When my eyes reopened, Kala was there above me. As soon as she saw me awake, she sighed and looked immensely relieved. Sitting up caused me to groan while my hand rubbed over the side where I had been stabbed. Everything was back to normal, just like always.
Kala got down on my level, still showing a high amount of concern. “Are you okay? Is anything hurting?”
“Just some phantom pain, I'm fine.” I got to my feet and looked around. The sight of the bodies around me put a pit in my stomach. There was the taste of bile in my mouth, and not wanting to lose any more of my lunch, my gaze was diverted elsewhere.
My attention turned to myself for a moment. My shirt was bloodier now and sported a brand-new hole in it. Kind of glad I didn’t get a new shirt now. This one was basically ruined, soiled by my own blood, and looking more like an abstract art piece than an article of clothing.
“Are you sure you’re okay?” Kala asked once more.
“I’m fine Kala, not my first time getting stabbed to death, hell, not even my hundredth time getting stabbed to death.” Her brow just furrowed, and she looked around at the bodies before turning back to me.
“What do we do now?”
“We run, that last one that got away will be coming back with more of them, and most likely all on horseback. They’ll be able to outpace us tenfold, so we need to run. If we can disappear into the wildlands before they catch up then great, but it’s doubtful we will be that lucky.” I went over to the soldier with the sword and started undoing his belt. My focus was solely on the task so as to not think about the body I was technically looting.
“What are you doing?” Kala sounded a bit disturbed by my actions.
“I’m taking the sword, and I need to sheath to it as well.” Finally managed to unhook the belt and slide it off his waist. I picked the sword off the ground and put it into the empty sheath attached to the belt before wrapping it around my own waist. With a bit of tightening, it was securely fastened to me, and I did an experimental draw of the blade before putting it back.
Other than the sword, I picked a spear up from the ground and handed it to Kala. She looked confused and unsure as she stared at the offered weapon. “Wha... what am I supposed to do with this.”
“Well, generally the sharp end is thrust towards the enemy.”
She scowled at me. “I know that! But why am I taking this?”
“We’re being hunted now; and they’ll be back with a vengeance. You can bet that if they catch up to us, they probably won’t be in the mood for mercy. If we can’t run, we have to fight. It’s either that or roll over and die.”
Her expression changed quickly between shock, fear, and then concern as her grip tightened around the spear haft. “Let’s get moving, we can’t dawdle.” I started power walking down the road and she quickly stepped over to me. My pace slowly increased until we were at a decent jogging speed.
We kept that pace for hours. Kala looked and sounded like she was dying as she stumbled along behind me, desperately trying to keep up. I stopped for a second and held out an arm to her. “Come here, you can lean on me if you need to, but we have to keep moving.”
She gasped for breath and tried to talk between inhales. “How... are you... not... exhausted?”
“Normally I would be tired at this point, but it’s probably more magical bullshit that’s keeping me going.”
She shook her head but accepted my offer of support, wrapping an arm around my shoulder. When she made contact with me her eyes widened in surprise. “By the mother, you’re burning hot.”
I was taken aback by that but remembered our body temperatures were quite different. “Yeah, I've been jogging for a while, so I'm warmed up by this point. You on the other hand are pleasantly cool and feel quite fantastic really.”
“Oh, uhm, thanks?” She seemed flustered by that and looked nervously at the ground. That made me chuckle a little bit and she shot me a sneer before returning to her usual demeanor. I supported her as we went, basically carrying most of her weight to the point where she only had to keep her legs moving at the same pace as me.
We continued on longer than before and stopped only when there was barely any light left to continue. I quickly found a decent campsite and started a fire. Meanwhile, Kala dropped to the ground utterly exhausted. Despite me carrying her for the back half of the trip, it still took its toll.
“You gonna live over there?” I asked jokingly.
“Hush, not all of us can be immortal.” She said from her prone position on the ground.
“Not all of us want to be immortal.” I countered.
She looked at me questioningly. “You really don’t appreciate the gift you’ve been given.”
“Not sure how many times I need to say it before it sinks in, but yes, I hate everything about what's happening to me.”
“You should still try to make the most of it.”
My brow dipped in annoyance. “And how the hell am I supposed to do that when this entire fucking world is trying to kill me?” She opened her mouth to say something, but no words came out. She lay there with a look of deep thinking before closing her mouth and sighing. “Yeah, that’s what I thought.”
“Maybe the coalition will accept you.” She tried.
“Unlikely, they probably won’t believe I'm a human and not a Thrainian. I’m not even sure you believe that.”
“I believe you. You are not like them; I have seen that much. And if you just show the others then they will believe you too.”
“Thanks for the vote of confidence, but I'm still planning possible ways to escape from them.”
“Just give them a chance, I'll vouch for you.” She gave me a reassuring smile.
I just sighed and settled in, letting a silence hang in the air for a moment. “Fine, at this point it doesn’t matter anymore. I could probably vacation in hell for some RnR, so I'll see what this coalition has to offer before that.”
“Thank you, I'll do my best to convince them.”
I just hummed in acknowledgment and sat there while Kala went off to sleep. There was no sleep for me, my worry about our pursuers and thoughts about the soldiers I killed kept me awake. The man's face was frozen perfectly in my mind, his last moments of terror and despair burned into my memory as my spear sank into his chest. My attempts to rationalize it helped a little. It was either I killed him, or he killed me, but more importantly, Kala afterwards. I liked her, even thought that she might be my only friend in this world, and I didn’t want to give that up. It might have been naive for me to assume she thought the same of me, but I wanted to believe that, I needed to, I didn’t want to be alone anymore.
My watch continued throughout the night. Every little sound in the dark, every small creature that caused the leaves to rustle or twigs to snap made me flinch. My paranoia was boundless as the dark that surrounded us held unseen enemies just waiting to attack. Even if it was unlikely that the elves, or rather, Thrainians, would travel during the night, it was still better to keep alert in case they decided to pull a fast one on us.
The fire was kept alive all night so Kala could keep warm. We needed to get moving as soon as the sun came up and her being in a hibernating state would not be conducive to that. The sun eventually started the peak over the horizon and turned the sky orange. It was exhausting being up all night, but a single sleepless night would not be enough to slow me down.
I went over to Kala a shook her awake. She groaned at me and started to complain. “It’s early, let me sleep.”
“It’s either wake up early or take a permanent dirt nap, we’re being hunted, remember?” That got through the early morning haze around her as her eyes opened. She pushed herself up, retrieving her spear from where it lay with a sigh and shivered in the cold morning air.
“I might fall asleep regardless if we try to move in this temperature.”
“You can hold onto me again then. My body heat will keep you warm.” I kicked dirt over the fire to snuff it out quickly.
“Oh, okay, I guess that works.” She still seemed unsure about it, but when she wrapped her arm around my shoulder again, she practically snuggled up to me for the heat. I couldn’t help the small smile that came to my face as she did so, and my arm made its way around her body to support her as we took off on the same assisted run that we had done the previous day.
Starting off with the assisted run had evidently helped her keep up with me as three hours in she was still going. Her breathing was quick and bordered on panting, but she was far better off than yesterday. My own lack of sleep, and carrying her as well, seemed to be to my detriment and caused me to be at a similar but slightly better level as her.
“I think we’re in the wildlands now.” She said with a wispy voice born of exhaustion.
That was exciting news, but where she made that distinction was unknown to me. “Really? How can you tell?”
“Look at the path.” That was all that she said. I did so and examined the route we were taking. The defined edges of the road that we were used to had disappeared. In their place was a slightly overgrown route that at brief moments seemed more like an animal trail than a proper road. These were all signs of a scarcely travelled area, and since the wildlands had not been settled, it made sense that this would be the clear marker for their beginning.
We were in uncharted territory, so to speak. Kala’s people and the coalition probably knew a lot about this land, but the Thrainians didn’t. All we would have to do was move deeper in until they could no longer continue lest they get lost or run out of supplies.
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We took random branches in the road where we found them, some might have actually been animal trails for all I knew. At this point it would have been impossible to find my way back if I tried. Well, if we’re lost, then maybe they would be too. One could only hope.
The path narrowed and widened seemingly at random. The change in landscape, trail grade, and overgrowth slowed us down quite significantly as we practically trudged our way through this wilderness. It was a little while after that when something caught my attention.
It was a sound, like quiet rumbling in the distance. This confused me for a second before realizing what it was and how close it was getting. “Shit! Run!” I shoved Kala ahead of me and she only looked surprised but didn’t argue as she took off in a sprint.
That sound was several horses galloping, muffled by the trees and dense undergrowth around us, meaning that they were much closer than they sounded. My sword found its way into my hand as I ran behind her, we probably would be needing it soon. Kala ran in a frantic, panicked manner that you really couldn’t blame her for. If it came down to it, I would hold them off while she escaped into the woods.
Stealing a glance behind me revealed a group of seven riders on horseback charging down the trail at us. “Cut off the road!” I yelled at Kala who promptly obeyed and jumped into the wild. The trees were close enough together that they would slow down the horses, but not stop them completely. We dashed through the branches and bushes of the foliage around us, the limbs giving me many scratches and probably a few cuts along the way.
The riders were yelling and trying to navigate the woods to reach us, their voices slowly but steadily drawing nearer. “Kala, keep running, I'll hold them off so you can escape.”
Her head snapped back at me, but she kept moving. “What! No!”
“It doesn’t matter if I die, I’ll come back, you can’t.” I kept moving behind her but prepared to turn and face the riders.
“I’m not leaving you behind!” She yelled forcefully at me.
“Fucking hell Kala, could you just... DUCK!” A rider came at us from the side and was looking to strike Kala with a sword. I tackled her to the ground and the sword swished over my head, probably giving me a bit of a haircut. We rolled along the ground for a moment before springing back to a standing position, dragging Kala up with me.
The riders had caught up with us, and we lost all momentum. They had formed a semi-circle around our position and were attempting to close it off. Even if we shot the gap it wouldn’t matter, at this point they could go at half speed and stab us in the back as we attempted to escape. One of the riders lowered a spear at us and started making demands.
“Surrender, and you may live!”
What do I do? Do I comply and hope they don’t hurt Kala? I need something more than that. “She walks away, and I'll go with you willingly.”
Kala once again snapped her attention to me. “No!” Her eyes were wide and pleading with me not to do that.
The rider simply scoffed at that. “How about we just kill that thing and take you anyway!”
I stared daggers at this asshole in front of me before smirking at him. “You weren’t told much about me, were you?” His brow dropped in confusion. Time to lie my ass off. “You heard that I lit the castle on fire, but you probably weren’t told how. I’m a powerful fire mage, and I can set this whole forest alight with but a wave of my hand. We’ll all burn to death before I let you touch her.” I had no idea if that was actually a thing, but it was all I could come up with.
They scowled at me, but there was a flash of concern across their faces. They weren’t told the truth about me, or at least didn’t hear that I used lanterns to start the fire. “So, she walks away, and everybody gets to live.” This was the best damn acting I had ever done.
Kala grabbed my arm. “James, no! You don’t have to do this.”
“Kala, I appreciate that, but it’s the best possible outcome. You have people to get back to, I don’t, not to mention you still need to find your mother.”
“There has to be another way!”
“None that has a guarantee that you will live. That’s the most important thing right now.”
The rider interrupted her before she could protest further. “Fine, the mud scum isn’t worth the trouble. Tell it to run back into the filth before I change my mind.”
“Kala, get going.” Her grip tightened around my arm and her spear. “Kala...” I said slowly. “Don’t you even think about it.” Her pupils started to narrow into slits as she stared at the rider. I opened my mouth to tell her not to be an idiot when something whistled over our heads before stopping with a dull thud.
I looked up and stared in shock as there was a bolt sticking out of the rider's chest. It punched right through his chainmail and was several inches deep in him. The rider looked down at it for a second before coughing up a bit of blood and slumping off the side of the horse, crashing to the ground in a heap. Then people started yelling.
“Ambush!”
“Where are they?!”
“Close ranks!”
“We have to get out of here!”
Everyone was confused and chaos was prevalent as they couldn’t decide what to do first. A few more bolts flew through the air. One embedded itself into a shield, another struck a rider in the arm as he howled in pain. After that last volley, a variety of battle cries and roars rang out through the forest as a dozen new figures emerged from the brush.
The dozen new fighters, who consisted of orcs and lizardmen, charged the mounted soldiers. They were paired up, so it was two versus one in their favor as they started engaging in melee combat. Some of the riders started fighting back and a few tried to break out of the group to capitalize on their mobility. However, the forest surrounding us prevented ease of movement, and those who managed to start making progress away from the fighting quickly found their horses' legs knocked out from under them.
In the midst of all the chaos I grabbed Kala who was staring stunned at the fighting and pulled her off to the side behind a tree. We huddled together behind the piece of wood that felt all too flimsy and observed the fighting from relative safety. Two of the riders had already been taken down and were left in a bloody mess on the forest floor. The other riders, who were already outnumbered, now found themselves even more so as the warriors who were done with their targets spread out to help finish off the others.
The desperate struggle of the Thrainians was almost pitiable. That look of terror and doom in their eyes as they fended off multiple attackers made my stomach lurch. One of the riders was struck in the back of the head with a hammer, caving in their skull and making them slump against their horse, dead. He was probably one of the luckier ones as the remaining soldiers seemed to have more skill in combat, and thus were dying slower.
There were only three remaining soldiers and they fought bitterly against their own deaths. Their eyes were crazed as they blocked, slashed and stabbed at the aggressors while trying to get their horses to move into a more advantageous position. One of them was already riddled with wounds and looked more like Swiss cheese than a person. An orc with a mace raised their weapon to strike the rider who didn’t see it coming in time. The weapon collided with their shoulder sending out a sickening crunching sound as it was probably broken. After that a lizardman stabbed them in the side with a spear, driving them off the horse an onto the ground where they were brutally clubbed, stabbed and slashed to death.
I didn’t get a chance to see how the other two died as an orc had noticed our little hiding spot and started charging in our direction, or more specifically, in my direction. I pushed Kala away from me so she wouldn’t get caught in the fighting and prepared myself to receive a blow from the orc who wielded an axe that looked more like it was designed for chopping wood than flesh.
The orc opened up with a horizontal attack that seemed to be designed to take off my head in a single swing. I ducked the attack as the axe head sailed over me, the resulting miss throwing the orc slightly off balance. I hesitated to capitalize on the opening as I didn’t know if these guys were part of the coalition that Kala had mentioned and didn’t want to ruin things right off the bat. That hesitation cost me a shoulder charge right to my face.
The charge knocked me on my ass and made stars dance in my vision as the large orc had a lot of force behind their body movements. I was conscious enough to see the axe coming down at me in a chopping motion that seemed much more in line with what it was designed for. I brought the flat of my blade up to block with one of my hands resting on the metal near the tip to reinforce the defense. The axe was caught on the haft with my blade, stopping it dead in its tracks.
The orc’s face flashed with surprise before he snarled and placed a hand on the back of the head of the axe, pressing down to try and drive the bladed end into me. He gained a few inches before I grunted and shoved back, locking us in a standstill. This was the most exertion I had ever put into anything I had done. These orcs were seriously strong as my muscles were straining to push against him. More surprise started to show on the orc’s face as our shoving match continued.
The life and death struggle was interrupted when a spear tip pressed itself against the orcs throat. We both looked to see who was getting involved, but neither of us stopped trying to push against one another. Kala stood there panting and looking quite scared with her spear held against the orc.
“Stop! Gorbra!” She yelled at the orc who looked simultaneously surprised, shocked, and enraged.
“Gorbra? Isht ulbran bellon hartven net goln?!” The orc replied in his guttural tone of voice.
“Vens maln ov Thrainian, Gorbra!” Kala responded. Apparently, she knew how to speak orcish.
Anytime now with the translation magic you lazy bitch. As if on cue, my ears started to ring, and when the orc decided to talk again, I could understand them.
“Not a Thrainian? Are you blind and stupid?!” The voice the magic gave him was deep and rich, practically vibrating the air with every word.
“Don’t call her stupid!” I yelled at the orc on top of me.
He turned his attention back to me with a raised eyebrow and a snarl that turned into a smirk. “Never thought I'd hear a Thrainian use what you all refer to as rock speak.”
“Not a fucking Thrainian.” I grunted out as he pressed into me again.
“So I've heard, but I don’t care what lies you try to tell or what you convinced this dimwit. You’re all better off chopped up and left for the animals to pick at.” Kala pressed the spear into his throat a little bit, drawing a slight line of blood, and he shot her a glare. “Are you really so broken that you would defend your slaver?” He growled at her.
“He saved me from slavers! He gave me food without me begging for it, he taught me how to count with higher numbers than you could dream of, and he only came here because I suggested it. I’m not going to stand here while you hurt him!”
It truly felt amazing to finally have someone who would support me in this world. It was a shame that this situation was so heavily stacked against her and would probably land her in trouble as well. The other warriors had finished up with the Thrainian soldiers and came over to investigate.
“Argren, what’s going on here.” A lizardman asked while warily looking at this clusterfuck of a situation.
“This Thrainian claims to be some sort of traitor, or at least a chain breaker.”
“Not a Thrainian.” I said with strained voice as I was still pushing against the orc’s attempt to kill me.
“I don’t care if you renounced your people, you’re all still from the same plagued crop.” The orc growled out at me.
The lizardman, who was seemingly in charge, adopted a thoughtful look as he stared at me. It was apparently a long thought as I was still fighting against the orc and quickly losing what was left of my strength. Seriously? Make up your fucking mind already! Kala looked just about ready to stab the orc in the throat as well if his axe got any closer to my flesh.
The lizardman walked over a squatted down next to me. “I’ll offer you a chance to surrender. If you do so, you will be our prisoner, but your life will be spared.”
The orc let up just a little bit, much to my relief. “And her?” I said, shooting a glance at Kala.
“We take care of our own, she will be well looked after.”
I searched for any deception but couldn’t find it. “Fine, I surrender.”
The lizardman nodded and took control of my sword hand. “Argren, get off him.” The orc growled but obeyed. “Release your blade.” He said to me this time. I did so and he took the weapon from my hand.
They quickly dragged me to my feet where my hands were tied behind my back with some rope. Kala had her spear taken from her, but other than that, she remained untouched. The lizardman started to order about the others. “Loot the bodies, take anything useful.” They then proceeded to grab weapons, strip armor, and even rounded up some of the horses that weren’t lamed or dead.
Once everything had been thoroughly searched, he gave another order. “Let’s head home, this was a good haul today. Well done all of you.” There were general smiles and pleased noises coming from the group at the praise they received.
After that little bit of inspiration, they began marching away into the woods, me being dragged along with them. Kala didn’t leave my side, and when someone tried to get her away from me, she glared at them until they left her alone. It was reassuring having her there, but my nervousness would not be satisfied with just that. I really hoped that this would turn out better than the last faction I met with.