Galus had managed to build a small tent using some sticks and some leaves, and given the outrageous amount of rain here that was a given, he sighed, as he woke up, this was his third day in this place, he remembered imagining what it would be like to live in this world, he never imagined it would be this horrible, shitting and pissing in the woods, freezing himself to death at night, and sleeping on rocks, living the fucking dream James. If he ever got the chance, he'd punch his past self in the face...

He inspected the cleavers in his hands as he sat, he'd completely lost it yesterday, on the bright side he can somewhat used the sword, if a bit clumsily, on the other side, he managed to use an ash of war, downside of it is that it turns him into a bloos thirsty... Barbarian. And while the increased attacking prowess is nice, and in fact it's probably the only reason he's alive, and he seemed to have enough control over it, down side is that it drains him mentally in a way he didn't know was possible, was that possibly his focus points? Well, on the bright side, it actually seemed to regenerate with sleep, and considering he couldn't sleep in the game he guessed that was probably the best explanation, he noticed he can't see his health focus or stamina bars, so he had to mostly guesstimate what it was at with how he was feeling.

He got up, grabbing his sword, he looked around, spotting Irina in her own small tent that he'd made her, he could hear her crying last night, he smacked himself in the face to wake himself up a tad, looking around he saw it hadn't rained last night thankfully, so he went off to gather some firewood.

He was carrying one of the cleavers with him as he moved through the woods, he moved through some bushes, before coming out with and finding a village that seemed oddly familiar, he found some bushes that looked dry enough, he grabbed the top of it and swung the cleaver at the base of the stem, he repeated the process before he saw a bush that looked a bit burned with some vibrant yellow berries growing from it, it snapped in place in his mind. "Shit!" He loud whispered. Turning to leave, when he saw a man in yellow robes charging him with a sickle, he dropped the firewood and hefted the his cleaver, he dodged to the side as they lunged swinging the sickle in an arc. He kicked the man in the side of the knee causing it to bend at a very unnatural angle. He brought his cleaver down on their hand, he didn't think he was ready to kill a human yet, atleast until he saw a distinct yellow glow coming from their eyes he booked it, the smell of sulfur and ammonia comes strong in the air as he feels the heat of the fire behind him, he watched in horror as a among projectile came over his shoulder, and set the ground on fire right in front of him, he ran right through it and immediately regretted running so fast, immediately he had a searing migraine, as if someone set his brain on fire.

He dropped the cleaver clutching his head, though his feet were still moving.eventually the mother of all headaches wore off, luckily it wasn't all that much chaos flame otherwise he could definitely see himself going mad from agony. he managed to get back to the camp, Irina was sitting nearby on her bench, he sighs, as he saw her safe. "We need to go, now." He said, hoping his stern and serious tone could cover up his rising fear, but his voice did have a lilt to it at the end.

"Why?" She asked, concern in her voice.

"Trust me, we have more than a couple of misbegotten coming for us right now, and we want nothing to do with it, if you want to leave a note to your father, go ahead but we're not staying here." Galus said, looking over his shoulder, nothing yet but this world has surprised him before, an angry mob of frenzied villagers being rounded up and coming after him wasn't out of the realm of possibility.

"I- I... Yeah, alright, let me gather my things and write a note." Irina said, she kneels in front of the bench and uses it as a table, before writing on a scrap of paper, before folding it and setting it inside her tent. She gets up and walks over to him.

Galus had a thought, he walks over to his tent and dismantles it, taking out the long stick from the top frame and gives it to Irina.

"You can use that to navigate, tap it along the ground and nearby walls. It'll keep you from tripping or running into walls." Galus says.

"I... Thank you." Irina says, trying it out.

Galus looks over his shoulder and sees flickering light possibly torches, he looks back to Irina. "We need to go like, now." He says, leading her down the road.

After a few minutes of speed walking, he tapped Irina on the shoulder. "I see something ahead, looks like a bridge."

"The bridge? That's one of my father's blockades, it's meant to keep demi humans at bay, maybe they'll help us."

Galus thought for a second, maybe they won't be aggressive toward me, I mean I've seen the world surprise me before with the golem and hell even the misbegotten employing pack tactics to attack him with synchronicity. He wouldn't be surprised if the soldiers manning the bridge weren't immediately aggressive.

If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

"Alright, we'll see if they could help us." Galus says, he looks over his shoulder and see's some of the frenzied villagers charging towards them a little ways back.

"Riiiight, uh, how good are you at running?" Galus asked, looking at her, and was not happy to see a worried look on her.

"Not very good." She says, looking in his direction, though with her blindfold it's hard to tell where she's looking.

"Right... Alright, I have an idea, though it might not be very lady like," he walks in front of her, crouching down. "Ever done piggy back riding?" He asks.

She looks over his head, and shakes her head.

"Right, I'm crouched in front of you, lean down and wrap your arms around my chest, I'll grab you legs and hoist you up and run with you on my back, i'm not exactly a noble steed but it's either this or you run on foot."

She looks a bit confused, but she apparently hears the yelling and agonized screaming of the frenzied villagers and decides she wants no part in that. She reaches down groping his head before bending over and grabbing his shoulders, she manages to walk forward without tripping on him and moves her knees into his ribs. He grabs her by the back of her thighs and picks her up, and can feel her grip slip a bit before she tightens it says "alright I'm ready."

"Alright, hang on tight." He says, before awkwardly running before finding a good rhythm to run to, he's half way there and can see that most of the soldiers are facing the other direction.

"Hey!" He hollars, he'd wave his arms but then he'd accidentally dump Irina.

He saw a foot soldier on a platform manning a huge ballista look back in their direction, then he said something to a soldier on the ground who jogged toward them, Galus took it as a good sign that their weapon wasn't drawn.

When he approached Galus remembered how ugly the soldiers looked much akin to zombies without grievous wounds. "What seems to be the problem, the bridge is a restricted area by order of lord commander Edgar."

Irina who was still clutching onto him spoke up. "Edgar is my father, we're being pursued and require safe passage."

The guard gave her then me a once over then sighed. "Sorry, but orders are orders."

Galus decided to put in his two cents. "Trust me, if lord commander Edgar finds out that his daughter died because you impeded her escape he will probably kill you all."

The soldier looked at him. "And just who in Marika's name are you?"

"Just a good Samaritan who doesn't want to be killed by wack job cultists."

The guard looked over their shoulder seeing the cultists and cursed. "I knew we should have burned that village down."

Galus looks to the soldier. "Can we please pass?"

The soldier looked between him and Irina, then nodded. "Go, I'm sure we'll be able to kill these guys without a problem, they're just a bunch of delusional farmers with pitchforks."

rina looked toward farmer "thank you."

Galus carried her past him and he could hear the soldier blow a horn, gathering the soldiers, Galus stopped at the other side of the bridge to watch, he was actually surprised to see the ones wielding greatshields and pikes to form a shield wall, while a couple with crossbows got onto the balista platform to snipe over the phalanx. He saw the cultists all but crash into it before getting stabbed with the pikes, he looked as swordsman with smaller brass shields flanked and killed a couple of the cultists, and the crossbowmen shot a pair trying to flank, it was looking good, atleast until the cultists went full homelander on the soldiers, shooting yellow flame from their eyes, then it went down hill as a soldier with a greatsword started to scream and his eyes caught fire and he started to spew flames everywhere and start attacking his fellows, all the while screaming "He wants her! He wants her!" Over and over again, and made a B line straight toward Irina and Galus.

Galus lowered himself and got her off his back, unhooking his last cleaver from the loop of his belt. "I'll be right there, go!" He said, seeing the cultist slip past the Frontline and start toward them, he watched as a bolt tore through it's head and nearly hit Galus' leg as it bounced off the stone bridge.

Galus nodded to the archer and ran after Irina he could see her fast walking up the road.

When he caught up to her he saw her turn and give a yelp of fear. "it's alright, it's me." He looked over his shoulder seeing that the soldiers were managing to fight off the cultists and the few soldiers that were turned mad by the yellow flame, they looked to be winning at that, but he was concerned about what the mad soldier had said, "he wants her" did he mean Shabriri? If that was the case then that meant Irina's death was planned this entire time by Shabriri and the frenzied flame to make her into it's own finger maiden.

"Like hell That's happening..." He said through gritted teeth.

"What's wrong?" Irina asked, looking at him.

He thought a moment, he wasn't gonna keep that a secret, but he certainly wasn't going to outright tell her 'hey by the way you were kinda destined to guide a tarnished to scorch the world with hellfire and madness.' yeah, I'm sure she'll be super cool with that. No, instead he said "You'd think me mad if I told you."

"I don't know, you don't seem mad to me." Irina said, then smiled "atleast not as mad as the people back there."

He thinks for a second then shrugs. "Ha Ha, hilarious, okay, well, if you must know, let me tell you something first, I'm not tarnished, nor am I from the lands between, I never served under Godfrey though I'd honestly love the meet the guy he sounds awesome, I'm kind of what you'd call... An oracle in a way, I've researched this lands past, and I've seen it's present and eight other variations of it's future, in every future when I deliver your letter you die to misbegotten, and your father... It doesn't end well for him, he makes a deal with a being known as Shabriri to bring you back, in return, he'd give himself willingly to the frenzied flame."

She definitely looks like she doesn't believe him but does look like she's giving him the benefit of the doubt "like those villagers?"

"Kind of yes, but the difference is the frenzied flame brought you back, but... Not as yourself, the frenzied flame had it's searing claws in your mind and you consumed the eyes of men thinking them grapes, and guided a man to drown the world in fire, chaos, and madness, it ended in you becoming a finger maiden for a corrupted two fingers and burning alive. It... Wasn't a pretty sight." He explains, before stopping and putting a hand on her shoulder. "Remember when the maddened soldier said he wants her? He was talking about you, and I get the feeling he won't like his plan being foiled. They tend to be full of themselves like that." He says the last part under his breath.

Irina looks thoughtful and a bit confused, clearly it was a lot to dump on her at once but he's read enough unOrdinary to know that keeping secrets will inevitably end with disaster.

He taps her on the shoulder. "Hey, I know a good place we can go, don't feel too down, I'm atleast relatively sure it'll be a safe enough place."

He just hopes he's ready to fight a pumpkin head.