I don't own anything except for my ideas and my OC, Julianna Fyre.
Update: I went through and made some... changes to this first chapter. Nothing major, just needed to improve the writing and make things more cohesive.
xxx
The remaining duo stumbled into the small grotto, the knee length water splashing noisily within the cramped and enclosed area. The somewhat hidden cave near the coastline was stagnant, and a deathly odor lingered around the almost suffocating space. Only a small source of light came from what little remained of the Elonian sun, as it was casting its last rays into the mouth of the cave. Remnants of the dwindling daylight cast long shadows across the moss imbued walls, elongating the two human figure's shadows as they were sloughing through the cave's water to seek momentary refuge for the time being.
The large heavily armored warrior, better known as Koss Dejarin to any who knew of his heroic legacy, had limped towards the farthest wall and leaned against it for much needed support. He had seen a lot of death in his lifetime, but the terrible onslaught he had just thrown himself into was almost too much for him to handle. And given he had taken down a corrupt God once before, meant that it was really saying something. He had considered himself quite hardy and resilient through his lifetime, but knowing that he had just naively lured volunteers and friends to an untimely death was difficult for the weathered soldier to bear.
He winced through grit teeth as the recent memories came flooding back again. The screams of his Sunspear cohort Lonai, continually rang throughout his head, as his close friend's last moments were constantly replaying over and over again in his clouded thoughts.
Julianna Fyre, the Ascalonian healer trailing right behind him, went to prop her healing staff up against the wall before she moved to tend to the warrior's awaiting wounds. The shorter woman hadn't shared any of the same physical injuries as her counterpart, which she had found surprising given she was only spared with a few nicks and scratches at the very best. Of course, she figured such lack of luck could have easily come to Koss because he had been on the dangerous front lines of battle, whereas she had been on the outer sidelines and was trying to cast healing magic spells onto others during the bloody skirmish.
The woman sighed loudly, breaking the long silence between the two. She knew her duties as a mender weren't going to get a break anytime soon, even if the surviving duo had been seeking temporary shelter and were no longer stuck within the heat of battle. Admittedly, her current role as field medic was far different than what she was normally used to, but it was the same in the extent that she knew patients always received the first priority before she could check over herself.
Dark eyes looked over to address her patient again, as she could see from quick examination that the burly man had a large gash on his upper bicep. She had already silently judged that his foot was likely not in the best of condition either after seeing his severe limping on the way here.
The healer knew that Koss Dejarin was a tough brute of a man, even from the short time she had known him. But she also knew that no living man would be able to survive bleeding out if the brachial artery on his arm had been severed. Which unfortunately she figured it likely had, given the pulsating well of blood currently seeping out on his arm.
Her hands moved up to encompass the bulky mass of dark muscle that was stained by the rapid, still-flowing red river. Just as she was about to cast a spell to heal the deep laceration, she was interrupted by her patient suddenly speaking up.
"I appreciate the gesture friend, but I think it's safe to say that we have clearly lost this battle", Koss said, his hoarse voice nearly devoid of any emotion. He shrugged his shoulder away, physically giving the mender the impression that he didn't want her help. "Save the energy on yourself, you'll need it when Palawa Joko shows his ugly mug again. He has quite the knack for sniffing out the dying, unfortunately."
Julianna flinched backwards, her outstretched fingers recoiling back into her palms while she raised a confused brow high above its twin. She was still struggling to even think straight after the frightful events the duo had just fled from. And now her patient was refusing help when he obviously had an incredibly troubling and dire wound that was getting worse by each passing second. She rolled his words around in her head, as she didn't understand his logic or apparent lack thereof.
The healer stood there dumbly for a moment, unsure of what to do with her newfound conundrum. She looked back down at her now freshly stained hands and thought about her next choice of action. The headstrong side of her personality wanted to go against the warrior's clear demand and heal the bleeding wound whether her patient had any say or not.
But at this point, she was too exhausted to fight against it, so she decided to comply with his astonishing and bizarre request. Her eyes still hadn't moved from looking away from her red tarnished hands, as her thoughts couldn't help but wander back to the innocent Sunspear men and women in their party that never even got the opportunity to have their injuries mended.
Those same men and women that had been cut down mercilessly by the brutish Awakened soldiers before she could have even gotten the chance to react in a more timely manner.
Which in turn, was the main reason for why they had fled and were now seeking momentary refuge in this cave. As they had quite quickly realized they were on the loosing side of things.
"They brought you along so you could help heal them during the battle, and you obviously failed them..", the woman dejectedly thought to herself, her mouth forming a taut line of frustration towards her inability. "Why didn't they bring someone more capable than a simple clinic medic..."
Julianna Fyre had felt almost entirely useless during their battle. And she felt even worse upon learning from Koss on the walk here that those dead would be resurrected as Awakened soldiers and used as more fodder in Palawa Joko's growing undead army. Which to the healer, meant it would never allow those poor souls the opportunity to get a proper burial by family and friends as they would forever be damned to eternity to serve their new terrifying master.
The inexperienced field medic clenched her hands into tightened fists and held back a lump growing in the back of her throat. She shoved the darkening thoughts down and far away as she tried to focus back at the matter at hand. Responsible or not, the woman couldn't fully blame herself for their party's obvious mistake. Their group had been both severely outnumbered and out skilled, that much was readily apparent given how quickly and easily they had been cut down.
Julianna looked back up towards Koss again, observing that his line of vision was intently trained on the entrance of the cave as he watched it like a lone sentry.
"Fine then, I'll just... save my energy while you can just stand there and bleed out...", she finally replied, trying to use some kind of last minute verbal bait into convincing the warrior that he would let her heal his wound. She loudly sighed again in defeat after seeing he wasn't going to budge even an inch, as he had obviously already set his mind on it.
She concluded that his request at least meant that she could back down from her medical duties momentarily, even if she really didn't want to. The healer moved to rest against the wall next to him as she thought about their similar personalities of both being bull headed and incredibly stubborn. If she got into some verbal fit of arguing with him, it was going to be a never ending game with the two of them. She figured he had been right about her depleted energy storage though, as she knew one more cast of a large spell meant that she would be completely spent and rendered immobile from overcasting.
The imagined scenario of being completely immobilized and laying in the pool of shallow water from energy depletion ran through her mind. It meant she would have been completely rendered helpless as the Awakened monsters would have an incredibly easy job of cutting her down as she drowned within her own pool of blood.
Julianna suddenly found herself being more grateful towards Koss for having initially declined her offer to heal his wound, and she shook her head to rid herself from the conjured thoughts.
"So how long do you think it's going to take for that walking corpse to find us?" Koss suddenly said with a chuckle, coughing a bit towards the end of his comment as his one good eye continued to watch the cave entrance. He was expecting the ghastly-looking undead ruler to show up at any moment now. "You know, I think this cave smells better than him, and that's certainly saying something."
The healer surprised herself when she laughed along with the poor attempt at a joke. She welcomed the random moment of humor in their otherwise dreary and bleak situation. The undead soldiers were relentless as they were not burdened by fatigue, and they both knew that Joko wouldn't rest until all those who had dared to try and attack him were slain.
The realization of their likely demise grew ever closer as the minutes passed by.
"You know, I thought that maybe we could finally take him down once and for all if we had a good party of people", Koss continued, motioning his head down towards the companion next to him on the wall. He moved a hand up to put pressure down on the open wound of his arm, wincing again when he could feel how much colder his blood was starting to feel as it was still trailing outward near-endlessly.
The boastful warrior awkwardly cleared his throat as he tried not to make an outward show for the concern of his injury. He was desperately fighting away the evidence of knowing that his body was likely at its beginning stages of going into shock, due to how he could feel how much colder his blood had become.
He continued with his one-sided conversation though and ignored the pressing matter. "I don't suppose that you saw his insufferable face during that fight?"
"It was difficult for me to ever get a good look. I was a little occupied trying to heal everyone...", Julianna quietly replied, staring at the stilled water in front of her as the fresh images of her previous party members assaulted her thoughts once more.
"That undead bastard was just toying with us", Koss muttered, his eyes narrowing as he thought back to what he had noticed during their fight. "Joko made us think that we had the upper hand at the beginning of that battle, but it was obvious he was just holding back. He knew that he was in complete control of the situation and he had the full hand of cards during that entire fight. And I believe that much was a given, just by seeing that insufferable smirk he wore during most of battle."
The woman leaned backwards into the uncomfortable surface of the rough wall as she listened to Koss ramble on, letting out a breath of air through her nose as she recalled back to why she had even been in Elona in the first place.
When Julianna Fyre had been called to the Land of the Golden Sun after the dreadful events of Nightfall, she had been expecting something along the lines of her usual work. She had spent the most recent years of her life working as a simple healer within the city of Lion's Arch. The most grueling injuries she would ever need to mend, were deeply infected Skale bites which always came from the random travelers and merchants wayfaring through the local Krytan wildlife on their way to the big sea-faring city.
She wasn't sure what she had been expecting when a stranger named Lonai had urgently come to Kamadan seeking out a healer of any kind for their party. And given she had just arrived in the harbor with the intent to help work on the injuries suffered from the traumatic events of Nightfall, meant that her bleeding heart had been more than open to accepting the role. But unfortunately for her, the role had not been quite what she had been expecting, as she ended up tagging along on a secretive mission led by the Sunspear hero, Koss Dejarin. In turn, it resulted in delving into an assassination attempt against a corrupt undead ruler that went utterly and horrible wrong, and it was certainly the last thing the small time healer would have expected when she came to Elona to help refugees.
"Doylak spit... what have I gotten myself into", Julianna mumbled, looking towards her comrade with fallen-looking features on her face. Koss merely nodded back at her, seeming to accept the dismayed words.
She thought about what the warrior had just mentioned during his observations of the battle. To hear now that the infamous being had simply been toying with them like a demented game of cat and mouse, was nearly nauseating, and it spoke words about how cruel the abominable undead tyrant could be.
There was a pause of uncomfortable silence between the two, as they were covered in the dawning realization of their bleak situation.
The last of the sun's rays had disappeared from the cave then, leaving the pair in near darkness as they had no natural light anymore. The temperature had dropped substantially without the warm colors lighting the small area, and it became unusually and eerily quiet. Even the choir of crickets or frogs singing in the murky air around them had suddenly stilled as though time itself had stopped.
"Do you think we could leave and continue walking along the coast?...", Julianna nervously said with new hope, looking up towards the much taller man next to her. She could see the stark contrast of the lost precious liquid standing out brightly against his white armored gauntlets, even in the dark. Her medical background was trying to piece together an estimated amount of time before he ultimately succumbed to blood loss or shock.
There was a new wave of concern that hit her as she realized they wouldn't be able to get very far if they started walking again, but she continued. "I don't think we're that far from Kamadan actually, perhaps if we could find a boatswain along-"
"Look friend, I appreciate your bright outlook on our grim situation here, but Joko and his goons probably aren't too far behind now", Koss interrupted, his tone stern, but still friendly. He knew that even if the duo were able to escape the cave and make some distance away on the coast, it would only be a matter of time before the Awakened caught up to them again.
He continued. "We may as well stick it out here and try to fight back with what little strength we have left. But mark my words, I'll be dead before I allow that bag of rotting, walking flesh to kill me without a fight first."
The hero had suddenly found himself in a short fit of violent coughs after his bleak comment, which ended with a surprising bit of laughter. He looked towards the now very concerned expression that the freckled woman next to him was wearing, and he smiled widely at her, his grin stretching from ear to ear with his ever paling lips.
"Or maybe that'll be sooner than I thought", he replied, still laughing. The woman next to him didn't find his use of humor this time as entertaining though, since her face of concern hadn't changed in the slightest. He could see she had immediately gone back into her medical predisposition as she tried to address his wounds again.
Julianna knew that the deep coughing could have meant there was internal bleeding somewhere within the man's lungs. Or even worse, she hypothesized that a potentially cracked rib had possibly penetrated the delicate organ. She knew that if the stubborn warrior didn't receive healing soon, then it likely meant he was going to pass out in front of her right then and there as his body succumbed to shock. And although she still had a small amount of faith in her meager healing abilities, she knew she wouldn't be able to physically haul the Doylak of a man anywhere else on her own.
"Your wound is getting worse by the second, just let me-" she was about to inquire but her concern was suddenly interrupted by a different voice this time. Rather than Koss interrupting her again, it was the familiar voice of the undead God-king that had finally found his victims as he stood at the mouth of the cave's entrance.
"Well, it seems we finally found our elusive prey", Joko's scratchy yet unmistakable voice announced from the entrance.
The woman's own heart felt like it had completely stopped and dropped into the pit of her stomach as she could see the familiar and unmistakable figure of Palawa Joko himself walking into their shortly lived hideout. His towering height was far more intimidating now from what she had remembered from before, as she hadn't really gotten the opportunity to really look at him before.
Her frightened eyes darted towards the variety of armored figures trailing behind their master, watching as the train of Awakened soldiers walked right behind their leader in an unorganized group. The sound of splashing water sounded loudly throughout the cave but even with the added noise, she could still hear the jingling from the intricate jewelry adorning most of Joko's intricate and gaudy-looking attire.
"I'm quite partial to agreeing that death will definitely be finding you very soon, so-called hero of Elona", Joko spoke towards Koss upon overhearing the last bit of conversation between the two would-be heroes that had tried fleeing from his grasp.
The Awakened ruler confidentially strode into the mouth of the cave, his heavy gilded staff echoing against the stone floor whenever it made contact. He had been more than pleased to see that the last two surviving troublemakers that had once foolishly dared try to intercept and assassinate him, were finally within his reach once again. The bumbling mutton heads had been easy enough to find, given they had naively left a literal blood trail for him to follow after.
Just as he had predicted, both the pathetic wounded warrior and the inept healer had holed up themselves up in the closest cave near the edge of Issnur Bay. He was near-giddy to learn that the two Sunspear loving dogs had fled straight into a dead end like cornered rats, as they would no longer be able to escape the impending wrath from Elona's new and self-proclaimed God-king. Much like the so-called friends of theirs that had been in their previously slaughtered group, they would be sharing an all too similar fate.
The undead king's eyes closely watched the pair as he stopped just a few feet away from them, his dark blue eyes narrowing briefly at the frightened looking woman. He had already decided on his way here that she was going to be an anomaly in his current quest, as he had an entirely different idea of what to do with her hide. She could prove to be at least somewhat worthwhile, at least until her usefulness ran out entirely.
"Well then. It's about time the ugly bag of bones finally found us", Koss sneered at the person stopping right before them. Although he might not have been able to physically fight back anymore, he wasn't about to go down without at least getting some verbal digs back at the lich. "You know, the rumors are true that I'm not afraid of anything. Not even you, Palawa Joko."
"Oh?" Joko questioned mockingly, turning his head quizzically to the side. "Your friends and family from that pitiful Dejarin Estate didn't seem to think so. Especially after I burned their homes and decimated their pathetic lives so they could be raised and brought into my own personal army to do my every bidding."
The warrior nearly went into a blind fit of frenzy upon hearing the demise of his loved ones spill out from the ruler's wretched mouth. He found himself being pulled back by the arms of the woman next to him as she had physically stopped him in his brash action.
The tall lich merely laughed, the noise chilling to the two mortals that still stood before him. His mouth turned upward in a wicked grin as the decaying skin on his face grew taut with the movement of being stretched from such amusement. He found it incredibly entertaining that even in near death, the pitiful and ignorant warrior had still wanted to put up a fight against him. The scene should have been commended as brave to most others, but Joko merely saw it as an act of a nonsensical and pathetic defiance towards his very being. The Awakened king briefly looked back again towards the blood stained hands of the healer as she was still stubbornly trying to pull the brash man away from doing anything too reckless.
"Defying me is most certain death", the undead ruler announced then, raising his gilded staff towards the two of them. He had decided that their light conversation between one another had finally come to and end, as they were only prolonging their inevitable fate. "But I anticipated as much. Have it your way."
The surviving duo froze, looking up with mirrored horrified expression on their faces as they saw the weapon being pointed towards the both of them. Any retaliation would have proved futile against the Scourge's powerful necromantic magic.
The last thoughts that had gone through Koss's head as darkness enveloped his vision, was about how his wife Melonni, was never going to forgive him for how foolishly he had thrown his life away. He thought about his kids, especially Kossan, and how he wished he could have seen them one last time. He briefly wondered if he would see them again in The Mists.
A stream of dark-looking and repulsive magic shot out towards the last two remaining heroes.
Then there was silence again.
Julianna had kept her eyes glued shut when Joko cast the stream of magic towards her. She didn't even think about trying to cast a last minute shielding protection spell on both herself and Koss to try and block the spell. But given there was no further noise, she wondered to herself if she was actually dead and she was now awaiting judgement from Grenth himself in the Underworld.
It remained silent, save for the constant sound of dripping of water coming off from the stalactites in the ceiling high above.
Suddenly the healer could hear the dead weight of her companion slump forward and splash loudly into the murky water just before them. She choked back the sob that had been holding in the back of her throat, immediately realizing that she herself was still somehow alive but her friend was no longer among the living with her anymore. Her mind was racing a million thoughts per second, as she thought about how Joko was probably going to be true to his merciless infamy, and kill them both one at a time so the other could bear witness to the other's death before succumbing to their own.
"This loudmouth, boastful warrior shall be brought back as an Awakened to do my immediate bidding", Joko said simply, walking up to the corpse and pushing it with his clawed foot to make sure he was really dead. Though he hardly doubted the effectiveness of his own skills. "Perhaps we shall condemn him to fulfill the rest of his fruitless career within this cave."
The woman was now visibly shaking as she struggled to absorb what had just happened, and it only seemed to worsen when she heard the splashing footfall of the terrible being responsible for her companion's death coming to stand right in front of her. The smell of decay and rot immediately hit her nose from his closer proximity, although it appeared to be poorly masked with some kind of expensive fragrance or oils. She could hear the ornaments on his attire jingling noisily with any movement its owner made.
"As for our little healer here, I have much different plans in store for her", Joko said, reaching out with clawed fingers to roughly grab the female's lower jaw and physically force her to face him. She stubbornly tried to keep her face away from him at first, but he quickly concluded that he wasn't going to have that sort of childish behavior as he kept her rooted in place.
"Wretched being...", Julianna stuttered, still shaking as she dared herself to look upwards into the merciless eyes of the Awakened ruler. The pointed digits of his armored finger gauntlets were digging into the delicate flesh on her face and she visibly winced.
She tried again but was interrupted. "If you're going to kill me-",
"Kill you? Why no, I have far more elaborate and grandiose plans for you, little one", he sneered, his grip tightening. He had forgotten how soft living flesh could be when compared to that of his own. Even when the owner of it was trying to be incredibly bullheaded and keep it away from his grasp.
He waited a few moments longer before he released her chin and stood back up to his full height after he was required to lean down some ways get into the shorter woman's face.
"My hold on Elona is only just beginning", Joko continued with his monologue, looking down towards the attempted bravado of a glare the healer was putting on. "Although my Awakened army is boundless given that the number of corpses in my relentless wake only continues to grow, I still require a healer to mend their wounds. Perhaps if only for a short while, as I predict my army will become completely entirely unstoppable at a certain point. But you can live to your usefulness up until then at least."
Julianna was silent, as she stared ahead at the farthest wall of the cave. Her eyes darted over towards where her dead companion was laying before she quickly squeezed shut in near instant regret. She was still in disbelief of the situation she was faced with right now, as she was being given a position to serve under Palawa Joko's hand as a healer to his growing Awakened army.
"But I'm just a simple medic that worked in some run-down clinic", she spoke truthfully, eyes finally opening again as she looked up towards the powerful being. She was secretly hoping that perhaps her integrity would allow him to have second thoughts about his absurd plan. "There are healers far more skilled in the craft than me, I wouldn't-"
"It won't matter", he interrupted as he waved a dismissive hand and looked back down towards the felled warrior as he tapped the corpse again with the bottom of his staff for good measure. He had wanted this conversation to be over soon, as there was an entire continent that still needed conquering. "Your skills will continue to grow with time and experience, that I have no doubts about. And besides, you'll have plenty of bodies and corpses to work on."
There was a long pause between the two of them as the woman processed the words around in her head. She wondered why The Six had been so cruel in their otherworldly plan for her and why they had decided to ultimately spare her.
"Why?" she choked out after a long pause, her voice suddenly sounding hoarse as tears threatened to fall. She used the back of her hands to quickly wipe them away before any of the droplets could be seen. There was a moment of shock when she pulled her hand away and remembered how they were still stained red with the blood of her once recently living cohort.
Joko watched with sudden fascination as the woman seemed to have been going through some sort of mental breakdown due to his own actions. Already he found that she was a curious little mortal, and he found her actions to be at least somewhat entertaining, even as frustrating as they were. It was apparent now that she was already beginning to show cracks of vulnerability even through her stubborn attitude, and the long-lived ruler took pride in how easily he had been able to coax that particular weakness out of her.
"Because a healer that is alive is far more valuable compared to that of a dead one", he said as though it were the most obvious answer in the world. He outstretched a tar-stained arm as he spoke with his hand, resembling to that of someone acting within a theater. "And although my Awakened forces have an undying allegiance to me the second they are brought forth to do my bidding, you will soon learn the same obedience, even though the circumstances are vastly different."
Julianna shut her eyes tightly again, praying to whatever Gods that were still listening so they could prove to her that this was nothing but a bad dream. She was going to wake back up from this nightmare and be back on her dingy cot in Lion's Arch when she opened her eyes again. But she knew that was nothing but naive thinking at this point, as the nightmare she had found herself within was entirely too real.
"Am I going to get a choice?" she asked quietly, her voice now sounding devoid of emotion as she readied herself for the answer she knew she was going to be given.
"No", Joko replied, his crooked smile turning upwards as he watched the small healer easily comply with his demand.