“I do believe that’s Hornslo, or used to be at least,” Cat said from above my head.

Taking a deep breath, I sighed at the sight of an already burnt down village. One that was smoldering heavily.

Judging by the way the land all around the village was darkened, it was clear that the fires had swept through not long ago. There were still white lisps of smoke all over, rising up into the air in tiny arm-thick size columns… which meant the fire had come and go only a day or two ago at longest.

“Looks like the fires genuinely ended here,” I said as I turned a little, and stared out at the rolling hills that headed westward. These same hills eventually turned into Twin Hills in the far north, and smaller mountain ranges in the south. Beyond them were more forests, other human settlements, a few Society locations… and of course, the Nation of the Blind and Telmik. It wasn't far in the distance that the burnt ground and grass returned to its normal greenery.

“Well… not much to burn really,” Cat noted.

I nodded. That was true.

She shifted on my back a little, and I felt her turn to look a different direction. She hummed at whatever she saw, but said nothing about it.

Honestly I was tired of carrying her. It made me think of Renn.

I didn’t mind thinking of Renn. In fact I enjoyed it. But that was the problem. I enjoyed it too much.

I wanted her body on me, not this cultist woman. I wanted to be feeling her ass and thighs not this cat.

I wanted my cat. Not this one. Not this fake.

“Vim?” Cat patted my shoulder, and I felt my eye twitch.

Don’t pat me as if you were Renn… “What?” I asked while doing my best to not sound too annoyed.

It wasn’t her fault. I had hurt her. She could walk, but very slowly and it hurt her. She was being carried by me out of necessity.

I had slaughtered her friends for no reason. I had hurt her carelessly. This was all my fault, not hers.

Yet I couldn’t help the fact that I really did dislike her.

“What now? Your friends were here, right?” Cat asked softly, sounding worried.

Yes. I shouldn’t hate this girl. She was actually a rather nice person. A little too nice, really. Typical of a cultist. The moment they felt someone was a friend they dropped all their barriers around them. She would even likely tell me where her saint was now, if I outright asked.

A part of me wanted to, but I knew if I did… I’d not need her anymore. And if I didn’t need her anymore, well…

Would I abandon her? A young woman… who was unable to even walk properly now? Here in a fire scorched wasteland without any people, or civilization in sight?

Renn wouldn’t.

“They likely are heading for Telmik. If they are as wise as I believe them to be, they had likely left a few days before the fires drew too close. So they’re likely up to a week ahead of us, though…” I hesitated as I thought of Sillti. That woman, although a non-human, had been frail. Like all her fellow guinea pigs.

“Though?” Cat asked gently as she leaned forward a little, resting her arms on my shoulders to do so.

“Though they might not be. One of their members is like you. So they might be traveling slowly,” I said.

“Hurt? Tender and scared, worried their captor will at any moment do terrible things to them?” Cat asked me.

“You’d sound more convincing if I couldn’t feel your giggling,” I said as I stepped away, to head for the road in the distance. The one that led to Telmik.

Cat giggled louder, happy. “Sorry. I can’t help it, you remind me of Brave,” she said.

“Do I…?” I asked. The man I had killed? The first one?

“He was very stoic… and hated it when women teased him,” she told me.

Great.

“I actually enjoy it. But only by certain women,” I said as I picked up my pace a little.

“One woman, I bet,” she teased me further.

I smiled at her. She was right.

Renn didn’t tease me often, but when she did it was lovely.

As I stepped onto the dirt road, I noticed the obvious tracks. Several dozen deep gouges were dug into the dirt road.

The type left by wheels. Wheels overburdened.

“Hm… did someone bring a plow through here or something?” Cat wondered as I followed the tracks.

There were footprints, hoof prints, and even other animal prints amongst the wagon tracks. Dogs and cows, too.

“Likely Hornslo’s residents. Evacuating,” I said.

“Ah. That makes a lot of sense,” Cat said.

Typical doctor. So smart in some ways, and not in others.

Though… that might have just been her youth. I had learned this morning that Cat was younger than I had thought. I had thought her a woman in her early or mid twenties, and instead found she was only seventeen. And had only turned so a few weeks ago, in the middle of their journey here.

In today’s era it was the age of an adult. One able to start a family. To wage war. To die for a cause, or dedicate themselves to a religious order or place themselves in perpetual servitude to a lordship.

Yet to me, it still wasn’t old enough.

Not the age to be sent on a suicide mission at all.

I had much to say to her saint. This Saint Elaine of hers was in for an ass chewing once I found her. Maybe I’d let Renn do it.

This world didn’t need any more holier-than-thou idiots sending children and the good-hearted off to their doom. I thought I had done a good enough of a job to destroy that world. Yet here I was… carrying proof that I’d not done a good enough job.

“Is your wife a saint, Vim?” Cat asked gently.

“No.” Thank goodness.

“Hm… then how are you so strong?” she asked.

“What do you mean?” I asked.

“Isn’t your strength from a saint? If she’s not your wife… was your mother one or something? How’d you get so strong?” she asked.

Oh. Right. Sometimes they thought like this. It made sense to them.

In a way I guess it probably did. It was a weird mistake, and completely misguided, but in truth they did have a pinch of truth to their assumptions.

“My strength was given to me by parents,” I said.

“Ah. Your mother. How neat. Explains why you’re so nice too,” she said happily, as if it all now made perfect sense.

I was nice?

I mean… I tried to be, sometimes, but…

“I had killed your friends, Cat. I’d not call that nice,” I said gently.

Her legs tightened ever so softly around my waist. I noticed her left leg didn’t do so as hard. “I suppose you’re right. But you hadn’t meant to, and wouldn’t have had you known who we were right? You even helped me bury them, before I even thought of it,” she reasoned.

Possibly. Or I had done it to make you trust me as fast as possible. Because I hadn’t been able, or willing, to brutally force you to tell me what I wanted to know.

Keeping such a thought to myself, I shrugged gently.

“What’s your wife’s name again? Reny?” she asked.

Reny. Cute. “Renn. She’s about your height, skinnier than she should be, with auburn hair and golden eyes,” I said.

“Aubur?” she asked with effort, not recognizing the word.

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Ah. “Brown hair that has a slight red tint to it. You can only really see it in certain light, though,” I said. There was no point in saying that the tint of red was her rosettes. And maybe I should have just said brown, or copper, anyway. Humans may not be able to see the tint and off-coloration of her spots.

“Huh… must be from the north, then,” she put one and two together.

“She is. Farther north than you are from, likely,” I said.

Cat hummed as we rounded a hill, and encountered a broken down wagon.

It had been abandoned. Its wheel had snapped, and although there were a few boxes and crates around it, they had already been pried open and scavenged.

“It broke,” Cat pointed out.

I smiled gently at the kid. “So it had. Likely thanks to all the divots in the road. These type of wheels don’t do well with such terrain, they have no give and sway,” I said.

“Hm… because they can’t turn? So they snap?” Cat asked, understanding quickly.

I nodded. “Yeah. It’s fine when the road itself is straight, so the wagon only has to go in a straight line, but these roads are windy. Going up and down hills, and around them. I bet there will be many more along this road,” I said.

She hummed as I picked up my pace, leaving the broken wagon behind.

“You ever been a teacher, Vim?” Cat asked out of the blue.

“A few times, yes,” I told her.

“Thought so. You must be older than you look,” she said.

You have no idea.

We passed other carts and wagons as we hurried. Some had been outright left as is, while others looked as if they had been scavenged as much as possible. It felt like I was following after an army, a little, what with the way they were broken down and abandoned on the side of the road.

Armies usually left such a mess behind as they traveled. Especially through enemy lands.

Distant smoke from fires was a common sight during such things too, so the distant fires and the smoke only further aided such a misconception.

Now the only thing I needed to pass were dead bodies or…

Slowing, I narrowed my eyes and wondered if I had just somehow given birth to reality with my thoughts.

“Vim…?” Cat asked worriedly, noticing my slowing down as I studied the things on the side of the road far ahead of us.

They were likely too far for her to make out yet, but I’d not mistake rows of bodies. The sight was very recognizable.

“Have you encountered the plague, Cat?” I asked her.

“Huh? The thing happening in the south? No. But even if I did I’d not know it, Saint Elaine blesses us and our food so…” I felt Cat shrug as she spoke.

Right. A saint. One with a modicum of power it seemed.

“Are you sick…? Please tell me you’re not, I wouldn’t know how to help you,” Cat then said, worried.

Oh. Woops. “No. But there are bodies on the side of the road ahead of us. They might be dead from the disease, so I was just wondering if you’ve caught it already or not,” I said. If she had and survived, it meant she’d be immune to it. Or at least, have a very good chance of not catching it again. Or if she did, not being as badly hurt by it.

But if she’s been blessed by her saint recently I didn’t need to worry. Not yet anyway. Such blessings usually lasted years. Stronger ones could last a human their whole life.

“Huh… I don’t see any bodies,” Cat said as she leaned upward a little, likely to try and see as far as she could.

Her ass and thighs pressed against my forearms as she did so, and I once again wished it was Renn I was carrying and not her.

“Just to be safe, keep your distance from anyone who looks sick. And don’t eat or drink anything that they’ve touched or came close to,” I warned her.

“Right,” She agreed as she lowered herself back down, not trying to find them anymore.

As we neared the bodies I slowed a little, and frowned at the sight of them.

They were all men.

And had not died from plague, disease, or fires.

“Uh…” Cat noticed too, as I stopped on the road and stared down at the bodies.

Some were covered in thin cloth, while others weren’t. But not because whoever had lined them up here had ran out of cloth to spare. The winds and wild animals had caused some of them to be revealed.

They all had injuries. Wounds from battle. Cuts from blades. Piercings from spears. Bludgeons from heavy objects, or from being trampled by horses. A few had arrows still sticking out of them.

“None are your friends, right?” Cat asked gently, worried.

Yes. She was a kind soul. “No. They’re all women,” I said.

“Oh…?” she perked up at that, for some reason.

“These here are mercenaries. I don’t recognize their colors, but…” I studied the few who had armbands. The bands were hand-sized thick wraps of blue with a gold emblem. None were correctly positioned enough for me to really make out the emblem, but I didn’t really feel like walking over and grabbing one to examine. If it was just me, I’d do it, but I was carrying a young lady. Even if she had been blessed by a saint, I’d not be so rude as to risk her life like that for no reason.

“I don’t like mercenaries,” Cat said coldly.

“Most don’t,” I said.

“Though… I heard they don’t abandon their fellows when possible. I thought they didn’t do this?” Cat asked.

“They usually don’t. This means they lost the battle. Either completely, or enough for the rest to retreat. In fact…” I turned and studied a distant meadow.

Yes. The fight had happened here… and then whomever they had attacked had set up camp off in the distance there. Not far from a river.

Walking away from the line of bodies, I stepped off the road as I entered the meadow. It was a grass field with flowers all over, and there were a few abandoned wagons scattered around.

There was also a large section of burnt grass. One with very clear signs of a mighty fire… one that had burned bodies. The remains of burnt bodies were rather clearly visible amongst the ash and half-burnt wood logs. Pieces of skulls and other bones were poking out of them.

“A funeral,” Cat said as she studied it too.

I nodded. “I think the mercenaries attacked those fleeing Hornslo. Odds are they had been a large caravan of wagons and people. Wagons carrying all their possession… or rather, all the things valuable enough to bring,” I said as I made sense of what happened.

“Why not burn their bodies too then?” Cat asked.

“Just like you, many despise mercenaries. See them as scum. In this region the prominent religion would also see the lack of giving them any final rites as a way to doom their souls. Basically they did it out of spite,” I said.

“Ah...”

Walking over to one of the larger wagons, that still looked in good shape, I studied the things left upon it.

There were still boxes and sacks. Full of stuff.

It was obvious someone had rummaged through it all, but…

I stepped up closer to the wagon and bent a little to allow Cat to reach out for the small pouch of apples. She picked only a single apple up out of it as to study it.

“Looks good,” she said, and then I heard her bite into it.

“Not enough room and space for it all. So they left what they had to,” I said as I reached out to grab the sack. There were what looked to be a few dozen apples in it. I’ll let Cat have them.

She hummed as she ate the apple, likely glad I had grabbed the rest of them.

Stepping away from the wagon, I sighed as I headed back for the road.

“Think your friends were among them?” she asked.

My eyes narrowed, but only because I had been trying not to think it.

I'd not smelled them after all. Neither Renn, nor Oplar or Sillti. But the air was very thick of smoke and decay. Even with the light wind there was a strong stink of dead corpses, and burnt flesh, mixed in with the smoke and distant fires. A part of me thought I could smell Renn, but honestly I'd been smelling her for days now. I wasn't actually smelling her, I was simply remembering the scent in the back of my mind.

“I don’t know. But… I hope so,” I said.

“You do…? Shouldn’t you hope they weren’t here when attacked?” she asked.

I shook my head. “If they hadn’t been, then they might have been attacked elsewhere. I’d rather they have been attacked while amongst a large group and not while alone,” I said.

“Oh.”

Stepping back onto the road, I glanced around again. To make sure I wasn’t missing anything.

There were broken wagons. Remnants of a huge fire. Bodies far behind us. Obvious tracks in the road of lots of people and animals…

Yet no one else was around. And I didn’t smell Renn, or Oplar or Sillti.

“If they are with this caravan, we’ll catch up with them soon at least,” I noted.

“Ah. True. You are fast,” Cat said as she tossed aside her finished apple. It bounced off the road and rolled into the meadow we had just left.

“Want another?” I asked.

“Please.”

I shifted a little to hold up the bag. Thankfully she took the whole thing, so I’d not have to keep handing it to her.

She rested the bag on my shoulder and back, between us, and I smiled at her.

Yes. This was why she kept reminding me of Renn. That was something she would have done too.

They made me feel like I was but a pack mule, sometimes.

Picking up my pace as I left the battle-site, I kept an eye out for any distant people or signs of them. Depending on how bad the attack had been, and what and who had been involved… there might be scouts for both parties involved. Those in the caravan might keep lookouts, while the mercenaries might keep tabs on the ones who had fended them off. To try and get revenge if able down the road.

It was worrying. I knew Oplar had taken this road. This was the one to take. There were a few paths from here to Telmik, but it’d be several days’ worth of travel before one could turn down any different ones. That meant even if they hadn’t been involved in that scuffle… they had been near it. Possibly.

Oplar was strong but a coward. She could be pushed to fight, but it usually didn’t happen until those near her died or got really hurt.

Sillti was as frail as the woman on my back.

And Renn, for all her strength and willpower…

She could fight. Would. To her last breath.

But that was what worried me.

Renn was strong enough to survive a battle with mercenaries. Even multiple ones. She herself was strong, fast, and could be deadly… and I had just spent the last two years teaching her how to really control that deadliness.

But, what I’d not been able to train her of… was her innate desire to protect those she deemed weaker than her and precious.

And during those moments she could get heated. Emotional. Desperate.

If Renn had been alone I’d worry for her safety, but not as much as I was now.

Because she had Oplar and Sillti.

Because she had been with an untold number of humans. Ones she had likely befriended in their time together.

I groaned as I clenched my jaw and picked up my pace even more. I began to run thanks to all the worry filling me up.

Cat made a noise, and she dropped the apple she had been eating. It landed on my head, before rolling off and falling to the ground.

Although I knew her mistake was because I had broke out into a run… I didn’t slow or stop.

“Jeez…!” Cat mumbled a complaint as she grabbed the bag of apples. Not to claw out another, but instead to make sure it didn’t fall to the ground too.

I ignored her complaints, and kept on running.

She could ask for my apology later. If I would even be willing to give it.

For now I needed to run at least this fast. Even if it earned her discomfort. Even if it made me feel rude.

She, and this world, were lucky this was all I was doing to combat my stress and worry.

Far more lucky than they could ever imagine.