I slowly push aside the dead animal’s head and poke outside of my nook. Even knowing it is already dead I still hesitate to touch it with my shaking hands, I instead send quick kicks in its direction until the exit is no longer blocked. My erratic sobbing certainly made this whole process harder than it needed to be.
The first thing to enter my vision as I make my way outside are the remains of the creature that attacked me. The clean carcass of the beast lies motionless on the ground. All the skin, muscles and organs have banished, completely exposing its pale skeleton. Only the head, which had been stuck inside the tree with me, remains with its form intact. If I had not encounter the creature while it was alive, I would have probably mistaken the macabre scene in front of me with some sort of tasteless art installation.
Standing next to the carcass, and directly in front of me, is the person responsible for this crude view. Two things immediately take me aback about her appearance. One is her clothes. Not a single speck of dust or drop of blood could be seen on the black robes wrapping her well proportioned figure. The golden, geometrical design and eye shaped brooch decorating her orange scarf are certainly strange as well. The other one is her age. The young woman looks like she could be in her early twenties but it is honestly hard to tell. If it weren’t for her moss colored hair she could probably blend in among highschoolers with no problem. The braids and glasses make her look like she could be even younger. Her cold, green eyes stare at me with visible disdain.
“Dammit. I went to all that trouble because I thought a girl was being attacked. I can’t believe I let a monster lure me” With a disappointed sigh and words that seem to be only directed at herself, my savior unsheathes her sword and points it at me. The long, thin rapier in her hand reminds me of the needles entomologist use to impale their collections. She is certainly looking at me as if I were less than an insect.
“WAIT NO! PLEASE NO!!” Having not recovered from my previous encounter, I am quick to freeze in panic. My heart starts beating rapidly in my chest as all strength abandons my legs once again. It takes all of my courage for that weak plea to escape my trembling lips.
My words seem to reach her as the blade stops right in front of my face. The out of focus tip of the rapier almost touching my nose suddenly disappears from my field of vision. Even with my eyes frozen in fear, I can still feel the cold steel slowly traveling down my body, carefully tracing the contour of my face and neck. It only comes to a stop when it reaches my shoulder.
“Say that again” Her cold stare turns into one of cruel curiosity. Making sure to put enough of her weight on it to make the presence of the rapier known without piercing my skin, she opens her mouth again. “Don’t try to fool me!”
“I-NO P-PLEASE NO DON’T!!” It is hard to order my thoughts. It is almost impossible for me to find the words I want to use. My mind went completely blank. I can’t even beg for my life. All I manage to do is string a series of meaningless pleas. To pathetically sob and pointlessly squirm seem to be the only things my body can do right now.
“Whoa… Do it again!” With a swift movement of her hand, the green haired girl puts away the sword and crouches down. With her face down at the same level of mine, she stares right into my eyes.
“Come on! Talk again!” With eyes filled with childlike inquisitiveness, she nags me to talk for some reason. My brain is too agitated to speculate about what she wants to hear.
All I want to do now is run away. Regrettably, I can’t stand up. My legs won’t stop shaking no matter what I do.
She is so close right now, I could probably bite her face off. But I can’t. My body won’t move no matter how hard I try.
Even as I open my mouth, my erratic breathing does not let me form any words. The world around me seems to fade in and out of focus. I slowly start to realize that I may be hyperventilating. Something tells me that if I pass out now I will never wake up again. That I need to calm down and do what she wants.
“I know! If you talk again, I’ll give you this” Without breaking eye contact, she uses her free hand to reach for the small pouch on her belt. From there she takes a pale disk and waves it in front of my nose. The smell of flour enters my head.
“This is food. F O O D. You want this, right? Then talk to me. T A L K. T O. M E” Maybe she realized I am panicking and is trying to help me relax. Maybe she thinks she is talking to someone particularly stupid and wants to make herself clear. Either way, she starts talking slowly, unnaturally pacing her words to deliver each sound correctly. She repeats her order loud and clear as she dangles the flat bread in front of my face.
“Er-mh… T-Thanks?” I finally manage to push a word outside my mouth. This is probably the most stressed out I have ever felt trying to talk. My throat feels so dry forming words is as painful as the open wound in my back.
“Whoa… WHOA You are talking for real. This is incredible!” With an overly excited expression, she shoves the bread on my face and stands up with her hands raised in celebration. She then quickly crouches again and reaches for another bread.
“Can you say more? Can you tell me something about yourself? Come on, come on” She once again starts dangling the bread in front of my nose.
Does she think I am some kind of animal? The sudden realization makes me stare at the bread that feel to the ground between my legs when I failed to grab it. Is this supposed to be a treat?
Even if you are not supposed to, feeding wild animals is something most people do while visiting parks and natural reserves. Me and my sister used to do it as kids, or more accurately, my sister would always force me to do it. There certainly is a charm to slowly approaching deer and foxes and seeing them eat your food, the big ones were scary but even I enjoyed getting close to the small ones. Some would even let you pet them. The problem was that my sister would often get bored and loved to scare them so I would get bitten. She would also make me dangle the food above their heads so they would have to jump to get their food. That little trick would also often end with me being bitten. The eyes of the girl in front of me remind me of the way my sister looked at those animals.
I take a deep breath and I try to calm myself. I try to think as carefully as possible about what my next words are going to be. I cannot let her think of me as less than human but I should not antagonize her either. After all, the rapier is still in her hand. She has not let her guard down. I cannot let her perceive me as a threat or I will end up as the carcass lying next to us.
“I-I-I am not an animal” Her gaze is too intense, I can’t help but look down to the side as I timidly try to affirm my humanity to her.
“Hahaha it is intelligent too! At first I thought you were one of those monsters that mimic human voices to lure its prey but this is amazing” Satisfied with my response she shoves the second bread into my trembling hands. “Aren’t you going to eat that? It is for you, you earned it”
“Sorr-Tha… No… I am not hungry” With some trouble, I move my scared hands and try to grab the bread from the ground. I don’t want her to think I am ungrateful or to kill me because I didn’t accept her food.
“Good, good. I see” I have no idea if she is talking to me or talking to herself. Her tone could hardly be called aggressive; she no longer has any ill intention towards me. It is merely condescending now. She does not seem to realize she is talking to another human being. I guess to a certain extent she is right, I am no longer human in this body.
“You are a weird little thing, you know? Monsters that can talk are very rare and I never heard of one living in this forest. Are there more of you? Where do you come from?” The questions start coming one after the other, giving me no time to think, let alone answer.
She doesn’t seem to be expecting much of an answer either. Instead, she seems to be entertained inspecting my hair. Is she searching for lice or something? Unsure how to react, I slowly try to back away. I don’t want any sudden movement to scare her into attacking me.
Before I can get away from her grip, she places the hand holding the rapier on my shoulder, its blade coming dangerously close to my long ears. She doesn’t want me to move.
“You are even wearing clothes! I didn’t even notice with how filthy you were” With no care for my safety, she starts rubbing the back of the hand holding the sword on my dirty shirt.
“P-P-Please be careful” Seeing that sword moving so dangerously close to my face I can’t help but close my eyes and tense my shoulders even more than they already were.
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“Oh, haha my bad” When I open my eyes I see her standing, putting the sword back on its sheath. At least that dangerous thing is out of the way for now. After making sure her belt is in the correct place she returns her attention back at me. “Can you stand in two feet?”
I do as I was told and try to stand up. My legs still feel a little weak, making me stumble for a bit, but I am able to get up on my own in the end. As soon as I get on my feet, she places her right hand on my head. I quickly realize she is not petting me. She is measuring me. As I stare at her stomach, I see her take a book from her pouch. The black leather tome is decorated with an eye, similar to the one on her clothes, shining like a sun on what seems to be a bird and a snake. As I look up, I watch her move between different pages and ultimately stopping to write something with a reed pen. From this angle I have no way of reading what she is writing but I assume it is about me.
“What are you doing?” I am curious so I decide to ask. After all, if it is about me I have a right to know, right? She moves the book to the side to allow our gazes to meet again.
“You know what this is?” She closes the book to show the cover to me. There is nothing like a title or anything similar on it, only those weird, gold colored drawings. The smug smile on her face and the way she dangles the thing between her fingers tells me that she doesn’t expect me to know.
“A book?” I had to reply something and that was the best answer I could come up with. Not answering is not an option. I am at her mercy. I need to show her that I am an intelligent creature. That she shouldn’t treat me like an animal.
“You know about books, eh? That’s kinda impressive but you are wrong. This is called a notebook. It is a book you use to write. Wait, you know what writing is?” She seems genuinely impressed by the fact I know what books are. In a medieval world like this one, this level of culture should be impressive. Or at least I hope it is.
“Yes, I know. In fact I can write and read too” I send a confident smile on her direction. This is my chance to prove to her that I am her intellectual equal. I should be able to prove that I am more than an animal if I can read. I have never tested it but the /bilingual/ skill I stole is not only for talking. If I remember correctly, I can use it to read and write too.
“Really?” With a swift movement, she opens the book and presents it to me.
With some hesitation, I timidly grab the book from her hands. Even as I inspect the pages, I can feel her gaze, expectant to see if I can really do it.
I turn the pages one after the other but none of the symbols there mean anything to me. The most I can deduce from the handwriting is that two people wrote on this. One used blue ink to write elegant, wedge shaped letters on the center of the page. The other used black ink to scribble sharp looking squiggles on all the leftover space. Most pages also contain drawings of weird creatures, equally filled with scribbles, but I don’t recognize any of them. After a while I reach a bunch of blank pages.
“I can’t read this” In shame I hand the notebook back to her.
“I expected as much” I honestly can’t tell if she is disappointed or not.
“You were writing about me, right? What did you write?” I have no option but to ask. I want to know what her interest in me is. This information could be the difference between life and death.
“This is a bestiary” She raises the tome and points at it with her other hand. “It is something we use to record data about the different creatures living in this forest. I belong to something called the 16th Church. No, that would be too hard for you to understand. You can think of it as a group of people like me that studies creatures like you. Although no one has recorded anything like you living in this forest as far as I know.” She stars lecturing me about the purpose of the book without really telling me what she wrote about me. She seems to be the type to run off at the mouth about her own interests but never listen to others. At least I understand that about her now.
“I know about the churches. I am not dumb. I am also not an animal. I am people too” I need to assert myself or she would never listen to me. If this thing is some kind of diary or textbook filled with notes then she must be some kind of scholar or researcher. The word creature repeats in my head. If this continues I may end up taxidermied in some museum.
“Sure, sure. Can you tell me more about yourself? Like what are you or where you came from” She is not listening. She only cares about her discovery, not about me as a person. I should really get away from here. This girl is bad news.
Looking at the carcass in the ground, I don’t think running would be possible. All I can do for now is cooperate and hope for the best. That being said, those are questions I can’t answer. I don’t really know anything about this body and lying under this circumstances would not be wise.
“I don’t know” Telling the truth is the best I can do.
“You don’t know? I am asking where do you live. Are there more of you? Do you understand me?” She seems confused. Her last question is voiced slowly, making sure I understood her.
“I understood you the first time. I am telling you I don’t know. I don’t know a lot about myself” I am hesitant to speak to her. I need to be careful not to say too much but at the same time I need to tell her something, anything. “I used to live in a nearby village but after… some circumstances I found myself in this forest”
“You know, you are not very good at lying. There are no villages around here. Reaching the closest one would take you several days. Besides, monsters are not allowed inside villages” This is bad. I knew I was lost but I had no idea I was this lost. Now she thinks I am a liar. First the reading thing and now this. This is bad. She seems to be raising her guard again. If she starts mistrusting me I may end as that corpse.
“Stop eyeing that thing. I need you to focus.” She casually rests her hand on her hips and talks to me like I am a disappointment. All I can focus on is that her hand is now closer to the hilt of her sword. She may be losing her patience.
“It is the truth! I-I am lost. I fell into the river!! I have no idea where I am!” I rise my hands above my head and start talking without thinking. I wish I were brave enough to start running.
“Maybe I was expecting too much from you… Still, you are quite the finding. I’d love to study you.” As she says this, she dangerously leans forward to look me directly in the eyes. The sudden movement makes me fall on my butt. The way she rests her chin on her hand may seem innocent at first but the hand on her hip is still reaching for the rapier. She has not let her guard down. I don’t have a choice.
“P-Please don’t kill m-“ Before I can even complete the sentence she cuts me off.
“Haha don’t worry. I wouldn’t kill you yet, there are a lot of things I want to know about you” The way she handwaves the problem seems to downplay all of my worries. My concerns are certainly not an issue for her.
“T-Then what are you going to… do to me?” as the question leaves my lips I think to myself that I shouldn’t have asked. That maybe I don’t want to know.
“You seem to be somewhat smart for a monster, I think we could make a deal. Let me observe you for a while. You can do whatever you want as long as you stay with me. In exchange… mm, I know! I’ll give you more treats” As if to convince me that this is a good deal for me she pulls a third bread from her pouch and waves it in the air.
“N-No… er I don’t… want to… ” I know I need to reject her but I don’t know how to. I fear the consequences of rejecting her. I need to think this carefully.
“I thought that was a fair enough deal. Then what do you want? You said you didn’t know about yourself. If you let me study you I can share what I learn with you” I wasn’t expecting her to try bargaining. It is true that if I let a professional study me I could find more about the functions of this body than if I tried to do it myself. To make things worse it seems that I may be a rare species, I may have a hard time finding information if I try to investigate myself. Whats more, my experience in that village tells me that monsters have a hard life in this world. Collaborating with someone from the church may give me some degree of protection. If she really cares about her research she might even put some effort into keeping me healthy. This may be an unique chance for me.
As if she were reading my mind, she opens her mouth to deliver one last deal. “I can also protect you. Most people would kill your kind without batting an eye but if you are with me I can assure you no one will touch you. The Scholars of the 16th Church take good care of their research materials.”
I can’t help but be persuaded by her words. Even if I cannot trust her, I cannot deny this is a good deal for me. After all, going along with her offer could solve all of my problems. Trying to come up with a reason to reject her, I end up looking at the monster’s skeleton on the floor once again. Even if I wanted to, saying no to her may not be a real option.
“I want food AND protection! Take me to a safe place. Take me to the Church with you. Promise me that you will keep me safe and well fed and I’ll let you study me!” For some reason I close my eyes as I finish explaining my conditions. Maybe I expected her to get fed up and impale me. I honestly don’t know anymore.
“So, you want to join the Church? Fine. I can take you to back to Stadtahir with me but you need to promise me you will do everything I ask. Deal?” I slowly open my eyes after no repercussions fall on me for daring to bargain my fate. What I see is her crossing her arms, waiting for an answer.
“Stadtahir?” I have no idea what or where that is. I ask to make sure I am not agreeing to go to a slaughterhouse or something like that.
“The biggest city in the empire… How do I explain this to you? A place as big as this forest but made completely of white stones” Maybe because she assumes I am a creature of the forest she thinks I don’t know what a city is. She would probably be surprised if she knew the kind of world I come from. To emphasize her description of the size of a city she opens her arms wide and spins around. “It is the place I come from. I am sure you will like it”
“Can you really assure my safety with the church?” I ask once again just to make sure.
“Yes, I would not have it any other way” She replies quickly and extends her hand. “Deal?”
“Deal. Whats your name by the way? I am Lily” I shake her hand in agreement, proud of myself for not only making it alive of this but also making the best of this dire situation.
“It even has a name! How cute. Lily, eh? You can call me Merian” For some reason she starts giggling after I give my name.
“How long will it take to get there?” To stop her from laughing in my face I make what I think is a valid question.
“It is going to take a while. Actually, I need to visit another place first and you are coming with me” She uses her free hand to point to the mountains behind us. “That mountain range you see is called hohljabal. I am searching for something important over there”
“But after you are done with that you will take me to the city, right?” She is already ignoring our agreement not even a minute after we agreed upon it. I cannot let my guard down around her. I probably should escape as soon as I get all the useful information that I can.
“Don’t worry about it, it is only going to be a few extra days. Think of it as extra time to know you better” The smile on her eyes is anything but trustworthy.
With that shady agreement between us now in place, we head towards the mountains poking from the forest in the horizon.