Upon entering the hole created by that unrully creature, I prostrated myself before my savior.
"My leige, pardon the intrusion. The one responsible has been..."
I trailed off as I looked up. From this distance I saw the dirt and dust, the scratched and heavily dented armor, the way his limbs were in positions they should not be. This was no god. He was a mortal man, a mortal man deathly injured. The man spoke.
"Oh, you... you're no hollow, eh? Thank goodness…I'm done for, I'm afraid…I'll die soon, then lose my sanity. I wish to ask something of you. You and I, we're both Undead… Hear me out, will you?" His speech was broken, obviously difficult due to the pain. I had so many questions, how could there be insanity after death, what was an undead, and why me? Instead of asking, I only nodded, dumbfounded.
"Regrettably, I have failed in my mission... But perhaps you can keep the torch lit. There is an old saying in my family… Thou who art Undead, art chosen… In thine exodus from the Undead Asylum, maketh pilgrimage to the land of ancient lords…When thou ringeth the Bell of Awakening, the fate of the undead thou shalt know. Well, now you know… And I can die with hope in my heart. Here, take this… An Estus Flask, it mends the injuries of us Undead. Now I must bid farewell… I would hate to harm you after death…So, go now…And thank you…"
My mind broke a little. Here was my savior, who I had thought was a god, dying. Asking me to do what he could not. It was impossible, I was a creature with no memory, no skills to speak of except a penchant for spotting shiny things. His arm was held out weakly towards me, a flask of glowing golden liquid. At that moment, my brain snapped back the other direction.
"No..." I grabbed the flask. He started to contest my refusal.
"Your sympathy is admirable, but you are in denial. You must leave, lest..."
"No! YOU are in denial. You do not get to make that choice. You will fight on till there is nothing left if need be... and I will fight for you to keep on as well." I was angry, but this anger was born out of fear. He tried to speak, but I interupted once again.
"I have no memory, and no chance out here alone. You dont get to save someone and just dump all your problems onto them. So are you going to drink this or am I going to have to force you?" He made to protest, which was the wrong move as I had worked myself up into a panicked frenzy.
"Now see here..." He was unable to say more as I shoved the neck of the flask in his mouth, held his nose, and poured it down his throat. He struggled, but was unable to stop me due to his injuries. Once the flask was drained, I stepped back as he coughed and sputtered. Most of his more life threatening injuries started to mend, but he was obviously still in rough shape. He glared at me in a way that looked both annoyed and confused. I sat him up and draped his less injured right arm over my shoulder and lifted.
"What a fool..." He muttered. I did not know if he was speaking to me or himself.
"That is the truth if I've ever heard it." He looked at me confused, but didnt reply, and didnt resist as I carried him down to the courtyard bonfire.
We sat there at the bonfire in silence for a long time. Both mulling over the implications of our previous interaction. I kept glancing up at him, but it was impossible to tell what he was thinking through his helm which covered his face. As if reading my thoughts, he began to unclasp his helm. His hair was a sandy brown, and his face was rugged, but not overly so. He had a broad face that was neither chubby nor gaunt, and his scruffy stubble seemed to fit perfectly on his face.
"Lets start over. I am Oscar, elite knight of Astora. It is an Honor to have you as an ally on this quest." My face lit up with excitement, all my trepidation melted away.
"Thank you greatly for freeing me from my cell. My name is..." I have no memory of my name. I should just choose a new one. Maybe one day I will remember, but for now this is a new start.
"...Sidrach. I may have no memory, but I will assist you anyway that I can. It is an honor to meet you." Oscar put out his gloved hand and I clasped it firmly with my cloth wrapped one.
"Before we begin, could you please inform me about this undead business, and this whole place?"
"You really do have no memory if you are unfamiliar with the curse. The undead curse started cropping up decades ago. People would die, but come back... mostly. The thing about those that are cursed is that if you lose hope and give up you become a hollow. Mindless creatures who seek only to kill, to devour souls. You've likely seen a few already, every other being I've seen here has been a hollow." Even though I had previously beleived I was one of these creatures known as hollows, now that I know the tragedy of their existence, I couldnt even imagine giving up to become one as Oscar had only moments ago. How much hardship and death must someone go through to get to that point? I could only imagine isolation and loneliness could only make it worse.
"If thats the case, then I promise to look out for you; to support you and keep you from hollowing."
"Then I will do the same, including giving you what knowledge and skills I have to help you survive. First things first, we need to get out of here." With that, Oscar put his helm back on and motioned me to follow him. We decided to try to avoid the enormous creature that Oscar confirmed was a demon. Apparently, it had come after him on the roof shortly after he assisted me. One poorly timed dodge led to him being smashed through the roof into the cell I found him in. we passed through the side gate that led to the very same cell. Instead, we went past the impromptu cell door and the stairs going up. On the opposite side the stairs had either been destroyed or crumbled with age. Just as we were about to return to the other stairs, a gleam caught my eye. I needed it.
"Oscar, please help me climb this!"
"No need to get so excited, there must be other ways out of here, there are still those other stair-"
"No, you dont understand, I NEED that shiny thing up there."
"What in the world are you talking about, I don't see anything." Unable to hold myself back any longer, I began trying to clamber up the rubble unsuccessfully. Oscar then gave me a boost and I was able to pull myself up onto the intact portion of the stairs. The glimmer was coming from a small rusted metal ring. I picked it up and slipped it on my finger for safe keeping.
"Got it. Theres also a door up here. Its locked" Oscar then tossed me up a ring of keys he had found while searching the place. None of them worked, so I climbed down the rubble and we continued up the other set of stairs. I showed Oscar my new prize.
"That ring is by far the opposite of shiny, its covered in rust. How did you even see something so small, and why keep it?" I shrugged. It was just something that felt right. These things were calling out to me. At the top of the stairs was another locked door. This one yeilded to one of Oscars keys. In the next area, most of the roof and parts of the wall had collapsed, exposing a view of snowy mountains as far as the eye could see. It would be a long journey even after escaping here. The next thing I noticed was a corpse with another of those glimmers on it. I rushed over to see what it could be this time. I was so absorbed in the glimmer that I failed to notice the three hollows on my left. Luckily, Oscar as an elite Astoran knight, was always on guard. He stepped in between and blocked the two sword weilding hollow's weak strikes.
"What are you doing! That can wait!" Pulled from my reverie by Oscars shouts, I turned, and seeing the situation, circled around his left. Just as he lowers his shield to stab the hollow on the right, I cut down the one on the left with my axe. Only to have yet another arrow sprout out of my left shoulder. Oscar quickly moved between me and the archer hollow and easily cut him down as I pulled the arrow out. He stomped angrily back to me. He then put his hand on the back of my head and pulled me in, until my forehead was touching the cold metal of the top of his helm. Then in as calm a voice as he could muster he berated me for my foolishness.
"That was careless and reckless of you! Here in this cursed world you always need to be aware of your surroundings. Clear an area first, then follow whatever the damn crazy sparkles in your head if you have to." I realized I had put Oscar in danger as well as myself, as he felt obligated to rush in to save me. We were very lucky, as it could have been much worse.
"I am sorry Oscar. It is as though these glimmers call out to me, and I have some sort of compulsion to answer. I might just be crazy, but not too crazy as to proceede without caution. I apologize."
Oscar nodded gruffly, then went to clear the rest of the area while I indulged my compulsion. The body was covered in rags much like myself, but they were more obviously designed as clothes. they had a ceremonial tribal feel to them, with strings of crimson beads interspersed throughout. The glimmer came from a leather satchel cluthed in its right hand. The hand had the same runes tattooed on it as mine did. As I grabbed the satchel, a spark shot from the corpses hand into mine. I pulled my hand back in shock as it began to glow and put off intense heat. I batted at the small flames with my other hand, but it only served to spread it to both hands. I stared in horror as my hands began to look like embers of a fire, the tattooed runes visable, even slightly glowing. It was only then that I realized I felt no pain, my flesh was undamaged, just changed. The fire stopped just a little up my wrists, at the edge of the tattoos.
At that moment Oscar returned and found me staring dumbfounded, apparently watching as my hands burnt off. He rushed over to me, but before he could act I did my best to calm him.
"Its alright Oscar, I am in no pain. This is so strange. Right before you showed up I was wondering if maybe it was all in my head; some kind of crazy hallucination. What could possibly explain this?"
"I have heard tales of a more primal magic called pyromancy; which is the art of manipulating fire. I do not know much about it as such things were forbidden in Astora." Now that I was not in immediate danger of burning alive, I tried to calm myself, to will my flames away for now. Eventually it worked, and I was able to claim the satchel. Inside were scrolls about pyromancy, just as Oscar has assumed.
"I can look over these later, let us get out of this prison."
"I agree, up ahead is a room were I took out a slightly better equipped hollow, probably a guard. It turned out to just be the room on the other side of that door we didnt have the key to earlier. But just down this path and to the left is a large fog door. If my mental map is accurate, it would put us on an upper level of the large courtyard where the main door is."
"That is where I last saw the demon... What is a fog door?"
"A fog door is a barrier made when a strong soul claims an area as its own. It deters weaker foes, but also allows them to bar exit from their domain. If what you say is true, then this one is likely made by the demon, so he will be awaiting us inside. I see little choice in the matter though, as it seems to be our only escape route." I swallowed hard to quell my fear, and tightened my grip on my axe and sheild. We walked up to the fog door, and then Oscar boldly stepped through it. I hesitated, but followed shortly after.
On the other side, we were on a small balcony overlooking the courtyard. Oscar was crouched low and looking over the edge. I joined him, the demon pacing below us; sniffing.
"He was most likely alerted by us passing through the fog wall. We should quickly form some sort of plan of- SCATTER!"
The demon had found us, and was staring up at me. Oscar dove to the left armor crashing to the stone floor, breaking his fall with a roll. That left me alone on the balcony, frozen in fear, staring right back into the face of the demon. He had disgusting scaly skin, small horns, and reptilian eyes that burned with chaotic hellfire. On his back were wings that seemed far too small to lift his mass. The word draconic came to mind, and a long forgotten memory of a story someone once told me surfaced in my mind.
...they would even ambush the dragons by dropping from the sky. Jumping off of cliffs or archtrees. Dark knights of men, wreathed in flame...As all this flashed throgh my mind, the demon struck. The beast reared back, and leapt up into the air with the help of its stubby wings. With an upward swing of its great hammer, the demon smashed the balcony, and sent me flying further into the air with a bunch of debris. Time slowed as I made my forced ascent. I could see the demon turn away as Oscar started a counter offensive. Circling and slashing at its thick legs. One thing kept running through my mind, ...dropping...wreathed in flame... Over and over again, even as I started to fall. It was right under me. My hands ignited. The flame was much greater than before, engulfing both my weapon and shield. The bindings holding together my makeshift sheild burned away and it fell apart. My axe fared much better, so I gripped it in both hands and I plumetted towards the demon.
"Dark knights of men, wreathed in flame!"
The demon looked up suddenly at my outburst.
"Dropping from the sky!"
As the flaming head of my axe connected with the head of the beast, the added force of the fall and my weight drove it through that thick skin and skull. The fire spread out as a small wave, just before the handle snapped. I continued my decent, crashing against the rough hide of the demons belly then crashing to the floor. The monstrocity stumbled backwards, and Oscar circled around to its side. He knew better than to underestimate such a monster, and so re-doubled his ferocious assault. I had broken more than a few bones, and had severely burnt both hands. Merely existing was excruciating, so the fight was over for me. Luckily, the beast soon fell back the rest of the way, too weak from the loss of blood from the head wound and the multitude of cuts all along its rear and flanks.
Oscar, took a short swig of Estus, then rushed over and carefully poured the rest into my mouth. It felt like liquid fire. An intense sensation overwhelmed me as my shattered bones crackled back into place. I layed there for several moments in awe at my regenerated skin. We survived. We had done it!
"We did it Oscar, we are demon slayers!"
"I have doubts that one such victory is enough for said honorific. Are you quite mad!? I have never seen anything like that; plunging out of the sky engulfed in flames! It was indeed quite a feat.
