The first thing Nessa did when she woke up the next morning was check the man’s vital signs. His pulse was weak. He wasn’t responding to verbal or physical stimuli either, which did not bode well. She understood his deteriorating situation and set off for town to obtain medical supplies.

She was half-excited and half-terrified about the city; it had been six whole years since she had set foot in civilization. Would the priests of Magnus recognize her and apprehend her? They were infamously merciless against those who broke any law, no matter how minor. Hopefully her years of aging would throw them off. Nessa decided that, regardless of her appearance, it was still important to be discreet. That meant refraining from using her magical powers and avoiding sticky situations. If she got robbed again, she would be put in a tough spot.

By sunset, she reached a popular crossroad and saw a large line of incoming travelers. They wore city clothing. She had outgrown her own city clothing a long time ago and was instead wearing her animal skin clothing, which she had fashioned with the help of a friendly ranger she had encountered in the wilds. She stuck out like a sore thumb. Nessa thought over her options. Should she greet them? Should she just walk past them?

In the end, Nessa decided to stare straight ahead and walk past the group. Confidence and nonchalance would do the trick. She felt their eyes on her and started to walk a bit faster. Some of the people she passed were pretty strange-looking themselves. She became hyper-aware of her arms and wasn’t quite sure what to do with them. Was there an optimal arm position to reduce suspicion?

“Hey! Hey you!”

She had a sinking feeling that the voice was addressing her.

“You in the fur!”

Nessa thought about sprinting away, but then a man in a tall hat ran in front of her with a gleaming knife drawn.

“Hello, my pretty,” he said as he raised his knife awfully close to her eyes. “I have a question for you.”

“Get away or I might hurt you,” she stuttered. She saw dried blood on the blade. Would she be forced to use her powers already? So many witnesses…

Nessa jerked her hands up, readying herself to unleash her deadly magics.

“Huh? Oh! A thousand pardons. I didn’t mean to scare,” the man chuckled. He lowered the blade. “I was just wondering… would this knife be good for skinning? I fancy myself an amateur hunter, but I’ve never done any skinning in my life. You look like an experienced woodswoman, so I was hoping you could give me some advice!”

She sighed with relief. No magic necessary. She quickly glanced up at the strange man, and then down at his weapon. It was an ornate, curved dagger with dull edges but an extremely pointy tip.

Nessa explained, “You see, yours is more of a stabbing knife than a skinning knife. It’ll be a challenge to skin anything well with such a dull edge. It’s more important to have a long, sharp edge for skinning. All you’ll manage to do with that knife is poke a bunch of holes in your animal hides.”

“I see. So use a different blade when skinning. Thanks for the advice, miss.”

He tipped his hat, gave her a toothy grin, and ran back to his party’s wagon. Despite the man’s creepy appearance, he seemed as nice as could be. Nessa breathed a quiet sigh of relief. She was grateful that she had encountered normal people rather than more highwaymen.

As they disappeared in the distance, she suddenly thought she could hear one of them yell, “We’ve been skinning these humans all wrong?” Nessa picked up the pace, not believing what she had heard.

Luckily by then, they were far away and she had almost reached the small town’s gate. Two guards stood at attention.

“Halt! Identification please,” one of them demanded as she approached.

Nessa’s heart started thumping. This was her moment of truth. If she played the guard right, then she wouldn’t have to deal with a priest of Magnus. She fished around in her pouch and pulled out a tattered piece of paper. The guard read it and scowled.

“This is illegible.”

“Can I get a new one then?”

“Yes… we can send for a priest of Magnus and he can generate you new papers. After he screens you, of course.”

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

That was definitely not what she wanted.

“Oh… how long will that take?”

“A few hours at the mo-”

“That’s too long! I have better things to do, anyway. Good day to you, sirs!”

Nessa spun around and hurriedly walked away.

So she wouldn’t be able to just stroll into town. The cities were just as secure as she had remembered they were. She sat in the fields, contemplating on how to get in. The sky was already beginning to darken and the stars were coming out. She didn’t mind sleeping on the soft grass, but she needed the medical supplies as soon as possible, preferably by the end of that night.

She thought about sneaking in, but the guards were vigilant. Could she stealthily get into the cart of some unsuspecting merchant? No. Not only was that too hard to accomplish, but also the roads were completely empty.

Suddenly, she heard the cries of an animal that sounded like a deer. She immediately lit a torch and moved towards the noise. Deer had always been a particular favorite of hers. Not to mention she was getting hungry.

She came across a sorry sight. Two wolves were eviscerating a felled deer. Nessa shouted and approached them, waving around her flaming stick.

“Get out of here! This is MY meal!” she roared as loudly as she could. The wolves backed away from the deer and growled at the newcomer. She picked up a rock, threw it, and hit one of the wolves.

“MY deer! MY deer!”

She looked straight into the eyes of the wolves and saw nothing but hunger. Sensing a moment of weakness, one of them immediately lunged towards her. She swung her torch at the wolf while sidestepping, but missed. However, she spun around, successfully anticipating the second wolf’s flank attack. The second wolf dashed at her, but she screamed and swung, burning the wolf with flame. It whimpered and backed away. They slowly circled Nessa; she struggled to keep an eye on both of them.

“You want more? Come on!”

This time, they both lunged at once. One managed to attach itself to the fabric over her legs, while the readied for a charge. She felt the first wolf trying to pull her to the ground, so she jabbed the torch right into the wolf’s face. It screeched in pain and relinquished its hold on her. The other wolf snarled viciously at the sound of its comrade’s yelp.

She advanced on the second wolf, shouting and swinging her torch. The wolves decided that although the few bites of deer they had gotten here were in fact quite good, this crazy human was ruining the overall ambiance. They trotted off into the darkness without looking back. Nessa snorted.

She went to the dying deer and kneeled down. It was mewling in agony. She estimated that it would die within the hour. Still, it was better just to put it out of its misery now.

“It’s going to be okay,” she said gently.

She looked around to make sure no one was watching. She rested one palm on the deer’s body and began to drain. The essence of deer had always been a particular favorite of hers. The deer grew cold.

Once she was full, she pulled her hand away. To her surprise, she tore off a giant chunk of flesh in the process. She panicked and tried to shake the deer meat off her hand, but it was stuck as if a vacuum had formed on her palm. It was shrinking and greying. Her magic was sapping it and she couldn’t maintain control. She broke out in a sweat from the overflowing heat. She put the flesh under her foot and tried to pull it off of her hand, but the chunk held fast.

The hunk of meat was wasting away quickly. Unfortunately, it was withering away too fast for her body to cool down in time. Nessa’s vision was getting blurry and her muscles grew weak. By the time the flesh had completely been sapped, she felt like she would pass out at any moment. The whole world was spinning. Condensation poured out of her nose and mouth with every breath. She needed help.

With nowhere else to turn, she staggered back towards the town. There was a chance that they still wouldn’t let her in, but they wouldn’t just let her die.

Not like she had much of a choice at this point.

As Nessa neared the guards, she held out her hand and attempted to call for help. However, her legs gave out and she ate dirt. She resorted to whimpering as loud as she could. She was seeing double, triple, quadruple. To her relief, she could hear the guards approaching.

“Miss, are you all right?”

One of them turned her over and saw her sweat-drenched face. He put his hand on her forehead.

“Holy… you’re really burning up.”

She tried to respond, but only mumbling came out.

“We should bring her to the apothecary.”

“But it’s the same girl from before. She has no identification.”

“Well, we can’t leave her to die. Magnus forbids it.”

“He forbids killing. She’s dying all on her own.” He pointed at her eyes, which were rolling to the back of her head.

“True, but we would have to report this death. What if somehow we get accused of killing her?” he said, narrowing his eyes. His voice dropped to a conspiratorial hush. “It could very well happen, knowing the priests in this town.”

The other guard nodded his head with a grim expression. “...I suppose this is the right thing to do, anyway,” he sighed.

She felt the guards pick her up but didn’t remember after that.