OK, second chapter. Yeaah :grin:

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________

02-INTRODUCTION

“Uuum, Hi. My name is Malcolm. Pleased to meet you. Sorry. Ha-ha.”

In response all I heard were shrieks and cries of plea.

In front of me was standing a boy with long pointy ears and a sickle. While glaring at me, he was no more than 10. Behind him were old women, young-ish looking woman with dead eyes, a girl of about 17-16 with a bruise on her face and little children from 3-6 years old with many scratches and other small injuries on them. All in all 11 people in the cellar with a passed out old dude over there. All of them looked exhausted and scared.

‘This is going to be a pain.’ – I thought.

“Relax. I’m not here to hurt you. They sent scouts to check on you today, they’re dead hence the armour. I’ll repeat again, I’m not here to hurt you. If I wanted you dead, that man over there” – I pointed to the old guy-“would not be knocked out cold, he would miss a head. You don’t have to worry you’re safe with me here.”

Thinking over my lack of persuasion skills, I noticed in the eyes of the boy that he had thoughts of distrust mixed with indecisiveness. Indecisiveness was good. I was about to press further when one of the old ladies asked a simple, yet the most obvious and annoying question.

“Why should we trust you?”

“Okay, okay. Firstly I need you. I need to get to the Ocean of Trees, therefore I need you, I saw tracks of your people going into the forest so I can assume you know of some sort of settlement there. Secondly I’m human…”- I said as I lifted the sides of my hair showing them my ears, they gasped and there was a new feeling in their eyes, disgust. I chuckled as I continued. - “…so I'd assume dark elves would not want to side with me. Thirdly, as I said before I could easily kill all of you and as I have not done that at the start, it is a prime example that I don’t want you dead. I could but I don’t want to. And lastly, you don’t have to trust me you just have to take me to the settlement, and if they kill me there or whatever, it is none of your business or responsibility. You can say that I forced you, if they will start to interrogate you, which I probably will if you refuse me. So I give you a choice either we will have a nice journey, where I will protect you and be relatively nice or I will not be nice and our journey will be… bitter. It’s up to you to decide.”

They looked over each other then they looked at me and nodded accepting the better part of the deal. The boy put his sickle down but continued glaring at me. He came closer to me so that only I could hear him.

“I’m watching you. If you try anything funny, I will not hesitate.”- he whispered.

‘Was he even listening to me’- I thought, while giving him a grin.

Apparently the old dude over there and his son are the only people from Ocean of Trees that survived the attack, all the rest were born here and spend their lives in the village. His son left with the scouting group and probably went for some help or something amongst those lines, so yeah I had to wake the old dude up and convince him that I was not an enemy, for now at least. I told him that I needed him to get me to the settlement in the forest.

When I started persuading them I was already pretty annoyed, when I was done with them, all of them, I was at my wits end. I had to constantly remind myself that they were an asset and they were innocent and I’m not evil enough to kill innocents, without a solid reason that is. I was surprised at myself here; I usually am pretty cold about those things and only experienced small irritation. I guess the stress of, yes, knowing nothing was taking its toll on me.

‘Have to do something relaxing after this’- I thought.

“Okay, we have to move out now. They’ll probably send a search team with more men the next day if not today in the evening. We’ve got no time to waste.”- I said while helping some to stand up.

I walked up stairs and then waited for them, occasionally helping those that needed it. It was silly from one point of view to keep those that may slow us down, but from the other point of view being benevolent towards them would earn me some benefit points. Once we were all ready to move out they started to look at me expecting me to lead. I shook my head and pointed my hand towards the old guy.

“You’re the one to lead, you know the road, formation is on me… Also, sorry for umm… pitchfork and your face.” – better get it over with, we already had trust issues in the team, wouldn’t want to be stabbed to death in the middle of the night.

He nodded accepting my apology.

“What’s your name young man?”- he asked.

“Malcolm. Yourself?”

“Illiador. So how did you end up in the village?” – he inquired.

“I can’t remember. I seem not to be of this world.”

“Not of this world, huh. A human hero? I’ve heard of your kind. Explains then how you killed Alkeziar’s personal dogs. They’re tough you know.”

“Alkeziar?”

“Yeah, it’s their khan. He used to be a warchief before but now he tries to unify the continent, continents if he really wants to take Ocean of Trees. Huh, even though you’re human I’m not that detested talking to you, must be because you’re from another world.”

I gave him a puzzled look.

He sighed and started explaining to me.

“You see, we hate humans not only because of their ways but also because of the curse, that was cast on us, humans and other races 4 000 years ago, during the Eternal War. Leaders of all different races were overtaken by ambition and desire to dominate over others. Anyway, the magic behind it was designed, so that it also curses the offspring of all the accursed and their children and so on. Nobody knows who made the curse so you might as well blame everyone. It stopped though, about 300 years ago, but us, those older than 300 years still hate the rest of the races. You see those children, they don’t have the curse, they’re not brainwashed by it to hate. Some of the young elves even formed countries with humans, orcs and rafka, the beast people. Because you’re not from this world, the curse does not seem to work on you, meaning I am not forced to hate you, plus you feel…different, from other humans I’ve encountered and not just because I don’t hate you, it’s just... Never mind, Forgive this old man he’s gone a bit crazy over last couple of hundred years, don’t worry about it.”

‘Aaaaha,I see, fair enough... Well at least they won’t stab me in the back or give me poisoned food, I hope.’- I thought while looking around.

Our formation was Illiador in the front, kid with a sickle following him and me in the rear looking out for any pursuers.

We proceeded smoothly without anyone following us.

The forest greeted us with tall pine trees, so tall that their trunks seemed to escalate to the skies, reaching those dark grey clouds and making them dark green, in any case still dark and gloomy. I noticed, that once we entered the forest the tracks of the previous team disappeared, somehow it made me feel slightly unsettling.

We walked the rest of the day and when it was nearing nightfall we decided to camp out. I asked whether it’s a good idea but Illiador said that there is nothing dangerous, maybe a couple of wolves but they don’t walk in this part of a forest, apparently this place is something where spirits reside hence no animals and cover tracks, they also seem to protect elves that are in danger, yet another thing, I have complications imagining, but meh. I still convinced him to do night watches, I asked the sickle kid, too as he was eager to help.

After we set up the camp and lit fire, they shared some provision with me, I ate it only because I was starving, still it was miraculous I didn’t puke from it or die from food poisoning. Here goes my first experience of the food in this world.

Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.

The kid had his turn in the night first. I was awake to keep him some company. The real reason was that I couldn’t fall asleep. This place felt too eerie for any sort of dreams. To keep away my paranoia, I started conversation with him. His name was Xiatel, I called him, Xia which annoyed him and made me chuckle. His father was killed trying to protect them whilst they were in the house and his mother was put in the cage. He survived only because he ran and then was caught by Illiador, who then put him in the cellar. He felt like coward for leaving his mother and decided to become strong. I saw the innocence of child in him, the one that I used to have as well.

After talking to him for a while and then telling him that it was my turn now, I decided to look around who was asleep and who was awake. Xia was instantly asleep and the rest of the company were sleeping like babies, I was bewildered at this fact. That is until I looked over the woman with an absent minded look, or infamous 'dead eyes'. She was looking into the fire, entranced into it. If not for the dirt on her face, she could’ve been considered very attractive. Don’t get me wrong I’m not that pathetic as to take advantage of someone, when they’re weak and/or hopeless. I walked over to her and sat beside her. She didn’t pay attention, still captured by the fire. It seemed her own life, compared to the fire was just cinder, a sign of past life, but not continuing.

“You know they wouldn’t want you to be like this.”- I said while looking at her.

She did not respond or move, but I could see in her eyes something, something more than just emptiness, it was most definitely sadness and anguish, feeling that I know quite well of.

“Dead like it when they’re mourned, it’s the sign that they are remembered. Cry rivers of pain and refine your despair into your strength, so that the next time you’ll meet your enemies you’ll make them drown in a river of blood, their blood.” – I made my point, whilst surprised at the shit coming out of my mouth, I’d probably be embarrassed if I didn’t care that is, or movies existed in this world. At that I stood up and left her to her own feelings. Behind me I could hear quiet sobbing.

About 2 hours later everyone was asleep... except for me, I couldn’t fucking sleep. At some point Illiador woke up and tried to change with me, but I reassured him that it was ok, I couldn’t fucking sleep after all. I was looking away in the darkness, checking our surroundings.Eventually it started to give me a headache. I could only assume but it was probably because I couldn’t fucking sleep.Sigh~

The dim light of our bonfire could illuminate at much 30-40 meters in the dark. Something then caught my attention, the atmosphere. I felt chills crawling down my spine. The fire started to flicker even though there was no wind, as if answering tom y worries. I looked in the dark, vigilantly observing it. I stood up and unsheathed my sword. I tapped Illiador with the side of my blade, waking him up. Seeing me he understood what was going on. He quickly stood up and grabbed the pitchfork.

I then had this strange feeling inside me. It was a feeling similar to need. The need to move, to rush forward. As I did so, I closed my eyes. In that darkness it felt like a separate world. I only guessed that it was the trance.

I could hear their growls and their shrieks. I could also hear sounds of their flesh being sliced and bone breaking under the pressure of my swings. I slashed, thrusted, kicked and punched. When I slashed one of them in half, my sword got stuck in something, I guessed it was a tree. I left it there and took out my daggers slitting their throats and digging them in their skulls. If my daggers were too deep, I had to leave them there. When I ran out of them, I was using my arrows as one-use only daggers. Now leaving my sword didn’t seem like such a good idea. Realizing this dumb mistake, I moved back and tried to take out my sword. Meanwhile one of the fucks didn't waste his time and latched on my arm. I heard a crack which was followed by sharp pain.

I was intrigued as it continued latching on me, now only with its head, while its body missing.

“Worse than fucking cockroaches, god”- I muttered with irritation in my voice, as I continued.

I was now completely covered in their slime. I was praising my trance for my eyes being closed. I wouldn’t want this... shit in my eyes, even if a gun was stuck to my head. I had small cuts all over my face and my hands, like my armor was scratched pretty much everywhere but felt sturdy. I decided to check my more serious injury, while breathing heavily and trying to catch a small break. The place where the fuckface latched on was bleeding pretty badly and probably was broken too. As I was massacring them for 1 more minute I realized that doing so was futile.

‘Ok, fuck this’- I never liked endurance battles and I was certainly not keen on finishing this one.

When I ran back to the camp, I was happy to see that my little rampage did take those fucks’ attention from these guys. Hopefully they were awake, probably because of monsters’ squeals or Illiador. Seeing my appearance, they were half terrified and half disgusted. Seeing the appearance of bastard behind me they were absolutely terrified.

‘It seems rotary swings are my forte’- I thought as its cut-in-half body, pieces of body, hit the ground.

Creature didn’t have any eyes nor any nose and its mouth was retracting into 4 tentacles with spikes in the middle of each, in the center it had tongue falling down out of its mouth, some hair were also growing on its head and no ears on the side, it was also about a meter tall, with weak looking hands that had small claws on its 3 fingers, it’s legs looked strong but not enough so they would seem unbreakable, the colour of its skin was pale pale white and their blood had muddy colour. To sum it up – fucked up monkeys, weird fucked up tentacle monkeys.

“Okay we have to run, there’s too much of them”- they stared at me-“What? Go! There’s no time to wa…”

“RRRARGH”

Yep, rotary swings.

A head with tentacles fell down.

“See?! Fucking run!” –with irritation I yelled at them.

Once all of the deadweight has left the camp, me Illiador and Xia started to follow them. While slicing the monkeys in pieces, I asked Illiador, where is the closest village. He just pointed north towards the deadweight, good thing we were at least going the right way.

While running through the knee-deep snow and desperately fighting off the creatures, we finally saw lights of torches through the woods. A minute later we could see something like a wooden fortress. I think they noticed us as they were opening their gates. Growls of creatures intensified and the pressure increased. I told Xia and Illiador to go, without doubt they would crumble under the pressure of the attack. Killing at least 5 more of them, I sheathed my sword and dashed towards their entrance. As I was approaching the gates started to slowly close. Passing by the gates I noticed they had those strange runes written on the gates as well as the walls.

The doors closed.

I could still hear their growls and screams outside of the wall.

As I turned around what greeted me were 4 spears and 4 angry looking elves.

“Hi.”- I said to them.

“You see those guys over there”- I pointed at my entourage.

“I’m with them… So yeh”- I said as I rolled my eyes and hit the ground.

I passed out.

03-EXPOSITION:STAGE ONE

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Got some references going [th_084_.gif]

If there are any mistakes or parts in the story that feel weird or forced please tell me

Anyways see yous