down in the middle of a war, and then made sure I couldn’t die as I suffered through countless deaths at the command of that fucker Alathos.”
Her brow dipped a little. “I do not think you should blaspheme the Eternal Mother. She is the guardian of life, the shepherd of death, the...”
“Yeah, yeah, I call a spade a spade and a bitch a bitch. You try praising her after she keeps you alive through endless torture. I’d punch her square up in the face if she appeared in front of me.”
The lizardman... woman? Dropped her jaw open as I said that before clicking it shut again and shaking her head. “So, you received her blessing...”
“Curse.”
“Blessing, and it allows you to escape death. Shouldn’t you be grateful for that? And that you’re alive right now?”
My expression must have darkened significantly because she shrank into herself as she looked at me. “I know what it feels like to be skinned alive, I understand the pain of being burned to a charred husk, I’ve experienced the agony of having my insides ripped out while I'm still alive. If you can conceive of a way to die, I've probably already experienced it, or at the very least something similar to it. Whatever this is, it sure as shit aint a blessing.”
There was a silence that hung in the air for a minute after that. After enough time had passed for the quiet to be considered awkward, I broke the silence with a sigh. “Whatever, you know about me now, what about you? Can I get a name at the very least?”
She looked to be considering that for a moment. “Kala.” Came a very terse reply.
“Nice to meet you Kala, I’m James.” I noticed she shivered a little bit as she sat in the dark against the tree. “Do you want to come and sit by the fire again?”
She slowly nodded her head and got up, hobbling over to her old position by the fire. My back was against the tree I was at earlier while my bloodstained shirt was hung on a low branch. “So, if you don’t mind me asking, how did you end up as a slave?”
“What’s to tell? Thrainians are all monster who are only motivated by greed.” Calling them monsters seemed a bit ironic to me, but we were in agreement on that so I didn’t interrupt. She sighed before continuing. “I lived in a small village hidden in the wildlands, we kept to ourselves and tried to stay out of the conflict that raged all around us. That was until the warriors showed up.”
“There were many different races that arrived at our doorstep, most of them injured. Apparently, they had failed at an attempt to free the prisoners of a labor camp and needed to heal and get supplies. While we did not participate in the war, we certainly would not deny those who fought for us. We did everything we could to assist them, treated their wounds, provided food and shelter, but they were sloppy, and led a retaliatory attack right to us.”
“The Thrainian soldiers burned down my village, slaughtered the injured warriors, and killed anyone who resisted them.” Her eyes were downcast as she remembered the past. “They killed my father when he tried to prevent them from taking us. I don’t know where my mother is, we were separated and dragged away in chains to be sold. That was about a year ago, I’ve lived half-starved and beaten ever since.”
My head nodded solemnly at the story. “Seems we both have a reason to hate them.”
Kala hummed in agreement and another moment of silence fell over the campsite. This time it was Kala who broke it. “You said you weren’t from this world, what did you mean by that?”
“Exactly what I said, I'm from a completely different world than this.”
“What’s different about it?”
“For one thing, none of you exist. So far, every living person I've seen here is considered by my world's standards to be a fantasy character.”
“There are no Thrainians there?”
“Not one.”
“I already want to go there.” She said with a long snouted smirk.
A mostly humorless chuckle escaped me. “Yeah, me too.”
Her smirk disappeared. “Can you not get home?”
“I have no idea. I don’t even know how I got here in the first place other than the vague pieces I've put together which essentially amounts to the goddess bitch brought me here.”
Kala winced as I called the goddess a bitch and then muttered something under her breath while making a weird circular motion with her hand. “She must have brought you here for a reason, right?”
I shrugged, “I don’t know, maybe she got bored and wanted someone to torment for a little while.”
“I don’t think she would do something that petty.”
My scoff cut through that statement. “Really? Because that sounds exactly like something gods would do to me. Plenty of stories where I come from of deities fucking with mortals all the time.”
“It sounds like you have very cruel gods.” There was a bit of sadness in her voice, almost like she pitied me.
“Why wouldn’t they be? If they truly do exist and allow suffering like what we’ve been through to continue in the world, then they must be cruel.”
“Would there be a point to living if there was no adversity? They leave us to our own choices, nothing more. If a person decides to be cruel than that is on them, not the gods. It is up to us to create the world we wish to live in.”
“You really believe that after everything you’ve been through?”
“I have to believe, I have to believe that there is hope for a better future, one that we can fight to create.” There was passion in her words. It kind of reminded me of myself not so long ago, but my optimism was killed just like I was, many times over.
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A yawn escaped me against my will, and I rubbed my eyes while being reminded about sleep. “I think that’s enough talking for now, plenty of time to do so on the road. Right now, we need to sleep.” The food bag was seized and used as a pillow. Not to say I didn’t trust her, but her track record thus far has been questionable.
While getting comfortable, I decided to clarify one last thing. “Okay, I’m going to sleep now, are you going to rip out my throat again?”
Kala smirked at me once more. “I don’t think there would be much of a point all things considered.”
“Good, because if it happens again, don’t think you’ll get away with just a verbal berating.” That wiped the smirk off her face, and she just nodded and laid down. Once certain she was actually going to sleep, I closed my eyes and started to drift off myself.
This time my sleep was uninterrupted, and the early morning was what greeted me this time. The fire was now a lightly smoldering pit giving off no more heat, a fact that my body was well aware of as a shiver ran through me. Kala appeared to still be asleep as well.
I did a few stretches to wake up the rest of my body and then went over to wake up Kala. The method I went for was to put a hand on her shoulder and gave her a light shake. There was no response. That alarmed me and just after that I realized she felt cold. “Hey! Kala, wake up!”
Rolling her over managed to get a grunt out of her. Relief flooded through me with the realization that she wasn’t dead. “Kala, what’s wrong with you?”
She gave a shaky breath before replying. “Cold...” It was barely louder than a whisper.
More sticks and dry leaves were quickly thrown on the ashes of the fire and stirred up. Some hidden embers caught on the leaves and the fire crackled back to life. I pulled Kala over to the fire and threw the cloak over her. Her breathing stabilized and eventually her eyes slowly opened.
“You okay?” I asked her.
Her attention groggily shifted to me. “Yeah, why?”
“Is not waking up when someone shakes you normal?”
“Well, it’s early and cold, so yes.”
“You’re cold blooded? You go dormant when the temperature drops?”
“I suppose that’s a simple way to put it.”
They are part reptile; I guess that’s not so surprising. “Can you die from that? Should I be worried if it gets too cold?”
“I once slept a whole day because it was too cold to wake up, so as long as I wouldn’t starve, I should be fine.”
“Okay, good to know. You feel awake enough to start moving again?”
She rubbed her body a little bit and looked at the small fire. “Is it alright if I warm up a little more?”
“Fine, I'll try to clean the blood out of my shirt while you do that.” Her gaze kind of dropped with the mention of the blood, but she said nothing and just curled around the fire some more. The stain on my shirt had already turned brown and I considered how best to clean it.
I took a bit of the water and splashed it on the stain before scrubbing it against a rock. The usage of water was kept to a minimum as we would need it, but occasionally more was added to rinse out what was scrubbed off. The end result was a minor amount of success and cleaned it up a little bit. It looked dirty and sketchy as hell, but it would have to do until a replacement could be found.
After finishing my attempt at doing laundry, Kala got up from the fire. “Warm enough?” I asked her.
“Yes, thank you.” She took off the cloak and handed it back to me. I accepted it and threw on my shirt before covering up with the cloak again, making sure the bloodstain was mostly hidden. “Why do you have the hood on?” She asked.
“I’m kind of a wanted criminal, so the fewer people who see my face or features the better.”
She looked a little nervous. “Wh... what did you do?”
“You mean other than just existing with this curse that Alathos wants for some narcissistic reason? Discounting that, I killed the person who was torturing me and set fire to his castle.”
“You... you burned his castle!?” She looked at me wide eyed with evident shock.
“Yep.” I stated matter-of-factly but with just a bit of pride in my voice.
Kala stared gapped mouthed at me for a moment before chuckling. “I’m sure that would make you very popular amongst the warriors of the coalition.”
“Nice to know I got fans. Let’s get moving, I don’t know how long we have till we find the next town, but I want to get as far away from the capital as possible.”
“Maybe we could find refuge with my people, or the coalition?”
Her suggestion received a skeptical look from me. “Would they accept me? I’m not exactly one of you and I look enough like an el... a Thrainian that they would probably just try to kill me on sight.”
“Well, you claim to not be a Thrainian, and you seem to not be friends with them either, so it’s probably the best option, right?”
The idea was tossed around in my head. Just running from town to town wouldn’t be feasible, eventually word would spread about me, and my face would be known all around. I didn’t know if I could trust Kala right now, she could just want me to take her back to her people and then stab me in the back the moment she was home free. Still, no better idea came to mind as I still knew nothing about this world.
A dejected sigh at being caught between a rock and a hard place escaped me. Either run from the law for the rest of my life, or gamble on Kala and her people not being assholes as well. “Fine, we’ll find this coalition. Enemy of my enemy is a friend after all, I hope. I just don’t want to end up on another table.”
Kala cocked her head a little at me. “Table?”
“Nothing, forget it.” I really didn’t want to bring those memories back to the surface. “So, how do we find this coalition?”
“Uhm, well, I'm not exactly sure. Their base locations are kept secret from everyone but those who actually serve there. But they have plenty of patrols going through the wildlands so if we just go there and look around, we’re bound to find them.”
“So, the plan is to wander around blindly until we walk into an ambush?”
“Err... well, I...”
I sighed heavily and pinched the bridge of my nose. “Fan-fucking-tastic. Whatever, if they start shooting let me get hit first and try to surrender after that. You’re not exactly the pseudo immortal one here. Which way to the wildlands then?”
“We’re kind of heading that way right now. The Thrainian capital, Fulvrist, is the center of their empire. It ends at the ocean on one end and then the wildlands surrounding it on the other. While technically the Thrainians consider the wildlands to be part of their empire, they have not settled it and it is inhabited by the other races of the coalition.”
“So basically, as long as we aren’t heading towards the ocean, we’re heading towards the wildlands?”
“Essentially, yes.”
“Well, that makes it simple at least. We can just follow the roads out as much as we can, stopping at the villages and towns to resupply on the way.” Kala nodded in agreement with the plan. “Is your leg feeling better today?”
“Still hurts, but I think it’s better.”
“Good, don’t know how much walking we’re going to be doing, but it will probably be a lot.” She groaned a little at that but didn’t actually say anything. “Let’s get moving.”
True enough, Kala seemed to move a little better today, but with a few winces and limps as she walked along. The road was rather empty for a while, no one passed by for at least an hour. The first person we saw on the road was another horse drawn wagon, carrying what looked like crates of fruit.
My head was fixed straight ahead, trying to look at inconspicuous as possible. Kala put her head down and stared at the ground as she walked behind me in a well-practiced manner. I really wanted her to stop that, but her acting the role of a slave was probably the only acceptable cover she could have while we travelled.
After we were in the clear she resumed a much more relaxed posture and held her head up high again. It seemed that year as a slave had not broken her. It was unfathomable how she managed to maintain her pride in the face of such treatment.
“Hey, uhm...” Kala began, prompting me to look over my shoulder at her. “I’m sorry about messing up your shirt, and I guess the whole biting you thing.” She sounded very awkward while saying that.
I huffed in amusement. “Never thought I'd have someone apologize for murdering me in my sleep.” Her eyes looked back at the ground, and I could see she did feel bad about it, or was a very good actor. “It’s fine, as you know death and I seem to be in a difficult relationship. Frankly what you did would be considered mild by my standards.” Now her brow furrowed in confusion and what might have been concern.
Whatever she was thinking about she didn’t bother to voice, and instead moved on to another subject. “How much would a new shirt cost?”
I shrugged. “Not sure, haven't bought one before.”
“You didn’t buy that one?”
“No, I took it right after my escape from the castle.”
“Oh... How much do you think one would be?”
I sighed lightly. “I don’t know, a dozen coppers maybe for a cheap one. The pack was a single silver and all the food and water that I bought totaled to fifteen coppers, so that’s just my best estimate.” I didn’t know if she was just making awkward small talk, but it was certainly a strange line of questioning.
“Is that a lot?”
“I mean, it’s a decent amount, I guess. It's forty coppers to a silver from what I could tell, and I assume the same conversion from silver to gold. A dozen coppers would be several days' worth of food which is not insignificant.”
A glance over my shoulder showed she was staring down at her hands with a look of concentration. Her fingers moved in a manner that seemed like she was counting, or at the very least, trying to. “Do you know how to count?”
The question snapped her out of her focus. “Oh, uhm, a little bit. My dad taught me some numbers, but there was always work to do in the village, so I didn’t have much time to learn.”
“Huh...” I considered that for a moment. “Would you, like to learn more numbers?” Might be able to kill some time and dust off some old acquired skills.
Kala seemed a bit taken aback by that. “You can teach me more numbers?”
“Sure, it’s something we can do on the move so why not?”
“Thank you!” She blurted out before correcting herself again. “Ahem, I appreciate your offer to teach me.” She seemed very eager to learn, which only encouraged me more. I scooped up some pebbles from the side of the road and used them in the impromptu lesson. It mostly focused on numbers up to forty and memorizing them as that seemed to be the most useful thing to know right now.
She learned rather quickly, getting ten to twenty down fast. It took some time to explain the importance of zero as a placeholder among other things as well, but she seemed to grasp the concept with expediency. After that I clued her in to the fact that every set of ten after twenty just changed the first number said, twenty to thirty to forty etc. She took off after that in a frenzy of counting and appeared to be ecstatic every time she received confirmation that she got the number right. Though when she got to a hundred, I had to stop her when she said ‘tenty-one.’
Explaining the hundreds had practically blown her mind, and when she asked just how high numbers could go, she probably wasn’t expecting the rabbit hole that she stumbled upon. I think I broke her when I tried to explain the concept of millions and didn’t dare go to billions or beyond for fear that her head might actually explode.
“You know a lot, don’t you?” She stated like a sudden fact was revealed to her.
“Well, it was going to be my job to know a lot up until this all happened.”
“Do you know more than numbers?”
I scoffed. “Yeah, but I get the feeling that half of it you wouldn’t believe, and the other half I don’t have the tools to show you properly.”
“Come on, there must be something.” She pressed me for anything to satiate her desire to learn.
I scratched my head while searching my knowledge for something to give her. Looking at the trees reminded me of a quick little tidbit. “Well, did you know that plants absorb sunlight because of a tiny substance called chlorophyll in their leaves. The chlorophyll creates a type of sugar that the plant needs to keep living.”
“Really? Wow, that’s interesting. What else can you tell me?”
Oh jeez. What followed was an explanation of every little factoid that seemed probable enough for her to accept at face value. She was enraptured by it all and absorbed my every word. I was actually having a good time, a first for my duration in this world. I was in the middle of explaining how clouds form from water vapor when we saw a small village on the horizon.
We had spent more time talking than I realized, it was already past noon. The lessons had to be cut short, much to Kala’s disappointment but understanding. She resumed her role as a slave and followed dutifully along behind me. It was a small little hamlet with a couple dozen wooden houses. The primary export of this little place seemed to be food or livestock as it was surrounded by fields and pastures.
A quick pitstop and we would be back on the road again after getting some direction. That was what I originally thought, but a new problem reared its ugly head. Dull thudding noises were heard from behind us. Turning around, the noise turned out to be five riders galloping down the road in our direction. Panic immediately set in, but I forced myself not to run. There was no way to outrun a horse, and Kala would be even worse off than I was.
We moved off to the side of the road, Kala right behind me, both of us keeping our heads down. My heart was racing as the riders grew closer, I prepared myself for a fight, and just as they came upon us, they raced right by with hardly a glance. I let out a breath I didn’t realize was being held as they moved into town.
I didn’t know how close a call that was, but it felt too damn close. Diverting from our current path or breaking off the path into the woods again would be suspicious. We stayed the course, despite everything in me telling me to run. This day just got a whole lot more complicated.