HELLSCAPE

The sound of the horse was the only noise for some time. It seemed to both like the world didn’t care much for the silence, as the wind picked up slightly and the broad green leaves of the trees that bordered the road began to rustle. It was a quiet whispering to them both. It was only the rising sun that told Nua how much time had passed at all. She felt barely a minute of it. Moment bled into moment, which died in turn and bled into another, unchanging until she felt a tiny pressure behind her. Sobella’s head was turned away to one side, her cheek Resting on the cloth that covered Nua’s armor. The sound of soft breathing was added to the world at large.

‘You poor thing, you must not have slept at all last night… utterly exhausted, physically and mentally.’ Nua reached up and patted the surface of the ink black hair on the head of the demon-elf. Nua pulled lightly on the reins of her horse, it nickered a little, but slowed down a tiny bit. She stroked its dark, coarse fur apologetically. “Sorry, I’m afraid I just don’t want to wake her up. She deserves a little rest.”

The horse may or may not have understood her, but it complied, and that was all Nua needed. The pace slowed, and the slow rocking of their bodies in sync with the horses rhythmic steps. Nua relaxed her body, but kept it ready as the city became ever more distant from their backs.

‘Going from the danger of lies and betrayal in the city, to the danger of tooth and claw in the country. What a world.’ Nua pondered and kept her eyes scanning the periphery while Sobella slept closer to her back.

Nua did nothing when the hold of arms around her waist tightened and she felt the soft pressure of Sobella’s ample breasts press a little more tightly. The woman murmured nothings in her sleep, things that might have been words in her dreams, but were nothing in the real world. ‘No matter your chains, your duties, your life, you’re always free in death or in your dreams.’ She recalled the elven expression, first heard when the collar was placed around her neck for the first time. “A human said that to me… I wonder if we borrowed it from them? Was he trying to comfort me back then? I thought so at the time but…” She released the reins with her left hand and touched her naked throat, “maybe he hated his work? His life? Maybe he was reminding himself? He was old for a human when he put that metal on me, so he’s been ‘free’ for a long time now.” The grim, quiet spoken reflection tapered off when Sobella shifted a little and her head turned toward Nua’s neck.

She felt the hot, warm breath of the living demon-elf against her skin, and after a comforted moan, the trace of a kiss followed, “Mmm, skin so rough, Rasgy…” Sobella’s barely intelligible words were enough to draw a red blush to Nua’s cheek as she was mistaken for the woman’s lover in a dream that sounded like it must have been pleasant.

It was a great relief to Nua that it happened only once. Though she didn’t shift to prevent it. ‘No reason to wake her, like this, she’s free.’ Nua thought pityingly.

Nua looked up a little higher than the road, “Endless sky above, endless earth below, no foe behind, no harness on my back, free at last, free at last, after all that time, I’m free at last…” She whispered the words she’d uttered to herself as she walked away from the capital city of her masters a decade and a half earlier.

It wasn’t noise that woke Sobella up hours later when the sun was higher in the sky, it was her own grumbling stomach.

Her eyes began to flutter open, “Rasgy…?” She whispered, and seeing a throat that was definitely not his, and a slender armored waist that was equally obviously not his, that fluttering ended by flying open.

“You’re awake.” Nua said in a soft, patient voice.

“Oh, right… riiiight… right.” Sobella said with increasing recall and stress as recent events came back to her.

Sobella became sullen, her stomach growled again. “Sorry… I haven’t eaten since yesterday…”

“No, it’s fine, I had a brief meal this morning…” Nua lied with practiced ease, “but I’d like something as well.”

“Do we stop, or keep going? My… Rasgen, he has us well provisioned for the trip, we could have some dried meat just to tide us over until nightfall.” Sobella asked the question while looking around at the open ground and the thick trees as well as the long road ahead.

“Is there a village in this direction? If possible, I’d like to avoid consuming much of what we have with us for as long as possible. The less we have to rely on the Beastmen for anything, or on their territory for anything, the better.” Nua asked the question in seriousness, or so it seemed. While in fact she thought, ‘The nearest village is dead, burned down on Onimeus’s orders during a raid to try to draw Prince Rasgen back. The nearest living village is another full day away at this pace.’

“Not here, no, the war was a hard one, no matter what you’ve heard about the Komestrans being a natural slave like people, they were fierce until my Rasgen helped bring them down.” Sobella held her head up high when she spoke of the Prince’s role in the victory, before explaining the distance to the next inhabited place.

“So then we’ll go a little further, and hunt. You’ve got bears here, don’t you? And wolves?” Nua twitched her ears slightly, seeking out the noise of potential prey.

“Yes, but you don’t have a bow, Nua.” Sobella pointed out gingerly, leaning back when Nua arched her back to laugh out loud at the seeming critique.

“I’m armed enough. All we need is to draw something out. I’ll take care of the rest.” Nua said with calm and easy self assurance that silenced her companion until they reached a place that, for reasons Sobella was unsure of, Nua seemed to favor.

“Can you climb trees, Lady Sobella?” Nua asked with a clever smile at one side of her mouth.

“Not really…” Sobella pursed her lips into a tiny frown, “Why?”

“I ask you if you can climb a tree, and you don’t realize it’s because I want you to climb a tree?” Nua turned a mocking gaze toward her, drawing a wide eyed, stunned bunny look from Sobella that rapidly turned into a rich laugh.

“No… ‘why’ do I need to climb a tree, Duchessa?” Sobella inquired when her laughter stopped.

“So the bear or wolf or whatever shows up, doesn’t kill you. It’s just a precaution, nothing to worry about.” Nua patted the hands around her waist.

Sobella, far from being tense, relaxed, “I know… can I confess something to you… Nua? Can I just call you Nua? Is that alright?”

“Only if I can also call you Sobella, I guess we’re going to know each other very well before long, we might as well drop the formalities now.” Nua replied in a pleasant, casual voice while still patting the hands that clutched together round her body.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

“Alright, Nua… it wasn’t for nothing that you were the choice for this. I don’t know how it came to you alone, but I wanted you to be my escort at least. I would have refused, if I’d known that fate declared that you do this by yourself. But I did want your company expressly.” Sobella said it with a faint blush she was glad that the forward watching Nua could not see. While she got down off the horse and approached a low tree while leading the horse behind her.

“Is that so?” Nua asked in a neutral voice, securing the horse’s reins to a small branch.

Sobella couldn’t quite tell what the question given to her meant, whether Nua’s thoughts on that were favorable or otherwise, it struck her as quite noncommittal, and so she carried on while watching her escort work, taking out a cloth, slicing open her right hand, and staining it with blood before hanging it up.

“Yes.” Sobella said while she dismounted the horse at Nua’s gesturing hand.

“Wrap your body around me, hop on my back.” Nua ordered, and somewhat confused, Sobella awkwardly obeyed.

She understood, when Nua drew two small throwing knives, and began to climb the tree using the sharp blades as climbing spikes. The sharp ‘thock’-like penetrating noise accompanied Sobella’s confession. “I wanted the company of, well this is a delicate time, and I don’t know if my courage will hold, so I mean, what I wanted was the company of someone of courage I could trust. If my courage fails me, I know you’ll do two things, things some might not be able or willing to do.”

Sobella looked down below her and felt her breathing go faster.

“Oh, right, don’t look down.” Nua remarked passively as she lunged another foot higher in the tree.

“You’re su-supposed to say that ‘before’ I look down!” Sobella exclaimed.

“You knew we were climbing.” Nua pointed out quite deadpanned.

“Not this high!” Sobella squeaked out.

The leaves brushed against them softly as the ground was obscured by the number of branches and leaves below.

When they were near the top of the tall tree, Nua swung herself over with a single deft motion to land on a double branch just below them. Sobella let out a brief, mouse-like squeak of terror before the wood bent, and settled. The leaves rattled like her nerves as Nua went down to one knee and held still.

“Alright, stay up here.” Nua ordered, and Sobella slowly disengaged, then sat with her back against the tree.

As soon as Nua stepped away and gave her space, Sobella lowered herself forward and lay with her arms around the branch as tightly as she could. “Stay up here?! Where else will I go! I hate heights!” She all but shrieked and squeezed her eyes tightly shut.

“Don’t worry.” Nua reached down and patted her cheek gently, “You can climb down in just a little while, this won’t take long.”

Sobella’s eyes flew open, her maroon solid eyes looked at Nua’s face, caught the smirk, and squeaked out, “Not funny!”

Nua’s smirk said she disagreed still, “Not to worry, I’ll come get you.”

“You’d better!” Sobella said, shaking like the leaves that her shaking body was… in turn, shaking from where she held on for dear life.

Nua hopped down from branch to branch, her boot barely grazing it, disturbing nary a leaf before moving down to the next, until she had a clear line of sight below.

She waited there and kept an eye on the bloody rag she’d left at the branch. ‘OK, blood in the air, open ground… and for the love of bones, do not let the damn thing get the horse!’ Nua mocked herself and took out two of her throwing knives, which she readied in her fingers.

True to expectation, she didn’t have to wait for long. She heard it before she saw it. The horse began to nicker in a panic, tugging at the reins that held it fast to the thick branch.

Nua waited, seeing it come toward the tree in which she sat. The crunching noise of its heavy padded feet on the soft forest floor was enough to make her pulse race with excitement. ‘Yersin, would you like some bear?’ She asked in a pleasant, amiable tone to the gem in her hand.

‘I could eat.’ The humor in her partner’s voice was more than eager. ‘Get ready.’ She ordered, and she felt the gem pulse in the palm of her false hand.

The horse was whinnying louder, its feet pawing frantically, the bear was picking up its pace, its loping walk became a charge, the heavy breathing was hungry, eager, ‘too eager, and it isn’t as fat as it should be. Pickings must have been slim. Probably the war, foraging cutting the available game down.’ Nua concluded as it drew closer. She brought her left arm towards her right, knives clenched in between her fingers. [True Shot] She uttered the art, and then her arm flung out, throwing the knives with her martial skill, and striking the bear in the center of its eyes.

It roared and tumbled forward face first into the ground a few yards from her perch. Nua shot to her feet and ran along the limb of the tree as the blind bear flailed and roared as it tried to scramble up, shaking its head and throwing the knives free to land in the grass, she was already leaping from the branch. The bear was rearing up on its hind legs, its forelegs out wide like it wanted someone to hug.

Nua’s favorite blade was already in her right hand when she was sailing down through the air without so much as a battle cry to give away her coming.

The knife sank deep into the bear near the base of its neck, and her left hand came forward like a knife of its own, ripping through the flesh of its chest to wrap around its heart. For one brief moment, the bear roared out again as she held the beating, pulsing organ in her false hand, and then she squeezed.

The heart popped like a grape caught in a closing jaw, and the bear became a limp, twitching corpse.

She stepped away as the corpse slumped down, the last bit of breath, a mix of growl and groan was all that was left of it.

A voice shouted from up above, “Did you… did you assassinate the bear?!”

Nua looked up through the many branches, she caught the faint dot up above where Sobella still clung to the tree.

“Yes!” Nua shouted up to Sobella, “Stay right there, I’ll come get you!” Nua answered with a loud voice.

“I’ll be here! Not because I want to be… but I don’t really have a choice now thanks to you!” Sobella shouted back.

“Heh, fair enough! Just hold on… no, spare me the retort, this’ll just be a minute!” Nua answered in turn, and began to hop her way up from branch to branch, spot to spot, until she landed lightly in front of the still shaking Sobella.

For a moment it was all forgotten, the dread nature of their journey, the mourning left behind that still lay ahead, there was only the kind of place she loved. A great green wood, a fresh kill below on which to feast, and a hilariously annoyed demon-elf lady clutching onto a tree limb for dear life. Nua could do nothing but laugh, wipe her knife clean on the bark, and then crouch down to pick the frozen woman up.

“C-Careful!” Sobella stammered, “I re-really hate heights!” She exclaimed as Nua put her over one shoulder.

“Oh, I’d best get you down quickly then.” Nua said with a smarmy sort of voice.

“Wait, what do you…” Sobella began, her deep red eyes growing wide with horror as she lay draped over Nua’s shoulder. “You can’t!” She shouted.

But Nua did, she jumped down easily from limb to limb of the tree like it was a child’s game of hot rocks, the sound of bending branches drowned out by Sobella screaming out… “You biiiiiitch!” To the music of Nua’s much amused laughter.

Until at last they landed on the soft grass and earth below.

Nua set Sobella down on her feet with relative gentleness and went to the body of the bear, snatching her knives off the forest floor beside the corpse while Sobella kissed the ground at her feet.

“Never leave me again!” Sobella said to the ground like it was a long absent lover.

Nua laughed even more heartily while she began to work on the body of the bear, cutting open its fur to get at the meat she wanted.

Sobella rose finally and shuddered before looking up to the top of the tree they’d been in. “You have no idea how much I hate heights, Nua.”

Nua didn’t look behind her, “Well, I’m sorry, if I’d known it was that hard for you, I’d have found somewhere else for you to wait, but I can’t chance harm coming to you and whatever we can carry with us in our own provisions, we should.”

The squelching of feet in dirt turned to mud from the flow of blood, and the tearing sound of Nua’s knife through the fur and flesh were the only things Sobella heard for a bit while she watched the noblewoman work.

“You were an assassin, weren’t you?” Sobella finally asked when Nua clinched the knife between her teeth and began to wrap up some of the flesh in a square of soft black fur she took from the beast.

Nua didn’t say anything in return.

“In truth, it’s not like I’ll tell anyone.” Sobella responded to the total lack of answer, crossing her arms in front of her chest.

“No.” Nua said after she finished, then began to cut a strip of fur off to use the soft side as a crude towel and wipe off some of her equipment and herself, streaking some of the blood and clearing away most of the rest before throwing the improvised rag down into the bloody pool she left behind from her work.

“I still am.” Nua finished her answer with a blunt, sharp tone, and unbound the horse’s reins from the branch it was secure to. “Now come on, we need to move away from here, the body of the bear will attract new predators, and I don’t plan on killing anymore today if I don’t have to.”

Sobella took that in quietly, then accepted Nua’s hand to climb onto the back of the horse. It was a somewhat faster pace than before, and got them well away from the feast they’d left behind them before Nua looked at the sinking sun and then over her shoulder. “Let’s make camp for the night, it’ll be dark soon and honestly, I could do with some rest, plus we’ve got to cook that bear and your stomach has been growling for quite a while.

“Alright…” Sobella answered with her head facing the ground, then passed beneath the horse’s hooves. “Just tell me one thing, Nua.”

“If I can, yes.” Nua replied casually, feeling the loose hold around her waist fade away, and the hands come up to her shoulders.

She could hear the pain in Sobella’s voice when the woman asked her, “Are you going to try to kill my Rasgen…?”